Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
By Jim Lyons, Professor at the University of Phoenix
Lately, I’ve been working on a LinkedIn project assigned to me by our local campus of the University of Phoenix. And in taking it on, I’ve repeatedly been reminded of the “marketing basics” which I profess, literally, at the very same institution. I’m finding that with social media projects, like any other marketing-related activity, time-honored practices—such as focusing on a well-defined marketing strategy with clear objectives, clearly identifying a target market, and committing to a plan over a reasonable time period—are as relevant as ever.
By way of a little background, the local campus staff had asked me to shore up the LinkedIn group we’d started a couple of years back, and which like so many other social media attempts had gone somewhat stagnant after a fast start. This interest fit nicely with my personal ambition to help give our faculty a better feeling of connectedness—getting to know each other better as both undergrad- and graduate-level instructors (all part-timers), as well as members of the much broader professional community where we each pursue our very diverse “day jobs.” My vision was to make the LinkedIn group a virtual “faculty office building,” where we could get to know each other and collaborate in the virtual world, something that the University of Phoenix knows very well, at least from an online education standpoint.
There, too, was an interest within the client organization of making the group a discussion forum to be joined by at least the more engaged students, as well as alums and even “friends” of the university, including local business and community leaders. Also, it could perhaps become somewhat of a job-seekers forum as well. It didn’t stop there, either, and with this growing set of objectives, I started to feel overwhelmed.
Focus
As I began to think about implementation, I went back to good, sound marketing fundamentals. And when it came to defining the product/service I was enhancing, I had to ask myself a key question: “Who is the target market?” Obviously, the answer to the question had quickly become “many groups.” The next question then became: “Can I successfully serve this many masters?” (The answer to this question is invariably on the negative side of the scale, at least when put to the reality test.)
We are still working on the right approach, but as time goes on, the objective of providing a fun and friendly faculty familiarity/recognition platform seems to be winning out. We may need to launch a new group or sub-group to target another set of objectives/markets, but when has this stopped a good marketer?
Commitment
As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Starting a new business, launching a new product, or kicking off an advertising/PR campaign takes time, too. We have all been there—we get impatient, pull the plug too soon, or get wooed by a newer idea. And in the world of social networking—just like face-to-face, old-fashioned networking—patience is everything.
I’m reminded of my attempt to help a former colleague get his footing after a long period of unemployment by having him as my guest at a meeting of our local entrepreneurs’ networking group. After that first meeting, he thanked me, concluding with something like, “Well, we’ve done that. Let’s see what happens,” (as if based on his six or eight brief introductory conversations, the job offers would start rolling in). Sorry, friend, but networking is a long-term investment, and even in this world, which we often perceive to be all about instant gratification, a commitment to a plan—and sticking to it—is as critical as ever.
Knowing your customer, not trying to do too much, having clear objectives, and exercising patience—just a little of that old-time (marketing) religion!
Posted in Collaboration, Commitment, Community, Focus, Fun, Fundamentals, Jim Lyons, LinkedIn, Marketing, Networking, Relationships, Strategy, Students | Comments Off on “Give Me that Old-Time (Marketing) Religion:” The Importance of Focus and Commitment when Using Social Media
By Berenice Ring, Professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas
Have you noticed how many decisions we need to make nowadays and the amount of details involved in each one? Surely life was much easier in the early 20th century, when consumer staples were sold in bulk and housewives had their goods chosen for them by the shopkeeper, whom they relied on and trusted.
If you wanted to buy a car in 1915, the choice was quite simple. The only automaker was Ford—who had introduced the assembly line—and the options boiled down to one model, the Model T. In 1987, Brazilian consumers could choose automobiles from six makers: Ford, Volkswagen, Fiat, GM, Gurgel, and Toyota. By 2008, 36 car manufacturers offered their vehicles, exponentially increasing our options.
A 1991 supermarket offered 15,000 items; today, in the same store, we find almost 50,000—including 100 types of yogurt and 200 models of mobile phones!
However, abundance of choices does not necessarily mean better decisions. As psychologist and professor Barry Schwartz points out in his wonderful book, The Paradox of Choice, the huge amount of options adds excessive strain to the decision-making process, causing exhaustion and discouragement. Furthermore, making one choice means relinquishing all other options, so that your preferred alternative seems less appealing and even elicits a sense of loss.
Until recently, people counteracted this frustration by consulting other people they trusted. But today, our world has become an ocean of information. For instance, if you’re planning a honeymoon trip to New York City, sites like TripAdvisor will provide complete information on virtually every hotel in the city. For example, if you decide to spend your hard-earned money on a wedding night at The Pierre, the famous hotel featured in several movies, you can read online comments by the site’s user community, ranging from “Great hotel!” to “Disappointing.” It is a huge benefit to get recommendations not only from your travel agent but from people who have stayed there recently. And upon your return, if you invite friends over for dinner, you can visit Epicurious on Facebook to find recipes, or you can search Twitter using the hashtag #recipes to find plentiful tips from users.
Some brands have grasped this new trend and offer their customers a dedicated section for comments and criticism, such as My Kmart and MySears Community. Other sites were specifically founded upon this trend, such as byMK and Polyvore, which allow users to express themselves.
The penetration of social networks today is amazing. A recent survey shows that 90% of respondents know at least one—and on average, four—social network websites. Facebook is the best example, of course, with more than 500 million users and countless communities. And if you want to find customer reviews of New York restaurants, the American site Yelp lists 12,000-plus establishments—not to mention more than 7,000 stores—along with user reviews of dentists, architects, and even surgeons.
As a Nielsen study confirms, “Recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising globally.” The study of 25,000 Internet consumers in 50 countries shows that nine in ten people trust recommendations of people they know, and seven in ten trust online recommendations from strangers.
In this scenario, a good social media strategy can do wonders for a brand in terms engaging its audiences. Can the brand help consumers make better choices or play the role of an early 20th century “shopkeeper” whom its customers trust and rely on? Are brands making the best of this tremendous opportunity?
Posted in Advertising, B2C, Berenice Ring, Choices, Community, Consumer Reviews, Customers, Engagement, Facebook, Ford, Hashtags, Marketing, Networking, Retail, Strategy, Trust, Twitter, Yelp | Comments Off on How Social Networks Help Us Choose
By Michael Brenner, Senior Director of Global Marketing at SAP
The biggest question I get asked on B2B Marketing Insider is about the challenges of sales and marketing alignment. I try to address the big issues in B2B marketing—such as integrated marketing, demand generation, and social media—but somehow, the topic comes back around to the relationship between sales and marketing. And it extends to our colleagues in PR.
I guess this shouldn’t be a huge shocker. I started my career in sales. Then I quickly moved into marketing to follow my frustrations. The alignment problem is what drove me into marketing.
BtoB Magazine recently reported on a Forrester survey that proves the point that this is huge challenge: only 8% of B2B companies say they have tight alignment between sales and marketing. Just 8%. They identify marketing’s long-term view vs. sales’ short-term view as the main reason for this disconnect.
So how can marketing and PR lead our organizations to better alignment with sales? The answer is social media.
A recent survey of 175 CMOs by Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club tells us that 74% of CMOs will tie their social media activities to quantifiable ROI in 2011. While that should help address the timing differences, I think there is more to it.
Today more than ever, marketing sells and sales people are marketing. And we are all communicators—some of us just more highly trained or capable. As Joe Pulizzi recently exclaimed, “Yes, We’re All Media Companies. What Now?” We need the content we produce across our companies to be professional, solve real customer problems, and be easily found.
Along comes social media, causing even more of a collision between sales, marketing, and PR/communications. The reason? We are all trying to align around customers through social channels. Add customer service, support, HR, and operations folks, and we have a real social media cocktail party happening.
Steps towards social alignment:
- Define the goal. Marketing and PR should help lead our organizations to a better total customer experience in alignment with sales, but also across our entire organizations.
- Work together. Social media can help us all get along (better). Marketing and PR should continue to take a leadership role in social media by defining how to best orchestrate social media strategy with sales, customer service, support, and other customer-focused groups across our companies.
- Develop a crisis plan. This is really where PR can take the lead. They have the skills and best practices knowledge, but they also need to partner with marketing, sales, HR, and customer service so that a 360-degree process is identified. As the Kenneth Cole fiasco on Twitter showed us, the crisis can come from anywhere, even within. So get your crisis plan in place today.
- Manage responses. One of the biggest opportunities for companies in social media is to develop a full response plan for inquiries, complaints, and so-called “trolls.” Here is an excellent example of a social triage process that can be used a model. By taking a leadership role in defining how we listen to social conversations and how we will respond, our companies can begin to achieve the true goal of a positive total customer experience.
I believe that by following these steps, we will start to see marketing, sales, PR, and all the functions across our companies become much better friends. And we just might create some new, happy customers along the way.
Posted in Alignment, B2B, Best Practices, BtoB Magazine, CMOs, Content, Conversations, Crisis Management, Customer Experience, Customers, Demand Generation, Engagement, Forrester, HR, Integrated Marketing, Lead Generation, Listening, Marketing, Michael Brenner, Public Relations, Relationships, ROI, Sales, Strategy | Comments Off on How Social Media is Helping Marketing, PR, and Sales Become Better Friends
By Rob Croll, Professor at Full Sail University
Successful organizations know that their customers now “find” them online in many ways, including Google searches, Facebook pages, customer review sites, social shopping sites, and more. Some interesting facts and figures:
- More than 16 billion searches were conducted worldwide during October 2010, according to data from comScore.
- More than 250 million people use Facebook on a daily basis.
- Twitter claims more than 50 million tweets per day.
That’s a lot of online activity, happening in a lot of different places. For organizations trying to maximize their effectiveness, it can be difficult to prioritize. Factor in limited budgets, and it’s easy to fall into either/or arguments, particularly regarding search and social marketing.
The arguments for search engine optimization (SEO) typically include that it’s often more targeted, that searchers are actively “looking,” and that traffic from search frequently converts better. The arguments for social media marketing typically include that it’s better at building longer-term relationships with customers, that it gives you more control since it’s not reliant on search engine algorithms, and that the social aspect allows for customers to engage with and evangelize brands.
However, any argument over which is better—search or social media—fails to consider the inherently symbiotic relationship between the two. In today’s world, focusing on one to the exclusion of the other is folly for most organizations. Of course, the relative merits of each differ depending on the goals of the organization and, more importantly, the objectives of the web user.
In a post called Comparing SEO and Social Media as Marketing Channels, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz noted that “search is an intent-driven activity. We don’t search casually (much), we search to find answers, information, and goods and services to consume.” Visitors who arrive at a site from a search engine are specifically looking for something. Generally (though not always), these searchers are further along in the purchase decision-making process and thus potentially more valuable, at least in the short term.
Social media marketing, however, brings potential customers of a different type. These visitors expect more dynamic content and more opportunities to engage and interact. Even if they don’t have an immediate intent to purchase, these potential customers represent a longer-term opportunity for organizations. If they feel positively about your brand, they may share that enthusiasm within their own circle of influence, expanding the reach of your marketing activities. Building a relationship with them also greatly enhances the likelihood that they will do business with you in the future. For example, studies show that individuals who have been exposed to a brand message in social media are more likely to click on an organic search listing for that organization.
Finally, consider that results from a searcher’s social graph now appear in the search engine results directly. These social results typically include an image, which increases the likelihood that they’ll be clicked. In an article on Search Engine Journal, Bill Sebald gives an anecdotal example of getting search engine traffic for keywords for which his blog didn’t organically rank well. That traffic was being driven by what he calls “the eleventh listing”—the “results from people in your social circle” on Google.
It’s clear that the relationship between search and social will continue to grow in the future. Search engines have been seeking to incorporate more social signals for some time now, and the momentum shows no signs of slowing. With advances in technology and shifts in consumer behavior, it’s time for marketers to look at search and social media as two critical—and inherently interrelated—components of their overall efforts.
Posted in Branding, Engagement, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Relationships, Rob Croll, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Shopping, Targeting, Twitter | Comments Off on Search Engine Optimization Versus Social Media Marketing: A Battle that Doesn’t Need to Be Fought
By Marian Burk Wood, Author of The Marketing Plan Handbook
Before you roll out a new social media marketing program, be ready to answer one key question about results: are we there yet? Here’s a roadmap for tuning up your metrics so you’ll know where you’re headed and how to track progress along the way.
Look Ahead, Look Behind
Just as your GPS needs a street address to plot a route, you need three types of specific objectives to serve as destinations for your social media activities:
- Marketing objectives for brand building and relationship building (such as targets for brand awareness or customer acquisition). Ford’s campaign for the new Fiesta—initially a social media event reinforced by traditional media—set (and achieved) objectives for brand impressions and awareness as well as pre-launch information requests. In the follow-up to P&G’s super-viral Old Spice Guy campaign, one marketing objective was to attract a million Facebook fans to the brand’s social media “sacred club,” part of the push to increase brand awareness and change consumer attitudes.
- Financial objectives for money-related results (such as sales and profitability—by channel, by customer, etc.). QVC can set sales objectives for sales driven from its Facebook page (which has 300,000-plus “likes”) and its Twitter presence (more than 30,000 followers), track repeat business, and calculate profit by product and channel.
- Societal objectives that give your social media marketing a larger purpose (such as raising money for a worthy cause). P&G’s Dawn relied on the brand’s Facebook and Twitter interactions to get customers involved in achieving its target of donating $500,000 to wildlife conservation organizations.
And to steer clear of potholes, don’t forget to check the rearview mirror—learn from how and why existing programs hit bumpy roads in the past.
Prepare to Shift into High Gear
With objectives in place, your next step is to set up standards and a timetable for checking these metrics:
- Compass points. Are you going in the right direction? For marketing objectives related to brand awareness or preference, metrics such as the number of Facebook “likes” and the number of positive blog comments can give you a sense of whether you’re gaining ground, standing still, or going south. QVC, for instance, regularly monitors the number and sentiment of comments on each blog post, promotional tweet, and Facebook post. Bounce rates, referral rates, and engagement duration are other compass points; think of indicators that make sense for your objectives and business.
- Mile markers. You should be able to estimate how far along you need to be at various points in the journey so you can make interim adjustments as needed. For example, are you attracting and converting enough visitors every day/week/month to reach your long-term targets? Check these metrics early and often to avoid nasty last-minute surprises. QVC drills down into its sales statistics—sometimes minute by minute—to determine whether each product or promotion is on the right track and make mid-course corrections as necessary.
- Speed. How quickly are you moving toward your destination? Look at viral rates for your communications to analyze how quickly you’re gaining new friends, subscribers, or customers (depending on your objectives), and investigate unusual lags or patterns in response to social media initiatives. If something is working especially well, use it to accelerate your results.
Now you’re all set to hit the road and put the pedal to the metal!
Posted in Awareness, Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Channels, Engagement, Facebook, Ford, Marian Burk Wood, Marketing, Measurement, Metrics, Profitability, Promotions, Relationships, Sales, Twitter | Comments Off on Are We There Yet? Tuning Up Your Metrics
By Allen Fuqua, Chief Marketing Officer at Winstead
Nat Slavin, founder and President of Wicker Park Group, is fond of saying that in today’s market, “one size fits one.” He’s right. For marketers and business developers in the B2B space, this must become the mantra for strategy and tactical execution.
Though many professionals see this as a burden, the reality is much more positive. For those of us willing to engage individuals on their own terms and with genuine interest in their issues and challenges, then the relationship process becomes an easy game.
But in order for “one size fits one” to be sustainable and scalable, it must be built into a go-to-market strategy and the appropriate corresponding programs. These must allow the organization to focus on listening, gathering client feedback, and then responding in a personalized manner. This isn’t new and really isn’t that difficult if you build the appropriate tool set. Here’s an example.
About 30 years ago, I was involved in a community outreach to a target market of some 150,000 people. Our objective was to engage people in a manner where they could obtain personal support from a small community group, investigate ways to build a better life and relationships, and work through any outlier personal problems. Yeah, pretty soft, personal, and “none of your business”-type stuff.
So how did we engage with a large target market in a personal way? We built communication platforms that allowed people to choose where and how they would access information and engagement. It looked like this:
- We ran one-minute radio spots regularly on local stations with messages that inspired listeners to consider some aspect of their lives and relationships. Each spot had a way to connect with us if the person so desired. (Today, this might be a blog.)
- We ran ads in the local newspaper that highlighted the issues we tried to address and provided a response option. (Online ads on targeted sites.)
- We developed community events with speakers addressing very specific issues our target audience might be dealing with. These were publicized with ads and public notices. (Webinars, meetups, etc.)
- We operated (here’s a time stamp for you) a “code-a-phone” number (for those of you under 45, a code-a-phone is a telephone answering machine which plays a message to anyone who calls that number) that ran a different helpful spot (much like the radio spots) on a daily basis and provided a response option. (Twitter.)
- We operated a storefront, street-level office in the central downtown business district. People could access professional counseling and materials or enroll in a community group. (Surely you can make the connection here.)
- We organized and facilitated community groups (10 to 12 people per group) that met in people’s homes and had audio/tutorial group materials and a trained facilitator. These groups provided an environment for people to explore any number of issues while building a small functioning community. (User groups, interest groups, etc.)
I share this with you so you can see what a continuum of social marketing options might look like. The point of this continuum is to allow each of our target audience members to choose where and how they are comfortable interacting with content and people. Those who are marginally interested or shy can listen to radio spots or call a phone number to hear a message. For those who are ready to interact publicly, there are seminars. For those who want to talk to someone personally, there is a storefront to access specific expertise. I think you get the idea.
Well, that’s also how personalization works in social media. We plan a continuum of access points and build in response capabilities at each point—based on the interest represented by the target’s actions. No one pushes except our target client. The client determines the context, the content, and the interaction. We give him/her options and are always at the ready, no matter what level of interaction they are comfortable with.
Build your social marketing capability with a continuum of access points and content. That will allow you to listen and your target to fit it to themselves.
Posted in Allen Fuqua, B2B, Community, Content, Engagement, Events, Interaction, Marketing, Relationships, Scalability, Strategy, Sustainability | Comments Off on Social Marketing: Building a Continuum of Access Points
By Ed Lallo, Principal at Newsroom Ink
Google your company’s name and see what comes up. Do the stories at the top of the search results reflect the business you’re running? If not, why not? Maybe it’s because your company has a better story to tell than is currently being told.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have changed the playing field for integrated marketing communications. What has not changed is the need for companies, organizations, and even politicians to communicate their stories from a unique perspective that only they can offer.
Social-integrated marketing communications offers an ever-increasing amount of tools to connect with targeted markets, but what has been lacking is a centralized content engine that drives conversation and integrates the elements of the promotional mix of advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and sales.
The online newsroom is the factory that runs a brand’s content engine. It’s the place to address brand issues, public relations, crisis management, marketing, and communications—all aligned with the CEO’s agenda. It’s the one place that consumers, vendors, and employees—as well as local, national, and international media—can obtain stories, photos, and videos told from your unique perspective, 24 hours per day.
But an online newsroom can be much more than just a newsroom. It can become the “landing site” for the social media efforts of companies, organizations, and political campaigns. The online newsroom translates your corporate agenda into a compelling story that the press, your customers, employees, vendors, and stakeholders want to read, learn more about, believe in, and contribute to on a regular basis. Using a proven model that delivers timely and influential news, the newsroom becomes an indispensable tool for a brand’s communications program.
A recent study of online newsrooms by the Corporate Executive Board—a member network of the world’s leading executives that spans more than 50 countries and represents more than 85% of Fortune 500 corporations—showed online newsrooms to be the top channel for disseminating information and effectively telling a company’s story.
Dynamic online newsrooms are not about pushing the company agenda from the top down, but instead letting the voices of others tell your story in a way that increases the credibility of your company’s brand. This “corporate journalism” style adds balance and influence and gives your brand a unique distinction.
With cutbacks in budgets, staff, and resources, print, broadcast, and digital media have turned to online newsrooms to obtain information and story ideas. According to the 2009 Journalist Survey on Media Relations Practices conducted by online public relations site Bulldog Reporter, “Public relations practitioners should shift their energies to online newsrooms, blogs, and social media,” and “journalists’ usage of these technologies continues to increase.”
Most importantly, online newsroom results are measurable. A recent study for the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board by Cision, a leading media tracking firm, found that for a three-month period, media exposure of Louisiana had reached an estimated audience of more than 3.4 billion in the United States. The Board used the online newsroom as the content engine, supported by traditional PR, Twitter, and Facebook.
Turning the online newsroom into a landing site for social media creates a centralized place to openly engage audiences, tell your brand’s many stories, and paint a picture of the uniqueness of your organization. It is like inviting someone into your house so they can see everything at a glance, and at the same time, putting the CEO’s agenda in the middle of the news.
Posted in Advertising, Blogs, Branding, Content, Crisis Management, Ed Lallo, Engagement, Exclusive Content, Facebook, Google, Integrated Marketing, Journalism, Marketing, Measurement, Newsroom, Photos, Public Relations, Sales, Tools, Twitter, Video, YouTube | Comments Off on The Online Newsroom: The Factory that Runs a Brand’s Content Engine
By Dr. Don Roy, Professor at Middle Tennessee State University
The use of social media to develop customer relationships can be compared to interactions with co-workers at an office party. Many of your co-workers may be relative strangers in that you may know their names and perhaps even the names of their significant others and children, but the relationships lack depth. Conversations outside the usual environment of the relationships allow for a greater quantity and quality of communication. Similarly, social media can humanize the faceless, impersonal image of a brand, becoming more of a friend or trusted advisor to a customer than a business that exists to sell things.
The potential impact of social media on customer relationships with a brand calls for measuring engagement, not exposure. Yet many managers look to measures of reach to quantify social media’s impact on brand building. Let’s consider the sports industry as an example. Sports properties are driven by reach measures such as ticket sales and TV ratings. Extending that mindset to the digital marketing space, the reach of a sports brand in terms of followers or friends on social networks is used as evidence of brand power.
A measure developed by Coyle Media, known as the Sports Fan Graph, ranks professional and collegiate sports brands according to the number of Twitter followers and Facebook friends. According to the Sports Fan Graph as of December 2010, the NBA was the top-ranked brand, based on the sum of its Twitter followers (just under 2.2 million) and Facebook likes (approximately 7 million). In contrast, the NHL ranked 19th, with a total reach of about 1.7 million (471,000 on Twitter and about 1.2 million on Facebook).
If we are to accept a measure like the Sports Fan Graph, we can conclude that brands with high rankings like the NBA enjoy far greater impact in their social media programs than lower-ranked brands. But not so fast! Measures of social media reach support the hypothesis that strong brands in the offline world are among the most popular digital brands, too. Whether the brand is Starbucks, CNN, Oprah, or Manchester United, success breeds success when it comes to building virtual relationships. But how meaningful are those relationships?
A measure like the Sports Fan Graph is an indicator of popularity, but how well liked a brand is may not be an ideal indicator of what social media efforts can do to build a brand by strengthening customer relationships. Traditional scorekeeping measures may be straightforward to calculate and interpret, and they may also be favored by managers who equate popularity with effectiveness. However, brand building is not based on winning a popularity contest; it is fueled by customers’ willingness to be in a relationship with a brand. Methods for keeping score are needed that link social media to enhancing brand relationships, not counting admirers.
Posted in Branding, Conversations, Customer Experience, Customers, Don Roy, Engagement, Facebook, Marketing, Measurement, Relationships, Sports Marketing, Twitter | Comments Off on Keeping Score in Social Media
By Alan See, Chief Marketing Officer at Berry Network
The prefix “meta” is used to mean about its own category. For example, under the umbrella of business intelligence, you often hear the term “metadata,” which means data concerning data. For purposes of this short post, “metastrategy” could be described as an overarching marketing strategy determining which media strategies to use during various phases of the consumer purchasing process (strategy concerning strategy).
As your customers move through the purchasing process, multiple media channels have the potential to impact their buying decisions and shopping experiences. This makes an integrated marketing strategy more important than ever. There is strategic marketing importance in each phase of the consumer buying process in today’s competitive economy.
In the Berry Network Social-Ready Assessment, we asked respondents: “What level of priority does your company currently assign to social media marketing?” Less than 40 percent of our respondents rated the priority of their social media marketing initiatives as neutral or low. Interestingly, nearly 100 percent of those respondents are SMBs with revenues less than $100 million. Does that mean small businesses are anti-social? I don’t think so, but many are putting off their strategic marketing planning process since nearly all of the neutral and low responders also stated they “haven’t addressed social media related to corporate strategy on either a formal or informal basis.”
Not having a strategy is a dangerous place to be. In fact, in the Forrester report “Benchmarking Social Marketing Plans for 2011,” analyst Sean Corcoran states, “Any company not creating a long-term strategy, setting budgets, allocating resources, or setting policy is already falling behind. Interactive marketers should follow the companies that were brave in social media marketing and implement now rather than wait and learn the hard way.”
The current combination of declining customer satisfaction levels and economic concerns is creating the perfect customer experience storm. In this type of business climate, those companies that focus on an integrated consumer purchasing process will be the ones that come out on top. That means a relentless and coordinated approach to strategic marketing across all media channels has never been more important.
Posted in Alan See, Customer Experience, Customer Retention, Customers, Forrester, Integrated Marketing, Marketing, Metastrategy, Strategy | Comments Off on Using Metastrategy to Amplify Your Media Performance
By Bruce Weinberg and Paul Berger, Professors at Bentley University
Let us express upfront our sincerest apologies for using a somewhat academic voice in this blog post!
“Customer lifetime value” (CLV) is a very important relationship marketing concept. It is the present value of the net cash flows (from all purchases) that an organization expects to receive from a customer over his/her “lifetime.” While the definition is straightforward, the mathematics used in computing it can sometimes get messy and involved (don’t worry, we have PhDs from MIT). Marketers use it to think about customer acquisition and retention (i.e., long lasting relationships), rather than focusing solely on the initial transaction. Indeed, when used effectively, CLV can lead to improved marketing decision making and increased profitability.
We believe that CLV is a mathematical kindred spirit with social media, in that they both can be important mechanisms in relationship marketing. Further, we believe that CLV can work hand-in-hand with social media to satisfy senior management’s thirst for quantitative accountability from social media. With all due respect to Cuba Gooding, Jr., “show me the ROI” has always been the mantra for proof of performance. CLV can absolutely play an important role in not only identifying the value of social media but also in effectively leveraging the value of social media (i.e., helping organizations use it more effectively).
In order to do this, we extend the notion of CLV to incorporate/consider social media and propose the concept of “connected customer lifetime value” (CCLV). CCLV includes not only the present value of the net cash flows from a customer’s purchases over time, but also the present value of the net cash flows from others’ purchases who were influenced (to purchase) by that customer through social media. Just to be clear, we are saying that there are two important components: CCLV = purchases by a customer + purchases by others who were influenced (to purchase) by that customer through social media.
Using CCLV can change dramatically whom marketers value as customers! When using CLV, marketers would target customers based on their expected purchases. Customers who are expected to purchase relatively little over time have relatively little value. However, when using CCLV, these very same customers could have relatively high value to a marketer if—this is the cool part—their influence on others’ purchasing decisions was great (and positive), resulting in substantial volume of purchases (by others). It is conceivable that a customer who makes relatively few purchases could be the most valuable customer to an organization, courtesy of social media and the influence it enables!
We are not saying that this is necessarily typical; although, we know that consumers typically search online for consumer opinions/conversations before making a purchase. The important messages here are that a customer’s economic worth can be based on his/her purchases and on influence through social media, that CCLV can quantitatively show the value of social media, and that CCLV can be used by marketers to leverage social media in making decisions.
Posted in Bruce Weinberg, Customer Lifetime Value, Customers, Marketing, Profitability, Relationship Commerce, Relationship Marketing, ROI | Comments Off on Connecting Customer Lifetime Value with Social Media
By Luis Gallardo, Managing Director of Global Brand & Marketing at Deloitte
The world’s most successful brands go the distance. Beyond logos, colors, and shapes, brands endure over time and geography, attempting to do what no other commodity or service offering before them could do—or better yet, promise.
Brands are expected to perform, and customers expect nothing short of that promise. In fact, one must think holistically about the brand by understanding how multiple stakeholders are interacting, sharing, and perceiving the value of the promise across hundreds of brand touch points around the world. Then, one must get personal by understanding how emerging media and other Web 2.0 communities impact the development and maintenance of meaningful relationships—an emotional bond and distinctive brand experience for customers and stakeholders.
Is your organization capitalizing on emerging media technology as a key brand-enhancing activity to help differentiate it from the competition?
At Deloitte, the largest private professional services organization globally, social media is not just another buzzword. We boldly anticipate the success of social media in helping our people and clients to step ahead in the marketplace. Pragmatic in our approach, we are building on the success of several social media marketing campaigns to continuously grow our brand within the professional services market.
Our recent success with the 2010 Deloitte Fantasy Football engagement program, for example, allowed our 170,000-member firm practitioners, as well as our clients, to highlight their pride in cultural diversity, their love for the game of soccer, and a relentless approach to staying a step ahead of the fantasy competition during every World Cup match game. In addition to being an all-around fun game, Deloitte Fantasy Football was a strategic brand-building initiative that relied heavily on the power of building relationships online via social media channels, peer-to-peer recommendations, and real-time collaboration among colleagues, friends, and clients.
Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, in particular) played an integral role in sustaining the momentum and energy behind the campaign, week after week. In fact, the results of the campaign exceeded our expectations:
- More than 80% of Deloitte member firms actively promoted this event, leveraging unique opportunities for local market fit.
- There was a ten-fold jump from Deloitte Australia’s original 3,000 participant count in 2006 to an impressive 33,848 total number of participants who registered to play the game in more than 160 countries.
- More than 61 percent of the Deloitte workforce participated in the competition, complemented by a respectable level of client participation at 34 percent.
- More than half a million unique online visitors from 162 countries and territories came to the competition site. More than 15 percent of these visitors had not previously visited a Deloitte Web site.
- Each visitor spent an average of 7.38 minutes visiting the Web site—an equivalent of more than 4 million page views.
- The Deloitte Fantasy Football campaign directly impacted our overall social media profile. We grew our official Deloitte Facebook page during that time from a fan base of 2,000 to more than 77,000 active users. Deloitte now has the largest global Facebook presence among its professional services competitors.
- More than 40 Deloitte member firm practitioners from the South African firm acted as “green dot” reporters by blogging about the spirit of the live games.
Deloitte continues to shift perception from being just one of the Big Four to being the market-leading private professional services organization—in a category of one. To help accomplish this goal, Deloitte Fantasy Football (as well as other brand engagement programs) allowed our network of member firms to build on the exciting momentum of the world’s largest sports phenomenon, while exposing stakeholders to a variety of brand messages that appeal to clients and talent. By supporting these relationships in online social media applications such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs, Deloitte continues to break away from the pack.
Using social media as part of the marketing mix, Deloitte is able to authentically embrace the interests of its people and clients in a non-traditional way. From weekly engagement levels provided by Facebook metrics to a whole new database of potential clients, social media is a strategic business driver with the potential to positively impact lead generation, brand reputation, and risk, as well as advancements in thought leadership and new product development.
Posted in Blogs, Branding, Collaboration, Competitors, Customer Experience, Customers, Engagement, Facebook, LinkedIn, Luis Gallardo, Marketing, Relationships, Strategy, Thought Leadership, Twitter, YouTube | Comments Off on Fueling the Social Media Engine: How Building Relationships Online Drives the Growth of Brands
By Barry Libert, Author of Social Nation: How to Harness the Power of Social Media to Attract Customers, Motivate Employees, and Grow Your Business
For as long as anyone can remember, the expression “those who have the gold, rule” has worked. But times are changing. Today, the power is shifting to the masses, and they are using the power of the sheer size and capabilities of the Internet to make sure their voices are heard. And this is making the old guard—existing management teams, boards, and investors—terrified for lots of reasons.
Most companies and their leaders have perfected business processes and competencies focused on making, marketing, and selling “things”—not listening, facilitating, and sharing information and experiences. The skills and technologies (command and control and assembly lines) required for the former are different from those required for the latter (empathy and compassion and social media). However, I think it is time for the old guard to get on board and recognize they have a unique opportunity to participate in the revolution—or risk losing their heads the way Marie Antoinette did.
Understand the Power of Social Media
The unprecedented growth of Facebook (550 million users), Twitter (200 million), bloggers (150 million), and text messaging resulted because there were tremendous unfulfilled demands by customers and employees that were not being met by traditional organizations or tools. These demands were basic: to communicate and connect. Further, the demands were profoundly valuable and important to almost all constituents—to be heard, connected, recognized for their contributions, and ultimately, self-actualized.
Facebook and other social media entities surfaced to satisfy those needs and reap the benefits, along with the organizations that invested in them.
Embrace the Voice of Your Customers and Employees
Most traditional organizations don’t have a team—let alone a senior ranking professional—charged with building their social media initiatives and developing their communities. If we look back just 10 years ago when e-commerce was first taking off, traditional leaders of brick and mortar companies thought that e-commerce was just a passing fad and would only be used for selling technologies. Obviously, they were wrong, and the same is true for social media and community engagement.
We are just at the beginning of a structural shift to the socialization of organizations. It’s important to build your social media team now, so you can join the conversation and hear what your constituents have to say. Don’t let the voices of your customers and employees go unheard.
The Crowd Can Help You Grow and Prosper
Regardless of what you think of your employees, customers, prospects, or alumni, there are more of them than you. Most importantly, you never know where the next great idea will come from, which could include your existing people or people from outside the four walls of your organization (and by extension, your partners). Research has repeatedly shown that crowds have wisdom, expertise, and passion that can help you grow and innovate.
It doesn’t matter how big your company is or how long it has been around. The growing size and popularity of social media signals a seismic shift from institutions and their leaders to individuals and their peers (e.g., communities). It’s time for a new organizational model: “business by the people, for the people” (not by the leaders, for the leaders). Leaders have to learn to become true followers of their constituents (customers, employees, partners, etc.) and join the social media revolution. It’s time to ask yourself if it’s better to be terrified of the masses or to join them and ensure your future success. It’s your choice.
Posted in Barry Libert, Blogs, Crowdsourcing, Customers, E-Commerce, Engagement, Facebook, Innovation, Listening, Marketing, Text Messages, Tools, Twitter | Comments Off on People Have the Power: How Social Media is Changing Business and Why the Old Guard is Terrified
By David Harkleroad, Chief Marketing Officer at Hay Group
I’m re-reading Neil Rackham’s B2B classic, Major Account Sales Strategy. While written in 1989, it is still remarkably relevant—and he would have included a section on social media had it existed at the time!
Neil asked experienced B2B sales professionals about the hardest part of selling, expecting to hear, “getting a consensus of needs when several different people are involved in the decision” or “getting customers to see that the need is urgent enough to justify action.” Surprisingly, they said, “getting in the door in the first place!” He concluded, “if you’re trying to penetrate a new account, the easiest starting point is to find a receptive individual—somebody who’s prepared to listen.”
To find those receptive individuals, B2B firms traditionally rely on business developers—or, as any Mad Men aficionado knows, the Roger Coopers or Pete Campbells—who leverage relationships, cold call, or, in its modern day equivalent, spam (does anyone ever open those?) to get in the door. As an aside, many B2B business leaders confuse these prospecting activities (a one-to-one activity) with marketing (one-to-many), much to all of our chagrin.
Today, social media, as many thoughtful B2B marketing peers have learned, offers real opportunities for marketing success by, in essence, using one-to-many technologies to create one-to-one experiences. To build those connections takes time, creativity, repetition, and the right content—similar to any other marketing approach. The challenge is tweaking that content to raise brand awareness, and more importantly, to create sales leads and conversations. A few simple, cost-effective ways to experiment:
- Make it easy for people to opt in to your content. Listen to what your targets have to say, and create content that both supports your marketing objectives and matters to your online audiences. At the same time, think through a clear call to action for every touchpoint you have online. Offer a clear and simple way to connect for additional information, and track those leads.
- Have a content hub. A blog isn’t realistic for everyone, although that is the ideal. Consider creating a robust microsite as a center for information on a key topic. It’s a nice platform for external audiences but can also effectively rally internal audiences and salespeople. Or, for those without the corporate resources, a social media news release, such as those found at PitchEngine, can house a variety of multimedia content. Whatever the method, offer clear ways to connect or to solicit input.
- Build relationships with bloggers. As Kevin Briody notes in The Very Basics of Blogger Outreach, you must identify the right bloggers—and get to know them. This is the time to roll up your sleeves, because there is no “easy” list. However, there are some sources that can help point you in the right direction: Alltop, Google Blog Search, and Technorati. Once you identify a few key bloggers, look around their sites for any helpful information on blog rolls or lists they might produce themselves, such as this one, which offers a robust community of management and leadership bloggers.
- Engage on Twitter. It’s critical to build your followers before you launch a social media campaign. Adam Holden-Bache provides six useful steps to find your B2B audience on Twitter. Listen for a while. Check to see if your LinkedIn connections are on Twitter. Scan for any customers, prospects, key bloggers, and competitors.
At Hay Group, these efforts have already generated one-to-one meetings with organizations we want to do business with. And our consultants report much more receptivity to meeting requests, which is perhaps the most satisfying result, since it increases their confidence to go open some more doors.
What tactics have worked for you? Please share your successes, so we can all learn.
Posted in Awareness, B2B, Blogs, Competitors, Content, David Harkleroad, Google, Lead Generation, LinkedIn, Marketing, News Releases, Prospecting, Public Relations, Relationships, Sales, Spam, Trackability, Twitter | Comments Off on Using One-to-Many Technologies to Create One-to-One Experiences
By Kenneth Cossin, Professor at Full Sail University
As marketers, we have heard so much about how social media allows us to rapidly build our brand, get the word out regarding our products and services, target different demographics, and optimize consumer engagement. Yet we need to take social marketing to the next level.
Thus, I pose the question: Is your company simply using social media channels to create an online marketing presence, or is it creating social media conversations with your customers?
For example, as a professor at Full Sail University, my students are my customers. I use many different social media channels to get each student to “buy into” my courses. I develop student engagement, but then I also intentionally develop a professional relationship with each individual student. By doing so, each student gains a sense of personal investment in my courses.
Here are my five tips for creating social media conversations with your customers:
1. Your attention, please! Gaining our customer’s attention is pretty simple for us marketers. It is something that we have been doing since before the days of social media. Thus, continue to bring attention to your brand and develop your brand story through your social media channels.
2. Get your customers to opt in. Remember, everyone loves a good story. Therefore, the better your brand tells your business story, the more customers you will get to opt in. Once you have an engaged consumer, it is imperative that you learn what attracted him/her to your business. Traditional marketing methods of gathering metrics on your customers remain important. And with social media, you can discover why a customer is choosing you.
3. Determine your customers’ individuality. Find unique ways to get your customers to tell you how they found you. What about your customers makes them choose you? How are you fulfilling their unique wants and needs? What incentives do you provide to keep your customers engaged?
4. Focus on conversation. Typically, businesses will ask customers a series of questions through the use of impersonal surveys, questionnaires, or cold calls. At this point, many marketers usually stop. With social media, you cannot stop here. You must follow through and build a personal conversation by leveraging social media in new and unique ways. So what are we to do?
5. Develop interaction. Through the use of social media interaction, periodically make intentional contact with your customers. Remember to treat your customer as you would a good friend. We do things for our friends because we care about them; thus, demonstrate to your customers who connect with you through social media that you care about them. Communicate with them. Give them the service they deserve: prompt responses, incentives, and other cool offers. You will receive in return the continued trust and loyalty you need and desire to grow your business.
Posted in Branding, Channels, Conversations, Engagement, Incentives, Individuality, Interaction, Kenneth Cossin, Loyalty, Marketing, Metrics, Relationships, Trust | Comments Off on Five Useful Tips on Developing Social Media Conversations with Your Customers
By Steve Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer of MePlease
To help retailers seize the opportunity afforded by mobile marketing and social networking—or “mocial” marketing—we have come up with the top 10 tips that we believe need to be worked through to position your brand effectively for your new generation of customers.
1. Mobile marketing goes way beyond text. The first tip is that mobile and social media are meshing, and so should you. There is tremendous power in the integration of social networking and mobile, and we think this marketing sweet spot is the place to be.
2. Why mobile matters—stats don’t lie. A recent study showed that UK consumers send 11 million text messages per hour (MDA Report, 2009). Text usage remains dominant. Facebook’s 500 million customers follow at least one brand or company, while at the same time, nearly 50% of Twitter’s 190 million unique users do exactly the same (ExactTarget Research). A Harris Interactive poll recently showed that of consumers who received some form of permission-based text marketing from a company, 34% said the messages have made them more likely to visit the venue and 27% more likely to make a purchase.
3. In search of the holy grail. Moving from one-to-many to one-to-one communication is the holy grail of marketing.
4. Reach everyone (not just smartphone users). iPhone apps are this season’s must have. Or are they? Focusing on just mobile applications for certain devices like iPhone or Android smartphones automatically pushes you into a corner and limits a retailer’s ability to reach its target market.
5. Voucher promiscuity—how to discourage it. There’s a number of high-profile companies—such as Groupon and Vouchercloud—that are driving high-volume customer acquisition. Don’t get it wrong—new customer acquisition is good, but only if a significant number of those customers visit your business again.
6. Mocial is the new buzzword. Many people think of mobile marketing as a 160-character version of e-mail. Wrong! The very nature of mobile marketing offers retailers the opportunity to reach people at key decision-making moments of the day.
7. Make mobile social marketing cost effective. We think the trend is moving away from one-off mobile marketing campaigns (which can be costly) toward mobile marketing platforms that let any business engage with opted-in customers. Look for companies that offer you long-term value and social media integration.
8. Trust. Seek mobile and social networking partners that have strict privacy policies and will not pass on customer information or send out spam messages just to drive their own short-term revenue.
9. Set goals early. Before even approaching a mobile marketing service provider or platform, be sure to outline the key goals for your mocial strategy. Whether it is to gain more loyal customers, influence their friends, or just get more people into your shop, make your objectives clear to the provider. If they cannot tell you explicitly how they intend to help you to accomplish these goals, keep looking.
10. Don’t wait. Start now. Carpe diem! Those Romans knew a thing or two about communication…
Posted in Coupons, E-Mail, Facebook, Marketing, Mobile Applications, Mobile Marketing, Mocial Marketing, Permission Marketing, Retail, Smartphones, Spam, Steve Jarrett, Text Messages, Trust, Twitter | Comments Off on “Mocial” Marketing: 10 Things You Need to Know
By Jay Miletsky, Co-Author of Perspectives on Marketing, Perspectives on Branding, and Perspectives on Social Media Marketing
Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a very interesting trend among people—small business owners and managers, especially—looking to improve their marketing through social media efforts. They started out skeptical (can this really work for my company?), moved on to anxious (I’ve got to start a social media marketing program, fast!), graduated to proud (I’ve started a blog and a Facebook fan page!), and have now increasingly settled on disappointed (this social media stuff really hasn’t done much for my business).
It’s a sad state of affairs, really, that so many business owners and marketing managers are reaching a point of disillusionment when it comes to their social media marketing efforts. But it’s a virus that seems to be spreading—a quick search on Facebook through practically any industry will show a veritable wasteland of abandoned fan pages that seemed to be launched in earnest, updated with regularity, and abruptly forgotten about when new wall posts failed to generate user interaction and fan counts never reached much beyond an early round of invites to friends and family.
The problem isn’t social media as a discipline, however. The problem is that too many marketers take the lazy way out—or at least fail to realize that small business success in the social space requires more effort than simply launching and updating a fan page and expecting people will engage you there. Even a remote control car only moves when someone’s at the controls steering it.
To gain a following (blog readers, Facebook fans, Twitter followers, etc.), marketers need to reach beyond their own social space:
- Don’t just write posts on your own blog. Reach out to industry blogs to guest write for them.
- Read popular industry blogs on a daily basis. Zero in on one or two posts you feel strongly about—or at least have an opinion on—and leave a comment. Make it thoughtful and informative, and, if possible, leave it early in the morning, so it’s one of the first comments of the day. That way, other readers will be more likely to read what you have to say.
- When you comment on someone else’s blog, always remember to leave a standard signature with your name and company name, as well as links to your site/blog, fan page, and Twitter site.
- Don’t simply leave wall posts on your Facebook fan page. Look for larger organizations on Facebook that have fan or group pages where you can reach a broader audience. For example, suppose you’re marketing a hospital. Don’t limit your interactions to your own wall and fans. There are Facebook groups on general health topics as well as specific topics like breast cancer that literally have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers. Posting topics there or commenting on other posts will help expose your brand page to many of those followers.
- Find #hashtag conversations on Twitter related to your industry, and join in those conversations to build a following.
- Check out LinkedIn Groups and see where you can add your thoughts to existing conversations or start your own thread based on topics that will be relevant to you and the group.
Most of all, as with any other form of marketing, success requires a consistent effort. Results are rarely, if ever, seen immediately, and only those who persevere through audience droughts will be around to feel the flood.
Posted in Blogs, Consistency, Disillusionment, Facebook, Hashtags, Jay Miletsky, LinkedIn, Marketing, Twitter | Comments Off on Reaching Beyond Your Own Space
By Stephanie Diamond, Author of Web Marketing for Small Businesses: Seven Steps to Explosive Business Growth
If you’re a leader whose business has an online component, you’d probably like to find some guidelines that make it easier to develop and sustain an online marketing strategy. There are lots of conflicting ideas swirling out there about what to do online. If you followed many of them, you’d be spinning your wheels with no revenue in sight.
As someone whose has worked online since 1994, I’ve watched the marketing “shiny object” change from Web site to newsletter to blog to social media network. And on it goes. I know that getting locked into a tactic with no clear strategy in sight is a common mistake.
If you’re uneasy around the topic of social media strategies, you’re not alone. Because you’re not down in the trenches tweeting and posting, you probably don’t have the “hands-on” feel you have for other areas of marketing.
If you attempt to delegate, employees suggest all manner of tactics to engage customers. You’ve heard that you need to engage with Twitter and Facebook, study ongoing analytics, present sparkling content, and co-develop with customers. Great advice. But without the strategy behind it, your campaigns are destined to fail. Like every other area of business, you need to create the strategy first and make sure it flows down to everyone in your organization.
In formulating an online strategy, here are three questions to consider:
- Value. Do your employees know the real value consumers place on your products and services? If you don’t develop and constantly hone that message, your employees can’t communicate it in their social media efforts. In turn, all the ratings and comments that show up about your company will not engender the “word of mouth” referral power they could. If your customers aren’t selling for you, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful weapons you have today.
- Intellectual property (IP). Are you encouraging your employees to mine the intellectual property hidden inside your business to create information products and services? I’m not referring to the patents or formulas your company owns. The IP in companies today can be found in their vast stores of information. The key is to evaluate that information based on enhancement of the customer’s life. Think broadly. Consumers today are hungry for quality information that solves problems. Can your staff take that information and create videos, e-books, and other downloadable properties with that in mind?
- Competitive advantage. Do your employees understand who your real competitors are? I’m often surprised when I work on competitive strategies with my clients that they overlook several real online competitors. It’s a mistake to focus on only those who sell your exact product/service in exactly the way you do. The Web provides the opportunity for your customers to pick and choose from a variety of options. For example, if you sell sales training courses, your competitors are online video portals, coaches (both in-person and online), downloadable audio courses, etc. Make sure your staff has looked at all the possibilities.
One more note—there are many visual thinking tools (like mind mapping) that your team can use right now to gather ideas from all internal disciplines. Consider using these techniques to get ideas from programmers and marketers alike. In today’s marketplace, you can’t afford to overlook a great idea.
Posted in Analytics, Blogs, Competitors, Content, E-Books, Facebook, Intellectual Property, Marketing, Mind Mapping, Stephanie Diamond, Strategy, Twitter, Video, Word of Mouth | Comments Off on Three Questions the Savvy Executive Asks about Online Marketing Strategy
By Colin Osburn, Chief Information Officer at Parts.com
As a technologist, most everything I do has a technical bent first, with true ROI close behind. I realize that technology and finance to a marketer are like sunlight to a vampire, but steadily more and more of the marketing types appear to be following the technical and ROI trend. Metrics, reporting, automation, and justifying that mind-numbing campaign are all things that marketers are doing presently, while showing true technical aptitude.
I’ve had a real taste of why marketing and I are such distanced bedfellows. Running a national automotive parts Web site is complicated. A lot of technical effort goes into the operation and improvement of our search function, images, text, etc. Our customer base is earned through large partnerships, SEO (technical in its automation), and complimentary business lines. We even launched a short-run TV commercial this year for the first time in the company’s history.
It’s readily apparent that everyone—from small businesses to mega corporations and all the MLM shills in between—is jumping on the “new wave of technology” known as social media. To any decent technologist, this “new wave” is the same stuff we’ve been working with for years, but it’s in a new box with a bow.
All manner of Internet black magic that I can find, I heap upon our willing CTO to do a test run. I’m always looking at the newest technology for application to our business model. Automated sharing toolbars and widgets? Yep. Banner ads? Of course. Social media? Absolutely.
But I should have mentioned we do not have a CMO on staff. (Either that, or I disabled his account and forgot about him.) That means the technologists and sales executives are running the show. That also means we got exactly the results from all of these new implementations that you would expect:
- The banner ads are completely pointless. I intend to remove them.
- The toolbar never gets used, and no one shares anything.
- The forums are dead.
- We get very little response from our e-mail blasts.
- We keep Facebook and Twitter because they keep the brand public. We also keep them because it’s a new type of customer service.
The Parts.com site is designed for commerce. We make money when someone buys an auto part. Pretty direct. We haven’t added articles and sticky reading-style content because our user base comes to our site for a very direct task and wants to do it quickly. The same people most likely do participate in auto enthusiast forums and spend a lot of time browsing “car porn” (photos of hot rods, tricked-out cars, and classic vehicles), but not while they’re buying a part. We also have a disproportionately large number of auto dealers who use our site, and the service manager isn’t interested in reading something while trying to get the customer’s part overnighted.
We have Facebook. We have Twitter. But I refuse to attach our brand to MySpace. We have hundreds of friends, and there are a lot of people talking about a lot of things, 99% of which involves the buying and selling of cars. It’s pretty damn hard to get people hot and bothered about a camshaft replacement or that hot new discounted windshield replacement. Have you figured it out yet? We’re not just commerce, but commerce as a subsection of a larger vertical. And that vertical has plenty of content and places that provide it. So we implement what we can as fast as we can and tweak, wait, watch, and adjust.
In reality, some key points came to light for me over the past year:
- CIOs and CMOs need one another. That’s so painful to admit.
- Marketing helps those awesome new technologies become ubiquitous.
- If you don’t have a marketer on staff, this is a good time to start talking to your network.
- Technology for technology’s sake works some of the time, but not enough to generate an ROI that keeps the monthly revenue high.
- Content sites will almost always make more on the items I listed, from social media to banner ads. Commerce sites will overall make more on a direct revenue basis. Build a widget, sell a widget.
- Commerce sites can make progress with these social media tools, but they should not bet projections on them.
- Being a subcategory makes you look for the “why” a lot sooner. Dell and Ford kill it on social media and “new wave” commerce sales because they are the market. We sell parts. There’s a huge difference.
- Take what you can get. Better customer service and communication has been a real win for us with these tools, even if we don’t make millions on banner ads.
- The Get Satisfaction site is a real winner for us because it enabled us to learn from our customers what we need to know. (Facebook has helped us with that as well.)
To be continued…
Posted in Advertising, Banner Ads, Branding, CMOs, Colin Osburn, Content, Dell, E-Mail, Facebook, Finance, Ford, Forums, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Measurement, Metrics, MySpace, ROI, SEO, Tools, TV, Twitter | Comments Off on A CIO Takes On CMOs and Social Media Marketing
By Ryan Sauers, Chief Marketing Officer at The Sauers Group
In all aspects of business, it is vital to utilize various tools to evaluate performance. One such device is the Johari Window. This tool is especially important for those of you in the marketing profession.
The Johari Window is broken into four distinct quadrants.
Let’s start with the upper left (blue) quadrant. This quadrant deals with things that are “public” in nature, meaning they are known both to you and others. It may seem that everything in the world of online information falls into this quadrant, but this is not true. For example, if you publicly display information that is accessible to anyone—on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.—then you fall into this category.
The lower left (yellow) quadrant applies to things that are “private” to you (known to self) and are not known by others. This makes for quite a challenge in the social media environment, as it is hard to keep things private in a world that wants to make everything public. In social media, posted/written information often has a life of its own. So many times, private information might be accidentally posted in a place where a person thinks it is safe and private but where others actually have access to it. For example, many people go on job interviews where the interviewer already knows a lot about them beyond their resume, just by conducting a search for that person’s name on Facebook or Google with just a few keystrokes. So we must purposefully control what we do and do not want people to know.
The lower right (green) quadrant is referrerd to as “unknown.” These are things we all speculate about and quite frankly are unsure of the answers. For example, will Twitter be around in three years? Will Google keep growing? Will the economy turn around in 2011? Will the buying patterns of Generation Y remain the same in five years? You get the idea. So this area of the window represents those things that neither you nor the people you are targeting are completely sure of. This quadrant is an important one to consider as you develop your overall marketing plans and what role social media will play now and in the years ahead.
The upper right (red) quadrant is called the “blind spot.” This refers to something that is known to/seen by others but not known to/seen by yourself. This provides a huge growth opportunity for all marketers. If we are not aware of our blind spot, then we are truly operating “blind.” This means we are not aware of what we are missing—and yet, others around us are quite aware of it. This is a huge no-no for social media marketing. For instance, let’s say your company (in the opinion of all stakeholders beyond you) feels you are overdoing or over promoting your every success through the many social media tools available. So colleagues, employees, clients, vendors, and others see your campaigns/efforts as overdone and borderline obnoxious. But what if you think (your blind spot) you are not doing enough promotion and need to increase your social media marketing efforts? The key is to learn what your blind spot is, so you can address it. A great way to accomplish that is to get candid feedback from a variety of different people who will tell you the truth and not just what you want to hear.
The overall goal here is for you to use the Johari Window as another way to examine what you are doing, why you are doing it, what you know, what you don’t know, and why you do what you do. Doing so will enable you to be purposeful in all your marketing efforts. Rememember… the tools of social media are here to stay, and they will become even greater in the years ahead.
Posted in Facebook, Generation Y, Google, Johari Window, LinkedIn, Marketing, Ryan Sauers, Targeting, Tools, Twitter | Comments Off on A Window through Which We can Look at Social Media Marketing
By Will Seccombe, Chief Marketing Officer at VISIT FLORIDA
The Challenge
On April 20, 2010, the BP/Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank, resulting in a massive offshore oil spill. The spill became the top news story of the summer, and the live video feed of oil gushing from the failed “blowout preventer” was a real-time, persistent reminder of the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. In fact, 99 percent of Americans were following the story of the spill, 54 percent were following it closely, and virtually everyone was talking about it.
The stakes were high for the Florida tourism industry. Every year, 80 million people visit the Sunshine State, and more than 25 percent of those visitors choose Florida because of the 825 miles of beautiful beaches. Those visitors spend more than $60 billion and support nearly one million Florida jobs, making tourism the largest industry in the state.
As the official tourism marketing organization for the State of Florida, VISIT FLORIDA had managed hurricanes and “red tides” before, but the uncertainty surrounding this situation was unprecedented. How and where would the state’s coastline be affected? How do you balance the interests of directly impacted areas with unaffected areas fighting misperceptions? How do you keep visitors informed and continue to encourage travelers to visit the state? How can a marketing company be a trusted source of information in a time of crisis?
The Response
VISIT FLORIDA’s response to the oil spill focused on open, transparent, and proactive communication to provide consumers and stakeholders with easy access to credible local information to help them make informed decisions based on facts—not misinformation or confusion. An aggressive integrated communication program was launched on April 30 in coordination with the activation of the state Emergency Operations Center (EOC). (A complete timeline of VISIT FLORIDA’s response to the crisis depicts exactly what occured and when.)
The first step in addressing the spill was the activation of a Florida Travel Update on VISITFLORIDA.com, with daily updates on the status of Florida’s coastline from the EOC, as well as links to official information and FAQs from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Health, and the Department of Agriculture.
As the centerpiece and call to action for all crisis communications, VISIT FLORIDA developed and launched a new digital platform, Florida Live. Florida Live is a unique combination of content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and live Web cams that allowed travelers to see with their own eyes that, despite the massive media coverage, Florida was in fact open for business.
VISIT FLORIDA also activated Floridians from around the state to counter the negative images spewing from the oil spill. Residents were encouraged to upload real-time photos of their favorite beaches to Facebook, and more than 2,000 time-stamped photos were then featured in real time on Florida Live.
To communicate the scale of the state’s tourism product and address the hyper-local nature of the crisis, VISIT FLORIDA added Twitter feeds to the Florida Live site from local convention and visitor bureaus with up-to-the minute information on the status of their beach communities. The site also linked to live Web cams from around the state, daily fishing reports, daily videos, daily photos, blogs, and live weather reports.
Additionally, VISIT FLORIDA’s official corporate blog, Sunshine Matters, served as a hub of stakeholder communications to coordinate, inform, and align the tourism industry and to share industry resources.
The Results
The marketing response was both visible and credible:
- 44 percent of Americans were aware of VISIT FLORIDA’s marketing efforts.
- 49 percent attributed the marketing efforts to VISIT FLORIDA by name.
- 73 percent said they trust VISIT FLORIDA.
- Traffic to VISITFLORIDA.com increased 46 percent in June and 16 percent in July versus the same periods in 2009.
- People who visited the Web site were 31 percent more likely to visit Florida before Labor Day.
- Most importantly, total visits to the state increased by 3.4 percent in the second quarter (in the heat of the oil spill crisis) versus the same quarter in 2009.
Florida Live has since been recognized as a best practice in crisis communications, primarily because the Florida tourism industry embraced it, the media endorsed it, and consumers trusted it.
Posted in Best Practices, BP, Crisis Management, Facebook, Flickr, Marketing, Oil Spill, Photos, Tourism, Transparency, Twitter, Web Cams, Will Seccombe, YouTube | Comments Off on Social Media Marketing in a Crisis: VISIT FLORIDA and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
By Lois Geller, President of Lois Geller Marketing Group
Does your company have a @tweetstar? Some do, some don’t. I’m sure when you have a good one, it matters.
A lot of companies use Twitter well. Dell, The New York Times, E!, and Whole Foods are four of the top dozen tweeting companies. They use Twitter differently. For some, it’s almost an old school call center for answering questions from customers and prospects. Others just broadcast sales, product news, or links to product news. (In the case of E! and the NYT, it’s just news, period.)
Whether their tweets engage, inform, or entice, the big players have managed to grow their followers. For example, the NYT has more than two million. Looking a little deeper into the twittersphere, I’ve learned you have to have clear objectives here.
Take Dell, which to me, is confusing. If you go to Dell.com/Twitter, you’ll see that the company has a lot of Twitter sites. What you’d think is its main one, @Dell, has less than 4,000 followers. Dell’s big site is @DellOutlet, with more than 1.5 million followers. @DellOutlet is run by Elise Osborn, but her own Twitter site, @EliseAtDell, has less than 100 followers. @DellOutlet tweets deals, and a million and a half people want to hear about them. Elise answers questions on her own site, but she doesn’t seem to get a lot of them. In other words, Dell doesn’t care about engaging customers. Its Twitter focus is moving merchandise with big deals and doing it through a fictional “outlet,” which keeps the Canal Street aspect of the business slightly removed from the main brand. There seems to be no star power here. Just deals. It’s basically a commercial delivered via Twitter.
On the other hand, Ford does have a Twitter star. I’m not sure where Ford’s Scott Monty fits in the upper echelon of tweeting, but he does a great job. @Ford and @ScottMonty (both run by Scott) have about the same number of follwers—between 40,000 and 50,000. Scott engages customers and prospects beautifully and has much higher numbers than Dell on one side of the ledger and much lower numbers on the other side. @ScottMonty helped me when both Ford dealers in our neighborhood closed and @GeezerRepublic wanted to buy an Explorer. I tweeted, Scott responded, and Mike got the car.
I was thinking about all this last week just after a mini-epiphany about how companies use—or don’t use—Twitter to react to customers. It started in the middle of a conference call when a client said our phones made us sound like we were submerged under water. We called AT&T, and the rep said there were phone problems in the building. But we have VoIP service, so I checked with my neighbors in the next office, and they said they used Comcast with no problems. I tweeted about it, but neither AT&T nor Comcast responded.
Comcast is even more confusing than Dell. Most of Comcast’s tweeting happens on its @ComcastCares account. I wasn’t surprised about AT&T (apparently the company doesn’t even have a Twitter account), but Comcast’s lack of response to my ranting amazed me. A few years ago, I had a cable problem, and when I tweeted about it, Frank Eliason of @ComcastCares responded quickly, and someone magically appeared to help with installing my new TV. I’ve heard that Frank has moved on to Citigroup, and he had been Comcast’s Twitter star (at least for me).
So what happens when you lose your star, your spokesperson? Years ago, we were involved with Sarah Ferguson on the Weight Watchers business, but when Sarah left, nobody seemed to care. It’s different in social media, because the stars are engaged with people, and they become “friends.” I wonder if companies even know that? For instance, when @JohnAByrne left Businessweek, I stopped subscribing.
Just a guess, but if you’re thinking of the Twitter star approach, maybe it’d be a good idea to create a fictional persona and have different people do the tweeting, sort of like Reader’s Digest’s fictional Carolyn Davis used to do in print. Or maybe that wouldn’t be authentic. What do you think?
Posted in AT&T, Businessweek, Carolyn Davis, Comcast, Dell, E!, Ford, Frank Eliason, John Byrne, Lois Geller, Marketing, New York Times, Reader's Digest, Sarah Ferguson, Scott Monty, Twitter, Weight Watchers, Whole Foods | Comments Off on Does Your Company Have a @Tweetstar?
By John Watton, Chief Marketing Officer at ShipServ
I really enjoyed presenting at B2B Marketing Magazine’s recent conference in London. It was a tough assignment, as I was on just before the two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. to honor Armistice Day. There’s nothing like standing between an audience and a nation’s respect for those who gave their lives in armed conflict. So timing was critical to say the least. No over-runs this time. (And, on a separate note, I have to say a mournful moment of reflection is hardly the crescendo a presenter is looking to end on).
Anyway, I was presenting on the theme “Campaigns are dead. Long live content.” What really struck me after the presentation was the power of great content—its potential to propagate and the transparent trackability of feedback on social media:
- Feedback. I could, thanks to several tweeters in the room, get immediate feedback on what the audience thought. Thankfully, it was good (I blushed appropriately), but in the past, I’ve found it almost impossible to gauge an audience’s reactions. Remember, I also work in the UK, and we’re all far too polite. Twitter just unlocks those inhibitions.
- Propagation. Within an hour, the network kicked in, and I could see that from a core of say six to nine tweeters, 20-plus were retweeting comments on/from my presentation, some from as far afield as Brazil and the U.S. The content spread.
- Trackability. All of this was transparent and visible to me. A few hours after my session, I loaded my presentation onto SlideShare and tweeted the delegates (still in session). Within two hours, there had been 222 views of my presentation. SlideShare also selected my content as one of the featured presentations on its home page.
Within 48 hours of the conference, my presentation had received 862 views and 63 downloads. This just blew me away. Remember, I’m a CMO, but I’m no Seth Godin. Despite being a marketing pro of many years, I don’t sell marketing services nor make a living from doing so. So this was very rewarding for me.
What’s my learning? It wasn’t the viral power of social media (we all know that), but to harness that power, you need great content at the heart of what you do. What I had to say resonated. That wasn’t by accident. I prepared. I tried to make sure my content was relevant, interesting, engaging, surprising, and of value. And it worked.
The result: people liked it, shared it, and spread the word. And for all of us B2B marketers, we should never forget that if we get the basics right with great content, social media gives us the power to connect and engage on an impressive scale.
Posted in B2B, Content, Engagement, John Watton, Marketing, Propogation, SlideShare, Trackability, Twitter | Comments Off on Content is King in B2B
By Kent Huffman, Chief Marketing Officer at BearCom Wireless and Co-Publisher of Social Media Marketing Magazine
In a recent blog post on Forbes.com, CMO Club CEO Pete Krainik noted, “Most Chief Marketing Officers see the value of engaging with customers—and the value of engaging them where they hang out, talk, and spend their time.” Pete is surely right about that. But then why are only a very small percentage of CMOs active in the social media world themselves, particularly on Twitter?
I attended the CMO Club’s semiannual CMO Summit in San Francisco last week. Again this year, it was an excellent event and was well attended by a nice cross-section of B2C and B2B Chief Marketing Officers from around the country, representing all different types and sizes of companies and organizations. On the last day of the Summit, I was part of a panel who discussed the business impact of social media and community building, including the most effective social media marketing tools. But surprisingly, I discovered that out of the 80-plus heads of marketing in attendance at the Summit, only 16 who carry the official title of CMO for their organizations are currently active on Twitter:
B2C Chief Marketing Officers:
B2B Chief Marketing Officers:
B2C/B2B Chief Marketing Officers:
This is obviously not a scientific study, but two things struck me when reviewing this list: 1) even though there were more B2C CMOs at the Summit than B2B, more B2B CMOs are active on Twitter than their B2C counterparts, and 2) very few “big brands” in either the B2C or B2B world are represented by their CMOs on Twitter. It’s also interesting to note that you can make the same basic observations when reviewing the list of the top CMOs on Twitter that I curate as Co-Publisher for Social Media Marketing Magazine.
So why is that the case? Do most CMOs not understand the value of Twitter and other social media tools? Or do they just not consider them a priority for their careers or their companies?
“Most CMOs barely understand the value of building relationships with customers and giving them a voice, let alone how to navigate and make use of the world of Twitter. Social media marketing to most in the C-suite is still something campaign based, but social media marketing needs to be woven into fabric of all marketing channels, strategically managed from a 360-degree perspective,” said Ted Rubin, Chief Social Marketing Officer at OpenSky and the most-followed CMO on Twitter. “The key here is to convince CMOs to get personally involved in social media by having someone with hands-on knowledge mentor them, so they get first-hand knowledge, build their own personal following, and learn from the ground up. That way, they can properly guide and manage the integration process,” Ted added.
John Dragoon, the Chief Marketing Officer at Novell, noted, “All markets are conversations, and good marketers are embracing new tools to have these conversations. The beauty of social media tools is they allow you to experiment quickly and learn even faster. Active participation is the key to success. And make no mistake—your customers are listening.”
Posted in B2B, B2C, CMOs, Conversations, Engagement, Kent Huffman, Listening, Marketing, Twitter | Comments Off on Do CMOs Really Understand the Value of Twitter?
By Berenice Ring, Professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas
Aston Martin has a dealership at São Paulo’s trendy Avenida Europa. Lamborghini has one as well. Office space in that avenue does not come cheap, and the rent per square foot is almost nonsensical. Yet these stores are neither small nor modest.
Since October 2009, 17 Lamborghinis have been sold in Brazil for an average price of R$1.6 million (± US$950,000). Surely, to sell 17 units of a vehicle aimed at such a select audience, none of these brands would need to invest in a showroom. They could easily locate their prospective clients and contact them directly.
Why then does Lamborghini keep this amazing store and engage in social media to interact with its fans? And why is it always present at exhibitions like the São Paulo Auto Show, where visitors come in all sizes and shapes except that of buyers of their cars? Why does it invest in communication?
To win a special place in the minds and hearts of their audiences, luxury brands must be admired by their customers and potential buyers. But they also must be desired and have their value acknowledged by those who cannot buy their products—the brand fans who visit the store at night and covet the car through the store window, who create communities on Facebook and post comments on Twitter, and who form long queues at the Auto Show to see the brand’s latest model. These fans help to establish the throne from where brands such as Lamborghini will reign for the few. This is the principle of exclusivity.
Through communication and social networks, luxury brands like Lamborghini disseminate their dream and their magic—and create aspirations. They enable the “sense of belonging,” brokering relationships between people who would never meet otherwise and making it possible for them to feel connected.
This dynamic engenders very clear perceptions. Buying a Lamborghini gives the owner much more than the thrill of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. The machine comes bundled with a whole set of meanings. Prestige is the first item in the package. The buyer becomes part of an extremely select tribe, recognized not only by their peers but also by those will never be part of it.
A taste for speed, sporty style, and bold design is ingrained in the imagination of the brand’s ambassadors, whether they are owners who take their machines for a ride on weekends or fans who collect photos on the walls of their homes. Lamborghini’s brand manager understands that well. Aston Martin’s does, too. And so do most well-managed luxury brands.
Posted in Berenice Ring, Brand Ambassadors, Branding, Exclusivity, Facebook, Luxury, Marketing, Tribes, Twitter | Comments Off on Creating Luxury Tribes with Communication and Social Networks
By Aaron Strout, Chief Marketing Officer at Powered
I have always been a music enthusiast, but I’ve never been that interested in country music. And while I’m not ready to race out and fill my iTunes account with the likes of Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks, I recently purchased a few songs by the lovely and talented Leann Rimes. Why the sudden change of heart? If you must know, it was because of a single tweet. Well, it was actually two tweets… and the fact that during a show I saw at the ANA’s Masters of Marketing event, she was authentic and genuinely made an attempt to connect with the crowd of 1,500 senior marketers.
As someone that embraced Twitter back in 2007, I regularly use it to learn, engage, and build relationships. To that end, I often make a point of acknowledging people, companies, and organizations when I feel like they are doing a good job. This may or may not mean anything to them, but it’s my style, and so far, it’s borne a lot of goodwill and business value for me.
Getting back to Leann Rimes and her performance at the ANA conference last week: as she was wrapping up her set, I took the time to look her up on Twitter and send her a thank you tweet. Imagine my surprise when she actually tweeted me back!
The reason I’m sharing this experience is not to show off—although who doesn’t love having a successful female country singer tweet them back—but rather to point out a lesson that big brands could learn from this experience. For starters, it doesn’t hurt to follow Ms. Rimes’ lead and ensure that your brand is perceived as credible and authentic. That was the thing about Leann that got me to tweet her in the first place. But more importantly, the fact that someone as busy as she must be took the time to tweet back to a potential fan was huge.
Did she do it because she knew that I was on the fence about liking her? I don’t think so. Looking back in her tweet stream, it appears she does that with a lot of people. It’s just who she is. What I can guarantee is that while she is a very talented singer, one of the main reasons she has become so successful is because she engages her “customers.”
Now would I have been as excited if a brand like Lexus or Starbucks tweeted me back? Probably not. But I do appreciate it when a brand takes the time to acknowledge me, and it has made me more likely to stick with that brand. For example, in the case of WiFi provider Boingo, I’ve actually become one of its biggest fans, primarily because Boingo regularly engages me in conversation on Twitter. Now Boingo only earns $120 per year from me, but I tell everyone I know about Boingo, have mentioned it in blog posts, and have even gone so far as to be interviewed in an article about Boingo and the “network effect of super fans” on the FASTforward blog.
So is your company engaging its customers? It doesn’t take a lot to get started—just a good listening tool and an internal and/or external resource that can help reach out to customers (or prospective customers) who are mentioning you. You’ll be surprised how far a tweet, a blog comment, or even a Facebook “like” will go in turning people’s heads.
Posted in Aaron Strout, Blogs, Branding, Engagement, Facebook, Listening, Marketing, Twitter | Comments Off on Could Big Brands Learn a Thing or Two from Singer Leann Rimes? Hell, Yeah!
By David LaBonte, Author of Shiny Objects Marketing: Using Simple Human Instincts to Make Your Brand Irresistible
Social media marketing is a sexy new addition to traditional marketing formats. It bridges the gap from broadcast or print to broadband, introducing fresh access to market share. But the secret of success in this brave new world still rests on your target fingerprint. You must know what makes your product, brand, or service irresistible before social media marketing can work.
Irresistible attraction is the physiological, instinctual, or psychological appeal generated between your product and the consumer. It makes your product into a shiny object that sparkles, eliciting a spark like an arc of electricity. Subconsciously, your prospect feels that they must grab it and hold onto it; it’s just too shiny to pass by.
So how do you make your product, brand, or service irresistible? The key notion is that you are looking for your customer’s shiny object, not yours. In all my years of advertising and marketing, this is the single hardest concept to grasp. Executives have trouble putting themselves in their customer’s shoes. That’s why advertising agencies exist outside of the corporate culture. They ask the dumb questions that lead to revelations.
Three simple steps will lead you to a clear definition of your customer’s shiny objects, the source of irresistible attraction.
- First, list your customer’s shiny objects. What attracts them? What are the “must haves” that are irresistible? Be thorough during this step. It is critical to get every shiny object onto the whiteboard. There is often a hidden gem that, if overlooked, can leave a black hole in your marketing efforts.
- Second, divide these shiny objects into features, benefits, and needs. This makes it easier to determine what motivates your prospects to reach into their pockets and exchange money for product.
- Third, determine factors that fuel desire. Usually, they fall into one of five categories: critical to sustaining life, vital to my protection, important to my being accepted, crucial for my self esteem, and important to make life rewarding.
Finally, compare the shiny objects of your customers to your product, brand, or service. What fits? Where does your brand, product, or service dovetail with their wants and needs? How can you generate an irresistible attraction? Apply what you have learned and voila, your product is now their shiny object.
And remember, simply finding your customers’ shiny object isn’t enough to make them a committed client. You need to apply what I call the “Five Facets of a Shiny Object:”
- Grab attention
- Create a driving curiosity
- Stimulate an irrepressible urge to touch
- Activate an emotion
- Demand ownership
Basing your marketing on irresistible attraction doesn’t mean that people are mindless sheep. On the contrary, it means that although they can’t control what shiny object inspires irresistible attraction, they do control which shiny objects they grab and hold onto. Be ethical. Be honest. Be creative. Make your product into your customer’s shiny object, and irresistible attraction will sell truckloads!
Posted in Advertising, Advertising Agencies, Attraction Marketing, Branding, David LaBonte, Features and Benefits, Marketing | Comments Off on Sexy Social Media and Irresistible Attraction
By Brian Kardon, Chief Marketing Officer at Eloqua
Best-in-class companies have evolved beyond mere participation in social media. They have put a robust marketing technology platform in place that allows them to see how social media activities drive revenue. Social media is earning a seat at the revenue table. It’s called “revenue performance management.”
Social 1.0: Observe
Social 1.0 was all about curiosity. How interesting? What does it mean? What are the risks? Could social media (or “social computing” as my friends at Forrester called it in 2006) really take off?
Social 2.0: Act
Social 2.0 was about companies jumping in: tweeting, blogging, monitoring, and participating across social media platforms. “We should be doing this,” said an anxious CMO. “We will look cool.” “Look how ‘United Breaks Guitars’ or the ‘Comcast Sleeping Tech’ is killing them.” “We need an Old Spice viral idea.” “Hire a bunch of young people, stat!”
Social 3.0: Convert
Well, Social 3.0 is here, and it is about how social media is driving demand generation, adding engaged people to the database, nurturing their interest, and winning business. Yep, social media is driving revenue growth. It has evolved, matured. And it has earned a seat at the revenue table.
As CMO of Eloqua, I get to work with some of the most sophisticated marketing organizations in the world—companies like Adobe, American Express, and Sony. You may think “slow moving” or “bureaucratic.” Well, I can’t speak for everything these companies do, but in the world of social media, they have come to a remarkable place—faster than most would have expected. They have evolved to Social Media 3.0 in record time and are proving how social media drives revenue by:
- Identifying “complaining” customers and resolving those complaints quickly, leading to higher retention rates
- Identifying prospects who are shopping for a solution by their status updates or tweets (e.g., “Looking to switch brokerage account out of [competitor]. Any ideas?”) and responding through direct, helpful communications
Of course, most companies by now have set up processes to monitor the social environment. Best-in-class organizations have taken it to a whole new level by measuring and continuously tracking these people. For example, if someone is shopping in the category, they put them into a highly relevant nurturing program, score their progress, and pass the lead to the sales team at the right time. Then they track whether the prospects close or not, attributing the lead source to social media. In the case of complaining customers, they often put them into “remediation” nurturing programs to win them back. And, of course, they rigorously measure renewal rates of those in the remediation program.
From our experience, the companies that are proving social media’s contribution to revenue have five foundations in place:
- Actively participate in all forms of social media
- Have deployed a robust marketing and sales technology backbone, consisting of a CRM system, marketing automation, and social media monitoring
- Have developed specific processes to deal with “complainers” and “active prospects”
- Continuously measure and optimize the programs
- Routinely report on social media’s contribution to closed business
Welcome to Social Media 3.0! If you are still in 2.0, it’s time to step up!
Posted in Brian Kardon, CRM, Customer Retention, Demand Generation, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Measurement, Metrics, Nurturing, Revenue | Comments Off on Social 3.0: Social Media Drives Demand Generation
By John Foley, Jr., Chief Executive/Marketing Officer at Grow Socially
JetBlue gets social media. Completely. While many companies make good use of social media in promoting their brands, JetBlue takes the ball and literally flies with it. Here are three ways they shine:
Brand Personality
Anyone who has boarded a JetBlue flight knows the company’s feel-good take on transportation. The captain and flight assistants crack jokes and one liners, the flights are filled with “get it while it lasts” free snacks, and the corporate identity revolves around bright colors and lighthearted phrases like “happy jetting.”
When JetBlue ventured onto the social media scene, it maintained its playful personality. Next to delay reports and updates on products and services, you’ll find humorous tidbits of information, often completely unrelated to business. The company recently announced an airport book signing with a tweet typical of its signature sense of humor.
The takeaway? whatever your corporate personality—be it sassy or sweet—let it show in your tweets and updates. Give your followers something to smile about! Bring a human touch to your product, and people will respond.
Instant Gratification
Want to know when JetBlue’s new Boston-to-Sarasota service starts? Drop @JetBlue a tweet to ask!
JetBlue understands that sitting on the phone or sifting through its Web site takes time. For that reason, the company has made a Twitter-based customer service rep available 24×7 to respond to quick questions, address concerns, or even just say thank you for a compliment. While the complex stuff can’t always be ironed out in 140 characters, quick questions and answers are easily handled. Even better, every question answered via tweet effectively saves a phone call, which makes JetBlue’s overall customer service more efficient.
The takeaway? Use social media to make things run smoothly for you. If your company is rolling out a new product, let everyone know quickly and easily. If you’re currently filling backorders on a hot new product, keep customers in the loop—and off the phones.
Dangling the Carrot
Not everything on the JetBlue tweetstream is supply and demand. JetBlue rewards its followers with access to contests, special deals, and insider information.
Recently, the company hosted a citywide “scavenger hunt”-style promotion in Boston. One stop on the tour asked players to bring a photo of 10 standard office supplies to Copley Square for a chance to win a free ticket. Incentives such as free bonus miles and contests for tickets and trips gave followers the sense of actively participating in JetBlue’s ongoing conversation. It was a great way to generate positive chatter for the company.
The takeaway? Give your followers something to talk about, and occasionally, give them something for their loyalty. Word of mouth is the best advertising you can get, and on the Web, word travels fast.
Posted in Branding, Contests, Customer Experience, Humor, John Foley, Loyalty, Marketing, Personality, Promotions, Twitter, Word of Mouth | Comments Off on How JetBlue Uses Social Media to the Fullest (and You Can, Too)
By Tom Quinn, Chief Revenue Officer at Passenger
“Invitation only.” “Private.” “Exclusive.” “VIP.” These words hold significant power in the marketing world. Nightclubs make their living off this allure; the retail world has been revolutionized by the success of invitation-only sites like Gilt Groupe and vente-privee.com. Although often a mirage (an invitation to a private sale club is often as simple as entering your e-mail), the allure of exclusivity has a profound effect on consumer behavior. Mainstream brands have taken notice and are incorporating this into their marketing strategies.
The Web offers exponential consumer touchpoints, making it easier to regularly engage with customers. The common online marketing approach has been bigger is better—many use public social networks or develop branded public communities in hopes of acquiring new fans. You can reach a large audience, and the interaction is completely open, making it easy to see how consumers are reacting to your brand/product/service.
From a loyalty and advocacy perspective, however, public initiatives can feel less personal and participants less “special,” as everyone can see what you are offering or asking. Competitors could be monitoring your community, so you have to watch what you reveal. Attempts at a personal brand connection through public social networks can also go horribly wrong: consumers can instantly amplify positive and negative experiences. Many brands struggle to create authentic intimacy without losing the scale and reach necessary to compete in the mass market.
A different approach is to focus in on your most loyal and vocal customers by establishing genuine dialogue in a private setting. Ask consumers to participate in an invitation-only online community to help shape the brand, services, and products they care about. This personal invitation gets them in the door; you can then foster the “velvet rope” feeling by sharing exclusive content and involving them in the creation process.
There is no better tool for creating intimacy than demonstrating that you are listening. Bring them into the product development process, solicit input on a new ad campaign, or ask what types of perks they might like as part of a rewards program. Then show them how their input is being incorporated. Reward their loyalty and enthusiasm with access to insider information, special brand experiences, or online “credit.”
Most companies find that a majority of their business often comes from a disproportionately small percentage of loyal customers. With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to start small and build real, tangible relationships with your inner circle of fans. In addition to fostering loyalty, this inspires those behind the velvet rope to broadcast your messages publicly.
A well-run community takes engaged members and turns them into ambassadors—driving interest around offline events and building buzz around the community and brand. This is something a Facebook and Twitter presence can rarely accomplish because the level of engagement is not as high. Treating your customers as VIPs and giving them exclusive access to your brand and the decision makers that shape it can drive unprecedented levels of brand loyalty and advocacy.
Posted in Branding, Customer Experience, Exclusive Content, Loyalty, Marketing, Retail, Strategy, Tom Quinn | Comments Off on By Invitation Only: Letting Your Customers in Behind the Velvet Rope
By Shelly Lipton, Chief GrownUp at GrownUp Marketing
Traditional advertising channels—including print, broadcast, and online display ads—are perfect places for prompting users to text a keyword to an advertiser’s code in order to enter a sweepstakes or receive a discount coupon. This has been the foundation of mobile marketing since its infancy, but today’s savvy marketers are beginning to realize that social networking via channels like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube can spread the word even faster and more effectively.
Mobile marketing—interactive, real-time messages sent to consumers via their mobile devices—has taken its place as the advertising world’s “third screen” (in addition to television and computer monitors), and the promotional potential is unlimited. With mobile’s appealing “act now” incentives, consumers can do most of the legwork by sharing the information with their friends via their social media networks to enable an advertiser’s mobile campaign to go viral.
Here’s a sample scenario of how it might work: A national pizza chain launches a mobile marketing campaign to offer a “buy one, get one free” coupon. The company is already running TV spots and targeted online display ads to drive awareness and interest in the promotion. With the help of its ad agency, a message will be added to the TV spot that says, “Text TWOPIZZAS to code 74642 to receive a two-for-one coupon for a large pizza!” Consumers who see these ads will text the keyword and receive, via their cell phones, a digital coupon that can be redeemed at the local pizza store in their area.
Here’s where social media comes into the mix. If it’s a strong enough offer, a consumer will tell his or her friends on Facebook and Twitter that the local pizza place is offering a great deal. Those friends will tell their friends, and so on. They’ll all end up on the pizza place’s Facebook page, where they can find other share-worthy discount coupons.
According to a March 2010 article in Mobile Marketer, access to Facebook via mobile browsers grew 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347 percent jump, according to research by comScore. In the same article, comScore’s Director of Industry Analysis Andrew Lipsman was quoted as saying, “I think the key finding is that there appears to be a natural synergy between social media and the mobile platform. That we’ve seen such dramatic growth on Facebook and Twitter via mobile browsers is testament to this fact.”
It’s clear to both experts and observers that mobile marketing and social media are growing up together. Millennial Media’s S.M.A.R.T. Report for April 2010 revealed that social media represents 11 percent of all campaign actions on its network. And according to eMarketer in March 2010, 650 million people globally are using their smartphones for tasks such as e-mail and social networking.
With purchases of goods and services via mobile devices expected to reach $200 billion in 2012 (double what it is today), the linking of mobile marketing and social media is a marriage made on Madison Avenue.
Posted in Advertising, Coupons, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, MySpace, Research, Shelly Lipton, SMS, Twitter, YouTube | Comments Off on Integrating Social Media with Mobile Marketing
