Marketers, Designers and Programmers–Oh My!

I wanted to write a quick blog about collaboration. My passion is to connect as many people, products and resources as possible to accelerate, maximize and create mutual success that’s far beyond what a single person would acheive. This is one reason why I love well produced events–so many great opportunities all come together in one place.

I attended RefreshSD last night. Different type of event than I’m used to. Not your typical “hi my name is so and so, what do you do?” mixer. At first I was skeptical? Why would I want to sit in a room full of Designers and programmers? After attending I realized it was a great collaboration of ambitious people who all have different roles yet understand that they all work together. –LOVE IT. We often forget that the final product that we (marketers) are so eager to design a stellar marketing campaign for is the result of the hard work put in by programmers and designers. Vice versa, those behind the scenes (programmers and designers) often don’t realize that their final product is not final without an effective marketing campaign.

Moral of this blog. Next time you meet someone who may be in a different line of work, take the initiative to learn about their role and appreciate what they do because it most likely will help your work in one way or another. Great things come from collaborating so let’s all work together!–Sounds like a motivational speech. Awesome!

SuggestionBox, Innovation in Customer Feedback

Companies invest billions of dollars every year to improve their business through marketing to the right audience, branding their logo, cause marketing in the community and more. What most companies don’t realize is that improvements aren’t effective unless they know what needs to be improved.

SuggestionBox is revolutionizing the way customers can provide feedback by creating an online system that allows customers to submit and track feedback to any company. This engages the customer and allows the company to interact and follow up with their most valuable resource…the customer!

Currently when you have a suggestion, here’s what happens:

A. You keep it to yourself because there’s no easy way to share your feedback.

B. You call an 800 # get an operator and after sharing your suggestion, they thank you and you never hear from them again.

C. You go online submit a generic email and receive another generic thank you email back. You then get put on their mailing list as if you don’t already receive enough emails.

You’ll notice a pattern with all 3 options, the ultimate result is that nothing happens! Nothing will continue to happen unless customers and companies take action. So what’s next? Become a suggester Today!

Benefits of SuggestionBox-The Customer

1. User Friendly- Simply create an account and instantly start suggesting ideas/improvements. You may find yourself going on a suggestion spree since it’s the first time you’ve had an opportunity to share all your thoughts.

2. Easy to track- Suggest, rate, comment and track everything in one simple forum. No need to go back and attempt to call or email the company again.

3. Make a Difference- Your opinion matters and counts! Whether you’re paying $50K for a car or $50 for a dinner you’re making the investment so show these companies that you want to help them improve.

Benefits of SuggestionBox- The Company

1. Increase customer loyalty – When customers have a personal connection their loyalty increases. SuggestionBox allows companies to show their patrons they care and are actively working to accelerate their success with the help of their customers.

2. Easy to manage- Companies can easily manage their suggestions by placing them in one of the following categories: New, Under Review, Future, Coming soon, Implemented, Filed away and Deleted. Not only does this keep the company on track, the customer sees their suggestion in action.

3. Earth friendly- I commend any tools that eliminates the old paper method. This is not only better for the environment but now there’s need to hire someone to go over slips of paper in scribbled illegible writing. Show customers that you’re earth friendly.

BJ Cook, the CMO & Adam Levenson, the Online Marketing Manager of SuggestionBox were kind enough to set up a San Diego Speed Networking SuggestionBox. This is a startup so there’s lots of room for improvement. I already have a a list of improvements I plan to execute but I would love as much insight as possible. Please sign up for SuggestionBox, leave me a suggestion and you’ll be automatically entered to win a FREE entry to the next San Diego Speed Networking event in September. This is a $60 value!

Twitter as a Marketing Tool

Thanks to my good friend RichandCreamy aka: @richandcreamy I’m finally on Twitter. He’s been encouraging me to use Twitter and to attend SDTweetups. If you read my previous blog you’ll know that Twitter is part of my master plan for Marketing Melodie 2.0. At first I balked at the idea of Twitter because I really didn’t understand the premise behind a microblog and having people follow you 24/7. But since joining I’ve discovered the many wonders of this concept and better yet, I’ve come to realize what a great marketing tool Twitter is.

1. Establish an Identity- Twitter allows you to share pieces of information about your social and professional life. After some time your followers will start to piece together your tweets and have a pretty good idea of your personality, lifestyle, goals, etc. This can be useful when hiring, networking or simply expanding your social circle with those who have similar interests. For businesses Twitter is a great branding tool.

2. Instantaneous Feedback- Need a recommendation? Suggestion? Contemplating a question? Although review sites such as Yelp and Chowhound are useful when doing research it’s not personal. Twitter gives you insight from your personal network. Recommendations from people I know are much more compelling and valuable than reviews posted by strangers since you never really know the premise behind a random person’s review. Twitter allows you to Speak (Tweet) your mind and influence decisions of those personally connected to you.

3. Promoting specific content- This is especially useful for businesses in many way. Twitter can create hype when launching a new product, increase attendance to events, conferences and webinars and really add more value to any specific promotion your company is involved with. Twitter allows the consumer to track of your company’s progress. The real time updates allow consumers to feel engaged.

Overall, Twitter is an interactive tool that when used correctly is a powerful marketing resource that allows you to establish a brand, gain insight and engage consumers. Now follow me @MyMelodie!