The Marketing Message Blog

Customer Onboarding: Building customer relationships

Customer onboarding is a fancy way of saying that you need to make your customers feel like part of your tribe. This article explores the idea and suggests how to do it better.

Making the Case for Customer Onboarding

June 4, 2013 · marketeer.kapost.com · June 4, 2013 By Chris Williams 2 Comments  When marketers start thinking about using content to optimize their sales funnel, typically, they think about optimization before the sale is made. A prospect turns into a lead, and a lead turns into a sale, and the job is done. But the most successful marketers begin by optimizing the bottom of the funnel first, not the other way around. These marketers focus first on turning leads into sales, then...

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References:

1. “Making the Case for Customer Onboarding” · Chris Williams · June 4, 2013 · Marketeer.kapost.com

Blog writing: Have you considered 'long' stories?

Here's an interesting idea.  You can write 'long form' articles in segments and catch the imagination and interest of your reader

This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories

May 10, 2013 · Co.Labs · We decided to experiment with a new, super-long article format akin to "slow live blogging." When we looked at the traffic charts below, our jaws dropped. Here's what we learned about long form stories--and why quality, not velocity, is the future of online news. By: Chris Dannen 52 Notes / Tweets / Likes Google + / Linked In As web publishers we're obsessed with analytics. Any strategy that moves the needle gets our attention. So you can imagine my surprise...

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References:

1. “This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories” · May 10, 2013 · Co.Labs

Visual Marketing Revolution

I'm excited to announce that I'm writing a new book for Pearson/Que called The Visual Marketing Revolution: 26 Ways To Help Social Media Marketers Connect the Dots.  

I'm curating content for the book here. Please check it out when you have a free moment and let me know what kinds of content you'd like to see.

 

New! "Social Media Marketing for Dummies" published today

I'm happy to announce that our new version of "Social Media Marketing for Dummies" is on sale today. My co-author Shiv Singh and I are really excited. I hope you'll take a look and let me know what you think! It's chock full of tips, tricks and advice for the social media marketer.

Seth Godin Serves Up A Meatball Sundae—Yum!

Although I'm sure he doesn't claim to be psychic, check out Seth's blog and read about his Meatball Sundae  (and his great upcoming book of the same name!) He always seems to know what issues the online marketer is dealing with. 

As a marketing consultant, his description of a marketing meeting with a new blogging consultant is what I face almost daily.  I call it 'pin the tail on the tactic' marketing.  Clients want a social media tactic to pin on their online strategy.  They aren't interested in how it fits in, or whether its even right for their organization.  They want a  ___fill in the tactic____ so that their management will feel they are 'keeping up.'  In this regard, size doesn't matter.  Big companies and small suffer equally.

I'm hoping that Seth's new book gets people to focus on what they need to do to make social media a reality.

What Should You Know About Social Media Marketing?

I'm guest blogging at Online Marketing World whose conference is on Oct. 3.  Check out "What Should You Know About Social Media Marketing?" if you're interested.