Seven tips to successfully offshore marketing operations

Several weeks ago, I met a senior marketing executive from one of the world's largest brands. She was discussing the possibility of offshoring their marketing operations to.

As we got into the discussion, it was clear that there were three key drivers for their decision to offshore marketing operations -

    The brand had been asked to reduce spend by at least 20 percent. To put this in context, various industry reports state that 2009 marketing budgets were, on average, cut by over 20 percent compared to pre-recessionary levels. And the number of companies that cut marketing budgets was 25 percent higher than predicted in January 2009.

         As brands go global, maintaining brand consistency across geographies is becoming a huge issue for marketers. Consistency is important not just from a customer experience standpoint but also from the perspective of marketing efficiency. If you create standardized brand "templates," the local geographies can respond faster to market/sales needs.

         The marketing function is under pressure to deliver ever ROI much faster than before. Management is asking tougher questions of its marketing teams; the focus on metrics has never been sharper.

     I realized that the company had gone after the usual cost reductions such as the elimination of travel, training, new hiring and new campaigns. However, they were looking to further reduce cost and increase efficiency. This triggered the idea of outsourcing/offshoring marketing operations.

If companies are interested in offshore their marketing operations, what can they do to ensure that their plan is well-thought out and effective? My counsel to this particular marketing executive was to keep seven mantras in mind:

    Secure a champion - Ensure that the company has an offshoring sponsor or champion who can evangelize the need for offshore delivery, address any issues that come up and resolve problems.

         Charge the CMO to drive adoption - Make sure that the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is fully supportive of the offshoring plan. The CMO's approval should be communicated to all brand managers else to combat resistance from the brand managers. One trick that I have seen work is to have the CMO ask each CEO during their monthly/quarterly/annual marketing reviews how they have leveraged the offshore unit to deliver marketing efficiencies. This will ensure that all the brand managers see offshoring as a CMO priority.

         Be clear about what can and what cannot be offshored - Draw up a list of functions that can be delivered from an offshore center. For example, offshoring event management can be costly and ineffective because it requires much client intimacy in terms of planning and last minute exigencies like booth set-up and brochure placement among others. While the designing of the booth can be offshored the logistics needs to be managed onsite. Therefore, draw up a list of what can and what cannot be offshored.

         Start with the low-hanging fruit to build credibility - The list of activities to be offshored must have the highest probability of delivering on metrics of efficiency, time and cost. To be credible, the offshore unit must first deliver low-hanging fruit, and then gradually scale up to more complex tasks. For example - start with parts of email marketing such as database creation and validation, design layout of marketing collateral, making brand-consistent PowerPoint presentations, website/portal development and maintenance, among others. Once these reach a certain level of stability, start to look at more complex aspects of marketing such as campaign design, or content creation.

         Keep all delivery options open - Offshore centers can be set up in several forms. These include a fully owned captive center, outsourcing functions to a third party service provider, or creating a hybrid model where some parts of the operations are outsourced to a third party service provider and some are retained within the captive center.

         Set up a robust governance structure - This is probably one of the most important but least understood outsourcing issues. A documented governance framework that details every process and workflow will help the delivery teams by making the task “process-oriented”. It will also put in place strong review mechanisms through steering committees to address any issues that the center or its client users may face.

        Publicize the offshore center’s successes - The company must ensure that the offshore center's successes and any client accolades received are publicized amongst top management and the wider marketing team. Perception matters.

Marketers have outsourced creative, right-brained activities as early as the seventeenth century. That was the genesis of the advertising industry. Since then, companies have evolved to a stage today when marketers outsource a majority of their functions - be it direct marketing, advertising, events, media planning, and even analytics which was hitherto closely held within the “ivory tower." Some have outsourced more than others. But today, an even broader adoption of outsourcing is underway - that of entire marketing operations. Marketers need to embrace this change and make the most of it to drive greater value for their business.

Source:http://blogs.wns.com/Resources/Blogs/BlogTopics/tabid/93/Article/99/seven-tips-to-successfully-offshore-marketing-operations.aspx

Making Your Product Descriptions Ready For Business

How far would you have to go to find a poorly written product description or unclear, confusing content? There is a good chance that some of you need to go no further than your own website.

I guarantee that if you browse ecommerce sites selling multiple products, such as beauty items and electronics, you will find example after example of poorly written, confusing, unintelligible, even laughable descriptions of products.

Have you ever been confused by poorly written descriptions or bogged down in unintelligible information? The writers of this web content did not intend to confuse you. These writers no doubt intended to convey clear, interesting information. They simply did not have the skills to do so.

Your product descriptions should be written using what we call "product description grammar".

Don't worry, this grammar will be written in everyday English. Basically, you will find this grammar to be the same you learned in school, However, there are a few things removed to give it a professional business-like tone and style.

In addition to a business-like style, product description grammar also means the language in your description is:

• Crisp
• Clear
• Concise
• Accurate
• Appropriate for the intended audience

The grammar used in the descriptions of your products is basic and should be used for all your products.

When we start writing your product descriptions, it will be in a conversational tone. It is written as if you were telling a friend about the features and benefits that your products have and why a customer might want to purchase them from you. Since you are telling someone about your business and products that means your description is written in the first person.

Since your description is in the first person, the pronouns "I" and "we" will be the subject of most of your sentences. When the description is finished the first person pronouns, articles, helping verbs and being verbs are removed. You will find that your description will have a crisp business-like tone to it, all your tenses will be correct and you will have a great, readable version of your description. You will see that writing a description using this grammar will produce content that can be read and understood without effort.

Everyone marketing online needs content and anyone can make mistakes that lead to misunderstanding. Follow the rules of product description grammar eliminates most mistakes. Your descriptions will be clearer and you will prevent misunderstandings between the seller and the buyer.

First-rate product description copywriting is one of the most overlooked, underused and cost effective weapons in your online marketing arsenal. It has the power to stop you in your tracks or contribute to success beyond your wildest dreams. Have you considered a professional team? Maybe it's about time.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Making-Your-Product-Descriptions-Ready-For-Business&id=7412049

Increase Visibility of Your Business Enlisting it in Local Search Engine

In this global market it is very tough for the local businesses to attract new customers or retain their existing customer base. Every form of media is crowded with different advertisements and your effort to get noticed via media promotion will be lost in the clutter. Moreover, the local players have limited promotional budget in comparison to national or international companies. So, what a local business man will do to promote their business?

Previously, people refer to Yellow Pages to find a local business. Such days are quickly disappearing. Now people turned to internet for every sort of information. Therefore, the best way for the local businesses is to enlist themselves in the online directories.

When people think of search engines the first three names that come to mind are Google, Yahoo and Bing. Even when the term local is attached with search engine, the thought process moves in the same direction. It is true that these big players list local businesses also. If a person tries to search a thriving local business in Google he or she will have no difficulty to see a listing for that business in this big platform. Suppose that person, without any knowledge of the businesses of the area, is looking for a local service provider in Google. He or she will have a good number of business listings which will include many national companies. The information will be of no use to that person. It will be better if there is a local search engine providing location specific results.

Businesses that are struggling to gain an edge in the local markets can optimize their presence on local search engines. It is an excellent way to attract web traffic towards your site. When the online users will discover that there is a search engine meant solely for a geo-location, they will stick to it instead of referring to Google. There are several such local search engines satisfying the requirements of the customers. My Quick Search is one of them that specifically cover the local businesses of Chhattisgarh and satisfy every need of people located in that area. 

Benefits that you can enjoy listing your company with local search engine:

Reach your Target Audience: The target audience of a local business stay in their close proximity. The businesses that depend on local clientele like restaurants, salon, plumbers, carpenters, mechanic, dentists, lawyers, make-up artists, and several others aim to approach the these target groups. The businesses usually consider different media for promoting their business. It is true that local media is an effective way to make people aware of your existence.

However, when need arises they may not remember what you have once advertised. They will then search online to satisfy their requirements. The local listing plays a significant role at that situation. 

Extensive coverage: The small and medium companies are often absent from the listing of top search engines. Even if they are present, there are high chances that they will be lost amidst the big names. Contrary to it, the local search engine carefully includes all the existing service providers of a geo-location from where the customers can pick up the business as per their requirements. Since, in a specific area there is comparatively limited number of service providers, all the companies are visible.

Cost Effectiveness: An online listing is pretty cheaper compared to other kinds of advertisements. Spending only a little amount you can increase the visibility of your brand. Another benefit of listing on the major local network you have to compete with far lesser number of businesses.

Mobile phone friendly: Whenever, there is an informational requirement a person hardly awaits search them from their computers. They instantly connect internet from their Smartphone to access the required information. When you are using a Smartphone, it is very easy to scroll through the listings. Most of the mobile phone users searching information at first refer to business listing. A local listing gives adequate information whenever and wherever they require about the businesses in the vicinity just with the touch of finger.

Therefore, claim your listing in the local search engine and let it work in favour of your business.

Source:http://blogs.siliconindia.com/myquicksearch/Business/Increase-Visibility-of-Your-Business-Enlisting-it-in-Local-Search-Engine-bid-kR9y3q2740616186.html

Using Bulk SMS Services how the stock advisory companies increasing their sales volume?

BNI's philosophy is "Givers Gain" - members are expected to focus on giving referrals to other members to build relationships and receive referrals in return. Why I made this point here is the BNI is one of the World’s largest referral organization which works via referral networks. Even Stock Advisory firms are also working on the similar kind of model. What they do? They send the list of their targeted audience or prospective customers stating that i.e.) Buy “ABC Ltd Share” BSE Code: XXXX @ Rs. 142-145 for 1 Month Target 380-460 Huge Govt. Orders received buy 2000 shared for 2Lacs Profit in 1 Month. 10 Days Free Trail also Available.

One More Sample – How much did you earn in Stock Market?? Today our client earned 20,500 INR. To join and earn daily in Stock Market.

When the person read the above messages they are tempted to add few more savings to their bank accounts so they show much interest what’s is this and how to invest in a smaller way etc… so the stock advisory firms to ask them to sign up for 10 days free trail where they will get lot of messages from the stock advisory companies like what’s the Buy && Sell and Profit, etc… Especially every day EOD, you will get the report like what’s the profit made by the major customer, what’s the investment, profit, etc… You will also be amazing! With the small amount of money, how the customers are earning more money. You will be showing much interest to have few more earnings. You are start welcoming lot of messages like this i.e.)

Note: Of course the stock advisory company whatever gives you the statement like X is making so much of profit that’s 100% correct. There is one thing you forget to realize, the X is spending his dedicated day ONLY for STOCK’s business. NOT as Part time he is earning HUGE PROFIT.

Here it’s NOT the question of earning the profit or loss. It’s one of the Marketing Strategy how the Stock Advisory Companies are converting the business very nicely with their targeted customer. Most of the time, they are ONLY using Bulk SMS Services as Marketing Strategy to promote their business. They do use Promotional & Transactional Bulk SMS Services. To convert anyone into business they do periodic Promotional Bulk SMS to them regarding the service and daily gain by different customer. Once if the customer is signed for FREE TRAIL then start using Transactional Bulk SMS Services to send the market updates, market call, staring, mid day, closing status, exit rate, etc…

Source:http://blogs.siliconindia.com/bulksmscompany/Business/Using-Bulk-SMS-Services-how-the-stock-advisory-companies-increasing-their-sales-volume-bid-fP9gkbI282792976.html

Is Big Data right for your business?

Today, you can find “news” about Big Data just about everywhere. It’s being talked about in print magazines, newspapers, and all over the web. But, with so much news out there, how can you know if Big Data is right for your business, and, if so, how you should implement?

First, you need to have a working understanding of what Big Data is, and not the popular Cliff Notes version of the definition either. We’re talking about a real, working understanding. Big Data is a term used to describe technologies that allow companies to parse and catalogue datasets that are far too large to manage with conventional data gathering and mining tools.

One popular myth about Big Data is that it has only been around for “a couple” of years. Not so. In fact, major industries such as healthcare and entertainment have been using Big Data to “crack the code” for their production and marketing departments for years. So, we now have several years of a working understanding of how Big Data can work, and a proven track record in several major industries.

What IS true about Big Data is that many companies have just begun to take a serious look at it over the past two years. The world, we all realize, is changing. Smartphones are changing the way people use the internet and that, in turn, is changing how people shop, how they interact, and how they make the majority of their day to day decisions.

It’s a quantum leap forward in a short period of time, and that has many people wondering, and not a few CEOs worried. Is it too early to buy-in for their business, or, if they wait too long, will they be left behind, sacrificing market share to a more daring competitor? This conundrum is, in many ways, not unlike questions technology has forced on businesses before.

In the early days of computing, many companies wondered if they should jump on board, or keep doing things the old fashioned way. Well, we all know how that turned out.

Then, Jeff Bezos came along with an idea that became Amazon. Many companies, particularly in the publishing and entertainment industries, laughed him off the same way record companies scoffed at iTunes. Again, we all know how that turned out.

Bottom line? You will not know if Big Data will work for you unless you dig in, take it very seriously, and do what you can to learn all you can.

Source:http://www.jewocity.com/blog/is-big-data-right-for-your-business/12331

Article Writing Service Supports Your Business

The rapid development in the world of business, marketing, and sales has given rise to high level of competition. This is a practical fact, which applies to both the open and the online market and as businessperson, you have to keep pace with the race if you want to survive and flourish in this modern world of business. Therefore, you require some kind of promotional technique, which will draw the attention of the people in the target market. In the open market, you will find many types of advertisements in the form of banners, posters, brochures, pamphlets, and other means of advertising but for the internet market, you will require quality articles, which you can easily get by hiring the experts engaged in article writing service.

The experience and the professionalism of the writers who work for article writing service firms or provide their services individually will give you a strong pillar of support, as you will get the opportunity of publishing these high quality articles on your website and draw the attention of the prospective buyers. However, you may feel that why should you hire the services of a professional and spend money when you can do the writing work by yourself. Therefore, here it is necessary to clarify the valuable reasons, which will help you to decide whether you require the experienced and expert services of professional writers or not.

Although it is true that you may have the writing flair and can write quality articles for promoting your business, but if you think seriously, you will find that you do not have the time that you will have to spare time for writing the article for your product or service that you are selling online. Moreover, you do not have the idea about the style of writing the articles required for drawing maximum target towards your site. In such a condition, you will have to spare additional time for researching about the art of writing online articles that will help you to promote your business. On the contrary, if you take the support of article writing service you can use the time for using innovative ideas and improving your product or service to withstand the competition in the market.

Therefore, if you spend a small amount and hire experts for article writing service, you can easily shift the load of article writing on the shoulders of the professionals and devout your precious time towards your business. Moreover, the amount that you will spend for hiring the services of the professional article writers will come back in the form of profit that you will earn when the articles will draw maximum genuine target towards your site and increase the sale of the product or service that you are selling online. However, you have to keep in mind some essential factors while hiring the services of article writers; if you want that, you should get high quality, unique articles for your website.

The first thing that you have to do is to check that the writers whom you choose for your article writing service do not use any kind of software to write the articles. You can easily detect the use of software, as these articles will have neither the high quality nor the unique feature that you will find in articles written on their own by the writers. Moreover, high quality content is essential, which means that the article should contain maximum information related to the topic and it should not have any kind of errors especially grammatical error, typo error, spelling mistakes or syntax error. If the articles contain these flaws then it is best to avoid the wrier or the firm for writing your articles.

You should also verify the amount of time mentioned by the writers, as professional writers will complete your work in a short time whereas amateur writers will take longer time for the same job. Moreover, the firm or writer whom you choose for article writing service should always be ready to communicate with you, have all the backup systems like providing a sample copy of the work before the completion of the project, and agree to make necessary changes without charging extra money. However, for achieving this perfection you have to provide all the guidelines clearly, so that you can get the desired result, which will provide the required support to your business.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Article-Writing-Service-Supports-Your-Business&id=3100354

Connotate's Intelligent Web Scraping Technology Powers Investigative Reports

Data collected by Connotate, the leader in intelligent web scraping, has generated six news stories in major media outlets over the past two weeks, the company announced today.  Stories ranged from a deep look into Airbnb's practices to predicting if the Superbowl would be a commercial bust to determining the best New York neighborhoods for a last-minute Valentine's Day dinner.

"The use of web-sourced data in investigative journalism is a great example of its potential and power," said Keith Cooper, CEO of Connotate.  "And it's just one way – out of hundreds – that web data can be used. In fact, today our customers are using Connotate-sourced web data to improve everything from competitive and market intelligence to lead generation and contact management and far beyond."

Connotate employs sophisticated machine learning science to automate many previously manual data extraction tasks, and to ensure that processes are persistent – that is, don't break down if a website's content and design change.  Connotate provided to reporters the structured, organized data sourced from public websites that allowed them to arrive at fresh, fact-based insights.

Skift reporter Jason Klampet turned to Connotate to supply him with web-scraped data to determine whether the New York State Attorney General's office had a case against new apartment-sharing company Airbnb and claims of New York City lodging and tax regulation violations. Using automated Agents to pull specific data, , Connotate intelligent agents delivered a full month's set of listings for New York City, including inventory, availability, unit management, super-hosts and more. On February 13, Skift released two news items: "Airbnb in NYC: The Real Numbers Behind the Sharing Story" and "The 10 Airbnb Super-Hosts That Rule New York City."

CNET picked up the story and came out with its own, "Study finds 66 percent of NY's Airbnb listings may be illegal – A dive into Airbnb's listings reveals an interesting breakdown of the dwelling types available on the site, according to data-crunching firm Connotate."

Caryn Ganeles of the Village Voice used Connotate's data and infographic addressing 3,000 Manhattan restaurants to report the good news – the romantic West Village had the most seats available – and bad news – procrastinators had little chance of gaining entry into high-end restaurants for peak-hour meals. The story, "What's the Prime New York Neighborhood for Valentine's Day?" ran on February 14.

Just before the Super Bowl hit New Jersey, dropping ticket prices and an increasing number of hotel vacancies made spectators wonder whether the big game was turning into a big bust. Connotate's automated Web agents tracked the costs among tickets and hotel and determined patterns that gave the media the necessary insights to understand the situation. USA Today provided its coverage in "Super Bowl sales might be a sign of challenges ahead." The New York Daily News published "Owners of hotels nervous about vacancies days before Super Bowl."

About Connotate

Connotate puts the power of Web data monitoring and collection into the hands of the business user. Connotate delivers the scalability, reliability and resiliency necessary to drive strategic value from dynamic Web sources. Connotate's growing customer list includes global businesses such as McGraw-Hill, Associated Press and Thomson Reuters.

Source:http://www.sacbee.com/2014/02/27/6194335/connotates-intelligent-web-scraping.html