Monthly Archives: October 2011

How to Be Remarkable on Halloween! [Marketing Update]

On last week’s episode of Marketing Update, Karen Rubin the nun and Mike Volpe the cowboy discussed companies doing it right for Halloween, social media updates, and Gronkowski on Twitter, with special guests Andy Paul and Jon Wuebben.

Doing it Right for Halloween

Nightmares Fear Factory, a haunted house in Niagara Falls, Canada, decided to take reaction photos of frightened customers and then posting the pictures to Flickr. The haunted house is so frightening that there is a “chicken list” where guests can be escorted out if they choose to yell out “nightmares.”

As a result of this marketing initiative, Nightmares Fear Factory’s traffic increased by over 10,000% after posting the pictures to Flickr. They increased engagement on Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and their website temporarily crashed after gaining 600 visits per day and 60,000 unique visits in less than 24 hours.

Nightmares Fear Factory has been talked about on ABC News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, Huffington Post, and Newsweek.

Marketing Takeaway: Content that is worthy of remarking on (AKA remarkable content) is the key to breakout inbound marketing success.

Gronkowski Ruffles Feather for Twitter Fame

Rob Gronkowski, tight end for the New England Patriots, made a decision/publicity stunt that could have jeopardized the Patriots’ reputation. Adult film star Bibi Jones posted pictures of herself posing with Gronkowski. The pictures show her wearing Gronkowski’s football jersey, with Gronkowski shirtless.

Jones posted the photos to her Twitter account. “I asked him if I could put it on Twitter because some athletes wouldn’t want that since I do adult films, and they don’t want to be associated with that. He was really cool with it because I have more Twitter followers than him.”

Gronkowski apologized for taking the photos and putting his team’s image on the line. Even though Gronkowski gained 5,000 Twitter followers, it was not worth risking his team’s reputation. 

Marketing Takeaway: In the quest for more Twitter followers, stay true to your brand.

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Haunted House Uses Social Media to Generate 10,000% More Web Traffic

Nightmares Fear Factory, a haunted house located in Niagara Falls, Canada, considers itself “The World’s Most Frightening Experience” and has a growing “chicken list” of over 100,000 people who bailed out mid-tour because they were too scared. For this Halloween season, the haunted house, which is open 365 days a year, decided to do something slightly different to get people talking. 

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The Approach

As groups toured through the Fear Factory, the company started taking their photos at the scariest point in the tour. The Fear Factory has been posting the best of these photos on Flickr and Facebook to allow people to see their own and others reactions. They have also started posting groups of photos from group tours that come through. 

The Results

The company reports that the results have been staggering. Director of Sales and Marketing Vee Popat stated, “It started on Thursday, October 6, 2011. By 1:00 PM, we noticed we were at twice the normal daily traffic on our website, and by the end of the day, traffic increased by over 10,000 percent!” He went on to credit social media, with large increases in engagement on Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The volume of traffic went from approximately 600 visits per day to over 60,000 unique visits in less than 24 hours and successfully took down the Nightmares Fear Factory website. In addition, the photos have received press coverage from ABC News, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, the Huffington Post, and Newsweek. 

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Marketing Takeaway

What Nightmares Fear Factory did that worked so well was take something simple that only they could do, and post it to their social media accounts. Because people saw themselves in the photos, it was instantly shareable. Think about how your company can be remarkable in your own unique way. What special asset do you have that you could share in an interesting way? You might not have funny photos of your customers, but chances are there is something you do have that is unique and shareable. 

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23 Reasons Inbound Marketing Trumps Outbound Marketing [Infographic]

As you likely know from reading this blog, we’re huge proponents of inbound marketing over here, and we honestly believe that outbound marketing is dead. As consumers change the way they research and shop for products and services, so must we — eliminating ineffective and expensive traditional marketing tactics like cold calling, direct mail, and print and TV advertising, and instead leveraging tactics that appeal to how the modern consumer shops, such as SEO, social media, and content creation.

So we were thrilled to come across an awesome infographic from Voltier Digital yesterday, which highlights the benefits of inbound compared to outbound marketing. If you’re not yet convinced that inbound is the way to go, check out the infographic, and feel free to share some of the tweetable stats from it that we’ve listed below.

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23 Reasons Inbound Marketing Trumps Outbound Marketing

1) 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call” list. (Tweet This Stat!)

2) 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted into. (Tweet This Stat!)

3) 84% of 25-34-year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant advertising. (Tweet This Stat!)

4) 86% of people skip television ads. (Tweet This Stat!)

5) 44% of direct mail is never opened. (Tweet This Stat!)

6) 61% of marketers will invest more in earned media (inbound marketing) in 2011. (Tweet This Stat!)

7) The average budget spent on company blogs and social media has nearly doubled in the last 2 years. (Tweet This Stat!)

8) The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business has increased 83% in the last 2 years. (Tweet This Stat!)

9) 2/3 of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business. (Tweet This Stat!)

10) 67% of B2C companies and 41% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through Facebook. (Tweet This Stat!)

11) 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog. (Tweet This Stat!)

12) 42% of businesses have acquired a customer through Twitter. (Tweet This Stat!)

13) 57% of companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn. (Tweet This Stat!)

14) 48% of companies have acquired a customer through Facebook. (Tweet This Stat!)

15) Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing. (Tweet This Stat!)

16) 3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel. (Tweet This Stat!)

17) 55% of companies who blog reported leads from their blog were “below average” in cost. (Tweet This Stat!)

18) 47% of companies who use social media reported leads from social media were “below average” in cost. (Tweet This Stat!)

19) 39% of companies who leverage SEO reported leads from SEO were “below average” in cost. (Tweet This Stat!)

20) 27% of companies who use PPC reported leads from PPC were “below average” in cost. (Tweet This Stat!)

21) Trade shows were reported as being “above average” in cost by 47% of respondents. (Tweet This Stat!)

22) Direct mail was reported as being “above average” in cost by 27% of respondents. (Tweet This Stat!)

23) Telemarketing was reported as being “above average” in cost by 21% of respondents. (Tweet This Stat!)

Are you leveraging the awesome power of inbound marketing for your business?

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Top 10 Scariest Marketing Halloween Costumes

spam costumeHappy Halloween from HubSpot! In honor of our favorite spooky holiday, we’ve put together a list of the scariest marketing costumes. Read at your own risk!  

1. The Paid Links Buyer

If the internet were an election, an inbound link would be like getting a genuine, killer endorsement. Just like paying money for that endorsement would get the ethics committee up in arms, so too does purchasing inbound links. And oh yeah, if you get busted, Google will hack up your site’s credibility and ranking like Jason and Freddy.

2. The Yellow Pages

The once proud advertising vehicle has become a drain on marketing budgets. The world goes online for its information now, reducing the relevancy of these 4-inch thick behemoths sitting on doorstops.

3. Slow Load Time

Websites with music and large graphics test visitor patience, not to mention tick off search engines. If your site takes minutes to load and jams browsers (the spinning circle of death, for Mac users), potential leads will start skipping over your site like trick-or-treaters skip houses with a rep for giving out toothbrushes or fruit. 

4. The 17-Form Field

Your content might be the greatest thing since candy corn and Smarties, but nothing is worth filling out a mile-long form. Keep your forms short and succinct. Ask only what you need to know. Long and winding landing pages are scary, needlessly daunting for visitors, and might as well be penned by Stephen King. 

5. Blog Spam

Most websites put ‘nofollow’ tags in the comments section of their blogs. That means the links contained within the non-sequitur gibberish spammers post are worth nothing. The ineffectiveness of this online link building tactic is scary, not to mention a huge time-suck for whoever is in charge of policing, approving, and deleting comments.

6. Bad Marketing Automation Campaign

Disingenuous. Impersonal. Zombie-like. Emailing your leads with messages that don’t logically connect to their interests and needs will pop your credibility like a blood capsule.

7. The TV Media Buyer

Trying to make your marketing messages impactful in a medium dominated by DVRs and online viewing sites like Hulu is becoming a Nightmare on ROI Street. Online content will make your company look like a solution, not an annoyance.

8. The Email List Buyer

Email lists deteriorate at a staggering rate each year. Purchased lists cost more than they’re worth, perform terribly, deliver scant results, and drive online marketers batty with weak ROI and bounce-backs. 

9. The Twitter Auto DM

Twitter is a proven one-to-many format for marketers who want to promote online, lead generating content. But using the platform’s one-to-one direct message functionality in an automated manner will make you look like a ghoulish spammer to users. 

10. The Old School Marketer

This person builds his or her marketing strategy out of many of the above tactics. They are the living dead, so to speak. Nailing this costume would be easy — just dress up as a ghost. 

What else scares you as an inbound marketer?

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning an AWESOME Flash Mob

HubSpot Thriller ZombiesWhat the heck is a flash mob? A flash mob is getting people to come together in a public space, surprising unsuspecting viewers with a choreographed performance/dance routine, and then walking away as if nothing happened. 

Flash mobs, when executed well, can be a great way to generate buzz, express your business’ creativity, and even garner some media attention and coverage. Want to inject some personality and creativity into your company’s marketing strategy? Consider orchestrating a flash mob! Last week, HubSpot employees did just that, dressing up in orange HubSpot track suits, sporting zombie makeup, and taking over the food court at the local mall to dance to the spooky Michael Jackson hit, “Thriller” in our very own Halloween flash mob. Here’s a step-by-step guide to planning and executing your own flash mob, using our own experience as an example.

Step 1: Be Creative

There’s nothing more exciting than watching or partaking in a surprise flash mob that interrupts people’s mundane daily routines. Flash mobs are a great way to stir up attention and create some buzz. Be creative, and think of ways to make your performance unique from previous flash mobs. There needs to be more to your flash mob than just a dance routine to make it stand out. Some flash mobs involve the performers’ hidden talents, some singing, theatrics, or getting hundreds of people to stand still for a few minutes. Your flash mob can be flashy, thought provoking, artistic, or even be used as an advertisement.

Step 2: Pick a Fun Tune

Pick a song that will catch everyone’s attention. Purchase a loud, portable stereo and cue up your upbeat dance song, classic throwback, or even a holiday related Christmas carol.

Step 3: Learn the Moves

Gather a group of your friends and/or coworkers who are willing to participate in the flash mob. Find someone who is an experienced dancer or choreographer who can breakdown the moves for everyone. Practice regularly. The key is to really perfect the routine if you want to impress onlookers.

Step 4: Choose a Date, Time, and Location

The best places for flash mobs are large, high-traffic public spaces where people wouldn’t expect something out of the ordinary. Whether you choose to target a local beach, a food court at the mall, or a train station, pick a day and time of the week during the location’s busiest hours.

Step 5: Surprise Everyone

An important thing to consider is that your performance needs to have the element of surprise. A well-executed flash mob performance should be kept secret up until the moment it begins. Catching your audience off guard is crucial. Make sure you video tape not just your performance, but also everyone’s reaction.

Step 6: Be a Cinematographer

Pack your cell phones and some HD video cameras, and capture some high quality video footage. A multi-camera shoot will provide sufficient coverage with wide shots, close-ups, and plenty of reaction shots of unsuspecting viewers. Make sure you have a camera operator that is part of the action and on the same level as the dancers. Have another camera operator shooting a wide/establishing shot from a higher angle looking down on the dancers. Your wide shot will show the scale of your flash mob. THE BIGGER, THE BETTER.

Step 7: Upload & Promote Your Masterpiece

Your flash mob may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t milk more from the performance. Edit and share your video on your website, blog, YouTube account, and Facebook page. Tweet links to the video or your post about it on your blog. You can still generate a ton of buzz from people who weren’t lucky enough to be present for the live showing. As we said before, staging a flash mob is a great way to generate brand exposure and a ton of buzz. Have fun with it! And check out the final product of our own flash mob below!

Are you yet motivated to organize your own flash mob?

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Power still out for millions after historic storm

What we’re following: 
- Power still out for millions after historic storm
- Here is the 7 billionth person
- 70 members of drug gang arrested
And did you see…
- Cain campaign denies sexual harassment
- Redbox raising prices
- Posthumous Amy Winehouse album set for releas … Continue reading

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5 Lessons Trick-or-Treaters Can Teach Us About Inbound Marketing

jackolanternsThis is a guest post written by Kimberly Lindquist. Kimberly is a project manager and in-house social marketer at ListEngage, a full service interactive marketing firm. She can be found tweeting about marketing, content, Boston, and other ramblings @lindquik.

Each Halloween the ghouls, goblins, and princesses come out and parade their costumes en masse across towns and cities everywhere. With hundreds of houses and apartments to pick from, what makes some places a raging success, while others can’t get a ‘treater to save their lives? It turns out all of those little super heroes and skeletons can actually teach us a thing or two about our own inbound marketing efforts.

Lesson 1: Make Sure They Know You’re Home

Remember those houses with the lights off, no cars in the driveway, and no decorations adorning the walkway? Not only were they spooky, but you had no idea whether anyone was home to give you candy! Although the occasional trick-or-treater might be brave enough to run up and ring the bell, these houses are generally overlooked even if they have great goodies inside.

Marketing Takeaway: Make sure people know you’re open for business. For marketers, this means always keeping your website up-to-date and providing fresh content through your various online channels such — posting often to your blog and social media accounts, making sure your landing pages are optimized and filled with valuable offers and content, etc. No matter where your visitors stop by, they should always feel like “someone’s home” to help them out.

Lesson 2: Tell a Great Tale

Whether it’s like a haunted mansion, a spooky graveyard, or a zombie apocalypse – what makes your house stand out from the rest? Pull in the candy-grubbers with a great, consistent tale about your home and goodies. Parents and kids alike always remember the places that surprise, enchant, and entertain them, so slap those bolts to your neck, get out the green face paint and lab supplies, and get your Frankenstein on!

Marketing Takeaway: Telling compelling stories is a major part of getting your new audience’s attention. Captivate them by telling the tales you know best. While for trick-or-treaters, this might mean tales of ghosts and gore, for your business, this means sharing riveting case studies, addressing industry problems on your blog, or creating a valuable ebook to attract and generate leads at the top of the funnel.

Lesson 3: Give Out the Good Stuff (But Don’t Just Give it Away!)

If telling great stories is a major part of getting new ‘treaters to your door, then another big piece of the pie is: what kinds of goodies do you have? The best houses don’t hand out lollipops and hard candies. Instead, they give out the chocolatiest chocolate bars, the chewiest gummies, and the sourest sour candies! Make sure you’re offering the best of the best, and never just leave your goodies on the doorstep unattended. The smart candy-givers know it’s a two-way street: trick-or-treaters request their loot, and candy-givers get a chance to enjoy their goofy little costumes and squeaky thank you’s!

Marketing Takeaway: Give away valuable content freely, and always interact with the folks who stop by! Find your customers’ pain-points, have the conversations they want to hear about most, and talk about the technologies you see revolutionizing your industry in the next few years. Then create ebooks, webinars, podcasts, and other content around these great topics. Just like you require a “trick-or-treat” in exchange for candy from the kids who knock on your door on Halloween, make sure you’re distributing your marketing content in exchange for lead information; use landing pages with lead-capture forms and plan to follow up on visitors’ clicks, form submissions, and downloads with a phone call or a timely lead nurturing campaign.

Lesson 4: Be Prepared. Don’t Run Out.

When you decide to open up your doors to the candy-frenzied masses, don’t get caught off guard when your house is a wild success. Be prepared to bring out more goodies, as the zombies, witches, and dinosaurs keep asking for them. Remember those houses that *gasp* ran out of candy when you were little? Definitely don’t make that same mistake.

Marketing Takeaway: There’s nothing worse than disappointing potential new customers with false hopes of content. Letting potential enthusiasts down on their first visit can almost guarantee they won’t make a second. For marketers, this means having a long list of ideas and content lined up as users come to your site looking for more great resources. Create content calendars, crowdsource new ideas from your employees and customers, and collaborate with like-minded businesses to make sure you can keep delivering those “delicious” goodies that feed your visitors as well as your inbound marketing programs.

Lesson 5: Reward Your Biggest Fans

Remember that pirate who’s been coming to your haunted house for years and bringing new friends every time? Don’t forget to say thank-you and give him the candy bar you know he likes best. Or maybe even an extra one for good measure.

Marketing Takeaway: When it comes to your business’ top fans who absolutely love what you’re doing – send the appreciation right back their way! For Halloween, this might mean a King Size candy bar for your loyal ‘treaters, but for your business, this likely means sending the retweeting love, celebrating your Facebook fans with “insider” perks, or running a special contest for your biggest advocates. No matter how you choose to thank your best fans and customers, just remember to pay it forward. Who knows, down the road they might even help keep those naughty older ‘treaters from egging your house!

What else can trick-or-treaters teach you about inbound marketing?

Image Credit: scott feldstein

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4 Ways to Maximize Your Business’ Facebook Presence

Facebook PresenceA recent study by Covario revealed that the Coca-Cola Corporation was the brand with the largest presence on Facebook in August 2011. With over 34 million fans, Coke continues to grow its fan base at nearly 3% monthly. Yes, Coke is one of the largest international brands, but there are lessons to be learned from this soft drink giant that can be replicated by any marketer. Covario incorporated into its study each company’s brand reach, engagement, technical construction, and reputation to determine Facebook presence. Below are 4 way to maximize your company’s Facebook presence like the pros.

1. Increase Your Reach

The reach of your Facebook page includes the number of fans and growth of your followers. A quick and easy starting point to grow your fan base is to leverage your existing customers and company fans. Consider adding a page on your website that highlights your presence in social media as well as adding social media follow buttons to various web pages so site visitors can easily find and ‘like’ you on Facebook. Also, remember to add social media sharing buttons, such as “Share on Facebook” or the Facebook ‘Like’ button to all of your online content such as blog articles and landing pages. This will help you capture both your existing fans and customers as well as expand your reach to their networks.

Another way to attract more followers is to release exclusive, fan-only material. Research shows that 58% of Facebook users expect exclusive content from business pages they ‘like’ on Facebook … so leverage it! Entice visitors with a sneak preview of your awesome content. Facebook allows you to create custom page tabs on your business page, so try creating a custom welcome page that encourages new page visitors to become fans (just be sure to set this custom page as your ‘Default Landing Tab’ in your page settings). (Note: HubSpot customer can easily use the HubSpot Facebook Welcome Application to create a welcome page and even use it capture leads straight from Facebook!)

2. Engage Your Followers

Engagement on Facebook includes both the frequency and relevancy of how you share content. Engagement can be measured by the number of times you post content to Facebook and the number of response comments and ‘likes’ you receive from your fans. For Coca-Cola, its average Facebook post generates 236 comments and 1,749 ‘likes.’  In order to increase engagement, it’s important to regularly create and share interesting content on Facebook. The goal of your posts should be to inform and spark a conversation with and amongst your fans. Try posting content that incorporates different topics, writing styles, tones, and formats to see which type of content generates the most reactions from your audience. Then use the information you gather from Facebook Insights (Facebook’s built-in analytics tool) to replicate success in the future. 

3. Optimize the Technical Structure of Your Page

There are a few tips and tricks to make sure you’ve structured your page properly for Facebook’s search function. Make sure your brand’s name is located in the vanity URL, page title, and body copy of your Facebook page. Also, remember to link your website to your Facebook page to drive more visitors. Be strategic about the placement of the ‘like’ and social sharing buttons on your website, and be sure to add them to your email messages and blog posts as well.

4. Monitor and Manage Your Reputation

Monitoring your Facebook page regularly can be just as critical as creating and contributing to it. It’s important to be aware of and active in any discussions taking place on your page. Your Facebook page is a way to connect and interact with your fans, and you need to uphold your end of the deal. In addition, remember to take time to track your fan growth, page views, and comments via Facebook Insights. Note that your Facebook page may be glowing with positive comments from your fans, but you should look beyond your company’s pages to get a greater sense of your Facebook reputation. Almost anyone can create a negative Facebook page associated with your brand, and these pages may also show up during a search for your brand. Furthermore, use marketing analytics software to track how much traffic, leads, and customers you’re generating from Facebook. This will help you determine how valuable your participation in this channel is for your business, which can help you make decisions about how to effectively budget your time and efforts in social media.

In what other ways can you maximize your Facebook marketing?

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4 Holiday Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

christmasIt’s almost that time of year! Christmas songs are starting to play on the radio. The temperature is getting colder. Everyone seems to be extra generous and cheerful as the holidays quickly approach. The holiday season is a great time to reconnect with your prospects and customers, but as any holiday shopper knows, the holidays can also be disastrous.

To help you keep your holiday marketing on the smart side, here are 4 holiday marketing campaign mistakes to avoid.

1. Running the Same Holiday Campaign Each Year

That picture of your employees wearing ugly sweaters was funny the first year. In fact, it even deserved a chuckle the second year. But after that, you should really think of something newer and more original. Holiday campaigns are an awesome chance to get the attention of people who may have put the idea of your product or service on the back burner. These campaigns remind them that you a remarkable company doing interesting things and that you deserve their attention. Get creative with holiday campaigns, and don’t be afraid to do something “out there.” Kicking off a campaign that includes multiple components that get released strategically throughout the holiday season is also a great way to keep your content new and fresh.

2. Forgetting to Reach Out to Your Network

Need an excuse to call a lead you haven’t spoken with in a few months? Or do you just want to reconnect with your customers? Maybe you want to increase employee engagement and get everyone at your company in the holiday spirit. It doesn’t matter who you want to connect with; holiday campaigns are a great way to do it. It reminds people about your company and gives them a sneak peek into an interesting (make sure it is interesting!) campaign. Don’t make the mistake of missing out on this valuable marketing opportunity the holiday season offers.

3. Forgetting That Not Everyone Celebrates the Same Holidays

When the holiday season starts, it might feel like everyone is celebrating Christmas and only Christmas. But as a marketer, remember that you are marketing to people with various religious beliefs and backgrounds. Remember that even though the majority of people may be celebrating Christmas, there are still other holidays being celebrated, such as Chanukkah and Kwanzaa. Remember to be sensitive about this issue when you’re working on your holiday marketing campaign.

4. Neglecting to Make Your Holiday Marketing Campaign Strategic

Creating a holiday marketing campaign is easy. Creating a strategic holiday marketing campaign to reach your target audience, engage with them, and achieve your measureable goals is a bit more difficult. Planning months ahead (yes, even when it’s still warm outside) is the best way to kick off an awesome, results-driven campaign. You need to figure out what your objectives are, how you are going to measure your success, and who you want to reach. Then create deadlines to make sure your campaign achieves everything you wanted it to.

Now that we’ve covered what to avoid, what are some of the best holiday campaigns you’ve seen over recent years?

Photo Credit: MattiOnline

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Complaining Via Twitter? Don’t Expect Much.

Twitter AnnoyanceYes, that’s me — steaming over the leaks from my brand-new roof installed by a name-brand, big-box home improvement center. It’s bad enough that the roof leaked when it hadn’t before. And, it was made even less palatable to deal with when one of the leaks was over my side of the bed.

Repeated telephone calls to the sales person, the sales manager, the customer service manager, the regional manager, and the divisional manager all resulted in a total lack of response. For. Five. Months.

The Twitter Complaint

So, what did I do? I went to Twitter and started asking @BigBoxCares why my roof was leaking not in one place — but several.  And, with the Tupperware bowls littering my house to catch the inches of water flowing from the newly installed roof, a couple of Twitpics to share my annoyance. 

Their tweeted response after my five moderately snarky tweets? “Please send an email to the @BigBoxCares customer service team with the name of the store that you purchased the roof, the installation date, and a complete history of the entire communication process. Oh, and by the way, please stop tweeting about your customer service concern because, you know, we care.” 

My tale of woe and subsequent turn to Twitter as recourse is not uncommon in today’s highly socialized world of customer service. According to customer experience research company Maritz Research, nearly half of consumers who tweeted a complaint directed toward a brand expected the company to respond—or at least to read their tweet. However, only a third of those consumers received a tweeted response from the mentioned brand. I was lucky, I guess, if that is considered the norm that they bothered to answer.

Most people expect a response to their complaints. And because many consumers are using Twitter to talk about their experiences with brands, from time to time, they share their grievances. As more and more brands have joined Twitter, consumers’ expectation for interaction with brands has risen. The Maritz study indicates that 86% of Twitter complainers would have liked or loved to hear from the company regarding their complaints. 

Expectations of Twitter Complainers

Here is a chart from eMarketer showing the age of the folks expecting a response from the brand they’ve tweeted. As you can see, the younger you are, the lower your expectations. I fall within the >50% population that expects a response. 

Twitter Complaint Study
Marketing Takeaway

Many brands are responding to tweets and mentions in order to maintain their reputations and sustain important customer relationships. Are you one of them? What are you doing to monitor your Twitter and other social media accounts to respond to and proactively prevent customer complaints?

Smart marketers understand the importance and impact of good customer service — especially online customer service — and how it can affect brand perception. Spend time monitoring your social media presence and reacting to both positive and negative mentions of your brand. Your prospects and customers will thank you.

Do you believe that consumers view brands that respond via Twitter positively?

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First-Ever HubSpot Halloween Flash Mob [Video]

Over the last two months, HubSpot has secretly been practicing the Michael Jackson “Thriller” dance routine in preparation for an awesome Halloween flash mob! Watch the video below to see how strategic planning, dedication, and practice pays off.

HubSpot + Inbound Marketing + Thriller + Mall + Zombies = EPIC FLASH MOB

How do you think we did in our first-ever flash mob?

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