Marketing Today

There Is No Magic Pill for Marketing

Sometimes it's hard to be a marketer - especially when you're talking to people who just don't understand how marketing works.  I've been thinking about this lately as I've been talking to a lot of them.  I've watched folks blindly switch whole marketing campaigns away from traditional marketing to social media marketing.  And while I manage three blogs, three Twitter accounts, and juggle dozens of search terms and love social media, I also know that while technology changes and the channels to get the message out change, you still need to have the basics in place or you just won't be effective.

Great marketing still begins with a great product or service.  If you haven't developed something that somebody wants, then you've got nothing.  The old definition of product management: know your customer, know your market, know your competition, and know your product hasn't changed.  If you haven't developed a product built on that foundation, then what you're doing is potentially taking something to market that no one ever wanted.  Now, it will be cheaper on your marketing budget, if you simply decide to tweet about your product that if you launch it at a major trade show with a splashy TV ad campaign, but it's still a waste of time and money if no one wants what you're selling.

Marketing Today

Marketing today means more analytics for measuring how online programs are working than the guys in Mad Men ever had.  While we get to see immediately how many people have searched on the terms used to describe our products on the website and through press releases, the old print advertisers had to measure effectiveness with product sales figures when they came in.  Marketing today also means repurposing content in multiple ways to get the message out on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, white papers, brochures, and ebooks.  The goal should always be to either build awareness or generate leads by using content to send prospects back to the website for more information.

There is no magic pill for getting your message out to your market.  All the new technology and distribution channels in the world won't help you sell something that no one needs.  Although, if you don't know what you're doing, there are plenty of people out there who would love to sell you a magic pill!

May the Résumé Rest In Peace

Résumé is French for "summary".  It's a collection of things that you’ve done in your work life that doesn't really give an indication of your aptitude, your natural talents, or how you'd fit onto a new team.  A lot of the time, candidates have them written by others so it's not an accurate reflection of how a candidate writes or organizes thoughts.

Why Do Employers Still Rely on Résumés?

The résumé still does get used because it's easy for pre-screening purposes.  In my opinion, this gets done by organizations who use administrative people working from job descriptions who scan resumes for keywords or job titles.  In a candidate-rich environment, it gives them a quick reason to eliminate people missing a particular bullet point on the job description and to narrow down the stack that they pass on to the hiring manager.

There are many problems with this use of the résumé starting with the first call made to set up the interview by an HR person who has never worked in the role that they are hiring for who and often doesn't follow what's going on in the industry.  The résumé gets used to have a chronological discussion designed to look for gaps.  Here's an example: 

Phone Screener:  "I see that you only stayed at Company X for one year. What happened there?"

Candidate:  "The company ran out of money and closed down.  Didn't you read about that?"

Phone Screener:  "No, but that sounds terrible.  Now, I see that you were with Company Y for 12 years.  Why did you stay so long?"

Candidate:  "Well, it was a great company.  I got promoted three times while I was there and I needed to let my stock options vest."

Phone Screener:  "Oh, I can't really tell that from your résumé.  Now, before that Company Y, you were a camp counselor.  Is that right?"

Candidate:  "Am I going to get a chance to talk to the hiring manager?"

You get the idea.  A document that doesn't really sum you up very well leads to an unproductive Q&A session.  You never get to a discussion about what the job is and how your skills would fit into it.  And, it keeps you from having a discussion with the members of the team you might be joining.

And, the Internet Changes Everything!

A recruiter friend of mine was interviewing someone over the phone the other day using an electronic version his résumé sent through e-mail while looking at his LinkedIn profile.  They didn't match up!  The phone call ended shortly after that was discovered. 

These days, you have know that most of what you do can be found online.  So, use that to your advantage and keep things accurate and up to date across media.  Use a blog to show how you write and what you can do.  Know that people who share your interests will find you online.  If they like what they see, you'll hear from them directly. 

Your LinkedIn page should reflect what you have done in the past, who your network is comprised of, and include links to more information about you like your Twitter stream, your website, and anything else you want to share.  Don't forget to Google yourself from time to time to see what's out there about you, because that information will get found.

It's All About Your Network, Anyway

Even in the “old days” of résumés, most people would tell you that once you get to a certain level, the best way to land a new job is through your personal network. Executives, rock star engineers, top sales people, well-published academics don’t ever need to look for a job because they get asked to come work at places.  Let that be the way that you land your next job.  May the résumé rest in peace.

Ring the Bell! Inbound Marketing University is in Session!

Last night, I was talking to a woman at an industry event about marketing today.  She confessed that her skills really rusty.  I said "Don't you find that everything new we're doing now is just an extension of something we already know how to do when you keep up with new techniques.  For example, following Twitter trends is not radically different than participating in online bulletin boards to hear what the market is saying."  To which she replied "That's the problem, I wasn't even doing that ten years ago."  Lucky for us Inbound Marketing University (IMU) is in session from June 15 - 19.

Inbound Marketing University

Brought to you FREE by our friends at Hubspot, this is a marketing retraining program for marketing professionals—as well as marketers between jobs—looking to gain new skills to get ahead in the competitive workforce and to market your products/services/solutions to your customers effectively.

Monday, June 15th

12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4): How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101) Professors: Ann Handley &  Mack Collier, MarketingProfs

3:00 - 4:00pm EDT (GMT-4): SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102) Professor: Lee Odden, Top Rank Marketing

Tuesday, June 16th

12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Social Media and Building Community (GF201) Professor: Chris Brogan, New Marketing Labs

3:00 - 4:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Successful Business Uses for Facebook and LinkedIn (GF202) Professor: Elyse Tager, Silicon Valley American Marketing Association

Wednesday, June 17th

12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Viral Marketing and World Wide Raves (GF301) Professor: David Meerman Scott, author of New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave

3:00 - 4:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Advanced SEO Tactics: On Beyond Keyword Research (GF401) Professor: Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

Thursday, June 18th

12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Calls to Action and Landing Page Best Practices (CV101) Professor: Jeanne Hopkins, MECLABS, Marketing Experiments

3:00 - 4:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Inbound Lead Nurturing (CV201) Professor: Brian Carroll, MECLABS, InTouch

Friday, June 19th

12:00 - 1:00pm EDT (GMT-4): Successful Email Marketing (CV301) Professor: Eric Groves, Constant Contact

3:00 - 4:00pm EDT (GMT-4) Analyzing Inbound Marketing (AZ401) Professor: Marshall Sponder, Monster.com, Web Analytics Association for Social Media

Monday, June 22nd
12:00 - 1:00pm (GMT-4): Inbound Marketing Exam Review Professor: Mike Volpe, HubSpot

Inbound Marketing Certification

You didn't think you'd just get a certificate without taking a test, did you?  You will need to take and Inbound Marketing Certification Exam.  Don't worry, all classes are saved in webcast format so if you miss one or if you want to review a class, you can do that online.

What Are You Waiting For?

Sign up today and keep your skills up to date with the very latest tools and techniques!  What have you got to lose? 

Marketing Yourself For Your Next Job in a Web 2.0 World

Lately I feel like Suze Orman giving advice to my friends who have gotten so  cozy in their current jobs that they've forgotten how to market themselves for the next one.  In this market, you have to market yourself in a new way.  The best way to do that is to take yourself above the clutter and make it easy for employers to instantly understand how you can help them be successful. 

Always Stay on Top of Your Field

The best advice I got coming out of college is that you always have to stay on top of your field.  If you hear about a new job, follow up on it even if you aren't looking for a change.  Sometimes you'll find something better than what you have.  And, sometimes you'll find something that makes you feel better about what you have.  At minimum, you'll know if the skills you have are keeping you competitive in today's economy.  If they aren't competitive, get yourself some training to get yourself where you need to be.  You'll also learn where you are salary-wise compared to your peers.

"A Brand Called You"

Remember the article "A Brand Called You" that Tom Peters published in Fast Company a few years ago?  Dan Schawbel has built a side business around the concept.  His new book, Me 2.0, "bridges the gap between the current business climate and the progressive best practices of the future".  The thinking behind both the article and the book is that you need to take a page out of the corporate branding playbook to market yourself in the way that you'd market a product in order to stand out from the crowd.

Get on the Social Networking Bus

Last Sunday, I was at NewBCamp in Providence, RI with my friend Sarah.  As part of this one-day seminar, we both sat in on a session about marketing yourself in a Web 2.0 world.  Before we got started, our instructor took a show of hands as to who was on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Since all but one of us were active with these social networking sites, he didn't spend a lot of time discussing them except to encourage us to keep our profiles up to date, to manage our online reputations, and to use the references section of LinkedIn both to provide references to others and to gather references for ourselves because this is what employers are looking for.  It's getting to be pretty rare for an employer not to "Google" a prospective candidate before an interview or an offer and you need to be aware of that.

Differentiate Yourself in 160 Characters or Less

Our NewBCamp instructor pointed out that in Twitter, you have about 160 characters (including spaces) to microblog with. He had us go around our circle and describe ourselves as if we were writing an entry for Twitter.  I said "A Boston-based marketer with a focus on high-tech" and I got that obnoxious game show "you lose" noise because I didn't really differentiate myself from hundreds of other people.  So, I took another couple of passes at it.  Now, my personal tagline is "Award-winning marketer who makes organizations successful in a Web 2.0 World" which I like a lot better.  And, hey, if it's not gaining any traction, it's not hard to change on the Internet with something that resonates better.

The Candidates Who Make It to the Top of the Hiring Pile

Our instructor mentioned that he was hiring for a finance position and that he had promoted the open position on Monster, Careerbuilder, and Craig's List.  Within a week, he had over 200 resumes, but only two made it to the top of his pile.  He said that most people are still writing chronological resumes that describe their corporate persona with a collection of job titles that don't mean anything to someone outside of their company. The resumes that made it to the top of the pile described the person who was looking for the job and had cover letters tailored to the open position that demonstrated that the candidate had taken the time to learn about the job, the company, and included some ideas on what they'd do in the role.

Adapt or....

The old ways of searching for a job don't cut it these days.  Keep up with your network whether you are looking for a new job or not because that's how you find out about the "hidden jobs" and get referrals which help put you on the top of the pile.  Network constantly, not just when you need a favor from someone.  And, take a look at my blog post "Survival Tips for the Laid Off or About To Be" for some additional ideas that help you market yourself in a Web 2.0 world.

What'll Change When the "Marketer of the Year" Moves Into the White House?

Can Barack Obama's presidency make a difference to the venture community?  How will Ad Age's "Marketer of the Year" for 2008 change things over the next few years?  This week, I headed up to the Vilna Shul synagogue on Beacon Hill with my friend Chris Hartman who writes a High Tech History blog for an event called "Boston Area Venture Capital:  Looking Back on 2008 and Looking Forward to 2009" to hear local experts answers to those questions.

Galen Moore, Mass High Tech News writer, moderated a panel with three leading Boston area VCs:  Larry Bohn of General Catalyst, Jonathan Seelig of Globespan Capital Partners, and David Aronoff, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners.

The first question of the night was about how a new president in office who understands technology would affect the venture community.  The panel agreed that having someone in office who "gets it" and who puts people in his cabinet who "get it" could lead to innovation which could move the economy forward.  Its quite possible that new technology and alternative energy ideas could come out of this administration that would stimulate growth.

The panel agreed that there is no shortage of ideas out there, but that investors are sitting on the sidelines with a bit of "deer caught in headlights" syndrome going on.  The deal flow is up and will continue to go up as folks who lose their day jobs will start shopping ideas around that will lead to new companies being built.  The challenge to investors will be turning a suitable profit.  As the lifetime of venture-backed companies has moved from 3-5 years to 5-8 years, many companies can't offer the high return on investment back to their investors because they've had to take on too many investors to keep their firms afloat.  With the IPO market drastically slowed down, we'll see several privately held firms snapped up by larger firms this year at bargain prices and we'll see some more simply shut down. 

So, what's an entrepreneur to do? 

Keep up your optimism.  If you've got an idea, don't be afraid to shop it around.  People are willing to listen to you even if they don't jump in to invest right away.  Networking is good as long as you're not wasting people's time.  Take a page from our new president's handbook.  Start small.  Build a great team.  And, stay on message.  Use the Internet to take your message directly to your base.  It's America and anything is possible.

When's the last time you recalibrated your ego?

I talk to so many people these days who are challenged by the way things are vs. the way that they think they should be.  This gets back to your ego or sense of self as you react to the changes in your environment whether it be your job, your personal relationships, your social status, or something else.  Without the ability to readjust, you just make things harder.

In this economy, investments in people and new technologies aren't happening at a pace that they once were.  If you used to be riding high as VP of whatever at the coolest company around, you may not be living that dream now.  It doesn't mean you can't again.  Recalibrate your ego for today and keep planning for where you want to be tomorrow. 

Study the market and see where the new opportunities are.  I hear that sales of lottery tickets, cheap wine, and canned soup are up today.  If those markets that you're interested in, keep looking.  Maybe alternative energy is where you should be focused.  

Learn to leverage the Internet for information searches and to manage your own online reputation.  Moved on from your punk rocker days?  People looking for information on you may not get that concept if you're still marketing yourself for your old persona.

Sigmund Freud once said that "Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise."  Hanging onto the way life used to be and not adjusting to the times, can just make it harder to get back to the way you believe that your life ought to be.

Survival Tips for Those Laid Off or About to Be

I've been there.  Done that.  And, no I didn't get a t-shirt.  These times are tough and it helps to be prepared.  People have called me a "survivor" and even a "thriver".  What's my big secret?  I just get up in the morning and I keep on going.  Here are some thoughts that may help you or someone you know get back on their feet.

1.  Build your network - keep your posting on LinkedIn up to date and when you do, describe what you do in language that someone outside of your immediate workplace can relate to.  Go to events in your industry regularly and stay in touch with others in your field on a regular basis.  No one likes to get a call from someone just when they need something.  And, don't leave all of your contacts on your company equipment.  Just heard about a woman the other day who got laid off unexpectedly and got walked to her office to clean things out while HR watched.  She had to hand over her company paid for cell phone and laptop with all of her contacts on it because she hadn't backed anything up.  Don't let that be you.

2.  Be flexible - years ago, I started my own marketing consulting firm and I always keep the website up to date even though I'm not looking for consulting as I've got a full time job.  When it comes to consulting, I'll do what ever a client needs me to do.  I've been a part-time PR person, I've rewritten multiple websites, and I've done events management.  As companies downsize, they are still going to need to get stuff done.  While they may not be able to bring on full time people, they can still bring people on for project work.  This is not a time to be picky about how you can help an organization out.

3.  Keep your skills up - I don't twitter or blog because I have no life.  I do it because I'm teaching myself social networking skills.  Now, I am a marketing geek and I'm having fun with social networking, but I keep up with it because that's a big way that organizations are marketing themselves.  Is there something new that you can learn that would be of value to an organization in your industry?  Go out and learn it.

4.  Get through the stages of grief quickly - I get that it's no fun to be told you don't have a job any more and to have to pack your boxes and drive home in the middle of the day because I've been there.  All I know is that many people will want to help you out and you'll do best at taking them up on their offers of help when you get yourself to a good place again.  Stay home and don't take calls or e-mails for a while if you're not up to it, but don't let it go on too long.  Put a smile on your face and get back out there.  And when you do, keep yourself surrounded with positive people.

5.  Become a believer in karma - this one may sound a little odd, but it's important.  What goes around comes around.  When people don't treat other people right, it comes back to them.  Maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually it does.  Make sure your karma is good.  Now that you have extra time on your hands, do something nice for someone else.  Get more involved in an organization that you've only had time to be a member of.  They'll probably be excited to have your extra time and talents and doing some work for them is a good way to justify your time while you're looking for something new.

Being "in transition" or "between gigs" is no fun as most of us have lives that are dependent on a regular paycheck.  If you're not there yet, take this time to get prepared just in case.  And, if you are there, hopefully these tips will be of help.  As a high tech marketing professional, it's inevitable that I've gotten to experience being laid off.  The reality is that things change and you've just got to keep changing with the times if you want to be a part of business today.