Business Development Archives - Page 3 of 3

11 August 2015

Top 3 Tips to Find a Great Social Media Manager

When in need of a social media manager or community manager we often assume that if we hire a person born after 1990 that they should automatically be qualified for the job. I don’t mean this as a good or bad thing, but simply as an assumption that we make, myself included. Now that I am in charge of coaching and managing a junior team of community managers I realize that they need as much support as any other role within a company. To help you find the right fit for your team, here are a the top 3 tips to find a great social media manager, rookie or experienced.

When I started consulting in social media I realized that being familiar with the platforms and knowing how they work was not enough to truly help my clients build a strong online presence and maximize their business socially. I worked hard to improve my knowledge of each channel; the advantages and disadvantages of each, their main messaging, their focus and what kind of audience they target. I also improved my skills in content marketing and did a lot of tests to see what works. I looked at competitors in different industries to pull out best practices that could be applied in a variety of fields. Although I am not here to share my experience with you, here are a few pointers to take into account when looking at a resume.

Tip #1: Ask questions!

The best advice that I can give you is to ask questions. Although you might not know much about social media, ask your candidate about potential social media strategy for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Give them an initial case in which they need to explain to you how they will increase your engagement rate by 50%. Even if you may not know all the answers, you will be able to observe their reaction.

Are they confident in their answers?

Are they stumbling over their words?

Are they rambling?

Do they seem to know what they are talking about?

Also, listen to their words and see if they are mentioning any previous projects and examples of how they implemented the approach they are proposing. My colleague from PROSAR, Jenn Jefferys, wrote a great article on how to hire an inbound marketer and what to look for. You can apply many of these tricks to your search for your next social media manager.

Tip #2: Check them out online!

The advantage of today’s social networks is that you can look up anyone online. Simply Google your next candidate and see what comes up. As a social media or future community manager, they should have started to build their online reputation with a LinkedIn profile, a topic driven Twitter account and even a blog. If they have a blog take a look at the articles and their style of writing and the level of language.

Is their written form grammatically correct?

Does the article have a good flow?

Are you captivated by it? Or bored?

And do they have any guest posts? Are they writing for another website? Or publishing on LinkedIn?

Another way to check them out is to take a closer look at their LinkedIn profile. Many profiles today have top skills that are endorsed by others, recommendations that are added to a profile and even the option to see one’s portfolio. Another way to help your search is to directly post your job opportunity on a network like LinkedIn. You will probably get a candidate that has an active profile and that looked you up online as well. It has been proven that a post on career-oriented social media generates more than 60% of referrals towards the homepage of your company.

Tip #3: Follow your channels!

Here’s some advice if you believe you have found a great social media manager and that they are the right fit for your business. Although you trust their resume, their credentials, and what you have seen online, it might be to your advantage to become a little more active online and on your own channels. Get involved in your own social media strategy. If you have an existing network then start following your company Twitter account, LinkedIn company page or Facebook business page. Without being a micro-manager, your engagement will help you understand the advice your social media manager is giving you and maybe learn a thing or two about your company, your customers, and what is being said about you online.

You are making an investment in social media as an advertising, brand awareness and distribution channel. Follow the content that is being published, the customer feedback that you are receiving and the increase in the engagement that you observe. Finally, like any great strategy, it’s always great to have an overview from an expert.PROSAR has worked with many companies to help them setup their social media efforts and coached their internal specialists to implement tactics that work. Why not guarantee social media success with results from day 1?

11 June 2015

How to Find Your Ideal Client

Or, perhaps more to the point, how to make sure your ideal client finds you. All organizations face this issue, and it can be especially challenging for small businesses. But done right, online inbound marketing puts you in the driver’s seat – you just need a roadmap for success.

a smartphone with a maps app overlaid on top of a map with a compass and pen — Oleksiy Mark/iStock/Thinkstock

In the same way that not everyone who walks into your physical “bricks and mortar” store is actually going to be a client, not everyone who visits your website or your social media channels will be a client either. So, how do you drive the real clients to your website? And once you’ve achieved that, how do you find them amid all the other site visitors? Is there a way to not only identify them, but also to separate them out for closer attention? There is… and it involves two terms: Segmentation and Target Marketing.

Segmentation and Target Marketing Defined

The online Business Dictionary defines market “Segmentation” as: “The process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demand characteristics.” This dictionary goes on to say: “Its objective is to design a marketing mix that precisely matches the expectations of customers in the targeted segment.” Which brings us to our second term…

Target Marketing involves breaking a market into segments and then focusing your marketing efforts on one or a few key segments so you can concentrate on understanding the needs and wants of that particular market intimately. The bottom line is that Target Marketing is about attracting customers who will buy what you’re selling.

Who is your Ideal Customer? The Art of Buyer Personas

If you’re going to target your ideal customer, obviously you need to know who that is. Before you try to identify specific people, groups, or organizations, take some time to define your ideal. What characteristics does your target buyer have? Go beyond just demographics such as age, gender, location, marital status, education level, and income bracket. What are some key personality traits that might make them a good fit for your products and services? What might their interests be? What motivates them? What might they be trying to achieve that your offering could help with? The more information you can determine about your ideal customer, the better you will understand them and the more effectively you will be able to tailor and deliver your messaging to them.

Use this information to develop one or more buyer personas. According to SharpSpring, a buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Be as detailed as you can. Give each persona a name – Frank the Farmer, or Connie the Coffee Connoisseur – and have some fun with personality traits. Done well, buyer personas help to focus your marketing content and hone in on the right audience to reach out to with your message.

The Advantage of Online Marketing

Working online using inbound marketing tactics gives you more power over your marketing efforts and outcomes. With an ad in a newspaper or magazine, you have no way to determine who has seen it, nor do you have any way to follow up with those who have. By contrast, online marketing allows you to discern who has seen your banner ad or other digital marketing content. Not only are you able to collect information about people who visit your ad, site, blog, or social media page, but you are also able to track that information over time, use it, and act on it:

follow up with a thank you for downloading an article,
respond with an email message or an offer, or even,
have a complete automated campaign set up that guides your prospect through several steps, providing gradually more detailed and more targeted information about your products and services.

You might start with an ad on social media or in an online publication, then provide a useful checklist that your buyer would find helpful in reaching their goals, and follow that up with a more detailed white paper on a topic they’ve expressed interest in during your interactions. This progression gives you more information about what they are looking for at the same time that you are leading them through your sales process and propelling them towards a buying decision.

Multi-faceted Results

If you do the following:

develop strong buyer personas
use these to define a relevant target audience
streamline your online marketing message for this audience
provide progressively more detailed or tailored content to meet the audience’s needs

You will see positive results on a number of different fronts:

Efficient use of time and resources
Cost effective marketing activities
More sales, increased revenues, and improved profit margins
Improved customer relationships and happier customers
Measurable progress and results throughout the entire customer engagement cycle

An important part of the mix is including smart SEO to help attract the right audience. Your content should follow and support your customer’s journey (for all target audiences). As a small business, it can be difficult to set aside the time needed upfront to establish solid buyer personas, to clearly define your target audience, and to create content that will resonate with them. However, experience tells us that these efforts will pay off in spades.

13 May 2015

S.M.A.R.T Marketing Goals

It should come as no surprise that goals are important for your business and marketing strategy. They drive you forward and act as the X on the proverbial map to the buried treasure of success. However, it’s never quite so easy to stick to that advice. Day to day operations shorten your vision, making it hard to keep goals in mind. If you’re not constantly engaging with your goals, then the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” applies — and your business suffers.

That’s why S.M.A.R.T. goals are so important. By breaking them down into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely steps, you’re more likely to keep them in mind and put them on place when looking at your business processes. As a result, you make strides towards them and reap the rewards.

Specific

Relate it to directly something in particular that you want to achieve. A website goal could be specific in terms of visits or conversions. Try to be as small as possible for each goal, so they don’t get overwhelming. If you want to focus on both visits and conversions, write a separate goal for each.

Measurable

Make sure it has a number. You can’t tell how well you’re reaching your goal if you don’t have a yardstick for what “reaching the goal” looks like. It also should tie into metrics you can gather on your site; if you’re not gathering metrics on your online properties, you have no way of knowing if you’re succeeding or not.

Attainable

If your goal is more ambitious than the top 25% of companies can attain, or even more than your direct competition is doing, then you may never reach it. While there are some people who change the game and break all barriers, those are the anomalies. You’re better off starting realistic and working your way up to game breaking strategy.

Relevant

It should relate to what you do. If your business goals are about sales, you want goals that measure how many sales you make. Social engagement is nice to know about, but unless social engagement ties directly into your sales funnel, a goal focusing on it is irrelevant. That being said, don’t ignore something that is genuinely relevant.

Timely

As the old saying goes, “a goal without a deadline is just a wish.” If you don’t set a time limit for when the goal should be reached, and don’t hold yourself to that deadline, then your goals will continue slipping out of reach.

Takeaway

Breaking down a goal along the S.M.A.R.T. checklist creates more manageable steps that you can actually achieve. If success is the buried treasure, S.M.A.R.T. goals are the instructions on how to get there.

25 February 2015

Communicating with and Marketing to Millennials and Gen Z in 2015

It is important to be aware that every generation thinks differently. They have different shared experiences that often lead to different beliefs and different values. Accordingly, different generations communicate and want to be communicated to differently. Gen Y and Gen Z are no exception to this rule. Though, they are both different in many ways, they share many important similarities that should not be ignored by companies who want their attention.

So, if you’re marketing to one of these younger audiences you should keep a few things in mind.

First, You Must Understand What They Mean.

Communicating clearly, succinctly, and in the style that best works with your audience has never been more important than it is now. Whether communicating in blog form, on social media, or through writing on your website – the wording you use matters. Younger audiences interpret words and phrases online quite differently than you might.

Certain words have evolved or mean something completely opposite of what they used to mean! “That’s sick!” can mean that’s disgusting and terrible in one context, but it can also mean, “that’s amazing!” in another, to a younger audience.

Additionally, the word “literally” means something completely opposite to its original meaning. Gen Z will say they, “literally can’t stand spinach.” The word means that you are not exaggerating at all, but the younger generation commonly uses it to mean extreme exaggeration.

This phenomenon has been taking place for a long time. To illustrate, generations preceding the baby boomers took the word “awful” to mean “generally good, impressive things”. “Awful things” were in fact, “worthy of awe”. This is where expressions such as, “the awful majesty of God” come from. The difference is that today, with the speed of the internet, words, phrases and cultural memes are morphing new meaning at a far accelerated pace, and it requires a lot more work to keep up.

They Will Only be Interested in Your Content if it is Great.

You’re in a competition with the rest of the content online. Because of the endless options of content to consume, your advertising content has to be as good as or better than the content (paid and unpaid) they find and are exposed to around the rest of the internet. Otherwise, they’ll easily and instantly tune out, clicking the “X” button.

They Want Information Quickly.

They have no patience for longer, time-consuming content. To be clear, when I say “time-consuming content”, I’m not talking about an hour or two, I’m talking about often a video that lasts more than 20 seconds, or a couple of paragraphs of text. They prefer to socialize, inform themselves, and entertain themselves in short bursts, in part because they have so many other great pieces of content competing for their attention.

They Like Images and Short Videos.

Consuming, sharing, and even creating content is easier than ever before and the younger generations are doing it more than ever before. Vine, Snapchat, and now Instagram are places where short video and/or images can be shared.

Instagram has recently launched the ability to advertise short 15-second videos to respond to this audience’s need for short video content. Many of the brands who have tried it have experienced great success on Instagram.

In Summary

Even if these younger generations aren’t your target audiences, understanding them can lead to major insights about the future of all older target markets.

The actions of younger generation cause a spill-over effect to older generations. Inevitably, the younger generations begin to shape everyone else’s consumption of media by affecting technologies and trends that are (and will be) formed. Older generations will play catch-up much like as was the case with Facebook: popular with college student by 2007-2008 but only widely adopted by older generations in 2010 and later. (Most recently, my 87 year old grandmother created a Facebook account and is on it everyday: responding to comments and sharing posts, pictures, articles, and even memes!)

19 November 2014

National Associations: 3 Ways to Engage Your Members

As the staff of any national association knows, it is important to keep members informed, motivated and remind them of the importance/relevance of the association they belong to. Engaged members are members who care. Importantly, this engagement can also support your organization’s continued relevance and value to its members.

Though many members of associations automatically become members by default, meaning they don’t need to be persuaded to join or to remain members, associations should nevertheless strive to continuously prove their value to members. All members should feel like the association they are a part of is invested in them and that they matter. Further, it is important to provide members, new and old, with easy ways to relate to your association and find their place within it. Read on for three ways to engage members with their association.

1) Use Social Media to Create an Engaged Community

The power of simple, instant communication afforded by social media to bring people together is incredibly impressive. A key strength of social media is that it enables the creation of communities united by a commonality, in this case, a shared membership to an association. Your national association should see social media as an opportunity to create a community of engaged members.

Maintaining your social media accounts, with the help of a sound strategy, of course, will also aid your federation in appearing (and being) more relevant and approachable.

Once you’ve (a) made your social media accounts easy to find and (b) maintained activity on these accounts, you open the door for members to engage with you directly in an easy and convenient manner. Make sure to respond in a timely manner to show members that their national association values their input and cares about their needs.

2) Produce Visual Content to Engage

Large associations can seem complex to outsiders — even to their own members!

Infographics are able to both clarify and disseminate sometimes complex information while engaging the reader. They do this by delivering valuable information such as statistics and facts in an organized, efficient, and visually engaging way. Breaking down the association’s key functions or highlighting achievements (for example), into simple, well-branded visuals can effectively present how the organization works and benefits its membership. Done properly, infographics have the remarkable ability to make potentially confusing or bland information nearly painless and even enjoyable to consume!

The advantages of infographics for national associations are clear: from highlighting membership benefits to sharing important news or history.

Unlike a blog article (which has its own list of virtues), infographics are more immediately immersive. A well-designed visual arrangement of information will immediately create an appealing environment for the reader and requires less of a mental investment than multiple paragraphs of words on a page.

There is a reason infographics have been trending for a long time: they are easy to share on social media. People like them because they are seen as low-effort/high-pay-off pieces to both consume and share. For that reason they are also a great way to extend your message to places it hasn’t been before. Strong brand awareness for any national association is an on-going concern.

3) De-clutter Your Website for More Engagement

Try visiting (nearly) any national association’s homepage — choose one you have never visited before. How do you feel? A little overwhelmed?

If you don’t know exactly where to look and what you want, you’ll find that navigating many association websites can be overwhelming. There is often so much depth and breadth of information in such a compact space, that it can be difficult to figure out where to begin. Imagine how someone must feel who knows little about your organization. Pairing things down and organizing information in a clean and logical fashion makes good sense.(Not everything needs to be immediately accessible from your homepage.).

Conclusion

By using social media to nurture a stronger sense of community, infographics to communicate important information clearly and appealingly, and an easy to use and informative website, you will be more successful at engaging your members than ever before.

25 June 2014

7 Common Dangers of Social Media Illiteracy to Your Business

Most people can agree that social media is a large part of modern culture. So much so, that it can be easy to make the mistake of thinking that (aside from the very young, old, or the counterculture) most people know everything they need to about social media.

While most people use social media on a regular basis, you may be surprised to find out how many people are, in fact social media illiterate.

Social Media Illiterate (def.): Individuals who may or may not use social media often, but do not understand all of the important nuances and subtleties that can make the difference between appearing either intelligent and clever or, thoughtless and idiotic.

Here’s the terrifying reality: These people WORK IN YOUR COMPANY.

So, here are seven common dangers of social media illiteracy to look out for in your business.

1) Most 20 year-olds aren’t the social media experts you think they are.

Be wary that most 20-somethings aren’t sufficiently well-equipped to build and safeguard brands. Conduct online research on your potential new employee before giving him or her this important title.

Even so-called social media specialists, whom you may have hired to helm your social media campaign, have been known to screw up on a very public scale due to negligence.

The importance of hiring someone who is fully social media literate cannot be over-emphasized.

2) Failing to realize that employees represent themselves AND you and your company.

Never underestimate the power of an employee to unwittingly take down your brand. This might seem utterly ridiculous, but humour me for a moment:

You know that a brand is a carefully curated perception based on what your company represents. It can take a good deal of time and effort to build it and should be safeguarded at all costs.

Both you and your employees (from the top executives to the most junior interns) need to be educated on the ins and outs of social media. Much of this can be accomplished by relaying researched best practices to employees but the remaining gaps should be filled by experts in inbound marketing who can teach the necessary skills and knowledge to avoid costly mistakes.

3) Failing to reread your tweet/post/blog before you publish it.

Once you write a post tailored to each of your buyer personas or target audiences, be sure to put yourself in their shoes and re-read your post. Consider how they would interpret it and how it would appeal to them or possibly turn them off.

The truth is that a bad social media post can spread like wildfire. Even if you manage to delete a terrible post once you realize your mistake, it may already be too late. Think of what a parent tells their kids (‘Look both way before you cross the street!’ – this is almost the modern equivalent). Once it’s posted to the Internet, it’s there.

The power of screenshots is significant. They take less than a second and allow a mistake of yours to become immortalized on any computer or smartphone without your consent, knowledge, or control. And unfortunately, the screenshot is here to stay.

If your followers are very influential in their social media circles and a lot of people begin sharing or retweeting your post-gone-wrong – you or your employee can single-handedly, potentially irreparably, damage your brand.

4) This goes for spelling, too. STAHP MSPLLING THIINGS. DONT UZED POUR GRAMRR.

No matter who you are or what you represent, it simply does not reflect well. That is not to say you can’t use everyday, casual language (if it fits the context and the brand). Whether you like it or not, you WILL be judged, so be aware.

Of course, sometimes mistakes happen. Having someone on your side who is social media literate will minimize such accidents, and will ensure they are quickly and thoroughly cleaned up if they do arise.

5) Failing to apologize when you make a mistake (and to fully recognize and publicly acknowledge it when you have).

When making a post that you notice begins to garner negative feedback, here is exactly what not to do:

• Delete negative comments

• Ban loyal fans from your company’s social media pages, accounts, and online groups

• Tell those with negative feedback be quiet or leave

• Ignore desperate appeals from broken-hearted, loyal customers

Don’t be one of those companies who continues to dig themselves deeper and deeper. Be sure to admit your mistake as soon as you realize it. Ignore this warning at your peril.

This brings me to my next point.

6) Failing to listen to good advice and forgetting to stay humble.

Continue to research and listen: read blogs on the subject (clearly, you’re off to a good start), discuss grey-area topics with other industry professionals, subscribe to blogs, Twitter feeds, and LinkedIn groups with people who know more than you about social media.

Never forget to stay humble, we can all learn more and improve, and we never know when or where that education may come from. Pride too often creates crucial blind spots that can hurt your company’s edge, perceived intelligence and adaptability.

7) Failing to have an active presence on social media (A.K.A. giving your competition a leg up).

This is one of the biggest mistakes your company can make. Your competitors are getting an edge on you by *deep breath in* gathering intelligence on the industry and their customers; making important connections with other industry leaders, customers, and prospects; reading and analysing the market at large; establishing a presence to simply say “we’re here, we’re current, we matter”; giving customers that extra level of value-added service to make them feel that they matter; and generating leads and new business for their company – *PHEW*. There’s a lot you’d be missing out on without a good, consistent social media presence.

That’s the power of social media literacy.

7 May 2014

Hiring an Inbound Marketer? Here Are 3 Important Things to Consider

It can be tough to find the perfect person for a job. When it comes to inbound marketing, the process is even tougher. Our industry is so new, fluid, and fast-paced that many are scrambling to keep up – let alone establish concrete hiring practices. Consequently, it’s no surprise that few agencies have a go-to strategy when it comes to seeking out and nailing down a killer inbound marketing consultant.

Overhead view of businessman and businesswoman shaking hands — credit: getty images/ Tom Merton

I’ve talked to a few company managers who have completely stopped checking resumes or cover letters; possibly based on their limited time to do so, possibly because they’re basing their hiring practises on portfolio work. LinkedIn also provides some good insight when surveying candidates for some positions – but at times can be misleading, especially when we’re hiring for something like inbound marketing.

If you’re looking to hire any type of marketer, you have to face the reality: marketing has changed. Rather than staying specialized in one specific area, a successful inbound marketer today needs to wear multiple hats and acquire various skills. This isn’t due to any one change in particular, like technology. Yes, that has contributed, however the primary reason is the changing face of consumers.

HubSpot indicates that agencies must be holistic in their hiring approaches. Keep in mind, although you might not feel entirely confident seeking out the perfect employee, the employee getting interviewed is just as unsure as to what you might be looking for. The fresh, consumer-centric mentality is new both for seasoned marketers and young inbound strategists who might be new to the game.

There are an increasing number of things to take into consideration when hiring an inbound marketing consultant or strategist for your business, but here are three that you simply can’t afford to overlook as compiled by Matt Sullivan at HubSpot:

1. Define your business goals and let the candidate explain how his/her techniques will get you there. Be specific (e.g. 6X as many leads in 6 months, 10% increase of revenue from Internet leads, etc.). Without a good definition of success, it will be difficult for you to hold your consultants or employees to your standards. Because you have the destination picked, a good expert will be able to put together a roadmap for you.

2. Ask to see behind the curtain. If a candidate won’t allow you or your staff to participate in any of their inbound marketing efforts, you need to be suspicious. The worst thing that can happen to you is that your expert is using black-hat techniques to artificially accelerate the results. The long-term side-effect can be devastating to your efforts. Your expert should also be giving you an education. Moreover, you should set up a weekly or semi-weekly agenda of meetings with this candidate to survey their progress; keep the lines of communication open.

3. Get references and case studies. This is your opportunity to find out what they’ve done in the past. Even if the candidate is your cousin or neighbor’s son and has no previous experience, you need to make sure that your resource has legs to stand-on. Don’t simply rely on their pretty website or number of Twitter followers. That said, what you can do (if your schedule permits) is do a quick survey of their personality online. Are they quick to respond to issues with their following?

The hiring process isn’t easy for any job, particularly for inbound marketing where the field is so new and few marketers even fully grasp the methodology. That said, hiring an inbound marketing consultant is not a waste of money, it’s an investment. Considering the number of daily tasks and challenges, possible mistakes in every campaign, and the pace of this industry, you don’t have much of a choice. Just be sure to approach the process with attention to detail.

19 March 2014

How Will Canada’s Anti Spam Law Affect Your Business?

Canada’s Anti Spam Legislation (CASL) arrives on July 1, 2014. Described as Canada’s law on spam and other electronic threats, we Canucks finally get our version of the United States CAN-SPAM legislation. While CAN-SPAM covers e-mail only, Canada’s law steps further by covering a broader range of activities including e-mail, instant messages, text messages and some messages sent through social media. CASL defines this collective group as commercial electronic messages. CASL may be the most vigorous legislation of its kind anywhere in the world.

Business concept male finger pointing delete key on a metallic keyboard — credit: Creative RF/ daoleduc

Marketers are familiar with the US CAN-SPAM legislation with its “opt-out” regime where a business may send commercial e-mail until the recipient revokes consent by clicking an unsubscribe link at the footer of the email. Introduced in 2003, the US bill permits e-mail marketers to send unsolicited e-mail as long as it adheres to defined unsubscribe, content and sending practices. Full disclosure of the senders identity and contact info must be included in the email.

The teeth of the CASL lie in its focus on consent (“opt in”) to receive commercial electronic messages as opposed to the softer, more passive “opt out” of US regulations. In other words, the CASL requires that users explicitly indicate that they wish to receive any messages. As of July 1, 2014, marketers must receive the recipient’s consent, either express or implied, for all commercial electronic messages sent in and out of Canada.

What is consent in this context?

• Anyone who receives a commercial electronic message from you must have given you his or her permission (consent) to do so ahead of time

• There are two types of consent:

– Express, meaning someone actively gave you permission to send him or her a commercial electronic message

– Implied, meaning it would be reasonable to conclude you have someone’s permission to send them a message based on a prior business relationship

Express consent is straightforward in its requirement of the recipient specifically agreeing to receive commercial electronic messages indefinitely until revoked by the recipient. Express (opt-in) consent must be identified; the recipient should have a clear understanding of what they are opting in for. An example would be signing up for a newsletter or blog subscription on a website. Businesses collect email addresses through sign ups and express consent is established through this process. Canadian lawmakers will be happy; the recipient knows, understands and agrees to the communications they will receive from the sender.

Implied consent applies to most day-to-day B2B communications. In this scenario, if a business relationship already exists with the person to whom the email is sent, implied consent is established.

Implied consent, unlike express consent, is not indefinite. Implied consent only permits sending commercial electronic messages for two years following the last business situation that created an applicable relationship, such as a purchase. As such, it will be critical to develop a means to track the currency of all relationships upon which any implied consent is based.

Implied consent also applies if the recipient’s electronic address is “conspicuously published”. For example, placing an email address on a website would establish implied consent for any party to communicate with that address. Implied consent also applies if the recipient has disclosed their electronic address directly to the sender, and has not expressly stated that they do not wish to receive unsolicited messages.

CASL goes much deeper than this brief discussion, covering many areas from activities for harvesting email addresses to computer application installations. It is comprehensive in scope and depth. Most plain speak discussion of CASL is published online by law firms, which indicates the devil is in the details and is best interpreted by those that speak legalese.

For our purposes, we believe the takeaway is paying close attention to best email campaign practices to ensure you are compliant. If you are not involved in the practice of spamming your fellow Canadians with irritating business solicitation with no base of an existing relationship you should have nothing to worry about. If you are not buying email lists and maintaining good list management you should have no problem.

This law targets mass market email advertising, largely unsolicited and undesired by all Canadian businesses. These are the advertising bad guys, the dark side of online marketing. For those who still send unsolicited e-mail messages using questionable email lists, your days will be numbered. No doubt, they deserve their just deserts.

March 27 update: this law applies not only to any commercial messages sent in Canada but also any commercial messages RECEIVED in Canada. The fines are $10 million for corporate violators. Other G20 member countries are touted as participating in enforcement, so the impact will be international. This week the story was picked by the Globe & Mail and the Financial Post.

6 May 2013

Why are C-suites Afraid to Update their Marketing Strategy?

Most C-suite executives are familiar with the terms Online Presence/Brand, Search Engine Optimization/Marketing (SEO or SEM), and Content Marketing. They may not be intimate with the specific tactics employed under these headings, but they have no doubt read of their importance and want them included in the corporate marketing strategy. However, once the executives learn more about the lengthy process and gradual build on return, they sometimes shy away.

That’s because many company executives are like shareholders of public companies, they’re thirsty for quick gain. They expect ROI (totally understandable) and they want it now (not so much). I understand their concern. They are the ones who have to authorize the marketing budget, and they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the corporation’s financial health. What they fail to realize is that the business—consumer dynamic has changed and that sacrificing the long game for a short gain can be fatal.Short-term promotions with the goal of producing immediate sales remain an integral part of a comprehensive campaign, but consumers have greater expectations now. They want much more information: background about products, services and the people delivering them. Buyers expect a range of anecdotal information as well, so a Google search is a prerequisite to any significant purchase. What type of people work for your company, are there shared values or common interests? What are others saying about your company and what it offers? The buying/selling process has always been built on relationships; people tend to buy from people they like or have some affinity with. The difference now is that virtual relationship can form without your knowledge, so it is imperative that organizations have all the “touch points” and messaging necessary to quickly establish a friendly, open and positive relationship.

This represents a fundamental shift in marketing strategy. Relationships have always been a cornerstone, but it used to be the corporations determining how that relationship developed by spoon-feeding a specific formula to the market. The Internet has not only provided new tools and accessibility — it has truly emancipated the consumer. Today any consumer with an Internet connection can research, query, comment, opine, refer, start a dialogue… each consumer has a discernible voice as part of the buying collective. And corporations are expected to hear that voice and respond, they are expected to be involved in the digital conversation.

Corporate mission and vision statements alone no longer cut it. Your audience doesn’t want to listen to a monologue, nor are they interested in corporate-speak. They want the same thing you expect from your friends: honesty, reliability, accessibility, information — essentially you should be there when they need them and ready to say the fight thing at the right time. Using SEO with a comprehensive content marketing strategy will establish an online presence to offer that kind of virtual support. It is a very effective means of reaching out to potential clients, and being receptive to those who reach out to you; and has become a requirement for building sustainable growth. Rather than a quick fix, this is an ongoing strategy that takes several months to ramp up, but rewards you with long-term and ongoing results.

The whole point to investing in marketing is to attain growth: stronger brand, greater market share, higher sales, larger profit. Executives naturally favour limited risk with quick return and those who haven’t realized the marketing dynamic shift may not appreciate the need to satisfy the public’s demand for engagement. Sustainable growth requires a foundation. That foundation is built on relationships which should now include an active (and continuously evolving) network of communication points.