Marketing

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woman-examining-man-brainNo, I’m not being sexist! There’s research to back this up. Really.

According to Mark Ritson PhD (marketing), “Recent advances in our knowledge of the differences between male and female brain functions now provide a far more robust explanation for their superiority in this arena. To put it bluntly, women have a massive genetic advantage when it comes to marketing: their brains are better designed for it.”

Wuhoo! OK, I’m biased, but it’s great news for the girls.

Here are some interesting facts: Continue reading


Sleeping-twitter-birdSometimes I question the point of social media sites like Twitter. Most people relish the thought of having lots of followers, but realistically, how can anyone manage it?

As of this week, I have roughly 4900 Twitter followers. These were all organically gained - no paid services.

I follow the ones who have something in common with me professionally. In other words, those who tweet about marketing, branding, customers, and other business topics.

The funny thing about Twitter and others like it, is that tweets are visible for a fleeting moment in time. So, realistically, we can only access those people who are tweeting while we’re checking our Twitter accounts.

So, if you have followers in different time zones, what are the chances that you’ll ever see what they have to share? Unless you’re like me, and you frequently wake up in the middle of the night with an overloaded brain and access to a tablet on your nightstand.

Very savvy peeps (like social media specialists) will pre-schedule their tweets and re-tweets to run 24/7. But, that’s a lot of work that most people don’t do.

Inevitably, we end up engaging with those who participate at the same times that we do. What a waste, isn’t it?

Realistically, our tweets are but a fleeting moment in time. With this in mind, how effective can Twitter marketing be?

What do you think? Does it work for you?


witch-brew

Double double, toil and trouble
Make today a spooky one.
Put off your marketing until it’s done,
Take a break and have some fun!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

Elaine


Woman Chasing Money With a Butterfly NetDonor retention numbers are poor. Between 2011 and 2012, nonprofits lost 105 donors per 100 new and recovered ones. (“Donor Retention: How to Keep Donors Coming Back After the First Gift“)

Not encouraging at all, is it?

And, for small nonprofits, the picture is worse. “Organizations raising more than $500,000 had a 16.6% overall positive rate of growth, while those raising $100,000 to $500,000 had a net loss of -5.1%. Organizations raising less than $100,000 showed a net loss of -13.5%.” (Nonprofit Quarterly)

Many expert speculations abound. Adrian Sargeant, the Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, says that donors often cite the following reasons they no longer donate to a particular cause:

  • No longer able to afford support
  • No memory of ever supporting (more frequent than you might imagine!)
  • Still supporting in some other way
  • Thinking that the cause no longer needs their support
  • Relocation
  • Not reminded to give again
  • Nonprofit did not inform donor how donations were used
  • Nonprofit’s communications were inappropriate
  • Nonprofit asked for inappropriate sums

Other than the reasons in purple, the rest are all ‘fixable.’ And, what’s more, they are part of an overarching mindset that many nonprofits fail to tackle - making the brand experience amazing!

And, what does that mean?

  • The organization needs to weave a customer orientation into every transaction and behavior. Every single employee and volunteer should receive ongoing training and evaluation on living the brand and putting nonprofit customers first. And, that includes employees, too. They are internal customers. It needs to be part of the organizational culture.
  • The organization needs to engage its donors a lot more. Find out more about them. Not, as an aggregate, as individuals as much as possible given the size of the database. What can your organization do for them? The first step to accomplish this is to follow your donors back in social media! Do you know how many nonprofits aren’t following and listening to their supporters? Reach out and help, especially when it has nothing to do with your mission. There’s a proven psychology about reciprocity.

“The rule of reciprocity is a type of social norm that can have a powerful influence on our behavior… This rule operates on a simple principle: We tend to feel obligated to return favors after people do favors for us… In many cases, the rule of reciprocity is actually a good thing. It helps us behave in socially acceptable ways and allows us to engage in social give-and-take with the people around us.” (What is the Rule of Reciprocity?)

  • Be human. Use your nonprofit’s brand personality and be real with donors.
  • Invest in the most important things that retain donors: marketing, branding, and customer orientation. Quit firing and rehiring fundraisers because they couldn’t deliver. The responsibility begins with senior management and the board.

What I fail to understand is why so many nonprofits see these solutions as a luxury instead of a necessity?

Why is there so much resistance? Got any theories?


What’s your organization’s top content marketing goal? Would you like to know if it’s the same as 79% of B2C (business-to-consumer) and 82% of B2B (business-to-business) companies?

A study from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) says that “B2B marketers remain slightly more likely than B2C marketers to be using content marketing (93% and 90%, respectively), per the studies, with the former also more likely to rate their efforts as being effective (42% and 34%, respectively). Adoption and effectiveness appear to be on the increase for both groups.”

Before I get to the top content marketing goal, here are some interesting comparisons between B2C and B2B:

  • This year, 72% of B2C marketers said they’re creating more content than they did one year ago, about on par with the 73% of B2B marketers increasing their level of output. Meanwhile, 60% of B2C content marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months, as do 58% of B2B content marketers.
  • B2B marketers still allocate a higher share of their budgets to content marketing than their B2C counterparts, though (30% and 24%, respectively).
  • For B2C content marketers, the most widely used tactics are social media other than blogs (88%), articles on their websites (78%), e-newsletters (76%) and blogs (72%), with the same order of adoption apparent among B2B marketers.
  • Facebook is – predictably – the most commonly used social platform to distribute content among B2C content marketers (by 89%), and is also rated the most effective by its users (62%). For B2B marketers, LinkedIn is both most-used and most-highly rated.
  • Web traffic is the top content marketing metric for both B2C (66%) and B2B (63%) marketers. Social media sharing is relatively more important to B2C respondents, who are far less interested in measuring sales quality and quantity.
  • Lack of time is the top challenge faced by both B2C (57%) and B2B (69%) content marketers. B2C respondents are relatively more concerned with producing the kind of content that engages, while B2B marketers are more concerned with producing enough content.
  • 39% of B2C marketers have a documented content strategy, compared to 44% of B2B marketers.

Okay now. The TOP content marketing goal for both B2C and B2B: Brand awareness! B2C (79%) and B2B (82%).

Customer acquisition (71%) and retention/loyalty (65%) are the next-most common goals for B2C respondents, while lead generation is next among B2B respondents.

And, again… what’s your organization’s top content marketing goal? Is it the same as this study indicates? Please share.

Chart: MarketingCharts

CMIMarketingProfs-B2B-B2C-Content-Marketing-Trends-Compared-Oct2013

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