we must have a high pain threshold

The pain isn’t enough to make the switch

About every week someone calls us “on behalf of AT&T” to try to give us a better deal. We just hang up on them. Why? Because it’s painful. They’re third party resellers, and their “deals” are almost as confusing as the those from AT&T. Why AT&T seems to be actively supporting them, I have no idea. …

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No one gets the toxic title until it becomes a pattern

Taming the toxic client

In my last two articles, I discussed iDiz Inc’s perspective on Building the ideal credit union marketer and Helping the not-so-ideal credit union marketer. Now it’s time to dish up some dirt! With some people, it’s almost impossible to develop a productive business relationship. I’m sorry to say we’ve encountered all the red flags below,…

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marketers who get the best results have a lot in common.

Building the ideal credit union marketer

Over the years, I’ve noticed that our most successful clients — the credit union marketers who get the best results and make this job a lot of fun — have a lot in common. In fact, several years back, I started compiling a list of traits for our ideal client as a way to define…

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let's all agree to keep emails short, and maybe a little less sweet, so that we can get a lot more done.

Re:Re:Fw:Re: = 13 weeks of email every year

How much time do you spend on email? I know, that’s an odd question from a blog post that you may have clicked on because of an email. According to one study, we spend 28 percent of our time in the office on email. Sound about right to you? I can certainly believe that I…

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all too often, we're defining and then solving the wrong problem, not the real problem.

Solve the right problems

One of the first things you learn as an aspiring engineer is that if you first carefully define a problem, you’re halfway to solving it.* But all too often, we’re defining and then solving the wrong problem, not the real problem. For example, try bringing a decent sized bottle of shampoo onto an airplane –…

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Now, granted, Lending grumbling and complaining about Marketing is just part of their natural character.

What to do when Lending starts grumbling

Every credit union needs loans. So the CFO rattles Marketing’s chains. Concepts are dreamed, visuals created, goals and ROI plotted and blessed by the executive team, then marketing starts working its mojo and gets it out the door. That’s when the grumbling starts. And Marketing starts grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Because the grumbling is…

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Does your management team think of marketing as an asset or as overhead?

The hard part is showing your work

Coming up with creative ideas is the easy part. Well, okay, at least kind of easy when it’s your job to come up with ideas and you do it on a daily basis. You train your mind to make connections that aren’t obvious, think of words that combine into something visual, and visuals that connect…

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Credit unions should be making all our lives just a little less annoying.

This stuff really annoys me

Instead of looking at the big picture – the country’s economic problems, global warming, and what to get your brother-in-law for Christmas – the folks at Consumer Reports decided to do a survey about what annoys each of us the most. They presented people with a list of 21 items that they were then asked…

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A one-size-fits-all approach is like using a sledge hammer on a gnat.

Labels sometimes stick too well

The human mind needs to be able to classify items in order to be able to make sense of them. So we identify everything we run across, slap labels on it, then stick it away in a memory bank, ready for recall at some point in the future. Demographics in marketing are no different. We…

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