marketing

Houston Wire & Cable Company President and Chief Executive Officer Charles A. Sorrentino to Step Down at End of 2011, James L. Pokluda III, Promoted to President

May 5, 2011

HOUSTON, TX–(Marketwire – May 5, 2011) – Houston Wire & Cable Company ( NASDAQ : HWCC ) today announced that its President & Chief Executive Officer, Charles A. Sorrentino, will step down as the Company’s President effective immediately and as CEO at the end of 2011. The Company’s Board of Directors has elected James L. Pokluda III, age 46, the Company’s long time Vice President of Sales & Marketing, as the Company’s new President. Mr. Pokluda will assume the duties of President effective immediately, and will assume the additional responsibility of CEO at the end of the year. In addition, the Board of Directors has promoted Christopher R. McLeod, age 49, to Senior Vice President of Operations.

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Document Capture Appoints Ms. Rene Varro as Marketing Manager

May 4, 2011

Extensive Marketing Experience to Drive New Product and Industry Awareness

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Andrew Ruben: The Socially Conscious Business: How to Balance Profit and Mission?

May 2, 2011

Blue State Coffee has just reached a milestone: we’ve now given away over $250,000 to local non-profit organizations selected by our customers. When we started the business five years ago, we never imagined that we would come this far. We’ve learned a number of lessons along the way, and I provide them here to help aspiring entrepreneurs learn from our experience. Starting a business is hard; starting a socially conscious business is harder. Because a socially conscious company incorporates its values into its business practices, it is never just about profit. But profit necessarily comes first: if a socially conscious business isn’t viable, it can’t do any good for anyone. How, then, does the business balance its dual obligations to profit and to mission? First, don’t neglect the nuts and bolts. Although it can be tempting for socially conscious entrepreneurs to devote all of their time to the marketing element, it is equally important to devote time to the numbers — projecting revenues, anticipating costs, and writing a rock-solid business plan. Make sure to consider the most important question: how will this business make money? The answer cannot be passing on the cost of the social commitment to consumers: as Green Works has learned, many customers will not pay a premium for environmental sustainable cleaning products. Socially conscious businesses, therefore, must be more efficient than most. Second, define whom and how the business will help. No business can solve all problems for all people: the charitable component must be targeted. Existing businesses can provide a model for yours: Working Assets and Blue State Coffee donate a percentage of sales to non-profits voted on by customers; Tom’s Shoes and Two Degrees donate one pair of shoes or one nutritional pack, respectively, for each customer purchase; Give Something Back and Stonyfield Farm donate a fixed percentage of after-tax profits. Limiting the business’ social mission will allow you to anticipate the cost of your commitments throughout the year. To that end, I recommend that new businesses donate a percentage of sales, not profits, since start-ups often don’t have profits in their first few years. Third, profit and mission can be aligned. Cause-based marketing — communicating your mission to a base of customers who care — can differentiate your business from its competitors and drive sales above what they otherwise would be. Certain certifications — the Certified B Corporation and 1% for the Planet , for example — can lend legitimacy to your business as socially conscious. Even if you forgo formal certifications, make sure your customers know about your charitable commitments. This isn’t bragging; it’s demonstrating that business can be a force for good. Along with helping other people, you’ll discover that running a socially conscious business can be enormously rewarding, personally. The most gratifying moments over the last few years were not meeting sales projections, but handing donations to thankful leaders of non-profit organizations. Those moments alone have made all of the work, and all of the mistakes, meaningful.

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Digagogo Ventures Appoints New VP of Marketing and Operations

April 21, 2011

CHARLOTTE, NC–(Marketwire – Apr 21, 2011) – Digagogo Ventures Corp. ( OTCQB : DOGO ), a Delaware Corporation, a provider and builder of the technical foundation to digitally connect households, is pleased to announce the appointment of Riley Wight as Vice-President of Marketing and Operations to strengthen and expand Digagogo’s executive management team as it begins the execution and implementation of its business model. Digagogo CEO, Fernando Londe, had this to say about the appointment:

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kgbdeals Names Daniel Smith Chief Marketing Officer

April 20, 2011

Smith Moves Into Lead Marketing Role as kgbdeals Continues on Global Growth Path

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Ernan Roman: Which Social Media Channels Matter Most?

April 20, 2011

THE PROBLEM: “Competition is eating away at our market share… and using social media to do it.” THE SOLUTION: Recalibrate your social media plan. Interview your customers and prospects to learn which social media channels are most important to them and why. Conduct in-depth interviews to learn exactly what kind of value and information they expect from you…a cross multiple channels. Use the voice of customer insights to craft a new, multichannel customer engagement strategy. It’s true: Ignoring or minimizing the importance of social media now carries major competitive risks. Today’s consumers not only demand that the companies they buy from offer them easy access through multiple channels… but they also expect companies to keep track of all their interactions across multiple channels! That expectation definitely includes social media exchanges. In addition, an organization’s highest-value customers interact with the enterprise through more than one channel. That applies to social media channels like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as well. Today, offering customers multichannel access using these and other social media tools is not merely a trendy add-on to a single campaign, but a long-term strategic imperative for the whole enterprise. A recent study conducted by BtoB magazine found that 93% of all business to business marketers are now “engaged to some extent” in social media marketing campaigns. Major takeaways from this and related recent research include: LinkedIn is a major lead generator in the B to B segment. At this stage, it should be considered an important part of any B to B channel mix. Facebook is the next most popular business-to-business social media channel, despite its emphasis on connections with friends and family. This is largely because of its potential strength in the area of branding. Despite wide use, Twitter has serious limitations, including a perception by many of “spamminess.” Customer communities and targeted message boards can yield major competitive insights — as well as invaluable first-hand feedback about your target audience’s messaging, value, and channel preferences. TRY THIS: Use feedback from in-depth (60-minute or longer) VOC interviews to identify which of the “big three” social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) your customers prefer for communication with your company… and why. Learn exactly what kind of access, updates, and value customers expect to receive through these channels. Build the best suggestions into a brand new social media plan. Be sure, while you are conducting VOC interviews, to also learn how customers want to engage with you across the broader multichannel mix, of which social media are one important element. Get fresh VOC feedback on a quarterly basis (at least) on how your execution of this plan is being received by customers. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His fourth and latest book on marketing best practices is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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eDiets.com(R) Appoints Direct Response Marketing Industry Leader, Thomas Connerty, to Board of Directors

April 18, 2011

Mr. Connerty Previously Led Nutrisystem’s Direct Response Marketing Efforts

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Todd Porter Brings Mobile Expertise to Qumu Executive Team

April 12, 2011

Todd Porter Joins Qumu Inc. as Vice President of Product Innovation and Marketing and Leads the Company in Taking to Market the Company’s New Mobile Solutions

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Brett King: #Winning at Social Media

April 8, 2011

It’s interesting that whenever a major disruptor like social media, the Internet, etc. comes along, inevitably there are many traditional managers and practitioners who don’t understand it and label it as a ‘fad’. Just because you don’t understand something personally, doesn’t mean it is a fad. That’s the realization that industry is going through right now, that is — social media isn’t a fad, it isn’t going away, we need to deal with it. Just because we don’t understand what the fuss is about doesn’t mean our customers won’t use it, and if they’re talking about us we better be listening. No Facebook allowed here, unless you’re a marketer So the first trick with social media and how it’s going to effect the business is learning about how it works. The knee jerk reaction for most banks when social media came along was two fold; The first was to try to figure out how to dump traditional advertising and PR campaigns down the pipe. The second was to shut down any access internally within the organization because it was risky for employees to talk directly to the public, and also because it was feared there would be wholesale time wastage from staff playing Farmville and other sorts of unproductive, non-work related tasks. The problem with this mindset is that is was fundamentally wrong. Primarily, the organization was prevented from learning about the real capability of social media, and this hampered the brand from creating advocacy and engaging customers. Additionally, the reality was that employees were simply pushed away from the desktop internally to their mobile device and the risks that employers were hoping to prevent by shutting off access weren’t prevented they were simply pushed outside of a controlled environment. Social Media ROI is not a marketing metric The marketing-led thinking about attempts to control or spin the brand message out through social media characterized as just another broadcast channel, are also fundamentally flawed. Social media is more akin to a dialog with your broader customer audience, not a channel for slamming more corporate comms or campaigns down customer’s throats. Thus, the traditional marketing metrics don’t apply either. The ROI of Social Media is that your business will still exist in 5 years — Erik Qualman, Socialnomics I was pleased to see the response of Hakan Aldrin, MD of the Benche at SEB in the recent Finextra Social Media conference when asked if he has numbers to prove the value of his social media community platform he replied, “No. That’s not what it’s for.” What is Social Media for? It’s a dramatic opportunity to listen to what your customers are saying and form useful strategies for advocacy, to inform product and marketing strategies based on real-time feedback from customers and it is increasingly a very powerful servicing tool. While there has been some viral marketing success on social media, if it social media is classified as a marketing tool or channel within your organization it means two things: You don’t understand the two-way dialog nature of social media, and You have too many traditional marketing people in your marketing team today So now that we know social media isn’t a fad – what happens next? Who’s responsible? One of the biggest challenges is figuring out who is going to manage social media internally in the business today. Often this falls to some junior marketing staffer, maybe someone in the online team or perhaps a corporate communications or PR team member. All of these decisions would be wrong. Social media can be used to build brand and advocacy, support and service customers, research new strategies, design new products, create new markets, and to educate and inform. This is going to require a whole kaleidoscope of supporting skills sets and capabilities underneath to do this properly. So if you limit it to being pigeonholed into the current organization structure, somewhere along the line your social media strategy is going to be deficient. Do you have a head of call center? Where does he sit in the organization chart? The head of social media should be at least equivalent in the organization chart to this resource. Why? If a customer like Ann Minch , David Carroll decides to target your brand because of poor service, bad policy or just plain ignorance, your share price is going to start to take a hit. The strategy shouldn’t be to try to shut it down or attempting to force employees to refrain from social media activity. When Commonwealth Bank attempted this it backfired badly . The strategy needs to be one of informed engagement and encouraging positive use. Mobilizing the forces Jaime Punishill of Thomson Reuters made some fantastic points at his recent SXSW panel on Social Media. He showed the tricky balance of building budget for the rarely understood medium, and protecting the organization from risk and itself. While realistic in his reflections on how Citibank, his previous employer, dealt with social media, his musings showed that every major organization needs a more open engagement approach on this front. This is exactly the sort of thinking we need from major brands like Thomson Reuters. The biggest risk businesses face today is clearly reputational risk associated with a social media blowout. You need someone in charge with common sense, but also with the organizational wherewithal to actually get something done. This is not a junior role. You need a policy that encourages participation across the organization, but that provides strong guidelines, supported by training, on how to engage customers and how to support the brand through social media. But most of all you need a mechanism to take what you hear from your social media listening post and inform strategy, change policy and improve customer experience. That is the potential of social media that is so underutilized today.

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DICOM Grid Appoints Todd McNitt as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing

April 7, 2011

Experienced Executive Brings 18 Years of Domestic and International Sales and Marketing Success in the Healthcare IT and Imaging Industries

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Gary Robinson Joins Allocade as Senior VP of Sales

April 5, 2011

Thirty-Five-Year Healthcare Industry Sales and Marketing Executive Will Now Lead the Company’s Sales Activities

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AUN Consulting (TYO:2459) Announce A Seminar For Overseas Investor Relations and Marketing Staff – How To Use The Web For Overseas IR Strategy

April 4, 2011

AUN Consulting (TYO:2459) Announce A Seminar For Overseas Investor Relations and Marketing Staff – How To Use The Web For Overseas IR Strategy

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Larry MacDonald: M&A: Increasing Your Company’s Sales Price With New Products

March 31, 2011

The value of a company being acquired is, in part, calculated by estimating the future value of its income stream. Having valuable new products in your development pipeline demonstrates greater future value. In anticipation of selling a company, it may be advantageous to identify new market needs and have a number of attractive opportunities in the development pipeline to sweeten the deal. Products in your pipeline will only be deemed to have significant future value if the potential acquirer believes they address a real need and there is existing demand, all other things being equal. Using proprietary technology combining sophisticated web-based crowdsourcing and market gap analysis, it is now possible to reduce the time and cost to bring product concepts to a level where buyers can estimate the future value of their contribution to earnings. This enables you to sell at a higher price. New needs analysis methods detect latent market needs before they become consciously apparent to even those with the needs. By focusing on the most appropriate needs, valuable intellectual property can be created quickly and inexpensively. Most companies make little use of the intelligence available to them from their stakeholders, and even less from non-customers. These stakeholders and potential customers can be valuable resources in the identification of market needs. It is not as simple as asking them, though. If you ask someone what they would like you to invent, they will give you a blank stare. Most people are unable to see what is not there. Why would acquiring companies prefer to buy new products in development in smaller companies? Usually, breakthroughs come from outside an industry because those in the industry are so attached to the existing way of doing things. Perhaps subconsciously employees resist suggesting change because it might affect the jobs of their peers or expose them to ridicule and hurt their reputation. More likely it is because the company has never had a process in place to deal with employee contributions. Large companies should not be expected to push innovation. They are the companies that we expect to be dependable and strong, like the trunk of a tree. Their inflexibility is strength, not weakness. The development of “new buds” takes place on the periphery, at the end of the branches, in smaller, more limber companies. Large companies prefer to buy companies that have taken the risk and created something new with big markets and existing demand. They want the risks reduced to a minimum and will pay well for it. If you select valid solutions to latent market gaps and can show those solutions address an existing demand, the potential buyer may well have good reason to believe that your company is worth more than if it didn’t have those new products in the pipeline. The cost of identifying possible new products with the characteristics of large market and existing demand need not be high. It can be accomplished in the range of $250,000 assuming several are done at the same time. By gathering potential market needs from those who are not yet your customers, but you would like to become customers, you can often find opportunities unavailable to you through your normal stakeholders. Focusing on needs for which a solution would generate at least $200 million would be the first filter. The next filter would be to eliminate any on the list that don’t exhibit existing demand, even if the particular product specifications are not articulable by the market. Once the need is quantified and meets the qualifications, the next step is defining the ideal characteristics of the product and what acceptable design might comprise. Then it is relatively straightforward to design the product and take it to the stage where the initial protection of patent pending status can be gained. From there, the marketing department can create marketing presentation materials that communicate the value proposition, show potential packaging, and describe the product features and benefits. With these materials in hand, providing they are supported by quantifiable market estimates and demonstration of marketing demand, a case can be made for increased valuation based on estimated future earnings from the product. If you had five products in the pipeline with potential revenue of $1 billion over the next 10 years, what would that do to your company value? Depending on the size of the market and number of products in development, the value of the company can be significantly increased at a relatively low cost in anticipation of sale of the company. From start to finish can be as short as four months, assuming you are not developing new technology. Disclaimer: The process described above was developed and tested over the last four years by Edison Innovations, Inc. as a method of generating new intellectual property for license to companies and entrepreneurs seeking new concepts to build a company around.

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RALLY Marketing Group Expands Client Services Team

March 29, 2011

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – March 29, 2011) – RALLY Marketing Group , an Integrated Marketing and Promotions Agency, is pleased to announce the addition of Oliver Weisert as Group Account Director, and Scott Mitchell as an Account Executive to the agency’s client services team.

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Vdopia(TM), the Leader in Mobile Video Advertising, Expands Management Team for Exciting New Product Launches

March 29, 2011

Adds Experienced Executives to Lead Sales and Marketing

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Visual IQ Appoints Analytics Expert to Enhance Scientific Modeling for Cross Channel Marketing Attribution Solutions

March 28, 2011

Dr. Payman Sadegh Joins Company as Director of Research & Development, Marketing Analytics

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Rod Shrader: Cutbacks Give Rise To Health Care Innovation

March 25, 2011

There is no shortage of debate over the new health care legislation. Its provisions are far reaching and — when implemented — will usher in enormous change in the way health care is delivered in this country. I leave it to the politicians to sort out the ideological, financial, and structural issues involved. Looking at what is coming from the perspective of an entrepreneur, however, reveals a lot that is interesting about what happens at the intersection of entrepreneurship and change. When there is large-scale change, entrepreneurs pay close attention, because to an entrepreneur, change means opportunity. As the person who leads the Entrepreneurship Program at UIC’s College of Business Administration, I have seen this phenomenon time and again. It is something we strive to make a part of the mindset of our next generation of young entrepreneurs. The health care legislation will bring change on a massive scale. Opportunity will follow. I was thinking about this recently when I learned of a new business started by three recent graduates of the MBA program offered by the Liautaud Graduate School of Business at UIC. Care Team Connect is an Evanston-based firm that combines new technology with a deep understanding of what chronically ill patients need after being discharged from a hospital to dramatically reduce the number of people who have to be quickly readmitted. The business came about because one of our MBA alumni, Ben Albert, experienced first-hand the gaps in the post-discharge health care delivery model after his grandfather suffered a series of strokes. Leveraging his 12 plus years as a health care technology executive to start the company, he circled back with other alumni, Carrie Kozlowski, OT, VP of Services & Marketing, and Bill Brody, Director of Marketing, to help grow the organization as the implications of the health care legislation took hold. It was not an unusual story because UIC is also home to a major health center where the products of health-related research are often commercialized. The three realized that the new health care legislation would test the ability of Medicare to keep costs under control without sacrificing quality. Hospital industry critics have long noted the large number of patients who are quickly readmitted to a hospital for the same reason they were admitted in the first place. In the past, such readmissions were treated — and hospitals were reimbursed — as new admissions. The new regulations will sharply reduce payments to hospitals for people who are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. That one change was enough to launch Care Team Connect. The stakes are high. Research shows that approximately 20 percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, costing Medicare approximately $26 billion over the next ten years. It is estimated that three-quarters of those readmissions could be prevented through effective follow-up programs, the heart of what Care Team Connect offers. Care Team Connect works with hospitals to develop cost-effective evidence-based transition of care programs to prevent these unnecessary readmissions, while improving patient outcomes. The technology platform features a system of risk stratification for each patient, ranging from low risk of returning and needing little follow-up service to high risk of returning unless an intervention program is developed and followed. The risk assessment drives patient-specific care plans that key hospitals in to what protocols should applied to which patients by the most appropriate resources. Care Team Connect set up shop in Evanston, attracted venture capital support and began to grow the business rapidly. An early adopter of the Care Team Connect system was Vanguard Health Systems, headquartered in Nashville, with four hospitals in the Chicago region. The intersection of entrepreneurship and change in the health care industry has brought about other startups by my former students. Matt Norris, Michael McCoy and Dr. Amir Bastawrous began HeartSounds, Inc., which uses sound separation technology developed at UIC in a device that can hear from outside the body — with great precision — the sounds of the heart and the blood moving through it. The potential cost savings of this innovation are estimated in the billions of dollars annually. HeartSounds was a Chicago Innovation Award winner in 2009. I have seen student entrepreneurs at UIC develop and launch businesses connected to such advancements as brain cancer and orthodontic braces. And this is the output of just one university — I know the list would be lengthened considerably when the contributions of young entrepreneurs at other universities in the Chicago region are added. There is plenty of downhearted news about young people entering the job market. But it is also a fact that these are times of great change. To a person with an entrepreneurial mindset, that spells opportunity.

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Inc. 500 Firm Poaches Industry Veteran to Lead Sales & Marketing

March 23, 2011

Archway Technology Partners Adds Sales & Marketing Leadership

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Sarah O’Leary: Sadly, There’s No MBA for Imagination

March 22, 2011

There are some indisputable facts in our glorious world. Men can’t give birth. You can’t cheat death. And you can’t educate your way to creativity. Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg Business School doesn’t have an MBA that teaches people how to see what’s not yet there. Harvard can’t coach its highly intelligent student body how to become imaginative. You can ask people to think outside of boxes, but the mere question should tell you the shape you’re in. In many marketing circles, the client’s education has become a hazard bigger than the sand traps on the golf courses that used to define the business elite. More than a few “B-schools” have fostered a false sense of deity among its student bodies, and the danger is that rice paper on the wall is becoming a more powerful driver than the gifts of imagination, innovation and creativity. Traditional “creatives” don’t typically get MBAs, because education beyond the basic tools of the trade (art and writing) have been long since considered damaging to one’s imagination. (You don’t want to be “boxed” in by unnecessary parameters and case studies of others’ work and numbers when you think. You want to have as unfettered a path as possible.) And yet, creative ideas must fight their way through the sea of formally educated minds in order to see the light of day. Pushing creative ideas through people who aren’t creative is a massive feat, especially given the layers of bureaucracy in corporate America today. Innovative minds rarely talk about their formal education, unless it’s to joke about their failure within it. Historically, great creative minds often bomb as students of other’s thinking. Instead, innovators like to hang their hats on ideas, not ideology . And that’s the big difference. Sam Walton, the grand innovator he was, wouldn’t get hired at Wal-Mart corporate today. Ray Kroc, the hustling milkshake salesman who never attended college, wouldn’t find a place for his box-less thinking at today’s McDonald’s. Willy Wonka, if he had existed, never would have made it inside the hallowed halls of Hershey simply because of the creative way he dressed. There was a time that the MBA was simply an extension of the golf course boys club. It proved to be an efficient way to pass over candidates who didn’t have one without seeming discriminatory. It wasn’t because a pass over was female or minority or old or didn’t swim in the right social circles, but that he/she didn’t have a piece of paper that said they were properly trained. It was a convenient filter to keep the club in good standing. But a superior course load does not build creativity and great ideas are not reserved for the educated. The mind either has it, or it doesn’t. When players and coaches witness natural skills on the playing field, they’ll quip, “Hey, ya can’t teach that.” So it is with imagination. It is a gift, a way of viewing the world that is manna from heaven. Some people are great with numbers, some with science, some with analysis. And then there are the rare among us who can create new ideas in business, and in particular marketing, which engage consumers and motivate them to take specific sales-driving actions. One of the saddest trends in marketing today is agency “death by marketing department.” This occurs when the marketing department of a corporation overrules its agencies time and time again, instead opting for its own ideas and turning agency creative minds into hand servants of the marketing department’s work. And then, when the multi-million dollar initiatives fail to perform, the brand manager fires the ad agency because the spots didn’t work and the marketing agency because sales were flat. Agencies have moved more and more often into a vendor rather than partner relationship. In the end, this power shift compromises imaginative solutions and endangers brand success. Creativity is a gifted way of thinking, an art not a science. It cannot be birthed from pie charts and graphs and analysis. It looks simply at the people it’s trying to reach and figures out a way to reach them. What is Suzie Shoppers want/need/desire? What innovation will get her attention? Motivate her to take action? Make her feel good about her decision? It’s often said “a good idea can come from anywhere.” Yes, it’s true. But a good idea can’t come out of thin air. It’s the massive exception not the rule when an uncreative mind hits pay dirt. In today’s marketplace where competition for the consumer’s attention has never been greater, “What would Sam Walton do?” Simple. He would search out the innovators, not necessarily the ones with rice paper on the wall. Advanced educations are outstanding business assets, he’d agree, but creativity and innovation can’t be learned in a classroom. Sarah O’Leary is a creative marketing expert, consultant and author. She may be reached at soleary@thelogicagency.com.

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4medica Appoints Gregory Church as Director of Marketing

March 22, 2011

Accomplished Executive and Entrepreneur Brings 20 Years of Experience in IT Marketing and Sales to Hospitals and Physician Groups

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Inder Sidhu: The Worst SEO Mistake You Can Make

March 11, 2011

Google the words “bunk beds” or “towels” and you’ll see links for Amazon.com, WalMart, Macy’s, Target and other popular companies. One name you won’t see until wading through several screens, however, is Overstock.com — and not by accident. In February, the Sale Lake City-company was penalized by Google for trying to outsmart the Internet company. Overstock’s transgression? It offered discounts to college kids who linked their “.edu” pages to Overstock.com. Because .edu pages don’t normally drive commercial traffic, Google considers them to be important sources of information and ranks them high in Internet searches. Overstock’s attempt to exploit this insight helped increase its visibility on Google.com. Or at least it did until it changed its tactics. Afterwards, Google announced changes designed to penalize those who try to artificially boost their results through questionable search engine optimization (SEO) techniques and other methods. From a historical perspective, “gaming” Google’s search engine is not new. To many spammers, it’s little more than standard operating procedure. Not until recently, however, has evidence surfaced that brand-name companies with storied histories and vaunted reputations benefited from questionable practices. In addition to Overstock, J.C. Penney has also been penalized for supposedly leveraging “black hat” techniques such as connecting to “link farms” whose sole purpose is to outfox Internet search engines. J.C. Penney denies that it knowingly did anything wrong, and so does the Web search consulting company hired to help it. But Google let it be known that it won’t stand for this type of activity. What lesson can you learn from these stumbles? Be careful when it comes to technology you may not fully understand. Today, countless organizations — small businesses especially — are being told that their fortunes will improve if they learn to harness the magical powers of SEO. If you own or operate a Web site for your business, the come-ons are no doubt familiar: “I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines,” goes one popular one. Do organizations fall for these pitches? They sure do. In fact, entire industries have become enamored with SEO. Take the media business. Today, many publishing companies are putting more investment into search gimmicks than in quality content. The result? Fewer impactful features, more animated slideshows and plenty of SEO-optimized headlines, including one from the Washington Post that read simply, ” SEO headline here .” Infatuation with SEO and related technologies extends to companies of all stripes. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), North American spending on search marketing is growing nearly 15 percent annually and will top $17 billion this year. This is in addition to the vast sums spent on SEO technology and consulting. Add it all up and it’s clear that search has seized the attention of scores of business executives worldwide. It joins a long list of technologies and business innovations such as Six Sigma and thin-client computing that have done so. Don’t get me wrong, many of these have provided tremendous value to companies. And so will SEO — to a point. Sooner or later, every competitive company will develop or invest in SEO capabilities. When this happens, distinguishing your organization with basic SEO technology will become very difficult. SEO has not matured to this point yet, especially in the areas of social media and digital asset optimization. But there are signs that some SEO companies are having to go to greater extremes to produce results for their clients. This has led some experts to wonder if the sun will set on SEO . It might, but don’t cancel your contract with your SEO provider just yet. For the foreseeable future, SEO technology will remain a valuable business tool — but one that you should keep in perspective. Putting too much stock in what it can do for your organization is the worst SEO mistake a company can make. Contrary to promises, SEO technology will not provide you a sustainable, competitive advantage. For that, you’re going to have to focus on business basics, including your innovation, prices and operational excellence. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s as true today as ever. Inder Sidhu is the Senior Vice President of Strategy & Planning for Worldwide Operations at Cisco , and the author of Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today’s Profits and Drives Tomorrow’s Growth . Author proceeds from sales of Doing Both go to charity. Follow Inder on Twitter at @indersidhu .

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Sean Black: Diary of a Silicon Valley CEO

March 9, 2011

It’s a well kept secret that startup CEO’s spend an inordinate percentage of their time selling. From raising money to recruiting talent to landing new customers and even negotiating an office lease, CEOs sell something to someone every day. To prove my point, I started keeping a diary of my day-to-day as an Internet startup CEO. Here’s a sampling of my week: Monday: Murphy’s Law I have a meeting with one of the largest banks in the world. It’s only a 7-minute cab ride from our edgy downtown office in Union Square to their imposing glass tower on Park Avenue, but it feels like I went through a time space continuum under the Helmsley Hotel. As the cab lets me out I see suits pouring in and out of the building and become painfully aware that I am wearing the standard issue startup uniform of dark blue jeans, a button up shirt and a sports jacket. I just broke a basic sales 101 rule — dress to mirror your audience. Feeling underdressed and a little self-conscious, I shoot up to the 50th floor in one of a maze of elevators. To appreciate this story it’s important to know that we are in the business of selling web-based applications that help companies socialize sales across their company and customers, so having Internet access to demo our apps is kind of critical. We sit down in a meeting room with a window that peers freakishly into the next building where dozens of meetings are on display seemingly for our entertainment. I fire up my Mac to start a demo, only to discover there is no WiFi in the building. I spot an Ethernet cord on the wall and plug it in, but its dead. I whip out my Verizon wireless card, but the buildings’ thick walls render it useless. As we turn the corner my host’s office to try her computer I see what looks like a government issued mainframe sitting on her desk and can’t help but think of that scene from the movie A Christmas Story where the kid drops the lug nuts and blurts out “Ohh Fuuuuddge”. She turns on the big white box and I half expect a few clunks and some smoke to pour out. Instead, something far worse — a five-year-old version of the Internet Explorer browser struggles to come to life. The Internet connection is so slow the page slowly paints from left to right across the screen. I type our URL into the browser to see what looks like a war-torn version of our slick new website that clearly isn’t built to backward support a five year old browser. That’s it; I shut her computer off, open PowerPoint on my Mac and give her an old school presentation. As I leave her office I take comfort knowing I am headed back to my George Jetson high-tech world downtown alive to sell another day. Tuesday: Dirty Sexy Money I spend the morning working on my book Dirty Sexy Money — How to Build Sales at a Startup . In addition to being provocative, the title pokes fun at the fact that the Internet startup world is full of entrepreneurs who dream of making lots of money, but who naively think they don’t need to sell their wares because if they build it customers will come. Anyway, I get on a call with our public relations consultant to sell her on my idea of throwing an underwear-only book launch party for the New York tech community at the Penthouse Mansion, now owned by someone from my business school alma-mater. After picking her jaw up off the floor she spends the next 15 minutes telling me why that is not such a great idea. We’ll see who wins that sale in a month or two. Meanwhile, I’m shocked to get an email from the woman at the bank asking for a copy of the presentation to send to her team — redemption is at hand, or so it seemed. I send her a link to the presentation using our own application that tracks when someone opens it and the number of minutes and seconds they send on each slide, like Google Analytics for presentations. But she can’t open it on the “oh fudge” computer. So I send her a link to our super fun animated demo video on YouTube, but the bank bans employee access to social media. It’s a scary reminder that social media marketing isn’t as mainstream as the propaganda machine would have us believe. Alas, I am forced to email a PowerPoint and miss another opportunity to demonstrate our own product. Wednesday: Sky’s The Limit Our law firm Cooley gave me a conference room on the 48th floor of the Grace building across from Bryant Park. I walk into the room to see New York City sprawled out in front of me; the Empire State Building reaching for the sky, the sun glimmering off the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty is off on the horizon dwarfed by the distance. I am thankful I can do my job from anywhere in the world (except a bank) and that I don’t have a “real job” where I have to show up at a cubicle at 9am everyday. The sweeping view of New York is the perfect inspiration to work on my book totally undistracted. Of course, I’m distracted an hour later by my attorney Bo, but it’s a welcome distraction as I asked him to stop by to talk about SiliconCEOs, a peer group I am putting together and want Cooley to sponsor. The idea is to get CEO’s of fast growing venture backed Internet companies in New York (Silicon Alley) and the Bay area (Silicon Valley) together each month so we can candidly and confidentially help each other build amazing companies. My company has the good fortune of being backed by top tier investors like First Round Capital and Accel Partners, so we have access to plenty of great CEO’s. We just need a sponsor so we can pay for gatherings. Before I leave Bo agrees to allocate a good chunk of his marketing budget for the cause — score one for the team! Thursday: A Window Closes I wake up to an email from Jeremy Stopplemen, founder & CEO of Yelp. I asked him to come speak at our next SalesSchool event and talk about how he built Yelp’s inside sales team to over 300 salespeople that now drive most of Yelp’s reportedly $100M a year in revenue. Not surprisingly, the Yelp sales machine never came up in any of the press a few months ago around Yelp refusing Google’s $500M buyout offer. I tried to sell Jeremy on the idea that this was the perfect venue to give back as well as give the Yelp sales team the credit it deserves. We did a similar event at NYU in December that was a huge success with almost 400 RSVPs from the New York tech community. Unfortunately, Jeremy’s response was “I don’t think this is a fit for us, but appreciate you reaching out”. Oh well, you win some and you lose some. Friday: A Few Doors Open I wake up to two great emails. One is from MIT offering to host the next SalesSchool on campus next month. The second is from the VP, Sales at Boston based Hubspot Mark Roberge accepting my invitation to build the event around Hubspot’s amazing sales team. We agree the event will likely sell out in an hour of releasing tickets. High off that bit of good news and a little too much Starbucks I grab a cab to met one of our advisory board members for breakfast at the Pain Quotidian on 5th Avenue and 8th Street. It’s one of my favorite blocks of Greenwich Village lined with beautiful pre-war buildings and anchored at one end by the Washington Square Park Arch. The fact that the arch, modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, has been standing in that spot since 1892 acts as a sort of pinch reminder that I live in this amazing city. Our advisor is the president of popular and fast-growing online media company and I am meeting with him to ask him to speak at the first SiliconCEO event about how his company socialized selling throughout the company. They literally made sales everyone’s job from founder down through the ranks, culminating with the announced sale of the company for several hundred million dollars. He agrees to do it — score! I am off to my next meeting with a serial entrepreneur friend that writes a popular blog to get his advice on writing a regular post about what its like to sell the dream every day as founder & CEO of an Internet startup. He proceeds to warn me that to do so successfully would require writing in the first person, exposing intimate details about myself and being on the opposite side of safe. Saturday: Exposure or Exposed? Inspired by friend’s advice and story I start writing this diary. I try to reveal as much as possible about just a few of the best and worst things that happened to me this week. I am taking a lot of risk by sharing these intimate details. I have to admit that I am a bit worried that I might tip my hat to our competition, piss off the people I mention (sorry Jeremy) or that my investors will think I’m an idiot for showing my cards. This is why there aren’t any other CEO’s writing this type of stuff for public consumption while they are still in office. But I am equally excited not only by the idea that exposing my day-to-day can help other current or aspiring entrepreneurs realize they are not alone on the startup roller coaster, but also we might gain far more than we have to lose by tapping into the wisdom of the crowds, open sourcing solutions to some of our initiatives and challenges and race past our competition. At least, that’s the story I’m going to sell to my board if all hell breaks lose after this article is live for all to see. Wish me luck!

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Highpower International Announces Appointments to Senior Management Team

March 7, 2011

NEW YORK, NY and SHENZHEN, CHINA–(Marketwire – March 7, 2011) – Highpower International, Inc. ( NASDAQ : HPJ ), a developer, manufacturer and marketer of nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) and lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and related products, today announced the promotion of Michael Wang to Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing and the appointment of Bin Ran as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Human Resources.

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Video: DeLaughter Doesn’t See `Bubble’ in U.S. Farm Land Prices

March 5, 2011

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Dennis DeLaughter, owner of Progressive Farm Marketing Inc., talks about the outlook for prices of U.S. farm land. DeLaughter talks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television’s “Taking Stock.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Video: DeLaughter Doesn’t See `Bubble’ in U.S. Farm Land Prices

March 5, 2011

March 4 (Bloomberg) — Dennis DeLaughter, owner of Progressive Farm Marketing Inc., talks about the outlook for prices of U.S. farm land. DeLaughter talks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television’s “Taking Stock.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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White Digital Media Promotes Chad Recchia to Global Director of Marketing

February 28, 2011

Recchia Will Advance the Marketing Efforts of the Company to Boost Their Global Presence

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Ernan Roman: Why Is Opting Out of Online Tracking My Problem?

February 21, 2011

Most Web users are surprised, and then alarmed, when they realize how closely marketers scrutinize their online activities. That alarm has triggered a new and powerful consumer privacy movement, one that has led to an impassioned national debate : Should marketers be able to track consumer’s online behavior without explicit permission from the people they are tracking? I believe that this debate is focused on the wrong question. The real issue is not whether we, as marketers, should give consumers the opportunity to “opt-out” of tracking technology that monitors their actions. The Do Not Track movement reflects not merely a policy question, but rather a turning point in the evolution of the Internet. It is a seismic shift that will leave some companies on the proverbial “ash heap of history.” If we hope to survive and thrive in today’s market environment, where consumers have more power than at any time in human history, the question we really should be asking is this: What should marketers do to motivate consumers to make a conscious decision to “opt-in”? We should not place the burden on consumers to “opt-out” of activities they may consider intrusive. We, as marketers, should assume the burden of developing compelling value propositions regarding the many benefits of behavioral tracking and, as a result, engage business and consumer decision makers to opt-in. In this age of empowered, social media savvy consumers, it is our responsibility to create marketing that motivates consumers to engage at a deeper level with us, based on the value we can provide. We need to create a Reciprocity of Value equation whereby consumers can trust us to deliver a more personalized online and offline customer experience based on the additional information they opt-in to share with us. That is the essence of an opt-in relationship. Of course, some marketers have raised concerns about the possibility that significant numbers of consumers won’t opt-in. I don’t share this concern. I am confident that today’s legitimate marketers have the creativity to effectively communicate the myriad benefits of behavioral tracking and drive large numbers of opt-ins. S olid brands don’t have trouble building strong Twitter or Facebook followings, why should they have trouble getting people to opt-in? Based on extensive experience, we know that people who actively choose to opt-in will provide rich information regarding their preferences. This detailed customer generated information enables marketers to provide targeted and relevant communications and offers as determined by the individual preferences of consumers. This is a major win for consumers and marketers. Results from over 100 Voice of Customer relationship research efforts we have conducted for companies such as Microsoft, NBC Universal, IBM, and many Growth companies, indicates that there are five criteria consumers have as they evaluate whether to opt-in to sharing in-depth information with a marketer. They are: Consumers have to trust that the company will adequately safeguard their information and use it in a responsible way. “Responsible” means that consumers must believe that their information will not be rented or sold to third parties. “Honor my preferences” reflects the expectation that their “opt-in” self-profiled preferences will be used to drive increasingly targeted communications and offers… and suppress those that are not relevant per the expressed preferences of individual customers. The value consumers receive in exchange for providing in-depth information must be obvious and compelling. To overcome the legacy of receiving untargeted and irrelevant communications, consumers must see an obvious improvement in relevance. This expectation of relevance applies both to their online experience and subsequent email, direct mail, etc. If the value is not obvious, consumers will assume you have betrayed their trust and expectations. Consumers must see proof that the company will be able to deliver on requirements 1 through 4 above, not just once, but consistently over time. Whatever form the Do-Not-Track regulations finally take, I predict that the marketers who survive and thrive will be those of us who consistently meet the five requirements above. I am confident that marketers today have the skill and creativity to communicate the compelling value they can provide to consumers who don’t merely decline to opt-out, but actively choose to opt-in. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His latest book on marketing best practices was published in October, 2010, and is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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Marty Zwilling: When, Where, and How to Raise Venture Capital

February 19, 2011

By Dave Lavinsky, President and Co-Founder of Growthink At one point or another, most entrepreneurs find themselves in a place where they could use money. And oftentimes, they could use a lot of money. These entrepreneurs often dream about how much they could accomplish if they had millions in the bank. All the people they could hire. All the products they could develop. All the marketing they could do. And as they sit and dream, most entrepreneurs think about venture capitalists. Venture capitalists, or VCs, are the folks with millions upon millions of dollars to invest in companies such as theirs. This includes the folks that funded Google and Yahoo and Netflix and Ebay, and many of the great recent companies which were able to start and grow to massive scale in just a short period of time. And for a select few entrepreneurs, they are able to go out and raise the venture capital they need and make their dreams a reality. So, what it is about these select few entrepreneurs, and what do they do that makes them successful in raising venture capital? Below are the three core things they do: They go after venture capital at the right time. Venture capitalists generally are not interested in funding companies at the idea stage. They want to see that you have taken some of the risk out of the venture by developing prototypes, gaining beta customers, and possibly already generating initial revenues. If you haven’t accomplished any of these things, you might want to raise funding from angel investors and other sources to achieve them. And then go back to venture capitalists later. They make sure they are a proper fit for venture capital. Venture capitalists swing for the fences. They aren’t interested in getting a 1X or 100% return on their investments. Rather they seek a 10X or 1,000% return on every investment they make. VCs aren’t naïve, and understand that the majority of their investments won’t pan out. And so they need the ones that do pan out to have enormous returns, which can give them a high return across all of their investments. Now, not only does your company need to have the potential to give a VC a 10X return, but it has to meet two other key criteria. First, it needs to be able to grow quickly. Venture capitalists generally want to see a return on their investment within 5 to 7 years. As such, you need to be able to grow quickly and get acquired or go public within just a few years. A second criteria is that the investment size and return has to be big enough. No matter how exciting your company is, no venture capital firm wants to invest only $100,000 in it. Rather, VCs generally invest no less than $1 million in any one company. And for some VCs, that barrier is considerably higher. Consider that some venture capitalists have billion-dollar funds; these VCs can’t possibly invest the time to fund and manage thousands of small investments. So, to sum up, your company must have the potential to grow very rapidly, provide a massive return on investment, and be worthy of a multi-million dollar investment (which typically means that you will be able to sell for $50 million, $100 million or more within a few years). They go after the right VCs. All VCs aren’t created equally. Some prefer to fund healthcare companies. Others prefer software. Most only invest within 200 miles of their offices. Some will only invest very large amounts of capital. And even when you target the right VCs, chances are that they’ll say “no”. The fact is that VCs are bombarded with potential deals to fund. And even if you’re the best deal, you won’t always win (just like the prettiest and most talented woman generally doesn’t win the pageants since a certain degree of luck and noise typically kicks in). So, raising venture capital is a numbers game. You need to create a large list of investors that are a fit (e.g., based on your geography, sector, amount of funding you are seeking). And then you need to methodically contact and meet with them. Importantly, the best thing you can do to get a venture capitalist to invest is to let them know that other VCs have shown genuine interest. It’s all too easy for a VC to play the waiting game with you….to say that they’re interested but want to see your company progress (and minimize their risk further) before they invest in you. But once a VC sees that they might lose the opportunity to invest in you, they often get more aggressive in taking the next steps to fund your company. Raising venture capital is possible. And it is often the most important step an entrepreneur makes in building a highly successful venture. So follow these steps and make it happen! ##### Today’s guest post is by Dave Lavinsky, who has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to raise venture capital. Learn more about Dave’s Venture Capital Pitch Formula from his Growthink blog , or contact him directly at davel@growthink.com .

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Peggy McColl: Building Momentum for Your Membership Site

February 16, 2011

So you have created all of the features of your membership site. You have a great sales page and you have promoted it through colleagues and social media and you have some initial members. Now how do you get more traction once all of the pieces are in place? Whether your membership program has been online for 4 weeks or 4 months, there are always ways to expand your marketing reach and gain more interest. 1. Give away a downloadable bonus gift – Make is something they can’t get anywhere else unless they are a member. In exchange for the valuable content, you now have their email address and you can periodically check in with them and share some of the topics that are being discussed on your member calls, your tips sheets, or your interviews. 2. Sell the monthly membership for $1.00 instead of the regular price for one risk-free month . What that does is capture their email address and credit card information. They are now included in a payment system that will be charged the next month. Of course they can cancel at any time. 3. Offer a month for free – with credit card information . You can do the one month for free offer as well and ask for credit card information – the challenge is if you ask for credit card information upfront people become suspicious that they will get roped into something when they simply wanted to access the membership for free. 4. Offer a month for free – without credit card information. If you offer a month for free without a credit card you obviously will not convert as many of those leads into customers but you will probably get a far greater response because no payment is required. This gives people an opportunity to try it. 5. You MUST stay connected . Regardless of what method you used to earn their contact information, you must make sure you stay in touch with people. If you constantly stay in touch in reasonable increments that are all lined up and scheduled, you will be able to convert some of your free members into buyers. Make sure your auto-responder messages are inviting… “I hope you are enjoying your monthly free membership….take a look at these additional products.” “You have probably already accessed the site and taken a look at tip this month but did you know…(and highlight some other strategies, etc.)” “As a member you also get these privileges… “If you want to have access to these case studies and success stories every single month, it is only19 and you can get signed up right now….before your trial period ends….” Always be thinking about the different ways you can provide ongoing content to your potential customer – for free or for sale. Peggy McColl is a New York Times best-selling author and an internationally recognized expert in the field of personal and professional development and Internet marketing.

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Supertex Announces New Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

February 16, 2011

SUNNYVALE, CA–(Marketwire – February 16, 2011) – Supertex, Inc. ( NASDAQ : SUPX ), a recognized leader in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits, today announced the appointment of Stephen Lin as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.

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Supertex Announces New Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

February 16, 2011

SUNNYVALE, CA–(Marketwire – February 16, 2011) – Supertex, Inc. ( NASDAQ : SUPX ), a recognized leader in high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits, today announced the appointment of Stephen Lin as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.

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Local SEO Agency Adds Experienced PPC Campaign Manager

February 10, 2011

FORT MILL, SC–(Marketwire – February 10, 2011) – Ephricon Web Marketing, a full-service search engine marketing agency, recently added a PPC Campaign Manager to its team of internet marketing experts.

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Ernan Roman: Manipulating Customer Service Ratings… What’s Going On?

February 9, 2011

I wanted to share two recent experiences with my family’s automobiles and the ensuing manipulation of the Customer Satisfaction process. A few months ago, we had one of our cars serviced. We were then told to fill out the Customer Satisfaction form with perfect scores for the Service department! Recently, we bought a new car. The experience left something to be desired, and I said so in the Customer Sat survey. Yesterday, the sales rep left a message on our home voicemail stating that she was very upset that I had not rated her well. She then blamed us for ruining her day! What’s going on? Do these major automotive companies have so little faith in their cars, dealers and service departments that they have to manipulate the process? Surely the manufacturers know this is going on. So why aren’t they taking action? Do manufacturers and dealers have a common goal of making the customer satisfaction ratings look good for advertising purposes? Back to my story. In the first instance, we had the car in for routine maintenance. The next day, we received a call from the dealer asking if everything went well. We said yes. The rep then told us that a survey was coming in the mail and that we should answer all the questions with a “5″ for satisfaction, as that would really help out the dealer. So much for the value of the service department customer sat data! Now for the story about the new car purchase. Everything was fine except when we picked up the car. This is always an exciting moment, but it was spoiled for my wife and I. First, our sales rep could not show us how to operate the brand new, high-tech navigation, climate control and surround-sound music systems, all of which were major selling points for this car. No one else was available to help. That left us frustrated and disappointed. Then, as we were at her desk signing the final documents, our sales rep and her associate had a heated argument about some office issues that had nothing to do with our purchase. We sat there in the middle of their verbal crossfire. Two weeks later, when the customer satisfaction questionnaire arrived by mail, it seemed to offer an anonymous response since my name wasn’t on it. I answered the questions and explained that this had not been an optimal experience. However, because our sales rep had emphasized that she wanted to get good ratings, I was much more diplomatic than I should have been. Imagine my reaction when my wife played the voicemail from the sales rep thanking me for having ruined her day and her ratings. How else can these companies improve except though customer feedback? And what about the implied confidentiality of the survey I returned? The Takeaways: Take a careful look at your customer satisfaction process. Are the questions the correct questions? Will they get you the “right” answers or the real answers? Are there opportunities for employees to manipulate the process, to get the “right” results? What is done with the results? Are they used internally to ask the tough questions and make changes, or are they fodder for advertising slogans and sales brochures? If your customer sat questionnaires say or imply that responses will be confidential, then honor that, so customers won’t feel punished for taking the trouble to submit honest feedback. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Clients include Microsoft, NBC Universal, Disney, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Ernan was named to “B to B’s Who’s Who” as one of the “100 most influential people” in Business Marketing by Crain’s B to B Magazine. His latest book on marketing best practices was published in October, 2010, and is titled: Voice of the Customer Marketing: A Proven 5-Step Process to Create Customers Who Care, Spend, and Stay . Ernan is also the co-author of “Opt-In Marketing: Increase Sales Exponentially with Consensual Marketing” and author of “Integrated Direct Marketing: The Cutting Edge Strategy for Synchronizing Advertising, Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Field Sales.” www.erdm.com ernan@erdm.com

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Corticon Names Bob Schoettle as Chief Marketing Officer

February 8, 2011

“No-Coding” Business Rules Leader Adds Tech Marketing Veteran to Seize New Market Opportunities

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Lucid Imagination Names Peter Tait Vice President of Marketing

February 4, 2011

Seasoned Marketing Strategist Drives Innovative Programs to Support Booming Demand for Open Source Enterprise Search

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IdentityMine Names Interactive Technology Veteran Bruce Slywka as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing

February 3, 2011

Brings 20 Years’ Advanced Interactive and Mobile Technology Experience, With Proven Sales and Marketing Results

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Brett King: Let’s Get Rid of Internet Banking

February 2, 2011

If you think about the way we have digital banking and web presence structured today, it is actually wrong. Most banks today already have a well developed ‘public’ presence in the form of www site, and a separate ‘secure’ portal as a transaction or services platform “behind the login” — normally called “Internet Banking.” The problem is, that this basic structure is not the optimal configuration for customers, nor for the bank moving forward. Why is it so? Largely the reason for separating public website and internet banking comes down to historical elements. The major driver is purely evolution of two separate platforms. While there had been early attempts at some sort of transactional platform for banking through dedicated networks, these largely failed until the internet provided a common infrastructure for simple online access to services. While transactional banking was an obvious fit to the IP world, when the internet emerged commercially it was more about brochureware — and thus the content was less about functionality and more about marketing and sales. Thus emerged two disparate platforms — one was functional or transactional technology, and the other was about revenue and sales. Traditionally speaking the “dot com” presence was owned by the marketing, or in some misguided cases corporate communications who mistook the home page as a staging ground for press releases and investor relations messages. Internet Banking, however, being largely about a front-end to transactional services (such as viewing a statement, getting account balances, transferring funds and paying bills) was driven by the IT teams who were in charge of integrating the browser with the bank core systems through some sort of middleware. To this day, these teams just don’t understand each other, so the hope that one day public and secure web presence could work together, is hard to visualize. The Biggest Revenue is Behind the Login The problem with these two separate views of the world, is that it no longer makes sense for the customer. 90% of daily traffic to most bank website goes to the login button, so conceivably your most attractive targets (i.e. existing customers) are ignoring all of the marketing spend on nice sales messages, flashy graphics and landing pages, and they’re going straight through to the tasks they want to complete behind the login. Behind the login, most banks adopt a quite sterile marketing environment, with very limited sales communications, largely focusing on execution. The fact is, based on these analytics, you probably need to be spending at least 90 per cent of your Web marketing budget on building offers and campaigns for existing customers through the Internet banking secure portal, but the IT guys don’t get any of that. The core advantage to selling behind the login is that the acquisition process is dead easy. You already have all the customer information (KYC), so compliance is simply a click-based existing customer acquisition, rather than copious forms or entry to provide proof of who they are, their credit risk assessment, etc. These are simply the easiest customers to convert. However, shifting marketing spend to behind-the-login is not really the answer either. Tomorrow’s web presence will be very different… The future of using IP to connect with customers is understanding that there isn’t and shouldn’t be two separate web-based platforms. The fact is that if you think about content I need everyday from the bank, stuff like my account balance, my transaction history, upcoming payments, etc — this probably doesn’t need to be subject to a full-blown, two-factor authentication model. In most cases, this information could be shown contextually into my banking experience just based on a cookie and ‘remember me’ authentication model (think hotmail.com or Facebook). Marketing journeys could start one of two ways. For example, if I come to your site as a result of a search on mortgages, the homepage needs to respond to your interest in mortgage immediately, along with recognizing if you are an existing customer. For example, if you are an existing customer, you’d see immediately what you are pre-approved for, or if you are an existing mortgage customer then you might see a refinancing option or a competitive offer for bundled home insurance. Much of the content we need is going to be contextual too. So I need you to tell me my credit card balance when I’m on a third-party credit card site, about to use my card, instead of just refusing the transaction because I’m over the limit. I need you to start getting me offers for products and services when and where I need them, not waiting for me to come back to the site or a branch. I need to have a place I can go which centralizes this relationship and defines when and we can work together, what communications I receive from you, and a place where I have a tailored view of my footprint with the bank, etc. So rather than the public site and internet banking, the future looks a little different. The future of the multi-channel content environment will be: The Customer/Bank Dashboard – beyond PFM, this is the relationship control panel Journeys – Product and service engagement opportunities that could start through mobile, search, social, and migrate to acquisition Contextual – Understanding triggers and behaviors as an opportunity to commence a journey Execution – The day-to-day functional stuff such as transferring money, paying bills, etc. Customer Dynamics – Building out the supporting processes, cross-silo metrics, IT Integration, etc This will be distributed across mobile, tablets, desktop, PC, ATM and other interfaces. This is all has the potential to happen within the next 3 years. The thing is – I can guarantee there are at least two department heads who are going to find this transition very difficult to deal with…

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Top Chicago Marketing Ad Agency, Our Marketing Works, LLC, Names Branding Creative Expert Seth Guge to Lead Its Expanding Creative Division

February 1, 2011

CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwire – February 1, 2011) – Our Marketing Works Ad Agency has named top branding creative expert Seth Guge to head up its expanding brand marketing division. Seth will be responsible for maximizing Our Marketing Works ability to create and develop new and innovative branding campaigns that are top in their class.

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ShareThis Names Kristen Fergason Chief Marketing Officer

January 31, 2011

Fergason, a Former Yahoo!, MLB Executive, Will Lead Marketing Strategy, Help Publishers and Marketers Benefit From the Value of Sharing

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Robbin Phillips: 4 Biggest Mistakes Small Businesses Make With Social Media

January 28, 2011

Everyone in business today is in a frenzy to “use social media to grow their business”. Ugh. Hate to disappoint, but Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media tools are not magical. They’re communication tools and communication is hard work. Connecting with your customers on a deep and emotional level can pay off big time for all businesses, but it can also backfire. I’m not one to focus on mistakes and prefer, like my friends Dan and Chip Heath (authors of Switch ), to stay focused on the “bright spots.” But there are just some basics you have to avoid. So here are some of the most common mistakes I see: Mistake number one. Many businesses forget that they are dealing with real human beings. With hopes and dreams and pet peeves. People relate to each other through two-way conversation, both online and in person. Ever met someone who hogs the conversation? I have. And I tend to walk the other way when I see them coming. These shiny new tools are not like megaphones. Talking about yourself won’t make others talk about you. Don’t shout offers and deals and me, me, me. Take your marketing hat off and think like a human being. Invest in getting to know your customers better than your competition does. Listen. Be curious, and interested and engaged. Tell stories and share knowledge. Most of all, ask yourself how you can provide meaning and value. How can you be helpful? How can you support your best friends and biggest fans? How can you lift them up? It’s about people. Mistake number two: Lots of businesses, especially small businesses don’t take time to plan or set goals. There is a lot of sameness out there in small business land. What makes you different? How can you let your personality and voice shine when you communicate? What is your unique point of view? What’s the passion conversation you share with your customers? And the planning that is most often overlooked? Who in your business has the time and personality to be “social”? Get very real with this one. Don’t just add it to someone’s job description to tweet or update Facebook or keep up a blog. You have to find someone within your company who has a real passion for connecting with people. Then give them to the freedom to engage and respond. And even surprise and delight your customers. Mistake number three: No one’s home. Said another way, don’t start something you can’t finish or don’t intend to do well. If you decide to blog, make a decision to do it on a consistent basis. Not randomly. And the more often, the better. Be consistent, present and responsive. Or don’t do it all. Mistake number four: So many businesses believe “social media” is a magic bullet. I hate the word social media. I prefer word of mouth marketing. That’s something that has been around and will never go away. Technology by its very nature will change. What’s hot today technology-wise is often dead or very different tomorrow. Positive word of mouth requires a positive experience. Now there are just more ways to provide that that experience. Be remarkable. Both online and offline. (After all most word of mouth happens in person.) Sorry to disappoint, but there is no magic bullet when it comes to making personal and emotional connections with your customers. So there you have it. Remember you are dealing with people. Think “word of mouth” vs. social media. Let your organization’s real personality shine to you will draw kindred spirits your way. Plan and set goals. Be committed to your plan. And most of all, work on creating remarkable experiences for your customers. Treat them like your very best friends.

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Cisco Names Blair Christie Chief Marketing Officer, Worldwide Government Affairs

January 25, 2011

Susan Bostrom to Leave Company After 14 Years of Service, Five Years of Marketing Leadership

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Ernan Roman: Lessons From My Chimney Cleaner About Service and Marketing Best Practices

January 24, 2011

A few weeks ago I called a local chimney-cleaning company and set up an appointment for a cleaning. When the workmen arrived, I asked them to remove their sooty shoes when walking around the house. Despite this request, the workers left an ugly trail of black soot stains on our basement carpeting. So began a fascinating opportunity to experience how some companies are mastering the integration of marketing and customer service. My problem was turned into a marketing opportunity by the company — but only because the person I spoke with to file my complaint understood that customer service is actually a marketing opportunity. That person happened to be the owner of the company. Viewing customer service and marketing as two sides of the same coin is the first step in turning service disasters into marketing opportunities. This can only occur if marketing and customer service teams work together based on the recognition that customer retention is essential. Marketing can no longer afford to view customer service as a labor intensive “operations” function. In this era of empowered consumers with social media megaphones, the ability of dissatisfied customers to voice their opinions worldwide is astonishing and frightening. Back to my chimney-cleaning saga: The owner listened carefully to my complaint and acknowledged his company’s responsibility for the problem. He said, “On behalf of our company, I would like to apologize for what happened. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to call . We will do what it takes to clean up the mess we created.” The owner and I reviewed the details of the damage and the follow-up action, which was to have a professional carpet cleaning company come to my home within a week, at no charge. I then asked why he had thanked me for making the call. His reply was the essence of both great marketing and great customer service. He said, “I want to be able to go to your home next year and the following year and the year after that, to clean your chimney. By calling our company, you provided me with the opportunity to prove to you that, while we made a mistake, we have the professionalism and integrity to take care of our customers. I want to prove to you, that even though we have already been paid for this job, we are not just looking for the bucks. I want you as a long-term customer.” I was intrigued. What he had just said was in line with one of the most important, though often overlooked tenets of innovative marketing: One of the most important metrics for identifying the success of a marketing initiative is its capacity to generate repeat purchases. I asked about the company’s customer service team. Was I getting a good outcome simply because I had been lucky enough to speak with the owner of the company? Or was this approach really part of the organization’s service culture? My call, as it turned out, had been no accident. Customer service reps at this firm were empowered to resolve customer problems ; they worked closely with the marketing department to ensure that customer acquisition and retention were tightly integrated. This was a fairly small company, a fact that intrigues me on two fronts. First, smaller organizations (which are likely to have fewer problems with “turf and fiefdoms”), may well have the inside track when it comes to seamlessly coordinating marketing and customer service efforts. Second, those companies that do manage to integrate these departments successfully find themselves in a position to significantly improve the customer experience and increase customer lifetime value. Here are seven tips to help you improve your customer experience: 1. Do not view customer service call centers as cost centers. These are revenue centers. 2. Customers’ post-sales experiences have significant impact on repeat purchase likelihood and willingness to recommend the company . Companies must consider the financial ramifications of losing customers due to poor post-sale experiences. 3. Do not cut back on training, quality control procedures, and related investments in customer service call centers. 4. Remember that it’s seven to 10 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to sell an existing customer. 5. Mistakes happen. Make sure that, when they do, your frontline people are empowered to take responsibility for those mistakes, and propose a solution that is fair to the customer. 6. Customers expect high-quality post-sale support. If it is lacking, they will not only be inclined to go elsewhere, but they will also be inclined to use the power of social media to let others know about their dissatisfaction. 7. The big question is not whether we can get a customer to buy from us once, but whether, after a customer service problem, we can get him or her to buy from us a second time. What kind of experience will make a customer decide not only that he or she isn’t going to demand a refund, but that a repeat purchase is in order? The owner of that chimney-cleaning company knew that I, as his customer, considered the marketing and customer service experience to be inseparable — so he made sure that he and his entire team operated under the same assumption. As a result, I am now a satisfied customer, a committed candidate for repeat business — and an evangelist for his firm. Ernan Roman is President of the marketing consultancy, Ernan Roman Direct Marketing. Recognized as the industry pioneer who created three transformational methodologies: Integrated Direct Marketing, Opt-In Marketing, and Voice of Customer Relationship Research. Cross posted at 1to1® Media .

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Jason E. Chudnofsky Announced as President of CrossTech Media LLC — Boston Area Event Producer

January 24, 2011

Noted Expert in Face-to-Face Marketing and Publishing to Focus on New Business Development

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Ari Herzog: How Necessary is a Social Media Plan?

January 20, 2011

Gabrielle Medecki, marketing director for Wolfgang’s Vault (a kick-ass 9-year-old music website if you’ve never visited) questions whether the creation and guidance of a social media plan is a sound business decision. In an interview with Marketing Vox , she reminds us that social media is about living in the moment and how anything can go viral at any time. Conversations are formed when “everyone is talking about” a product, a service, a company. She suggests the unpredictability of social media may endanger your plan for online behavior. You should obviously have a plan — but how necessary is it for the plan to be all inclusive? Look to Microsoft for guidance. Their policy for social media is simple: “Be smart.”

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Northwest Pipe Company’s Tubular Products Group Names Les Boswell, Vice President Sales & Marketing

January 18, 2011

VANCOUVER, WA–(Marketwire – January 18, 2011) – Northwest Pipe Company ( NASDAQ : NWPX ), an industry leader of engineered welded steel pipe and tube products, recently announced the appointment of Les Boswell as Vice President, Sales & Marketing for the Tubular Products Group. Based in Houston, Texas, Les has the responsibility of leading the Tubular Products Group sales and marketing efforts, specifically overseeing all tubular sales activities in the U.S. and Canada.

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AspenBio Adds Erik Miller as Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

January 18, 2011

22 Year Industry Veteran to Lead AppyScore(TM) Business and Marketing Initiatives for Product Launch

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Seven Companies That Rely On Aging Products

January 15, 2011

Some of America’s largest companies rely heavily on products which they have owned for decades to account for a very large portion of their sales and a significant part of their reputations with the public, customers, and investors. In most cases, the names of their flagship brands are essential to their marketing.

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RALLY Marketing Group Taps Award Winning Thought Leader as Creative Director

January 13, 2011

SEATTLE, WA–(Marketwire – January 13, 2011) –   RALLY Marketing Group is pleased to announce that  Keith Goldberg has joined the agency as Creative Director . In this role, Keith will lead RALLY’S creative department and build on the agency’s success delivering integrated campaigns that use traditional, digital, and experiential marketing to create customers for leading brands.

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ABN Newswire and AUN Consulting (TYO:2459) Jointly Present a Seminar on PR Distribution and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Tokyo

January 12, 2011

ABN Newswire and AUN Consulting (TYO:2459) Jointly Present a Seminar on PR Distribution and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in Tokyo

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Vitech Names John Specht Vice President of Sales

January 11, 2011

20 Year Sales and Marketing Veteran to Bolster Vitech’s Success in Providing Innovative, Proven Core Technology Solutions to Healthcare Insurers

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