• How to Determine Your Buyer Personas

  By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jul 30, 2009 | 7 Comment(s) | Filed in: Brand Marketing, Marketing

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  Buyer personas are profiles or biographies on the distinct market segments (e.g. customers, prospects, mainstream media, bloggers) you plan to reach and influence. For a successful marketing campaign, it’s important to understand the goals, concerns and preferences of each of your buyer personas and to tailor your content and messaging accordingly. If done correctly, your target audiences will feel like you are speaking directly to them — answering their questions, addressing their concerns and using their language — thus increasing the likelihood that they will want to engage with your business.
  
  To help personalize your buyer personas and make them really come alive, it is often beneficial to give your personas names, distinct traits and even photos. Then, when creating strategy, visualize these archetypical people and direct your messaging to them.
  
  Here’s an example: When I was 16, I worked at a fast-food restaurant. Everyday I saw the same types of people come through my drive-thru. Our clientele could have been broken down into distinct buyer personas. Two very simple examples are:

  • “Mommy Melissa” the mother of three who came after coupons were released or during promotions. She usually purchased those items that were on special and was the first to notice when prices were raised. She welcomed healthy alternatives to classic fast-food items.
  • “Businessman Bob” the business professional who came every day at lunchtime. He drove a brand new car and prices didn’t phase him. He usually ordered the same items, was always in a hurry to get back to work and got agitated when things took too long.

  
  

  Looking at these buyer personas, it is obvious that “Businessman Bob” and “Mommy Melissa” have different motivations, problems, values and interests. For example, messaging about fast service, even during peak hours, would likely appeal to “Businessman Bob,” while messaging about low prices, healthy alternatives and family-friendly options would likely appeal to “Mommy Melissa.”
  
  By defining and building strategy around your buyer personas, you will be able to better target communications and content, while potentially increasing efficiency and profitability.

  Better Ingredients Make Better Buyer Personas
  

  Papa John’s knows that better ingredients make better pizza. Well, the same principle applies here: better ingredients make better buyer personas. However, in this case, your ingredients are primary and secondary research.
  
  Therefore, if you have access to primary data on your current customers, analyze it. Tap into the knowledge of sales reps and other individuals who communicate with customers on a daily basis. They can probably provide you with some insight into your regular customers, just like I was able to do in the fast food example.
  
  Find out what your customers’ motivations, concerns and attitudes are. If possible, speak with current customers.
  
  But what if you’re a startup, releasing a new product or venturing into a new market? Or, what if you just don’t have access to historical data? Do a little digging. Research third party sources to gather the information. Here are some suggestions to begin your search:

  • Look at existing publications geared toward your target market segments. What type of language do they use? How do they present their information? Do you see a lot of images, graphs, etc.? What are the hot topics they discuss?
  • Find industry blogs. Who writes them? What are they writing about?
  • Locate and browse social networks and forums that people in your target market segment use. Search for related groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Ning. Do Twitter searches for keywords. Analyze what people are talking about online. What do they seem interested in? What challenges are they facing? What questions do they ask?
  • Do a quick keyword analysis using a keyword tool. (Google offers a free one.) What words do people search the most often? What related keywords are being used? What long-tail keywords exist and what do they say about your potential buyers?
  • Read analyst reports, news articles, government reports, etc. pertaining to your target market segments. Study related legislation. What laws and proposed legislation issues affect your market?
  • Identify sample companies that fit into your market segment. Look at their Websites. Read their annual reports. Get a good feel for their size, structure, successes and challenges. See what you can learn from them. What can you do better? How can you differentiate yourself to really speak to your potential customers?

  Once you have gathered all the ingredients, create your buyer personas by answering questions about your target audiences based on research. For example; here are a few to get started:

  • What are their problems, challenges?
  • What is important to them?
  • What influences their decision to buy or take action? 
  • What sorts of images and information appeal to them?
  • What is their social technographics profile?

  So… what do your buyer personas look like?  Share with me the resources you used and the questions you asked when creating them.

  Tracy DiMarino is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.
  

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  Photo Credit: gailjadehamilton, sean dreilinger

• Why People Aren't Following You on Twitter

  By Laurel Miltner | Posted Jul 23, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  With Twitter gaining in popularity, I’ve noticed that I receive a handful of new followers almost every day now.  I’ve also realized that I have a pretty standard way of sifting through these people to determine if:

  • They are actually a person and not a robot,
  • They are on Twitter to share and add value (not just to sell something), and 
  • We have something in common and they are worth following.  (I hate saying it like that, but I think other Tweeters know what I mean by “worth” — that they will add value to my Twitter stream, and I understand why I add value to theirs.)

  After realizing that I have a few standard red flags when deciding whether or not to follow someone back, I wondered if others do as well.  So I reached out to my Twitter community and asked:

   

  Here's what people had to say (though some of these are my own):
  

  If…

  • You don’t have a picture, or are following 3x more people than are following you
  • Your number of followers vs. people you’re following is severely out of balance
  • You don’t have a profile description (tell me something about yourself!) 
  • You are a self-proclaimed “expert” or “guru” (the community should be the judge of that) 
  • Your profile reads like a copy room bulletin board or newspaper’s classified ads 
  • Your profile makes it obvious that I’ll immediately receive an auto-DM, and have to un-follow you anyway
  • You appear to be a porn star or prostitute 
  • You have not updated in the last month 
  • I can't find valuable info in your first 10 tweets or so (I want to share real, interesting stories and ideas) 
  • There is too much selling of something  (don’t tweet bullet points, share life experience)
  • Your tweets are not interesting or applicable to me
  • Your tweets have no personality, add no value and don’t elicit conversation, or if you try to sell me something 
  • The majority of the tweets on your profile page say the same thing, repurposed 20 times 
  • All you do is talk about your own stuff 
  • None of your last 20 tweets makes me think, click or laugh
  • None of your tweets include links for more information/background 
  • You share too frequently (say, when on vacation - seriously, take a break), and without humor, insight or helpful information
    
                                    … then people may not follow you back on Twitter.
    

  So, what are the takeaways?

  • Let people know who you are.
  • If you’re really an expert, people will realize it. You don’t have to tell them.
  • Don’t use Twitter to sell or only to promote yourself and your stuff.
  • Be interesting — always bring something of value to the conversation.
  • Show your personality, but be careful not to overshare.
  • Engage people, and engage with people.

  Thanks to @ActivDefiance84, @cfuller, @decli, @keithmoehring, @j_conner, @LaNovak, @mikebutz, @paulroetzer, @tza2007 and @vnoreen for contributing your thoughts to this post.
  
  Do you have any standard reasons that you won’t follow someone back on Twitter?  Comment to share your thoughts.

  Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie.
  

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• 7 Tips for Event Social Media Marketing

  By Keith Moehring | Posted Jul 14, 2009 | 3 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  In May 2008, it was announced that the 2009 Senior PGA Championship would be coming to Cleveland, May 18-24. Our PR firm was selected to manage the local media relations. To support our event marketing plan, we recommended launching a social media campaign to help generate awareness and build excitement by giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at a major golf championship.
  
  We got approval in mid January and launched the campaign on February 2, three months and 16 days before the event. We included the following social media tools:

  • Twitter — @SeniorPGA2009 
  • Blog — www.SeniorPGA2009.Wordpress.com 
  • Flickr — www.flickr.com/photos/seniorpga2009 (Flickr was used for only part of the campaign, as event photos were eventually posted to the event Website. Most Twitter pictures were added to our yfrog account.)

  This opportunity afforded us the chance to test some industry best practices for successfully launching and building a social media campaign centered on an event. Based off this experience, we recommend keeping the following in mind when launching your own event-based social media campaign.

   

  1. Take the Integrated Approach

  The old saying a rising tide lifts all boats is an apt one, especially for social media activities. At every opportunity we tried to integrate our Twitter account with the blog and vice versa. Blog articles served as source material for tweets and in turn, Twitter was the second highest driver of traffic to the blog, behind only the event Website.

   

  2. Link from the Event Website 

  Ideally, we would have hosted the blog on the event Website’s domain, but do to circumstances out of our control, we had to resort to hosting it on WordPress.com.
  
  If you have to use WordPress or Typepad, we can’t over stress the importance of including a link from the event Website to the blog, as well as all other social media activities. It was not until the event site linked to the blog in early May that we really started to see traffic jump, from both the event site as well as search engines. The link gave the blog credibility in the eyes of search engines, and consequently it started to rank much higher for a number of keywords.

   

  3. Take a Natural/Organic Approach to Building Followers

  The most efficient way to build followers is to monitor others’ Tweets and participate in the conversation. With every retweet, it was like we were being featured in front of that person’s fan base.
  
  However, since our timeframe was small, we needed to actively reach out to other Twitter users to gain a good following. We set a goal of 500 followers by the start of Championship week.
  
  We used several online tools, including TwitterGrader.com’s search function and search.twitter.com. One thing we kept in mind is that users are more inclined to follow you if there is not a huge discrepancy between those you are following and those following you. We spread out our pushes to gain followers, and made sure we were within at least 200 the entire time.
  
  Over the three months leading up to the tournament, we (in order of occurrence):

  • Researched and followed Clevelanders who listed golf in their profiles (Twitter Grader) — Least Successful
  • Researched and followed Ohioans who listed golf in their profiles (Twitter Grader)
  • Researched and followed Ohio and Cleveland sport fans (Twitter Grader)
  • Researched and followed golf Twitterers with the best Twitter Grades (Twitter Grader)
  • Started following all professional golf tournaments
  • Monitored and followed all Twitterers discussing “golf,” “PGA,” “Senior PGA,” and various player names. (search.twitter.com) — Most Successful
  • Reviewed the followers of other professional golf tournaments and started following them

  We were able to attract 908 followers in a three month window.

   

  4. Show and Tell

  In order to gauge what our Twitter followers wanted to see from our event coverage, we posted a tweet asking them. The overwhelming answer was pictures — images they can’t see on TV or in the newspapers. This was consistent with the answers another Champions Tour event (@RegionsCharity) got when they asked their followers the same question.
  
  Leading up to the event, we posted pictures of clubhouse and course construction, media day, practice rounds and player arrivals. During the event, we showed pictures of players, the course, media interviews, putting green, driving range and fans getting autographs. Each picture we posted to Twitter would get between 20 to 30 views, with player photos generating the most traffic.
  
  On Flickr, the most popular photo album was from media day, which involved a press conference, golf, a chipping contest on Progressive Field and the returning champion throwing out the first pitch.

   

  5. There’s no “I” in Blog

  During the early months, you may only need one person managing the social media campaign, since there is only so much to discuss. However, as the event nears, the more responsibilities you’ll have, thus the less time to monitor, participate and publish. Unfortunately, this coincides with the time people really take an active interest in the event.
  
  Our recommendation is to team up and assign specific topics to each member. Someone can be responsible for interview quotes (also a big draw), another for event recaps and another for interesting facts and figures. By teaming up, everyone knows their responsibility and can focus on one area instead of spreading one person too thin.

   

  6. Start Early

  Launch your campaign as early as possible. We launched ours three months and 16 days from the start of Championship week. This is a very small window to develop strategies, generate followers and build relationships.
  
  As with anything, there is a learning curve — time needed to figure out and form relationships with the influentials, determine what topics resonate best with audiences and define posting and updating strategies and processes.

   

  7. Get Creative and Bookmark It

  One of our most successful blog posts was also the most fun to write. The 2009 Senior PGA Championship was hosted at Canterbury Golf Club, which shares its name with Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic poem — The Canterbury Tales.
  
  His work begins with a prologue introducing all the characters and explaining why they are headed to Canterbury. We decided to write our own prologue, and the resulting monstrosity (The Canterbury Tale: Senior PGA Prologue) stretched the term “poetry” to its absolute limits. However, it was Stumbled and ended up generating the highest one-day blog traffic total up to that point.
  
  We’d love to hear from anyone who has had similar experiences or can offer any insight further into this topic.
  
  Keith Moehring is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Keith on Twitter @keithmoehring.

• The Power of Social Networks for Nonprofits

  By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jul 8, 2009 | 1 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Social Media

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  The little boy jumped up and down with excitement.
  
  “Thank you! I’ve never had a juice box before. Are they good?”
  
  It’s one of my earliest memories of volunteering. I was in fifth grade passing out peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and juice boxes at a local food bank. The boy was about my age and his excitement over something so small – a juice box – opened my eyes. He showed me just how blessed I was (I got juice boxes in my school lunch everyday) and made me want to help those who weren’t as lucky. 
  
  Flash forward about ten years. Here I am working at an inbound marketing and PR firm where everyday I’m amazed at the Internet’s capabilities, the opportunities it provides and the potential technology has to change the world. I’m reminded of the juice box and I wonder… how can we use today’s technology to help those in need?
  
  The answer lies in exercising social networks for good. Because social networks connect people and make information sharing easier, they are the ideal place for individuals and nonprofit organizations to gather support for their causes. With a little bit of creativity and a whole lot of passion, anyone can make a difference. Here are some suggestions for doing so:

  Leverage existing online relationships. 
  

  Organize offline meetings with people you’ve connected with online. For example, tweet-ups are offline meetings organized via Twitter that enable people to transform online relationships into face-to-face networking. In February 2009, charity: water played into this existing social networking trend by encouraging Twitter users to host local tweet-up style fundraisers called Twestivals. More than 200 cities participated and with the help of approximately 10,000 people, Twestival raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for charity: water. For more information, follow @twestival on Twitter.

  Dare to be bold, humorous and memorable.
  

  To emphasize the importance of checking oneself for testicular cancer, the Sean Kimerling Testicular Cancer Foundation created a humorous YouTube video, titled “Check Your Balls,” featuring an ice-skating testicle getting “checked” by a hockey player. The video landed on the YouTube homepage and was viewed more than one million times in three days.

  Connect with your audience where they are already comfortable.
  

  By embracing the popularity of Facebook, The Humane Society of the United States recruited a total of 3,847,176 supporters and raised $59,275 for their top five Causes (“Stop Animal Cruelty,” “Stop Puppy Mills,” “Contribute to the Humane Society,” “No More Animal Cruelty,” and  “Help Stop Dog Fighting”), as of July 7, 2009. Their Causes pages feature interactive elements such as a petition to stop puppy mills (signed by 590,011 people) as well as the option to send friends a virtual puppy for $50 (equivalent to the cost of rescuing one dog from animal cruelty or natural disaster). They also house numerous discussions about animal rights and ending animal cruelty.

  Empower people to share their personal stories.
  

  To raise awareness for premature babies, the March of Dimes started its Share Your Story blog, encouraging parents of premature babies to ask questions and share their daily joys, worries and frustrations. The blog has become a support resource for parents, allowing them to connect with other parents who have similar experiences. In addition, it is a moving platform that better explains the organization’s mission.
  

  Show the organization’s reach and impact.
  

  The One Campaign is a global advocacy and campaigning organization dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. Their Flickr group asks members of the campaign to share photos of their faces as a way of showing support. So far, 1,097 people have posted their picture to the group, providing a powerful symbol of the organization’s reach and impact.
  
  These are just a few suggestions on how nonprofits can harness social networking to advance their causes. What are some other ways the social Web has been used for good? Share your success stories and ideas in the comment section below.

  Tracy DiMarino is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.
  

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  Photo Credit: Rakka

• Inbound Marketing Lessons from our Founding Fathers

  By Laurel Miltner | Posted Jul 2, 2009 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Business, Internet Marketing

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  All the chatter online this week about “free” (Chris Anderson’s new book, Malcolm Gladwell’s review of said book, and many others’ thoughts on free and the future of business models), really got my wheels turning.
  
  With the 4th of July just around the corner (and thanks to a thoughtful Facebook post from a former professor regarding freedom of the press) I started thinking about the implications our freedoms, rights, and perceived rights have on business practices — particularly online.
  
  I started wondering what a Bill of Rights would be like if it were written for consumers today, in a time when people basically have the world at their fingertips.  What rights do we have — or should we have — as consumers, and how can businesses cater to them?

  

   

  The Consumers' Bill of Rights

  For the sake of this blog post, let’s assume that our ideal business exists because it offers a product or service which the company’s executives and employees truly believe solves a consumer problem, improves the standard way of doing something, or otherwise betters quality of life in one way or another.
  
  (If you don’t know what the actual Bill of Rights entails – see the United States Bill of Rights Wikipedia page.)

  First amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to information; your company shall provide helpful information about your industry and products or services.
  
  The rise of the social Web has taken the freedom of the press and free speech beyond what our founding fathers ever could have imagined.  This gives consumers the ability to heavily research any topic of interest and seek out information as they need it.
  
  Your job is to create and share information about your industry.  Blog, publish eBooks, case studies, whitepapers, thoughtpapers — and make them free.  Let your potential customers really get to know you, and your company.  Give them the information they need to make an educated purchase decision.  When they are ready to buy, if you are the best fit for them, they will know where to find you.

  Second Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to not be “sold;” your company shall implement a smart sales strategy.
  
  By integrating analytics into your Website, assessing visitor behavior and conversion rates, and gathering lead intelligence, you should be able to get a pretty clear understanding of who your best buyers are, and what makes a qualified lead.
  
  Instead of cold calling or mass mailing laundry lists of people, use this information to cater to your potential customers’ needs.  Talk to them about their problems and what your product or service can do to help.  Sell smart.

  Third Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to join groups and discussions on a given topic and know whom they are taking to; your company shall never allow representatives to pretend to be someone they are not.
  
  People join online communities and post on discussion boards because they care about a particular topic, they want to learn and share information with others.  Some companies think that a great way to create positive buzz online is to have an employee pretend to be a customer and rave about their product or services in these community or forum discussions.
  
  Not only is this shady, but people often see through it.  Nobody wants phonies in their communities.

  Fourth Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to find the information they are looking for online quickly and easily; your company shall help them in this task, authentically.
  
  Everyone knows that most people these days use search engines when looking for information.  Make sure that your Website is optimized for search engines and for searchers.  Don’t fall into the black hat SEO trap of trying to manipulate your rankings.  Eventually, the search engines will recognize this and penalize your site, but more importantly, your potential customers will not appreciate you trying to scam them into considering your company.

  Fifth Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to know what your company truly stands for; your company shall operate ethically and stay true to its core values.
  
  We’ve all heard stories about leaked memos, people saying things online without thinking, and other business horror stories.  When hiring, make sure you only invite people that you trust to join your team, and that your employees adhere to the company’s core values.  Don’t let phony people jeopardize your brand or incriminate themselves by acting foolishly.

  Sixth Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to share their opinions about your company online; your company shall listen and join in conversation.
  
  Remember that gross Domino’s video that hit YouTube a few months back?  Remember how long it took for the CEO of the company to respond?  Sure, it was only about two days later, but by that time, millions of people had viewed the video of Domino’s employees desecrating customer’s food.  Your company needs to monitor the Web, know what people are saying about it, and when necessary, respond in a timely manner.

  Seventh Amendment

  Consumers shall decide for themselves if you are helpful and interesting enough to tell others about; your company shall be rewarded for doing things smarter, better, faster, bigger and more creatively than your competition.
  
  It’s widely accepted that the number factor in search engine rankings is inbound links to your Website.  In other words, if people like something you did enough to share it, you’re doing something right.  You will be judged by the value you create.

  Eighth Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to choice; your company shall not talk poorly about competitors for the sole purpose of making your stuff look better.
  
  Let’s face it — people can see through the crap.  Instead of bashing your competition, why not build relationships with them?  I’m sure that there are a lot of things that they are doing right.  As people in the same industry, why not share your thoughts and ideas?

  There are millions of people in the world — if your company is right for someone, they will know it.  But your competitor might have a different approach that is right for someone else.  Embrace competition, tell them what they are doing right, and learn from their successes (and blunders) to help make your company better.

  Ninth Amendment

  Consumers shall have the right to disagree with you and your opinions, and make legitimate complaints about your company, product or service; your company shall allow people to air their grievances.
  
  The social Web is about conversations and relationships.  Not everyone is going to think that your company is the best, the smartest or the coolest thing out there.  Other peoples’ opinions matter just as much, if not more than, yours.  If someone leaves a comment on your blog telling you that you’re wrong, or they disagree with your opinion, listen to them and see what you can learn.  Respond intelligently and thank them for their thoughts. 
  
  If someone gives you a negative comment on Facebook, or a bad review somewhere, don’t try to take it down or push it away — engage your critics and see what you can do to improve their experience with, and opinion of, your company.

  Tenth Amendment

  Consumers, collectively, shall decide which businesses will succeed; your company shall innovate ahead of the crowd and be the best.
  
  This is what it all comes down to.  Consumers are connected and collectively intelligent enough to do their research, sift through the scammers, and decide what companies they want to work with.  The only way to succeed in the world today is to be the best.  
  
  If you try to push out a mediocre product or half-hearted service, offer decent customer service and don’t provide enough value for your buyer’s dollars, people will not want to do business with you again, and they will tell their friends not to do business with you, and word will trickle down, and your business will fail.
  
  But, if you create and offer the best services or products in your industry, provide the best customer service and give great value to your buyers, then people will like you, and they will tell their friends about you, and they will tell their friends, and so on, and so forth… and your business will be a success.
  
  The only question is — are you up for the challenge?

  Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie.
  

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