Linda's Marketing Leverage Blog

Just a Moment for Marketing: Sometimes There is No Backstory

Linda advises: If something doesn't feel right, ask.

Top of Mind Thursday June 26, 2014: GoPro Goes Pro

GoPro, the maker of those tiny little cameras that show up in all kinds of bizarre places, had its initial public offering yesterday. 

 

The company sold nearly 4 million waterproof, actionproof cameras last year. GoPro cameras are used by skiiers, surfers, sky divers, and even an occasional dog or two to shoot videos from places previously considered impossible.

The IPO values the company, which is already profitable, at nearly $3 billion dollars. GoPro was started by a surfer who wanted a better way to capture what was happening on the waves.

Look what can happen when you see things from an angle no one has explored before...and you aren't afraid to dive in and ride the wave.

 

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Building The Partner Ecosystem for the Marketing Nation

Christine Hansen
Senior Director of Strategic Alliances
Marketo
www.marketo.com

Christine Hansen is the Senior Director of Strategic Alliances for Marketo, specializing in business development with commerce and other partners in the customer engagement space. She has held a variety of leadership roles in partnership development, product management and marketing with such companies as PayPal, BEA Systems, Oracle and others.

In this podcast, Christine talks about how Marketo is leveraging partners to drive growth. She discusses how Marketo’s technology, service and distribution partners extend the company’s offerings, helping to accelerate Marketo's growth into some of the world's most disruptive companies.

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Travelling First Class

Linda advises: Send out your marketing messages first class.

Top of Mind Thursday June 19, 2014: Our Cup Runneth Over

The quadrennial soccer World Cup madness began this past week in Brazil. 

 

Within just a few days, Americans who can't usually spell soccer (hint: in the rest of the world, it's futbol) have turned into fairly serious soccer fans.

 

Surprisingly, the US team won its first match against Ghana; the defending champion Spanish team lost two games and went home.   

 

Just another reminder that in sports, as in life, the only thing that counts is  who wins that day, in that match--not who was supposed to win or who won last time.

 

When you don't show up ready to play hard and win, you will likely wind up on the short side of the score--regardless of your pedigree.

 

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A Whole New World: How Cloud Economics Are Changing the Nature of Reseller Partner Programs

Jim Chow
Google Apps Global Partner Program
www.google.com

As head of the global partner program of Google Apps, Jim Chow is responsible for the overall Apps partner business and success of the 10,000+ Apps resellers worldwide. Jim’s focus is building a vibrant, next-generation partner program that enables partners to build thriving businesses around Google Enterprise’s cloud solutions to further accelerate the Apps business and adoption across companies of all sizes.

In this podcast, Jim talks about the three key pillars that are the foundation of the Google Apps partner program. He discusses how Google’s belief that partners are an extension of Google employees shapes the way the company approaches its partner programs, and why the cloud is the biggest disrupter to the IT reseller ecosystem.

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Keep a Safe Distance from Your Products

Linda advises: Get a fresh point of view on your product.

Top of Mind Thursday June 12, 2014: The Sorry State of Travel Today

Last week I stayed in a brand new Marriott hotel in Los Angeles. The facilities were great; the service left a lot to be desired. 

 

Basic things, like getting the room cleaned at a reasonable hour, didn't happen as expected. Each time, I got a sincere apology from the staff....and then it happened again. 

 

Sunday evening I flew back from LA to San Francisco on United. Our flight was delayed nearly 2 hours because we had no pilots--they were on another flight that was delayed (perhaps waiting for their pilots?).

The customer facing employees at United were very polite and expressed how sorry they were for the inconvenience--as if that made things all better. I don't suspect the people who missed their connections at SFO Sunday evening were placated because they received a nice apology.

It's not enough to say you're sorry when customers don't receive the service expected. Tell us how you are going to fix the problem today and then how we can feel confident you will deliver as expected in the future. I'm sorry to say this doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.

 

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Build Infrastructure First

Linda advises: Take more time up front to handle marketing success.

Top of Mind Thursday June 5, 2014: Perspective

Sometimes to see what's really in front of us, we need to move back, rather than getting closer. 

 

Take a large piece of artwork. The closer you get to the canvas, the more you're likely to see paint strokes or individual colors, and the harder it is to see the big overall scope of the work. We need to maintain distance to get the proper perspective. 

 

The same is true of our businesses. Sometimes we can be much too close to be able to see the bigger picture of what's really going on. To get the best perspective, we need observations that are made from a distance, beyond arm's length.  

 

That's why it makes sense to have an adviser who can be trusted to give us honest, relevant feedback. Sometimes this is a coach or mentor. Other times it's a colleague or peer. But having someone to keep things in perspective is critical to creating a lasting masterpiece.

 

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Just a Moment for Marketing: Recycle, Repurpose, Reinforce

Linda observes: Consumers may need to see a message 7x before taking action.