Archives for March 2014
4 Critical Managerial Ingredients of E-Marketing
The steps in the 4S web marketing mix was developed in the late 90′s, as an educational tool, but has proven quite suitable as a process for designing a new web site, (like we are), or for evaluating and improving an existing one. This is a spin on the “4Ps Marketing Mix” framework to adapt to today’s virtual world. The concept is to enable e-commerce full integration of all virtual activities into the physical strategy of the company, its marketing plan and its organizational process.
Here are the four critical managerial ingredients of e-marketing from the 4S model with their explanation:
1. SCOPE: Defining the main strategic issues which currently are limited by the online presence. This scope will always change and evolve as the site grows and technology increases. Those issues include, but are not limited to markets, competition, customer profiles, effects of the online operation to the brick and mortar, effects on internal processes and identification of the role the online presence will take as a whole.
2. SITE: Defines the operational aspects of the online presence. The site must attract the target customer and be an effective interface between the firm and the customer. Must meet automation demands versus man power alone. Must have a feel of a virtual experience that allows the customer the freedom to interact, while being private, and yet gain loyalty.
3. SYSTEM: Technical factors which undermine the security and safety of both the customer transaction and the company’s image, margins and time commitment in an fully integrated online presence is not to be lightly considered. Technology today often aids the customer friendly field with the initial cost of building, maintaining and modifying being seemingly high until the full marketing plan both internally and externally are allowed to move cohesively.
4. SYNERGY: The online presence and the company’s network must be integrated. Duplication of archaic systems to avoid added expenditure simply adds to expenses elsewhere. Synergy will maximize market impact and effect traditional methods to an exponentially positive degree. This then requires:
• Front Office Integration: The virtual world and the traditional world must be seamless in undivided in the marketing plan. If not, the plan will never have the internal support needed for launch and growth.
• Back Office Integration: The back office processes must be integrated immediately simultaneously. Existing back off ice organizational will most likely need upgrading. If not, the virtual experience by the customer will be lost or questioned.
• External Integration: Banking, inventory control systems, purchasing, logistics and R&D may be items the business outsources in part or in full and integration with those systems is critical. Management must continually monitor for economies of scale and efficiency while not sacrificing the balanced scorecard, metrics being managed or the virtual feel by the customer.
In summary, the strengths of the 4S web marketing mix are that it identifies the critical strategic, operational, and technological issues of a great online presence. With a fairly low entry level, the constant upgrade of technology to maintain the customer feel demanded today, the integrated approach ends up making massive improvements in collaboration both internally and externally with vendors. In sectors where conditions change quickly this educational and managerial tool shows great value if continually monitored. Lastly, on a positive note as viewed by some, marketing managers now become high level strategists and not just tacticians.
The limitations of the 4S web marketing mix are that it is primarily developed for Business to Consumer (B2C) applications. Business to Business (B2B) applications may or may not be able to use or gain from the mix method depending on what products or services are being offered. The firm’s knowledge of online consumer behaviors needs to be top-notch in order to optimize the web element of the overall marketing plan. This knowledge may not be available internally. That knowledge internally may be laden with the traditional 4Ps mix which do not take into account factors unique to online marketing and its integration needs.
Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Metrics Management Helps Propel an Organization to Drive Action Plans
The Balanced Scorecard is well known as a strategic planning and metric management system that is used in business, industry, government and non-profit organizations worldwide. The primary purpose of this system is to align an organization’s business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, optimize both the internal and external communications, and monitor financial, operational and organizational performance against the stated strategic goals. While originated, by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton, as a performance management framework that stressed more of the non-financial performance measures as opposed to traditional financial metrics in aims of helping managers to better view and understand organizational performance, one must ask, in a much more technology-based interaction between companies and potential customers, where should the focus for performance measurement lie and how does that focus shift based on a company’s desired mode of integration with its customers and constituents?
In the traditional business economy, metrics management helps to propel an organization from simply recording agreed upon performance metrics to using said information to drive action plans for the organization by key department and manage to goals on a daily basis.
Properly applied metrics management is meant to provide feedback around the internal business practices and the external results and outcomes in aims at continuously improving business performance and operational results.
A brief review of the key categories of performance metrics lead to an understanding for not only which types of metrics are critical for measuring, but the relative importance of each metric to the organization given their strategic objectives. The most traditional metrics that companies understand, are measured by, and resonate with are financial or “money”-related metrics. The financial landscape of metrics management that keeps a constant pulse on profit and loss performance, cash management and risk profiling has always and will be critical for organizations to understand where they stack up vis-à-vis their competitors. However, as technology continues to change the dynamics of social interaction, other metric landscapes will become increasingly important.
The business operations landscape allows managers to have an understanding as to how efficiently and productively different processes are performing, and gives them the ability to identify problems in process flows and address said problems as quickly as possible.
The customer landscape has become increasingly important over time. Businesses continually increase focus on understanding customer requirements and developing initiatives aimed at driving customer satisfaction in aims at driving and improving customer affinity and loyalty. If a company is unable to meet its customer’s needs then the customers will certainly seek out other solutions. A leading indicator of failing overall business performance is an inability to satisfy customer needs and an inability to succeed along the customer landscape of metric performance.
As we move forward into the technology-based business economy, what has become apparent is that the learning and growth landscape for metrics management has become critical for companies looking to create and sustain a long-term competitive advantage. This dimension is not only critical for companies looking to build on their core asset, employee knowledge of their respective business, and more importantly, knowledge of the needs of their customers and clients. This will be the separating dimension for business leaders going forward.
But in this new technology-based viral economy, what are the right metrics and what are the dimensions that companies should be looking to compete in? What are the correct social media metrics? What are the best social media platforms to employ and how does that change based on product, service, channel of distribution, manufacturing process, etc.? Twitter? Facebook? AOL? Myspace? LinkedIn? Pinterest?
Stay tuned because at Viral Solutions, we have a perspective. And depending on your individual business situation, a perspective can change your individual approach to business success going forward.
Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC (Content assist by Dino Browne)
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Are You Evolving with the Social Times?
Social media is a dynamic environment and a relatively new frontier for marketers. That said, social media is over ten years old now. Early adopters certainly had to experiment in order to see what worked and what didn’t. They paved the way for other businesses to follow suit. Over time, businesses have learned that their customers are quick to flock to social media with their praises and complaints; they learned that images get far more engagement than mere words; and they learned that social media posts tend to get buried and may not even be seen if there’s a lack of engagement.
While these are all good lessons to be aware of, the social media landscape continues to change. New social network sites often arrive unexpectedly, bringing new challenges and opportunities; social networks and search engines periodically change the rules; and users often tune out if their expectations aren’t met. Thus, settling into a social media routine and doing what you’ve always done may not be the best strategy. Are you evolving with the social times or is social media passing you by?
Below are a few of the more recent trends in social media and how you can use them to your advantage.
- Hashtags are the new search. Hashtags are commonly used in social media posts to tag a post in a special way. For example, if you are posting about major league baseball, you might use the hashtag #mlb to identify the post as being related to major league baseball. While
that hashtag provides some meaning to viewers of the post, the true power of hashtags involves searchability. For example, let’s say that you want to see current tweets about major league baseball. By entering #mlb into Twitter’s search tool, you’d see a list of the most recent tweets that use that particular hashtag. These tweets would include tweets from people beyond your follow list. Other social media sites use hashtags as well so if you were on Instagram or Pinterest and interested in seeing photos related to major league baseball, you’d perform a similar search. What’s more, search engines can retrieve hashtag related pages when you use a hashtag in the search box. If you’re not using hashtags, your posts could be overlooked by a huge potential audience.
- Pull is the new push. Push marketing is on the way out as more marketers adopt an inbound strategy. The idea behind inbound marketing is to attract potential customers, to draw them in like a magnet. With push marketing, marketers would broadcast their messages to a large audience using marketing channels such as direct mail or television advertising. With pull marketing, social media, blogs, special reports, and tightly targeted promotions whet consumers’ appetites and bring them in for more – all while building relationships and making each interaction as personalized as possible. If you’re spending the bulk of your marketing time sending out generic messages to the masses, you’re pushing and not pulling. Switch gears and begin pulling the right customers to your social media sites.
- Content is still king. “Content is king” may sound like a cliche, but it’s a fact that bears repeating. Content marketing plays an important role in inbound marketing, and social media provides the perfect platform for sharing content. Not only can you share your blog posts on social media, you can also set up a separate tab on Facebook for enticing users to sign up for a special report, whitepaper, eBook, video series, mailing list, or some other form of content. Thus, the content marketing journey begins!
- Crowdsourcing provides access to expanded knowledge. Public agencies often use social media as a means of gathering information. For example, the US Geological Survey’s Earthquake Hazards Program’s “Did You Feel It?” tool gathers input from users to plot the intensity of earthquakes in real time. Businesses often post surveys and polls on social media sites to gain relevant insights on any number of topics such as customer satisfaction, logo design changes, new product launches, and more.
Social media has been in existence for over a decade now, and the story is far from over. Are you keeping up with the latest trends?
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Strategy may be the Brain, Intent is the Heart and Soul
The great organizations have a vision, a compelling dream that energizes the work environment, and that energy is fed over and over again. The great organizations guide their strategic intent rather than control and dictate conformity.
The future of many companies is driven by intellectual collaboration, which looks like it just happens. Here that perception is not reality. The brain of any organization may very well be the strategy and how that strategy is put into blue print form. But the intent behind that strategy, the buy-in and delivery of that strategy, is the heart beat that fuels the brain. Only the intent and execution will feed the masses in the organization, to muster the resources beyond normal capabilities and abilities. The intent behind a strategy has certain recognizable traits. It must have heart. It must instill a challenge that is within reason.
What does that look like?
- The point of view about the long term market that the company hopes to build upon over the coming decade must be shared. This view must unite and feel like it was personalized across the talent pool. This is the shared vision behind the strategy.
- A sense of exploring new competitive angles and being ahead of the competition infiltrates internal collaboration and drives research and deployment. External collaboration is sought to complement any shortcomings.
- Intent is emotional, which employees perceive as their right. Intent enables a strong destiny, which employees will own.
How does a firm get there? What process can be installed to feed this intent to go viral within an organization?
The above recognizable traits above must be in place or the strategy will languish. The entire workforce must be challenged and given the means to achieve the intent behind the strategy. This challenge must be very specific and very detailed. But without the tools the challenge is unrealistic and breeds contempt.
People must be empowered in the process. The goal of management and their attitude should be to capture the wisdom and intellect of the masses within, to drive the action, and achieve gains in market share, or whatever the strategy desired. This does not mean in a hierarchical and downward style of communication. Quite to the contrary, the communication must be directed upward, fueled by top to bottom total buy-in.
If you are as seasoned as I am, you recall this being similar to what the Japanese brought to America, with their management style. We once considered all they dreamed as unachievable. Instead an obsession for winning, outweighed the lack of resources and prior capabilities. Now we are competing for our future.
What is your strategic intent? Do you publish a mission statement and assume normal markets will return?
Being the competition, doing whatever it takes to be the best, will create your reality. The great Generals had even better subordinate officers and the best of the best on the front lines. They did not dictate a plan, they sought the plan, created the strategy, and empowered the front line to execute it, then supported them with the finest tools available.
Look into corporate collaboration today. If you are over 45, you first ought to learn the new definition of collaboration, because the great companies today don’t form committees and think about it.
Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.
Should You Use a Link Shortener on Social Media?
Link shorteners such as Bitly or TinyURL are used to shorten lengthy website links. For example, a URL such as http://www.example.com/this-is-an-example-of-a-long-url can be shortened to http://bit.ly/1fFB4b6 using Bitly’s free link-shortening service. Link shortening can make a long link short, but why would you want to do that? After all, what difference does it make if the link appears on a website where it can be clicked one way or the other?
Link shorteners are used for several reasons. Below are a few reasons to use a link shortener on social media sites: 
- Character preservation – On a site like Twitter where you have just 140 characters, link shortening is a must. Our example.com URL took up 55 characters. By shortening it, we shrunk it down to just 21. We now have 34 extra characters to play with!
- Usage tracking – Many link shorteners include analytics and statistics. If you want to see which links are getting the most action, a link shortener can provide you with meaningful statistics.
- Simplicity – Many bloggers like to use link shorteners to create prettier or more meaningful URLs. For example, our Bitly example is short, but who can possibly remember or make sense of 1fFB4b6? By using a link shortener that allows you to customize your own URLs, you could create a more meaningful short URL such as example.com/example.
That said, link shorteners have their downsides. For example, users unfamiliar with a given link shortener may be reluctant to click the link because they don’t recognize it. Imagine shortening an instantly recognizable and credible news site such as CNN or ABCNews to something unfamiliar such as xlqrb.ly/gVl6r3. Which would you feel more comfortable clicking?
Another potential problem involves relying on a third party service provider. What happens if the provider gets hacked, goes offline for an extended period, or goes out of business? What about speed? When the user clicks a shortened link, it goes through a redirect process. How long does it take for your intended site to load? If the delay is too long, users will abort the process.
Finally, depending on the social media sites you will be using, link shortening may or may not be necessary. As mentioned earlier, Twitter users have a built-in reason to use a link shortener. On the other hand, when a Facebook user copies and pastes a link into a status update, Facebook retrieves the content and displays it within the message. Once this happens, the user can delete the original URL regardless of its length.
Using a link shortener on social media can make sense, especially if you are using a micro-blogging service where every character counts or want to view detailed statistics. If you’re not concerned with space concerns or analytics, you may prefer to use the long URL so that you are not at the mercy of a third party provider.
Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.