Theresa Q's Viewspage on Marketkeeping

Planning to share ideas in a sustainable way #li

Do you ever wonder if an idea is worth tweeting about? Wonder if you should spend more time saying something more original? Well, the answer is Yes and No. 

Here's an excellent way to plan your marketing communications, regardless of which media channels you use. I discovered this idea with Noah Brier, but the Robin Sloan article he mentions is also excellent. 

Ad Age Digital Next: How Mastering 'Stock and Flow' will Boost your Content Strategy, 2011-Nov-14, by Noah Brier

...The current state of content on the web: [moving] to "stock and flow," a metaphor coined by Robin Sloan, formerly of Twitter (and the blog Snarkmarket). Stock, Sloan explained, "… is the durable stuff. It's the content you produce that's as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It's what people discover via search. It's what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time." Flow, on the other hand, " … is the feed. It's the posts and the tweets. It's the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people that you exist."

Scoops and great storytelling are stock: They bring in new audience.

But days need to be filled and audiences need new content or they'll find somewhere else to do their refreshing. That's where flow comes in. Flow is pieces of content, produced rapidly and at a low cost.

Curated content is flow: It keeps people coming back and keeps a publisher, or brand, front-of-mind.

Lead generation is not about flashes of brilliance. #li

When people ask about the secret of lead generation, I know they are looking for a silver bullet, to be shot one time, making all the prospects flock to them. Not happening. Lead generation is about slog, slog, slogging consistency and persistence. 

Hubspot: Sustainable Lead Generation, 2011-Dec-23, by Corey Eridon

1.) Blog, blog, blog. If you haven't already started a blog, do it. If you have one, write for it consistently. If you're not sure how often you should blog, take a look at your organic competitors. If they are blogging twice a week, outdo them and blog four times a week. Just make sure you're not winning the quantity game by sacrificing quality.

2.) Keep other web pages up to date. The frequency with which you post and update content matters in search engines, and to people. Blogging is a great solution to this, but don't neglect the rest of your website. Update your event pages, news pages, product and service pages, and 'about us' pages to stay up to date with the pace at which your industry moves. No, you won't update these as much as your blog, but keeping the content fresh and timely is crucial to maintain relevancy.

Write like you know you'll need help #li

The most interesting thing about David Ogilvy's approach to copywriting is that he assumed that he would struggle and need the help of other people. It's humbling to realize that we shortchange ourselves when we just write something off the top of our head. 

Letters of Note: I am a lousy copywriter, 2012-Jan-24, by David Ogilvy, via Shaun Usher

...

5. Before actually writing the copy, I write down every concievable fact and selling idea. Then I get them organized and relate them to research and the copy platform.

6. Then I write the headline. As a matter of fact I try to write 20 alternative headlines for every advertisement. And I never select the final headline without asking the opinion of other people in the agency. In some cases I seek the help of the research department and get them to do a split-run on a battery of headlines.

7. At this point I can no longer postpone the actual copy. So I go home and sit down at my desk. I find myself entirely without ideas. ... 

Finding an audience that cares #li

Building a great list of people who await your messages is very challenging, but in the end, it's the only way to have a marketing system that's sustainable. 

Blog: Trap of Social Media Noise, 2011-Dec, by Seth Godin

The game theory pushes us into one of two directions: either be better at pump and dump than anyone else, get your numbers into the millions, outmass those that choose to use mass and always dance at the edge of spam (in which the number of those you offend or turn off forever keep increasing), or

Relentlessly focus. Prune your message and your list and build a reputation that's worth owning and an audience that cares.

Real change in tempo of marketing communications #li

When I started off in the advertising world, we spent months developing campaigns. Now marketing communications is more about responding to signals. 

Only Dead Fish: Slow Fast and Spiky Communication, 2011-Nov, by Neil Perkin

A key element of this for me is linked to timing. Shiv mentions that media planning will change as social signals will heavily influence planning decisions, but I think this stretches into creative production as well, as decisions about when to create different elements of a narrative, and when to take them to a wider audience are impacted by the way in which people are involved with different parts of the story. It's kind of like the 'user-led advertainment' idea (in which ads become stories that unfold at the users pace)....

A loyalty marketer asks herself 'what makes me loyal?' #li

Over at The Hub, a loyalty marketer observes the brands and loyalty programs that fuel her behavior. While incentives can temporarily increase her purchase frequency, it's the stories that win her heart. She has a suggested process.

1. Discover the brand's journey and why customers should join it.
2. Invest in customer intimacy.
3. Make sure your touchpoints are connected. 
4. Provide a place for your customers to commune.
5. Partner with other brands to serve your customers more completely.
6. Keep testing yourself and evolving.

The Hub: The Loyalty Curve, 2011-Dec, by Lauren de Simone

Using Advisory Councils to build customer relationships

When a big-ticket business-to-business company launches a customer advisory council, the top salespeople always compete to get their favorite customer on the council, and also to make sure the council is lavishly entertained. Which is actually a mistake. Most companies have a small subset of customers who have the insight and energy to help guide the company. And those customers are most impressed when they see the company actually taking their advice. Of course, that's harder than throwing a party for them.

Loyalty 360: Achieving Inaugural Customer Advisory Council Success, 2011-Dec-20, by Karen Posey

I have observed several organizations spend valuable time, money and resources focused treating this like a trade show event.  They are more interested in the “glitz and glamour” then on making sure they have the foundation built for long term success.

First post from a smart phone

The internet is down at my home, so I'm learning to post from my new iPhone. Liking the singing pig, I'm amazed that I can post, never mind I'm doing it badly.

Here's an idea: don't exploit your customers. #li

If business is war, the usual victim is the customer. Don't just plan to take their time and money. Think about what you can give them. 

MENGonline.com: The big idea won't fix your marketing, 2011-Dec-9, by Joe Pulizzi

If you have a customer communication challenge, is one big idea going to fix that? Not in the least. It won’t be fixed by a glam-packed 30 second spot, print campaign, or even the integrated strategy itself. Even a decade ago, we drew on research at Penton Media (a large B2B media company) that indicated it took at least seven messages from a company for a buyer to get to the decision stage.  I’m sure you could easily double that number today.

Here’s the solution for 99% of the businesses out there: It’s not one big idea but a series of small, ongoing conversations with your customers, distributed through the media your customers use. This requires intimate knowledge of your customer and a determination to leave your customer, on each occasion, in better shape than you originally found them.

The new cult of customer development #li

I was sad to miss the opportunity to hear Steve Blank present recently, but I was too busy working on "customer development" at MosquitoZone. I'm glad to see his ideas spreading throughout the technology community. Back when I worked with Compaq, 'product development' was where all the cools kids wanted to be. 'Customer development' is much more civilized. 

Coconut Headsets: Customer development and inbound marketing in practice, 2011, by Rob May

Customer development is about more than just asking people what they think about your product. It’s about understanding workflows and attitudes, needs and desires, and so much more. When we do customer development interviews, maybe 20% of the focus is on what we offer. The rest of the time is spent on understanding the target customer and their overall needs relative to this space.