Have you met Skip? You know, Skip Intro, the guy who develops all
those overdone flash intro’s for ad agency web sites?
Awhile back I answered the following very astute question on LinkedIn from Andrew
Miller, who, according to his LinkedIn profile is now Founder
and Managing Director at Capitalist, Inc.
“Why do most creative agencies’ web sites look eerily
like? Should a creative shop treat itself like a client?”
My Answer:
“This is a great question. The answers are that (a) agencies are
following each other instead of the market; and (b) agencies need to do a better
job of looking at their businesses through the clients’ (and prospective
clients’) eyes instead of indulging their creative/artistic fantasies.
Ever notice how so many agencies’ sites start with a long/pointless flash
intro? That is a good example of not recognizing that site visitors want to
locate info not be shown a short film.”
Why am I posting this now? Because, while the problem has gotten a bit
better, I notice that all to often it still exists. So next time you see a
useless flash intro that is preventing you from getting to the content you want,
contact the site’s owner, publisher, webmaster (whatever happened to that
title anyway?) and make your feelings known!
Bob London is President of London, Ink, a B2B marketing and
communications consulting firm based in the Washington, DC area. He can be
reached at bob (at) londonink (dot) com.
Great info from destinationCRM.com and supports why companies should consider
solutions like e.SSENTIALS from London, Ink, a fixed-price bundle of
online/social marketing programs. See e.ssentials.net for more info.
Given the state of the economy, Lamba writes that
social networking is a relatively low cost solution that could help in
fostering, “steady communication with existing partners, and clients as
well as incubating new relationships” — a function both desired by
consumers networking with friends and with employees in the workplace. The
aforementioned IDC social networking survey, in fact, indicates that the
majority of social networking users list communication as their number one
reason for usage of such sites.
Announcing e.SSENTIALS, from London, Ink: A new, fixed-price online
marketing program including development of five essential initiatives: marketing
database, e-newsletter, Google AdWords, search engine optimization & social
marketing presence.
Potomac, MD, December 11, 2008-London, Ink, (www.londonink.com) a full-service,
on-demand marketing and communications firm, today launched e.SSENTIALS, a
fixed-price program of online marketing services for small- and mid-size
businesses and non-profit organizations.
Designed to meet the budgeting predictability requirements of small- and
mid-size organizations, the London, Ink e.SSENTIALS program includes the
development and execution of five essential online marketing deliverables for
one fixed price.
The London, Ink e.SSENTIALS Program Includes:
Marketing Database: Compilation of an organization’s
key contacts, including prospective, nurture (long-term), and existing
customers/clients and partners. Regularly communicating to a house list can be
the most cost-effective way to for an organization to maintain or increase
mindshare-a critical step towards being “short-listed” when
prospects are ready to buy.
E-Newsletter: Development of a web-based newsletter
template that will be emailed to one or more segments of the Marketing Database,
plus execution of one prototype e-newsletter.
Google AdWords/Analytics Test: Development of a test of
the Google AdWords pay-per-click online advertising program, the world’s
leading online advertising platform.
Web Site Search Engine Optimization Audit: Assessment of
content, page titles and other factors for search engine
“friendliness” and recommendations for immediate enhancements.
Introductory Social Marketing Program: Development and
implementation of a program that leverages free distribution of an
organization’s message, via at least one of the following tactics:
company/product blog or leading social networking sites.
“Running any business today without online marketing tools such as
database marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising and
basic social marketing, is like making an omelet without eggs,” said
London, Ink president, Bob London. “These tools are lower cost and
easier to measure than traditional marketing tactics, but too often they fall
off the priority list due to a lack of resources and expertise to properly plan,
implement and maintain them.”
“Now with e.SSENTIALS, London, Ink provides small- and mid-size
organizations with a practical, cost-effective and low-risk way to implement
these fundamental programs as they enter 2009.”
What about Content?
The e.SSENTIALS program leverages an organization’s existing content,
such as news releases, white papers, articles and other subject matter or
thought leadership content. New or additional content can be created for an
additional fee.
How is the e.SSENTIALS Program Priced?
The fixed-price, all-inclusive cost of the London, Ink e.SSENTIALS program is
based on the size of the organization by annual revenue. Please contact
London, Ink at essentials@londonink.com or 240 994
7644 for more details. The cost of the program is billed monthly in five equal
amounts.
“Teaching Organizations to Fish”
In addition to the development and execution of the above programs, for an
additional fee London, Ink will provide training for managers and staff on how
to continue to leverage and maximize the above tools.
Additional details are available at e.ssentials.net. To sign up for this
program or to learn more, please contact Bob London, president of London, Ink at
essentials@londonink.com or
240.994.7644.
About London, Ink
London, Ink is a full-service, on-demand marketing and communications firm
based in the Washington, DC metro area, that develops and implements marketing
and communications programs for mid-size and growing businesses and non-profit
organizations.
Bob London, president of London, Ink, serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for
organizations that need hands-on, interim leadership in marketing strategy,
planning and execution. For more on London, Ink please visit www.londonink.com or contact Bob London at
240 994 7644 or essentials@londonink.com.
An Inside-Out Branding Guest Post by David Frankil, President
of NAFCU Services Corp. (bio)
About NAFCU
Services
The National Association of Federal
Credit Unions (NAFCU) represents approximately 800 Federal credit unions.
NAFCU Services Corporation is the for-profit, independent
subsidiary of NAFCU that works with leading companies including American
Express, Securian, Deluxe, Affinion and others, that provide services that help
credit unions increase efficiency and productivity in areas such as member
retention and acquisition, information security, new products and services and
investment advisory services.
Background
NAFCU Services has 28 ‘Preferred
Partners,’ including American Express, NCR and SAS Institute, that are focused
on financial services in general and credit unions in particular. Program
participation requires a fee from Partners, and they have a choice of levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum)
with fees and activities scaled proportionately. All profits from NAFCU Services
go to the parent association to support their programs.
When I
became President of NAFCU Services in July, 2006, it was being run as a typical
trade association affinity program, which is to say it was (essentially) a
mechanism for giving select vendors an opportunity to support NAFCU
programs .
In exchange Partners received the right to use a logo, great space at the annual
trade show, some networking opportunities with Board Members, and that’s about
it – best of luck with sales and marketing. Clearly not a balancing of value
from the vendor perspective, and a major reason why many of these programs have
high turnover rates and lagging revenues.
Priority One: Create a Solutions
Mindset
Turning the program around required a
shift in philosophy and strategy to a solutions mindset, making it more
effective for all parties involved. The goal: positioning our Partners as
thought leaders in their respective areas and leveraging marketing activities to
open dialogue and create relationships with prospects.
So the first and foremost responsibility
is for NAFCU Services to understand the challenges faced by credit unions every
day for growth and productivity. Where is the next round of profitable revenue
coming from, how to cross-sell and up-sell Members, how to attract new Members,
and so on. And how to run operations more efficiently, more effectively, more
securely, at lower cost,
etc.
The Marketing
MRI
We call the process of understanding and
pinpointing credit unions’ challenges—from their point of view—the
Marketing MRI.This involves in depth interviews with credit
union executives, fine tuned with surveys and of course ongoing
discussions with our board.Most importantly we
synthesize what we’re hearing and learning based on our experience in the
marketplace.
Once we understand credit unions’
challenges in a particular area—say member retention, we look for a solution
from within our current roster of Preferred Partners. If not, then we look to
recruit a top quality, market leader to join the program, following a
competitive RFP process that includes an evaluation by an Advisory Committee of
credit union executives.
At that point, we have credit unions A,
B, C perhaps even through credit union Z that need a solution, and Preferred
Partner B that has one. Here’s where that Marketing MRI comes in
again.Sharing what we know about the needs of the credit
unions with the Preferred Partners, we help distill the partner’s value
proposition to a laser beam, and then – call it multi-modal or multi-channel
marketing – using all the tools at our disposal to communicate the value
proposition and establish thought leadership for the Partner.
Many trade associations have the first
part of this equation, a Preferred Partner-type program with the association’s
stamp of approval. What differentiates NAFCU Services is the second part, where
we (in essence) become a marketing consulting services firm for our Partners,
generating webcasts, podcasts, articles, speaking opportunities, direct
marketing initiatives, recommendation letters, credits for advertising and
sponsorship, and much more. So from a Partner perspective, the value equation
(investment in the program versus value received) is much more
attractive.
Results
Since I joined NAFCU Services in July,
2006, we have grown revenue by 14%, 15%, and this year an
expected 33%. We’ve significantly upsized deal size, and more important, have
made our existing relationships far more effective. Key to the success has been
instilling that solutions mindset throughout our partners’ marketing and sales
teams by developing and leveraging the Marketing MRI approach.
Great question–which begs several precursors: (a) what are the goals?
(b) how are “results” defined? (c) what measurement tools are in
place today?
Probably safe to assume a B2B marketing department is charged with generating
demand (leads) and in many cases educating/priming the market while positioning
the company as a thought leader.
Here are some ways in which a B2B marketing department can improve results
and not get lost in the characterization that “we’re not sure what
marketing does relative to the business.”
*Philosophical/Management*
Commit to the challenge of contributing ROI for the overall marketing
budget–so that the department pays for itself at least 15 - 20 times over
each year.
Exert internal marketing leadership–take on the business’s
longstanding challenges/dilemmas, whether it’s “why do we churn
customers?” or “why don’t we know which marketing programs
work and which don’t? or “where is our most profitable 3-year growth
going to come from?”
Improve accountability–measure everything that moves (and everything
that doesn’t for that matter). Every weekly update should include a review
of 30 days previous results and forward projections. Integrate all systems (CRM,
marketing automation, accounting) that will provide an end to end view of the
data.
Assume a budget of zero (regardless of how uncomfortable this may
feel)–then implement programs in order of priority and results. This will
force you to orient the marketing budget and department around the
company’s goals.
Listen to the rest of the organization–don’t bump heads with
it.
*Tactical Suggestions*
Devote/redirect as much budget as possible towards lower cost, online lead
gen and thought leadership initiatives. For each business challenge, ask the
question: how can we address this via online strategies and channels vs.
traditional. This will make the entire budget work harder on a dollar for dollar
basis since it will be easier to track results.
Every B2B marketer should use Google AdWords; at least do a significant test
using .05% of your total annual marketing budget. Do not run a generic ad
pointing to your home page; rather offer a white paper or other valuable subject
matter content, and point the ad to a specific landing page dedicated to that
offer.
Optimize your site content so that it shows up in targeted searches for
whatever you are marketing.
Make sure you are using some form of prospecting/hunting to bridge the gap
between lead gen programs and sales. Prospecting (i.e. outsourced or in-house
telemarketing) serves as a lower cost way to qualify leads as well as gather
market data on prospect hot buttons and what competitors/
substitutes/alternatives your prospects are using.
Implement a simple but formal prospect nurture process whereby you treat
every inbound inquiry as a long-term suspect and stay in touch via
e-newsletters, white paper offers and webinars.
Have an intern or staffer collect all stray business cards that have not
been entered into the marketing database and enter them as part of your nurture
process.
Have an intern or staffer mine LinkedIn for prospect names using company
names and job titles. Relevant contacts should be fed into an outbound
teleprospecting process to qualify; interested contacts should then be added to
the nurture process.
Add a “living” FAQ section to your site and regularly publish
your answers to client/customer questions. Your answers will invariably include
relevant keywords that can bolster your natural/organic page rankings on Google,
et al. Also, we all tend to get the same questions from multiple people, so
rather than rewriting the answer each time or searching your hard drive, just
send the link to your blog/site where your answer already resides.
Hope this proves helpful!
Best regards,
- Bob London
Bob London
President
London, Ink
On Target. On Site. On Demand.
www.londonink.com
Recently I got an inquiry from the CEO of a rapidly growing education firm
looking for help with a referral-based lead gen program. Below is an excerpt
from my response that I thought might be useful to others.
By the way, publishing your answers to client/customer
questions in your blog or FAQ section is fast becoming a best practice for savvy
companies. Why?
First: we tend to get the same questions from multiple people, so rather
than rewriting the answer each time or searching your hard drive, just send the
link to your blog/site where your answer already resides.
Second, your answer will invariably include relevant keywords that can
bolster your natural/organic page rankings on Google, et al.
Below is the content from my reply–the company’s identity has
been omitted.
Basic Rule: While Referral and Loyalty Programs are Different, They
Overlap in Important Ways Here is the difference: Referral programs
are those that leverage existing or previous customers to generate new ones.
Loyalty programs reinforce the referrer’s ties to the brand by providing
additional benefits available to them as a reward for their loyalty.
Strategy 1: Utilize Rewards/Incentives that Reinforce
Your Value Proposition We know that referrals are a sign of brand
loyalty; your opportunity is to provide the referrer with special incentives and
rewards that bring him or her closer to your brand over time.
Therefore rather than continually rewarding/incenting referrers
with cash or other equivalents (i.e. the “Infinite Happy Meal
Loop”), consider utilizing discounts on future courses and continuing
education, additional/ongoing access to instructors and guest speakers and other
similar branded assets, services or intellectual property. The benefits of this
strategy are three-fold:
The reward reinforces the value of
the brand, which is what customers like about you in the first place, and what
they want more of.
Branded assets, services or intellectual property can be
delivered at cost, thus creating a high perceived value at a relatively low
out-of-pocket cost.
Helps avoid the “Infinite Happy Meal loop,” in which the only
differentiator is the toy, rather than the core product, and there is a constant
challenge to up the ante by coming up with a new “toy.”
Strategy 2: Create a “Cumulative” Program to
Stimulate Long-Term Participation Take advantage of untapped potential
to generate referrals among those who have used your product or service longer
than 24 months months prior.
To develop additional “hooks” that keep referrers engaged in
the Referral Program beyond the 12-month period, consider evolving from a
“year-to-year” model to a “cumulative” program that counts all referrals
over the lifetime of the referrer.
For example, being part of a CEO’s Club, based on outstanding
referral performance over the last five or ten years would carry a tremendous
amount of prestige for a graduate that is so vested in your company.
This “cumulative” model creates awareness
(and healthy competition) among all graduates, not just those who graduated less
than 12 months prior.
Strategy 3: Leverage the Power of the Community
One of your greatest assets is your customer base (tried but true cliche
alert!). If you haven’t already done so, create and foster online (virtual)
communities on MySpace and Facebook that provide a place for interaction and
promotion.
This powerful community dynamic can be leveraged to benefit your
Referral Program to:
Test program ideas.
Promote the program
Generate ideas from customers on how to stimulate referrals.
Provide customers with “viral marketing” tools to help them
creatively and powerfully stimulate referrals.
Some of you may have seen the first edition of Executive
Perspectives (http://app.e2ma.net/campaign/22f58b4e16a0899b96a7db638d61ac1f),
London, Ink’s electronic publication featuring first person essays from
CXOs on various themes.
I know at least 279 people on the London, Ink house list opened
the email–that’s a whopping 45%+ open rate. (The actual number of
viewers is typically higher since the official open rate often doesn’t
include those who viewed the message in their webmail.)
I expected a good open rate since this is a list of business
contacts I have cultivated over the years and pruned accordingly (removing members of my
softball team, PTA members, etc.). But 45% was a very pleasant surprise.
It is good reminder to any business or non-profit that the best
source of business is your house list; and if you don’t already have one,
you need to develop it quickly. Pull together your existing customers, inbound
leads, those business cards collecting in desk drawers and put them into a
spreadsheet or, better yet, a CRM system. Categorize them by contact type and
where they are in the lifecycle.
Then develop one or two pieces of interesting content and send
it to your list via one of the many email marketing service providers (I use and
recommend MyEmma.) The goal should be to segment this program by sending
content that appeals to each contact type.
If all this sounds awfully basic, then why doesn’t every
organization have a house list and market to it regularly?
Also, in addition to the 45% open rate, I received several
direct email replies from prospects who had been “stuck” at various
stages in the pipeline for various reasons. All told, as of this writing the
first edition of Executive Perspectives resulted in three new proposals valued
well into the six figures.
I’ll keep you posted on the results after the 2nd edition
of Executive Perspectives.
Bob London is president of London, Ink, a Maryland-based
marketing and communications consulting firm, and serves as a Virtual VP of
Marketing for growth stage companies that need an injection of marketing
experience and leadership to drive key initiatives and results.
London, Ink Direct Mail Campaign for McKinley
Marketing Partners Wins Award for Third Consecutive Year
Awards don’t make a campaign successful, but winning
an award for a successful campaign can increase awareness of the client’s
product or service—especially when the client is McKinley Marketing Partners.
McKinley Marketing Partners is the leading provider of Interim Marketing
ManagersSM (IMMs®) to Fortune 2000 companies and government agencies.
McKinley 2004 direct mail campaign, created by its agency of
record, London, Ink LLC, was named by the Service Industry Advertising Awards
(SIAA) as one of the best in its class. Other winners included industry and
category leaders such as Verizon Wireless, JetBlue Airlines, Ritz Carlton
Hotels, the National Football League and MetLife.
While awards don’t increase revenue, this one helped increase
McKinley’s visibility among its core target audience: senior marketing
decision-makers who need interim marketing expertise for a wide range of
marketing projects, from strategy and product management to public relations and
lead generation.
“Bob London’s understanding of McKinley’s
business goals and our marketplace, plus fantastic creativity, resulted in a
campaign that directly supported our growth last year.” said Marcia Call,
McKinley’s President and Chief Marketing Officer. “We’re
pleased to have London, Ink as our agency of record—and the subsequent direct
mail campaign for McKinley has only reinforced our satisfaction.”
Bob London is president of London, Ink, a Maryland-based marketing and
communications consulting firm, and serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for
growth stage companies that need an injection of marketing experience and
leadership to drive key initiatives and results.
