When an opportunity presents itself...

...grab on and ride it like the wind! There are times in life when the somewhat perfect opportunity falls your way, you ponder, and ponder some more then it's time to make a decision. While it may feel overwhelming, it may keep you up at night, but then you have to decide if it's right for you.

There are a number of things to think about. Where can this opportunity take you? Do you have what you need to succeed? Have you talked to others about it? Have you weighed the pros and cons of the situation?

At some point you have to ask yourself, go for it or let it pass.

Then the time comes to seize YOUR opportunity.

Make it a great Friday.

Debbi

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Learn more here.

Why so blue?

Colors convey messages. They promote feelings. 

Have you ever noticed blue is a common brand color for many financial institutions? Have you ever wondered why? 

When you look at the meaning of the color blue, it's clear why it's so commonly used. Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It conveys a message of depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Specific shades of blue can convey different things. For example: 

-Dark blue:  trust, dignity, intelligence, authority

-Bright blue: cleanliness, strength, dependability, coolness

-Light (sky) blue: peace, serenity, ethereal, spiritual, infinity

With meanings like that, is it any surprise why it's such a popular branding color? Color choice is just another subtle way to convey a feeling for your customers. 

Other fun facts about blue: 

-53% of the flags in the world contain blue

-blue is considered a masculine color and is highly favored among men

-the color blue may act as an appetite suppressant, which is why it's not commonly used in restaurants. 

Until next time, 

Gail 

Sources: http://www.colormatters.com/blue, http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community. We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Learn more here.

Marketing and Sales Alignment: Putting the Whole Puzzle Together

There's no longer any doubt that a high-performing B2B demand generation system requires a coordinated effort by both marketing and sales. Changes in the attitudes and behaviors of buyers have made it essential for marketing and sales efforts to be tightly integrated.

Most of the discussions about marketing and sales alignment have focused on the lead managment process. In this area, alignment primarily means that marketing and sales have agreed on:

• What constitutes a "sales-ready lead"
• How the "hand-off" of leads by marketing to sales will be handled
• How sales will follow up with the leads supplied by marketing
• When leads will be passed by sales back to marketing for additional nurturing
• How new leads acquired by salespeople (through prospecting) will be handled

Having marketing and sales aligned on a well-designed lead management process is important, but that's not the only place where marketing and sales need to be on the same page. In other words, lead management is only one piece of the marketing-sales alignment puzzle.

There are three other critical pieces of the puzzle - value creation, target market definition, and messaging.

Value Creation

Value creation refers to how you create value for customers. It's critical to have marketing and sales aligned on this issue because it's the foundation for your entire demand generation process. To create alignment, marketing and sales should agree on the core value propositions that you will offer to potential buyers. (For a list of questions that can help you define core value propositions, see this earlier post.)

Target Market Definition

Your target market definition includes both the kinds of organizations that will make your best prospects and the identity of the individuals within those organizations who make or influence the decision to purchase your product or service. Marketing uses this definition to design lead generation campaigns and programs. If marketing and sales use a common target market definition, there will be fewer disagreements concerning the quality of leads produced by marketing.

Messaging

Messaging refers to the content you use to "tell your story" to potential buyers. Messaging is embodied in all kinds of communications vehicles, including traditional marketing collateral documents, white papers, e-books, webinars, and sales presentations. There is often a huge disconnect between marketing and sales when it comes to messaging. Various studies have shown that between 50% and 90% of the collateral materials produced by marketing are not used by sales, and the American Marketing Association has reported that salespeople spend 30 hours per month searching for or creating their own sales materials. These problems can be avoided if marketing and sales agree on the major components of your company's messaging.

The Whole Puzzle Matters

Aligning marketing and sales across all four of these issues is not easy given the culture that exists in many companies. But consider how much better your demand generation would perform if you marketers and salespeople had a common view of:

• How you create value for customers
• What kinds of organizations make your best prospects and who the key players are within those organizations
• How to effectively communicate your value to potential buyers
• How to manage leads effectively throughout the buying process

An Army of One. Focus ... Momentum ... Results.

In 480 BC, a dedicated force of 300 Spartan warriors held off a far greater Persian army -  numbering more than 100,000 for 7 days during the Battle of Thermopylae.

How?  A strategic FOCUS.  A dedication to building MOMENTUM.  Continually monitored RESULTS and the help of a few friends to achieve them.

Most community banks and credit unions that we talk to are just like the Spartan army.  They are usually an army of one person (or a small few), who is strategic planner, accountant, copywriter, art director, secretary, media buyer, interactive expert and public relations specialist.  But you too can hold off the onslaught of a much larger banking enemy.

Focus: Defend a narrow pass, making your enemies enormous size irrelevant.

The Spartans chose to defend a narrow pass, where they could not be flanked by Calvary, limiting the size of their enemy’s front line and that was ideally suited for the Spartan weapons and training.

There were a thousand strategies that the Spartans couldhave chosen, but they weighed their options and put everything into the one, targeted plan.  Similarly, there are a thousand things that you, as a financial marketer, could be doing.  What is the focused strategy that will best build your business?

Momentum: A single-minded dedication to only those tactics that best propel your strategy forward.

For the Spartans, momentum wasn’t gaining ground, but rather holding ground and chipping away at their enemy’s forces.  Their advantage was home turf and their smaller size.

You are in a similar situation.  The goal for most community banks and credit unions is not market domination, but rather market share gain.  You can accomplish this because of your small size.  Like the Spartans, you know the terrain and the people.  The larger regional and national banks have the larger budget, but you have the focus and knowledge of your own backyard.  Every dollar you spend can be to drive targeted business you’re your institution.

The Spartans smaller size also helped them to better manage resources versus the massive Persian army who quickly burned through their food and water.

Your resources are just as vital.  Your resources are hours and dollars.  Determine what tactics are most vital to your success and focus your resources there.  Do you really need to spend 2 hours on a statement message or an afternoon on a newsletter article?  Are all of your sponsorship dollars generating a return, either in awareness or actual business?  Look at how you spend your resources this week.  Are they being used best to hold off the massive big-bank army?

Results: Constantly monitor success and failure.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

After each battle, the Spartans had to compare their losses against the enemy’s.  And they did not achieve their success alone.  While the Spartan 300 are legendary, in actuality, they had the help of thousands of other Greeks.

You may not have to monitor results daily like the Spartans, but fewer resources require you to more frequently monitor results.  If a tactic works, continue or ramp it up.  The moment it fails, kill it and redirect resources.  Determine what you need to do today/this week/this month/this quarter – do you have a single-minded drive to do it?  Are you accomplishing it on time?

Finally, as well trained and skilled as they were, the Spartans couldn’t do it alone.  Really analyze your capabilities.  Determine what you do best and outsource those strategic items that others may do better.

Learn more here.

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MarketMatch is a full-service marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

A modest diagnosis of India's infrastructure woes

I just got back from Hong Kong, and on the way back I stopped in India, as I usually do.



India had been on a tear, economically speaking, for much of the first decade of this century, but appears to have paused for a breather over the last few months. Things are a tad slower than the frenzied pace of just a few years ago; the confidence (hubris?) has mellowed just a little; the shine – well

Myths And Misconceptions: The Real Truth About Content Marketing And The Search Engines

[Editorial Note: The below is a copy of the article I wrote for my blog on TargetMarketingMag.com. Enjoy!]

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people saying things such as: 'Google doesn't like content or article marketing since they changed their algorithms' and 'article directories are not useful for search engine marketing and link-building efforts anymore.'

I like to remind people of a few fundamental rules of online marketing, specifically involving content, that virtually never changes and is extremely helpful to know (and do!) ...

· 'Mix' it up. It's always a smart thing to have a diversified online marketing mix. I suggest to clients to look at their online marketing plan like a pie, and each slice is a tactical allocation -- organic and paid for strategies. As with your financial planning ventures (such as with your retirement account), it's always safer to diversify than put all your eggs in one basket. The same holds true for your online marketing plan. Mix it up and keep it diversified. Some allocations may be smaller than others, based on budget, objective, and other variables. But it's good to spread it out across many tactics and online marketing channels such as organic search, paid search, social media, online PR, content marketing, etc. Then if one tactic is a laggard and others are leaders, it all balances out in the end. This also helps compensate for algorithmic ‘bumps in the road’ that may temporarily affect your search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) efforts.

· Doing It 'Right' Can't Be Wrong. Google and other search engines often change their algorithms to as keep search results relevant and fresh to related queries as well as impact unscrupulous 'black hat' practicing marketers who use no-no tactics such as gateway pages, keyword stuffing, link baiting, link farming, content farming and more. These are the folks that link to irrelevant sites with irrelevant content to the equivalent of content spamming. For compliant content marketers or those using the SONAR Content Distribution Model -- the core strategy is to leverage high quality, useful, content through synchronized, synergistic and relevant online distribution. SONAR and content marketing, when implemented correctly, include 'white hat' SEO principles. And if you're using quality, original content with either of those marketing tactics and distributing your content to targeted, relevant sites, you really can't go wrong.

· Quality And Relevance Are Key! According to Webpronews.com, when Google released their official statement about the algorithm change in 2011, the Farmer/Panda update was aimed to help more quality websites be higher in the search results versus content farms with irrelevant, unbeneficial content based on the keywords being searched. Article directories may have initially been stuck in the cross-hairs losing some initial value, but again, if you are putting out ‘UVA’ (useful, valuable, actionable) content into numerous organic online channels, the diversity and balance will offset any temporary side affects which may occur versus doing article directory marketing by itself. Based on my experience, if you push out quality, original content in several places including article directories, your articles should appear in pages 1-5 of Google search results. And with Google’s latest ‘freshness’ update, the most timely and relevant content should appear in descending order by date from the top of the search results. Quality and relevance are key.

· Targeted Link-Building. Links, whether it's one way back link or a reciprocal back link, are still links. Quality links help SEO, and that is undisputable. But again, there's some ground rules to do it right within best practices ... and do it wrong. Links should be quality links, and by that I mean on sites that have relevant content and a synergistic audience as to your own. It should also be a site with a good traffic rank. I prefer to do link building manually and do it strategically. I research sites that are synergistic in all ways to the site I'm working with (albeit one-way or reciprocal links). Doing it manually allows more targeted selection and control over where you want your links to go. Manual selection and distribution can also lead to other opportunities down the road with those sites you're building relationships with including cross-marketing or editorial efforts such as editorial contributions, revenue shares and more. In my view, this approach is both link building and relationship building.

· Location, Location, Location. Where you link to is important. When doing SONAR or content marketing, I always tell clients to deep link, that is, not just link to their home page -- which to me, doesn't make any sense anyway, as there's too many distractions on a home page. Readers need a simple, direct call to action. Keep them focused. It's always smarter to link to your source article, which should be on one of your subpages, such as the newsletter archive page or press release page. Now you have a connection -- the article/content excerpt you pushed out and is appearing in the SERPs (search engine result pages) and its redirect links to the full version on your archive or press page. You’ve satisfied the searches expectations by not doing a ‘bait and switch’. There’s relevance and continuity. And to help monetize that traffic, that newsletter archive or press webpage (which you're driving the traffic to), the background should contain fixed elements to 'harness' the traffic it will be getting for list growth and cross-selling such as fixed lead gen boxes, text ads, banner ads, editorial notes, and more. These elements should blend with your overall format, not being to obnoxious, but being easily seen.

· Catalyst Content. It's always important to make sure you publish the content on your website first ... I call this your 'catalyst content'. This is the driving source which all other inbound marketing will occur and be focused around. Your website articles should be dated and be formatted similar to a news feed or blog. Also, posting timely press releases will work favorable as they will be viewed by Google and human readers as the latest news (again favorable to Google’s latest ‘freshness’ update). At the same time, send your content out via email (i.e. ezine) to your in-house list before external marketing channels see it. This helps from an SEO standpoint, but also helps with credibility and bonding with your subscribers and regular website visitors as they should get your information before the masses.

There you go. My best practices for marketing with content. I don't practice nor condone 'black hat' marketing tactics. I've always been lucky enough to work for top publishers and clients that put out great, original content.

It really does all boil down to the quality of the content when you talk about any form of article and search engine marketing. Content is king, and when you have strong editorial, along with being a ‘creatively strategic’ thinker, you don't need to engage in 'black hat' or questionable SEO/SEM.

Algorithms are always changing. It’s good to be aware of the latest news, trends and techniques, but also not to put you’re your eggs in one basket and build your entire online marketing strategy based on the ‘current’ algorithms. Using solid content, analyzing your websites visitor and usage patterns and keeping general best practices in mind are staple components that will always play an important role in content marketing.

In a nutshell: I believe articles can have the same theme and have some content overlap, but should be tailored to each platform it's being posted to and to each target audience/niche group that will be reading it. That will keep the content relevant and specific. With content marketing (and especially with the SONAR Content Distribution Model) I like to think of leveraging UVA content and it's targeted dissemination on the Web as 'relevant repurposing and redistribution with a purpose'. It should also not be 'fluff''. Content, in my opinion (in article marketing), should be 'UVA': useful, valuable and actionable.

5 Ways to Save Marketing Dollars

Does it seem like you never have enough money allocated to marketing? It seems like marketing departments are to do more with less each year.  At least that’s how I felt in my previous life working for community FIs. 

If you have a small department and a small budget, here’s a list of 5 things I did to help stretch my marketing budget further:

1. Reuse existing resources from previous campaigns. No need to recreate the wheel every time as many campaigns need only minor tweaking.
2. Do you pay high costs for radio development or models for photography work? Utilize your own staff and customers. Make this into a fun competition to find the right voice and the image you’re looking for.
3. Print your smaller, direct mail items internally versus outsourcing.
4. Utilize interns as much as possible – it’s amazing how much they know. Be sure to interview thoroughly for the area you want help with, whether creative, copy, etc.
5. Be creative in finding additional freelance options that don’t cost you money. For example – trade office space (if available) for services you need. It’s also important to check with your coworkers to see what skills they have. Many times coworkers would love to help out marketing and if it’s a win-win for everyone, why not?

AND Number Six – Hire a marketing agency that offers a 100% ROI guarantee - like MarketMatch.  (Yes, I had to throw that in. J )

Best,
Melissa

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Burn your computer. Blow up your TV. Bludgeon your cell phone. Breathe deeply. This, my friends, is the secret to inner-peace.- Brian Vaszily

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.