Marketing Trenches

I typically don’t like reading anything classified as a “business book”.  Sometimes these books are how-tos, and by page 10 I realize that I can’t possibly implement the “system” that the author is pushing.  Sometimes these books are success stories or autobiographies, and while I like a good story as much as the next guy, I simply get bored reading 400 pages about one person’s life.  Sometimes these books are thought leadership or educational pieces, and while I am certainly in constant pursuit of knowledge, I find that most of these books contain repackaged content from someone or somewhere else. 

I received Outliers as a Christmas gift, and picked it up yesterday around 6 PM.  Knocked out 100 pages when I was supposed to be doing a variety of other things on a Sunday night.  I obviously haven’t finished the book yet, but I am excited enough about what I’ve read that I had to write about it. 

Gladwell, the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, simply does what he always does - he makes you think about the world in a way that you likely haven’t thought about it.  And he never does it in an “I’m a genius, so I have to write about extremely complex, hard-to-understand subjects” type of way.  He takes simple success stories - Bill Gates and The Beatles for example - and he exposes you to reasons for their success that you likely never would have dreamt up.   

I am already feeling like it’s a bit unfair to write about this until I finish the book, so I’ll stop there and come back with a full review later.  In the meantime, if you’re a stats geek who also enjoys stories that dig below the surface, pick it up.  If nothing else, I promise you’ll be entertained. 

MediaPost ran a quick column today that summarizes some thoughts from Michael Roth, Chairman/CEO of the Interpublic Group of Companies.  In case you’re not aware, Interpublic is one of the big four advertising agency holding companies, claiming agencies like Deutsch, Hill Holliday and McCann Erickson under its massive umbrella.  Amongst other things, Roth discusses media becoming a commodity, and notes that the winners in the media business (and thus the winners of client media dollars) will be those marketers and agencies who can command the lowest cost for that media.  Here is a link to the full article:

Interpublic Chief Paints Media as a ‘Commodity’

Now, while I tend to agree with the premise that media is fast becoming a commodity, I disagree with a few of Roth’s statements, such as:

“I think that’s what you are seeing right now is clients are demanding to see where their dollars are being spent,” Roth said during a presentation at Tuesday’s session of UBS’ “Media Week” conference in New York.

OK, so while this is true, I find it a bit odd that the demand to see where dollars are being spent is a “new” request.  Were the Fortune 500 type clients of Interpublic NOT asking to see where their dollars were being spent prior to this financial crisis we’re in?  Yikes.

Read the rest of this entry »

I sat in on a particularly terrible webinar today, and it left me scratching my head.  The host company usually nails these types of events, but today was a complete mess.  A mess at the beginning, a mess in the middle, and a mess at the end.  Makes you wonder why I stuck around, doesn’t it?  Me too.  Nonetheless, it inspired the following simple list of reasons why webinars fail:

• Technical problems: Come on folks.  If you’re going to run a webinar, test the technology beforehand.  Use a reputable vendor.  If attendees can’t join your meeting or can’t view your presentation, it’s over before it even started.
• Too Salesy: We all understand that webinars are designed to start or continue a sales cycle.  But if you advertise the webinar as educational, don’t beat us over the head with 10 “About Us” slides to kick things off.
• Content Isn’t As Advertised: The simplest one of all.  If your webinar was advertised as “Best Practices in Email Marketing” and the title of your actual presentation is “Social Media for 2009 and Beyond”, that’s like buying a ticket for one movie and being forced to watch another movie instead.
• No Concrete Examples: Educate me on the basics, then provide me with real examples I can latch on to.  I may not remember the basics, but you can bet I will remember that Aurora Widgets Company used the solution to increase revenue 10x in 2008.
• Don’t Read the Slides: Presentation 101.  Inject some enthusiasm.  Pretend you’re going off script even if you’re not.  Do anything to make me believe you’re thinking while you’re presenting, and not just reading slides.
• Don’t Run Over:  If the webinar is advertised as 45 minutes, make it 35.  If it’s advertised as 30 minutes, make it 20.  Many webinar attendees are interested in the typical Q&A session that occurs at the end of the session, but if you run over on the standard part, they may miss the only portion they really cared about in the first place. 

If you provide compelling content, market your webinar appropriately, and avoid these mistakes, the webinar can be a very effective lead generation and nurturing tool.  If you aren’t willing to pay enough attention to these areas, then don’t run webinars.  It’s that simple. 

I’d say that only 10% of job seekers understand that looking for a job is not all that different from strategizing, creating and executing a marketing campaign. What are some simple aspects that drive the success of a marketing campaign?

• Choose a target audience carefully.
• Customize your offering and content for that target audience.
• Make sure the target audience can quickly and easily view your offering.
• Allow the target audience to interact with you in a variety of ways.

Translated into a job search, those bullets become:

Read the rest of this entry »

For the millions of us watching CNN on election night and the 6 months preceding it, the segment that was most impressive had nothing to with the 18 talking heads on set.  It was John King’s mastery of the touch screen map.  Call him the new Czar of the Telestrator (my apologies to Mike Fratello), call him the Master of the Map, call him whatever you want…his almost error-free execution of those segments was damn impressive.  Of course, the show he put on would not have been possible without the existence of the analytics data surrounding the performance.

This offers further proof that we live in a analytics and data-obsessed society.  In sports, we love stats like earned run average and quarterback rating even if none of us can figure out where those numbers come from.  In politics, we love knowing that in Somerset County, 31.8% of white males under the age of 39 who claim Cheerios as their favorite cereal voted for Obama on election night.  In business, we love our business intelligence.  We love our decision analysis tools.  We love our web analytics. 

Businesses that use some form of analytics, or data collection and reporting tools, are at a distinct advantage over those that do not.  There is no disputing that.  So why do so many businesses, both large and small, run away from putting analytics tools in place?

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a B2B marketer, answer the following questions quickly:

1) What is your company/organization?

2) What do you help other organizations accomplish? (Here’s a hint - if you’re not helping them either reduce costs or generate revenue, you may be in trouble.)

3) How do you help those organizations accomplish that goal?

4) What types of organizations do you help?

You, and all the members of your marketing and sales team, should be able to answer those questions in 30 seconds or less.  If not, there’s a messaging problem.  In my experience, only 1 of every 4 marketing management types can answer these questions without stumbling. 

If you don’t know your message, why do you expect prospects to understand your message?

So your boss just dropped the following task on you - you need to cut marketing spend, and you also need to figure out how to make that spend work better from an ROI standpoint.  If it makes you feel any better, you’re not alone.  Marketing department heads are getting hit with that same task in every type of organization. 

The better news is that this task is really not that difficult, especially if you are using the appropriate tracking mechanisms.  The potential solutions to this problem are endless, yet the implementation can seem complicated.  Here are 3 basic places to start:

1. Assuming you know which marketing vehicles are your most efficient performers from a lead generation or customer acquisition standpoint, cut out the poor performers for the time being and focus on the top performers.  If search engine marketing drives leads at half the cost of direct mail (without sacrificing quality of course), then cut direct mail and focus on search engine marketing.  If your affiliate program drives new e-commerce customers at a $20 cost per acquisition while your email marketing program drives new e-commerce customers at a $75 cost per aquisition, cut the email marketing and focus in on the affiliate program. 

Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently talking to a marketing executive at a mid-sized software company, and he brought up a problem he was having with “closing the loop” between marketing’s lead generation efforts and the sales team’s revenue output.  He mentioned that while the company had recently invested in a CRM solution and some accompanying marketing automation software, that there was still missing data, incorrect data, and a general distaste for the new solution within the sales team.

Having run into this situation a number of times, I followed with three simple questions:

Question 1: Who actually implemented the CRM/marketing automation solution for you?

Answer: We used an outside consultant who focuses on these specific types of implementations.

Question 2: Who built the process and rules surrounding the treatment of leads both inside and outside the CRM solution?

Answer: The same guy, the CRM consultant.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s amazing how much I’ve come to rely on LinkedIn.  Don’t get me wrong - I am  not a social media addict.  I don’t Twitt yet.  MySpace makes me nervous.  I use Facebook, but primarily because I have some clients that are obsessed with it as a business tool. 

LinkedIn is different - it’s used (at least by me) for business purposes only.  I use it for research on clients, partners, investors, etc.  I use it to get answers to questions.  I use it to connect with current colleagues, past colleagues, and sometimes for recruiting purposes. 

Let me preface my upcoming rant with this - I am not an “open networker”.  I send invitations to connect to people I know and have worked with, and accept invitations to connect from people I know and have worked with.  Personally, I don’t believe in the “open networking” thing because I think it defeats the purpose of a community like LinkedIn, but hey…to each his own.  So now that you know where I stand on that…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve addressed this question three times in the past week, so it finally registered on my blog-worthy radar.  Microsites and landing pages are certainly related.  Close cousins, yes.  Siblings, no. 

Landing Pages

Let’s start with the landing page.  Landing pages are typically one-page creations.  They focus on one particular offer, and specifically on getting the visitor to take advantage of that particular offer.  Sometimes called lead capture vehicles, landing pages are used primarily for direct marketing programs - pay per click search engine marketing, direct mail, print advertising, etc.  Well-designed landing pages are critical to the success of these campaigns, and the savviest of marketers use and test hundreds of different landing pages in order to optimize conversion rates. 

For visual reference, here is an example of a Gold’s Gym landing page touting their 7-day free membership:

Gold’s Gym Landing Page

Microsites

Microsites, sometimes called minisites or sitelets, typically consist of a cluster of web pages and are used for a variety of purposes: 

• Large consumer goods companies may use microsites to independently market a new product, because the primary company website may leave the product underexposed. 
• A newspaper may use a microsite to cover a time-sensitive and popular event, such as the upcoming presidential election or the Olympics. 
• A business-to-business software company may use a microsite to provide prospects with deep information on a product, information that cannot be handled via a landing page. 

Read the rest of this entry »