How mobile phones have changed the planet

The power of marketing is now mobile, and it's easier than ever to put your message in your clients' hands. Here are how some savvy companies are leveraging mobile shopping, social integration and brand connection. Maybe there's something you can do too?

1. hail the fashion cab!

Glamour magazine launched a totally fabulous way for weary New Yorkers to order their YSL eye saviour. In the back of a cab between shows during NY fashion week, fashion sisters could download an app and swipe the screen to order their Touche Eclat!

2. QR codes are turning up everywhere!

Those weird patterns printed on ads and products are starting to take off in a big way. Whilst it's a great way for a reader to get more info from ads, smart marketers are using QR codes to make their shop fronts work 24/7. QR - 'quick response codes' - are graphics, like barcodes, but can hold much more information. You need an app for your iPhone to 'read' a QR code, but they are free and downloadable from the app store.

You swipe your iPhone over the code and it links you to the data, which can be just about anything. Want to get people to download your app? A QR code is a great way to send your customers directly to the right place to download it without lifting a finger...

Check out Qkies - proving you can have your QR code & eat it too!

3. socialising is what we do!

There's no denying that social media is here to stay - in fact, social media is literally taking over the planet.

consider this:
Facebook has 800 million active monthly users & growing
Twitter has 230 million tweeters
LinkedIn has 135 million subscribers

and everybody's doing it!

98% of 18-24 year olds & 82% of 55-64 year olds use social media

think it's a one hit wonder?

Social networks reach 82% of the worlds internet population. Nothing else does....

but why?

67% of us use social media to stay in touch with friends 64% use it to stay in touch with our family members But only 5% of us use social media to catch up on what's happening with celebrities, or so we say...

hot topics on social media 2011
#1  Death of Osama bin Laden
#2  The Super Bowl
#4  Charlie Sheen
#5  Death of Steve Jobs
#6  The Royal Wedding
#7  Death of Amy Winehouse
#8  Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

Proof is that to make it big in social media today is to ...... die or kill your career!

so what do people want to do on social media?

• 63% of Facebook users seek out sales & promotional codes
• 51% participate in polls
• 62% look for the latest news about their brands on Facebook
• 61% seek out new product information
• 58% look for contests & giveaways

& if you need more proof...

social ad spending will rise by 45% to $8 billion ( a miserly $3 billion in 2011)

• Facebook will generate $5.78 Billion in ad revenue in 2012
• Twitter will generate $259.9 million in ad revenue 2012

money talks!

Clever name, clever idea! Innovative thinking at its best. Whilst crowdfunding is not new, this is a particularly good example of great, easy to use web design that connects interested people to interesting projects.

It's what many social networks try to do, and many fall short.

So why does Pozible work:

1. it's easy to engage with. You can be a follower and a supporter for as little as $1 donation.

2. there is a wide range of projects - from dancers raising money to get them to an international dance event, to funds sought to publish a comic to lots of great films (check out 'I've Been Here So Long' by my son ;) which all rely on the interest of others to help get their projects off the ground.

3. It has brilliant sharing functionality and SEO.

Hat's off to Pozible.com.au - a smart destination for new ideas to garner public support. I pledge to visit it often and toss the value of a bottle of vino in someone's cap each month. All the fun without the hangover.

Check it out. It's a site worth everybody's attention to participate in and to learn from. After all, great work deserves to be shared!

AnneMaree Fitzgerald

Are you using facebook to:

1 . Drive new people to your brand?

Here's one savvy business owner who is doing it well. Can you think of a Facebook page that might draw a new group to your brand that isn't your business name? eg: "my favourite hairdresser in Sydney" or "Beautiful Teeth in Melbourne?" Like Google, you need to drive people to your site or page by understanding how people search for what you offer. Obviously, if they don't know your brand already, they will search by what you do or sell. See how the image works below to grab attention when searching for a sale page.

2. Sell products online?

Why divert friends to your website or Ebay shop if you can seal the sale right here on Facebook? Check out Lady Gaga's merchandise shop and imagine if you could have even a capsule range of products or service vouchers on your Facebook page? Service providers should be offering gift vouchers and promoting them through status posts.

eg: ""No time for shopping around? A voucher she'll love in 60 seconds flat!" (hair/beauty/spa vouchers, lingerie voucher, fresh fruit delivery)

eg: "all you need to know about the law but were too afraid to ask!" vouchers for a 15 minute telephone conversations about........ divorce, liability, fence disputes........ you name it. It's a great way to introduce a new generation to legal advice.

3.Test drive your new ideas?

Facebook polls are a great way to find out what your friends think. Perhaps you're planning a new range of board shorts for your surf shop. Wouldn't it be a good idea to road test your design by asking what would your friends buy....

a: the new shorter shorts Italian style,
b: old school surfer boardies,
c: bring back speedos please!!!

Link the poll to your Facebook page of designs and see the votes roll in.....and sales take off!

Just three things to think about for your Facebook business channel - ignore it at your peril!

Have a great weekend!
AnneMaree Fitzgerald

"the key to success is (wait for it)....being prepared to work hard" ....to...."if I was launching a restaurant today, I'd artificially inflate the price of a meal and then discount it on Spreets", because "traffic is everything."

Entrepreneurial experts? Should we be worried?

I think the audience was smart enough to know that sometimes even the most 'clever' of us say some pretty stupid things.

Let's look at "traffic is everything" first.

The dynamos of online and social media spruik that instead of talking to a prospect 'one to one', we should find ourselves talking to a mass audience.

That can be great if we're selling chicken nuggets or diabolical if we've had a glitch in our booking system (Jetstar). The scale of opportunity today is very much the domain of the mass marketers. Is that you? It's certainly not me!

How much traffic volume does your business need? I can't see the rationale for driving the masses to your website or Facebook page if you're selling to up to 500 clients a month, why focus on talking to millions?

Of course, 500 clients a month demands a steady flow of prospective clients and therefore convertable traffic to your business. The volume of which has to do with your conversion rate. The less enquiries you can convert, the more you need. Should you concentrate on improving your conversion rate, or simply drive through more traffic?

I fear that driving through more and more traffic, you get caught up in the task rather than focus on the true business objective. And driving SEO and social media to the masses is indeed an onerous task that takes time, time and even more time. Time you could be doing something else more targeted - using SEO and social media - talking to the people who matter to you most. Is that everyone?

How do you use Social Media to talk to the 200 people you want to reach now?

That my friends, is really the $64 question.

1. Cultivate a quality database
200 of the right targets is of far more value to you, and enables you to manage the task of personalising and targeting your communications so more effectively. Go to the effort of ensuring your database is truly valuable to you. The right people, their right details and their particular area of interest as it relates to your business. How on earth have I got on the mailing list of a dozen specialist accounting software companies? Obviously to some companies, wastage is just the cost of volume marketing - they don't care. But I do. You do harm every time you send an ill targeted communication. And when you do it over and over again - I'd call that harassment - or that's how it feels. So you're unlikely to get my business - but you're also unlikely to get my referral.

I liken poorly targeted online marketing to the 20 telemarketing calls we get a day for switching telecommunications providers.........%$#@!?%

2. Think 'exclusive' rather than 'inclusive'
An 'off centre' posting from one of your 200 fans on Facebook does more harm to the credibility of your page than you'd think. Keep the conversation relevant to your business and your 'real' customers. Linkedin forums have found a way to manage the focus of the discussion by ensuring only the right people can join. Those forums are the best for coherent exchange without stupid, irrelevant distraction. Consider this simple management protocol for your own Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn 'forums' - don't invite everyone to the party - just the ones you want to be friends with.

3. Fashion your message
Don't be dragged into the trend of driving your business to meet the needs of the masses. A more targeted approach is likely to be more successful. Make sure the message you are sending is at least of interest to the recipient, and at best, a real solution to their problem. You can do this is you take the time to manage to whom you are speaking. Old fashioned? Or just common sense? How does this get lost in social media marketing today?

Now, for the second piece of mischief - lack of authenticity.
When you set your prices, do so with some respect for your clients. Artificially inflating a price to make the discount larger and more appealing is short term thinking....and best described as malevolent marketing. Your customer is not stupid. Price is traditionally determined by demand and settles into position according to competition. Margins are smaller when there are more competitors in the market. However, burning customers who purchase a product or service in good faith, is certainly not the right foundation for the making of a successful business. So beware of the temptation that Spreets and Groupon etc offer. Get involved when it makes sense for your business and be authentic with your customers.

How much margin is right?
Despite its hefty price tag, the real margin on a Louis Vuitton handbag is no where near what you'd assume. Hand finishing, selective materials and the rarified, highly skilled and manufactured environment where you buy it make the $2,000+ bag a big investment surely. However, it is likely to outlast your $100 Target special by a lifetime. You just have to like the design for a lot longer! That's also what you pay for - longevity.

Does your product or service offer longevity?
Your product must be priced correctly to enable you to deliver it well to your customer and follow it up with good after sales service. A client must be able to see the value in the price - which is often only really discovered when something goes wrong in a week or 6 years. Your steak undercooked? Your goods damaged in transit? Your widget came off the wodjet? Your advice following a campaign?

What do you want - the response from a company that doesn't have the margin in its goods to provide adequate training and customer service for its customers? If that margin instead goes into the owner's pocket, or there just isn't the margin in that cheap price, then you have a problem.

You need enough margin in your price to ensure your customer will return and purchase again. Have a look at your prices and consider if you have included in that squeezed profit margin, enough money to ensure if something goes wrong, you have your client's back.

And lastly.......
To be fair, you do have to work hard to be successful. Some of us have to work harder for longer than others though. That's why we're still in the room ;)

AnneMaree Fitzgerald - www.marketme.com.au

It's a foolhardy business owner who will fund an advertising campaign without first checking that all other aspects of the marketing loop are covered.

Why would you put hard earned money into a proactive 'push' without ensuring that it had the maximum chance to pull in the bucks? Plenty do.

Before you press 'GO' on the spend, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there stock/capacity to meet demand +5%? +10%? + 25%? (basic, but often overlooked)

2. Is there anything in-store (digital or brick) that promotes your campaign? (help people find and understand it)

3. Have you strategised a 'what if'? the customer may want something different (a cluster offer)

4. How well are your staff informed about what you're doing? (before customers arrive)

5. Have you populated all your channels with your offer? And set up a way to monitor which channels perform best?

6. Have you strategised to launch/communicate with your VIP's first? (they expect it)

7. What additional 'push' factors will you implement? (EDM, sampling, editorial, experiential, viral, social)

Closing the loop will maximise your success - so take the time to build a REAL campaign first.

AnneMaree Fitzgerald - marketme.com.au

A long hard look at the arch of their brow, the steel in their eye?

What you'll see is a new mentality. And if you miss it, you'll pay the price. Because there's a strong shift in client behaviour. We all know that we've become used to and pleasantly addicted to sale prices. We've become hooked on discounts. Retail giants have battled for our dollar and driven down prices to a remarkable level not seen before. Think air travel, milk, mobile plans and plasmas ......yadda yadda. But, unlike previous economic shifts that reflate when the dust settles, price has not recovered this time and it's not going to.

Your customer wants value. Not just ANY value, but 'true' value from each and every encounter. When you can email 100,000 customers at a third of the cost of a stamp, how do you pitch a direct mail campaign? It will have to be a truly creative and exciting campaign to deserve your client's investment. When you can advertise on Facebook and drill down to a raft of new customers quickly and efficiently for a fraction of a local paper ad, how do you justify a print campaign? You have to deliver abundant value. But remember, value doesn't have to mean 'cheap' - think Audi.

Your customer and mine, has a desire which needs to be met. It's delivering fundamental value in each and every transaction. Instead of discounting your usual prices to grab attention, the new rules of play is to deliver that new price each and every day. Your mantra needs to become a value proposition whether you are selling prestige or mass-tige. Smart restaurants brought in the $25 2 course lunch with a tasty drop and probably thought it would be just through the winter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to keep the kitchen kicking over. Ten years later, it's the norm and redefining upmarket fare. Aldi, Costco, Target and Big W have become the retailers we love to shop because they are providing true value - often without compromising quality. Remember when 'house brand' translated to 'desperate' and 'needy'. It's the fastest growing sector on the supermarket shelf. Who's buying it? You and me.

The biggest mistake you can make in marketing today is to misunderstand the value proposition.

Take the challenge

Rework your business model to define your product and service by 'true' value. What can your business do to reduce prices and increase value - not for just today but for everyday. But remember, a value proposition is not about the lowest price - it's about the best price for 'true' value. You'll drive a new customer to your door and you'll be delighted who you'll meet.

AnneMaree Fitzgerald - marketme.com.au

Many companies are struggling to find a voice that really resonates with the people who matter.

Over the last 20 years, we've learnt how to navel gaze with mission statements and company visions, but how effectively have we found our voice to really connect with our customers? There's a lot of chatter, but for many the conversation is definitely one way - and the most important people aren't listening.

How do you find your company's authentic voice - a voice that will deliver a legitimate and effective message? .....And not mind numbing white noise that clutters the communication pathway.

Take these steps to find your company's true voice:

1. Listen.
What are your customers telling your sales reps? If you start really listening, you'll hear what they want to know. If your service desk only gets complaints about your delivery times, then do something to improve them and tell customers what you've done. If your help desk is plagued by questions that could be answered if only people read the manual - rethink it. Could a hints and tips DVD do a better job, or a phone app provide the answers? Solve barriers to business and then talk about it.

Luckily for many, feedback wont always be negative. If your customers love your new formulation, price points or opening ours, others will too. Encourage your customers to give you feedback on Facebook, blogs, Twitter etc, so they can share the love.

You also need to put yourself in the shoes of a customer. Spend some time with the brands you buy. Visit the websites of stores in which you shop, restaurants, vineyards, magazines etc and subscribe to their media channels. How do you feel - engaged, bored or alienated? To create effective content, you need to recognise it.

2. Act.
Understand that your customers are interested when you have something of value to say. How is your blog going to benefit your client? Is your Facebook filled with clutter that no-one likes? No comments on your blog? Time to reflect on content. If you sell a professional service, use your voice to develop a thought leadership role in your industry. Share your knowledge and expertise on forums, industry websites, blogs and trade magazines. People are drawn to companies that are generous with their time, their resources and their knowledge.

3. Learn.
Understanding what your existing customer wants to hear will help you understand what prospective customers will also respond to. You can then devise a communications campaign that is most likely to resonate and bring new customers into your discussion.

When you have found your voice, invest in it. It's your best bet.

AnneMaree Fitzgerald, Founder of www.marketme.com.au feedback is mandatory!!!! amf@marketme.com.au

Is your marketing achieving cut through? Are you gaining visibility and brand awareness? Or are you just adding to the hum?

There is so much noise out there, it is difficult to ensure your message transcends the hum and achieves clarity for your audience. For many, the problem is not a bad marketing campaign, but the lack of volume that sees a good communication message  get lost in the 'white' noise.

Take some risk!

Revisit your creative and make sure that it has 'cut through' - that thing that makes people sit up and watch, listen a little harder or giggle a little more. Beer ads do it well - think guys punching well above their weight - an ad which we all remember! I don't drink beer, but I will buy that brand when next time faced at a fridge display at Dan Murphy's - just because they EARNED my purchase. Is it really a risk to make people laugh? Step outside of the norm to get a fresher message to your audience and you'll get the pay off.

Step 1.
Don't repeat what you've done before. We all switch off to more of the same.

Step 2.
Grab attention with a great pic and fine tune a punchy headline. A stock library and writer can help.

Step 3.
Choose your medium. How will your message best stand out from the crowd - YOUR crowd? Think laterally about who your crowd is - you'll easily identify the purchasers, but what about the influencers? Remember the lesson from Dan Murphy's fridge of beer!

It all began with a series of tweets about a press release from Edelman one of Australia's better known PR firms. The journo - Renai LeMay objected to being sent a release from the said PR firm regarding the release of a Facebook game. So, ticked off, he punched out 16 tweets blacklisting Edelman and doing untold damage to the company's reputation and devastating the PR on the account. The brouhaha has not settled as social media channels have been filled with comment from both sides of the fence. But the question remains, should the launch of a Facebook game be of interest to an IT journo? If not, why not?

Every day PR's everywhere distribute thousands of releases communicating their clients' products and services, it's nothing new. As a PR you are endeavouring to scatter the bread widely to improve your chances of a bite. However, we can learn a lot from this example of 'release-rage'. We need to understand that Renai, who is a well respected writer, verbalised his pent up frustration of being bombarded with so much information, that he snapped - and tweeted to us all!

Surely, this more a case of 'info overload' than laziness. I suspect that the advent of electronic mail has quadrupled the amount of PR material received by journalists. As emails cost nothing to send, why not add 100 more addresses to a PR blast? It can't hurt! Well, it did and does. If I get 250 emails a day, a journo must get 2500! How can they possibly read them all? They don't. So credit to Renai for at least reading Edelman's.

AnneMaree Fitzgerald www.marketme.com.au

it's a lesson for us all!

1. think 'selective' and be more effective
2. educate clients, managers and agencies to be highly 'targeted' communicators not 'blasters'
3. ditch the email PR and be novel - go back to hard copies delivered to a real person
4. get your brand conversation started where journalists will 'discover' it for themselves

Poor Renai, poor Edelman's, poor humiliated PR who will be forever scarred, ditch the profession and join the ranks of burnt but not broken PR's who turn their writing skills to good and not evil as.....you guessed it, journalism!

Is Marketing Driving you Crazy? You're not alone. The hardest thing about marketing is not the great idea or the right strategy, the issue is implementation.

Now more than ever, it's just too hard to run a comprehensive marketing communications program without an extensive, experienced and dedicated team to post, tweet, blog and listen to customers. Then there's 'old school' communication to existing customers, trawling for new ones, pitching to sales channels and the list goes on and on. The advent of 'social' media has demanded we communicate so much more and so very often - to ensure we are part of the conversation. Whilst the jury is still out on whether this new media translates into measureable returns for business, we all know we need to invest in it before ROI can be truly assessed.

Implementation is now being strangled by the lack of marketing vision.

The question business managers need to ask is "Will social media explode my customer base or implode my bottom line?" It's a hard argument to sustain that a significant increase in staffing numbers and operational expense will be rewarded in additional sales when consumer attention is moving so quickly. Does it matter how great your catalogue is if she is sourcing on-line? Does TV have the same cut through when Youtube viral marketing hijacks your viewer?

The truth is that marketing departments need to change - radically - if they are to survive. You simply can't accept delays in getting to market any more, so remove the blockages.

1. business managers need to accept the rules of marketing have changed - and change their metrics

2. marketing managers need to outsource implementation to unblock the dam of campaign activity

3. implementers need to remove obstacles of cost, client confusion and contracts

Marketing managers must accept that they have the ideas and the brand knowledge, but without key implementation, their strategy achieves zip!

AnneMaree Fitzgerald
www.marketme.com.au