by tradesmeninsights | Oct 20, 2009 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
Another new tool that needs to be on your radar.
I don’t know if the world is ready for this, but it’s here and it’s from Google, so you know that there’s been a lot of thought behind it.
Google Sidewiki allows you to contribute helpful information next to any Web page or even critical information to a competitor’s Web site. Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page. Google uses an algorithm to display the most relevant and helpful posts up top.
Click for detailed view
The key benefits:
- You can publish helpful information about any Web page from any browser
- Read insights in context from Sidewiki entries added by others
- Share Sidewiki entries through Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Google profiles
Google could eventually put ads in the Sidewiki space – monetizing another company’s content.
As Jeremiah Owyang points out in a recent post, Google’s Sidewiki Shifts Power To Consumers – Away From Corporate Websites…
“There’s nothing stopping them from allowing advertisers to put ads on Sidewiki as “sponsored” information. For example, Coke could run their latest ads on the Pepsi.com Sidewiki area. HP could run ads on the Dell.com site. This ‘already’ happens in the search engine result pages on Google.com, why not in Sidewiki?”
I agree with Jason Falls‘ assessment of Sidewiki, “It will force every company in the world with a Web site to get hip to social media and do it now.”
If you’re ready to start exploring the Web with Google Sidewiki, visit google.com/sidewiki to download Google Toolbar with Sidewiki and contribute your own entries alongside pages on the Web.
So what are your thoughts on this new tool?
You might find this post by my mentor, Michael Gass, useful, How to keep up with social media.
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 14, 2009 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Twitter
The idea of marketers adopting social media by the boatloads is not a surprising statement. One of their biggest concerns has been will the consumer return the favor. Well some recent data shows that half of social networking users have became a fan or follower of a brand online. eMarketer recently published a report from Anderson Analytics that said, “52% of social network users had become a fan or follower of a company or brand, while 465 had said something good about the brand or company on a social networking site, double the percentage who had said something negative (23%).”
Another study from Penn State indicated that 20% of all tweets mention specific brand names or products. They studied over 500,ooo tweets and found both positive and negative comments about the brands or products.
Measuring social media success remains difficult for marketers. Many of the metrics that marketers can track on social networks today involve what is called “soft ROI”— which does not show up in the bottom line. But a study from the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint, along with a separate study from Razorfish, indicates that the stronger a brand’s social media presence, the better the brand performed—whether measured in conversations or in financial performance.
“Social networks are a constantly changing database of consumer sentiment, attitudes and information, and marketers today have only the earliest glimpse of the potential,” said Ms. Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. “Companies that want to maximize their presence on the social Web must take advantage of social networks in all stages of the purchase funnel, from awareness to learning to buying to loyalty.”
What does this mean to you and me? It means that you can’t just simply set up shop on social and sit back and wait for people to come. Users are seeking out their favorite brands whether it’s online or through other avenues and you must be there.
Maximize your social network marketing. Download the new eMarketer report, “Marketing on Social Networks: Branding, Buying and Beyond,” now.
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 13, 2009 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
I’m hooked on the cable series Mad Men. I guess since I’m in the business and I started my ad career as the 3-martini lunches were winding down, I look at these guys and marvel at how simple their lives were. What did they have to offer the clients? TV, Radio, Outdoor, Papers and Magazines were pretty much what they had in their bag of tricks. Today, we have the Internet, Web 2.0, mobile media, digital ads and a host of other options that keep changing daily.
One of the newer ones out there is social media, and while the consumers have latched onto this in a big way, the B-to-B community has been slow in recognizing the power and potential of this marketing tool. Times are changing and the traditional marketers should come to grips sooner than later on the changing world we live in. The enclosed study by IBM should open your eyes as to what is coming and the key word is CHANGE. You think social media is a challenge, just wait. You’ll need to re-think the way you communicate with your customers, no matter who they are.
The next 5 years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50 did.
The information for this post is from an IBM global survey of more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts… the report is titled, “The end of advertising as we know it.”
Imagine an advertising world where...spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges. Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.” Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.
Based on IBM global surveys, there are four change drivers shifting control within the ad industry:
- Attention – Consumers are increasingly in control of how they view, interact with and filter advertising in a multichannel world.
- Creativity – Thanks to technology, the rising popularity of user-generated and peer-delivered content, and new ad revenue-sharing models (e.g., YouTube, Crackle, Current TV), amateurs and semi- professionals are now creating lower-cost advertising content.
- Measurement – Advertisers are demanding more individual-specific and involvement- based measurements, putting pressure on the traditional mass-market model.
- Advertising inventories – Will be bought and sold through efficient exchanges, bypassing traditional intermediaries.
There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power.
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 7, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I recently put on a Webinar on how social media could be used by B-to-B, and one of the most common questions is what tools should I use? Should I concentrate on Facebook, LinkedIn or is Twitter the best for me? When I ask them why are they doing social media, I get a silent pause. One of the first things we talk about is the “Why” you want to participate in the social media scene. If you can’t answer the Why, then the How doesn’t matter. Don’t get into social because you think it’s cool or that this will be the “silver bullet” that will save your business. You need to treat social like any other marketing program. Define expectations and outcomes. Adopt a phased approach to meet these business objectives. Here are some questions to answer to better understand your goals:
- Why are you participating?
- How can social media improve your customer relations?
- Can social media help you build/reinforce your brand?
- Do your current customers use social and which sites do they frequent?
- How do you define success?
- What kind of metrics are you going to set in place to monitor your success?
- How can social media help you gain more knowledge?
- What kind of social media policy do you have in place?
Like any other program, success is based on developing a plan and then implementing it. If you want to be cool and hip, do your homework and you’ll find out that people respond when you have a plan.
What are your thoughts?
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 6, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Sales leads and what to do with them has been an age old problem. Today though, there are programs and processes available to help you monitor and mine those precious sales leads. I’ve been associated with Russ Hill from Ultimate Leads for over 20 years. He “gets” the closing the loop issue and I’m glad to share with you some of his thoughts.
According to the CMO Council/BPM Forum survey in Marketing Today, corporate officers who were polled in an online survey believe revenues at their companies could increase by more than 20 percent by improving their prospect cultivation and management techniques. Marketing and C-Level executives are dissatisfied with the way they generate new business, yet more than half lack formal process to correct the problem.
And my guess is that they are not alone. According to the Advertising Research Foundation, 67 percent of industrial product inquiries are from real prospects with real needs, yet 72 percent NEVER hear from a sales person.
Clearly these executives are onto something. Does this sound like your sales team?
Haley Marketing Group cites recent studies indicating that more than 50 percent of sales people stop working a prospect after the first call. The percentage grows to 65 percent after the second call and 80 percent after the third call.
A whopping 90 percent of sales people call it quits by the fourth call. Here is the troubling part – some 70 percent of prospects won’t make a decision until after the fifth call. Are these sales slipping through your fingers too?
To some degree these numbers are easy to understand. Most sales people are like gunfighters interested in the “quick kill.” The study suggests that while companies may be good at generating large volumes of business leads, most opportunities languish because sales people all too often focus on only closing the most promising and qualified short-term opportunities.
Marketing and C-level executives are dissatisfied with the way they generate new business, but still more than half lack a formal process to correct the matter.
Sales and Marketing teams often point fingers at each other as companies struggle with reaching their sales goals. Sale people complain about receiving too many or too few unqualified leads and marketing complains about poor follow-up, lack of feedback, and wasted dollars. In our 25-years-plus years of experience in sales lead management and CRM services, this lack of synergy can usually be traced back to three specific things:
1) A lack of training about each function’s role and challenges
2) Utilizing agreed upon methodology for generating, qualifying and following up on leads
3) Getting everyone to keep their “eye on the prize.”
If Marketing’s job is to identify target markets, communicate the “right” company message and generate viable sales opportunities, then it is Sales’ job to cultivate and sell those opportunities. Who qualifies a lead and when should it be handed off to sales is an important question. Sales and marketing need be in agreement to be successful. Failing to address this important issue can trap management in something I call “the Transition Zone.”
When marketing and sales management work together to establish mutually agreed upon processes and goals, then train their teams to continuously work to both improve practices and to work together, good things can happen – more business can be captured from existing opportunities, ROI improves…and that is good for everyone.
So, the next time you are considering where to look for new business, take a fresh look at your existing prospects and sales leads. Improving your opportunity management practices may be your first and best means of growing your business.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 30, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
With the economy being what it is and growth for ’10 in the construction, industrial and MRO markets being minimal at best, what could/should manufacturers do to work together? Here’s an idea. If you’re two non-competing companies that serve that same market, why not do a cross promotion for both Product A and B? For those manufacturers who belong to a buying group, this should be a “No Brainer.” They are already preferred suppliers and they should welcome this kind of promotion. Here are 3 reasons why you should consider such a concept:
- Creates buzz at both the user and distributor level. From the user perspective, they could offer better deals on specific packages if bought in conjunction with the promotion. Distributors can have more of an “event” atmosphere .
- More reach – Both companies can promote the event on their respective web sites and print ad campaigns.
- Better utilization of assets – Direct mail and e-mail can use combined creative and share the costs. Imagine if you have an e-mail list of 50,000 user names and the other manufacturer had the same. Let’s also assume there’s a 20% overlap in names. The bottom line is you now have 80,000 names to send to. Having these joint events at both user and distributor levels allows you to share the costs as well as the limelight.
I’m sure you could add to this list, and I’d like to hear from you. Let’s think outside the box.
