Wednesday, February 07, 2007

"Your Business Card Sucks!"

OK…here’s what happened.

As some of my loyal readers know, I moved from copywriting and marketing into another business venture.

But my good friend Steve Harper coaxed me into not retiring from it completely.

And I was happy to oblige him.

One problem though…

…all my “marketing strategist” business cards were gone. All I had left were these cheesy cards I had created for a special seminar. The “cheesiness factor” worked in my favor there (just gotta know that market).

However, outside of that niche, everyone else HATES it.

In fact, I’ve only handed the things out at a couple of meetings and I’ve been bombarded with "your business card sucks" e-mails.

OK…OK…I can take a hint.

So, to all of you, I am getting a new card PRONTO. (My card for my other business is pretty, but I don’t think you are looking for consultants on doing business in Korea).

But, as always, I try to turn my mistakes into a lesson for all of you. I think the lesson is two-fold:

#1 Message to market mismatch. The cheesy card worked like gangbusters in one market, but flopped in another. A lot of advertising and marketing works the same way. I have made good business deals with a “cheesy” one-page sales letter site that a lot of people said would never work. But it did work well for my target market. But the same site would fail miserable if my target market was large corporations.

#2 Admit mistakes and move on. Now, I split test a lot of the web sites and ads I do (if I can). And when one wins, I ditch the loser and test some more. But sometimes a campaign just doesn't work. Rather than feel bad and guilty about it, it's best to admit when it's not working and move on to something else.

I actually knew better than to take that card to those types of meetings. But sometimes we do things against our better judgment. We just gotta know when to stop.

So, I’m holding a memorial service for my cheesy business card this evening. If you hear the sound of taps being played tonight, you know where it's coming from.

To Your Continued Success,

Carlon Haas

P.S. I wanted to thank all of you who were on the teleseminar I did with Steve Harper.
I appreciate you giving up an hour of your time for the call.



2 comments:

Pete Monfre said...

Have I seen this card? C'mon Carlon - I want to see the train wreck!

Pete Monfre said...

Oh, and how about a link to my blog on your blog and vice versa?