Have you been buried like I have under Top-10 lists of things learned in 2011 or things to remember for 2012?  I’m a guilty party to the deluge with my last post.

Here’s where this takes me, though:

First, sure, it’s worth the effort to parse through it all to find the good stuff.

Second, it occurs to me we’re missing the point with all this looking back/looking forward stuff, assuming the goal is doing better in 2012: what about NOW?!

Yes, learn from the past.  Yes, plan; planning is good.  AND, remember to be present.  Be present with what’s in front of you; with your priorities.  Pay attention.  Stay in the moment.

This is hard.  In fact, it’s some of the hardest work you’ll do.  And some of the most important.  Because here’s what happens when you stay present with now:

You get more done.  Faster.

Solutions present themselves.

The next step for many things just pops up.

Stress reduces.

Try it, starting, well, NOW. . .

I’ve learned a lot in 2011 about marketing and persuasion.  From every direction — clients, my work for clients and from everything in between.

Looking back, here are the things I’ve learned that will make what I do in 2012 better-

Message, what you say about what you sell, is more important than ever.

There’s always a rush to the next “thing”; from direct mail, brochures and trade shows to email,  websites and social media.  However, one thing remains the same.  Regardless of the medium, what you say needs to be clear and relevant to the issues your customer cares about today.  If you’re not getting results it’s probably your message, and not that next cool thing you’r trying to be part of, that needs fixing.

Pay as much attention to conversion as you do attraction.

On-site conversion (“converting” website visitors into taking the actions you want them to take) is as important as attracting more people.

There are two ways to increase leads and sales from your website.  One, attract more people (more of the right people).  And two, convert more of those people into customers or leads.  That’s it.

Most small business owners only think about attracting more people.  This is a mistake.  Give as much investment to converting people as attracting people.

Your off-site footprint is more important than ever.

Yes, you need to keep chipping away at making your website better.

No, I’m not just talking about social media here.   Be where your customers are.  If they’re using Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook you need to be there.  Nothing new here.

I’m talking about the other places, too.  Are your customers on forums, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc., looking for related content?  Search on the words that bring the most traffic to your site.  Where else can you add content and extend your footprint?

Your marketing or advertising agency isn’t the answer.

Today, marketing success is more about the small stuff and less about the big stuff.  The small stuff — weekly refinements to your online campaign — you must do, your agency can’t.  Your agency SHOULD teach you how, but it’s rare when you can afford to hire out the small stuff.  The big stuff — a new ad or brochure — your agency still must do.  But those things are becoming less important.

Bonus Marketing Lesson-

It is what it is. . . . .or, quit your whining!

Our job as marketers is to grow sales.  Not just in good times, but in ALL times.  Including now.   If now is less than optimal for you, you can’t afford to be any less aggressive than when things are great.  You may need to do different things.  You certainly will need to do things differently.  And it will feel uncomfortable doing it.  But the only mistake you can make is not acting.

Act.  Don’t wait.  Frankly, the new normal will be a lot closer to now than the way it used to be, so waiting is not an option.

Make 2012 worth it.

We did something with a client this year that’s worth sharing with you.  Instead of the traditional holiday email card with a meaningful thought we decided to ask their customers to share their favorite Christmas stories; then pick a few and share the stories back out with their customers.

We were overwhelmed.  With the number; over 1,400 people shared a story.  And with the stories themselves.  People described important and powerful  moments, and many actually thanked us for asking.

Every one was read.  Many, many tears attested to genuine humanity we were privileged to glimpse.  Cliff Batson, PERRLA’s COO, best summed up how most of us felt after this experience.  And it is my message for you:

Life is uncertain.  If you thought this Christmas was your last, what would you do differently?

Click here to read their top Christmas stories.

What is your favorite Christmas story?  Leave it as a comment.  The first comment’s mine.

Let’s see. . .what else could I have thrown into my headline. . .?  Organic?  Instant download?   This post is about getting people’s attention.

A quick glance through my Twitter or DIGG or StumbleUpon accounts gets my head hurting.  Otherwise reasonable people and competent companies vying for my attention with a crazy arms race of overstatement.

Please know I share your goal; getting people’s attention.  It’s just. . .there’s a better way, and you already know what it is.  No, wait: Learn the Marketing Secret That’s Made Millions for People Just Like You!!  Sorry, couldn’t help it.

How to Get People’s Attention (Without Them Hating You Later)

Better to invest time and energy understanding what’s important to the people whose attention you’re vying for than tricking them into reading your message.  Because, if you understand what’s important to them:

You don’t have to scream and cajole and overstate.  What you say will actually be interesting to them.  And, as if by magic, you’ll get their attention.

You won’t waste their time.  Nobody (NOBODY) appreciates that.  Don’t make enemies trying to make friends.  Don’t waste my time.

You won’t set unrealistic expectations — expectations you can’t meet.

You won’t embarrass yourself with ridiculous overstatements.

You won’t attract stupid people with your ridiculous overstatements.  You don’t want stupid people; they don’t make good customers.

Understand what’s important to the people whose attention you’re vying for by asking them questions (open-ended questions) and listening to their answers.  Best to talk to a handful of current customers who fit the description of the type you want to attract more of.  Questions like:

What’s going on in your world right now?

What are the biggest challenges you face?

What projects are you working on — things you’re trying to accomplish — to improve your business?

Nothing so far relates to what you sell.  It doesn’t have to.  You want to understand, generally, what frame of mind your customers are in.  Yes, you can answer this question right now, without talking to anybody.  And yes, be assured, if you don’t talk to anybody, your answer won’t be as complete as it could be.

What can a company like mine do to help you right now?

If you wanted to find another company like mine to work with, how would you look for that company?

What would you be looking for?  What would get your attention?

Then, write about these things.  Put them in your message.

See, you already (basically) knew this, right?  It just makes sense.  I got your attention (you’re reading this far into a post by someone you don’t know) and likely drew you closer to contacting me the next time you  need help growing sales.  And you have something you can use.

Isn’t this a better way?

Thank you for your inspiration.  I have paused to ask myself “What would Steve Jobs do in this situation?” many times.  Each time it reminded me to push for something great, to challenge the traditional approach.

Thank you for illuminating The User Experience.  Before Jobs, the box didn’t really matter.  A product was the measure of its features and design.  Yes, ease of use was an issue, but it didn’t drive everything.  Jobs seemed to understand using the products Apple created better than anyone.  The experience and simplicity of using the device drove EVERYTHING.   Starting with opening the box.  Do you remember opening your first iPod?  I do.  It was a totally new (and cool) experience.

Frank Lloyd Wright said he would “walk around” in his buildings in his head before he drew a single line.  He would do this for weeks, sometimes months, noticing how a hallway might not work or how late afternoon sunlight could be highlighted.  Steve must have had a similar relationship with the products experiences he gave us.

Thank you, Steve, for showing us that The Product is often so much more than the product.  The real power behind the iPod was iTunes.  He somehow knew this and he was right.  Apple became the largest retailer of music in the world in 12 months.  One hundred million songs downloaded, one song at a time.  Unthinkable at the time.

Do you remember how much music you bought the year before iPod, The Product, and how much you bought the year you owned The Product?  I do.  Before: maybe three CDs.  After: somewhere north of 250 songs.

I cried yesterday when I read Steve Jobs passed.  Probably more for us than for him.  I can’t know his physical struggle these past few years.   But to be able to chase your passion literally to within a month of your death is a privilege few of us will have.

Thank you for showing us you don’t have to be perfect to be great.  He could be a brutal boss.  He lost his company.  His NEXT computer was a spectacular failure.  And he had his share of duds at Apple.  But they were stepping stones and don’t really matter, do they?

I remember the early press on Apple.  It was one of the first tech start-ups started by “kids.”  Jobs wanted to famously “change the world.”  Coming from a 20-year-old standing with the first Personal Computer in his hand that could do little more than organize your recipes and balance your checkbook, that was quite a statement.  But he did.  He changed the world.

Thank you, Steve.

Seth Godin’s thoughts.

Eric Ries offers an intriguing. . .or maybe obvious. . .approach to operating a startup I believe translates well into growing ANY business in today’s economy called The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.  (See his talk at Microsoft Research.)  His book is worth the read.

The easy take-away, the important take-away, for me, is his concept of Build-Measure-Learn.  As a veteran of many startups he points to a reality all startups face, and something I believe is a good lesson for you and me as we push to grow sales today.  He says:

Startups begin with an idea of who their customer is and why they’ll buy the product or service they’re building.

And, more often than not, they’re wrong.  Wrong about who their customer is and/or why they’ll buy.

Better, then, to focus less on planning and more on a learning process (Build-Measure-Learn) designed to discover what your target market will buy, or, discover what group of people will buy what you’re selling.

So, the focus is not on doing what you believe is right, but on implementing a process that reveals the way forward, based on customer response.

Based on what I’m seeing today, this is a worthy strategy for us all:

We “know” who our customers are and why they buy from us.  After all, that’s what got us where we are.  And today doesn’t look THAT much different than last year.

But, that is changing (both the who our customers are and why they buy).

Better, then, to focus less on doing a better job of what we’ve been doing and more on a process designed to discover what it will take to grow in this economy.

Which is where his Build-Measure-Learn concept comes in.  Said another way: lots of small tests.  At the risk of using a buzzword, which I loath doing, call it Fast-Cycle Testing.

Whatever you call it (Just Do It. . .maybe?), don’t worry if you don’t have a completely fleshed out plan.  Start.  Test.  Pay attention.  Refine.  And start again.

Storytelling is an idea you’re hearing tied to marketing and business success more and more lately.  The idea I’ve been talking about for years.

In the context of marketing and business success storytelling really does rock.  Here are seven reasons why:

1.  Storytelling is part of our DNA.

Before books we told each other stories.  We passed along our culture and values around campfires.  Our parents or tribe or community elders — like the Native American storyteller depicted in the image — didn’t present a lecture on bravery or truthfulness.  They told a story about it.  And we listened and learned.  Ten thousand years ago, and last Sunday in church.

Story has continued as the root unit of communication into the printed and electronic word (the front page story, our lead story tonight).  Like fight or flight, mom and apple pie, the urge to form tribes and communities, etc., story is part of us.

Shouldn’t you use story in your attempts to gain attention and persuade people?!

2.  Storytelling cuts through the clutter; it’s what truly differentiates you.

Disney versus Six Flags.   Apple versus HP.  Google versus Yahoo.  Some are built on story.  You can guess which ones.  You “know” Disney.  Not so with Six Flags.  Ask anyone at Disneyland and they’ll tell you they don’t have rides, they have stories they put you into.  Time after time Google has done things that raise eyebrows.  But they always ask the same question, Will it benefit the user?  In addition to “Don’t be evil,” the story Googlers understand and live is creating a better online experience for people.

3.  Storytelling is the best way to actually communicate – to connect.

What do the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita, Tora and every other holy book have in common?  Right, they tell stories.

Communication, actual communication, occurs when you achieve shared meaning.  You may read my web page or sales letter (or holy book), but have I communicated with you?  Is your understanding of what I’m talking about the same as mine?  Tell me a story and the chances are better it is.

4.  Storytelling isn’t done very well or very often; use it and you will stand out, cut through and connect.

Tell a story.  Quick, while not that many companies are doing it.  I met James shortly after he had lost his job and declared himself a salesforce.com consultant.  After he had tried (and failed) at attracting prospects to his website and converting them into leads.  Reluctantly, he hired me to create a new search campaign and train him.  We went through some rocky weeks; his budget was modest and the competition limited the number of visitors he could afford.  But after chipping away at both the campaign and optimizing his website, the leads started to flow.  And flow.  In the third month of James managing the campaign himself, six months after we began together, he had to pause the campaign (too much business).

Yes, I am a Google Adwords expert and yes I train my clients how to manage their own campaigns, but after hearing about James and comparing three Adwords experts, which one might stand out in your mind?

5.  Storytelling spawns word-of-mouth; get better at it and watch your word-of-mouth soar.

Word-of-mouth is, basically, people telling stories about you.  If all you say about your company is feature/function/benefit stuff (Our gears experience 30% less downtime. . .We’re the oldest. . .We’re the biggest) you’re not giving people too much to talk about.  Tell a story about a customer who called at 2 AM after a competitor’s gear failed; and how after three years as your customer they’ve had zero down time.  Better yet, put them in front of a video camera and let them tell their own story.

Tell stories worth repeating.  Better yet, do things for customers that are worth talking about.

6.  Storytelling stops people long enough to stick around and listen to your message.

Your story normally isn’t your message.  Your story is that thing nobody else can say.  It’s often the thing that caused you to do what you’re doing.  It’s a moment of reflection that captures why you are unique and makes people WANT to be a part of what you’re doing.

Here’s the best example of story I have found.  This company invests in businesses to end world poverty.  This is their story:

You don’t even have to finish the video to want to know more about what they do.

7.  Finding your story will set you free.

Okay, I stole that from the “The truth will set you free” people.  But it’s true.  Finding your own story is different from telling stories.  But while I’m on the subject of storytelling, finding and telling your story is truly liberating.  It clarifies choices and sharpens your direction.  Everything you do becomes more congruent and, with that new congruency, people (customers) respond.

One thing, though, finding your story is really, really hard.  Most of us never find it.  Others chip away at it.  Others stumble upon it.  I caught my technology partner telling his story (he didn’t know it).  We were taking a break at a conference in San Jose.  We went to the Computer History Museum and he stumbled upon his first computer and blurted this out:

John does network support and has an unusual gift for helping people understand and use technology.  This video, better than a thousand words, explains his supportive, empathetic approach to computer support.

After these 42 seconds, wouldn’t you want John helping you with your computer issues?

Plus, as John’s story demonstrates, your story doesn’t have to be elaborate or dramatic.  It needs to be real.  And meaningful to you.

Start telling stories and watch how people respond.

. . .oh. . .my story?  I thought you’d never ask.

“Now Bill Bill. . .” my mother used to say.  I always knew what came after that: the rule.  Now Bill Bill, always wash your fruits and vegetables because you never know where they’ve been. (Hamilton is my middle name,  I’m a Bill Jr. and was Bill Bill to my Dad’s Bill).

If you have a mother, you’ve heard this rule too.

Good advice.  Simple, obvious and correct.  Except few of us consistently follow it.  Like lots of marketing advice that may not be as familiar, but is as simple, obvious and correct.  And, that too few of us follow.  Consistently.

Like-

Make sure your customers know everything you do.  A shockingly high percentage know you for what they buy from you now and nothing more.  Change this and sales can grow.

Use Webmaster Tools.  It’s free, it gives you good information about where your organic rankings stand and it’s simple to install and use.

Use Google Analytics.  Notice I said USE Analytics.  All our sites have Analytics installed. . .but when was the last time you looked at your Analytics?  Look at your Analytics weekly.  It’s a must-have, must-use tool.

Customer satisfaction is a moving target.  Whatever it was that you did three years ago for your customers that was defined as “great service” or “great quality” or great anything, isn’t that great anymore.  If it was great, your customers are used to it now and your competitors have probably started doing the same thing.  You need to be greater today to stay great.

Make sure you have a site map.  Site maps make it easier (logarithmically easier) for search engines to index your site.  They also add to the certainty all your pages will be indexed, or will be seen, by search engines.

Marketing messages wear out.  Customers’ wants change.  Your message needs to change with them.

Be where your customers are.  Are they still reading that aging, boring, thinning industry publication or are they on LinkedIn groups?  Are they still going to that trade show or are they on Google+?

Ask your customers.  Then shut up and listen.  They will tell you what you need to know.

It’s okay to fail.  Fail small and fail often.

And. . .Mom’s always right.

William Gibson said “The future is here, it just isn’t evenly distributed.”  I agree.  It’s here.  You just have to look for it.  I saw a piece this morning: branding that changes as people interact with it.

More on brands that morph as their customers engage with them.

The bigger point: what does this mean for small businesses?!

It means your marketing plan needs to be very different today.  How about in 140 characters instead of 10 pages:

The marketing plan of the future prescribes a process of discovery, engagement and listening.  The normal stuff of marketing plans — product introductions, trade show schedule, website changes — is revealed through listening.

If you engage and listen you’ll know everything you need to know.

How to engage and listen?

Ask your customers general, open-ended questions.  Don’t ask a hundred via survey.  Call five.  Record the conversations and distribute them throughout your company.

Send email.  (Yawn. . .)  Don’t yawn.  It works.  Send email to your customers that is more like the conversation you’d have with them over lunch and less like a brochure.  Then listen.

A client (established software developer) started sending email and was less than delighted to receive a thundering rant, (paraphrased) “The fact you guys don’t have a Mac compatible version of your software is ridiculous!!”  We got the email to their lead coder, Joey.  They had looked at developing a Mac version about a year ago and concluded it would overwhelm their resources.  Joey spent his weekend revisiting the issue and found advancements in the past 12 months now made it realistic.

That was in January of this year.  I”m proud to announce on August 8th they are shipping a rock-solid Mac version of their software.  With high hopes (800 pre-orders).

Start a Google Adwords campaign. Uh, we already have an Adwords campaign.  Or, we tried Adwords and they don’t work.  Okay, sorry; start an effective Google Adwords campaign.

You aren’t doing it right unless you can answer which search queries convert best, which “core” queries are fading and which longtail queries are rising.  Not to mention you aren’t doing it right unless you’re making money on the campaign.  But that’s a different topic.

Probably the most exciting, ground-breaking work in the engagement/listening area is being done by Dave Snowden and Cognitive Edge.  Snowden likens my steps 1-3 as a dance you do with your customers; listening, changing and co-evolving with them. (The future is definitely showing itself in Snowden’s work)

Go ahead, give the Marketing Plan of the Future a try.  Be warned.  It might sound easy.  It certainly is different, but easy it isn’t.

Yesterday was Sunday and I went to church; my marketing church.  Ikea.  If by church you mean a place you go to reflect and be reminded of all the things you aspire to.

This sign in the Ikea cafe caught my attention.  Take a moment to read it.

How do you communicate your positioning, your brand, your story?  Lots of ways.  One way is to create a sign like this that ties a huge part of who you are to an experience  people are about to have, or that they just had.

A 8-page brochure couldn’t present who Ikea is any better than this sign.

Addendum-

Have you ever eaten at Ikea?  The first time my wife, Sharon, suggested it I thought she was crazy.  Until she told me about the food and how busy the cafe was.

I believe the only reason they serve food at Ikea is because it’s an easy way to demonstrate the Ikea value proposition.  The food is surprisingly good.  And CHEAP.  We had lunch for $11.00.  Maybe the fourth or fifth time we’ve had lunch there.  Every time it’s as busy as any popular restaurant.  We experienced  quality at a surprisingly low price, created with efficiency.  Including the ingenious way you put the trays away.

And by the way, the parking lot loading dock was full of pick-ups and SUVs with entire dorm rooms and apartments full of furniture.  No recession at Ikea.  Maybe their congruency of message and brand is part of the reason.

There are enough people in the world to support a chain of just under 300 Ikea stores.  What about you?  Are there enough people out there to support a company like yours. . .maybe five or ten or 50 times your current size?  Maybe if your  message and brand were more congruent you’d be easier to recognize by those people.