MediaSauce is a leader in Internet strategy, web development and interactive solutions, helping companies and non-profits build lasting connections to drive revenues in the Digital Age.
The USPS is has been in the news quite a bit lately as it battles plummeting volume, high fixed costs and massive losses.
Proposing no Saturday deliveries and raising stamp prices merely strikes at the branches and does not deal with the root issue of whether our beloved USPS is still relevant.
The truth is – Saturday deliveries or not – this downward spiral will continue to occur. When the USPS has to keep increasing fees to continue covering losses, it drives more and more communication on-line. With such a high fixed cost structure, the Post Office will be forced to continue drive prices higher and send their customer base scrambling to consider more economical modes of communication.
The heart of the issue here is our Postal Service is no longer relevant.
A few years ago I was asked to keynote a national panel of CD and DVD duplicators/replicators about the future of their industry. Guess what, it didn’t go over too well…
As a tool to measure relevancy, I presented a concept of the “recovery time.” I simply asked the audience to consider the ramifications of eliminating their products and services from the marketplace. The “recovery time” is the degree of pain the market would endure before the product’s replacement leaves us no longer wanting what we once had.
In addition to its application for the CD/DVD industry, I asked the audience to consider the “recovery time” of the newspaper industry, the corner video store, and the Postal Service. Think of the long-term disruption if each of these were yanked away never to return.
Think about your own business and more specifically, how relevant are you to your clients and prospects? If you’re feeling the world would have a short recovery time in your absence, it’s critically important start defining your real value by asking a few questions:
What would your 10 best customers say they value most about you, beyond your product and service?
What root issue, pain, or gap does your organization’s product or service solve/fill? (Think transportation not wagon wheels, think editorial content not a physical newspaper)
What are your organizations unique talents?
What are there things you ask your customers and clients to pay a premium for, because you do them better than anyone else?
By asking yourself these sometimes uncomfortable questions and framing your discussions around them, you are addressing your business challenges at the root, and you may just find the additional relevancy and margin you’ve been seeking.
The single most important asset of any non-profit organization is its relationships with its volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders. If you treat these relationships like sacred data collections instead of an engaged community, you are at risk of becoming irrelevant.
A More Detailed Exploration:
I spend a good portion of my time traveling across the country to attend conferences and meet with clients and prospective clients. Even in this digital era, the custom of exchanging printed business cards is alive and well. As you can see from the photo to the right, I have quite the collection.
But don’t confuse that collection of cards for a robust network of strong relationships. Getting the card is just like adding a new person to your organization’s database. If you do nothing to build the relationship, that business card becomes an artifact proving very little other than that you once had contact with the person.
The Historical Role of the Database
Common wisdom says that you can measure an organization by the number of people who are in its database. Historically, a central staff maintained this database and treated it like a sacred collection of artifacts. In an era when information didn’t flow so easily and it was very difficult to connect with people you’d never met, protecting that collection of records at all costs was a self-evident truth. After all, these records had taken a great deal of work to assemble and represented the lifeblood of your organization.
Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting a half-day workshop entitled “Social Media for Cause Marketers” at the 2009 Cause Marketing Forum. We had a full house partake in this fast moving, high energy workshop. I was very pleased with the audience participation and the solid exchange of ideas.
The highlight of the program was the lively breakdown of five case studies, which starts on slide 99. The final one (starting on slide 115) was a behind-the-scenes view of www.pledgetoendhunger.com, which includes various analytics and measurements.
All of the slides I presented are included here. The remaining slides were from the four companies sponsoring the workshop and can be found via www.causemarketingforum.com.
The #1 Thing You Need to Learn from this Post:
Focus on running your own race and you’ll win it every time.
A More Deeper Exploration:
Regardless of your passion for horse racing, the Sport of Kings provided an inspiring lesson from this weekend’s running of the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
Never mind that Mine that Bird was a 50:1 horse. Never mind that he was trained by a cowboy living in New Mexico and didn’t have a jockey until just before race week. Never mind that he got bumped coming out of the gates and pushed to last place. Never mind that he was so far back halfway in the race that you might have mistaken him for a horse warming up for the next race.
All that matters is that Mine that Bird won the 2009 Kentucky Derby by one of the largest margins in its history. He did it because he ran his own race and played to his strengths throughout.
If you haven’t seen the race, take two-and-a-half minutes to watch. Notice the horse in the way, way back (1:10). Notice him turn on the afterburners during the final turn (1:35). And see him thread the needle on the rail (1:52) before crossing the finish line far ahead of the crowd.
The ISBDC and MediaSauce will present a four workshop series titled, Strategies for Business In the Digital Age. Each workshop will deal with a focused subject including topics such as business internet strategies, using digital and social networking to drive sales, engaging and empowering customers, and case studies of businesses that have used new-media to achieve unprecedented and exponential growth.
In March, the ISBDC’s Strategies for Business In the Digital Age series will begin, with one session offered each quarter in the following communities: Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Hammond/Valparaiso, Muncie, South Bend, and Terre Haute. For more information, specific dates, ticket availability, and locations in each area, visit www.isbdc.org or www.businessinthedigitalage.com.
About the ISBDC
The Indiana Small Business Development Center Network is an Indiana Economic Development Corporation program funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Through ten regional centers, the ISBDC provides free and low-cost business advising and assistance to small businesses at any stage of development. For more information about the ISBDC, visit www.isbdc.org.
About MediaSauce
MediaSauce is an Indiana based company and a national leader in Internet strategy and audience-driven web development.MediaSauce helps companies build lasting connections that will drive business in this Interconnected Age.MediaSauce’s proprietary Digital Blueprint methodology identifies organizations greatest opportunities and builds a strategic framework to transform businesses using digital and social media.Learn more at www.mediasauce.com.
#1 Thing You Need to Know about this Post:
The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others. Starbucks understands this and so can you.
A More Detailed Exploration
In case you just missed it in the opening sentence, I have an earth-shattering announcement to make:
The only sustainable way for you to create wealth for yourself is by improving the lives of others.
Despite what you might have heard from others, the only true path to long-term wealth creation comes from the careful balance of private gain and social good. Think about it. You create wealth when a lot of people think what you offer to the world is important enough to them that they pay you money and then keep paying you money over long periods of time. more
I’ve spent the past couple weeks attending conferences that included a mixture of academic leaders and corporate HR executives. An interesting term that kept coming up was “thought leader” and it seemed everyone wanted to be one.
After giving it some thought, I’ve decided I don’t want to be one. I’d rather be a market leader.
Thinking is certainly an essential element of being a market leader. Taking action is important, too. Though, neither can compare to the most essential element of market leadership: results.
EDITOR UPDATE: Watch “Video Lessons” from this presentation, including a video synopsis of the content presented at the December 4th program.
In 2008, digital and social media changed the way elections are won forever. The Obama campaign’s strategic use of the web to raise awareness, generate revenue and spread a strong message offers many compelling lessons for business executives to implement during these challenging economic times.
Location: IMCPL Central Library Auditorium
40 E St Clair St Indianapolis, IN 46204
When: December 4th
Registration-11:30 AM: Event-12:00 – 2:00 PM Includes light lunch. Tickets $29 in advance, $49 at the door. Buy tickets here.
“The Obama campaign showed how engaging and empowering voters online to become your ambassadors has a far stronger effect than traditional practices,” James Burnes, Vice President of Development and Strategy for MediaSauce, said. “We want to show executives around Indiana how the method of fundraising, voter involvement, and non-traditional online marketing offers direct business lessons and applications that can be implemented immediately.” During the seminar, attendees will learn how to:
CAPTURE MARKETSHARE Motivate inactive consumers plus attract customers of the competition.
INCREASE REVENUE Activate prospects to become customers and for your existing clients to buy even more.
EMPOWER LOYAL CUSTOMERS Engage your customer base and inspire them to become brand evangelists.
What prompted the program? CEO Bryan Gray replied, “As the economy continues to shift and there is a level of uncertainty, programs like this are vital to those businesses that want to outwit, under-spend, and outmaneuver their competition.” The event will be results-focused, using specific case study examples that can help business executives apply to their business.
The session will be held at the new Clowes Auditorium at the IMCPL Central Library in Downtown Indianapolis. A limited number of tickets are available for $29 in advance (www.mediasauce.com) or $49 dollars at the door (if available). A light lunch is included with the cost of admission.
Realizing the need that small and mid-size non-profit organizations have for quality fundraising counsel, a group of experienced fundraising professionals developed a business plan to provide their high-level services on a more economical fee structure using the Internet. These visionary leaders chose MediaSauce as their strategic partner to bring their business plan to life.
Strategic Recommendations:
Develop a Strong, Cohesive Brand – We started with the fundamentals of company name, tag line, and visual identify. We helped them create an image that evoked the feelings and thoughts they wanted. This branding was implemented in all digital and print collateral.
Build a Robust Platform to Drive Business – To provide their high-quality services at a lower cost, we created a website that could drive new business and serve as a portal for existing clients to access different levels of service. Video introduction, webinar announcements, and an easy-to-find event calendar.
Focus on Usability - It is vital to create a strong user experience when visiting their main site. With usability as focus, we created a clean interface with highly intuitive navigation.
Blog to Become a Thought Leader - Professional service providers depend on their knowledge. Blogging was a natural fit to help establish Achieve as the thought leader in the non-profit market.
As an unintended consequence of property tax reform, the City of Whiting found itself in danger of not having enough revenue to provide basic city services, such as police and fire protection. With just days left in the legislative session, MediaSauce was enlisted to help spread the word and create action before lawmakers adjourned for the year.
Strategic Recommendations:
Invoke the Spirit of Small Town America - While it’s easier to be against something, it’s more powerful to be for something you care about deeply. We recommended the strategy of rallying people around saving the city, instead of fighting bad legislation. By pulling on the heartstrings of those who cared, we knew we could harness the passionate belief it would create.
Make It Easy to Help - Time was of the essence, so we worked quickly to create and launch an action center that had five easy, immediate ways any visitor could help. The most prominent option was an online petition drive, which far exceeded everyone’s expectations with how many signed it.
Give Individuals Power and a Voice - While a cynic could dismiss the petition drive as just numbers, we gave each person the opportunity to type their story directly using a blog platform (see In Your Words). In a very short time, the site generated a wide variety of stories that painted a much stronger picture of Whiting.
Make It Easy to Share - Visitors had the option to email a link directly to friends, send a message to lawmakers and the press, grab a banner to place on their website, and/or take a badge with them on a number of different social networking sites.
Integrated Action - The moment the site went live, everyone connected to the effort drove people to it. An initial email message (to a few hundred), press releases, person-to-person conversations, newspaper articles, advertisements, and lobbying efforts all encouraged people to get more information and take action at the site.
Results:
Over 4,000 petition signatures
Legislation passed giving the city a 25 year exemption
I spend a good portion of my time traveling across the country to attend conferences and meet with clients and prospective clients. Even in this digital era, the custom of exchanging printed business cards is alive and well. As you can see from the photo to the right, I have quite the collection.
