Back around 2005 I had an office that when you walked through the main door you were in our production pit. It was usually fine because we were a production company and we didn’t get any walk in business.

One day though, a guy walks into our office and says loudly “Hey there! How ya doing?” We all get up and someone responds, “Hey! Good. You?”

We all look slightly confused as not one of us recognizes the person right off the bat.

He goes on “What are ya doing today? You busy?”

Me, “Fairly. A few things on the go…how about you?”  I’m being extremely friendly, wracking my brain as to who this person is. I’m starting to panic as he knows us and by the look on everyone’s faces we don’t know him! Is he a client?! Is he crew?!

Him-“I’m great! I was thinking about you folks the other day so I thought I would drop by.”

I’m fucked.  I really don’t remember this guy…not uncommon as our client/supplier list is well over 400 people but normally with everyone around we should have someone able to place him…I get the courage.  “I’m so sorry.  I can’t remember your name…”

Him- “No problem it’s Bob! So, the office looks great!”

Me- “Bob, sorry, but how do I know you?” I say smiling.

Bob- “Well, I don’t know if you do, but I have a great selection of books that I’m offering to select company…” I interrupt.  “Wait…You don’t know us?”

I’m not going to say what happened next…it just got stupid..

Funny story and it’s true.  But what’s my point?  There is a line that can’t be crossed during any point in the sales cycle but especially at the very beginning.  Don’t pretend that you know me.  Be friendly and welcoming but don’t fake a relationship!  For me, the second I loose trust within the cycle, I’m out of it and usually very peeved for someone wasting my time.

Now you’re thinking “Bob” is a pretty rare occurrence, but he isn’t.  We just need to see all the “Bob’s” out there for who and what they are.

A few days ago I got an email telling me about a local service.  The way the email was formatted it looked like I would know the person or the company.   I had to wrack my brain the same way as with Bob, only to discover, I didn’t know them! It was a bloody waste of time trying to figure out a connection because there wasn’t any.  It was Spam.  Spam, Spam, Spam!

One of the main rules in sales is you need to gain the targets trust. These people didn’t, in fact just the opposite.  They had no clue about it and it seems to be happening time and again with many other companies and their email marketing.  You get added to an email list, ad hock and without your knowing.

There are multiple reasons for having a person’s permission before adding them to an email list.  The most serious is, without permission, your email is Spam and believe it or not, most hosting companies have rules against sending Spam! I have actually seen hosting companies have their entire list of clients banned from sending emails to other hosting companies.  As such most hosting companies take Spam very seriously now.  Less serous legally, but more important for your sales, you loose your chance to have a conversation with your prospect if you are in the junk mail folder or worse, pissed them off!

Being friendly I sent the Spammer an email a day later explaining a little about email marketing and a couple of pointers as to how she might have been a little more successful in contacting me…….I don’t think she gave a rat’s ass… I believe she thinks, as most people who make the same mistake do, Email Marketing is suppose to be easy and people being pissed off about Spam is just part of the course.  It’s not!  Email Marketing can be a rewarding relationship, if you offer something of value.  If you do, chances are the recipient will let you keep emailing them giving you multiple chances at a sale.  If you offer no value and have not taken the time to make it of value then why would we keep letting you fill our in box and wasting our time?

On the surface Email Marketing  just looks like it would be getting and managing a mailing list.  It’s not. If your are going to put people on an email list, at least take the 20 seconds (if that) to send a personal email to them asking to do so…  Gain a little bit of trust first and then build on it!  It also allows them to say no and them saying no is not all bad.  It gives you information on the prospect (email is legit, signature bar, etc), starts a conversation and allows you to tailor the message better to that prospect and to others (they might have unique needs that you didn’t know about and didn’t tailor your introduction message to).

Let me help you just in case you are still not going to make the effort….

Dear (insert company here),

I have come across your company while researching possible clients for our services.  Every now and then we send out information that you might be interested in about (what you do/sell).  We promise that you will find it of use and interesting.  If you don’t want to be included on the mailing list, please let us know and you will not receive anymore emails from us.  Further after receiving any future emails, you can still decide at that time, not to receive anymore.

Thank you for your time and hope we can be of service to you in the future,

(your name here..YOUR REAL NAME!)

Please feel free to cut and paste, but remember to replace (insert company here) and (your name here) with the appropriate information….nothing says stupid like getting emails with it still there…and I do get them!

Anyone remember the old days of Fax spam? …….. Ok, there used to a machine that, when connected up to a regular wired phone line, would transmit black and white images to another Fax somewhere else. Some companies would hire a “Fax marketing company” to send out Spam Ads to any and every fax number in a select area.  It was all about “the list”.  Cheep flights, cheap cruises, cleaning, Fax and copy repair, you name it, it would just appear on your fax machine eating up your toner, paper and God forbid…your thermal paper roll!

Well one day some bright fellow thought of a way to get even.  They would find out the advertisers business Fax number and send them a looped black page, called a “black fax”…ok…A what? A black fax was exactly what it sounds like.  You would tape four pieces of black paper together with a strip of exposed tape at the top so you could join the bottom piece into a roll.  You would dial the offending number, hit send on the fax and as the paper starts feeding through you would take the leading edge of the paper that just went through the Fax scanner and attach it to the last edge so you have an endless loop of black. Unless the person on the other end is paying attention to their Fax, they would end up with no toner or paper or worse….AN EMPTY THERMAL PAPER ROLL!

To the Fax marketing company and their clients, the “list” was everything, until they got feed back (pay back?) from the folks who they pissed off.  Don’t let your email marketing be like Fax Spam! You have to see your prospects as more than a list.  You have to earn trust and the first step in email marketing is to do that!

If anyone discovers a “black fax” trick for spam email, please let me know.  Also, I always wondered whether “Bob’s” tactic worked well in large offices where there was a certain amount of anonymity….I wonder what he is doing now?

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Yes, we all know and love Mad Men. But the version of the ad industry that Mad Men presents is long gone. We no longer smoke in the office, most of us don’t have a bar next to our desk, we aren’t all having sex with our non-existent secretaries and we don’t grab 15% commission of everything that moves. No, we don’t do business like they did in Don Draper’s heyday… unless of course the agency you work for or own is planning to become a “used to was” in the very near future.

The new world of advertising is dominated by those who have never lost sight of the simple premise that their very existence is tied to their ability to be their clients eyes and ears on the street and… have found a way to bring them closer to their customers. You can’t do that by sitting around the boardroom sipping single malt or by rushing home the minute the 5 pm bell rings.

The advent of Direct Marketing and the increasing use of data changed our basic understanding of the business in the eighties. But social media appears to be the biggest shift in how we communicate since Gutenburg invented moveable type printing.

Here are a few stats of interest.

• By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers

• 96% of them have joined a social network

• 1 out of 8 couples married in the US last year have met via social media

• Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months

• If Facebook would be a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest

• 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees

• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?

• YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world

• There are over 200,000,000 Blogs.

• 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.

If these stats don’t make you stop and think, you should quit your ad job and get a job driving a cab.

The results are in and they are clearly telling us that we can no longer move client product and services based on gut instinct, clever burn lines or TV Spots and Print Ads that are all about our perception of features and benefits. Consumers are much too smart to buy that stuff… and they have the tools at their disposal to get even smarter.

That is not to say TV spots don’t have a place in an overall plan. But the recognition that TV viewing is fragmented and consumers are consuming more time than ever online is a prerequisite for success in today’s marketplace.

Imagine, a meeting between David Ogilvy and Mark Zuckerberg and the discussion that would result.  I think you might be surprised to hear Ogilvy say “Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.” That statement I think would make Zuckerberg’s head move like a Bobble Head toy in the rear window of Ogilvy’s Mercedes. Was Ogilvy ahead of his time or were we just not hearing the things that Zuckerberg and others appear to know intuitively?

On that note let’s sum up. If you want to influence consumers you must be part of the conversation they are having. Your challenge is to heighten you listening skills so you understand “the mores of society” and given an opportunity finding something of moment to say. And by that I don’t mean “While Quantities Last”

So whadda ya think…. is social media the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution?

Al Graham is a veteran of the advertising wars who once smoked like Mad Men’s Don Draper. He is also a veteran of many social conflict wars and has been actively involved in protesting dumps, airports, expressways and urban sprawl.

There were a few surprise ads on the reel I had not seen and that blew me away, some that didn’t grab me and some that just left me shaking my head wondering why they rated so high.

The highlight 60 sec. TV spot for me was from Volkswagen. They received a gold TV win for “Dog-Fish”. I loved it on many different levels. The story telling was really well done, the acting was good, but the Visual Effects were fantastic.

Surprisingly, it didn’t win Gold for Visual Effects, that went to Evian “Rollerbabies”, which I find the close up’s of the babies looked really fake.

Truthfully the Evian ad is cute the first time you watch it then it gets more annoying each time around.

The other ad that made me go hmmm was the Nokia N96 gold winning ad “Bruce Lee-ping pong”

Interesting scene, got my attention…but really a Gold for telecommunications? It had me really wanting to see more “Bruce Lee” doing his thing rather than the two folks he was playing….Yet more Hmmmm..

There were some beautiful animation ads this year in the silver category. The Scrabble campaign “Sumo”, “Hula” and “Yoga”. All three also won a silver for original music. I like the ads but personally wonder how well they did for brand and sales.

Bakers Biscuits “Precious Biscuits” spot (silver for animation) was beautiful, but again, I hope it did something for the brand….

Another disappointment, but for different reasons was the Silver winner for Direction, Tampax, “Zack Johnson”. I really think it deserved a gold. The story telling and characters were great.

In a reverse of what the trend has been for years, the Public Service winners over all were a little week. I did like the Gold winner ECPCAT “Child Pornography”, but the silver winners Shelter, “House of cards” , Women’s Aid “Cut” and Anti-Knife Crime (OMG, really?) “Cribs” seemed weak to me.

What grabbed my attention this year was the “New” category. A “New” category?! “Entries for The NEW Category are for work that merges the power of an original idea with a relevant compelling execution. Emotionally inspirational, imaginative work, effectively creating new dialogues, creating new spaces of interaction, altering perceptions, setting new benchmarks that invite and reward at every level of engagement.”

All the winners were fantastic in execution. You got to love clients that are willing to reach out a little…The Grand LIA went to Fiat eco: Drive interesting but I loved a few others more.

“The best job in the world” by Tourism Australia really blew me away when I first heard about it and it still does.

Also the AC/DC Black Ice idea was interesting, especially the Excel spread sheet video…yup, you have to see it to believe it.

The Excel sheet can be downloaded here: http://www.acdcrocks.com/excel/

This category gave me hope that marketers are moving towards an evolution in advertising…when viewers get to a point that they don’t see advertising as advertising…..

All the winners can be found on the LIAA website, http://2009.liaentries.com/winners/ and it’s well worth a look through.  What have presented is just a very small snippet. Would love to hear back on what you liked out of the show!

SW

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Scott Westerlaken

I spy on my competition.  I’m very open about it.  I do it ethically by monitoring their activity on the web (as I have written about before, http://www.phigroup.ca/blog/2010/01/narcissism-or-market-research/).  It’s all above board and such.  I consider my competition’s internet conversations to be the same as them having a conversation in a public place…they should expect to be over heard.
Recently I was sent an unsolicited email from someone who was using an automated email marketing “solution” and a whole bunch of issues on privacy and expectations came flooding back to me.  The email marketing “solution” in question was one I had used years earlier and truthfully kind of bothered me with all the info they collected from the recipient who opens the email. At the time I decided that it was not for “me” as I felt my clients would be upset if they ever found out.

This leads me to my biggest email pet peeves. If I don’t know you, don’t send me a blanket email asking for money for your son or daughter’s band trip to Europe.  Don’t put my email on a mailing list just because we connected on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter!  Finally, my BIGGEST….DON’T monitor what emails I did read, forward and/or the time I spent on something you sent me that I might have found interesting enough to read.  It’s MY email once I get it and if you want to know what I do with it, ask me.  With a lot of the email marketing programs this is exactly what they do, but they don’t ask!  They report back a bunch of stat’s (they vary from program to program) about who opened, blocked, forwarded (and to whom, where it starts again), how long they spent with the email open, how many times they opened it, the operating system, email program, and more.  ALL without the reader’s acceptance to share that info.  Further, they don’t even knowing that it’s happening.

I was having one of “those” days I and so opted out and finally put the keyword block on for the offending “solution”.  I tweeted this and the reaction (or lack there of) was kind of surprising.  Folks liked the offender and marketing solution they offered!  They liked being able to add people without an “opt in”!  They didn’t really care about all the data that was sent without the reader knowing or allowing.  I was blown away!  Aren’t we the same folks that get’s peeved when Facebook uses our data and info without our knowledge?!

A friend emailed about why I took the actions I did as they were about to recommend the same “solution” to their client.   I explained my feelings on “opt in” and having people know exactly what info they are giving to someone else, rather than not telling or hiding it.  They are reconsidering now…I felt a little better about her “reconsideration” though I know it’s probably too tempting for the client…and if they don’t do it their competition will.

So, here I am.  Feeling like a lone crusader once again… Feeling that if we knew “all” the info that was being collected with those fancy HTML emails (and I know I don’t know what the “all” is) we would be darn upset!  Maybe not…. I know my solution for now is to block certain company keywords…maybe next it will be HTML…

SW

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

When websites first started getting attention from marketers in the late 90’s the hot word was “content”.  Things changed after businesses found that content on the web alone didn’t make them money or drive their sales.  Interestingly in the last few years the word keeps popping up again.  “Content Is King”, and surprisingly in the same breath I hear the “Big Idea” is dead.  In fact I was just at a Canadian Marketing Association conference and heard it again.  Thankfully there were defenders of the “Big Idea” concept on the panel.  I’m always left puzzled by the “Content Is King” statements though.

The Internet is a communication medium and people use it to find information or entertainment of some sort (this is over simplified).  The information/entertainment on a website is considered its content. Generally the thinking is the more useful, fresh and interesting the content the website has, the more successful it will be. In theory this is because more people will want to visit it again and again, link to it, and generally talk about.  This is especially true if a website is constantly adding more and more content on a regular basis.  This could also be said about TV, Print and Radio and the strategy leaves a lot to chance.  You could be lost in the clutter!

In the past the “Big Idea” was the game changing concept in traditional marketing and advertising.  This was the “Where’s the beef?” idea.  If you had a good enough idea, theory said you could connect with the consumer, cut through the clutter and the product or service would be a success.  To me, though, the “Big Idea” can be two things:  giving people want they want (whether they know it or not) in a way that is more enjoyable than the competition and/or creating emotion that motivates them to an action.  Right now, the web needs the “Big Idea” more than at any other time to date!

As I see it you can have all the good content in the world, but you can still fail without a great idea.  Case in point are the sites with great content (pets.com, drugstore.com) but had flawed “Ideas”.   All the content in the world could not save them.

My line of thinking is if you combine valuable “Content” with a “Big Idea” you are almost guaranteed success.  On the web, Crispin Porter produced a great example combining the two.  The subservient chicken site, was built a few years ago for Burger King (ironic) to launch their new chicken sandwich and also build the brand slogan, “have it your way”.  Without the “Big Idea” I could easily see this site having been just pictures or descriptions of the many different ways to get your BK Chicken Burger (I’m sure we have all sat through those briefings)…. Instead it was an early micro site viral success!

Most times I will take the “big idea” over “content” (though I would take a million dollars over the idea of a million dollars in a second).  To say that there needs to be no “Big Idea” for successful marketing and websites as long as you have good content is rather foolish.  You are just keeping the door open for the competition to come eat your dinner.  Statements like “Content OR Idea” need to be refined to “Content AND Idea” in order to position yourself best for success.  I am almost thinking that the “Content Is King” line of thinking doesn’t consider monetization of the product? Am I misguided? Maybe I’m just not seeing the King for what the King is?

SW

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

The saying goes, “If you aren’t online in 2010 you don’t exist.”

Everyday consumers search the web for information on companies and a variety of products. Ranging from trying to find a cheap flight to figuring out where the closest flower shop is. Consumers are relying on the web to be the one place where they can find whatever they want – whenever they want. If a consumer searches your organization’s name, products, brand or services and your company doesn’t show up; to that consumer – you don’t exist.

There are millions upon millions of people who use Social Networking sites on a daily basis. Recently, Social Networking has surpassed pornography as being the most popular activity on the web. Ranging from Facebook to Twitter – your organization cannot afford to miss such an opportunity to be relevant.

The Power of Branding

Like an onion the web has many, many different layers. Your branding strategy should be similar. You need to take advantage of the various layers the web has to offer your company in strengthening its brand. While a consistent brand is most important – A continuous branding strategy is equally essential.

The web allows you to utilize not only your website for branding, but now has many other platforms that can help strengthen your brand. With a solid branding strategy you can utilize twitter, blogging, Facebook, tumblr and many other tools to make your brand not only relevant but also powerful.

The Power of Customer Feedback

A lot of companies are afraid to hear what customers are saying about them, but that’s not how you should do business. This is where you should set yourself apart from those companies and take the time to show your customers that you care.

Within seconds of searching social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook you can track what people are saying about your company in real-time. This is an opportunity for companies who are looking for ways to improve their customer service or even fix some problems that you hadn’t noticed before.

Picture this, someone is on Twitter and they tweet how bad they’re craving  pizza. Then a few minutes later Pizza Hut sends them a message saying:

“Hey, I saw your tweet about how you were craving pizza! Message me your e-mail and I’ll send you a 25% off coupon”

Not only would this person be blown away by the fact that Pizza Hut went above and beyond to serve them. They will most definitely pass this story along to their friends, followers and colleagues to let them know about this service.

The Power of Traffic

Recently Facebook surpassed Google’s incredible ability to drive traffic to key websites. This shows us the power of Social Networking and the influence it has over web traffic. You can no longer only rely on Search Engine Optimization for traffic – And you definitely can’t put all of your eggs in the Adwords basket. Instead you must work with these methods and Social Media to drive traffic to your website.

The Power of Returns

A lot of people question whether or not you can find a legitimate return on investment from all of this social media stuff. Well, to put it simply; you can. Depending on the industry you are in, you can track the influence the web has had on your business in a variety of ways.

Using web promotions and coupons you can easily track what sales came directly from your online efforts. If originally your sales were increasing monthly by 5% and then suddenly you started to implement this strategy and sales shot up by 50% – It’s pretty obvious where the jump came from.

Promotions are not the only way to track how effective your social media efforts are. Using innovative software, you can track how often people are mentioning you compared to the days you spent without a solid online presence. Or the increase in web traffic you generate after beginning to use a social media platform.

Ross

Ross Simonds

Ross Simmonds, is the Co-Founder of Altego Marketing Solutions an Interactive Marketing & Experience Design firm that helps small/medium sized businesses implement profitable marketing strategies using the web and branding

If you’re interested in discussing how you can improve your companies online presence contact PHI or Ross at Ross@ReachDontPreach.com.

There is a strong move to the internet in the USA, not only how the client uses it, but the way Realtors are (or in some cases not) using it!  Just as the cell phone and email revolutionized the way Realtors did business, the internet is also changing the way business is conducted and won!

According to two different studies conducted in the USA, 80 to 95% of sellers and buyers are finding and researching their broker and agent on the internet before engaging their services.  If your web page hasn’t been optimized and isn’t regularly updated, then this should scare you into action!

The move to Facebook pages and Twitter is growing, but experienced brokers are still ignoring it’s potential to drive both sales and client acquisition.  Furthermore, Twitter searches conducted by home buyers or sellers is a growing practice and if you’re not monitoring your brand (or real estate in general) in this space, then you’re missing out!

Photo tours are still dominant in real estate, but a growing use of video to improve the client’s experience, the Realtor’s brand perception and the listing’s visibility is substantial.  The move to video tours has increased by up to 96% from 2008, with the top reason being home sellers love not having to disrupt their lives for numerous showings.  Further to this is the increase in search weight, caused by the rich media on the brokers’ site, while also providing a more engaging experience for home buyers.  Video is being used as a marketing tool to elevate the agent or broker’s brand perception, in addition to providing property-specific details.  A good example (if we do say ourselves) are the videos we did for Polycorp.

What does this all mean? Real estate brokers should be embracing the new tools available to them and encouraging agents to participate in social media.  It’s no longer good enough to have a static brochure on the website.  A broker’s site needs to be optimized for search, it should also be dynamic and engaging. Otherwise, the site simply gets lost in the search traffic maze.  And the best part is: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and most “social media” initiatives cost very little to implement and video content can be produced for as low as $50.

There are some pitfalls that real estate professionals need to keep in mind, however.  Everything you put out there must relate back to your brand. Just like you would not send out a newsletter that was poorly written and badly laid out, the same holds true for your social media and video efforts.  If you are setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts, they need to be branded and even more importantly, full of useful information for your clients that is updated regularly.  With video tours, also keep in mind that you need to keep it branded.  Think of video in the same way you would a brochure.  It all reflects on “how the client will view doing business with you”.  There is no shame in asking for help in these areas…your expertise is in the real estate business!

I can’t imagine a Realtor in this day and age saying they don’t have a cell phone, or email.  It’s fundamental to the way business is done today.  The same will be said about Facebook, Twitter, and websites with rich content in the next year or two!  We have been working on a few innovative ideas for clients and how they can use Facebook, Twitter and video to increase sales, client appeal and branding.  I would love to see some great examples of how others are also doing so, whether in real estate or not!

SW

Scott Westerlaken

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in marketing, television commercials, film, video, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications, and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Recently I rented a vehicle with Hertz for a shoot.  When we picked up the vehicle they asked our plans and they upgraded the rental (at  no additional charge) to a model that would better suit our needs.  During the last part of the rental, however, the rear hatch failed and we had to do our loading and unloading through the passenger doors for a day, not a huge deal.  Upon returning the vehicle they asked how everything went and I explained it was great except for the hatch.  They promptly gave us a day off our rental contract for the minor inconvenience.  Fantastic!  That afternoon I tweeted the experience and thanked Hertz.  Within five minutes I had a direct tweet back from Hertz with a thank you.  Shocking!  I decided to do some research and discovered Hertz were following their name in Twitter and actively responding to comments and complaint issues (and in the open!).  SMART!

A few days latter I received a call from Dell Customer Support.  Having dealt with Dell support before I was mildly curious as to why they were calling.  The conversation started by the rep asking me if I was happy with my Dell and if I had experienced any problems during the past year. Ah!  Finally Dell is showing they care (if you have experienced Dell Customers Support in the past you will know what I am referring to)!  I went over the small issues I’ve had and the work arounds (using posts from other Dell users and not from Dell’s site) and expected to hear how they have some solution for me…To my dismay, the call quickly moved to a sales pitch for the extended warranty!   I emphatically told them I was not interested.  We went back and forth and I explained how I didn’t need the $400 extended warranty at which point she went into full script mode for 3 minutes without letting me get a word in.  I put the phone on hands free and went back to what I was doing before she called.  Eventually she hung up.  I twitted the experience expecting to get a response like I did from Hertz.  Hertz is a car rental company, Dell is a technology company….surely Dell would be as or more advanced than Hertz!  Nope. Nothing.  Now what was suppose to increase Dells revenue has only succeeded in further frustrating a customer.  FYI, a few days ago they called again…I explained they had already called me and I wasn’t interested….they hung up. Wow, not smart, but it appears that’s The Dell “standard operating procedure”!

Coincidently in the same week I sat down with my new friend Ross Simmonds (Twitter-TheCoolestCool)  for a beer.  We started talking about my recent experiences with companies using twitter as a customer support tool and he told me one of his experiences with Aliant Mobility.  He twitted about being dissatisfied with a support call on his account….and know who contacted him back via Twitter?  Rogers Mobility!  Yes, Rogers.  Now that’s taking it to the next level.

It takes all of a few seconds to do a Twitter search and just a little longer to set up a Google Alert.  Not following your brand and company on Twitter and via Google Alerts is the same as saying I don’t care about what my customers experience with my company.  Why?  You’re not listening to what they have to say about the experience!  It would be the same as the waiter not asking how your meal was.  So, on that note, how did you enjoy this blog today? Can I get you anything else?

SW

Scott Westerlaken

With over 25 years of award winning experience in television, film, video, marketing, communications, web, radio, print, and events, Scott Westerlaken has the ability to maintain focus on the big picture and offer a wide range of solutions appropriate to the clients message and budget. He has been recognized with dozens of awards in business, communications and filmmaking from around the world. For the client, this means a truly unique balance of hands on technical knowledge and high level strategic experience that always leads to unique and creative solutions.

Scott Westerlaken

Over the last few months I was introduced to a great but addictive tool.  Google Alerts.  Imagine, if you will, you had a personal researcher that gave you up to the minute web status reports on any subject you wanted. Like…um…well yourself and your company.  Ok..I must admit I get a kick about seeing where my name appears but it also serves other purposes. It can give you immediate feed back on posting visibility, news reports and business opportunities. I have one “Alert” for “web video” (note you apply the search parameters as you would with a regular Google search, see end of article for more tips) that regularly gives me greater insights into industry developments and twitter/linkedin material to spread.

To get going, visit www.google.com/alerts.  Sign in or setup an account if you do not already have one (takes a couple minutes at most).  Set up your search words and how often you want your update (immediate or daily) and whether you want to be notified by email or RSS.  Simple, but addictive, so be careful!

Quick briefing on “Search Modifiers”

Looking for an explicit phrase? Use the words within quotation marks, like “phi group”.

To exclude words use the hyphen(minus) symbol. “video production”-wedding

To include similar words try the little used  “~” (known as the tilde, finally found a use for that key).  “video production”~producer

And…(yes Margaret I am starting a sentence with “and”) finally the mathematicians favorite modifier “OR”.  Video production OR producer for example.

There are others, such as site specific and file type searches but this is enough to get you going.

Would love to hear some other uses and stories for Google Alerts.

SW

Fact is, to generate sustainable success, you’ve got to capture your customer’s attention by zeroing in on their specific product application or need, and then appeal directly to the points of pain associated with that product or process. In other words, you need to find an emotional connection and demonstrate clearly how your product will solve their concerns or inefficiencies.

In my years working in the foodservice equipment industry, I was responsible for marketing innovative equipment solutions that ultimately could provide operators with cost savings and a better quality product for their customers. The challenge was how do you convince a well-established, multi-national chain it should change the way it prepares its core product (in this case, beverages)?  Equipment is often viewed as a commodity and just another capital expense. To get a buy-in, an emotional connection was required where my product could address and demonstrate a solution to specific points of pain in their beverage preparation and delivery process.  However, demonstrating the product solution to all the decision makers, as well as the field operators,  would be a very expensive and time consuming exercise if we chose the “face to face” path. A fast, inexpensive way to reach the right people and communicate the most important points about my product, for a very specific product application, was what was required.

The solution was to develop a series of videos that demonstrated our product in action, solving a specific problem for a niche application.

The key to success here is that the videos need to be produced and delivered quickly to the customer, preferably shot in the customer’s environment for maximum effect, and they need to be short and to the point. The result? Instant demonstration of the product application in the customer’s environment that could easily be uploaded on the web or emailed to key decision makers. In fact, the process worked so well that the concept was expanded to include development of preventative maintenance and technical training videos. These videos were assembled into an easy to navigate, Flash-based user interface that enabled a customer to easily get the important information they needed about the product.

Similarly, in developing new market space for the MorSwift (www.morswift.com) rubber banding and bundling system, the challenge was to find a way to bring this innovative packaging solution to the attention of customers accustomed to using  traditional packaging methods.  Demonstrating the various niche applications for MorSwift would not only help the customer visualize how the banding system could fit into their production process, but also enables a way to communicate the key selling points of the system.  By developing short, cost-efficient videos with on-screen bullet points (see http://www.morswift.com/videos.html),  then uploading these to the web, MorSwift is able to reach customers all over the world.  Rather than promote the MorSwift system as a broad, “packaging solution”, the company is able to use the videos to promote specific, niche product applications such as rubber banding of broccoli, crab, lobster, printed material, tools, etc.

It’s important to note that this is a dramatic change in approach to the traditional use of video where most applications of video are for broad strokes of image, company brand, and sales pitches.  Instead, the specific niche application for the product and related messaging is the focus of the video. Quick, to the point, in your face!

PHI Group can help you deliver creative, cost-effective and professional-looking product application videos that will knock the socks off of your customers!  The result?  Close sales faster by offering a more relevant, targeted sales pitch to your customers and reduce your travel and marketing expenses in the process.

For more examples of using video to promote your products and services, visit www.phigroup.ca

Please share with me your thoughts on this topic, I would like to hear from you.

Chad Wiesner (chadw@eastlink.ca)