Can This Product Save Your Business?

Today, I'm doing something I rarely do - talk about a new service being offered by Henry Russell Bruce (HRB). It is our new GROWTH strategic business planning and marketing service. The copy below explains the service and contains a link to the entire brochure.

Growing Brands. Growing Business.

Henry Russell Bruce is the one of the foremost strategic marketing firms in the U.S. It brings five unique strategic advantages to each of its client relationships:

1)insistent that its efforts be measured against a client growth goal,
2)comprehensive and unparalleled client industry knowledge,
3)deeply insightful analysis of client growth opportunities and limitations,
4)intricately detailed, prebudgeted, line by line sales and marketing plans
5)and the gutsy offer to financially share in the risk of following its advice.

This powerful, but simple, understanding that businesses exist to grow and profit, combined with an impressive array of sales and marketing forces marshal this firm into a powerful client ally and a very large support structure for client growth efforts. This is HRB.

ABOUT OUR GROWTH DIVISION

We believe in the strategic growth plan concept so strongly we ramp up every long-term strategic relationship with clients through our strategic growth division, titled simply, Growth. There, we develop comprehensive strategic growth plans for each client, including all details right up to implementation, timing, responsibility and cost. At the point of client approval, our dedicated account managers, branding groups, social and traditional media experts, production group and creative group assume implementation roles with your assigned employee(s), following the plan step by step.

With more than 400 strategic plans crossing 175 clients in dozens of industries, the Growth division has a historical 40:1 financial gross dollar growth for each sales or marketing dollar spent with it.

Read more about HRB's GROWTH Division.


Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
800-728-2656

Is Your Brand the Most Boring One at the Party?

Today we have a guest post by my partner Steve Erickson, President of Henry Russell Bruce

Unless you spend all day, every day, staring at your computer screen, you probably get out to social events on occasion. For serious Web programming dudes that may mean having to rent a personality, but hey, it’s only for a few hours, right?

So, you’re at the party, your personal brand is polished (i.e., you’re wearing your best threads) and you’re ready to engage the crowd. You scan the room, find the drinks, then the hors d’houvres table. Sweet! Hot nacho cheese dip! You fill your plate, turn around and … uh oh! It’s Rick. He’s seen you and he’s heading your way. You brace yourself because you know you’re about ready to be subjected to his blathering … about himself, his work, his vacation, his investments, his son’s baseball tournament, whatever. 15 tedious minutes later, you’re certain his picture must be under “narcissist” in the dictionary. Read more.


Jim Thebeau
CEO
Henry Russell Bruce
800-728-2656

Marketing Clients Dispute Agencies' Digital Chops

Only 37% of marketers rated “7+” on a 1-10 scale, where “10” represented “Excellent” when asked how they would rate full service agencies’ digital skill set, according to an RSW/US survey of clients. So marketers aren’t all too impressed with traditional, full service agencies’ skills in the digital marketing/advertising space.

Jim Thebeau
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
800-728-2656

The Secret to Marketing Today is NOW Media

I'm often asked how companies and organizations can use new media to enhance their visibility and sales. How, they ask, can we use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Mashable and other new media to market ourselves?

The question seems to ignore the role of traditional media and focuses only on new media. Like new media stands on its own. Not so.

Increasingly, marketing success today is based on the integration of traditional and new media and understanding how they work together to promote, enhance, position and sell your organization. And, for companies that care about it, how to help fill the sales pipeline.

One concept, developed in the past year by blogger Jeff Pulver, is to call it NOW Media, meaning that both new and traditional media need to work together to generate maximum results. Jeff and other new media experts believe that traditional media will be around for years to come.

While some of the largest corporations have figured out how to do this well, like Dell's recent Twitter success, smaller organizations are trying to get there.

NOW Media is a good name, as well as a good approach.

To be effective and credible your brand must present a cohesive look, feel and experience to employees as well as customers and prospects. The same is true of your marketing efforts. One-off direct mails, ads, banner ads and not refining the key search terms for your Web site each week are costly and ineffective. Brand is all about the integration of your look, your message and your marketing.

What's the secret to marketing today? Set up company Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (or other social media) pages and integrate them into your cohesive company messages so you are saying the same thing everywhere. But know that you can use these social media sites to promote special offers and calls to action in a way that supplements your traditional media - so everything works in concert.

If you can do that (yes, it does take time, effort and concentration) you will see results. You will get more people to sign up for your email marketing, your catalog, your blog posts.

And, if you never start, you will never get there. There are plenty of "How to" resources on the Web. Or you can contact HRB. We know the secret to NOW Media.

Jim Thebeau
Henry Russell Bruce
800-728-2656

Mobile App Stores to sell $6B in 2010

According to a new Gartner report, "Application Stores; The Revenue Opportunity Beyond the Hype," consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores while advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide. Analysts said mobile application stores will exceed 4.5 billion downloads in 2010, eight out of ten of which will be free to end users.

Read more on this mobile apps story here.


Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

One Third of Adults Tweet and Facebook

A study released Tuesday by Forrester Research found that 33 % of adults update Web sites like Twitter and Facebook once a week. Do you?

Jim Thebeau
CEO
Henry Russell Bruce

Avoid the 15 Biggest Marketing Mistakes in 2010

I've made a resolution for 2010 to be more consistent with my blog posts and to do them more frequently.

Rather than send out two or three marketing mistakes at a time, I've decided it's time to post a link to the article we've developed on avoiding marketing mistakes in 2010.

If you are a reader, thank you.

Download your own copy of our white paper at Avoid the 15 Biggest Marketing Mistakes in 2010.

Happy New Year from the entire team at Henry Russell Bruce.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

Email Open Rates Increased in 2009

According to Epsilon, email open and click rates experienced year-over-year increases in Q309 vs. Q308 as the industry headed into the traditionally busy holiday season.
The Q309 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks study revealed that email open rates increased from 19.8% in Q308 to 22.0% in Q309 while 12 of the 16 industries Epsilon tracks had an increase in open rates over Q308. Click rates were 6.2%, an increase of 5.1% from the same time last year (5.9%), the analysis found.

Timely, relevant offers appear to make all the difference.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

86 % More Spending on Social Media Projected

According to The Social Media and Online PR Report, published by Econsultancy in association with bigmouthmedia, 86% of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget. 54% of companies say, however, that the biggest barrier to better social media engagement is a lack of resources. Only 10% of companies are not engaging in any social media activity whatsoever.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

Amazon Kindle on Fire?

Industry experts are predicting that 4 million Amazon Kindles will be sold in 2010, with 59 million Kindle-friendly devices being sold between the Apple eReader, the Kindle and the Apple iPhone.

This is a new way for publishers to reach readers in the digital age. The Kindle and other ereaders are being touted to advertisers for message delivery.


Jim Thebeau
Henry Russell Bruce
800-728-2656

Avoid the 15 Biggest Marketing Mistakes in 2010

As a marketer are you ready for the challenges of 2010, Part 3?

This is the third in a series of marketing mistakes to avoid in 2010. Find mistakes 1 through 4 in earlier posts below.

5. Measuring takes too much effort.

A critical part of marketing is measuring and benchmarking - metrics. How do you know if your marketing is improving or needs to change unless you know how it has performed? Start simply and track several basic elements such asnumber of leads generated, where leads came from, Web hits or most visited pages, number of mentions in consumer or trade media. Choose your own items to track and change them as you gain experience. Set deadlines and monitor performance. If you don’t have a CRM tool, use a simple spreadsheet.

6. Not thinking like your customer.

Marketing your company by simply pushing out information to sell what you have may be a sound approach. But is it what your customers want? Think of your marketing from your customers’ point of view. Stay in touch with the needs and wants of your customers. Are they aware ofall the services you offer? Develop a set of five to seven needs-based questions and call several of your clients each month and go through the list. You may find that business would improve if you alter a product or develop a new one, and you also are showing your customers you are thinking about their needs.

Jim Thebeau

CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com

Avoid the 15 Biggest Marketing Mistakes in 2010, Part 2

As a marketer are you prepared for the challenges of 2010?

This is the second in a series of marketing mistakes to avoid in 2010. Find post on mistakes number 1 and 2 on December 7.

3. Designing your Web site for you instead of your customer.

Is your Web site a glowing billboard about your company and its products? Or is it a welcoming place where visitors can be educated, quickly find what they want and convey the impression that they come first? Your Web site is a 24/7 engagement and sales tool. Engagement means giving them something of value. More than 80% of people looking for information, a product or service begin with a Web search. Does your site have an appealing appearance, easy navigation and helpful content designed for the visitor? Do you add fresh content of value at least once a week?

4. Ignoring social media outlets.

Social interactions on the Web are the new model for networking. Nothing beats face to face networking, but social media allows millions of people to communicate, build trust,buy products and create new relationships. The secret is in linking your social media outlets and the messages you create there to more in-depth information on your Web site. This builds greater awareness of your business and increases inbound links to your site, a critical factor in building your reputation for Google searches. Just Google your company name or your key product or service and see what you find.

Jim Thebeau

CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

When to Rebrand

You need to rebrand when there is a disconnect between how you are perceived and what you are. When there are changes in what you deliver and the expectations from customers. Rebranding establishes the personality, purpose and culture of your company and clarifies it to your audiences, internally and externally.

It is a vision of the future and where you going.

Not the business you are in but the business you are becoming.


Jim Thebeau
Henry Russell Bruce

HRB Agency Blog

Avoid the 15 Biggest Marketing Mistakes in 2010

As a marketer are you prepared for the challenges of 2010? To be successful in our current environment you may want to look at things from a different perspective; turn it upside down and say “What if we … ?” Doing things the way we always have been done them is a sure recipe for getting the same results.

Adapting

Adapting to new market conditions, new technologies, new budgets and new ways to reach prospects and customers is critical to your success. Though not an exhaustive list by any means, we’ve put together a list of marketing mistakes to avoid in 2010.

This is the first of a series of posts on preparing for marketing in 2010.

1. Failing to plan.

If you don’t have a marketing plan, you will benefit by developing one. The value of such a plan is a) the think time you put into the content, and 2) that it is written down. At a minimum you should develop goals and objectives of what you need to accomplish, as well as strategies and tactics to complete each task. It should include a mixture of “push” and “pull” marketing strategies. A plan does not have to be long, but having it in writing and reviewing it on a monthly basis will help keep your efforts on track. A proven approach is to include a timeline that lists all your projects on a quarterly basis so you can prioritize them throughout the year.

2. Believing that brand doesn’t matter.

Your brand is what differentiates you from others in the marketplace. Honestly evaluate your brand differentiators and look for room for improvement. Think in terms of the benefits or results your products provide, not just a list of features. What do you do really well that others cannot? Clearly spell out the value you offer; even just one that substantially differentiates you from the competition – and promote it.

Jim Thebeau

CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com

800-728-2656

How Do You Rebrand a Company?

Rebranding is a process that has a beginning, a middle and an end, with the end being the launch of the rebrand internally, then externally.

Step one is to take an inventory of your current brand. What exactly is your brand? How is your brand or reputation perceived in the marketplace? One way to answer those questions is to critically review your key messages - what you are saying in your marketing or communications messages to your audiences. Analyze your messages. Are they clearly focused on the benefits of using your products or services (i.e. we provide printing solutions that reduce paper costs and improve office efficiency), or are they all over the board (i.e. we sell the printer you need). This step usually involves some form of audience and employee research to clarify the current brand position and help identify a new brand direction.

Step two is to set brand goals - what you want to accomplish with the rebrand. Planning is essential to ensuring the new position you stake out for your brand is realistic and achievable. Develop new key messages.

Step three is establishing benchmarks of where your business is currently so you can track improvements after the rebrand. Some items that you can benchmark are unique Web site visits, unsolicited inbound leads, media coverage and customer service requests. Choose some that fit your situation.

Step four often includes a design refresh that includes logo and tagline, as well as marketing materials and Web site.

Step five includes rolling out the rebrand internally to employees while explaining details of the process and how they can live the new brand.

Step six is introducing the refreshed brand to customers, prospects, suppliers and other external audiences. It helps to promote the rebrand.

Jim Thebeau

CEO, Henry Russell Bruce

jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
800-728-2656

The Secret Power of Public Relations

Companies that are not using public relations are missing an essential communications channel to reach prospects and customers – and to build their brand.

PR opens a new door, a new channel: media coverage, usually at a cost lower than equivalent traditional advertising. And, it’s often seen as more credible than advertising.

Many PR practitioners believe that unpaid media (generally defined as editorial coverage generated in any medium) offers three to five times the credibility of paid media (advertising). This multiplier effect is based on the long-held belief that consumers regard news coverage as more credible than advertising.

The success of public relations is based on how it is implemented, given that it is a very relationship based communications tool. A large part of the value is in creating a good media relationship.

Simply sending out one news release will likely have a very small, if any, impact on sales or brand. Instead, create PR tools such as case studies, white papers, customer testimonial statements, educational articles and regular news releases for your Web site or distribution.

However, a well developed, ongoing public relations program can have a significant impact, because it increases your company’s visibility to the media and in the media. Recurring media mentions also boost your brand and top of mind awareness, especially if you are providing content of value.

How can your company implement an effective public relations program? To keep it simple, you can:

• Develop lists of media contacts (and their contact information) for key trade publications, business journals, blogs, Web sites or local media
• Reach out to media contacts to let them know who you are and what kinds of editorial content/industry expertise you can provide
• Create and distribute one news release per month on a newsworthy topic and include a link back to your Web site (releases are great for generating inbound links to your Web site, which improves your Google site rankings)
• Develop offers such as white papers, case studies or industry trend pieces that you can offer for free download on your Web site
• Distribute important news to your media lists as well as through national distribution services such as PR Web for as little as $200
• Integrate all your media efforts with social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others

The real secret for PR success is an ongoing program that creates editorial content of value and keeps your name in front of the media and starts establishing your company as a provider of industry expertise.

P.S. If you are interested, a recent Pew Research Center poll finds that television remains the dominant news source for the public, with 71 percent saying that they get most of their national and international news from television. Forty-two percent say that they get most of their news on these subjects from the Internet, compared with 33 percent who cite newspapers. Last December (2008), for the first time in a Pew Research Center survey, more people said they obtained most of their national and international news from the Internet than those who said that newspapers were their main source.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
800-728-2656

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

I recently found a most interesting business book mostly by accident. It's called Mastering the Rockefeller Habits and it's based on the leadership and management philosophies of John D. Rockefeller the legendary businessman of the early twentieth century.

Though many might wonder what we could learn in this digital age from such an old timer, the book by Verne Harnish is a basic how-to guide to applying the Rockefeller habits in today's fast paced business world.

Thus far, we have applied one of these principles to our business at Henry Russell Bruce with the positive effect of moving discussion and decisions along toward more rapid decision making. A great first step that comes directly from the book. It is a return to basic fundamentals that we often overlook in our rapidly evolving global marketplace. It is simple, practical advice on running your business.

Rockefeller believed in three basic habits and lived by them (quoting Harnish now):

1. Priorities - Does the organization have objective Top 5 priorities for the year and the quarter and a clear Top 1 priority along with the appropriate theme?

2. Data - Does the organization have sufficient data on a daily and weekly basis to provide insight into how the organization is running and what the market is demanding? Does everyone in the organization have at least one key daily or weekly metric driving his or her performance.

3. Rhythm - Does the organization have an effective rhythm of daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings to maintain alignment and drive accountability.

As a first step, senior management team at HRB meets daily, while the 2 partners have implemented weekly hour-long meetings to discuss the urgent issues and decisions of the day. This, I believe, has helped us collaborate more effectively and moved us more efficiently toward a new business model we are adopting - growing our Web and digital footprint, while maintaining our traditional agency products and services.

Harnish touches on a host of crucial topics, including delegation, systems and structures, the importance of data, business priorities, market dynamics and barriers to growth, among others.

One of the most interesting sections is labeled Mastering A One-Page Strategic Plan, Keeping it simple keeps it clear. And, the book offers a template for the one-page plan.

The book is full of real world case studies of companies Harnish found that follow these Rockefeller Habits and go on to grow and prosper.


Have you gotten back to fundamentals or read Mastering the Rockefeller Habits? We welcome your comments.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com

Branding Through Your Web Site

I met with a client recently to discuss development of a new Web site. The client knew he needed help with both his site and his marketing. When told his site had a multitude of issues, including a lack of searchable content that search engines could not index, he expressed surprise.

On a regular basis, we encounter clients and prospects who do not understand how quickly the Web and search engines are changing. Because we deal with the Web and its myriad components every day, we can help produce a positive impact for those clients relatively quickly. Our goal is more and more to brand companies through their Web sites, since that is their business card to the world that is available 24/7.

Are you branding your organization through your Web site? How else are you branding your company?

Jim Thebeau
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
www.hrb-ideas.com
800-728-2656

How to Work With an Agency

As information channels and screens proliferate and attention spans shrink to nanoseconds, marketers find they have to work harder to get and keep the eyes, ears and minds of their customers focused on the message.

Today, it may be all about one-to-one and relationship marketing, but if your messaging is unclear or too long, you risk losing the interest of your customers and prospects. This is the point in marketing where agencies can provide a helping hand.

Why, exactly, would you want to work with an agency? Here are a few reasons it might make sense for your company.

1. Serious agencies or marketing firms position themselves as independent, third party communications experts that are in business to solve marketing problems. Independent means they are not tied to any specific advertising or promotion media. Third party means they look at your particular marketing challenge objectively and help you solve it by finding the best message and the best way to deliver it to the target audience.

2. Agencies tend to think in ways that marketers don't. Marketers may struggle to come up with new themes, ideas and concepts to promote their products and services. While the agency staff may have produced many ideas over the years, your project is new to them and they will bring a fresh approach to the marketing problem. Outside insights can be valuable and helpful and shorten your time to roll out the concept or idea.

3. After working with dozens of clients in dozens of industries, agency professionals may actually have a very good handle (following some downloads and insights from you) on how your customers think. These creative teams have not lived with the company day and night. In a sense, they don't know too much and can bring you tantalizing concepts that cut through the clutter and deliver your precise and powerful message with impact.

4. Use an agency on a consulting basis to review your ideas, concepts and plans. You don't have to form a permanent, contractual relationship to get some great new outside thinking. Ask senior members of the agency staff for a few hours of time to discuss or review your approaches to a new marketing theme, the launch of a new product or just putting a fresh face on your marketing messages. You may come away with some valuable new ideas that will more than pay for the agency's time.

5. As the pace of business life accelerates and marketing staffs become leaner, outsourcing certain marketing tasks may actually help you get more work done. Outsourcing opportunities are especially relevant for repetitive tasks such as producing email marketing materials, Web site optimization, newsletters, direct mail and collateral. Though the agency professionals may never know as much as you do about your company and its products, they can take on recurring tasks and make sure they are done on time and on budget - letting you focus on your larger, primary marketing objectives.

Don't be afraid to contact an agency and talk with principals or senior staffers about your marketing challenges. Most agencies or marketing firms do not charge for one or two meetings with your team to get a download on the issues or challenges you face. And, most provide detailed estimates or proposals that marketers must sign before any work begins. Legitimate agencies are always willing to discuss timelines, deliverables and billings at any time. If you don't see details you want in the estimates or proposals, ask the agency to add them before you sign off. Don't work with an agency without signed estimates and timelines so you can avoid performance issues later.

Jim Thebeau
CEO, Henry Russell Bruce
jthebeau@hrb-ideas.com
www.hrb-ideas.com
800-728-2656

Pay Per Click (PPC) Internet Marketing

Today, we have another guest post from Internet marketing expert Jeff McEachron.

Pay per click (PPC) is a type of Internet marketing used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites/blogs. In this model, advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.

Advertisers bid on keywords that their target market will use as search terms when they are looking for their product or service. When a user types a keyword matching the advertiser's keyword, or views a page with relevant content, the ad may be shown. These ads are called "Sponsored links" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to or above the organic results on search engine results pages, or where a Webmaster chooses on a content page.

Benefits of Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising:

* You don't pay to display your PPC Advertisement, but rather you only pay when your ad is clicked on.
* Pay per click ads are only shown to people who indicate an interest in a specific topic exactly at the time they indicate an interest by searching for specific keywords.
* Pay per click advertising helps branding by building awareness and educating prospects.
* Pay per click advertising can be tailored to your specific goals (eg Sales Conversions, Site Registrations, Catalog Requests, etc.).
* Pay per click advertising enables you to present relavant real-time distribution of your advertising on a massive scale, local scale, or anywhere in between. You pick the geographical area where your ads will appear.
* With pay per click advertising, you can set a daily budget to control your costs.
* With pay per click advertising, you can monitor virtually any metric to track the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns

Pay per click ads may also appear on content network websites. In this case, ad networks such as Google AdSense and the Yahoo! Publisher Network provide ads that are relevant to the content of the page where they appear.


Jeff McEachron
jmceachron@hrb-ideas.com
Vice President Internet Operations
Henry Russell Bruce
800-728-2656