My First Parlux 3500 and the Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

I have been out of a hairdryer for over three weeks now, as my trusted hair dryer died after four-years of reliable service, and I've been battling afro-head for too long. It was time to get a new one.
So I went on a mission, first to buy the same product I had before, only to find that it's not available outside of the US without significant planning and coordination across continents. I then went to several local department stores to find a suitable substitute, but nothing seemed to meet my needs. I travelled to specialty hair supply stores far and wide, looked in magazines and finally looked online. With so many options and being somewhat of a discerning customer, I was actually paralysed by the analysis of choosing between them all.

I then spoke with a co-worker who sent me a link and a note about her positive experience. A recommendation; it was just the nudge I needed. In the end, I spent more than I wanted to, but it led me to think about what marketers are doing to reach consumers at the points that most influence their decisions.

Traditionally, consumers would get the majority of brand and product messages before they need to purchase, then again after their purchase decision, as an affirmation and means of retaining loyalty to a brand or product.

But with the shift of communications away from pushed, mono-directional communication to a dialogue, and with social media channels being readily available, marketers need ways of managing word-of-mouth. As one of the moments of maximum influence, capitalising on word-of-mouth can increase the chance of reaching the right consumer, with the right message, at the right time - a tricky task, considering you don't want to waste money or seem out-of-touch with consumers.
Now, word of mouth happens when a conversation happens. Conversations about your product happen where consumers congregate to view and share product information, reviews and recommendations.

So if your customers are active users of Facebook/Twitter/Orkut/Hi5, your company should actively use those, too.

In a December 2008 study from Kudzu.com, results showed 86% of consumers seek out and read online reviews before making a purchase decision. 90% of consumers surveyed said they trusted online reviews they read. Another report from the eTailing Group in June of 2008 showed that 32% of retailers who added online reviews to their website experienced an increase of more than 11% in purchase conversions. Of those retailers, 11% of them experience a 20% or more increase in purchase conversions.

So perhaps listening to what customers are saying and addressing their concerns can help create buzz and identify advocates of your products.

Besides the obvious strategies of evaluating objectives, prioritizing spending and tailoring messages, it looks like investing in consumer empowerment is a way to be in the right place at the right time. Marketers should see this not as a loss of power through traditional means, but another way of listening to consumer needs.

Mentoring and the Mid-Year Resolution

As part of my mid-year resolution, last year I decided to make a concerted effort to move my career and professional life along in a more positive direction. Since my company doesn't offer these sorts of career development 'perks', and being well aware that it's as much who you know as what, I decided to expand my network by actively seeking out a group of mentors.

Having solid mentoring relationships is important whether you work for yourself or for someone else, and no doubt being able to get some insight into someone else’s successful career may help in keeping sure footing on the career path.

But this begs several questions:

Who can be a mentor?
What makes a good mentor?
Should you have more than one?
Do these mentoring relationships have a lifespan?

So who can be a mentor?

Anyone you know can be a mentor: people you know, and even people you don't know... yet. Friends, colleagues, associates, parents and all of their extended networks are potential mentors. Or you can step outside of your known circle, (I'm not talking about being a stalker) and join a mentoring network to find an mentor, like I did. Finding a mentor is about asking questions - finding people who excel at what they do, what you're interested in, and reaching out to them. One of my mentors has somewhat of my dream job as a Marketing and Comms manager for a global computer company, and another is a creative director for an ad agency and has been a stylist for a popular TV show. Many people are pretty keen to pass along nuggets of wisdom from what they've learnt along the way, and are sometimes flattered to hear that you're aspiring to be like them. Mentors can be found all around.

What makes a good mentor?

Being articulate and being able to dish out criticism competently are good traits, but don't think this means your mentor will be good at delivering constructive criticism. Some mentors can be most undiplomatic. The key is that your mentor should be able to see what your strengths and attributes are, and be able to see when you're not using them to your advantage.

Another good quality is someone who can help you identify the gaps, and point you in the right direction. That's right, they can't just diagnose you as a bad communicator; remember, this is as much about self-discovery as anything else. Your mentor should be able to inspire you to feel accountable for the steps you take to make positive changes in your career, the mentor is part of your cheering section, but as a mentee, it's important for you to demonstrate your willingness to take advice to heart. If as a mentee you're not feeling like you owe it to yourself and your mentor to complete tasks and assignments, then it might be time to reevaluate that relationship.

Which leads me to whether you should have more than one mentor:

Why not, I say! Maybe the person with your dream job isn't the best public speaker, maybe the entrepreneur you idolize can't organize his life. If you're looking for direction in multiple areas of your life, why not speak to an expert in each area? There are multiple ways to overcome obstacles, and getting multiple perspectives can be really helpful.

And finally, the question of the expiration date on the mentoring relationship:

My mother always says you meet people for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. I believe this, and my mentor said to me in our very first conversation, that there's so much she can teach me, and eventually I'll outgrow her (it's all very Yoda!). I think there's some element of truth in that statement for any mentoring relationship, but the truth is, by that time, your relationship may have transitioned from mentor-mentee to more of a friendship, and perhaps you can teach each other.

Over the past few months, my experience as a mentee has been extremely valuable. I have learnt to identify things that I want, and things that I don't want out of my career. I now have some insight into breaking my goals and aspirations in to manageable steps.

Having a good group of mentors is a great way to develop rewarding professional relationships and I hope one day to help someone else on their journey.

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got

So today I attended my regular Toastmasters meeting where one of the members gave a speech on learning from experience. He touched on a couple of points around failure which led me to some conclusions:

1. Learn to fail


2. Fail early, fail often


3. Learn from failures
   

This got me thinking...As a card carrying member of Generation Y (albeit on the cusp), I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me at every turn. Fortunately, as a child I did well at most of what I attempted. Unfortunately, what I didn't get early on was failure experience. We're often told failure is not an option, and I'm not saying it's something to aim for, but lets look at ways to frame failure as something to learn from.

Learning to fail involves trying something in the first place. As a Canadian living in Australia, I'm very aware of cultural differences, especially the ones engrained attitude of 'Having a go' which revolves around giving something the 'old college try' without fear of failure, which may well happen. So far, I've been reasonably successful at playing it safe, but if I want to move forward, it's time to take some action, and not treat failure as a personality characteristic.

Failing early has to do with the way we learn. Everyone knows we learn through experience and making mistakes. In theory, we should be able to increase the pace of learning by increasing the rate at which we try, right? More than likely, this will also increase the rate at which we make mistakes, and by that I mean different mistakes - new mistakes. But failing in your twenties is probably a lot better than failing when you've got a spouse, kids, and a mortgage or two. There is so much more time for recovery.

Learning from failure is probably the key element to take away from all of this. That means doing things differently. They say one definition of insanity was doing things over and over and expecting a different result. If you're not getting results from your current sales pitch, change it up. If you're not increasing traffic to your blog, try something new. If you've tried sending your resume to a hundred agencies and cold calling organisations to no avail, why not try tapping your network or running a personal campaign for a change?

Learn from failures by:

• Identifying the mistake
• Examining why it happened
• Take steps to prevent the same mistake again
• Move on!

In the end, if you learn something, it's not a complete failure is it? Failure is not a person, it's a thing, so go on, set some goals and have a go!

How do you learn from your failures?

Reverse Engineering and You: Breaking your career steps down in to manageable chunks

A new organization can use reverse engineering look at its competitors' activities, failures and experience and use observation, research and development to identify the path to success.

Why shouldn't this process also be applicable to career advancement? If you're aiming to become a Marketing Director for a large consumer goods organisation, why not buddy up with someone already in that position (how are those face-to-face networking skills coming along?) and de-construct their career?

Maybe find a job description for your dream job or career nirvana (for now or forever) and assess the criteria -- which are already true for you? Where are the gaps? What do you need to do to make the required skills and experience part of your set? You could freelance on your own, building up a network and reputation as you go along, or you could do some short-term contracting.

Hey, if you convince a few people to mentor you, you can probably be privvy to the good, the bad, and the ugly of their career path, and you might get a little insight as to how you can evaluate your next project or career opportunity and avoid losing your footing.


Either way, each journey begins with a single step

A Short Commute and other Career Must-Haves

Today I had conversation numero uno with my new mentor. We've decided to make a regular fortnightly call part of my career advancement strategy. I suppose it was the 'getting-to-know-you' aspect of the relationship, which it will continue to be for the next few conversations at least.

Ms Mentor suggested, among other things, that I lay out a laundry list that I can use to identify or dismiss opportunities as part of my marketing career advancement strategy. It should be said at this stage that things have been stagnating for the past 6-9 months, but I had to sit tight until getting closer to finishing some post-graduate work. That said, it's official: the hunt is on.

But what is it I'm actually looking for? So many of us don't know, which is really silly after twenty years if schooling in one form or another. And how can you know when you've found that awesome career step if you haven't identified the things you want ahead of time? You won't know it for what is, will you?

So here's my laundry list. Yours may look a little different, but I think Ms Mentor's advice is sound: you can't recognise a good thing (career, apartment, house, husband) until you know what you're looking for.

1) Location, location, location - for me, living in the beautiful city of Sydney is great. I love the look and feel of the city, I love the vibrance. Why would I want to drive or ride a train/bus for an hour and a half to two hours each day? I'm at the stage where I'm ready, willing and able to put in the hours and the effort to move forward. If this means I'm getting home at eleven pm, fine. just don't make me go far to go home. I currently have a 40 minute round trip. I'd like my commute to stay that way or shrink.

2) Give me an organization I can believe in - I mentioned before being willing to put in the hard yards to move forward. In return, I want an organization I can get excited about and be proud of. I want the company I work for to have a reputation for doing great work, having talented people and at least giving the impression of caring about them. Is that so much to ask? I want their products to be relevant to me. That way, I can give a hundred percent and take some pride in it.

3) Show me the money, Honey - Let's be honest, money makes the world go round, right? Or does it? Money isn't everything to me right now or it would have been at the top of the list. That said, I don't want to move backwards in salary, either, though I know any company's going to want their pound of flesh for whatever they offer. I just want to know that I'm being paid fairly and competitively for what I do.

4) Travel - Do I get to? I got my first slight taste of corporate travel for my current role, and I still think it's glamour! So I want more, but this time I want to go to differenc countries. I want to see different places, work with different people, work through cultural differences and make a difference on a broader scale. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to get to travel back to North America to see the folks every so often either. I suppose this has an impact on the type of organization to some extent, too. They've got to have a global presence!

5) Let me see your flextime - What sort of flexible working arrangements does this organization have? Can I work from home if I need to? In my current role I can't, and I know that there are times that I'm sick enough not to get suited up to go in, but I would have no problems answering my e-mail and finishing other tasks from home, or on the road or anywhere else. Some people loathe the working from home because it makes it seem like you're never out of the office. I think a flexible approach focuses on outcomes, rather than putting in token facetime. Ultimately, results are more important, no?

6) Perk me up! - I'd love a chance to test out new products or services before they go to market, or get samples of cool promotions or a discount on whatever my beloved company offers. Maybe to entice me to work longer hours they offer a gym membership? Maybe an extra day of paid vacation? Or perhaps they give cool tech-gadgets like leading edge phones, laptops and other treats to make me feel they love me - or just keep tabs on me. Either way, bring on the perks!

7) Manage me, Mentor me! - Can I have a great manager, please? Someone who I get along with, who I can speak to, who knows what he or she is doing and is willing to develop me to move up, rather than hold me back?!? Can I have someone who has experience enough to give good guidance, who makes me want to emulate effective behaviours and go the extra mile for my beloved organization?

There you have it: My list of what I want in my next role - mentoring assignment 1 complete! Maybe I sound like a whiny child saying "I want, I want". I figure, if I put it out in the universe, maybe there's a better chance of me finding them or at the very least sticking to this list as a set of benchmarks for what I'm willing to accept. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and surely as my priorities change, so will my role requirements. I wonder if there's anything I didn't consider? I'm sure there is, and I'd love to hear comments or feedback.

Direct Marketing: Relationship-building Roadblocks

The increasing rivalry in the current business environment results in the necessity for organisations to forge strong customer relationships. These strong bonds are used to offer better products and services and gain valuable insight into keeping those customers loyal, deter them from defecting to the competition. It takes trust, commitment and communication to build and manage good customer relationships, but not all direct marketers are doing their utmost to capitalise on those oh-so-important relationships. Here are some of the more common mistakes:

1. Too much information
Some direct marketers believe that the more sales messages (mailers, catalogues, e-mails, etc) sent to their customers, the more likely those customers are to purchase goods or services. Communication is sent out willy-nilly, with no consideration for timing, frequency or the content of the message. Overloading the consumer with information has the unintended effect of alienating the consumer and lowering the probability of any purchase/response. Consumers are looking for trusted, proven relationships that save them time and effort by fulfilling promises of product, service or expertise. If direct marketers get committed to giving the consumers what they want - the "need to know" versus the "nice to know", keep in touch with valued customers, give timely, relevant accurate information on their offerings, they'll be rewarded with responsive consumers.

2. We're not all created equal
Some direct marketers treat all consumers as equals. Maybe they're sending 'cold' messages to those who have previously purchased, and acting all too familiar with potential customers whose trust they haven't yet earned. All consumers are not equal. Loyalty should be rewarded to build a relationship of the highest quality. That's why it's of the utmost importance to segment the message to engage the consumers, making them an offer they can't refuse. Keep them reading, clicking and buying by sending them focused, targeted content that they want (they've shown you that they want it from being responsive in the past; you know they might want it because you've done your demographic/behavioural research).

3. You don't make me feel special
While direct marketing has a focus of productivity, standards, volume and costs, consumers are more focused on timeliness, selection, relevance and value. When this divergence of priorities is made apparent to the consumer, there is disengagement. Customers don't care about your bottom line, they care about themselves, and they want to feel important. Make sure your content is benefit-rich, and allows the consumer to relate to your message and your offering. Make it easy for your recipient to reply to you, too. When it's difficult to engage with you, consumers get frustrated, dismiss your message, or click-away from the cool website/newsletter/mailer into which you've put so much effort (read: $$).

Keeping the above in mind when planning a campaign or evaluating direct marketing strategy might help avoid some major pitfalls and allow you to build and maintain long-standing profitable customer relationships.

I See You, Watching Me, Watching You

Marketers are always concerned about the actual reach of their campaigns. With justification required for every dime of marketing spend, outdoor media's gross audience numbers don't accurately depict the true audience of different outdoor formats and aren't easily compared to other media measurements. The bottom line? They don't fit in with multimedia planning systems.

It's costly and difficult to support an accurate sample size of respondents for even medium sized markets. A couple of years back, Eyes On identified and took the initiative of moving away from the 'Likely-to-See' measurement of audiences to an actual measure of the commercial audience.

This article in the New York Times, however, discusses taking the approach one step further by using cameras embedded in outdoor media fixtures to track gender, approximate age and in some cases, ethnicity, and then modify ads accordingly.

Of the utmost importance however, will be the ability to identify the true demographic information, campaign effectiveness and reach of ad campaigns.

Talk about engaging the consumer...

Needing Experience to Get a Job vs Needing a Job to Get Experience

I remember it clear as day, the first time I heard this, or more correctly, the first time I read it on a flyer posted in the hallowed halls of high school. It was the mid ninties posted in flourescent green on the wall (outside of the Austin caf near the drama wing if anyone knows the area). You'll need a job to get experience, but you need experience to get a job. Ay, there's the rub. How in the heck to get both? Or at least get a break so you can prove how eager you are, show off your solid work ethic and prove you have terrific communication skills?

1. Volunteer
Offer your services to an organization that needs your help! Even better if it's for a good cause, for people in need, For a friend or for your community. Offer to undertake some skills that are parallel to those you'll need to perform in that dream job.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll get thrust into a leadership position or become a subject matter expert, and you'll find that helps you score points for both job and experience.  No one said a job had to be paid!

2. Network
Talk to people.  Talk to anyone and everyone.  Attend industry events, talk to friends, peers, relatives, former classmates, their spouses.  Get your story straight, figure out what you want, be it skill or industry or personal development, and ask for that.  A wise man once told me: If you don't ask, you don't get. Networking is a great way to get in front of the right people so you can talk your way into that job!

3. Create your own job
This is a popular way to go, however it's not for the faint -hearted.  There's a lot of work involved, a lot of research and a lot of the first two elements of this post.  Sometimes you end up having to work for free, again just to get experience.  Other times you'll spend networking, just so you can get your name out there.

So which is it?  Go for the job first?  Or the experience?   How can you effectively do both?  Well, often you start out in one job, in one industry, when you really need to get into your dream industry.  There's no singular right answer,   but there's no doubt you'll need to do the above if you want to make your move.

Maybe you're dreaming of health care and you can't seem to get out of telecommunications.  Maybe you're desperate for one of those big IT conglomorates, but you can't get past cleaning products.  In another post, I'll discuss how to jump from one industry to another.

Professional Services Marketing 2.0

We all know that marketers representing sexy products and services can leverage social media channels to generate buzz about their offerings. People become Facebook fans of your carbonated beverage, you tweet your latest fashion insights to your followers, right? Even Sharpie has been successful in using social media to showcase products and ultimately drive people to their website which increases profile and no doubt brand awareness.*

Success in professional services, that is, legal, accounting, architechture, engineering etc., especially in the b2b space, is more often than not driven by the management of relationships between the fee-earners and the decision-makers of their clients' firms.

These relationships, while they may be orchestrated via business development or sales teams, are mainteined through constant engagement with clients through online and offline channels. Those include events, seminars, bidding for work, newsletters, updates, surveys etc.

Hey, wait, isn't relationship-building the very fibre of social media?

But how do you leverage social media marketing in the professional services space? In 2007, the veritable jurassic period of social media marketing, a survey completed by the Professional Marketing Forum identified that marketing experts in professional services firms are unsure of how to approach Web 2.0 and social media marketing strategies.

In 2007, the key findings included:

1. 18% of firms banned Facebook on office computers as a ‘time waster’
2. 20% allowed free access anytime arguing their people should be trusted
3. Large firms were actively exploring the possibility of upgrading intranets with Web 2.0 elements including RSS, blogging and social bookmarking
4. No firms were reporting commercial success through using Web 2.0 sites

Isn't it time for marketers of these firms to get on the social media marketing train?

What if in house thought-leaders tweeted their insights and clients were able to subscribe to their feeds? What if successes and tender wins were the subjects of blog posts? What if boring firms got rid of their staid, stuffy appearance and attracted new, young, forward-thinking talent through their Facebook groups? And how about if those leading-edge video podcasts weren't held captive to the company website, but were search engine optimized and posted on Youtube? Wouldn't these serve as ways to build profile, engage influential decision-makers (or decision-makers-to-be)?

Am I way off here? What channels are the professional services marketers out there using to leap into the social media marketing fray?

*Sharpie is not actually un-sexy, especially when associated with talent like David Beckham...

Where is that Social Media Budget Going, Anyway?

There's a lot of talk about being able to measure the return on a social media spend no matter how big or small. Presumably you'd set the metrics ahead of time and know when you'd reached your goal. Douglas Karr brings up an interesting point that social networks charge advertisers based on how many users are on a network, but marketers could be allocating their hard-earned budget on disengaged (i.e. inactive) users who aren't actually eye-balling their wares.

Of course, measurement of brand equity, how consumers think about your brand relative to other brand choices, consumers' behaviour toward your brand and their perceived future behaviour toward your brand can seem foggy at best. This is why clear-cut measurement, including people attending your events, creating local buzz about your company (comments on your company/personal blog), engaging potential customers (link click-throughs readership/conversion), can help tell you where that budget is going. Hopefully not down the tubes!

Image credit: Image by blprnt_van

When your job needs a stimulus package

Maybe your role is no longer a challenge for you, you've outgrown the role and you're feeling a little underworked and understimulated. Maybe you've realised that your goals and the organisation's goals, as noble as they may be, no longer match up. It could be that there's an office bully, or an incompetent manager. So many elements could make your work experience begin to sour.

The feeling of dread usually starts at the pit of the stomach as you approach the building on foot or you see the compound in the distance from the car every morning. The feeling moves upward from the stomach toward the heart region. Your chest feels heavy as you dig your security pass from your handbag or wallet. In the elevator, you pray that you don't see anyone since the awful feeling has finally enveloped you from head to toe and there's no way you could dredge any inane pleasantries from the depths of your loathing.

And yet, as the elevator approaches your floor, since you don't want to be seen as 'the toxic employee with the bad attitude', you slap a smile on your face, walk in with your chin high, and greet each person with enthusiasm and genuine* interest.

What reason could you possibly have to smile?

1) You're keeping a to-do list, that gives you structure and direction, even if your manager won't.
When you're pretty certain that you can do your job with your eyes closed and both hands tied behind your back, having a bit of self-imposed structure can help you maintain some initiative. It will also help the day zip past, and when review time comes around you can prove you've been "super busy".

2) You've been volunteering for the social committee or other extra-curricular office activities
Maybe you're now on the social committee and you're the mastermind behind the office Christmas party, or the latest charity fun-run. In any case, getting out there socially portrays you as part of the team.

3) You've been making friends in the office
Odds are that you've got some colleagues who are also bored with their work, so you can pool your ideas on how to get ahead, try to motivate each other, beat the boredom and stay on top of the workload. It's also the ideal time for you to speak to people you ordinarily wouldn't, and build a positive profile of yourself.

4) You've been looking around for other jobs
When you're stuck in a career or work rut, it can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you're intelligent, educated and you could probably do your boss' boss' job if given the opportunity. Especially in the current economic climate, maybe those opportunities aren’t around, and may not be for a while. There's no harm in looking, though, especially if you're finding out where your skill gaps are, and how you can address those so you're prepared for your next big thing. Who knows what you might find.

Whatever you do, don't fall into the trap of letting your office boredom consume your life to the point where you start to make mistakes or offer work that you wouldn't otherwise be proud of. Several combinations of the activities above will make you look like you're showing a little initiative to get ahead. This could help you move up the ranks which will revitalise your interest and ultimately alleviate your boredom.

*fake

Image credits - Interest Rates (by ArtemFinland - CC- BY)