Apply the Principles of Thanksgiving for Your Business

This week over 300 million Americans will celebrate the wonderful, annual ritual of Thanksgiving, where as the name suggests they think about all the good things in their lives and give thanks for them. How simple and how appropriate. It's sad that in Australia we choose to celebrate Halloween and not the more meaningful Thanksgiving.

But putting that aside, let's think about this wonderful day of celebration and apply its broadly applicable principles back to your business or product.

Think about your best clients for example. The ones who not only buy from you or deal with you but quite possibly provide you with increasing amounts of work, provide you with testimonials and most importantly through advocacy, go out and tell other businesses about you.

Think hard about what it is you do to thank them over and above doing a good job for the work that you are being contracted to do. I mean honestly, in today's ultra competitive markets, excellent and consistent delivery of service, is the absolute minimum and entry level of what a business needs to provide.

If you are now reading this thinking wow we are not doing anything more for our customers other than sending them the bill, then this blog post should resonate and sound a clear warning that just as the 28th of November is the day to give thanks for our families and friends, good health, peace and so on, it is alos the time to think about how we can articulate out sincere appreciation to those who allow us to survive and thrive.

Do so and you'll be celebrating long term success with customer satisfaction and retention levels. Forget to do so and the outcome will surely look a little bleaker. Food for thought.

So until next time, good luck good marketing and happy thanksgiving to one and all.

Regards,
Daniele.

What Metrics Should You Be Tracking

I saw an interesting piece of data this week released through Marketing Sherpa which looked at research conducted on over 1800 businesses last year using a benchmark survey technique that showed the following results.

 Now I find this somewhat interesting that the most popular response at 79% was traffic. As the original article rightly pointed out, other than media companies, most other businesses do not sell traffic. They sell products in the form of goods and services that they need to sell.

 Surely the definitive metric for most businesses needs to be sales, or at least qualified leads that you can make a reasonable argument will drive sales in the longer term. However only around 2 in 3 (68%) of the sample group selected sales. Food for thought.

More broadly I believe that some of the readers may also be thinking about now that surely the definitive metric for any business would need to reflect the primary function of the website, blog or other platform type which to play devil's advocate may not be sales. And yest they would be right.

The vast majority of all  businesses of course are profit seeking by nature and therefore in the real world should make the effect that the site has on overall turnover a key metric but for Government, not for profits and charities.

So regardless of what type of business you are in, what market you operate in and what type of website, blog or micro-site you have operating, reverse engineer the metrics by going back away from what it is your trying to achieve and then basing the key measurement metrics on those primary and secondary outcomes.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

Slideshare Now Allows Infographics

As you will all know by the various discussions over time, I am a great fan of Slideshare and believe it to be an integral part of any social media marketing plan or campaign. For this reason I was thrilled this week to read that Slideshare has now allowed its users to share infographics with  their readers.

The statistics on Slideshare are well documented with 55 million unique monthly users and a staggering 130 million page views. That's like reaching an audience two and a half times the size of Australia. 

But I know that some people are simply blazes about any number these days based on the absolute size of Facebook so listen to this.  Infographics on SlideShare are 4x more viral than presentations and an amazing 23x more viral than documents. 

Now when we look at this wonderful tool we see a platform that is almost unique in that it allows you to do the opposite to other social media modalities do. Namely put as much information as you want down.  This is significant because for some things the customer wants  a lot more data and time to digest it all.  Life isn't always about 140 characters or less and for those situations, regardless of whether you use an infographic or the humble PowerPoint presentation, Slideshare is a great waepon in your e-marketing arsenal. 

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.  

What Is the The Most Powerful Form of Product Advertising

There are several types of product advertising that can be effectively applied to help promote any businesses products.The key types are: Pioneering, Competitive, Reminder and Comparative Advertising.

 

Pioneering Advertising which attempts to create demand for an overall product type rather than a specific brand of product. It is used to build awareness and inform potential customers about new products on the market.  An example of pioneering advertising would be advertising to promote DVD players, where initially the object was not to promote a particular brand but the new concept of the DVD player itself i.e. to build primary demand.

Competitive Advertising which unlike pioneering advertising which aims to build primary demand, competitive advertising attempts to build demand for a specific product brand.  This is called secondary demand.  Relating this to the earlier example of the DVD player it can be seen that as the general public gradually becomes more aware and informed regarding DVD technology, advertising then attempts to push specific brands and models to its target markets.

Reminder Advertising is used by firms who have well established brands on the market and desire to keep the product’s name continually in the public eye.  The classic example of this form of advertising is: Coca-Cola advertising.  Here is an example of a product which is the market leader (world-wide) and yet its makers understand the need for continual, reminder advertising to keep the product constantly in the minds of its target audience.

Comparative Advertising where some businesses who believe their particular brand of product is superior, deploy a specific form of competitive advertising called comparative advertising which puts the advertising product head to head with the competitor.  An example of this is the “Energizer” television commercial which describes how the “Energizer” lasts longer than a “Duracell”.  This is a powerful form of advertising which can build strong, selective demand if a product is perceived as being superior to its opposition. Overall competitive advertising is used after a product class has been established and the general public has become reasonably familiar with it and consequently wants to purchase the product.

 In the end the best and most powerful type of product advertising depends on the nature of your product and the advertising objectives you have put in place to drive your strategy to achieve your objectives.

Injecting a personal note,  believe strongly despite what I have just written above that for those businesses that have worked hard on establishing a genuine point of difference that is meaningful, sustainable and relevant to the target markets unmet need, they will always be well rewarded by astute use of direct comparative advertising, but I stress that this will only work if your USP is a strong one that has already been established and is valued by the market.

So for now, think about each type of advertising discussed above and consider how could each type be better utilised to drive your core promotional messages more effectively.  Let us know what you come up with.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.