Social Media Agency uses Social Media to Promote Itself

How do you find Digital talent in an area of the country that is anything but a marketing hot spot? Don’t get me wrong Blacksburg, VA is a great college town, especially, if you’re a Hokies fan, but Digital Agency Mecca? Ah, no.

Where does a new fast growing Digital agency recruit that kind of talent? Well, being based in Virginia you go to the closest talent markets…Richmond, VA for creative folks (home of the Martin Agency…Gieco Caveman and Gecko, fame) and to Northern Virginia (NoVA) for Web Developers, Account Managers, etc.

But how do you get them interested in a small, relatively new agency in the middle of nowhere that specializes in social media? Simple, apply what you know… social media. Modea, a growing digital agency in southwest Virginia took a dose of its own medicine and pulled off a subtle but effective effort.

Recently and by accident, we picked up a couple of blog posts that made it into the mainstream media written by Modea employees. The first blog post, written by a recent grad, appeared in Ad Age on 4/13. The article, cleverly written, describes the author’s interview process/courting process with Modea and gave tips for other recent graduates looking for a job in this challenge environment…it also conveniently mentions the firm, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

It describes how she started her search on VCU’s BrandCenter Facebook page (recruiting Richmond talent). She points out that she had reservations about moving to Blacksburg. And, of course she subtlety gets in the plug for the agency…

"Modea is neither an agency nor a think tank. It is an idea-churning society."



Original? Not really, we found the exact quote in a photo of the Modea offices on their Facebook page. It was printed on a piece of paper and taped to conference room wall. Looks like she's "on brand."

The second ad/blog post was written by a Web Application Developer at Modea and appears on Handshake 2.0. This post is aimed at the NoVA crowd. Again, cleverly written as a blog post, it describes the experience of another recent hire that left Northern Virginia for the hills of Southwest Virginia.

He starts his story with the fact that he recently transplanted his family from NoVA to Blacksburg…”to take advantage of an amazing job opportunity.” Ah, there it is…the plug.

The author goes on to talk about his pipes bursting while he had the house on the market during a “bitter cold stretch.” He posted a Twitter status update that he was in "good hands with Allstate" and how quickly they responded to his post.

Through telling of his ordeal he also convenient slips in his initial skepticism about Twitter but now how it’s the greatest thing since Web 1.0.

"Here is a brand and a company that, in my opinion, gets it. Here is a visible, public social medium where people are sharing publicly their views and thoughts on anything and everything in their lives. Communities are sharing their experiences and current state of consciousness. Consumers are expressing opinions, both positive and negative, about the world around them and how they interact with it. It would be a missed opportunity for any brand to ignore this medium. Listening and being aware of what is being said about their brand, allows them to, in some cases, actually do something positive and nurturing about it”.

Now I'm not exactly sure what ol’ Mr. Web Application Developers job is at Modea but I’d be willing to bet it has something to do with helping clients with their Twitter strategy.

Anyway, with all this being said I have to take my digital hat off to these guys. Two things could explain this bloggin coincidence and both of them are good.

The first is that this is a well thought out Social Media campaign (which yes, happens to be one of the services that Modea offers). The second is it’s a case of passionate employees who are raging advocates applying their craft to spread the good word about a company they love (or perhaps there’s a big employee referral bonus). Either way…well done, Modea! You’re best in class either way.

Author’s note – I have no connection to Modea. I’m not being paid to endorse their services, I have no stake in the company, I’m not even a client…just a fan…or am I? Now, let’s see if they are as good as I think they are…how long before they pick this up and respond?

Digital Insurance Agents - The Future is Now

We just finished research on the independent agent channel in the insurance industry. Here are some interesting highlights:

• The independent agent channel is responsible for nearly 95% of small and middle market insurance, which contributes 72% of revenues to carriers, according to the Independent Agents of America 2008 Agent Universe Study.


• The average age of an insurance professional is 54, and 60% of insurance professionals are older than 45, according to the same study. With 60% of the industry’s professionals set to retire in the coming years, the profile of the insurance agent and his/her customer is about to change drastically.


• Will the industry and its traditional, stodgy image be able to attract the necessary talent it needs to replace its most productive agents? Unfortunately, as our research indicates, it typically takes 3 years for a new agent to become productive, and over 2/3 of new agents fail.
• This means that with roughly 160,000 independent agents in the market today, agencies would need to hire 30,000 new agents annually to account for the productivity lost by retiring agents.

This is industry is about to undergo a major shift in how it does business. The learn more see the following links.

• To read more on the topic download the Executive Brief on the research


• Register for the May 7th Webcast on the topic

Here's the funny part: after we completed the research and shared the Executive Brief with others in the firm they said the same trend is ocurring in other industries, for example, in Hi-Tech business partners (in particular, VAR's) are aging at a similar rate and at least half are looking to retire over the next 5-10 years. Stay tuned for more on the "greying" of the channel to come.

VODcast: Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

I recently sat down with Andy Hasselwander, the head of our Marketing Science group, to discuss how companies can improve the effectiveness of their marketing measurement efforts. In the video Andy lays out a simple 5 step plan that I think most companies can implement. Also, check out Andy's Blog for more informaton on Marketing Measurement and Analytics.

The Price/Value Equation and The $1 Razor

A few weeks ago, my wife and I got a chance to get away for the weekend. On our way to the hotel I realized that I had forgotten to pack a razor. We were passing a shopping center at the time so we pulled in and spotted a Dollar General store.  I went in and bought a $1 pack of razors. A commodity product, down economy, it was necessity, so I figured it was a good decision until…I used it.

The only way I can describe the experience is to say that I couldn’t tell if the razor had a blade on it until it sunk deeply into my skin. It skipped over some parts of my face and dug in on other areas. I had nicks and cuts everywhere; I looked like a school boy after his first shave. The lesson I took from this is that sometimes you have to feel the pain to understand and/or appreciate the value of quality.

From what I have observed lately, companies are starting to, or will come to this same realization soon. We’ve all cut back to weather the economic storm. Are companies doing a much better job at managing costs now? Absolutely. Have they finally made the cuts they should have made a year ago? Yep. Have they perhaps gone too far with some of their cost cutting? We’ll see.

What’s important to remember about this economic downturn is that it started in 2007. It’s only gotten dramatically worse in the past six months, but many companies started cutting back long before the “crisis” hit. As a result, three or four rounds of adjusting cost to meet declining revenues have already occured. The fat got cut a long time ago. They cut into the muscle around mid-year last year and now are cutting into the bone in many industries.

If you’re a vendor or service provider like us, you may have experienced this first hand. But hang in there, I believe that companies will return to quality providers. It’s only a matter of time before the results of the “nicks” and “cuts” really begin to hurt. Each company has a different tolerance for pain, but when, for example, the "cost saving" decision to change your outsourced customer service provider leads to rising customer attrition and declining service levels, those “cuts” will begin to sting. When this happens, and customers can see recovery on the horizon, they will come back to quality.

The question you need to ask yourself is; has your organization created the $1 razor? With all the cost cutting, is your product/service at the same quality level and/or can you deliver the same customer experience. When customers do return…so do their expectations.

Be careful, during an economic downturn the price/value equation can become unbalanced. Like many companies, you’ve probably created a lower cost, stripped down model, hoping to gain or hang on to market share. If customers return with smaller budgets, will they adjust their expectations of value as well? Should they expect less? Probably, but will they? Not unless you manage their expectations.

Adjustments will have to be made, and it will not be a smooth shave. You may already have the “nicks” to prove it but don't let your customers end up feeling the pain.

Why Sales Channels and Marketing Campaigns Fail…A True Story

In August 1999, Selling Power magazine ran an article featuring our firm and the work we’ve done helping clients, like IBM, build new sales channels and increase sales productivity. A few months later, we received a call from the head of a division within NCR asking us to meet with them to see if we could help them with something similar.

The senior executive with whom we met said if we could help IBM we should be able to do this project for them. Excited about the prospect of helping them build a new channel, we agreed and they laid out the challenge.

1. A well-known consulting firm had been previously engaged but had failed
2. ...which left only 41 working days to get the new sales channel up and running
3. An internal NCR tele organization was competing for this…which, we would later learn, tried to sabotage the effort...and us
4. And finally, we were entering the holiday season…good luck

After collecting the previous project work we quickly went to work on assessing what had gone wrong. It took us a while, but we finally discovered "IT". Once found, this insight became the key to unlocking success. Almost ten years later I’ve seen this scenario play out over and over in B2B companies. The following is what we discovered;

This simple equation is just as true today as it was a decade ago when we discovered it. Oh, you may find one or two exceptions but the majority of the time when we do post mordems on failed programs you find this equation at the heart of the problem. When combined with a few related pieces, like a lack of time in the market and/or funding, the initiative is doomed. The degree of “newness” in these three areas will directly impact the likelihood of success or failure.

NEWness kills campaigns and channels because it takes too long, is too expensive and/or is too risky. Here’s why -- customers/prospects have to go through the buying process…Learn, Shop and Buy. They have to become aware of your product/brand/solution, then understand how it fits their need (known or unknown), then assess how you compare to others in the market, how to buy, etc. By the time you get a customer/prospect to do this..bam...the company runs out of patience and pulls the plug.

Sales Channels

• Why they fail – new sales channels fail because companies aim new channels at the wrong targets -- new customers/markets. An investment in a new sales channel means that it is competing with existing channels for funding. If it does not hit expectations/goals quickly, it will be robbed of the necessary funding and/or resources needed to make it successful.


• How to improve the chances for success - The most successful way to build a new sale channel is to do exactly the opposite of what is described above. Shift coverage of existing customers or products to the new channel and use your existing channels to go after the “new.” Shift dormant or flat growth customers to the new channel to give it revenue immediately and free up your existing most knowledgeable, best trained sales folks to go after new.
  
  Pitney Bowes has a great program run by their Marketing Sciences group that constantly monitors account activities. Regional sales managers receive a monthly report of Accounts that have not grown within a certain time period, and as a result, they will be shifted to an inside account manager. We like to call it “shift” and “lift.”

Marketing Campaigns

• Why they fail – new marketing campaigns promoting new products aimed at new customers typically fail because of reasons listed above...they take too long to produce and/or aren't given the time. Here’s another common problem, agencies will tell you the problem is the "creative" or "value prop"...maybe, but they also could telling you this because they make money on creative and production. “New” works with their business model. More likely, if you did your segmentation right, aligned a solid value prop and offer, your problem is that the campaign has had a chance to work yet…don’t pull the plug. Remember customers have to go through the "learn...shop...buy process and it takes time.
  
• How to improve the chances for success – build less individual campaigns and invest more in one or two long term programs with many integrated tactics. Keep the programs in the market longer, closely monitor them and modify tactics based on performance. You don’t need a new campaign every month, you need a program that produces…and with tight budgets this will help you be cost effective/efficient.
  
  Years ago we did an assessment of campaign performance at IBM. We found that the highest performing campaigns had at least 7 integrated tactics and stayed in the market for at least 6 months. Use this as a starting point to design your campaigns and programs.

Keep in mind that the “Recipe” should be thought of as a “guideline” and not as a hard and fast rule. It’s kind of like playing the six degrees of Kevin Bacon ; “How can I connect, or create a connection, from a product to a target? How can I minimize the separation between the three key areas; channels, customers and products?” If you’re still stuck, here are some additional tips;

• New to New thru New = level set expectations and invest for the long haul. You will need time and commitment to make it successful. Companies have short term horizons that are getting shorter every day. If you’re going to lead this effort get everyone to agree on what defines success and stick with your timeline.


• New Product/Service/Solution – try to leverage existing channels, customers or both to start...then migrate to new. This way you can learn if you have the right value prop, messaging, pricing, etc. We like to take existing reps, for example, and use them to help launch a new sales channel, like Tele. We like to use existing customers to test new products, etc.

For example, at NCR, we got the tele channel up and running in 41 days. We transitioned existing field account managers to TeleAccount managers and built their territories around their customers. We then began to backfill them with new lower cost resources over time. You'll be happy to now that the manager of the group that tried to sabotage the effort got fired. The program hit our first year sales targets, reduced the expense to revenue ratio from 13% to 6% and grew sales productivity from $1.7M to $3.1M per rep. As a result, NCR then built a full scale tele channel with close to 80 reps. Interesting sidebar, the program was shut down a few years later.

It's a long story as to why, but I'll try to summarize. John Patterson, who bought the company that would become National Cash Register (NCR) in 1884 tried to sell the company back after he learned the hard way that no one saw the need for his new technology. So he developed what is viewed as the first modern concepts on sales territories, sales compensation plans, sales training, etc. Bottom line, the company has a strong field sales tradition and culture.

Mark Hurd, now CEO of HP, became the CEO of NCR a couple of years later and decided to shut the channel down, redirecting the resources to the field. Remember my comment about competing for resources…Mark’s a traditionalist...a FTF sales fan.

Culture runs deep, and can also kill channels and programs. Mabye I should update the "Recipe" to include the forth "New"...new leadership. As I said, the "Recipe” should be thought of as a “guideline” and not as a hard and fast rule.