Posts about Marketing

11 Reasons to Celebrate LinkedIn’s 11 Years

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First off, Happy Birthday LinkedIn!  As a Tween, you have a lot to be proud of!  So, let’s take a look at 11 Reasons to Celebrate LinkedIn’s 11 Years.11 Reasons to Celebrate LinkedIn's 11 Years TaylorMade Solutions heatherannemaclean.wordpress.com

After starting out in Reid Hoffman’s living room in 2002 and officially launched on May 5th, 2003, the results are not too shabby.  Let’s take a look at the highlights:

  1. After one month, LinkedIn had a membership network of 4,500.
  2. LinkedIn operates the world’s largest online professional network on the with more than 300 million members.
  3. LinkedIn is used in over 200 countries and territories.
  4. 67% of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States.
  5. Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate of more than two new members per second.
  6. The fast growing demographic is students with over 39 million (students and recent college graduate.
  7. LinkedIn is currently available in 22 languages:
      • English
      • Simplified Chinese
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • French
      • German,
      • Indonesian
      • Italian
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Malay
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Spanish
      • Swedish,
      • Tagalog
      • Thai
      • Turkish

8.  LinkedIn has continued to evolve to offer products/services that professionals seek – for example a publishing forum for all users.

9.  If you include a photo with your profile, you are 11 times more likely to have your profile viewed.
Executives from ALL Fortune 500 Companies are on LinkedIn.

10. There are more than 1.5 million unique publishers actively using the LinkedIn Share button on their sites to send content into the LinkedIn platform.

11.  More than 3 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages.

With the increase in use and importance of LinkedIn for your personal brand, your corporate brand, have you thought about what your LinkedIn Profile looks like? If  you haven’t, you should and we can help.  For more information on LinkedIn Audits, contact us.

The Sunday Brief

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Welcome to the Sunday Brief!  I have compiled a list of blog posts that I found particularly insightful and useful for clients and friends alike.  Sit down with a cup of coffee and check out this week’s Sunday Brief:The Sunday Brief heatherannemaclean.wordpress.com

1. The Value of a Social Media Audit

My favourite post this week comes from Kathi Kruse, of Kruse Control Inc. She wrote about something very near and dear to me, the value of a social media audit.

I full heartedly agree that every company needs to do a social media audit from time-to-time.  In addition, don’t just have anyone do a social media audit, have someone who understands audience, personas, marketing and communications.  Remember, social media is not a strategy unto itself.  As a result, you need an auditor who knows and understand the bigger picture.

2.  Fight The Tyranny of Writing Authorities

There are so many books, blog posts and people willing to give advice these days.  And, of course I realize that I am one of them, so the irony of this is not lost on me.

However, that being said, I particularly enjoyed Jack Steiner’s  83,168 Mistakes Every Writer Makes.  It is a great read and tells you to listen and yet throw out advice at the same time.  The key take-away?  We are human and we need to have our human voice in what we write.  If we were to listen to every bit of writing advice, everything would be dull and boring crap written exactly the same way.  Love it!

3.  Times are Changing, are you?

Number three for me this week is sales-related.  Jill Konrath, always a good read, doles out interesting food for thought in My Boldest Sales Predictions – Ever.

Jill focuses on people learning agility.  I have to agree with her.  With our ever changing environment, those who are agile survive.  They are able to adapt more quickly and make the changes needed to be happy, productive and producing results.

These are just three of my top reads from this past week.  What would you add?

If you missed the posts I shared this week, you can view them here.

Social Media Measurement – Tips from the Experts

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Despite social media being a part of our lexicon for more than a decade now, many organizations still struggle with incorporating social media because they just don’t know what to measure or how to measure the return on investment (ROI).  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  While at Radian6 I worked with many companies that were looking for the right measurements fortheir community teams, while also helping people understand just how you could measure the ROI of social.  There were a lot of great minds there and I am going to share with you some of the social media measurement that we used- tips from the experts.

Image courtesy of measuringupblog.com

Image courtesy of measuringupblog.com

Like any business there was a strong focus on measurement at Radian6, ROI and having the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The best place to start when looking to measure your social media ROI, is with your C-Suite.  It is essential to understand what is important to your executive.  Asking the right questions up front can save a lot of time and get buy-in immediately.  The following questions can get you started:

  1. What are the key concerns or issues of the Board of Directors?
  2. What KPIs are being used?
  3. How are you currently measuring Share of Voice and/or Share of Conversation?
  4. Where does reputation monitoring and management factor in?
  5. What resources do you have to monitor brand mentions and do brand engagement?

It is extremely important to remember that social media is not a strategy unto itself.  Rather, it is part of an overall strategy and must be thought about in the big picture context.  The questions above are intended to help you think this way. Focusing on social media alone is typically the reason that social media ROI has been not been definable and/or reached.  Thus some companies have become disenchanted with social thinking it does not provide results.  It bears repeating that social cannot be planned and/or considered in isolation.  The C-suite, Marketers and Strategists alike need to always be thinking about the big picture and the overall objectives of the organization.

Key Take Aways:

  1. Remember to focus on the big picture.
  2. Social media is not a strategy unto itself.
  3. Select measurements that are important to your Board of Directors and Executive.
  4. Don’t focus on Likes or size of networks only – see #1- 3 and repeat.

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25 Stats, Numbers & Tidbits for Digital Marketers

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Marketers and researchers love numbers, data and insights.  So here are a 25 numbers, stats and tidbits of interest for Digital Marketers.

25 Stats, Numbers & Tidbits for Digital Marketers

Image courtesy of www.tagxedo.com

Facebook: (source)

  • More than a Billion Users
  • 55% of daily users are using mobile
  • 59% of ad revenue is from ads on mobile devices
  • 65% of interaction with content is still done on desktops

Email

  • There are more than 3.9 billion email addresses worldwide.  That number is expected to grow to 4.9 within three years (source)
  • According to one survey 84% of people shop online regularly and  27% are willing or very willing to receive promotional email (source)
  • 77% of the online shoppers who’ve signed up to receive promotional emails reported that they are more likely to purchase items online or in store if emails feature products based on their shopping habits and preferences (same source as previous line)

Youtube (source)

  • If you want to drive engagement, Youtube is your channel.  Research has shown that Youtube drives the most engaging traffic with most time spent on site, the most pages/visit (2.99) and the lowest bounce rate at 43.19%

Selfies (source)

  • Think you are cool doing selfies?  Think again.  Just under 50% of Americans under the age of 34 think selfies are uncool and 77% of people over 35 think that posting selfies is uncool.

Social Media and the Fortune 500 (source )

  • The good news is that the use of social media by Fortune 500 companies grew to 88% this year.
  • LinkedIn remains platform of choice.
  • Facebook saw a resurgence increasing back to 84% use.
  • Twitter use grew by 7% and is seen to have the most potential for sales growth.
  • Sadly monitoring a brand’s name, products and brand however has lost traction – with such incidents as US Air inappropriate tweet, it will be interesting to see if this will change throughout the year.
  • 75% of executives said they used original or reposted content for their social media channels.
  • According to the report, 59% of companies monitor its brands, products or company name in the social media space, down from 70% in 2010.  A lack of monitoring, suggests the report, could have consequences for companies given the potential for viral communications social media presents.

TV (source)

  • At the end of 2013, 77% of Americans own at least one HDTV and 46% have multiple HDTV.

M-Commerce (source)

  • sales are expected to hit Sales To Hit $57.8 Billion In 2014.

Mobile (source)

  • Did you know that 65% people say free information remains the most important attribute when selecting an information source to search for a local business.
  • Free content was followed by being able to trust a source at 59%.
  • Getting timely information came in third at 58%.
  • And relevant content came in fourth at 54%.
  • And strangely enough providing the correct amount of information came in next at 44%.
  • The ability to get more detailed information was the sixth most important at 41%.
  • And finally offering advertising free came in last at 41%.

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10 Tips to Execute a Perfect Webinar

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As a part of my day-to-day, I regularly participate in webinars both as a registrant, and on occasion, I also get to be a presenter.  A well thought out webinar can be an invaluable tool for participants.  It can provide insightful information that is immediately executable.  It is also a great tool for companies to build and maintain trust with their prospects and community.  So, to make a webinar memorable, here are 10 tips to execute a perfect webinar.10 Tips to Execute a Perfect Webinar

 1. Technology

Get your technology figured out first.  You might end up with the greatest line-up of speakers, but if your technology doesn’t work, you not only frustrate your speakers, you frustrate your audience. If you are delayed in starting or can’t loop in your speaker, you are effectively eroding the trust and creditability you have built.  Additionally, if your audio is so horrible that your participants can’t really hear what is being said, you will lose people and likely not get them back.

Be sure to have a testing process in place.  Even after you have your technology down pat, include a test time with each of your presenters.  Run through how it will work.  This is not for you, but for your presenter.  It will help that person or persons feel more comfortable with expectations and clarify any miscommunications.

From experience I can tell you that if you don’t have this perfect, you will lose people. I sat in on a webinar just this week and abandoned it only 3 minutes in.  The audio was so poor that it was painful to listen.

2.  Audience

Any good marketing person is going to speak to you about your audience.  Before you can do anything to communicate your brand, your offering, your value, you need to know and understand your audience.   If you don’t know who you are speaking to, how can you help?

3.  Content

You have likely heard this before, but it bears repeating.  Develop and have a content calendar.  Develop themes for your content and find different and interesting ways to deliver it to your audience.  A webinar should be only one aspect.

4.  A Plan

Jumping into webinars are not a good idea even if you have already executed 1-3.  You still need a plan.  Who will moderate?  Who will find your presenters?  Do you have guidelines for your presenters?  How will you communicate your webinar?  What is your follow-up plan?  What is your social plan?  These are just some things that you need to consider.

5.  Presenters

Be sure to select presenters that are not only experts in their field, but also comfortable speaking publicly as well as through a webinar format.  People that are usually good public speakers are usually very good at doing webinars too.  You want someone who uses his or her voice well – in other words has good inflection.   Your presenters should also be selected based on the ability to connect with others.  If you attended a session and a speaker only talked about himself or thought he was the funniest guy on the planet, chances are your audience will feel the same.

Also be certain that your presenters aren’t going to read from as script or from their presentation.  Aside from being absolutely boring, it is very obvious when someone is reading – even when you can’t see him or her.

That webinar I abandoned earlier this week had at least one person who was clearly reading a script.  Based on the caliber of the company hosting the webinar and all of the presenters, this was a let down.

6.  Promotion

Be sure to have a clear communications plan in place for your promotion of each webinar.  What channels will you use? When will you start to promote each webinar?  How easy is it for people to register?  What is the hashtag that will be used?  What is the headline to be used to entice people?  How will you share the bios of the presenters?  Will you record the webinar and share it afterwards? If so, where and when?

7.  Social Media Community Team

Always have your social media community team prepped and lined up for the event.  Ensure that they are able to listen to the channels and respond appropriately.  Someone should also be in charge of collecting questions and ensuring that the presenter gets them in a timely fashion.  As a part of the planning stages, it should be discussed with the presenter if questions will be held until the end or addressed as they come in?  Should some be grouped, etc.

There should also be one person dedicated to issues.

If you don’t have a social media community team, that is ok.  However, be sure to recruit people from your department, office or volunteers to assist in these tasks.  Regardless of who you use, run through the process, cover off expectations and address what-if scenarios.  

8.  The Main Event

Be sure to start your webinar on time.  Introduce your guests, topic and lay out the house keeping items like hashtags, how questions will be handled, etc.  

9.  Back-up Plan

Like my Girl Scout Leader always said:  Be Prepared.  Always expect the best, but plan and prepare for the worst.  Think about what could go wrong and have a Plan B to address it.  Hopefully you will never need to execute on Plan B, but if you do…you will have it covered.

10. Next Event Promotion and Close Out

Phew, you are now at the end of your webinar and it went swimmingly!  Be sure to thank everyone for attending, including your guest.  If you planned a contest or draw associated with the webinar remember to take care of that.  Be sure to let people know where to find the recording of the webinar if one was made and if there will be a summary posted to your blog.  Finally be sure to promote the date, time, theme and presenter for your next webinar.

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Interview with David Alston – The Influencer Series

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David Alston is the Chief Innovation Officer at Introhive, an advisor to multiple startups, a director at ScribbleLive, an advocate for kids coding and the transformation of the Maritime economy to one underpinned by tech, and supporter of alternative energy approaches.  He also wears a cowboy hat, sings Johnny Cash songs and is one heck of a photographer…oh and just another tidbit, he has been consistently named as one of the Top CMOs on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine.  @DavidAlston Influencer

I had the privilege of working with David, so I can honestly say that his passion and conviction are contagious.  His knowledge and expertise in marketing and innovation are phenomenal.  I was so pleased that he agreed to be a part of my Influencer Series.  So, let’s get to the questions, cause I know that you want his responses.

The Interview:

MacLean:  Marketing continues to change and evolve.  What do you see as the most important skills for people to have to meet the demands of today and the next year?

Alston:  Content marketing is now as commonplace as community engagement. You also have to be tracking and understand all of numbers behind each online property & digital campaign. In order to stand out, you need to be able to successfully blend the art of marketing (creativity and relationship building) with the science of marketing (analytics and cross referencing multiple sources of data).

MacLean:  What has been the most significant change you have seen in marketing over the last two years and why?

Alston:  Marketers have become publishers. Of course that’s also created a lot of noise for customers to sift through and thus just publishing the same kind of stuff you were publishing three years ago probably won’t cut it. Taking a stand on issues, being bold with creative content, unique partnerships and infusing marketing directly inside products and services are now a must.

MacLean:  Community Management was all the talk a few years back, but it seems to have taken a backseat.  Do you think that people have lost sight of the value and/or that it is just an oversight and will re-emerge because of the true value that it can bring?

Alston:  Hopefully for companies where it’s disappeared it’s because it was absorbed into the roles of any employee that would typically be in contact with customers – PR, sales, customer service etc. Companies that ignore people in social channels completely, will pay the price today just like they would have two years ago.

MacLean:  What advice would you offer businesses in terms of hiring marketing professionals?

Alston:  I’ve always been a proponent of investing in marketing early on when it comes to startups.  Marketing is as much about strategy as it is about brand and collateral. Marketing should also have a seat at the executive table early on because it’s about building a market/demand for a product or service, getting marketing/sales into the offering, strategic positioning vs competitors, and creating content and influence in a space you want to be a leader in. Translation – you need to focus on adding someone with the experience on how to get this done. They can build out the team with more junior staffers for specific functions later.

MacLean:  What do you think will be the next big thing in marketing?

Alston:  Real-time marketing! The idea of creating engagement experiences using real-time content and looping potential prospects into the traditional sales funnel, similar to how marketing automation does it for non-real-time. (Full disclosure – I am on the board of directors for ScribbleLive).

MacLean:  Finally, you have been very active in innovation and getting kids into coding, what can marketers learn from collaborating more with this side of the business?

Alston:  Much of the success around progress with kids and coding has been tapping into the existing communities supportive of the cause and utilizing the act of documenting the cause on video, as a way to fan the flames of the movement. There is nothing more powerful than an idea who’s time has finally come.

As always, David offers great insight and ideas and I sincerely thank him for taking the time to answer my questions.

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7 Secrets to Customer Acquisition & Ongoing Customer Satisfaction

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As a VP of sales who has worked in all functional areas and trained hundreds of sales people all over North America, the question people ask me most is:  What do I need to do to be successful?  The answer is fairly straight forward, and here are 7 secrets to customer acquisition & ongoing customer satisfaction:

7 secrets to customer acquisition and sales best practices

Image courtesy of blogs.mcafee.com

 1. Have a Process

It’s amazing how many sales professionals work with clients from start to finish each day and do not have a sales process.  This goes for both individuals and organizations. 

A process drives consistency, its helps scale, it helps understand where your gaps are as an organization and helps with sales forecasting. A simple  and straight forward sales process is a great start.   It doesn’t have to be too complicated. Perhaps the most important part of your process is to understand your company messaging within your sales process.   It is also important to understand your customer buying cycles and process.  Generally customers have a buying process to understand how to get the most value out of you, so you need one as well.

2. Have a plan

Many organizations have a yearly sales planning cycle. Unfortunately, many times those plans are left at the conference room table the minute the meetings are done.  Often times it is something the boss has asked for and a check mark on the list for us as workers.   

The best sales people have plans. They don’t have to be too complicated, but do include overall goals and objectives that are broken down for the year, quarter and maybe even weekly.  Of course like any plan, you revisit it as needed and adjust to current conditions.7 Secrets to Customer Acquisition & Ongoing Customer Satisfaction  

3. ROI and Industry Insight

As a result of the downturn of the economy in 2008, it has changed the way people buy. No matter how long you have known a customer, no matter how good a friend you might be, customers need and want more. There is more scrutiny on purchases, more people involved in the process and more than ever people want to see a return.   It is essential to determine their goals, objectives, pain points and how you can solve their problems while also saving them money.  They want you to demonstrate their Return on Investment. 

Companies are also looking for Insight, not just into your products and services, but into their own industry. They are looking for people like us to give them insight or intelligence into their business and industry while also providing solutions to help drive their businesses.

4. Ongoing Development

Many people come into the sales profession without planning it and because of the fast-paced nature of the work, they lose sight of the need for continual professional development.  To stay ahead of the curve,  highly successful professionals always have to work to get better, learn new skills and break bad habits. It can be as simple as reading a good sales book. For example, I would recommend The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation.  Other options include subscribing to sales blogs, taking a course, etc.  Regardless of what method or methods you choose, never stop pushing yourself to develop your skills.

 5.Hard  Work

Nothing beats hard work.  Through experience I have encountered many reps who tell me they like to take a “strategic approach” or they have their own “system”.  When I hear these words I think: “lazy.” Having a plan, being strategic, having a system, as well as having a high aptitude for sales are part of the foundation, but you still need to work hard. I think it was our good ole Wayne Gretzky that said: “nothing beats skill like hardworking skill.”  When your competitors are  working “strategically” you need to be doing the same, but working harder and in doing so closing more deals.

6.  Perception Is Reality

Very important: Do your customers consider you their equal? Are you perceived as a Vendor? A Business Partner? Or, a Strategic Resource? 

Ideally you are a strategic resource – one that provides value without selling anything.  If a customer will call and ask for your advice on an issue unrelated to your solution, this demonstrates just how highly that customer thinks of your opinion.  But how do you get to be that trusted resource?  Be a professional, provide value before asking for anything, provide insight, and articulate ROI. 

7. Use your Tools

There are many great tools available to us today from a sales enablement perspective. Because we have so many options, choosing the right tools becomes critical.  To make the right chose, determine your needs first.  Ask questions to determine where you need to be, or would like to be in order to be more efficient and then scope out possible solutions. The more you understand your needs the better the results will be to narrow the field and make the right selection.  

To put things in perspective, you can be making decisions around any number of these tools:  social media, CRM, list acquisition, contact acquisition, marketing automation, lead and demand generation and resources, auto call/email/voicemail…. You get the picture.  You need to understand your needs and where you want to be.

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About Chris Cummins

Chris is the VP of Sales with Skillsoft.  With more than 20 years experience in nearly every function of sales, he is a professional sales person and has made a career in an environment that he immensely enjoys and thrives in.  He has interviewed, hired, trained, coached and managed literally hundreds of sales people all over North America.  

Insider Secrets to Using Emotions to Influence Buyer Behaviour

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When making purchasing decisions we like to think that we are using a rational, and where warranted, an analytical approach.  Unfortunately, this is not really the case. Our emotions actually have a more signifiant impact on our buying behaviour than we realize.  Leveraging these emotions therefore, is an important component for anyone selling a product or service.  After all, consumers choose one brand over another based on an emotional response.  So, how do we leverage insider secrets and emotions to influence buyer behaviour?  Let’s explore.

Insider Secrets to Using Emotions to Influence Buyer Behaviour

Image courtesy of almigo.blogspot.com

Dr. Antonio Damasio, a renowned neuroscientist, argues that emotion is the necessary ingredient to nearly all decisions.  Of course as marketers we like to focus on the aspects of communication, advertising and marketing that influences consumer behaviour. When you actually start to analyze behaviour you can begin to understand how emotion is really at the root of the decision and on top of that, there are probably two fundamental components that really guide us.

Identity and Social Status

As human beings we are influenced by how “something” impacts us, or how something connects us to our identity and quite frankly our social status.  As individuals we might not realize that we think this way, but we do.  Really skilled marketers think about the positioning of a product or service in this capacity. We think about the image that individuals want to create when associated with a purchase.  Is he or she  smart, educated, well to do, sporty?  Or, is he or she hip, edging, etc.   At a subconscious level, all consumers want to be perceived in a certain way.

A really great example to understand emotional connection and specifically one’s identity and  the importance of social status is our choice when buying a car.  Recently Cadillac created an ad that showed its owners as successful people who have “stuff”. It suggests that working all of the time versus enjoying time off or doing things to better your community is what “it” is all about.  Then, Ford in quite the juxtaposition created their own version of the same ad giving a completely different identity and social status for those who own a Ford.  In their ad, Ford owners are working to create a cleaner, healthier community for all.  Two ads that look very similar, but have two different messages.

These two ads are a brilliant way to make the case for an emotional reaction and one’s sense of identity and social status.  Which one you choose is entirely up to you, but these marketers definitely positioned these brands for this purpose.   There is no question that you have an emotional response when you view these ads. Through my own testing, every person reacted to these ads.

Another great example is the Dove Self-Esteem campaign.  What parent wouldn’t be impacted by the power of these ads. So many girls have been negatively impacted by beauty campaigns.  The Dove campaign strives to evoke positive emotions and to take control of the message of natural and real beauty.

Great marketing really triggers an emotional response.  Great brands understand the significance of emotion, the power the influence to purchase and ultimately to trust the brand.

Emotions are powerful assets.  As consumers we often don’t realize that we have control over these assets.  As marketers we are always looking for ways to use them to influence buyer behaviour.  Next time you are about to make a purchase, stop and think about your emotional state.  Maybe it will make you think differently…maybe it won’t.

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