Training Marketer

Whether you’re looking for new web design ideas or just a good Friday afternoon laugh, Web Pages That Suck can help you out. Instead of learning from your own mistakes, why not learn from others’ pitfalls?

Amazon described the author’s first book by saying, “Unless you’re abnormally gifted, the best way to learn a craft thoroughly is to learn not only its central tenets but also its pitfalls.”

“Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015” is a must read on the site, including these major mistakes:

• We’ve designed our site to meet out organization’s needs (more sales/contributions) rather than meeting the needs of our visitors.
• It takes longer than four second for the man from Mars to understand what our site is about.
• Our site looks like we’ve never seen another web site.
• We use design elements that get in the way of our visitors.
• Our site doesn’t make us look like credible professionals.

A couple of the top “worst” sites of 2007:

Tally-Ho Uniforms & Accessories

Usability Net

Space colonies? Rocket-powered shoes? Robots doing the laundry?

Predicting the future is tough. Most of the time our ideas don’t pan out exactly how we expected, but luckily we have experts out there who can help us see into the future.

If you’ve ever wondered what the future of social media looks like, experts out there have already started their predictions. Those at Mashable, the social networking news blog, had a recent guest post sharing expert predictions into our social media future.

Jackie Peters, CVO and founding partner of Heavybag Media, recently attended the Executing Social Media conference where Peter Shankman, social media guru, gave a very energetic keynote on the future of social networking and how the social web is changing the way we do business and make money.

Some of Shankman’s social media predictions:

Information overload. Think you’re overloaded now? Just wait, soon there will be too many channels, tools and platforms for anyone to keep track of. The solution will be in the form of one tool that streamlines all of the information in order to successfully manage the information, automating the process for you. FriendFeed and Socialthing are two emerging tools on the market now.

Automated life tracking, life sharing and network building. Peters tells us to imagine a world where a business traveler can walk into an airport, their Bluetooth device signals their arrival and a ticket is printed and ready at the check-in desk.

The fall of reviewers and critics. With personal information so easy to access, people will be using recommendations and ideas from your trusted network rather than traditional reviewers or critics.

Citizen journalists rise. “One customer can do better than a million dollar spend on the Super Bowl.” Customer reviews hold more merit than anything a professional critic could write. We want to know what our friends think about a product or service before we give it a shot.

In the end, “the evolution of the web is more about how it is becoming integrated into our lives and less about the technology.”

Peters’ important side note - according to the movie Back to the Future 2, in 2010 it was predicted we would all have a fax machine in every room. Basically, don’t hold the predictions against us in the next few years if it turns out we weren’t so right.

When was the last time you looked at the “Read Me” file or manual for a piece of software you just installed on your computer?

Probably never, or rarely.

But, I’m sure you can remember a time when you were taught how to use a complicated piece of office software. Either in a group training setting or one-on-one, someone had to show you the shortcuts to using all those tricky programs on your desktop.

Well, times are changing. There is a new movement in the business software world to “consumerize” the technology, with a goal of making software intuitive, engaging and free of training.

According to those at the New Learning Playbook, the consumerization of business software will have a “tremendous” impact on employees in today’s workforce.

With more youngsters like Gen Y and the Millennials entering the workforce, employees will expect workplace software to be as easy to use as Facebook. The days of training courses and software manuals will be rightfully left in the past. New software will be engaging, fluid and fun.

“Take a moment to think about the software your department uses, can you say this? Often the norm is one where employees endure lengthy training or spend hours poring over reference manuals only to be more confused than when they first downloaded the program.”

Business software had been purchased in the past by senior executives focused on automating business processes, never thinking about the solution being user-friendly or fun for their employees.

Today’s world is driven by the Internet and Web 2.0, with consumers who know how to use it and use it well, according to Shiraz Datta on Data by Da{t}ta.

“[Employees’] expectations are that the software they use at work will be equally powerful, simple and engaging.”

SuccessFactors, a provider of performance and talent management solutions, is one company leading the business software consumerization movement.

Seemingly inspired by the functionality of Facebook, Ebay and Amazon, one of their creations called SuccessDirectory uses a Web 2.0 approach to online work collaboration.

“Let’s assume for the moment that you work on a global team and collaborate everyday with team members across the globe that you have never met in person. Wouldn’t it be great if you could create a profile here where you could share your educational background, work history, post a photo of your choosing, list your professional training, languages you currently speak, ones you want to learn over next few years, books and music you enjoy, hobbies and some information about your family? In fact, creating and sharing your profile, could really help you get to know your virtual team members better and may even lead to doing your job better.”

The consumer software world has advanced so well that a manual is rarely needed, usually only when you encounter an error. Consumers install and dive into software, expecting the process to be easy enough to figure out as they go. Business software must catch up, with everything else they expect in the office, Gen Y is demanding it.

The American Catalog Mailers Association (ACMA) will be covering current issues involving the catalog industry and postal services at the National Catalog Advocacy & Strategy Forum in Washington D.C. on June 26, 2008 and June 27, 2008.

AMCA is inviting members and non-members to attend this “first-of-its-kind” forum where the Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission and other key personnel will discuss important issues regarding the relationship between the postal service and catalogers.

“This top-to-top forum, only for catalogers and their key suppliers, is an opportunity to join in dialog with executives of the Postal Service and their Regulator, visit with members of Congress and their key staff members to communicate the value of cataloging and educate policymakers on the critical issues facing our industry, and discuss Do Not Mail and ACMA work on how preference requests are handled by catalogers. Members will also be able to participate in an ACMA annual meeting to vote for officers & directors and get up to date on ACMA’s Program of Work to improve the external environment for cataloging.”

Hamilton Davidson, Executive Director of ACMA is calling on all catalogers to attend and share the event with others in the catalog industry to create a strong showing. This event is an opportunity to help control postal costs that impact your company’s future financial performance.

“When a bunch of CEO types descend on our nation’s capital with the same agenda, it gets noticed. Your participation will show the USPS and PRC through your action that you are committed to keeping the mail open for your products. Your questions and comments will reinforce the points I have been making that this is now difficult and proposed changes threaten to make it harder. Your passion and intensity will convey that this industry has terrific growth potential if properly managed, even though the last two years has taken us in completely the wrong direction,” said Davidson.

MarketingSherpa released their weekly chart, this week focusing on ecommerce marketer survey responses. The Sherpa’s learned a lesson they feel all marketers should be aware of – “Analytics tools can help you really put your customers first, but most don’t get their full value.”

A breakdown of the chart:

Preference centers: a place where customers can choose the content and frequency of emails. This tool will help segment customers and target your message. Preference centers also show respect for customers by not clogging their inboxes with unwanted or too frequent emails.

Personas: customer profiles that represent each major buyer group. Develop a customer profile for your typical customer, and look at your website from their angle. Persona-based design uses the customer buying experience as a base to develop the entire website around.

Usability tests: how easy (or difficult) is your website to use. Organizations benefit from usability tests by putting stakeholders in the position of the customer. Stakeholders experience the confusion and frustration that may go along with the customer buying process.

Tying web analytics with search: organizations use this, but marketers know they can do better. High turnover rates of valuable analytics staff one of Sherpa’s main reason why organizations typically fail in this area.

Segmenting website content: creating pages and content, then using navigation to guide customers to them. The best segmenting uses cookie data to deliver relevant content matched to the user.

It’s an interesting chart that shows us all what we could be doing better, something we already know. Thanks to the Sherpa’s for reminding us that an emarketer’s work is never done.

You can now create Facebook pages for products and brands. I have to thank those at the MarketingSherpa blog for bringing this cool feature to our attention.

Facebook is giving marketers the chance to create product and brand pages for free (as of now). Enthusiastic customers can become your friends, giving you the chance to network with their friends. It may open up a whole new world of product promotion, and it’s right there for free.

Be aware that it’s not the same as creating a regular Facebook profile. You have to go to the Facebook homepage, click on the like titled “Advertisers” in the footer. It will take you to a page where you can buy ads, but look closely for the free offer to post a product without being a paying advertiser.

The Sherpa blogger foresees a charge for this new feature sometime in the future, so take advantage of the offer now. Good luck.

Marketers learned how to sell to Generation Y and the Millenials from the time they picked up their first Nintendo controller. The same generation has now moved behind desks in the corporate world and has given them a paycheck, giving them more buying power than ever.

The marketing once used to sell to your grandfather will not work with these youngsters. There are large differences between Gen Y and past generations in how they were brought up and what they expect out of life.

How they’re different from older generations:

They are digital natives. They have grown up with computers, cell phones, the Internet, Nintendo and mp3 players attached to their hands at all times. And, they can usually use all of them at the same time.

They watch less TV. Rather than watching TV, you would most likely find Gen Y in front of their computer, watching videos online or playing a video game.

They think advertising is full of lies. They would rather know what their friends think. This generation has grown up with marketing being thrown in their face wherever they go, almost becoming immune to it. They also don’t have brand loyalty and will move on to whatever the next big thing is.

They’re environmentally friendly. They care about what’s happening around the world and want to do their part to help. News is read not on paper, but on a computer screen complete with interactive polls and video.

How marketing will change:

Because of how skeptic Gen Y is about marketing and advertising, marketers must work to build a level of trust between the two. Those marketers who succeed will have an open dialogue with customers, admit when they have done wrong and become more transparent.

Web sites targeting Gen Y will adopt more Web 2.0 practices. Social networking and blogging will be the main way Gen Y learns about products and the main way companies will reach customers.

You may think you’re ahead of the game now by using Twitter to update customers, but that could change tomorrow. Gen Y will choose what will be the next big thing to hit the Web marketing world.

Web sites will also have to cater to short attention spans. Long, boring and big paragraphs of text will not be read. They shift topics quickly and multi-task like pros.

This generation is anxiously biting their nails, waiting for the next version of the iPhone to hit store shelves. Web sites must adapt to a culture that is increasingly comfortable with mobile Web.

The future of the Web is whatever Gen Y wants it to be. While they continue to land jobs in the real world, business to business marketing will be changing along with it. Before long, these young employees will be running the show and Web marketing must follow suit.

“When did Marketing become the make-it-pretty department?” asked Sylvia Reynolds, chief marketing officer for Wells Fargo at a recent conference.

Many times marketers get caught up in making marketing “pretty” and lose focus of the main reason for their being - the customer. Their responsibilities include finding, keeping and growing the value of customers.

MarketingProfs recently published an article outlining what it means to be a marketer and how we can all get beyond what they call the “Make it Pretty Syndrome.”

The Profs bring us back to Marketing 101 by explaining what they believe to be the four “critical customer-focused marketing processes.” So, take out a pen and paper, there will be a test.

Instead of focusing on the “pretty,” Marketing must be fully concerned with these four processes:

Creating value
Communicating value
Delivering value
Managing customer relationships

Organizations depend on the Marketing department to do more than just create “pretty” marketing pieces. While it should still look good, marketers should focus on developing strategies that create and deliver the best customer value possible.

Business to business marketing humor? Yep, I found it. (Thanks to Savage Chickens)

Check out NetLingo for help with translations.

It is believed by some in the marketing world that consumer marketing tactics should not be mixed with business to business marketing. However, with a strategic campaign combined with the right product line, B-to-B marketing can reap exceptional results by adopting a few consumer marketing techniques and having some fun.

In a case study released this week, MarketingSherpa overturns that marketing myth and studies how B-to-C marketing can work for B-to-B marketers.

Agilent Technologies markets measurement instruments and lab supplies to scientists, with most communication focused heavily on data and detail. The company designed an online game to supplement their data-heavy marketing and saw a 13.79% conversion rate and beat revenue goals by 278%.

The company focused on these 5 steps:

Decide on a theme focused on key products

Agilent’s marketing team created a “Summer of Fun Giveaway,” featuring bright and tropical Flash animation and focused on a select group of products (syringes, vials and lamps for liquid chromatographs). The game was a simple

Visitors had to register on the site before playing the game, providing their name, company name, email address and mailing address.

Customize user experience and prize giveaway

Agilent looked at their customer database looking at product need and purchase behavior. Depending on purchase history, customers would see a certain set of products during the game.

Everyone who played the game received something. Non frequent buyers received a 15% discount code good toward a future purchase. Frequent and loyal customers received a branded beach towel or small cooler.

Set up limits

In order to not go over budget by providing too many giveaways the company set up prize limits. Only 500 prizes would be awarded and the game would only last for two months.

Use a multi-stage email promotion

The marketing team set up a strategic email campaign, hitting customers with three emails in the weeks prior and during the campaign. After the two month game period, sales representatives called customers who had won the 15% discount.

Track customer response

Tracking customers who played the game and their purchase activity with their prize discount gave the marketing team information on how to set up future campaigns.

Even scientists and researchers like to have a little fun here and there. The marketers in this case learned that mixing in some consumer marketing tactics can boost business to  business marketing efforts.