Club Carlson Tries to Understand What Members Want From a Loyalty Program

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June 17, 2013 at 12:55 PM | by wakeandwander | Comments (0)

The Missoni Hotel Edinburgh, which is a part of the Carlson Rezidor hotel group.

Club Carlson, the global hotel rewards program from Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, recently conducted a survey of a thousand people to get a grip on the public’s views and thoughts of hotel loyalty programs.

Logically enough, the study revealed that the ease and frequency with which one can earn free nights is the main motivator when it comes to joining a loyalty program. Free Internet, regular promotions, and the quantity of hotels at which to earn and redeem points were also major factors in participation.

The study found that disappointing experiences would cause 91 percent of people to discontinue their affiliation with a particular brand, and one in four individuals would join a competitor’s loyalty program after a single bad experience. On the flip side, two-thirds of those surveyed said it would take three or more good experiences to consider themselves loyal to a specific brand. Sounds like our experience in the dating world!

Other insights: One in five Americans belong to a hotel brand’s loyalty program; Almost 60 percent are members of more than one; Men are 33 percent more likely to be a member of hotel loyalty programs than women; Three in five would rather consolidate points to redeem one longer vacation as opposed to several quick trips; Ninety-four percent of hotel loyalty program members would be willing to spend money to buy more points if they do not currently have enough for a free stay, especially for a room at a quality hotel or if it entails a specific date, location or property; Americans ages 18-64 are much more likely to join compared to those older than 64; And, lastly, the study said that it takes about 43 days to cash in on complimentary stays and 88 percent of members earned an average of four free nights in the past year.

Anything surprise you here? It's all pretty much right in line with our thoughts and observations of late, although we will admit we are somewhat surprised to hear that 94% of people would be willing to pay for points. That's an odd mentality when it comes to a reward program (stuff should be free!), and it's certainly not something we'd want the hotels to know.

What do you want from your reward program? Are you a fan of shorter trips, or do you like to stockpile for a big journey? How far does your "loyalty" go? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[Photo: Club Carlson Hotels]

Accor Exec Busted for Phony Reviews Raises the Question: Do You Trust TripAdvisor Anymore?

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June 12, 2013 at 10:59 AM | by wakeandwander | Comments (6)

We let off some steam a few weeks ago, letting hotels know we think they should back off the throttle a little bit when it comes to their sometimes-annoying persistence in getting guests to give reviews on TripAdvisor.

Given the importance that is being placed upon online reviews these days, we can't really say we're surprised to hear the news that an Accor executive was recently exposed for posting more than 100 phony reviews of Accor-operated hotels on TripAdvisor under an alias. He/she also wrote fake reviews about competing hotels, and Accor has placed the unnamed employee on leave.

"The employee has taken a leave of absence whilst we investigate this situation further," Accor said in the statement. "We value the feedback online travel reviews and forums provide and will take whatever steps we can to ensure their credibility and transparency."

Hmm... this one leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We've always known to take online reviews with a grain of salt, to really dive in and read the reasoning behind both positive and negative reviews when using them as an aide to plan our travels, but this discovery makes it hard to trust anything on TripAdvisor. If one executive was doing it, you can bet the farm that Accor isn't the only company guilty of this fraud. Plus, we've already talked about hotels offering guests rewardsfor positive reviews, so the idea that they care about the "credibility and transparency" of TripAdvisor makes us roll our eyes.

So where do we go from here? Do you still consider the site a valuable resource? One thing is for sure: There's no way we're going to revolve our research around TripAdvisor. Which is really a shame, because there are probably a lot of honest people providing honest feedback out there. We're just not sure where to find it anymore.

[Photos: TripAdvisor]

Creating Content: How Much Is Too Much?

By JASON MILLER published JUNE 23, 2013

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Is there such a thing as having too much content?Marketo customers often ask me this question, so I thought I would pose it to a few experts to get their perspective.

I consulted with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs; Joe Pulizzi, CMI’s own Content Marketing Evangelist; C.C. Chapman, renowned storyteller, explorer, and humanitarian; Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at Kinvey; and Marketo’s own Co-Founder and VP Marketing, Jon Miller.

Here are some of their thoughts, as well as my own, based on our collective experience with best practices and processes for creating content:

Aim for epic

Ann Handley believes — and I agree — that quality always trumps quantity when it comes to content. “I don’t think how much is the right question,” she challenged. “It’s more about how effective your content is. Focus on whether it’s meeting your objectives: Is it igniting conversations? Is it enabling relationships? Is it sparking business?”

Producing information carelessly just to build your content library won’t help your marketing efforts. In fact, that practice will only dilute your core points and distract your audience. Posting more thoughtful pieces less frequently is a strategic way to both control and spread your organization’s brand message, while keeping your reputation as a thought leader in check.

Content Marketing Institute’s Joe Pulizzi also backed up this opinion in his recent post on the fallacy that more content is better: “Content volume is important. Enterprise organizations need lots of content in many different forms and multiple channels,” he said. “But quality cannot be sacrificed. To break through the clutter, content must be epic.”

Epic content marketing might seem like a daunting expectation, but if you aim for content that’s original, imaginative, and sometimes even a little provocative, you’re already halfway there. So, don’t obsess over a content quota; instead, supply your audience with content that offers substance that they can’t easily find elsewhere or produce on their own. (Like a blog that summarizes four different experts’ opinions on a particular topic. You’re welcome.)

Keep it short and compelling

In addition to focusing on the frequency of your posts, pay close attention to word count and significance. How long should each piece of content be, ideally? C.C. Chapman knows how to tell a riveting story, so I wanted his feedback on this content conundrum. “My philosophy is to follow the miniskirt approach: enough content to cover the essentials, but still keep it interesting,” was his advice.

In other words, your content should include relevant and timely information that’s concise. Don’t drone on! People are busy, and their attention spans are short. Help them skim your content by grouping it with subtitles. Use callouts to focus their attention where it matters most. And instead of trying to say everything in one place, include links in your pieces to information that backs up your point. Linking to content from your own archives will keep your audience engaged with your marketing platform and bolster your credibility at the same time.

C.C. believes that there’s an art to timing and keeping audiences engaged without ever boring them: “You need to produce constantly, because if you go silent, your audience might look elsewhere. And when that happens, it’s hard to bring them back,” he cautions. “If you are not creating and sharing information at least once a week on one of your channels, it’s not enough.”

It’s all about being a “baller of balance,” Marketo’s VP of Marketing, Jon Miller asserts: “The challenge is maintaining a high bar of quality; if your content is not relevant and useful to your target personas — in other words, educational and entertaining — more content might actually hurt your efforts. Buyers are already overwhelmed by brands competing for their attention; don’t make it worse with irrelevant content.”

Measure what works

The marketer’s job isn’t only to produce content, but also to use analytics to identify the ideal volume and frequency. I asked Joe Chernov — who, by the way, was named as the 2012 Content Marketer of the Year — for his sage input on finding the right balance of quality and volume.

“The balance comes from the right amount of testing against what the overall objectives are,” is what Joe told me. “The audience — not the publisher — determines content quality, and the same holds true for content volume. I’ve cut content output by 20 percent and I’ve still seen all KPIs increase because I [had been overproducing] the content.”

I was thrilled to hear him mention testing, because it’s such an important component of content marketing. With marketing automation tools, you can fine-tune your content output to what your audience engages with most, based on the metrics you see after each post.

Like all marketing activities, your investment into content can exhibit diminishing returns. Doubling your investment might only return 40 percent greater results. But be realistic here. As Jon Miller says, “Most companies are at the low end of the content curve right now, so small incremental investments in additional content could yield large incremental returns.”

“My advice,” says Jon, “is to keep investing more while you move up the curve (perhaps taking funds from other marketing tactics — like trade shows — and moving them down the curve) until the marginal return of your incremental investment is at the same level as your other tactics.”

Here’s a quick visual to illustrate Jon’s point:

Doing more without investing additional resources? That sounds like the “right” amount of content for your budget to me. When you keep a close eye on metrics that pinpoint where your marketing efforts are on the curve, you’ll know exactly where to optimize your marketing investment.

The content takeaway

It’s important to have a regular cadence of content to “feed the machine.” But the experts’ consensus is that balance comes from focusing on quality over quantity, staying consistent, and using metrics tools to measure audience engagement. Once you find the perfect content rhythm for your blog, email marketing, and social channels, you just might discover that less content is bringing you more success.

Looking for more expert advice on the best processes and procedures for creating quality content? You won’t want to miss this year’s Content Marketing World conference. Register today.

Cover image via Bigstock

Find the Heart of Your Brand Storytelling with These 6 Questions

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By DEBBIE WILLIAMS published JUNE 19, 2013

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What’s the first thing you do when meeting someone new? You ask them questions to unveil their story: Where are you from? What kind of work do you do? Do you have children? Do you come here often? Questioning a stranger is more than a polite way to pass time — it’s the core of trying to connect.

Stories make life interesting and give people a way to connect. People crave them, which creates a big opportunity for brand storytelling.

Unfortunately, a lot of companies don’t think of themselves as a brand, let alone consider whether they have a story to tell. But the problem is not that they don’t have a story — they just don’t understand how to find it, or how they should be sharing it.

A brand story is made up of all that you are and all that you do. From the company’s history, mission, inspiration, goals, audience, and raison d’être, it’s why you exist. Your story is the people, places, and ideas that your company thrives on. It’s the foundation that keeps a brand going and growing. It’s a blend of those vital little core pieces of information about your business — how you came to be, why your products or services are special, what you’re passionate about, your company culture, how you make people’s lives better, and why youwould do business with your company.

Brand stories can be told in many different forms, with an evolving story line and cast of characters, but content creators must be vigilant about continuity and consistency, avoiding any holes. Your brand’s story has to resonate with people at a level that goes way beyond what’s tangible — the functionality, features, and benefits of your products or services — to create a deep, emotional connection with your audience. You have to create something that they want to be a part of and show that you really “get” who they are and what they need.

Here are a few basic questions to answer to help you pull your story out of its box:

1. What’s your reason for being?

To tell your story, you have to know your reason for being in business and be able to articulate it clearly. What is your purpose? What is important to you? What makes your product different from the competition?

Business leaders must understand the essence of their own company’s mission — and get real with themselves as to how durable and realistic that mission is. Businesses also must have clear corporate positioning that identifies who they are at their core, and is based on a deep understanding of why they are in business and who they are in business for. The strategy, mission, and vision are part of the true essence of a brand story, and are essential to aligning that story with truth and reality. If you are building upon a weak foundation, there will always be cracks in your story.

Answering fundamental questions about why you’re in business often reveals those vital nuggets of information about what makes you different, compelling, and interesting to others. Knowing where you’ve been will help you know where you’re going.

Example: Splenda: When Splenda launched onto the scene with its sunny, yellow packets, it quickly captured market share by introducing Sucralose, a new zero calorie sweetener “made from real sugar.” Early on, the folks at Splenda were committed to telling their story. In fact, Splenda takes storytelling so seriously that an entire section of its website is dedicated to telling its brand story. Splenda doesn’t assume brand loyalty will be enough to lure consumers; it gives consumers a brand story to be loyal to.

Splenda’s story.

Telling your brand story helps you distinguish yourself from the overload of information out there. It’s why some brands, like Apple and Starbucks, give some people the warm fuzzies — and create an irrational teenage-like crush in others.

2. What’s your history?

From shampoo to chocolate to logistics companies, people want to know the history of your products or services and how they came to be. Has anyone else owned your company? How did it come to be? Was there a creative or historical event behind the origin of your business? If you’re stuck for inspiration, consider that the luxury notebook company Moleskine created a fictional history around its notebooks, describing them as “The legendary notebook used by artists and thinkers over the past two centuries: among them Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Bruce Chatwin.”

Example: Oren International: Think your business isn’t that exciting? Paper converting likely doesn’t sound thrilling either. In fact, the folks at Oren International once had a dry, boring website focused on numbers, weights and measurements, and type of paper they convert — it certainly didn’t tell the story of a fun, creative group with an amazing paper facility that services major clients — including restaurants, pharmaceutical companies and advertising agencies — worldwide.

Once we got to know the real story behind Oren’s operations, we found gems of information to bring out its personality and enhance its custom services through more fitting words and visuals.

Oren’s new content explains how it partners with companies to bring their visions to life and conveys its passion for the possibilities of paper. It has a voice and perspective and effectively communicates what Oren can do for clients, from developing innovative alternatives for product parts to make them more green and economical, to collaborating with project engineers to execute ideas.

Within the first three months of its new site launch, Oren International saw a 69 percent conversion rate for its eBook, which targeted restaurants, and an 86 percent conversion rate on an eBook about the environment. Both of these pieces show Oren’s expertise and commitment to quality through interesting storytelling.

Oren International’s website (before)

Oren International’s website (after)

3. Who are your main characters?

Every brand story has main characters that helped it take shape. Was your business inspired by a book? Did your founders have a chance meeting with someone on a subway? Was there an aha moment while jogging? To find the heart of your story, start by identifying all of the people (real or fictional) who make your business thrive, and use them as your cast of characters.

4. What’s your corporate mission?

This is your business’ ultimate reason for being. Why are you in business? What call are you responding to? What problems are you trying to solve? Method Products founders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry set out to turn the consumer goods industry on its head by creating products that “inspire a happy and healthy home revolution” with ingredients that “come from plants, not chemical plants” and will be “role models in bottles.” Method’s annual revenue now exceeds $100 million.

5. How have you failed?

Failure often breeds success. Showing people how you failed along the way and transparently embracing those pitfalls demonstrates the humanity of your business and will help them feel more connected to you on a personal level. Even Henry Ford failed in his early businesses and lost his fortune five times before founding the Ford Motor Company.

6. Where are your gaps?

As you dive into the Q&A, pay attention to topics or subjects that you see people being hesitant to share. It’s common practice to try and fill every month and year of your working life when creating a resume. You aren’t “supposed” to have any gaps in your professional life.  From our experience, those gaps are usually where the most interesting stories take place.  Whether a year of work is missing from traveling the world, starting a family, or simply being unemployed, the best stories often come from those empty spaces.

A simple way to look for those intriguing gaps is to create a timeline for your company. Don’t try to sugar coat a slow year by blaming it on economic downturns or “transitions.” Be honest with yourself and acknowledge the good and the bad.  What you’ll likely find is that during those times you normally wouldn’t highlight, the most interesting part of your story will emerge.

A slow year may have forced your company to invent a new product or service. A rebranding campaign may have resulted from bringing on a new partner or letting someone go.  The times where everything seemed status quo or even boring may have been when your next big idea was actually brewing underneath the surface.   The gaps often hold the key to why you have a story in the first place.  Whether you are a new or old brand, taking some time to remember why you started or how an idea came to you can be the essence of your story.

Conclusion

You have to know who you are before you can explain it to someone else. Brands that don’t have their core value propositions in place, or have internal discrepancies about what they are even trying to say, will never be able to share their story with the world in an honest and engaging way.

Learn more about brand content creation from Debbie Williams when she takes the stage atContent Marketing World 2013. Her latest book, “Brands in Glass Houses: How to Embrace Transparency Through Content Marketing to Grow Your Business,” will be released by CMI Books in September, 2013.

Cover image via Bigstock.

Why Creating Content That Consumers Want Isn’t Enough

By JAY BAER published JUNE 26, 2013

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Today’s consumers are staring at an invitation avalanche, with every company asking for “likes,” “follows,” clicks, and attention. This is on top of all the legacy advertising that envelops us like a straitjacket. There are only two ways for companies to break through in an environment that is unprecedented in its competitiveness and cacophony: Be “amazing” or be useful (which I prefer).

I call this useful alternative to traditional marketing “Youtility.” Not “utility,” because a utility is a faceless commodity. Youtility is marketing upside down. Instead of marketing that’s needed by companies, Youtility is marketing that’s wanted by customers. Youtility is massively useful information, provided for free, that creates long-term trust and kinship between your company and your customers. 

But one of the most critical elements of Youtility — and of creating content marketing overall — is making sure people know it exists. You know what happens when most companies launch a new, branded mobile application or other content-rich marketing program intended to effectively combine information and promotion? Nothing. You’ve heard the saying, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” The same logic works in these scenarios: “If you create Youtility and don’t tell anyone about it, does it even exist?”

You must market your marketing

When you launch an app, or commence blogging, or begin answering questions, you have not reached the finish line; you have merely reached the starting line. Too many businesses break out the champagne just because something new was created. Remember, Youtility is all about being useful, which literally means “full of use.” The objective is not to make information. The objective is to make information that customers and prospective customers will use.

However, because content marketing and creating Youtility are often inexpensive propositions when considered in the context of the overall marketing program of a company, these efforts are viewed as relatively minor and, thus, don’t receive dedicated promotional support, even at launch. Instead, they are promoted alongside the regular flotsam and jetsam of the brand’s communication: a link here, a mention there. This dramatically curtails exposure — counteracting the entire premise of Youtility.

Content is fire, and social media is gasoline

You can, and should, utilize social media to create awareness and usage of your Youtility. You cannot devote every social media communication to information, because there are, of course, other priorities fighting for attention internally. But being useful, interesting, and relevant needs to be what your brand is known for (at least partially), now and into the future. If you’re creating content that’s interesting, useful, and helpful, your customers and prospects will do more of your marketing for you, helping your company work less arduously and expensively on interruption marketing in its various guises.

Use social media to promote your useful information first, and your company second

This concept of using marketing to promote your marketing also presents the best possible case for using social media, which far too often devolves into self-referential inanities that career employees wouldn’t even care about, much less casual customers. This frustrating scenario of brands talking, talking, talking in social media but never saying anything of value other than “We’re great, you should give us more of your money,” is all too common.

Remember, companies of every size, shape, and description are competing for attention with real people whom we know and love. It’s not about keeping it real; it’s about keeping it relevant. If your social media informs more often than it promotes, you’re on the right track.

Would you like to ask Jay a question about Youtility or content marketing? Post your questions in the comments below, and look for Jay’s answers to selected questions in a future post on CMI. If Jay answers your question, we’ll send you a free copy of his new book, “Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype.”