Only if you have Permission

When utilizing New Media Marketing (NMM) there are three basic tenets that must be constantly considered:

• Permission - do you have permission to send this to me?
• Relevance – is your message and/or content relevant to my needs and wants?
• Value – does your content provide value? does it help me with some aspect of my business?

Of all the topics that are being addressed over this 31 blog series, these three questions are paramount and need to be asked before any e-communications you originate. The first is important for a very simple reason – it is the law. The CAN-SPAM of 2003 requires one to have permission to send an e-communications especially when it comes to email. The topic of permission is usually centered around opt-in and opt-outs.

First some definitions:
Opt-in: A specific proactive request by an individual email recipient to have their own email address placed on a specific mailing list.
Opt-out: A request to remove an email address from a specific list or from all lists operated by a single owner.
Spam: Popular name for unsolicited commercial email. However, some email recipients define spam as any email they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily.

Basically, asking contacts for their email and permission to send them information needs to become part of your business culture. Remember: Over 74% of Americans now communicate electronically.

Step 1: Make sure that you have an opt-in form on all your electronic media to include:
• On every page of your web site
• In your email-signature
• On your blog
• Personal Web
• Banner ads and online advertising
• Online directories

Step 2: Gather essential information:
• Don’t ask for too much information
• Don’t ask for too little information
• Address validation – include a script that checks for syntax errors upon submission

Opt-in request form fields – minimum
• First Name
• Last Name
• Email address

Optional fields:
• Secondary email address
• Frequency – how often they wish to be contacted
• Demographics
• Interest/Preferences

Step 3: Use incentives to get viewers to opt-in
Whenever possible, include some type of information product that is relevant and can help the viewer you want to opt-in. Some examples are:
• Tip of the week
• Free white paper
• Promote special sales
• Give tips to executives and professionals
• Informational article
• Location-specific guide
• Free audio
• Offer an e-book

Step 4: Request opt-in in person:
• Exchange business cards
• Guess book on store counter
• Basket for business cards at events/seminars/shows
• Train employees to take down customer information

Step 5: Use print to collect information
• Send postcard offering an incentive to return card with email address
• Include opt-in incentive as part of print advertising
• Add opt-in incentive t back of your business card
• Utilize a domain name and place in your print advertising such as www.joinouremailjust anexample.com

WRITE THIS DOWN: Opt-in requests and awareness has to become part of your standard operations.

This completes Part 1 - next week is dedicated to the web.

Branding – Still the Key Success Factor

This is the fifth blog in the New Media Marketing (NMM) series. So you may ask - when will we read about actual helpful hints concerning my web site, blog e-zine, etc. They are coming BUT without the proper background of target knowledge, content messages, branding, and actually building relationships, NMM quickly becomes an exercise in ”playing’ with the new media. As business people we do not have time to just play.

Your brand is still one of your most important assets and must be both properly used and protected in any and all marketing campaigns. Let’s visit the concept of brand quickly before moving on. The following story was found in Email Marketing by Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels, Wiley Publishing.

“How Strong Is a Brand? A Lesson from History, Matey – As Captain John Smith looked out the starboard side of his ship, he felt his heart beating faster. Land! He saw land! What a phenomenal feeling He knew would be a matter of days before he could see his baby daughter again. Captain John Smith turned and walked to the other side of the ship. As ne looked out the port side, he felt his heart beating faster. But this time it was for a very different reason. This is what he saw – a black flag with skull and cross bones. No words, no tag lines, not a sound – just a brand image. This image very quickly registered in the captain’s head: death and destruction. The brand of the pirate was very clear: - we are here to kill and rob you. We will succeed, and with every success our brand will grow stronger.”

That is the power of a brand. Your brand will set into place certain beliefs, opinions, and assumptions about your company and brand. Your brand and company image are critical to your success. A strong brand will generate a sense of trust in your customer/client. This is extremely important for e-based processes where security and privacy are a concern. As we had discussed, potential customers are under time pressure, thus we have only a limited amount of time together their attention. Your brand, coupled with your elevator speech helps tell what your business is about very succinctly and in a meaningful matter.

Take into account the following three tenets:

• Businesses no longer control customer’s decisions, customers do.
• Longer companies refuse to accept the importance of customer dialog (two-way communications), do not utilize new technology to foster collaboration, will actually alienate and drive away potential clients
• Where customers now control conversations (satisfied clients tell three friends and angry ones tell 3,000 – you must achieve credibility throughout all aspects of your marketing program.)

To summarize the above – smart brands constantly evaluate customer wants and needs (psychographics) by listening all the time.

So Master Story Teller what is the bottom line? Keeping the design elements, the look, personality of your messages similar or identical over time strengthens branding, reinforces each of your messages, and makes your next message even more impactful to your audience.

Branding makes each NMM message and posting more inviting and recognizable to your targeted audience. They know that the message comes from a trusted and familiar source.

As a beginning make sure that each message you send or post has the following:
• Graphics and logos that are unique to your company
• Text and fonts that you use to differentiate your product/service
• Color schemas used consistently to give your company its identity.
• Also start matching your print communications with your e-based communications.

Short but Sweet - Creating content for your Marketing Program

The topic of creating content for your New Media Marketing (NMM) program is one that we will continue to revisit as we take a closer look at each of the NMM vehicles (i.e. web, blog, e-zines, e-mail, podcasts, social media)

Write this down and memorize it:

Your message must be condensed, focused, relevant, and succinct for it to be effective. Your readers are time starved. They are much more savvy, less conservative and more edgy, and extremely impatient. You only have a small window of time to catch their attention and keep it. Add to that your communications content must connect with them emotionally - that is connecting with their needs and wants.

Second thing to write down and memorize is: Short, focused messages are one of the keys to successful marketing campaigns but the shorter the message, the more impactful but the more difficult to create. The Gettysburg Address is a classic example of a powerful message of great important and said in only a few statements.

The third tip to remember: Every marketing piece, every web page, every e-zine and article, every blog should have one key message. When asked to critique or edit media copy, the first question I ask, even before reading, is " What is the message? Once I hear more than one or two messages, I say "stop"!

Thus enters the "elevator" speech onto the stage. Everyone has heard of the concept of an elevator speech. I enter an elevator and my potential client is on the elevator. I have two minutes before the elevator reaches the top floor and that is the only time I have to convince my potential clients why they need my product/service and why I am the best choice among my competition. Do not confuse an elevator speech with your Mission/Vision Statements or your Branding North Star Statement.

For impact, the following formula is a simple place to start creating your Elevator Speech (the first step to creating content): what (verb), whom (ideal customer or client), and how (key benefits).

1. What do I do?
2. Whom do I serve?
3. How do I specifically benefit the customer?

The above three elements are also steps in developing targeted audiences (read yesterday's blog). A word on the third bullet. Do not confuse benefits with specifications. Owners, inventors, and entrepreneurs are so involved with the behind-the-scenes characteristics of their product that they never address benefits to the client. Like it or not, most of us do not care how it works just what does it do for me. Visit your existing marketing text (copy) and see how much is specifications and how much addresses benefits to the reader.

Once you have statements developed for the above three sentences, then combine them into a smooth reading statement.

Do not just throw jello against the wall - Targeting your audience

New Media Marketing is one of several strategies you should use as part of your integrated marketing program. Thus it still requires following certain basic marketing and sales principles. New Media Marketing is NOT for you if you practice one of the following proven-to-fail-every-time marketing strategies:

1. Try everything as if you are throwing jello against a wall hoping that something sticks or
2. Follow Einstein's Definition of Insanity - repeating the same failed process hoping that new outcome will occur next time.

Rule #1: Define your target audience. Often your marketing objectives go unachieved simply because your audience is not able or willing to help you achieve those objectives.
Any successful marketing program, new or old, must include you knowing and targeting your audience. Often during our Branding workshops, we ask the client team who are their targeted audience. If the answer is everyone - our response is "so you really do not know who you are targeting to sell to". Even in the direct mail universe, there is a saying - "junk mail is really good mail sent to the wrong person."

Rule #2: The more you are able to sub-define your targeted audience, the more successful your marketing strategies will be.
Even with you targeted list, you need to be able to sub-target to who, what, and how you communicate with them. If you were sending Christmas Cards, to some you would send out a generic Happy Holiday card, to some a Christmas Card, others a card with a short message, and to others a family newsletter of what has happened during the past year to keep friends up-to-date. KNOW and target your audience. Note: what we are moving toward is the topic of relevance that we will cover in detail in a subsequent blog.

Rule #3: First know who you are and who you are not
Another question we frequently ask our clients is the who and what of their business. This often takes the longest to answer. Here are four basic questions to ask yourself to help answer this all important question.

1. Who has a need (problem) or want that my product/service can solve or fulfill?
2. What type of customer/client do I like to work with? (do not just say someone with money)
3. Is this group easy for me to communicate with? (one of NMM's benefits is that it makes it easier and most cost-effective to communicate with a larger segment of your targeted audience)
4. Can this target afford my products/services?
5. Are there enough buyers in my targeted audience to sustain my business?

Rule #4: Know your targets demographics - who are they?
Some basic demographic questions (so simple but we often cannot answer - and again the wrong answer is everyone). Depending on if you are business-to-consumer (BtC) or business-to-business (BtB), your answers will be different. In BtC will be the consumer in BtB will be the decision maker.

• Age
• Gender
• Average income/revenue
• Title/position of buyer/decision maker
• Georgraphic limitations
• What are their interests?
• Any cultural/ethnic considerations?
• What do they buy and how?

Rule #5: Know your targeted audience psychographics - how do they feel!
This is even more important than demographics. 80% of all purchasing decisions are emotionally based:

• Needs - what problem do they really need a solution for
• Wants - do not make the mistake of confusing needs and wants - our clients will often do that for us
• Stereotypes - every client/customer has a preconceived idea about you, your industry, your organizations, or product/service. Effective marketing campaigns often are directed toward changing or re-enforcing these stereo types and we all have them (think of the many used car salesperson or lawyer jokes that exist in the marketplace)
• Emotions - what specific emotions do clients often exhibit or you want to invoke - remember 80% of buying decision is emotionally based.

Once we follow these five basic rules, we can then communicate to the right audience, creating the succinct marketing message. Thus the topic for our next blog (Blog #4 in this New Media Marketing series) - Creating the Right Content (to be posted Tuesday, March 10)

Just Seven Clicks Away

Even though New Media Marketing utilizes new technology, the rationale behind it is based on established and proven buying psychology that has been used for decades. Fifty years ago when there were neighborhood banks, drug stores, hardware stores, gas stations, etc. people would walk into one of these establishments and readily buy something from that store.

FACT: We still do business with people we know, like and trust.
Our marketing programs should be geared to build a community of people who are loyal to our company and products/services.

FACT: We need to create a community of buyers who constantly want what you have to offer in a timely fashion.
NMM techniques are designed to build your Community of Buyers.
Review your customer/client list and see who are really in your community of buyers - people who are loyal to you and will buy only from you in a timely manner.

FACT: Even past client relationships must be maintained or they will drift from your community of buyers.

So what is this Seven click away "stuff"?

FACT: In today's market it takes on an average of seven communications, with a prospect to get them into your community of buyers.

Phone calls, visits/meetings, or mailings are both time-consuming and costly. Remember our society is time-starved and there is a limit to how many people we can see or call; but with today's technology we cannot only communicate but more importantly dialogue with a larger audience through our web site, email, blogs, ezine, podcasts, social media, etc.

FACT: There are over 23 million people in the United States who actively communicate on-line and that number is growing.

FACT: Every time someone clicks to visit your web site, clicks to read your blog, clicks to open an email, clicks to download a podcast, etc. adds to one of those seven communications required to get them into your Community of Buyers.

FACT: The more they visit, read, open, respond, or communicate back:

• Increases probability they will open your next communications
• Increases probability that they will select you
• Decreases time to make a decision
• Decreases number of required contacts to closure
• Increases number of viewers who will pass-along your information to a friend
• Decreases the probability of opt-ing out (will address in detail in a subsequent blog)

Think of NMM as a series of concentric circles (at least 7) with the middle being your business/organization. The 1st circle consists of your Buying Community. As the circles go out from the center, there are more prospec ts but farther away from buying from you and in a timely fashion. As you communicate out to farther circles with your web, blog, e-zine, email, podcasts, etc., the faster they move toward the center with each movement being faster than the previous.

Scenario:

1. A viewer hears about your blog and decides to click and read it - Click #1 - (we will present ways to announce your blogs in future blogs of this series)
2. In your blog you refer to more information and line to your web site - Click #2
3. The viewer then decides to comment on your blog - Click #3
4. You respond and they click to read your response - Click #4
5. You also tell the viewer that you may include more information in your upcoming e-zine. They look for the e-zine (electronic magazine) and they click to open - Click #5
6. At this poing you have started not only communicating with the viewer but also are dialoging. At the Studios, because of the nature of our servidces, at this point we usually get a phone call requesting an appointment/proposal - Communications #6
7. This leads to a final discussion and win - Communcations #7

FACT: NMM is a highly message-effective and cost-effective way of carving out a community of buyers from a large pool of potential customers/clients on-line and with ease.

YOUR NEXT NEW CLIENT IS JUST 7 CLICKS AWAY

Monday's Blog: Targeting your Audience - The First Step for Any Marketing Campaign

31 Blogs to New Media Marketing - WELCOME

Welcome to our blog series on New Media Marketing. Over the next 31 blogs, I will try to provide a working overview of the various aspects of this subject. Even though New Media Marketing utilizes new technology, its use in your business will be both an art and a science. This is true for most successful marketing programs. The first thing I would like to do is start utilizing the short-cut NMM whenever I refer to the words New Media Marketing. Over 31 blogs, this will shorten my typing efforts.

This first blog (Blog #1) provides some definitions and a road map for the following next blogs. So let's see how Wikipedia defines NMM:

"New Media Marketing is a relatively new concept utilized by businesses in developing an on-line community which allows satisfied customers to congregate and extol the virtues of a particular brand. In most cases, the on-line community includes mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, message boards, and product reviews, all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.

One of the primary arguments to promote New Media Marketing is the premise that traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. Backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions off Internet research and referrals. These advocates strongly adhere to the notion that consumers are more inclined to believe feedback from like-minded peers than corporate marketing verbiage dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising."

The bottom line is we all want to boost our business. In today's economy, this also includes cutting costs - but wise sages say that is not a time to cut marketing costs - yet one still needs to cut costs. NMM is the ideal solution for this dilemma. Using the powerful tools of NMM will help separate you from your competition.

NMM's key factors are the same for any successful marketing program today:

• Time: As business manager, owners, and entrepreneurs, we are constantly struggling to do more with less time. Couple this with the fact that our clients/customers' attention spans are constantly decreasing, and thus demanding simple, straightforward messages. This results in a business environment that is marked by both buyers and sellers who are more knowledgeable, demanding, and impatient every day.
• What and How we say it: Your marketing messages, how they are crafted and delivered is key factor in all our marketing efforts. Today it is form over function. We no longer dictate content - our clients' needs and wants do.
• Creating Community: One-way communications is no longer sufficient. Our communications must be two-ways. We must not communicate with clients but must dialog with them. NMM is based on the assumption that building an online community is one of the most important things your business can do.

So what vehicles does NMM utilize? An integrated NMM program utilizes the following:

• A web 2.0 web site
• Blogs
• e-zines (electronic magazines or newsletters)
• Podcasts
• Emails
• Social Media

We will cover the above during this blog series. We should point out that there are things that NMM cannot do:

• Replace actual and direct physical contact
• Replace other forms of advertising - since some of your target may not use new technology, other forms of advertising including print cannot be totally abandoned
• Will not provide instant and immediate gratification - NMM is a process, not a magic pill that one takes and business is successful overnight

The series will consist of the following eight parts:

1. Introduction - "Seven-Click" model targeting your audience, creating content, power of the brand, and building relationships - the opt-in
   
2. WEB - Web 1.0 vs. 2.0, what makes a good web site and audit, how to say it on the web, widgits, wikis, dashboards and other strange sounding things, SEO
   
3. BLOG - Blog essentials, telling people about your blog, business applications, and forums
   
4. E-zines - e-zines essentials and promoting your e-zine
   
5. Podcasts - Podcast essentials and telling your audience about your podcasts
   
6. Email - understanding email marketing, types of email, designing email, email list building, spamming
   
7. Social Media - intro to social media, personal social networks, business social networks, and social media servies
   
8. Other - e-PR and Mobile emailing, tracking your NMM results and summary
   

Blog #2 of our New Media Marketing Series will be posted Friday, March 6. Topic: "The Seven Click Model" - One of the reasons for NMM's success is the fact that it relies on collaboration. So please comment on the blogs as you read them.

Design - a necessity for success.

In 2000, Times Magazine announced that Function is out; Form is in. In other words, there was a time when our customers and clients were more interested in how it worked then how it looks. Good looking design definitely sways our decision making process. Put simply, a creative design is a necessity for the everyday requirement of bringing your story and brand to life. [visit our site to learn about our studio's approach to design - designnovation]. A good designer will be challenging and often interpreted as pushy or arrogant when in fact it is the designer's commitment to fresh, new, and sometimes unusual solutions - thinking out of the box.

Over the years, we have collected several quotes and expressions from various famous designers. These are posted on our studio's philosophy board [view our board]. The following are just some of these expressions:

"When color is at its richest - form is at its fullest."

"Design is a necessity not a decoration."

"Insanity - repeatedly performing the same process - hoping for a different result."

"If the identity of your brand is not well defined, you may have visibility but no personality."

"There is no curve as beautiful as a rising sales graph."

"Design is more about inspiration and imagination than logic and analysis."