Posts

What’s The Buzz? Join us for Lunch to Find Out.

/0 Comments/in /by

Over the past couple of years, through our popular quarterly Lunch & Learn programs, we have tried to present new marketing tips, tricks and techniques.  Our goals are to continue to help you add more arrows to your quiver to enable you to make your marketing efforts, and the measurement of those efforts, more effective.

Our next Lunch & Learn on Thursday, November 29, takes a slightly different approach.  With the variety of marketing channels available, it becomes critical for successful marketing professionals to focus on the necessary tasks to support the organization’s marketing goals.  In addition to the tools, it is also necessary to incorporate not just a project management tool, but a marketing management tool.  Marketers must be able to effectively focus on how to create, store and distribute marketing content in ways that not only save money, but maximize resources while producing higher returns on marketing investment. And that’s exactly what our next Lunch & Learn will showcase.

Jon Davis, COO of lee|Stafford, will present marketing success stories that utilized their Beehive Protocol software.  The Beehive Software solution empowers marketers to support multiple campaigns, channels and activities – both online and offline.  In short, it provides ways to help marketers – Organize, Communicate, Respond, Track, Adjust and Improve.

Jon is a veteran of the medical device and healthcare industries.  He has been instrumental in the development of patient communication efforts and in thousands of product launches that represent billions of dollars in sales for his clients, all using the BeeHive Protocol proprietary software that he helped develop.

Please join us for lunch as Jon introduces this concept of how to available software allows you to maximize your quick response marketing needs in compelling case study examples.

And if that is not incentive enough, one lucky attendee will win a new iPad Mini!

I look forward to seeing you on the 29th!  Register here.

image

Paul Strack, CustomXM

@pstrack

Marketing, Networking & BBQ!

/0 Comments/in /by

One of my favorite aspects of small business ownership is the flexibility to be able to do things out of the norm, away from the daily routine, while hopefully bringing value to clients and prospects.  Our quarterly Lunch & Learns are a perfect example of this.  Over the past two years, we have had the opportunity to explore the latest in marketing trends from social media to location and mobile marketing and all things in between.  We’ve received great feedback from our attendees, and have tried to tailor our programs to help meet their needs.  And of key importance for me, we’ve had fun doing it.

Being a borderline “ham”, I always enjoy the role as a presenter.  On other occasions when we bring in guest experts, I find equal pleasure in playing host to our many guests.  Next Thursday, March 29, I have the pleasure of welcoming back to Little Rock my favorite Bostonian, John Foley, Jr.  John was with us just last June, but so much has changed in these past 9 months that we’ve asked him to come back for an encore presentation.  He will be presenting his “State of the Union” of social media and mobile marketing.  Here are just of a few of the challenges and questions he will be addressing:

  • Are the social and mobile channels actually working for marketing efforts?
  • Are customers and prospect benefitting from all the available mobile interaction?
  • Are businesses actually improving revenue by spending more money in these areas?

You may be familiar with some of the topics, and some may be completely new to you.  Either way, I guarantee an informative, entertaining 90 minutes chock full of marketing takeaways.  Throw in a catered lunch, it is the best $10 business value in town.

If you are not familiar with John, or want to hear a little more information, take a look at this video:

So if you are involved in marketing, or enjoy new trends and technology, or are looking for a networking opportunity and a great lunch, please join us on March 29th.

Register here:  http://IntegratingMedia.com

I look forward to seeing you next Thursday.

image

Paul Strack, CustomXM

@pstrack

Marketing, Networking & BBQ!

/0 Comments/in /by

One of my favorite aspects of small business ownership is the flexibility to be able to do things out of the norm, away from the daily routine, while hopefully bringing value to clients and prospects.  Our quarterly Lunch & Learns are a perfect example of this.  Over the past two years, we have had the opportunity to explore the latest in marketing trends from social media to location and mobile marketing and all things in between.  We’ve received great feedback from our attendees, and have tried to tailor our programs to help meet their needs.  And of key importance for me, we’ve had fun doing it.

Being a borderline “ham”, I always enjoy the role as a presenter.  On other occasions when we bring in guest experts, I find equal pleasure in playing host to our many guests.  Next Thursday, March 29, I have the pleasure of welcoming back to Little Rock my favorite Bostonian, John Foley, Jr.  John was with us just last June, but so much has changed in these past 9 months that we’ve asked him to come back for an encore presentation.  He will be presenting his “State of the Union” of social media and mobile marketing.  Here are just of a few of the challenges and questions he will be addressing:

  • Are the social and mobile channels actually working for marketing efforts?
  • Are customers and prospect benefitting from all the available mobile interaction?
  • Are businesses actually improving revenue by spending more money in these areas?

You may be familiar with some of the topics, and some may be completely new to you.  Either way, I guarantee an informative, entertaining 90 minutes chock full of marketing takeaways.  Throw in a catered lunch, it is the best $10 business value in town.

If you are not familiar with John, or want to hear a little more information, take a look at this video:

So if you are involved in marketing, or enjoy new trends and technology, or are looking for a networking opportunity and a great lunch, please join us on March 29th.

Register here:  http://IntegratingMedia.com

I look forward to seeing you next Thursday.

image

Paul Strack, CustomXM

@pstrack

True Confessions – That Dinosaur will Hunt

/0 Comments/in /by

We recently hosted our quarterly Lunch & Learn, and as always, the speakers and topics provided a cornucopia of marketing morsels.  Titled True Confessions – Real Life Stories of Marketers in the Digital Age, it actually turned out to be more of a something old, something new, something borrowed & something blue– type event.

All in attendance seemed to be in agreement that marketing communications – the art of telling a story, promoting a product – is certainly an activity that is borrowed.  It’s nothing new really.  It’s just that now, there are so many more techniques available that allow us to be more effective in how we do it.

Brian Bush of Stephens Inc. opened the presentations with the discussion of something old.  And no, it had nothing to do with Brian himself.  Brian told the story of how Direct Mail, that dinosaur of direct marketing, is leading to success with his target market.  Here are some of the nuggets he shared:

  • Because of its strong brand awareness, Stephens has never really felt the need for a direct marketing campaign.  So this direct mail approach was certainly a new endeavor.
  • Along these same lines, because of the Stephens brand and image, Brian said that many investors believed that they did not possess the wealth necessary to be worthy of being a Stephens’ client.  Takeaway point: There is often a disconnect between how you perceive your brand, and how prospects perceive your brand.
  • Brian also shared that the first approach to the carefully selected database was a direct mail campaign that drive respondents to landing pages (pURL campaign).  While it did have some success, more respondents preferred to contact Brian via phone or email, rather than online. Takeaway point: Know your audience and learn how they prefer to communicate.  Today’s marketing tools allow you to do that quite effectively.
  • Because of the lack of response to the actual PURL campaign, that particular response mechanism was eliminated in future mailings.  Takeaway point: Measure your results, not only to repeat methods that are successful, but to eliminate those that are not.
  • Finally, Brian touched briefly on the design aspect of the marketing pieces.  While a flashy, engaging, even humorous approach was briefly considered, it was decided to use a more corporate conservative approach.  In today’s volatile stock market environment, an even-keeled, serious tone is more effective.

Or, to put it another way, Greg Henderson (@jgreghenderson), summarized this takeaway point best with a tweet:  Old rich guys do not like color on their mail.

So while some may consider direct mail to be a dinosaur of available marketing channels, for Brian Bush and Stephens Inc., it still is causing folks to take notice, and react.  And that is what good marketing does.

Up next in our True Confession series, we will learn how Jason Brown (@jbrown935) of The Communications Group used something new to attract attendees to its client’s trade show booth.

image

Paul Strack, CustomXM

@pstrack

Good Grief! Another On-Line Relationship Exposed!

/0 Comments/in /by

It started innocently enough, as do most on-line, long distance relationships.  One evening after hours, I was alone in my office surfing the internet, and came across this website that was truly engaging.  It seemed to offer something that I had been missing.

So I explored further, digging deeper into the background. I reacted to what I saw.  Making sure it was a match I felt comfortable with, I shared some information, and inquired further. Then there was reaction on the other end. Some emails quickly followed; some even contained very interesting attachments. All very good stuff. Then along came Twitter and the relationship blossomed.  The messages were delivered timely, and all seemed to be speaking personally to me. As the inquiries intensified, so did the responses to them.  Email, direct mail, text messages, and yes, even that first, somewhat nervous “live” phone chat.

Our much anticipated face-to-face meeting came during a conference, in a restaurant near Chicago’s Midway airport.  As expected it was slightly awkward at first.  But then, because we had developed this relationship on-line, meeting in real life only confirmed the fact that this was bound to happen, sooner or later:

I invite you to join my friend John Foley (@johnfoleyjr) for our next Lunch & Learn series on Thursday, June 23rd from 11:30 – 1:00.  This exciting session will introduce to you the best methods of a multi-channel marketing approach to increase your marketing effectiveness.  Register here.

In the meantime, since John will be visiting us from Boston, he wants to make the most of his Arkansas experience.  He has already expressed a desire to experience a HubCap burger.  What suggestions do you have?