Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at Gapingvoid, Hugh MacLeod tells the story of a superstar blogger who publicly congratulated a corporate competitor for joining the blogosphere. In her “welcome to the neighborhood” post, she also complimented one of her competitor’s products, “which truth be told,” says MacLeod, “is … really good … for that industry.”
A senior executive at her own company quickly excoriated the superstar in an internal email that bemoaned the press she gave to a competitive product. “What the poor suit doesn’t realize, of course, is that on a basic, primal level, how you talk about your competition actually says a lot more about you, than talking about yourself ever will,” says MacLeod.
He argues that a willingness to acknowledge the quality in a competitor’s product or service underscores the confidence you have in your own. Great artists, he notes, often champion protégés and colleagues; hacks, meanwhile, run around denouncing established artists as overrated or untalented. “Animals can smell fear,” says MacLeod, “or the lack thereof.” And when the superstar explained this rationale to the executive, he eventually came around to her perspective.
We see plenty of Marketing Inspiration in MacLeod’s philosophy: “[W]hat’s true at cocktail parties is also true in marketing,” he says. “If you want to be boring, talk about yourself. If you want to be interesting, talk about something other than yourself.”
Source: MarketingProfs enewsletter
Crumbs from the Scone
“Most people are not very good listeners,” write Don and Sheryl Grimme in The New Manager’s Toolkit. The reason, the say, is that we spend our days juggling personal and professional issues, and find it difficult to focus entirely on those facing our employees and colleagues. When this happens, we don’t listen as closely as we should, and often jump to conclusions based on an inadequate understanding of the situation. This not only makes our marketing teams less effective, it alienates those offering the input and feedback we requested.
To remedy the situation, the Grimmes offer a step-by-step process for optimizing an active listening process:
Stop and give the other person your full attention.
Remain silent. Resist the urge to finish a sentence.
Collect facts, and assess what the person wants you to understand.
Ask reflective questions that paraphrase or rephrase a statement, e.g. “You want such-and-such. Is that right?”
Follow up with open-ended questions such as “What would you like to see happen?” or “Is there anything else?”
According to the Grimmes, a simple conversation with little emotional content might require only the first two steps. “[I]n other words, shut up and listen,” they say. But it never hurts to close with a reflective question that confirms or clarifies the conclusion.
Source: The New Manager’s Toolkit.
Crumbs from the Scone
The possibilities for mobile marketing grow with each new smartphone introduced. For marketers, it’s best to keep on top of the latest iterations—to better design mobile campaigns that dazzle. The latest newcomer? RIM’s new multimedia Blackberry, the Storm, arrives tomorrow. After 18 months in development, some say this slick combination of high-tech and high-touch is Blackberry’s best shot at the iPhone.
Some points: The Storm is a little thicker than the iPhone 3G, and comes with 1GB of internal storage (upgradeable to 8GB), a removable battery and a 3.26″ screen display—smaller but higher resolution than the iPhone. Its video playback, touch-to-click keyboard, and accelerometer are notable. But it conspicuously lacks Wi-Fi and some of Apple’s renowned navigational elegance.
With 40 different smartphones on the market (Canalys), consumers have a lot of comparison shopping to do. For instance, you can’t overlook the G1 (a ‘Googlephone’ based on the company’s Android operating system). It currently supports real-time pricing while you shop by turning the phone’s camera into a bar-code scanner.
Side-by-side comparisons of Storm and iPhone will be of limited value until the Storm has been in enough hands to test. But as Skype Journal Editor and smartphone follower Jim Courtney says, “The combination of Storm, with RIM’s Blackberry and enterprise ecosystem, and Verizon, with its 3G network experience, are going to give iPhone (and Android) serious headaches.”
Source: Howard Greenfield of Go Associates.
Crumbs from the Scone
According to Loren McDonald, any email list will include recipients who have unsubscribed “emotionally.” Instead of hitting the unsubscribe button, they delete your messages without reading them, or direct their delivery to a junk folder they rarely check. “Their addresses are valid,” he says, “but their attention is elsewhere. They either never clicked or clicked in the past but not recently.”
Reaching out to inactive subscribers means identifying those who belong in this segment. “Don’t rely [solely] on open rates,” advises McDonald, “because they are notoriously inaccurate. Instead, decide how you want to define inactivity—no clicks in 12 or 18 months, for example—and create segments that fit your definitions.” Once you have a targeted group:
Invite them to create or update a preference page; opt in again; or opt out. A caveat from McDonald: “It is important that when the subscriber clicks through to the preference page that it is pre-populated with their existing preferences enabling quick and easy changes.”
Use surveys to learn what they’d like to see—or not. “For example,” he says, “if you believe that … subscribers are fading away from too many emails, pose questions [about] … frequency options such as weekly, bi-weekly and monthly.”
Send a personalized offer based on past activity or purchases.
Source: MarketingProfs.
Crumbs from the Scone
What’s B2B without CRM? Not much. Every smart B2B marketer knows that much of the process of converting prospects into loyal clients rests on customer service.
In a recent post at the B2B Marketing Confidential blog, Andy Hasselwander offered a way to craft a practical, tangible CRM plan for your B2B sales team to follow—by defining four components of the “CRM Value Chain.” They are:
Marketing Management. Deciding who you are. This is your company’s “marketing nerve center, where all core decisions are made about the customers and the brand,” Hasselwander explains. “The functions of marketing management [include] product features, packaging, and value propositions,” he says.
Outbound Management. Telling the world who you are. “The outbound function should entail communications (TV, radio, email, etc.); experiences (product [and] service); and influentials (the media … bloggers … etc.)”
Customer-Focused Branding. Targeting individuals. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to think of the B2B brand as the collective set of attitudes and perceptions latent in the individuals inside the decision-making units at your firm’s customers,” he says.
Inbound Listening. Hearing what they’re saying about you. There are five primary elements of listening, according to Hasselwander: sampling (tracking studies), chatter (Web or otherwise), engagement (two-way conversations), purchases (buying behavior) and loyalty.
Source: B2B Marketing Confidential.
Crumbs from the Scone
Lots of marketers recognize the demographic of chatty young females who can’t live without their cell phones. And many rush to create ads to get into that chatty mix. But, hold the phone! One group studied by ExactTarget and Ball State University does not want to hear from you by phone or text:
Young Homemakers.
In its recent whitepaper, ExactTarget identified this group as “females, between the ages of 18 and 34 … who consider ‘homemaker’ to be their primary occupation.” True to form, these ladies love to connect via mobile phone. They are also media-savvy. “Across the board, Young Homemakers spend approximately 40% of their day exposed to 2 or more forms of media concurrently.”
So, given this level of media savvy, what is the Young Homemakers’ preferred channel for receiving marketing communications? Surprise, surprise: just like we recently reported about teens, it’s direct mail:
72% of Young Homemakers have been influenced to purchase through direct mail.
53% have purchased as a result of an email marketing message.
“While Young Homemakers use new media channels like … [crazy], they don’t want marketers bugging them through these channels,” ExactTarget concludes. “They have two channels available for marketers: direct mail and email.”
Source: ExactTarget
Crumbs from the Scone
If your product or service caters to well-heeled customers, you might soon discover a new segment: the Middle Aged Simplifier. According to John Quelch of Harvard Business Online, they spent the boom years accumulating status symbols. “As [those at the top] grew richer,” Quelch reports, “pressure increased on those below to trade up. And, as they traded up, pressure increased in turn on the well-off to buy even more—the second home, the big screen TV and the latest sport-utility vehicle.”
Despite the fact that families got smaller and professionals spent less time at home, the square footage of their houses continued to grow. “In 2006,” notes Quelch, “35% of new homes exceeded 2,400 square feet in floor space compared with 18% in 1986.” They merrily stocked their houses with upgraded appliances, furniture and other high-end household goods.
These consumers are now dealing with an over-consumption hangover, and Quelch says their mantra now sounds a bit like this:
I have more than I need.
I’m embarrassed by my gas-guzzling Range Rover.
I no longer feel the need to impress others with possessions.
I want meaningful experiences, not more stuff.
“Tomorrow’s consumer will buy more ephemeral, less cluttering stuff: fleeting, but expensive, experiences, not heavy goods for the home,” says Quelch.
The Po!nt: Keep the Middle Aged Simplifier in mind as you fine-tune messaging and product development for your upscale offerings.
Source: Harvard Business Online.
Crumbs from the Scone
“Tough economic times increase the pressure on marketers to hit their goals for open rate, click-throughs, conversions, and new email subscriber acquisition,” says DJ Francis at the Online Marketer Blog. “Some marketers believe renting email lists is a way to reach these goals.” But, as the title of his post spells out, he believes this strategy is the best way to kill your email list in 2009.
Here are the problems, according to Francis:
It’s unlikely that content will be relevant to a subscriber who signed up for something else.
This diminished relevance leads to diminished trust, both in the company that sold the subscriber’s information and the company who delivered what she considers spam. “List rental is the toxic waste of online customer relations,” he says. “It poisons everything it touches.”
Despite these dangers, Francis cites a survey that found 29 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase the use of third-party list rentals in the coming year. He vigorously recommends against joining this trend.
The Point: Build it yourself. “You can’t afford to kill your email list during this economic downturn,” says Francis. “But building your own list, building trust, and staying relevant can avert this disaster.”
Cheers, Skip
Source: Online Marketer Blog.
Crumbs from the Scone
A post at the Responsible Marketing Blog highlights some companies that aligned marketing campaigns with the recent election. “With estimates of turnout exceeding 130 million people,” it says, “Election Day promotions make sense.” The roundup includes:
A one-minute video from Starbucks yearns for a country in which 100 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots, and we care enough to make a difference year-round, not just on election day. The Seattle-based company offers to reward those who participate in the November 4 election with a free cup of coffee if customers say they voted.
Krispy Kreme, meanwhile, has an offer for November 4 called Hot Vote Now. Customers with an “I Voted” sticker receive a free star-shaped doughnut with sprinkles of red, white and blue.
And then there’s Ben & Jerry’s, which used the headline “Democracy Never Tasted So Sweet!” to advertise a free scoop of ice cream between the hours of 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM on November 4.
“The voters win,” say the sagacious people at Responsible Marketing, “because they are exercising their rights and getting free stuff. The marketers win because they are gaining the benefit of unprecedented election buzz while aligning themselves with an activity that’s both responsible and patriotic.”
Your Marketing Inspiration: Though it will be four long years before the next presidential election, it never hurts to look for similar win-win marketing opportunities.
Cheers, Skip
Crumbs from the Scone
In her keynote address at our Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona, Arianna Huffington gave her play-by-play for turning the eponymous Huffington Post into a social media juggernaut. Rohit Bhargava—himself a superstar blogger—was also at the event, and he discusses the secrets to Huffington’s blogging success at the Influential Marketing Blog. Here are a few of his observations:
Huffington makes it easy for contributors, even those who are technologically averse, to participate. “Not a purist about blogging,” notes Bhargava, “Arianna’s point of view on blog posts [is] simple—if someone shares their thoughts transparently and honestly, the site can publish it as a blog post.” There’s a “backstage” area where her enormous roster of bloggers may upload their essays electronically, but they can send posts by pigeon for all she cares. The late historian Arthur Schlesinger preferred communication by fax; superagent Ari Emmanuel, meanwhile, likes to give dictation over the phone.
She builds on her big hits. When gossip blogger Perez Hilton linked to her blog, Huffington not only earned the admiration of her daughter, she saw a serious spike in traffic. Though 72 percent of the visitors never returned, some came back periodically—and an impressive seven percent became regular readers. “Multiply that effect over three years of traffic and big hits, and the result is their current traffic of more than 20 million unique visitors per month,” says Bhargava.
The Point: Huffington doesn’t get hung up on definitions of what makes a blog a blog—and neither should you.
Cheers, Skip
Source: Influential Marketing Blog.
