HFTB Marketing Blog

Image by AirMe

No such thing as a free lunch?

How about, no such thing as a free link.

Christopher Ross publishes a web design and marketing blog I read and comment on frequently. The blog has a lot of useful content, including tips, how to lists and recommendations for online marketing and site/blog design. In fact, I list it on my blog roll here.

One of the tactics Christopher has used to drive comments on posts is a free page rank 5 link from his site to the top 10 commenters – by number of posts. Interesting idea. Incent visitors to comment – those that comment drive traffic – both his site and his top commenter’s sites’ page ranks go up as a result.

Only one small problem. There was no subjective measure of a post’s worth. And as a result, many virtual spammers (my words, not his) climbed to the top of the top 10 commenter’s list. Comments soon became more about quantity than quality. Those looking to grab a spot in the top 10 barraged the blog with short comments that best case had little to do with the post, and worst case were completely devoid of any type of thought about the topic at hand.

So Christopher made the tough call of taking down the backlink incentive.

The reaction – entitlement.

For some reason, people had come to believe they were entitled to the links – regardless of the quality of their contribution.

As a frequent contributor, but someone who never scratched the top 10 list, it seemed a reasonable thing to do. After all, a comment that actually contributed to the topic of the post was less valuable under the old system than a quick and dirty comment posted to get into the top 10. The assumption being that more comments were better than quality comments.

So I wasn’t really that surprised when the practice was dropped.

The same cannot be said for many of the other visitors to the site. Christopher actually chose to address the issue in a post following a number of emails and posts from commenters who felt they had a right to their links. They had grown accustomed to getting the links, regardless of their contributions to the blog community.

In other words – they felt entitled.

To me, entitlement is lazy. It fosters a belief that no matter what happens, you deserve whatever benefit, right or privilege you currently have (or think you should have).

In business, entitlement is deadly. And from a marketers perspective, will almost certainly lead to the loss of sales, clients or your business.

So how do you fight the entitlement urge?

Constantly deliver value. Whether it be new and better products or services, impeccable customer service, or relevant and valuable web content, the idea that you have to earn your clients and their continued business every day is a hallmark of a successful and enduring company.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Links, Marketing, SEO content, customer relationships, linking strategy, links, Online marketing

taking a breather

I hear this from companies all the time. Usually goes something like this.

“Blogging just isn’t right for our company. We’d like to avoid some of the negativity out there. We like a little more control over our brand image.”

Control. Silly concept, really. Do companies think they have more control over their brand image if they don’t engage their customers on the negative aspects of their products or services? Seems a bit like ostrich syndrome to me… head planted firmly in the sand.

So let’s look at the alternative. Let’s assume the same company that initially rejected blogging (or social media in general for that matter) decided to put themselves out there. They start a blog, publicize it and make an effort to add relevant content over time.

What are the effects on their brand image?

Well, assuming the company has a recognizable brand and they spend the time and effort necessary to build a successful blog, they enter the discussion.

This is the key point. The discussion already exists. The difference is the company is now a participant. And as a participant, the negativity, which existed all along, can 1.) be addressed in the short term, and 2.) be acted upon and remedied in the long term.

Chris Brogan had a great post about his experience visiting Humana corporate headquarters. The post is about Humana’s unique efforts to combat the reactive vs. proactive health insurance model. And although the post is interesting for content alone, one of the comment strings is what really drew my attention – and ties into the above, by the way.

One commenter had less than positive things to say about Humana’s services. And she said it – in no uncertain terms. Now Brogan’s post was unequivocally positive, so the comment came in stark contrast to the rest of the commentary.

Here’s where we come back to the “losing control” topic.

This is a perfect example of a company putting itself out there (even though the post is from Brogan’s blog, the folks at Humana knew what they were doing by inviting Chris to their headquarters – his blog is after all in the top 100). And things were going great until the fourth comment on the piece.

Perfect definition of losing control. Humana can’t simply edit the comment out of the string, and I’d be surprised if Brogan would be receptive to a call from the VP of Marketing asking for its removal. So what to do?

Why not respond?

And that’s exactly what Humana did. Professionally. Quickly. And with a real answer. Wow, an insurance company with a face. Sounds like a differentiator to me.

And I will admit that in the future I am more likely to consider Humana as a result.

So what’s to gain from losing control?

Customers… profits… and enhanced brand image to start.

image by Pedronet

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

New Marketing, Social Media blogging, customer relationships, Marketing, New Marketing, new media strategy, Online marketing, Social Media, social media marketing

image by Joe Shlabotnik

Your price, whether you sell a product or service, is most likely based on the costs you pay to produce the product or deliver the service… plus your margin obviously. You have to make a margin, right?

But what goes into your margin? There may be more than you think. In fact, there is often a hidden component that instead of boosting your bottom line, may eventually cost you your entire sale.

Rohit Bhargava has an interesting post on his Influential Marketing blog about a related concept – making your price less expensive to your customers without reducing your monetary price. His point is that there are things we can do to make our services or products less expensive for customers (without reducing the actual monetary price they pay) through what I would term, business process improvements.

The idea makes a lot of sense. After all, we’ve all dealt with unresponsive sales people, poorly designed websites and less than helpful customer service departments. What do all these things have in common? They waste our time. They also make the product or service relatively more expensive.

It’s important to take a long look at the product or service you provide and ask yourself, “What can we do to make our customer interactions and relationships less expensive… for our customers?” I’m not talking about your price. Look more closely at the markup that isn’t seen in what you charge. The markup that includes waiting time, unanswered calls and delayed shipments, to name a few.

The worst part of this unseen markup is that no one gets the benefit. It simply evaporates without lending value to your customer or dollars to your bottom line.

But don’t be fooled. Customers will feel the markup. They may not think of it in terms of an added margin on your services. But they will notice unneeded conference calls, late deliverables and unfulfilled promises. The result, a wandering eye for other service providers that might not be quite as inefficient in managing their time as are you.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Marketing customer relationships, Marketing, marketing communications, optimize websites, traditional marketing

Attended a great webinar put on by Hubspot this week.  Brent Leary, co-founder of CRM Essentials, presented on How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers.

You can find the video and slides for download here. Check it out!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

New Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Web Design Add new tag, blogging, content, customer relationships, digital marketing, New Marketing, Online marketing, Social Media, social media marketing

A good opt-in email list is worth its weight in gold.  And most good lists are the result of long running campaigns and continued customer relationships.

But the work is not done once you get the sign-ups.  No, maintaining the list is just as important as building it in the first place. After all, the “U” word lurks in the back of the mind of any email marketer.  Unsubscribes can quickly kill an email list.

So why do people unsubscribe to content they were initially interested in?  Marketing Sherpa released an interesting chart this morning on just that subject.  The chart lists the top 6 reasons subscribers choose to become unsubscribers.

Check it out here.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Email Marketing customer relationships, Email Marketing, email newsletters, opt-in email, subscribers, unsubscribes