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Numbers, numbers and more numbers

January 20, 2007

One of the threads that I found most interesting over at MarketingProfs book club (stored in the know-how exchange) was when CK (the club’s hostess with the mostest) asked what are the biggest hurdles to getting clients/CMOs/companies to embrace citizen (read social) marketing? We’re mulling over the book Citizen Marketers by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell. It’s an excellent read, by the way.

Anyway, in the thread, one of the reasons we all point to is that we have not yet found a way to demonstrate how social media spills down to the bottom line. It’s hard to measure and validate, we agreed.

I find that a fascinating juxtaposition to the amazing array of ways we can track, count, quantify, justify, enumerate and calculate how our blog’s doing. And of course, in a post by BizInformer, I just found another.

This site, seomoz.org, allows you to plug in your URL and then gives you a ranking of your visibility on the web. What I think is a little different and cool about it is that it shows you all the elements it used to create your ranking and explains a little about how each work.

So in short, we can measure many things. But we haven’t figured out how to measure what matters. I think the real question is this: maybe we just need to stop trying to measure something that is, by its nature, unmeasurable.

I can’t really measure the value of a client’s faith in me, or a customer who will drive an extra 10 minutes to go to their store of choice, or the power of someone giving a specific book to 50 of their clients with a note that says, "You’ve got to read this. It will change how you think."

But I sure know I want a whole lot of it.

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A marketing tip from my Italian grandma: Count your bay leaves

January 20, 2007

No doubt you look at my last name and say Italian? But rest assured, on my mom’s side I’m your amico! Like all Italians, I had an Italian grandma. And like all Italian grandmas, she had an opinion about everything and wasn’t afraid to share it or the life lessons she had collected along her colorful life.

What she didn’t realize is that she also taught me some great marketing tips that, in her honor, I’d like to share with you.

If you come to my house for dinner, odds are you’re going to get spaghetti. I make the sauce from scratch, just like my grandma taught me to. Now when I use the word recipe, that’s not quite accurate. We do a lot of “a pinch of that” and “season to taste” sorts of measuring.

Except for the bay leaves. My grandma always used to say, “count your bay leaves.” Why? Well, for spaghetti sauce to be incredible, it must slow cook on the stove for at least 24 hours, if not longer. But when you finally take it off the stove and are going to freeze a bunch (because you always cook enough to make at least 6 dinners) you need to very carefully retrieve ALL the bay leaves. Otherwise, when you finally eat the sauce, there’s a very bitter taste to it. In making our sauce, you need to know what details matter enough to measure.

Marketing is like that too. It’s an imprecise science at best. We do a lot of seasoning for taste. We know what all the main ingredients need to be, but the measurements are usually not exacting. Much of it is gut instinct, experience, taking a taste and adjusting accordingly.

But, we can get so paralyzed by measuring and counting and analyzing that we lose track of our purpose. We measure just to measure. Because it feels safe. We know we can count. Bigger numbers mean better results, right? Not always. It depends on what matters. It depends on why we’re doing it in the first place.

So straight from my Italian grandma — figure out what has the potential to make your sauce bitter if you don’t keep track. Count your bay leaves. But don’t sweat the rest.

Here’s the entire Marketing Tips from My Italian Grandma series, for your enjoyment:

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Could you be a super hero?

January 17, 2007

We’ve talked quite a bit about branding and the importance of your employees intellectually and emotionally understanding and embracing your organization’s brand.

Part of your brand is without a doubt, how you expect your employees to make decisions, treat clients and conduct themselves with each other. It helps define how you hire, promote, reward and even fire those employees who do or do not live up to that expectation.

We’ve all seen the employee manual version…"We hold these values to be of the highest esteem — integrity, loyalty and a great work ethic."

Blech.

Nothing wrong with the sentiments, but the presentation makes it feel like it could apply to any company. So how do you make it meaningful, tangible and not sound like HR jargon?

Well, at McLellan Marketing Group part of our brand is that we work hard to be our client’s heroes. To that end, we have created the MMG Hero. ( Download MMGhero.pdf )

He is our very tangible way of setting the bar internally. We use it to hold each other accountable, to high five each other for really being a hero and to brainwash the new employees, so they clearly understand the standard we’ve set in the marketplace.

Maybe being a super hero doesn’t fit your brand. But the idea of personalizing your expectations sure should. Maybe it’s a country song. Or an epic poem. Or a letter from a customer who sums up their experience. How could you create a memorable, meaningful way to set the bar for your team?

If you don’t think you are quite up to MMG Hero status but would like to see what kind of super hero you might be, take this quiz.

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Good Reads

January 16, 2007

I’m not sure how you can even stay current, let alone try to stay ahead of the curve, if you’re not doing a fair amount of reading. Whether it’s books, blog posts or a great website packed with ideas — I think we all need to keep feeding our brains.

Here’s a couple thought provoking reads that are easily accessible.

Carolyn Manning is hosting another Carnival over at Thoughts & Philosophies. Lots of good reads but the one I found most thought-provoking was The Science of Success from Craig Harper.

Over at Marketing Profs, Mack Collier has posted an excellent article called Ten Steps to Creating a Brand Ambassador. You need to be a premium member…but honestly, you need to be one of those anyway.

I’ve been a member for a long time and always thought it was a bargain. The content is top notch year round and now they are doing weekly case studies that are packed with ideas, insights and tough lessons. Now, an uber bargain.

Go grab yourself some brain food! The lollipop is optional but highly recommended.

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:60 ticks marketing tip: Close your eyes and say no

January 16, 2007

Grab it fast…it’s gone in about a minute. A :60 ticks marketing tip is 150 words or less…so read it in a minute and implement it in the next!

Close your eyes. Picture a can of Coke. Now in your imagination, make the can green. What happens?

It’s not Coke anymore, is it? The folks at Coca-Cola headquarters are probably so sick of red they could scream — but they know better than to mess with their visual identity.

Remember that next time you want to change your logo’s color, font or other distinguishing features. If a company with the resources of Coke recognizes the cost of messing with their brand — shouldn’t you too?

That’s it…go put it into action! (Or in this case…inaction — leave it alone!)

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Take a Taste!

January 15, 2007

I got a friendly note from a reader Jurgen Wolff who enjoyed the Five Tips to Increase Online Book Sales post. He shared a idea that he used with great success.

"Thanks for your blog’s five tips to increase online book sales. I have been using another technique, namely printing a "Writer’s First-Aid Card" for what to do when you get stuck, and offering it free to writing conferences. The card is the size of an index card, and it’s printed both sides (color both sides). It contains a list of tips for what to do if you get stuck.

I wrote to conference organizers and offered to send them as many as they wanted, to include in their welcome pack or to pass out at the conference, or to put on a ‘freebies’ table. Requests have varied from 40 copies to several hundred."

Jurgen clearly understands the philosophy of sharing your expertise as a way of letting potential clients "sample" you.

I think this is one of marketing’s most overlooked and underused tactics. Blogging will change that to a degree — but outside of blogging, how can you give potential customers a chance to take a taste? And if you don’t do it — why the heck not?

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2007 — My turn at offering a marketing prediction

January 15, 2007

The last week of December and the early part of January are always awash with predictions. I got a nice note from David Polinchock, pointing me to the excellent series he wrote for Brand Experience Lab. Then, I found Be Excellent’s Top 10 Business Resolutions for 2007.

Both well-written and wise posts. There’s not a bad observation in the bunch.

Want to hear my prediction for 2007?

I don’t think that most businesses will actually do any of it.

I don’t believe that most businesses are brave enough to step out from the shadows of "we’ve always done it that way" to try something new.
I don’t believe that most businesses have the courage to trust their own customers and employees to grow and share the brand.
I don’t even believe that most businesses understand branding enough to take a whack at it.
Sadly, I don’t believe that most businesses will even bother to listen to the blogosphere, let alone engage in it.

Are you brave enough to prove me wrong? I sure hope so.

Flickr photo courtesy of pastelginger.

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Come out from your hiding place

January 14, 2007

I’ve read that for every person who comments on a blog there are 100+ who are reading in silence. Which is allowed. No one says you have to chime in.

But we’d sure like it if you would. As I said to Phil Gerbyshak on the phone yesterday — every conversation is more fun if someone is actually talking back.

Phil was telling me that it’s National Delurking Week. It’s the blogosphere’s way of inviting (yes, inviting) you to dip your toe in the water by posting a quick hi or giving me an idea you’d like us to explore here.

But, if you want to keep hiding — that’s cool too. I hope you won’t mind that I’m going to keep seeking by posting interesting ideas, challenging commentary and trying to entice you out.

Flickr photo courtesy of Cashaww

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Howdy neighbor!

January 14, 2007

Being a part of a community means knowing your neighbors. Or at least it should. Lots of us have joined the BlogLog community and it’s time to meet the neighbors!

Here’s how it works. The list below started with Andy Beard and Mike Sansone has now added to it. The first link is someone in their BlogLog community and the link right next to that is the neighbor’s community.

So a link for me would be:

Drew McLellan | Marketing Minute’s community

So grab this list, add a few of your neighbors and pass it on!

Come on…introduce us to some of your neighbors!

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Tagged again (I’m a slow runner!)

January 14, 2007

I was caught early in the meme and offered up my five things. Then, I wrote about how AdAge wrote about the game and how it said something interesting about bloggers and their work.

Then Branding and Marketing’s Chris Brown got me in round two of the game. So here we go. I thought to make it interesting for you and in keeping with this blog’s theme — I would tell you about five of my favorite brands and the secret each brand reveals about me.

Disney: I’m 44. I own my own business. I pay my bills on time. I vote. And…I am a 12 year old trapped in a man’s body.

Apple: Despite my seriously Type-A personality, if I had to choose one over the other, I am pretty sure my heart would choose form over function. I love Apple’s simplicity, clean design and attitude. I don’t care that I have fewer applications to choose from.

Coke: I’m a sentimental fool who loves traditions, Americana and really would like to teach the world to sing.

Dads & Daughters: Being my daughter’s dad is my life’s greatest joy.

Mystery Writers of America: There’s a mystery novel or three in me. I just have to find time to get it out on paper! I have most of the first one plotted out. It’s about a newspaper columnist who gets a call and…

Thanks for the tag Chris! I love to play! (see #1)

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