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Email Marketing - How Much is Too Much? How Much is Not Enough?

Posted by: admin in strategy, research, email marketing on Jul 19, 2011

inboxfull2Marketing can be tricky, and email marketing can be even trickier. Obviously businesses that communicate with their customers do better than businesses that don’t, but reminders can quickly turn to pestering. What’s the line for email? What’s the line if you send email and phone your customers? In their paper Enough is Enough! The Fine Line is Executing Multichannel Relational Communication, Dr. Andrea Godfrey, Dr. Kathleen Seiders and Dr. Glenn B. Voss decided to get to the bottom of this particular marketing puzzle.

The basic premise was this: compelling, personal communications encourage customer loyalty and build long-term relationships. But at what point do communications drive customers away? Reactance theory suggests that increasing relational communication (a fancy name for targeted materials like emails, phone calls and direct mail) can have “a negative influence on repurchase because customers perceive the communication as invasive or obtrusive.”

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4 Ways to Recover from a Social Media Screw Up

Posted by: admin in strategy, social media, conversation marketing on Mar 16, 2011

1whoopsIt’s all over the news and hard to miss – comedian Gilbert Gottfried has been fired from his advertising gig for tweeting insensitive jokes about the tragedy in Japan.  While this garnered quite a bit of media attention, it certainly wasn’t the first poorly thought out tweet that made the news – less than two months ago, the entire internet went up in arms when fashion designer Kenneth Cole made a glib comment about the revolution in Egypt was about access to his spring line.

A poorly thought out tweet can cause big time pain and negative publicity, but it’s not just big companies and famous people that are starting to feel the sting when they screw up in the increasingly important sphere of social media. From individuals fired for complaining about work on Twitter or Facebook, to small businesses that felt the wrath of the internet for incredibly stupid publicity campaigns, there is a whole new minefield of social media etiquette to learn.

Here are 4 simple tips to keep in mind should you be on the wrong side of a social media screw up!

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Have You Found Your Personal Best for 2011?

Posted by: tim in strategy, reflection, challenge, 2011 Business Boot Camp on Feb 24, 2011

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The "boot camp" of starting a new year for your business, was, of course, a metaphor. We spend much of our lives working "at" our business and jobs, instead of being engaged "with" the meaning and purpose of the activity we undertake.  This is true, especially so, when the nourishment of business, cash flows, new sales, ongoing productivity and loyal customers seem to be waning.

So with our boot camp, the emphasis wasn’t so much on what you were going to physically accomplish, but the new awareness you would gain. What we really wanted you to do was sit back and think about your business – realizing with the right amount of determination and a good plan, you could transform it.

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4 Business Resolutions for a Successful 2011

Posted by: admin in strategy, reflection, business on Dec 21, 2010

noisemakerThe New Year is the perfect time for reflection. Possibilities are laid out before you – only limited by your imagination and the effort you want to put into achieving your goals. Here is a list of some of the most popular business resolutions to inspire you. No matter what your industry, no matter what the state of your business, or how successful you are, these goals are something everyone can agree on.

  1. Do more, for less: Even if your business runs perfectly fine, it’s probably not running at maximum efficiency. With the New Year fresh, it’s a great time to challenge your staff and yourself to evaluate how your business runs and see if any improvements can be made to save you time, inventory or money.
  2. Work Less, play more: Everyone wants more time to do the things they love. Consider training someone to help you with your work, streamlining or even automating some of your business. Time is the one thing you cannot buy more of – use your time wisely to do the things that are important to you.
  3. Expand your horizons: Opportunity knocks every day – even in a tough economy. There are people who want what you’re selling, but you may need to look further or advertise a little smarter to find more customers like your best ones.
  4. Connect better to your customers: The key to real business success is understanding your customers: what they want, and how you can provide it to them. Consider working with your customers and clients in 2011 to see how you can not only retain their business, but turn them into brand evangelists for you. A loyal, dedicated customer will always be worth more to your bottom line than even the best advertising.

Need a little help making your New Year’s resolutions a reality? Want to learn how you can connect better to your customers, expand your market, work less and yet still do more and make more money? The Connected Market Coach could be the tool you need to make 2011 your most successful year yet.

That’s it for 2010. The CMAEON blog will be back in 2011, with more tips, advice and connections for you to explore. Have a great year.

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How Every Marathon Runner Wins the Race

Posted by: tim in strategy, sports, reflection, new york on Nov 25, 2010

I was recently in New York during the famous NYC Marathon. The city was packed with runners from all over the world.  What struck me was that many of them didn't look like they could walk to the end of the block, much less run a marathon!  Yet, there they were, ready for a grueling 26 mile race.

In the elevator of my hotel, I overheard two runners talking after the race.  There was a sense of relief and euphoria in the lobby of our hotel; so much so that I was energized as a mere casual observer of all of these people.  The conversation was about the second place women’s finisher, a woman who came in just 40 seconds behind the winner.  Consider how tiny a 40 second lead is after a 26 mile race.  Wherever they finished personally, these two runners were ecstatic. They were just happy to have finished the race. One runner who was a bit rotund, and didn't look at all like a marathon runner said to the other sleek gentleman, "I kept thinking after the 10 mile mark about my friend who told me 'pain is temporary, losing is forever".

This situation is such a far cry from 30 years ago when Katherine Switzer snuck into the Boston Marathon in 1967 registered as K. Switzer.  During the race, an official tried to pull her from the pack as women weren't allowed to run marathons, they were thought too fragile!  Whoever made that rule had clearly never met my wife (or my four daughters, two sisters, Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton or [fill in the blank yourself]).  Times were different then, but what hasn’t changed is people - women (and sometimes men) are determined. If someone wants something badly enough they can do it – they can push through 26 miles, or gain a mere 40 seconds to win a race.

Business today is a lot like running. Entrepreneurs are pushing harder than ever to succeed, and there are more people than ever going it alone.  It doesn’t take an MBA or a fat bank account to start a business -most are started with nothing but pure determination.

However, unlike running, where the situation is the same for everyone, much of today's technology was designed for existing operating companies, not ones just starting out.  I received an email the other day from a friend that said, "well I tried Salesforce CRM, it was disappointing and hard to use, not even as good as Goldmine.  I'm going to try Sugar CRM." This friend is just like the thousands of would be runners who never made it to the NYC marathon.   They run and run, imagining that they could run a marathon, but never commit fully to the effort it takes to be a real participant.   When running a race or a business, choosing a goal and seeing it clearly, finishing something and sticking with it - that is what makes up a real participant, an entrepreneur and a winner.

The one thing about every runner in the NYC Marathon whether they were 40 seconds away from first place, stuck in the middle of the pack, or just happy they finished, is that they all had a gold medal performance that day. Everyone had done their personal best and shown up.   Everyone had achieved something that differentiated them from the rest of the world of runners - a dream to run in one of the biggest, toughest competitions in the world.

When I think about entrepreneurs, business owners, small and medium sized businesses and talk to our customers and users, I see the same type of determination those runners have.  They don't just run down the same old roads, they connect to a cause that they have chosen - and run toward that with a passion.  Every one of the companies in the Connected Market Space is unique and a driving force.  They are overcoming the limitations of disconnected ideas and technology, and connecting with their market.  Some will be at the front of the pack, some will be the pack, some will be happy to have completed the race.  All are unique because they do their personal best and their customers love them and connect to them for that reason.  No matter what size their business is - they are connected.

My friend is one of the millions looking for a CRM solution that will never work for his business.  He will struggle, not understanding that he doesn't need a sales force – he just needs to get connected to his core business - his core mission and dream.  Those two runners made it across the finish line because they understood something that many people never get - it's about the steps, the pace and the commitment to train.  Success isn’t about the fancy running clothes, watching videos or going to clinics about running technique… Each and every one of those participants did one thing the same: they ran, they put in the endless effort and they had a goal.  That makes them different and unique from most of the rest of the world, and runners in the world.

In business, what you do differently and what you’re willing to commit to drives your success.  It's not about dressing up in new features (like new running garb) as the software firms would have you buy.  It's about getting into the market, with social networks, with connections; it's about getting on the road and running.

Think of the Connected Market Space in your home town, your market of customers.  It’s like the road you run down to train for whatever you goal is, be it just good health or a marathon in the future.  We built 1to1Real so you can run down that road with confidence and with us behind you as support.  1to1Real works like your personal trainer; we help you so you can become the best in your Connected Market.  If you have a goal in mind, and you’re running toward it, on the right path, with the right commitment you will succeed.

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The Biggest Marketing Myth in the World Debunked

Posted by: cmaeon in strategy, social media, myths, brand, advertising on Nov 9, 2010

badvertisingThink about your family and your friends. Do you know people who fast forward through the commercials if they can? Do you know people who hang up on telemarketers?  Do your friends use pop-up blockers and spam filters? Does everyone you know do these things? Do you?
Based on this evidence, it seems to be clear. People hate advertising. Look at how much we go through to avoid listening to sales pitches!
But it’s not so simple, is it? I don’t think people hate advertising like they say they do. For example, everyone loves Superbowl ads. The whole internet went crazy for the Old Spice viral marketing campaign during the summer. Starbucks has 1,119,261 followers on Twitter (at time of writing), and Coca Cola has over 16,629,200 people on facebook that Like them.  These people aren’t following on twitter, interacting on Facebook and passing around links because they hate ads. These people are clearly getting something out of the advertising – be it entertainment, information, interaction with the brand or a chance to talk with like minded people.
“People Hate Ads” is probably the biggest marketing myth in the world. People don’t hate ads. They hate ads that are forced on them, ads that don’t respect their intelligence, ads that don’t give them anything back to the consumer for listening to the sales pitch. People hate CRAPPY, STUPID ads. Not all ads – just the bad ones.
What the Twitter and Facebook numbers tell us is that consumers will actually seek out ads – as long as they’re relevant to their interests. People actually want to see ads from Starbucks and Coca-Cola, otherwise they wouldn’t choose to include them in their social media circles. Therefore, if an ad has: relevant content, great writing, and meaning for the person watching it, it’s a good ad. Chances are consumers will find it informative, entertaining and enjoyable. Maybe even all of the above, as in the case of the Bud Light Real Men of Genius commercials. Seriously, listen to them, they’re great.
So – what can we learn from these examples of great advertising?
    1. Advertising is important – every product needs advertising, even if it practically “sells itself” – for example, beer (as above) and iPods.
    2. Advertising isn’t just about one sale – it’s about building a relationship over time between the brand and the consumer.
    3. Consumers aren’t stupid. Far from it. Consumers are you and me. I’m not stupid, and you aren’t either. (You’re reading this blog post aren’t you?)
    4. Bad advertising is ignored or tuned out; good advertising gets the message through.
    5. Good advertising is something consumers choose to listen to. Good advertising is funny, relevant and useful.
    6. Consumers want to engage with brands, not just receive the message passively.
Therefore, in order to sell your product or any product the best advertising is
    1. Relevant
    2. Targeted
    3. Intelligent
    4. Conversational
How can you create ads for your products and services that meet all 4 criteria?
First of all, tailor your message – what do your customers want to know? What are they interested in? Some of your customers might want to know about your sale items, others might want to know about corporate discounts – give them the information they actually need to capture their attention.
Secondly, get smart with your advertising. Be clever, be funny and be in character for your brand, or business.
And finally, don’t just shout your message at your customers, give them a chance to give feedback, seek their input, and engage them in the process. Aladdin Chocolates in Sweden did an incredible job of this.  When advertising drives a conversation and gives people an ownership stake, they’re more engaged and the message takes.
So, hopefully this post helps you with your marketing ideas. If you’re in the market to market your product, we here at CMAEON makes 1to1Real™ - a tool that can help you make your ads more relevant, targeted, intelligent and conversational. Got feedback? We’d love to hear it.

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Not All Leads are Created Equal

Posted by: cmaeon in strategy, ROI, conversation marketing on Oct 26, 2010

not equalAccording to most sales experts, no matter how many leads you receive only 2% of them are ready to buy right away.  At least 25% of your leads will turn out to be no good, and the other 73% will need a whole lot of nurturing, coaching and maybe even cajoling to get them to a point where you’ll know if they’ll convert to sales.

Nobody ever said the business of selling was easy – so how can you make your lead management more efficient and cut down the amount of time your sales staff (or you) are wasting on go-nowhere leads? Here are the top 4 tips to improve your lead management and fine tune your sales processes!

1. Start with better leads
That’s not just a glib piece of advice! Which is more efficient -trawling the entire ocean floor and spending hours picking garbage out of your nets, or only hooking the specific the type of fish you want by using the bait they like best? By pursuing quality leads and making sure they’re qualified buyers ahead of time, the quantity of leads you bring in might be lower, but you’ll spend far less effort trying to convert them. That’s the iQ3 Rule.

2. Talk it Out & Lead the Discussion
People usually don’t know what they want right away. Don’t just present them with your sales options; take the time to ask a lead what they think they need from you, and what they want as the ultimate goal. Don’t turn yourself into a free consulting service - become a trusted advisor and a thought leader in your area of expertise. If they’re still researching their options, give them the advice they need and see if they come back. Chances are, if you look like the experts in your field, they will.

3. Pay attention to what they’re doing.
With the tools available to you today, there’s no reason to be in the dark about what your clients are thinking. It’s easy to know if they’re downloading your white papers, clicking your links and reading what you send them.  If they’re opening, reading and responding – pay more attention to them, but if they’re not looking at your product pages, or they haven’t done anything since watching the webinar, downgrade the lead and cut your losses. By knowing what your leads are doing, you can use your time far more efficiently.

4. Know your leads and your customers
It’s not rocket science to know you want more leads like the customers you already have – so set up landing pages to help you capture the information you need to know ahead of time. For example – your company sells safety equipment to a huge variety of people all over the world. If you know what industry the lead is in you’ll be able to recommend products other customers in their industry have asked for and know what they’re not interested in.  Knowing more about your leads means you can analyze what works and what doesn’t based on the demographic or industry information you keep.

There you go – 4 simple ways to save yourself time and earn more money.  The best thing about this advice is it’s all free. It doesn’t cost you anything to manage your leads better, and you don’t need CRM software to do it. The tools that can help you are all available for free online.

Photo: Not all leads are winners - separate the wilted flowers from the fresh ones. Photo by David Goehring, Flickr.

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The Top 10 Things That Drive Business Owners Crazy about Technology

Posted by: tim in technology, strategy, challenge, business on Oct 6, 2010

wasting moneyLast week I was at a meeting with a group of entrepreneurs from all over the world.  These folks are some of the best of the best in the world at their businesses – across industries and continents.  When my turn came to talk about The Connected Market Space and our recent launch of 1to1Real as a “solution for the SMB [Small to Medium Sized Business] Technology Tangle” they all listened with increasing enthusiasm and interest.

After a few minutes, one of the leaders said, “why don’t you just talk about the top 10 things that business owners hate about technology?  If you can solve that, you’re done!”

Great idea!  So I rapidly scribbled down what I’ve spent the last decade trying to solve by building 1to1Real and the Connected Market Space. Once I decided to write them down, I thought it would be a great idea to write about each one in my blog. So, here you go – a series I’m going to write about each of what I find to be some of the most frustrating problems with technology.

Starting with #10:
“Technology is costing me a ton of money!  If I get quotes, they are high.  If I employ someone, I have to pay them a ton and don’t have a clue what they are doing!  How will technology ever make me money?”

The reality is that the technology industry was built on costing a lot of money.  Hordes of software engineers, consultants and development companies have spent decades perfecting the model of getting paid for writing code.  They charge a lot for their work and for good reason - it’s hard to do and time consuming.

As a business owner, and a tech CEO, I have troubled over this.  The reality is technology is highly valuable ONLY when it is properly developed and deployed.   So, I asked myself “how can we solve the technology risk problem, the time problem and the related cost problem for small to medium sized businesses?”   After all, these aren’t governments or major corporations.  These are businesses that provide a product or service to a market, they do it well and by their own successes they grow – which causes inefficiencies.  Businesses like this don’t have unlimited time to focus on technology, or unlimited resources they can acquire by raising taxes or the price of a widely distributed product a few dollars.

So, let’s turn the question into an answer:How can I use technology to make money - without hiring a bunch of technology people where I don’t know what they do, or asking for a bunch of quotes that I don’t know that are fair – without spending a ton of money?

When approached like this, the answer becomes obvious.  Focus on your core business and find a way to get that to extend in 30 days or less. Clue number one: if it takes more than 30 days to get your core business out the door, you’re headed for a trap!

If you’re in a business that is not technology based, don’t get into the technology business by hiring or funding a huge undertaking! Doing that is costly, time consuming and worst of all, it takes your attention away from your core business. People in the technology business are technology experts.  We don’t know your business, but we do know ours.  So let us take the risk that applies to our business – technology, and provide the value to you. After all, if I’m going to buy a car, I’m not going to start my own production line.  I’m going to find the vehicle brand I trust and I’m going to buy, and I’m going use it to drive from point A to point B.

Too many business owners try to become technology companies in house, and end up with a disappointing result.  The people who succeed in business seek out professionals to do what they can’t, so they can focus on what they can do – provide their product or service to their market. After a decade in the business I can say with certainty, the businesses who elect to find the right solution and the right professionals, who have worked with us and ask us to help do what they can’t, win every time.

The businesses who try cobble together a bunch of technology pieces like CRM and email marketing are spending money trying to create a solution outside their area of expertise. Or, worse, they’ve created a home grown monster – complete with a home built team that must be employed  24/7 just to keep going.  Money that could be driving a market and profits for the business owner is instead being wasted on something that doesn’t actually improve the core business.

Tim’s Tip #10: The moral of the story is solve technology frustration #10 by putting your money where your business model is – STOP accepting the technology risk at home.

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Should You Automate Your Marketing?

Posted by: cmaeon in strategy, CRM, business on Jul 14, 2010

leap of faithAre you inclined to take blind leaps of faith when making important business decisions? You would think most companies wouldn’t do that in a million years, but the answers are surprising.

When choosing CRM solutions, many companies do make leaps of faith.  Every day a business decides on a CRM system without identifying their key products and services, analyzing their market, or thinking about how to best reach their customers.

Businesses like this think automating their sales force will automatically create qualified sales leads.  Making blind leaps like this aren’t the mark of a successful business, but most businesses aren’t successful when they implement CRM.

Over 55% of CRM installs fail to achieve results or even go live (HBR 2001), because most businesses get caught in the technology tangle; implementing solutions that don’t solve problems but instead create new ones. If the new technology doesn’t talk to the all the old technology, and doesn’t connect to what it should be connecting to, this “automated marketing solution” is probably failing to deliver growth.

That’s why CMAEON has created the BIPED® process –good business solutions are not just about lead generation. BIPED® is about analyzing connections, gathering the content that makes a business unique, creating a single place to keep that information, connecting existing business processes and bringing everything together to create a tool that and speaks to customers in the way the customers want to hear.

The result is beyond CRM – BIPED® is a system that automates lead management and automatically creates qualified sales leads because it adapts itself to your system and how you work, not the other way around.

So take charge of your business and stop making leaps of faith. Run your business the way that’s best for you, not according to a CRM system.

Photo: Kodomut, Flickr

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CRM3: what makes a CRM solution Work!

Posted by: tim in technology, strategy, CRM, connected market space on Jun 16, 2010

In past couple of weeks, this blog has talked a lot about how CRM can go bad. If your business has a CRM system that focuses only on features, and not actually connecting you to your customers, you have bad CRM.  It’s likely wasting your time and money and failing to achieve its objectives.
So what is good CRM? We invented CRM3: a system that connects, completes and continues the relationships; handles requests, revisits and relates with customers; and manages, markets and messages for you. Why? CRM3 is a powerful tool for businesses to help them find their missing connections.
So ask yourself:

Do we have the three C’s covered?
  • Are you connecting to your market on their terms, not yours?
  • Are you completing a dialogue - real time and delivering information - on their terms, not yours?
  • Are you continuing the relationship - real time, giving them service and products and answers - on their terms, not yours?

All three R's covered?
  • Are you answering requests real time, whether you are talking or not - on their terms not yours?
  • Are you revisiting clients after you've provided the requested information?
  • Are you relating to their concerns, opportunities and needs - theirs, not yours?

And all three M's covered?
  • Are you managing this process?
  • Are you marketing that you have a process and using it?
  • And are you measuring your effectiveness across all of your communications (advertising, adWords, web sites, real lead capture, customer and lead interactions, social networks and the good ol' sales force tools - telephones and email)?

If you can’t answer yes to all these questions, then you are not really in the game at all.  In order to join the Connected Market Space as it is today, you’ll need the right tools to manage your leads and turn them into loyal customers. That’s what we do at the Connected Market Space. Still want to know how? Ask us.

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