Twitter as super hero

Sep 9th

6 comments

My friend Dr. Jerri Yates passed this story along illustrating the amazing power of Twitter. It’s from a mommy blog and it’s a tale worth telling, or in this case, summarizing, because the original post is LOOONG!
In this Twitter as hero tale, the star is blogger Heather Armstrong, who purchased a new washing machine to keep up with the diapers of her propitiously-pooping newborn. The brand-new $1,300 machine didn’t work. After several weeks of botched service calls, Heather vents on Twitter:
“So that you may not have to suffer like we have: DO NOT EVER BUY A MAYTAG. I repeat: OUR MAYTAG EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE.”
After a few similarly-scalding messages, the magic began. She received messages from Maytag competitors offering to help. Then she received a phone call from an executive at the Maytag corporate office who contacted an alternate repairs service, had the appropriate parts over-nighted, and had the machine repaired in less than a day. And Bosch offered to give her a free washing machine, which she accepted and donated to a local shelter.
If this doesn’t help you understand why your company needs to be in the thick of social media, you must be brain-dead.
A) It’s where your customers are (and that includes B2B, too mister!)
B) It’s where your customers speak to you
C) If you don’t listen and respond, your competitors will!
Illustration: Monkey Works
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Fanatic-focused marketing

Sep 8th

2 comments

 
Research shows that the good old 80-20 rule is going out the door (meaning 80% of your business is driven by 20% of your customers). New database and monitoring technology demonstrates that as little as 4 percent of your customers may drive as much as 65 percent of your business.
One recent study showed that just 1 percent of a petfood producer’s customers drove 80 percent of its profits! Your core 4 percent are not consumers, they’re fanatics! What are the implications of this mega-trend?

a) If you don’t know if this trend is applicable to you (hint: it probably is), it’s important to find out! Tap into your existing data to discover core users and trends. If you’re not a data person, I know two people who can do this type of analysis quickly and affordably. Drop me a note or call me and let me know if you need a reference.

b) Word of mouth is 4X more effective than personal selling and 7X more effective than most types of traditional advertising. If your fanatics are driving sales better than any marketing effort you could dream of, what are you doing to make it easy for them? Wouldn’t fanatic-focused marketing be the most effective ad dollars you can spend?

c) Surround your 4 percent with the tools to help them recruit others to your brand. Ideas – special deals, gifts, logo-clothes, programs available for them to pass on to friends.

d) These people want to give back to your brand. How do you engage them, encourage them, and listen to them in a special and personalized way? Ideas: Invite them to special one-on-one sessions with company employees and executives; develop personal portal websites where they can submit ideas, stories, photos; feature them in your ads and promotions.

e) If you are building your brand with a limited budget, don’t focus your marketing dollars on the masses. Start small with your core fanatics.

f) Now that you have identified and nurtured your core 4 percent, how do you replicate them? Do a simple profiling exercise. Click here for a previous article that will give you ideas on how to do this quickly.

g) Here’s the most important point of all – LISTEN to them. These people are your leading indicators of customer satisfaction and a potentially powerful source of innovation who WANT to help you! Dig deep. Spend time with these people! Show them the love!

Illustration: Cheryy8_15

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Marketing = "Just the facts, m’am!"

Sep 7th

1 comment

I met with a customer the other day who said she could never be creative enough to be in marketing. Of course I encouraged this line of thinking. Otherwise, why would she need me? ; )
But the fact is, the engine of marketing is research and data. To be sure, the best marketers need a flair of creative inspiration to look at a spreadsheet and find trends and truths, but the heart of marketing strategy — ALL marketing strategy — is fact-based analysis.
When I’m teaching or mentoring young folks, this is one of the biggest misconceptions of marketing — confusing it with advertising. When Dragnet’s Detective Joe Friday wanted “Just the facts, m’am,” he could have been coining a tagline for the consummate marketing professional. A successful business strategy comes from solid research on the potential opportunity, target customers, competitors and product testing before you ever start thinking about a creative ad treatment.

By the way, Joe Friday still looks so damn cool.

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The most important social event

Sep 5th

15 comments

I am getting married today. Just thought I’d let you know.
This is not the kind of thing I usually throw out there, but I write what’s on my mind and believe me, this is REALLY on my mind! Not because of nerves or concern or anything … it’s because this event is such a blessing, a gift, and an answer to my prayers.
The woman I am marrying (Rebecca) takes my breath away. She humbles me with her heart, wisdom and daily courage. And, she is a babe. Which is a bonus. I have a new goal in life: Become the man that Rebecca deserves.
I am so happy and I wanted to share this with you, my friends.
In the comment section, feel free to sign our “guest book.” : )
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