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How The Best Leaders Deal with Stress

With all that you have to do, it is easy to move from smiling broadly to merely keeping your head above water.

The web is wonderful but it can act as fuel to feeling stressed out or not achieving what you want to do during the day. You read the books, you listen to podcasts and KNOW, really KNOW what you should be doing BUT that focus is wiped out each day by the mounting action lists. 

I know. I understand. I have been there. It feels awful doesn't it?

Business stress comes from two main sources

1. A lack of something!
2. A lot of something!

Stress thrives on the 'lacks' and the 'lots' of this world.

A lack of time, money, focus, desire, momentum, control etc

A lot of goals, decisions to make, pride, need to be liked, responsibility, targets etc

Here is the thing though, stress whithers away when you move your focus from the why is it that...to the why can't we do.

Let's take a lack of finance. If you have a restricted budget that does not mean you can't do anything, it means you can do something. Even if there is a budget of nil, there are still free things that you CAN do.

Let's take too many goals. Take each one and say why, what is the purpose....you will find that when you take them up a level you can group them. Now working on one thing, delivers progress across two of your goals.

There is no difference between a successful and mediocre business leader - they both live in a world of overexpectation and underfunding. The ONLY difference? They don't let the lack of or the abundance of....define what they do today, what they do in this moment.

What they focus on is -  what can be done, how you can achieve more with less, which imperfect choice is the best choice for their business.

They don't believe in good or bad luck. They don't ponder on the what if's. They don't wish for something that isn't possible. They don't blame outside forces.

No. The world is what it is. You always want more of something. You always want less of something. That's life. That's business.

They make the best of what the circumstances are now, today, this very second. They make it happen, knowing that if it works they will eventually be able to invest more. They make it happen knowing an abundance of issues will not disappear without action.

If you can' do everything, do something.

If you haven't got everything, make the most of something.

If there are a million reasons preventing you, don't blame - refine the key aim.

What is the ideal social marketing process?

Interesting to ask but do you know your process for social marketing?

Sounds odd but as with any business outcome there needs to be a process. Always remembering there is a world of difference between a process and a checklist!

When people struggle they are treating social marketing as a 'paint by number' exercise.

They listen to what others do and copy; they read a book and apply the actual examples to their business. That for me is a checklist NOT a process that will deliver great social marketing. Social is about your understanding the basics but then applying with your own voice and your distinct personality. Copying no, adapting...maybe

So what is a process?

A process is your pipeline of ideas. A process keeps your focus; focus on what makes your content social and your business different to the competition.

You need to develop the social marketing process that works for you. The process has core elements

• A pipeline of ideas. How do you keep my mind full of ideas, full of conversations that you want to talk about?
• A way of keeping close to your customer's life. You need to build in time that allows you to think, see and feel like your customer. This allows you to take the ideas and turn it into shareable content. Using words that your customer uses, around problems or opportunities that your customers are seeing or feeling.
• A way of allowing people to share your content. This includes easy sharing buttons and different formats for people to share on their favourite sites. But what process do you have in place to stay close to the new tools? The way your target market shares? What people find 'shareable'?
• A measurement process. Otherwise how do you know what is (as well as isn't) working?

That process is your system that keeps the content fresh and relevant to your audience. It is a repeatable process each day. And it is not about predictable outputs, it is about repeatable outputs.

What on earth does that mean!

Well, you need to remove what Steven Pressfield talks about as 'resistance', that little evil germ that tells you that you are too busy, too tired or too confused to create content.

Establishing a process creates a habit; a habit which exercises the mind each day. A mind gym workout that builds your social muscle.

What you write - the content you create - is...and indeed SHOULD NOT be the same each day. The process of creating DOES benefit from a habitual process.

But the outcome, the actual content, needs to be fresh, new, distinct; connecting to your customer by being informational, entertaining or educational.

You must develop a repeatable process to create fresh content that encourages the customer to repeat it, to their friends.

The problem is that companies often mistable a repeatable process with repeating content! And far from being fresh, it is perceived as predictable.

Not having a process means a haphazard process creates predictable content.

Repeating content is like a pickled onion at Christmas, lovely the first time but you soon get bored!

So the question is

"Do you have a predictable process that delivers predictable content?

Or a repeatable process that delivers unbelievable content?"

 

Remember 30 of Anna's favourite questions, entrepreneurs should be asking is - NOW on Kindle or as a PDF

 

 

How to Create Unconditional Customer Loyalty

Serious question - why do you feed your children? 

You don't have to...you do have a choice. Clearly there are laws that society have put in place to punish people who don't look after the vulnerable.....but you could choose not to..and take the consequences?

So I ask again why?

Do you see it as your honour to look after the vulnerable?

Do you do it because you love them...even if they don't clean their room??

Do you do it without even thinking why....because you naturally want to nurture?

Do you do it even when you are busy and hardly have the time?

Now....think about that and I want to ask one more question

Why wouldn't you want to 'feed' your customers?

Social marketing, social media is nutrition for your marketplace. Your customers are hungry for answers, for their passions to be met, for easy, simple solutions....they are STARVING...and are looking for people who feed ideas, feed answers....who care enough about their passion to do it, even when they are tired or busy.

Not a parent who give their child some loose change and say "nip and get some sweets as I am too busy to feed you" but a brand parent which will show their love by making that time, by giving content with unconditional love, by doing it not because they have to...but because they want to...

And a business who wants to because they love their customers, they want to because they are passionate about their topic and they want to reach out and share that passion.

They make time because they care, they respect and love those people who might want to share their hard earned money with them...they want to give because of what that could bring to others not for what they might receive.

Unconditional loyalty is earned; unconditional love is engaging. Brands struggle because their brand nutrition is conditional.....either it is produced because it has to be or it is for the wrong reason.

What if you offered unconditional content marketing out of love, what if you fed your customers out of love...because you saw it as your human role?

Imagine how love engages...and for a second, just imagine what the difference would be to the content that you create...

Show 487 - Using Mobile Surveys for Customer Insights

The Engaging Brand podcast covers social marketing, business ideas and brand marketing tips.

Anna Farmery talks to Mark Penson, CMO of Survey Anyplace, an expert in using mobile surveys to get real-time customer feedback. In this podcast the questions posed are... Are mobile surveys right for you? What do they offer your brand?

You can read more about Mark's ideas on Using Mobile Surveys to Gain Customer Insights in this Engaging Brand post.

We discuss

• What is the definition of modern market research?
• Is mobile market research more independent than customer focus groups?
• Is emotion stronger at the point of purchase and should market research adjust their market research data to recognise that?
• Market research at the point of purchase delivers benefit to the brand - but what is the value to the consumer?
• The importance of providing a customer incentive to fill out a customer survey.
• The role of gamification in market research.
• Are mobile surveys only valuable in real time?

The Listener of the Week is  - chosen from anyone who shared about last weeks podcast.

For your chance to win next week just share this post! (Tweet this)

Remember as a listener you can download 30 Lessons on Social Leadership Powers - Anna's new ebook  is now available on Kindle. 

1) You can listen now

If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed or visit iTunes.

Using Mobile Surveys for Immediate Customer Insights

Mobile surveys is something that intrigues me -  so I asked Mark Penson to share his insights into mobile surveys (watch out tomorrow for our interview on The Engaging Brand podcast).

Here are Mark's views on gaining valuable customer insights.

Forget Email Surveys: Use Mobile Surveys for Immediate Customer Insights

Paper surveys have probably been around since papyrus. We’ve always been interested to know what others were thinking, right? We’ve all seen the surveyors at the grocery store, armed with clipboard, pen and paper form, intercepting folks lugging bags out to their cars to ask about products and services. In-home surveys came via parcel post, in over-stuffed envelopes with any manner of surveys, from private businesses to the city collecting opinions about new urbanization plans.

As PCs became more popular, so did online surveys. But while they improved ease of distribution compare to paper, email surveys still left a lot of qualitative room for improvement. People are busy when they’re online at work, and doing any number of things on their home computer that have nothing to do with waiting to take a survey. Alas, harried shoppers, people sorting their mail and over-worked employees are not ideal survey candidates. After all, the more reasons you give them to avoid your survey the less likely you are to get valuable feedback—if you get any feedback at all.

 

Email surveys aren’t keeping up with the times

When email surveys don’t automatically land in a recipient’s junk mail folder, they’re often ushered there by the very person it was intended for—hardly the interaction the surveyor intended. It’s no wonder that email response rates are off the wrong end of the charts these days, and getting further afield. When responses do come in, the value of the information is limited. Why? Because of the lag between the interaction with the brand and the customer actually answering the survey. The business has to collect the email address, get the email to the right department or outside resource to add to the database, and then work it into the survey stream. If the email address is an accurate one, and if the survey doesn’t land in the trash, an email survey often lingers for days before the recipient gets around to answering it.

This lag works against the collection of time-sensitive consumer insights like wanting details of a customer’s experience to a car dealership or a bed-and-breakfast. Or soliciting the nuances of a meal or event. The value of the insights, and the details consumers can recall decreases as the time between their experience and answering your survey increases. It’s logical, but for too long has sufficed as the norm. Clearly, email surveys’ role in collecting viable, valuable consumer feedback to inform marketing and other functions is limited at best. At worst, it’s a waste of time and money. It’s time for a new norm.

 

Use people’s mobile devices to ask them about your brand—while they’re experiencing your brand

Fewer and fewer people leave their homes without a smartphone or tablet these days, which means these powerful, familiar computers accompany them down the store aisles, into car dealerships, bed-and-breakfasts, restaurants and events too. A modern, convenient mobile survey, quiz or contest during this experience can feel like a natural part of the experience itself. Without even an app to install, mobile surveys and quizzes use familiar swiping, keyboarding and taking photos that consumers do countless times a day with their mobiles. And deliver once hard-to-collect, in-the-moment insights—in real time.

Consumer research has for too long been too serious. It needn’t be. With mobile surveys, you can collect invaluable insights by engaging your audience with a fun challenge, quirky quiz, contest or simply the prospect of publicity. You don’t need their email or cell phone number, just a provocative proposition.

 

How to learn from customers, prospects or attendees as they experience your brand:

Make it easy for them to use their mobile to scan a QR code or enter a URL:

• Printed on packaging and or POP signs
• Projected onto a screen during seminars or conferences
• Printed on event signs, tickets or program materials
• Included inside packaging on directions or warranty/registration information

Compel them to give their input by:

• Using hosts at events to invite attendees to take your survey
• Telling respondents they’ll be entered into a prize drawing
• Making the invitation and quiz informal, fun and entertaining
• Letting people know they’ll learn their score at the end
• Promise a coupon or gift for completed quiz (a great way to collect additional contact info)
• Installing a tablet or PC on a kiosk and ask your customers to take your survey

Make the survey or quiz fun, not boring like most email surveys:

• Keep it short. People will quit or will get bored after 7 questions
• Incorporate photos and videos into your questions
• Encourage respondents to take personal photos of your product in their homes
• Brand your survey with your company logo, background image and colors
• Use emoticons or other graphics instead of a numerical scale to indicate satisfaction

 

Customers don’t mind sharing opinions if doing so is convenient and potentially rewarding

Many studies confirm that customers are willing to tell about their experiences with brands. This willingness shouldn’t come at a price of interrupting work or diverting them from tasks they’re already engaged in. And if you think the information you seek is valuable—and in-the-moment information certainly is—happily reward those who respond. Rewards can come in the form of valuable coupons or discounts, free products and even their appearance with your product or at your event on your Facebook or Pinterest pages.

The days of passive, days-later email surveys that most people couldn’t be bothered with are over. Using the mobile devices nearly everyone has, you can engage and learn from your customers and prospects as never before.

Tomorrow The Engaging Brand podcast will be an interview Mark Penson is CMO of Survey Anyplace. I will discuss these concepts and how to use app-free mobile survey tools customized for gamification, to get real-time insights from their customers.

 

What Business Can Learn From UK Elections

Speak the truth not spin. Speak in words we understand. Speak as if you have lived rather than studied.

European and local elections have been held in the UK this week and irrelevant of your political views, it is another sign that people just don't do spin.

Why is the voting so unpredictable? Why is there anti establishment movement? 

Listening to people about why and how they voted, people are tired of the constant soundbits, the evasive answers, the collective message rather than the party line. They are tired of being manipulated by messaging and brands need to recognise this is not just happening in politics....

.....social media is your customer's voting system.

Liken that to customer service and brands can learn some key lessons

1. Listening does not mean what the "spin doctors" think people are saying...it means listening from living in the world rather than your business world.
2. If you make a mistake, just say sorry. Just tell the truth and deal with it as openly as possible. Policitians across all parties don't seem to want to admit mistakes, yet we all make them. Admit them, move on and work hard to put them right.
3. Values are important. If you don't hold yourself to the standards you espouse, no one will ever believe the words you say. That means losing great people, it means removing friends which is tough....but without hard decisions on individuals you risk the welfare of the whole.
4. Answer the question asked by your customer rather than giving the line that has been agreed by your brand.
5. Being successful in the past is no guarantee for the future. You biggest competitor....complacency.
6. The value of the truth. People see through lies, no matter how well you think you have hidden them.
7. Words have the power to change the world. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said

"I have knocked on doors and understand your issues. From that we have created policies. If I was in power, then I would have a mission which will be tracked by key performance indicators" 

People demand honesty. People demand an answer. People demand accountability. Therein lies a business opportunity.....because the brands that can ACTUALLY deliver their promises, ACCEPT when they fall short, ADDRESS what caused it and APPEAR human whilst they do all this...will be way ahead of their competition!

Do you have the 4 A approach to your customer?