I am on a mission.  A mission to become the mayor of my neighborhood Starbucks!  The mayor?  Yep, that’s right.

I recently downloaded an up-and-coming mobile application on my phone called Foursquare.  Although you may not have heard of Foursquare yet (they are an early stage start-up), you are sure to soon. They are growing at a tremendous rate, so much so, they just hired a number of staffers to keep up with the landslide of inquiries from marketers interested in participating.  And for good reason, it’s a unique and exciting application, with many potential marketing opportunities.

Foursquare defines their mobile application as a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide, and a game that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and rewards them for doing so.   Users can search for nearby businesses, earn points for checking in (telling Foursquare where they are) when they visit each location, win mayorships, unlock badges and access specials for trying new places and revisiting their favorites.

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Every month I receive an email from one of my favorite local deli’s introducing their latest sandwich or salad. In each of these emails they include a link to their Facebook page, with the statement “Join us on Facebook”. Although I receive this email monthly and read it in its entirety, I’ve never clicked through to their Facebook page… until today. Why now?  Because this time next to their Facebook link was the statement “Join us on Facebook, the first 500 people to become a fan and post a comment will receive a free cookie”.  I love their cookies, how can I resist!?

I clicked through, signed up and made a comment about their wonderful wheat germ chocolate chip cookies and minutes later received a message with a certificate for a free cookie on my next visit.  Can’t wait! Not only am I a happy camper, but the deli gained a new Facebook fan (along with at least 499 others today) and another way to stay in touch and build a relationship with their customers.

The greatest reason by far that people friend a company on Facebook is to receive special offers and promotions, I am certainly one of those people.  According to eMarketer, almost two-thirds of those friending a brand are looking for promotions and special offers. Coupons remain a leading driver of brand interactions in social networks and learning about sales and new products is also a strong motivator for people to interact with companies in social media.

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Ssshhh… Listen…  Your customers are talking.

Do you hear them?

Your customers are constantly providing feedback (good and bad), making comments, telling others about your company’s products and services.  But are they talking with you or just about you? And are you listening?

The feedback provided by your customers is one of the most valuable pieces of information your company can obtain.  Through it, you will gain tremendous insight into their attitudes, expectations and buying behavior.  It will let you act quickly to make changes if needed, resolving issues successfully while improving customer retention and loyalty.   And you might discover themes and ideas which provide inspiration for new products and services or for making improvements to existing ones.

You can use this feedback to tailor your marketing outreach efforts and really hone in on your message, providing timely and relevant campaigns that are truly beneficial to your customer. Maybe there are more effective methods for positioning your current products and services.

To grow, your company must take every opportunity to actively solicit customer feedback, both good and bad.  And make it easy by incorporating multiple ways for customers to share their thoughts.  Here are just a few ways to do this:

1. Send out questionnaires and surveys by email, mail or incorporate a feedback form into your website.  Programs like SurveyMonkey and Constant Contact are great for developing and sending surveys.

2. Use pertinent social media sites, blogs and forums to research and listen to the conversations your customers are having about your products. Allow your customers to communicate with you directly through the use of social media by developing your own Facebook page, forum, support group, etc.

3. Hold focus groups and pick the brains of some of your best customers. A focus group will allow you to ask more specific and targeted questions and obtain the detail of feedback you won’t receive elsewhere.

Allowing customers to provide feedback opens the door to a two way conversation, strengthening the relationship.  And understanding what your customers are really thinking will provide the insight needed to make better business decisions.  When it comes to customer feedback, it pays to be all ears!

I am a firm believer in the age old saying “Actions Speak Louder than Words”.   Words are wonderful, powerful, and communicate much, but without actions behind them, to back them up, they mean nothing.

In this era of on-line communication with platforms like Facebook, Twitter and email, it’s very easy to make verbal statements, put our marketing message out there and think it’s enough.  A wise marketing guru (the founder of our agency actually… do I get extra points??) likes to share the following analogy, and I’ve always found it to provide clarity…

Try placing a piece of string on the table and pushing it across to the other side. It bends and turns in many different directions, never quite getting there. But if you pull that string, it straightens out, moving in the exact direction you want it to go.  In much the same way, our words are the push, but our actions are the pull.  You can push your marketing message out there, but it takes pull to provide direction and assure your customers arrive and remain on your side of the table.

Nice words, a nice message, they will give your customers a sense of satisfaction, but it’s acting on those words that buys their loyalty.  Yes, you want a satisfied customer, but more than that, you want a loyal customer.  One that buys from you again and again and advocates for your brand by telling others and encouraging them to buy.

So how do you build loyalty?  By building trust. Through actions that consistently meet the needs and expectations of your customers, showing them they are valued much more than for just the immediate sale.  Whatever you promise, you must deliver.

In the 10^th Annual Edelman Trust Barometer survey, customer service and product quality outweighed all other business efforts in building trust. Participants in the study listed the following, from most to least impactful, as the things that matter most in building their trust in a company:

1. Service & product quality

2. Leadership can be trusted

3. Company treats its employees well

4. Provides value for the money

5. Stays within the spirit & letter of the law

6. Strong financial future

7. Frequent communication about the state of its business

8. Innovates new products, services or ideas

9. Creates & maintains local jobs

10. Gives time, money or resources to public good

11. Strong commitment to protect the environment

Don’t just tell customers how good your company is and that you understand their needs.  Prove it to them by finding and incorporating actionable ways of showing you mean what you say.  Make sure your customers really get what’s promised.  Keep the focus on providing great customer experience through excellent product and service quality. Remember loyalty and trust can’t be bought, they must be earned.  And earning is an action!

This weekend was all about gardening.  Pulling out the overgrown weeds and preparing the soil for planting.  I have been eagerly awaiting this time of year, so I can try my hand at planting some fruit trees.  We only have room in our yard for two trees, so I planned on planting two orange trees, assuring our house is stocked with plenty of oranges.

But when I got to the local nursery to pick out the trees, they said I’d have much better luck if I planted just one orange tree along with a lemon tree.  The pollen from one tree is delivered to the flower of the other type of tree, yielding much better results and yes, more fruit.  It’s called cross-pollination!

As I planted my fruit trees, I began to consider the concept of cross-pollination and how that idea can be applied to a company’s on-line marketing outreach as well. Particularly in maximizing brand exposure and increasing reach across each segment of the marketing mix.

Consumers engage in a number of online activities, and they have different preferences and tastes. It’s wise to provide several options for customers to be in communication with your company, but use each of these touch points as an opportunity to cross-pollinate and reinforce another aspect of your outreach. Get as much mileage as you can from every contact with a customer.

Marketing Profs provides a helpful list of  popular strategies that companies can use to maximize their digital-marketing mix.  As you read through the following list, consider how you might begin to incorporate a few of these:

- Use e-newsletters to announce new LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter feeds, directing readers to social-networking websites for   signup.

- Use Twitter to link followers to your latest blog post to fuel interest and re-tweets.

- Include an option to join the company’s social networks in the e-newsletter registration section.

- Use the sidebar on your e-newsletter to list all company social-networking profiles, and use those profiles to gather e-newsletter signups.

- Invite customers to participate in YouTube viral-marketing video contests that show real consumers using and enjoying your products or solutions.

- Read and respond to comments within social networks, developing newsletter or blog articles around topics readers discuss the most.

- Launch a regular Q&A section in your company’s e-newsletter that specifically addresses reader questions across all social-networking platforms.

- Include a link to your Help forum or YouTube video tutorial within purchase-confirmation emails.

- Include a social-bookmark console on product pages in case readers want to share your website or products with others.

- Join relevant LinkedIn and Facebook groups, assigning knowledgeable representatives within your company to answer questions, thus positioning your company as a valuable industry resource.

Think of all the different places you interact with customers and prospects and take every opportunity to cross-pollinate your marketing efforts.  Each of these actions builds your contact database, deepens the relationship with your prospects and brings them one step closer to the buying decision.  Your tree will be full of fruit, ripe for the picking!

Have you been watching videos online today?  Chances are you have!  And so have the vast majority of other internet users. Online video viewership has exploded over the last year and continues to grow at a rapid rate.  Take a look at these statistics collected by comScore and Nielsen:

- Some 31.2 billion videos were delivered to US Internet users in March 2010

- 180.2 million people watched online videos during the month of March

- Viewers watched an average of 173 videos during that month

- Time spent viewing video on social networking sites increased 98% in the past year, from 503.8 million minutes in October 2008 to 999.4 million in October 2009

Recently a colleagues Facebook status caught my eye: “The Zumba video I produced for Xtreme Fitness/San Jose, is up to 250,000+ hits on Youtube!” Now yes, I love Zumba, but 250,000 views for a video about a local fitness club??  That’s terrific!  I called my colleague, Chris Hennessy owner of Custom Video Connection and producer of the video for his thoughts as to what makes a video a success.

Chris attributes the entertainment factor, a little humor and keeping it real as playing a key role.  Video that provides a reality type feel helps the viewer relate, creating an actual user experience.  It allows companies to attach personality to products or services.

Chris received comments from viewers around the world who connected with the message and the realistic experience it created for them. They could actually picture themselves in this Zumba class.  You can see the video here for yourself:

Online video communication provides an excellent way of reaching prospective customers in promoting your company’s products or services.  The advantages are many!

As more and more people turn to the Internet in search of information, video offers an entertaining, interactive, personable experience while fulfilling the user’s need for new, useful and educational information.  A prospective customer will be able to relate more to your company and to what you’re promoting, making them more receptive to what you have to offer.

If you aren’t using video in your marketing mix, consider utilizing it to communicate product related information, demonstrate processes, how-to’s or customer testimonials.  And once video content is created, it can be spread via social networks to all areas of your market.  When done well, it can be a huge success for your company.

I talk with marketing managers often who are scared to implement a social media program because it means letting go of the “control” they believe they have over their brand.  When the truth is, consumers as well as employees are already out there talking about their brand on-line, reviewing products or services and commenting about the company.

A clearly written social media policy outlines for employees the corporate guidelines for communicating in the online world, while easing the minds of marketing managers as they delve into a social media program.

The first step in developing a policy is to determine what stance your company should take toward social media. For instance, will employees be allowed or forbidden to participate on social media sites at work and how will that impact productivity? Who will be designated to officially participate in social media on behalf of your company?

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Has Facebook really taken over the internet?  From the sound of things, one would think they’d taken over the world!

The buzz surrounding the new announcements from Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg at the third f8 developer conference has been non-stop.

But what does it all mean?  As a marketer and an avid Facebook user, I’m a bit on the fence with this one.

There are three key changes that will have a significant impact on marketers and users:

Social Plugins - will allow users to share content from any website with their social network just by clicking on a “like”/“recommend” button.  This offers huge word of mouth potential for companies that have this like button installed on their website. And it makes it very easy for users to share their likes and interests.  However, all of these websites will now have access to our Facebook profiles and data.

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During a recent visit to a local park, I thought it would be fun to feed the ducks in the lake nearby. With a loaf of bread in hand, we walked to the edge of the water only to find one lonely little duck.  I tossed in a piece of bread, the duck quickly ate it and quacked. Suddenly, three more ducks appeared.  Just a couple bread pieces and quacks later, we were surrounded by a huge gathering of ducks, geese and pigeons devouring bread and happily quacking away.

Watching these ducks gather,  I was reminded of the power of word of mouth and how it can spread so quickly.

Word of mouth is one of the most influential and trusted sources of information consumers rely on when making a decision.  And the increasing use of the Internet and social media networks take it to a whole new level,  it’s word of mouth on steroids!

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We all know last year was a tough one for marketers everywhere, but things are looking up and forecasts are good!  The 4th Annual Marketing & Media survey just out from Datran Media provides insight from over 5,000 marketing executives from Fortune 500 brands.

The majority of marketers are optimistic that 2010 will bring an upward swing in revenues for their company and an increase in marketing & advertising spending. And over half of that spend is expected to be applied to digital marketing channels.

Although marketers plan to increase their involvement in social media, email marketing was rated the top performing advertising channel over all others.

This year will also see a majority of companies developing their messages and websites specifically for smart phones like the iPhone or Blackberry.

Do you have a plan for optimizing your companies marketing mix in 2010?