BruceBlog

Extreme Email

2011-11-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

I ran across a very interesting article that speaks to the volume of email that companies are challenged to store and manage every day, most of which is low value or no value. Here is a company that has instituted a 'zero (internal) email' policy as a reaction to the contradiction of high email volume and poor internal communication. The French technology company, Atos, has calculated that of the typical 200 emails that employees receive per day, only a mere 10% are useful. It now has a policy that bans it 74,000 employees from sending internal email.

http://news.yahoo.com/tech-firm-implements-employee-zero-email-policy-165311050.html

This is an extreme position that the company has taken, although it certainly makes it's point. In my experience, few employees exercise professional work-place email etiquette. Information Technology departments are challenged to manage and store the digital landfill of millions of emails.

In my experience developing product strategy for records management software, it is very few companies that have internal policies for email protocol and secure archiving. They don't know what to keep and what to destroy. As Atos has acknowledged, instant messaging is a better technology for quick, brief employee communications, as the messages are typically not stored or forwarded.

Is this a trend that will gain momentum in 2012? It is hard to say.

Basic Lead Management for B2B Companies

2010-05-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

All companies have varying levels of complexity when it comes to lead management, but the basics are universal. Leads come in. Marketing sorts through the leads, filtering out the duds and assigning the pre-qualified leads to Sales. So why is it that so few companies can get this process to work effectively?

Here is a basic process for lead management, including the lead types or dispositions that are necessary for tracking the process.

1. Lead Import. A campaign generates a volume of leads. The quality of the leads is directly proportional to how targeted your campaign was, or the audience you engaged.

Disposition: Suspect

Action: Ensure all leads are cleansed and complete before being imported into Salesforce or whichever database you use. When they are imported, the disposition is Suspect (SUS). This is a temporary state. Suspects need to be validated (Marketing Qualified), Disqualified, deleted or moved.

2. Marketing Pre-Qualification

Disposition: Marketing Qualified Lead

Action: In order to advance the lead disposition to Marketing Qualified (MQL), you need to validate the Suspect leads against your target market. This usually means looking up the company in Hoovers or even Google to validate company size, industry sector and country / region to ensure the company is in your available market. If it is, it is considered Marketing Qualified. If not, it is Disqualified (DIS). There will tend to be a large number of MQL leads in your database. If there is no immediate Sales Acceptance, these leads will be nurtured in an effort to develop top-of-mind awareness for when the lead is ready to buy.

3. Marketing Hand-Off to Sales

Disposition: Sales Accepted Lead

Action: This is the critical step where inside sales or telemarketing has its first post-campaign person-to-person contact with the Marketing Qualified Lead to determine whether there is an initiative to buy in the next 6 – 12 months … or whatever prescribed timeframe is typical for your sales cycle. Is there a deal to be had? Is there a legitimate expression of interest? These are the 2 most critical questions for Sales in order to accept the hand-off from Marketing. If so, it is now a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL). If not, it stays as an MQL to be nurtured.

4. Sales Qualification

Disposition: Sales Qualified Lead

Action: A Sales representative is assigned the Sales Accepted Lead and qualifies it further. This is when the real heavy lifting gets done. Is there really an initiative with a defined procurement process and budget? Do we have a reasonable chance of winning the deal? Do we know who we are up against and how we are aligned with the selection criteria? Do we know what our cost of pursuit will be, and the resources required over time to win the deal? As this process begins, the lead is promoted to the status of Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). If the responses are positive, the Sales Qualified Lead is eventually converted into an Opportunity. If not, it may return to MQL status, or possibly become Disqualified.

Deviations

Sometimes leads are tagged as Hot, Warm or Cold, based on the urgency of the buyer. Under this model, Hot and Warm leads are delivered as Sales Accepted Leads. Cold leads remain as Marketing Qualified Leads until the point in time when there is a declared buying initiative.

Measurement

When measuring the result of a marketing campaign, the number of Marketing Qualified Leads is the key metric. These are the leads in your sweet spot that responded to your call-to-action.

That said, Sales and your CEO will only be interested in the Sales Accepted Leads. These represent potential sales pipeline. Understanding the lead numbers in the value chain that drive a single closed sale is critical. 1 closed sale = 5 opportunities; 1 opportunity = 5 SALs; 1 SAL = 10 MQLs. I need 250 MQLs to drive a single closed sale. Armed with the Sales Forecast, I now know how many leads I need to generate in order to support sales.

There are many variations of this, as different sales models require different processes and dispositions. Channel Sales, for instance, requires a completely different process for lead management. This is simply a good basic process to get you thinking about ways to improve your sales & marketing alignment.

Is TripAdvisor Irrelevant?

2010-05-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Have sites that rate hotels and resorts become irrelevant? Sites like TripAdvisor (and its parent company, Expedia) and Hotels.com have come under scrutiny for having fake reviews planted by in an effort to boost their rating. These fake reviews get posted by employees of the hotel and by companies contracted by the hotel to improve their reputation.

TripAdvisor claims to take measures to weed out the bogus reviews, but the problem is obviously a difficult one to tackle. The credibility and objectivity of the reviewer is a difficult thing to determine in most cases. TripAdvisor reviews rate hotels for a number of different criteria, which provides a rounded assessment of the experience. It indicates how many posts the reviewer has contributed on TripAdvisor, and it ranks the hotel against other hotels in its city /location.

Its relevance is also undermined by reviewers with unrealistic expectations. Today, I looked at a review for the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort in Waikiki, Honolulu. Out of approximately 2000 reviews, 81% are positive. However, of the negative reviews, most cite complaints about "too many tourists" or the price markups in hotel restaurants and shops. The reviewers' expectations seem to be out of alignment with the reality of staying at a 5-star resort on Waikiki beach.

I love the power of online communities when they highlight high-value companies, and hold low-value companies accountable. It appears to be more necessary than ever to incorporate a system for assessing the credibility or reputation of the reviewer so the followers of TripAdvisor get a better sense of which reviews to trust. Ebay has continued to refine its system for policing the buyers and sellers in its community. Help me cut through the noise and find the reviewers that are well travelled and can provide inbiased, insightful, articulate reviews ... so they can turn me on to hotels that are hidden gems and masters of customer service.

Google Combats Illegal Tree Cutters

2010-02-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

Google Inadvertently Photographs Illegal Tree Removal

Google Street Views inadvertently provided evidence of a crime when a former homeowner and tree cutter were photographed illegally removing trees on an up-scale Vancouver property last May. Two trees were removed without permit or permission, which violated the city's tree bylaw. Several neighbors and a rival tree removal company complained to the city about the illegal tree removal.

The Province Newspaper reported that act was inadvertently caught on camera by Google’s specially equipped vehicle taking 360° pictures for Google Street Views, which links pictures of city streets to Google's mapping program. The photograph shows a truck on the site, along with a couple of workmen, tree debris, and a line of tree stumps along the length of a fence. The City of Vancouver is uncertain if or how the Google photograph will be used in the prosecution.

This is an interesting example of how GIS technology is helping provide photographic records of properties and associated city-regulated land usage information. As the resolution of the image improves, and the frequency of updates increases, I’ll be sure to keep my lawn mowed and cars washed.

This technology has changed the driving habits of the wired population. I can’t remember the last time I got lost while trying to find an address far afield from my neighborhood. The process of booking an appointment now includes getting the Google or Bing Map on your BlackBerry or iPhone for convenience. Cars manufacturers have finally replaced factory-installed cassette decks (finally phased out as standard equipment in 2008 models) with GPS navigation systems. It is a brave new world.

If GM Developed Cars Like Microsoft Develops Technology

2010-01-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

The following is an humorous article that was originally published in 1999. I didn't write it. It is written by PR staff working for Jack Smith at General Motors. Enjoy ... and happy new year!

***

At a computer expo (COMDEX 1999), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors’ CEO Jack Smith stated the following:

If GM had developed cars like Microsoft develops technology, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason at all, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left-turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, and you would have to reinstall the engine.

4. When your car died on the freeway for no reason, you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought 'Car95' or 'CarNT', and then added more seats.

6. Apple would make a car powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five percent of the roads.

7. Oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single 'general car default' warning light.

8. New seats would force every-one to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag would say 'Are you sure?' before going off.

10. Occasionally, for no reason, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grabbed the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of road maps from Rand-McNally (a subsidiary of GM), even though they neither need them nor want them. Trying to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50 percent or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Every time GM introduced a new model, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You would press the 'start' button to shut off the engine.

CMOs ROI Challenged for Social Media

2009-12-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

CMOs Can’t Measure ROI for Social Media Marketing

Over the last 12 – 18 months, CMOs have faced budget reductions, staff reductions and the emergence of social media as a new playing field on which to engage customers and potential customers. As marketers march into the brave new world of social media, ready for transparency and openness to dialogue with communities of people with shared interests, ROI for these efforts remains elusive.

A recent study by CMO Club and BaraarVoice polled CMOs from various industries and sizes of company. The sample group was small – only 133 CMOs. Of these, 42% focus on business-to-consumer marketing, 41% focus on business-to-business marketing, and 17% market to both consumers and businesses. Annual revenues ranged from $6 to $50 million (25%), $51 to $999 million (42%), and over $1 billion (23%).

The findings were very telling. Most CMOs are unable to measure ROI for their social media marketing efforts. This is not to say they measured and discovered lack of Return On Investment. This says that they simply didn’t or couldn’t measure it.

Top 5 Predictions for 2010

CMOs will crack the code on measuring ROI for social media marketing

Lead management automation software and inbound marketing automation software will go mainstream (software tools in these categories will be key to ROI measurement)

Social media monitoring (and reputation management) will become a core public relations agency service offering

As the availability of streaming video content becomes more pervasive, so will online video advertising.

The success of marketing campaigns will be less reliant on clever messaging and more reliant on provision of substantial, relevant and compelling content.

Happy New Year!

Audi Pushes Its Marketing Pedal to the Metal

2009-11-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

The automotive industry is in turmoil. The largest, most formidable competitors are fighting for survival. Marketing budgets of the Detroit giants are slashed. The German luxury car manufacturers have also seen a downturn. Mercedes-Benz has seen sales slump by 17% from January to August. BMW sales are down 18%. So why has Audi sped past its rivals to see a year-over –year increase of 26% in unit sales, with only a 7.5% decline in revenue through August?

Audi increased its 2009 marketing budget by 20%. Reportedly it spent $6 million on its Super Bowl ad and an undisclosed amount on the television sponsorship of the Obama presidential inauguration. Audi may not sell more units globally than Mercedes or BMW, but this year its European sales eclipsed both competitors. Impressive. Audi definitely out-markets its competitors.

Audi’s competitive strategy includes selling stylish, fuel-efficient Diesel engine cars, which has been a tough sell in the US market. However, the Diesel option seems to be more accepted in 2009 than in previous years, with more than a third of US drivers polled being open to purchase. This is obviously been a successful strategy for the European market.

The luxury sports sedan market is extremely competitive, and Audi continues to produce great cars as it steps up its marketing leadership.

Toilet Advertising Draws a Royal Flush

2009-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

Do you think of those ads above the mens room urinals as an essential component of your media mix? If you are a woman you might not think about them at all. Take note. A study conducted at Houston Texas-based Rice University has shown that the retention of the marketing message in "toilet ads" is 40% more effective than retention for any other media.

Rice University researchers Barbour and Monroe conducted the survey. Their data concluded that:

84% recalled seeing specific advertisements in the restrooms

92% were able to name specific advertisers without prompting

88% recalled at least 4 selling points in the ads surveyed

98% reacted positively or neutral to seeing ads in restroom facilities.

These are very impressive figures compared to other media, especially considering the study showed that the media isn’t viewed in a negative way by the general public. In fact, most lauded toilet advertising as a welcome distraction. It proves that it is the ad that makes the campaign compelling - not the environment. Unilever’s Axe understands this brilliantly and uses the restroom environment to its benefit.

The Toilet Ad media is 100% lifestyle and gender targeted, offers a captive audience away from clutter and produces advertising campaigns with zero wastage. However, with all this positive sentiment, toilet posters are still not recognized as mainstream media.

The Four Disciplines of Market Leaders

2009-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

When I first am introduced to a company, I learn about its products (and/or services), how the products are positioned in the marketplace, how the company generates revenue, and how the company maps to Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema’s Value Disciplines.

Treacy and Wiersema wrote The Disciplines of Market Leaders, published in 1997, which is a book that really resonated with me. They contend that there are three different types of Value Disciplines that successful companies employ to command leadership in their markets. As I have read more of their books and found similar threads in books by Geoffrey Moore, Jim Collins and others, I have added a fourth Discipline. Treacy and Wiersema include Innovation in Product Leadership, although I would separate it into its own category, as innovation may not strictly apply to the company’s products.

Value Disciplines:

Operational Efficiency

Product Leadership

Customer Intimacy

Innovator / Disruptor

Operational Efficiency is a Value Discipline for companies that aim to be the low-cost provider or provider of fast, efficient service. These are companies like Wal-Mart, MacDonalds, Mr. Lube. These companies have well trained people and pay keen attention to logistics, process refinement, measurement and cost structure. In this business model 'variety kills efficiency', so only a limited number of products or service options are available and customer expectations are managed accordingly.

Product Leadership is the next Value Discipline. For these companies, quality is job-one. These companies aim to provide the best possible products to its customers. It carefully assesses customer and market requirements. It takes great care to understand usability and customer experience. It is operationally prepared to educate its customers to learn the products and utilize its features and functions or services. Examples include The Four Seasons Hotel, BMW, Intel and Nike.

Customer Intimacy is the next Discipline. Business practices that facilitate deep customer insight and breakthrough thinking about how to materially improve the customer’s business are operationalized, and a corporate culture that encourages and rewards this is institutionalized. Examples are Nordstroms, Xerox, Airborne Express and IBM. Companies that follow this discipline customize product and service offerings based on the specific needs of their customers. One-size-fits-all does not exist in this business model.

Innovation is the next Value Discipline. Innovators like Apple produce products that are so coveted by its customers that Apple can command a premium price-point, and customers will line up to buy its new products. Companies that follow this Discipline must invest in R&D, product design and experimentation. It must create a culture where out of the box thinking is not only encouraged but facilitated (with time allocation). Google has reinvented the advertising industry, and dominates Internet advertising. Starbucks has an innovative business model that isn't based on having the best coffee, but rather is based on it being your "3rd place" (home, office and Starbucks) to hang out, have great coffee, listen to great music, and be comfortable.

So what happens when your company doesn’t fit into one of these categories? You may experience some success, but sustainable leadership and consistent growth requires that you have a business model and focus that is operationalized and repeatable. Your company has assets that you need to protect and continue to nurture and grow, whether the assets are intellectual property, referenceable customer-base, exceptionally talented people, or market-leading products. Changing the business focus may cause your assets to fall behind and lose some of their value.

I find assessment of a company’s Value Discipline essential when formulating a marketing strategy. Your messaging needs to reflect your positioning and the assets that your company can uniquely bring to the table. Which Value Discipline applies to your company?

Don't Block My YouTube

2009-11-02T22:52:00.000-08:00

A research analyst sent me a link to a YouTube video the other day, and to my surprise my Barracuda Networks security software blocked all access to YouTube. Barracuda considers it a security threat. Well, this was the first time I had ever heard of security issues with YouTube, so I had to investigate.

Reading through the company's literature, all I could find was concerns regarding streaming content (YouTube, XM Radio, stock quotes) as either distractions that impact employee productivity, or applications that suck Internet bandwidth. I couldn't find anything on Barracuda's website that indicated virus or malware issues.

With a little more investigation, I did learn of hackers that use fake YouTube pages to spread malware. They replicate the look and feel of YouTube pages. A solicitation with a link to view a video is emailed to thousands. You are intrigued by the subject. You trust YouTube. Before you know it, you have clicked to play the video and allowed malicious software to infect your PC. Once the computer is infected with the virus, the malware may actually redirect from the fake YouTube video to a real YouTube page, so you wind up seeing what you were expecting to see in the first place.

This doesn't appear to be too prevalent, but it is apparently out there. The story I found about this was from the UK. Also, the problem does not occur within the real YouTube domain, so Barracuda is blocking the legitimate video site but not the domain of the fake YouTube. Now this is really getting annoying.

If there is a hell, hackers and malware programmers - the box seats are reserved for you. I want my YouTube.

If anyone knows of serious YouTube security issues, let me know.

Brand Manager 2.0

2009-10-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

In the new world of marketing, especially considering the impact of social media, is it time for your Brand Manager to redefine the role? Radian6 puts it well when they say that “a brand’s reputation is the sum of its conversations”. Many would argue that a company is no longer able to engineer its brand promise. Your brand is no longer defined by your Agency, your CMO or brand manager. Your brand is defined by the customer experience that you facilitate, and therefore the brand is actually in the hands of the customers that you touch. It is how your customers define your brand that counts.

What does a Brand Manager do, you ask?

Brand Republic defines the role as follows:

The Brand Manager applies marketing techniques to a specific product, product line or brand. They are responsible for a company’s brand and brand perception. A Brand Manager usually reports to a Brand Director and seeks to increase the products perceived value to the customer and thereby increases brand franchise and brand equity. Responsibilities of a Brand Manager include conducting market research, budgeting and forecasting, developing the brand’s identity, monitoring sales and advertising and tracking and analysing competitor and market trends.

In today’s environment, the Brand Manager needs to understand who is talking about the brand, what are they saying, and what is the customer experience that has prompted the conversation (positive or negative). Tapping into the online communities and communicating through social media is the new mandate of the Brand Manager.

To develop a brand today is to:

Monitor the customer experience and company’s reputation. In other words, understand and analyze what customers are saying about you
Strategize with the C-suite on how respond to negative feedback and operationally support an improved customer experience
Engage customers, online communities, bloggers and other influencers to dialogue about how best to improve the customer experience
Recognize and reward (without going overboard) the customers that are vocal, enthusiastic promoters of your brand.

Brand Manager 2.0 is a much better listener than a talker. Brand Manager 2.0 is less about advertising & promotion, and more about transparency and collaboratively optimizing the customer experience. The outcome is a more genuine, customer-centric brand identity.

Top 5 Things to Despise About Tradeshows

2009-10-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

Tradeshow Hell

I am at the mid-point of two full weeks of working tradeshows - two different events. One in Orlando and one in Las Vegas. I was looking forward to them, but after several hours on the exhibition floor, all the bad memories have surfaced, and I am reminded of why tradeshows suck.

In no particular order:

1. Being obscenely overcharged. Paying $45 to rent (not buy) a small glass fishbowl for a raffle. Paying $365 for renting a lead collection device (for scanning delegates badges; an item worth maybe $100 to buy).

2. Being solicited by every other vendor.

3. Waiting 3 hours for my booth crates to get dropped off so I can actually set-up (or tear-down).

4. Trade show sandwiches ("... chicken anyone?").

5. Being confronted by people who are chronically unhappy, dissatisfied, angry, and hyper-critical, and having to put on a big smile and listen sympathetically.

I welcome you to share your "tradeshow from hell" stories. Misery loves company.

Stop

2009-09-30T23:42:00.001-07:00

Stop: 10 Things Not To Do Today

Every day I am asked, “What are your top priorities to accomplish today?” Whether it is an executive management huddle or my wife looking to synchronize schedules on the weekend, this has become a routine.

For once, I would like someone to ask, “What are you not going to do today?” It can be more important for my focus and productivity to make a decision about what I’m going to not do today.

So, what am I not going to do today you ask? Here are 10 things that I may choose from:

I am not going to check my emails more than 3 times today.
I am not going to accept meeting invitations that would schedule more than half my day in meetings.
I will also not accept a meeting invitation unless there is a clear agenda.
I’m not going to start a new project today unless I complete one of my current projects first.
I am not going to be pressured to accept a project when I know the only way I can get it done is by dropping every other project I’ve already committed to.
I’m not going to take unsolicited calls from sales people or others that will interrupt me and waste my time.
I’m not going to each lunch at my desk while I continue to work.
I’m not going to allow negative people to voice their gripes in my office.
I’m not going to be distracted or sidelined from completing or advancing one of my top priority commitments.
I’m not going to forget to call my wife and check-in to see how she is doing.

What are you not going to do? The world is your oyster.

Yahoo! Defends Itself Against Bing's Bling

2009-09-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! retaliates against Microsoft's Bing advertising push with its own upcoming $100 million dollar media blitz. The massive campaign launches on Tuesday, Sept 29, 2009.

Yahoo's ad is focussed on "You". Of course, Time Magazine premiered this theme in 2006 as its "Person of the Year." Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz said at press conference in New York, "Yahoo is really is committed to being the center of people's lives online."

Will it help them stop the bleeding? It will take more than an expensive ad campaign, as Wall Street appears to be underwhelmed by the move. Have you ever seen a TV ad for Google? At the end of the day, as a search engine and lifestyle portal, Yahoo! needs technology and content to succeed, but has fallen well behind its competition on both fronts.

Press Release Versus Blog Post

2009-09-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

5 Reasons to Blog Rather Than Issue a Press Release

A press release is written and distributed to announce a significant, newsworthy ‘event’, with the intention of getting media outlets to write about your story. If your company is publicly traded, then shareholder disclosure is another reason to inform the public about a material event via a press release. The reality is that most press releases are distributed – not with the intention of getting “ink”, but purely for marketing purposes. Companies want to increase visibility in the marketplace by communicating something – significant or not – using the format of a press release.

You need to ask yourself, “Is this announcement newsworthy to people that are unfamiliar with my company and industry sector?” An announcement of a new partnership, or product update, or exhibition at an upcoming trade show makes for a weak press release. But it’s important to your company, and may be of interest to people that follow your company.

Is there a problem with this approach? Yes. There are a few of problems with this communications strategy:

If your press release is not newsworthy, you run the risk of blowing your credibility with the media

There is significant expense to distribute volumes of press releases, much of which is wasted

Your customers / partners / followers start to tune out, and miss your big, significant announcements (the “Cry Wolf” effect).

Corporate blogs are replacing the press release format for communicating with customers, followers and other stakeholders. Why?

The format is more appropriate to share company news that is relevant to your audience, with commentary that generally doesn’t translate well to a press release

Followers can subscribe to your blog via RSS

Blog content can be distributed through social media communities like Twitter, Facebook, and can be syndicated to other blog sites that are authoritative in your industry sector

Blog posts will help improve organic search results for relevant keywords and phrases

Interested readers can comment on blog posts, and dialogue with your company – which is much more effective and dynamic than a static press release.

The key to a good blog is compelling, well written content. Content is king, as they say. If you are ready to start a corporate blog, make sure your writers have a deep understanding of their subject matter, and understand the new medium of blogging. There are lots of resources to help you get your blog off the ground.

By eliminating non-newsworthy announcements from your PR communications, your important press releases will become more notable and credible.

Extreme Makeover - Website Edition

2009-09-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

Your company’s corporate website needs a serious refresh. The look and navigation of your website is stale and counter-intuitive. Support wants a private, password-protected microsite to impress those elite customers. Services won’t be overshadowed by the Products area. You can't remember when you last updated the content on your site. You decide that it is time to take the leap and give it an extreme makeover.

Two of my favorite bloggers and marketing gurus, Seth Godin and Joe Pulizzi, have each blogged on this subject recently. I have led redesigns of several significant websites, and thought that I’d present my input on the subject.

20 Questions to Answer Before You Start an Extreme Makeover for Your Website

Do you have a Content Management System (CMS) that enables you to publish new content to your site with relative ease (without programming)?

Does your CMS provide an interface for easy SEO tagging of pre-published content?

Have you set limits on CSS file size, HTML code page size, total image size, Java script and other objects that trigger database calls, as to ensure optimal page load speed?

Have you selected your analytics product to help optimize and measure stats/metrics for your site?

How easy it is to create or generate microsites, landing pages, and forms for collecting in-bound leads?

Can site visitors subscribe to your content via RSS, Twitter, etc.?

Have you defined your brand promise, and thought about how it should be reflected through messaging, engagement and content on your site?

Have you defined the one or several audiences for your website, and how you might organize your site to address each audience individually rather than take a “one size fits all” approach?

Does the graphical identity of your brand display well on a website, or does it need a refresh?

Are you able to clearly articulate who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and why people should care? As Seth Godin would say, do you have an interesting, compelling story that would motivate a prospective customer to contact you?

Can you tell your story visually, in addition to written word?

Do you have business objectives and success metrics established for the website, such as inbound lead generation, traffic level targets, e-commerce revenue targets, or keyword search ranking targets?

Do you intend to have calls-to-action on the homepage and section pages, above the fold, in order to generate leads?

Do you make it easy for customers and potential customers to interact with your company through your website, or by integrating your presence and content through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter?

Do you make it easy for people to get in contact with you for the appropriate reasons?

Who owns the website? Marketing? IT? Other?

Do you have a dedicated project manager for your redesign to ensure it gets completed on-time and on-budget?

When stakeholders disagree on elements of the redesign, does your process identify the website owner who ultimately makes the final call?

Have you broken your project down into achievable phases, with realistic timelines based on resource availability and budgets?

Have you planned the party to celebrate the completion of your new website?

These are the blogs that inspired me to weigh in on this subject:

Seth Godin’s blog, ‘Things to ask before you redo your website’
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/things-to-ask-before-you-redo-your-website.html

Joe Pulizzi’s blog ‘20 Questions to Ask before You Launch Your Content Project’.
http://blog.junta42.com/content_marketing_blog/2009/09/20-questions-to-ask-before-you-launch-your-content-project.html

Bing Stings Yahoo!

2009-09-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's Bing search engine ... sorry ... decision engine, is now the fastest growing search engine according to Neilsen. As of August is has 10.7% of the US search engine market, up from 9.4% in July. It's month over month growth is a staggering 22%, although it is assumed that much of Bing's marketshare was inherited from MSN, and may not have been fully factored into the month over month statistic.

Bing is still miles behind Google's 64.6% marketshare, but has been successful in stealing marketshare from Yahoo!, at 16% and declining. This is in part to Microsoft's massive marketing push, as well as the fact that it has actually delivered a superb search engine ... er ... decision engine.

Google still dominates the universe, but Microsoft has entered the fray with a worthy alternative. Microsoft has also driven another nail in Yahoo's coffin (has Microsoft acquired Yahoo! yet?). When I search for images, videos, and maps, I prefer Bing to Google.

OPUS Hotel Rocks Social Media

2009-09-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

When one of the coolest rock bands, the Police, reunited for their now legendary 2007-2008 worldwide concert tour, they decided to rehearse and start the tour in Vancouver. And where did Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers live while in Vancouver? In which boutique hotel did Michael Stipe stay while he and his band, R.E.M, were recording their 2008 album Accererate? Rock stars, fashionista and purveyors of cool prefer OPUS Hotels – in Vancouver and Montreal, Canada. In fact, readers of Condé Naste’s Travel Magazine recently voted OPUS Hotel as one of the Top 100 hotels in the world.

As you might guess, OPUS has incorporated social media into its marketing and communications mix to connect with its jet setting clientele. Chella Levesque, National Director of Marketing, OPUS Hotels, was kind enough to share how she has driven solid business results by engaging online communities.

Bruce

Is web marketing through social media communities an integral part of your marketing mix?

Chella
Yes, its an integral part of our marketing strategy for OPUS hotels. We have regular posts on our OPUS Hotel Blog which was one of the first in the hospitality business and now has an established following. Our former GM, Daniel Craig (author of three books, with the fourth in development) is our Blogger-at-large reporting back as he travels the world.

Bruce
Do you regularly monitor online communities or social media sites such as TripAdvisor.com, Hotels.com, or Facebook?

Chella
Yes, Trip Advisior is monitored daily by numerous departments as we recognize that it is an important influencer of a traveller’s decision process. Yelp.ca is an emerging site that marketing is monitoring. Facebook and Twitter are monitored daily and consistently throughout the day by myself and by our social media agency.

Online communities have provided particularly successful avenues for promoting events and play a significant role in building brand awareness for OPUS hotels, Elixir, Koko and OPUS Bar.

Bruce
How critical to your business is the monitoring and active participation in those communities?
Chella
It is a great way to build buzz in a very short time and as well address comments. These mediums require immediate feedback and we encourage the dialogue. We have seen an increase in bookings as a result engaging with our fans and followers in these environments.

Bruce
Is there a person in your marketing, PR or customer service department whose job it is to monitor and dialogue with customers and potential customers through social media sites or technologies (such as Twitter)?

Chella
Yes we have several designated from our team who can respond and monitor.

Bruce
Do you have any social media success stories to share with us?

Chella
The” Sleep Where the Stars Sleep” Red Carpet Ready Contest was promoted to OPUS Hotel Facebook fans, offering them the opportunity to win the exact package that presenters of the 2009 Much Music Video Awards received. Fans were encouraged to post their best red carpet ready pose and encourage their friends to comment or ‘like’ their photos. The photo that had the most comments and likes won the contest for OPUS Vancouver and OPUS Montreal. We had 41 submissions, 6000 page views, 400 likes and over 300 comments which in turn resulted in hundreds of clicks thrus and RTs.

OPUS Hotels is a business that really gets social media, and realize the business results that prove it. Thanks Chella.

For more about OPUS Hotels, visit:
http://www.opushotel.com/vancouver.html

Tennis Turns on Twitter

2009-09-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

As the U.S. Open tennis tournament started on Monday, officials warned players to be careful about what they post on Twitter over concerns about sports betting.

The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press news story issued August 28, 2009:

Signs are being posted in the players’ lounge, locker rooms and referee’s office at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with the header: “Important. Player Notice. Twitter Warning.”

The signs, written by the Tennis Integrity Unit, point out that Twitter messages could violate the sport’s anti-corruption rules.

“Many of you will have Twitter accounts in order for your fans to follow you and to become more engaged in you and the sport — and this is great,” the notices read. “However popular it is, it is important to warn you of some of the dangers posted by Twittering as it relates to the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program Rules.”

Andy Roddick, for one, is not a fan of the warning. In a tweet Friday night, the 2003 U.S. Open champion wrote that he thinks it’s “lame the US Open is trying to regulate our tweeting.. I understand the on-court issue but not sure they can tell us if we can’t do it on our own time ... we’ll see.”

He added in another tweet: “I definitely respect the rule about inside info and on the court, but you would seriously have to be a moron to send ’inside info’ through a tweet.”

Told of Roddick’s comments, tournament spokesman Chris Widmaier said, “We agree with Mr. Roddick that it would be ’moronic’ to provide what might be construed as insider information. However, in the age of new media, it is imperative to ensure the absolute integrity of the game.”

Sports leagues and governing bodies are paying close attention as more and more athletes turn to Twitter to reach fans directly; some NFL teams, for example, urged players not to use it. But tennis appears to be the first sport openly concerned about Twitter’s possible effect on gambling.
The signs at the U.S. Open say tweeting is not allowed on court during matches. They also warn about using Twitter away from the court, saying sending “certain sensitive information concerning your match or other matches and/or players should be avoided. Depending on the information sent out this could be determined as the passing of ’inside information.”’

The messages define that as “information about the likely participation or likely performance of a player in an event or concerning the weather, court conditions, status, outcome or any other aspect of an event which is known by a Covered Person and is not information in the public domain.”

The warnings say they apply to players, coaches, agents, family members and tournament staff.
“We take our anti-gambling procedures very seriously, and we’re in full agreement with this recommendation from the Tennis Integrity Unit,” Widmaier said Friday.

Several prominent tennis players are part of the trend, including defending U.S. Open champion Serena Williams (who has nearly 1 million followers) and Roddick (more than 100,000).
Athletes post everything from personal blog links to updates on their social lives to injury updates. That last category is the sort of thing that worries the world of tennis, which revamped its anti-corruption policing a year ago in the wake of an investigation into match-fixing.

Jeff Rees, whose name appears at the bottom of the signs posted at the U.S. Open, was appointed in August 2008 to run the Tennis Integrity Unit. That’s also when tennis’ four governing bodies — the ATP and WTA tours, the International Tennis Federation and the Grand Slam Committee — adopted an anti-corruption code to make sure the same rules and penalties are applied across the sport.

Jessica Biel - The Web's Most Dangerous Celeb

2009-08-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

When it comes to social media, there has always been a bad element lurking within communities that misrepresent themselves and exploit those that are vulnerable. We have all heard the stories about middle aged men that created false identities to lure young kids into exploitative situations. Anonimity was also a license for people to make personal attacks or to make outrageous statements without fear of repercussions.

Today the trend is for cyber-squatters to create Twitter, Facebook or MySpace accounts using other peoples' identities, usually that of a celebrity. The purpose can be for innocent amusement, or for much more malicious intent. Some intend to crash your PC, steal your data, indentity or money, and generally wreak havoc.

Every year, internet security software provider McAfee ranks the celebrity searches most likely to lead users to sites that contain spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

McAfee named Jessica Biel as this year's most dangerous celebrity on the web, taking this dubious honor from last year's winner, Brad Pitt. A search for Biel has a one-in-five chance of pulling up a malicious site. Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, Tom Brady, and Gisele Bundchen also made McAfee's list.

McAfee reports that from recent virus tests conducted that cyber criminals are capitalizing on video by building trojans into supposed flash plugins, or phishing from sites that clone YouTube. Before you follow your favorite celebs on Twitter, or friend Jessica Biel on Facebook, you better have some heavy duty security software on your PC.

McAfee link: http://newsroom.mcafee.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=3554

Google has announced that it intends to create a new operating system (Chrome OS) that is invulnerable to most of these security threats. That will be a good day.

Your Social Media Flight is Delayed

2009-08-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

The travel / tourism industries have embraced social media, not necessarily as a proactive means of connecting with customers, but initially as a way of monitoring brand reputation, customer service issues and running damage control.

The hotel industry lives and dies by TripAdvisor.com, Hotels.com and other sites where consumers may rate and review the hotels at which they stay. I find it interesting to note the hotels that respond to negative posts and offer such things as complementary return visits for customers with bad experiences – for these are really the organizations that get social media and the power of community. I invite hotels to share their success stories with me and my readers.

Most of the hotels I frequent are very active on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and other sites. From small boutique hotels to large international chains, hotels are Tweeting about special promotional rates as well as customer testimonials, special events, and more.

The airlines are another story. Airlines are often big targets for negative posts. The airlines have not been quick to focus on social media. The airlines appear to be stuck in old-school marketing and PR, and only a few have Marketing departments that understand the opportunity in social media.

Among the more social media savvy airlines on Twitter, Facebook, etc. are:

Virgin America
Southwest
Delta
Air Canada

Southwest Airlines wins the award for being most web-savvy and connected. It publishes blogs, podcasts, YouTube video and has a Facebook fan page. It is active on Twitter with travel advisories and news about special fares.

Jet Blue was in the news a couple of months ago for diffusing a customer service issue that was playing out on Twitter. Kudos to them.

The award for biggest lost opportunity goes to United Airlines. When Dave Carroll posted his music video on YouTube entitled United Airlines Breaks Guitars and it went viral (over 5 million views since it was posted a little over a month ago), United had the perfect opportunity to respond to Dave and the millions of people following the situation. The YouTube video became an outlet for everyone that has had luggage lost or damaged by an airline. A creative response to the massive online community would have helped diffuse the anger and put a human face on the unsympathetic corporatation. The popularity of the video grew, as the lack of response confirmed people's negative opinions towards United. United did eventually contact Dave Carroll by phone to apologize, but by that point the damage had reached an enormous scale.

The airlines have universally gained core competencies in web technologies for online check-in, e-commerce for ticket purchasing and customer tracking of flight schedules. Hindrances for social media are most likely the giant obstacle of needing to actually fix customer service issues before you are able to Comment or Reply to negative posts with reassuring dialogue. You can't turn a customer around unless you can actually show intent to fix the problem.

As the hotel and tourism industry has become conversant in social media technologies for engaging customers online, including the mobile web, the airline industry is slowly starting to dip its collective toes in the water. When it comes to social media marketing, the airlines, like its flights, are delayed.

For those that missed it, here's a link to Dave Carroll's music video, United Airlines Breaks Guitars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&feature=related

Woodstock and the Social Media Generation

2009-08-14T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival. It was the seminal 3 day music festival that became a rally-point for the flower-power generation in the summer of 1969. It featured Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills & Nash, and other top performers of the day. Overshadowing the music was the phenomenon that half a million people arrived at Bethel, New York, mostly without tickets, to share an experience as a new, like-minded community (the concert promoters were expecting only between 10-15 thousand people).

The Woodstock generation was unlike previous generations. Their music was different, and spoke to the civil rights movement and social activism of the day. Their values and attitude were different. It fiercely challenged the government and its policies of the day, including the war in Vietnam. They grew their hair to physically demonstrate their uniqueness.

Is the Woodstock generation analogous to today’s social media generation? The social media generation:

Mistrusts traditional media; they trust peers and bloggers that are of the social media generation

Rejects traditional advertising and public relations, and demand transparency
Sources purchases –such as booking travel, purchasing a car, or buying a computer – by engaging social media communities and researching through word-of-mouth endorsements

Forced change, as it dramatically impacted industries such as the music industry, retailers, and travel

Values companies that understand how to engage them on their terms.

Social media is not simply an online platform for community conversations, but is a sea-change based on the shared values of people that challenge yesterday's status quo. When you look at the numbers of people on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites, it is clear that this movement is world-wide and massive. As Lewis Carroll wrote (and I’m paraphrasing), we are through the looking glass, and can’t go back.

Are Your Customers Killing You?

2009-08-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

In economic climates such as the one we are in today, companies are eager to sell to anyone that they can. Small B2B companies with a direct sales force will send their salespeople criss-crossing the map to close a deal. Revenue is the name of the game. Margin and earnings are for the accountants to concern themselves.

Some customers are just not profitable for your organization. Geoffrey Moore, author, CEO and founder of the Chasm Group, speaks of “bad revenue”. Good revenue comes with an increase in an organization's competitive advantage. Not only does it bring in new business, it also transforms into on-going business. Bad revenue involves a deal that takes a company away from its area of expertise. It decreases competitive advantage. "Bad revenue actually sucks air out of your balloon," Moore says.

Bad revenue is the situation where your product was not the right fit for the customer in the first place. Instead of walking away, you agree to commit your organization’s resources away from its core expertise and position in the market, and build a highly customized product for the customer that becomes a one-off. It can also be customer revenue from a legacy line of business that your company has declared as “in maintenance mode” (no further investment). The product is no longer being developed, but the customers remain vocal lobbyists for your attention and investment. If you give in and provide the customer what it wants, there is not only a drain on lost opportunity within your core market, but the business is almost always low margin. This is a conundrum, considering we are always taught to be customer-centric.

This situation is pervasive in the software industry. A prospect loves your software, but needs a significant amount of customization added in order to reflect its unique operational processes and reporting requirements. If you want to do the deal, you need to include the custom code work .. and support it forever. If your company is small, the big company knows it can make you its slave.

Now your services margin has taken a hit. Your support team is in trouble because they don’t understand how the customization has changed the functionality of the core product. Six months from now when your new version comes out, will it be compatible with the customized version, or will you need to conduct additional professional services work to integrate your new software? Or do you orphan the customer and its custom version of your product and deal with the fallout of that scenario?

The key to good revenue is repeatable, scalable product or services sales. You can only create this scenario when your product positioning and target markets are crystal clear; you know who you have built your products for, and functionally what they are designed to do. You need to understand which deals represent good business, and deals that are potential landmines.

As a former CEO of mine once said (and I’m paraphrasing), “I won’t say no to a bad deal, as long as there is an extraordinary amount of revenue attached to it, so I know that at worst-case, the deal will be extremely profitable.”

Top 5 Quotes on Social Media

2009-08-08T08:03:00.001-07:00

Social media is all about conversations. There is no end of opinion about social media, as businesses begin to wade through the waters of this new world. I thought I'd assemble a few fun and insightful quotes onthe subject.

Here are my top 5 favorite quotes on social media:

“Social media is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.” − Avinash Kaushik, Google

“If content is king, then conversion is queen.” – John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka

“I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super-social media site - YouTwitFace.” − Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show, June 2nd, 2009.

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” − Seth Godin
_
“Web marketing isn’t a spoke on the wheel of our key marketing programs. It is the wheel.” − Bruce Nunn (yes … I had to sneak one of mine in.)

Enjoy!

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

2009-08-05T19:13:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare presentation from Marta Kagan of Espresso, a Boston-based marketing services agency. It is one of the more clever and interesting presentations on social media that I have seen. Enjoy!

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

View more documents from Marta Kagan.