Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at Copyblogger, Sonia Simone offers some unconventional blogging advice, her nine “little known” rules for a successful blog. It’s an interesting read, with plenty of key takeaways like these:
Don’t over-explain. You might know everything about a subject, but that doesn’t mean you have to write it all down in a single post. Save the comprehensive dissertation for a few pillar articles. “But in your day-to-day content,” she recommends, “leave room for other answers and other points of view in your community comments.”
It’s okay to get mad. The occasional rant can actually lend your blog a measure of credibility. “[Y]ou’ll show your humanity and your backbone,” she says. Be careful, though, not to overindulge in grumpy diatribes—if you make them a regular feature, they’ll start to lose their effectiveness.
Say it again. And, even, again. “New readers have no idea what you wrote last year, or even last month,” says Simone. And don’t worry about boring longtime readers—they will also benefit if you provide a fresh angle on a topic you’ve already covered.
Tell a stupid joke. Introducing a bit of levity keeps your blog from becoming a dry and academic. “[D]on’t be an idiot,” she advises, “But don’t take yourself so damned seriously, either.”
The Point: “The most ‘perfect’ blog in the world would be deathly dull,” says Simone. “Great blogs are quirky, weird, and hard to predict—just like interesting people are.”
Source: Copyblogger.
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Crumbs from the Scone
“Predictive statements are all around us, ” writes Adam Gordon in the introduction to his book Future Savvy. “[I]n the newspapers, on TV, at conference presentations, in industry reports, consulting documents, think tank studies, and so on. All claim to be valid, but the record shows that few are.” This doesn’t mean, however, that forecasts can’t play a critical role in your decision-making process. You just need the right tools to evaluate what Gordon calls the “torrent of information.”
Future Savvy starts with the analytical basics by placing forecasts into five categories: short-term, short-medium, long-medium, long-term and ultra-long term. According to Gordon, the actual timeframes for each depend on an industry’s general rate of change. “For example,” he notes, “the electronics industry moves much faster than the mining industry, so a three-year forecast for ‘wi-fi’ may be long-term view, while a three-year view of the Canadian mining industry might be a short-term view.”
His subsequent discussion covers topics like bias traps, the powers of zeitgeist and perception and the limits of quantitative forecasting before arriving at a helpful list of questions to ask of any prognostication. Subject headings include:
What is the purpose of the forecast?
Is the forecast mode predictive—spelling out what will happen—or speculative, illuminating possible alternative?
How extensive and how good is the base data?
Are the forecast’s biases natural or intentional?
Does the forecast oversimplify the world?
Your Marketing Inspiration: By asking the right questions, you’ll get the right answers for using a forecast as a valuable tool for adjusting or changing your strategies.
Source: MarketingProfs newsletter, 10/31/08
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Crumbs from the Scone
The next time your management team meets to determine the fate of a recently introduced product or service, consider a post by Scott Anthony at Harvard Business Online. He argues that superficial success, or underperformance, might not give a full picture of actual potential. To make his point, Anthony presents two scenarios and asks which would appeal to your company’s executives:
Innovation A enjoyed blockbuster first-year revenues of $200 million thanks to “a clear value proposition, clever positioning, and a strong distribution network.”
Innovation B, meanwhile, had on a muddled business model and generated only $220,000 during its first year.
“It’s obvious, right?” he says. “Innovation A is the winning proposition.” But you knew there’d be a catch, and here it is:
Innovation A was Vanilla Coke. “It was a line extension that largely cannibalized sales of Coke’s other products,” says Anthony, with the note that Coca-Cola unceremoniously discontinued the flavor only three years later.
Innovation B—drumroll, please—was Google, which found wild success when it finally settled on an ad-based model.
The Point: “Before making a decision about an innovation,” writes Anthony, “make sure you know what type of idea you are evaluating. Then make sure you use the right metrics for that idea.”
Source: Harvard Business Online.
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Crumbs from the Scone
Imagine if you could take Twitter and make it exclusive to your company. Surprise!—you’ve created Yammer. With a three-month free trial, and provided everybody has a legit company email, enterprises can register on Yammer to create their own insular microblogging universe.
Why does Yammer matter? Because as times change, so too, does the workforce. You’ve probably noticed more freelancers in your midst, or designers and tech people working remotely. What’s more, as digital advertising grows more sophisticated, it’ll be crucial for marketers to communicate more closely with tech—unless you wanna take a night class in Python.
No need to change lunch dates. Yammer makes it possible to form friendly—and strategic!—ties with the dev dude who never leaves his office, as well as with the new SEO girl, who just happens to reside in India. That’s right: influence them all, right from your desk!
Better still, office-mates can contribute their marketing views without ambushing you with a PPT presentation you never plan to open. The CEO can ping you with, “What’s your take on Twitter outreach?”—and while you’re contemplating a savvy answer, the intern two doors away might reply, “If you guys have a plan, I’ve got the free time!” All you have to do is fill in the blanks. Wow ’em—without ever having to reach for the ClipArt.
The Po!nt: Yammer brings social media’s merits to the enterprise. You’ll work less hard, and tap into a broader pool of creativity, with the entire office just fingertips away.
Source: MarketingProfs newsletter 10/30/08
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Crumbs from the Scone
Anyone who hears the acronym CAN-SPAM can be excused for assuming it’s intrusive and onerous; but in an article at MarketingProfs, Neil Anuskiewicz says the legislated guidelines actually make you a better email marketer. No legitimate business will take issue, for instance, with the rule against harvesting email addresses: we all know unsolicited messages accomplish nothing except annoying their recipients. While your ESP (Email Service Provider) will help you meet CAN-SPAM requirements, Anuskiewicz notes that the buck still stops with you.
OK. Quick primer: The two key CAN-SPAM elements that every email message must include:
1. A valid postal address. No see-sawing on this one. “Although easy enough to do,” he says, “many people seem to forget this rule. But it is just good marketing, as greater transparency leads to greater trust by your subscribers.”
2. A relevant subject line. Again, this is something of a no-brainer, but Anuskiewicz contends that following this rule is both good law and smart marketing: “If your email does not contain a good, relevant subject line, you … won’t entice subscribers.”
“Meeting the CAN-SPAM requirements is the responsibility of the sender and not the ESP,” Anuskiewicz reminds us. “Reputable ESPs will assist senders in meeting the requirements, but the sender must stay vigilant in verifying that all aspects of the act are met.”
The Po!nt: Don’t pass the CAN-SPAM buck. By ensuring your emails match its requirements, you may reap rewards you didn’t anticipate.
Source: MarketingProfs.
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Crumbs from the Scone
Let’s face it: as consumers, we’re not that good at judging the volume of a product (eg, how much liquid is actually in that bottle or glass of juice). Moreover, we use (sometimes erroneous) mental shortcuts to make inferences about how much a given product contains.
For example, a well-documented finding has shown that products packaged in long, tall containers are judged to contain more volume than those with equivalent amounts of product packaged in shorter containers. And now, there’s new research that shows yet another factor affecting consumer perceptions of volume: how attention-getting the package is.
It seems that unusual or unexpected packages command attention—and lead consumers to estimate that the product has more volume than a similar amount of product packaged in a less attention-getting, more run-of-the-mill package.
Interestingly, this effect was observed even when the plainer package was actually longer than the fancy one. People still felt the fancy package held more.
The message for marketers? If you’re thinking about downsizing a product’s contents, make sure you fancy-up that packaging!
The Po!nt: Time to play dress-up! If you want consumers to think your package contains a larger volume of product, try creating a bold, unusual design for it.
Source: The Effect of Package Shape on Consumers’ Judgments of Product Volume: Attention as a Mental Contaminant, Valerie Folkes and Shashi Matta. Journal of Consumer Research, 2004.
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Crumbs from the Scone
Marketers don’t always agree on the best way to achieve results, and Michael Antman takes the contrarian view of a strategy popular with many of his colleagues. “[S]ome businesses, especially on the B2B side, rely far too heavily on organic word-of-mouth strategies and, specifically, on acquiring new customers primarily through referrals,” he says in an article at MarketingProfs. Here are some reasons for his rationale:
Recommendations are subjective and uncontrollable. Antman argues that a referral gets you nothing more than a foot in the door. And that’s assuming your product or service receives accurate representation. “Well-intentioned recommenders may still get your message entirely wrong or characterize you so narrowly that a potential client won’t consider you for an enterprisewide solution.”
Word-of-mouth is limited in reach and easily subverted. The strength of a recommendation weakens with the degree of separation. Further, without a formal way to combat negative word-of-mouth, competitors can diss your company with impunity.
The Po!nt: Antman believes there is no substitute for case studies, sophisticated sales-support tools and mass communications vehicles such as advertising, public relations and print and electronic collateral. “[R]elying on organic word-of-mouth is practically a guaranteed way for a small or medium-sized business to stay small or medium-sized.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
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Crumbs from the Scone
“In these stressful economic times, it is more important than ever to build messages that resonate with your audience,” says Winston Bowden in an article at MarketingProfs. “Like retailers, nonprofits should be thinking about how they can tell their story and leverage the holiday season.” Here’s some of his advice for a nonprofit holiday “retail” approach to fundraising:
Offer a gift membership. You’ll not only generate additional income, you’ll gain valuable exposure to the likeminded friends of your members. Engage your email audience with a professionally designed message that presents a compelling gift offer. And don’t worry if you don’t have an existing method for processing online payments; a service like PayPal can handle everything for a small fee.
Appeal to the bargain hunter. Create an offer with a discounted membership. It doesn’t have to be drastic—just enough to make people feel like they’re getting a good deal. Also, highlight your tax-deductible status, and make documentation easily available.
Don’t forget to tug at those heartstrings. Include these tried-and-true nonprofit elements in every email, regardless of how retail-oriented it is: Choose stories about the people you’re helping that members can relate to, and include pictures. Show how the money donors are giving furthers your cause.
The Po!nt: Write that nonprofit holiday retail email today! “Don’t count on email as a last-minute channel to bolster support,” says Bowden. “Instead, make it a tactic with thoughtful planning and execution.”
Source: MarketingProfs.
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Crumbs from the Scone
When Tate Linden of Stokefire began to see a number of obscure blog posts touting a heretofore unknown competitor as the world’s “first naming company,” he thought he should check them out. And in a post at the Thingnamer blog, he concludes that the company had likely paid for the “editorial” coverage and their coveted links. “Even if no money changed hands,” he says, “something must have happened to get this mini-avalanche of blog postings to occur.”
Ethics aside, the strategy has an inherent problem. It relies on subterfuge to succeed, and can do enormous damage to a company’s public image if it isn’t sneaky enough. According to Linden, Stokefire has a “mantra” that goes something like this: If you wouldn’t talk about it on our homepage, you shouldn’t do it. “That includes taking on questionable projects, working for questionable clients, or undertaking questionable advertising practices.”
You might scoff at a company that buys links from random bloggers, but the concept of not-entirely-kosher practices raises an interesting question for Linden. Would any aspect of your marketing plan cause embarrassment if you didn’t keep it on the QT? “If so, why?” he asks.
“Remember,” says Linden, “your brand is who you are when you think no one is looking.” We think the thoughtful reminder is an excellent piece of Marketing Inspiration.
Source: MarketingProfs newsletter 10/27/08
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Crumbs from the Scone
We never tire of good writing advice, and Anna Goldsmith of The Hired Pens recommends an interesting editing process that begins with taking a break. “We all know that when we’re too close to things, we don’t see them clearly,” she says. So after writing your first draft, go for a walk, drink a cup of coffee or run an errand—anything that will put some mental distance between you and your copy. Then follow these four steps:
Pretend you are not you. Get into the mind of your audience by reading the draft from their perspective. Does it make sense? Does it hold your interest? Does it include the information you need to take action?
Cut, cut and cut some more. If a sentence is more than 25 words, eliminate unneeded words or break it into two shorter sentences. Replace long words and awkward phrases with more simple variants. “Why say ascertain the location of when you can just say find?” asks Goldsmith.
Channel your inner English teacher. You may use contractions and an informal tone if it’s appropriate to your copy. But banish the dreaded passive voice, all grammatical errors and any incorrect formatting.
Revise, print it out and read aloud. Your ear will probably catch anything your eye missed.
The Po!nt: “In a perfect world, you’d never have to edit your own work, but well, you know the drill,” says Goldsmith. “The world’s not perfect, life’s not fair, yada yada.” Investing a little time upfront can save you the hassle of explaining an embarrassing typo to your boss—or yourself.
Source: An article submitted by The Hired Pens to MarketingProfs.
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