As some of you may have noticed, it has been quite some time since I posted here on the blog.

No, this isn’t the end of me as a marketing professional. Just an end to the BizWarrior brand.

I have been working on some exciting new things, and the first is a new brand and new company.

Due to the negative connotations of warlike language, as well as people not fully understanding what a “BizWarrior” was, I have decided to change the brand completely. New brand, new look, new blog and website.

So, please check out the new site, Marketing 2.0. While you are there, subscribe to the VIP List to get $286.82 worth of amazing bonuses.  There is a  link there so you can follow me via RSS feeds, email, or various social media.

I will see you there!

This is Brent Allan, the Marketer formerly known as “The BizWarrior”, signing off.

You probably would not embark on a journey unless you knew your destination, right? (Unless you were feeling frivolous and just wanted to see where you ended up.) So why would you undertake a marketing campaign in your business without knowing exactly what you wish to accomplish? Yet that is what I see so many people doing.

I recommend setting SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for goal-setting that has been around forever. Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if I learned that it was created by Moses himself. Each part of the SMART formula is very important, and I see many people disappointed because they deviate from the formula.

Oh, and before I go into the actual formula, let me add just one thing. It isn’t enough to just think about your goals. You absolutely must, must, MUST right them down and post them someplace prominent where you can see them every day. That let’s you keep your eye on the prize and not get side-tracked. (Before you argue, remember that I am an entrepreneur with ADD. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t get side-tracked.)

S - Specific

When I sit down with a client, I often ask to see their goals. Then I see things like “Improve overall business in 2010.” This is not a specific goal. It is not specific in the type of business, nor is it specific in the quantity.

If I ran a coffee shop, my specific goal could be “Improve sales of baked goods by 10%, which equals an additional $3,194 in sales yearly.” This talks about exactly what you want to sell more of (baked goods) and by how much (10% = $3,194.)

M - Measurable

A smart goal has to have a way of measuring success. This also goes back to the last example. If I had just said I wanted to increase sales of baked goods by 10%, what does that mean? 10% isn’t measurable without doing more math, but $3,194 in new sales is easy to measure.

Or you may want to measure the number of new contacts you make from your networking. A non-smart goal may say “Make more contacts in the insurance industry at networking events”, but that isn’t really easily measurable. However, a goal of “Make 1 new insurance contact at each networking event I go to” is measurable.

A - Attainable

You have to make sure that you can actually reach your goal. You don’t want to be spinning your wheels, working your tail off for something you can never actually accomplish.

“I want to become President of the United States before age 28″ is not attainable, due to laws prohibiting it. However, if the White House was your ultimate goal, then a smaller step like “Become a Junior Senator by age 28″ may be an attainable goal.

R - Realistic

Realistic goals are goals that your are willing and able to go after. Sometimes people ask me what the difference is between Realistic and Attainable. An unattainable goal is something that is simply not possible, whereas an unrealistic goal may be theoretically possible, but you may not be willing to go after it.

For example, if someone trains 10 hours a day and becomes singularly focused on becoming as good at possible at a sport, one can make the Olympic team. That is a realistic goal. However, it is not realistic if you are unwilling to train and watch your diet because you also want to set the world record for most bags of potato chips eaten in a 3 month period.

Recently, I had one associate of mine set a goal which was a complete shot in the dark. She had an action and her goal was to acquire X number of new clients from this action. The problem was that there was no evidence to suggest that it would produce such results. The action she is taking tends to generate about 1%-5% response. However, her goal had her at over 11% response in order to succeed. That is why it is important to think about your goals and make sure they are realistic.

So when setting a smart goal, make sure that it is a goal that is both possible to achieve and that you are willing to do the work to accomplish.

T- Timely

A goal without a time limit is not a goal at all. I recommend setting yearly goals, as well as possibly quarterly goals. In the examples I have given in this posting, many of the goals were indeed timely, if ultimately not smart goals.

The coffee shop wanted to sell 10% more in a year.

The networker wanted to make a new contact in the span of each networking event.

The ambitious politician wanted to achieve a specific office by age 28.

Every smart goal you set has to have a deadline at which point you can check and see if you were successful in achieving it.

Be ambitious.

If you set smart goals and find yourself easily accomplishing them, it means you aren’t aiming high enough. You need to push yourself. Shorten the time frame or strive for more measurable results. I will freely admit that I do NOT achieve all of my goals each year. I do succeed at some, but things sometimes happen to make a certain goal unrealistic later on, or I simply fall short.

When this happens, I don’t beat myself up. I evaluate the goal and figure out why I fell short, and then I revise the goal and try again. Smart goals are not a box to constrain you, but rather a road map to guide you. When I am faced with a new opportunity or decision, I look at my goals and evaluate whether the new opportunity or decision will bring me closer or farther from my goals. Or, it may get me to decide on a new goal which takes precedence over my other goals. Either way, I have solid criteria by which to evaluate things and guide my business and life.

I hope you found this post to be helpful. I will revisit all of this again in a few months and we can set our goals for the coming year together.

What am I talking about?

There is a hot sauce called “The Source” that is ridiculously wicked, and also ridiculously expensive. A one ounce bottle goes upwards of $80 - $100. It is ridiculously hot to the point that it hurts, does not have a pleasant taste, and, as I mentioned, very expensive.

So why does it sell? Because stupid people like me and my buddy Vinny want to try it.

How brutal is this stuff?

Typically, the “heat” from food is measured in Scoville Units (SU). To give some examples, a jalapeno pepper rates at about 2500 SU. A habanero, considered to be among the hottest peppers in the world, comes in at about 300,000 SU. Up until now, the hottest sauce I had tried was about 150,000 SU. But “The Source” rates at 7.1 MILLION Scoville Units. That’s right, about 20 TIMES the heat rating of a habanero.

I can only guess that it is called “The Source” because it is the source of all pain and evil in the world. Upon eating some, you turn bright red, flames shoot from your face, and you basically transform into Satan.

Let’s go over the typical timeline of the reaction to this stuff. Mine was pretty similar to what Vinny and his other friends have experienced.

First, you try it. In my case, it was a droplet on a portion of taco. As you chew, the flavor sinks in, and tastes kind of like hot dirt mixed with motor oil.

Within about 10 second, your tongue starts burning, and your body temperature rises about 900 degrees. As I was sitting there, a single bead of sweat dripped right down my face and off the tip of my nose. And I am not the type of guy that sweats a lot.

The victim then begins rocking slightly in his chair, as if the sauce brings on temporary autism.

Around this time, people are asking you if you are alright. You get up from your seat and begin pacing, holding out your hand to shut them all up because you cannot speak, but you do not want anyone to speak right now because you have just been plunged into a personal hell of fiery pain, and any sound at all makes you want to fly into a murderous rage.

You now make a mad dive for the milk or whatever heat quencher you have previously prepared, only to find it does nothing. I am guessing this is because anything liquid immediately vaporizes the second it comes in contact with your tongue. In response, your body begins convulsing, and you wish you would die.

This is the point where I began shoving huge spoonfuls of ice cream into my mouth. This is also how I know the actual temperature in my mouth was elevated, because the ice cream was melting and liquifying instantly as soon as I closed my mouth.

After about 10 minutes, the pain started to subdue. I think it was 10 minutes. During that time, I felt as if 7 weeks had passed. For the next hour, although I wasn’t in agonizing pain, I did feel as if my tongue and mouth were glowing with neon light in a sort of tingly feeling.

Which brings us back to the original purpose of this post. Why would someone willingly go through such agony and despair, much less pay a decent sum of money to do so?

Bragging rights. Exclusivity. To be able to say you did it and lived. I am guessing that the main purchaser of this sauce is a male between the ages of 21 - 40. That is the grouping that would actually feel it worthwhile to try it out, and would potentially have the disposable income for a frivolous purchase such as this.

If you can develop a product or experience that is so unique, then you can have a niche market that will be interested. At the cost of this product, the profit margin must be incredible, and hence they do not need to sell very much of it to be profitable.

Such a unique experience generates buzz and is viral. Here I am telling you about my experience, along with anyone else who will listen. I know several other stupid people who would probably want to try this stuff as well. Buzz generates interest, interest generates sales. The perfect marketing formula.

Now for me, this was a big leap. Up until now, all of my machines had been running on XP. I have always been several years behind the technology curve. In fact, I just recently got my first smart phone. (Which happens to be an iPhone 3GS, which is already obsolete. But I digress.)

The other day, I happened to Tweet on Twitter that I liked the new “Snap” feature on Windows 7. I just put it out there, and thought nothing more about it.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning I had a response from @MSWindows commenting about how they were glad I like the feature and asking if I had tried any of the other new features.

Obviously, they have someone monitoring social media and websites for various mentions. But it still stood out to me that such a huge Goliath like Microsoft would have someone contact me on their behalf.

When someone comments about your product, do you engage them in a dialogue? Do you make them feel special? Why not?

Warning: This is the rant.

I am getting so sick of people whining and complaining about their jobs, about the economy, about their in-laws, about the government, etc. etc.  People don’t think about the blessings they have. We forget that we have our health, our families, a roof over our heads. We forget that there are people in parts of the world where life is a daily struggle just to get clean water, where a pair of shoes is considered a luxury.

This is my solution.

I am going to try to make a conscious effort to keep a positive attitude. To realize that any day I wake up alive, that it is better than the day before.

When someone asks me how I am doing, that is what I will tell them. And I will believe it. And perhaps they will come to believe it for themselves, too.

Now, even if I was dying for some lemonade at that point, I would have to turn my car around, go find the stand, get out on a hot day, for lemonade that could be questionable quality. Doesn’t really seem appealing, so I drive on.

But what if they did something to truly make themselves stand out? What if their sign said “Best Lemonade in the State. Curbside Service. Satisfyingly Refreshing, or Your Money back!”?

Now that might intrigue me enough to pull over. Best lemonade in the state, and they will bring it to my car window? That could be worth checking out. It certainly would make them stand out. And really, who is going to ask for a refund and make some kid cry over a quarter?

There are parallels to be drawn here that can be applied to real life. So many businesses market by putting out ads (the equivalent of the lemonade sign) and hope someone is going to come do business with them.

Their ad has no compelling reason to draw them in. They just want people to see the ad and be magically transformed into a customer yearning for their product.

Ain’t gonna happen, folks.

Are you just running a lemonade stand instead of a business?

OK, now for the purpose of this post. Many people have seen the Old Spice commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa, the dark, shirtless man who does amazing things.

In the wake of the most recent of these commercials (you can view it here), social media has been abuzz about it. So, in a pure stroke of genius, Old Spice has produced individual, personalized videos that address some of the comments and questions that have come about in response to their commercials.

In these videos, Mr. Mustafa continues his amazing manliness as he addresses questions, concerns, and requests.

This, my friends, is the true spirit of social media.

Old Spice could have auto-tweeted some lame form responses, or sent out calls to “like” their fan pages and follow them on this or that social media platform. Instead, they utilized what is arguably still the most popular social media platform (Youtube) to engage people individually.

Such engagement is the true strength of social media, and how it can be utilized for truly remarkable results.

By responding to high-profile users such as Perez Hilton, Ellen Degeneres, and Alyssa Milano, Old Spice has essentially guaranteed that the word will spread and they will get plenty of views for their videos. Essentially, they are getting viewers to take their own time to log onto the Internet to view several commercials. And I don’t mean just a few. In the first 24 hours of Old Spice posting the video response to Alyssa Milano, the video has had over 77,000 views. And they continue to crank them out.

To see them, just do a search for Old Spice on Youtube. But, to get you started, here is one of my favorites of the ones I have seen.

“I went with your competitor because they were cheaper.”

It gets into your head. You start to figure out ways to lower your prices. You cut your profits to the barest minimum to try to win business, and then someone comes out with a loss leader, where they lose money on the deal just to get the customer.

What’s a business supposed to do?

For starters, you need to change your thinking. People have been brainwashed to think that consumers only look for the lowest price. Although that may occasionally be true, it is often not the case.

Furthermore, those are not the kind of clients you want. If you get their business based solely on price, then they will have no loyalty to you and will leave you for a lower price somewhere else.

The key to success is to go for those clients who will pay you a premium price for the value you offer, and will be loyal.

Every business pays a price to acquire a customer. Most small business do not know what that cost is. That is a discussion for another time.

However, once the customer is yours, you can hold on to them and get more business from them at little cost or effort, as long as you provide value and a positive experience.

Thus, by providing value to your clients and providing a good experience, you can greatly increase the lifetime value of that customer. That is the mindset you must have to win at this game.

After the sale, you have to follow up with your clients. Let them know that they are important to you. Give them extra value that they didn’t expect, such as information on how best to maintain the product they bought, or other ways to use it, or something else. The key is that it has to be a gift, not some sales pitch for another product or service.

Once a consumer gives you their business, all you have to do is overdeliver, and they will do more business with you, tell their friends, and you won’t have to worry about being the “low-cost leader.”

The other day, I had an interesting experience. When you read it, you may think it is trivial. But for me, it was profound. It almost felt like one of those scenes in a cartoon where there is a little devil on your shoulder, and a tiny angel on the other, with each trying to influence you.

I went through the drive-thru of a fast food place, and the guy at the window gave me 80 cents in change, when I was only supposed to get 20 cents.

My first thought was “Sweet. Bonus money. Your mistake, dude.”

My second thought was “Umm . . . this is kind of like stealing.”

Third thought, “Hey, it was their mistake. They pay. Besides, it’s only 60 cents.”

Ultimately, I realized that if I kept the money, I would be basically selling out my morals for 60 cents.

Some of you may be thinking “Psh. I wouldn’t sell out for 60 cents.”

What if it was 60 dollars?

Or 600 dollars?

The bottom line is this. To be a great business person, you need to decide RIGHT NOW that you will not compromise your morals for any amount. By deciding now, before you are in a situation like I was in, then you don’t have to make a decision. You just need to act upon a decision you already made.

I had made that decision before. So those thought processes I told you about went by in about .012 seconds. I just had to remember that I had already decided to always behave according to my ethical beliefs.

Yes, I gave the 60 cents back.

Ah, you silly, tricksy Facebook. Messing with privacy features again, and now look what happened?

Apparently, earlier this morning, there was a glitch during one of Facebook’s updates which allowed users to exploit a loophole and read the private chats of their friends. You can read the article on Forbes.com.

Even cooler, here is a video of the bug in action.

I do believe that social media can be a great tool for business, but this just proves that it is not a good idea to go around friending and fanning and liking everybody in the universe.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the Internet is growing less and less secure all the time. This snafu with Facebook proves that point with stark clarity.

If you absolutely must discuss sensitive information over the Internet, I recommend using an actual chat client, rather than something that happens to have chat added on as an additional feature. I myself use Skype, which has had questions about their security, but I am unaware of any actual security breakdowns as we have seen with Facebook. Plus, it supports video conferencing, which I feel adds a bit of a personal touch to the interaction.

The bottom line, however, is that if the information truly is very private, like bank account numbers, information that is regulated by things like HIPAA, or anything that really should not be available to anyone else, then DON’T USE THE INTERNET!! It isn’t secure. Don’t even use e-mail. Such things should happen live or at the very least over the phone.