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5/31/2005 14:44
According to today's edition of the Wall Street Journal, a small but growing number of businesses are now actively hiring people to write blogs. (Alas, the full article is available to subscribers only.) Stonyfield Farm Inc., an organic yogurt company, Flycell Inc. an 18-month-old provider of mobile-phone content, and Dale & Thomas Popcorn, a gourmet popcorn company, are all listed as companies on the hunt for bloggers to call their own. Desired qualifications: ability to write in a conversational style about timely topics, and experience creating and updating blogs (including creating links to other topical blogs). Base salary: $40,000-$70,000, depending on the company. Not a bad gig!
5/27/2005 13:40
Ok, so it could be embarrassing to admit that I set up a personal blog on blogger called barhopeeps. As I recently blogged, I set up my own account in order to experience how easy / hard it would be to do so for an upcoming presentation I'm working on. Unfortunately, I forgot to bookmark it. I was confessing my blog name to Tara earlier, and decided to show her what it was about, and for the life of me couldn't find it. I wonder how many one-blog wonders there are in the world? With as many blogs that launch every day, I'd be willing to bet there are many. What a hoot.
5/27/2005 9:25
I'm a bit of a night owl, which means I'm well acquainted with late-night television...and the infomercials that go with it. Given the content of such shows and the bizarre time slots they air in, I've often wondered what kind of ROI they bring in. Obviously, they must be yielding some benefits since there are so many of them out there. Thus, it was with great interest that I read Business 2.0's article "Stronger Sales in Just 28 Minutes." This piece -- which was authored by Thomas Mucha and appears in the June 2005 issue -- takes a look at the burgeoning infomercial industry and provides tips on how organizations can make their own 28-minute spiel a success. The full article is available online for subscribers only, but here are some highlights: *Last year 2,036 infomercials ran in the United States, and of those, 714 were new shows. Fortune 1,000 firms now produce an estimated 20 percent of all new infomercials. *The typical infomercial viewer is a mass-market consumer between the ages of 30 and 50 with some college education and an income of about $50,000 a year. Sixty percent are women. *Infomercial products that have grossed more than $1 billion in sales: Proactiv, Soloflex, Bowflex, George Foreman Grill, Total Gym and Ron Popeil's Rotisserie & BBQ. *Aside from just the revenue numbers, other "infomercial benefits" include viewer recall that can be three times higher than for traditional 30-second spots and phenomenal brand awareness. *Viewers will generally watch for 13 to 15 minutes before calling. But not all products are right for infomercials. The article quotes infomercial expert Steve Dworman as saying, "The most successful spots speak to universal desires: fitness and diet, health and beauty, home convenience appliances and business opportunities." Interested in an infomercial of your very own? Business 2.0 says that in addition to just offering a quality product, infomercial success depends on: *Mass Appeal: The product needs to solve "common denominator" problems *Demonstrability: "Seeing is believing" holds true in the world of infomercials *Good Hosts: Credibility is key *A Store Presence: Infomercials are great at boosting brand awareness, but only 30 percent of viewers will buy from TV *The Right Price: Stay in the $29.95 to $999.95 range Based on all of the above, I guess I have some new found respect for these little off-hour goldmines!
5/25/2005 12:08
In the interest of helping marketers get a better understanding of things like RSS, blogs, podcasts, etc., Marqui has teamed up with analyst group AMI-Partners to host a Web Seminar called "Cutting-Edge Technologies from a Marketer's Perspective: Making Sense of the Alphabet Soup." The seminar will feature Laurie McCabe, one of AMI's vice presidents, and Marqui's own Janet Johnson. It's free and open to anyone. For more information or to register, click here.
5/24/2005 8:43
I have been blogging (only) since December, 2004, and am blown away by the increasing number and types of people who are blogging - about everything from a to zed. I'm a fan of (the probably now defunct) Project Greenlight, for example, and Chris Moore has a blog. Even that guy, who's a maniac in his regular work life, has found time to do it. Actually, I've found the busiest people are some of the most prolific bloggers. In a recent cover article, BusinessWeek says there are 40,000 new blogs launching every day. For this corporate blog, we have been using the MovableType platform, one of many that bloggers use. I'm sure we pay a monthly fee, and someone in our engineering group graciously set it up for me and Tara to use. I can easily add new users, create new categories, remove all the &^&%$&%$# comment spam and post entries. I figured out how to link to images, but I'm not very good at it. We are still waiting on our favorite engineer's help to create a blogroll and our bios and favorite links. So, while it's easy for a marketer to blog using the tool, we still have a dependence on more technical resources for some of the basics. I'm also involved in creating a presentation on the Alphabet Soup of marketing trends - Blogging, RSS, Podcasts, SaS... In preparing for it, I wondered how so many people started blogging every day. I decided to try setting up my own blog, using one of the free tools available, blogger. How to get started blogging: When you go to their site, you get a friendly welcome page, asking (and answering) the question: What is a blog? I was pleased when it actually said Create a Blog in 3 Easy Steps! Create an account, Name your blog, Pick a template -- GO! It took three minutes. Seriously. The hardest thing for me (and I'm not kidding) was to choose which cheesy template to use for my free blog. I suggest that anyone who finds blogging the slightest bit formidable, go to blogger go to msn spaces, try it out! In all of the research I've ever seen - and in talking to some of the most experienced bloggers out there - everyone says: just try it. Blog. Then blog some more. And now I'm here to tell you - it's a piece of cake to do a little discovery. And it's free. Know that you just might look like everyone else out there - cheesy templates and all. But at least the mystery of how to get started won't be so scary any more. Grab a little curiosity and go. Try it. See for yourself what all the hype is about - so you'll know how to deal with it when it's finally forced on you.
5/23/2005 10:08
Robert Scobel and Rick Segal have entered into an interesting debate about corporate blogging and the implications of reacting too quickly or too slowly to statements proliferating in the blogosphere. It all started with Rick's post - then Robert's rebuttal. As this conversation unfolds, I'm looking forward to hearing more. I've met both of them, and have found each to be extremely smart, genuinely nice, caring human beings - which makes a difference to me. These people are not pontificating - they're discussing. This is an example of a discussion in the public domain that will be worth following. It's refreshing to be able to point out a decent discussion where the participants are really trying to listen and react vs. pontificate. Go have a look.
5/23/2005 8:25
Most organizations know it's important to follow up on leads quickly, but it's always nice to put some numbers around such things. To that end, check out the following info from a recent BtoB article:
KnowledgeStorm, a search site for technology information, and research firm The Artemis Group released the results of a study on best practices for pursuing online leads. According to the findings, 88% of those who responded to online offers or requests for information reported being "happy" or "positive" when personally contacted the same day a lead was generated. That figure fell to 70% when the initial contact came four days after a lead was generated. The study concluded is it important to follow up on leads quickly, before they get cold. Moreover, the research partners also concluded that personal follow-up is more effective than automated lead response systems.Not overly surprising, but I've heard enough people ask whether same-day follow-up seems pushy that I thought I'd post it. As a side note, Knowledgestorm is an excellent tool for lead generation, so anyone who isn't familiar with it might want to give it a try.
5/19/2005 15:18
Nice post from Diva Marketing yesterday on "10 Strategies to E-Mail Campaign Success." However, I'd like to point out a few additional items that Janet and I have learned courtesy of our friends at eROI: *Never use ALL CAPS in the subject line -- it is a horrible spam trap. *Similarly, no matter how tempting it is, skip exclamation points in the subject line too. This will also set off spam filters. *Consider running e-mails through an html/spam analyzer to see how many spam alarm bells you are setting off. If you are working with an e-mail campaign management company, they can probably help you with this -- for instance, this is part of eROI's service. (In terms of third-party tools, eROI recommends eDiagnostix. For some additional tips on e-mail marketing, visit eROI's blog here.) Finally, take that advice about testing subject lines seriously. Janet and I conducted a little "subject line experiment" back in February and discovered that one of our subject lines consistently gets 2-3 times the click-throughs of anything else that we try. Now go forth and e-mail. (Responsibly, of course.)
5/18/2005 11:14
Based on a survey released recently by the University of Connecticut, the answer is probably yes. Thanks to Dee Rambeau for drawing my attention to a Washington Times article on the subject. Some of the highlights from the study/Washington Times article:
*According to the American public: 43 percent said the press has "too much freedom in our society." Conversely, 3 percent of the journalists polled agreed. A third of the journalists felt they had "too little freedom." *Only 39 percent said journalists reported their information accurately. Journalists had a different perception of their work: 72 percent said the press does a good job providing accurate coverage. *The survey also found that 61 percent of Americans think news coverage is biased -- a question not posed to the journalists. *Americans also are leery of new stories relying on anonymous sources. More than half -- 53 percent -- say such stories should not be published. Among journalists, 14 percent agreed. *Both, however, said unnamed sources should be protected. Eighty-nine percent of journalists said reporters should be able to conceal the identity of a source, even if ordered by a court to do otherwise; 59 percent of the public agreed. *Bloggers did not fare well in the poll. Among journalists, 59 percent said blogs were not a "legitimate" source of news and only 13 percent considered bloggers to be journalists -- though 85 percent said bloggers should be afforded First Amendment protection.That last stat is particularly interesting. I wonder how perceptions will change over the coming months...
5/17/2005 9:07
There's a great article today by Pete Blackshaw on ClickZ about activist marketing. Activists have an attitude that marketers can learn from when it comes to getting their points across - and in studying them, he's come up with his Five Ps of activist marketing:
Pure Passionate Prophetic Poor ParanoidThe idealist in me agrees completely with all five Ps, but the marketer in me would like to drop Paranoid from the list. Let's talk about a new way to Persuade People. How about trying to implement Practical Consensus? Native Americans have used consensus as a way to govern, and I think we could learn a lot from their approach. Here's a Practical Consensus guideline I found on the University of Massachusetts web site. (The Native American Massachusetts were driven to extinction by epidemics in the 17th century, but that's another story.)
Practical Consensus exists when: 1. All members have been heard from, fully, frankly and respectfully, and have honestly and sincerely expressed their views and feelings. 2. All views have been weighed without prejudice. (Participants should keep their minds open, and argue not to win but to help achieve their "desired outcome.") Win-Win attitudes are crucial. 3. All relevant information has been shared equally among team members. 4. No egos have got in the way! 5. All members are willing to act as though the decision were their own. Practical Consensus can be achieved when team members: 6. Avoid "arguing" for a point of view, but approach the task on the basis of logic and data. 7. Resist the temptation to change their minds simply to duck conflict or reach an insincere agreement. 8. Support solutions that they can go along with, even if they're not (apparently) ideal. 9. Avoid "conflict-reducing" strategies, such as majority voting, averaging, or compromise. 10. View differences of opinion as a help towards clarification or unexpected solutionsImagine that approach to persuasion. Granted, it's much more of a one-to-one approach, but if you think about it, your online marketing efforts can now be dialogues - thanks to the new tools we have available. Let's look at Persuasion in a different way. Forget Paranoia - how about a move toward Practical Consensus?
5/16/2005 16:07
I found a great link on Technorati today that does a wonderful job of explaining blogs. I know there are plenty of places out there to find this information, but this one was particularly easy to digest.
5/16/2005 12:58
A new study published in Time, Inc.'s Life supplement (remember when it was a 'real' magazine on its own?) recently found that most 18-24 year old Americans come to work on Monday mornings "exhausted." Their weekends are consumed with chores and work that they don't have time to do during the week. (Really? At that age?) Now... when I was 18-24, I pretty much went to work on Mondays exhausted, too. But no one wrote (or cared) much about it. We were expected to have exhausting weekends at that age. In an article on Advertising Age's web site, the study results were discussed from a marketer's perspective. Apparently, people over 55 don't have exhausting weekend issues, coming to work relatively refreshed on Mondays. Never mind getting through your own weekend chores, you'd best start worrying that your mail blasts may not get the attention they deserve if your prospects are youthful and prone to exhausting Saturdays and Sundays. Of course, if your prospects are more mature, you might have a better chance of reaching them with your compelling headline on a Monday morning. It's only Monday afternoon. I'm kind of tired (I'm well on the way to the mature age group) and am looking forward to e-mailing prospects on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Every study I've ever read has said the open rates on e-mail campaigns are best on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. But the reasons have never been articulated with quite this kind of cut. Nevertheless, I'm hoping that everyone has a couple of good nights sleep under their belts when they see their message this week from Marqui.
5/13/2005 15:40
Sheesh. I hate it when I don't look before I post. In case anyone's wondering where the RSS feed icon is at the bottom of our site, it's there. It's the little orange box with XML in it. Intuitive, isn't it? No wonder people are confused. Sorry to add to it.
5/13/2005 15:15
There is a ton of confusion about RSS out there. We started writing about RSS in February. Apparently there are a lot of marketers talking about it, but there are many misunderstandings about why its important, or even what it is. And (most alarmingly) there are marketers who think they have to jump on the bandwagon, without really knowing how RSS works, or even why it's a good thing. Think of RSS like this: they're little text telegrams that are delivered to people who've asked to get information. Look at the bottom of this blog, and you'll see a little RSS symbol. It'll allow you to 'opt in' to receive notifications (little telegrams) when a new blog is posted here, for example. They're handy because you can read them at your leisure. There are RSS readers (you need a reader in order to get the feeds, and You Software has a cool free one) that will help you find feeds and then once you've opted to get them, it'll deliver the little telegrams right into your e-mail box. You have control of the information you can gather by subscribing to RSS feeds. No longer would Our Dear Readers have to come check out Marqui's World for new posts. You could have notifications of them delivered to you via RSS. Get it?
5/13/2005 8:44
I was fortunate enough today to walk into my local Starbucks for my usual (venti and tall soy, no water, light foam) chai lattes - and in a "random act of kindness" my barista, Nate, told me Umpqua Bank was buying people's drinks this morning. I don't bank with Umpqua, which is one of the great success stories in regional banking in the northwest, but can you imagine how I feel about them now? There were three women in Umpqua orange t-shirts enjoying coffee together right behind the counter, talking mostly among themselves - not handing out brochures - just having their coffee. I walked over to thank them, and it was clear that they were enjoying their morning. What a wonderful marketing idea! I'm pretty sure it didn't cost the bank more than $300 to create warm, fuzzy feelings in many of their neighbors hearts. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do this morning is tell people about it. I'm sure that's being replicated all over town today. I went to their web site to look them up. Their tagline is "Enjoy the small moments. Bank wisely and live well." Their site made me smile with this quote:
"It all started in '53. With a gallon of gas hovering around 20 cents and a three-bedroom ranch creeping past ten grand, more than a few frustrated customers were wondering how to get ahead. Some things never change."Thank you for the lovely morning. Your act of kindness wasn't so small. And really, we both know it wasn't random, but it made me feel good about you, Umpqua Bank. And now I'm telling the small world of Our Dear Readers about you, too. Perhaps your web site stats will show a bit of a spike today. I'm pretty certain you'll be watching. And I think you can bank on new customers as a result. (Pardon the pun.) And I plan to pass the kindness along today. It's good karma on Friday the 13th. Cheers!
5/10/2005 12:15
I ran across an excellent article today on the dearth of CEOs blogging - when blogs are the latest "cool" corporate communications tool. It's on the USA Today site, and I found it to be both well written and well researched.
"...it's going to take a brave CEO with thick skin to enter the blogosphere."Well said, Del Jones.
5/10/2005 10:16
Marqui has been issuing a fair number of press releases recently, and it seems like my contact information -- which is listed at the bottom of every release -- has fallen into the hands of salespeople at every company in North America. Indeed, every day brings an exciting new assortment of calls or e-mails from PR firms, magazine sales reps, etc. Being the nice person that I am, I'll usually respond to such calls/e-mails and find out what the person has to say. One of the calls that came in recently was from a representative of BurrellesLuce, the well-known clipping service. Now, anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm only lukewarm about BurrellesLuce because of the long lag-time between when an article is published and when a copy is made available via the BurrellesLuce service. The delay is often 2-3 weeks and by that point, I've already found the article on Google, Feedster, etc. When you factor in the cost of BurrellesLuce (upwards of $300/month, plus a per clip charge), why on earth would I sign up for it? I mentioned these concerns to the friendly BurrellesLuce rep, and he immediately acknowledged that this is a big issue with the entire "press clipping industry." However, he dropped a tantalizing hint that things are about to change. Of course, he says he can't tell me any more about it for three or four months, but he claims "the timely issue is about to go away." He's got me curious, so I'll be keeping an eye out for these "dramatic changes"...
5/9/2005 16:24
At Marqui, we regularly check to see how many results appear if someone types in our company name on Google. Over the weekend, that number shot up to something like 250,000 results. So, in a moment of sheer insanity, I decided I was going to venture beyond the first few magical pages of Google and view all 250,000 results. I made it to page 23. And people wonder why search engine optimization is so critical for marketers.
5/6/2005 12:54
I ran across a great article today by Biz Stone (who works for Google on Blogger) on tips for promoting your blog. I've linked to it here, and hope that Our Dear Readers will enjoy and find the article useful.
5/5/2005 15:21
I posted this on Marcomblog a few minutes ago, but can't resist adding it to Marqui's World too...
Various publications in Portland, Oregon have now chronicled the intriguing relationship between Nathaniel Clevenger, CEO of 3 Public Communications, and the Portland Development Commission. If you are so inclined, you can read the Oregonian article on it here. More interesting, however, is the "debate" that has been raging for the past 24 hours on Portland Communique, a local blog. In my ever so humble opinion, this is an excellent example of how NOT to handle PR, particularly when dealing with bloggers.
5/4/2005 13:33
In case you haven't seen it, a new company called Unmailme.com plans to do for postal mail what the "Do Not Call" list does for telemarketing. According to its corporate web site, Unmailme helps individuals or businesses "stop unwanted postal mail before it's sent" with a service that allows users to: *Register a home or business address *Select what categories to block or allow *Opt-out from mailers' lists with just a few clicks *Stop your name from being rented out *Verify that mailers have confirmed your requests I'm not sure whether this is really a viable business, but the service is free during its "beta period" so I'm willing to give it a try. And who knows -- maybe it will mean an end to the dozen or so credit card offers I get each day. As a side note, I recently asked the readers of Marcomblog whether they thought the increasing amount of spam would drive more marketers to return to direct mail. Most participants said "no," although fellow Marcomblog contributor Dale Wolf was quick to jump with some great stats about the ongoing usage/value of direct mail. Bottom line: as with any marketing activity, the more relevant your message is to your audience the more successful the campaign will be, regardless of whether it's conducted via e-mail, postal mail, etc.
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