OysterCatchers has a new training programme ‘Learning to Fly’ for awesome female entrepreneurs
vimeo.com/233527720
Generation Zero,
Bizdojo,
Lion Corp Young Entrepreneur Scheme
Alexia Hilbertidou of GirlBoss New Zealand
Auckland University Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Includes Velocity programme, lots of other extra curricula and the Unleash Space a new innovation hub and maker space
Social Innovation NZ – engages with students to make a change within their community through social impact such as a social enterprise
Entre a student run entrepreneurial NZ registered company, that also runs as a student club on the campus of University of Canterbury. Our website is: http://www.entre.co.nz and our Facebook webpage is: https://www.facebook.com/entre.at.uc/
Check out these as a starting point for your own individual needs. And please use the comments to add others to the list.
International opportunities
As I notice others, I will add them on the list below
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpg00Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2017-09-27 10:34:492020-05-27 17:30:38Youth Entrepreneur Organisations in New Zealand
Hello, my name is Antoinette Nguyen and I am the latest intern for Creative Agency Secrets. After spending two months here in New Zealand, I’ll be heading back to California to finish my final year of university. I’m grateful for all the learning opportunities I’ve been afforded from working at a marketing agency, and have had the joy of meeting some brilliant people. It will be an interesting transition back to the classroom after having had a taste of the working world.
Looking Back: What I’ve Learned
While at Creative Agency Secrets, I had the chance to work with a diverse clientele and employ a wide range of tools. I’ve progressed from shadowing Rebecca, Conrado, and Tabhitha as they manage their clients, to being responsible for a few projects of my own. I have also learned how to ensure new development pitches lead to securing new clients, while avoiding soliciting free work—one of many lessons in how to successfully run a marketing consulting business.
Email marketing is an integral aspect of many businesses, as I learned first-hand how newsletters that feature regularly updated content can ensure ongoing relationships with existing consumers while simultaneously attracting new customers. Using Feedblitz and other CRM platforms, I designed newsletters and managed email lists to drive greater brand awareness and potential sales.
Data analytics is another cornerstone of effective online marketing, and I worked with tools like Google Analytics to evaluate and suggest actionable steps to improve clients’ online presence. I created reports for clients that appraised their website SEO strength and rankings, on top of tracking incoming traffic. SEO optimization weighs heavily on content, but I learned how much website design and functionality matter as well.
Through operating several client blogs and websites, my copywriting skills and knowledge of web development have grown considerably. I also drove engagement through several social media accounts, with the help of applications like Buffer and Hootsuite. One of my larger projects was overseeing a Facebook ad campaign from start to finish—including editing multiple versions of ad copy, overseeing the A/B testing results, and reporting back to the client. And to top it all off, I also gained experience in organizing a promotional giveaway on an international scale.
A Heartfelt Thank You
My internship wouldn’t have been nearly as fulfilling without the guidance of the whole team at Creative Agency Secrets. Thank you Rebecca, Conrado, and Tabhitha for taking me under your wing and being wonderful mentors in my professional development—I’ve learned so much in this short time! You all have my best wishes for the future.
In the words of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” This advice wasn’t just for himself. He was constantly seeking to encourage his teammates to give it their all — no matter what.
There are many ways to get the same point across. No risk, no reward.
Carpe diem. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
In business, the most simple one might be the best of all: Scared money doesn’t make money. For people in sales, the takeaway should be that you have to put yourself out there, and you can’t grow complacent.
These days, there is so much data and intelligence available in the form of advanced, easy-to-use platforms. Let’s take a look at how the right tools can increase buy-in from your sales team.
Getting Your Sales Reps on Board
So how do you follow Gretzky’s lead and inspire your sales reps to get with the program?
Some of it comes down to having the right people. As any manager can tell you, it is often more important to have people with the right attitude than an exact set of skills. It is hard to teach motivation and instil a willingness to grow, so hiring will always play a big part in this.
That said, you go to war with the army you have. Maybe you can make some new hires down the road, but that isn’t going to help you this week, this month, or maybe even this quarter. So you need to acknowledge that different people are inspired by different things.
Set clear goals and do not micromanage your team. A little bit of freedom might be all they need to start getting better results. On the other hand, if your culture already does give people the space they need, recognize that certain team members might need a little more oversight. It might not even take much; just offer the right amount of encouragement and incentives to get everyone on board.
Getting Your Sales Reps the Best Tools
You can also get better results by giving your reps the right tools. Communication is maybe the most important. Many companies are finding success by adopting mobile-first options like Slack channels or digital conferencing solutions like Zoom. Especially for reps who aren’t checking in every day, this can create much better results rather than relying on e-mail alone.
When it comes to dealing with customers and leads, you also need to be using top-tier customer relationship management (CRM) system. It needs to offer the right blend of qualities and capabilities. It has to be powerful, but easy to use. It should have mobile capabilities, and it has to present all the right data and info at the click of a button.
While there are many CRM platforms out there, few tick off all the right boxes like Infor CRM offered by Infor customer partner CustomerFX. Among the many benefits, Infor CRM will help you generate predictable sales revenue and provide constant visibility into team performance. This empowers your sales reps to spend their time working to sign deals.
The tracking features only compound these benefits; as a manager, you can always see what type of results each rep is getting. With granular metrics, it’s easy to find problem areas and correct them. This way, you won’t have to micromanage anyone and potentially cause frustration. You only need to intervene when things get off track.
Getting the Employee Buy-In You Need
When it comes to sales, you either land the deal or you don’t. So make it your mission to get the best sales reps you can, empower them to seize the day, and be sure to equip them with the tools they need and want to use.
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/How-to-Increase-Buy-In-From-Your-Sales-Reps.jpg5621000Sudip Mutthttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgSudip Mutt2017-09-10 15:01:322020-09-10 15:03:26How to Increase Buy-In From Your Sales Reps
In as much as finding your ideal customers is important when you run a business, so is attracting them to you. As your business becomes more established, you hope for customers to find you through word of mouth, online marketing or any other means. There are specific things that you can do to increase discoverability and attract buying customers. Although some may require you invest a significant amount of money, others will require simple changes in your messaging or giving customers incentives. Here are simple ways to attract your ideal customer if that’s your end goal.
Don’t Neglect Word of Mouth
Although every form of marketing has its own appeal, it can still be argued that word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing. With that being said, ensure that you focus on offering quality services to every customer that you engage with as this will increase the likelihood of them referring you. This can be done by improving the entire customer experience from start to finish. A couple of tips for doing that is working towards meeting customer needs and streamlining communication.
Improve Your Website
Your website is a powerful tool when it comes to attracting customers, so work on improving it periodically. When you have an effective website, you’re more likely to have engaged customers on your site that follow through with calls to action. Below are a few ways that you can upgrade your website and make it better.
Design: Your website should look appealing and represent your brand as well as what you stand for. Pay attention to your choice of typography, as well as the colors that you use. Hire a professional to design your website; it may be best to choose one that specializes in your industry. If you happen to run a law firm, then justlegalmarketing.com would be an ideal company to handle your design.
SEO: In addition to the design, SEO is another major aspect of your website to work on. This is where organic traffic will come from and one of the simplest ways to attract customers to you online. To improve SEO, be sure that all of the content that you create has targeted keywords and you optimize titles, URLs, and tags.
Content: The language, lexicon, and tone of your content will either draw prospects in or turn them away. Think about your messaging and whether it truly appeals to your audience. You can look at the language used by successful competitors and use that to gauge how effective yours is. Also, pay attention to the pages that get the most engagement, as it could indicate you’re doing something right.
Offer Attractive Services
At the end of the day, one of the easiest ways to attract customer is by offering competitive products or services. You can do so by truly understanding what your customers’ needs are and meeting those needs through your incentives. For some customers, premium service may be their need while for others, it could be low rates. Value for money is ultimately what will also give you the word of mouth and competitive advantage you need.
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Simple-Ways-to-Attract-Your-Ideal-Customers.jpg414960Sudip Mutthttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgSudip Mutt2017-09-05 15:48:122019-09-05 16:52:21Simple Ways to Attract Your Ideal Customers
When you start a group online in a public social platform, it’s easy. Nothing much happens until your group hits a ‘tipping point” of size + engagement + activity.
Facebook Groups logo
Different groups achieve this at different points in time. We have a sports group run for a client that has nearly 2,200 members and gets 2–3 posts daily from group members. It is now attracting ‘commercial’ elements such as an advert for privately owned equipment listed for sale.
Interestingly, that one post opened a floodgate of listings from others. It seems as though people felt that ‘permission’ had been given to dive in and sell to the group.
The client runs the group in public at his expense and he refrains from selling into the group more than once a month for his own products. It was clearly time for an intervention and setting boundaries about what is acceptable behaviour in this group environment.
3 Types of ‘Sales Pitch’
1) The first was the lady who listed the equipment for sale. I messaged her privately and she told me that despite getting a huge reaction from the group, it was a private sale and she sold it to a friend, offline. We let this pass as just a one-off. Clearly every member of the group won’t be listing items weekly.
2) The second was a lady who runs an Instagram account through which she gives ‘free training programmes’. We checked out what she does and came to the decision that she’s not making a living out of this. And so I am classifying her as a ‘volunteer’. But her actions need to be curtailed because regular postings promoting her services (even though they are free) would upset the balance of the discussion dynamic already established.
Actions to mitigate impact
We messaged the Instagram lady privately, explaining she can publish her stuff on the website via an existing ‘submit post’ feature where community notices are published. This is important because although it publishes to the blog, it is set up to avoid getting into the newsletter, the Facebook page and other communications channels. She does get indexed by the SEO spiders, gets link backs, but does not get referenced or categorised in the archive.
3) By contrast, the third type of pitch was a post by a commercial sports professional trainer. When we reviewed it, we found it is definitely a paid promotion designed to recruit readers from the client’s Facebook group into HER email list and commercial program.
Actions to Arrest Unwanted Activity
First I turned off comments on this post. Nobody can add to them, and this helps prevent Facebook showing it in feed updates. We also removed all her replies in the comments because they linked to her programme over and over again.
Then we wrote to her privately asking her to get in touch by email so she can pay to promote her products on our platforms, along with other commercial retailers (the website is advertising supported). I am waiting to see what her reply to this Facebook message will be – if she’s contrite and apologetic, I’ll leave her post published; if she takes no action to reply or is aggressive and rude, I’ll delete it and block her from the group.
Behavioural boundaries are yours to define
The underlying logic is that commercial enterprises pay, and volunteers can get access as part of the goodwill of the group. The commercial publicist had made no effort to engage and join in the group discussion – she just joined, dove in and started selling. That’s not how this group rolls.
Making the rules for the group is part of good practice in community management. You can publicise these with a pinned post, or a message to new members explaining what is and is not acceptable.
Enforcing the boundaries will help you to create the group and community YOU want. Know what actions you will take if the boundaries are crossed and also understand how to take discussions into a private space – you don’t want to have a public argument while you try to explain your motives. And you don’t even need to explain them, only the acceptable behaviours.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Facebook-Groups.png650664Rebecca Caroehttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgRebecca Caroe2017-08-29 10:00:002017-08-29 12:54:56YIKES! My Facebook Group Got Hijacked by Competitors
Once you send an email, it’s impossible to recall it back. Once you send an email with a mistake, you can kiss your reputation goodbye.
In the case of MTV bringing their popular television show, MTV Unplugged, to New Zealand, their advertising strategy left a lot to be desired.
MTV vs. Millennials
Earlier this year, in June, when MTV announced that they were doing an Unplugged series in New Zealand, Millennials across the nation rejoiced.
For those that don’t know, MTV Unplugged is a television show which features artists performing stripped back versions of their hit songs. The show has been featuring artists since 1989, so you can imagine the excitement when MTV NZ announced this news on Facebook.
The artist they’d chosen to feature in the first ever episode of MTV Unplugged NZ was Maala, a singer-songwriter of electric-pop music. Tickets were free but limited. To enter, you had to submit your details and await an email.
Email #1
In the excitement of winning tickets, it’s understandable that we could forgive the use of Times New Roman and just the overall lacklustre layout in this email sent en masse to all winners.
On closer inspection, there are a few more things wrong with this.
Email received 07th July, which is a Friday. Instructions are to RSVP by Monday 10th July to confirm tickets.
What is wrong with this? Firstly, for those that entered with their work emails, or don’t check emails on the weekend, it’s likely that this email would go unread by many until recipients were back into the work groove on Monday.
Secondly, three days can be considered a bit short notice to make plans.
Thirdly, Wednesday 12th August, 2017, doesn’t exist! It did in the year 2015, but unfortunately, time travel isn’t an option just yet.
Email #2
Well, that’s embarrassing! We can either assume that this little big mistake missed the multiple rounds of test emails, or that the marketing team skipped testing completely. At least they finally realised that serif fonts weren’t the best way to convey their messages.
A few things to take note:
Not a good first impression about MTV NZ (or the teams behind it)!
This email was sent Friday 7th July, promoting an event that’s only five days away.
They called the wrong date a “typo”, as though someone has misspelt “July”. Close enough.
Email #3
Do you think they got the hint that a single weekend wasn’t enough to wait for RSVPs? Or perhaps people found they couldn’t make it on Wednesday, 12th August, 2015?
Either way, they extended the RSVP date until the morning before the event. They also jumped back on board the serif train and still haven’t learnt that the way to communicate with digital natives is either through gifs, cat videos, or really, anything with a picture and a splash of colour.
This is a prime example of what not to do
So, MTV Unplugged hit New Zealand’s shores with quite a splash, and probably not in the best way. They also sent me an email confirming my tickets three times. Did this mean I had two tickets or six? Very confusing.
All in all, it’s a great example of how badly a brand’s reputation can be hurt by a few simple rookie mistakes. The whole event felt rushed, and while it progressed somewhat smoothly on the day, we can all learn that emails are still very important!
No related posts.
https://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/apple-691323_640.jpg426640Creative Agency Secrets Teamhttps://creativeagencysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CAS_Logo_1line_RGB.jpgCreative Agency Secrets Team2017-08-24 16:51:532019-04-23 14:27:57What not to do in an email campaign
Speaking at the EMA Managers and Team Leaders Conference. My notes.
I’m playing for Samoa and my goal to take Samoa to the Olympics in 2020 – as a coach it’s always about we not about I.TEAM = together everyone achieves more.
When I was first appointed in 1994 I wanted to create a culture on traditional values, honesty, humour, humility, respect.Athletes go out and perform for me – you empty the tank.
You can see humility in someone quickly.Federer got beaten by Nadal at Wimbledon – Federer gained in defeat, losing although painful was still a gain.it was the greatest game of tennis ever.It hurts when you lose but it doesn’t mean failure if you gave it everything you have.
Why were the AB 7s team successful? 12 world series, 2 world cups and beaten in the quarter final at the Olympics by Fiji. I saw that as just one tournament. I didn’t have the best players, but I had the best teams.
Spark ideas, develop strategies, and add value to your brand while joining New Zealand’s leading marketers at the annual NZ Marketing Summit. Listen to our own CEO, Rebecca Caroe, in her session on “Strengthening the brand-agency partnership – how to work with an expert (when you aren’t one)”.
Attend Four International Keynotes
Brigitte Slattery (Head of Marketing – Lifestyle Group @ Foxtel Australia)
Nick Lanzafame (Head of Strategic Insights & Analytics @ Buzzfeed)
Charlotte Dewhurst (Global Marketing Direct @ Les Mills International)
Col Kennedy (General Manager – Brand & Customer Experience @ Country Road)
Explore Three Programming Tracks
Digital & Social
Brand & Content
Tech & Experiential
Along with the 20+ speakers featured, the Marketing Summit offers a choice of two full-day workshops. “The Content Workshop” and “Brand Building Blocks 2.0” will be held the following day on September 22nd.
Join and connect with 300+ fellow industry professionals in generating and exchanging insights to fuel brand development. You can register before 5pm on August 25th and secure early bird pricing.
Youth Entrepreneur Organisations in New Zealand
/1 Comment/in Strategy /by Rebecca CaroeYouth Entrepreneur Organisations in New Zealand
I put a question out to my network on behalf of an Australian organisation who are running a similar programme and want to partner.
Here’s the results list thus far.
Check out these as a starting point for your own individual needs. And please use the comments to add others to the list.
International opportunities
As I notice others, I will add them on the list below
No related posts.
My Internship Experience at Creative Agency Secrets — Antoinette Nguyen
/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamHello, my name is Antoinette Nguyen and I am the latest intern for Creative Agency Secrets. After spending two months here in New Zealand, I’ll be heading back to California to finish my final year of university. I’m grateful for all the learning opportunities I’ve been afforded from working at a marketing agency, and have had the joy of meeting some brilliant people. It will be an interesting transition back to the classroom after having had a taste of the working world.
Looking Back: What I’ve Learned
While at Creative Agency Secrets, I had the chance to work with a diverse clientele and employ a wide range of tools. I’ve progressed from shadowing Rebecca, Conrado, and Tabhitha as they manage their clients, to being responsible for a few projects of my own. I have also learned how to ensure new development pitches lead to securing new clients, while avoiding soliciting free work—one of many lessons in how to successfully run a marketing consulting business.
Email marketing is an integral aspect of many businesses, as I learned first-hand how newsletters that feature regularly updated content can ensure ongoing relationships with existing consumers while simultaneously attracting new customers. Using Feedblitz and other CRM platforms, I designed newsletters and managed email lists to drive greater brand awareness and potential sales.
Data analytics is another cornerstone of effective online marketing, and I worked with tools like Google Analytics to evaluate and suggest actionable steps to improve clients’ online presence. I created reports for clients that appraised their website SEO strength and rankings, on top of tracking incoming traffic. SEO optimization weighs heavily on content, but I learned how much website design and functionality matter as well.
Through operating several client blogs and websites, my copywriting skills and knowledge of web development have grown considerably. I also drove engagement through several social media accounts, with the help of applications like Buffer and Hootsuite. One of my larger projects was overseeing a Facebook ad campaign from start to finish—including editing multiple versions of ad copy, overseeing the A/B testing results, and reporting back to the client. And to top it all off, I also gained experience in organizing a promotional giveaway on an international scale.
A Heartfelt Thank You
My internship wouldn’t have been nearly as fulfilling without the guidance of the whole team at Creative Agency Secrets. Thank you Rebecca, Conrado, and Tabhitha for taking me under your wing and being wonderful mentors in my professional development—I’ve learned so much in this short time! You all have my best wishes for the future.
Best of luck,
Antoinette
No related posts.
How to Increase Buy-In From Your Sales Reps
/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Sudip MuttIn the words of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” This advice wasn’t just for himself. He was constantly seeking to encourage his teammates to give it their all — no matter what.
There are many ways to get the same point across. No risk, no reward.
Carpe diem. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
In business, the most simple one might be the best of all: Scared money doesn’t make money. For people in sales, the takeaway should be that you have to put yourself out there, and you can’t grow complacent.
These days, there is so much data and intelligence available in the form of advanced, easy-to-use platforms. Let’s take a look at how the right tools can increase buy-in from your sales team.
Getting Your Sales Reps on Board
So how do you follow Gretzky’s lead and inspire your sales reps to get with the program?
Some of it comes down to having the right people. As any manager can tell you, it is often more important to have people with the right attitude than an exact set of skills. It is hard to teach motivation and instil a willingness to grow, so hiring will always play a big part in this.
That said, you go to war with the army you have. Maybe you can make some new hires down the road, but that isn’t going to help you this week, this month, or maybe even this quarter. So you need to acknowledge that different people are inspired by different things.
Set clear goals and do not micromanage your team. A little bit of freedom might be all they need to start getting better results. On the other hand, if your culture already does give people the space they need, recognize that certain team members might need a little more oversight. It might not even take much; just offer the right amount of encouragement and incentives to get everyone on board.
Getting Your Sales Reps the Best Tools
You can also get better results by giving your reps the right tools. Communication is maybe the most important. Many companies are finding success by adopting mobile-first options like Slack channels or digital conferencing solutions like Zoom. Especially for reps who aren’t checking in every day, this can create much better results rather than relying on e-mail alone.
When it comes to dealing with customers and leads, you also need to be using top-tier customer relationship management (CRM) system. It needs to offer the right blend of qualities and capabilities. It has to be powerful, but easy to use. It should have mobile capabilities, and it has to present all the right data and info at the click of a button.
While there are many CRM platforms out there, few tick off all the right boxes like Infor CRM offered by Infor customer partner CustomerFX. Among the many benefits, Infor CRM will help you generate predictable sales revenue and provide constant visibility into team performance. This empowers your sales reps to spend their time working to sign deals.
The tracking features only compound these benefits; as a manager, you can always see what type of results each rep is getting. With granular metrics, it’s easy to find problem areas and correct them. This way, you won’t have to micromanage anyone and potentially cause frustration. You only need to intervene when things get off track.
Getting the Employee Buy-In You Need
When it comes to sales, you either land the deal or you don’t. So make it your mission to get the best sales reps you can, empower them to seize the day, and be sure to equip them with the tools they need and want to use.
No related posts.
Simple Ways to Attract Your Ideal Customers
/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Sudip MuttIn as much as finding your ideal customers is important when you run a business, so is attracting them to you. As your business becomes more established, you hope for customers to find you through word of mouth, online marketing or any other means. There are specific things that you can do to increase discoverability and attract buying customers. Although some may require you invest a significant amount of money, others will require simple changes in your messaging or giving customers incentives. Here are simple ways to attract your ideal customer if that’s your end goal.
Don’t Neglect Word of Mouth
Although every form of marketing has its own appeal, it can still be argued that word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing. With that being said, ensure that you focus on offering quality services to every customer that you engage with as this will increase the likelihood of them referring you. This can be done by improving the entire customer experience from start to finish. A couple of tips for doing that is working towards meeting customer needs and streamlining communication.
Improve Your Website
Your website is a powerful tool when it comes to attracting customers, so work on improving it periodically. When you have an effective website, you’re more likely to have engaged customers on your site that follow through with calls to action. Below are a few ways that you can upgrade your website and make it better.
Design: Your website should look appealing and represent your brand as well as what you stand for. Pay attention to your choice of typography, as well as the colors that you use. Hire a professional to design your website; it may be best to choose one that specializes in your industry. If you happen to run a law firm, then justlegalmarketing.com would be an ideal company to handle your design.
SEO: In addition to the design, SEO is another major aspect of your website to work on. This is where organic traffic will come from and one of the simplest ways to attract customers to you online. To improve SEO, be sure that all of the content that you create has targeted keywords and you optimize titles, URLs, and tags.
Content: The language, lexicon, and tone of your content will either draw prospects in or turn them away. Think about your messaging and whether it truly appeals to your audience. You can look at the language used by successful competitors and use that to gauge how effective yours is. Also, pay attention to the pages that get the most engagement, as it could indicate you’re doing something right.
Offer Attractive Services
At the end of the day, one of the easiest ways to attract customer is by offering competitive products or services. You can do so by truly understanding what your customers’ needs are and meeting those needs through your incentives. For some customers, premium service may be their need while for others, it could be low rates. Value for money is ultimately what will also give you the word of mouth and competitive advantage you need.
No related posts.
YIKES! My Facebook Group Got Hijacked by Competitors
/0 Comments/in B2C, Case Studies, Digital media, Marketing, Marketing ideas, Social Media /by Rebecca CaroeWhen you start a group online in a public social platform, it’s easy. Nothing much happens until your group hits a ‘tipping point” of size + engagement + activity.
Facebook Groups logo
Different groups achieve this at different points in time. We have a sports group run for a client that has nearly 2,200 members and gets 2–3 posts daily from group members. It is now attracting ‘commercial’ elements such as an advert for privately owned equipment listed for sale.
Interestingly, that one post opened a floodgate of listings from others. It seems as though people felt that ‘permission’ had been given to dive in and sell to the group.
The client runs the group in public at his expense and he refrains from selling into the group more than once a month for his own products. It was clearly time for an intervention and setting boundaries about what is acceptable behaviour in this group environment.
3 Types of ‘Sales Pitch’
1) The first was the lady who listed the equipment for sale. I messaged her privately and she told me that despite getting a huge reaction from the group, it was a private sale and she sold it to a friend, offline. We let this pass as just a one-off. Clearly every member of the group won’t be listing items weekly.
2) The second was a lady who runs an Instagram account through which she gives ‘free training programmes’. We checked out what she does and came to the decision that she’s not making a living out of this. And so I am classifying her as a ‘volunteer’. But her actions need to be curtailed because regular postings promoting her services (even though they are free) would upset the balance of the discussion dynamic already established.
Actions to mitigate impact
We messaged the Instagram lady privately, explaining she can publish her stuff on the website via an existing ‘submit post’ feature where community notices are published. This is important because although it publishes to the blog, it is set up to avoid getting into the newsletter, the Facebook page and other communications channels. She does get indexed by the SEO spiders, gets link backs, but does not get referenced or categorised in the archive.
3) By contrast, the third type of pitch was a post by a commercial sports professional trainer. When we reviewed it, we found it is definitely a paid promotion designed to recruit readers from the client’s Facebook group into HER email list and commercial program.
Actions to Arrest Unwanted Activity
First I turned off comments on this post. Nobody can add to them, and this helps prevent Facebook showing it in feed updates. We also removed all her replies in the comments because they linked to her programme over and over again.
Then we wrote to her privately asking her to get in touch by email so she can pay to promote her products on our platforms, along with other commercial retailers (the website is advertising supported). I am waiting to see what her reply to this Facebook message will be – if she’s contrite and apologetic, I’ll leave her post published; if she takes no action to reply or is aggressive and rude, I’ll delete it and block her from the group.
Behavioural boundaries are yours to define
The underlying logic is that commercial enterprises pay, and volunteers can get access as part of the goodwill of the group. The commercial publicist had made no effort to engage and join in the group discussion – she just joined, dove in and started selling. That’s not how this group rolls.
Making the rules for the group is part of good practice in community management. You can publicise these with a pinned post, or a message to new members explaining what is and is not acceptable.
Enforcing the boundaries will help you to create the group and community YOU want. Know what actions you will take if the boundaries are crossed and also understand how to take discussions into a private space – you don’t want to have a public argument while you try to explain your motives. And you don’t even need to explain them, only the acceptable behaviours.
This article first appeared on NZ Entrepreneur Magazine
No related posts.
What not to do in an email campaign
/1 Comment/in Email, Marketing, Marketing ideas /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamOnce you send an email, it’s impossible to recall it back. Once you send an email with a mistake, you can kiss your reputation goodbye.
In the case of MTV bringing their popular television show, MTV Unplugged, to New Zealand, their advertising strategy left a lot to be desired.
MTV vs. Millennials
Earlier this year, in June, when MTV announced that they were doing an Unplugged series in New Zealand, Millennials across the nation rejoiced.
For those that don’t know, MTV Unplugged is a television show which features artists performing stripped back versions of their hit songs. The show has been featuring artists since 1989, so you can imagine the excitement when MTV NZ announced this news on Facebook.
The artist they’d chosen to feature in the first ever episode of MTV Unplugged NZ was Maala, a singer-songwriter of electric-pop music. Tickets were free but limited. To enter, you had to submit your details and await an email.
Email #1
In the excitement of winning tickets, it’s understandable that we could forgive the use of Times New Roman and just the overall lacklustre layout in this email sent en masse to all winners.
On closer inspection, there are a few more things wrong with this.
Email received 07th July, which is a Friday. Instructions are to RSVP by Monday 10th July to confirm tickets.
What is wrong with this? Firstly, for those that entered with their work emails, or don’t check emails on the weekend, it’s likely that this email would go unread by many until recipients were back into the work groove on Monday.
Secondly, three days can be considered a bit short notice to make plans.
Thirdly, Wednesday 12th August, 2017, doesn’t exist! It did in the year 2015, but unfortunately, time travel isn’t an option just yet.
Email #2
Well, that’s embarrassing! We can either assume that this little big mistake missed the multiple rounds of test emails, or that the marketing team skipped testing completely. At least they finally realised that serif fonts weren’t the best way to convey their messages.
A few things to take note:
Email #3
Do you think they got the hint that a single weekend wasn’t enough to wait for RSVPs? Or perhaps people found they couldn’t make it on Wednesday, 12th August, 2015?
Either way, they extended the RSVP date until the morning before the event. They also jumped back on board the serif train and still haven’t learnt that the way to communicate with digital natives is either through gifs, cat videos, or really, anything with a picture and a splash of colour.
This is a prime example of what not to do
So, MTV Unplugged hit New Zealand’s shores with quite a splash, and probably not in the best way. They also sent me an email confirming my tickets three times. Did this mean I had two tickets or six? Very confusing.
All in all, it’s a great example of how badly a brand’s reputation can be hurt by a few simple rookie mistakes. The whole event felt rushed, and while it progressed somewhat smoothly on the day, we can all learn that emails are still very important!
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Otago Access Radio interview with Rebecca Caroe
/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Rebecca CaroeI was delighted to be interviewed for Otago Access Radio with host Simon Fawkes on his popular b2m Business Insights podcast.
We discussed why 99% of new websites fail.
Click the image to listen.
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Sir Gordon Tietjens – Owning High Performance
/0 Comments/in Conferences / Exhibitions /by Rebecca CaroeSpeaking at the EMA Managers and Team Leaders Conference. My notes.
I’m playing for Samoa and my goal to take Samoa to the Olympics in 2020 – as a coach it’s always about we not about I. TEAM = together everyone achieves more.
When I was first appointed in 1994 I wanted to create a culture on traditional values, honesty, humour, humility, respect. Athletes go out and perform for me – you empty the tank.
You can see humility in someone quickly. Federer got beaten by Nadal at Wimbledon – Federer gained in defeat, losing although painful was still a gain. it was the greatest game of tennis ever. It hurts when you lose but it doesn’t mean failure if you gave it everything you have.
Why were the AB 7s team successful? 12 world series, 2 world cups and beaten in the quarter final at the Olympics by Fiji. I saw that as just one tournament. I didn’t have the best players, but I had the best teams.
Read more
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Foster Innovation at the NZ Marketing Summit 2017
/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Branding, Conferences / Exhibitions, Marketing, Marketing ideas, Public Speaking /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamSpark ideas, develop strategies, and add value to your brand while joining New Zealand’s leading marketers at the annual NZ Marketing Summit. Listen to our own CEO, Rebecca Caroe, in her session on “Strengthening the brand-agency partnership – how to work with an expert (when you aren’t one)”.
Attend Four International Keynotes
Explore Three Programming Tracks
Along with the 20+ speakers featured, the Marketing Summit offers a choice of two full-day workshops. “The Content Workshop” and “Brand Building Blocks 2.0” will be held the following day on September 22nd.
Join and connect with 300+ fellow industry professionals in generating and exchanging insights to fuel brand development. You can register before 5pm on August 25th and secure early bird pricing.
SKYCITY Convention Center, Auckland
21 September 2017
8:30am – 5:00pm
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