When I started writing books about Internet Marketing in 2000, I was interested to look beyond ways to use the Internet to grow leads and sales. It seemed that Internet-based customer service 'Web Self-Service' as we called it would also have a strong role.
PR Smith and I emphasised this with the 5s Goals for businesses to consider in what we now call Digital Marketing. The 5Ss are Sell, Speak (a trialogue between a brand, it’s customers and other web users), Serve, Save, Sizzle (add value to the brand.)
We advised finding the gap between customer expectations of online service against what a brand was delivering and then trying to plug that gap by improving customer service.
Well back in the day,…
How social media interactions can lead to sale has been the focus of many a discussion in recent years as social media has grown to become a major customer touchpoint. Since the VP of Coke recently made the claim that Social did not lead to any significant direct sales for them, this has had the knock on effect of some questioning the power of social marketing.
What I aim to cover in this post is how a focused, stepped approach to social media marketing should be directed towards sales and how you should plan this into your marketing strategy.
What most people assume is that social is not is a direct sales tool. The reason for this is because if you think about a classic sales funnel from Reach, interest, evaluation, conversion, referral…
Value/Importance of new advice: [rating=4] (for UK readers)
Recommended link: IAB Digital Advertising Policy Guide
As a marketer, we know that advertising rules and compliance is constantly changing to keep up with the pace of new digital and social media channels.
How do we keep on top of it when there are so many rules and codes? Digital marketing in the UK is regulated by DPA 1998, Privacy and Electronic Communications and self-regulatory rules including CAP - in addition to T&Cs set by individual channels such as Facebook, Twitter etc.
Sometimes savvy customers know more about their rights than marketers or businesses. The number of laws and the frequency of updates raises a lot of questions... So how do we keep on top of it? How do we know the rules to follow as a business? What happens…
In another post I reviewed alternative agency costing models and suggested how simple budgets and quotes for marketing projects can be prepared using a spreadsheet. Larger agencies will require more features to manage multiple quotes and to relate proposals back to live projects. I’m often asked about the project proposal and time recording systems I recommend, so in this post I give some of the main contenders that are most widely used.
If you haven’t already done so, you should consider cost (and job management) platforms. Spreadsheets are useful (especially when starting out), but job management platforms are worth investigating for cross-agency collaboration on both estimate creation and ongoing time / resource management. Supporting the agency’s profitability endeavours by providing easily accessed and accurate reporting.
Time recording is seen as a huge pain for most agency staff. But are…
Message Houses are a simple but effective tool for helping your teams stay on message in their marketing communications across different channels. They can be applied not only for general company marketing and brand positioning, but also for other projects (such as events and conferences) and even for the messaging of an organization as a whole.
You might have seen Message Houses that look like the one in the image below: with an 'umbrella statement' inside the roof, three rooms underneath (each containing a different 'core message'), and with a first floor full of 'evidence, proof or support.'
Let's call it the 'multi-room Message House'.
The idea is to have the contents of your Message House inspire all other communications. Consultants like to tell their clients: 'Stay inside the Message House, and you'll be safe!'
At the …
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