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Success Through Strategy!

Strategy Matters delivers news, tips and strategies for effective communications through traditional and social media. 

7th Annual Marketing & Social Media Conference
We're looking forward to speaking at this event on September 16, 2015. Our session is called Strategic Content Marketing: Building a Plan to Boost Result. This conference will provide an intensive review of new tools that businesses can use to reach out to customers and grow their bottom line.Learn more and register here.
Is a Facebook "Website" a Good Idea?

Facebook is certainly a low-cost option to very quickly get your business' web presence up and running; however, there are a number of considerations to keep in mind before using Facebook as your only online vehicle. As Vangie Beal writes in the CIO article "Can Facebook Replace Traditional Business Websites?" the Facebook-page-as-the-primary-website strategy is probably not for the big boys. "Most websites at bigger companies are a complex beast where integration between back-end databases and systems (often proprietary or legacy) and your website is crucial," says Beal. "Here, Facebook alone clearly just doesn't cut it." 

But for smaller companies, such complexity is not always needed, and Facebook may be a viable alternative.

While a Facebook page may be able to take on the role of a web page and ensure the visibility of a company online, there is a risk involved in publishing your company's assets on a site that is not owned by you. Facebook can at any time change the "rules of the game," putting you at risk if this is the only presence you have established--or even if it's your most significant presence online. For instance, what if they suddenly started charging $10,000/month to maintain a page on their site? What if they changed the rules to prohibit you from selling products on their site or charged a commission for those sales?

Additionally, a Facebook page might not be the best option for every business from an image standpoint. It's always important to have a presence online in ways that are appropriate given your target audience and your goals and objectives. For example, if you're trying to position your product or service as the high-quality option with a premium price, a Facebook page may not convey that message.

Finally, it's important to consider how much traffic you can drive to your Facebook page. While you can easily point customers to your site by explicitly telling them where to find your Facebook page via a business card or other targeted communications, it may not be as searchable as a traditional website.

Social media pages are certainly a low-cost option when it comes to cultivating an online presence; however, you should be sure to consider all of the potential risks that might be associated with this option.
  
Don't Create Strategies or Tactics Without These Critical Insights

So, you're in the market for a strategic marketing professional. You've screened hundreds of applicants, and it's down to the handful you've picked to invite in for interviews. But this is an inherently creative position, and cookie-cutter interview questions about an applicant's past experience, or about their evaluation of their own qualifications, might not give you enough insight to pick the right man or woman for the job.

In my experience as head of communications for organizations in industries as diverse as healthcare, energy and education, I had a favorite question I would ask every applicant. A variation of that question is one I'd highly recommend to anyone interviewing for a marketing professional of any kind.

It would go something like this:

"We'd like to do a better job of engaging our target audience through Twitter. How would you do that?" Asked this question, some applicants would jump right in, developing a generic strategy on the spot, utilizing everything they'd learned in every college marketing class and marketing meeting in previous jobs. Often, these candidates would demonstrate a fair understanding of some fundamental marketing concepts. 

But the answer I would want to get to that question would go something like this:

"Well, before I can answer that, I'd have a few questions for you: who, specifically, are you trying to reach and what, specifically, are you trying to achieve?" I would use this type of question as a way of exploring whether the applicant takes a strategic or tactical approach to marketing decisions. Far too often, the responses I received were tactical. They'd describe what they would do on Twitter (or whatever channel or tool I presented them with), rather than taking the time to step back and consider the situation before jumping to a solution.

This may seem like a borderline "gotcha" question, but it exposes something important about the person answering it. Any marketing professional can come up with some basic marketing techniques and recite "best practices." But when it comes to finding a truly strategic marketing professional, you want to find someone who thinks before they dive in and who has the wherewithal to evaluate where your organization is at before telling you where they think it should be going.

Strategy matters!

Creativity Means Nothing if You Can't Deliver on the "Brand Promise"

Inc. magazine recently put out an entertaining list called "Top 9 Brand Blunders of All Time." Most of these blunders were one-off decisions or short-term campaigns that had a major-and negative-impact on an established brand.

These blunders highlight some key mistakes, both practically and conceptually, when it comes to branding.

For starters, what is the true meaning behind the concept of a "brand?" Is it a catchy tagline that customers will use to tie your product to a value proposition? Is it a snappy logo that draws the eye, a memorable jingle that sticks in a target audience's head, or a catchy company name?

The most critical thing that many people overlook when it comes to branding is that branding is not just the company name, logo or tagline. A brand represents the "personality" of a company or product and, consequently, is created based on every single interaction, contact or impression that individuals have with the organization or product.

Brand management must be focused not just on clever designs and advertising, but on ensuring that every contact point between the company/product and a potential or existing customer serves to support the desired brand image. Too many people and organizations fail to do this and, consequently, regardless of how much money and time they may spend on advertising and promotion, their brand-building efforts will fail.

Another major misstep found in branding efforts is a singular focus on creativity for creativity's sake. Creativity without purpose is meaningless and represents wasted effort. Effective branding is about alignment--determining your desired brand position, identifying how consumers currently view your brand, identifying the gaps, and then taking steps to close those gaps along all components of the marketing mix: product, price, place and promotion. 

Creativity means nothing if you can't deliver on the "brand promise." Brand is not about creativity; brand is about experience.

Ultimately, managing a brand is like guiding a ship in a rough sea. Too many organizations have a false sense of control over their brand. You can't brand your company yourself. The best you can do is manage your brand. 

Your audience defines the brand based on their perceptions of you, your products and your services.

What personality (brand) do you wish to convey to your audience? How do they currently perceive your personality (brand)? If you don't know, it's time to find out!

Featured White Paper

"The Evolving Role of Email Marketing: Practitioners Weigh In"

Will email go away? Will it remain relevant? These are very much the same questions that have been asked of other forms of communication: Will email replace "snail mail?" Will online chat replace phone calls? "Yes" and "yes" in some cases, but certainly not in all. In fact, industry experts and marketing practitioners point to a number of reasons that email is likely to remain a very viable element in any marketer's toolkit-along with strategies and tips for using this tool most effectively.

Volume: 7 - Issue: 9
 September 2015
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Research Matters
Some recent news and  research you may be interested in--we were!