CRM FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

With so many Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions out there, choosing which one that best fits your company can be a daunting task.

So where does one begin? Begin by asking yourself these questions:

• Do I really need a CRM tool?
• What type of CRM solution best fits my business needs?
• What are the best solutions available?
• How do I evaluate CRM solutions?
• Is this CRM solution affordable and how quickly can I see a return on investment?

If you need some further convincing, do some research on industry benchmarks and how CRM solutions contribute to your company goals.

Here are some examples of recent benchmark studies (retail):

• Revenue increase of up to 41% per sales cycle
• Decreased sales cycle of over 24%
• Lead conversion rates of 300%
• Customer retention rates of 27%
• Decreased sales and marketing costs of 23%
• Improved profit margins of 2%

CRM is no longer an option for most businesses. It is becoming a necessity. Managing your consumer profiles, and their purchase habits are just a small part of the picture. Knowing how to translate that data into actionable business decisions is the key to using CRM solutions effectively.

Think about how you can:

• Maintain dialog with your consumer
• Reward them for their loyalty
• Cross sell and up sell them
• Keep them informed of the latest news and events

There are many ways to add value to your consumers lives and increase your bottom-line at the same time. Get started accessing your business needs.

Stewart Severino

http://www.publikmonarch.com

1707 Post Oak Blvd
suite #103, Houston, TX 77056
(713) 594-9643

SURVIVING THE BIG AD AGENCY PRICE TAG

If you are a small business you spend less than $400,000 a year on marketing/advertising services, you should not be trying to use a large, full-service advertising agency. Those agencies cannot afford to service you properly. What does this mean for your business?

Your ad dollars will not all go to advertising. Much of it will be consumed by the agencies overhead like account managers and project managers billing time. On the other side of the coin, effective marketing is not something that should be left to amateurs like newbie marketers. Too much is at stake.

This is the dilemma facing most Small Business people today. They, more than the big companies, need the extra professionalism and advice available from the major ad agencies. However, what the Small Business operator's money often buys is simply the "prestige" of a big name. Small fish get eaten alive in the big agency pond.

If you want someone to write marketing plans, submit numerous ad layouts, develop strategy, conduct market research, and take you out to lunch as well, any agency will be only too happy to oblige.

There is a solution. The trick lies in assessing the services your business really needs. Identify what your goals and objectives are, and the pain points you are having. Whether its under-serving your consumers or not reaching the right audience, you can focus on marketing solutions that are a good fit for your business without spending a lot of money and using up much of your time in meetings.

If you have the time and are willing to do some research, you can find consultants that specialize in different marketing tactics.

What can make finding the right fit a bit daunting is the fact that there are many different marketing services out there that can help you, but they all seem to be fragmented. Only specializing in one marketing tactic.

For example, you see tons of Paid search companies as well as email marketing companies, and now social media companies. I know it feels like a bit much to be managing multiple relationships and trying to run a business while keeping costs low. You probably even thought about hiring a marketing wiz kid but now you have to incur the overhead of an additional employee and possible health benefits, along with an above average salary for descent talent. Also, keep in mind he cannot do it all himself. Your new employee will have to hire a vendor or two or three to implement your much needed marketing services.

Your true solution comes in the form of a company whose founders have come from the agency world, worked with big brands and have figured out how to give your business the proprietary knowledge and effective solutions, held by large agencies, at a fraction of what it would cost you to hire an agency or even an employee for that matter.

By focusing in on what your business needs are, Publik Monarch provides affordable solutions as well as added value such as reduced operating expenses, increased bottom-line, increased loyalty and retention and customer satisfaction.

Stewart Severino

http://www.publikmonarch.com

1707 Post Oak Blvd
suite #103, Houston, TX 77056

(713) 594-9643

SMALL BUSINESSES TO DECREASE USE OF BANNER ADS, TV SPOTS AND RADIO IN 2010

If the current trends in the marketplace is any indication, small business owners will plan a number of budget cuts to traditional media formats going into 2011.

At the moment half of small businesses, 56.6% of those with fewer than 11 staff members and 48.2% of those with between 11 and 100 staff members, will not use online banner advertising in 2010. The VerticalResponse marketing report also indicates that small business owners are relying less on media formats such as TV and radio. Nearly 80% of survey respondents say they do not plan to use TV next year and 72.7% do not plan to use radio advertising.

As small business operators take actions similar to those employed by larger firms, the shift from traditional to newer forms of marketing will result in some cost savings for small marketers. For example, social media and email campaigns can cost significantly less than TV and radio. However, paid, integrated search engine marketing can be expensive, especially if the campaigns are not carefully targeted. Marketers who efficiently deploy and manage search engine campaigns stand to gain market share and improve profitability in 2010.

Publik Monarch
http://www.publikmonarch.com

1707 Post Oak Blvd
suite #103, Houston, TX 77056
(713) 594-9643

Hispanic spending in the trillions by 2012. Get a piece.

The data:

52% of the U.S. Hispanic populations are online. That’s 23 million Hispanics.

By 2012, more than 29 million or 58.6% will be online, increasing the penetration.

Don't assume:

Marketers, don’t assume that mass-market, English-language campaigns are reaching this audience effectively, just because 65% of Hispanics are bilingual.

As this market increases in size, it also becomes more fragmented as Latin Americans do not always share the same culture.

How do I reach Hispanics effectively?

Creating relevant messages that touch this market is a challenge as Marketers will have to speak to those traditions and use appropriate references. Multiple execution strategies will have to be created to accomplish reach.

Today, over 60% of advertisers media budgets are spent on on TV and only less than 5% is spent in online.

Although 65% of Hispanics are bilingual, Marketers shouldn’t assume they are effectively reaching their target. Education, inccome and acculturation levels affect the way consumers use media and their product choices.

Point being, Hispanics make up a diverse community that is becoming acculturated, but not completely assimilated. Retaining their pride in culture and language preference.

Understand:

I know I sound like a broken record but targeting this segment comes down to knowing what they are doing online (what is the behavior?). This of course applies to anyone who uses any type of media.

We need to understand how the various generations use media and for what reasons.

The strategy:

Begin with a multi-channel campaign to reach a wide audience, but the more digital media used, the more effectively the message can be targeted and tracked for insight and optimization. This mainly applys to Hispanics under 35 since they are the heavy internet users.

Don't forget mobile:

Also – let us not forget mobile -Hispanics are early adopters of mobile technology: 31 million have a mobile phone. By the age of 15, penetration of wireless services is 64%, by 17, it rises to 78%. Hispanics have the highest proportion of cord-cutters among all segments. Hispanics spend 42% more on mobile devices and 35% more on data services than the average user. Mobile Source, --Engage.

Stewart Severino
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Digital Posers

I'm sure if you work in interactive for a full service agency you can relate to the frustratoins that occur when a traditional media person or a traditional account person goes ahead and put a budget/estimate and/or timeline to a project that is dealing with online components.

I understand that there are urgent requests that come in from clients but that does not give the traditional person the right to go ahead and plan on your behalf.


For one, they do not know the amount of bandwidth you have available in your digital design and development schedule. Setting a delivery date can come back and bite both traditional and digital in the ass.

Two, they (traditionalists) dont know how to estimate out digital costs so if you end up going over estimate you(digital) are just going to have to eat that time.

Thirdly, it undermines your position on the interactive side.

So what should you do if you are a victim? Confront this person and place a little slap on the wrist. I know a lot of you dont want to make waves but you have to stand-up for your department or else you will simply become a tool to your agency rather than a strategic partner.

I am really getting tired of non-digital folks 'dabbling' in interactive just so they can put something on their resumes stating that they have interactive experience or because they think its no big deal...Especially at the expense of my team and our departments bottom line.

Be sure to call out what that person did and how those actions can dramatically effect your design and development calendars along with producing a sub par product and service. And that any future digital planning should be done with involvement from someone in your department.

As with any urgent request, they want it done yesterday and that can lead to disaster.


Dont get me wrong. I am all for cross-training and working together but as with any relationship this takes the effort of both parties.

So dont hesitate to stand-up and speak your part. You will save yourself a lot of frustration and misery in the future. And so what if certain folks end up disliking you. You are not there to make friends. You are there to make a difference.


Stewart Severino
Tweet me

sseverino@gmail.com

Widget Marketing and Distribution

So you are writing a propsal on widget development for a client and you need to know how you are going to market the thing. You probably also need some numbers of adoption rates and which demographics are the early adopters of widgets.
Forrester to the rescue! Here are some more helpful insights I have used in my experience:

It’s clear that these widget early adopters represent a small but important audience that marketers should be interested in targeting. How to best reach them? By using Forrester’s Social Technographics® framework, we found that there are significant differences in the participation profiles between adult and youth users, as well as between desktop and Web widget users (see Figure 3 and see Figure 4). By using the POST methodology — focusing on people, objectives, strategy, and technology — it’s clear that a widget strategy should differ depending on the specific objective interactive marketers are trying to achieve with different audiences. For example, a marketer may want to tap into a base of enthusiastic customers: 83% of adult Web widget users are Joiners, making them likely to share their enthusiasm with social networking site friends. Specifically, the following objectives are particularly well supported with widgets:


Click images to make them larger

· Talking: Go beyond “RSS in a dress” widgets. Many desktop and Web widgets — especially
those from media companies — are primarily RSS feeds with some design around them. This
is a start, especially if it makes it easy to add content from favorite media sites, retailers, or
marketers directly into a desktop, start page, blog, or social networking site profile. The problem:
The extra design often takes up valuable real estate. Content alone isn’t likely to keep the widget
around for long. The Staples Easy Button is a desktop widget that does more than just deliver
weekly online specials. It combines content and functionality by including a convenient search
box for Staples.com. And when not in use, it collapses down neatly into a small, but distinctive
Easy Button.
· Energizing: Leverage viral elements. Web widgets are often a form of self-expression or
sharing of a particular interest. Dell encouraged the members of Graffiti, a self-expression
application in Facebook to create advertisements answering, “What does green mean to you.”
The community created ads spread among the network and eventually drove traffic to the
microsite. Ticketmaster.com gives its affiliates the ability to create customized widgets. For
example, a music fan can showcase an artist’s upcoming concerts on a Ticketmaster widget
while a local city guide site highlights events at a particular venue. Similarly, Amazon.com
allows affiliates to customize and use widgets that enable advanced merchandising.
· Embracing: Spread polls and surveys. It’s one thing to conduct a survey — it’s another when
you enable your customers and partners to run them for you. This space is in its early stages,
but startups like PollDaddy and Vizu allow companies to create polls that can be easily placed
on their sites and on sites that attract pools of survey takers like answers.polldaddy.com.

The result: easy-to-deploy polls that are fully integrated into a site that generates results in hours, not weeks.

The recomendation here would be to keep your widgets and their strategy simple.

· Focus widget design on providing value to users. A widget with too many features will
fail because it strives to serve all users but in the process serves no specific user need well.
Widgets must first and foremost create user value, either because it serves a core utility or
is highly entertaining. Do neither and the widget will be quickly deleted to make room for
a more useful widget. The aforementioned “RSS in a dress” widgets fall prey to the utility
problem while also taking up too much room to justify their meager value.


· Aim for initial “long weekend” investments. Forrester recently spoke with a marketer
who had a six-month widget deployment calendar involving an ecosystem of agencies and
providers. This is a mistake — marketers shouldn’t have to wait months or even weeks to
launch their first widgets. Instead, aim to spend the equivalent of a long weekend creating
the first widget. How? Copy a successful widget, which is what Sony Pictures did with its film
30 Days of Night, by taking the popular Facebook Vampires application and reskinning for the
film.12 After learning from a few trial widgets, focus development efforts in one of two areas
that will have the biggest impact, namely, personalization (to encourage adoption of the
widget) and virality (to encourage its spread to other people).


· Market your widget. Marketing widgets are a bit odd in that they require a marketing
investment to make them pay off; it’s not often that you have to market your own marketing
channel. Make sure that your target audience can easily find the widget, either on your own
site’s home page or on your partner and affiliate sites. Add it to footers, mention it in email
newsletters, and place it in widget galleries across multiple platforms. Make it easy for other
people to download a widget that they like by replacing embed codes with one-button “add
to” features from companies like Gigya and ShareThis. Work with vendors such as RockYou,
Widgetbox, SocialMedia, and Context Optional that can help spread your widgets among
their own networks.

Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com

Widgets and what to consider

WHAT’S A WIDGET? IT DEPENDS ON WHOM YOU ASK
Some great insight from Forrester Research-


One frustrating aspect of Web 2.0 is that it’s difficult for developers to define which emerging
technologies are most applicable to enterprise development. Widgets are a case in point:


As programming models have become Web-centric, widgets have evolved from simple, reusable user interface (UI) controls into a diverse collection of gadgets, desklets, blidgets, badges, MySpace “furniture,” modules, minis, and flakes. While classifying this widget zoo may seem daunting, all of these Web 2.0 widgets share common traits:
They make it easy for nontechnical users to add dynamic content or functionality, such as search tools or maps, to locations where they can customize it to their own needs. Widgets sport optimized form factors that are graphically pleasing to users and deliver a maximum amount of data in a minimum amount of space. And users are often willing to try new widgets they find interesting because, unlike with email, users control widget communication links and can sever them any time.

Deciding which species of widget works for a Web 2.0 enterprise starts with shifting the focus from widgets’ similarities to their differences (see Figure 2). Some widgets are portable, while others are tied to a single Web site. MySpace “furniture” makes it easy for users to put rich media on their Web pages;

still other widgets deliver information right to users’ desktops or mobile devices. Finding examples of different types of consumer-focused widgets is easy, but sightings of business-to-business and internal widgets are rarer. Nonetheless, enterprise development shops find that some widget types fit their needs better than others.

Some recomendations:

USE WIDGETS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE USER ENGAGEMENT

Widgets create significant opportunities for application development professionals to improve

user engagement because they are highly adaptable and don’t demand much from the user. To

capitalize on that potential, you should:

· Use Web widgets for broadcasting and desktop widgets for constant contact. It’s

important to consider the time sensitivity and desired frequency of contact when deciding

which type of widget to use. If you’re looking to cast a broad net, then the easy installation

and viral nature of portable Web widgets will make distribution less of a challenge. If you’re

regularly pushing time-sensitive information that your users need to see right away, then

desktop widgets are the best approach.

Some Stats-

· Few US online adults use desktop and Web widgets. Only 12% of US online adults use desktop

widgets at least monthly and 17% use Web widgets (see Figure 1). But of the 23% of US online adults who use social networking sites at least once a month, 59% of them also use Web widgets regularly.

· Almost one-third of all US online youth use Web widgets. Only 8% of US online youth use

desktop widgets at least monthly. In contrast, Web widgets are used by 31% of US online youth

regularly, reflecting their high use of social networking sites. Among US online youth social

networking site users, 64% of them use Web widgets, a slightly higher penetration rate than among their adult counterparts.

· US adult widget users represent an attractive audience. Adult widget users have high average

household incomes — $79,024 and $66,198 for desktop and Web widget users, respectively —

compared with $68,344 for the average US online adult.4 Web widget users have a slightly lower

household income primarily because of their lower age. But they exhibit specific psychographics

such as “I often tell my friends about products that interest me” that indicate greater brand loyalty, as well as a propensity to tell others what they like and don’t like.

Stewart Severino
Tweet me

sseverino@gmail.com

Mobile Benchmarking 2008

I am always searching for mobile data and find it difficult to get a relatively up to date snap shot. So here is my contribution to those seeking this info.

In North America 91% of house holds held by Generation Y'ers have a cell phone.
RIM and Windows Mobile are part of the top companies I wrote about in my previous posting .
These guys and IPhone make up the heaviest used OS's in the market today.

Just a couple of high level stats I want to point out:

· Four out of five households have a cell phone, and most have more than one. Cell phone
penetration hit 80% of households in 2008 — and a whopping 91% of Gen Y homes. The average
North American household has 1.7 mobile phones today; among households with at least one phone,
the mean number is 2.1 — fueled by cheap family plans. These low-cost shared plans mean that there
are 2.4 phones on average in Younger Boomer households with a phone, but homes led by Gen Xers
are those least likely to make do with just one phone.

· High-end phone owners are the heaviest mobile Internet users. Apple’s promise of the Internet
in your hand apparently resonated with those who bought an iPhone — across all phone brands,
they are the most likely to use the Internet on their phone and the most frequent users. But they’re not alone: Palm and RIM owners are nearly as likely to browse on their phones. While these three brands represent a paltry 4% of the overall market, they represent four times as large a share of mobile Internet users.

· The operator market continues to consolidate. Whether in the US or Canada, the largest operators dominate the market. North of the border, the top three carriers — Rogers, Bell Mobility, and TELUS — hold at least 83% of the subscribers.1 In the US, at least 78% of subscribers get their service from Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, or T-Mobile — and that number will tick up five percentage points should Verizon’s announced acquisition of Alltel pass regulatory muster.

· Data use is accelerating, especially among Gen Yers. Mobile phones are clearly no longer about
just voice. Half of all subscribers now use text messaging, more than a third use picture messaging, and more than one in six access the Internet on their phone. Gen Yers are not only more likely to use data applications on their phone than the overall population, they’re more likely to do so with greater frequency. For example, while only 5% of all mobile phone owners download or stream music to their phone every month, the corresponding number is more than twice as high — 12% — among Gen Yers.



Stewart Severino
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Starbucks-Power of Marketing

Starbucks marketing folks have trained the consumer well.
I am not a big Starbucks fan but I occasionally run in when I need some caffeine. Today, as usual I asked for a regular coffee, 'grande'...i paused for a second to remember grande=medium.
The lady behind the counter gave me a strange look and replied, "regular ? Thats boring...You look a more exciting guy than that".
I replied, "Na, just regular coffee, please". And turned around to the guy behind me and said, "what ever happend to just a regular cup of Joe, meduim or large, not Grande???
"The stranger agreed and began telling me how long his waiting time has gotten because of people ordering Cafe Macchiatos and stuff with steamed low fat milk".

You get the point.
The Starbucks worker looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole. Which was not my intention.

My point is, the consumer has gotten so trained by the marketing and advertising efforts of Starbucks throughout the years that when someone like me walks in to a Starbucks store and asks for a regular cup of coffee, we get looked at strangely and get questioned if that is really what we want to order.
Good job Starbucks .

Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com

Selling based on behavior

In the digital space you hear or read the same question every year, "what is the next killer app"? or "what's the next BIG thing for this next year?"

I believe less emphasis should be made on 'guessing' and more on monitored research.
First identify the number of touch points customers are able to use to influence their purchasing decisions.
Next, figure out what behaviors you need to measure throughout the year and where those trends are heading. That will lead you to a more intelligent strategy on where and how to market to these consumers.
Leaving it up to your morning skimming of blogs will only get you on par with the competition.
In a world where interactive shops are a dime a dozen, you need to elevate yourself above the pack and be the leader and innovator in your industry.

So, do your homework. I know its tedious but you can attain some great learnings from studying consumer behavior. Make that your morning ritual, instead of copying what others are doing.
Your clients will love you for it.

Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com

Mobile Web - Who are and will be the players

Everyone interested in the mobile space is wondering who the top players are and who they will be in the future. Currently the established players are RIM (blackberry), Microsoft, Palm, Symbian and quickly making gains is Iphone.
In terms of Internet usage, the Iphone tops the list with RIM and Palm Treo trailing behind.
With the North American mobile market quickly approaching saturation businesses need to keep an eye on the top players in the mobile market, especially with the next 5 years looking like Iphone and Android (Google) will take the top spots in terms of mobile Internet usage.

Who to build for?

With four out of five households in this country having mobile phones and being that high-end phone owners are the heaviest mobile Internet users, businesses should make their tools, platform agnostic so it doesn’t matter who the victor turns out to be in this mobile web war.


What's in the future for RIM?

Forrester Research and Network World surveyed mobility decision makers at North American enterprises and SMBs about their management and support of mobile operating systems and their likelihood for managing and supporting them five years from now.
73% of the mobility decision-makers surveyed already support BlackBerry OS, making it the most dominant mobile platform for work today in North America. Will RIM keep its leadership position in the years to come? All signs point to yes, especially after previewing the BlackBerry Bold. 72% of the respondents are likely or very likely to support the BlackBerry OS five years from now, which will ensure that it remains the most widely used mobile operating system for business.

What's in the future for Windows Mobile?

Microsoft has been playing catch-up with RIM and has started making some significant strides in the past couple of years.
54% of respondents support Windows Mobile and in early June Windows announced that it now has 50 handset partners that manufacture 150 Windows Mobile powered phones, across 160 mobile operators, with over 18,000 applications from which to choose.
While Windows Mobile growth is impressive they still have a ways to go before catching up to RIM.
RIM can prevent Windows from taking the lead by convincing businesses that BlackBerry isn't just email and personalized info. It needs to provide its users with useful more applications.

Is Palm still in the game?

Currently 40% of respondents support the Palm OS but Forrester recommends moving their investments into RIM and Windows Mobile over time since Palm OS is positioning itself as a consumer offering in 2009.

What's the hype about IPhone?

With the recent launch of the Iphone 3G and its native support for Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, push email, contacts, and calendars, VPN and the ability to be wiped clean if stolen, businesses are beginning to soften their stance on the IPhone.
With 12% of respondents already supporting the IPhone and more underway, businesses should weigh the good carefully (e.g., superior hardware design, robust Internet browser, 3G and GPS capabilities, reduced hardware cost, etc.) with the bad (e.g., lack of native data encryption, removable battery, and remote lock capabilities, ITunes as the application distribution mechanism, shorter battery life than the original, more expensive mobile voice and data plans, etc.).

Yeah Symbian is global but what about the U.S.?

Symbians’ world wide strength warrants inclusion even though it has a weak presence in North America. Symbian made up 65% of the worldwide smartphone market in Q4 of 2007 and was the clear leader in Asia Pacific, EMEA and Latin America. Being that it has struggled in North America, Symbian has relied on non carrier channels, like online retailers such as Dell.com. Although just 8% of the survey respondents support Symbian devices today, any organization with a strong presence outside of North America should plan on supporting Symbian, if it doesn’t already.
As companies struggle to keep up with an increasing mobile population and the pains of standardization, it is important to keep focus on relevant, user friendly, and tool agnostic applications.


What about mobile consumers?

Data usage in North America is accelerating amongst Gen Yers. Half of all subscribers use text messaging, more than third use picture messaging, and more than one in six access the Internet on their mobile devices. Not only do Gen Yers use more data applications but they are more likely to use them at a greater frequency (IPhone).
Mobile users will pick and choose the most useful tools on their mobile devices. All we can do is try to fulfill their needs.

Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com

IPhone - Ride the hype wave

App and browser app development in the mobile space has gotten a bit foggy lately with the over whelming PR hype thats been going on with the new IPhone.
From an agency perspective clients are mainly to blame because they want a presence on the IPhone without really taking a look at what their consumers are using.
Don't get me wrong, i know the IPhone is blowing up but let's take a pragmatic approach in developing apps for handsets that fall into your demographic range. Exam who your users are and how relevant your application will be on different devices.

Some quick stats from admob, a mobile ad serving company.
Stats based on 1,430,976,098 requests by smartphones' OS.
Windows Mobile 33%
RIM (BlackBerry) 31%
Palm 18%
IPhone 9%
HipTop 6%
Symbian 3%

Do the math and match up the browser that work with those OS's and you can get an approximation of browser penetration.
As an agency it is our job to make sure we do what is best for our clients.







Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com

Mobile Marketing

What does 'open platforms' mean for us marketers?

Would an open standard really accelerate adoption of mobile media by giving users more innovative content and apps?

I guess it comes down to what the consumer wants.
I mean, everday consumers want to do more and more with their mobile devices.
That to me is the true definition of 'open standard'.

Question is, how can we as marketers and consumers get into this medium and do the things we want to do?
From a programmers perspective, how can one create the apps that can allow the consumer to do all the things they want to do?
To accomplish such a feet we have to have a platform that will allow for the max amount of innovation.
Carriers have to realize they are in a whole other business. In the begining it was a communication business and now it is about engagement, interaction...a fully comprehensive media biz.
Realize that this is a personal device! This industry is going to be driven by the advertisers who create useful and innovative stuff.

I think this is one of the last mediums to be explored. Being that your mobile device is personal, companies have to be good at building audiences. No doubt about it.
And remember, TEST TEST TEST!

Stewart Severino
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sseverino@gmail.com