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Walmart’s Mistake: How to Lose Marketshare Overnight and Drive Customers Away

July 7, 2011 By Mitch Fanning Leave a Comment

Recently, I heard a news report, which claimed Walmart had lost market share to its competitors over the past few quarters. This statement, alone, did not seem “out of the ordinary” or odd considering the economic climate we’ve experienced over the past two years or so.

I did, however, find the reason for this decline somewhat interesting. As it turns out, Walmart did what a lot of businesses sometimes do when looking to grow. They focus on a new market instead of re-focusing their efforts on retaining or attracting more of their core customers.

At some point, during the economic slowdown, Walmart changed their strategy in an effort to attract middle–class families. This seemed to work - for awhile. However, for some reason, their core customer (lower income families) started to shop elsewhere.

Then, as the economy began to pick up steam, middle-class families who shopped at Walmart during the slowdown went back to their old shopping habits and dropped the big-box store from their weekly shopping trips.

This is a situation many businesses face on a regular basis, including Fruition Interactive. When you try to appeal to everybody you end up reaching no one. Forgetting who your best or core clients and customers are can be disastrous, as we’ve seen here with the Walmart example.

Onward.

photo credit : ogimogi

Filed Under: All, Branding, Uncategorized Tagged With: marketing strategy, strategy

SXSW Interactive 2011 Highlights

March 17, 2011 By Mitch Fanning 1 Comment

SXSW Interactive (tag #sxswi) officially came to an end earlier this week.

For those of you who don’t know, SXSW Interactive is an annual event that takes place in Austin, Texas. The conference features five days of presentations from various thought-leaders in emerging technology and business as well as plenty of networking opportunities hosted by industry leaders.

Here are some of the highlights and insights from the conference (as I experienced it).

Content Rules
tag: #contentrules

During their session, CC Chapman and Ann Handley (authors of Content Rules) held an informal Q & A with a few hundred people on the topic of content marketing.

Highlights

Content production: Write content like you’re writing a letter to a friend. Try to have an opinion. Don’t be vanilla. Do something unexpected. Create your own brand voice (It’s okay to be different).
Content distribution: The best way to distribute content is not through “influencers.” Just find people who are already talking about your topics and engage with them directly. This point was emphasized a lot during the conference. It seems people are still under-utilizing the real-time search capabilities of both Twitter and Facebook.
Content strategy: Start small (blog, video blog, etc.). Start with one tool and build from there. Then start to slowly “re-imagine” your content in other forms (converting blog posts into videos, videos into tweets, etc.).
Trust your employees: employees who say potentially harmful things online is an HR problem, not a marketing problem. Hire right and you minimize the risk of this happening in the first place.

Stop thinking in terms of ROI, this medium (social media) is so different. Social media is not a “campaign,” its an ongoing activity that involves giving first, gaining trust, and then working your ass off to keep it (i.e. loyalty). Lastly, remember this - content marketing is like sex. Tons of people are doing it, but very few get it right (Handley).

Q&A with Google & Bing on Website Ranking
tag: #qagb

This session featured Duane Forrester, Senior Product Manager with Bing and Matt Cutts of Google. The two search experts answered questions from the audience about how their respective search engines list and rank websites. The session was moderated by Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com.

Highlights

“Show me the content love and I’m much more likely to rank you.” (Forrester)
If you’re not happy with your ranking ask yourself, “what original content have I produced in the last 30 days?” If your answer is little or none, don’t be surprised if your ranking is low (Matt Cutts on Link-building strategies)
Often it only takes a few high authoritative links to increase ranking (i.e. social networking sites) (Duane Forrester)
Relevant and/or contextual anchor texts is often under-utilized, yet a great strategy for building effective links that can quickly increase your ranking.
“What matters most is conversion.” (Cutts)
“Page ranking reports are guesses. Page ranking does not help make better business decisions. Unique visits, time on site, etc. are much more important.” (Sullivan),

Social Media Club House
tag: #smch6

The Social Media Club House, hosted by Chris Heuer, Kristie Wells, and Jessica Murray, was the place to be for bloggers, social media enthusiasts, web entrepreneurs, and other really cool people during the SXSWi conference. It was a place to create media, crash, and meet interesting people like @MolsonFerg. They also had some amazing programming from March 11-14, which streamed live via UStream.

Lastly, we can’t forget singing karaoke on the #smcbus.

Keynote by Gary Vaynerchuk - The Thank You Economy
tag: #thankyouecon

During his keynote, The Thank You Economy, Gary tackled the ROI of social media and the humanization of business as he sees it. As always he was entertaining, inspiring, and did not beat around the bush.

Here’s just a quick sample of Gary’s keynote:

Highlights

be practical - don’t be afraid to make money
context is king (not content).
whoever can create real context with the end user will win
have a grasp of the problem you want to solve
do you actually care about the end user?
have a thank you department for your business
find out what your customers love (if basketball, buy them tickets to a game — not a coupon code)
to succeed in social media, brands must act “human” at the POS (the humanization of business)
out care your competition
there’s no such thing as a social media campaign (it’s not a one night stand)
editorial calendars is like having a script at a cocktail party
When using social media, big businesses need to act more like small “mom-and-pop” businesses

So there you have it, a quick overview of the conference as I saw it. How about you? If you were in Austin, what was your experience? I’d love to hear about it. If you didn’t get the chance to go, my friends at Social Media Club wrote this post called, 5 Ways to Enjoy SXSW From The Comfort of Your Couch. Enjoy!

About the Author

Mitch Fanning is VP of Strategy & Business Development for Fruition Interactive (Toronto, Canada). He’s spent 11 years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands to some of Canada’s fastest growing web start-ups ranked in the PROFIT 100.

Filed Under: Interactive Strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized Tagged With: sxsw 2011

Creating Routines For Success (Part 3)

September 9, 2010 By Mitch Fanning 1 Comment

This is part 3 of a series, which outlines some of the systems, principles, and tools I’ve used over the past 10 years to fine-tune my routines to increase productivity and results.

In part one, I talked about the Entrepreneurial Time System (via The Strategic Coach). In part two, I discussed the One Goal System as well as the mind-map tool MindNode. Today, I’m going to end the series with some of the principles and tools I use to determine what tasks get done.

Being Effective vs. Being Efficient

What you do is more important than how you do it.

Being effective means doing things that get you closer to your goals. Being efficient is performing a task (whether or not it gets you closer to your goals) in the most economical manner possible. Being efficient is important, but only when applied to the right things. Over the years, this has been my biggest obstacle, but it’s really the key to achieving ‘rock star’ results. To find the right things consider the following.

Think 80/20

In 1999, after reading The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch, I did my own 80/20 Analysis in the hopes of increasing personal productivity. After my first attempt, I concluded most people (including yours truly) aren’t natural analysts. Even if they are, you can’t always stop to investigate the “data” every time you need to make a decision.

My solution? Just “think 80/20” by asking: “What 20 percent leads to 80 percent.” Like 80/20 Analysis, we always assume there is a possible imbalance between inputs and outputs, but instead of looking at data, we simply guess.

Funny enough, these few outputs (the 20 percent) usually are the same things we excel at and are passionate about. It’s what people complement you on. For example, having meaningful conversations with business people and writing about online marketing and business is my “20 percent”. All of my tasks flow through these two focus areas. The rest I try to eliminate or delegate.

Incidentally, I try and do most of my 80/20 Thinking on Buffer Days. However, most of my “20 percent” or focus activities get done on Focus Days.

Applying Limitations

Twitter enables its users to send tweets, which are text-based posts limited to 140 characters. What if everything you did had limitations. Have too many goals? Limit them to one. Have too many projects? Limit them to three. Have too many emails to respond to? Limit your email responses to five sentences. You get the idea.

Not only do I put limits on activities I engage in, I also put time limits or deadlines on all work-related activities. When you apply a limitation you force choice, which improves your effectiveness. As a result, your productivity (outputs and results) increases naturally over time. What should you set limits on? Anything you want. However, keep in mind, when you first set a limit on something, It’ll be a fairly arbitrary number. It takes time to see what works for you.

Single Tasking

Multi-tasking is a joke.

For those of you who think you’re a ninja at multi-tasking it just means you have no focus. Sure, you can multi-task at the project level (work on more than one project at a time), but not at the task level. Once you’ve determined what you’re tasks are, on any given day, work on one task at a time until completion.

Index Cards (Tool)

The most effective productivity tool I use costs less than a cup of coffee. Every evening (or morning), I select the 2 or 3 tasks that will move me closer to achieving my one big goal, sub-goal, and weekly goals (with short and clear deadlines) and put them on a 3 x 5 index card. I try and achieve at least 1 or 2 by 12 Noon. Why an index card? First, due to the limited amount of space, it forces you to write only the really important stuff. Second, it fits nicely into my pocket.

Improving Your Game

It’s my hope that by applying some of the ideas I’ve outlined it will help you establish and fine-tune your routines in an effort to become more productive. Keep in mind, these are just guidelines, not hard and fast rules. What works for me may not work for you. I’m not a productivity guru. I’m just a guy trying to improve his game.

Good luck with yours!

About the Author:

Mitch Fanning is VP of Strategy & Business Development for Fruition Interactive, an authorized member of Social Media Club, and founding member of Social Media Club Niagara. He’s spent 10 plus years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands to some of Canada’s fastest growing Internet companies ranked in the PROFIT 100. Follow Mitch on his adventures in new media here at [mitchellfanning.com].

Photo credit: dimnikolov

Filed Under: How We Work, Uncategorized

Creating a Routine For Success (Part 2)

September 4, 2010 By Mitch Fanning 2 Comments

This is part two of a series, which outlines the systems, principles, strategies, and tools I’ve used over the past 10 years to fine-tune my routines to increase results and productivity.

In part one, I discussed the Entrepreneurial Time System (via The Strategic Coach). Now that you have a framework to work with, you can start creating and fine-tuning your routines. However, before you can fix routines and habits you need a focal point – something to work towards. In part two, I outline some principles and tools I use to decide what to focus on.

System Reset

I’ve been setting goals since I was 16 years old. However, up until recently, my goals were mostly financial or based on something I was driven to do. I also ended up taking on too many goals at once, which spread out my energy and focus and motivation.

One Goal

A few years ago, I found a solution. I started using the One Goal System after reading The Power Of Less by Leo Babauta. Simply put, you focus on one big goal (at a time). My deadline to achieving my one big goal is usually six months. Any longer, I lose focus and enthusiasm. Any shorter, it’s not worth my efforts. Incidentally, I do my goal setting on Buffer Days.

Bucket Thinking (focus areas)

With one goal in mind, you then create “buckets” or “focus areas” as filters for determining what projects and/or tasks to focus on. Any additional work that comes in is pushed through these filters.

In my case, my buckets or focus areas are:

Online Marketing Solutions
Online Publishing (blogging, writing, etc.)
New Media Education (Social Media Club)
Buffer (planning, clean-ups, new skills)

Incidentally, the first three “buckets” are areas I work on during Focus Days with the exception of the “Buffer bucket” (always have a bucket for the stuff that has to get done, but isn’t directly related to producing results).

Three Projects

Using these buckets, you now have a way to separate what project and/or tasks to work on. As a rule, I never have more than three projects going at one time. I define “project” as anything that takes a day or more to complete. If you can do it in a few hours, you can add it to your list, but a project is typically something that takes several tasks to complete.

Mind-Maps (Tool)

I use mind-maps to keep track of project lists. I love mind-maps, because I can break out my thoughts by priority in a non-linear way. I use MindNode on my Mac, but there are tons of such apps, so pick one you like.

Staying on Target

To ensure you stick with a routine, first establish your one big goal - something you’re passionate about. From there, use a tool like mind-mapping to pick your top 3 projects and weekly priorities.

Stay tuned for part three.

About the Author:

Photo credit: flattop341

Filed Under: How We Work, Uncategorized Tagged With: entrepreneurial time system, Leo Babauta, mindmap, mindnode, One Goal System, social media club, The Power Of Less, The Strategic Coach, zenhabits

Creating a Routine For Success (Part 1)

September 2, 2010 By Mitch Fanning 1 Comment

Fall is upon us.

Entrepreneurial Time System is a trademark of the Strategic Coach Inc.

For kids, it’s back-to-school. For the rest of us, it’s a time to get back to work and settle into a routine. Some of my most rewarding achievements have come from establishing routines in an effort to become more productive.

Perhaps it’s a result of being a former college athlete, but over the years, I’ve used many of the same routines and rituals I once used in sports – in business. For example, I split up my week into game days and practice days.

What follows is part one of a series, outlining the time system I’ve used over the past 10 years to fine-tune both my weekly and daily routines. In part two, I’ll discuss the principles behind my routines along with the tools and how I put them into practice. Keep in mind, these are just guidelines, not hard and fast rules. What works for me may not work for you.

The Entrepreneurial Time System (via the Strategic Coach)

I was introduced to The Entrepreneurial Time System (created by Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith) in 2000 (as a member of the Strategic Coach). The system has given me a simple framework for developing effective weekly and daily routines. The system calls for dividing your days into three distinct types - Free Days, Focus Days, and Buffer Days.

Free Days

A Free Day is a 24-hour period, in which I don’t engage in any business-related activities. In my experience, to perform at your peak during your game days you must be rejuvenated. When you run out of energy, you don’t have the creativity to seize opportunities. You also become boring, having only one thing to talk about: work.

Sundays are my default Free Day. During my free days, I spend time with family, close friends, watch movies, and read.

Focus Days

A Focus Day is a 24-hour period, in which I spend 80 percent of my time on the activities that create results. These are my game days. On Focus Days, you concentrate on your most important business-related activities, relationships, and opportunities. What should you do on your Focus Days? Think about what you do personally that makes the greatest contribution to your company’s bottom line. Imagine how productive you could be if you could spend a day attending to just these tasks, without interruption, and with full preparation and support.

My focus day activities involve having meaningful conversations with clients about their business and writing (strategy documents, proposals, contracts, emails related to income generation, blog posts, online media). Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are my Focus Days.

Buffer Days

If Focus Days are game days, Buffer Days are my practice or rehearsal days. On Buffer Days, I handle all of the details that would otherwise distract my attention on a Focus Day. I use these days to catch up, clean up messes, delegate, do research, and learn new skills. Most importantly, I use them to do the necessary planning that will ensure that nothing intrudes on my Free Days & Focus Days.

Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays are my Buffer Days.

Putting into Practice

This system might seem complicated, but in action, it’s fairly simple and straightforward. Over the next 90 days, put these concepts to work and watch both your level of rejuvenation and overall productivity sky-rocket.

About the Author:

Mitch Fanning is VP of Strategy & Business Development for Fruition Interactive, an authorized member of Social Media Club, and founding member of Social Media Club Niagara. He’s spent 10 plus years working with businesses of all sizes, from global brands including NBC.com to Canada’s fastest growing Internet companies ranked in the 2009 PROFIT 100. Follow Mitch on his adventures in new media at [mitchellfanning.com].

Photo credit: Strategic Coach

Filed Under: How We Work, Uncategorized Tagged With: buffer days, Dan Sullivan, entrepreneurial time system, focus days, free days

Building Your Audience: Print vs Digital

August 27, 2010 By Mitch Fanning 1 Comment

“There ain’t no rules here, I’m just trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison

Is print dead?

In a word, “no.”

Recently, however, there’s been a lot of “buzz” surrounding this hot topic. On August 23rd, it seemed to all come to a head when best-selling marketing author Seth Godin broke the news he was ditching his traditional publisher, after 12 bestsellers, to sell his future works directly to his fans (see the full story here via The Wall Street Journal: Author to Bypass Publisher for Fans).

The news hit Twitter like wildfire. The Wall Street Journal went on to state: [Seth Godin] “now has so many direct customer relationships, largely via his blog, that he no longer needs a traditional publisher. [He] now plans to release subsequent titles himself in electronic books, via print-on-demand or in such formats as audiobooks, apps, small digital files called PDFs and podcasts.”

I’m not a best-selling author.

Therefore, I can’t speak from direct experience about how Godin’s decision might affect the economics of traditional publishing in the future. According to best-selling author Tim Ferriss, “there is still real value [when attempting to build credibility and audience] in having the rare stamp of approval that a ‘traditional’ publisher provides [for non-fiction authors in particular].”

For now, I can agree on the “credibility” part of this equation. Although, more and more, I find I make decisions on who is credible based on how good the author’s content is and who in my social circle is subscribing to it and/or commenting on it (online). When it comes, however, to actually building your audience I don’t really see the benefit of having a traditional publisher.

Let me explain.

When Seth made his announcement, many traditional publishers recommended that aspiring authors should not follow him down a similar path. Their reasons? Godin has a fanatical fan base (most new authors do not). To succeed as a self-publisher you must also be a savvy marketing ninja and, lastly, it will take forever to make any money (if you make any at all).

Funny thing, according to some best-selling non-fiction authors I follow, publishers don’t really seem to provide any marketing support. In fact, many authors are forced to learn how to self-promote and build their own audience. Going the traditional route doesn’t guarantee you’ll make money either. Many published authors must sell tens-of-thousands of copies before (if) they “earn out” their advance. It also seems most of their revenue comes from speaking engagements and other strategic by-products.

Are you confused? I am.

It seems, regardless of what route you take you need to build your own audience and that takes time, effort, and patience. However, once you have an audience why would you need a publisher?

There are no rules

As we’ve seen, some have spent years going the traditional route and have been very successful (i.e. Tim Ferriss), THEN went on to build a loyal audience online. On the flip side, others have built their audience online FIRST via a blog then continued on to publish “physical” books (i.e. 37signals).

In your business, your job might not be to become a best-selling author (unless it is). Your job is to build an audience and take them where they want and need to go. Getting published as an author can definitely help, but this can also be accomplished over time using digital channels to push out “professional looking” content.

Whether you’re an aspiring author or a business person looking to build a reputation as a thought leader I believe you are best served by building your audience first, online, based on what’s right for the audience you have today given your current situation and resources. Who knows, maybe after a few years you’ll have a massive fanatical audience and, like Seth Godin, you’ll know who they are, what they want, and where they need to go.

What’s your take?

About the Author:

Photo credit: brdwatchr1

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: apps, audiobooks, blog, blogging, blogs, digital marketing, digital publishing, influencer marketing, online marketing, podcasts, print-on-demand, publishing, seth godin, Tim Ferriss

Meshblogging: How PayPal uses Net Promoter Score to improve customer experience (#mesh10)

May 19, 2010 By Kent Wakely Leave a Comment

I’m at Mesh 2010, “Canada’s Web Conference” at MaRS Collaboration Centre on Tueday and Wednesday May 18 and 19. I’ll be posting updates periodically over the course of the conference.

Scott Thompson is president of PayPal. He said today that, historically, PayPal has failed at customer experience and that he’s identified improving it as a key priority.

Towards that end, the company has invested “huge” sums in new capacity to serve customers. But to my mind, the most interesting development is that they’ve moved away from cost per customer served as a Key Performance Indicator and adopted Net Promoter Score (NPS) as their primary customer experience metric.

NPS is the success metric we use here at Fruition — it’s an aggregated ratio of the number of people that would be highly likely to recommend your company to others vs the number that would be unlikely to.

One of the reasons we like NPS here is that it frames investment in customer experience as just that — an investment that builds an asset — rather than as a cost center.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Walmart’s Mistake: How to Lose Marketshare Overnight and Drive Customers Away

Creating Routines For Success (Part 3)

Creating a Routine For Success (Part 1)

The Entrepreneurial Time System (via the Strategic Coach)

Building Your Audience: Print vs Digital

Meshblogging: How PayPal uses Net Promoter Score to improve customer experience (#mesh10)

Become our next
internet marketing
success story

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Walmart’s Mistake: How to Lose Marketshare Overnight and Drive Customers Away

SXSW Interactive 2011 Highlights

Creating Routines For Success (Part 3)

Creating a Routine For Success (Part 2)

Creating a Routine For Success (Part 1)

The Entrepreneurial Time System (via the Strategic Coach)

Building Your Audience: Print vs Digital

Meshblogging: How PayPal uses Net Promoter Score to improve customer experience (#mesh10)

Become our next internet marketing success story

What people are reading on the Fruition blog

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Become our next
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