Archive for May, 2009With 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. |
