October 20, 2010

Don’t make budget discussions awkward

Ah, yes, the budget discussion.  Why do some people treat it like sharing an online banking password, or make it as awkward as asking someone to prom?

The budget discussion should be one of the first topics of discussion between a client and an agency (or any freelancer, service provider, contractor).  Maybe the budget can be negotiated, maybe the budget can be raised or lowered, or maybe the budget is absolutely fixed, but putting a budget on the table so everyone can look at it and react to it and plan based on it is critical to project success.

Nothing is gained from keeping the budget a mystery.  Here’s what a client is thinking when the budget is kept a mystery:

Maybe they’ll come back with a project estimate that’s way below my budget.  Then I’ll get a great deal and look like a hero.

If they know my budget, they’ll just tell me that the project will cost exactly my budget or likely more, when I could have gotten the same end result with less money.

If I don’t tell them my budget, then they’ll deflate their costs hoping to win my business.

The mystery budget just adds time, cost and frustration to the overall project.  If the client isn’t well-informed about costs or has a small budget, they’re only setting themselves and their agency up for disappointment when the project estimate is way beyond what they had wanted to spend.  The project scope is then slashed to accommodate the budget and the end result is less than what the client had wanted.

If the budget is openly shared and discussed, then the agency can set client expectations and detail what can be delivered at that budget as well as at a lower or higher budget.  When the various options are explained, the client may very well save money by going with a less expensive project that still meets their expectations, or may decide that increasing the budget will give them a better project outcome and a better value for their money.

Take car shopping for example, the salesperson and the shopper will have a much better experience by setting a budget immediately.  If you have a small budget, neither you nor the salesperson want to waste time looking at new luxury imports when you should be looking at the used cars and getting the best car possible for your money.

So don’t hide the budget and don’t make the conversation about the budget awkward.  It’s a huge waste of time and you’ll be happier getting it out in the open.

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June 23, 2010

Surprise Marketing Example: Skateboarding Stir Fry Ingredients

How do you market premium non-stick cookware.  With skateboarding stir fry ingredients, of course!  What a great way to draw attention to your product and get people talking.  The social media legs of the event is the icing on top.

To take it further, the cookware company could have a few skateboarding stir fry prawns, eggs and fish attend other skateboarding events and perform tricks, hand out fliers or coupons, and pose for pictures.

Today, your marketing needs to be unexpected and worth talking about.  Anything but expected, forgettable and avoidable.

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April 23, 2010

The myth of multi-tasking efficiencies

I was on a webinar (yes, the word has stuck around much to my chagrin) today and while I was listening on the phone and watching on my notebook, the host pushed a message onscreen to join the conversation on Twitter.  So, I checked Twitter, and there were already 50+ people on Twitter talking about the webinar.  So, the host basically told everyone to get distracted, check Twitter, talk amongst yourselves while we drone on and on in the background and show slides that no one will view.

The host broke a big rule of presentations: always pass around handouts at the end of the presentation (unless they are CRITICAL to understanding the presentation itself) otherwise you will lose your audience while they stare at the handout while you’re talking.

Sure, everyone was multi-tasking during the webinar, right?

Multi-tasking, it has been shown, actually rewires your brain and makes it less and less likely over time that you’re able to focus strongly on any task, and efficiently switch from task to task.  Men’s brains especially have been proven to not be able to multi-task.  For some reason, over the past 10+ years, the ideal of being a multi-tasker has taken firm hold in our connected, always on, digitalized culture.

Multi-tasking means you’re not paying full attention to a bunch of tasks and activities all at the same time.  We’re losing the joy that can be found in dealing with a single conversation, one project, one activity or a special task without distraction.  We’ve become impatient, annoyed by silence, annoyed by a lull in activity or conversation, and overall less happy and more stressed, I think.

I’ve had bosses who were big multi-taskers.  Every time a subordinate went to them to discuss anything (from the weather to highly important business issues), they often took calls, checked emails, surfed the web and posted on Twitter during the conversation.  That’s not multi-tasking, it’s rude and unprofessional.

We owe it to ourselves to pay attention to the NOW, to the MOMENT.  We miss so much detail and nuance when we multi-task.

There’s beauty in taking time and immersing ourselves in the present.  There’s a quiet glory in being a uni-tasker.

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April 1, 2010

Hello, I’m a media executive, and I’m embarrassingly out of touch.

Please read this brief article before proceeding:

http://bit.ly/aBM1w8

OK.  Wow, huh? No wonder newspapers are failing.

First, the insulated corporate-think is breath-taking.  Look, the term “free content” means content is free for consumers.    If your newspaper doesn’t charge for online access, then your content is free.  It doesn’t matter that advertisers pay you to run ads online.  Are you trying to tell me that a Google search isn’t free since advertisers pay Google to display ads?  Please.  The search is free to consumers even if advertisers pay Google billions.  NBC provides free TV content to viewers.  The fact that advertisers pay NBC doesn’t mean the content isn’t free.

Second, I want to talk to these phantom newspaper readers who believe ads are content, readers who buy the newspaper for the ads.  Sure, I know some people who buy the Sunday edition for the coupons, but not for the ads themselves, and certainly not to see what’s on sale at Macy’s.

Third, please explain to me how having ads on the iPad will create a better user experience.  No consumer is excited about the iPad because it will display ads!  Excessive ads when browsing online, when watching TV and when listening to the radio create a terrible user experience.

Can you imagine anyone telling their friends, “I can’t wait to get an iPad because it’s the perfect platform for me to interact with ads.”

Are some marketers excited about getting ads on iPads?  Yes, of course, just as marketers are desperately trying to deliver ads to all mobile devices.

However, consumers don’t want ads on their mobile devices, or their iPads, netbooks, laptops, computers, TVs, radios, highways, high-rises, buses, taxis, etc.

And that’s exactly the problem facing today’s marketers.  How does a brand engage with consumers in a welcomed and valued way?  How do brands create marketing and advertising that consumers seek out, enjoy and share, rather than continue to use a one-way, heavy-handed, corporate-speak approach?

Marketing is no longer about media saturation and scripted communications.

Now it’s about quality conversation.  It’s about getting real.

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February 9, 2010

Getting over the fear of social marketing

You can see the fear in their eyes.

You can see it in their body language during meetings when the topic comes up.

It’s the fear of social marketing.

Sure, everyone is talking about social marketing, but a lot of marketing executives and business owners have the fear.  It’s the fear of not knowing the jargon, the fear of losing marketing control, the fear of what the marketplace is saying about your brand, the fear of being embarrassed to ask questions or ask for help, the fear of telling peers or consultants that social marketing is a complete mystery, that kids know more about it than a professional marketer.

It’s the fear of screwing it up and reading about it across the web and in business publications.

The fear is understandable.  The number of so-called social marketing experts is astounding, as is the flood of information about social marketing success, failure and strategy.

Where do you start?

How do you start?

When do you start?

The process itself seems simple, but realistically you may need a social marketing partner you can trust depending on your marketplace, the size of your organization, your internal capabilities, your budget and your objectives.

Here are a few questions to answer:

  1. Who is your audience?
  2. What are your objectives?
  3. What is your strategy?
  4. What technology should you use?

Most reputable social marketing professionals will use this P.O.S.T. process (people, objectives, strategy, technology).  It may sound rather simple, but it’ll require a good amount of effort and discussion to answer the questions.  You’ll discover that the answers to most of these questions are similar to what you’re already doing in your advertising and marketing programs.

And, if you can develop solid answers for the first three questions, the last question will be easier to answer.  Also, the question of technology comes last because it’s prone to change fairly rapidly as new tools, sites and technology enter the marketplace.

You should integrate your social marketing with your overall marketing strategy.  And with social marketing, you can start small, but you should start soon.  It’s the idea of the continual beta… launch, measure, improve, measure, improve, etc.

Don’t push your marketing message or try to control the conversation.  If you go where your customers are, where your prospects are, and you engage in conversation, facilitate communication, and do it honestly, you’ll find it’s easier than you had imagined.

Your loyal customers–your best customers–will welcome your effort.

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February 6, 2010

Why customer service must be on the front lines of social marketing

I recently read again about the Dooce/Maytag saga (September 2009), and it got me thinking about customer service in the age of social media.

Here’s the story : Dooce, aka Heather B. Armstrong, aka THE Mommy Blogger, had a problem with her Maytag appliance that the traditional customer service function at Maytag was unable to rectify.  She warned Maytag customer service that she was on Twitter and that she had over 1 million followers and that she could unleash some nasty social media pain on Maytag.  Maytag either wasn’t impressed, wasn’t intimidated, had incompetent customer service, or was truly unable to provide a solution to satisfy her.  She then proceeded to tell her followers to boycott Maytag and complained further in a few tweets.  Within 24 hours, Maytag had her appliance repaired and Bosch appliances offered Heather a new appliance, which was donated to a shelter instead.

Some bloggers, consumers and marketers sided with Heather.  Others sided with Maytag.

My point here is not to add to the debate about Heather’s actions or Mayta’s actions.  That’s been discussed more than enough elsewhere.

This story is a wake up call for customer service on two fronts: one, your customer service team absolutely needs to listen, monitor and engage with customer in the social web, and two, your organization needs to have a social marketing crisis plan.

Maytag customer service didn’t understand why Twitter mattered when Heather told them she was on Twitter.  Customer service didn’t comprehend the potential firestorm of bad publicity due to this one customer service problem, and the potential negative effects the issue will have on future sales. At Maytag, apparently, the organization had a disconnect since someone was listening on Twitter, but customer service was completely in the dark.

Customer service should be using a social media listening/monitoring tool to head off small problems before they become big problems, and to capitalize on positive customer feedback.  Social media is a powerful customer service channel for consumers and brands alike.

And when big problems become enormous problems, your organization must be ready to act immediately.  You must have a social marketing crisis plan ready to go.  Luckily for Maytag, someone was listening and reacted fairly quickly to solve Heather’s problem.

One immediate positive outcome of this story?  A shelter somewhere got a new Bosch washing machine.  Nice.

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February 4, 2010

A social marketing expert guaranteed me 10,000 Twitter followers in 30 days!

Beware the self-proclaimed social marketing expert.

This post at Mashable (from WAY back in December 2009, ancient news in some circles) made me laugh when I first read it.  There were nearly 16,000 social marketing or social media experts on Twitter in December 2009.  That was up from about 4,500 in May 2009.  Wow.

You’ll find that these social marketing experts have given themselves the title.  And few of them seem to agree on anything related to social marketing.

Some social marketing experts argue about the using the term “social marketing strategy”  at all.

“It’s not a strategy!” they shout.  “Social is a complete mindshift for the organization!”

Then, the same social marketing experts debate where social marketing should live in the organization.

“In marketing!”

“In PR!”

“In customer service!”

“In sales!”

“It should live in every employee!”

Some social marketing experts won’t refer to social marketing as a function.  Or a campaign.  Or a program.  Or a channel.  It’s a mindset, a culture change, a long-term play, a paradigm shift… or something else entirely, maybe even a conjured up term you’ve never heard before.

Then they’ll debate whether an organization should have social marketing guidelines for employees, no matter how basic or detailed, or if an organization should give employees complete social marketing freedom.

Next, the social marketing experts will tell you that your brand MUST be on Facebook, Ning, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or MySpace.  And some will guarantee you 10,000 followers or fans or friends within 30 days!

These same social marketing experts will laser focus on HOW to use social marketing tools and social media sites.

What you’re likely to not hear these “experts” talk about is aligning social marketing with your business objectives, integrating your social marketing with your overall marketing strategy, conducting listening sessions, tracking and measuring your social marketing efforts historically and moving forward, developing a community for your brand, engaging with customers, using customer feedback in your product and service development process and ensuring customer service is directly involved in social marketing.

Social marketing isn’t about quantity.  An arbitrary follower/friend/fan count should never be your social marketing goal.  Of course, having thousands or millions of followers/friends/fans is great, but quantity here doesn’t necessarily translate to real customers and real sales.  Social marketing is about quality communication with your customers.  It’s a faster and more transparent way to engage prospects and customers from a marketing, customer service and product/service development standpoint, and is often a portion of a larger integrated strategy.

Never forget that the goal of any marketing is a sale (of course, a profitable sale from a long-term customer with a measurable lifetime revenue and profit stream).  It’s just that saying “your marketing goal is a sale” is a lot more simple and easier to remember.

What social marketing should help you do is turn a sale into a long-term customer relationship, and help that customer help you attract more customers, and so on.

In business, that’s a wonderful life.

However, no matter what the experts tell you, success is never a guarantee.

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December 16, 2009

Toys R Us Demonstrates How to Turn Current Customers into Former Customers

I ordered a big dollhouse from Toys R Us online.  It arrived on my doorstep in a giant box with a huge full-color picture of the dollhouse and accessories on the side of the box.  It wasn’t shipped in a plain cardboard box, no, it had to be a box that showed the entire world what was inside.

Now, why would a toy company ship toys right before Christmas in a box like this?  The future recipients of this toy nearly saw the box and ruined their Christmas morning surprise.  It was a true Christmas miracle that they looked out the wrong window when the delivery man rang the doorbell, and another miracle entirely that they didn’t open the door and see the box.

I emailed a complaint to Toys R Us customer service.  Nowhere on the site does it state that the dollhouse would be shipped in a box with a picture of the contents on the side (I triple checked before sending the email).  The site did state that gift wrap wasn’t available (I didn’t want it gift wrapped anyway).  It also stated that the item would be shipped separately.

Now, when a customer takes the time to complain, you owe it to them, as the business, to respond in a thoughtful and considerate manner, especially when the customer points out a real error.

The customer service rep’s first instinct shouldn’t be to patronize the customer, tell the customer that the website has fine print that they obviously didn’t read (especially when that fine print doesn’t exist at all), and that you’ve exhausted everything you could possibly do for them (especially when you did nothing since that customer could tell you were reading the email for the first time while on the phone).  The rep’s sarcastic tone didn’t help either, especially with someone long schooled in the fine art of sarcasm.

I didn’t want a refund or a free toy.  I wanted the company shipping toys before Christmas to realize how stupid it is to ship a toy in a box that doesn’t hide the contents of the box from anyone who might see that box.  A simple “I apologize” would have been sufficient.  Even better would have been: “We’ll update the shipping information on the site to explain how the item is shipped.”

Instead, your botched customer service call turned my basic frustration into a personal commitment to boycott Toys R Us.

Bah Humbug, Geoffrey the Giraffe.

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December 7, 2009

Blowing Marketing Bubbles with Trouble Gum

I’m a fan of Matthew Cordell’s work in general, and specifically his first book as both author and illustrator, Trouble Gum.  I stumbled upon Matthew’s work a couple years ago when I was checking out the snowflakes for Robert’s Snow, a charity event where children’s book illustrators create unique snowflakes to be auctioned off for charity.  I really liked Matthew’s snowflake featuring children in their winter knit hats.

His style reminds me of William Steig of Shrek fame.  Wonderful pen and ink drawings with a scribble and doodle sensibility that adds a lot of warmth and interest.

What does all of this have to do with marketing?  Good question.  You see, Matthew, like a lot of writers, illustrators and artists, is deftly using marketing in general and social marketing specifically to cultivate an audience, drive sales and build long-term relationships with fans.  Major brands could learn a lot from someone like Matthew.

Once I recognized that I enjoyed his work, I started to periodically read Matthew’s blog where he provides insights into his in-progress projects, discusses his motivations, gives behind the scenes glimpses into his development process, talks about his family, and gives his audience a depth of information that you can’t get from a book’s dust jacket.  Social marketing gives writers and artists the power to grow their own fan base and build important relationships with their individual fans.

Matthew runs contests to build traffic to his blog, to generate buzz and to promote his work.

I happened to win a couple of those contests.  In the first, I won an original drawing from his book Trouble Gum.  Besides the drawing, he sent me a nice handwritten note and copies of promotional postcards from his other books.  I must say that I was very excited to receive this amazing prize.

In the other contest, I won a couple packs of promotional gum called Trouble Gum.  The packs were an ingenious promotional giveaway developed by Matthew and his publisher to promote his book at various events.

So, Matthew is building his brand, his audience and his business through hands-on, personable and memorable interactions with his books, his artwork, his website, his blog, his contests and his willingness to share himself with his fans.

He’s a growing marketing machine in the world of children’s literature and he’s doing it well.

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November 10, 2009

Social Media Delivers Patrons to Today’s Artists and Writers

I was always fascinated by the fact that thinkers, inventors and artists like DaVinci had patrons, someone to pay the bills and worry about the little, annoying and boring details while the artist was free to dream, create and innovate.

The internet and social media today provide a perfect platform for artists to cultivate their followers, customers and now their own patrons.  Take for example Jamie Tanner, a graphic novelist.  Now, I don’t know Jamie or anything about his art, but I was struck by the ingenuity of the fund-raising program he developed for his future project.  Not only is Jamie asking his audience for money to fund his new project, but he’s offering fantastic rewards from sketch books and original art to inclusion in the new project as a named character, like a version of product placement for individuals instead of big brands.  Maybe this can be termed “personal placement” instead.

This isn’t the first instance of online fund-raising by a writer or artist, but it’s certainly an ingenious one.  Jamie should be applauded for his efforts, and for the fact that he’s already exceeded his fund-raising goal.

The artist and the audience are both winners here.

The artist can secure funding upfront for a project instead of relying on income once the project is completed and released to the marketplace.  The potential pain of self-funding a project is gone.  The artist can also involve the audience in the project early on and make the overall project more of a collaboration by building a bond between the audience and project itself right from the start.  Any interested parties would definitely enjoy the behind the scenes views of a work-in-progress.

The audience not only gets the joy of being involved in a project right from the beginning, but can actually become a part of the work.  What could be better than becoming a character in your favorite author’s new book?  Amazing.

And, again for the artist, building stronger relationships with your audience is key in this continually fragmenting, long-tail marketplace.  Instead of attracting a huge audience for your work by catering to the needs or desires of everyone (and thereby watering down your product), you only need to attract a small, passionate following to develop a wildly successful career.

 

 

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