This is all about opening up the lines of communication with the people responsible for managing & executing what makes your business go.  Consider them the gatekeepers of your success.  Marketing initiatives often take a back seat in the ecommerce world; projects aimed at improving site conversion, order attachment, cart abandonment, & navigation are more important than implementing tracking codes or producing banners for your campaigns. 

These things take time & resources & competitive pressures make timing & speed to market a crucial variable.  This is likely to cause a backlog of projects as most technology companies are constantly looking for good IT people.  A backlog plus limited manpower equals slim pickings for you, Marty Marketer.

So, how do you justify that request for a larger marketing budget?  You connect yourself with the right people, across the company, regardless of regional location.  We all can be more sophisticated with our marketing & relationship development/management, but too often get consumed within our own workload & don’t bother to actually meet & talk to people. 

Get familiar with the people I have listed below, especially if they’re in the same building or campus.  If they’re elsewhere schedule time when you travel to meet them.  Don’t travel?  Think of something that will get you out there.  Or beg; it doesn’t cost much for your company to provide airfare, hotel, & food/gas expenses compared the negative cost of failing or stale campaigns.

Merchandisers: Quite possibly the most important people as it relates to you driving incremental sales. 

• They know what sells & why & so do their vendors. 
• Seasonality, product launches, in-stock vs. out-of-stock are but a few things you need to be plugged into.

IT: These guys & gals cover a wide variety of things you need. 

• The product & web development folks will keep you up-to-date with upcoming site changes, enhancements, & functionality.  It’s important for you to be aware of new landing pages & URL changes to eliminate or minimize campaign downtime. 
• You know how your project got denied for implementation anytime within the next 4 months?  Besides escalating through your department, if you’re actually nice to these people, they might help push your projects through in half the time required or less. 
• And don’t forget your help desk people.  That one to two day turnaround to get your laptop, Treo, printer, or phone fixed can turn into mere hours.  Don’t forget to repay them for favors; food & alcohol go a long way.

Creative: Anything you are going to publish graphically online should look good. 

• If you want your media campaign to drive as much revenue as possible; you need to make sure what’s produced for you is legit. 
• It’s so easy, but too many online retailers fail miserably in this department.  It’s not because the personnel are bad; they just don’t have the right direction.  Help them & be clear about what you need.

Public Relations: Being on top of company announcements will allow you to create new campaigns or be prepared to react to news, whether it’s positive or negative. 

• Crisis & issues management is vastly underutilized in the online space. 
• Too many brands are not aware of what’s being said; by the time they figure it out, it’s too late.  You are key in eliminating or minimizing crap like this.

Customer Service: If you’re smart, you are monitoring the online chatter specific to your brand. 

• Whether positive or negative, feed it to customer service; they can facilitate things for customers & improve their experience or at least somewhat appease an irate customer.  We all know the damage one bad opinion with motivation to tell all can do.

Front Desk: From routing calls to them being one of the few people you see this often, they can make your life easier & more pleasant.

If you or someone you know is not listed here, but you feel they’re just as important, I would welcome the feedback.  As you can see, I am not opposed to communicating.

The client is pissed & the agency is left to pick up the pieces internally while externally determining what is necessary to reassure the client that everything will be just dandy.  Usually, an amicable resolution can be reached.  Objectives & goals may need to be reset, strategy & tactics are adjusted &, consequently, the client gets what they need.

Waste of money…on both sides.  The agency eats the time they spend finding a resolution & will most likely credit the client for time spent on what did not work.  The client misses opportunities to build/promote their brand, drive more sales, respond to negative press in a timely manner, etc.

Over the next few weeks, I will delve into the bulleted topics below.  I feel there is a lot a client can do to set themselves & their agency up for success.  Yeah, I know this works both ways; read on.  This series will be mainly geared towards ecommerce (one of my specialties), but the astute reader will be able to draw parallels across the entire digital space. 

• Getting Yourself Connected - At least one person on your marketing team should have a reliable contact on the following teams: Merchandise, IT (web development, help desk, product development), Creative, PR, Customer Service, front desk (if for only the fact that you see this person more than most people you love)
• Aggregating & Analyzing Data - Become one with it; everyone above you has a background in concrete numbers & has planned & made decisions according to what the numbers tell them.  Think they’re wrong?  Prove it…with numbers.
• Internally Selling Upward - Both yourself & new ideas
• Effectively Leveraging Available Resources - We are all strapped for time; understanding how to get what you need when there is seemingly no help will set you apart from everyone else.
• Evaluating & Changing Process - There is nothing wrong with occasionally kicking the tires. 

The underlying theme is communication that enables client & agency to make informed decisions in the most efficient & effective manner possible.  It’s a lot of work, but this industry is not for the faint of heart.

What I find new & interesting is this latest eMarketer article which talks about high gas prices possibly boosting ecommerce sales.  It makes sense, on the surface; people don’t want to drive so they buy what they want online.  Although, if you ask most retail clients in the industry right now, sales are down.  Cut budget, get a better return on investment, and drive more sales.  Can we get more for less?  Please turn that magical dial on our paid search campaigns…I can continue to get a 10:1 return on my marketing spend if I dump a million more dollars into Google, right?

Sorry, mini-rant.

If gas prices are boosting ecommerce, is this something that is sustainable?  Sure, in the short run, higher gas prices may keep people from driving to the store.  But, how do those products get delivered?  Trucks & airplanes are the most common mode of transportation for FedEx, DHL, UPS, etc.  Last time I checked, those vehicles use gas. 

 So my question is, will this increased cost in gas negatively affect shipping companies & will they, in turn, pass this cost onto online retailers?  If they do, does that cost get passed along to the customer?  Granted, the customer will probably have no idea…but it’s something worth thinking about.  Everyone LOVES free shipping; ask anyone which of their promos consistently works the best & they will tell you it’s FREE SHIPPING.  Will online retailers be more reluctant to offer free shipping if they are losing too much money on it?

Ps. eMarketer…can we get on board with the 21st century & remove the hyphen from ecommerce?  No one calls email e-mail anymore unless they’re from a third-world country or come from the direct response or retail catalog industry.

For those of you not familiar with Philadelphia, Rittenhouse Square is a small park in center city Philadelphia with plenty of open space, trees, park benches, a few statues & the obligatory floral landscaping.  It is a popular destination that offers a lot of versatility.  Parents with children, artists, musicians, couples, groups of friends, the daily lunch crowd, people watchers; pretty much anything you would expect traverses through the park each day. 

The underlying beauty is in the history.  The peripheral beauty, literally, is the immediate, surrounding area; fashionable & trendy shops, top-notch restaurants, bars, clubs, even a five-star hotel.  Well known to those who frequent Rittenhouse Square, you will also find your fair share of homeless people. 

So why the sudden foray into the Social Media space?  My guess is that more people who are looking for a place to relax &/or spend money need to come visit;  @rittenhouse is lonely & misses you.  I love Rittenhouse Square, but admittedly am not there enough.  Sure, life happens & you spend your weekends in Avalon; but if I feel I could be in & around the Square more often, there are definitely plenty of others who should as well. 

Did I mention they’re also creating buzz around an upcoming potluck picnic?  Seriously.  What a great way to bring attention to something different that could build a physical & interactive community.  Initially the interaction starts online, is strengthened in the real world, & then can continue both online & off afterwards.  Should you be looking for a great example of Social Media integration (& something that embodies the real value of it), you’d be well advised to observe what @rittenhouse is doing.

• First Impression: Simple & clean.  As you will read immediately below, creating an account is done in two steps & doesn’t require a lot of time or hassle.

• Registration Process: Creating your account name is quick & easy; it should take you less than a minute.  The next step lets you find people you know through Facebook or your existing email accounts.  The Facebook application did not work after a few attempts, but finding people through my Gmail & Yahoo mail accounts was simple.  Unsurprising to me; I can only find two people I know, but luckily, before completing the registration process I am taken to a screen of popular friend’s friends.  Subscribing to their feeds is done with the click of a button.  Nine appear at a time & new subscription recommendations auto fill each time a new one is added.  Once you are done with all of this, you are taken to your friends page & can begin seeing what they publish or add your own.



 

• What It Is: An aggregator for just about every social media account you manage online.  Currently there are 41 services you can add to your FriendFeed.  There are four main tabs - friends, rooms, me, & everyone.  Friends shows you all subscription updates with the most recent displaying at the top of the page.  You can join or create your own discussion room; a great way for niche topics, interests, etc. to become more in-depth conversations.  Your me tab removes everything but your updates.  In the everyone tab, you see just that; everyone’s updates.

• Potential: If you are ahead of the game & you frequently update things like your blog Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, & StumbleUpon & have a healthy FriendFeed subscription list your ability to reach many increases.  It is a great way to engage & share your content with others while pulling the same type of content from your friend’s feeds.

• Why You Should Join: Once you sign up for FriendFeed & realize the connection potential, you will instantly realize the value of this service.   Many of us spend a lot of time updating others about the various types of content we post; problem is we are usually wary of spamming our friends.  However, if someone finds you compelling enough to subscribe to your feed, chances are they will want to participate in many of the things you wish to share.

• Why You Should Avoid: I honestly cannot think of one.  Yes, FriendFeed could be a little prettier in presentation.  BUT like RSS, you can easily keep yourself up to date with content you find interesting or valuable.

Privacy issues

Antitrust worries abound

Ballmer dropped the ball?

• The Viral Garden - Why is Plurk a big deal? - Having a threaded conversation for text messages on my Treo is something of which I’ve always been a big fan. It probably has a lot to do with why I, sometimes, would rather exchange a few texts instead of having an actual phone conversation.

• Chris Brogan - Five Tools I Use for Listening - Great tips with helpful explanations for getting yourself plugged in.

• Conversation Agent - How to Read the Groundswell and Increase Your Business Success Threefold - Groundswell…participate & learn.

• A New Marketing - We Are In The Business Of Reasons - Sometimes “Just Do It” is not enough.

• Copyblogger - 13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work - Use emotional triggers to persuade your readers.

• Web Strategy by Jeremiah - The Opportunities and Challenges of Corporate, Team, and Personal Blogs - Explaining three types of brand blogs along with some of their strengths & weaknesses.

• PRstore - B2B, B2C, B2Whatever - Who says all business decisions are made rationally?

• Techno//Marketer - The influence of digital - Be prepared for a lot of good information & analysis from the Digital Influence Index Study conducted by Fleishman-Hillard & Harris Interactive.

• Mooney Thinks - Explore the Tag Galaxy - Loads of fun & potential mega time waster. I suggest using the keywords beach & sunset to start.

• And I leave you with this moving video…

If you still have some time to kill; vote for Chase Utley & Jimmy Rollins to start in this year’s All Star Game. I would love to throw Ryan Howard’s name in there, but dude strikes out too much. That average needs to be closer to .250 than .200.

Your work space & internet activity will be more Minority Report than contracts, notes, laptops, & smartphones. Astronauts will have already traveled to & from Mars, hopefully our dependence on oil will be minimal, the city of Philadelphia may have won a championship…let your mind wander for a bit. How do you think people will be interacting with each other & information more than half way through the twenty second century?

Ad models challenge

Narrow focus, risk-averse

Get me on Facebook

That said; I feel compelled both personally & professionally to check these out. For your benefit; I’ll keep a log of my thoughts & experiences during the sign up & initial investigation phases.

Plurk: Your life, on the line

• First Impression: Holy crap; there’s using design to be different/endearing/edgy & there’s plain stupid. A weird fish asking a headless pig, “What is up, headless doc?” This seems like something looking to compete with Twitter. Note to head Plurk guy or gal; Twitter is dumb enough a name, don’t mistake our affinity for the tool to be something related to having to talk about Tweets, retweeting, & using the @ or # symbols.

• Registration Process: One step to sign up. You can search for friends from your AIM, Yahoo, or MSN instant messenger accounts, Twitter, or email. The latter two are much more helpful. Twice submitted AIM account info & got a HTTP 400 Bad Request page. A subsequent attempt using my Yahoo IM info yielded the same. Lame. I am then brought to my home page with an invite to the tutorial.

• What It Is: You can view both your own & your friends’ plurks, over time. Conversation is displayed in a timeline manner &, just like Twitter, you get 140 characters per post. Very easy to navigate & using the tool (updating, changing account settings, editing your profile, & finding new Plurkers) is easy. There’s even a link - Interesting Plurkers - which allows you to browse people you may want to add. Mobile & IM capabilities exist; although I think this is standard now for the Social Media world. The last note in the tutorial explains that Plurk is not 100% instant, meaning that you should check back for new plurks, comments, or friends.

• Potential: Like all social tools, there needs to be enough people with similar interests who will start meaningful conversations. I sort of like the manner in which the conversation is displayed & I find it amusing that you can segment friends into Cliques. Plurk has done a few things to differentiate themselves such as creating color-coded words that are commonly used to start and the ability to share multi-media without opening a new browser or leaving the page. There are also Karma points; not sure what these are as there is now mention within the FAQs (dumb), but a Google search tells me they’re awarded based on activity.

• Why You Should Join: If you can get all of your Twitter friends to abandon it, completely, & move over to Plurk, it might be worth your time. The multi-media components give you the opportunity to share more dynamic content & the timeline view is easier to read & navigate, in my opinion, than a simple list, a la Twitter.

• Why You Should Avoid: If you are already actively using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., & have a healthy influx of new content into your RSS reader, adding something that takes more time to monitor, update & investigate will eat into the little free time you have.

Look for more upcoming; I’ll be doing one a week (or so) & will include brightkite, Plaxo, Jaiku, & Utterz. If there are any others you would like me to scope out, let me know.

It’s worth noting that I am not heavily engaged in all of these tools; I have a life & would like to keep it that way. That said, I’m sure there are some things I’ve missed or possibly misinterpreted. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it! If not, go plurk yourself…