Dear CMO:

Just a “post-it” today, but an important one. Here’s 10 plus 1 on how to maximize your returns on integrated marketing campaigns by working smarter.

1. Gifts are always more valuable than rewards. Ask yourself what you can do for your target before you look for ways to profit from them. Can you give them something that may cost you very little (or nothing!) but that is valuable to them? Reports, analyses, and tools all fit the bill.

2. Can you save them time by bringing their attention to something they might have missed?

3. We do business with people like us: ask yourself, do you speak their language? Do you understand their vocabulary? Do you act like they do?

4. We don’t like being interrupted: ask yourself, do you understand their timing – when they make decisions, how they make decisions, when they set their planogram, and when they’re extremely busy and don’t want to talk to you?

5. How can you help prospects understand that they’d be in good company by choosing you? How many testimonials – case studies on paper, current clients willing to act as live references, or opportunities to mix current and prospective customers in one place – do you have?

6. Who is willing to speak on your behalf? How can you use – and re-use – public relations, analyst reports, editorials, or other authoritative opportunities?

7. You get the respect you demand, so in the absence of thought leadership, provide thought leadership. Someone’s got to do it.

8. Small steps lead to great things. You don’t need to land them in one fell swoop. Each step builds a consistent pattern of behavior. Once they download your white paper, attend your webinar, or wear your T-shirt, they’ve made a commitment. Maybe a small one, but one you can build on.

9. If an ignoramus is someone who didn’t know what you learned five minutes ago, tell them something their friends won’t learn for another five minutes. Information is not like wine. It’s like caviar. Great when fresh, not so great when aged.

10. Competition makes people sharp, so let them know that your offer, the seats at your event, and the number of free subscriptions is not limited by time, but by action. While nobody likes to be pressured, they like being out-hustled even less.

11. An extra: you can control how anyone perceives anything, so long as you control what they hear first. So set your frame of reference up front. Is a yearly subscription to a partial ownership of a Falcon jet expensive? Not compared to the cost of two dozen first class tickets, plus hotels, plus airport time, plus plus plus. Is your solution expensive? Compared to what?

Regards.