Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category
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.).
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.
Social Media – Part 5
Social media remains an important topic for leaders/managers of growth companies. That’s what you, our listeners are telling us. And, that’s exactly what the research says too. While we’ve covered social media from several angles in previous episodes, in BusinessCast #136, we sit down with the founders of Biz Launch — known country-wide as the trainers for new businesses — who have recently conducted “state-of-the-nation” research on social media.
Listen to BusinessCast #136 and you’ll get some practical tips that you can use tomorrow to begin or hone your social media strategy. At the same time, you’ll also get a sense of where most companies like yours are today — as far as their social media plans, initiatives and successes.
Also check out the following BusinessCast episodes that focus on social media:
#130 – Choosing the Right Social Media Tools – Robert and I speak with social media guru Michael Seaton. He shares with us the social media essentials for all entrepreneurs.
#104 – Leveraging LinkedIn - Robert and I chat with Doyle Slayton on how to cost-effectively leverage the Internet’s most popular online social networking tool. See this episode’s blogpost for useful LinkedIn-related links.
#101 – Leveraging the Groundswell - Robert and I talk with Charlene Li, co-author of the Groundswell – which has become the ‘Bible’ for many social media marketers — about how entrepreneurs can effectively leverage social media.
#64 – Blogging for Business - Robert and I get practical advice for new and experienced bloggers from Matthew Vernhout — a digital media veteran and an up-and-coming social media maven.
Business by Inspiration – Part One
Every successful entrepreneur eats, breathes and sleeps their business. But, what keeps entrepreneurs constantly growing and striving for greatness? It’s rarely as simple as a desire for money or notoriety. Rather, it’s usually some intangible and perpetual pool of inspiration. When that source of inspiration is coupled with the ability to harness core business disciplines the outcome is, well…inspirational!
When we sat down with Jennifer Beale, public relations and networking professional, for BusinessCast episode #116 we clearly saw the outcome of her inspiration. At the same, her success reveals some important business lessons that will truly inspire and direct every entrepreneur.