Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

When I was at Marqui, we transformed a technology-centric brand to a prospect-centric brand quite successfully. I inherited a technical software company look in Maestro CMS, a regional Canadian software company looking to reinvent itself.

The goal of the new executive team was to create the “salesforce.com” for marketers in Marqui. Our product would help marketers manage their web site, launch their own email campaigns; anything it took to help marketers communicate online with customers and prospects and measure the results.

We needed a different degree of brand engagement with our prospects as we broke into the United States. We were in an incredibly fractious market, and needed to quickly stand out from the rest of the software companies fighting for marketers’ attention. But first, we needed to figure out who we were, given our daunting objectives and the new team in place.

Marqui, Meet Your Brand Promise

First we went through a series of exercises to profile ourselves as an organization, and our promise to the world. Some interesting findings emerged. Our newly formed executive team’s attributes were largely dominated by the following:

• Independent-minded
• Self-sufficient
• Adventurous
• Restless
• Ambitious
• Curious
• Take a stand

These “Explorer” tendencies resolved into the following brand and (product or company) attributes:

• To help people feel free (Marqui freed marketers from relying on others)
• Marqui was rugged and sturdy (Had all the features marketers needed)
• To help people express their individuality (Marqui helped enforce a company’s brand, which is their individuality)
• Can be purchased for ‘on the go’ (Software as a Service – could access Marqui from anywhere)
• Wants to differentiate from a successful ‘regular guy’ brand (Our vision - develop a Center for Marketing Excellence to support that “salesforce.com for marketers” vision - which became the raison d’etre of our blog)
• Our explorer culture created a new and exciting product or experience (our company was distributed in three states; as such, it was important that our virtual teams worked well in creating the vision)

Examples of other “Explorer” brands are Starbucks, Virgin Airlines, Levis, and Patagonia. We felt we were in good company - that there was a good fit between our brand attributes, our vision and our team.

Marqui, Meet Rachel

Step two was to profile our prospect for the entire organization to understand. From a sales, marketing, engineering and support perspective, it was imperative to have a deep understanding of Rachel.

According to the AMA in 2004, Rachel:

• Was 42 years old
• Was a marketing communications director leading outbound marketing efforts for a mid-size organization
• Made approximately $80K
• Worked 50+ hours a week
• Was likely divorced, with no children
• Led a team of 4-6 marketing specialists

She enjoyed running a marketing organization, but was coming under increasing pressure. Rachel had lost her control of her marketing domain as it moved increasingly online. Dependent on her IT team (if she was lucky enough to have one) or outside resources, she longed for the simpler days when she felt the freedom of control of her own destiny.

Marqui, Meet your New Heart, Soul and Face to the World:

Marqui’s brand promise - quite literally - was to restore Rachel’s ability (that freedom and control) to manage her own domain. Once we had a good understanding of Rachel’s persona and her challenges, our brand needed to support our promise. We looked back to a simple time - the 50’s and early 60’s - when technology held the promise to simplify our lives.

First we came up with “Jack” - the delightfully simple logo that elegantly payed off the Marqui name. Jack was certainly capable of leading people to new places, in a friendly, safe manner, illuminating the way. He fit our explorer brand. Armed with Jack and our explorer brand attributes, Rachel’s needs for freedom and (at the same time) control, we were able to be very specific in guiding our creative agency in giving Marqui a heart, soul and face to the world.

Here are some of the files associated with the updated Marqui brand:

The 50’s road trip theme was complete with stamps (for our paper communications with prospects), postcards for direct marketing and brand awareness, and the tiny touches that made our brand completely engaging. We created little artifacts to play with our brand - we had a dog, “Buster;” a vintage airplane (which later found its place in Aviation Gin); and “Jimmy,” complete with his Ray Gun - to use in illustrating our brand’s promise, the ease of our products and the company itself.

Our prospects adored the brand. At trade shows, on the speaking tour and online, we were constantly complimented for our vibrant, fun, engaging brand. “You don’t look like other software companies…” The brand itself pulled people in.

This is probably the brand work that’s made me the most proud in my career in marketing. We had a ton of fun with the process, and - although it feels today as if the brand manifested itself exactly as it was meant to be - we did go through a deliberate internal reflection and a creative process that illuminated our final choices.

The brand lived on until the company, after two years of trying to hit the US market, retrenched in 2006 and remains a regional software company today.

I’m working with a company in Redwood City, CA, called Smub. Think what you want about the name (I’ve been told ‘I love it,’ ‘I hate it,’ ‘it’s like a porn name…’), what it does is pretty cool.

With Smub, I can shrink and personalize any URL into a memorable link that I can easily share - and it also saves my links in a personal bookmark area in case I forget my “memorable” links. (Which happens.)

I wrote about how easy it is to share Smubs, even at 50MPH here earlier. (And over on the Smub blog I’ve been writing about how to set Smub up, how to use the Smub toolbar, and how Smub’s bookmarks work.) BTW, Smub is free, you just have to register for it.

I’ve honestly had many of my search, saving and storing habits transformed in a few short weeks using Smub. Here’s how:

My Smub Experience

To make a Smub, I just type in smub.it/ to the left of the http:// in the address bar of the page I want to personalize, save or share:

A window pops up and I’ve got the ability to name my Smub - I generally try to be contextual (vs. clever) in my naming scheme (clever usually trips me up later).

For example: this Smub (http://smub.it/jlj/90.9.1) is from the Forrester blog, and describes the 90:9:1 principle, whereby 90% of people read blogs, 9% will comment on them, and only 1% write them in comparison to their social technographics study, just released. (One thing that bugs me right now about Smub is that it’ll automatically change any character - like a colon - into a period. We’ll see if that can’t be changed as part of Beta.)

What’s cool is that anyone can access a Smub, whether they’re registered or not.

From here, I can give my friend Jacob up at Sur la Table a little more background on the concept, which we discussed last night over manhattans and martinis. (I’m certain my explanation at the time was enthusiastic, but a bit muddled…).

If I see him today, I can tell him the Smub, or I can email it to him, Tweet it, post it to my Facebook profile, or my MySpace page.

I usually tag my Smubs for recollection later in my personal bookmarks and can designate a Smub as “shareable” or “personal.” I have created personal Smubs for my bank login page, two clients’ Basecamp accounts, and for the three different email accounts I keep for clients.

The freedom and simplicity of a personal bookmark page is very cool, as I can access my Smubs from any computer (or my iPhone) connected to the web. I no longer have to clutter my browser or my iPhone with bookmarks, or be tied to my own system to be productive.

Sharing Searches, Sharing Sites

But the sharing capabilities go way beyond email, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace…

Now, I can set up a search in Craigslist for my friend Britt, looking for a marketing job in a non-profit organization in the Portland area. She doesn’t use Craigslist, so I can easily do the work for her, and she can check her Smub anytime to see the most recent listings for jobs in the PDX area - you can, too, by heading over to http://smub.it/jlj/marketingnonprofit.

It’s a handy way to share what you can do with those who might not be familiar with the sites you are.

I was on a web conference the other day where one of the invitees didn’t have the email with her access URL handy. Had the organizer Smubbed the page, she could have simply logged on by typing http://smub.it/_____/______. So easily readable, and quick to communicate over the phone.

But what I’m really excited about is the ability to share my Smubs with those who have the Smub toolbar installed. As I mentioned on the Smub blog, it’s a great way to shortcut shortcuts. Anyone who’s downloaded the Smub toolbar can flip among Smubs incredibly easily:

All I’d have to do is tell you the account (jlj) and the “Smubcut” 90.9.1 and you’re there. To see a video of Smub, you can switch to the “janet” account and type in “video.”

Or to see Thierry’s friend Mike’s bio, which he Smubbed for me, anyone with Smub can simply choose “thierry” and “mike.”

Imagine how easily you’d be able to share information with your work team. Two words is all you’d have to share. Go to ________, the Smub user name, and ________, the page.

Personal, memorable, easily shareable.

Smub.

It’s my new favorite tool. And I’m lucky to have ‘em as a client, too.

I spend a lot of time online, and am not afraid to download widgets or tools or ’stuff’ to enhance my own online experience. Mostly I download tools that save me time and energy.

(I just, for example, finally downloaded TweetDeck yesterday, and am not sure I’m going to use it. I love the idea of being able to set up a group of Twitterers to watch, and the tag cloud, but mostly it feels too complicated and (literally) dark. I really like the basic, whimsical Twitter interface.)

I started working for a company last month that has just launched a cool little tool that has really changed the way I think of saving time and energy. Suddenly I can share my work and the savings more easily with others.

I have been entirely too selfish (in many ways) with my online experience, in spite of sharing my more ponderous thoughts here, and my more personal life in Twitter.

Smub: All-in-One Link Branding, Bookmarking, Sharing Tool 

Smub, (sounds like pub, unless you pronounce it with the fabulous French accents the founders have, then it sounds a little like poub) is a remarkably simple tool with a surprising breadth of real world applications. I’ll explain the overview here, and walk through a few case studies here and there over the next few days.

Once you sign up for your Smub account, you simply type Smub.it/ to the left of http:// in any browser (on your PC, your iPhone, your Blackberry…) and you’ll be able to personalize and name your Smub.

Once you see it, you ‘get’ it. Follow this smub to the video on YouTube (I tried to embed the code and it messed up my fancy blog formatting, so I’m smubbing instead!):

smub.it/janet/video

(the actual link reads http://smub.it/janet/video)

Pretty easy to remember. Even for someone on information overload like me.

The Perfect Smub Scenario

Let’s say I’m going to Poppy in Seattle for lunch this weekend. I’ve never been there before, so I head over to Google Maps, where I can see a street by street view of how to get there. It gives me a lovely URL that I can share with others:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=105949487557353234306.00045bff21bb4e60713df

Uh huh. I can type smub.it/ in front of that behemoth and save it under a memorable, share-able name…

smub.it/janet/poppy

That’s something even my mom can hear and remember. So (inevitably, when she calls) I can be in my car going 60 miles an hour up the road, and give her the map I’ve already made for myself by simply saying, “mom, type in http://smub.it/janet/poppy” and you’ll be able to see where we’re going.

I know I could have used TinyURL to do the same thing, but neither my mom nor I would remember this:

tinyurl.com/5wopqr

“No, mom, it’s five… w… o… p…, yes, p as in Peter, QUE r….”

“Yes, P as in Peter.”

“No, I think it’s five w, not four…”

And anyone can read a Smub. You don’t have to be a registered user to do so.

Just type in http://smub.it/janet/smubrelease to any browser and you’re there.

Try it from your smartphone for extra credit. Really, do. The mobile application is especially cool, because you can stay on one page and capture the link to rename, bookmark and share it. Smub is free, and in beta, looking for feedback. I encourage folks to give it a try.

Warning to my friends: pretty soon I’ll be speaking in Smubs: “just go to Janet/video.” “Just go to jlj/twitter”… etc.

I’ve been working with several clients recently who are just now setting up their company blogs. One of the first things we do is to create categories, also known as keywords, for their blogs, which serve two functions:

1. From a search engine marketing (SEM) perspective, categories and keywords should be phrases for which we want the blog to appear in search results.
   • Properly constructed, long tail (define) keywords can help refine a topic so much that your relevance in search results is more accurate. For example, I was searching the other day for best practices in commenting on blog posts. I typed in “commenting best-practices” and found nothing but developer information on how to properly comment code. When I changed the search to “commenting etiquette,” the results I was served were much more relevant. Defining as closely as possible how you want to be found is critical to how you write your blog. And thinking like your clients and prospects is key to creating categories and keywords that will ensure your success.
2. From a PR, or thought leadership perspective, what are the topics around which the blog will be built?
   • Every blogger and every blog should have a mission, and every post should support the mission in some way. So as you’re considering what you want to be known for in the blogosphere, think about the words you’d want your readers to know you by. In my blog, I think I’m known for discussing marketing technology - a broad category. In that category, I write about topics such as blogging, RSS, social media, collaboration tools, SEMPR - the combination of search engine marketing and PR, etc. These topics are all topics for which I’d like to be known, and (therefore) found in search.

At the same time, most of my categories are very broad, with the exception of SEMPR (on which few search, I would imagine, since I made it up).

I should practice what I preach, and refine my categories further.

For example, instead of simply using “RSS,” as a broad category, I generally write about “enterprise RSS” which is a much tighter definition, and likely to generate a more relevant result for those who are interested in how business use RSS, vs. RSS itself.

There are tools to help pick great keywords, but the very best one is sitting right between your ears and behind your eyes…

How might you refine your keywords and categories to better serve your blog, your prospects and your clients?

I told a new client just last week that my silly, personal posts often generate the most comments. And today I had that experience, once again. My little vacation from technology over the weekend generated a little conversation that’s been quite fun for me. And it welcomed a new resource into my world, Dawn Foster, who writes over at the FastWonder Blog.

I’d heard of Dawn from one of my clients, who mentioned she does online community consulting, and used to work for Jive Software, source of one of the major platforms for online communities.

Well, she happened to stop by my post this morning and comment on it. And (as is human nature, and why I tell my clients not to be afraid of posting little personal posts once in awhile) I had to go check out her blog.

Wow. 

What a resource. Her post last week on Maintaining A Successful Corporate Community is a fantastic example of what a great blog is about. Real information, eminently readable, and truthful advice. In a blog about topics that are fascinating to me. I’ve not yet met Dawn, but as soon as I’ve finished this post, I’m going to email her to invite her to lunch. I suspect we might have a lot in common. I know I’ll learn from her. I hope we’ll each have time to make lunch happen.

Regardless, I’m subscribed.