Academy Looseleaf
Custom Binders & Packaging
 
Marketing Results Depend on Trust—
Marketing Success Factors, Part I
 
As objectively as possible, I’ve been analyzing of each of my clients and their marketing initiatives/results in relation to the marketing services that I’ve provided over the past year (and for a few, the last 2-3 years). Without giving away client-specific confidential information, I am going to try and glean some things I’ve learned from my clients and my own business--and share those observations with you in the first few Debunker newsletters of 2005. Granted, my world of clients is not immense (but it’s keeping me very busy!) and my clients’ experiences cannot be extrapolated to every business. Nonetheless, I believe there is a lot most businesses can learn from this series.
 
Here’s one of the top success marketing success factors--at least in my client projects involving web site development, search engine marketing (SEM), & other online marketing:
 
They really trust me to do my NoSpin Marketing thing with minimal interference. In turn, I trust them to live up to their part bargain: provide quality feedback and follow-through on the important things we’ve mutually agreed upon.
 
When that trust happens bilaterally, the results can be truly amazing. Do you do that with your consultants, contractors, and employees? How about your clients? Do you trust them? Really trust them? If not, why have them around?
 

The Seeds of Business Trust

 
Yes, trust is earned, but in a world without guarantees, it’s based, in large part, on faith. From the get go—even before they’ve produced big results for you (and even though they are knowledgeable and may have done something similar for others) are you convinced of the following: They are honest? They do what they say? They exhibit a  quiet confidence without the braggadocio? They are passionate about what they do? Sure, it’s a “show me” thing too: “show me some of what you can do” and then I’ll evetually start trusting you over time. Still, you have to make the leap of faith at some point--or you’ll never reap all of the really incredible, potential benefits. Trust is a decision that the sooner it’s made, the quicker the dividends. And if IT doesn’t happen, the results are never close to what they could have been.
 
I can usually tell very early on in a project if a prospect/client is going to 1) let me truly apply my expertise & experience & do what needs to be done and 2) follow-through on the key things they need to do to make the project a success. And of course, no one is perfect—not me or any other consultant (contractor, employee, or other worker bee) or the respective businesses we work for. No one bats a 1000, but if you trust me to do my thing, and I trust you do yours, then it’s also a lot easier to weather some of the inevitable storms down the road as well.
 

Trust Gets Some Amazing, Early Results: A Quick Client Story

 
Normally, I hesitate to talk about any client results until they can be examined over at least 3-6 months, but I’m making an exception with a recent client: Academy Looseleaf. Academy makes a few million high quality, custom binders and custom packages a year, but the company has seen competition increase.  Its competitors had been going online to grow their respective businesses, and Academy wanted some of that action: to generate more leads online—and as a result have a shot at more sales. The company freely admitted that it had a horrible website (see their old site for a stark comparison) which used to get some traffic and even a few leads a 3-4 years ago, but after years of neglect--those numbers had dwindled to almost zero. Academy told us about their business and provided baseline input—and then gave us carte blanche to develop all of their web site marketing content, a complete new design (by my partner Infoadvantage), and initial SEM (still some pieces in process). They trusted our ability to do what we promised—generate more prospects online—and let us go at it.
 
Over the first full business week that the new site www.academylooseleaf.com site went live and pay-per-click SEM implemented, Academy has been getting 100+ visits per day, 5-10 requests for quote per day (by online form, email or phone), and signed 2 new clients. I was surprised myself by these stunning, almost immediate results. How can that be explained? Academy completely trusted NoSpin Marketing to do its job (and has decided to continue letting us help out), and we are letting them do their job: fund the pay-per click campaigns to the necessary levels, follow-up on the web contacts, close sales, and make more great binders and packages.
 
The moral of the story: Trust whom you are working with and get out of their way--and vice versa. You’ll both be pleasantly surprised at what can happen if you do. Here's another hint too: if you trust the people working for you (and they have reason to trust you), they will work a lot harder for you. I know that I do.
 
Oh, and if your company ever needs some really cool custom presentation binders, notebooks, folders, slipcases, certificate holders, boxes, packages, etc. check out Academy Looseleaf. You won’t be sorry.
 
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