Economic times are tough for marketing and advertising agencies. Businesses are backing off marketing budgets. Some are folding their hands and letting fate take their brand into the abyss. Heck, some are closing the doors all together. And that directly affects the marketing and agency professionals that depend on them for their own livelihood.

So what do you do in hard times? What do you do when times require tightening the belt or cutting back? Hopefully you do what we all tell our clients to do… “For God’s sake, keep marketing!” Without constant visibility, people (even customers you’ve depended on for years) will forget about you. To us marketers, that’s obvious, right?

Think again.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve heard marketing “pros” and agency staffers (from receptionists on up to CEO) saying some of the oddest things. Things like, “The work just seems to have dried up.” and “I’m not getting any callbacks.” or “Clients are ‘InSourcing’ all the work we’d do…”

Troublesome.

Solution: How about you “SPEND” your way through the downturn? YES, SPEND! And I don’t mean doling out your hard-earned cash for new equipment or some rock star biz-dev stud bolt. I’m talking about strategically investing what you DO have, time, into generating those ever-elusive new leads.

I’ve put together a list of five simple (and VERY economical) actions that marketers and agencies can do to churn up new business. And all you have to remember is “SPEND…”

S = Social Media Marketing: Many “traditional” agencies are still having a hard time figuring out the power of using social media for marketing. If your agency or marketing team hasn’t jumped into the social media waters yet, I encourage them to get in there! It’s inexpensive (costing little more than time – and we all know you have oodles of that) and it has outstanding targeting capabilities. You just need to find and join the right conversations.

P = Public Speaking: Can you think of a better way to position yourself as “thought leader” of your chosen field? Associations, civic groups and chambers are always looking for great information and presentations for their meetings. Think of standing in front of 100 business owners looking for marketing advice. It’s a captive audience and each time you present your message, it’s honed to a sharper and more effective tool for your other marketing efforts.

E = Email: Do you know what 93.6% of business owners do every morning when they walk into the office? They check their email! Why not be in front of them, IN their office, ON their desktop on a regular basis? There are plenty of FREE or LOW COST broadcast email services out there (my favorites are AWeber and MailChimp). Get a sign-up form on your website. Set up your target list. Create a reason for them to WANT to open and engage with you (remember you are a marketer). Then, and this is the MOST important part, KEEP DOING IT AND FOLLOW UP!

N = Networking: If the calls aren’t coming in then you need to get out and start introducing yourself to your audience again. Sitting in your office, looking through PeachTree or QuickBooks isn’t going to get people interested in what’s going on in your world; nor will it help your attitude much. Not interested in chamber functions or professional associations? Then get involved with your church or a board for a non-profit. I don’t think God frowns upon doing business between the pews as long as you thank him once-in-a-while.

D = Dial The Phone! This is one that should go without saying, but for some reason, those that choose “Communications” as a profession seem to HATE talking on the phone. Ridiculous! As I said above, FOLLOW UP! You’ve spent time working your social media, speaking engagements, emails and networking, now just give ‘em a call! You need to reach out and touch someone (more than once) before they’ll turn their attention to you. Sure, the phone is cold, impersonal and intimidating, but it can be the best lead generator in your office – if used correctly.

Guess what you do for a living. You market! You advertise! If you’re able to do it for your clients, then why is it so difficult for you to do it for yourself? Even if you only do a couple of the SPEND tactics, isn’t it better than sitting on your thumbs waiting for the phone to ring?

How do you generate new leads when times are tough? Do you SPEND your time wisely? If you don’t do it, someone else will.

Keep Cooking (at all times)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Assassins. Espionage artists. Spies. Mercenaries. Survivalists. Turtles? Whatever you call them, the Ninjas’ brand is simply cool as hell! They have an aura of overwhelming power, intelligence, stealth and magic that no other warring agent can touch.  Sure, the “Ninja” brand has been copied, stolen and spoofed, but it just can not be duplicated. Now THAT’S a strong brand…

So, when it comes to really stepping up and differentiating your product or service from your competition, why not pull some hints from the code of the Ninja into your branding?

Follow The Code Of The Branding Ninja:

A Branding Ninja must…

1. Never betray the clan.
Truth and honor are the core of the ninja brand. If your ninja brand can’t be trustworthy and loyal, then you have no foundation for the relationship (in business or life).

2. Accomplish the mission; failure is not an option.
Ninja branding is all about making the mission successful at virtually any cost. So what do you do when the challenges become overwhelming? Go into ninja-mode and kick some brand arse!

3. Put the clan and the mission before himself.
When working in a team environment, focus on the brand mission over your personal needs. Rogue ninjas are simply a detriment to themselves and the overall brand mission. It’s called teamwork, ninjas!

4. Escape if captured (no excuses).
Stealth. Speed. Nimble action. They’re all actions of the brand ninja. If you get stuck in you mission or captured by adversity, reject, re-focus, re-purpose and re-launch! A ninja held prisoner is soon a dead ninja!

5. Kill only when necessary for survival.
If threatened by conflict, competition or failure the ninja will always strive to redirect the end to his favor through any means necessary. And only as a last resort, he go for the death blow.

6. Avoid striking a member of the same ry (school).
This discipline should go without saying, but it goes back to working within a team. A team of brand ninjas all tirelessly work toward the same mission. To have infighting and dissension amongst its ranks would doom the brand mission.

7. Strive for peace, harmony and enlightenment in all things.
Once you have a TRUE brand mission on hand, the direction to take should be one of serene discovery. If your brand mission is on path, resistance will be futile.

8. Aid a genin (fellow ninja) from the same ry.
If one ninja should stumble or fall, the genin to his sides will pick him up and correct the course. Mentoring and unfaltering support within the branding ninja ranks is imperative for mission success.

9. Never use the terms “ninja”, “shinobi”, or “assassin” when speaking in public.
The branding ninja shouldn’t need to overtly reveal his brand mission objective or tactics. The mission will speak for itself and the actions of the individual will be irrelevant to its success.

10. Always observe others and know your surroundings.
This is the external version of #9. If you observe with sharp diligence and objectivity, the scope of your branding territory (target market, niche mission, competitors’ flaws, etc.) will be revealed.

10.5 Understand you are always being observed. Always.
Just as you are watching others, they are watching you. Always protect your brand, your mission and be prepared to react with lightening speed and power!

The above list was taken from the Ninja Code of Honor during Japan’s Sengoku period, when, according to reports, the ninja discipline was born and developed between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Of course, I edited and kept the disciplines that spoke directly to branding and teamwork, but can you see the correlation?

SO… Which of the above codes can you work on to keep your brand TRUE? Is your brand ninja-like or do you need to go back and do a little TRUE ninja branding boot camp?

Keep Cooking! (with stealth, power and mystery in your brand)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

What’s that behind you!

Hello, my name is Andy…  I’m a Social Media Addict. (all together now…  Hellooooo Andy!) Can you see it – some big, mental-ward-like facility filled with a circle of gray, plastic chairs…  smoke hanging heavy in the air like some support group meeting (enter Nurse Rached)?  Is this what we’ve come to?

Sure.  I AM a social media addict.  I’m also a procrastinator.  I’m a last-minute Marty.  If I have 12 hours to get a post written, I’ll start it on the 10th.  If I have a week’s worth of vacation, I start planning events on the 5th day of it… (like now) It’s a sickness…

And then entered SOCIAL MEDIA…

(Da, Da, Duuuuuuuuuuuummmm!)

The BIG time-waster…  How was I going to read or educate myself / my family / my clients when there was Farmville and Mafia Wars to manage? Who was going to manage my clients’ marketing plans, media buys… OH THE HORROR…

I had tweets to read! Now I’m REALLY going to get behind…

I say, “Horse pucky!”

Social media and productivity CAN go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, they can help support one-another.

Six years ago, I read maybe a book a year (maybe).  Today I read about a book a week (give or take the occasional audio-book on the way into work). Can I attribute that to social media?  Not entirely, but I can say, if I didn’t start educating myself pretty quickly (reading, researching, engaging) I was going to be left behind!

Social media works.  You just need a plan.  You need to be diligent about tasks that make you “productive” versus distractions that make you “mush.”

So, how do I manage in intake of information with my propensity for procrastination?  The answer is simple. Tasty, bite-sized, manageable “Edu-tizers.”

Instead of taking on books, movies, articles as a “gotta-finish-it-all-right-now” type Mega Meals, I’ve taken my diet of books, newspapers, magazines, social media and television (yes, I still learn from television) and broken it all up into small, but frequent portioned snacks that I take in throughout the day.

Appetizers to Edu-tizers…  easy to remember and fun to say…

Yes, just how your trainers tell you to maintain higher metabolism with food intake, I’m doing the same with media, social media and education. With this approach, I avoid the mind-numbing coma of a 200 page marathon read or a 2 hour span of The Discovery Channel to more manageable segments of information that my brain can digest and still be nimble enough to move on throughout the day. I also avoid hours upon hours of social media time-wasters… (you know who you are).

Simple? So, how do you start?  Or better yet, how do you cut back to a manageable level?

Below I’ve listed a few “best practices” that have worked for me.  It’s better to set up your own program, but maybe this will help those that can’t seem to manage time and intake with logic and diligence.

#1 Where book stores and libraries fall short, there’s social media!
SHOCK, GASP! — okay get that out of your systems.  I buy books – at least one every week.  But the social media wave/tsunami has hit.  If you’re not in a boat that floats or at least a dingy with a good compass, you’re going to be left back in the devastation.

There are volumes upon volumes of information being put out into the social media waters every day.  Why not tap into the biggest wave of information known to human kind since the discovery of spoken word? When I can’t get my “fill” from books, television or any number of publications at the local magazine rack, it’s just a click and search away.  You just need to be willing to look. It takes less time than you think.

#2 – All good things in moderation! (VERY IMPORTANT)
Facebook, MySpace, et al have their attractive (and addictive) features, but remember that social media is about the sharing of information.  If you spend hours a day on one site, you’re bound to lose contact with your productivity, your interests, your LIFE.  Diversification is key!

I use Facebook (for instance) strictly for social and business-social communication.  I get on to post what I’m up to, to learn what friends, family members and coworkers have going on in their lives, respond (only if necessary), and then I move on (about 10 minutes of my day).  No games. No surveys. No nonsense.

#3 – You must feed the monster.
I had a professor that, during the first week of classes, would get to know which students over-engaged (raising hands on every question, writing 20 page compositions instead of the requested five, etc. – you know ‘em…), and then, for the rest of the semester would ignore them. Why?  Because it was his intention to drive the conversation to those that needed it the most. The quiet ones.  The ones that sat in the back of the auditorium hoping to learn through osmosis (me).  If you don’t participate in the conversation, you’re not going to get anything out of it.

With that professor in mind, I spend about a half hour each day (often more) sorting through blog posts or comments that I intend to add value to (sometimes marked days/weeks before to come back to later).

Is it presumptuous to think that what I have to say is important enough to post it to someone’s blog or Facebook page?  Heck no! That’s what SOCIAL media is all about. With that single post or comment, I’ve started a conversation that will, in turn, further the learning process and be of value to both parties.  Does it happen every time?  No.  But for those that really know how to engage, they are some of the most educational conversations I’ve had since… college!

#4 – Find your “Happy Place” (then file it away).
When I first started this “journey,” I subscribed to every feed and every alert under the sun.  From “Bob the Australian Cat Wrangler” to “The Marketing Gods of Melrose Place,” I wanted to read it all!  But I learned one important thing…  time is an unforgiving bitch!

Sure, I’m “friends with” or “connected to” thousands of people via social media, but I have no question that I can’t absorb all of the conversations going on at all times.  Nor would I want to. I honestly couldn’t care less about Bob from Australia’s cats and the huge dingo they devoured last night (okay, maybe THAT would make me pause).

Break your input streams up into logical lines of conversation. While I have access to thousands of stories, I only read the ones that will make a difference in my life, my career, my well-being.  So, I have my feeds broken up into the following categories:

• News
• Branding
• Marketing
• Leadership
• Management
• Education
• Personal Fun
• Music
• Photography
• Feed-Specific (generally client-based)

The only categories I read (thoroughly) every day are “News” and “Feed-Specific.”  Otherwise, I skim, mark for future research or commenting and I move on.  This takes me about a half hour every day.  It’s a great way to start the day and a great way to wake up my brain.

#5 All posts have their place:
The social media waters get pretty muddy from time-to-time.  It’s constantly churning and dredging up things that, well, just don’t need to be seen / read / heard.  Think of it this way, if you don’t want “it” displayed on a billboard in the middle of the town square, delete, delete, delete!

Do I use Facebook for business?  Certainly.  But I separate what I do for my company and clients from what I do personally.  Don’t bring your work home with you and don’t bring your home to work with you.

***

God knows how many blogs / online publications I read on a yearly basis (right now, my Google feed reader has 1,373 RSS feeds pumping knowledge through my keyboard and into my brain…).   And without social media, I wouldn’t be able to provide my clients (or my family) with the quality information and support that I do today.

Don’t get me wrong, social media can be a slippery slope. But with the right plan and just a little discipline, you can make it work for you.

How does your social media diet stack up?  Are you a lean, mean fighting machine or has the weight of the social media tsunami washed away all hope? (please make the metaphors stop)…

Hope to see you in the social media stew!

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef