The other week I was discussing time management with Alison (which is not her real name). She had recently been promoted to Marketing Manager and was finding it a real challenge to deal with all the demands on her time that the new role was commanding, not to mention all the extra emails she seemed to be getting.

I therefore shared some tips on time management and dealing with emails, which I had learned over the years. These tips were designed to free up time to do other things.

Alison contacted me yesterday to say that she was having success with some of the email tips and suggested that I share these with others. So here goes:

10 Email Tips

1. Decide if an email is the best form of communication

Too often an email is sent without much thought. Email has its uses, but it is over used and misused. Communication is not about sending a message, it is about ensuring the message is received and understood, not sent. Just because an email has been sent does not mean a communication has occurred. So think whether email is apt or consider picking up the phone or walking over to someone to have a conversation. This will save you time in the long run.

2. Send less emails yourself

This is a guaranteed way to reduce the size of your inbox because a good proportion of your inbox will be replies to your own emails.

3. Turn off email alerts

This means that when you are working on something you won’t become distracted.

4. Set time certain times aside to deal with emails.

I generally look at emails a couple of times a day. When I mentioned this to Alison, you could see the fright in her eyes. Just twice a day! Work out a pattern that suits you, allocating certain slots in your diary to deal with emails, so you can fully focus on other work in hand.

5. Use email rules to filter certain emails into other folders

When I ran a large marketing team, I created a rule that all emails where I was cc’d went into a separate folder. I was finding that those emails were not really for me, just people advocating responsibility. Doing that saved me a lot of time because I rarely looked at those emails, because I didn’t need to. Set up other rules to help separate the important emails from the chaff.

6. Try not to reply by email

Alison was finding a lot of emails came from her new team. So I suggested that she did not reply by email, but instead take time out and talk to her team. This can be applied to anyone who sends you an email.  It will not only save time in the longer run, you will find they begin to adopt a similar approach and send you less emails.

7. Keep your emails short

And keep them clear. Otherwise you will prolong the email trail because people have not understood it. If it is too long, go back to the first tip. Others should then follow.

8. Deal with it

It is easy to have a quick read of an email and then think you’ll deal with it later. You might forget, for one, but if you do that a lot, you are wasting time. Just deal with it there and then, bearing in mind previous tips.

9. Use attachments wisely.

Firstly, don’t fall into the trap of forgetting the attachment, as you’ll have a barrage of flippant remarks in your inbox. Secondly, give a concise summary of your attachment and what people should do with it. Remember, communication is not just sending a message.

10. Finally, be careful when sending emails from your handheld device

I have heard of many people sending emails in haste, which creates problems and time wasted later on because the message was never clear. Think before you send.

One or two of these tips may work for you, which will save you time. And if others can follow your lead, your inbox will only have emails that are brief, to the point and contain stuff you actually need. Now that would be nice, wouldn’t it

However, whilst businesses seem to appreciate its importance, very few actually get the most out of it. This is because its value is underestimated and they fail to see WOM as an integral part of the communication mix. Instead they leave it to chance and hope it will just happen by magic.

So what is WOM?

Word of mouth is quite simply giving people a reason to talk about your rand, and making it easy to do so.

There will be many different reasons why someone chooses to talk about you. It could be due to a particular customer experience – good or bad. It could be the result of something they have heard, rather than experienced. It could be due to the buzz of a new product, which Apple are very good at. Or it could be as a consequence of a piece of marketing, such as that achieved by the Cadbury’s gorilla adverts a few years back.

What should you consider?

For really effective WOM, you need to think about it, manage it, measure it and be proactive to make it work in your favour.

There are many things to consider, such as those set by Charterhouse Research and a good starting point is to think about these points below, which will be expanded upon in future posts:

1. Why and how should you be using WOM?
2. How can you measure WOM?
3. Who is talking about you and where are they saying it?
4. Why are they talking about you?
5. Are their views being listened to?
6. How does WOM impact future customer behaviour?
7. What should you be doing and why?

WOM offers companies lots of opportunities, so spread the word by clicking the TWEET button below.

So here are 10 mistakes that I have seen happen over the years:

1. Customers are ignored

Too often I have seen campaigns designed based on what the marketing team likes, rather than what the customer would connect to.Big mistake.

2. Internal stakeholders are ignored

I have seen marketing teams fail to build strong relationships with key departments and decision makers within their business. And they wonder why they are not taken seriously and don’t get buy-in for their ideas.

3. Still believing in the USP

Unfortunately, I still hear agencies and marketers talk about the USP. Yet it has not been relevant for a long, long time. This is because nothing is unique for very long.

4. Misuse of metrics

It hurts to see marketers focusing their efforts on measuring the easy things and not the right things. Metrics are there to provide insight into future strategy and not as a means of justifying the role of marketing.

5. Copying the competition

I have seen so much “me too” marketing. Yet the competition doesn’t always get it right. Copy them and all you’ll do is deliver their goals and not your own.

6. Lack of segmentation

Over the years I have seen some really smart segmentation; I have also seen plenty of cases where it is not applied. Yet the market is not homogenous, so whether you are B2B or B2C, segmentation will work wonders.

7. Lack of creative thinking

Too often I have that “creativity” is the remit of the agency. Big mistake. Creativity is the engine room of marketing. Everyone has creative abilities and by not harnessing such skills becomes a costly mistake.

8. Holding onto the past

A common phrase that I hear is “we have always done it that way”. This is potentially a dangerous mistake. The market is constantly changing, so something that worked yesterday has no guarantee of working tomorrow.

9. Leading on price

Trying to beat the competition by leading on price is a costly mistake. It is a strategy that is never sustainable in the long-term, as price is part of the marketing mix that can easily be bettered. Price is important, but it is not the element on which to lead. 

10. Working in silos

A very costly mistake, especially within larger marketing departments, is that teamwork is something that does not actually exist. There is no communication, co-operation or sharing of ideas. It is as though the biggest competitor is actually lying within. Inefficiencies and lost opportunities only follow.

Just because it is tough for marketing folk to be taken seriously, does not mean it can’t be done. So I am sharing some tips through a series of posts, with the first one, where my tip is to treat yourself as a brand.

Be A Brand

Now I am not talking about creating a fancy logo for yourselves. No, a brand is all about reputation. It’s about everything you say and everything you do. A brand’s personality attracts people; it’s character keeps people engaged with the brand. And the same applies to marketers – as individuals and as a team.

So think of yourself as a brand. Think about what is special about you – you and the team.

As a good starting point, think of 3 to 5 words to describe yourself and the team, in terms of how you want to be seen by the rest of the business.

Okay, let’s assume that one of these words is “creative”. You must then ensure that as much as possible, you are seen as creative, which means that everything you say and do must help people build up perceptions of this.

I realise that you won’t really be able to do this with every word and act, but where you are in contact with the Board and other key people, you must ensure that during that interaction, you are in fact “creative” or however else you wish to be seen, as much as possible.

Lots More

You will come across further tips around the issue of being a brand in subsequent posts. In the meantime, think of 3 to 5 words which relate to how you wish to be seen – individually and as a team.

This is a very simple exercise, but when followed through, very effective.

They say that fortune favours the brave. Well given that for many businesses it has been pretty tough for a while now, then perhaps it is time for us all to be braver in 2011.

When we talk about being brave, we are talking about carrying out your plans in a bold manner; it’s about making things happen. Being brave does not have to mean doing something radically different or to be reckless and take uncalculated risks. It’s usually about doing those things that you really ought to be doing, but never quite have the courage of conviction to follow it through.

So my big tip for 2011 is to be brave and make a difference. But don’t forget, when being brave, always consider your corporate goals and customer needs; being brave without purpose is foolhardy.

So how can you be brave?

There are many ways to be brave and here are just three thoughts to get your creative juices flowing:

1. Lift Up The Carpet

   I often hear companies say “yes we know we need to do that”. Usually the “that” in question will make a big difference but they just don’t get around to it. Often it is not to do with resources but some reason driven by internal politics or a reluctance to change the way that they have always done something. So, instead the idea is swept under the carpet. So in 2011, lift up the carpet and get on with it.  

2. Don’t follow the herd
   
   You may have had a great idea for a new product or service, or a change to your website or staff training. Yet the competition doesn’t do it, so it must be wrong. But what if you’re right and they are all wrong. This year, trust your instincts. Be brave and let the competition copy you.   

3. Just stop it
   
   So many resolutions focus on starting something new. However, in 2011, be brave and see if there is anything that you can STOP doing which will not have any negative impact on you or the business. There is always something that can be cut out, and you will know deep down what it is. So be brave and stop doing it. 

Therefore, in 2011, find your own ways to be brave and add value to your staff and customers. Then fortune will follow.

The advert in question was very much a hybrid between The Meerkat and Go Compare ads. Perhaps this was a deliberate strategy? If so, they should be called copythemarket.com.

This advert is just another example of a trap that companies often fall into. It’s what I call the copy trap.

The Copy Trap

Companies often become too obsessed with their competition. Changes in the market end up being a bit of a herd mentality, as companies look to emulate their competitors’ products, website, systems and their advertising; they even try to poach their staff.

Yet to be successful in business, you can’t afford me-too strategies. You need to be better and be different to the competition. If you end up copying the competition, how on earth can you be better or different? Everyone knows the theory, but still the copy trap allures many a great business.

So what is the real problem here?

Some companies, usually smaller ones, have a precise strategy of being a market follower, following the market leader in many ways. But there is a difference to following and copying and there are many dangers of the latter:

1. Your goals will be differentBy copying the competition, you’ll probably end up delivering their goals, rather than your own. With the radio advert mentioned above, their campaign could end up increasing sales for their fiercest rivals, due to the similarity as potential customers may not differentiate between the ads; just as I have done.  

2. What if they are wrong?Many companies copy the competition because they think that they must be doing something right. But how do you know that the competition have got it right? What if they have got it wrong, then you’ll make the same mistake. Even if they have got it right, copying their approach may not fit with your brand positioning and do more harm than good.  

3. You won’t be any betterEven if what the competition is working, by copying them won’t automatically mean success. It won’t make you better or different, key components for success. Think about it from a customer’s perspective. You’ll be the same as others so the chance of being selected reduces.  

4. It stifles creativityIn today’s market, a bit of creativity delivers huge benefits to organisations. By copying the competition stifles creativity. Your team may devise the best idea ever, for a new product, service innovation or campaign, for example, but too often such ideas get dismissed because the competition are not doing it and therefore it must be wrong. Take a few risks and get those creative juices flowing in order to find ways to stand out from the crowd.  

So if you want to be a winner, don’t copy your competition. Lead the market and the let the competition worry about you. Otherwise you’ll simply be watching things happen rather than making it happen.

Whether it’s a basic typo, wrongly positioned logo or sending out a communication before the business was ready, mistakes happen. I know, as I’ve made a few over the years. But you learn from them as well as from the mistakes of others.

Yet these are minor offences in the scheme of things. There are bigger, albeit less visible, offences that occur. And being less visible, they go unchecked, unnoticed and uncorrected. These are what I call campaign crimes.

Crimes Against Campaigns

I have seen many different types of campaign crimes committed, and here are a few:

1. Start at the wrong end

Many businesses start their campaign planning at the end, rather than the beginning. What I mean by this is that their thinking starts by determining that they want to deliver a PR or email campaign, for example. What they should be doing is deciding what they want to achieve, what the one big message is what is the best way to deliver this message. By starting at the wrong end, you run the risk of opportunity cost and a diluted, or wasted, campaign. How you deliver a campaign is not the first thing you should consider. If you do, it’s a crime.

2. Go straight to the execution

Quite often campaign crimes are committed, not through neglect or bad work, but because of over-enthusiasm. This over-zealousness leads to marketers wanting to go straight to the creative execution, in terms of design, layout and headlines. This means they miss vital planning steps and fail to think about the target audience, the objectives, the key message and other elements of the campaign planning stages. If you do this, you’re more likely to go straight to jail and not pass go and collect your £200.

3.  Poor agency briefing

There is a real skill in briefing an agency and the more planning, the more thinking you do upfront, the easier this becomes and the more impressed you’ll be when the agency returns with the creative executions. If you don’t do proper thinking upfront, you’ll be forcing your agencies to guess and will be committing a campaign crime.

4. Subjectivity

When the campaign “creatives” get presented back, marketers can often become obsessed with how the creatives look. They examine them subjectively, rather than evaluating the execution against the original objectives. At all stages of campaign development, never, ever forget about what you are trying to achieve and why or you’ll commit a crime.

5.  A rushed job

Sometimes there are time constraints, with deadlines looming. The result is that a campaign goes live, even though it isn’t perfect, just to meet a deadline. Crime. Get your planning right so deadlines are met. Get your brief right, or time will be wasted later. Don’t be afraid to move deadlines. Just don’t commit a crime.

6. Lack of internal communication

The bigger the department, the worse it can be. Yet marketers are renowned for neglecting to inform their colleagues about what they are doing. They also forget to tell other parts of the business, which can mean a campaign runs less effectively. If you don’t want to commit a campaign crime, just remember that it’s good to talk.

7. Lack of Sales buy-in

Campaigns are often less effective because the Sales team don’t buy into the campaign. The reason for this is that they were left out of the loop, rather than being involved from the outset, which has many benefits.

So typos, wrongly placed logos and wrong fonts are offences that can be easily spotted. The bigger crimes are often harder to see. Whilst it’s not a crime to make a mistake, it is a big offence to not maximise your marketing campaign, so avoid the crimes shown above.

Invariably people automatically think of the likes of Apple, Google and Coca-Cola. Yet you don’t have to be a big company, with deep pockets, to build a strong brand and strong profits.

Now I mentioned in an earlier post that I had discovered the Super Brand book. Well according to that book, you need the following dimensions for a successful brand:

• QUALITY
• RELIABILITY
• DISTINCTION.

All these elements help to form perceptions within your customers’ minds. These perceptions are based upon what they think and feel about you. In fact, the latter is probably more important. Just consider this quote from Richard Branson: 

“I’m convinced that it is feelings – and feelings alone – that account for the success of the Virgin brand in all of its myriad forms.”

So if you don’t know what your customers think and feel about you, I suggest you find.

Quality

Let’s begin with quality. This is quite simple really. You need to ensure that you offer quality products and services.

So ask yourself this – “do we really know what quality means from our customers’ perspective? And do we understand how we compare on such an attribute versus the competition?”

If you do, then you’re ahead of the competition.

Reliability

This is where the old brand philosophy comes into its own:

Always under promise and over deliver

Your brand must be trusted to deliver consistently against its promises. You must offer a consistent delivery and messages at all stages of the customer journey. Too many companies have inconsistencies in their service and product delivery. Too many companies have mismatches in their messages, with different soundbites coming from Marketing and the Call Centre. The result is confused and lost customers.

So ask yourself this “how reliable is our brand promise throughout the customer journey?”

If you can answer this with 100% certainty, you are ahead of the competition.

Distinction

In theory, your brand needs to be well-known amongst your target market. Awareness is great, but moreover, if you take the first 8 letters of distinction, you end up with the word distinct. Your proposition must be clearly and effectively differentiated – internally and externally – to make a real difference. So whether a customer finds you for the first time or has been a customer for years, they must have a reson to give you business. And your staff are vital here, becuae if they don’t understand your proposition, your customers certainly won’t.

Now, forget the USP. You must differentiate in many areas across the marketing mix. Use your brand as your differentiator and create a strong brand personality that attracts customers and a character that retains them. And you can’t stand still because the market changes.

So ask yourself this “how truly different is our brand from the competition?”

If you can list more than three points, then you’re ahead of the game.

So stay on top of customer needs and competitor movements and create a brand that has quality, is reliable and distinct – in other words a brand that stands out in 3D.

The other day our cat went missing, which happens to cats from time to time. We waited for a day or two, but still no cat. So we had a choice. Carry on waiting, or do something about it. We did the latter. We went searching. We spoke with neighbours. We used our contacts. We spoke to people living in surrounding streets. We put up posters in the most appropriate places. We put flyers through carefully targeted doors. We knocked on doors. We listened for noises.

Soon we started to gather some market data as people knocked on our door, and telephoned us, to say they had seen our cat in the last couple of days. From this information, we were able to narrow our search. Enticed by some food, eventually we found our cat, some way from home, lost and hungry. Had we done nothing, then she would still be missing, unable to find her way home. But, with a bit of talking, listening and some promotional activity, we had success.

So what has a missing cat got to do with marketing?

Well, there are some fundamentals within this little tale. First, with marketing it is important to look at and understand your market environment and know where your potential customers might be. Don’t wait for them to find you, go and find them and make it easier for them to find you. Think about your target market. Avoid the scatter gun approach and go for specific segments and target with the right message. Listen to your customers. There is a big difference between hearing and listening. Listening can show you solutions.

Finally, never stop promoting your business. In the current climate many companies cut back on promotion. Excuse the pun, but that’s a catastrophe waiting to happen. Had we not promoted our need to find out cat, it would still be missing. By failing to promote your business will mean it is sales revenue that is missing. But get your message right, to the right audience and at the right time.

So if you don’t want to miss out on potential sales, invest in a bit more marketing because your customers will find a new home if you don’t.

So what are these marketing ailments? Well, many will be unique to each company, but there are a number of the more common ailments, which I have highlighted here.

1. Lack of knowledge of customers’ behaviour & attitudes

The more you understand your customers, the easier and more effective your marketing will become. Get to know their real motivations and behaviours, then connect at an emotional level. Speak to your customers regularly and undertake research – not the type that just ticks a few boxes but the type that really gets into the psyche of your customers.

2. Failure to segment effectively

Your customers do not have needs that are identical, so the smarter your segmentation the better. A common starting point is to segment using statistical data, such as demographics or geography. Yet the most powerful form of segmentation is based on needs. Know your customer’s individual needs and start to resegment your database.

 3. The absence of marketing planning

If you don’t know where you are going, how will you get there in the most effective way. And how will you know when you arrive? Set clear and measurable goals and devise a plan to achieve these and make sure everyone knows and understands the plan.

4. Reductions in price rather than increases in volumes

In the current market, cutting prices is a popular tactic. But it is not an effective one unless you have a very powerful system that can calculate price elasticities of your products or services, avoid this. All it does it reduce profit. Instead seek ways to sell more, starting with your existing customers, then your lost customers and finally seek out new ones.

5. Lack of campaign integration

Too many marketing campaigns are less effective because they are not integrated. The result is that your budget has to work harder and your customer becomes confused with different messages.

6. Misunderstanding of the company strengths

Quite often people don’t really appreciate the strengths of their business. Other times the strengths they think of are just features. Make sure that everyone knows your strengths, which should be shown as customer benefits; it’s the sausage and sizzle scenario.

7. Short term views of the role of promotion

It is very unlikely that you’ll generate a sale from one phone call, or one email, or one advert; unless you are extremely lucky that is. Promotion is a strategic activity. Your customers are getting hit by thousands of messages every day, so you need clear and consistent messages that will take time to move from the subconscious to the conscious. Be patient. 

 8. Perception that marketing is limited to just promotional activities

Because we are surrounded by promotional activities, it is easy to think that marketing is just confined to promoting your products and services. In my book, there are 8 elements of the marketing mix, one of which is promotion. So think about the other elements of the mix too. And remember, marketing begins and ends with the customer. 

9. Inappropriate structures

This is a common ailment within bigger firms. Structures grow over time. Sometimes they are aligned to strategy, sometimes it is driven by other factors. Now the market is constantly changing so you need to ensure that your marketing structure is fit for purpose. Don’t be afraid of change but don’t change just for the sake of change.

10. Insufficient investment in the future, especially in area of staff

Who delivers your marketing? It is people. In the current market it is easy to stop investing in staff, to stop investing in their personal development. It is easy but easy does not make it right. As I have mentioned, the market is changing so your staff have to stay ahead, or you run the risk of your competitors stealing business. through such investment you’ll get a noticable return because your marketing efforts become even more effective.

So these are a few common marketing ailments I have come across. Now, as every doctor will tell you, prevention is much better than cure so give your marketing a health check today.