The influence of the Internet on Marketing

The following is a summary from Stephen Lynch, the Chief Operating Officer for RESULTS.com after the Chief Marketing Officer conference in the USA last weekend

Key Ideas:

· Marketing as a function will move into a real-time model. You'll be measured on advertising and media effectiveness on a daily and weekly basis. You'll start reading it in real time and making adjustments accordingly.
· CMO has to think more broadly than just marketing if he/she is going to lead growth. For example, at Zappos customer service equals marketing. Shift focus from thinking a "marketing agenda" to "growth agenda."
· Customer service via social media (people who complain about something publicly from posting to Twitter from their PDA) works faster than going through a company's traditional customer service outlets (e.g. 800 number and email us).
· You're going to be involved in social media whether you choose to be involved with it proactively or not. Do you want to catch up and participate with it?
· Understand that it's just one giant conversation. Make social media a company-wide strategy. It's beyond just getting a Twitter account.
· Transparency is about trust with audience.
· It's important to connect with your audience. Don't market to them.
· Don't confuse "prolific" with being "successful."
· Build relationships with bloggers and it will pay off when you need their support. When you put out a promotion, the bloggers spread the word for you.
· If you think you're number one in your industry, check Google first. If you appear on Google for a general search in your category then you are tops. Those who appear top in their category often have blogs.
· Go to the bloggers first with your new product announcement. Completely avoid the traditional media. The traditional media will see the bloggers' content.
· Don't be surprised when customers have irrational responses. That's normal. Companies often only prepare for rational responses.
· Tech companies often come from this attitude of "When we're done with this product, everyone will want it." They don't consider marketing as a function. Yet the Valley is filled with examples of the best product not winning because they had a poor "go to market" strategy.

Guy Kawasaki, the author of nine books including "How to Drive Your Competition Crazy" gave tips on how CMOs can best use Twitter in their marketing efforts.

· Kawasaki says that he came late to Twitter. "I found Twitter, or should I say Twitter found me in 2007," he said. "My first reaction was that Twitter was the dumbest thing I ever saw."
· But, he quickly realized the huge potential for marketing.

Kawasaki's advice for CMOs on how to use Twitter

· Search for yourself or your company. This will let you see what people are saying about you, for good and bad, all day long.
· Not all of it is positive, but you learn as much from the negative as you do from the positive. And watch your competition too.
· Note: As a marketer you must realize that when someone slams your product 99% of the time they have not tried your product. Just send them a free sample to turn them into a fan.

New theory of marketing

· Old marketing used the theory of influencers. There are 20 people you need to suck up to.
· Today Kawasaki believes in a new theory: "The nobodies are the new somebodies." Once you turn an average Twitter critic into a fan they will Tweet to many, many more followers.
· Don't just focus on the top influencers with the most followers. "Rather than suck up, you should suck across or suck down," said Kawasaki, "Twitter allows you to do that."

Twitter lets you dump inventory

· If you've got excess inventory, give it away on Twitter as "deals." People will follow you just to see the deals you place on Twitter. It's a great way to move inventory quickly.

Prospecting: How to get followers

· Kawasaki said he only uses Twitter is a marketing platform. "I am not trying to be social or make friends," he said. "As a marketer I want to get followers."
· Inform. Don't “me-form”.
· Me-form - is "my cat just rolled over."
· Inform – is to provide content that your followers will find interesting and valuable. The goal is to have interesting links so people will Retweet you.

Other best practices

· Always be linking to great content.
· Anytime someone mentions you on twitter, respond.
· Your ultimate goal is to be Retweeted.

You cannot make everyone happy. If 10 are mad, there are probably 10,000 who love you. They are the silent majority. Do not let a tiny percent of angry people, to affect your marketing. You need to ignore them.

Kawasaki said Twitter today is what the Internet was 20 years ago. I think Twitter will be around for a long time. It's a mistake to say Twitter will not be useful for B2B. It's such a trivial thing to sign up, why not? In three years, you will say why didn't I get started earlier
http://thecmoclub.blogspot.com/2009/11/guy-kawasakis-twitter-tips-for.html

Taking a break

The old saying when the going gets tough the tough get going has certainly applied over the last year of challenging times. Sometimes as the business owners you have to roll your sleeves up and get dirty. For many this means putting in some extraordinary hours and grinding away to ensure that your company not only survives but thrives in a tough climate.

However, there comes a time when you need to refuel the tank. Working with a couple of business owners yesterday reminded me how hard we have all worked but also how hard it has been. They have come through an extremely challenging time in their business and have pulled through and are in a much stronger position now. As one of them said "We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we are sure that it not a train coming". But they look exhausted.

One of the actions this week is for them to take some time and recharge. I had to swallow this pill myself recently as I had been busy and a long time between breaks. Took a few days off and come back charged. The world won't fall down if you take one too.

What's missing from business success

I was asked this morning what I thought was more important - having an effective strategy or effective execution?



To me the answer is obvious - Doesn't matter how good your strategy is if it does not get executed properly and effective execution is only effective with a strategy. Execution isn't the best thing it is the only thing!


While creating a well-formulated strategy is vitally important for business success, the biggest challenge for most business leaders is getting their team to effectively execute their chosen strategy.


- Consider the following alarming research:
–90% of strategies fail due to poor execution
–Only 27% of employees have access to their company strategic plan
–Only 5% of employees understand their company strategy
–92% of organizations do not measure Key Performance Indicators



We have just been trialling a execution tool called execution driver and I have to say it has been fantastic in my own team becoming more egaged and accountable for better execution of our strategy. Not only does it put a big tick beside each of the above statistics it has freed me up personally to concentrate on more of the things that I am best at.



Visit http://www.executiondriver.com/



Happy executing

Karl

Understanding the "Core Values" of Honesty and Integrity

Often I hear that Honesty and Integrity are core values - as they should be. Would you ever Hire someone who wasn't honest or exhibited Integrity? How often though have you employed someone to be disappointed on these values.

The challenge is that you need to go to a deeper level so your people can understand what it really means in your organisation. The words are like the outer layer of an onion and you need to peel back the layers until you get to the real "core" of the definition for your company.

In our company "Live what we teach" defines Integrity for me. We have a client who is a painting contractor that has "3 coats means 3 coats". Isn't this a lot easier for his staff to understand than Integrity.

The difinitions are different for every company. What does the inside of your onion look like for Honesty and Integrity in your company.

Execution is what the AB's lack!

Like many things in the world, you can have all the theory and motivation in the world but actually putting it into an execution plan and adjusting to conditions takes a lot of skill. We see it in business and we saw it yesterday with the All Blacks. Good tactics theory, good training and then poor execution. Get it right and they will achieve extra ordinary results. Keep getting it wrong and they will just be another average team!

Of course it is easy to be critical from the couch, not so easy when you have 140kgs of Afrikaner breathing down your neck!

Karl

What does your Brand promise?

The Brand Promise you give to the market is pretty fundamental. It is really what your brand stands for. Of course it ties in with the core values and vision I have discussed in previous blogs. If you get this right and can back it up with tangible evidence or facts that your company is delivering then it becomes powerful and adds value to your brand......if you have a valuable brand then you have a valuable investment!

The Results.Com Brand Promise is "We engage all of your people and deliver extraordinary results". I'm not saying this is the best or the most powerful but if you take into account that independent research is conducted regularly then it comes to life. As at Feb 09 our clients average annual revenue growth was 26%.......down from over 40% the previous year but still extraordinary in the face of the biggest recession since World War Two. Add to this we are now entering the recovery phase so our clients are going to be well placed to ride the lift!

If you have the research independently carried out and verified then its pretty powerful isn't it?

So what is your brand promise?

Karl

Results.Com

Many people ask us what we do? Many think we are one of the many Business Coaching organisations that seem to tout their wares around the town. Well we are not Coaches....we grow businesses, we provide Business Execution Strategy's for those we work with that allow them to grow. We transform business potential into extraordinary results. Our team delivering these results are Business Execution Specialists with a variety of backgrounds, experience and qualifications.

Even more excitingly as a company we are developing and will soon launch a variety of new services and options that will allow organisations to easily work with us in a way that best suits their requirements.

Currently and in this challenging economic environment our clients are growing and on average are achieving 26% revenue growth (*Perspective Insight (Independent Client Research) Annual survey Feb 09).

Karl (see our website)