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MARKETING DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010

008 EDITORIAL

www.marketingmag.com.au

My dirty little secret

I like to watch. My hand clutched tight around the mouse. My fi nger fondling the scroll ball. I stare, I scroll, I suck in their pixelated perversion, all from my hermetically sealed space. There are

billions like me. We sit like silos experiencing everything and saying less than nothing, like digital spirits leaving merely click-throughs and dwell time as our footprint.

It’s not like I’m faking it. It’s not as though I’m not enjoying myself. There was that time I fi rst read a Seth Godin post and felt such groupie-esque reverence that I stayed up and read every word that market-ing master has ever committed to keyboard. I was breathless, fl ushed, intent on letting him know how I really felt about him. But did I comment? Don’t be stupid. I simply subscribed to his blog. (Actually, Godin was vilifi ed in the blogosphere for disabling com-ments on his blog).

I’m not the type of girl to commit to anything as defi nitive as a forum comment. God forbid I would click into that text box, that blank incriminating rectangle with its sultry whisper: “Go on, the world cares what you think… visitor 5,601 agrees with you… that thought you murmured under your breath just now was hilarious – it’s your comedic imperative to post it. You and your IP address matter. Trust me. Comment. Comment. Comment…”

I sometimes think I’m just saving myself for ‘the one’, that special blogger who truly deserves my discourse. There have been countless nights I have ached for content on the blog The Satorialist, that visual orgy of fabric and fl esh, so eloquently captured that my eyes water a little each time he posts. If any man could seduce me with his comment box it would be him. He turns even the most taciturn user into a comment slut. Go there, you’ll see them bashfully adding disclaimers like, “I never ever comment, but OMFG…” as though they are tearing off their clothes and vowing to their one-night stand, “I swear, I never usually do this on a fi rst date”.

He’s almost had me so many times. My mouse has hovered, virginal and timid, over the box… ready to participate, ready to join

the dialogue, but always stopping short of that fi nal penetrating click. What fascinates me are these commenters content to post a duplicate comment. What the heck is the point of repeating the same words someone has already posted? Would it hurt you to bring a new adjective into the conversation? Are you incapable of original thought? Or are you fearful of being excluded from the commenter cool group?

Perhaps my comment reticence and online behaviour is due to everything I was told as a child. Don’t speak to strangers. If you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. The world doesn’t revolve around you. And… don’t click on an ad by a weird creepy guy offering you free lollies.

There are millions of consumers out there hyped up on the power of the com-ment. They don’t censor or vacillate like me. They are a marketer’s wet dream. They either draw in thousands of new brand advocates with a single (misspelt, grammatically fl awed) phrase. Or they tell you how you and your team screwed your product more suc-cinctly than any commissioned research or overly orchestrated focus group.

But please don’t forget us comment virgins. We may be bridled by online etiquette and, dare I say, an acute concern for boring strangers with banal, self-centred sound-bites – but we still consume, we still make up a large part of your target demographic, and we’re still always there… watching.

Merry Christmas marketers. And speak-ing of self-centred sound-bites, thanks for reading me throughout 2009.

Kylie FlavellEditor | Associate Publisherkylie.fl avell@niche.com.au Got some negative or positive feedback

on the mag or some thoughts on the marketing industry in general? Send your comments to the editor at kylie.fl avell@niche.com.au. The best comment of the month wins a bottle of fi ne wine courtesy of Andrew Barr Wines.

THIS MONTH’S WINNERHi Kylie,Just want to say that I really enjoy your magazine and read it with much enthusiasm each time it hits my mailbox. I run a couple of small businesses and fi nd the case studies helpful in generating ideas for my own business. I found the sections that offer advice on marketing on a shoestring very helpful and have implemented some of those ideas in to my own business with good results. Just to blow up your ego, I actually really enjoy your opening articles each month. They are extremely well written, and funny. Keep up the great work as your small business readers are LOVING what you are producing.I thought you might fi nd this interesting below. I’m not sure if anyone is covering it, but I noticed there are quite a few articles relating to fi nancial services marketing (as I am insurance, I notice these more than others).Paul DaviesPDFINANCIAL Group

Hello there Kylie,I’m not sure that we’ve met before, however, I just wanted to drop you a line to congratulate you on Marketing mag, in particular the last three issues which I have found the time to read from cover to cover.I am fi nding myself passing many of the articles on to my staff to read further, as naturally a high tech company like Intel still has a lot to learn from how others are tackling growing their brand in the consumer market place. Kate BurleighMarketing directorIntel Australia and NewZealand

TWEET: @SeanGreaney nice article on affi liate Marketing dude@edwardharran

I had to laugh at the article from this latest edition written by Kimon Lycos of Mihell & Lycos. He certainly doesn’t like government tenders. But ‘twas an entertaining story, to say the least.Penny RoseMarketing Elements

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068066 070

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Deciding how to split your marketing budget? Keen to analyse what sort of ROI you can

anticipate from your latest campaign? This is the section where we focus on results,

marketing analysis and tactical methods that can be applied to all marketing regardless of

your advertising channel. Regulars include On a Shoestring, which is our monthly look at

marketing for SMEs and B2B Straight Up, which looks at business-to-business marketing. In

addition, thought leaders such as Michael Kiely contribute regular columns on holistic brand

strategy and integration.

065 KIELYMichael Kiely explains the nuances of quality leadership and

its link to top marketing practices.

066 MULTICULTURAL MARKETINGTaking control of your multicultural marketing campaign can

reap better rewards than you’d expect, says Thang Ngo.

068 B2B STRAIGHT UPKimon Lycos takes a look at a small country with a big

reputation for innovation and B2B global marketing. Welcome

to a motherland of innovation and smelly fi sh…

070 ON A SHOESTRINGJo MacDermott offers a list of New Year’s resolutions to help

your 2010 get off to a great start.

CONT

ENTS MARKETING STRATEGY

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ONASHOESTRING070 MARKETING STRATEGY

Shoestring in reviewJo MacDermott offers a list of New Year’s resolutions to help your 2010 get off to a great start.

Jo Macdermott is the director of Next Marketing, an SME marketing specialist business that offers SME business owners practical advice in how to grow sales and implement marketing strategies that make a difference to business performance. You can contact Jo via jo.macdermott@nextmarketing.com.au.

It’s summer and I hope you are reading this article as you are about to take your Christmas break or already on it. So, what are your plans? Are you heading away? Doing some tidying up

around the home? Catching up with some back issues of Marketing magazine? What-ever it is, I know that I am looking forward to a longer break this summer. As 2009 was a busy year, both professionally and person-ally, I am going to recharge my batteries over the Christmas break. I hope that you have the opportunity to do the same.

No doubt 2009 was a different year and had its challenges for your business along the way. I wonder how many times the term ‘global fi nancial crisis’ was mentioned in your offi ce during the year? If we only had a dollar for each occasion! My hope is that in the New Year the term is dropped from our vocabulary and we can move on.

So, what are you planning for 2010? How are you going to achieve all that you want on your small business shoestring budget? What low-cost marketing activities do you have in the pipeline?

As 2009 comes to a close, here are my tips for the coming weeks and some of the things that I have planned for the December/January period.

www.marketingmag.com.auMARKETING DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010

“My recommendation is to put the ‘Out of Offi ce’ message on your emails and switch your mobile phone off for at least a week.”CHRISTMAS PARTYChristmas parties can get quite expensive whether you are on a large or small budget. Also, whoever thought that putting a group of clients and suppliers who have never met each other in a room together was a good idea? Just add alcohol right? This idea is fraught with danger.

I had a conversation recently with my small business banker who said that they worried each year about the Christmas party as they feared that clients would have a ‘few too many drinks’ and start to discuss fees with each other. During the conversation they may discover that this person who they hadn’t met until 15 minutes earlier was getting cheaper rates. Ouch! I wonder if my clients would do that?

This year I have decided not to have a for-mal Christmas gathering, but am taking some clients to a networking function that is quite friendly and social. It is a low-cost alternative and gives my clients the opportunity to meet other business owners and not necessarily

get stuck talking to the same person all night. Seems like a win/win to me.

CLIENT CHRISTMAS GIFTSFor the regular readers of this column, you may remember the article I wrote on this topic last year. If you don’t have it, have another read of it on the Marketing website – all the tips still apply this year.

No doubt, gifts can be tricky at the best of times. I know I am a diffi cult person to buy for and there would be no point buying me red wine because I don’t drink it – I much prefer sauvignon blanc.

I also recommend personalising gifts where possible. Also, how do you get something that looks good without the Louis Vuitton price tag? This puts my creative thinking skills to the test every time. So instead of a Christmas gift this year, I am sending out something to my clients in the New Year as a welcome to 2010. If you would like to share my low-cost idea then drop me a line.

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MARKETING STRATEGY 071

www.marketingmag.com.au MARKETING DECEMBER/JANUARY 2010

HAVING A QUALITY BREAKI know of many small business owners who are afraid to take a break or be unavailable via emails or the mobile phone. Last year, I had a very relaxing time away when I left all elec-tronic devices at home – I plan on doing the same this year. No doubt as a small business owner you wear many hats, but it is important to recharge your batteries. My recommenda-tion is to put the ‘Out of Offi ce’ message on your emails and switch your mobile phone off for at least a week. Can you do it? Will your business survive? I suspect so.

TAKING STOCKThe end of the year is a good time to be really honest about what was good and not so good about this year – I know that 2009 has been a big year for me. The good bits made it worth it and the other bits are always challenging. What I fi nd as an ongoing issue, apart from growing the business, is fi nding the right suppliers and staff to work with and 2009 was no different.

To make the best plans for 2010, my recommendation is to try to make an honest assessment about what you did well in 2009 and pull out the lessons from the things that you will do better. I know that for me I will take my time when hiring new staff. It is a shame when people don’t end up being the

person who you interviewed and this is my biggest learning curve for 2009. What is yours?

QUARTERLY BUSINESS PLAN FOR 2010If you are like me, then you probably don’t have the time to do monthly plans. I fi nd that a quarterly review is enough to keep me on track. In my quarterly review, I list all the major/high level things that I would like to achieve such as sales targets, marketing activities, number of new contacts and professional development activities etc.

MARKETING PLANIf you don’t have a workable and up-to-date marketing plan in your business then now is the time to write one. I had an example recently of working with a new client on a graphic design project. It became quite clear during the development process for the brochure that there wasn’t a marketing plan in place. Although we had extensive discussions before starting the project, it was clear that there wasn’t something in writing when the text/copy in the brochure kept changing.

The result was that the project took much longer than anticipated and cost more in the end. To avoid such frustrations, start by having a marketing plan in place before spending any money on marketing projects in 2010.

KICK OFF THE YEAR WITH A BANGIf you are looking for some ideas to kick off your marketing plan, here is a checklist of things to do as part of your 2010 plans:✒ consider reprinting your business card – is

there anything that you could refresh or change?

✒ update your website – are there pages that need new content or are out of date?

✒ review your email signature and change it✒ send out a ‘Welcome to 2010’ piece to your

clients/prospective clients✒ review what free Google tools you could or

should be using – such as Google analytics and local business centre

✒ call your top 10 clients and ask them how you can help grow their business in 2010

✒ introduce a new product or service or relaunch an existing one

✒ attend one new networking event for six weeks with the objective of growing your database, and

✒ kick start a regular communications program to your database, whether it be events, email newsletters or brochures etc.Wishing you much business success in

2010 and stay tuned for more ‘On a Shoe-string’ articles in the coming months. M

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