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Absent without apology

You may have noticed a lapse in posts here at adMISSIONs. A funny thing happened along the way from May to today: summer break. I consciously chose to set posting here aside for the season. I spent time instead generating posts in the memories of my children because this summer demanded special attention. This is how I spent my summer vacation.

Philmont

My son will be 17 in a few months. Accompanying him on a two-week, once-in-a-lifetime trip to New Mexico’s Philmont Scout Ranch trumped every other card on my table. There’s something beyond words in the experience of having the boy you’ve raised cheering you on to the 12,441 foot summit of Mount Baldy; the last 50 yards took nearly an hour. Those fourteen days with my son will be among the most precious memories I’ll have of him the rest of my life. John must have loved it because two weeks after coming home, he packed his trunk and headed off to Boy Scout summer camp in Oklahoma.

Camp Grammy

My children take turns every summer in Utah visiting my mom. We call it Camp Grammy because she pulls together side-trips and activities with each of them in mind. Only Kate and Zuzu made the trip this summer. John and I had New Mexico. Stella had DECATS–a gifted and talented summer program. And, then she answered the call of the sea….

Stella the Sailor

From painter to rudder, Stella spent two weeks sailing to briny deep of Clear Lake at Camp Casa Mare. Her near-daily dispatches became the highlight of our mail call.

Camp Apple for dad

Just before leaving for Philmont, I began having trouble with my MacBookPro. Disc searches were slowing, strange error messages were popping up. I thought it might be a too-full hard-drive. I returned from my trip to discover something far more disastrous: a failing drive. Two weeks of plucking off survivors, replacing and rebuilding the drive took me way off course. So much for quiet months of summer.

Road trips and board games

We got in some day trips, splashed in the pool, and spent time around board games. Among our trips was a run to see the chainsaw art created on Galveston Island from the oaks fallen by Hurricane Ike. It was hotter than hell that day, but a fun time in the end. Parents will understand that better than I can explain.

Shifting gears

This may be the last summer of us all together. With John’s 17th birthday coming in December, his thoughts are shifting to college, cash, and cars. Kate is similarly shifting into high school mode preparing for her freshman year at Saint Agnes. Both of them are already talking about summer jobs next year. So, time with them this summer took first priority. Even so, I wish there had been a way to have had more of it. We’re about two weeks from uniforms, lunchboxes, and early rising.

Life is often better remembered than experienced. This summer, I made sure we all had enough experiences to remember for many summers to come. Thanks for understanding.

Online advertising in a magazine?

A magazine that updates scores. Ads showing a car driving down the road and, at a touch, reveals specs and customized pricing. News stories that link to background information. Meet the coming face of interactive magazine publishing . Are your online advertising best practices ready for this new technology?

Check out examples interactive advertising in a magazine being developed now. Look past the corpo-speak and see the future of how your customers will be consuming information in the near future. Near as in when the iPad comes out.

Don’t think this advance is way off or reserved just for the big boys. The ability to create this kind of interactive advertising will come to the local level quickly. How can you prepare? Here are three things you can do now:

Give your banners muscle

Consider how you currently execute banner advertising. If your ad simply transports a reader to your home page, you’re missing out. The shortest path to conversion is relevant results; a click is my question, where you take me is the answer.

Instead of just bringing visitors to your home page, choose specific points of your banner ad to bring visitors relevant points on your site. Click on the product, you’re taken to that specific product’s page. Click on copy in your ad and it brings you to an expanded version with more information. The company logo in an ad on the sports page takes visitors to a landing page written for sports-minded customers.

Whether you’re paying by click or impressions, the more efficiently you resolve each click, the more likely you’ll convert visitors into customers. It starts by answering the questions customers are really asking (not the ones you want them to ask) quickly and efficiently.

Show don’t tell with video

Video brings visitors into your business in a way words alone can’t. It’s a form of interactive advertising that communicates differently than cable or TV video; don’t consider using your TV spot on your site as having video. In fact, TV spots on websites can create a conversational disconnect.

Web video works best when it’s person-to-person conversational. Grab a Flip Video camera and welcome a customer as you would when they come into the store. Interview some of your customers. Don’t worry about making it pretty; the more authentic is looks, the more believable the message.

Engage visitors in conversation

Creating polls or surveys is an easy way to solicit customer input and generate better engagement. Survey Monkey gives you the ability to conduct live polls of your web visitors and display ongoing results live. Your online advertising immediately appears more connected and customers gain a greater sense of involvement.

You may get some poll results you don’t like. If you have a product or service customers aren’t happy with, they’ll tell you. That’s a good thing. If they’re already unhappy, at least now you have a way of addressing it with them and in front of everyone else. You’ll just have to walk your customer service talk.

Advantage goes to the prepared

Not only will making these adjustments enhance the effectiveness of your online advertising now, but when time comes for interactive media in dynamic publications, you’ll already have the necessary best practices in place.

My iphone app: portable advertising & marketing advice

A whole computer that fits in one room. When I was a kid, it was hard to believe computers could get that small. My kids can’t believe they were ever that big. Today, mobile computing is taking things a giant leap smaller.

Remember when having a fax was a big deal? How about email? Your next step: a own mobile app of your own. I created the adMISSIONs iPhone app on my own in less than 15 minutes using about that many clicks. Why does it matter? It’s all about service and credibility.

The mobile battlefield

The mobile screen is a growing battleground for your customer. Already there are applications to scan the bar code or take a picture of a product in your store and compare its price at stores nearby and on the web. If you expect me to buy it from you, there better be a reason beyond price.

Gone are the days of Name That Tune in my family. My son and I reach for our iPhones and Shazam tells us the name of the song, the artist, album and where we can buy it right now. Last weekend I heard a perfectly restored recording of Edith Piaf singing La vie en rose. It was on my iPhone before the song was over.

What an app really gives you

While having the adMISSIONs iPhone app in the app store gives me a chuckle, having one of your own gives your brand something important: parity. There are God only knows how many apps in the iPhone App store. Your app stands shoulder-to-shoulder with every one of them. And, you stand shoulder-to-shoulder in customer perception too. According to AdAge, major magazine publishers see apps as a way of drawing eyes back to their magazines. So, why shouldn’t they draw them to you?

REI, a customer service hero of mine, has two iPhone apps. Pizza Hut and Starbucks have apps for ordering from your phone. Southwest Airlines has one that pings every time there’s a ticket deal. CNN pushes alerts for breaking news. ESPN will alert me if the Astros win the pennant. (I’m taking their word for it on that one in lieu of demonstrable team performance.)

In their hand or out of mind

The point is, a mobile app puts your service promise and product knowledge in the hands of customers anywhere they go. Since getting your app set up is so easy, what’s stopping you? I created mine with AppMaker. Or, if you want to create an app for multiple mobile platforms, check you MotherApp. Follow the link and stake your turf on the technological frontier of customer service.

Housekeeping note: The Wednesday Weekly Reader is moving. It is now the Friday Reader. Gathering a week’s stories and providing them as a summary at the end of your week makes more sense than doing so in the middle.

Thanks for reading adMISSIONs.

What is your why in 2010?

As credits roll on 2009, before the lights come up and we move on to a new year, I suggest you answer this question: What is your why?

Next week gyms will be crowded, sporting goods stores will be sold out of workout togs. Many a diet will begin. Noble efforts every one of them; too many will fade and fail. Without an adequate why, the how has nothing to steady it when winds of resistance and same-old-same-old blow.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there”
–Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

Where will 2010 take your business and you?

Why before How is a principle every bit as important to your bottom-line as it is your waistline.Whether it be business practice or marketing initiative, failure to define your why in ten words or less that you can recall without effort will put the odds against your success.

Just like gyms and sporting goods stores, office supply stores will be a buzz with anxious buyers of organizational tools next week too. Every team is in first place on opening day and 1/1/10 seems a ripe time to embrace the latest organizational method.

Change comes from the most unlikely places

I can’t complain. You might not be reading these words had a man I worked for about 25 years ago not given Franklin Dayplanners to his employees as Christmas gifts. Many scoffed at the idea. I took it to heart.

After two weeks of listening to Hyrum Smith explain his system to identify and integrate my guiding principles, I found a why beckoning me to get into radio sales. That why led me to become top billing rep at a major station, then tops in the market, then out to start the firm I run today. Why? Exactly. Because I knew my why.

Your why may not be what you expect

Guy Kawasaki makes an excellent point: instead of merely making money, what if we all set out this year to make meaning in our businesses? Invest a couple minutes to watch and consider his suggestion. 2010 could be just another year of the same, or an explosive 12 months–if you’re willing to connect with and follow your why.

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