Client Centric Marketing

A Quick Case Study

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 03:26:00 GMT

Roger Montgomery is an investment manager and prolific media commentator. I thought I would quickly highlight how he is using technology to drive his business development and marketing strategies. Basically Roger uses his website (blog) as a ‘content hub’ and republishes and distributes his thoughts, views, video’s etc through a number of other platforms primarily Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. His strategy is to use thoughtful content to initially engage, and then create, followers and ultimately have these individuals invest with him. Only time will tell if he is being successful on conversion but the content and engagement elements are proceeding at pace.

Roger's website is ranked 9,000 in Australia on Alexa. To give you some context BT Investment Management is ranked 2,500, Perpetual is 12,000 and AMP Capital is 34,000.
YouTube = 367,000 video views
6800 likes on Facebook, 400 conversations
1800 Followers on Twitter
Plus LinkedIn

The other thing to note is that this has been done within the last two years. It will be interesting to see how much more successful his strategy will be in a few years’ time.

BS Detector - Metrics Not Myths

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:57:00 GMT

What are the hottest marketing buzzwords? They work. Right?

Adobe Marketing Cloud gives you a complete set of analytics, social, advertising, targeting and web experience management solutions and a real-time dashboard that brings together everything you need to know about your marketing campaigns. So you can get from data to insights to action, faster and smarter than ever.

For more information on how the Adobe Marketing Cloud can enhance you business please contact us.

A Question Of Business Value

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT

I don't think anyone wouldn't at least consider an offer that clearly added value (let's call this the customer value proposition or CVP) to their organisation. There may be clear reasons why you might not want, or be able, to pursue the offer but one that clearly adds value to both participants generally always stands on its own merits. Then why is it hard? Well in my experience there are 3 key reasons why things go wrong.

The value is loaded in favour of one participant in the transaction. If the transaction is not equitable your customers will either leave you or they will want too much of what you have. Both options will probably end up with you going bust .
You don't actually have a proper offer in place. A CVP is a part of your business strategy and most SME's do this badly. A good CVP will provide convincing reasons why a customer should buy, and also differentiate your offer from competitors. It will also line up your whole organisation to deliver with the CVP in mind. Very few organisations get this right.
The offer isn't clear. The two main attributes that allow consumers to differentiate are price and quality. When an offer is not clear focus tends to revert to the selling on one alone. It is much easier to discount your product, (and your margin!), to the bone to get the initial sale than sell intangible benefits. Similarly emphasising intangible benefits without due reference to ROI (both your customers and yours) is also likely to be self-defeating.

Getting Value Right

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT

The organisations that have got their CVP’s ‘right’ tend to have a few things in common. Here is what to look for!

They spend time on their strategy and on concepts like CVP’s. It is very easy to get lost in day to day activity of doing ‘stuff’ but time spent ‘thinking’ usually always pays off.
They have systematic processes in place that manage the time they have allocated. If you are going to focus on this it must be more than just a talking shop. The concept must ultimately drive business activity and results.
They continuously engage with their customers. Your customers will tell you if your CVP is working, it just seems a shame to find out at the end of the process rather than at the start!
The propositions are clear and simple. Unfamiliar jargon and buzzwords make people stop reading or listening. The more you say, the less people absorb. Keep it simple.
Their benefits are strong and relevant. It is usually thought that prospects won't buy unless you can show how your product or service can have a significant impact on their business problem. That is still true, but a sales executive shopping for a CRM system may be more focused on boosting sales productivity. Always consider relativity and context to the end user.

How Unique Are Your Value Benefits

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT

A 2009 survey of 9,000 decision makers in B2B companies found that 86% of the unique benefits touted by vendors were not perceived as unique or having enough impact to create preference. Here are three rules for creating preference versus parity in your value propositions.

1. Put It In Context
The Marketing Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), authors of the survey, say the biggest failure point in most company value propositions is "proximity." That is, because of marketers' proximity to their own company and products, they overestimate the uniqueness and relevance of the benefits they promote.

And one of the biggest problems with proximity is that it causes marketers to mistake customer touch points for value propositions. Companies like to tout such things as customer service as a differentiator. But research has found that decision-makers see those touch points as marginal or poor drivers of preference. What really gets customers excited is hearing about clear, unique benefits that address their business needs.

Needs-based benefits that show customers how to do something better tomorrow than they do today were proven to be four times more powerful predictors of preference vs. touch points, according to the CEB research. Also, make sure that the needs you address are presented in the context of the person who can make a purchase decision. The tendency is to drift toward the user of your products or services. That person usually isn't the key decision-maker.

Preference vs. Parity Rule 1: No context, no value proposition.

2. Show It In Contrast
Do your value proposition create contrast for customers? Do they see themselves in enough pain with their current situation to replace, upgrade, or otherwise change the status quo? And, more important, do you clearly align what you do, and show the relevant gain, with regard to that pain?

If your prospects hear your message or listen to your story and they can't see themselves eliminating challenges and positively changing their strategic agenda in a significant way, you don't have a value proposition. Value lies in the contrast between the pain and the gain.

It's only by creating a dramatic contrast between how bad things are today and how good things will be after they partner with you that you can get prospects to create an opportunity and champion a decision in their organisation.

Preference vs. Parity Rule 2: No contrast, no value proposition.

3. Prove It With Corroboration
The third rule pertains to proof points. Most marketers think of proof points as quantifiable validation of the value you provide. That's true, but it's only partially true. When you are trying to get prospects to care enough to consider a change and choose you, proof points must corroborate your solution on two levels.

First, you need proof points that will corroborate or turn up the heat on the problem. "Amping up the pain" is what I like to call it. For example, at the beginning of this article I told you that 86% of unique benefits that companies cite don't create preference. The aim was to hook you into the story and get you to care about a potential solution.

Second, you need proof points that will corroborate your claims to be able to solve the problem in a meaningful way that eliminates the pain and brings measurable gain around the strategic item you are addressing. One example of that in this article was the research finding that needs-based benefits are four times more powerful than touch-point-based benefits. Do you have documented results that validate what doing something different tomorrow will mean to your customers, in terms they care about?

Preference vs. Parity Rule 3: No corroboration, no value proposition.

Social media is still ‘soft’ marketing

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:33:00 GMT

I came across some interesting statistics from Forrester Research lately. Forrester surveyed 95 US companies with 1,000 or more employees and asked the question "For what business goals are you currently using or planning to use external social media tools?" The responses were;

88% Increase brand awareness
76% Increase customer or brand loyalty
76% Public relations and/or reputation management
47% Increase purchase considerations
43% Market research
37% Increase sales
34% Increase market share
33% Product and/or service innovation
9% Other

The higher responses tend to relate to 'soft' brand or awareness related outcomes. Any textbook will tell you these are important but what is perhaps more surprising is that the lower responses all relate to 'harder' business objectives. Increasing sales or market share, and product innovation, all directly drive financial outcomes. It is only by demonstrating these outcomes first will social media be taken seriously. Until this happens, it will struggle to gain the accolades its advocates think it deserves.

Why Content Isn't Enough

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:15:00 GMT

A recent study by the Content Marketing Institute has shown that companies can spend upto 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing. Clearly, good content can produce great results. Companies with blogs for example generate around 67% more leads per month than their blog-less peers! But just churning out white papers, videos, infographics, etc. isn’t what makes content king.

Indeed many companies report seeing little to no likes, comments, or shares for all the content they post on Facebook. The trend is also reflected on Twitter. These results stem from a very common mistake. Content is not sufficient on its own, the experience users have with it is key. For content to be effective the audience needs to be involved.

Adding interactivity to your content, though, isn’t all that difficult. It can be as simple as including a question in a Facebook post, or placing a quiz or poll before a white paper. The final challenge is to encourage people to create a community of users and advocates who can help your business grow.

So where to start? Try the Content Grid v2 by Eloqua and Jess3. This infographic, which explains how certain forms of content work best for different stages of the sales cycle, is a useful tool.

Pay, Own or Earn?

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:00:00 GMT

When most people think marketing they think they need advertising or paid media. This, in part, reflects the personal and commercial experiences that most of us have had since childhood. These experiences are now becoming less relevant with the arrival of some new types of media. There are 3 types:

Paid media, including advertising, search engine marketing, paid search, and email marketing, is marketing at its best and often involves buying space in a magazine, newspaper, on TV or on Radio.
Owned media, or content marketing, is developed and disseminated by the company through its own direct-to-consumer channels, including website content, apps, and the company’s official social media channels.
Earned media, unlike paid and owned media, can’t be bought or controlled by the company itself; instead, it represents media generated independently by consumers, journalists, and other third parties. Earned media channels includes public relations, social media, and word of mouth.

Historically paid media has been the only way to go but it is expensive and keeps companies at arms length from their customers. It has only been the last ten years or so that there has been an opportunity to go direct to customers. As a result owned media is the current king on the block. It however has some major drawbacks including that fact that 'spin' means it often isn't seen as trustworthy.

This is why earned media has come into the picture. We know that consumers are much more likely to trust recommendations from a friend or family member i.e. ones that are earned are substantially more valuable than one that are paid for or owned. That is one reason why your marketing dollars should be rebalancing away from paid media.

Best Practice B2B Marketing

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

In any industry, even the most seasoned professionals fall prey to mistakes in tactics or implementation. But with a watchful eye, you can avoid some of the more costly pitfalls. Here are some things every business looking to grow should consider.

Find the fish
Virtually all your customers now use the Internet throughout their work processes and the critical buy cycle as they look to find solutions for their problems. Do you know where they are looking? Are you reaching this target audience where they're looking for solutions and services like yours? If not, you need to make sure you're being found.

Continually monitor marketing
The phrase "you can only manage what you measure" is true. Online marketing offers you the ability to measure marketing in real time, allowing you to know what components of your marketing campaign are working and what you should consider refining or eliminating.

Consider frequency
"Fishing where the fish are" is only one component of a successful marketing campaign. Equally important is how often you are reaching out to your target audience. Are you engaging the market on a regular basis, or are your efforts sporadic? The right frequency is an essential part of a successful marketing campaign.

Integrating Marketing and Sales
Are the results you are seeing from your marketing campaign in line with what your sales team is looking for? Marketing and Sales must work together to ensure that campaigns are delivering quality results and helping to drive sales.

Look for quality rather than quality
Engagement that reaches the right audience and establishes a relationship is what's truly valuable. Be sure to capture the relevant information required for the relationship to continue.

Being prepared
Still haven't developed a road map? It's a good idea to set aside time to plan your goals and objectives while also planning your tactics. Without a plan there can be no measurement of success.

Remember branding and exposure
An increased emphasis on engagement has resulted in some businesses shifting their focus away from branding and exposure. However, continuous exposure to your target audience will ultimately result in better qualified contacts and inquiries.

Have a sense of timing
Are your marketing initiatives in sync with company wide events such as product upgrades, launches or tradeshow appearances? Neglecting to keep timing in mind can result in missed opportunities.

Better Informed B2B Selling

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

B2B selling is hard. It requires not only skill, luck and a great offer but also a good knowledge of your customers and a clear understanding of where they might be in their 'buy cycle'. Taking simple steps to educate yourself about your prospective customers situations and preferences can help you get them over the line more efficiently. Here are some "easy to put into practice" actions for getting to know your customers better.

Let your leads market to you.
A key to drawing a prospect in, is speaking in his or her language. Sign up to receive your leads own marketing materials - emails, newsletters - so you can understand how they conduct their own sales and marketing. This will help you market to them.

Set up Google Alerts.
Track your target organisations milestone events through Google Alerts. Understand their internal drivers, what they are trying to achieve, when the company has had a profitable year or is looking to expand its market. Milestone events can help you hone the timing and content of your pitch.

Create a 90-day plan.
Yes, lead nurturing takes time, and 90 days might only mark the beginning of the process. But setting that milestone will keep you focused not just on the long term, but on small achievable tasks.

Ask the hard questions early.
They might be great people, and really need your product or service - but do they have the budget for it? Getting down to the nitty-gritty questions early on can weed out unlikely prospects and save you time and money.

A Better Conference Experience

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Conferences, trade-shows and all events in general require a reasonable amount of investment in terms of time, effort and money. Maximising your investment can be tricky but here are some tips to help get the basics right. These tips may seem like common sense, but many exhibitors still manage to get them wrong.

Remember that first impressions are critical
An attendee is generally not bound and determined to get tor your stand. Don't turn them off with a poor first experience.

If you demo something that gets your customers excited, have a clear follow-up process
If your product is on the market make sure it's easy for customers to buy, on the spot. If that’s not possible make sure there is a simple and quick process for converting enthusiasm into a sale. Getting potential customers amped up for something but then not delivering the goods quickly is a waste to time and effort.

Make sure everyone at your stand knows the product inside out
Make sure everyone at the stand can talk about your product. Everyone at the booth is a company representative and if they can’t talk with confidence about your product that speaks volumes about the product, your company and your brand.

Put some effort into your stand
If you're spending time and money to be at a conference or tradeshow, put your best foot forward. You may not have the resources to go all out, but make the best of what you have. Again, first impressions are everything. If your stand doesn't make people want to stop by, you'll never get them to take the next steps no matter how good your product is.

Have a presence that doesn't exude misery
You're tired. You've been at the stand for eight hours talking to attendees. But guess what? They have been in lectures all day and / or receiving sales pitches for the same amount of time. If you're sitting in your stand with your eyes closed or looking disinterested people will avoid you. You may be tired but you need to be approachable.

Have a crowd to keep a crowd
Your product might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but you still need something to get people into your booth. Free coffee, a spinning wheel, a raffle, a giveaway, something. If a crowd has gathered around your stand, that signals to passersby that there is something worth seeing. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. People want to know what's going on, and they will feel compelled to check you out.

Make your interactions with potential customers memorable - in a good way
Having a truly unique product can be hard in a crowded market with lots of competitors. But you can make your product more memorable if prospective customers experience you and your stand as memorable. Don’t underestimate the power of a positive personal interaction.

What next?
What happens after the conference is as important (especially for B2B) as what happens during the conference. Follow-up quickly and deliver exactly what you say you will. There is a short window to convert your leads before they get re-emersed in their day to day activities and forget all about you!

Digital No.1 in 2013

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 02:46:00 GMT

Yesterday The Australian carried PWC’s latest forecasts for Australia’s advertising industry. They slashed their five-year media industry advertising forecast by almost half, predicting compound average growth would drop from 4.4% to 2.8% a year until 2016, when it says the industry will be worth $14.1 billion.

By 2016 the shape of the Australian advertising landscape will be very different. Newspaper advertising will decline 5.1% and magazines 5%. All other media were expected to grow, led by the internet at 12%, out-of-home at 4.8% and subscription television at 4.2%. Indeed Internet advertising is expected to surpass both newspapers and free-to-air television next year and reach $4.7bn by 2016. That would give it a 33 per cent share of all advertising, supplanting newspapers as the largest category.

For companies with a product or service to sell the important thing to note here is not so much the growth rates of the different segments but the drivers of the changes. Consumers are online and for your message to reach them you must be too. Just 3 years ago marketing campaigns used to involve splashing (expensive) adverts in a national newspaper or in a magazine. It is probably fair to say that those days are gone forever.

WordPress vs Business Catalyst

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Which platform is best for your business?
I have been asked this question a few times and, to the horror of some, tend to shrug my shoulders a bit. Most developers will have a clear preference and often tend to be passionate about one or the other. The truth is they are both good, with different strengths in different areas.

WordPress is a free (pay for your hosting) and open source blogging tool and a dynamic content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. It has many features including a plug-in architecture, a template system and is extremely efficient blogging engine, as that's what it was originally designed for. It is very good for search engine ranking and can be used to make a standard website with a custom theme. It also has plenty of apps and a dedicated developer community.

Business Catalyst (BC) is positioned as a fully integrated online business platform. All the features for your online business are already coded and present. It is designed to provide you with all you need, now and in the future, to run your online business. This includes marketing and e-newsletter capability, deploying forms, collecting data, CRM, e-commerce, secure sites and a sophisticated CMS. All of this capability though, not all of which you may want or need, obviously costs a little more.

BC is a hosted solution – software as a service – provided by a large corporate - Adobe. You generally rent the technology for a small monthly amount. On the other hand, you can install WordPress on any Linux server you want, for free. Now this is an important difference because free is obviously good and developers really like open-source BUT there is a price to pay.

If there is an issue with BC Adobe will fix it. It is their system and they will dedicate their resources to sorting it out. They maintain security, fixes are made, new features and functions developed and appear in your dashboard. With WordPress you do not have the same level of corporate support. Often no sooner has a site been built than a new version, security patch or plugin is requiring attention. If you are running mission critical processes or have customer information online this is something you may want to consider. With BC you are paying for peace of mind.

So which one is right for me?
If you are price sensitive, if blogging and forums are a core part of your business, or if you have some PHP capability WordPress, the most popular web development platform in the world, will probably be the way forward. However if you require more developed capabilities, do not have in-house web development resources, and are running a more established business, you are probably better paying the monthly sum and jumping on the Adobe bandwagon.

How can organisations learn to participate in social conversation?

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

It is the job of marketing professionals to identify the communities where our customers, peers and other influencers communicate with each other. This is how we build relationships and establish social capital. Social networks are magnets for marketers, but the people who define each online community are often reticent to their attempts to connect especially where the purpose is seen to be 'corporate'.

Connecting therefore is not just about marketing. It fuses marketing, service, sociology, psychology, creativity and sales. Importantly it also necessitates a level of personalisation, and a genuine and humanised approach, that makes it difficult for traditional marketing techniques to be successful.

This, of course, makes it very hard for corporates. The organisation of work is still centred around a product or a service, something to be sold. Social media however is defined by people, the communities they join, and the cultures and behaviours that manifest themselves in these communities. This is not a new development and has forever been a cornerstone for human development interaction.

The Conversation Prism

So what can be done? On their blog Brian Solis and Jessica Thomas have put forward a concept called The Conversation Prism. The Conversation Prism is a tool to help organisations visualise and map the shifting landscape of social networks and micro communities.

How can organisations learn to participate? Employees are a company's first community. Right now they tend to manage the flow of information through their internal social networks in the same way they manage the technology installed on each employees computer. Companies can, and will, get ahead when they learn to educate, engage with, and empower the natural grass roots communities that form within them. The Conversation Prism can help this process.

For more please click through to Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas original article.

Lessons in Newspaper restructurings

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:00:00 GMT

According to latest Nielsen stats mobile Internet usage in Australia has skyrocketed from 59million to 229million page views, or nearly 4x in the year to March. Australians spend an average of 6.5 hours a day consuming media and nearly 30% of that time is now spent on a mobile device. The recent Fairfax and News International restructurings are, in part, responses to some of these changes and there are two important learnings for all brands in this.

Firstly Australians are not consuming less media. 6.5 hours a day is a lot. There is as much, if not more call for quality content than ever before. Indeed I would argue that all brands will be measured by the quality of their interactions with their customers and in the B2B space quality and engaging content IS your brand. This is one reason why News International simultaneously purchased Business Spectator and Eureka Report.

Secondly you cannot control how, when or where customers should engage with you. That power now rests with them. The days of single channel communications e.g. newspapers or even BDM's? are gone. To succeed your content must be available across multiple channels, where and whenever the customer wants it. Online and mobile must be a key component of your strategy. A reliance on just one method of engagement is a strategy that has had its day. Is your business ready?

How long before my Marketing Works Pt2

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:00:00 GMT

So, to get back to the original question. How long before my Marketing Works? My personal view is that a good brand campaign needs a minimum of at least 3 years as follows:

• Year 1 to analyse, plan, structure, resource-up and get the ball moving.
• Year 2 is for implementation, further gearing up plus review and refinement.
• Year 3+ is for further refinement and the realisation of the benefits of your hard work.

Benefits will come through earlier but given start-up costs it can be the end of Year 2 (18months) before payback is reached and Year 3 before a satisfactory ROI hurdle rate is made. How many companies are willing, or able, to take a 3 year view of their marketing? Does yours?

Pt1 of this article appears in the May edition of the CCM e-newsletter. You can subscribe to future editions at the bottom of this page.

Active Equity Managers Marketing...is a joke...?

Tue, 29 May 2012 01:00:00 GMT

An interesting excerpt from today’s InvestorDaily quoting Tria Investment Partners Managing Partner Andrew Baker on the difficulties some active equity managers are having in the current market.

Baker states; "Historically, there has been a strong correlation between index performance and net inflows, but since 2009, this has broken down," He believes the outflows are partly caused by a lack of investment in product development and marketing by asset managers. Baker adds, "Let's be honest - in many asset management firms, the level of investment in marketing would be seen as a joke by a major FMCG firm. We are seeing the consequences of that lack of investment."

The cross-industry comparison may be slightly unfair but there is a definite difference in mindsets between the two. FMCG companies see marketing as an investment to drive growth in their organisations. Until asset managers view marketing in this way nothing much is likely to change.

The Psychology of Colour

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Choosing the right colour for your brand, logo, website or other marketing material is a process with much more substance than you might think. Colour psychology is based on the principle that colour can carry specific meaning, evaluated often intuitively, by the person seeing it. This evaluation in turn influences an individual’s behaviour. The psychology of 6 key colours is set out below.

Psychology of Black

Black is the colour of authority and power, stability and strength. Black clothes make people appear thinner. It's a sombre colour sometimes associated with evil (the cowboy in the black hat) and grieving. Black is a colour that evokes strong emotions that can overwhelm. Proficiency of use is often needed for a successful result.

Psychology of White

White is associated with purity (wedding dresses); cleanliness (doctors in white coats) and safety. It is also used to project the absence of colour, or neutrality. Like black, white works well with most colours and is often complimented by an accent of colour for emphasis.

Psychology of Grey

Grey is most associated with the practical, timeless, middle-of-the-road, solid things in life. Too much gray leads to feeling mostly nothing; but a bit of gray will add that rock solid feeling to your product. Some shades of gray are associated with old age and depression.

Psychology of Red

If you want to draw attention, use red. It is often where the eye looks first. Red is the colour of energy. It's associated with movement and excitement. Wearing red clothes makes you appear more noticeable. Red is not a colour to over use but a spot of red in just the right place can leave an immeasurable impression depending on intention (lipstick is red for a reason!).

Psychology of Blue

Ask people their favourite colour and a clear majority will say blue. Much of the world is blue (skies, seas). Blue is generally seen as calming though some shades can be cold and uncaring. Over the ages blue has become associated with security, dependability, wisdom and loyalty (note how many Banks and Financial Services companies are blue).

Psychology of Green

The colour of nature, growth and money. A calming colour that's very pleasing to the senses. Hospitals use light green rooms because they are found to be calming to patients. It is also the colour associated with envy, good luck, generosity and fertility.

Most of the above will probably intuitively make sense. Easy done? Well the challenge for a designer, and where you will pay your money, is in understanding how the combinations of multiple primary, secondary and tertiary colours on your website, will impact visitors. Just the 6 colours above, and there are obviously many more to choose from, have 46,656 possible different permutations!!! However while 46,656 possible permutations sounds like there is a virtually unlimited colour palette to choose from I will leave you with this thought from Wired Magazine almost 10 years ago.

Companies spend millions trying to differentiate from others. Yet a quick look at the logos of major corporations reveals that in colour as in real estate, it's all about location, location, location. The result is an ever more frantic competition for the best neighbourhood.

While the fortunes of these corporates have shifted dramatically over the past decade and new players have emerged the psychology of colour has remained a bastion. Facebook and Pinterest are just a couple of recent players competing for the same valuable real estate created by the psychology of colour.

Growth in Mobile Devices drives Apple

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

This month's e-newsletter had an article focusing on Adobe's push into digital marketing. Abode is looking to help its customers create and manage content on mobile and other devices. Apple is another company riding this wave as the manufacturer of these devices.

Apple sold 35 million iPhones and nearly 12 million iPads this quarter alone. The most impressive part however is that growth is accelerating. Sales this quarter were respectively double and 150% more than the same time last year. How will this change impact your ability to attract, acquire and engage customers?

Why Social Media Matters.... And Why It Doesn't

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

I came across a report recently by Altimeter Group which highlighted some interesting points about social media. The report studied the 100 most valuable brands in the US and found that the level of those brands' engagement with their consumers via social media correlates with revenue. Companies with the highest level of social media activity increased revenue 18% in the previous 12 months, whereas companies with the least activity recorded a 6% drop. The report didn’t find any causation but it does seem that the strongest brands are the most engaged.

And I think most marketers would agree that that social media is well placed to help engagement. Nike's chief marketing officer, Davide Grasso, has noted, "Facebook is the equivalent for us to what TV was for marketers back in the 1960s. It's an integral part of what we do now."

BUT Social Media, like TV, is just a channel. By itself it adds no value. A TV that has no programming is worthless! Value comes from content; when people remember great adverts, characters and theme tunes. Everyone remembers who shot JR! Correspondingly unmemorable content will drain your marketing budget and disappear very quickly. Social media therefore really doesn’t matter. It is great content that facilitates engagement and the growth of your brand.

Why Facebook MIGHT be worth $100bn!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:03:00 GMT

Facebook’s (current) revenues don’t seem to justify its lofty valuation but some recent figures suggest why they might be able to get an IPO away at $100bn. Below are the Top 10 US social sites based on stats from Experian Hitwise. The sites are ranked by total visits (excluding mobile) for the month of March 2012. As you can see Facebook just dwarfs the rest of the Top 10 combined.

However the statistic that might be a little more interesting is that in the same month Facebook accounted for 10% OF ALL US INTERNET VISITS. In the battle for ‘eyeballs’ they are murdering the competition. If they can turn this into solid revenue $100bn might end up being a steal….

Facebook: 7.0 billion
Twitter: 182.2 million
Pinterest: 104.4 million
LinkedIn: 85.7 million
Tagged: 72.5 million
Google+: 61.0 million
MySpace: 43.3 million
MyYearbook: 38.1 million
MyLife: 29.7 million
Tumblr: 29.6 million

Gerry gets online wrong again!

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:17:00 GMT

Two separate but linked articles struck me today. In one NAB’s Online Retails Sales Index shows Online Retail Sales grew 15x the rate of the overall retail sector in the 12 months to end February 2012. Now this is still only 5% of total retail spending at $10.9bn. The real marker however is that we are well behind the US and Europe where online is more like 15%. So there is a lot of catching up to do....

The second related to everyone’s favourite grumpy billionaire Gerry Harvey. Gerry recently trumpeted that internet sales would never work for furniture and bedding items. His premise? People wanted to bounce up and down on the bed before buying. And you can’t do that online! Gerry’s views on online have proved to be wrong before but it was the response from the founder of Milan Direct that was interesting;

‘If you walk into a Harvey Norman store and buy something they don’t ever contact you again’.

A missed opportunity? Milan Direct is an online furniture and bedding store (!) with an online membership of 100,000. Members provide feedback and are regularly communicated with especially on special offers. Guess which business has a 40% customer return rate?

The future is becoming as much about customer engagement and empowerment as it is about products and services AND while the former aspects are rapidly moving online we are only at the bottom of the J-Curve!

How to use Pinterest

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:55:00 GMT

How much should I pay for my website? Why $30,000 is a bargain...

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Ok so it won't be a bargain for everyone but the cost of your website is simply an output of the choices you make. And if these choices are adding value the cost shouldn’t be the focus (at least not initially). Not convinced?... I found an analogy from an industry colleague which answers the question better than I could. Original article by AMac at Digett

How much should I pay for my website?

One of the most common questions we're asked as web developers is, "How much does a website cost?" Oddly enough, it's never this initial question that's hard to answer, it's question number two: "Why so much?"

It usually takes at least a few seconds for potential clients to wipe the shock off their face when we throw out a price tag of, say, $30,000. And then comes question number three.

"For a website?!"

Yes, at first, $30,000 seems like a lot of money for a website, but I guarantee you it's a steal. The truth is, whether you pay $10K or $75K, websites are cheap at any cost. What it costs is not important — it's the value of a website that really means something. Here's an analogy I've come up with to help everyone grasp the value of a website.

Your Website is An Employee

Imagine that you have just hired a new salesman named Bill. Here's everything you need to know about Bill:

Bill works 24/7, 365 days a year. He never sleeps, never eats. His only purpose in life is to talk to your customers and promote your business.
Bill is the perfect salesman. He knows everything about the company like the back of his hand, and can pitch it perfectly every time.
Bill talks to hundreds of people every day. He can talk to them all at once and still give everybody one-on-one attention.
Bill travels well. He can be anywhere in the world at any time, and multiple places at once if he needs to be. Best of all, he files no expense reports.
Bill learns quickly. You'll only have to tell him once. For example, with just a couple of days of training, he can learn to speak any language.

And now for the best part.

Bill is cheap. I mean, really cheap. Let's assume your company employs Bill for three years — that initial $30,000 price tag comes out to a measly salary of $10,000/year. And the longer you work together, the cheaper he gets. And he'll never quit! Bananas!

Bill would be better off working at Burger King, wouldn't he? You pay this poor man $1.14 an hour, don't you? Yet he stands under your boot and works tirelessly around the clock for just one cause: your cause. I can see it in your eyes. You kind of feel sorry for Bill now, don't you?

That is because you're crazy! Bill has no feelings, he's not a real person. He's a website. He's your website.

Now go out and try to find an actual person that will work that perfectly for 6,000 bones a year. Or try reducing the pay of your best employee to $1.14 an hour and see if he or she hangs around. Good luck!

How much does a website cost?

From your perspective, it shouldn't matter. A $30,000 website is a steal because its value is exponentially greater than its price tag.

The Shared Services Litmus Test

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT

One of Porter's clear strategies for sustainable competitive advantage is cost leadership. It would make sense therefore that the size of a corporate overhead imposed on a business unit could either help, or hinder, this strategy. So what size of overhead is appropriate? This is a difficult question as there is no single 'right' configuration and the solution usually depends on a range of considerations including the size of the organisation, culture, evolution and the regulatory environment within which it operates.

In this instance however the litmus test is usually the extent to which services can be performed more efficiently centrally (shared) than devolved back in the business. So the cost of providing the service centrally must be lower that that incurred if the business unit was to perform the service itself. Simple? Well yes if that was the end of it but in reality there is more to consider.

Complicating matters is the fact that the price the business unit pays for a shared service is usually more than the cost it is charged. This is because it also incurs an opportunity cost for not performing the service itself. This cost can manifest itself in a number of ways including a drop in service levels and responsiveness often due to the service provider just having multiple priorities. Only by including the opportunity cost with the charged cost can you work out whether or not the shared services model passes the litmus test.

What’s the answer for your organisation?

Where the advertising dollars go!

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:06:00 GMT

According to the Standard Media Index the main media advertising market grew just 0.7 per cent, year on year, in February to $536.3 million. The result contrasts with January when the market fell 6.1 per cent, the worst result in over three years.

Print continues to decline, with newspapers' ad revenue sliding 12.3 per cent, year on year, a result eclipsed by magazines, which plunged 14.9 per cent. Television, the largest medium, including metropolitan, regional and pay-TV, was steady, rising 0.5 per cent. Radio rose 2.6 per cent but outdoor, after months of steady growth, fell 2.7 per cent.

The standout performer was once again digital, which soared 29.2 per cent in February compared with the previous year. If Australia's largest media companies are channelling their clients dollars into digital, at the expense of nearly everything else bar TV, there must be something to it!

Top Tips - Testimonials

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:27:00 GMT

Testimonials are important for all service organisations because they provide a tangible touch point for an intangible good. Prospective customers can’t try your service in advance therefore they look for cues to minimise the risk from making the purchase decision. Testimonials, being third-party endorsements rather than words out of your own mouth fulfill this purpose very well.

Testimonial Content Rules:

One to three paragraphs per testimonial is sufficient
Keep editing to a minimum. The testimonial must be real
It must be specific, clear and relate to a benefit provided by you
The individual must explain why the benefit worked for them or their customers
Name, title and company details should be provided (where relevant).
Photographs are extremely powerful.

Digital Marketing Trends to watch out for in 2012

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:00:00 GMT

2012 is set to focus on streamlining new marketing processes introduced in 2011, as marketers become more savvy and sophisticated with the now not so new capabilities. ADMA asked some of their Digital Day speakers to share their predictions and focus for the year ahead.

1. Social Media Influence
Social Media solidified itself as a key channel in 2011 as we saw it seamlessly integrated as the main component of a number of major successful campaigns, including NAB’s “Break-Up” campaign and Tourism Australia.

Social influence will only get stronger in 2012 as organisations start to develop more compelling and cohesive experiences for customers in new and more engaging ways. In 2011 social media ROI was a key factor, while this year will see marketers focusing on social media revenue generation as an increasing number of consumers flock to Facebook to find more targeted purchases. Data capture and measurement will be the focus to creating long-term effectiveness in Social Media in 2012.

“Digital is creating a transparent consumer market so better leverage of customer advocacy with a focus on C2C will be fundamental to compete, especially for brands that don't compete on price. We're creating integrated social applications to promote brand success with the aim to better engage new audiences.”

John-Paul Talbot, Digital Projects Consultant,
Fuzzy Entertainment - Parklife

2. Mobile
If 2011 was the year of the app, 2012 is fast set to become the year of the mobile wallet which will mean a dramatic shift in the way we will look at mobile marketing. Mobile has become an opportunity to market to potential consumers in real time. As the mobile wallet fast becomes a reality, marketers will have to consider the 360 degree path to purchase. Marketers will need to focus on developing a different form of communication with their customer through targeted messages and brilliant data. Shifting from e-commerce to m-commerce will enable on-the-spot transactions. Rethinking how we use mobile will give consumers exhilarating new interactions with brands.

“I think Social e-commerce is on everyone’s lips and F commerce is something our brand would like to trial as our next step in our digital efforts.”

Therese Waters, National Marketing Manager,
Clinique

3. Data
New technologies are providing us with new opportunities to gain a single customer view and track customer behaviour. Data will reign supreme as it becomes the most important factor to enable us to really capatilise on the integration of touch points and platforms. There will be a real focus on data visualisation along with a high demand on super granular ROI and analysis in order to make a real connection with audiences. Marketers will have to be mindful that as new technologies emerge and unify, customers will be more cagy about data privacy and protection. Marketers will come out on top if they discover their customers preferred channel which will maximise acquisition and build lasting relationships.

4. Content Marketing
2012 will focus more on the customer experience and gaining a one-to-one conversation to better engage with current and potential consumer bases. More focused communities will be developed as content sharing will become increasingly crucial. Sophisticated data will enable marketers to effectively connect with their audience.

“Interface and content are what counts. With interface, the future is all about touch. Content, on other hand, will be shaped by the sharing filter.”

Hal Crawford, Head of News,
ninemsn

5. Geo-Marketing
As smart phones and tablets continue to flourish, the opportunity for marketers to reach consumers at that critical moment and be in the right place at the right time is too good an opportunity to miss in 2012. Geo marketing will mature and provide marketers with a unique opportunity to focus on the ‘human’ element, whether that’s through live chat, virtual environments or social media. Not only that but 2012 will see marketers exploit the opportunity of geo-location marketing to capture a complete and holistic understanding of their customers’ interactions.

6. Gamification
According to Gartner, by 2015 a gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important to companies' marketing departments as Facebook and Twitter. Gartner further predicts that in less than three years more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organisations will have at least one gamified application.

“We recognised early the importance of expanding across multiple digital platforms to reach millions of audiences throughout the world, breaking out storied brands like PAC-MAN to diverse digital media to increase its visibility from one platform to another. In 2012 that will become more important than ever with the expediential proliferation of smart phones, tablets, and streaming services adding to the already rich digital ecosystem that has become the standard.”

Carlson Choi, Vice President – Marketing,
Namco Bandai Games (US)

7. Interactive TV
As more people adopt interactive televisions we will see a lot more device integration; TV, computers, tablets, and smart phones will become a unified single source of incoming and outgoing communication which will create more engaging experiences for customers along with greater potential for marketers. Interactive magazines will become more mainstream and marketers will no doubt try to capitalise on this opportunity to connect with their audience on a more one-to-one basis.

“With the increase in mobile and fixed internet speeds and the proliferation of new smart devices Network Ten will be focused on delivering its' viewers their favourite shows on demand and through their device of choice in 2012.”

Vincent Dempsey, Head of Digital Media,
Network Ten

8. Cloud Computing
2011 saw a huge uptake in cloud technology and this year will see this this area grow and mature. With cloud becoming more accessible to the average person, privacy and data issues are predicted to decrease and marketers will be able to truly capatilise on this potential.

9. Digital Integration
2012 will be the year of digital convergence marketing with multiplatform viewing devices.

Integration will need to be seamless across all channels and technologies as marketers become smarter about the touch points they use to connect with their audience. To survive and thrive marketers must put the customer experience first start and maintain conversations with customers across multiple channels and devices

“Digital integration can't just be about what the company wants to relay - it has to be about what the customer has to add to the conversation. The most exciting innovations come from listening, not talking.”

Dae Levine, Head of Communication,
Greenpeace

10. Accountability
“2012 will be the year of digital accountability - where investments in social media and other digital channels like cool mobile apps will need to prove their ROI in real business value terms. The answer to these questions from board level will be an effective digital strategy linked to key business objectives, and really smart use of data to understand customers, so expect a focus on pointy-headed data folk and geeky number-crunchers rather than hipster social media gurus.”

Mike Zeederberg, Managing Director,
Zuni

Overall, 2012 will be less about talk and more about action, social commerce, digital convergence and the mobile wallet will certainly be key areas to watch out for.

"mobile is not another channel, it’s the channel” - Mobile Marketing

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Here is an infographic from Microsoft Tag highlighting the rise of Mobile Marketing. These statistics make clear the marketing power of Mobile, with mobile internet users set to surpass desktop internet users by 2015.

The graphic also illustrates the significance of the Smart TV market; 86% of mobile internet users are using their devices while watching TV.

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted...

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:57:00 GMT

Do you know which of your marketing programs are working and which ones aren’t? There are still a considerable number of marketers that continue to struggle with marketing measurement—despite the abundance of tools to help track success.

The infographic below from ifbyphone has some useful information to help start planning your own measurement initiatives for 2012.

5 step checklist to evaluate an inbound marketing agency

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:00:00 GMT

I recently came across this post from Chris Fell. After stripping back the promotional content what is left is a basic must-have 5 step checklist to evaluating an Inbound Marketing Agency.

1. The Right Services
Hiring a firm to redesign your website won't get you more visitors. The two, seemingly connected, are two totally different agency skills sets. One is design-heavy; the other is content-heavy. To attract more traffic and leads, you need to hire a firm with traffic generation services like blogging and content creation, search engine optimization and link building, and social media campaign creation. Looking for more leads and customers? Then make sure you're vetting the premium content creation, landing page, and marketing automation capabilities of a prospective agency. Be certain an agency has the capabilities you need to meet your marketing goals.

2. A Clear Process
Content creation capabilities and social media case studies are great, but the real value of an agency's involvement will be in how they put the inbound pieces together into a comprehensive strategy. Inbound marketing agencies should be able to clearly lay out and explain the inbound methodology for prospective clients. Being able to clearly show you the order in which things need to happen and the amount of time and resources required at each step will indicate that the agency has delivered ROI to clients before. Thus, you will also be able to infer that it has the game plan to do it again for your company.

3. An Emphasis on Measurement
Words like "metrics," "benchmarks," and "analytics" should be peppered throughout your prospective agency's pitch. Progress made toward your goals should to be measured at every step of the way, and an inbound marketing agency worth its weight will be able to track all campaigns and report on performance regularly. You have goals. You are trying to meet those goals by hiring the agency. Therefore, it should be as focused as you are on charting success in an undeniable, data-driven way.

4. Strong Project Management Skills
Inbound marketing is fueled by the creation of remarkable content aimed at your ideal prospects. In order to be successful, good inbound agencies will need to get inside your head to build that content and learn about that dream lead. Do the agency you're considering have the process and communication skills to make you think they will make reasonable and realistic requests of other folks on your team? Also, have they set clear expectations around what each inbound component will require in terms of time and resources? Do you get the impression that they can manage campaigns with lots of moving parts? A good agency will make your life easier; not the opposite.

5. A Website Optimized for Inbound
Does the agency you're considering blog regularly? What is its own social media presence like? Are there optimized landing pages and premium content offers throughout its site? An effective inbound marketing agency should be its own best case study. Think twice about engaging with an inbound firm that doesn't make the services it sells a priority for its own business.

Helpful tips to writing a design brief...

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:56:00 GMT

A design is only as good as the brief worked from. The best projects are borne from creative briefs that are open enough to inspire ideas, while being specific enough to feel workable. Providing clients with briefing templates will elicit the information you need from a few carefully crafted questions.

A well outlined brief should draw attention to the things your client hasn’t thought of—like “Have I got all the artwork my designer needs?” or even in some cases “Who am I targeting with this item?”

Unfortunately, clients who aren’t familiar with the design process don’t see carefully-written briefs as a high priority. This may be because they don’t have time. Quite often, it’s because the client hasn’t made fundamental decisions about the objectives of their marketing collateral.

A formal handover template gives the designer an opportunity to offer a few pointers, so the client learns how to get the most from the relationship. It’s a frame of reference when you meet to discuss the assignment, and a point of review if your first proofs don’t pass muster.

Good Things to Include in Your Design Brief

Title of item.
Delivery mechanism and marketing objectives.
Format.
Budget and schedule.
What are you providing the designer with: Product shots, website screen shots, photographs, diagrams, etc. (Check these are high-resolution.)
General description of format: Describe any formatting issues you have arranged with the printer.
Description of target audience: Occupation, gender ratio, average age, nationality/location, psychological demographic, lifestyle preferences.
Message objectives: Hierarchy of copy messages, treatment of headlines, body copy, visuals, product samples, call-to-action.
Where to look for inspiration: Give brief examples of style / overall look you want the item to achieve. What aspects of the product or branding can be used as a starting point for the design? What feelings or metaphors reflect the spirit of your product or company?
What not to do: Also give examples of what the design shouldn’t include and what styles to avoid.

Tips for Briefing a Designer

1. Think about the message of the design.

Offer guidance to help the designer marry the “look” of the item with the “voice” of the copy.

2. Don’t prescribe solutions.

You are paying for the designer’s ideas, so avoid the temptation to tell the designer what to do. Instead, be clear about what the item needs to achieve, so the designer can explore ideas. This is where you need the designer’s expertise.

It’s rarely a good idea to give a designer a mocked up layout – they will simply follow your instructions which are not necessarily making the best use of the space.

3. Do your scheduling before you brief a designer.

Make sure you schedule the whole project before you brief a designer, incorporating appropriate feedback and incubation stages. Ask your designer to inform you in advance if deadlines or set budgets are unrealistic.

4. Formalize design briefing.

Carefully word your brief in an email or as a front page to your copy, and use this as a reference point when you meet. Always brief designers face-to-face, or on the phone for smaller projects.

Download CCM creative brief template

Brand Equity - Qantas shutdown

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:04:00 GMT

"To think that their passengers will understand the complexities of negotiations with unions, take their side, and return to them when it is all over, is naïve in the extreme."

Paul Harrison points outs some of the possible fatalistic brand consequences of the move by Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce, to ground the Qantas fleet around the world.

Branding is all about perception, rather than some objective reality. And the key to branding is trust. This move has the potential to further erode trust in the “flying kangaroo” amongst its key publics, including business travellers and the government.

Marketing is not about massive changes in behaviour, it is about small, incremental shifts. If Virgin are able to provide a level of service equal to Qantas, then it will be difficult for Qantas to get back all of those customers, at least in the short-term. Read more

The most "sharable" day of the week

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:45:00 GMT

Here is an smart little infographic from AddThis on their 5th birthday to visualise user behaviour around social media sharing trends of content across the social web.

Highlighted under the "When do people share?" headline; the most active time of the week is 9:30am and the most active day of the week is Wednesday, but perhaps the most important statistic is the percentage of clicks within the first day - 75%. Something to think about when posting or sending your next social communication piece!

What drives Top Brands?

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:14:00 GMT

Interbrand's Top 100 Global Brands report was released today. Coca-Cola and IBM held the Top 2 places with Apple being the fastest riser in the Top 10. The report is worth a quick look here but there were a couple of quotes that I thought were worth highlighting;

“Consistency, relevance and commitment are imperative if a brand is to keep pace in our rapidly changing world.” Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s Global Chief Executive Officer.

“More and more brand promise will need to be delivered through a whole organisation to provide a consistent customer experience and create and sustain a meaningful brand.” Joseph Kumar Gross. Allianz SE, Head of Group Market Management

“It is our people and their ability to execute on the mission and vision of our organisation on a daily basis that builds, shapes, and increases the integrity of our brand.“ Beverley Wallace, HCA (the largest private operator of healthcare facilities in the world).

In other words the key to success is consistency, delivered throughout the whole of an organisation, by all of its employees, on a day to day basis. Easy!

Brand Equity - Poor Corporate Design vs Social Media Backlash

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 23:19:00 GMT

Gap, one of the most popular American clothing brands is using Social Media to build brand equity after public backlash over its new logo design. Read more

The new logo was designed by Trey Laird and his firm Laird and Partners, who have served as Gap's creative directors for many years, while working closely with Gap of North America president Marka Hansen.

Social Media in Australia Infographic

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:17:00 GMT

Australia compares well with APAC nieghbours

Thinking about brand equity....

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:00:00 GMT

For a brand to have equity it must accomplish two things over time: retain current customers and attract new ones. To the extent a brand does these things well, it grows stronger versus its competition, and delivers more value to its owners. So what should you focus your thinking on?

1. Focus on Customer Needs and Behavior
Clients and prospects will find unexpected ways of interacting with you. By having a good understanding of their needs and behavior you can create experiences that combine optimal content with the best channels.

2. Create Cross-Channel Customer Experiences
A tweet can lead customers to a blog post, which could link to a brochure which prompts them to pick up the phone and talk to someone. The ability to reach across an organisation to bring Sales, Customer Service, Marketing and other departments together is essential to building a successful customer experience.

3. Real, Meaningful Value in Your Content and Experiences
Don't waste time. Be succinct and add value to every interaction. Meeting customers differing information needs at different stages of the buying process is essential to a good experience.

4. Allocate Responsibility
A truly client focused organisation orientates itself to the needs of clients. It also allocates clear and unequivocal responsibility to someone to own the entirety of the client experience and to use this to drive the rest of the business forward.

"mobile is not another channel, it’s the channel” - The statistics

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:00:00 GMT

In a recent tweet I made reference to Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, who stated “mobile is not another channel, it’s the channel”.

Here are some of the statistics...

Famous last words of an idiot...

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:47:00 GMT

Advertising Agency: Altavia Every, Milan, Italy
Creative Director: Fabrizio Arrigoni
Art Director: Mario Amato, Max Di Rubba
Copywriter: Danilo Palma

The 3 golden rules of SEO

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:17:00 GMT

In this insightful blog Nick Stamoulis highlights 3 golden rules of SEO that should lead any marketing discussion especially in the highly competitive market of the SME.

Like any other marketing campaign that you have ever or will ever implement, there is a certain amount of work that should be done before you can start optimizing your website and building inbound links to increase search engine traffic. Without having enough background information or doing proper research beforehand, you are essentially wasting your time on SEO activities.

Here are 3 things you need to understand before starting an SEO campaign:

Who Your Audience Is
If you think that your target audience is “everyone”, you’re in trouble. You really need to have a firm understanding of who is or will be most interested in the products or services that you offer. Once you know who they are, the next step is to find out what their behaviors are, particularly their online behaviors. How do they spend their time online? What sites do they visit? This information will help you understand the best places to build links.

Who Your Competition Is
This is another area in which businesses tend to be unrealistic. If you are an antique furniture re-seller you are not competing with JC Penny or Ikea. Consider geographic and business size factors. Once you’ve narrowed it down to competitors within your specific niche, see what they are doing in the online space. Helpful tools like Compete and Website Grader give you intelligence regarding competitor’s websites and how they advertise and market themselves.

What Conversion You Want
SEO works to get traffic to your site, but the rest is up to the website itself. Is it conversion friendly? The first step is to know what your conversion metric will be. Do you want a visitor to buy directly from the site? Fill out a form? Call a salesperson? A site can be well optimized, but if there are no clear calls to action it won’t perform as well as it should. The kind of conversion that you are looking to achieve will influence the keywords that are chosen, which essentially are the foundation of an SEO campaign.

Getting all your ducks in a row before going Social!

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:56:00 GMT

In order for a company to be ready to implement a social media strategy, everything else needs to be in place first. This means that a company needs to already have other marketing strategies in place like SEO, PPC, email marketing, content marketing, and traditional advertising. What many companies don’t realise is that a social media strategy will never singlehandedly result in much success. Social media works to support the brand image that has already been established through other marketing channels.

Twitter lags as a Marketing tool.....

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:41:00 GMT

This headline was in The Australian Media and Marketing section today.

The context was the Twitter lags as a platform for driving readers to print news websites. Facebook is 7 times more successful, a result that has been backed up by additional research in the U.S. Whilst the comparison is a little unfair it does highlight a consideration for anyone thinking of using social media. If your goal is to drive consumers to your main site, spending time and resources on any tool that provides 0.3% of your clicks smacks of a lack of understanding of your consumers, the tools available and what they should be used for. Any tool is only as useful as the level of insight with which it is wielded.

The future: human-centric customer service

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:45:00 GMT

A human-centric customer service model revolves around people. Every component of the solution is humanized, acknowledging that customers and agents are real people with daily life struggles like the rest of us. It is a model that recognizes customers are a valuable resource, key to a company’s success, and therefore built to respect them.

With human-centric customer service, agents genuinely know their customers and issues are never divorced from the people who are seeking help. Customers have digital profiles that include pictures, personal details that they choose to share with an agent, as well as recent tweets or other social media info. And agent-customer relationships are not only encouraged but reinforced through preferred-agent routing mechanisms.

This optimizes the chances that customers connect to agents with whom they’ve already built a common history. Finally, it’s the agents that are the heart of the human-centric experience; they possess extraordinary communication skills, celebrate diverse personalities and genuinely enjoy helping others. Read more

Make Your Direct Mail Work Better, Stronger, Faster

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:52:00 GMT

As a direct mail marketer, it’s ingrained in me to say that any marketing campaign should include direct mail. In reality, brands will get the greatest return when they use direct mail intelligently.

Direct mail also works best when used in combination with other channels, such as email, phone calls, mobile marketing, etc. There are certain audiences and industries for which direct mail is a perfect and necessary option, as well as recommended tactics to employ to ensure success.

While direct mail can and does work for a myriad of industries, reaching all kinds of audiences, here are my thoughts on when direct mail works best and how to make it smarter. Read more

101 Awesome Marketing Quotes

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:00:00 GMT

These quotes are a reminder that no matter what new technology, idea, trend or fad is in fashion marketing is always, at its heart, about the customer. A fact that we should not forget.

Doin’ It And Doin’ It And Doin’ It Well

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:00:00 GMT

New York City-based artist and entrepreneur Justin Gignac talks to the PSFK CONFERENCE NYC 2011 audience about the creative process behind his projects like NYC Garbage, Wants for Sale, Nudes of Chatroulette and QRapping Paper.

Some highlights from the presentation:

How he’s motivated by idea envy
His criteria for ideas worth doing: It needs to be
1) smart
2) simple
3) surprising and
4) will anyone give a shit
The importance of cultivating relationships

Top Tips - Paragem Leadership Series Day

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:00:00 GMT

I recently had the pleasure of presenting to the advisory businesses within the Paragem network in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. It is probably fair to say that most advice businesses, especially smaller ones, struggle with marketing. My aim was to share some 'Top Tips' which would get participants thinking about marketing their own businesses. The 'Top 10' are:

Marketing requires continued, consistent, investment.
Get professional specialist help.
Have a clear marketing strategy and plan.
Your brand and reputation are everything!
Be very clear who your target clients are.
Manage your marketing activity like an investment portfolio.
Visibility is essential, good content more so.
Master the web and technology.
Make someone accountable for marketing.
Regularly review and refine your overall plan.

How do you differentiate a 'Services' Brand?

Mon, 16 May 2011 14:00:00 GMT

“We are committed to meeting client needs.”
“We have a culture of transparency and trust.”
“Our advisers are specialists/experts.”

How many times have you seen these statements appear in marketing literature or on websites? How often to they truly resonate with prospects? Exactly. These types of bland messages do little to create compelling impressions in the minds of audiences, let alone lasting ones.

They are what I would call ‘tick-boxes’ or the bare minimum that you need to be in the game. I believe prospects are looking for more, for a reason to believe, for a reason to take you up on your offer. This is where a strong, differentiated brand can come into play. A good brand can’t disguise poor advice or service but it can build and sustain goodwill and facilitate referrals.

One of the primary keys to success is deceptively simple but difficult to do consistently. Tangibly demonstrate your competence and expertise on a regular basis and build trust. One way of doing this is to distribute good content after they have voluntarily opted-in to being contacted by you. Only after you have begun this dialogue, and it has been of value, should you try to progress to the next stage.

SMEs lag on digital presence

Wed, 11 May 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Most small and medium businesses are getting left behind in the fast-growing trend towards using online and social media for marketing and advertising, according to research.

According to a study by Sensis, only 17 per cent of Australian small businesses have a digital strategy, 40 per cent of them don't have a website and only 14 per cent have a presence on social media.

The research shows smaller businesses are falling well behind their larger counterparts, which are increasingly using social media, websites and online sales to find new clients and boost their brand. About half of all larger businesses have a presence on social media.

Sensis surveyed 1800 metropolitan and regional businesses. Read more

What the $1.25bn AFL deal means for your corporate website!

Sat, 07 May 2011 14:00:00 GMT

I’m not an AFL fan but caught the end of the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns match last night. As I was watching I was thinking about the recently signed TV deal and how well the AFL did in getting Seven, Foxtel and Telstra to pay so much. Why did they do it?

The answer is simple. They believe they can make money from the content. The old adage that content is king applies more than ever these days and it is a principle that can be applied to corporate websites as much as to TV. Content is valuable and the better it is, the more likely customers are to watch your station, buy your set-top box, use your mobile service, trust your brand or buy your products and services.

In the corporate world a content strategy involves identifying the material that will best enable you to communicate your offer, demonstrate your expertise and how it will meet your customers needs. Keeping material interesting, relevant and fresh is a commitment. But with a carefully thought out strategy, judicious use of resources and partnerships it is possible to monetise content. Just ask Kerry Stokes!

5 Tips for good Webcopy

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Writing copy for your website is easy to do but hard to do well. Here are some quick tips.

Make it interesting. Obvious? Yes but the vast majority of copy on business websites is devoted to a literal description of what that business does. Unfortunately visitors to your site don't care what your services provide, they care what those services will do for them.
Write the most concise copy you can. Then halve it. People scan pages. Just the sense of too many words will have them swiftly moving on.
Content on the page be 'above the fold'. There should be a requirement to scroll only in exceptional circumstances. The more action someone has to take, the more likely they are to leave your site.
Make copious use of headings, bullets, quotes and links in order to make the page visually attractive.
Get professional help, or at a minimum, find someone who can act as your editor. No matter how good you think you are, everyone makes mistakes. A second pair of eyes is essential.

Australians Online

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:00:00 GMT

I will broaden these posts past social media but I thought the Nielsen Online Consumer Report provides an interesting insight for Marketeers (and business owners). I quote verbatim. The emphasis in bold is mine.

"Social media has truly been a revolution for online Australians with the most common activity, being tapping into other consumers' opinions found on social media. It has been a revolution in the methods by which consumers can connect with brands, connect with other consumers to discuss brands, and source other consumers’ opinions about brands.

To keep pace with this revolution marketers have had to evolve. Social media has provided them with more customer touch points, more methods of content and communication distribution, and more information about customers and their preferences. While it has not yet revolutionised marketing, social media has certainly forced a revolution in the behaviours of consumers, and an evolution of the way marketers and providers interact with those consumers and distribute content”

The Social Media Revolution

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:00:00 GMT

I thought I'd kick things off (properly) with probably one of the most widely viewed, and entertaining, introductions to Social Media. The numbers speak for themselves. Enjoy.