…you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Harry forced the criminal to pause and think – think about about the consequences.  Too often, I see email campaigns launched without thinking of the consequences – the consequences of not putting the proper time into planning and executing the campaign. This is partly due to the fact that email marketing is relatively inexpensive and easy to implement (to clarify, I mean that email service providers make the act of creating and launching an email campaign easy, not that it is easy to develop a compelling email campaign).  As such, the perceived risk is low.

Now, the risk to email marketers isn’t as serious as getting your head blown off by a .44 Magnum but there are risks nonetheless with a failed email marketing campaign.  You can alienate your customers or prospects, tarnish your brand, damage your email reputation, weaken customer loyalty, etc.

So, before you hit the send button on your next email marketing campaign, instead of asking yourself if you feel lucky, ask questions like the following:

1. Do I have a clear vision of my subscribers – what they need or want, what drives them, what challenges they face, etc. (as it relates to the product or service I provide)?
2. Am I offering something of value? Am I thinking of my subscribers and not just of my organization?
3. Have I reviewed past campaigns in order to see what the subscribers respond to and what doesn’t seem interesting?
4. Am I ‘blasting’ the same content to all of my subscribers? Can I be more targeted? Can I segment my list to provide a more personal message?
5. Am I confident that all of my subscribers have opted-in, and I don’t have email addresses that were obtained by questionable means?
6. Am I doing something special with those subscribers who haven’t engaged with my email in a long time (e.g. re-engagement/re-activation campaign)?

If you can ask yourself those types of questions and provide the right answers before your next email marketing campaign, you can avoid some serious mistakes. In fact, the results just might ‘make your day’ (sorry, I couldn’t resist – it was too easy!)

Empathy: Ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions (source: merriam-webster.com)

To be a great marketer, we don’t need to be our target audience (none of us really are).  However, it is essential that we truly know them – to be able to think like them.  We need to understand their motivations and desires, what frustrates them, how they communicate,  what makes them unique, etc.  In plain terms, we need to be able to walk in their shoes.

By doing so, we can view our brands through their eyes and that provides invaluable insights and perspectives.  By starting with them (vs. us) and then developing strategies, programs, and communication, we significantly increase the chances of creating something that will engage and resonate with them.  It informs everything:  the words we use, the images, the overall message, where we communicate, etc.

Companies like Nike show that they ‘get’ their consumers through their products and advertising.  They do it in a way that demonstrates they know what their consumers need, what struggles they face, and who they really are.  Doing those things builds tremendous brand loyalty.

Being empathetic isn’t always easy, and it can take a lot of work, but do it right and do it well, and we will be better marketers.

Image source: frameworksinstitute.org

Now, if you have the advertising and marketing budgets of GM, P&G, Nike or other companies in the Fortune 500, getting that reach may not be the most challenging part of your day.  However, for most smaller companies extending reach to a significant scale is a difficult task.

One thing you can do, and doesn’t cost a cent, is continually (and I mean continually) asking everyone in your organization to think about what they can do to help extend that reach.  Even if you don’t uncover any ‘home run’ ideas, hitting a lot singles can have a big impact.

For example, discuss promoting your website, Facebook page, etc. on your packaging and make sure every employee inserts links of your digital properties in the footer of their email.  Check that your PR department is promoting all of the ways that your customers can connect with you, and ask if there are opportunities to cross-promote with your corporate partners.  Does your customer service staff remind the folks they interact with that you have a Facebook page or Pinterest board?  Is your email marketer thinking about how she can cross-promote Instagram and is your social marketer thinking about how he can generate interest in your email newsletter?

You’d be surprised how a little evangelism can help you reach the promised land of expanding your marketing reach.

When I first met you, I was enthralled with the possibilities.  I was seduced by your voice and what you could do for me.  You were so polite and seemed so attentive.  Sadly, my infatuation only lasted for a couple of months.  The thrill is gone.  I’m just not that into you anymore.

Maybe it’s me.

Ok, I am trying to be nice – it’s really you.

The problem is that I’ve know you for eights months, and you’re exactly the same as you were when I first met you.  You  haven’t grown a bit.  To be brutally honest, you’ve gotten quite boring.  

At first, I was enchanted by what you could do – you’d tell me the weather forecast, send texts for me, set reminders, and make calls.  Then, I started to spend more time focusing on what you couldn’t do more than what you could.  You could be very temperamental - sometimes you refused to answer my questions or honor my requests.  Other times, you gave me wrong information.

However, I was patient.   I didn’t give up hope because since you were an app, I know you were capable of implementing quick improvements.  But, it never happened.

You know as well I do – eight months in an app relationship is a lifetime.  I admit that I ‘ve had a wondering eye.  Quite simply, there are more alluring options out there now.  Also, I can’t help but feel that you’ve taken me for granted.  What else can explain no real updates?  Other apps seem to add new functionality and fix bugs hourly.  But not you.   It’s as if you don’t think you need to.

I know – you’ve promised me some exciting things in a couple of months.  But quite honestly, it’s too little too late.  You have so many possibilities – so much promise.  You could be so much more than what you are and what you promise to be.   I hope one day you reach your true potential.  However, I don’t know that I can’t wait any longer.

Maybe we can still be friends?

Tim

p.s. I know you say “Why, Of Course” when I ask you if we can be friends, but it may be just better for me to move on.

Will Pinterest continue to grow at its current pace or will it be the latest social media flavor of the month?  Although I expect the former, who can really know?  What is clear to me, however, is given the overwhelmingly positive response from women, Pinterest is providing something of real value, something that women adore (in the U.S., the majority of Pinterest users are women; however, in some other countries, Pinterest is skewing more toward men).

The fact is that women love browsing Pinterest.  It’s inspiring, hopeful, positive, beautiful, helpful, encouraging, and pleasing.  It’s not simply a means to an end for finding something – it’s an enjoyable journey.  It’s the digital equivalent of a woman flipping through her favorite magazine while taking a relaxing, warm bath.  If you haven’t spent much time on Pinterest, try searching for ‘chocolate cupcake’ on Google and then do the same thing on Pinterest.  You’ll see what I’m talking about.

As marketers, we need to understand what it means for us.  How does this ‘Pintrification of America’ impact our ability to build awareness, engage, and interact with our target consumers.  How do we stay relevant and interesting in this pintrified world?

Yes, it’s easy to pin a photo of a product, but we need to be more intentional than that.  We have to think in terms of what’s going to be “pinteresting” to our audience?  What’s going to grab their attention?  What are they going to think is ‘pinworthy’?  What worked for your catalogs, publications, and website may not be “pinteresting” enough.  A straight-on product shot will seem boring and bland. How-to’s and helpful tips don’t just need to be educational, they need to be visually interesting.

So, how has the rise of Pinterest impacted your marketing efforts?  What are you doing to stay relevant and interesting (pinteresting) in this Pintrified world?

The following is a summary of some key take-aways for digital marketers:

• Battle of the Mobile Ecosystems.  Over one-half of all new mobile phones purchased are smartphones, and the competition among mobile operating systems will intensify as companies such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Verizon, and AT&T vie for the millions of consumers purchasing smartphones this year.  The mobile operating system is a key decision factor, just behind quality of the device, and as Apple and Google (and to a lesser degree Windows) continue to battle it out, marketers need to plan for multi-mobile ecosystems.
• Tablets are Going Mainstream.  As important as the iPad has been to launching the Tablet revolution, the introduction of the lower priced devices by Amazon and Barnes & Noble will likely be seen as the ‘tipping point’.  The Kindle Fire and NOOK Tablet offer relatively strong features at a lower price point and will attract hordes of consumers for which the iPad isn’t a consideration.  Given that tablets are supplementing and replacing other screens (e.g. computers and TVs), we need to ensure that our digital content and online shopping experiences are optimized for  tablets.
• This Isn’t Your Father’s Sales Funnel.  Smartphones are transforming how consumers shop by bringing the collective power and wisdom of the Internet into brick-and-mortar stores. Using their smartphones, shoppers have immediate access to ratings, reviews, and pricing information that wasn’t possible in the past.  As marketers, we can’t bury our heads in the sand.  Instead, we need to embrace change and provide the tools, functionality, and information our target audience needs when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it.
• Rise of the Digital Omnivore.  According to comScore, “The surging global adoption of smartphones and tablets is changing the how, when and where consumers connect to digital content, creating the most dramatic shift in digital media consumption since the advent of the personal computer”.   They refer to this multi-device consumer as the “Digital Omnivore”, and understanding the wants and needs of the Digital Omnivore will be extremely important for us to minimize the effects of disruption and maximize the opportunities, whether it be in an entirely digital or hybrid digital/bricks and mortar world.
• Mobile Video Takes Off.  Driven by faster connectivity (4G and more wireless hotspots), the never-ending supply of apps, and more powerful devices, mobile video will increasingly become an important activity for mobile users. Underscoring the impact of faster connectivity, comScore states that 4G subscribers in the U.S. are 33 percent more likely to watch mobile video on their smartphone than an average user.  As such, we need to understand how mobile video factors into our strategy.

We’ve already started to see the impact of mobile, and 2012 will only increase its significance.  What are you doing to integrate mobile into your digital marketing plans?

Pinterest is about viewing, sharing, and organizing images or videos of anything that’s of interest to you.  If you find something you like, whether it be a photograph of Abraham Lincoln or a dress from a Paris runway, you can ‘pin’ it.  Collections of pins are grouped into ‘boards’, which are usually built around a common theme (e.g. books you like, design ideas for your kitchen remodel, favorite quotes, etc.).  You can follow other boards and re-pin items (e.g. akin to the Facebook Like).

Pinterest usage has skyrocketed, in large part, because it’s incredibly easy to pin things and create boards.  Also, the visual nature of Pinterest makes the browsing experience very rich and fun.  The beauty of the website and related apps is how the technology gets out of the way of the star attraction – the photos themselves (videos too, but they aren’t nearly as popular).

So, how popular is Pinterest?  According to comScore, Inc., almost 8 million unique visitors flocked to Pinterest in December 2011 – that’s up from 418,000 in May 2011.   According to Shareaholic, Pinterest grew from 2.5% of referral traffic in December 2011 to 3.6% of the referrals in January 2012.  Especially impressive is that their share was only .17% in July 2011.  Hitwise reports that Pinterest is now the fifth most popular social networking site, ahead of Google+ and LinkedIn.

In my next blog post, I will discuss how marketers can leverage Pinterest but until then spend some time pinning.  You will find it, um, pinteresting!  Oh, and if you need a Pinterest invite (at the time of this post, you need an invite to join), just send me an email at tim at shaydigital.com with ‘pinterest’ in the subject line.

Christine called her mom and asked her the same question her daughter Ellie asked.  Christine was surprised that her mom gave her the same answer she gave Ellie:  “”That’s a great question.  I hadn’t really thought about it.  I’ve always done it that way because that is how my mom did it.  I assumed it was to make the ham bake better.”

So, to satisfy Ellie’s and her curiosity, Christine called her Grandmother and asked her about the ham.  She told her Grandma she assumed she cut off the ends because it’s the secret for a better baked ham.  Her grandma replied, “Oh honey, I wish I had some special secret.  The real reason is that the only pan I had was too small for a whole ham, so I cut off the ends to make the ham fit”.

The New Year is a great time to challenge assumptions and make sure you aren’t doing something just because it’s the way it has always been done.  Are there any situations where you are cutting off the ends of the ham and don’t know why?

…plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

While he was talking about war, the sentiment can be applied to pretty much any situation including digital marketing.

The point President Eisenhower was making is that the unexpected will happen – you can’t change that. In fact, as paradoxical as it sounds, the one thing you can can count on is the unexpected occurring.  However, the process of planning is invaluable because, if done properly, it will better prepare you to be able to react to surprises.

You need a plan for 2012 – it’s essential. Based on what you know now, the situation as it exists today, you need to understand what you are going to do to achieve your goals. However, you also have to expect that things won’t go according to plan. Even if your assumptions are spot on, it’s likely that issues outside of your direct control, whether internal or external, will force you to adjust your plans.

Therefore, don’t shortchange your 2012 planning process.  Make sure you understand the ‘why’ and not just the ‘what’ of your plans.  Spend time to discuss what could derail your strategy and how you would react.  Develop contingency plans when necessary. Know your biggest risks even if you can’t do anything to mitigate them right now.  Consider the impact of technologies or platforms emerging or fading more quickly than expected.

All of this can’t stop the unexpected; however, it will make you better prepared to deal with it.

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this (tablets) potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”

So, if you haven’t starting considering tablets in your plans, what does this mean for you?  First, don’t ignore tablets because only 10% of Americans currently own one (according to Pew Research and Forreter).  Forrester predicts that number to grow to 1/3 of all Adult Americans by 2015, and I believe that is a conservative estimate.   Given that tablets are being adopted at a rate greather than any technology ever and as prices decrease, features increase, and applications continue to amaze and entertain, more and more consumers will purchase one.

Second, you need to understand the role of tablets in the lives of consumers.  These devices are not simply a smaller laptop.  They provide a unique level of engagement, convienence and interactivity that traditional laptops or desktop machines done.  If you haven’t yet, spend a couple of weeks using an iPad or Android tablet and you’ll see.

Third, think specifically about the type of experience you need to provide for your consumers that use tablets.  Like with smartphones, it will likely be a combination of optimizing your website for tablet computers and developing apps that take unique advantage of the device.

Forrester believes most companies are slow to recognize the importance of tablets.  If you haven’t, it’s not too late.  Doing so now will enable you to get out in front and take advantage in a way that many of your competitors aren’t.