When to change communication channels

Today there’s a great post on Mashable about the five levels of  effective communication in use today.

These go from the public reply, through the direct message, email, phone and in person.

Nothing stunningly new there.

But it did lead me to think about which channel to use for which stage in your business development pipeline.  Obviously the quick and easy ones which are not time-dependent are the top level email / direct message.  Timing a phone call or meeting needs organisation (sometimes by both parties) and certainly within the confines of the working day hours.

As you refine leads through to proposals, be careful about when you use the top level messaging.  I was challenged recently by a colleague that a meeting I set up for him to scope a proposal was not ‘market ready’.  I had believed it fully qualified and therefore worthy of a face to face meeting.  When he got there, his view was that it wasn’t – and the client didn’t buy the proposal we wrote proving his POV.

The rules aren’t fixed, but in general early stage business relationships can be built by email and direct messaging.  Later stages require face time either on the phone or in the same room.

Times when an early meeting can build a relationship

I was once on holiday in Shipley, North Yorkshire UK and drove past the offices of a company I was aware of and wanted to do business with.  We’d exchanged emails and they were on our newsletter list.

I looked up their phone number and called, asking to speak to the MD.  I left a voicemail message saying I was in the area, had just driven past their red front door and could meet him the following day if he had time.

My bold move may have put him off initially because he didn’t return my call and we didn’t meet up the next day.

But when he was next in London, he made a point of arranging to come to our office for a chemistry meeting and later we worked together on two big projects.

I am certain that work came about sooner because I provoked his response by trying to meet earlier than normal.  But, remember I had an ‘excuse’ ready (I was in the area) and you do take pot luck on a senior decision maker being available at short notice on this type of strategy.

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B2B recruitment is an area where it is easy to forget the importance of branding and corporate communication.  Nowadays you can find out loads about what it’s like working for a company online – and mostly through non-official sites.

I was really pleased to read this post from Jeffrey L. Cohen in which he interviews Laurie Ruettimann, an HR Consultant and blogger, about how she would advise an organisation to use social media for recruitment.

If you don’t have time to hear the full 8 minute interview, here are the notes I took from it.

• The biggest single thing to do is to align HR with marketing and sales – your products and services brand should have the same messaging as the HR brand
• Internal social media is also important – have a look at the Sodexo careers – a hub to develop relationships.  It includes a neat job search desktop widget
• Outsourcing has crossed over with technology – Many companies outsource reference checking and use social media and telephone to speak to reference-givers.
• HR is ahead of accounting and finance, and ahead of some marketing and sales depts especially in managing relationships and candidate databases
• “‘Social recruiting’ – the new term for using social media in HR.
• Should I get social media skills?  Everyone benefits with higher skills.  US workers are bifurcating – knowledge class and working class.  Chasm between the two.

• More social media skills are needed in softer ways.  richer and deeper relationships and thoughtful understanding of the world with broader communication skills.  An organisation can then use you in different ways.
• Do companies need a social media director or community manager?  Some firms are hiring them.  It’s a position of luxury now – often they fall under marketing and sales and existing job titles.   The companies of the future are creating these roles and investing in them.

• TIPS:
  • Go on Google and understand what people see when they google you.
  • Grab your name on Twitter and you’ll be ahead of the game.
  • Companies are looking for competency and people who won’t cause law suits (!).

Social Media Changes in B2B HR and Recruiting from Jeffrey L. Cohen on Vimeo.

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Tags: Human resources, Marketing, Outsourcing, Recruitment, Social Media, twitter

The development of online money-making by bloggers and early-adopter affiliate marketers has progressed from stage one – write stuff and hang adverts around it; to stage two – use affiliates to promote it on your behalf and is now moving into a third stage.

Building closed spaces where you can pay a bit to get  into the ‘inner circle’ and learn new stuff early on thus taking advantage ahead of the crowd.

There is a nice logic to this.  We’ve done it, let us show you how.

The Third Tribe Story

I got an email last week inviting me (and you) to join a new private online space  Third Tribe Marketing. I know where they got my name, I’m signed up to ProBlogger, Copyblogger, Chris Brogan and Lateral Action.  All high volume readership sites that talk about online marketing.

Getting them together to co-launch a members-only site for super-cool-new-stuff is a very neat idea.  The copy on the site is in a frame so I can’t send you separate URLs but the Story, the People and what’s Inside are very well-written pages with compelling reasons why you should spend $27 a month to join the inner crowd.

Join it if you want – or just read the copy and see what a lovely warm feeling it gives you when you see such a great proposition combining and re-working content from a range of great sites into one place.

Congratulations, guys.  It looks like a super money-maker and I hope it works well.

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I have been reading and following the US direct marketing agency run by Robert Rosenthal, The Mothers of Invention.  They have some great promotion and marketing that they do for the agency and this Friday they have a great offer.

A free review of one marketing programme.

Here’s the offer text I received.

This Friday could be an eye-opener for you and your marketing team.
Because Mothers of Invention –  the groundbreaking agency behind dozens of record-breaking campaigns – will review the program of one marketer, at no cost.
We’ll talk about anything and everything you’re comfortable sharing: email, search, banner, TV, Web video, Twitter, blogs, social networks, radio, print, and direct mail advertising. As well as related landing pages.
So seize your chance to discover where you rule – and where there’s room for improvement. This opportunity is ideal for someone who sees the value of challenging the status quo.
Remember, on Friday we’ve got time for only one review. Intrigued? Just hit “Reply” or email Mothers of Invention founder Robert Rosenthal at this address: robert@themothersofinvention.com.

I enjoy offers like this becuase it delivers a treble benefit to the agency

1. The opportunity to show off your knowledge against an existing campaign
2. The opportunity to communicate with prospects who want evaluation of their existing marketing
3. The opportunity to start new dialogues with disappointed contest entrants

So what are you waiting for?

Well, take a pause first.  Don’t just rush off to do this.

Here are four things I’ve learnt about ‘free’ offers and this type of campaign (I have run campaigns like this before)

1. Most punters won’t take up a “free” offer – because they reason that if it looks too good to be true, it probably is
2. Few people sign up for public humiliation and so it’ll probably be strong, confident brands who want an offer like this and you can do less for them than weaker, less well organised ones where your advice will have a strong impact
3. If you do get someone signed up for the free offer, translating that into paid word is very difficult.  Educating prospects to expect discounts is a habit that’s tough to get out of
4. You need a strong existing data list of prospects who are already believe in your agency’s expertise before a small number will proffer themselves for an offer like this

Therefore, this is still a good campaign but you must fulfil the four criteria above before you’ll get good results.

Additionally, there may be some ‘terms and conditions’ around the offer.  Robert doesn’t mention it, but if I were running the campaign, I would reserve the right to use the brand’s campaign material and the agency’s free advice as the subject of a future newsletter or blog article, white paper or case study.

Why write a case study?

Because there is more leverage in having original material to show off your marketing skills to a wide audience (your email list) than just to speak one-on-one to the brand who is subjecting themselves to your free offer assessment.

Go do it.  It’s a great idea and I hope to report Robert’s results after this weekend.

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Tags: Robert Rosenthal

Sergio Llopez-Figueroa has got another of his great events coming up in Kings Cross on 18th with the Delhi City Symphony.

It’s on Cultural Social Responsibility and includes a movie made by Sergio and his team with the street kids in Delhi to go with the music.

Link to book event

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I am a great fan of the UK B2B Marketing magazine.  They have created a strong presence and a great monthly magazine within a couple of years of launch.

I am subscribed to a few of their emails (although unsubscribing is an issue) and today received a message asking me “How are you using telemarketing as part of your demand generation or new business activity?”

As a rule I like to take part in surveys becuase as a marketer I rely on people doing them for me.

This was an unmitigated disaster.

How not to structure a questionnaire survey

I started to answer the questions but more and more doubts arose about the quality of information I was imparting and the ability of the company [who presumably paid to do this] to use any answers I gave.

1. How can you use two points in a matrix that are on both horizontal and vertical axes to gain any meaningful data? see question 5 below the fold.
2. If the answer to question 8 was ‘no we don’t use telemarketing’, how can you answer question 10 about how closely integrated email marketing and telemarketing are?
3. question 12 “Do you use email analytics to help assess the effectiveness of your campaign and assist in prioritisation of telemarketing activity?”  This is two questions in one.  What if I use email analytics but don’t use it to prioritise telemarketing?
4. Question 17 “Which of these processes would you describe as the most effective?”  How about making this a top 3 choice?  You’d gain more insight from the answers.
5. Consider these three questions (18, 19 & 20) They can be organised better through an automated questioning so that when yes or other is clicked a new question 19 appears.  Freak this is SO basic.

18. Do you regularly seek to enhance prospect data to ensure more effective marketing in future? Yes/No/Don’t know

19. If you answered ‘yes’ how do you do this? Through telemarketing/Through email newsletters and dedicated offers/Other

20. If you selected ‘other’ please specify

6. Is this question written in good English? How accurate would you describe the current size/status of your business database?  Plus the tabulation is crap.  First select the size of your database, then answer the quality question.

What do you think?
The full survey text follows
Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Sales lead

I was reading Marketing magazine and one of the columnists was Will McInnes writing about Cadbury’s Wispa.

Itself a brand that’s been well used to great PR (thanks to inspiration from Mark Borkowski in the past.  What interested me in what Will wrote was his criticism of Wispa asking visitors to register in order to get into the deeper engagement features of the site.

The registration was described as

a direct marketer’s fantastical wishlist

And that started me thinking.

The Early CRM years

When I was working with PRG doing CRM strategy – we’d set out a database specification that had hundreds of data points for each individual customer.  We WANTED to know all about you.

The difficulty was getting that information from the customer in an appropriate way.

The way it is now

McInnes suggests that Cadbury use Facebook Connect to handle log-in and registration for its site.

Not a bad idea – the fan page relationship stays in FB and the marketing platform remains on the Wispa site.

As a marketer, I’d be nervous initially about allowing a third party to handle customer data particularly a closed one that didn’t allow data extraction.  But then I had second thoughts.

How to assess your brand’s data needs

Wispa is a B2C brand – it has no expectation of selling direct off its site to customers and the ‘engagement’ is just about getting people to live the brand values of playfulness.  And so why not outsource the ‘grunt’ registration to a third party.  Particularly one where security and data handling is a key expertise?

Who knows, FB might do a combined advertising plus deal with Wispa if they use its platform to drive new memberships into FB.  I see a nicely balanced relationship with each brand delivering part of the site and playing to their own strengths.

Let’s face it, what will Wispa do with your customer data anyway?

P.S.  Afterthought – when the brave new world of VRM starts and customers hold their own data and brands have to ’subscribe’ to the customer’s data rules and regulations – the boot will be firmly on the other foot and all those multi-field-integrated-user-databases will be worthless.  And I’ve heard on the grapevine that Mydex has a launch date for its first version.  Grin.

Let’s get the tables turning.

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Tags: Customer Relationship Management, Mark Borkowski, Wispa

Don’t ask

Why it just seemed to happe.

A gradual development of crazy proportions

As the day wore on.

I felt

a commentary – running – always on.

Like the internet

On every action I took

but without the humour.

With apologies to Tim Minchin.

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Today I am in a RANT.

Yes, this is major.

I have had it with brands that will not or cannot successfully unsubscribe me from their mailing lists when I ask.

The name and shame begins with a childrens toy catalogue, Baker Ross.  I once bought something from them as a gift and have been bombarded ever since.  Haven’t they heard of data segmentation?  I don’t have any children.  But I buy from you, occasionally.

I am now quoting my customer reference number to an internet-blank-wall.

Things to do if you are a customer

1. Despite feeling aggressive, getting mad and even are not really an option here – write a letter and mail it to yourself.  It will make you feel better.
2. Write politely to the company reminding them about your unsubscribe, maybe pointing out the money they waste / why you don’t want to hear from them / asking them to check all databases / and adding a link to the Data Protection Act 1998
3. Ask them to confirm to you that your data is no longer to be used for mailings
4. Remind them to also exclude you from purchased lists
5. Scream once, very loud.  Then get on with your life.

Things to do if you are a brand

1. Have a clear process map of your subscribe and unsubscribe processes.  Check for online and offline and mystery shop them regularly.
2. If you screw up, apologise to the customer immediately and unreservedly.  Thank them for pointing out your mistake and promise to investigate how the error occurred.  Even if you don’t track down the precise cause, it will make them feel better.

Got any advice for me?

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Sarah Blow has put together a neat search using the Google Labs’ News Timeline service to do a 10 year review of the instance of news items about women in technology.

It makes depressing reading – seemingly no matter how hard we try, fewer women want to work in tech.  I’m in no position to comment, but if you have the chance to hire or mentor someone – please do so.

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