Archive View (July 2007)

A while back I posed a question on the DMA's Customer Relationship Council blog.  I was trying to stir up a conversation on the topic to see if others believed as I do that everyone in an organization owns the customer relationship.  Many people may believe this is the sole responsibility of marketing, sales, customer service or technology. But IMO, everyone needs to take some responsibility for customers, because let’s face it: without customers you have no business.  Yes, everyone from CEOs down to shipping clerks need to own the customer experience, so that customers indeed keep coming back. I am lucky more...

All marketers know that the word free is a powerful selling tool.  But did you know that Trump University has a few free courses to help new businesses get started.  The end goal in giving away free info is to show a user lots of value and then they will hopefully decide there is value in purchasing another course.  Trump University gets to qualify a potential customer and build our database and the user gets a lot of free and useful information.  Everyone wins. Here are the three courses we offer for free: How to Write a Business Plan Find Start Up Funding How to more...

I get a lot of sales calls.  It always amazes me when the sales person forgets all their manners and just talks over you, ignores your time constraints and then drops the ball on the follow-up.  Just the other day a media sales rep had me on the phone (I couldn't get a word in so I could end the call...) finally he asked when he could follow up to get my decision.  I said 10 days.  Would you believe he then asked if he could call sooner?  To make matters worse he then called twice the next day to 'check more...

Check out our new Amazon Store.  The new store features all of Donald Trump's books. This is a great way to market your books and earn a couple of cents in the process. more...

Let's face it.  People are lazy.  If given the choice between thinking through a problem and watching TV most people would opt for the TV.  There is nothing wrong with some down time and this is not a judgment about you or your customers, we are all lazy by nature.  Add to this how busy people are these days and you have a tough challenge if you want people to listen and act upon your marketing. To create successful marketing you need to think about your target customer and one aspect is their mental state.  What is going to make them take more...

Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw, John Marquand and Stephen Vincent all tried their hands at it and gave up. And even Aldous Huxley said it was easier to write a decent sonnet than an effective ad. Writing good marketing copy is no easy, breezy walk in the park. And there are plenty of people who have tried to spin great marketing tales and failed miserably. Oh sure, there are plenty of people who call themselves copywriters, but that doesn’t mean they are any good at it. Marketing writing is a specialized skill. One that requires the talent to stop prospects dead in their more...

Michael Sexton, Cybelle and I were recently working on a new mission statement for TrumpU. We went back and forth a few times drafting the statement. When we thought we had a final product I sent it to a friend and marketing associate for some feedback. Jeff Simons pointed out that what we had created was plain vanilla and could have been used at any company. It didn't scream Trump. It feel flat and did not accomplish what we had hoped. Here is one of Jeff's comments everyone should think about when writing a mission statement: "Like so many mission statements, this more...