Trying hard to be real (Cathy Thomas' insight)

How much do you pick up on the red flags in marketing that announce something less than real (often a .gov or a .org strategy with little or no free-market competition)?

- Over the top repetition: if repeating the phone number or web site six times is good, ten is better.

- Urgency: "you must respond within the next 24 hours," every time you see or hear it. It means nothing really.

- Struggling sincerity: talking a lot about being real, in genuine words that contradict actions.

Rather than being a panacea, technology becomes a megaphone to amplify bad behavior. An e-mail came to me recently from a marketing author/speaker and self-described "relationship master" with a lengthy apology about how his outsourced e-mail campaign didn't maintain the genuineness he truly believes in. Here's an excerpt:

"So let’s talk about how a guy who believes in authenticity, candor, and generosity above all ends up sending out a bunch of crazy-Eddie "act now or else" give away-style emails to his fans and clients. I think the details will just feel like excuses and are frankly not that important for the purposes of passing on what I’ve learned. But basically, we hired outside experts who have made a science of how to hit the numbers in email campaigns. And our team, new and under pressure to succeed right out of the box in the online consumer space, thought we could control and customize their techniques to avoid messaging that wasn’t in line with my identity. The campaign was a financial success and at the same time we utterly failed. And I am sorry."

That sounded like a refreshing epiphany, so I replied to him directly the same day.

Three weeks later I received a fairly generic reply from his assistant. End of story.

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Cathy Thomas is a computer technician with over fifteen years of experience in technology who has created a site with a colleague called computertechnician.net where aspiring tech students can get free information on national programs. Here's a list of her three top recommendations on intrusions, promises and social media.

Three Best Practices for using Technology as a Marketing Tool

It’s not an exaggeration to say the world revolves around technology today. If some higher power were to eliminate technology for good from our lives, the world would come to a standstill. There would be chaos all around, and we would forget how to function. However, even though technology has its advantages and is almost impossible to live without, it does have a host of cons as well.

Consider the field of marketing. Technology has now moved to the forefront of all operations; marketers and advertisers have woken up the power and potential of technology, and are tapping it to push their advantage with customers, both old and new. However, in their eagerness and enthusiasm to maximize the utilization of technology, marketers fail to use it judiciously and to their advantage. In short, they fail to adopt the best marketing practices when using technology as a marketing tool. Marketers must still remember some fundamentals:

· Avoid intrusive marketing practices: Telemarketing, text message marketing, and spam email may be easy ways to market your product or service, but you can bet your last dollar these practices are bound to get on the nerves of your customers. No one wants their schedules disturbed by pesky marketing calls, especially for products and services they no longer want. Avoid intruding, especially if you know you’re doing it. One call should be enough to take a hint, and if you persist in calling over and over again or hanging on the line even after the customer has made their displeasure evident, it amounts to badgering.

· Fulfill the promises they make: Many marketers are guilty of this mistake; it’s like they have short term amnesia and completely forget the promises they make when trying to market their products and services once the customer has been won over and signed up for a sizeable package. Soon customers discover that no one answers their calls and emails, and even if they do, they’re given the runaround and redirected to the “fine print.” Fine print may seem to be a good marketing technique to scam unsuspecting customers, but remember, in this age of technology one disgruntled customer is enough to spread the word of your unscrupulous practices and lose more customers rather than gain any significant profit.

· Know how to use social media wisely: Social media is all the rage in the marketing world today, and if you have an online presence in the most popular ones, you’re well on your way to tapping your target market. However, if you fail to follow the unwritten rules of social media, you could be blacklisted and kicked out, virtually if not physically. In short, social media marketing must be used with discretion, taking care not to offend customers with unsolicited messages and unsavory tricks that lure them to your pages with false promises.

It all boils down to being ethical in your business practices, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because customers today won’t come back if they perceive or know you use underhand tactics to get what you want. I recently received an e-mail from a reader pointing out that spammers are successful if even one percent of the people they spam respond, considering the ease and cost of sending out huge volumes of email. My response to this is that Internet users are getting more savvy every day. They have spam filters in place, they don’t click on unverified links, and they’re aware that deals that sound too good to be true are likely just that. They read the fine print, they don’t read spam and they blacklist you if you keep badgering them. So while a spam strategy may work for some time, it certainly is not sustainable in the long run. Unless you’re a fly-by-night operator on the lookout for a quick buck, it’s time to take the high road in your marketing practices.

This guest post is contributed by Cathy Thomas. She writes on the topic of online computer technician training, and welcomes your comments at cathy83.thomas@gmail.com.

Thanks Cathy!

Delegating the details

In the new era of transparency, do you still have an assistant writing your letters and then adding your electronic signature from a generic, or worse, a do-not-reply e-mail address? You might as well just start deleting people from your distribution list, rather than end up in their auto-archive filter.

How about research? Are you like Tim Conway's classic executive calling Missis-a-Whiggins on the intercom every time you need a reference source? Have you ever gotten this amusing link sent back to you? (Probably not unless your admin is in the habit of testing your sense of humor.) Hyper-delegation often has a way of making you look unprepared and hollow when there's a follow-up question.

What should your admin be doing? Well, particularly if you're sending out e-mails to thousands of customers, prospects or employees, there's a great value in getting a critical review. The CEO who "announced" an acquisition that took place two years earlier could have surely used a second pair of eyes before it went out to all of the acquired company's employees, as well as the (literally) thousands of others. The school principal who makes routine spelling errors in his updates surely amuses some sharp-eyed students, but not necessarily the members of the PTO.

Just a reminder to take your communications seriously - and make them real - if you expect people to read them that way.

Just Jott A Voicemail To My E-mail

When the iPhone came out, one of the spiffs Apple touted was the ability to organize your voicemails like e-mails.

But what if your voicemails came to your inbox and you could read them, hear them, forward them or archive them? That might be enough to switch to AT&T... or maybe not. Save that dilemma for another day - you can do it with Jott.

You can also transcribe a reminder to be sent to your phone or computer on a given date, or transcribe notes in the car on your phone as you're coming back from a meeting. In the messages I've sent so far the voice recognition works remarkably well, although I haven't used it long enough to be the poster child for Jott.

But maybe you will. Try it out here.

The End of Airline E-mail Blackout

An update on in-flight broadband -- American Airlines just announced they will team up with service provider Aircell to offer the internet on domestic flights early next year, picking up where Boeing left off, using cell towers rather than satellites. Blessing or curse, you'll be able to keep up on e-mail and access the web, rather than just updating spreadsheets and powerpoints.