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Wordsmithing: Customers Own Your Brand

June 30, 2007

In my previous blog post, I reflected on my talk in New Orleans at the annual conference for the IABC on the importance of blogging and social networking. The following day after the speaking engagement, I flew back to spend a couple days with my parents and extended family on a quick vacation. I was telling my Dad about how well the whole event went and some of the key points I made in my speech.

One main point is the notion that: Customers Own Your Brand, NOT YOU (the marketer). The case study I showed was Kettle Foods People's Choice Awards where the company allowed its customers to name the next flavor of potato chips (Doritos is now copying this campaign 2.5 years later). My Dad understood my point that customers have a huge influence on your brand, but vehemently denied that customers truly owned any consumer brands that were near and dear to their hearts. Those brands controlled their own strategic decisions and at the end of the day, legally and financially owned their own organizations.

Of all the people in the world that I hate to admit he may be right, it's my Dad (I respect him so much that I'd rather the roles were reversed with me giving the counter-point to his argument). But, the truth is - I need to choose more specific words that don't exagerate the concept that Customers Must Co-Create Your Brand with You (instead of being talked at).

So, how does that point work for you, Pops?

Comments (1) | Posted by ryan at 3:52 PM | Permalink

Every Company will Blog within 5 Years

June 28, 2007

My colleague Kent Lewis and I spoke at the Annual conference for the International Association of Business Communicators.

Our topic: Building brands and community via e-marketing

Date: Monday, 25 June
Time: 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
Track: Marketing & Brand

If you're trying to get your head around terms like search engine marketing, blogosphere, podcasting, RSS and social media, this is the session for you. This presentation will provide an overview of effective e-marketing strategies and tactics as well as case studies and helpful resources you can use to develop and implement your own e-marketing program.

In this session, you will learn:
The definition and proper applications of e-marketing
Effective e-marketing strategies and tactics
How do develop your own e-marketing program

There were roughly 1,100 people at the overall event and 250-ish at our session. There was a lot of great dialogue between us (the speakers) and the audience on the importance of the blogosphere and social networking. Search marketing and email marketing were known entities as must-haves in any marketing mix.

The debate around whether or not a blog is worth the effort reminded me of a worldwide Intel conference for employees 10 years ago when then Intel CEO Andy Grove said that every company would be a "web company" (meaning every company would have a website) within 5 years. Guess what - he was right. I think the same thing will happen with corporate blogs in the next 5 years. It is not a question of "if" - it's a question of when your company will support the 1 hour per week required for maintaining a good blog.

Here is our presentation if you didn't get a chance to see it at the event: (the file is a bit big, so I need to upload it to the server when I talk to my tech guys at the office - sorry about that).

Comments (0) | Posted by ryan at 3:27 PM | Permalink

eROI Awarded 15th Fastest Growing

June 26, 2007

Well we are very excited to end up 15th in the top 100 companies in the State of Oregon for Fastest Growing. I can only say thank you to all of the companies and people that have believed in us and honored us by allowing us to be their emarketing partners.

And of course a big hats off to the whole eROI team for the amount of work, drive and love they bring to the table each and every day (and many late nights).

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Ending the week on a high note and excited to crack the Top 10 next year for this award category. Who know what else might be on the horizon for us and our clients.

Thanks to everyone and come to the party July 20th at the eROI offices if you are in Portland, Oregon. We can celebrate together then. Until then... back to great ideas, great work, great partners/clients and the best team.

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Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 10:36 AM | Permalink

Inside eROI: A Startup Grows Up (Part 1)

June 23, 2007

Over the past three months, I met with all 34 employees in my company and asked them tough questions about the role work plays in their lives and ended up receiving more tough answers than I was prepared to hear. My e-marketing agency, eROI, is 4 ½ years old and has been growing fast and furious from the start. We've had growing pains and transition times before, but nothing like this. If you are a company owner or an employee of a growing startup who likes the company but are frustrated about aspects of it, then you will get a lot out of my learnings.

The following story is a transparent view into my company's transition with growth. The story starts with preparing for our four-day retreat in the snowy Cascade Mountains in sunny Central Oregon. All the preparation and internal discussions took place in Portland, Oregon six weeks before the actual retreat happened in late May. The goal of the retreat was to go through an internal branding discussion to get internal alignment on who we are as a company, as a brand, and where we want to take the company in the next year. However, the preparation work produced information that I was oblivious to.

Preparing for our Annual Company Retreat
In early April '07, I requested one-on-one meetings with all of my 34 employees. I asked them to answer in advance five questions in preparation for their meetings. The email that I sent out to the team requesting this was:

______________________________________________________________

From: Ryan Buchanan [mailto:ryan@eroi.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 3:00 PM
To: All Employees
Subject: fun + important exercise leading to Black Butte - personal branding + eROI

Team,
I know I talk to almost everyone a bit here and there on a daily basis, but I want to ask a few questions in one-on-one meetings with each individual person (you + me for 15 minute meetings next week) where your answers will remain anonymous. Collectively, your input will help inform a much larger branding discussion at Black Butte (all day Friday) around what eROI should be in the near future.

You don't have to answer these questions, but it's going to be a little awkward if you don't and we just stare at each other for 15 minutes. Please do NOT reply to all. You can prepare your answers and bring them to our meeting, or you can email them to me in advance.

Questions are:
1. What do you want out of your life (top 3-5 things) and how can eROI help you get there?
2. What do you want eROI to be - your personal perspective and how it impacts you? As a company? As a brand?
3. What gets you most fired up about what you do (for me, I enjoy creativity and innovation in what we do, and I also like our connection to the community and the positive impact we have on people, companies, and ultimately the world)? What is it personally for you?
4. What are your top 3 personal priorities (at either work or life - your choice)?
5. What do you think the top 3 priorities for your Department should be?
Bonus Question: How important is community service to you? If important, what 1 program should eROI get involved with?

I'll walk around now to schedule these 15min meetings next week w/ folks.
Thx,
Ryan

The day before I had my first set of one-on-one meetings, I started to hear from a couple vocal employees that they appreciated the email and had a lot to share with me. Something about how they said this made me a little nervous of what I was about to hear. My huge mistake, before this transition process started, was that I thought I was connected to the thoughts of each employee and each department by socializing frequently. Every other month, we treat the company to a "happy hour;" appetizers, pool, and a dozen or more fun gifts to team-players and individuals who really go above and beyond their job. Everyone has a blast and gets along together in social settings. Additionally, we have a fun, edgy annual company party and our annual retreat where everyone socializes heavily as well. I also walk around the office several times a day and check in quickly with each department.

While socializing and walk-around managing are good techniques, I was clearly missing an equally important element - carving out formal, professional meetings with employees to create a more private, intimate setting to hear what they loved, hated, or most often what they were frustrated with (i.e. processes, projects, or misinterpreted communication with other employees).

Comments (2) | Posted by ryan at 10:14 PM | Permalink

I'm a lurker

June 19, 2007

I admit it... I'm what they call a lurker. I spend countless hours reading industry blogs and articles. I have more rss feeds than I could read in a lifetime and as the Creative Director of eROI, I build websites on a daily basis that rely on user-generated content. So the question is: Why is this my first blog entry?


Apparently I'm not alone. A recent study published by Forrester Research showed that many people my age (I just turned 30) fall into the lurker category. For those that don't know the term, a lurker is someone who reads content on the web without participating or adding content themselves. Based on this study, the majority of the creators and participants online fall within the 15-20 year old range. This isn't a huge surprise based on the success of sites like youtube and myspace, but what does this mean for the future of the web? With this level of adoption and acceptance of social media will virtual environments like Second Life really become a part of our culture? Will adults really interact within one another as if they are in a video game. I don't think it's so far fetched to think so.

Comments (0) | Posted by sam at 9:47 AM | Permalink

Webinar: Acquire an Eye for Email Design

June 13, 2007

On June 21st at 11am PST, Eyetools Inc. CEO and founder, Greg Edwards will join eROI's Dylan Boyd to speak about best practices in email design and how eye tracking studies can impact your design. You will be amazed at how eye tracking is so different from click tracking and what it can tell you about how lift your email campaign results and metrics.

Learn the ‘What to dos’ and the ‘What not to dos’ from these seasoned industry professionals. They’ll be looking at some before and after case studies to explore the difference even the smallest tweaks can make to the performance of your emails.

Register today for next week's event.

Comments (0) | Posted by dylan at 3:39 PM | Permalink

Blog Ads for EmailDays Blog?

June 12, 2007

I recently got an offer from an advertiser to pay for blog ads on this Blog. Here is the email I received:

"Hi,
I'm interested in buying an ad on (http://www.emaildays.com/ ) for a company who offers business email hosting. My budget is about $35. I know you probably don't do this a lot but I'd love to discuss it further if you're interested. Let me know what you think. Thanks so much."

OK - I know it is only $35, but it really got me asking a whole lot of questions:
1) What is the purpose of EmailDays.com?
2) Since the interactive world is in the advertising community in a larger sense, shouldn't I engage this prospective advertiser to learn more about how blog ads work from a practical standpoint?
3) Since I'm in the advertising community and see so much advertising, isn't it refreshing to have a blog (and read other blogs) that do NOT have advertising on them?
4) What would be my price that I'd start to entertain the blog ad discussion a lot quicker - $350, $3500?

What would your price be? What are your thoughts on blog ads? Please comment and continue the dialog!

Comments (1) | Posted by ryan at 7:58 AM | Permalink

Email proves itself

June 11, 2007

A recent study from DMA shows just how critical an element email is when it comes to successful direct marketing campaigns. While the study’s main focus is to show that the lines of direct marketing and brand marketing have blurred through multi-channel campaigns, the study’s statistics point to the predominance of email – and web in these campaigns. It is email’s ability to personalize and track and motivate with clear calls to action that makes it a key ingredient. By Integrating and coordinating across multiple channels, marketers can create cohesive brand messaging that can lead to powerful brand experiences.

How does email fit in? In a fully integrated campaign email is an element that can breathe “interactive life” into 2 dimensional print campaigns. Direct mail and print advertising should no longer be stand alone elements. Email and web can be coordinated with traditional marketing efforts to dynamically drive messaging. Even more, email opens the lines of communication with your audience allowing them to respond, participate and own your brand. This leads to a better understanding of your audience and your brand, which will improve messaging, targeting and personalization. Check out the study to see how email is influencing today's best direct marketing tactics and principles.

Comments (0) | Posted by maureen at 10:03 PM | Permalink

RSVP to eROI Idol Party: Unleash the Superstar from Within

June 6, 2007

Here is the email that went out to our special invite list and now to the brave RSS subscribers and blog visitors. Don't forget to RSVP at www.eroi.com/party!

Just a few highlights from the landing page:
"eROI Idol 2007 is going to be the best party you go to all year. Here is why:
--Summer cocktails, ice luge, microbrews, wine
--Local celebrity judges
--Your chance to be a star & win a huge prize package
--Appetizers by Andina Restaurant
--DJ Masagatani & DJ Anton"

See you there!

Comments (0) | Posted by ryan at 10:30 PM | Permalink