Crumbs from the Scone
“I am still unsubscribing from lots of emails in an email account that I no longer wish to use,” writes Tamara Gielen in a post at BeRelevant!
“While doing so, I’ve come across a couple of practices that make me want to scream.” In truth, she has encountered more than a few worst practices, and her list of rage-inducing issues sounds all too familiar. Here are some of the lowlights:
Making the recipient log in to unsubscribe. “I usually don’t remember my login details, and asking for a password reminder results in more email in my inbox,” explains Gielen.
Using a word other than “unsubscribe” to label the unsubscribe link. Hiding the link behind words that obscure its purpose will only frustrate your subscribers.
Using a miniscule font size legible only with the aid of a magnifying glass. “I wear glasses because I have bad eyesight,” she says. “Don’t remind me of that every time I want to unsubscribe.”
Sending an email to confirm the request. According to Gielen, a simple confirmation at your website will do.
Be considerate when it’s time to say good-bye. A recipient might have benign reasons for unsubscribing—but you’ll have a much harder time winning them back if you make the process more annoying than it has to be.
Source: BeRelevant!
Crumbs from the Scone
When Tropicana unveiled entirely new packaging for its Pure Premium orange juice early this year, the company received an unexpectedly vocal response from a small cadre of customers. According to Stuart Elliot, writing at the New York Times, they didn’t mince words—using adjectives like “ugly” and “stupid,” the unhappy shoppers complained that the new packaging made Tropicana look like a generic store brand.
In an interview with the newspaper, Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana, said, “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”
Deciding he couldn’t ignore his most loyal customers, nor their emotional bond to the old look, Campbell made a drastic decision. The sleek new design was out; the old packaging, with its evocative image of a straw pressed into an orange, would return. The company even plans to contact everyone who left feedback and explain the changes they can expect.
Campbell provides Marketing Inspiration by treating the strongly negative reaction with equanimity. “I feel it’s the right thing to do, to innovate as a company,” he told the New York Times. “I wouldn’t want to stop innovating as a result of this. At the same time, if consumers are speaking, you have to listen.”
Source: The New York Times.
Crumbs from the Scone
On Friday 2/27/09, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for “skittles,” then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize.
The experiment in surrendering the entire brand entirely to users—orchestrated by Agency.com, inspired by Modernista—drove interest in the Skittles brand through the roof! On Monday 3/2/09, “skittles” was mentioned in about 1% of tweets on Twitter.
Boy, does that sound dreamy! A figure like that is fit to make any sane brand want to trade places with Skittles in an instant.
But wait! That’s not the whole story.
Bored with lavish brand love, and eager to exercise their power on a piece of Americana, users on Twitter began badmouthing Skittles late Tuesday afternoon. As expected, all that ill will appeared in freeform across the skittles.com “homepage” (which at the time pointed to a real-time Twitter search for “skittles”). By day’s end, the humbled (and smart!) brand yanked itself out of users’ fickle arms and pointed its homepage to Facebook.
What’s the lesson here? Simple: Don’t be afraid to let users help shape your brand, but remember it is still your brand. As in any healthy relationship, sometimes even prospects need a little pushback.
Be a good brand-parent. Part of maintaining a strong brand identity is knowing when to put your foot down!
Crumbs from the Scone
Are your sales pipelines feeling a bit clogged lately? Well, welcome to the recession, says Scott Gillum in a recent MarketBridge blog post. “With customers delaying and/or postponing decisions altogether, the ol’ pipeline ain’t what it used to be,” he notes. But, lucky for us, he then offers 7 Pipeline Management Tactics to help get B2B sales flowing again. Among his tips:
Apply a layer of BANT. “By qualifying and re-qualifying opportunities based on Budget, Authority, Need and Time, you will get to the bottom line on why leads are not advancing,” Gillum advises. “Reps will say that it’s ‘B,’ but I wouldn’t assume that,” he adds.
Define a lead, and stick to it. “Look, it’s going to be a difficult road, but be honest with yourself on what is truly a lead,” he says. “Leads are defined by meeting a BANT criterion.” Period.
Manage responses. You can still strike it rich here. “So sort the ‘junk,’ and find the diamonds in the rough, pick out the ones who are in the right companies or have the right titles, and work them,” Gillum advises.
Grab customer face time. “It’s during these times that you need to have your reps in front of customers,” he insists. “[T]hey can tell you why [they aren’t buying], when things might loosen, who you need to get to, etc.”
Be proactive. Act on solid B2B sales-management tips like these. You might get those pipelines flowing smoothly again.
Source: MarketBridge.
Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, Mack Collier tells the story of Alison Heath, the director of marketing for a small company that received favorable coverage from the Washington Post. “That’s good,” he says. “Unfortunately, [though], commenters were attacking the business, based on the information contained in the article, which implied that the company didn’t provide health insurance to its workers.”
Heath decided to say something. She introduced herself, clarified that the company had offered insurance since 2007 and invited commenters to offer ongoing feedback. According to Collier, her evenhanded response had a dramatic impact on the tone of the conversation. “After Allison’s comment,” he notes, “11 other people commented, and ten of them were positive.”
Here’s what Heath did correctly:
- She politely expressed appreciation for the comments. “Nothing escalates a negative comment into a full-bore flamewar faster than an ‘Oh yeah?!?’ reply from the company,” he notes.
- She gently corrected the incorrect conclusion to which readers had hastily jumped.
- She not only encouraged further input, she offered her email address so readers could send private messages.
“If you are thankful and respectful toward commenters, even those that are attacking your company,” says Collier, “the end result will almost always be a positive experience.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
Crumbs from the Scone
Under normal circumstances, Dylan Boyd believes email copy should be clear and concise. He explains his straightforward rationale in a post at the Email Wars blog: “[I]f I get 500-700 emails a day in my inbox, then I need to know WHO, WHAT, WHY and What’s in it for me. End of story.” But a recent long-form email message from beleaguered automaker Saab exemplifies an exception to Boyd’s rule. When customers become aware of corporate woes and wonder what will come next, he argues, it’s better to talk a bit longer.
The multi-paragraph note signed by Mark McNabb, GM’s premium channel vice president, puts Saab’s uncertain future in perspective by stressing its unconventional history and products—in essence, positioning change as a traditional element of the brand.
McNabb then responds to the basic questions most Saab owners will have: “So what exactly does this all mean?” he asks. “To current Saab owners and loyalists, be assured that all warranties on Saab vehicles remain valid. The warranty for both new and Certified Pre-Owned Saab vehicles are provided by GM and remain intact. GM will support continued availability of parts and service … ”
This clarity impressed Boyd. “When a situation [is] as serious and confusing as a major automotive brand facing challenging times, [with] car owners not sure what to do about it … giving them [this] … approach … works for me,” he says.
Sometimes it’s best to just talk. “[T]here are times when copy and emails in letter format are VERY important,” Boyd concludes.
Source: Email Wars
Crumbs from the Scone
In his roles as a successful blogger and an executive at Ogilvy, Rohit Bhargava works on both sides of the public-relations equation. The juxtaposition gives him a unique perspective on how the worlds of PR and media relate to one another, and he used a recent post, “What All PR People Should Know About Journalists,” to give some pointers like these:
Journalists spend their days separating newsworthy items from hyped-up non-stories. They won’t be fooled if you try to make something sound more substantive than it actually is—especially if the story is of no interest to anyone outside your company. In other words, says Bhargava, “[D]on’t bother with the press releases about hiring your new VP of Sales that no one has ever heard of.”
They want more than facts and figures. Attract reporters with an interesting angle that frames your story in a compelling way. If a pitch doesn’t grab their attention, why would their readers care?
They work with people they trust. If interviews fall through and supporting materials don’t arrive when promised, you’ll not only annoy a journalist, you’ll likely jeopardize her deadline. “Burn a reporter once and you’ll be fighting an uphill battle the next time,” he says. “Have it happen twice and you may as well give up any hope of placing a future story.”
Get into a journalist’s mindset, and then throw your next pitch.
Source: Influential Marketing Blog
Crumbs from the Scone
When a company does something extremely well, it’s only natural to analyze its leadership and culture in search of best practices. If we become too enamored of Wall Street’s latest darling, though, it might cloud our ability to identify what truly drives performance. “[I]s Google successful because of its distinctive practices,” asks Bill Taylor in a post at Harvard Business Online, “or can it afford to experiment with these practices because its core business is so damn successful?”
A good question, and one you should ask before implementing the company’s innovative hiring and management policies only to discover, perhaps, that they’re simply the window dressing on Google’s outstanding technology.
To make his point, Taylor offers this quote from Phil Rosenzweig’s book The Halo Effect: “When a company is growing and profitable, we tend to infer that it has a brilliant strategy, a visionary CEO, motivated people, and a vibrant culture. When performance falters, we’re quick to say the strategy was misguided, the CEO became arrogant, the people were complacent, and the culture stodgy.” The problem, according to Rosenweig, is that laudatory journalism often describes high performers without pinpointing what actually led to business success.
Your Marketing Inspiration comes from Bill Taylor: “When someone tries to put a halo around any company, you’ve got to remain aware of the Halo Effect. We all need something to believe in—but blind faith isn’t always the best way to see the future.
Crumbs from the Scone
Dylan Boyd, who blogs at The Email Wars, tells the story of an email with the subject line: “Limited time only: save up to 25%! Plus get free shipping.” Within, he discovered more action verbs than you could shake a stick at.
At the top of the email there’s a “Shop now” link; below this, a “Spend More, Save More” campaign touts savings of 15% on orders of $125; 20% off a $200 purchase; and a 25% discount if customers rack up a $250 tab. To redeem the offer at checkout, the copy instructs, enter the promo code SAVEMORE.
But wait, there’s more! Just below this, an offer for free shipping on orders of $125 or more has the promo code SHIPFREE. “Was I supposed to shop?” asks Boyd. “Was I going to save? Would it be free? Or did they just want to test all sorts of ideas in one email?”
Worse, he wasn’t sure what to expect if he clicked through to the retailer’s website. “Would I forget to use the coupon code? Would the coupon code give me all of these things at once? Or would I need to go back and forth … ?”
Boyd offered some quick advice, based on this experience: “[F]ocus on the value and the driver to action. If you give too many messages from subject line to email, you will confuse and possibly lose the sale.”
Calm down. Don’t confuse your subscriber with a flurry of offers in a single email.
Source: The Email Wars.
Crumbs from the Scone
Despite the obvious benefits of Web 2.0, the largely unregulated world of social media also poses some unique challenges for companies concerned about a host of issues ranging from legal liability to corporate branding.
What to do? In The e-Policy Handbook, Nancy Flynn recommends a formal blogging policy with clearly defined rules like these:
Institute safeguards for trade secrets and corporate relationships. Don’t assume an employee knows which content is—and is not—fair game for a blog post.
Prohibit anonymous blogging. “Anonymity creates an atmosphere in which some people might be tempted to write in an irresponsible, offensive harassing, defamatory, or otherwise inappropriate manner,” she says. “It also runs counter to the blogosphere’s honest and transparent nature.”
Provide guidance on media inquiries. Many journalists will contact bloggers in the course of writing a story. According to Flynn, a common corporate policy asks bloggers to direct all media inquiries to the organization’s public-relations department.
“Put best practices to work by focusing on the 3-Es of blog risk management,” says Flynn. “Establish policy, educate employees and enforce policy with discipline and monitoring technology.”
Source: The e-Policy Handbook.
“I am still unsubscribing from lots of emails in an email account that I no longer wish to use,” writes Tamara Gielen in a post at BeRelevant!
