MarketingSherpa Blog

I’ve previously written about using social media contests and sweepstakes to grow your social communities on the MarketingSherpa blog, but today I’m going to write about these promotions from a unique place many marketers dare not tread – from the customer’s perspective.

You see, I just happen to be one of five finalists in a nationwide program now accepting votes on Facebook. One idea will garner $100,000 in funding. (You can read more about my rooftop farming idea, an initiative focused on content marketing for grocery stores, and vote for me, Daniel Burstein, if you like.)

Getting the opportunity to see these programs from the perspective of a customer/finalist, here are a few lessons I learned and relearned along the way that might be helpful to you for your own social media promotions …

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MarketingSherpa has been covering email marketing for a long time. And, while we’re always interested in the latest tactics, marketers still must never overlook the basics.

For example, email timing. Searching through the MarketingSherpa Article Archive, I found this blog post from 2003, which refers to a case study where time of day helped a marketer garner open rates higher than 70%.

When is the best time to send an email?

This topic is definitely the “Email Marketing 101” question about which any marketer breaking into major email campaigns still wants information.

To take a more quantitative dive into the question of timing email, GetResponse Email Marketing decided to go into its substantial dataset for some research.

This involved analyzing 21 million messages sent from U.S. email accounts during the first quarter of 2012 to determine the top result for the following metrics:

• Open time
• Click-through time
• Recipients’ top engagement time  Read more…

I was a fat kid. Fat kids like cake. Once upon a time, when I was eight years old, I cleaned the entire house to surprise my mother. She rewarded me with a gigantic slice of cake. From that point, I scrubbed the entire floor, organized the pantry and washed the dishes in pursuit of that glorious reward — fresh cake.

The point is, if you do something right, and you recognize the relationship between your actions and the reward, it makes sense to put forth maximum effort to reproduce the action that resulted in being rewarded. The problem with social media efforts is that success usually goes largely unnoticed by businesses.

Find your hidden cake

I recently conducted a social media audit for a Research Partner. While working through massive amounts of data provided via Facebook Insight reports, I noticed something interesting. When filtering the most frequently syndicated content to reveal the five most viral posts ever produced by that partner, a pattern emerged. Three out of the top five posts were on the same topic, in the same format.

There’s more. The top five most syndicated posts averaged 22,424 stories created per post by users, whereas the bottom half of the top 10 averaged only 6,042 stories created per post by users.

So, not only were the top five posts more effective at causing syndication from users, but they were 371% more effective.

Since no fat kid would knowingly forgo cake, it’s probably a pretty safe assumption that no business would knowingly do less effective social posting if they knew they could be doing something more effective. (After all, cash is better than cake.) That means the company must be unaware of its achievement.

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Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Julie Schwartz, Senior Vice President of Research and Thought Leadership at ITSMA (Information Technology Services Marketing Association), and Laura Patterson, President of VisionEdge Marketing. Both were involved in recent marketing research, 2012 ITSMA/VEM Marketing Performance Management Survey: The Path to Better Marketing Results.

The survey was conducted during the summer of 2012 via email and social media invitation through Twitter and LinkedIn, and included 405 completed surveys.

Here is a chart outlining details of the respondents:

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All respondents were analyzed by company type, company size and by a self-grading system (grade results included, and note that “D” was the lowest possible grade):

• A – Marketing demonstrates contribution to the business: 25%

• B – Marketing makes a difference, but contribution is not measured (these marketers were considered “middle of the pack”): 33%

• C and D – Marketing may have an impact, but not known if impact is material (these marketers were considered “laggards”): 33% for “C” and 9% for “D”

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Here are the key takeaways from the research:

• Marketing’s satisfaction with its ability to measure, analyze and improve performance is shockingly low

• Marketers are caught in a downward spiral as they report past performance to continually prove the value of marketing

• A few exceptional marketers have cracked the code; they excel across the board in data, metrics, processes, tools, analytical skills and reporting

• These grade “A” marketers can clearly demonstrate their value and contribution to the business

• The number of “A” marketers has remained relatively constant over time, but we see a decline in the number of “B” marketers

Because the heart of this research was marketing performance management, the self-described grades listed above were created by the key question: What grade would the C-suite give your marketing organization for its ability to demonstrate its value and impact on the business?

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All content is not created equal. For instance, according to a Nielsen report, men spend more than 247 million minutes per month viewing video via social media. Yet, women spend just 228 million minutes, despite the fact that more than 4,000 more women log on to social videos per day. Men just watch longer. If you want to engage men, videos are a superior form of content.

The still photograph remains king of the proverbial hill in terms of generating engagement with fans on social platforms. A 2012 study by ROI research found that 44% of users are likely to engage with brands if they post pictures, against 40% for regular status updates, and just 37% for video. Given that startling piece of information, a reasonable person might be led to ask the question:

Are all photographs created equal?

Do grainy, low-quality photographs thrown into a Facebook stream, more or less as afterthoughts, have the same impact as high-resolution, high-quality photography? Does it matter if the content is only photographic, or do graphical images also generate higher engagement numbers? Let’s look at one industry that is quite popular among the coveted 18-24 demographic on Facebook: entertainment (the companies shall remain nameless).

We begin by dividing the image content of several popular pages into two broad categories. First, there is the professional category. Images in this category tend to be high-resolution, feature-striking photography, be character based and contain only those graphics absolutely necessary to convey essential data. For example, look at the following image:

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Cisco’s social efforts regarding Cisco Live, a popular event the company throws yearly, was recently covered by a MarketingSherpa case study. Kathleen Mudge, Social Media Marketing Manager and consultant, Cisco, agreed to speak further with us on how she views and uses specific social networks.

With the effort featured in the case study, Cisco was looking for a way to extend the excitement that surrounded the event through the entire year using social media channels.

Facebook proved to be the tactic with the greatest reach with Cisco’s audience, above LinkedIn, which was a bit surprising for a B2B effort.

Mudge’s view of the results is that while Facebook pulls in a larger audience, they are both effective in accomplishing her communication goals.

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The ladder of success no longer has certain rungs that must be met. Now, companies are placing a greater emphasis on company culture, and are looking for people who will fit into that.

In the days when large corporations were the trendsetters of the business world, you could get ahead by following a certain set of rules. As the recession knocked down some of these traditional companies from their former glory, a new way of doing business was highlighted.

Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple and a thousand others like them ditched the suits and turned casual Friday into a week-long institution. Ping pong tables (like the one here at MECLABS) replaced conference tables and office spaces began providing an environment that would encourage employees to “think different.”

Companies are looking beyond info from your resume, and wanting to get to know you. Zappos, for instance, has said that in their personality-focused hiring process, they ask themselves if the person being interviewed is someone they would want to get a beer with.

As personality and corporate culture become a bigger proponent of the hiring process, it may be time to make yourself known and stop hiding behind a generic black and white, 12-point Times New Roman font resume.

An increasing amount of companies want to see that you have unique, unconventional skills to bring to their team, instead of checking off a list of qualifications on your resume.

Establishing your personal brand online can be the most effective way to get – and keep – a company’s attention.

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Originally published on B2B LeadBlog

We surveyed 1,915 marketers for the 2012 MarketingSherpa Lead Generation Benchmark Report, and asked them about their most widely used lead gen practices. Here is what the data says…

Q. Which of the following lead generation tactics does your organization currently use?

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To help you improve your own lead generation efforts, here are some insights and tips from our audience…

Email Marketing

“Interesting chart, Daniel — thank you for sharing it with us. Do you have any correlation between method and its associated level of effectiveness?” asked Hank Boyer, president and CEO, Boyer Management Group. “For example, email marketing may be the most-used method, and often has the distinction of replacing junk mail with junk email…however, its level of effectiveness is likely pretty low on the list.”

Jann Mirchandani, owner and chief marketing officer, Marketing Café, added “This chart is interesting in that it shows which tactics are being used. It does not, however, show which tactics are producing results. I would argue that email marketing is a tactic that most business owners understand and have been using a long time.”

Excellent points Jann and Hank, so let’s take review at a chart that shows which tactics are producing results.

Looking at some further data from the 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report that shows level of effectiveness, we can see that Hank has a valid point in his skepticism of email marketing being the most commonly used lead generation tactic for many marketers, however, he may be underestimating this lead generation tactic’s effectiveness:

Q. Please indicate the LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS (in terms of achieving objectives) for each of the lead generation tactics your organization is using.

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“Is email a lead gen tactic?” asks Brecht of Distressedpro.com. “If you have the email already, isn’t that the lead?”

That’s an excellent point Brecht, but it brings up another question in my mind — Is an email address really a lead? For some companies it may be, but your marketing team should have a Universal Lead Definition, mutually agreed upon with Sales, that defines exactly what a lead is. I would argue a true “lead” is whatever information most efficiently and effectively leads to a sale.

But that’s just my two cents. Here’s how Tommy Landry, founder, Return On Now addresses the question after he himself raises it?

“While I concur that email is the most important medium to get right, I question whether it should be considered a lead gen vehicle at all. If you are emailing them, they are already on your list of leads.”

“Using email right means that you are just catching existing leads at the right time to move along into the sales funnel,” Tommy says. “But I’m splitting hairs, and email remains the most important marketing tool for identifying ‘hot’ leads.”

Search engine optimization (SEO)

As we can see in the above chart, SEO was rated as very effective by a third of marketers, and this tracks with Hank’s experience.

“Our company recently rebuilt its website and we utilize both SEO and optimized Web design to enhance stickiness and click through,” Hank said.

“Early analytics from the site shows a significant improvement in traffic and time spent on the site. We believe this has been achieved by the inclusion of quizzes and assessments and relevant blog content, plus enhancements to the site’s navigation.”

Website optimization/management/design

On the MarketingExperiments blog (sister blog to the B2B Lead Blog Roundtable), we’ve found website optimization to be a very effective tactic, with double- and triple-digit lifts in reach for marketers.

If you are looking to optimize your own website to improve lead generation, here are a few tips from Tommy:

Website optimization goes beyond just the words on the page. It requires strategic long-term thinking and ongoing adjustment.

• Is your site usability as good as it can be, so prospects can self-identify as easily as possible?

• Does the design indicate that you are a serious business or look like you are a fly-by-night operation?

• Is the content on it valuable, written well, and easily scannable by busy users?

• Do the pages load as fast as possible or should you tweak your infrastructure, hosting, or CMS/theme?

The questions go on, but the premise remains the same — have you optimized the user experience of dealing with you online? The website is a huge part of that experience, so get it right. Source — Online Demand Generation: Top Media Vehicles for Driving Leads

Content Marketing

“Content marketing works! If you don’t believe me, check the Alexa rank of Return On Now,” Tommy said. “We kicked off a content marketing program in early July 2012, when our Alexa rank was just under 2.3M. The last I checked, it was closing in on 607K.”

If you’re looking for an example of content marketing, let me do a little horn tooting for just a second, and suggest you look no further than this blog and the MarketingSherpa article that prompted the responses you are reading now.

At least, so says Rebecca Caroe, founder, Creative Agency Secrets, “Daniel — great chart, great blog post and a superb way to demonstrate leadership in lead gen is to follow your tactics:

• Invite reader response

• Credit contributors

• Enable future content to be written based on submitted readers’ views.”

If you’d like to be featured in a future blog post, simply sign up for the free MarketingSherpa Chart of the Week newsletter and share your actionable advice on a marketing industry chart that tickles your fancy.

Related resources

Why 75% of Marketers Are Experiencing Lead Generation Pain and How to Stop It Before It’s Too Late

Lead Generation Strategy: 5 signs you’re selling like it’s 1992

Coaching a new biz dev executive…. part 4

Editor’s Note: One of the prizes of winning the MarketingSherpa Reader’s Choice Awards is the chance for a guest post here on the MarketingSherpa blog. Today’s post is by Cheryl Burgess of the Blue Focus Marketing blog, chosen as best social media marketing blog … by you.

With the recent announcement of the “new” MySpace — and with Justin Timberlake providing the public face of the redesign — the question on everyone’s minds is: Will it work?  Can a social media platform that had been all but left for dead really resurrect its brand? Much has changed since the site’s heyday around 2006-2007, and many obituaries have been written for the flagging social media platform since the advent of cooler, more versatile and user-friendly platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.

Other more specialized social media platforms have also been introduced into the mix such as Twitter, Pinterest and Foursquare, each offering users a deliberately limited—but engaging—social experience.  Quite simply, there will be a lot more competition for MySpace this next time around, including the thriving platforms responsible for “poaching” the platform’s original users in the first place.

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Despite the fact that we have never met them, and usually have no clue as to their qualifications, consumers put increasingly greater stock in the word of their fellow consumer.

“[User generated content] is just something that has evolved, but in many ways we have always had it,” said Kaci Bower, author of the MarketingSherpa Inbound Marketing Handbook citing mass reviews and word of mouth.

“Now, with the advent of social media, it is just exploding. Now consumers and brands actually have a place to share their opinions, thoughts and ideas,” said Bower. “It actually provides a platform for user-generated content to not only be created, but also shared quite easily.”

The puzzle is in learning how to harness its power.

Social media provides a more intimate cyber setting than any other format, and because of that fosters feedback that is more conversational and for better or worse, people don’t hold back. It gives marketers insight into what their consumers are really concerned about, or happy with.

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