February
27
2009
Sometimes you build something good. Our recent self-promotional campaign is really starting to turn heads, ours included. It’s success is the stuff of legend. If I told you more it would ruin the surprise, instead send you name and address to contact@wefightboredom.com. You’ll be in on our little secret. Read what others are saying:
“This is the best landing page series/microsite I’ve ever experienced! Just amazing.”
Susan Marie
Advanced Image Direct
“Awesome example of imagery and interaction.”
Curtis DeGroote
Bulldog Marketing Technologies
“I just went to your company’s site - VERY GOOD! You’re doing very good work. In fact, I think it is EXTREMELY good.”
Dean Sparks
BrightDart
“Keep up the good work - there is way too much boring creative out there so lots of clients need your help.”
Steve Tingiris
Prospect Smarter
February
27
2009
April Dunford is one of our (new) favorites on the web. If you’re a fan of the beautiful game, or at least pretend to tolerate soccer (Joey) in certain company, you’ll appreciate this little piece.
Just like a foul in a soccer match, bad marketing decisions can be put in two buckets, says Ms Dunford. Sneaky, verbose, meaningless, unsegmented marketing will certainly get you booked. Now that you have a yellow card don’t push your luck. Repeat the same mistakes and you’ll end up with a second yellow that’ll get you tossed. Worse still, lie or cheat or spam and it’s a red card straight away. You won’t do your team any good if you’ve been sent off. Shame, shame.
February
24
2009
On Thursday, Bob DeStafano will present a seminar on “How to Make Your B-to-B Website a Lead Generation Machine”. As a premium subscriber on MarketingProfs I like to cheat a little by taking a peak at the slide deck prior to the seminar. I usually base my decision to attend the seminar purely on the content of the slides. I’d wager a bet I’m not alone here. In this case, I’m out. Mr DeStefano loaded 30 slides with some very obvious advice. He also neglects my 10/20/30 rule. Ten slides, 20 pt. font, and 30 minutes to deliver.
What can we surmise from his fully-loaded slide deck? He’s going to speak to the importance of SEO to SEM. If you can get inside your target audience’s head, you’ll use keywords they would use to find you. Most likely these would be based on their real or perceived needs, pain points and solutions. He states, “Make Your Website Customer-Focused”. I hope that’s not news to anyone in the B-to-B space.
Next Mr DeStefano takes us through the importance of converting your web presence into a lead generation machine. We agree. He suggest the use of targeted microsites to drive lead generation. Again, we agree. He speaks to the importance of measuring the impact of your online efforts. Yeah, we agree. Prepare your team to quickly follow-up on the leads generated. Yep, he’s got it.
The real meat of this seminar seems to kick in around slide twenty, so you can roll in a little late on this one and still get good value. If you are not a Premium subscriber to MarketingProfs, keep your money in your pocket and get someone to slip you the slide deck Thursday afternoon. Hint, hint.
February
22
2009
Want to know what the U.S. Postal Service is doing with all those rate hikes? Self-promotion.
It’s not all bad. I found a little gem written by Steve Cuno for the online version of the Postal Service’s Deliver magazine. Here’s a quick summary of his piece on re-branding.
Mr Cuno takes exception with the term re-branding and instead favors morphing a brand. Pepsi is a great example. The company’s recent “re-brand” does look remarkably like the old Pepsi logo. The product didn’t change. The distribution channels didn’t change. The colors on the box and a simplified mark have morphed the brand to target a market–not sure which one.
Unfortunately, the article fails in its attempt to tie re-branding, or morphing, to direct marketing. Mr Cuno states, “No logo or tagline can save a company without the substance to back them.” This is true. Perhaps the best conclusion we can draw from his article is that in direct marketing you strive for action, purchase, revenue, or movement. The brand alone won’t deliver; it’s the substance.
February
21
2009
Spam kills. As marketers, the Can Spam Act led to an uneasy feeling that too much, too fast and a lack of well-defined subscribers would render email campaigns impotent. Now that this piece of legislation is far removed there is light at the end of the tunnel. From 2005 to 2008 the trend favors email marketing.
According to a study by Epsilon, the numbers point to opportunities for those that utilize email campaigns. But there is a catch. Epsilon is a marketing services firm that sells email marketing campaigns to its customers. Oops. The excitement generated by the study should be taken with a grain of salt–a big grain of salt.
It is universally known, however, that when users opt-in to receive emails companies win unless you start loading inboxes with “helpful” information. Our rule of thumb is one email every 6-8 weeks. Email isn’t so bad. You only have one shot, so make it a good one.
February
20
2009
Waiting in my inbox this morning was an interesting piece by Geoffrey James. He walks us through the five lies marketing tells its sales counterparts. With a title like that you know comments are soon to follow–as of this post he had 38.
For the sake of brevity, here are the lies we marketers tell. 1) Branding is vital to success. 2) Marketing can train sales to sell. 3) B2B marketers conduct scientific research. 4) Marketing can deal with the press. 5). Marketing delivers good leads to sales. There you have it. Now stop lying.
It’s not that easy stop lying, Mr James. 1) At some level branding is vital, but it’s the definition of branding that is changing. 2) Maybe marketing can’t train the sales organization, but we can give them an arsenal of weapons to use. 3) Research is research. Every little bit of intel you can gather about your target audience is helpful. I guess he’s just saying when you collect good information about an audience don’t call it scientific. Okay. 4) Someone that has written for 15 years should be mindful when it comes to lectures about dealing with the press. If you’ve only found 4 diamonds in the rough, maybe it’s you. And 5) This was his big miss. Will sales ever be satisfied with marketing’s efforts on their behalf? It is fair to expect that a cost center and revenue center have differing definitions of leads, or qualified leads. Let me start another paragraph here, because this is our sandbox.
There is no doubt in our collective minds at VLG that marketing and sales do not communicate with each other as well as they should. We also believe marketing works for sales and companies should consider turning marketing into a revenue center rather than cost center. This shift would go a long way, aligning the incentives and measuring stick by which both groups are compared. Talk about bridging the gap between the two. Did I say sandbox?
Maybe I meant soapbox.
February
20
2009
Our team attended the Addys en masse to check out the local ad scene, drink some free wine, and soak up the architecture of the Old Red Courthouse in Dallas. It turned into art show with three agencies dominating the awards with thematic work that would sweep entire categories. With your rear end starting to dose off the show picked up a little with a viral video campaign for Dibs. The effort was backed by some good campaign metrics. Those that work with VLG know we can’t imagine a campaign that didn’t put metrics and revenue front and center.
There was, however, a mild letdown this morning as I rushed out to watch the winning video again, but the campaign is now nothing but a dead link. Bummer. It must have been fun while it lasted. All in all would I recommend dropping $90 a head to sit through the Addys? Nope, not this morning, but the good news is whether you win or lose the parking was validated. Yeah, free parking.
February
17
2009
Sometimes you stumble across an idea that really catches your eye. It’s like walking too quickly past a store front only to realize something grabbed you. That’s what I found on Ducktape Marketing’s website. Make a Referral Week advocates the delivery of referral leads to small business as part of a unified effort to reach out and help the little guy. The definition of a little guy is subjective, so VLG pledges to make a referral the week of March 9-13. We little guys need to stick together and when it comes to economic stimulus it is time we took matters into our own hands.