Motivation is a myth

As a new sales manager, one of the early mistakes I made was thinking that I could "motivate" my salespeople. In my experience, motivation comes from within. I believe the most we can do for our sellers is inspire them.

Nothing motivates like achievement. Ever have a seller close a big deal? They don't need a motivational speaker when that happens. They are on fire. They can't wait to get back to the office to tell you about it; they usually call you to share the good news.

Our job as managers should be to train, coach and equip our sellers. In short, prepare them for achievement. When they achieve, they are motivated to achieve more.

Iconic management guru Peter Drucker said: "We know nothing about motivation; all we can do is write books about it."

In order to influence your sellers’ thinking, you have to know what they are thinking. In order to inspire them, you need to know what's important to them. We typically think it's about money, recognition and status. While those factors are contributors and important, it's usually something much deeper, more personal and more powerful.

The key to finding what "it" is for your sellers can be found in a simple question: “Why are you doing this besides the money?” Don't just accept the first answer they give you; it usually requires a little digging.


When you reach that level, you are reaching the core values and purpose of your seller. Can you see how knowing this information can help you guide them to greatness?  Be willing to ask your sellers, "Why are you doing this besides the money?" and see what happens!

Cold-calling pitfalls to avoid

Here are three pitfalls usually associated with cold calling. You may correct them with a change in attitude:

* Making the cold call approach confrontational rather than consultative. When prospects feel confrontation, they often feel provoked or challenged. Salespeople who are too anxious to close the sale in a cold call decrease the odds of closing. Successful salespeople get a clear picture of the prospect's objectives and show how their product or service will meet them.

* If the prospect feels pressure rather than help. When prospects feel pressure during a cold call, they feel that demands are being placed on them. Creating demand and force won't work in a cold call. Patience, respect and understanding will give the salesperson a good feeling for the prospect's motivation to buy.

* When the salesperson shows self-focused goals rather than prospect-focused ones. Prospects have a multitude of choices of how and what to buy. Effective salespeople help, support and share knowledge with their prospects, especially during cold calls.

Making a sales presentation

Your goal with a sales presentation is to gain commitment to either buy your product or service, or to advance the sale towards closure, whichever is appropriate for the type of selling you do.

To do so, you need to know what problem the client is trying to solve, or goal they're trying to achieve. Determine this in advance by asking questions, then craft your presentation so that it highlights and focuses on the features that will provide the benefits that align with the prospect's needs or goals.

Mix in questions so that the presentation is a dialogue, not a monologue. And conclude with one that allows you to take the prospect's temperature.

Practice these simple steps and you'll see fewer eyes glossing over during your presentations and more presentations leading to closed business. 

Establish rapport first

Being excited and motivated about sales, salespeople often want potential clients to know all of the wonderful features, facts and benefits about their company, products and services. This leads many salespeople into presentation mode, or as some refer to it, "pitch mode," when instead, they should launch into a thorough Q&A session that will help them build rapport and gain the potential client's respect.

Leave barraging the client with facts and figures to your competitors. Smart salespeople will ask questions so they can better understand potential client needs. The clients will tell you how they perceive their situation by answering your questions.

After listening, sales reps can then use the client's terms and tone of voice to represent their products or services, and use the client's words to explain how you and your company can best meet their overall needs and objectives. 

Don't be bullied

Stand up to bullies, even when they're your customers.

Some customers just don't deserve your business; they end up costing you more in time and resources than they give back in business and profits.

If you have customers who are bullies, confront them. If you can't win with the bully because they're their own worst enemy, or because their values are so out of sync with your own, walk away and invest your time on customers who appreciate the value you can bring to them.

Meet your customers in person

Get some face time. Shake hands to close deals.

Sales is about interaction and there’s no better way to interact with your customer than to meet him or her in person. That’s simply the best way to truly understand customer needs and provide a solution that really matches those needs. It’s win-win.

Meeting the customer strengthens the customer’s confidence in you and paves the way for a long-term business relationship. It helps you learn what makes your customers tick and what kinds of challenges they face in their work.

Naturally, that trust has to be earned. You must present your case clearly and with confidence, take note of your customer’s replies (and actually remember them next time!) and after the meeting promptly deliver what the customer expects. 

Work on your weaknesses

Some salespeople work on things they're good at and don't spend enough time trying to overcome weak areas. They can only improve their strengths so much.

Even if they do improve strengths, there's a good chance no one will notice, since slight improvements are hard to spot. Strengths will take salespeople only as far as their weaknesses will allow. Be grateful for your strengths, but work on your weaknesses.

Try to do a "weakness" audit each week. What situations in selling make you uncomfortable? Where does your sales manager suggest improvements are needed? Write them down. When you improve your weaknesses, the difference will be dramatic and visible to everyone.

Managing your time

As a sales professional, if you want to make effective use of your time, planning is the best thing you can do. Devise a plan that works for you, but keep it simple. A plan is like a roadmap. It tells you where you are, where you want to go, and how you intend to get there. Starting off the day, week or month without a plan means you will spend time reacting rather than acting.

Here are three roadblocks to successful time management:

1. Too much attention on unimportant items. Try not to spend time on "low return" activities that don't have a significant payoff for your major task – closing sales.

2. Trying to do it all. Independence is a key trait for top performing salespeople. But some try to do too much. Increase selling time by doing clerical functions in non-selling hours (such as evenings, early mornings, and weekends) or by delegating to others when possible.

3. Procrastination. Putting off important tasks because they may be difficult may lead to lost time and lost sales. Don't just look at a difficult job – start it. Then you'll be able to gauge how much work is needed and budget your time accordingly. 

American Consumers Prefer Television Over All Other Media

TVB’s Lanzano Says Nielsen Q1 Total Audience Report Again Confirms that
American Consumers Prefer Television Over All Other Media

ADULTS 18+ ARE USING 3 TIMES AS MUCH TELEVISION EACH WEEK AS THE SECOND MOST
USED MEDIUM AND TV DOMINATES ALL SCREEN VIEWING

New York, June 23, 2015 – The TVB (www.tvb.org), the not-for-profit trade association of America’s local broadcast television industry, today noted the release of Nielsen’s Q1 2015 Total Audience Report.

Steve Lanzano, President and CEO of TVB provided the following statement:

“Nielsen’s Q1 2015 Total Audience Report confirms American’s superior and consistent preference for television over all other media.

With 36 hours of Traditional TV weekly viewing inclusive of 4 hours of time shifted viewing, Adults 18+ are using 3 times as much television each week as the second most used medium, Radio and 7 times more than third ranked PC usage. 

Television dominated Video viewing with a 95% share.  The remaining 5% went to watching video on the internet (4%) and watching video on a smartphone (1%).

The Total Audience Report is the latest in a  wealth of undeniable data and compelling information that TV remains consumers’ medium of choice and the most effective and powerful marketing medium.”    

Traits of Great Sales Managers

There are eight core responsibilities in which sales managers excel:

1. Leadership vs. management; 
2. recruiting/hiring; 
3. compensation plans; 
4. accountability; 
5. productive sales meetings; 
6. budgeting; 
7. inventory control and pricing; 
8. and training.

Have a focused game plan

Defining success metrics allows you to formulate a game plan for your meetings with prospective clients.

If you know what you need to accomplish, the roadmap becomes very clear for what you need to achieve. If your success metric is defined as your having a comprehensive picture of their challenges with their current provider, you can prepare questions that will expose their challenges. If your success metric is to gather all of the data needed to put together a pricing proposal, the game plan is to ask all questions needed to craft a solution for this prospect.

From a prospect's point of view, they have no time or tolerance for salespeople who show up on their doorstep and ask pointless questions for an hour. They are busy and very sensitive about their time. If they accept a meeting with a salesperson, they expect that salesperson to arrive having done their homework on their company and with a laser focus approach to the meeting.

Remember, sales is a profession. They expect a professional experience. 

How Can Small Businesses Get, and Keep, Clients?

Great article from emarketer...CM

Building strong relationships is key to keeping clients

Small businesses acknowledge that clients are critical to their success: In a March 2015 study by The Alternative Board (TAB), 48% of small-business owners (SBOs) worldwide said their customers drove their success—the No. 1 response when asked how to describe their company culture. As such, they’re putting a strong emphasis on driving new and repeat customers this year—and it’s stressing many out.

In a December 2014 study by Zogby Analytics for Xero, growing the customer base was the top 2015 business priority among US SBOs, cited by 62.2%. However, SBOs are feeling the heat. In March 2015 research by Constant Contact, finding new customers was the leading business concern among US SBOs, cited by two-thirds. Retaining existing customers was also important, at 40%—the No. 3 response behind having enough time. Spring 2015 research by Ebiquity for American Express looked at a different list of priorities and here, keeping current business and revenue sources was the No. 1 company priority cited by US SBOs, at 38%, followed by growing the business (34%). When it comes to bringing in new business, word-of-mouth is still the most effective marketing channel for small and medium-sized businesses, cited by 28% polled in November 2014 by BrightLocal. For those looking to go beyond chatter though, search engine optimization and online local directories were the second and third most effective marketing channels for bringing in new leads and customers, followed by email marketing.

Once they’ve attracted those customers, relationships are key to keeping them. In a March 2015 study by Braun Research for Bank of America, nearly six in 10 US SBOs said establishing relationships with customers was the primary driver of repeat customers. Nothing came close to this, with low prices and prime location tying for second, with just 11% each. Generating leads and closing deals are just the beginning for small businesses. If they want to maintain the customer base they’ve worked hard for, they’ll need to form strong relationships with their clients. If not, they risk losing out to other driven parties in the industry that do.

emarketer - May 11, 2015 | SMB

Simplify and specialize value

It's true that most buyers zero in on value, but the definition of value varies from prospect to prospect.

That's why the best salespeople do as much research as possible before contacting the prospect. This way, they can provide benefit statements that speak directly to the prospect's biggest hot-button needs, and offer solutions that help solve their biggest problems.

Personalizing selling points to match prospects' needs keeps the sales call on target and helps ensure that the salesperson doesn't lose the prospect's attention by focusing on benefits that have no bearing on the prospect's business. 

Bounce Rates...what does your bounce rate say about your site?

Using Google’s definition, a bounce rate is the percentage of single-page sessions (i.e. sessions in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page)
 
High bounce rates imply that there’s a problem with your website – specifically with the user experience. Common sense says that if users come to your site and then turn around and leave, they don’t like your site.
 

I’m going to challenge that notion.
 
According to Mashable, the average bounce rate is around 50%. That would mean that about half of website visitors leave the site without clicking anything else on the page.
 
Does this mean that people are unhappy with half the websites they visit?
 
Or could it possibly mean that half of the time that we visit websites, we get what we want out of them without needing to click anything else on the page? If that’s true, a high bounce rate could imply that a website is efficient.
 
Let’s look at a non-digital example. If I walk into your store and don’t buy something, does that mean there is something wrong with your store? Maybe I’m just browsing. Maybe I’m planning to come back later with my wife before making my purchase. Neither of these scenarios means that your store isn’t great. I just may not be ready to buy.
 
Couldn’t that be true online too?
 
Or consider this scenario. Maybe I went to your website to read about your business, saw what I needed to see, and decided on the spot to hire you. I pick up the phone, or visit your location without looking at any additional pages on your site.
 
And couldn’t this be even more true if I’m using a mobile device? Most of my website visits on my phone are brief. I need a phone number, or a physical address – both normally found on the home page. When I find them easily, I don’t need to click through the site.
 
And while I’m ranting, even though I have a nice smartphone, that screen is still too small to be surfing the web with my over-40-year-old eyes. If I really want to check out a website, I’m coming back later on my laptop, no matter how “optimized for mobile” your site may be.
 
While bounce rates average around 40%-60%, (Mashable claims average bounce rate is 50%) bounce rates coming from mobile devices tend to be 10%-20% higher than those of desktop.
 
Take a look at these Google analytics that show how mobile visitors tend to view less pages and stay for a shorter amount of time.
 

 
Some claim that if users aren't sticking around, it’s the quality of the leads coming to the site in the first place. They’ll blame high bounce rates on bad pay-per-click or display advertising. One complaint is that the keywords aren't targeting the right audience.
 
Allow me to challenge that notion too.
 
You’re surfing the web. You do a search for a given product or service. Or maybe you’re reading content relevant to something you’re interested in. Later, you see a display ad for that product or service.
 
If you’re interested in the display ad, you click on it. If you’re not, you don’t. Agreed?
 
You end up on the site and bounce for one of the many reasons we discussed.
 
If you weren't a good prospect for the business, would you have clicked the ad in the first place? No. Ads don’t bring the wrong kind of audience to your site – unless the ad copy itself is misleading the prospect.
 
The argument “the ad is targeting the wrong kinds of prospects, so my bounce rate is high” doesn’t hold water. If the ad is targeting the wrong audience, no one will click on it anyway. I know. When I see ads for purses, make-up and high heels, I don’t click on them. You don’t click on the ads that aren’t relevant to you, do you? Of course not.
 
So while decreased bounce rates could indicate that your ads are bringing a higher quality lead to the website, increased bounce rates are probably an indication that your website doesn’t offer a good user experience, you’re getting a lot of mobile traffic, or your ads are misleading.
 
As with other metrics, there are usually a lot of factors that impact bounce rate (both positively and negatively) and a lot of ways to interpret it. It should be looked at from different perspectives and considered along with other metrics on your site.

What do new Google algorithms mean for you?

Google is making a big change to its ranking algorithm tomorrow. For the first time, mobile usability will affect search results. If you don't have a responsively designed site or mobile version, your SEO will take a nosedive. You can check to see if your site adheres to the new guidelines here. If you or your engineers need a refresher, I highly reccommend Google's Web Starter Kit and Web Fundamentals course.

Is there a single, 'right' way to sell?

There is no plan, program or technique that's guaranteed to boost sales. A salesperson succeeds with one approach because it’s based on his or her talents and skills. It may fail miserably for another person.

You can gain insights from studying other salespeople’s success. The key is to understand that you must take what you learn and make it work for you, based on your own strengths. 

Twelve Strategies For Creating Better Display Ads

In order for a display campaign to be successful, it must have great creative. In fact, Creative can be the most influential element of a successful or failed display campaign. And because creative is so important, here are twelve strategies for creating better display ads.

HAVE A POWERFUL MESSAGE

While design and layout are important, the message of your creative trumps design every time. Customers need to know what makes you special. Why should they care? What's in it for them? So always emphasize the benefits with a powerful message.
 

 

USE KEYWORDS

When you hear "keywords", you probably immediately think of search engine marketing or keyword retargeting tactics. But don't forget how powerful keywords can be in a display ad. Potential customers will only look at the ad for a few seconds at most. Keywords of the products and services that interest them can grab (and keep) their attention.
 

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Because we have their attention for such a short amount of time, it's essential that we don't try to tell them your advertiser's whole value proposition in the ad. You've heard the phrase "thirty-second elevator pitch." This is more like a three-second elevator pitch (if that!), so keep it short and sweet and to the point.

USE AN EXPLICIT CALL TO ACTION

Call now, click here, book now, buy today... tell the customer what you want them to do. You may be surprised how often they do it. Use action words that are short and descriptive.  Placing the call to action in a button makes it more understood as actionable and it is less likely to be overlooked.

PROMINENTLY DISPLAY BRAND NAME 

If we're honest with ourselves and our advertisers, we've had the conversation about CTR and we all understand that most display ads do not get clicked on. Okay, so then let's play to the strength of display: BRANDING. Be sure customers see your advertiser's brand name or logo. That way, when they have a need for their products/services, they'll think of them and search for them by name.

INTEGRATE MARKETING

Hopefully, your advertiser's display ads are a part of a larger marketing program that includes newspaper, radio, television, and/or direct mail. Encourage them to use the same messaging and themes throughout so that the impact of the display campaign is enhanced by the other things they are doing and vice versa.

 

ENTICE THE CUSTOMER

Use words like "special offer" and "exclusive" to grab the customers' attention and draw them in. They also like to compare prices and rates, so when possible, prominently display those as part of the ad.

* Claims to offers, products and/or services as "free" should be made with caution. The FTC has guidelines regarding the word "free" and similar representations.

KEEP THINGS FRESH

Over time, your advertiser's campaign may get stale. Users may overlook an ad they've seen several times. Freshen it up with new images, messaging or even colors, while sticking to the brand's identity. Don't be afraid to try new approaches.

DELIVER THE GOODS ON THE LANDING PAGE

Be sure that there is consistency between the ad and the page users come to when they click on it. First of all, it should look and feel similar. Colors, images and overall design should match. Secondly, if there is a special offer or a specific product featured in the ad, that offer or product should be easy to find on the landing page. 
 

GOOD DESIGN

Grab the customer's attention with engaging and interesting images and graphics. 

• Have a focal point. This can be an image, a logo, or the offer or call to action.
• Color is powerful. Use it to grab attention and encourage action.
• Fonts should be limited to three or less. Avoid script and small fonts.
• Use white space between design elements.
• Do not sacrifice clarity of images for smaller file sizes.

ANIMATION

Don't use animation just to use it. Make it strategic. Use it to tell a quick story or to highlight the benefits of your offering. Don't wait until the last frame to tell your primary message or place your call to action. Viewers may miss it. 
 

USE SEVERAL DIFFERENT SIZES

While the classic "square box", "skyscraper" and "leaderboard" are a good starting point, always include mobile (including apps) and Facebook ad creative for more opportunities to reach customers no matter how they access the web. 

BONUS: MOBILE

Never "shrink" traditional ads to mobile sizes. Instead, simplify the ad creative to highlight fewer elements on a smaller canvas. Often one image (logo or product) and a benefit and/or brief call to action is all that should be used in smaller, mobile ad sizes. 
 

1 Million B2B Sales Jobs Will Vanish by 2020

So what role does the salesperson play in the new B2B buying journey?The trend can't be ignored any longer: Buyers are more informed and self-sufficient than ever before. They can do all the research they want about a particular product or service on the company website, and even buy online if the option is available.

This question was the topic of Andy Hoar's presentation at the 2015 Forrester Sales Enablement Forum. And the principal analyst didn't shy away from dropping the bomb that his research indicates is on the horizon. 

Of the 4.5 million B2B salespeople in existence today, "we believe one million jobs will be net displaced by 2020," Hoar said.  

However, not all types of B2B salespeople will be impacted equally. Hoar identified four main seller archetypes, listed in order of representation in the overall population:

1. Order takers: Salespeople who work with a non-complex buyer dynamic and non-complex product or service.
2. Navigators: Salespeople who work with a complex buyer dynamic and non-complex product or service.
3. Explainers: Salespeople who work with a non-complex buyer dynamic and complex product or service.
4. Consultants: Salespeople who work with a complex buyer dynamic and complex product or service.

Of these personas, order takers are projected to take the biggest hit in jobs lost, according to Hoar. 

"Order takers are in the cross hairs, because if [a buyer] knows what they want and they're ready to buy it, just give it to them," he said. "Enable them to buy it -- don't create friction." These salespeople stand to be displaced by self-service portals.

Explainers are the second most at-risk group, thanks to sophisticated company websites. "If you look at really compelling websites, they provide things like how-to videos, detailed facts, and user-generated content," Hoar said. "So as technology gets better at explaining things, we don't need humans to explain any more."

Navigators will take a small hit due to the rise of tools and integrations that streamline procurement. While 91% of B2B buyers in a Forrester survey said they would like to interact with a salesperson on price negotiations, Hoar said he sees "a clear trend toward software and algorithms doing more of that." 

But there was one bright spot -- the consultant category is expected to grow instead of shrink, according to Hoar. 

"Consultants are a qualitatively different bunch of people," Hoar said. "They can explain abstract concepts; they can solution sell; they can build relationships. They're true consultants."

So while this research doesn't spell the demise of all salespeople, it certainly puts a date on the death of the traditional salesman. What should companies do to mitigate the impact on their sales teams?

Hoar offered a few suggestions. First, he recommended scaling back on field sales in favor of inside and online models, especially in the "order taker" category. 

In addition to changing sales models, he also suggested reexamining business models. "The reality is a lot of B2B companies we talk to are getting out of the product business entirely -- they're now doing services," he said. Lastly, he advised that organizations embrace technology and adopt new tools to radically alter their sales operations. 

As for individual reps? "Not everybody's going to make it," Hoar acknowledged. While much of the burden of reskilling salespeople falls on companies in the form of reimagining sales and marketing processes, salespeople would be smart to start tweaking their personal techniques today. Your job might depend on it.

Sales Tip: Disagreeing and diffusing

You can get away with disagreeing with prospects as long as you show them the respect of really listening to what they have to say. Take into account when and if it makes sense to disagree.

You can diffuse an angry prospect by starting your answer to a question with the phrase, "You're making a legitimate point," or "I hear what you're saying," and really mean it.

Never underestimate how much prospects want to feel that they have been heard, and once you have given them that chance they will hear you. 

Marketers: How to Bridge the Generational Screen Gap

Strategies for Brands to Reach Users on Different Screens Based on Intent

Digital ad buys today are governed largely by the efficiencies in audience targeting that ad tech affords. But the screens that such buys are delivered on are to some extent an afterthought, primarily viewed as a channel to reach the generation being targeted -- millennials on smartphones, Gen Xers on laptops and baby boomers on PCs.

While content and messages are optimized for the size and function of each screen, these buys don't truly take into account how different generations choose screens based upon purpose. Marketers assume, for example, that all mobile devices are used in the same way and for the same purpose, regardless of the generation that is using them.

But new evidence is suggesting that there is significant variance in generational preferences for screen usage, ranging from content consumption to shopping, and marketers would be wise to take these variances into consideration if they hope to fully optimize their buys and maximize marketing investment.

A recent study by Millward Brown Digital found that while younger audiences are more smartphone-centric, consuming less TV than older generations, the majority of consumers across all generations still rely on laptops or PCs. The study also found that for low-attention tasks, audiences prefer smartphones, but that as the amount of time spent on a task increases -- usually after a five-minute threshold -- so does laptop and PC usage for all groups. Screen size and speed were the biggest determinants of screen preference across generations.

So how should marketers approach taking differences in screen preference and usage into consideration when preparing their digital campaigns? Here are some tips:

1. Understand the audience your marketing is reaching by more than just demographics.

When evaluating digital ad performance, consider the differential impact of your creative and messaging by device. An ad will display differently across devices. For ads in which the visual attributes are more important (think retail, consumables or auto), advertising targeted to tablets can be very effective in boosting awareness and brand favorability, because the overall quality and display of the product being advertised is bigger and clearer. That same ad on a smartphone will have to be cut down and resized, and its impact will be different.

What is so exciting about this is that with the promise of programmatic, marketers can use these types of findings to sequence ads across devices to achieve a brand's objective (for example, building awareness and favorability of the product on a tablet, then following up with laptop/desktop ads that allow a consumer to compare features, and then closing with mobile ads designed to drive in-store behavior). These sequences can be built out by brand objective and target audience to tell a sequenced story and move consumers down the digital purchase funnel.

2. Optimize messaging across screens based on audience and generational screen preferences.

If a campaign's goal is to drive consumer behaviors like purchase and research, ensure that the marketing investment and delivery match the screen preference. For example, in categories such as financial services that require in-depth understanding of product features and comparison of multiple offers, digital marketing focused on product benefits and features is better targeted to more desktop and laptop screens, where users can pay attention to and act on the content in the ad. This is particularly true for boomers, who are more likely to do research on financial service products on a laptop than on a smartphone (31% of boomers have done research for financial service products on a laptop compared with 7% who've done that research on a smartphone and 5% on a tablet).

Alternatively, a hyper-local ad that requires a lower level of attention and research, such as an ad for clothes or apparel, may be better served on a smartphone where younger audiences like millennials are almost as likely to shop for clothes and apparel on a smartphone (35%) as on a laptop (37%).

3. Invest in the next and the now. While audiences are shifting to mobile, in the short term they are still reliant on laptops and PCs for purchase and acquisition activities. Commit to obtaining holistic insights that not only explore the individual components of your marketing's performance -- such as audience, brand lift and consumer behavior insights -- but tell the complete story across delivery and impact.

4. Consider how screen preference influences the consumer journey.

Consumers still rely heavily on laptops and PCs for shopping across categories. Millennials are the first generation to push the envelope on mobile shopping, but they still reach for their laptops for some categories, depending on the amount of time needed and the importance of the task. For example, millennials' use of smartphones and PCs for consumer packaged goods purchases is almost identical (39% of millennials have used laptops or PCs for CPG purchase and research, and 37% have used smartphones). However, for a higher-investment product, like consumer electronics, 36% have used their laptops v. 27% who have used smartphones. This has implications for all marketers -- before you put all your eggs in the mobile basket, consider how your consumers engage with your category and optimize accordingly.

Each generation uses digital differently to consume content and shop for products and services. Shifts in generational screen preference give us insight into both the present and the future -- while audiences are shifting to mobile, for now they still rely on laptops and PCs for many content and purchase activities.

By Joline McGoldrick. Ad Age Published on February 19, 2015.

Why You Should Never Automate Your Twitter Marketing Campaigns

Automation isn’t necessarily a four letter word, but when it come to social media, it’s close.

Using automation can certainly make your Twitter life easier, and there are situations where it is highly effective. However, automating an entire marketing campaign? It’s probably not a great idea.

If you’re already sending out robotic, automated interactions on Twitter, you’re probably too far gone for any help. But if you’ve flirted with the idea of automating a campaign – not interactions – maybe this will deter you: Coca Cola was recently “tricked” into tweeting quotes from Mein Kampf, all because they automated their marketing efforts.

The campaign itself was quite cute: The goal was to make Twitter a happier place by asking people to reply to negative tweet with the hashtag #MakeItHappy, and Coca Cola would respond by turning the negative tweet into a happy little ASCII picture. Pretty harmless stuff, right?

Well, Gawker’s editorial labs director, Adam Pash ended up creating a bot that tweeted quotes from Mein Kampf, then retweeted them with the hashtag #MakeItHappy. For several hours last week, the @CocaCola account (which has 2.85 million followers) tweeted several passages from Mein Kampf in the shape of cutesy bananas and mice, before the automation was shut down and the campaign pulled.

So what went wrong here?

The campaign started off simple enough, but the lack of human oversight made it easy to exploit by the folks at Gawker. Because it was automated, there was no one behind the wheel to steer away from the cliff the second they saw the suspicious tweets appear in the queue.

Automating a campaign leaves you open to vulnerabilities like this. For Coca Cola, this will likely be a bit of an embarrassment before another major campaign takes its place. But for a local mom and pop? A similar gaffe could seriously hurt their public perception and their bottom line.

Of course, businesses should never automate interactions on Twitter. That’s a big no-no, since interaction implies that you’re actually “there” sending the tweet. If found out (and it’s pretty easy to tell when a bot is doing the talking most of the time), customers will probably write off that account as fake, untrustworthy, and dishonest.

Coca Cola’s campaign was not necessarily sending out personalized interactions, but the entire campaign was left up to automation – a big no-no.

There are times when automation on social media can be helpful. Scheduling pre-written tweets (as long as they are evergreen in nature and useful to your audience), can save time. And programs that build automated lists based on who you interact with most, or which suggest who to interact with based on influence, can nurture relationships.

However, automating an entire marketing campaign can result in embarrassment, ridicule and lost business. So learn from Coca Cola and stay attentive during your next Twitter marketing campaign.

Lauren Dugan, SocialTimes, Feb 7th, 2015