Marketing Today

I'm A Marketing Technopologist. Are You One Too?

Last night, I headed over to IceBox Co-Labs for the October Social Media Club of Louisville event featuring Dave Knox, chief marketing officer at Rockfish Interactive and former brand manager at Procter & Gamble.

Knox’s presentation was titled "Brand Manager 2.0" and it focused on managing a brand and digital marketing from a big brand perspective.  He quoted the American Marketing Association when he explained that marketing has changed more over the last three to five years than in decades before that. How do we marketers survive and thrive.  Well, in five easy steps:

1. Become a marketing technopologist - this is from a WSJ article which originally coined the term that describes a person at the intersection of anthropoligist, technologist, and marketer.

2. Try purpose-inspired brand building - as Know explained many of the products that have been marketed over the last 20 years have focused on upgrading products to better, faster, cheaper, whiter, brighter, etc.  Companies that are standing out from the pack and doing the right thing include those like Nike who is "bringing inspirational innovation to every athlete" and (a favorite of mine) LEGO who is "providing fuel for children's imaginations."

3. Practice consumer collaboration - if you think about it, the most successful companies stay close to their customers.  Knox gave the example of how Starbucks is running "My Starbucks Idea" to gather feedback from their customers.

4. Facilitate conversations and community - Knox's example here was a site created by P&G called "Man of the House" that focused on the men who are shopping and taking care of kids who were not only P&G customers but who appreciated talking with other guys like themselves and who don't want want to be marketed to like the lady of the house.

5.  Get to know the everywhere shopper marketer - marketers need to understand that the "digital revolution" is all about customer empowerment.  Every product review, recommendation, piece of signage, and ad is helping customers make decisions.  To ignore that this is happening can be a waste of your marketing budget and efforts.

Special thanks to Jason Falls for organizing it and to Kix.com, the Kentucky Indiana Exchange, an online community that presents a new opportunity for growing, retaining and attracting talent in the Wired65 region for their sponsorship of the event.

 

Greetings from the Mayor of Blackstones of Beacon Hill...and....

Foursquare is "a service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities in which they live." I started using the Foursquare iPhone app in April and I've got to say, it's pretty cool.   So far, through the check-ins in my neighborhood, I'm the mayor of three places: the local gift shop, one of my favorite Italian restaurants, and the local burger joint.  I'm leaving the hardware store and the 7-11 for Nick C since he seems to be working the other half of the 'hood.

Geolocation Software is Here to Stay

For years, I've heard pitches from entrepreneurs about direct marketing to my cell phone so that as I walk through a mall I can get barraged with coupons from retailers to come inside and shop.  That always sounded like a nightmare to me.  And, something that benefited a retailer and would annoy me. 

With today's geolocation software, smart phone or Internet-connected computers can be identified in terms of a meaningful location like a street address rather then just a set of geographic coordinates.  Using programs like Foursquare becomes more like a game you can play with your friends.  And, it's finally coming around with promotions from firms like Starbucks with $1 off coupons for people who have reached mayor status (those with the most visits to a location.)

Foursquare Offers Analytics for Business

As of March of this year, check-in-based Foursquare has added analytics tools for businesses. A dashboard provides data such as total number of customer check-ins, unique visitors to the site, gender comparisons, and breakdowns by time of day.  And, of course, businesses will be able to shoot out coupons and promotions to Foursquare members as well.  Foursquare users can opt-in to how they'd like to receive this information (through Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

I'm told the cool kids don't hook up their Foursquare account through Twitter or Facebook, but prefer to share information with their Foursquare friends instead.  For security reasons, this could ensure that you're Foursquare location doesn't appear on sites like Please Rob Me who is trying to raise awareness around oversharing of information.  Instead, when you check into your local burger joint on a Friday night, you can see if any of your friends might be there too without advertising that you're not home.

Social Media Hits the Boston Foodie Scene

This morning I attended "Eat, Drink, And Be Social," an event for foodies and social media practitioners, in Boston.  Run by Tyson Goodridge and the team from Dialogue who brought together over 100 people at Le Cordon Bleu school in Cambridge, MA.

A Chat With Barbara and Jody

The day began with a chat with, Barbara Lynch and Jody Adams, two Boston restaurateurs who once worked together right around the corner at Michela's Restaurant.  When asked where the most creative food was coming from in the Boston area, both answered "Cambridge."  And when asked what was the most important technology affecting the Boston restaurant business, it was a toss up between OpenTable and the Microplane grater.

Social Media Case Study: Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse

Justin Levy of New Media Labs, talked about how after buying into Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse, he  immediately cut the traditional marketing budget by approximately 80% and began implementing a social media strategy that lead to increased sales.  He said that you should think of your blog as your home base and that you should not get hung up on other platforms like Facebook or Twitter.  Always think of what a platform can do for you and use it to your advantage, but remember that your website and your blog belong to you and are your magnet for attracting business.

How Are They Doing It?

There was a great panel made up @eatBoston, b.good restaurants, City Search, Yelp, Upstairs on the Square, Amy Traverso, and Zagat who talked about how they are using social media in action.  Of special interest to me was listening to Mary-Catherine Deibel of Upstairs at the Square (a favorite restaurant of mine) talking about marketing today.  She said that they rarely buy advertising any more.  Instead they depend on "capturing the hearts and the e-mail addresses of their customers" and marketing to them via e-mail and special events.

Geolocation and You

It's fascinating to see the technology of Foursquare and Foodspotting in its nascent stage.  It's amazing to see folks (or perhaps geeks like me) using geolocation technology available through their smart phones to learn more about what's good on food and drinkwise where ever they are.  Already a Foursquare user, I downloaded the Foodspotting app to my iPhone while it was being presented.  Can't wait to start using it in my neighborhood and when I'm on the road.

Thanks, Tyson & team for pulling this event together.  You deserve all of the great praise you're going to get for pulling the foodie community in Boston together for this event.  Bon appetit!

Marketing Yourself - The YouTube Video College Essay

When I was applying to colleges back when dinosaurs were still on Earth, I applied to four colleges and I filled out all of the applications and typed up all of my essays on a typewriter by myself.  Call me an underachiever, but I did manage to get accepted into all of the schools I applied to and I also managed to graduate in four years without summer school.  When I look back at my four years at the University of Rhode Island, I'm not sure sometimes what I learned or how it prepared me for the working world, but I did have a good time. 

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported on a new way to apply to Tufts University that I found really interesting - the YouTube essay.  Student applicants are able to create a 1-minute video that demonstrates creativity and shows a little more about a student than the 450-word essay.  It doesn't have to be professionally done, just uploaded to the Internet with a URL.  About 1,000 of the 15,000 applicants for Tufts sent one in.  I've inserted my favorite video below.  The rest of the favorites can be found on The Christian Science Monitor site or on YouTube.  To date, one video has pulled in over 55,000 hits!

 

 

Who's Doing Social Media in the ProductCamp Crowd?

Steve Robins led a great session on Social Media at ProductCamp this past Saturday in Cambridge, MA.  I found it interesting to be in a crowd of product marketing folks from organizations of all sizes with the opportunity to see where they were with social media.  Its fascinating to see social media programs start in "old school" organizations and that attitude of employees towards adopting change or hiding from it.  Here are my notes from this session.

We all agreed that an effective social media program begins with your organization’s goals.  But, when the group was asked what their goals were, there were a variety of answers that included:

• We want to gather market requirements
• We want to gather leads
• We want to make sure that we aren't getting burned "out there"
• We want to hear what people are saying about our competition
• We know people are doing their research online so we want to make sure our information is there
• We want more evangelists for our products

These are all good goals, but in a big organization (or even a mid-size one), chances are these goals fall under different departments and no one stepped up to say that they were coordinated across their organization with a company-wide social media strategy.

So where should an organization start?  How about by listening before you start talking?  Everyone agreed that "Frank" at Comcast Cares on Twitter was doing a great job at staying ahead of the pack on customer complaints online. Why?  Because he asks "how can I help?" to diffuse the emotion and to change the conversation. 

We also agreed that just because the world is on Twitter doesn't mean that your company belongs on Twitter.  There's nothing worse that jumping into social media without a strategy so that when some sort of action occurs, you're not prepared to respond.  An example that Joseline Manebrought up was with Sprint. Last spring, there new CEO ran ads with his e-mail address on it asking for customer response.  When folks accepted his invitation and start writing in, they received an auto-response e-mail.  Talk about a way to backfire your campaign!

In all, about a third of the crowd said that they were using social media in some fashion within their organizations.  When asked how it was working, no one jumped up and said "Fantastic!"  Instead, we heard that it takes a financial and resource commitment and until my company is ready to commit to that, we can't start a social media program.  And, that social media is something that you need to measure so that you can demonstrate success to senior management for buy-in. 

While I think that the ProductCamp crowd was conservative, I think their approach towards adopting social media is typical of many organizations today.  They get that they need to be doing it and they want to learn more, but they are hoping that someone else will figure it out for them and tell them what to do.

Read Inbound Marketing Because The Rules of Marketing Have Changed

The rules of marketing have changed.  Marketing today is a combination of traditional marketing methods strategically pushing the message out coupled with online marketing methods that strategically reel in your prospects.  So, how do you build and execute a marketing plan that best meets your business goals?  Get your hands on Inbound Marketing for starters.

Hubspot co-founders, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, have written THE book on how to get found using Google, social media, and blogs.  Inbound Marketing begins with a refresher on how customers shopping behavior has changed.  It goes on to discuss how your website needs to be a marketing hub that attracts your customers rather than an online marketing brochure that talks at your customers.  The book moves on to give ideas on how to get found online and then how to convert prospects into customers.

By reading Inbound Marketing, you will be able to: 

• Hire the right people to market your organization most effectively
• Improve your rankings in Google and other search engines to get more traffic
• Build and promote a blog for your business that is integrated into other your online marketing
• Grow and nurture a community in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
• Measure what matters and learn to do more of what works online

My Inbound Marketing Experience

As for me, I've learned a lot reading the book.  And, I've already been to two Inbound Marketing Summits and I put online marketing methods into practice every day for myself and my clients.  I am constantly learning about inbound marketing all because a) there are so many new tools that seem to come out every day, and b) I have to constantly test what's working and what's not in order to readjust my online marketing to keep it effective.

More interesting than what I've learned from this book, watching my friend Jennifer, who runs a local gift shop, learn as she reads her copy of Inbound Marketing.  Everything she learns is immediately put into use on her website, her Facebook page, and her Twitter account.  She's found the Hubspot site and has been running Graders on everything!  (I probably shouldn't confess this, but now we both talk online stats, stats, and more stats until we realize that anyone else who tried to join our conversation walked off about five minutes before we noticed.) 

Inbound Marketing book specs:

Hardcover: 256 pages

Publisher: Wiley (October 19, 2009)

Language: English

Price (on Amazon):  $16.47 (discounted from $24.95)

Lots to Learn from the 2009 Inbound Marketing Summit

I just got back from the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston.  This was my second year to attend. Except for the part where I got food poisoning on Day 2, I learned an awful lot and had fun doing it.  There were 21 sessions crammed into two days and while some sessions were naturally better than others, there was something to take away from all of them.  Here are a few things I learned:

What Hash Jacking Is

Like any tech conference these days, the event had a hashtage - #IMS09 - so that we could all tweet about the event and see our comments all in one place on Twitter.  As the event started trending high for tweets, a porn site found us and began using our hash tag to post their images and 140-character messages too.  This, I learned is called "hash jacking" and made for some interesting tweets!

Case Studies Still Make A Subject Real

The most interesting presentations for me where real world examples of how folks are integrating new social media tools into their traditional marketing programs.  We had some great presentations from Gary Vaynerchuck, author of Crush It!, on how to turn your ideas into business using the Internet the way he did for his wine business.  Greg Matthewsof Humana Consumer Innovation gave a presentation on who Humana is using social media to execute their strategy of changing health care from a focus on sickness to a focus on wellness.  It is an example of a social business from the inside out.  Most fun of the case studies was Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines who is "nuts about online communication."  From the video of the rapping flight attendant to stories of the highs and lows Southwest has had with social media, Paula showed how Southwest Airlines has learned to leverage social media to support company initiatives.

Why Online Marketers Publish Dead Tree Books

After listening to purposely controversial presentations by online marketers stating that PR is dead; advertising is dead; within 10 years face-to-face meetings will be dead, I tweeted " Why is it that everyone making a name for themselves in online social media comes out with a dead tree book? #ims09"  Shortly, there after, I heard from my friend W. Curtis Preston (known in the computer storage world as "Mr. Backup") who tweeted back "@cgunst bcs deadtree books are still where the money is (I have both & the $ from paper exceeds online by at least ordr of mag.)".  PR, advertising, and conferences are not dead, they are evolving.  Curtis is right in that the money is with the printed word not the blog although Twitter, blogs, online videos, etc. are a great way to build relationships with your base and spread the word.

Will I Go Again Next Year?

Inbound marketing has come a long way even in the last year as it becomes more mainstream and is more widely integrated into the marketing mix.  I left the conference with enough dead tree reading materials in the form of:  101 Content Marketing Tips, Putting the Public Back Into Public Relations, Inbound Marketing, and Trust Agents that I'll still be reading by next year's conference.  Seriously, we'll see were marketing is at this time next year.  With luck, my marketing consulting business, Gunst & Associates will take off and I'll get called in as a speaker!  Now, that would be fun! 

Happy 20th Birthday World Wide Web!

This month celebrates the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web.  Given all that has changed because of the Internet, it seems like it must have been around longer than that doesn't it?

My First Web Experience

I was working in product marketing for desktop applications at Lotus when I got my first demo of the web in 1993 from Reed Sturtevant who was working with Lotus Notes at the time.  He told me that the Internet was going to be big and I believed him because I believe everything Reed says.  I have to say though, that when he demoed it to me, there wasn't a whole lot out there to look at.  It wasn't long before we had a company website up that was originally run by the PR department and treated like electronic marcomm.  After the purchase of Lotus by IBM, I was itching to go work for an Internet startup so I volunteered for every project we had that involved the Internet because, like Reed, I'd caught on that the World Wide Web was going to be big.

The World Wide Web Changed Everything

When's the last time you called a travel agent?  Read the print edition of a newspaper?  Went to the library to read back issues of Consumer Reports when you were looking to buy something?  It's been a while, hasn't it?  In the last 20 years, we've gotten whole businesses created around selling our junk online (eBay); posting movies online (YouTube); finding old classmates and friends (Facebook); blogging (Typepad) and microblogging (Twitter).  The web has created a whole new vocabulary for us.

Here's to Twenty More Great Years

Who would have guessed that when I first got my first demo of the Internet 16 years ago, that I'd personally own four URLs today?  Or that I'd create two websites by myself?  Who would have predicted that AOL would die off slowly only to get replaced by Facebook and other online community sites?  Who would have dreamed up microblogging on Twitter?  Who can say what's coming next?  People say that technology has pulled us out of the last few recessions.  Hopefully, new innovation on the web by entrepreneurs will pull us out of the current recession.  I can't wait to see what's coming next! 

Got $100? Start a business online!

So often, I have friends tell me about a great idea that they have for an online business, but that they don't know how to get started.  I always tell them to just give it a shot and see how it goes.  The journey is the reward.

I headed up PR & marketing for four decorator show houses in a 10 year period and had a lot of knowledge in my head as to how to make these fund raisers successful.  So, I started a little business called ShowHouse 101.  For under $100, I bought the URL on Network Solutions and used their templates to create a simple website.  Next I went to Vistaprint and bought business cards and address labels.  And, then I built a database of 100 people who I thought might be interested in my expertise; wrote them a letter and that I customized and sent out a mailing.

What did I get?  A call from a nice man in Cape Cod who was on the board of a not-for-profit who got my letter and had some questions as to how to handle in fighting by volunteers on a project like a show house because that's what he was dealing with.

What did I learn?  For $100, I learned that I had an idea that was interesting, but that wasn't anything to build a business around.  Not-for-profits don't always think like businesses when they start out to plan a major fund raiser.  Often they chose to just trouble shoot issues throughout the project and wait for a white knight to come in and bail them out.  And, not-for-profits don't pay what corporations pay for consulting work.

Got an idea for a business?  Test out your idea simply.  Research doesn't always have to be a cumbersome process.  For $100 these days, you can make yourself look pretty legitimate while you see if your idea has any merit.

Hey, my website was graded a "C"

At The Art Connection, we just launched a new website in August, 2008.  As a board member interested in making my not-for-profit more professional looking, I spearheaded the project and wrote the copy for the site.  Boston Interactive created the site and did a wonderful job that we're really pleased with.

When I learned about the free "Webgrader" tool from Hubspot, I just had to try it on our new site.  We scored 70 out of 100.  And the reasons why are pretty interesting.

Metadata Minefield

Apparently, we have way too much metadata.  Our description is too long and we have way too many meta keywords.  And, being an organization that is focused on art, we have way too many images on our home page.  What does this mean in English?  It means our Google ranking is low and we don't even have a Yahoo entry.  I'm happy to report that the readibility level is for secondary/high school level.

Social Media Could Be Better

Shame on me for killing the blog last week since I was the only one contributing to it.  Blogs are a great way to shift marketing from outbound to inbound because they are a great way to interact with customers.  They're also great for the search engines because they love searching for new content.  We only got 3 del.icio.us bookmarks and 0 Diggs which means that we don't have a great web presence outside of our own site.

Improving Our Website Grade

Hey, nothing I like better than a challenge!  I'll be downloading the free Hubspot Internet Marketing Kit next to learn how to improve our website grade.  I'll just bet the first step is in refreshing the content on our pages and resurrecting that blog again.  That will teach me!