By Amanda Smith
December 7th, 2011
In today’s instant gratification society, we’re constantly encountering scenarios where we have to quickly and efficiently digest gobs of information. It flies at us from every corner of our Foursquare worlds.
As a B2B marketing communications agency, Canyon is constantly challenged to communicate complex products and services to our clients’ targets, so sometimes it’s important to quickly convey data and information visually.
Now more than ever, this is accomplished by developing infographics. It’s an easy way to present complex information or a process quickly and clearly. There are blogs dedicated to cool infographics and good infographics and Fast Company even has an infographic of the day.
The cool thing is they can even be interactive.
As we’re continually inundated with millions of communications, we need to find a way to make things easy to understand and for our audiences to comprehend. Next time you’re adding a sweet Gantt chart to that PowerPoint, think…is there a better way to help visualize and communicate this info?
Have you had success with an infographic? What’s your favorite infographic?
By Amanda Smith
October 21st, 2011
To set the record straight, this is not a personal ad.
A few weeks ago I happened upon a book review for Just My Type, a book that makes the complexities of typography simple for us amateurs to grasp. Needless to say, it’s on my list of books to tackle, but it got me thinking about it.
Working at a B2B advertising agency and hanging around creative types, you’re bound to get into philosophical discussions about typography. We all have fonts that we admire and abhor. However, there is a method to the madness, especially when it comes to selecting a font to further convey your business’ brand.
There is a brilliant article in Communication Arts (aka CA) on “How to Explain Why Typography Matters”, by Thomas Phinney. One of my favorite takes from the article is when Phinney likens typography to fashion. It’s all about trends, styles and getting that “look” you’re going for.
Here is the breakdown for font fashionistas:
- Paris runways = display typography (creating a memorable style)
- Everyday clothing = body text (communicating more subtly)
Fashion Font by Yvette Lang. Image courtesy of a212
See, fonts can be incredibly fashionable. Oh and you’ll be jazzed to know that Phinney’s article discusses the fact that more sophisticated research techniques are beginning to show how good typography affects a reader’s mood and even performance on other tasks.
Did the typography used for this blog make you smile? What’s your favorite font?
By Amanda Smith
August 12th, 2011
Did you know that Sunday, August 7th was Friendship Day? This is a holiday that was literally invented in 1919 by a greeting card company to sell cards (ahem…Joyce Hall of Hallmark).
Little did Joyce know that almost a century later the concept of “friendships” would be virtually re-defined. With the evolution of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) your friendships and B2B engagements take on a whole new meaning. Who would have ever imagined that you’d be friends with, fans of, or “like” a business?
This concept is becoming more and more critical in the B2B space. In fact, a recent study showed that people’s social opinions can influence business decisions. Plus in a recent B@B Magazine webinar I attended, the speaker, Rishi Dave from Dell, cited that B2B social communities are bigger than B2C communities. And B2B social communities actually drive leads, pipeline and thought leadership when implemented correctly and are embraced by the whole company.
News flash —some of your biggest social influencers are actually your company’s own employees. They can help work every step of the sales process and can help make B2B social communities successful, especially when an effective internal training model is adopted.
This got me thinking that the idea of a single Friendship Day is seriously antiquated — in today’s day and age, Friendship Day is everyday and everyone is an influencer.
Who are your favorite B2B “friends”?
By Amanda Smith
July 11th, 2011
This week Phoenix hosts the MLB All-Star Game 2011. Fans are flocking to downtown Phoenix from all over the country to check out the bevy of events. Players and fans alike will have a few new social media tools available to further enhance the experience.
- State Farm Home Run Derby – this year players are posting content live from the field via Facebook and Twitter. Fans can follow their favorite players and see things from their point of view.
- SmartPHX – an app (developed by Arizona State University students) that helps both visitors and locals connect to downtown Phoenix hotspots and events.
- MLB Commissioner Bud Selig ran his 11th Annual online Town Hall meeting to discuss the state of the game, with user-submitted questions through MLB.com.
Event based social media tools are becoming a popular way to engage with your audience. The same principle of creating meaningful experiences for your customers also applies in the B2B space. And BtoB Magazine has a great list to help marketers “Get your social community up and running” the bases.
Have you had any success integrating social media into marketing your event? Have any favorite apps the help you keep a pulse on your B2B customers and prospects?
MLB All-Star Game logo courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks and MLB.
By Amanda Smith
June 15th, 2011
Recently, I was reading an article from the Harvard Business Review about Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and couldn’t help but be reminded of, at a high level, what B2B marketers need to be thinking about and implement in order for e-mail marketing campaigns to be successful.
- Get specific – when setting goals for a campaign, you need to define specific and measurable goals. Check out a list of commonly tracked e-mail metrics (i.e. open rate of 20%, click-through rate of 12% delivery rate of 80%, etc.)
- Be realistic – establish reasonable goals that the campaign can achieve. Do your research on industry norms to help you better understand the basics of e-mail marketing.
- Act on the goals – after you set your goals you need to develop a plan to implement and create communications that will get you there.
- Know exactly how far you have left to go – set benchmarks, monitor communications and measure progress. The beauty of e-mail marketing is the tracking capability. Whether you’re using MailChimp, Google Analytics, Webtrends or a combination thereof, results can be easily tracked and analyzed.
- Focus on getting better – learn from every campaign you implement. You may have an opportunity to increase conversion rates by simply tweaking messaging, a subject line, offer or design elements.
- Have grit – determination and perseverance of executing your plan will pay off. Whether you’re campaign is under performing, meeting or exceeding goals, you’ll be able to learn from it to replicate or modify future campaigns.
- Build your willpower– this doesn’t directly correlate to marketing, but it is about controlling what you can. Be willing to troubleshoot issues along the way. Even the most well thought-out strategies do not always go according to plan.
- Don’t tempt fate – don’t take on too much at once. You don’t need to come out of the gates with a full-blown marketing automation and sales nurturing program. Start off with engaging content to gain followers/subscribers to start the relationship/conversation. However, make sure what you’re doing is scalable and makes sense for the future growth of your organization.
- Focus on what you will do – concentrate on achieving your goals and continually define what success looks like for your organization when it comes to email marketing.
Remember, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Hopefully none of this came as a complete surprise to you successful B2B marketers.
What is your best e-mail marketing success story?
image credit www.cheeplinux.com
