THINKING AHEAD: The New Small Business Marketing Landscape Of 2011

Posted on 31pm00k by o2task

Digital marketing has become VAST:
Marketing techniques constantly have to evolve and change with changing times; as the consumers evolve, so do the means of reaching out to them. Today’s consumers belongs to a digital age.
Talking about spends on digital marketing in 2010, approximately $154.4 billion was spent on direct and digital advertising in 2010, up 2.7% over 2009 levels. Of that amount, digital spending accounted for $27.7 billion, driven by search and targeted display advertising.
When we talk about digital marketing the pool of options available to a marketer are vast. From the latest mobile marketing to online display, there are numerous tools that can be used. However, the key lies in using each tool strategically to get the best results from the campaign.
Businesses cannot ignore their ONLINE FOOTPRINT:
Internet has become an integral part in businesses as well as homes. Internet users form a huge audience which marketers cannot afford to ignore. What people talk online can have a direct impact on sales. With search engines becoming ever more powerful, even the smallest remark on a blog or twitter status update, can be fetched and put forth in front of an information hungry web user. This has increased the need for continuous online analytics, not only of your own website, but also the entire web, wherever your name is mentioned.
Altered PR CYCLE:
As market dynamics change the age old means of driving publicity and PR also have to evolve. Today PR has evolved from merely pushing news to the media to a stage wherein content and messaging has taken center stage. Competition mapping, giving out the right message, and closely mapping industry movements helps build a strategic PR campaign. One that not only talks about your company but also helps you position your company in the industry as a thought leader. Monitoring conversations and real-time coverage clearly speaks about how PR has been altered to develop an intelligent messaging strategy.
The CONSUMER has gained substantial power:
Consumer is king!! Today there are a number of factors that influence a buying decision; from purchasing power to influencers that surround the consumer, have a huge role to play. Hence influencing the influencer is the new marketing mantra. With social media emerging as a huge platform to connect and network, this has led to the emergence of a certain set of individuals who are considered as opinion makers. These people have considerable clout because their thoughts, insight and opinions are highly valued by a large network of followers, friends, fans and readers. As a marketer you must identify who these individuals are and devise an influencer marketing strategy to reach out to them.
DIALOGUING is better than push marketing:
Consumers today have a mind of their own and are smart enough to identify push marketing strategies. The new age marketing technique has moved away from ‘in the face’ marketing to subtle and more conversational style of selling. We live in a connected world where engagement, interactivity and dialogue play a huge rule. To converse and interact with your potential customer is essential to sell your product.
AMBIGUOUS marketing efforts have no future:
Marketing campaigns need to be structured and targeted. Any marketing effort that does not have a defined objective and a desired result in place is destined to fail. Ambiguous marketing campaigns that do not have a roadmap or a step-by-step roll out plan that leads to a pre decided conclusion will not achieve the desired results. Many businesses are rushing into social media marketing without knowing what they are getting into and how they will maintain it. Ill planned campaigns will lead to no or poor results.
Consistent MEASUREMENT and ADJUSTMENT is the key:
Any campaign that is launched needs to have a measurement matrix in place. At the end of the day, marketing is aimed at supporting and increasing sales. A campaign needs to be measured in terms of some quantifiable metrics. Especially in the case of social media marketing, a measurement criterion is essential to gauge the success of the campaign. Also it’s important to have the necessary flexibility in place. There should be room for changes and modifications in the strategy to achieve best results. There are times when market dynamics cannot be controlled. The marketing campaign should be made flexible to accommodate last minute modifications.

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>The Path to Growth and Profit

Posted on 31pm00k by o2task

The Service Profit Chain By James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr., & Leonard A. Schelsinger

These three Harvard Professors have written one of the most excellent books that links the bottom line to the human side of the business equation. Featured in the book are: British Airways, Marriott, Nordstrom, Ritz Carlton, Service Master, Southwest Airlines, Taco Bell and Wal-Mart, to name a few.

The core concept of the book is captured in figure 1, and described briefly below the figure.

Customer loyalty is what leads to high levels of growth and profit.

High levels of customer satisfaction lead to customer loyalty.

Customer satisfaction results from the value of services delivered vs. what customers expected.

Employee loyalty, effectiveness & satisfaction are the keys to service value.

Here are some key thoughts from the book that you will find interesting:

Treat customer problems like opportunities to build customer relationships.

It is key to get your front line workers to understand their impact on the business.

Xerox found that a very satisfied customer is 6 times more willing to buy from you again vs. a satisfied customer.

If front line employees can’t manage themselves, there is no way you can have very satisfied customers.

Figure 2 below captures a key relationship between service quality and its impacts on growth and profitability.

Figure 3 supports Figure 2 and Figure 1 by showing that poor service leads to significantly greater customer turnover. The significance of this is that the cost of acquiring new customers is much higher than the added costs associated with retaining existing customers through good service. Hence a great impact on profitability. This relationship is displayed in figure 4 below.

The book spends quite a bit of time describing what a company needs to do to:

Mobilize people for breakthrough service Use service recovery to build loyalty with customers Understand the lifetime value of customers Develop your staff so it meets the needs of service profit chain equation.

A key concept in the book is the value of lifetime customers. Here are a few tidbits from the book that should be of interest to you as you think about the Service Profit Chain.

MBNA America discovered that customers did not begin to become profitable in their business until they were customers for 5 years. Keys to MBNA’s success:

They increased their customer retention rate from the low 80’s to the high 90’s over 8 years & increased profitability 16 times.
They needed to increase customer service dramatically to retain customers.
Get the right customers and keep them – their philosophy.

The authors’ research showed a strong relationship between customer retention and profitability for 5 companies in the credit business & no relationship between portfolio size and profitability.

Sewell Cadillac, the most profitable Cadillac dealer in the world, calculated that customers buy 15-20 cars in a lifetime. Keys to Sewell’s success:

Building bonds with customers through their service department, they are the ones that see the customer repeatedly

Make sure employees know that people satisfied with service will spread positive word of mouth and buy from you again

Driving down operating costs because there is less need for advertising and you can succeed with a smaller sales force, due to customer loyalty.

In a tough economy in Dallas, Sewell was able to triple in size.

If you want to understand the details regarding how companies applying the lessons of the Service Profit Chain operate, and what impact this thinking has on managing, selecting and training employees, I highly recommend this book.

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