Drip Campaigns Ruined Me

Most marketers know we are not the target consumer. If you've ever been in a marketing department and someone says, "Well, I..." you know you're dealing with a newbie, they still see their experiences and preferences as relatable to the average consumer's world. Yes, we have our own personal preferences but we can't let those get in the way of good marketing.

For instance, I hate pop-ups on sites. If I'm reading a blog post, enjoying the content and then a light box pops up with all of the surprise of a great white shark (and none of the catchy music) it annoys the bejeezles out of me. I will "x" out of it without even reading. That's my personal bias and action - I never click on it. However, I cannot argue their effectiveness rate in conversions. Adding them to my company site is not about my preferences or what I would like or do. It's about what's good for business and that's lead acquisition.

But just as my own preferences must not override what works for my company's audience (public service announcement: I reference the effectiveness on an individual audience because if your audience is comprised of marketers you can use yourself as a guinea pig. The only way to test what works with your audience or not is by testing and testing often.), my experience in marketing has jaded me as a consumer. When I'm hit with an email offer, on a product or service I'm interested in, I will click on the link but stop short of buying. I do this because many drip campaigns are scored from an interest level on whether a link was clicked. Marketers view this as the same as having a fish on the line (momentarily). This excites and confuses the average marketer (I know. I am one.). Most of the time, they rebait their hook and recast. Many sweeten the offer in this stage. After all, you were interested. You clicked.  But that's my dirty secret on getting a nicer offer.

But the bigger application here is not that I am a consumer of questionable practices, but that there are aspects of our profession that keep us from understanding the real consumer or member's needs. If you're applying your own personal preferences to your audience and marketing you're not thinking of them. Separating yourself from your audience is the first step to understanding (and hearing) what they've been trying to tell you.

Maslow and the Creative Employee

As managers we benefit when we surround ourselves with brilliant, creative people. That's not to say that management isn't creative, but frequently those who rise to management level do so because they are good at implementation and strategy. If you're looking to be more creative, or foster creativity within your group, there are plenty of brilliant blogs out there to help (like this one, this one or this one.)

Prior to following any of their advice (with the exception of implementing chocolate chip cookies at 3 pm every day. Feel free to implement that one - okay, that was my advice), review your

organizational structure. One cannot be creative underwater. If we take a cue from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you'll recognize that creativity is at the very top of the pyramid, far above the need for water and breathing. One can only reach maximum creativity when one's basic needs are met.

Take a look at your team. Are they so busy putting out fires or keeping their head above water that breathing is difficult? Tapping into your team's creative side means allowing them the time to think; the time to brainstorm; the time to absorb and process things they're reading and talks they're watching. If the energy around the office is one of constant do, do, do there is no time to imagine.

Creativity's best friend is thought. If you want more creative employees, you must first ensure that they have time for it.

Personal Case Studies and Millennials: are we there yet?

As a marketer, I spend a decent amount of my time securing, writing and distributing case studies. I try to think of new ways to be heard above the noise; to make the case studies not just beneficial to my company but to the people who are in the decision-making/purchasing process as well. I'll be honest, I don't love case studies. I love the benefit of them being done well but the formulaic approach to writing them -- challenge, solution, plan -- does not lend itself to the fluid creativity I prefer. Recently, I've been thinking about ways to blow them up; to spin them on their access so they aren't even recognizable. While I was working on these ideas I started thinking about how the best case studies show how a great product or service helped someone achieve their goals or solve a problem. Case studies do for a company what references are supposed to do for the job seeker.

Why couldn't you apply the idea of case studies to personal branding or the job hunt? Why can't HR departments or managers ask employees to write case studies about their own performance? So often self-reviews are done at the last minute with little thought to rating. I've seen first year employees straight out of school rank themselves a 10 out of 10. That implies there's no room for growth and I don't care how fantastical an employee you are, there's always room for growth. What if, in addition to examples of their hard work they also had to show in more than one-sentence detail just how they solved a problem? This type of proof takes a lot more work and thought behind it. Plus it helps to reframe the way they think about their jobs. The type of critical thinking required for a case study creates and encourages a problem-solver mentality and awareness.

Do I think businesses will turn to personal case studies in the near future as part of the review process? Probably not, but the idea of selling oneself through personal branding is already here and entrepreneurism is important to millennials.  Encouraging them to sell themselves through poignant example will help them achieve their goals sooner, something that benefits both you and your younger employees.

Why I had to Ignore My Creative Writing Teacher's Advice: recap of session day 2 at #CMWorld

My high school creative writing teacher told me emotional events (good or bad) fueled amazing stories but never try and capture them when you're in the midst of the emotion or immediately afterwards. The emotion becomes convoluted, the details smeared and the writing awful. Give it some time to sink in. Digest it. Then commence recapturing your experiences. However well-intentioned this advice may be, it was given before social media. It is with that, that I respectfully cast Mr. Bernard's advice to the side.

Content Marketing World was a fabulous event and though it may not shape my personally, professionally it sparked more good ideas than I can begin to capture. Here's my recap of the trio of sessions from today that made me wish these folks needed scribes because I would gladly follow them around on a regular basis just to glean some brilliance and inspiration. (Disclaimer: all of the speakers were amazing at #CMWorld but these three inspired me and equipped me with tools and information that directly apply to my inbound marketing role. There's that key take-away from CMW - provide useful content!)

As I tweeted earlier, sometimes you attend a session for the content, sometimes for the speaker - which was the case with Nate Riggs. Although I considered myself a Twitter maven of sorts, his helpful advice and list of tools made his presentation one of the most practical that I attended. If you're not already checking these out give them a look over -- SocialBro, Simply Measured, hashtracking.com, clicktotweet, Social Flow, and Social Triggers. If you're looking for someone who gives out a lot of great information with a sense of humor, check him out on Twitter @nateriggs.

10 Email Secrets that Will Help Drive Your Content Strategy presented by Jeff Rohrs was a standing crowd only. So much for email being dead! Jeff likened email to an iceberg. You only see part of it. Social media shares are public, emails are not. But his colorful descriptions (granted not as colorful as Mitch Joel's "sex with data" from the day before), didn't end there. He reminded us that email powers every social media site. Email is social media's secret weapon. How does LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc. provide you with announcements, reminders, weekly status -- via email. Ah-hah!

Finally...."a Rose by any other name..." would be Robert (wonder how many times he's heard that joke? My maiden name is Green, I get it.). If he didn't intrigue me during the pre-session joking (and he did -- who doesn't like to poke fun of marketers and our reputation of not doing anything??), Robert Rose definitely had me at Ali. He began his presentation on Getting the Choir to Sing: Selling & Developing the Process for Content Marketing INSIDE the Organization with the inspirational story of Muhammad Ali's comeback against George Foreman. The way that Ali reinvented himself repeatedly was fascinating and inspirational and the way Robert told it -- his cadence and tone -- I was hooked. He repeatedly told the audience that what he had to say was not new but there was something about his style a mix of story and art that lit a fire in me where I wanted to fly back to my office and start implementing his ideas right away. He told us how to get support from the higher-ups, those most involved, and the savvy person who had a way of killing or promoting everything in the office. (Hadn't considered that one.)

Content Marketing World was such an amazing experience, my words can't do it justice. To capture that kind of excitement, inspiration, energy amidst a group who "gets it" is impossible. Maybe Mr. Bernard was right.

Here's looking forward to 370ish days from now -- Content Marketing World 2013!

Holy Smokes! It's a digital dandelion! Sex with Data and other Gems from Content Marketing World

It was an intense first day at Content Marketing World. The following is a list of my highlights but it's impossible to capture them all. So much awesome content, you really need to be here.

What you do with your data is up to you

Mitch Joel kicked it off with what is likely to be one of the most memorable quotes of #CMWorld -- "...sex with data..." My English professors always said use your words to paint a mental picture. He definitely did. He urged marketers (and face it, everyone of us is a marketer in today's world) to follow five content rules: build direct relationships with your audience; have sex with (customer) data, meaning fully embrace the capabilities behind it, use it, don't just quote it; provide utility, be useful; know the difference behind passive and active activities (asking a passive audience in a passive medium to do something is difficult at best); and know we're not part of a one screen world anymore -- create content accordingly. I also learned that Willie Nelson does a pretty fantastic job singing/covering Coldplay. Whodathunkit?

Next up (for me anyway) was Jason Falls. (Sorry C.C., breaks my heart I had to choose.) So many valuable lessons but the one that sticks with me is that we all need to create "Holy Smokes" content. It can be funny, irreverent, knowledgeable, thought provoking, controversial That's where the magic is. No one shares okay. No one forwards fine.

Mitch Joel shared earlier in the day that video use for content marketing had increased from 52% to 70% over the past year so I made sure I took in the next session with Todd Wheatland. He had a lot of excellent ideas on how to use video for your organization including repurposing an article; creating a series; doing a behind the scenes; and/or a recruitment video. But the fun doesn't stop there. He suggested you use stills from the video or take some pictures while you're shooting and use them in addition to your video plus don't forget to transcribe it for the .02% who can still read. (That was my own personal bitterness as a writer, not his.)

The fantastic Jay Baer (to stand room only) reminded us that we should think of our content as a digital dandelion. Don't keep it tied to your website. Put it out where your audience is most likely to see it. On a completely different metaphor he likened content to fire and social media to gasoline. Get it? Burn, baby, burn.

Russell Sparkman helped us understand that game thinking is not the same as gaming. You can give your audience the fun of game theory and implementation without requiring them to sit in the same clothes for days staring at a console trying to beat someone else's score (unless they're into that). He also pointed out that game thinking is not new just ask a kid trying to pass math -- the concept of levelling up to advance has been around a long time.

Sam Sebastian rounded out the day with talking about "Zero Moment of Truth." Research has changed buyers forever. We're no longer relegated to using (just) consumer reports. We have reviews and search. Plus 16% of searches are new to Google each day. It also struck me that Sam's dad still has Consumer Reports magazine in the basement. Living in Florida for the past seven years I had almost forgotten what basements were.

Day 1 was amazing and I'm suffering a little from cerebral overload. The Rick Springfield concert should cure that. I will be adding his song Love Somebody to Groove Shark later tonight. I forgot how much I liked it.

It's the Middle of The Night. What Do Your Customers Want?

I saw a brilliant tweet last night. It spoke to the audience and addressed a need that was undoubtedly timed perfectly. It was in the wee, blurry-eyed hours that a promoted tweet by Wendy's welcomed night owls and "suggested" they stop in for a burger because many locations were open late. Who doesn't want a burger at 3 a.m.? The only thing they could've done to entice me further (since Willy Wonka is still working on Smellivision) was change their branded, red-headed icon into a double-stack of deliciousness.

Wendy's gave some thought about their late night customers. What are they doing before they come in? How could they reach them? Social media and specifically Twitter gave them the perfect entry into their customers' lives/minds (in the middle of the night). Wendy's reminded their audience about their late night cravings and how easy it was to satisfy them. Strong, targeted, content marketing.

What do you think? Is this an effective use of social media?

Are Case Studies Dead?

If you're into promoting a service, product or membership of some kind, you understand the value of online reviews. In the recent Local Consumer Review Survey, and blogged about by Search Engine Land, 72% of consumers located in US, Canada and the UK admitted to trusting online reviews (even if they were written by strangers). This was the second iteration of the survey, the original being conducted in 2010. The comparison of changes in consumer trust in just two years is interesting and worth the read.

But whether you decide to select, purchase or join because of an online review may be more based on what kind of product, service or organization you're looking into. Buying a skirt or going to a restaurant based on a rating may be sufficient but basing the choice of a roommate on social media stranger-penned reviews may not be ideal.

What about when you're buying a high ticket item for business purposes? Do you still find peer/consumer reviews relevant? Do you need to be acquainted with the person before your trust their opinion? Does it matter whether it's posted on an independent site like a LinkedIn group or the organization's website? Are case studies driven by the marketing department just another form of TPS Reporting?

Love to hear your thoughts.