One of our newest clients, KeenHire, has just launched a new software solution to aid hiring authorities, executive recruiters and search firms in conducting behavioral interviewing and selection that helps to dramatically reduce the negative impacts of a bad hire.

The release just hit the wires today.  As someone focused on ROI marketing, I'm interested not only in measuring the marketing results of a campaign, but also in using that data to predict future performance.  That's what the study of marketing analytics is all about - using what you know about the past to make more informed future decisions.

As an employer, I find it fascinating there are proven solutions and tools out there that help companies predict the future performance of a candidate before they are hired.  I've always understood that a person's skills and experience are truly only part of the determination of whether someone is qualified for the job.  However, by working with KeenHire, I've learned that the candidate's values, motivations, likely reactions to business scenarios, and ability to learn new skills - what many consider to be the most important hiring criteria - can actually be measured and predicted with a great degree of accuracy.  Suddenly the concept of 'the right fit' takes on a whole new meaning.

So in the future if we interview you for a job with this Cincinnati marketing firm, don't be surprised if we spend less time on your resume and much more on figuring out who your favorite Little Rascals, Looney Tunes, Sponge Bob or Family Guy characters are. 

In the words of the great Stewie Griffin:

"Come, ice cream. Come to my mouth. How dare you disobey me!"

Since graduation I have spent a majority of my time this summer focusing on horseback riding and my tan...not so much on my business skills. However, in the last two days I have been reminded of how the real world actually works. 

While in class at Miami University, I sat through many lectures in which i came out thinking: "That was useless."  I never thought I would actually have to use a majority of the small bits and pieces of information I learned from the classroom.  Boy, was I wrong!  Coming out of college I had every intention of joining a smaller, more entrepreneurial work atmosphere--preferably one that focused on marketing tools that help other small businesses get on their feet and get their name out to the public. 

Upon my arrival here at R.O.Why! Marketing, I have had to not only learn the ropes of working in a marketing consulting firm that specializes in internet marketing consulting and search engine optimization, but I have had to reach far into my memory for those small skills I obtained within the classroom.  I used to joke with a buddy of mine about his over abundance of knowledge in IT and computers, but now I am envious!

These first few days on my new feet have been a lot of fun, yet extremely tiring! The amount of knowledge I have acquired within the last three days has been nothing short of monstrous.  yet the amount and the different levels of difficulty have only left me wanting to come to work and learn more about ROI marketing and internet marketing.  I have a feeling this will be a fun and long journey here in the office!

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."

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?

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!

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.

A simple, yet powerful way to solidify client relationships & keep them coming back

How many times in the last 90 days have you found yourself searching for the next sales strategy, closing phrase, or probing question to help you win more business?  What can I use in my email marketing to help me get a better response rate and stronger marketing ROI?  If you’re like me, you couldn’t begin to count.  We’re always scouring books, trade and business journals looking for ways to apply the successes of others to our own business.  And when we find one that suits us well, we use it over and over again, often for many years.  

Here are two words that have more marketing, sales and relationship building power than many of the “tried and true” techniques, and that are often overlooked.  Used regularly and sincerely, they’ll help you build stronger ties with current and past customers, and help you stand out as in the future when they have additional needs.   We often forget to use them frequently enough and sometimes when we do use them, it can be easy for a client to mistake them for a disingenuous formality.

So what is this two-word silver bullet?  ‘THANK YOU’.  That’s it.  Say ‘Thank You’ to your customers and prospects early and often.  It’s easy to underestimate the power of these two simple words, but we can’t forget how rare it can be these days that customers hear it. Many salespeople, perhaps those at your competitors, speed the prospect through the sale, complete the purchase order and disappear.  The client is given a new point of contact and won’t hear from the salesperson again until they want to place another order.  Minimal questions answered, no ‘thank you’, just a terse ‘sign here.’

It goes without saying, but customers need to know that you want and appreciate their business.  And they need to hear it early in the relationship building process and often after the sale.  Think of any transaction you’ve ever made where you were delighted by the entire experience.  I’d be willing to bet that a significant component of that experience was a salesperson who was involved throughout, and who thanked you profusely.  There was probably no question in your mind that that person really did want and appreciate your business.  Perhaps they continue to thank you today, following up to ensure you are still happy.

The result?  You’re a satisfied customer.  They’re probably the only person you think of when it comes to buying their product or service, regardless of your knowledge of several competing options.  They took the time to stay in touch with you and to thank you often.  You knew they meant it, and because of that you’ll probably reward them with the next sale.  Making it a habit to thank your customers on a regular basis provides you with a number of benefits. 

• You’ll stay informed on future developments in their business.
• Customers will know you value their business
• It Keeps You Top of Mind
• It Makes Customers Feel Good

So the next time you reach the end of your prospect list and you still need to make some things happen, start calling your current and past customers.  Thank them again for their business, ask them how things are going, and they’ll know that their business really meant something to you.  And while you’re at it, listen for opportunities to add value to their business again.  You’ll undoubtedly learn from at least one of them that there’s a new challenge.  Ask for the opportunity to show them how you can solve it, and thank them again. 

For the small amount of your time calling that customer, you’ve brushed the dust off of some old relationships, renewed their confidence in the original purchase, and maybe you even have a shot at new business.  Not a bad return on investment.

Breaking down big revenue goals into actionable steps & aligning with sales

I keep running into sales & marketing alignment 'opportunities' and felt compelled to expand on my thoughts from a few posts ago...

If you're like most marketers, you struggle with how to champion your company's brand, set forth marketing programs that drive revenue and profit objectives, and to align your activities with the efforts of the sales team.  Add the responsibility of conducting ROI marketing and that's a big job!

Often times we see marketing communications strategies that 'swing for the fences'.  After all, that's what heavy hitters do, right?  But in baseball, the most successful players aren't always the home run kings; often they are those that get on base the most.  They hit singles and doubles consistently.

Marketing should do the same.

Now I'm not saying that we should take our eye off our financial targets, or broader brand development objectives, but by breaking down the big goals into smaller, easier-to-achieve milestones, I believe we stand a better chance of scoring big.

When it comes to email marketing, event marketing, interactive marketing, or other such lead-generation programs, focus your marketing communications on the sales cycle.  Focus your marketing strategies on the sales cycle  What steps does your sales team follow today?  I contend that every business has to do 4 things very well:

   1. Attract
   2. Cultivate
   3. Close
   4. Retain

Every sales organization has variations of these basic steps.  For some it's 5 steps, or even 10 or more, but the main objectives are the same.

Next, in which steps of your sales process is the team lacking?  Perhaps you're creating tons of highly qualified sales leads, but failing to cultivate the opportunity.  You might be finding great leads and cultivating well, but fall short at the close.  Proper marketing strategy can play a big role here.  Consider implementing a series of communications designed to mirror these steps in the sales process.

Attract:  Use your Cincinnati advertising agency for brand development and broad market awareness, and search engine optimization and blogging as attraction methods.  Cast a wide net

Cultivate:  Email marketing is built for building and maintaining relationships.  So are event marketing programs and interactive marketing endeavors.  Build an educational video series for your blog, or a strategic customer event to get in front of your market.  Use these opportunities to build a solid understanding of those you serve.

Close:  Of course, nothing happens if you don't make the sale.  Document your past successes and leverage case study programs and customer testimonials.  Deliver 3rd party content and proof of concept.  Demonstrate the use case and ROI.

Retain:  The worst thing you could do to a customer is leave them all alone.  Using the above methods and channels, deliver value added content.  Your email campaigns turn to a nurture marketing approach, offering tips, resources, and ideas on how to get more value.  Your blog is an obvious channel to deliver content from your product managers, engineers and manufacturing staff.  Leverage these channels to constantly collect customer feedback and new use cases.  Let your customers know you're listening and use their insight to improve the product or service, or to even build and entirely new one.

If there's one common mistake we see in small business marketing and that within larger enterprises, it's the fact that marketing communications programs are tasked with too much.  With such big expectations of any one effort, it's tough to deliver and even more difficult to measure.

Break down the big goals.  Create small wins.  Measure success in inches, not miles.  Focus on hitting lots of singles.  It's easier to win and make corrections when you're not swinging for the fences.

I don't think there's a company we've spoken to that didn't want a better return on their marketing investments.  Everyone understands the concept of demanding a tangible ROI from marketing.  The challenge lies in helping clients understand that in order to effectively monetize marketing results, you must break down the initiative into smaller, digestible parts.

Swinging for the Fences
When we evaluate marketing programs, the most common mistake we see, whether it be an interactive marketing program, an event marketing strategy, an email marketing newsletter, or even a brand development effort, is that the promotion itself is trying to accomplish too much.  If we understand the buying process, and embrace all of the steps necessary to take a someone from cold prospect to loyal customer, we can start to shed some light on this.  With the exception of pure impulse buys, how many times has one ad, one email, one promotion causes you to make a major purchase?  We shouldn't expect the same from our customers.

In my experience the best approach is to break down the overall goal of increased revenue into digestible steps that mirror the buying process.  At the simplest level, we need to attract, cultivate, close, and retain.  Now, what should your next print advertisement, tradeshow or customer event marketing program, or email marketing campaign be designed to accomplish?  I might argue that it should be one clearly-defined step in your sales process or the customer's buying process.

For example, if I do a great job of getting people to sign up for a webinar, attend it, download a whitepaper afterward, participate in a demo after that, and discuss their particular requirements with me following the demo, I stand a great chance of developing a solution that meets their needs and closing the sale.  My communications around each of these should focus on accomplishing just that one step.  My goal is to achieve multiple small commitments from a prospective customer that are likely to lead to a signature on the proposal. 

By separating my communications and properly aligning my expectations with the achievement of these small steps in the buying cycle, I stand a much better chance of measuring my success and marketing ROI on each endeavor, and monetizing the results along the entire spectrum of marketing programs.  That's how you build an effective ROI marketing strategy.

I met a good friend of mine yesterday for a breakfast meeting at a local First Watch restaurant.  I have to say, I do love this place.  Great menu, fast, attentive and efficient service.  Perfect for a business meeting.  Well, almost perfect.

We were discussing a variety of approaches to marketing strategy and small business marketing in general, and different methods used by advertising agencies and marketing firms in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Our conversation soon turned to blogging for business.  His client is interested in developing a blogging strategy and internet marketing effort to gain market awareness, position the company as an expert, and to attract search traffic.  Blogs can be a great tool for B2B companies to dominate market niches.

As we were talking I wanted to show my friend some example blogs, including this one and proceeded to try to connect to the free WiFi service at First Watch.  The problem?  We were short on time and when attempting to connect I was asked to register first.

Now, I'm a marketer, so I fully appreciate the desire to collect a small amount of information from customers wishing to connect to the service, but it struck me that this initiative went against some of the things that I like about First Watch.  To me, First Watch is fast, easy, comfortable, and accessible.  Yet accessing the WiFi service was slow and painful.  We asked our waitress if there was a quick way to connect without registering since we were short on time and she politely said she'd be happy to get me a pamphlet.  Huh?  I didn't want a pamphlet, I wanted to know how I could get online quickly.  It might have been better if she would have showed me just how fast I could be online by registering, and if she helped me understand that if I registered, maybe the next time I tried to access the service it would recognize me and log me in right away.

But wait.  I was already registered.  After filling out the registration form I learned that First Watch already had my email address in their system.  Then why was I asked to fill out the form again?  Why didn't it recognize me as a frequent user?

A Missed Marketing Opportunity
Long story short, we did get online and were able to conclude our meeting.  And the friendly staff efficiently cleared our table so we could meet without the mess, but I can't help think that First Watch may be missing some great internet marketing or email marketing opportunities here. 

First, get rid of that registration form.  Everyone gives away WiFi access and most don't make you jump through hoops to get it.  In my view, First Watch should take the opportunity to make everything they do as fast, friendly, efficient and comfortable as their restaurants.  If you can't take away the form entirely, consider asking for less information.  What information do you need from me right now to a) let me do what I need to do, and b) start to market to me with email marketing or offers or some type of interactive marketing that strengthen our relationship?  That will work to further develop the brand, it will make a mark that customers won't forget, and it will have them (and me) coming back for more.  Can we say ROI?

Second, you've got my email address.  Why haven't I received any communications from you?  Invite me back.  Make sure I know how many locations you have that are close to my business.  Remind me of how easy it is to conduct a business meeting at First Watch.  Throw me a coupon from time to time.  Ask me some questions about how you could serve me better.  Deliver some value in return for me giving you my contact information. 

I must say, First Watch gets it right on so many things.  I really do love the place and I bring many clients and friends there for a meeting.  But could they take another step or two and making sure I leave with a 'wow'?  You bet.

First Watch:  You know who I am.  Now, get to know me. 

How to Grow Interest, Attention, and Sales Using Strategic Customer Events 

As marketers, we are faced with innumerable opportunities to promote our brands while at the same time challenged by shrinking budgets and increased scrutiny over the marketing ROI of our campaigns.  Our universe of decision makers, influencers and supporters is growing as more people within the corporate enterprise play a role in purchasing decisions.  Finally, our customers and prospects are exposed to internet marketing, direct mail, advertising and other promotional messaging of all kinds more than ever before.  We’ve got to find a way to cut through the clutter, demonstrate real value, and build relationships based on our ability to solve today’s business problems.

If you want to quickly grow awareness in your target market, attract the right decision makers and influencers and build the level of credibility that only known experts attract, try using events to create lasting customer experiences. When used properly, strategic customer events can position you as the expert in your markets by creating a sense of urgency, addressing specific, current needs, and, delivering powerful educational information that your customers and prospects can’t get anywhere else.

Get the article & a case study here.

Ever hear this question?  Back when I was on the client side, I used to hear it all the time.  "Why don't we just hire more salespeople?" was a question I got asked quite a bit.  Here's a snipped of an article I wrote a while back.  Based on the feedback we consistently received from companies looking for a Cincinnati advertising agency, it's as relevent as ever.

Why Should I Spend More Money on Marketing?
This question has been asked of thousands of marketing executives and their ad agencies in the last decade.  And it’s a good one.  Why should you be given additional marketing dollars?  Advertising, branding, PR – none of these has an immediate impact on sales, do they?

Nothing spurs the demand for a clear picture of marketing ROI more than the current business climate.  As competition continues to go global, corporate spending is increasingly under the microscope as business leaders are charged with finding that elusive return on investment.

For decades the marketing function was immune from the demands of accountability for performance, seen as a necessary function that could not be measured.  But like other infrastructure investments, the executive team now demands near-immediate payback from marketing spending, or at a minimum, a schedule of when and how much ROI will be achieved.

Two key issues are behind the achievement of marketing ROI - a thorough understanding of the customer’s objectives, and an alignment of operational business processes with the customer’s buying process. 

Get the rest of the article here.