Marketing

Radical story of prejudice and redemption on the internet.

Image by Joan Campderrós-i-Canas Brand loyalty is a goal your business should aspire for. It ensures long term success as it keeps consumers committed to your products and services. In fact, very loyal customers won’t even think twice when choosing between a new company’s offerings and your own – yours will always be their top [...]

Sales slumps are usually a sign that you're about to experience a huge breakthrough.Sales slumps are discouraging. You're working hard, making calls, following up, but still nothing pans out. As the slump continues, you start wondering if you're doing something wrong or, worse, whether your product isn't as good as you thought.Not to worry. Here are three tried-and-true ways to turn slumps from self-fulfilling prophesies into momentary speed bumps on your road to success:1. Realize that slumps are statistically normal.Suppose you're tossing a coin. Which of the following two patterns (H=heads, T=tails) is most likely?T H H T T H H T T T H T T T TH T H T H T H T H T H T H T HMost people assume that the second pattern, which alternates "heads" and tails, is most likely. In fact, the first pattern is far, far, far more likely, even though it has twice as many "tails" results as "heads" results, and ends with four "tails" results in a row.In other words, most sales slumps are simply the result of random chance. (This is also true of peak sales performances, too.) So don't be discouraged. Instead, keep working hard and eventually you'll encounter a series of wins.2. Understand the "plateau effect."Slumps frequently occur after a period of rapid growth which is followed by a plateau, or period of flat sales:Such slumps are not just normal but also a reason to celebrate! Here's why. Sales results are the result of sales skills, so fast periods of growth are typically the result of a rapid increase in sales skills--either your own or those of your team.Sales skills, however, are like all other human skills, in that they tend to improve in fits and starts. The plateau--discouraging as it might seem--actually reflects the process of "integrating" new skills into daily behavior.The slump after a plateau is also normal. It's how the human mind (which drives those skills) prepares itself to "step up the game" for the next period of rapid growth. In other words, slumps are often forerunners of huge breakthroughs:3. Make your goals more inspiring.Sales results also reflect motivation. When you're highly motivated, you sell more, you do more, you accomplish more. And motivation, of course, comes from having goals that inspire you, day after day.Unfortunately, what motivated you yesterday may not motivate you today. For example, suppose your sales goal is to exceed your quota by 15 percent, which will increase your commission rate for your full quarter. Pretty motivating, eh?However, once you've beaten your quota a couple of times, it's just part of your job. That's why many top salespeople often encounter a mid-career slump. They go on automatic, doing the things that made them successful, but without heart and drive.That's true of entrepreneurs, too. Once you've become successful enough to achieve a reasonably comfortable life, money doesn't motivate. The world is full of people who set a lofty goal, achieved it, and then ended up asking: "Is this all there is?"As you grow, your goals must grow with you. For most people, such involves redefining success away from personal achievement and more towards finding ways to make other people happier.Like this post? If so, sign up for the free Sales Source newsletter.

We used to call search engines and content platforms “libraries.” (Read the complete essay at Histories of Social Media)

Ed Langley is Head Of Multilingual Search Marketing at Search Laboratory. Here he explains what he does in an average working day. If you're on the hunt for a new challenge - or want to start a career - in search, then do check out the search marketing jobs on the Econsultancy jobs site.Please describe your job! What does a Head Of Multilingual Search Marketing actually do? I head up the multilingual team at Search Laboratory which is made up of 35 mother-tongue linguists from everywhere from China to Denmark to Russia, all working on campaigns in over 35 languages across 18 countries.  I am ultimately responsible for ensuring the quality of the international services we offer and directly manage a small team of managers, who are in turn responsible for the management of the team. I ensure that we have sufficient capacity and resources to constantly deliver great results for our clients. I am also responsible for managing and coordinating the in-depth research into the different international markets we work with clients in.  Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to? I physically sit within the multilingual team which is situated in the SEO team on the top floor of our Old Chapel headquarters in Leeds. I report directly to the Head of Content and Online PR Freia Muehlenbein – who, as it happens, is German – and she in turn reports to our Head of SEO Jimmy McCann. What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?  I’m the only English person in a team otherwise exclusively made up of mother-tongue linguists, so languages are unsurprisingly important to my role and I speak German and Japanese fluently, French to a high standard, as well as a small amount of Italian. As we tell our clients though, it’s not just about language – being open and flexible to different cultures and ways of communicating are just as important. Spending time abroad as a university student living in Japan and German helped equip me with this awareness  An in-depth knowledge of all aspects of search marketing is also critical – my team specialises not only in content and online PR, but also in technical SEO and PPC.  Tell us about a typical working day… I’m in the office by about 8.30am and I usually start my day by getting up to date with my emails and checking the day’s plan. As I’m also responsible for researching into foreign markets I check any on-going studies are on track.  I’m not a mother-tongue linguist, so I don’t actually work on any client campaigns. I’m responsible for making sure the team is running well. Throughout the day, I’ll liaise with my two Multilingual Search Marketing Managers, Kathrin Schwerthelm and Julia Dettler, for updates on the campaigns we’re working on at the moment. Where possible I’ll also try to speak to individual team members to see how they’re getting on. Obviously each day varies, but I may sit in on pitches for potential clients or meetings with existing ones to represent our linguistic services or I could be working on training sessions with the PPC team. My team is the fastest growing part of a business that in itself growing rapidly, so quite a bit of my time is taken up with interviewing potential candidates and establishing and implementing plans for the team’s growth and development. What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?  When it comes to our campaigns, different search engines use different metrics for assessing site quality, such as Citation Index for Yandex (Russia) and Baidu Index (China). Our in-house native speakers don’t just bring linguistic insights to the company, they also bring invaluable cultural knowledge, which enables us to tailor our strategies for different markets and maximise campaign performance. What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done? A phone and a meeting room. They’re simple tools but they facilitate communication, which is critical to my job. 

Econsultancy has today published a new best practice guide aimed at companies wanting to join up online and offline data, bringing together their often separate web analytics and offline business intelligence platforms. Below, the report's author Julian Brewer answers some questions about the widespread challenges that inspired him to write this report.  Research carried out by Econsultancy and other organisations has made it clear that many companies are struggling to join up different data sources even though the business imperative for doing this is becoming clearer than ever. According to our Modern Marketing Manifesto, marketers need to think about and deliver experiences and marketing without channel delineation. Data (both online and offline) forms the bedrock upon which successful research, segmentation, marketing automation, targeting and personalisation are built.  Against this backdrop comes our timely new report entitled Business Intelligence Meets Web Analytics - Breaking Down the Silos, written by Julian Brewer, an experienced digital marketing consultant now working for Lloyds TSB. What inspired you to write this report and why do you think it's important? Business Intelligence grew up and established itself in an offline world whereas Web Analytics naturally was a child of the digital world. As these two worlds merge, web analytics becomes more pervasive as an input for the organisation to form a holistic view of the customer touch points. It’s a fascinating frontier where huge customer and commercial benefits can be delivered by understanding and accessing this insight.  Few companies have got their arms around the full picture but I firmly believe that as a discipline this will become a competitive advantage that redefines business models and becomes a driver of the winners in the next economic cycle. Nothing beats getting closer to understanding customer needs and behaviours, and digital has materially changed the inputs to business intelligence which needs to catch up. Who within a business (and what types of business) should be reading this report?  The Business Intelligence Meets Web Analytics Best Practice Guide is aimed at analysts, marketers, executive management and agencies that work with web analytics data and aspire to deliver more business intelligence from their investment. The report covers a number of examples across retail, financial services and beauty. These are only examples, as the guide applies to any organisation where customer and channel behaviour data is held separately and where they recognise a need and complexity of bringing this data together.  Are tech vendors meeting the needs of organisations who are trying to join up online and offline data? Tech vendors are changing rapidly in this space by both building out their wider offering across channels and by opening up their platforms to a wider more agnostic integration approach. As with all change in markets it is shaking up established players and providing opportunity for new vendors. The established web analytics players such as Adobe, Coremetrics, Google Analytics and Webtrends all provide integration with offline data to one degree or another. However there is hardly a month that goes by without another strategic announcement between established web analytics and business intelligence players, or a funding announcement for a new entrant. The tech vendor market continues to try to meet the changing and maturing needs of organisations. Is there a single 'best practice' approach to joining up data, or is it more complicated and nuanced than that? There are some fundamentals around joining data together such as ensuring that the data in both sets is Consistent, Accurate, Relevant and Sufficient (CARS); more of that in the guide. The knack is to define what you are collecting (your KPIs) and aligning this to your to business and customer needs. This is where the approach can become specific to the market in which i

_kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519dfb964f626","Article link clicked",{"Title":"","Page":"Taco Bell Puts a Ring On It"}]);First, it was a custom speedo for a high school student that prompted people to think outside the buns. Now, Taco Bell’s custom ring bling gifted to a few “special ladies” is generating headlines for the company’s unique influencer strategy approach. _kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519dfb964f730","Article link clicked",{"Title":"","Page":"Taco Bell Puts a Ring On It"}]); Three weeks ago, the above snap shot of a custom gold ring bearing the Taco Bell name in cursive was posted on the company’s Instagram account. Fast-forward to the present, and Taco Bell is using its ring and personalized handwritten notes to woo a handful of special ladies. While these ladies all happen to be actresses and models, they are also reportedly fans who tweet and share their love of Taco Bell online. The “special ladies” included Chrissy Teigen, Miss California 2012 Leah Cecil, Jessica Lu of MTV’s Awkward, and more. Dig deeper into the handwritten notes sent to the ladies and you’ll see zany lines like, “You’re funny, cool and you like Taco Bell,” or, “Following you on Twitter was the best decision we ever made.” Plus, all of the notes are signed by Taco Bell – not a PR rep.  _kmq.push(["trackClickOnOutboundLink","link_519dfb964f837","Article link clicked",{"Title":"","Page":"Taco Bell Puts a Ring On It"}]); Regardless of whether you consider this approach to be wacky or wonderful, one thing is clear – it seems to be working. While it hasn’t been communicated just how many “special ladies” Taco Bell reached out to, the company has created a fan/friend persona with their targeted influencers. Several of the ladies have also rewarded Taco Bell with public tweets and photos of their notes and rings on Instagram, generating increased awareness and conversation online. Now that Taco Bell’s put a ring on it, what – or who – could be next? Could they celebrate the art of the bromance? Father’s Day is also coming up – maybe Dad deserves a little something special? Only time will tell when it comes to Taco Bell! About the Jessica Gioglio: Follow @savvybostonian Jessica Gioglio is a Social Media Strategist based out of Boston, Massachusetts who specializes in social media content, community engagement and crisis management.Taco Bell Puts a Ring On It is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy

Budweiser proved to be the king of alcohol advertising in Q1 by achieving more than half of total social shares. The beer company’s 'Brotherhood' ad was shared 2.4 million times compared to 970,000 for little-known vodka brand Neft’s ad, 'Bad Motherf***er'. According to Unruly’s data, Bud’s advert accounted for 59% of total alcohol ad shares in Q1, despite the fact that it isn’t really the kind of creative one would normally associate with beer ads. It’s a sickly sweet tale of one man’s relationship with his horse, which is a far cry from the usual light-hearted ads beer companies usually go for, including Bud’s previous “Wassup” efforts.But this focus on evoking a psychological response probably accounts in part for the ad’s success, as it stood out from the crowd by telling an emotional story that played on feelings of both sadness and happiness. However it did also benefit from being aired during the Super Bowl. Neft’s advert is a more what you’d expect from an alcohol brand, but it takes it up several notches with the inclusion of graphic violence and a video game style camera view.  Long form ads FTW TV ad spots are traditionally 30 seconds long, however nine of the top 10 alcohol ads from Q1 were long-form ads with an average 136 seconds duration. In particular, Neft (297 seconds), Carlsberg (179 seconds) and Heineken (217 seconds) were especially long and very successful, which suggests that traditional short-form ads are no longer the best tactic for online marketers. Top 10 videos by length Growth in video ad shares According to Unruly alcohol brands enjoyed a huge growth in social conversations during Q1 2013, generating a total of 4,872,608 shares compared to 143,009 in Q4 2012. This meant that alcohol brands accounted for almost half (47.1%) of total FMCG shares last quarter. Alcohol video shares Q4 2012 vs. Q1 2013 The report also shows that while beers brands normally dominate alcohol advertising, with 96.6% share of voice in Q4 2012, in Q1 this year the success of vodka brand Neft meant that beer’s share dropped to 75.1%. Share of voice by product category The data in this report is supplied by Unruly Analytics, a cloud based dashboard that measures content from 1,300 brands across all verticals. The analysis period is Q4 2012 to Q1 2013 inclusive.

How long has it been since you’ve reviewed your Facebook Page? Are you taking advantage of the latest Facebook features? It’s critical that Facebook Page managers take time to regularly audit their Page and ensure that they are not missing out on new features. This Facebook Page audit guide outlines 11 key items to review to [...]

This checklist is intended to assist small business owners. It outlines the must have elements for your website so you can ensure it has the best chance of succeeding online. This is the first in a short series which aims primarily to benefit small businesses with regards to their websites and online success. Consequently it might also help if you’re a web designer building small sites for businesses on a budget. This small business website checklist will be most relevant for small sites or simple ecommerce sites because it’s a general checklist, but it’s amazing how many bigger (and often expensive) websites belonging to large companies fail to adhere to some basic web design fundamentals. The list below will enable you to quickly check the most fundamental elements are in place on your website and it should take you no longer than 30 minutes to carry out the checks.You’ll be able to easily check many of the items on the list visibly but some might require you contacting your designer. Whilst it’s actually possible for you to check everything yourself by looking through the website’s source code and checking all the settings in third party applications like Google Analytics we won’t cover how to do so here in order to keep the checklist as simple as possible to work through. I’ve expanded upon the elements which are present on every page of the site like the header and footer and given a simplified list for the body content as it’s so subjective from site to site and to cover every eventuality would mean a massive checklist. If you want a professional website review of your site there’s many companies who offer that service. For a full design and SEO audit you should expect to pay in the region of £500-£750. Header Ensure your logo is on the left and links to your homepage This is where users look first when they visit your page and where they expect to see your logo. By placing your logo where it’s expected to be you can establish immediate trust and gain instant brand recognition before the user’s journey continues.You should also make sure it links to your homepage as that’s what’s become common practice. If your logo doesn’t link then it may well appear broken. Paradigm Flow is actually a large company in the oil indsutry but even global giants don't often defy the norm of logo placement and it's unwise you should either. Users will see the dotted map first and might assume it's their (awful) logo. If you include a search box it should be top right of the site If you don’t want to include one in the header area itself then the top of a right hand sidebar is acceptable. Econsultancy ticks all the boxes in its header and, while the contact details aren't included, the contact link is prominent. Make sure your contact details and a contact link are prominent Again if you can’t fit these into the header itself then in the top of a right hand sidebar is acceptable. Make sure you have a contact tab in your main navigation or as a small link top right in the header like Econsultancy did above. Arguably your social profiles links should be here too. I quite frequently use the WhoIsHostingThis tool now but to begin with I wasn't convinced they were legitimate as there's no visible contact information. It's far from optimally hidden within the about us menu. Content There’s so many variations on what content a website could contain it can’t all be covered in a generic post like this as each one merits its own in depth checklist but here are some general must do’s for you to run through. Some are determined by usability findings, some determined by Google, some based on what’s proven to boost trust and sales, and some based on what a user expects to find and where they expect to find it making it easier for them to use your site without any friction. I haven't specified whether to place the body elements in your sidebar or main content are so you can decide that based on your theme, layout and site objectives.