Marketing During A Recession: Economic Slowdowns Are Opportunities (PDF)

We’re all worried about how the recession will effect us and our business. But there are a lot of misconceptions and downright mistakes about how to use marketing during this recession. This e-book draws from expert advice and provides you a path forward in these difficult times.

Please download it or check it out on SlideShare. (It’s free, of course.)

I got some great help from Joann Sondy, a designer in the online community – she’s the reason this e-book looks so much better than my previous ones. She was great to work with and knew the best design strategy for this particular material.

Consider hiring Joann for your next project. You can check out her portfolio at CreativeAces.com (seriously, have your annual reports ever looked this good?) and read her blog at OutsideTheMargin.biz. Some more information about her work is below:

Joann Sondy has an extensive background creating and delivering corporate materials for financial and investor relations. With more than 15 years, Joann has produced distinctive communications that help IR/PR agencies build audience awareness and confidence. If your strategy calls for a presentation, e-book, white paper, fact sheet and/or annual report, contact Joann today. joann{at}creativeaces{dot}dom or DM her via Twitter: @jsondy.

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I’ve written before about the need for marketing folks to always be studying, constantly learning their craft. Here are the top five books that marketers on your list will need to succeed in 2009.

Top 5 Gift Books For Marketers

1. Groundswell: Winning in a World of Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – This is my pick for best marketing book of 2008. Li and Bernoff explain social media marketing with more analysis, data, and charts than any other book on this list. Every page is filled with nuggets of wisdom, but be warned: this is not a book for the uninitiated. Readers should have a basic understanding of marketing and online behavior to get the most out of this book.

Who should receive this book?: Hard-core marketers, social media junkies, small businesspeople who already “get” blogging and Twitter.

2. Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath – You may have read the Heath brother’s monthly article in Fast Company magazine. Like their articles, this book is always thought provoking, drawing from research that crosses the boundary of marketing into psychology and sociology. There is a science to persuasion and a commonality in successful marketing campaigns. This book does a great job of explaining why and how you can replicate that success.

Who should receive this book?: Young creatives at a marketing or advertising firm, psychologists turned businesspeople, marketers who want to understand how to “go viral.”

3. Join The Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership by Joseph Jaffe – Jaffe is one of the leading thinkers and proponents of new marketing. As a thought leader, it’s no surprise that his book is chock full of insight. This book is intended not just to teach marketers the particular skills they need to thrive in this new environment, but also to change their very way of thinking. It’s not quite as radical as that sounds – it is always pragmatic – but it is certainly convincing that the ways of marketing have indeed changed forever.

Who should receive this book?: College students considering a career in marketing, retired marketers looking for new thoughts and ideas, businesspeople in other departments who are curious about the changes they may see in their own marketing department in the future.

4. Secrets of Social Media Marketing: How to Use Online Conversations and Customer Communities to Turbo-Charge Your Business by Paul Gillin – Gillin says that the book is intended for the 90% of marketers who are not yet comfortable with social media marketing tools. As a member of the 10% who are, I would disagree. I got a lot out of this book. It’s full of examples and great tips, but most importantly provides a complete overview of the social media world. My personal copy is marked up and dog-eared – a sure sign of a useful book.

Who should receive this book? Old-school marketers pessimistic about this “Web 2.0 stuff,” work-from-home Moms building a new business, the I.T. guy you fight with whenever you want to include more functionality on your website.

5. Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy – Do you notice how much shorter this title is compared to the others? The book reads the very same way. Ogilvy, likely a master of the art before you were born, says what needs saying and nothing more. Though the book was published in 1983, the universal truths provided in the book stand the test of time. It pays to know where your industry came from, in order to really move it forward.

Who should receive this book? Idealistic young advertising staff, copywriters of any age, the agency tough-guy who needs to hear advice from the original Ad Man.

Only For The Hard-Core

It’s a little tough to imagine, but if the marketing person on your list is the hardest of hard-core, they may like a MarketingSherpa report under the tree. They’re a little pricey, but the amount of money saved by taking their advice makes it worth it.

I recommend either the 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide or the 2009 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide (on sale). Not for amateurs!

My Hope

My sincere hope is that you have friends and family to share the holidays with. And if you’re able to afford gifts this season, I hope you consider the ones I mentioned above. They’ve truly helped me this year and I hope they do the same for the marketer on your list.

If this post was helpful, stumbles and re-tweets are like holiday gifts for me!

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(Note: I am an affiliate with Amazon and MarketingSherpa, but I’ve read every page of the five books I listed and think they are absolutely worth purchasing. My commission is like, 3 cents anyway.)

(Image courtesy of Randy Son Of Robert via Flickr)

This week, I’ve been writing about marketing during a recession – about how recessions are opportunities to gain market share, the illusion of stability in marketing, and the role of risk.

But what if you take that risk and fail? I was interested to hear how marketing gurus framed failure and what we could all learn from their wisdom.

It’s Only A Flesh Wound

Regular readers know that I recently listened to the audiobook of Seth Godin’s Tribes. Here’s what he had to say about failure:

“The secret of being wrong is not to avoid being wrong. The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that ‘wrong’ isn’t ‘fatal.’

The only thing that makes people and organizations great is their willingness not to be great along the way. The desire to fail on the way to reaching a bigger goal is the untold secret of success.” (2:43:43)

Mr. Godin has clearly lost his marbles.

How can failure be good? I then went to Ron Hunter Jr. and Michael Waddell’s Toy Box Leadership. Maybe they could shed some light on the subject.

“The most important creative freedom by far is the freedom to fail…Just remember, the consequences of failing are small compared to the consequences of not trying at all.” (page 63)

Craziness! Surely Joseph Jaffe and Join The Conversation could sort these guys out about the disaster that is failure.

“[Sir Ken Robinson] has said that ‘to take chances is to not be frightened of being wrong.’ In other words, those who are not prepared to be wrong will never come up with anything original or be creative.” (page 117)

Why are all these businesspeople courting risk?

Of Course, I’m Being Facetious

As I wrote earlier in the week, our job as marketers is not to mitigate risk by going along with the status quo. Our job is to manage the risk and sometimes we fail.

That stinks, but there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s inherent to the job. So it’s better to get in there and figure out your best odds of success (and learn from your mistakes).

Like Michael Daehn said in a comment yesterday, “You need to decide what you want and where you are in life and weigh how much risk you are willing/able to afford. I agree the current market is scary for most, but it has terrific opportunity for those willing to take some chances.”

3 Recent Examples

It’s not difficult to find examples of how failure affects some companies. Here are three very different responses to failure:

• Motrin: Depending on your point of view, Motrin’s failure lies either with the offensive ad itself (most of us) or the fact that they pulled it so quickly. Either way, their trip-up was a golden opportunity to jump into social media and get to know their customers a little better, in order not to repeat the failure. Instead, they raised the white flag and hunkered down – not a peep since. This is truly an all-around failure.
• Molson: The beer maker got into hot water for a Facebook photo campaign that some Canadian university administrators claimed promoted irresponsible drinking. Paul Gillin, in Secrets of Social Media Marketing, attests that they at least are thinking correctly. “[T]he company actually considered the campaign to be a success, according to Dawna Henderson, CEO of Henderson Bas, the advertising agency behind the content. ‘We learned a lot about what not to do next time,’ she said.” (page 224)
• Dell: After blogger Jeff Jarvis’ DellHell blog, the computer manufacturer got the message. Though Jarvis’ blog posts rightfully cited Dell’s resistance to conversation, they started Direct2Dell, a collaboration and conversation vehicle. In February 2007, they launched IdeaStorm, a glorified (but successful) suggestion box. They also have quantifiable data that shows they have reduced the percentage of negative online conversation. Dell really did turn a failure into a success.

What failures have you seen in the marketing world? Were any turned around into successes, or at least lay the groundwork for future success? Please leave your comments below and turn in tomorrow to discuss whether the recession will push social media into the mainstream.

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(Photo courtesy of Qaiser18 via Flickr)

This week, I have been discussing marketing during a recession. Yesterday, I wrote about the illusion of stability and that post ended by leading into a discussion of risk.

Most dictionaries (including this one, this one, and this one) talk about risk from a negative point of view. Risk is a chance to suffer harm, possibility of injury, or how likely you are to expect a loss. Yikes! Why would anyone court risk?

Your Job = Risk

What dictionary definitions of risk omit, however, is that risk also offers opportunity. It gives you the chance to gamble (and win) big. And let me assure you: you cannot succeed in marketing if you aren’t willing to take risks. It’s just impossible.

So get over your fear of risk. It’s easy to say and harder to do, I know. But consider how dangerous fear can be to your marketing initiatives. Lois Kelly had this to say in the recent Age of Conversation 2: “People are so fearful about being different that fresh ways of communicating are often never allowed their first breath.” How sad.

Once you get over the fear of being different, of possibly failing, a world of possibilities opens up. Are you still worried? Well, maybe this will help tip the scales:

You’ve got no choice.

David Armano And Seth Godin On The Inevitability Of Risk

In a recent must-read post, succinctly titled “Everything Is Risky,” David Armano outlines why risk is inevitable and therefore worth embracing.

“With every post I write, I’m taking a risk…When all roads lead to risk, there’s only one thing we can do. Live. We live lift by learning, by trying, by falling down and getting up and learning from the best teacher we’ve ever had – life itself…Those who barricade themselves indoors thinking they avoid risk end up risking the quality of their social interactions.”

If risk is inevitable, doesn’t that change the definition of risk? Instead of just a chance to do harm or incur injury, risk allows for huge wins – it gives you the opportunity to succeed.

Everything is risky, all the time.

“It’s all a risk – always. That’s not true, actually. The only exception: It’s a certainty that there’s risk. The safer that you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is. That’s because the world is certainly, definitely, and more than possibly changing.” -Seth Godin, Tribes, audiobook 2:47:50

If all this is making you nervous, don’t worry – it should. However, while risk may be inevitable, your return on that risk is anything but certain. That’s where you come in as a professional marketer.

Joseph Jaffe And The New World

Our job as marketers is to manage this risk, not try to eliminate it. And we have more tools than ever to access information, review metrics, and make bold, calculated decisions. Joseph Jaffe has this to say in Join The Conversation:

“Mitigating risk is no longer a best practice…Risk is relative, and the return is most certainly going to be more and more a function of outthinking and outsmarting, compared to outspending and outlasting” (page 280).

Risk is inevitable. But failure is not.

Tomorrow I will discuss the role of failure in this new world of marketing. Instead of the permanence of a printed brochure or the 30-second lifespan of a television commercial, online marketing campaigns can (and should) be re-worked as situations require. In fact, failing can often bring the type of marketing insight that will eventually allow you to succeed on a massive scale.

Tomorrow, I will explain why failing can be the best thing to happen to your brand. Finally, on Friday I ill end this week-long series by discussing whether the recession could cause social media marketing to tip over into the mainstream. Please join us tomorrow by subscribing today. And take a risk today!

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(Photo courtesy of hrlndspnks via Flickr)

I read a lot for this blog and I try to pass along the books that I especially recommend. Some are simply must-reads if you’re on the cutting edge of marketing and social media.

But it’s rare that I quote a book more than a handful of times. If you read about a particular book on this blog more than a couple times, it means that it’s a true resource for me – something I go back to again and again for guidance and ideas.

Sometimes these books are heavy on research and statistics (like Groundswell). Sometimes they provide a philosophical direction that keeps me on the correct path (like Join the Conversation).

It is rare, however, that a book is so chock-full of information that I know it will be a resource before I’ve even completed it. I’m only half-way through Paul Gillin’s Secrets of Social Media Marketing and I already know you must buy it.

90% And 10%

Gillin begins the book by introducing the intended audience:

“This book isn’t intended for the 10 percent of marketers who are on the leading edge of this phenomenon. It’s for the 90 percent who are still trying to figure out how to start.”

Since I consider this blog aimed at that audience as well, I commend Gillin’s efforts. However, I also respectfully disagree. As a member of that 10 percent, I know that it’s useful to other 10 percenters, not just the 90 percent trying to figure it out.

For instance, his outline of search engine capabilities was largely new to me (page 44) and I haven’t heard of many of the examples he mentions, including the Twitter Baja 1000-Jim Beam promotion (page 116). Even the most prominent blogger, marketers, and social media enthusiasts will gain something by reading this book.

That said, it’s also great for the 90 percent who are trying to figure it all out. They will benefit from other’s successes and missteps. Gillin does a great job of walking the reader through a social media marketing campaign from idea to strategy to execution to measurement.

Examples And Research

In my opinion, the two most useful aspects of this book are the examples and the research. Gillin isn’t simply spouting off his theories – he is backing them up with real-world intelligence.

Like Made To Stick, this book supports it’s premises and ideas with concrete examples and research. The section on CEO blogs featured several business leaders with positives and negatives about their experience. Likewise, his section on customer conversations was supported by influential authors and the facts and figures that inspire trust in his work.

The Gist

I highly recommend that you buy Secrets of Social Media Marketing. (It ships on November 1, but you can pre-order it on Amazon with that link at a third off the cover price.) I think it is a great resource for marketers, small business owners, or anyone who touches social media – and that’s most of us.

Regular readers know I will rip into a book I think stinks. But I’ve been really impressed with Gillin’s work and this book, in particular. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

P.S.: Gillin did something smart by creating a website well before the book is released: http://SSMMbook.com/. Check it out if you want to know more about his work, read other reviews, and get all of the footnotes in one convenient place.

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