The advent of open source, templated WordPress websites that non-programmers can create and maintain has been revolutionary. But beware, there are some very scary things that can go on behind the scenes you need to know about and prevent!

[I originally published this post in 2015. Last night I attended a really great WordPress meetup and decided to update the post. And, yes, there are still reasons to beware of open source, templated websites!]

As a marketing consultant, I’ve been working with websites since 2000 and on WordPress sites since 2009. I’ve seen some great successes and real nightmares with the WordPress platform. Today I and my associates prefer to create websites in WordPress, because it is so cost-effective and flexible. But, it’s not right for every project, and there are some things you need to watch out for.

WordPress is an open source technology. That means that the source code is available to anyone who wishes to modify or expand upon the code. It is widely used and relatively easy to access and modify.  Because its open source, programmers have developed design themes that your can purchase to quickly implement and website with a nice design. They have also developed add-ons for the websites called plugins, so that depending on what features you want to create on your website, you can pick and choose plugins to install without having to program the features yourself. Many templates and plugins are free, which can be very cost-effective.

But, here are some of the nightmares that I’ve seen:

1. Because WordPress is open source, it can be hacked.

But, you say, “I’m a small business, and I don’t do sales transactions on my site. Why would someone hack my my site?”

Because! (Really, some hackers hack WordPress sites just because it’s there.) Some hack sites so that they can install malware or use the site to conduct attacks on other sites or programs.

This became really clear to me in 2011 when a web developer casually mentioned he had noticed some malware on a client’s WordPress site and removed it.

Me: “Whaaaaat?”

All businesses could be hurt by malware inserted into their website, but in particular, this was a business for which reputation was critical!  There are standard security procedures and tools you can implement to help prevent this, and regular reviews of your WordPress site for malware and hacks are a must.

Since I originally wrote this post, I had to work with a web developer and with Google to help a client get malware removed from their hacked site. The site had been hosted on a legacy hosting service that had some security holes, and there is a possibility that the client’s network was not secured against hackers. We had done a good job of optimizing content for this client and getting them found online, so it was disappointing when we had to take time out to remove malware and resubmit it for review by Google. I learned in this process that there are new ways to secure a WordPress installation from hackers, and I’m sure the methods and tools continue to evolve.

2. WordPress templates or plugins can result in a bad website.

There are good templates and plugins and bad ones. Don’t buy a bad template or plugin! Have an experienced WordPress programmer evaluate it first. Check to make sure the author does regular updates. This is one reason you may want to buy your template instead of using a free one. At least with a paid template, it is more likely that there is someone with “financial skin-in-the-game” (e.g. someone who is incentivized) who will maintain it properly.

I learned from my WordPress web developer that when they download templates, they have seen that some WordPress template creators load in a bunch of plugins, which they don’t disclose before you purchase. Even if you do research on the template, now you have the plugins on your server, and you may not know who created them or if they are maintained.

I’ve run into some businesses that updated their site in the last couple of years but are still using a non-responsive template. A responsive template automatically adjusts for whatever device (desktop computer, tablet or phone) is used to view the site. Google announced that sites that are non-responsive will not rank well in the search results well in advance of making the change in April 2015. It’s a shame to invest money in a new site or site update and not have it responsive, when Google pre-announced the change to give everyone time to update their site – something Google rarely or never does! Before you choose a template, make sure it has all the features that are necessary to perform well for visitors and with the search engines.

I have worked on client websites that were set up incorrectly. Sometimes the templates are modified, and if the site was not set up properly,  installing an update to the template (critical to plug possible security holes) wipes out the modifications. In one case, a business’s home page was heavily modified so that the client could not edit the content, and our team could not optimize it for the search engines. Graphics were not the correct resolution and load slowly. If websites are not set up with the proper security measures in place, and they get hacked.

3. There is a wide range of quality when it comes to WordPress development.

Today, almost anyone can say they are a web developer, create a website, create graphics and optimize the site for the search engines. Graphic designers create websites. Web developers create graphics and provide search engine optimization (SEO). Heck, I even created a very simple site for a client (they begged me). But, does the SEO that was done get results? Is the site really secure from hackers? Are the images and graphics designed and optimized for the web? Does the site have loads of plugins and widgets that slow down the performance (another factor Google takes into consideration when it evaluates websites for search results).

Some really successful traditional, print-oriented graphic designers do not understand how to create graphics for the web. Some graphic designers and some web developers do not keep up with the ever-changing SEO techniques. Programmers are not always good web developers and some are not experienced in WordPress. And, now that content marketing and social media make a difference in how a website gets found in searches, there are also many web developers and graphic designers don’t know how to integrate this into a WordPress (or any) website.

This was not a blog post written to bash web developers, programmers and graphic designers. For me, the last few years of working on WordPress websites have taught me is that there are many aspects of a website that need an experienced professional.  There are talented professionals out there that create good, optimized, well-performing websites. But, unfortunately, there are also a lot of bad WordPress website creators. They may not even know what they don’t know. If you, the website owner, doesn’t know what to look for when buying web development services, you may end up with a website that’s very, very scary.

If you need a new website or wish to update your existing site, contact me at New Incite today. I provide written website creation or update plans that include the design, security, marketing and technology details you need. I  have reviewed proposals for websites and social media projects and consulted with businesses to help them choose the best provider. I continue to work hard to continue to identify and work with the good guys and gals – designers and developers who create great websites that generate results.

Photo by David Goerhing on Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

The news stories about Melania Trump’s 2016 Republican Convention speech plagiarizing Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention speech brought up one of my pet peeves – plagiarizing marketing content.

It is not OK to copy other marketers’ stuff. Ever.

I had a personal experience with being plagiarized by B2B Marketers when one of my attorney clients told me about Copyscape.com. I thought I’d try it out, and I soon found that two consultants and an online industry publication had copied three of my articles. You can read the dramatic (I am not dramatic – actually very calm – but my blood pressure definitely went up) story here, B2B Marketers: Has Your Online Content Been Copied? In a nutshell, one consultant who copied my content said she hired a ghost-writer and didn’t know the articles were copied. The other consultant, a former boss of mine, apologized and took the plagiarized content down.

Why Plagiarism is an important issue for B2B Marketers

Ethics in marketing – and in business – has become an increasing focus of mine. A few years ago when I was asked to teach a marketing ethics course at UCLA Extension (one of the largest and most comprehensive continuing education programs that offers certificate programs for businesses, including a Marketing Certificate). I started teaching the Ethics in Marketing and Advertising course (and then was asked to teach the capstone course of the Marketing Certificate, Strategic Marketing).

I was really impressed that UCLA Extension required the ethics class. As time went on, I came to believe that ethics should be embedded in every course offered in any certificate program at UCLA Extension, rather than a discreet course.

But,  I digress!

I mention this because the ethics in marketing that has always been part of my marketing consulting practice became even more of a focus when I was teaching the class. To this day, I still follow ethics issues in marketing and curate articles and posts in my Ethics in Marketing topic on Scoop.It. Ethics in marketing is on my radar, and we B2B Marketers need to prevent our clients and other marketers from plagiarizing others’ original work.

If you do create content based on someone’s original work, at least mention the author and, even better, provide a link to the original material.

I have a thirty-plus-year career in B2B marketing and sales, and I’ve consulted with hundreds of companies in the last twenty years. I’ve observed a lot of marketing and business situations and provided solutions that help my clients grow. I keep a folder of these observations and solutions that feeds ideas for my blog posts on my B2B Marketing Traction blog. My blog posts are original and designed to add value for my clients and prospective clients. I always reference other content I consult for research prior to writing my own blog posts.

Re-purpose Your Own Marketing Content, not Other People’s!

When social media and content marketing became more mainstream, some of the industry leaders were suggesting that you re-purpose content to be more efficient. At the time I was following blogs by Chris Brogan, Jay Baer and David Meerman Scott, among others. I don’t remember who first wrote about re-purposing. The idea was that you would watch which of your blog posts or videos were most popular, and then turn the blog post into a video, webinar, eBook, etc. (or vice versa). I think re-purposing is brilliant. It’s just that the originators of the idea meant that B2B Marketers should re-purpose their own content, not that of competitors or other thought leaders!

If you have reviewed other sites and content before writing your own, or if you hired a ghost writer, consider using an online plagiarism checker before you publish.

I think plagiarism can happen, and sometimes it might just be human nature. Here’s an example. Years ago I was working with a client who wanted to write their own website content. After a while, they asked me to review what they wrote and give them my opinions and feedback. As I read one of the pages, some of the words jumped out at me. I looked at a similar page on my site. Sure enough, the exact wording had made it’s way to my client’s site. The client was in a different space and, frankly, I was a little bit flattered that they liked what I had written. I didn’t say anything at the time, but I did observe that it’s very possible for someone to read content and then write it into their materials later without realizing they are copying someone’s words. So, we can argue that anyone could be at fault for plagiarism! By the way, if anyone thinks I have copied their materials, I welcome their call or email to discuss it.

When B2B Marketers Copy Your Stuff, Remember Imitation is the Best Form of Flattery

Over the years I’ve observed that my content has provided ideas for other businesses, both big and small. I haven’t expended the energy and time to run each of my blog posts through a checker like Copyscape. I just remind myself that imitation is the best form of flattery and move on, writing creatively and producing original content.

Avoid B2B Marketers Who Encourage Plagiarism and Copying Content

Just as the online copy checkers have helped spot plagiarism in schools and business, technology also potentially encourages plagiarism! And some B2B marketing advisors actually tell their clients to use competitor’s content! One Content Marketer admitted in a blog post that they use an online service to submit competitors blog URLs, find out what content on the competitor site is most popular, and then write a better article. (Frankly, I wonder who has time for this, and it perhaps even suggests that the marketer doesn’t have original thoughts and content to share with their audience.)

It’s fine to track what topics are popular, but if you are rewriting a competitor’s article, you may be crossing the line. Marketers have been doing competitive analysis and following competitor’s marketing messages for years. That’s one thing. But encouraging people to copy others’ content is wrong. As marketers, we need to be careful, and we need to produce content with integrity and complete transparency. If another marketer’s article inspires you to write about a topic, and you take their content and add it it, you should give them credit.

How Can You Make Sure Your B2B Marketing Consultant Writes Original Content?

There are a few questions you can ask to find out if your marketing consultant has integrity and produces original, not copied, content for themselves and for your business.

1. Does your marketing consultant follow a code of ethics?

Sometimes marketing consultants belong to an organization that requires adherence to a code of ethics. One such organization is the Institute of Management Consultants, in which I’ve been an active member and a leader in the Los Angeles Chapter for more than a dozen years. Unfortunately adherence to a code of ethics is not the norm for most consultants, because they aren’t required by law to maintain a license or follow a professional code like CPA’s, Attorneys and Doctors.

2. Does your marketing consultant put their clients first?

Does your marketing consultant create original content that shares their experience and helps you and other businesses? This kind of content will tend to be longer blog posts with interesting case studies and stories about the consultant’s actual experiences. Or, is their content designed to game search engine results and promote themselves as a speaker? This kind of content may show up as short blog posts full of keywords but little value or lists of regurgitated content links from other people.

3. Are you able to get references to check your marketing consultant’s work ethic?

Sometimes we get so excited about finding a possible solution to our marketing problems, we just jump into a contract with a provider. You should always check references first, and, if possible, talk to a couple of alternative resources. It’s always best to take a little time to check references before you enter into a contract.

It’s not even Friday, a day that I often reserved for writing opinion pieces that I usually label “my Friday morning Marketing Soapbox.” But, I think you’ll agree that ethics in marketing is really important. When we were served such a blatant example of plagiarism in Melania Trump’s RNC speech this week , I could not resist writing this post. (By the way, I listened to the broadcast of the live speech and thought she did a good job. I did not recognize the words that were lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech!)

If you want to work with a marketing consultant with integrity, contact New Incite today. Since 1997 we’ve been creating original marketing messages, campaigns and content to generate results for our clients.

Photo on Flickr by Marc Nozell. Some Rights Reserved.

If there is one thing I’ve learned as a marketing consultant, strategic marketing plans must be SMART to be successful. I work with business owners of small to mid-size companies. Especially in tough economic times,  they have limited resources to spend on marketing. So, what they do spend on marketing must produce results.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. There are variations on the definition for this acronym, including “relevant” for R and many others – see PMP Duncan Haughey’s blog post SMART Goals for more variations. Here are my descriptions for SMART B2B marketing plans:

Specific. A marketing plan that does not identify what will be done, how, who will do it, when and how much it will cost is not specific. Without the What?, How?, Who?, When? and How Much? questions answered, your marketing won’t get done.

Measurable. How will you measure each activity? Traffic to your website? Email and phone call inquiries? Downloads of content from your site? Sales? Not many companies track results and keep doing the same marketing regardless. (Some say doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insane!)

Attainable. B2B marketers need to ask if it is possible to attain results from their marketing. Is there demand for the product? Are there any statistics that show average results for different types of marketing activities? Is the marketing goal too aggressive?

Realistic. How realistic is it that the business can spend the time and money to implement the marketing correctly? Take business blogs, for example. According to a Technorati study from 2008, blogs have a 94% abandonment rate. Blogs take time, inspiration and writing skills. They yield great results if done well, but there is nothing worse than getting excited about reading a business blog and finding the last entry was posted 18 months ago.

Timely. Can the marketing activity get done in a reasonable amount of time, so that the business can realize results? Will the activity take too much time, so that the business needs to look at other alternatives to achieving objectives?

My one-page Excel marketing plan has a SMART design. It has a place for task details (specifics?), results (measurements?), presents expense totals and timelines on one page (attainable, realistic?),  and includes due dates (timely?). Read about it in my blog entry, How to Create a One-Page Marketing Plan.

Is your marketing SMART?

If you need a SMART marketing plan that will help you grow faster, contact New Incite today. We’ll work with you to create an intelligent plan for your products, services, company, industry and audience. We’ll ask the right questions and bring best practices and new ideas to the table.

One of the most important success factors in marketing is to have a good strategy. Even if you understand what marketing tactics work today, without analysis and strategic planning first, you’re wasting your time.

Marketing campaigns run when you don’t understand your customer, your advantage over the competition, or what’s going on in your industry, are bound to generate less-than-great results or downright failure!

When I work with clients to plan their marketing, my favorite tools help provide three must-have pieces of information: 1. Know thy customer; 2. Know thyself; and 3. Know thy industry. There are a lot of ways to analyze these areas, but some have bubbled up as the more effictive and popular for businesses and organizations that want to grow faster.

Here are three of my favorite tools and models for analyzing a client’s marketing strategy. 

1. The Marketing Persona – Know Thy Customer

Today marketing personas are used to understand customers and communicate that understanding to employees and other stakeholders. A marketing persona is a story written about each customer segment your company serves. The persona in the story is given a person’s name, and the story describes the customer type’s attitudes, likes, dislikes and needs. Creating and sharing marketing personas makes it easier for everyone to understand, empathize with, and make better decisions about the customers you serve.

Why is the marketing persona efffective? As B2B marketers, we worked for a long time with demographics. We looked for people with certain titles, incomes, educations, age in a certain geography. As marketing and sales became more competitve, we got a little smarter. We started looking at psychographics. What motivates our prospect? Where do they go? What do they read? All these were clues on how to reach them.

But now that buyers have control over the purchasing cycle (we used to call it the sales cycle, because we marketers and sellers had control of the information), we need to intimately understand the buyer. We need to walk in their shoes. What is a day in their life like? What things can we talk about that will help them connect and engage with and like us? The marketing persona has been used by ad agencies for years. They knew that for creatives to “speak” to the right audiences, they had to get inside their heads.

And I’m not sure how to explain how the marketing persona works, but when you nail your personas, they can transform the way people in your organization think about your customers. All of a sudden, the customer isn’t someone on the other side of the table. It’s someone who is known to you. You know their story. You understand them and have empathy for them. For more about personas, read my previous post, Why Marketing Personas Rule.

I can’t tell you you many times I’ve presented personas to companies that have been in business 20, 30, even 40 years, and I have witnessed the lightbulb going on. People get excited. They gain clarity about customers. One man in one of my audiences saw himself in a persona presented and exclaimed, “Why, that’s ME!”

2. SWOT Analysis – Know Thyself

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is well known and easy to understand. But, it is extremely difficult to do this accurately. The main difficulty is in being brutally honest about the state of your business or organization and about the strengths of your competitors. It is human nature (and especially with business owners) to see and believe the best about your company.

The SWOT analysis I use incorporates action items with the analysis, making the tool more action-oriented. Having all the information on one page makes this analysis easy to digest and share with others. It also puts the emphasis on action, so that the SWOT analysis doesn’t get done and then no action is taken to improve weaknesses or leverage strengths.

The CEO at one of my client organizations included my SWOT analysis in her presentation to investors because it so well presented exactly where the company was and what it was doing to move forward. See my previous blog entry, 1-Page SWOT Analysis with Action Items, for more information about this tool.

3. Blue Ocean Strategy – Know Thy Industry

Blue Ocean Strategy originated as a book co-written in 2005 by Kim Chan and Renee Maubourne and published by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. It is an approach in which businesses create “blue oceans” of uncontested market opportunity rather than compete in the existing bloody “red ocean” market space. I like this model because it encourages breakthrough strategic thinking. What marketing opportunity hasn’t been tapped yet? What other audiences exist that we can sell to?

A good example is Southwest Airlines recognizing regional, low-cost air travel as its blue ocean – an untapped market with growth potential. All the airlines were competing in the high price, high service quadrant in the chart above – the bloody red ocean of high competition. The blue ocean was where an airline could offer high performance for a much lower price. For more information read my previous blog entry about Blue Ocean Strategy, Why B2B Marketers Need Blue Ocean Strategy.

Don’t jump into marketing programs and activities without thinking strategically first. How well do you know your customer? Your company (and are you honest about it or are you in denial)? Your industry? I hope these three strategic planning tools will help you answer the critical questions before you start marketing. 

If you need help in identifying the right strategy for your business or organization, contact New Incite today. We provide strategic analyisis, strategic marketing plans, and outsource marketing program execution.

I originally wrote about these three strategic planning models in my answer to one of ten top questions business owners have about marketing. It was published in the marketing chapter of The Book on Business from A to Z – “What’s the best strategy for marketing my product or service?” The book is available for purchase on Amazon.

Photo “Three” by Kyle May on Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

Have you been saying, “We don’t need to invest in a marketing plan! We know what to do!” If so, read this blog post in which I explain the reasons a marketing plan can actually save you money.

Here are four things I’ve observed that happen when you don’t have a written marketing plan.

1. Without a plan, you may not execute with industry best practices.

When you sit down to write out your marketing plan, chances are you will put some thought into what you will do. You may hire an expert to consult on the plan or you may research best practices in marketing and look at what your competitors are doing (and how well they do it). Hopefully you will also analyze what you’ve done in the past, get rid of the non-performers, and/or increase the high-performers.

The marketing planning process ensures that WHAT you do is more likely to provide results. Doing the right thing and getting the right results in marketing is a good way to avoid wasting marketing dollars on bad marketing.

2. Without a plan, your marketing may require a lot of re-work.

Approaching your marketing in a one-by-one tactical approach is not cost-effective. First, you don’t take the time to consult with vendors and ask for their recommendations. You may end up asking for something that is not cost effective, not necessary, or not feasible because other critical tasks need to be done with or before it.

An example is a client of mine that wanted a new website. They jumped into the project with a low-cost vendor from overseas without a plan or a specification. They did not have the spec, a design (even a rough design!), a map of the new site architecture, keyword analysis OR a strategy for SEO. They just hired the vendor and started the project.

They ended up paying too much money for each of the website “parts,” because there was no project plan. When the screens were designed, the client said, “That’s not what I had in mind,” leading to several more iterations. When the website pages were created, I pointed out that the structure was not optimal for SEO, leading to a restructuring of the site. When the content was created, it wasn’t optimized for any keywords. A proper marketing plan would call for a website update plan with all the right parts done right: spec, architecture map, design, SEO keyword strategy, and content creation. With a plan, there is less need for costly re-work.

3. When you don’t plan your marketing, you may not get economies of scale.

When you show a vendor that you have planned and budgeted for marketing, they know they need to come to the table with a sharp pencil. Furthermore, when you show them the volume of your marketing tactics that they will provide, they tend to sharpen their pencil even more.

Here’s an example. Another client of mine used to call their videographer whenever they thought of an idea for a cool marketing video. The videographer gave a price for each video, without knowing if he would get any further business. But, one-time pricing is usually much higher than on-going client work.

When my client sat down with the videographer and showed them their new marketing plan that called for monthly video production over a year’s time. With the plan, the vendor’s prices became more cost-effective. The videographer also valued the client more for being able to plan ahead and schedule their work. They put my client with their planned, on-going work at  the top of their priority list and scheduled their jobs ahead of onesy-twosy jobs from other clients. (Need video content ideas? See my blog post, 30 Creative Ideas for Your Video Marketing, here.)

4. Without a plan, your marketing campaigns are more likely to be disjointed and less-effective.

When you approach marketing on an as-you-go basis, you are more likely to work with a multitude of vendors. Without the plan, no one is asking, “How do all these campaigns work together?” Your marketing may have different messages and branding, because it hasn’t been planned.

It’s been proven that integrated, planned marketing produces better results. Planned, integrated marketing causes an effect called “response compression,” and is best done with a written plan (see my previous post, Integrate Marketing for Response Compression, here). Someone sees your ad, then visits your trade show booth, then gets a follow-up mailer, then attends your webinar. All your messaging has the same look and feel and compresses the time for a response from the contact who is getting multiple marketing touchpoints. Integrated, planned marketing increases the results you receive.

Creating a written marketing plan helps you avoids costly waste of your marketing dollars, while at the same time – if done right – will increase your sales and your revenues. So, why not create your marketing plan now?

At New Incite we’ve created hundreds of marketing plans that produce results and save money. Contact us today for consulting on or creation of your plan. You can also download our one-page marketing plan template here.

A client recently asked me which visual social media platform should they choose – Instagram or Pinterest. I didn’t have a quick answer, because, well, it depends. Here’s what you need to know….

First, if there is any doubt in your mind that your marketing must become more visual, dispel that doubt now! Not only do people not have (not make?) time to read, they are bombarded with information (thanks, Internet!) and most are using smaller devices. So, use great images or photos when you share on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, but you should also think about expanding into some new social media platforms. And, yes, this does work for B2B marketing!

Instagram and Pinterest have had very high adoption by individuals when they got started. Both are used by businesses and offer advertising. Pinterest encourages sales and has partnered with Shopify to facilitate business commerce on its platform. Instagram, not so much. Let’s look at some of the differences and opportunities on both platforms.

1. What are Instagram and Pinterest intended to accomplish?

Instagram started as an app similar to Foursquare, where people could check-in, communicate and post photos. With input from investors, the app was pared down to photo sharing and the name changed to Instagram. Instagram had 100,000 downloads the first week, the same the second week, and in less than two months had a million users. It’s only skyrocketed from there, as Instagram now boasts 400 million users (according to their blog post) and was acquired by Facebook for an unprecedented one billion dollars.

Pinterest started with the intent of making it easy to pin photos to a board (think bulletin board). Once it had traction and the interest of investors, the purpose of Pinterest was allowing people to post items that pertain to the important projects in your life. The founder’s thought was that one’s Pinterest board would suggest a person’s interests and personality (see the article here).

For example, individuals remodeling a room in their home or creating a wish list for their vacation wardrobe can easily click and pin without worrying. The adoption rate was so fast on Pinterest, of course it got the attention of businesses who want to create brand awareness and promote their products and services. And, Pinterest users (pinners) are using it for their business projects, pinning information about solutions and products for the project. Some businesses even use Pinterest for collaboration – at New Incite we sometimes use it to analyze brand identity and other marketing things for our clients.

2. Are Instagram and Pinterest intended for marketing and selling?

Instagram was not created for selling. It was created and still exists for people to express themselves through photos. This applies to businesses as well. Just as a person can get across their interests, beliefs, and activities on Instagram, so too can a business. Photos and images of work activity, products being developed or used, fun events and stories about people or about your company – it’s all good on Instagram.

Some people post products on Instagram, but there is no link per post that you can direct to a shopping page. I’ve seen some blog posts about how to post product information on Instagram with a general link to your website will help viewers find you, but I think that’s spam. More savvy social media marketers know that Instagram is a much better platform for storytelling that engages and entertains your audiences, creates brand awareness in prospects and more loyalty for existing customers or clients.

As mentioned before, Pinterest is intended as a way to collect items under an interest category or an actual project that an individual or business is working on. As a result, Pinterest is a great way for a a person or business to showcase their interests, activities and values (for a business that would be their brand and culture). And, its very nature of pinning items with links per pin is naturally suited for sales.

3. The Demographic is Different on Instagram and Pinterest

Instagram is about 50-50 men and women, whereas Pinterest users are mostly women (70%, according to this article by Agora Pulse). Interestingly, Instagram has at least half of its users outside of the United States. According to a Pew Research report, Instagram users have higher education, but the use is highest among people under 30 years of age (55%) and users have more of an even distribution of income. Pinterest users have higher incomes and education, and 70% are under the age of 50, pretty evenly distributed.

4. User Behavior on Pinterest and Instagram is Different

Our observation with our clients’ and with New Incite’s social media is that Pinterest gets traction and creates awareness of your brand faster. This is probably because it’s so easy to pin items – usually a two click process. Following people also includes a couple of clicks and it’s relatively easy to find others that share your interests.

My observation is that Pinterest is highly “spammy” for consumers. There are many brands and online sellers on Pinterest masquerading as individual pinners. The result is that they can flood your Pinterest pin feed with spam images, just as bad marketers flood your email inbox with spam emails.

Instagram is where you can take your marketing to a more sophisticated purpose: engaging and perhaps entertaining your audience. A successful Instagram profile that tells your story and attracts and engages followers is well worth your marketing efforts.

On Instagram, there is an expectation that your photos are artful, your narrative and hashtags creative, and that you are engaging. So, it takes more time to post on Instagram, and it takes time to build a following.  If you’re doing it right, you spend some time editing your photos and creating some interesting text to go with them. Instagram has a cool hashtag feature, where as you start typing the hashtag you’ll use popular tags are displayed for selection so you can be more a part of the conversation.

5. Both Need a Strategy to Get Marketing Results

Because the opportunity is to tell a story through images, it’s very important to have a strategy before you get started. If you don’t strategize first, there’s a chance that your pins and posts will be random, fragmented, and will fail. (This is true of all social media.) Random, haphazard social media activity will not represent your brand let alone engage and entertain your audiences. What will convey both what you do as well as what you stand for? Your philosophy? The intangible benefits of your products and services?

On Pinterest, what boards will you create to which to pin images for your business? It’s not just about pinning your product. It’s about pinning many things that relate to your product, your industry, your company, and your customers. For example, if you sell software that results in productivity improvements and you sell it to businesses run by executives (as I did for many years), you might have boards that showcase client or customers success stories, product features and business operational issues.

Then, add to that boards that emphasize what your customers and prospects are personally and professionally interested in. Executives from your customer businesses and your employees probably work and travel a lot, so how about images, articles and stories about time management, a healthy lifestyle, mindfulness? The point is, find out what’s on your customers’ minds and pin to those topics! For some example of B2b Pinterest success, take a look at this board of major B2B brand pinners created by CaptureHits Marketing. And, look at our very own New Incite board of creative ad campaigns and other marketing and my personal interest topics.

On Instagram, choose images that will tell your story and convey your culture, philosophy, reason for existing. Many marketers say that success on Instagram is about choosing an angle or a theme and sticking with it to grow followers. If it’s interesting enough, people will follow you. For B2B inspiration, check out enterprise software company Contently’s list of 5 top B2b Instagram accounts.

In summary, I think Pinterest is great for generating brand awareness and getting your products and services in front of buyers more quickly. Instagram offers more sophistication as well as more engagement and loyal followers, if you do it right.

Never use either Instagram or Pinterest solely for selling, since that is spam.

My answer to my client? Most of their customers are women. They sell services and products to businesses and individuals. Pinterest is my first choice, and when time permits and we have a strategy, I think the benefits of a thoughtful, strategic Instagram profile will only add success to their marketing mix.

Need advice and implementation support or outsource on Pinterest, Instagram or other social media? Contact me at New Incite today. I look at your total business and marketing strategy before formulating a tactical approach that will work for you.

You only have a moment to get someone’s attention when you send them an email. Here are ten things to avoid when creating your marketing emails.

I delete more emails now than ever. Email is a chore for me, and I know it is for many others. Here are some of the reasons I and others delete email.

1. The email is not responsive on mobile devices

You’ve been creating emails in one of the utility applications like Constant Contact for years. You have the template, it’s working, so why change it?

Because! Your email requires me to stop what I am doing, get out a magnifying glass to attempt to read the minute text. No, wait! I also have to swipe from side to side to view each sentence’s words.

Even if your email has content that is not super interesting or relevant to me, I want to scan the headlines and see what you sent. An email that requires me to swipe and zoom is too hard to scan. So, I just delete it.

Please, please, please, make your email responsive. This means it re-sizes depending on what device I’m on. On my phone the font is large enough to see and I can easily click on links and buttons without clicking on something I don’t want by mistake!

2. There is no subject line in your email

I’ve sent these emails out on occasion, and I bet you have, too. You’re in a hurry, or you just plain forget to type in the subject. But, in your email marketing, this is a big error! Failing to put in a subject is a red flag for the spam filters, so it may fall into the spam folder, never to be seen by the intended recipient. If it does make it though, it’s pretty much useless to the recipients and many will just delete it before scanning.

3. Your subject line is irrelevant to me

You managed to type a subject line in your email, but it sucks. It’s irrelevant, boring, and, guess what? I’ve deleted your email and I’m on to the next email. Sometimes people do this by having a static eLetter name that never changes. There are a lot of helpful headline tips that you can find on people’s blogs.

One that I think is clever is to include your email name and some highlights from the email. An example might be “Marketing Matters: The Perfect Blog Post | Systematize Your Email Marketing,” which sneaks in two blog post topics.

Another way to spice up your email subject line is to use certain words that get people’s attention. “New,” “Free,” “You,” “Because,” “Instantly.” The cool thing now is that it’s not some ad guys telling you what they think works. Now we have companies that measure social media results and can prove what words work! As an example, check out this list of 189 words that convert by Buffer.

4. There is no business or person’s name in the email From field

Sometimes I get emails in which the subject line is OK or even compelling, but there is nothing in the From field of the email. Or, even if there is a business name in the From field, I can’t tell who sent it to me. In one case, a business owner was launching his new brand and website and sent out emails to announce the change. I was intrigued since this is my line of work! But, I could not figure out who the person was! And, there was no way to contact the sender or look at the website. Months later I saw the same brand and was able to connect it to the business owner, whom I had met.

I network a lot, and sometimes seeing a photo of the person helps me recognize them. If you are a sole proprietor, it’s a good idea to have a little photo to remind people who you are.

5. Your first sentence in the email is boring and/or irrelevant to me

Ok, now I’ve figured out who sent the email, what it’s about. Time to look for content. If the content doesn’t match the subject line, you lost me. If it’s not interesting, I’m not going to read.

What is interesting? A real-life story, not a boring sales pitch. A statement that tells me why others attended an event or bought a service. Or, a statement that tells me for what pain you have a solution (we marketers love pain). People who have problems and issues need solutions.

6. Your email has broken links, missing images, typos or other errors

Problems happen with emails, sometimes due to technology. But, all the email programs such as Constant Contact and MailChimp allow you to send test emails. When you test an email, click on every image and link to make sure they connect to the right landing page or form. Use the email program’s spell check and manually proof your email to make sure there are no errors.

If there is an error in the email you send, correct it and send a new email with a brief explanation. It’s happened to all of us, and everyone appreciates honesty and transparency.

7. You do not include a call-to-action, so I delete the email

Have you ever read a cool email, and wanted to say or do something about it, but there was nothing there? No link to a website, nothing to download, no video to click to and watch. No way to share on social media? Maybe not even a phone number?

Make sure your email has at least one call-to-action so recipients can take action. Provide some options – not everyone wants to pick up the phone, so ask them to email or use a form to provide the best time for you to call them!

8. You include a call-to-action but don’t repeat it at the end of the email

I like to see the call-to-action at least two times. Don’t make me read to the bitter end of your email to figure out how to take action. Invite me midway and repeat at the end.

9. Your email is too long, and I don’t have time to read it

It seems that in B2C marketing studies showed that a “ginormously” long email with tons of testimonials, statistics, benefits and other selling points was effective. I’m not sure I agree.

Make your offer in the email, and then give me some things to look into if I’m interested. None of us have much time to read anymore. If I’m interested in your offer, send me to a web page that I can scroll through with all the above.

10. I see no address or I.D. for your business or you as a person

This is actually illegal under the CAN SPAM Act for promotional emails. All promo emails must show the physical address for the business and have a clear way the recipient can opt-out. Interestingly, lack of business contact information on websites is the number one complaint visitors have. This is a pet peeve of mine. Who are these people? I want to know who is behind the email and whether or not they are legit.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. Email marketing is still a key tactic for B2B marketers. It is a way to personalize your message with an individual once they are attracted by your website, social media or other marketing activities.

Do you need help with creating more effective and compelling emails? Contact me at New Incite today. I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses, providing marketing training, consulting and execution, to help them get better results from their marketing.

Still on the fence about social media marketing? Here are actual results one of our clients got when we added social media to their marketing mix.

In June of last year, I worked with one of my clients to improve their marketing. At the top of our list was a project to improve their online presence and create more awareness about their business (the client’s identity is confidential). We decided to begin by optimizing their website and implementing a blog and social media marketing. The client had a decent Facebook page with over 1,000 likes, and they send a weekly email with updates and announcements to customers and prospects.

The first step was to clean up and optimize the website.

The client had contracted to have their website updated in WordPress, which provided an opportunity to easily add missing content, clean up existing content, and optimize all of the pages. We added features that displayed new updates and posts on all pages so that visitors could more easily find what they were looking for and be informed about what they didn’t know.

The client did not require that their site update include a responsive design. This means that pages and fonts would resize and information would be presented in formats that visitors could easily view and interact with no matter what device (cellphone, tablet or desktop computer) a visitor was using. A responsive design means to more swiping on your small device to expand font that is too small for the screen. It means being able to click on buttons and execute a transaction, without mis-keying because the screen is too small.

This wasn’t the client’s fault. The announcement from Google that sites need to be responsive was done in February of 2015. Web developers and SEO providers took note of this, because it is rare for Google to announce algorithm changes in advance. The change was enacted in April of 2015, and many businesses that still had non-responsive sites were negatively affected in the search engine results.

The good news is that the WordPress template used for the update was responsive; it was just that some customizations disabled the responsive design. Technically the site was seen as responsive by Google (and thus our client’s site included the words “mobile friendly” when the site was listed in search engine results. But, the screens were chopped off when viewed on tablets and phones.

Implementing a multiple-author blog is like herding cats.

The blog implementation was an interesting challenge, as it involved coordinating several people who were asked (not told) to contribute. Some people had written blog posts and were familiar with social media. Some were interested and set an intention to blog, but were in reality infrequent contributors. Others chose not to contribute, perhaps because the thought of blogging was overwhelming.

We provided training on how to re-purpose existing content and knowledge into engaging blog posts. WordPress has some wonderful features that help you manage multiple authors, allow them to add draft posts with their own login. Then a manager can edit, optimize and publish all posts, which appear with the author’s bio and photo.

Blogging started in June of 2014, and we installed Google Analytics in August (oops, the client didn’t know about this either, and the web developer didn’t make it happen with the site update). We began to look at the results in Google Analytics and were able to show the client that certain blogs and keywords were indeed generating traffic. Traffic on the website started creeeping up slowly.

Then we did the social media implementation in phases.

Our client had a decent Facebook page, but there were two or three duplicate pages for the organization. This is quite common, as different people and departments have a great intention of creating awareness on Facebook, but don’t communicate what they are doing. Unlike LinkedIn, which requires that you have an email address with the business URL (and have it registered on LinkedIn for some time and have established connections in your profile – see more here), anyone can set up a Facebook page for a brand or organization. Facebook’s philosophy is if you are a fan you can set up a page.

But, fortunately, Facebook has a merge feature. If the pages have similar names, you can merge them together. It takes some care to make sure you keep the page that is official or that has more likes and merge the others into it. Also, you may have to do a name change on one of the pages to get it similar enough to your official page before merging. And, tracking down the owners of the pages can be a challenge! It took us over a year to hear from one of our clients duplicate page owners, despite repeated messages through Facebook (some people rarely check those messages).

The client’s Google+ page existed, but it wasn’t branded, and no one was posting information there. We made the changes and made sure all blog posts and announcements were posted on Google+. Some people started following the page and some even posted reviews.

Then it was time for Twitter. We created a branded profile and followed many people in the client’s industry. No Twitter lists existed for our partners and associates, so we created some that others could easily follow. We posted daily tweets that contained links to our blog posts and to relevant content online.

The results came in! Social media dramatically increased traffic to the website.

Google Analytics data showed us that in the month after we began posting on Google+, visits (sessions) to the website increased 70% and the number of unique visitors almost doubled. The number of pages per session increased 90%.

The following month as we continued to blog and post on Google+, visits increased by 25%, the number of unique visitors increased by 80% and the number of pages remained the same.

Now comes the month in which we Tweeted every day. The number of sessions and unique visitors more than doubled, and the number of pages viewed increased 150%. Traffic soared from just under 1,000 visits per month to more than 2,200.

What’s the catch?

Well, increased website traffic doesn’t always mean business results. With more traffic from Google+ and Twitter, we noticed that our client’s bounce rate went up, too. That means we needed to create more content on the site to engage people who do land there, as well as hone in on our messages going out on social media. Were we attracting the right audience? You need a great site with great content to convert the qualified visitors you do get.

So, our work is not quite done, but it sure is nice to be able to show results, and quickly! All marketing and, certainly,  social media marketing, has to be analyzed and tweaked for continuous improvement. What about you? Are you experiencing results with your social media marketing implementation?

If you need help with your traditional or online marketing, contact New Incite today. We’ve helped hundreds of companies get results from their marketing through strategic planning, systematic implementation and results tracking.

This is the time when many organizations and businesses are thinking about planning and budgeting for the next year. A one-page plan for managing and executing planned marketing is something I’ve used successfully for my business and for my clients.

In a fast-changing business and marketing worlds, it’s important to be flexible and agile when it comes to your strategic marketing plan. A one-page plan is a great visual marketing road map that is easy to change and helps keep your team’s eyes on the ball.

Marketing is changing fast, and you have to change with the times.

New social media platforms keep emerging (by the way, have you added Google+, Pinterest and Instagram to your B2B marketing plan? They work!). Google changed its algorithms to favor quality content in the form of long blog posts. Using quality visuals with your social media messages increases engagement. Undoubtedly, more change is coming.

A one page plan allows you to view all your tactics in one place and see how they are interrelated. It includes the financial results, as well, including cost per lead and return on investment. If one marketing activity doesn’t yield results, reduce or eliminate it and do more of what is working! You can easily make additions or changes visible to your team.

Social media marketing means there are lots of balls in the air.

With multiple social media platforms on which you can market, and each one requiring different formats and messaging, there is even more for marketers to do today. Content marketing often requires a high volume of publishing to be effective.

A one page plan brings all the channels together, allowing you to coordinate and manage everything that needs to get done from one place.

Visual marketing project management is highly effective.

A one-page plan allows you to easily track who is responsible for what tasks to stay on top of project milestones and deadlines. Studies show that people work very well with visual management tools such as the one page marketing plan. They don’t have to read text and try to interpret what they need to do. They can just check the plan regularly to get their marching orders.

There are other visuals you can use with your marketing, too. Some people are creating mind maps (it’s not my thing, but do a Google search for “mindmap for marketing” and you’ll see some cool examples). I use a diagram (originally developed by Hubspot) such as the one above to show clients how their use of social media and traditional marketing integrate to drive traffic to their website, the center or “hub” of their marketing system.

Are you beginning your new planning cycle for successful marketing? Asking what worked and what didn’t work this year? Learning about new tactics that others use with proven results? It’s time, and the one-page marketing plan can help you accomplish your goals.

Download a sample One-Page Marketing Plan Excel spreadsheet here.

If you need help planning your marketing, contact New Incite today. Since 1997, we’ve helped hundreds of companies execute the right marketing activities to get the results they need.

Flickr photos by Automotive Social Media and Markus Lütkemeyer. Some Rights Reserved.