Differentiating Your Company in a Tough Market

It’s not a given that companies must accept massive customer losses during a recession. However, that is exactly what’s likely to occur unless a company takes aggressive steps to boost its customer retention through quality of service. Fortunately, there are software tools available to support effective customer-focused strategies.

Given the current state of the global economy and the risk that customers might defect to the sidelines rather than to the competition, it seems obvious that retention strategies should be at the forefront of any business with direct customer relationships.

With the business line that has the most direct customer access and can create the most emotive customer experiences: the call center.

Businesses use a range of metrics to measure call center effectiveness and efficiency, including its ability to drive customer satisfaction and increase sales.

An increasing number of companies use Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) software as part of their customer experience program to measure customer attitude.

By understanding what customers want and which issues drive retention, business will realize the following benefits:

• growth in the number of products per customer or household due to the enhanced relationship built on trust;
• increased customer retention due to better complaint handling and increased loyalty;
• a spike in customer acquisition due to increased advocacy from existing customers who have been turned around; and
• greater visibility and control over the entire customer relationship, whether the sales model is direct or indirect.

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25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips

The benefit from a firm grasp of social media for companies is impossible to ignore. Whether you work in marketing, advertising, public relations or interactive, there are distinct competitive advantages for both individuals and businesses from a better understanding of the social web.

So much of social technology and media engagement is centered on listening – not something many people, let alone companies, are very good at. What are some of the significant corporate cultural shifts and behaviors that you see as necessary to understanding, energizing and embracing the groundswell?

We lay out in the book five key objectives that you can achieve by tapping into the groundswell: Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, and Embracing.

1. Never forget that the groundswell is about person-to-person activity. You are not speaking as “the company”, but as a person. Most companies don’t know how to do this, and it takes a lot of practice to find that voice and feel comfortable with it.
2. Be a good listener. All companies say they listen to their customers, but do they really LISTEN and let people know that they are listening?
3. Be patient. This takes a long time because you are going to be transforming your company, one person at a time.
4. Be opportunistic. Start small with the people who are most passionate about building relationships with customers.
5. Be flexible. You never know what’s going to happen so you have to constantly adjust your thinking and learn.
6. Be collaborative. You need people from up and down the management chain to buy-in.
7. Most importantly, be humble. Remember that you are not as powerful as the groundswell. If you forget this, they will let you know.

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HOW TO: Plan and Promote Events With Social Media

Events, whether they are a local tweetup, a championship game or the world’s largest conference, can be notoriously difficult to plan, promote, and execute. But the end result can be amazing, and that is why we plan them in the first place.

Whether you need to work with organizers, generate buzz, or share post-party photos, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal. With the power to share comes the ability to spread the word, increase awareness, and accomplish your goals.

Step 1. Plan with social media tools

Step 2. Organizing and inviting

Step 3. Promotion and distribution

Twitter and Facebook should be your primary promotional tools – they are built for spreading a message.

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55% of Search Marketers Plan to Increase SEO Spending this Year

While the recession may be hurting the search engines’ revenues, it’s apparently not having an affect on the spending habits of search marketers.

According to the latest UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report from Econsultancy, search marketers plan to increase their spending this year.

Highlights include:

• 55% of UK search marketers plan to increase their SEO spending this year.
• 45% plan to increase their paid search budgets
• 49% plan to include Twitter in their marketing efforts–up from 3% last year–and 65% are including Facebook.
• 48% are seeing an increase in ROI from their SEO campaigns (compared to 6% that have seen a decline) and for paid search, 43% have seen an increase (versus 15% that have seen a decline)

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53% of interactive marketers expect their budgets for social media marketing to increase

The survey of 145 interactive marketing professionals suggested companies will focus more on customer engagement in 2009

Highlights from the report include:

• 53% of interactive marketers expect their budgets for social media marketing to increase as a response to the recession.
• Social media budgets remain miniscule compared to the rest of interactive marketing. Three-quarters of marketers say their social media spend is $100,000 or less over 12 months.
• Social media is not yet a marketing line item. 45-percent of marketers say their social budgets are determined as needed and 23-percent say they scrape together funds from wherever they can find them.

Only 25% of companies are spending more than $100k a year on social media and it’s not yet a line item? Reminds me a lot of search engine marketing circa 1999. If you spend peanuts on social media, you’ll get…peanut butter–not filet mignon–when it comes to seeing results.

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Huge Growth for Social Media Marketing

Forrester Research is holding its own conference down in Orlando and has just revealed its predictions for the growth of online advertising. The bottom line is that social media and mobile will be the hottest, but just about everything will see an upward trend.

6 Social Media mistakes other people make – and how to avoid them

Internet marketing is complex and it’s becoming more so every day. You can’t do everything, so it is essential that what you do is done well to maximize your investment in time and money.

Social media is all the rage at the moment, and astute business builders realize that business is where the people are. Yes, you can incorporate social media in your marketing strategies. And the fact that most businesses still are not doing so only enhances the value for those that do.

Getting it right is essential. In fact, getting it wrong in this space can be very damaging, so read this list carefully.

1.  Not having a social media plan Every successful campaign needs to have a set of goals. Ask yourself what you want to achieve.

> Attract subscriber

> Sell a product or service

> Increase the recognition of your site/brand

> Create a community

The solution If you don’t know what your goals are then neither will your new visitors. Whatever your goals, make sure you adapt the tactics to the strategy, not the other way around.

2.  Not understanding your audience – This is simple and obvious – and yet often forgotten.

The solution Learn about the demographics for any given social website. Each one has their own rules, ethics and, sometimes, their own vocabulary.

3. Not Listening It is inevitable that you will get negative comments as well as positive ones.

The solution If you want to know what people are saying about you or your company, track online discussions and learn from them.

4. Trying to interact with ‘everybody’ Do not try to interact with and respond to all the messages, discussions and tweets available. Be selective. Go deep rather than broad.

The solution Align with peers in your industry. Interact with possible pain points.

5. Social media spamming One of the worse things you can do is to send out your content to completely the wrong people

The solution Don’t spam.

6. Lying and trying to fake it. Don’t pretend to be someone you are not.

The solution Act normal, collaborate, talk about what you do, about what you like, or dislike, your stories.

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50+ Tips to Brand Yourself Offline

A strong personal brand will distinguish you in a tough job market. Once you’ve designed your personal brand and have a personal brand name, use this handy list of suggestions to implement your standout personal branding strategy.
* Show your expertise as much as possible.
* Publicize your brand-related successes and achievements.
* Make yourself easy to contact for thoughts and questions
* Help other people in your industry such as bloggers, Twitterers, colleagues, advice seekers, etc.
* Give people a reason to talk about you in a positive way that also matches your brand.
* Follow other people in your industry and anyone else who can teach you how to spread your message.
* Keep in mind that where you interact online also conveys messages about you

Tactics
* Choose an appropriate personal avatar.
* Consider using a personal logo.
* Join brand-related communities on social media
* Be helpful by sharing links and resources that you know people will enjoy.

Blogging
* Register your own name as a domain name.
* Syndicate your blog in brand-related sites and networks.

Social media
* Be selective in choosing the right social media for you
* Use Twitter or other micro-blogging services to share and learn.
* Create a social bookmarking account specifically for articles related to your profession
* Launch a Facebook Page about your industry niche.
* Tie together everything in a dedicated FriendFeed profile

Personal brand-reinforcing content
* Produce your own podcasts (audio or video).
* Put out press releases when you have a newsworthy accomplishment to share.
* Write op-ed articles for mainstream media.
* Start a newsletter about your field of expertise.
* Conduct webinars about up and coming topics.
* Leave insightful comments on related blogs.
* Guest post on pertinent blogs.
* Post presentations you’ve given on topic, such as by publishing them on your LinkedIn profile and blog.
* Write an ebook.

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You Don’t Control the Conversation Anymore!

One of the major dynamic shifts in marketing in the past several years has been the migration of our role as conversation starters – an active role – to conversation facilitators, a more observational and influential role.

10-15 years ago, we were all charged with integrating our marketing efforts by crafting and streamlining our messaging, ensuring that all of our channels were using the same language, creating “key messages” in bullet point form for the media, and mastering “official positioning” for everything from our product’s benefits to our company’s role in the community.

Not anymore.

These kinds of manufactured conversations simply don’t have staying power and credibility in today’s transparent world. The remarkable nature of the internet and social media have broken the conversation wide open, and put the audience in the drivers’ seat. Today’s consumers, companies, and readers aren’t buying the canned corporate statement anymore.

So what can you do? Listen to the conversation and participate in it. Hear what people are saying about you, and respond. Craft your “official” positioning by making it your policy to:

- Allow your best assets – your team members, at all levels – to speak about what they know. Quit stifling their insights in favor of “approved” media spokespeople. It’s more genuine this way.
- Respond to the dialogue that’s happening around you and about you. And that means the criticism, too.
- Pay attention to how your idea of your brand is matching up with how others are talking about you. If they’re vastly different, it’s time to reevaluate.

Today, we’re all charged with letting go a little bit and realizing that we’re not the ones dictating the conversation anymore. The social media reality means that conversation and dialogue is now:

• Transparent
• Open to everyone
• Collective – the power of many
• Brutally honest
• Fast as lightning.

Our role as marketing people is to help create an oustanding, remarkable, and great product/service/idea. Then we participate in the conversation rather than merely trying to control it, and see what a difference it makes. Not convinced social media will affect the way you do business?

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The Quicksand of Social Media Buzzwords

You’re trying to discuss and describe the movement that is social media. Imagine you’re not allowed to say any of the following:

• You need to join the conversation
• It’s about relationships (or people)
• It’s not about the tools
• You need to be listening
• Transparency
• Authenticity

Can you come up with illustrative ways to describe it’s value without resorting to the lingo and buzzwords we’ve already beat to death?

One of the powerful elements of social media has been that it strips away many of the artificial trappings that have weighed down marketing and communications for decades.

We got mired in our lingo quicksand in that traditional, push communications world. We got lost talking about brand attributes and key messages and talking points and brand promises and all those terms, and we forgot what they meant. We lived and died by our contrived, scripted fallbacks, and often propped up buzzwords in place of real strategy and action.

Are we in danger of doing it again?

It’s more than just being an echo chamber. It’s getting lazy about how we describe and discuss what it is we’re trying to do here. When we stop looking for new ways to illustrate the importance of social communication, when we’re not committed enough to find new stories to tell or ways to describe the validity of bridging customers to companies, we’ve already lost.

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