English: arte. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For years, above the line agencies have sub-contracted production and artworking to smaller firms because of the low profitability for that work. But few brands have complained as long as the right ad ran at the right time in the right format.

“Partnering with specialist skills is and always has been good agency practice. No agency can have all the skills needed by all its clients – particularly in production.” Says Colin Wilson-Brown, of Clinic.net.au

The plethora of new specialisms particularly in digital means that few agencies have all the skills in-house for a big brand brief. Many briefs are very specific about the requirements and this sends agencies scrambling to find a partner agency, a freelancer or a sub-contractor to join the team so that they can bid on the pitch. Chuck Meyst from AgencyFinder.com calls this “a rather common practice …to establish “strategic alliances” to “fill in the dance card.” Whatever you like to call it, partnering with specialist skills is and always has been good agency practice. No agency can have all the skills needed by all its clients.”

How to find a sub-contractor or partner agency

Levi Szabo is the CEO of Halcyon Mobile – his growing agency started using oDesk to find new clients but the margins were low.

“We have decided that finding agencies to partner with who want us to build mobile apps is the best route for us. Longstanding brand relationships can be enhanced with our new skills and mobile skills are particularly in demand now.”

We can find no online site where agencies can find collaborators – it seems that personal networking is the preferred introductory route in US, UK and Australia – and that’s three large markets for creative agency services.

Lee McKnight, RSW/US agrees, “In my experience at least, it’s pure networking. You’ll have the added awareness that the handful of crowdsourcing agencies have created in certain cities for freelancers, but otherwise, all networking as far as I know.

What can agency principals do?

Get out and build your own list of potential collaboration agencies in your city. Research the best targets, approach them and be ready with a short, sharp text about whether they keep a list of specialist sub-contractors and how to get considered for inclusion.

Darren Woolley at Trinity P3 told us that

“There are a number of people who manage these lists – Creative Director and the creative department, Production Managers and the Studio Manager and often there is no single source of information. “

Follow through in the same way that you’d pursue a new brand manager – get a chemistry meeting where you can present your portfolio or show reel. And then nurture them like crazy.

What are the pitfalls?

There are three main areas where a sub-contracting agency is putting their business at greater risk than the firm giving out the work.

The first is managing the client relationship. Because the superior agency owns the client relationship, the sub-contractor has to trust both their honesty and ability to retain the client’s business.

The second pitfall is that as the sub-contractor you cannot claim the client work on your agency credentials or portfolio.

This is probably easy to overcome if you agree up front that you have the right to be associated with the job but it impacts the first pitfall as well because if the other agency wants you to remain anonymous it undermines their credibility with the client.

Lee McKnight counsels clarity on the role assignments and whether the sub-contracting agency is named or not to the client.

“It’s key to discuss up front who gets credit for what and how that will be handled. We’ve talked to agencies who were initially okay in being a seamless part of the other agency, but after several high-profile projects, decided they wanted to do it on their own, and found themselves not being able to reference their work as case studies or on their site.”

The third pitfall comes about during a competitive pitch when the same freelancer or sub-contractor does work for more than one firm who’s pitching the brand. Darren Woolley has seen this happen,

“It is a bad practice is when agencies call in sub-contractors during a pitch to help them win the business. In some circumstances the agency wins the business without revealing the work was done by sub-contractors and the client never gets the same quality of creative work again. This is clearly misleading and deceptive in the pitch process as the client is trying to determine the quality of the agency, not the quality of their sub-contractors.”

What about you? Is this a new business technique that you’ve used to success and will you do more sub-contracting in 2013?

A version of this article was published on Agency Post 17 May, 2013

But this exec wasn’t interested in emotional responses or audience specifics. He explained that he needed to counter a competitor’s seemingly formidable YouTube presence and wanted to get more videos – regardless of quality – up on the video-sharing platform. End of story.

Yet after review, it turned out that the traffic associated with the competitive videos was miniscule. And then it became obvious the videos weren’t named correctly and had been posted without keywords critical for driving traffic. So with these errors in basic execution, the likelihood of these videos ever being seen by a significant slice of the intended audience of IT managers and software developers was, well, remote.

Still, the existence of the competitive video worked my client into such a tizzy that he was about to embark on a poorly conceived counterattack that might have damaged the company’s brand. Thankfully, we were able to talk him down, and he adopted a more strategic course of action. Yet the misguided direction he was about to take is increasingly common.

You can’t just upload and move on
A longtime associate of mine recently audited a Fortune 500 company’s YouTube presence. The audit revealed that for every viewer of videos on the company site, thousands more watched the same videos posted on YouTube. So far, so good. But then the audit discovered that none of the YouTube-posted videos included the correct titles or metadata. Furthermore, the company had no idea that many of its videos were even posted on the site, so there was no way to measure or strategize about the effectiveness of this form of outreach.

It got worse. The audit also discovered that competitors had posted spoofs of the company’s videos on YouTube. And to truly pour salt into the wounds, the parodies attracted a lot more viewers than the original material. Had it not been for the audit, the company would have been blissfully unaware that its video marketing spend was actually subsidizing the competition.

With any form of marketing, execution is crucial. In the case of the company that supplied parody fodder for the competition, the big takeaway was that the vast majority of users don’t browse Web sites. They click on search results. YouTube and other networks must be part of a messaging distribution strategy, but they must be approached correctly, which calls for understanding how your target audience will find your videos.

A compelling story isn’t optional
Assuming your target audience will see the video you post, you still must make sure the video delivers. The art of great corporate video is about telling an engaging, emotional story while delivering a powerful messaging payload about the product, service, or company. Customer testimonials are often the best source of these stories because of their immense credibility and human interest.

But even here, execution can be tricky, especially during customer interview shoots. To succeed, the shoot must capture the customer telling his or her story in a way that is both appealing and compelling while still being on message. If the person conducting the interview doesn’t have an intimate understanding of the brand and of the messaging you’re trying to capture, you can blow thousands of production dollars on unusable video.

It does happen. One of our clients recently told us the sad story of a video-only production company hired to create a video testimonial. During the shoot, the interview subject exclusively used a derogatory nickname for the product. As a result, the shoot ended without capturing a single usable quote. With the budget exhausted, the project was scrapped.

All this could have been avoided by using a team with deep experience in the industry, one that’s able to run interviews that reinforce key messages – and eliminate the learning curve costs.

Unfortunately, examples to the contrary are easy to find. Some of our competitors engage in professional navel-gazing by starting with the deliverable. They do visually compelling work, sure, but it’s often based on the latest buzz. And after leading with design or tactics, they then try to force-fit content into a shiny wrapper. This is paint-by-numbers marketing. It ultimately looks amateurish and is a great way to deplete a marketing budget.

I’m still baffled when marketing people jump on tactics before setting strategy, or even before deciding what a particular campaign is supposed to cover. The same goes for video, social media, traditional collateral, or any form of marketing outreach. So I’ll say it again: don’t confuse strategy with tactics. Figure out who your audience is and what you’re saying before you decide how and where to say it.

Just because it is a more more powerful solution doesn’t mean it is necessary or advisable.

Marketing automation is quickly becoming like the self-driving car for B2B marketing. Led by Eloqua (now part of Oracle) and Marketo (with a very successful IPO last week), today marketing automation companies are collectively worth billions.

But like the self-driving car, just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

When Marketing Automation Is Unnecessary

Like anything else in B2B marketing, automation should be an outcome of your objectives and planning process, not an assumption going in.

Here are two situations where marketing automation, with its complexity, learning curve and cost, just isn’t the right solution. Unfortunately, these situations are all too common, even among marketing automation clients.

1. Your Marketing Isn’t Well Established
If you are just building out your first drip email campaign, you can build it in a marketing automation solution but you could also build it in almost any modern email marketing solution.

Marketing automation gives you a way to automate your marketing activity with far more complex business rules.

Are you still struggling with the simplest of rules? If so, marketing automation is a solution to someone else’s problem, not yours.

2. You Don’t Have Scale
Automation makes sense when the effort required to automate is less than the effort required to execute manually.

You would never consider creating rules with complex branching logic to send a followup email to just one person; you would look at the situation and write only the email needed, when its needed. And you would really personalize it to everything you know about the recipient!

The interesting question is, where is the tradeoff? When does automation actually make sense?

In short, it makes sense when you have sufficient scale that an automated solution costs less to manage or delivers a higher return for a similar investment. But finding that point is hard.

Based on the data Egan Cheung of Eloqua shared in this comment, you probably won’t hit that tipping point even with a relatively inexpensive marketing automation platform until you can dedicate a meaningful portion of at least one person’s time to marketing automation (beyond the time spent to write emails, create landing pages, etc). You will need someone with the time and skill to get into the weeds of the system in order to get the full value out of it.

Marketing automation is a great solution for many companies. But despite big acquisitions and IPOs, it isn’t a shiny cure-all for your marketing woes.

Before adopting marketing automation, make sure you are ready to add another level of complexity to your marketing and are ready to make the commitment not just to a vendor, but to the time and expertise necessary to really use the solution you are purchasing.

Your Turn

Do you have any rules of thumb about when a marketing automation solution makes sense? Alternatively, do you have questions about when it makes sense? Please share either one below, or with me on Twitter (@wittlake).

Photo Credit: Lana_aka_BADGRL via Flickr cc

Why is it so important to learn the principles of Word of Mouth marketing? Simply said, it’s low cost, even free. But it is also a lot of hard work. Perhaps the best way to explain the power and effort required with Word of Mouth marketing is to share a success story.

The Word of Mouth marketing firm Brains on Fire worked with the State of South Carolina in a project to reduce teen smoking. Other states were running TV ads, but when the ads stopped, smoking went back up. The goal was to develop something more sustainable. The project was named Rage against the Haze; here is their story.

Backdrop

When the state of South Carolina received their Tobacco Settlement stipend, it became the responsibility of the state to create an awareness campaign for teens about the dangers of tobacco use. And do it in Big Tobacco’s back yard was not an easy task.

Other states were pumping their settlement funds into huge media campaigns with in-your-face TV ads. But once the ads quit running, the teen smoking rates went back up (SOURCE: American Cancer Society).

Purpose

• To spread awareness of the dangers of tobacco use
• To cause a 5% decrease in youth smoking rates in South Carolina
• To create something so powerful, it would survive budget cuts

Action

Instead of trying to engineer a media campaign, they created something much more sustainable. They gave the reins to the teens and helped them develop a youth-led movement. So, they hand-picked 92 teens who we knew could champion the cause. These teens played a key role in the development of everything – from the name and identity, to the proprietary curriculum that was penned. The agency trained and armed the teens with the tools to spread the word, and then sent them on their way to find other “ViralMentalists™.”

To help, the agency conducted weekend retreats, statewide tours, Festi-Viral events led by the teens in different cities across the state. They created an interactive website where teens could check in with each other, and a RAGE store where they could get SWAG – but only if they were out spreading the word and could prove it.

The agency sparked and shaped the movement. But the teens are the ones that owned and grew it.

Success

• 16.9% drop in youth tobacco use rates, surpassing the 5% goal – one of the highest in the nation. That’s with no mass media. And no tax increase on cigarettes.
• There are 6,000+ active ViralMentalists Raging Against the Haze.
• The smoking rate drop is unprecedented since SC has the cheapest cigarette prices in the nation. The rest of the US funded television and school campaigns from a $206 billion settlement — none of which was ever implemented by the state of South Carolina. And the budget did get hit by a bus. But RAGE lives on and continues to grow.
• The RAGE movement has earned a WOMMIE Award, a National ADDY and a 2008 gold EFFIE Award.

Word of Mouth marketing is incredibly powerful, but you have to take risks, like putting teenagers in charge. You have to pick your champions careful – passion far more important than popularity. And you have to let your champions lead.

“We sparked and shaped the movement. But the teens are the ones that owned and grew it.”

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, comprising the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan cities, increased a better-than-expected 9.3% in February, representing the 13th straight up month for prices.

Looking at the chart below, notice the S&P/Case-Shiller index is currently at its highest point since late 2008, when the subprime credit crisis was in full bloom. Home prices remain well below the levels we saw in 2006, prior to the housing market meltdown.

You can thank the Federal Reserve for creating the ideal environment for the hot housing market via its strategy of record-low, near-zero interest rates and the continued buying of $85.0 billion monthly in bonds to drive down the financing rates.

You can feel the housing market is ready for a bubble, but the trend continues to point higher, albeit at a slower rate and with interest rates inevitably going higher. You need to be careful; but for the time being, the housing market is where it’s at.

I would be hesitant to touch the homebuilder stocks, due to their already massive gains. The chart of the S&P Homebuilders Index below shows the steady upward trend since December 2012, as indicated by the parallel blue lines. Yet also notice that prices have been rising higher without any major adjustment back to the bottom support line since late April. Look at the area marked by the red oval: this is the downside risk to which you are exposed. As such, I advise you to wait for a market dip toward the bottom support line to buy, based on my technical analysis.

An area that I continue to like is the suppliers of home building products and services. Homeowners are deciding more often to stay with their current homes and renovate, which has helped to drive the home supplies stocks higher, including bellwether The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE/HD).

The company recorded a strong first quarter in which it easily beat on earnings and reported revenue growth of nine percent year-over-year.

A strong recovery in the housing market drove sales, according to Home Depot, which also led to an upward revision in its sales and earnings guidance for this year.

The chart for Home Depot shows the impressive breakout in 2011 to the new record highs. Now, while the advance has been steady and impressive, the majority of the easy money has probably already been made, so you should look to buy on weakness.

Make no mistake about it, the housing market is sizzling, but if you want a piece of the action, your best opportunity would be to wait and buy on weakness.

This Article Housing Market’s On Fire; Why It’s Not Time to Buy was originally published at Investment Contrarians

I think if I hear one more statistic, hear any more testimonials about the power of big data, I’ll throw up.

I wonder though, why don’t we hear presentations or talks about “big questions.” Without big questions, big data is nothing more than billions of 1′s and 0′s. Big data actually isn’t powerful, it’s the big questions that make the big data powerful. But we don’t talk about the big questions. We don’t have workshops discussing things like, “What insight are we trying to get? Why is it important? What are we trying to model? How are will we validate the models and it’s meaning? What do we intend to do with the answers once we get them? How do we trust the answers we get? How do we discern the garbage?” The list of questions can go on.

Big data can’t give us big answers or great insight unless we are modeling creating powerful questions. Big data can give us great insight and fantastic answers. Likewise, big data can point us in the wrong direction causing us to do terribly stupid things. Ask bas questions, do analysis on flawed assumptions and premises, big data will always give you an answer–but it could be a stupid answer.

Many years ago, I was part of the founding team of a “big data company.” We had a fantastic analytic tool, it could provide all sorts of fantastic insights and answers. It was really a breakthrough technology. Our sales people and modelers could demo the system to customers, giving them insights they had never seen before. Customers couldn’t provide purchase orders fast enough. We shipped the product to the initial customers. Anxiously. we monitored the results. Pretty soon the complaints and questions came flowing in. See the problem was, customers couldn’t come up with the important questions or problems they wanted to solve. Actually, they could, they had the high level questions, but they couldn’t express them and model them in ways that would produce meaningful results. They didn’t have the skills, analytic capabilities, or tools to leverage the power of our analytic engine.

We ended up having to “ship” analysts and modelers with each installation–helping customer construct the questions, build the models, develop the big questions.

So I get the power of big data, I get the potential of the tools. I don’t need to hear a about this any more. What I really want to learn about is the big questions. How do we develop them? How do we model them? How do we interpret the results? What do we do with the results?

I want to hear someone say, “We wanted to learn these things about our customers, prospects, and markets—this is why we wanted to learn these things—this is how we tested our models–these are the alternative models/questions we considered—this is what we are doing with the insights we got.

Technology and tools make big data relatively easy. But they don’t help a whole lot with the big questions. That’s where the work is, that’s what drives the insights, that’s what makes big data valuable.

Think Of Lead Generation Like The Great Wall Of China – A Great Failure

Despite its name, it is actually a commonly known fact that the Great Wall of China never actually served its purpose. It was scaled by northern invaders several times and it took several dynasties before construction reached to what currently stands today. That can sound like your lead generation campaign if, despite all your efforts and the resources you pooled, it failed to deliver in the end.

Does that mean future lead generation campaigns have no hope? Should you stop the one before you waste any more? Going back to the Great Wall, there were still merits to its construction despite the failure to fulfill its initial purpose. The whole thing was still an impressive feat of engineering for its time. Its construction may have been a dark side but not even that coupling with its failure was enough to deny the legacy it left to today’s Chinese. You can use that same reasoning to keep going forward with your lead generation campaign and ultimately lead to its redemption.

• Focus on the impressive – Suppose you are looking for qualified sales leads but you decide to use traditional B2B marketing methods like telemarketing and business conventions along with online lead generation. A combination like that has become increasingly popular of late but that does not make this lead generation strategy less potential to connect with more prospects. Utilizing different channels is a capacity that should be honed, not discarded!

• Make use of other purposes – Despite the failure of any main objective, your lead generation campaign has still benefited from the engagement with prospects and you now also know what it takes to get them qualified. Many in the B2B software industry think in a similar way and not just stick to the achievements of singular functions. The most sophisticated systems focus on streamlining multiple business tasks.

• Fill the holes – And of course, you cannot forget the simple act of knowing what not to repeat again. If something has clearly been a significant factor behind a failed software lead generation campaign, deal with it as a top priority. If insanity is repeating the same lead generation error expecting different results, learn to do things differently all the time! (It is certainly what many emperors did with the Great Wall).

The above measures are just some of the many tried-and-true responses to great mistakes. It is not the end of the world, much less the end of your lead generation campaign. Focus on what lets you generate business software leads, like erp software leads, in a big way. Make use of what other information acquired in your lead generation campaign. Avoid making the same error twice!

However, despite the differences in market cap size, I have found that many of the lessons I learned running a publicly-traded company can be leveraged by startup entrepreneurs.

I wrote this article to discuss three lessons learned in marketing and management during my tenure at Intelispan. The aim is to provide insight for each of your own companies.

Concentrating Resources in Marketing

Many a seasoned entrepreneur has talked about the importance of focus. Although this is true in all areas of business, I believe that this is arguably never more true than when marketing a company — be it a startup or publicly-traded company.

For new companies, the reality is that most startups will not find a scalable way to market themselves (eg. Google AdWords). These startups, without a way to promote themselves, are limited in how quickly they can grow. Unfortunately, this lack of marketing is one of the reasons the failure rate for new businesses is so high.

For the businesses that are able to find a way to market themselves, many will also find limited growth. Even after a company has found an effective marketing channel, many of these entrepreneurs continue to over-invest in other areas and to divert their attention. By doing this, their most precious commodity – attention — is diluted. In the end, because of this lack of focus, their performance does not meet its potential.

One of the most important lessons I found from experience with Intelispan is that focus with marketing is critical. Once you have found a recipe that works for your company’s marketing, concentrate your resources. This growth and excess profit should be leveraged and used for defense against future competition.

The concentration of resources into a profitable marketing initiative is how your company will develop into a multi-million dollar enterprise. The great entrepreneurs of our generations were able to capitalize on this. This is just as important for startups as it is for publicly-traded companies.

A Mandate for Transparency

In general, many entrepreneurs I speak with share the same worry about making mistakes. Unfortunately, this is part of doing business. The stakes only increase as one’s company grows. As difficult as it is for a startup entrepreneur, imagine how it must have felt for me and other public company CEOs to admit mistakes to not only employees, but also to public stakeholders!

Regardless of the stage a company is in, I always stress that the following principle remains the same: A Founder/CEO should always be completely honest and transparent.

This should never be optional. If a mistake is made, it is important to admit this and make amends as soon as possible. One thing I found during my time at Intelispan is that individuals are surprisingly forgiving as long as you are transparent and honest.

Never Relegating Family

Managing a business, regardless of whether it is new or a publicly-traded company, is challenging. There are many sacrifices that need to be made.

The burden of running a company should not be taken lightly and, unfortunately, this burden does not only fall upon an entrepreneur’s own shoulders, but also his or her family.

The stress of a business can take its toll. From my years of working, I have found that, from this stress, it is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to alienate the very people that matter most in their lives – their families.

An important lesson is that as difficult as times can become, you should never forget that your family is your rock. These are the people you can always turn to, even when times are difficult in your business (and these times will occur).

An important step I personally took was to set time every week to spend with my family. This wasn’t always easy, but I had to make this a priority. You can’t turn back the clock.

This time that I spent with my family was important, and it was during this time that my relationship with my children blossomed. In many ways, it is because of this time that my next venture, the design-software suite ToolMonks, will be a family business.

There are a number of lessons that business owners can learn from running a company. To begin, when you identify a successful channel for distribution, allocate your resources to this. Transparency, regardless of the size of your company, is important. Lastly, don’t forget the people that matter the most in your life – your family.

Increasingly, it appears that more Federal Reserve members are leaning toward reducing and even eliminating the current aggressive monetary policy program of bond buying, and doing so sooner rather than later.

Conversely, there are still several Federal Reserve members who currently vote on monetary policy and want to continue the asset-purchase program, as they don’t see an economic recovery coming anytime soon.

This divergence makes it extremely difficult to predict the future of monetary policy. This is important, because when the Federal Reserve indicates that it will begin reducing its bond-purchasing program, it will have large ramifications throughout various markets.

Personally, I have been of the opinion that the Federal Reserve will begin to reduce its aggressive monetary policy program, or at least indicate that it plans to do so, later this summer or early fall. This shift in monetary policy, I believe, will cause many assets to decrease in price, with bonds being sold off and stocks getting hit as well.

Economically, there are many mixed and conflicting data points. Both vehicle sales and housing are strong points in the economy; however, manufacturing still continues to lag. As well, the recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia indicated that current manufacturing conditions are weak, but that business owners are optimistic about the future.

Those types of mixed messages are causing considerable difficulty for analysts, economists, investors, and Federal Reserve members in trying to determine what the best course for monetary policy is. Investors need to incorporate some estimate of future economic activity and monetary policy into their valuation models when buying stocks and bonds; however, it’s extremely complicated to do so when the data indicate various potential outcomes.

Additionally, while jobs have been created, the level of employment growth has been far from optimal. With the continued decrease in the participation rate, this has allowed the unemployment rate to drop. However, this type of decrease in the unemployment rate does not satisfy the Federal Reserve, because they are all too aware that people dropping out of the labor force is not part of a healthy economy. This is part of the reason why they have taken on such an aggressive monetary policy stance.

What is surprising to me is that given the current economy, so many Federal Reserve members are now voicing their shared opinion that the aggressive monetary policy stance of $85.0 billion per month in asset purchases should be reduced or even eliminated.

We cannot ignore the recent statements, and one should begin incorporating this probability when calculating both bond and stock investments. Considering the Federal Reserve is such a large purchaser of bonds, creating a backstop of support, in my opinion, it would make sense to exit fixed-income positions; these will drop substantially in value once the Federal Reserve reduces and eliminates its asset-purchase program.

This article How the Coming Shift in Monetary Policy Will Affect Your Investments was originally published at Investment Contrarians

One of the more historically contentious relationships is that between the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) and CIO (Chief Information Officer). This alliance depends primarily on healthy communication and consistency, but unfortunately, misaligned goals often get lost in translation.

Not Quite on the Same Page

Collaboration is a fundamentally simple concept. At the roots, it’s about a team of people who agree to work together towards a shared set of goals. Easy enough — until misaligned objectives transform equal partnerships into lopsided, love-hate relationships.

Before the internet took over the world, the marketing department typically housed the highly-creative-but-less-strategic kids, and its tangible impact on the bottom line wasn’t so evident. CIOs didn’t find it necessary to prioritize marketing initiatives because they couldn’t be easily translated into profit. Conversely, CMOs banked on the data governed by the IT department, asking what they could do for marketing and how quickly they could do it, rather than working with them to analyze and vet information. As a result, they considered CIOs to be in a subservient position. The dismissal on both ends caused tension and discord, with each department reluctantly dependent on the other.

Data analytics and social media changed that. Marketing suddenly had palpable numbers to point to, and learned to speak IT’s language — but now, after years of feeling burdened by an obligatory relationship, they wanted to do it on their own. CMOs started implementing technology as they saw fit, deploying new methods, collecting data, and driving results independently. While this may have seemed like an acceptable solution (or threat to IT, depending on your perspective), it lead to increased costs, security risks, and a company culture disturbed by controversy.

Coming to Terms with Teamwork: It’s All About Agile

Says Adam Gartenberg of The Atlantic: “Closing the gap between marketing requirements and IT capabilities requires a culture of collaboration in which the CMO and CIO work towards a set of agreed-upon goals that factor in both marketing and IT interests.” Agreed. And when the CIO and the CMO work well together, they’re a powerful team that actually shares a lot of commonalities. For one, both have to be big-picture thinkers that understand the necessary interdependence of all departments in an organization. Both are responsible for executing business strategies, increasing revenue through data and testing, and disseminating information throughout the company. And both should be able to make use of tools and platforms that put data within reach of end-users and customers without falling prey to the many liabilities of social business.

To accomplish this, the CMO and CIO need to be empathetic when outlining product requirements, determining time frames, allocating resources, and mapping ROI. They need to develop a shared language, be conversant about technology demands, and accept that disparate expectations don’t have to be a roadblock — instead, they should be fuel for innovation.

Agile businesses have a leg up on this. An agile approach, which strives for innovation while minimizing the risks of traditional all-or-nothing strategies, makes it both practical and logical to introduce CIOs into backlog management and make them part of the decision-making process. Investments become about looking at the impact on ROI, working together to create proposals, and developing clear expectations. It becomes about framing the context of market data — which is already complex — and making sure that self-sufficiency in analytics is a part of everyone’s skill set, rather than being exclusive to a single role or department. That’s what true collaboration is all about.

Want to learn more? Check out the latest piece in the Agile Marketing Series by Mindjet’s CMO, Jascha Kaykas-Wolff: A Deep History of Business Management, Part 1.

• Increasing sales by convincing a customer to increase the number of units purchased of the same product
• Offering better or advanced versions of the same product
• Instigating the customer to purchase the same or similar product but of a different and high-end brand
• Persuading customers to change their purchase decision into buying bundled products

Upselling Your Products

Upselling is about converting a potential sale into a bigger sale with higher value or revenue. One would think that there is no harm in attempting to upsell to any or every customer. This is mostly because of a common misconception that if customers are approached with Upselling techniques and they are not interested in the offer, they would simply refuse to accept it and continue to make the purchase they had decided initially.

This is a false impression in the minds of most marketers because customers should only be offered products or services which are likely to meet their needs. If they feel unnecessarily forced to make a sale of higher worth, it is likely for them to back out of the original deal.

Since Upselling is an old practice of the real world marketing and sales, one would be surprised to know that the concept is transferrable to the world of Internet Marketing as well. In fact, Upselling and Internet marketing are known to be a lucrative combination for online and home based business owners. But remember, it is easier said than done. Whether in the real business world or a virtual platform, Upselling techniques mostly results in either success of the higher offer or a failure of the initial decision altogether.

Examples of Upselling through Internet Marketing

Online marketers use the Internet as a means of advertising and promotion. Hence, they use a variety of tools and ideas such as email marketing, affiliate marketing, attraction marketing, viral marketing on social media networks, etc. The objective of all types of online marketing is to generate more traffic and increase sales. However, success in increasing traffic generation should be considered as a golden opportunity to earn more through a single transaction.

A few examples of Upselling online are listed below:

• Offering discounts on further sales is an example of Upselling. For instance, many online businesses have a variety of paid services and offers. These companies can offer annual services with a one-time total payment over the option of monthly sign ups.

• When a customer clicks to view the details of a product so as to finalize the purchase decision, websites should disclose or highlight all other related versions of the same product which closely match the customer’s choice. For example, if a customer clicks to view a shoe design then the website should show all upgraded versions with similar design and specifications.

• When additional products are offered to a customer with free shipping for each of their purchase, it falls under the category of Upselling.

• With the final purchase, many websites showcase a variety of related accessories.

Tips on Upselling Success

There are several best practices of Internet marketing to learn from. Many of these flourishing online ventures have also put into practice a variety of Upselling techniques. All these successes have some basic principles in common, which serve as points of reference for other aspirants in the industry.

In order to ensure customer retention throughout the process of Upselling to an interested buyer, the following ideas must be kept in mind:

1. Time is of the Essence

The online window shoppers may have a different perception, but those interested in making a definite purchase explore websites in a more focused or determined fashion. These customers navigate through the sections with products of their interest only, rather than aimlessly wandering about the website. Any Upselling techniques, which may come across as a distraction to such customers, are likely to annoy them enough to either ignore the suggested purchase or leave the website.

However, when customers make their mind up and click the “Add to Cart” option, they should be offered upgraded versions so they do not feel disturbed during their own thought process. Secondly, at this time the customers are already interested in the retailer or manufacturer so further suggestions are likely to be welcomed by them.

2. Be Kind to Sensitive Customers

As a rule of thumb, any selling technique which appears even minutely forceful is likely to drive traffic away from a website. Customers are strong-headed decision makers and do not like to be treated as naïve or gullible individuals. Thus, additional offers should only be made as value adding suggestions which aim at meeting customer needs. They should in no way seem like an aggressive sales tactic.

3. Bundle Them Together for Mutual Benefit

Online products and services are an important element in the bag of Upselling tricks. Bundled packages provide business owners the benefit of increased sales of different products. However, this trick also holds value for the customers. For example, if a customer is purchasing a single product but it is offered as a bundle with higher and better versions, then he or she gets to pay a lower price for it. This is because bundled packages work like bulk buying where they are cheaper than buying each product in the offer separately.

If an online business hits the spot with their efforts of Internet marketing and Upselling, they reap a wide range of benefits while ensuring customer satisfaction.

When online Upselling is done meticulously, business owners are able to:

• Increase revenue generation.
• Increase volume sales.
• Acquire and retain a loyal customer base.

For customers, effective Upselling techniques offer the following benefits:

• Introduction to products which meet their needs better than their original idea.
• Getting connected with a website that understands their needs and preferences.

All in all, businesses continue to gain success with repeat and loyal customers because effective Upselling methods lead to high customer satisfaction and delight.

Job satisfaction and complacency don’t have to be one in the same. Salespeople who are continually challenged in the right way can be happy in their careers, work to continually improve their sales, expand their territory, increase their margins, retain their clients, and so on…

Read on for some things to keep in mind to keep your workplace a place where striving to meet and exceed goals becomes part of the culture.

Hiring

Asking the right questions can be helpful in the interview process. This can help you be sure you’re not hiring people without enough motivation to help your business grow. It can also help you avoid hiring people simply looking to leech from your company without giving much in return.

Looking for people who believe in ongoing improvement, continuous education, and who look forward to the future will help you staff your company well.

Of course you don’t want someone so keen on continuous change that they won’t stay long enough for you to reap the return on investment after investing in them but you do want people who aren’t looking to get in on the bottom of the corporate ladder and stay there forever. Be selective in your hiring process.

Ongoing Human Resources Management

• Will you manage your sales force in a way that will help them continually move forward?
• Will you offer new sales tools and enough resources to help your staff boost their success?
• Will you regularly review goals and objectives and manage your team in a way that demonstrates that complacency is not an option?
• Are you prepared to hold people accountable when they don’t meet their goals?
• Are you prepared to incent and reward your team so that they are motivated and empowered to go beyond the call of duty?

Ongoing Development

Career development can help a team continually evolve and can help you continually grow as a business. Setting up sales training and ongoing career development for your staff — even your senior staff — will help. Don’t forget to keep your own skills sharp, too. Don’t let your own complacency at being at the top of the ladder result in your becoming a dinosaur! Whether you’re a leader of a large or a smaller organization, never stop fine tuning and expanding your own skills.

The Right Lingo

Some people can feel trapped by their title. An account manager might begin to feel they are to react to the clients that are given to them rather than to continually hunt for new prospects, too. The way you talk around team members will help them understand the way your company thinks and will help them continue forward fluidly in their careers.

Relationship management, business development, and not only goals and objectives but stretch goals and rewards for exceeding expectations will help. A company mindset that’s helpful and that steps outside of job descriptions creates a growth-oriented culture.

Is there a career path for junior sales people? Are your staff titles the sorts of titles that make them look at their position as a career with growth potential?

Leading by Example

Although you might be talking the talk, make sure you talk the talk, too. The best leaders are inspiring to their team members.

Recruiting and keeping the best talent will help you continually appeal to your target customer. It’s something that requires ongoing effort but is also something that can pay off, too.

Many business start-ups make much ado about what they should name their business… and so they should. Like everything else in business, you need to go through a process:

1) Define your business. What is it? What makes it unique?

2) Define your 3 to 5 year business objective. If you’re a consultant, it could be that using your own name is a good start…but what about after you start? If you want to eventually provide more than one to one consulting, maybe your name just won’t cut it.

3) Who is your target group? What’s their demographics…and don’t forget their psychographics.

4) Research the competition and see what names are out there in the same industry and geographical area. (Just Google it!)

5) Brainstorm and come up with a list of 10 names.

6) Take these 10 names and verify to see if the URL is taken, and if so by whom.

7) Verify if the name is trademarked within your industry and within your geographical area.

8) Get objective feedback for your top 4 names. Research for start-ups has become more affordable for business start-ups with software such as Survey Monkey and panel online advertising.

There’s much ado about the naming of businesses. I am of the opinion that the name is important, but what you do with that name is even more so. How are you launching? What media channels are you using? What’s your brand character, brand voice and how is that represented in your communications. Being first to market and being very visible when you are first to market is definitely the best approach to reap the benefits of longevity and recognition. Just to name a few: Kleenex, Coke…. and of course Google!

And just to close the opening thought of this post, I actually googled how Google got its name. Like all things in Google-like, I had many sources to choose from. The first link I clicked on was http://www.question.com/how-did-google-get-its-name-10903.html. Interestingly, I learnt that the definition of Google is quite appropriate for Google. The name Google is based on the mathematical term “googol”, coined in 1938 to equal 10¹⁰⁰, a number much larger than any practical counting operation would require

From a wiki.answers.com, I also got more of an anecdotal story: In September, 1997, so the story goes, some Stanford grad students were helping Larry Page choose a name for his search engine. “Googolplex,” said Sean ­Anderson. (They’d already sensed how big this could ­become.) “Googol,” Page ­replied. ­Anderson, checking to see if the name was taken, typed ­g-o-o-g-l-e into his browser and made the most famous spelling mistake since p-o-t-a-t-o-e. Page registered the name within hours, and today, Google isn’t a typo, it’s a verb, one with a market cap of about $160 billion.

Fact or fiction, it doesn’t really matter…what matters is that Google provided an innovative product that revolutionized how information was being delivered to the masses… I doubt the notoriety or the business outcome would of been different if their name was Googol.

Building Marketing & Sales Momentum

Most B2B organizations I speak with are currently dependent on some form of paid advertising and/or mass outbound tactics to keep leads in their pipeline. Year over year, their costs per lead grow while overall effectiveness shrinks. I’ve seen cases where sales dropped dramatically when something as simple as the minimum cost per click on a top keyword suddenly jumped from $2.00 to $4.00. You don’t have to be a seasoned CFO to recognize the unsustainable and dangerous pattern here.  Fortunately, inbound marketing and demand generation make it possible for B2B organizations to control the quality and quantity of marketing generated leads without having to depend on paid advertising and other mass outbound tactics.

Inbound marketing and demand generation programs are not instant gratification tactics, though. You’ll need planning, people, content, software, and processes – all of which require time and money. The benefits of having a sustainable marketing and sales engine pay off over the long run, however. According to a study by Kapost on the cost and ROI of content marketing, it took 18 months for inbound tactics to outperform PPC ads. Additionally, cost per lead dropped by 80% in five months.

The more time and attention you invest in building the foundation – buyer personas, universal lead definitions, ideal customer profiles, buy cycle content mapping, sales and marketing alignment, CRM and marketing automation integration, and content marketing –  the better the results.

I like to compare the building of inbound programs to the merry-go-round on the school playground.  Everyday after lunch a group of kids would pile on, and three of the strongest boys would take their positions around the perimeter. The first few revolutions took a lot of strength to get going. By the third time everyone had chanted, “Faster, faster, we need another master,” we were zipping around from the momentum alone. Inbound programs start slowly and build momentum over time.

Don’t get me wrong, paid advertising and other mass outbound tactics certainly have a place. For instance, many of our clients run short-term PPC campaigns while we are laying the foundation of their inbound marketing and demand generation programs. The goal is to create a good balance between paid ads and inbound marketing.

Years ago, my passion for small business and startups led me to pursue a career in marketing. At the time, new web technologies had leveled the playing field, allowing up-and-coming businesses to win greater market share against multi-million dollar advertising budgets. Today, marketing – supported by valuable content and automation software – has the opportunity to play an even greater role in business growth with inbound marketing and demand generation. Remember, it takes time to build and ramp up an inbound marketing program. But if you are committed to inbound marketing and to maintaining an inbound marketing program, you will have a very powerful marketing engine.

Welcome to another edition of the “5 Reasons” blog series. This will be a weekly blog series, with a fresh post every Monday. Last week’s topic was “Five Reasons Your Email Isn’t Generating Clicks”.

This Week’s Topic = Five Reasons Email Isn’t Going Anywhere

Despite what some unrealistic marketers will tell you, email is not going away any time soon. The other day I was giving a talk on email marketing and someone raised their hand and said, “Is it even worth getting started (with email) at this point? Isn’t it a dying medium?” No!

Here are the five reasons that email is here to stay:

1. It’s not social. That’s the single biggest argument that you will hear. Social is replacing email. It’s simply not true. I don’t know how else to say it. But ask yourself, do you use both social and email? If you said yes you are like most people.
2. People still use it. Email usage has not gone down in recent years. In fact, the number of emails sent last year was the highest of any year on record. That’s not the sign of a dying medium.
3. Response rates are still high. Marketers are finding success with email because it’s a preferred channel for consumers. Many people subscribe to emails from companies they’re interested in, actively seeking deals and offers catered to them.
4. It’s a relatively cheap form of marketing. Return on investment in this area is high, and very easily measurable in most cases. You can test your way into email quickly, and on a low budget. Even companies with large email lists spend a relatively small amount of their marketing budget in the channel.
5. Nothing else replaces it. Besides social, there is no other channel that is replacing email. SMS, online chats, and other messaging systems have only added to the options that are out there. But none has pushed email to the sidelines.

As always, if you have your own tips, please include them in the comments below.

Apple

Apple has continued to rank well on every published list of the “most reputable companies,” despite the fact that the company’s shareholders have found themselves on rocky ground in recent months. A big part of the Apple appeal comes from the company’s well-known commitment to customer service, coupled with its devotion to quality. Simply put, customers know that they’re not going to end up getting a lemon from Apple, and that if they do, the Apple Genius team will help them. Making your commitment to service clear from the start is a great way to engender the goodwill of customers and clients.

Johnson & Johnson

From Johnson & Johnson, we learn a different lesson. The iconic company has gone through a string of difficult product recalls in recent years, yet its reputation remains very positive, largely due to the company’s well-documented social responsibility. This is a company that is perceived as very caring—which dovetails with the nature of its product line—and that goes a long way.

Amazon.com

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Amazon.com? For many of us, it is that smiley face logo, the one suggesting the company’s greatest interest is making people happy. It follows through with its excellent shipping policies and general dedication to service. That’s just the kind of reputation that any business wishes to have.

BMW

The German automaker was recently listed by Nielson as the most reputable company in the world—and not for the first time. The company summarized its secret in this way: It does not make promises it cannot keep. That’s something businesses can learn from. It’s good to make promises and guarantees to your clients and customers—but only if you are able to follow through!

Google

Of course Google is a reputable company; simply think about how many people use Google products every day, how ubiquitous they have become. If there is one largely-hidden facet to Google’s positive reputation, well worth noting and emulating, it is that Google takes great pains to keep its customers educated and informed. Whether you are a webmaster or simply a search engine user, there are documents upon documents available for you to peruse, explaining all of Google’s inner workings. Again, this is something businesses of all stripes can imitate: Seeking to enrich your clients’ knowledge base helps your brand to come across as more authoritative and more helpful.

Disney

Disney is another company that constantly makes “most reputable company” lists, and again, there are myriad reasons for it. To narrow it down to just one takeaway lesson, though, note the consistency that Disney has when it comes to its branding. Whether you’re talking about the cruise line, the movies, or the theme parks, Disney has an across-the-board public face, one that emphasizes childlike wonder, dreams come true, and clean family fun. That kind of consistent vision is what solid reputations are built upon.

All of these companies are reputable in the eyes of investors and consumers, and all of them have achieved reputability through different means. As such, all of these companies hold lessons for small business owners. Perhaps the single most important lesson: Taking a proactive approach to reputation management is essential for success.

But often, sales and marketing organizations create their funnels, pipelines, and martini glasses then attempt to stuff the buyer’s journey neatly into its confines. Ultimately, this approach can be more harmful than helpful. Why? Because it needs to start with the buyer.

CEO Carlos Hidalgo and his team at ANNUITAS established their demand generation strategy by first developing detailed buyer insights and delving into the ideal buyer’s challenges and purchase habits. Based on these insights, ANNUITAS views demand generation programs as “three discrete, yet linked” phases: Engage, Nurture, and Convert.

Under Hidalgo’s leadership, ANNUITAS has had success working with clients to develop content strategies and demand generation programs driven by the specific interests and needs of their buyers. And although “engage” is considered the first phase, it seeps into “nurture” and “convert” as well. The ANNUITAS approach develops content that informs and engages interactions at every stage of the marketing and sales process.

The Content Marketeer caught up with Hidalgo recently, and he offered some dos and don’ts for building successful demand generation programs that resonate with buyers, nurture them through the buying process, and measure conversions at each phase of their journey:

DO develop detailed buyer insights.

At every stage, decisions must be made from the perspective of the buyer. How can this be done without knowing who they are? If your content is going to inform and engage, you need to have an idea of what the buyer is looking for. Hidalgo suggests asking yourself these questions: What are the key challenges the buyer faces? What pains are they trying to solve? How do they buy? What does their buying process look like?

DON’T view the buying process and the funnel as the same thing.

Hidalgo warns of a danger in making this common assumption. We have our funnel, our process, and that may not sync up with the buyer’s process. “I think first you have to understand that buyers do not view themselves or their buying process as funnel stages,” he says. So, how do we justify the two? Well…

DO allow buyers to drive interactions.

Whether your interactions with buyers are personal or automated, your nurturing of prospects should be behavior-based. “I see too many organizations who set up nurture programs where the buyer gets an email per week,” Hidalgo says. “What happens when a buyer responds four times before that email?” If your strategy is behavior-based, they will get four interactions that nurture a sale.

DON’T get caught up in tactics.

Hidalgo does not mince words on this point: “I see many organizations talk about an email nurture campaign or a telemarketing nurture campaign. This focus on tactics is what is killing marketers today. Determine the program strategy, the content that will need to be developed and then worry about the tactics you will use to deliver the content.”

DO measure results beyond time spent and shares.

When measuring results of efforts in the funnel, don’t focus on metrics like time spent reading content, social shares, opens or clicks. These do not offer the business insights you need. “The most valuable metrics are those that show if your content is helping convert buyers through the stages of the buying process.” This is done by measuring content consumption, engagement with that content, and conversion rates from one stage to another.

DON’T target bad fits.

There is no standard definition of a “qualified lead.” Each business has to do this for itself, and there may be categories of qualified leads. “It is vital that organizations not only define a qualified lead, but they must define every stage of the qualification process – starting with response all the way through defining what a closed deal is.” Hidalgo sees account segmentation as a collaborative process with marketing and sales. “Account segmentation helps focus your organization, making sure you have the right account targets. There is no use in targeting contacts in accounts that are not a good fit for your offering or targeting accounts that will not have a budget for your solution.

The overall point? Whichever metaphor you choose – pipeline or funnel – should be defined by your particular business and buyers. Know what their purchase process looks like, cater to their needs, and understand how to track their progress. Once you’ve established a solid demand generation strategy that covers those bases, grab a martini (not the metaphorical kind). You deserve it.

Want more insights on the funnel, err the pipeline? Carlos Hidalgo will be talking about “Middle of the Funnel Distribution: How to Drive Demand with Content” during the Content Marketing Bootcamp Boston. This one-day free event open to B2B marketers will be held at the Westin Copley Place in Boston on June 6. Space is limited, so register today.

When Wal-Mart announced plans to use its retail locations to fulfill online orders last week, the media and business community broke into a collective game of word association. The word? Amazon.

Prior to breaking the news, Wal-Mart was already one of the few companies that could compete with Amazon online. But after unveiling how it plans to do so—by fulfilling online orders in its own stores—Wal-Mart became Amazon’s first serious threat.

The irony is that Wal-Mart will fulfill these orders using Amazon’s own in-store locker strategy. Wal-Mart has the significant advantage of already having 10,000 retail locations—something Amazon can’t currently compete with. For Amazon, staying competitive will either require rolling out a slew of its own physical locations (which is a possibility considering its test store concept last year) or establishing partnerships with 3rd-party brick-and-mortar retailers (something it is very much in the process of doing). In the meantime, however, all Wal-Mart has to do is boost its online game. Well, and install the lockers.

Clearly Amazon and Wal-Mart have different product sets. They also don’t overlap 100% in target customer bases, and there are a bunch of other things that are fundamentally different about their models… But for the sake of oversimplification, let’s say that all Wal-Mart has to do to rise to ecommerce supremacy is up the online ante. What exactly would that take? A lot. But Wal-Mart’s two most crucial priorities will be helping online customers navigate its extensive product list easily and quickly, and streamlining online and offline operations to create a turnkey overall experience.

Priority #1: Wal-Mart must transform itself into an invisible (and psychic) personal shopper to help customers navigate its vast inventory.

Like Amazon, Wal-Mart has a massive product offering. This isn’t a new problem for either of them, but as the race to fulfill orders guarantees quicker turnaround times and more convenience after placing the order, Wal-Mart must control every thing it can before the order is placed to ensure it’s actually placed through them. In this case, that means making sure customers can find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily. Or, in the case that customers don’t know exactly what that is, helping them figure it out with a fairly high degree of accuracy.

The good news is that this isn’t Wal-Mart’s first rodeo; they’re not exactly starting from scratch. They know who their customers are and they’ve got tons of data from past purchases and online behavior to inform their efforts.

They’ve also got enough content to appeal to every person in the US if they want to – it’s just a question of surfacing the right content to the right people. Therefore there is no extra work involved in getting more products or content; the challenge is simply using it better.

To act as an invisible personal shopper, Wal-Mart must master what they do with this powerful combination of content and data—and when they do it. The goal is to use it in real-time, as customers are browsing their online store. This is different from standard product recommendations—things like “people who liked this, also like that”–which online shoppers have become accustomed to. Retailers now have the technology to go far beyond these persona/segment-based tools.

They can make use of both historical data (what this particular individual has looked at and/or purchased in the past) and current data (what this particular individual is looking at right now) to make predictions that will shape a particular customer’s experience in context and real-time.

Priority #2: Create a streamlined and turnkey experience across all touch points between online and offline visits.

With this new model comes the potential for far more room for error than ever before. Online customers who will now be traveling to Wal-Mart’s physical locations to pick up their orders will no doubt expect a consistent experience from the moment they order all the way to fulfillment. Along the way, there are a number of touch points, including email, direct marketing, advertising, customer service, and so on.

Building on the idea of personalizing each individual’s online experience, Wal-Mart can easily improve each subsequent experience—something that may seem like it involves a significant level of complexity. But with the right infrastructure, it can be completely automated and dynamic.

The key to accomplishing this is putting visitor profiles at the heart of each cross channel experience. In other words, Wal-Mart can use the same model of targeting used online to inform which content each customer sees across all other channels. In the end, the digital channels match email marketing matches advertising matches direct mail matches messaging at the point of pick-up (a phrase I just coined, mind you), and so on.

At the end of the day, Wal-Mart’s rise to online dominance really just revolves around turning an otherwise complicated shopping experience into one that feels quaint and easy. It can accomplish this by setting up a strong behind-the-scenes infrastructure that puts the customer experience at the forefront. And isn’t that what their new strategy is all about—giving the customer what they want where they want it?

What a concept! Like all desirable outcomes that sound streamlined and utterly rational, getting there isn’t so easy. We’ve got a new white paper for you, “Best Practices for Sales Enablement,” that does in fact address the specifics of how to get from here (could do better) to there (all buttoned up). The highlights:

1. Hire the right people

Modern sales enablement strategies and disciplines require professionals who are more flexible and teamwork-oriented than in decades past. The paper defines three steps to hiring salespeople who are able and prepared to help their customers dream and achieve.

2. Observe, evaluate, and understand your reps

Approaching the sales enablement process with an open mind and inclusive attitude will help avoid common pitfalls, such as focusing too much on process automation, or forcing the entire sales staff to follow overly rigid scripts.

• Sales reps with strong sales skills may be less inclined to get to know a product in intimate detail because they work by getting to know the essential details and then applying their stronger selling ability.
• Sales reps with stronger inclinations toward the technical side of a product will be inclined to spend more time getting to know those little details which, hopefully, will offset their, perhaps, weaker sales skills.

3. Provide continual product, competition, and buyer training

Make it easy for people to understand changes in the competitive landscape – as they occur. You can deliver competitive intelligence, product briefs, buyer profiles and other training resources in digestible portions, without taking sales reps off the phones or out of the field.

Create talk tracks that will help reps have the right conversations, with the right vocabulary for each buyer. Just as reps must understand the problems faced by buyers and the capabilities they seek, they must also learn the keywords and terminology their buyers use. For example, the controller of a small logging company speaks a different language than the office manager of a large corporate law firm. Sales enablement should identify buyer personae, along both vertical and organizational lines, and help reps understand how to communicate clearly with those buyers.

4. Use your own crowd to crowdsource sales enablement tools

Observe what your top sales performers do and what materials they use at each stage in the buying decision process. Uncover the stories and anecdotes they use to help make their point. Encourage them to share the tools and tips that have worked best for them. Refine the ideas as necessary and share them with the rest of the sales organization.

5. Align content and tools to the buying cycle

Sales must become more astute at communicating with buyers using the communications means that best enables buyers along their buyer journey. Maybe that’s email; maybe it’s social media. Whatever it may be (and it’s likely more than one channel), enable sales with content that they don’t need to rework to fit the communication channel.

6. Be vigilant over time to ward off fragmentation and drift

As organizations grow, expand, seek new audiences, merge, and spin off, disconnections and inconsistencies crop up. Products have different names in different regions. Pricing tables seem arbitrary because the CFOs who tried to reconcile them left after the merger was complete. Territories are drawn along gerrymandered lines. The sales enablement process can help you discover and weed out many of these anomalies and vestigial artifacts.

7. Integrate sales enablement across the business

Effective sales enablement not only brings the sales department’s reps, managers and leadership to the same table, but includes voices and input from the entire organization.

In the end, sales enablement is first and foremost about attitude. It’s a team approach to sales that gives everyone in the organization a support role in aligning resources to make the right sale to the right customer. Marketing plays a key role, ensuring that the right information, tools, and subject matter experts can be delivered in a way that is relevant to each unique selling situation.

Read more in the new white paper, “Best Practices for Sales Enablement,”

Got a super strategy for sales enablement? How about for other departments? We’d love to hear it!

Sending the Right Offer to the Right Customer at the Right Time

Establishing direct marketing success does not need to revolve around sending a huge amount of messages across a large number of channels. Rather, gaining the competitive edge involves sending the right offer to the right customer at the right time. Instead of distributing “batch and blast” messages, it’s about being smarter and not focusing solely on volume.

Marketers can increase results by sending fewer, more targeted messages. Survey results from MyBuys and the e-Tailing Group highlight the effects of personalized messages on online shoppers’ purchasing decisions. The survey shows 40% of consumers agree they buy more from retailers who personalize messages across all channels. Two-thirds (66%) of consumers say the retailers they favor offer promotions and merchandise tailored to their past purchasing and browsing behaviors. More than half of these consumers (54%) are willing to share information about themselves for a more personalized shopping experience.

To achieve the greatest results, marketers need to gather and analyze as much data as possible to paint a clear picture of their customers, enabling them to deliver relevant personalized messages that appeal to recipients.

Incorporating Big Data and Marketing Analytics

This is where big data and marketing analytics come into play for direct marketers. Gathering information from social media interactions, ad-clicks, email opt-ins, and newsletter subscriptions, etc. present marketers with an opportunity to paint a portrait of their customers and their interests, needs, and behaviors. The use of data and analytics can enable marketers to determine what people are looking for or what they’re likely to be most receptive to, as a means to deliver the right message at the right time, across all channels or simply the channels the customer prefers.

While direct mail budgets and volumes may be declining, many brands are simply using is more selectively—and intelligently—within cross-channel marketing strategies. For instance, direct mail can be used to reach customers or prospects who marketers cannot reach through cheaper, more immediate channels like email. Some consumers may not have or don’t open email on a regular basis, and that’s when direct mail strategies should be deployed, as these prospects could still be interested customers.

While recent survey results indicate direct mail spending may be on the decline, this doesn’t mean direct marketing as a whole is following suit. To keep a competitive advantage within direct marketing, marketers need to focus on creating and delivering relevant, targeted messages, which, in turn, can lead to increased sales and brand loyalty.

From boycotts, protests, lawsuits and occupations to extortion attempts, hacks, sabotage and misconduct, the volume, severity and complexity of risks and threats facing corporations has dramatically increased with the exponential growth of social networks and open-source channels.

Today, major corporations across a wide array of industries like food and beverage, media, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals are using advanced social threat detection to identify a wide variety of daily threats to their operations and organizations in real-time.

Widespread Threats

Leading corporations are under fire on a variety of fronts, from isolated incidents to well-organized initiatives. Threats arise on a regular basis from consumers, prospects, influencers and even competitors on a myriad of levels. Some of the more common social threats facing businesses include:

Employee Misconduct (Human Resources / Corporate Communications / Consumer Relations / C-Suite): Whether illegal activities or violations of corporate policy, this is an area that many Human Resource Departments are tracking to mitigate liability and protect reputation.

Product Incidents (Corporate Communications / Risk / Legal / C-Suite): Factual or not, many companies face online posts from consumers claiming quality issues or defects with a product, often with significant damage claims. These can escalate to extortion attempts against the organization.

Reputational Risk (Corporate Communications / Risk/ Legal / C-Suite): This covers a massive area and with hundreds of millions of individuals broadcasting online, there are countless ways to impact the reputation of an organization, which many smart organizations are tracking on a daily basis.

Legal Threats (Legal / Risk / C-Suite): Whether civil or class action, smart Legal Departments are using social threat detection technology to identify potential legal threats against the organization whether from consumers or counselors.

Industry Issues (Corporate Communications / Investor Relations / Consumer Relations / C-Suite): Whether regulatory, investment or compliance in nature, many social crises can arise from employees, executives, analysts or journalists, some of which may be intentional while others inadvertent.

The multidimensional emerging threats facing an organization are not always isolated incidents. In fact, an increasing amount of serious corporate risk is being generated from activists, ax-grinders and even authorities that are targeting businesses and industries with organized campaigns across sophisticated, yet unapparent, social networks. These social networks provide a catalyst to expand the reach, enhance the efficacy and increase the influence of these campaigns, ultimately increasing pressure on the corporation.

Corporations are tracking a wide array of serious risks against their business. Among the organized social risks corporations are facing are:

Facility Security (Security / Human Resources): The Occupy Movement was a wake-up call to many corporations realizing they require intelligence to identify organized facility threats to protect their employees and property.

System Breaches (Technology / Security): Many organizations are targeted with various levels of hacking against their systems and platforms which can wreak havoc on their organization, employees and customers.

Executive Safety (Security): Varying types of threats against executives and board members are serious issue that Security Teams are increasingly tracking with advanced social intelligence.

Competitive Threats (Marketing / Product): Companies are also keeping close tabs on the real-time activities of their competitors to identify threats and opportunities for their brands within the market.

Immediate Threat Identification

To effectively identify and report real-time threats across social and open-source media, corporations need an advanced social detection solution that delivers:

Streaming Big Data Processing: With billions upon billions of daily social comments, small samples of posts are not adequate to monitor the entire open social universe to find relevant threats in seconds. Businesses are turning to powerful streaming big data processing at over one billion operations per second to collect, filter and classify relevant threats and keep pace with social’s exponential growth.

Complex Concept Models: Traditional Boolean keyword strings will find some examples if the company knows what they are looking for. However, with risks and threats coming from all directions in all shapes and sizes concept models are required to identify the thousands of ways risks present themselves.

Deep Intelligence Expertise: Many leading companies are now relying on dedicated Social Intelligence Centers from expert analysts who strategically serve as a ‘round-the-clock’ extension of the corporation’s internal team for extended threat detection and expert risk analysis.

Unveiling the Threats

Let’s look at an example, below is an influencer map of activists currently targeting the beverage industry with a variety of campaigns focusing on issues ranging from soda tax to decreased portion size to sweeteners.

Many in the beverage industry believe that these activists and influencers are independent and isolated in their initiatives, working on their own to promote their individual causes. However, with ‘big data’ advanced social intelligence these influencers can not only be identified but also connected, revealing a complex, veiled network of relationships between these influencers and activists displaying a sophisticated initiative strategically targeting the beverage industry.

In this example, the influencers span the media, government, entertainment, academic and industrial realms.

This type of insight, along with advanced social threat detection, empowers corporations to immediately understand both the established and emerging threats allowing the organization to strategically plan, coordinate and engage appropriately to mitigate risks across the enterprise. This approach not only empowers the corporation with clear visibility of the complex risks facing their business, but also enables it to protect and grow the business.

Never before have leading corporations faced the volume or complexity of the threats the open social media universe is facilitating against their businesses. Given this, gaining the insight and visibility into these risks on a complete and real-time basis is now critical to allow organizations to strategically respond like never before to mitigate risks, diffuse threats and overall protect the organization on an enterprise-wide basis.

Now we’re not talking about scaring the bejesus out of your customers, but rather, using your content and features to create a surprise through mediums like email or social media marketing. All our attention on analytics and metrics, writes Redick, “certainly make[s] our profession more efficient. But they also can make brands less exciting and surprising. With all of this information at our disposal, we risk robbing brands of opportunities for serendipity — the delightful surprises that happen when we least expect them, attracting the attention of consumers.”

In Redick’s opinion, surprise is is the most powerful marketing tool because:

Surprise is addicting
According to Redick, scientists at Emory and Baylor used MRIs to measure changes in human brain activity, and the study “suggests that people are designed to crave the unexpected.” Redick gives Birchbox, the successful subscription beauty product mystery box as an example, proving that business models can be built around this insight. One of our personal favorite mystery addictions in the retail world is ModCloth’s stylish surprise grab bags. For $15, you could snag anything from a skirt, to a dress or a cute coat worth up to $300. The surprise grab bags are only available at random and sell out immediately in nanoseconds!

Surprise induces change in behavior
“Surprise introduces us to new stimuli, which we must then reconcile with shifts in our beliefs and behavior,” writes Redick. Training the mind to think in terms of desired consumer behavior can help unlock innovative strategies. “When developing an advertising campagin, we are often too focused on the question, ‘what do we need to say?’ Instead, we should focus on the question of ‘What expectations do our customers and prospects hold, and how can we turn those on in their head?’” says Redick.

Surprise spikes emotions
Surprise isn’t an emotion, but rather an emotion enhancer. Redick explains, “The interesting thing about surprise is that it appears to amplify whatever you’re feeling. When we’re surprised and angry, we’re outraged. Remember what happened when Netflix raised subscription prices without warning? Combine happiness with surprise, and you hit the upper register of the feeling-good scale.” Redick gives Zappos as an excellent example of a company successfully combining happiness with surprise. The online shoe retailer goes to great lengths to deliver shoes before they’re promised, hence customers are not only surprised by the early arrival of their purchase, but delighted.

Surprise creates passionate relationships
Similar to a relationship with a loved one, the element of surprise with your customers can spice things up. Redick explains that “one experiment conducted among middle-aged married couples found that engaging in less common, but more ‘exciting’ activities like skiing or dancing led to greater marriage satisfaction that pursuing activities that are more common and ‘pleasant,’ like seeing a movie or cooking together.” Just as married couples reacted favorably to unexpected or exciting events, a client, customer or business partner will also be drawn to an unexpected or surprising pitch – provided it’s in line with the business relationship.

The technical and analytic aspects of social media and email marketing are extraordinarily important, but if you’re looking for new ways to stand out, or to reignite a spark with some of your long-term business relationships, don’t be afraid to try something new, daring, or even surprising. When used effectively, surprise truly can be the most effective marketing tool.

What is an example of a time that a marketing effort has surprised you, and how do you remember reacting?

Systematic innovation is at the core of all agile practices, even though the term is somewhat of an oxymoron. Sparks of innovation don’t easily coexist with a systematic approach; systematic approaches don’t necessarily produce sparks of inspiration.

They are somewhat at odds, but agile practices make them complementary opposites—not mutually exclusive. In fact, the agile process is what allows for the innovation.

History Has Put Innovation at the Forefront

The goal of innovation dominates modern business, following a long history of business management eras that began over 100 years ago.

The history of business management in the U.S. has evolved through several distinctive eras—

• The Efficiency Era: Business management begins as a quasi-engineering efficiency study in the wake of late 19th century monopolies and robber-baron greed
• The Social Era: A time of great prosperity and hope, where businesses served as collective mechanisms for social reform and widespread increase in living standards after World War II
• The Shareholder Value Era: Beginning with the deregulation in the 1980s, American business went through a period of sacrosanct ideology about shareholder value, greed is good, and the rise of great income disparities between management and workers.

And now, I would add to that list, a new era we are entering:

• The Agile Era: A combination of all of remnants of all those past management era, but one dominated by a rising need for real, global innovation using what we have come to call agile business practices.

Along with this need for innovation, agile has embedded within it a new management ethic—emerging from the independent undertones of the software industry—which seeks to promote networks over hierarchies, creativity over uniformity, human over mechanism, and customer need over political agenda.

How did we get here?

The Birth of Modern Business Management

As author Walter Kiechel III summarized recently in Harvard Business Review, historians generally point to one event as the symbolic birth of business management:

The meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Chicago, May 1886, where Henry R. Towne, cofounder of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company, proposed the idea of codifying a “management of works” as a way to apply engineering principles to business production.

Towne’s presentation was significant because he formalized two main points of business management:

1. Management consists of a set of practices that can be studied and improved.
2. Management should be rooted in classical economics and the efficient use of resources

Towne’s audience was almost exclusively engineers.

The Efficiency Era, 1880s—1940

The first decades of business management were dominated by aspirations of scientific exactitude. Notable companies from this period were American Sugar, American Telephone and Telegraph Company, General Electric, Allied Chemical, International Harvester, U.S. Steel, Union Carbide, Sears Roebuck, Western Union.

The efficiency era came on the heels of a “robber-baron” period in American capitalism, a climate dominated by monopoly, corruption, and exorbitant wealth from men whose last names still conjure the image of obscene wealth: Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Morgan, Mellon, Stanford, Astor.

A rising middle class began to push against these political bosses and robber barons, with progressives wanting to bring the wisdom of science and process to business.

“The One Best Way”

Frederick Taylor, in his Principles of Scientific Management (1911), advocated for applying the scientific method to business.

Taylor first outlined the difference between “numbers people” and “people people” and pointed to it as the key tension in the workplace, but he also asserted that the differences between the quantifiable and the human in relationships shouldn’t be “cartoon” adversaries, but rather, complementary.

There was a belief that all businesses could be operated in the “one best way” if scientific processes were followed, but studies also uncovered the human psychology at work as well.

Example: A study on worker productivity showed that turning the lights in a factory up or down increased worker productivity. Up or down, it did matter. It wasn’t the light level; it was the fact that management was paying attention at all as perceived by the workers. Apparently, any attention from management was good for productivity.

Later studies showed productivity would also increase most during two significant workplace occurrences:

1. When workers forged into a group, and
2. When management solicited feedback and suggestions.

This period was also marked by overt classism, where those in management believed their ascendancy to power was the ultimate answer to The Great Depression, inept government, and the changes being brought on in the world by social upheaval.

The Social Era: 1940—1980

This era of business management, following World War II and ending with the Reagan presidency, was marked by overall confidence, public support, and good feelings about the potential for business to improve life, with employment linked to social stability, health care, housing, and the social contract with labor unions.

Notable companies during this period were General Foods, Eastman Kodak, Proctor & Gamble, United Aircraft, 3M, Chrysler, Woolworth, Goodyear.

Kiechel also notes the rise of some important business management scholars during this time, saying, “Entering into these stuffy rooms [of efficiency] blew a blast of fresh, cleansing air. Call it Hurricane Drucker.”

Peter Drucker

Many consider Peter Drucker the father of modern management, with several important publications during his life, including:

• Concept of the Corporation (1946)
• The Practice of Management (1954)
• Managing for Results (1964)

Concept of the Corporation was the first book of its kind, delving into how large corporations impact society on a broad level, and Managing for Results, 18 years later, may have been the first book on business strategy.

Drucker said, management is not adaptive only—it must push objectives to affect and change environment. “Business exists to produce results,” and the work of management should be to always look for opportunities.

Drucker saw the corporation as a social network, and believed business had two functions: innovation and marketing, ideas that remain critical to agile business practices in our own time.

His strategy was a throwback to Taylorism and strict measurement, not just of worker productivity, but of everything. And it worked. By the end of the 1970s, the 200 largest firms in the U.S. accounted for over 60% of total business sales, employment and income.

Win-Win

Also influential during this time of great promise for American business was Mary Parker Follett, a social worker, management consultant and pioneer in the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior. Her ideas of “constructive confrontation” and “win-win’ remain with us, as well. Follett coined the term “win-win” as a mechanism of integrated solutions rather than simply compromising.

Along with Lillian Gilbreth, Follett was one of two great women management gurus in the early days of classical management theory. She admonished micromanaging as “bossism,” and she is regarded by some as the mother of scientific management.

X and Y

Douglas McGregor’s Theory X/Theory Y set up a philosophical dichotomy between pure control and pure autonomy.

In simple terms, Theory X posited “people are lazy and need policing” in the workplace. Theory Y countered, “People seek meaning in work and contribute based on positive design.”

The two schools of thought still struggle against one another.

The Shareholder Value Era: 1980—current

The 1980s brought on a retreat of business from broad social involvement to market specialization and servitude to market forces. Business declined in its moral ambitions, with a decline in union power, globalization, the rise of MBA degrees, and an overall obsession with shareholder value.

The 1980s ushered in an era of deregulation in transportation—airlines, railroads, and trucking—as well as deregulations in telecommunications and finance. The importation of cars, steel, and consumer electronics rose sharply, followed by an unprecedented age of technology with the rise of personal computer hardware and software.

Junk bonds and financial takeovers became standard practice without constraints, percolating through a “greed is good” societal undertone. Management began to change, with heavier and heavier emphasis on shareholders, often to the detriment of stakeholder interests.

Corporate management’s clearest goal since the 1980s has been to create wealth for their shareholders, and rewards for managers who played by those rules grew in ownership incentives and stock options. By 1999, stock options accounted for 50% of executive pay, and the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay went through the roof in the U.S., peaking at over 500:1 in 2000 according to research from the Institute for Policy Studies.

Value Creation

In 1985, the terms “value creation” first arose in business strategy circles to justify exorbitant corporate paychecks. CEOs, the logic went, created the value and therefore should enjoy the spoils of the business profit—as measured by the increase in company stock price.

This period also saw the rise of information technology, growing from small data management expert firms to the all-pervasive sea of data that runs through every department of modern business today.

More than just networks and servers, IT connected businesses directly to billions of customers in an easily measured and trackable way, an ability that has only increased with more social media outlets and mobile technology.

That Brings Us to the Present Day.

And that brings me to the close of Part 1 of this post.

Read Part 2, coming soon!

What is Cartwheel?

The site is a unique approach to multichannel advertising and shopping that incorporates the very social aspect of shopping – especially for women. Cartwheel, still in Beta, works like this: users log into cartwheel.target.com using their Facebook accounts. From there, they can start picking from a variety of deals that are 5% off or more depending on the specific product. The deals users pick then appear (if their settings allow) in their Facebook News Feed. In a way, this gives Target free advertising every time Cartwheel users share products talk about deals with their friends via Facebook.

The social aspect doesn’t stop there. Users can also earn additional coupons the more they shop and the more they talk about deals on Facebook; they also receive additional badges, discounts and other perks for doing so. All in all, Cartwheel acts kind of like a hybrid between Facebook, Klout, and Foursquare.

A Millennial’s Experience with Cartwheel

Being of the Millennial generation and a self-proclaimed savvy shopper, I decided to test out this new couponing experience for myself. Prior to going shopping, I pulled up the website on my phone (non-compatible with Google Chrome on iOS by the way…) and connected it with my Facebook account. Once the accounts were linked, I immediately received a Cartwheel badge simply because another one of my Facebook friends was also using Cartwheel.

The next step was to begin adding coupons to my coupon cart. Everyone who signs up gets 10 spots to add coupons. I added about 4 different deals to my available spots. To find these deals, I was able to sort coupons based on store department, the Target Collection they were part of, or by searching for specific products. One of the deals I added came from a “collection” and I received another badge upon adding that item. After adding these four coupons, a single barcode was generated for the sales associate to scan at checkout.

The coupon I was most excited about was one for 10% off a pair of sandals.

The sandals in question were $15 originally, and as a budget- conscious fashionista about to (finally) experience summer in Minnesota, they had been on my radar for a while. The chance to receive an extra 10% off simply could not be missed. After selecting my shoe and somehow miraculously making it through the rest of Target without purchasing anything else, I entered the checkout line.

My past experience with coupons has always been a bit cumbersome. Not only do I have to deal with handling my credit card at checkout, but also with small bits of hastily torn out, jagged paper coupons. With Cartwheel, all I had to do was hand over my phone – something practically glued to my hand anyway – and instantly I received my discount – a brand new pair of sandals for just $13.50.  I also got a notification that I had received another badge from Cartwheel for making my first purchase (for those counting, that is a grand total of 3 badges). Finally, on top of all that, after the transaction had finished, the friendly sales associate handed me another coupon for 20% off my next shoe purchase at Target. As if I wasn’t already planning to make another purchase from Target. If only they could send that coupon to my Cartwheel account…that would make things truly integrated (word up, Target).

What does it All Mean? 

Cartwheel represents a major shift in thinking about how consumers are shopping in brick and mortar stores. An application like Cartwheel helps to solve a major problem facing retailors today: how to convince shoppers they still need to visit actual stores when so many find it easier and cheaper to shop via their mobile devices. By combining both a mobile and socialaspects into the shopping experience, Target is encouraging their younger customers to be loyal to the brand as well as to the physical store.

When it comes to creating loyalty and encouraging Millennials to shop bricks-and-mortar stores, I see no choice but for brands to take a multichannel approach as Target is attempting to do. We are a generation that thrives on social/mobile experiences, and we want to form relationships with the brands we frequent. We want to be able to interact with brands just like we do with our friends through various online channels. Efforts like Cartwheel are the first step towards a fully integrated digital marketing experience every brand will soon need to implement.

Innately sweet and raised by a mother who fostered several children, Leigh was able to decline the offer and remain on good terms with her would-be employer. The hiring manager expressed her gratitude and encouraged Leigh to apply in the future for positions that might be a better fit.

Making Connections

Following graduation, Leigh and her boyfriend evaluated where they wanted to find work and live, settling on Charlotte, North Carolina. Upon hearing about Leigh’s move, her Aunt Joan asked her friend Nancy (who was from Charlotte) if she had any ideas for Leigh’s job search. “I liked Leigh right away and was flattered that of all the places she could have picked to live, she chose my hometown”, said Nancy.

When Nancy was 40 and had three young children, one of whom was disabled, she lost her husband. Nancy understood all too well what it was like to need work and had been fortunate enough to turn her volunteer service into employment working in social services.

Decades later and remarried, Nancy found herself in a position to help others. Seeing a spark in Leigh, she introduced Leigh to the agency that placed her son in his residential home and also introduced Leigh to her daughter who worked for a different social service agency.

With Nancy’s recommendation, Leigh met with the agency and began working with them on a part-time basis. Leigh continued to keep in touch, frequently emailing Nancy with updates as the months went by.

During this difficult time she remembered, “When I was in graduate school, I joked around about how I wasn’t concerned about getting a job, because really… who wants to work in Child Welfare? After I graduated and turned down the Family Assessor position, I assured myself there would be more options. Time went on and I started to re-think the position I turned down, but my awesome support system kept helping me remember the reasons I turned it down. I remained cautiously optimistic that something would come around soon. I had struggles working in a part-time job that didn’t require a college education, but I knew I would reach my goal soon, as long as I kept working towards it.”

In late February, many months after moving to Charlotte and after regularly checking several websites for new job postings, Leigh’s wish list job of a Foster Care Social Worker surfaced. She applied the week the job was posted, interviewed, was offered the position soon after the interview, and started on April 15.

Lessons Learned

Leigh says, “My best advice is to surround yourself with people who believe in you and even if you’re feeling down on your luck, you have to remember to keep working hard and your time will come.”

Broadcast your job needs to your family. Say yes to help. Trust your gut enough to say no to the wrong job, even if it means sacrifice. Keep all your patrons informed along the way. Don’t wait for companies to notify you of jobs—even those that try to hire you and say they still want you. Assume they won’t make the first move and proactively follow their websites. Pounce immediately when the job is posted and call in your network to vouch for you.

P.S. Last names have been omitted due to the sensitive nature of Leigh’s work and to respect the privacy of Nancy’s special-needs son.

photo credit: University of Denver via photopin cc

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