How should marketers approach social media marketing? What is the place of mobile in an effective advertising campaign? And why is mobile video shaping up to be the next big thing? These are just a few of the questions I explore in an exclusive podcast with Jeffrey Hayzlett, frequent speaker, Celebrity CMO, change agent and sometimes cowboy.
We also walk through the key themes of The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, a must-read business book (authored by Jeff) that has been on USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Inc.’s best-seller lists.
The book — like Jeff, who is known for his outspoken appearances on numerous news and reality TV shows — is not afraid to ask tough questions. It challenges executives and marketers to take a hard look at their businesses, forcing them to evaluate, deconstruct and then reconstruct their business into one that is alive and thriving.
The 118
Part of achieving your objectives is being able to communicate what your business (or brand) is all about. The pitch should be 118 seconds long (8 seconds to get us hooked and 110 seconds to drive it all home).
What belongs in your 118? Jeff lays it out in his book. “Your 118 helps define what promises your brand will build or make. It connects every promise you make to those around you.” No doubt today’s new emphasis on social media in marketing makes that last connection mission-critical.
Since the book was published Jeff tells me that the 118 has become “part of the vernacular” for businesses and brands across a wide range of sectors. Surprisingly, it’s not just about making successful elevator pitches. Jeff reports that CRM execs (those that understand the pivotal role of conversations in acquiring and retaining customers) have adopted and refined the 118 to communicate core brand promises to their customers (us).
Relevancy and personalization
But even the best pitch falls flat if it lacks relevancy and value. The hard truth: “Whether you’re using postcards or posts on Facebook, it does not matter how fast your message gets there if it is irrelevant on arrival.”
How do marketers communicate the value proposition and maintain a personal touch? That’s where social media comes in — and the requirement for new media and models that do more than broadcast a brand message. “When communication is personalized, response rates go up and are faster (and cost less per lead), orders increase, and revenue and profits rise.”
But it’s the feedback channel that can clinch the deal. As Jeff puts it: “Give your audience a chance to interact and spread the word for you.” Read between the lines, and this confirms the importance of social media and underlines the vast potential of mobile to encourage interaction through a two-way conversation.
Cross-media and mobile video
The aim of all marketing messages is “not only to reach our customers but also to provide them with timely, relevant and personalized information and offers.” To this end Jeff is a believer in cross-media campaigns and approaches that allow marketers to step-and-repeat their marketing efforts.
The term comes from printing and the concept of making one good copy to make other copies. As Jeff puts it: “Step-and-repeat gives you the best opportunity to leverage what you have by ensuring that your efforts are always multiplied.”
Because I missed a deeper discussion of mobile in The Mirror Test, I asked Jeff about the role of mobile in step-and-repeat.
In his view, mobile is part of a cross-media strategy– one that ensures that marketers can reuse their marketing materials (step-and-repeat) and — more importantly — deliver their message to the channels people prefer. In his view, “a blended campaign is the best approach … but you are going to have to pick and choose what is most effective.”
An ad format to have high on the radar is mobile video.
Jeff, who also sits on the Board of Advisors of Vdopia, a company that provides both a video ad network and video ad platform. Vdopia’s is primarily focused on the Indian market, but Jeff sees growing opportunity for mobile video across all markets. This trend, also reported in Mobile Marketer, is driven by the rise in smartphone penetration and the advance of tablet devices.
As Jeff sees it: the attraction of mobile video is the realistic experience it delivers. “Whatever people can experience that is most real is what people will want. That’s why video-based marketing is going to be much more important and …marketers are going to have to spend more time and more money in moving to that genre in order to be more effective.”
Experiment, you won’t die
Indeed, the advance of tools and technologies, specifically mobile, turn up the pressure on marketers to “get much more in tune [with social media marketing] and rapid response.”
According to Jeff, The precise mix is not important as long as marketers are focused on the end-game: personalization. “The only way to make things personal in an impersonal world is through the constant building of real relationships, based on direct communication and real data and conversations.…We need to consistently and fiercely be sure we are connecting in the right way — the way the customer wants to stay connected.”
Achieving a balance between broadcast and narrowcast requires marketers to have the courage to experiment — and make mistakes.
This is where mobile comes in. It’s a fresh environment where marketers are free to test concepts, push the boundaries — and win big. “It’s a great way to take chances when no one else is looking — and the majority of people aren’t looking,” Jeff says. “You can go out and play around a little [with campaigns] — find your voice and the best way to deliver the message.”
Do’s and don’ts
Mobile may be a sandbox where new ideas and approaches can flourish. But there are some do’s and don’ts that apply.
For one, use caution.
Marketers have ruined email, spamming people with messages that are impersonal, irrelevant and unwelcome. (And if you doubt the damage done, then consider the raft of reports that show people will avoid brands that deliver a negative experience.)
Jeff warns marketers against repeating the same mistakes — because there’s a lot more at stake. “Mobile will be the last frontier for a lot of us; it’s going to be the destination point.” The advance of mobile (and the spread of smartphones) make mobile the perfect medium for engagement, and spam can ruin it for everyone.
Another thorny issue is location-linked services. Again, no easy answers. But Jeff is clear about the need for restraint.
“Each individual has their own kind of rules around what they consider permissible and that’s going to have to work itself out….For instance, location marketing. Just because it’s on someone’s phone, does that mean they’ve given you permission to be able to solicit them as they walk by the store? I tell the mobile marketers [to] be very careful about how we enter to this next level of permission-based marketing and more personal marketing.”
My Take:
Think cross-media with mobile at the center. (But also mind Jeff’s key message in The Mirror Test: “the speed you need, the tools you have and the competition you face have all changed, but …the basic principles of running a business — who you are and what you stand for — have not changed.”) Against this backdrop, marketers must define the mix of media/channels that allow them to deliver relevant and personal messages quickly and effectively, and they have to abandon the broadcast mode – forever. Jeff’s advice to marketers and managers across all industry sectors (and I second it): “Get engaged, get educated and get excited because these are great tools to empower the customer and build community.”
Listen to the podcast with Jeffrey Hayzlett here. [15:30]
[audio:https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/mobilegroove/2011/04/MOBILEGROOVE_Jeffrey_Hayzlett_Mirror_Test_podcast_4-11.mp3]Editor’s note: Thanks to Jeff and his team (Ellen Hamilton at JeffreyHayzlett.com). I also welcome Paul Skeldon, who assisted in podcast production. Paul runs Videobaby Media – a one-stop-shop for high-quality, entry-level video and audio recording, editing and production for media companies looking to get a foot on the multimedia ladder.
MobileGroove theme music courtesy of the inimitable Dan-O, who offers an awesome selection of free royalty free music for production purposes.