March 16, 2009

Dale Carnegie Training Board Member, Jack Rivkin, was on CNBC  this morning and he proudly displayed the Dale Carnegie Tagline We Refuse to Engage in a Recession button on TV

Click on the image below to watch the video clip

My favorite part of the day is the time I spend on reading customer feedback from our email marketing program! We have a link in our emails: “Tell us what you think!” And we get hundreds of feedback every week.

Many customers told us they loved the articles and tips in our emails as they were extremely valuable advice. Some shared their personal stories, in great details, on how they applied our principles and got excellent results. Some told they they had forwarded our emails to their teams, or had made discussion around our emails a regular topic in their team meetings. I believe this kind of affirmation and appreciation is one of the biggest rewards marketers can ever get!

In addition to reviewing qualitative feedback from customers, we also conduct quantitative analyses on the performance of each email and across emails: open rate, click rate, conversion rate, number of forwards, number of unsubscribes, etc. All results point to the same conclusion – our email marketing program is indeed playing an important role in deepening customer relationships and even generating sales.

Here are some of our lessons learned:

1. Don’t just sell, sell, sell. We want to make sure we have a balanced combination between promotional pieces and value-added editorial content. This way, we are truly building relationships with our customers and prospects, and they WANT to hear more from us. When the timing is right, they will buy!

2. Test and learn. Every week, we review our email performance and we constantly modify our content and design to see if we can increase response. Yes, it is a lot of work, and we are always “tempted” to leave it as is. When something isn’t broken, why try to fix it? BUT we also know with email marketing, we CAN constantly optimize and do even better! So we have to remind ourselves to have the discipline to keep analyzing, testing, learning, and optimizing.

3. Work closely with the subject matter experts. Like many companies, the Marketing Team at Dale Carnegie is given the responsibility to run the email marketing program. But we do need support from the Product Team in order to get the best content to feature in each email. Cross-team collaboration is always easier said than done as people in different teams obviously have different priorities and schedules. What we have done right, I believe, is that we have gotten the Product Team’s buy-in early on: this is NOT a Marketing Team’s program that the Product Team is obliged to contribute to. Instead, this is a Dale Carnegie program that will benefit customers, prospects, and the organization as a whole, and the Product Team is a critical player to the program’s success!

Share with us how your email marketing program is working for you – and your customers!

I recently hosted a number of customer webinars on how to use linkedin.com to deepen relationships with existing clients, generate business leads, and get referrals. (Dale Carnegie is not associated with linkedin.com – I created the webinar content from my own experience as a user of linkedin.com.) We got hundreds of people signed-up for each webinar – people ARE indeed interested in learning how to use social media to grow their business. Among the registrants, most of them are “newbies” or casual users of social media sites, which seems to reflect the general usage level of social media among business executives.

What I found most interesting is the feedback I got – people were amazed about the marketing power of social media! Many webinar participants looked me up on linkedin.com to connect with me. Others emailed me and told me they were committed to learning and using more of various social media. Some even shared success stories with me! These are all real, business professionals who are serious about growing their business.

According to a 2008 Epsilon Study, only 10% of Chief Marketing Officers have social media incorporated into their marketing strategy.  Yes, social media is still something new to most people in the business world. People are naturally “afraid” of anything new. But with the global economic crisis plaguing most businesses, people are almost “forced” to take a more pro-active approach in marketing, sales, and customer service.

Here are a few things on linkedin.com, among the many, that I have recommended people to try:

1. Create a group for your organization. You can engage your group members in discussions relevant to THEIR needs and YOUR service, deepen your relationships, and show your value-add. Moreover, you will have your group members’ email addresses, so you can ask for their permission to add them to your own marketing list.

2. Participate in the “My Answers” section. See what questions people have posted in your area of expertise – and answer them! If your answers are selected as the “best answers,” you will be shown as an EXPERT and get added exposure. Also, by answering questions of potential customers about their very specific business needs, you have practically established a relationship and have taken an effective first step of your sales process.

3. Ask your connections to “introduce” you to other people in the organization – using the linkedin.com introduction wizard. This is a common practice on linkedin.com and is a great way of getting referrals.

Social media is not THE solution to today’s business challenges, but it can probably complement and supplement most organizations’ existing sales and marketing efforts. Do share with us how YOU are using social media to grow YOUR business!