FEED: The 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report now available

“In today’s increasingly digital world, the experience is the message.” Razorfish’s Group Vice President of Experience Planning Garrick Schmitt (@gschmitt) introduces the 2009 FEED Report, a concise and invaluable output of leading edge digital consumer research.

Topics include:

• Digital Brand Experiences Create Customers
• Actions Speak Louder Than Advertising
• Digital Fluency
• The Language of Love for Brands? Deals.
• Measuring Brand Engagement

…and more.

“This report is probably the best analysis of online consumer behavior” according to Guy Kawasaki.

Check out the blog:
http://feed.razorfish.com/

Download the report:
http://feed.razorfish.com/downloads/Razorfish_FEED09.pdf

If you want to tweet about the report, use the hashtag #FEED09.

@iclazie

Print Beautiful Catalogs Using These Color Tips

Color catalogs look far more attractive than black and white ones, and so are more effective marketing tools. Just adding color will increase the appeal of your print catalog, but if you want to take your catalog to the next level, there are a few color guidelines that will help.

Be Consistent With All Publications
To reinforce product branding when printing catalogs, use the same color scheme in every publication and on all your signage and marketing materials. This is not to say all your photos in the catalog should have the same colors in them, but your cover page, logo, and order form pages should have the same color scheme.

Use Color for Impact
On each page of your print catalog, there should be one product that stands out. You can do this by having a monochromatic background that contrasts with the product you want to emphasize. For instance, you can emphasize a bright red coat by using a picture of a model wearing it on a gray city street. Using only a few colors per page also makes the spread look more attractive. If you were to use lots of colors inconsistently on the page, it would just look busy, and nothing would really stand out.

Use Colored Text Sparingly
Black text on a white background is the easiest to read. In your efforts to be creative, you must keep in mind whether or not your words are readable, because if people have to struggle to read your catalog, they are less likely to order from it. On the other hand, if you want to emphasize only a few words, this is one instance in which colored text is acceptable. For instance, you could put the word “sale” in red. If only a few words are in color, then they stand out much more than if the entire page is full of colored words.

Use Background Bleeds
Using background bleeds in your print catalog makes it look more attractive and professional. When bleeds are used in printing, the background color extends a little beyond the edge of the page. That way, the color extends all the way across the page and there are no white edges showing in the final printed product. Just remember that when you use this technique you need to keep your text and important images within your printer’s safety guidelines so they don’t accidentally get cut off during the trimming process.

The Secret To Success...Passion

I get asked frequently, in this economy, “How is your business doing?” I tell all, “That we are thriving and that most of our clients are thriving.” They then ask, “What makes the difference?” I then give them the advice Jon  Gordon articulates, The strongest may survive but it is the passionate that will thrive. If you want to be successful today you must do the tough thing and prune your team, and then load your team with passionate people… and most of all you must be passionate yourself. In the past maybe you could be lukewarm and mediocre and still be successful. Not anymore. Now, in today’s competitive environment, your passion and your purpose must be greater than your challenges. You have to be willing to work harder, run faster, drive further, study more, practice longer, lead better, sweat more, love deeper and this requires passion. Passion wakes you up earlier. It dials your phone one more time to make one more sale. It rallies your team together when times are tough. It moves you to see one more patient after a long day at the hospital. It provides legendary customer service. Passion transforms workplaces.

 

But what about someone who has a low paying job or who is in a job that quite frankly is hard to be passionate about you might ask? I get this question often and my answer is: “It’s not the job or the money you are being paid but the passion that you bring to your job that matters.” After all, I’ve got fast food worker clients who are more passionate about their jobs than some of the professional athletes making millions of dollars that we serve.

If your people aren’t passionate about the work they do and the people they work with, and if they aren’t passionate about your brand and mission, then you need to let them off the team so they can find another team where they can live their passion. This is good for them and it’s good for your team. By letting disengaged employees off the team you make room for those who are passionate about your team and organization-and with a company filled with passionate people you will thrive while others merely try to survive.

Wayne T. Essex Ph.D. Essex & Associates, Inc. Tax, Accounting, HR, Payroll

 



"The Collective" - Yeni Odak Merkezi

Gartner communitylerin tümünü ve oradaki bireylerin ve grupların tümünü “The Collective” olarak isimlendiriyor.

Buyrun bunun Türkçesine ne demeli???

Önerileri olan buraya yorumlarını yazarsa, birlikte Türkçemize yeni bir kelime, kavram kazandırabiliriz.

“The Collective” web 2.0, web 3.0 ve enterprise 2.0, enterprise 3.0 dünyasında bireylere ve gruplara daha çok önem verilmesi gerektiğini vurguluyor. Sadece pazarlama amaçlı değil, daha çok hassasiyet göstermek için, inovasyon için fikir toplamak için, fikirler hakkında feedback almak için, müşteriler ve bireyler arası self-support tesis etmek için, önemsenmeli, kullanılmalı.

Bankada kendi işimizi kendimiz halletmeye alıştık. Hatta şubeye gitmemekten dolayı memnunuz. Çünkü istediğimiz zaman yapabiliyoruz, çünkü istediğimiz yerden yapabiliyoruz. Bu kabiliyetlerini önemseyen kurumlar, mümkün olduğunca iyileştirmeye ve geliştirmeye gayret ediyorlar.

Telekom şirketleri çağrı merkezinde ve destek internet sitesinde gönüllük bazlı, müşterilerin birbirlerine yardımcı olmasına izin veriyor. Çünkü pek çok müşteri destek uzmanlarından daha iyi destek verebilecek konumda. Böylece o tüketici kişisel tatmin ve sevinç yaşıyor, iyi hizmet alan diğer müşteri memnun oluyor ve telekom şirketi sadece platformu sağlayarak ilave bir masrafa girmeden müşterilerine destek vermiş ve müşteri memnuniyetini artırmış oluyor. “Let them work for you and make it convenient”

Nasıl? Hoş, değil mi?

Peki! Şu “The Collective” için Türkçe önerisi olan var mı? Teşekkürler.

Qualifications

When I was hiring, I wrote the list of requirements for the job honestly, and then bumped them up a notch. Prior to that, when I was looking for work, it seemed like the job requirements were written by hopeless dreamers. I mean, come on! What MBA grad with 7-10 years of experience is going to take an entry-level job? I wouldn’t even approach a company that published an opening like that, because it raises questions about their realism, practicality, and ability to communicate honestly.

Of course, they might have just been prospecting to see what the talent pool looked like, but that’s neither here nor there.

Even during the recession, I’ve heard “experts” say that, if you’re 70%-80% qualified for a position, you should go for it. Fire up your networking, talk to the hiring manager, and see what you can do. Just as when I bumped up my requirements a notch to weed out the least likely candidates, they may waive some of the hiring requirements if you’ve got the right chemistry with the hiring manager and her team.

On that note, I wanted to share something that Robert Townsend said in Further Up the Organization. He’s talking about promotions, but the same principles apply to hiring.

I use the rule of 50 percent. Try to find somebody inside the company with a record of success (in any area) and with an appetite for the job. If he looks like 50 percent of what you need, give him the job. In six months he’ll have grown the other 50 percent and everybody will be satisfied…

One of the keys is to pick someone within the company who has a well-deserved reputation as a winner. Not someone who looks to you like a potential winner but doesn’t happen to be fitting in very well where he is.

The organization will rally around an accepted winner, even when he’s temporarily over his head, because in their eyes he deserves the chance.

The last person I hired into Wizards of the Coast was very unpopular. Many people who had nothing to do with the hiring process or working with the new hire believed I hired him because he was a former boss’ favorite bartender. Fortunately, my current boss brought the concerns to me and gave me a chance to address them. I explained that the new guy had excellent chemistry with the team, and he’d been an Air Force loadmaster on C-141 cargo planes when he was still a teenager. From my own military experience, I knew that was an incredible responsibility to shoulder.

That new hire lasted longer at Wizards of the Coast than almost anybody else on the team. He had a proven track record, the right chemistry, and the potential to grow into the technical knowledge and customer service skills we needed.

Franchising MyComm.net, le nuove affilizioni di settembre e ottobre 2009

Urbino, Torino, Cosenza, Sulmona e Brescia: nell’ordine le nuove strutture affiliate e contrattualizzate al franchising MyComm.net in questo primo bimestre post-ferie.
Altre trattavive in corso e nuovi contatti sviluppati durante i 4 giorni di manifestazione al F&T di Milano aggiungeranno ben presto, al già numeroso gruppo di affiliati, altre nuove strutture affiliate.

Se anche tu vuoi valutare una delle più interessanti opportunità di business nell’ambito della comunicazione mobile (Marketing via SMS ed MMS e VideoSpot su cellulare) contattaci e verifica la grande opportunità che possiamo offrirti in questo mercato. Cogliamo l’occasione per augurare ai nuovi affiliati e più in generale a tutti gli affiliati Buon Lavoro.

Un caro Saluto
dr. Giacomo Lenoci – Direzione Generale ITALIA

http://www.okfranchising.it/

7 Ways to Drive Affiliate Marketing Traffic

An affiliate marketer may have all the things needed for him to be able to succeed in a business such as affiliate marketing.  He may have the necessary drive, diligence and perseverance to be able to understand how the system works.  He may have all the tools necessary in maintaining the business, including a really unique and interesting website which could earn him a fortune if only the whole world could see it.  However, all these would prove useless if he does not know how to drive traffic to his website.  His business would sink into oblivion together with all the sales, fortune and dreams that he might have realized if he only knew how to do this particular task.

Getting people who matter to see one’s website is a difficult undertaking if he tries to consider the fact that there are rivals everywhere waiting to pin him down.  The immensity of the internet as well as the affiliate marketing world has given birth to the fierce competition between affiliate marketers, each of whom has his own great product to offer.  With all the websites piling on top of each other, how would one be able to stand out?  The seven best ways to drive laser-targeted traffic to one’s own website would help those who are bent on sticking it out with this business wherever it is bound to take them.

The first step in driving traffic to one’s website is by relying on search engines and what they can do for the affiliate marketer concerned.  Because they are popular for driving free targeted traffic, they should not be ignored by all means.  Having top search engine rankings is vital in building popularity links, and the use of the right keywords is important in attaining this goal.  Once a website is on top of the list, it is easily accessible to anyone who wants to see it for himself.

The second way in driving traffic to one’s website is by contacting other webmasters for a possible link exchange partnership.  Locating websites that are related to one’s own website is the primary task.  Once there, he should be able to establish communication by personalizing everything as much as possible.  It is then possible to make reciprocal link exchanges between webmasters whichever way the affiliate marketer prefers.

The third way is through writing one’s own articles.  This is an effective way in promoting a website, because good content that are appreciated by readers will lead them to visit the writer’s very own website out of sheer interest.

The fourth way is through joint venture marketing.  This is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or a service.  Having a partner through ad swap or link exchange is beneficial to both parties as it allows them to reach a wide customer base in a short amount of time.

The fifth is through joining affiliate programs.  Having affiliates to do the work means allowing them to bring tons of traffic to a website.  Skyrocketing sales would be realized as a result, and both the affiliate and the website owner will benefit from the situation.

The sixth is by having a list of subscribers that one can refer to every so often, because they are those which would prove to be valuable assets for the marketer concerned.  The use of autoresponders and personalized newsletters is one way of keeping track of them all, and holding on to them by letting them know about new products and services is an essential task that should be done by the affiliate marketer concerned.

The seventh is by knowing one’s market through and through.  It is important for traffic to be targeted to those who might have a special interest in the theme or topic of one’s website.  This way, a solid customer base is going to be created.  Once a potential customer shows an interest in a particular website by paying it a visit, one must not waste time in trying to show him that his effort is worth it.

Traffic generating strategies are important in trying to make one’s affiliate marketing career inch forward.  It is always advantageous to plan one’s moves in any business that he might undertake.  This is particularly so in affiliate marketing.  If one knows how to get people to see what he has to offer, then he is on the right track.