Loic Le Meur (founder of Seesmic) Talks About Product Marketing Online
April 29, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
After catching his talk at the Inbound Marketing Summit 2009 on launching a product in social media, I was lucky enough to get Loic alone for a quick interview. Watch as he gives you 3 tips on launching in the new media age, and I mis-pronounce everything.
You can find Loic Le Meur at www.twitter.com/loic and his product at www.seesmic.com
Tracking Twitter: Big Brands Using Social Media
March 29, 2009 by Rebekah King · 1 Comment
I just found a great new tool for keeping tabs on the brands using social media, it’s called Tracking Twitter and you can check it out at http://trackingtwitter.com/brands. Why would you want to though?
1. Look for your contemporaries
I get asked nearly every day “why would I want to use twitter?” which is kind of silly, because no one person can tell someone they’ve just met what social media tool will appropriately connect them to their consumer. I don’t know you – I don’t know what you sell and I don’t know how you sell it. I don’t know the things that will kill you online: like being lazy, or having terrible customer service (when your csr hangs up on them you can bet they’ll twitter you about it), or having a terrible product. These are all things my clients and I talk about, and find the best course of action. Of course you probably want to see what your competition, kindred companies, and clients are doing – so a tool like Tracking Twitter makes that very doable. I am sure I’ll be using it to watch brands grow in their strategy, and see what their results are once these profiles have been active long enough to gain measureable results.
2. Learn what works Read more
Newsletters: Just Do It
March 11, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
I have worked with SO MANY clients that are just distraught over their “Newsletter Situation”… which frankly means their LACK of a newsletter.
It doesn’t matter what it is; a newsletter, postcard, fun picture or a sample of your work, sending anything out to your address book on a semi-regular basis is good for business. Let’s be clear: I am NOT advocating sending out a digest of boring crap that you think is important. I am NOT cheering for the rights of the cheezy sales guy sending me a 3-page long “regular priced 199 but for you it’s 99 (if you order in the next 10 minutes)”. I am ABSOLUTELY NOT endorsing the emailing of a daily quote that will be the first thing I curse at every morning….
What I am always encouraging of is the sharing of your brand and your personality in a way that betters the lives of those around you. If you are a online video company send me one of your coolest videos (if you have cool videos… if you don’t then just make one that’s funny) every month. If you’re a celeb photographer send me something no one else has seen yet. Are you getting the drift yet?
The trick to a great newsletter/eblast/marketing thing is
1. Be consistent with your personality. Read more
Marketing Gone Wrong: Anybody & Everyone
February 9, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Lately I’ve been running into more than a few business owners that tell me their ideal client is “anybody” or “everyone” . Typically the sentence follows is a justification for the anybody and everybody line, or a list of the 3000 kinds of customers this business may have. It’s a great energy and excitement these business owners typically have, but as a marketer my heart breaks for them.
Here’s why: anybody +everyone = nobody
If you cannot give me an example of the perfect person to refer to you, then I am unable to mentally search the roster of 2000+contacts I have to find a great potential client for you. If you the business owner cannot narrow your focus, how can I the colleague that wants to help you out, do it either? Read more
Social Media and Customer Loyalty: The Skinny
January 30, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Typically I frown on simply ‘reposting’ articles, but this one is so good it’s my exception to the rule this month:
Deepening Customer Loyalty Through Social Media by Aaron Strout
When was the last time you said to yourself: “Wow, I’d recommend this product or service to a friend”? Within the last month? Six months? If you have to think about this question, you’ve already made my point. Over the last 50 years, outsourced manufacturing, poor customer service and an overall commoditization of products and services have served to erode consumers’ affections for most brands.
While the idea of diminished customer loyalty may be disheartening–after all, if customers aren’t loyal, they don’t rave about your brand to other customers and they certainly can’t be tricked into forking over a greater share of their wallet–all hope is not lost. In fact, smart brands like Dell, Ford and Sears are starting to see increases in brand affinity as a result of their social endeavors. Read more
Email Marketing: When to Send
January 21, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
For years I’ve been a big fan of sending emails out on Tuesday or Wednesday, around 10 am. I picked up the habit after reading a DMA article suggesting this strategy. This morning I discovered an article by eMarketer re-affirming this belief, though they suggest mondays are good days too, which I disagree with entirely. My experience is that Mondays are a poor day to send eblasts, as the audience is busy with work and in “dump inbox” mode – thinning out the junkmail so they have just the work before them.
It’s worth noting also that eMarketer found a correlation with shorter email subject lines and an increase in the read rate – take away from this that your subject line can be more important than the content. What good is fantastic content if your audience never reads it because the subject line is so NOT interesting?
Cheers,
Rebekah
Trade Shows: Working It On & Off the Show Floor
January 18, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Having attended an average of 5 shows a year for the last 4 years I have seen a variety of businesses do a variety of behaviors on the show floor. I’m sure you know what I mean: there’s the bashful betty that sits in a back corner of the booth waiting for you to come talk to her, the pals that are too busy talking to eachother to talk to you, and (everyone’s favorite) the hawker – standing in the aisle waiting to jump on anyone with a pulse that walks by their booth. As much as I hate to say it the hawker is actually working the show more than anyone else… but they’re still missing so many more opportunities.
Walking the Show Floor
In addition to checking out the competition, walking the floor is a great practice for a multitude of reasons. Booth Setup. No matter how many years or how much money you spent in developing the perfect booth, times change. Cruising the aisles is a great way to stay current. What booths are the busiest? How does the layout encourage people to hang out in the booth? What colors and styles are showing up more and more? Many people forget to also look for what doesn’t work. Read more
Targeted Marketing: Email or SMS messaging?
January 7, 2009 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
I read an interesting article this morning from eMarketer Daily about marketing to High School and College students.
More than six out of 10 US high school and college students surveyed “never” or “hardly ever” read marketing e-mails, according to an October 2008 survey by eROI. The majority of respondents said companies were not effectively speaking to them personally through e-mail.
And look at this little graph – text messaging is often the preferred communication method!
I’ve done quite a bit of marketing to High School & College students for my clients via Facebook and MySpace and have fantastic successes by keeping our messaging in the tone and manner that the students use. Read more
COURSES: 10 Things Every Business Should be Doing NOW
October 15, 2008 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Spam-Stupid: CYA for Eblasts
October 11, 2008 by Rebekah King · Leave a Comment
Lately I’ve been getting more and more emails from people I meet at networking events that take my email address and add it to their mailing list. Next thing you know, I’m getting emails from people I don’t know on a fairly regular basis.
While I’m glad that such a large number of these small business owners have caught up with the marketing benefits of newsletters, I’m dissapointed to say that many of these same folks have missed one very important element: the unsubscribe link.
Sure, you’ve worked so hard to build your mailing list, and you hate to lose readership (I don’t blame you) – but in addition to holding our mailboxes hostage, you are also violating CAN-SPAM law.
ANYONE that sends out email information; be it daily news, inspiring quotes, event invitations, or newsletters needs to read over the CAN-SPAM in it’s current incarnation here. You don’t have to use a service (even though it can be a HUGE CYA for all legal issues), just put a little note telling people to reply with unsubscribe in the subject line if they wish to no longer receive your emails. DON’T PULL A FAST ONE: you must keep track of the unsubscriber and not send them emails next time. Read more
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