Author: Robert Pease

Email Marketing Tip: Ignore Replies at Your Own Peril

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Email

Part of the standard marketing playbook that (I hope) everyone uses are timely and relevant updates and annoucements to your customer/subscriber base via email.  There are a variety of dead simple tools out there that do this like VerticalResponse, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and ExactTarget that all have different levels of sophistication but essentially do the same thing:

  1. Provide an editor to create email content (text, html, etc.)
  2. Proivide a list manager to upload and organize email addresses
  3. Provide reporting to see opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, etc.

The wide availability of these types of solutions means pretty much anyone can use one if they have something to say and a list of opt-in email addresses (i.e, no spamming).  I am a firm believer in respecting the inbox of your recipient and delivering meaningful, relevant information where unsubscribing is easy so don't abuse the priviledge of being able to send someone an email – it can be revoked quickly…and completely.

One of the things I most look forward to after sending out an email update are the responses.  I have learned many things over the years including things I didn't want to find out like like broken links, formatting problems, and mis-spelling to important things like customer issues and even compliments and praise.

I am continually surprised when email updates arrive in my inbox and no one is paying attention to the responses.  If you send me an email, don't you at least consider the fact I may respond? Worse yet, why would you not monitor the replies…and tell me that?

Try responding to the next one you receive with a question or observation and see if you get a response.

Stop being so concerned about yourself, your open rates, your click rates, etc. and focus on the person to whom you are sending the email.  Just because you are sending many at one time does not mean that they all won't be received and acted upon individually.

Set aside the time to respond personally and you'll be amazed at what you learn.

Creating a marketing message

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This is my second post on market readiness.  My first one dealt with knowing your strategic landscape and using this piece of analysis to drive both strategic and tactical decision making. 

Now that you know where you are…and where you want to go, it's time to develop compelling and meaningful marketing messaging and positioning.  This can be (and has been) a frustrating exercise to go through as you really are getting down to the words that you use to describe you, your market, and your offering with the goal of an agreed upon and relevant reference document that will drive external and internal communications.  

Do you offer the most or best of something?
Are you first or are you the only one? Who is it for and what benefit
do they receive?  Don't tell people how, tell them why.

I have previously written about why positioning matters here and believe it is a combination of creative writing, strategic thinking, and market research…so don't forget to get outside the four walls and test your message on anyone and everyone. 

Ultimately with your marketing messaging you are seeking two fundamental things:

  • Definition – what you do, what makes it compelling, and the benefit(s) you provide
  • Contrast – how you are unlike alternatives keeping in mind this can be competitors, existing approaches, or the dreaded 'do nothing.'

Here's a checklist of items to create:

  1. A positioning statement (here is a framework)
  2. A short message (50-100 words)
  3. A long message (250-500 words)
  4. A description of the problem you are solving
  5. How you differentiate from alternatives (see contrast above)
  6. Brand attributes – the words you want to use to describe your company
  7. Words to avoid – words you don't want used to describe your company
  8. A 25 word (or shorter) description based on all of the above – yes, this is hard

Start with those building blocks and the definition/contrast approach to provide some structure around this effort with the goal of preparing a positioning guide that you will revisit at regular intervals – more frequently if you are in a fast moving market. 

Once you have this nailed down into a positioning guide, share it with everyone in your company and use it to form the basis of web site content, collateral, outreach, or any other place you need to use compelling content to describe your company and what you do.

Looking for help on messaging or positioning?  Email me and I'd be happy to brainstorm with you.

Easy roasted red pepper sauce

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I spent some time tinkering in the kitchen last night and made one of my favorite sauces to go along with a nice grilled rib eye steak.  I am a huge fan of roasted red bell peppers and this sauce will go nicely with just about anything – alongside a steak, on pasta, or with fish. 

Here's how I made it and apologies for the lack of precise measurement (I don't cook that way):

  • Roast three red bell peppers under the broiler; pour a bit of olive oil on each and rotate until the skin is charred on all sides
  • Place roasted red bell peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (you are doing this to make it easier to remove the skin)
  • In a sauce pan, pour in some stock (vegetable or chicken) and add minced garlic, chopped fresh basil, a bit of hot chili oil, and a pinch of red pepper flakes along with salt and both black and white pepper.
  • Bring this to a boil and add a squeeze of dijon mustard, a light squeeze of tomato paste, and some capers (you can also use anchovy paste as either adds depth of flavor)
  • Remove the charred skin from red peppers by running water into the bowl while peeling the skin away
  • Add the now peeled peppers to the sauce pan
  • Add some milk (or cream if you want to make it really rich)
  • Pour all of this into a food processor and blend away (be careful about blending hot liquid or you'll paint your kitchen red)
  • Return to the sauce pan and reduce a bit (you can even strain it if you want it really smooth)
  • Serve and enjoy

This makes plenty and it only gets better as it sits so put what you don't use into the fridge to use again (like I am going to do tonight along with grilled halibut).

Video of two F-18s flying over my house

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This weekend marks the annual visit by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels to Seattle.  As part of the festivities around Seafair, there is an airshow and boat races on Lake Washington. 

This is footage of two F-18s flying over my house as part of the Boeing airshow (not the Blue Angels).  I missed recording them on their way in but managed to grab my Flip video camera on their way out.  

I love a good flyover…


Headed to the AAPC Strategic Outlook Conference in Sacramento this week

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AAPC_Sacramento

I am headed to Sacramento end of this week for the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Strategic Outlook Conference. 

We are seeing quite a bit of Gist usage by those in campaigns and here is a post over on the Gist blog about how Communications and Finance Directors are using it.

If you are going to be there or are in Sacramento and want to connect Thurs/Fri this week, let me know – robertcpease at gmail dot com.

Know your strategic landscape

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I am going to be doing a few posts on market readiness and wanted to start with a discussion around the importance of knowing your strategic landscape.

Done properly, this piece of analysis can guide positioning efforts, drive partnership priorities, and help explain why partnerships or acquisitions come together between various companies in the marketplace.  I generally start by laying out my version of a value chain for the market I am analyzing.  This is a bit of a creative exercise designed to map vendors into one or more functional 'buckets.'  Taken together, the buckets represent the whole solution and essentially a market value chain for the category or segment you are examining so it is not a pure value chain with all due respect to Michael Porter.

For example, Google acquired Postini several years ago for hosted/on-demand spam filtering.  Google's Gmail product is a cloud-based email application and there were a variety of functional "buckets" around that functionality needed to make it a whole product, namely anti-spam/anti-virus and archiving.  Postini brought both of these capabilities to Gmail so this made perfect sense…and was visually laid out in a strategic landscape around enterprise messaging.

If you are starting a company, work in corporate development, or invest in fast moving markets, this piece of analysis is a must have. 

I'm happy to share more about how to build landscapes and how to use them.  Email me at robertcpease at gmail dot com.

Having the courage to try

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What do you do when a problem arises or a situation occurs that needs immediate action even though that action may not be completely thought through and the problem/situation may be less than defined?  Do you have the courage to try or do you wait for others to try and comfortably critique once you have seen the outcome?

Make a point to have the courage to try and own the result.  If you are one of those who rests comfortably on the sidelines while others try, you are only showing your cowardice and wasting your creativity. 

This hits at one of my management philosophies about not stating a problem without a suggested solution AND being prepared to own it…otherwise, don't bring it up.

Something to think about….

I promise to return more actively to blogging.  Been way busy and the sun is finally out in Seattle making 140 character updates via Twitter preferred.  You can follow me there @ReplyToAll.

What really matters

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I started writing this yesterday after a bit of a blogging hiatus but put it down in an effort to take my own advice.  It's Monday here in Seattle and we are wrapping up another 50ish degree, cloudy day…and longing for a bit of Summer to finally come to the Northwest.  My thoughts from yesterday…

As a dreary and cloudy Father's Day comes to close here in Seattle, I am reflecting on what really matters most to me in my life…and they aren't "things."  I never understood what it meant when friends said their children mattered more than anything else to them…until I had children of my own.  I think what matters most are your your health, your family, and your friends.  Everything else is so less important – your title, your wealth, your on-line connections, etc.

So whether you are a Father or not, take a moment to think about what really matters in the big picture of life and tell your parents, spouse, partner, and/or children you love them.

Heading to the Personal Democracy Forum in NYC this week

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PersonalDemocracyForumlogo

I am headed to New York this week to attend the Personal Democracy Forum.  Why?  Because, as the tag line says, technology is changing politics and what we are doing at Gist is very relevant to this. 

We have been having discussions with folks from left, right, and everywhere in between about their need to quickly collect, consume, and act on information.  Whether you are working on a campaign and want to get a complete view of your candidate and the opposition, advocating a certain issue or cause, or working to raise the money needed to power a campaign, Gist constantly works to bring the latest traditional and non-traditional news together in one place about the people that matter most to you.

The rise of the on-line influencer (someone who is an empowered individual with a following of readers) and the increased speed of communication have given rise to the need for a whole new approach and tool set to connecting with people and, more importantly, connecting them to each other.  Glenn Reynolds wrote a fabulous book some time ago called An Army of Davids which takes up this topic and details the power the Internet gives us all as individuals to connect, organize, and drive our democracy among other things.  All very cool stuff.

Looking forward to sharing my thoughts after the event wraps…