Nicholas Lord

From the Blog

Feb

Ok, People, This Has to Stop

Posted by Nicholas at 11:19 pm

Seriously. This must come to an end. And by “this” I mean boring, cliché, and/or stuffy buzzwords. You know – those words we all use on our résumés, conducting interviews, in our websites and branded materials to clearly and concisely convey our messages. This has been on my mind for a very long time, and yesterday I encountered the one more thing that finally pushed me over the edge.

I participated in a fun little question & response board on Linkedin where our group was asked to describe what we do personally and/or professionally in 7 words or less. I participated with “Change the way businesses interact with their customers.” I thought it would be an interesting exercise. I was wrong. It bored me. Then it upset me. Then I was right. I became interested – so interested I wrote this blog.

And I’m still upset; pissed, even. I looked through the 130+ responses to the question, and it reads like a sales script. No matter the industry, people’s words are sounding the same. The group contains painters, marketers, sales pros, business owners, consultants, and editors, to name a few. Their responses were full of words such as help, business, solve, problems, obtain, success, cost-effective, innovative, solutions.

Now, I want you to read those words again. How many companies, people, or consultants do you know that “Help businesses solve problems and obtain success through cost-effective, innovative, solutions”?

We’re living in a world where too many are sounding the same. Your dentist sounds the same as your IT company who sounds the same as your bank who sounds the same as your distributor, and so on. We’re in a world where everyone has innovative solutions that meet your needs in a cost-effective or budget-friendly manner.

Sound like you or your company? The bad news is, you’re not alone. There is help. It’s just unfortunate that in a world where social media and customer interaction is so vitally important, people and companies are communicating as though they all glean from the same template.

If you want to fix this problem, look inside first. Ask yourself or your company, “Is this who I really am?” Do you really speak like that in regular, casual conversation? If so, by all means keep doing what you’re doing. If not, talk to a branding consultant. I know a good one who is also a writer – a phenomenal one-two punch; he also wrote this piece. Get in touch with me here. Or go with someone else, I don’t care (actually I do. ALOT), just as long as your essence can be captured so you can start sounding more like yourself – which helps with being social.

Then, you need a good copywriter to convey that message. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s me, again, just so it sounds and looks like it’s coming from you. You want some attitude? Fuck you. You want it put more delicately? I would genuinely appreciate the opportunity to make your words smell like daisies on a cloud of perfumed cotton.

In any case, the use of those cliché buzzwords needs to stop. You deserve to look and sound better. If not better, at least like yourself.

Oct

Something to Make Milwaukee Greater

Posted by Nicholas at 9:36 pm

The past couple weeks, I had the pleasure of working with Hudson Business Lounge.

“What’s that?” I imagine you ask. Well, Hudson Business Lounge (HBL) is a new workspace that is currently under development in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward (on the corner of (Broadway and Buffalo), and it is a much needed project in this city, and any other city for that matter.

Scheduled to open in January 2012, HBL will host a public wine and espresso bar in one portion of the building, while the main portion of the building will feature an open loft style workspace with work stations, office machines, conference rooms, and private offices. HBL will be a place where entrepreneurs, small business owners, work-from-homers, and investors can meet, mingle, collaborate, and even share a common workspace. There is even ample opportunity for established businesses to use the space for meetings, seminars, finding new talent, or perhaps give their employees some private workspace away from annoying office interruptions. You can find more information on HBL’s website here.

I see the HBL as a place bustling with talent, productivity, and ideas. It’s something the entrepreneur and business communities in Milwaukee need, and it’s something that will help make Milwaukee greater.

Aug

Some Things Are More Important Than ROI

Posted by Nicholas at 6:26 pm

Most people preach ROI, but there are several factors why you shouldn’t put too much stock in your Return On Investment. I’m not saying disregard it entirely; I’m just saying don’t let it be your main focus when you measure your marketing efforts.

There is a much better acronym (method) for determining how your marketing mix is working, and it’s called ROO, or Return On Objective. ROO isn’t a term you hear very often, and even in my industry – where it’s of the utmost importance – hardly anyone talks about it.

I like a good ROI as much as the next guy, but it’s just not adequate for truly measuring marketing success, and that’s because not everything has an immediate dollar value attached to it. For example, a Facebook post, tweets, and product package design really don’t show you a return in actual dollars.

So, stop measuring your marketing only in terms of ROI. To see a truer value of your marketing efforts, start using ROO. First, start asking yourself what you really want to accomplish with your campaigns. Maybe your goal is a better or new image, larger customer base, fresh design, more social media followers, or a combination. Then collect several pieces of data to determine the effectiveness of your efforts. The measurement data is another acronym I like to call the SCAPES – Sales, Conversions, Awareness, Perception, Engagement, and Satisfaction/Retention.

Sales. Take a look at your sales numbers before, during, and after your campaign. An uptick suggests a positive response to your efforts.

Conversions. Measure how many people are inquiring, visiting, and buying as a direct result of your campaign. Gathering this information is of vital importance because it allows you to interact with (see Engagement) and receive input from clients and prospects directly. Getting it straight from the horse’s mouth is always best.

Awareness. Examine how many people are aware of your product or project before you began a marketing campaign, during your campaign, and after the campaign. An increase in consumer and/or market awareness for you and your business can and should be considered a success.

Perception. There are several factors to the way you and your business are perceived. They include customer experiences, design of your packages, website, materials, appearance of your location and employees, attitudes and moods of employees and patrons, This one can sometimes be a little tricky to measure, as people may not be up front with you to your face, unless you’re one of two things: extremely fantastic, or very terrible. Make sure your people, location, and marketing materials are looking good and that your customers always have a positive experience when they work with you, and chances are you’ll do well with perception.

Engagement. How much time to people spend visiting your location, website, social media sites? Are they retweeting or sharing your information with their social circles? Are they leaving comments or asking questions face-to-face or through your website? If the answers are, a lot, yes, and yes, then your marketing efforts are on the right track.

Satisfaction/Retention. Are those who bought from you happy with what they got? Are they happy with how they were treated? Would they buy from you again, or are you losing customers? Would they refer someone to you? The answers to these questions are very important to your marketing efforts.

The factors that relate to ROO also relate to your ROI. Think of the SCAPES as a series of funnels that feed into a cash reservoir. Consistent positive results will help raise the money level, while negative results will cause it to drain.

The SCAPES are factors that are almost 100% influenced by your marketing efforts. How much money you got back for making your investment won’t tell you what people think of you, how much your sales increased or decreased, what kind of experience your customers had, or how many of them got involved via your website or through social media. The SCAPES will affect your Return On Investment while providing results that truly show the big picture of your marketing efforts.

Start tallying your SCAPES to get an accurate picture of your Return On Objective. Your business and customers will be better off for it, and so will your bottom line.

Aug

Social Media Marketing: Failure Doesn’t Have to Be an Option

Posted by Nicholas at 8:40 pm

Recently I came across someone who had written a brief piece about the 90% failure rate in social media marketing programs, and 7 rules businesses should follow when undertaking such programs. I don’t know where the writer got his data (statistics were not documented), and I will not mention his name as I’m going to criticize the article a bit because I feel it misses the mark

First, at the end of the article, the writer called social media marketing the “meet and greet on steroids” which I believe is a naive statement. If you see marketing as a meet and greet, then you need to check your eyes. Sure, you need to meet and greet people, but it doesn’t stop there. Social media marketing is a symbiotic vehicle fueled by you and driven by your consumers. Many companies use social media, and not just to say, “Hi, I’m <insert business here>. Thank you for visiting.” Businesses use social media to boost awareness, drive sales, engage an audience, gain feedback directly from consumers, entertain, and more. Some interesting social media statistics and information can be found here and here.

The writer also gives 7 reasons why social media marketing efforts fail, and they are as follows:

Failure to understand the channel
Failure to develop a strategy that includes direct measures for brand/business drivers
Failure to use necessary resources [simply building a Facebook page and waiting for results.]
Using an intern as your brand’s social media voice
Your content is not magnetic
Posting too often or too little
Expecting immediate results

I do agree with points 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7, and mostly agree with 2. I completely disagree with point #4. I’m not going to talk about the points I do agree with, because I feel those are quite obvious. Feel free to ask me if you need clarification or elaboration. The second point, though, can get a little fuzzy. In many cases it can be difficult to directly measure business drivers (ROI, market penetration, brand awareness, sales) from a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Foursquare account, or Twitter feed, as they don’t offer most of the tools needed to adequately measure such drivers or allow you to directly convert a lead into a customer. I regularly speak with and have met many so-called “social media experts” or “gurus” and none of them have been able to show me a concrete way to measure ROI from social media.

And point 4 is completely out of line. If you can’t use an intern to be your social media voice, then you have the wrong intern. A marketing, social media, advertising, or PR intern worth his/her salt should have a grasp on what your brand is, what your company is about, and how to communicate that. If they don’t get at least that much, advise them to pursue a different career path. The reason interns don’t work out for this is not because they are incompetent, lack knowledge, or aren’t capable. The reason is related to the single biggest reason I believe most social media marketing programs fail – people fail to grasp the meaning of social media, namely the word SOCIAL.

Attempts are made in social media to market a company or brand, and there is a tremendous failure to realize that people are social, and most businesses and brands are not. People can’t or don’t want to interact with a logo or with “Business Corp Solutions, LLC.” People want to interact, and interact best, with other people. Social media marketing programs about keeping people engaged and participating. They are about communicating. Communicating not with a company or a logo, but with a representative of that company who is engaging, communicative, facilitating, and most of all, social. Use social people for social media. And if you happen to have an intern who is social, by all means take advantage of that to further your brand. Your intern will enjoy it and you’ll have an engaged, responsive, and active social media following. The results of your social media marketing programs will be more successful.