It is telling to read the thoughts and opinions of MDC Chief Miles Nadal, Fast Company, and other media and industry “experts” on the exit of super creative Alex Bogusky. Specifically of note is the fact that none of these consumed minds appear remotely capable of seeing the real and obvious reason for Mr. Bogusky’s departure – MDC would not embrace the core values and integrity that Mr. Bogusky held, put forth in his work, and made his work unique and valuable. They catered to the fears of their clients, and their fears of losing them instead of asserting the awesome results they were delivering and using that as a platform for new directions. They would not change!

So, as with all of life’s expressions, Mr. Bogusky will move on and find a way. And you can bet MDC’s fortunes will quickly align with those of every other ad biz in these challenging times.

Integrity and a willingness to change, to do what has not been done, will always lead and prevail – though resistance may make the journey longer.

The selling process has six key steps. Virtually every sales interaction will follow these steps, whether it lasts several minutes or several months:

1. Prospecting – Find Customers
2. Attract – Making Initial Contact
3. Inform – The Sales Presentation
4. Engage – Overcoming Objections
5. Close – Closing The Sale
6. Follow-Up – Service and Support After The Sale

As you develop a sales process that is right for you and your business, here are some other pointers to keep in mind:

• Always be selling. Every time anyone – family, friend, or associate – asks about your business, make a sale. Tell them, briefly and to-the-point, specifically what you offer and what benefits it provides them. DO NOT underestimate the importance of selling as a key part of your daily activity.
• Continuously improve and refine your sales skills. Learn from others, read about sales and selling, and be open to new ideas and approaches that may better meet your customers requirements and serve their needs.
• DO NOT FOCUS ON THE SALE. Focus on what your prospect or customer wants and needs. Be sincere in your desire to help and serve the prospect or customer. The sale is your ultimate objective, but not what comes first. This customer centric attitude will come through in every encounter. And it will help you establish and maintain mutually profitable long-term relationships.
• Contribute more than just your product or service to the relationship. Look for other value you can offer. Provide industry news updates, creative tips and ideas, and advice that can benefit your customers and educate them as part of the service you offer.
• Be direct when you communicate. Don’t beat around the bush, it frustrates people. Answer all questions, except when you don’t know or have an answer. When that happens (and it will) simply state that you “don’t know” or have an answer. Never patronize. And don’t make things up.
• Include a business card with every written letter or note. And give them out generously whenever you interact with someone personally.
• Thank people who refer prospective customers to you. Send a note or an email. If business results from a referral, send a small, business-related thank-you gift also.
• Never lie. Don’t say anything negative about the competition or their clients. Don’t gossip.
• Always respond. Never react. Reactions are the automatic emotional responses that appear when a question or situation arises. A response occurs when we allow that initial impulse to pass, and formulate our response in keeping with our values, objectives, and those of the other party.
• Don’t overbook yourself. Be sure to have time to listen and be available to your customers and respond to their questions and comments.

Email marketing systems use databases to storage, retrieve, and update data in the system. Everything the system does uses information (data) stored in the database, including email content, email design code, contact lists, scheduled sending, and performance statistics.

The databases in email marketing systems are called “relational databases,” because they recognize relations among stored items of information. For example which contacts belong to a list, or which statistics relate to a specific email.

Think Excel. Excel files are actually small databases. Databases consist of software-based “containers” or “fields” that are structured to collect, manage, and store information. Databases allow users to easily add, edit, or delete the information it stores. The structure of a database is tabular, consisting of columns (types of information with a given name); and rows (instances of information – commonly referred to as ‘records’).

What are fields?

Fields are containers that hold data in a database. There are different types of fields to store different types of data.

What are field ‘values’?

The data in a field is called the ‘value’ for that field.

What are custom fields?

Most email marketing systems offer the ability to add ‘fields’ to your database. These fields are called “Custom Fields” because you use them to customize your database.

The term Email Marketing System refers to computer software that sends bulk email to target audiences. Effective uses of email marketing software include sending sales and promotions, customer service, and customer support email communications to opt-in lists of subscribers.

The software uses a database to store contact information, campaign statistics, and message history. The software interface has features necessary to manage email campaigns such as email setup and sending, adding or importing contacts to receive emails, reporting and tracking functions such as how many people opened an email, how many emails bounced back, and how many people actually clicked links in an email.

Email marketing software is sold as licensed software – to be owned and run on a server computer by the owner, or as a service – (Software-As-A-Service – SAAS) which is run on server computers and accessed via the Internet. Prices to buy and own email marketing software range from around three hundred fifty dollars ($350), to fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). Service providers typically charge monthly fees based on the total number of emails and/or the number of emails sent. There are also enterprise level services that cost thousands of dollars a month to manage marketing email campaigns for large enterprises. These systems have sophisticated features to connect and integrate with other systems, personalize emails, and for detailed reporting and performance analysis.

Features and Benefits

• Email Marketing software speeds up the direct marketing process by sending personalized email messages to a customer or prospect.
• 96% of Internet users access email, and email outranks all other online activities including shopping, downloading music, or reading blogs.
• Most email marketing software can schedule emails to send automatically at pre-defined dates and times. This allows marketers to adhere to a marketing plan.
• Some email marketing software can automatically send email in the future based on available contact data (like birthdates, or 30 days after a purchase, etc.), or recipient activity (joining or being added to a list, clicking a link in an email or opening an email). These automated emails are called autoresponder or trigger emails, and they enable complex and detailed response communications to be setup in advance.
• Using email, businesses or organizations can manage ongoing sales, service and support communications with customers and prospects, and do so frequently at no additional cost. This is attractive to any business seeking to reduce and control costs.
• Email marketing software makes business communications appear more professional. Most email marketing software systems use templates to manage formatting of emails. Templates allow users to adhere to brand standards in their emails.
• Email marketing software also features reporting tools that track delivery, opens, link clicks, and other performance metrics.
• Email marketing software streamlines the process of organizing contact data, creating and managing mailing lists, and creating list segments to target emails.
• Email marketing software automatically confirms subscriptions, removes duplicate contacts, processes unsubscribe requests, and processes bounced emails to keep lists optimized and ensure compliance with SPAM laws.

The CancerLens conference marketing campaign was very successful and the reasons for that success can be uniquely articulated in the statement – we didn’t do anything different, we just did things differently.

This simple statement is an important distillation of the campaigns key success factors. It also effectively communicates our unique approach and the virtues of our practices and methodologies. What came out in our interview for the MarketingSherpa Case Study was that every client and marketer knows about, and purports the importance of customer centricity and allowing the customer to drive the communications experience. But rarely do campaigns appear that do this effectively.

Here is a summary of the approach we use to get superior results from our campaigns. Try them.

• Be customer focused. Yeah, yeah, I know you’ve heard this before. But the ability to translate client requirements into a compelling customer experience is the core value we bring to every campaign we create. If you don’t have this skill in-house, hire it.
• Know the target audience. A campaign has to address multiple audiences effectively. Segment and address each audience uniquely.
• Define clear success metrics. A campaign must deliver ROI. Defining clear success metrics requires careful consideration of potential benefits beyond the campaigns focus. ROI is typically measured in quantitative terms, but qualitative measures are important, add value, and contribute greatly to improving the experiential aspects of a campaign.
• Don’t Sell, Tell! Nobody cares about what you are selling. They care about meeting a need they have. Great campaigns communicate how what you offer meets that need best, and make it easy for them to get it.
• Use talented and professional design and writing. Ultimately, what you say, how you say it, and when make all the difference. View and use design and writing as core strategic disciplines, not simply “creative” endeavors.

Check out the MarketingSherpa case study on our conference campaign for the American Cancer Society. It highlights how we segmented the target audiences and details the tactics that created a compelling experience and delivered amazing results. And contact me if I can help you achieve better customer connections with your next campaign.

Engagement
A professional campaign includes the creation of specific web pages and triggered autoresponder emails that provide relevant and current information on the subject matter, as well as the producers, partners, and stakeholders. This is important, as it delivers a turn-key experience that effectively promotes the subject matter, the parties involved, and heightened recipient engagement (ie: registration for updates, RSVP to events, etc.).

Measurable Results
Professional email campaigns make detailed performance metrics accessible including read/open rates, link click rates, and conversion rates. They also create databases of qualified opt-in recipients interested in the subject matter and the offerings of producers, partners, and stakeholders.

Use of professional email marketing practices is often avoided based on three criteria, 1) time requirements, 2) skill requirements and 3) cost. These factors make using a ‘Send Only’ approach the most often used, and is enabled by services like Constant Contact and MailerMailer.

The ‘Send Only’ approach is used most often and is based on the agreement that simply getting a message or promotion viewed is sufficient. This approach fails to consider the impact of the recipients responses when they want more (information, capability, interaction, etc.), but can’t get it.

I hope this helps highlight the value-proposition to using professional email marketing practices as a core tool in your marketing and promotions initiatives. The time and resources required for professional campaign development are time and resources that are well spent.

Price is not the leading factor in purchase decision making — trust and recognition are. People buy when they trust they’re going to get what they want. Customer service touches a spectrum of qualitative and emotive buttons that are important to your customers.

So, how do you grow customer share? With timely personalized service. Service is a key differentiator and value generator for businesses. Service excellence makes customers more likely to buy from you, buy repeatedly, and tell someone how great they think you are. Service is the ultimate relationship glue that binds customers to you. And it a powerful tool to turn around lagging sales.

Finding friendly, engaging, and intuitive people who will leave customers with favorable impressions is challenging at best. You cannot teach friendliness and intuition. And intuition (defined as the ability to make sound decisions with incomplete information) is a gift some people possess and others simply do not. So its imperative that businesses hone their ability to spot this “soft skill” during the interview process.

Delivering a superior experience, or the ability to consistently provide exceptional service, is a key competitive advantage and effective differentiator. Time magazine recently reported, “The No. 1 marketing strategy for businesses and organizations now and in the future will be directly related to the quality of that organization’s customer service.” 68 % of customers leave because of an attitude of indifference displayed toward the customer, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey.

Service is a critical success factor. It establishes and helps to build relationships and referrals. When customers and prospects are deciding weather to patronize your business they are judging you by three things:

1. Are you trustworthy?
2. Do you care about me?
3. Are you committed to my satisfaction?

And you have a really simple and surefire way of knowing the truth of this claim: just ask yourself if these are the things you care about when you’re buying.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a growing practice with many new technologies that enable businesses to effectively implement strategic relationship development programs. What gets lost are basic underlying values that ensure substantive connections and successful relationship building. Below are some guidelines to successful customer relationship building:

1. You do not sell to consumers. You sell to people. Develop and maintain a view of your customers as individual people with individual needs and wants.
2. Setup your service interactions to ensure you treat every customer the way you would want to be treated.
3. Develop ways to identify and address the unique and specific wants of your customers.
4. Listen to your customers. Invite them to tell you what they think. Make it easy for them to do so. And pay attention to what they say.

Ultimately people do business with people they like. The quality of every personal interaction and the tone, character, and content of other non-human communications are all part of your customer service system. They should all work together to create an exceptional experience. Price is never a sole decision-making factor. When your customers feel respected, cared for, and have a favorable experience they will buy from you for qualitative rather than quantitative reasons.

Remember this about the importance of service to the success of a business – when a customer has a good experience they tell someone; when they have a bad experience they tell everyone they can.

Here are a few tips for delivering superior service:

• Before you sell or tell, ask.
• Listen carefully before talking.
• After listening, relate.
• Respond to what is said. Answer a question or offer a solution. Demonstrate you care.

The keyword is “social.” It refers to a place where people interact online, usually organized by groups around common interests. What makes social media “social” is that anyone can post and respond to content. There are presently three main social media categories or types of sites: 1) News; 2) Networks; and 3) User Generated Content.

Social Media Categories:

• Social News: People post and vote or rate news or other content they consider important. StumbleUpon and Digg are popular social news sites.
• Social Networks: People organize into groups along interest lines and communicate with each other with pictures, memos, status updates, email and other applications. Facebook and MySpace are social networks.
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Sites where users can post content and make accessible to the public. Typical UGC formats include comments, ratings, reviews, and other feedback mechanisms. YouTube and Flickr are popular user generated content sites.

So here are highlights on where some social media types overlap the three categories:

• Blogs have features that touch all three of social media categories. Blog content is user generated, may have news value, and is typically viewed by a network of followers. Blogs overlap the social news and UGC categories.
• Twitter is a collection of networks, covering different and varied topics and interests, where users follow each other’s brief updates (or “Tweets”). Twitter overlaps the social news and social network categories.
• RSS, (Really Simple Syndication) allows a person to subscribe to receive new or updated content they are interested in, automatically whenever it is added or updated by the author. Content is made available to subscribers using RSS by creating what is called an “RSS Feed.” RSS overlaps the social network and UGC categories.

May we love ourselves richly…
with bold thoughts,
thoughtful and measured steps,
fearless actions,
and faithful vision.

May we love our children…
with principled direction,
compassionate interaction,
loving responsiveness,
and unconditional acceptance.

May our labors enrich the world…
with passionate initiative,
respectful and attentive collaboration,
and open and receptive issue resolution.

May love fill our souls…
that we may know boundless passion,
that we may swim the open waters of companionship,
that we may walk life’s beaches
hand-in-hand with love.

Happy new year!