Business Development - Don't Miss Your Connecting Flight

Have you ever missed a connecting flight and had to wait hours for the next flight to go out? You end up wasting time and feeling frustrated at the airport surrounded by others who may be feeling the same things.

The same is true if you miss out on an opportunity to connect or form a relationship with someone you may run into in a business setting. Long standing relationships with vendors, clients, and friends in general are key to the future of your business career. The business connections that we make each day can help us days, weeks, years, or even decades from now.

In my senior year of my undergrad, I made it a point to sit by a different person each day in class. I learned about these people, their likes, dislikes, goals, and love or hate for the class we were in. This proved to be a valuable asset to myself when I decided to run student government to represent the students of the business school. Instead of asking random strangers for votes, I was asking friends to help me get into office. I was able to win the election decidedly against the competition.

The connections I have made in my undergrad, graduates school, and business settings have helped me to have the power to go to my friends for advice on a specific strategy I am working on, vendor choices to make, career advice, or any other thing that you may need from your friends. The same is true for yourself helping your friends to develop their businesses when called upon. The service and ideas you provide to your connections will improve your relationship with them and also improve your development as a leader.

The key to business development is connections. Make sure to not miss your flight and to keep your connections growing.

Digital Marketing Campaign Management

When advertising a brand, generating leads, introducing a new product, it is obvious that online marketing is becoming the key player to invest money in. Recent statistics showed that digital marketing now accounts for over 25% of all ad spending by companies. With the continual shift towards digital and social media. Here are a few advertising channels that should be used based upon the things that I have learned through developing strategy at my company and while consulting.

1. Pay Per Click Advertising - there is an entire marketplace of strategy and implementation that needs to take place in the PPC world. If you are working for a large company introducing a new product, or a small business just starting out, PPC allows you to setup small campaigns and bid on keywords based upon the desired and established target market. Campaigns should be targeted by keyword and by location to maximize the impressions on a given search. KPI's to look for on success would be ROI, Click Through Rate, and Cost Per Click.

2. Social Media - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube are all great ways to engage customers and get panel data without having to bring in a focus group. You can create simple ways to engage a consumer, while getting data on what they like to do, who they interact with, and how they use/purchase your product.

EX: Mtn Dew Labs - created as a way for devoted Dew drinkers to log in to a community and "have a part" in the production of future Dew flavors. Under the surface, it is a way to get the most brand loyal customers to have ownership in the brand. They will become the marketers themselves if they are invested into such an idea as Mtn. Dew Labs.

               
 If you can find unique ways to engage consumers or businesses, they will become marketers for you and provide immense brand awareness of your company and product.

3. Blog - another great way to engage a targeted group of your consumers and to provided continued value of content. A blog can be an easy way for a consumer to engage or an easy way for a company to provide tips on its product or industry.

Ex. Disney was recently listed by Mashable as a company with one of the top 15 corporate blogs (http://mashable.com/2010/08/13/great-corporate-blogs/). They use there blog to keep the Disney experience going while you are at home, with behind the scenes looks into various areas of the entertainment that they provide. Definitely a great way to engage the consumer.

4. Metrics - Once you have your digital marketing in place, it is key to have tools to analyze your ROI. Google Analytics and Adwords are both great simply tools that can be used to see Unique visitors to your site, peak time for visits, what keywords are performing, and things of that nature. Make sure to choose KPI's that fit with your companies definition of success  and continually track those. 

What are some other thoughts that you guys have about Digital Marketing and Strategy?

5 Keys to A/B Testing

Through A/B testing you will be able to tweak and test different variations of websites, landing pages, and other online marketing materials. By A/B testing you are allowing the consumer and the data to prove which idea is the best rather than just speculation. I have 5 quick tips from the years I have spent doing A/B testing.

1. Analytics - it is key to have a good analytics system in place prior to testing. There are some great programs for A/B testing like Sitespect, Omniture, and Google. My company, Neutron Interactive, uses a proprietary in-house system for testing. Whichever analytics system you choose, make sure it is robust enough to allow for scalable changes and splits for testing. You will also want to determine which stats are most important to you during each test (ROI, Click-Through, Bounce Rate, etc...)

2. Target Market Understanding - whether you use panel, syndicated, or other data, it is important to know your audience for what you are testing. A company I do consulting for has a very distinct target audience, but within that audience there are many different personality types (analytical, personal, direct, etc. ). Because of these, I created various landing pages to speak to each audience separately and then to each audience as a whole. The results of the A/B testing variants showed that the analytical page produced the best results. This A/B test not only showed me which page to run, but it also gave me an even better understanding of my audience for that specific promotion.

3. Design - Once you have your analytics setup and you have a basic understanding of your audience, you will want to work on various designs for what you believe will be successful. Try different graphics, text, buttons, colors. The key is to Always be Testing.

4. Analyze Results - Once a large enough sample has been gathered, you will want to determine which test produced the winner result. This may change depending upon which stats you weigh the most. Once you find which test is the best, that page or design will become the new base or control for the next test.

5. Continue Testing - the goal of A/B testing is to continually increase the effectiveness of your marketing, and with each test you want to exceed the control page. Some tests won't be as effective as others. With continual testing you will learn more about your audience, keep a fresh eye on the evolving marketplace, and increase overall brand awareness and reach.

Always Be Testing and Know Your Analytics. These 2 things will ensure continued success in marketing practices.