Jan 9, 2015 | Marketing, Small business, Social Media
Courtesy www.searchengineland.com
“Content Marketing” is the new buzzword, something I consider to be a tarted-up label stuck on a set of activities we have always done, in the hope of adding a few more mirrors to the disappearing hall, so quick talkers can extract a premium for what they are supposed to be doing anyway.
Cynical perhaps, but what is copy in a newspaper column if not content, what about the promotion run by the local car dealer, or the ad on TV?
Leaving that grumble aside, the huge change that has occurred is that content no longer lasts as long as it used to, but has the chance of resurrection, for the real thing!
There is some great stuff being produced, truly inspirational material, but as usual there is a lot of crap, and the volume of crap is increasing as the appetite of the new e-mediums increases, and everyone becomes a publisher.
There has always been a 1/2 life for content, but the nature of it has changed radically.
The half life of a daily newspaper used to be a day, after which it became rubbish, of a women’s magazine, it was a bit longer, a week or two as the articles were read (are they really?) and as the copy got handed around a bit, a radio ad was about 30 seconds at best.
Material published digitally has a much longer half life, but much less chance of being seen on being published. The volumes of publishing on Social media platforms limit both the opportunity to be seen on publishing, and usually the reach of a post (facebook is now less than 5% organic reach) 
but do offer the opportunity for a second, and third chance, as it does not become fish wrapper tonight.
The most viewed post on this blog was written several years ago, and just keeps on attracting readers, but on the day it was published, well, suffice to say I did not need to take my shoes off to count the numbers. In addition, good posts can be linked, shared, republished with ease, again increasing the 1/2 life, and occasionally there is the remote possibility of a digital lottery win, the viral post.
Digital phenomena like the video condemning Kony, the African nut job laying waste to swathes of central Africa using children as soldiers swept the world, breaking all records, and Psi, that whacky Korean “singer” who became an internet sensation for reasons I simply do not understand, can happen. The 1/2 life of those two may be short, but the reach was huge, and there is always the chance of a rebirth.
Particularly for small businesses with limited resources, considering the nature of their content, and crafting it to extend and expand the 1/2 life, offers great opportunities for marketing and communication leverage they never had before.
Jan 5, 2015 | Branding, Change, Customers, Governance, Innovation, Marketing
Small business is at a crossroads as we move into 2015.
Either they embrace the opportunities and tools presented by the disruption of the “old ways” by digital technology, or they slowly, and in some cases, quickly, become irrelevant, obsolete and broke as customers move elsewhere.
Your choice, as much of the technology can now be relatively easily outsourced, and at a very reasonable cost, certainly less than most would expect. The two major challenges in outsourcing, snake oil salesmen and not knowing what you want and need, are little different to any other category of purchased service.
So, to the trends that will influence your business in 2015 that you need to be at the very least aware of, and in most cases take some sort of pre-emptive action.
- Marketing technology will continue its rise and rise. The thousands of small marketing technology players who are currently emerging will be forcibly integrated, as the big guys buy “Martec” real estate. Adobe, Microsoft, et al will spend money, and the little guys will be swallowed as the gorillas fill the holes in their offerings, and new segments emerge. At the other end of the scale, there will remain plenty of options for smaller businesses to step into the automated marketing space. The current rash of innovations to make life easier for small businesses will continue and as those smaller single purpose tools gain traction, and more are launched to fill the niches that exist to service small businesses.
- Peer to peer marketing will continue to grow at “Moores law” type rates. Jerry Owyangs honeycomb diagram and data tells it all. Almost any service I can think of has the potential too be disrupted in some way by the peer to peer capabilities being delivered by technology.
- Content creation as a process. The next evolution in marketing, the move that I think “content” will start to make from being individual pieces of information produced in an ad hoc manner to being a process that is highly individualised, responsive to the specific context, and informed by the behaviour of the individual recipient scraped from the digital ecosystem. It means that content creation needs to be come an integrated process, more than a “campaign” . The term “content” will become redundant, it is just “marketing”, focussing on the individual customer.
- Marketing will evolve even more strongly as the path to the top corporate job. Functional expertise is becoming less important, what is important is the ability to connect the dots in flattened organisations that work on collaborative projects rather than to a functional tune. This trend is as true for small businesses as it is for major corporations. There will still be challenges as many marketers are really just mothers of clichés, but those relying on the cliché and appearances for credibility are becoming more obvious as the marketing expertise in the boardroom increases, and the availability of analytics quickly uncovers the charlatans. This will make the marketing landscape increasingly competitive on bases other than price.
- Recognition that marketing is the driving force of any successful enterprise will become accepted, even by the “beanies”. Seth Godin has been banging on for years about the end of the industrial/advertising model, the old school of interruption, but many enterprises have continued to deploy the old model, but I sense that the time has come. 2015 will be the year that sees marketing finally takes over.
- Video will become bigger part of marketing, particularly advantaging the small businesses that have the drive to deploy it and the capability to manage the outsourcing of the bits that they either cannot do, or cannot do economically. The old adage of a picture telling a thousand words is coming to life in twitter streams, instagram shares, and all social media platforms. The video trend will be supported by increasing use of graphics in all forms, but particularly data visualisations as a means to communicate meaning from the mountains of data that we can now generate. The density of data on the web is now such that new ways to cut though, communicate and engage need to be found, and I suspect those will all employ visuals in some form, perhaps interactive?
- Pay to go ad free is a trend that will evolve suddenly, to some degree it is an evolution of subscription marketing. Free to date platforms will charge to be ad free, whilst new platforms and models such as the Dollar Shave Club will probably evolve.
- The death of mass and the power of triibes will become more evident. The “cat pictures ” nature of content of social media platforms will reduce as marketers discover smart ways to package and deliver messages that resonate and motivate action. The agility of digitally capable small businesses will open up opportunities for them their bigger rivals will not see, or not be compatible with their existing business models.
- Local, provenance, and “real”. Marketing is about stories, so here is a trend made for marketers, and you do not have too be a multinational, just have a good story, rooted in truth and humanity. ‘Hyper-local” will become a significant force. Marketing aimed at small geographies, such as is possible by estate agents, and “local” produce, such as the increasing success of “Hawkesbury Harvest” in Sydney, and the “Sydney Harvest” value chain initiative.
- Paid social media will evolve more quickly than any of us anticipate, or would be forecast by a simple extrapolation. Twitter will go paid, travelling the route Facebook took to commercialize their vast reach. Some will hate it as it filters their feeds, others will welcome the reduction of the stream coming at them from which they try and drink. Anyway, twitter et al will set out to make money by caitalising on their reach.
- Social will grab more of the market in 2015 than it has had, even though the growth has been huge over the last few years. Small businesses will either embrace social and content marketing, in which case their agility and flexibility will put them in a competitively strong position, or if they fail to do so, they will fall further behind, and become casualties.
- The customer should always be the focal point of any organisation, but often they fail to get a mention. It is becoming more important than ever that you have a “360 degree” view of your customers, as the rapid evolution of social media and data generation and mining is enabling an ever more detailed understanding of the behaviour drivers of consumers. The density of highly targeted marketing, both organic and paid is increasing almost exponentially, so if you do not have this 360 degree view, your marketing will miss the mark.
- Treat with caution all the predictions you read, keep an absolutely open mind, as the only thing we know for sure about them is that they will be wrong, as with this ripper from Bloomberg who predicted the failure of the iphone. However, as with statistical models, quoting George E.P. Box who said “Essentially, all models are wrong, it is just that some are useful” perhaps some of the predictions you find around this time of the year will be useful, by adding perspective and an alternative view to your deliberations for 2015.
As a final thought, if you think your kid may be good at marketing, be sure they learn maths and statistics. “Maths & Stats” will increasingly be the basis of marketing, and the source of highly paid jobs and service business start-ups.
Have a great 2015.
Allen
Jan 1, 2015 | Leadership, Management, Marketing, Small business, Strategy
happy new year
It’s been the Christmas and new year period, and over the break some introspection occurred, along with the pud, family connections and some nice wine.
One of the insights that emerged was the application of Clayton Christianson’s “job to be done” idea to marketing, and specifically the manner in which I approach the task of developing, selling and delivering Intellectual Capital.
As I thought about what is was going to take to be successful in 2015, I needed to ask, and answer three pretty basic questions:
- What is it that I do every day?
- Why would people hire me?
- How can I help them do their job better?
When I worked my way through those, the answer was pretty simple.
The job of a marketer is to discover, develop, and tell interesting and engaging stories to people who care, who may receive value from the experience an wisdom contained in the stories, and who may take an action as a result that delivers them some benefit.
The job is not to make ads, or create blog posts or posters, it is to identify the ways that as marketers we can bridge the divide between what people are looking for, the challenges and opportunities they face, and how we can help them with the task of “finding.”
I trust 2015 will be a good year for us all, at least better than 2014.
Our families, friends, colleagues, and those who are in great need around this shrinking world need some simple wisdom, helping hand and quiet counsel, and it is up to us collectively to give that to them as we can, in the best way we can.
Happy new year.
Allen
Dec 31, 2014 | Uncategorized
It is new years eve 2015, and being an advocate of accountability, it is only right that I submit myself to scrutiny over the predictions made in January for 2014.
Below is a reproduction of the post from January 2014, with a few comments and the score I (generously) gave myself.
All in all, a pretty good record I think, although I struggle to find much quantitative data to support the generous scores.
- Simple is the new complicated. All the conversations about social media, analytics, fragmentation of just about everything, we are bombarded with messages, options, and imperatives. Amid all this, marketing is at work, and the stuff that works is simple, cut through ideas. David Ogilvy had a bunch of “Olgivyisms”, one of which was , “big ideas are usually simple ideas”. This still holds true, it is just the big ideas have to cut through more fluff and interference than in Ogilvy’s day, and there is more confusing analytics and alternatives to be considered.
- Score. This remains a prediction, but I guess simplicity will always be a primary objective of thinking marketers. I think it was that great proponent of simplicity Steve Jobs who said “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. 3/5
- Simplicity facilitated by new tools. Tools to leverage the capabilities of the web have been getting simpler by the month. It will reach the point where those with absolutely no computer skills at all can participate. WordPress has made building a web presence pretty easy, but now the new generation of similar tools like Weebly, take that a further step. The 40% of SME’s who have no web presence beyond a facebook page set up by their children, has passed, they no longer have an excuse.
- Score. I think this prediction still holds, but I remain astonished at how many small businesses do not get it. The 40% of SME’s without websites remains about the right figure, sand the take-up the new tools does not seem to be as wide as I expected.2/5
- Reach and frequency is dead. This was the mantra of paid advertising for most of my long career, you paid for both in a matrix that focused on a demographic, “women 25-40 with children” or “working women earning over 50k” and so on. Before behavior based analytics with any more accuracy than a big U&A study, it was the best we could do, but it was pretty crap. Now with every man, his friends, and parents on facebook LinkedIn, Pinterest, et al, reach and frequency have a different sound. The enormous penetration of social media and the opportunity for behavioural analytics have changed the dynamics of advertising, and advertisers have raced to the new platforms, without recognising that the existence of the platform, free, and ubiquitous, has changed the rules entirely.
- Score. Not as dead as I thought, but declining. The wider use by Google and facebook particularly of advertising payments based on an outcome beyond just “availability” of an ad is a step that has highlighted to marketers the value of closely defining their targets then personalising communications. Most small businesses however still do not have much idea of how to best use Googles adwords and facebook ads.3/5
- Banner advertising on the web is also dead. Web banners simply do not work in the way a banner on the corner of your street did. They do not grab attention, and convey a message, they are simply in the way. Look no further than the huge drop in rates from a decade ago when they were touted to be the next advertising El Dorado. I am not surprised, simple supply and demand economics would indicate that when supply is infinite, the price at which demand can be met is close to zero. However, there is a caveat. The IPO of facebook in 2012, and Twitter in November 13, based on revenue projections that demand banner ads remain revenue generators is forcing some pretty smart people to consider how to make them sufficiently relevant to continue to attract revenue, and they may just crack the code.
- Score. Did poorly here, marketers are still wasting huge sums on digital banner ads that promise reach, but deliver little of value. I am not sure if this is stupid marketers, or stupid boardrooms, either way, I score myself down. 1/5
- Values matter, more than ever. The temptation is to “pimp” your products and services at every opportunity. LinkedIn forums are full of new “discussions”, which are just pimping a product, very few get opened, they certainly rarely create an discussion, and are one step away from Spam. If you are gong to spend your resources, money, time, talent, on marketing, make it count, tell people “why”. Steve Jobs articulated this very well when launching the now famous “Think Different” ad to Apple employees.
- Score. Got this wrong, pimping products seems to be more prevalent than it was in 2013, but I am prepared to believe that the worm will turn at some point. Perhaps 2015?
- Content is serious business. Content is not just a word, it is a consumer of considerable marketing resources, and the capability of creative content creation to build a brand is evolving at a rapid rate. In the past, I have wondered at the capacity of the web as a brand building device, giving it top marks as a medium of delivery, but I could not think of a brand that had been built by the net. Now it seems, that Red Bull will get a guernsey. Their web presence is exceptional, huge resources are put into creating the positioning as extreme sports in all sorts of amazing ways. This best of 2013 post on Digiday has some great marketing, including Red Bull, and this terrific story of an old Nissan Maxima . The new year will see great strides in video brand building, the pace of creative change, and the socialization of the change, as demonstrated by the Maxima example, will continue to accelerate. In 2014, the “Social” component, promising businesses interacting with their markets for free, will be overtaken by the “media” part of the social media equations, as to be noticed bucks will have to be spent. There will be the off the wall hits, but the average cost of being seen will go up substantially. Content creation without any content marketing and compelling reason why a consumer should even look at it let alone give it any consideration will rapidly become almost useless. Your content is competing in a highly competitive and fragmented market for a share of consumers limited attention, and the old rules of marketing apply.
- Score. At last, a 5, and the evolution will continue.
- “Environmental” research. This is not tree-hugging, it is my term for standing back and forming a view of the context in which your customers and markets live, what is changing that will alter their lives, and how can you leverage those changes by innovating in the manner in which you serve them. Now more than ever, this is a skill required, as there is simply so much data and information around, it is easier than ever to drown in the detail without understanding the context. For example, in my view, 3-D printing is an emerging disruption, not just to manufacturing but across industries that are in any way engaged with selling “things” rather than services. Forming some views on how this may impact on you, and your value chains, and taking steps to build the capabilities that will become necessary to survive and prosper is as important as breathing.
- Score. The jury is out, but the judge (me) still sees this sort of research as absolutely fundamental to success. 3/5
- Data accumulation and “personal leveraging” Word of mouth has always been the best marketing tool available, now the continuing development of social media platforms and marketing automation, the opportunity to be “personal” is increasing with every day that passes. In conjunction with this is the building of lists, contacts with whom you have the opportunity to build a relationship.
- Score. Absolutely. 5/5
- Every person is a potential media channel. Just consider the capability to connect to facebook, LinkedIn, and the rest, and send information, ideas, links, referrals, to everyone in their networks. Media channels used to be a few radio, TV, newspaper and magazine channels, they were all one way, the “stuff” got pushed out and the opportunity to respond was limited to letters to the editor. No longer!
- Score. Still the case, although many, perhaps most small businesses are still not taking advantage of the opportunities.
- Personal Kaizen. Kaizen is Japanese word for “continuous improvement” extensively used in lean literature. Lean is more than just an operational strategy, it is one for every facet of your life and business. Every time you do something, strive to do it better, by being smarter, than the time before. Being serious about personal kaizen makes you curious, interested, and interesting, qualities that attract opportunity.
- Score. I have seen the tern “Kaizen” pop up a bit in the last 12 months in the marketing literature, but that does not mean much is happening. I leave it to you to mark yourself. My mark of me, a bit harsh, but private.
- Craftsmanship. In a world of increasing homogeneity delivered by specification driven design and manufacturing, where differences are often just cosmetic and qualitative, genuine craftsmanship, bespoke design, and catering to the individuality of people is increasingly important. The extent to which craftsmanship and “manufacturing” beyond the C20 concepts of mass manufacturing for operational efficiency can become integrated is just starting to evolve. There are many examples, one I am personally familiar with is Ian berry who is Ironsides leather. Ian crafts leather, belts, harness, bags, using just the old tools of the trade, experience, true skill, and passion. It is true craftsmanship, and buying a belt from him is receiving a gift of that experience and craftsmanship. Ian is also a great advertisement for the point above about simplicity. He produced his website using a Weebly template, a few photos, and a bit of time, no cost. No HTML, no complex menus, no computer skills beyond a one finger familiarity with a keyboard.
- Score. Still the case, perhaps more so. 5/5
- Marketing and technology will continue to collide. The days of marketing being unaccountable are over, there is no excuse for not calculating the ROI of your marketing investments these days. Scott Brinkers blog on the intersection oftechnology and marketing is a terrific resource, his thinking on this is in front of the pack, and allied with Avinash Kaushik’s wonderful Occam’s Razor blog, there is enough brain food to keep most of us fed on the topic.
- Score. Also still the case, if anything, the rate of growth of marketing technology is accelerating. The first Marketing technology conference held in Boston in march 2014 was a resounding success, and I hear from Scott Brinker that the second planned for march 2015 will be even bigger. Enough said. 5/5
- Collaborative marketplaces will continue to rise and rise. The web 2.0 enabled one way markets to thrive, Amazon, Ebay, electronic banking, and many others. More recently, collaborative marketplaces have emerged, where both sides of the transaction put something in, rather than just buying a product. Airbnb, Uber, and many others, will continue to explode, mainstream companies in areas threatened will need to consider how they respond. Car hire companies need to have a service, to disrupt themselves, hotel chains need an equivalent to Airbnb, and so on, the disruption is profound, and just beginning. The best thinking around in this is being done by Jeremiah Owyang, whosebody of work on the topic is extraordinary.
- Score. Still the case, and accelerating. Jerry Owyang’s latest database of recently funded startups on the topic is extraordinary, and expanding. 5/5
- Mobile first. Use of mobile devices to access websites and social media platforms continues to increase, reaching numbers in late 2013 upward of 65%, and reaching the eighties for some specific sites, numbers that astonish even the bullish predictions of a year ago. In developing countries, where the economies are booming, and fixed line infrastructure is limited, mobile and wireless have simply jumped ahead, and the infrastructure of the developed world will simply not be installed. It is these countries that are driving mobile innovation.
- Score. Still the case. 5/5
Let me know what you think,
Another amongst the tsunami of 2015 prediction posts will be along in a few days, but as has been my focus in the past, I seek to articulate the strategic drivers and trends I think will shape our commercial environment, rather than make specific predictions about particular events. Makes holding me to account that much harder.
Hope you had a good Christmas break, now almost over, and that 2015 is a stellar year for you.
Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing over 2014.
Allen
Dec 22, 2014 | Customers, Governance, Management, Marketing, Small business, Strategy
“marketing” inventory
Taking inventory is one of the most boring things, but necessary things we all need to do. Understanding what you have in stock is fundamental to determining the operational priorities for the future.
Taking physical inventory is familiar to everyone, it is an essential part of staying in business, but how many take an inventory of their marketing assets?
We spend time and money creating things that we hope will deliver leads, or push them through the conversion stages, but how often do we stop and think about optimising the leverage those assets are generating?.
The Christmas break is a great time to get some of this essential stuff done, to examine from the recipients point of view, how well your marketing assets actually work. Following is a list of the typical marketing assets even a small business should have, and often will have without really considering the implications, consequences and costs.
Planning and tracking.
- Do you have a marketing plan that reflects the short to medium term activities needed to deliver on a longer term strategic plan?
- Is there an activity plan for marketing investments that outlines the timing, costs and expected returns from marketing activity in 2015?
- Have you put in place the measures that will enable you to calculate a Return on your marketing investments at each stage of the engagement funnel?
- Are there tracking measures in place that will enable you to improve your returns?
Customers.
- How well do you know your existing customers?
- Who are they?
- What problem are you solving for them?
- Would they be prepared to recommend you to others?
- What is your share of their wallet?
- Why do they use you instead of your competitor?
- Do you know who your priority target customers are?
- Are they defined to the point where you could personalise them?
- Are your communications “personalised” and directed to their specific needs and challenges?
- Do you understand their behaviour
- Do you understand why you lost customers, and have you made the choice not to spend resources to keep, or get them back?
- Are there some ex customers you are happy are ex? And why
Digital assets
- Are your websites and social media platforms linked and cross posting?
- Are your profiles optimised on each platform?
- Are tracking codes in place and optimised on each web page and platform?
- Do you work the key search terms for your segments naturally into the headlines and body copy of posts?
- Are the auto responder emails appropriate for the trigger response?
- Do you say “Thank You” enough?
- Are you capturing data at every opportunity?
- The “ABC of sales” or “Always be closing” school of sales has changed to “always be collecting”.
- Are you using analytics to test, test, and test again to improve your conversion rates?
- Do you track conversion rates at each stage of the sales funnel?
Relationships
- Are you seeking ways to build and leverage relationships with suppliers, and natural partners?
- What is the balance of your sales efforts between nurturing existing relationships to building new ones, and is that balance appropriate?
- How would you rate your relationships with your best customers?
Capability building
- How deep and appropriate is your management “bench” or in its absence, contractors to fill gaps?
- Have you defined the capabilities necessary to sustain growth and profitability, and set about building on the existing, and filling any holes?
Your time.
As the owner of a business, the most valuable asset you have is your time. Problem is usually there is not enough of it, and others do not value it so try to use it to their purposes.
- Do you have the business/life balance right? I know it is a cliché, but that is why it is true.
- Do you explicitly set out to work “on your business” rather than in it? Another cliché, but also true.
- Does the business run without your detailed day to day involvement?
- If not, when will that day come?
Financial management.
I often get puzzled looks when as a marketing consultant I bang on about things financial. However, it does not matter how good your marketing is if the product is crap, or delivered late, or sold at below cost. Financial management is the foundation of any enterprise, as much as marketing is the essential ingredient for success.
- Do you have a cash flow forecast?
- Do you know and actively your costs, fixed and variable?
- Have you calculated your break even?
- Have you a revenue forecast and operational planning in place?
The above is just a start, a “taster” for 2015 which I expect to be a difficult year, so those who are best prepared, will do well, the others… well, they sell flowers at the funeral home.
Thanks for reading, responding and sharing my musings through 2014. I am going to take a break from the keyboard for a short time. Have a safe and merry Christmas, and I will see you in 2015.
Allen
but do offer the opportunity for a second, and third chance, as it does not become fish wrapper tonight.
