Taking a look at our stats, and based on unique views of these posts, the Top 10 Clear Thought Blog posts of this year goes like this…

1. 10 things to include in a marketing brief

Handy tips on writing a brief for marketing that sells – what to include to make sure that your supplier is most likely to get the project right first time. Read blog »

2. What to say when, managing marketing content through the sales funnel

A quick look at the right emotional tone and volume of information people respond to at different stages in the buying process, and how to tailor your marketing material to hit the right note at each stage. Read blog »

3. What shape is your marketing budget

An approach to setting your marketing budget that makes sure that you maintain an integrated mix of activity that supports every stage in your sales funnel. Read blog »

4. How to create powerful sales tools from your desk

A seven step guide to creating compelling and professional sales and marketing materials using Microsoft Office. Includes two case studies. Read blog »

5. B2B Social Media; Be There, Be Relevant, Be Proven

Practical advice that any B2B marketer, business owner or sales person can put into practice to generate leads through social media. Read blog »

6. A typical thought leadership campaign

A quick run-down and checklist of the things to include in a thought leadership campaign. Particularly powerful in B2B or complex sales processes. Read blog »

7. Treat your website like a member of your team

Practical advise for anyone in laying the ground rules for how to approach your website as a function in your business, rather than as a one-off project. Read blog »

8. One piece of content, 20 ways to use it

20 ideas for things you can do with just one piece of content, like a presentation or a paper – giving you ways to squeeze more from your marketing budget. Read blog »

9. What are your social media rules?

In this blog, Bryony shared her own rules to managing the way she interacts with friends, colleagues and acquaintances on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Read blog »

10. The Jamie Oliver approach to marketing

Reflections from attending the B2B Lead Nurturing event in September, looking at how marketing wants to feed sales with health food, when they are likely to have a taste for junk food. Read blog »

If you’ve created a piece of marketing material, here are 20 ideas for squeezing every last drop of value from it. Most of which take time and energy, rather than money, so that you can make your marketing budget go further.

With a nod to John Watton, recently named B2B Marketing Magazine’s ‘B2B Marketer of the Year’, this is a quick blog on what he affectionately calls “pimping your content”.

First off, what do we mean by content and content marketing?

We all produce powerful content all of the time, for example a presentation you put together for a client, a talk you gave at a networking event, some training material you’ve produced for staff or clients. All a great starting point for a bit of market-facing content. You can, of course, generate content especially for marketing purposes. For example, commissioning some research to prepare a paper, or writing a How-to guide or checklist.

So, let’s say you’ve gone to the trouble of collating some compelling and relevant thoughts that your target market might find interesting, here are…

20 ideas for things you can do with your marketing content:

1. Turn it into a paper that can be downloaded from your site as a PDF in return for data capture.
2. Knock up some slides and put it on SlideShare, even better add a little voiceover.
3. Video yourself giving an abridged version and pop it on You-Tube.
4. Embed your SlideShare or You-Tube content on your website.
5. Post your SlideShare or You-Tube content on your company Facebook page.
6. Use the content to write a 500 word article and submit it to the free article sites, or use a professional to help you. We like NikkiPilkington.com
7. Sell it in as an opinion piece to a relevant press title.
8. Use the content to host an online event, like a live web seminar. Check out EventBrite for ways to do this really cost-effectively.
9. Contact local networking groups, like Business Link or FSB and offer to give a talk on the subject.
10. Tweet a link to your download, SlideShare, You-Tube, press article, etc.
11. Post a link on your LinkedIn status.
12. Add a link to your email footer.
13. Post your content to content sharing sites, like Business Week’s Business Exchange or UTalkMarketing
14. Write it up as a Blog in your company Blog (what do you mean you don’t have one? Ridiculous!)
15. Offer it as a guest Blog on relevant other blog sites.
16. Use it as the basis for intelligent comments on Blogs and Forums, ideally with a link back to your download, presso, etc.
17. Add to a library of comment that you have available when responding to press features.
18. Turn the content into a short training session and offer it as value-add to existing clients.
19. Use the same content to run a paid-for training event for your market.
20. Run an internal ’show & tell’ to get your team up-to-date on the subject.

In small business marketing, every penny counts – so if you have some content make sure it works really hard for you.

Also don’t be shy in using it, re-using it and re-using it again. At the B2B Marketing Lead Nurturing event (30 Sept 2009), John sagely reminded us that if, as marketers, we’re totally bored by a piece of content, then the market has probably only just noticed it. If the material is relevant, interesting, and not date-defined, you can probably dine out on it for six months to a year, at the very least. Probably longer. I mean, for each new follower on Twitter, for example, it is effectively a brand new piece… don’t be shy in showing them your best stuff.

You might also be interested in:

• Bryony’s 30 minute webcast on generating online word of mouth on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/clearthoughtconsulting/online-word-of-mouth
• Case study of integrated campaign including social media: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/life_cycle_campaign/
• Understanding which content to use when in the sales funnel: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/in_thought/art/1/
• A typical thought leadership campaign: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/in_thought/art/12

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

“The average human can’t remember more than seven things at once”.

No matter what you do for a living, you’ve probably got dozens of things to remember, and they’ve all got to be fitted into that ever elusive seven hour day. Perhaps it’s your job – to ‘get those things done’?

At Clear Thought we love ‘getting things done’. And for us, the one thing that really helps us not to forget to do things is the good old fashioned ‘To Do List’. We also love activity plans (or ‘project plans’). In a sense, they’re just a ‘To Do’ list arranged in chronological order with assigned delivery dates.

To Do Lists are powerful because they do a number of things:

• Keep you focused. Help you prioritise.

• Distinguish the ‘urgent’ from the ‘important’.

• Improve personal effectiveness.

• Deliver huge satisfaction when you cross or tick one off.

Some people also find that having more than one list is useful. One for work life, one for personal life. One for things to do ‘THIS WEEK’, ‘NEXT WEEK’, or ‘EVENTUALLY’. And it doesn’t matter how you keep them – by pen & paper or the latest hi-tech computer or hand held devise. Just as long as you keep them (up-to-date).

I once had a client whose American-owned business sent every member of its UK and US set-up on an ‘Advanced Outlook training course’. What they found was that very quickly their team’s productivity increased through correct use of Outlook. People started to keep on top of their tasks and To Dos. They turned up to meetings on time and managed their diaries and Inboxes better. Contacts were shared and kept up-to-date avoiding wasting time and effort asking other people, or looking for numbers and addresses themselves.

This client told me that in a way, a well kept To Do list and Inbox helped him manage his time better and lowered his stress levels. Now you might think we’re stating the blindingly obvious, but it’s the simple tried and tested methods that make businesses like us work. And we like to share our ideas and processes with anyone who thinks they would benefit from them.

At Clear Thought we use an online project management system called Basecamp, with a very effective To Do list function. We offer it free to all our clients as part of our service. You can allocate ‘owners’ of the To Do item, and set a deadline for when it has to be done by. And best of all, it’s totally private, secure and accessible anywhere.

To find out more about how we online To-Do Lists to get more from marketing resources, just ask for a demo. Or, if you’ve got a gigantic To Do list and need some help getting it done (in a ‘marketing capacity type of way’), please do get in touch.

A bit of clear thinking might make that seven hour day more a bit more of a reality.

By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

“If you don’t say what you want, you won’t want what you get”.

There’s a skill to writing a marketing brief. If you get it right your supplier will deliver first time – no surprises. If you get it wrong (or worse still don’t provide one at all), it costs time and money to put it right.

At Clear Thought we love writing briefs. It’s an integral part of our service. And we take extra care to make them engaging, relevant and factual, because a boring brief makes for an unmotivated supplier. And, ultimately a disappointing end result.

Even when a customer provides us with a good brief, we talk it through with them and make sure we all agree with the requirements. And if we disagree with an objective or output, we don’t mind adding our penneth and making specific recommendations to help get it spot-on. We can also work with you to re-write it if necessary.

TOP TIPS: When preparing a brief avoid jargon, lingo and acronyms. Include facts (no assumptions or embellishments). Use plain speaking English and include as much detail as possible. It’s easier and quicker for your supplier to cut out the superfluous rather than have to fill in some gaps. Whether you need a creative brief, web brief, copy brief or even an event brief – here’s a useful checklist to help make sure nothing gets missed:

1. YOUR PRODUCT/BACKGROUND: Include a brief summary about your company, its products and its services. Set the scene a little and try and include something about your brand, its personality and philosophy. Pricing and sales processes should also be mentioned. Will there need to be any initial research, or do you already have some research that findings that will help?

2. COMPETITION: Talk about competitor products and services. What marketing activity are they doing and are they doing it better? Include examples and/or weblinks.

3. WHAT: What is your required output? I.E. what type of activity are you looking for (an ad, a DM campaign a new website, a conference)? Think about how the deliverable will be used – in print, on a website, in a salesperson’s briefcase, etc.

4. WHY: Why are you doing this activity? What objectives are you trying to achieve (raise awareness, collect data, increase sales, get someone to do something…)?

5. WHO: Describe your target audience – who you want to talk to. Are they businesses or consumers? Describe why you think they need your product or service, and why you think they might not be buying (barriers). Try and describe the role of this person in their organisation, or what type of consumer they are. What do they read? What do they listen to?

6. WHEN: Is there as seasonal reason for undertaking this piece of activity? Are there any key milestones or deadlines that need to be met?

7. HOW: How are you going to measure the effectiveness of this activity? What will success look like? Can it be piloted or tested first?

8. LIKES & DISLIKES: It’s always useful to list some activities or brands that you have already seen and liked. Even if just website (competitor or otherwise).

9. MANDATORIES: It’s essential to provide a ‘call to action’ plus any brand/tone of voice guidelines, or list any assets that must be used or avoided. Ts & Cs or legal requirements too.

10. BUDGET: It’s much easier for a supplier to respond to a brief if they know how much you would like to spend.

There are some simple equations you can use to work out how much you should invest, but saying there is ‘no budget’ either means you expect it for free, or the sky’s the limit! Wouldn’t that be great?

If you are not 100% comfortable in briefing marketing suppliers, we can help. Clear Thought has hands-on experience both sides of the desk and can help both parties work together for a great result. We’re experienced in talking their language, and we have a number of briefing templates that mean you’re never starting from a blank sheet of paper.

Alternatively, if you already have a brief you would like us to look at, we’d be happy to come along and talk to you face-to-face. A bit of clear thinking usually improves the results you get.

There’s nothing worse than paying for a piece of work that just doesn’t do the trick. Agencies want to meet the brief… so if you get the brief right there should never be a wasted penny spent with marketing suppliers. And, in small business marketing, every penny counts.

By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Your digital footprint follows you everywhere. I regularly Google people, look them up on Twitter, and always see if I can find someone on LinkedIn before I meet them, so people must be doing the same to me. Reputation is extremely important, particularly when you’re in the business of giving advice, as we are here at Clear Thought. What do you do online to manage your reputation?

Here are a few rules that I follow in my online networking:

#1 Facebook is for friends. I only hook up with people on Facebook who meet one or more of the following criteria, I would be comfortable for them to see me drunk and emotional or we’re related. And, even then I restrict who sees which photos, etc.

#2 LinkedIn is my professional network. Every single person on my LinkedIn I have either worked with or met in a professional capacity. There’s a real link, and I may well do, or probably have done, real paying work with them.

#3 Twitter, for me, is the equivalent of a professional networking event. Anyone can follow, hey I don’t know exactly who visits my website everyday, if they’re interested, that’s fine. But, for me it is a conversation with like-minded business people. I only say on Twitter the kinds of things I would say at a professional event… which occasionally includes chatting about what I’m up to at the weekend or my thoughts on Strictly, but broadly speaking it is about marketing, and specifically ways to make marketing pay.

These are the three social networking sites I use most often… the same principles apply to similar other sites, I’m sure you get the point.

What are your social media rules?

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Every business needs sales and marketing collateral. Stationery, product literature, case studies, press releases, direct marketing, customer comms… the list goes on.

Whether you choose to go paperless (PDFs and downloads) or use hard copy (traditional print), it all takes time and money… graphic designers, photographers, copywriters, printers, web developers…

There is a way to save time and money…

This year we’ve helped two clients make the most of their marketing budget with powerful use of collateral templates. For one client we helped create almost 100 pieces of collateral from just four professionally produced Microsoft templates. So, if you’re looking for ways to create marketing content on a budget, here’s how…

1) LOOK AND FEEL: As part of a major re-branding exercise we asked one of our favourite designers to create some examples of typical pieces of collateral (a case study, a product sheet, a letterhead and a newsletter).

2) GUIDELINES: We then made sure that they were included in the brand guidelines with detailed instructions on their make up (colours, fonts, use of imagery etc).

3) IMAGE LIBRARY: The designer also recommended some Royalty Free imagery and icons which now make-up a library of images that can be used across the templates. We had these images re-coloured to fit the brand.

4) COPY: We had one of each type of document professionally written (always recommended), along with some tone of voice guidelines. We also created a spelling conventions checklist, which is now used with the tone of voice guidelines in-house to write copy.

5) CONVERSION: We then worked with the client to take these designs and guidelines to a Microsoft template specialist who emulated them exactly in Microsoft Word. These initial four designs were turned into ‘click and type here’ templates that anyone could use. This also included styling tables, charts and flow diagrams into the style sheets. Everything was locked down and pre-formatted, so the brand could not be compromised.

6) CASE STUDY SCRIPT: We also worked with a professional copywriter to prepare a script and list of key questions to enable us to interview customers and get the answers we need to create an engaging case study. And, we always asked for ongoing permissions to use quotes, etc. at the same time to enable us to continually add to our arsenal of testimonials.

7) BRIEFING CHECKLIST: And finally, we left the client with a briefing check list and document ‘structure’ for each item, to ensure no content got missed.

There was some initial investment in setting everything up, but once done, any number of documents can now be created from each of the templates. With practice, 2 or three 2-page documents can be created in a day.

Here are some examples of documents we’ve helped clients produce using simple old Word, PowerPoint and Excel:

So, even if you’re a small business wanting to do your own marketing, you can produce brilliant marketing materials from your desk. Our golden rules for this are 1) Work with experts to get the first few done, 2) Develop checklists, etc. from doing this, and 3) Get Word and PPT templates produced by an expert (we like these guys www.creativetemplatesolutions.co.uk).

By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

I was talking to a business owner the other day, who despite having a £4 million turnover has no structured marketing budget. The business dips in and out of marketing and tends to spend according to what looks like a good idea at the time. He described the following:

• He tends to start a marketing activity with real vigour, and then loses interest.
• He’s tried various things, and they’ve never really worked.
• He’d really like to just flick a switch.
• There are certain time of year when the pressure is off in other areas, so he can focus on marketing.

This sounds an awful lot like things I’ve heard myself say about doing some exercise and getting fit:

• I say to myself that I will run everyday, which I do for about a week and then slip back into old habits.
• I’ve tried boxercise, yoga, rowing machines, etc. but I’ve never stuck at it.
• I try to convince myself that because I’ve done some exercise one day that I can have ‘time off’ the next week or next day.
• I can’t be the only one to make New Year’s resolutions and the like, that just don’t last.

The thing about dipping in and out of marketing (and exercise) is that it doesn’t really work. To get fit, the ‘little and often’ is far more effective than big bursts followed by extended periods of inactivity. The same is true in marketing – I’d actually prefer clients to spend less overall on marketing if they do this in a sustained way, than I would to see huge peaks and troughs in activity. As, I’m sure a GP would prefer it if every patient did a little exercise every day, rather than the boom and bust of un-sustained good resolutions.

To get started you might need to shift a bit of flab, i.e. have a concentrated period of getting into good shape (e.g. messaging, brand, infrastructure, systems), thereafter you’ll need to have a regular routine. Naturally, it is also sensible to have regular check-ups with an expert, and you might want to vary what you do to maintain interest – I’m sure you can see the point I’m making.

10 ways in which marketing is like exercise:

1. If you start as a young company you get into good habits for life.
2. It is hard to change the habits of a lifetime.
3. If things have gone to seed, it can be hard to get started.
4. A regular, structured, approach is best.
5. Even better if you integrate a little into everything you do.
6. Some people are absolute fanatics (like me), but most do fine with small changes.
7. There are lots of people out there promising quick fixes that don’t really work.
8. It takes a little while to see the results.
9. To get the best all-over results you need to vary the techniques you use.
10. Your company will look great, and feel healthy and fun.

The business owner in question is looking for a step change, they’ve hovered around the same turnover for a few years now and never managed to break the ceiling on their potential. For this he knows that he needs to get marketing fit… but just doesn’t know how.

At Clear Thought, we act as a kind of marketing ‘personal trainer’ – we’ll do a marketing health assessment, and put a programme together to get your business into good marketing health. We’ll then work with you to get into shape, transferring the skills to your business as we do it, so that when you’re ready, you can go it alone and maintain those good marketing habits. Indeed, we offer small businesses a free half day audit and report to get them started.

Find out more »

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Our clients, and most people we’ve met and talks and events recently, have asked the same question: Is social media appropriate for business-to-business marketing? Unequivocally, the answer is YES.

In the last year, 40% of Clear Thought’s revenue can be tracked back to a social media source, and 100% has been enhanced or aided by it in some way. In the last six weeks alone, here are some things that Clear Thinkers have achieved through social media:

• Hooked up two people met through Twitter with paying B2B clients.
• Received two good quality new business enquiries, both of which are now at proposal stage.
• Sourced experts willing to talk to us about their business as part of market research projects.
• Enhanced relationships with prospective businesses using online nurturing techniques.

In B2B decision-making or considered purchases, social media has most impact in the top half of the sales funnel

From a new business perspective, social media has critical impact in the first three stages of the sales funnel. That is, Awareness, Interest and Evaluation. From a social media perspective, you need to do the following:

To generate awareness: ‘Be There’ find out where your prospects hang out online and have a presence there.

To convert awareness into interest: ‘Be Relevant’ provide information that is useful or controversial to pull people into your content.

To make it through evaluation: ‘Be Proven’ provide case studies and testimonials at every turn online, ideally with other people talking on your behalf.

To really make the most of the channel, it makes sense to get some expert support – particularly in measuring and enhancing your activity. But, here are some really simple things to get you started.

10 FREE things you can do to generate awareness online:

1. Ensure your company & all employees have a LinkedIn profiles.
2. Join or set-up an interest group on LinkedIn.
3. Set-up a SlideShare space, link it to your LinkedIn profile.
4. Set-up a You-Tube Channel or Facebook page (if appropriate).
5. Set-up a company Twitter Feed.
6. Bookmark your content (StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, etc).
7. Set up a BT Tradespace profile.
8. Set-up Google, BlogSpot and WordPress identities.
9. Comment on, or become a contributor to, blogs and forums.
10. Regularly update email signatures with new content.

10 FREE things you can do to generate interest online:

1. Post snappy links to content via Twitter, Status, Email footer, etc.
2. Post regular interesting short blogs (10 mins).
3. Prepare deeper content like pressos, papers and articles (20 mins).
4. Give each of your team an area of expertise to track and comment.
5. Post details of other people’s content relevant to your audience.
6. Comment on industry news and happenings… in real time.
7. Make sure all employees regularly update online statuses.
8. Follow-up traditional touch-points with online contact.
9. Gather permissions to send email updates.
10. Ask intelligent questions in online forums.

10 (nearly) FREE ways to prove your credentials online:

1. Provide written case studies on your site, Blog, etc.
2. 140 character lines to link back to your case studies, articles, etc.
3. Post case study videos on your site, You-Tube channel, etc.
4. Post webcasts and presentations on your site, SlideShare, etc.
5. Post product demos on You-Tube, SlideShare, etc.
6. Re-use the words of others about your products and services.
7. Provide intelligent answers to questions posted in Forums, Groups
8. Run live Q&A sessions via Twitter.
9. Add a customer feedback / rating system (like Kampyle) to your site, blog, etc and re-use the positive feedback.
10. Ask LinkedIn contacts for endorsements.

Note: In this blog, we’re focusing specifically on lead generation. It is worth noting (and blogging in the future) that social media can be powerfully used in market research, recruitment, lead nurturing and much more.

You might also be interested in:

• Bryony’s 30 minute webcast on generating online word of mouth on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/clearthoughtconsulting/online-word-of-mouth
• Case study of integrated campaign including social media: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/life_cycle_campaign/
• Understanding which content to use when in the sales funnel: http://www.clear-thought.co.uk/in_thought/art/1/

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

I recently attended the B2B Marketing Lead Nurturing event (30 Sept 2009). I have a bar by which I measure the success of any speaker event I go to, which is that if there’s one thing I take away and implement in some way, it’s been a good event. For this one, the key thing I take away is an analogy used by Pete Jakob of IBM when talking about the relationship that often exists between marketing and sales.

In setting the scene he outlined how marketing generally want to feed sales with beautiful, nutritious organic vegetables, when sales want to eat fast food. It’s a great analogy that put me in mind of Jamie Oliver’s school dinners’ crusade.

It’s an analogy that works on many levels:

• Marketers will cite the potential lifetime value of a lead – when sales are often rewarded on revenue that month. Eating your greens is better for you, but a bag of starchy chips will fill you up quickly.
• Marketers often want to create ‘perfect’ materials and campaigns, when sales are often in need of a quick fix. Cooking a meal from fresh raw ingredients just isn’t as easy as grabbing a take away.
• Sales do know that ‘easy’ sales often result in churn and aren’t 100% healthy for the company, but need to meet their targets and maintain cash flow. I can’t be the only one to have tucked into a burger promising to go for a run later!
• Moves to convert a sales organisation to a new diet of inbound, marketing-generated, leads often makes them feel ill and change is often resisted. Reminiscent of parent passing chips through the school railings.

For a business, you need to work out what a healthy balanced diet means. Often this is about having two speeds – the long-term profitability track (greens, etc.) and the essential cash flow now (junk food). Then, I’d suggest that you take a careful look at the business you generate, assessing the source of the customers that provide these two things for you. I’m betting that in most cases, a marketing-generated lead, that has been nurtured through a thoughtful process, is likely to be more profitable in the long term, and that sales that closed on the day as the result of something like cold-calling often buy less and churn more. Most businesses will need a healthy mix of both – but it is essential to know, and manage, the difference. Making a shift in dietary habits is hard – adopting a closed-loop marketing>sales approach is really hard. But, the results of both are definitely worth it.

Now don’t get me wrong – I like chips. I even think there’s a place for fast food in a healthy diet – as I think there’s a place for tactical sales that get cash in the door quickly. What I’m saying is that if your business is surviving on junk food alone – think carefully about the long-term impact this could be having on your bottom line.

Pete Jakob’s blog on lead nurturing can be found here: http://b2bnurture.blogspot.com/

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

I’m currently preparing my talk for the Bristol Enterprise Network event on the 22nd September on ‘Marketing: Harnessing the Power of the Internet’. Such a vast topic. For my talk, I’m focussing on generating online word of mouth. My co-speakers will be looking at online user experiences and at cloud computing. So, all in all, a fascinating set of subjects.

Businesses certainly can’t ignore digital marketing as part of the mix. Indeed, when you look at a typical decision-making process from awareness through to sale, the online setting is the only one where the whole process can be started and completed in one go, from a completely cold start, driven entirely by the customer. Generating awareness (as web traffic) is just the start of the process. To make the most of digital opportunities you’ll need to configure a ‘net’ to catch the interest you generate, and an online journey to take that person from one step to the next in their decision-making. However, you will never be able to entirely separate online and offline, either conceptually or practically.

It is also vital to understand how the medium (in its many guises) integrates with more traditional tools. I saw a recent US study that suggested that over 75% of American consumers would like to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a human being before placing an online order. I would hazard a guess that this percentage is higher in a b2b setting. So, turning on the digital tap will undoubtedly put demands on your business in other areas. Think it through logically, from step to step, mapping out what the person who finds you online might want, need and do – and set-up your business to handle it. This might mean employing an inbound sales team, or setting up a live chat function on your website, for example.

So, for my 20 minute slot, I will:

• Give a quick definition of online word of mouth and outline techniques for building it
• Conduct a live Twitter demonstration
• Map out the funnel into which your online word-of-mouth needs to feed
• Provide a quick list of do’s and don’ts for effective online networking

If you have examples of online word of mouth activities that have gone spectacularly well or spectacularly badly – do drop me a line. And, if you’re interested, please do join us 6pm to 9pm, Tuesday 22nd Sept at the University of Bristol, details here:

http://www.bristolenterprise.com/events/marketing-harnessing-power-internet

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

When I was getting my website built recently, Claire Sully, MD Tickbox, advised me to think of my website as an employee. It was great advice and has helped me enormously with my own site, and also in helping clients to understand more fully what’s needed to get the most from a business website.

Key ways in which a website is like an employee:

• It has a specific set of tasks to perform, writing a job spec for your website is no bad idea!
• It needs a development plan if it is to continue to perform at its best
• It needs regular updates to stay current – like a training plan
• It relies on input from various other team members to do its job
• Not everyone will like it all of the time

A website has a permanent, full time, role in your business: It never ceases to amaze me how many people think of a website as a self-contained project – with beginning, a middle and (even more worryingly) an end. You wouldn’t recruit someone and think that, once they’d signed the contract, their job was complete or that they’d stay exactly the same as the day they walked through the door. You shouldn’t think the same of your website.

A person comes to your company with some skills and knowledge, but over time they will gain more specific knowledge about your company, and become more skilled as they learn on the job or undergo formal training and development. A website is just the same – however well conceived and delivered, it is only when real people start to interact with it that you’ll know what really works, and what doesn’t, on your site. Through reviewing analytics and undertaking user testing and feedback, you will be able to constantly refine and improve your website’s performance. Which brings me to performance… you’re likely to set of minimum performance standards for your staff, have you done the same for your website? And, do you have the tools to measure against those standards.

And of course, things change. Think also of a scenario in which your employee’s area of the business is subject to some sort of change (legal, environmental, new product, etc.) – they’ll need to adapt and respond. Your website is no different. Just because it was beautiful when you launched it, it may not be in a new context. What’s more, this is technology we’re talking about. The tech big boys work to a circa 6 month product development cycle – the pace of change is fast and furious. If your website is to stay current, you’ll need to keep an eye out for the new trends, like Twitter, Tag Clouds, etc… and whatever is just around the corner.

But, it many ways it is even better than an employee:

• It never sleeps
• It doesn’t take holidays
• It won’t sue you if you change its role or replace it with a new one

Useful people management techniques you can apply to your website:

• Write it a job spec
• Set a basic salary (hosting, support, regular updates)
• Set a commission plan (invest a percentage of the revenue it delivers back into traffic generation and improvements)
• Have a weekly one-to-one (update content, check stats)
• Conduct a monthly review (stats, performance targets, etc)
• Conduct a quarterly appraisal – consider a 360 appraisal where you get feedback from all users
• Set a ‘training’ budget – essential updates, spring cleaning, new features

For many businesses, the website is probably quite an early investment – thinking of it as your first ‘employee’ is a healthy starting point – meaning you’ll feel happier with seeing it as an ongoing task rather than a one-off project. For other businesses, particularly ecommerce businesses, your website is more like a team of employees, rather than just the one – and just like a team of people you’ll need to think about the way that individuals interact, etc.

So, if you think your web project has come to an end because you’ve gone live… I advise you to think again. I advise you to think of your website as a valued member of your team and to treat it accordingly.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

August 5th marks Clear Thought Consulting’s first full year since incorporation as a Limited company, so it seemed like a good time to reflect.

Most proud of: having secured business through a lead on LinkedIn

Most frustrated by: not having done lots of things sooner

In the past year, we’ve undertaken billing work for six clients, mortgage is being paid – and even afforded a few luxuries. The question most oft asked is how we find new business. This has been secured in the following three ways:

• Leads picked up from online networking
• Work secured with existing contacts
• Leads picked up through marketing students tutored for CIM Diploma

Having now sorted the proposition more clearly and invested in the website, we’re about to kick off a few more traditional lead generation activities… will report back on what’s worked in due course.

It has also been enormously rewarding to start seeing the fruits of local reputation building. For example, Bryony was recently asked to join a monthly B2B marketing forum set-up by a senior marketer, and former colleague, in Lloyds TSB Corporate Banking. On asking her fellow forum members for ideas on who to invite, my name came up through having been spotted answering questions and posting discussions on LinkedIn – as we’d previously worked together, she dropped me a line. Then, on meeting with a local agency yesterday, again it seemed that word of mouth had done its trick before my arrival, both on Twitter and through a mutual contact. This is great to see in action, because generating positive word-of-mouth and online reputations is key advice we give clients. So, as you can see, we practice what we preach.

Although we’ve been up and running a year, the last month has felt like we’re really onto something. The new website went live 12th June, and we’ve stepped up the new business activity by talking to agencies – where we’re able to provide two key services: 1) client incubation (taking small or troublesome clients and getting them in a position where they’re better able to have effective working relationships with marketing suppliers), 2) strategic planning overflow. This adds to the direct business proposition, where we work with small businesses as the marketing director they can’t quite afford – giving them a heavyweight marketing mind on their team without the overhead. We now have Cheryl Crichton on board as Associate Clear Thinker, with a key focus on opening agency doors, and we’re hoping to announce a direct business lead in the not too distant future. These are things I wish I had done sooner.

On the administrative side of business running, here’s a quick rundown on decisions made, etc:

• Using Kashflow cloud accountancy software to keep a close eye on the books
• Had a content management system built for the website from open source code, rather than buy off the shelf
• Have a virtual reception and phone answering service set-up at Bristol eOffice, I’m yet to try their hot-desk and meeting rooms
• Have call-forwarding service from Gradwell (http://www.gradwell.com/phoneservices/callforwarding) which means that we can keep he number we now have however many time we might move or grow, a bit of future proofing
• Have an accountant in place on recommendation from a friend, but have actually found online research more useful in terms of understanding Ltd Co accounting
• Invested in brand visuals from Christian Tait, which we launched on the worked about six weeks ago and we’re really pleased with
• Tried networking breakfasts, didn’t seem to have much going for them

On the list for the year ahead:

• Getting CRM in place for the company, probably Salesforce.com
• Getting round to joining IOD and GWE to get on the local networking drive
• Employ first full timer
• Think about getting an office, as we’re likely to be four people, and we can only fit two at the moment
• Step up the digital marketing with article syndication, SEO, etc.
• Refresh the press photography, it is five years out of date, and I don’t look that fresh anymore!
• Do a load of courses in digital stuff to keep pace
• Think seriously about doing the Doctorate I’ve been thinking about

Mistakes made:

• Given away a bit too much time for free in over-servicing
• Overspent on a few online tools that we could have lived without
• Got distracted by franchises and associate roles initially, wish I’d just kicked off full pelt from the starting pistol
• Have a habit of printing everything out and not re-using paper – which is hideously wasteful and expensive
• Worked too long and not maintained fitness, so have gone down with a few too many sniffles this year…
• Worked almost every weekend, should spend a bit more time with family

What success will look like this time next year:

• Small, but dedicated team, in place all covering their mortgages and earning enough to smile
• Aiming for eight major clients by this time next year
• Have a wee idea in mind for some e-commerce elements, which I’d like to have kicked off this time next year
• To have been shortlisted for a few decent awards for the marketing activities undertaken with clients

Would be fascinated to hear about other people’s first year in business. Do share.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

We’ve been getting a few puzzled looks when we say that Clear Thought Consulting isn’t a marketing agency, so we thought we’d clarify the business model a little for those who might be interested.

So, we work with smaller businesses, from about 12 employees to about 200. If the company is still small enough to feasibly remember everyone’s names, then so much the better. So, big corporates are out. Within this, we work with businesses whose products or services are bought through a process of careful consideration – so, impulse buying isn’t our thing. Complicated, expensive or high-risk purchases are.

We work directly with clients to get them up and running on the marketing front. Typically, a business may have dabbled in marketing or have a reception-come-marketing approach. The point of pain that we’re there to address, is the company that knows they want to grow, but that doesn’t have the skills to get the message out (if indeed they know what the message is). In this situation, going straight to an agency or recruiting can be extremely frustrating. Without the basics in place, it is unlikely that a business will know exactly what to brief, or what to look for in a marketing employee. So, we work with companies in this situation, over six to twelve months to lay the foundations of a marketing operation, and to make sure that the business leaders know the purpose and function of marketing for their business.

A three phase Clear Thought project will position, enable and then act to allow clients to grow their businesses

Our approach is firmly centred on configuring free-flowing sales funnels for our clients – to generate both new business and new-from-existing business. Often, people think that what they need from marketing is to turn the tap on – i.e. get more leads in. This is sometimes true. But, more often than not, the tap is flowing into a leaky bucket. We first fix the bucket (sort out brand, messaging, websites, sales tools, databases, etc) and then help them to work with various marketing suppliers to turn the tap on. But only when their marketing operation is configured to make the most of it. In set-up phases, we spot gaps and problems and hook the client up with the right experts to resolve these issues. Once the funnel is fixed, we set them sail with a decent set of marketing providers, and we might also assist with recruiting a marketing team.

So, you work on commission..

No. Clear Thought is paid by the client for a programme over six months to a year. Introductions to third party suppliers is totally focused on what is best for the client, so we never take kick-backs from suppliers. This ensures that our judgement is never clouded by potential remuneration. Where an agency account director might want to tie a client in to a semi-dependent relationship to ensure an ongoing income, we want to get the client to a point of independence where they can run their marketing without us – hopefully recommending us to others along the way.

So, Clear Thought competes with agency planners…

There’s a little bit of overlap with planners, but not much. The clients we work with probably wouldn’t have the budget to get where they needed to get through using an agency planning team. Because we work over a longer term and from within a client’s business, we can get them to the stage where they can brief an agency properly without wasting time, money and goodwill on mis-briefing. In fact, we can work with agency to help them with problematic clients – by skilling-up the client in how to get the most from marketing suppliers and undertaking infrastructure projects (like CRM set-up) – so that the relationship is more fruitful all round.

Do you just do the thinking?

We believe that action creates clarity. So, although smart thinking is our key differentiator – thought without elbow grease is pretty useless. Our programmes are highly active and involve lots of input and energy from clients in putting plans into action to see if they work, learn from doing them and refine for future improvements. The key thing here is that we never just ‘do’ – we will always find out why something needs doing, and if its being done in the best possible way.

Hope that answers a few questions. If you want to know more, please do drop us a line.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

The questions I most often get asked about marketing budgets are:

• How much should I spend as a percentage of turnover?
• Should I benchmark against competitors?
• How much shall I spend on each discipline (PR, DM, Events, Ads, etc.)?

All totally reasonable questions… but what you should be asking is: what shape should my marketing budget be? Seriously, it is the most important question there is on the budgeting front. So, let me tell you what I mean.

A decent marketing programme is centred on a sales funnel, onto which you’ve mapped the decision making process for your target audience. (see previous posts Making Marketing Pay, and What to Say When).

FIGURE 1: Chart to show the influence of marketing spend across the sales funnel

From this you can put together a programme of activity that moves a person from awareness to a sale. Each marketing technique has a different level of influence at each stage of this process. You need to determine the level of influence at each stage, then apportion this across the funnel.

There are a few ways to decide the amount of influence each technique has:

• Workshop with the sales and marketing team to agree the apportionment
• Surveys or focus groups amongst new customers to get them to assess what they saw at each stage (this can be tricky, as people often post-rationalise decision-making, meaning that emotional triggers are downplayed)
• A best guess (hey, we’ve all got to start somewhere)
• A combination of all of the above

From this exercise you now have a powerful tool for designing programmes and allocating budget. Now analyse your budget in the same way:

• Split your spend into each technique
• Apportion this spend as per the influence amount you’ve worked out for that technique (for example, if you worked out that PR has 40% influence at awareness, 10% at interest, etc. your spend on PR should be tabulated to reflect that)
• You now have an actual shape for your budget

Compare your actual budget shape to the ideal budget shape you’ve established to maintain a free-flowing sales funnel. This allows you assess where you’re spending too much or too little, and to adjust your spend according to the funnel requirements.

Now, if you have a budget cut, or find a pot of cash, you again have a powerful tool to decide how to adjust your spending. The crucial factor here is to maintain the shape. So, rather than cutting a project that happens to be the right level of spend, you can cut evenly across the funnel ensuring that you’re not leaving any gaps.

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

One of the key strengths at Clear Thought Consulting is in conceiving and running thought leadership programmes. I’m often asked what these entail, so here’s a quick run-down of the basics.

Thought leadership is about being front of mind in regard of a certain subject or market. A thought leader will always make it onto a ‘long list’ when people are making buying decisions – and often become the benchmark against which others are measured.

Timescales:

• Thought leadership programmes are not a quick fix, you cannot expect immediate results.
• A thought leadership marketing programme is only effective in the medium term, and then only when it forms part of a funneled sales approach. That is, a planned process that uses specific tools and techniques to move people from one stage to the next through the buying decision. The thought leadership programme typically acts as a top and tail to this process.
• In the longer term, thought leadership programmes also serve to create a bank of ‘good will’ in more junior members of the target audience, which translates into awareness and leads when they move into more senior positions later in their careers.

Typical thought leadership tools:

First off you’ll need to think of subject matter that is interesting, engaging and useful. Then, create a campaign that has a mix of tools that can be used to influence people along hierarchical and vertical planes.

Typical thought leadership campaign checklist:

• Get your best brains in a room, or even better some customers, and think about subjects that are interesting, engaging and useful.
• See if you can find a respected industry partner, if not then use your own research and expertise to prepare a ‘future trends’ report that can be downloaded online in return for data capture.
• Prepare an accompanying 1/2 hour presentation and use the content to host a live web seminar.
• Prepare press and direct mail to generate report downloads and webinar registrations (these can be tailored to sectors, and as customer and non-customer versions).
• Track report downloads and invite anyone who has downloaded, but not registered for webinar an invitation.
• Practice your webinar with the technology, slides, hosts in the room you will be using for the live session.
• Host the webinar and record the session.
• You can often boost attendance with an offer to attendees of something like a free book or other useful offer for people who attend – we’ve previously managed to get signed copies of business books by talking to the publishers.
• Review the people who attended and downloaded and get your best sales people to follow-up the hottest leads, keep the others for future or your junior team.
• Anyone who registered, but didn’t attend can now be invited to watch the recording.
• The recorded version now goes up on your website, where it can be viewed in return for data capture – this can form the next level of the campaign (where perhaps Director level people were invited to the live event and more junior people are now invited to view online).
• Alternatively snippets form your web video can be placed on You-Tube, Twitter, or other document sharing sites to drive people to the original download.
• All data captured builds your database for future relevant, timely, engaging and useful thought leadership material.
• New techniques allow you to publicise your materials at little cost, with simple things like Tweets, LinkedIn updates & news items, contributions to discussions, blogs, etc. For example, we’ve seen great traffic by posting content on Business Exchange.

As said, this needs to form part of a sales funnel, where the aim of the game is to increase hit rate when your sales teams pick up the phone. If people have read something interesting or attended and engaging event, they are much more likely to be warm to the call.

For more on sales funneling, see our 20 minute webcast: http://www.slideshare.net/clearthoughtconsulting/making-marketing-pay-1202609

For an example, you may like to see a recent campaign for Fraudscreen looking at The Life-cycle of a Debtor: www.fraudscreen.co.uk/lifecycle-part-one

By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Being asked to prepare a talk for the Bristol & Bath Marketing Network on ‘Making Marketing Accountable’ has given me some space to reflect on my key learnings on making marketing pay. It was a 20 minute talk at a reasonably high level, just enough to get the conversation started…

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Here’s a quick summary:

First off, I asked “who are marketers accountable to?” A great presentation from FutureLab neatly breaks this into three key areas of accountability:

1. Our world – society, environment, etc.
2. Our customers – accurate descriptions, no false promises, etc.
3. Our companies – making a profit, keeping people employed, etc.

For my talk, I focused on the latter and specifically on some key techniques for making marketing pay:

1. Map out your sales funnel;
2. Work out which tools do which job through the sales funnel;
3. Assess activities and spending on these to ensure the funnel flows properly;
4. Measure movement through the funnel to identify and remedy holes and logjams.

Having done this, there are some key pieces of advice I’d give any marketer:

1. Put every project, campaign and pound in context – a neat device is to have a funnel icon on all documents with the step the activity pertains to highlighted.
2. Place any spend report or budget request within the funnel, demonstrating the impact on actual or anticipated sales results.
3. Maintain your funnel flow – if you need to cut budget, cut evenly through the funnel so you don’t leave any holes… or add spend evenly so you can cope with the extra demand you create.

As you’d expect from a room full of marketers, I was asked some thought provoking questions…

• How do you work out the percentage through-put from one step to the next? I’d start by work-shopping this internally and reviewing historical data. This gets you to putting a stake in the ground. You then track actual results against this to refine over time – remembering that this is a tool to facilitate conversation between teams and to draw your eye to areas needing attention. Absolute accuracy may never be possible, but this will always help you identify areas of concern or success and prioritise resource and energy.
• How do you avoid this becoming a finger-pointing tool where marketing point to sales and sales point to marketing? You work out the funnel metrics together and regularly review against it. You can also go further and use the funnel to apportion people’s time against activities in each step, which can help to facilitate inter-team collaboration.
• How does this work in big companies where small aspects of each step are often owned by different teams who play each other off and get highly political? It doesn’t – this works in organisations where the CEO or MD has bought into the concept and is leading from the top to avoid such in-fighting. I do know that this makes it sound easy and that it really isn’t – but a genuine grasp of sales funnelling in large organisations will often require a full change management programme – such is the nature of turning a tanker.

Some questions from me to you:

In my thinking over the years and in preparing for this talk, I’ve come across some emerging themes, on which I’d love to hear your thoughts:

• Does ROI obsession create a race to the bottom? If ROI is the king metric, surely the quality and standing of your brand will suffer due to cutting back on ‘fluff’ to make the ROI look better… if this is done continually will you ultimately devalue your own offering? Apple could clearly make more money on each sale by cutting packaging costs, for example, but they’ve prioritised brand over absolute ROI. Is there a lesson there for all marketers in setting, and staying true to, core values for long term value.
• Analysis versus intuition? How do we, as marketers, balance the potentially conflicting forces of detailed analysis and personal intuition or hunch?
• Transparency and self protection? I’m a big believer in making everything crystal clear. But, I have certainly encountered marketers who like to maintain a sense of mystery in which marketing is a dark art, so as to protect their own standing or to avoid answering difficult questions. How do we overcome nervousness in some quarters about putting marketing under the microscope and enabling our peers from other disciplines to understand what we do?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Related links and thoughts:

• http://clearthoughtconsulting.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/what-to-say-when
• http://www.slideshare.net/alainthys/reflecting-on-marketing-accountability
• http://www.slideshare.net/jeffmol/making-marketing-accountable-ita-cfo-roundtable-1039508

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk

I’m currently working on two, very different, business-to-business websites, and have been knee deep in information architecture (IA) and web design for the last six weeks or so. Having come across the same questions time and time again… I thought I’d put pen to paper about rules you should never break online.  For this, I am specifically talking about business main websites, not blogs, twitters, forums, etc.

I see myself as a free thinker. My natural reaction to someone telling me that I can’t do something or shouldn’t do something is to challenge it. So, I find myself in the unusual position of championing convention. When it comes to business websites, function must always take higher priority to form (sorry designer friends). The look and feel is a very close second, but it is second.

So, when warming a client up to IA, I tend to use an analogy of a website as a text book. A business website serves a purpose – people come to it looking for something specific and their time is precious. Your site needs to get them to that info as fast as possible (whilst sign-posting them to relevant other content along the way). Think, if your site was a textbook you’d add a contents page, an index or lay things out alphabetically. Can you imagine trying to find a word in the dictionary if someone had decided to order things according to… say, their favourite words first, or some other such  subjective nonsense…  it would drive me crazy! This is the effect you have on site visitors if you ignore web conventions – so, don’t do it if you want to facilitate that all-important search-to-sale journey.

Web conventions you should not ignore

• Logos go on the top left  and typically link back the homepage, this is the equivilent of flicking back to your contents page in a book.
• Major navigation goes along the top and secondary navigation goes on the left – I didn’t make the rules, it is just what people expect to see, so why mess with it if it helps people find what they are looking for? For me, I think of major navigation as chapter headings and secondary navs as chapter contents.
• Legalese in the footer of every page – it has to be there, but it will never sell your stuff, so just put it at the bottom. For me, this is like the publisher’s page at the front of a book.
• Disabilities Discrimination Act (DDA) and best-practice – get decent advice on this, you don’t want to break the law or alienate potential customers.
• Don’t put text in as an image – Google (other search engines are available) can’t read them and it causes a DDA headache.
• Use system fonts – I know that they are a bit dull, but using anything else is totally impractical, you need to use a font that is installed on every computer so that you can be sure your text will be legible to all.

Hmmm… so, business websites should all look the same?

No way. Just because reference books all have contents pages and indexes, they certainly do not look the same. Hard back, soft back, image style, tone of copy… just walk around a book shop, there is plenty of variety. Online, you add personality in the same way… but by employing a designer who specialises in web – print designers never get this quite right.  The two sites I am working on at the moment could not look more different. Your brand can sing through, but you don’t need to mess with the stuff that makes your site actually work to make this happen.

And of course, there are always exceptions… particularly on very simple sites of fewer than 20 pages, where you can get away with being a bit more maverick.

For me, these are guiding principles. There are bound to be many more detailed tips from IA specialists… but if you start by putting function before form you’ll be better placed to move forward.

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk

I’m loving www.comparethemeerkat.com – comparison sites are all much of a muchness, so coming up with something really distinctive will have been a creative challenge indeed. I can’t for the life of me work out what the creative brief said to elicit such a leftfield and engaging response.

I’m also really enjoying the Audi Q5 ad with cardboard car… I’d love to think someone lovingly sculpted the car we see, but I have a sneaky suspicion a computer or two might have been involved. Still loving it though – it has a childlike joy to it… bit of a rip off of the Skoda cake ad, but hey, it made me smile, which has made a contribution to my brand feel-good in relation to Audi… tho’ not rushing out to buy one just yet.

2009 has kicked off well for Clear Thought Consulting, with two exciting consultancy projects underway for new clients, a new business push planned on the SPAN front, a new batch of CIM students to inspire, partnerships forging with some great local marketing specialists and plans afoot for Bristol networking this year.

Gradwell appoints Clear Thought Consulting: In October last year, I was delighted to be appointed by Gradwell (www.gradwell.com), the small business internet infrastructure providers, as their retained strategic marketing consultant. We’re two months in and we’ve cracked some key foundation work ready for a really exciting 2009. Gradwell closed the year by bagging the ITSPA Best Business VoIP award, and I am looking forward to telling the world about this and their other great products. All in all, this win was a testament to the power of networking – as it is a lead I picked up through LinkedIn.

To deliver the plan I’ve put together, we’ve also engaged some excellent specialists from my little black book, who I’d like to tip my cap to:

• Cheryl Crichton: a freelance marketing / account manager who I originally worked with in 2001, and whose hands-on style is perfect for her ongoing role with Gradwell in delivering the plans I devise.
• Christian Tait: freelance designer who I’ve worked with at his last two agencies and who has somewhat set the bar for other designers to meet.
• Ferdinand Edwards: qualitative researcher extraordinaire, who added valuable depth and colour to my quantitative approach.
• Samantha Castillo: freelance copywriter whose extensive technology experience made her the natural choice for this client.
• 3Sixty Digital Marketing: arguably Bristol’s best web agency, who are currently undertaking a full review of the Gradwell website in readiness for a full refresh.

Fraudscreen appoints Clear Thought Consulting: November saw another client come on-board in the shape of Fraudscreen (www.fraudscreen.co.uk), where I’ll be working with one of my ex-Experian colleagues, John Sharman, and the unanimously impressive team in Gresse Street. Where many will be looking at the year ahead with trepidation, Fraudscreen is one of the lucky ones with products that are perfectly positioned for the current economic environment – helping businesses make fair and commercially sound acquisition, retention, collections and debtor decisions.

For me, this is another very welcome annual support contract with some upfront investments to be made. We’re currently knee deep in website re-building, ready for a web-centred thought leadership programme. For this, I have again to thank some excellent marketing partners:

• 3Sixty Digital Marketing again, using  Sitecore, their recommended content management system.
• Creative Template Solutions: Kathy’s pragmatic approach to digital templates has never failed to be an excellent investment.
• TickBox Marketing for getting a wee campaign microsite up at www.paymentintent.com in a matter of days.
  

Bryony is let loose on CIM Diploma students: After my first term of tutoring, I am anxiously awaiting the results for my CIM module – with fingers crossed for all the students in my group. I’m also looking forward to meeting a new cohort of the Cambridge Marketing College at the end of January and I hope to inspire them to see their CIM qualifications as much more than a piece of paper!

Networking  anyone? I’m also looking forward to getting involved with getting the Bristol arm of the Bristol & Bath Marketing Network up and running. With Bath running successfully, there must be marketers in Bristol up for a monthly meet to keep up to speed with the latest, meet other local marketers and have a drink. Watch this space for more details.

I hope that 2009 brings you many and varied opportunities.

Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Truly compelling messaging is almost certainly going to upset someone… providing that you’ve identified the people you want to inspire and the message works for them, does it matter if you upset people? Often the answer is no. Clearly, you need to be legal, honest and fair – but a bit of controversy can be a good thing. Who was it who said “write what you like, just spell my name right”? So true, especially in an search-enabled world.

This is what those in the PR trade call an ‘issues jump’. And, with support from a nimble marketing communications team, this is an activity that can be hugely fruitful. You won’t know what they are until they happen, but there are things you can prepare to be ready for when they do.

How to spot a marketing moment

You’re looking for a moment of heightened attention, when something in your space becomes the subject of attention. This happens when PESTLE (political, economic, societal, technological, legal, environmental) matters change and impact your market or when a major paper or programme picks up on an issue.

If you’ve established your market messaging up front, this gets a whole lot easier. With a message matrix in hand (i.e. each audience, the functional layers within that audience, and what you want them to think about your organisation) you can be pretty disciplined about this by dividing up the task. If you’ve established your audience, you can allocate one or more to each of your team for them to scout.

This can be done by:

• Subscribing to the relevant magazines, ebulletins, etc.
• Watching the identified competitors in that space
• Setting up relevant Google alerts (for the messages you’re after and things that audience would be interested in)
• Joining LinkedIn groups, Blog feeds, Forums in that space
• Keeping an ear an eye out

If you’re not that organised, you can of course just keep your ear to the ground. When something comes up that is in your space, a pre-planned process should kick into action.

Planning for an event you’re unaware of

Your annual budget should make some contingency for these un-expected marketing moments – and have a back-up plan for spending that money wisely if none crop up (unspent contingency can always be put towards creative and engaging Christmas campaigns, which really can be more than a card! And can be worth doing).

The first thing to say is that PR needs a net – that is, generating interest when there is no pre-defined funnel to capture that interest is a complete waste of time, energy and cash. A decent website should have a data capture facility, and ideally a campaign hub (somewhere to post downloadable material, in return for marketing permission). If your site doesn’t have this built in, you should either invest in it, or find an agency who can build you campaign microsites quickly… by which I mean 48 hours.

So, assuming you’ve snaffled away a little pot of cash, or for the less organised… convinced someone at short notice to find some money or cut it from somewhere else, then these are the key building block of an action plan:

• Brainstorm session, to include the key decision maker
• A piece of collateral that can be downloaded (discusion paper, briefing note, etc.)
• Loaded to your campaign hub or microsite
• Plan a sales response for downloaders – an offer of some kind
• Draw up a press list and prepare a tailored press release for each one
• Select one key press player to whom you’ll offer an exclusive
• Let your exclusive have the story for a few days
• Then distribute the press release more widely
• Post questions/discussions in LinkedIn Groups and other online forums
• Hand the leads onto sales as they come in to follow-up as planned
• Track through the sales funnel to measure effectiveness and ROI

Writing a report at short notice can be made easier with some preparation too. So, if the press has suddenly become interested in something in your space, you can create high quality material quickly. Again, if you’ve worked out your message matrix up front, it is a fairly simple process to run a 2-hour brainstorm on each one and write up talking points – these are then available to use in forward features and in proactive and reactive campaigns.

You need to talk your decision maker through this process before it happens. So, that when you pick up the phone to tell them you are doing an issue jump – they know what is needed of them and will be able to respond quickly.

Action plan

Are you ready to capitalise on a marketing moment in your space? If not, here’s a to-do list:

• Prepare a microsite or area on main website that can be easily amended, where people can download material in return for data capture
• Prepare a message matrix and brain-storm talking points, identify target titles, groups, blogs and forums
• Set-up a media monitoring system – press scanning, competitor watching, Google alerts, groups, forums, etc.
• Prepare a vanilla execution plan for a responsive campaign
• Walk your decision-makers, execution team and sales team through the plan so they know how it will work when it happens

By doing some pre-planning, you will be able to respond to a changing market at speed. This sets you apart as an organisation with its finger on the pulse, and ahead of its competition.

I spent six hours this weekend clearing junk from my house. It felt great. I sorted through piles of boxes, threw out unwanted clothes and re-organised a load of storage. Then, my Dad came to visit and commented on what a lovely home we have. Now, he didn’t say ‘Wow, isn’t it tidy’ – in fact he didn’t notice that I’d been tidying, but by clearing away the distractions he was able to notice the lovely touches we have around the place – like art and photos.

A room that is clear of clutter and that is well laid out to enable you to move around freely, is a joy to be in. Good literature design (on and off-line) is the same. There are various design conventions in regard to leaving white space, to aligning and anchoring headings and sub-headings, etc. – and whilst most people picking up a brochure (except those of us who work in the business) won’t consciously see these rules being applied, they will enjoy a well designed piece much more. This is most evident when you see something that hasn’t been well designed – you don’t know why, it just doesn’t look right. Just like when you walk into a room that has been freshly vacuumed, you don’t actively notice the carpet pile all running in the same direction – it just looks better.

Whilst there are, of course, examples of anti-design where rules are actively broken to create a jarring and clashing visual impact – most marketing literature, particularly in B2B, requires the sort of design that allows the message to take centre stage, that gently gives a sense of the corporate culture, and that silently guides the eye to the key points.

So, take care if you’re tempted to prioritise content over design in times of budgetary squeeze – if the two aren’t balanced, you’re missing a trick.

Marketing is increasingly viewed as a science, where sophisticated modelling and data-driven decision-making are taking centre stage. Against this backdrop, has creativity become a less important marketing skill? It has certainly been argued that marketers come in two shapes – the scientist and the artist. My contention is that significant marketing success requires a careful balancing of both, and that neither is the superior marketing skill.

In a previous article, What to say when, 29 Oct 2008, I outlined the key steps in an effective sales funnel, and the role of marketing at each stage. So, working on the assumption that a decision to buy starts at awareness, let’s also start here in reviewing the relative roles of science and creativity on marketing success.

In my first major agency role with Mason Zimbler (www.mzl.com), our MD used a simple equation to set the scene which has stayed with me ever since:

Frequency x Impact = Awareness

The premise is that if either element is out of balance, your chances of success are limited. It is a simple concept. In regard to frequency, think ‘it takes more than one drip of water to get wet’. The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK suggest that it takes three sightings of an ad to really notice it. When we talk about impact, the most important element is relevance – did your ad, email, banner, blog, etc strike a chord with the recipient, if not they won’t notice you. (There’s also more on this in my article ‘what to say when’). So, if your piece is dull and irrelevant, your audience will not see it. Or, if your piece is stunningly relevant, but they only see it briefly, you’re unlikely to really get the message across. Taking these two elements as our bases for comparison, we’ll review the contribution of science and creativity to each.

The scientific approach to communication frequency:

The scientific approach to managing the frequency of your marketing messaging is to model an ideal contact density for each segment or, in highly sophisticated set-ups, for each individual. That is the number of touches that person, or group of people, typically require in order to respond. This enables the marketer to develop a communications plan that ensures the optimum number of touches. Large consumer organisations, like banks, also use this technique to ensure that their customers aren’t over-communicated – having observed that over-communication can trigger complaints or defections, smart technology-driven rules are applied to ensure that this risk is minimised.

The creative approach to communication frequency:

A creative approach to communications frequency is to think laterally. The best example of a really creative approach to this is the innovative use of ambient media. By putting themselves in the shoes of the audience, a creative team will dream up highly creative media placements to ensure that the message gets to people regularly. For example, the National Union of Students in the UK ran a highly successful campaign highlighting the risks of sexually transmitted infections by stickering ten pence pieces and dropping them in student union bars. This is creative thinking on many levels – firstly the location, then the assumption that a student would pick up a stray coin, and the association of the money having passed through many hands linking directly to the message itself. Another example of this is the use that Amplex deodorants made of placing their ads on the hanging hold bars on underground trains and busses – we all know how unpleasant it is to be on crowded public transport where someone nearby has a body odour issue. Creatively tapping into this gave Amplex a highly creative media placement opportunity – putting the message right in front of their audience every time they travelled through London. By mapping out a buyer’s journey and thinking about how to get your message across creatively at each point, you can vastly increase your opportunity-to-see.

The scientific approach to communication relevance:

Scientific marketing has increased the likely relevance of marketing messages exponentially in recent years. The ability to analyse and overlay various data sources to build up a rich picture of your audience, and indeed each individual in that audience, is immensely powerful. Sophisticated optimisation techniques can tell you what to say, when to say it and even which medium is most appropriate for a particular segment or person. The various data strategy awards are littered with excellent examples of this approach.

The creative approach to communication relevance:

When it comes to creativity and relevance, we need only look to viral marketing for lessons in why creativity is essential. The Cadbury Gorilla ad would never have come about by virtue of scientific messaging development. Marketers need to remember that they are talking to people, with feelings and a sense of humour. We also all know that a recommendation from a friend is vastly superior in terms of our likelihood to listen than an official piece of marketing. As such, tapping into word of mouth is essential and creativity is king in the ‘click to forward’ world. The earlier examples of creative media placement also show how creativity can increase relevance by being appropriately positioned to amplify your message.

Balancing and fostering a healthy mix of marketing skills:

Having merely scratched the surface on these subjects, it is clear to see that marketers need to balance their skills at both ends of the scientific-artistic continuum.

Ten key points to fostering and balancing both skill sets:

1. Ensure your marketing team is trained in understanding and briefing scientific and creative suppliers
2. Facilitate creative thinking – I’d suggest that marketers need about one day per quarter of facilitated creative thinking
3. Start with science to build the profile of your audience, but always get a creative team to contribute ideas about how to reach them
4. Test various creative executions against the same audience to demonstrate, in hard commercial terms, the impact of the creative element of your campaigns
5. Don’t sacrifice creativity to buy more frequency – if your message makes no impact every time you pay for space, you’re wasting money
6. Don’t let beauty distract you – something can be beautiful but irrelevant
7. Make sure you track people through the sales funnel to allow you to see how you’ve generated your best leads
8. Look for ideas everywhere – you don’t have to have ‘creative’ in your job title to have a good idea
9. Never let the numbers speak for themselves – when it comes to reviewing marketing, you do need to look at what the audience saw to really understand it
10. Read the marketing awards booklets – there’s no such thing as a new idea. Most marketing awards these days look at science and creativity, you will find great examples if you look for them.

Marketing is one of the most exciting jobs in the world – you are a scientist, a psychologist, an artist and so much more. If you recognise, hone and balance these skills you’ll achieve success for your business and great satisfaction for yourself.

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Will an economic downturn curb the enthusiasm of companies to spend on decent creative, or will it force people to be more inventive?

The recent Honda live ad, where they booked the entire ad break for a live parachute jump was pretty innovative. You could argue that this is sign of a company splashing the cash… or was it only possible because prices are on the down and a stunt like that becomes affordable? It is certainly true that in an increasingly saturated media landscape, people need to work harder for standout – but chucking money at it is not always the answer.

In the socially networked world, creativity is king. The Cadbury Gorilla is case in point. Though I’m sure Cadbury spent a pretty penny, the many hundreds of spoofs that really made the campaign a success were made in homes with dodgy webcams or even camera phones. It is the idea that shines through – really capturing imagination.

So, will a downturn lead to a mass of truly awful ads… possibly on TV, but in the ‘click to forward’ world, the dross simply doesn’t make it through the judging panel that is the self-selecting audience.

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Long copy rules. For many a year the short copywriter has been king – writing those catchy lines that grab attention, particularly in advertising. In an online world, this is less important than depth, quality and quantity. Well written articles picked up by relevant online journals, forums and bloggers are now much more powerful than the clever one-liner. Why? Search! Where advertising once ruled, search has become the first, or the very close second, port of call in a buying decision. Being referenced in many trusted online venues is essential – and this can only be achieved with decent long copy (preferably written with clear thought on SEO strategy).

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Many businesses fail to move people through the sales funnel from awareness to action, not because they have their content wrong, but because they use it at the wrong time. By mapping your content against your sales funnel you can determine both the tone and quantity of information to make available to increase your chances of moving people through to a sale. This applies equally to decision-making processes that take 10 minutes or 10 months.

Many of us will have experienced a sense of ‘information overload’ where we simply switch off, or the frustration of wanting to know more about a product or service before we commit and not being able to find it. Both happen regularly, and when they do – you’ve lost a sale.

For almost every purchase we make, we run through a broadly similar decision-making process (I say almost, as the impulse bar of chocolate at the supermarket counter is quite a different process). Typically, and particularly for more complex purchases, our thinking will go something like this: ‘My laptop is heavy – I saw that ad for really light weight ones, who was it again?’ (Latent need); ‘There’s that ad, it’s X-brand’ (Awareness); ‘I’ll just check out their site’ (Interest); ‘Hmm, well the weight certainly compares well, but can I afford it, what are the other options?’ (Evaluation); ‘I’ll pop into Y-shop to see what it feels like and ask a little more about it’ (Trial); ‘I’ve researched the best price, I’ll get it from there’ (Purchase). Kotler and others have spelt out various different versions of this process, there’s bound to have been one modelled for most markets. So, our step-by-step decision-making process is something like 1) Awareness, 2) Interest, 3) Evaluation, 4) Trial, 5) Purchase.

Against this process you should map and measure your sales funnel, you’ll steadily whittle down your audience at each step, with interested parties moving through the funnel and those who either don’t want what you offer or who are turned off by your messaging going elsewhere. To maximise the conversion at each stage, marketers should consider two key elements; tone and quantity.

What do I mean by tone? As short-hand, think emotion. Against the sales funnel, there is an appropriate tone at each step. If you imagine a continuum from emotional to rational, typically your marketing material will need to start at emotional and move to rational through the funnel. Emotional appeals are most likely to really grab someone’s attention. If you hit a nerve, they notice you. However rational you are, e.g. ‘we’re cheap’, if they don’t feel a need for what you’re offering they’re unlikely to notice your communications in the first place. Successful emotional appeals, in marketing terms, usually hit on a negative feeling and say that you can take it away. This is called finding the point of pain. Once you’ve established that emotional appeal, your communications need to move into more rational territory, where proof is needed. As a sanity check on the tone of your marketing materials, map out each stage of the sales funnel and look at the material (offline, online, sales person, in-store, etc.) and assess the tone – are you too rational too soon? Are you trying to appeal to their emotions when they’re looking for proof?

Quantity, in regard to sales funnelling, is a fairly straight forward concept – start ‘short and sweet’ and then provide more information at each step. Where most organisations fall foul of this is on their websites. Home pages are often jam packed with information. Considering the journey a home page or a campaign landing page is only the second step on the sales funnel – they are still pretty emotional (what’s the benefit for me?) and they are looking for key messages. Again, map out your journey and assess the quantity of information you are serving at each stage, it should start small and increase at each step.

So, if you’re experiencing lots of web traffic, but low numbers of enquiries – or lots of footfall and low sales, think about the sales funnel. An initial assessment against tone and quantity will sign post where your blockage might be and put you on the path to a free flowing sales funnel that has a tangible link to your bottom line.

By Bryony Thomas, Director at Clear Thought Consulting | www.clear-thought.co.uk