March 20th, 2009
by Corey Mahoney

Social Media Marketing can be an enormous opportunity for businesses and marketers, but it tends to get a bad rap these days. Though it’s working daily on all the sites we depend on, companies wonder who should be taking care of it, the internet literati complain about clutter, and everyone else scrambles to figure out how to use it carefully without getting left in the dust.

There are some good reasons for skepticism when it comes to Social Media Marketing: as a new field, no one agrees on the rules, let alone what makes an expert. A few things, however, are clear: (more…)

tags: audience perception, Facebook, marketing, social media, twitter

July 30th, 2008
by Projectline

In catching up on my RSS feeds over the weekend, I found myself staring at a short New York Times article that suggested a long story left unwritten. How does anyone build a viral campaign that succeeds out of any force other than blind luck?

Believe it or not, there is an equation for just that purpose:

[Be Amazing] + [Act Amazing] = [Get Amazing]

Viral is really that simple – just be worth talking about and do something worth talking about. The only catch is you have to have both to succeed. Notice also that I’ve not mentioned timing anywhere. There is a reason for this: Great campaigns always make their own timing.

(more…)

tags: advertising, audience perception, Best practices, creative services, Digital Content, early adoption, marketing, marketing goals, messaging, new media, web 2.0

June 10th, 2008
by Projectline

Move to an edge. Declare your edge the center. Let the world reorganize around you.

The great misconception of marketplace leadership is that success comes from saddling up and blazing a new path for all to follow. Intuitively, we all know it doesn’t work like that.

People don’t connect with an idea because some commander inspired hearts and minds – they connect with an idea because it makes sense on a fundamental level. Something works better/faster/easier/cheaper. It’s more fair or honest or viable or responsible.  It’s more exciting, or makes them more exciting.

(more…)

tags: advertising, audience perception, Best practices, marketing, marketing goals, messaging

May 17th, 2008
by Anika Lehde

So I, along with six other Projectline marketing consultants, attended the Puget Sound American Marketing Association’s annual conference, MarketSmart, Thursday. Great speakers, great atmosphere, great day all around.

What I found interesting, and what I hope some of you will be willing to discuss with me, is how I left the conference with mixed feelings about the content of the presentations—most of which focused on brand, brand protection,  brand as something beyond the product, brand as a lifestyle, brand as an “emotional connection” with people.  Nothing really new, but even more “emotion” speak than usual. For me, the idea of making an “emotional connection” with someone solely for sake of selling a product  seems (and maybe is) a little smarmy. Isn’t it?

(more…)

tags: audience perception, brand, responsible

October 30th, 2007
by Erica Hansen

For you marketers out there, the notion of using customers to carry your marketing message is not new, but the evolution of social media (AKA social networking) has taken ‘word of mouth’ marketing to a whole new level. I think about this daily in my B2B marketing work and just the other day, I experienced it first hand in a B2C (a web site and blog) turned customer-to-customer (C2C) medium (a personal email with links). A friend of mine told me about a great new store, Nau. Not only did she tell me about it, but she also sent me a link to their website and a link to the blog that introduced her to Nau. Based on her experience with their products, she became a loyal customer and a staunch customer advocate. Plus, I became a new Nau customer without ever leaving my chair. Simple, yet important and repeatable.

Basically, I think our typical B2B content now must be blended with C2C contact methods and content. Interesting, but not difficult. As marketing pros, this opens up some incredible opportunities for us to reach our audience much faster. For traditional marketers, the switch and blending of C2C messages and mediums into B2C marketing campaigns can seem daunting, so here are a few ideas that I have noted seem to help: (more…)

tags: advertising, audience perception, B2B, marketing, new media, social media, word of mouth

October 29th, 2007
by Anika Lehde

 So I have been thinking today (not the first time) about my least favorite approach to customer evidence, (case studies, success stories, customer testimonials, whatever you want to call them). I think it is a problem that permeates the execution of so many sales and marketing activities: goal-agnostic metrics.

What do I mean? I mean when some poor marketing manager has been given the task of “creating XX number of success stories by XX date” as the goal of a customer evidence program. This is a fine target number, but not the goal of the program. The goals of an evidence program should be more like: to create stories that are instantly readable and genuinely connect with the audience, to create testimonials that are true and informative with a reasonable call to action, to produce stories that resonate and can be passed on to your customers’ industry peers, and most importantly to create materials that actually get in the hands of buyers and influence them at all stages of the sales and marketing life cycle. (more…)

tags: audience perception, B2B, case studies, customer evidence, customer reference, marketing, marketing goals

September 20th, 2007
by Anika Lehde

Those of you who know me probably would not be surprised to hear me preach the value of empathy in business dealings and personal life, but you likely haven’t heard me rattle on about the importance of using empathy to help make good marketing message decisions. It always seems that I am pointing out the obvious, but if that were true in this case, we’d have a lot more resonant and genuine messages floating out there.

To be honest, I don’t think empathy is an area where most traditional marketers excel. Of course, we know how to analyze market research, review customer feedback, comprehend market perceptions and trends—but I don’t think we all explicitly ask, “How would I perceive this communication if I were in this person’s shoes?” (more…)

tags: advertising, audience perception, marketing, messaging