WildfireApp poor quality support
The details of my issue were not resolved by the first ticket I submitted. Then, in order to provoke a response (rather than raise a new ticket) I had to use their ‘customer satisfaction questionnaire’ to add in my supplemental question.
I’m not going to spell out what it takes to offer good customer support but this fails on several levels.
The WildfireApp website fails to give real people’s names, the email contacts for support are all the same (whatever office you use) and I don’t want sales.
Can I speak to a real person?
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It doesn’t work like that.
There certainly are many agencies who sell themselves as inbound or content marketing specialists. And there are just as many brands who say they use Inbound Marketing as part of their promotional mix. Some unscrupulous agencies sell this as the modern web solution and imply that it’s all you need to do to succeed online.
It isn’t.
Inbound marketing Has to be balanced with outbound marketing.
We were listening to Jay Baer on a podcast with Copyblogger and in it he says
“You don’t create demand with inbound marketing, you fulfil demand.”
You are capping your upside
You are reaching out to people who will take the step to find you.
For these people inbound marketing is great, it works.
What about other customers?
But what about all the ones who haven’t yet realised they might need you? For them you need outbound demand generation activity.
Classically this is ‘campaigns’ – executed in many ways, online and offline. Ways to bring your brand to the attention of prospective customers in different marketplaces and with a range of communications.
But there’s more to modern marketing than this. Baer comes back in again with a new catchphrase “YouTility” – this is where you keep your brand front-of-mind in the intervening period between gaining awareness and the point at which the client is ready to purchase.
Blogs and other inbound marketing tools are good at maintaining youtility. And coincidentally these are also good tools for inbound marketing.
See the connection?
Related articles
- Inbound Marketing Attracts Millions from Google, Salesforce and Sequoia (seomoz.org)
- The Ins and Outs of Inbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] (contently.com)
Marmite shortage "Marmageddon" by Global Culture
And so I think we’ve changed some of the ways we shop and how we socially engage while shopping and afterwards how we talk about our experiences.
Have you done these things in a shop:
- Photographed an item you like but aren’t ready to buy yet
- Compared prices in store with online websites
- Recorded price or size information on your phone rather than writing it longhand
I nearly got kicked out of a furniture store yesterday.
Wanna guess why?
He was caught red handed photographing some of the merchandise. Not with malicious intent but with a view to comparing it to the space available in his house to fit it into.
The storm of commentary proves that this is not an isolated case. I’ve done exactly the same thing – photographed price tags or descriptions in order to get dimensions or colours or to show it to friends before deciding to buy.
Retailers – When you review your mobile marketing strategy (see our posts here and here) think hard about how you can encourage your customers to buy and share the experience all the steps along the way through photography.
P.S. have you noticed how Pinterest is full of boards about things people want to buy in the future?
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easy. Today we showcase a client and their challenges and a book and a blog post. Together they give you the one principle you need to write a B2B online brand strategy.
How to get customer community integrated into your marketing
Three things we read and discussed coincided this week:
- Planning with the Silver Fern Farms marketing team
- Reading The B2B Social Media Book
- Commenting on Confused of Calcutta’s blog post – Musings about communities and prices
Start with the blog post - there are three main points: Everyone in the community is a customer; Communities expect a range of prices for each product or service; A connected community converges to act as a single, composite customer.
Take the range of prices – some customers are happy to read free offerings; others will contribute to comments or test purchase items while others are avid fans. The Silver Fern Farms team were discussing how to organise messaging across different geographical marketplaces – not all their range is sold in each country. [They sell lamb and venison in supermarkets.]
Treating all the customers and prospects as a single, composite customer enables us to deliver into separate marketplaces with variable messaging. Yes, we do not use the same message to each group. BUT we know the customer is smart and can read. Being clear about what products are available in which supermarkets matters. It builds awareness of the wider product range and helps customers appreciate the global nature of the Silver Fern Farms business.
Is B2B any different for online?
Slant these ideas into the business to business B2B world. This is where I find clients have the greatest problems “coping” with a singular community. And ironically, this is where the greatest opportunities exist for B2B.
Read this quote from the Book
Most B2B companies live with fear. The fear of giving away too much information, saying something wrong, giving competitors an advantage.
But I know B2B companies have another fear. Integrated messaging.
This is perceived as hard to do. Mainly because of the territoriality of the agencies and staff who service the brand.
Each market, each customer, each group of buyers fits into a hierarchy of customer-types. From the inquirer who wants to read for free but not participate up through to the possible purchaser. Your brand needs to set up its marketing to allow and
enable each customer type to engage at the participation level the customer chooses.
I wrote that in bold because this principle is the key to your strategic marketing plan.
How does engagement work in practice?
Set up a range of marketing activities that allow any customer from the vast pool of possibles to enable customers to get what they need.
Think of it as a staircase, each step has an increasing level of engagement and possibly a higher price.
When planning your online messaging think of your brand’s online presence as if it were a niche magazine. You should aim to be the best ‘trade journal’ magazine you possibly can be. Dominate your niche and the customer will figure out which of your offerings (from free to paid) she wants and where/how to acquire for herself.
In the book you use the phrase “Hybrid agency” – is this commonly used?
It’s not yet common. There’s another PR book coming out describing us as hybrid professionals which I have read a preview. But I do believe that the agency of the future will be more blended or mixed than today’s specialists.
How do you keep PR 20/20′s sales funnel full?
Athletes make great salespeople – I look at everything in that way [a sports metaphor]. Many people have an interest in sport and the motivation, passion, drive commitment works in business and sport. Hence athletes make great salespeople.
What is the most under-learnt part of biz dev?
I think it is to listen instead of talk – too many people think they have to have all the answers. The best [new business people] keep asking questions until they can recommend a fit.
Our process is based on keeping digging until we understand the situation. We find the answers are unique to every business. Learn to be patient and ask questions.
How do you handle working with other agencies?
If a customer comes to us and wants to work with us and we know there’s another agency on their roster we are very transparent. We are willing to work and it must be collaborative and we have to be on the same page. Not fighting on strategy and direction. We perfer to control the strategy if we can.
But sometimes it’s we just don’t get into bad situations like when an existing client brings in a new agency – we would walk away if it doesn’t make sense for us.
Does the client have to sit everyone down round a table and initiate the discussion?
It depends – if it’s the CEO of a small business then it probably is more the agencies initiating the sharing discussion. They may not be so marketing savvy as a larger brand – one agency may need to take the lead to start talking.
But in a larger enterprise – a sophisticated CMO will have a plan why they have multiple agencies and will lead.
Do you ever subcontract?
Yes – more now than in the past. It was part of the throught behind the Blueprint book – I believe agencies will have to do it more in future. It makes sense now – we are very cautious. We bring on people who have core competencies e.g. graphic design and web that we don’t have.
What advice do you have for people who are doing biz dev for agencies?
The best biz dev people are also the consultants – if it’s a straight sales person is for them to gain a deep understanding of how client relationships work and how services are evolving. When we’re on a phone doing a discovery process the people draw on their campaign experience to know what’s best.
I see it being difficult to not have agency or client experience and be able to sell our agency services properly.
My advice would be to a biz dev person
“Learn the client services side very well.”
If you are a client services person – don’t assume you can natrally be a sales person – there are tricks of the trade and so take the hybrid mentality to see both sides.
What will the agency of the future be like?
Not what we see today….I think the big agencies will still be around – some will have figured out how to evolve but most won’t have.
New names will be driving the innovation and direction of the industry – the big professional organisations are very relevant now e.g PRCA, and ad agency organisations rely on traditional firms for revenue $$ and membership revenue. so their views are slanted towards what these agencies are thinking….I think it’s going to be smaller to mid sized firms will drive the future of the industry. Rather than the massive conglomerates who will struggle to manoeuver to where they need to be.
In the meantime, why not buy the book [affiliate link] it’s in hardback or Kindle editions.
Related articles
- The Marketing Agency Blueprint (twistimage.com)
- PR Agencies That Survive Will Be Inbound Marketing Agencies (hubspot.com)
Related articles
You worked in a traditional agency – how did they view biz dev?
They didn’t really have it – they were reliant on the traditional networks of the founders. The growth was dependent on that and referrals. Some limited efforts to do DM pieces and promotions.
Is that normal?
Yes I think in a lot of cases – agencies are built that way. We did research in 2010 into PR agencies only a small % were blogging. They were trying to provide social media services but weren’t doing it wll for themselves.
Agencies tend to come last and that’s why they haven’t done good biz dev work. Take care of your own needs after everything else. I find that messaging and websites are often outdated and they rely on reputation and networks and RFPs for new business.
In the book you liken your business plan to a football field – Why?
I tend to see everything in a sports metaphor. Whether we are bringing in entry level talent (the draft) versus free agency. When I was trying to figure out how to explain to clients how the [online] market was evolving and how these strategies were integrated and they rely on each other, I tried a Venn diagram and in my mind I started thinking about watching
Drive Charts – showing progression down the field 10-20 yard line. This was an analogy – we have to do each of the phases systematically to eventually get to the end zone or the goal. I also wanted to represent different things at once – audiences (stadium) the brand (a place). See Paul’s diagram here.
Inbound Marketing Gameplan
How do you manage the agency website internally?
One of the senior consultants is also the agency’s marketing manager and is also the blog editor. In most cases her role is to keep the editorial calendar up to date and the team of the writers – we try to do 1-2 per week. We also have a premium content strategy – the book started as a 2010 e book; we did “The marketers guide to web design”. We also have plans to do premium content which isn’t paid for but is just high quality. Gated content = lead form to access.
How does she report and on what?
Same as clients – traffic, organic, lead generation, blog subscriber base, social media and how engaged – followers and likes we have. We do a monthly scorecard – pull the data out of GA and Hubspot and create a spreadsheet thta shows core numbers, assess it and 3 takeaweays – highlights, learning snad what we’ll do next month.
Tomorrow, read Part 2 of the interview with Paul.
In the meantime, why not buy the book [affiliate link] it’s in hardback or Kindle editions.
Talent.me
A Facebook app that sets out to connect you to business partners.
I joined, it connected me to all my contacts (I know them already) and then set about asking me to endorse people…
It suggested I endorse someone – Alan Moore. So I clicked and because he hasn’t listed any ‘talent’s I can’t endorse him…. well that isn’t great – what If I want to endorse you about a talent (friendliness, humour) that you haven’t listed?
I tried again, Chris Lenton, It even suggested a sentence I could use (doesn’t that negate the value of the endorsement if it isn’t my own words?).
MeetingAngels.com
Try this one – an opportunity to get meetings or set up meetings as an intermediary with targets. I want to meet people working at the commercial ports of Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch here in New Zealand. So I listed that …. now every working day I get an identical email from Omri Horowitz. Adding no value, explaining nothing and definitely putting me off the site. Here’s what he says
Daily email from Meeting Angels
Is ‘social business’ really happening?
Haydn Shaughnessy writes in Forbes that he fears Social Business will fail. But that’s because it isn’t replacing capitalist enterprise, it’s trying to become something different. He sets out a case of a wider definition than just connecting with other members of staff.
Social business on this limited definition is an adaptation of your Intranet. It might be a great, big, wonderful Intranet, but it serves the same objectives and it will look and function like an Intranet.
That will not create new business opportunities, nor allow a company to transform itself without leadership forging a movement for change that impinges on employees, customers, and partners, bringing additional value to them all. That, on the other hand, is a social business.
Doing ‘good’ and enabling connections are, in my opinion subsdiary to the profit motive and will remain so for a long time. Rawn Shah defines social business as
“how to use the power of network relationships, and online social interactivity to empower the processes of any business”
Writing in the comments of Haydn’s article, I added
I fear for the ‘bandwagon’ effect on the combined words ‘social’ and ‘business’.
This week I’ve been exposed to two new apps: Talent.me and Meetingangels.com
Both purport to be ‘social business apps’ and both are failing to deliver. The first seems to link to my network but not offer any subsequent steps, the latter just sends me spammy emails confirming that I’ve asked for an introduction to an organisation.
I’ve also spoken to another organisation, conenza.com who use alumni networks to leverage new business development. This seems better-conceived and I’m investigating further.
I like the idea of social business on a B2B level, it is not yet even at the starting blocks of delivering value.
Wouldn’t you love to be able to use networks of networks to get the connections you need to drive new business for your firm? Have you tried out these apps? Do they work for you? Please send us your examples.
Related articles
- Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up? (darmano.typepad.com)
- Musing about shared value (confusedofcalcutta.com)
- 2012 the year of social business and shared value (delphineremyboutang.wordpress.com)
The Customer Experience Deficit White paper
Online retail experiences have to become brand specific, highly relevant and personalised to each shopper. Retailers need to make better use of existing resources, skills, people and technology.
Their thesis is that by failing to provide an integrated customer experience, brands are losing out on possible sales. The main sectors losing out are groceries, electronics and fashion and the leading edge are in Wines, stationery/books and entertainment.
Read the full blog post and report.
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B2B Marketing Pinterest boards
There’s been a profusion of interest in the new(ish) social media site, Pinterest – see my boards .
One of the advantages of Pinterest – compared to Facebook you can’t create a page where people find your interest easily, unless you’re already connected to each other. On Pinterest you can search for Tennis shoes, or Apple accessories or B2B marketing. You see, it’s so much more powerful for search and discovery.
Pinterest uses the Youtube algorithm for popularity and so if your pins get relayed/repinned quickly and you get some momentum the popularity of your boards move up fast.
7 things to do today on Pinterest
Here are our suggestions on things you can do to earn revenues, SEO backlinks and more from using the service for your business.
- Pin things from your own blog – get people reading what you write
- pin a book on Amazon using your affiliate link – copy the link and paste it into the Pinterest add button… it pulls the picture and makes it part of your page… if it gets re-pinned by anyone else, your affiliate button goes with it!
- Drive SEO from Pinterest by naming your board creatively – your board name becomes the title of that page (see this one we created on Creative Agency Infographics). When you create a board the first word of the board name becomes the meta description… So don’t use “Things I like” it gets you nowhere.
- Use key words for your business or service when describing your pictures AND your boards….like this one for Rowing Gifts for Rowers
- Don’t forget, it’s also a social site – the more comments and likes you get the higher they show up in search.
- Write headlines using key words and in a manner that drives traffic ‘I can’t believe this hasn’t got sugar in it…‘ people click to see what it does have in it!
- Use it for the niche research… find which boards have likes and repins – if you find a board which has both then it may a good product – maybe you should feature it or use for your own site.
Getting legal with brands
Yo need to know that there is a clause in the Terms of use that says no commercial use…But plenty of people are advocating using it for marketing and so Pinterest may have to change TOU. Let’s face it, the worst thing they’ll do is shut down your board.
Downsides of Pinterest
You have to have more than one Faceboook account to get more than one Pinterest account….so go create!
You’re interested in becoming smarter and more knowledgable about new business development. You want to win more customers and clients for your business and build an online presence for your organisation or brand…
Join our Weekly Newsletter Group and find out why an investment of 20 minutes a week will improve your business development
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Image by Getty Images via @daylife
We just found this new site called Let’s Talk About. Using a FB login, it allows you to set topics and add friends and other users interested in joining your discussion.
Good points on Lets Talk About
- Simple display of topics.
- You can’t see any topics unless you join that list.
- You get an alert noise (a tad irritating as I can’t see how to turn it off) when a new message is added
- You can embed a URL to the discussion so viewers can also see your starting point – there’s one up for the movie In Time at present.
- Hover over someone’s avatar and it shows their name.
- By only allowing FB logins you probably get more ‘real’ people involved.
Uses of Lets Talk About
I could see this as a useful ‘backchannel’ for a webinar which could also allow you to continue discussion after the webinar chat room closes.
Brands can’t get user data for dialogue in other forums or sites so you’re tied to keeping the chat on LTA.
Check it out for yourself and tell us what you think.
Check out our other blog posts about Relationship Development. Step 5 in New Business Development.
