Sometimes we get busy and need to re-read something. Here's some goodies from the THINKing Blog:
Posted: 12 Nov 2008 09:46 AM CST
In case you missed them, here are the 5 most popular blog postings from THINKing.
Newspapers: Dig The Grave
Top 10 Story Starter Tips For Blocked Bloggers
A Bigger Logo Necessitates A Smaller Idea
Twittering Journalists
Great Employees = Happy Consumers
In my email this week was this story from AdAge concerning some ads you may see this weekend.
Click here for the 3 minute video report.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Is it really dumb to be concerned about high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in food products? That's certainly the way it's portrayed in the Corn Refiners Association's massive new advertising campaign. The TV commercials heavily sell the suggestion that the sugar substitute poses no health risk when consumed in "moderation." But Connie Bennett, author of the book "Sugar Shock," rebuts the idea that "moderate" consumption of high fructose corn syrup is possible in today's grocery marketplace.
You can skip this if you don't know what Twitter is.
Or better yet, go here and get Twittered.
This is from MarketingProfs.com:
Vaynerchuk might have benefited from a recent post at the Web Ink Now blog, in which David Meerman Scott gives advice for personal branding at the microblogging site. "Most Twitter pages don't say enough and most have crappy design," he says. "While that's fine if you're just communicating with friends, if you care about your personal brand, you need to do better. Much better." Here are a few of Meerman Scott's very best pointers:
Your Marketing Inspiration: "This stuff is really easy and important for your personal brand," says Scott. "If you are on Twitter, take the time to make some changes today."
More Inspiration:
Eliane Fogel: Give Something Back this Holiday Season
Paul Dunay: Crowds Have No Leaders!
Ann Handley: 9 In the Morning
Chuck's back with another good one for you to sink your teeth into and learn from:
The Dallas Cowboys haven't had that bad of a season. Five wins, four losses. Slightly better than average. Unfortunately, the die hard fans are devastated. Care to speculate why?"When you thrill shoppers with their purchases and the way they are treated, they are likely to become customer evangelists. They'll be out preaching the gospel of your company and winning converts to whatever the degree of their persuasiveness.But what if your customer's experience is only slightly off?
But the extremely displeased group turn into vigilante customers. In their minds they've been wronged. You could just as well have "Wanted, Dead or Alive" posters up with your name on 'em, 'cause they're out to get'cha. Tell twenty more? Count on it."
"The volunteers consistently gave higher ratings to the more "expensive" wines. Brain scans also showed greater neural activity in the pleasure center when they were sampling those "pricey" wines, indicating that the increased pleasure they reported was a real effect in the brain."Without any major disconnects between expectation and experience, there's a good chance that people will accept what they've been led to expect. Which leads us to a simple formula for advertising success:
1. Use your ads to create an expectation of the experience your customer will have when she does business with you.We'll give that idea some consideration next time.
2. Then, ensure that her experience delivers on those expectations.
3. And though we haven't yet discussed it, hold something back from your advertising. Use it to "WOW" your customers, and make their experience better than expected.
From Mediapost:
by Sarah Mahoney 
by Les Luchter 
by Nina M. Lentini 
Good News for the Golden Arches:
BERLIN (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is shielded against recession and has hardly been hit by the international financial crisis, Chief Executive Jim Skinner was quoted as saying on Thursday.
"Worldwide turbulence is barely affecting our business," Skinner told Germany's Bild daily. "We are growing worldwide, especially in Europe we have significant gains at the moment -- also in Germany."
Skinner said the fast-food chain would be in a better position without the global financial crisis and the significant rise in food prices, but added: "McDonald's seems well positioned for recession. In bad times, people think twice about where to spend money when going out for food."
His comments appeared in German and were translated by Reuters into English.
Last month McDonald's results showed it growing faster than rivals as U.S. consumers visit fewer restaurants, with the world's largest hamburger chain posting a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street estimates, helped by a 7 percent jump in global sales.
(Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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Just don't do it.
Forget the fast talking disclaimers, Just tell the truth!!!
This week a local print publication sales person told me they offer a money back guarantee, if you are not satisfied with the results.
Then I saw the disclaimers on the hand out. Bunch of Bull.
Free Credit Report.com isn't really free. Click here to see why.
And now Classmates.com is being sued:
| Classmates.com Sued Over Emails Promising Contact With Schoolmates |
 A California resident has sued Classmates.com for allegedly tricking him into purchasing a paid membership with false ads. The plaintiff, Anthony Michaels of San Diego county, alleges that he signed up for a free membership to the site last Christmas Eve, but then upgraded to a paid one after receiving e-mail ads stating that other schoolmates were trying to contact him. Those statements turned out to be false, according to the lawsuit. Michaels' lawyer, Brian Kabateck, said his client had no way of verifying whether his former schoolmates were actually seeking to contact him on the site, short of signing up for a one-year membership. "The e-mail said: 'So and so's trying to find you, and in order to hook up with him you have to join and become a gold member,'" Kabateck said. "It's their business model: Once you're in for free, they try to upsell you as quickly as possible," he added. A spokesman for Classmates.com said the company had no comment on the lawsuit. Michaels, who is seeking class-action status, alleges misrepresentation, negligence, fraudulent concealment and violations of California's business code. He brought the case against Classmates Online, Classmates Media Corporation and parent company United Online, based in Woodland Hills, Calif. in state court. Kabateck, who is probably best-known for successfully suing Google for click fraud, said he intended to ask for refunds for all Classmates.com users who joined the site in response to a misleading email. Internet legal expert Venkat Balasubramani said that California's business code offers Michaels powerful ammunition against Classmates.com. "If you do anything unfair, improper or that violates a regulation, you could be committing unfair competition," Balasubramani said. This case is not the only potential class-action lawsuit against an alumni networking site. Reunion.com also faces a lawsuit by members complaining about the site's marketing efforts. In that case, filed in federal district court in San Francisco, the members allege that Reunion.com sent e-mails that appeared to have come from specific friends, but were actually sent by the site. |
or more specifically, Moms:
Because moms manage the household (which means their behaviors drastically impact sales) and they teach and enforce family values (which means they are as influential in shaping our culture as is the media), a&g surveyed moms to understand just how the economy is affecting their purchase behaviors and economic outlook. The study reveals that most moms believe that cultural trends that demonstrate a belief that Americans deserve to regularly indulge, contributed to the financial crisis we are in.
But, says the report, the pendulum has begun to swing the other way, with moms taking the lead. In this countercultural trend, moms see themselves as shunning greed and are putting family needs before their own.
Moms are looking for ways to rein in their household finances, with 65% of moms surveyed eliminating purchases that are not absolutely necessary, and 52% cutting back in general. 71% say they have made more sacrifices this year than last.
| Household Finance Changes Moms Made in 2008 | |
| Change | % of Respondents (multiple response OK) |
| New source of income | 29% |
| Cut back spending | 52 |
| Eliminated unnecessaries | 65 |
| No changes | 12 |
| Source: Allen & Gerritson, October 2008 | |
Though 71% of moms report they have made more sacrifices this year than last, childcare and medical needs will not be compromised. More of these moms blame the government (not enough oversight or regulation) for the economic crisis than blame the banks (32% vs. 16%).
| Parties That Moms Feel Responsible for Collapse of Financial Institutions | |
| Responsible Party | % of Respondents |
| Government | 32% |
| Everyone | 27 |
| Banks | 16 |
| Individual borrowers | 6 |
| Corporations | 6 |
| Wall Street | 3 |
| No one | 3 |
| Investors | 1 |
| All other | 7 |
| Source: Allen & Gerritson, October 2008 | |
In addition:
Catherine Kolodij, VP, audience intelligence director at a&g, summarizes by saying "For the last few years, there have been a number of cultural trends that demonstrate the idea that Americans deserve to indulge, buying bigger homes and better cars and other luxuries. Most moms believe this culture contributed to the financial crisis we are in... "
Please visit allen & gerritsen here to obtain the complete PDF file, including charts.
Sphere: Related ContentHere's a fresh perspective on being more productive, which helps us stay on top of our game in the world of sales. This is from the DLM Blog.
21 Ways To Do Everything Better
Posted: 06 Nov 2008 07:58 AM CST
Doing everything with quality increases your chances for success, enhances your reputation and saves you time in the long run. People typically equate quality with skill, but quality is a by product of time, thoughts and systems. | Written on 11/06/2008 by Heshy Shayovitz. He is the author of Success Making Machine where he writes extensively about the optimal way to succeed on your own terms. He is the Vice President of MetComp, and received his MBA from New York University. | Photo Credit: CarbonNYC |
Yeah, just click to read more:
by Les Luchter 
by Sarah Mahoney Adrants yesterday brought this to my attention last night. Mono is an ad agency that decided to try something a bit different to announce their new office. Take a look:
The headline reads Cash-Strapped Moms Plot Scroogy Holiday Season. The details are from Adotas.com:
Women with children plan to spend about $660 on average this year, $50 less than last year. Cuts are biggest for mothers with teens and children aged 7 to 12.
Offline retailers will take the biggest hit (8%) with online holiday spending seeing a 2% downturn. Most mothers surveyed (87%) said they planned to shop at stores like Wal-Mart and Target this season.
Sphere: Related ContentFrom Springwise.com:
Homes & housing / Life hacks
Clearly influenced by Apple, AlertMe is a home security device that
combines simplicity with clever features. Besides guarding a home,
it can also measure energy use and control other appliances.
Marketing & advertising / Life hacks
LeadVine lets users post the types of sales leads they seek, along
with the referral fee they're willing to pay; the community is then invited
to earn that fee by making the desired connections.
Media & publishing / Mobile & telecom
Named after its creator -- noted nightlife photographer Patrick
McMullan -- PMc is a new bi-monthly magazine that's only available for
for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Eco & sustainability
So, you thought the market for reusable bags was saturated? Having
found a niche that has yet to be infiltrated, The Green Garmento hopes
to help green up dry cleaning.
Telecom & mobile / Media & publishing / Non-profit & social cause
A shining example of crowdsourcing at work, Ushahidi is mobilizing
citizens to report and map conflicts in detail. The project began as a
way for Kenyans to log the post-election violence earlier this year.
Food & beverage / Life hacks
While customized meal delivery programs have been on the market
for a number of years, leViv differentiates itself by focusing on specific
health conditions, rather than healthy living alone.
Media & publishing / Life hacks
Facebook users can already send real flowers and candy to their
virtual friends, and now Peggy Mail allows them to send real
postcards through snail mail.
Education / Media & publishing
Brightstorm's online learning network is designed to help high-school
students deepen their understanding of important subjects through
video-based courses designed and taught by inspiring teachers.
Non-profit, social cause / Lifestyle
A new site dedicated to combining exercise and charity aims to help
consumers get corporate sponsorship for their everyday exercise
activities.
Style & design
Two months after we covered sticky car art purveyor Infectious, the
startup has expanded beyond the realm of cars with a new range of
products for laptops and walls.
It's time to make a few changes, if you haven't yet. Changes in the way you market yourself and your business. Here's some advice and an offer from 911MarketingHelp.com:
In short: A crisis focuses attention on safety. Show your prospects how your product enhances their safety, and your business will thrive.
Source: Marketing in an Economic Meltdown, a seminar by MarketingProfs. This recording is available to all members of 911 Marketing Help as a gift. (Normally $129.)
Sphere: Related ContentPost-election ads. Is it too early for holiday ads? Answer: apparently not. Let's launch!
What do trampolines, cookies, beer & puppies have in common? Take a look:
Amy Corr is managing editor, online newsletters for MediaPost. She can be reached at amyc@mediapost.com.
I discovered this article from Forbes last week:
Always Be Closing
How To Sell In Tough Times 09.30.08, 4:40 PM ET
Salespeople know how to frame a discussion. They know how to ask the right questions and, with a little discipline, shut up and listen to the answers. They can relate to people. And they have the courage to ask for business and try new things.
So what happens if--and when--you lose your job? First, you go have a martini and a big steak dinner. Then you look for a growing market to attack.
Salespeople are often the first to get whacked when the economy goes south.
But here's some good news for busted Wall Streeters--and any other commission chasers laid low by the latest economic crisis: Salesmanship is a transferable skill.
If you can sell stocks, bonds and financial derivatives, you can sell real estate, technology, autos and tooth brushes. That's because the fundamental tools are the same.
My friend Doug, a placement agent, reports that sales gigs at companies heavily dependent on consumer disposable incomes are growing few and far between. This recession is real.
So where's the growth? In tough times, any product or service that promises to boost productivity (or to save money, however you want to look at it) is worth a look.
Some promising areas: alternative and sustainable energy sources, such as wind power. (Old company raider Boone Pickens imagines massive fields of wind mills in the western U.S.) Such an infrastructure requires engineering, construction, software, spare parts and maintenance providers--they all need salespeople.
The same goes for battery and bio-fuel technologies. We don’t know who will win the alternative-energy game, but we do know there will be plenty of competition for years to come.
Another hot area: software as a service. SaaS providers charge monthly subscription fees, rather than more expensive upfront licenses--a cash-flow booster for small businesses in tough times. Some of the fees are so low you can use a credit card to cover them.
Not that you should forget the old standbys: companies that sell to public utilities, educational institutions, health care and infrastructure providers. We're not talking "credit default swaps" or other sexy doohickeys like that, but you want to put a decent dinner on the table, right?
For those still on the payroll, get in touch with your loyal (and solvent) customers. Immediately. Anticipate how the troubled economy might affect them, because it will.
Preempt trouble and engender even deeper loyalty by crafting some new pricing schemes. Take another look at long-term contracts. Assuming they haven't fallen on especially hard times, find creative ways to allow valued customers to keep buying. Worse case scenario, accept products or services in lieu of payment.
A final thought in this environment: Watch receivables like a hawk. Your commissions depend on it. You don't have to whip out the bludgeon, but a sales pro should be able to politely squeeze a customer's payables department.
I'm not going to kid you: Things aren't looking good out there. But it doesn't matter. Because no matter what, salesmen do one thing: They sell.
So stop reading and pick up the phone.
Glenn D. Porter has 25 years of professional sales and sales management experience, much of it with IBM. He is the founder of Dolphin Nextgen, a business advisory firm. He can be reached at GDPor3811@aol.com.
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Hmmm Chocolate Brewski's are returning. Click on the headline below from Mediapost.
by Karl Greenberg 
by Nina M. Lentini 
by Karl Greenberg How do you make a teenager feel loved, feel special, feel important? Send them something via the U.S. Post Office! Read this from MarketingProfs.com:
A new whitepaper from ExactTarget has a surprise for marketers seeking to reach teens ages 15-17. The results of its recent research project, conducted with Ball State University's Center for Media Design, show that teens actually prefer to get their marketing messages via—(drum roll, please)—direct mail. Yes, good ol' direct mail. Some findings:
That last point is interesting because, when asked their preference for general communications, teens gave text messaging a high score. That love, however, doesn't translate to marketing messages. "In terms of absolute preferences, [teens] are similar to other consumers in that they prefer traditional direct marketing channels ... for marketing communications," ExactTarget concludes.
The Po!nt: Put pen to paper. Try adding a direct-mail component to your next outreach to teens. You may see a boost in ROI.
Source: ExactTarget. Download the whitepaper here.
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Thought's from Seth Godin on this subject. Doesn't matter if you are adding to your staff, replacing a staff member, hiring an outside firm to do your marketing, or simply looking to stay ahead of the pack.
This is also a good article if you want to be hired. Read on:
Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects.
Here's what I'd want if I were hiring a marketer:
You're relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. It's one thing to talk about thinking outside the box, it's quite another to have a long history of doing it successfully. You can ride a unicycle, or can read ancient Greek.
Show me that you've taken on and completed audacious projects, and run them as the lead, not as a hanger on. I'm interested in whether you've become the best in the world at something, and completely unimpressed that you are good at following instructions (playing Little League baseball is worth far less than organizing a non-profit organization).
You have charisma in that you easily engage with strangers and actually enjoy selling ideas to others. You are comfortable with ambiguity, and rarely ask for detail or permission. Test, measure, repeat and go work just fine for you.
You like to tell stories and you're good at it. You're good at listening to stories, and using them to change your mind.
I'd prefer to hire someone who is largely self-motivated, who finds satisfaction in reaching self-imposed goals, and is willing to regularly raise the bar on those goals.
You're intellectually restless. You care enough about new ideas to read plenty of blogs and books, and you're curious enough about your own ideas that you blog or publish your thoughts for others to react to. You're an engaging writer and speaker and you can demonstrate how the right visuals can change your story.
And you understand that the system is intertwined, that your actions have side effects and you not only care about them but work to make those side effects good ones.
The cool thing about this list is that it's not dependent on what you were born with or who you know. Or how much you can lift.
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When I started 2008, I started the year with a brand new laptop computer and a new way to managing my "stuff".
I decided to move more of my stuff to the on-line world and rely less and less on storing "stuff" on my computer. And with the advances in technology and security, it has been a very good move. You can click here for a page that lists and links some of the tools I use.
One word of caution though, as we see an economic slow down, some of the tech start ups will not be able to survive. Likewise, some of the giants will also crumble, so keep an eye out for these events so that you are not without your "stuff" if something happens to the company you are using.
Now, I have a list of 64 Business to Business Tools that you may find helpful. This list was complied by the folks at Marketo and comes from their blog, which I subscribe to, and you can too. Click on the underlined headings to get the goodies:
There is an amazing amount of great content about B2B marketing out there, ranging from trends in demand generation to best practices in lead nurturing, lead scoring, and landing page optimization to how to buy and select marketing automation systems.
To help you find the good stuff, we recently put together a new site with B2B marketing tools and resources that collects a whopping 64 eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, podcasts and blog posts to help you learn all these best practices and more. Many of these are authored by the team at Marketo, but certainly not all of them. As always, if you have an additional tool or resource you'd like to share, please let me know.
Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy. Over 50% of leads are not yet sales ready, so nurturing those leads rather than throwing them away can help you maximize results. These blog posts, whitepapers, and podcasts can show you how to do it right.
By tracking your prospect's behaviors and web activity, you can determine their level of interest in your solution (engagement) in addition to your interest in them (demographics targeting). Only by combining both factors can you send truly qualified leads to sales. Download these resources to learn why lead scoring matters and how to do it right.
Demand generation is the evolution of traditional lead generation. Unlike traditional programs that throw any lead over the wall to sales, demand generation is about qualifying and prioritizing prospects, nurturing a steady crop of qualified leads that want to engage with sales, coordinating ongoing activities with sales, and measuring and optimizing the results over time. These tools and resources will help you research demand generation and learn the latest best practices.
Lead management covers the entire process of modern sales lead generation, including acquiring new leads, scoring leads so you know who's ready for sales, nurturing the leads that aren't yet ready, passing leads to sales at the right time, and measuring and optimizing the process over time. These tools will help you get started improving your own lead management capabilities.
Relevant and optimized landing pages generate higher conversion rates, meaning you get more leads whenever someone clicks your ads or emails. Getting them performing at their best is one of the quickest ways you can improve your B2B marketing results. Download these best practices to get practical tips for optimizing your landing pages. There's even a free online calculator to tell you how long it will take your landing page test to return valid results.
Marketing automation tools help increase operational efficiency, drive revenue, and demonstrate marketing's impact on revenue. Since the space is changing and evolving so rapidly, it can be hard to know what features you need to look for and what other factors you need to consider. These tools and resources can help you understand the marketing automation space and learn how to make the right decision.
Because of the complex sales cycles, B2B companies have unique email marketing needs that are not served by most email service providers. Get these best practices, webinars, and podcasts to learn how to optimize email campaigns and maximize email deliverability.
Marketers are under growing pressure to measure ROI and demonstrate their impact on revenue. Among other things, this makes it difficult to set and justify your B2B marketing budget. Download these tools and resources to learn how to increase marketing accountability, justify your marketing budget, and demonstrate marketing's impact on revenue.
The disconnect between marketing and sales departments is the largest opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams align around a single revenue cycle, they can create dramatic improvements in marketing ROI, sales productivity, and most importantly top-line growth.
Social media is one of the biggest forces driving change in B2B marketing today. Download these podcasts to learn how to use video and Web 2.0 tactics to boost B2B marketing results.
Do you find these tools helpful? Do you disagree with anything? Please share your comments, tips, and links to make this resource as useful as possible.
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