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Common sense content marketing tips

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 — 

 

In the Marketing Interactions Blog (one of our favorites), Ardath Albee shares some great, common sense tips for B2B companies interested in producing content as a lead generation strategy. Here are two of our favorite tips from that list and one we’d like to add:

Under “Sharing Valuable Tips Will Actually Make You Money - Exposing expertise actually shows people how difficult it can be to do what you do, encouraging them to hire you and get that task off their list. Not to mention getting the job done right the first time.” We agree. Remember how long it took you and everyone else at your company to build up your body of knowledge. No matter how informative your white paper, article, or blog post is – there is no way the reader can learn everything you know that fast. (At least we hope not!)

Under “Become A Resource By Sharing The Spotlight – Showcasing others who have great content reflects back on you. Plus, you don’t have all the answers. Help people connect the dots.” It’s kind of like the old saying, “Two heads are better than one.” Joining forces with another company will benefit both of you. If you choose your partners wisely, you are exposing your business to a group of fantastic prospects and giving yourself the credibility of your partner. That’s why we published our free e-book 100 Ways to Build Your Business in 2012. Of course, five of the tips in the book are from Clear Verve, but 95 of them aren’t. And all the participants have 19 other companies promoting the entire group.

And one tip we’d like to add:
Don’t get hung up on the platform. Some companies get so worried about what they are doing (or not doing) on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, etc. that they don’t even realize that maybe that’s not the right place to start. Every business is different. For your business, email may be the right solution. Or a printed newsletter delivered by snail mail. Or maybe you should be writing press releases, or focusing on LinkedIn. Think about where your customers are, how they live their lives, and how your service fits into what they are doing when they work with you. You wouldn’t spend money on advertising without thinking about it, would you? Give the same thought to your content marketing strategy.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

Other resources:
A new social media planning tool
Niches – A smart strategy
The importance of a good graphic
The challenges of social media

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5 Reasons Why Weight Watchers Marketing Rocks

Friday, January 6, 2012 — 

 

For the past year, I’ve committed to a healthier lifestyle and have been following Weight Watchers.  I haven’t shared much about this because I’m still working on getting to my goal “weight.”  So far I’m way impressed by this program and it really works – I’ve lost over 70 lbs.

Weight Watchers recently rolled out many improvements to the plan for 2012 including a new iPhone app called Weight Watchers Barcode Scanner.  This app allows you to scan barcodes and calculates the PointsPlus values of food.  I recently downloaded this app and so far I really like it.

Weight loss programs and services are a hot topic this time of year because there is a large portion of the population that can use these services.  According to the Worldwide Health Organization, over 1.8 billion people are overweight worldwide and it is estimated that and people spend more than $60 billion on weight loss programs and services.  Wow. That’s a whole lot of market potential.  No wonder you see so many products and services popping up to capture a bit of this market share.

So with all the weight loss program choices out there, how does Weight Watchers stand out with their marketing?  Here are the top five reasons why I think Weight Watchers marketing rocks:

1. Consistent branding, messaging and communications with members who are engaged.

2. Well-respected celebrity endorsers and partners– Jennifer Hudson, Charles Barkley, Hungry Girl, and Dr. Oz. Plus, they also feature real users of the program and their success stories.

3. An easy-to-use online and offline community to help you keep your weight loss on track with success stories, tips, blogs, challenges, etc.

4. Mobile apps for tech-savvy consumers.

5. Print publications (cookbooks and a magazine) plus products to make following the program easier.

The marketing of Weight Watchers definitely reflects their great understanding of their audiences and a focused effort to engage their “ideal” consumer.  This provides Weight Watchers with the best opportunity to stand out from the crowd.  For example, Charles Barkley is clearly a great spokesperson  to engage more men, the apps engage techy consumers and Dr. Oz targets middle age women.  Is your marketing this focused?

Susan Schoultz is Design Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create,  and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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Get 100 Ways to Build Your Business

Monday, December 19, 2011 — 

 

Have you ever tried to think up new ways to market, manage, or build your business and found yourself at a complete loss for ideas? I think it happens to everyone. I have to admit, it even happens to us, despite the fact that we’re a marketing company. I’m not sure if it’s because we spend so much time being creative on behalf of others that we just run out of gas for ourselves, or if it’s because we spend so much time dreaming up new ideas that it’s hard to come up with something that feels truly revolutionary for ourselves.

Well, we’ve solved that problem! Last year, we came up with the crazy idea of trying to get 20 of our favorite thought leaders to share five ideas that would help businesses innovate, grow, or manage themselves better. We contacted a few people, who loved the idea, and our big project for 2011, 100 Ways to Build Your Business in 2012 was born.

After several months of hard work, we’re pleased to share these great ideas with you. The book includes thoughts on marketing/PR, web/social media, management, and video/photo, so you are sure to find something that is applicable to your business! Best of all, you can also sign up to receive a monthly tips from the ebook for the next year. (Because seriously, who can remember or implement 100 ideas all at once?)

You can download the free e-book and sign up for the monthly emails at the 100 Ways to Build Your Business website.

Our best wishes for a busy and productive 2012!

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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A new social media planning tool

Monday, December 5, 2011 — 

 

I recently spoke at an event for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee.  The event, called Social Media for Nonprofits, featured Wayne Breitbarth, LinkedIn expert, and me; and although it was targeted at the nonprofit community in Milwaukee, much of what we spoke about can be useful to for-profit businesses.

My presentation focused on the results of our recent Social Media Survey of Nonprofits ( get the results here) , specifically what nonprofits value about social media, and the challenges nonprofits face in implementing social media tools for their organizations. Because the Business Journal was kind enough to ask me to speak at this event, I wanted to be sure to deliver some high quality content for them. The result of my prep for this event is a new tool we hope you’ll find useful in planning your social media strategy. We call it the Ongoing Social Media Strategy Wheel.

One of the biggest challenges faced by nonprofit is getting others involved in the effort, either from a participation standpoint or from an implementation standpoint. This is partially because most nonprofits (64%) do not have a social media policy guiding the people charged with implementing social media. If your organization doesn’t have a social media policy, be sure to download our template so you can fix this!  A social media policy can help make it “safe” to build a team of people to get the work done, rather than relying on a single person (who often has other work to do).

The other challenge is finding time to plan a strategy. Although most of us would never think of spending advertising dollars without a plan or hiring a receptionist and not training that person on how to answer the phone, many people don’t think anything of just jumping into social media without a plan of action.  We hope our new document, the Ongoing Social Media Strategy Wheel, helps address the planning issue. When we created it, we wanted to be sure we recognized the following things:

  • Most organizations are already using social media in some way. It would be stupid for me to lead you through the perfect planning process for people that are not yet involved in social media. That process won’t work if you’re already participating because you can’t stop and undo what you’ve already done just to make a plan.
  • Planning is not a one time activity. You have to constantly reassess where you are at, look for new ideas, and pay attention to what is going on in the world.
  • The world doesn’t stop while you plan. You can’t take a vacation from interacting with your social media contacts while you think. You have to think and act at the same time.

The ongoing social media strategy wheel attempts to show this by using continuous circles. The inner circle illustrates the planning and reflection activities that most people forget. These activities are conducted internally and aren’t seen by the public, but they are very important because performing these activities will increase the effectiveness of the woare the public sees. The outer circle illustrates the activities that most people see. Both wheels are rotating constantly and at the same time.

We hope that this new document will help you continuously refine your communications on social media.

If you want to see the rest of the presentation from the Social Media for Nonprofits event (the ideas work for for-profits too), you can view it here:

Social Media for Nonprofits

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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Why crowdsourcing can work for Harley Davidson

Thursday, November 17, 2011 — 

 

A recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article described Harley Davidson’s new strategy to generate ideas for upcoming ads – crowdsourcing. The theory behind crowdsourcing is that a large group of people will make better decisions than a small group of experts. It’s been shown to work for many businesses, including Ben & Jerry’s and Pepsi. In fact, many of us often use one of the best known results of crowdsourcing – Wikipedia. However, in the article, one expert lamented that this strategy would likely result in a dilution of the revered Harley Davidson brand.

I disagree. I think Harley Davidson has all the key ingredients needed to succeed at crowdsourcing.

  • They have a very large group of fans
  • Their fans are truly devoted to the brand, to the point of tattooing the logo on their bodies
  • They care about what Harley Davidson stands for and don’t want the company to water down their brand
  • They understand their own experiences. Although many of the people who work at Harley Davidson are riders, and they obviously understand their audience, they can’t possibly know everything about what their riders experience.
  • They already have many brand evangelists who will gladly tell you why a Harley is the best bike in the world

Of course, when sifting through the ideas generated by the crowd, I’m sure the people in the marketing department at Harley will come across more than a few ideas that are real dogs. If there is anything I’ve learned from my years of experience in marketing, it’s that everyone thinks they can come up with great marketing ideas, but not everyone can. Good marketing is about a lot more than just pure creativity. It’s creativity mixed with a bit of psychology, tempered by facts about the consumer, and mixed with an ability to understand how the message will be received – not just what they company wants said. That said; I’m more than willing to bet that there will be some brilliant ideas that the Harley Davidson marketing folks can develop into campaigns that will really resonate with current and future riders. And that’s what marketing is all about.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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What Maroon 5 reminded me about marketing

Thursday, September 29, 2011 — 

 

Recently, I was watching videos on VH1 with my 13 year old. (Yes, VH1 does still actually show music videos sometimes.) While we were watching, the video for the Maroon 5 song, Moves Like Jagger came on. After watching it for a few moments, my daughter said, “This is a really stupid video.” Meanwhile, I was watching it thinking it was a really clever video.

In the video, there are shots of Adam Levine dancing like Mick Jagger interspersed with other people dancing like Mick and actual footage of Mick Jagger performing on stage. At the end, when Christina Aguilera sings, she’s dressed to look like Jerry Hall, Mick’s long-time girlfriend.

After I explained the video to her and pointed out the real footage of Mick Jagger, she suddenly got it and decided that the video wasn’t so stupid after all.

The experience reminded me about the importance of perspective when crafting your messages. One of the biggest challenges every business faces when building their marketing messages and campaigns is remembering what the target audience knows, understands, and cares about. Just because something is important to you as a business owner or as an employee, doesn’t mean your customer gives a hoot about it. This is why defining a target audience is so important. The more closely you can define your target, the easier it will be for you to choose words and images that will resonate with that group of people.That way, you might not be trying to appeal to a teenager using images that only make sense to her forty-something year old mom.

Check out the video here:

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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The Importance of a Good Graphic (and Vice Versa)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 — 

 

I’m all for a good image or graphic. A good one can draw attention to pertinent data, make information easier to grasp, and/or add some fun and color. But I saw one the other day that reminded me we should all ask this very important question when combining data with an image: does this enhance the information I’m trying to share?

So here’s the image (you can click on it for a bigger version):

Here are the good things: pleasing to the eyes, easy to read, pop out colors to show the highest number in each data set, a simple font.

Here are the things I’m confused by:

  • What do the numbers mean (it doesn’t look like percentage or numbers of people)?
  • Why are most of the numbers so close to 100?
  • Why is the one image a female for something called “Unique U.S. Audience Composition Index to Social Networks and Blogs,” especially when females only “win” 103 to the males’ 96 … somethings.
  • Why is each piece of information pointing to a spot on the woman? (As a pal on Twitter so eloquently put it “The only thing I learned was that gender is all in your head and education comes from your pants.”)

Now, to be fair, I discovered a more “complete” graph in Nielson’s full report on page four:

So the image of a female makes a little more sense with this title. And sentences were added under each category like “She likely lives in New England” (I personally like this touch). But overall the graphic is still not doing much to enhance the information. And pointing to the woman’s random body parts is still nonsensical to me.

What do you think? Do you think the image adds to the information in any way simply because it’s not just text? What kinds of images do you do with your work?

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter:  @erica_g.

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Can social media exist without competition?

Thursday, September 1, 2011 — 

 

I get it. We’re a competitive society. I want to win my fantasy football league (again). I’m working to become a faster runner. I want my idea in a brainstorming session to be the one that sticks. But I also watched that episode of Donahue about how our society is obsessed with competition. And I remember identifying with the kids on the show who were awesome AND interesting, but weren’t exceptional athletes, gifted artists, brilliant mathematicians, or talented musicians. Because I remember thinking, it’s okay not to be the best at something.

In the here and now (because really, what good is it to reminisce about Donahue shows?) I enjoy learning about new ways to form communities online for nonprofits and organizations and people in general. The best way for me to explore that interest is to be active and experiment on multiple social media platforms. And I was thoroughly enjoying myself, especially on Twitter, until I began realizing it was hard not to subconsciously compete and not just interact.

Case in point: “I’ll join Twitter. It will be fun.” “My company will join Twitter. It will be beneficial and a great way to connect with people.” It IS fun. It IS beneficial. But it also quickly becomes all about keeping track of how many followers you have, if you get retweeted, how many people mention you, what level of Klout you have and what topics you are influencing others about.

Since when did EVERYTHING become a competition? I always try my best to offer solutions when I bring up problems but I’m dumbfounded with this competition thing.

Do you feel pressure to compete against coworkers, friends, businesses in social media? Does it drive you to be better? Or make you feel like you’re talking just to talk?

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter:  @erica_g.

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Nonprofit Survey Results: The Challenges of Social Media

Thursday, August 18, 2011 — 

 

Although we are still working on the ebook for our recent survey on social media use among Wisconsin nonprofits, we thought we could share some advance information about what we have learned.

Of our survey participants, 90 percent are using social media to promote their not for profit organization. Although the participating organizations plan to increase their use of social media in the future, they cited many obstacles to social media success. They are:
• Enough resources to keep the sites current
• A lack of expertise in the best ways to use the sites
• Ensuring content on the sites is consistent with the organization’s brand
• Difficulty with driving consumers to the sites

Many for-profit businesses suffer from the same challenges. There is so much online content that a social media presence is certainly not a case of, “If you build it, they will come.” However, there is some good news. The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released a new study on the online habits of Americans. The study shows that email and search are the most common activities performed online. It also shows that wealthy and educated individuals are more likely to use the internet for search or email on a daily basis. These are the people that most nonprofits are targeting as potential donors. By combining SEO and email, nonprofits can drive people to their social media platforms where hopefully, an active online presence will be waiting for them to see. It takes time to build a community, but by combining various tactics, everything will work more successfully.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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Explanation Overkill

Friday, August 12, 2011 — 

 

When crossing the street in West Allis the other day, I noticed this sign:

Who would have thought that crossing the street was so complicated? My kids understood the basics of walk/don’t walk before they started kindergarten, and they never would have been able to read this sign back then.

Sometimes, the same thing happens with marketing, especially when you are trying to market a service. You can’t show anyone what you are selling, so you explain, and explain, and explain… Recently, I met with someone who called it “feature puking.” It may be a little gross, but it is a good analogy.

So what’s the lesson? Figure out what matters to your audience. Tell them that, and then STOP. Too much information can actually make decisions more difficult. (Even if you are just deciding whether or not to cross the street.)

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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