60 Minute Marketing Plan Presentation

I had a great time at today's lunch and learn presenting 'The 60 Minute Marketing Plan'. Thank you to everyone who came and shared ideas. If you weren't able to attend, you can download the presentation here.

Happy Marketing!

See You Tomorrow!

Looking forward to seeing some of our local businesses out for the Lunch and Learn at Adrian Public Library tomorrow (Friday at noon). The program is entitled 'The 60 Minute Marketing Plan' and will cover six simple steps to developing and evaluating a comprehensive marketing plan.

Social Media Ground Rule # 5: Integration

Here we are at the last 'rule' of social media...of course, these are really guidelines meant to help you shape your own social media presence. Of all of the rules, integration is the one that many organizations overlook, but it's key in maximizing your brand's meaning in the marketplace and leveraging the ROI from all of your other communications efforts.

Make sure that you create a 'closed loop' of connections between the content and calls to action that you use on social media sites and the rest of your marketing, whether it is a web site, a brochure, or a presentation. Consistency of message, content, and values is as key for social platforms as it is for anything else you add to your marketing mix.

Social Media Ground Rule # 4: Make Real Connections

Of all of the 'rules' of social media, #4 may be the toughest to implement. What makes social media so wonderfully different from traditional media is its ability to help organizations have real-time, candid connections with customers, prospects, and the world-at-large. This means that the typical marketing one-way communication mind-set won't work in the social sphere. You can post content all day long on a social media site, but it won't do any good for your communications ROI if you don't respond in a timely and true manner to the content your followers/friends/fans create on your social assets.

Social Media Ground Rule #3: Content Considerations

Now that you've got a clear objective and a resource or two committed to keeping your social media assets up-to-date, the time has come to decide what content is going to be shared through these channels.

What you share should be relevant to your target audience and drive them to specific action--similar to any other media you might use. Some examples of action-inspiring content might include a Tweet with a link back to your website or a special 'Facebook' only promotion. Image posts tend to garner more feedback and views than text-only posts--and even though videos can go viral, they take longer to download and view than simple photo content, which can decrease the number of actual complete impressions.

Also related to content considerations is the quantity of material put out into the social sphere. More is not necessarily better. Focus on quality messaging that is of value to your audiences rather than many superficial interactions, many of which may garner no response at all.

Social Media Ground Rule #2: Commitment

Now that you've identified your business objectives for entering the social media sphere, the next step is to determine the resources you are going to commit to establishing and keeping your presence positive there. This most likely means that you will need to delegate the keeping of your social spaces to someone on your team or a third-party content provider. Be sure that whomever is responsible for updating your social media presence is fully aware of your objectives and well-informed about your company.

How often should you update your FB page? Emerging research shows that unless you have a real-time event occurring, once a day is plenty (btw, Wednesdays before noon are one of the peak traffic times on FB...the weekends are the least trafficked times). Twitter followers tend to accept more frequent updates, but use your discretion--too many tweets may turn off your audience.

Social Media Ground Rule #1

The business world is abuzz with the power and potential of social media, but the true success stories are few and far between when it comes to the average organization utilizing Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms. Why is this? Perhaps it is because there are a few 'ground' rules that are ignored by many corporate users of social media.

The next few posts will focus on five key 'rules' that can really impact a company's success with social media. So let's start with #1:

Start With a Clear Objective

Social media is no different than any other activity that a business engages in: there needs to be a reason for devoting the time to it. There needs to be a payback, ROI, a measurable result.

Here are a few social media objectives to consider:
- to connect with customers
- to obtain specific feedback from customers
- to provide a special place for promotions, premium content, and other things that may be offerred only to engaged customers
- to bring customers, prospects, and employees together in a genuine forum.
- to provide 'real-time' updates/news/feedback

What are your objectives for utilizing social media?

In Case You Were One of the 5 People Who Missed It...

Check out all of the Super Bowl commercials here: http://superbowlads.fanhouse.com/
Then let us know which one was your favorite and why!

The Age-Old Debate Rages On: Marketing vs. Sales

Many businesses struggle with striking the right balance between their marketing and sales efforts. Hopefully, most of us are enlightened enough to know that without marketing finding prospects or leads to follow up with would be much more difficult and without a good sales strategy closing the transactions that bring in revenue would be darn near impossible.

The 'traditional' definition of marketing is 'everything that you do to reach and persuade prospects.' Sales are everything that you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract. A business won't survive without both of these functions, however, an organization will thrive if the right balance is struck between them.

Think about marketing as setting the stage for sales to occur. If your prospects have never heard of your company or its products and a salesperson contacts them, the sales process is going to be that much harder and longer. Good marketing reaches the right prospects with the right message to create demand, preparing the prospect to buy. Marketing can include advertising, public relations, brand marketing, viral marketing, direct mail, social media, and online activites--just to name a few tactics.

Traditionl sales usually involves some sort of interpersonal interaction. E-commerce has added a different kind of dynamic where the interaction happens through an online transaction (note: it is usually marketing efforts that get prospects to the site to purchase.)

Research has shown that it takes eight contacts to move a prospect or potential client to the close of the sale. Marketing can move a prospect along in the process and 'warm' them up for a sales professional to close the deal. For most organizations, success in marketing and in sales depends on balance!

Culture: The Game Changer

What happens inside your organization from a 'people' perspective--often called culture--has such a profound impact on overall business success, that it is wise to take some time to evaluate whether the way you walk and talk internally is in line with your external brand, marketing strategy, and sales activities.

For example...if you are going to build your brand around a 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' promise, your company culture must make it possible to deliver on that promise by empowering employees to produce a great product that is less likely to create customer dissatisfaction, to take care of any issues customers encounter along the way, and to celebrate a sense of pride about your company and its products or services. Otherwise, the promise becomes just another unfulfilled marketing gimmick that today's savvy consumer will never embrace.

The Power of Simplicity

Clear the clutter...reduce the amount of copy, chop the number of daily FB posts, be careful about the amount of talking you do on a sales call. Use the extra space and time to solicit and analyze your audience's feedback. Make it easy for your target audience to understand your point of view and then provide their own perspective.

Incorporating this practice into your everyday communications is simple and the results can be invaluable.