Word of Mouth Markerting Blog. Brand Advocates Blog

Blending Social Media and Search Marketing To Increase Brand Advocates and Sales

Antonio Altamirano — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:13:39 +0000

We are delighted to introduce our next live webinar. This time around we have a stellar gathering of social media and search engine marketing luminaries.

Time and date: March 23rd at 11 AM PT (2 PM ET).

Please Register to attend as attendance is limited

Speakers:

Dave Peck, Social Media Strategist. Dave has helped brands such as CNBC and The Grammys with social media.
David Rodnitzky, Founder and Partner at PPC Associates. David has an unmatched depth of expertise in search programs to drive lead generation and sales for top brands and corporations
Rob Fuggetta, Zuberance Founder and CEO. Rob will be the host of the webinar bringing everything together into a conversation that will give you tangible guidelines to help you use social and search to drive sales and increase brand advocacy levels.

Dave Peck, Social Media Strategist

Dave Peck

Dave Peck is the Social Media Strategist for LSF Interactive. He has helped build online communities for such companies such as UC Berkeley, Stella McCartney, and Wells Fargo. Dave has worked as a Social Media Strategist on projects for The Grammys, The Ozzy Osbourne Auction, George Lynch and NPR. The TV networks CNBC and Current tv have profiled him for his social media work as well as online community building. In the past few years he has: been a founding member of the Association For Downloadable Media, Founding Member of the Social Media Club Editorial Board, A Featured Blogger by Sony and a contributor to the book : Marketing In The Social Media Era. When he is not speaking at events like 140 The Twitter Conference, Community 2.0 and Netroots Nation.

David Rodnitzky, Founder and Partner at PPC Associates

David Rodnitzky

David is a featured columnist for Search Marketing Standard and DM Confidential, and also writes a personal blog on search engine marketing at www.blogation.net. He is the founder of the Online Lead Generation networking group on LinkedIn, which now has over 5000 members worldwide.

In 2004, David joined Adteractive, an online lead generation company, as Director of Search Marketing. At Adteractive, David grew search marketing from less than $250,000 of revenue a month to fifteen straight months of revenue over $1,000,000 a month. He grew his search marketing team from two to eight team members and was promoted to Senior Director after barely a year at the Company. At Adteractive, he was recognized as a Google AdWords Professional and a Yahoo Search Marketing Diamond Ambassador.

David then joined Mercantila, an online retailer, in January of 2007 as Vice President of Advertising. At Mercantila, David was responsible for all search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, SEO, marketplaces, and email marketing. David managed an advertising team in San Francisco as well as in Bangalore, India. In less than nine months he doubled the Company’s monthly profit from advertising. He also negotiated business development relationships with eBay and Amazon.

Rob Fuggetta, Zuberance Founder and CEO.

Rob Fuggetta

Rob is the driving force behind Zuberance’s vision and strategy. He founded Zuberance in February 2007 because he saw a major opportunity for companies to harness the power of Word of Mouth and the Social Web to drive sales. As CEO, Rob is ultimately responsible for all aspects of Zuberance’s business including product, engineering, operations, customer success, and sales and marketing. Rob is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley who has played a leadership role in three start-ups including Genuity, which went public in June 2000. Rob was formerly a partner at Regis McKenna Inc., the legendary Silicon Valley marketing and communications firm, where he co-led the global Apple business.

Video: Jeffrey Hayzlett with Rob Fuggetta on Social Media and Brand Advocates

Antonio Altamirano — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:42:02 +0000

Here is the video of the Zuberance webinar with Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak’s Chief Marketing Officer. Please feel free to pass it along. The discussion around brand advocates and social media ROI (or Return on Ignoring as Jeff likes to say) gets very interesting half way through the webinar.

Live Webinar: Social Media at Eastman Kodak. Listen to Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak’s CMO on 02/24

Antonio Altamirano — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:14:56 +0000

We are so excited to have Jeffrey Hayzlett as our guest for our upcoming one-hour live webinar on Wednesday, February 24th at 10 AM Pacific Time. We want to continue (and maybe surpass?) the success we had with our last webinar with Ted Rubin (ELF Cosmetics CMO) as our guest. The response was fantastic so we want to continue to provide you with unique and valuable content through our webinars. Please feel free to register and let us know if you have any questions ahead of time by commenting here or emailing social @ zuberance.com.

You’ll have the chance to ask questions live and to get the answers directly from one of the most knowledgeable and involved CMOs in the industry. Follow this link to register for the webinar at the Zuberance website. Below you will find some more information about the Jeff. You can follow him on Twitter at @JeffreyHayzlett

Jeffrey Hayzlett

Guest: Jeffrey Hayzlett, Eastman Kodak CMO

Jeffrey Hayzlett reveals how Kodak is successfully transforming itself into an innovative leader in digital imaging. He will share his perspectives on what it takes to succeed in the digital age, with a particular focus on how companies can utilize marketing – particularly social media – to build closer relationships with customers, build their brand and create innovative products, and deliver tangible return from their marketing investment.

Attendees will hear how Kodak is utilizing social media and other tools to transform itself; how to multiply the impact of marketing programs by utilizing other people’s money, and how to structure and focus marketing organizations to generate maximum impact.

To complement this fascinating conversation with Jeffrey, we will have the chance to hear from Rob Fuggetta on the power of the advocate and strategies that can be used to identify, mobilize and track advocates.

This is crucial to your company’s success, as a rather small increase on the number of advocates represents a huge gain in terms of market share. According to Delloitte, an increase of six percent points in brand advocates represents a total market share gain of $990 million in the beer industry. We will be blogging more about that research but wanted to give you a taste of what’s coming down the road and how rich the webinar is going to be.

Moms Place Trust in Other Consumers and Word of Mouth

Rob Fuggetta — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:50:31 +0000

Moms make or heavily influence many, if not all purchase decisions in the family. In my family, if my dad made a major purchase decision without consulting my mom first, he could find himself standing in the “Returns” line at the store.

In fact, moms are a powerful and highly influential consumer segment, driving billions in dollars in purchases for a wide range of products and services. As eMarketer points out word-of-mouth and consumer information sites and magazines scored highly. About one-fifth of respondents were influenced by text or video reviews.

So who do moms trust when they’re making purchase decisions? They trust other consumer reviews and Word of Mouth.

A new study by eMarketer shows that moms trust consumer reviews nearly 12 times more than descriptions provided by manufacturers and Word of Mouth up to 5 times more than paid media.

Ted Rubin and Rob Fuggetta on How To Turn Social Media Into Sales Now – Recorded Webinar

Antonio Altamirano — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Here is a recording of our latest Zuberance webinar where Ted Rubin and Rob Fuggetta talk about how social media and particularly brand advocates are changing the marketing landscape. There are some great tips by Ted an Rob on how to move beyond monitoring and how to start driving sales with social media. By the end of the webinar you will learn how to measure social media ROI just like any other online marketing program.

Webinar 1/27: Learn The Secrets Behind E.L.F Cosmetics Social Media Success

Antonio Altamirano — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:45:47 +0000

Join us this Wednesday, January 27th at 11 am PT for an interesting conversation with Ted Rubin, CMO of E.L.F. Cosmetics.

VIEW THE RECORDED WEBINAR HERE

Ted is a pioneer in the social media and social marketing field. Ted has been able to weave social media into the DNA of his company and not only as an afterthought or silo. You can read more about how Ted has been able to do this here. Rob Fuggetta, CEO and Founder of Zuberance, will compliment Ted’s presentation with tips on how your company can energize brand advocates and turn that into sales.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 11:00 AM PDT; 2 PM EDT

Click here to register

Free raffle for attendees: Two Master Makeup Collections courtesy of E.L.F Cosmetics

Learn:

How to identify and engage your Brand Advocates
How to mobilize your Brand Advocates to boost sales
How to measure Social Media ROI

How to follow the webinar?

Dial in to the webinar (Powered by GoToMeeting. You will need a few minutes to setup your computer if this is the first time you are using GoToMeeting
Ask questions and post comments to Twitter using the hash tag #sm2sales
Post comments in this post

Top 5 Trends in Social Media for 2010

Antonio Altamirano — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:58:06 +0000

Social media is undergoing a profound change in the way it is perceived in the enterprise. Marketers are trying to grasp its importance and the role it plays not only in outbound marketing but its role as a vital component of the company’s DNA.

CMO’s are struggling to understand and apply social media to influence their bottom line beyond the awareness.

Here are 5 trends that are of paramount importance for marketers and companies in 2010.

Marketers need a clear social media strategy

Understanding and engaging customers is the goal. Technology is secondary.
Using Forrester’s POST method and Social Technographics segmentation model will help marketers think strategically about social

Maximize social marketing

Companies evolve towards finding, engaging, and energizing Advocates, their most valuable customers.
Companies start using social technologies effectively to engage current customers and discover new ones.
Most companies have a Facebook and Twitter presence.

Social is not a role, it’s the business fabric

Integrating social with their overall customer relationship and marketing approach is key for a company’s success.

Social is media

Social is a medium for reaching and engaging just like any other media.

Social ROI becomes measurable

ROI becomes clear and compelling.
Leveraging social technologies, will allow companies to drive relevant and more qualified traffic than traditional (non-social) marketing methods
Our results in our programs show a conversion rate of 5% to 15%

Panel Discussion: The Future of Social Media in 2010

Antonio Altamirano — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:06:01 +0000

Rob Fuggetta, Founder & CEO of Zuberance, will join a distinguished panel of social media experts including Jeremiah Owyang to discuss the future of social media at an event hosted by the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association (SVAMA) on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010.

The event is open to the public and will be held at Adobe, East Tower, Park Room, 345 Park Avenue in San Jose. Please visit us here for more information and to register for the event

Here is a quick taste for what’s to come in the Future of Social Media Expert Panel:

Millions of consumers and businesses have integrated social media into their daily routines. Fuggetta and panelists at the SVAMA event will discuss how social media will change in 2010, what’s working in social media (and what isn’t); and where the latest social media trends are headed.

“We’re delighted that Rob Fuggetta of Zuberance is among the distinguished panelists who will be participating in our event,” said Alex Littlewood, president of the SVAMA. “Zuberance is on the cutting edge of social media, enabling leading brands to identify and mobilize their Advocates to drive measurable business results. Rob’s unique understanding of how to leverage social technologies to drive business results will provide both an insightful and practical perspective,” Littlewood added.

Brand Advocates: Do They Influence Sales?

Antonio Altamirano — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:45:52 +0000

A recent study by eMarketer highlights the importance of brand advocates and their influence online and offline. Over 53% of US online users have an active role helping a friend or a family member make a decision about a product purchase and over 40% of active US online users share product advice that they’ve read online.

Over 40% of active US users share advice about products and influence purchases

Reaching your advocates and giving them tools to share their love for your brand and products online becomes ever more important if you want to influence the bottom line by driving sales. There is a great probability that your next sale will be driven and influenced by an advocate of your product or brand. You need to be ready ahead of time and empower your advocates to drive more sales.

Zuberance has done this for several types of customers like large Telcos, beloved consumer brands and internet retailers among others. We know what it takes to mobilize your brand advocates online and we’ve seen the value of doing it right by driving conversion rates higher than 70% in some cases.

Ted Rubin: How A Chief Marketing Officer Drives Sales With Social Media

Antonio Altamirano — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:23:09 +0000

Chief Marketing Officers in the era of brand advocates and social media. A conversation with Ted Rubin, e.l.f.’s CMO and the architect of its successful social media campaign.

“The next important growth feature for social networks will be ubiquity. Social networks must be woven into everything we encounter and social media/marketing should be integrated into the fabric of all marketing channels, strategically managed from 360 perspective. Social Media is a platform… Social Marketing is how it is leveraged by a brand.” -Ted Rubin

Times are changing fast. Companies need to learn how to interact and respond in an efficient and positive manner to their audience via social media and to understand how to pool positive word-of-mouth and energize their brand advocates online. Through our conversation, there was a strong and recurring emphasis on a theme that ties e.l.f.’s marketing strategy together: social media and the power of the advocate.

Companies need to learn how to move away from passively listening and instead spring into action when the needs of their customers are not met. It is not enough to be an active listener; your brand needs to be an active and engaged participant. This is not the same as participation by broadcast. Participation by broadcast is when a brand is visibly active but establishes a one-way broadcast communication style with their audience.

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer is shifting

According to the best empirical evidence to date—from oft-cited research by the global recruiting firm Spencer Stuart—the average CMO tenure is a mere 23 months, less than half the average tenure of chief executive officers in the same firms. This data takes on ominous tones when enhanced by anecdotal narratives, such as Starbucks’ record of five heads of marketing in seven years, or Coca-Cola refilling its CMO position four times in six years.

Given the relatively short tenure of a CMO and the new marketing landscape, it is of utmost importance that the approach to the CMO role changes. Evolution needs to start with the C-suite and refocus the role of the CMO not as the mythical figure behind the strategy, but as the guiding rod and public face in the market where the CMO can exert influence. Part of the CMO role evolves into a chief relationship manager of sorts.

This is a transcendental evolution, where the customer is at the center of brand value creation and the CMOs strategize across new and classic marketing channels by making the brand part of a fluid conversation.

The shift from old to new marketing is hard work but pays off

Ted has managed to make this shift for himself and for EyesLipsFace as well. This has taken a lot of work, but it has paid off handsomely for the company and for his personal brand as well. EyesLipsFace, under Ted’s leadership, has been at the forefront of social marketing and innovation by using social media to turn advocates into sales and quantifiable ROI.

According to a study by Zuberance, the advocate channel outperforms more traditional online marketing channels like search engine marketing and display by a factor of five on average. EyesLipsFace has been able to tap into that advocate channel by energizing their passionate customers and turning them into a large virtual sales force that is driving quantifiable sales.

Obstacles that CMOs face

There are two main obstacles that CMOs need to sort through before they can take advantage of social media. They need to decide when to get involved and how. The challenge today is that CMOs are either waiting too long or going in too quickly. There are two things that could happen in either scenario.

Waiting too long means the competition will take that first mover advantage that can effectively give your competition full ownership of your

However, if a brand gets involved too quickly they might get end up in a broadcast-only mode that might prove more costly than no presence at all.

So what is a CMO to do?

Research the medium and become knowledgeable.

There’s nothing better than first hand experience. According to Ted, he spent some valuable time researching and learning the field before he applied it to e.l.f. cosmetics

Build a following for your personal brand.

If you are able to build a sizeable audience for your personal brand then you will have a better understanding of what it takes to develop a social marketing strategy for you company. Ted started way ahead of his peers by building and engaging a sizable audience that he can now mobilize

Build a strategy with measurable goals.

But don’t get stuck in the areas that cannot be measured right away as these are potentially very valuable to the company’s bottom line down the road. Set your CEO’s expectations properly and don’t over promise.

Get your hands dirty.

Interact with your audience and provide that personal touch that your brand needs

What are the results that Ted has been able to get for e.l.f. cosmetics this year?

Growing exponentially from early numbers of 300,000 to now over 2,000,000 subscribers with less than a 0.5 percent unsubscribe rate. 30K group members in Facebook in less than 12 months. 40K followers on Twitter since launch. 5400 followers on YouTube with over 50K views to e.l.f. videos which is only the tip of the iceberg since there are many more user generated videos. Askelf.com as a feedback channel where 99% of the feedback has been positive. The campaign “The New Face of e.l.f., Beauty at All Ages” and the “Wish for This” app generated over. 14,500 wishes, 2,000 retweets, 200,000 impressions in the first 3 weeks

CMOs looking at 2010 and 2011

Ted mentioned a couple of things that will mark the evolution of the role of the CMO. First of all, 2009 was the year when companies and CMOs learned and applied the basics of social marketing to their program by entering social networks and building audiences. However, the strategy was either not clear or not existent in many cases.

In 2010 CMOs will see the following developments and challenges:

A valuable tool that allows brands to measure not only mentions of the brand but how to tie that back to ROI will emerge thus making it easier for the CMO to build a stronger case for an overarching social marketing strategy. CEOs will step back and will let CMOs implement and experiment with newer ways to engage brand advocates thus allowing social marketing to grow as a fabric that ties sales and marketing together instead of just one more program in the mix. CMOs will be forced by customers to engage online and move beyond a broadcast-only relationship

Conclusion

CMOs face steep challenges and obstacles in the new marketing era. It is not enough to be well versed in the strategy and execution of a top-to-bottom marketing campaign that follows the classic structure of a marketing program. We are beyond that.

New marketing forces CMOs off of their comfort zone and into the playing field where they have to put the needs and wants of the customer at the forefront of the strategy, effectively turning the classic notion of marketing on its head.

You start at the “bottom” and build on top of tangible goals. You start with the customers and engage them fully. The challenges and marketing channels are different, but the fundamentals behind the marketing strategy remain the same.

It is time to rethink where the value resides. While it is true that classic media marketing still holds the lion share of marketing budgets, that does not imply it is engaging your audience or reaching them at all.

People expect brands to engage, to listen and to act. Your advocates are waiting, now it is your turn to move the engagement dial and reach out to them. You will be pleased with the results.