by on November 11, 2010 Leave a Comment

How to help clients get their groove

There’s no secret sauce to helping anyone learn anything. You see the burning flames of passion for the subject in their eyes, flash a mirror at them and they’re one step away from achieving the incredible things they deserve.

When I’m helping people understand the power of podcasting for themselves and their customers, I follow a really simple process that uses the mirror principle to define their reasons for jumping into this brave new world of communications.

I need to understand the:

  1. Business today. How did you get here, exactly? What’s going on today? What are your favourite products and services? How about your customers? Is there a difference between the two? Do you know?

  2. Audience factoids for bbc.co.uk. Who knew the childless made up such a big proportion of its users?

    Audience (let’s keep it simple here – we’re talking communities, whether for commercial or other ambitions). Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do they like to do? You can start this journey using Alexa.com, and the results will probably startle your client if they don’t already have the detail.

  3. Resources. Who have you got available to work on this project? Is it something you can outsource if necessary? Can you get your customers in to help? Most people ignore the opportunity of customer participation in podcasting. There’s no stronger voice – and the voice is precisely what you need to bring these efforts into sharp focus.
  4. Commitment. How ‘into this’ are you? How devoted will you be? Are you planning on a series – in and out, or do you want this to be a repeated, episodic adventure where you can whip the audience into a frenzy with your incredible commitment to their future as well as yours? Do you want to package your podcasts to sell, or to create strong relationships based on value and generosity?
  5. Objective. What’s in this for you?
  6. Business tomorrow. Describe to me how your business looks once your podcasting, in concert with other communications and marketing ideas coming to fruition, will look. This is desperately different to objective since the way your biz will be shaped and appear is wildly in contrast to what you actually want out of this game.

Now you’ve read this checklist, do you see how it applies to any project you work on in tandem with a friend/client? You have to start at the beginning, and there has to be an end. Only the plotlines change – the ultimate goal, success, is the constant.

Why not use this process next time you work with someone, on anything? Substitute ‘business’ for ‘group’ or ‘product’. You’ll be amazed at how working to a plan like this can make big changes to how efficient and effective you are.

We wish you massive success.

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by on November 10, 2010 Leave a Comment

Podcasting killed the radio star?

Don’t do the histrionics tango here – I’m embellishing ever so slightly what i believe will be the future of all things consumed via your ears only, online and in your car/on your treadmill.

State of the TV industry with the on-demanders on the rise. Graphic provided by Podcasting News.

If the latest stats about how on-demand TV is gravitating towards usurping live TV are to be taken as gospel, then I genuinely believe the same will happen for podcasting versus radio.

Say Media asked a bunch of people stuff, and they figured out that one out of three people in the US has given up watching live TV for Internet TV and time-shifted video.

Understand that Edison Research discovered in 2009 that 45% of people recognised ‘podcasting’ versus little more than 20% three years earlier, and you realise that we could be moving in precisely the same direction with on-demand audio versus the stuff that pumps out of your wireless receiver.

It’s a sobering statistic for the Radio 1s and commercial stations of this world. But equally it offers an opportunity for change, embracing an evolution stimulated by consumer demand.

Let’s hope the radio fraternity have the props and foresight to grasp this challenge better than their newspaper cousins did when the internet started its hockey stick curve to domination of how consumers assume their daily ingestion of stories.

With the rise in popularity of internet TV boxes like Boxee and Roku, and the ridiculously quick emergence of TVs with integrated internet connectivity, now is an exceptionally good time to be a podcaster – providing you can stand shoulder to shoulder in terms of quality with the likes of the mainstream providers of entertaining and educational content.

It’s not about spending millions – it’s about creating a stir, providing insightful content.

Are you ready?

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by on November 9, 2010 Leave a Comment

Content Creating Customers

Never underestimate the power of the pen and pixel to amaze and engage your customers, both existing and yet-to-be...

The skeleton upon which the tasty flesh is melded here at Word And Mouth comprises this single vision and mission statement:

Content Creating Customers

Let me explain why this is so important, on three counts:

  1. We love to create content for our friends that in turn creates for them new customers, and develops their status as a value-ridden organisation among their existing clients. We do this by taking a very close look at what our friends do, then we figure out how to make it hugely engaging and irresistible to their target audience (and many customer types they’ve never before considered)
  2. We focus on the kind of content – be it written, audio, video or graphical – that stimulates precisely the reaction you’re after. And beyond. If you want to go viral, there’s a secret sauce – an X Factor, if you want to be hella topical – that relies on understanding how people respond and react to stimulii. While virality isn’t a perfected art, you certainly give yourself a better chance than most by working with a creative communications company such as Word And Mouth
  3. By providing the customer with exactly what they’re looking for – and exceeding their expectations – they in turn will react by peppering the web and the real world with their own comments and reactions that in turn drive more traffic to your site. Word of mouth starts with content creating consumers.

We’re a pretty unique company, and this is a pretty unique outlook. But it’s all based on common sense. Engagement and value.

We might have mentioned that before…

What content are you creating to render your customers spellbound?

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by on November 8, 2010 Leave a Comment

How to create an amazing Facebook campaign

I finally get it.

Now I see why Facebook really rocks.

Using the new Facebook Places feature, which allows you to check in a la Gowalla and Foursquare, VisitBritain has unleashed an awesome Top 50 UK Places chart – where you control the nation’s greatest destinations.

This is singly the most fantastic focus on Facebook by any organisation I have ever seen.

And it drives home the fact that I’ve been wrong. Or right, now wrong. I prefer the latter, for my own peace of mind…

For the longest time I’ve been the world’s biggest Facebook sceptic.

Twitter’s where you find friends, Facebook’s where you find reasons to lose them.

All the big digital marketing companies siphoning millions from hero brands to build special pages with no value whatsoever.

Criminals playing hide and seek hanging out at the ‘book espousing everything filthy about narcissism.

We’ve seen it all.

But recently…

Mailchimp built a really simple way for you to let people subscribe to your newsletters without getting your fingers dirty using FBML. That looked tasty.

And now Love UK.

VisitBritain and Facebook have officially launched their unique online review site at LoveUK on the first day of World Travel Market, according to e-tid.com. While I call bollocks on the happenstance, it’s a great platform to faux-unveil upon. The ‘Market is where everyone who vaguely likes travel wanders around in a catatonic daze hoping to be handed a drink. I’d happily have settled for an arsenic cocktail last time I was there, such was the melee of PRs and brightly-lit stands offering brochures made of unrealistic dreams and sharpened staples.

But let’s look at what VisitBritain have done. It’s amazing.

They’ve created a place where people can not only check in, Like, send the O2 Arena shooting up the charts. They’ve created something for which the UK can be truly proud. This – in the context of tourist boards – is a world first!

When was the last time we in the UK invented anything? 1976? Unless you count the Sinclair C5.

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by on November 5, 2010 Leave a Comment

How to build a website

We’re in 2010 and most people take it for granted you have a website.

But look at the stats – this is far from the case. Billions are yet to enter the interwebs with their own virtual shop front.

And for those new to doing business on the internet, the whole idea of asking for help could possibly be one step too far. It’s a pride thing – to some people, asking how to create a website would be like asking which way round to sit on the toilet.

Sit on the toilet any way you damn well choose. So long as you’re not causing anyone any inconvenience – and you have a handy wad of Andrex (don’t use the puppy itself – you’ll get hairs everywhere) – just do it.

Which leads me on to a simple guide to creating a website.

How do you make a website, asks Chipn at Yahoo! Answers.

Here’s the answer – for Chipn and for you.

There are few places better to start your quest in building an effective and impactful website as WordPress.com – you can not only create a free website, but it’s super easy to make it look really cool and creative. Just down your alley!

The other option – paid for, which offers you a huge amount more flexibility – is SquareSpace.com.

At the end of the day the very first thing you need to do is visualise your site. You can create free wireframes of your design at Gliffy.com and then start building it using one of these two website platforms.

WordPress is a Content Management System, meaning you have nearly complete control of the way your site looks and functions in terms of user experience.

Of course, the best way forward is to get yourself some web hosting – say, from HostGator.com – and then host your own WordPress installation (this is a free download from WordPress.org or using the HostGator control panel you can automatically install it on to your space using the Fantastico tool).

Good luck – and enjoy the ride.

And here are your resources for today:

http://www.wordpress.com
http://www.wordpress.org
http://www.squarespace.com
http://www.hostgator.com

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by on November 5, 2010 Leave a Comment

How often to write blog posts?

Question came in to WAM Towers today from a friend who was confused as to how often she should update her blog.

How long is that piece of floss you’re petting coquettishly, oh lovely one?

The question is sound. It’s asked often.

Some say daily, some say as often as you eat a meal. I guess, then, it depends on your BMI.

Seriously, there are two very important things to think about when you’re considering your blog posting strategy:

  1. How much time do you have (assuming you don’t have a Virtual Assistant)?
  2. How much time does your reader have?

Write only to the taste and requirement of your reader (I use this in the singular sense since whenever I write, I write with one person in mind so it’s more friendly and informal) and so as not to clash with other demands on your time.

Chris Brogan makes a very good point when he says you should seize the moment when you’re feeling creative and stockpile articles so you can space them out to cover lean times.

Here’s a quick tip. If you’re using WordPress, which of course you are, get the excellent Editorial Calendar plugin so you can at a glance see when your scheduled posts are set for publication.

Here’s Brogan’s take on why the Editorial Calendar plugin is so damn essential.

I’d take a step back here. Have you taken time to define the outer recesses of your chosen area of expertise to be covered in your blog? Have you mindmapped yourself to awe by starting with your core subject and then breaking it down into sub-topics, different areas within the same realm, and started writing article headings by the dozen?

Get that mindmap done (plenty of free mindmapping applications including FreeMind for PC, Linux and Mac). Get your topline headings sorted. Throw them in to your blog, schedule them, then go back and actually write the damn things when you get the chance.

In summary – write according to demands, on your time and by your reader. If you need insight on what your reader wants, check your analytics to see when the spikes are trending out.

Does that rock your boat?

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by on November 4, 2010 Leave a Comment

To be there, you have to BE there…

Why do you think they called it social media? Because it’s social.

Let’s go back to my constant ally and source of inspiration – freedictionary.com:

Social: Spent in or marked by friendly relations or companionship.

Delve deeper. Another definition:

Living together in communities.

Makes sense, right? Being there for your community. When they need you. For companionship.

No inference whatsoever intended as to ignorance on the part of the poster, but I found this on LinkedIn Answers today (which incidentally, you absolutely need to be using as one of your core outposts for brand building and getting your biz groove on):

I’m looking for something that will allow me to post updates in advance and manage my Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress and Facebook accounts under one “roof.” One concern I have however is regarding security – will any of these companies “steal” my password information? How can I be assured?

Hello?! Is there anybody there?

A flurry of ‘me too’ answers appear, on the theme of HootSuite. Go HootSuite – it rocks! Hootsuite is powerful, HootSuite will iron your clothes and make you pregnant and give you dreams possessed by smiling unicorns, colourful chariots on magical carousels, village greens and semolina puddings. And everything will be beautiful.

Well, um, yah. I guess so. If we all live in a dream world and never snap out of it.

HootSuite is great. You can track, you can collaborate, you can post messages easy across most social media networks (was it really only last year that ping.fm seemed so a la mode?) and you even have your  own owl on tap to make sure you’re not sleeping all the time. That is cool.

But what HootSuite cannot do is be there for you. To answer questions, to be the heart and soul of your community, offer companionship to your clients and constituents while the wind gently rocks your cradle.

So here’s the thing. I broke the mould. I delivered a ministry that I believe is fair and just. LinkedIn – To be there, you have to BE there…

Since everyone has already mentioned HootSuite, which is an incredibly powerful tool as they rightly say, I wanted to pose a question back at you:

Why is it you want to post updates in advance?

In my mind social media is best used when you’re ‘open’ since if you’re having your readers suppose you’re involved in a conversation, yet you’re not actually there, you might be actually doing more damage than benefit to your brand and business.

I know this is a totally random throwaway thought but I wanted to bring it to the table since it’s not something many people think about.

In my experience – and I only have 1,300 followers – whenever I post something of value I get people reverting with questions which manifest as potential leads or help in building relationships. If I’m not there they imagine I’m not interested, and the immediate nature of social media means the day after just isn’t good enough to meet their needs.

I think blogs and your home base are the perfect place to have always-on messaging enabled. People understand that immediate responses are not necessary there. The whole idea of using social media is to generate impact and drive folks back to your site – so you see how the ‘always-on’ system works for me.

I’m wrong, aren’t I? I’m thinking about this completely the wrong way.

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by on November 3, 2010 Leave a Comment

Get engaged

Read all the marketing books of yesteryear and you’ll be treated to lengthy odes professing the ultimate devotion to the four Ps. Product, Price, Place, Promotion.

I’ve already talked about what I believe are the new Ps of marketing. Less then before, twice as Potent:

  • Passion
  • Personality
  • Presence (at least that’s where now and then agree)

If you demonstrate passion for your product (go beyond the norm, whatever accepted wisdom is these days, to treat your prospective and existing customers to more than they expect through blogs, offers, value-packed podcasts, and so on), are clearly ‘all about’ your services and a living manifestation of everything you sell (Personality) and finally, understand where your customers are and how to reach them (Presence) you’re pretty much beyond 90% of your unknowing competition.

But there are two additional elements that you need to add into the mix. The cherries on the Ps, if you will.

Engagement

Time to get engaged

Think how much more effectively your driver can turn that screw when you have a firm grip on it. You can do the greatest service for your customers when you have a tight grip on your marketing strategies, too.

Too many people freak out when you talk about strategies. All I mean is having your business plans and your customer service manifesto in close alignment.

You could also consider Engagement as an extension of Presence. If you’re where your customers are (or at the very least, you think they are) then you’re halfway there.

The diamond in the rough that separates your business from the rest is being front of mind. At every opportunity possible.

Engaging – attracting or delighting

Let’s throw all this together. The place is right. Your product  is right. Now you have to make your relationship (and isn’t this, fundamentally, what all business success is built on?) durable and delighting.

I think the element that needs to be discussed here is surprise.

To surprise, you have to provide stuff people aren’t expecting. Under the Christmas tree – a Boxee box for dad, so he can watch his favourite internet gardening show on the big screen, whenever he likes. Sure beats a pair of socks and a satsuma, and capture the look on his face when he finally understands what it is and how much pleasure he can get from it.

Do you understand the surprise system? Do you see where, if you haven’t built up that rock-solid relationship with your customer or the client-to-be you’re hoping to court, the surprise system comes into play?

This is engagement. And it doesn’t have to be the big things. It can be the little big things. If you’re a grease monkey, leaving the car seats covered in polythene after a car service makes the difference. If you’re a butcher, wrapping your meats in brown paper before serving them to the customer – it’s a little big thing. A cinema operator, providing your loyal customers with free popcorn – spontaneously. It’s a little big thing, and now we’re entering into the realms of word of mouth – a very potent opportunity indeed for you to not only do business, but grow it: stratospherically.

Engagement is being prepared to know what will amaze your people. Being on Google Places so your new customers can find you when they’re in the vicinity. Having an enewsletter packed with valuable content.

Which reminds me:

Value

Value - it's all about the smile...

We strayed into uncharted territory just there. This V word. Value. Don’t we all offer value in everything we do?

Do we – really?

What is value to you, and what is value to your customer?

If I think about all the things that I think add value to the customer relationship – being available on the phone, replying quickly, offering a superb service and coming up with great ideas to energise product launches, and so on – I quickly discover these are expected parts of the customer relationship.

I imagine you’ve also arrived at that conclusion.

Value  – To regard highly; esteem

It’s going beyond, isn’t it? Driving engagement yet higher by creating a reason for people to come back to your site, your social media outposts.

Value in the business context is dreaming of more ways to enlighten, educate and entertain above and beyond your standard product proposition.

Value isn’t about savings and discounts, about how you can trim costs to offer the consumer cheaper prices.

Value today is everything about emotion. Why this person wants you to rock their world.

Bringing your service to the kitchen table is going to make that person feel spiritually wonderful. It’s going to trigger a nice recollection; it’ll make them want to find out more about you.

Picture the first time you checked out the packaging for Innocent smoothies. The way the words played with your senses. Look how many strawberries they pack in to your tasty beverage. See how they manage to squeeze it all in to one highly recyclable container. Emotive pictures and provocative text send you straight to the heart of a village fete, where you’re living the Good Life. All through some intoxicating fusion of emotion, marketing and packaging.

That’s value. It’s free-thinking with your customer in mind.

One of the most impactful phrases I’ve heard in a long time is this:

Don’t fear the unknown – fear the known.

Which is precisely why now is the time you need to open your mind and open your business to growth by focusing your considerable efforts on Engagement and Value.

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by on November 2, 2010 Leave a Comment

In business, anything is possible…

In modern marketing, the options are limitless

The original headline for this article was we know nothing about marketing today. Quite a bold statement for a company founding itself on integrity and the twin totems of engagement and value.

But let’s back up and go back to where it all began, the last time it started.

I have a great virtual friend who goes by the name of Kath Roberts. She runs a company that right now is called Alchemy4TheSoul. When I mentioned it brought to mind echoes of happy faces and a thumpin’ bass for a lovin’ race I imagine I got a blank look (we were on Skype and only I was brave enough to be using video chat).

Kath is in my mind the most honest, perceptive and genuine people I have ever had the good fortune to connect with. She’s launched a life mastery programme that, through 18 weeks of videos and workbooks, helps her friends (like Word And Mouth, there are no clients here – only friends who are invited to show their delight through wallet kinesis) totally transform their lives. A bit like a real-life Tony Robbins for the 2010 generation of women.

She has a mindblowing product. Kath can change lives.

But today – November 2, 2010 – how do you market a product that is predominantly executed online?

I believe there are three armies in the online marketing world today.

  1. The hustlers. The every day internet marketers who punch out myriad sales letters, convince the general masses they’re about to buy The Next Big Shiny Thing, succeed through grunt and attract the same kind of folks time and again. This is a limited success principle reserved for a coveted few. Sadly the reason why most people buy said products – and most of the time, the rationale for the creation of these products – is to emulate the success of the originator. Rarely is this a recipe for any kind of success. Rinse, repeat. Shake head.
  2. The old school. Direct mail used to work. Scratch uncomfortably. Measurement? But how? World 2001 no longer exists, old man. But if all else fails, and we don’t truly fathom the cycle of enewsletters, we can always go back to stuffing envelopes and tired mailboxes…
  3. The fresh thinkers.

Kath and Word And Mouth are fresh thinkers. We know it’s important to understand traditional principles of marketing, but we don’t have the proven techniques of modern marketing to exercise and hone.

So we have to construct our own rules. Then play by them.

Truth is, we’ve never had it so good. The opportunities are abundant. But hark that clever guy who said that with choice comes challenge. Which way to turn, which tactic to employ, when the array of tools is abundant.

It’s what I call rainbow marketing. You can think of the rainbow comprising seven colours – or you can look more closely and see that each colour features infinite hues and nuances.

You can create an integrated modern marketing strategy encapsulating print, online, podcasting and video blogs. You can measure most of it. And you can paint personas identifying your ideal client.

But noone has truly figured it all out, yet. It’s too new.

Noone knows anything like enough about marketing today. We’re not alone. But what we’re doing is throwing down the gauntlet and making our way towards it using creative smarts and those twin totems of engagement and value to help us along the way.

How do you rise to the modern marketing challenge?

Photo courtesy of Troy Stoi.

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by on October 27, 2010 Leave a Comment

Why small is beautiful

Small is awe

One thing us smaller companies will have as a big advantage versus those already in the space competing for B2B jobs is we fully understand that simple = smart.

Too many folks who charge the earth think complex = client satisfaction. They couldn’t be further from the truth and thankfully the internet is helping to show these masters of baloney up for what they are – smoke machines.

I pride myself in giving clients not only advice, but coaching, when we consult before a job is offered.

That way they know I’m not bluffing either about what I can offer, or what they will receive.

Does this sound right to you? Is small the new big?

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