Word Marketing Blog

Email Marketing

by Anna Lawrence:

With comparatively low costs, high ROI and a focus on customer retention, e-mail marketing is a growing and effective solution for marketing when marketing budgets are thin. But in order to be effective, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Email marketing is NOT:

• SPAM - don't purchase an email list
• Forced sales
• A quick sale medium

Email marketing IS:

• Permission based, Opt-in
• Positively received by customers
• Effective when providing valuable information and feedback formats
• An interactive forum
• A long-term, relationship builder

Done correctly, it can be an integral piece of our marketing arsenal. If you'd like to know more, let us know!

Fatal Fear #1

How you lead as a business manager, department head or owner is critical in times such as these.

You have to keep a calm head and not let the pressure of the doom and gloom enter into your actions or your emotions. Over the next week, I'll share four fatal fears which can creep in and destroy your leadership if you are not guarding your thoughts and attitude.

Fatal Fear #1-The Fear of Being Wrong

The fear of being wrong can paralyze your leadership efforts because if this fear is existing, it can make it extremely difficult to allow input from your management team or employees. Voices that challenge your ideas or conclusions can be irritating to you because you feel immense pressure to BE RIGHT because your fear of being wrong is so strong.

This can cause creativity and imagination to dwindle from those around you. Ultimately, the fear of being wrong will lead you right into, you guessed it, being wrong.

*Important note: Remember as the owner or leader of your organization, you spend a whole lot more time thinking about your business or organization than your team. You are much further down the road in your thought process in the vision than they are. You may have the whole picture figured out and firmly placed in your mind and they have not even seen a piece of it or understand your thought process at all. It is your job as leader to constantly find ways to paint your vision onto their mental screens as much as and as often as possible. Do as much communicating as you do thinking. The reason communication is typically a weakness on every company's SWOT analysis is that communication is work and mostly thinking is easy.

Birthdays and Basketball

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a College Basketball junkie.

I'm sure mostly it comes from being born and raised in Kentucky. I remember when Ann Marie and I started dating, my brother was still in High School and playing. I took her to her first HS game in Kentucky. Her words? "This is nuts!"

Since my birthday is today and it falls so close to the end of the NCAA tournament, a lot of significant things usually happen on or around it.

On March 28, 1992...right after my birthday dinner at my parents house, possibly the most famous shot in college basketball happened. In the Kentucky/Duke Regional Final. My Dad's words still ring in my ears. "That didn't count did it?" It counted and the "Unforgettables" were eliminated. Today, a member of that team, John Pelphrey is the Arkansas coach...and yes, Jim Ragsdale...tell the Hogs fans to hang in there...because he will bring that program back. The wins over Oklahoma and Texas were not flukes. John was raised right and he knows what he is doing.

March 27th, 1978..I got a birthday present early...we beat them Dukies for the National Championship in none other than St. Louis.

March 28th, 1996...at Griffin's in Cape Girardeau...I received a UK birthday party and a very nice cake from my friend John Wayne Guetterman...then on April 1st..Kentucky won it's 6th National Championship. A nice late present.

In 1997 at Port Cape...UK lost a double-overtime game to Arizona...the only thing keeping us from winning 3 National Championships back to back...because in 1998, we beat Duke in the Elite Eight and we won National Championship #7 on March 30th. A two day late present.

Yesterday...Kentucky fired it's Coach after two years...sad to see. But, hey...Kansas lost last night and Duke got beat.

But, I'm hoping today on March 28th for two great College Basketball Birthday presents.

#1-We get Billy Donovan or John Calipari to be the UK Head Coach.

#2-AND...Missouri goes to it's first ever Final Four!

As ZZ Top famously said...I'm not asking for much....Thanks for all the birthday wishes....UK...Get Billy D or Johnny C and Go Mike Anderson and The Tigers!

Leadership in challenging times

I spoke to the Business Owners and Managers luncheon of the Women's Network in the Columbia Chamber of Commerce this week and one of the things I stressed was the responsibility of owners and managers in these times to lead their companies very deliberately.

Employees and team members need to see you on the front lines to build confidence the company is headed in the right direction. As a favorite of mine used to say, you've got to get down in the trenches.

Get input, have discussions, produce a rally cry.

There's nothing people like better than getting on board and helping fight to be a winner during a challenge.

Don't make a huge announcement about it...just start doing it. Let your team notice it on their own. Don't hide yourself in your ivory tower office. Interact with them and listen actively, do NOT use your auto-pilot answers. They care about their future which is directly tied to the company's future.

Start doing it today, it'll be fun.

It's not your Dad's internet

I'm very fascinated by America's generational cycles.

Strauss and Howe said "the story of civilization seldom moves in a straight line, but is rich with curves, oscillations, and mood shifts". Generation X, also called the 13th Generation or the "baby busters" is typically defined as those being born between 1961 and 1981. Generation Y is typically defined as those being born from 1978 to 1995. The Baby Boomers are typically referred to as those people who were born prior to 1964, starting right after World War Two in 1945 and are a huge generation by sheer numbers, also called the "pig in the python". In fact, some even attribute the economic slowdown currently in play as the result of the huge numbers of Baby Boomers in the workforce retiring between the years of 2007 and 2009. The Silent Generation are folks who are born between the years of 1925 to 1945 and the G.I. Generation are typically referred to as born between 1901 and 1924.

New research has just emerged reflecting the habits and usage of these various generations online.

According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, Americans who are part of Generation X are most likely to bank, shop and look for health information online, Baby Boomers are as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online, and members of the Silent Generation are proficient with email and are gaining ground online.

Though 74% of all US adults are online, younger users ages 12-28 have embraced online applications that enable communicative, creative, and social uses, older users are more likely to engage in online activities that require some capital, such as travel reservations and online banking.

It also finds that though more than half of America’s online population is between ages 18-44,  larger percentages of older Americans are going online and doing more things there than they have in the past. The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 is in the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online.

What would you think the most popular online activity would be?

You guessed it! Email.

Three quarters (74%) of internet users ages 64+ send and receive email, making email the most popular online activity for this age group.

But, email has lost some ground among teens. Some 89% of teens said they used email in 2004, but only 73% say they do now.

What has replaced email?

Social networking, blogging and instant messaging have all gained significant ground.

 

No Excuse for Excuse Habit

by Anna Lawrence

"We all have a supply of excuses. The more we use them the lower become our standards, the poorer our performance."

On Thursday I attended the Women's Network luncheon to hear speaker and Missouri Football Head Coach, Gary Pinkel. I was not surprised to find that Coach Pinkel's approach to a successful football team mirrors that of many leaders of successful companies. Especially poignant was his discussion about the Excuse Habit.

The Missouri Tigers football team was far from good when Pinkel arrived at Mizzou. Among many battles Pinkel had to fight, attitude was the biggest. With a group of young men who were used to blaming everything from lost football games to hard knocks on anything or anyone but themselves, coaching self-responsibility was no easy task. But with perseverance and time, Pinkel built a football team that has received national acclaim and makes fans proud.

In today's economy, making excuses for suffering business is perhaps easier than ever. But making excuses will not increase your bottom line. History does not remember great feats by the obstacles that must be overcome, but rather by the accomplishment reached. Focus on a Success Habit, and you'll find the Excuse Habit has no room to thrive.

Mobile News Reception

More and more people are using their mobile phones to access news information.

I confess, the iPhone causes me to check weather, news and stocks more than I ever have! After all, if I am just sitting in the car on a trip, in a airplane or on a tarmac, it's cool to flip open the holster and get the 411.

I guess I'm not the only one since the number of people using their mobile phone to access online information more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009.

comScore is reporting among the total audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information in January 2009, more than a third (35%) did so at least every day!

comScore also reports that the fastest growing activities for mobile web use are accessing news and information, social networking and blogging, stock trading and accessing financial information and seeking movie information. Notably, social networking and blogging are “growing at a torrid pace”.

Much of the growth in news and information usage is driven by the increased popularity of downloaded applications, such as those offered for the iPhone, and by text-based searches, comScore said. While smartphones and high-end feature phones, like the Samsung Instinct and LG Dare comprise the top 10 devices used for news and information access, 70% of those accessing mobile internet content are using feature phones.

Video Web Convergence

Two years ago, we began telling clients and prospects to start merging video and the web.

Like others, we saw a trend emerging. That emerging trend is now converging. Your iPhone comes with You Tube pre-loaded on the icon screen. Recent studies show a 45% increase in online video viewing over last year. Of course advertisers are looking for a way to capitalize on this by finding unique ways to interject advertisements into all this online viewing.

Recent studies also show online ad spending continuing to grow in 2009, but probably not as high as the 40% previously expected. Expected online ad sales are around $580 million, and any growth to that number will be a challenge for advertisers.

Here are some terms you may or may not be familiar with, but should get educated on:

• Re-roll
• In-Stream
• Overlay ad playback

Are you seeking ways to integrate and monetize video content on your web site? Do you have the idea for the next You Tube or Hulu?

Facebook Stats

Who says Facebook is only for the younger demographic consumer. This latest research shows that women over the age of 55 are taking Facebook by storm!

The number of US women over age 55 using Facebook grew by 175.3% since September 2008, making mature females one of the fastest growing demographic groups on the social network, according to usage statistics released by independent blog Inside Facebook.

The number of men over age 55 also grew dramatically during the same four-month period (up 137.8%), but women over 55 still outnumber men in this age group by almost two-to-one.

Key Facebook stats as of Feb. 1, 2009, from Inside Facebook:

• There are 45.3 million active US Facebook users.
• The number of Facebook users are growing in every age/gender demographic.
• Facebook use among women is growing faster than among men in nearly every age group.
• The fastest growing age group by total users is 26-34-year-olds; 45% of Facebook’s US audience is now 26 years old or older.

Older Users Fuel US Audience Growth

Facebook’s US audience has continued to grow in recent months, fueled primarily by those ages 26+, said Inside Facebook. In particular, the network has rapidly gained popularity in the US with people 45+, growing by more than 165% among both men and women in the last four months.

Women Outnumber Men

Overall, women (56.2%) on Facebook in the US outnumber men in every age group. This number is up from 54.3% late last year.

   

Nearly Half of Users over Age 26

Overall, 45% of Facebook’s 45.3 million active users in the US are now age 26 or older, and nearly a quarter are over age 35.

Teens now make up about 12% of the overall Facebook audience, according to Inside Facebook.  Facebook does not publish data on users under 13, because the terms of service require all users be at least 13 years old to join.

Warning-this blog could sound like a pitch...

This could sound like a sales pitch for certain products and services we offer, but it's the truth nonetheless.

This economic situation has changed the way all of us-including your customers-think about spending money. The research and data you've been using (if you've been using any) to guide your marketing and sales strategy is out of date in light of the dramatic changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Using Focus Groups to gauge consumers new ways of thinking and feeling concerning your product, using Benefit Testing concerning ad campaigns and themes, using Surveys to get feedback and develop an overall strategy map in today's turbulent climate.

I attended a seminar yesterday full of business owners where an "ad guru" was handing out advice (another blog on this later) based on xxxx years of experience and the fact that this is not "rocket science".

I disagree. Now is the time you may want to apply some rocket science to your marketing effort.

Experience may or may not be able to guide you in what many are saying is unfamiliar territory.

You have to make sure you are not tone deaf to what your customers are saying during this time of thrifty spending habits.