Influencers Really do Enhance your Brand

The following is a case study in a) thinking out of the box and b) leveraging credibility to guaranteed success. This illustrates in spades the benefits of having influencers on board to enhance the perception of the brand. Congratulations Steve. Steve Kayser is with Cincom PR

Being Thrown Out Was a Good Start

One of Cincom's product-line divisions was spending about $60,000 per year to produce a quarterly print newsletter. But any proof that it was anything but printed, recycled wood was non-existent. However, there were abundant reasons to believe it was never being seen nor used. The evidence? Huge stacks of the routinely thrown-out newsletter in the supply closet.

The Product Marketing Manager at the time, Steve Kayser, had been hearing about e-mail newsletters in the business marketing press, so he got a quick pricing quote from an e-mail vendor and popped his head into his treasurer's office to get permission to move ahead.

Uh-Oh, Now What?

Kayser explains, "He liked the concept so much, that he said, 'Great; do it for the whole company.'" Suddenly Kayser, who'd been planning a short newsletter to interest the clients of a single product line, had to come up with a newsletter that would please the entire array of Cincom client executives – over 5,000 corporate clients in 93 countries, representing just about every industry you can imagine, from aerospace to utilities.

How do you create a single newsletter that will please top executives and corporate managers with a zillion different interests?

Quick! Get on the Way to Average

A couple thoughts occurred. What does every company have in common? Every company has customer issues, business-process issues, and content issues. Why not come up with a newsletter or e-zine that covers those common issues, throw in a featured story and a few spotlights, and be well on the way to, well … average.

Something else was needed to make it educational, engaging, and, more importantly, credible. How do you do that?

Well, perhaps ask some world-class business experts and published authors to participate. And to make it unique, why not use the power of interactivity to allow readers to ask the experts questions, and make sure they get answers?

Kayser found it fairly easy to line up experts to participate. The pitch was simple – no one would have to work very hard, and they'd get a lot of glory.

Win-Win-Win

"Experts wanted to know how many questions they'd have to answer. I said, 'Your answers can be 200, 500, or 750 words and link back to something you published or to your website. I'll only publish two questions a month. How bad can that workload be, shared between all of the experts? You're not going to get blown away with writing work, and in every issue, you’ll get exposure to our subscribers. It’s a win for the experts. It’s a win for our readers. And it’s a win for Cincom  - building credibility and awareness with each issue. Win–win-win.

So, the newsletter was named “Expert Access.” Each issue prominently features an “Ask the Experts” section near the top with a reader's question answered, and a big, fat submit button that readers click on to submit more questions. Plus, there are links to a whole panel of additional experts along the newsletter's left navigation column.  This gives all contributing experts exposure in every issue, whether or not they answered a question or contributed.

Some of the experts and contributors have included:

·        Al Ries, author of “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”

·        Dr. David Abshire, Center for the Presidency, author of “Saving the Reagan Presidency”

·        Dave Stein, best-selling business author of “How Winners Sell” and CEO and founder of ES Research Group, The Sales Training Authority

·        Tom Nies, who according to former President Ronald Reagan, is "the epitome of the entrepreneurial spirit of American business"

·        Bo Burlingham, author of “Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big”

·        Sam Horn, author of ”POP! How to Stand Out in any Crowd”

·        Stephanie Palmer, author of “Good in a Room”

·        Nettie Hartsock, author of “Start the Press!”

·        Marc Seifer, author of ”Wizard; the Life and Times of Nikola Tesla”

·        Elliot McGucken, author, poet, artistic entrepreneur, and founder of the “Jolly Roger,” a web portal hailed as the “Flagship of the Renaissance”

·        Dr. Paul Pearsall, international best-selling author of "The Beethoven Factor"

·        Jeff Thull, author of "Mastering the Complex Sale" and CEO of Prime Resource 

·        JoAnna Brandi, customer loyalty expert and customer retention maven

·        Ken Sutherland, creative impresario and the music behind the film "Savannah Smiles"

A Funny Thing Happened …

Along the way.  As the expert contributors increased – the quality of Cincom’s internal expert’s writing also grew and kept pace. The credibility of the publication blossomed. Readers benefited and responded. Cincom Expert Access grew tremendously. From 2005 at 55,000 subscribers to December 2006 at over 135,000 subscribers.

   

How to Build a Creditable Platform That Will Attract All Key Contacts (Customers, Partners, and Influencers)

Use a little humor; help readers do their jobs better; become aware of new ideas, products, and services; and occasionally, have a B2B laugh.

Kayser started a series of articles called “Shoot the Donkey” that uses a little irreverent humor to poke fun at the complexities of business today. 

How Are We Doing?

Ask. Do surveys. Ask for suggestions and comments all the time.

For example, in a recent, six-month survey, Expert Access readers were asked to rate story selection, usefulness to their daily jobs, content categories, graphic look, responsiveness, professionalism, and overall impression.

The survey received responses from all over the world including: China, the UK, Latvia, Brazil, Belgium, Scotland, India, the Philippines, France, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Zambia, the Middle East, Finland, Colombia, Eastern Europe, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States.

·        93% of readers rated Expert Access as “excellent” or “good.”

·        7% rated the newsletter as “average.”

·        There was an “opt-out” rate of less than 4/10 of 1%. (A true measure of a newsletter’s popularity is how many recipients opt out.)

·        Over 500 readers respond to a call-to-action or visit Cincom's website to learn more about its products and services with each issue.

Results

Since its launch, the Expert Access subscriber list has grown to more than 135,000 readers and is distributed in 49 countries. This is despite the fact that approximately 3% to 5% of e-mail addresses go bad each month due to job changers and other names that need to be removed.

In 2006, Cincom’s Expert Access was named one of the best B2B e-mail newsletters by Marketingsherpa.  The newsletter has also received a stack of happy reader testimonials that would make other newsletter marketers intensely jealous. For example, one reader stated, "The subjects are not common stuff, and the content is just excellent. The value? Priceless." Another reader says, "I like the stories with motivational content, the interactive nature, the humorous writing style of the editor, and the varied selection of content from diverse sources. Ask the Expert is a great idea! I intend on using that more often."

Link to a sample of Cincom’s Expert Access: http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/cincom

Comments

[Steve]

Wow - good story - who is that guy? What a dorky name. Steve.

[nettie hartsock]

Great story on a great newsletter! Your blog is very good.