I went in to ask him if I could put up a poster for Social Media FTW, a social media conference we’re putting on in Maine on 9/22. While we were putting it up a pretty blond woman walked in. (The fact that she’s pretty and blond have nothing to do with this, but I did notice it and I’m trying to paint you a picture here.) You could sense that this was her first time here, and being somewhere between lunch and dinner, it was pretty quiet. In other words, there was no line or other indications of how the ordering process might work.

She walked up to the counter and one of the new wait staff greeted her warmly and asked if she wanted to see a menu. Colin seemed unimpressed. I wondered why, after all, it was a friendly greeting. “I told those guys to go around the counter, show new customers the big board (where the wrap descriptions are), make some recommendations, hand her a take out menu, and ask questions. They think it’s crazy to spend that much time for a $7 wrap.”

“Ah,” I replied, “but it’s not a $7 wrap. It’s $7, once a week, 52 times a year for 10 years. Plus, she might tell her friends, too.”

“Yes, but you look at it that way because you own your own company,” Colin replied.

Colin went on to tell me about one of his first jobs, selling men’s suits. “‘Never let the customer get ahead of you in a sale,’ my boss would tell me. ‘The customer doesn’t know as much as you do, he doesn’t work here. Once he gets ahead of you in the sales process everything falls apart.‘”

We talked more about how at flyte we try not to just email clients their wireframes or designs, but rather walk them through what they’re looking at, explaining the flow, why we made the choices we did, and how this helps them with their goals. If we just post the wireframes then we’re letting the customer get ahead of us; we’re not owning the sales process. (Some people might argue that this isn’t part of the sales process, but I feel you’re always selling, whether in business or in personal interactions.)

If you run your own business, or if your on the sales team (and we’re all on the sales team, BTW), you’re sure to run into a wide variety of customers. Some will know exactly what they want, some will only think they know what they want, and some will have no idea at all and look to you to help them out. The first group is rare; it’s more likely your customer thinks they’re in the first group but are actually in the second group.

If you sense that they are in the first group you can feel free to just take their order and be done. If they’re in one of the other groups, however, you’re going to need to put the focus not on your solution, but on their problems. Their problem could be anything from needing a web site that will generate leads to navigating a wide variety of sandwich choices in a new restaurant. Once you know their problems, and their goals, then you can help them find the solution that will work for them.

I don’t feel Colin was really upset with his staff, but he feels that whatever you learn selling wraps you can take with you anywhere, and I agree.

BTW, Market Street Eats rocks, the wait staff is spectacular, and if you’re anywhere near Portland, Maine, you should stop in there for a wrap. I recommend the Red Rooster, and when they ask if you’d like pickles, just say “yes.”

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I’ve been looking into doing more of such programs recently and have set up some sites which will be trafficked via SEO and social-based traffic. There will be more such sites being launched further down the pipeline.

Which the affiliate can do everything possible to bring the traffic over and pre-sell the product, it just feels that some merchants are going out of their way to sabotage their own success.

Here’s some examples:

• Failing to benchmark your affiliate program: Whatever you may think, your affiliate program does not exist in isolation. Most diligent affiliates will compare affiliate programs across the variety of product providers, especially if it’s a commodity items like a beauty product, computer equipment or a musical instrument. Offering a 5% commission on the sale value when your competitors are offering a 10% or 15% payout makes you uncompetitive. There are some exceptions, where if you are the only merchant offering a particular product or your prices are low enough that the majority of buyers would buy through you, rather than another merchant.
• Failing to offer appropriate affiliate tools: If you have 1,000 products in your inventory, whether books, music or movies, isn’t it silly to give a link to your root domain? Don’t you think it makes more sense to provide product-specific links, or even better, the ability to deep link to any page within your website? This gives affiliates the option to use creative marketing techniques.
• Offering invalid URLs, expired coupon codes, failing to give what you’re supposed to give: If you claim to give product specific links, having that link (complete with a “productID=” field) go to the root domain is a “FAIL” in my book. Even worse is having the link go to a 404 page. What were you thinking? Same goes with giving coupon codes which have expired, exceeded the number of uses. Ditto for failing to reply to email, or if you’re away, failing to set up an “away” message or give an alternative contact.

There are probably some of the sins that’ve been irritating as I’ve been putting together campaigns. The cardinal sin that some merchants are making is failing to realize that you’ll probably never get a second chance to make a first impression once you’ve lost your affiliates for good.

If that’s the case, why’re you even offering an affiliate program?

PS: I’m documenting a couple of sites I’ve been working on at David Ford’s PPV Playbook forum. If you’re not a member yet, be sure to check out the PPV Playbook discount code too.

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Four big areas head the list of marketing changes. Each one is an example of how you’ll need to broaden your skills:

• More technology. No, you don’t need to become an iPhone apps developer, but you definitely need to become comfortable with working with technologists—directing them. Avi Dan believes that CMOs need to appoint a marketing technology czar. Regardless of the solution, it’s clear that every year will send a nw technology to cope with. Web sites yielded e-Commerce which begat search marketing that morphed into social media. If you understood Facebook and then Twitter, now you need to know Foursquare. If you figured out e-mail to the Blackberry, then iPhone apps were next. And now Android apps. Technology will continue to be a big driver of marketing’s future.
• More anthropology. Three university professors went Avi one better in a Wall Street Journal article, calling for the creation of a new role, marketing technopologist. That role includes a blend of marketing skills, technology ability, plus expertise in social interaction. When you think about how social media is built around communities, and further consider how central privacy is to online interactions, you could do worse than focus on how culture affects the way people interact online.
• More public relations. Traditional marketers have spent their lives crafting the exact messages they want to deliver, and then paying for them to be delivered. With social media, some marketers are flummoxed, because they don’t know how to craft a message that their customers will happily spend time with, and willingly pass on. PR pros to the rescue! Communications people have been solving that problem for media placement forever, so it behooves marketers to begin to adopt more of a PR approach. I found it interesting that IBM has merged its marketing and communications team under Jon Iwata, their longtime communications executive. Expect to see more of that.
• More metrics. Perhaps the most important skill marketers need is the one that has its roots in marketing itself—direct marketing. Direct marketers are really in the sales business, using metrics such as the response rate of everyone sent a catalog or other marketing message. Every sale is attributed to what caused it, allowing metrics-driven marketing to weed out the tactics that don’t pay off. Digital marketing is even easier to measure than offline direct marketing, so the pressure to optimize return on your online marketing investment has never been greater.

The smartest marketers are trying to expand their background in all four of these areas, but you can get by with just one. But beware of staying in that traditional marketing silo and not branching out at all. Most people will stay put, but the jobs out there require more than traditional marketing skills, so you are competing against more people for fewer jobs.

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Our own Aaron Kim recently did a social media roundup on the FIFA World Cup, showing the immense popularity of social media, especially during matches. It comes as no surprise to you that Twitter usage reached its all-time peak during a World Cup match.

So, as an advertiser, does that mean that you should pull your ads on match days? You might think that, with all those folks tweeting away, no one is clicking on your ads. A new study by Infolinks sheds a bit of light on that question:

As you look at the chart, notice that the click rates on advertising do indeed drop during the World Cup match, as you might expect, but click rates rise right after that match—to even higher than normal levels. So, while it might make sense to pause your ads during the match, be careful! If you don’t turn them back on immediately after that match, you’ll miss a clicking bonanza.

But you need to think clearly about this data in another way, too. When dealing with big events like this one, you might want to fall back on traditional television concepts, such as counter-programming. When one channel has the World Cup on, the others don’t go dark. Even though a big chunk of their viewership might be otherwise occupied, they strive to put on a program that draws well among those uninterested in the World Cup.

Perhaps they put on programming that appeals to non-sports fans. It might be that men are disproportionately attracted to the sports event, so programs targeted to women who aren’t sports fans might be a winner. You should think about the same thing when deciding what you do with your advertising. If you know that your audience overlaps with the audience of the big event, it makes a lot of sense to pause during the event. On the other hand, if your audience has little in common, you might find that advertising during the event is actually beneficial, when those sports widows are looking to do some shopping while hubby is camped in from of the TV (and, apparently, Twitter).

But the great thing about Internet marketing, is that you need not rely on these tired gender stereotypes. You can test. It might well be true that more men than women are drawn to the sports event, but find out by testing. Only then will you know exactly what you should do with your ads for your products.

Thanks to the folks at Infolinks for providing this study to us a week before its actual publish date. If you’re like me, you probably found it surprising that click rates jump after the event. I guess I expected that the rates would drop during the event, but did not imagine that there was pent-up demand that got released after the event. Now you know.

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In the online discount coupon world, Grouponhopes to be king via customer service.

Since launching in November 2008, the Chicago-based deal-a-day website has sold over 7 million online coupons in 70 cities. Its success has spawned competitor sites such as LivingSocial, Townhog,and Homerun,and it’s betting that fanatical customer service will keep them leading the pack.

During a recent trip to Chicago, I spent some time at Groupon’s headquarters hoping to understand what makes this fast-growing company tick. What I found werethe nine ways Groupon focuses on customer service in a price-competitive market:

1. Promote the fine print. Groupon features terms and conditions in large type in a clearly labeled section right beside the deal highlights. You can’t miss it.
2. Put a phone number on every coupon.If you are at the location of the merchant and have any issues, you can call Groupon HQ to resolve them. Try to find the Amazon.com customer service number. I dare you.
3. Anticipate and diffuse frustration.If you click to unsubscribe from Groupon’s email alerts, you are taken to a web page with what looks like a live video feed of Derrick, the Groupon Guy. A button says “PUNISH DERRICK.” Once clicked, a guy walks by and throws a drink in Derrick’s face. A message appears saying “That was pretty mean. I hope you are happy. Want to make it up to Derrick?” Another button says “RESUBSCRIBE.” Fun fact: “Derrick” is actually Groupon CEO Andrew Mason.
4. Apologize. Groupon is fanatical about vetting good merchants, so when a merchant went out business after hundreds of coupons had been sold for it, Groupon gathered the entire team together holding a sign that said “We’re sorry.” They sent the picture, along with a refund, to all of the customers who had purchased a coupon.
5. Have an iron-clad guarantee. If you are not happy with the Groupon experience, the company will refund your money, even if you have used the coupon. They call it “The Groupon Promise” and the company told me a very small percentage of customers ask for refunds.
6. Let customers discuss your products on your property. Every Groupon deal has its own discussion thread in an online forum. Prospective customers can ask questions about the deal before they buy. The thread stays active forever so customers will often go back and add feedback about their experience with the merchant. No other competitor has this.
7. Use two-way ratings. Groupon’s success is predicated on happy customers and happy merchants. Customers can give awards to merchants that they like or flag a merchant for a poor experience. Merchants can also rate loyal customers or good tippers, and can flag unfriendly customers.
8. Treat the call center as a customer loyalty touchpoint.Groupon customer service reps don’t have scripts. There are no pre-set time limits on calls. Reps are trusted to solve a customer’s issue on the first call.
9. Hire for outside-the-box skills. About 70% of Groupon’s customer service reps are connected to the local theater scene. Joe Harrow, Groupon’s head of customer service says theater folks are a great fit. They are high energy, friendly, outgoing, quick on their toes and fun people. Plus, they need day jobs. On my recent visit to Groupon HQ, Joe showed me a wall in the customer service area decorated with pictures of team members. He mentioned that you can tell who the theater folks are by their professional head shots.

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MTV will sell ads around WMG music videos in the U.S. across MTV Music Group digital properties and mobile services, as well as on WMG artists sites and third-party affiliates. As part of the deal, WMG’s video views will now be counted as part of MTV Music Group’s presumably as part of an effort to raise click-thru numbers.

 The MTV is exactly the kind of partnership that WMG promised when publicly opted out of the VEVO video monetization latform embraced by the other three major label groups. Prior to this agreement most of WMG’s online ad sales functions were handled by Outrigger Media.

Is advertising – even on their own web sites – good for artists? 

WMG’s head of recorded music Lyor Cohen thinks so, “At WMG our highest priority is to keep the artists at the center of everything we do, and this alliance enables us to offer our artists the marketing and sales firepower of the world’s most widely-recognized and highly-trafficked music destinations to help them drive revenue from their video content, on the artist’s own site, as well as through the many other places that fans access their music.”  He continues: “MTV Music Group has a history of creating compelling music content on TV, digitally and, most recently, in music games and their ability to leverage all of these platforms offers our artists a broader reach and a more compelling way for us to further connect them with music fans.”

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The study was conducted between 2009 and January 2010 and questioned 3,193 small and midsize businesses (up to 500 employees) across 15 countries worldwide.

The results found that more than 40 percent of the respondents that use hosted or cloud technology reported revenue rises of 30 percent or more compared with 90 percent of respondents not using hosted technology that saw decreases in revenue.

The advantages of hosted or cloud technology are viewed as reduced cost and IT management and maintenance, as well as increased business value, productivity and competitiveness.

Awareness of hosted services is increasing with 65 percent of SMBs using hosted software to some extent, while 73 percent of the remainder have considered it, compared with only 44 percent in the 2008 Index.

“Over the last five years, we have seen nearly 40 percent growth in usage of hosted services,” said Michael Korbacher, director of EMEA Software plus Services in the Communications Sector at Microsoft. “Using pay-as-you-go cloud technologies, small and midsize businesses can now afford and easily have access to enterprise-class, secure services across any platform.”

“Our assessment of the report tells us that an increased focus on IT correlates with good performance in all of the size categories surveyed,” said Dale Vile, research director of Freeform Dynamics. “This whole picture corroborates the notion that technology and hosted services can provide tangible business advantage, even for smaller companies, and it’s not surprising to see that investment in IT and hosting goes hand in hand with good financial performance.”

What are the Benefits to Sales & Marketing?

The biggest benefit is that you are sharing and accessing vital information with all your sales and marketing teams, instead of it all residing on your separate desktops.  That means:

• Sales & Marketing on the same page, sharing the same information all the time
• Enhanced company image and customer loyalty
• Reduced costs and increased revenue and ROI

Bottom line is: You get to concentrate on your core competencies, and increase your sales and marketing effectiveness.

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• 36% follow a food/beverage brand
• 32% follow a health/beauty brand
• 25% follow a household product brand
• 19% who follow a superstore via social media. 

• Consumer reviews on shopping sites 61%
• Blogs  33%
• Posts from friends on Facebook or Twitter  19%
• Posts from Brands  11%

Facebook and Twitter posts from friends were most influential among women in their 20’s, with 26% citing them as being “most influential.”

If you market a product in these categories and you were wondering how all this online chatter affects store sales, take note of this finding – women are 77% more likely to look for products and 67% more likely to purchase them in a store after reading online reviews on a community forum or message board.

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You may have the best content in the world, but there are just some things that must be discovered through a human, two-way conversation. To put some perspective on how the human touch impacts marketing performance, I was interviewed by Chris Doran to focus on the importance of leveraging personalized outreach along with marketing automation to improve your success.

In the interview I answer the following questions:

• How can strategic phone outreach impact lead scoring?
• What do you think it’s critical for marketing to learn on the phone that they cannot learn through online behavior?
• What are the top 3 relationship-building impacts teleprospecting can help marketing achieve?
• Can you share an example of something learned in a call that enabled a company to improve their online marketing programs?
• What do you think is the biggest benefit for marketing from Marketing Automation systems?

I’d like your perspective… How do you see the human touch impacting marketing performance?

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Here’s a dataset put together by Sy Harding: “Teenager favorite Aeropostale (ARO) reported its April sales fell 5%; Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) sales fell 7%; American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) saw its sales decline 6%; The Gap (GPS) reported its April sales fell 3%; Target (TGT) reported a 5.9% decline; Dillard’s (DDS) sales fell 5%; Kohl’s (KSS) sales dropped 7.7%’; J.C. Penney’s (JCP) April sales fell 3.3%.”

Then other companies, including Macy’s, Nordstrom, and TJX, managed to post small gains, preventing the news from being all negative.

And again, it’s necessary to consider that the Dow took a significant beating yesterday, closing down 3.2 percent (or 347.80 points) even after having a bit of time to recover from the crash that’s rumored to have been caused by a typo.

So stay on your toes, sales pros, but don’t go into full-on financial apocalypse mode just yet.