The good news is that all the hard work (and billions in tax incentives) expended supporting the “Tech Valley” dream is looking pretty good for the Capital Region’s long term prospects.

The bad news is that you’re probably not going to get a piece of it.

In the strategy sessions we hold with clients at our office, we spend lots of time defining the target market.  Discussing distribution strategies.  Brainstorming tactics.  We argue and debate and ultimately whittle down all the possibilities into a finely honed formula for producing more sales and profits.

And then a client asks one final question; “how will we monetize Global Foundries?”

I get it.  I really do.

The Albany – Schenectady – Troy market is #58 (source: The Nielsen Company) and the transition to a more diversified private sector in our economy has been hard fought.  We have a right to feel good about our wins.  But are we entitled to get a little piece of the action?

No.  No we’re not.

It may not be a popular notion, but as big a win as landing Global Foundries promises to be (along with GE’s planned job growth, Sematech and others), that tide will not lift all boats.  Most of us are still going to have to do the hard work of marketing and selling to our usual customers and pursuing other growth opportunities.

To that end, keep your eyes on the prize – your core customer.  We use a specific tool – called the Audience Decision Matrix – to create the laser focus needed to capture their attention as the economy warms.  Do the work needed to get inside the head of the decision maker and who has their ear.

Learn their routines.  Where they hang.  What they think is important.

Don’t let the Malta miracle distract you.  Stick to the fundamentals.  If you’re meant to get a share of the winnings, then good planning will bring the opportunity to do so into focus.

Here’s one selling a conservative newspaper. Simple design with a focus on a bold headline, teaser copy and a token -

Having seem my share of inter-office envelopes, this one’s caught my attention -

Here are some more envelopes featured on the blog:

And now…

Blogs are kinda where mainstream social media began. People just had something to say…and Web Logs (a/k/a “Blogs”) were the new, inexpensive, and immediately available way to say them.

Now, we advise businesses to use blogs as part of an overall content strategy to accomplish one or more of these 3 objectives:

1. Define who you are (brand voice)
2. Improve organic search results and increase site traffic
3. Generate leads

With help from Hubspot, here are some tips to help you accomplish all 3.

Define who you are

Blogs are about content.  Lots and lots of content.  For a moment, I’m going to leave all the high-minded talk about brand to others.  I’d just like to address a very practical question we’re asked a lot – “I like the idea of blogging, but finding ideas to write about and the time to write them is overwhelming.  How do I make this happen?”

Does this sound like you?    We get it.  So here’s a thought:

Probe you own mind.  Don’t you get questions all the time from customers and potential customers by email, phone and in person?  Find article ideas in your sent items folder in your email by reviewing how you’ve answered those questions.  Ask your sales and customer service people about the questions they get and the issues they run into.  You’re sure to cover many popular topics.

We think it’s also important to get the whole company involved and not dump all the blogging and content-creation responsibility on one person. How do you engage the whole company? At HubSpot they have 80 different people who have written for their blog. They do contests. Public praise. Executives contribute. And they say they’ve built it into some of the employee goals for a couple of different groups in the company. Get everyone addicted to the process of blogging, the feedback and the positive loop that can happen by publishing an article.

If you want more comments on your posts – ask a question at the end of the article or be controversial. The more controversial you are, the more comments you will get. Also, leave part of the issue untouched. If you completely cover a topic, you’re not really leaving room for people to add something to it.

Improve search results and site traffic

All that content should grab the attention of the search engines.  One of the first things to remember is that your articles should be keyword rich.  Use keywords that your audience would be searching for – in your titles.

We suggest using both e-mail and RSS subscription. Certainly, most blogging services include RSS. There are ways to do email subscription as well. When you publish a new blog article, it can automatically go to the people subscribing to the blog by e-mail. For Hubspot, about a third of their blog subscribers are by e-mail. Other folks have 70 or 80 percent of their blog readers subscribe by email. Some site visitors use RSS, some use email more, and you should have both of those available to make sure that you’re making it as easy as possible for people to get your blog content if they’re interested in it.

Having an image in every article is good as is adding video.  They make it more visually appealing and give people something to gravitate towards rather than just a whole bunch of text on the page.  They make your blog more informative, more engaging, and therefore more useful.

Generate leads

Ultimately, whatever your business, you want new customers.  If you use landing pages in tandem with your blogs (and you probably should), it’s important to use calls to action to drive more traffic to your landing pages.  Strive to have a call to action in every post – acting as a link to someplace that captures visitors and gets them moving down the sales and marketing process. (e.g.; where people can register, opt-in, start a trial, buy a product, etc.)

Hubspot reports that adding calls to action to their blog almost tripled the number of leads they were getting from the blog.

We suggest using these tips as a foundation for your blogging program.  Don’t use them, and you’re probably throwing your time and money away.

What’s the one thing you want to improve about your blog results?  Let us know.

*******

When I think of a 23 foot high wall of water extending up to 8 miles inland…there are no words.  As always in disaster, the incredible people of the Red Cross were sending help almost immediately.  From their website:

Those who want to help can go to www.redcross.org and donate to Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami. People can also text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific.

*******

Stat of the week

The vast majority of B2B organizations find direct mail to be either very effective or somewhat effective for their organization. This is likely a result of the various personalization and segmentation capabilities organizations executing this tactic now have, such as personalization for name, location and other data points and segmenting lists based on a number of criteria.

Services like Constant Contact or iContact make it pretty easy to start up an email program.  Just enter some names in a list, drop some content into a pre-designed template and send out that e-newsletter.  Easy right?  Well yes…but no.

Yes – it’s pretty easy to do.  No – it’s not so easy to achieve results.

That’s why I love seeing and learning from great work and  On occasion I’d like to share examples with you.  Here is the full case study text from a case study I saw on MarketingSherpa.com recently:

Case Study: Roku customer referral program

Following is the full case study text from MarketingSherpa.com.

SUMMARY: Customer referrals are a powerful way to pull in more sales and leads. Some companies offer rewards, but you can push results even higher with a few simple tactics.

See how this consumer electronics company sent an automated email to encourage new customers to refer their friends and contacts. This email generated 75 percent of all registrations in the referral program

CHALLENGE

Marketers at Roku, a video-streaming device for television, knew that word-of-mouth helped push sales. About 25 percent of their customers said they had first heard of the company from a friend or family member.

“Our goal was to try to increase that because word-of-mouth and referrals are one of the most cost-effective ways of acquiring customers,” says Lomit Patel, Senior Director, Direct Marketing, Roku. “Even if they don’t translate directly into sales, it helps create a positive image and a positive awareness of Roku.”

In response, Patel’s team launched a great referral program. It offered rewards to customers who sent referrals via email, Facebook or Twitter. But the team needed to get more customers to participate.

CAMPAIGN

Patel planned to send triggered emails to Roku’s newest customers to ask if they’d like to tell their friends about the product. Email would be central to the program’s promotion.

Here are the steps his team followed:

Step #1. Establish a program and relevant rewards

Customers could visit Roku’s referral landing page to suggest the product to friends via email, Facebook, Twitter or another channel. The page generated a customizable default message and referral link. Each link included a tracking code which tallied sales made through each customer’s referral.

Roku tested several different rewards to offer. Once Patel’s team realized that more than 80 percent of Roku’s customers were also Netflix customers, they settled on free one-month Netflix memberships.

- No limit on rewards

Customers received coupons for a free month of Netflix for every sale made through their referral links. There was no limit on the number and rewards were not based on the number of referrals sent.

“The program really started to go forward after we changed the reward structure,” Patel says.

Step #2. Design referral landing page

The referral landing page had two goals:
1. Get customers to register in the referral program
2. Get customers to send referrals

After arriving, visitors were shown an overlay that requested their first name, last name and email address. Once information was submitted, the overlay disappeared to reveal the referral page (see creative samples below).

The referral page emphasized the Netflix offer as well as:

- Email form

Visitors could type contacts’ email addresses or import them from a Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail or another email account. Recommended text for the email was included and could be removed or altered. The text:

“Try Roku – Brilliant device for streaming HD Movies from Netflix! My link gets you 10% OFF the Roku XDS.”

After visitors clicked “send,” the system generated emails for all listed contacts and included the referral link.

- Other sharing buttons

Visitors could use the page to share similar messages on Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. A unique referral URL was also offered, which visitors could copy and paste anywhere they preferred.

Step #3. Design email for new customers

Roku needed a systematic way to encourage new customers to send referrals. The team designed a triggered email to automatically reach out after a purchase (see creative samples below). The email included:
o Image of a TV with Netflix on it
o Large text: “Get a free month of Netflix for each friend who tries Roku”
o Description of three steps to getting rewards
o Button to visit referral landing page

- Test the timing

Roku has a 30-day money-back guarantee and Patel’s team wanted to avoid asking for referrals during that period. Likewise, he did not want to wait too long to send the email, since customers would likely discover the program through Roku’s other channels.

The team tested sending the email after three different periods: 35 days, 40 days and 45 days after purchase (results are below).

Step #4. Promote in additional channels

In addition to the automated email to new customers, Roku promoted the referral program in the following areas:

- Launch emails

The automated emails described above would not reach Roku’s older customers. But older customers still needed to be kept in the loop.

The team twice promoted the referral program in dedicated emails to its house list. It sent the first email at the program’s launch, and the second about three months later. These emails were similar to the program’s automated messages.

- Email newsletters

Roku’s monthly email newsletter typically reserved its upper right-hand portion to advertise for the referral program.

- Links on website

Links to the referral program were also included in Roku’s website footer and in a button on the website’s “reviews” section.

RESULTS

“Email has been the biggest way to promote this,” Patel says. “The newsletters definitely help, but these individual emails after purchase have had the most effect.”

After launching the referral program:

o 75% of registrations for Roku’s referral program are driven by the triggered emails to new customers

o 30% more customers report that their decision to purchase Roku was influenced by a friend or family member

o 5% of all Roku customers participate in the referral program

By testing, Patel’s team discovered that sending the triggered emails 45 days after purchase worked best. The results of those tests:

Forty-five days after purchase:
o Open rate: 33.4%
o CTR: 14.7%
o Conversion rate: 22.4%

Forty days after purchase
o Open rate: 23.7%
o CTR: 12.1%
o Conversion rate: 17.7%

Thirty-five days after purchase
o Open rate: 19.8%
o CTR: 6.4%
o Conversion rate: 13.5%

- Page tweak surged conversions

After these tests, the team tested a change to the referral landing page. Instead of using an overlay to request visitors’ names and email addresses, visitors arriving from these emails had their information pre-loaded into the form.

This increased conversion rates for these emails to 55 percent, Patel says.

- Emailed referrals beat social referrals

Of all the channels through which customers could send referrals to contacts, referrals sent via email drove 70 percent of all sales in the program, Patel says.

“Our customer demographics tend to be in the 30s to 50s range, and that could indicate why they are more comfortable using email versus using social media.”

Then your Mom would throw this classic at you;  “so if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you do that too?”

End of story.

Today though, if a mob of people told you that jumping off a bridge could solve a particular problem, you might actually have to give it some thought.  That’s because of one theory for solving complex problems:  Crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing, as defined in Wikipedia, is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call. I feel that using information and resources from the crowd can help me make better decisions and be more productive.

Ebay knows we’re on the way back

Crowdsourcing can be a way to build something.  Firefox, one of today’s most popular web browsers, is an open source product – built by an unknown “crowd.”  Users of crowdsourcing can build new software programs and sales teams, design buildings, and even help create new drugs by plugging into the collaborative nature of crowds.

A quick look at one crystal ball is telling us that no matter how we feel personally, the economy is recovering.  Ebay, the monster auction site (which also owns Skype, Paypal, and is part owner of Craigslist) has tens of millions of shoppers and thousands of small businesses using its auction platform.  It’s so large, that some economists think of Ebay as a proxy for the entire US retail economy.  Ebay sales are up.  So is its stock.  That could be good news for all of us.

If you want to get a strong idea if a new product or service is likely to succeed, you might go to crowdsourcing site Inkling.  Here, they use something called a “prediction market” to aggregate people’s opinions to form a prediction of the likelihood of something occurring.

Fight Disease…and have fun

Foldit combines gaming with scientific research.  One of the lessons here is: if it’s fun, the crowd will help you.  The crowd plays a simple yet addictive game ( I zone out on brickbreaker) of protein folding.  As the site explains – since proteins are part of so many diseases, they can also be part of the cure.  Players can design brand new proteins that could help prevent or treat important diseases.

At Lawnmowingonline, you can find someone to mow your lawn for as little as 19 bucks within 24 hours  (lawn mowing emergency?) just by putting it out there to the crowd.

[for a list of crowdsourcing sites from around the world look here]

Bottom line

Crowdsourcing is a tool that can help you make more informed business decisions and get more things done with limited personnel resources.  There are many sites out there to help you collect information and find people with the time or special skills to collaborate on your next project.

File this under the heading “there’s a right time and a right place for everything.”  Here’s the story:

In Washington DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.  After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing.  He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

Joshua Bell in DC Metro

About 4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.  The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time.  This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent – without exception – forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.  Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story.  Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the DC Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The Post’s researchers throught that one conclusion of the study was akin to stopping to smell the roses – missing the beauty around us as we rush through life.

Beauty feed the soul.  But we’re here to make money.  So as professional marketers focused on growing a business we would ask this question:

Even if you had the best product

Or the best service

Or the best price…

Would anybody stop and pay attention if they weren’t in the right frame of mind?

The old adage “Location.  Location.  Location.”  doesn’t just apply to Real Estate.  It applies to everything about how your business is perceived.

Just as a house in a good school district will be worth more to families with young children, your products and services will be worth more if they solve a particular problem for a customer or client.

Just as umbrellas sell better in the rain.  It’s about timing.  Right place, right time.

Always but always, be relevant.

We all worry about our bottom lines. Whether we deal in products or services, it’s constant battle to make the numbers line up. We want to offer a competitive price, but we need to bring in enough to keep the business afloat. You don’t want to devalue your work, but you still need to make your customers feel that they are getting something of special value in their transactions.

It’s a constant dilemma we all face, and it’s hard to make your customers feel “important.”

Some people feel that offering a free item (like a seminar or informational report) means you don’t value your product or service.  But free products can create incredible valuable in your customer relationships.

Consider offering a freebie to repeat customers. First, make sure you offer quality products that encourage return business. Then offer the free item as a customer appreciation effort. It’s a great way to show your gratitude and build customer loyalty.

When you take this approach, you’ll demonstrate that you reinvest your earnings into the interests of your customers in efforts to create products and services that make their lives easier and better. You want your customers to believe you are a leader in your field, and offering value-added products will convey your confidence.

So, don’t let “free” deceive you. Giving free materials could actually make you richer in the long run.

I don’t care for the “Blame Game.”  My dad used to drill into me “fix the problem, not the blame.”

That aside, the fact is that the struggles of small business are a major anchor around the neck of the economy.  A recent study from the Labor Department points out that more than 60% of all jobs cut in the private sector in the fourth quarter of last year occurred in businesses with less than 50 employees.

This underscores something we already know – America’s job market depends largely on the health of our small businesses. In fact, some estimates say that small businesses are responsible for providing 64% of the jobs in America.

Generating Positive Thinking

Last month 2,000 small business owners were surveyed by the National Federation of Independent Business.  They found these owners to be further losing confidence in our economy. Only 9% of those surveyed said they expected to hire more employees.  That ain’t gonna get the machine running.

Various versions of a small business bill would provide as much as $30 billion to community banks to boost lending to small businesses and would also add $12 billion on top of that in tax breaks for those businesses. Again, that’s not enough overall – but it’s a start and can provide us a psychic boost.  A better vibe.  And a better mindset must take hold for people to get hired.

The ranks of deficit hawks can count me amongst their ranks.  However, even with all the money pumped into the system by Tarp and Stimulus Packages – for the most part, that money remains locked up and out of the hands of small businesses.

Consider contacting your representatives in Congress to suggest they support job growth by directing incentives to small businesses.

He’d traded up to a massive new bike from what he called his “learning bike.”  He wasn’t comfortable on it anymore as he was moving on to longer rides.  He needed comfort.  And didn’t want to continue to build confidence while gaining experience with his existing classic.

His friend’s wisdom – “yeah, learning is never comfortable.”

The story reminds me of what so many business owners must be feeling.  As technology influences customer mindsets and the ways they spend their time, owners and executives are forced to learn new behaviors. Learning means change – if only in the way you think.  And change is stressful.

Learning makes you venture into the unknown, pushing you out of your comfort zone.  But you know what can be even more uncomfortable?  Losing customers.  Missing opportunities.  Losing money.

A business that allocates a certain amount of its resources to testing new marketing methods and learning what works will lead the field when the economy ultimately recovers – and will maintain and extend its lead over time.

Got learning?

Did you know that Albany is the #1 test market in the United States.  Correct-a-mundo.

According to Acxiom’s  last published study in 2004, Albany, NY was the market that best represented the United States population as a whole.

In other words – we’re the most average market in America.

That holds some real advantages for you as a marketer – especially if you market to consumers.  Rolling out new mass-market products in Albany is an excellent place to start.  The test results could well translate to the national market, and “amped-up” ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment)

If that’s you – be thankful we’re so average.

Some business owners have reported an increase in productive conversations with potential new clients.  New business is being booked.  There is a small semblance of a smile forming at the corners of their mouths.

After many months (for some a couple of years) of absolutely no response to their marketing efforts there are signs of renewed life.  We’ve heard from one owner that has seen results from a small marketing effort – he seems to think that he can handle the new inquiries for now and then do a little more marketing, handle those new inquiries, and so on.

Our message to him…don’t get cocky.

Yes, customers are placing orders to catch up for those that have long been on hold.  The spending freeze over the past 18 – 24 months has led to some initial catch up business for those that have survived.

What happens when those purchases are finished?

Well, the normal marketing and sales cycle kicks back in, but with a longer time line.  We’re certainly nowhere near being out of the woods.

Marketing success cannot be achieved by turning the spigot on and off in spurts.  If you hooked your marketing effort up to a heart rate monitor, it should look something like a normal sinus rhythm.  Steady, steady, steady, pulse.  Steady, steady, steady, pulse.

This thaw is the signal that prospects are at least somewhat willing to listen.  And its your signal to warm up, approach the starting blocks and begin to jog.