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5 Steps to Better Marketing

Keith Monaghan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:53:07 +0000

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What makes a marketing campaign great? It’s the Big Question we all ask ourselves and, for what it’s worth, I have a partial answer.

Here are five things that are often overlooked by marketers but, done properly, can turn any campaign into a smashing success.

1. Start With a Better Product

Think your product is too boring to be great? Don’t tell that to the folks at the Sherwin-Williams. They revolutionized the retail paint industry by designing a paint can with an easy twist-off lid, comfortable side handle and no-drip spout. Oh, and it’s square to maximize shelf space. How’s that for making a boring product great?

It’s a lot easier to sell people a product that answers their needs–even needs they may not be aware of–than trying to convince them to buy an average or poorly designed one.

Consider this quote from Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. A master marketer if ever there was one:

It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do. We just want to make great products. — Steve Jobs, Fortune Magazine

2. Be Clear

How many times have you watched a commercial and wondered what it was trying to sell? Quite a few, I’m willing to bet. How many campaigns have you created that did the same thing? Come on, be honest. We’ve all done it.

It’s easy to become blinded by the opinions of insiders, technology or the latest marketing trend and end up creating something that, while obscurely clever, fails to successfully market your product.

Some experts argue such campaigns are justified as “brand extension” or “customer experience”. Maybe. I say you’re better off creating a campaign that makes it easy for customers to understand what is great about your product why they should buy it.

A good example is this ad for Buckley’s Cough Syrup:

Funny, to the point, and it gets the message across. No list of unpronounceable ingredients, no baffling conceptual art, just a statement of the obvious: “It tastes awful”, followed by a gutsy claim: “And it works”. The TV commercials are brilliant too. Clear is always better than clever.

3. Design Better

The average American is exposed to between 200 and 3,000 ads per day. If it’s going to cut through the clutter, a marketing campaign better convey your message quickly, clearly and powerfully. That means good design.

Badly designed campaigns can damage an otherwise healthy brand by creating doubt in a customer’s mind about you, your product and your company. If you can’t get your marketing together then why should they buy your product?

By way of example: What would happen if Microsoft redesigned Apple’s famously understated packaging for the iPod? Watch the video below to find out. It’s not pretty. Good design matters. A lot.

Can’t see the embedded video? Click here.

4. Improve Customer Service

What does customer service have to do with a great marketing campaign? Well, if the campaign succeeds people will be making purchases, calling and emailing you with questions and, heaven forbid, experiencing problems.

It’s not sexy or trendy but great customer service can produce better results than any PR or marketing initiative, not to mention happy and loyal customers (and you need those more than ever right now).

Give them a great story to spread about how effortless the purchase was, about how well you took care of them and how quickly you solved their problem. The word will spread, I promise. Great word-of-mouth is priceless marketing and good customer service is an easy way to make it happen.

For some interesting examples of both good and bad customer service, check out my podcast “Marketing in Tough Times – Improving Customer Service“.

5. Remember, Your Customers are Human

Sure, treating customers as a faceless mass of numbers has it’s upside: it makes things like accounting, valuation and profit analysis easier.

But this industrial revolution mentality has its limits in today’s hyper-connected world. With the social web, we’ve moved beyond the simplistic concept of an individual mass of customers to customers as a mass of individuals. As a result, learning how humans work, specifically your humans, can reap enormous rewards.

Case in point, the following quote from John Medina’s book, Brain Rules:

“We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.”

In short: learn how humans work and develop your message accordingly. Your efforts will be rewarded.

What other steps can businesses take to improving marketing? What would you add to this list? Leave a comment or email blog at keithmonaghan dot com.

Thanks for reading.See also:

Study: Adults Dominate Social Media

Keith Monaghan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:48:27 +0000

On a recent episode of NPR’s excellent Science Friday program, Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran spoke about a new report that looks at the use of social media and online communities among US computer users.

It offers fascinating, if sometimes obvious, insight into who’s using Facebook, Twitter, et al. Bottom line: it’s not all kids and hipsters, it’s mostly old farts (including yours truly). Sean says:

4/5 of Americans who are online participate in some form of Social Media.
Of the 250 million people worldwide that belong to Facebook, half log on daily spending over 5 billion minutes a day on the site.
Women over the age of 35 have flocked to Facebook, Twitter’s population has a male slant, MySpace is mostly the younger crowd.

Some of the points we’ve heard before (marketers, build relationships!) but the show neatly summarizes what’s happening online and, if you’re looking to put Social Media in perspective, it’s a well-spent 12 minutes. Get the full episode at these links:

Listen on the Science Friday site | Download the MP3 from NPR | Get on iTunesSee also:

Marketing in Tough Times: Improving Customer Service

Keith Monaghan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:45:51 +0000

Join me as I explore the ideas in the e-book Marketing in Tough Times – 20 No-Cost Ideas in a new podcast that’s loaded with insight, case studies and interviews. The Marketing in Tough Times podcast is a quick, irreverent examination of what it takes to successfully market your business in this challenging economy. Tough times never last, but tough (and resourceful) marketers do.

In this episode: How United Airlines blew it big time and what Apple and Weber understand about customer service that many companies don’t.

Listen now:

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Embedded player not working? Listen here.See also:

Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes a Day

Keith Monaghan — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:20:04 +0000

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Social media is more than just feel good PR, the numbers show that it’s good business and an increasingly important part of a larger communication strategy.

If you believe, as I do, that all marketing is ultimately word-of-mouth, then spending a few minutes a day on social media makes sense.

Yes, you say, I’m aware of that, Mr. Marketing Guy, but I have a real job and a boss and deadlines to meet. Who has the time to friend and tweet?

You do. The secret: start small and stay highly focused.

In just thirty minutes a day you can participate in the communities that want to hear from you, listen for talk about your company or product and work some social media magic.

First Things First

First, get smart. Spend a few minutes reading these thoughts on Social Media and business. Even better, spend a few days searching out and reading a dozen more.

Jeremiah Owyang on Social Media Marketing [SlideShare]
5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Marketing and PR [Page One PR]
Can Marketing Be Conversational? [Doc Searls]
Intel Social Media Guidelines [Intel]

Then, learn how to track the results. Contrary to the hype, Social Media marketing is not about “Return on Interest” or “Return on Influence”, in the business world it’s “Return on Investment” or die.

You need measurable results, so spend a little time learning how to track and interpret what happens with your Social Media efforts. Here are a few excellent articles to get you started.

Defining Social Media ROI Once and For All [The BrandBuilder Blog]
How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business [Mashable]
Social Media ROI [SlideShare]
Social Media ROI [Scribd]

The Strategy

The secret to Social Media in thirty minutes a day is simple: start small, limit your options, use the tools a few minutes a day. That’s it.

My suggestion is to use only three Social Media tools at a time: a blog, the current hot Social Media site (as of this writing, Twitter), and an online community specific to your industry or product (if it doesn’t exist you have an opportunity to create one).

For example, a corporation might use a company blog>twitter>online community, posting news, updates and resources on their blog and responding to talk about their products on twitter and in the online community.

A retailer or restaurant could use twitter>yelp>brightkite, sending news and coupons via twitter, responding to reviews on yelp and using brightkite to send offers to their customers’ cell phones as they pass by on the street (seriously cool).

A wine shop might try a blog>twitter>corkd, blogging about wine and posting reviews, twittering special offers, recommendations and wine news and discussing wine with fellow oenophiles on corkd.

You’ll notice the retailer/restaurant example does not have a blog. That’s OK, they’re doing what works for them, which is exactly the point.

Now grab a fresh, steaming hot cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage and let’s get started.

The Routine

Blog: 15 Minutes a Day

Your online anchor. All of your Social Media tools point here, where there is more space for fleshing out ideas and communicating. Spend 15 minutes a day posting news, special offers, product updates, tutorials and resources, maybe even what’s happening inside the company. Nothing to post? Spend your time drafting ideas. 15 minutes a day means 1 hour and 15 minutes every work week to write something great. Here are two guides to help you get started with business blogging:

10 Tips for Becoming a Great Corporate Blogger [Scout Blogging]
A Guide to Corporate Blogging [ProBlogger]

Twitter: 5 Minutes a Day

The current Social Media darling is where the hyper-social hang out, but the web interface lacks the features to make it truly powerful. Consider using twitter management software like seesmic, tweetdeck or HootSuite. What to do? Set up and monitor a search for your company, reply to mentions of your product, and frequently retweet relevant ideas, giving credit and props. Reply, interact, build, engage.

If you’re new to Twitter here are several great articles on how to use it for business:

Twitter 101 for Business [Twitter]
50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business [Chris Brogan]
Newbie’s Guide to Twitter [CNET]

Community: 10 Minutes a Day

There are many out there, Yelp, facebook, beebo, seesmic, jaiku, LinkedIn, MySpace, superfan, etc. The plethora of choices is a good thing, in this case, because more than likely there is an online community for your business, whatever it is. In the travel biz? Try Passportstamp. Game developer? Wakoopa. You get the idea. Here’s a big ol’ list to get you started.

More ideas on business and online communities:

10 Best Practices of Business Networking [About]
Four Ways Social Networking Can Build Business [bnet]

Conclusion

This plan is a starting point, adjust the times and tools as you see fit and use the sites that make the most sense for you. You know your situation best. Measure consistently. Tweak accordingly. Repeat daily.

Remember, Social Media Marketing is about your space, not your product. It’s about how you can empower users, highlight others work and bring something of value to the community and to your customers. Business will follow. Seriously.

One more thing, many of these sites have search functions that allow you to set up and monitor keywords like your product or company. Use them. (Or as Chris Brogan puts it: Grow big ears.)

Good luck and let me know how you adapt this strategy to your situation. I’d love to hear about it in the comments or drop me and email at blog at keithmonaghan dot com.

Thanks for reading.See also:

Podcast: Blogs and Twitter and YouTube! Oh My!

Keith Monaghan — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:39:18 +0000

A while ago I produced and hosted a series of podcasts for a client. We learned a lot and in the process created something that was highly informative and, dare I say, bordered on professional.

The shows were about running live arts organizations–performing arts centers, night clubs, live theater–that sort of thing.

It was a lot of fun. In fact, if I could interview people for a living I would. Watch your back, Ira Glass!

So what, you say?

Good point. You probably don’t manage an off-Broadway show.

But one of the better episodes is rather timely and if you’re looking for insight into the current social media marketing frenzy you might find my discussion with arts marketing consultant Maryann Devine interesting.

We cover a lot of ground in 18 minutes and it’s a great primer on blogging, YouTube, and the ridiculously popular twitter.

Just substitute “business” every time you hear us say “arts venue” and it will make perfect sense. Honest.

Listen now:

Download audio file (Blogs_and_Twitter_and_YouTube_Oh_My.mp3)

Download: “Blogs and Twitter and YouTube! Oh My!” (.mp3/20MB/18 Min.)

Listen at: InTheBoxPodcast.comSee also: