For anyone looking for a new job (pay attention college grads) or trying to get that next big sale and running into a roadblock because you can’t get the attention of a key decision maker, check out this brilliant job search strategy by copywriter Alec Brownstein.
Growing up in the city of Pittsburgh in the 60′s and 70′s, hockey wasn’t the hot sport it has become, and even today I’m what the NHL calls a “casual fan.”
However, when it comes to NHL hockey marketing, I’m a rabid fan. After the lockout season of 2004-05, the NHL has put forth an amazing marketing power play. The NHL has become more relevant, is skating with a cool, new swagger and is scoring huge marketing goals!
This New York Sports Journalism feature outlines several of the key marketing initiatives the NHL has embraced such as getting back to the roots of their game with the Winter Classic, embracing and communicating player’s unique stories, creating special events aligned with sponsor brand needs, taking full advantage of the 2010 Olympics in Canada, becoming an online category killer and more. Their social media strategy is a killer one too.
The NHL offers great marketing lessons to all brands in search of a comeback.
Forrester says that by 2014 (see Advertising Age article), you and most of your customers are going to get over 9,000 email marketing messages a year which is about 25 messages per person per day or two times what you both got last year!
And, email marketing spending will increase to $2 billion in 2004 – about 2X what was spent last year!
So, what’s all this mean for marketers like you and how can you overcome your customer’s email irritation and overload?
Here are three ways to immediately improve your email marketing:
Integrate email marketing with social media communications since most young adults (18-24 year-olds) prefer it over email; over 20% of adults prefer it too
Segment email databases into smaller/tighter unique groups and send relevant, timely messages
Be religious about testing your email campaigns and work to improve your creative executions and copy writing
I don’t have many favorite politicians – check that – I don’t have a one! And, I’d bet most of you don’t have one.
Until maybe now.
Republican candidate for Congress and former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Allen West is someone I’ve been following throughout his race in the Sunshine State!
And you should too.
Allen West, is a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and is running this November as a Republican candidate for the United States Congress in Florida’s District 22.
Watch this video of West in action. No notes – pure passion and conviction – clear message coming from experience – a complete mastery of the power of video and the mastery of the public speech!
When the Republicans and McCain and Co., got outgunned and derailed by the Obama campaign in the last presidential election, there’s no question that one of big contributing factors was that they were far behind in mastering the New World Order of interactive and social media marketing tools.
In the next election/s, you’ll see that everyone will be on the SMM bus. And, it will be somewhat of a level playing field in terms of marketing execution since most everyone will be wearing a pretty nice SMM tool belt and carrying a well equipped toolbox.
Check out West’s Web site and you’ll see its complete with all the appropriate SMM tools however, his talent, integrity, character and clear brand message and performance rules.
Certainly money helps, but in this online, always on world we live in, citizen journalists can help West even out the playing field for his underfunded brand.
Watch out for the Allen West’s of the world (performance based brands with character, integrity and trustworthiness) and remember that tools are cool, but tools don’t rule because anybody can buy them and learn how to use them.
To excel these days, recognize that for today’s informed consumer, what truly matters is a clearly communicated and meaningful brand promise delivered from a trustworthy, proven brand. Guaranteed.
P.S.: I call Lt. Col. Allen West a Marketer’s dream because it’s so easy to promote a brand you believe in. I’ll bet West wins in November – this American Patriot prays and hopes that he does – we need more good people like him in government.
If you’re feeling confused about the benefits of social media marketing, uninterested or if you lack subject matter knowledge that’s OK. A lot of your peers feel the same way. Research on the effectiveness of social media marketing is mixed. Check out this recent chart by eMarketer and Ad-ology.
Again, it’s OK. Anything relatively new is bound to have mixed results.
For me, I’ve learned a long time ago that a few marketing best practices are to pay attention to new trends, don’t always follow the crowd, be an early adopter of new technology and to “fast fail” in my efforts.
I fall in the 16% of those who find that social media marketing helps me drive leads, stay up to date with industry shifts and competitive intelligence. And, like any form of exercise, the more you do it, the better you become.
For me, lead generation has been my biggest benefit of social networking driven by the thought leadership of my Blog and showcasing our good works.
Small businesses rated Facebook the most beneficial social networking site, but I’ve found LinkedIn to be as effective and I’m surprised YouTube isn’t ranked higher.
We use YouTube a ton for Web site storytelling, email marketing, product demos, and customer testimonials and find it incredibly effective. You get out of things, what you put into them.
My recommendation with new technologies to clients is to set up a small team (or you take the reins by yourself) responsible for executing a plan and challenge them to understand the subject matter better, jump into it, experiment and lead.
Don’t believe your customers aren’t into social networking, because all research points to the fact they are and your next new round of younger customers are already fully immersed in it. Or, aren’t you interested in surviving and thriving in the next decade?
Everyone’s busy and no one has the time for anything new that’s a fact – but, another fact is that you need to find the time, because these technologies aren’t going away and consumer use will continue to grow via new technologies that make it easier to understand, access, and use on a daily basis.
Can you say, “IPod, IPad and Smart Phone?” I Thought so!
Making common repeatable things easy for people to do is great way to stand out from the crowd and make money too.
Internet search engine fatigue is a biggie for me – and for over 70% of you too – and AllMyFaves has been a godsend to me. It’s a simple virtual and visual directory that includes a list of top and most visited sites in major daily-used subject categories such as Blogs, Entertainment, Games, Kids Shopping, Travel and Weekly Favs, but the Home Page alone is awesome.
AllMyFaves is an interesting customer service model for a self help tool. And, it’s a great model for those of us looking to drive revenue because making things easier for time starved people is a killer strategy and will always be a welcome one.
Are you easy to do business with? Are there ways to improve your processes to improve your “easiness?” Can you improve your messages (e.g., Web site) with more visuals and/ore better design? Is it easy to search your own Web site and find things?
Study AllMyFaves and I’m sure you’ll find a few ideas to apply to your business and improve your quality of internet search life at the very same time.
Typically, in times of crisis, most brands fail in their communications before the crisis explodes not during or after it happens. Then, long after the explosive facts are out, whatever a brand does to quell the unfortunate act never seems to be quite enough.
And today, in this ever changing and rapidly growing Social Media Marketing environment we all live in you can get yourself into a whole bunch of trouble.
You can read all about Brand Tiger’s accomplishments and of course buy a ton of stuff. On Facebook, you can also buy Tiger’s Stuff, but 1.3 million fans can’t communicate via Facebook anymore. Well they can (sort of) to posts back in November, but Tiger has not responded. Plus all I can see are positive notes of support. Is Brand Tiger jsut keeping the good and editing out the bad?
Tiger’s been “off the Facebook air” since November 6, 2009. In fact, when you click through to Facebook at times there are no comments since. Tiger is supposedly hiding out in a sex rehab bunker..I mean clinic…so why no more news? An apology? A simple update?
Now Toyota is underway with its largest recall ever and has looked foolish and disorganized in its scrambled up mess of communications. Sure they’ve been “backpeddling” (no pun inteneded) off and online and its certainly not easy while battling legal, economic and staff issues, but tough, they’re a big boy company.
But, you’d think Toyota like Tiger would know better.
Toyota only has about 77,000 Facebook fans and you’d think they’d have a ton more than Ford (79,000), Chevrolet (65,000) and Subaru (31,000 – would have thought they’d have a lot more) and other but they don’t. Heck, Harley-Davidson Motor Company has an amazing 467,000 Facebook fans.
Both Brand Tiger and Brand Toyota Web sites all talk about how great their brands are with no or little regard to their misgivings and what they’re doing to fix things.
Why was it so hard for both brands to fess up early and often – not to mention…don’t do bad things in the first place!
So much about crisis management is learned by all of us at a young age – well, hopefully its taught to us by good, caring parents – such as:
Be good
Don’t lie
If you do something bad (we all do), own up to it immediately in person, apologize and say you’re sorry and promise to make things (and do them) better and promise to not repeat your behavior
When you were a kid, wasn’t your punishment greater and more harsh when you put off owing up to it?
In these ever changing times of social media marketing, it’s more important than ever to have a crisis management plan, because something bad will happen to your Brand – it’s not a matter of if, it’s when.
Here are a few crisis management rules to follow:
You never make friends in crisis, so build your friendship databases and trust bank deposits NOW
Create and continue to work on extensive, ongoing social media outreach efforts
If/when something happens bad to Brand You (Company), come clean, be visible and approachable and meet things head-on.
Tough times never last, but tough people do. To that point, when times get tough you need to reach out to you loyal fans, customers, employees, vendors etc., but you need to create that fan base and it doesn’t happen overnight
The best PR campaign and highest paid strategists can’t prevent all of the mudslinging and brand damage – preventive maintenance is key
In an earlier post, I reported that it was great to see the Gen Y kids driving the tremendous outpouring of financial support for Haiti relief via texting.
Think about this campaign for a moment. It has achieved some amazing accomplishments – in a short period of time – since this devastating earthquake hit Haiti just last week on January 12th:
$24 million has been raised via $10 individual donations to help the Haitian people – 1/5th of the amount the American Red Cross has raised to date – breaking all records by a huge margin. Reference note: After Hurricane Katrina – a mere 4.5 years ago – the ARC only received $120,000 via texting – and Katrina occurred on American soil!
The ARC has built a valuable mobile text database for future marketing communications and financial appeal efforts
The ARC’s core donor base skews older and texting gave the Gen Y folks an easy, quick and convenient channel to offer their support (marketing lesson – treat different people differently)
The campaign execution of the ARC and its mobile firm partner mGive was flawless – amazing too – considering the fact that they started to work on the texting campaign the evening of the earthquake
The viral goodwill spread of the “Text ‘HAITI’ to 90999″ campaign in Social Media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (100K tweets/retweets)
I’m far from being in the Gen Y segment, but I did text a donation to the ARC and will tell you that it was easy for me to participate. As important, I felt comfortable donating because of the supportive and reinforcing messages I saw on TV news and various high profile broadcasts such as the NFL playoffs and the Golden Globes.
Also, after texting the shortcode “HAITI” to 90999, I was asked me to respond “yes” to confirm my donation and then I received a nice comforting thank you too – nice touch.
This overwhelmingly positive experience led me to spread the ARC’s good word and to feel more comfortable using this channel in the future.
Strong brand promise, ease, convenience, simple message and trust are the hallmarks of success for the ARC’s texting campaign and they could be put to good use for your brand’s future success too.
If you think young people these days are inconsiderate, selfish, concerned with only themselves and wear their “pants on the ground“…think again.
Soon after the devastating Haiti earthquake hit, @RedCross tweeted: “You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in #haiti.”
Kudos to the Red Cross marketing folks for being prepared (excellent online disaster newsroom) and recognizing the fundraising opportunity available to them in this terrible time of crisis.
And, much more kudos to the kids that drove this “texting bus” because they’re the ones credited with leading this Red Cross effort which has raised over $10 million for the cause since this record breaking mobile fundraiser was launched last Tuesday.
This is a great example of using technology to build rather than destroy.
Watch text marketing grow from this effort and put in on your list of things to test for your business too!
P.S.: Here is a list of 8 ways you can help Haiti by texting:
Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the American Red Cross
Text HAITI to 25383 to donate $5 to International Rescue Committee
Text HAITI to 45678 to donate $5 to the Salvation Army in Canada
Text HAITI to 20222 to donate $10 through the Clinton Foundation
Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to The United Way
Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to The United Nations Foundation
Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Compassion International
Text RELIEF to 30644 (to connect with Catholic Relief Services who will instruct you how to donate money with your credit card)
I’m totally tracking with him and have dialed up my recommendations to clients that they need to create more value and more transformational quality experiences for their customers.
Brands need to recognize that when the economy does return to the positive, consumers are going to be more conservative in their spending, looking for more value and more unique, quality experiences than ever before. They do not feel safe with their careers or finances now and I doubt the majority ever will again.
Lastly, one other trend that we all need to dial up, recognize, learn, test, implement etc., is the “easiness” trend which is being driven by consumer’s lack of time and resulting in technology advances especially in mobile marketing and television entertainment and its Web-based convergence. More to come on this trend and Web 3.0 (see Jessi Hempel’s January 8th article in Fortune Magazine) advances in future posts.
BrandMill is a marketing consulting and coaching firm that builds strong brands because we're Pittsburgh strong. Like our hometown, the word that defines us is strength. We've excelled for 25+ years despite radical changes in the marketing industry, economy, communications and technologies. Our people are made from tough stuff. We don't cut corners and we don't take shortcuts. We work smart, hard and fast to help brands build, retain and win-back business. Our principled core values are honesty, integrity, decency, loyalty, dedication, servant leadership and keeping our promises. If business as usual is not building your business, let us share our strength and build your brand. We promise to give you our all.
