Coaching

3 Lessons Small Business Owners Can Learn from the Microsoft Surface Announcement

by Adam McLane on June 24, 2012 · 0 comments

Poor Microsoft.

They’ve been trying to reinvent themselves so badly. Have you seen the Microsoft Store in your local mall? They opened one here in San Diego the same weekend that the new iPhone released.

It was like advertising just how far behind you are. Not only was their store near the Apple Store, you actually had to walk past a completely empty store with all of it’s employees in bright bold shirts to contrast the black shirts at the Apple Store. Walking by you were left with no other choice but to say… “Why?” People even stopped to take pictures because there was such a contrast. Apple had several hundred people waiting 4-5 hours to get in to buy a product. And Microsoft? They had no one.

And now this. It’s not just that the product failed. It’s that they alerted the media, arranged for Mashable to cover it, and let it leak that they think their new device is an iPad killer.

They paraded out their presenter, bright colors to contrast that they aren’t Apple. And the stupid thing crashes.

You have to feel bad for the presenter. The whole time he’s talking you have to know he is thinking… “JUST WORK.” And it doesn’t. It crashes, freezes, and he goes to find another.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Easy. Copying is always bad marketing. Holding a keynote, dressing the guy up like a blue version of Steve Jobs, and trying to parade your product before the world before its ready was a very dumb idea. It could only fail. Even if the device hadn’t failed everyone in that room is thinking the same thing, “It was like an Apple keynote without one more thing.”

It would have been far better to just drop the thing on Amazon.com unannounced. Or it would have been better for them to leak pictures of them being tested at a Foxcon factory in China. Or if they’d mailed 50 influencers beta devices to play with, brag about, and build hype. It would have been better to have an article in WIRED talking about how this device is perfect for business and IT professionals love it because it will work great on their existing networks. Finally, it would have been better to point out that Apple is expensive and snobby while Microsoft’s new device is a bargain and works with the stuff you already have.

But that’s not what Microsoft did. They still don’t know why they are losing marketshare. It’s not the strength of the device, it’s the strength of creating a culture around a brand.

By copying Apple one more time Microsoft just spent another bagillion dollars reminding former customers why they left for Apple in the first place– Microsoft is always 2 steps behind Apple. 

Simple marketing rule #1: Never remind your customer why they like your competitor more.

3 Lessons for Small Business Owners

  1. Let your marketing represent who you truly are.
  2. Your product is your best marketing tool, make it awesome.
  3. Ultimately, you want customers who are FOR YOU and not buying your product because they are AGAINST your competitor.

Tell a great story!

by Adam McLane on May 10, 2012 · 0 comments

A big part of what I do at McLane Creative is in a category I call, Digital Storytelling.

Indeed, I build a ton of great WordPress sites for clients. But what makes McLane Creative so popular (and the rest of my little monsters so dang busy) is that the team isn’t just designers or developers.

First and foremost we are storytellers.

There are a lot of ad agencies better at running Adwords or Facebook campaigns. There are a lot of agencies that could put my teams PHP/CSS/app development skills to shame. And there are a lot better copywriters out there.

I will be the first to admit to that. And I have proven that I am the first to make a referral to one of my friends if a project cares more about those things than what I specialize in.

But I’ve now done this long enough to know that I will help you tell your best story better than a whole lot of people out there. I don’t just build stuff or run campaigns for you. My goal is to help you tell your organizations story better.

That’s what I love about this video. It speaks to any adventurer. It lives the branding. And it communicates better than any 30 second spot could exactly what you could do with the product.

At the end of the day I believe that you telling your best story will lead you to success in whatever you’re trying to do.

How to form the blogging habit

by Adam McLane on October 20, 2011 · 1 comment

“I want to start a blog but I can’t manage to get going. All I ever do is start.“

This is the most common I hear from novice bloggers. They are good writers. They have good things to say. But they just can’t get over the hump and turn blogging from something they like doing to a habit.

I’ve been a daily blogger since 2004. It’s not that it’s easier for me to keep going. It’s that I have the benefit of momentum and habits. I write every day because it doesn’t feel like a normal day if I don’t. And I’ve established an audience that expects a post every day.

That’s not an impossible goal. Here are some very doable and practical tips for forming a blog habit.

  1. Write every day. Set aside an hour per day and write. Notice that I didn’t say “publish every day.” You don’t have to publish every day to form a habit. But you do have to write every day. Maybe you write 7 days per week but only publish 4-5 times? That’s totally fine. Just write a little something every single day. Do it for a month and it’ll become a habit just like anything else.
  2. Write what you love. I think a lot of people worry too much about the form of their blogs and forget that what comes through most clearly is that you love your content. If you are writing about something you love, no matter how obscure that might seem, readers will find it easier to engage and you won’t stare at an empty screen for long. It’s easy to write about what you love.
  3. Write on a timer. “I don’t have the time for a blog habit.” Yeah you do. Just time it out. Either get a literal egg timer or download an app and time yourself. When the timer goes off you’re done. Press save and move on. Just like in school, when you have a deadline you work faster and fall into just getting it done and out of the way. Everything you write won’t be brilliant. Get over yourself and form the habit.
  4. Get a blog buddy. Just like you won’t go jogging without a running partner, you’ll need a blog buddy to keep you accountable. Agree to read one another’s posts, leave a comment, and give advice regularly. Don’t know who to pick? Ask someone whose blog you already like reading. It’s not that hard!
  5. Measure one small thing. When you are just getting started it’s easy to read everything about blogging and start to measure 100 different things. I think that’s dumb. Instead focus on one measurable and write to that. Look at your RSS subscribers. Look at your comments per post. Look at unique visitors. But don’t look at them all. Just pick one and go with that.
Fellow bloggers: What advice would you give to those trying to start the blog habit?

Need a coach?

by Adam McLane on October 15, 2011 · 0 comments

Photo by TheImageGroup via Flickr (Creative Commons)

In the world of WordPress companies there are primarily two types:

  1. Designers
  2. Developers

McLane Creative fits a third category. We look at Design & Development and go, “Well yeah, duh.” Of course you need to build a blog that is technically good and of course you want it to look right for you.

What seperates McLane Creative from the pack, and why we do so well off of viral growth, is that we help you understand how to use the tools we are building & designing. We take the time to coach you on your content and how to develop your unique brand. It’s one thing to give you a better tool to use. It’s another thing altogether if you know what to do with it.

The other day I was getting interviewed about McLane Creative and the young woman said, “You you are a WordPress designer. Cool.” I stopped her. That is true but it doesn’t truly capture the essence of McLane Creative. I corrected her, “We teach people how to use WordPress to build a tribe around their ideas.”

See– whatever your idea is– whether you are a mom blogger or a realtor, your WordPress site is only as useful to you as your strategy allows. A product is merely a monetized idea. And without a tribe rallying around that idea you are just another one of the billions of pointless websites out there.

Do you need a coach?

  • Do you enjoy writing but you feel stuck?
  • Do you get visitors but not tribe members?
  • Do you wonder if your site is doing the right things?
  • Do you need help measuring the right things?
  • Do you just need someone to follow-up with you and hound you because you haven’t posted lately?
That’s the type of coaching we do. We don’t just build pretty things. And we don’t just build things that work well. We help you do your thing better.

We help you get monster results

by Adam McLane on September 17, 2011 · 0 comments

Get monster results with McLane Creative

“Are you on the design side or the developer side?” 

Um, neither and both?

That’s one of the questions that WordPress geeks ask one another when they get together. It’s an obvious question because most people tend to focus on one or the other. Do you geek out in PHPland all day making Plugins or coding your own templates? Or do you geek out in Photoshop and hang out on user experience sites playing with the latest jquery add-ons?

McLane Creative is a full-service company. We do both development and design because we are a group of designers and developers. But we do a lot more than that.

  • We get content. We will help you not just have a pretty site, we will help you build a following for your content and fans for your products.
  • We get marketing. With years of experience in running ecommerce sites, managing email marketing campaigns, producing knockout print marketing (and everything else) we can build your WordPress site AND help you grow your business.
  • We get small business. Whether you’re a local restaurant or a national speaker, we get it and have worked with both.
  • We get bloggers. I’m surprised at how many people in WordPress design/development aren’t actually bloggers. Our team is built with people who blog… every day.
Ready to make our team your team? Start here.