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The Best Marketing Advice I Ever Received, and the Best I Ever Gave: 5 Experts Share Their Wisdom Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This The Best Marketing Advice I Ever Received, and the Best I Ever Gave: 5 Experts Share Their Wisdom T oday, the marketer’s world is more frenetic than ever, with a new digital option elbowing its way into the fray seemingly every day. Marketers seeking to capture their customers’ and prospects’ attention and loyalty can face the proverbial problem of too much of a good thing. Knowing which way to direct a campaign can be overwhelming, even for the most seasoned professional. The ideal focus of your marketing efforts is, of course, largely based on your industry, your brand and the desired result, but striking the right balance of new tricks with the tried-andtrue in order to manage a successful campaign doesn’t have to be elusive, say five marketing experts Silverpop spoke with. Hailing from all corners of the marketing universe with experience aplenty under their respective belts, they shared the best advice ever received and, alternately, the best advice they could give. Because with the marketer’s world showing no signs of getting any easier, we could all use a little help along the way. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 2 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice 1 Tweet This Consider Your Audience First, Then Manage Your Brand’s Place Within Scott Monty, global digital & multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Co. A s the global digital and multimedia communications manager for Ford Motor Co., Scott Monty may sit front and center in today’s modern marketing world, but he draws daily inspiration from ancient wisdom. More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman statesman and orator Cicero advised, “If you wish to persuade me, you must think my thoughts, feel my feelings and speak my words.” And it’s this insight Monty uses to make daily decisions that affect Ford. “Even though tools and technology and the medium may change very quickly, fundamentally, human nature stays the same,” he explains. “People want to be treated in a respectful way; they want to be able to relate to people like them; and they want to be part of something bigger than themselves and to contribute to the world around them.” Considering the audience first is critical to engaging that audience, Monty says, adding that working on an empathetic level with people creates a connection that meets them where they are and helps build trust. Today’s digital world opens new doors for marketers looking to help consumers participate in something bigger than themselves. “We as marketers can group people together, amass social movements and give people more of a say,” he explains. Monty points to Ford’s celebrated “Fiesta Movement” as an example of Cicero’s advice in action. The 2009 campaign, devised to build momentum for the 2010 U.S. launch of the Ford Fiesta, selected 100 tech-savvy vehicle enthusiasts who had a digital following and gave them each a Fiesta to drive for six months. Their only requirement was to document their experiences on social media outlets, such as Facebook and YouTube, and produce a monthly video related to the car. Consumers were encouraged to follow the non-edited, uncensored posts and even contribute to the dialogue. The unorthodox grassroots campaign generated huge buzz and did exactly what Ford had hoped it would do: build awareness among young, sophisticated, “Generation Y” consumers. Monty credits the campaign’s ability to connect with people where they are and how they communicate with its huge success. “Across the board, people don’t trust companies the way they used to. They look to third-party experts, the media and [social media experts and bloggers],” he says. “With these 100 agents, we gave people the opportunity to find someone they could connect with and the ability to come along on the virtual ride.” Connecting with your demographic, however, means understanding how your brand fits in and then using the appropriate tools to emphasize it, Monty explains, prefacing the best advice he can offer marketers. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 3 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This “Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should,” he advises. “All the new techniques and platforms available today open marketers to opportunities to enter new conversations, but it doesn’t mean we need to.” Just as wellness experts guide clients to embrace their true identities, Monty counsels marketers to know their brand’s distinctiveness and understand how and where it fits into 2 today’s advertising world. With this, comes one last caveat. “If you’re deciding to interact in the social space, realize it’s a conversation, not a forum. It’s about give and take, people getting to know people. It’s not a forum to unleash platitudes and marketing spin,” he says. “The ability to humanize your brand is absolutely critical to achieve success in this space.” Do Your Own Thing, Then Do It Simply and Really Well Andrew Kordek, co-founder and chief strategist for Trendline Interactive J ust because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean you necessarily need to do it too. To date, this is what Andrew Kordek believes is the best marketing advice he’s ever received. The chief strategist and co-founder of strategic email marketing agency Trendline Interactive says that in a time when newfangled digital options pop up almost daily, the advice is more relevant than ever. Clients often become overwhelmed and feel pressure to “be everywhere,” Kordek says, which can derail otherwise strong marketing strategies. “Today’s society has digital ADD,” he says, which is something he believes companies must recognize in both themselves and their intended audiences since capturing attention is difficult enough even with the most streamlined approach. “When you think you have to do everything everyone else is doing, you complicate things, rush things and don’t do them correctly or with any thought process behind it,” Kordek says. “Many companies have fallen prey to that pressure.” He and Trendline Interactive put this prudent approach into play, too. Despite his stake in an email marketing agency, Kordek doesn’t have an email newsletter. While Trendline Interactive has a Facebook presence, management is careful about how they use it and, as he puts it, “We don’t spout out on it all the time.” “Everyone talks about global integration, but integration is hard. It costs money, and it costs time. It goes far beyond sticking a button on an email,” he says, adding that too many agencies and consultancies don’t provide their clients with the appropriate context for what true integration involves or provide them with a strategic process for it. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 4 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This The result is a scattered, mediocre campaign that tries to do everything but succeeds in nothing. Kordek’s experiences have built the foundation for what he sees as the best advice he’s given: Simplicity works. “We counsel clients to think big but start small … let’s concentrate on doing a couple things and doing them really well,” he says. As an example of what not to do, Kordek cites a recent sign-up page he got to via an email. Ready to provide the all-important email address, he noticed that the company had enlisted interested people like himself to “join us,” then proceeded to list multiple digital options, including Facebook, YouTube, Polyvore, Pinterest and Twitter. their email interface is helping that cause and not hurting it. He suggests marketers do the “Grandparent” test, where a less savvy user is observed looking at the email interface for the first time. Always quick with an analogy, Kordek tells clients to think of their email programs like hosting a party. They need to get their houses in order, then prepare for a hospitable welcome to set the stage for a good time. “Cleaning up your house is the very first step to ensuring the experience is great,” Kordek says. “And when people come to your door, do you welcome them or kick them over the threshold and walk away, hoping they find what they need?” This onslaught diverts attention and reduces the chances of capturing the email address, he contends. Too many companies have cluttered their email experience without taking care of the basics, he says. Throwing your guests into the fray without showing them where the food or coat closet is can be disorienting. “Email is the bread in the digital sandwich. It keeps everything together—offline and online. Email centers it all,” he says by way of explaining his belief that companies need to ensure “To be a good host, you might need to show them two or three times,” Kordek says. “You want the experience to be good so they’ll stay.” “ Email is the bread in the digital sandwich. It keeps everything together—offline and online. ” silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 5 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This 3 The Zany Bird Gets the Worm, but It Must Work Hard to Earn its Audience Peter Shankman, marketing consultant, author and founder of Help A Reporter Out W hen it comes to off-the-wall marketing and PR ideas, Peter Shankman wrote the book. Literally. His Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts that Work and Why Your Company Needs Them is an in-the-trenches look at how breaking molds can shake things up just enough to make a lasting impression. It comes as no surprise, then, that Shankman counts this as the best advice he’s ever received: Don’t worry about what people might think when you have a crazy idea. “If they don’t like it, they’ll say so and you’ll start over, but more times than not, they’ll be intrigued and willing to run with it, and it will work,” Shankman says. It’s been such a part of his career fabric for so long, Shankman says he can’t remember where it originated, but acknowledges that it’s the basis for how he approaches everything. In 2005, he suggested a small Tarrytown, N.Y., yarn store outfit a van with huge rolls of yarn and knitting needles. Seven years later the spectacle known as the “Yarn Bus” is still a huge hit as it shuttles people from Manhattan to the Flying Fingers Yarn Shop in Tarrytown, half an hour north, where they can shop, then shuttles them back to the city. Shankman says Flying Fingers was immediately taken with the idea, which he has found to be the general way such suggestions pan out. Some companies might be hesitant and others might even reject the zany outright, but it doesn’t prevent him from floating his unconventional ideas. “The trick is that you never know what’s going to happen with those ideas unless you suggest them. Too many marketers assume it’s going to go bad, so they don’t bother.” So what’s the best advice this maverick has ever given? Ironically, it’s one with restraint and even decorum at the heart. Shankman, who also founded The Geek Factory, Inc., a boutique social media, marketing and PR strategy firm, is adamant that companies must earn their audiences. “Having an audience is a privilege and not a right. It’s like wearing Spandex,” he says. When marketers and companies concentrate on the audience they have rather than the audience they want, they stay on course, he asserts. “Keeping the people you have entertained, happy and informed has to be the priority,” Shankman says. “When you do that and do it well, you will grow organically.” Companies must work to engage their audiences and then listen to their feedback, he says, cautioning marketers not to bother asking what people want if they’re not going to honor the choices, such as sending more emails than requested or not respecting the preferred method of communication. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 6 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This Much like wearing tight, stretchy clothing in public before putting in the necessary time at the gym, companies risk offending their customers and digital followers when they’re dismissive or unengaged. 4 “On the flip side, some companies are doing it very well. They ask how you want to communicate with them—and ask often—and they stick to it,” he says. “It definitely stands out and builds loyalty.” Get to It Already, but Put the Brakes on the Hard Sell M.H. (Mac) McIntosh, founding partner at Acquire B2B and CEO of marketing and consulting firm Mac McIntosh Inc. A t the height of the popularity of Nike’s famous slogan “Just Do It!” something clicked for Mac McIntosh. He recognized in himself the same inclination for agonizing over details he saw in many clients. The problem? Slogging through projects and brooding over minutiae wastes precious time. “I have to fight the urge to quit fiddling and get it out. You can always change one little word or make another adjustment to a paragraph, but in the end, sending it or not sending is what makes the difference,” he says, clarifying he’s not supporting sloppy writing with poor grammar or typos. “Instead of planning to get ready to get started, you just need to do it. Perfection is about practice, and you’ll never realize it if you don’t get it—whatever it is—out the door,” says McIntosh, who has more than 20 years of advertising, marketing and sales experience. For marketers who find they get mired in the details of messaging, for example, McIntosh suggests they start by answering these questions in this order: What, Why and How. Ensuring that communication conveys to consumers what’s in it for them is the primary burden for brands seeking to make a connection. A founding partner at Acquire B2B and CEO of his own marketing firm, McIntosh also writes regularly for a number of leading print and online marketing and business publications as well as his own award-winning blog, Sales Lead Insights®. He concedes he’s struggled with “just doing it” because as a self-proclaimed perfectionist, he’s prone to sweating specific elements or spinning his wheels in thought rather than getting started—both of which he’s often observed in clients over the years. “Once those are answered, you can fill in and qualify with ‘Who’ and ‘When,’” he says. “A lot of emails ramble on, and buried in there might be the answers, but they’re so hard to find they’re completely missed.” Sometimes this shift in thinking is just what the doctor ordered, and McIntosh believes the best advice he can offer other marketers follows this same line of reasoning. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 7 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This “Stop selling and instead, help your customers buy. Match your marketing and sales communication processes to the customers’ buying process for the most success,” he says. Too often, marketers dive face first into the hard-sell pond when they need to slow down and address the buying process from the consumer’s perspective. Whether it’s email communication, Web language, messaging for collateral materials or some other marketing dispatch, the pitch must fit the audience’s needs. “I think it’s probably always been true that people don’t like to be sold, but if they feel someone is trying to help them with their prob- 5 lems, they’re much more likely to be receptive,” he notes. The relationship between vendor and consumer at this level is not so unlike a dating relationship in the early stages, he says, adding that taking the time to build trust and answer obvious questions is both intuitive marketing and the type of work that sets up the relationship for long-term success instead of a flame that burns bright then dies. “If you ask someone to marry you on the first date, they’re probably going to say ‘no,’” McIntosh says. “But if they say ‘yes’ on the first date, you probably won’t want to be married to them anyway.” When It Comes to Your Site, It’s About Usability, Usability, Usability Bert DuMars, vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce at Newell Rubbermaid “P retty is as pretty does” may not be the phrase that typically springs to mind when discussing e-commerce, but maybe it should be. That’s because it doesn’t matter how attractive, slick or sophisticated a site is if it isn’t user-friendly and functional, says Bert DuMars, vice president of digital marketing and e-commerce at Newell Rubbermaid. “It doesn’t matter what you or I think the website should look like, how it should be navigated or how the shopping experience works. It matters what consumers think and how it works for them,” DuMars says. DuMars, who’s been working on and with sites since the 1990s, says this piece of advice, handed to him from a boss and mentor years ago, has proved so invaluable over time in the e-commerce space, it’s also the best piece of advice he offers these days. At a company like Newell Rubbermaid, which handles numerous consumer and commercial brands, such as Calphalon, Graco, Rubbermaid and Sharpie, it’s one pointer that fits for every brand, he explains. “In the world of e-commerce, marketers have to deliver a brand experience that’s relevant to the brand they’re trying to sell, but usability is key no matter what you’re trying to sell,” he says. “We have to move from brand-building to also providing our consumers with an exceptional silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 8 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This going to search for it.” shopping experience, which in today’s world means fast and easy transactions like buying, browsing and customer service.” Leading retailers also keep their sites clean and visually sparse so they’ll load quickly, he notes. Marketers must balance content with navigability and understand their brand’s identity and demographic, of course. For some of Newell Rubbermaid’s brands, for example, context is integral to the decision-making process, and the sale is less likely to happen without it. Other brands, however, rely solely on the ease of finding the product page and getting through the transaction. What does DuMars advise e-commerce marketers tasked with creating the right interactive experience for their brand? Observe those who are doing it right and use what will work for your brand and your consumers. “Look at world-class e-commerce sites and you’ll see commonalities among them,” he says, adding that in addition to ease of navigation and clear content, leading retailers use straightforward language. “If you’re selling a pen, use the word ‘pen,’” he says. “It may be a beautifully engineered writing instrument, but that’s not how the user is “A lot of marketers think in terms of the visual, but we have to be careful to balance the visual of the website with how fast it can load,” Dumars says. “The vast majority of consumers want to get to that home page or that product page and complete a task as quickly as possible.” Finally, to ensure a site is user-friendly and gets the job done, DuMars endorses usability testing. These studies, which can be done on a large- or small-scale budget, typically engage real consumers to use the site and then offer feedback on how easy/difficult it was to find what they were looking for and complete a transaction. The objective set of eyes can be valuable to a retailer or brand marketer to determine whether the site actually engages or frustrates consumers. Because marketers and Web experts work with sites and know how to navigate even the toughest, most arcane setup, they’re often poor judges of usability, he says. “We think we know, but we don’t,” DuMars says. “Get the objective opinion to know for sure.” “ If you’re selling a pen, use the word ‘pen.’ It may be a beautifully engineered writing instrument, but that’s not how the user is going to search for it. ” silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 9 Silverpop The Best Marketing Advice Tweet This Conclusion So there it is. From Cicero to Nike, basic tenets prove just as advantageous today amid the din of communal dialogue and social networking as ever before. Since the digital world is speeding along and the World Wide Web’s reach is truly international these days, the chance of a slower-paced marketing world isn’t likely. The ability to make good decisions quickly will continue to be a prerequisite for marketing success. Through different experiences and perspectives comes the collective caveat from all five experts that knowing when to engage is as important as how to engage, and that only comes from a firm grasp on the context of your brand. Awareness of a brand’s story, its differentiators, its demographic, its place and its purpose should drive marketing strategy. When marketers preside over these aspects from the beginning, they can approach new, even bold and unconventional ideas, with confidence. Like our content? You’ll love our product. Check out our demo. silverpop.com © 2012 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. PAGE 10