New Year, New You

With the current year coming to a close, it is often a time for reflection. Many of us think about what we can do better in the New Year. I for one personally think about how I am going to run more during the week (running in my pjs for 10 minutes in my bedroom is not cutting it), cut out one of my six cups of coffee during the day, and be better about excessive Amazon shopping (even though I have Prime and save on shipping!). I also am going to think about how as a marketer I can do a few things differently as well.

Resolution #1: Collect data, but make sure you use it!

I love data. People that know me either like this personal feature or want to throw sharpened pencils at my head when I bring up yet another excel spreadsheet or chart in PowerPoint. That being said, data only matters if you use it to inform or make decisions. I have been in many situations where numbers are collected, reports are run, but not much is ever done with the data. So, resolution one for this coming year ' collect the data ' but make sure you use it; otherwise it really doesn't matter much. Decide what decision you need to make before you spend time pulling reports or Excel-izing.

Resolution #2: Chill out on unwieldy lists.

I also love lists. My desk resembles a battleground of stickies and notes of all sizes trying to stake their claim to some bit of space. Marketers are spread thin and pulled in many directions. Lists are one approach to create some order in a normally chaotic state. Resolution two ' chill out on the unwieldy lists. You cannot do everything, and the best marketers focus and figure out what they need to do to hit their marketing objectives. If you examine what action items you are given throughout the day ' continually challenge those and make sure your list stays focused and narrow in on what you need to get done to drive objectives. I may not give up having a list, but I am aiming for one (not several) and it will have fewer things on it.

Resolution #3: If you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same results.

Lastly, as a marketer, I thrive on what is new. I like new food trends (minus the bacon donuts) and I have some concerns about Celine's Sesame Street inspired footwear, but pushing the envelope is good! In 2012, we saw strong themes around social, collaboration tools, and content marketing and I am excited to see what will emerge this coming year. Regardless of the trend, I am going to try to do something wild and new. Resolution three ' If you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same results ' so this is the year to go for it! We all get busy and have more than ever to get done during a day but identify one thing you can try to do differently in your marketing organization. It could be big or small, but pushing on innovation is what will make your marketing better and this coming year truly new.

What are some of your New Year's resolutions?

Marketing Initiatives You Cannot Afford to Ignore in 2013

With the impending New Year, many people are discussing what they can do differently in 2013. This is a best practice, as most people want to improve each quarter and year in their marketing campaigns and other business initiatives. Therefore, we have compiled a list of five things you cannot ignore in 2013. Feel free to add those you believe we missed in the comments!

1. Your brand's social reputation

Is your Facebook fan page full of unanswered questions and/or complaints? Is it because you simply lack the time it takes to engage with them? Then go ahead and delete your page. While we always recommend a Facebook presence (for marketing, sales, SEO benefits, customer service, etc.), having a completely neglected business page is worse. People want to connect with your brand via social media, whether it be to air a complaint or to sing your praise. If you cannot work out the time or funds to manage it, it's better not to be there at all.

Similarly, ignoring your social reputation includes not participating in social listening. Finding out what your customers are saying about your brand is imperative to understanding what they want and improving your business to fulfill their desires (thus driving up sales/leads).

2. Misspellings + grammatical errors in published articles

Having misspellings and grammatical errors in your published writing is simply lazy. Sure, we all have a typo in a tweet every now and then, but it's imperative that these are kept to a minimum. Error-free content sends the message that you were thoughtful in crafting the piece and care about how your brand is perceived. And with the plethora of online dictionaries, it really is the simplest piece to clean up. Try implementing a QA (quality assurance) process where no piece of content (such as articles or blog posts) goes out without at least two sets of eyes. Often times it is difficult for the writer to see his or her mistakes'ones that can be easily spotted by another individual.

3. Maintaining the status quo report

Your reporting has no doubt looked the same for a year or more. The same metrics come in and the same analysis and recommendations are produced. Challenging the reporting process (and the document itself) can lead to better insights and more actionable next steps. Asking your marketing team to redesign a report will only be helpful, however, if you give them concrete direction. Once you have decided on your new business goals, for example, you can try to design the report around it. For example, if your business's goal is to increase sales by 20% this year, the report should reflect how each marketing channel is helping achieve this goal with relevant metrics (hint: clicks, likes and shares aren't the metrics to focus on).

4. Online + offline integration opportunities

The customer experience has changed drastically in recent years. Before the Internet we, of course, relied on television, radio and billboards to get our brand messages across. Then, with the Internet, our shift focused to paid search, SEO and social media. Now we have to consider all of these channels and how they can work together to send unified brand messages to the consumer. Especially if your business does not have eCommerce, it becomes paramount that your offline + online channels are in-sync in order to capture customers at any point in the purchase funnel. Since they are constantly inundated with marketing messages, it takes more finesse than ever. I recommend you read this article about Social TV to fully understand why marketing integration is important. You can also take a look at this white paper about media accountability.

5. Constant testing

Whether it is paid search ads, SEO tweaks to your website, blog content generation, tweeting or Facebook updates, there is a need for constant optimization. You should be assessing (ie: measuring) these efforts on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly) in order to improve performance across all initiatives. How can you be sure you're constantly optimizing? Well, you should be constantly testing. Perhaps you start small with A/B tests of email subject lines or testing the best times to tweet for audience engagement. Then you can go big with conversion optimization on your website or restructuring your AdWords campaigns to the keyword level. Whatever you decide, make sure that you are constantly testing new initiatives in order to improve your business. This will ensure that your marketing is never stale, predictable, nor all-around ineffective.

Do not ignore any of the above initiatives and you will be on your way to a more successful year.

What do you think is the greatest marketing sin of 2012 and how does your business plan to avoid it in the coming year?

Whole Foods Talks Sewer Sludge

Crisis communication from the health-centric grocery chain in response to biosolids controversy

We know more about the food on grocery shelves today than ever before because instead of buying whatever produce or meat is in front of them, consumers are asking questions and demanding answers.

The most recent stomach-turning fact brought to light by this attitude is the use of biosolids, aka 'sewage sludge' ' a literal mixture of everything dumped down the drain in homes and businesses ' as fertilizer for food crops. We learned about that first via a report from the Food Rights Network, published Dec. 18, that took Whole Foods to task for making it difficult for customers to discover whether their food was, in fact. grown in sewage sludge or not. There was not, initially, any response available online from Whole Foods.

We sent Whole Foods a message on the 19th asking for comment and shortly after received the following response, which the Whole Foods' media relations department says is being used to reply to customers who ask about the biosolids issue:

Thank you for writing to Whole Foods Market with your concerns about produce grown using biosolids as fertilizer. As you may know, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state agencies across the country heavily regulate both the production and use of biosolids as fertilizer. According to the EPA, biosolids are used on less than one percent of the nation's agricultural land. Currently, growers are not required by law to disclose whether they are using biosolids, but Whole Foods Market is looking into ways of providing customers with more information about produce growing methods than is currently available.

Consumers who want to avoid produce grown with biosolids can turn to organic produce, since biosolids are prohibited from organic food production by the National Organic Program. A good place to learn more about the current state of biosolids in the US is at the EPA website: http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/wastewater/treatment/biosolids/genqa.cfm

Not a bad response overall, but Whole Foods quite noticeably left out three of what BCM president Jonathan Bernstein calls 'The Five Tenets of Crisis Communications,' ' being prompt and expressing compassion.

The company's same-day respond to US was prompt, but in the 24 hours since the Food Rights Network published its report, Whole Foods suffered reputation damage that could have been further minimized if they had a statement already prepared on this entirely predictable issue.

Additionally, discovering that your food may have been grown in a bath of unsavory substances that includes industrial solvents and leftover prescription medicine is certain to cause a little fear and acknowledging that compassionately would have bumped up the effectiveness of Whole Food's response.

It's entirely possible for incomplete or inappropriate crisis communications to turn an otherwise-survivable crisis into an ugly situation. Take care when communicating in crisis, and keep the Five Tenets in mind.

What Will drive the Next Generation of Office Productivity?

As we usher in 2013 I'm sure one of the many things on your mind is 'where did the year go?' It seems like only yesterday when we were basking in the warmth of summer and yet here we are only days away from New Years. On to next year. We all want to be more productive, but sometimes we need a little help. Luckily Tammy Erickson in her Harvard Business Review post provides some good fodder on several resolutions worth considering.

'The logic behind productivity improvements is straightforward: make more and/or use less,' writes Erickson. While the guiding philosophy behind being more productive seems simple, it rarely ever is. Employees achieve this goal by 1) developing and adopting new management practices (such as total quality management, lean manufacturing, reengineering, and employee engagement) or 2) adopting new technology and integrating it into their work processes. Both options deliver the desired outcome. However, 'historically technology adoption has been the more important determinant of longer-term productivity and growth,' says Erickson.

There's no question that technology has helped us become more productive ' just look at all the product management tools and productivity helpers out there in existence ' but there's a catch. 'Technology adoption only improves productivity if it is accompanied by concurrent changes in the way work is done,' writes Erickson. When looking at large productivity gains made from 1980 to 2000, companies placed a huge investment in technology acquisition. 'However, research on the returns generated by these investments found that productivity growth occurred only when the technology was accompanied by thoughtful business process innovations tailored to sector ' and company-specific business processes.' In other words, technology alone does not guarantee you the desired improvements. The key is a combination of technological improvements as well as understanding how to incorporate those into key business processes.

Fast forward to today. We're seeing a new wave tools being brought to market. Instead of the information technology tools that increased employee productivity during the 1980s and 90's, we're seeing the leveraging social technologies to accomplish the new productivity gains desired. While it's easy to get swept up in something new, Erickson rightly points out that 'the ability of these technologies to drive real productivity growth will depend on whether or not they are accompanied by thoughtful changes in the way work is done.' These new tools promise many business benefits delivering 'significant improvements in generating, capturing, and sharing knowledge, finding helpful colleagues and information, tapping into new sources of innovation and expertise, and harnessing the 'wisdom of crowds.'

There no question that today's technologies have the potential to enable a very different level of business performance. Only time will tell if the key to unlocking this productivity is in the successful aligning of new technology with existing critical business processes.

Use Your Time Intelligently

Many entrepreneurs have an exciting new idea every week. There are new opportunities everywhere, and entrepreneurs are great at finding them when no one else seems to be looking. Though this can be a great asset, it can also be a detriment.

We've all heard the phrase, 'You need laser-like focus to succeed'. Though I understand the value of focusing on only one company at a time, I myself don't have the discipline or the focus to do it. There are so many amazing opportunities that I just feel the need to take the plunge and start working on a new project.

Because it's my nature, I don't try to fight it; instead, I aim to use my time intelligently.

How to use your time intelligently

To quote Michael Gerber, 'You need to work ON your company, not IN your company.' This means that when I start a new project, I look to efficiently build a platform that absolutely anyone can run with the right training manuals. This is important: I don't start a new project unless I know that I can remove myself from the equation 1 month down the line.

What does it mean to remove myself from the equation

If an entrepreneur is conducting sales, closing deals, managing employees, raising funding, building the product, or leading meetings, then the entrepreneur is inside of the equation. Ask yourself this important question, what would happen if you fired yourself from your company? If your company would die, then there is no possible way that you can remove yourself from the equation.

How to build a company that runs itself

Every startup is different. Traditional tech startups are built by developers and designers that look to raise millions of dollars in hopes to get acquired 3-5 years down the line. I know, I used to be in this game.

On the other hand, lifestyle entrepreneurs look to build a lifestyle business that generates profits from the beginning without the need to raise funding. A lifestyle business is exactly the type of business that will enable you to use your time intelligently and manage multiple projects at once.

The right team and the right systems

The most important part of using your time intelligently is the need to hire the right team. The right person on your team will be the difference between checking in on your company once a week versus checking in on your company multiple times a day.

Keep in mind, you don't necessarily need to find a co-founder. Since this is a lifestyle business, your goal is to get your company to profitability as soon as possible. Once you have profits, hire someone to manage the company for you, allowing you to use your time to start another cool and fun project.

In addition to the team, it's important to build the right systems. This means a simple training manual is all that is needed to get a person up and running at the company.

The right attitude

After 5 years in the startup game, I've come to realize that there are many different types of entrepreneurs. I won't list them all out here, but I can tell you that I now know that I am a lifestyle entrepreneur. I love diversifying my portfolio and leading projects that interest me. I love starting new projects, but I don't necessarily like managing them on a day-to-day basis because I get bored easily and a new idea will always spark my interest. Knowing this, I've tailored my startup portfolio to match my interests and attitude.

Author:

Jun Loayza is the founder of Passport Peru, a tourism-connect site that connects travelers with the best agencies in Peru. In his entrepreneurial experience, Jun has sold 2 internet companies, raised over $1,000,000 in funding, and lead social media technology campaigns for Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Levi's, LG, and Activision.

Would You Take The High Road if You Knew Your Successful Brand Sucks?

There's something interesting that happens when your business takes off, you want more.

more content.

more traffic.

more press.

more sales.

It's natural to want to optimize your success. Who wouldn't want more?

But if you're not careful, you may end up making the most dangerous branding mistake there is: falling 'off-brand'.

Check this out'

A Detour in Your New Life

Back in October, I received an email from AppSumo.

Its transparency surprised me.

I almost felt like I was on the receiving end of Jerry Maguire's manifesto, calling for a change.

AppSumo made a confession. They admitted to losing sight of their vision. Their need for 'more' caused them to slip the quality of products they were selling. Their email promised a change. They also released a YouTube Video explaining their new policy on selecting products and the problems with sending 750,000+ emails a day.

I couldn't help but wonder'

What could trigger a rapidly growing, wildly successful company to all of a sudden realize their success was causing them to fall off brand?

I came across this video The Six Steps to a Lovegasm, where AppSumo's founder shares the real story about what made him stop sending emails that didn't contain value.

' okay, it's a great video you should watch but here's the Cliff Notes:

Ross, Dress for Less.

Seriously.

Keep reading'

In a conversation with his buddy, Noah Kagan got called out big time.

His friend jokingly compared AppSumo to the bargain basement retail chain. You know the store, the one that you have to dig deep down into a bin of junk to find the one or two items that are an awesome deal. Burn!

Somehow, along the journey towards success, AppSumo took a detour in what the brand stands for.

The casual remark permeated him. So much so that a few days later when sending out an email for the latest product, he finally snapped and said, 'F*ck, no!'

There was no way he'd send another email for a crappy deal.

It was time to get back to basics.

Back to building relationships.

Back to consistency in the value they deliver.

AppSumo needed to be refreshed.

And to date, they've taken the high road. They've veered away from their former 'sell, sell, sell, more, more, more' mentality. They're back to sending emails offering products that provide 10 times the value you pay for them. Oh, and they even throw in a few unexpected freebies here and there, too.

The High Road is Hard to Find

Falling off brand can become a costly mistake, for your reputation and your bottom line.

So how do you figure out if you are heading down the wrong path?

1. Define Your Brand. Create a brand platform that is genuine to you and your vision. By clarifying what you stand for and what you are striving for, you will make better decisions in keeping on brand.
2. Listen to Your Customers. Don't be afraid of negative reviews and customer feedback. Sure, it may hurt to hear but you will never improve or grow your brand if you are not paying attention to what your customers want or expect from you.
3. Gut Check. If you find yourself not wanting to come to work, dreading calls with clients, secretly hating you're the company you've created, you are off brand. This is when you have to sit down and really think about why you are not happy or satisfied and what needs to be done to correct it.

Keep the Conversation Flowing' if your company appears to be successful, would you be able and willing to take the high road of refreshing your brand to refocus on your vision and create a more genuine experience for your customers? Which companies do you wish would refresh their brand promise?

Figure Out Exactly What Your Audience Wants

Marketing, branding, selling all boil down to figuring out what your most perfect customer wants.

Your brand is a distilled version of what your perfect customer deeply craves.

But, how the heck do you go about figuring this out. After all, it is the rare exception that a company advertises exactly what they deeply crave.

In job postings they talk about the skill set that they think will deliver them the results that they so desperately are seeking, but they rarely address the results that they want. It's the results that truly count.

When you know the results that your audience wants, you put yourself in a powerful position. (And, yes, powerful positions are key to your long-term success!)

So let's do it, together, right now.

What does my audience want, exactly?

Step One: Figure out the big picture

First thing's first, you need to figure it out at a macro level. A 30,000 foot level. If you're a sales guy, they probably want more quality sales. If you are an account, they probably want a clarity and confidence in their numbers. If you are in marketing, they probably want a bigger, better funnel. You get the idea.

I know it seems simple, but, identifying the 30k foot view is key to figuring out what they want.

Step Two: Zoom In, Way In

Now that we're clear on the high level goal, let's zoom in, start to get a feel for the details and the method they want to achieve their goals.

If you were the sales guy ' do they want to grow the customer base, increase retention, improve profitability or open up a new market? All of these (and combinations of them) can be a company's ultimate desire.

If you were the accountant, are they looking for financial direction, peace of mind, a spending gate-keeper? What is their motivation to bring someone in? What is their pain point?

If you were the marketer, are they hurting for more leads or higher quality ones? Are they losing people in their funnel or are they missing a comprehensive brand and being forgotten immediately?

Another way to do this is to look at what is going really well for the company and identify aspects that are currently underperforming. These are huge opportunities for you to make a huge impact on the goal that your audience so deeply desires.

Zoom in on the challenge.

Step Three: Focus on the How

Now that you've figured out exactly what they want, it's time to dissect the how. How, exactly do they want to achieve these outcomes.

If you were the sales guy, and they wanted high growth through new customers, do they want to achieve this through tons of cold calls? Through deep personal relationship building? Through participation at events? How do they want to achieve their goal.

The how is going to be a main driver for your brand.

Step Four: Insert YOU!

You've learned some very powerful things up to this point. You've identified the macro (CEO-level) goal, the detailed (hiring manager level) goal and the method that you can best achieve these goals.

Armed with only that information, you are 5x more likely to get hired. But, when you take it to this final step and interject yourself into the story, your results will go through the roof.

The best way to do this is to relate specific examples of personal characteristics, skills and experiences that will directly drive the results that they are seeking, in the method that will be most effective for their company.

It's all about showing the skills that the job requires. And, that, will get you hired.

Want to see more examples? There are three right here!

Author:

Rebecca Rapple has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, Keith Ferrazzi's My Greenlight and more. You can learn more about the fundamentals of a remarkable job search on her site, The Resume Revolution.

Dell's Self-inflicted Reputation Crisis

Has the onetime industry leader completely stopped caring?

Black Friday presents a great opportunity to grab new customers or bring old ones back with exciting deals. As with many opportunities, this one can also be a double-edged sword, as failure to meet expectations can lead to serious crisis management concerns. For example, Dell Computers, whose bottom line is already hurting due to the trend towards tablets and more capable smartphones, created a major reputation crisis for itself when it pulled an (allegedly) unintentional bait and switch on excited shoppers.

Here are more details, from a Huffington Post article by Catherine New:

The Austin-based PC-maker oversold its widely promoted 'doorbuster' laptop deal ' a 14-inch Inspiron 14z marked down to $299 from $599. Now, instead of canceling or delaying orders, Dell is trying to pass on a different, bigger model to customers.

In nearly two dozen emails to The Huffington Post on Wednesday, some anguished customers said Dell's delayed and minimal response to the issue prevented them from scooping up other laptop deals. Some reported losing out on cash-back deals with their credit cards after Dell switched their orders. Other customers agonized that the confusion and time spent trying to sort out their order has meant lost quality time with loved ones over the holiday.

If you'd like a glimpse of the type of negative sentiment that Dell brought out in its customer base, just have a quick look at the comments on Catherine's HuffPost article. Suffice to say, people were extremely upset and felt, understandably, that they had been duped into buying an inferior laptop by the promise of an amazing Black Friday deal, especially because it took Dell almost three full days to notify customers of the problem ' a move that many felt was designed to have them miss out on other sales.

So where's the apology from Dell? The promise to honor all purchases, even if some must be delayed? Well, apparently it's not coming. Dell simply shrugged and blamed computer problems while bringing on extra customer service reps to handle phone lines overloaded with customers futilely trying to get the product they ordered.

The bottom line here is that if Dell can't even be bothered to care about its own reputation, then losing market share to handheld devices is the least of its concerns. The company needs a change of corporate culture, and fast.

Flash Mob Marketing

We see this in social media like YouTube and in shared postings on Facebook as amusing viral videos. The positive way we usually react to such visual stimuli translates to the urge to share the experience with friends online. So much so that when we see viral videos like those featuring The Coke Happiness Truck or Banc Sabadell's Ode To Joy, we become part of a virtual flash mob. The physical world experience of being part of a flash mob, however, is so much different.

The flash mob is a mixture of performance art and street theater done by its instigators to provoke spontaneous response from a captive and unsuspecting audience. Usually staged to appear impromptu in public places, such performances hope to achieve a spur-of-the-moment blur between the performer and the spectator. A flash mob to be considered successful must involve the audience in such a way that the experience of performer and spectator is unified.

Pop beginnings

Long before the term got to be coined, 60s icon, The Beatles pulled off a publicity stunt just like the sort of flash mob marketing we see now. Back in 1968, when John, Paul, George and Ringo were in the thick of recording sessions for what would be their last studio effort, 'Abbey Road', the pop quartet rocked that busy portion of a London district via the now famous Apple rooftop gig. The morning hour gig didn't last long as the Bobbies quickly put an end to it when a mob of starstruck fans snarled traffic down below. Nevertheless, the media attention it got globe trotted its way to fan consciousness. That's why we know about it to this day.

Fast-forward to the current millennium and we still find such familiar spectacle although staged in lesser magnitude by street mime artists, musicians, and underground visual artists, in malls, parking lots, town squares, subways, mass transit stations, public parks and such other high foot traffic areas. It has become so familiar that shopping culture would never be complete without such forms of flash mob situations.

Fodder for marketing

Flash mob offers spontaneity and infectious visual and aural spectacle that captive audiences take to them almost always positively. This makes it good fodder for marketing and big business has thrown caution to flash mob to provide consumers with brand affinity. There are certain flash mob elements you need to know if you're considering staging something like this to market your brand. Take a quick look at the elements discussed below:

• Level of active spectator participation. Make sure that the way you stage your performance enjoys a high possibility rate of spectators joining in the 'fray.' It can't be considered a mob unless the crowd behaves like a mob. It must encourage willing and active participation with a strong join-in-the-fun quality to it. The Coke Happiness Truck is a perfect example of this.
• The element of surprise. A huge amount of unpredictability must accompany whatever you stage. It must come off as something done at the spur of the moment and must catch its audience in its unguarded moment. As the flash mob situation progresses, and as the crowd realizes what it has willingly participated in, the die has been cast and they can all be happy to oblige.
• Documentation and virality. Make sure that you document the flash mob from beginning to end. This will be the video material you are to post on social media. Spectators usually do some documentation themselves via smartphone video capture for subsequent sharing via MMS. Business applications like RingCentral phone systems, for example, make sharing of such marketing material doable. Observe how fast the video goes viral. This determines the success rate of whatever you have staged. The more hits on YouTube, the more brand exposure. The more shares on Facebook, the more viral success.
• High emotional content. Flash mob is meant to get attention from an initially unsuspecting audience. The higher the emotional content, the better chances of success. Happy and uplifting are operative words that must guide your flash mob ideas. Flash mob marketing success depends much on the immediacy and emotional accessibility of its content among consumers.

This article is an original contribution by Nancy Perkins.

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4 Tips to Succeed With Marketing Automation

Last month Jon Miller wrote a detailed blog post on why you need a marketing automation platform, especially if you already have a CRM system. I'm assuming that you all have gone out, selected a platform, and you're on your way to better marketing with marketing automation!

But for those of you still in the search phase, there are a few things you should consider in addition to the software platform itself.

1. Comprehensive On-Boarding and Enablement

Let's face it, with all new software there will be a learning curve. The real question is how quickly can you be up and running and really productive? When looking for a vendor, you should make sure that they provide a methodical approach that has been successful over many different customer implementations. There should be one-to-one support to get you from configuration, to sending your first email, to building your first event and beyond.

2. Access to Expert Services and Support

As you become familiar with the platform you're probably doing some targeting, you're using email effectively as a channel, and the quality of the leads you're sending to sales is much better than before. But you want to take your marketing to the next level by exploring areas such as social marketing, segmentation with dynamic content, or improving the way you work with sales to get the highest returns on your marketing efforts. Ask yourself the following questions?

• Does the vendor provide access to experts in their organization or with partners to provide you with experienced guidance, coaching, and best practices?
• Are there options to get proactive support services to drive initiatives based on your defined KPIs?
• Do you need help defining what those KPIs should be?

3. Services Delivery Framework

Marketing automation requires a process just like software development or resource management. The process makes your efforts repeatable and scalable with high quality and efficiency. It's important that in addition to giving you access to experts, the vendor provides services based on a proven delivery framework. That helps you ensure the same methodologies and best practices applied to your organization have been successful in other organizations.

4. Don't Reinvent the Wheel

If the vendor has a large and broad customer base, it's likely that others have done what you're doing'at least from a process perspective. Every organization will need to develop custom email campaigns, lead scoring processes, or lead nurturing modules based on your business needs. But why start from scratch when you don't have to? The vendor should provide you with the ability to leverage the best practices of those who have come before you through capabilities such as reference libraries with pre-built and verified modules.

Remember that it's not just about the software or the platform that will make you successful as a modern marketer. Look for capabilities and offerings that will drive you further up the maturity curve to adopt coordinated multi-channel marketing, deeply integrated sales and marketing processes,and achieve disciplined measurement of your impact on revenue.

Marketo just released some great new client services capabilities to help you succeed with marketing automation.

Check out Marketo's Customer Testimonial video here to find out how our client services capabilities have helped our customers!

Establishing Your Perceived Value

While most marketing principles of days gone by are just as valid for online businesses, there are a few that have taken on an increased importance in this Internet Age. Signs, flyers and billboards were intended to attract attention and inspire interest ' not to actually sell.

In old school marketing, consumers were enticed to take a closer look at a product, but it wasn't always the case that a customer would walk into a brick & mortar with cash in hand, their decision already firm. They wanted to see, to feel, to touch the product ' they had to feel that they could trust the product to meet their expectations. And they wanted to get a feel for the person selling them that product ' to decide whether they could trust them to live up to their promises.

When they found someone they trusted to deliver real value for their dollar, they returned. They recommended them to their friends. They were loyal.

When you think about it, it's really rather amazing that consumers have so readily adapted to buying products without seeing them first. Judging quality and overall value by an image and a product description, after all, isn't as certain as actually holding it in your hand.

Perhaps more importantly, the lack of face-to-face contact with a sales person removes a critical element from the decision process. The ability to 'read' the credibility and sincerity of the seller, for many, was the deciding factor. With the advent of online buying, that ability was removed.

Or was it?

Building Value

There are many ways that a business can build trust with consumers, even without the warm smile and firm handshake that Dale Carnegie rightfully touted as so critical. People are still affected by the same signals of reliability and honesty as always' those are just now coming via a website, rather than from a flesh-and-blood salesman.

Think about it' what traits make a positive impression on you when you're talking face-to-face with a salesperson? Here's a few common ones, to start with:

• Knowledge ' the representative must possess the necessary knowledge of the product and its use to be able to address all your questions and concerns. They have to be able to effectively allay your fears regarding safety, ease of use, warranty issues, cost comparison, durability, etc. ' in other words, they can show you the value.
• Service ' they must be able to make you feel as though it is your satisfaction that is most important to them, both at that moment and after the sale' and that they are able and willing to do what it takes to ensure that satisfaction.
• Credibility/Sincerity ' the perception of sincerity is built through friendliness, eye contact, openness in sharing both pros & cons, and a perception that their driving interest is to provide you with the product that will best satisfy your needs, not whatever will help fulfill a sales quota.

Obviously, that's not a comprehensive list' but it covers the most important traits that make most of us comfortable with a person we're about to hand our money to.

So' how do you convey those characteristics when you're essentially invisible? Surprisingly, it's not as difficult as you might think. Here are a few tips:

Knowledge ' Make all the necessary information to answer any probable questions available and easily located. Cost comparisons are useful ' including not only the purchase cost, but also costs of operation, supplies and service, if applicable. Safety considerations should be made clear prior to purchase, as should warranty and exchange terms. A set of clear instructions on the product's use can sometimes be of value in helping prospective buyers make a decision. Product specifications, weight, dimensions, power requirements' these can all answer concerns that might be making a buyer hesitate. The days of peddling a Mystery package are long gone.

Transparency is the key here' if you're not sharing the information that a particular visitor is looking for, you may lose them to a competitor that does. People that can't find information that they feel is important may wonder why it's not being shared. Never let customers wonder if you're hiding something from them.

Service ' This can be somewhat subjective, to be honest. Some buyers like being led by the hand through the entire process and others just want to be left alone and shown the bottom line. What I like to do is to provide them that bottom line, with the high points, then a link. Too much information for users that don't need/want it often clouds their real issues, making it harder for them to click that BUY NOW button.

Giving the impression to each user that they are your most important customer is an age-old marketing skill, and it's just as valid in the online world. You can accomplish this via your copywriting, near-instant response to emails or contact form and an exemplary live chat experience. Effective customer service begins at first contact and will often be the most lasting impression a business can make. Make certain it's the right one.

Credibility/Sincerity ' This is probably the most difficult, since online, we're not able to use a warm smile, firm handshake and direct eye contact to instill trust. But there are ways to convey those e-traits. My favorite is to not try to sell to the customer. That's right! NOT sell. I let the product and its benefits do the selling, but gently. Putting the right information in front of the customer and letting him convince himself has seemed to me to be the most effective technique, overall. Many people immediately put up a wall of resistance to any effort to sell them something ' adding to that resistance probably shouldn't be a part of your strategy.

Everyone, of course, may not prefer such a low-pressure technique, but regardless of your style, be honest and straightforward, answer questions clearly, if your business has made a mistake, own up to it and immediately ask what you can do to make things right and finally, be consistent. Those are probably the most important behaviors I would recommend to convey credibility and sincerity.

Focusing on the above three elements can help you achieve the trust of your prospects and turn them into customers. How you treat them after their money is in your hand will determine whether they'll return to buy from you again and whether they'll send others to you.

Regardless of the product you're offering or even its price, these three aspects of your online style will improve your customers' perception of your value. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, 'Yeah, they're a little more expensive, but their [insert "quality", "service" or "warranty" here] is great!'

Of course, the flip side of that can be, 'Yeah, their widget is cheap and it works, but their [insert "quality", "service" or "warranty" here] sucks!'

And none of us want to be on the flip side, right?

Doc Sheldon retired from his business management consultancy in 2008 and became a perpetual student of all things SEO. He began providing professional webcopy to a worldwide array of clients, and has been actively involved in SEO for over five years, and writing professionally for nearly forty.

Emails Reach Their Best Results In the 1st Hour [Infographic]

Every company, every industry, and even every department in a single company can have different results. If you want to truly want to know how to get the best from your marketing, then you need to make testing a priority. Don't rely solely on industry best practices, but instead come up with your own. That being said, below is some interesting information for email marketers.

According research by GetResponse, a complete email marketing solution, emails have the highest open rates and click thru rates within the first hour of being delivered in the subscriber's inbox. This is important because we know as marketers that the more people who see our email messages, the more will convert to paying customers.

The obvious next question is 'How do I maximize that hour by choosing the right time to send it?' According to the infographic below, the top engagement times are 8 a.m to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sending during these times could increase your open rate by as much as 6%.

That being said, there are other important questions to ask. 'What are your competitors doing?' 'What happens if everyone sends at 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.?' The research shows that 38.7% of all messages are sent between 6 a.m. and noon. If you want to reach your customers then maybe test out sending it in the afternoon before they head home for the day.

Best Time To Send Email [INFOGRAPHIC]

Infographic by GetResponse

If New Companies Drive the Economy, Why Don't Marketers Get More Involved?

[Click on charts to enlarge]

Small and mid-sized companies are the engines of economic growth ' they generate two-thirds of new jobs.  They also drive innovation, accounting for thirteen times as many patents per employee than large companies.

Yet policies and eco-structures benefit large corporations.  Large corporations get generous loans at low interest rates, favorable tax treatment, easy hiring, lower prices from vendors, more eager job applicants, and beneficial financial markets.  Small companies, in particular ' most of them young ' find it almost impossible to get funding, employees, or government help. The Venture Capital system is quite inefficient and navigating the seas of government grants is intimidating for a small company.  Half of all successful start-ups in Silicon Valley were founded by people who were born outside the US, but we make it difficult for entrepreneurs and the qualified employees they need to enter the US to work.

Small business gets more patents than large companies.  A study by the SBA found that in green technologies alone, small companies had sixteen times more patents per employee than large companies.  So small companies outperform large companies in innovation and growth.  Yet, marketers are less involved in small business than in large business.

Marketers too often assume that the most sophisticated marketing occurs only in large companies.  Yet in smaller companies, where efforts are directly linked to achievement and budgets are tight, a marketer can have much more impact ' or be exposed as having none!  The fact is, of course, that this is an area where marketers can not only get a lot of self-satisfaction but also make money.

Given the short duration of many marketing positions, any marketer can be fairly confident that their careers are not completely under their control.  Equally, many have the self-knowledge to recognize that they are not going to start a company nor be self-employed consultants.  Joining a small company may be a good solution as long as they have had earlier experience working in lean environments.

Unfortunately, many people do not know how to find small companies.  The best way is very much through networking.  Most parts of the country have an eco-system that is geared to small companies.  The most innovative ones may cluster, at least virtually, around Universities, Incubators, state government grant offices, and such. There may well be local 'meet-up' events.  I have seen these in every city where I have lived.

Marketers need to remember, though, that these companies are even more focused than large companies on what you can do for them. A hiring mistake may mean the hiring manager not eating!  Helping a small growing company is a challenging path, but safer than starting a company.  I have seen a large number of people become extremely wealthy through starting in small companies. This is not centered on any one industry.  Friends have become wealthy in businesses as diverse as food or high-tech.

7 Ways to Keep Your Subject Matter Experts Feeding the Content Machine

If your company has established a blog, a few social media accounts or perhaps an independent thought leadership platform, then you have a group of employees contributing content on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. To keep the content flowing, they need to be supported as best they can.

Like any good editor-in-chief, the team leader for producing interesting and relevant content, needs to keep subject matter experts and key contributors motivated.

Content contributors are a valuable link for attracting future customers and sales and are worth engaging, supporting and motivating to the best of your ability. Here are 7 things that can be done to keep some of the content drivers, namely the subject matter experts, motivated.

1. Keep them informed

Provide magazine subscriptions: depending on your industry, signing up content contributors to relevant (or semi-relevant) publications keeps them up-to-date on issues and will help inspire possible article ideas.

Set up high quality NewsReader: Help your content contributors stay on top by developing a refined industry news feed for them to monitor daily or weekly for inspiration. Or make it even easier assign someone to monitor the feed and send relevant articles to your subject matter experts to keep them free to do what they do best ' think (and write).

2. Create a fun environment

Writing content is an additional work task people are taking on, so make it a bit official by giving them additional/fun job titles like 'Engineer-in-Chief' or 'Geek Editor' and provide profiles on the website so audiences know a bit about the people behind the articles. In this way your subject matter experts are rewarded with greater visibility for their efforts and it will be easier for people to develop a deeper connection to your site.

3. Let outsiders help

Continuously thinking of new article topics can be tough; let readers help out by having an 'Idea Drop Box' on your website where they can request articles. If you feature profiles of key content contributors spelling out their areas of expertise readers will also be able to ask them better and more targeted questions.

4. Introduce a bit of competition

If you have a group of content contributors, rank their level of activity with a 'This Week's Top Contributors' box on the site.

5. Provide examples

Providing good content to your industry without it sounding like propaganda can be tough after decades of such practice. Show examples from other industries where useful and relevant content is being provided to a sector. This should act as a sort of base mark to aspire to (and later surpass).

6. Quantity can also be good

In the busy twittersphere, sometimes more is MORE. To be seen and heard a good number of tweets should be sent (while remaining relevant, and not becoming SPAM). One way to encourage this could be by having a commission per tweet or re-tweet policy.

7. Idea flow

Consistently providing new articles will not likely be top priority for most subject matter experts acting as content contributors. An option is to hold quarterly meetings with all important stakeholders and brainstorm as many relevant areas of interest of article subjects. As well as having a sexy Excel spreadsheet outlining article ideas for the next 3 months, the team leader can send SMS reminders to content providers to help them on their way.

Some of these ideas may apply to your set up, while others won't. The important thing is to ensure that the flow of articles doesn't dwindle over time and get de-prioritised when other tasks come up ' there's nothing worse than a website with articles written months ago and nothing new to keep visitors coming back!

Taking the first step of establishing content channels is just as vital as planning for a consistent and reliable flow of content that will engage your community and build your company's brand and reputation. To quote Jonathan Winch 'in these same pages', the online environment 'demands credibility over propaganda, and expert knowledge and advice over marketing speak' ' supporting and encouraging your experts to write sets you on the right path.

What is your secret tip to keeping content creators and experts motivated? Share your advice in the comments.

Case Study: The FeedBlitz Migration Campaign

FeedBlitz is an RSS to email service that monitors RSS feeds to improve the reach that feed publishers can achieve and provide them with options for monetising their blogs. Creative Agency Secrets has been working with the team at FeedBlitz since 2011.

FeedBurner migration guide by FeedBlitzFeedBurner migration guide by FeedBlitz

The service allows website owners to easily take content from their blog, customise it and deliver it to their audience via feed, in email or using a channel of the recipient's choice such as Twitter DM, Linked In and other social channels. The main source of competition for FeedBlitz is a free service, owned by Google called FeedBurner. Going up against Google isn't a small task, it's David against Goliath.

However, the FeedBurner service has been neglected by Google and as a result we began to specifically target FeedBurner users in an attempt to get them to migrate to FeedBlitz. Here's how the campaign went

FeedBurner Migration Campaign

The migration campaign was designed to encourage high profile bloggers to switch their feeds from FeedBurner to FeedBlitz. As well as achieving this migration, we also wanted them to tell their readership about the migration and the benefits they had experienced from switching providers.

Blogger Outreach

The idea here was to reach out directly to top bloggers who were using FeedBurner to serve their feeds and deliver RSS by email. By using lists of Top Bloggers such as the AdAge Power 150 list we were able to research high profile bloggers who were not yet Feedblitz customers. There were two goals for this element of the campaign.

1. To reach out to bloggers using FeedBurner to serve both their feed and email subscriptions so that they convert to FeedBlitz. We went about this by approaching them via email and Twitter with the facts about the FeedBurner outage. This was to bring it to their attention and to hopefully get them to at least consider what their position would be if the FeedBurner service was axed.

2. The second aspect was to ask for guest posts on their blog. We offered to write guest posts for them outlining the FeedBurner situation and what their readers should plan to do if their feed was affected. Or alternately if they had migrated to FeedBlitz, we asked them to share their experience migrating on their blog themselves. The idea behind this was to increase the reach of the message, in order to encourage even more bloggers to think about their situation and consider switching to FeedBlitz.

Forums and Twitter

By performing keyword searches on Twitter and monitoring tech forums and blogs we kept ourselves up to date with what was happening with FeedBurner situation. In addition to this we were able to engage with anyone who voiced their concerns with the FeedBurner outage. We were able to inform people what was happening and give them recommendations to help keep their subscriber lists safe. This effort to address concerns of users also helped to showcase the fact that FeedBlitz provides proactive support for their services, whereas FeedBurner doesn't.

The Results

When Feedburner experienced a 5 day metrics outage near the end of August 2012, the efforts of the Creative Agency Secrets team were clearly highlighted in the subsequent month as bloggers wrote about the situation.

The online buzz that we had been generating through this outreach campaign can be seen in the Alexa traffic statistics from when the metrics failed. There is a sharp increase in traffic to the FeedBlitz website over this period, which correlated with a significant increase in FeedBlitz new customer signups. While the traffic has reduced since that spike, it is still higher than it was before the campaign, and the amount of new signups to FeedBlitz' service remains steady.

The Definitive Guide to Event Marketing: How to Kill it With Events in 2013

There is always so much going on around the Holidays! Your weekends are packed with parties and at work you are trying to get everything done before the New Year. And like most marketers, you are trying to determine what your 2013 event schedule will look like, and plan your accompanying strategy.

We know that on average, marketers spend 20% of their marketing budget on events, which is a sizeable amount. Events provide a unique opportunity for lead generation, branding, customer and prospect engagement, and educating attendees. There are not many other tactics in a marketer's toolbox that can deliver the same impact as an event.

But how do you promote, plan, and execute your events so that they are flawless and hit all of the right notes? Luckily, Marketo has put together a 120 page guide to help you create a killer event plan for 2013 and beyond. The Definitive Guide to Event Marketing includes information on everything events, and provides you with worksheets, templates, and checklists to start planning.

But to get your started, let's talk about some basics to consider when planning your first 2013 trade show or conference.

Choose the right event technology.

Event technology can help you host successful events and ensure that your events go smoothly. Whether you are deciding on a webinar platform or figuring out what technology can help you streamline event registration, you can choose from many applications. Before you decide what event technology to invest in, determine what sort of events you are planning on participating in. Are you going to be hosting regular webinars? Will you put on a virtual event? Do you do a lot of trade shows? How are you planning on promoting your event?

Create a multi-touch promotional plan.

By communicating with your audience early and often leading up to the event, you will have a better turnout as your event will be top of mind for your attendees. Successful event promotion will consist of a series of touches that may include press releases, emails, direct mail, and call downs. Remember to take into consideration what sort of event you are hosting when determining the promotional tactics that will draw in prospects or customers. Promotions for webinars and online events will often rely on emails, while those for offline events may take more of a multi-touch approach.

Create a solid event strategy.

A large part of the planning process is determining your event goals and strategy. This is the time where you can discuss what you want to get out of the event. By answering a few simple questions, you can start piecing together your event structure:

• What is your objective for this event?
• What type of event will best meet this objective?
• Who will you invite to the event?
• What is the proposed location of the event?
• What is the look and feel of the event?

  

Plan, plan, and plan some more.

There is a lot that goes into an event. So whether virtual or in person, spend a good amount of time getting organized. And remember, always have a plan A, B, C, and D! Here are some critical logistics that you want to keep in mind when planning an event:

• Create a detailed schedule of every day including locations, times, and staff
• Assign an event manager to be your point person throughout the day
• Create a cohesive event look and feel
• Include games, interactive activities, or giveaways to drive traffic to your event
• Make sure you have a timely email followup in place

The follow up is just as important, if not more important than the initial promotion.

Making sure of proper event follow-up will set you apart from the competition and keep you fresh in the minds of your prospects. Always plan your follow-up strategy before the event begins ' email follow-ups should all be written and designed, offers should be decided on, and any other call-downs should already be planned.

Plan your event ROI from the outset, and continue measuring ROI after the event.

ROI is not just something to consider after the event; you have plan for ROI from the beginning. Because events can result in numerous outcomes, you will likely need to measure ' and improve upon ' many areas. This very fact can make it tricky to measure the ROI of events since they serve multiple purposes such as lead generation, pipeline acceleration, deepening customer relationships, etc. Determine which goals you are trying to achieve and what should you optimize for.

We recognize that events may be one of the most complicated programs for you to pull off. But keep our Definitive Guide to Event Marketing handy and you'll sail through your checklist in no time. You'll better handle everything from planning and execution to measuring the results of your event marketing ' and making changes that help you get more from each future event.

Marketing In Real-Time ' The New Trading Room Floor

I vividly remember a lunch with my friend, David Meerman Scott ' author, digital, speaker extraordinaire and recovering CMO. At the time, David was working out some ideas for his soon-to-be best-seller Real-Time Marketing & PR and I was chief marketing officer at Eloqua. Together, over some delicious chicken vindaloo and naan at David's favorite Indian restaurant, we riffed on the future of marketing.

We imagined a fantasy world where marketers were surrounded by screens overflowing with real-time data. Marketers' offices resembled trading room floors.

David's vision was influenced by his first job ' on the trading floor of a Wall Street investment bank in the 1980s. In that world, David saw first-hand how technology enabled real-time trading where instant information triggered split-second decisions. Traders crawled through data, news, and even weather forecasts to gain an edge. Any edge. They were poised and ready to pounce with big bets, based on real-time information, when the moment was right.

My own real-time vision had been shaped by my years as CMO at Eloqua, helping to build marketing dashboards for CMOs just like me. Real-time marketing was just getting started in 2009. There were just some early social media dashboards, CRM and Google alerts. Frankly, those early efforts at real-time dashboards were dwarfed by countless marketing Powerpoints and never-read marketing plans.

As David likes to say, 'What counts today is speed and agility.' I'm here to tell you that the 'fantasy world' David and I discussed has now become very real for many marketers. Including me!

Here's a picture of me at my desk at Lattice Engines, a Big Data software company. Take a look at the screens behind me.

Marketing data is crawling across the screens behind me in real time ' campaigns, pipeline, conversion rates, web traffic, social media and more. The dashboards answer questions like:

• What was the unsubscribe rate from that new campaign?
• Which version of the email performed better ' the one with the orange button or the blue button?
• What deals are stuck in the pipeline for more than 60 days?
• Which reps had the lowest win rates this year to date?
• Is Twitter sentiment for our brand trending up or down?
• What % of our customers at Dell are using Lattice right now? How does this compare to yesterday, last week or last month?
• How many unique visitors came to our site today? Where did they come from?

Wall Street trading floors have changed a lot since David first worked there in the 1980s, particularly with the emergence of 'algorithmic trading.' Algorithmic trading determines the specifics of the order ' timing, price, and quantity of the trade. In many cases, trades are executed without human intervention.

In 2001 IBM published a paper demonstrating that algorithmic strategies could consistently out-perform human traders. The IBM team wrote that the financial impact ''might be measured in billions of dollars annually.' Traders can no longer keep up with all that is knowable about a company or market. Wall Street has hired 'quants' to write algorithms that crawl through the data, figure out what trade to do next, and then execute it. The value on Wall Street has passed from the traders to the quants.

More recently, Watson, the supercomputer, proved that he could beat the best player in the world at Jeopardy!. Ken Jennings, the most successful human contestant in the game's history, acknowledged his loss to Watson with a written response to the tournament's final question: 'I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.'

Alas, my real-time marketing world is without algorithms. There are no bots to crawl through my data. I have to do that. I do not (yet) have a data scientist on my marketing team to write algorithms and execute my next brilliant marketing action ' launch a campaign, alter a PPC bid, change the size of a button on the website. I have to do that.

It is not a question of 'if', but 'when' algorithmic marketing emerges. Just as the quants on Wall Street and Watson on Jeopardy! came calling, the future for real-time marketing is software that harnesses the power of Big Data to deliver better marketing in real-time.

'There is no point in collecting and storing all this data if the algorithms are not able to find useful patterns and insights in the data,' says Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist at Cornell University. 'But the software is scaling up to the task.'

Information Overload: Your Frenemy for the New Year

As Abraham Lincoln said 'I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.' Frenemy number one for many public relations and marketing professionals today is 'information overload.' A recent survey (PDF file link) of 4,500 of PR professionals across 23 countries ranked 'the speed and volume of information flow' as the most important issue in the field.

We all feel bombarded by information and the rapidity with which platforms change. It's stressing us out. While information creation has always been our responsibility, as we grow and things change, we must embrace the role of information detective for our organization to be successful. We need to check out all potential sources of information, listen and put our energy against the hottest leads that are most likely to lead us to our targets.

The report from The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations noted that communication leaders 'must increasingly be able to identify what is and what isn't important in the torrent of global information flow. They must then translate, communicate and activate that information inside their organizations.' The report goes onto say that most organizations aren't hiring new resources/people to help communicators with information overload; they are relying on existing staff to develop new skills, improve process and use new technologies to better manage information flow.

How can you embrace the enemy to become a better professional and leader? I've struggled with it myself over the years; here are a few things that have helped me better manage information:

• Audit the decision-makers. In many organizations, the C-suite and other key decision makers often have a lack of information or poor information about how marketing and PR strategies impact the business. Take the time to understand what kind of information matters to them and then re-focus your data-seeking and data-reporting efforts there. If you don't have direct access to the C-suite, quiz your boss or direct client about their directive. If you aren't getting good direction, asking very strategically focused questions to force decisions can help set you on the right path to prioritize.

• Challenge yourself to test a new tool every month. The vast array of technology options to help you do your job better is mind blowing. It feels like there is a new list of 'must have social media tools' every month ' from centralizing monitoring to automating updates to better analyzing effectiveness. Fight the feeling of wanting to curl up in a ball on the floor. Tackle one thing at time. Go back to your audit ' what kind of information will get the most attention? Or what is stressing you out that could be simplified? Start there. How do you decide what tools to test? They don't have to be the newest tools on the market; just new to you. I usually look around at what some of the social/digital leaders are personally using and recommending and ask colleagues/peers for their opinions.

For example, my latest experiment has been with buffer. I like sharing interesting content via Twitter, but I was pretty sporadic in sharing a bundle of articles all at once when I caught up on reading, and then would go silent again until the next catch-up. I wanted to find a tool that would free me to spend more time listening vs. sending out updates when I'm on Twitter and to be more consistent. I looked at the accounts of a few people I admire and noticed that Jay Baer uses/invests in buffer, so that sold me. I'm a big fan of it now as well after trying it for the past month or so.

• Create your own system with the end goal in mind. You can easily bury yourself in endless reports, analytics, news alerts and the like ' and so can the rest of your team. If you haven't yet, assign everyone on your team a specific role when it comes to processing/gathering information to eliminate duplication and agree on a reporting system that delivers meaningful data. If you're not sure what kind of end data will stick with the 'ultimate boss,' find an advocate who knows them well with whom you can test things; know that you'll do more tweaking and improving with each subsequent report. Establishing a process and empowering others to help can alleviate a massive amount of stress. Want an example of how the big boys do it? You can read more here about how McDonald's, one of the most talked about brands in the world, manages millions of social media mentions each month.

One of the key advantages you see in successful leaders is their ability to conquer information overload. They have a vision and are able to use it to prioritize what is most meaningful, and then ferret out the answers that will give them/their organizations the advantage.

How do you combat/embrace information overload?

6 Content Marketing Strategies Learned from The Hobbit

How a little-known English professor became a literary legend

'The Hobbit' website

As unbelievable as it sounds, it all started with a blank piece of paper, a moment of sudden inspiration, and one sentence jotted down onto that paper.

It all happened one day in the early 1930s.

At this point in time, a little-known Oxford professor was in the middle of creating School Certificate papers when he came across the blank piece of paper and was hit with inspiration. Little did he know that that one sentence would change his life, and the literary world, forever.

What was the sentence? 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'

That simple sentence sparked the idea for a story. A story that would be completed in late 1932. The finished manuscript was passed on to a few friends, one of them being another unknown young man at the time, C.S. Lewis.

The manuscript kept passing hands until it finally ended up in the hands of one of the professor's students whose name was Elaine Griffiths. By this point in time it was 1936, and Elaine Griffiths was visited by Susan Dagnall, who was a staff member of a publishing house called George Allen & Unwin. It's reported that Elaine either lent Susan the manuscript or suggested she borrow it from the professor.

However it happened, Susan ended up reading the manuscript and was very impressed by the story that had developed. She was so impressed with it that she showed the book to British publisher, Stanley Unwin. He decided to get a second opinion: He asked his 10-year-old son Rayner to take a look at it. Needless to say, Rayner really liked it.

And the rest is history. Allen & Unwin decided to publish the professor's book and, of course, the name of the book was 'The Hobbit' (also known as 'There and Back Again'). The professor's name was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, now known the world over as J. R. R. Tolkien.

The book would go on to be one of the most popular books of all time. Tolkien would later write a sequel, 'The Lord of the Rings.' And, unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that they just released a new movie of 'The Hobbit.'

I first heard of the movie something like six months ago, and I couldn't believe they were promoting so far ahead of its release. And that got me thinking: 'The movie industry really knows how to build momentum for their movies and they use many different types of content marketing to promote their movies.'

Because of this, I then wondered, 'What lessons can we as content marketers learn from 'The Hobbit' movie launch, and movie launch strategies in general?'

Today I want to begin revealing to you the lessons I've uncovered for content marketers.

Create some video teasers to promote your product or services

The trailer is usually the first chance the movie studios have to promote a film to its target audience. The idea is to give the audience a teaser of the story, the special effects, the laughs, thrills and chills, etc., that will take place in the movie.

'The Hobbit' movie trailer started showing way back in January of this year. That's almost a year before the movie was released!

There are two lessons content marketers can learn from this:

1. We need to think much farther ahead with our content marketing strategies. Studios have learned about the importance of building buzz and momentum. We need to do the same.

This has really been one of the keys to success for the 'product launch formula' made popular by Jeff Walker. It's since been overused, but the idea of building momentum is still very important for us to remember as content marketers.

2. We need to consider the power of teasers and free samples, which is really what a movie trailer is. The great advertising pioneer, Claude C. Hopkins, said this about the power of samples:

'The hardest struggle of my life has been to educate advertisers in the use of samples, or to trials of some kind. They would not think of sending out a salesman without samples. But they will spend fortunes on advertising to urge people to buy without seeing or testing. Some say that samples cost too much. Some argue that repeaters will ask for them again and again. But persuasion alone is vastly more expensive.'

Are you doubtful trailers can be used to promote things other than movies?

Best-selling author Timothy Ferriss has used trailers to promote two of his books: 'The 4-Hour Body' and 'The 4-Hour Chef' (below).

And if you're wondering how effective his trailers are, this video currently has 1.4 million views.

As content marketers, we need to think of the videos that we create more as trailers than advertisements. And we also need to remember that they are only one small part of the whole strategy.

The point of the content we create for a trailer is not to sell. It's just to whet audience members' appetites. Don't try to accomplish more than that with them.

Let's look at another strategy that the studios use:

Create a teaser website that promotes your product or service

Now you might think that this is so basic that it doesn't need to be mentioned. But you would be wrong. The websites that the studios create are different than those that most of us as content marketers would normally create.

I think the two key differences are:

1. The website is focused on giving people tools to help them remember the movie. They do that by offering things such as ringtones and screen savers.

2. The website is focused on giving people tools to help spread the word. They also do this using tools such as ringtones and trailers. (I mentioned ringtones twice because they can be used to remind both the person who possesses it and the one who hears it.)

When the studios first put up a website, they aren't focused on selling tickets (yet). They are focused on helping you remember the movie and spread the word.

How does the Hobbit website offer content that helps people to remember and spread the word?

The website offers many cool features to achieve this goal, such as:

• A wallpaper generator: a tool that allows fans to customize their own desktops and mobile screens, and even create Facebook covers and profile images
• 'Dwarf Combat Training:' a fun game where you can 'master battle skills to defeat treacherous foes'
• 'Join the Company:' a way for you to use your webcam to transform yourself into a member of 'the company'
• iOS app: an iPhone and iPad app that allows fans to experience the epic adventure of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.' They can learn 'about Bilbo Baggins' quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor and the band of 13 dwarves that join him and Gandalf the Grey as they embark across the wastelands around the Lonely Mountain through exclusive artwork, interactive character galleries, and production videos presented by director Peter Jackson.'
• 'Riddles in the Dark:' a separate website/app where fans can attempt to answer some of Gollum's riddles or create their own
• 'Recipes from Middle-Earth:' a separate website/app where fans can learn authentic 'Middle-Earth recipes'
• Plus more of the traditional types of tools such as downloads, videos, and pictures.

Do you see how so many of these things are provided to cause you to remember the movie or want to share it with your friends?

Now, can or should any company do every one of these types of features?

No, of course not.

But why couldn't you create some free apps or a way for people to easily spread the word on Facebook? And in some industries, why couldn't you create some interaction apps to engage people?

Most importantly, the general idea of creating a site that helps your product or service to be easily remembered and shared can and should be a strategy used by all companies.

Encourage content to be created by other media outlets

The studios do everything they can to get as much early positive press coverage as possible in magazines and on entertainment shows. The main tactic they use is something called a 'press junket.' A press junket is an event where journalists, entertainment reporters, and movie critics are flown to a special location for a day or weekend of interviews with the stars and creators of the film.

Many of us content marketers are so focused on the idea of creating content to market our products or services that we forget a very important tool in content marketing: content created by others. We don't think about the importance and need for others to create content for us and about our products and services.

Here is just some of the media coverage that the filmmakers of 'The Hobbit' have gotten:

'Return of the Ring! The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey: Inside the Making of the New Epic Trilogy' ' Entertainment Weekly
The cover story features exclusive preview content about the movie.

'A house fit for a Hobbit' (Video) ' CNN Money
This video features one man who is such a fan he had a house built like a hobbit's house.

10 reasons we still love J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' ' USAToday
They reveal 10 reasons they're still hooked on 'The Hobbit' even as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.

'Hobbit' costume designer Ann Maskrey's favorite look? Radagast ' LA Times
This features an interview with Britain-based designer Ann Maskrey, who had the job of creating costumes for all the characters in 'The Hobbit.'

The studios know a fact that we sometimes forget as content marketers: There is much more credibility given to what is said about your products or services by others as opposed to when it is said by you.

Am I suggesting that every company can get major news coverage like this? No, I am not. But in every industry there are smaller, lesser-known publications that are in constant need of content.

As content marketers we must remember this and help them solve this problem by giving them content, and suggestions for content, that directly or indirectly feature the products or services we want to promote.

Why couldn't you do a virtual 'press junket' (by webinar) for the niche media outlets in your industry?

The first six lessons to remember

As you can see from these examples, the movie studios have developed a really powerful and strategic process for promoting their products.

It's a strategy that can really help us as content marketers to work more 'out of the box' and break out of ruts we usually work in.

These are the six key lessons for you to remember from these strategies:

• We need to begin our content promotions much earlier to create momentum.
• We must include teasers and samples to whet our prospects' appetites.
• We must create content that helps people to remember our product or service.
• We must create content that engages people and encourages them to interact with our products or services.
• We must create content that encourages and gives people the tools to spread the word about our products or services.
• We must encourage and help other media outlets within our industry to produce content about our products or services to give more credibility to our efforts.

Want more strategy examples from marketers who are using content for powerful promotions? Read CMI's 'Ultimate eBook: 100 Content Marketing Examples.'

Building Business Relationships' One Birthday at a Time

I will start this post by saying that this is not a jab at technology nor is it a rant on how business is being conducted today. Promise!

Over the last 5 years the way business is being conducted has changed significantly. Technology has made business accelerate at warp speed' resulting in many of us being strapped for time, overwhelmed and at wit's end on how to meet expectations. We now have less time available for face-to-face meetings with clients and our vendor/partners. As emails have become the preferred way of business communications, phone calls are a thing of the past! I'm sure you'll agree that calling anyone that actually picks up the phone, let alone a prospective client is like winning the lottery!

However, regardless of how the day-to-day business is being managed, ultimately relationships and the building of them is the key to any successful business. Through the years we at 3H, have noticed that quality time spent with clients is at a premium; it has increasingly become more difficult to get our clients and potential clients out for lunch, coffee or even a drink after work. That left us with the challenge of how to nurture and cultivate our relationships with our clients and even some potential clients.

Our approach was really a simply one, and one that was very natural ' at least for me. You see I love birthdays. Actually, I love celebrating birthdays (I must admit I love celebrating my birthday most of all!). So every year for the last few years, an annual mandate for the 3H creative and design team is to develop, create and design a birthday card theme that would be carried throughout the year. These cards never go unnoticed. In fact, many who are on the receiving end of our birthday cards are quite touched by the thoughtfulness and are surprised that we remembered them on their birthday.

The irony doesn't escape me either! A birthday card sent by mail is really a very traditional and low tech approach in business relationship building'. but I must say, it has garnered strong relationships for us. It has been the perfect blend of marketing, design and sales! The cards are all created and designed by the 3H creative team, allowing us to showcase our design and conceptual services. Our cards, of course, are very branded ' all are purple and titanium. This not only builds the recognition of the 3H brand' it also illustrates to clients that we are effective brand builders.

Some of the concepts we've tackled were: Colorology, Destiny Number, Name Letter Profile, Birth Date numerology. Last year the 3H birthday card featured the Celtic Leaf Profile. The cards we send out are all created and designed by the 3H creative team. Each card is personalized. You can see these on our Pinterest Birthday Board. Feel free to download them and read about your Celtic Leaf Profile. It's really quite accurate!

I'll like to end this post by another heartfelt, low-tech message: Happy Holidays to one and all!

Kentucky Fried Crisis

Poorly chosen spokesmen create crisis management scenario

Every time an organization chooses a celebrity spokesperson it runs a risk of reputation damage due to that person's words or actions. A formerly-golden celeb can become a detriment to your reputation overnight (think Lance Armstrong), but typically thorough research will eliminate candidates that simply won't work.

Of course, sometimes there's a situation where you can tell someone simply didn't do the legwork before making a decision. Our overseas colleague Tony Jaques brought just such a case to our attention in which, in his words, the irony is simply 'delicious.'

Here's the rundown, from a Mumbrella article:

KFC's summer campaign has been hit by the awkward revelation that one of its new brand ambassadors is a supporter of vegetarianism.

The campaign, revealed yesterday by Mumbrella, is fronted by the Madden brothers Joel and Benji from punk-pop band Good Charlotte. The band has previously been linked with demos carried out against KFC by animal rights group PETA.

And a video interview with Benji Madden uploaded to YouTube in 2009 features him saying: 'I had no idea. I was one of those people going 'Why are you vegetarian, that's stupid' all of a sudden I realised what I was going on. I was, like, wow, sign me up.'

Thanks to some less-than stellar research, KFC is getting its spokesperson with a large side of embarrassment. Not only did Internet sleuths turn up Benji Madden's past within hours, but the always-vocal PETA also jumped in to make sure the word was spread.

Not all of crisis management is speaking to the press and making waves on social media. As this case demonstrates, neglecting to set a strong foundation through research and planning is asking for trouble.

Internet Marketing: Looking Ahead to 2013

As 2012 draws to a close, it is a good time to review your recent Internet marketing efforts and consider what additions (as well as subtractions) you plan for 2013.

One area to consider is Pinterest:

If you are not already on this photo sharing site, I recommend you start now. What is important about Pinterest is that, if you 'pin' a photo from a blog post of yours, the link to the post is included in the pin.

Facebook and its ongoing changes:

You can now pay $7 to promote an update on your personal Facebook profile as well as paying different amounts to promote a post on a Facebook Page if you have a certain number of people who have 'liked' that Page.

Whether this is an effective marketing strategy probably depends on which posts you promote as well as all the other variables in Facebook advertising. But the amount of expenditure is low enough that you can experiment and see whether this strategy makes sense for you.

Twitter now offers paid opportunities:

You can also pay for ads (promoted tweets) on Twitter. (See ads.twitter.com) Again, this is a strategy that will take some experimentation in order to decide whether it is right for you.

Google+ continues to make changes:

I am still not personally convinced that Google+ is a top priority for creating online relationships. But there are people who do think so, and you should certainly consider whether participating on Google+ has benefits for you.

LinkedIn changes its profile format appearance:

LinkedIn has just changed the profile format, so this is one more change to consider. Whether this change makes it easier ' or more difficult ' to review a person's LinkedIn profile is unclear. But when looking at the new format, do take this opportunity to update your profile for the coming year.

Your website updated:

If you do not have an automatic copyright update on your site, be sure to add 2013 in January. And this is a good time to consider whether your site could use a facelift for the new year.

Look over your site with the eyes of a stranger: Is the information current and does it accurately reflect your business? Might there be a better way to share the information?

In conclusion, the approach of 2013 gives all of us opportunities to tweak our Internet marketing. And if you need help doing this, email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com to see what Miller Mosaic can do for you.

This article is an original contribution by Phyllis Zimbler Miller.

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Effective Content Marketing: 5 Habits that Help You Stand Apart

Content marketing is gaining traction at many companies, and some may argue that it is now mainstream. According to the 2013 content marketing research reports for B2B and B2C industries by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 91 percent of B2B marketers and 86 percent of B2C marketers are using content marketing. In addition, 54 percent of B2B marketers and 55 percent of B2C marketers will increase their content marketing spend in the next 12 months.

When you see successful content marketers, you may ask yourself: 'What are they doing differently?' 'What do they know that others don't?' 'What are they consistently doing right?'

Here are five habits that will help you become an effective content marketing pro and help you rise above the competition:

1. Know how to explain content marketing in business terms

Even though marketers understand content marketing, a lot of marketers have trouble making the business case for content marketing to senior leaders in their organization. It is important to have advocates of content marketing in the C-suite, especially your chief marketing officer and chief executive officer.

Companies that successfully demonstrate how content marketing can or will help them meet their business objectives can grow their content marketing budgets. They can also tie their content marketing goals to enterprise-wide business goals. For example, a company's goal may be to build brand awareness. Content marketing helps by providing authentic and engaging content that helps current and potential customers learn more about the perspectives of a brand.

Another example of a business benefit gained from content marketing is customer loyalty, which can be built and maintained through delivering relevant, useful information to your audience in the form of email and print newsletters, print and online magazines, or live customer or virtual events.

2. Build a strong and integrated content marketing team

You can't do it alone; it takes a team to be successful. Read 'Creating a Content Marketing Team and Workflow Plan,' to learn how to assemble a team and develop your editorial plan:

• Establish processes that are flexible but firm, so your expert team can develop content that is relevant and meaningful. Furthermore, you will want to expand your reach beyond just the content marketing team, so other parts of your organization can benefit from the content you create.
• You may also want to develop a content marketing advisory board that includes people from many different parts of the business to ensure you are producing the right content for your audience, and can use your content to address their goals at every point of interaction.

3. Tell compelling stories

This is the part where effective content marketers really shine. As one Copyblogger blog post says, learn how to be interesting. In other words, tell great stories and get your audience hungry for more (read 'Brand Storytelling Lessons You Can Steal from Hollywood,' for more tips on how to do this).

It's also helpful to take a tip or two from professional journalists, who write their content as 'must-read' stories (for inspiration, read '6 Ideas B2B Content Marketers Can Take from Professional Journalists').

Some tips you can take from professional journalists:

• They create stories that might refer to a specific product or service, but they don't' directly promote or endorse them.
• Journalists follow strong editorial guidelines to ensure the consistency, accuracy, and integrity of their work and the publication they write for. These guidelines also help them determine whether a given article meets the quality standards of their publication.
• Journalists also know what constitutes a valid, reliable source of information, and how to attribute those sources correctly.

You can also learn to tell compelling stories by learning the key components of journalism and basic storytelling principles.

The first key component: Know the five stages of developing a story. These stages are:

• Brainstorm
• Find a source
• Conduct an interview
• Draft the article
• Meet the deadline

The second element is learning how to create different acts (or 'mini stories') within your stories. For example, modern storytelling has a three-act structure. The first act is called exposition, where a writer identifies the main characters, their relationships, and what type of world they live in. The second act is referred to as the rising action, where the main characters can't resolve their problems because they don't have the skills or the right state of mind to overcome them. The third act is the story resolution, where questions are answered, problems are solved, and the characters often gain a new sense of themselves.

The third key element is good graphic design, or how imagery and graphic design helps bring out the story. That leads us to the next key component: the importance of combing words and visuals to paint the picture. Basically, this means keeping an eye on how you associate the written word with visuals that help illustrate or enhance the emotion of the story.

The last element is an understanding of how stories can build upon other stories. Journalists are good at reporting the story, but often a story will continue to develop over the course of days, weeks, or even months. Reporters write about what they know at the time, and they report on the story again when the story develops. By building upon the previous report, a larger story begins to develop, and the full story is eventually told. Sometimes, journalists even create a story recap of all the developments over the course of time so you can see the timeline of events.

By understanding these key elements of journalism and storytelling, you can craft an integrated and holistic brand story that will draw your audience in and drive them to take action on behalf of your business.

4. Lead change

Content marketing may require a mindset shift at your company so that you are prepared to create content that tells a compelling story, rather than offering up the same old promotional copy. In order to accomplish this feat, you will need to know how to lead successful change at your organization.

The fable, Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions, illustrates the eight-step process of change. It is an easy-to-read story about penguins that realize their iceberg is melting, and go about making necessary changes to improve the situation. Today, effective content marketers should be more than just storytellers; they should also be agents for change. Why? Because successful organizations that excel at content marketing are able to function almost as if they were a publisher or a media company. That is why content marketing is sometimes called 'brand journalism' ' because it requires a brand to think in terms of what their readers or viewers are most interested in, rather than what the brand itself wants to talk about.

What do journalists do really well? They pump out a lot of quality content that makes their audience want to come back to them to get their news and information. The same should apply to your company's content: the information you provide should be considered your product.

But while the information-as-product concept may help you address some of the tactical decisions involved in branded content creation, getting your company to really take a strategic, integrated, and editorial approach to content marketing may require a more significant mindset shift. The most essential step in leading change like this is creating a sense of urgency that such a transformation needs to take place (which takes us back to the first habit: Know how to put content marketing in business terms).

5. Audit and assess content continually

It's urgent that content marketers have a detailed awareness of what is in their content inventory, and a solid understanding of how each piece of content integrates with their overall content strategy. For example, if you produce an article on a particular topic, do you have a white paper or video that presents a more in-depth perspective on the topic? Is there a way you can use the two pieces together to tell the larger story in a more vivid way?

The ability to slice, dice, separate, and recombine content in new ways is why you may want to consider conducting a content audit, which will show you what stories have been developed, what stories you may need to refresh, and what stories still need to be told on behalf of your brand. It will also help you avoid content archipelagos. Just like an archipelago is a group of islands that is typically uninhabited or rarely visited, this is a group of content that didn't resonate well with your audience and wasn't shared at the level you were hoping for. By auditing your content to see what performed to your expectations, you can get valuable insight that will help you decide what content to change and what to create more of.

Content marketing is as much science as it is art. With the availability of marketing automation tools, web analytical tools, and social media tools, there is no shortage of usable data at the content marketer's fingertips. But what makes successful content experts stand apart is their ability to incorporate the information they gather from the data and use it to improve the content they create and distribute.

For example, if you are seeing that your blog post, '10 tips for topic X' is being read and shared a lot, do you have a plan in place to make sure you recognize its popularity and develop more content on that topic? Do you have a content calendar to keep track of the content you have produced, and what you would like to produce in the future?

It is also just as important that you and your team understand why your most popular content got the increased attention. Did they spend extra time engaging with your article because you included a video or slideshow? Was the topic related to a hot-button issue that drove a lot of conversations in the comments? The more you know about the factors that contributed to the success of a particular piece of content, the easier it will be to deliver the content your audience is looking for.

What do you think successful content marketers do differently? What would you add to this list?

For more tips on what it takes to be a standout content marketer, read the CMI book, 'Managing Content Marketing' by Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose.