If you feel a sense of deja vu when the topic of social media comes up, don’t be surprised. As with many approaches to building profitable customer relationships (think: CRM), social media marketing is going through its own hype cycle. Some companies have well-planned strategies with goals and metrics, while others are rushing in just to be a part of the action. Still others haven’t quite discerned the best approach to using social media as a customer strategy tool that delivers ROI. We’re here to help make sense of it all.

Continue reading "Welcome to Social Media Month" »

Posted by Ginger Conlon at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently my colleague Kevin Zimmerman wrote about an email campaign incident where his wife's name was wrong and none of the "personalized" information was correct. The company fixed the issue after a few campaigns, but even after more than 10 years of email business, many companies still have a long way to go to create a good customer experience in the inbox.

Continue reading "Email's Woes Continue" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Many executives see other companies using Web 2.0 tools, customer co-creation, and advanced personalization techniques to build relationships with customers. They think "it's a good idea for them, but it wouldn't work it my business." We think that any business -- B2B or B2C -- can benefit from smart use of new technologies that are readily available to build relationships. Don't let it pass you by.

Continue reading "If They Can Do It, You Can Do It" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One element of our weekly staff meeting is to present story ideas, discuss trends and relevant news, and the like. During yesterday’s meeting Managing Editor Mila Antonio mentioned an article she read about Papa John’s surpassing $1 billion in online pizza sales, and noted that part of its appeal is pizza-tracking functionality that allows customers to follow their pie from order to creation to delivery (supposedly taking the stress out of knowing when your pizza will arrive—but that’s another whole conversation…).

I immediately chimed in with my personal tale of how much I love using Papa John’s website to order pizza. The response caught me off guard.

Continue reading "The Real Reason We Love Self-Service" »

Posted by Ginger Conlon at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Who knew that Wal-Mart needed brand advocates? Cathy Halligan, CMO of Walmart.com, says that the company encourages customers to post reviews, and share thoughts on the company and products. If one of the largest companies on the planet works to build word-of-mouth advocates, then you should too.

Continue reading "Word-of-Mouth Is Marketing's Holy Grail" »

Posted by Elizabeth Glagowski at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)