My name is Brian LeCount. I started R.O.Why! Marketing, a full-service Cincinnati marketing firm, to change the agency business - or at least our little slice of it.  I believe that marketing should be treated like any other corporate investment.  Marketing efforts must produce real, verifiable results, and our work for clients delivers just that.  We're here to grow your business, not win awards.  When we do that, everyone wins.

I was inspired today by a great blog post by Seth Godin.  In it, he compares marketers to lawyers, charged not necessarily with telling the truth, but with arguing for the client, their product, their practices, etc.  We're paid to claim that our client's products are the best, even if they are not.  Clients hire us to build email marketing campaigns, event marketing programs, interactive marketing strategies, and other marketing strategy efforts to sell the product or the service, even if it's not the best; even if the customer would be better off with nothing at all, or heaven forbid, a competitor's product.

What about when a client hires a Cincinnati advertising agency like R.O.Why! Marketing?  They want email marketing tips and ROI marketing programs that grow their business.  They need a newsletter and they know that what they need is a newsletter.  But what if they don't?  What if they're wrong?  What if they really need something else?  What if R.O.Why! Marketing isn't right for them?

It's happened before, on each end of the spectrum.  Just this week we landed a client who felt that email marketing was what they needed.  While email marketing does need to be a part of the mix, we believed it was not the right time.  After we considered the ultimate marketing results they were looking for, their culture, the budgets and timeframes, we felt strongly that blogging for business was best for them.  We could have just sold them an email marketing program for more money and more profit.  It would have been easier, but it wasn't right.  Their audience expects more and while we were hired to serve the client, I believe we were really hired to serve their customer.

We've also had to walk away from business because the product couldn't live up to the marketing claims.  The company needed to make dramatic changes to the product itself in order to make it competitive, and good for customers, and worth buying. 

As Seth says "...marketers still have the chance to be believed. But trust belongs to statesmen, not lawyers."

We just finished a fun contest for one of our clients that uses our blogging for business platform.  The blogger with the most posts in June won a Flip Ultra video camera. 

We're coaching this client to post great blog content on a frequent basis in order to develop a more casual dialogue with their market, further their brand development efforts, and also to accomplish the search engine optimization goals we have agreed on. 

Blogging for business doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming, but it does take some effort to get into the habit.  Upon announcing the contest, the blogging really took off.  As a result, blog and website traffic have tripled since April, with much of that traffic created in June, and we have a very, very excited client who can't wait to receive her new video camera.  (Have you seen these things?  Very cool.)

In order for blogging for business to succeed (and long term success is still on the horizon here...), R.O.Why! Marketing not only needed to deliver a great blog platform that was built for search engine optimization, but we also needed to help each blogger create the interest, time and passion for blogging.  For the cost of one great dinner out, the contest helped create that spark amongst an entire team of people, and now they're reaping the benefits.  When was the last time your blog and website traffic tripled?

There's an opportunity here for every marketer to identify what we need our audiences to do in order to help us all succeed in the long run (yes, buy stuff, but what else?) and to find exciting ways to help them do it.  Contests are just one way.  Peter Shankman's figured out a way.  Events and PR stunts are another.  Speaking of, have you seen his book? 

I love to see a client win, and have enjoyed reviewing the statistics on the search engine optimization and blog network that R.O.Why! Marketing delivered to them. 

MDI Medical is a rehab therapy staffing firm  that works with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists, send them on assignments across the country.  Based outside of Atlanta, MDI chose R.O.Why!, a Cincinnati marketing firm, to deliver a variety of marketing programs including website enhancement, search engine optimization, email marketing and a sophisticated blogging for business platform.

Search engine optimization has produced the following stats on rolling month site visits:

• Rolling month site visits up to 2,208 (5/27/08 - 6/26/08) up from 1,952 & 1,052 for 2 previous periods
• Nearly 52% of site traffic in June is from search engines (up from 33% in May)
• 688 keywords triggered 1,040 visits in June (up from 203 keywords & 459 visits in May)

Blogging for business has produced:

• 174 visits in April
• 318 visits in May
• 509 visits in June
• 1 keyword drove traffic in April
• 41 keywords drove traffic in May
• 146 keywords drove trafic in June

Great to see the work paying off!  Have a similar story of results?  Please share it!

Ever have one of those moments when all of the clutter seemed to just fade away and you became laser focused on what was truly important?  I am enjoying a morning full of that type of focus today.

As I prepare for an upcoming vacation in a couple weeks, I spent some time this morning working through my list of priorities.  Client needs come first.

• What ROI marketing projects need to be completed before I leave and/or return?
• What loose ends can we handle now?
• What email marketing campaigns are scheduled for that week?
• Does each client understand what our next steps are and are the deliverables abundantly clear?
• What items do I NOT want to see on my list when I return?
• What search engine optimization, pay-per-click, email marketing performance, interactive marketing and blog analytics reports need to be delivered?

Then came the business development and administration side. 

• Are the bills paid?
• Are invoices current?
• What reports do I need?
• How many proposals are still out for companies looking for a Cincinnati advertising agency?
• Are any proposals due before I return?
• How many can be closed before I leave?  Wow - at least 3 can!
• Can we decide on the new hire before I leave?
• What about the office location search?

If you're like me, you often wish you could work like it's your last week (or day!) before vacation.  Isn't it amazing how quickly the clutter falls to the side and you focus all of your talents and efforts on those things that are the most important?

All of these things I'll be working on for the next 10 days or so are focused on what matters - RESULTS.  Marketing results and ROI for clients, meeting deadlines, keeping promises, delivering, delivering, delivering.

As marketers, we can learn from this and apply the same rigor to the campaigns we're running and the work we do each day.  How many of the things that are on your plate today, this week or next are truly focused on delivering results?  How many of these 'projects' are truly necessary?  How many meetings don't you need to have? 

What would happen if you got rid of all the junk that doesn't matter for just 2 weeks?

If you reduced everything you spend your time on to a bulleted list of the most important things, how much of your daily work would survive the cut?

Marketers, get focused!  Improve your email marketing campaign now.  Stop himming and hawing about the brand development efforts and the strategy.  Make a decision, act, and make some progress this week.  Cut the fluff from the ad campaign, focus on why the reader/viewer/recipient should care and create some results.

You know what's great about this?  Except for client requests, if it's not on the list, I won't be spending time on it for the next two weeks.  Like the boxes that have been in my basement since we built the house 5 years ago, if it won't get my attention in the near term, will it ever really make it back on my priority list?  Was it really important at all to begin with?

It's inspiring to meet people who work for companies that really understand what brand development means.  Over the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed getting to know a local market research company, yet even as I write this it seems unfair to place them in that category.

At the risk of this sounding like a restaurant review, I'll describe what I found.

What I have experienced is a company filled with some of the most fascinating people I've met in a long time, who together create an atmosphere that is infectious.  From the moment I read their website I was drawn to them.  Upon entering their offices I felt like I was stepping into someone's home, and from the first introduction it was clear I had found a diamond in the rough.

There are no mission statements or corporate values on the walls, but everyone has had a hand in crafting them, and each person I met truly knows what they mean and lives them everyday in their work.  No Madison Avenue advertising agency was hired to create the brand, but it is very much alive. 

In discussing what we might do for this company, I was delighted to discover that for this team and this company, it truly isn't about the marketing.  And it really never should be, should it?  But all too often I see companies whose taglines are more impressive that the product itself - where the company, the people, and the product or service can't live up to the hype.  In fact, it needs the hype to get in the door.

Here, at this tiny little boutique research shop, there is no need for gleaming signage, billboards and television commercials.  There will be no mass communication strategy designed to blanket the country with buzz.  The role of the marketing programs we deliver will simply be to let the good stuff out.

We won't be creating the story; the story already is, and it grows as new pages are added everyday.  At most, we'll bring some structure to a message that has taken on a life of its own.

What's exciting is that this company has done it in the right order.  They've taken something as old and potentially boring as market research and innovated the solution to such a degree that clients get to know their customers in ways they never imagined.  They quietly built the product first, then tested it, perfected it, wowed clients with it for years, developed an experience around its delivery that can't be had elsewhere, and created a magnetic force around them that draws onlookers in at rates the best sales executive would drool over.

Brand development wasn't an initiative.  It's what happened when a small team set out to do something great.  And it's become a movement with serious momentum.

Now they're ready to let some of this story out.   Now they're ready for marketing, and humbly, marketing will take its place as the enabler - not the reason for being in the first place.

As any individual or corporate blogger knows, comments posted to your blog are an important element to building a dynamic conversation and an ongoing relationship with your readers.  It is very important to solicit comments whenever possible, asking customers, employees, partners and even the general public to chime in with their reactions to your posts.  This feedback on your blog give you a sense for how your message is resonating, allowing you to directly address comments and perhaps tailor your communication to better suit your readers' interests.

While the tone, nature and information shared in comments posted to a personal blog may be of little concern, when it comes to blogging for business, oversight of your blog posts and comments is critical.   Organizational blogging efforts must strike a delicate balance between freeing the passionate voices within and the external market to share their insights with the corporate need to keep the blog on strategy from a branding and messaging standpoint.

For example, today we received a comment posted to our blog that began as follows:

"Our web is wholesale jewelry. This is the largest wholesaler of the jewelry and all the commodities made by handmade. You can wholesale thousands of jewelry easily and quickly. The minimum order is $100. We specialize in..."

This is of course a blatant attempt to promote products & services by an unethical marketer.  Instead of finding blogs specific to the wholesale jewelry business, this person is attempting to post advertisements on every blog they can find.

Had our blog been built using some of the free tools out there, this comment may have made it onto our blog unnoticed, confusing our readers and eroding the value of our blogging efforts overall. 

Instead, we use a blogging for business platform that helps protect the company from off-strategy posts and comments, and ensures that we deliver valuable blog content that our readers want.  The marketing-related conversations being held on our blog don't get interrupted by irrelevant messages, and our relationships remain protected.

Want to see a demo of a blog platform that delivers all the benefits of blogging for business (including automatically keyword optimized blogs built on a search engine marketing strategy) while delivering the brand and messaging oversight that's critical to your business?  Click the Contact Us link above to get in touch.

I just finished reading a great new whitepaper from Compendium CEO Chris Baggott.  (Compendium is R.O.Why! Marketing's blogging solution partner.)  Entitled Corporate Blogging and Email Marketing: Why They Work Together, the paper addresses how effective marketers (and their advertising agencies!) are using these two proven tools to acquire customers and cultivate strong relationships.

A study by the Pew Center for Internet & American Life notes that email and search are the tied as the number one online activity.  Email marketing best practices have long proved that email is ineffective for acquisition; for that we must turn to search.

But how do we fully leverage search when pay per click (PPC) advertising is costly and, as pointed out by Marketing Sherpa, captures only a small portion of the available market?  Organic search is the answer, however another problem surfaces:  the vast majority of corporate websites are not updated with enough new content frequently enough to effectively accomplish dominant search positions.

As Chris Baggott points out, "What’s needed here is an easy to execute strategy for targeting large numbers of keywords and ranking on them in the organic results. This is where organizational blogging comes in.  At the end of the day, search engines want to deliver relevant content."

He continues by explaining that the relevance of your content is driven by:
•    Page titles
•    Keywords
•    Recency and frequency
•    Humanization
•    Metrics - bounce rates, page visits, visit duration


From Chris's piece, blogging for business make sense for a few key reasons:

1. Mr. Edelman of the Edelman Trust Barometer says that "Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog –and I say this as a CEO blogger."
2. "Widespread employee blogging presents an opportunity for many new pages of relevant and closely related content thus increasing your document collection."
3. "By organizing blog content around specific keywords and topics instead of authors, business blogs become laser focused on serving up only the most relevant content based on the searchers input."

Although the adoption of blogging for business by corporations is growing rapidly, we're clearly just at the beginning.  However, as more organizations embrace the idea of leveraging employees for content creation and integrating email marketing with it, latecomers will find it increasingly difficult to own their market via their blogs.

If you'd like a copy of the whitepaper, please contact me at blecount [at] rowhymarketing [dot] com.

Thanks to Chris for a great piece, and to Compendium for supporting R.O.Why! Marketing with a great blogging solution.  Our clients love it and we look forward to introducing many more people to the platform this year.

Today a client of R.O.Why! Marketing received a comment on one of their blog posts that was somewhat antagonistic.  The comment questioned a company policy, and our client was torn on whether or not to reply, and if they did, how they should frame the response.

We helped them realize that interaction with your audience and creating a more personal relationship is what blogging for business is all about.  Positive or negative, a comment on your blog should almost never go ignored.  A potential customer was reaching out to them, and while perhaps they did not use the best approach, the situation presented a great opportunity to differentiate.

Our client delivered an outstanding response to the blog comment, clarifying the company's policy, explaining the reasons for it, and how such a policy was a benefit to the great people they serve.  Whether the person who commented will respond is not the point.  Instead, the company demonstrated more of who they are, approaching the situation with humility and a willingness to deliver value.  The search engines will find this response, and so will searchers, and in doing so they will learn one more reason why this company is different from the competition.

When your readers take the time to respond to your blog posts, welcome the opportunity to respond.  Thank them for the comment, deliver real value, and introduce a side of your company that your website will likely never reveal.  They may end up becoming a customer one day, or perhaps you'll leave an impression that will encourage a recommendation in the future.

Happy blogging....

Fun day to be talking about blogging for business as a marketing strategy.  We have been working with a client for about a month on a blogging platform we delivered.  It can always be a little tough getting started with your blog.  What will I blog about?  When should I blog? I don't have time for this!  All familiar comments we hear, but as you progress, your blogging for business radar starts to heat up.

Our client is a rehab therapy staffing company with lots of passionate folks.  And they're busy - really busy - supporting hundreds of traveling therapy professionals and trying to fill thousands of jobs.  Along comes this guy from a Cincinnati marketing firm towing the blogging for business line.  So we get them started, slowly at first, at looking for things in their day that would make for great blog posts. The management team has also had some fun promoting the blogs internally, and today held their first blogging for business lunch.  Free lunch for anyone who's willing to eat & blog.

The results?  Happy staff and 11 new blog posts today!  Hats off to Monica, Autumn, Lindsey, Larry, Luke and Katie for creating some great new content. 

They've got blog posts on everything from how to find a great job and the Fish! philosophy, to working with recruiters and hospitals, and even a post about flying monkeys. 

They're having fun with it now, and starting to form even tighter relationships with a market that their blogs are beginning to help them grow.  This is exactly what blogging for business is all about.  Let the outside world in.  Empower your people to be positive public voices for the company.  Let the passion out. 

Here are a few quick steps to help your team develop some energy around blogging for business:

1.  Spend a little time educating your team on what a blog is and what it's for.
2.  Train the team on what to blog about, how often, and exactly how to do it.
3.  Coach them along the way with content ideas and suggestions for including keywords to get the SEO benefits
4.  Encourage candid (but appropriate) dialog on the blogs
5.  Make it fun.  Share fun stories with your audience, not just the hard facts.
6.  Provide incentives. Hold 'blogging for business' lunches, have a contest for the most frequent blogger, etc.

But the first step?  Just get started.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing." 

"Taking action is better than standing still."

Is it really?  Just because you're sending out those sales letters each week doesn't mean it's getting you anywhere. Sure, you have a monthly email marketing broadcast, but are people reading it?  Is it really helping you form deeper connections with customers?  If the answer isn't a clear and resounding "Yes, and here's how we measure it," you need to be open to the idea that it all might just be a giant waste of time.

Here's an example.  I recently had a problem with a piece of software we use.  It wasn't doing what it was supposed to.  I contacted the company, explained the problem, and asked for them to look into it.  Within 24 hours I had a reply from support:  "I've done A, B, and C.  Please let me know if the problem persists."  Super, so I go check, and the problem is still there.  What's more, the person could have seen this before even replying.  Don't they realize that I'm less interested in the action they took than I am in making the problem go away?  I want a solution, not a description of what you did.

Your marketing needs to deliver solutions.  Your executives who hold your feet to the fire don't care how many email marketing broadcasts you send.  They don't care how many tradeshows you attend and flyers you print.  It doesn't matter how many impressions your brand development efforts make.  They want results.

Your customers want the same.  Give them value.  Make something about their life better, faster, more enjoyable, more efficient, cost less.  They don't care about what you're saying.  Change something big for them.

In many B2B marketing environments, there is a belief that the marketing strategy and communications plan has to be different from that of consumer companies; that companies buy differently than people do.  While you may be dealing with longer sales cycles and purchasing departments, committees and POs, I believe that the purchase decision in a B2B environment is far more similar to that in B2C than it is different.

Whether you're picking out a new pair of shoes for yourself, or new wireless devices for your distributed sales organization, I believe you'll buy from people (and brands) that you like.  Once B2B marketers and sales teams get through the lengthy sales process, the proposals and price quotes (ick are those no fun,) most find that it comes down to the one on one relationship between people within the buying and selling organizations. 

My accountant is someone I like personally.  So is my banker, my IT consultant, the owner of my payroll company, and my insurance broker.  Sure, we went through a needs analysis, proposals and contract negotiations, but first and foremost, I liked them.

Your customers are no different.  I understand that you sell complex ERP software that needs buy in from many different stakeholders.  Yes, there's an RFP process that you have to follow to have a chance of winning the bid for that new facility your company will build for the customer.  But if they don't like you, personally, your odds of winning go way down.  If they don't identify with you and the brand you represent, you're out.

To like you, customers must get to know you and your people.  They need to get on the inside, understand how you think, and see the human side of your organization.  This is why blogging for business makes so much sense.  By allowing your employees to have a public voice, your customers get to see and hear who you really are.  Blogging for business isn't the same as any other form of business writing.  Blog writing teaches humility, and in each post we discover the person behind it.  The personality, the passions, the expertise.  Our customers start to form a bond with us as they identify with our thinking.

Open up your business and let your customers in.  Get rid of the corporate marketing speak, and let your employees share their voice.  Speak to your market in the same way your favorite personal brands speak to you.  You'll soon discover that your customers buy from people they like as well.

Here at R.O.Why! Marketing, we've had quite the new business development push going, and it's really starting to pay off.  We are very fortunate to have been recently chosen as the Cincinnati marketing firm by two area companies: DocuStar and also by Star Base Consulting.  We will be delivering a variety of solutions including marketing strategy, email marketing, direct mail, interactive marketing, and a corporate blogging platform.

The other story behind our new business push is the flurry of requests we're receiving for quotes.  It seems that many firms are talking with Ohio marketing agencies and shopping price.  We are being asked for quotes on search engine optimization, quotes on ROI marketing measurement, quotes for email marketing programs, etc. 

While we certainly appreciate the interest, we will not reduce what we do to a commodity.  At R.O.Why! Marketing we sell marketing solutions that grow businesses.  Period.  Have a problem like too few leads?  Not enough sales?  Customers not fully engaged?  We can help you solve that, but it starts with a relationship.  We need to build one together in order to properly address your challenge.

How much to send emails to my database?
In one example, a company asked us for a quote for an email marketing program.  Well, anyone can provide email software.  Anyone can deliver a tool at a price, but it's what you get for that price, the expertise in email marketing, the best practices, knowing what to avoid, the support, the on call status, etc. that makes all the difference in the world.  I just can't communicate all of that without meeting the company. or without writing a ridiculously long proposal that no one would read.  You need to hear it in my voice, read it in my face, shake my hand and know that you're talking to the company that CAN make it happen.

We sell the solution to the problem, the expertise.  The tool is just the tool, and if it's just quoted like that, it will be compared to other tools without an appropriate appreciation for the differences in features/functionality, and the company and people behind it.

Everything can be obtained cheaper.  Are you sure that's what you want?

We went live on some major back end upgrades to a client website today at www.MDIMedical.com.  While we were not engaged to work much on the site's design, we rewrote and organized all of the content in a much more intuitive way.  Here, we're all about delivering ROI marketing strategies, so we built some strong calls to action into a common sidebar that should help drive qualified sales and marketing leads for the company, and work to help us monetize the entire marketing strategy.

R.O.Why! Marketing has also delivered a corporate blogging platform consisting of 5 company bloggers and a little over a dozen targeted keyword blogs.  As bloggers post new content on the specific keyword topics, they'll begin to rank much more effectively in the search engines, helping out the overall search engine optimization effort significantly.   

Overall, we completed the following:

1) Organized and architecture files into bookmark / search engine optimization-friendly folder structures
2) Modified layout to polish the overall look and feel without changing the brand
3) Improved the page aesthetics to deliver a cleaner appearance
4) Use general include files so future updates, redesigns and new modules can be "plugged-in" much more efficiently (header, footer, sidebar, etc.)
5) Improve child menus within the navigation to be css-driven & easier to manage
6) Replace most inline javascript into modular included .js files, and use asp to replace javascript code bloat where applicable.
7) Created page-level meta keywords and descriptions support which was not previously present
8)  Applied the new page template code to the ExactTarget email marketing signup confirmation pages
9)  Crafted new, discipline-specific pages of content for each the clients 3 primary audiences

We have many more big plans for the site, but this was just a first attempt to clean things up a bit, give users clear calls to action, launch the blogging platform, and prepare for future upgrades.  We're looking forward to the redesign of the overall brand in the future.

So, what's this Atlanta-based company doing with an Ohio marketing agency?  They sought out a firm with specific healthcare staffing expertise and found us. 

We love when that happens!

What do you love?

Hate?

Think?

Believe?

Feel?

Wish?

Really interesting project going on right now that's cataloging what people think about.  Culling through thousands of Tweets, Twistori is unearthing what's in our hearts and minds.  What we dream about, yearn for, what we would like more of.  What keeps us up at night.

What about our customers?  Do they really care about blogging for business?  Are their hearts on fire for their brand?  Is event marketing really what makes them tick?  Do they really need more email marketing tips?  Each day, are they incessantly hunting for a new Cincinnati advertising agency?

What do they yearn for?  What keeps them up at night?  How much do we really know about what our customers truly want? 

At the end of the day, I don't think our customers here at R.O.Why! Marketing really care about any of that.  They're not out there trying to buy internet marketing consulting services.  They're not looking for another marketing firm, a print advertising campaign that wins an award (for their agency) or the next great interactive marketing campaign.

Here's what they do want:

1.  More sales
2.  Higher profits
3.  Better service
4.  Fewer hassles
5.  Less bull
6.  Someone (dare it be their agency?) to take their hand and lead them

What's fun about my job is cutting through all the crap, thinking like a business owner for our clients, and leading them to efficient, profitable business growth.  But to do that, you have to know what your customers really care about.  You need a Twistori that reveals your customers' hopes, dreams and fears. 

Alternatively, you could just set your agenda aside and listen to them.

The concept and even some great applications of 1:1 Marketing have been around for some time.  Sending not only personalized communications, but highly targeted content to your target market maximizes relevance and has been proven to significantly grow response rates.  The challenge that many face is not as much the strategy surrounding such campaigns, but how to effectively execute them.

Your Data is Key
In order to move beyond simple personalization to highly relevant, customized communications, it is critical that your database contain significant information on your target market.  You need to move beyond demographics to include psychographic and behavioral data.  One of the best ways to accomplish this is in the effective integration of CRM and web analytics systems.

ExactTarget is R.O.Why! Marketing's email services technology partner.  We use this platform to deliver interactive marketing communications for our clients and the primary reason we chose them was the strides they've made in connecting the dots of the customer communication lifecycle.  From the standpoint of understanding the variables of effective customer communications, they just get it.  In addition, ExactTarget has put the tools in place to help marketers leverage their data to communicate effectively via email, SMS, and voice broadcast.  They have developed the APIs to allow for easy integration with third party systems, and they have truly put the marketer in control of the customer relationship.

Using the tools available today, marketers can truly take their communications to 1:1.  Some examples include triggered email marketing communications that leverage behavioral data to drive the process.  These tools allow marketing firms and their clients initiate communications not only based on what they currently know, but on what their customers do next, and to leverage a platform to efficiently develop and deliver content that is more relevant than anything they've used before.

For example:

• Webinar registrants get follow up communications about a series of whitepapers or case studies
• Downloading a piece triggers an email with content specific to what was downloaded
• Action on the custom content drives a printed direct mail follow up with a PURL and custom landing page
• Action on the landing page triggers a phone call follow up with a custom set of solutions presented

Again, what's critical in making this work is the data.  What do you know about your customer now, and what data must you collect at each point of interaction to better customize each follow up communication?

Step 1?  Get the database ready.

I had a meeting with a business owner and the VP of sales recently to discuss the findings of their new customer & prospect research project, which would culminate in a new marketing strategy and marketing communications plan.  They had recently hired a Cincinnati advertising agency, but were less than pleased with the output.

I had met this company before.  I understood the business.  They fit nicely into a box called IT staffing and services.  Yet pouring through the volumes of feedback, a very different company was coming to life in the comments from its customers and prospects.  What became clear was that this company was, and would become, much more.

Having long ago set the goal of distancing itself from the commodity business of staff augmentation and consulting services, this company was already delivering the 'trusted expert', solution oriented experience.  The problem is that too few people knew it.  Customers' understanding of the business was limited to the services they purchased.  Most had no idea the depth and breadth of talent and experience that lived here.  

It was time to start telling the story.

As we pieced together the major elements of the marketing strategy, this new direction fit the company better than the path they are currently on.  We needed to capitalize on the intellectual capital resident in the people.  We need to get them talking, blogging, and connecting with customers and prospects.  We must capture customer successes and tell powerful stories of how this firm has changed the business landscape for its customers.  We must define and claim a thought leadership position in the market, sharing educational content and valuable resources at every opportunity.  The enthusiasm for this newfound clarity permeated the room.

Then it was time to talk about the identity.

Considering the time and expense of historical brand development efforts, the owner of the firm preferred to 'stick with the logo we have.'  Sure, as a business owner I can understand the complications of such a change.  Materials, market communications, and the associated efforts can be expensive.  Meanwhile there's a closet full of trinkets with the current logo.  He felt like he'd be taking a few steps back before really getting started.  I understand.

The problem is that the packaging no longer fits the product.  The product is amazing.  It changes businesses.  It delivers increased productivity and revenue, decreases costs across the enterprise, and lays out a deliberate path for using IT as a strategic advantage.  Yet it's sold in a paper bag.

The market can't see it.  They can't sample it's uniquness.  They can't form a connection with a brand that doesn't clearly fit the products, services, and people it represents.  It gets pre-judged before anyone has a chance to realize its value.  It doesn't form a connection, tell a powerful story, and inspire the market to act.  And so, neither will the company.  Judging a book by its cover may not be fair, but you do it everyday, and so do your customers.

Does your brand fit?

Great article in Fast Company this month about Ning.com, and the underlying concept of the 'viral expansion loop' not only has implications for marketers, it is in fact redefining how marketing is done.

From the article, a viral expansion loop is:

"... a type of engineering alchemy that, done right, almost guarantees a self-replicating, borglike growth: One user becomes two, then four, eight, to a million and beyond. It's not unlike taking a penny and doubling it daily for 30 days. By the end of a week, you'd have 64 cents; within two weeks, $81.92; by day 30, about $5.4 million.

Viral loops have emerged as perhaps the most significant business accelerant to hit Silicon Valley since the search engine. They power many of the icons of Web 2.0, including Google, PayPal, YouTube, eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Flickr. But don't confuse a viral loop with viral advertising or videos such as Saturday Night Live's "Lazy Sunday" or the Mentos-Diet Coke Bellagio fountain. Viral advertising can't be replicated; by definition, a viral loop must be."

This isn't just viral marketing, where a user finds something cool and passes it on, and they pass it one, and so on.  Instead, the viral expansion loop gets people involved in identifying and organizing the content, and even the network itself.  I create a network on ROI marketing, for example, and I invite my friends.  They get involved and networks on search engine marketing, email marketing, and blog marketing result.  What happens over time is that the more people involved, the more networks created, the more valuable it becomes and eventually, everyone is on some type of network.  The network creates new networks constantly, resulting in extremely niche-focused content and users.  What you end up with is "millions of little networks within narrow channels, each delivering the kind of targeted advertising that Google rode to vast riches," the article concludes. 

As a marketer, this really starts to change the game.  Instead of only trying to identify and target a specific type of consumer, (and networks like those on Ning make that even more possible,) I can in fact, play a role in creating such a network from scratch.

I've been thinking lately on how much technology has changed the way we communicate, particularly email, and how as a result, our customer relationships have changed.  In some ways, I might say that they are even in danger.

What happened to the phone?
In a day & age when communication is so critical, it is amazing to me how many people prefer to use email vs. the phone.  We call it multitasking, or the need to 'document a conversation', but by doing so, aren't you really saying to a customer 'Gee, I really don't feel like talking to you.  It's so much easier for me to whip off this email to you, put the ball in your court, and move on to my next (more valuable) customers.'

We'd rather shoot off 100 emails a day, barely moving the communication along a step or two, when we could just pick up the phone, talk with our customers, and settle the issue at hand, close the deal, or resolve the support issue immediately.  Then there is the issue that email, no matter how well crafted, cannot deliver the proper tone.  An email sent in a hurry can come off as terse.  Capital letters to some mean that you're screaming.  Sales-related questions come off as empty pitches instead of a thought-filled desire to ask engaging questions and learn.

I think customers are craving more personal communication.  Instead we invest in fancy email marketing software that allows us to personalize the email as if it really was written just for them.  We invest in interactive marketing programs and 'one-to-one' direct marketing using PURL technology to mimic what used to take place between two people.

But we need these tools!
Yes, we do, and I'm not suggesting that they don't have their place.  However, I do think our customers are crying out for us to just pick up the phone and call once in a while.  I'm an avid emailer, and every once in a while I catch myself typing up an email and convincing myself that what I really ought to do is call.  So I call, and I'm quickly reminded of how much that small effort makes a difference.

It would have been easier for me to send a recent proposal to the prospective client in an email, based on the requirements discussed a week ago.  Instead I called, talked through the components, shared some pricing, and found out that there were a few other things the client wanted included.  In a 15 minute phone call, I learned that event marketing now needed to be part of the proposal, that a blogging platform might be necessary, and that the budget the client had in mind may not accommodate all of this.  Instead of emailing my proposal, waiting a week, learning that it needed more despite a limited budget, and then redrafting the document, we settled it all in 15 minutes.  That phone call saved days and I connected with the client in a way an email never would.

A few scenarios when the phone is better than email:

1. When you're delivering price information for the first time.  Never let the first time your customer sees price be in an email.  Discuss it with them first & get initial buy in or correction.
2. When delivering bad news of any kind.  You need the customer to hear the empathy in your voice.  An email can't do that.
3. When delivering good news.  This is your chance to shine!
4. Whenever you must disagree with something.  Most of us are passionate about our beliefs and in an email, that passion can come across as arrogance and an unwillingness to listen to all sides.

When in doubt, pick up the phone.

In general, it takes many more words to communicate a message and the intended tone in an email than it does on the phone or in person.  And think of how much you'll stand out?  Your competitors are filling customer inboxes with email.  Call your customers and stand out!

I stumbled upon this website (www.reactee.com) again and was reminded of what a fantastic one-to-one interactive marketing opportunity this is.  I love the fact that it gets attention, creates a reaction, and as marketers we can deliver a highly relevant message back.  Think about the possibilities for this in event marketing. 

Hand out tradeshow-specific shirts and deliver a custom message with an invite to visit a website, check out your blog, follow you on Twitter, or sign up for a webinar or case study download.  These would be great for street teams wanting to create a viral  marketing movement.  Imagine outfitting retail store employees with these shirts.  Text a code, receive a coupon on the spot.  Take your phone to the cash register to redeem it.

In a world where people look at what you wear, t-shirts have for a long time been used as a communication channel.  The problem is that message couldn't change.  Now it can.  I really like the possibilities with this.