Are you addicted to work?

As marketers and creative people we all tend to work long hours from time to time. Some of us may even be labeled as "workaholics". If you go to bed at night thinking about your job and wake up in the morning thinking about your job or maybe just don't sleep at all thinking about your job...you might just suffer from workaholism.

Its easy to define, and I am sure all of us are guilty of over-working at some point in our lives. Face it - it's easy to do. There are a few ways to keep yourself in check and not fall into being a workaholic:

• Learn how to earn to live and not live to earn. Easier said than done right?...we all want that pie in the sky and will work our fingers to the bone to achieve it. Not so much...living to earn can be stressful and it deprives you of enjoying your life to the fullest. When you become a workaholic, you are obsessed with work and miss out on life’s great moments. Earning money isn’t the only thing that matters…finding time to spend it is also important.
• Don't work on your vacation or on your days off. You need to realize that your body needs relaxation and leisure to perform efficiently. No matter how important the work is, spend your vacations and days off as a day to revive and reset, not as working days.
• Waste time, from time to time. If you think that spending some leisure time is a waste, then you’re mistaken. The times you chill and enjoy help you get ready for upcoming stressful hours. Considering the heavy and complex work nature of marketers, idle time is sometimes a must. Spending time enjoying and relaxing, not only diverts your worries, but also increases you productivity.
• Don't neglect loved ones. Remember you're not alone in this world. No matter how important your work is, never compromise your family or friend time. You are making money to fulfil your family requirements but in the end, if you don’t have enough time to spend with your loved ones, it's not really worth it. When you are with your family or friends…make an effort to be really there...not off in the clouds thinking about deadlines.
  
• Don't be a perfectionist. Let’s face it, nobody’s perfect and never will be. Before committing to any project, you must contemplate on whether it is possible or not. Taking on projects with unrealistic deadlines makes you a workaholic. Always think before you leap and never jump the gun on a project that is outside your realm of abilities without having the time and resources to achieve the end goal. Remember you aren't going to please 100% or people 100% of the time, that is just the way it is.
• Set your own restrictions. Always remember, no one can control you more than yourself. The most important thing you need to do is to set restrictions on yourself. Restrict your working hours in a way that you get time for others and most importantly yourself.
• Step away from the computer. Not only will it help you ease your mind but also save you from going blind or forever being cramped into a desk seated position. Sometimes, it is important to step into the real world and update yourself with the activities going on around you. Go out to lunch, run to the gym or the store - step away.

Until next time,
Jeremy

GET FIT in 2011

It’s hard to turn on the TV, check your email, or listen to the radio without being bombarded by the over-saturated message of ways to lose weight in the New Year. If you are setting forth a resolution to live a healthier lifestyle in 2011, consider carrying over that resolution to your work life. For instance, you can remove excess from your marketing budget by adjusting tactics that aren’t providing your enough exposure or return.

Let’s take a look at three easy ways to ‘trim the fat’ in your marketing efforts that will free up money that you can put to better use!

1 – Revisit Sponsorships. Instead of pursing a sponsorship with minimal exposure, consider asking for more unique and exclusive ways to draw attention to your brand. Only follow through with the sponsorships that will provide enough return to cover your investment.

2 – Minimize Phone Book Advertising. As long as your locations and phone numbers are accurately portrayed in the yellow pages, people will find you. When was the last time you heard of someone choosing a bank or credit union based on a yellow pages ad? Just about any other advertising medium is a more effective use of your money.

3 – Renegotiate Contracts. We have seen many clients with overpriced advertising, creative design, or research contracts. Contracts are almost always negotiable, especially in this economic environment. If you can’t get a discount, ask for a quote from another vendor to make sure you are getting your money’s worth.

This year, “trim the fat” in your marketing budget so you can put it to better use.

Best,

Jamie

The Top-10 B2B Marketing Trends for 2011

Happy New Year! It is January and time again for the obligatory 2011 predictions. Many marketing experts have strong opinions on what they think will happen in 2011.

Instead of coming up with what I think is going to change in the B2B marketing world in 2011, I decided to ask you and tap into the combined wisdom of over  17,000 marketing professionals in the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn. I asked you to rank the marketing areas you think will become more important in 2011.

Here are the key trends that B2B marketing professionals think are shaping B2B marketing in 2011.

1 - Integration of social media into lead generation programs
2011 will be the year social media evolves from the experimental stage to become an established marketing tactic. Social media will be more tightly integrated into traditional tactics such as email, webcasts, and content assets as another channel to broaden the reach of messages and drive conversions. This also means that more stringent demands for proof of ROI and revenue impact will be placed on social media investment.

2 – Focus on content marketing (content mapped to personas, buyer's journey, vertical, etc)
Content marketing is going mainstream in 2011. If you are not thinking about (and implementing) a strategy that puts your buyers (with their persona and industry driven pain points, preferences, and buying stages) in the center of your marketing efforts - and create compelling content as the currency of your engagement with buyers that influences decisions along the buying process - chances are you will get left behind by more content savvy competitors. With content moving to the center of attention, marketers often struggle to create magnetic content in the right formats and quantities. Sophisticated marketers will apply systematic ways to re-purpose existing content, create bite-sized content for the short attention span executive, and design an efficient content waterfall that accelerates production times, quality, and consistency.

3 - Focus on new business generation & revenue
With many markets making a modest recovery, which is expected to accelerate somewhat in 2011, marketing focus turns away from cost cutting and customer retention and towards growth and new customer wins. Marketing will be expected to show how it impacts new revenue generation. "Last click attribution" alone won’t cut it anymore and will need to make room for more comprehensive ways to show the combined impact of marketing tactics on buyer decisions.

4 - Focus on lead quality
In the past, marketing focus has often been on generating increasing quantities of leads. It was difficult to tell lead quality and impact on sales pipeline, so in the absence of real quality indicators, more was considered better. This flood of leads overwhelmed sales and distracted from the selling part of their jobs. And marketing received the blame for creating poor leads and wasting valuable selling time. Now, with the emergence of marketing automation tools and lead scoring technologies on one side, and tougher requirements for demonstrating program ROI on the other side, look for lead quality to become a critical performance metric in 2011.

5 - Focus on sales enablement
The best leads and nurturing strategy, however, doesn’t help much if sales can't close the deal. Our B2B marketing community agrees that providing sales with not only the right leads, but compelling content, sales tools, and education is going to be more critical as a competitive weapon in 2011. Your competitors are catching up on the latest lead generation and nurturing tactics. And all other things being equal, an educated and motivated sales force and their consultative selling skills will be the ultimate differentiator.
    Tom Pisello added a great comment to our B2B Technology Marketing Community, highlighting that a recent survey by IDC found that 24% of B2B buyers found that the sales reps are not prepared for presentations at all, 30% indicate that they are somewhat prepared , and only 29% indicate that they are well prepared. An empowered buyer means that the role of sales will dramatically be impacted, requiring sales enablement and marketing to help redefine and drive a new breed of value selling professional in 2011.

6 - Focus on pull/inbound marketing tactics
This reflects the continued power shift of buyers moving firmly into the driver’s seat, initiating, and controlling the buying process. As traditional interruption style marketing techniques are being blocked and filtered out by buyers, marketers need to shift to inbound tactics using magnetic content that enables buyers to educate themselves about the nature of their problem, available solutions, vendors, and products long before the first personal engagement with a vendor takes place. You want to be the source buyers are flocking to for this high-value content.

7 - Focus on customer retention
Customer retention has provided the much needed revenue stream that enabled many companies to survive the recession as new customer wins dried up. While the economy is slowly improving, many markets are still anemic and it remains critical in 2011 to nurture and grow existing customer relationships.

8 – Focus on marketing intelligence
Marketing automation, online marketing, and CRM systems create tons of data that is revealing buying patterns, customer preferences, and insight into what is working and what is not. Let's put this data into insight and action with better marketing intelligence in 2011.

9 – Focus on marketing automation
Marketing automation is going mainstream in 2011 as companies are taking their online campaigns, lead scoring, and email automation to the next level and integrate social media with traditional tactics. It will be interesting to watch how the decline of email usage by buyers and overall lower conversion rates will impact marketing automation effectiveness going forward.

10 - Focus on branding and awareness
Branding and awareness tactics took a backseat to marketing programs that could demonstrate an immediate and direct impact on revenue. This is slowly changing as budgets are improving and a long term view is taking hold again in 2011, recognizing the importance of a strong brand to influence buyer preference.

What marketing areas are less important in 2011?


As telling as the areas of increased focus are the areas B2B marketers consider less important in 2011:

• Marketing cost reduction (is there much more to squeeze out of marketing without cutting into substance and choking off growth?)
• Outsourcing (along the same lines as cost reduction, and can we afford to outsource even more without losing core competencies?)
• Lead quantity (see increased focus on lead quality in the top 10 list)
• Push marketing tactics (see focus on pull marketing in the top 10 list)
• Marketing asset management (while still important, many marketers have solved this problem with asset and content management tools)

What are your thoughts? Does this reflect the reality in your organization going into 2011? What of these focus areas match your priorities, which don’t?

Thank you for following and contributing to this blog. I hope the new year will treat you well and that you have much success in your B2B marketing efforts in 2011!

Last day of 2010, Happy New Year!

December 31, 2010...Happy New Year everyone!

May this be the beginning of a wonderful year!

Make it a great Friday. Be safe this New Year's Eve, enjoy your weekend and until we talk again.

Debbi

Customer Service from a Marketer's Point of View

I have been a lifelong customer of American Airlines. A frequent flyer, credit card holder, miles gifter--you name it. I started flying AA because they had direct flights into St. Louis, where most of my family lives. From there, I started to accrue miles, and soon enough, I booked all of my travel on AA. It became a habit. I knew their routes, the layout of their planes, and how to navigate Dallas Forth Worth airport like a local. In performing arts terms, I was a long time subscriber. That is until now.

My flight from St. Louis to Washington, DC was canceled the day after Christmas due to weather (even though DC didn't receive any snow, and my plane was at the airport ready to take off). I was informed by a robo call, which also told me that I was rebooked for a flight 26 hours later. The message ended by instructing me to call AA reservations if I had any questions or concerns. Knowing that I had to be at work the next day for two interviews with major media outlets, I tried calling the number given. After being hung up on four times, the automated telephone system said "we are experiencing high call volume. If you would like to speak with an agent, please call back later." Knowing that I wouldn't be able to speak with a human, I tried working out my problem on the AA iPhone App and on their website, neither of which were designed to handle cancellations. My last option was driving an hour and a half to the airport, which I did only to be met with an apologetic but complete ineffective gate agent. So with no other option, I boarded a flight 26 hours later, however I decided I would no longer be an AA subscriber.

As marketers, we know that it costs significantly more to attract new customers than it does to retain them. Customer service is one of the easiest ways to create brand champions or to drive loyal customers away. As the economic crisis continues, we are all being forced to examine our expenses and improve ROI. So here are some thoughts on customer service as a marketing tactic to reduce churn:

1. When dealing with a customer service complaint, take a holistic view of the customer. At Arena Stage, we are fortunate enough to have a robust database that allows us to see a holistic view of our patrons. Each time a patron comes into contact with our company, it is recorded. Any employee can log into the database, and see a lifetime's worth of interactions. Like most companies, Arena Stage has policies and procedures, however our greatest asset is the excellent judgment of our front line staff. They are instructed and empowered to thoroughly review a patron's file, and to depart from most policies and procedures if necessary to retain loyal customers. I would rather waive a $10 exchange fee for a longtime subscriber every once in awhile than spend ten times that finding a new subscriber. Senior managers must allow front line employees the flexibility to take care of highly valued customers.

2. Track all customer service issues, and start to look for a pattern. Each time a customer complains, be it to front of house, box office or anyone else, the complaint should be logged into your database and tracked. Every Monday morning, senior members of the Arena Stage staff are sent a CSI (customer service issue) report listing all the complaints that came in the previous week. These complaints are then put into a spreadsheet, sorted into categories and analyzed for any visible patterns. If the same issue continues to come up, you can bet that there are ten times the number of frustrated patrons with the same issue who haven't complained. It is then your responsibility to proactively address the issue swiftly to prevent future patrons from having a similar disappointing experience with your company.

3. Be proactive, rather than reactive. The best service comes from proactive management of customer service issues. Instead of relying exclusively on complaint tracking and analysis, be proactive and solicit opinions. Send customer satisfaction surveys. Benchmark numerical responses from year to year, and ask open ended questions. Aggressively solicit customer service issues and correct them before others have to experience them. In addition, if you notice a customer has experienced a problem, try to contact them before they contact you. We ask our house managers to get the names of all patrons who share complaints and/or concerns. This allows us to follow up with the patron and suggest a solution, apologize or offer some form of compensation before they contact our box office. Imagine receiving an apology and a compensatory offer from a box office before you even contact them to report an issue.

4. Even small gestures go a long way. After doing a little research on airline customer service, I was reminded by Time Magazine's Richard Zoglin in his article "The Airlines' Customer Complaint Lines: No Answer" that even small gestures go a long way. You might not be able to meet all the demands of an angry customer, but you should be able to offer a little something to most of them. A comp ticket to an under-performing show, a free drink at the bar, complimentary parking, an autographed poster or perhaps a handwritten response from your Artistic Director. In today's world of fast-paced, unfriendly, automated response systems to customer complaints, it shouldn't take much to stand out from the crowd. Differentiate yourself from your competition by making a small gesture to each upset patron.

By offering better customer service, you can reduce your marketing expenses by slowing down churn. Make it a priority to retain the customers you spent valuable time and resources attracting in the first place.

Resolve to Work Smarter

As we approach the end of the year, a reflective tone on our past performance often resonates. We often compare our actual performance to the goals we had set out for ourselves to see how we measured up.

Reflecting on the past year’s performance of what we did well and what we could have done better leads us to the question, “how can we do it better in 2011?“ Lessons learned from 2010 can guide us in the right direction for working smarter in 2011. Working smarter is very relevant as we remain in an era of increasing responsibilities and minimal budgets.

Explore these ideas to discover ways you can work smarter in 2011…

• Acquire the market and industry intelligence in order to become a “smarter” when targeting prospective customers
• How can you package products or provide relationship benefits to better engage current and new customers in a broader relationship
• Review internal customer data in order to expand balances and services per household through better targeting and more innovative profiling
• Review operational communication messaging in order to maximize retention or expand relationships
• Ensure your products and customer service are better than the competition

Looking over 2010 with a critical eye is important to discover ways that you can continually grow and improve your marketing. Using this information to work smarter will help us to deliver the results we all need to keep growing and reaching our goals.

Resolve to work smarter this year!

Jamie

Don't SPAM Your Fellow Social Network Community Members!

Ok, you decided to implement social media marketing. You have been actively engaging in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other popular sites. You carefully accept friend, follower, and fan requests. Then it hits you like a ton of bricks ... you’ve just been spammed by a ‘friend’!

Facebook and LinkedIn publish your email address on your user profile page for all your ‘friends’ to see. And many ‘social marketing barracudas’ use this personal information and decide that it’s fair game to now send you unsolicited, unwanted and un-opted in emails that are typically promotional in nature OR trying to get you to hire them for their services.

Remember, if you didn’t ‘opt in’ to receive someone’s promotional-type communications to your personal or business email address, than those emails are spam - plain and simple.

Don’t engage in this abusive practice.

If you wish to correspond with a fellow social network community member, use social marketing etiquette and either post to their wall or send them a direct message thru the social media community platform. For instance, Facebook has a way where you can ‘direct message’ friends so it’s private to that reader and not a public post for all to see. This way, you’re not invading this person’s privacy and sending correspondence to their ‘personal’ email address.

When I receive messages of this nature I not only pay them no creed as the user is typically inauthentic and desperate for business -- but I also un-friend the person immediately. So it’s a lose/lose situation.

This is a blatant disregard to the social community members as well as just bad marketing.