Beyond Good is Useful

Think about 'why' we use the web. We' are looking for something. Right? It may be information or perhaps entertainment but either way we are looking to consume something. In the marketing game, providing your 'something' meets the 'what I am looking for' criteria, the player which efficiently acquires & retains the most consumers has the best odds of winning.

Previously, 'retain' was a big challenge. If our audience must continually seek out what we offer, we run the risk of losing them to other 'somethings' that may have caught their fickle interest. In the last few years a common 'good' marketing tactic is to provide consumers with an opt-in tool that 'pushes' desired content/information to them - think an RSS feed of your newsletter for example. This way consumers do not have to seek us out - we go to them. For the nimble, this tactic was a source of significant competitive advantage. The problem with a competitive advantage of course is that it's fleeting. Once others pick up on it, it becomes a common commodity with a tonne of competing noise a.k.a. no loner an advantage.

Today competitive advantage can be found in providing consumers with a relative 'something' that transcends your product/service. This 'something' is often a digital share or web social tool.

Branded widgets and apps are clever and 'useful' push tactics that can regularly prompt our audience to perform a personal-positive-outcome action. This is clever because the benefit activity [X] delivers, is then psychology connected to your brand/products/services. Executed well, widgets can be an excellent launch point for achieving today's competitive advantage goals.

Here are a couple of examples of big brand widget implementations.

• Having a tough time remembering to drink your daily recommended water in-take? Millions of us are. Try this Johnson & Johnson widget. http://bit.ly/Hydration-tracker_TLblog13
  

• Have you ever forgotten to send someone birthday greetings? Hallmark can help you to remember. http://bit.ly/Hallmark-reminder_TLblog13

• Want to know which products or services can earn you bonus membership rewards points? American Express to the rescue. http://bit.ly/Amex-rewards_TLblog13

When we embrace digital technology, the possibilities are endless.
So also remember to think beyond the web for 'useful' tools. How about offering trade show delegates a branded USB stick with your promotional materials loaded on it. It costs less than a 10 page glossy brochure and there's a high probability the recipient will keep, use, and appreciate you for it. [Sit outside near the convention facilities doors and watch delegates as they leave. You'll be shocked at the volume of promotional materials that are dumped already at that point. Many don't even wait to do the purge at their hotel room.] For a fraction more money you can add more value by attaching the USB on a lanyard. Delegates can wear it around their neck for convenient access to load other materials. Now you have walking billboards. A prime real estate billboard I might add. The USB should hang at the same eye level and beside everyone's name tag - the first place you look when introducing yourself to someone at an event.

Finally, when architecting a marketing campaign, rule one is we cannot rely on one great tactic, no matter how useful, to accomplish our goals. We must economically incorporate as many 'in-line' touch points as possible to guide our audience toward the finish line. Therefore, don't abandon tried and true 'good' tactics. Integrate the new with the old and proliferate for increased breadth, loyalty, and acquisition.

Here are a few links to widget provider sites to get you thinking...
Widget Box
Widgets Lab
Web Wag

What is a Marketing Director / Strategist / Manager?

Recently I've chatted with executives and recruiting teams charged with hiring a Marketing Director, Marketing Strategist, or Marketing Manager. There seems to be a good deal of confusion among the non-marketers as to what to expect from these roles. For this post I thought I'd offer my generalized but otherwise accurate definition.

A marketing director/strategist/manager is... part architect and part technology enthusiast. We are always passionate about the big picture and mentoring the individuals that bring the vision to life. We are perpetual students of business, business intelligence, and numbers. Today more than ever, we are knowledgeable as to the technical capabilities, compromises, and requirements of the electronic tools that empower our profession. Finally, through experience we've acquired the real-life wisdom for creating and guiding marketing strategies, budgets, plans, assets, systems, processes, and KPI's that will truly effect profitable business results. We wear a dozen hats and juggle them well.


A marketing director/strategist/manager is not... an expert in the physical creation of all the individual components that make up the marketing plan. For example, I am very knowledgeable as to what a well optimized website looks like, and in a 2.0 world how it should perform. I've even developed a few sites myself! This knowledge however, is a far cry from being a qualified website developer. These web professionals have intimate knowledge of database architecture, design, flexibility, and scalability. They dream about the intricacies of usability on the multitude of browsers and platforms. They have strong working knowledge of all of the various development languages and tools one can employ on the web. Each and every category of marketing includes a similarly lengthy list of competencies. A qualified director/manager will bring on professionals with the required qualifications.

In short, it's your marketing director/manager/strategist's job to determine what is needed to meet organizational needs, architect an integrated plan that delivers on those needs, put together a team with the specific development expertise that is required, guide and mentor the creative process, monitor on-going results, and massage the plan, the mix, the controls, the team, and the assets as situational events occur. Shake-it-up and repeat.