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September 22, 2006
Breathing is very important, when you pay attention to it. It's the only thing that will heal your heart and your autonomic nervous system, which is why so many people tell you (when facing stressful or exciting situations) to breathe. But I digress.
This morning I was sitting in a Starbucks, waiting for my chai, listening to their music when Breathe (2AM) by Anna Nalick came on. For heaven's sake, I started to cry... And, in doing so, realized (at 8 o'clock something on a sunny Friday morning) that I'm exhausted.
"2 a.m. and I'm still awake writing this song
If I get it all down on paper it's no longer inside of me threaten' the life it belongs to."
You see, I'm leaving Marqui. On October 1, I will no longer be working at company I helped build. I discovered that on Monday. The business reasons are sound. I'd have made that decision myself. (Check out the Portland Business Journal on Monday for the story...)
My biggest concern? Who will mind Marqui's World? I don't know yet who'll take the blogging baton from me - I hope to find out soon.
"And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary screamin' out aloud
And I know that you'll use them however you want to."
I will continue to blog (coming soon), and next month, for Marqui, I will speak about blogging at the Blog Business Summit and train others how to blog at the Advanced Learning Institute's Blogging and Podcasting conference.
But the blog I built from scratch will belong to someone else in one short week. I will miss it. Honestly, I will. Because of the friends I've made, subjects I've written about, discussions it has enabled. I will miss you.
"No one can find the rewind button now
Sing it if you understand...yeah breathe
Just breathe, oh... breathe..."
September 19, 2006
I talk a lot about Social Networks here. I think they're extremely important to marketers, because they hold the key to future consumers and marketers (and are the people who will run the world when we're all old...) I ran across a great post by Sean Carton (I'd include his bio link here, but it's broken) on the ClickZ Network (one of my favorites) on the dangers of inauthentic behavior in Social Network marketing.
What marketers don't seem to realize is that people in the 16-29 year old range can smell fakery (or will quickly discover it) a mile away. Why do we think we can get away with "play characters" or fake personas as we market to such media savvy, technically savvy people? What on earth are we thinking? And who is consulting with the dopes in corporate marketing organizations who rely on "industry experts" to guide them through marketing in this new medium?
It's amazing to me that we raise our children to know the difference between truth and lying, yet we market to them in their own hangouts in a false manner. What are we thinking?
Read Sean's article. Click on his reference links. Learn something about how not to market to the future leaders of the world.
September 13, 2006
How do your e-mail open and conversion rates compare to the recent Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index report?
The 13 industries mentioned in the study (in order of descending click-through rates) are:
- Restaurants (57.5%)
- Publishing (55.6%)
- Pharmaceutical (23.8%)
- Travel and hospitality (23.4%)
- Conference events (14.2%)
- Financial services (11.0%)
- Technology (10.9%)
- Government (9.5%)
- Insurance (9.5%)
- Consumer packaged goods (8.6%)
- Entertainment (8.1%)
- Retail (6.0%)
- Automotive (5.7%)
The combined average:
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Delivered rate (91.2%)
- Open rate (78.8%)
-
Click-through rate (18.4%)
-
Opt-out rate of (0.4%)
B2C e-mail received click-through rates of 19.9% and open rates of 78.9%.
B2B e-mail had rates of 11.2% and 67.7%, respectively.
September 7, 2006
We were fortunate today at Marqui to have an incredibly inspirational speaker in to talk with us. His name is Peter Legge, and he's president and CEO of Canada Wide Magazines & Communications, which is the largest independently owned publishing company in Western Canada. He is the author of many books, and was voted the "Top Speaker in North America."
He shared some of the things that have made him successful in business and in life with us. And I thought this concept was especially timely as we all deal with the immense and constant change in each of our lives:
I need to take responsibility for my own life.
What I read, what I think about, what I watch on television and listen to on the radio all have a tremendous effect on who I am. I'm the only one who can control those things.
He quoted (I didn't write the attribution, sorry) someone who said, "You become what you think about most of the time."
We in North America live in a society of blame - it's my company's fault, my partner's fault, my kid's fault, the IT guy's fault... for how I feel today. I'm have, in the past, been guilty of those feelings.
I'm reminded of a quote I got last week from my sweetheart, who got it from our friend Debbie (let's make this whole thought process viral, shall we?):
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children of God. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.' - Marianne Williamson
(In a recent proliferation of an urban myth about this quote: the movie Akeela and the Bee (the first movie Starbucks helped co-produce and promoted heavily in their stores) inaccurately attributed the quote to Nelson Mandela.)
Let's all go forth and take responsibility (and make wonderful opportunities) for our own lives... whatever we have left of them - whether it be four, forty or sixty more years.
September 6, 2006
I found a great white paper yesterday from Omniture, one of the big three Web analytics companies.
(They call themselves 'a leader in online business optimization services' - whatever that is...
I was grateful their white paper was more clearly written.)
Anyway, it's called Best Practices for Conversion: The New Engagement Funnel in 7 Steps. Ok, maybe the title isn't completely clear, but I found it a compelling, instructive guide to enhancing content on your Web site for lead capture and nurturing. I guess that's the simple phrase for 'Engagement Funnel.'
Since we're always looking for better ways to capture and convert leads to sales for Marqui, I filled out their lead form completely and honestly, and downloaded the paper. Anyone considering a site refresh will find a nugget of information in the paper.
For example:
- Use margins to enhance reading comprehension, or leave them out if your goal is to increase reading speed.
- Don't write more than 60 characters across - it accelerates reading speed.
- Be specific with urgency and test the use of exclamation marks in the copy.
- Don't use a generic, "click here." Be specific: if you want them to buy say, "buy now," if they're downloading a resource guide say, "download now."
Considering enhancing your engagement funnel?
Want to make your Web site more effective in capturing and nurturing leads? Omniture can give you some best practices to follow. And Marqui, by the way, can help you implement them.
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