Marketing Insights & Strategies

How a Successful Marketing Strategy Drives Revenue Growth

2015-06-09T13:26:00.001-04:00

A great marketing strategy should always include research and reporting components to help sales find “gold” in potential and existing customer data to gain new revenue.

Sales teams are always looking to their marketing counterparts to help get new leads to turn them into successful opportunities. It's simply not enough to just provide names and contact information of someone who dropped their business card into a bowl at an exhibit booth. They need much more.

In order to drive revenue growth, successful marketing strategies must also focus on providing contacts at viable prospect companies with key details, such as: identified industry, location, company size/revenue, department, title, job, current technology utilized for the business need (if available), and specific future growth plans (if available). Those data points are essential prior to formulating your plan.

The best results happen when everyone remembers that marketing and sales are a team with both functions supporting the other. For instance, marketing can fuel revenue growth by providing sales with research data about the prospects at the heart of specific interactions, which can include behavioral data, such as response rates, which can confirm business needs and the relative interest level in a given topic. Both teams will flourish if marketing strives to assist and encourage sales to uncover more knowledge of their prospects and customers through social selling resources and channels and by collaborating throughout the process.

Not only do you want to reach your target audience and provide a solution to assist them with their business needs, but you also have to provide them with a positive customer experience and make their journey to a purchase decision seamless and satisfying.

In addition to working to solve their business issues, remember that each executive is also concerned with their personal challenges within their company. Therefore, if you can help them solve the business need at hand and show increased ROI, that in turn will help solidify their value in their existing role and aid them in reaching their personal goals. Both the marketing strategy and sales strategy should go hand in hand to deliver results that ensure the customer journey is a beneficial one.

Many years ago, when I was wearing two hats - both sales and marketing - I was having a difficult time securing a meeting with a top executive at an automotive company I was trying to work with. I found out that he was going to be at an industry conference that I was also planning on attending. A few weeks before the conference, I decided to put my marketing strategy, as well as my sales strategy, to work for me, and I read as much as I could find on his company, department, and background. Because he was a high-level executive, I was able to find a press release that announced his appointment to his then-current position and learn more about him via LinkedIn. That led to a detailed summary of his background and information on his current role and the work he had done prior to his current position.

With that information in hand, I researched his previous company in order to learn more about his focus as well as the challenges and successes he experienced. Luckily he had written several articles and had done many interviews. After finding out as much about this executive and his organization as I could, I felt confident that my company could help him achieve his departmental goals. So I set out to introduce myself to him at the conference. Prior to the event, I put together an information packet on his focus areas, and then I included a list of customer references, along with a hand written note on company stationary along with my business card.

As it turned out, the first night of the conference was a networking cocktail party. Even though we had never met or spoken, I knew what the executive looked like from his photo online and felt like I had a good handle on his interests. I was able to spot him in the crowded room, approached him and introduced myself. We spoke about the company he was at previously, his new role and responsibilities, and how partnering with my company could help him meet his goals and address some of the data challenges he was trying to streamline. He was surprised and pleased that I knew so much about what he had been dealing with in the past, the challenges he was currently facing and that he could actually talk with someone that had an idea of what his department was going through. I handed him the packet of information which I had assembled and he promised to get back to me. My sales and marketing strategy had worked!

That initial conversation kicked off a series of meetings that led to a strategic value assessment, and ultimately to a closed deal that provided tremendous value to the customer. And what may have been seen simply as a successful sale, was really an effective pairing of marketing strategy with sales skill.

I offer the above example to underscore how a customer can benefit from an orchestrated process that's firmly grounded in marketing strategy. The primary benefit is for sales to gain critical insights in order to engage the customer on the basis of their business needs, and not being so focused on having a product to sell.

Scale that example up to a large sales force with an addressable market of millions, and it quickly becomes clear how an analytically-driven marketing solution, such as SAS Customer Intelligence, can help drive revenue growth for all sizes of businesses.

Although my example incorporates both sales and marketing strategies, both are equally important to an organization's success. I have been fortunate enough to manage multiple, industry-wide marketing programs, and I've found the following combination of factors in a marketing strategy can have the biggest impact on sales:

Do the research needed up front,
Know and target the right audience,
Create the right messaging,
Develop relevant assets and content,
Utilize the best available channels, and
Share your marketing metrics and results.

A well-thought out, all-inclusive marketing strategy, implemented properly, will give sales the advantage they need to help secure a conversation with a prospect or current customer and can be the catalyst to a successful engagement and with it, increased revenue. In the end, everyone wins!

Five Ways to Get More Value through Marketing in a Digital World

2014-08-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

“Companies that make the deep strategic, organizational, and operational shifts required to become effective digital marketers can become more agile, more productive, and accelerate revenue growth.”

- McKinsey & Company

With all of the latest buzz around digital marketing and the importance of diving in and riding the digital wave to bigger and better opportunities, I decided to do some research on how I can make a difference.

After reading “The Network is Your Customer: Five Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age” by David Rogers, executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School, I found that everyone, working separate yet together, can bring value to their organization. Although this book is several years old, the theories are still very relevant today. It examines how digital technologies — from smartphones to social networks — connect us in networks that transform our relationships to businesses and each other.

As we all know, from the very beginning, marketers have regarded the internet as a massive laboratory, launching experiment after experiment to crack the code that generates sales and customer loyalty with modest results. Consumers have been adopting digital technology at their own pace and as they saw fit, in the process fundamentally altering the way they make purchasing decisions.¹

Talented marketers for instance, know they can have a positive impact and overall success of their messaging, if they work together and team up in the development of a targeted digital strategy and implement it through all resources available to them.

There are five strategies that came out of the research conducted through examining hundreds of case studies of businesses of all kinds, trying to understand what makes a successful digital strategy, they are:

The Access Strategy: Be faster, be easier, be everywhere, be always on

The Engage Strategy: Become a source of valued content

The Customize Strategy: Make your offering adaptable to your customers' needs

The Connect Strategy: Become a part of your customers' conversations

The Collaborate Strategy: Invite your customers to help build your enterprise

These five strategies were identified by examining the core behaviors of customers in their networked lives. While technology keeps shifting every day, the underlying behaviors that drive customers in the online world remain constant. So, they present a huge opportunity for businesses to innovate, and to retain and win new customers. Rather than focusing on new technologies and tools for marketing to your target audience, marketing teams need to rethink their understanding of their core customers from their point of views.

According to Stephanie Chandler, Forbes contributor and author of “Own Your Niche”, while many business and marketing departments are working to justify the cost and time investment for developing and managing a successful social media marketing strategy, “an important benefit often gets overlooked: Big Wins”. For example, if someone from LinkedIn connects you with a significant executive that has a project and budget, then that would certainly qualify as a Big Win. If a major media outlet finds you on Twitter and conducts an interview for a national article, then that is also a Big Win, just one that you can’t measure based on revenues directly generated.

Big Wins don’t happen often, but when they do, they make it all worthwhile. It’s easy to forget results like these six months down the road when you’re trying to assess whether your social media efforts are paying off. But that one large sale could cover your social media marketing costs for years. And that major media interview could lead to subsequent interviews and create additional executive awareness three years from now.

So, whether you’ve just started to create a digital marketing strategy or have been implementing one for a while now, make sure you monitor your efforts by tracking results on a regular basis. If you do this diligently you’ll be able to tweak your messaging based on the data that’s derived from your assessments.

Do you have more suggestions on how to get increased success in the digital world? Please feel free to make a comment here or let me know since I would love to hear your ideas!

2014-01-27T00:25:00.001-05:00

Planning a Marketing Ideation Session

What is an Ideation Session?

What used to be called a “brainstorming” session has now morphed into an “ideation” session. It’s actually more than just simply changing a word that seems overused, but actually taking it to the next level. Where a brainstorming session is getting a group together to throw out new ideas and ways of approaching or tackling something in a different and innovative way to achieve a specific goal, an ideation session is much more. It’s an actual process where an idea is identified and then built upon to achieve a specific solution to a specific problem, rather than just a group of people tossing out ideas hoping they will be picked up and accepted by the group.

For example, a brainstorming session would be something like this –

Where an ideation session has more planned directives –

While contemplating hosting a group of colleagues for an internal Marketing Ideation Session or Workshop, I decided that the initial step would be to develop the reasons why this would be beneficial and the goals we are striving to achieve.

First, realizing that there is a direct correlation between the quantity of good planning and preparation and quality of output, we must identify the specific problem we would like to find a solution for as well as the essence of the problem prior to our initial meeting if we want to achieve success.

We must also create a structure for the following:

Identify participants according to focus area
Agree on the problem that each would like to bring to the group
Establish each stakeholder’s engagement for contributing
Set timeframes for completion of process from implementation of idea to follow up and final outcome report

Only after all of the above points are successfully identified and processed will the group realize whether or not the ideation session was successful. However an unsuccessful result does not mean that the idea that was implemented was necessarily wrong since there are many uncontrolled variables that may occur during the process.

For example, if you’re dealing with a communication problem between sales and marketing that needs to be addressed, developing a solution to the problem may be to request the sales team assist you in solving this issue. However, if members of either team do not decide on working together and do not follow a developed process, the chances of success are low even though the initial idea for the solution was well thought out and considered to be a good one.

A brainstorming session usually leads to everyone going their separate ways after coming together to share ideas. It’s like throwing everything at the wall hoping something will stick; whereas having a formulated plan, process and follow through has a much greater chance of success.

There are no guarantees that the ideation session will garner positive results, but by working together to first identify the problem that needs to be solved and then continuing to work together as a unit for a solution, the odds are better since everyone is on the same page.

Basic Guidelines for a Team Lead

2012-12-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

Since my husband and I are both workaholics and in marketing, we are constantly pulled in many directions and very busy all the time. That is why we have made a habit of making every Friday night a standing date night so that we can enjoy a relaxing dinner, have a nice glass of wine (or two), a great meal, share our current projects and talk over what’s happened during the week. We bounce ideas off of each other while getting each other’s opinions and perspectives.

My husband, being a director of the marketing research center for a large, privately-held company who specializes in marketing programs for their clients, has a wealth of knowledge and business experience and I really respect his opinion. So it made me feel very good this past Friday night when, while sharing a bottle of Ruffino Chianti, he told me that he was very proud of how I handled everything this past week and for being named team lead for my marketing team. We started discussing what exactly we thought the function of a team lead was and I told him that in my opinion it wasn't managerial, but rather that of a mentor and communicator to the rest of the organization and teams.

He agreed with my overall vision and told me that a team lead should respect all of the member’s opinions, have the team’s back in supporting the final decisions that are made and implemented and never think that they are above the rest of the members. Everyone on a team is equally important and a good team leader should empower, encourage and motive the other team members to do their best. That got me thinking that it would be a great idea to give everyone a chance to be a team lead and thereby have something extra to look forward to and work towards.

When the team is successful, every member is successful. Individual members also feel that they're part of the bigger picture and not working in silos, but sharing ideas and goals. When the team is not successful everyone should come together and discuss what went wrong so that they can correct course and implement best practices.

Because of this discussion, I decided to put together a list of functions that may be able to help guide myself and future team leaders.

In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, all team members often have varying degrees of leadership skills and training. One of the best ways a team’s ideas can be represented and communicated is by appointing a team leader on a rotating basis. By having a rotation system, each member feels more like a vital part and strives to set an example while at the same time working together to make the team successful during their appointment. In addition, each member would be able to share their past and current knowledge, get the opportunity to lead the team and learn from the experience.

The idea is to build on specific strengths and integrate key leadership responsibilities by providing the team with structured guidelines for understanding and utilizing the role of a team lead. This can result in helping to resolve conflicts, improve employee performance and lead to success not only for the individual team member but for the entire organization. A team lead should not be considered as a managerial role, in charge of the others, but rather as a key communicator and voice for the entire team.

The 7 points below can be used as guidelines to follow:

1. Lead by Example

This is one of the most important leadership skills that a team leader should keep in mind. If you demonstrate a strong work ethic, your members will respect the effort and tend to follow. As the team leader, you have an opportunity to guide the other members, to inspire enthusiasm and stimulate their interests. Make sure you always ask for their input, consider the opinions and look out for their best interests and they will be appreciative of your efforts and strive to be more productive while maintaining the high organizational standards that are set.

2. Motivate and Engage

The team leader alone should not set the goals, suggestions should be invited from one and all and issues must be discussed in an open forum. The lead must make the other team members well aware of their roles and responsibilities and understand each team member’s job functions as well. Never assume you know what challenges or problems they may be currently facing, don’t impose things on them, or create communications without first getting their input and talking things over to come to an agreement. If a team lead shares information outside the team without first passing it by everyone for input it's like blindsiding the team which can create bad feelings and mistrust. Motivate them so that they perform even better the next time. Avoid criticizing anyone. Never make fun of anyone’s mistakes, instead correct him in a polite way.

3. Maintain Integrity
Much like leading by example, you always want to keep operations above board. Don’t conduct any business in secret or behind your team member’s backs that may directly affect them. Share ideas openly and be candid about processes or issues that you know do not follow ethical standards. While speaking up takes a great deal of courage, keeping silent can negatively affect your reputation and that of your team’s as well.

4. Be a Mentor

The “Hitler approach” doesn’t work in the team scenario. Team members should be able to gain from the team leader’s talent and mentorship. He must stand by his team always. When a team performs well, the credit goes to the entire team, similarly at times when the team fails to perform as per the expectations of others, don’t try to play it safe. A leader should own his mistakes as well as his team member’s. Don’t play blame games or point fingers at others. Nobody will respect you this way. Just as comparing team members or different activity results to each other, is never a good idea. It’s much better to point out the positive and build on that, than focus on the negative and have bad feelings.

5. Ask Tough Questions
Part of your role as the team lead is to ask the tough questions in order to help the entire team. Direct questions such as, “Is this in the budget?” or “Is this the best approach?” can not only get everyone thinking of other cost-saving approaches, but can also develop into a new best practice or alternate plan which may turn out to have better overall results.

6. Be Committed
Who cares? You do! By demonstrating commitment to the sales team you support, as well as to your team members, your profession and your industry, others will be inspired to be enthusiastic about their roles and contributions. If you demonstrate any sort of negativity or become disengaged, others may soon follow and problems will arise which can result in a poor work ethic and a breakdown of morale.

7. Be Available to Help Each Other

Problems may arise at any time and the team leader must be easily available to other members. They should feel comfortable to reach out at any time with questions or for guidance and be able to fall back on their leader anytime without the fear of getting rebuked.

A good team leader is one who focuses on:

- Taking the time to share their experience and knowledge.

-        Elevating the team's confidence by recognizing each member’s contributions.
-        Assisting in guiding team members through difficult decisions.
-        Making sure each team member achieves their goals.

Remember if you yourself do not adhere to these basic guidelines, you can’t expect your team members to do so. Be disciplined and expect the same from them. In order to be a good team leader, you should be willing to listen to new ideas, set an example for others, be available to help each member to be as successful as possible and always have their backs. They will respect you more if you do.

Learning and Utilizing Infographics in Marketing

2012-05-09T22:50:00.000-04:00

I've now gotten more and more into Pinterest and find it so much fun to be able to "pin" things (or for you "Non-Pinnies", post different images) without having to be bothered with so many different ads. Plus, as a direct result of discovering Pinterest, I've discovered and learned more about "Infographics"!

What is an "Infographic? You may ask. Well according to Wikipedia: "Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly,^[1] such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. With an information graphic, computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians develop and communicate concepts using a single symbol to process information."

Infographics are great visual charts that explain different things or provide quick statistical information through the use of pictures and text. I think I love them because you can get the high level overview of a topic or subject matter without reading a several page report. It gives you the highlights that are most important and conveys the overall idea of a specific subject matter.

Companies are utilizing inforgraphics more and more these days because of the fact that it communicates what they want to get across quickly.

According to the MarketingTech blog:

Infographics are easily transportable… the ability for me to download and upload a great infographic takes a few minutes… much easier than trying to write a blog post in response to show appreciation of someone else’s content.

Infographics attract a lot of attention. The visual display of information with fantastic imagery often catches people where words alone fail. They often go viral because they are so interesting.

At present, infographics remain as one of the few ways to game search engines. Simply put – if you provide someone to publish your infographic, you typically ask them to also put a link back to your site with some juicy keyword in it. Voila… a backlink! Backlinks are the gold standard of gaining rank.

Infographics not only grab the attention of your readers but they can also be a scalable link building tactic. The internet is quickly collecting an assortment of well-designed, easy-to-digest infographics across all industries, and it’s easy to see why these information-packed images are so popular for bloggers and web content managers.

Content alone, as useful as it is, can sometimes be a little bit bland. Words on a webpage without colour or graphics doesn’t always score points for user experience, which is why our content writers put so much emphasis on formatting and style.

The company I work for, SAS, is (in my opinion) the best software company to work for in the world! They really care about their customers and their employees. SAS has the most friendly and knowledgable business advisors and experts whose main goal is to make their customer's organizations more profitable through business intelligence and analytics. As SAS' CEO James Goodnight states “There’s a huge jump from simple BI to advanced analytics.”

As part of the marketing team focused on several industries, including Automotive, Manufacturing, High Tech and Consumer Product Goods, I've been working on conveying an 'easy to digest' explanation of High Performance Analytics (HPA) for Manufacturing to our audience. One way was through the use of an infographic, so our creative team developed this one:

I'm so pleased with what the team created and wanted to share it with everyone. I think this is a great visual asset for us to provide to our customers since they're easily digested, simple to understand and interesting to look at as opposed to a boring white paper with a lot text. Basically, infographics are more fun!

And according to the WebMarketing Group "Using infographics are scalable, shareable and brandable, and can add value to your SEO campaign. If you want to pimp your blog or dress up your text, create a stylish and informative infographic for everyone to feast their eyes on!"

Getting Down to Business with your iPhone

2011-08-01T01:44:00.003-04:00

My Personal List of the Top 10 Best iPhone Apps for Business*

After my post about the best "free" fun & useful apps that you may want to consider for your iPhone, I was asked "what about "business-specific" apps to help get work done while on the go?" So I decided to do some digging and found the most used iPhone apps for business purposes. Here's what I found -

When you're traveling, it's not always easy to find a place to work, get out your laptop, wait till it starts up, let alone try to locate a convenient outlet to 'plug into'. All of a sudden "mobile" isn't one of the words you would use to describe your working environment. What about relying more on your iPhone for basic business tasks, such as grabbing data from your company’s computer systems, managing a Web site, and even viewing, editing, and storing Word and Excel files? You can do all that and more with some of the apps available for download to your iPhone and it could be a valuable piece of work equipment that offers more benefits to you and your organization than originally thought.

Need to keep track of reciepts, manage your meetings, or log your mileage? Well, "there's an app for that!" After researching the best mobile business apps that iPhone has to offer, I put together another one of my "Top Ten" lists and am bringing them to you here, in this post. Who knows, maybe on your next business trip you’ll be able to leave your laptop bag behind.

1. Box.net - http://bit.ly/qfAL9i (File Transfer app)
If you want more than just file transfer app, Box.net has an iPhone client that lets you share your documents in its online storage space. You can also upload photos from your iPhone and add collaborators by folder too. I like Box because your files can also be seen on your LinkedIn page and you can incorporate a vast library of "Open Box" add-on applications. However, Box isn't perfect - these add-on applications aren't included in the iPhone app; you have to make use of the Web client. And the iPhone app is missing some of the more interesting controls that are found in the Box Web client, such as being able to create a unique URL for ad-hoc file sharing. (Free)

2. Bump - http://macw.us/r9geQP (Contact app)
Bump exchanges your contact information with someone else over Bluetooth by literally bumping your phone into theirs. Never again do you need to go through "Here's my number. Call me right now so I can save yours”. Now you can trade numbers with a simple fistpound. Love it! (Free)

3. Dropbox - http://cnet.co/pGhBu8 (File Sharing app)Dropbox is a great way to back up your data online and easily share files between computers and users. If you find you email files to yourself on a regular basis, carry a USB drive around,and want to have access to your most important files from anywhere then Dropbox is a fantastic service and one you should check out. It will make the syncing of files between your computers so easy you will not know how you lived without it. (Free)

4. Evernote http://bit.ly/qlJyI4 (Productivity app)
Keep track of everything that happens in your life with this app. Evernote lets you gather notes, voice memos, ideas, or snapshots on your iPhone, and syncs them with your computer (PC or Mac). Very useful for creative minds, Evernote keeps your ideas organized and easy to review later. The best thing is the harmonious synchronization it provides, as it adds all of your iPhone notes and items to the service’s Web version as well as to its PC and Mac applications. The app also offers a voice-recording module and takes advantage of the iPhone’s camera to snap photos of things you want to remember. (Free)

5. FileMagnet http://cnet.co/ReqallApp (File Sharing app)
There are a number of file-sharing apps available in the iTunes App Store, and my favorite is FileMagnet. You need both the iPhone app as well as a desktop companion client to communicate to your iPhone. Both your desktop and your iPhone have to be connected over the same local Wi-Fi network, and you need iTunes as well (which presumably isn't an issue). Once you install the desktop client, you can push files from your desktop over to the iPhone by simply dragging them from the Finder or Windows Explorer and dropping them into to the FileMagnet window. FileMagnet can automatically manage the connection between the desktop and iPhone for you as well. It includes viewers for many popular file types, such as PDF, HTML, and Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can store as many files as you have room for on your iPhone, and they can be as large as you have space for. ($4.99)

6. Genius Scan http://cnet.co/oRVaYR (Scanner app)
Need a pocket scanner on the go for those important documents, business cards, and more? This is the app for you. It has been in the top ten apps and featured by Apple in almost all the Apps stores around the world. It’s a great addition to your arsenal of business apps. (Free)

7. LinkedIn http://bit.ly/nbTLmx (Contact Management)For many people, LinkedIn is a useful Web service. The LinkedIn iPhone app really lets the power of LinkedIn shine. For starters, the app lets you get rid of business cards and vanquish printed resumes. Who hasn't arrived back at the office with a pile of disorganized and creased business cards? Having access to the ultimate social network for professionals straight from your iPhone means you no longer have to swap business cards with people--you can just add each other on LinkedIn, on the spot. You’ll never lose another business card--and therefore lose a valuable contact--again. It also lets you view your entire network, and you can send and receive LinkedIn updates so that others know what you are working on. (Free)

8. Microsoft OneNote http://cnet.co/o07bfT (Note-Taking)
Microsoft has taken a big step towards their mobile policy this year and has officially released the version of OneNote app for iPhone. OneNote allows the user to take quick notes on the go. (Free)

9. PDF Reader Pro http://macw.us/ro9KDU (Productivity)
Useful app to upload desired PDF files to your iPhone with the help of Wi-Fi system. It can also provide big screen document view. Many experts around the world recommend it as one of the most useful business apps currently on the market. You can handle document manager, PDF viewer, Outlining as well as bookmarking easily and voted the absolute best file viewing app available! ($1.99)

10. ReQall http://macw.us/r5CoJO (Note-Taking app)
To-do list applications abound in the iTunes App Store, but ReQall for the iPhone is a veritable list-making and reminder-creating suite. It combines to-do lists, shopping lists, and voice memos, and it syncs them to your online ReQall account so that you can access them from outside your iPhone. The service will even convert your voice notes to written ones, a handy spin for impatient touch-screen typists. ReQall is also useful for groups or work situations, provided your friends or coworkers sign up for the free service as well; a People tab lets you share your entries with selected contacts. ReQall also alerts you to items on your to-do lists in several ways, thanks to integrated functionality with instant-messaging clients (AIM and Yahoo Messenger), Firefox, text messaging, and e-mail. You can get reminder blasts through each of those media, as well as pop-up reminders on your iPhone screen.

*Note: All of the researched, recommended apps were gathered from Computerworld, PCWorld, CNET, MacWorld, Business Insider and CIO.com.

My Daughter's Wedding: Marketing, Partnering, Sponsorship & Bartering

2011-07-26T13:45:00.001-04:00

Well my daughter is getting married next year! And yes, I'm extremely excited about this fact since I really like the guy that she's marrying and I think they'll both be very happy. But, at the same time I have to figure out how to pay for this great event without going into debt. The average cost of a wedding these days can be anywhere from $25,000.00 on up and I can't afford to go that high without going into major debt.

So, I decided to list all of the typical things that are part of the wedding celebration and costs involved to see what I was up against. With today's prices being what they are (which is high) and everything that it takes to make up a beautiful reception, I've got to figure out more creative ways to tackle this project. You see, I think of this as a 'project' since I've been in marketing for decades now and approach everything as if it's a marketing plan. I list out the identifiable goal, the associated budget I have to work with, and what I need to accomplish my goal without going over budget.

In this case, there are some basic large committments that have to be considered in order to reach our goal of a beautiful, elegant wedding reception and still stay under our target budget of $17,500.00. That said, we also have to take into account the bride and groom's ideas of having the ceremony outdoors and keeping the guest list to between 150 and 200 people. They don't want a huge wedding (which is a good thing), and really want to be able to celebrate this occassion with only family and friends that they actually know and care about. They don't want to have to wonder who someone is when they thank them for coming.

Having an outdoor wedding can be good or bad, depending on the location and the weather. The venue should have a beautiful area outside where we can have the ceremony take place, yet be flexible enough to be able to move it indoors should unexpected weather problems occur. I also found that by finding a place that has one price for both the food and beverages (including alchohol), it would save us from worrying about what the final cost of the bar bill would be at the end of the evening.

There are actually several main items I need to budget for since we are having an outdoor ceremony and won't have to pay for a church service fee (which can range anywhere from $500 and up). We also won't require a limo because the ceremony and reception will be at the same site. That will save us another $900 or so.) Savings here: $1500.00)

1. Wedding Reception Venue - Estimated Cost: $12,000.00 (Should include the following items: Rental Fee, Tablecloths, Chair Covers (optional), Food, Beverages, Open Bar, plus the cost of Servers and tips.) We found a beautiful English Manor that we can rent which has a lovely outdoor patio big enough for a reception, can accommodate up to 150 guests and they work with a reputable caterer that can handle everything for $75 per person. This would be perfect and fits in our budget!

2. Printing (Invitations/Response Cards/Envelopes, etc.) & Postage - Estimated Cost: $1,000.00, depending on the stationery, amount needed, etc. (And, don't forget the stamps for the invitation envelopes and the RSVP envelopes.) In discussions right now with a printing company who may be willing to do this at no cost to us if we are willing to have the name of the company on the back of each invitation and thank them publicly on Facebook and Twitter! Cost for printing services = $0; Approximate Postage = $100.00

3. Flowers & Decorations (Bridal Bouquet, Corsages, Centerpeices, etc.) - Estimated cost: $2,000.00. However, if we use more "greens" and less actual flowers, and make our own centerpeices, I think we can end up cutting this cost in half. (I also plan to schedule some time to visit with some local florists to see if I can't trade my marketing services or get them to be a sponsor and promote their shops via the social media channels.)

4. Music (DJ / Band) - Estimated Cost: $1,500.00. However, in this case the bride and groom are going to put together there own music cd's and all we'll need to find is someone to be in charge of making sure everything streams well together. My brother, who happens to be an Intellectual Propery Attorney AND a whiz at this sort of thing has offered to do this during the reception at no cost. (We may however look to see if we can't get someone in at a discount so he can enjoy himself instead of worrying about the music.) Budgeted cost: $500.00

5. Photographer - Estimated Cost: $3,500.00. You'll want a good, experienced wedding photographer since you will have the pictures as a visual document to show your children, grandchildren and to remind you of this special event in your life forever. (My cost = $0, since I'm bartering marketing services with her photography services.)

6. Cake - You should call around to bakeries close to the location of the venue to get an idea of cost and delivery charges involved. Estimated Cost: $500.00 and up. It just so happens that my sister is Dean of Student Services at an institution that teaches culinary students and guess what? That's right, her students specialize in cakes! So by getting her students to make the wedding cake and buying a few sheet cakes at Costco so that they can be cut up in the kitchen and then served to the guests, the total cost should be no more then $100.00!

7. Miscellaneous - Wedding gown, Rings, Tuxedo rentals, place cards, menus, minister/officiant fee, honeymoon, etc. (All of these expenses are being left to the bride and groom to cover. :-).

In business, when I'm looking to fund a project, I also figure out who I could partner with that would want to participate and benefit from an event. As a result, would also be willing to fund some of the items to offset the overall cost of the event. But who would be interested in sponsoring a wedding and what would they get out of it?

After doing some research, to my surprise, more and more companies are willing to "sponsor" personal events so that they can get brand awareness from the guests or "attendees" of a wedding or reunion. For instance, I found that if you're willing to simply promote their businesses through some social media resources such as Facebook and Twitter after the event thanking them publicly, they may consider working with you.

Judith Ann Graham, author of My Bride Guide, says that sponsored weddings can be a great way to save. "The whole point of getting things that are economically more feasible to us is very appealing," Graham said. And, Retail experts say the idea will be appealing to sponsors, too, especially smaller, newer companies. "What a wonderful way to get your card, your logo, your brand out there to the general public," said Scott Krugman, of the National Retail Federation.

Some vendors are also willing to barter for services too. I found that the wedding photographer I really wanted to use was looking to expand her business and was willing to drastically reduce her rate to me if I would be willing to help her market her photography services to obtain new clients. Done. I signed a contract stating that she would be the photographer at my daughter's wedding and drew up a marketing strategy plan to help promote her services targeting bridal boutiques, flower shops, etc.

Hopefully the wedding reception will be everything they want it to be and more. (And at the same time won't send me to the poorhouse . . .)

Wish me luck!

A Few iPhone App Recommendations

2011-07-22T00:52:00.005-04:00

Last Saturday afternoon instead of lounging on the sofa and watching golf, my husband decided to make the big move from his flip phone to a new iPhone. It was a huge thing for him since he really didn't see the value of learning the technology if he didn't absolutely have to and believed he was able to get all he needed from his current phone. But, since everyone was touting the great benefits of being able to read email on the go, book dinner reservations at a touch of a button or check a flight status while on the way to the airport, he walked into the Verizon store with great anticipation.

Once he got home, he immediately began ‘playing’ with it and setting up his passwords, backgrounds, and of course, asking around for the "must have" apps to install. Being his loving and helpful wife that I am, I of course helped him get started and showed him how to put his new phone on mute, make a call, set ring tones, add contacts, send text messages and add some of the many free apps that I already have on my phone.

After installing the apps that I thought he would find most useful, I decided to do some research online to find the best, newest free apps that are available. I thought many of you may be interested in what I found, so I've put together a 'short-list' of favorite apps that I've found through my research, some from my own iPhone, and some that my friends have recommended . . . all at a great price . . . FREE!

Basic Social Apps

Facebook - Keep in touch with friends, "check in" to places on the go, Snap a photo on your iPhone and immediately upload it to your wall.
LinkedIn – A social networking site for professionals to network, and keep up-to-date with colleagues/peers. They say the new upgrade for this app is absolutely gorgeous!
Twitter - Link to your Twitter accounts to read tweets and post your own.

Entertainment, Games & Some Overall Useful Apps

Angry Birds - A very addictive, wacky game where you fire birds through a slingshot in order to kill piggies.
Pandora - Pandora generates music play lists for you on the fly based on what you're in the mood for - all for free. Use thumbs up/down to rate songs and refine the selections. Never buy another song again, and never deal with the hassle of making play lists.
Hulu – a solid iPhone app with excellent video performance over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks, but you still have to watch occasional commercials.
Gas Buddy - Locate gas stations near you and see their current gas prices and find the cheapest gas on the go – for free!
Flashlight - In the dark? Get this app and it will help guide your way.
Open Table - Best app for making dinner reservations AND you can accumulate points for a restaurant certificate at the same time.
Rotate Mojo - Enables you to rotate your photos 90 degrees for free!
Red Laser Barcode Scanner – Extremely accurate and free scanning application for barcodes and QR codes. Check prices, find products in nearby stores and check Food Allergens. (Been downloaded over 9 million times and has about as many uses.)
Fish Fingers - A nice, soothing aquarium on your phone and you don't even have to feed the fish or clean the tank!
Shark Fingers - Only if you're feeling adventurous. Hover or tap you finger at the waterline and they'll go after it. When they bite it, your phone will vibrate and blood will drip into the water making the sharks even more ravenous. But, watch out, they can also jump out of the water to go after your finger too!
Words with Friends - If you enjoy games like Scrabble, I assure you that you will simply love Words With Friends (Free). The iPhone app is a turn-based crossword / Scrabble type app for your iPhone and you can play with your friends or random players on your iPhone and send an invite to your friends from Facebook and Twitter.

Health & Lifestyle Apps

DailyBurn - A calorie, workout and fitness companion to help you manage and track your health goals.
Dreambot & Sleep Pillow- Two good apps with sounds to help you sleep.
iMapMyRide - For the bicyclist enthusiasts. This is the ultimate GPS ride tracker and training app.
Relax and Sleep Well - It may seem strange at first but give it a chance and suddenly you'll feel completely relaxed. It truly works. It seems to get better with repeated usage.

News & Weather Apps

Bloomberg - Best stock app. Get news, charts, and updated prices for your portfolio.
Zinio Magazine Newsstand - The world's premier, high-fidelity mobile reading experience, featuring the best magazines from around the world.
Weather+ - The Weather+ app (also known as The Weather Channel app) was designed with the retina display in mind, and the guys and gals at ITWC knocked this one out of the park!

Travel Apps

Around Me - If you hate the feeling of being lost and not knowing your surroundings, then this is the app for you! It uses your current location to find all the essential places around you including banks, hospitals, gas stations, restaurants and many, many more. It lists them with the address and then provides a map of how to get there.
iTranslate - You can translate every word and text! You can translate from Russian, English, French, German and Spanish and to each other!
Lonely Planet - A travel guide book at your fingertips . . . "like no other". New York Times.
My Vacation - Plan, journal and share your trip all from the palm of your hand.
Sky Scanner - quick and convenient way to find and book flights from any location to any destination. It provides all the necessary flight information, airlines and prices and then allows you a range of ways to book your selection.
Trip Advisor - This fantastic app allows you to search for flights and hotels in your chosen destination. You can also search for sightseeing and restaurants to further prepare for a great trip away. You will see detailed photos, reviews and maps so you will feel well prepared!
Tripit - Tripit is for all those organised people out there. Travelling can be stressful but with Tripit, it allows you to have all your travel details in one place. From flights, taxi pick-ups to key events, everything will be stored, checked and covered. You’ll never forget or miss anything!
XE Currency Converter - lets you convert every world currency on-the -go.

Motivation - An Important Key to Success

2011-07-11T20:36:00.006-04:00

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit"

I have been a marketing professional for the past 30 years (hard to believe that fact myself), and was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn and teach others many aspects of marketing over this time. During the 14 years as a Marketing Manager in the Hosiery Division at International Playtex, I developed and implemented marketing training programs to assist our sales team in product knowledge, positioning, customer interaction, and more. After an organizational restructuring in 1995, I left Playtex and joined a major software company, again in the marketing area. This strategic move was made because at that time it was believed that technology was destined to be the catalyst of change for our future.

It's coming up on my 16th anniversary with this software company and feel so lucky to be with such a great organization. The company allows it's employees to be innovative thinkers, recognizing that best practices are developed through shared experiences and the people I work with are more like friends than co-workers.

That brings us to the topic at hand, motivation. I just got back from attending a seminar in San Diego that was focused on real estate investing (which is something I'm also interested in). I was surprised to find myself sitting among 200+ real estate professionals only to be welcomed by a motivational speaker. I thought this was a bit strange since the agenda indicated we were going to be listening to a famous real estate investor providing tips on how to find great property deals and turn them around in this challenging economy. The speaker started by saying that before anyone tackles any venture, whether it's financially-related or just deciding on what to do that day, motivation is one of the keys to success.

Some of the points that I took away from the presentation on how to achieve your goals are below.

* Passion is Unstoppable. So make sure you bring that in everything you do.

* Research is an important element. When it comes to anything you're interested in or want to learn more about, you have to do the research on it to become better acquainted with it. So read as many things you can find (blogs, reports, articles) and even see if you can find any videos or webcasts that you can view. All of this will help to determine some 'best practices' and 'lessons learned' and provide a foundation from which you can build upon. (You will be able to leverage all of the information that you can uncover by making better, informed decisions on your next steps.)

* Goal Setting. Set a "SMART" goal for each week or month and create a plan with key tasks on what you need to do to achieve that goal. "SMART" goals are ones that are Specific, Measureable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time bound.(Don't make any goals that are crazy difficult or unachievable.)

* Time Management - Keep in mind that when working on your plan, time management is very important. Stay focused and stick to the plan.

* Accomplished Tasks = Success. Remember that as you check off each task, you'll be closer to reaching your goal.

Here's To Your Success!

When NOT to use Hashtags

2011-06-07T12:05:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from Blogadera

Lately it seems like every tweet that comes across the twitter stream is piggy backing on at least one #hashtag if not more. I want to point out some ways people misuse hashtags while thinking they’re oh so twitter savvy.

Some people ride hashtags as a way to catch a trending topic to get more views for their tweet. That’s just gaming and after doing this too much you are sure to lose followers.

Some folks make their entire tweet composed completely with #hashtags, “#hey #guys #marketing #here, #are #you a #marketeer #too”

Sometimes you see bloggers use marketing hashtags for their tweets not considering that if they are trying to reach the general user (which make up the 99% of potential readers) you might be saying to them you are a marketing/business blog. So don’t use the marketing hashtags so often, it’s all about perception and you don’t want to appear as though you only belong to this small circle of marketing folks. Using these hashtags is like preaching to the choir so you should not use them so often if you want to appeal to a larger audience, a larger audience who could care less about your blogs marketing involvements.

If you are going to do these things, create a user friendly twitter account that is just about the content on your blog and your activities. Save the marketing #hashtagging for your marketing dept or staff twitter account.

These are just a few of the ways we’ve seen how bloggers think they are doing something good for themselves but more than likely it is really swimming upstream. If a common regular twitter user, someone who isn’t part of the savvy “social media” uber blogger twitter community, sees that you use these hashtags all the time, it says to them that all you talk about is marketing and business stuff and therefore your blog must be the same way. So look to using #hastags that are relevant to them.

We don’t want to call out the various hashtags out there because they are important to have but just wanted to point this out to many of the blogs using these. They paint a picture about your stream so keep that in mind.

One of the better examples of a blog that steers clear of these is @tikitikiblog while they could be dropping #hashtags left and right, they don’t. Actualy this makes their stream that much more appealing to the general user.

“How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day”

2011-01-26T12:52:00.000-05:00

Portions excerpted from the HotSpot Blog

Monitoring your social media presence is incredibly important. You need to respond to people talking about our brand and understand how people view our company. However, a common concern is that it takes up too much time. It is entirely possible for one person to keep an eye on things. If you set up a solid routine, monitoring your online presence doesn't have to be a hassle at all.

Here are five easy steps you can take to get things started. Do each task in the morning when you start work, and you should be good to go.

1. Check Twitter for chatter about your company (2 minutes): Use tools like TweetDeck or Twitter Search to monitor conversations about your company in real-time. To check once a day, set up an RSS feed for a specific Twitter Search to go straight to your Google Reader. Do this by clicking the little RSS icon after you complete a search. Now, ongoing search results will be sent to your reader.

2. Scan Google Alerts (1.5 minutes): Check your Google Alerts for your company name, products, executives or brand terms. To set this up, enter your search terms and select to receive updates as they happen or once daily. Now, when people blog about your products, an alert will be sent to your inbox. You can read the articles and respond right away!

3. Check LinkedIn Contact Info (1 minute): Visit your contacts and check your targeted companies/accounts to scan any updated personnel changes; focus areas; and/or networking events that they have registered to participate in; and don’t forget to check the Groups” that are associated with to see if they have any related comments or questions about specific issues that could affect their decision making.

4. Answer Industry-related LinkedIn questions (3 minutes): Search for questions on LinkedIn that you or members of your company can answer. You can set up an RSS feed for specific question categories to go to your Google Reader as well. When you find a relevant question, respond and include a link to your website. If you are a member of any groups, check also to see if any new discussions started and if you can add value by promoting our solutions or gain additional customer information.

5. Use Google Reader to check Flickr, Delicious, Digg and others (2.5 minutes): Also set up RSS feeds for searches on your company name and industry terms in other social media sites. Similar to monitoring LinkedIn and Twitter, your Reader will serve as a great place to centralize your other searches too!

Tips To Grow Your Twitterdom

2010-01-26T19:14:00.003-05:00

Here are five "twitter tips" that I found and wanted to share . . .

1. Leverage Other Profiles
Do you have an existing online profile somewhere outside of Twitter (big or small)? Use it to springboard into Twitter. If it’s a blog, mention that you’re using Twitter in a post and link to it from your profile and contact pages. If you’re on Facebook use one of the numerous tools available to drag in your Tweets to facebook. Add it to your email signature, business card, mention it in interviews or guest posts that you might do…. etc. The same applies with any online (or even offline) presence that you have – link to your Twitter page and link to it often (if you’d like to connect with me on Twitter my feed is here).

2. Tweet and Tweet Often – But Create Space for Reactions
The more active you are on Twitter the more likely you are to have someone find you from within Twitter and add you as someone that they are following. Every Tweet you do comes up on the Twitter Public Timeline – so upping your Tweet numbers can help have you appear more often there.

Warning – Tweet too regularly and about nothing worthwhile and you run the risk of loosing followers. Don't be so talkative that your followers don’t have time/room to respond. Twitter can actually become quite confusing once you have too many trains of thought going all at once, so try to stick to one topic at a time and create pauses between them to let others interact.

3. Be Conversational
No doubt you may get a good influx of new followers when you first announce the fact that you're using Twitter, but you'll find you will get more new followers on those days that you interact with other Twitter users. Everytime you reply to someone and have them reply to you your Twitter ID appears in the feeds of others which exposes you to potentially thousands upon thousands of other Twitter users. Asking questions is perhaps the best way to get conversational on Twitter. Get 10 people to answer a question you’ve Tweeted and if even just one person signs up from each of those 10 people’s replies to you you have 10 new followers. Just as important is to participate in other people’s Tweets also – reply to their questions and ideas as much as possible.

The key with this approach is to be conversational about topics that will interest others. For example if you ask a very general question like ‘what cereal do you use’ and get a lot of answers – but i suspect you’ll get more answers AND new followers if the question was more relevant to people’s lives in some way.

Another thought on the ‘art of conversation’ on Twitter is that you'll find you'll do better when you're not talking about yourself. No one likes to hang around with people who just talk about themselves all of the time – so get the balance right between talking about yourself and talking about others and other topics of interest.

4. Provide Value
Tweeting on a personal level is fun and for many that’s as far as it goes – but if you’re interested in growing your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers (and potential followers) with value. It’s the same principle as growing a blog – if you help enhance people’s lives in some way they are more likely to want to track with you and read more of what you have to say. As a result your conversations should ‘matter’ on some level. Sure you can throw in personal tweets and have some fun with it – but unless you’re providing something useful to people (information, entertainment, news, education etc) they probably won’t follow you for long.

5. Tweet in Peak Times
Based on some basic research, the frequency of new twitter followers are usually made during normal business hours in the USA. So try to be online either when people start their day (first thing in the morning) to make the most of the opportunities of being awake in this overlap time (similarly first thing in the morning) or later in the day.Tweeting during these times only increases the chances of someone finding you and adding you as someone to follow.

Bonus Tip
Don’t stress too much about the numbers, but connect genuinely with the Twitter followers you already have and let the rest take care of itself! It's much better to have 100 dedicated followers who are sincerely interested in what you're saying and the information you have to share than to have 500 followers who are not engaged and just want to increase the number of Twit's they follow.

What tips would you add to on how to grow your Twitter Presence?

Tradeshow Myths

2009-09-22T22:19:00.005-04:00

While doing some research on lead retrieval systems recently for an upcoming tradeshow, I stumbled upon an article on the “Top Five Tradeshow Myths” and wanted to pass these on to everyone.

I found these to be extremely helpful and informative, especially since I was investigating whether or not a good cost saving idea would be to purchase a barcode scanner (or lead retrieval unit) instead of renting one at each conference at a cost of $400 a pop. I determined that it really depends upon a number of factors, most of them listed in this article under number three.

Top Five Tradeshow Myths

1.) Raffles/"Fish Bowls"

Myth: Having a raffle will gather lots of great leads for the sales team.

Reality: The myth of using raffles and fish bowls to collect business cards as an effective way to collect leads is the top tradeshow myth of all. The only time a raffle is a strategy to consider at a tradeshow is if you are building a mailing list. If you are looking for qualified leads for your sales team to follow up with, this is not the way to go. You will end up with way too many unqualified contacts, making your sales force inefficient by wasting their time on follow-up while missing out on reaching the real prospects quickly.

2.) Promotional Items

Myth: You always need to have promotional items readily available where attendees can pick them up to get them to stop at the booth.

Reality: Once again, if you are looking for qualified leads, this is not the way to go. Having a general promotional item that you hand out to all attendees will drive a lot of traffic to the booth, but will not produce qualified leads nor create specific memories of what your company does and why an attendee should do business with you.

A better approach is to either have the promotional items stored away, or at the back of the booth and only handed out after an attendee has had a conversation with your booth staffer. It can also work to have a higher priced promotional item that only gets handed out after a booth staffer has determined that an attendee is a qualified one.

3.) Lead Retrieval

Myth: Show offered lead retrieval is always the best way to capture leads.

Reality: While there are many good lead retrieval systems offered by many shows, they are not always the best approach for your business to collect the information your sales team needs for follow-up. An important part of the lead capture process is gathering information for your sales team to be used during follow up.

This includes answers to things such as purchasing timeframe, product interest, notes about the conversation the booth staffer had with the attendee, etc.

Next time you are offered a lead retrieval system from the show, ask if you have the ability to customize the information collected. You need to ask attendees questions and have the ability to take notes. If the device does not have this ability, consider other lead retrieval options that you can rent or purchase, such as LeadWizard, NewLeads, CardScan Lead Qualifier or simply print up your own lead form.

4.) Booth Staff

Myth: Our booth staffers don't need training.

Reality: All booth staffers need training, even veteran booth staffers. It is common for companies to learn booth staff skills on the fly at the show and continue with this method year after year. This is far from producing the optimal results your company can achieve at a tradeshow.

Exhibitors who continuously want to get exceptional results from tradeshows provide booth staff training for each show, covering items such as key prospects for that particular event, key VIPs who will come to the booth, new marketing approaches, public relations goals, handling competitors, booth etiquette, engaging, qualifying and closing techniques, as well as role playing. When done right, booth staff training can improve ROI at each show you exhibit.

5.) Networking Events

Myth: Networking events are a waste of time.

Reality: Networking events provide the opportunity to speak with other exhibitors and attendees in a more casual environment than the show floor allows.

This gives you the ability to make deeper and more meaningful connections with them. Now, I'm not saying it is necessary to attend each and every networking event, but it's important to attend the events where you can meet the targeted people you are looking for at the show. A good approach is to look at an event's description and determine which booth staffers would be a good fit for the various events; then split up the networking.

Hopefully this information helps give you a fresh look at the most common tradeshow myths and even gives you ideas on how you can improve the approaches you currently take when exhibiting. And since we could only cover five myths here, keep your eye out for others. Question anything you take for granted and you will find them.

Homework

• Review the myths and re-consider the approaches you take at your show.

• Think of other areas of your exhibit planning that may be myths and consider other ways of carrying out those activities. You may find other myths when you think about the following habits:

- Always renting the same booth space; instead of trying different areas of the exhibit hall that may produce better results.

- Always exhibiting at the same shows; instead of considering changes in the market and evaluating new shows on the market.

- Always renting everything from the show; instead of purchasing items in the show city or shipping them.

- Always shipping to the advance warehouse; instead of shipping directly to show-site and saving money.

- Just showing up at the exhibit; instead of spending time on pre-show marketing planning that can drive even more attendees to the booth

- Thinking that anyone from the company can be a booth staffer; instead of carefully selecting and training the booth staffers you send to the show that will deliver the best results.

Hope you find this information as useful as I did and your follow & comments are appreciated!

Today's Quote: "Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein

Are Your Sales Executives Looking for a Marketing Stimulus in these Challenging Times?

2009-04-17T11:21:00.004-04:00

*
Objective: Develop new strategies to assist sales in converting marketing leads from “prospects” to “customers”.

Solution: Help uncover “gold” in potential and existing customer data to gain new revenue by adding “customer knowledge” strategies to your marketing plans.

Sales departments are always looking to their internal marketing counterparts to help in getting new leads so that they can work to turn them into successful opportunities. It is not enough to just provide names and contact information of someone who dropped their business card into a bowl at an exhibit booth to get a pen. Successful marketing strategies must also focus on providing contacts that would be viable customers and would include all of these targeted elements: industry, location, company size/revenue, department, title, job function, current technology utilized (if appropriate), and specific future growth plans (if available). This information not only empowers sales with the ability to speak to specific issues, but also arms them with knowledge that gives the potential customer that your sales organization has really done their homework and knows what challenges they are experiencing.

An example of how marketing could add more value to sales, is by providing more research data on the contact information received from participation in tradeshows, executive events, online ads, print ads, direct mail campaigns, email responses, webcasts, and all facets of executed marketing plans. Researching a target company or industry through reading their press releases,

Several years ago, when I was on the sales side of my organization, I was having a difficult time securing a meeting with a top level executive at a company I was targeting for a solution sale. I found out that he was going to be at an industry conference that I was also planning on attending. So, a few weeks before the conference, I decided to read as much material as I could find on his company, department, and his background. Because he was a high-level executive, I was able to find the online press release that announced his appointment to that position. That led to a summary of his background and information on the role and company he had worked for prior to his current position. Through that information, I researched the company he had moved from, in order to learn more about what his focus was there and the challenges and successes he experienced. After finding out as much about this executive and organization as I could, I felt confident that my company could help him achieve his departmental goals, and was hoping I would get a chance to speak with him at the conference we were both attending.

As it turned out, the first night of the conference was a networking cocktail party. Even though we had never met or spoken, I knew what the executive looked like since there had been a photo of him online with the announcement of his promotion. I was able to spot him in the crowd and introduced myself. We talked about the company he was at previously, his new role and responsibilities and how my company could partner with his to help him meet his goals and address some of the data challenges he was trying to streamline. He was so surprised and happy that I knew so much about what he had been dealing with in the past and the challenges that he was currently facing and that he could actually talk with someone that had an idea of what his department was going through. That conversation led to a formal meeting with a team of professionals from both of our companies and ultimately a strategic value assessment. Yes, a successful solution sale was made and that company is very happy, but none of that could have happened had I not done my research and could talk intelligently about his company's situation.

This demonstrates that by actually taking the time to delve into what’s going on in a specific industry, company, department, etc., you can provide invaluable insight into what that organization is facing and what they are trying to achieve. Now that I am on my company's marketing side I know that by doing some research and providing background information to your sales team, you will give them the advantage they need in order to help secure a conversation with a prospect or current customer. Knowing details of what an organization is focusing on or the challenges they are currently dealing with, can be the catalyst to a discussion on how your company’s solutions can assist in adding value to their bottom line. In the end, everyone wins!

* * * * * * *

“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.”
Freya Stark

Getting the most leads for your Marketing Dollars

2009-03-16T22:33:00.002-04:00

Are sponsorships of virtual events providing the same quality leads as onsite conferences?

A few weeks ago I was in Orlando for the SAP Manufacturing Conference and was expecting about the same crowd of about 800 that had been there the year before. I figured that there may be a decrease, considering the tough economic times we are experiencing and the fact that many companies are scrutinizing their travel budgets more these days. However, I was a bit surprised to see only about half or so at this year’s event.

For the past few years there has always been a line of people at our exhibit area, wanting to speak to representatives from my company, but this year, because of the smaller number of attendees, there were times when no one was there. This is totally unusual, since we provide the best analytical capabilities available and for more than 30 years, there hasn’t been another business intelligence organization in existence that can show the proven return on investment that we have been able to demonstrate.

So, it is no wonder that I asked myself “how are we going to be able to reach out to our customers and prospects if they are going to these external events?” The answer was provided to me when one of the conference organizers told me that they had decided to go “virtual” next year. She said that because more and more executives are unable to justify the cost of attending these types of events, they had decided to do everything online and was wondering if we would still want to sponsor this event again next year. Of course, she said, all of the presentations and sessions would be available “on demand” to the registrants and there would be a virtual exhibit hall where my company could have a booth. The online attendees would just click on my booth and all of our company information and sales material would be available for them to download. If they wanted more information, all they would have to do is complete an online form and it would be passed to us for follow up. They were even thinking of offering all sponsors and exhibitors specific times to have a company representative available to the attendees so they could have a live online chat and answer any questions or provide more information.

The capability to virtualize events has been around for several years, but the concept on conferences being run solely on the internet is just beginning to take off. By eliminating the attendees’ travel costs and the organizers’ logistics expenses, virtual conferences are gaining more buy in as a practical way to get the latest insights on specific topics that are at the forefront for today’s business executives.

Exhibitors use specially designed software to build their virtual booths to showcase products and services, present live presentations and product demos, and distribute literature. By browsing the booths, attendees can view demos, pick up literature to deposit in their virtual briefcases and chat with sales reps in real time.

What could be more appealing? The costs are minimal to the attendees, as long as they have a computer and a fast internet connection, they can log on whenever they want to and choose the information they want to read about. Online chats with the speakers and/or exhibiting companies can provide real time answers to their questions. No lost productive time due to travel. No limit on the number of employees you can use to staff your booth or "send to the show." No need to limit the duration of the show to just a few days. No geographical boundaries (assuming you have a way to staff the odd hours). No environmental concerns. No panic because your staff flew to Chicago — but your booth materials ended up in San Diego.

However, some savvy marketing executives are asking themselves right now “what about the downsides”? The most obvious one is that the technology has never quite delivered a user experience that's a viable substitute for physical presence. You lose that face-to-face spontaneous networking experience. Also, much of the value attendees derive from a live event is the unplanned moments. Like those times when you run into someone you know but haven’t seen in a long time or someone that you knew was going to be there and wanted to run into. Or, decide to hear a speaker or visit a booth at the last minute because someone you just met recommended it. You can only have experiences like these at live events. It would be a little difficult to accidently meet someone you haven’t seen in a long time while you’re sitting in your office watching your computer monitor.

The bottom line is that the virtual conference isn’t just an hour-long panel discussion, but can be an all-encompassing event which is able to cover a multitude of facets on a specific topic.

So, virtual conferences may be a very good option to consider in these times when travel budgets are being examined more closely than ever before. Let’s face it, executives still have to keep up with developing new ways to streamline their organizations, stay abreast of industry’s thought leadership and be a part of knowledge sharing sessions. Progress and profits shouldn’t be sacrificed during tough times, and the drive to learn more about how to achieve both must be made available to everyone.

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Today's Thought:“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”
– Reggie Leach

Blasting Away! Email Blasts that Hit Their Targets

2009-02-16T23:56:00.006-05:00

One of the more popular marketing techniques in recent years is the email blast. The “blast” enables you to send out mass emails to potential customers and can be an effective tool and benefit both the company and the customer. If you develop the right program to target the right audience, email blasts can be extremely successful and economical. For example, a successful email blast allows you the opportunity to reach hundreds of contacts at a single time. Of course, not all email blasts are as effective as others.

First, you must develop professional copy – keep in mind that you are able to contact a good number of prospective clients with a targeted blast, but you can lose them all if your content isn't written well and does not touch on what’s at the top of their agenda. The trick is to hook the reader in the first line of the email. Hooking them with the subject line is even better because it ensures that your email will be opened rather than clicked into their deleted files bin. Carefully selected words and a carefully crafted email can make or break your blast. As long as you are spending the time and the money to send out an email blast, it is important that you ensure the quality of the content. And, don’t forget to include your contact information.

Make sure you provide links and contact information - you don't just want people to read your email and move on. You want them to act on it and want more. One of the great advantages of emails is that once you have a person's attention you can direct them right onto your web page and into your virtual space. By providing a link to your website in the email, as well as the opportunity to learn more, you are giving them something for their time. In turn, you have the benefit of gauging their interest, then the ability to follow up and reach out to them to provide even more assistance. Resulting in not only reaching your prospective customer, but actually having the ability to contact them and set up a face-to-face meeting.

If you’re a marketer, you know how important first impressions are. Work on making a great first impression by providing potential clients with information that focuses on areas that they would find of strategic value. If you’ve done your research, you’ll know by your targeted titles within the focused industry, what they are facing and how you can help. So, make them know you have what they need.

Target your demographic - by considering the options available through the various email blast programs, you will be able to find a program that will enable you to reach your target audience. You should find a program that offers demographic options that are as specific as possible. Check to see how often the email lists are updated and try to find lists that are updated as often as once a month. Also, consider what audiences you will be able to target. Email blast lists that are obtained through clicks on special interest websites will be most valuable to you if you are offering a special interest commodity. Make sure you are able to match your email blast to your target audience.

Well written, targeted emails will not reach the intended audience if they end up zapped out of cyberspace by spam filters. Getting the email into your potential customer's inboxes is the first step in an effective email blast. But, what happens when the fine line between requested marketing emails and unsolicited messages (SPAM) is crossed? The consequences can lead to upset customers and in extreme cases, lawsuits. So, make sure you adhere to the spam laws and provide an “opt out” option at the bottom of your copy.

Make sure you also consider the day of the week you do your blast. One final thing to consider when sending out an email blast is the day of the week that the email will reach your customer's inboxes. There are good statistics that show more emails get opened on Sunday than any other day of the week. Surprisingly, Saturday is one of the days of the week that emails are rarely opened. If possible, aim for a Sunday or a Monday delivery of your blast.

Good Blasting!
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This Weeks' Thought: "“Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.” - Pearl S Buck

Social Media Protocol: Utilizing Social Media Properly to Gain the Most Value from it.

2009-01-22T13:08:00.000-05:00

Today I participated in a 90-minute online presentation sponsored by MarketingProfs.com titled Social Graces: Strategies to Take Your Social Media Marketing Beyond One-Off Tactics.

The program featured social media maven Greg Verdino who has seen first-hand how companies succeed and fail in this space. Greg thinks everyone should “take your social media activities from me-too tactics to key components of your marketing advantage.”

Here’s a brief summary I put together for you as a result of my participation -

Only the facts, please . . .

It was stated that by 2012, online advertising would take up to 18% of an organizations marketing budget and Social Media would be allocated approximately 10% of that money.
With regards to traditional advertising: “71% of consumers can’t remember the product or brand name after watching an ad.”
Basically, we all know that ads are the guests at a cocktail party we try to avoid. (Who wants to be sold something that doesn’t interest them?)

We should look at Social Media consisting of three principles, which all involve more than one person to accomplish -

Community
Conversation
Partnership

There are new rules for communication that involve the key ‘buzz words’ we hear every day, but that are accurate. Things like responsiveness, authenticity, support community, humanization and partnership are just a few of the core effects that we must take into consideration when engaging in social media.

Five New Ways of Thinking

Harness the Power of Small Ideas (or Planting seeds for your brands future)

No magic beans – Try a variety of things even though you may not succeed. They say “if you’re not failing, you’re not working”.

Connect the Dots

1, 2, 3, or more campaigns may be good, but if not integrated, they aren’t accomplishing the best results.
Integrated Social Media means demonstrating, empowering, and involving the audience.

Every Touch is a Conversation Starter . . . so try not to screw it up!

The world has changed, or “the square peg meets the round hole”
Meaning: 0.2 marketing for a 2.0 world – or Doing the same old stuff and not realizing your target audience expect different things.

Amplify, Extend, & Enhance

Using conversation – think about how to evolve conversation as a pathway to community.
Social Media can be a megaphone in action, so be sure and recognize the power of course correction; you CAN turn haters into lovers.
There is power buzzing around. Example: Dell lies. Dell sucks. – When Jeff Jarvis started blogging about his experience with Dell, it evolved into a reveloution against the electronics giant. Dell had no choice but to address the firestorm so they began an open online forum about consumer’s experiences and provided them a site to provide opinions and rate their products. Result: Dell now uses these sources to help build and improve product development, turning a negative into a positive.

Your ends should match your socks

The public looks to us to provide value not just constantly distribute our messages to their blackberries or RSS feeds.
You can learn a lot from others, but don’t make the mistake of duplicating the online efforts of another simply because they proved successful. Be innovative, create and test your own social media campaign.
Remember: an online social media strategy that worked for one organization may not work for you.

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This Weeks' Thought: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Social Media or Social Nuisance?

2009-01-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

When I was asked what I thought about utilizing blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, and other forms of social media that now exist, my first response was that it was an unnecessary waste of time. I really didn't see the business or personal value they could bring. I viewed them rather as vehicles that encouraged vague dialogues or touchpoints with strangers who may or may not have any knowledge that I really wanted or needed. Yes, I use to think that any form of social media was more of a nuisance to the public, another form of spamming, and more a hindrance to garnering intelligence than beneficial to any individual or organization.

That is, until I decided to dedicate some time to researching this topic. Since then, I have come to the conclusion that social media can be a very valuable form of information sharing. For example, did you know that, according to "Ten Ways to Use Linkedin" by Guy Kawaski "All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees." I believe being actively involved in social media sites can be advantegeous, but it is up to the reader and organization involved in social media to filter out the value. It's also a responsibility of the writer or contributor of the information to streamline the message that they are trying to promote so that it is presented in a balanced and explicable manner. I believe that much can be learned from social media if it is used as a tool for knowledge sharing and as an open forum for the continuous development of both new ideas and the refinement of old concepts. It should be pointed out, however, that the information that is out here in cyberspace should not be taken as truth or fact just because someone who says they are an expert put it on the web.

If I have learned anything from studying this topic, it is that if you think you have found some good information or have discovered something new through social media, that you didn’t know before, do your homework. Once researched thoroughly, it may be that what you have read or learned is in fact, good information. Or it may be that someone is just expressing their opinion on a topic and presenting it as fact based when in reality it is unsubstantiated information.

A great deal can be gained from getting involved in social media and new information and ideas can be acquired each time you take the time to read and open yourself up to sharing your experiences. Value is a distinct possibility, if you use this type of interaction to your advantage and as a result, the collaboration and added intelligence can be the reward. You can also do research to gauge the health of a specific company or industry, enhance a business relationship or create a new partnership.

There are many different social media software applications, ones that focus on communication, collaboration, or entertainment and I will be delving into different examples on my blog in the future. I will examine such sites as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and more, to provide an overview of each and to help you scrutinize their differences and learn how to gain the most out of each application. After all, why bother taking the time to visit and utilize these sites, if you’re not getting the most value out of them?

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This Weeks' Thought: "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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