actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

As we move into March and towards the close of the first quarter, I hope you’re getting your 2017 plans on track.

When I ran the marketing for 6 product lines at Bertelsmann, the end of a quarter was always a tense time since it meant that management would try to balance its budget and forecast.

Even if my product lines were performing above budget and above the prior year, I still might have to find ways to increase revenues to compensate for other areas that were under-performing.

Here’s the thing, no matter how good a marketer you are, there will always be stuff that’s beyond your control. My poorest performing promotions at Bertelsmann were always due to issues outside my power.

As a result, I learned to always have an extra promotion or two which I didn’t put in my budget to use at the last minute to increase sales. 

This is why my synagogue’s recent auction is worth discussing.

Like many not-for-profits, my synagogue needed to raise money. So they held an auction this month. In true New York City spirit, they created a tagline: “Auction to Action: The difference is U.”

Bear with me—this is really a marketing lesson since you can apply their process to your organization.

Members of the community were asked to make donations. Specifically, the request focused on experiences, not just stuff you didn’t want any longer.

This forced members to be creative with their offerings. And they responded with an amazing array of options: People offered weekends at their country homes, well-known people offered lunches, and professionals offered their services. Of course there were unusual objects offered as well.

Bidding started two weeks before the live event via an online auction site.

The live auction was a community celebration that took place on Wednesday, March 1^st. To increase proceeds, attendees purchased admission tickets. 

While the auction succeeded in getting a lot of the members involved and raising a significant amount of money, not all of the items were sold. So they created a “Second Chance Auction”. This allowed the synagogue to try to sell the unsold offerings with little extra work beyond the initial promotion.

Actionable Marketing Lessons:

• Brainstorm ways to enhance your products. Don’t sell plain vanilla products offer experiences like the auction. This idea is at the heart of content marketing. But don’t stop there. Consider adding shopping assistance or training.
  
  
• Plan your marketing promotions. Give prospects a reason to shop at different times. How about a special sneak preview for your best customers or a pre-work breakfast and shopping?
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• Create a second chance promotion. Before you rush to discount product, brainstorm how you can give it a second chance to shine.

I’m getting ready for my blogging workshop at Social Media Marketing World 2017. I’m deep into every thing blog-related.

If you’re attending Social Media Marketing World live, please respond to this email. I’d love to meet you IRL.

If your budget doesn’t allow it, perhaps you’ll consider the virtual version.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

​​​​​​​Join me at Social Media Marketing World 2017—the mega-conference designed to inspire and empower you—by Social Media Examiner.

Discover the best and newest ways to market your business on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and Snapchat. The event takes place March 22-24, 2017, in San Diego.

If you can't make it in real life, consider getting a virtual ticket.

Earned Social Media Shares Trump Owned: 
What You Need To Know

I’m a big fan of Jon Morrow. He’s a blogging god.

His 317 power words list is my go-to list for punching up my headlines and other content.

13 Treats To Make Customers Love You

• Heidi Cohen revealed her 3 must-do’s for entrepreneurial success in Mike Alton's monster roundup post on Site Sell. It's a monster piece of work. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, content marketer or blogger, it’s well worth your time to read this post. It’s a work of love. Getting 95 people to contribute ain’t easy. Even more, Alton included visuals for each contributor. 
  
  
• Heidi Cohen was referenced in the Search Engine People’s useful blog post, Jaw-Dropping 2017 B2B Content Marketing Controversies (and What Can You Do About Them).  The author analyzed Content Marketing Institute’s 2017 Predictions, a meaty piece of roundup content. They spotlighted the differences and other highpoints using data to make their point. It’s a great example of how to create content based on other people’s research or roundups.

Top 10 Marketing Automation 'Must Haves' for SMBs

Answers You Need Before Signing with a Marketing Automation Provider.

Find the right marketing automation solution to drive business growth with this checklist of 10 key questions to ask, such as:

• Does the vendor require long-term contracts or upfront fees?
• Are there limits on or extra charges for customer support?
• Is their solution highly rated by customers?
• Is the platform feature-rich and are new features added regularly? 

Simply your selection process with this quick marketing automation checklist.

From SharpSpring