Radius Global Official Blog

I dislike the old and traditional ways of participating in a conversation. Here I would like to start the "marketing triplets" (marketing in exactly three words). To help get you started, I would like to add few of my own:

Accelerating your business.
Analyze then deliver.
Optimized product value.

So, use your brain and come up with marketing triplets of your own. It will be fun, believe me! :)

Customers are lifeblood for all the businesses throughout the world. From my point of view, a good customer service is all about bringing customers back. Most importantly, customer service is strongly inter-linked with word-of-mouth. A bad customer service experience with a product or service multiplies its after affects many times when an infected customer discusses that experience with his or her peers. And we all know that, in this era of globalization and social networking, people trust more on peer recommendations rather than traditional ways of marketing.

That’s why most of the leading companies in world do have separate customer service departments. But unfortunately not all of them have been able to provide what their customers perceive and want from them. We have seen lot of businesses failing just because of poor customer service.

Case in point:

There are too many examples to quote here but I would like to share my personal bad experience with one of the leading telecom companies of Pakistan “Wateen Telecom”. I will take this live example to show “how big companies fail in providing customer service?”

I have (infact had) a Wateen Wireless Broadband Connection. I had been using Wateen services since 2008 but I hadn’t used internet service of Wateen from three months. But recently, at the time of need, Wateen discontinued the service. So, I called their 111-365-111 UN number to inquire about this termination of service matter and to renew my account. But it was all against my expectations.

First of all, I went through the voice prompts and looked for appropriate option to select, but unexpectedly there was no option for “recharge your account”. Then I opted for “0” to talk with the customer service representative. As per newly launched promotion by Wateen, I asked him to waive off my dues for last three months. CSR asked me to hold for a moment but, after a long hold of almost 10 minutes, he resumed the call and said, “This offer is for our valued customers only, and you don’t fall in that category. You need to submit all the pending dues”. And I freaked out after hearing that I, being their customer since last year or so, still don’t fall in the valued customers’ category.

I asked him,” Am I not your valued customer?”, and he responded, “No sir it’s not that, you are our valued customer, but this offer is for those customers who purchased the new connection in 2009 only”. Within no time, I responded, “How long I have been using your services?”. CSR replied, “But sir you purchased the connection in 2008”. I furiously replied, “As I have been using your services since 2008, so I must be your more valuable customer than those who purchased in 2009?”. And he kept silent for a moment and replied, “No sir, there is nothing I can do for you”.

I responded, “What do you mean by that? In other words, you are asking me to stop using your services, and through your connection, rite?” and he finally committed, “Yes sir, you can stop using our services”.



Ending note:

Well, customer service is an art but it’s also the only area where all the companies can achieve the impossible and make a difference by influencing customer's choices. I request all the readers of my article to share this case with your peers and set an example for all the companies to learn from these types of scenarios.

The whole purpose of this article is to create awareness of customer service value among companies and professionals. In this competitive world, we must focus on customer service through professional development training. We must train our teams on regular basis and should equip them with latest methods for handling queries of customers.

A vision without a proper plan and action is nothing. Give your business a winning edge this year by figuring out certain areas for improvement. We must focus on new and most productive ways of marketing of our products and services to achieve our objectives and goals in a most efficient and effective manner.

We all know that online marketing is the most cost effective and result-oriented medium of marketing today. Considering this fact, social media marketing is the best of all. So, this blog is all about social media marketing. I would like to answer the question of most of my peers that, “Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since Industrial Revolution?”

It’s a fact that social media is the easiest to justify in terms of ROI as compared to other marketing strategies. Let me quote some figures here first:

• According to the experts, “Generation Y” will outnumber “Baby Boomers” in year 2010. Out of them, 96% have already joined social networks.
• Interesting thing to know that, 1 out of 8 couples married in USA last year met through social networks.
• Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months. It means if Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest right after United States.
• 80% of the companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• 80% of twitter usage is through mobile devices. It means people love to update anywhere, anytime.
• Wikipedia has over 13 million articles.
• There are over 200,000,000 blogs on internet today. And above 50% of the bloggers post content or tweet daily, like me.
• About 80% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.
• Only 18% of the traditional TV ads generate positive ROI.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook daily.
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.

People say social media is the word of mouth. It’s not the word of mouth; it’s the world of mouth in fact. I believe that today, people care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them. In current era we no longer search for news, the news finds us no matter where we are. Similarly, in near future, we no longer search for new products and services. They will automatically find us via social media.

So, social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It’s not an economy, it’s a people driven economy rather. So we must admit here that social media is not a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. It’s definitely a biggest shift since Industrial revolution.

Following are some of my guidelines for successful social media marketing in 2010:

• Remember successful social media marketing programs involve listening and participation by audience.
• Beware of the fact that you are not the controller of the message. It’s always people driven communication.
• Always welcome participation, feedback and co-creation. Let people speak their own words and point of views.
• Don’t let people to change the road map. Focus should be on final objectives.
• Be patient and humble.
• Be optimistic and opportunistic.
• Be collaborative.
• Being fake is an evil.
• Don’t focus on just one social media network.
• Not listening to your audience is a crime.
• Never go against the rules of social networks.
• Excessive push strategy is a bad strategy.

Using Social Media Tools for Marketing is the best thing you can do for network marketing business. Social media marketing is about spending time getting to know others and letting them get to know you. Providing good quality relevant content to others around the web. Social media is not just about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. There are endless ways to network online these days!

Here are my top ten social media tools for marketing :

1.Social Networks

Find people you know or with similar interests, join groups, fanpages, share pics and videos, let people know what you’re up to. This would be Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, etc. This is one of the best ways to let people get to know you.

2.Professional Networks

Such as LinkedIn. Don’t make the mistake of viewing this as a social network. There is a different tone to this type of network. Be sure to be respectful and professional, and provide relevant information.

3. Blogs

Blogs are a place where you can really establish yourself, stretch out, make it your own. The downside of blogs is you have to drive traffic to them. I use other social media tools for marketing my blog. I make connections on the sites and then when they get value from and want to learn more about me they go back to my blog to check it out.

4.Videos

Create informational videos. A lot of people hate reading or learn better from a video than from a post. This is great because people get to see and hear you, making you even more real and less anonymous.

5. Article Marketing

Great way to get your content out online. You can submit articles to directories, use social bookmarking sites, put them on your myspace or facebook page, submit them to other blog posters for content, etc.

6.Micro-blogging

The obvious example is Twitter. Connect with others who have similar interests, keep them updated on what you are up to, any new content you’ve produced that they might be interested in, etc.

7.Pod-casting

If you’re a talker, talk your content. Interview people in your industry. Create a series of pod-casts that relate to your area of interest and again provide good info. Distribute it to podcast directories.

8. Discussion Boards and Forums

Great place to find people who share common interests. Again the key here is to provide useful and relevant responses to the questions people are asking. Don’t blatantly market yourself, again be present, be consistent, and be relevant; provide your website details and let people come to you.

9. Social Bookmarking

Putting it all together. Connect people to your information online, get links to your content all over the net. Make sure you put a relevant blurb or excerpt so people can see what information to expect. This is helpful for search engine optimization as well because it creates high quality links to your site.

10. Events and Meet-up sites

Taking online networking offline. Find people in your area who share a common interest. Making connections and real friendships offline can be really beneficial for your business because the people know you. It can also be a great way to meet people to mastermind with.

Most importantly: Link it all together! Link your social networks to your blog and micro-blog, link your videos to your articles, let people know where you are and where your content is.

Give your online marketing efforts a boost this year by recognizing areas for improvement and putting in place a plan to make positive changes.

To help you get started, Radius Global has come up with New Year’s resolutions for 5 different online marketing channels: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Email Marketing, Pay-Per-Click and Mobile Marketing.


1. SEO:

I resolve to focus more on maximizing visits and conversions from organic searches.
With SEO efforts, it’s easy to get caught up in one goal: getting found via the search engines. But ranking in the search results is only half the story. If potential customers aren’t clicking through to your web page – or other piece of digital content – the ranking doesn’t mean much. Plus, due to variances in what each of us sees in the search results for the same query, rankings as metric are no longer as useful. Personalized search results according to location and web history means your site might rank high for one person, but not another.

Maximize the success of your online marketing efforts by analyzing your metrics report to determine which pieces of digital content are highly visible but producing less than ideal traffic results. Then take some time to ask yourself these questions:

* What competitive search results are your potential customers seeing? Assess the title tags and meta descriptions of competitive search results. Are competitors offering customers a free case study or a complimentary product sample? Then consider ways to make your own title tags and meta descriptions out-entice the competition.
* Does your content live up to the promise put forth in your title tags and meta descriptions? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes: When you first visit your web page or other digital content from an organic search, is the content you find relevant? Potential customers don’t want surprises; they want a solution to the problem that caused them to search in the first place. And they want it as promised.

Not only will searchers respond more favorably to customer optimized titles and meta descriptions, but the increase in clickthroughs will, no doubt, be noticed by search engines and may influence subsequent rankings.
2. Social Media:

I resolve to set goals and track the results of my social media efforts.
There’s no denying that social media is more difficult to justify in terms of ROI compared to other online marketing strategies. But that’s not to say it’s impossible – or that tracking results should be placed on the back burner. And without goals, it’s pretty difficult to measure success. In 2010, put forth even more effort to set goals for social media participation and tie results back to specific tactics.

There are a host of free or near-free tools available to gauge brand mentions and traffic from social media channels. In December, we highlighted 5 of these social media monitoring tools.

Tracking results via social media monitoring tools is just a start. Those results must be tied back to business goals. Potential goals might be:

* Develop better customer relationships
* Reputation management
* Identify and energize brand evangelists
* Increase brand awareness
* Increase relevant visitor traffic
* Improve standard and social search engine visibility
* Build up a list for email marketing
* Increase leads or sales

Without setting specific goals upfront, social media efforts can’t be definitively quantified so be sure to implement a Social Media Roadmap and all or social bases will be covered.
3. Email Marketing:

I resolve to integrate my email marketing with other online marketing channels.
Regardless of what the naysayers may say, email marketing isn’t going to disappear as a result of social media in 2010. In fact, email will continue to play a significant role in most online marketing mixes this year. A study from Silverpop found nearly half of marketers surveyed plan to increase email marketing budgets in 2010.

That’s not to say email marketing efforts shouldn’t evolve with the times. Integrating email with social media is on par to be a popular resolution for 2010: A recent eMarketer report found 40% of executives surveyed will make integrating the two tactics their top marketing initiative this year. Another 25% of respondents have already implemented an integrated strategy.

Pledge to take email marketing to the next level by encouraging email subscribers to not only forward content via email, but also to get social with email and share it via Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other sites. Conversely, conduct a poll on Twitter or your blog, and encourage followers and readers to subscribe to your e-newsletter for the results.
4. PPC:

I resolve to maximize conversion rates by testing different versions of my ads and landing pages.
Most companies using self-serve pay per click programs fall victim to “set it and forget it” habits. They’re busy with numerous other marketing activities or don’t have the time to really get to know the native bid management platforms and test/refine campaigns. Even if PPC efforts are reaching set goals in terms of conversion rates, there’s always room for improvement. You’ll never know until you try.

Consider these three ideas for testing different elements of your PPC campaigns:

* Test multiple ad versions that highlight different benefits of your product, service or company. For example, one could tout cost-savings benefits, while another emphasizes a convenience aspect.
* Use A/B testing to try out two different headlines on your landing page. Again, each could speak to a different benefit (i.e., cost savings vs. convenience). Google Optimizer is a great tool for this.
* If you’re targeting a competitive search term with many competing ads, consider launching two different campaigns simultaneously. Each could offer a distinct piece of fulfillment – a free case study and a product coupon, for example.

A few tools for testing include:

* A/B Testing resources: (Google Website Optimizer, 7 Free Resources)
* Multivariate Testing service: (Omniture)
* Heatmap & User Testing tools: (CrazyEgg, Clickdensity, Clicktale, userfly andEyetools)

5. Mobile:

I resolve to rethink my website design for mobile users.
If your site isn’t already optimized for handheld devices such as cell phones, now is the perfect time to re-assess your site design and how users find your site through mobile search – particularly for B2C companies.

In October, ABI Research forecast that mobile sales of physical goods in North America would reach $750 million by the end of 2009, a 117% annual growth rate. Consumers are doing a lot more than purchasing downloadable cell phone ringtones and games from their mobile devices. These days, clothing, electronics, books and a host of other items are being purchased through mobile commerce. Additionally, social network participation through services like foursquare, Facebook and Twitter are growing dramatically, creating additional opportunities for promotion and traffic to the mobile version of your company web site.

When optimizing web pages for the mobile web, consider a few tips:

* Keep fonts in their most basic format
* Eliminate advertising to conserve screen space
* Take out images unless they are absolutely necessary
* Remove Flash, Java or any plug-in content unless absolutely necessary

Online Marketing Efforts in 2010
As you make your own personal New Year’s resolutions to drop a few pounds, start a savings account or join a gym, don’t forget your online marketing efforts. Each year provides a fresh start and endless possibilities, so take advantage.

What resolutions do you plan to make in 2010 to improve your online marketing efforts?