Target Insight Blog

Get the MarketingSherpa Marketing Wisdom 2011 Report

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:25:59 EST

Each year MarketingSherpa issues a Marketing Wisdom Report. It's a collection of real-life marketing stories, test results, and lessons learned.

To get your free 40-page PDF from MarketingSherpa, click on this link: MarketingSherpa Marketing Wisdom 2011 Special Report.

Enjoy!

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Learning from Social Networking Stories

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:33:10 EST

A week ago, Helene Campbell engaged in a twitter campaign to raise awareness for organ donations. In addition to her inspiring story, I have three other interesting stories of social networking in action. Perhaps these will inspire you to develop unique approaches that leverage social media to achieve specific goals.

#1. Inspiring: Donor Awareness via Twitter

On January 18, Helene Campbell (20 years young, Ottawa) used twitter to ask Justin Bieber to help promote organ donation. As a result, Trillium Gift of Life Network had 565 people register on its www.beadonor.ca website from January 20 to 22. Trillium announced, “It would normally take three weeks to get that many people to register.” After much anticipation, on January 22, Justin Bieber tweeted about organ donation to his 16.5 million followers. In addition to achieving her goal, Helene accumulated free media coverage of the organ donation cause, as well as had other Canadian celebrities, like the Barenaked Ladies, tweeting her message to their followers.

#2. Inspiring: Anti-bullying via YouTube

Megan Landry’s (15 years young, Ottawa) anti-bullying video went viral with unexpected media exposure on Majic, CTV Live, and more. As of today, her video has 10,047 views.

#3. Interesting: Lululemon Warehouse Sale via Twitter

People stood in line for four hours on January 20, 21, and 22 to gain access to the Lululemon Warehouse Sale at the Ottawa CE Center. Lululemon leveraged twitter (via a unique handle of @LululemonWHS) and email--resulting in extensive word of mouth--to get their active audience to the sale.

#4. Interesting: Halo Effect via Twitter

While the first three stories are close to home, I wanted to include this story because it's a good example of the halo effect. One year ago, Conan O’Brien chose one random tweep to follow: @LovelyButton. On February 24, 2011, Conan followed @LovelyButton, who had 3 followers. By March 6, @LovelyButton had 28,044 followers. She used her notoriety to raise awareness and fundraise for associations such as Children’s Hunger Relief Fund. Today, Conan has 4,858,304 followers and he still follows just one tweep, @LovelyButton, who now has 89,585 followers.

Do you have a successful social networking story to share? Add your story to the comments field.

The Extra Insight: Look for ways to inspire others to “tweet” and “share” your message to/with their networks.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, social media marketing, social networks, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Delivering Amazing

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:49:46 EST

Professionals outsource marketing requirements for many reasons, but it all comes down to solving a problem: a skills gap problem, an experience gap problem, a time crunch problem, etc. As a marketing communications consultant, I’m in the business of solving problems and, in doing so, I always strive to deliver what is “amazing.”

The consultants that you hire either deliver what is “expected” or what is “amazing.” “Amazing” is different for every customer and it’s a blend of achieving objectives and delivering an exceptional customer experience. Here are some examples:

By listening to your problems, asking questions, and then leveraging broad experiences to offer suggestions, you get a more effective or more on-brand solution
By preparing a project schedule with timeframes, your expectations for deliverables and deadlines are established rather than guessing what the status of your project is
By hitting every deadline, you gain assurance that your consultant is reliable
By using the least amount of your time, you gain more time to focus on other projects
By leveraging years of experience, you save money because it takes the consultant less time to implement a project

If you’re reading this blog article and you outsource projects, are you getting what is expected or what is amazing?

The Extra Insight: Treat your boss and colleagues as clients. If you’re a marketing professional responsible for the hands-on work at your company, you can use these tips to deliver amazing.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Stay Relevant in 2012

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:28:45 EST

Maintaining relevancy and communicating with customers is critical to retaining existing relationships and attracting new ones. What tactic can you leverage to stay relevant in 2012?

A “digital newsletter” is an efficient marketing tactic to regularly touch your target audience. It doesn’t have to be long; in fact, the more concise the better. The key is to make it brief, make it relevant, make it valuable—and get it opened.

Once you determine the content, mix it up. All content need not be paragraphs of text. Here are a few ideas to inspire how you package your brief, relevant, and valuable newsletter:

Use an eye-catching infographic to convey a message (check out the great seasonal infographic by Digital Surgeons at the end of this blog)
Produce a dynamic video to tell a story
Offer an interactive eBook to simplify a complicated issue

Once you decide to proceed with a newsletter this year, plan the frequency and plan a flexible editorial calendar. This will keep you on track.

The Extra Insight: Make sure your newsletter is reader-friendly in preview panes of email apps, as well as with tablets and smartphones.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, marketing newsletter, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

8 Insightful Brainstorming Best Practices

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:09:25 EST

About 15 years ago, I took a one-day course on facilitating meetings. Since then I have facilitated many, many sessions. In particular, I enjoy facilitating brainstorming sessions. The creativity and participation level make the time enjoyable for everyone, and the outcomes make it time worth spent.

Here are 8 ways to get the most out of your brainstorming sessions.

#1 Agenda: Develop an agenda that defines the purpose of the meeting, the outcome that is desired, and the timeframe of the actual brainstorming portion. Let’s use the example of brainstorming a product name. For a group of 5 participants, you’d probably need 20 minutes of brainstorming, whereas for a group of 10, you’d need 30 minutes.

#2. Educate: Use the first 5 minutes to frame the session and set the rules. For framing, review the purpose, timeframe, desired outcome, and next steps. For rules, explain that every idea is a good idea (do not let other participants negate or dissect the idea) and every idea will be written on the whiteboard—every participant’s contribution stimulates creative thinking! The goal is to get as many ideas on the white board as possible during the brainstorming period.

#3. Tools: Use a white board or flip chart paper, and a variety of colourful markers. Being able to see all of the ideas helps the participants’ creative process.

#4. Atmosphere: Establish an inclusive atmosphere. Not everyone is at ease to jump in and say their ideas aloud, so use eye contact to acknowledge individuals and invite them to say what’s on their mind. Establish a creative and fun atmosphere; for example, place colorful and odd-shaped stress balls around the table or blank paper and colourful pens.

#5. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas: Don’t get bogged down dissecting answers. First, it’ll decrease participation; second, it’ll waste time. The goal is to get as many ideas out of the group as possible; discussing and culling them takes place in the ‘next steps.’

#6. Decision maker: It has been my experience that the decision maker must be present. If not, the decision maker won’t like any of the ideas that are put forth. So make sure the decision maker has a seat at the table.

#7. Next steps: Hold a ‘part 2’ session to discuss, dissect, and cull the ideas. By this time, no one will recall who came up with the ideas, so no one will feel uncomfortable when it’s time to chop.

#8. Transcribe: The facilitator needs to transcribe all of the ideas into a document and send it to the team. This is a good time to reiterate the goal and the next steps.

Have a best practice to share? I invite you to share your insights using the comments field.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

10 Ways to Promote Your Company to Prospective New Hires

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:35:39 EST

The majority of my time is spent promoting products and services to prospective customers. Once in a while, though, a client needs to promote their company to prospective new employees.

Here are just 10 ideas to let new talent know that your company is hiring.

Advertise jobs on an “advertising truck” ($): This is memorable! The truck drives around the city during the morning and evening commute.
Run a monthly event (time): Are the majority of your employees engineers? Host a monthly interactive webinar where an employee walks like-minded engineers through a particular software development challenge. Not only does this build awareness for the company, it builds a pool of potential candidates.
Advertise jobs on the back or sides of buses ($)
Advertise jobs in the local newspaper ($)
Advertise jobs on the radio ($)
Try the usual suspects: workopolis ($)
Outreach to journalists (time)
Leverage social media such as LinkedIn, twitter, and facebook (time)
Host an open house/job fair at your offices (time and $): You would use some of the above-mentioned tactics to promote the job fair.

I invite you to share your ideas using the comments field.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Ten Tactics to Deliver a Successful Trade Show

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:14:49 EST

If you have trade shows looming in the fall months, you’re probably planning them now. A successful trade show—or any event for that matter—is the result of sound planning and execution.

10 tactics to deliver a successful trade show

Did you participate in this trade show last year? Read the Post-show Report. How can you improve as a result of what was learned?
Read the Post-Show Report from the most recent trade show your company participated. How can you improve as a result of what was learned?
Work with your team to define what is to be accomplished (goals).
Define measureable objectives that when accomplished demonstrate the goals were achieved.
Develop a comprehensive Event Plan. The plan is the foundation for the execution of the trade show. It includes the target audience, goals, objectives, theme, messaging, promotional tactics, and more.
Develop a budget.
Develop a calendar of activities to guide your execution.
Provide regular communications to your team and booth ambassadors.
Hold a pre-show meeting, at-show meeting(s), and post-show debrief meeting.
Develop a Post-show Report.

What would you add to this list?

Crosby out.

Tags: event planning, trade show planning, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa

What’s a “Collateral” Strategy?

Sun, 15 May 2011 16:51:10 EST

Although we still say “collateral” strategy, today, we're no longer talking about just print (or PDF brochures). We are talking about numerous forms of media:

Corporate overview brochures, PPTs, videos, podcasts
Product brochures, datasheets, demos, webcasts
Solution web pages, ecosystem brochures, issues-based microsites, white papers...

You see what I mean? With so many choices, how does a company define their collateral strategy? The answer is by understanding your customer’s buying process—their buying process; not how your company wants to sell to them.

By talking with your sales team, as well as a representative sample of your customer base (customer research), you can learn what their buying process is and what information they require at each stage in their buying process. Define your collateral strategy (and nurturing process) based on their requirements.

Defining a collateral strategy and implementing it takes time—time that's well worth the effort.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa, customer research, collateral strategy, nurturing process

The Value of Customer Research

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:57:44 EST

I recently read customer research performed by a start-up company. Great stuff! If you are an established company, when was the last time you tested your marketing messages, your audience’s pain points, or your audience’s preferred buying cycle?

Established businesses tend to forget the value of customer research. It’s because we know the customer so well; we talk with them every day. But internal and external environments change with the seasons. And the values- and issues-based messaging that we thought resonated will change if we don’t continue to test assumptions.

How can you use the results of customer research?

Advertising strategy
Messaging strategy
Social media marketing strategy
Multi-media “collateral” strategy
And much more

Either qualitative or quantitative customer research is valuable to ensure your messaging continues to resonant with today’s customers. You never know, you may glean insight that puts you ahead of your competition.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa, market research, customer research

What Info Goes Into a Communications Brief?

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:45:37 EST

Clients and creative professionals consistently commend me on my communications briefs. That’s because a solid brief gets the team to the desired result faster and more affordably.

There are many variations of communications briefs. There’s the Creative Brief (advertisements, direct mail, etc.), Public Relations Brief, and Copywriting Brief, to name just a few.

I believe that the primary purpose of the brief is to articulate what you are trying to achieve. By going through the process of developing the brief, you are forced to identify the problem and to socialize it with the key influencers and decision makers in your company. The result is that everyone’s on the same page and that “page” is then used to brief the creative professional(s).

So what goes into the brief? Depending on the type of communications brief, it’ll include some or all of the following information.

Target audience
Market situation
Market challenges
Value proposition
Benefit
Proof points
Creative focus
Competitive landscape
Objectives
Tone and manner
Strategy
Mandatories
Timeline

Most of my clients are too busy to develop a brief prior to the initial meeting, so I follow this outline to extract the key information that I need to ensure what I deliver will be on target.

Need a briefing template? I invite you to click here to download my generic communications briefing template.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

What's the Best Advice You've Ever Received?

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:14:56 EST

Over the years each of us has received a lot of advice from colleagues, direct reports, and “the boss.” Some of it may have made sense immediately; other advice may have taken a few years to appreciate.

Reputation: Don’t go to a meeting with a problem, go with a solution.
People Management: Tell them what they did well, tell them where improvement is needed, tell them what they did well.
Downsizing: The best thing you can do for the employee is to be direct. Start the conversation with, “I have some bad news for you...”
Marcom Management: Know your audience, know your objective, know your budget.
Copywriting: Read it out loud.
Proofreading: Read it out loud.
Event Management: There’s always one thing that goes wrong before a trade show. Set up the exhibit without anyone around except the event staff. When the rest of the team shows up, they should never know there were any problems at all.
Product Naming, Company Naming, Taglines, Themes: The decision maker must attend the brainstorming session; that’s the only way any of the names put forth will resonate with them.
Probie: You’ve got the first 2 weeks on a new job to ask a hundred questions. After that you’re expected to know everything.
Delegation: If you need something done quickly, give it to a busy person.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received? I invite you to add to this list using the Comments field.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Mr. Sales Guy, Stop Wasting My Time

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:57:23 EST

Did you receive a higher volume of calls from sales people this month? I sure did. And most of them were pretty bad. Want to know the #1 reason they were bad? The companies didn’t do their research.

Here’s an example. “Can I speak to the person in charge of your company’s IT requirements,” asks Mr. Sales Guy. “What, specifically, do you mean by my IT requirements?” “Your servers your computers,” replies Mr. Sales Guy. So I told him that I am an independent consultant with a home office consisting of one monitor, one laptop, one portable hard drive, and one printer. I went back to work; he moved on to the next name and number on his list. Undoubtedly, he wasted many more people’s time, as well as his company’s time.

Many of my clients leverage inside sales for prospecting. The key is to ensure that each person who is called fits the ideal profile of the company’s target audience. The only way to ensure this is to do research—and with the Internet, it’s easy.

Here are a few more bad habits that I noted in the cold calls I received this month:

Saying their name so fast that I had no idea what they said
Ditto for saying their company name
If I was their target audience, the peson didn’t me a reason for wanting to listen to their full spiel (what's in it for me?)
Delivering a poor impression by reading the canned script

Make sure that your company forms good phone prospecting techniques, or that the company you’ve outsourced this all-important role to uses proper phone prospecting techniques.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa, phone prospecting, cold calling, inside sales

Staying within the Law(s) Against Spam

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:47:57 EST

Any of us who communicate with prospects and customers via email newsletters are familiar with CAN-SPAM.

The federal government has passed Bill C-28, which sounds similar to the CAN-SPAM regulations, but goes the extra mile to include social networking (e.g. twitter). The Bill is expected to be in force by summer.

Here's a link to an article in the Ottawa Citizen on Bill C-28 that is a worthwhile read.

Crosby out.

Do You Check Your Digital Footprint?

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 15:40:08 EST

While in the USA recently, I came across these stats:

Here are the stats in case you can't read the newspaper clipping:

54% - The number of adults who’ve checked their digital footprint in the last 5 months or less
19% - Never check their digital footprint
14% - Checked 6-12 months ago
13% - Checked more than 1 year ago

The point here is that if you’re monitoring your digital footprint, then you’re managing your online reputation. In a social media savvy world, it’s important to build and maintain a strong professional online reputation.

To manage your online reputation, be certain that what you publish (social media) reflects your personal and professional brand. Social media is all about engaging and interacting, and sometimes it can be negative. It’s best to avoid emotionally charged responses; everyone is entitled to an opinion.

If you’re looking for a time-saving tool to monitor your digital footprint, check out Google Alerts. You can set up variations on yourself; e.g. “Irene Crosby,” “Irene Crosby Ottawa,” “Irene Crosby Target Insight,” etc.

Make sure you’re managing your online reputation. The Internet and social media is the quickest way for new bosses and new colleagues to form their first impression of you.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Get the Marketing Sherpa Marketing Wisdom 2010 Report

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:03:57 EST

Each year Marketing Sherpa issues a Marketing Wisdom Report. It's a collection of real-life marketing stories, test results, and lessons learned.

To get your free 40-page PDF from Marketing Sherpa, click on this link: Marketing Sherpa Marketing Wisdom 2010 Special Report.

Enjoy!

Crosby out.

11 Ideas to Engage Your Customers in 2011

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:18:58 EST

It’s a new year with a fresh slate. While every business needs to engage new prospects to grow their business, it’s just bad business to ignore existing, highly valuable customers. With that as the goal, here are 11 ways to engage your customers in twenty-eleven.

Before you engage in these engaging ideas, keep in mind that you must (a) offer something that is valuable, (b) offer something that is relevant, and (c) keep your message succinct.

11 Ideas to Engage Your Customers in Twenty-Eleven

#1. Recognize their good news (example: the company won an award).

#2. Offer a complimentary subscription to your regular value-based newsletter (comply with CAN-SPAM!).

#3. Send a link to your company’s blog (that has an RSS feed) or a relevant industry blog.

#4. Did you come across a conference that is right up you customer’s alley? Share the link.

#5. Develop and host a webinar or in-person seminar brimmed with content that is relevant to the existing customers (example: roadmap, industry trends, results of an industry survey).

#6. Send them a complimentary white paper (yours or that of a trusted thought leader).

#7. Read a good article in Harvard Business Review or Strategy+Business? Share the link.

#8. Read a great analyst report? Can you purchase copies to send to customers?

#9. Set up a customer user group (as long as you can sustain it over the long run).

#10. Establish a LinkedIn group and invite them to join. Know of a good LinkedIn group they should join? Share the link.

#11. Will your company be at a tradeshow in their region? Send them a complimentary day pass.

I wish you continued business and personal success throughout 2011.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa, CAN-SPAM

What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy?

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 16:55:42 EST

I believe that throughout 2011 marketers will continue to struggle to understand how and if social media is relevant. Mostly, when we think about social media, we think about social media marketing for the companies who employ us. But, we should also think about our own personal social media strategies.

The best way to learn about social networks is to participate. The first step is to research each social network. Second step is to select which social networks you will participate—keep in mind time requirements and the ability to sustain your participation. Third step is to define your presence; for example, professional or personal. Fourth step is to set goals for your participation. And the fifth and final step is to answer this question: Is there an audience on this social network that ensures I'll achieve my goals?

Here is my personal social media strategy.

Social Network: Irene Crosby LinkedIn
Year Joined: Sometime between 2004 and 2005
Presence: Professional
Frequency Goal: Ad hoc
Participation Goals:
- Expand my professional network
- Learn about the professional background of new people I meet
- Participate in conversations to share knowledge and build my professional reputation
- Stay current with new features of LinkedIn
- Leverage LinkedIn’s features to stay top-of-mind with existing clients and potential new clients

Social Network: Target Insight Blog / Bloggers
Year Joined: 2010
Presence: Professional
Frequency Goal: When I started blogging, my plan was to blog once a week. In practice, though, if I don’t have anything to say, I don’t blog. I average 3 posts a month.
Participation Goals:
- Offer thoughts on marketing communications strategies and tactics
- Stimulate rethinking of current thinking
- Build my professional reputation
- Search engine optimization (SEO) for my company website
- Follow bloggers I enjoy via RSS feeds; e.g. PR Mama Blog, LinkedIn Blog

Social Network: Irene Crosby Twitter
Year Joined: 2009
Presence: 90% Professional and 10% Personal
Frequency Goal: When I started tweeting, my plan was to have the platform open and tweet regularly. In practice, if I’m really busy, I don't open the platform because I don’t have time to read the tweeps that I’m following. Yup, guilty of falling down on step #2.
Participation Goals:
- Share information that I believe will benefit my followers
- Expand my knowledge from the tweeps I follow
- Stay current with new features of twitter
- Build my professional reputation
- Search engine optimization (SEO) for my twitter account
- Follow bloggers I enjoy via their tweets; e.g. Seth Godin

Social Network: Irene Crosby Facebook
Year Joined: 2006
Presence: Personal
Frequency Goal: Ad hoc
Participation Goals:
- Stay in touch with family and friends

In closing, if you haven’t joined a social network or two, I recommend that you jump in. It’s only by trying them that you’ll gain an understanding of whether or not a social network will be relevant to—or benefit—the company that employs you. And if you have joined and are participating in social networks, what other advice would you offer?

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa, social networks, social media, social media marketing

7 Benefits of Delivering Exceptional Customer Service

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:29:13 EST

Delivering exceptional customer service builds a company’s brand and, ultimately, makes a positive impact on your bottom line. Here’s a real-life story to illustrate seven benefits of delivering exceptional customer service.

Each week I publish a blog article from my content management system (CMS) and then verify that it looks fine on my live website. As the result of a recent holiday, I hadn’t checked my website in about three weeks. So the next time I looked at it, I was dismayed to see that my website had transformed into what looked like a text-only, centered, Microsoft Word file. Yikes, how long had my brand looked like that?!

At 5:30 pm, I called the developer of my website, Adam McLean of APM Solutions, and left a voice message at his office. Then I left an email. While visions of hackers danced in my head, I waited—what else can a non-technical owner of a CMS do?

Within 10 minutes, Adam was ringing. He had received my message, was enroute to an evening seminar, and would look at the website as soon as he got back to his home office. At 8:42 pm, Adam sent me an email—problem solved. And when I offered to pay for his time, he declined. Now that’s the kind of service that keeps a customer satisfied. And there are many benefits to keeping customers satisfied.

7 benefits your company gets when they deliver exceptional customer service

Customers remain loyal and continue to purchase your products and services
Customers will provide verbal references to your prospective customers
Customers will agree to put their name against a quote or case study to help you market your products and services
Customers will refer your company to colleagues and, as we all know, there is nothing more powerful than a trusted advisor giving a recommendation
Customers spread the word on their own accord
Your company develops a rock-solid brand reputation
Your company increases its revenue

Are there other benefits that you’d add to this list?

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa, Adam McLean, APM Solutions, web developer ottawa

10 Ways to Wish Your Customers a Happy Holiday

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:26:12 EST

Now’s the time of year that marketing departments plan and implement their “Season’s Greetings Programs.” Some companies have a tried-and-true Season’s Greetings Program, while others do not.

If you’ve been thinking of implementing your first-ever Season’s Greetings program—or thinking of changing up your tried-and-true program—here are some ideas to consider to wish your customers a happy holiday. Sending season greetings lets your customers know that they are valued by your company.

10 Ways to Wish Your Customers a Happy Holiday

Mail personalized “season’s greeting” cards in December. Pro: Your customers know that you value them because you took time to personalize a greeting. Use recycled paper!
Mail personalized “happy new year” cards in January (my personal favourite!).
Drop off or courier a gift. Pro: A gift is something they’ll remember. Con: $.
Email a personalized text greeting. If you’re going to do this, make sure you send personal greetings. Don’t do a one-shot email blast.
Email a postcard greeting. I’ve seen companies do this really well. Pro: It’s a simple picture with a greeting on it, and this can be done as an email blast. Con: Spam filers and image filters.
Email an interactive greeting. Pro: Interactivity is fun. Con: $ and these could get quarantined by a spam filter.
Host a themed after-work at-work party. I went to a New Orleans-themed get-together last year, and it was a blast! Pro: Memorable. Con: $ and time.
Produce a [YouTube] video. Very memorable. Very current. Let them know by way of email, your website, your e-newsletter, your blog—or all four.
Host a customer appreciation evening. I have a client that does this every year for 20-25 key clients. They choose a unique venue and treat their clients to a one-of-a-kind evening. Pro: Good will, face2face time. Con: $$ and time.
Make a donation to a worthy cause. A company can never go wrong with this approach. If your customers are all local, you could consider a local cause like the Ottawa Food Bank. If your customers are international, you could consider an internationally-recognized cause like Nothing But Nets. Let them know by way of email, your e-newsletter, your website, your blog—or all four.

One thing you definitely shouldn’t do—txt ‘em.

What else would you add to this idea list?

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Tips for SEOing PDFs and Video

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:54:27 EST

Warning: The image on this page may be offensive to some viewers (yesterday was Hallowe’en ;-)

Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be an important consideration for companies wanting to be found on the web. You may not realize it, but you can SEO your PDF files. While content within a video cannot be indexed by search engines, the ‘surround’ content can be optimized.

I’ve read two good blog articles on best practices to get search engine spiders to index your site. And since the two authors did thorough jobs, I’ll summarize the best practices and then direct you to their blogs for the details.

Search engine optimization checklist for PDFs

Use earch-friendly filenames
Use keyword-optimized titles
Include nformative, concise descriptions
Add company name in "Author" field
Use several relevant keywords in "Keyword" field
Make sure to fill out all available fields - there is an option to view "Additional Metadata" (in Adobe Acrobat)
Add tags to and accessibility options to your document
Don't forget about Alt tags for images
Add links back to relevant pages on the main website
Write-protect the document
Offer HTML version of the document

For a detailed explanation of these points, please visit seomoz’s blog article, How to Optimize PDF Document for Search, October 17, 2010.

Search engine optimization checklist for Videos

Add a title and description to the web page that the video is published
Include 5-7 relevant keywords as tags
Get more websites to link to and embed your video
Encourage people to rate your video

For a detailed explanation of these points, please visit HubSpot’s blog article, SEO for YouTube: How to Search Optimize Video for B2B Marketing by Mike Volpe, June 9, 2009.

If you have any SEO suggestions to contribute, I invite you to leave a comment.

Crosby out.

Tags: search engine optimization pdf, search engine optimization video, seo pdf, seo video, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Have You Heard of a "Customer Bill of Rights?"

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:18:14 EST

Most projects that come my way are ones that I have a great deal of experience executing. This year, though, I was asked if I could help craft a product company’s Customer Bill of Rights. Having never heard of a Customer Bill of Rights—needs an acronym doesn’t it: CBR—I immediately googled and researched the topic.

My research showed that, primarily, service companies are those that are articulating their CBRs; for example, airlines. That said, more and more product companies are communicating CBRs via their websites. By way of a CBR, the company sets their customers’ expectations in terms of dealing with the organization and how the organization and its employees behave. Most CBRs include statements about service, products, privacy, and communications.

I found that reading examples of CBRs were very helpful. JetBlue Airways’ Customer Bill of Rights is a good example of a service company’s CBR, as is NorthwesTel’s. For more theory on this topic, I recommend that you read Wikipedia’s Consumer Bill of Rights page.

In closing, if this topic is of deep interest to you, there’s a Customer Bill of Rights LinkedIn Group where you can join the conversation. And if you have any insights to share on this topic, or you want to share your CBR, I welcome you to add a comment and URL link to this blog article.

Crosby out.

Tags: customer bill of rights, marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant Ottawa

Marketing Lessons from Italy

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:25:18 EST

I spent two weeks in Italy; specifically, we spent time in Rome, Florence, Siena, and Venice.

Have you ever been to Venice? That's a picture of Venice on the left.

Venice is a culture onto itself. Built 'on water,' all of the roads are waterways. There are no cars in the city—amazing! But I digress.

There’s nothing like visiting outside of North America to remind you of the marketing basics. Here are a few that I noted as we travelled through this bella country.

Price products and services to what the market will bear. We experienced this in Venice. Businesses serving tourists have a “captive audience” in Venice, so products and services in Venice are markedly more expensive compared to other cities. For example, admittance to a water closet in Florence may cost €0.50; in Venice, be ready to pay €1.50. A good meal for two in Rome may cost €90.00; in Venice, be willing to ‘dish’ out €150.00.
Understanding culture is paramount to the success of any product or service. Car makers are NOT spending their valuable resources marketing to Venetians (they are to the rest of Italy though!).
Translate brand and product names BEFORE a launch. We saw a number of brand names that would cause embarrassed laughs if used in North America. So the same is possible if we were to take North American names and promote them in Italy. When targeting audiences whose primary language is not English, save yourself embarrassment and research what your brand and product names mean in other languages.

Ciao.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Why Track Results of Marketing Tactics?

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:22:37 EST

LinkedIn is a great forum for asking questions and getting well thought-out answers. Recently, someone asked what goes into an event debrief. Since I’m a firm believer in tracking the results of marketing initiatives, I was happy to provide a response.

The value of a Post-Event Report starts with a solid Event Plan.

Pre-event

Read any historical evidence that was documented as a result of participating in this specific event in previous years, or similar events
Do a quick strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to identify any changes in the internal and external environments since the last event
Articulate the goals of the event
Set reasonable, measurable objectives (include description, baseline data, measurement of success and date the measurement will be achieved, tracking method, and owner)

Post-event

Collect quantitative data and compare it to the objectives
Collect qualitative data (anecdotal evidence) by talking with relevant stakeholders
Determine what worked and why
Determine what didn’t work and suggestions for improvements
Calculate the return on investment (ROI)
Advise whether you would recommend this tactic be repeated
Document all of this data as historical metrics

This process can—and should—be applied to any marketing tactic that you implement: a website refresh, direct mail campaigns, email campaigns, webinars, and more. The more historical data we collect, the more likely we don’t waste valuable time and resources on tactics that don’t measure up.

What else would you include in a post-tactic report?

Crosby out.

Tags: event plan, post-event plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Is Your Website a Field of Dreams?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:35:04 EST

Remember the movie Field of Dreams? Kevin Costner builds a baseball diamond in his back field with the belief that if he builds it, “They will come.” They being the baseball greats of yesteryears. And, they did come. But that’s Hollywood. This is the real world. When we build websites, we can’t rely on Kevin Costner’s approach.

So why can’t we just hang the website out there in the web-o-scape and expect the phone to start ringing (or toning) with calls and emails from our target audience? There are more reasons than I have real estate here, but let’s talk about the crowded market space that many companies face. Two services and product offerings quickly come to mind.

Outsourced engineering consulting services vendors: Theses companies are competing against thousands of similar companies around the globe. Try inputting “outsourced engineering services” into google and see how many search results are returned.
Call center software vendors: These companies face hundreds of competitors, plus their problem is multiplied by the number of variations of terms that their target audience may search: call center software, call centre software, customer interaction solutions, customer service software, customer support systems, etc.

See what I mean? Even when the number of competitors is smaller (e.g. real-time operating system (RTOS) vendors), we can’t rely solely on the web. It’s better to get our brands known by the target audience before or when they encounter a problem and begin researching solutions. For this, we need solid, well thought out marketing communications plans.

If your fiscal year ends in December, now is the time to begin your planning. If your fiscal year ends September 30, have you finished your planning?

Crosby out.

Want to read more blog articles about marketing communications planning?

Want to read a couple of blog articles about website planning?

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, website planning, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Why I Am Blogging About Bathrooms

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:58:09 EST

Renovating takes a lot of muscle—brain and brawn. Just ask the experienced contractors who spent 11 days working in my home! As I reflect on the project, I realize that the steps I took with the renovation project are much like the steps I take to develop successful marketing communications plans for businesses.

First of all, let me state that I am an experienced renovateur. This is the third bathroom renovation project to which I have subjected my family. The powder room was an ad hoc project that evolved over several years. The boy’s bathroom was a time-critical project resulting from [major unexpected] water damage. The third, and most recent project, was a planned labour of love. We had thought about renovating the ensuite for many years and finally decide to go ahead with the project this summer.

First, we established goals (maximize space) and a budget for the project. Having worked on two previous bathrooms, I had historical evidence of what worked (stone tiles; glass shower) and what didn’t (functional tap vs aesthetically pleasing tap; functional lip vs cool no-lip shower). Since I held intimate knowledge of the ‘target audience,’ I hand-drew the floor plan, highlighted the plumbing that would be moved, and listed the features we required.

So far the similarities between planning a bathroom renovation and developing a solid marketing communications plan have been implicit. I’ve developed and implemented many, many marketing communications plans in my career, and I firmly believe there are three core components of every successful marketing communications plan:

#1. Business goals and measureable objectives
#2. Target audience(s) profile(s) (their wants, needs, pain points, likes, dislikes, etc.)
#3. Budget

In addition to the three core components, there are additional components that are beneficial in developing the plan; for example, just one of the [many] questions I ask companies is: Do you have any historical evidence of marketing tactics that worked in the past for your company and why; and what hasn’t worked and why? (E.g. using the cool no-lip shower has to be explained to every guest. Argh!).

In two weeks the glass shower panes'll be installed and I’ll have another renovation notch in my belt. I’m ready for the next renovation project!

Crosby out.

PS—One more thought. When customers’ expectations are met, they are happy to refer you to others. Here’s a shout out to the experienced and personable team at Kitchens & Bathrooms First.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, marketing tactics, Irene Crosby, marketing communications consultant ottawa

Do People Trust The Advice They Gain from Social Networks?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:55:10 EST

Your customers are tapping their social networks to learn how to solve their business problems. For example, if they’re researching marketing automation tools, they may check out discussions on a LinkedIn group or ask tweeps for recommendations. Therefore, it makes sense to understand and manage how your company is being perceived in the social networking landscape.

Market research firm, Invoke Solutions, recently studied how users of social networks [in the USA] perceive the advice they gain. Respondents were given five choices to questions related to source of content: trust completely, trust somewhat, neither trust nor distrust, distrust somewhat, or do not trust at all. Here are the results:

Blog posts by people respondents know are more likely to be trusted completely (26%) or trusted somewhat (38%)
Blog posts by a company are trusted somewhat (25%) or neither trusted nor distrusted (42%)
Tweets by people respondents know are trusted somewhat (33%) or neither trusted nor distrusted (35%)
Tweets by a company are trusted somewhat (20%) or neither trusted nor distrusted (48%)
Fellow (people) community member comments are trusted somewhat (29%) or neither trusted nor distrusted (44%)
Company community member comments are trusted somewhat (22%) or neither trusted nor distrusted (51%)

Additionally, respondents told Invoke Solutions which features inspire trust in social media:

Open dialog on both positive and negative comments
Quality of content and comments
Responsiveness

Two takeaways: One, the most trusted information is posted by people. Two, people are sceptical of information posted by companies. How can we, as marketers, use this information? Answer: Become a person they know. There are many bloggers and tweeps that I have never met in person; however, I feel that I know them and I trust their advice specifically because of their dialog, quality of content, and responsiveness—the features that Invoke Solutions uncovered.

How can you become a person they know?

Add your photo to your LinkedIn profile
Every time you meet a person for the first time, consider whether to add them to your professional LinkedIn network
If your company has a corporate blog, make sure each blog post is attributed to a person. That person should update their status field with a key message from the blog post and a URL to the post.
If tweeting from a corporate account, use a call sign (^IC) to subtly remind followers that these insights come from a person. If there are a number of you who tweet, add your photos to your twitter page. If at all possible, add your photo instead of logo to your tweet stream.
Whether you blog, tweet, or use LinkedIn, always be insightful and always add value to the conversation

What else would you add to this list?

Crosby out.

PS—For the complete statistics revealed in Invoke Solution’s study, visit http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007863

Tags: social media, social networks, marketing communications

Are Your Employees in the Marketing Loop?

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 15:35:38 EST

How do you feel when someone tells an inside joke, and you’re on the outside? Well, this is how our employees feel when they’re left out of the loop on the marketing initiatives. When employees are in the loop, they become brand ambassadors—and your greatest asset. So here’s a simple solution: The Marketing News Flash (MNF).

The MNF is an email that provides a brief of the marketing initiative. I prefer to follow the 5W approach: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Here’s an example communicating an upcoming event.

-----Original Message-----
From: Irene.Crosby@CompanyX.ca
Sent: August-08-10 7:00 AM
To: All Employees
Subject: MNF | CompanyX to exhibit at ICCM

Marketing News Flash •

What: CompanyX will exhibit at International Contact Center Management (ICCM)
When: September 8-10
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, ON
Who: Call center professionals
Why: To generate qualified prospects that will lead to new business for our call center software products

Our home page has been updated to promote our presence at ICCM.

As we get closer to the event, we will provide you with more information on CompanyX’s presence at ICCM. In the meantime, you can help promote our exhibit by adding this message to your eSignature.

Visit CompanyX at ICCM Canada • Booth #413 • September 8-10 • Metro Toronto Convention Center

Here are the steps to update your eSignature:
1. In Outlook, select Tools in the main menu
2. Select Options from the pull-down menu
3. Select the Mail Format tab
4. Select Signatures
5. Select Edit and then edit the text in the window
6. Select OK and then OK again … Easy!

Cheers,

Irene Crosby

-----------------

MNFs can be used to let employees know about any marketing initiative that is being launched; for example: news releases, direct mail campaign, edirect mail campaign, print ad campaign, and more.

How are you letting your brand ambassadors know what’s coming down the pipes?

Crosby out.

Tags: event planning, electronic signatures, esignatures

Facebook for B2C Marketing

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:58:08 EST

I think of LinkedIn as a social network for communications among business professionals; I think of Facebook as a social network for communications among friends and family. For this reason, I typically do not recommend that business-to-business (B2B) companies invest their valuable resources in Facebook to engage prospects. Facebook can be a valuable medium for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, though, and I received an excellent example of such a marketing initiative today. Here it is:

-----Original Message-----
From: Facebook [mailto:notification+m4nnew2n@facebookmail.com]
Sent: August-05-10 9:50 AM
To: Irene Cossaboom Crosby
Subject: "Penderosa Cottages" sent you a message on Facebook...

Noel Pendergast sent a message to the members of Penderosa Cottages.
--------------------
Subject: opening at Penderosa Cottages for Aug. 8-15
Hello Penderosa Cottage People!
Just wanted to let everyone know we just had a recent opening for a 2 bedroom cottage from Sun. Aug. 8 - Sun. Aug 15.
The rate for this cottage is $1100 + taxes.
Please call our toll free # 1-800-563-3301
Hopefully someone can take advantage of this opening!
Otherwise, our 1st opening is Aug. 21.
Have a great day everyone!
Noel
--------------------

As a “fan” of Penderosa Cottages Facebook page, I receive regular status updates in my Facebook stream, which keep the ocean-side cottages top of mind. Today’s message is a great example of a targeted B2C marketing initiative via Facebook that is timely (holiday season) and relevant (imagine the feel of a cool ocean breeze when its 44 degrees with the humidex!).

Looking for a PEI cottage on short notice? Check out Penderosa Cottages.

Crosby out.

Tags: social networks, B2B marketing, B2C marketing

The Importance of Subtlety in an Era of “Self” Promotion

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:37:02 EST

Integrating social media marketing into the marketing mix can achieve numerous goals for marketers: staying top-of-mind, positioning as a thought leader, positioning as an expert, improving customer service, recruiting new employees, etc. To achieve these goals, and depending on our target audiences, we choose from any of the following social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, blogs, and targeted discussion groups. Although eNewsletters are not a social media network, the point I am making is highly relevant to this tool.

Now, think about the many meetings we’ve participated in throughout our careers. There are the participants who love the sound of their voices and there are the participants who chime in when they have value to add. The latter group are thoughtful. They are inspiring. They are the ones we’d rather listen to.

While difficult for us, as marketers, we need to weight the conversations more on adding value and less on talking about ourselves. This subtlety, in fact, will better achieve our goals. It ensures we are not relegated to the ranks of non-relevant to the conversation.

Here’s my advice. Understand your goals. For example, positioning your company as an expert. List the topics that your company is an expert. Talk about these topics that resonate with and engage your audience, and add value to the conversation. As long as we continue to add value, our audiences will continue to listen.

While the message in this blog article is not new, it is a message worth repeating.

Crosby out.

Added on July 19, 2010 | Reference Articles

Want tangible examples of how to add value? I have 20 years of marketing communications experience. Rather than say, "I am an expert in marketing communications," I let my blog articles do this for me. Here are reference articles that:

Provoke audiences to rethink how tactics are implemented: Evolution of the Traditional Press Release and Rethink Orientation: Landscape Collateral vs. Portrait Collateral and Communicating on the Small Screen
Analyze and provide recommendations based on statistics that I have read: Results of a Social Media Networking Survey
Share content I have found to be valuable but written by others: How to Stand Out on LinkedIn

Tags: social media marketing, social networks, marketing mix, marketing communications

YourCo.com/onlinecommunity vs LinkedIn Groups

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:43:20 EST

As is often the case, a conversation with a colleague spawned today’s blog article. He asked me if I had experience setting up and supporting online communities.

Years ago one would correctly guess that his question was about an online community on one’s website. Today, one can assume no such thing as an online community could refer to LinkedIn, Twitter, or a Blog/Guest Blog. [Cisco created a short-term online community for their recent Cisco Live event. This link takes you to my thoughts on how Cisco leveraged social networks to their advantage.]

So my colleague’s question put my brain in gear: What are the pros and cons of a business-to-business company using LinkedIn Groups vs developing YourCo.com/onlinecommunity? Here’s what I jotted down.

LinkedIn Group: The Pros

Ready-made platform
Ready-made audience (Note: While 92% of professionals are on LinkedIn, do your research to ensure your audience is LinkedIn.)
A feature of LinkedIn Groups is the ability to accept and decline membership requests
Easy to moderate
It’s already recognized as a platform for professionals to engage and share in thoughtful and insightful conversations
Awareness of LinkedIn Groups of interest proliferate automatically via regular LinkedIn Update Emails
Numerous LinkedIn Groups can be established to resonate with specific target audiences

LinkedIn Group: The Cons

Security
Intellectual property (IP) protection [My thinking here is along the lines of tech companies that use their online community to provide easy access to bug fixes and other IP-like assets.]
Not customizable

YourCo.com/onlinecommunity: The Pros

Basically the opposite of LinkedIn Group’s cons:

Security
IP protection
Highly customizable

YourCo.com/onlinecommunity: The Cons

Budget is required if you need to hire web developers
Promotion of the site is solely in your hands

While these thoughts only touch the surface, the message is that we marketers need to consider ways to leverage innovative technology whenever we are presented with a challenge.

The Bottom Line: LinkedIn Groups is an online community platform worth considering. The key is to define your goals, target audience, budget, features needed, and the short- and long-term requirements. Then determine which platform will best achieve your online community goals.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

Crosby out.

Tags: linkedin, social networks, online community

Integrating Social Media and Event Planning

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:26:55 EST

More and more events are using social media networks to connect with a larger virtual audience, and tapping the live audience to exponentially extend the event’s reach. As marketers, it’s up to us to figure out how best to leverage these tools within our own event plans. What you leverage depends on your goals; your audience; your valuable and scarce resources (people, time); and whether you’re an attendee, exhibitor, or speaker (or the event organizer).

Using Cisco Live as a timely example, here are my thoughts on those social media marketing tactics I would leverage—and those I would not.

LEVERAGE: Cisco Live LinkedIn Group

I believe the statistic is that 92% of business professionals are LinkedIn. So it makes sense to find time to join and follow an event’s pre-, during-, and post-event discussions. 10 implementation tactics:

Start a discussion
Add your voice to a discussion
Answer a question
Add a relevant white paper
Blatantly let the group know how they’ll benefit by visiting your booth (don’t forget to include your booth #)
Blatantly promote your company's presentation and what they’ll learn by attending (don’t forget to include date, time, location)
Select “members” and research prospects who are attending; invite them to drop by your booth
Learn from what others are discussing
Can you pick up any competitive intelligence?
Watch what others are doing on LinkedIn and learn what works, what doesn’t

LEVERAGE: @CiscoLive Twitter Feed

This is an opportunity to increase the number of targeted followers and exchange valuable content. I’d plan my twitter strategy, but keep my time in check. 10 implementation tactics:

Note how many followers you have pre-event and post-event
Follow the event feed. Often if you follow them; they’ll follow you, but not always...
Retweet (RT) some of the event’s feeds or direct message (DM) the event to entice them to follow your feed
Include the event hash tag (in this case #cllv10) in all tweets
Click on #cllv10: RT relevant content; join the conversation on relevant posts; see what the competition is saying; gather business intelligence (you can do this post-event as long as the feeds are still online)
Tweet relevant happenings on the exhibit floor and happenings on your booth #
Tweet relevant content learned at presentations and promote your company's presentation)
Blog about Cisco Live: tweet it and the URL
Check Cisco Live LinkedIn Group. If there is a discussion of interest, tweet it and the URL.
Send DMs to all new followers

Cisco Live Blog
As mentioned earlier, Cisco Live incorporated the majority of social networks in their social media strategy but they fell down on blogging—probably because of the time commitment involved. They could have had a blog roll (with RSS feed) for their own bloggers and guest bloggers. I would have leveraged their blog for education and competitive intelligence. Could also have tweeted relevant blog posts to followers, and commented on blog posts.

WOULDN’T LEVERAGE: Vlogging
A vlogging (video blog) was set up onsite so attendees could be taped and the video posted to YouTube. It’s a cool thing for Cisco Live to do, and I could see how they could create a great marketing video for 2011, but I don’t see the currency value if I was an exhibitor June 28-July 1, 2010.

WOULDN’T LEVERAGE: Flickr
Attendees were asked to click, upload, and share photos they took at Cisco Live. Again, I don’t see the short-term value.

WOULDN’T LEVERAGE: Cisco Facebook
My personal opinion is that LinkedIn is the social media network of preference for the business community; not Facebook.

So that’s my rather long commentary on event planning and social media marketing. Have a thought to add? Please chime in using the Comments field.

Crosby out.

PS—If your company is exhibiting or speaking at an event, don’t forget to add a promotional message to your eSignature.

Tags: social media, social media networks, social networking, social media marketing, event planning

Communicating on the Small Screen

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:26:47 EST

It’s happening more and more. We’re not reading the full email that appears on our mobiles. I’m not talking about promotional emails—I’m talking about business communications from our colleagues, customers, and partners. Because of real estate constraints (and distractions!), we think we’ve reached the end of the message but, in fact, we haven’t. Both sender and recipient are to blame. But is there a solution?

Recipient: Scroll to the bottom of the message (even if those blank returns look like the message has come to an end).

Sender: Don’t count on your recipient scrolling to the bottom. If you know that your recipient is a busy and heavy mobile user, try to (1) put the most important information in the first paragraph; or (2) state at the very beginning your key question; or (3) leverage the subject line field; or (4) state, at the top of the email, how many paragraphs to read.

Do you have ideas to add? We’re all eyes.

Crosby out.

How to Stand Out on LinkedIn

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:17:24 EST

Steve Patrizi of LinkedIn, wrote an informative article for imedia connections. Click on How to Stand Out on LinkedIn to read the article.

Here are a couple of my blog posts that include insights about LinkedIn:

How Can Marketers Get the Most Out of LinkedIn?
Did You Notice LinkedIn's New Status Field?
Improve Your LinkedIn Profile
Results of a Social Media Networking Survey reveals that 92% of upper management use LinkedIn.

Crosby out.

Tags: social media networking

The Joy of CMS

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:25:24 EST

Six years ago the updateable content management system (CMS) for websites was just getting some buzz. Today, what marketer can live without ‘em? But, buyer beware.

Many of my blog posts are inspired by customers. This is one such post. In the last month I’ve encountered two companies with sad CMS stories.

Sad Story 1: The CMS that doesn’t offer a preview. Unbelievable but true. You have to publish the page to the public in order to see your mistake.

Sad Story 2: The CMS that doesn’t allow a non-techie to intuitively make updates. After 5 years, this company’s website doesn’t show up in the search engine ranking pages (SERP) because—guess what—the content is never updated. I don’t think the spiders are visiting anymore.

I’ve had some great experiences with customizable off-the-shelf CMSs, like webEdition, WordPress, and the one I use from APM Solutions. I hear Joomla! is very good as well. I’ve also had a positive experience with a custom-built CMS that was developed to achieve a very specific website strategy in support of corporate goals. I’ve also had very bad experiences with CMSs such as #!?%.

Because a CMS is an investment, we need to do our homework and build a website on a CMS that has the features we need now—as well as over the long run.

Here’s my Top 6 CMS Must Have Capabilities

Must allow non-techies to intuitively and easily make updates (e.g. WYSIWYG), add new pages, etc.
Must have a preview page. For example, create a new page, preview it, see a mistake, fix it, preview again, save and then publish to the public.
Must be easy to store and retrieve media files (e.g. PDFs, images, audio, and more).
Must allow for a few different page layouts. For example, a home page layout is different than an interior page layout. And an interior page layout is different than a landing page layout (e.g. you send an electronic direct mail offering a complimentary white paper at companyxyz.com/thejoyofcms).
Must allow metatagging (e.g. title tag, description tag, keywords tag). There are lots of opinions on this one. If you have one—either for or against—please chime in via the comments field at the end of this post and let us know “needed” or “not needed” and why.
Must provide a solid foundation for growth; for example, add a blog, add forms, add e-commerce, integrate to a customer relationship management (CRM) database such as Salesforce, and more.

What “must have” would you add to this list?

Crosby out.

Tags: content management system, website strategy

Wondering What to Include in Your Social Media Policy?

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:02:20 EST

Do you ever read marketing articles and immediately see snapshots of colleagues (or avatars of tweeps!) who would benefit from the information? 21 Rules for Social Media Engagement is one of those articles.

Over the past year I’ve read tweets that ask, “Do u have a #socialmediapolicy u can share?” I’ve read the question in LinkedIn discussions. As more companies add social media to their marketing mix—and more non-marketing subject matter experts transfer the knowledge—you can see why marketers pen social media guidelines.

Brian Solis’ 21 Rules for Social Media Engagement is a valuable resource for anyone developing a social media policy. The bullet-pointed best practices are insightful—and a quick read too!

By the way, the best response given to requests for social media policies included this link to 30 samples: http://123socialmedia.com/2009/01/23/social-media-policy-examples/

Crosby out.

Tags: social media marketing, marketing communications mix, social networks, social media policy, social media policy sample

10 Ways to Use Google Alerts to Your Advantage

Sun, 16 May 2010 17:29:16 EST

Google Alerts are email notifications of fresh Internet content of your choosing. A free service, it’s quick and easy to set up alerts that notify you when—for example—your company is mentioned in the tweetosphere, your competitors are mentioned in the blogosphere, or a relevant job opportunity is posted in the webosphere.

The Google Alerts service has been available for a few years, but many of us could better leverage this tool. Here are 10 ways to maximize the free Google Alerts service for your professional and personal gain.

#1. Gather competitive intelligence. Set alerts for your competitors’ company names, their product names, and high profile people in their organization. Example: “mitel networks”

#2. Be aware of your online reputation. Set an alert for your name: Example: “irene crosby”

#3. Be attentive to your company’s online reputation. Set alerts for your company name, product names, and high profile people in your organization (e.g. CEO, spokespeople). Example: “target insight”

#4. Find prospective customers. Advise your sales team to use Google Alerts. Set alerts for key phrases that prospective customers may be using in groups, twitter, etc. Example: recommend outsourced software development vendor

#5. Leverage intelligence to nurture a target account. Advise your sales team to use Google Alerts. Set alerts on target accounts or current accounts to stay abreast of news about these prospects and customers. Use the intelligence to kick start conversations. Example: “qnx software” delivers an email alert informing you that QNX was awarded the OCRI Awards Strategic Partnership Category, so the Sales Manager calls his contact at QNX to congratulate him/her on winning the award. (Note: Advise your sales team on #6 for the same reason.)

#6. Collect industry/marketing intelligence. Determine appropriate key phrases and set alerts for the product category and/or industry segments you target. Example: real time operating system automotive

#7. Find your next dream job. Set alerts for job opportunities. Example: director marketing Ottawa careers

#8. Learn about topics that interest you. Set alerts on the names of thought leaders you respect; set alerts on topics that interest you. Example: “seth goodin”

#9. Track inbound links to your website or blog. Set an alert for your domain name or even specific web pages. Example: “targetinsight.ca”

#10. Find fresh content to tweet. Set alerts for topics that are relevant to your followers; tweet about the content and provide the URL. Example: “social media marketing”

Get started today

Go to www.google.com/alerts to set up an account.
Plug in search terms (key phrases).
Choose a comprehensive sweep of news, blogs, web (includes twitter), videos, and groups.
Choose how often you want to receive email alerts.
Sit back and wait to see what content is returned to you via an email alert.

Tweak your search parameters

Once you start receiving your alerts, you’ll want to tweak them.

Modify your search terms until you’re getting the right data.
Play with exact phrase search (“”).

Manage your alerts. You may find you’ve registered for more than you can manage. You may find your interests change. It’s easy to delete and add alerts.

Are you using Google Alerts today? How are you maximizing this service? I welcome you to add your ideas to this thread.

Crosby out.

Tags: google alerts, market research, competitive intelligence

Evolution of the Traditional Press Release

Sun, 09 May 2010 08:31:39 EST

Slowly but surely a new form of the traditional press release is creeping into the news rooms of company websites. Driven by the proliferation of social ‘sharing,’ Internet search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, and the fact that the audience of the press release is no longer just journalists, it makes sense that the traditional news release template evolves with the times.

News is no longer limited to traditional media like newspapers, TV, and radio. Consumers of content are online media outlets, bloggers, tweeps, and more. We can leverage social sharing (RSS, digg, twitter, etc.) and SEO best practices to start and spread the conversation to target audiences.

Here’s an overview of the new social media release:

A one- to two-paragraph intro
Links within body copy (builds links to your website when published by other websites; builds internal links when published to your news room page)
Content is easily scan-able bullet copy
Quotes
Tags/keyphrases
Links to additional content relevant to the news story
Links to RSS feed, twitter, digg, etc.

Here are three examples of innovative companies in Ottawa adopting the social media release in varying degrees:

Espial > http://www.espial.com/company/press_item/id-648
Bridgewater > http://www.bridgewatersystems.com/2010-News-Releases.aspx?newsid=385
MapleWorks Technology > http://www.mapleworks.com/press-release-2010-04-28

Media distribution outlets (PRWeb, CNW) are further enabling the social media release by inviting their clients to add photos, audio, video, as well as providing the tools to share and SEO news releases.

I’m a marketing communications consultant in Ottawa, not a PR consultant; however, I stay in tune with the PR profession because of the need for marketing communications and PR to dovetail. PR professionals, what are your thoughts about the new social media release?

Crosby out.

Tags: news releases, press releases, social media release, marketing communications consultant

How Can Marketers Get the Most Out of LinkedIn?

Sun, 02 May 2010 11:24:51 EST

A recent survey, Social Media’s Role in Decision Making by Business Professionals by The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), found that 92% of B2B professionals use LinkedIn. I originally planned to write about 3 tactics you can use to get the most out of this powerful social media network, but my list quickly exploded to 7!

#1. Expand your network. Every time you make a new acquaintance, invite him/her to join your network. Every time you login, you’re prompted with possible contacts. Scan and invite those you know to join your network. Could be a current colleague, a past colleague, a customer, a prospective customer, a partner, a member of the press, a blogger...This list could go on and on and on.

#2. Update your LinkedIn status field regularly. Your network of linked contacts receives a weekly email notification highlighting activity within their network—so your status may be seen by linked colleagues. When your network logs into their account, each is served their LinkedIn home page, so your status may be seen by linked colleagues. This increases your profile, so leverage your visibility with relevant content. Promote a white paper. Promote your current blog post or your company’s. Promote a webinar. Offer a book title that you found valuable.

#3. Join LinkedIn groups. Join groups that your prospects and customers join. Join groups that interest you. Participate. Read discussion topics. Add relevant comments. Initiate discussions that are on theme. Add your voice to the conversation and be recognized as a thought leader.

#4. Answer questions. This is a great way to build your reputation as a thought leader. To build awareness for your company, be sure to include your name, company name, and company website or blog at the end of your response.

#5. Start a LinkedIn group. Once the group takes off, step back and moderate as needed. When conversations are quiet, stimulate discussion by adding relevant and on-theme content.

#6. Prospect and research. Use LinkedIn to prospect for new customers, research the companies, and identify possible decision makers and influencers. (Your competitors are doing this. The companies trying to sell their products and services to you are doing this.)

#7. Introduce people; introduce companies. The number of professionals turning to trusted advisors via social networks for referrals is increasing. If a member of your network has inquired about a company that sells “widgets” and you know a reputable company that does, give a referral.

If you’re not in the 92% that has a LinkedIn account, get one. It’s free. It’s easy. It’s powerful. And it’s going to become more powerful. What are your thoughts on LinkedIn? How else can marketers leverage this social media network?

Crosby out.

Additional resources:

Learn how to improve your LinkedIn profile.
Watch a video illustrating the new features of the status field in LinkedIn.
Read highlights of the Social Media’s role in Decision Making by Business Professionals survey.

Tags: social media networks, social media marketing, social networking

Did You Notice LinkedIn’s Enhanced Status Field?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:35:12 EST

The “status” field in LinkedIn just got better—much better!

While on LinkedIn last evening I noticed the improved status field. Here’s a quick snapshot of what I like about the enhancements LinkedIn has made to improve your social media marketing efforts.

#1. Better explain why your content is relevant. Input your status in the usual way. Below the status field is a second field to add a URL. LinkedIn automatically searches it and populates a field with an image (if available) and content from the web page. The web page title and content can easily be customized if you like.

#2. Better sharing of content that’s relevant. Did you publish a status update and believe the content is relevant to a particular individual? Push it to them by selecting "Share." It'll appear on their LinkedIn home page, and they'll be sent an email. Read someone's status field message and believe it will be useful to a LinkedIn Group or someone in your network? Select "Share" and select individuals or groups. Note: Don't turn this feature into spam; ensure your content is relevant!

#3. Better integration to twitter. Click the Twitter radio button, hit Share, and your Status appears on Twitter.

Watch a video explaining the enhanced Linkedin funtionality.

Learn more about how you can improve your LinkedIn profile.

Crosby out.

Tags: Social media marketing, LinkedIn, enhanced LinkedIn functionality, Twitter, improve your LinkedIn profile

How’s that Website Working for You?

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 10:13:18 EST

Prospective customers are visiting your business website. Is it doing its job of opening a dialog? If it isn’t, you’re missing sales opportunities—worse yet, you didn’t even know there was a sales opportunity.

Prospects may have landed on your website through organic search or paid search; through word of mouth or a trusted referral. Once they’ve landed, though, the only way you’re going to know about it is if your website convinces them you’re a vendor worthy of their time (and budget).

Here are 3 tips to convince website visitors to take the next step and dialog with you.

#1. Who Do I Need to Visit Our Website?
Understand your primary target audience. Typically they’ll be the people who buy your products and services (key influencers and decision makers). Sometimes, in the case of start-ups, they’ll be investors. Define your primary target audience and your secondary audience(s); e.g. job seekers, journalists and bloggers, students. Make sure your look conveys your brand image, and your website navigation guides each audience to the content they seek.

#2. What Data Does My Primary Target Audience Need?
Buyers have problems; they’re looking for solutions. First off, when a buyer lands on your website, make sure the website communicates your offer—don’t make them guess or they’ll bounce. Next, lead them deeper into your website to gather data relevant to their problem. Visitors typically follow a “researching” path.

Awareness: Landing on a website, a visitor scans the home page to see if the vendor offers a solution to their problem. Your website needs to convey an answer to their problem swiftly.
Education: A visit to the About Us page, educates a visitor on the vendor. Your website needs to establish credibility. A visit to the Products/Services pages, gives more details on the solution. Your website needs to balance answering their “checklist” questions against “whetting” their appetite to contact you to answer all of their questions.
Proof: A visit to the Customers page tells a visitor who has purchased from the vendor. Your website needs to establish a proven track record of success leveraging company names, logos, and case studies.

#3. What Action(s) Do I Want My Primary Target Audience to Take?
You need to know about the sales opportunity. Step-by-step, offer your audience non-obligatory vehicles to gather data, engage your company, and put you on their shortlist.

Awareness: Watch a 2-minute video. Download a Corporate Overview. Subscribe to a blog RSS feed.
Education: Register to download a compelling white paper. (Note: White papers are considered valuable assets, so visitors will provide their name and email address. Be wary of asking for too much data, though, as every additional question lowers the chance of them completing and submitting the form. Engagement successful! Now you have a name and email address.)
Proof: Register to download evaluation software. (Success!)

The goal is to give enough data that your company is perceived as a worthy solution and makes it to the shortlist, giving your sales team an opportunity to compete for the sale.

Crosby out.

PS—When a prospect engages during research, make sure you have a defined prospect nurturing process in place as to how and when to respond to inquiries. Downloading a white paper (education) should trigger a follow-up call within 48 hours. Downloading evaluation software (proof) should trigger a follow-up phone call within 24 hours.

Tags: brand image, website navigation, target audience, compelling white paper, case studies, prospect nurturing process

Is Your Prospect Nurturing Process Responsive, Relevant, & Repeatable?

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:21:29 EST

Did you know that 50% of marketing leads receive no follow-up from sales? If you fall into the half that follow up—congratulations! If you fall into the half that don’t, it’s time to take a hard look at your prospect nurturing process.

The key to a solid nurturing program is to ensure the process is responsive, relevant, and repeatable.

Step one: What is a “qualified” prospect?

Define a “qualified” prospect. While it’s different for every company, here are guidelines:

What criteria make a company an ideal customer for your products or services?
What criteria disqualify companies (e.g. geography, industry)?
BANT?

BANT: A lead that has the “budget,” the “authority” to make the purchase decision, a “need” for the product or service, and a “timeframe” for when the product or service is needed, is a highly qualified lead—or prospect.

Step two: How will you engage/disengage?

Define how you will respond to each lead; e.g. phone call, email, etc. Respond within 48 hours; after 48 the lead has gone cold.

You want to see which leads pass the qualification test. I recommend researching the company online, and then calling the lead. Be prepared with a script to ensure you ask as many questions as you can. Also be prepared with a voice mail script if you plan to leave a message. Make sure all data is put into a customer relationship management (CRM) database. (If you are using lists to identify leads, follow this same approach.)

Time is precious. If there is no fit, be honest with the lead (and yourself) and move on.

Step three: How will you nurture prospects into paying customers?

In most cases, one conversation does not close a sale. Define a nurturing process that provides relevant messages to your target audience, taking into consideration where they are in their buying cycle (awareness only or actively researching vendors).

It takes time to think through a logical sequence. Build a workflow of when “this” happens (trigger), do this (response). Here’s an example:

Send an email offering a valuable white paper to a prospect. If the prospect downloads the white paper (trigger), place a follow-up call (response) within 48 hours.

Define a nurturing process that is repeatable by your company.

The bottom line

If your company invests marketing dollars in demand generation programs, make sure you’re one of the 50% of companies that respond to leads. A workflow of triggers and responses is a solid approach to building a nurturing process that delivers a substantive ROI.

Crosby out.

Tags: prospect nurturing program, nurturing process, bant, demand generation

How to Write a Great Boilerplate

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:45:03 EST

If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably undergone a few experiences crafting the perfect boilerplate. It’s difficult right?

Well, I came across this informative article by Jeremy Porter on the Journalistics blog entitled, How to Make Your Boilerplate Sizzle. After the preamble, Jeremy provides a template for crafting a boilerplate and a sample boilerplate.

Definitely worth your time to read this article, and the comments posted by other readers.

http://blog.journalistics.com/2010/how-to-make-your-boilerplate-sizzle/

Here’s one tip I’ve learned from experience. If the boilerplate is to be approved by someone in your organization, schedule a 30-minute session with the approver(s). Using Jeremy’s template, fill in “just the facts” in advance, and use your 30 minutes to facilitate the positioning statement discussion. The process is more efficient when decision makers are given the opportunity to be heard and involved.

Crosby out.

Tags: boilerplate, positioning statement

Results of a Social Media Networking Survey

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:51:50 EST

Today, social media marketing is top of mind. So companies ask me, “Should we incorporate social media networks into our marketing communications mix?” The answer depends on what a company wants to achieve (goals/objectives), and whether their target audiences use social networks. As a marketing communications consultant, I am always on the lookout for new data to offer informed recommendations. Here are the results of a recent survey I read.

CustomerThink published Social Media’s Role in Decision Making by Business Professionals (January 2010), which contains results of a survey completed by The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR).

The Sample

To ensure you draw correct conclusions for application to your target audience, here is the profile of the 356 survey respondents.

More than half of the respondents (58%) live in the United States
58% US; 15% UK; 14% Germany; 11% Canada; the remaining percentage is scattered across twenty-one countries

Half work for companies with <100 employees
49% <100 employees; 13% 10,000-49,999; 11% 50,000+; 8% 100-249; 8%1,000-4,999; 5% 250-499; 4% 5,000-9,999; 3% 500-999 (equals 101%)

Close split in roles: CxO/VP (41%); Director (24%); and Manager (24%)
23% CEO; 24% Director; 24% Manager; 9% VP; 9% Other CxO; the remaining 11% are labelled Individual Contributors

Close split in Decision Makers (47%) to Influencers (42%)
47% Final Decision Maker; 42% Participate in Identifying, Evaluating, and Selecting; 11% Do Research in Support of the Decision

Close gender split
54% male; 46% female

Majority (66%) are between 36 and 55 years old
37% 36-45 years of age; 29% 46-55; 18% 26-35; 12% 56-65; 3% 66+; 2% 20-25%

One-third described their organizations’ primary type of business as “Business Services”
33% Business Services; 14% Computer Products; 9% Non-profit; 8% Manufacturing/Production; 6% Education; and the following were all <5% Financial Services, Telecommunications, Government, Retail.

The Results

50% of respondents participate in 3 to 5 social networks
92% use LinkedIn; 51% Facebook; 41% Twitter
94% access social networks from a PC/MAC; 44% Mobile Device
40% visit social networks many times/day; 36% once/day
Why are respondents accessing social networks?
- Keep track of peers and colleagues (52% agree)
- Access to thought leadership/information (44%)
- Showcase self or company (43%)
- Access to learning/professional development (41%)
- Find out what others think of products, vendors, approaches (36%)
What are the online steps respondents take to inform their decision making?
- Search engines (75%) INTERNET
- Visit company website (73%) INTERNET
- Seek peer referral (42%) TRUSTED PERSONAL ADVISORS/OFFLINE & ONLINE
- Read blogs (41%) | Read the company blog (21%) SOCIAL MEDIA
- Gather opinions via social network (40%) | Query the Twitter channel (26%) SOCIAL MEDIA
- Look up company on a social network (39%) SOCIAL MEDIA
- Email in-person network (32%) SOCIAL MEDIA-RELATED
- Participate in information session (31%) INTERNET
- Outreach to company (19%)
- Email company/subscribe to newsletter (19%)
- Perform multimedia searches (14%)
Three-quarters use social networks to support business decisions (48% lightly; 25% heavily; 23% a little; 4% not at all)
Information from offline networks still has the highest levels of trust with a slight advantage over online (Offline 92% strongly/somewhat trust; Online 83% strongly/somewhat trust)

The Bottom Line

Keeping “the Sample” in mind, here are takeaways from this survey’s results.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the big three social networks. It did not surprise me that 92% use LinkedIn as a professional social network. Nor did it surprise me that 41% use Twitter as a professional social network. It did surprise me that 51% of this audience use Facebook as a professional network. I will continue to hold the opinion that Facebook is more of a personal network than professional network—I'll need more data to change my perception.

Respondents see value in social networks. They appreciate the ability to reach out and connect with others to gain fresh insight, ideas, and actionable information.

Respondents gather decision-making data from social networks; however, offline networks remain the more “trusted” data.

One more thought: Make sure you take screen size and usability into consideration when launching a new website or blog (44% access social networks via a mobile device; e.g. Smartphone, Tablet).

Download Social Media’s Role in Decision Making by Business Professionals by The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR). Source: CustomerThink.

I invite you to add your thoughts via the comments field.

Crosby out.

Tags: social media networks, social media marketing, social networking, marketing communications mix, marketing communications consultant

Rethinking Orientation: Landscape Collateral V. Portrait

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:59:43 EST

About ten years ago, marketing communications pros debated digital collateral versus print. I’m going to state the obvious: PDF won. I propose that it’s now time to rethink orientation: landscape PDF collateral or portrait?

Five reasons why landscape PDF collateral is an improvement over portrait

#1. Your customers’ laptop, desktop, and tablet screens are landscape. (The inset picture is a combo laptop/tablet, which can be viewed in landscape or portrait).

#2. Your customers are able to eyeball an entire page on the screen.

#3. Because your customers see the entire page, their user experience is vastly improved; e.g. less scrolling up, down, and around.

#4. Because your customers see the entire page, each can increase the size of the PDF to achieve preferred readability.

#5. A landscape brochure breaks through the clutter (WOW factor), thus creates a memorable impression.

Proof points

Here's your opportunity to see for yourself. Look at Ivar Jacobson International’s Corporate Brochure (landscape), Esswork Overview Brochure (landscape), and Process Essentials Fact Sheet (portrait).

Three considerations before making the plunge

Rethink your collateral strategy: What collateral pieces are to be transformed? What new pieces are coming down the pipes that should be formated in landscape?

#1. Identify multi-media collateral: There are collateral pieces that are still needed in print; for example, Corporate Overview pieces. What pieces in your collateral family are needed in both PDF and print formats? Understand how your customer uses, shares, or files print collateral. While landscape makes practical sense for the web, is there a reason your printed pieces should be laid out in portrait?

#2. Collaborate with a graphic designer on layout: Column width is a key consideration for readability. How it will look in print (#2, #3) is a key consideration. A graphic design pro will ensure an exceptional user experience whether the piece is digital or print.

#3. Establish a calendar: Your entire collateral family does not need to be transformed. Once your research is complete, prioritize the transformation of those pieces you will update.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Have “reasons” or “considerations” to share? Do you have a real-life experience to share?

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications, collateral strategy

Improve Your LinkedIn Profile (and the Power of Video)

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:26:45 EST

Here is a worthwhile 7:45 minute video that is packed with info you can use right now to improve your LinkedIn Profile.

This video discusses how to make your profile more compelling via:

Picture
Headline
Websites
Summary
Specialties
Groups
Keywords
Blogs
Interests
Status updates

Author: Lewis Howes

Duration: 7:45 minutes

Go to the Improve Your LinkedIn Profile now.

Update: I turned a critical eye on my own LinkedIn profile. Having now implemented a number of the suggestions presented via the video, I offer you two recommendations.

Don't overwhelm your target audience with data. Information overload may result in visitors who jump off your page. Be selective. And be concise. Which leads to the second recommendation.
Do rearrange the order in which Profile Sections are presented. How to Do This: While in "Edit My Profile" view, mouse over the +profile section titles along the right-hand side of the page and follow the prompt.

Crosby out.

The 3 Core Components of All Marcom Plans

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:10:16 EST

The key to a successful plan is to ensure it is appropriately conceived. Are you developing a Marketing Communications Plan? An Event Plan? A Website Plan? In all cases, there are three harmonizing components that are foundational to the success of your plan.

#1. Goals/Objectives

Articulate what you need to achieve. Goals are statements of intent such as “increase revenue” or “build a reseller channel.” Goals are nothing without objectives. Ask yourself [and your team] the question, “How will we know when we are successful?” Objectives are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.

Why are goals and objectives core to a plan? Taking time to articulate what you need to achieve ensures that you spend valuable resources (people, time, and money) on only the most appropriate strategies and tactics that will deliver the desired outcomes.

#2. Audience(s)

Define the ideal profile of the target audience(s). The profile includes verticals, titles, demographics, pain points, likes/dislikes, media that resonates—any critieria that ensure you are communicating with the right person. In the case of the three plans mentioned in the introduction, you may also want to include dis-qualifiers. Here’s a concrete example of what I mean. You are developing a Marcom Plan and researching tradeshows. Your software product does not support the MAC operating system. The attendee profile at XYZ Expo 2010 is: 80% MAC shops, 10% Windows, 5% Linux; and 5% Unknown. Time to leave this website, and look for a better fit.

Why is profiling the audience core to a plan? Identifying the audience ensures you hone in on only the most appropriate vehicles that will deliver the required return on investment (ROI).

#3. Budget

State the funds allocated to the plan.

Why is budget core to a plan? There are upward of a hundred different tactics that you can employ to connect with an audience. Knowing how much you have to spend ensures you choose tactics wisely and that they achieve a healthy ROI.

One cannot develop a communications plan without articulating these three elements: goals and objectives, audience(s), and budget. Leaving out any one of these components will lead to a flawed implementation and unhealthy ROI.

Crosby out.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan, event plan, tradeshow plan, website plan, communications plan

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:56:47 EST

To blog or not to blog has been debated over the past decade. While I profess the benefits of blogging to clients, I’ve deferred for years because I don’t have time. Interestingly, that’s the same excuse I get from many of my clients (LOL!). I decided this year to make time; my goal is one post a week, which I believe is realistic. If you’re not blogging, here’s why you should set a goal and give blogging a second look.

Five Reasons to Blog

1. Give your company a human voice.
2. Share your knowledge.
3. Improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) with fresh content that is on theme.
4. Reuse your content. Leverage article marketing; be a guest blogger. By submitting your blog content to article ezines and relevant themed blogs, you reinforce yourself and your company as a subject matter expert. Plus backlinks to your website help increase your SEO rankings.
5. Enjoy the creative outlet that is writing!

Five Blogging Takeaways

1. Stay on message. Blog about topics that are relevant to your audience and topics that you know.
2. Keep it short and succinct. Today’s readers are time constrained, and that’s why they enjoy blogs. Use tips and checklists for easy scanning.
3. Add images. From time to time, add a visual to your blog post to help tell the story.
4. Invest in features that turn your blog into a social media tool. Add RSS feeds so that subscribers are notified when you publish an article. Add twitter links so others can tweet about the article. Enable comments if your blog software allows the feature so you get feedback from readers.
5. Leverage social media marketing to push content. Have a twitter account? Tweet the blog article and provide a hotlink. (Hint: Keep your tweet short so that it can be retweeted by your followers.) Have a LinkedIn account? Mention the blog article in your status field and provide a hotlink.

Here’s a sixth takeaway. Have a thick skin. When you decide to blog, you put yourself out there for criticism. Not everyone will agree with your opinion. Keep in mind that you don’t have to counter every criticism. Decide your strategy with careful consideration.

Writing is a rewarding activity. Start blogging. Hey, and if you have any takeaways to add, I invite you to comment.

Crosby out.

Note: As a guest blogger, this article was contributed to the FreedomCafe Blog on March 10, 2010. In the virtual world FreedomCafe provides valuable content to solopreneurs; in the real-world FreedomCafe's a drop-in facility offering workspace, meeting rooms, free Internet, and free parking.

Tags: blog, blogging, article marketing, article ezines, backlinks, search engine optimization, social media tool

Will Your Marketing Communications Plan Earn You a Spot on the Podium?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:50:58 EST

The Winter Olympics was top of mind for the past two weeks. Now that the games have wrapped up, it’s time to reflect on successes and failures. This is similar to executing a marketing communications plan.

Sports are strategic. Eyeing the gold medal, athletes sought coaches with the experience to help them achieve their goal. They put in hours of training. They fuelled their bodies with the appropriate nutrition.

How is this like a marketing communications plan?

When developing a marketing communications plan, eye the end goal. The best way to visualize the end goal is to ask yourself, “How will I know when I have achieved success?” In simple terms, it could mean a measureable objective of five new customers within a twelve-month period.

Next, do the math. How many leads do you need to put in your opportunity pipeline to close five new customers?

Now, do the research. Understand the profile of your target audience, the media that connects with this audience, and the messages that resonate with this audience. Define the mix of online and offline tactics and the frequency of communications required to achieve the objective.

Do some more math. Will the cost of the plan achieve an acceptable return on investment (ROI)?

Like an athlete in training, you’ll have good days and bad. Always watch and evaluate the results you are achieving. When necessary, refine tactics to stay on course.

Will your marketing communications plan earn you gold, silver, or bronze?

Crosby out.

Note: As a guest blogger, this article has been contributed to the FreedomCafe Blog. In the virtual world FreedomCafe provides valuable content to solopreneurs; in the real-world FreedomCafe's a drop-in facility offering workspace, meeting rooms, free Internet, and free parking.

Tags: marketing communications plan, marcom plan

eSigs: Make Your eSignature Do Double Duty (Part 2)

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:16:54 EST

Earlier this month I blogged about the importance of investing time to craft an email signature that communicates an appropriate impression of you and your business (eSignatures: What’s Yours Telling Me about You? (Part 1)). Today’s blog covers how to construct eSigs that do double duty for you.

eSig Building Blocks

A typical eSig includes two key messages: This is who I am. This is how you contact me. Wise businesses include a third promotional message: a succinct ad containing a clear call to action. This is how to make an eSig do double duty. Take a look at this eSig we saw in the original blog article.

L’hren Lear
Lear Marketing, Inc.

Mobile   613.555.1234
Email    lhren.lear@learmarketing.com
Online   www.learmarketing.com
Twitter @lhrenlear

You can easily figure out the “sender” and “contact” messaging. The twitter address, linkedin URL and blog URL fall somewhere in between “sender” and “advertising.”

Promotional Messaging

An eSig is a zero-cost advertising vehicle. Do you have a new white paper? Will you be speaking at a conference? Are you hosting a webinar? Did you publish a new blog article? Are you going to a trade show and want to set up meetings? Were you interviewed and the clip is online? There’s really no reason not to leverage your eSig. The biggest dilemma is ensuring you don’t go overboard.

Balancing Act

Have you ever seen one of those emails that take up half a page? Don’t go there. Try to balance your sender, contact, and promotional messages. Let’s take a look at two good examples.

Here’s an example using a “stacked” eSig.

L’hren Lear
Lear Marketing, Inc.

Mobile   613.555.1234
Email    lhren.lear@learmarketing.com
Online   www.learmarketing.com

Visit Lear Marketing at the SOHO Show 2010
Scotiabank Place • February 22 • 8am-5pm

Here’s an example using a “domino” eSig.

L’hren Lear | Lear Marketing, Inc.
M: 613.555.1234 | lhren.lear@learmarketing.com | www.learmarketing.com

Download the white paper, eSig Smarts for Small Businesses

Take time today to craft an eSig that sends the right message about you and your business—and add a succinct promotional message with a clear call to action.

Crosby out.

Xtras!
How to create your eSig in Microsoft Outlook.
How to update your eSig if you use a BlackBerry.
How to update your eSig if you use an iPhone.

Tags: email signatures, signatures, esigs

Exceeding Customer Expectations

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:08:15 EST

Unexpectedly, Laurier Optical just rang my phone. The new glasses I ordered on Tuesday (today is Thursday) are ready for pickup. (Actually I ordered two pairs; too difficult to narrow the choice to one ;-)

Because the optician had set an expectation that the new glasses would arrive on Monday, today's call was quite un-expected. Not so strangely, I'm more satisfied with the optician. It's such a pleasant surprise when a supplier is early rather than late.

Exceeding expectations is not a new idea, but it is one that we should consistently keep forefront in our minds. What can you do to exceed your customers' expectations?

Crosby out.

Tips for Looking Your Best on Video

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:17:48 EST

With the proliferation of YouTube, companies are turning to video to communicate their messages.

I’ve also seen some very cool web-based interactive brochures that use video. Click here for one developed by Cyan Solutions based in Ottawa.

The key to getting your message across appropriately is to ensure your body language enhances the message rather than detracts (or distracts) from the message. For this reason, whether you’re the person being videotaped, the marketing communications professional bringing the vision to life, or the videographer shooting the video, I think this 4:16 minute video is time well spent.

Check out Tom Mucciolo, president of MediaNet, giving tips on how to improve your technique on video.

Crosby out.

Marketing communications professional, web-based interactive brochures, cyan solutions, youtube videos

Good Will Hunting

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:52:21 EST

A friend told me a story this weekend. A story that marketers will find interesting.

Just before Christmas my friend purchased a flora lamp from Lee Valley Tools. A week ago she received a letter from this same retailer. Inside was a cheque for $18 and a letter explaining that they had dropped the price of the flora lamp in their new catalogue. $18 was the difference. Wow!

Leveraging a powerful data mining tool, a bit of time, and $18, Lee Valley Tools is elevating their brand reputation one customer at a time. In combination, the good will story has a far-reaching effect; these satisfied, albeit surprised, customers are telling their stories to others.

What unexpected "happy" surprise will get your existing customers talking you up to prospective customers?

Crosby out.

brand reputation, word of mouth, lee valley tools

eSigs: What's Yours Telling Me about You? (Part 1)

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:55:51 EST

I’ve seen a lot of email signatures—eSigs as I like to call them. I’ll bet you have too. Like conjuring a face from the voice you hear on the phone, an eSig conjures an image of the sender. As is all too frequent, the person is rarely identical to the mind’s eye.

But, because an eSig is a powerful tool that will move from PC to PC to PC as you connect with influencers and decision makers about your product or service offering, as a marketing communications professional, I believe investing time in striving to communicate the right image is time well spent.

Let’s start at the beginning. What message do you want to communicate? Let’s take a hypothetical scenario. L’hren Lear is a marketing professional, who is starting her own business. She’s going to do a lot of cold calling and cold emailing. You’ve just received her email, and here’s what you see closing off her message.

L’hren Lear
Lhren@hotmail.com
613.555.1234

What’s your impression of L’hren? Here is mine. She’s consulting until she nails that full-time position. I get this because my perception is that this is a personal email account rather than a business account (is that your perception as well?). A better choice is a gmail account; an even better choice is a unique email address. I really don’t get too much else from L'hren (other than her name is pretty cool). Can you see where I’m going with this?

Okay, let’s say you see this closing off L’hren’s email to you.

L’hren Lear
Lear Marketing, Inc.

Mobile 613.555.1234
Email lhren.lear@learmarketing.com
Online www.learmarketing.com
Twitter @lhrenlear

What’s your impression of L’hren now? I think she’s corrected the earlier impression. Plus, she’s gone the extra mile to convey a message that is ultra important if you’re a marketing professional in 2010: L’hren uses social media marketing.

Take a look at your eSig. Ask yourself two questions. What impression do I want recipients of my emails to receive? What additional information will help support that impression?

In Part 2, we’ll cover the anatomy of an eSig and how you can make it do double duty for you.

Until then, Crosby out.

marketing communications professional, social media marketing, email signature, esignature, esig, freedomcafe

5 Ways to Wow Your Customers

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:50:58 EST

Preamble: As a guest blogger, I contributed this article to the FreedomCafe Blog on January 27, 2010. FreedomCafe speaks to solopreneurs, so as you read this article, think of your particular business, and what you and your team can do to wow your unique customers. On to the article...

You’ve heard this often: It costs less to keep your current customers than it does to find new ones. What can you do to wow your clients so they keep them coming back for more and they confidently refer you to their colleagues? From a marketing communications consultant’s point of view, here are 5 proven tips.

Tip #1 | Recognize good news; share goods news

Did your client win a Branham Award? An OCRI award? Get their name in the OBJ because they brought in new business? Even if you knew this was coming down the pipe, send your client a “job well done” email. Do you have a twitter account? Tweet the news. Do you have a Linkedin account? Mention the news in your status update field.

Tip #2 | Prove they’re valuable

When I worked in the corporate world, it drove me nuts to have to contact vendors to ask them for the status of the project they were working on for me. Consultants are paid to set expectations and manage expectations. Your clients shouldn’t have to spend their valuable time guessing. Every Friday, I send my clients a very brief email outlining the status of their project. My subtle message is that they’re important and their time is important.

Tip #3 | Be honest

For some of us, it’s hard to be “disagreeable.” But, when clients hire us, they are looking for advice based on our years of experience. If you disagree, the best thing you can do for your client is to provide a different point of view and evidence to support your point of view. Sometimes it means you agree to disagree and you do it their way, but sometimes wowing means various viewpoints.

Tip #4 | Put it in writing

Your client referred you to a prospective new customer. Congratulations! Reinforce the good relationship you have with your client by taking the time to ink a thank you note and post it. Nothing wows a client more than receiving an unexpected thank you card in the mail.

Tip #5 | Be grateful

Ottawa is an extremely competitive marketplace for the self-employed. Think back. When was the last time you thanked your clients for their business? At a minimum, show gratitude by adding “thank you for your business” on your invoice. Thanking a client is easy to do.

What would you add to this list?

Crosby out.

marketing communications consultant, marketing communications services, marketing services, freedomcafe