School’s starting again and so is the battle. Parents and schools are trying to push healthier snack choices for their kids as alternatives to the sugary, salty options they prefer. It’s a losing proposition … unless marketers can find ways to make healthy hip.

Enter in Bolthouse Farms and 50 other growers of baby carrots. Yup. Baby carrots are about to become cool. Very cool. A recent USA Today article, “Baby carrots take on junk food with hip marketing campaign,” shows how the $1 billion dollar baby carrot business is about to take on the $18 billion salty snack food crowd on their own turf.

• For starters, how about packaging these crunchy little orange wonders in bags like salty snacks?
• How about selling them out of vending machines?
• How about putting slogans on billboards like: “The original orange doodles”?
• How about tying in carrots to kids’ seasonal interests? (e.g., “Scarrots” are planned for Halloween.)
• How about a phone app that lets kids hear people munching on carrots in real time? Or TV spots that depict baby carrots as “extreme” and futuristic?

Is this all part of a master anti-junk food campaign? According to Bolthouse Farms CEO, Jeff Dunn, it isn’t. “It takes a page out of junk food’s playbook and applies it to baby carrots.” As a former president of Coca-Cola North America, Mr. Dunn understands these concepts very well.

Will this be enough to turn kids on to a healthy snack? Some are saying “no.” Unless something is done to jazz up the carrots, kids are likely to be disappointed when the find out what’s really in these cool little snack bags. How about putting an orange, but natural dusting on the carrots so they’re more like Cheetos, psychologist Carol Moog suggests.

Snack giant Frito-Lay’s take? “We applaud any effort to provide consumers with a wider range of snacking options.” Uh-huh.

So Daily Fix readers:
• Will these marketing efforts be enough to get kids crunching on baby carrots?
• Could something else be done to put more zing into the product or packaging? How about selling carrots with a packet of cool ranch dip or a neon orange dusting, for example?
• Should the baby carrot marketers engage kids with interactive apps or contests?

What do you think?

At some point in your career, you must have made a dumb marketing mistake. Tell me I can’t be the only one. You know what I mean—something you overlooked or got away from you, and you just didn’t catch it. You may have swept it under the carpet, and no one noticed. Lucky. But who’s going to be bothered by it the most? We are!

So, here’s my true confession.  I recently wrote and developed a direct mail postcard targeting two segments. I pored over the copy until I thought the messaging would be persuasive and factual. I spent hours laying out the design to grab attention while making the most of our brand colors and the limited space.  And then it went to our trade printer and mail house.

After it dropped and I received my own copy, I realized what I had done. As Homer Simpson would say if he were my partner, “D’OH!”

I hate it when I notice the most obvious boo-boo after the fact. No matter who proofread my piece, it would have taken another marketer to pick up on my mistake. And a few simple words will likely make the difference between people calling us—or not.

We’re marketing customized pre-designed and graphic-designed holiday cards. Realizing that packaging/bundling has been de rigeur in marketing these days, we created an affordable custom package that included graphic design, a choice of stock images or an image the client provides, printing them on 14-pt card stock with a printed return address on the matching envelope. Clients can have the cards scored and delivered to their doors for signing and mailing, or we can insert their electronic signatures, insert the cards into envelopes and mail them from our trade mail house at reduced bulk rates. Innocent enough, right?

Here’s where I screwed up. The most expensive option is to order a small quantity of 250, in which case, the cost of a custom-designed card and envelope set would be around $2.06. Prices go DOWN from there. The more people order, the cheaper the unit price. Duh. At 5,000 cards, for example, the unit cost per card/envelope would be less than 30 cents! So, what did I say in the copy?

“Custom prices start at just $2.06/card and envelope set.”

Oh, no! Do I have a self-destructive thing going? I beat myself up for two days after that!

So, why am I embarrassing myself and sharing this story with you? Because, chances are that you’ve had a similar experience.  Somewhere in the recesses of your past, you did a dumb thing. We’re all human—no matter how good we are as marketers. And it was cathartic for me to share this. Was it good for you?

Your turn. Come clean. What’s the biggest marketing boo-boo story you can share with the rest of us?

Today, more B2B companies are thinking like media companies. They realize it isn’t about traditional selling or interrupting people, it’s about connecting with their audience and building permission.

But what do audiences actually want? They want useful, actionable information that helps solve problems, answer questions and make connections. To that end, valuable B2B content helps companies increase trust and ultimately boost lead generation in a way that scales.  To achieve this, follow the steps outlined next to build your brand with valuable content:

1. Planning.  The key to thinking like a media company is to add a solid content strategy to your overall B2B marketing plan. Once this is established, you have a clear and decisive direction for your content. Part of the planning process should involve a deep dive into the content that matters to your audience. The planning phase should address buyer personas, understanding potential audiences, what problems they have and how they can be solved. Once you set clear and definable goals for your content, it’s time to start creating that content.
2. Content creation. Traditional push marketing tactics and sales-like pitches are only half the battle. Smart companies are using inbound approaches by marketing with powerful and engaging B2B content. Carefully crafted, genuinely useful content with valuable information bring prospects in organically and gets them thinking—generating higher qualified leads. Sample content formats to leverage include:
   • B2B blogs
   • Video content
   • Audio content  (e.g., podcasts)
   • White papers
   • B2B case studies
   • Guest posting on other industry-relevant blogs
   • Creative and shared content through B2B social media
3. Promotion. Building the right content is not enough. To read it, your audience needs to find the content. Making it as simple as possible for your prospects to find, share and consume is vital.To get your content seen and shared, develop a promotion process for each piece of content in order for it to have the highest propensity to spread across the web.  This process should be tailored to your category and include both search and social tactics.

Every company is a media company. Today, B2B companies connect faster and easier with audiences of prospective customers—and powerful content is the key to attracting new business. Harnessing it can bring in more fans and ultimately more sales.

I have a confession to make. I didn’t have my article ready to post in this space until early this Friday morning. And, as I was climbing out of bed to write, my wife rolled over and asked, “Time to make the donuts?”

“Time to make the donuts” is the phrase Fred the Baker would repeat in a somber tone as he was getting ready before dawn, day after day, to make sure fresh donuts were ready at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Great job on the ads, Dunkin’. It has been thirteen years since those ads ran, but the catchphrase is still with us.

Many of us can relate to Fred —doing the same thing day after day.

In these commercials, Dunkin’ was trying to convey the advantage they have over their competition—grocery stores—fresh baked donuts each and every day. As Fred states in the commercial, “I”ll bet the grocery store guys are still in bed.”

[Link to Commercial No. 1]

While we’ve turned the phrase to mean something we must do routinely that we may find grueling, many of us have forgotten the last scene of that commercial. When the store opens, Fred turns and faces his customers with a welcome smile.

The marketing lesson here … The life lesson in fact, is that much success can be found in simply following through. Being there consistently. And, consistently delivering on the promises you’ve made to your customers.

But it isn’t easy.

The last role I had at Starbucks Coffee was helping to develop customer service strategy. One of the biggest challenges in delivering customer service is being consistent.

As customers, we prefer to receive “slightly better” service all the time than to have awesome service one day, and a crummy experience the next. But that service roller coaster was happening at Starbucks. Up and down. Service at the same location could change from day to day, and it wasn’t consistent from store to store. It is a challenge many retailer’s face.

Consistency is so important, we’re willing to sacrifice quality for something we can count on. McDonald’s success is built on this. No one is claiming McD’s has got the best burgers in the world, but what a comfort to know they taste exactly the same in Rhode Island as they do in Russia.

In another version of the commercial (below), we see Fred in rain, storm, and snow going to make the donuts. He’s got sticktoitivity.

[Link to Commercial No. 2]

The recipe for consistency is:

• 1 part, Commitment—showing up day after day.
• 1 part, Anticipation—being prepared for the inevitable glitches.
• Stir constantly.
• Provide consistency, and for your customers, “it’s worth the trip.”

Quick Notes:

• I’m proud I’ve been “makin’ the donuts” here at the Daily Fix each Friday for over three years. And like Fred the Baker, I do it with a smile.
• Fred the Baker was played by actor Michael Vale who passed away at the age of 83 in 2005. When Dunkin’ retired the character, it held a “retirement” parade in Boston and offered free donuts to customers on that day.
• Amil Gargano of Ally & Gargano, the agency who created these commercials, has a new book “Ally & Gargano” coming out next week that tells the story behind some of the agency’s famous campaigns.

by guest blogger Elianne Ramos, principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of Communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media

Even with the well-documented explosion of the Hispanic market, Internet sources like Technorati, which by 2008 was indexing 112.8 million blogs, have never touched upon the topic of Latinas and blogging. With the release of the Latinos in Social Media’s Latina Blogger Survey, though, it is now official: Latina bloggers are increasing their numbers and spreading throughout the blogosphere.

The intrinsic characteristics of blogging, where the private becomes public and communities rally together around common interests, make it the perfect platform for Latinas to voice life from their viewpoint … in in two languages, no less!

Beyond the obviously good news that these bloggers now provide us with a new outlet for furthering our brands’ messages—what with ever-shrinking minority-outreach budgets—the implications of this Latina blogger explosion for PR and marketing professionals are many:

The Good

• In Latino culture, where word-of-mouth and group interaction are second-nature, the trustworthiness of a blog post wrapped in a culturally relevant package can certainly influence the value of a brand in the eyes of their thousands of followers.

• These bloggers provide us with micro-niche audiences and more targeted outlets for furthering our brands’ messages. Stories published and promoted online have the potential to reach a greater number of people in very little time. In this context, a Latina blogger outreach program puts us in an ideal position to secure widespread coverage for our clients.

• Most Latinas blog in English, followed closely by Spanish and peppered with Spanglish, which means that their potential reach is amplified. Their choice of language in this case may be more about connecting with their readership, not necessarily a reflection of the language they speak more fluently. The key is listening and doing your homework in order to find the perfect fit.

• Latina bloggers are actively engaged in social media, and they tend to belong to tight, supportive communities online. Besides the fact that your message will reach well beyond the scope of the blog, this also means that other influencers in their communities will help disseminate it.

• Their culture infuses their writing but does not rule it.  Contrary to expectations, Latinas blog about numerous subjects, which opens up possibilities for different types of brand engagement.

• These Latinas are at the epicenter of merging worlds: between traditional and modern roles, between English and Spanish, between American and Latino cultures. They will bring a fresh perspective to your message, one that most closely reflects the Latina experience in the US.

The Bad

• Brand credibility: With consumers now doing research online and even generating their own content, consumers are less likely to believe a product review that blatantly comes from a sponsorship.

• Relative lack of control over the message: Know that consumers will be getting and act on impressions about your brand from less than perfect sources. Bloggers are not necessarily a self-regulating bunch, at least not yet. The fact that they can and will write whatever they want in their blog might create public relations issues. Just be sure to monitor their blogs, so you can address any issues or comments and give your official brand perspective, if need be.

• Saturation: With the fast growth rate of this segment, the Latina blogger market is likely to become saturated fast, which means their individual reach will, at some point and with few exceptions, start to diminish. This being a relatively young blogging community also means that the time to reach out to them is now.

The Ugly

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is cracking down on so-called “Blogola” by regulating blogger/advertiser relationships. The rules were updated December 2009.

The new rules include the fact that now bloggers must disclose material connections with a brand: whether they are receiving payment or free products and the kind of relationship they have with the company. What’s more, now both the brand and the blogger are subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated representations made. This means that the potential of a company being held responsible for approving unfounded claims—not rare in this realm—is a very real one. While the FTC regulations are beginning to be applied, the blogger outreach game is still an evolving one. The main things to keep in mind seem to be transparency, clear objectives and open ears: a willingness to listen and adjust, if need be.

Though a blogging campaign may be a godsend of great, relatively inexpensive publicity, remember that it is also —or should be—part of a larger communications/PR plan. Make sure all other elements of the campaign support your Latina blogging outreach and vice versa. If you do it right, Latina blogueras will rally behind your efforts with the same pasión they pour into their Web writing every day.

What has been your experience in reaching out to Latina bloggers? Please share in the comments below.

Elianne Ramos is the principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of Communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media (LATISM). Formerly, she was the vice president, creative director and founder of i3 Creative Group, managing production teams working concurrently in the United States, Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina. In over 15 years of  creative direction, copy writing, public speaking, public relations and TV commercial production experience, Elianne has developed broadcast, multimedia and social media campaigns for high-profile clients. Her writing has appeared in numerous books and publications including the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

Duane Reade is a uniquely New York retailer. With almost 250 stores across New York city and state, this drugstore chain has evolved as consumers have. No longer just a pharmacy, Duane Reade has methodically repositioned itself as a store with a pharmacy.

By adjusting its product assortments to meet the lifestyle needs of New Yorkers and repackaging its successful private label, Duane Reade has captured that “New York state of mind” perfectly. After all, the first drugstore opened between Duane and Reade streets in Manhattan more than 50 years ago. It’s a New York institution.

Accordingly, when Duane Reade decided to revamp its private label packaging, New York-themed imagery was decided upon in black on a stark white background with bright colored on the right-hand edge of the packaging to segment varieties. The in-your-face artwork uses UPC bar codes and numbers to striking effect. This is pure genius! (Take a look!)

While the huge UPCs can’t be scanned, New York landmarks presented in this artistic manner are unique. It’s very cool to see the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building creatively depicted using bar codes. Package design consultancy CBX refers to this ownable creative simply as “skyline.” Apt description.

Since this packaging has been in place since October 2009, Duane Reade private label products have seen much greater brand awareness and stronger sales. Its “skyline” bottled water is now the best seller in the entire category, for example.

There’s nothing like having a New York based retailer exude New York attitude, is there? This ought to get everybody’s creative juices flowing. Who said private label packaging has to be boring?

Questions:
• What do you think of Duane Reade’s store brand packaging?
• Have you seen a specific store brand packaging that not only appeals to you, but supports the overall retail brand in a distinctive, unique manner?
• What can other retailers do to spruce up their store brands?

Marketers, designers and consumers: please weigh in with your comments!

Customers today are more knowledgeable and can reach more ears faster with their message about a company’s products and services. To monitor and engage in those conversations, businesses must listen and engage with their community of customers and prospects.

Adding social CRM to the existing tools and systems already in place, a business can level the playing field and be proactive with customer conversations that might impact the company. Social CRM is a powerful marketing asset because businesses can:

1. Leverage the same reporting systems. Social CRM can be integrated with your existing reporting systems. Keeping track of social activities, community interactions and other marketing activities is vital—all of these activities need metrics collected. With SCRM, you don’t have to retrain personnel, invest funds or other resources into new reporting systems.
2. Keep track of social media campaigns. Keeping track of B2B social media marketing campaigns is critical for B2B marketing. With the use of an active community and social CRM in place, marketers can track, understand and respond to prospect activities across social channels.
3. Consolidate social media. Having too many feeds and social networks to track is a common problem for B2B marketing activities. With SCRM, the marketer can bring together feeds and data from public social networks, such as Twitter, into to their SCRM framework for further analysis and action.

The more in touch a business is with its community of prospects and current customers, the more it understands the problems being faced. This leads to rapid responses with helpful solutions. Adding the power of social CRM to marketing’s existing systems helps keep a business close to the community, build relationships and nurture a brand.

by guest blogger Mike Crosson, vice president of Sales, SocialTwist

Behavioral targeting is all the rage these days, and for good reason in general. The caveat is just that, however: in general. When it works, it works great, creating greater recall, brand lift and ROI. However, when it doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work, and can lead to serious concerns over privacy issues. It often backfires by correlating consumer behavioral data and making assumptions about that person that aren’t true.  

For example, I recently did some research on some baby products for my daughter, who has a one-year-old boy. I also went to a few of my favorite car sites and cruised some collectible auctions. The next thing you know, I’m targeted with ads for minivans. I’m a single guy. The last car on the earth you’d catch me driving is a minivan. But based on my behavioral data, I looked like the ideal demo target. Wrong, really wrong. Or how about the ads I got targeted with after I reviewed some low-sugar recipes on a major food network? Diet ads. That just irritated me because I am not overweight. I am diabetic. That’s different.

Though algorithms can track contextual relevance from keywords and apply overlays for demographics, geolocation, even psychographics, algorithms can’t make the synaptic living connections that the human brain does automatically. Put simply, there is no algorithm smarter than the human brain.

Worse than being unreliable, behavioral targeting carries unsettling concerns over privacy, both for the consumer and for the advertiser. When services and networks use cookies to collect consumer behavioral data, and then use that data for targeting, the companies are actually selling the intellectual capital of the advertiser’s audience to someone else. They are also often selling personally identifiable information. For example, if someone visits a credit card site that services challenged consumers, that person is highly likely to be targeted with ads for high-risk mortgage refinancing, payday loans and all kinds of shady offers.  Is that a service or disservice to the consumer?

There are alternatives.

When consumers are given the choice to provide specific data and opt in to engage in a specific transaction, then the advertiser can begin a relationship with that consumer. In social media, establishing trust and communication is essential to building a relationship. That gives the consumer confidence in the advertiser and can turn them into brand ambassadors.  In social media marketing, for example, some companies provide sharing tools that let consumers relay an advertiser’s message by email, blogs, instant messaging and social communities, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, etc. Most providers use cookies.

I would argue there’s another, more targeted and effective way: the Human Filter Factor. People instinctively know how to respond to specific offers and will filter how they pass these on. They won’t pass on a local grocery store coupon to their family three thousand miles away. They won’t pass on a Depends offer to their recent college graduate, and they certainly won’t send a Hooters two-for-one Saturday night special to their minister.  But they will send out that two-for-one Jamba Juice coupon to everyone they know because who doesn’t like Jamba Juice? A recent Jamba Juice social media marketing campaign achieved a 126% click-through rate with just such an offer. A large food and beverage company expected to have 5,000 coupons redeemed in a 30-day period. Jamba Juice reached those numbers in just two days. Not every campaign will have those kind of blow-away numbers, of course. But many do. And almost all campaigns that use referral marketing in social media deliver much higher efficiencies than standard digital advertising campaigns. After all, it’s only natural. People like to share. And when they have a trusted relationship with an advertiser, they want to share that offer or news or special promotion. It’s a part of our nature.

Behavioral targeting and privacy are all over the federal government’s radar for good reason. But with judicious use of services that protect consumer information and privacy, advertisers can build their brands with increased consumer loyalty.

Marketing at the enterprise level has a unique set of challenges—lack of agility, decentralized teams, and long approval processes—to name a few.  Lucky for us, we had the opportunity to chat with SocialTech presenter, LaSandra Brill of Cisco Systems, about ways they have overcome these challenges in their social media program, and consequently, have driven significant return on investment. As LaSandra revealed during #TechChat (transcript available here), social media made the launch of Cisco’s ASR family of routers one of the top five most successful launches in Cisco history, reaching 90 times the audience of previous launch campaigns, at one-sixth of the cost!!! (Yep, that deserved three exclamation points.)

From last week’s #TechChat, here are 4 social media lessons for the enterprise from LaSandra Brill of Cisco Systems:

1. Educate Employees on Social Media Marketing Best Practices

How many people have you met that say,”I just don’t get Twitter. People don’t care what I ate for lunch or that my cat just puked”?

If you’re like me, you’ve met lots of ‘em. Marketers, too. But Cisco Systems is turning regular employees into social media enthusiasts by educating them on social media best practices with their in-house optional social media certificate program.

2. Have an Open Social Media Policy

Unlike Apple (and the NFL), Cisco encourages social media participation, and has a clear social media policy. Want to comment on a blog, or Tweet about Cisco? Go for it—as long as you follow these rules.

3. Encourage All Employees to Participate

The one advantage that large corporations have is well, a large workforce. Cisco has 70,000 employees—70,000 potential social media brand champions. Just imagine the power those 70,000 people would have on Twitter. Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

4. Share Knowledge with Other Groups

Cisco has an internal site where they post best practices and planning resources. They meet and share their success stories monthly. So if product team A finds out that XYZ works, they can easily share it with product team B, and vice versa.

A big thank you to LaSandra for participating in #TechChat, and an even bigger thank you for those of you who shared your insights during last week’s seminar Cisco and the Social Web — it got rave reviews!  If you missed the free seminar and want to learn more about Cisco’s high-performance social media program, have a listen to the recording. Learn even more about high-tech B2B social media marketing in San Jose at SocialTech 2010. SocialTech is our new conference about social media for the high-tech industry. Not in San Jose? No worries. We’re streaming all content to virtual attendees as well.

And don’t forget: #TechChat is every Tuesday at 8 PM ET. Our next guest is Michael Brito, SVP of Social Media at Edelman Digital. Michael has worked for major brands in Silicon Valley (HP, Yahoo! and Intel) and was instrumental in driving social media programs and campaigns emphasizing authenticity and long-term relationship building. Awesome, right? We can’t wait to see what lessons he has to share.

Most marketers have a careful eye on metrics, such as cost per lead, conversion rates, and the holy grail of “hard” return on investment calculations. Yet with a fair percentage of marketing budgets pegged to quarterly objectives, a myopic focus on “short-term value creation” often excludes activities—such as global community relations—that set companies up for long-term success.

The run up to the housing and global market crash of 2008 was euphoric for almost everyone. From Wall Street bankers with multimillion dollar paychecks to U.S. homeowners cashing out with multiple refinances and gorging HELOCs it seemed there was plenty of wealth for all. However, as with most all night parties, the liquored punchbowl is eventually emptied, leaving everyone with a massive hangover now aptly titled, “The Great Recession.”

As with most economic resets, priorities tend to shift. One executive quoted in the Financial Times lamented that in the past few years, most corporate boardrooms were too focused on profits with little consideration for social responsibility and the greater good. Now, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi says, “Everybody is talking about the new rules of capitalism which are don’t just think about the company within the four walls of the company, think about your obligations to society.”

A powerful way for companies to think outside their four walls is to take action by investing a portion of the marketing budget in global community relations. What are community relations? One website says, “The underlying principal of community relations is that when a company accepts its civic responsibility and takes an active interest in the well-being of its community, then it gains a number of long-term benefits in terms of community support, loyalty, and goodwill.”

One company adopting this mindset is Teradata, through its “Teradata Cares” program (full disclosure—the author is employed by Teradata Corporation). Teradata Cares is community relations program that encourages and engages children around the globe in science, technology, engineering and math programs as a way to connect with local communities. Via the sponsorship of high-school robotics competitions, educational grants and other methods, Teradata contributes to activities that help develop tomorrow’s technologists.

Thinking about stakeholders outside of a company’s four walls doesn’t come naturally for some enterprises. Moreover, others may find it difficult to spend on marketing programs that may not drive an immediate return on investment. Indeed some shareholders argue that investing in global community relations has nothing to do with a company making its quarterly numbers.

Not so says Susan Baxley, Teradata’s Director of Community Relations. “What people may not realize is that programs like Teradata Cares actually help the profitability and future success of a company because employees learn team building and other leadership skills. Employees also gain a sense of community pride from their volunteer efforts and are thankful for the opportunity to give back to their local communities. This, in turn, leads to more satisfied employees and stronger employee retention rates.”

Today, a fair portion of marketing executives manage their budgets much like an investment portfolio. And in an era of tight budgets where every dollar should be justified, there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach. However, sometimes “value” is much more than the sum of a column in a spreadsheet, especially when programs such as community relations make such a positive difference in the places we work and live.

Questions:

• If you allocated marketing budget to community relations, how would you track and measure the value of your investment?
• Should community relations expenditures come from the marketing budget, or elsewhere?

There is a difficult balance we marketers and business owners face when creating special offers for our customers. It requires discipline and problem-solving to build programs to drive sales and awareness in the short run, without doing damage to the brand in the long run.

This week, I received a promotional email from a local day spa.

You know, massages, manicures and pedicures. In addition, it also offers a retail line of lotions and aroma therapy oils. The spa is positioned as a higher-end brand. Its pricing and build-out is higher than a quick-service spa place you’d find, for example, find at a mall location.

The email contained two offers:

1. An incentive.
2. A special seminar.

The incentive:
For each $100 in gift certificates you buy, you receive a $10 gift card. This is a sales driver.

The special seminar:
A “Yoga Basics” class. The spa’s expert guest will teach about yoga, the benefits, and a few of the basic moves. It listed the date, time, and the cost of the class—$5 cash. Though this may have been created as a way to do something special for customers, this should really be considered a traffic-driving tactic.

The Offers Reviewed

What I’ve explained is pretty standard stuff. We see (and create) these type offers all the time. A special offer to drive gift certificate sales and a relevant class/program designed to help customers. But, each of these has poor consequences. Let me explain where I think the ideas have gone wrong.

$10 Offer (Sales Driver)

Get a free $10 gift card for every $100 gift card purchased.

I give them credit right off for not offering “10% Off!” Percent-off is in-your-face discounting. A “free $10 card for you when you buy a $100 for a friend” is not as blatant, however, it is still discounting.

The problem with discounting is that it reduces the perceived value of the good or service. Why would I ever pay $200 again for a massage that has been offered at $180? It is obviously worth only $180 or less. I’m now going to wait to purchase when the price is low.

Instead of offering a discount, offer a value. I mentioned they have a line of beauty products. Why not give a $10 pack of beauty products free with each gift certificate purchase?

It provides a $10 value, but what you’re actually doing is driving trial. Someone (the giver or receiver) is going to try the products. What if you were able to convert them into a product buyer in addition to a service buyer? Now we have just increased the value of this customer to your company by increasing the average purchase.

Special Seminar (Traffic Driver)

Come to our class, bring five bucks. Seriously?

I mentioned this was a swanky brand. What’s with “bring five bucks? I know, it the cash fee to pay the person who is giving the class. This prevents the spa from taking the money out of their petty cash. But, they’re missing the point. This isn’t a five-dollar-per-person cost … It is an investment. The purpose of bringing people in, is NOT the class. It is a chance to DRIVE TRAFFIC to the site to DRIVE TRIAL of products.

The chance to offer participants a short massage, a chance to use the beauty products. This is a chance to roll out the red carpet and make them feel welcome. Show them why you’re worth paying more for. Perhaps the value of coming in every four weeks instead of every six weeks.

Asking participants to pony-up five bucks make the spa sound like a cheapskate. The spa should either charge $50 a person (make it seem of high value), or make it a free seminar and use the traffic as a way to drive trial, and future purchase.

In Conclusion

As I said at the beginning, on the surface these ideas are pretty standard. And, you have to give points to the spa owner for doing something.

Something isn’t always better than nothing when it can cause damage. The smart strategy not only works to achieve the short-term goals, but also supports or builds the brand in the long run.

Engaging B2B content can improve search rankings, conversion rates, lead generation and even overall revenue, but it also builds relationships. When you read great content, aren’t you compelled to comment or share it? That’s the beginning of building a relationship.

Instead of direct selling to prospects, begin to build a relationship with them; forge trust; find out their needs and recommend the right solution for them—prospects buy from people they trust.

Ready to know more about building relationships with content? Here are 4 ways that B2B content helps build relationships.

1. Guest posting: Writing blog posts on other B2B blogs in your industry is a powerful way to position your brand in front of a new audience. By getting in front of other established blog’s readers, you have the potential to build relationships with many readers. To start a conversation with those readers, do such things as invite readers to comment on your post and reply to those comments in a timely manner.Relations aren’t built without effort—you need to encourage readers to engage with you. By delivering helpful, relevant information in your guest post and invite interaction, you open the door to a relationship with that reader.
2. Commenting: Whether it’s on a post from your B2B blog, a guest post or going out and commenting on other blogs in your industry, commenting is a small but powerful way to start conversations. Start building relationships with readers by finding outside blogs or B2B forums, and see what others are talking about and then add to the conversation by adding your own comments. By providing value to the conversation, this expands the audience you are trying to reach and starts building relationships.
3. Social media: B2B social media puts you in touch with prospects in a more personal way—engaging on a personal level with prospects helps build relationships and builds up trust with your prospects. Using B2B social media, you have the opportunity to easily monitor and engage with others on issues in your industry. Also look to monitor social traffic for mentions of your brand, both good and bad. By becoming a resource for them and solving their problems, you can build and repair relationships with potential prospects.
4. Links: You may have heard to be cautious when linking away from your site and it’s true—you should be cautious. However, to get link love, you have to share link love , especially when it’s providing your audience with value. There will be times when the benefits to sending links away from your site outweigh the negatives. By linking out to others, it’s a signal that you value their content. This can be an effective strategy for beginning a relationship with others in the industry and may even result in a link back to you.

Great content not only informs and sells; it also builds relationships with prospects and influencers in your industry—an example of a great B2B blog is this Marketing Profs blog.

When you leverage powerful B2B content from blogs, social networks and even content sharing through links, you start to build the right relationships that will be valuable now and in the future.

Now, you knew it would happen. When a company with sustainable products and vision—from its inception—decides to sell to Wal-Mart, there’s bound to be a lot of discussion and controversy in the blogosphere.

That’s why Seventh Generation’s recent announcement that the company will start doing business with Wal-Mart raised eyebrows, questions and plenty of comment, pro and con.

From the company’s own press release: “Seventh Generation, the nation’s leading brand of non-toxic and environmentally friendly household products, is embarking on a mission with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) to help make sustainable living more accessible to consumers nationwide, including availability at more than 1,500 Wal-Mart stores and on Walmart.com.”

At first blush, this may not seem like a match made in heaven. No doubt hard-core environmentalists and proud tree-huggers everywhere will eschew this new relationship. But should they? Wal-Mart has made a huge, unwavering commitment to becoming a more sustainable retail operation over the past five years. And it has been accomplishing some milestones.

So is there anything wrong with Seventh Generation doing business with the largest retailer in the world? Obviously, it’s a big deal to get distribution into 1,500 retail stores for a small company like Seventh Generation. But a company like this isn’t interested in only top-line sales.

Here’s a huge opportunity to educate the public at large. Here’s a chance to convert more households into purchasing and using environmentally friendly laundry, dishwashing and cleaning products, disinfectants, paper goods, baby care and feminine care products. This is all about getting closer to fulfilling the company’s chief goal: “Protecting Planet Home.”

So why wouldn’t they sell to Wal-Mart? As president Jeffrey Hollender noted on his Seventh Generation Protagonist blog: “Certainly any retreat (by Wal-Mart) on social or environmental progress would trigger some rethinking. Our positions on responsibility, accountability, and transparency aren’t subject to change, and we expect our partners to keep working toward these goals.

Question: What do you see as the pros and cons of this new partnership?

I’d love to hear from you.

The following is adapted from Success Secrets Of The Social Media Marketing Superstars by Mitch Meyerson and 22 other top social media marketers, including our own Ann Handley from MarketingProfs. Pick up your own copy here.

With current advancements in social media technologies, entrepreneurs can reach tens of thousands of people in new and engaging ways. Even better, they can accomplish this without spending a dime, which makes social media marketing quite possibly the ultimate low-cost, high-impact, guerrilla-marketing tool.

Though it takes just minutes to register and begin using social media websites, entrepreneurs who plan on using these powerful tools must do much more than merely participate in the social media “craze.” The overcrowded and highly competitive Internet marketplace demands that entrepreneurs approach social media seriously and arm themselves with essential knowledge of people, marketing and communication as well as a solid plan of attack. Online entrepreneurs must not only stay current with the ever-changing online technologies but also be a strong marketer and savvy business person.

Mastering online marketing is a book in itself with chapters for getting and converting traffic, direct response copy writing, website development, multimedia, affiliate programs and much more. But for now let’s keep simple it and answer  two questions: 1) What is marketing ? and 2) Why should your prospects buy from you over your competitors?

What is Marketing?
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” (Peter Drucker)

Although often misunderstood, marketing is a straightforward concept, and it is relevant to every part of your company. Marketing is essentially the art and science of getting and keeping profitable and valuable customers, and the hub of every business.  This requires that you fully understand the problems and concerns of your market and are able to clearly explain how you can help them solve these problems.

In addition, it is crucial to understand that marketing is an ongoing process that applies to every contact with your target market.  Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, states it this way. “Marketing is everything you do to promote your business, from the moment you conceive of it, to the point at which customers buy your product or service and begin to patronize your business on a regular basis. The key words to remember are everything and regular basis.”

The good news is that great marketers are not born, they are made.  Marketing is a very teachable skill and one that you can easily learn with some time, practice, and dedication.  For more than 10 years, I have trained and certified hundreds of guerrilla marketing coaches in using low-cost, high-impact marketing strategies.

6 Reasons Your Prospects Will Choose to Become Your Customers

1. Their experiences with you. Your prospects will judge your worthiness based on how you make them feel. This includes how well you communicate, your content depth, your website’s quality, etc. Your prospects will also be more likely to engage in conversations with you when you allow them to interact in ways they prefer (e.g., some people may relate to a blog post while others are more engaged by video or audio content).  And always remember you are marketing to people first, so build the human bond by remembering personal details and listening carefully.

2. Your product or service benefits. There are two basic reasons why people purchase anything: to increase pleasure (e.g. glowing health, freedom, popularity) or decrease pain (e.g. stress, financial problems, poor health). Focus on your product or service’s most compelling benefits as you communicate with your target audience—then, make sure you deliver on your promises. Be specific.

3. Your trustworthiness and reputation. Protect your good name, and do everything in your power to ensure that your customers, prospects, friends, employees, and colleagues view you as a person of value. Keep in mind that your credibility, plausibility, and truthfulness will also win you far more customers than exaggerated claims and over-the-top promises.

4. The value they receive. Although most consumers are price-conscious, the vast majority do not consider price alone when making their buying decisions. Rather, they consider value: the difference between what something costs and its worth to the buyer. What does value look like in the social media world? Answer: great content, expert advice and personal connections.

5. Make transactions easy, safe, and secure. People are more likely to hand over their money when they perceive the risk as minimal. It’s best to reassure potential customers with robust guarantees, a solid privacy policy, and secure payment procedures.

6. How well you articulate their most pressing concerns. To market effectively you must get into your prospects’ heads. Listen carefully to your target audiences’ expressed opinions and feelings—particularly as they relate to your products or services—and be sure to address them directly. (Social media forums and blogs make this very easy.) Research the marketplace to discover new trends and golden opportunities that you can leverage to benefit your business.

Most importantly, especially in the social media marketing environment, remember that the superior online and offline marketing happens when entrepreneurs are willing to put themselves out there and build genuine human connections. Social media marketing is not about quantity; it’s about quality. It is not just about long lists of followers. It begins with a sincere desire to grow and nourish genuine relationships and doing whatever it takes to ensure they happen. If you do this, the money will follow.

Mitch Meyerson is the author of nine books, including Mastering Online Marketing, Guerrilla Marketing on The Internet, Six Keys to Creating the Life You Desire. He has been a featured expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show and has trained and certified hundreds of Guerrilla Marketing coaches. To get your free Internet Marketing Toolkit and read his blog, visit www.MasteringOnlineMarketing.com.

Do you know what an Eigen Value is?

“This sentence has five words.” That’s an Eigen Value. A self-defining entity, something unarguable. A truism.

When you say something like, “This sentence has lots and lots of words and syllables,” that’s not an Eigen Value. We could debate whether this is true or false and it really depends on your personal opinion.

This difference matters a lot for a simple reason: When we create Eigen Values, we’re creating things our customers immediately identify with us.

Every touch point with a prospective customer becomes a moment of power where we can remind them why we’re relevant. This is more than just garden variety consistency. It requires we systematically look at things from our perspective as well as from theirs and constantly adjust and refine.

Look at Method, competing in the detergent space against giants, such as P&G and Clorox. Method’s hiring practices focus on group interviews where you present a tactical idea, a strategic idea and a way to “keep Method weird.” They’re a San Francisco brand that looks more like an ad agency than a soap manufacturer, but there’s more to it than that. Method needs to be “weird”—it needs to keep itself on the edge to ensure it doesn’t fall into staid and conservative thinking. Look at its competition. Method’s HR practices are Eigen Values.

Look at Vibram and its incredible Five Fingers running shoe. Five “fingers” for your toes means you’re essentially running the way you would if you were barefoot. No more heel striking—and no more repetitive knee injuries, either. Vibram is a shoe sole company. Who else could possibly launch a shoe like the Five Fingers? Vibram’s product development is an Eigen Value.

Look at JetBlue and its “All You Can Jet Pass.” Here’s a company so confident in its customer experience that, according to CMO Marty St. George, its best marketing vehicle is an empty seat. JetBlue uses promotional pricing in a quirky, off-beat way to ensure people say, “That could only come from Jet Blue.” It knows that once a customer flies with it, the customer will fly with JetBlue again. Jet Blue’s pricing strategy is an Eigen Value.

When you look at everything your brand does through this Eigen Value lens, it changes how you do things. No more “check the box” activities. No more “the rest will take care of itself” attitudes. No more “your call is important to us” customer communications. Everything counts because everything is a truism—it’s identical to your core brand attributes.

Why is all of this important?

1. You have limited resources. Time and money are tighter than they were a while ago, if you’re like most people. We need every dollar to count. Ensuring that every possible touch point is working for you and not being wasted is critical.
2. Your customers are busy. They have bigger worries than figuring out whether you matter to them. Make it easy on them. They’ll appreciate it.
3. Brand equity equals brand valuation. Every point of incremental brand equity you build is correllated to the incremental value of your company. It’s good business.

What do you do now?

1. Your branding work comes first. Identify who and what you are—and decide who you’re not. Make choices.
2. Bring your partners in to share your vision. Ask the head of customer service, your vice president of Sales, your technical support team and others to see themselves through this new set of eyes.
3. Start making changes today.
4. Ask your customers if they see the changes you think you’re implementing. If they do, keep going. If they don’t, ask where and refine.
5. Keep going. It’s a journey, not a destination.

Does this make sense to you? Can you see yourself applying this Eigen Value lens to your brand? Can you think of other brands that are Eigen Values? Add your comments and case studies, because I’d like to hear them – and they’ll help others, too.

Would you like to share this idea with others? Change This thinks this is a worthy manifesto and I’d like to publish an expanded version of this idea up there.

If you agree and want to help me share this idea, visit The Eigen Value “Change This” Manifesto Link.

Thanks!

Regards.

You’ve heard of corporate social media policies—those rules companies are struggling to define to guide appropriate employee online behavior. But what about a brand social media policy? How do you define how your brand should behave in social networks?

I’ve had some really great interactions with brands lately on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. I’ll be honest, I feel a sense of greater loyalty to those who talk with me and acknowledge me. I’ve also been ignored a lot. I hate being ignored. And on social networks, it seems to irritate me even more—because after all, why are brands on social networks if they aren’t, well, social? I can read about your news on your website. I want you to talk with me, not at me.

So I took to Twitter to ask my community if they feel that brands should be responsive when you talk about them on social networks. How do they feel if brands don’t follow them back? Does it matter?

Turns out most people, like me, also hate being ignored. While the majority of respondents said they didn’t care if brands follow them on Twitter, they did say that they feel negatively toward a brand that doesn’t respond to them when specifically called out to do so. Smart brands at least do that and also monitor and interact with the community talking about them, even if not specifically asked to answer a question or talk to them.

Here’s an example. I recently asked my Twitter followers who their favorite fashion sample sale sites are, and I mentioned Rue La La, Gilt Groupe and Ideeli. Only one, Ideeli, answered the question themselves in the form of a response to me. In fact, every time I mention Ideeli, they reply.

I also recently asked this question:

Only Entrepreneur Magazine responded, even though I’m an avid promoter of content in all three magazines. In fact, I probably share more articles from Inc. and Fast Company than Entrepreneur.

Now, of course, I was asking my followers their opinion in both of these cases and not asking the brands a specific question—but the point is, it was an opportunity for each company to interact with a prospect/customer talking about their brand, and to show that they’re listening – and that they care what the community says or thinks about them. I understand it might not be possible, if you’re a really popular brand, to reply to everything. But … why not? Companies like Jet Blue, Virgin America, Dunkin Donuts and LL Bean have done it right in my view. And here are a few other examples that some of my colleagues experienced:

• Cision actually helped me once.  I was generally complaining about Cision’s login expiring too quickly and other PR people were griping with me. Cision saw it within the hour, answered me and fixed my account so the log in time out would be longer.  It was a great example of monitoring your brand and making a dissenter into an advocate as I then tweeted the PR people back to tell them that Cision helped me and what they could do to fix the same issue.
• BumbleRide: I got on Twitter and complained about issues I was having with their Indie Twin stroller (which wasn’t cheap and I had just purchased a few months prior). The customer service rep responded to me via Twitter to learn more and, within two weeks, they shipped me a brand-new (and might I add, upgraded) stroller frame along with a little “snack-pack” add on “for my troubles.”
• I commented on Twitter about my satisfaction with the quick installation of Verizon Fios and they responded pretty quickly— thanking me and offering future assistance.
• I had very satisfactory, quick response/outcomes from both Comcast and American Airlines (about leaving my umbrella on a flight!).

I’m especially jealous of that last one because I once left a coat—a very nice coat—on an airline, and I tweeted about it immediately and they told me to call the 1-800 number. I did and never got a human on the phone and was never helped. And yes, it was extremely frustrating. The point here is that maybe it’s not even enough to just answer or interact, but to have a customer service action plan that includes social networks.

I dare to venture that most companies do not have a routing plan in place for how to handle customer service issues via social networks. Answering and acknowledging frustrated customers or interested prospects is just not enough anymore. It’s expected that, like a website, brands are going to be on Twitter. It’s further expected that brands are going to answer a customer talking about them or at least asking a specific question.

But now, as social media continues to evolve and integrate into multiple business divisions (marketing, PR, customer service, business development, etc.), companies need a smarter, integrated plan and organized process. They need to ask themselves:

• Who is going to handle complaints?
• What are the steps?
• Once addressed on Twitter or Facebook, do you take a customer offline?
• Who handles it?
• Who monitors niche communities (like, say mommy communities) to create relationships and address dissenters, or celebrate champions?
• Who replies on blogs mentioning your brands, further cementing positive relationships, or helping to fix damaged ones?
• Who makes sure any complaints in any social network are addressed to the satisfaction of a company or that a potential prospect was closed (or, if not closed, why not)?

Companies need to realize that just being present isn’t enough. Customers expect you to be there now. Building up large numbers of followers while following no one sends the wrong message. Businesses need better plans for integrating their social media efforts, processes and presence throughout the entire company.

You’ve heard of a social media policy for addressing employee behaviors online, but you rarely hear about a social media policy for addressing a brand’s behavior online. Do you have one? Why or why not? What positive or negative experiences have you had with brands on social networks?

by guest blogger Marjorie Clayman, director of Client Development at Clayman Advertising

A lot of the content that marketers can find and reference these days aims to inspire, motivate, and educate.  This article is a bit different. This article is for marketers who most sincerely want to fail. It’s for marketers who find success very run of the mill. It’s for people who want to fall on their marketing swords. To that end, then, here are 10 ways to achieve complete and total failure as a marketer. (And if you don’t want to fail, consider it your to-don’t list.)

1. Start a Facebook account, LinkedIn account, Twitter account, and a blog. Set everything up, so it looks like activity is imminent. Then let the accounts sit there, abandoned. Do not revisit them. Forget your passwords.
2. Start the same way as above, but this time, start the accounts armed with information you want to share. The key point here is that you want to start all of the accounts without researching whether your competitors and customers are there. Do not under any circumstances give careful thought to your avatars, your design, your usernames, or any other such details. Feel confident that your content is important enough that people will gravitate to it.
3. Measure your success based on leads, not sales.
4. Assume that marketing has nothing to do with public relations, sales, customer service, or anything else. You are autonomous. Marketing is as marketing does. Silos are popular. Just look at the Midwest.
5. Once you silo yourself, make sure that your marketing tactics are similarly separate from each other. Do not give any thought to how advertising could support a social media campaign. Do not ponder how exhibiting at a trade show could have anything to do with lead nurturing. Every tactic is an island.
6. Interpret levels of success in social media based on the numbers of fans or followers you have. Once you reach a pre-established milestone on both sites, it’s a good idea to add the word “expert” or “guru” to your profile.
7. Do not under any circumstances consider search engine optimization in anything you do. You don’t need to optimize your website or anything else. You’re on Facebook and Twitter!
8. Assume that nobody understands anything you are talking about because you reside in the new and in the details.
9. Do not share tips, tricks, or information. You worked hard for that data. If someone wants it, they’ll have to work with you. And pay you. A lot.
10. Act like a marketer. Everywhere you go, pitch something that someone can purchase. Send automatic direct messages enticing people to buy your services or your products. And remember: Promote yourself as much as possible.

I can guarantee that following even following just a few of these steps, in no particular order, will deliver the marketing misery for which you are striving. Trust me. I’m a guru.

Marjorie Clayman is director of Client Development at Clayman Advertising, a full-service marketing communications firm located in Akron, Ohio.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree from the College of Wooster (Ohio), Marjorie went on to earn a Master of Library Science as well as a master’s degree in history from Kent State University. Five years ago, she became the third generation to join the family firm, which her grandfather founded in 1954. Recently, Margie has spearheaded the company’s efforts in promoting social media to the agency’s business-to-business and medical clients as a viable part of their overall integrated marketing campaigns.

Whew! We hosted our first #TechChat last Tuesday with our special guest, Guy Kawasaki. More than 500 RSM (really smart marketers) joined us to chat with Guy about social media marketing for the high-tech industry. While the chat moved faster than any chat I’ve ever attended, most of us were able to take away a few key insights about social media marketing.

Here are my favorites:

1. Trial and error leads to strategy.

Because social media is still relatively new territory for most marketers, it makes sense to develop your strategy as you go along. You can’t plan what you don’t know. According to Guy, “I think ’social media planning and strategy’ is an oxymoron. Basically, you try stuff and see what sticks.”

2. It’s all about the numbers.

Let’s be real. Twitter is all about the numbers. The more followers you have, the more opportunities for developing connections you have. According to Guy, “The best way to get good connections is to get more followers. It’s the big law of numbers.”  With more than 250,000 followers, Guy has played that game very, very well.

3. No one’s an expert. We’re all experts.

Again, because Twitter is so new, we all have the opportunity to be experts. Unlike other forms of marketing, we’re all still figuring Twitter out along the way. So seize this opportunity to own it like no one else. Guy says, “No one’s an expert at social media. One of the reasons I love it is we all have a fighting chance to use this thing effectively!”

A big THANK YOU to Guy for these insights, and thanks to everyone for attending. If you missed the inaugural #TechChat, don’t fret. WTHashtag has a transcript, the Isatis Marketing Blog compiled the best Tweets from Guy, and Stanford Smith wrote a great blog entitled, “How to Tweet like a ‘Beat Reporter—#TechChat Edition.”

Ready for more? Join us Tuesday, August 24 from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Eastern standard time) for the second #TechChat. We’ll be chatting with special guest, LaSandra Brill, social media manager at Cisco Systems, about social media for high-tech, B2B marketing. LaSandra is also presenting the new seminar, “Cisco and the Social Web: Our Adoption and Evolution,” on Thursday, August 26 at noon (Eastern standard time).

Google has always got something new up its sleeve. Visit its  product page and you’ll find a slew of tools. Some you’ve heard of, others may be new to you. Google is adding stuff  all the time.

There is a neat feature of Google search you may find helpful:  the Wonder Wheel.

When you perform a search on Google, one of the additional options is to have your results presented in a hub-and-spoke diagram. A wheel of wonder, if you will.

The hub shows your original search term, and the spokes show terms relevant to your search.

Select Wonder wheel

The link to activate Wonder Wheel should show up in the left column after you perform a normal search. Click to see your results in this hub/spoke layout. (You may need to click the “more search tools” to have it displayed for you).

The wheel to the left, the search results of the “hub” word are presented on the right.

Below, my original term was “marketing.” I then clicked the result spoke for “marketing strategy,”which led to “marketing tactics” and then here to “guerilla marketing tactics.” All the while, to the right were relevant websites about each topic.

Practical Use

The Wonder Wheel works well when you’re not sure what you’re exactly looking for. A way to start at a main topic—your hub—and work your way to what you may be looking for.

It also serves a brainstorming tool. Start with you key thought and click spokes to sort of wander around the topic to find inspiration.

It is also worth noting, in addition to standard, and wonder wheel searches, you can also view results presented in a time line and view searches related to yours with related searches.

E-mail mailbox providers are marketers, too.  Shocking to remember, I know.  Yet, the product managers at the global mailbox providers like Yahoo!, Hotmail/MSN and Gmail have been busy trying to make their email services more valuable to subscribers.   They’ve noticed the clutter, too.  That’s why we are seeing a whole new set of inbox management tools that make it easier for subscribers to avoid whatever messages are not interesting to them.  In fact, Hotmail did a major release of the new features in the last week of July, so more and more subscribers have access to the new Sweep feature and other filtering tools.  I call it the “Ultra-Managed Inbox”—and it means both an opportunity and a threat for email marketers.   

To continue to earn high revenue from the channel, e-mail marketers must adopt a new attitude about the importance of subscriber experience and loyalty—and focus on making our e-mail messages worthy of the inbox.  Earning entrance onto a subscriber’s personal address book is huge now, but what makes your program really worthy of this level of connection?  Consider also how important the first couple of messages have become.  If you can’t engage new subscribers early, they will quickly start to ignore or filter your messages.  Subscribers have a lot more tools to keep us out of sight–and out of mind.  That is bad for revenue and long-term relationships.

There are three really central strategies every marketer must consider to begin to adjust to the new reality.  Embrace them before the full suite of inbox management tools become ubiquitous over the next few months.

1. Segment your “from” addresses. From what we here at Return Path can tell from using the new tools, the Hotmail Sweep feature bases filtering on the “body from” domain, so the entire from address is what is filtered.   Therefore, marketing@returnpath.net and transactional@returnpath.net should be treated differently.  Unlike their current personal block list, Sweep won’t give the option to block by domain, only the entire address.  (Subscribers can still block domains with other tools.)  Please consider this carefully. As marketers, we know the nuance between marketing@ and transactional@, but subscribers may not.  The actual e-mail experience must be unique and tied to the from address; each e-mail message type must have a clear purpose to be viewed by subscribers as unique. Otherwise, they may sweep a marketing@ from address and wonder why newsletter@ is still coming to the inbox. That second set of messages may be quickly marked as spam.

2. Turn frequency into cadence.  When everything reached the inbox, being present was enough to earn a brand impression.  As users employ more filters, being relevant and timely will trump volume.  When I open the folder, I will expect to see timely messages tailored to my interest.  On the other hand, repeated reminders about last week’s sale may turn me off from visiting this folder again.

3. Segmentation by activity trumps demographics.   Messages sorted into folders are likely to be viewed by utility.  Defaults at Hotmail include Social Networks and Upcoming Events.  There is no “special offers” flag, so users will either create folders by sender (e.g., L. L. Bean) or activity (e.g., Sales, Banking, Read Later).  It’s up to marketers to create content and offers that is worth reading later. In the mix of message types, transactions are the new connectors.  As always, transactional messages are very welcome and could be a great co-marketing opportunity.  Consider appropriate marketing that is tied to the transaction rather than pure promotions that dilute the value of the original purpose.  (Also, remember that CAN SPAM governs what is considered transaction vs. marketing in the United States.)

As you look at these strategies, keep in mind the mobile implications.  Portable devices may have fewer features than PC-based email clients.  For example, Hotmail on a smartphone does not allow movement to any folder but trash. If you have a high mobile readership, consider segment and frequency options to reduce the clutter and engage more deeply.

The Ultra Managed Inbox can spell opportunity for marketers.  In fact, inbox management is not new—all these types of filters have been available for a long time. Soon, however, they will be automated and promoted heavily to new users.  There’s lots of good news for marketers here, but only if we get ready now and start testing what it really means to engage and compete with the clutter surrounding our messages.

The “rainy day” you’ve been waiting for to do a serious audit of your optimization of the email channel has arrived.  How are you planning to adapt for the new, ultra-managed inbox?  Let me know any questions or thoughts in the comments section below.