Curation Revolution

Social Media Today 2013 SMM Trends.

You know, the place where you typically see no-reply@some-domain.com, or null@some-domain.com? Well, I hate that. If I'm getting an email, I want it to come from a human. Is that too much too ask?

Marty Note
This article is a fascinating and TRUE to my experience read. The section that talks about having a heart attack before pushing the send button is something I can relate to; nothing like emailing a mistake to a few thousand people to make you feel BAD and possibly be looking for a job (lol). I wrote a piece about this stress about a year ago:

http://www.atlanticbt.com/blog/email-marketing-is-live-amunition/

The other intelligent question is does email, as practiced, make sense? Email marketing was always our highest margin channel when I was a Director of Ecommerce, but open rates were terrible as noted in this piece.

Bulk Email Is Dead
If you are still blasting the same offer to your list I suggest stopping that now. Nothing will fatigue your list faster than sending middle of the offers to everyone. At the very least you should have new, returning, returning and have purchased, returning and have purchased a lot segments in your list.

Creating personas to define the characteristic archetypes in each segment is a great idea too. Read Managing Content Marketing by Roze and Pulizzi for more on how to create personas.

Mobile?
We are seeing curation of communication as one of mobile's most universal uses. Deleting emails on smart phones and tablets is often much easier and faster than on desktops and laptops. A large group of power users curate emails with their mobile devices. Email marketing just received a new hurdle - emails must look engaging on a small screen or tablet to move to a place customers are likely to actually buy (laptops and desktops). If your email looks bad on a mobile device your unsubscribe rate will double as open rates decline. Check your emails on mobile platforms. If they look horrible hire someone to fix your emails on mobile immediately.

Social?
I agree with the author "noreply@...." seem nasty in our one-to-one marketing present, but I also agree with the horror story he shares from trying to be personal with a large list. Perhaps one resolution is to pitch social as the place to share reactions, comments and ideas. As a Director of Ecommerce we learned the live address lesson the hard way. Live addresses, even generic mailboxes, will receive a lot of "unsubscribe" requests, so it can be dangerous to do use a live address. Miss those unsubscribe emails and before you know it you are in court.

Best idea is to build a "feedback" loop into Twitter. See how Zappos uses Twitter for the best practice.

As far as BFF or enemy? Neither since social seem antagonistic to some aspects of email marketing and complimentary to others. Jury is still out.

Read the attached article to shake up your email marketing process.

Via Mario Lanza

***** funny and welcomed on a Friday Marty

This is a usefull post written by Vlad Barshai (@vbarshai) that gives you tips on how and why you should treat your customers or users like your girlfriend. This is an example I always use during the training sessions I take about social media marketing for small businesses. 

Whether you're a start-up or a small business facing some problems with your customers on social media, you'll find it usefull!

 

"You always have to remember that until you have users, you're just another cool lemonade stand (website) in the middle of the dessert (web). One of the most important questions to ask yourself is: how do I get her (people) to love me? How do I get her (them) to care about my (its) existence?

Let's take a step back and look at our "users" as our girlfriend. Here are some scenarios:

#1 Don't assume she (they) will say 'yes': Of course she (they) won't! Especially if you move too quickly (ask for too much information). They want to get to know you without giving away too many details. The best thing to do is assume that they will most likely say "no" and do everything you can like work-out, smell nice, dress good (layout, pitch, call-to-action) to higher your chances and make you impossible to resist. At the end of the day, they can always turn away (press the back button or x) to eventually find themselves a boyfriend (competitor) who can make their life better.

 

#2 She (they) won't know what to do unless it's right in front of her (them): It's true, every girl (user) likes to have everything taken care of. They want you to take the initiative and iron out a path... ask them on that first date (an initial e-mail submit) and clearly show them why you're worth their time (pitching the value proposition). Then they want You to have everything planned out beautifully (your layout) and ready so that they won't have to think of much (single path and call-to-action). They want to enjoy a great end-to-end experience (every move is simple, clear, precise) from the moment they leave the house (come to your site) to the moment they return home (press the back button or x). The girlfriends (users) really don't care how hard it was for you to do it, they just want it done so that they can brag to their friends (other influencers) about how good you are.

 

#3 Be nice! Overly nice if you have to: Everyone loves to feel loved. Everyone loves to feel that they matter. She (users) is no different. They want to know that if there are issues, you're a quick reach away from and can solve them immediately. They hate waiting! The way to make her (them) know you're great is to make sure that you're always there when there is a problem. Remember, the bad will stick with her (users) for years ... and the good will only be reminisced when there is nothing better ... but there will usually be something better.

#4 Stop worrying that someone (a competitor) will come in (to your market) and take her (your user) away: Instead, focus on why she (your users) stays with you and continue improving on your secret sauce. This is usually your thing (MVP - minimum value proposition) that she (users) won't find anywhere else. I know that anyone can take her out (feature #1), dine her (feature #2), and buy her material possessions (feature #3). But do they care for her (users) like I do? The first question I think about when I talk to her (users), is "what can I do that will make me stand out amongst everyone else? How can I help in a way that will shine past what everyone else is willing to do?" Finding my focus, which in my case is compliments (emotion exchange) to her (them) helps me when another guy (competitor) gets a better car (cooler feature) or just has more to offer (larger feature set).

#5 Once you stop contacting (e-mail) her (them), she'll (they'll) forget you: You're basically letting her (them) know one thing - I don't care about you enough and I know I can't offer you anything good enough for us to stay in touch... we should probably part ways. The name of the game is to constantly offer some value. So if you loose touch, then you are hoping for the best (that your users will one day remember you and come themselves). This is the reason you need to call (e-mail) her (your users) at least once every 2 days if not once every day. If this seems excessive then maybe you're just not close enough to her (your users). You might even want to say that you miss her (them) when you don't hear from her (them).

Treating her (each user) like the love of your life, might just get you to understand exactly what she (they) wants. In which case, you get married (premium sign up) .... and that's when you really have to be there ... through thick and thin ... because if she (they) leaves at this point, then she (they) is gone forever ..."

 

Read the entire article here: http://not99.posterous.com/treat-your-users-like-your-girlfriend

 

Via Flavian Mihai