We are developing a free Web-browser plug-in called “BOZO BLOCKER,” with the ability to filter ANY Web page, preventing user-specified unwanted content from being displayed. Unlike mere “porn” filters and the like, BOZO BLOCKER will allow you to create and save “blocklists” of any names (for example, any instant celebrities you never heard of or heard too much about already, and don’t want to hear about ever again) and banish them to permanent obscurity. Also under development is a service which will allow users of the plug-in to connect to our BOZO BLOCKER server in Rachel, Nevada, and query our free “Stupid” or “Clueless” name-lists, or the paid/premium “Clue-Repellent” master name-list which puts the kybosh on the usual objectionable celebrities, plus Web instant-wealth gurus, famous political wingnuts, SEO Magic Oil vendors, and many more. This is similar to the anti-spam email “blocklists” offered free and commercially by wonderful companies such as SPAMHAUS.ORG. BOZO BLOCKER will follow in the tradition of many other Web-content blockers that filter out annoying pop-up windows, porn, blinking banners, and so on. The programmer who conceived this project has asked to remain anonymous, claiming that his trailer was repeatedly vandalized “by men with black sunglasses” when he released a free advertising-blocker a few years ago. See also “Browser makers warned against ad-blocking.“
I’m thrilled to be presenting a webinar on LinkedIn and FaceBook for Business respresenting the SVAMA at the Inbound Marketing University. Inbound Marketing University (IMU) is a free marketing retraining program for marketing professionals — as well as marketers between jobs — looking to gain new skills to get ahead in the competitive workforce.
With all the “downsizing” and layoffs and outsourcing going on in the business world, I thought it helpful to provide some best practices for losing your corporation’s Marketing Director. This is the person who, after great effort in academia and experience gained at previous jobs, has been given the responsibility and authority to lead your company’s marketing team to success — without guidance or (ahem) interference from higher management. The techniques described here could just as easily be used to cook a marketing “manager,” or Vice President, supervisor, and so on. In a volatile economy, marketing directors are routinely hired and then suddenly, mysteriously allowed to “pursue other opportunities” (not “fired”). They serve as ritual sacrificial pigs (goats if you prefer) in lieu of companies’ top executives, so that any lack of quarterly profit or loss of market share can quickly be blamed on the outgoing marketeers. Don’t take it personally, it’s just that you’re here to make ME look good. First, the ingredients. Keep it simple. No veggies or garnish. Also, without exception, marketing management is considered “savory,” not sweet. So the usual salt and spices for meat are enough. Don’t overdo it, spending money improving the flavor of something you’ll only throw out, eh? Now some thoughts about your cooking method. Roasting is good, requiring only a sad Friday-afternoon announcement in the conference-room that “our favorite marketing queen” is leaving, followed by cheap snacks and lite beer for everybody. Stewing is a bad idea, since it gives the Marketing Department staff too much time to remember all the great ideas and cautionary advice the outgoing marketing executive tried without success to “sell upstairs”…. Where were we? Oh yes, cooking methods. For maximum entertainment value, many CEOs slowly spin the departing marketeer in a rotisserie, hoping that such highly visible “enhanced interrogation” will dissuade potential insurgents and motivate the troops. Like all cruelties-formerly-known-as-torture, this treatment merely inflames the remnants of your demoralized Marketing Department (who may then target the CEO’s Humvee in the parking-lot). Which brings us to “flambé” — traditionally the fastest, most fear-inspiring method for dispatching a Marketing Director. Not pretty, but one can make this look like an accident. So be nice to the heads of Marketing. They work hard spreading good news about your company, but guess whose heads will roll if there’s even a whiff of bad news. – Bruce Mewhinney at ELYMEDIA.COM
Whether you are participating for personal reasons or for business, an objective (or objectives) will make the whole experience more enjoyable, and certainly less chaotic — which Social Media can be. Below are a few ideas in each category — and I’m sure there are many more. Personal Objectives: Personal Branding Corporate/Business Customer relations/customer service The item that demands the most attention among audiences is how to provide customer service. The immediacy of Twitter, coupled with the accessibility of the customer-service “fixer” creates a terrific tool for staying in close and concerned contact with customers. And they feel the love. A few tips to make this successful: 1. Let your customers know about your presence on Twitter, at least to resolve issues. Post your Twitter “handle” throughout your own website. 2. Be proactive. Search out your company names frequently. Use the Tweetdeck search tool for your company name, create a column, and keep it live. Tweetbeep is one of several applications that will alert you when your company is mentioned. 3. Take the right tone. Be authentic in your attempts to solve the customer’s problem. Be sure the end result is positive — at least in feel — for the customer. 4. If it can’t be resolved in 140 characters of Tweet text, then give directions for a next step — an 800 toll-free phone number, a specific email address (spelled out) so that a final solution can be achieved. 5. Be very timely. Twitter happens at the speed of light. Negative info travels even faster. Check Tweets frequently for any hint of problems, and jump right on them.
According to a March 2009 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report, lead generation represented $1.61B or 7 percent of the overall interactive-advertising spend in 2008, with white papers as the most frequently used tactic. Another study by B2B Magazine and Junta42 Match shows that one third of current marketing budgets are spent on custom content creation, half of which goes to white papers. The entire first experience of your brand online is all about the quality of content you produce, and (in this day of social media and the ability to comment and rate everything!) what people have to say about your content. White papers have been the Number One lead-generation tool used by buyers for years. Today their importance has only strengthened. In difficult economic times like these, when money is less available (even in strongly performing industries), education is vital before a company will spend that money. Where does this education come from? Overwhelmingly, it comes from white papers. Statistics and reports show over and over again that buyers use white papers in their purchasing decisions. A recent Eccolo Media study reviewed in B2B Magazine stated “White papers remain the most effective piece of collateral, with 86% of respondents finding them moderately to highly influential in the purchasing decision.” TechTargets’ Media Consumption Benchmark Report found that 80.5% of buyers find white papers to be somewhat or very effective in their decision making – this was higher than any other marketing tool. This same study also found that buyers read more white papers than any other marketing medium — up to five or more in a three-month period — and that they are used both to gain awareness and decide on a solution. What happens to that white paper after it’s read? An Information Week report showed 93% of buyers pass along at least half of the white papers they read. They are influential, educational and viral. A well-researched and well-written white paper (and its abstract — that short description used as a teaser) serves not only to educate your potential customer; it provides a targeting mechanism to assure the quality of the leads being generated. The more specific the content is to a particular issue, the more likely the reader will be well aligned with your definition of a good prospect – and a better use of the sales team’s time. But it is not just the quality of the white paper that creates lead-generation success. Using the white papers in a well-thought-out media strategy is another way to assure the quality of the leads. Be sure that the site statistics and reader demographics are well-aligned with your target audience, so that the leads derived are as on-target as possible. A few ideas: content-distribution providers and industry-specific websites often have white-paper areas, e-newsletter sponsorships, and specific sub-sites devoted to your topic that can also be sponsored with a white-paper offer. One last thought. Once a well-crafted white paper is created, it is a valuable asset in an ongoing lead-generation strategy. Unless it is time-specific material, the white paper can be utilized in any number of opportunities over time. Rested for a bit, then brought back as a lead-gen tool, it can be refreshed at a later date to give it more life.
1. Branding and Direct Response are blending — this was a theme heard frequently 2. Social Media is an unknown entity to nearly everyone.
3. Local search and ad placement becoming very important as the capabilites expand and the need grows 4. Performance-based marketing is on everyone’s agenda, given the economy 5. Video is the name of the game. And on that note, my favorite video queen/reporter and social media analyst:
I’m at Ad-Tech SF, blogging live — interesting to see how I do, not being the best multi-tasker. The IAB is hosting a keynote speech on the state of the industry. Below are just some of the key take-aways from this session…. Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB was the moderator, speakers are Tobaccowala, Kruse, Ashe, Berman (see this link for bios on all). Question: Where are your companies investing in advertising? Asia and digital, all online media but especially search (testing brand vs dr), all digital properties, but especially mobile. Berman talks about trying to understand the whole person — behavioral predictive analytics as their focus. Most conversation was about the value and contribution of social media. Is it just PR or other — a hybrid? Old models don’t make sense any more. It’s not campaign based, but ongoing communication. Media objective in the past decisions about where to put advertising. Can Social Media be a part of a media plan - or is it rather “communications planning” or “influence planning”? You can’t do Social Media by campaign or quarter. Must be ongoing. authentic, talk about what’s great, fresh and trusted. I’ts not a media strategy - it’s service strategy, customer service, product strategy: branding, not media. How does an agency incorporate SM then? One concept was “Non-working media” vs “working media” . Agencies have to start by being agnostic. Fewer campaigns, more ecosytems. Take a “great creative idea” and take it across all media. IAB said no way to coordinate accross multiple agencies. Consumer is driving changes so fast we are all running to keep up. Chief Knowledge Officer will be sitting in the power position. Rothenberg questioned whether we have we boxed ourselves into direct response? Or is there room for creativity/branding? Are we so saddled with this burden of DR metrics. One recurring theme I’ve heard often over the past day is that it’s all going to become one — both branding and DR. The focus on metrics was to get budgets approved. Creativity will matter even more. Creativity is not just pictures. Google search is getting more and more creative. Has the definition of “the great idea” changed? Or is the palette just larger now? All agreed that the end-user/consumer is the great decider and will dictate more and more. People choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they just did. Tobaccowala talked about the fact that ”The hysteria of insecurity is now driving the industry.” Which channels is not the point. Content is.
I will be speaking to the Morning Forum of the SVAMA in April: “A Deep Dive into Twitter” Twitter has become the media darling in the past few months, and with good reason. Come to learn more than just the basics about creating an intelligent Twitter strategy, whether for branding, new business development or lead generation, as well as thought leadership. We will discuss: Speaker: Elyse Tager, President - Elymedia LLC Bio: Elyse Tager is founder and Principal of Elymedia, an online- and traditional-media planning and buying agency that has worked with many of the world’s most recognizable brands from Microsoft to PowerBar. With twenty years of executive marketing experience in direct response, coupled with ten years in Internet marketing, Elyse has gained a thorough understanding of all types of media and how they interact. This depth of experience and knowledge has benefited her clients as they strategize marketing objectives in Social Media. When: April 28, 2009 8:30 am – 10 am RSVP: please email info@elymedia.com or on Twitter: elysetager
It’s tempting when shopping for cost-per-lead placements to seek out the lowest-cost leads –- and hope that your sales force (or your website or follow-up materials) have enough salesmanship to convert them. But initial expense is not the only consideration — you will need to take a good look at the quality of each lead. This includes both the conversion rate and the average revenue per sale. For example, it may be that leads generated from one type of media (such as paid search), turn into actual business at a substantially higher rate than other types. Given this fact, you will be willing to pay more per lead for the better ROI…. Examples: – Campaign “A” cost = $1,500. Revenue = $3,000. The ROI ratio is 2:1. – Campaign “B” cost = $2,500. Revenue = $7,525. The ROI ratio is 3:1. The campaign needs to be followed through the complete selling to establish the best leads. How many leads are converting to a sale, and then what is that average sale? The latter two variables are as important a factor as the original cost of the lead. In a B2B Lead Gen placement, lead expense occurs in 2 areas – the amount of targeting or filtering required, and the amount of data being captured. The least expensive leads will typically be the least targeted. No filters (or few) will be applied –- this is truly putting an offer out to anyone. And anyone is exactly who will respond. Typically the only data required is a first and last name, and email address. The more targeting a publisher or ad network can provide, the more potentially targeted and hopefully responsive the lead will be. The data fields being captured will also influence the cost. Standard “business card” fields are frequently used. But it may be important to further refine the leads. Most sales people, if complaining about lead quality, would rather have fewer, but better-qualified, leads. Keep in mind, the more data fields required, the higher the “drop off” rate. People don’t want to take the time to fill out forms, so be careful to balance the amount of data that is truly necessary versus what would be nice to have. To further qualify the lead, add 2 or 3 questions to the lead-registration page. Frequently, this option is available if the upfront targeting is a bit more specific. Think about what additional information will assist your selling process. Examples would be: when will the purchasing decision be made?; what is the respondent’s decision-making role? Some tips:
If you haven’t dipped your toe in the water with Twitter, you are missing the boat. Start now! It’s the perfect tool for branding, displaying thought leadership, promotion, fund raising, and even lead generation. An odd combination, I know, but if handled correctly, and with proper tweet etiquette (hereafter referred to as TE), all can be accomplished. If you are new, Jeremiah Owyang’s very thorough version of FAQs are a great place to start. Below is my short version and key points: Its not about “what are you doing” as their tag line says, as much as “what’s important to you”. 140 characters of pithy info on what you are reading, what trade events you are attending, what speakers you are learning from etc, to get at some pithy thinking and trends Share, comment, talk. It won’t work unless you participate in both directions. Tweet and respond to other tweets. Also proper TE. If you just take, but don’t give value, you will lose credibility and followers. The beauty of the retweet. AKA share the love. Knowledge is best when shared. If you find posts that are of value to you, retweet them. Retweeting info here. The retweeter will be greatful, you will be providing further value to your followers, indicating your intelligence, and thought leadership as well as your generosity. It’s all good. The importance of your profile. I’m astounded by how many people either don’t have a profile description or don’t fill it out in a meaningful manner. The profile is key to letting people know why they should be following you, reading you, listening to you, and just caring about your tweets. It’s also branding, you can and should link to your website or blog for more credibility. Twitter backgrounds add to the branding. I’m in the process of getting my background custom designed. It’s yet another piece of real estate for branding, establishing credibility and setting a tone for who you are. Some resources for custom backgrounds are here. Have an objective. Very important. Perhaps most important. Twitter will be a silly waste of time unless you decide how you are going to use it. And we will all have to read about what you did over the weekend unless you do. If your objective is to create thought leadership, then follow people who are meaningful in your field. If you are interested in branding, be sure your profile and background speak to your brand, and tweet on topics related to your field of expertise and your products and services. (but be very careful of the hard sell - not good TE) Some very helpful Twitter tools: Tweetdeck, a way of organizing your tweets. Here also is a tutorial on how to use it - lots of info here. Tweetlater How to have presence on Twitter w/out sitting by the computer or your iPhone all day. TinyURL since you only have 140 characters to work with, making a link smaller is very useful. And the last self proclaimed Ultimate List of Twitter Tools - more applications than you could ever want, but will be glad to at least consider. Now, go play.
In our ongoing series on lead generation, the best place to start would be with some suggested best practices. And the best place to start with all things online is with the IAB - Interactive Advertising Bureas, and their best practices As a media buying agency, our job is to match the target audience with the online opportunity as closely as we can to get highest qualtiy leads for our clients - at the best price, of course. While the media is a very important part, it’s not the only consideration. We have also helped with the overall prospecting strategy, sourced vendors, and overseen many projects for our clients over the years. Here are a few tips: 1. Clearly define, target audience. Sounds simple but it takes everything from a quantified analysis of the current customer base to converations with the sales reps to flesh out the full picture. Dun and Bradstreet seems to be the primary source, but there are others. We use Direct Marketing Partners for customized phone research into client databases to gain a much better understanding of who their customer is. Very granular, but always worth the time and expense if the project is well scoped out. 2. Clearly define the objective of the current campaign - is the target audience for this product or offer consistent with other camaigns. Don’t assume that one customer definition will fit all marketing efforts. 3. Be clear about what constitutes a lead. Will it be standard business card info, do you need or want the phone number, or email address? Do you need or want additional information - like title, function, how far down the decision making path they are? Additional questions may mean a more costly lead, but will allow for much better targeting and sales follow up. If you don’t define this up-front, and communicate this clearly with the source of the data, you may not get what you are expecting….and guess whose fault that is? 4. Lead quality. In addition to defining what you want in a lead, be sure that the source of the data - ad networks, online pubishers, mailing lists etc, can provide what you are looking for and can substantiate how they determine the information. Transparency of data - where ever, possible will eliminate mis-understanding, poor leads, and lack of closings or conversions. We ask enough questions of media sources to be annoying - then I know we are doing our job. 5. Landing page - is it clean and clear? Do ask a couple of additional questions to gain more intelligence on the lead, but only 2-3 questions. Any more and you will discourage completion. 6. Prepare whoever will be doing the lead follow up. Are the leads going to be scored? Eloqua and Marketo do a good job with this, but there are many other suppliers. Do telemarketers have well crafted scripts? Do the sales reps calling on the leads have enough information and preparation to sell well? 7. Lead nurture. Leads rarely close with a single phone call or sales call. Is there a schedule of ongoing touch points - follow up emails, phone calls, etc scheduled and scripted, to warm the lukewarm lead up to actually buying? When we have clients not happy with lead quality, and we have confidence in the qualityof the data used to provide the lead, I have to question what is happening to the leads once they are pitched to the sales team. If you are not getting “good” leads, or aren’t closing on enough of the ones that are being delivered, then some of these tips are not being followed. Take another look at the whole process, from the begining, and start making improvements.
The current economy is dictating that we all get the most bang for our buck. We have been working diligently to be sure our clients are getting just that with their media dollars. We blogged earlier about some ideas for maximizing spend. We have all been forced to become more resourceful and creative in our efforts to build our businesses, brands, and revenues. In our blog ElymediaFrenzy, we are kicking off a series on lead generation (including CPC and CPA deals) to help our clients, friends and associates make the best of a bad economy and do a better job finding qualified prospects. Along with general best practices we will explore:
Check in with us frequently!
OK, I have to confess. I’ve become absolutely addicted to Twitter. In a good way. I think. I love the immediacy. I love the ability to follow very smart people and find out what they are thinking and doing. I appreciate the sophistication of the humor, and the trade buzz and political commentary. But it’s an addiction nonetheless. I’ve neglected blogging. Mea Culpa. I vow to return to the real world on Monday. Really. After a weekend more of tweets. OK, OK. For a little meat, I’ll also include my version of how to use Twitter for business. Stay tuned.
We are still almost TV-less. Having discontinued our cable contract, and getting only a few broadcast stations (none of which the kids watch), we as a family have entered a new era. Not to say that we aren’t still media-centric. I can’t count the number of screens, laptops, shuffles, iPods, gameboys, Wiis in our house. But our loyalties have shifted. I can only assume we are part of a trend. Both kids are living on YouTube and Hulu for different reasons. My son is constantly searching for Wii game cheats and tips. I hope he goes into game programming so he can make some money with this obsession. Both son and daughter are looking for movie clips, comic stuff and all-around entertainment — both have come running to us to drag us over to see something they find awesome. Same daughter (teenager extraordinaire) is also glued to Facebook. See — typical family. And we DO still talk to each other (she said optimistically) I’m still the podcast junkie. My eyes get tired, and I get weary of screens in general. I’ve subscribed to innumerable podcast shows - trade/media related, news/business, and more personal interests, and I could spend all of my free time happily sporting earbuds (mine are PINK!). I do worry. With so much stimulation in the house, why go out? Why see people? What happens to social interaction (non electronic)? Are the kids losing their ability to be social? I would love to get feedback from you all on how your family has integrated media into the family. One shameless plug. Roxanne Darling will be presenting to the SVAMA Wed, Jan 28th on topic of Online video. Rox is a wonderful presenter, and this will be interactive and fun. Come join us!
I know this won’t sound very politically correct, given how Web 2.0-ish we are at Elymedia, but we are seeing that companies are pulling in their marketing horns, getting cautious all around, and looking for safe and reliable methods. Cost-per-lead and cost-per-click programs have become The Little Black Dress of marketing. Good in all kinds of circumstances — product launches, keeping the sales force cranking, keeping the pipeline predictably full, even in trying times. I don’t think we as a media agency have ever been asked to look farther afield, negotiate harder, or suggest the unthinkable (what? CPA vs. CPM?) to publishing reps. But such is the economy we are in. So, a few things along the lines of the Little Black Dress/classics to consider with your media mix in the current economy 1. Do you know what you can afford to pay per lead, or per click? The corollary to that is: do you know what your lifetime value, or return on media dollars, or contribution to profit is? Any of those metrics will help you assess what you can truly afford. 2. Be very clear on your objectives for each campaign. Looking for leads? Branding and recognition? Reach? Sales of a particular product? Testing one offer against another? These are all valid, but decide first and publicly. If you can’t define the objective (and by the way, be sure everyone is in agreement — sales team, marketing folks, agencies et al) then how can you figure out if you have been successful or not? 3. After you have decided on the objective, be sure you can measure it. And then do so, and report results to all who need to know. We are frequently stunned by the amount of money and effort spent to construct a campaign, only to see the back-end analytics get garbled or ignored in the race to the next quarter or campaign. Figure all that out before giving the green light. 4. Save some budget for testing. Even a little. If you don’t, you won’t be ready to grow when the economy eases up a bit. And it will. Really.
So, if we’re done panicking about how BAD “the economy” is today, why don’t we slap ourselves upside the head and go outside to look at what the weather is REALLY up to? Yes, we’re stuck under that immense National Debt left behind by our former national “leaders” (think of it as your third mortgage), but the sky isn’t really falling yet. Many big companies currently have their heads in the sand and their Web marketing/advertising budgets pinched rather tight, but there are lots of farsighted, fast-moving smaller companies which are pushing ahead while the Major Players just cautiously “wait and see.” If your corporation wants to be one of the fast-moving companies which, despite a difficult financial environment, budget aggressively to steal Other People’s Market Share, be reassured that others are succeeding in this pursuit: Look around carefully at the companies which are maintaining or even dialing up their marketing budgets lately, and you’ll notice that such companies are doing well while the Major Players are doing almost nothing. “When the going gets tough, call in your Web-marketing agency!”
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