Webinar: Standardize HR Functions across remote locations
Date: 3/2/2010
Time: 8:00am Pacific
Register: http://www.3dxplorer.com/static-v3/LP_VClass_GOM.php

Reduce travel costs, reach more people without inundating resources and allow remote team-members to feel connected.

The new era in HR communication, more engaging, and more participative for employees and executives.
Register for this webinar you will learn how you could improve your meetings, trainings, and events through 3D Virtual Spaces that are used for:
• Offsite OnBoarding
• Corporate eLearning & Virtual Training
• Online Meetings & Conferences
• Virtual Watercooler Environments
• Benefits Enrollment
• Performance Reviews
• and more
To register go to http://www.3dxplorer.com/static-v3/LP_VClass_GOM.php

Improving Your Business Processes - Webinar

Date:Wednesday, 2/24/2010
Time: 11:00 am pacific
Register: http://www.generationomarketing.marketbright.com/go/echosign

During this webinar you can learn how your organization could:

Speed up internal approval process
Solve compliance issues
Have an audit trail
Conduct green business
Speed up signature processes
Reduce time spent on document processing
Reduce sales cycle
Reduce cost and increase revenue
Who would benefit by attending? Anyone who would like to:

Reduce cost
Reduce the time spent on internal compliance, payroll, legal documents, T&Es, or tax forms
Reduce the time spent on vendor documents, invoices, purchase orders, records management, or storage
Solve compliance issues, have an audit trail or deals with reporting
Reduce sales cycles, get paid faster, or increase revenue
Speed up change control or get approvals faster

Why marketers and their companies should consider virtual events? The benefits are endless, virtual events are innovative, engaging, exciting, dynamic and most of all cost effective. There is no travel cost, travel time, booth set up, giveaways, shipping, paper collaterals, and the month’s long logistics and management of an event to deal with. Virtual events can be set up within hours and gives marketers the opportunity to create even instant events to adapt to the fast past corporate world and its needs.

If your CFO is like most CFOs than they will also appreciate that these events are measurable. While leads and related information collected at live events often end up under cubicle tables, information from events ran through a virtual event platform can be analyzed and shared with upper management. The system collected data tracks each attendee and what they do. Marketers can make changes to their events based on these collected information and optimize their next event accordingly. Registrations and live attendance at a physical event is declining and virtual events are proving to be top branding and lead generation tools instead. Unlike in person live events virtual events can be recorded, used as nurturing collaterals, and the on-demand version can be used for extended lead generation through downloads.

Because of the cost of in person events, the costs per lead of these events are generally the highest for marketers. Cost per lead for in person events can be several hundred dollars for a tradeshow lead versus as low as $5 per lead for a virtual event. The quality of leads not only can compete with in person tradeshow leads but most of the times virtual event leads are actually more qualified since many qualification type questions can be answered even before the events take place and the leads are not shared with competitors.

More leads can be generated also because attendees who would not be able to attend an in-person event because of budget, geographical limits, time, etc. are able to attend an online event that has less of these restrictions and limitations. No geographic limitations are also important for companies who are committed to decrease carbon and travel, as well as for companies who have a mobile and virtual workforce. No geographical restrictions also give companies the opportunity to have many of their experts speak during these events because while these experts can devote an hour to speak virtually they can’t travel two days for an in person event.

Many organizations are afraid to abandon their traditional events and go virtual. This is because they are unsure how attendees would feel about it, skeptical about the security, access, user interface, and do not know how to sell this new and still largely unknown form of marketing program to upper management. However, all data suggests that attendees consistently respond favorable to virtual events. They find it interactive since they can network with attendees and presenters, they can exchange ideas, download content, attend and leave presentations as they like, and get a personalized experience. They also report that they network more successfully since it is easier to walk up to an avatar than to a live person. In addition, virtual event platforms are completely secure and most organizations offering virtual events are handling all the software, hardware, and interface related matters, which is included in its cost.

Marketers who are new to Virtual Events should consider including Virtual Events in their 2010 marketing programs. Just like webinars, Virtual Events offer cost effective way of branding, nurturing, and generating leads. But because of their additional capabilities they can compete with live events and offer far more than webinars. Virtual Event cost start at $1,000 and a fully managed Virtual Event with attendance generation for up to 200 registrants would cost less than $5,500. Not many marketing programs can provide marketers with 200 pre-qualified leads, recorded content that can be used as a marketing collateral, and on-demand lead generation option for as little as $5,500. If you are interested to find out more contact us today at info@generationomarketing.com. For more information you can also visit www.generationomarketing.com/VirtualCollaboration.html

When is it a wise option? That would depend on several things such as tools, budget, average deal size, company size, timeframe, resources, size of database, complexity of systems and programs, and future activities planned.

In order to manage your email marketing in-house you would need a CRM system, your web and CRM system integrated, and a marketing automation system implemented. You would also need additional employees with experience and knowledge of email marketing, analytical and technical skills, which is hard to find in marketing.

The marketing automation companies will show you all the bells and whistles you could use but the success rate of marketers embracing marketing automation systems are quite low. This is because buying a system will not guarantee success. Many marketers find themselves in a difficult situation because after they sold the systems to upper management, they have a problem showing results.

The cost is also hard to sell to upper management, especially if the average deal size is low and many closed deals would have to be made to cover the cost of the system. In addition to the cost of the marketing system, marketers will find that they either have to hire additional employees or have to allocate budget for a consultant. To manage a successful email marketing program, someone will have to manage the system setup, lead processes, program activities, analysis, and know all of the latest best practices information.

There is a notion that outsourcing the “management” of the marketing automation system reflects badly on the marketer. Thus, marketers often times are afraid that by engaging a consultant for “managing” the system and some programs, would imply that they themselves do not have the know-how or would be lacking the experience they were thought to have.

Marketers of larger organizations with budget, access to consultants, time, and a large enough average deal size will do well when buying, installing, and managing a marketing automation system. However, if you are a smaller company or a department that struggles to get a budget for a system, don't have dedicated experienced people who could manage the system, can't get a consultant, have a low deal size than perhaps a turnkey outsourced email marketing option would be a better choice for you.

It is much easier to sell an outsourced email marketing program to upper management. This is because you are not purchasing a system, changing processes, or needing additional funds for management. Outsourced email marketing can be sold as a “lead generation” or “lead nurturing” program, the cost is much lower, no management required, no technical or analytical skill required, and you can test the waters to see if you would be ready to make the leap to manage email marketing in-house.

Whether you are in the market for marketing automation or need to outsource your email markeitng activities, give us a call us at 949 945-7862 or visit us at www.generationOmarketing.com

I seem to hear all the time that we are the wired generation where everyone is isolated, do not interact the way they used to, communicate by texting, email, youtube, facebook, twitter, IM, etc. and no longer pick up the phone and call one another. I hear that we are no longer feeling the need to talk on the phone as other form of communications surfaced and took the place of the phone.

Is this true? You might think it is, but it could not be farther from the truth. Are you surprised? So am I. I am surprised because I love using other form of communications in business and feel the old fashioned techniques slow me down.

Think about it, for example with email I can respond to everyone within a reasonable amount of time, even many people at once, it is instant, non intrusive, it is traceable, re-visitable, etc. I communicate with at least 20-30 people daily. If I would take care of these communications by phone I would not get to even half of them. This is because with the phone you can’t just call and say “can you send me the logo” and hang up the phone. You would first have to look for the number, dial, do some chit chatting, then discuss the real issue you called about, then somehow close the conversation so it would not seem abrupt, and then finally hang up. Depending on the issue you are calling about you may also take notes during the call, and send the follow up email to make sure everyone is on the same page. You just wasted tons of time on something a half minute email could have taken care of.

Yet, more and more people seem to complain about the lack of “telephone usage”, which puzzles me, since according to everyone, we are in the era of the new form of communications where most do not use the phone anymore. Why is it that the phone is still so dominant and required when logically thinking email for example has many more upside?

I am told that the problem with email is that people do not read or do not want to read. The reason they want to talk or webex or conference call is because they are verbally told what is needed so they do not have to read it, which is more convenient for them.

That is maybe so, however, the problem with that is that people recall only 10% of a conversation and half the time they do not even pay attention, especially when it is a conference call and they are not “personally” responsible for the conversation. Thus, even if you explain and tell people something you could have emailed, chances are, you will have to re-explain and tell the same things to them over and over again. So in addition the time you wasted on the conference call, you waste some more time re-explaining.

What else is so mesmerizing about the phone that although we have tons of other form of communications, people still WANT to talk on the phone? The truth is that this is because there is no alternative to speaking person to person. Ask any sales people and they will tell you that there is no substitute for personal interactions. An email can only take a deal so far.
I was looking for the “why”. I did not see that a conference call achieved any more or was more productive than an email, the matter of fact I experienced the opposite. After thinking some more about it, I finally figured out that business “communication” is not about the outstanding things to be done, projects to be completed, or the content of the communication in general. Amongst other things, it is about human psychological needs, the need to create a rapport, a like each other feel, being comfortable, establishing sense of knowing one another.

So although we are in the era of various form of communications that would allow people to work faster and more efficiently, people still want to chit chat on the phone because of personal interactions and relationship building, and maybe a bit also because they are too lazy to read. Although this sense of “knowing one another” is false and slows all business processes down, the human need is too powerful because of which the “phone” as the main form of communication, is here to stay. What do you think?