Think Small for Social Media Marketing Wins

I often tell my students “marketing is easy; marketers screw it up.” The marketing concept itself is based on a rather simple notion that an organization should have dual pursuits of satisfying customers’ needs and wants while meeting profitability and other internal goals. Another example of the simplicity of marketing is that there are really only two ways to add value to products or services:

  1. Increase benefits 
  2. Reduce sacrifices

I could discuss several other instances in which marketing decisions can be boiled down to straightforward considerations, but that is not the point of this post. The focus is how to not screw up one of the newest, shiniest tools in our marketing toolkit: Social media.

Ditch the Big Thinking
Strategic planning is often about thinking big- more market share, percentage increase target for profits, specific dollar or unit volume for sales. We hear about BHAG- big, hairy, audacious goals. Apparently, there is no room for small thinkers in marketing. When it comes to social media, that is simply untrue. Digital marketing expert Mitch Joel recently posted in his Six Pixels of Separation blog about “The Small Wins from Social Media.” Joel points out that the “big thinking” mentality that governs most marketing organizations found its way into social media marketing strategy. How many “likes” can we get on Facebook? How many followers can we add on Twitter? Restaurants, retailers, and others have run promotions giving away product and offering price discounts in a quest to amass a large social media following. Never mind that little thought may be given to what to do with the audience once collected, let’s just up those audiencenumbers!

Small Ball” Wins
To borrow a baseball analogy, think of social media marketing as having the same impact that a singles hitter has in baseball. The performance may lack the drama of a home run, but consistency in getting hits improves batting average and helps the team. According to Mitch Joel, small wins in social media include getting customers to talk about themselves (rather than a focus on talking about the product or company), using blogs to develop a repository of critical thinking (as opposed to product promotion), and using podcasts to network with thought leaders and other influentials. Reach-oriented goals (i.e., the home runs) that are the norm in mass media-driven marketing are not necessarily a good fit for social media campaigns. Instead, Joel advocates looking for the small wins, advances in customer relationships and brand equity that are not as quantifiable and may lack the “wow factor” compared to size of audience.

Figuring out how to use social media as part of the marketing mix can be a daunting challenge. Simplify it by thinking small- use social media to achieve small gains in customer relationships and competitive position.

Shoring Up the Three Legged Stool of Customer Experience

A great deal of emphasis is put on the customer experience because of its impact in determining satisfaction and loyalty. In turn, satisfaction and loyalty influence profitability. An element of customer experience that can be easily overlooked is the internal relationship between a firm and its employees. When employees are ill equipped to serve customers in terms of training, of course the desired outcomes will be more difficult to attain. But, what happens if trust between management and employees has not been fully developed? The stage is set for failure to reach satisfaction and loyalty targets.

The Three Legged Stool of Customer Experience
Customer experience expert Shep Hyken discusses this situation using the analogy of a three legged stool. To effectively manage customer relationships, the three relationship “legs” must be made strong:

  1. Management must trust employees
  2. Employees must trust management
  3. Customers must trust the company

If any of these legs are weak or are missing altogether, the stool will collapse. While the analogy of a three legged stool could suggest independence among the three relationships, the reality is that the three legs are highly interrelated.

Needed: A Culture of Trust
One word describes what is needed to ensure that the three legs that support customer experience are strong: Culture. A culture of trust must be established in all three of these relationships. In particular, employees must trust management’s decisions, programs, and leadership. Employee trust breeds confidence in the firm and empowers employees to do their part to deliver great customer experiences. Unfortunately, this leg of the stool often is damaged by managers’ failure to get employee buy-in, solicit their input from the front lines of servicing customers, and not viewing the firm-employee relationship as a marketing priority. A culture of trust sustains the firm-employee relationship by educating employees on their role in serving customers, acknowledging their successes, and giving them permission to fail occasionally.

View Employees as Customers
It is disheartening to see companies that espouse to be “customer focused” treat their employees as an afterthought. Extend the marketing concept to the internal market, your employees. Of course, they are not customers in the same sense, and if you subscribe to the adage that the customer is always right you may want to reconsider it when it comes to employees. But, there is little room to argue that if employees do not have a great relationship with their own brand, they will not be able to advance customer-brand relationships as well as they could if their leg of the customer experience stool was stronger. What is the current state of firm-employee relationships in your organization? Are they doing their part to hold up the stool, or is it a weak point that could break if not addressed?

Business 2 Community – “Trust Enhances Employee and Customer Experience”

40% of Your Customers Would Leave You- What to Do?

Would it be unsettling if you learned that 4 out every 10 of your customers are thinking about switching to a competitor? For many business owners and marketing managers, it would be a nightmare scenario that could cause many sleepless nights. This statistic is not a hypothetical question for wireless communications providers. A recent global survey of 8,700 consumers by Nokia Simmons Networks found that about 40 percent of wireless customers would entertain switching companies. That figure is astounding in itself; it is further amplified by the fact that this figure is 20 percent higher than just one year ago. Wireless companies hold leverage in the form of restrictive contracts that include early termination fees, but otherwise it appears that they are vulnerable to customer switching behavior.

What Customers Want
According to the NSN survey, what matters to wireless subscribers is pretty straightforward:

  1. Voice quality
  2. Network coverage
  3. Contract conditions

If these factors are the greatest influences on customers’ choice of wireless provider, it should not be too difficult to manage these issues to make them positive contributors to a customer’s experience of doing business with the wireless provider of choice. Managing these factors and other touchpoints in the customer experience (e.g., billing, customer support) can be reduced to one word: Simplicity. A product whose underlying technologies are anything but simple to communicate via voice, text, and access the Internet must replace complexity with simplicity when it comes to the user interface with wireless companies.

Managing the Customer Experience
Knowing what customers value in their consumption experience is a starting point in managing customer satisfaction and minimizing customer churn. Going forward, one characteristic of companies that effectively retain customers will be a commitment to mapping and measuring the steps of the customer journey. In the wireless device category, voice quality, network coverage, and contract conditions influence satisfaction but are not the only determinants. Companies that commit to getting a more in-depth understanding of what customers want at every step in the customer journey will be better positioned to meet those wants and minimize dissatisfaction that could trigger a desire to switch to a competitor.

Here is a parting thought shared by Sarah Reedy, who wrote the article linked below: “Acting like you could lose a customer at any minute is the best way to ensure you don’t.” 

LightReading.com – “Mobile Users Yearn to Churn, NSN Finds”

SEO and Content Marketing: Friends or Foes?

 

 

Search Engine Optimization and content marketing are two priorities for many marketing organizations today. Depending on who you ask, SEO and content marketing can be put forth as the most important tactic  in a digital marketing program. In one corner, SEO advocates tout the importance of optimization in elevating a website in organic search results. Moreover, SEO plays a crucial role in an inbound marketing program that brings interested people to your online presence with the ultimate aim of converting them into customers.

In the other corner, content marketing has gained tremendous momentum because of its capabilities to actually engage people. I say “actually” because engagement is an overused word in marketing, having become cliché as many marketers are clueless about how to truly engage a customer or prospect. Videos, blogs, and social media content are three forms of marketing content that can be crafted to appeal to an audience without reverting to our desire to sell to an audience. Content marketing offers a long sought channel for increasing brand relevance.

Can SEO and Content Marketing Co-Exist?
Are SEO and content marketing friends or foes? Can they co-exist as complementary priorities in a digital marketing program. Here are some points to consider.

  • SEO and content marketing offer different perspectives on what is influential in driving website traffic- each has strengths that influence performance
  • SEO is measured on performance such as organic search rankings and conversions
  • Content can aid in helping SEO effectiveness and can target different stages of the purchase decision cycle
  • SEOanticipates demand by aligning website design and architecture practices with user search patterns and behaviors.
  • Content marketing creates demand (via informing and building interest); this thought comes from a recent post by digital marketing expert Lee Odden on the TopRank Online Marketing blog.
  • SEO has a goal of increasing visibility of content.
  • Content Marketing has a goal of influencing outcomes along customer’s buying decision journey

And the Answer is…
Should SEO or content drive digital marketing efforts? The simple answer is “yes.” SEO and content marketing tactics are not adversaries locked in an either/or battle for a marketer’s attention. Instead, they are complementary pieces of a digital marketing strategy. An optimization focus without great content is lifeless in that it does not put emphasis on telling the brand’s story. Similarly, a content focus without consideration for optimization would result in missed opportunities to attune relevant content with an audience’s search behavior.

I was at a conference recently at which a nonprofit marketer shared with an audience an internal debate about whether the organization’s website should focus on filling the homepage with as much as possible. Her contention was that it should be heavy on content for potential SEO benefits, but I cringed at the thought of what that website might look like. A website designed with a search engine in mind instead of the target audience probably looks like… well, a website designed for a search engine- fulfilling the criteria to be recognized by search engines but not necessarily aligned with the brand’s story.

So, listen to the SEO experts and content marketing gurus for they are both correct to assert that you need them to achieve digital marketing success. The conference session presenter, a CEO of a SEO firm, gave the best advice: Design online content for users, not search engines.

Look Different like a Zebra/Cheetah

Let’s face it- the pace of change and speed of competition seems to be under the influence of performance enhancing drugs these days. Leaders are tasked to stay on top of change, build an internal organization, and develop a community around their brands and business. The multiple demands can be dizzying. Fortunately, a new guide is available to assist in navigating this difficult terrain.

Leadership and the Call of the Wild
A recently released book by Micheal Burt and Colby Jubenville, Zebras & Cheetahs, Look Different and Stay Agile to Survive in the Business Jungle, provides a unique perspective on how managers can simultaneously direct business strategy, organization culture, and customer relationships. Burt and Jubenville cleverly use analogies from the wild to illustrate how business leaders can learn from the jungle to discern vision, make decisions, and lead people. Among my favorite analogies are:

  • The Current of the Urgent– The daily pull of emails, meetings, phone calls,and other “priorities” can occupy the moment and remove our focus from what is really important to advance our business. While these activities can be checked off to-do lists, they can be like trying to swim against the current- you will work hard but not get very far!
  • The Tribe – Seth Godin popularized the notion of tribes as essential to our success whether it is cultivating advocates for our brand or developing employees. Burt and Jubenville define a tribe as “a group working together through struggle and success.” Does that not describe any organization? There are successes and failures, victories and losses. The tribe must persevere through all of those events to flourish.
  • The Zebra – A leader should be distinctive, standing out to the tribe and be recognized by others in the jungle. Like a zebra’s distinctive stripes, a leader should be perceived to be different than the rest.
  • The Cheetah – Agility is crucial in today’s hyper-competitive markets, but being fast is not necessarily what is needed. The Zebra and Cheetah (Z&C leader) move with what is called “deliberate speed.” Burt and Jubenville describe deliberate speed as rapid movement coupled with a sense of purpose and understanding. Such agility is influential in shaping behavior of the tribe and instill purpose in them, too.

Look Different

The takeaway from Zebras and Cheetahs with the greatest impact for me was a simple but powerful directive: Look different. Why did these two words resonate with me? They were powerful because the phrase contains dual meanings. One take on look different refers to the unique makeup of a Z&C leader (the book’s cover illustrates this application of look different). The book is an instruction manual on how managers can blend the distinctive qualities of the zebra and cheetah to stay agile and lead a tribe toward shared goals. The second take on look different is more of a mindset to employ in our professional lives- look different(ly) at the problems of customers, the challenges faced by employees, the ambitions of competitors, and the dynamics of the external environment. Most importantly, I must look different to fuel my  professional growth. Also, it is important to point out what look different is not– wild hair style, outrageous wardrobe, or outlandish behavior. Those are esoteric gimmicks, not authentic characteristics of a Z&C leader.
Your Z&C Trainers
Here is one more analogy from the jungle to ponder- Burt and Jubenville are the trainers who use Zebras and Cheetahs to coach us to reach for a higher level to be Z&C leaders. Micheal Burt believes “everybody needs a coach in life.” That includes those of us called on to be leaders ourselves. Leaders need to be nurtured and developed in order to advance their tribes. We have the capabilities to look different; Zebras and Cheetahs provides the map to navigate the concrete jungle and not only survive, but thrive.

Coca-Cola’s "Ahh" Moment with Teens

Like all brands, Coca-Cola strives to reach and engage customers in a challenging environment of first screens, second screens, and third screens. That order is particularly tall when it comes to connecting with the all-important teen market. The media consumption habits of this coveted segment of beverage consumers are different than their older siblings who came just before them and drastically different from how their parents engaged with media during their teen years.

Coca-Cola is seeking out teens through an ambitious digital marketing campaign called Ahh. The campaign is ambitious because it focuses on using digital media to reach teens. Ad agency Weiden + Kennedy created experiences- games and videos designed with mobile access in mind. In addition, Coca-Cola is turning to crowdsourcing by inviting teens to create their own Coca-Cola branded experiences, with 25 of them becoming part of the Ahh campaign. Would-be content creators are challenged to create an experience around the the theme “the ultimate in refreshment.”

There is method to the madness behind Ahh. Coca-Cola learned through research into teen consumers that the more fun, interactive, and random content is the more likely they are to engage it. Thus, a digitally-driven campaign is not just a gimmick to reach an audience segment that lives on their mobile devices. Marketing has always been about reaching people where they are- door-to-door salesmen, network television, Internet, social media, and now mobile represent a tradition of connecting through mediums that are most suitable given the audience targeted.

Not only is digital a good fit for reaching teens, but digital experiences are a good way to stimulate interaction with the Coca-Cola brand. A noticeably absent element is a strong call to action. Some marketers would ask, “Shouldn’t all marketing tactics encourage the audience to do something (preferably buy something)?” In this situation, no- Coca-Cola seeks to build bonds with teens through play and entertainment experiences. If this approach is successful, sales will follow… if Ahh can establish brand relevance among teens. Play and fun might give teens a brief entertainment experience, but if that is the extent of impact then they will quickly move on to other entertainment options.

Coca-Cola’s Ahh campaign is bold because it is a departure from the emphasis on mass media to spread brand messages. The reality is to reach teens a different kind of brand experience is needed. Inviting creation of experiences is a key piece of Ahh; the ad agency is not totally controlled messaging. Buy-in among teens can be enhanced through their involvement in content creation. Relevance increases when the audience becomes involved with the brand. I like that Coca-Cola has invited teens to create experiences as it will not only draw them into deeper brand relationships, but the audience-created experiences will help tell the Coca-Cola brand story from teens’ viewpoint.

Marketing Daily – “Coke Targets Teens with Its First All-Digital Effort”

7.5 Ways that Content Marketing Advice May Be Destroying Your Brand

One of the greatest attributes of social media is its “share and learn” opportunities. Information is power, and the power is distributed freely via blogs, videos, podcasts, and social networking sites. We can learn about best practices from people who have developed ideas, tested them, and are able to share their experiences. Social networking sites Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in particular contain a steady stream of links to advice pieces and how-to columns for improving your content marketing efforts.

The advice given can be useful, valuable, and… detrimental. Huh? Marketers have access to volumes of ideas and suggestions for creating marketing content. The challenge is sifting through it to pinpoint which ideas or practices are most applicable to your business. Not all content ideas will be a good fit with your target market, marketing objectives, and brand characteristics. They can be excellent sources of information, but ultimately managers must discern usefulness from noise.

Two examples of techniques that can be useful or detrimental are numbered lists and provocative headlines. Both techniques are advocated by many content marketing experts as ways to gain attention and interest among your audience. But, if these techniques are being used extensively they seem to lose their effectiveness. Just for fun, peruse your Twitter feed or your RSS feed reader to see how many headlines contain either numbered lists (“10 ways to increase click-throughs on video”) or headlines designed to pique curiosity, or both. I could not resist as I wrote the headline for this post- the numbered list and provocative headline combined!

On a more serious note, there are reasons why blind acceptance of content marketing advice could not be good for your brand:

  1. Target market characteristics of brands vary; what appeals to the customer base of one brand may be of little interest to another brand’s audience.
  2. Widespread use of frequently recommended tactics (e.g., provocative headlines, numbered lists) dilute the effectiveness as content from competing brands begins to look alike.
  3. Focusing too much on best practices may lead to overlooking newer, innovative techniques.
  4. Marketing objectives that are pursued via content marketing vary by company and brand; content marketing message and mediums will be influenced heavily by the desired outcome.
  5. Is bad content better than no content at all? A good idea may be just that- a good idea, but it only works if executed effectively.
  6. You may experience “advice overload.” The ideas and best practices shared by experts and practitioners have value, but when you roll them all together do you have clarity or confusion about how to execute content marketing strategy?
  7. The step-by-step recipes offered in many content marketing pieces should be looked to as advice points, not a definitive instruction manual. Like a talented cook experimenting in the kitchen, use the recipes as a base and explore from there to gauge what might work (or not work) for your brand.

     7.5 There is no 7.5… but I have always wanted to use this numbering scheme, following the pattern often used by Jeffrey Gitomer.

Information is power, and we are fortunate that we can empower each other by sharing information and experiences. But, be careful to weigh what is learned against the marketing needs of your business.

    Cap’n Crunch Offers a New Definition of Retargeting

    The practice of retargeting, or serving Internet surfers ads based on previous online behavior such as pages visited, is synonymous with digital marketing. However, it is possible that retargeting is not limited to online advertising. Cereal brand Cap’n Crunch seems to have created a new twist for what retargeting means. The brand is 50 years old, debuting on stores shelves in 1963. Like many cereal brands, Cap’n Crunch sales have become stale. Competition from private labels and a push to de-emphasize sugary cereals led the brand to the edge of extinction as recently as 2011. Today, Cap’n Crunch appears  to have new energy, and it can thank a new conceptualization of retargeting for it.

    So what is this new meaning of retargeting? Cap’n Crunch is turning its marketing efforts to its former users- adults who ate Cap’n Crunch in their younger years. External pressures on cereal marketers to not target children in advertising has created a need to think differently about how to communicate the brand without running afoul of advocacy groups intent on eliminating advertising to children. A late-night Cap’n Crunch talk show will debut on the brand’s YouTube channel on May 7. New content will be added every other week through the summer. The animated show will feature Cap’n Crunch doing mock interviews of celebrities and fictional characters. The character may have the appearance of being for kids, but the content of the Cap’n Crunch Show is aimed squarely at adults.

    Any brand fighting for survival is actually in a fight to remain relevant. What audience segment can relate to Cap’n Crunch best? Its former target market- people who enjoyed Cap’n Crunch growing up but moved on to other breakfast options as they got older. Now, Cap’n Crunch hopes to tap feelings of nostalgia among ex-fans and influence them to introduce their children to the brand. Cap’n Crunch sees its best option for maintaining and growing brand relevance resides in trying its own form of retargeting to connect the target audience with their past.

    Marketing Daily – “Cap’n Crunch Launches YouTube Talk Show for Adults”

    Something Old is Something New in Retail Shopping Experience

    I am part of the back end of the Baby Boomer generation; because of that I missed out for the most part on a nostalgic era of customer service: home delivery. I recall a dairy in my hometown making home milk deliveries, but that service stopped before I was old enough to remember it. The dry cleaners delivered completed orders, the TV repairman came to our house (probably because the TV was too heavy and bulky to take to a store), and the pharmacy brought prescriptions to our door. It was a convenience that was not necessarily driven by shoppers’ hectic lifestyles. Instead, it was an amenity a service providers offered because it fit with their customer service philosophy.

    Unfortunately, home delivery gave way to mega shopping malls and later, find-it-yourself e-commerce. Delivery was no longer viewed as a benefit for customers as much as it was an expense that could be controlled and ultimately eliminated. After all, if the Walker household needed milk, they needed milk. The absence of a home delivery option would not eliminate product demand. But, just when it seemed that home delivery was little more than something one stumbled across while walking down Memory Lane, online retailers and their brick-and-mortar competitors are rediscovering delivery as a tactic for enhancing customer experience.

    Recently, Amazon, Ebay and Google have experimented with same-day delivery of purchases. Walmart has considered a unique twist to delivery- asking for “volunteers” to drop off purchases to family or friends. Online shopping already owns a convenience advantage, and same-day delivery removes the number one drawback to buying online: delayed gratification. Brick-and-mortar stores can give in to e-commerce merchants on this amenity or negate it by offering delivery, too. While store-to-door delivery is the exception and not the rule, some retailers are experimenting with delivering purchases. Sport Chalet, a 53-store sporting goods chain based in California, began delivery from store in all markets earlier this month. Delivery is a means for Sport Chalet to differentiate itself in the highly competitive sporting goods market.

    Traditional retailers have been getting squeezed by competition and technology for years. Before we marginalize brick-and-mortar stores, they may opt to return to the past to deliver (pun intended) the next big thing in creating value through the customer experience. The costs of offering delivery to customers must be wrapped into a more comprehensive calculation of revenues attributable to delivery and the impact of delivery on brand loyalty.

    How to Achieve Brand Relevance

    Have you ever caught yourself teaching or advocating what you believe is an important point only to realize you aren’t exactly sure yourself what it means? I’m not talking about speaking on points on which you are not knowledgeable, but a subject that you understand yet may not truly grasp how an idea or theory really works. It happened to me recently when I was reading an article by Tom Denari, CEO of Young & Laramore, an Indianapolis advertising agency. The title of the article was provocative- “Nobody Really Cares about Your Brand”– of course I had to read on. As I did, it dawned on me that an important point I try to convey to my students could be sharpened with perspective gained from reading Denari’s article.

    Your Brand Should be Relevant-What Does that Mean?
    One of the most important tenets of marketing strategy I emphasize to students is the need to achieve brand differentiation. A brand succeeds in intensely competitive markets by standing out, not merely by being different but by creating value for customers that makes the brand different in a relevant way. A strong case can be made for pursuing brand relevance. Without a distinctive position to differentiate a brand, it is destined to be mired in mediocrity as a “me too” brand. But, what does it really mean to achieve brand relevance? Who defines what is relevant? As the article of Tom Denari’s article suggests, customers are not nearly as interested in brands as the brand owners are. They are not too wrapped up in comparing features and benefits among competing brands; they simply want products and services that add value by making their lives easier, more productive, enjoyable, or whatever the desired benefit might be. This reality about customers has huge implications for defining your brand’s relevance.

    How to Achieve Brand Relevance
    Fortunately, Tom Denari does not leave us in despair after pointing out that people really do not care about brands. He offers a straightforward solution to achieving brand relevance: be culturally relevant. Denari cites Nike, Apple, and Starbucks as three brands that went beyond developing great products and attained cultural relevance. Nike (aligning with world class athletes), Apple (transforming the user experience of consuming music and mobile computing) and Starbucks (created consumption experiences around coffee) became culturally relevant by focusing on how they could not only serve customers’ needs but have meaning in their daily lives, too. Although these brands are exemplary for creating relevance, the scope of impact need not be groundbreaking. Denari cites the Old Spice advertising and social media campaign from a few years ago as creating cultural relevance for a brand typically thought of as “my grandfather’s after shave.”

    Fortunately, you do not need to have the resources of Nike, Apple, or Starbucks to create a relevant brand. What is needed is a way in which you connect with customers that matters to them. The local car dealership that is a sponsor of high school sports teams can be culturally relevant in the community. The independent drug store differentiates itself from its deep-pocketed chain competitors by giving personalized service and creating a shopping environment that reminds customers of the “good old days.” And of course, brands can build relevance by aligning with social issues or causes that matter to their customers. John Maxwell says “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Businesses of all sizes can use social responsibility as an organization-wide mindset for showing how much they care.

    The goal is to create relevance, but never lose sight of who defines relevance. Your brand matters only if it matters to your customers.