Obama Tip #7 Hire an Excellent marketing Team

Quelch’s last tip from the campaign about Obama was that he “chose an excellent marketing and campaign team, and managed them well.”
He hired people who understood the new media especially Chris Hughes the wonderkid from Facebook. He attracted the best he could to help him to spread the message.

Now maybe you can afford to hire the best, if so go do it.

If you cannot afford to hire the cream, go to their events, buy their stuff and read their blogs. I’m far too modest to put myself in that category!. To paraphrase Brain Clough I might say “I wouldn't say I am the best marketing man in the business. But I’m in the top one.”

Not sure that I can carry on with this as it I’m sure it will start to sound arrogant.

Go read and study the best and if you can afford to hire them.
Whew.

Amen!

Outsmart your Competition

John Quelch’s next point in the Marketing of a President is that Obama's communications were professional without being slick. He was smarter than the competition. So how you can you be smarter?

1. Have you shared you story, do you talk in stories?

2. Do you use all the media both old and new?

3. Do you know what business you are really in?

4. Is it all about you, your products and services? Or are you trying to share ideas and be a resource?

5. Are you consistent with whom you are, what you say and do?

6. Or are you changing message every five minutes?

Outsmarting the competition takes time and courage...start today!

Marketing Message

Part 5 of John Quelch’s article the Marketing of a President reviews Obama’s Marketing Message. Quelch referred to it as:

“The emotional appeal was buttressed with solid and specific policy details. The ability to combine emotional with functional benefits and the discipline to be consistent in positioning and message delivery are core to all successful branding campaigns.”

Obama message was “Change you can believe in” which was repeated during his campaign.
So what’s your marketing message?

Do you people know that only you can say it?

Anybody can say “Passionate about websites!”

Do you talk about yourself and your business or do you talk about your clients?
Do you repeat it?

More importantly will others?

This is your homework for the rest of your business live, roll your selves up and get to work!

Reach Out....I'll Be There!

It’s a beautiful day in London, the sort of day (as Ken Dodd would say) that makes you want to go up to clients and prospects and say do you want some of what I have? Accept, Ken said it in a more end-of-the-pier style!

But that’s exactly John Quelch’s point about what Obama did in the presidential election

“Obama reached out to all citizens. He targeted his message beyond previous or likely voters.”

Are you reaching out to your entire constituency or just the few who know you already?

Are you targeting your message beyond just your customers?

Your marketing purpose should be to spread your ideas, you need to tell people about them.

Remember the theme tune of all marketers.
As the Four Tops sang…”Reach Out, I’ll Be There”
Go play it on Spotify!

Use the Media

John Quelch noted that Barack Obama was “aided by his appreciation and use of all communications media, notably the Internet, to engage voters.” Not only the traditional but also the new online media.

So how do you use both traditional media :

TV
Radio
Newspapers and Magazines
New Media:

Your blog, you have a blog don’t you?
YouTube
Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc
Your web site
Your membership site

Take one of the above and start engaging and working it.
If you don’t your competitors will and become better recognised.

Ask for Support

John Quelch’s Number 2 Obama Marketing Success is converting empathy into tangible support. Obama was able to develop leverage on the basis of his support.

Before you go out chasing supporters, clients and fans, before you start putting your slogan on your t shirt and websites, ask this. Do you have a bedrock of support, from family, friends and other colleagues? Have you tried your ideas out on them? Do they resonate? Or do they sound like you just some watered down version of the latest book or article you happened to read?

Before I called what I did No-Bull Marketing I spoke to others whose opinion I respected. Was it me, did it make sense? Only when I received the thumbs up that I wanted did I go public! Try it.

Grow a nurturing support close to home before you go out into the big bad world

How to Develop Obama like Personal Charisma

In his no-nonsense straightforward article “The Marketing of a President” John Quelch Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School detailed eight areas that that Barack Obama excelled in to win the US Presidential Race.

The first was Obama’s personal charisma “his listening and public speaking skills, his consistently positive and unruffled demeanour, and his compelling biography attracted the attention and empathy of voters”.

So how do you score on the Obama Charisma Stakes?

1. How good a listener are you? Or are you just waiting to speak…I know that I fall into that trap. Want to improve your listening skills start giving constructive feedback to others, tell them what they do well and only lightly where they need to improve.

2. Public Speaking Skills. I believe that this is the number one skill to improve your public charisma. Maybe you’ll never be as good as Obama but you can’t start to soon in this. Join Toastmaster International; take an acting or improv class. Start today. We can all get better at this and we all need help.

3. Positive and Unruffled Demeanour. Do you know what your goals, purpose and objectives are? Do you have a plan? It is written down? Do you keep a journal? Don’t worry about critics as long as you believe you’re on course.

4. Compelling Biography. Have you written down and published you story? It doesn’t have to be 20,000 words, it might only be 500. Is it at least on you web site?

The stuff is NOT difficult, just take your time and tick them off as you do them.

Can we all seriously be charismatic?

Yes, we can!