Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Introducing Bryan and The Shepherd Group

Over at Bonsai Interactive Marketing, we’re helping Toronto-based insurance broker The Shepherd Group (TSG) redefine the insurance industry.

Led by owner Neil Shepherd, TSG aims to be different from your usual run-of-the-mill insurance company.

Traditionally a very stuffy and old boys school industry, Neil wants TSG to lead insurance into a more modern approach.

This takes in buying insurance online (still a relative novelty in Canada) to how the insurance industry uses social media and online marketing, to connecting with the community and much more.

It’s a gradual process and one that we’re starting to see take shape now.

As part of the approach, we’ve introduced “Bryan” to The Shepherd Group – a gangly new employee with a heart of gold, but who often gets himself caught up in awkward moments.

This short video introduces Bryan to you. I’ll be sharing more videos, as well as a more in-depth look at how TSG is embracing “being different”, in future posts (either here or on the Bonsai blog).

In the meantime, hope you enjoy this introduction. Cheers!

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it displayed in your feed properly, you can view it directly here.

Mobile is the New Digital Native

Smart businesses know that understanding your audience is key to your overall success. It doesn’t matter if you’re business-to-consumer or business-to-business focused – your audience, and their interaction with you, is what defines how well you meet your goals.

Which is why this new report from Exact Target is key reading for any business, small or large.

Taking a look at the way different mobile phone users interact with different digital channels like Facebook, Twitter and email, etc, the report shows a definite split between smartphone users and non-smartphone users.

And for any business wondering where to allocate their marketing spend when it comes to social media, it’s a split they need to take into account.

Mobile Excess Needs Mobile Access

According to the survey, smartphone users are far more active digitally than non-smartphone users across the major platforms. For example:

45% of smartphone users check email constantly throughout the day, compared to 28% of non-smartphone users.

23% of smartphone users check Facebook constantly throughout the day, compared to 12% of non-smartphone users.

32% of smartphone users check Facebook at least once per day, compared to 28% of non-smartphone users.

5% of smartphone users check Twitter daily, compared to only 2% of non-smartphone users.

In pretty much every example, it’s almost double the amount of interaction by smartphone users than that of non-smartphone users. Which is understandable, given the superior browser functions of the latest smartphones.

It’s also a great pointer as to how you approach your online marketing strategies.

Are You Thinking Smart?

Do you know the breakdown of your current customer base and how they use their mobile phones? Do you know if they’re smartphone enabled or not? If not, now’s the time to find out.

Use your database – you do have one, right? – to contact your customers and advise them you’re updating your records to make their shopping experience with you the best it can be (because you will be). To do so, you just need to know if they use a smartphone or a standard cell phone.

If you don’t have a database, then use your analytics information (you are using analytics, right?). See how many visitors to your main site or other online outposts are via mobile browser, and then see which platform they’re running on.

If the majority of people that are invested in you – existing ?or potential – are smartphone enabled, then you need to start making some decisions.

Do you make your site more interactive for smartphone audiences or easier to browse for non-smartphone users?

Do you build a mobile app that can be used to build your knowledge of your customer base (and be used as a further lead generation tool)?

Do you become less active on Twitter and concentrate more on Facebook for potential customers?

Do you build a mobile-enhanced micro-site that allows you to make quick offers and use push SMS marketing to promote?

Do you refocus on email marketing, knowing that your (potential) audience checks that more often than social networks?

These are just some of the basic questions you need to start asking. There are more, but these depend on industry, demographics, manpower and investment ability. amongst others.

The key point is, most businesses are looking at social media as the next big thing for their marketing pushes. But that should only be part of a much bigger overview – and the real gold could be just sitting there, waiting on you to hear its ringtone…

The Zen of Social Media

This is a guest post by Stuart Mills.

“Social media is a great way to tell the world what you?re thinking before you?ve had a chance to think about it.” – Chris Pirillo

Have you ever heard of that old saying, “You can take the ‘x’ out of the ‘y’, but you can’t take the ‘y’ out of the ‘x'”?

It implies to social media a lot.

How many people do you know have Facebook? Or Twitter? Or even that old-time favourite, Myspace? Or the more focused ones such as StumbleUpon, Digg, or Delicious? Is it a lot? I bet it is.

Ever since I started my website, I’ve come across so many different ways of connecting, it’s unreal. I could send the same message to you in a hundred different ways. I won’t, but the fact that the potential is there indicates that we are never more connected than we are now. The choice is mind-boggling.

A lot of the ways we can communicate is by social media. I could send you a Tweet, a Like, or a Stumble, and we could get our communication on (if you know what each of those terms mean, then consider yourself connected!). But I must ask now, do we really need all of this? Really?

Facebook Dilemma

I’ve recently had a couple of experiences with Facebook that I feel must be mentioned, as I believe they are examples of the ‘Facebook effect’ on people.

First, myself and my girlfriend were involved in a minor argument about a comment that was left on my Facebook page by someone we know. It was all meant in jest, yet the whole thing got a little out of hand. Its settled now, but you can still look and find the post on my Facebook profile here, and the comments following it.

This is the first time I’ve been involved in ‘Facebook fury’, and it wasn’t a very nice thing to sort out.

The second experience is to do with my Facebook page. I decided to delete the Unlock The Door Facebook page because it wasn’t serving me well. In fact, it was becoming more of a distraction, as it wasn’t growing as fast as my Twitter account, and there wasn’t much interaction taking place at all.

So now, all of my Facebook activity will be concentrated onto my Facebook profile. I believe this will make things simpler for me.

So what does this all mean? It means that Facebook has recently gotten out of hand for me, and I’ve now taken steps to reduce my Facebook activity, and focus more on Twitter as my main social media outlet. I like Twitter, it’s fun, informative, and it just seems a lot more professional.

But what it also means is that I needed to minimise my social media exposure.

Less Is More

I prefer to liken social media to a whirlpool. It looks fun but it can suck you in without ever letting you go. Before you know it, you’ve just spent those two hours in the morning, which you were going to spend on your website, checking out other profiles on Facebook, and tweeting the latest Charlie Sheen rant. It’s a waste.

Why do you do it?

Why waste those hours doing something which, at the most, might get a couple of cheap laughs? Social media can do that to you, it can turn you into a mindless, pointless status-uploading, zombie. I know, because some of them are my Facebook friends.

How can you get out of this? Simple, cut it back. Social media can become an addiction just like alcohol, drugs, and smoking. Excessive amounts are bad for you, we all know this, but it doesn’t make it any easier when you’re trying to log off from your profile but you just can’t bring yourself to do it!

Cut back on your addiction. Go cold turkey if you have to. I recall Steve Pavlina going on a 30 day Facebook fast after being an active user for two years. You can read his results here. I’m sure you’ll be as surprised as I was at what he learned.

The same applies for any other social media outlet that you find yourself addicted to, as it’s not just Facebook.

Some people are addicted to endless retweeting, others like to click the ‘stumble’ button just for the hell of it. Cut back on these outlets. Disconnect your internet. Banish your computer if you have to, but however you do it, just take a break. Get your head out of the social media sand and look up to the sky. Look around you. You know what you see?

It’s life! Life is waiting for you if you only get away from your social media and embrace it.

Purposeful Social Media

Of course, I don’t advocate that you dispel social media entirely. Some of it is actually quite useful.

Want to share something new that your business/website/yourself has introduced? Use Twitter to tweet about it. Or advertise it on Digg. You can reach a shed load of people in seconds by using a social media outlet, and this is good. This is very practical, and has many uses, but it has to be purposeful.

Why use social media if not for a good reason? Are you just using social media because everyone else is using it? Rubbish, that means you are a sheep, as you are following everyone else and doing what they say is good for you. I’ve been a sheep before, when MySpace was hip and cool, but never again. If I use social media, it will be for my benefit and purpose, not for anyone elses.

Our man Danny Brown wrote a post not too long ago about the philosophy of social media, and what it can mean beyond the trivial conversations and noise. I implore you to check it out here, and learn that social media can be so much more than boring tweets and likes, and it can be a completely different experience for you.

If you let it.

Why Social Media?

Social media is meant to help you by letting you help others. That’s the ulterior, moralistic motive of social media, yet somehow it’s transformed into a hideous, blabbering, tweeting atrocity of a monster. It’s awful to think about it, so the best thing you can do is not to let yourself get sucked into the monstrous whirlpool.

Use social media for your own uses, and help others in order to help yourself. And if you find yourself getting sucked in? Breathe, turn off the internet, and gain a little perspective. The monster is still ugly behind all that make-up.

About the author: Stuart Mills is an experienced writer who wants to help you improve at life. He thinks you?re awesome. You can often find him here, where he writes constantly to make it a better day for everyone, and you can subscribe here. You can also follow Stuart on Twitter at @theunlockeddoor.

image: SilverLunace
image: artbymags

Stop Driving Me To Your Competitors

You’re in business for one reason – to make money. There are many reasons you can be in business, but at the end of the day the key factor across all is making money.

Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in business at all – you’d be working at a business (though the reason would still be to make money). So, if you want to make money, why are you so determined to lose it by driving me to your competitors?

Why is your service and small print built so that when something happens, the first thing I want to do after speaking with you is to leave you?

The Rogers “Experience”

My business partner Troy has an Android with Canadian service provider Rogers. It’s the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate, and a pretty damn sweet phone (I have one myself – it’s a Bonsai thing).

Today, Troy dropped his phone and cracked the screen. So he calls Rogers and explains the situation, and how does he go about replacing it. Easy, is the reply – buy a new one. But at full retail price – $549.99 + tax, which equates to $621.49.

Troy replies he’s been a Rogers customer for years, and he understands he has to pay, but full retail price? Seems a bit harsh – can’t he get the new customer offer of $49.99 + tax? The simple answer – no, he has to pay full retail price, because the handset is still within the first 12 months of a three-year contract.

So let’s get this straight – Troy accepts he’ll have to pay, but as a loyal customer he doesn’t get any leeway? Instead, Rogers (by their actions) don’t care if he leaves, and would rather lose a customer than swallow the cost of a new handset? Which they’d recuperate in about three months’ worth of Troy’s usage?

Cool – Telus, one of Rogers’ competitors, is currently offering a deal where you can upgrade your handset at any time, no questions asked. Don’t like your handset – no worries, they’ll upgrade. So guess where Troy’s going later this week? And Bonsai are getting some new handsets this week as part of a new business account – guess which provider we’ll be going to?

In the meantime, Troy’s being well looked after by an independent called Techville, who’re fixing the phone for $130 and have given Troy a BlackBerry Bold loaner until his is fixed. Something Rogers couldn’t do…

The Tim Hortons “Experience”

It’s not just Rogers who don’t seem to know how to create a great customer experience (also known as building loyalty in your brand). Our intern Dan recently won a nice $100 in the Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim promotion.

Tim Hortons is a Canadian coffee chain and every year they have a promotion where you roll up the rim of your coffee cup to see if you’ve won a prize. Which is where Dan’s $100 comes in. But here’s the kicker – Dan has to mail in the rim, as well as two forms AND a skill question, to the Tim Hortons head office to claim his prize.

Tim’s will then send out a Tim Card to the value of $100 to Dan. Here’s where I get stumped, and wonder who the brains are behind this wonderful way to claim a prize.

Tim Hortons has a bunch of these Tim Cards in their stores. You simply choose the one you like, add money to it at the cash register, then you can buy coffee, donuts, sandwiches, etc, and use the card until it needs topped up again.

So why can’t Dan simply take his winning rim to a store and have it rung through the till and get his card there and then? Okay, there may be a security reason where Tim Hortons don’t want their employees possibly scamming the system (though that doesn’t say a lot for their trust in the employee to start with). But couldn’t a manager be responsible for both scanning and informing head office?

Additionally, how much extra are they paying for postage per card to send out?

It just seems like a backward way to say thank you for being a customer and puts me off wanting to even play the stupid game, if I have to go through hoops for one of the lower-end prizes.

The User Experience

It’s a fact that it’s cheaper and more effective to keep an existing customer happy than it is to market to a new one. You already have a warm lead; treat them right, and your customers suddenly become your marketers.

So why do brands continuously look to piss their customers off?

Are they really so vain that they feel they can lose the odd customer here and there, because they have millions more? Do they really feel they have us locked in because that’s how everyone is doing it?

Contrary to what brands might think, customers are becoming less tolerant and more savvy when it comes to getting the best deal – because the best deal is no longer enough. Now the user experience is key – get that wrong, and you begin to lose your grip. Big time.

So, Rogers and Tim Hortons, and others like you. Continue with your crappy service, and customer experience, and crazy hoops. It might keep you going in the short term. Heck, it might even keep you going in the medium term. But every business is a marathon, and you might just find that the stamina of your customers is beginning to fade.

Want to stay in the race? Start thinking like customers – surely that’s not too difficult to do. Is it?

image: Stacie Bee