Apr 23 2013
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Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

Cui Bono…to whose benefit?

From Wikipedia:

Cui bono (“to whose benefit?”, literally “as a benefit to whom?”, a double dative construction), also rendered as cui prodest, is a Latin adage that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be.

I came across this statement recently in one of the many books I’m attempting to finish during my venture into writing a book myself. It got me pondering on this aspect when it comes to marketing/advertising/public relations. Who is benefiting from a campaign? Who is benefiting from the hours of planning and designing an ad or website? Is it the client or is it the agency? Who reaps the benefits?

One would hope that the client would, yet there are examples of agencies doing work so that they can win an award because they believe that this brings them business. Sure, the client gets a great piece of collateral, but at what costs? The cost of the actual hours the agency charges, then the cost of business and/or leads that never happens. But hey, they got great collateral or ads!

Of course, they may have been above the head of the intended audience, but it looked great, right?
Benefits 300x137 Cui Bono...to whose benefit? Does the marketing industry benefit from these ads or cause even better campaigns? Does a creative director benefit because it serves as inspiration? Does a marketing team benefit when they’re white-boarding a new campaign? Currently, I believe that marketing is at another set of crossroads. We saw it a few years ago when social media was the darling of marketing. Now we’ve come to realize that it is just another tool to use. We also saw it recently when the talk of “content is king” was the talk of the town.

We’re starting to see an almost jaded approach to social media nowadays. People in marketing are getting ‘tired’ of social media….getting burned out. We’ve worked so hard to make it work and now as we’ve learned that it’s really not for everyone and what can actually work and not work….we’re looking for the next big thing. So who will benefit? Will it be the marketers that has seen the evolution of social media, public relations and advertising. Will it be the new generation of digital natives? Those that have never had to do layout with a glue gun, Exacto knife and a blank piece of paper.

Will it be the client who should be the beneficiary of marketing efforts. The client is our money; they pay our bills, keep the lights on, make sure we have a decent car to drive and so on. And they in turn, do the same for their employees. I don’t think I have to mention that this is all cylindrical.

One can’t survive without the other. One can’t move ahead in business without the other. The question remains, “who benefits?”

The proper answer is…everyone involved from agency to client to the audience….and then it turns into a win-win-win situation.

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Mar 26 2013
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Digital Thoughts

What would you say?

Typewriter 300x267 What would you say? Imagine you only have an hour left to live to tell loved ones and friends that you’re going to die and will never be seen again. What would you say to them? What would you say to your kids? What would you tell them to do in the future? Would you tell them that you’re proud of them? Would your words be full of regret? Imagine you can only do it in 1oo-2oo words. If you want to participate in this writing assignment, let me know and I’ll post your words here.

Feb 25 2013
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Digital Thoughts

Stuff…And Those Who Keep It

Stuff 300x147 Stuff…And Those Who Keep ItWe find solace in many things; reading, listening to music, spending time with loved ones and keeping stuff. There are whole shows dedicated to it; Hoarders, American Pickers, Clean Sweep, Extreme Couponers and many others.

Many of us are children of parents who grew up in a time when people didn’t own a lot of stuff and when they got older, they were borderline hoarders. I’ll give you an example. My father was from Northern Ireland originally. His family moved to the US, to the Appalachian area of Tennessee seeking to better the family and to get away from the Troubles. My dad’s family didn’t have a lot.

When he passed away a few years ago, we found all kinds of things that he’d kept. A whole box of complete rain suits, for example, you know, in case it flooded or something. Also, rolls of bailing wire, boxes of electrical tape and all kinds of stuff. (You’ll note that I’ll use this word a lot, by the way). My dad was a child of children of the Depression.

I grew up thinking that the more stuff I had, the better off I was. My mom, who recently passed away, was the same way. She just had stuff. There’s no better way to put it…stuff everywhere.

It’s Part of Our Lives

We keep items that give us memories of good times. A scrap of paper may remind of us of a time when our children first wrote their name or we may keep a pen that we got in the mail because you never know when we may run out of pens in the world.

Our parents grew up in a time when you couldn’t simply order something off of the Internet and stuff wasn’t readily available as it is now. My mom had pictures of her as a child wearing literally potato sack dresses. You couldn’t run down to the corner drug store and you surely couldn’t run next door to borrow a cup of sugar.

My great aunt was the healer in the family. She could make a muscle ache go away using some concoction she’d put together using things found in the house. Have a headache? She’d tell you some weird thing to do and it would go away.

So needless to say, there was always lots of stuff around our households.

It’s easy to fall into this trap. It’s easy to look at the stuff and put it off until next week. It’s easy to say, I’ll deal with it later or but it is little Joey’s first drawing. But do we really need a case of rain suits?

As a child of borderline hoarders, I would keep stuff, because you never know. Crazy, right? Music was and still is, a big part of my life. I used to DJ and I wrote music reviews for magazines. So needless to say, I had a pretty large music collection. But it hit me one day that I had no reason to keep all of this stuff. In addition, I was tired of moving crates of vinyl and CDs around.

The best thing I ever heard in regards to this was when Peter Walsh, the organizer on TLC’s Clean Sweep, said to someone who didn’t want to get rid of a lot of their stuff told them to pick one item. That item has to be in their hands for one day at all times. They can never put it down.

Stop and think about that for a second.

No matter how small the item is what a pain in the bottom! Try going to the restroom while holding onto that item, try getting dressed in the morning to go to work. If you have a stick shift like I do, I can’t imagine trying to shift gears while holding an item.

The Weight of Stuff

Stuff has weight; mental, physical, emotional. That means it can weigh us down to the point to where we cannot move. A friend of mine stated that more stuff means more stress. I would agree with this. Ever open a closet and stuff pours out?

Stuff can also be a bad relationship. It can be friendships that are toxic. Stuff can keep you from being a better person. Stuff can keep you from moving on and being a better person if you’re ready to change.

If you watch any episode of Hoarders, it deals with the mental anguish that people carry with them. The stuff they keep, regardless if it’s animals or stuff, it’s replacing some sort of emptiness in their lives. There is attachment to the stuff they hoard and it makes them happy or at least whole.

Get Rid of It!

Wouldn’t it feel better to purge yourself of these items? Wouldn’t it feel lighter to not have as much stuff weighing down on you at every turn?

Personally, I thought about it for a long time, I went through the stuff and made mental notes of what to keep and what to get rid of. I thought about who would benefit from my stuff. I purged my items in various ways, I gave some of it away to friends, I sold some of it and I donated some of it. It made my life easier to manage.

It made my life easier in a lot of ways. I didn’t have to worry about moving things to get to other things. I now can find something that I’m looking for. I gave some of my stuff to an Iraq War vet…he started crying when I gave it to him. 

If you think your stuff fills a hole in your life, then try giving it to someone who could really use/need it…and check that hole again. I bet it’s full.

Dec 11 2012
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Digital Thoughts

Death of a Social Media Account

Crying man2 300x199 Death of a Social Media Account

The Consumerist website reported that Charter was ending its Twitter and Facebook customer support accounts….and aside from the usual moaning and groaning of “how will I contact customer support?”, there are some that believe that this is yet another sign that social media is losing its luster.

Fortunately, I am not a Charter subscriber, but I do agree that this is another sign that social media is starting to hear the bell toll. First off, I’m not going to rattle off a bunch of statistics as I would like for readers to read this, give it some thought and either comment here or on their own platforms. I’m a big believer in conversations and discussions.

Let’s have a look at some point-counterpoint sort of topics. There was a time when I, as a marketer, find anything that any business could tweet about. I used to challenge clients or potential clients to give me a topic and I could give them content for tweets. Sure, I can do the same thing, but does the client actually gain anything out of it? Does it raise their sales? Does it give them a reason to dedicate time and effort to social media? I can’t answer that as each business is different in their goals, but I can tell you now, after spending several years in social media, that it definitely is not for everyone and every business.

I’ll give you an example.

I worked for a VoIP company recently. My goal was to implement a social media policy for the company (done) and tweet daily. My goal was to establish the company as a leader in the industry and as a source for information about the industry. Increase awareness, build an audience. All of the usual things you hear associated with social media campaigns these days, right?

But say a sales manager comes in that has no real understanding of social media or marketing for that matter and wants to equate every tweet to a sell or signed contract, then what? How can one correlate a tweet straight to a closed sale or what will constitute a qualified lead gained from the tweet (Yeah, I know, if they tell you that’s where they came from, etc.)?

With that in mind, what else would you do with social media? Customer service? Have a look at businesses on the Twitters. What else would you do as a business account? Develop awareness of a new product or service?

As someone who believes PR matches up with social media perfectly, it’s still hard for me now to not believe companies can’t find some use of social media whether it be customer service, brand awareness, company announcements, sharing information and so on.

Wait a sec, you said things to the contrary!

Yes, I did, but I’m also aware of companies like Alabama Power, who has a dedicated team, yes team, of professionals who monitor and address issues in the social webs. This is a company that sees the power of social media, it realizes that customer service can be handled using 140 characters.

My good friend, Ike Pigott, who happens to work for AL Power said this about their social media,
“We have data that shows that customer satisfaction is up considerably for customers who engage with utilities in social channels. Now, if Charter is too stupid to know what to do with higher customer satisfaction, then that’s a different issue. ”

Sound familiar?

Here’s my conundrum; I have been involved with some aspect of social media personally since 2007. I’ve learned about it, used it, taught it, developed strategies for it, etc, etc, etc. But where does it go now? What are the next steps?

I’m thankful for social media, as a very social creature, I’ve gotten to know a lot of people using SM. I have great friendships with people literally all over the world because of it. It’s gotten me work. It’s gotten me advice when I needed it. I believe that it’s a very powerful tool in the quiver of marketing.

But I believe we’re heading into a time where we need to switch from “Top 10 ways to get published” or “Why social media is like Santa Claus” and start having real discussions of “what’s next for social media” Or “how can we change how we use it?”

The time is now.

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Nov 20 2012
4 Comments
Analog Thoughts, Digital Thoughts

Social Media Requests…Just another face in the crowd

dude 257x300 Social Media Requests...Just another face in the crowd

I think it’s safe to say that social media is a very powerful, wonderful tool. I’ve made lots of friends from it. I’ve gotten jobs from it. I’ve been able to connect with people that I otherwise would not have been able to do before.

With that said, let’s talk about the way we connect or rather, you read, I’ll rant.

When Myspace first started, everyone asked, “how many friends do you have?” It was always the classic “those with the most” won. As the format has shifted and we are learning more and more about SM, it’s now the quality of your connections. WHO is in my list? WHO am I connected to?

I admit to being as guilty as anyone else, “hey, they look cool…I’ll send them a friend request” or “Why yes I will accept your blind request”. But now and maybe it’s because I’m getting jaded towards SM now, I immediately will ignore a Linkedin request if I don’t know the person. My rules are simple, I want to have had met you in real life or have had some sort of previous connection with you. Did we meet at a networking function?

Think about this and I have my buddy, Chris Davis to thank for it…Tell me why you want to connect if we’ve never met….or at least have something in common. For example, I’m a HUGE Arsenal fan. If you don’t know, they’re a soccer team out of London. I’ve been a fan for over 30 years now. That is a connection. I’ve met a popular actor online due to that and now count him as a friend. He reached out to me over on Myspace years ago and we’ve been friends since.

If you send me a blind connection request, we connect and then someone else says, “Saw you’re connected with (Insert name)…can you connect us?” Well, not really because I don’t know you. I don’t want to recommend you or connect you two and something goes bad. That’s on me. That makes me look bad in addition to making you look bad and so on.

So next time you send a connection request on one of the million SM channels out there currently, tell the person that you want to connect with why you want to connect or even how you met previously to refresh their memories. It’ll help everyone in the long run.

Comments always welcome!

Sep 27 2012
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Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

Fight or Flight…all the cool kids are doing it!

BruecLee 300x224 Fight or Flight...all the cool kids are doing it!

From the dawn of man, the instinct to survive has been in all of us. We will either confront things head on (Fight) or avoid/ignore them (Flight). We occasionally do both depending on the circumstances. This is a coping mechanism that is part of our DNA.

We’ve read the stories before of the child who survives in the woods for a few days at the age of 10 or the mom that lifts the car up off of a family member. We see it in sports, teams that fight back for a victory or a boxer that comes from behind to knock out his opponent in the last round after being on the verge of losing.

Athletes are taught to react differently than others. They’re taught to use their skills and abilities first so that it becomes the first fight instinct. Throw a kid a ball, first instinct is to try to catch it depending on their favorite sport.

I grew up in a boxing family. My uncle and dad boxed. My cousins boxed. While I didn’t personally, I did learn how to box. I learned how to throw a punch, how to keep my guard up, how to stand and not lose balance when throwing a punch. I still will throw up my hands if someone even acts like they’re going to throw a punch at me.

The Fight in Marketing

In marketing, our fight is addressing issues. I use that term broadly. Issues could be low sales, increasing brand awareness or something like raising search engine rankings. It also could be in the public relations functions such as customer service, emergency communications or any other PR function.

Fight causes you to be proactive and reactive. It causes you think on your feet. It causes you to react sometimes without thinking. It causes your most primitive instincts to kick in. It can also be detrimental to your marketing. It can cause the reactive side of you to be vicious and not think through the proper response. It means that it can cause out the worse of things in people on both sides.

This example can be seen in various case studies from the past few years; BP’s reaction to the oil spill, Domino’s Pizza’s response to the video of employees “dirtying” food, Jet Blue leaving travelers stranded and many others.These examples on being a combination of flight in addition to fight.

The Flight in Marketing

Choosing to share false information or choosing not to respond is a flight response. The ol’ let’s stick our head in the sand method. You cannot ignore things today. Issues do not go away anymore.While it is good for people in our industry to fight, everyone would be in agreement that this instinct should be thought through each time one recognizes it coming around.

The Flight instinct can be a good thing. It’s not running away from the fight, it’s moving it to better surroundings. It’s moving to a place where others can’t join in the fight. It’s sending a DM on Twitter asking for a customer call you instead of trying to work out an issue in 140 characters. It’s offering a gift certificate or a free flight to a customer that deserves it. Flight can be self-preservation for you, your client and/or company.

The Flight instinct can be a business breaker, almost more so than the Fight. By this I mean, a business that ignores its community won’t be around very long. Word of mouth is strong and WOM doesn’t have to be in person. WOM can happen over Twitter, email or even a phone call.

Remember the Motrin moms incident? This is such a classic case of a PR disaster. Motrin chose to flee the incident (i.e. shut down their website with the offending ad) it until it was too late, the damage was done. Instead of seeing it as a Fight, where they could engage the offended audience and fight for their name to make it good again.

You (meaning any business or individual) CAN NOT, repeat, CAN NOT ignore issues today.

Any thing that can be seen as damaging to you and your business needs to be addressed immediately. This is why it’s important to have policies in place and in these policies, it should be determined if the issue is a fight or flight. This is why, in my humble opinion, PR and SocMe goes hand-in-hand. This is why PR practitioners and marketers can develop policies that are necessary for business and individuals at this time.

Then, it’s up to you to decide which response is best for you…fight or flight?

Thoughts and remarks always welcome.

 

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Sep 21 2012
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Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

You Don’t Work For Yourself

building house 300x225 You Dont Work For Yourself

Pretty simple statement, right? Who do you work for then? Yourself will probably be the most common answer o something like “I work for an agency/company and do (insert marketing function here). What if I told you that was wrong?

You don’t work for yourself, you work for others, meaning you work for your customers. Every single thing you do, you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re doing it for a client. From returning a phone call to answering an email to keyword research….it’s not for you, it’s for your client.

Sure, it can be argued that you work for yourself to make a living, get by and provide for your loved ones. But let’s stop for a second and delve further into the opening comments.

When someone is seeking out a professional service or product, the first place, more times than not is to Google it, right? From there, it may turn into research via blogs, forums, reviews on some websites and maybe even asking around locally from friends and family.

We all know the cycle of customers and companies now. But it’s how a company gets the product/service out there that will differentiate itself from the others. I wrote about not looking through what I call your “business eyes” before.

Why would you use marketing with a message that is not consistent across all channels? Why wouldn’t you be sure that you look for your company the way that your potential customers are searching for you?

Would you ignore a channel that they’re in just because you don’t think it’s worthy or a passing fad? To answer that I would simply point you in the direction of a lot of newspapers across the country that are now in a lot of trouble financially because they chose to ignore this whole “new media” thing and go up against it.

The premise is very simple. You go where your clients are, you talk the way they talk. You use that info to develop a message. You use that info to figure out what works, what doesn’t. And in the end, you use that info to sell your product/services.

Customers are not all the same, so why would you treat them as such? Some people do not have a computer at home. Some use a phone only. Recent trends are showing that we are moving away from the days of laptops and computers. We’re seeing tablets becoming more common, the introduction of “phabelts” such as the Samsung Note.

If you have clients using their smartphone to seek out information  on your company, be sure that your site is optimized for mobile users. Same with your message. Some content such as images or graphics will not scale properly on a mobile phone. Measure twice, cut once.

But that’s not to say that all print is dead, people still like holding a paper or a magazine. People still like watching TV on a screen bigger than 9.8″.  So if your customers are reading the Sunday paper, why not be there?

Go where the community is. Invite them over to your community to hang out for a while. Give them incentives to be there. Give them the reason to bookmark your page or add your contact info to their phone.

Be proactive, not reactive and make them a part of your community by working for them and not yourself.

 

 

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Sep 10 2012
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Analog Thoughts, Digital Thoughts

Is There A Universal Remote For Marketing?

BigAssRemote 300x300 Is There A Universal Remote For Marketing? As marketers go, we’re always looking for the easiest way to handle it. We want the latest and greatest…something that will make our jobs a lot easier. We want that latest dashboard program or some other tool, but is there really a”universal remote” for marketing?

Marketing today is much more than just pushing messages out. It involves research, analytics, knowledge of the various marketing channels and this also involves the older channels like direct mail, print and broadcast. The newer methods are social network platforms, email, banner adds, paid search, dedicated landing pages and even such things as white papers and e-books.

So how do I, as a marketer, reach across those channels? How do I involve my company in every vertical or silo? How, instead of picking and choosing and leaving something on the table, do I ensure that I reach my customers?

It was thought at one time that social media was the field of dreams. It reached everyone. It got people involved. It answered questions, it supplied content. It was so new and bold, everyone flocked to it. But as we’ve been discovering, it isn’t what we thought it was.

We’re finding that it has worked its way into being just another vertical. Yet, it’s so new that we are still discovering the methods in which it is best used. Do we use it by itself? Do we use it with something else?

The main question that begs to be answered is “Is there a universal remote-style approach to marketing? Is there something that goes across these verticals at one time? Is there something that can connect all aspects of marketing?

Some may already know the answer to this. Some may think they know. The answer is yes, there is a universal remote, it’s the customer. The customer is the line that draws across all of the silos/verticals. They are the common thread that connects it all. 

They touch these channels regardless of where they are. Run a print ad? They’re there. Throw some banners up on a site? They’re there. Social media? They’re there. But let me clarify, they’re a picky bunch.

Some of them may or may not be everywhere at once. Some may just be in print, some may just be online. But as the generations shift, we’re seeing more and more people online. The digital natives don’t pick up a newspaper or read a magazine. They read online. They get their news via links and content pushed out through social networks.

The old model of advertising was “here’s the situation, here’s how we’re going to get you there, here’s the results.” A business would say we need more sales or we need more brand awareness, so they’d go to an ad agency. The agency would then tell them how they’re going to get them more sales or raise awareness. They would then do a wrap-up to the campaign(s) and that would be it.

Now it’s much more than that.

It’s just not knowing where they’re coming from to hit your site…it’s knowing if they’re happy with your product or service or if they’ve read a link you’ve tweeted out, etc. And what is the magic word to all of this?

Engagement. (wait, what?) Yep, engagement. Classic and consistent.

Customers no longer care about the verticals or how you reach out to them. They simply want to belong. They want a great experience when communicating with your company. They want clean, easy-to-navigate, easy-to-use experiences.

They’ll also tell you what they want. They’ll tell you what they want to read, they’ll tell you the content and the services you should be pushing to them. They’ll tell you which channels you should be using also.

So this is where the classic notion that EVERYONE is a marketing person for your company comes in; from your customer service rep that answers the phone or greets the customer as they walk in the door. This interaction is going to tell you how to move around your marketing as needed. These interactions are also going to tell you, going back to the content, they are going to tell you where to direct your efforts.

How are they going to do this? How am I going to find this info? 

This is a very consumer-driven time. There is no such thing as an ignorant consumer anymore. They have a wealth of information at their finger tips literally. They are more tech0-savvy, they know how to search for the information they desire and remember that they also know how to ignore that same information. This is why, more than ever, research and analytics is the most important.

We can no longer use the traditional method of pushing messages out. We also can no longer use the method of push-pull. It’s all about the consumer pull now. They have the power. And any company that pay attention to the changing business world should take advantage of this methodology. They should know that the customer will tell them what they want. 

They will tell you by frequenting specific pages on your site. You will be told by the subscribes and unsubscribes from emails and e-newsletters. you will be told by the clicks in banner ads and paid search. You will be told by key performance indicators. You will be told by doing a positioning matrix.

You will use an old school method of market research utilizing new world tools. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? The traditional role of the marketing manager and/or director will soon be gone and those that jump aboard now and learn their craft now will leave the others in the dust.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks.

 

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Aug 23 2012
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Analog Thoughts, Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

How much is too much?

Jp Facebook articleLarge 300x189 How much is too much?

Last year my friend Kary Delaria wrote a great post about friendship that discussed, well, friendship. How well people really know each other through online channels and the sort. Chris Brogan had an epiphany moment on Facebook recently asking how well he really knows people he’s “friends’ with on Facebook after getting literally hundreds of emails about a problem with his website. So much so that he made the statement that he considered taking it down.

Brogan is a trend-setter. Say what you will about the guy, he does good business and makes a lot of sense with things he talks about or says. With that said, I’m going to add in my two cents of the “how much is too much” when it comes to friends, followers, connections on the social media platforms.

I’m a social creature. Always have been. It’s in my Scots-Irish blood to make friends and meet new people. Just about every person in my friend list I have met, is an old friend from Texas, a relative, etc. While I admit that I used to have the MySpace mentality of having more, I started weeding out people that I had never met and even old HS friends that I have nothing in common with anymore.

Professor Robin Dunbar did a study with primates and published an article that established that we can only handle 150 people at any one time in our lives. This includes celebrities and other public figures along with our friends, coworkers, etc. I would have to agree with this.

I would say that my personal circle is smaller than this. I have chosen to take advantage of Facebook’s stream options and ignore a lot of people because either I don’t want to see them in my stream with their constant rants, negativity and the like. I also have stopped automatically following people that follow me on Twitter. I’m somewhat lazy in that I use Tweetdeck, but I don’t create lists.

The point of all of this is that I believe we have reached a point in the use of social media where we feel like we HAVE to be cordial, send condolences, congratulations, Birthday wishes…whatever it may be. But is any of it really necessary for you to do this? No, not really. This is a person that while you may have some sort of engagement with, but are not within your circle of 150 more than likely.

A friend of mine, that I’ve known since junior high, once told me that a true friend would take a bullet for you or give you the last dollar in their pocket. I would agree with that statement. I’ve gotten to know people online well enough that I believe that they would do something for me, even if we never met in real life and I would do the same.

Another question for you to ponder, can you tune out the noise from everyone else? Can you turn off the channel, so to speak? Do you feel like you need to comment on everyone’s post? Do you feel like you participate in everyone’s post that you are friends with on Facebook or are you selective?

It may be easier for those of us with children to be selective who we engage with, but the whole aspect of this channel is “social”, right? But do you have a moment like Chris did, where you say, “Enough is enough. I can’t continue this”. Unfortunately, we live in a world now where information can be immediately shared. I say unfortunately because this is how lies and false information can have such an impact that companies can lost literally millions of dollars or people can see their whole lives come crashing down.

I understand where someone like Chris stands. He is a public figure, he has set trends, written books and many other things that puts him a position where he is revered and even hated. But he still has to put on a brave face and continue what he does on a daily basis. Yes, we in the social media world have chosen to be in the public eye more so than others. We write posts, we share information, we put ourselves out there.

Think about this…we’re human. We have emotions and thoughts on things. We get stressed, probably even more so than others because we have to be “on” most of the time. We have to act glad to meet people whenever we meet them for if not, we’ll be considered a jerk….and then the lies get started and before it’s over, I’ve killed my cat, stepped on a baby and punched a puppy.

I believe that we are in the seven year itch part of our relationship with social media. This, as in any relationship, is when we either continue using it in or move on. We’re discovering things that we don’t like about it. We’re not sure if it’s going to continue. It’s not you, it’s me.

I don’t think we’re going to move on. I think we’re going to find ways to make it work in the way we want it to. We’re going to mold social media platforms and the way we use them to what we want and need. We’re going to stop “liking” everybody’s baby pictures unless they’re in our circle, we’re going to stop making snarky remarks on everyone’s posts…it’s going to work. Trust me.

Jul 18 2012
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Digital Thoughts

5 Tips For Getting Customers Back To Your Site

comeback 300x180 5 Tips For Getting Customers Back To Your Site

 

Businesses online miss out on a lot of opportunities, regardless of whether you sell services or a product. We live in a time when there is no such thing as an ignorant consumer. Consumers are armed nowadays with reviews and price comparisons that make them a difficult target to hit at times. Some consumers shop online, go offline to see the product in person and then return to buy. Shoes, clothes, gadgets…all are included in those actions.

People like to touch things, hold it in their hands. Personally, I did the same thing when I purchased an ultrabook recently. I narrowed it down to three, went to a local store and then made my decision from holding them in my hand since I’ll be using it on the road and at home. I’ve also filled out a form, changed my mind and then ignored follow-up emails.

I will admit that I’ve responded to some of the tips I mention below.

1) Birthday Message – This is a classic. “Hey, Happy Birthday, save an extra 20% on purchase today for your birthday!” or ” Happy Birthday from Acme! Here’s your free (insert giveaway here). To claim your free (insert giveaway here), click here” This is another opportunity to sell them again. Be sure to change your content and target it to the user. The main focus is to make them feel good about their b-day, that you “remembered” it and you’re offering either a freebie and/or a great deal.

2) After The Order  – Amazon is a master of this. They also do it as you’re shopping online. Once your order is confirmed, you see more items related to what you just purchased. Buyers are more likely to buy again thanks to them being familiar to the buying process, so why not hit them again once they’ve completed a purchase. Example, an auto parts company that specializes in let’s say, Ford Mustangs. A customer buys a headliner for a 1965 Mustang. After the make their purchase, a script can alert them that they can also buy the door sills and complete the interior restoration process. This is simply cross-selling if you break it down.

3)Confirmation Email After Order – Again, another opportunity to cross-sell. After an online purchase, a confirmation email will make a customer feel more comfortable of purchasing online and it gives them a receipt of the transaction for their records. It also allows you to send some more recommendations for purchasing within the email. “Thank you for purchasing XXX. You may also like YYY.” It also gives you an opportunity to create a stand alone landing page to drive slow-moving products or services if applicable.

4) Review an Item – Asking a customer to review a recently purchased item sends the customer back to your site to show new related products and more opportunities to present your products or services to them again. In addition, you can use this opportunity to cross-sell again with new items. It also allows you to create new content and we all know what new content does for SEO.

5) Left Cart without Buying – I’ve done it and I’m sure a lot of you have done it. You pick some items, throw them in your cart and then leave the site before completing the purchase. Unlike doing this in a grocery store, where you have to put the items back in the freezer or on the shelf, online you can just click the tab closed on your browser. If your cart requires customers to sign into or make an account before seeing their cart again, as some sites do, this gives you contact information so that you can tailor your message to them. “We have some items for you.” Any copy you can use to lure them back to the site, maybe they got distracted while at work and forgot to get back to the cart. Maybe they had second thoughts. Offer a discount to come back, 10% off of an item can do wonders even if it doesn’t impact your bottom-line. Other ways to get them back could be a new photo of the item or a new review of that same item.

These tips can be used by themselves or all together. They are simple, yet effective methods of getting users back to your site to further gain their trust and engage on different levels. Competition is everywhere when you’re online, even from overseas companies and any advantage you can gain over your competition is something that is a win-win for you and your consumers.

 

 

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Jul 12 2012
4 Comments
Analog Thoughts, Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

Propinquity Marketing & Other Big Words

dictionary 105x150 Propinquity Marketing & Other Big Words *Disclaimer – This is more of a rant than anything else. You have been warned.

My buddy and fellow Texan, Tom Martin, wrote about “propinquity marketing” recently and I borrowed this from him, so you get an idea of where he went with his post; “The law of propinquity states that the greater physical (or psychological) proximity between people, the greater the chance that they will form friendships or romantic relationships. It was first theorized by psychologists Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, and Kurt Back in what came to be called the Westgate studies conducted at MIT (1950).”

What started the trek down this road was a Twitter conversation between Nathan Burgess and another “marketer” about the use of certain words in advertisements, discussions, etc. Basically, the marketer, who I’ll now refer to as Crazy Cat Lady or CCL, stated that Nathan was using “inside baseball” terms for using the word, “propinquity.” She stated that she shouldn’t have to get out her “OED” (Oxford English Dictionary) to figure out what people were saying and then stated that Nathan shouldn’t use a Psych degree to market…whatever, basically, she didn’t know what a word meant and then blamed Nathan for using his intelligence.

In CCL’s profile, she lists herself as a “Media Relations professional.” Professional? Doesn’t being a professional mean knowing your tools? My degree is in PR and we had to learn 20 words each week during all of my core PR classes, we were taught to expand your vocabulary every chance you got, even if it was a from a foreign language. We all know the strength and power of words. It’s how we communicate, it’s how you’re reading this post…through the use of words, I can vote, I can move money, I can buy things, I can order food(as you know I’m a big fan of) and a whole bunch of other things.

Having a large vocabulary is important to those in the marketing game, because it makes writing proposals, content, ad copy, email, etc. a lot easier. It also can help with critical thinking when developing campaigns. I had a friend that used to take 30 minutes a day and would read a dictionary. He wasn’t a marketing person, he was a welder. He would probably never use most of the words in his chosen profession, but he felt like the wider his knowledge was of the world, the easier it would be to help him figure out how to solve problems he faced in his personal and professional life. Imagine that, someone wanting to learn more. Someone who saw opportunities to learn and took advantage every chance he got.

I’ve talked about taking advantage of opportunities before. I’m a big believer that you have to be aware of opportunities because you can better yourself mentally, emotionally, physically and quite possibly even financially. As the world gets smaller and smaller thanks to technology, marketers have to find new ways to grab attention and hold it for our clients. We are challenged daily or even hourly sometimes to do this. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be best to learn something new today? Like what the hell Propinquity means?

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Jul 09 2012
1 Comment
Analog Thoughts, Digital Thoughts, Other Musings

A Humbling Experience

531346 10151017224775896 706856784 n 150x112 A Humbling Experience  This past weekend I was invited to talk to teenagers about privacy issues and social media at Camp Smile-A-Mile. Since this is a very important issue nowadays, I tried to keep it light-hearted, but it was a bit challenging. Having coached kids this age in soccer and having twins this age, I know that it can either go really, really well or there won’t be any sort of response and blank stares.

I planned out what I was going to talk about on the way there and how I was going to get them involved in the talk. As you can see in the photo, there are a lot of them using social media. I immediately asked the nearest one to me if she had some texts on her phone that would be embarrassing if I read them out loud. “Yes!” So I asked why would you put that sort of thing out on Twitter or Facebook. I said something about Myspace and that immediately got them to open up and they started discussing things with me. I pointed them in directions as best as I could and got them to start talking with me about their use of social media.

Soon, everyone was involved and the topics turned to texting and driving, cyberbullying and future job and college opportunities and other things that can impact their lives through the use of social media. They were a great bunch of kids and the counselors helped, sharing their own stories. I was humbled as I kept thinking that cancer have impacted these kids’ lives, yet they are just teenagers.

They are going through all of the things that teens go through AND the big “C”. But you could tell that there was a great sense of camaraderie amongst them and they shared something that they could all lean on each other for. Cancer has impacted my life so many times, having lost my father, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and now my mother, who was diagnosed a few weeks ago.

I offered to help out at Camp SAM, as they call it. I can’t do anything to stop cancer, but I can raise branding and awareness, using the tools that I know I’m good with…ironically, the same tools I warned these kids about. If you want more information on Camp Smile-A-Mile, go here.

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