Daily Archives: May 10, 2011

Meet me at the 140 Conference Long Island on May 26th

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

(I present at 12:45pm)

If you have never been to a 140 Conference, get prepared for a fast-moving, exciting and, yes, emotional day of learning and connecting.

For a $100 registration fee, you will get breakfast, lunch, coffee and snack and a BBQ dinner as well as lots of time to connect. Register now at http://li2011.140conf.com/register-now

This will be the largest Long Island gathering of people interested in the power of the real-time Internet on both business and on “we” the people.

On May 26, the first 140 Conference Long Island will feature nearly 50 characters telling you their stories about how the “state of now” – the rise of services like Twitter and Facebook and other social media — are affecting their lives and their work.

The conference is a local effort that is an offshoot of the global 140 Conferences organized by digital entrepreneur and social media genius Jeff Pulver, a Long Island native.

Each speaker will have 5 minutes  in the law school auditorium of the beautiful Touro Law Center at Central Islip. You will hear stories about real-time marketing, branding, and so much more about communicating in the emerging environment that changes just about everything. You will learn things that will help you in your business and your life but, most of all, you will make deep connections with the speakers and with your fellow conference-goers that will last long beyond this day.

The 140 Characters Conference Long Island is produced by volunteers with proceeds benefiting a local charity.

The day will start with coffee and bagels and the speaking will begin at 9 sharp. The toughest job in the house will be the clock master, who will be signaling the speakers about their allotted time. Be assured the talks will be focused, on target and there is NO POWER POINT, although speakers can bring any props.

Trey Pennington, a father of six and a social-media master from Greenville, S.C., is flying in to give the keynote. Trey has over 100,000 followers on Twitter and is regarded as one of the most influential Facebook profiles in the world.

And, for the first time, Long Island’s top digital new-media leadership — David Kirshner of News 12 Long Island, David Reich Hale of Patch and Carl Corry of Newsday – will give the luncheon presentation.

The morning session will also include Long Island’s Lee Bogner, Sueanne Shirzay, and Beth Granger joining Paul Biedermann to tell you about the #usguys community on Twitter.  Morning speakers include Melissa Gonzalez, a former Wall Streeter and a driving force behind the pop-up phenomenon sweeping the country. The afternoon features

Jeff Ogden

Jeff Ogden

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor (@fearlesscomp) of Find New Customers. Other panels will include a panel on health in the afternoon, the latino #latism community, and the incomparable Microinterns under George Haines will make an appearance.

The list of speakers is broad and guaranteed to give you so much to think about.

At the end of the day, we will have a barbecue feast followed by baseball as we trek to the nearby Long Island Ducks for their home game.

Have you seen our new free “cheat sheet” - 7 Keys to B2B Marketing Success? No sign-up needed. Go grab it now!

Check out our new “Link to Us” page. We’re honored if you would use it to create links from your website or blog.

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers.

We help companies with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

(Don’t) Get Caught Snoozing: Reducing List Churn

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

Find New Customers is a Gold Silverpop partner.

Introducing the Snooze function in email marketing

I click the Unsubscribe button a lot. I get WAY too many marketing emails. I’m sure you do too.Most companies send way too many emails. But I confess, some of these marketers have good content. I don’t want to blow them off completely.

Smart companies take me to a preference center to adjust my choices. I can choose which content to receive and which to opt out. That’s all.

But Silverpop has introduced a new and better approach - a “Snooze” button. The beauty of the snooze button is everyone already has a good idea what it is - you press it when you want a short break from the alarm.

Why not use that concept in email marketing?

Let’s let Bryan Brown tell you about it.

______________________________________

By Bryan Brown, Director of Product Strategy, Silverpop

Many email marketers now cite list churn as their single biggest challenge, with the average rate of annual churn hovering around 20 percent to 30 percent for most companies. And given the high cost of winning new customers compared to maintaining current ones, it’s clearly wise to make every effort to reduce these figures and retain as many subscribers as possible.

There are many ways to minimize list churn, including managing expectations, launching a welcome program, and delivering personalized and relevant content. One important and frequently overlooked technique for reducing subscriber turnover is offering customers and prospects more control over the relationship, such as presenting them with options if they click on an “unsubscribe” link. Yet despite the fact that many people who click unsubscribe just want an aspect of their relationship with you to change, Silverpop research indicates that two-thirds of companies fail to offer alternatives to opting out.

Put yourself in the shoes of a vacationer who’s just returned from a delightful stay at a plush resort, or a pet owner who has just purchased six months’ worth of feline medicine, food and gear from an online pet supply store. In the former case, the traveler may want to simply pause, rather than unsubscribe, the resort’s emails for six months, at which point he or she will start planning next year’s vacation. In the latter example, the pet owner may prefer to halt emails for a few months until closer to the end of his or her purchase cycle.

Either way, if you had a mechanism for allowing these customers to take a break, you could not only save the relationship, but make it clear that you care about subscriber preferences, which goes a long way toward building customer loyalty.

And that’s where SnoozeTM, an industry-first, comes into play. With one easy click, marketers using Silverpop’s Engage solution can enable recipients to temporarily pause receipt of communications from their company for a specified period of time. Whether a contact has maxed out their budget, just purchased from you or is feeling overwhelmed, it enables you to give them some space.

By offering a Snooze option by itself or combining Snooze with other alternatives to unsubscribing, such as changing frequency, channel and/or interests, you’ll help maintain many of the precious relationships you’ve worked so hard to cultivate. This is one case where customers and prospects may actually thank you for snoozing on the job.

To learn more about Find New Customers and Silverpop, click here.

Check out our new “Link to Us” page. We’re honored if you would use it to create links from your website or blog.

Have you seen our new free “cheat sheet” - 7 Keys to B2B Marketing Success? No sign-up needed. Go grab it now!

What do you think? We love your comments and re-Tweets.

Jeff Ogden is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers, a Gold Silverpop partner. Find New Customers helps companies rapidly grow revenue by transforming how they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or by emailing sales at findnewcustomers.com.

Great webinar today on Video content marketing

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

A Practical Approach to Creating Video Content

By our friends at the content marketing company Avitage. I’ve seen it personally - they shared it with me. It is outstanding!

This free webinar is offered 11:30am or 3:30pm today and is only 20 minutes long (and it is free). Click either link to sign up.

Webinar Invitation for May 10: A Practical Approach to Creating Video Content

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers.

We help companies with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

The Importance of Thinking Outside-In

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

Lead Generation Companies | Think Outside-In rather than Inside-Out

Read my blog on Kindle

As I browse B2B websites, I’m struck by a very common mistake I see over and over. I estimate

as many as 9 out of 10 companies think Inside Out today. Inside-Out means you look at buyers through the lens of the business.

This means their mindset is “Here are our products and services and this is how we help you.” The fatal flaw of this approach is that is relies on buyers to figure out how you can solve their business problems.

The mindset we recommend you embrace is Outside-In. In Outside-In, the point of view is from the buyer back to the business. You simply use the point of view of prospective customers.

This means you start with buyers and their personas and then work back to your offerings. For instance, start with questions like these:

  • What are their problems?
  • Where do they turn for information?
  • To whom do they turn to find solutions to business problems?
  • What questions must they answer to buy your offerings?

Once you have those buyer insights, you can begin crafting stories and content to address real buyer needs. If you understand what questions they need to answer, you can start to figure out what content will answer those questions. Then once you understand their buying process, you’ll know what content you’ll need to move them from step to step. Finally, when you understand their key pains, you’ll have answers for the Untroubled/Unaware buying stage. (You know someone is in the Untroubled/Unaware stage when he says “Not interested” despite the fact you see he really needs it.)

The Outside-In approach ensures that your company delivers value buyers actually understand and appreciate.

Unfortunately, moving from an Inside-Out mindset to an Outside-In mindset is a core fundamental change, but unfortunately most companies lack the leadership to get it done. This is why it is important to work with outsiders like Find New Customers. As one top expert said on a recent webinar “Only an outside person is able to ask the tough questions needed.”

What do you think? We love your comments and re-Tweets.

Check out our new “Link to Us” page. We’re honored if you would use it to create links from your website or blog.

Have you seen our new free “cheat sheet” - 7 Keys to B2B Marketing Success? No sign-up needed. Go grab it now!

Jeff Ogden (fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers.

We help companies with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.