Mark on Marketing

Is it Me or is it Memorex?

[mark-mendelson]

Show Me The Money!

Show me the money! Marketing strategy, including social media marketing strategy, must be tied to revenue, or risk becoming irrelevant to the business. The metrics we need to associate social media marketing activities to the desired business result (revenue) include: conversion rate, lead generation, and inquiries. Notice these activities represent late to early stages of the marketing funnel, which in effect provides a nested set of metrics.  Why focus on these three (traditional) metrics as opposed to “likes” or “community engagement”?

Most business organizations include a sales team, often rewarded by commission. Typically the Sales organization has a strong voice within management, and this directly influences the perception of marketing activities. If marketing is not clearly helping sales to drive revenue, it risks losing support – or worse. On the other hand, if marketing activities are clearly and visibly tied to revenue, then support, budget, and commitment will improve.

The marketing team may certainly track social media engagement, but these should be viewed as a means, not the end. Engagement metrics are well and good, but they are essentially marketing’s functional measurement of activity – not results. Marketing results begin to become relevant to business leadership when inquiries from customers and prospects are received (and of course qualified by marketing) and become bona fide leads. Lead generation (upper-funnel) is a key metric, one that binds Marketing and Sales together. Conversion rate is a key sales metric, but it should be shared by marketing as well. After all, the end game is revenue. Show me the money!

[mark-mendelson]

Invasion of my privacy! Oops my bad….

I sent you my photo by e-mail.  It was supposed to be private, but then you posted it on Facebook. Worse, my photo was reposted. I’m no celebrity, so my privacy was invaded right? I never gave anyone permission to publish my photo, right?

Oops my bad.  Molly DiBianca, a smart, articulate, and insightful Wilmington attorney says my act of e-mailing constitutes publishing. When I emailed my photo, I published it – so my privacy was not invaded. 

Molly offered her time and legal expertise to lecture a University of Delaware class on social media marketing strategy. In addition to issues of online privacy, we discussed online defamation and brand protection – so relevant when one considers the amplification power of social media, and the temptation to scream insults one would likely filter in a face-to-face situation. Thank you Molly!

[mark-mendelson]

Nick’s Story Nick is an inspiration; his enthusiasm blew me away. Let me tell you why. A 5K race was held Saturday April 2nd at Christiana Mall to help raise funds for the construction of Preston’s Playground, a fully-inclusive park to be built in Newark Delaware. Nick was the first rider in an adaptive chair to cross the finish line, and with his running-partner pushing hard, the fourth participant overall to finish the race. Nick is 21, and attending his last year at Elkton High School. Regardless of his autism, mild cerebral palsy, osteopenia, and nonverbal communication, Nick is an extraordinarily outgoing and enthusiastic racer, and an inspiration.   With hundreds of runners, several running-partners pushing their riders in adaptive chairs, and the rest of us mere mortals just walking, the 5K race at Christiana mall drew us together. This was community building. I’m glad I was there. Social media plays an important role in broadening our reach and communicating our need, as a community, to raise needed funds for Preston’s Playground. Nick, and so many others, are the reason we need to build the park.

Please visit:  https://www.facebook.com/prestonsplayground/

[mark-mendelson]

We Need To Get The Word Out

If I had a dollar for every time I heard “We need to get the word out...” in a marketing role - well I’m sure you’ve heard it too at some point. Often this starts with a product-centered or the service-centered (dare we say self-centered?) message to the world, rather than an audience-centered message.  What we really need to consider is what problem are we solving, and for whom?  

As I consider my own desire to “get the word out” about what matters to me, how will I avoid the self-centered pit-fall, and remain audience centered? I aspire to position my myself online as the “Marketing catalyst who helps the organization shift the dialogue from products and services to solving market problems.”  The organization (the employer) of course, needs to sell products and services. The organization wishes to be seen as a market leader, an innovator - and oh - a trusted business partner.  In short, it is a rather common marketing challenge to build content that talks about solving market problems when the organization wants to talk about itself.

If I truly aspire to be the marketing catalyst that helps...then I need to help. My online persona needs to avoid talking about me, me, me, (as the organization is wont to do) but rather, my persona needs to reflect solving problems.  There are so many helpful marketing articles that offer insights, tips, or how-to, that I find it helpful to pass them along. I try to select these articles with care and consideration to the audience. I work to curate the content with my professional marketing judgement, and hopefully the audience will judge my on-line personal brand positively.