Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Six Pixels of Separation, Groundswell & eMetrics
Mitch Joel has accomplished something that few others have: he has made the fundamentals of digital marketing and social media easily accessible. In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch makes the intersection between digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship digestible for nearly everyone. In BusinessCast #146, Robert sat down with Mitch to talk about this book — which is one of the few sources that we recommend for entrepreneurs getting a bearing on social media.
Once you’ve been inspired by Mitch’s book, the next step is developing the right social media strategy for you, your business and your audience. Without a doubt, Charlene Li’s Groundswell remains the most well-researched and practical book that we’ve found. Listen to the conversation that we recently had with Charlene, in BusinessCast #101, Leveraging the Groundswell.
Of course, if you’re trying to get a handle on social media, you’ll need to measure its effectiveness. The eMetrics Summit is a world-class event to help you tackle this challenge. And, the event is coming to location near you. **Special for BusinessCast Listeners**: You can get 15% off the attendee cost if you use the following purchase code: BCAST15. See you there!
Fotobabble – A Social Media Innovation
We continue to talk with entrepreneurs and thought leaders about why, how and when to leverage social media. Now, we’ve got something special: In BusinessCast #145 — Fotobabble, we get the inside scoop from an entrepreneur who is actually launching what could be the next social media tool.
And, while there are several common themes whenever you’re developing/rolling-out a product or service, bringing a new social media tool to market has some unique business lessons and challenges. Listen to BusinessCast #145 and find out what you can take away from Fotobabble’s innovation in action.
Reminder: Next month, the world class event, eMetrics Summit, is coming to Toronto. If you’re a leader or manager looking to truly leverage your online presence, you ask yourself the following questions:
- What online metrics should we collect?
- When should we collect them?
- Where should we collect them?
- Who should collect/interpret them?
- How much time/effort/resource should we spend on online metrics?
- How should/can these metrics integrate with offline metrics?
- What do these online metrics truly mean?
- How can we apply the learnings from these online metrics?
The eMetrics Summit helps you get a handle on answering all of these critical issues.
Seth Godin and the Art of Marketing
Seth Godin is probably best known for being the father of “permission marketing”. But, he’s also the World’s most renown marketing “thinker”. His books are international best sellers and senior marketers from across every industry flock to listen to his provocative analysis, insights and predictions. In BusinessCast episode #144, we caught up with Seth at the Art of Marketing conference in Toronto.
As the chosen podcast media guest and sponsor, we also gathered key insights from the event’s other leading speakers/authors, Max Lenderman and Frances Cole Jones.
If you missed out on the Art of Marketing event, watch out for the eMetrics Summit — touring the World’s major centers. The conference remains the gold standard for helping entrepreneurs get a handle on measuring the business value of the Internet’s many platforms (e.g. websites, email, social media and podcasts) and popular tools (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, etc.).
A New Breed of Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are evolving — successfully adopting new business models, new technologies and finding new ways of penetrating markets. That’s why in BusinessCast #140, Robert and I sat down with Jessica Herrin, Founder and CEO of Stella & Dot. Jessica is a successful serial entrepreneur perhaps best known for building and growing The Wedding Channel.
Well, Jessica’s entrepreneurial acumen is back in full force with Stella & Dot — a wildly successful direct sales business that has grown quickly and profitably by anyone’s definition. In practical terms that means she’s seen her workforce grow to over 5000 engaged, committed and enthusiastic members (called “Stylists”) in under three years! Much of this success is because Stella & Dot has tapped into, and enabled, a new breed of entrepreneur.
Then we spoke to one Toronto-based “Stylist” to get the inside scoop into this new breed of entrepreneur. The findings are inspiring for any business leader and manager!
Listen to BusinessCast #140 and you’ll learn some of the keys to Stella & Dot’s rapid success. Then, visit Stella & Dot as well as the website of our guest stylist to see how Stella & Dot actively uses social media and web technologies to support their growing workforce.
Finally, using the latest Internet technologies and tools is a critical part of Stella & Dot. But, if you’re like most entrepreneurs, you need to get a handle on some key online metrics before truly optimizing your online/social media efforts. In just a few weeks, many of North America’s leaders in “e-metrics” will gather in Toronto to share their insights and stories for entrepreneurs at the Emetrics Summit. Robert and I will be there as accredited members of the media. Let us know if you plan to attend and we’ll meet up.
Ensuring Client Retention
Customer acquisition — it’s often considered a strong indicator of a company’s growth and success. After all, securing new customers/clients gets considerable glamor and fanfare. However, while it is essential to initiate, plan for and track efforts targeted at bringing on new customers, it can’t be done without understanding the critical (and dependent) relationship it has with your efforts to retain your existing customers.
That’s why for BusinessCast #138 — Ensuring Client Retention — Robert and I sat down with Benjamin McAlister, Vice President of Account Management at Thindata 1:1. Benjamin shares with us the “nuts ‘n’ bolts” of keeping customers — and keeping them wanting more of your products/services. That means we cover topics including short- and long-term steps as well as key metrics — beyond customer turnover rates — that can help you quickly identify/reduce the risk of customers abandoning you for your competitors.
Another useful resource: A previous BusinessCast guest and leading entrepreneur, Thindata 1:1’s President, Chris Carder has a powerfully focused list, that works in tandem with Benjamin’s approach, to help ensure your customer retention is optimized.
If you are in a competitive industry, listen to BusinessCast #138 — Ensuring Client Retention and you’ll get some practical steps that will see your top line grow — even without acquiring new customers.