So you have gone through the process and set up a Twitter account, now what?

What do you talk (or Tweet) about? This is the situation that most people I know find themselves in after they get onto Twitter. Does anyone really care that you are eating a jelly doughnut and drinking coffee – probably not. And it is at this moment that you may think all of this Twitter frenzy is ridiculous and decide you want nothing to do with it. And if you do, that could be a huge mistake. You see, just like any other social environment, you need to determine what Twitter is to you, find your voice and start interacting.

Instead of thinking about Twitter as a highly restrictive email (or blogging) environment, think of it like the world’s largest cocktail party where you can listen in to as many conversations as you want to (following) and interject a view, opinion or something useless (status) at any time for others to listen to. But before you jump in (or out) too quickly, you need to decide how Twitter will exist in your world and what your voice will be.

For Example:
You could simply be the Mute – You could choose to follow a person, topic, whatever really and use a great tool like TweetDeck to monitor what people are saying in real-time. And real-time is the key here, you are listening to what is being said now, not an hour ago – because of this real-time nature of the dialogue, my wife told me about the Swine flu problem before the major media outlets reported on it. It is OK to just listen – this is a valid way to use Twitter to keep up on current opinions, etc…

You could be the Expert – You may choose to follow people related to an area of expertise that you have and inject comments, links, photo’s etc. related to that topic. Using Twitter like this allows you to monitor your subject area while voicing your opinion (or expertise) when appropriate and you actually add to the dialogue that is going on.

You could be the Socialite – You could tweet about the people you are hanging out with and actually use Twitter to expand your social network beyond the physical and actively interact with geographically diverse people in a simple, convenient way. Twitter becomes an extension of your social network and you may share “Getting coffee or Eating lunch” comments, but folks probably won’t mind. Considering Twitter was originally created to allow individuals to group text their friends with “What they were doing” so people could choose to participate or not – this use of Twitter is probably closest to the founders original idea for it.

You don’t have to adopt just one of these Voices, but by thinking about how you want to interact with Twitter (and the Twitter Community) before you get started will make you time with Twitter more rewarding and useful.

What are your thoughts?

While I’ve had a twitter account for some time (http://twitter.com/gramatr) I am going to try and provide more real-time updates and ideas as a supplement to full scale blog entries. Hopefully you find our expansion into real-time social media worthwhile.

Update: follow me on Twitter for information mobile marketing, direct / accountable marketing and highlights of all things digital.

How are you using Twitter?

In a September 16th article on DMNews.com entitled “The path to marketing nirvana is paved with integration” Blaine Mathieu discusses the need to integrate the tools used to manage & execute e-mail marketing, Web, PPC & other digital media campaigns. On the surface, I agree with Blaine’s observation that executional nirvana (aka ease of management) can be achieved by bringing the analysis and execution components of these varied online media together so informed, timely decisions can be made and actions taken.

My only issue is whether he has gone far enough with the affected media landscape – shouldn’t non-digital response oriented media be included in the integration? Aren’t we just re-defining the silo’s here? But more importantly – is real marketing nirvana going to be reached by executing a disjointed strategy via integrated tools or is it simply adding efficiency?

In my experience, a solidly integrated strategy executed via disjointed tools is more effective than a disjointed strategy executed via integrated tools (assuming that the tools are fully integrated across digital and traditional media). To that end, while I agree with the intent of Blaine’s article; I would submit that we as marketers still need to work hard on fully integrating digital media into our strategic fabric and use all appropriate media to achieve campaign objectives – rather than bolting on digital tactics to a non-integrated strategy or supplanting strategy with executional technology.

How close are you to marketing nirvana?

In Part 1, we covered why we need to more effectively engage our customers via email; outlined the three keys (Relevance, Action & Involvement) and discussed Key 1 – Relevance. In Part 2, we will cover how Action and Involvement complete the value provided by Relevance to create a sustainable two-way relationship with a prospect / customer.

2. Action

Educators know that learning is more effective when accompanied by additional stimuli, such as the use of physical manipulatives when reinforcing a math concept. Engaging an email subscriber is no different. We are not suggesting that you ask your subscribers to cut out objects or do jumping jacks while reading your email; but getting them to Act on something; a call to action, a link for further information, something that will engage them at a deeper level than the email & pray method that many follow. Another interesting tactic is the Refer-a-friend approach by including in your e-mail a section that reads, “If you are finding this e-mail helpful, click here to refer-a-friend;” if done properly, your subscribers become more than readers, they become advocates. By providing value beyond the 4 corners of your email message alone elevates your communication from a mere one sided conversation to a supportive resource on topics important to both you and your subscriber and through the appropriate use of external links, you motivate your subscribers to keep opening your e-mail time after time as they expect to find value with each message.

3. Involvement

As illustrated in the first two keys, it is tremendously valuable to present relevant information and be viewed as a resource to your subscribers; in this next key, we increase our value but relinquish control as we encourage our subscribers to become involved (not just with us) but with each other. Opinion polls, message forums, blogs & online communities are means by which we can encourage peer-to-peer involvement. If we want to engage our subscribers but are concerned about directing the involvement; opinion polls and message forums can be a great first step since polls allow you to draft the question and potential answers while message forums allow directed topic areas and comment moderation. The next two involvement areas (blogs & online communities) present bigger challenges and rewards since in a true exchange of ideas, the blog writers and community managers control both the categories and conversation completely outside of your control. These rules of engagement are new for most and you must realize that you cannot control what is said (even if it makes you uncomfortable). The payoff for encouraging this type of involvement can be great – access to honest assessments of your products / services and insight into how vocal advocates within your target community think and act.

If you want to get a better idea of what is going on in your target market in order to decide where to get involved, you could A) conduct a web search (which would provide more information than most can process) or B) use a tool like Google Alerts to get a daily or weekly view into current web and blog activity related to targeted terms – helping you identify the active sites / blogs in your space.

By utilizing these three keys to consistently engage your customers, your e-mail programs will become a relevant resource that your subscribers find value in and ultimately contribute to the development of the community at large.

Companies are always looking for better ways to leverage the Internet to both acquire and retain customers. Email communications have become a staple in Internet marketing, and for good reason; they are inexpensive to deliver, customizable and user activities are highly track-able. But is your content and communications strategy meeting the Web 2.0 expectations of your constituents? Many think that most significant factors in an effective email campaign are compiling subscribers and ensuring the email content reflect your brand image. Your email communications can be much more than an update correspondence or pure sales pitch. You can use deliberate (and valuable) communications to develop an active participatory relationship that gets your customer engaged with your brand, website, and product, resulting in a loyal and active customers. To successfully do this, you should keep these three important keys to success in mind: 1. Relevance, 2. Action, and 3. Involvement.

1. Relevance

No matter how important your service may be to your customers, no one wants to be blatantly solicited or pandered to on a regular basis. Provide your readers with relevant information that they can use covering topics both directly and tangentially associated with your product / service and the period(s) in which they connect with you.

For example, companies that have committed to regular email communications tend to “deliver” content on their schedule. January, Feb, March content etc. This may make planning the email program more manageable, but does little to target content at the consideration, activation or use phases a customer has with you product / service. By mapping event-trigger opportunities in the consideration, activation and use of your product a customized email communications plan and content can be developed that addresses the specific needs / concerns of your audience in an appropriate way at the appropriate time. Beyond the planning for this interaction, write content that addresses direct and indirect issues that your customer is facing at these individual trigger points and offer “real” value to them. Additionally find ways to leverage the power of most modern email campaign management systems to integrate calendar based content into your trigger campaign to promote the feeling of both situational and seasonal relevance.

Part 2 will cover how Action and Involvement complete the value provided by relevance to create sustainable two-way relationships with your prospects / customers via online tools.

The average Internet user receives over 80 email messages per day. As these numbers continue to grow, even non-spam email risks getting lost in the clutter. Stand out out and stay engaged with your customers by making your email something they look forward to and find value in. The key to success is in delivering content that is relevant to the needs and interests of each customer individually and not “talking at them” with boilerplate emails.

The availability of easy to use email campaign management tools has enabled more organizations to communicate with their customers directly. The desire to communicate with customers is good , however too many companies believe that merely inserting a customer’s name into a monthly broadcast email qualifies as personalized email. Personalization must go beyond customer names and email is uniquely suited to deliver content that is both relevant to the customer and time-appropriate for them. Moving one step further, for high-ticket or recurring purchase products (or services) email can be used to “nurture” and cultivate customer relationships over time.

Once you determine that your email program would benefit from a “nurturing” strategy, the next logical question is how do you do it? Following are the three critical steps to developing a successful email-nurturing program.

Step 1: Establish a nurturing program objective. First, determine whether the program is establishing a prospect relationship for a future sale or trying to build or retain an existing relationship. Next, determine a specific objective such as a specific number of leads, a percent reduction in defection, or a dollarincrease in LTV (or a specific time increase in duration.)

Step 2: Establish a nurturing development timeline. Once the objective is identified, list the critical customer milestones that both positively and negatively impact your ability to achieve the program objective. Construct an event-trigger based timeline schedule that supports the program objectives. It is during this step that you determine offers that will affect behavior.

Step 3: Develop an email program editorial calendar and content. Building upon the event timeline in Step 2, construct an editorial calendar that supports the development objectives of each contact while maintaining a compelling editorial arc that provides both company generated and third party content. During this step, determine whether you will provide all content in the body of the email or provide content snippets that drive the user back to your website for additional information. Copywriting (or just say “copy tone”) tone, consistency, relevance and quality will have a significant impact on the email’s value to your customer over time – so be sure you engage quality copywriting talent.

If you follow these three steps, you will be prepared to elevate your customer email program from one that talks at your customers to one that nurtures them along a development path designed with their needs in mind and delivering improved campaign performance and higher relevance in their inbox of growing clutter.