My main wish for 2012 is that it ends up being a better year than 2011 (although that is not a very high bar). In terms of marketing communications, I offer you my top ten lists of what I wish to see more and less of.

What I wish to see more of:

1. People/companies who know the difference between strategy and tactics and that you can’t substitute one for the other.
2. Easy-to-navigate websites that include REAL contact information and a comprehensive ABOUT page
3. Clever taglines that actually communicate a message (like Red Lobster’s “Sea Food Differently”)
4. Nonprofits that understand that marketing communications are an important part of their operations
5. People who use effect and affect correctly (AKA better copyediting)
6. Plain English
7. Thinking of social media as a tool (like advertising) and not as a substitute for marketing communications as a whole.
8. Companies and organizations that understand that the quality of their customer service will directly impact their marketing efforts.
9. Personalized LinkedIn invitations
10. Connecting IRL (in real life) with social media friends and followers

What I wish to see less of:

1. The search for the ROI of social media/Klout scores
2. Sexist language (using terms like man hours) and sexist advertising (yes, I am looking at you Budweiser and GoDaddy)
3. Grammatical mistakes and typos (perennial wish of mine)
4. Check-ins
5. The words utilize, monetize, incentivize; and clichéd/meaningless terms including low hanging fruit, sweet spot, pivot point.
6. Sending out too many enewsletters
7. LinkedIn profiles without a headshot
8. Blatant self promotion and re-tweeting of one’s own tweets/mentions
9. Overpriced and overhyped social media conferences
10. Life lessons and how to live advice from marketing/social media bloggers

What do you wish for in 2012?

It is inevitable that at the end of the year blogs, newscasts, newspapers and everybody else creates lists for their readers/viewers: best posts of the year, what’s in and what’s out, resolutions for 2012, trends, and so on. While some of these are interesting and even though-provoking, I challenge you to make your own list.

To make your own list, you will have to sit and reflect a bit. Here are some guiding questions:

• What worked the best for you in terms of marketing communications? (What got the most response, donors, etc.)
• What worked the least for you? (Where did you spend time/money with little or no return?)
• Did you create any partnerships? What worked best/least?
• Did you sponsor anything/anybody? What worked?
• Did you read any business/marketing books? Which provided the best/most actionable advice?
• What ads/commercials were memorable to you? Why?
• What peeved you the most?
• What did your competition do this year that you admired? That you thought was not so good?
• What people/organizations brought you the most value? (Perhaps your graphic designer or your printer…)

• What one marketing communications task that you accomplished this year was the most worthwhile (something like creating a brochure, redesigning a website, launching a blog, etc.)

In the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog, Pam Slim urges you to ask yourself four questions:

1. What did I learn?
2. What am I grateful for?
3. What will I stop doing?
4. What will I start doing?

Although Ms. Slim is looking at personal growth, I think these questions are valid to determine what your marcomm efforts will be in the new year. Looking through your lists will help you move forward in 2012. The last two questions are especially key. If you found that something you have been doing provides no return on investment, STOP doing it. Start doing something different!

Please share your responses or any questions that you ask yourself at year’s end.

Today, as most days, I was working out at the gym and observing those around me (the gym can get very boring).  There were some people working up quite a sweat, and there were those that were barely working. Some were older, some were younger. In short, there were all types. But three stood out to me:

The multi-tasker: Today, the multi-tasker was a woman using one of the ellipticals while responding to email and/or texts on her smart phone. She was so engaged with her phone that her legs were barely moving. Was she there to exercise or was she there to deal with work?

• The lesson: If you are distracted from your goal, you won’t get there. In marketing, you could be trying to do too many things at once and not succeeding in any of them.

The repeater: The repeater is the person who does the exact same exercise, at the same level of intensity, on the same machine. Always. In this case, I have seen this woman “run” at a very slow pace on the exact same machine, at the same time every single day. And guess what–her body is not changing (she is not even breaking a sweat).

• The lesson: If you do the same thing over and over without change you won’t be effective or see any change. For instance, some companies have always used a full page ad in the Sunday newspaper. And they have been doing that for years. It may produce some results but it will not expand your reach.

The guy wearing jeans at the gym: Have you seen these guys? They come in to the gym in their jeans (usually with belts too) and sometimes, with street shoes instead of sneakers. How are you going to run in jeans?

• The lesson: You have to dress appropriately for the occasion/venue. In marketing terms: you have to know what marketing vehicle is the right one for what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to target seniors, perhaps a spot on the evening news is the best way to go.

Have you seen these people at your gym?

Today, in my inbox, I had an email from an online bookseller with this subject line:

“Last day for FREE shipping in time for Christmas.”

I also had an email from an online drugstore, with this subject line:

“NOW OR NEVER: get $5 dollars off your order and free shipping.”

Although both emails have virtually the same message, the former is URGENT, the latter is THREATENING.

Threatening is telling me that unless I do something there will be consequences (in the drugstore’s case, no more free shipping or something). Urgent is telling me that I should act now because time is running out.

It is more effective to show your customers why they should act now instead of telling them that if they fail to act, they will suffer consequences. Don’t you agree?

If you have ever worked with large newspapers, you know there is a strong editorial stance against pay for play, meaning that no matter how much advertising a company provides the newspaper, the journalists/editors will not let that influence their reporting. This line is much more blurred in smaller, local newspapers, where sometimes, a good editorial piece will follow advertising or vice versa.

It is important to keep the line of separation between advertising and editorial so that readers can trust the newspaper is not being bought. Imagine that if in a political campaign a certain candidate bought a lot more advertising than the other, and then the editors endorsed said candidate. Wouldn’t that be questionable?

Which brings me to something I couldn’t quite believe that I saw today in the Washington Post. Thomas Heath wrote his Value Added column praising Total Wine, the Potomac, MD based mega liquour store. Heath writes that one of the ways Total Wine has grown is because of how one of the company’s founders studied law, so that he could use the knowledge to help change laws regarding liquour in states into which the company was trying to expand. On the opposite page to the column was a junior page ad for–you guessed it–Total Wine. Seriously.  (People who read the paper electronically would never see this…but that is another discussion.)

What is going on here? Heath or his editor tells the Total Wine people he is writing a positive piece about Total Wine, and Total Wine says, in that case we want to advertise, and can you place the ad right next to the column please? And the Post says sure-not a problem? Clearly, there was communication if not straight on hand shaking across advertising and editorial on this one, blurring the lines at the Washington Post. How do we know that Heath was not encouraged to write a positive column on the promise of Total Wine advertising? We don’t.

What do you think? Did the Post act appropriately? Would it have mattered if the ad was placed anywhere else in the paper?

If you are the type to make New Year’s resolutions, make one to be more effective in your marketing communications efforts.  Being effective–that is, actually successful in producing your intended result–should be the goal of all marketing communications.

How can you be more effective? There are several ways to make sure your communications meet their mark, but it probably starts with the basics:

• Do you know and understand your TARGET AUDIENCE?
• Do you know what your KEY MESSAGE is?Are you expressing it clearly and unambiguously?
• Are your properly TIMING your communications efforts?
• Do you know your USP (unique selling proposition)?
• Are you aware of who your COMPETITION and what they are doing?
• Have you gotten FEEDBACK from outside sources on your creative? Is it conveying the attributes you are trying to convey?
• Are you following a STRATEGY or are you just engaging in TACTICS?

What are your suggestions for being more effective? Please share in the comments.

You know this person right? The person who says “let’s get together soon” but never does anything to make it happen? Or worse, the person who says you should get together and when you follow up, s(he) actually rebuffs you/comes up with an excuse/doesn’t respond at all.

In marketing communications this person is the equivalent of the false brand promise or the product that does not perform as advertised(truth in advertising).

It is something to watch out for. If you are marketer–are you blithely promising to get together and then promptly forgetting your promise? That is, are you telling prospects that your product/service  is the most effective way to XXXX, but falling somewhat short?

You know what happens when you fail your brand promise? You lose customers, and you most likely won’t be able to get them back.

Recently, I attended a business event that was billed as a goal-setting workshop. It wasn’t. Not even close. Guess what? I am not going back to that group. Same thing happened a few months ago when I attended a local communications group event on the strategic use of video…except there was no mention of strategy whatsoever.

When you fail to do what you promise to do–whether in your marketing efforts or your personal outreach–you lose business (current or potential).

Instead of saying “let’s get together soon” say “how about we meet up for coffee on Monday at 2 pm.”

It’s been a week since I logged into my personal Facebook account. One week in which I haven’t “liked” anything or found out what my “friends” are busy doing in their lives.  And guess what? It’s been OK.

I decided to avoid Facebook this week because frankly, I am sick of the site.  Between the false feeling of connection to the inspirational quotes, location check-ins and general braggadocio, I am not sure which irritates me the most. And it is definitely not the point to be annoyed when you are on a website.

This week I have been on Twitter and LinkedIn. On these social networks I generally learn more than I ever do on Facebook. Twitter provides me with up-to-the-minute news, links to information I may have not seen and a way to chat with people in real-time. LinkedIn lets me see what people are doing professionally.

This leads me to social media marketing. If you are relying on just one social network like Facebook to do all your marketing communications, you may be putting all the proverbial eggs in one basket.  You should diversify. Yes, Facebook has a HUGE audience. But it is a POTENTIAL audience, not a measured, constant audience. People do not yet HAVE to go to Facebook every day. They may choose to, but they don’t need to go there to check mail or get their news.

I would still counsel you to use Facebook as part of your marketing mix. Because it is opt-in for people, you are communicating with those who are receptive to your message. That is truly valuable. Just don’t share inspirational quotes or you will lose me!

Your thoughts? How do you feel about Facebook?

I got a jar of apple butter on my doorstep the other day. It was from a local real estate agent who delivered this “gift” to everyone else in my townhouse community. He is also selling one of the houses in the community. It is not the first thing I get from him. I got a magnetic calendar earlier in the year, and a housing sales report too. But apple butter? Is that too much?

Can you do too much marketing? Some would argue that as long as you are getting customers/clients, there is probably not too much marketing.  True…but are you doing too much to get those customers/clients? In other words, are you spending more than you have to,  making each acquisition very costly?

There is no set formula to figure this out, unfortunately. And you have to accept that much of your marketing effort will be wasted, which is why it is important to figure out how much each client/customer is worth to you.

In this case, no amount of apple butter, postcards or calendars will get me to use the real estate agent. I already have a real estate agent, and that is who I will use if I ever need to sell this house or buy another.  I will grant that this amount of marketing is providing HUGE name recognition.  Is it promoting conversion? Not sure.

I believe that the more targeted your marketing is, the better chance you have of it being effective. In this case, the real estate agent is being geographically targeted, which may be the best he can do. His marketing may not work for me, but should he get one of my neighbors to use him, then perhaps he has achieved his objective.

When is it too much marketing? When it produces few if any results.  And you get there sometimes by trial and error. What do you think makes too much marketing?

How many times have you gone on to a website, and tried to find a phone number or a specific person to email and couldn’t? Have you ever gotten lost in a phone tree? Have you wanted to comment on a blog but had to jump through hoops?

If you have experienced any of these situations (and chances are you have, more than once), you are feeling exactly how difficult it can be to communicate with a company. Some companies and organizations make it especially hard to communicate because they don’t want to hear from you. Other companies and organizations are simply clueless.

Let me give you a specific example. I was a member of an organization, and my one-year membership expired. I got an email that went something like this:

Thank you for your support of the XXXX. Just a friendly reminder that your membership expired on XXX. Please contact us to renew your membership, or visit our website to renew online: <website link>

Your support will help us build upon our existing programs that speak directly to our mission of XXXX.

For questions about membership please contact XXX, Development Manager, at <email address>.

Thank you again for your continued support.

There is nothing WRONG with this email, per se. But it doesn’t make it easy for me to renew. Why?

• It only provides one way to contact a person–via email (no phone).
• It doesn’t tell me what my cost will be.
• The website link sends me a very slow loading page that a) is not a form; b) requires I have an account or create an account.

In many cases, businesses and organizations don’t test their communications channels to see the interaction and whether it is easy to use or navigate. Remember that people are pressed for time and will give up quite easily unless they are EXTREMELY motivated.

The easier you make it for people, the more business (or donations, renewals, exposure) you will have.

Are you making it easy for people to connect with you?