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Posts Tagged ‘Mediums’

No one is waiting for your next tweet, status update or blog post to make their next purchase. There’s always the chance that you might motivate someone to purchase, but it’s impossible to predict when prospects are ready to make their next purchase. That’s why it’s so important to be there when your prospects are ready to decide.

Where will they be? We understand from current online behavior that the majority of online prospects will utilize a search engine. What keywords will they search for? Are they going to search locally for their research? Are you on the search engine results where they’re looking? If they seek a resource within their network, are you a trusted resource that’s present there?

Blogging is a great online activity because it allows you to drip information and be available when the prospect is searching for the solution. It’s not enough to blog, though. We push our visitors to subscribe to our feed, subscribe by newsletter, follow us on Twitter, fan us on Facebook, or connect to us on LinkedIn so that we have a chance of being there when they are ready to purchase.

Email marketing is a great medium for re-connecting with those customers who ‘may’ purchase soon. Perhaps they’re doing some research online, found you through a search engine, and subscribed so they can keep an eye on you and connect when they’re ready to buy.

Social networks are great mediums for building authority and trust, and exposing your business’ personality to someone who may want to do business with you. Again, by continuing to stay on your prospect’s horizon… you will be there when they decide to buy.

Dripping posts, dripping tweets, dripping comments, and dripping updates not only keeps you top of mind, it also extends from people within your network to people within your followers’ networks, and their followers’ networks, and on and on.

Being top of mind in our prospects’ networks is important, building trust and authority within their network improves our chances of them calling us when they’re ready to buy. People sometimes ask, should I put resources in Facebook or Twitter? Should I invest in email marketing or search engine optimization? Should I start a blog or advertise online?

There’s no right answer to this. The question is all dependent upon a return on your marketing investment. If we participate monthly on LinkedIn for an hour, let’s say that hour is worth $250 in consultation… that’s $3,000 annually. If I get a $25,000 contract from a lead from LinkedIn, was it worth it? Of course it was. The question isn’t where, the question is how can you balance and automate drip campaigns throughout all these mediums effectively.

Don’t bet on a single medium, your prospects may be anywhere. Once you identify your best mediums with the most promising leads, you can put more effort in those mediums.

Drip, drip, drip… and wait for the buy.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more. Douglas is also the author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies. Follow him on Twitter @douglaskarr.

Corporate Blogging for Dummies is now available on Amazon and in book stores. Check out our new site, Corporate Blogging Tips, to find out what events that we'll be speaking at.

Got an event? Let us know that as well - we're looking forward to going on tour later this year.

Don't forget to follow @corpblogging on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook!

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When I started DK New Media, one of the decisions to make was actually how to brand the company. As I think about marketing and its evolution, I often compare it to a conductor and a symphony. As a consultant, I need to be much like a conductor, helping blend the different mediums and leverage them to hit the right notes at the right times, so that the strategy is fully realized.

I didn’t want to age myself by naming myself as a marketing consultant. I didn’t want to limit myself by calling myself a search consultant or social media consultant. That’s like stating that you’re a violinist, flautist, or percussionist. Rather, I wanted to brand myself more openly.

New media doesn’t mean that I ignore old media, nor does it limit me in the future. There will always be something new. New media consulting can include search, social, video, mobile… or virtually anything that comes down the pipe. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to promote myself as an expert in all of those arenas. I already work with partner firms and agencies that specialize in those topics.

As a new media consultant, it sets an expectation that I can assist with any media… and educate my clients on the latest developments in communications mediums. And I do try to learn about and build expertise in all the newest trends. From time to time, I state that I do social media consulting or search consulting… but I don’t brand myself exclusively in those areas.

Conductors aren’t necessarily expert musicians with any one instrument; however, they fully understand how to leverage each instrument, get them all working together, and make some beautiful music. Too bad we didn’t call ourselves marketing conductors!

Here’s to making some beautiful marketing music!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Did you know Douglas Karr's book is coming out in August? You can pre-order Corporate Blogging for Dummies now on Amazon. Check out our new site, Corporate Blogging Tips, to find out what events that we'll be speaking at.

Got an event? Let us know that as well - we're looking forward to going on tour later this year.

Don't forget to follow @corpblogging on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook!

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Everyday I assist companies who have no idea how they determined their sponsorship budget, nor how they actually measure the impact of those expenditures on the bottom line. It’s not uncommon. Most marketing departments simply have a line item, called “Sponsorships”. When a regional or industry colleague calls and asks if they’d like to sponsor an event – it’s usually just a matter of whether the audience is relevant and if there’s budget left.

You’re losing money on your sponsorship investment. And you’re letting those companies who are coordinating these events off the hook. Your company can get better exposure, better results, spend less money… and target the exact prospects you’re seeking.

Here are 10 questions to help you evaluate your next sponsorship opportunity:

1. What are the outcomes of the sponsorship that are going to matter to your organization? Don’t be fooled by stats and things that are easy to measure.
2. What are the benchmarks of previous sponsorships opportunities that you’ve acquired? What are your goals with respect to them? Be sure they’re as specific as possible (“200 leads from women aged 30-55″).
3. What is the return on each of those goals that are reached? How do they compare with your organization’s priorities?
4. Do those objectives align with core drivers of your business.
5. What metrics do you apply to other marketing mediums that can be applied to your sponsorship? (ie. close ratios, lead time, etc.)
6. What are the emotional and behavioral states of the prospects you’ll be reaching? It’s not enough to understand their demographics – you need to ensure the intent is there as well.
7. Utilizing primary research, are organizations going to be present that will drive business to you through their audience? Or are you just getting banner space on a website?
8. How much money are you saving through your sponsorship? If you’re acquiring customers through sponsorships, you can save money by reducing sales travel and entertainment expenses that are typically associated with nurturing leads.
9. How much of your customer base would be impacted by your sponsorship? How much of the sponsorship’s target would be interested in your products and services? If it’s 20%, you’re on the right track.
10. How are you going to capture data? Capture data and then use the data to engage in meaningful conversations with your audience post-sponsorship.

If you’re a company who offers sponsorships, can you help answer these questions? By ensuring that your sponsors get a positive return on their sponsorship investment not only can you sleep easier – you can better evaluate the value of your sponsorship opportunities. Many companies underestimate their sponsorship by focusing on how many sponsor dollars they need rather than evaluating the value of their audience on sponsors!

This list was inspired by IEG’s 10 Factors Critical to Sponsorship.

This post was written by Julie Grice

Julie is the founder and CEO of Smart Sponsorship, a marketing firm specializing in assisting businesses to maximize their return on investment on sponsorship expenditures. Smart Sponsorship also assists companies build and price comprehensive sponsorship solutions to maximize revenue and impact for their customers.

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We’re all witnessing it. With so many mediums at their disposal, we’re witness to the noisy and unnecessary rambling of companies, entrepreneurs, and people across Facebook, Twitter, and in corporate blogs. It’s so noisy.

It’s always been an issue with email marketing… marketers are expected to put out an email each week by their bosses. As a result, they do. And it sucks. And rather than converting, a potential prospect unsubscribes.

Email marketing takes more effort than throwing a status update out on your favorite social media site, though. These new mediums have provided much more opportunity for companies to talk… and boy do they. I spend more time these days unfollowing, unsubscribing, and blocking than I’ve ever done in the past.

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. Walter Bagehot

One of my friends (sorry – I can’t remember which!) came up with a great idea… Twitter should have a Pause button. That’s right folks, we need Twivo so we can skip the crap tweets and get to the ones that really matter. We’re not unfollowing or blocking… but we’re letting the person know that they’re simply talking too much. Got a friend livetweeting his D&D meetup? Pause!

I’m not just pointing the finger at others! In recent weeks my status updates have been few and far between – I’ve been working 20 hours a day just to keep up with some huge opportunities that have been given to me. What I’ve noticed is that I have more followers and fans now than I did when I was yapping all day.

Besides the times when there is nothing to say, there are also times when you should say nothing. I’m guilty of this one, too. Sometimes I can’t resist the opportunity to throw a sarcastic bomb out there when things go awry… and it’s made me look like an ass to some. As Erik Deckers so aptly put it, Image is Everything, Twitter is Forever.

The noise out there is getting louder and louder folks. Unless you’re saying something of substance, your voice becomes a numbing buzz in the background that everyone stops listening to. Social doesn’t mean that you have to always be talking; in fact, social is probably more about listening than anything else. Give your voice a rest and see what happens.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO on us!

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Social media marketing essentially evolved from The Cluetrain Manifesto assertion that markets are conversations. The world of social media then exploded and conversational platforms, tools and networks evolved. Markets are conversations … whatever that means. When you translate it into the practical, not the etherial, you have to try and figure out conversational marketing.

How do you have conversations with people with the intent of promoting a product or service? Or, to borrow Chris Heuer’s seemingly altruistic fantasy of marketing, how do you have conversations with people with the intent of helping them buy a product or service? More specifically, how do you have these conversations in mediums (social platforms) where people’s participation is theoretically predicated on the belief they don’t want to be marketed to?

Responsible social media advice is that conversational marketing occurs when you build trust and relationships, provide value to your audience and become the go-to resource when that audience is ready to buy what you sell. But if we are to truly build trust and relationships with our audiences, a problem arises:

The trust you build is largely dependent upon the ability to convince them your intent is pure.

Our intent is to market. While relative, our intent is not wholly pure, is it?

The stereotype of a car salesman is they are interested in the sale, not the customer. The stereotype of the public relations person is they’re interested in the placement, not the media member. A marketer, in the public’s eyes, is a salesman. Our audience is predisposed to not trust us.

If we act, though, not as marketers, but as members of the community, network or environment in which we’re participating with the audience, do we chip away at that mistrust?

And if we do, how long does it take before we earn enough of it to accomplish our goals?

Or does accomplishing them prove the mistrust was justified?

Conversational marketing success is only possible when your genuine participation — not motivated my marketing goals — earns your audience’s permission to share information that is.

Still, you can interrupt someone saying they need to buy a watch with, “I sell watches, can I help?” and earn a sale.

Conversational marketing is an inexact science. But isn’t it fun to explore?

IMAGE: Conversations by Yuri Arcurs on Shutterstock.com

It’s interesting that those in the social media industry believe everything that’s occurring with respect to social media is new. As I look back to direct marketing, database marketing, networking and advertising – I don’t believe our goals for businesses were different at all. There are a lot of doom and gloom stories about how every business must adapt or they’re going to fail. I don’t believe that’s true.

While I agree that the mediums have changed (and improved), businesses are still trying to achieve what they always have. The goals for business have never been different, it’s the mediums and the expectations of consumers that have changed.

If I were to write a manifesto for business, it would probably have these ten goals:

1. My business will be available where prospects and customers are looking for us.
2. My business will be available when prospects and customers need us.
3. My business will respond when prospects and customers make a request.
4. My business will set realistic expectations for prospects and customers.
5. My business will deliver what customers expected.
6. My business will deliver when we said we would.
7. My business will admit when we made a mistake.
8. My business will fix our mistakes.
9. My business will be honest with you.
10. My business will effectively communicate progress along the way.

In return for being open, honest, accountable and available, businesses hope that prospects and customers will return the favor – communicating how well they performed. This isn’t just good marketing or new marketing, this is good business. These have always been the goals of the businesses I’ve worked with.

As you review these goals, there’s nothing mentioned about new media, experiential marketing, social media, search, search engine optimization, twitter, Facebook, email or any other marketing medium. Those mediums’ existence make it much easier to achieve the business goals – but it doesn’t require that every business adopt them.

Your company may find that good old fashioned cold calling does the trick. Remember – it’s still true that the majority of the business world has not adopted social media, and many are successful, growing and even flourishing businesses. Take Apple for example… I don’t see Apple being open, transparent or overwhelmingly engaged in social media – but they’re doing quite well, aren’t they?

My point isn’t to discourage companies from adopting and utilizing social media. Quite the opposite. If your business wants to adopt the goals of the above manifesto, I have no doubt that social media will accelerate your business given the proper resources and the right strategy. If those goals are not the goals of your company, social media may not be a fit.

Think before you leap! The water is cold and deep.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

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Morse Code

This is the Marketing Technology Blog, and I am supposed to write about the latest and greatest marketing software tools.

However, sometimes the best choice is not the brightest, newest, or coolest. In some situations, the best way to reach a specific customer, or deliver a specific message, may very well be a less glamorous, low tech approach.

Good marketing, is about matching the medium and the message to deliver the best results!

In this segment from the Jay Leno Show Morse Code is Compared to Texting. Who do you think will win?

While I don’t envision a marketing strategy which includes Morse Code, it does demonstrate reinforce the idea of carefully comparing your mediums to deliver your message.

This post was written by Lorraine Ball

Lorraine Ball twenty years in corporate America, before she came to her senses. Today, you can find her at Roundpeg, a small marketing firm, based in Carmel, Indiana. Along with an extraordinarily talented team (which includes Bonnie the dog and Clyde the cat) she shares what she knows about marketing, networking, pr, social media and business planning. Committed to contributing to a vibrant entrepreneurial economy in Central Indiana, Lorraine is focused on helping small businesses, become big businesses.

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This week I’m working on a presentation for the Webtrends Engage 2010 conference in New Orleans. My topic is quite specific and the time slot is very brief (10 minutes), so it’s challenging me to do one heck of a presentation! I’ve been asked to speak to successful B2B Blogging.

I’ve narrowed the keys to Business to Business Blogging down to 5 distinct strategies for the presentation:

1. Be in front. It’s not enough to blog, you must be in front of all the other competitors and other noise out there. You have to be in front of customers, in front of relevant social networks, in front of competitors’ search engine results. No longer can you simply wait for people to find you.
2. Provide a path. Every page of your blog is effectively a landing page. You must supply ways for visitors to contact you, must supply reasons for them to contact you, and you must make it simple and easy.
3. Feed the Senses. People don’t read blog posts, they scan them. Some don’t read at all, they look for visual and auditory mediums. If you’re not using white space effectively, doing sound and video, you’re not connecting with a large percentage of your prospective audience.
4. Capture Information. A blog is a fantastic way to provide information and build authority with prospects and customers. You don’t have to do it for free though… it’s okay to survey and request information about your reader. Providing additional resources such as whitepapers or webinars requires registration.
5. Measure in Dollars. Engagement isn’t measured in comments, it’s measured in dollars and cents. It’s essential to integrate a business analytics tool that can accomodate accurate measurement of your blogging efforts.

Each key, of course, can have an associated presentation… but don’t lose sight of the big picture if you’re blogging for business with other businesses. I hope to see you at Engage ‘10 down in New Orleans February 1st to 4th, this is going to be a fantastic event!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more.

Thanks for subscribing! From all of the bloggers at The Marketing Technology Blog, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Our present to you... download Doug's eBook on Blogging for SEO at no cost.

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It’s that time of year again… when you must put time aside to review your annual marketing plan. 2009 may be more important than any year previous with the rapid adoption of social media strategies. Here’s what I recommend collecting:

• Marketing Spend by Medium – this is actual money paid for external marketing and advertising efforts. Breaking this down within categories is essential as well. In other words, don’t just list ‘online’… break online down to web site, search engine marketing, social media, etc.
• Marketing Resources Spent by Medium – this is internal resource costs in human manpower as well as supplies and equipment. Again, be sure to break each medium down to the lowest common denominator.
• Customer Acquisition or Product Sales by Medium – this is both a count and revenue amount accumulated by medium… include both referrals and word of mouth. Understanding how many customers, as well as the value of those customers, is essential to planning for next year. Some mediums may bring smaller counts… but much larger deals.
• Customer Retention by Medium – this may take some additional effort, but understand what your company is doing that is impacting your customers’ retention. Many times educational programs and consultations are seen as an expense. Recognize the value of the services you provide at no cost… you could see the most gains here!
• Year over Year Comparisons – how did your marketing strategies perform compared to last year? You can absolutely bet that it’s going to change again next year! Changing your media mix, resources and strategies will increase your marketing return on investment.

Don’t put off a year-end marketing review. Most companies spend money in marketing where they have the resources, where they think the revenue is coming from, or where they’re simply most comfortable. Performing a year-end review will provide you with the tools you need to attack 2010 with a new, winning strategy!

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization.

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Last week I found a great example of a really unobtrusive way to use email marketing as a way to drive traffic to social media. The email came from Dick’s Sporting Goods.

It was a simple, well-designed email that had a very simple call to action: Follow us on Twitter and receive an exclusive discount code:

Why it’s good

Dick’s did a good job of using a traditional tool – email marketing – to drive traffic to one of those shiny new social media tools – twitter. What a lot of marketers overlook is that having a good social media presence isn’t just setting up post at each outlet and waiting for people to find you. You actually have to drive traffic to get people to start engaging with you! Simple concept, I know, but often an overlooked one when defining your social strategy.

Why it works:

1. Not only is there an incentive to follow Dick’s Sporting Goods on Twitter, but the offer, an exclusive (at least to their twitter followers) offer makes you feel like you are getting something no one else has. You are in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Twitter circle and you benefit from it.
2. It’s a soft sell, it’s not intrusive, and it doesn’t require a lot of action. That’s more than one – but you see what I am getting at.

The Result

Many of the traditional barriers have been removed for me to participate with or buy from Dick’s using this strategy. It was easy to follow the link, hit follow and get a discount code…and now that I have a discount code, my next step is probably to their website to see if there is something I didn’t know I needed until I had that excuse to go shopping – brilliant!

And now they have two permission-based mediums to market to me at… email and Twitter!

This post was written by Chris Lucas

Chris is the Marketing Specialist and Product Evangelist for Formspring. He manages many of FormSpring's marketing efforts with a special interest in discovering how social and online marketing can help FormSpring grow. FormSpring is an online form-building tool that takes a lot of the headache out of collecting and managing data online.

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