Our Market Research and Marketing Blog
The Bainbridge Consulting Blog brings you market research and marketing information about products and/or services that you'll find valuable in promoting or protecting your business. It also features white papers and e-books on timely topics, plus useful tips and tricks that you won't find anywhere else. By subscribing to our Email Newsletter, you'll receive our blog and Facebook updates together.
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posted Feb 17, 2012 5:36 PM by Brendan Tuppack
GreenBook presents a unique resource for buyers and users of custom market research; those who hire and manage market research agencies and are seeking to optimize the process, minimize the risk, and improve the actionability of end results.
You will find this a useful resource if you are in any of the following situations:
- You have never done custom market research before and you need to hire and manage a research agency for the first time;
- You have managed one or two projects with market research agency, but the results were not embraced by your stakeholders;
- You have previously hired market research agencies, but you've been dissatisfied with the results.
Table of ContentsSource: Kathryn Korostoff, Research Rockstar LLC - Twitter: @ResearchRocks |
posted Dec 12, 2011 9:04 PM by Brendan Tuppack
He and his team create and deliver digital and social media programmes for some of the world’s leading brands including The Coca-Cola Company, AXA, Costa Coffee and Decathlon. The services offered by Adam and his team include social and digital media audits, training and mentoring, SEO advice and activation, video seeding, best practice toolkits and strategic planning.
Prior to joining Paratus, Adam was responsible for developing and launching the Australian Cricket Family – the biggest online community of Australian cricket fans ever assembled as part of the marketing team at Cricket Australia. Other brands and organisations he has worked with include adidas, B&Q, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Costa Coffee, Emirates and Mercedes-Benz.
Last year, Adam’s personal blog was voted as the third most popular blog in the UK by industry peers. His blog also ranks amongst the top 150 marketing blogs in the world according to AdAge.com. He was also the co-founder of Europe’s most popular weekly PR and media chat on Twitter, #CommsChat. You can contact Adam via Twitter @AdamVincenzini and by email at adam@paratuscommunications.com.
Below you'll find a list of his Top 50 Social Media Tools of 2011.
Content curation / management tools
1. Bo.lt - content sharing on steroids.
2. Trap.it - personalised content discovery engine.
3. Hearsay.it - helps you share the most relevant stuff in your stream(s).
4. Pistash.io - save and organise your online life.
5. knowaboutit.com - another tool to help you identify relevant content from your stream(s).
6. BufferApp.com - allows you to find and share content without crossing the 'over-share' line.
Social media analytics / measurement
7. Sociagility.com - the industry's most robust social media performance system / process.
8. PeopleBrowsr / Kred - 1000 days of Twitter data for you to enjoy.
9. PageLever.com - the best Facebook page performance tool going around.
10. CircleCount.com - find out how many Google+ circles you're in.
11. TwentyFeet.com - aggregates all of your social media performance data.
12. SimplyMeasured.com - as the name suggests, a simple way to measure your social media performance.
13. Conversocial.com - a great option for social CRM.
14. SocialBakers.com - social media statistic heaven.
Content exchange tools / platforms
15. Branfeed.eu - a place where brands and journalists meet.
16. ThisMoment.com - content distribution and engagement software.
17. MyNewsDesk.com - content exchange portal and online newsroom solution.
18. Jux.com - helps create new ways to feature your online content.
19. PRfilter.com - an opt-in news gathering service for journalists.
20. AnswerBase.com - your own Q&A community.
21. Zooshia.com - create your own social widgets for your site / blog.
Bookmarking and organisational tools
22. GetSpool.com - online and offline bookmarking system.
23. geeje.com - content discovery dashboard.
24. Wunderlist - task management with a social twist.
25. EverytimeHQ.com - in-domain note taking and sharing.
26. Pokki.com - helps you create your own apps for your desktop.
27. beta.strawberryj.am - scans links from the ones shared by your friends on Twitter and highlights the most popular ones.
Twitter-specific tools
28. bonfire.im - bringing instant messaging to Twittering.
29. twtrland.com - at-a-glance Twitter profile insights.
30.Twylah.com - fan pages for your tweets.
Facebook-specific tools
31. FBsearch.us - one of the best ways to search for Facebook groups, events and photos.
Search / SEO / domain tools
32. SkyGlue.com - Google analytics on steroids.
33. Wajam.com - personalised search engine results from your friends.
34. NameNinja.com - domain name brainstorming tool.
35. Panabee.com - domain name checker and inspiration provider.
36. SocialSearching.info - twitter and Facebook searching at your fingertips.
User experience / website analysis tools
37. bagelHint.com - enables users to feedback on your site design / functionality.
38. UnderTheSite.com - discover who owns any site on the web.
39. SiteTrail.com - an easy way to track the performance of competitor websites.
40. Lubith.com - create your own WordPress themes / templates.
Online video tools
41. Bambuser.com - mobile video streaming.
42. Videofy.me - bringing video content and bloggers together.
43. Tout.com - 15 second video status updates.
Online photo tools
44. Merchii.com - linking bloggers, consumers and online merchants together by tagging photos.
Contact management tools / dashboards
45. SproutSocial.com - powerful social media engagement dashboard.
46. Contax.io - manage your Twitter and Facebook communities with ease.
Influencer identification tools
47. Appinions.com - influencer exchange insights.
48. BlogDash.com - a dashboard for blogger outreach.
49. PeerIndex.net - ranks individual users by social media performance/
50. GroupHigh.com - blogger outreach intelligence.
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posted Dec 1, 2011 2:21 PM by Brendan Tuppack
Gartner, Inc. has highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be of strategic importance for most organisations in 2012. Their analysts presented their findings during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, held in Orlando, Florida between 16-20 October, 2011.
Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt.
A strategic technology may be an existing technology that has matured and/or become suitable for a wider range of uses. It may also be an emerging technology that offers an opportunity for strategic business advantage for early adopters or with potential for significant market disruption in the next five years. These technologies impact the organization's long-term plans, programs and initiatives.
“These top 10 technologies will be strategic for most organizations, and IT leaders should use this list in their strategic planning process by reviewing the technologies and how they fit into their expected needs,” said David Cearley, vice president and Gartner fellow.
“Organizations should start exploratory projects to look at promised candidate technology and kick off a search for combinations of information sources, including social sites and unstructured data that may be mined for insights,” said Carl Claunch, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
The top 10 strategic technologies for 2012 include:
Media Tablets and Beyond. Users can choose between various form factors when it comes to mobile computing. No single platform, form factor or technology will dominate and companies should expect to manage a diverse environment with two to four intelligent clients through 2015. IT leaders need a managed diversity program to address multiple form factors, as well as employees bringing their own smartphones and tablet devices into the workplace.
Enterprises will have to come up with two mobile strategies – one to address the business to employee (B2E) scenario and one to address the business to consumer (B2C) scenario. On the B2E front, IT must consider social goals, business goals, financial goals, and risk management goals. On the B2C front, which includes business to business (B2B) activities to support consumers, IT needs to address a number of additional issues such as surfacing and managing APIs to access enterprise information and systems, integration with third-party applications, integration with various partners for capabilities such as search and social networking, and delivery through app stores.
Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces. The user interface (IU) paradigm in place for more than 20 years is changing. UIs with windows, icons, menus, and pointers will be replaced by mobile-centric interfaces emphasizing touch, gesture, search, voice and video. Applications themselves are likely to shift to more focused and simple apps that can be assembled into more complex solutions. These changes will drive the need for new user interface design skills.
Building application user interfaces that span a variety of device types, potentially from many vendors, requires an understanding of fragmented building blocks and an adaptable programming structure that assembles them into optimized content for each device. Mobile consumer application platform tools and mobile enterprise platform tools are emerging to make it easier to develop in this cross-platform environment. HTML5 will also provide a long term model to address some of the cross-platform issues. By 2015, mobile Web technologies will have advanced sufficiently, so that half the applications that would be written as native apps in 2011 will instead be delivered as Web apps.
Contextual and Social User Experience. Context-aware computing uses information about an end-user or objects environment, activities, connections and preferences to improve the quality of interaction with that end-user or object. A contextually aware system anticipates the user’s needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. Context can be used to link mobile, social, location, payment and commerce. It can help build skills in augmented reality, model-driven security and ensemble applications. Through 2013, context aware applications will appear in targeted areas such as location-based services, augmented reality on mobile devices, and mobile commerce.
On the social front, the interfaces for applications are taking on the characteristics of social networks. Social information is also becoming a key source of contextual information to enhance delivery of search results or the operation of applications.
Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that describes how the Internet will expand as sensors and intelligence are added to physical items such as consumer devices or physical assets and these objects are connected to the Internet. The vision and concept have existed for years, however, there has been an acceleration in the number and types of things that are being connected and in the technologies for identifying, sensing and communicating. These technologies are reaching critical mass and an economic tipping point over the next few years. Key elements of the IoT include:
Embedded sensors: Sensors that detect and communicate changes are being embedded, not just in mobile devices, but in an increasing number of places and objects.
Image Recognition: Image recognition technologies strive to identify objects, people, buildings, places logos, and anything else that has value to consumers and enterprises. Smartphones and tablets equipped with cameras have pushed this technology from mainly industrial applications to broad consumer and enterprise applications.
Near Field Communication (NFC) payment: NFC allows users to make payments by waving their mobile phone in front of a compatible reader. Once NFC is embedded in a critical mass of phones for payment, industries such as public transportation, airlines, retail and healthcare can explore other areas in which NFC technology can improve efficiency and customer service.
App Stores and Marketplaces. Application stores by Apple and Android provide marketplaces where hundreds of thousands of applications are available to mobile users. Gartner forecasts that by 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile application downloads from app stores every year. This will grow from a consumer-only phenomena to an enterprise focus. With enterprise app stores, the role of IT shifts from that of a centralized planner to a market manager providing governance and brokerage services to users and potentially an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs. Enterprises should use a managed diversity approach to focus on app store efforts and segment apps by risk and value.
Next-Generation Analytics. Analytics is growing along three key dimensions:
- From traditional offline analytics to in-line embedded analytics. This has been the focus for many efforts in the past and will continue to be an important focus for analytics.
- From analyzing historical data to explain what happened to analyzing historical and real-time data from multiple systems to simulate and predict the future.
- Over the next three years, analytics will mature along a third dimension, from structured and simple data analyzed by individuals to analysis of complex information of many types (text, video, etc…) from many systems supporting a collaborative decision process that brings multiple people together to analyze, brainstorm and make decisions.
Analytics is also beginning to shift to the cloud and exploit cloud resources for high performance and grid computing.
In 2011 and 2012, analytics will increasingly focus on decisions and collaboration. The new step is to provide simulation, prediction, optimization and other analytics, not simply information, to empower even more decision flexibility at the time and place of every business process action.
Big Data. The size, complexity of formats and speed of delivery exceeds the capabilities of traditional data management technologies; it requires the use of new or exotic technologies simply to manage the volume alone. Many new technologies are emerging, with the potential to be disruptive (e.g., in-memory DBMS). Analytics has become a major driving application for data warehousing, with the use of MapReduce outside and inside the DBMS, and the use of self-service data marts. One major implication of big data is that in the future users will not be able to put all useful information into a single data warehouse. Logical data warehouses bringing together information from multiple sources as needed will replace the single data warehouse model.
In-Memory Computing. Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. In addition, it offers a new layer of the memory hierarchy in servers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Besides delivering a new storage tier, the availability of large amounts of memory is driving new application models. In-memory applications platforms include in-memory analytics, event processing platforms, in-memory application servers, in-memory data management and in-memory messaging.
Running existing applications in-memory or refactoring these applications to exploit in-memory approaches can result in improved transactional application performance and scalability, lower latency (less than one microsecond) application messaging, dramatically faster batch execution and faster response time in analytical applications. As cost and availability of memory intensive hardware platforms reach tipping points in 2012 and 2013, the in-memory approach will enter the mainstream.
Extreme Low-Energy Servers. The adoption of low-energy servers — the radical new systems being proposed, announced and marketed by mostly new entrants to the server business —will take the buyer on a trip backward in time. These systems are built on low-power processors typically used in mobile devices. The potential advantage is delivering 30 times or more processors in a particular server unit with lower power consumption vs. current server approaches. The new approach is well suited for certain non-compute intensive tasks such as map/reduce workloads or delivery of static objects to a website. However, most applications will require more processing power, and the low-energy server model potentially increases management costs, undercutting broader use of the approach.
Cloud Computing. Cloud is a disruptive force and has the potential for broad long-term impact in most industries. While the market remains in its early stages in 2011 and 2012, it will see the full range of large enterprise providers fully engaged in delivering a range of offerings to build cloud environments and deliver cloud services. Oracle, IBM and SAP all have major initiatives to deliver a broader range of cloud services over the next two years. As Microsoft continues to expand its cloud offering, and these traditional enterprise players expand offerings, users will see competition heat up and enterprise-level cloud services increase.
Enterprises are moving from trying to understand the cloud to making decisions on selected workloads to implement on cloud services and where they need to build out private clouds. Hybrid cloud computing which brings together external public cloud services and internal private cloud services, as well as the capabilities to secure, manage and govern the entire cloud spectrum will be a major focus for 2012. From a security perspective new certification programs including FedRAMP and CAMM will be ready for initial trial, setting the stage for more secure cloud computing. On the private cloud front, IT will be challenged to bring operations and development groups closer together using “DevOps” concepts in order to approach the speed and efficiencies of public cloud service providers.
About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world's most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. More exclusive content, expanding multi-media coverage, including Twitter feeds and comments from the Gartner Blog Network are available Gartner’s SymLive at www.gartner.com/us/symposium.
Source: Christy Pettey, Gartner - Twitter: @CPettey |
posted Nov 30, 2011 11:32 PM by Brendan Tuppack
When it comes to online B2B marketing, too many people fancy themselves an internet guru. They all claim to have the magic formula for optimizing leads, lead scoring and sales. And some of their techniques can get pretty complicated.
Online B2B marketing efforts don’t have to be convoluted and complicated. When it comes down to it, some of the ideas behind website marketing are actually really simple. So simple, they can be explained in a series of “math” problems that we have depicted below. Do you know the answers? Make sure you check your work to see if your answers match the ones below.
Website + SEO = Good
You have a website and it is search engine optimized. This is a good place to start because you have a base. However, it doesn’t help much because a website with SEO is static: It doesn’t do anything, so people and search engines will likely have a hard time finding it.
Website + SEO + Content Marketing = Better
The trifecta. As the equation demonstrates, having a search engine optimized website while utilizing content is a better strategy when it comes to lead generation. Content marketing can occur through blogs, online articles, forums, e-mail marketing campaigns and more. This strategy is more active because adding new information to your website tells search engines to crawl it more often, update records as to what can be found there and increase its placement in the search rankings. The higher up it ranks, the easier it is for customers to find you.
Website + SEO + Content Marketing + Analytic Analysis = Even Better
When you have the three items listed in the previous equation, you’re really cooking, but there is room for improvement yet. Analytic analysis added to the calculation can not only improve lead generation, it helps with lead scoring. Website analytics track where users entered the site, what pages they visited, what products or services they spent the most time looking at and when they left the site, with or without making a purchase. Knowing all of this information can help funnel that prospect into a sales lead with real potential.
Website + SEO + Content Marketing + Analytic Analysis + Social Media = Best
The best we saved for last. The first three equations laid a great foundation. Social media is like the icing on the cake that can help all of your web-related b2b marketing efforts. Messages sent via social media platforms can be used to direct people to your website, are indexed by search engines based on their key words, contribute to your library of content marketing, and can be tracked through analytic analysis to discover what posts were the most successful. Each social media account opens up a whole new world of prospective leads that could be funneled to your website and through your sales process.
Again, B2B marketing online doesn’t have to be complicated. But as displayed here, there is more to a successful campaign than simply developing a webpage with excellent SEO properties. The equations above are obviously quite simplified, but could apply to any business seeking to increase awareness of their brand online. The percentages of how much time you apply to each element of the equations are up to you, though. Some brands find using social media more gives them a better uptick in business, while others find regularly uploading new content is their ticket to success. Its up to you to find the individual calculations that works best for your brand.
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posted Nov 29, 2011 10:01 PM by Brendan Tuppack
You say to yourself “I’m going to build a business!”
These words have a certain magical energy to them. They give every solopreneur, looking to hang out a shingle on the Internet, a sense of being on the same level as a Bill Gates, or a Donald Trump, or a Larry Ellison. The vision of a future business maven who creates an empire and makes a mark in the world. What’s nice about this dream is that it has a fair chance of coming true… for anyone. Yes, even you and me! That’s why many call the Internet a “great leveler” that flattens the playing field and gives you a fair shot at massive success.
Still, building a business can be hard work – if you let it.
There’s a way you can take most of the pain and tears, frustration and anxiety, struggle and suffering out of it. And that’s by finding the work you love. When you are engaged in doing what you like and enjoy, it no longer feels like work. It’s like having fun all day long. Most entrepreneurs who have made it big started out with such a fun idea they were wholeheartedly engaged in, they were able to sustain the enthusiasm and excitement for long enough to cash out – and touch the world.
Facebook started out as a playful coding effort in a college dorm room, seeking to build a network for students to interact online. Google was the brainchild of two nerdy engineers obsessed with refining and perfecting search algorithms, and bent on delivering a better search experience than what they could find already. Amazon.com started out as a creative geek’s concept of creating an inventory and catalog of books on a scale that was simply impossible in a physical offline store.
That these online giants have morphed into something far bigger than their origins might have suggested is in itself proof that the concepts on which they were built are valid and valuable. But more to the point, they are proof that the passions of their founders were deep-rooted and powerful enough to last through phases of extra-ordinary growth, strong enough to scale and adapt to the altered vision of their dreams, and continue to soar ever higher and reach new peaks. That’s only possible when you love the work you do.
Another visionary founder who built a very successful business was Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs.
In his inspirational lecture to Stanford University students, he said: You’ve got to find what you love… the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.
So the question to ask yourself is “Do I want to do great work?”
Because as you build your business, you will have opportunities, and choices to make about them. The choices you make will be guided by the vision you have for your work. If you want to do great work, you will have to make some hard choices. Unless you’re doing something you love, these hard choices will break you, frustrate you, wear you down until you’re no longer having fun.
How do you know if you’ll love what you’re planning to do?
Well, many times it’s a guess. When I entered medical school, I was 17 years old. I liked the thought of becoming a doctor, but had absolutely no idea what the training would be like, or what the reality of life as a medical professional might be – even though both of my parents were doctors!
Fortunately, I discovered that it was something I loved and enjoyed even from a very early stage of my training. This helped tide over some very stressful, uncomfortable and disturbing phases of medical education – things which might deter or even drive away a less committed student. The assaults on a medical student are physical, emotional and psychological – and they keep coming, harder and faster as you move up the ladder. Just like they do when you build a business. And that’s one of the best reasons to make sure you are in a line of work that you like, enjoy, and look forward to being in for a long time to come. Here are 5 ways to tell:
1. You Must Have Interest
Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t imagine making a voluntary decision to get involved over the long term in something I am not interested in. It’s such a waste of time and energy! Especially in today’s world, where opportunities abound and it’s possible to shine and succeed in a million different niches, choosing something you have a keen and fervent interest in makes a lot of sense when entering into a business venture.
Sometimes, you can’t tell for sure if you have a serious interest. That’s when it pays to test it out on a trial basis. Work as an intern. Volunteer to help out. Hang around and observe how things work. Try it out for a while. And then decide if you find it interesting enough to commit a sizable chunk of your future to.
2. You Must Have Skill
Interest is directly linked to skill. You often find yourself liking and enjoying things that you’re good at – and seldom otherwise. That’s a good thing. Because if you’re already skilled at something, and keep working at it, you’ll become good at it, and then great.
My friend and teacher Chet Holmes is fond of saying how it takes much more effort to go from ‘average to good’ than it does to go from ‘good to great’. There’s a lot to be said for being the best – and the marketplace rewards great performances disproportionately higher than merely good or average ones.
3. You Must Have Desire
It takes a smattering of natural skill or talent, plus a generous dose of hard work and intentional practice to achieve true, lasting greatness at anything. A key driver of this sustained effort to attain greatness is your desire for it.
Do you remember the story of the man who asked a wise sage about the ‘secret of success’? It’s not so much a ‘secret’ as it is a ‘universal law of success' – one that you’ll find every single person who has achieved celebrity and renown in their field has obeyed.
4. You Must Have Purpose
Sooner or later – and often many times in between – you will be hit by the compelling question "Why am I doing this?"
Every setback that pushes you down, every challenge that forces you to work harder, every obstacle that slows down your progress, every threat that endangers your business will force this question back to the top again.
And you’d better have a good answer – because otherwise, you’ll be tempted to throw up your hands and give up. That’s why having a powerful purpose guiding your business efforts can make such a big difference. It’s also one more reason to love what you’re doing.
5. You Must Have Passion
Passion is more intangible than the other things we talked about – yet is also easier to recognize, both in yourself and in others. Passion is also, indirectly, linked to all the 4 things above – interest, skill, desire and purpose. Indeed, passion is the torrential river that is fed by those smaller streams.
When you are lucky enough to have your passions align with your business, nothing can stop you. For me, writing is a passion. I would willingly do it for free. And getting paid to write is the best of both worlds! Tie in a passion to your business and you’ve got it made.
But what if you do not have any of these things? Can’t you build a business anyway?
Sure, you can, and you can even succeed financially at it. But it would make ‘work’ feel harder, lonelier and monotonous – a lot less fun. That’s why it’s nicer to find work that you love… even if it means looking a little longer.
Source: Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian, Children's Heart Foundation - Twitter: @DrMani |
posted Nov 27, 2011 5:02 PM by Brendan Tuppack
We were recently asked whether it would be possible to Subscribe to Facebook Page Posts via Email.
Using Feedburner you can, but it takes a bit of work to configure it properly. Here's how you do it...
1. Use the Facebook Graph API to detect your Facebook Page ID number. The general format is:
https://graph.facebook.com/yourusername
So in our case it would be:
https://graph.facebook.com/BainbridgeConsulting
Note: Make sure you get the spelling and capitalisation exactly right.
The results will be something like this - I have highlighted the ID number in yellow:
{
"id": "130884083591005",
"name": "Bainbridge Consulting",
"picture": "http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/277029_130884083591005_1383358973_s.jpg",
"link": "https://www.facebook.com/BainbridgeConsulting",
"likes": 57,
"category": "Consulting/business services",
"website": "http://www.bainbridge.com.au",
"username": "BainbridgeConsulting",
"company_overview": "Bainbridge Consulting provides marketing and market research services through a network of professional, highly qualified consultants and business partners. By digging deeper than most organisations, they uncover fresh knowledge that leads to new strategic opportunities. If you're ready to move your business forward but you're not quite sure how to go about it, ask for an obligation free appointment.",
"location": {
"street": "GPO Box 2670",
"city": "Brisbane",
"country": "Australia",
"zip": "4001",
"latitude": -27.4676304,
"longitude": 153.0277863
},
"public_transit": "Public transport is available to within 100m of our offices.",
"hours": {
"mon_1_open": "09:00",
"mon_1_close": "17:00",
"tue_1_open": "09:00",
"tue_1_close": "17:00",
"wed_1_open": "09:00",
"wed_1_close": "17:00",
"thu_1_open": "09:00",
"thu_1_close": "17:00",
"fri_1_open": "09:00",
"fri_1_close": "17:00"
},
"phone": "0734805386",
"talking_about_count": 4
}
2. Copy and paste the ID number at the end of this Address URL:
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=atom10&id=
The result should be something like this:
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/page.php?format=atom10&id=130884083591005
3. Copy the resulting address URL into your browser and check whether you can see your Facebook feed.
4. If it does work, either register for a Feedburner account at www.feedburner.com or login if you have one already.
5. Once logged in, look for the section which says "Burn a feed right this instant". Paste the address URL you created in Step 2 into the box provided and click Next. Do not tick "I am a podcaster!".
6. Enter the "Feed Title" with no more than four words. Enter the "Feed Address" in lowercase with no more than two words and click Next.
7. The result should be as follows:
Congrats! Your FeedBurner feed is now live. Want to dress it up a little?
Subscribe to your feed (and share with others!) at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/bainbridgewall
8. Click Next and tick the "Clickthroughs" and "I want more!" boxes. Leave the Item enclosure downloads box unticked.
9. Click Next, click the "Optimise" tab, click "Smartfeed", and click "Activate".
10. Whilst still on the "Optimise" tab, click "Feedflare", tick the "Feed" box for "Share on Facebook", and click "Activate".
11. Click on the "Publicise" tab, click "Email Subscriptions", and click "Activate".
On the resulting page, you will see a "Subscription Form code" and a "Subscription Link code". To use the Subscription Form code, copy and paste this code into your website. To use the Subscription Link code, copy and paste this code into a link on your website called "Subscription to our Facebook Page via Email" or create that same link as part of your email signature. Here's what they look like...
Subscription Form
Note: This dialogue box has been sized at 360px x 180px, but you can make it any size you want.
Subscription Link
12. Tick the box which says "Send me an email whenever people unsubscribe".
13. Click "Delivery Options", click on "Select Timezone" and choose your timezone, click on "Schedule Email Delivery" and set it at 9.00am - 11.00am, then click Save.
14. Click on "Pingshot" and click Activate.
15. If you would like this feed to post to your Twitter account, you can select "Socialise" and configure your Twitter settings. For the record, we find it better to use NetworkedBlogs, an application available on Facebook, to post to Twitter.
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posted Nov 23, 2011 2:17 PM by Brendan Tuppack
I'm sure you are great at what you do, but I bet at some point you lost customers to a competitor or they just vanished without so much as a "goodbye." It happens to the very best of businesses. Although companies large and small should always focus on getting new customers, we often don't think about trying to win back those who we used to do business with.
We've seen businesses who have "won back" as much as 2 percent of their clients given the proper segmentation, messaging, and great offers.
I firmly believe that having a strategy to win back former customers is important for the majority of businesses. Getting past customers back in the door can be easier and less expensive than finding new ones; after all, you've got some history with them.
Here are five steps you can use to win those customers back using email marketing.
Get your list in order
The first step is to get a firm grasp of your customers' behavior and figure out when they stopped buying from you. If you've got your list of customer purchases in your CRM system or your e-commerce platform, run a report on all of your customers to find out the last date they've purchased. Then segment your list based on how much time has passed since their last purchase. At the most basic level, I'd suggest grouping them by those who have not purchased in the last six to 12 months, and those who have not purchased in the last 12-plus months.
Personalize your subject line
Here's where your history together can work to your advantage. Show your former customers that not only do you know them, but you miss them and want them back. Use personalization in your subject line. Examples include: "[First Name], We Want You Back," "We Miss You [First Name]," "Where Have You Been [First Name]?" or "How Are You Liking the [Product], [First Name]?" This can be a catchy way to get that email opened.
Entice with a truly great offer
Make sure you've got a once-in-a-lifetime offer for your win-back segments. You might want to personalize again and thank them for their last purchase of [insert product] on [insert date]. Then offer a nice percentage off of great complementary products to the ones they've purchased. You want them to remember that great experience they had with your company and encourage them to interact again.
Ask for their opinion
Within your email with your fantastic offer, you might want to give your customers the opportunity to tell you why they haven't ordered from you, which can be really important information for your business. Include a link to an online survey with a few questions you want to ask about their satisfaction with your company. Make sure you leave a box where they can include "other" information in a free-form fashion so that you can read through the comments. You might find that you now offer something they were looking for that you didn't in the past, and you can follow up with them and let them know via phone or a separate email marketing campaign.
Be absolutely frank and tell them what you want
Sometimes it's best just to know whether or not it's time to cut the line. Unresponsive subscribers who remain lifeless despite multiple highly targeted win-back campaigns might not be worth the time, effort, and money to resuscitate. A simple, last-ditch email could say something like, "We noticed we haven't heard from you in a long time. We don't like spam either, so let us know if you'd like to keep getting our emails." Then give them the option to stay subscribed (in which case, you might want to throw in an offer to thank them for that simple action), or to unsubscribe.
Businesses can get so focused on getting "new" customers that they forget about keeping the good ones around and getting them to be more active. So start those win-back campaigns now; you may be surprised at what a little reminder can do.
Source: Janine Popick, Vertical Response - Twitter: @JaninePopick |
posted Nov 19, 2011 11:18 PM by Brendan Tuppack
I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple really, a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.
Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a meeting. If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that most people care about are:
- Problem
- Your solution
- Business model
- Underlying magic/technology
- Marketing and sales
- Competition
- Team
- Projections and milestones
- Status and timeline
- Summary and call to action
Twenty minutes. You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
Thirty-point font. The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.
The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.
Source: Guy Kawasaki, Guy Kawasaki Blog - Twitter: @GuyKawasaki |
posted Nov 19, 2011 11:16 PM by Brendan Tuppack
PR is a fantastic way to build awareness for you and your brand and connect with your customer base. Unfortunately, many people botch up this free and incredibly valuable avenue of business development.
The media are a well-educated bunch with good memories. If you don’t want to rub them the wrong way, avoid these 12 common mistakes.
1. Not researching the outlet
It’s important that you pitch the right news story to the right outlet. Media companies have to meet their customers’ needs just like anybody else, so they run only those stories that relate to their audience and to the heart of their publication or broadcast show. You’ve got to research news outlets and make sure that your story is in line with the character of their content and needs of their audience.
2. Not reaching out to the appropriate contact
Within a media outlet, there are a variety of reporters, hosts, producers, editors, writers, and managers. Each one manages and is passionate about a different topic or “beat.” Don’t pitch a finance topic to a fashion editor, unless it’s about “how to avoid department store credit card debt” or something else relevant to that person’s specific beat.
3. Not pitching an angle
Journalists are busy people, and when they’re sifting through dozens (and sometimes) hundreds of pitches they need to quickly sort through the piles of emails, faxes, and voicemails to find the gems that are going to break that day. Make it easy for them (and improve your chances) by giving them an angle for the piece. Don’t make them search for it in an email that does nothing more than sing the praises of your company. Tell them how what you’re doing now would matter to their outlet. Sometimes there are four or five different angles that might make sense for an outlet, but it’s key to pick an angle, commit to it, and pitch it. You can always pitch the rest later.
4. Long-winded pitches
People in the media are driven by deadlines. They don’t have time to read two-page emails. Boil down your pitch to the key angle and core facts, and don’t forget to include contact information so they can follow up if they need more.
5. Attacking the competition
No one likes a Jealous Jill. Companies who attack their competition within their PR (or who try to create fake bad PR—no names, no names *cough* Facebook) don’t make the competition look bad, they make themselves look bad. Focus on what you do well, and ignore the competition. If you really are better, your reputation and the quality of your work will speak for themselves.
6. Falsifying facts
Integrity is essential in reporting. If a media outlet is caught lying to its readers, it’s very hard to earn their trust again, regardless of whether it was done on purpose. If you falsify facts and a media outlet finds out about it—or worse—they’re called out on it, good luck getting any media coverage from them or any of their sister companies ever again.
7. Not building relationships
Business in general is about relationships. Journalists are just like any other people and any other business. They pay back the people who are interested in them as people, so be sure to build relationships with the key reporters and outlets in your industry. Social media has made it easier than ever to make those connections. Go connect.
8. Ignoring local media
We all want to be on Oprah, on CNN, or in The New York Times, but don’t forget about your local media. For one thing, local media love to support local businesses. They’re also the people in the trenches networking in the community day in and day out. You want them on your side. You also want to benefit from their success as they move through the ranks. The big shot you see today had to start somewhere. Just like anyone else, they reward the people who worked with them before they became Oprah, Robin Roberts, or Bob Woodruff.
9. Ignoring one kind of media
A sound media campaign goes after both traditional and digital media across all media. Going after just print, pursuing just television, or ignoring new media all minimize your chances of getting valuable coverage.
10. Trying to use it to promote non-newsworthy things
Media are interested in what’s happening now, what’s timely and relevant. It’s called “news” for a reason. Awards you got two years ago don’t count, nor do sales or the fact that you’re still open. Think about what you like to read about or what piques your interest when you’re watching the news.
11. Not going for the scoop
Media deal with some pretty stiff competition. They want to get the story no one else gets, so if you have an item that you really want to get into a specific outlet give them the scoop first. Then if they don’t bite, you can start mass-pitching every one else on your list.
12. Not looking beyond profile pieces
Media is a content game, just like anything else in the digital age. We all want to get a nice interview or profile piece, but sometimes journalists are just not interested, especially if you’re a small fish just starting out. They need to inform and entertain their readers, so help them out by pitching helpful articles or tips based on your expertise.
The more they can view you as an expert source, the more likely you are to get articles, quotes, and even profile pieces done in the future.
Above all, do your due diligence. Find out what makes relevant media outlets tick. Build out those relationships, look for opportunities, and never ever fall for the lie that bad PR is still PR.
Every fallen starlet and corporate scandal target would agree that it’s your reputation on the line. Take care to ensure it’s a good reputation.
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posted Nov 11, 2011 9:06 PM by Brendan Tuppack
Small business owners often ask how they can get their websites to show up higher in search results. They're not sure where to start, and their budgets don't allow them to explore every search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, nor spend heavily on pay-per-click advertising.
Social Media: The Poor Man's SEO
That's where social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook come in. Just a few years ago, no one thought these sites - and others like Stumbleupon - made any difference to a website's rankings in search results. Sure, it was a good idea to have people noticing you on social media sites, but no one thought that being mentioned there would help SEO.
Some examples of social "mentions":
- A Twitter post - or "tweet" - that names your company and/or links to your site
- A Facebook status update that mentions your company and/or links to your site
- A comment on a post you make on your company's Facebook page
- A recommendation posted on your LinkedIn profile
- A comment you share with a LinkedIn group
- Your answer to a question in Quora or other Q&A sites
- A share of your blog post in StumbleUpon
Search engines began using social mentions to help them rank websites in 2010. In 2011, respected search marketing professionals spent a lot of time analyzing the impact of social media activity on search engine rankings. Many have concluded that consistent mentions on the social Web - and plenty of them - really can get your site to rank higher in search results.
Here's the best part: It's easier and less costly for a small business owner to harness the SEO value of social media than to overhaul his or her site for SEO. Most small business owners aren't SEO experts, and often don't have the time to learn how or the budget to hire an SEO firm. But they are often very social people who are comfortable making connections with others who can help their business grow. Extending that behavior and mindset to places like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn isn't all that difficult. And it costs very little, other than time.
Does Social Activity Really Help SEO?
Ian Lurie of Seattle marketing firm Portent Interactive tracked 15 companies in 2011 and found that a large number of "likes" on their Facebook pages was a better predictor of high Google search rankings than the number and quality of their inbound links.
Ian's not the first to say this, and the whole concept turns SEO on its head. Search marketing experts have long held that inbound links - that is, links from other sites to yours - are the most important ranking factor for Google and other search engines. To hear that a social signal - Facebook likes, in this case - is more important really changes the SEO equation.
Here's another wrinkle on the importance of social signals for search rankings: Search engines are smart enough to notice not just mentions of your company or product in social media, but also who is mentioning you.
Getting influential people to comment on your blog and Facebook page, and mention you on Twitter, may sound as time consuming as old-fashioned link building - that is, writing to people and asking them to link to you from their website or blog. It doesn't have to be.
You can get noticed quickly by following influential people, asking them questions, and commenting on their posts and tweets. Just make sure you add something valuable to the conversation. Do not just say "Great post," and hope that makes you stand out from the crowd.
Because people on social media platforms have friends and followers of their own, getting mentioned or engaging in a conversation means you'll be seen by lots of people who don't already know you. Your message and reputation have the potential to spread far and wide, whether for good or for bad.
A simple example: Some savvy restaurants post their daily specials at 11:00 AM on Twitter and Facebook - just when people are getting hungry and starting to think about lunch. These posts are a great way to get people to come to your restaurant, of course. But wait, there's more! As people start messaging their friends on social platforms to see who wants to join them at your place, you're getting those valuable social mentions. These mentions tell search engines you matter.
Since your message can spread so easily, it's good to follow social media etiquette and be a good citizen in this world. Watch how people behave, follow the people you admire, and learn from them.
Practical Tips for Building SEO in Social Media
Twitter
- Post every day. You can comment on industry news, link to your blog, high-five someone else's comment, retweet someone's blog post, ask for help with something, provide help to someone else....the list goes on.
- Engage in conversation with customers and anyone else who mentions your company or your product. - Thank people, ask questions, solicit feedback, etc.
- Search Twitter for mentions of your competitors and their competing products, to learn which words people are using. Now you start using these words, too. It will help you when people search for what you're offering.
- For bonus points, you can use the hash tag - # - in front of an important keyword. This is how many people mark out and search topics in Twitter. For example, you might tweet "Read how @StephanieH improved her time with #WideRunningShoes on our blog" and include a link.
- Use a URL shortener such as bit.ly for links to save characters...140 isn't as much as you think.
- If you see someone who could use what you sell complaining about a competitor, offer to help them somehow - but don't disparage your competitor, or his product.
- Find the people who are influential in your target market, and follow them.
- Thank people individually for following you. Do NOT use an autoresponder. It's a pity for someone's first interaction with you to feel canned - and believe me, experienced Twitter users can smell an autoresponse a mile away.
Facebook
- Post every day. You can post the same things on Facebook that you do on Twitter, with the added benefit of being able to include a photo and a much longer comment.
- Invite engagement by asking people what they think about something you've posted. Comments are noticed by search engines. In fact, Ian Lurie of Portent Interactive found a correlation between comments on a company's Facebook page and high rankings in search engine results.
- Search Facebook for mentions of your competitors and their competing products. That will tell you which words people use when they're looking for what you sell. Now you start using these words, too, so you'll pop up in product searches.
- If you see someone complaining about a competitor, you can send an offer of practical help - or even a coupon! - to that person. Don't disparage your competitor or their product...that's not good etiquette.
- Give people a reason to "like" your Facebook page. You might want to offer access to special deals or coupons, or to some other benefit, such as a "fans only" video page.
LinkedIn
- Join groups specific to your industry and to your target customers.
- Post interesting articles and news to these groups. Be careful not to promote your product or company too hard. Some groups will kick you out for being overly self-promotional. Make sure you read the terms for each group.
- Answer questions people post in your groups.
- Write recommendations for people you've done business with.
- Ask your good customers to write recommendations for you.
Your blog
- Post about industry trends and issues.
- Post about business issues that aren't specific to your industry, but interesting to other business people who may be reading your blog.
- Post about your own company's news and developments. Your blog can be the modern-day press room - just make sure you tag news announcements appropriately, so company news can be found.
- Offer insights and advice based on things you learn in the course of business, even if you aren't talking directly about your own product.
- If you have something thoughtful to say about someone else's blog that is too long for a comment, write a post on your blog, linking to the post you are commenting on. You'll be noticed by the blogger, and he or she may choose to link to your blog, too.
Other people's blogs
- Comment on people's posts, but avoid generic comments like "great post." Try to add something unique and interesting to the discussion. See the section above for when you have a lot to say about someone's post.
- Ask if you may guest post if you think you have something to contribute. Many bloggers are happy to have guest authors post, if they're adding value.
News sites
- Comment on news stories that are relevant to your industry and your business. Don't be snarky - be thoughtful. You can also share these news stories in your social accounts by linking to them. If people read the comments, they'll probably notice yours.
Source: Aliza Earnshaw, AboutUs.com - Twitter: @AlizaEarnshaw
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