Social marketing is real, it is effective, and it is here to stay. That's what I tell all of my clients today. Not news to you? Well, the reality is that companies have only just begun to leverage social media networks with any skill at all. Though it seems like we've been hearing about this new fangled thing for a long time, it remains a shiny new and generally misunderstood area of marketing.
In large measure, that's because the people executing social marketing strategies are not very good marketers. They are born-again tech people jumping onto what they rightly perceive to be a profitable bandwagon. But as I've mentioned before in earlier posts, social media "specialists" tend to be intentionally vague about the activities in which they'll engage, hoping to maintain pricing premiums by making the field an art - more magic than science. But as business people are finding, it's not so awfully difficult after all.
So on a practical level, what should you, a business owner, do? First, recognize that social marketing is simply a new set of tools that allow you to reach out to prospects in new ways. You can use these tools to help prospects and customers advocate on your behalf. You can reinforce your brand, you can develop out of this world testimonials, you can empower customers in ways never before possible.
Second, set up a Facebook page for your company and invite customers to join your group. Buy any one of the zillion books on leveraging Facebook, like Facebook for Dummies. Quick read and full of useful little tips for getting started.
Third, set up a Twitter account, and begin "tweeting" regularly. Be brief, be value-focused, and have fun.
Fourth, listen. See what people are saying not just about your company, but your competitors, your industry, and about completely unrelated businesses - that'll give you the chance to learn about what other companies are doing to good or bad effect.
Finally, iterate. Make participation a regular event, much like getting brochures updated and printed every quarter, you can now update your messaging once, twice, three times a week. You can address "big topics" in your business as they arise, not months later. Unlike static literature, the elements of social media are dynamic, timely, and oftentimes unexpected.
Don't let any snake oil salesmen make you think that there is any magic involved with social media marketing. Think instead that these are like sales conversations you can have with lots of customers simultaneously. You're still doing the same key thing here as you've been, hopefully, doing all along: engaging with your customers is meaningful ways to drive behavior and to gather critical information. No magic, just a new set of tools for making it happen.
Start today. Doesn't have to be anything too complicated. Just get the ball rolling and momentum will build.
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
Five Places Marketers Fail
When analyzing marketing catastrophes of all different kinds, for companies competing in wildly different industries, some fairly consistent underlying reasons for the failures begin to emerge. And surprisingly, the notion that marketing fails because the marketers in charge were morons is not one of the five. Though there are head-scratchingly bad decisions behind most campaign failures, more insidious reasons are the true propellant behind the epic failures we see in each day's newspaper (if there were still any being published, that is. But that's a marketing failure for another day).
Number Five: The Wrong Market. Sometimes the pressure to eke out just a bit more revenue from an existing but tapped out market drives marketing leaders to try to extend the product line just a bit further or to bring a marginally better solution to the game. All too often, the wrong market is the one in which we currently compete and draw the bulk of our revenue and profits. But in moving forward, a successful and winning leader will know when to make the jump.
Number Four: Bad Timing. Sometimes, however, a marketer's timing is off. Maybe by a little, maybe by a lot. But jumping into a new market too soon can mean years of frustrated "market building" activity while other technologies and approaches take their turns at being the "right solution at the right time". Jump too late and you'll face a nigh impenetrably entrenched set of competitors with too little firepower to shift the playing field.
Number Three: The Wrong Strategy. I often say that there is usually more than one way to get to the goal. However, not every path leads there. Some lead straight into the buzz saw. The number of ways in which a strategy might go wrong are legion. Wrong distribution channel for your product? You're dead. Run ads on billboards when a strong internet route is better? Toast. Doesn't necessarily mean the marketer in charge is a moron, but make enough egregious choices and it'll be tough to dodge the nickname.
Number Two: Disconnect Between Promise and Delivery. Imagine you've spec'd the perfect product for your customer's needs. You've built a demand generation strategy second to none. You've got leads pouring in from around the globe. You're a certifiable genius. But then the factory in China burns down. The contract coders from Russia stop returning your emails. Or perhaps operations disregarded your demand forecast because her bonus gets paid on a metric that has nothing to do with satisfying your customers. In any case, this scenario can lead to the very worst outcome for a company - jilted customers. Those whose passions were stirred and then left bitterly unfulfilled.
Number One: Serving the Wrong Master. This one, more than the others, will be likeliest to cause people on the outside to consider the folks at the wheel a bunch of morons. But chances are that the marketers were simply working to please someone other than the actual customer. Perhaps the CEO had a creative idea he loved and wanted to see executed or the senior management council thought they knew better.
The common element among these failures is a loss of focus and mastery of the customer's condition and needs. The ability to translate this knowledge into effecive action is quite common, but the knowledge itself, now that is an all-too-rare commodity. So while marketing groups quibble over effective SEO strategies and approaches to pricing, too few marketing pros are spending quality time with their customers. And that is why they will fail.
Number Five: The Wrong Market. Sometimes the pressure to eke out just a bit more revenue from an existing but tapped out market drives marketing leaders to try to extend the product line just a bit further or to bring a marginally better solution to the game. All too often, the wrong market is the one in which we currently compete and draw the bulk of our revenue and profits. But in moving forward, a successful and winning leader will know when to make the jump.
Number Four: Bad Timing. Sometimes, however, a marketer's timing is off. Maybe by a little, maybe by a lot. But jumping into a new market too soon can mean years of frustrated "market building" activity while other technologies and approaches take their turns at being the "right solution at the right time". Jump too late and you'll face a nigh impenetrably entrenched set of competitors with too little firepower to shift the playing field.
Number Three: The Wrong Strategy. I often say that there is usually more than one way to get to the goal. However, not every path leads there. Some lead straight into the buzz saw. The number of ways in which a strategy might go wrong are legion. Wrong distribution channel for your product? You're dead. Run ads on billboards when a strong internet route is better? Toast. Doesn't necessarily mean the marketer in charge is a moron, but make enough egregious choices and it'll be tough to dodge the nickname.
Number Two: Disconnect Between Promise and Delivery. Imagine you've spec'd the perfect product for your customer's needs. You've built a demand generation strategy second to none. You've got leads pouring in from around the globe. You're a certifiable genius. But then the factory in China burns down. The contract coders from Russia stop returning your emails. Or perhaps operations disregarded your demand forecast because her bonus gets paid on a metric that has nothing to do with satisfying your customers. In any case, this scenario can lead to the very worst outcome for a company - jilted customers. Those whose passions were stirred and then left bitterly unfulfilled.
Number One: Serving the Wrong Master. This one, more than the others, will be likeliest to cause people on the outside to consider the folks at the wheel a bunch of morons. But chances are that the marketers were simply working to please someone other than the actual customer. Perhaps the CEO had a creative idea he loved and wanted to see executed or the senior management council thought they knew better.
The common element among these failures is a loss of focus and mastery of the customer's condition and needs. The ability to translate this knowledge into effecive action is quite common, but the knowledge itself, now that is an all-too-rare commodity. So while marketing groups quibble over effective SEO strategies and approaches to pricing, too few marketing pros are spending quality time with their customers. And that is why they will fail.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
I was in on a rather odd meeting the other day. A client of mine was meeting with a social networking team to add this important element to his opening, prelaunch marketing mix. The client wanted to have the team put a specific plan together with likely activities, goals/outcomes, and cost so that he could manage the effort and measure success. A fair and intelligent request, or so I thought. After my client articulated his needs, a very strange thing happened. The service provider wouldn't agree to provide any specifics.
"Surely he simply doesn't understand my client's needs," I thought. So I jumped in to try and add some clarity. No dice. Instead, we heard how difficult it is to measure this stuff, and coming with a set of expectations was counterproductive. That this work was organic and lots of things would get tried along the way. "Ah!" I said. "What might some of those 'things' be?"
"Could be anything," he said.
"Instead," he suggested, "why don't you tell me what you want, and then I'll do that. Usually my clients bring me something they've seen that they like and then we make it happen," he said, confusing me further. After all, these guys are the team that specializes in social media.
"You know, ultimately you'll just have to trust us to do this." Uh-huh. And I've got this bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to get rid of, you know, for tax reasons. I wasn't about to stop.
"So what's an example of something that a client has seen and brought to you for implementation?", I asked, employing my best Perry Mason logic. I was going to pin him down yet. I could tell by the look in his eye that he had run out of room to maneuver. "Okay, maybe something like giving a book away to one of the people who've "friended" your company on Facebook." Eureka!
Turns out that the whole "avoidance" dance was driven by two things. First, my client had not fully expressed how he was going to pay the service provider for his insight and implementation. How they'd managed to have a half-dozen meetings prior to this one without that question resolved, I don't know. But I blame the service provider - always get that stuff clear at the beginning. Always!
The second reason, I hypothesize, was that the service provider didn't want to let the client know what happened inside the "black box", for fear that the client would take the ideas and implement them himself. That is something I see all too commonly from consultants and advertising firms. They hold onto every scrap of knowledge and IP as if each bit was as valuable as the next. Here's my take on that: your client doesn't want to steal the idea and implement it themselves. Who has time? Sure, some will try to do it, there's always an exception. But in my experience, entrepreneurs and small business managers simply don't have the time to learn how to implement a good idea. They want to pay experts to make things happen (usually involving ringing cash registers!) not learn how to manage social media or write code for a cool Flash effect.
Secondly, by protecting even 'generic' ideas/content as if they were the crown jewels, you diminish the value of the really good stuff. You miss an opportunity to a) demonstrate your expertise to the client, b) get the client on board with your service, and c) strengthen your own personal brand. Not to mention coming off like you simply don't have any ideas or don't know what you're doing.
Sharing something of value - giving it away - is becoming an increasingly important competitive tool in today's marketing environment. Access to all kinds of knowledge for free via the web is the new norm. But like giving a man a physics textbook doesn't mean it's likely he can actually build a rocket, sharing a bit of something you know about your field doesn't mean your client will put you out of work, either. So wise up and identify the real value you bring to your customers. Protect that core and use the rest to build prospects, clients, and good will. And for goodness sake, make sure you know how you'll get paid upfront.
"Surely he simply doesn't understand my client's needs," I thought. So I jumped in to try and add some clarity. No dice. Instead, we heard how difficult it is to measure this stuff, and coming with a set of expectations was counterproductive. That this work was organic and lots of things would get tried along the way. "Ah!" I said. "What might some of those 'things' be?"
"Could be anything," he said.
"Instead," he suggested, "why don't you tell me what you want, and then I'll do that. Usually my clients bring me something they've seen that they like and then we make it happen," he said, confusing me further. After all, these guys are the team that specializes in social media.
"You know, ultimately you'll just have to trust us to do this." Uh-huh. And I've got this bridge in Brooklyn I'm trying to get rid of, you know, for tax reasons. I wasn't about to stop.
"So what's an example of something that a client has seen and brought to you for implementation?", I asked, employing my best Perry Mason logic. I was going to pin him down yet. I could tell by the look in his eye that he had run out of room to maneuver. "Okay, maybe something like giving a book away to one of the people who've "friended" your company on Facebook." Eureka!
Turns out that the whole "avoidance" dance was driven by two things. First, my client had not fully expressed how he was going to pay the service provider for his insight and implementation. How they'd managed to have a half-dozen meetings prior to this one without that question resolved, I don't know. But I blame the service provider - always get that stuff clear at the beginning. Always!
The second reason, I hypothesize, was that the service provider didn't want to let the client know what happened inside the "black box", for fear that the client would take the ideas and implement them himself. That is something I see all too commonly from consultants and advertising firms. They hold onto every scrap of knowledge and IP as if each bit was as valuable as the next. Here's my take on that: your client doesn't want to steal the idea and implement it themselves. Who has time? Sure, some will try to do it, there's always an exception. But in my experience, entrepreneurs and small business managers simply don't have the time to learn how to implement a good idea. They want to pay experts to make things happen (usually involving ringing cash registers!) not learn how to manage social media or write code for a cool Flash effect.
Secondly, by protecting even 'generic' ideas/content as if they were the crown jewels, you diminish the value of the really good stuff. You miss an opportunity to a) demonstrate your expertise to the client, b) get the client on board with your service, and c) strengthen your own personal brand. Not to mention coming off like you simply don't have any ideas or don't know what you're doing.
Sharing something of value - giving it away - is becoming an increasingly important competitive tool in today's marketing environment. Access to all kinds of knowledge for free via the web is the new norm. But like giving a man a physics textbook doesn't mean it's likely he can actually build a rocket, sharing a bit of something you know about your field doesn't mean your client will put you out of work, either. So wise up and identify the real value you bring to your customers. Protect that core and use the rest to build prospects, clients, and good will. And for goodness sake, make sure you know how you'll get paid upfront.
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