Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!
~via Wired City… New York City drug store giant Duane Reade is connecting with more customers via social media.
Its Twitter fan base surpassed 1 million followers, a major milestone for the Walgreen-operated drug store chain among the drug, food and mass-arena segment. Duane Reade has raised its presence on Twitter more than 6,000 percent in the past year.
All of your employees work in the marketing department, at least to some extent, and they need to understand the role they play. But to create a strong foundation for customer loyalty management, there are a few departments within your company that absolutely need to sync with marketing. Your customer service department is the most important.
Here are four ways you can leverage your customer service team to effectively manage customer loyalty, build relationships, and turn customers into fans. Think Return on Relationship… because there is no better time than when your customers reach out to you.
Building a business from scratch is hard work; and it’s even harder if you’re an On-Ramper—a person who took time off work to raise children, enjoy a sabbatical, or care for aging parents. At the age of 40 I started my business and one of the first, and smartest, things I did was assemble a personal board of advisors. To succeed in business, it’s important to be self-aware. That includes knowing that you don’t know, as my father always said.
I didn’t have 20 years to figure out the art of doing business, so I needed to surround myself with the most successful people that I could connect with and ask if they would kindly serve as my personal board of advisors. How did I do that? I reached out and asked. Fortunately for me, each one said Yes.
What did I ask of my board? If they would be willing to be accessible, to listen, and to guide me in the best direction for success. They helped me answer the following types of questions:
As an entrepreneur, I had to make good decisions the first time, and my board was critical in helping me grow.
I felt it was important to have diverse industries and ages on my board. I wanted people who could help me think of unintended consequences and bring skills that I didn’t have. One advisor is a successful family practice physician who is leading the country in electronic medical records implementation; one is a business owner who founded an institutional bond firm; one is a mother who started her IT firm after leaving IBM and ramped up to crest $5 million in revenue; one is a 30-year veteran in land development and the automotive industry leading a company with $80 million in revenue; and one is a business owner of a commercial mortgage banking firm.
All have deep experiences with growing their companies, making decisions based on the bottom line, navigating workplace challenges, and rebounding from recessions. I soon realized the value of that level of guidance—priceless. In fact, it’s probably worth more than an MBA.
Dr. Robert K. Nielsen jokes that he’s still waiting for our annual board meeting to be at The Greenbrier. That’s an aspirational goal for me, but every day I look at the picture on my desk and am thankful for how much each one has played a role in my high gear journey.
Whether you’re just thinking about your business idea or ready to launch a new service, I strongly encourage you to assemble your own personal board of advisors to capture decades of business wisdom and the objectivity to send you to the next level.
I never thought I would be penning a piece using the word “lean” in the title. Being six-foot three and weighing 250 pounds the word “lean” and I are not always in the same neighborhood, or country for that matter. But when I heard about a different kind of lean, one that brands and marketers and business owner of all sizes can benefit greatly from – my naturally investigative mind took over and I knew I had to learn more.
What I found was Lean, with a capital L. Some refer to it as “Lean manufacturing”, “Lean enterprise”, or “Lean production” where others just refer to it as “Lean.” Whatever name you prefer it all essentially means the same thing: maximizing customer value while minimizing waste.
The evening of October 08, 2013 – October 10, 2013 – Los Angeles, CA
I have personally attended 7 Summits and have ALWAYS left wishing there was another I could attend the very next month. Looking forward to Keynoting and discussing Influencer Marketing with Tami Cannizzaro and Bryan Kramer
Stay Connected, networked and work with your peers, behind closed doors… No vendor selling permitted
120+ Heads of Marketing to Attend with 40 Leading Sessions
What Marketing Executives get from the Summit
1. Solve your biggest challenges as a marketing executive
2. Build you rnetwork and start lifelong relationships with CMO’s
3. Learn high impact ideas for leading your marketing team and buildling credibility with your CEO & Board
4. Recharge your battery and get inspired for success in 2013 and 2014!
“By far the most valuable CMO event I attended so far in 2013. The most engaged group of CMOs I know” – Paula Puelo, CMO, Michaels
“Every CMO Club Summit I attend I end up with 2-3 year impacting ideas for my company. Nothing is better than getting great ideas from your peers without vendor selling” – Evan Greene, CMO, The Recording Academy
“Engaged marketing heads, focused on helping each other, behind closed doors. Great inspiration as well” – Fred Neil, VP Marketing, The Home Depot
“I have never been in the same room with so many bright marketers and leaders, all focused on helping each other. Unlike anything else I have ever attended. The post summit engagement with other CMOs is amazing as well.” – Nancy Smith, CMO, iRobot
“Nothing challenges me more to improve as a leader to my team, then seeing what others are doing to motivate and lead their organizations – Thanks to The CMO Club for creating a real community of CMOs.” – Ashley Sheetz, CMO, Gamestop.
I’m keynoting the Brand Innovators Content Marketing Summit today and thinking about the connections between what we call content and how customers connect to it. I must admit that what I see confuses me somewhat. Every day brands and marketers spend millions trying to convince consumers to use, keep using, and share their content. But why aren’t they doing everything they can, and using some of those millions to make experiences with their brand remarkable. It would probably be way less that they are spending on those marketing campaigns. When this happens user-generated, story-telling content flows freely, and is naturally shared.
Social adoption rates are rocketing and the impact of social networking within society continues to grow. But surprisingly enough, there are many in the business to business marketing sphere who still don’t “get” it. With this in mind I recently put together a fast moving and to the point keynote presentation to open the eyes of B2B salesforces and socially energize them!
“Becoming a B2B Social Sales Machine” in simple, sales oriented terms explains what the B2B social networking sales opportunity means. Sharing how both individuals and ultimately the combined organization can leverage content, connections, context, collaboration and community to drive real results!
Don’t forget that although Twitter’s only used by small % of the population, it’s a seeding medium with content that very often finds its way to other mediums via every day users and influencers, a place for real-time news, sentiment analysis, and feedback… and an incredibly viable search engine. #RonR
As human beings, we know that aggressive communication doesn’t bring people closer. Instead, it repels most people away and undermines the chance for dialogue and relationship. Yet somehow when it comes to the communication and marketing of brands, this very basic human principle is perceived as a weak and ineffective approach to building business. In brand marketing the merits and impact of mass media align more with the concepts and success principles of manufacturing than that of human/social dynamics.
Before social networks, mass media was the only option businesses had to market and connect their brands to people. This “pay to play” business model defined successful brand connections as the result of more aggressive tactics, larger media budgets and ubiquitous market presence. This approach meant that not only could a brand be “top-of-mind.” But it can also buy its way into people’s lives– welcomed or not. From a mass media perspective, this dominating level of brand presence represented “success.” Contrast this with social networks wherein power is derived not from strength of force, but from the strength of emotional engagement and relationships. The growing influence of social media is proof that there is another, and even more powerful way, of connecting brands to people. Social networks are a reminder to all that quality – not quantity, of connections can make all the difference.
This past July Econsultancy issued a report which made reference to the fact that Big Data is causing big frustrations for those who make their living in the marketing world. The sub-headline that appeared on their site in announcing the report read: “Big data has become something of a buzzword over the past year or so, but is it actually useful?”
Well I happen to think Big Data is useful alright but only if it’s the right Big Data. I mean you can’t just have data just for the sake of having data, yes?
One company has found that leveraging a more accurate, scientific approach based on big data can help marketers socialize their data — giving them a way to understand and leverage their customers’ and prospects’ real-world relationships to substantially improve customer acquisition, cross-sell and retention.
In other words, identify the right Big Data.
