Never Stop Marketing...

Authenticity and Honesty Can Be Remarkable…

jer979 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:02:00 GMT

The social media era is bringing us back to simpler, more open communications.

If you are honest and authentic, you are going to garner respect.

And, by being who you are, you can be remarkable.

Which means, people will spread the word for you, so you get into a “marketing they call you; sales you call them” situation. Which is what you want.

Today’s nominee: The painfully honest and epic mobile home commercial:

HT: John Gilroy for the link.

Billion Channel Marketing, Feedback Loops-(Part 6)

jer979 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:36:00 GMT

Continuing some of the rough thoughts begun here in part 1 on how marketing planning will need to change given the fact that marketing itself has changed.

Marketing is a dialogue. It’s a relationship. It’s a listening process.

You say something, the market responds. You adjust, the market responds.

You refine and iterate until you have a story that resonates, which people can tell their friends, and which give them reason to call you.

Thing is, the dialogue used to move VERY slowly.

You’d say something (say via a billboard or a direct mail campaign) and it could take weeks or months to get the reaction.

Organizing and analyzing a focus group itself would take weeks.

So, in a given year, you could only plan a few things to execute.

Today, of course, the feedback loop is instantaneous.

Now that Bing and Google have integrated Twitter into their search results, you can get real-time results of a campaign.

What’s more, you want a focus group? It’s already out there.

You know that.

So…your opportunity to iterate comes sooner.

May as well take it.

Instead of saying once (or maybe twice a year) “here are the campaigns we will run for the next 6 or 12 months,” Say instead,

“We are going to create a story about this product/service that people will want to tell their friends.

We will measure the success of the story by how often people talk about it (pick your metric here)…and if they don’t talk about it at RATE X, well then, we will try a different way to tell the story.

And we will do this every 3 weeks until we get it right. Because we can.”

This is where you design for innovation. The feedback loops enable Rapid Marketing Development. This is how you exploit opportunities that arise…which you didn’t foresee in your planning process.

Next time, I’ll wrap this up….for now :-)

Updated: here’s the final part.

Remarkable Corporate Culture…

jer979 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:39:00 GMT

Remember how I said that I only work with people I like?

Well, my client Pinstripe fits the bill in a big way!

One of the hallmarks of being Remarkable is “get people to make a remark about it.”

And, this bracelet is that indeed.

JFDI…Just F’’in Do It!

A commitment to avoiding analysis paralysis, to putting their heads down, to execution and not complaining about problems, rather fixing them.

No surprise they have so many Raving Fans!

And here’s a bonus…First three people to Tweet out, post on Facebook, or blog about this with the motto “Pinstripe Talent: They JFDI!” and link back to this post…I’ll send you your own bracelet.

(You’ll have to send me the link, of course)

Speaking Tour…Sponsored by Microsoft

jer979 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:23:00 GMT

The good folks on the Local Engagement Team at Microsoft (client) are taking the Marketing Survival Strategies for the Attention Economy show on the road.

You (or your friends) can catch me in the following cities.

City	Date
Boston	Dec. 1
Atlanta	Dec. 2
New York	Dec. 8

Click on each city for more info and feel free to spread the word.

It’s How You Respond…NOW!

jer979 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:38:00 GMT

Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, two of Social Media’s leading thinkers penned a post a few weeks back called “Social Search: Customers Influence Search Results Over Brands”

To which I say: NO KIDDING!

But this post isn’t about what they wrote…it’s spot on.

What it is about is a further warning and opportunity for all of us.

Since Twitter real-time search is now integrated into Bing and Google, what this means is that when your clients and customers search for your brand online, they won’t necessarily see your Ad Words or even your carefully crafted SEO first.

What they will (or might) see is how your customers are talking about you today.

Scary?

You betcha.

Have an off day and POW!…someone is turned off forever.

So, in the “we are afraid of social media because we don’t have control” battle, another sortie has been launched and you have even less control of your brand.

Or do you?

What this means, I think, is that you REALLY need to be listening to what people are saying. Monitoring the conversation and let Viktor Frankl be your brand manager.

And, of course, it means if you are Remarkable and you create Raving Fans who are talking about you…well, then that will be the first thing on the search results now.

Lesson: No sense in tearing your hair out or bemoaning the reality. It is here. Best to just accept it and adapt.

Legal is a customer touchpoint…

jer979 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:35:00 GMT

Remember back when I wrote about how Accounts Payable is a customer touchpoint?

Well, here’s a great story from Andy Sernovitz about how your legal department is also a touchpoint.

Lawyers, as much as we make fun of them, play an important role in the company. They minimize risk.

But they MUST serve the larger business objectives as well.

In Rohit Bhargava’s great book, Personality Not Included, he shares a story from Apple that shows you how legal can be a touchpoint for remarkability.

In the fine print for the iPod shuffle, there is the standard legalese, but there is also a line that says “Do not eat iPod.”

Added personality, as Rohit would say, or remarkability as we might say.

I like to quote Guy Kawasaki on these matters… “The way to deal with lawyers is to say, ‘this is what we are going to do. Now keep us out of jail as we do it!”

Everything can affect the customer purchase decision. Do your best to pull them in, not push them away.

Feedback Is A Marketing Opportunity…

jer979 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:30:00 GMT

I am kicking myself about this one, but it just dawned on me that when someone asks you for “feedback,” you have been gifted a marketing opportunity.

My hunch is that…most of the time…when you are asked for feedback from a friend or colleague (assuming it is not a core activity for you at the moment), you’ll take a cursory look at it and offer 2-3 sentences (if that). This was pretty much how I operated for a long time.

Today, I received a PDF from a friend who is trying to market a new service offering for his company.

I happened to be on a plane (so perhaps had a bit less pressure at the moment) and I actually spent more than a few minutes looking at it and then wrote 2-3 paragraphs of ideas/suggestions, etc.

He may hate it. He may be looking for validation and that’s it. He may think I’m arrogant (he wouldn’t be the first one :-)

But, he wrote “I’d be really interested in your feedback,” so what I did (I hope) is demonstrate my ability as a marketer to think strategically on his behalf.

At the very least, I will earn his respect for taking the time and giving attention to his problem.

He may become a fan or even a Raving Fan.

He may become a client.

All I know is that he came to me and said “what do you think?” and that means…I (and you) have an opportunity to show (not show off, mind you) how you look at the world.

I suppose the lesson is: if you are going to give feedback, make it remarkable.

Just for kicks….

jer979 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:32:33 GMT

Click the top-right corner of the redesigned NSM site.

Thanks to everyone who helped collaborate on the redesign.

Feedback welcome, as usual

Only work with people you like…

jer979 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:27:00 GMT

In the era of the Global MicroBrand, you are not limited to working with people who live within 20 miles of your home or office.

You can find customers and clients all over the world.

So, there’s no need to work with people you don’t like. (My first boss gave me that advice. His other advice? Don’t believe your own bullshit, but I digress.)

I’ve documented one fantastic example of a potential customer who thought about a true working relationship.

And just the other day, a potential client called to say that her boss had gotten promoted and our project was DOA. I was bummed. She sensed it and you know what she did?

“Look…I WANT to work with you one way or another, so forget that project, I have budget for another project, let’s see if we can make that happen!”

It was a very human moment where she recognized the amount of work I had put into the original proposal and because of our rapport, she WANTS me to succeed as a consultant.

Now, contrast that with another potential client who was referred to me by the network.

We agreed on a call at a specific date and time. I sent the meeting request. She was going to call me.

At the appointed time, she didn’t call.

I emailed:

HI! I was expecting your call at 9.15. I am still available or we can reschedule. Let me know.

Her response:

Been swamped in meetings all day long..... I will try to call you later. Do you want to talk tomorrow?

What was missing?

An apology.

Maybe I am overreacting and now I am Mr. Sensitive, but NO mention of the fact that she was supposed to call?

I highlight this “need to apologize as a human gesture” in my Marketing Survival Strategies for the Attention Economy keynote…and I am sure there are plenty of examples when I miss the mark, so perhaps I should look in the mirror first.

Still…blogging about it raises my awareness of it and hopefully does the same for you.

When I was starting out in this business, Word-of-Mouth guru Andy Sernovitz said to me, “if you see ANY red flags early on, don’t ignore them. As a consultant, you can’t afford to have clients who won’t respect your time or your effort.”

What the lack of apology said to me was “you weren’t even important enough for me to say ‘sorry’ or give you the heads up earlier in the day that things were hectic and I may need to reschedule.”

That was a red flag and it killed my interest to reschedule.

Question: am I overreacting on this one?

“The Peasant Revolt Hasn’t Happened Yet”

jer979 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:43:00 GMT

Adriana Lukas practices “Disruptive Management.”

Yes, that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but when you listen to her, you’ll start to understand why she can do it.

You may go to a panel discussion on “what social means for business” or “how social media changes everything.”

Well, I’ll save you the time. Just click play below and listen (watching is optional) and hear straight from one of the world’s leading thinkers.

One of the things I love about networking is the opportunity to meet people like this…and learn from them.