My cousin Tim is in prison.   He was a good person who mingled with the wrong people, got addicted to the wrong drugs, did some bad things, and has now been behind bars for 4 years with 6 to go.  Most of his family, including myself, lost touch with him.  Until recently.  For several reasons, I decided to write to him, not knowing what – if anything – it would bring.  To my surprise, he promptly wrote back to me.  Even more surprising was the overall tone of optimism and appreciation with which he wrote.  While explaining to me what his daily life entails, he told me that he spends a lot of time “mushfaking”.  According to Tim, mushfake is prison jargon for “woodworking with tools like toe nail clippers, tweezers, binder clips and various other odds & ends that we can come up with”.   Who knew?  He sent me a picture of one of the jewelry boxes he made – wow.  He is extremely talented.

This letter really got me thinking.  Here is a guy who has had a pretty rough life and who, I must admit, I fully expected to have become the bitter & violent prisoner so typically portrayed by Hollywood.  To the contrary, he is someone who creates great works of art…with tweezers and nail clippers. 

Now, allow me make the not-so-smooth transition from my cousin and prison to the world of marketing.  Tim has taken an unfortunate situation and is making the best of it using the tools that he has.  This is a simple yet relevant statement that should ring true to those of us in marketing (…which is basically everyone, whether it’s in your title or not). 

·         Fuel referrals from within.  Everyone within your organization should have the incentive and motivation to pass along quality referrals.  Here is John Jantsch’s take on how you can Involve Your Employees in the Referral Machine.

·         Get serious about relationship building. Take your participation with social networks to the next level.  Allot a small yet consistent amount of time each day for leveraging your contacts through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Smaller Indiana, etc.  Set aside a few mornings and evenings each month for attending local networking functions.  

·         Gather testimonials.  People are not very interested in what you have to say about your business.  They are, however, very interested in what your clients and customers are saying.  Are you gathering this valuable information?  If you are not sure where to start, check out this idea:  Hold a Testimonial Gathering Party.     

·         Measure, measure, measure.  Can you quantify what works and what doesn’t work?  Use the resources you have gather appropriate metrics.  Phase out what isn’t working, and use your research to request an “unlimited budget for ads that work.”

·         Stay informed.  The marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years.  Traditional marketing tactics continue to face challenges, and the Internet continues to change the way people prefer to communicate.  To remain a marketable and competitive professional, it is absolutely imperative that you stay informed.  As referenced in Seth Godin’s blog, “57% of the online users surveyed hadn't read a blog in the last year.”  His response to this statistic was “these people are incompetent and should be fired.”  Coming from a well-respected modern marketing guru, I would urge you to take these words to heart.