Posts Tagged ‘investment’
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Valerie Simon
How do you get everyone – from your maintenance team to your CEO – participating in the sales process? During a special Twitter chat last Wednesday evening, Heather Whaling and Justin Goldsborough, co-moderators of Twitter’s #PR20Chat, and Beth Harte and Anna Barcelos, leaders of #imcchat asked this question to more than 100 participants.
Here are a few takeaways every business should consider.
Top down and bottom up, goals must be aligned.
AdamSuffolkU: First step, make sure goals are aligned and input is asked/received from all-bottom on up
SuperDu: It starts w/ CEO creating top-line strategic plan. ALL divisional plans & emp. objectives feed into that one plan
jeffespo: It should be the trickle up effect. Everyone knows the brand and wants to sell it and make more money.
Create a customer-centric team environment
BethHarte: If all employees understand the customer is #1, they will all work to make sure they work hard from top to bottom
LoisMarketing: Communicate successes and celebrate at all levels. Make all staff aware of “wins,” new clients. Sincere appreciation.
Transform employees into evangelists
kimbrater: It’s more than the sales process, everyone has to internalize +evangelize the brand in order to sell it.
CASUDI: everyone has to be in love with, believe in the product ~ everyone will have the desire to sell
IABCDetroit: Engage employees thru educational, relevant communications so they’re empowered to relay company message, align w/ company goals
Everyone can have an impact on sales
BethHarte: Sales starts the minute someone walks through the front door. Better hope the receptionist isn’t cranky/mean
rpulvino: Everyone in the company is involved in sales in some way. Employees are the most important spokespeople for an organization.
And my respond: ValerieSimon: Education. When you take pride in, and understand your organizations strengths, you’re compelled to share the story!
Beyond 140 characters, I’d also emphasize that a strong and positive corporate culture is an investment that will not only pay off in increased productivity but sales. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a firm believer that everyone in an organization, regardless of title or department, should consider themselves a part of the sales team. Here are some ways organization can provides the training and follow-through to make the most of this extended sales force:
- Make certain that ALL employees are educated on your products or services and the benefits of these services to your clients and customers.
- Keep employees updated with a daily report of news for and about your organization, the competitors and the marketplace.
- Create a simple process whereby all employees can easily submit referrals through to the sales team to close.
- Share success stories. Recognize and reward those who are referring business, as well as the teamwork with sales that helped to win the new business.
Do you consider yourself a part of your organization’s sales efforts? What does your company do to harness the sales power of all your employees? Please share your thought with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
Tags: #imcchat, #PR20Chat, @BethHarte, AdamSuffolkU, align, Anna Barcelos, appreciation, Beth Harte, bottom-line, brand, BurrellesLuce, CASUDI, celebrate, chat, clients, communicate, communications, competitors, corporate, culture, customer, edcuation, educations, empower, Fresh Ideas, goals, Heather Whaling, IABCDetroit, internalize, investment, jeffespo, Justin Goldsborough, kimbrater, LoisMarketing, Marketplace, message, objectives, participation, plan, process, product, productivity, Public Relations, referrals, reports, rpulvino, sales, sell, spokespeople, story, strategic, strengths, success, SuperDu, team, Twitter, Valerie Simon
Posted in Advertising/Marketing, Career Advice, Industry Events, Public Relations, Social Media | 10 Comments »
Monday, August 9th, 2010
by Crystal deGoede*
Retargeting – when online targeted advertising is delivered to consumers based on previous Internet actions that did not result in a past conversion – has become more importunate (persistent) as we continue to increasingly use the Internet to shop, order food, book travel, monitor the news or for pretty much anything you want to do without leaving the house.
It is also becoming more widely used within the advertising arena. With so many similar 
brands in the market it is hard to differentiation yourself from the other guy, and this form of remarketing can help to successfully convert those lost opportunities.
This past week Michael Learmonth, digital lead at Advertising Age expressed his creepy experience with Zappos, and “The Pants That Stalked [Him] on the Web.”
Oddly enough, after reading Learmonth’s post I was having dinner with my friend Nancy who was “weirded out” by a similiar experience. Ever since she booked a room at Loews Hotel ads for the hotel began appearing on every website that she visited. She is a sales trader so PPC (pay-per-click), Twitter, retargeting, and cookies are not really in her vocabulary. So I thought it would be interesting to research if retargeting is as effective as marketing and advertising professionals believe and how it actually works.
According to Criteo, a company that specializes in scalable personalized retargeting, more than 90 percent of website visitors leave before converting (i.e., making a purchase, downloading a white paper, etc.) Other research has shown that it can take at least seven follow-up emails or phone calls with prospects to actual convert them to a sale. If we are only tracking those visitors that convert on our physical websites, we are simply losing out on a possible sale down the road. Websites these days are optimized for search and have the technology to place cookies on each visitor’s computers to measure the site’s true audience size, but that is only capturing IP addresses most of the time. Then they have us, until we remove all our cookies and empty our cache.
So how do these retargeting customized ads work? When a prospect/client browses your website they become tagged with a snippet of code, which tracks which products they have shown interest in. When they leave the website and begin visiting other pages that’s when the retargeting begins. Banner ads customized to their search on your site start appearing on sites all over the web, from news, social networks, blogs, etc.
Companies that are using retargeting firms, such as Fetchback, in their marketing strategy have seen a 592 percent increase in ROI and conversions up by 94 percent. There are many other benefits to this form of behavioral marketing. It helps streamline all of your campaigns and the frequency of the ads helps keep your brand on the top of prospects minds. (Most services have an integrated feature that allows you to place a limit on the frequency at which the ads appear, so you don’t bomb your potential clients and “creep” them out because everywhere they go they see you.)
Plus, your ads are not static on a particular site related to your industry, which usually does not yield a lot of traffic because that market is already saturated and are either already your clients or know who you are. With retargeting your ads you are only reengaging with new prospects that have already shown interest in your brand; you can focus on what their needs are and manage your ROI.
In short, retargeting helps build your brand and online presence, while increasing the chances of reengaging your audience. It is not going to convert all on its own and has to be used with traditional marketing tactics to be effective. So don’t eliminate your current strategies. It is also important to measure the effectiveness of your retargeting campaigns, ensuring it is worth the investment and that your conversion rates are higher.
This article from Inc. Magazine highlights a retargeting success story involving Scottevest and its partnership with firm AdRoll.
There is one downside to the growing popularity for converting leads more efficiently via retargeting and that is the possibility that people may have the choice to opt-out (a do not call list for the Internet) of all behavioral targeting ads. What does that do for brands that are following the rules and not hunting down prospects on the web? We lose the opportunity to generate qualified leads for our sales team and revenue for the company. If you do use retargeting make sure you limit your reach frequency because when people begin to feel harassed and stalked by brands they will opt-out; I would.
Is your organization taking on the strategy of retargeting advertising? If so, how successful have you been with campaigns and reengaging lost prospects? Do you think we should have the right to opt-out of all behavioral targeting ad campaigns or just the irritating ones? Please share your thoughts and ideas with me and the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers.
Tags: action, AdRoll, ads, advertising, Advertising Age, audience, banner ads, behavioral, Blogs, brands, BurrellesLuce, cache, campaigns, client, compensate, consumers, conversion, converting, cookies, creepy, Criteo, Crystal DeGoede, customized, digital, download, effective, emails, Fetchback, Fresh Ideas, Inc. Magazine, industry, information, integrated, Internet, investment, IP addresses, lead, log-in, Lowes Hotel, marketing, measure, Michael Learmonth, monitor, news, online, opportunities, opt-out, pay-per-click, personalized, phone calls, presence, professionals, prospects, purchase, qualified, rates, re-marketing, re-targeting, reengaging, research, result, retargeting, ROI, rules, sale, sales trader, scalable, Scottvest, search, services, size, Social Networks, static, strategy, streamline, success, success story, tagged, Technology, The Pants that Stalked Me on the Web, tracking, traditional, traffic, Twitter, visitors, website, white paper, Zappos
Posted in Advertising/Marketing, Public Relations, Technology | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
by Tom Kowalski*
In this day in age, it’s becoming exceedingly important for public relations professionals to show their worth. As PR pros, we all know that effective public relations is as equally important as the rest of the communications mix. Unfortunately, some top executives are still hard-pressed to understand the value of PR. This is where media measurement and analysis are vital to demonstrate results.
Recently, Randall Chinchilla, external relations manager, P&G, spoke with Erica Iacono, executive editor, PRWeek, at a BurrellesLuce sponsored round table discussion to underline the importance of measurement in long-term ROI (return on investment.) He explained that executives are more apt to understand the value of public relations when shown measurable results over time and the impact to the business.
According to Chinchilla analysis should be done over time, not only on a “project” basis. Yes, it’s great to see colorful charts and graphs that give a visual (perhaps a spike in publicity for a certain campaign) but more important is how that specific event contributes to the business’ goals over time. It’s hard to determine ROI from a single event when engagement from an event can have a long cycle. When a company invests in a campaign, usually it’s a long term investment. Therefore, the results need to be measured consistently as well. When meaningful analysis reports are presented over a period of time, budgets for measurement are less likely to be cut.
In a digital age, where most of the chatter is online, there are also many challenges to understanding and measuring the messages on the Internet and it is difficult to predict how they directly impact your business. Chinchilla explained that it’s a constant uphill battle on how to best evaluate discussions on blogs and social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) and how it affects long-term ROI. The consensus? There doesn’t seem to be any real clarity on how social media affects the future of the business.
Another great point Chinchilla made was that measurement cannot be cookie cutter. One organization’s goals are not the same as another. A great example is that media value or AVE (ad value equivalent) are not a good single-measure of how successful your business is doing. It’s great to show what PR is worth in dollars, but more important for P&G is engagement. There are many other variables that should also be incorporated into the evaluation, but they are different depending on the goals of your business. Are we tracking the online conversations and what’s being said? Is the message positive or negative and how is it directly affecting the organization in the short-term and perhaps more importantly over a long period of time?
The bottom line: Information and data come in fast, but analysis of results takes time in order to be impactful and thoughtful.
So, how do we really know how PR affects the future our business? How can we align our analysis strategies with organization objectives to show added value?
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*As an Account Manager at BurrellesLuce, Tom Kowalski works closely with New York-based clients and PR agencies. Tom brings extensive knowledge of the PR industry with more than 7 years of agency experience. He hopes to stimulate readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas by sharing useful information related to the communications industry and business in general, as well as different perspectives on customer service. LinkedIn: Tom Kowalski Twitter: @BurrellesLuce Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Tags: ad value equivalency, add value, aligning analysis strategies with organizational objectives, AVE, BurrellesLuce, Erica Iacono, evaluation, Facebook, Fresh Ideas, impact to the business, investment, long-term investment, measurable results, measuring online messages, media analysis, media measurement, Media Value, metrics, P&G, proving your worth, PRWeek, Public Relations, Randall Chinchilla, ROI, social media's impact on business, Tom Kowalski, Twitter, understanding the value of PR
Posted in Industry Events, Media Measurement, Public Relations, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Flickr Image: Mags_cat
My email inbox, probably not unlike yours, is full of calls to enter local PR awards. For instance, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) DC Metro’s Silver Inkwell entries are due June 10. Entries for the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) Thoth Awards are due June 18. To top it off, Washington Women in Public Relations’ (WWPR) next professional development lunch is on writing successful PR award entries. And that is just the regional events. Nationally, PRSA, IABC, the Association for Women in Communications (AWC), PR News, PRWeek, and others have awards programs too.
Although entering takes time and cash, winning one of these awards helps prove the value of your hard work throughout the year. “Whether you’re an internal communicator, media relations specialist, work in interactive communications, or any other communication discipline, there is nothing like being acknowledged by your peers, so I urge my communication colleagues to enter. It’s a terrific way to showcase your work, as well as advance the profession,” says Shonali Burke, ABC, president, IABC-DC Metro.
Recently I asked Lindsey Rose, senior counselor, Carmichael Lynch Spong (a client of BurrellesLuce) why she thought it was important for industry professionals to submit to these types of awards. She explains how PR industry awards offer several perks for your clients, your agency and you, as a practitioner:
Your clients: Awards give them recognition for their accomplishments and help raise visibility and drive excitement for their programs. Awards solidify clients’ achievements in their industry and help bring their stories to life. Award summaries also often help clients merchandise their communications efforts/case studies within their internal organization.
Your agency: Awards showcase your leadership through best practices outlined in your submissions. Awards celebrate your relationship with your client and reinforce the client/agency partnership (and oftentimes further reinforce clients’ ongoing investment in your work). Winning awards can also open doors and help bring your agency to the table for new business opportunities.
You: As a practitioner, awards showcase your strategic capabilities from research and planning to execution and generating results. Compiling awards is great practice for any PR practitioner – no matter what your level. Winning awards is even more rewarding.
You can get hints and tips for preparing your awards entries on many of your local and national professional organization’s websites. Some great resources include:
- PRSA offers advice on preparing their Silver Anvil Awards on their website.
- IABC has a webinar on entering the Gold Quill Awards.
Personally, from having judged several awards programs and chaired a judging committee, I know the key to winning is evaluation and measurement from beginning to end of the project or campaign. The best well-written press release will not win an award without showing how the release had impact. The key is to start early, ideally from the beginning of your project or campaign, and continue to document and save information throughout the program.
So now that PR awards season is well underway, how are you preparing? Are there any suggestions you can add for making the most out of your submission?
Tags: Association for Women in Communications, awards, AWC, BurrellesLuce, Carmichael Lynch Spong, client retention, DC Metro, documentation, evaluation, Fresh Ideas, impact, interactive communications, internal communicator, International Association of Business Communicators, investment, Lindsey Rose, media measurement, media relations specialist, National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, PR News, preparing for awards, proving the value of your work, PRSA, PRWeek, Public Relations, Shonali Burke, Silver Inkwell, strategic capabilities, submissions, Thoth Awards, thought leadership, visibility, Washington Women in Public Relations, WWPR
Posted in Advertising/Marketing, Industry Events, Public Relations | No Comments »
