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Jason OConnor
The Distinct Advantage of One-to-One Marketing One-to-one marketing's meaning is simple: Treat different people differently. One-to-one marketing is communications that are anticipated, relevant and personalized. Messages that are expected—because they were in some way requested, and are furthermore pertinent and individual—succeed in handling diverse people distinctively. By making messages anticipated, relevant and personal, the marketer is creating an advantage over old-school, 20th-century "interruption" marketers. Get the full story. Please note: This article is available to paid subscribers only. Get more information or sign up here.
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Stephan Spencer
Move Over Blogs: Here Come Podcasts If you haven't heard of podcasting yet, I am not surprised. It's a brand new term—just invented earlier this year, in fact. Podcasting refers to the technology used to pull digital audio files from Web sites down to computers and devices such as MP3 players. It's a significant departure from traditional broadcasting because it removes the time requirement; you can listen to a podcast radio program or interview any time. How will podcasting relate to marketing? Get the full story.
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Gerry McGovern
Search Optimization, Not Search Engine Optimization If you want to succeed with search engines in the long term, you should not primarily focus on how the search engine works. Rather, you should focus on how the brain of the searcher works. Because if you understand how people search, you're halfway there to getting found when they search for your content. Get the full story.
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A Note to Readers Shocking...then Awing! Last week was an eventful week here at MarketingProfs, at least on the customer service front. And by "eventful," I mean it was full of the sort of events that make publishers like us sweat. Here's what happened: a number of our Premium subscribers who pay for their subscriptions via PayPal had their MarketingProfs membership suddenly terminated. As you probably know, Premium subscribers give us money to access our premium content (and a host of other goodies like virtual seminars). In other words... we like these folks. A lot. And we want to keep them. But it's not our policy to renew subscribers automatically when their membership is up for renewal (we want them to make that decision all on their own). However, last week we learned that our Premium members would be automatically re-billed if they originally paid with PayPal. As our Customer Service Ninja Shelley Ryan explained: "We thought we'd stop that madness and shut down those automatic PayPal renewals." But, instead, MProfs became like an overprotective mother: despite our good intentions, our meddling caused more of a problem—and memberships were terminated without warning. Obviously, we were mortified. But, in my view, Shelley's honesty, humility and humor turned around a potential disaster. Speaking on behalf of all of us here, she owned up to the problem immediately—sending out an email with the subject line, "=> MarketingProfs MISTAKE <=" She wrote, "We just made a Major League goof this afternoon. If you got a notice from PayPal that your MarketingProfs membership has been canceled, please don't panic. We love you too much to go on a wild cancellation spree!"
Then she explained what happened and added, "I'm groveling here--please forgive us for the big fat mistake we made! I appreciate your patience while we get your membership status restored, and I'll send you another notice as soon as we've set things straight." She signed off, "Regards and apologies, Shelley Ryan, Guilt-ridden Customer Service Person."
When the problem was fixed, Shelley did indeed write back, and offered additional assistance if necessary: "I'm back, everyone. Your MarketingProfs membership should be restored now. When you have a moment, please visit our Web site and let me know if you experience any difficulties logging in. I've tested quite a few accounts, but one never knows, does one?"
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She also took the opportunity to tell Premium subscribers how to renew their membership, if they so desired, and told them what would happen if they chose NOT to renew. This time, she signed off with "Shelley Ryan, Customer Service Caped Crusader."
Our PayPal-paying Premium subscribers sent a ton of fan mail to Shelley with comments like this one: "Good customer service is all about quickly owning up to mistakes and fixing them, and that's what you've done." And: "Your email apology was a lesson in marketing/customer service in itself. Honest. Direct. Responsible. And with an understandable explanation."
I agree. There is a great lesson here in how to communicate with your customers in a direct and honest manner, even when you'd prefer to bury a situation under a deep-pile rug. As marketers, who among us hasn't occasionally been on the short end of the crisis stick? Who hasn't had to communicate unfortunate news at one time or another to subscribers, or customers, or stockholders?
By the end of last week, Shelley was suggesting that businesses create a crisis now and then to impress their customers!
She was kidding, of course. Her biggest takeaway from the "PayPal Fiasco" was that "we earned some serious loyalty from our members because we responded fast and with brutal honesty when a hefty problem occurred."
Good customer service, she said, is surprisingly unexpected. Since she started as the MProfs customer service maven earlier this year, she said, "it's become apparent that people expect LOUSY customer service. Not specifically from MProfs, but from anybody. An immediate reply, a friendly refund, a decent set of instructions... those things invoke Shock and Awe nowadays."
Until next week,
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer
ann@marketingprofs.com
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Ernest Nicastro
How to Win Over the Man in the Chair: Salesmanship, Repetition and Direct Mail Any salesperson worth his or her commission check will tell you that landing worthwhile new business takes a repeated and concerted effort—and lots of contact with the decision maker. This is all the more true with salesmanship in print (or across the airwaves, phone lines and other forms of modern communication). Get the full story.
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Bob DeStefano
How to Make Your Web Site a Lead-Generation Machine Sure your Web site looks great, but are you turning enough Web visitors into leads that your sales force can target? Your answer can be the difference between a site that is a moneymaker and one that is nothing more than a glorified brochure. Your Web site can offer your company many opportunities to generate leads and cultivate new business. Here's how. Get the full story. |
Scott Smigler
An Ethical Alternative to Doorway Pages A doorway page is content created specifically for the purpose of garnering high placements in the search engines. Search engines generally advise to avoid such pages as well as other "cookie cutter" approaches, such as affiliate programs with little or no original content. There are, however, acceptable alternatives. Get the full story.
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Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll
SWOT Team: The Best Marketing Tools This week, add your two cents to the following dilemma: What can a business do to determine which marketing tools are best for a particular project? Also this week, read your answers to the previous problem: How do you market without an advertising budget? Get the full story. |
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 |  | Contact Publisher:Allen Weiss
amw@MarketingProfs.com
Content: Ann Handley
ann@MarketingProfs.com
Strategy and Development:
Roy Young
roy@MarketingProfs.com
Director of Premium Services
Val Frazee
val@MarketingProfs.com
Ad/Sponsor Information:
go here or contact jim@MarketingProfs.com
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