Red Zone Marketing's Blog

The Power of Planning: It Pays!

In the book, What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, Mark McCormack refers to a study conducted on students in the 1979 Harvard MBA program. In the study, students were asked, "Have you set clear, written goals for your future, and made plans to accomplish them?" Only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals but they were not in writing; and 84 percent had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, the members of the class were interviewed again, and the findings were shocking. The 13 percent of the class who had goals were earning on average twice as much as the 84 percent who had no goals at all. And what about the three percent who had clear, written goals? They were earning on average ten times as much as the other 97 percent all together.

Setting goals and planning your path for bringing in new sales for 2011 may not be a lot of fun and can feel slightly overwhelming. Most feel they can survive just fine without planning. But the fact is, you will NOT have fewer sales and less profits when you plan. It is really a win-win for you and your 2011 results.

With 2010 coming to a quick close, it is not too late to plan out your marketing for 2011. At Red Zone Marketing we have been working with many firms helping them plan their strategy and actions for 2011. BUT, you don’t have to hire a firm to do this! There are a few tools we have created that can help you get your planning moving forward (including one for FREE!).

1.  A FREE Holiday Gift for Marketing Audibles subscribers. Click here for your free download of the Red Zone Marketing Action Plan template that we use with clients to help plan, visualize and hold everyone accountable for marketing activities. It is a tool that allows you to keep all of your marketing activities organized so you can implement systematically. This is a great way to keep you focused on others in the New Year!

2.  The Marketing Planning Guide: The Marketing Planning Guide for Building Your Best Growth Plan for 2011 is your Marketing Formula for Success in an immediate download of a 65-page, complete marketing plan template, for attracting your best clients. A step-by-step plan that walks you through thinking about and planning YOUR strategy for all the critical aspects of marketing, planning, and the actions you will take to move to your next level.

Enter code PLAN2011 when checking out to receive an exclusive discount for Marketing Audibles subscribers.

More Isn’t Always Better

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

I’ve often heard – if we could only afford to send out more pieces of mail, have more events, do more advertising and marketing – then we would have everything!

It seems logical, you do more to get more, but it isn’t always right. At Red Zone Marketing, we often roll out new products and offerings. In September we rolled out Red Zone University. We started in August by promoting it using the More-Is-Better philosophy to let as many people know about our newest and most comprehensive offering. I personally worked for years developing specific content that now lives inside our University. And of course, we wanted to generate a big buzz! What happened, however, is success and failure at the same exact time.

We certainly accomplished our goal of getting many people interested in Red Zone University and we surpassed our goals and nearly filled up the University subscriptions (SUCCESS). But to do that we sent out a series of individual emails in a direct response campaign…probably 10 or more emails than people wanted to get (FAIL). Many of the people in our email list I have met personally, they have heard me speak, or have read one of my books. It was like we were sending a slew of emails to a good friend or long time acquaintance – which is entirely unexpected and unnecessary for such a relationship.

Some people were offended that a marketing firm they trusted was doing such heavy marketing...to them. There was a disconnect between what they expected and what we did. That was where we slid from More-Is-Better - to - More-Is-Definitely-NOT-Better. So although we accomplished our goal to have many people join the university (original purpose), we ultimately over did it (not our intention).  My apologies to those of you who were bothered by our campaign for Red Zone University.  I am sorry.

And, as much as I love the good buzz, having new clients to serve, and having people taking advantage of all the wealth of content -- the bad buzz for me negates the good. Learn from our mistakes, and don’t over market to those that know you. They will think you’ve lost your mind ☺

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Winning Needs a Plan, Not Just a Vision

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

Rocky Wirtz, the owner of the Blackhawks for less than 2 years, declared that the team would be a winning franchise again. Then he took action to do something about it. He almost immediately moved to change everything about the team from the players, to home office staff, to media contracts. And just as important as winning the Stanley Cup (Congratulations Blackhawks!), is how he did it. He had a plan that had likely been formulating for years prior to his assumption of the team from his late father, Bill Wirtz.

I believe that the plan you lay out to achieve the win should be as strong as your winning idea. It should be tactical, multi-faceted, well thought out, and reviewed with others. Knowing HOW to reach your goals is critical if you realistically expect to reach them.

A financial advisor recently told me that he was going to write a book that was going to become a million-copy bestseller. Now that would be a big win! I was interested. “Wow, that’s awesome!” I said. “How are you going to sell that many books?” He then pointed to a poster board leaning up against the wall in his office...

It was what he referred to as his “Vision Board” that he had his assistant spend hours preparing for him. In the center of his “Vision Board” was a picture of Oprah Winfrey.  “Oprah. That’s how I’m going to get there,” he said.  Surrounding Oprah on the board was Larry King and other media personalities.

So to clarify, I asked him how he was going to get in touch with all of the media tycoons to get his book on their shows. He pointed to his assistant. “We’re going to call them. “

I walked out of his office thinking that I had just witnessed a real-life episode of “The Office.” Now it may be true that his book will get great media coverage and he will sell 1 million copies. The problem in my eyes is that if his book idea is so great, why doesn’t he spend more time on his plan? Getting on Oprah is not a new idea or anything close to a sure thing. Yet, that’s essentially his plan. To me, it seems his grand plan is nothing more than a grand dream that his assistant put on poster board. A truly great idea deserves a great plan - not a shot in the dark. Believing it’s achievable is a powerful first step, but without a powerful plan, it very well may remain a dream. Rocky Wirtz and the members of the Blackhawks have worked for years with the vision of the Stanley Cup. Rocky took the big steps to get it done. Does the quality of your plans to win match the quality of your winning idea? 

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A New Mindset. A New Race.

Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

As I was running this morning I realized something about the power of having the right mindset. Choosing how you are going to look at something can change everything.

I have to disclose here, that I am not really a “runner.” I started running a couple of years ago and began in response to a “dare” a friend made to enter and run in a marathon. That was two years ago. Since then, my focus surrounding running has been on the previously unattainable thought – FINISHING a marathon.  Every training run and every race from the very beginning has been focused on finishing. Finishing the run, finishing the race – in my mind, simply finishing was a stretch goal.

Now I have run in 3 marathons and 3 half marathons (trust me, I’m not going very fast!). I now know that I can actually finish.  I have proof that my goal, the goal of finishing, is quite attainable for me.  

So I achieved the goal, proved I could do it, so why haven’t I set a new goal and created a new challenge for myself?  And how does this relate to you and your business? 

I’ve become stagnant in my running.  I do what is necessary to achieve my old goal, even though I now have the potential to do more.  I can push myself farther and faster than I could two years ago, but I’ve settled on the thought of just finishing.

In my mind I can’t go faster than I’m going because I may not finish. That’s how my brain is programmed relating to running. Slow and steady is the strategy. Yet, that is no longer a goal. It is just going through the motions. I can finish a race; I’ve proven that. Today the goal should be to improve my times.  What is holding me back is my mindset.  Until I am willing to change my mindset to push myself farther, this will not be possible.  

I think that’s the same reason that so many business owners stagnate. Potential is really never reached because the goals are still the old goals.   We are fearful of pushing ourselves harder because of our worry that we may not finish.  Our mindset didn’t change to reach the next level of the business. The goal is still the old goal that has already been accomplished time and time again, and we keep working to keep reaching the same goal.  What we must realize though is that we have been running the same race for years.  That means we know it better than we did when we started.  We know the obstacles, recognize the checkpoints, and are able to achieve more than we did.  It just takes a shift in our mindset.  We have to believe that we have the drive, knowledge and skill to reach new goals.  We are up for a new challenge. 

I commit here and now that I am going to get faster as a runner because it is now my goal.  Finishing isn’t enough.  I want to finish faster.  I’m also going to refocus my goals in my business to reflect something I’ve never done. Let me know what you think.

What will you do to reach your new goals? 

www.redzonemarketing.com

Maribeth Kuzmeski, is the author of the new book, The Connectors: How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, September 2009, ISBN: 978-0-4704881-8-8, $22.95)

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