Focus on the Right Type of Customers

A thought provoking article in the Globe and Mail on the 10 types of customers this morning. How many can you pick out? Are you targeting the right customers? Firing the wrong ones. How many fit into the delighted and ideal categories? Is your value proposition clearly being articulated to ensure customer expecations are met? Something to think about.

Lessons from Mobile World Congress 2014

This year marked my 8^th MWC in Barcelona (I missed one) and three dating back to the glory days of Cannes. Every year, I wonder if Informa – and now GSM-A -- price increases for show space, meeting rooms and related services  is worth it. Every year, there is a new wrinkle. Once there was a great system in place at Fira Montjuic, they switched to Grand Via. Ugroup Marketing had clients that suffered through that transition (losing good locations in Montjuic to less ideal options in Grand Via). Despite trying to upgrade, our clients have stayed in the same spots since the transition to the bigger hall. My hope is with all the M&A activity in our ecosystem we’ll finally get some spaces opening up. It may just be wishful thinking.

With the Fira Grand Via  – and this year’s reintroduction of the old hall Montjuic – Mobile World Congress is bigger than ever. Bigger doesn’t necessarily equate to better; but in this case, it really was the best MWC yet. That doesn’t mean it will be an effective show without preparation. Here’s a short check list to ensure the show is a success:

• Start the planning early – I book airline tickets, accommodations and begin vendor selection for stand construction in September
• Promote your attendance – Communicate to your prospects, customers and partners about your attendance; this year we added a telemarketing agency to drive further meeting
• Ensure meetings are scheduled – it is human nature to leave things open ended; try to firm up all appointments. Expecting a good show based on walk-up traffic alone is dangerous. Aim to get 50%+ of meetings secured prior to leaving for Barcelona
• Get your news out prior to the event. Unless you’re Ericsson or a Tier 1 multinational, you’re going to have a tough time pushing above the noise of the event. Disseminate your news one month in advance and use it as a way to drive more traffic to your stand

With these guidelines in mind, Mobile World Congress continues to be a must-attend event for anyone serious about the wireless market. Hope to see you there in 2015.

Assessing your competition's blog

I speak with most clients about the utility of blogging and the relevant SEO value it brings. This is the easiest way to get new content on your website, and it is usually one of the busiest pages on a website -- because people know it gets updated.

There are lots of articles on the best approaches to blogging. I read a number of them to see what's the latest thinking on these topics. This morning I read an interesting checklist for rating your competitor's blog. Click the link below for a methodology to employ from Digital Relevance in comparing your blog to your competition.

Competitor Blog Assessment

Marketing the Value Proposition

At the recent LTE North America conference, one analyst relayed a story from a tier 1 operator’s CEO. “We only deploy technologies to solve business problems. When it saves time and money over what we do today, call me.”

This comment reinforces a common issue we face while working with technology companies, especially those that are technology led. What is in it for the customer? It was drilled into me early in my career, product benefits either save time or money, or make life easier.  Product features need to roll up and support these benefits. If they don’t, one could ask why the features were green lighted by development in the first place. But let’s be honest, sometimes developers throw in features that basically come along for free when building something else and sometimes customers ask for features that may make sense only for them.

Good marketing hits the high notes (the benefits!!!) with key supporting features as needed, and leaves the low-level features for the product specification.

What’s the best time of day to send your email campaigns?

Let’s just say we get this question… a lot. There is a large amount of data on the topic, but something I stumbled upon today from Get Response Email Marketing gave nice data points that I thought were worth sharing. The figures below are based on 21 million emails in the first quarter of 2012.

Of particular interest:

•  24% of emails are opened in the first hour they are sent (about 10% are opened in the second hour)
• 90% of the openings will be achieved within 5 hours
• Top times for openings are 8 and 9 am, and 3 and 4pm

So what are the key takeaways? If you send too early in the morning, you’ll get lost in the overnight surge of messages. If possible, target the message to send at 8 am in your time zone. Another option is to have the send go in the early afternoon. If you’re a global business, segment your distribution lists by region and send each at the same local time. Above all, measure your results against previous sends and make sure that the new times work for YOUR business.