Crumbs from the Scone
As fallout from the current economic crisis continues to mount, thoughtful people are beginning to ask what we can learn from this experience. In a post at Harvard Business Online, Bill Taylor highlights a Warren Buffett interview on Charlie Rose in which the billionaire investor responds to the question “Should wise people have known better?” in the affirmative, with the note that there’s a natural progression when things go wrong:
Innovation
Imitation
Idiocy
An innovator spots an untapped opportunity; the imitator attempts to capitalize on its merit; finally, explains Taylor, the idiot goes and apes the imitator, and with avarice “undoes the very innovations [he is] trying to use to get rich.”
According to Taylor, avoiding this cycle means developing the ability to distinguish between “genuine innovation” and “mindless imitation.” In other words, he asks, “Are you prepared to walk away from ideas that promise to make money [when] they make no sense?” Taylor, like Buffett, concedes this is easier said than done when you see competition heading in a particular direction and fear you’ll never catch up if you don’t join the charge. It takes discipline, notes Taylor, to remain conscious of the difference—taking advantage of innovation without getting caught up in the idiocy.
The Point: “[D]on’t use the financial crisis as an excuse to stop taking chances or downsize your ambitions,” says Taylor. “But do use the crisis as an opportunity to take stock of what really matters—and to stop looking over your shoulder.”
Cheers, Skip
Source: Harvard Business Online.
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In a video from BNET, Edward Muzio of Group Harmonics explains how email conversations can start unnecessary fights. “It happens all the time,” he says. “It starts out as a simple bit of information; turns first into a discussion; then an argument; finally our inbox is full of emails back and forth. No one knows what’s going on.”
The reason this happens is simple—and surprising. In conversation, says Muzio, words account for a paltry seven percent of the information we perceive. And since an email exchange makes it virtually impossible to convey visual cues (55 percent) and tone (38 percent), your recipient might “hear” something you didn’t intend. Muzio illustrates his point by placing stress on various words to demonstrate how the same sentence can carry a number of meanings:
I didn’t say you have an attitude problem (or, don’t blame me—someone else said it).
I didn’t say you have an attitude problem (or, I said that about someone else, not you).
I didn’t say you have an attitude problem (or, you have a problem alright, but not with your attitude).
The solution, argues Muzio, is restricting email communications to facts and data—deadlines, appointments, new policies and the like. Once a discussion veers into emotional content, it’s time to pick up the phone or, better yet, drop in for a face-to-face conversation.
If you choose the right medium for the right conversation, you can keep preventable drama to a minimum—and concentrate your energy on Marketing Inspiration, not Crisis Management.
Cheers, Skip
Source: MarketingProfs newsletter 11/07/08
Crumbs from the Scone
Now’s your chance to bid on a website from Shadowbend Studios! I have donated a Budget Website Solutions package
http://www.shadowbendstudios.com/budget_website_solutions.html to the “Bid For Kids” auction at John Baldwin Elementary School (where my kids are attending kindergarten). Check out the online auction listing here…
http://auction.bidforkids.com/Bidding.taf?_function=detail&Auction_uid1=1738580
Bidding has just begun so there is still time to get one of my websites for a VERY good price!
Take Care,Skip
Crumbs from the Scone
Even if you’ve never heard the term tag cloud, you’ve likely seen them in your online travels: clusters of keywords relevant to a site’s content, rendered in varying font sizes and shades, and often found on the left or right navigation bars. “Flikr, the photo sharing site, was the first high-profile website to use tag clouds,” writes Barry Harrigan in a post at Accelerating IT Sales, “while the origins of tag clouds can be traced back to Douglas Coupland’s 1995 Microserfs.”
You can check out Harrigan’s original post to see examples of the tag clouds he generated at websites like these:
TagCrowd. “After a little tweaking on my part to remove some irrelevant words such as … ‘permalink,'” he notes, “[I] was rewarded with [a] nifty visualization of the content on this site.”
Tag Cloud Generator. “[I]t was easy to use,” says Harrigan, “didn’t require that I register, and created a visually appealing cloud tag.”
MakeCloud. This service displays fewer tags than Tag Cloud, he says, but all accurately reflect his blog’s content.
“Tag clouds are an interesting way to quickly scan a site to figure out if its content is relevant to [a customer’s] needs,” writes Harrigan. “[They] can use tag clouds to search for topical information without having to come up with specific search terms on [their] own.”
The Point: Find that silver lining. Try forming a tag cloud to boost user interest—and clicks—at your site.
Cheers, Skip
Source: Accelerating IT Sales.
Crumbs from the Scone
If you’re like the majority of marketers polled by Jupiter Research, your number one consideration when choosing an ESP is deliverability. But Adam Covati says an ESP can only do so much to ensure your message reaches an inbox; this is, ultimately, your responsibility, and dependent on how you manage your list, your message, your subject line and your reputation.
“Think of ISPs as bouncers at a private club,” he says. “If they don’t know you or they don’t like what you’ve done in the past, you are going to have a hard time getting [past them].” If you want to glide past an ISP’s velvet rope, Covati recommends pondering four questions on a regular basis:
How old are the email addresses on this list?
How long has it been since I have obtained permission from these recipients?
Have too many people on this list unsubscribed?
If recipient “A” has not opened any of the last five messages I have sent, should I remove her from my list?
“You should never guess at email addresses or assume your recipients’ preferences,” he argues. “If you’re not 100 percent confident that an address rightfully belongs on your list, for any reason, you should remove it.” Finally, ask your ESP to help clarify best practices. “Although deliverability is in your hands,” Covati says, “consider your ESP your go-to-resource for getting on the right track.”
The Point: Don’t pass the deliverability buck. Use these four questions to regularly assess your list, to ensure your messages get through.
Cheers, Skip
Source: MarketingProfs. Click to read the article.
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In a recent blog post at ReturnPath, Stephanie Miller offers, in one word, a way to provide optimum service to B2B clients while saving precious marketing dollars. That word? Email.
“The good news is that email marketing is a great tool for building relationships and adding value to your customer relationships,” Miller says. She offers creative ways in which email can help you shine with B2B clients. Don’t just blast product announcements. Try sending:
“Recession Buster” ideas, for both clients and prospects. (How about listing the uses of email marketing as one of them?)
Simple, actionable tactics to help clients be more productive, get more out of vendors, and build stronger relationships with their own customers. (You should brainstorm with your team about the tactics they employ, and then share a few.)
Tailored tips about the business you are in, and the benefits you provide. “If you sell technology, offer productivity tips easily solved by advanced features of your software,” she advises. “If you sell services, send tips on managing meetings, or how to read data from disparate sources.” Warning: stay away from sales pitches.
“Customize the email based on geography, firmagraphics, and customer status (definitely segment customer vs. prospect),” Miller concludes. “Oh yes, and every message—regardless of tone or content—can have a call to action about your business, too!”
The Point: Now’s the time to boost your B2B email outreach. Offering e-info that clients can use is a cost-effective way to stay top-of-mind, and ahead of the competition.
Cheers, Skip
Source: ReturnPath.
Crumbs from the Scone
Sales promotions that offer either price discounts or free goods (premiums) are often used to entice customers to buy products. But which is better?
Every family has one or two bargain shoppers—always looking for discounted products, and priding themselves on never paying full price. So, logically, marketers would assume that discounting prices in periodic sales gives their customers what they want. Right? Well, as often happens here, we must disagree.
Research is actually showing that, while sale prices do draw customers in, from the standpoint of long-term brand equity, companies are better off offering a premium rather than a price discount — at least once in a while, anyway.
The reason? Apparently, consumers “incorporate” a price discount into the product’s regular price, making it look less expensive overall. (Once they see it marked down, they remember that lower price, and keep watching for it to return.) Because customers often make price-quality inferences like this, they may actually start to discount the quality of the product over time in their minds as well.
Free premiums, on the other hand, apparently enhance the overall value of the product. (For instance, that bottle of free conditioner packaged with the shampoo adds value to the regular price.)
The Point: Give ’em something to remember. Sales are fun, but occasional premiums are better for maintaining brand equity over time, because consumers see them as an added value.
Cheers, Skip
Source: The Price of “Free”-dom: Consumer Sensitivity to Promotions with Negative Contextual Influences. Sucharita Chandran and Vicki G. Morwitz. Journal of Consumer Research, 2006.
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“We are bombarded with messages that tell us the how, why, should and must of business,” says Karen Swim in a post at Words For Hire. “Much of the information is solid but blindly applying it can be deadly to your spirit and your business.”
She argues that your company’s success begins with a clear sense of purpose, and the ideas you implement should further that vision. In other words, as great as an idea might be, it’s not for you if it doesn’t dovetail with your values, strategies and goals.
According to Swim, maintaining awareness of your company’s purpose helps you to:
Put public opinion in context. “If you ask people what they want and how they want it,” she notes, “they may give you what they want but not necessarily what they need.” Your core values give you a helpful filter through which to process customer feedback.
Be consistent. “When you are clear on your ‘why I do this’ it will guide you in your day to day business activities,” she says. If you don’t lose sight of your purpose, you’re more likely to make better decisions and build a solid reputation.
The Point: Great advice inspires action—but whatever you do with it, be sure it stays true to you.
Cheers, Skip
Source: Words For Hire.
Crumbs from the Scone
According to a post at the True You Marketing (TYM) blog, “Dennis McConnell … sailed merrily into the office … only to find seven unsubscribe messages in his inbox.” All were in response to an email he had sent announcing an upcoming Photoshop workshop. You probably understand why he made a snap decision to send fewer messages to his subscribers in the future. “‘Why anger them?’ he thought.”
But TYM believes this is the wrong approach. Suppose you’re giving a speech to 100 people, and 30 of them walk out the door. It’s discouraging, certainly, but you shouldn’t forget there are still 70 people in the room. “Your job is not to focus on the people who are leaving,” they say, “but on those who have stayed to listen to you.”
Further, they argue, unsubscribers are people who probably wouldn’t make a purchase even if they stayed. It’s better, says TYM, to be concerned about people who lodge complaints. “The only time people complain is when they DON’T want to leave. Complaining is their way of communicating to you to spruce up your act.”
TYM’s advice: focus on serving the customers who truly want to stay. “Customers want to improve their lives, their businesses and their careers. If you believe you can do that, tread the intelligent road by educating them in great detail.”
The Point: Focus on what you have, not what you lost. “Don’t let the unsubscribers worry you,” says TYM. Letting them go will help sharpen your list—and better serve your loyal subscribers.
Cheers, Skip
Source: True You Marketing.
Crumbs from the Scone
Van Jones beat the odds when The Green Collar Economy landed at number 12 on the New York Times best-seller list. “What he didn’t have, as a first time author with an almost non-existent marketing budget, was the kind of money and name-recognition that typically helps place a book on the best sellers list and in the national conversation,” writes Nicholas Sabloff in an article at the Huffington Post. “So he improvised.”
With a marketing budget of less than $5,000 and the help of colleagues at his environmental org Green For All, Jones created a viral campaign that targeted 150 environment-oriented organizations of every size and scope. The team also dusted off their Rolodexes, and Sabloff says, “they called everyone they knew.”
The persistence paid off. Central to the enthusiasm of environmental networks was a product worthy of the hype. “We don’t put forth anything unless we really believe in it,” says the Reverend Lennox Yearwood in the same article. “I’m a believer in what the book stands for and obviously our members, mostly young people aged 18 to 29, really found Jones’ book exciting.” The Hip Hop Caucus, which Yearwood heads, sent a series of messages about The Green Collar Economy to its 700,000-strong membership. Blogs like Treehugger responded with a review and an interview; the Environmental Defense Fund was so impressed that it recommended the book to 500,000 members.
Alli Chagi-Starr of Green For All told the Huffington Post, “A friend called and told me she got the email from 10 different sources.” That is viral—and undeniable Marketing Inspiration.
Cheers, Skip
Source: MarketingProfs newsletter 11/03/08
