However, (fortunately for our clients), McBru has a system in place to find out who is serious about buying and whether they’re a future sales prospect or a sales-ready lead. How do we get this prized information?  (HINT: It’s not based on a complicated scoring system). To get this information, we simply ask them. Sounds too easy to work, but the proof is in the pudding…

Photo credit: Mar-ket-ing Advocate

We have a current client who has been running a microsite program with us for a little more than two years now. We set up English and Chinese language microsites based on two hot vertical industries within our client’s portfolio and we drive traffic to these sites through a combination of high-impact banner ads and nurturing emails.

When a user gets to the site, they can interact without being immediately asked to register. They can choose to view one of the non-gated assets like videos, or ask a technical question on the Ask An Expert forum. If they choose to download one of the gated assets like an application note or reference design, they must first answer a series of questions in a short dialog that lets us know if they are a prospect or a sales-ready lead.

In short, they qualify themselves. Novel idea, I know. But it works! We’ve been seeing great conversion rates and since the inception of the program, our client has generated more than 6,000 self-qualified sales-ready leads and 3,500 prospects to pass on to their sales organization.

This program isn’t for everyone, but do let us know if you’re interested in exploring it further for your company.

Every mad genius needs a test subject, and we are recruiting you! Visit the McBru Facebook page and check out Geek Dialog, our latest experiment using FUSE Intelligent Dialog technology.  We believe this app has tons of potential and would appreciate your help investigating our theory. Let us know your thoughts—we haven’t invented a mind reading app yet.

Unfortunately, most spell checkers can only go so far in catching spelling errors—and in fact, if you’re not careful, they can introduce even more mistakes into your text. You should always reread your documents after running a spell check just to make sure that your well-meaning spell-checking program hasn’t multiplied the errors.

It pays to know the kinds of mistakes that spell checkers won’t catch, and also the kinds of spelling mistakes you tend to make (a lot or alot?) so the spell-check program doesn’t over-compensate when it makes corrections (alot + some spell checkers = allot, quite a different meaning). A spell-check program only works correctly if the misspelling of the original word is close to the intended word.

Spell-check programs are also limited to a finite database of words—if you’re working on a document with unusual or specialized vocabulary, be especially careful of suggested spelling changes. I remember that an early version of spell check in Microsoft Word was so limited that it flagged correctly-spelled Saskatchewan and wanted to change it to Ice Skating.

And most spell checkers can’t help if you’re using the wrong word, spelled correctly. Here’s where you simply need to learn the correct use of certain words: Nothing looks worse than misusing there, they’re, and their, or using it’s as a possessive. Even for people who know better, these are very easy mistakes to make, and most spell check programs won’t catch them. At a previous agency, one of the principals was notorious for sending out company-wide emails riddled with misspellings. Her repeated misspelling of Great! as Greta! led to her nickname (spell check was blind to this mistake).

Another level of spell-check challenge comes with the use of auto-fill word completion or word prediction programs used on some mobile devices and tablets. These programs look at the first two or three letters you enter and then suggest whole words that its algorithms figure that you are intending to type. This can be a handy feature on a tiny keyboard, but beware of its choices! Not long ago I was traveling around California wine country and discovered that in emails my phone’s word prediction feature was auto-correcting Sonoma to Sodomy.

You can imagine these emails raised eyebrows.

With 2012 already under way, there is already talk of explosive predictions. This includes what we should expect to see in web design. With new coding developments, more use of technology, and techniques, it is already starting to look like a Michael Bay-esque kind of a year in design. So let’s take a look at Mayan top 3 predictions.

1. More Responsive Interfaces
Scripting languages such as JavaScript have become much easier to animate features to allow a website to respond quickly to your mouse movements. These improvements have allowed the average user’s experience to search through your site quickly and gather information they need without having to wait for website responsiveness.

2. Sites and email meant to be touched
With the increase of the use of mobile devices, more websites and emails are being designed specifically for mobile devices. Not only to allow for easy touchscreen use, but many sites/emails are using that touchscreen interactivity and making it really unique and fun. A good best practice for your company if you want to optimize your website for mobile devices is to build a separate page or change your emails to better accommodate touchscreen mobile devices use.

3. More consistently good design
With the new capabilities of HTML5, CSS3, and the increase of mobile, developers are now creating more unique experiences. The best part is that IE is now more fully supporting new standards to finally compete better with Firefox and Chrome. What does that mean for web design? Web developers and designers no longer have to sacrifice great design because of the large audience that still uses IE.

We’re excited to put these predictions to use in our website projects this year. Keep your eyes peeled for them and other advances in design in 2012 – and let’s hope that it continues if we survive to see 2013!

• 67 percent of organizations plan to increase their email marketing budgets in 2012.
• There is a growing trend towards viewing email marketing on mobile devices.
• Landing pages, target audiences and personalization are some of the most effective fields when it comes to testing.
• Timeliness and relevant message content are consistent, ongoing challenges.

Here at McBru, we relate to incorporating relevant content as one of our ongoing goals. As so eloquently stated in the report’s Executive Summary, “in this ‘it’s all about me’ consumer climate, engaging content is crucial to a brand’s success.” Our experience, along with some recent impressive metrics, has taught us that our emails with the most relevant content get the best download rates. In a landscape where people’s inboxes are becoming increasingly inundated, it’s important to provide your readers with information that they will find useful and relevant!

We gave you our take on this benchmark report; which aspect will resonate with your email campaign?

Photo credit: Demandforce

This can be accomplished by getting curious about a client’s data – poring over recent survey results, delving deeper into research reports, summarizing key message points from recent announcements, etc. Ragan’s PR Daily calls this “data-driven PR,” and offers a few examples in the article 4 examples of data-driven PR results.

Most businesses have access to a wealth of data. Get curious about it and see what big data can do for your B2B communications program.

Apparently, 22 percent of the more than 250 senior marketers surveyed feel their agencies are struggling to transition their business models and services in the digital age. What’s worse, a whopping 51 percent say their agencies are playing catch-up with new technology.

Maybe they need to switch agencies. I understand that its really hard to keep pace with the rapid changes in the media and marketing landscapes. But, we’re meant to be expert advisers, sussing out what works and what doesn’t so our clients don’t have to.

At McBru, trying out new technologies, tools and approaches to getting our clients their unfair share of customers’ hearts and minds is a way of life. It can mean the occasional flop, but we tend to succeed a lot more than not, and when we fail, we fail fast, learn from it, and do better the next time. Its woven into the fabric of our collective DNA to be intellectually curious, and more than a little neurotic about getting great results. The combination is a good one when it comes to adopting new approaches, adding new services and delivering the goods for clients.

And, we’re actively looking for like-minded pros who might be a fit on our team. If you’re interested in learning more about us, email me at kerry@mcbru.com. Dinosaurs need not apply.

Over the last week, a couple of things happened that made me think about the importance of language and localized content, especially in a business setting. The first thing was humorous in nature. A Japanese department store posted English language signs in its windows for a sale using an unfortunate four-letter expletive.  Although I do not know whether or not it was intentional, it did garner enough attention that it was covered in more than a few places on the web and spurred discussion in the blogosphere on language and translation.

The other thing was a fascinating email and conversation with a colleague on the importance of not only knowing the spoken language or languages of the country you are trying to do business in, but also having the context of culture and history in order to communicate effectively.  In this particular instance, my colleague was referring to Mandarin which to westerners already seems complex enough with its thousands of characters. However, as my colleague explained, it has also posed unique challenges to the computer industry, which has primarily been driven by Americans using a language that only has 26 characters. Think about the poor developers that had to tackle the problem of coming up with programming solutions to handle all the characters in character based languages – challenging indeed!

It’s all interesting stuff. And it’s also a reminder to keep various things in mind when working with multinational companies where localized programs will need to be developed.  Perhaps the most important thing is to work with partners that have a true understanding of not just language, but also culture, history, politics and in some instances the technological challenges of using computers to write in languages not based on the Roman alphabet.

At McBru we work with many companies that have a multinational footprint. As such, some of the campaigns we work on need to be translated and localized into other languages in other countries. There is nothing like the insight you will get from choosing translation and localization partners that are immersed in a specific culture and language. It’s the difference between making an embarrassing mistake and capturing a truly valuable lead.

Well, yes. It’s true that many are playing with social media, mobile devices, and the like without applying basic lessons that work across most media. As a result, the campaigns become mistargeted and disconnected from business results.

Across my years in tech B2B advertising and direct marketing, I’ve absorbed several fundamental rules that apply just as well in the age of Facebook and smartphones.

1. The list (or audience profile) is most important. The best creative and the most compelling offer are wasted if they’re delivered to the wrong audience. For example, tech B2B decision makers are not going to make an evaluation or buying decision through a mobile app.
2. The offer is next in importance. If you’ve done your homework, you know what your prospects find valuable. B2B buyers like trusted information, so your campaigns should make it easy and safe to request the information.
3. Think about measurement early. Define your metrics and goals at the beginning of the process. And those metrics should make sense to the VP of sales.
4. In B2B, quality is more important that quantity. For example, all that nonsense about the value of Facebook fans pales in comparison with interacting with a key influential blogger on Twitter.

Whenever we work on a campaign at McBru, we keep fundamentals like these in mind. What would you add to the list?

G+ has made two important changes recently that is shaking things up again. In November, Google launched “pages” for businesses or brands. Similar to Facebook, users can create company pages and use G+ as that company. Many early movers jumped in but the results were not immediate.

But just today, Google launched another initiative that will certainly take G+ to the next level. “Search plus Your World” is now merging the worlds of Google Search and G+ together. Check out this quick video overview.

Here are the three main features as described on Google’s blog:

• Personal Results: enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page.
• Profiles in Search: both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following.
• People and Pages: which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community. 

With G+ pages showing up prominently in Google searches, it’s a whole new ballgame. Community managers need to start exploring the many potential advantages of G+ for their companies and brands. It’s easy to get started; first, set up a G+ for yourself, then set up a page by walking through a wizard here. Give it a go and tell me what you think.