Road Scholars Marketing and Social Media Blog

The PEST Analysis

2019-11-11T15:12:00.002+11:00

Background

As readers of this blog you know that I have always believed that the most underutilised tool in the business world is the all encompassing, SWOT analysis. It is perfect for any business in any market and provides unfailing insight into both the internal processes and systems of your business as well as the external market forces that prevail outside of your business. Recently I had a student ask me about what is the best way to assess the current and foreseeable opportunities and threats that are likely to present themselves within the next twelve months? Enter the PEST analysis.

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The PEST Analysis

The PEST analysis is a structured framework of macro-environmental (external) factors, which essentially act as a feeder that facilitates a better awareness of the likely opportunities and threats that your market will present your business in the short, medium and long terms based on the current available knowledge and understanding. It is made up of four key groupings.

Political

Political factors examines how directly and to what extent the Government (National, State or Local) intervenes either in the market your business operates in and/or within the economy. Political factors include monetary and fiscal policy, taxation levels, employment law, environmental legislation and regulation, trade policies and tariff settings.

Economic

Economic factors include various aspects that measure the state and dynamics of the economy such as the inflation rate, foreign currency exchange rates, income tax rates, the level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the level of budget deficit or surplus. The robustness or weakness of the key economic indicators have a direct and profound effect on the level of business optimism, levels of risk tolerance and subsequent levels in business expenditure.

Social (and Cultural)

Social factors look at the prevailing attitudes, beliefs and generally sum up the current mind set of the people within different groups that make up the community or market place. These factors include: key demographics such as age distribution and population growth rate as well as attitudinal data such as environmental attitudes, home ownership, career aspirations and immigration. Changing beliefs in these social factors affect the demand for a company's products and future products. Currently for example Australia has a Baby Boomer driven aging population that will increasing require additional levels of pharmaceuticals, medical services, retirement facilities,etc.

Technological

Technological factors as the name suggests involve any refinement or advance that occurs in the processes, automation or broad technology used by that market or industry. As the levels of sophistication and cost for technology rise in any given market, so to do the barriers to entry which protect the businesses currently within that space and deter potential rivals from entering. Broadly speaking technological advances made by any business or group within a market, drive continued research by the other players to match and surpass that business and lead to greater quality, production levels of efficiencies in production supporting a more profitable outcome.

Summary

By utilising the PEST analysis and reviewing your findings on a regular basis you will be able to ensure that you are feeding the best, most relevant and timely information into the SWOT analysis as the basis for robust and reliable long term, strategic and short term, tactical decision making for your business.

Naturally to discuss any of the marketing and social media discussions raised here, please come along to any of the Victorian Chamber of Business Workshops as detailed at:
http://www.victorianchamber.com.au/business-solutions/training/course
Hope to see you there.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Revisiting the Need For SMART Goals

2018-07-17T09:57:00.001+10:00

The Very Chic: Chic and Town Hotel in Rome. Customer Service At Its Best

2018-04-17T13:56:00.001+10:00

As I continue to travel both locally here in Australia and Overseas for Business it never ceases to amaze each and every time how excellent customer service is a powerful, meaningful and sustainable differentiator between one product or service and another rival product or service. In fact for any business the most important question needs to remain how can we provide additional value to our target market audience regardless of the market or product offering.

To answer this, it is wise to consider that real value is a function of both price and quality. Now let us take as an example the very competitive market place that is the Roman Hotel market in Italy.

Obviously with Rome being such a perennially important tourist and business destination the demand for rooms will always be high which puts a lot of pricing pressure on hotel managers and owners to provide fair and reasonable pricing for their rooms. This is understood by most businesses and it does not in itself, differentiate that business from others. However exceptional customer service does exactly that.

When recently traveling in Italy, I had the good fortune to stay with my wife Sharon at the renowned Chic and Town Hotel (www.ChicTown.it ), in the heart of Rome at: 31 Via Dei Due Macelli, Rome just a stones throw away from the iconic Spanish steps.

It is beautifully appointed, centrally located and fairly priced which presented a genuine level of customer value, matched against its many rivals. But what really puts this business over the top is its exceptional and unfailing level of customer service that aims to exceed customer expectations and provides true, wow factor for all to see. A simple formula but a winning one that makes the Chic and Town and similar businesses in every market the best value for the customers dollar.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Facebook Has a Bet Each Way On Its' New Dislike Button

2018-02-18T09:46:00.002+11:00

Having Your Cake And Eating It Too

So if you've ever wondered what having your cake and eating it to looked like in the digital space try Facebook's latest effort in introducing a quasi Dislike button.

This week Facebook allowed its users to show some form of disapproval in content by putting in a button that that allows users called a 'Downvote Button".

This will give users scope and option to flag and hide comments on given posts but not the posts themselves that are made on public pages. This feature to date has only been available to a small test group of US members.

Reporting to Facebook

Additionally this new feature also provides options to report a comment as either:
offensive, misleading, or off-topic, which then acts to hide the associated content.

It's no secret that Facebook has resisted the strong desire of the Facebook community to have a genuine Dislike button. Facebook will argue to that it has resisted as it's trying to unite everyone, but perhaps the real reason for this partial retreat is that the first real cracks are starting to appear in the popularity of Facebook to competitors. Hmm. If that trend continues, who knows we may get an actual dislike button in the not too distant future.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

Recent Data Showing How Much People Like and Dislike Key Social Media Sites

2018-01-14T08:22:00.001+11:00

Large Sample

Recent polling data from a Harris Poll with over one hundred and eighty three million Americans and Canadians has provided some keen insights into how popular or unpopular each of the key social media platforms are.

Specifically the sample provides data on both how many users want the respective sites to continue as well as how many would like to see it stop operating. Additionally the poll also provided information on what percentage did not know about each platform.

For example Twitter has 330 million monthly active users, but 46% of the people surveyed would prefer to 'kill it and hope it dies', as the poll puts it. The level of dissatisfaction lessens with other key social media sites with Facebook coming in at 32% who hope the site disappears, whereas Pinterest had only 26% of respondents who wished for it to cease.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that for some of these sites, over 70% of the polled audience did not know who they were. This is both a real issue for these sites yet concurrently a huge marketing opportunity to raise awareness among users.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Review Sites: The Emerging Key To Customer Acceptance

2017-11-11T07:50:00.003+11:00

If ever there was a case to be made that customer service was even more important today than at any stage in the past, I suspect it revolves around the fact that Customer Review Sites are continuing to gain an even more powerful place within the social media arena.

There are now literally dozens of well established, respected and influential customer review sites that are widely known to the general public and in many cases, to the specific audience they cater to.

The list includes but is not by no means limited to:

Yelp
Google Reviews
Trip Advisor
CitySearch
InsiderPages
YahooLocal
Urban Spoon
DealerRater
JudysBook
Edmunds
Zagats.com

These and many more review sites are now the first port of call for many customers looking to gain insight into what the better options are and from this starting point, additional research is done a s a basis for the buying decision and ultimately the purchase.

For businesses the implication is simple. You need to continue to:

Maintain the highest standards of customer service and quality delivery

Drive positive referrals to customer review sites

Include inbound links that drive the top line interest preferentially back to your digital hub such as your corporate website or blog.
To learn more about any aspect of social or digital media marketing go to the latest Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry courses at:http://www.victorianchamber.com.au/business-solutions/training/course

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Facebook Messenger Ads Now Available Globally

2017-09-30T09:51:00.004+10:00

The new Facebook ads that underwent their initial testing phase through Thailand and Australia, have as of now been expanded to be available globally to add 2 billion plus Facebook users on messenger app.

The Messenger ads are now displayed in each Facebook user’s inbox, and based on the actual number of threads that user has, the phones actual screen size and the pixel density of the display.

Each messenger ad comes with a ‘sponsored’ label in the home tab of the Messenger app. Their formatted structure is that it appears as a typical news-feed ad, including the headline, copy, image, and calls to action.

This ad is a portal to take the reader to any designated landing page for example on the website of the business where specially designed offers and promotions await the incoming Facebook user.
If you receive a Messenger ad, at this stage there is no way to permanently turn off ads, however there is a downward arrow in the bottom right of the ad that provides options where the user can hide the ad or report sender to Facebook.

These Facebook Messenger ads now offer a greater ability to reach this vast audience globally.
AS always given Facebook’s in-depth user demographic information, all marketers should revisit who their target audience is and in so doing refine the demographics of the group for better targeting.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Where Should Your Brand Focus First

2017-08-04T16:34:00.000+10:00

In recent years social media marketing has been gradually gaining acceptance as a legitimate and when properly utilised, powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal.

And with this rise in popularity and use, has also come a call from various business writers for marketers to forget about segmentation in the traditional sense and instead, adopt the approach of marketing their product to segments of one.

This approach is predicated on the belief that social media allows marketers greater insight into customer’s needs based on their new found ability to engage the prospect with a true dialog, unavailable before the rise of the current day social media networking platforms.

This potential is well established and where the customer is willing to engage online with the business, a better understanding of the unmet need can be obtained and act as a basis for tailoring solutions that exactly meet that individuals needs.

The rate limiting factor with this approach is that not everyone will be willing to engage with you and in the absence of a proactive and strategic approach to targeting, the result is likely to be an uncoordinated and ultimately unsuccessful effort.

The need for segmentation and intelligent target marketing has not been replaced by LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. These platforms provide added insight but do not replace these key pillars that are so crucial to the overall marketing planning process.

With this said the conversation should then turn to what are the key criteria to think about when targeting for your business.

There are 3 that should be focused on. Namely: customer attractiveness, customer growth potential and customer usage.

By customer attractiveness we are referring to how closely does a particular client or prospect match up with your stated target audience and brand positioning.

For this you need to have a clearly thought out and concise description about who your ideal customer is and by extension who your target audience is. This should always be formally written down and contain the following key elements.

Specifically the statement:

n Should describe a distinct place that the brand occupies with the target market.

n Should differentiate the brand in a meaningful way from rival brands.

n Should include a core benefit that will assist the user.

For example some years back as a product manager for a leading pharmaceutical firm I wrote a positioning statement for one of the cardiovascular products as follows:

Brand X is the blood pressure medicine of choice for mature hypertensives, which have declining kidney function, because it offers superior tolerability due to its dual pathways of drug elimination.

This statement includes: the target audience you seek to attract (i.e. mature hypertensives), the brand name (Brand X), the product category (blood pressure medication), the core benefit (better tolerated) and importantly the reason to believe in that benefit (dual pathways of drug elimination).

The closer an individual fits this target group the more attractive they are for our brand.

The second criterion is customer potential. Here you are looking at how much of your brand a customer is likely to need to have their needs met. Let’s look at the example of two separate businesses that could buy your product. For example a restaurateur about to open a restaurant could buy a hundred chairs for his venue and therefore have a have a much larger need for chairs than a local convenience store owner about to open that business that will require only a hand full of chairs. Again as with the first criterion of customer attractiveness, the range will be from low to high.

The third criterion is current usage. Does the prospect or customer use the product already and if so how much.When you combine these 3 criteria you get a simple model as demonstrated below.

Figure 1. The Target Market Analysis Model*

You can imagine a numerical scale of 1 to 10 along each of the three axes, and altogether forming 8 possible quadrants. So which of these quadrants represent the optimal focal points for maximum impact?

A strong case can be made for two in particular.

The first of these is the group that concurrently has high potential, high attractiveness and high usage.

In other words the customer or prospect being targeted has high attractiveness because they fall squarely into the overtly stated target market definition contained within the brands positioning statement.

Fig 2.Typical Long Term Customer Profile with High Potential, High Attractiveness and High Usage Quadrant.

Secondly they also have high potential because they still require more of the product to have their existing customer needs satisfactorily met. Finally they use an existing high current level of your brand, which will usually have been built up as the relationship, experience and overall outcomes with the brand have proven beneficial over time.
Clearly this quadrant describes the dynamic of an established client with a high level of customer satisfaction, which would imply a higher level of loyalty to the brand and a greater long term probability of ongoing, repeat business. In any situation this is a critical group that needs to be analysed, identified and rewarded for their patronage.

The second attractive quadrant that should always be actively targeted is that of the high potential, high attractiveness but low (or no) current usage prospect. In this instance we see the potential or former customer, who still has a high degree of attractiveness to the business as they align perfectly to the specified target market, which also have high potential because they still use large amounts of this type of product to meet their needs.

Unlike the first group however who are avid users and already consume high levels of the brand, this group currently has a low level of current use and will require tactical effort by the business to convince them of why this product should be preferentially preferred over other rival brands.

Fig 3. Typical High Potential Prospect Profile with High Potential, High Attractiveness and Low Usage Quadrant.

Although you can make a strong case that this is the more difficult group of the two to sell to because it still needs convincing, it remains the group with the greatest dollar potential for growth because the amount that can potentially be bought in the future is much larger than the earlier group.

Summary

Where ever possible a business should attempt to actively define and target the two influential groups outlined in this article, through its marketing and commercial efforts.

Although these targets are distinct groups requiring strategically different approaches to maximise the potential of each, they stand out individually and collectively as the groups with the greatest potential for dollar growth.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Comparative Advertising: The Most Powerful and Persuasive Form of Advertising

2017-07-15T00:22:00.002+10:00

Currently On The Small Screen

This week I was asked by a student about an advertisement she had seen recently on television which was directly comparing two forms of painkillers. Namely: Panadol (paracetamol) and Nurofen (Ibuprofen).

These days we tend to see less and less of this type of head to head, comparative advertising for several reasons. Firstly if you're going to use comparative advertising you need to be fairly certain that your brand is either better than a key rival brand in a key area that holds strong significance to the target market audience or at vet least that you are as good as that rival brand and with this established parity, you can then claim some additional edge in another important aspect of the brand's function and usage.

If you can't do this you need to be careful because this type of promotion is certainly interesting and tends to throw a strong spotlight on both brands as people are always looking to gain some additional insight into which brand is better, by how much and why.

Classic Battle

The classic example of comparative advertising that made ripples globally and lead to formal legal action and a prolonged fight within the courts was that of the “Energizer” television commercial which described how the “Energizer” lasted longer than a “Duracell”.

This is a powerful form of advertising which can build strong, selective demand if a product is perceived as being superior to its opposition. Overall competitive advertising is used after a product class has been established and the general public has become reasonably familiar with it and consequently wants to purchase the product.

The Need For Differentiation

I have always advocated of course that every brand regardless of its origin, market or size, should always to continue to develop its own genuine point of difference that is meaningful, sustainable and relevant to the target markets unmet need.

If as the guiding mind of your business or brand you pursue this goal and develop a reasonably significant point of difference, you will always be well rewarded by astute use of direct comparative advertising, but I stress that this will only work if your USP is a strong one that has already been established and is valued by the market.

So for now, think about every aspect of your brand and how it differs from the opposition and consider how each key difference can be best utilised to drive your core promotional messages more effectively. Let us know what you come up with.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Why Blogging Is So Popular and Effective

2017-06-16T09:03:00.000+10:00

Blogging is the most popular thing in the web market. Many small entrepreneurs make use of blogs for promoting their business. Blog is usually considered to be the first step of getting into the internet business. Many small entrepreneurs earn huge money from their blogs. Let us learn the top 10 reasons to use blog marketing for promoting your internet business.

1. Cheap or Free way of Marketing

Many blog hosting services are free. At the most they are cheap. Blog is a good way of promoting your website as well as products. It is the most cost-effective option of internet business. Blogs are informative and directly interact with the viewers. Therefore, blogs give authenticity to the web business. Blogs help in creating brand name for any internet business. No wonder this reason tops our list of top 10 reasons to use blog marketing

2. Brilliant platform to create a wide network

All kinds of internet businesses need to maintain interactions and network with other corporations and consumers. However, remaining in touch with all of them is not possible. Therefore, maintaining a blog that is updated regularly will come in as handy. Blogs can reach thousands of targeted readers at any time in any place.

3. Superior company presence

Blog marketing increases visibility of your internet business or brand. Whenever anyone is looking out for a particular product or service, your brand will come first in their mind. Other than this, if you have a blog that it is attached to your main website then it can contain links to other pages of your website. On the other hand, a non-attached blog is directly linked to the site. When you get familiar with blogging you can also exchange links with other high PR blogs for getting good search engine results and quality traffic.

4. Enhanced product or service popularity

Blog marketing give popularity to your products. People trust blogs more easily than they trust your website. Blogs can be the main window for educating consumers or clients about your products or services in a very effective manner. You can also add interactive features to your blog for making it more user-friendly and thus, enhancing your credibility.

If you don’t have the time for maintaining such a blog then hiring bloggers for this purpose will prove to be highly beneficial. These bloggers who have a good professional experience can give engaging and proper information of your products and services.

5. Ameliorated brand or company name

Blog marketing accelerates personal interactions with the consumers. The tone and style of the blog articles and the blog introduces as well as forms a connection between you and the consumers. This makes them get closer to you and gain an in-depth understanding of the kind of products that you sell or the services that you offer. A regularly updated blog builds a strong relationship with the consumers. The relationship gets even stronger if the comments are answered regularly.

6. Increased consumer communication and bonding

One of the main reasons to use the blog marketing is to know your consumer opinions, likes and dislikes through comment feature. If your products or services need improvement of any kind then you will not have to conduct any survey or research; you will come to know it directly through your comments section. Other than complaints, you can get compliments as well.

7. Pulling heaving heavy relevant traffic

Blogs always increase your website, product, internet business or any business popularity if the links are placed in the blog posts. Of course, for getting traffic quality posts are a must. But the traffic that is sent from your blog is usually convertible. Blogs actually sell products and that is why many companies hire bloggers for selling their products.

8. Viral effect through mouth publicity

When people read about your product, if you are able to convince through your blog posts; you will get free publicity when they tell their friends. So, this viral effect will increase your sales. Word of mouth marketing is very effective and you can capture this market with the help of your blog. If you share personal experiences with the readers, you can create affinity between your readers and you, and this affinity will help you to increase the sales of your product.

9. Improving the search engine presence of your site

A very well search engine optimized blog that is attached to your website adds to the search engine presence of your site. Content containing quality information and specific keywords will give your internet business or website an extra edge. You must make use of appropriate tools to spot specific keywords for including in your blog posts. Your blog title and posts both must contain the main keyword.

10. High rate of viewers converting into buyers

Blogs that contain specific or targeted keywords and have engaging informative content provide traffic that ends up buying your products or services. Search engine optimized blogs provide traffic or readers who are looking out for specific products or services. If the content or blog posts are able to build relations with the readers such readers are easily converted into buyers.

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Differentiation Through Higher Levels of Customer Service, Consistency and Business Values

2017-05-27T13:51:00.000+10:00

Same old, same old.

For the most part, the majority of businesses have little if any real obvious differentiation when it comes to key rivals that they compete with within their local market.

The sad result of this being that usually the consumer in the absence of any compelling point of difference, understandably resorts to simply comparing prices to determine which option provides them with better value, which in turn leads to price wars that systematically drain all profitability out of markets and leave all players vulnerable to anyone that can lower the price below the current level regardless of quality, value and consistency of delivery.

Any Market Offering Can Be Differentiated

I'm pleased to say that recently I saw a new business first hand that is certainly doing all it can to change this scenario described above for the better. Specifically Todd Newton and Sophie LeForest (pictured above) are at the leading edge of the South Caulfield Branch of Hocking Stuart Real Estate base at 616 Glenhuntly Rd, Caulfield VIC 3162. Phone: (03) 8532 5200.

In recent times Todd was presented a real challenge of selling a charming and classic period style home in an area where most buyers were looking for newer largely, modern homes with more 'mod cons' and less intrinsic appeal. A difficult task and in fact the very act of selling at all had proven too difficult for others recently in the same street as multiple properties had been passed in at auction.

Accordingly Todd and Sophie began by crafting a brilliantly descriptive pieces on the home that along with the pictures, beautifully captured the home's intrinsic beauty and elegance whilst outlining all the authentic features and specifics that would provide potential buyers with a rare property with so much obvious value.

As well as this master stroke, Todd also arranged for a well though out advertising campaign to run concurrently through the key outlets including specialist press, corporate website, direct mail and outdoor signage, all strategically designed to provide promotional support for the target market.

From the point of view of home inspections again Todd and Sophie left no stone upturned with a well timed series of planned and extended, open inspections along with any additional personlised visits with one on one inspections as requested and required.

Filling Customer Needs

In every instance Todd was ensuring that the specific needs of the target market were being fully recognised and met. This distinctive property was a classic case of a niche market. To sell it at the right price, Todd brought all his proven expertise and experience to bare and designed a game plan that would appeal to that specific individual that was interested in this type of property.

Todd Newton

Sophie LeForest

From a personal point of view I rarely get to see such a high level of professionalism, attention to detail and above all commitment and consistency in service delivery. Todd and Sophie's open, honest and transparent approach created an optimal environment for effective negotiation, that ultimately lead to a‘Win, Win’ situation for both the Vendor and Purchaser.

This values based approach is a case study in itself of how intelligent planning and strategy can drive genuine and meaningful differences that provide customers with the outcomes that they value.

Certainly even in markets that are largely though to be generic, people make all the difference.
That is to say the right people who have the knowledge, experience and proven track record, that are above all are committed to working with you to achieve your goal.

Todd and Sophie are examples of those rare people who have truly raised the bar in this industry and should act as a guide for other businesses to follow.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Emotional intelligence: Why it matters and how to nurture it in your sales people and employees

2017-04-24T12:07:00.002+10:00

INTERVIEW OF DANIELE LIMA BY PETER ROPER
ON 18 April 2017

Marketing speaks with Daniele Lima, marketer, trainer, salesperson and corporate trainer about the role of emotional intelligence in business performance.

This article originally appeared in The Intelligence Issue, our April/May 2017 issue of Marketing magazine.

More than 90% of all sales scripts are static. In other words, the same scripts are being written over and over again to be applied to every kind of different person on the other end of the phone line or email inbox.

That leaves a small proportion of scripts that could be described as dynamic, that take into account how the caller and recipient are feeling at the time.

This fact alone explains why the vast majority of selling fails, says Daniele Lima, a marketer, sales person and corporate trainer turned author of A Practical Guide to Selling with Emotional Intelligence.

After almost 30 years in sales and marketing roles, Lima was most recently a training manager for major pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. It was during that role he turned his attention to emotional intelligence and the role it plays in not just sales performance, but other business and relationship outcomes.

“Slowly I analysed the various components of sales processes and found that it was the fact they weren’t applying emotional intelligence principles that caused them to fail,” Lima says. “That’s what underpinned the motivation for the book.”

In this interview, Lima takes Marketing through his process of applying emotional intelligence (EI) to sales and relationship building.

Marketing: Emotional intelligence is one of those funny things, in that you have to know you need to work on it, but without self-awareness you wouldn’t… It’s kind of a Catch-22, isn’t it?

Daniele Lima: Yeah, absolutely. If you’ve got high EI then you’re aware of your own limitations. And if you don’t, you’re – how do they put it? – unconsciously incompetent. So it falls on the company or the business to do the right thing by its people and routinely provide EI training, which globally will improve the outcomes for people in any walk of life. Whether it’s marketing, sales or anything else.

M: You’ve written a whole book on this but, in a nutshell, how does emotional intelligence help drive sales performance? What is missing in poorly performing teams?

DL: What EI does is it allows – and I’ll talk individually as opposed to collectively – the individual to be more in tune with their own state of mind: self-awareness. How am I feeling going into this call? Am I rattled? Am I overwhelmed by the amount of information I need to present? It gives them a real insight into how they’re feeling about themselves.

But, as well, … it gives them an insight into how the other person’s going. That’s awareness of others external to yourself. Once you’ve got that focus both ways, it provides the opportunity to realise, for example, that I’m about to walk into a call and I’m a little bit edgy. From a self-control point of view, I know I should take a few deep breaths. Or review some facts on a card that are going to help me. That’s self-control. That’s the regulation that comes after self-awareness.

For the person you’re talking to, if you have a higher level of empathy and are seeing or hearing that the other person is frustrated about something, then rather than just mechanically move onto the next thing, you can look back and say, “Bill, I sense you’re not happy with what I’ve just said, can you tell me specifically what you are uncomfortable about?”

Then Bill gets a chance to say, “Well, look I’m really not satisfied with your approach here.” And you can mend that bridge before you move forward.

M: The model in your book shows quadrants where everything flows from self-awareness. So, if you don’t start from there, the suggestion is don’t bother trying to fake the other stuff?

DL: It’s the absolute bedrock. Your self-awareness is the cornerstone of this model. And it’s the thing we’ve all got to keep working on every day.

But the beauty of these skills is that, even though the book applies them professionally, they’re just as helpful socially, personally, academically. There’s no area of your life that won’t be impacted by having these skills up and running.

M: What does self-awareness training look like?

DL: You’re often working one-on-one the way people because it’s a fairly personal thing. The person might say, “Tell me, Bill, about the way you feel you’re being perceived in this situation.” If Bill’s perception is totally at odds with what’s actually happening, there’s a basis there to say, “Okay, it’s fair to say a lot of people around you, some of whom you know and trust, don’t agree with you. Can I share with you how they’re perceiving you?”It’s a matter of reconciling what’s out there with what you’re internalising. And the bigger the gap, the lower the EI.

M: It’s not as simple as saying someone has self- awareness, someone else doesn’t.

DL: No, it’s a sliding scale. And I have to say, the good news about all this is that, unlike IQ which you can’t really move the dial on, EI can be consistently improved through life. And that’s well documented in the literature.

M: Does it improve with age?

DL: It’s not correlated to age. That’s the amazing thing about it. You can be incredibly emotionally intelligent at the age of five. Or you could be very much unintelligent emotionally at the age of 60. But regardless of where you fall on the scale, the good news is that by exposing someone to this type of research and influence, if that person is open to learning – in the old parlance, if they’re ‘coachable’ – then this can be absorbed.

The research that I go through in the book takes children as young as four years of age and goes through to university students and various groups of professionals. Across the board, by increasing EI, it lifts the outcomes off the charts.

M: What kind of outcomes?

DL: For example, when we look at four-year-olds who can’t read and write yet, there’s what we call a delayed gratification game. You say to a child, “I’m going to put a Freddo Frog on the table and I’m going to leave the room for a few minutes. If you want, you can have it. But, if you wait until I come back and you haven’t touched it, I’ll give you two Freddo Frogs.”

It’s interesting; they followed kids in a study like that for 20 years and they found that the group who waited, who had that self-awareness and self-control, went on to have significantly better admission into university. Significantly better scores in school. Better relationships with their partners. The seeds of the EI were already in place at four years of age. Without any training.

M: Speaking of relationships, the structure that your book takes goes from the self to relationships with others. Why are relationship management skills so applicable across contexts?

DL: There’s a continuum that’s in play here. I’ll reverse engineer this. I’ll start with the end in mind. Regardless of what company we work for, the goal is profit. Market share, market leadership, call it whatever you want, but it’s essentially profit.

To get that profit, you need to build the relationship with the key people within that organisation. So the step before it is relationship. The precursor to relationship is comfort – a person’s got to be comfortable with you before they form a relationship with you. And if you want to make someone comfortable, the precursor is trust.

Now, when we transpose what we know to be true from a behavioural point of view, it’s exactly the same in business. If you’re a marketer, a business development person or salesperson, the goal is profit. Unashamedly, that’s what we’re about.

But to make that happen, as a destination, we’ve got to reach these other key points. Which are: make the person feel comfortable, which leads to trust, which leads to the formation of a relationship. Then over time that relationship underpins business activity and profit.

It’s interesting that I am here 30 years later [after my career started] and I’m in my 50s, and we’ve always been focused on the end, which is the profit. But we really should be focused on the front. Profit is the fourth storey in a building, but you’ve got to build a ground floor first. Then the second floor and the third floor. We’ve been teaching it in a way that’s not intuitive – we’re building the fourth storey, but it doesn’t just hang in the sky on its own.

M: For a manager, what are the tell-tale signs that someone needs to work on their EI, in sales or otherwise?

DL: The signs are different depending on where the person is at. If, for example, the person’s very reactive to any situation, anything that potentially annoys them, they react to it immediately, that is really a black-and-white sign that this person has poor impulse control. From an EI point of view, we call it self-control or self-regulation. That person’s perception is clearly not aligned to what’s actually happening around them. “My sales are going down, but clearly none of it’s got anything to do with me.”

Self-awareness is very low when there’s a disconnect between the reality of a situation and the way that situation’s being perceived internally by the individual.

Blaming other people and non-accountability is a classic sign. Again, you can see how this even applies to sporting teams. It’s not that the good teams don’t make mistakes, they do. But because there’s accountability, they back each other up and those mistakes don’t lead to goals. Whereas in a poor team, people start pointing fingers and the opposition sweep the ball away and score goals. Personal accountability is one of the key barometers of strong EI.

M: Is it possible to pick up those signals in a job interview situation?

DL: Yes, if the questions are asked the right way. These days we’ve moved away from hypothetical questions to behavioural based questions. It’s very much about explaining a recent time a certain scenario happened and describing how the candidate reacted and what they thought as they were doing it. You cannot only put a situation in play, but you want to gauge what the person did and how they were feeling through it.

Most people who are honest with you are not going to say the emotion’s not there. They may be very annoyed

at something, that’s natural. But EI is the ability to control that annoyance. EI is not about not feeling the emotion, EI is feeling it but not letting it dictate how you act.

M: Does this extend beyond one-on-one relationships?

DL: It does. Obviously as marketers, collectively we’re looking at the unmet needs of the market, the target audience. In terms of greater awareness of others, if empathy can be applied to one person it can be applied to a group. As marketers we’re looking for common pain points so that we can devise a good strategy and provide some value.

Empathy can certainly be applied one-on-one to someone, but it can be applied more globally to a group of people that still have some commonality in what aspects of their needs are unmet. That allows you to build a better USP and being able to position your brand a little bit more precisely for that need.

A sales person is just going to fragment that audience and go and see them one at a time and just personalise it a little bit more to the specific needs that person has.

M: You describe motivation as the thing that brings everything together. Can you explain how that works?

DL: Motivation is the real X factor here. Motivation is internal. You cannot give someone motivation, you can only set up an environment that stimulates motivation, that brings the best out of someone. And by all means, as trainers, as leaders, we’ve got to do that. It’s part of the job to set up environments that will allow people to thrive. But we can’t take it personally when there’s someone in this group who, despite every advantage, doesn’t engage. Their personal motivation is probably low.

They really need to question why they’re here? Are they here for the right reasons? Probably not. Again, it goes back to self-awareness of understanding what your real reason is for wanting to do something.

I was a big believer in IQ tests, and every time I looked at a CV, I looked at your qualifications and your experience, like everybody else. Then I found Daniel Goleman’s research that showed the value of emotional intelligence in terms of predicting successful outcomes in business is equivalent to IQ plus technical skill multiplied by two. It’s actually the most important predictive factor for any employee in any business.

M: Do you think recognition of that fact is growing?

DL: It’s certainly growing. But it’s growing off a low base. The shrewd companies do it, but of course they don’t want to talk about it because the last thing they want to do is let opposition firms know where they’re getting the real lift in their employee engagement and retention.

* * * * *

To purchase your copy of : A Practical Guide to Selling With Emotional Intelligence go to:

https://www.readings.com.au/products/23805920/the-practical-guide-to-selling-with-emotional-intelligence-driving-optimal-sales-results-through-the-applied-principles-of-emotional-intelligence?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=booko

Emotional intelligence: Driving More Effective Sales Performances

2017-03-18T09:02:00.002+11:00

Within most organisations sales management are well aware that the success rate of calls made to customers and prospects alike is at best modest and by extension the failure rate of sales calls made especially in trying to secure new business is alarming high.

In fact, well over 90 per cent of all selling effort fails to achieve its objectives. It is not uncommon for sales and business development people – who have been calling on the same customers within a designated territory and who have been visiting them for years – to fail to make a single sale, take a single order or even alter the thinking about where the brand they represent fits in to the pecking order of brand preference.

Despite this alarming information coming as no real surprise to any experience sales person, it certainly is hard to reconcile with the amount of effort and the level of resources that goes into training sales people from initial training to more advanced, consolidation training phases that typically occurs within 12 to 18 months of the representative joining the firm.

This training generally ticks some important boxes, including providing the trainee with high levels of product knowledge for the businesses’ brands, detailed information on key rival brands, current sales trends that highlight prevailing behavioural norms and detailed customer analysis with high levels of key data from company structure, key decision makers and currently used brands.

Beyond this, there is usually also an adopted sales model in place which is often part of a global tool kit and made available through a parent head office internationally which provides a basic framework around which someone can build a discussion around and try to move someone from not using a product through the stages of awareness, interest and ultimately trial, where a comparative evaluation can be made against existing brand choices.

But despite all this, the numbers are anything but flattering so the obvious question is: what don’t they have that would make them more effective in a real world setting?
Simply put, the missing link for most sales people is not product information, territory management planning or even work rate.

It is simply the skill to deliver their key messages and then, through the use of concurrently applying the key principles of emotional intelligence, be able to identify and act on signals that are being given by the customer that are currently not being seen or understood and therefore represent missed opportunities in being able to not only build a strong working relationship with someone but be able to leverage that relationship to facilitate ongoing win-win outcomes that benefit both parties equally.
These principles that have at their core both your own self-awareness and equally important, social awareness of others where you have an equally clear awareness of the needs and feelings of your customer.

These represent the true starting point to genuine partnership and long-term sales success.
Those who have already been integrating these key emotional intelligence principles with their selling skills will not be surprised that the result is greatly enhanced performance; emotional intelligence has been show in research to be twice as powerful as IQ and technical skill combined as a predictor of future success.

Perhaps nearly 30 years since the term emotional intelligence was first coined in 1990, it may be finally time for even the conservative world of sales to adopt a new strategic ally that can elevate it to new heights.

Daniele Lima is the managing director of Road Scholars Training & Strategic Consultancy and the author of “The Practical Guide to Selling with Emotional Intelligence”. Available at:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Practical-Guide-Selling-Emotional-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B01MU72HXO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489787878&sr=8-1&keywords=daniele+lima

Google Alerts - The Essential Social Media Monitoring Tool For Any Business

2017-02-18T09:21:00.001+11:00

Today as I prepared the slides for an upcoming event looking at various aspects of social media and more broadly electronic marketing, I was going through the various products one can have to give them some degree of social media monitoring.

It occurred to me that the first one I ever got and still the one that I trust is the ever so humble but effective, Google Alerts (www.Google.com/alerts).

What's not to love with Google Alerts. To begin with it's free.As well it will provide you with an email alert to any email address you specify, when any mention is made of your name, your brand, your company name or any other person or thing you may have an interest in.

Google alerts goes through all modalities of media globally and is a great way of knowing if anything is being said and also what the sentiment of that mention may be.

Incredibly it even gives you the option of nominating when you want to receive the notification. The three options being: 1. Immediately, 2. Once daily or 3. Once weekly. Personally I choose daily but the choice is totally yours to make with any given alert you set up through Google Alerts.

Bottom line is that this is a non negotiable along with Google Analytics to any one who wants good quality social media monitoring and measurement data. Make sure you have both.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

What Business Are You Really In

2017-01-08T08:06:00.002+11:00

The first thing that the situation analysis sets out to do is to answer the question,

“What business are you really in?”

On the surface this may appear to be an absurd question to ask. Certainly most if not all small business owners/managers can tell you what market their business operates in. For example: the book market, the shoe market, the men's wear market, and so on. However knowing this is not enough. You must also know exactly what market segment your business caters to. For instance, based on the examples given above, your business might be in:

1. The educational book market for primary and secondary level schools but not tertiary (as part of the overall book market).

2. The high–fashion, leather shoe market catering only for women and not men (as part of the overall shoe market).

3. Affordable, medium quality/medium priced men’s wear clothing and accessories (as part of the overall men’s wear market).

In each of these three examples, the business operates in one segment and not in all segments of their respective markets. Constructing a profile with key descriptors about your business will help you to identify the specific segment to which your business belongs. You may want to create this profile by using a checklist of ‘who, what, when, why and how’ regarding your customers and their needs.

Checklist of key questions

1
Who are your main customers currently?

2 What other potential customers could be targeted by your business?

3 What are the main products (goods or services) sold by your business to these current customers?

4 What is the key need that is met by these products?

5 What other products could your business supply to its customers?

6 When do your customers mainly buy?

7 Why do they buy the product to begin with?

8 How do they buy? (Buying patterns and methods).

9 Why do they buy from your business?

1 What don’t your customers like about buying from your business?

1 What related items do they buy elsewhere and why?

The owner of a small but profitable computer-programming firm considered that his business specialised and catered to no particular market segment. He believed that his business designed software with a fairly even cross section of customers from various industries.

However, on closer examination, the owner discovered to his surprise that about 40% of his customers were accounting firms. This realisation prompted the firm to target this area more rigorously, with the result being an increased clientele list and increased profitability.

What really happened here?

Over time, the business had developed a superior and specialised knowledge of accounting systems in direct response to customer needs. Because the specialisation was gradual, this market segment was not identified until an analysis of the business was conducted.

Think broadly about the business you are in.

Once you have accurately determined exactly which business you are in, the next step is to take a broader look at what (beyond the actual product) the customers are buying from you.

Have a look at the three columns in this example. In the first column, the names of a number of well-known businesses are listed. The second column displays their respective product offerings. It is, however, more important to identify what the customer is actually buying beyond the product itself. This is found in the third column.

Business Product offering What’s in it for the customer

Universal Studios Movies Entertainment

Revlon Cosmetics Make-up Beauty

Telstra Telephones Communication

Carrier Air-conditioning Comfort

Mt.Buller Skiing Recreation

Metrail Trains/Trams/Buses Transportation

Coca-Cola Soft Drink Acceptance

Club Med Travel & Tourism Escape

From this type of analysis, the true nature of a business is quickly revealed.

Consider Cadbury Schweppes Company. Their product offering is food and beverage. But what are the customers really buying?

Mark Smith (Former Managing Director of Cadbury Schweppes – Australia & New Zealand), said:

“I work for an outstanding company. And I'm really passionate about what we do,

which put simply, is to bring delight into the lives of millions of consumers.

Therefore, Cadbury Schweppes is in the business of putting joy and fun into people’s lives. Not simply selling confectionery.

The customer’s perception of your product can be more important than the product itself. Coca-Cola is a classic example of this. The long-term popularity of the Coca-Cola drink has been sustained over many decades. This would suggest that there is more to the drink than its taste. The advertising is perennially the same and is targeted at young people. “Coke is it” really says, “Drink it and with it comes acceptance, status and fun.” Not bad for a soft drink.

Similarly, once it was established by Revlon that women are really buying ‘beauty,’ Revlon tailored the marketing strategies, packaging and advertising to reinforce this perception.

By understanding what a customer is really buying, your marketing strategies and promotions will more accurately hit the mark.

To learn more about business marketing go to: http://www.roadscholarstraining.com/services/accredited-courses.html and select from any of the nationally accredited business courses available to expand your knowledge further.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Seasons Greetings And A Very Merry Christmas To All

2016-12-19T06:42:00.000+11:00

Hello again everyone and yet again as we say every year, another year has passed before our very eyes. This week I'd like to take a step back from Business, Social Media and all things Sales and Marketing and focus instead on something more important.

Namely family and friends and how at this time of year it's certainly a time to reflect on how fortunate we are to be surrounded with so many good people who all help enrich our lives and really help to make life worth living.

On a personal note I'd like to thank all the readers for their support, feedback and input as it makes doing the Road Scholars Marketing blog so enjoyable. As well I'd also like to wish you and those special to you a very safe and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

And so until next time, good luck and as always, good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

Including Calls To Action In Your YouTube Videos By Adding YouTube Cards

2016-12-13T08:07:00.003+11:00

The Need For Effective CTA's

The need to be able to effectively navigate from one social media outpost to the digital hub and or the next social media option is critical and has been spoken about on the Road Scholars blog many times. This ability to move within the overall digital network allows you the ability to keep providing value, social proof and ultimately a way to commercialise the customers desire to meet their needs with your product offering.

Within YouTube

Specifically within the YouTube environment there are multiple ways to do this. One of the simplest ways is to simply create and YouTube Cards that appear on the video and direct the viewer to take the next required action that your are nominating for them.

To create the YouTube Card for a video, simply go to the Video and add cards to your YouTube video, go to your YouTube Video Manager and simply select the video you want to add a card to. Then click on Edit below the video’s title.

The on the next screen click on the Cards Tab.

From here the template is accessible that allows you to craft the specific message you want the viewer to see and respond to. Just click on the Add Card button and create the specifics of the card.

As shown above there are five types of YouTube Cards currently available.

You will provide the key information for the one you select to create the card.

For example, if you choose the URL option you will provide the link to the next port of call which may be for example where the prospect buys your product offering.

Summary

This YouTube card is yet another effective and viable way to provide users with clear directions and options on what to do next and how to do it. They make the process more intuitive and enjoyable for the person engaged with your content and is a vital cog in producing viable social media networks.

To learn more about all aspects of social and digital marketing simply click on:

http://victorianchamber.com.au/business-solutions/training/course

and select a course that's right for you.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Google My Business Improves Notification Settings

2016-12-02T08:07:00.000+11:00

Recently Google made an important announcement to the market that they had made significant improvements to the Google My Business Package.

These changes will now allow any and all Google My Business users more direct control over the notification settings and their ability to choose what they want and don't want to be notified about by Google.

Contained within this, Google are additionally integrating added types of updates which they believe will provide additional value and relevance to understanding your business.

This new format as pictured above is a hybrid of the previous preferences contained within the new set of settings, that users will begin receiving from Google moving forward..

Importantly as stated you the user will have the ability to preferentially choose or not choose any of the available options and be able to change that preference on the settings page at any stage in the future as your needs may also change.

To do this you simply click on or off the notification option and the change is automatically recorded by the system from that point. The link to unsubscribe will also routinely appear in the footer of all notification emails should you wish to stop receiving the notifications.

So another nice refinement by our friends at Google that will hopefully provide even deeper insight and clarity around your business dynamics. To learn more about all aspects of social and digital marketing simply click on:
http://victorianchamber.com.au/business-solutions/training/course

and select a course that's right for you.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Virtual Reality Update: VR Box Series (II)

2016-11-19T10:02:00.002+11:00

Since the last recent post on virtual reality I know a lot of people have asked about the content side of things that is required once you have your VR headset and Bluetooth controller.

Thankfully there is a sea of free or extremely low cost, quality content that is extremely easy to get online and use on your VR Box Series II..

From the point of view of quality existing content for schools, the Google Expeditions site is here:

https://www.google.com.au/edu/expeditions/

The experience comes from the app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.vr.expeditions), downloadable onto any Android device/phone and suits Google Cardboard - our VR headsets are the same as Google Cardboard but better, they're solid plastic and visually appealing.

From the Google support article for getting started (https://support.google.com/edu/expeditions/answer/6335093?hl=en&ref_topic=6334250):

Expeditions are group experiences with a guide leading and the explorers following along. We recommend a tablet for the guide and phones, a virtual reality viewer, for the explorers.

If you want to put together your own kit, you can use the app with Android tablets and phones. Expeditions will run on any Android device running KitKat (Android 4.4 and above) but multiple devices are required to use the app. Essentially for any BYO teacher kits, our headsets are perfectly fine.

Google has even put together some curriculum:
https://edutrainingcenter.withgoogle.com/advanced_training/unit?unit=44&lesson=64

Also note anything with the following Google Cardboard icon, is compatible with the VR Box Series (II) headsets.

Updated information on this incredible unit is available at:
https://verve.digital/vr-box/ It is a truly impressive unit that simply requires a modern smartphone runs on any regular mobile and does not require a laptop to run off ensuring a greater level of freedom of movement.

Some additional great immersive (360) videos can also be obtained from:

Jaunt: https://www.jauntvr.com/
360Rize: http://video.360heros.com/
Littlstar: https://littlstar.com/
Discover VR: http://www.discoveryvr.com/
YouTube (There is a growing range of 360 degree videos here): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=360+video
Google Play & Apple Store apps

So regardless of how proactive you have been to this point, the advent of Virtual Reality technology now affords another exciting opportunity to differentiate your business offering from competitors and provide an even higher degree of value added service delivery that will continue to allow for a more interactive and immersive brand experience.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Painful Lessons to Be Learned Through The Samsung Note 7 Experience

2016-10-29T10:12:00.002+11:00

Background

Too often the history of our collective corporate experience has repeatedly chronicled the failings of companies that have brought products to the market without having performed the required amount of due diligence and as such have let down, financially disadvantaged and in extreme cases even harmed their customers.

Multiple Examples

In recent memory for example examples have been highlighted from various markets including Toyota from the motor vehicle market with their tragically under tested brakes that caused the deaths of unsuspecting drivers, pharmaceutical products such as some statins and T Channel blockers that were directly connected to patient deaths and now we find The Samsung Note 7 which potentially, whilst charging may in some cases catch on fire.

Implications

For Samsung the implications are indeed dire. Approximately 2.5 million phones have been recalled globally and incredibly the replacement phones were also prone to the same fault. Initial financial data released to the market suggested that this mistake will cost the company around five billion dollars and more importantly will force them to shut down what was one of the biggest and most prestigious brands in telecommunications, namely The Samsung Note.

No doubt the product designers and technical staff are already at work trying to redesign a new flagship that long with some inspiring marketing may yet re-position it as a winning brand for the future. Of course this will all take time and as the clock continues to click other android makers such as Google with its Pixel phone and Apple with its i Phones are naturally the big winners as the users are forced to switch across to other phones.

The Way Forward

For Samsung and all of us watching some serious lessons need to be learned.
1. When you make a mistake, you need to own it. Samsung knew about the problem and initially were very slow to respond.
2. When you do respond, be measured and put the customer's needs first. Samsung rushed replacement units out again without and proper due diligence which again put their customers lives at risk.
3. Apologise. If Toyota from the example above deserve credit for one thing it is that they did admit fault, and went on the proverbial front foot early to make positive changes. This approach I suspect bought them good will amoungst the PR disaster that they were involved with.

So moving forward let us wait and see what Samsung do next and how they learn from some terrible mistakes that have hurt their brand so profoundly this year

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Targeting Facebook Ads to Specific Business Locations

2016-10-20T09:51:00.005+11:00

Facebook now allows you to specifically target your businesses Facebook ads to individual addresses. This provides an obvious advantage to those businesses that would ideally benefit from location based targeting.

The number of possible examples for such a system are endless but as a simple illustration imagine a mobile coffee vender that drives around and wants to promote their business and perhaps promotional codes that incentivise first time and repeat usage of their coffee.

Such a business would be able to send the ads to actual physical addresses where the maximum chance of usage would be in play not to mention the maximum potential benefit from the customer who works there and therefore receives the maximum amount of convenience by having the coffee delivered to their doorstep.

So here's how you go about it.

1. Design the campaign based on what it needs to convey to the intended target audience.
E.g. Buy a coffee and bring this included bar-code for a free muffin.
External content can also be leveraged here with hyperlinks to: additional pictures, videos or posts.

Then simply post this tailor made content and core message on your Facebook page.

Now you can utilise the Ads Manager function that will allow you to deliver that same message to specific locations. Alternatively this can also be accomplished via the Create Campaign function under Business Manger.

Access the Ads Manager and start a new campaign.

This will drive you to another display with various options to select from. For this example, the best option is the first, Boost Your Posts. Make a selection from the sidebar to choose preferred campaign objectives.

Name your campaign as a matter of Standard Operating Procedure and then click on the Set Audience Option to proceed.

2. Decide on Your Targeted Audience

Here you make a conscious decision on who will see the ad based on location. The:
More Demographics Options allows for example you to target Workers by Employer name, Job title, industry or office type making it a simple matter to precisely control who will see the ad.

3. Set a Budget

As is the case with Adwords or any other digital advertising option setting a realistic budget is an important step. You can set the daily budget and the number of days that it will run for. So for example if you set a $3 per day budget to begin with for 7 days you know ahead of time that it will cost you $21 for the week to assess how effective this type of advertising is for you.

Additionally Facebook provide the option of naming the ad so that in a setting of multiple ads for that campaign where AB Testing is happening, it will be simple to assess the relative success of each individual ad.

4. Write the Ad

Click on the Choose Your Ad Creative

You may chose to select an Existing Page Post drop-down list to the left of the preview.

Select your content and place your order.

The current limitation is that as things stand we can only target one location per ad although this may change moving forward.

So if you think this system could help your business, give it a try and see what impact it has on your sales.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

VR Set To Revolutionise the Worlds of Business and Training

2016-09-27T12:59:00.002+10:00

Over the last ten years there has been an undeniable and ongoing swing in the importance of all things social and digital in business marketing. As business people we have become aware of the universal customer need to for businesses to become much more interactive, experiential and ultimately engaging.

Businesses that have adopted this mantra have certainly enjoyed a first mover advantage over slower, less responsive rivals. Not surprisingly the technology we use is also continuing to evolve and support this customer need and the most obvious example of this is in the form of the Virtual Reality Units and Bluetooth Controllers that have a virtually unlimited number of potential business applications.

Despite some brands being priced very high with price tags of between $600 to $3000 per single unit, I'm pleased to say that other quality, entry level units are much more affordable and given their quality, functionality and access to large amounts of impressive free content, represent true value for SME's in particular.

One such option is the VR Box (Series II) model that has just been released. https://verve.digital/vr-box/ It is a truly impressive unit that simply requires a modern smartphone runs on any regular mobile and does not require a laptop to run off ensuring a greater level of freedom of movement.
There is a plethora of content online where much of it is actually available free. Some great immersive (360) videos can be obtained from:

Jaunt: https://www.jauntvr.com/
360Rize: http://video.360heros.com/
Littlstar: https://littlstar.com/
Discover VR: http://www.discoveryvr.com/
YouTube (There is a growing range of 360 degree videos here): https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=360+video
Google Play & Apple Store apps

Even as a teaching tool for teachers and trainers, many of these can be woven into teaching classes, such as the Shipwreck and underwater shark experiences, space exploration, city flyovers, sporting and events etc.

Also interesting to note is that the Google cardboard app and related content can also be viewed on these headsets as they implement the same VR viewing methods via a smartphone.

In terms of dedicated curriculum, Google has launched Google Expeditions (https://www.google.com.au/edu/expeditions/) where the VR learning and experience comes from the downloadable app. The full Google Expeditions kit is not required and at its foundations each student would have a headset and the teacher would facilitate the learning experience from e.g. a tablet, all connecting to a single access point (WiFi).

So regardless of how proactive you have been to this point, the advent of Virtual Reality technology now affords another exciting opportunity to differentiate your business offering from competitors and provide an even higher degree of value added service delivery that will continue to allow for a more interactive and immersive brand experience.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Advertise On Pinterest With Promoted Pins

2016-09-19T10:45:00.002+10:00

What Are Promoted Pins

When you have important visual pins that will drive business for you, Pinterest gives you the option of paying for Promoted Pins which is the advertising modality within Pinterest.

When you scroll down your personal feed you will read the term: Promoted By on pins which designate promoted pins the way Google Adwords have ‘Ad’ on them. Any pin that is public can be promoted in this way.

Essentially as a first step you need to think critically about the thing that is central to what your business does. In other words what is your ‘core’ business? Within any area you will be able to see the level of activity within Pinterest as measured by the number of people that follow that area.

Mobile Friendly Video Pins

Pinterest have now also confirmed that you can now also incorporate Promoted Video Pins that are at this stage at least, being targeted exclusively to mobile users that as we know make up the vast majority of Pinterest users with over 80% of use happening on a mobile device. These video pins are viewed on the mobile screen as an animated GIF and when selected direct the viewer to the full video.

As an added incentive those businesses that use these new video pins will be able to at no cost, add six free pins below the video. These complimentary pins show as a carousel under the video, and are used to provide additional content regarding the product being marketed.

Currently the videos are on third-party video players like YouTube but Pinterest is developing its own video system so it is just a matter of time until it replaces the current system and users will upload video content directly the Pinterest system.

Using Promoted Pins

The key benefit with the use of Promoted Pins is that you can effectively target defined groups where you create an ad campaigns based on three main business goals: Namely: Awareness, Engagement and Traffic.

Brand awareness campaigns allow you to promote your pin to your target market using a Pay per Impression (PPI) model of 1000 impressions. Whilst with engagement ads, the Pay per Click (PPC) system is used where you pay each time someone clicks and enlarges your pin, repins your pin, saves your pin, or clicks and your pin.With traffic campaigns, the business pays for each click-through on your pin.

Personally as with Adwords which is also PPC I have always preferred the value that PPC ads provide.

Budgeting for a Promoted Pin Campaign

Pinterest will provide you with a CPC budget estimate based on the keywords and interests you are targeting. Typically it will be around a dollar plus per click so it is more expensive potentially than a Google Adword but I believe a good complement to it.

For brand awareness campaigns, you will be looking at around 3 to 5 dollars per click.

Industry reports say that around 5% of all pins are promoted pins.

Buyable pins are also now available as promoted pins represent a change where when you buy you no longer need to be transferred to the seller’s site.

So until next time, Good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

The PEST Analysis

2016-09-07T12:48:00.004+10:00

Background

As readers of this blog you know that I have always believed that the most underutilised tool in the business world is the all encompassing SWOT analysis. It is perfect for any business in any market and provides unfailing insight into both the internal processes and systems of your business as well as the external market forces that prevail outside of your business. Recently I had a student ask me about what is the best way to assess the current and foreseeable opportunities and threats that are likely to present themselves within the next twelve months? Enter the PEST analysis.

http://bit.ly/1pkgwUJ

The PEST Analysis

Political

Economic

Social (and Cultural)

Technological

Summary

By utilising the PEST analysis and reviewing your findings on a regular basis you will be able to ensure that you are feeding the best, most relevant and timely information into the SWOT analysis as the basis for robust and reliable long term, strategic and short term, tactical decision making for your business.

Naturally to discuss any of the marketing and social media discussions raised here, please come along to any of the Victorian Chamber of Business Workshops as detailed at:
http://www.victorianchamber.com.au/business-solutions/training/course Hope to see you there.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

The Empire Strikes Back As Facebook Respond to Adblockers

2016-08-28T08:22:00.000+10:00

Facebook in response to increasing usage of ad-blockers has recently flipped a proverbial switch that will now allow the Facebook platform to be able to avoid the effects of the ad blockers.

Predictably the argument that is being forwarded by the social media giant is that this will give the user more say in which ads they receive and which ads they block. Now this may appear reasonable on the surface except that for most people who block ads, the point is they want to block all ads.

The way the new technology works is that it blocks the ad-bocker's capacity to differentiate between a sponsored or unsponsored post.Facebook will also include new ad preferences which they say will provide consumers more power to select and therefore be able to choose certain brands.

Now again I ask if Facebook really wanted to provide greater control to users would they not respect the fact that all those people have opted not to receive Ads full stop? In the end it's not hard to see why Facebook continue to lose respect amongst users and observers alike. Perhaps these will be the seeds for the possible shift in preference to another single or multiple number of rival alternatives that show more respect for what consumers actually want.