Alice Elliott's blog

Do businesses really think like their customers?

Alice — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:00:22 +0000

It’s important not to forget how your customers think. There’s the old adage: “put yourself in their shoes” – but there any many businesses who don’t.

The trouble is, they get so wrapped up in what they’re doing, the technology and the objectives, the jargon and the statistics, the products and the profits, that they stop seeing the wood for the trees.

It seem the larger the organisation, the more cocooned in their technological bubbles they become. The marketing lingo is almost like a foreign language, acronyms are bounced about like rubber balls, the bigger picture is adhered to without any consideration for the ‘now’.

Therefore it is a good thing to deliberately put yourself in the place of the customer, and try and analyse exactly what is going on, what decisions have been made, what the promotions actually mean, how understandable are they, and how easy is it to perform online what the company wants to be done.

This is a common problem in such a fast moving technological world, where new methods are constantly created and objectives, opportunities and outcomes change. The personnel inside the organisation adapt to maintain the status quo, but do their customers? So much new knowledge is absorbed, implemented and monitored, that they forget outside world is struggling to keep up.

So sometimes the words that are used, the message that is put across, the way the company communicates with their customers, seems to have lost touch with the ‘real world’. They are so proud of their products and the technology behind them, this sometimes clouds over the real purpose of promotion: you need to use the same words the customer would use, empathise with their problems, and provide a solution with real added value.

How you use digital marketing is the key

Alice — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:00:08 +0000

Many companies are waking up to the idea that they must start using digital marketing. Many of them may already be using it – sort of – because they are aware of Facebook, Twitter, email newsletters and the like.

There are many reasons why companies have not progressed within digital marketing, but the most obvious, and controversial, reason is that the key players, the decision makers, even those that are responsible for its implementation, don’t understand it.

The trouble is, you need to start thinking outside the world of conventional marketing. Not necessarily the foundations, as they are always good, otherwise your marketing will just fall down, but many of the concepts of the top layers have flown out of the window, superseded by another way of thinking.

The old ideas aren’t working any more: how you communicate to your customers (look at us, we’ve been around for 50 years and have so much experience, aren’t we great!), advertising (banging on about the wonderful technology that went towards creating your product), hierarchy of importance (always put the company logo at the top?), self awareness (don’t assume everybody knows you or what your product is), and how should your customer find you (the size or even absence of contact details).

And then there is that mad scrap to start using digital marketing just because it’s there, but without any rhyme or reason behind the action. Great, you’re on Twitter, but what’s the point if you’re not tweeting. Great, you’re on Facebook, but what’s on your Facebook page, if you’ve got one. Great, you’ve got a QR code, but does it have to go to your homepage? And then there’s the basic element of digital marketing, the website…

Websites have changed dramatically. They have taken on a completely new dimension that has passed many companies by. Gone is the idea of an online brochure, somewhere on the web that shows what your company is and what it does. That was so last century. It’s time to move on from Web1.0.

Digital marketing requires action. It requires work from both sides, customer as well as company, in equal measures. It needs interaction, and a good reason for doing so. There must be incentives for this ‘give and take’ on the internet, or it will just fall down flat. Digital marketing opens such a huge amount of opportunities that was never available before, infinite rapidity of communication, research, concepts and interaction.

America has taken this storm with a vengeance, the UK is just starting to cotton on, Europe is only just opening its eyes. And as for the Far East – you’d be amazed! Digital marketing is a phenomenon that moves so fast, if you blink at the wrong time you’ve probably missed it, but that is no reason not to make an effort towards incorporating it into your business.

But this harps back to the beginning of this post – many are doing it wrong because they don’t understand it. In spite of the urgency, it’s worth investing in finding out a bit about it before launching headlong in. The internet is a wealth of information, all you’ve got to do is to know where to tap into it and you will learn. And going back to the old marketing foundations, plan your objectives, strategies and tactics and measure and monitor your results, and you’ll start to see a difference.

What’s wysiwyg and how can it help?

Alice — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:00:12 +0000

Wysiwyg, or ‘what you see is what you get’, was a great revelation back in the ’80s (ooh, that dates me), when suddenly all this meaningless programming with mind-boggling code was replaced with a visual of what you were trying to create. I suppose I was advantaged when my Mum insisted on using Macs, and these new-fangled little boxes with their tiny screens and smiley faces blinked out exactly what you were trying to achieve, without any horrid green writing in sight!

Over 25 years later and you’d expect wysiwyg to be common place. But why do web developers fail to realise this phenomenon is still vital for those who don’t understand code (which is, actually, the majority of us)?

I have been battling with a particular CMS recently. It is supposed to be wysiwyg, but the programming has gone so awry I don’t know what I am seeing. For me it is OK, because once I’ve fathomed it out what I’m supposed to be working on, I can make the necessary allowances. But if others are to be trained in how to use the system, and the wysiwyg has gone by-the-bye, then it’s going to be all that much harder.

In this world of visual capacity, you’d think wysiwyg would be second nature. People expect to see exactly what they are working with, so why should a ‘preview’ provide you with something totally different from the end product? I can see why so many people are battling to understand the system, and that a suitable ‘teacher’ is required to help them.

So perhaps web developers should raise their heads above the code and formulations, and spare a thought for us mere mortals who are willing to understand, but are totally flummoxed when we view something that isn’t, especially when we don’t know what we’re supposed to be seeing, and have no way of sorting it out for ourselves!

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The importance of simplicity

Alice — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:00:44 +0000

I’ve always been an advocate for simplicity. Over-complicated things are such a waste of time, for both understanding and implementing.

Simple things aren’t necessarily beautiful, but your perception of them will change once you start to appreciate their simplicity. An ugly structure can support a beautiful exterior, because it has been specifically made to be as functional and practical as possible.

Something that is beautifully simple is so easy to transfer. Its simplicity enables others to participate in its function; the reason it was created in the first place. The more simple it is, the more readily it will be used, appreciated, shared, talked about and referred. A simple thing is a joy to pass onto another who would benefit from it.

And if the simple thing has been very cleverly made, its longevity is almost guaranteed. Practicality overpowers confusion, simplicity supersedes complication. If you possess something that is difficult to understand, simplify it immediately!

How to wine and dine your prospects online

Alice — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:48:06 +0000

Online customer relationship marketing (jargon for engaging with customers online) is a bit like hosting a dinner party. As every dinner party hostess will know, it’s all about your guests. You are not there to promote yourself, but to engineer the evening to make it as pleasant as possible for all present. You take pains to make sure everybody gets on famously, there is suitable entertainment, and the food is unanimously enjoyed.

It is during the Entrée where connections are made and people are introduced to each other. The hostess will have provisionally done some research into each of her guests to enable these introductions, and will flit effortlessly from guest to guest, initiating conversations, repeating anecdotes to influential persons or broadcasting suitable topics the party as a whole, tirelessly updating her threads of communication so that everybody gets a chance to hear. She will also be listening for responses, and will adapt her hosting technique accordingly.

(In business terms, undertake initial research on your target market, set up a blog and social media profiles and start interacting regularly and consistently to engage interest on the web. Engage in a conversational style on social media and your blog.)

Progressing onto the Fish course, the hostess will have concentrated on the presentation of her dishes, providing tempting flavours that are difficult to resist, combined with unusual yet appealing food combinations to arouse compliments, comments and opinions. Certainly this course has got her noticed as an excellent cook as well as hostess, and she is willing to share her recipes with anybody to be tried at home. She hopes that her guests will remember this particular course enough to tell their friends and acquaintances about it.

(Business: provide something of added value, such as top tips, white papers and e-books, and offer the contents to anybody in accessible formats. This freely available quality information will be passed virally throughout the web, increasing its exposure and enhancing the reputation of the author.)

The Meat course is the highlight of the evening. Here the best topics of conversation are discussed, combined with the most sumptuous of roasts and game. Everybody eats heartily, enjoying the flavours and variety of dishes, and the wine flows freely. Appetites are satisfactorily satiated and the hostess is claimed to provide the best dinner parties in the town. They all look forward to the next event and decide to leave their calling cards along with their compliments at the end of the evening. Particular dishes are attributed to the hostess later in the tea parties and wine bars as guests remember the evening.

(Business: highlight the benefits of your business rather than the features; provide incentives to encourage a subscription to a mailing list for future communications; provide memorable responses that trigger a recollection of your business even when not present.)

Even the fullest of guests will have left some room for Pudding, as nobody could resist the delicate dishes full of fruit and scented ingredients, light enough to tempt a nibble, leading onto devouring the entire bowlful. The art is not to offer heavy steam puddings with rich sauces, but fluffy and delicious sweets perfectly complimenting the courses that have gone before.

(Business: put the contacts gathered earlier into a database and send consistent communications as e-newsletters to your new customers. Here you can drip-feed them with more added value and information about your company. The idea is not to use hard-sell tactics, but to highlight the benefits your company has to offer by educating them into how you can make their lives better.)

Coffee and liqueurs is a time to relax and reflect on the evening. As the port is passed amongst the gentlemen, and the ladies retire to the sitting room, the dinner party is discussed into its merits and what could be done to improve it – as many will have their view as to what could be done differently to make it even better. The hostess will not be offended, and will gratefully gather these suggestions, with a determination to make her next dinner party surpass any that have gone before.

(Business: Set up a method of gaining feedback and comments to provide a better service for your customers. This will enable improvements both to the customer relationship marketing practices, and the company and its products or services, with provision for better incentives, added value and customer retention processes.)

Alice Elliott is a digital marketer with an emphasis on providing beginner blogging help through her alter ego the Fairy Blog Mother. Here’s that code you’re looking for: CONVERSATION. Oh – and if you’re reading this post and wondering what the heck the code is for, click here to join the party.

Communication, an effective business tool

Alice — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:47:51 +0000

As my entry into the JupiterJasper Marketing lesson blogging competition, this blog is about the one concept of marketing I think will really help your business. This is ‘communication’, which comes in many guises:

Research

Do research into how your customers think, in order to communicate with them effectively. Even before starting to trade, it’s imperative to understand what they want or desire, what makes their lives easier, what spending power do they have, what their lifestyles are, where they congregate, and what they like doing the most. Then whatever you say to them will be on the same level, and by using scenarios that they can relate to, your concept can be delivered in the most appropriate and appreciative way.

Listening

Your most effective tool is to listen. Stand back, watch and absorb how your customers react to your product. Ask questions or request feedback, comments, opinions, suggestions and requirements. Be accessible at all times, always accommodating and approachable, and provide acknowledgement where applicable. Respond effectively to the results, by adapting your business or changing your products. And continue this exercise as an ongoing process, rather than an initial burst and a reactive response.

Conversation

The main concept of Web2.0 and social networking is conversation, or in marketing terms, interaction. In this technical age we can respond immediately to whatever we see in the web, from filling in a form to contributing to a forum. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter allow visitors to react, respond and comment, to leave their mark and create an impact, to put their point of view across, to sympathise, empathise or ask for more information. The two-way, or even multiple-way, conversations that build up stimulate the search engines to index these sites, exposing them to a larger audience.

Relationships

Social networking is all about creating online relationships, finding and communicating with people you wouldn’t normally have access to. Jumping into conversations on Twitter is acceptable, and commenting on a Facebook thread is equally tolerated. Being ‘sociable’ will earn you more respect and followers, and sharing valuable information will increase credibility and expert-status. Here is the ability to find new prospects who are interested in what you have to offer, and then communicate with them to form a relationship, from introduction to advocate, to boost your business.

Publicity

Don’t overlook communication through publicity or PR. If you don’t tell prospective customers all about yourself, then how will they find out about you? No newspaper editor will print a story about your business unless they receive regular information from you. Keep a blog or regularly update your website or social networking statuses with interesting material about your business. The more activity you provide will increase your visibility, both online as well as off, through viral practices and word of mouth. Aim to achieve the situation where you appear to be everywhere, or you’re the first business they think of when your product is needed.

Become an Expert
And communication is vital again to maintain relationships in the public world. Be seen as a source of information, expertise and authority. Organise workshops and seminars to address many people at once. Attend many networking groups to enhance your offline visibility, and find the opportunity to speak at them. Share 80% of your knowledge and only retain 20%, the best part, to make money; the more you can prove you know your subject, the more likely you are to achieve the status you crave.

Alice Elliott is a digital marketer that specialises in blogging and aims to help people understand online marketing strategies.

Why your email list needs to be personal

Alice — Sun, 15 May 2011 15:14:29 +0000

One of the most annoying things about the internet is receiving spam. It’s almost as bad as those telephone calls that try and sell you stuff you don’t want, and even if you are signed up to the Telephone Preference Service, some, especially those from abroad, still slip through the net.

So considering we all hate spam so much, why do businesses still pursue buying up lists of contacts to sell their stuff? I suppose it all boils down to impatience, since they cannot wait to build up a personal communications list because it takes too long, is too much hard work and is therefore inconvenient.

But in this world of increasingly more savvy people to email marketing practices, particularly those on the receiving end, it’s not worth bombarding people who don’t want to receive your stuff, and there are, of course, mechanisms in place that weed out unwanted material and dump it in a spam folder.

If you are going to do it properly, you need to start from the beginning. How fast you progress will depend on how much you work at it, how much you are prepared to provide good quality information that readers, and those they recommend, are willing to receive, absorb, retain and act upon. I’m afraid it comes down to the fact that the more you put in, the more you’ll take out.

My point is, the list you’ll accumulate should be yours only, and nobody else’s. It will comprise of people who have signed up voluntarily, who want to read your newsletters, who value the information you give them, who look forward to next month’s issue, who will comment and leave feedback so you can improve what you provide, both in your business as well as your newsletters.

And the reason for all this communication? To win your readers’ trust, opinion, understanding, appreciation. You extend your expertise and increase your reputation, convince them of your qualities and give them what they desire. After you have won them round to your way of thinking, they are then more likely to buy your products or sign up to your services. Marketing yourself and what your business provides is all about building upon a relationship with your customers, whether they are past, present and prospective, to facilitate business or develop advocates to influence others – and so the list can continue to grow.

And growing is important, albeit organically. Don’t feel dispelled to add to it with purchased lists that haven’t been obtained through natural methods, otherwise you’ll be taking several steps backwards. All that hard work to win the trust and build relationships will have been thrown down the drain. All that valuable information written for those who aren’t interested, who only press the delete or spam button, who don’t know you from Adam, who certainly don’t care a jot. Why should you pander to them, when you could be communicating with a list of people who want to know you, because you’ve managed to convince them you are worth while.

One piece of marketing advice given out says it’s easier to sell to existing customers than to find new ones. Think about it…

Interaction is vital in social networking

Alice — Fri, 13 May 2011 16:30:06 +0000

When you’re dealing with social media, one of the most important things to consider is interaction.

Interaction is when your readers, audience, fans, friends or whatever are compelled to respond to your social networking activities. This will happen when you post up something that is worth commenting on, full of value, beneficial and helpful, entertaining or educational, or even controversial, just begging for a response to counteract it or confirm their approval or agreement with it.

Blogs thrive from comments. Spiders register a comment as new material, so it can enhance a post by making it more attractive to the search engines. It also adds to the conversation because the reader is presented with new ideas and concepts that contribute to the subject matter or interest factor. Ideally posts should be written to encourage a comment, or contain a call to action to remind readers to leave feedback or their point of view.

Facebook works on interaction, as every time you post on your profile, or ideally on someone else’s profile as a comment to their status update, Facebook sees this interaction and clocks it as a match. The more interaction you have with your Facebook friends, the more likely you are going to see your posts or blog feeds on their profiles. If you don’t partake in lots of interaction on social networking sites, it’s not only the search engines that deem you to be inactive, its the social networking robots as well, which can be detrimental if you want to create interaction to help promote yourself or your business.

Twitter is the master of interaction, of course! It is all about interacting with your fellow Twitterers, chatting, commenting, retweeting, sharing in real time – generally forming relationships with your followers as you interact and find out what they are doing. Really this is not a place to be doing business in the old sense of the word, it’s about communicating and making friends, networking by being sociable, asking after their health, family or latest event, having a giggle over a piece of news or notification from elsewhere, exchanging information about each other as if you were face to face and not separated by the web in between two computers. It is a place to find out information, learn from a blog feed, gain trust and credibility by giving and sharing, having a conversation with real people who respond readily – in other words, interacting.

Using social networking sites, and also social bookmarking sites, needs commitment to fine-tune your interaction with your followers and friends. It’s no good having a fantastic blast one day, and then forgetting to continue for the next few days. Even if your followers forgive you, the search engines and social networking sites won’t. Robots don’t understand like humans do, and they see inactivity as exactly as what it is, and immediately your ratings go down, you loose those slots on your friends’ profiles, your stats take a plunge and your Twitter streams are dark and empty.

I know it’s hard to keep it up indefinitely, so it’s worth working out a social media diary to help you keep the momentum going. Plan in advance what you are going to say that month, or week if you think short-term, so that there is always information available to use when your inspiration dries up. It’s much easier to provide content, leading onto to some beneficial interaction, if you have a focus, goal or objective towards your social networking activities – get more leads, raise your profile, extend your expertise, collect more fans or ‘likes’, increase your subscription rates, develop your visibility on the net – need I go on?

And above all – it’s so important to have fun!

LinkedIn: Answers can spread expertise

Alice — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 10:30:29 +0000

At the end of your navigation links in your LinkedIn profile is a tab called ‘More’. At the top of the drop-down menu that appears when you mouse over it, is the option ‘Answers’. I often wonder why it is tucked away like this when it is, in my mind, an integral part of effective use of LinkedIn.

The Questions and Answers section of LinkedIn is an almost forgotten area that could make or break your expertise status. There is a myriad of different subject matter, easily one for every kind of profession, that provides two purposes: to ask a question (for inquiry, research, information or whatever) and to answer those questions (therefore spreading your expertise in your chosen subject).

The quality and substance of the questions vary (as so does the answers), but social media users today have developed skills in skimming through the unnecessary stuff to focus on the worth-while. This also reflects the methods of asking and answering questions, with certain skills developed to make your response stand out above the rest; a trait that is necessary with today’s noisy internet usage.

‘Answers Home’ shows the most recently submitted questions in no particular order or subject matter. There are some LinkedIn users who make a habit of answering any question that appeals to them, whereas others will prefer to concentrate on their areas of expertise.

‘Advanced Answers Search’ focuses your attention on the subjects you would most like to concentrate on. The category mechanisms provides access to your preference, but sometimes going down a different route will lead you to unexpected subjects that might be of interest. Once you have chosen your subject matter, LinkedIn remembers so you don’t have to do it all over again.

For easy access to relevant questions you might want to answer, you can set up Google Alerts for the questions within your chosen criteria, and these appear as a cookie on your Google homepage or within your RSS feed reader page. Now you can keep track of all questions as they are asked, and be one of the first to answer, or watch them while the discussions develop.

Go to ‘Answer Questions’ and you’ll see that questions are either open (available for answering) or closed (there is usually a time limit on questions which you can extend if necessary). The ‘Expert’ tab shows the most promiscuous answerers, but there is no reason why you can’t become one yourself! If your answer is approved by the questioner it will either be marked as ‘Good’ or, if you’re lucky, ‘Best Answer’. Whatever alocade you receive will be listed on your profile page in the right sidebar, and ‘Best Answer’ for each subject will be shown in your signature when you answer a question.

And if you have a question to ask, the ’Ask a Question’ tab provides easy to use fields and menus to publish your question. It is great fun waiting for the answers, which will be emailed to you when they are submitted. Sometimes they are not what you expected, but all are enjoyable to read. When your question has closed, then is the time to select those that are ‘Good’ and finally your ‘Best Answer’, a respected and polite way of saying thank-you, though some questioners have emailed me personally to request more information as well as expressing their gratitude.

LinkedIn: socialise through the groups

Alice — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:30:35 +0000

A great feature of LinkedIn is the groups. There are literally thousands to choose from, in a similar myriad of subjects, levels and sociability.

Locate them through the ‘Groups’ link at the top of your profile page, and you will automatically go to the list of groups you have joined. These vary from open to closed groups, depending on the whims of the administrators, and subgroups can be created out of a parent group, especially if it has grown too big or commands splitting up to cover further aspects of the group’s subject.

To join a group, either click on ‘Groups You May Like’ where a selection of groups that marry up to the keywords you have provided on your profile page (another reason to complete your profile as fully as you can) will be offered to you, or you could search out relevant groups via their categories (alumni, corporate, conference, networking, non-profit, professional or other) and in whatever language you prefer (LinkedIn is, of course, international).

Choosing a category will concentrate the selection, and the search field above that will focus it further. The more succinct you are with your keywords, the better the results. The groups are listed with the most popular (or with the most members) at the top, and closed groups show a little locked sign before the title, which means you will have to be accepted by the administrators before you can contribute.

Once you’ve entered a group, you will see a status update field for you to add in your own contribution (a comment, discussion, question, link to blog post, article or newsletter issue, or whatever you want to share) with the other entries listed below. There is a moving gallery of the latest discussions entered by members, and a discussion hierarchy can be allocated by the administrators for extra promotion.

You will also get email notifications of new discussions whenever they are entered, and when you have contributed to a particular discussion and others have commented so you can follow the conversation and reply if necessary. Discussions thrive on interaction, and some provide a lot of knowledge on particular subjects that I have found to be very useful.

You can check out the other members of the group to see if they are worth connecting with, or to read their profiles if their contributions was particularly noteworthy. There are other links to publicise promotions and a job board to find new recruits or better employment! The ‘Search’ link allows you to view all the discussions made on the group to backtrack a particular subject or find a comment that is useful to you. And the ‘More’ tab reveals ‘Updates’, ‘My Activity’, ‘My Settings’, ‘Subgroups’ and ‘Group Profile’.

If you are so inclined, you could start your own group. It is very easy to create one, and much enjoyment, knowledge, interaction and opportunities could be obtained through accomplishing such an activity.