Simply put -- gamification involves applying game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more fun and engaging.

Gamification encourages people to perform certain actions that they ordinarily consider boring. Tied to compelling content and within a relevant digital channel, gamified websites, applications or processes can increase user engagement, ROI, data quality, timeliness or even learning.

Some common techniques applied to gamification projects include:

• achievements / badges
• levels
• leader boards
• progress bars
• activity feeds
• avatars
• real-time feedback
• virtual currency
• gifting
• challenges and quests
• trophy case
• embedding small mini games within other activities                               [Image courtesy of http://www.thepixelreport.org]

To learn more about gamification and to determine if this type of strategy is good for your business, read or download the following resources:

Demystifying Enterprise Gamification for Business by Ray Wang of Constellation
http://www.constellationrg.com/research/2011/12/demystifying-enterprise-gamification-business

Is Gamification Right for Your Business? 7 Things to Consider by Erica Swallow of Mashable
http://mashable.com/2011/12/24/gamification-for-business/

The CEO Guide to Business Gamification from Business Week Special Reports Gallery
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/special_reports/20110404ceo_guide_gamification.htm

Gaming Business Review
http://www.gamingbusinessreview.com/

Gamification
http://www.gamification.org/

Gamification 101
www.bunchball.com/gamification/gamification101.pdf

Gamification applications and providers:
http://www.badgeville.com/
http://www.gigya.com/
http://www.bunchball.com/

Best,

Denice MacDonald

With the ongoing economic influx, online marketers are turning to the push-pull of the web to become more efficient. They're using social media, they're publishing targeted and relevant content and they're optimizing it. They're becoming Inbound Marketers - using strategic marketing methods to get customers to come to them. 

In traditional marketing (Outbound Marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use a wide net to target customers such as cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, direct mail and trade shows. These techniques are expensive and follow a long sales cycle. Technology is making these methods less effective and more expensive - reason simply, customers want control over what and how they are courted. 

What you should do to create an Inbound Marketing strategy: 

Content - Content is the key to any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the vehicle that attracts potential customers to your site or your business. More than likely, you have content that already exists in many formats. Take an inventory of content and repurpose or rewrite what is relevant. 

Search Engine Optimization - SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. Create inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines -- this is where most of your customers begin their buying process. Create an ongoing process to organically optimize your web content, PDFs and other content to your site. 

Social Media - Social media maximizes the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks, it becomes more authentic and credible, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site. Begin by creating your own blog with several relevant and targeted blog channels. Reply, respond or reciprocate with social networks or other blog channels creating a win-win for all.

What is the ROI of concentrating on Inbound Marketing initiatives: 

Costs - Outbound marketing means spending money - either by buying ads, buying e-mail lists or renting huge booths at trade shows. Inbound Marketing means creating content and talking about it. A blog costs very little to start. A Twitter account is free, too. Both can draw thousands of customers to your site. 

Lead Generation - Cold-calling, direct mail and e-mail campaigns are typically poorly targeted and do not provide measurable ROI. You're reaching out to individuals because of one or two attributes in a database. When you do Inbound Marketing, you only approach people who self-qualify themselves. They demonstrate an interest in your content, so they are likely to be interested in your product.  

Quantifiable Investment - When you buy pay-per-click advertising on search engines, its value is gone as soon as you pay for it. In order to maintain a position at the top of Google's paid results, you have to keep paying. However, if you simultaneously invest that money in pay-per-click and quality content that ranks in Google's organic results, you'll be there until somebody displaces you. 

Sources and Excerpts: 

Inbound Needs Oubound by Marketing Interactions 

Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web by HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog

What is Inbound Marketing? by Business Knowledge Source

Best,

Denice MacDonald

[Photo courtesy of michielgaasterland.com]

Google+ has emerged as a key player in online marketing and definitely poses competition to Facebook. However, Google+ isn’t the easiest thing to understand. Reason simply, it has a lot of features that can confuse beginners. Even advanced users can miss a lot of the little gems and nuances that define Google+.

So to help out, I have assembled some really good articles for consumers AND businesses to aid in adapting quickly to Google+.

Original announcement (with video) and introduction to Google+

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, rethought for the web

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/introducing-google-project-real-life.html

Here's a great article by Mashable (continually updated) containing screen shots, video and cheat sheets with content for all facets of Google+ including Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile:

Google+ The Complete Guide

http://mashable.com/2011/07/16/google-plus-guide/

New eBook: How to use Google+ for Business Hubspot)

http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-use-google-plus-for-business/?source=hspd-website-magazine-how-to-use-google-plus-for-business-20111122

Here's a great cheat sheet from Mashable:

Best,

Denice MacDonald

We all have seen the surge in the use of social networks like Facebook and MySpace allowing us to connect in unprecedented ways. The acceptance of social networks has allowed niche networks to flourish - offering topics and resources to specific targeted markets. 

Marketing through social sites 

While these sites' traffic may pale in comparison to the big networks, there's a good opportunity to connect and market to a dedicated audience who might be more open to learning a little more about your product, services or offerings. If you provide real value to members, they will be much more willing to engage your brand. 

Finding that 'niche' social network 

Try spending a some time investigating your industry - chances are there's a network out there where you can promote and/or brand your business to a specific target audience. Begin with associations or affiliations that are tied to your industry segment. Then, research specific topics or issues that resonate with your customers. Yes, your competitors will be right alongside you, but consumers will be there too. And they will be looking for an expert in the field.  

Lastly, if you can’t find a specialized community for your industry, you could always create one.   

Get started: Learning from the best 

How to Identify & Target the Right Niche Social Media Sites  by Chris Winfield

Fastest Growing Niche Social Media Sites and Networks by Jessica Merritt

Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network by Mark Hendrickson

The following is a list of the top social niche networks that target specific audience or cater to a special interest for you B2C enthusiasts:

43 Things -- A social networking site that targets goal-setting, members are interlinked by the goals they are going after and the goals they have completed.

BlackPlanet -- One of the oldest social networks, and the most popular special interest social networking site, BlackPlanet caters to African-Americans.

Care2 -- Green living beyond just social networking, Care2 offers email, blogging, shopping, and more, all catered to those wishing to live a green life.

Classmates -- Founded in 1995, Classmates was one of the first social networks on the web and still caters primarily to schools and colleges. Classmates charges a fee for advanced services that are usually free on other social networking sites. The website also uses questionable marketing practices by emailing non-paying users and inviting them to pay for the premium service under the pretense that someone was searching for them.

eCrush -- A social network targeting teens, eCrush is the 21st century's answer to writing "Do you like me?" on a piece of paper with a boxes for yes and no and a request to check the one that applies. Teens tell eCrush who they have a crush on, and then eCrush asks those people who they have crushes on. If there is a match, eCrush lets both know, otherwise, the person is none the wiser.

Flixter -- With a tagline of "stop watching bad movies," Flixter combines social networking with movie reviews.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Earned Media is basically free media. Earned Media specifically refers to publicity gained through editorial influence and has become the backbone of many social media initiatives and social content development strategies.

With so much user generated content these days, it would behoove an organization not to take advantage of the magnitude of earned media – integrating an earned media strategy during content conception into execution.

Definition

To get the definitions out of the way, those in the marketing and agency world are privy to the buzzwords “paid,” “earned” and owned.” Traditionally, they stand for the different types of media and can be easily broken down like this:

• Paid: Buying a 30-second Super Bowl spot
• Earned: Coverage on Mashable (aka user word of mouth)
• Owned: Your company’s website

The business case for Earned Media

Don’t forget all content — whether it’s text, a video or a microsite — will be “reduced to a link” for social spheres making Earned Media an easy thing to do. There were 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions made by Americans online according to Forrester. Such volumes of word-of-mouth marketing can spread awareness of a product incredibly quickly, and it’s why earned media has become so important to a marketing campaign.

Understanding its usage

Let’s run through a scenario. Earned Media, for example, is what you get when you develop a connection with someone that’s compelled to write a Yahoo review, a blog post, a comment or a tweet, sharing their thoughts on your brand with their social network. It sounds simple but it does take forethought.

Specifically, you will need to develop a strategy at content conception and then filter everything through its earned potential. That is, did I get the right audience, is the content compelling to share (good or bad) and do we make it easy to ‘syndicate’ the efforts (share tools, icons, other channels and formats) and, most importantly, does it integrate nicely as a natural springboard from traditional paid or owned media?

More on Earned Media:

For Social Media Marketing, Earned Media Rules -- MediaPost

How Social Media is Changing Paid, Earned and Owned Media -- Mashable

Defining Earned, Owned And Paid Media – Forrester Blogs

Best

Denice MacDonald

I recently completed a new website that concentrated on inbound marketing and sophisticated lead generation. As part of the strategy, it was imperative to create relevant, enticing conversion pages.

In the past, most companies would do 'overkill' on these conversion pages - resulting in less conversion and more confusion about the company or product. Moreover, the content 'promise' delivered 'less than expected' and left the visitor disappointed. As we know, a disappointed visitor never comes back.

I recently received an email from Infusionsoft for a recently published white paper on marketing strategies for SMB's. The email was quite enticing and, with one click, landed me at this page - providing an exemplary example of a strategic conversion page:

Infusionsoft used 5 key elements to get me to opt in:

1. The logo or brand element is not overwhelming - just a reminder that this opt in is for Infusionsoft and/or available to click should I want to get to their home page.
   
2. The overarching message or 'grab statement' is Dream Big! Who doesn't want to dream big! Got me didn't it?
   
3. The item is FREE!
   
4. There are several easily scannable bullet points so that I get the gist of the offering.
   
5. There are only two opt in fields for me to get the goods!

About Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft is an all-in-one marketing automation software used by thousands of savvy small businesses to leverage personalized marketing automation to convert leads, grow sales and save time. Take a look at their product - I have been impressed with their content and would suggest a peak!

Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald

Website Magazine has written a superb article on Rethinking Reputation Management - a practice that has not gone unnoticed by businesses both large and small.

Basically, Website Magazine defines Reputation Management as: a business and personal reputation that is measured by a consumers’ perception of the brand’s products and services.

Let’s face it, not all businesses can afford to invest in sophisticated online reputation management tools such as Marchex [which is a great tool by the way]. So what to do?

Website Magazine suggests that organizations do ‘Reputation Management in Reverse’ – basically identify the companies you are competing against by actively following, tracking and monitoring them. Moreover, the article emphasizes that you need to track new competitors and their followers, engaging that audience frequently and building your social network with one competitor’s downfall after the next [competitor social listening].

According to the Website Magazine: “whether you have brand equity and brand awareness or not, it has been proven time and again that knowing what customers and prospects are saying and feeling about your business is of importance — the same holds true for what is being said about the competition.” 

Read full article. 

About Website Magazine: Website Magazine is a ‘must-have’ resource.  Reason simply, Website Magazine is the one magazine to focus exclusively on the business of running a website: tips for successful websites, solutions for enhancing website traffic, the latest Internet industry trends and statistics, as well as news analysis on the Internet industry. Go here to subscribe.   

Best,

Denice MacDonald

[Graphic courtesy of: http://social-media.co.uk/]

Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.

Whether its website traffic analysis, search engine optimization or tracking business success metrics, you need to develop a web strategy ‘up front’ to support measurement objectives. This thought process seems so fundamental but rarely exercised.  Take these simple rules:

A strategic plan for evaluating your website will help you:

1. Collect only the data you need to make informed, strategic decisions
2. Identify priority “action areas” for improvement, measure the impact of those actions -- and keep your customers coming back
3. Determine benchmarks and performance goals you should aspire to, and the extent to which you’re achieving them
4. Determine whether you’re getting a return on the investment you’ve made to build, operate and maintain your website(s)
5. Evaluate how well your website is performing relative to competitors, your company's brand, mission statement or hiring criteria

Develop a plan – a strategy – and review and adjust it regularly by asking these questions:

• What do you need to measure
• What are your requirements
• How will you measure it
• What tools will you use
• What methodologies are needed to gather the data you need
• What will you do with the results
• How will the results help meet the goals for your website and your company's mission
• How does the plan fit with your company's overall strategic and performance plan

Once armed with this process and validation, you will find that your ROI exceeds expectations. 

Great Resources:

Coremetrics Web Metrics
Get powerful website metrics with the leading provider.

Web Measurement Data Fast
ClickTracks web measurement shows behavior, conversion, groups, SEO.

WebTrends Analytics
Marketing Intelligence Solutions, leading analytic & metrics software.

Web Analytics
Compare web analytics products and get a free report sample from CMS Watch.

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
If you have an interest in measuring the success of your website, then this book is definitely for you!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

On average, customers lose anywhere from 10-20% of their existing client base from mismanagement or simple neglect. 

How do you keep clients while winning new ones? Staying connected - tradition methods still work.  Here are a few simple rules to keep clients happy and coming back for more:

• Email is a great way to stay connected to your clients - but a call or meeting (regardless of a project) will go a long way in staying connected. In fact, invite a client to a seminar, event or other gathering of similar interests or needs. The more time you spend with your client, the more you can connect with them on a personal basis.

• Ask your clients opinion on new products or services.  Clients are your best critics and their input will help you in the long run.

• Keep up with your clients competition and share ideas. Use google alerts or other online clipping service to stay ahead of the competition and show you're vested in your client's success in the marketplace.

• Acknowledge clients by asking for their testimonial or inclusion in your next press release or case study. Send them a copy of what is created along with a personalized note thanking them for their valued contribution. More than likely during the conversation, you can ask for a referral!

Lastly, be honest with your client. If you feel there is a rough spot or a misstep on project expectations, address the situation immediately.   

Facebook is the most popular social network, and with over 750 million users, it can serve as an important marketing tool for any business. Let's face it: your prospects are on Facebook whether you like it or not.

A successfully maintained Facebook presence can help your business:

•Get found by potential customers

•Connect and engage with current customers

•Create a community around your brand

•Promote and expand the reach of your content

•Generate leads!

Download This Free eBook Now!   

Denice MacDonald 

My favorite resource Website Magazine has posted a timely article in a recent publication: The New Content Experience - Driving awareness, providing entertainment and generating profit.  

Strategic Web Content Kicks Brochureware Content to the Curb
This timely article indicates that ... "there is more content available on the Web than ever before, and it’s being delivered to consumers at blinding speeds. To make content stand out in a saturated market (and ensure that it ultimately influences sales and conversions), you will need to rethink content as an asset — then retool for the new content experience." 

Great Example: White Papers and Thought Leadership
“Those seeking information on solutions, trends and technologies are the ideal audience for a content marketing strategy. Our question throughout is not just what kind of content to create but what format will resonate best. The answer, particularly for those in business-to-business industries, is white papers…” 

The article goes on to discuss video and other rich media as part of the content mix. 

Check out the article. 

Subscribe to Website Magazine.  

More on content strategy by MacDonald Consulting:

Web Content: Relevant, Persuasive and to the Point 

Get it right: Web Copy 

Best

Denice MacDonald

You've spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it's important to make sure that someone or something has not jeopardized your brand.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to track your reputation is to use Google Alerts. With this free service, you can search either all of Google's properties, or you can specify that only News, Blogs, Web, Video, or Groups is searched. You can then configure the Alerts results to be emailed to you either as it happens, once a day, or once a week. There is also a page where you can edit the alerts once they are created or delete them when they are no longer in use. 

If making a good name for yourself online is a priority, it's time to take a proactive approach to getting your name out there the way you want.  

BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKS – Complete your profile in its entirety and connect with key professionals in your network.

BLOGS – Consider a business blog and one that you contribute to – showing you are a thought leader will aid in elevating you or your products in your industry. Likewise, use blogs to amend or respond to bad hype.

WEB 2.0 PR – Get news interviews, podcasts, webinars with clients 'live' online. Third party testimonials by key constituents regarding your products and services will go a long way in building brand reputation.

LINKING – If you have a web site, consider carefully where and how inbound and outbound links are connected – bad links will reflect poorly on your brand.

SUB-DOMAINS - Add a sub-domain for careers, corporate and/or product info for little or no cost.  Not only will sub-domains elevate your search results but add depth to your reputation.

PPC/ONLINE ADVERTISING – This can only help protect your brand and will help influence visitors to see who is the real website that should be visited.

SEARCH - Take control of the visible results of any search related to your brand. By taking a coordinated approach to search engine optimization, you take greater control of the other nine slots.  

FREE MONITORING TOOLS:

Similarly to Google Alerts, Yahoo! Pipes is also a good tool for aggregating and combining feeds into one central repository.

Using Twitter search you can locate any instances of your name and decide whether you want to tweet back or ignore them. 

If you have a blog, then you have to be on Technorati. Technorati tracks “blog reactions,” or blogs that link to yours. Search for your brand on Technorati, and subscribe to RSS alerts so that when someone blogs about you, you find out.

Yacktrack lets you search for comments on your content from various sources, such as Blogger, Digg, FriendFeed, Stumbleupon, and Wordpress blogs.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

After participating in several webinars this week, I continue to hear that corporate blogs are still the hub for many social media intiatives. And, anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog - especially if it is the cornerstone for most of your corporation's social media content.

Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful corporate blog:

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform offering a unique view into your organization.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds. 

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature. Corporations can reply (in kind) - especially to diffuse any negative connotation about the organization or its products and services.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

Great Blogging Resource at Amazon:

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald

B2B firms led the first wave of social media adoption five years ago with aggressive blogging initiatives. More recently, Twitter, the simple yet powerful micro-blogging service, has lowered the barriers to social media entry for B2B entities almost to zero – allowing organizations to deliver sizable traffic to corporate and product Web content.  

Moreover, HR and legal departments are happy to see the ‘tweet’ alternative – diminishing any opportunity for users to provide inappropriate content with only 140 characters to get their message across.  In fact, Twitter has become a tool to point followers to safe corporate content – a means to monitor and listen to customer complaints before they get out of hand. 

Let’s not forget LinkedIn, the social network for professional adults – growing to 50 million+ users. The social network has become a popular destination for B2B companies in search of top talent or business professionals with areas of common interest. Moreover, LinkedIn claims its member demographics outpace those of The Wall Street Journal. 

With more than 500 million members, Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla of social networks. While it has been less popular with B2B marketers than other alternatives, companies including Ernst & Young, Forrester and IBM have built sizable fan bases there. Facebook is particularly popular with corporate recruiters trying to reach young job-seekers.  

Here are a few B2B social applications that will aid with integrated social initiatives – providing mechanisms to syndicate content, share content and monitor activity for future refinement:

SlideShare translates the popularity of PowerPoint presentations as a conversational medium into a membership that is reportedly approaching 10 million.  

BrightTALK takes the complexity out of managing an ongoing series of live and pre-recorded webcasts by consolidating them all into a single destination ‘channel’. It’s where you create webcasts and where your audience goes to see them. 

PRESSfeed, a social media newsroom, makes it easy for journalists, bloggers and site visitors to find and share your content. Content syndication through trusted channels is the next large wave for B2B social marketers. 

In the coming year, B2B marketers will turn their attention to expanding and optimizing the channels they use. Companies such as Jive are bringing tools to market that enable enterprises to manage large-scale social conversations while publishing simultaneously to multiple destinations.  

Great Resources: 

Social Media Will Change B2B Distribution Channels by Social Media B2B (Check out the entire site!)

9 Social Listening & Tracking Tools by Connected Marketer 

B2B Spending on Social Media to Explode by eMarketer

It's Official: Facebook Passes 500 Million Users by Mashable

Best

Denice MacDonald

I have several hundred true blog followers to my website and they have been thirsty for knowledge on social media, search engine optimization and anything metrics – 30,000 page views to be exact.  

Therefore, I feel it necessary to provide the following links that represent the most clicked, viewed and downloaded blogs from my website for 2010 – just in case anyone needs these resources again. 

Top 2010 Blogs (ranked in order by page views) 

Staying Nimble: Social Media 2010 - According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.  

Don’t Miss This One: Connecting Social Media and Email - I find it interesting that most organizations don’t realize that e-mail marketing is the original ‘backbone’ of social interaction and should always be part of the social mix.  Simply adding some ‘integrated’ content will aid in elevating your brand – not to mention ROI for your social campaigns. 

Get it here: Search Engine Optimization Blogs - Great post by Hubspot on a few dozen SEO blogs everyone should read or minimally have in your arsenal.

Social Media Resources You Can’t Live Without - Whether it’s starting a social media campaign, integrating social media into your advertising or simply setting up a Facebook fan page, it is always wise to seek out experts who have proven experience (and metrics) to help guide you in your social media initiatives. 

Social Analytics: The Next Frontier - Let’s face it folks, social analytics is a new frontier – not anything like the analytics and metrics tracking we’ve used for advertising, direct mail or other one-way channel marketing.

Get It Right The First Time: Web Metrics - Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.  

Writing for Social Media - If you want consistent social media success, you have to understand what social media users crave. For social media content, that means understanding the type of content social media users want.

Your Entire Organization Benefits From Web Analytics - You finally launched a much-anticipated Web 2.0+ web site and you can’t wait to hunker down and review your analytics. How do you gauge if your analytics for your site are appropriate, measurable and definable? And most importantly, who in your organization would benefit?    

As we move forward in 2011, it will be fun to watch the exploding world of social media and how it will affect all channels in the marketing mix.  

Happy New Year to all my blog fans and a hearty welcome to all new visitors. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Colleagues of mine talked so much during a recent presentation that they 'bought back the sale' - that is, the project was theirs for the taking, but insistent conversation and over confidence about their deliverables turned the prospect off.  Within minutes of the presentation, my colleagues received a declination e-mail saying the prospect went with another vendor. They asked me what went wrong. 

I’ve been both a marketing and sales professional with more sales calls under my belt than I would like to admit. I’ve had the rare opportunity to manage all types of sales professionals – engaging each based on their various ‘sales’ gifts. One type is very technical – having the ability to talk forever on the technical aspects of a product or service feature. Another is highly sociable – providing anecdotes and keen insight on the latest sports conundrum or talking freely about the latest stock market debacle. What years of wisdom and street-smarts can I provide to these professionals (and my colleagues above) – who on many levels ‘think they are doing it right’? 

It’s really this simple, stupid! 

Embrace the warm-up – Often times we delve too quickly into a conversation, meeting or presentation without some type of warm-up.  It’s imperative that you do your homework and find some key nugget about everyone in the room. Engaging everyone in the room in the first five minutes will dictate if you get the next hour with them. Check out their web site – great information on the company and the employees can be found in their blog, careers or community section. Remember, it's all about them - not you. 

Start listening – It's the key to any relationship. Trust me, this has been a hard one for me as I can in every case ‘already see the end product or service’ in play.  It’s imperative that you ask open ended questions to engage prospects and customers regardless of whether you know the answer. Bottom-line, you actually come across more intelligent when you let others do the talking. 

Ditch the word ‘should’ – Most customers are trying hard to do the right thing – oftentimes they themselves make bad choices or worse, don’t know what they’re buying. We don’t need to remind them that they ‘should do this’ or ‘should do that’. The key to a great sale is giving the customer what they want, not what we think they need. You can always explore options later once the relationship has matured. 

Laugh out loud – If you enter into a sales situation that is uptight, predictable or contrived, you will fail. Enjoy the meeting, enjoy the moment. Customers who see your excitement will trust that you are confident and value the task/project/product at hand and they in turn will feel more comfortable with handing you the reins (ummm…the sale). 

Lastly, don't assume that any sale is truly sold. You will need to qualify and redefine the relationship on an ongoing basis. Find mechanisms to stay connected to your clients so that they won't be snatched up by someone else because you forgot to pay attention.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

I belong to so many e-mail newsletters, RSS feeds and wiki’s that it’s hard for me to keep track of everything. But, this particular product stood out from the clutter: SlideRocket – an online presentation software that leaves Powerpoint in the dust! 

What’s the big difference? 

With interactive visual communication becoming the norm, creating that ‘wow’ factor is more important than ever.  Moverover, online presentations are slide sets that are completely Web-based, freeing users from the burdens and constraints of desktop presentation software. 

Get it free for 14 days 

SlideRocket is offering a 14 day free demo – I would highly suggest you download it and try it.

SlideRocket provides an integrated, intuitive interface for all phases of the presentation lifecycle, from creation and collaboration, through publishing and delivery.

Plus, we all love this: they have comprehensive analytics reporting, social integration, polling and more!

See a live demo.

Best

Denice MacDonald

With budgets still tight, how are companies managing to stay connected while bringing engaging and relevant messages to customers?  

Successful companies are learning that if they use interactive elements such as video, polls, FLASH and RSS feeds within their e-mail marketing campaigns, they see higher conversion rates and a stronger connection to their customers.

Video, if created properly, can really enhance your e-mail message and recipient interactivity. By using an enticing image with descriptive impact statements, recipients will be eager to click and link to the video. Include the file size, length of video or formats supported. Use flash video (FLV) whenever possible to achieve higher compression rates. 

• HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works by David Rich

Polls are a great way to entice recipients and engage audiences that want to be heard. Create topics or subjects that will resonate with your intended audience. Provide immediate results, along with associated support material, newsletters or additional links.  

• Best practices: Using polls in e-mail marketing by Karen J. Bannan

RSS feeds are another way to keep customers connected post e-mailing especially if your company has a blog, dedicated community or news section. RSS feeds provide the right amount of content to recipients on their terms making it the perfect connection outside of targeted e-mails.

• Newbie's Guide to Google Reeder - by Josh Lowensohn

In summary, once you have created an on-going e-mail campaign with customers, remember to include interactive elements and content that will continually engage your customers. Remember to measure the effectiveness of each campaign and refine where necessary.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Video on the web is exploding and becoming one of the most clicked-on features. It has proven to increase conversions by double digits, reduce returns by as much as 10%, build brand loyalty and enhance customer experience.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear from Priscilla Lawrence, Principal Product Manager of Adobe Scene7, at an exclusive free webinar on making the most with online video slated for Thursday, June 17, 2010.

Sign up now. 

(Note: If you are reading this post after June 17th, Adobe Scene7 has weekly Webinars each Thursday at https://www1.scene7.com/registration/weekly_webinar.asp).  

About Adobe Scene7

Adobe Scene7 is the leading on-demand cross-media platform that enables companies to grow revenues, enhance customer experience and cut production costs.

More Resources:

The 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps by Vimeo

16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing by Social Media Examiner

Web Multimedia Strategies by Web Style Guidelines (Includes production tips, formats and right-sizing for the Web) 

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.   

Social media on marketers' menu for 2010 by Helen Leggatt, Biz Report   

"It looks like social media is on the menu for most marketers this year. A survey of almost 2,000 MediaPost subscribers found that over half plan to have "a presence on social networks" as part of their marketing mix in 2010..."  

10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010 by Ravit Lichtenberg from Ustrategy.com

"It is impossible to separate social media from the online world. Facebook reached 350 million users last month -- 70% of whom are outside the US -- and it accounts for 25% of the Web's traffic, according to Pew nearly one in five people on the web use Twitter or some other service to check status messages, and 94% of enterprises plan to maintain or increase their investment in enterprise social media tools. The social media conversation is no longer considered a Web 2.0 fad -- it is taking place in homes, small businesses and corporate boardrooms, and extending its reach into the nonprofit, education and health sectors. From feeling excitement, novelty, bewilderment, and overwhelmed, a growing number of people now speak of social media as simply another channel or tactic..."

Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010 by Vanessa DiMauro, Customer Think   

"Policies are dull. No one wants to create them, no one likes to read them and certainly, few desire the job of enforcing them.  But they can play an important role in outlining the rules of engagement around a particular set of online behaviors and have a strong role to play in the face of new situations where the there are no standards.  This is especially true with the wild west world of social media in business..."  

Six Social Media Trends for 2010 by David Armano, Harvard Business Review   

"In 2009, we saw exponential growth of social media. According to Nielsen Online, Twitter alone grew 1,382% year-over-year in February, registering a total of just more than 7 million unique visitors in the US for the month. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to outpace MySpace. In 2010, social media will get even more popular, more mobile, and more exclusive — at least, that's my guess. What are the near-term trends we could see as soon as next year..."

Best,  

Denice MacDonald