What’s Your Marketing Approach?

July 29, 2009

An interesting post by Steve Johnson talks about marketing not being a list, but rather an approach to solving customers problems and helping buyers to buy.

As marketers, we sometimes fall victims of the routine day-to-day tactical activities and forget why we are doing them. Create this email here, prepare a webinar there, and send the artwork for publication in that magazine. Do you ever stop at some point during the week to rethink your actions, rethink your role, rethink your strategy?

Being tuned to the market and being able to notice patterns is only possible if you do your job with eyes wide open. You don’t necessarily have to keep looking for this with everything you do at every minute (it would drive you crazy and slow you down considerably) but just recognizing the need for it does help.

Here are some actions you can take that might help:

  • After you create a presentation, review it thinking not only on who you will be presenting it to, but now thinking about whether more people in your market (customers and prospects) would find it interesting/educational
  • When you wrap up things for the day, think back at everything you created (collateral, presentations, copy, etc.) and make a note to revise it and expand it to become a piece you can repurpose for another audience
  • Make a point to touchbase with the sales reps every month and ask them what they are seeing in the market and what questions they are being asked
  • Schedule a couple hours per week (Friday afternoons are usually great) to review the week that passed and to plan for the week ahead, with the idea that what you will be working on, producing, and publishing should be solving a customer problem

How are YOU tackling the challenge of noticing patterns and solving customers problems?

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Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Why Social Media Is Not For Everyone

July 21, 2009

While many are in love with the whole concept of Social Media as being the next big thing in marketing, the holy grail that will lift sales and enhance your brand, I have seen some detractors that insist in calling out the faults and dangers or adopting Social Media as part of your marketing strategy.

Taking the plunge into social media may not be the right thing for you

Taking the plunge into social media may not be the right thing for you

Social media is just another media

Experts, personalities and false prophets are all clamoring that social media is king. We’re told that if you have a good plan , if you follow a proven framework for rolling out your social media activities and integrate them with your sales efforts , then the ROI will be clear . That is, if you can translate all those additional site visits, downloads, and re-tweets into sales. Otherwise it’s just buzz.

Some blasphemous professionals on the other hand, caution us to be careful in our efforts, telling us we should really focus on those customers that love our product and not use social media targeting everyone. They caution us saying it could be dangerous to our business if incorrectly used and it’s only helpful to build relationships and goodwill .  Sales? Maybe not so much.

I don’t know about you, but so far it seems like Social Media is nothing more than just another media, another tool in the marketer’s arsenal. It’s like saying everyone should do email marketing, everyone should do podcasts, print ads and TV spots.

Choosing the right social media strategy

While some may say that since your employees are already using social media (facebook pages, tweeter accounts, linkedin posts, etc.) you should also jump on the bandwagon , I say there are several reasons for companies to be reluctant to embrace it wholeheartedly. The same questions you would ask before using any marketing tool available you should also ask of the Social Media tools. What is it for? Who is our target? What is our goal? What are our objectives? What resources will it require? Will we do it ourselves or will we outsource to someone with more experience?  Do we need to create rules or procedures for using it? How will we measure success?

At the company I work for we recently had an informal discussion about Facebook and Twitter, with people raising questions such as “why don’t we have a Tweeter page” or “let’s create a Facebook account and start inviting customers”. That is all nice and good, I said, but let’s first decide on why we are going to do it. Get people to buy our products! Tell them about a new release! And similar comments ensued. Yeah, but HOW do you do that? Just making sure you are Tweeting five times per day is not guarantee for success especially if you have nothing more to say that hasn’t been said already. As with any new tool or concept, it always seems easier said than done. Probably because it’s “free” (yes, you don’t have to pay for it but you do need to invest time), it is immediately implied that if you are not using it you are behind the times  and putting your company at risk.

Let’s put aside the fact that the press and the Internet in general are full of stories about how social media is transforming businesses and think in terms of marketing strategy. Why would you use a tool without first deciding how it will impact your brand, how it will impact your resources and how it will help you achieve your goals? I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use it but I am simply cautioning you to use it as part of your overall strategy. If you want to create a corporate blog that focuses only on your 10 most profitable customers and you have good reasons to do it, then don’t think for a minute that you are doing something wrong. If you need to Tweet about what you had for lunch because somehow this creates affinity with your prospects and will eventually translate into sales, then knock yourself out.  Nothing is purely good or bad

Social Media In Three Easy Steps

Step 1: Learn how to use it

Before judging whether something works and the best way to use it, first attend a course, read a book, talk to people that are using it. There are several free online courses and resources on the web you can use to learn more about it. Only then will you be able to really make a good decision.

Step 2: Learn how to NOT use it

Now that you know what the social media tools are all about and how they are supposed to be used, check out the myriad of examples of companies that are doing it correctly and getting returns and also check out how companies are screwing it up so badly it is becoming a public embarrassment (recent United Airlines fiasco , IBM’s IT failure debacle , and Habitat’s tweet spam come to mind). Learn from others mistakes and then you will be ready to commit your own.

Step 3: Teach and listen

With all that good info you now gathered at hands, bring this knowledge to your company and spread it around. Educate the CEO, the sales manager, your staff and everyone else that you think can help you shape your company’s strategy towards social media. Then listen to what they have to say, you may be surprised. And don’t forget to give them the option of doing nothing. Whatever works for your business is what you should do.

How did YOU approach social media at your company? Please share!

9 Comments | Communication, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Don’t Forget Your Company History

July 16, 2009

The recent advent of the lost NASA tapes (they lost the original tapes from the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, then found out that they had all been erased) got me thinking. At my company we do our best to keep “old” stuff like pictures, awards, magazine ads, even show signage. Sure, call us pack rats but we like going back in time and talking about the old days and how things changed. Not only that, we feel a certain pride when we look back in time and realize how much we have accomplished.

A project that has been on my list for some time now, is to get all of those pictures and select a few that we can use on our website as part of our company history page. Adobe and General Electric are just two examples that come to mind that make good use of their history to talk about their origins and how it relates to what they do today.

How can a company’s history be used effectively? Here’s a few additional options:

  • Sales can talk about the company’s past to reinforce the message that the prospect is dealing with an established, solid player
  • Human Resources can show new employees and interviewees what the company culture feels like by sharing photos of past events
  • Volunteer organizations, once they see information, pictures and nominations from past activities can get in touch and partner with the company for a future joint community event or non-profit activity
  • Putting up a timeline with pictures at the company’s lobby can not only entertain visitors but give them a quick lesson on the company’s origins
  • Managers can refer back to historic events and milestones to reinforce the message of the company’s mission and goals during staff meetings
  • Marketing can use the company’s history not only on the website (photos and videos) but also on collateral, either as part of a campaign or simply to reinforce a point about the industry, the company’s reputation, or to give the company a more human face

So how are you using your company’s history in your marketing efforts?

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Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Presenting Effective Charts

July 12, 2009
Are your impressive charts effective?

Are your impressive charts effective?

Stop doing charts in Excel. At least don’t use the default options that give you 3D bar charts with dull colors and gray background. The fix? Go to Juice Analytics website and download their free add-on to Excel that cleans up charts for a professional look.

Ok, now that we have a tool to fix those ugly Excel charts, let’s see what we can do about the main goal of your chart: The message.

How to Ensure Your Message is Clear

Before creating a chart showing the latest web analytics, or the trends in email clickthrough rates explaining the recent results in webinar registrations, think about what exactly you are trying to say. Sounds simple but often times I see charts presented just because they ‘look nice’ or because they show data. Yeah, you’ve seen them too, right? After you stared them for two minutes you are still wondering “What the heck is he trying to say with this chart?”.

Here’s five simple rules I use when presenting data on a chart format:

1. What is the summary?
As I do my analysis, I think about what all the data means. Are we losing customers? Was the last trade show really effective? Did we generate quality leads? Then, I think about what is the summary of all the analysis and the conclusion. This is often the most important piece of information of the whole presentation.
2. What is the story?
Saying “we didn’t reach our sales goals” is OK, but after the initial shock, people will wonder exactly what happened. So the next best thing is to think about the story. More specifically, what story are the numbers telling you? You will find that some data points when put next to other data points will give you a clear explanation of what happened. If you need a few different charts to present it, that’s OK. They will become your storyline.
3. What can I remove?
Less is more, especially when presenting data and charts. Think about what you can remove from the chart that might be distracting or that is not adding to the overall story. It could be a data point, could be labels, legend, or colors.
4.What needs explanation?
Some charts are clear and have all the information necessary, while others only glimpse into a certain question or answer. You may have to add supporting information either before or after the chart. Don’t assume everyone will ‘get it’ when looking at it. Always go back to step 3 and ask yourself if the additional info is really necessary.
5. What action needs to happen?
If you are presenting something, you need something to happen. Sure, you may just be sharing information but still you have a goal with this information sharing and why would you present something if nothing will happen as a result? The story your slides are telling and your charts are emphasizing should lead to a certain climax that will ask for action or actions to be taken. That’s the “so what” question people often ask themselves after a presentation. Don’t let anything up to imagination, add to the presentation what the audience needs to do or what needs to happen based on the information just presented.

1. What is the summary?

As I do my analysis, I think about what all the data means. Are we losing customers? Was the last trade show really effective? Did we generate quality leads? Then, I think about what is the summary of all the analysis and the conclusion. This is often the most important piece of information of the whole presentation.

2. What is the story?

Saying “we didn’t reach our sales goals” is OK, but after the initial shock, people will wonder exactly what happened. So the next best thing is to think about the story. More specifically, what story are the numbers telling you? You will find that some data points when put next to other data points will give you a clear explanation of what happened. If you need a few different charts to present it, that’s OK. They will become your storyline.

3. What can I remove?

Less is more, especially when presenting data and charts. Think about what you can remove from the chart that might be distracting or that is not adding to the overall story. It could be a data point, could be labels, legend, or colors.

4.What needs explanation?

Some charts are clear and have all the information necessary, while others only glimpse into a certain question or answer. You may have to add supporting information either before or after the chart. Don’t assume everyone will ‘get it’ when looking at it. Always go back to step 3 and ask yourself if the additional info is really necessary.

5. What action needs to happen?

If you are presenting something, you need something to happen. Sure, you may just be sharing information but still you have a goal with this information sharing and why would you present something if nothing will happen as a result? The story your slides are telling and your charts are emphasizing should lead to a certain climax that will ask for action or actions to be taken. That’s the “so what” question people often ask themselves after a presentation. Don’t let anything up to imagination, add to the presentation what the audience needs to do or what needs to happen based on the information just presented.

For some nice tips about how to prepare before you give a presentation, SlideMagnet has some pretty good advicethat drives home the key points while giving you some good laughs.

Charts That Tell a Story

Here is a compilation of great articles and sites I’ve read in the past that really helped me understand the importance of paying attention to data presentation and how to choose the right chart based on your data and message.

Images, Cliparts, and Stuff

Although another blog post should cover this in more detail, if you are using images (and you should) in your slides, make sure you get good ones. Cliff Atkinson has some great suggestions of places to get images from and the PresentationZen blog has a recent post that will help those trying to present technical information.

I hope the resources I listed will help you create better charts and presentations. If you know of other resources, please share!

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Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Copywriting That Sells: Powerful Copy is Easier than You Think

July 5, 2009

Writing great copy is easy. Writing powerful, attention grabbing copy that will help you sell is another story. I usually

Copywriting that sells. This is your goal.

Copywriting that sells. This is your goal.

overcomplicate, think too much, duplicate sentences without realizing it and end up having to start from scratch. Now that I have attended a copywriting workshop I hope some of the lessons will stick long enough to help me improve.

Not all workshops are good, most of the ones I’ve been to are actually pretty bad but once in a while there’s one that stands out and this time was the copywriting workshop I attended a couple weeks ago. Far from exceptional (I am a very harsh critic) and very focused on basics, I nonetheless had some great insights and came out with great action-ready items I am putting to the test at work.

The Copywriting Wimp

The workshop instructor was Sandra Blum, a renowned copywriter, columnist for Dynamic Graphics magazine, and more recently one of the judges for DMA’s Echo Award. That in itself is a good indication that the material was above average. She not only customized the course the way she thought it should be delivered but was also able to get the group of 20 or so to interact and dictate the pace. Gotta love her for that.

Besides being a nice refresher of some basics, we all got some really good actionable items that we took back to our work and were able to put right into practice. Copywriting is easy, but writing powerful copy that sells is what separates the wimps from the champions. If you feel like a wimp sometimes, or need to get a good checklist of stuff that will help you during those difficult moments of “how do I make this sound more exciting?”, then read on.

10 Nuggets of Copywriting Wisdom

Here are some of the key insights I got from the workshop and I hope these few key lessons can help you improve your copywriting too.

1. “People don’t want more information, they want better information”. Before you start scribbling away, think about the two most important things about what you are writing, namely your objective and the action you want the reader to take.

Examples of objectives for your copy:

  • Sell
  • Lead generation
  • Public Relations
  • Generate Interest
  • Promote
  • Create anticipation
  • Arouse Curiosity
  • Provide information

Examples of actions you may want your readers to take:

  • Call
  • Return a response card
  • Visit a store
  • Place an order
  • Join up
  • Ask for an estimate
  • Give feedback / fill out a survey
  • Tweet or blog about it

2. “It’s not how long you make it, is how you make it long”. Sometimes you just have to write that extra paragraph and cutting more words won’t make your copy flow better. As long as your copy is engaging, your readers won’t mind. MarketingExperiments has an interesting test on short copy versus long copy that is worth checking out  and Sonia Simone from CopyBlogger has a great blog post on the same subject.

3. The goal is to write persuasive copy. It’s what Joe Sugarman calls the “Slippery Slide”, in his book “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook”, explaining that “The headline must be so powerful and compelling that you must read the subheadline, and the subheadline must be so powerful that you are compelled to read and so compelling that you must read the next sentence, and so on, straight through the entire copy to the end”. He also calls it “Reading Gravity” because it’s like a force pulling you through the copy. The ultimate test is whether the reader acted on your call to action.

4. Headlines and subheadlines are key to making your copy flow. Some people will only read those, while others will be compelled to keep reading. When used effectively, headlines will help you:

  • Grab the reader’s attention
  • Qualify the audience
  • Deliver a message
  • Draw the reader into the copy

5. Make working with copywriters work for you by using a creative brief. Sandra told us some interesting stories about having to use creative briefs to manage outsourced copywriters. Great idea! Why keep creative briefs a tool for only your marketing department to use? Make sure that copywriter you are hiring really gets it and ask him or her to fill out a creative brief, then use it to manage the project.

6. Decide on a style guide. Seems easy enough but if you are a freelance writer or if your company is using one, that is one of the first things you should do. Whatever the guide you use or that you created along the years based on your industry, product, or service make sure everyone is on the same page as to what are the standards. Avoid confusion later by spending some time deciding it now.

7. Work on your opening lines. Seriously. Opening lines can make or break your email, landing page, website, blog, or any other type of writing you do. Here’s a brief list of styles you can choose from:

  • Tell a story
  • Sell a benefit
  • Share news
  • Evoke curiosity
  • Present a problem
  • Present a solution
  • Flatter

8. Simplify your writing. Tailor your writing style towards your audience and be aware of how difficult your copy might be for someone to read and comprehend. There are several indexes out there for this kind of thing, like the Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, and one of my favorites (because of its name) the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook . The simplest way to use the readability test is by configuring it in your MS Word program.

9. Design and copy should be worked together. This is a key point for me because often times I write or edit copy then send it to the graphic designer who will insert it into some kind of layout he created. And often times the design needs to be changed because it doesn’t work with the copy. Make sure your designer understands the purpose of the piece you are writing, the benefits, and the desired outcome. Only then will you be able to have the design strengthen the copy.

10. Understand the benefit of your benefit. This was an aha! Moment for most people at the workshop. We all know about features and benefits but how about the benefits of the benefits? That means going a step further and really understanding the “so what” of what you are writing about. The lesson for me here is whenever I think I’m done with my copy, I go back and try to read it asking at every point “so what” and see if it still makes sense. For a nice article about features and benefits, check out Michael Fortin.

Copywriting Resources

Here are some great resources for those interested in learning more and fine tuning their copy making skills:

Books:

Websites:

Blogs:

The Gran Finale

Books, blogs and websites abound on copywriting and how to write killer copy, so I know a single post will not change your life. I do hope that some of the points I make above will help you in some way to get better or at least to try harder. Remember, copywriting is easy. The difficult part is to get people to read… and buy!

If you attended the workshop, what are some of the key lessons you learned? If you are an experienced copywriter, what resources do you use that you recommend others?

4 Comments | Communication, Online Marketing | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Because You Can’t Beat Free Marketing Training

June 23, 2009

This is the second post finalizing the review of the Inbound Marketing University program from HubSpot. Here I talk about the final 5 classes. If you haven’t done already, check out the review of the first 5 presentations.

Class: Advanced SEO Tactics: On Beyond Keyword Research (GF401)
Professor: Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

SEOmoz is one of the best places for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) information, and the presentation was full of nice tidbits about SEO. As I mentioned at my review of the basic SEO course presented, this is such a broad topic that 1 hour is not enough to cover everything, but Rand Fishkin did a great job presenting relevant information on how to get ranked higher on Google, including:

  • Link building
  • Keyword usage
  • Unique content creation
  • Domain diversity

As Fishkin explained each SEO concept, he made clear that they all need to work together. It doesn’t matter if you have great keywords if you lack the other elements.

SEO Tactics: He did a great job at distilling tactics into byte sized advice that we can all use for link building, content creation, and domain names. If you want to get some good insights on effective SEO, check out his presentation and the free articles they have on the SEOmoz website.

Veredict: This is a must watch class for those interested in SEO even if you’ve been doing it for a while. Rand’s presentation is engaging and full of great information.

Class: Calls to Action and Landing Page Best Practices (CV101)
Professor: Jeanne Hopkins, MECLABS, Marketing Experiments

If you are not familiar with MarketingExperiments, than you should immediately bookmark their website: http://www.marketingexperiments.com. They always have great content based on lots of testing they’ve done and publish their results frequently.

Since I’ve seen their reports and webinars in the past, the presentation about calls to action and landing pages was more of a refresher. Having said that, Jeanne’s presentation is a great starting point for those that have not seen their reports and want great actionable items for improving their landing pages.

The best take away from the presentation is their conversion formula: C = 4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a. Rather than being a formula that you need to solve, it is supposed to give you insights on how to create a landing page with higher probability of converting visitors. To get more insight into the formula and how it works, after watching the presentation, check out some of their website design case studies.

Veredict: Those new to Marketing Experiments are in for a treat. If you are familiar with them, not much new material.

Class: Inbound Lead Nurturing (CV201)
Professor: Brian Carroll, MECLABS, InTouch

The Lead Nurturing presentation followed the same format I had seen before from previous webinars presented by Brian Carroll, presenting the case for why would you want to “nurture” your leads. While the decision on whether to nurture or pass leads directly to sales will vary based on your own industry and experience, the concept is a powerful one.

Even if you decide not to engage in full lead nurturing as the presentation described, the concepts discussed during the webinar are worth bringing up to your sales managers to that everyone is on the same page. These include:

  • Definition of a lead
  • When should leads be passed to sales
  • When should leads be sent back to marketing
  • How should leads be followed up, and by whom
  • How should leads be qualified and what are the different qualification levels
  • What are the marketing messages that need to be developed for each type of lead
  • How should you track and manage your leads and what tools will you use

Veredict: Nothing new, but good solid concepts that marketers need to bring up to the sales management and come with an action plan.

Successful Email Marketing (CV301)
Professor: Eric Groves, Constant Contact

This presentation should have been titled Email Marketing 101. So if you need to get up to speed on why you should do email marketing, and the basics behind that, you will find out by watching this class, otherwise just skip it.

Veredict: Email marketing basics with a good intro for the novice, but lacking specific tips for the experienced email marketer. Other resources that will give you more insights into doing effective email marketing are MarketingSherpa and Marketing Experiments.

Class: Analyzing Inbound Marketing (AZ401)
Professor: Marshall Sponder, Monster.com, Web Analytics Association for Social Media

In this class Marshall takes you through a tour of web analytics and how to track and measure your efforts related to social media, web, and more. Besides giving you an overview of how web analytics work, he dives into some specific examples of how to understand the data you are getting from the analytics tool.

Veredict: Great introduction to web analytics and good tips on different types of analyzes makes this presentation worth watching with a notepad to take notes.

Conclusion

While I didn’t expect outstanding material from a free course, some of the classes were really great and worth watching again. The Inbound Marketing University calls itself a “marketing retraining program”  and I guess that if you really have not been involved with online marketing up until now, it could be a great eye opener. For those that have been around online marketing for a while is a good refresher but nothing spectacular. I still suggest checking it out because nothing can beat free training.

1 Comment | Marketing Strategy, Marketing Training, Online Marketing, Webinars | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Inbound Marketing Training for Free

June 21, 2009

Last week I attended the Inbound Marketing University, a free online program put together by HubSpot featuring talented well known professionals on blogging, SEO, social media, lead nurturing, email marketing, landing pages, and viral marketing.

Free Marketing Training from IMU

Free Marketing Training from IMU

After watching the classes, my take on the University is:

Positives:

  • Online archives from each class including slides available on-demand helps a lot when you have busy schedules like mine, and also allows watching at your own pace (i.e. fast forward the boring parts)
  • Quality instructors that have proven experience and really know the subject helped validate the quality of the program
  • Quick and to the point presentations (60 mins each) allowed you to get instant factual and actionable information

Negatives:

  • In general the content was focused on the basics, which is ok for a newbie but I was expecting some more “meat” and a combination of basics with advanced tips and techniques for those that want to take their marketing to the next level (the SEO classes were the exception, having a basic and an advanced class)
  • Too broad topics delivered with too narrow a focus. While corporate blogging, for instance, is a broad topic, the presentation focused on only certain aspects of corporate blogging, leaving a lot of stuff untold.

During the next couple days I’ll post specific review about each class so you can decide which ones to take and which ones to skip based on your experience level.

Review of the first 5 classes:

Class: How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101)
Professors: Ann Handley & Mack Collier, MarketingProfs

This was a basic introduction to blogging, so for those already familiar with what blogging is, there wasn’t much new content. From a corporate blogging perspective, I like that they brought up what I consider the two main issues in corporate blogging:

  • Do you have the time?
  • Do you have the people?

Often times we get directives from the top echelon asking us to setup a corporate blog for the CEO, a blog for every manager, and to churn content every day. Unless you have the staff available to create new content quickly, you will be stuck.

What was missing from the presentation was:

  • Rules and policies for company blog writers on disclosing company trade secrets, talking about products that are yet to be released, copyright laws, and abiding to the company’s employee handbook
  • How to blog with shareholders in mind (current and prospective)
  • Blogging about the competition (dos and don’ts)
  • Blog copywriting tips

Veredict: Unless you are new to blogging, skip the class and check out the resources below, plus do a quick Google search and you’ll find tons of more information.

For those interested in corporate blogging, tips for corporate blogs and some rules and policies, check out the following links:

Class: SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102)
Professor: Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing

Not only Lee Odden provided a quick basic overview of what SEO is and why it is important but he also went into some details on how to make the most out of Search Engine Optimization. What I liked best was the tips on tools you can use and where to find additional resources. SEO is such a complex subject that you can barely scratch the surface in one hour so knowing where to go for more information is invaluable. The links he suggested are:

Keyword Tools:

Additional SEO Resources Mr. Odden recommends:

Veredict: If you have never done any SEO in your life, his presentation is excellent. Otherwise, skip it and go straight for the Advanced SEO class (to be reviewed in my next post).

Class: Social Media and Building Community (GF201)
Professor: Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs

Chris Brogan’s presentation was more of a theoretical overview of community building than tools for doing that. This presentation was a great disappointment for me, since I have read so much great stuff from his blog and was expecting a bit more depth in his presentation.

Veredict: If you are new to social networks, community building, etc. the presentation will probably give you some good pointers so you avoid common blunders when building your own community.

For more information about getting your company to successfully build an online community, I recommend the following for further reading:

Class: Successful Business Uses for Facebook and LinkedIn (GF202)

Professor: Elyse Tager, Silicon Valley American Marketing Association

Elyse makes some great points about using social media for your business, such as:

  • It’s free, but… : although you may not have a line item in your budget on how much you need to spend on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and other social media sites (they are all free), you do have to spend time (sometimes a LOT of time) working the social media space, which does translate into costs.
  • Commitment: you will have to commit to spending time developing your social media strategy; it doesn’t work overnight and require backing from your company willing to let you spend time doing it.
  • Set goals: this is important for any social media platform that your company is trying to use. Setup what your goals are for each platform (create connections, increase brand awareness, etc.) and measure it religiously.

Veredict: If you are new to using LinkedIn and Facebook for your business, Elyse’s presentation is a great starting point. For those that already use social media sites personally and just want to take it to the next level and include their business in the social media space, the presentation is a starting point, but it only tells you some of the basics.

Class: Viral Marketing and World Wide Raves (GF301)
Professor: David Meerman Scott, author of New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave

David is a great speaker and has engaging stories, making his presentation one of the best of the series. He is also able to bring ideas implemented by Fortune 500 companies down to the level of small businesses, which is the best way to get actionable items that you can implement in your own business.

Some key insights from his presentation are:

  • Create buyer personas: what types of people are you trying to reach and what are their needs?
  • Earn attention: create something great and distribute it online to generate buzz
  • Nobody cares about your products: they care about solving their problems
  • Lose control: trying to control all your content will work against your attempts to get your ideas heard. Free content will get you farther.
  • New measurements: how you measure your success is now related to how your ideas are being spread (blogs, twitter, etc.)
  • Put down roots: and participate in the communities where your target audience is involved
  • Point the world to your virtual doorstep:  make sure you have an online presence that integrates with your other efforts in generating buzz

Veredict: this is a great class for those that want to learn more about viral marketing or that are trying to convince their companies to do it. For more great stuff on viral marketing, David Meerman Scott’s blog (www.webinknow) is a great starting point.

Next: Review of the final 5 classes:

Advanced SEO Tactics: On Beyond Keyword Research (GF401)

  • Calls to Action and Landing Page Best Practices (CV101)
  • Inbound Lead Nurturing (CV201)
  • Successful Email Marketing (CV301)
  • Analyzing Inbound Marketing (AZ401)

You can check out the presentation slides at: http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/presentations

The online recordings for the classes are at: http://www.inboundmarketing.com

3 Comments | Marketing Strategy, Marketing Training, Online Marketing, Social Media, Webinars | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Free Stuff That Sells. Maybe.

June 13, 2009
Free Marketing Stuff Can Sell

Free Marketing Stuff Can Sell

As marketers our job is to generate brand awareness, educate our prospective customers on the benefits of our products and get them to purchase. Effective marketing is about generating sales. Sure, leads and nurturing and all of that are all good but the reality is that unless a sale is made, all that money was spent without any return. Part of the challenge is reaching enough people with your message so that at least a significant number of them decide to buy. And how do you reach even greater number of prospects? Give away free stuff.

Can free stuff sell?

There is a natural resistance among marketers to give whitepapers, webinars, even product spec sheets out for free, especially without requiring any kind of registration. We want names, titles, email addresses, phone numbers, company revenues, number of employees, and while we’re at it give us your annual budget too. What do we do with it? We send it along to the sales reps so tat they can chase these “leads” like eagles diving for their prey. Eagles rarely come back empty handed, though. But that’s another story.

Back to the free marketing stuff. I am enrolled in a free course called Inbound Marketing University, created by HubSpot. It is a free week long online training program featuring some great speakers on topic such as blogging, SEO, viral marketing, email marketing, lead nurturing… all the tools online marketers need to know.

So, why is it free? Because if they charged for it not as many people would register.  Also, the classes (delivered via online webinars, with the archives available afterwards) feature speakers from other respected companies that would love to be able to sell their products to the attendees. I’m not saying that it will be sales pitch university, but I am skeptical. Will it really have all the great insight you get from quality paid courses? Will I get sales calls from each company that is presenting a class? I sure hope yes for the first and no for the second.

As an attendee the question is whether the content will be good. As a marketer (HubSpot in this case) the question is whether sales will follow.

Free marketing that sells

Free marketing stuff can definitely help a company improve its brand and get new customers. People love free stuff, and if it is quality free stuff that you don’t have to regiser for they will tell more people to check it out and those people will tell even more people (viral marketing anyone?). Odds are that someone may eventually buy the product or service. David Meerman Scott is a master at this. His eBook “The New Rules of PR” was offered for free without requiring any registration from his website and was downloaded 250,000 times. When he came out with his hardcover book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”, it reached number 1 in sales quickly. When people download his eBook and like it, they are more likely to purchase his new book. On top of that, by recognizing David as an expert on the subject and someone that is not emailing you every week with stuff you never asked for, he and his company (Pragmatic Marketing) may get some customers that otherwise would not have even thought about them.

And if you do a simple Google search, you’ll find tons of other free stuff that does not require registration. From free PPC tips, free guide on Facebook for business, free eBook on Twitter for Business, free email marketing guide, and other miscellaneous free stuff (some of which you wish you had never found).

Does it mean we should all offer free stuff without registration on our websites? And how about going a step further and forgo registration for everything else we have on the site, just let people take it? Of course not, but putting some thought into getting quality content available without too many hurdles for the users couldn’t hurt either. Going back to the Inbound Marketing University, what I liked about their registration process is that it was painless, they ask minimum information and so far only relevant emails about the course have been sent.

Whether Inbound Marketing University ends up delivering a great program or just more sales presentations, I will let you know throughout the week as I take their classes (probably more archive classes than live ones, for my free time during the day is fairly limited). The free offer has at least picked my interest so you could say that the strategy is working… for now.

Does free stuff appeal to you? Or you try to stay away from it? Do you offer free marketing materials without registration on your website? Please share your experiences! 🙂

3 Comments | Communication, Marketing Management, Marketing ROI, Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Kindle Marketing Lessons

May 29, 2009

Amazon’s Kindle e-Book Reader Shows You What NOT To Do

I love my Kindle. The one I have is the first generation and I have been using it for almost one year now. An avid reader, I’m always reading two or three books at the same time and the Kindle’s simplicity and storage capacity (hundreds of books!) appealed to me.

What I hate about the Kindle has more to do with Amazon.com’s practices than the device itself. So here are a couple of important lessons we marketers can all learn from their mistakes: Kindle Lessons

Kindle Lesson Number 1: Integrate Your Sales Channels

For almost 10 years I’ve been a loyal Wall Street Journal subscriber. Initially I got the paper version of WSJ and later was an avid reader of WSJ.com. When I got the Kindle, one of the first things I wanted to do was to get the Wall Street Journal delivered to my e-Book, and Amazon was offering it. The problem, however, was that when I tried to switch my WSJ.com online subscription to the Kindle subscription I was told that they couldn’t do that. What?! I had to cancel my wsj.com subscription, then sign up for the Kindle subscription. Isn’t that unbelievable?

Why would you make it difficult for a loyal customer to continue using your product? And better, yet, why would you make it difficult for a customer to start using a more expensive product (the Kindle version was more expensive than the online journal)? When planning your sales channels, the more integrated they are, the better your chances of acquiring and keeping customers.

Kindle Lesson Number 2: Greed Will Kill You

Even with all the hassle of signing up to read the WSJ on my Kindle, I was a happy camper. Every morning I turned it on and read my electronic newspaper. Until that day when I got an email from Amazon.com announcing they were increasing the price of the WSJ Kindle subscription by 50%. FIFTY percent!

I simply cancelled my Kindle WSJ subscription, as apparently hundreds of others did. Not only that, but the Kindle forum at Amazon.com’s website has irate customers venting their frustrations with the price hike and talking about collateral damage as they cancel other Kindle subscriptions.

Why would Amazon increase the price substantially without giving customers any additional benefit is still a controversial subject, but the lesson is clear: Unless you have a good reason (i.e. additional features, more convenience, better value, etc.) to give your customer a huge price increase, you will not only risk losing him but will also get a very bad reputation, which could bankrupt you.

Granted, Amazon.com doesn’t care if hordes of Kindle users cancel their WSJ subscription as long as they keep purchasing books through the site, but if you are not so lucky as to be the size of Amazon.com, just remember these simple yet powerful lessons.

Thank you, Amazon, for teaching us a lesson. Now go f@%$! yourself.

7 Comments | Marketing Planning, Marketing Strategy, Pricing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

Webinar Presentations That Suck

May 25, 2009

Webinar Presentations

You are not even 3 minutes into the webinar and you know it: The presentation will suck. You roll your eyes and switch to your email while you wait for the presenter to appear alive, for the next slide to have something meaningful, for the pain to end… and wonder if you’re the only one wasting your time watching this session. Yeah, we’ve all been victims of poorly delivered webinar presentations and hate when we sit through the whole thing waiting for that moment when something useful will come out of it only to find out we wasted a perfectly good hour!

How do you avoid the same mistakes you see people committing all the time when delivering web presentations? Here are five key rules to guide you when preparing your webinar:

1. Get in your head that this is NOT a live presentation: you can’t see people; you don’t know if they are paying attention or just checking their email, you don’t know if they have fallen asleep. All the great presentation techniques they teach when you have to deliver a presentation in person will most likely not work. So get over it and start thinking about connecting with your audience.

2. Your slides are more important than you: OK, this may be too harsh a statement, but if people can’t see you, then how do you keep them engaged? Yes, you should sound energetic, don’t speak in monotone and try to stand up while talking, but make sure your slides are top notch. All that public speaking help that is out there can’t help you if your slides suck. That means you really don’t know much about public speaking because your slides are supposed to help you deliver the message! This includes using animations to help make a point, graphics and diagrams to explain a complex idea, and easy-to-read font (think 18 pts or bigger). A good speaker with a great slide deck is something we don’t see every day, so show the audience that they are in for a treat!

3. Use strategically located polling questions: One way to engage the audience during a webinar is to use polling questions. If well crafted and placed, they can help get things going and keep the audience interested, but if used too much they can be a drag. I suggest using the first poll within the first 10 minutes of the presentation, the second poll in the middle, and the third poll can be used either 10 mins before the end or right after the end but before the Q&A part. Successful polls are the ones that make the audience think, that when the results are shown they are meaningful to the audience, and that the presenter can use to make a point or get ideas flowing.

4. Use a moderator when possible: unless you are a great speaker, the presence of a moderator can really help. Not only the moderator can help with instructions before the start of the presentation (how to maximize the screen, where to enter questions, etc.) but this person can also interject during the presentation to create a dialog. Some of the best webcasts I’ve watched were the ones where a moderator would interject at some points to feed a question that was relevant to the slide being presented or to make a comment that would help with a transition to the next section of the webinar.

5. Practice. Then practice some more: this is true with any type of presentation. Unless you practice, you won’t deliver a good presentation. For webinars, it is even more important since you don’t have your body language to help out; you have to keep people engaged with your voice, the slides, and the setup of the webinar. Prepare, rehearse, and train like you mean it!

Please do us all a favor and make sure your next webinar presentation doesn’t suck! 😉

2 Comments | Communication, Webinars | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Daniel Kuperman

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