Article from eMarketer: Word of Mouth Marketing Best Practices

I just read a great article on eMarketer, featuring Aliza Freud, CEO of SheSpeaks.
It discusses the latest research (Feb 2007 / July 2006) on their marketing research and how word of mouth works in the online environment.

It gave statistics for male and female internet users biggest influences when deciding on a product. Interestingly, the top 3 purchasing influences for men and women were:

#1 : Recommendation of a Friend = male 92% / female 95%
This could be verbal or online- though a social networking, online forums and message boards, ect
#2 : Magazine Ads = male - 70% /female - 75%
#3 : TV Ads = male -69% / female - 74%

How they measured effectiveness of word of mouth / organic recommendations, were through looking at such factors as:
1) member self reporting
2) forwarding of e-mails or special offers from clients to member's friends
3) promo redemption
4) link click through

I always love it when they give information on average return rates, and Freud shared within this article, that the average buzz companies average 3-4 recommendations per person, but that their company has generated as much as 6 - 7 recommendations per person.

A major factor that contributes to how often recommendations are forwared are heavily based on the person's percieved value of a promotion within the marketing vehicle (ex. e-mail)

Things to consider when evaluating the value of a direct print campaign:

I love checklists - they keep me organized and I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I check something off.

And since I am sure I am not the only marketer out there that likes this sort of thing, I thought it would be fun to share my list of things I would consider when evaluating a pre-direct mail plan (and some post mortem items to consider too).

~ Your Market Segment and the most effective marketing tool to reach them
~ Size of your prospect market
~ Your Marketing budget
~ Design costs (In house or outside vendor / ad agency?)
~ Print costs
~ Database clean-up and prep costs
~ Postal rates and discounts, direct mail piece versus a corporate catalog have very different rates
~ Total program cost and what will it cost you per-piece cost before distribution
~ Response rate - for direct mail average response rates average .5 to 2% response rate
~ Conversion rate -This is taking the number of people who respond to the direct mail and who actually make a purchase
~ $$ generated per sale = your return on investment
~ Cost per sale - this helps with the post mortem and also contributes to the ROI story

How you decorate your office cube, says a lot about you

You spend over 2000+ hours in your office a year.
Let's face it, until you retire, win the lottery, run off an join a Buddhist monastery or maybe the circus, that is a long time to be staring at pre-fabricated walls. Luckily, there is something you can do about increasing the comfort level in the time spend at the office, through thoughtful decor.

There are a lot of reasons people have no decor, or very little decor in their office space.
You might have been a repeat victim of the Silicon Valley bust, and have lost your confidence in job security - usually these people, if they do have any decor, it can easily be carried out in small one box.
Another option is you are a type A neat freak, and can't stand any clutter whatsoever, as it might mess up your neat stacks or folders of projects, (listed in order of priority and alphabetically)
Or you simply have no priority or interest in making your office personalized.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have seen some cubes so decked out with decor that you can't seen the walls and their office space looks more like a Lego museum, than some place you would actually sit down and work. Or they have so many plants in their cube, you secretly wonder if they should have actually been a botanist instead.

I am more of the in between sort. I enjoy some decoration around me. They are nice visual distractions if my eyes need a break from staring at the computer screen for long periods. My favorite decor can range from whimsy or to zen. The right decor can offer a de-stress factor as well. A rubber ducky on your desk, can remind you not to take things to seriously. A mini zen sand garden can allow you to take a minute to rake a flowing peaceful design, reminding you to calm. A plant is not only is attractive, but it offers up fresh oxygen in a world of office recirculated ventilation. At eBay, they encourage all of the employees to decorate their cube based on their eBay collections - the options are endless.

You do need to put some thought into your decor, as you don't want to give your co-workers the wrong impression. One time when I was working at computer company in Sunnyvale, I noticed that one of my co-workers had a whip in her office. You can imagine what kind of message this said about them. So remember, just like the clothes you wear, and the things you say represent you, so does your cube decor (and even the lack of decor says things about you as well!).

So here are some links for you to check out to help you get ideas to decorate your cube and make it all you.


Cutsie desk toys:
Solar powered head bopping characters or dancing flowers
Japanese solar desk characters

Action Figures, Rubber Duckies, to the absolute weird
Smoking Ceramic Baby or a Corn Dog Air Freshener anyone?
McPhee.com

Office supplies with a feminine and urban flair
See Jane Work

Book with 20 ideas to transform your work cube
garden theme, ski lodge, safari, CEO and more
Take Your Office Space from Drab to Fab! By Kelley L. Moore

Your co-worker away on a two week vacation and you think their office needs a little sprucing up? Here are some hilarious ideas that other have done to help "decorate" their co-worker's cube.
http://cubejinx.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyleandkelly/sets/491220/show/
http://www.insanitech.com/wool/

Some unusual ideas for Premiums at your company sponsored event or for a Tradeshow

When you walk over to a booth at just about any trade show you get the standard, booth decor, demos running on computers, bowls of treats, brochures and other collateral, and of course some kind of premium (see my other blog post about redundant premiums).

So I thought I would look out there to see what other kinds of premiums that are out there that have an interesting twist to them. There are some very creative, crazy and weird ideas out there, but all worthwhile to consider if it helps you blue sky a great idea for a premium for your event.

Rent an Oxygen bar and offer a free massage

Advantages:
+ Get the customer to stay longer at your booth
+ Give the customer a positive experience at your booth and a free plastic massage tool
+ Be perceived as ultra hip and future tech
+ Be a positive, relaxing and fun gathering place - an oasis in the intensity of the tradeshow
+ Reach innovators, youth driven market segments, and holistic health minded
+ Make your booth stand out from the rest

Disadvantages:
- Stick tubes in your nose to receive the oxygen
- Bad association of hospital stay with oxygen to the nose, if your product is health insurance
- People have short term memories and may not remember you provided a massage and free oxygen
- May not use the plastic massage tool - ever


Give away prizes every day of event

Advantages:
+ Great lead generator
+ Great database builder
+ Maximize your marketing dollar spend
By offering a few large prizes (company product, trip, gift card, invitation to an exclusive event, etc -) , it can actually be a cheaper marketing cost than if you were to purchase thousands of t-shirts or other premiums.
_ Reduce your cost to ship, store and organize all premiums at events

Disadvantages:
- If you don't select the correct prizes for your prize giveaway, it could be a bust
- Need bandwidth and proper format to follow up on all the leads - otherwise this will be a wasted effort



Overall: For any of these premiums to work, you have to make sure it matches your target audience and doesn't conflict with your marketing goals.

If you have had any premium ideas that have been highly effective, feel free to share with me what those are!