Looking for new stuff to make marketing better

I love new technology, especially when it makes my life easier. I also like it when it makes marketing better. Easier is OK, but better is, well, better. I think that is part of the problem with email marketing today: the sending of a marketing email to 10,000 people on your database is too easy. As a result not enough thought is put into marketing emails at times. Seth Godin recently commented on something similar with regards to the effort put into marketing campaigns which are inexpensive.

People don't make the effort of making sure they are spot on with their cheap campaigns as they would with more expensive campaigns. But why, Seth asks, should there be any difference in the quality of campaigns?

The modern marketer is spoiled in the ways we can reach our audience and this can make us very lazy. The trick is use what we have in a smart way, not recklessly or thoughtlessly.

With the above in mind, I want to look at new technologies, ideas, etc that help to make marketing better. Some of them might make marketing easier, and that's great, but I want to look at stuff that makes things better, that helps to work smarter as marketers, and thus helps us to do our job better. This could be a new technology a start-up is developing or some new insight from academia.

So if you know of any new ideas or solutions that should be covered as part of the discussion, drop me a line at pvasey@gmail.com.

Note: that I am trying not to fall into the trap that many do with regards to things like CRM software. CRM Software is an enabler to better customer relationships, but you need the systems, people and attitudes in place to make it successful.

Good Customer Relationship Partners are important

I subscribe to three magazines at the moment. One is a marketing magazine from here in the UK, one is from Australia and one is from the US.

However, lately, only my UK magazine has been turning up. I have had problems before with magazines not turning up and you get the same comments everytime from the publisher - "that would be a postal problem. Check with the postal service."

It is frustrating. I was subscribed to the US mag when I moved house earlier this year, but I was subscribed to the other two magazines. Both acknowledged my change of address but only one seems to have got it right. But then again, it could be the post.

Which brings me to the to my key point. You need to have good partners who you can rely on to complete the customer service loop. There is no point in making the customer feel warm and fuzzy about handing over the cash for your product if you are simply going to make them dread the follow up.

Your partners need to be aiming for the same goals as your organisation. They must have the same customer service ideals or better. And the hand off - the passing of the customer, the sale, etc must be smooth. You need to get that right as well.

Are you providing your partners the information they need to do their job effectively for you?

If your partners don't have the tools or information needed to be effective then their poor form is going to be reflected on you.

Sometimes organisations go into partnerships thinking that a bit of training and a signed agreement will get the partnership going and that is all that is needed. NOT TRUE!

Partnerships take time and you really need to look hard at who you want to partner with. Then you need to work hard so that everyone involved in the partnership is working together for a single goal with all the tools and information required to get the job done. Even then, it is not a guaranteed success, but you will have a much greater chance.