On Words and Business

Who knew the Luciano Pavarotti was such a marketing genius? Check Chris Guillebeau’s Art of Non-Conformity article about the famous tenor’s secret to success. He did it for his audience, it was all about giving.

It might seem to make sense in his profession and not others.  But it’s an interesting exercise to figure out how it applies to each of our own businesses. And that it’s possible even without a Twitter account (although he sure got more exposure through his work than the average desk jockey does).

How will you give to your audience today?

These days, social media and mobile apps get all the attention from the marketing set. Not to say that we oldsters aren’t joining the party, but when it comes to making it look easy, both of these are pretty much the purview of the younger set, the Millennials.

But guess what…according to Nielsen (in this report on Marketing Chart) Boomers’ use of Twitter jumped 469% in 2009 (there was nowhere to go but up!). 80% of Gen-Xers use tools like Facebook and Twitter. The Greatest Generation, those over 65, are a different story when it comes to the social media and mobile bandwagon. They are a bunch who like email, though, so you can still reach ‘em online.

Go forth and market…

Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis

Thoughts on marketing, branding, and communications from the folks at market research agency Millward Brown. Good stuff.

One thing I love about January–predicting trends.

The top three marketing trends from my perspective:

• Integration of marketing messages. There’s hardly anything more frustrating than getting different stories from different touchpoints. Like I did the other day: the website, the recorded telephone hold message, and the customer service agent all conveyed different information about the same service (and not a trivial aspect of the service, either). Which to believe?
• Social media. Judicious use of, that is. It is where a lot of consumers are. But it bears thinking about whether your customers are interested (or ready) to read your message there, or if it will come across as intrusive. The answer isn’t to shout louder or to bombard.
• Mobile marketing to consumers. This will take some skill to do well. Because ads and marketing come at us from everywhere (even the floor of the subway station) it’s getting easier to tune these messages out. Like with social media, the answer isn’t shouting. The leaders here will be those who figure out the subtleties.

A few other predictions to check out:

• Optimism, accountability, social media top trends (B2B)
• 13 signs the marketing industry is recovering (interactive)
• 12 digital marketing predictions for 2010 (digital)
• 10 marketing predictions for 2010 (general)

The teens are being touted as the decade of the mobile device and all the marketing and media that go along with them.

According to CTIA, 89% of the US population own cell phones.  Only about 16% (predicted to be 37% by 2014) of those are smartphones–ready for all this marketing and media to arrive. That number is predicted to be 37% by 2014, but even that will be only about a third of the population.

I don’t fundamentally disagree that things are going mobile; and I know other parts of the world are more mobile and have more smartphone than we do. I just worry about those who don’t have or can’t afford smartphones.

Will other forms of marketing and media suffer with the focus on mobility?

There are all sorts of things on my to-do list. Many of which I actively avoid. Sound familiar?

Here’s a great model from Robert Middleton’s More Clients Blog on prioritizing projects and time.

A couple items from my Don’t Like to Do and Avoid column:

• follow-up calls and email
• public relations
• creating and actually following a marketing plan

I’m looking forward to some rejiggering and delegating in the new year!