One of the great things about working at an agency is the number of professionals and industry-leading companies you get to work with in your career. But even the best marketing departments can get stuck in a hamster cage, just spinning the wheel.

Below are common quagmires that slow a marketing organization and make marketers less effective.

1) Measuring activity instead of results

When you measure and report on activity (what you were busy doing), you spend a lot of unnecessary time and energy creating the reports. By measuring activity, you automatically associate success with a long and detailed report. The longer the report, the busier you look. Focus on results (outcomes of activity) and your reports become more useful, focused, and take much less time to produce.

2) Bad decision-making process

Everyone wants to be involved in marketing and marketing decisions. For greater efficiency, if you invite someone to be involved, let them know exactly what their decision-making capacity is. Are they:

1. The owner who makes the decision?
2. An approver who says yes or no?
3. A contributor who is part of the decision process?
4. An informer who is just providing data?

3) Adding new things without removing the old

Today’s marketing department has to take on more responsibility and processes every month, but they often forget to take a step back and look at the tasks that are unproductive. It’s like cleaning out your closet. Buy a new shirt? Then donate the old one.

4) Failing to include your executives in your audience

If your CEO only uses an iPad and your website is all in Flash, you are going to spend a lot of cycles trying to explain why the website is “broken.”

A friend of mine who used to work in film marketing for a major motion picture distributor told me they would buy up as many billboards and bus stops as possible between the head of the studio’s home and the office. He said it was cheaper than spending hours explaining minute details of the media buy strategy to the studio head. I don’t endorse this example as a best practice, but it does illustrate the point that to secure and maintain the support of your exec team, they need to be considered part of the audience.

5) Treating legal like a necessary evil

One of the first questions I ask clients is about their relationship with the legal department. Almost all of the most responsive, nimble and successful teams have invested significant time in their relationship with their legal counterparts.

Be sure your legal team knows what marketing does, about the challenges you face and are kept in the loop about your long-term plans.  You’ll find that many legal departments will not only stop road-blocking your efforts, but can actually be quite helpful with selling ideas to the CEO.

6) Putting all your energy into PowerPoint

I regularly see organizations spend more time on PPT design than on the ideas. Good design is critical, but gauge what is really needed for that presentation.

7) Worrying about the competitors

Way too much time is spent worrying about things we can’t control. Be aware of what the competitors are doing, but focus on doing what you do better and don’t worry so much about comparing.

Not sure if you or your organization is falling victim to any of these pitfalls? A good measurement is to look at how much time you spend dealing with internal issues, versus creating or engaging with customers. If it feels like most of your energy is spent fighting internal battles it may be time to look at ways to step away and refocus.

Are there any other marketing quagmires that you avoid?

I’d like to share an experience I recently had—call it a cautionary tale—and a reminder of how easy it is to undo years of effort in the blink of an eye.

But first, the rules

Over the years I’ve developed a bunch of loose rules to follow when I’m doing “outreach,” also known as “posting links to stuff on the Web.” I recently broke one of those rules and that’s what prompted this post. So here they are:

1. Invest in the community. Posting “cold” on a community you’ve never taken part in is commonplace for marketers, but it makes sense do more, and try to participate in a community—especially the ones that are most important to you and your client. That means posting and building up a legitimate history you can point to in case people ever accuse you of being a worthless shill.
   

   The typical forum response to anything posted by marketers

2. The first sentence of your post should state your name and what your intentions are. Example: “Hi, I’m Erik Sebellin-Ross and I’m posting here on behalf of my client, Acme Ink Company, because I think people in this forum might find our newest pen of interest.”
3. No bullshit. If you don’t know the answer, say so and try to get it. If getting an answer is really difficult or not feasible, be honest about it and don’t set expectations you can’t meet.
4. Subtlety is best. The link to your news/product/service should be buried underneath things of genuine value to the community, if you can get away with it. This balances the negative (shilling something is perceived as negative no matter what you do) with the positive (things that are genuinely interesting).
5. Know the rules of the community where you’re posting. This one is really tough to keep track of.

So what rule did you break, Erik?

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It seems like everyone’s debating the value and benefit of social influencer metrics these days. The launches of sites like Klout and Empire Avenue have certainly got me thinking.

And I think I’m skeptical.

I understand the need to quantify the value that an individual brings to a brand partnership program, but can that really be defined by a mere number that’s calculated by an algorithm? And must everything in this digital world be measurable .  .  .  even the value and influence of a human being?

Part of it seems counterintuitive to the rise of social media in the first place—the fact that social media gives a voice to the masses, not just to the proclaimed experts and elites.

I suppose I see the value of using Klout scores or Eaves as one of many guiding factors, but I hesitate to think that they’re the latest godsent tools to help marketers determine who deserves special treatment and who doesn’t.

So, what do you think? Am I being overly skeptical?

Brand advocates: They’re the fans and followers who tell two people, who tell two people, and so on and so on, driving reputation and sales across industries from consumer electronics to fashion to food. But in the last few feet before a bricks and mortar retail sale is made, the influencers who really close the deal in the majority of instances are sales reps. How do you reach this critical group and, hopefully, win their hearts and minds?

Sales reps—or really, professional brand advocates—are quite a different breed from the Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and power-bloggers who make up the majority of consumer brand advocates. Sales reps often keep their work personas segregated from their online identities, so reaching them via traditional social channels is mostly hit-or-miss. At the same time, they are a heavily targeted group, deluged with in-store messaging both from their employer—likely a company loyal to everyone and no one in the interest of profit—and from multiple individual brands, whose field teams, flyers, training decks, and consumer marketing campaigns constantly vie for their attention. And don’t forget: sales reps are consumers, too, so personal preference is always in the mix. Peer influence also plays a key role among reps, whose colleagues have their own preferences and persuasive powers.

So what’s a brand to do? Retail professionals can be powerful allies, but they are hard to target, predisposed to be cynical about yet another brand message, and often highly opinionated and peer-influenced. Here are five best practices that can help brands “walk the line” and win over this audience:

1. Target with care. It’s easy to spend time and money looking for sales reps through traditional social means, but usually this type of outreach hits an audience that’s 99% consumers. Instead, target reps by getting bodies into the stores where they work, by finding the membership forums where they hang out online, or by partnering with retailers to get inside their existing training and outreach programs. If there’s already a brand-training program, targeting is easy: reps who are already invested are ideal candidates for advocacy programs.
2. Bring them inside. Once you’ve found your potential influencers, it’s critical to break through the brand-messaging noise they’re already dealing with in their jobs. Do this with a private advocacy community that’s tied to professional networking and development; reps most likely to be your advocates want to connect with you and their like-minded colleagues online. Conversely, real-world events outside the store environment are also effective. Like everyone else, sales reps respond to free food, drink, and entertainment; your messages and demos seem friendlier and more fun in context with an event.
3. Find the alphas. Alpha reps will always emerge, whether in the store, at an event or inside a community; engage them immediately. Alpha reps are the high-achievers, the self-made experts, and the go-to guys for customers and other reps, and when they’re on your side, they can help your brand succeed. Alphas influence their peers, recruit other advocates, and drive sales; one alpha can change an entire store.
4. Reward success. To an extent, advocates are working on your behalf, whether they are contributing in a private online community or chatting up their peers in the store. Demonstrate that you recognize it and value their efforts. Showing appreciation can take many forms depending on the industry, but whatever the reward, make it robust, and connect it with their sense of professional achievement. Business items such as laptop bags and framed certificates; paid travel to industry events or the corporate home office; even high-quality branded apparel—all of these can make a big impact.
5. Think long term. Reps are heavily targeted, and they are transient as well, so winning mindshare and loyalty on one day means nothing if it’s not backed by a strategy for ongoing engagement. Keep your best advocates involved by offering a tiered path of recognition or professional development. Stay in touch with a published calendar of real-world events. Stage regular promotions or other reward offers tied to results. The key is to keep your influencers coming back in the face of intense competition for their time and attention.

Ultimately, the real secret to building advocacy at retail is walking the line between targeting and influencing potential advocates on one side, and recognizing, rewarding and continually engaging them on the other.

With thousands of headlines and tips being shared on Twitter alone each hour, we think it’s helpful to share our favorites—the articles and blog posts that really stood out this week as being most relevant, interesting and insightful. Browse the list and then tell us about your favorite article this week.

Sarah Biedak: Thanks to several glaring social media boo-boos by agencies and brands, insurance companies are seeing an opportunity to add peace of mind to brands that have social media property at stake.

Kristina Rhodes: Imagine receiving the privilege of attending Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, aka, the party of the century, but not being allowed to tweet about it. Gasp! Sounds torturous doesn’t it? Well, that’s the predicament that each of their guests will be in today. All social media usage before and during the royal nuptials has been banned from Westminster Abbey.

Erik Sebellin-Ross: Ars Technica had its Facebook page shut down over a copyright infringement claim and provides a lot of insight into how bloody easy it is to get a page—any page—shut down by Facebook.

Melissa Lion: Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize this year for her novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. Here’s the interesting part: one chapter is written entirely in Power Point. With office culture permeating the arts, are we willingly giving up slices of disconnected free time? Or is it just a reflection of our culture today?

Gary Rubin: You need thick skin to play soccer, and participate in social media.

Julie Yamamoto: Thinking about starting a new blog? Check out this post from SmartBlog on how Scholastic started its corporate blog.

What did you read this week?

One day last spring I came home from work and saw a little photocopied slip of paper taped to my garage door. As a homeowner, I’m used to seeing plenty of marketing from local landscapers, house painters, and other home improvement providers stuffed in my paper box, left on my driveway, or stuck onto my front door. But this time, the marketing flyer was for a service that I actually needed—lawn aeration, fertilizing and seeding—so I filled out the form with the services I wanted, left it to be picked up by the company, and went about my business.

As a homeowner I was happy to leave the lawn care to someone else. As a marketer, I was happy for the company, because its plan had worked: develop a strategy for outreach (go door-to-door), print a leave-behind with a call-to-action (flyer) that was enticing, and process the order. In my case, this company’s marketing resulted in success.

Full disclosure. Not a true representation of the author’s lawn.

Or did it? When I needed to get ready for winter, I wanted to work with the company again. I went to their website, sent them an email about coming back to my neighborhood . . . and never heard back from anyone. I took the next step and called the company. Left a message. Nothing.

This spring, a different company left me a flyer for lawn aeration, fertilizing and seeding services. I bit again, but not before thinking about how the other company lost me as a customer because of its lack of customer service. I would have used the original company again given the chance, but that chance never arrived. Sound familiar?

As marketers we should be monitoring how our customer care department is treating the new clients that our campaigns earn. Are they letting those hard-earned buyers get away? Factor some time into your future campaigns to make sure the customer service team is on board, supporting your plans to acquire, and hopefully keep, new customers. After all, the easiest way to new business is to please existing customers.

What do you think about the connection between marketing and customer service? (And if you need a good lawn care company, drop me a line. Happy to make a referral.)

In honor of Earth Day and with all of the recent global events affecting our planet, we thought we’d stop and take a minute to share CMD’s sustainability commitment—a core value held by the agency and our employees.

Does having a sustainability statement mean we’ve perfected how to tread as lightly as possible on the earth? No, but by having some specific things that we all aspire to, can measure ourselves against and hold up as goals, we’re getting there . . . and we’re proud of the progress we’re making. So this being one of our favorite times of year, we thought we’d post—in its entirety—our sustainability statement (below), and show you how we’re celebrating Earth Week. We’d love to know your thoughts and ideas about incorporating sustainable action items into your company and culture, as the more we share, the more we can continue to reduce our collective impact and yes, make the world a bit greener.

First, take a look at this video of a few CMDers sharing the agency’s top five tips for living sustainably all year long.

CMD Sustainability Statement

CMD believes that operating in an environmentally sustainable manner is not only the right thing to do, it makes smart business sense. That’s why we actively encourage and promote environmentally sustainable operating practices among our employees, our business partners and our vendors. CMD understands that to be a successful, progressive, world-class company, sustainability includes environmental stewardship, as well as operating with the highest ethical standards and supporting the community where our employees live and work.

Our goal is to be an industry leader in environmentally responsible practices and to conduct our business in a manner that is sustainable, demonstrates environmental stewardship and provides our customers with environmentally beneficial options. Sustainability is not an afterthought at CMD; rather, it is a key core value and essential to our overall mission. To that end, the four cornerstones of CMD’s commitment to sustainability are:

1. Reducing waste: CMD focuses on reducing the use of raw materials by giving strong consideration to those vendors who use recycled materials, offer environmentally preferred solutions and help reduce waste/increase efficiencies.  We will continue to prioritize business partners that demonstrate a strong environmental commitment whenever possible. Waste streams are reduced at CMD through the use of reusable rather than disposable products.  The company has continued to expand its recycling program to include a variety of materials and hosts employee events to reinforce recycling best practices. Recycling is encouraged and readily available in all of our facilities.
2. Conserving energy and water: CMD makes an ongoing effort to be more energy efficient through employee incentives, communications and encouragement. We actively assess energy use within our facilities and evaluate solutions for continued improvement in this area.
3. Encouraging the use of alternative transportation: Promoting and rewarding the use of alternative transportation is not only important to the environment, it is important to the company’s culture. Activities such as participating in bike commute challenges, encouraging carpooling and alternative transportation are a key focus.
4. Making a positive impact on the community: We dedicate time, talent and resources to advancing the cause of select worthy, environmentally focused nonprofits that are working to make a real difference in the community. In this way, CMD’s influence to foster greater environmental stewardship reaches well beyond our own core business and affects many others within the community. At CMD, we believe this not only adds to our efforts to make a positive environmental impact, it is simply the right thing to do.

It is not enough for CMD management to establish values and set goals for how to become an increasingly environmentally sustainable business. These values are shared and acted upon at every level of the company. CMD’s employee-led sustainability team works to advance the company in these four key areas by setting goals, spearheading sustainability initiatives and engaging with employees. Our success is measured and validated through independent, third-party sources, including the City of Portland’s Recycle at Work certification program, and by being named one of the 100 Best Green Companies in Oregon by Oregon Business magazine. We are dedicated to continuing to provide education, training, programs and communication to help encourage greater awareness about what we can do, as a company and as individuals, to lessen our impact on the environment and to operate in a more sustainable manner.

Want to talk to 25-year-old women in Charlotte, N.C., who enjoy urban farming? With Facebook ads, you can get that specific—and more*. Never before have advertisers had the ability to so quickly and easily target their messaging to niche audiences. The concept of Facebook ads is to take local TV showcase spots and turn them social. These ads are relatively inexpensive, highly customizable and easy to create. And, if you follow a few key tips, the ads will connect you to your target audience with relatively little effort and upkeep.

Copy: Keep it short. Facebook pages are flooded with text, so keep yours short and to the point. Your words should be punchy, and include a clear call to action. If you want your target audience to “Like” your page, ask.

Image: Make it evocative. When casually surveyed, 100 percent of my colleagues recalled a Living Social ad that used a giant cupcake as its image. People are naturally drawn to images that create a desire. For example: eating (food), caring (babies and cuddly animals), escaping (palm trees and white sand beaches), etc. Think about the need that your brand/campaign calls to mind, then find an image that will clearly convey a solution to this need.

Targeting: Cast a wide net. Sure, it’s important to narrow your audience by desired location and other demographic information, but get creative when it comes to the “likes” section. If you are trying to reach software developers, try searching beyond the job title by adding hobbies (e.g., robots) as “like” qualifiers. Searching for people based on job titles alone will limit your reach to those who choose to disclose their profession on Facebook. Because Facebook is positioned as a social network, users are more likely to share their hobbies than to state their profession. Also, people are likely to have multiple hobbies, but not multiple professions. The more creative you get with your targeting, the more likely you are to reach your audience.

Monitoring: Keep track of your ad’s performance and make changes as needed. If your click-through rate is lower than desired, try swapping images or changing copy. If your bid isn’t yielding enough impressions, increase it. Another great aspect of Facebook ads is the ability to change them at any point during a campaign. Use this to your advantage.

Have you experienced success with a Facebook ad campaign? To what do you attribute this success? I would love to hear your thoughts. Share your comments below.

*For a guide on the basics of creating Facebook ads, click here: http://www.facebook.com/ads/best_practices.php/.

Here it is: Revolutions don’t begin by asking what the ROI is. And unless that’s the first question you ask your partner, friend or spouse, neither do relationships, by the way.

I find myself continually amazed whenever I go to conferences like SXSW and hear brilliant marketing and business visionaries say the one stop-them-in-their-tracks, idea-killer thing they confront always boils down to the ROI question.

For too long, the ROI roadblock has been a convenient way for brands and companies to play it safe and resist change. Fact is, unless a tactic is the only way you are communicating to your customer, it is incredibly difficult (and more often, inaccurate) to evaluate true ROI by singling out any one communication avenue or marketing discipline and trying to analyze in isolation how much it generated in bottom line revenue. Sure, you can determine metrics, but that’s different than actual ROI.

At CMD, we measure the heck out of what we do and recently added a director of metrics and analytics because we believe it’s important for our success and our clients’ success. But let’s be honest: at the start of the revolutions in the Middle East, no one was worrying about ROI when it came to using social media. It was simply seen for what it is: a super-effective way to connect, recruit, build relationships, communicate and motivate like-minded people. And it finally woke many people up to the fact that we are in the middle of a fundamental shift in global communications in addition to experiencing regional revolutions.

Yet, essential questions continue to go unaddressed simply because they are deemed less worthy, (meaning not easy to equate to actual dollar value), and therefore are too often left out of the equation. Questions such as:

• Is having better, closer relationships with our customers valuable?
• Is learning what people really think about our brand and our products important?
• Will establishing ongoing connections with customers benefit our business?
• Is it valuable to have passionate fans recommend us to their friends and family?

The desired answers to these questions are simple. Breaking the reliance on ROI as an excuse not to do something is not. Seems to me it’s high time for a revolution. What do you think?

As a marketer, you may have heard of Tagged, currently the third-largest social site, and wondered, “Should I be looking at this platform to reach a consumer audience?” At CMD, we’re always investigating new and growing digital spaces to see if opportunities exist to leverage these sites for client campaigns. That got me thinking about Tagged, so I took a look.

Here’s what I found and what I would recommend when it comes to considering the website in your marketing activities:

Unlike Facebook or Twitter, the express purpose of the site is to meet new people. In CEO and Co-founder Greg Tseng’s September 2010 interview with TechCrunch, he explained that the site creates the opportunity to meet new people without the stigma of typical dating sites. “Match.com is like going to a singles event by yourself,” he said. “Tagged.com is like going to a bar with your friends and you happen to meet someone you’d like to date.”

One of the biggest downsides is that groups aren’t searchable. Instead there are categories, such as entertainment, sports, etc., which you can click on and then “browse” through. After spending ten minutes looking for a group that I identified with, I was at a loss. Most group topics tend to focus on international musicians and actors.

The structure of community on Tagged doesn’t lend itself well to seeding or other marketing tactics. Community is built by paying for it, either literally, or with a user’s time. In order to interact on different sections of the site, like pets, café, mascots and games, you need “gold.” Users can either pay for this with their credit card or earn it by completing a sponsored survey.

While the site poses as a typical social site, it’s really a not-so-undercover dating site. Now while that’s perfectly fine, it’s the site’s structure and organization that makes successful consumer marketing a challenge. From a marketing perspective, seeding the groups would be difficult due to the inability to search groups by topic. Unless you purchase an ad or a survey spot for users to earn more “gold” there doesn’t seem to be much value.

Please share your thoughts. Are you on Tagged? If you use it for marketing, have you found a significant ROI?