Canadian Marketing Blog

Why can’t we be friends?

I’ve sat on both sides of the fence and really don’t get it. Why is their friction (and not just friction, unproductive friction i.e. finger pointing) between marketing and sales in a relatively high percentage of organizations? It comes down to a difference of opinion.

Marketing’s perspective: Why can’t sales close the leads we give them?

Sale’s perspective: Why can’t marketing give us some decent leads we can close?

In good times this attitude will slow you down, in tough economic times it will kill you. Let’s face it, there’s enough external competition without having internal competition - that’s a recipe for disaster that will get you nowhere fast.

So what’s a sales and marketing leader to do? First of all call a truce. Admit that in the past you haven’t always seen eye-to-eye and going forward that needs to change. If you need to purge to get past it, do it in your own time and space. Write down every frustrating experience you’ve had with your former “enemy” and make a vow to forgive and forget.

Next, schedule a half-day off-site – just the two of you (and perhaps your CEO/President) to get clarity AND alignment on your goals, values and strategy. Consider bringing in a third party to facilitate to provide fresh eyes and a perspective that helps to bridge the gap. Here are some ideas on how to structure the session:

Goals: Identify both short term (1 year) and long term (5 year) goals i.e. revenue targets for your organization. Use SMART goal setting techniques (Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented Realistic and Time Bound) to ensure you’ve covered all of the bases. Here’s why goal setting works – 98% of what we do is ruled by our unconscious brain. When we consciously set a goal our unconscious brain kicks into action doing everything it can to make that goal a reality.

Values: What is it that you stand for, what are your core beliefs (for a list of values right click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/values.xls and choose save as).This serves as your foundation, your pillar or rock that remains strong in a sea of change, in even the stormiest waters. Great things can be achieved when people are coming from the same place. Where are the two of you coming from? What are the commonalities? What is it you value and how do you live it day in and day out? Having this kind of insight into yourself and others helps to bridge communication gaps that inhibit results.

Strategy: What is your go to market strategy? Where is your path of least resistance? How can you focus your efforts to maximize your return? A good way to narrow your focus is with The Big Easy. Take a piece of paper, draw a quadrant table. Put Big on the top of the first quadrant, Small on the top the second quadrant. Along the side put easy on the first quadrant and difficult on the second quadrant (for the Big Easy Table click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/bigeasy.xls and choose save as).Having accomplished this, list everything you can do that is easy and provides a big return. Do not even entertain doing anything in any other quadrant until all of these activities are completed. This makes sure you are quite literally on the same page and focusing on what matters most. Simple and effective.

Now that you’ve kissed and made up (not literally of course) it’s time to present a united front to your teams. Host a joint meeting sharing your new found insights and invite your teams to brainstorm tactics and ideas as to how you’re going to get there.

Here’s the secret to achieving your goals – you need to do it yourself AND you can’t do it alone. Very wise words from speaker and writer John Assaraf. With summer here, it’s an ideal time to retrench so you’re ready to hit the ground running come September and achieve, or hey who knows, surpass your goals.

Will Boomers Lead Economic Recovery?

According to The National Post, when the long slow grind to economic health begins, it will likely be spearheaded by baby boomers and midlifers, who are set to bring their considerable knowledge, skills and energy to a pursuit that could change the small business landscape for years.

Unlike retirees of the past, many of the soon-to-retire boomers plan to take up careers in entrepreneurship. Several studies show more than 70 per cent of Canadian boomers plan to work beyond their corporate careers. About half of these aim to set up small businesses, mainly in the knowledge-based businesses such as consulting, contracting, or another service-related business. They also tend to focus on areas governed by their interests, knowledge and passions rather than forecasted economic boom areas. Experts have long said the most critical success factor for an entrepreneur is a combination of passion and knowledge.

In the U.S. where boomers number about 80 million, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which studies entrepreneurship, just released a study titled Coming Entrepreneurship Boom that indicates boomer entrepreneurs likely will power the economic recovery, running contrary to existing worries about retirement funding and other age-related issues. Surprisingly, there have been few studies in Canada on this, even though, proportionally, this country has one of the largest cohorts of boomers in the world with 10 million people who are within 10 to 15 years of traditional retirement age. Let’s hope that similar to the U.S., the largest age group of our population is also the most entrepreneurial which will bode well for our economic future.

Using Social Media to Promote a Newsletter

My niece, Jessalyn, works for a company who do a newsletter. She asked me how to use social media to promote it. My response.....

What I would do with the newsletter and social media:

1. Make sure it is emailed.

2. Put it up on the web

3. Link to it a few times from the blog with context so hotlink something like "Hugh pontificates on greed and green" with the part in quotes hotlinked.

4. Use hootsuite and ping.fm (that way you hit twitter, linkedin, facebook. I would even set up a blog to ping to (this one is separate and even call it "Green Tweets - Our Twitters about Green Business and Advertising" and any other sites that you have profiles on) to post short (you only have 140 characters and really only 120 characters if you want someone to RT(ReTweet) you messages with the link to the newsletter. I would link to it perhaps 10 times in a one month period.

Possible posts

...We just posted our newsletter jkldffdjkl.com
...Hugh pontificates on Green vs Greed at fdsjklfjk.com
....Is Green really the opposite of Greed? dsfhjk.com
....Does the state of wall street reflect our environment? dfjksdj.com
....etc.

To set up 10-15 Hootsuites should be a 10 minute job. Then it is all on autopilot from there. You can even reuse a few of them 6 months from now.

5. Tweetdeck search greed or another term that is relevant. Then when appropriate RT or @someone "we think greed is impacting the environment dhjkdfh.com" etc. The problem with this step is it can take time and you always need to figure a return on the time you spend.

6. In all interactions try to add value. Be interesting, Be funny, Be informative, Help someone save or make $ etc.

7. Slightly rewrite one of the articles and submit it to the free article sites like articlesbase.com, isnare.com and ezine.com (if you do just these 3, that is all you need to do). Note - do not submit identical content to what your site has or you will be rated as duplicate content by Google.

8. Think SEO (Search Engine Optimization). What strings might people type that you want to get hit on? Incorporate some of these strings in your articles. EG to Hugh's article add "I was thinking: How does green advertising and green promotion fit in?". Then of course tie it in a bit. You might be able to own "green advertising" and "green promotion" and "green social media"

The tools I am talking about here (Ping.fm, Hootsuite etc) are all free and easy to use. Using social media can take time but it can often yield excellent results. The only cost is the time.

Are Canadians Giving Less in 2009?

That’s the question on every fundraiser’s mind right now. So what impact has the global recession had on direct mail fundraising in 2009? Recently, we undertook a study of our Client’s 1st quarter acquisition and retention activity to find out and there were some interesting results.

The first significant finding was that our Clients reduced their efforts to acquire new donors via direct mail during the 1st quarter of 2009. Total outbound solicitations dropped 42%, while responses and donation revenue dropped at an even greater rate of 73% and 60% correspondingly. One bright note however – those prospects who did respond donated more on average. While the reduction in new donor acquisition likely saved fundraisers money in 2009, it could have a significant impact on their ability to fundraise in 2010 and beyond.

Surprisingly, there were 13% fewer solicitations to house files in the 1st quarter of 2009 versus 2008. Those donors that responded contributed more than in previous years. The average gift climbed by almost 3%, resulting in an increase in the gross revenue per mail piece. However, as with prospects, existing donors responded less frequently than in previous years – although the decline in response was no where near as severe as with prospects.

So what can we take away from these results? There seems to be no question that fundraisers were cutting campaigns in early 2009 as a result of the recession. However, given the results from the mailings that did occur, it’s unclear whether that strategy was the right one. In the case of house mailings, response rates stayed relatively consistent with the previous year while average gift increased indicating that those fundraisers who cut back on their house programs left money on the table. In the case of prospect mailings, results were down. However, those fundraisers who did prospect will be in a much better position to take advantage when the recession ends as they’ve added to their house file. So while it appears that Canadians are giving less in 2009, those organizations who continue to fundraise will stand to benefit during a recovery when Canadians begin to open their wallets again.

Authored by Kamy Zarbafi, Vice President Publishing Services/Fundraising Services at
Cornerstone Fundraising

B-to-B Reputation Management Survey Results

Historically when it has come to b-to-b communications functions an inordinate amount of time and money has been spent on promise-based advertising in an attempt to mold what buyers think and how they should act. However, there are signs of positive change as organizations continue to shift away from mass communications vehicles disconnected from the rest of marketing and sales to strategies that are more innovative, integrated and accountable in nature. In this post, I will review recent data gathered from our 2009 Reputation Management Survey. This survey examined a wide range of issues, including strategy, budget, tactics and measurement. I selected three key issues to focus on here.

1. Integration with demand creation. The last time we conducted our Reputation Survey (mid- 2007), we established that while many organizations understood the need to link reputation and demand creation activities, more than half reported they did not currently do so. In this survey, 49% of respondents reported that formal linkage to demand creation activities is the most important aim of reputation. More specifically, when asked about how often they actively seed demand creation, 33% reported that they do so more than half the time, 42% reported that they do so between 25% and 50% of the time, and the remaining 25% do so less than 25% of the time. While this is certainly a noticeable improvement in the numbers of respondents creating this formal linkage at all, the relatively infrequent percentages indicate there is still significant work to do in terms of more closely aligning communications with field, product and channel marketing functions in an overall campaign structure.

2. Annual audit establishment. It’s as difficult to devise a communications strategy when you have no idea where you stand as it is to ask for directions when you’re unable to tell someone where you are. In 2007, only 37% of survey respondents indicated they had conducted a full audit of communications activities completed over the past 12 months. In 2009, 75% of our sample had done so. The most frequently used approach was through the use of primary research (31%), followed by the use of an outside agency (25%). This large shift in understanding the value of and actually conducting a communications audit is a very positive sign about organization attitudes concerning communications activities; however, it also increases accountability and the need to show results and impact.

3. Social media measurement. With social media becoming more present in the b-to-b world, we asked respondents how they were measuring the impact of these initiatives. The newness of these technologies shows in that roughly 47% of respondents using their internal communications function to measure social media; 45% are not measuring at all; and 8% are using outside agencies. While social media is the flavor of the year right now when it comes to marketing technologies, it won’t be too long before senior management begins to seek a return on any investment made.

A strong, sound reputation is not built on flash; leading b-to-b organizations tie how they communicate directly to improvements in demand creation ability, as well as the productivity of individual sales reps. When functions such as analyst relations, public relations and social media are tightly woven into a framework, the frequency of communications efforts that are distant and disconnected from the remainder of the organization drops sharply, and the consistency with which messages are delivered increases. While there is certainly work left to do – particularly in terms of building discipline and rigor around social media – we are encouraged by the results in our survey this go-around.

In Praise of Brevity

I think it all started with email. It became easy, fast and cheap to send a message. So the inevitable happened - information and the number of messages people are sent exploded (note that I did not say the number they received).

As a marketer, your job is to make your message, regardless of the medium, be one of the many that actually gets through.

I have noticed an interesting screening mechanism that people use - the length of the message. If the message is short they read it. If it is long, they do not.

Look at business books. The length has dropped to about 200-250 pages in order to be saleable. People no longer think they get more value if a book is a 1000 page tome.

Instant messaging is a hot phenomenon, especially with younger people who have grown up in the age of uber technology and information overload.

And Twitter's rampant success with a maximum of 140 characters is remarkable. We can all learn from Twitter; it can teach us to keep it short. I advocate that every marketer should sign up for Twitter and try sending 20-30 Tweets. It is good training on how to get a message across in less words.

Cut the message length and increase the impact. Less is more.

Bottom of the Food Chain?

A recent article in the Toronto Star struck a nerve with me. Specifically, I was very disappointed by statements made by New Democrat MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) who actually expressed “loathing of telemarketers”. I was compelled to write Mr. Martin an email, which I thought I would share. Feel free to share your opinions here, or with Mr. Martin directly!

Dear Mr. Martin:

As a professional in the contact center industry, and working for a very reputable private Canadian outsourcer, I must tell you that I was both shocked and unimpressed with your comments in the above mentioned article.

To say that "They (telemarketers) really are the bottom of the food chain in terms of commercial marketing" is both untrue and very disrespectful. As an industry, Contact Centers provide some of the largest opportunities for employment in this country*, and most operate with extremely detailed internal policies and procedures to ensure that all codes of practice and government regulations are followed.

I know that in Ontario specifically, we are working very hard through various different associations and organizations, to bring to light the professionalism and opportunity that this type of work offers. As members of the Canadian Marketing Association my own organization and many others have long followed a Code of Ethics with a stringent telemarketing component and the requirement to use the association’s Do Not Contact program.

The regulatory bodies such as the CRTC are in many ways, supporting this approach through the introduction of the National DNC. To my knowledge, all reputable contact centers in Canada adhere to these and many other rules and regulations, ultimately providing a professional and seamless experience to the end user.

In this day and age, and in light of our current economic situation, I would expect that someone of your standing would understand the importance of supporting those employment verticals that provide good jobs and sound education to thousands of individuals throughout the country.

Sincerely,

Jennifer McLeod
Member of the CMA Contact Centre Council

* CMA’s 2007 study, Marketing’s Contribution to the Canadian Economy, estimated that in 2007, the employment impact of telemarketing in Canada was 159,805 jobs and the correlating sales impact was $27 Billion.

Grabbing the PDA Market

I can’t count the number of times I have opened an email on my blackberry only to find that it’s not easily readable. Sure, I could download the images and wait for them to load, but I don’t know if it’s worth the time. And once I sit back down at my computer, that email is already marked as opened and I never go back to check out what it said. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

This problem is a huge lost opportunity for e-marketers to grab consumer attention. You only get one chance with each email to make an impression, and if that email message is not easily readable your recipient will quickly tune out. People are busy and sometimes do not have the time to investigate the messages in their inbox. Combine that with the limitations of some data plans and your window of opportunity shrinks even more.

As PDA devices are extremely prevalent, you have more people receiving and opening emails away from their computers and away from the big screen graphic capabilities that come with it. The popularity of PDAs stems from their ability for turning your downtime, like waiting in line, into something productive, like checking your emails. This audience is often a captive audience because they always have access to their email and check it frequently. I don’t mind opening product or company emails if I’m bored waiting for something and I will sometimes read emails just to kill time.

When opening an email, if there is a PDA version that uploads immediately, I will usually read the whole email. Or if there is a PDA version link directly at the top, I am very likely to click and read. Including a PDA version is incredibly effective and there is no excuse for companies to not create a PDA version. They are simple to generate and the technology is available to detect if an email is being opened by a PDA device, sometimes down to the very version of the phone.

A PDA version makes an email accessible, convenient and quick to download for the growing population of smart phone users. Catering to this trend will make your email campaign appeal to a larger market, and will certainly make this blogger very happy.

Are Consumers Really Shaping Marketing through Social Media?

By no means is it easy to be a marketer!

In today’s marketplace, the ever increasing pressures means conducting ‘business as usual’ is no longer an option. As business faces pressures, companies are looking for new opportunities to drive sales, attract new customers and build brands.

.....so, CMA’s Integrated Marketing and Customer Experience Council took on the task of examining the role of social media in today’s marketing environment. We used social media as well as an online survey to begin the discussion. Through sites such as Linked In and Facebook, we cast out a series of questions to marketers and consumers, asking them to define social media, how they use it and how it is impacting their buy and sell decisions.

The goal of this ‘social dialogue’ was to gather insights and begin to form an understanding about how and why consumers/marketers are using social media. We wanted to get a sense on whether or not consumers really are abandoning brands because a blogger disliked an ad. How widespread is the “voice” of the consumer online, and how does it impact purchase behaviour? Maybe more importantly, how are marketers planning to deal with this marketing shift where the brand is in the consumers’ hands (or so we are told)?

In the long term, social media may have a positive effect on margins by:

-Focusing less on selling and price and more on customer service
-Building a dialogue with customers
-Gaining a deeper understanding about who their customers are
-Trying to locate brand advocates

At this stage, many marketers responded with a common theme – that social media tactics today are useful for the more abstract roles of building brand awareness and enhancing/influencing brand reputation.

Social marketing efforts are in the early stages, from both a consumer & marketer perspective but exciting things are happening. In the short term it seems to makes sense for companies to start exploring/building their social strategies as an important component of the overall marketing mix. Consumers appear to be still in the process of building their networks.

...Findings from our online survey are accessible to CMA members on CMA's website.

Let us know what you think.

Authored by Ivana Mazon, Vice Presdient Client Services, FUSE Marketing Group

Seller vs. Trusted Advisor

In a study conducted by the Washington Post, Joshua Bell, “one of the finest violinists alive” walked into a subway station dressed in jeans and a baseball cap—during rush hour—and played his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin for 43 minutes. The vast majority on the platform that day didn't notice and he collected approximately $32 for his efforts. Just days before, tickets to one of his performances in Boston went for $100 per seat. Of the 1,097 people who passed him, only a few paid him any attention.

Why? According to the Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post feature, Context: Their perception was not of a concert violinist, but of a street musician.

If people do not stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written, is it possible that overworked executives could hear the best product sales presentation and not care?

Have you considered how/if your salespeople put your product offering in context to Buyers who are trying to achieve a goal, solve a problem or satisfy a need?

If your salespeople offer value statements, could the Buyer discount what the salesperson says just like they discount the value of a street musician, as the context of the salesperson is that of a seller vs. trusted advisor?

When meeting with new customers, would it better help the Buyer recognize the value of your offering if the salesperson refrained from acting like a seller by making generic value statements but instead acted like a trusted advisor by enabling the Buyer to convince themselves: By the Salesperson using diagnostic questions, based on the best sales practices of your top performers, to help the Buyer determine the problems and costs to their operations in the absence of having your capabilities and then offered usage scenarios to help the buyer visualise how they will solve their problem with your capabilities?

If the public’s filter is that music in the subway or value statements by salespeople are not worth listening to, could they continue to not notice when the music or product is better than usual? If so, Joshua, “one of the finest violinists alive”, only made $32 after performing in front of 1,097 people, are the value statements of salespeople producing similar returns?

To continue this discussion, feel free to contact me

Authored by Michael Harris, Business Partner, CustomerCentric Selling

Size Doesn't Matter

Truly - it doesn't. Here's why....

I recently moderated the Direct Marketing Creative Roundtable on behalf of the CMA (and its Direct Marketing Council) at the Drake Hotel. We had a small but engaged audience - and 3 incredibly talented and diverse presenters: Mike Halminen, VP, Creative Director at MacLaren MRM, Clare Meridew, VP, Creative Director at Grey Worldwide and Tracy Coen, Senior Art Director at Rivet.

Mike spoke about how to use interactive design to increase engagement and ultimately, response. Think about the idea that will interest a consumer and incent response vs standard 'boiler plate', 'kill it and bill it' creative mentalities. Push the medium but stay true to accountability.

Clare spoke about how the online channel is a perfect medium for direct marketing in terms of insight gathering, quick results, ease of measurement and access to fast and efficient innovation.

Finally Tracy spoke of how to cut through the clutter by using emotion and impact in design. And staying true to our Council's philosophy of integration, demonstrated this using the most traditional of channels, direct mail.

All 3 creative hot shots showed great work that most importantly drove business results. And our audience asked many questions, probed through to understand original strategies and genuinely connected to the presenters and their material.

Small audience + big ideas = 1 great roundtable. Size doesn't matter.

Can't wait for next year.

5 Rules on Marketing to the ADD Consumers

The first rule of marketing is to know your customers. Customers have changed over the past 10 years. Partly as a result of technology and partly as a result of economic pressures and the need for efficiency.

Customers are ADD. They have no attention span. Good marketer know this and cater to this. We cannot change the consumer, we can change the message.

1 – Grab their attention. Consumers need to be “woken up” and shook in order to even look at your marketing. This is why unique, outrageous and highly creative things can break through. EG – send someone a toothbrush and say smile with XYZ, make a bold promise – We will double your sales or you do not pay etc.

2 – Keep it short. People use the length of the message as a screening mechanism. If the message is short they read it. If it is long, they do not. It is no surprise that instant messaging and twitter are hot. The messages are short. Cut the length of the message and increase the impact.

3 – Allow prospects to take action quickly. Have an obvious “order now” button. Have the phone numbers obvious. And good old fashioned call to action – tell the customer what to do.

4 – Keep it simple and intuitive. Customers will not stay long enough to figure out how to do things or to find where things are. Avoid redundancy. Redundancy is the main cause of excess verbiage.

5 – Deliver quickly once you get the order. This is an instant world. People expect it immediately. The standards you compete with are high and expected. Perfect service is now the expected norm.

The new ADD world demands simplicity, brevity and ease of use. Marketers have the challenge of getting through to these ADD consumers. These 5 rules should help.