Marketing Articles About Customers

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In Email v SocNet Debate, Harmony is One Answer. Is Email dead? That has been a favorite topic for debate among marketers that wonder if they are wasting precious resources on this approach when their customers are - seemingly - flocking to social... (03/11/10 09:00 PM)

Brazilian Entrepreneurs Thrive On The Web. According to the BBC, the online revolution in Brazil has opened up new opportunities to create small businesses that never existed before. Fabio Seixas is a 35-year-old “serial entrepreneur” whose three previous businesses went bust. But he appears to have struck gold with an innovative way of selling designer T-shirts online, by getting his customers to [...] (03/11/10 09:00 PM)

5 List Marketing Strategies To Consistently Build Your Leads And Profits . I'm sure you've all heard it before, "The money is in the list!" Well this is very true. When you build an opt-in list, you are building a list of clients that you can consistently market to. ... (03/11/10 09:01 AM)

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How To Use Surprise To Generate Word Of Mouth.

How To Use Surprise To Generate Word Of Mouth

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

ShareHow To Use Surprise To Generate Word Of MouthThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week 2010 Your customers [...] (03/11/10 09:00 AM)

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Effective Communication for Telemarketers. In order to understand customer needs, telemarketers should effectively employ superior communication skills. Communication is very important in the process of maintaining customer attention because ... (03/10/10 09:00 AM)

Meeting Business Demands. Are you in the process of reassessing the structure of your business? Are you complaining about how you're not getting enough sales, poor time management, or how you're not acquiring new clients&#... (03/10/10 09:00 AM)

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17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business).

17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

17 Terrific Tactics to Inspire Customer Love (and Get New Business)This content from: Duct Tape Marketing This post is a special Make a Referral Week guest post featuring education on the subject of referrals and word of mouth marketing and making 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses – check it out at Make a Referral Week [...] (03/09/10 09:00 PM)

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4 Things to Remember As You Twitter. Recently Alex Payne, an engineer at Twitter, posted the following message: "If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You... (03/08/10 09:00 PM)

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Using SocNets? Great - Just Be Sure to Talk About What Your Customers Want. Just about every brand now has a toehold in social media - even such established staples as Land O’Frost and Sara Lee Deli, both of which recently launched campaigns centered around Facebook. For... (03/05/10 09:01 PM)

Measuring Online Ads Properly. Online advertising agencies need to focus less on impressions and more on serving the needs of their clients’ audience, according to John Burbank, CEO, Nielsen Online Division. To obtain the business... (03/05/10 09:01 PM)

The Profit’s in the Bottle. As the owners of Water Impressions found out, the bottle is worth more than the water: The company, originally called Tennessee Branch Water, started out as a five-gallon bottle and cooler service that they purchased from its retiring owner. The Grahams had been customers of the water service for several years. They decided to buy the [...] (03/04/10 09:00 PM)

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Industry Buzz & News: 03/03/10. Measurement & Analytics: Getting started with online marketing and web analytics. Web analytics meets customer feedback in Kampyle-Omniture deal. Measuring social media with web... (03/03/10 09:01 PM)

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Would You Like to Know How To Teach Your Business to Market Itself?.

Would You Like to Know How To Teach Your Business to Market Itself?

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

ShareWould You Like to Know How To Teach Your Business to Market Itself?This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Hope you can join me for a free webinar Wednesday March 3rd at 1pm CST as I reveal through the use of The Marketing Hourglasssm the logical progression that takes your customer from know to refer. Nail all [...] (03/02/10 09:00 AM)

Will Yelp Ruin Geo-Location Search Advertising?. The accusations, and now lawsuit, that Yelp is extorting its customers is serious - not only for the customers of course, many of which are small businesses that depend on advertising - but also for... (03/01/10 09:00 PM)

Improve Your Site’s Search Engine Optimization. Search engine optimization can raise your website’s profile, delivering more traffic, more customers, and bigger revenues. Inc.com shows you how to make the most of this essential marketing tool. 1. Give stuff away. Does your company offer free samples of its product? Do you have any handy applications or an ebook you can let site visitors [...] (03/01/10 09:00 PM)

Trash Bin Cleaning Service Gaining Customers. But trash cans are supposed to be dirty. That’s what entrepreneur Warren Bishop hears nearly every time he explains how his fledgling, Point Loma-based trash-can-cleaning company turns filthy, germ-filled waste bins on wheels into sanitized receptacles, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Why bother? “Flies lay eggs in there on food and animal feces, then [...] (03/01/10 09:00 PM)

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Sometimes Social Media Does Trump Email. There has been much debate over whether social media is supplanting email marketing as a way for companies to reach out to customers. Any number of studies can be cited to support either argument -... (02/24/10 09:01 PM)

The North Face Sends Texts to Users Near Stores in Location-Based Campaign. The North Face is taking advantage of geo-targeting capabilities on mobile devices to send text messages to potential customers whenever they are near a store that carries North Face gear. The... (02/23/10 09:00 PM)

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Segment Migration: Where Your Customers Were, Where They Went, and Why. Understanding customer behavior is key to creating marketing campaigns that generate high response and revenue. One of the best ways to understand customer behavior is to study customer migration patterns?to learn when and why a customer ends up in a segment different from the one he or she had been ... (02/16/10 09:01 PM)

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5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer.

5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Share5 Questions You Should Ask Every CustomerThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Constantly seeking feedback from your customers is a great way to learn how to market your business more effectively. If you’ve never done this before, do it immediately as it is one of the best ways to discover what you do that actually differentiates [...] (02/08/10 09:01 AM)

Tertiary Keyword Rankings: Using Your Search-Engine Presence to Power Your Customers. In the world of B2B marketing, what would you say your customers want most from you? Some of the obvious things are quality products, great service, reasonable prices, and solutions that increase profits. But what would they really want if they could have anything from you? How about more customers? (02/02/10 09:00 PM)

5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites.

5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Share5 Ways to Rock Customer Review SitesThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing There’s been a fair amount of coverage recently about the ins and outs, good and evil, usefulness and rudeness of customer rating and reviews sites. No matter how you feel about these social recommendation sites, if you own a small business of any kind, [...] (02/01/10 09:00 PM)

Five Reasons Why Mobile Marketing Is Prime for B2Bs?And Five Key Questions B2B Marketers Should Be Asking. In the B2C space there's a lot of buzz around mobile marketing, but in the B2B sector it's more likened to a whisper. B2Bs are missing out on super-sized opportunities for integrating a valuable new brand touch point for their customers and establishing a dynamic new communications channel with professional ... (01/26/10 09:00 PM)

Is Your Sales Team Creating Real Differentiation?. Salespeople rely on strategies such as "sell the value" or to "value-add"?neither of which produces sustainable advantage. They do so because it's hard to achieve genuine differentiation based on something the customer values. But suppose salespeople were able to create highly differentiated offerings that provide real value that competitors can't ... (01/19/10 09:00 PM)

The Top Five Ways to Attract and Keep Customers in Any Economy. The economy still stinks. But only if during the long-gone good times your business was on cruise control and you saw your customers as dollar signs and not people. Some marketers are suffering far less than others, because they cared to look deep into their customers' eyes and not just ... (01/12/10 09:00 PM)

Why You Should Fire (Some of) Your Customers. Don't indiscriminately get rid of people paying you for your goods and services. But identify that 20% from the old 80/20 rule and get rid of some of those who meet the four points described here. Your goal should not be to "please" customers. Studies show only 6% of "satisfied" ... (01/12/10 09:00 PM)

Terrorist customers: How should we react?. It happened again. Some nutty passenger attempts blowing up a plane, and suddenly other fliers have to endure stricter screening and flying rules. And as news of the revised policy spread, the jokes about Homeland Security followed. It happened again. Some nutty customer attempts to rip the company off, and suddenly other customers have endure stricter [...] (01/02/10 09:00 PM)

True Stories: A Cautionary Tale of Rebranding Gone Astray. Most of the branding articles that you read are happy, glowing tales of how an agency rebranded a client and turned that client into a superstar brand with double-digit growth. Well, this is not one of those stories. We often learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. (12/22/09 09:00 PM)

Embracing Cross-Channel Analytics to Create a Competitive Advantage. If you are using multiple channels and you want to understand both what's really working and enrich your customers' experiences with your organization, then you'll have to step into the world of cross-channel analytics. (12/22/09 09:00 PM)

Lead Generation Check list – Part 7: Effective lead management. My checklist for optimizing the lead generation process so far has included six steps: the mindset of not pushing; repairing the rift between sales and marketing; creating the ideal customer profile (and the un-ideal customer profile as well); agreeing upon... (12/18/09 09:00 PM)

Marketing Is So Much More Than Promotion: Just Visit My Hairdresser. What can marketers learn from the smallest of small businesses, a hair salon? You might be surprised: Here is a story of an integrated-marketing and client-service approach that any business would do well to emulate. (12/15/09 09:01 PM)

Earning Customer Raves: Make These Five Decisions, and Customers Will Grow Your Business for You. When you make decisions that respect and honor customers, you will earn their admiration and, eventually, their love. Then customers will begin to grow your business for you. (12/08/09 09:05 PM)

Problem Solved: How Much B2B Branding Is Too Much?. How much B2B branding is too much? You want to incorporate your B2B brand message into every encounter with prospects and clients. But how do you do that without overdoing it? (12/08/09 09:05 PM)

All You Have Understand About Copywriting. Article writers earn 2 cents each word at the regular, especially recently when competition in the arena has exploded and finding clients has become quite difficult than, say, 2 or 3 years ago. This h... (12/04/09 09:01 AM)

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Customer-Centric Segmentation. Sometimes, when we talk about segmentation, we can get caught up in thinking about it as merely categorization?we?re deciding what labels to put on people into and who belongs where. This is like thinking of segmentation as a kind of filing system. (11/19/09 09:01 AM)

The Anatomy of a Conversion Path. A well-designed conversion path does more than guide a user toward the ultimate goal of becoming a customer. It leads you and the user into a richer, better informed relationship. (11/18/09 09:00 PM)

Five Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages Right Now. Only about 3% of paid clicks convert, on average. That's a lot of conversions left on the table. Here are five things you can do to turn more of your clicks into customers. (11/18/09 09:00 PM)

The Very Real Impact of High-Performance Landing Pages. Small differences in the quality of customers' post-click experiences tend to create big differences in conversion rates. (11/18/09 09:00 PM)

Write From Your Reader's Perspective. When potential customers arrive at your website or look over your marketing materials, they immediately want to know what's in it for them. If that's not obvious, chances are they will move on quickly. By using the word "you," you begin to establish a connection with readers because you address their ... (11/17/09 09:00 PM)

The Energy Of Copywriting. Even the best internet marketers out there who have made millions of dollars on behalf of their clients create dud campaigns at times. They put the same art into their work, they follow the scientific... (09/16/09 09:00 AM)

Podcast: Unconventional strategies to reach more clients. So, you've put a lot of effort into your lead generation process, and you have a great lead in your hand. Now, what can you do to improve your probability of making a profitable sale from it? Michael McLaughlin, addresses... (09/15/09 09:00 AM)

Lead Generation Check list – Part 3: Develop and intensify your Ideal Customer Profile . I’ve started an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.’ Each post in the series addresses a step that in my experience helps improve lead generation efforts. The first installment discussed changing your mindset to focus on conversations not... (09/14/09 09:00 PM)

Copywriting Success: Get Great Clients. If you've been a copywriter for longer than three months, you know that every copywriting client with whom you work is different. This makes sense. People are different, and so are their businesses. H... (09/10/09 09:01 AM)

What IS and ISN’T Lead Nurturing . While chatting with a client recently, she told me that she had just met with her third new boss this year to explain the company’s new lead nurturing process. The problem was that her boss felt their current integrated marketing... (08/26/09 09:00 AM)

Copywriting Improvements on Your Sales Letter Can Double Your Marketing Success. Copywriting involves the use of words to promote people, products and businesses. Copywriting is very important to advertisers when attracting potential customers to their products; those commercial j... (07/15/09 09:01 AM)

Leading a sustainable enterprise . IBM recently released its 2009 report on sustainable enterprises, and the findings were similar to last year's: "Develop new sources of operational, supply chain and customer information to gain new levels of insight for meeting strategic sustainability objectives." Astonishingly, 37%... (07/02/09 09:00 PM)

Lead Nurturing is Walking the Buying Path with Your Customers . A recent study of B-to-B buyers shows that sales people who become trusted advisors and understand the needs of economic buyers are 69% more likely to come away with a sale! That’s why forming a plan for lead nurturing is... (05/28/09 09:00 AM)

June is Entrepreneur's "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month!.

For those of you who are not yet fans of Chase's Calendar of Events, you'll find that it's a great resource for you or for your clients when seeking those special holidays to tie your promotions to! In fact, there only ONE entry in the entire book with the word "marketing" in the title, and it happens to be in honor of Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month in June. Of course, that's reason to celebrate.

In order to do our part for the celebration, we've created a cool little e-book with some marketing planning tools and 30 ideas for entrepreneurs, along with a 30-day e-course starting on June 1st. What's even better is that there's different content and different ideas in the e-book and the e-course, so it's like you're getting two for one!

Learn more about Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month at: www.diymarketingmonth.com

Below is the press release signaling the launch of Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month coming up in June.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: DanaVanDen Heuvel
The MarketingSavant Group
888-989-7771
dana@marketingsavant.com

MarketingSavant Group reaches out to entrepreneurs with "DIY" marketing in honor of June's "Do it Yourself" Marketing Month

Green Bay, WI -- (May 13, 2009) Even in struggling economic times,
small businesses' entrepreneurial spirit continues to be a driving
force in the American economy.

A Green Bay, Wis.-based marketing consulting and training firm is
reaching out to the backbone of American business, providing a
Do-It-Yourself Marketing Plan customized specifically for
entrepreneurs. MarketingSavant is delivering free marketing tools just
in time for Entrepreneurs "Do It Yourself" Marketing Month in June.

"As an entrepreneur myself, I know how challenging it is to keep
marketing 'top of mind' and to stay front of mind with your customers
when you're wearing multiple hats," said Dana VanDen Heuvel, president
of MarketingSavant and creator of the month-long Do It Yourself
Entrepreneur Marketing Plan geared to small business. "But effective
marketing is even more pivotal to a small business' well-being than
their larger peers'."

Not to mention the sheer number of small businesses ripe for
marketing assistance. Small business is not equated with small
financial impact. Consider these statistics:

In 2008, there were an estimated 27 million small businesses in the U.S. (Source: Small Business Administration)

In 2008, 12 million people were involved in starting new firms. (Source: Small Business Administration)

For 90 percent of these beginning entrepreneurs, it takes more
than five years for an outcome to be determined. In that time,
one-third disengage, one-third continue in start-up mode and another
third implement a new firm. (Source: U.S. Small Business Administration)

Small businesses provide half the nation's nonfarm, private real
gross domestic product, and half of all Americans work for a small
firm. In addition, small businesses have been the primary job generator
in the U.S. economy, creating 60 to 80 percent of the new net jobs
annually from 1994 to 2004.(Source: Small Business Administration)

With numbers like these, there's a substantial audience that can
benefit from Do It Yourself marketing tools customized to their unique
needs. The MarketingSavant DIY Entrepreneur Marketing Plan includes
several resources that entrepreneurs can quickly put to use, as well as
tools to build their long-term marketing plans, including:

"30 Days of DIY Marketing" e-book, an excellent resource that
provides a marketing calendar and more than 30 do-it-yourself marketing
ideas to grow your business over the summer;

30-day e-course, delivered daily by email, highlighting marketing tips;

Eligibility to receive one of 10 free copies of the book, "Guerilla Marketing in 30 Days" by Jay Conrad and Al Lautenslager;

Free access to a BlogTalkRadio program featuring insights from Lautenslager, a well-known and respected guerrilla marketer

Tips for reaching out to the media to obtain media coverage on your event/product/service

Much more!

"Realistically, entrepreneurs want to take charge of their own
marketing, just as they take charge of everything related to their
businesses," said VanDen Heuvel. "The DIY Marketing Plan makes this
good intention a reality by delivering a comprehensive plan
specifically for entrepreneurs in an easy-to-implement, do-it-yourself
format."

To learn more about the DIY Entrepreneur Marketing Plan and/or to
participate in the plan for your small business' benefit, visit www.diymarketingmonth.com today!

(05/14/09 09:00 PM)

Five strategies for building your ethical brand. There's been a lot of discussion about elevating corporate responsibility to become a strategic driver of your business. Most companies would like to benefit from their ethical efforts in the form of increased customer attraction and loyalty, yet few have... (05/08/09 09:00 PM)

Let Their Content Free!. Last week I spent hosting our second annual Bazaarvoice Social Commerce Summit. Over 300 people came to the AT&T Center in Austin to evolve their social commerce strategy. See my wrap up post here. Last year my team and I produced a video to send a message to our clients, which was a mockumentary music video, "More Than Words". This year, I did another music video parody to George Michael's "Freedom! '90" to communicate the idea to our clients that their customers will be their best marketers if they "let their content free". The Title of this is "Freedom! '09 (Let Their Content Free)". Here it is: (05/04/09 09:00 AM)

Sales and marketing alignment: tips for getting it right with lead generation. According to the 2008 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study, only 37% of respondents agreed that their sales and marketing organizations are aligned in what their customers want and need. I discussed this disconnect with Bill Golder in the February... (03/04/09 09:00 PM)

Should lead generation ignore current customers?. ”We know more about our prospects (leads) than we know about our current customers” was a shocking statement I heard from a client and it stuck with me. In fact, it's the impetus for this post. When you have a... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Generate over 60,0000 inquiries by educating people?. Last year, I wrote a post on giving away ideas to proactively educate and attract future customers. I was surprised that it generated such a lively discussion. Michael Stelzner wrote the following comment on my post back then, “I have... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Rainmakers and Lead Generation. In professional services organizations the people who bring in the big revenue clients are often called rainmakers. They’re the one’s that make it all happen and become almost mythical in the process. In today’s challenging business climate, we could all... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Using thought leadership tactics for lead generation. As marketers look for ways to optimize lead generation, they are recognizing the value of using educational content and thought leadership to help attract more customers. I've written a number of times on using educational marketing and certain aspects of... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Coming on September 22: Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person Meeting? Four Viewpoints. To what extent can you substitute emails for telephone calls and face-to-face meetings when maintaining and developing relationships with clients and other key market contacts? The answer to this frequently-asked-question affects how you spend your precious business development time and... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person Meeting? Four Viewpoints. To what extent can emails be used in place of phone calls and face-to-face meetings when maintaining and developing relationships with clients and other important network contacts? Four bloggers have all agreed to post their answers to the email question... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Retailers Reprogram Workers...Should Reprogram Customers. In an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ann Taylor and stores like it were profiled for their use of systems like Atlas (Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System), developed by RedPrairie Corp, that track employee sales and activities and adjust their schedules to match the store's busy times, thus maximizing profitability. While I understand this is a great productivity tool, it's taking a bit of the humanity out of retailing...somewhat.

The sluggish national economy has put pressure on many retailers to pinch pennies. "The single biggest controllable cost in retail is people," says Carl Steidtmann, chief economist at Deloitte LLP. Because few retail workers belong to unions, he says, it is easier for employers to "move people around." Vendors of the systems claim they can boost productivity by 15% or more, and can help cut labor costs by 5% or more.

What I find even more interesting, and this is JUST for Ann Taylor (having a wife who's a fan of their clothes) is the heavy discounting that they've trained their customers to come to expect! Just last night, she produced a series of coupons, some for actual dollar amounts off of the merchandise and some for large percentages like 20% to 30% off any purchase over a certain figure. I understand margins, I know that they're high in the fashion industry, and I'm sure that there's good reason for this. However, customers of Ann Taylor and other brands like them (some of those mentioned in the article, most likely) have trained their customers to shop based on price and incentives. Period. Sure, the clothes fit...but seriously - 30% off on a regular basis? Action Item: So, what have you trained your customers to do? Expect things on sale, expect things you don't like doing? This is a great opportunity (and I'm doing this too) to look at your customer base from the perspective of lifetime value, and re-segment them based on 'those who should be with you in the future' and 'those who aren't going to be with you in the future'.
(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Third-party credibility ain't what it used to be.

It used to be that we'd get the Good Housekeeping seal of approval and we'd dine out on that for months, even years to come. There was a time when the JD Power reports on "initial quality" (whatever the hell that really is) would be something that we could build an entire ad campaign around. Many of us can remember that industry certification, award or something similar, like ISO certification, that somehow gave us credibility beyond our wildest dreams.

Those days are quickly showing up more in our corporate rear-view mirrors than in our forward-looking headlights. In fact, I predict that the day where we look on those awards with disdain, or at least indifference, is much closer than most companies would like to think. In fact, the shift from industrial and commercial third-party credibility, established back in the 40's & 50's, as the gold standard for credibility and validation to a much more personal, peer-based standard of validation is happing right under the noses of a majority of companies in all manner of industries.

It's also happening in the financial sector where you have a number of rating agencies that give AAA, AA and other ratings to financial institutions and commercial enterprises that are increasingly "bought and paid for" and "shopped around" rather than earned through objective review and stringent standards.

The currency of credibility in the marketplace has always been customer satisfaction, and customers have always voted with their dollars and their feet. However, the day is nearly here where those customers will completely usurp the power of the ratings firms, award givers and other long-held institutions of credibility.

In a world where customer trust in fleeting and costs real, tangible dollars (according to this excellent post by Ted Mininni), we all need to be on our toes when it comes to building, maintaining and growing the level of trust and credibility that we have with our customers. After all, it's their peer-to-peer third party rating of our company that will be the ultimate in credibility currency for the future.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social Media Marketing Best Practice Tip.

I'm fond of saying that social media doesn't have 'best practices' per se, we just have 'current practices'. Those things that we know are working right now with very, very limited play in a real market. That said, I see that Mitch Joel, Six Pixels of Separation, has started a blog meme on pulling together the best practices and has challenged bloggers to write one post. I also see that Toby has already contributed some outstanding insights. Here's my take

Social Media Best Practice Tip:

Alignment: Yes, that's it. Alignment. If your organization is considering (or is well on their way) pursuing social media in your tactical marketing plans. It (social media) MUST be in complete alignment with your strategy and differentiator as an organization and in complete alignment with what you're already doing in your marketing plan.

Strategic & Differentiation Alignment:
If you've not yet read Seth Godin's book, Meatball Sundae, I highly recommend you check it out. In a nutshell, it gets after this very issue. If you're in charge of marketing for any organization that does not (and is not likely to in the future) embody openness, sharing, trust and all of those things that are required in a customer-owns-your-brand world that is social media, this might not be a strategic fit for you. Should you change, perhaps, but that's not the issue here. Just as I would rarely advise a B2B startup client to advertise on network television, there are some companies that aren't going to align on social media. One last thing - even though your company has some aligning characteristics...if your legal department doesn't, your social media marketing plan may have a hard time getting off the ground. I'm just sayin'...

Marketing Plan Alignment:
This one's a bit easier, but still a challenge, and we're still talking about alignment. If you decide to setup a Twitter account because it's cool, but you're not blogging and you're expecting things to just explode for you, that's unrealistic (but, you already knew that...) You need to align social media vehicles with that you're already doing and plan appropriately for their launch. If you have a customer database but you've never sent an email, maybe do that first...then put up the videos, then email your customers again, then get the blog going, then seed you customers with that and get the real conversation going... I'm still bullish on data and collecting it on prospects and customers (RSS subscribers and video viewers are not success metrics in the end) and employing that data in your marketing and social media efforts.

[UPDATE] One more thing... This 'social media thing' is new, and it's not...you know what I mean...right? Well, here's what I mean. Companies that do well in social media are those same types of organizations with the criteria identified by Jim Collins in Good to Great. They would meet the test of social media readiness. Examples of that criteria include: humility, acting as a servant leader, being able to accept brutal honesty, availability, a willingness to share credit (ideally, give full credit to others) and take sole responsibility and blame for failures.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

8 Tips for Selling Social Marketing to CFOs. Marketers are usually challenged to justify word of mouth social media marketing programs to the finance department. With economic challenges ahead, your job doesn’t get easier. As someone who’s focuses on both creative and measurement, and as Interim CFO at Bazaarvoice, I started thinking more about the question of what marketers need to sell CFOs on the social marketing opportunity. Ultimately everything comes down to the bottom line – drive revenue, margin or costs down – but every marketing strategy has a different familiarity, timeline to ROI, or measurements that have to tie back to the P&L. So the approach to start, grow and sustain social marketing through the eyes of the finance department will differ from doing business as usual. And the justification needs to span beyond the numbers to get the entire management team to understand the ‘ecosystem’ effect of how customers make purchase decisions in a networked world.I posed a question on LinkediN question to my marketing peers and colleagues: With the economic downturn, how will you convince the CFO that "social" marketing is a priority?I’ve summarized the 25 answers to the question into these 8 tips: Provide financial leaders with hard facts—give numbers representing the anticipated dollar value of social media marketing compared to its cost (ex: anticipated ROI) for your company, cite research on the proven effectiveness of social media (ex: reviews/testimonials turn potential customers into actual customers, which is crucial, especially during an economic downturn) and emphasize that a company should always aim to... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Three Reasons Why Contribution > Community . I hear the word "community" from many marketing managers these days. I hear it so often it would seem every business should strive to have a community. As if community is becoming a common business objective or goal.While the concept of community -- and assumed relationship to WOM and customer loyalty -- is attractive, the realized business impact of community is a far reach for most companies. I launched a community of baby boomers back in '97. Chat and forums made Thirdage.com a community, but even within these environments, unpredictable sub-communities around topics of passion formed. That's when I realized that a community has to be founded on common interests, passions and goals. A company can create a thread of passion and community where one seemingly does not exist. Fiskars created a community around scrap bookers. Makers Mark created an effective "Ambassador" community for their bourbon whiskey that other liquor companies covet. However, as worthwhile as these communities are, I assert the vast majority of their customers neither heard of, nor participated in, nor heard from members from these communities.As such, you have to ask yourself questions before venturing into a community. How strong can your brand or products yield community? And then, how will the mechanics of that community yield significant business results? Will participation be high, or is it ok with you to host a nice online place for 500 of your most loyal customers to become members, in which only 20 participate regularly? How close is the... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Is Your Marketing Head in the Sand?. It seems most marketers, at times like this, are retrenching and burying themselves ‘in what they know’. Or they're being asked to. Managers are afraid to tee up new social marketing ideas to senior execs, since "6 programs just got cut". The CFO is asking to cut any marketing that can not be proven to be accretive to current ROI figures. That’s all understandable, but now is not the time to bury your head in the sand, for your career or for your business. Three reasons why: Assume everyone else is doing that (burying heads in the sand). Don’t you (as a person and business) want to stand out and differentiate? Don’t you want to go where your competitor is not? Don’t you want to be stronger and smarter than competition with social marketing activities as we come out of this recession? Aren’t customers even MORE wary of traditional marketing and advertising, turning to each other more for authentic advice. User generated content is growing at times like this – in both creation and consumption. 8 out of 10 shoppers consulted reviews before buying their holiday gifts. 70% of Twitter accounts were created in 2008. Facebook is expected to grow to 200M (from 150M users) by the end of this year. And I’ve seen no slow down in customers posting user generated content through our clients.Don’t fall back when the rest of the market is moving forward. Take this opportunity to take advantage of sleeping competitors. Be the light for... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Social media: It's all about risk, resources and rewards..

In countless discussions about social media, digital marketing tools and "what's next," I've determined that it's critical for all marketers to put a framework around their decisions on what tools to use, when to use them and how to get started. I put these decisions into a general "3-R" framework.

Risk: What's your tolerance?
Whether you're catapulting your brand into the social media sphere by simultaneously starting a blog, moderating a customer community and twittering, or if you're simply monitoring social media to get a glimpse of how the world sees you, there's a certain modicum of risk involved. You need to determine how much risk you're willing to take.

Social-media risk can manifest in the following ways:
> Exposure to issues that you'd rather not confront in a Web-based public forum.
> Suppliers and competitors watching your every move and your every flaw.
> Legal ramifications of customers commenting on bugs, defects, recalls, etc.
> Sharing control of your finely crafted brand message with passionate, yet misguided, fans.

Organizations that are ethical, honest, have strong brands and a strong sense of self will prevail and enjoy a low-risk environment in their social media endeavors. However, if your organization is secretive, insecure and does things you wouldn't tell your mother about, then you'll likely find there's simply too much risk for you in social media.

Resources: Do you have them?
This is probably the number one question I hear: "What does it take to do this stuff (blogging, social media, podcasts, etc.)?" For most companies, the cost of technical resources is the least of their worries. In fact, a majority of marketers who deploy social-media campaigns find it's the least expensive part of their budget. It's much more important to have the right people in place to help with your social media efforts. Whether that's a knowledgeable person in-house or a paid consultant, human resources are the most important aspect of putting social media to work in your organization.

Rewards: What do you expect?
Let's be serious. The only reason we're in marketing is to pursue capitalistic rewards. If we really want to pursue social media as part of our marketing - with low risk and few resources - we can certainly have at it. In the final analysis, however, we need to show substantial rewards in order to make it worth our while.

The ROI of social media depends on your overall goals. Most marketers define social-media rewards in the following ways:
> An increase in Website page views from social media sources.
> A larger network of customers and fans on social networking sites.
> Growth in your prospect email database.
> Increased conversation about your company on the Internet.

When considering social media as a component of your marketing mix, remember the three R's: risks, resources and rewards. By vetting your plans against these criteria and asking the right questions, you'll be on the path to social-media success.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

To CEOs Cutting Budgets: "Cheap is Expensive" . What a dilemma! You are asked to reduce budget, cut costs, reduce expenses. However, you need your BEST to gain market share, compete for customer dollars and emerge from the recession as a winner. You need the best employees, technology, service, partners, vendors, and agencies so you can outsmart and out-execute competition. You need the best to drive demand when marketing rules are being reinvented by customer conversations. You need the best because, more than ever before, the quality of your inside is visible to the outside, and that market is judging with their wallets.You’ve been reading (perhaps experiencing) about recent company layoffs. I’m guessing most companies are making lay off decision based on roles the business needs, but also employee performance. It would seem obvious that every company wants to keep their best people. Although I’ve heard of companies that offer voluntary attrition with a healthy severance package. You know who takes that package? The best employees. What’s left at that company? Well…fewer of those best employees. Again, the quality of your inside is visible to your outside. The quality of a company is a function of the quality of people it keeps. At Bazaarvoice, we go to great lengths to hire the best employees, and it has made a significant difference to our performance, which is a function of the performance we deliver for our clients. But imagine if we didn’t hire the best. Imagine if we hired the cheapest employees, or had no discipline in our hiring... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

The Ryder Cup of Word of Mouth. Sean Moffitt at Agent Wildfire, author of blog Buzz Canuck, just published a list of top 23 U.S. Word of Mouth bloggers. As described by Sean..."...these broad-minded bloggers and company heads have distinguished themselves by trying to understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics. In my opinion, they are much closer to the purpose and benefits of web 2.0, co-creation, social networks and other web, cultural and social phenomenon."I tip my hat to him for adding me to the list. I'm honored to be among this group. And I need to work on fulfilling this honor by keeping up on this blog, though these days I do a lot of blogging on Social Commerce and WOM on Bazaarblog.Here's his list of the USA Team:1. Jackie Huba/Ben McConnell - Church of the Customer (Austin, Texas)2. Andy Sernovitz - Damn! I Wish I Thought of That! (Chicago, Illinois)3. Pete Blackshaw - CGM (4. Jim Nail - Cymfony5. Ed Keller - Keller Fay6. Jeremiah Owyang - Web Strategist7. Rohit Bhargarva - Influential Marketing8. Owen Mack - CoBrandIt9. Walter Karl - WOM Study10. Fred Reichheld - Net Promoter - Boston11. Max Kalehoff - Attention Max12. Oliver Blanchard - Brand Builder13. Charlene Li - Groundswell14. Sam Decker15. Joseph Jaffe16. John Moore - Brand Autopsy (Austin, Texas)17. Peter Kim, Being Peter Kim (Austin, Texas)18. Mack Collier - The Viral Garden19. Spike Jones - Brains on Fire20. Ron McDaniel - Buzzoodle21.John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing22. Kim Proctor -... (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

User Generated Content is Booming for Baby Boomers. A marketer from a manufacturer brand recently asked me if user generated content was relevant to the baby boomer and senior population. Boomers make up of 35% of the Internet population. While it’s true that Millenials (the 13-24 generation) share content at double the rate of Baby boomers (56%), 31% of Baby Boomers share their own user generated content. This could be in the form of reviews, blog posts, comments, discussion forums, etc. Bazaarvoice has several clients with a high percentage of boomers in their base that are getting great results from UGC; such as QVC, Sears, Macy’s, Blair, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Golfsmith, and many others. The use of search (where 25%+ of results are UGC) and usefuleness of user generated content for a purchase is relevant at any age. Just ask someone you know over 50 if they read reviews when they shop online. Nielsen found 8 out of 10 shoppers used reviews when shopping over the holidays, and that includes 35% of the internet population that are boomers!If you are interested in learning more about marketing and new media strategies for the Baby Boomer generation, consider attending the What’s Next Boomer Summit, March 19 in Las Vegas. There will be an E-Revenue Bootcamp. I will be speaking there and will discuss the impact of UGC and customer reviews for this generation. Also, Guy Kawasaki will keynote. Should be a great conference! (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

I've just launched the first of a series of marketing, thought leaderships and social media events that I'll be running in Wisconsin in 2009. If you're up for some 'marketing stimulus', I recommend that you check out this program!

The MarketingSavant Group invites you to attend the Marketing Stimulus Plan Boot-Camp, a one-day in-depth workshop that will jumpstart or revitalize your marketing efforts in these tough times. The best companies don't cut marketing spend in a downturn, they do the opposite. They know that even the toughest market conditions still provide plenty of opportunity.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Who: The MarketingSavant Group
What: What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan? Workshop
When: January 27th, 2009 from 8:30 to 4:45
Where: De Pere, WI at the F.K. Bemis Center - St. Norbert College
How Much: $295 early reg / $395 after 1/9/09
Where do I Sign Up: At the Eventbrite website

Marketing managers, sales professionals, business owners, and executives within small to medium sized companies responsible for sustaining profitability and striving growth in a downturn will learn how to:

* Develop a road map for putting frugal, ethical and effective marketing strategies in place immediately
* Understand how new approaches in digital and social media marketing can catapult your company into new market opportunities
* Adapt your marketing spend for today's unpredictable economy
* Adjust prices and promotions without sacrificing market share or brand image
* Focus on accountability and obtaining measurable results from your investments
* Improve strategic and tactical planning with marketing ROI techniques and tools
* Manage your marketing budget and collaborate CFO and CEO

It's been said that "Every adversity carries a seed of equal or greater benefit." This program will help you and your business find the silver lining in those dark clouds by adopting creative, compelling, and low-cost/high-return marketing strategies. We'll discuss and learn new ways to devise new strategies to overcome economic turmoil, and execute new tactics to win, sustain and grow new business.
Bonus Item for Attendees:

All attendees will receive a copy of Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Strategies for Smart Marketers, a 90-page e-book featuring over 25 interviews with leading marketers, consultants, managers and business owners sharing their most effective marketing strategies for remaining profitable and sustaining growth during a downturn.

Who Should Attend?
* Marketing and communications professionals
* Small business owners
* Channel and brand managers
* Entrepreneurs and start-up managers
* Advertising and public relations professionals seeking new client solutions

You'll Walk Away With:

* Dozens of low-cost and effective ideas that you can implement immediately to jumpstart your marketing in the recession of 2009
* The tools, templates and action plans you'll need to succeed in the world of digital and social media marketing
* An idea packed e-book, Marketing in a Downturn: Recession-Proof Marketing Strategies for Smart Marketers, on how to make the most of your marketing in a recession

Register Now at Eventbrite

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

What are your 2009 marketing predictions?.

Welcome (almost) to the new calendar year! I hope that the buzz of Christmas is still with you!

It's that time of year where we shift our focus (if we haven't already) to the possibilities of 2009. I'd like to kick that off by asking what your marketing predictions are for 2009? I've started a new site specifically for 2009 marketing predictions. It's at http://www.2009marketingpredictions.com.

So, put on your Nostradamus hat and let me know where you see marketing and marketers heading for 2009 and beyond!

Here are mine (all explained in greater detail here):

1. Marketers apply lessons from the 2008 Presidential campaign.
2. Marketers will measure absolutely everything.
3. Insurgent marketers will win big market share.
4. Customer data will be the most precious marketing resource.
5. Everyone becomes a marketer.
6. Marketers focus on targeting.
7. Consumers expect feedback loops; companies respond.
8. Mobile and location really begin to matter.
9. Tactics will still lead before strategy.
10. B2B Marketers will increasingly seek a 'thought leadership' based approach to marketing.

Post yours here - What are your 2009 Marketing Predictions?

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Small Business: Your Employees and Politics.

I was poking around on the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) website this morning doing some client research and found this helpful page on 'how to educate your employees about politics". Namely, how policies affect small business and thus how they affect your employees.

Great resource - check it out here:
Get Ready for Election 2008: Educate Others - NFIB

Factoid: Did you know that of the 45 million Americans with no health insurance, 51 percent are small-business owners, their employees or dependents. Wow...

[UPDATE] Better yet, check out the 'Protect Free Enterprise' site and the NFIB YouTube Channel!

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

Survey: Flexing, Floundering or 'Just Fine Thanks': Work/Life Issues in America.

Hey folks - shameless plug for a client/friend here - a great survey covering a topic that's near and dear to me - work/life & flexible work. Take the survey, send it to your boss and spread the word!

Life Meets Work and Ask Liz Ryan are conducting our first annual survey: Flexing, Floundering, or 'Just Fine Thanks': Work/Life Issues in America.

We're capturing the opinions of Americans regarding work/life challenges, the role of government in flexible work programs (that ought to be interesting!) and other such fun stuff.

The survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Your responses are confidential and only will be shared in aggregate. Take the Survey now.

The results will be discussed during a webinar on October 28, 2008. To register for the Webinar, click here.

(02/24/09 09:00 AM)

What are your 2009 marketing predictions?.

Welcome (almost) to the new calendar year! I hope that the buzz of Christmas is still with you!

So, put on your Nostradamus hat and let me know where you see marketing and marketers heading for 2009 and beyond!

Here are mine (all explained in greater detail here):

Post yours here - What are your 2009 Marketing Predictions?

(12/28/08 09:00 PM)

New Event! What's Your Marketing Stimulus Plan?.

Attend this one-day workshop to refine and revitalize your marketing strategy to help you swim upstream during the recession and position your company for long-term success.

Register Now at Eventbrite

(12/17/08 09:00 PM)

Third-party credibility ain't what it used to be.

(11/20/08 09:00 PM)

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