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Become one with your customer

CMOs and marketing leaders might know how to make an ad campaign look great, but do they really know what it's like to be a customer of their own product? From the comments, questions, and concerns that customers voice to your company, to how your package looks when it arrives at their door, it is imperative for marketers to keep up with and understand how their brand's message is coming across to customers.

These are some ways that marketers can stay on top of their brand's experience:

• Marketers need to be in constant contact with their customer service contact/department. This will help alleviate awkward situations like the Target security breach or the Lululemon see-through leggings comment- both companies had to consult crisis PR - because marketers will be in the constant know about any customer complaints.
• Not only do marketers need to match up with customer service in regards to complaints, but also in regards to brand consistency. Making sure that branding and order fulfillment are on the same page will ensure that customers are receiving exactly what they ordered in the intended packaging, ever single time.
• Advertising is key when delivering a message of great service to consumers. For example, J.Crew recently created an ad campaign in which it announced that it was bringing back a discontinued swimsuit that consumers had stated that they would like to come back. This type of advertising alerts customers that brands are listening to them and like to cater to their preferences.

Basically, communication is key when it comes to delivering the best message and product to your customers. Bringing the above bullet points together will ensure this.  

LinkedIn to the money?

In recent Q2 reporting, LinkedIn stated that it made $106 million in ad sales - up 44% from last year's Q2.

The Sponsored Updates you see on the side of your profile have a lot to do with the increase, but so does the acquisition of Bizo. The ad-tech company will help LinkedIn expand its B2B platform by serving ads not just on LinkedIn, but across the web.

 While recruiting solutions is still LinkedIn's key moneymaker, the platform has shown great potential in growing its marketing and sales solutions as well.

On July 31st, LinkedIn also announced a new product that is aimed at salespeople, called "Navigator". This tool will allow salespeople to search and filter relevant information, news stories, blog posts, and status updates by people and companies that sales reps are trying to sell to.  

With both Facebook and Twitter having  strong results over the past week, the pressure to keep pace moved to LinkedIn; and it answered strongly. The company's stock was up nearly 8% in after hours trading following the launch of Navigator.

Reddit to sell out?

For those of you not familiar with Reddit, it is a community-driven site in which users find, share, and discuss web links and photos. Its interface is very simple - it looks like a website straight out of the 90s. Users don't even need to provide an email address to sign up, post, or view items.

However, Reddit has decided to jump on the bandwagon of selling advertising to support its free service. The problem? Trying to start up its advertising business without "selling out", altering the nature of the website, or annoying the forum's loyal 114 million monthly contributors.

In order to do this, Reddit has to transition slowly. They already offer a premium service called "Reddit Gold", and host a gift exchange in which they take a cut from.

There are recent moves towards actual advertising, though. Reddit has hired a seven person sales team, and brought on Ellen Pao as the head of business strategy. Pao was formerly a partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Reddit advertising has the potential to be a major player for brands, as the site already is the source for popular, viral posts that drive traffic to other sites (that's how the model is designed, anyways). Unfortunately, there are challenges to consider. One, for example, is that Reddit does not collect information on any of its contributors. Potential advertisers will most likely demand such information if Reddit moves forward with their current plans, and will have to work around this obstacle.

All that being said, Reddit could soon emerge as the newest and shiniest advertising opportunity. As Reddit's chief executive, Yishan Wong wrote, "All things change... Reddit Is powerless like the pebbles being swept up in a fast-moving river. Our goal is to make a change that you like, like when you go back to a mall you really liked when you were a kid and find that it's become really awesome."  

Apple picking in October?

Supposedly, Apple's plans to release two different iPhone 6 models to the market in September might not be correct anymore. MacRumors has reported that the phones, along with some other unnamed products, will now ship in October.