If you want to stand out, to be chosen over your competitors, then your prospects have to be clear how your offer is differentiated. The best way to differentiate is to change the rules of the game. Rather than be one player amongst many, be the leader of an entirely new category.

We see this play out in the market over and over, everything from “Lite Beer” to “Bag-less Vacuum Cleaners”, the company that creates a brand new category and owns it wins. You look like a leader while your competitors scramble to follow.

One way to create your own category is to simply find a phrase that describes what you already do differently or a trend you see growing.

I’m sure you have heard of Link Bait, while I can not be sure if Nick invented the term, for a while he was the best known authority on the tactic. Liz completely owns the phrase “relationship blogger”, it is not a persona she adopts, that is how she is in truth. Michael gave the name “Gateway Blogging” in this video to his tactic of using blogs to funnel attention. I did this by describing my approach to blogging for credibility, trust and reputation as Authority Blogging. Another concept I developed, and dedicated a whole ebook to (download it free here) was the idea of Flagship Content.

The key is to be authentic, base your category on something authentic, original and beneficial. This is not about simply talking about “green widgets”, find something worth talking about and that works as a spreadable idea.

How can you create a new category for what you do?

Tags: blog-promotion, conversation-marketing, link-baiting, writing
Posted in Sales & Marketing

Connecting to a conversation is easy; more of a technical issue than anything else.  Connecting in a meaningful and productive way, one that gets the buzz going in the right direction and keeps it on track, is a little trickier.  With the right approach, you can increase your chances of being well connected to the C2C buzz.

Rule #1 – Give yourself enough time and resources

If you don’t follow Rule #1, then Rules #2 & #3, and just about every other aspect of your C2C marketing effort will be difficult to execute properly.  

As we said, connecting is easy - you can literally start in minutes.  You need two things:

a)      an internet connection               b) something to say

Presuming ‘a)’ is not an issue (if it is, how are you reading this post?!), having something, the right thing, to say becomes your focus.

If you’re like me, it’s not difficult to talk about your company or products - I can go on for days.  But who wants to hear someone prattle on about their product, etc.?  Connecting to a C2C conversation means knowing what is being said and carefully considering what to contribute.  In other words, your response needs to be pertinent to the conversation – not just another sales pitch.

Before you say anything, you must find, listen to and research the conversations.  It is easy to underestimate how much time it takes and that’s why this is Rule #1.  You might need to track blogs; watch videos on YouTube; learn about social media groups or find the right forums.  You will need time – and patience.

Rule #2 – Plan Properly.

A plan will give you focus and focus will make your C2C efforts more successful.  A proper plan will answer the following questions:

What do you want to talk about?  You need to be fairly specific.  Is it about your company, your products, a single product in your lineup, your industry?  A small company might get away with a single blog, but I count almost 80 Microsoft blogs!

Who is your target audience?  You can’t start a conversation without knowing to whom you speak.  The public, industry insiders, investors, sushi lovers – they will need to be kept constantly in mind throughout all your planning and execution. 

How will you be different?  Regardless of how unique you think your product/service/company is, chances are there’s someone talking about it and a lot has been already said - you need to bring something new to the table.  You will attract more attention if there is something remarkable about your content or the way it is presented.

How often will you connect? Obviously, connecting daily will take more time than doing so weekly.  Whatever you choose, it’s important to develop a rhythmic habit around your C2C marketing.  Connecting regularly not only gets you into the habit, but your customers (or should I say your extended sales and marketing team!) become used to regular new content and contributions.

Which is the right medium?  This is where you test your planning mettle.  The versatility of Web 2.0 means a wide variety of C2C marketing channels – determining which one, or the right mix, will require diligence.  To get the easy stuff out of the way, there are very few cases where having a blog and tracking forums would not be helpful.  Beyond that, whether you choose to start a program of podcasts, or develop a widget for FaceBook, will very much depend on everything we’ve spoken about so far - your answers to the previous questions in Rule #2 and how able you are to follow Rule #1.

Rule #3 – Develop the Right Content

Contrary to the popular axiom, with C2C, what you say and how you say it are equally important – oh, and better add where you say it.  In the confines of a single blog entry, or even a series like this one, it is impossible to say what message would work best, directed to whom, on which medium. 

So, maybe we can talk about what to avoid: 

a)       Very few people search the internet for advertising.  The mere whiff of it sends most surfers off to catch another wave.  Keep your message pertinent to the conversation.

b)      Old news is bad news.  Be current.

c)      Don’t go in half-baked.  Research the conversation before you decide how to contribute.

d)      They’ve seen and heard it all – so far.  Bring something different.

e)      Don’t leave them sitting there.  Get them to take action and pass your message along.  Stay in touch and develop an active exchange of information. 

C2C marketing is not possible without being connected.  Just doing so sends a strong signal to your customers.  In other words, the action is the message.  Connect, in whatever way you can, and your customers will see you in a new light – and they’ll tell their friends.  

I’d like to hear your thoughts on this.

Tags: C2C-marketing, conversation-marketing, online-marketing, viral-marketing, word-of-mouth-marketing
Posted in Sales & Marketing

The other day I had a hankering to indulge my new found love of sushi.  I had been to a couple restaurants downtown, but I wanted something closer to home.  Being an internet wizard, I thought I’d go online and lookup sushi restaurants in my neighbourhood; but how would I know if the restaurant is any good?  

I found a forum where one contributor had high praise for a downtown restaurant.  I followed the thread and - “ka-ching!” – someone pointed out that the restaurant had opened another location that was just around the corner from me.  I went, I ate and it was good.

What’s the point?  Knowingly or not, the contributors to that forum had become influencers.  Like me, they have an interest in sushi, but what makes them influencers is that they talk about their interest to others.  What makes them important is that they can make sales for a company, just like they did for the sushi restaurant - and they do so without being paid!

So how do you find the influencers?  Well, you probably can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one; according to a BIGresearch study, almost 95% of us “regularly or occasionally give advice about products and services they purchased”, and over 90% of us “regularly or occasionally seek advice about products and services before making a purchase.”

Clearly people are talking – and they are talking about you (if they’re not, better check the corporate pulse!).  And it’s also not difficult to find out where they are talking.  As of June 30, 2007, there were 212,080,135 internet users in the U.S. – 70.2% of the population. 

Some influencers take things to the next level, beyond their circle of acquaintances.  Their thoughts and opinions are sought out by others - they are opinion leaders.  The opinion leader can be easy to identify as they generally exhibit the following characteristics:

• a higher level of interest or participation in a certain subject or issue
• gained the confidence of their publics by being well informed
• they are articulate authorities

Until recently, most opinion leaders were fairly well known, if only in their area of expertise - politicians, corporate leaders, industry analysts, journalists, celebrities, etc..    They were engaged by organizations, through advertising, lobbying or public relations, to exert their influence from the soapbox of traditional mass media.   

The web gives everyone a soapbox and an entirely new class of opinion leaders has emerged – I call them the buzz meisters. Over 25 million adults regularly offer their opinions on products or services online.  Increasingly, just like me and my sushi, many of us use the web to seek out that information and opinion and use it to make buying decisions.

The buzz meisters may be a little harder to find and identify than traditional opinion leaders, so keep the above list of characteristics handy.  But you must seek them out because they have very important implications for your business and your C2C marketing efforts – even for a small sushi restaurant on the east side of town.

Do you have any other ways of finding and engaging the influencers, opinion leaders and buzz meisters?

Tags: conversation-marketing, online-marketing, viral-marketing, word-of-mouth-marketing
Posted in Sales & Marketing

A prospect approached me early one morning at a trade show and asked about our product. Caught off guard and not being the greatest sales person (are all marketers bad sales people?!), I stumbled a bit, trying to deliver the tried and true spiel; but I could see the “glaze” forming over the prospect’s face.

Just then, a client stopped to say hello. I introduced my new acquaintance and explained the conversation. My hope was merely to buy some time while I came up with the right pitch.

To my amazement, my client launched into the best sales pitch I’d ever heard for our product. The prospect asked some skeptical questions, to which my client responded with spot-on answers backed up by her real-world experience. The prospect later became a convert and it remains my best sales job that I had nothing to do with.

Or did I? Looking back, I realize that, by getting a client and a prospect into a conversation about our product, I had unknowingly turned my client into a salesperson. What a concept! But, aside from testimonials and fortunate meetings at industry events, there was no really practical way to execute that concept. We all know the power of word-of-mouth, but how do you package it and apply it tactically?

Enter C2C marketing, consumer to consumer that is, viral to some, the evolution of word-of-mouth. Below are 5 steps to successful C2C marketing:

1. Have a good product

Starting an open conversation about your product puts it under a microscope. Every nuance, flaw and perfection – but especially the flaws - will be exposed in excruciating detail for all the world to see. You’ll learn more about your company, product and message than you ever imagined possible. Bad products or services do not fare well under a microscope.

2. Seek out those with an interest.

• The Masses – Presumably, someone out there likes you, or you’d not be in business for long. Find them and find a way to engage them in a public exchange. Online retailers like Amazon have employed the customer review model with great success. Purchasers submit their comments about the products they bought. The online retailer gets hits galore as they become a vast repository of consumer product info. This model may not be suitable for everyone, but the idea is to get your customers talking about things that are important to you.
• The Opinion Leaders - If you have any sort of mass produced product, chances are the conversation has already begun (if it hasn’t, something is wrong). Find those who start and propagate the talk – bloggers, journalists, etc., - because it is very likely that they have more influence over your customers than you ever will. They will give you a quick and accurate synopsis of the conversation so far – often they will do this without being asked.

3. Connect with them.

You could start with a blog; or find online forums that relate to your company or products; or get onto Youtube, Facebook, MySpace or any of the myriad other social media sites - they have seemingly endless C2C networking and marketing opportunities. Make sure your efforts are not half-baked. The #1 SECRET to successful C2C marketing is to give yourself enough time to do it properly – checking things out once a month won’t work. If you start a blog, read and respond to other blogs frequently (daily). Join and contribute regularly (daily) to online forums. Get involved in the conversation on every level possible and as often as possible (daily). Eventually, they will begin to know you exist. It’s a lot of work and adjustment, but it will pay off. Just the market research alone is worth the entry fee.

4. Let them do the marketing:

It is important to understand that, even if you reach the lofty goal of becoming an opinion leader, you will have no control over the conversation. However, once the buzz is humming, you have the chance to cultivate sales and marketing opportunities that arise in the conversation – or even create them. There’s a trend afoot that must have creative directors quaking in their ergonomic chairs. Content development for some high profile traditional marketing and advertising campaigns is being handed over to consumers and it has proven to be a buzz bonanza for the advertisers. Perhaps most famously, Doritos saw a 12.5% jump in sales when it partnered with Yahoo!Video to sponsor a contest among consumers to create the Doritos Superbowl TV ad for 2007. Of course, bloggers themselves are showing the way when SEOmoz ran a landing page creation competition among members of its online community.

5. Keep giving them something to talk about:

Don’t let the conversation die, or even slow down. Other ways to start or continue a buzz on the web? Games and giveaways have always been used to get people talking and online versions can use interactivity to further engage the customer – check this one out from Pepsi UK. Setting yourself apart, with a new product, package or (gasp!) exemplary customer service, will get fingers tapping to spread the word.

What about the pesky nay-sayers with bad feedback? They too can join your conversation. However, it’s nice to have the bad news where you can see it – and, better yet, do something about it. The Dell Community Forum is an example from a company that has had its share of bad buzz (remember point #1).

Whether you call it word-of-mouth, viral marketing or conversation marketing, the value of engaging your customer in a conversation and involving them in your sales and marketing efforts is immeasurable. Sounds good in theory, but will it work for everyone? 

Here are the the 5 parts of this series:

• C2C step1- Having a Good Product
• C2C Step 2: Spot the Buzz Meisters
• C2C Step 3: Connecting - Three Simple (!) Rules for being Well Connected
• C2C Step 4: Get Them Engaged
• C2C Step 5 - Keeping the C2C Pot on Boil

Tags: conversation-marketing, online-marketing, viral-marketing, word-of-mouth-marketing
Posted in Business, Sales & Marketing