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Grasshopper case study shows you how to create a viral campaign

August 3, 2009

Remember when I told you about getting some chocolate covered grasshoppers in the mail and how effective the 3-D mailing was?

Well, now the Grasshopper team has gone one further. They have documented in a step by step, 8-page case study exactly how they created this brilliantly executed viral campaign.

The case study includes detailed budget numbers and short of their mailing list — pretty much every detail you might want to know.

This idea of freely sharing what you know/did is one of my favorite aspects of social media. Do yourself a favor and go download the case study. It is an excellent example you can use as the framework for your next effort.

Many thanks to Jonathan Kay (Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper) and his team for not only creating a smart and buzzworthy campaign but also sharing their secrets so we can all do the same!

Get a free copy of Personal Branding Magazine

August 1, 2009

The latest issue of Dan Schawbel's magazine Personal Branding has hit the streets (figuratively!) and you can get a free sample copy by clicking here.

In this issue, you'll find:

Full paid issue (August 1st): 28 articles total covering information and advice related to dominating your niche and building your brand.
Sample issue: 8 articles total, including how to become the #1 resource in your field and how to become an A-list star.
Interviews with: Evander Holyfield, Abiola Abrams, Ken Blanchard, Melanie Notkin and Steve Strauss

Enjoy the good reads!

3 for 3 goals: Focus on what will grow your business (Susan Clements)

July 31, 2009

Drew's Note: As I try to do every Friday, I'm pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet a thought leader who shares her insights with clients every day. So without further ado…Susan Clements. Again. Enjoy!

"Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction."

– Kenichi Ohmae

It’s easy to create activity – it’s harder to create the right activity, the activity that ensures your business is growing and taking you in the right direction. To ensure you’re focusing on the activity that will grow your business, provide outstanding results for your clients and keep you headed in the right direction, consider the following vital activities:

Create Clarity:
Clearly identify the result you want for your business three years in the future. You need to craft a story that passionately communicates where your business will be in three years. If you can’t passionately describe where you want to be, then you won’t be able to enlist others to take the journey with you. Your clients, accountant, banker, employees and community need to know what you’re about and where you’re going…if you want them to come along!

Set Short Term Goals (Three for Three):
Take each of your clearly defined three year goals and describe what needs to happen in three time frames:

this year,
this quarter, and
this month!

If your goal is to have 75 new clients at the end of three years, then you need to identify the activities that will get you at least 25 new clients this year, 6 new clients each quarter and 2 new clients each month. This means you need to have an activity plan! Your activity needs to be CONSISTENT and you need to be PERSISTENT in following your activity plan.

The right activity will bring in the right clients – the wrong activity may keep you busy and yield no clients or (even worse) lead you to clients that will keep you busy, but not help you grow your business. For example a bi-monthly presentation or workshop for members of a local club for entrepreneurs may keep you busy however you might discover that the club demographics are mainly start up businesses directing their finances into their business, without the resources to invest.

Your activity plan should be directed to a market that fits your most probable customer, the customer most likely to use your services and have both the ability and desire to engage with you. Do your research and make sure the prospects you are spending your precious lead generation time with would be the clients that will help you grow your business.

Quantify Your Progress Weekly:
Set aside one hour each week to track your progress towards your Three for Three goals and redefine your activity plan. In order for your business to accomplish the three year result you have identified you must be engaged in the right activities to continue to take your business in the right direction. A weekly check in will allow you to quantify your past week results, make adjustments and ensure you are taking the right actions!

Susan Clements is Executive Director and co-owner of E-Myth Benchmark, a business coaching company serving businesses in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the UK. Susan has designed a revolutionary coach training and delivery system that tools E-Myth Benchmark coaches to actively engage in results based coaching with business owners, leaders and managers that result in greater freedom and flexibility. E-Myth Benchmark provides E-Myth Mastery Impact™ business coaching, business management and leadership workshops, trainings and seminars. Contact Susan at www.e-mythcoaching.com or sclements@e-mythcoaching.com

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day. Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew's Marketing Minute? Shoot me an e-mail.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Do you know what you need?

July 28, 2009

Every business wants to generate new business. That’s the commonality. But that’s just about all that’s the same.

Some sell high-ticket or very specialized items and services. They only need a handful of new clients to meet their goals.

Others are all about volume. They have a large ability to deliver quantities of their offerings and they want the pipeline full.

This is where the “one size fits all” marketing theories fall apart.

The high-ticket/specialty client can and should spend more money per client acquisition. Their efforts need to be about honing in on exactly the right prospects. They are likely to spend more money on profiling prospects to make sure they don’t waste a lot of time talking to buyers who have no interest or no ability to buy their wares.

Once they’ve identified “the who,” they can get down to telling their story. Because the numbers are small, the marketing tactics that most often make sense for them are ones that allow them to speak directly to those potential buyers and no one else. Direct mail, opt-in e-zines, topic specific blogs, niche newspapers or TV shows and peer-to-peer referrals are all effective options.

On the flip side, the volume-focused client’s goal is to reach a much wider audience.

They’re willing to catch a few undesirables in their net, as long as they can harvest a lot of prospects all at once. Because a wider group of people fit their target parameters, they don’t need to invest in a lot of prospect profiling. They’re looking for a wide reach and frequency to encourage that initial trial. Tactics that might fit the bill for these marketers include couponing, mass media (newspaper, radio, TV, outdoor) advertising, product placement and sampling.

Which set of tactics fits what you really need?

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Thanks for the nods!

July 26, 2009

Drew's Marketing Minute has recently been noted on several websites — as always, I want to thank you readers who make the comments and discussions so lively for getting this blog noticed. It would be a quiet and boring place without you!

Without further ado….

The folks at Online College Reviews put together a list of 100 awesome blogs for your business education. Proud to say this blog is among 99 other excellent blogs. They did a nice job of categorizing the list so you can find just the right blog for any business concern you might have.

The editors at blogged.com have once again reviewed a huge slew of blogs. Drew's Marketing Minute was given a 9.4 out of 10. They base their reviews on: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style. You can check out the 10's of thousands of blogs they've reviewed her e.

The Invesp Consulting company (the e-commerce experts) have put together a new ranking system based on 20 factors ranging from pages per visit to link to page ratios. As of today, this blog is ranked #3 in its category…so thanks to the Invesp folks for that.

Want to connect face to face?

July 21, 2009

One of the biggest budget crunchers for most businesses is travel. But sometimes, there is no substitute for a face-to-face conversation.

But then again, maybe there is.

Cisco's Telepresence is technology that takes video conferencing to a whole new level. You can check it out in the video below.

Why am I telling you this? Well, first because you can access this technology by the hour. I was able to find five re-sellers in Des Moines, so I am pretty sure you'll be able to find at least one in your neck of the woods. For many organizations, this might be a very attractive and cost sensitive solution.

And…Cisco, in this social media age, is holding a contest. You create a video telling Cisco why you'd benefit from having access to Telepresence. You can win $3,000 and 5 free hours of access.

You can view the contest's webpage by clicking here. Check out some of the videos. People aren't doing anything overly high-tech. But boy are they giving Cisco some smart sales messages. (If you enter, let me know and we'll share your video with the blog readers!)

Don't dismiss this as a "big company" tactic. You could do the exact same thing. Here are the benefits:

Very shareable…note how Cisco is letting people rate the videos. Now if you entered, wouldn't you tell your friends to go vote for yours?
Introduces a whole lot of people to your product/service
Creates a want for your product that probably was unrealized before the contest
It's like a mini focus group. Listen carefully for sales nuggets and ideas

There certainly are other perks to this sort of a contest. What benefits do you see?

Social media isn’t for everyone

July 20, 2009

I know…blasphemy. If you read the blogs and tweets of many social media proponents, they'll speak of social media like it is the holy grail. Seek it…find it and all your marketing woes will be gone.

I don't think it's anywhere near that simple.

Don't get me wrong — I still believe in the value and power of social media. But I also believe:

There are levels of involvement and not everyone should do a deep dive
It's no magic bullet — we're talking a serious time commitment
It does not eliminate the need for traditional media efforts

If you look at this great diagram by Gary Hayes you'll see that there are degrees of involvement that correlate with different activities.

The Consumer: This is the person/company who actively listens to what is being said online about themselves, their company, their industry etc. This, I believe is the level that ALL people/companies need to be at. (check out this great post by Jason Falls about listening)

The Sharer: This is where you go from reading it to sharing it. Maybe you tweeting great reads or you have one of those blogs where you just list other blog posts worthy of reading. You might also be an association or company leader who wants to create word of mouth or keep your team current. (Word of mouth elevates you as well as what you share.)

The Critic: I take exception with Haye's label on this one. Yes, at this level of activity, you might be criticizing something, but I think in most cases you are reacting to something that's been said. You are adding additional facts, correcting a misperception or asking a follow up question. (If you're doing a good job at level one (The consumer) you'll be able to respond quickly.)

The Editor: There's nothing that says you have to create all new content if you want to deep dive into social media. You could create a site like MarketingProfs that has many authors creating and re-purposing content or perhaps you belong to a group (like my agency networking group) and everyone writes a little…which adds up to a lot.

The Creator: This is where many will tell you that you need to be. It's mandatory. I think that's rubbish. In fact, I think most people should not be here. Why? Because of the time commitment is huge. Because there may not be any ROI for your company to be blogging/content creating. And because most people will start…and then stall. I'm not saying this isn't a smart strategy. I'm just saying it's not for everyone.

I believe that everyone needs to be a consumer. And as a result of actively listening…they can and should be sharing and critiquing when need be. For many, that's where it should end. And there's nothing wrong with stopping there.

What do you think? Should everyone have a blog? Are we all content creators at heart?

What are you waiting for?

July 14, 2009

I think it's high time for a wake up call for many business owners. You cannot wait for this economic downturn to blow over. It's not a 6-month variance. It is, at least for now, the new normal.

Sure…maybe in 2010 or 2011 the pendulum will begin to swing in the other direction.

But even then…it's not going to be what it was.

Our world is experiencing change like we've never known before. It's not just the economy…it's technology, it's communication, it's the proliferation of consumer driven media, it's about the new reality of life expectancy and how that is impacting our views on retirement, pensions and medicine. Just about everything has changed.

The world as we knew it in 2007 no longer exists and it isn't coming back.

Which gets me back to my question — what are you waiting for?

You'd better figure out how to market your business in this brave new world, or you might as well close up shop. Your marketing budget (both dollars and time resources) should be more robust than ever before. Because the stakes are higher.

Will you market differently? I sure hope so. We've talked before about how you can market wisely during a recession….but please don't think you can wait this one out.

If you don't figure out how to be of value in 2009, odds are you won't be around to answer that question once the recession recedes.

Let's help each other….my readers are about as smart as it gets. Jump into the comments section and tell us what's working for you.

Five ways to manage customer loyalty (Timothy Keiningham & Lerzan Aksoy)

July 10, 2009

Drew's Note: As I try to do every Friday, I'm pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet two thought leaders who shares their insights via the blogosphere. So without further ado…Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy. Again. Enjoy!

Managers are typically taught to things that can be easily quantified and reported on a balance sheet. Stop for a moment to answer this fundamental question: "What is the purpose of any business?” On the face of it, this question seems pretty easy to answer. Most managers would answer: "To make a profit."

But that's the wrong answer. Profits are an outcome. They only tell us if our business strategy and execution are viable.

Peter Drucker, widely considered the father of modern management, argued that the common belief that creating profits was purpose of a business was not only wrong, but harmful. It causes us to make bad business decisions and lose sight of those things that delight customers. He summed up the actual purpose of business this way: "There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer."

The mark of success for a firm, and therefore the ultimate objective of its strategy, is to satisfy customer needs and wants at a sustainable profit. Whatever strategy and tactics we employ to gain competitive advantage must ultimately be based upon our profitably providing a better solution for customers.

Managing Customers as Assets

Customers are the ultimate asset for all profit-making organizations. They provide all of a company's real value. Paradoxically, customers are one of the few aspects of a business that are not managed as an investment. This oversight negatively impacts profits in multiple ways, including inefficient resource allocation (via suboptimal company-customer interactions); product design and launch failures (via poor fit with customer needs); and unstable cash flows (via increased customer defections and price sensitivity).

Therefore, if customers are the primary asset, the ultimate aim of any business strategy should be to maximize the net present value (NPV) of customers to the firm. While on its face such a statement may seem academic, this is much more than a theoretical maxim. Researchers consistently find firms that adopt a customer lifetime value framework for customer selection and resource allocation strategy significantly outperform their competitors in profits and shareholder value.

But this doesn't just happen. It requires the successful integration of all areas of management — accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and human resources — in profitably addressing the needs of customers. Below is a good place for us to begin.

Accounting. Analyze the profitability of your customers. Research conducted by the Harvard Business School finds that most customers for most firms do not produce an acceptable rate of return (i.e., they are not profitable). In fact, for most companies, the top 20 percent of customers in terms of profitability produce all of a company's profits, the middle 60 percent break even, and the bottom 20 percent lose the company money. Paradoxically, revenue is a terrible predictor of customer profitability. The highest revenue customers tend to be the most profitable or the least profitable.

Managers need this information to effectively run their businesses. They need to know who their profitable customers are and what behaviors are associated with profitability.

Finance. Incorporate customer metrics in your financial models when making investment decisions. When prioritizing investment decisions, pay attention to the projected impact on the future value of customers to the business. Analysts cannot consistently beat (or even meet) the market — in the language of finance, they don't add alpha. Research finds that this is because intangibles that reflect the strength of the company-customer relationship are excluded.

For example, analysts are generally skeptical of the impact that customer satisfaction has on a company's market value. Analysts tend to view customer satisfaction information as "soft" data because they don't understand how satisfaction data links to a company's bottom line. Because it is intangible, they frequently regard it as a money drain.

Our own research found that incorporating customer satisfaction into standard models used in investment finance significantly improved the ability to pick winners versus losers. And the winners dramatically outperformed the market by 2 to 1.

Marketing. Put more focus on current customers. Marketing activity has largely focused on persuasion — the ability of the company to change someone's attitudes or behavior. And while that is a critical role of marketing, too often this gets translated into simply persuading someone to try something for the first time. An old saying goes, "A good salesman can sell anything once. The trick is getting them to buy again."

But it is not as simple as focusing on customer retention either (i.e., getting them to come back). Today, customers buy competing products from multiple companies with seemingly no real loyalty. In other words, customers divide their wallets among competitors.

Consequently, one of the most important elements in improving financial performance is getting customers to allocate a larger share of their wallets to the firm. A McKinsey study found that focusing on share of wallet had a 10 times greater impact than focusing on retention alone. Research demonstrates that the strongest driver of share of wallet is customer loyalty.

Therefore, the primary goal of marketing must be the creation of loyal, long-term customers out of first-time or occasional buyers. Accomplishing this requires a clear understanding of what makes customers want to be loyal. Gathering and understanding customer needs is the job of marketing.

Operations. Make certain that company-defined quality and customer-perceived quality are aligned. Because operations are often focused on the creation and distribution of products and services, there is a natural tendency for managers to focus on meeting technical specifications.

While the quality movement of the 1980s has done a great deal to establish standards of technical excellence, we have a long way to go to achieve user-defined excellence. It matters little if a firm is meeting its internal guidelines if these are disconnected from the customer.

We must always remember that the customer did not design the process, and they don't care that the system we have designed makes our lives easier. It needs to make customers' lives easier. So when designing and implementing any process, we need to experience the offering as customers do (i.e., shop our own stores).

Human Resources. Establish a climate for service in the organization. By service climate, we mean the procedures and behaviors that get rewarded and supported within the company with regard to customer service . Research consistently demonstrates that service climate is positively linked with lower turnover, higher customer satisfaction, and improved financial performance.

While we all pay lip service to the importance of employees in serving customers, too often we manage in terms of their operational productivity at the exclusion of all else. How many employee evaluations actually include customer metrics as part of the formal criteria? The reality is that most employees are rewarded for completing tasks. Few, however, are rewarded for making customers happy.

A Holistic Strategy

Too often we as managers think about strategy in terms of our own functional area: marketing strategy, operations strategy, finance strategy, etc. But each of these strategies should exist as part of a holistic company strategy. A winning strategy focuses everyone in the organization to come together for one cause: to profitably create and keep a customer.

Timothy Keiningham is a world-renowned authority in the field of loyalty measurement and management, and Global Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Ipsos Loyalty, one of the world’s largest business research organizations.

Lerzan Aksoy is an acclaimed expert in the science of loyal management, and Associate Professor of Marketing at Fordham University. They are coauthors of a new book, with Luke Williams, entitled Why Loyalty Matters and creators of LoyaltyAdvisor, a web-based tool that analyzes your loyalty across multiple dimensions proven to link to your success. LoyaltyAdvisor is the product of a global effort, the most comprehensive study of loyalty ever conducted.

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day. Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew's Marketing Minute? Shoot me an e-mail.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

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