Email and Video: Tactics you can use Today

I may be getting older but I had a crazy flashback yesterday. I went to the movies to see August Rush (I give it 1 thumbs up) and of course I was forced to sit through about 20 commercials that mostly focused on gifts I must buy before the move started. One commercial stood out - a new video phone that is being offered by a mobile carrier up here called Rogers (Verizon is the equivalent the US). I remembered seeing this concept in Star Trek and Back to the Future but low and behold, we finally have created this technology on a portable device!! The bottom line here is that video has come a long way.

How to Incorporate Video and Email

In a recent article on ClickZ called Testing, Testing, Testing... Karen Gedney reported that Bulldog Solutions started adding video highlights to their emails. For example, for an upcoming webinar they shot a very short webinar introduction video, took a screenshot of the speaker from this video and included this in the email invite (see the screenshot). When you receive the email, you can click on the video screenshot and the video opens in a new window. Looks difficult? It's easier then you think.

While the image in the email looks like the video will play directly in the email, that's actually not the case and not recommended as email clients (what you use to read your emails) render emails differently. It's much easier and safer to make the image a link in the email to the actual video player.

The Results of Incorporating Video and Email.

Bulldog Solutions reported that with the inclusion of video in their email, open rates have increased by 30 percent to 14.09 percent and CTRs nearly doubled to 2.20 percent. This trend continued for subsequent email campaigns. The results definitely show how video can improve your email success rates.

Tactics to Incorporate Video and Email

Here are a few ideas that you can use today:

• Adding video intros to event invites (highlighted above)
• Customer testimonials. If you go and visit your customers, take a long a camera and record a 10 second testimonial. Sales can incorporate these in their communication pieces to prospects.
• Have sales create short video intros that they can include in follow up and intro emails. For example, you meet a prospect at a trade show or live event - what better way for them to get a better sense of who you are and what you've accomplished then by sending an email with a video. This email may then be passed around the company so that everyone has a good sense of who the sales person is that they are dealing with.
  
• CEO video messages to customers, prospects and employees. Have the CEO record a video with their video phone at the airport while they're waiting for their flight. This can be used in an email, blog, main website etc...
  
• Company videos for holiday cards. You can really show off to your customer base the people that make up your company by creating a short video. Individuals from the company can include a short holiday greeting. You can't get more personal then this!
• HR videos. These can be corny but if you're a growing company and you want to attract the top people, use video to help paint the picture of who you really are.
  

I'm sure there are many more ideas out there. How have you used video?

Incorporating video into Email is too much Effort

Yes, this does take some additional planning as you need to get someone who can speak in front of a camera, setup the camera, write a script etc... But come on, how difficult is this with today's technology? We have video phones and YouTube!! If a three year old can play Guitar Hero and have it posted to YouTube, your marketing team can handle this. It's no longer "Back to the Future" but the future is here and it's time to accept that video should be a key part of your marketing efforts.

Chad H.

PS - make sure that if you do create videos, upload them to Youtube to increase the distribution of it.

Tags: clickz, video and email, Guitar Hero

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How to Improve Your Email Newsletter

Do you have an email newsletter? Many B2B and B2C companies produce a newsletter or newsletters that are geared to a specific audience or audiences. There is no question that newsletters are a great way of keeping your company top of mind to your customers and prospects and increasing brand awareness as well the perception that your organization is the industry expert. Here's the issue: How can you distinguish your newsletter from your competitors and take it to the next level? How can you improve your email opens and click-throughs?

Email Newsletter 2.0

Taking your newsletter to the next level really isn't that difficult. In the "new world" of web 2.0, your target audience no longer just wants to receive information from you but they want the ability to respond and have their say. How do you do this? You allow people to comment on your newsletter articles. A while back I wrote about the concept of a "blogletter" that combines a newsletter and a blog. We see this concept more and more. In fact, many newsletters will display the number of comments that an article has right in the email (you can see the example I provided from the Globe & Mail)!

Why Should I Allow Comments on my Email Newsletter

Here are the benefits:

• New metrics to measure success: With many email software providers you can see who has opened and clicked through from your email newsletter. Allowing comments takes this further as you can better gauge the uptake of your newsletter. A new email newsletter metric could be number of comments per newsletter or average amount of comments per article
  
  
• Receive valuable feedback: Email communication is typically one way. Your organization writes articles and you blast them to your list. Comments allow your readers to have their say. They can tell you what they like and what they don't like about your newsletter.
  
  
• Lead qualification: There are two benefits here. In order to leave comments, you could add some additional lead qualification questions to the registration process. Typically you would probably only request the basic information for someone to receive your newsletter (name, email, company for B2B). When someone wants to leave a comment, it provides an opportunity to request additional information to help your marketing and sales team have a better understanding of the customer/prospect.
  
  In addition, if your organization gets its share of leads, you can use newsletter comments to help in the lead qualification process. For example, how about metrics such as the number of comments that contact has written and the recency of the last comment? These stats could be used as part of an automated lead qualification process and be displayed on the contact record of the CRM (Customer Relationship Management like Salesforce.com) that you use.
  
  
• Better insight into your customers and prospects: Positive, negative or indifferent most comments are important. If you were able to include these comments in the contact record of your CRM, your sales and customer support team can get a better sense of the contact, their business and any issues/opportunities that exist. When you leave a comment on my blog, I get an email that tells me what you wrote about. What if you were able to have comments go right to the customer/lead owner as defined by your CRM (If you are doing this right now then I am thoroughly impressed - this can be done)? If the comment is negative, have that person contacted right away! If the person has a question about your industry, product or service have that person contacted right away!
  

• Newsletter readers become newsletter contributors: Your email recipients are no longer just contacts that make up a list. They become real people who have opinions. Your newsletter may even create a community of loyal readers and contributors (like an online "Cheers" where everybody knows your name and they may or may not be glad you came). You'll get your regular "commenters" who will express their opinions. You may even want to let one of them write an article. The great part of this is that they will give you ideas about what you can write about in the future. When no comments are provided, this speaks volumes as well as your newsletter article may not appeal to your target audience or it may be over their heads.
  
  
• Your newsletter gets better results: The more you allow people to participate in the conversation, the more you engage them and the better results you will get. If you don't believe me, I urge you to test out this concept for a month and see how it goes. If your results improve, I will expect a cheque.
  

Here are drawbacks:

• You need to monitor the comments: Typically, you will want to approve comments before they are added. In addition, you will want to have someone that can quickly respond to negative comments. This can take time and cost money. There are systems that automate this process though.
  
  
• The comments can be negative or just plain stupid: You may have some disgruntled people out there that don't like you or what you have to say. That's OK actually. Having some negative comments shows that you're company is human - hey everyone makes mistakes. The important point is how you respond to those mistakes and turn negatives into positives. As mentioned in my first point, you need to respond to these fairly quickly. You also get the idiots out there who have nothing to contribute except for wanting to advertise their product or service. These just waste your time and there are ways to automatically filter them out.
  

What do I do to get this moving?

This really isn't too difficult. Most email newsletter articles are posted on web pages. There are a number of software packages out there that will allow you to add comments to your newsletter web pages or to merge a blogging software (like Wordpress) into your website template. Your IT team can assist here or there many consultants out there. I know MarketingSherpa does this and I'm sure they would let you know how they did this. Some of the ideas around lead qualification and capturing metrics in your CRM still need to be flushed out. This was me thinking out loud. To add the number of comments to your email newsletter, why not either publish your newsletter to your site a day before you send out the email so you get some initial comments and then add in the code on your email newsletter. Some software packages out there may allow for this to be dynamically generated - I don't know enough about this (that's not the case for the Globe & Mail example above).

Good luck with this and I hope that it improves your results. If you have tried this already, please let me know.


Chad H.

Tags: email newsletters, enewsletter, Cheers, Norm, CRM, Salesforce.com, blogletter, Globe & Mail

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Web 2. Slowww - Low Adapatation by Corporations

The discussions around web 2.0. continue to peak my interest and a recent article from emarketer.com shows how little progress large corporations have made in this area.

I Plan to Increase my Lead Generation by 3 billion % in 30 days

Marketers make many promises and not all of them are based on facts (I know, you're saying "really??"). From the article Business Crawls onto Web 2.0, the path to large corporations adopting to Web 2.0. looks promising as it seems that over half of the companies surveyed either have a blog or plan to have one (internal or internal) and the same goes for RSS (Click here for the image). However, the key words here are "or plan to have". If you know marketers, they would like to do as much as possible (and will sometimes promise as much) but there is a little thing called resources and reality that pulls us all back to earth.

The other main issue has to do with the company policies that can can some of these ideas before they get off the ground. For example, podcasts require companies to buy into the idea of publishing regular interviews that can humanize a company. This may require dedicated or partially dedicated resources that seek out customers and industry experts for these podcasts. For many companies, this requires a fundamental shift in the way that marketing is seen as
typically B2B marketers are focused on advertising, events/trade shows, and direct marketing. Podcasts can be seen as a lot money for a lot of nothing. Marketers first need to convince management to trail this concept and then need to prove how podcasts (and other web 2.0. strategies) affect the bottom line.

Private Blogs Don't Count (Either Does Being on Facebook and Having 500 Friends That are Co-Workers)

Does your company have an internal blog? I've worked with companies that have started one and then they died along with other collaboration tools such as an internal wiki, forum and RSS feeds. Why did it fail? There wasn't global adaptation of these tools and we weren't forced to use them. In addition, management didn't review how they were used and paid little if any attention to what was being written. For example, I would write a post on the company blog directed to company executives and no one would respond - nothing, nada (you can tell that I wasn't to happy about this). It's for this reason that I don't even consider these real marketing "blogs" because if they fail it's no big deal considering that the public doesn't see them. These are internal communication devices that can assist a company on facilitating ideas as well as promoting a corporate community (especially for global companies). If you're on Facebook or Link-in along with some of your co-workers, you can't say that your company is web 2.0. savvy. Give me a break. Web 2.0. only really applies when the public is interacting with your company and the conversation is ongoing. Internal web 2.0. devices should be used to support the external ones. For example, an internal blog could be used by marketing to create public blog posts.

Web 2.0. the Reality - OK, my Reality

What I didn't really like about this emarketer.com study was how limiting it was in its definition of web 2.0. Is having a video on your site really web 2.0.? I don't think so. Putting that same video on YouTube and other PUBLIC video sharing platforms is. Allowing people to comment on your video and post their own videos is. I don't even consider a blog as being part of web 2.0. unless I can leave a comment. If I can't leave a comment that it's just a regular website that typically does well in the search engines. I'm not even going to touch areas such as allowing the public to "tag" or recommend content (for more of this, see my recent post on USA Today).

Part of the spirit of web 2.0. is the ability for people to interact with other people and not just have a site or feed where the conversation is flowing in one direction. It's the concept of a real two-way conversation that is causing large companies to shake in their boots. This is evident in the above chart that demonstrates how little the concept of public blogs have been adopted by the Fortune 500. While this is improving, it's evident that most companies only play lip service to the idea of really listening to their customers and prospects and providing the ability to join the conversation.

Yes, there are horror stories out there regarding user generated content but as I've said in the past, if you're already in the public, people are talking about you. It's best to help direct the conversation by providing the tools to do so. In this way, you can better monitor what is being said.

Do you agree with my definition of web 2.0.? How do you define it?

Chad H.

Tags: emarketer.com, web 2.0. marketing web 2.0., USA Today, YouTube, blog marketing

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Good Year Gets Bad Press

I reviewed a business blog in my last post so I thought I would check out and see how Easton was doing in his project to see which of the Fortune 500 were blogging. For fun I checked out Goodyear Tire & Rubber to see what they were up to on the blogging front and have contributed the following to this project.

Cutting Through the PR Crap - Blogs Can Help

While Goodyear may be saying that it set a sales record in Q4 2006, it's obvious that a 3 month strike that ended on December 28, 2006 really hurt the company in Q4 2006 and continues to do damage in the first quarter of 2007. This of course didn't make their PR page.

During the three month strike do you think it may have helped if Goodyear explained why 15,000 union members went on strike? Most likely! It would have been the perfect time to have created a blog to perhaps reach out to customers and the striking workers to show that they cared and that they wanted to reach a quick resolution. Instead of Goodyear having it's own blog, the USW union members created a blog called the Solidarity at Goodyear that covered the union members struggles against the "big, bad" Goodyear that included commentary and pictures. Which side was right in this battle? I'm not quite sure in the long run but it was great to read the heroic stories on the union blog about their fight to keep the Tyler plant open to help it's members keep putting food on the table for their families. It's this direct message that blogs can create that wins the PR wars. The other interesting item was to see the internal struggle between the members that played out in the comments. The fact that this was allowed was fantastic and made this blog even more realistic. Check out this blog conversation.

Goodyear Continues to Have a Bad Year: Jeffrey Katzenberg's Legal Victory

When you bring Hollywood into the mix, you know you have trouble. Goodyear just lost a legal battle to Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg to the tune of $2.71 million for damages to his Utah pad due to faulty Goodyear rubber hoses. Why did that happen? What could have prevented this? Know one will ever really know.

How is Goodyear combating this bad press? By flying away - literally with its new "Get there" campaign which focuses on 2 idiots in a blimp. Are they kidding? It's time to get real and get your head out of the clouds. Let go of the stupid blimp - there's a new thing on Earth called the Internet.

So What? Why Should You Care? You Use Bridgestone Right?

Your competition, customers, and employees are all starting to have blogs out there. They all have something to say and it's so easy to say it with blogs. You're able to control how your brand is discussed and portrayed less and less. What you can do is instead of being reactive and firing off press releases and emails, go on the offense and create a new story that is compelling and brings the focus back to your core objectives and values. Creating a blog is another weapon to help you do this. If you're not convinced, read my last post on how Bill Marriott is doing just this.

Chad H.

PS - I did a search on "Goodyear blog" and this crazy blog appeared. Is that how they are protecting their brand? Do you want to see beer shit associated with your company?

Tags: corporate blogging, Goodyear Tires, Bridgestone Tire, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Fortune 500 blogs

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I'm a CEO - I Don't Have Time to Blog! Think Again

If you're waiting for another kick in the ass to get out there and start a corporate blog, check out the CEO of Marriott, Bill Marriott's blog. I love it! Check out his latest on Marriott's decision to ban smoking at all Marriott hotels - this guy sounds like a Texas gun slinger who cracks a mean whip and runs a tight ship. He basically says "If you don't like it, stay somewhere else". Only a blog can you get this personal with your audience.

Why this Corporate Blog works: Authenticity

To show you how sincere Bill Marriott is trying to be, he even records each blog post as podcasts! This adds to the authenticity of the blog because you can have people write for you but it would look really stupid if they had a voice over as well (I wouldn't put it past some companies).

Lastly, you can add comments to this blog- both good and bad (although they do moderate them). When I had a look at this blog, I remembered a few stories about hotels that I stayed at in Austin (which is a beautiful city). I had this terrible experience at a Holiday Inn that stuck me on a smoking floor even after my most heart-felt protests (the old mechanical lung that I received in 'Nam bit didn't work). I vowed never to go back. During my last visit I had a great experience when I just so happened to have stayed at a Marriott hotel downtown on 4th street. On my last afternoon there I felt like &*^# and stayed in bed to try and rest up. I called down to room service and the gentleman on the other end realized I sounded sick and sent up a plate of freshly cut up oranges with my soup order. It's this type of service that you remember and with a blog, you can easily leave comments that you know others will see (I tried to forget that afternoon but Bill's stories jogged my memory). You see that's just it with comments - people add them so they can have their say and have others see that they have written something and then tell others their story.

In any case Bill, keep up the good work and the great service.

Chad

PS - Here's an oldie but a goodie:My Top 10 List on the Positives of Corporate Blogging
PPS - In the post Drive Web Traffic or Drive Loyalty? I discussed the idea of making your customers feel special. Giving people a place to tell their story and provide their opinion is similar to this concept in many ways. That's one of the reasons that corporate blogs can succeed. How else can you get closer to a brand that you really love and show your appreciation other then purchasing or experiencing it in person?

Tags: Bill Marriott, Holiday Inn, Business Blogging, CEO blogs

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Old Spice, New Marketing Strategy

While Old Spice is still trying to make itself look like the cool, "in" brand to appeal to a younger demographic, it's recently launched a new campaign that embraces that old, stuffy, "that's the type of stuff that my dad used in the dark ages" feeling that we all know. How are they doing it?

The Old Spice Experience

Old Spice has created a few sites to take note of. The first site is a microsite called Experience Old Spice (a nice play on words). What do you see when you first get there? An older, stuffy, Mr. Powell like "gentleman" that could pose as one of your dad's divorced buddies who wants to teach you the ways of the force. The message is one that uses humour to make the visitor (which is target ting males in their 20's I assume) take heed of the older generation for their wisdom and experience. Old Spice is basically saying "Yeah, we've been around for a long time but we must be doing something right and we can teach you a thing or two about being a man". Whether or not this works is another thing but the site works as its entertaining, interactive and may hit those males who have a poor self-esteem problems.

Old Spice continues this "experience" theme with a blog written by a number of so called experts. They have experts like NASCAR driver Tony Stewart who provides traffic tips like "The Left Lane is For Passing". Thanks Professor Stewart. Is your next post going to be "Green Means Go?". I'm just poking fun at you Tony - I actually liked your post (did you really write it?).

Old Spice: Blogs at Their Best

Here's what I liked about this blog:

1. It's a real blog because I could leave a comment which made me happy. This follows the interactive philosophy of blogs which allows people to post information and others to respond. It's not like a normal site that just displays information. If Professor Stewart answers my comment, I'll donate some $50 to a charity of his choice (let's see if blogs really work!!). What I found really interesting is that my post was published right away without being reviewed! Old Spice is taking some blogging risks! I like it!
2. Whether Tony wrote this post or not, I liked his attitude. It reflected my own except I try and be a bit more profound. I loved his description of the left hand land "You don’t ride in it. You don’t coast in it. You don’t set up shop and sell trinkets out of the trunk of your car."
   
3. There was no overt selling of Old Spice. Tony didn't try and tell me that Old Spice has helped his car win NASCAR races. Old Spice is trying to brand itself as being the product that knows how to make a man a man (whatever) that means and Old Spice products are pat of that mix but there is no overt call to action.
4. Email addresses are required when you leave a comment. Guess who is building their house list and look at how easy it is!
   
5. It's simple. There are articles. There are writers. There are pictures. Any company can make a blog like this. Yes, they have some experts that they've hired but how difficult was it really for these guys? Hey Nike - I would love to see Tiger Woods provide a monthly golf tip or post an experience from a hole that gave him a bit of trouble and what he did to persevere.

Make the Experience Real

Above all, the most important part of this blog is that it's real and believable. The content is factual, it's informative and it keeps changing. This will entice me to keep tuning in and see what "experience" I can gather from these experts and each time that enormous, red "Old Spice" logo at the top of the page will take over my screen and remind me which brand is delivering this value. Any marketer who is considering a blog should take a look at this one - whether you are B2B or B2C. Think about what you are trying to convey with your brand and use a blog to build on that.

Chad H.

PS - I also liked that Old Spice was not trying to change the perceived worldview (a Seth Godin reference) that people have of it's products. Yes, "old spice" does conjure up images of a retirement home and formaldehyde (at least it does for me) but hey, if it's been around this long, it has to be doing something good, right? Well, at least they have a good grasp on how people perceive them.
PPS - Do you have any other blogs that stick out that other companies have done that you really liked?

Tags: old spice, blog marketing, seth godin, b2b, b2c, experience old spice, interactive marketing, tony stewart

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Drive Web Traffic or Drive Loyalty?

Yes, it's been a while but it's taken some time for my wife and I to settle into our new place. I'm still getting used to the commute (a bus, a subway and a frickin' streetcar - you have to love Toronto transit). I'm looking out my window at the Best Buy across the street which is also a distraction. I digress...

A blog is like a company in many ways. When you first start out, you get readers that notice you when you are a young and naive blogger. They see that you have something to say and stop by your blog for a read. For a company, these are the early adopters or your first few customers. You then have the mainstream readers who come along later on and see what other people are talking about. It's these types of customers that helps a business grow. It's at this point where you either ascend into a power house or drop off like yesterday's news.

One of the main differentiators between a successful blog and one that withers away is how you treat your loyal readers. You can compare this to how a company treats its customers. Does the company take the customers for granted and just focus on new business (or more web traffic in a blog's case)? This is just plain stupid. One company that really gets this is the car manufacturer Mini. Mini USA has just come up with a brilliant campaign in which custom messages on billboards are displayed to Mini owners as they drive by. How cool is that?

According to Motoring File, a select number of Mini owners around the Chicago, New York, Miami and San Francisco areas were asked to submit some basic information and are then sent a keyfob (key chain item that can contain data). As you're about to drive by, the billboards detect that you are coming and deliver a personalized message based on the information you provided.

Make Them Feel Special

Why does this campaign work for Mini? It makes their customers feel unique - like the company really does care about them and that owning a mini is like being part of a select group. You almost feel like a celebrity because your the only one of your friends or family that are getting personalized message on a humongous billboard. Mini USA doesn't just forget about you once you buy a car - they make you remember why you bought the car in the first place. It made you stick out. It made you feel special.

Do your remember the time that you were singled out by your boss, your best friend, or a close family member in front of others? What Mini has done is try and replicate that feeling and they've done a damn good job. Other companies (and bloggers) should learn from Mini and try and replicate this approach. In the B2B world this could mean taking your customers out for drinks but this may not be possible. What can you do that will make your company stick out? What can you do that will make your customers "cool" and will make your prospects want to feel the same way? Yes, your product may do all the talking but what else can you do that will reinforce your cool product? This is something to think about.

Personalizing the Experience but Doing it Publicly

I was going to stop the post right there but had some ideas for you to think about. What if you served up different messaging to your customers on your website based on their profile? What if your ads on sites that your customers visit had different messaging that was personalized to them? What if you're blog greeted your loyal readers when they returned with an automated yet personalized message like "Welcome back! Thanks for your last comment - I've responded with the following...".

While the personalization is great, it's better when others see that you are receiving special treatment. Why not let prospects know who which of your customers are currently visiting your web site. You can even display quotes and facts and figures about the company. For example "XYZ company is currently on our website. Did you know that XYZ has increased sales 300% since using our product?". Privacy may be an issue but this type of thinking benefits everyone. It's time to think outside of the box like Mini does. Get publicly personal (does that make sense?)

If you're a company, you can always try and drive additional revenue by focusing on some new companies or a specific market segment. If you're a blogger you can focus on driving web traffic by doing number of different tactics (for example, joining a blog directory). But as we all know, it costs less to keep your current customers then to acquire new ones. If you keep your current customers happy and continue to remind them why your company is different from your competitors (besides the obvious stuff), you will not only build customer loyalty but generate increased demand as word travels fast, real fast in this crazy technical web 2.0. world that we live in.

Chad H.

PS: I would like to point out one blogger, Easton Ellsworth, who was very encouraging to me when I first started blogging. He also demonstrates tremendous drive and leadership in the blogosphere - specifically to business blogging - that you have to love. Whenever I need a good kick in the pants to get back to my own blogging, I go visit Business Blogwire and see which companies are out there blogging.

PPS: For my own blog, loyalty is not too much of a concern as I write more as a personal educational experience then for those who read my blog. I'm really pleased when people get something out of what I write about.

PPPS: Here are some related posts that you may find interesting:

IBM Allows you to Chat With a Sales Representative
Have you Thanked Your Customers Today?
Screw ROI - Think LOI (Loyal Opt-Ins)

Tags: blogging, creating demand, customer loyalty, Mini USA, personalized experience

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HP Gets it Right With Their "Change Artists" Lead Generation Campaign

Arguably the whole concept of comments on a blog make blogs authentic and entertaining. On many blogs, a web visitor may find a post with some rich interaction between the original author and some commenters. Typically the item that is being discussed is one that both the author and commenter are passionate about. The new visitor can either be satisfied with just reading the interaction or even add a comment themselves.

How can businesses capture the excitement of blogs?

I was really inspired when I saw a new campaign by HP called "Stories of the Real World: CEOs, CIOs, and change". This consists of a landing page in which a real CEO and another VP from Nestle discussing their challenges and how they solved them. Obviously they will indirectly discuss how HP helped solve their business challenges but what better way to do this then to tell a story via a video conversation with executives just like the target audience that they are going after. This is simply brilliant.

For Nestle, this gives its CEO and VP a little PR as well as making them human while enhancing HP's image immensely with a testimonial that doesn't seem contrived. The excitement of watching an interaction in an area of interest just like on blogs makes this extremely exciting.

Another cool thing is that HP uses the brand "Change Artists" and doesn't overtly advertise. In addition, the conversation doesn't focus on HP. You hear about a real story as to how they made change. This included setting up meetings, who setup the meeting, the feeling at the meeting and even what was happening at lunch. Chris Johnson the Deputy Executive VP even asked his team if they wanted his job - how real is that?

HP goes further - they include related content, a case study and podcast for busy executives who can't watch the whole video and even have a refer a friend function to promote a viral effect.

How can HP make this "Change Artists" concept even better?

This is an easy answer - place these videos on a blog. I'm sitting here watching this great conversation (I personally liked the story about the Chilean Navy) and I'm saying "Hey, I want in on this conversation too!". While they do take questions from "audience members" when the video is shot, this doesn't seem very real. There is no better way to continue the conversation then with blogs. Imagine placing this on a blog (even for a limited time) and allowing people to respond. Just like there is a Q/A following a webinar, blogs can act in a similar way in this situation. Perhaps they could have a scheduled launch date for these videos so people could be the first to watch and comment on the video and only have a limited time to add comments? Putting a time constraint works with selling products, it will definitely work with people accessing information that is informative and entertaining (I kick myself when I don't read each of the MarketingSherpa articles before they expire).

Anyways, great concept HP - keep it up! I would much rather hear a CEO talk about a real life situation then hearing them spew out a list of benefits of their products.

Have you seen any other great B2B lead generation campaigns that really stood out for you?

Chad H

PS - I'm reading Seth Godin's' "All Marketers Are Liars" which discuses how important authentic stories are in marketing.

Tags: HP, Change Artists, nestle, business blogs, video blogs, the excitement of blogs, marketing with stories, Seth Godin

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Microsites, Blogging and Business Blogshit

It's no wonder that a JupiterKagan study has reported that "promotional microsites will become more popular with larger advertisers during the next year." Microsites allow companies, especially large ones, to post content that doesn't have the same guidelines and red-tape that the main corporate websites have. This gives marketers the flexibility to focus on promoting a single product/service or product line while allowing for new features that may seem risky for the main website. It can also be combined with other marketing channels such as paid search and direct mail to name a few for a controlled integrated marketing approach.

Hypersites - Affordable Microsites that Increase the Hype

I was a bit surprised that only 30% of companies over $500 million in the past year use microsites according to this same study. I know that many of my own clients who are much much smaller (I know an association that uses one) use these for such things as product promotions, product launches, event promotions, email list builders (combined with direct mail), knowledge libraries and customer retention (customer surveys) to name a few off the top of my head. One of the main advantages of microsites that I see (we call them hyperistes) is the ability to personalize the experience using dynamic content substitution. Therefore based on a person's behaviour and/or attributes (eg: industry or product interest) different content is served up. While this is a great user experience that is customized on a 1 to 1 basis, it's still only one side of the conversation - the marketer telling the prospect about a new product or service.

Web 2.0 - Microsites on Crack

In terms of web 2.0, it was interesting that the study sees a "movement toward consumer-generated content" which it sees "will be an important component of microsites". This includes the use of blogs as well as other web 2.0 tools such as RSS, podcasts, video and more. The sky is the limit. This is the other half of the conversation which allows the user to have their own say and contribute to the conversation.

Business Blogshit Revealed

Blogs have a lot of potential but already we are seeing it being abused with fake blogs such as Wal-Mart's Wal-Marting Across America which was written by an "old couple" that were paid to spew happy praises about Walmart. What a bunch of crap. It was probably written by a couple of pro-bloggers or the Walmart marketing team. Marketers beware - if you're trying to establish a brand that people can trust, don't ruin it by lying to your existing or potential customers. We see right through it.

Remember: the Internet is a highway that goes both ways - your message can be spread out to the masses in a split second but the masses will also turn on you just as quickly if you try to dupe them. In addition, some of these blogs like the Wal-mart blog and the new Nissan Sentra blog don't even allow you to leave comments! So much for the "conversation" approach.

Lets hope that as we further adapt to the new tools of web 2.0 that we keep things real - the way that blogging was meant to be.

Chad H.

PS - I don't consider a blog a blog unless I can leave a comment. What do you think?
PPS - check out the comments for my post called 7 Days in a Crapbox (Nissan Sentra)
Who do you think really left that comment? :)

Tags: Nissan Sentra, Wal-Mart, corporate blogging, microsites, web 2.0.

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Simplify Your Landing Page, Increase Your Conversions

It's really tempting to dump all sorts of tidbits of info on your landing pages to try to convince web visitors to fill out your web forms. However, I test by MarketingExperiments.com demonstrated that a more simplified landing page had a better success rate in their article on ImediaConnection called: Use Single-Column Format and Up Revenue. Not convinced? Check out the stats:



What about blogs? Do you think they have too much garbage content besides the main blog posts? This content is obviously there for a different purpose but does it really add to the blog?

Chad H.

Here are some related posts:

• Why B2B websites fail
• Sealing the Deal: Your Landing Page

Tags: marketingexperiments.com, lead conversion methods, Imedia Connection

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Top 10 List on the Positives of Corporate Blogging:

In a recent article, I read that executives still aren't getting the concept of corporate blogging which I think is BS. One of the questions that I keep hearing is: How do I drive more traffic to my website and keep them there? One way is to give out free IPods but this doesn't work anymore becuase everyone already and their dog has an IPod (PS - a future bloggy post will depict the sorry state of our nations hearing). Ok - so, how do you get more people to your site? Blogs of course silly rabbit! Why blogs? Good question.

Here is my top 10 list on the fly of some of the positives of corporate blogging:

1. It gives a CEO something to do when they're stuck in an airport
2. It gives your customers' and prospects' CEOs something to read when they're stuck in an airport. If they get really inspired (which they may), you may even see a few comments from them on your blog. I recommend making comments about people's moms - that really breaks the ice.
3. Employees know that their CEO is not just drinking cocktails in the business lounge when they're stuck in an airport.
4. It allows you to post content about your company that doesn't make a lot of sense but contains many links and keywords that will drive traffic to your site.
5. It makes the CEO look a lot smarter then they actually may be as they can post the odd insightful comment (depending on how long the airport delay is).
6. It gives marketers something (else) to do and can make them look really good.
7. It's cheaper then Google AdWords. I think we all have given enough to Google!
8. It's fun and different! It heightens the online experience for boring company websites. Instead of seeing these same top level web nav. buttons for B2B sites: about us, products, case studies, customers, resource, and contact us pages, you can put a real voice behind your company. Mix in podcasts and video blogs and you've got yourself a multi-media party! You can show everyone that you are different from your competition and that being stuck in an airport can be the greatest thing ever!
9. Show me the $$$$!! Lets face it, it all comes down to the bling bling, ching ching. Blogs lead to further awareness about your company, which leads to people hitting your site, opting in to either email or RSS updates and eventually becoming your customer. You need to get into a conversation with them and blogging can help you get things started as it provides an interactive medium.
10. I almost forgot this one. Besides the CEO, blogs give the Joe Schmo in your organization a voice as well. Jimmy in Development and Tammy in Support can be given the chance to either blog on the corporate blog, get their own corporate blog (Microsoft does this), or leave comments on other people's blogs. Are you sick of only reading articles about what a VP has to say? I know I am. Blogs let the rest of us "take back the night". Hey, if you don't let the little people blog on the corpoarte site, we're going to find a way to do it ourselves. With a corporate blog, you can moderate it and put some policies around it. It also allows companies to keep their ears to the ground so that they can listen to what their employees have to say as well as their customers (the actual users and not just the people that sign the cheques).
    

Until next time,

Chad H.

Technorati tags: corporate blogging, business blogging, bloggy post,IPod, airport

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Blogtipping for October on Anything Goes

Here are my blogs that I want to give a shout out to for October as part of Easton's Blogtipping:

• Realty Blogging - Besides being a great resource for real estate agents, this provides some great tips for bloggers and all marketers. I like the design and layout as well as the pictures of the bloggers - this adds a personal touch. Keep up the great work!
• Creating Passionate Users - Great content and ideas. I work with users of our product daily and found some great tips - thanks! I also like the use of images within the posts. These made the posts more approachable. I didn't like the "Scoble" image at the top left of the blog. Some people may not know what this is and this is a waste of space. I also thought that their is a lot of wasted space at the top center of the blog.
• The Australian Small Business Blog - Another good blog to help small business owners in Australia. I liked the content and simplicity of this blog. Perhaps use more bolding and bullets to break up the content in your posts! Hopefully you'll start to attract more readers.

That's it for now!

Chad

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Using Blogs as a Lead Generation Tool

Business blogs have many different objectives. They can be used to allow a company CEO communicate directly and more personally to the masses, demonstrate industry expertise, promote product/service launches etc... etc... This post focuses on using blogs for lead generation. As a disclaimer, my blog's purpose is NOT for lead generation. If it was, it would be a HUGE failure. :) It's purpose is to educate both myself and everyone else who is interested in the topics I write about.

By lead generation I mean very simply: "generating new prospects that will buy your products or services". How can you use your blogs for this purpose? The obvious way to do this is to create great content that your potential readers will read as well as ensuring that you promote your blog so that those potential readers will find it and possible subscribe to it or read it on a regular basis. This is all obvious stuff that many people have written about. The question is: "How do you translate your regular readers into real leads?"

Engage Your Blog Visitors

What does this mean? Blogs provide you with the unique opportunity to not only see what people may be visiting your blog but also to see what comments they may have left as well as potentially read posts that may have been written about your blog on on other blogs.

How do you engage your blog visitors? If potential prospects leave you comments or provide feedback on your blog, don't just respond by saying "Thanks for your comment!" or even worse, not responding at all. Engage you blog reader and by asking them well thought out questions. Don't just say "If you have any additional questions, please let me know". Try and find out why they were interested in your blog post and what problems they may be experiencing that led to them landing on your blog.

This requires you to do some work. If you have a good web analytics tool, you should be able to find out which search query they used to get on your site or which website they came from. If they left their company name, do some research on the company and find out what is going on with that company. This is extremely powerful information that you can use to start up a real conversation. Here are some possible responses to blog comments when you're attempting to foster lead generation:

• You can say something like "I'm glad that you liked my post, it seems that you're interested in the following.... Here is some additional information that you may find useful (point the person to a whitepaper, archived webinar etc...)."
  

• You can also ask engaging questions that will encourage additional comments "You mentioned X, but have you considered Y?" or "What issues are you facing that would have led you to that conclusion?" or "Thanks for mentioning that you liked my post, is there something that you particularly liked that stroke a cord with what you are facing?"
  
  
• If they have a blog, consider going to their blog and leaving a comment.
  
  
• Ask them if they would like to write a post on a problem they may be experiencing
  
  
• After you have done your research, you may determine that this may be somebody worth meeting in person. If they're in your area, perhaps ask them if they would like to do lunch. This may be something to do after you've established more of a relationship. In addition, you may be attending an upcoming conference (this should be advertised on your blog). Ask them if they are attending this conference or if someone from their company is and request an informal meeting or a "see ya at my booth".
  
  
• Help them get in touch with the right people. We all know it's about "who you know". If you are someone with contacts in the field they're in, help this person out by suggesting they get in touch with so and so.
  

The other thing that you can do is engage your subscribers. Perhaps fire out an email to those people that have signed up for email updates and ask them straight up "Why are you reading my blog?" "What problems are you facing that you need help with?" "Are you facing the following problems....". One solution in particular that I know of allows you to understand exactly what pages your prospects have visited which will help you craft your messages. This helps when crafting these messages. Also look at the search query that led to them landing on your blog as recommended above.

What is the end result? If your goal is lead generation then these tips should get you there. At the least your readers will respect you for responding to them and engaging them. This further demonstrates your expertise and should lead to loyal blog readers (again, I wouldn't know). Remember - don't spam your readers - be respectful.

Do you have any additional ideas for using blogs as lead generation tools?

Chad H.

Tags: lead generation, corporate blog, business blogging, lead generation tools

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How to Start a Business Blog or Corporate Blog

If you do a search for "How to start a blog" you will get a ton of results - from a 3 year old that started their first blog about losing their teeth to a 98 year old that started a blog about losing their dentures. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit but you know what I mean. This post isn't for starting just any blog. It provides authoritative tips for those that want to start a business blog (corporate blog).

Tips to help start your business blog (corporate blog):

Starting a Business Blog - BBB Quick GuidesStarting a Corporate Blog?

Blogging for Beginners and Business Blogging 101 by Darren Rowse at Problogger - highly recommended.

Naked Conversations - Where Robert Scoble & Shel Israel wrote their corporate blogging book

Biz Blogging 101 Great repository of resources on NEWPRWiki

How to Start a Business Blog, Part I - A two part series from Bolder Blogs
How to Start a Business Blog, Part II

Starting a Business Blog? Here Are a Few Questions You Need to Answer

Starting a Corporate Blog? - Good post by Owen Lystrop

7 Questions To Ask Yourself BEFORE Starting A Business Blog

Starting a Business Blog: Remember the Planning Phase

Check out Easton's series called Corporate Blog Reviews to find out what your competition and other businesses are up to.

This is just the beginning so please let me know if there are additional posts that need to be added.

Chad H.

PS - Here's a post on some poor corporate blogs: The worst Fortune 500 blogs - Part I

Tags: How to start a corporate blog, How to start a business blog, business blogging, corporate blogging, blogging 101

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Warning to Businesses: Blogs are a Means to Self-Promotion

Beware - blogs can be used to tell the entire world about what your company has recently accomplished or how you screwed up but made it right. I was visiting my family this weekend in New York and it hit me. My five year old niece proudly displayed to her whole family the new gap in her mouth where her baby tooth used to be. She had just lost her tooth and she wanted to be sure everyone was aware of this momentous occasion. Everyone in the room applauded her upon reaching this milestone in her life.

As adults, we also crave attention. We want the world to know about something we did, something we know or just to say "hey world, look at me!". Blogging allows for this. It permits you the opportunity to share a story, post an industry tip or promote your new business. Never has there been a tool that makes it this easy to reach so many people at such little to no cost to you.

So the question is, what are you waiting for? If your a business out there looking for an avenue to outflank your competitor in, get blogging. You can't tell me that you don't need to promote your business as it's already too well known. Blogging is the perfect way to let the world about your new "missing tooth" and to get a leg up on your competition.

Chad H.

PS - you can also use blog to promote your own blog and what you have acheived (or not acheived) on your blog! See my post called: Mastercard priceless moment at Anything Goes Marketing

Tags: business blogging, baby tooth

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So You Think You can be a Blog Consultant?

It seems easy, right? You know the ins and outs of blogging and you think that you can help businesses setup their own blogs - think again.

You may have the skills but if you can't convey your vision to your client and make them "see the light" of blogging and how it helps their business you will never sell anything and the only person who will want your help is your mother who needs help setting up the VCR (don't even bother explaining to them what a DVD is).

If you're looking for a good resource on how to align your expertise with your potential clients, sign up for the weekly newsletter on Rain Today. They have some great articles such as "How To Communicate The Value Of Your Services". In this article, John Doer explains the RAIN method of selling in which you develop a Rapport with a potential client, find out what their Aspirations and Afflictions are, what Impact your solution will have on their aspirations and afflictions, and finally making them understand the "New Reality" that their business will experience.

To get to the "New Reality" John suggests asking questions like "What do you want to have happen as a result of our work together?". These are great questions to consider that will help you generate new customers that will understand the importance of the service that you are providing and that service is the new medium of blogging - an easy concept for bloggers to get but much harder for the rest of the business world that is still stuck setting their VCRs.

Chad H.

Tags: business blogging, corporate blogs, blog consulting, rain today

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Spoof: Classifying Business Bloggers Based on Industry

Here are the ways that business bloggers can be classified should be called based on their industry. Where do you fit in?

• Fogger - weather and climate industry.
  
• Hogger - fast food and banking industry and possibly the government. Hoggers typically don't allow you to leave comments either.
  
• Dogger - pet industry (or someone who rarely blogs)
  
• Mogger - criminals
  
• Logger - forestry or alcohol industry
• Phogger - academics
• Jogger - sports bloggers
• Shogger - porn industry
• Strogger - weight lifting
• Blinger - Showbiz
• Bull Shogger - Legal
• Blogwarer - software
• Gagger - Comedian
• Fertilogger - farming
• Advertogger - advertising
• Wholsogger - wholesale / trading
• Educogger - teaching / education
• Photographogger - photography
• Doctogger - health
• Flogger - police
• Rocker - music
• Sogger - fire
• Airlogger - airlines
• Manufactogger - manufacturing
• Chemilogger - chemical
• Cementogger - cement
• $ogger - finance
• Bloggoiler - oil and gas
• Real Estogger - real estate
• Cover-upogger - definitely government
• Publishogger - publishing
• Restaurogger - food industry
• Drogger - pharmaceutical
• Biotechnilogger - Biotechnology
  
• Fast togger - used car dealerships

Did I miss anything? :)

Chad H.

PS - stay tuned for a part II of this as I left many out.

Tags: classifying business blogging, blogging by industry, blogging spoof

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Should my business blog be part of my site or on a new domian?

Mark White over at Better Business Blogging addresses the question: Business Blog: separate domain or on your website. His answer is the same that I found - it depends.

It seems that if you're looking at boosting the web traffic on your main site, your corporate blog should be an extension of your site (eg: www.cnn.com/blog). However, if you're looking to change the focus of your main site, you may want to consider a blog with its own domain. For example, if your blog is focusing more on your industry then what your company does, you may want to appear as more of an "independent expert" or "trusted advisor". This is difficult to do but typically looks better when you don't paste your logo all over your blog.

I think this debate will continue for a while but thanks Mark for the great post!

Chad H.

Tags: business blog, corporate blog, new blog

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Integrated marketing campaigns using YouTube!

Thinking about a new marketing campaign to promote a new product? Why not consider doing a video that could be used as a TV ad, website video, posted on YouTube, added to your business blog, linked to from emails and advertised in magazines and print material. Sounds difficult eh? Maybe, but if you're going to spend the money on that 30 second TV spot, mind as well get the most out of it by fully integrating the concept across all of your marketing channels.

Check out the video below from NFLShop.com. Notice how it's not only frickin hilarious but has a message to push you to their website to buy their stuff. This obviously isn't something new but I did stumble on this from YouTube which is definitely a new way to access marketing messages.

Don't have enough money for a TV ad? Simplify this. You can still create that video but ensure that it's high quality so you can post it on the YouTubes and other video venues as well as posting on your site and blog as well as linked from other sources such as email. Keep all options open.

For your business blog remember that it's only one avenue as part of your overall marketing plan and it should work in conjunction with your other marketing efforts. While you may have different objectives, it doesn't hurt to add links to a cool new ad or perhaps a button advertising an upcoming webinar or new download. As long as it's all related and adds value to the user experience, it's all good. The above video is definitely a gem. Wonder if these types of concepts will become more prominent in B2B? What do you think?

Chad H.

Update: Found an article on ClickZ regarding integrated marketing campaigns using direct mail and email.

PS - Just found this article called "How multiple channels help NFLShop.com refine its Internet game plan" which means I'm not the only one that spotted this great marketing job that these gusy are doing.
PPS - video advertising on the net is really taking off. Wait for Google AdVideo. I'm sure it's almost ready to go.

Tags: integrated marketing, NFLShop.com, YouTube, Anything Goes Marketing

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Tips on How to Build Blog Traffic from the Problogger

Here's a great podcast found on Yaro Starak's Entrepeneur's Journey blog in which he interviews Darren Rowse of Problogger. The topic of this audio download is "Building Blog Traffic". I've summarized some of what was discussed minus Yaros' babbling.

To increase traffic on your blog, Darren stresses the use of SEO (but doesn't really elaborate it on it), posting innovative content (eg: a product release on his digital camera blog), staying ahead of the trends, and picking a niche or sub-niche topic. For example, you can blog about Adsense which is a sub-niche of Problogger.

In terms of social bookmarking, technology posts do well in Digg and Del.icio.us. Using lists (like a top 10 list) is something that works as well. When people do sign up for your blog or show interest in you blog, look after them and write for them.

Darren also suggests to write about items that incorporate keywords that are highly searched on (interesting because Hitail argues counter to this). He has also started an email newsletter by capturing email addresses. People forward his newsletters on to others and so on.

In the beginning, Darren used to comment on around 100 blogs a day! These people would come to his site and helped build up his brand. Darren also stresses keeping it real and writing with emotion.

Give it a listen and see if you get any more out of it.

Chad H.


Tags: problogger Darren Rowse building blog traffic Yaro Starak

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