Hi, everyone. The Paying for Performance Podcast team is taking a short break for a few weeks and returning soon. Thanks for your continued support!

Jeff, Lee, Lorrie, Michael, Chris and Amanda

- What makes one conference better than another?
- How can you best go about selecting conferences… or what ROI methods should be used to measure them?
- What makes one Webinar and/or online conference better than another?
- What are some of the newer, lesser known, yet high quality resources out there?

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

Thanks to Joe Yaker for writing in this week:

“I listened to the podcast — It was very good. In fact, I listened to a couple of the previous podcasts and was probably up until 2am. Your discussion panel is quite knowledgeable. I’m looking forward to listening to more shows as they’re published.”

(30 MINUTES)

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The gang was tied up with travel and work this week with Lee the “Lead Man” Gientke and Jeff Molander attending Leadscon. We intended to record at the show but things were really hopping! So… on Saturday we decided to quickly re-cap the newest of performance marketing conferences for listeners. Join us as we give you the skinny on Jay Weintraub’s Leadscon which took place this week in Las Vegas. Also, don’t miss Brook Schaaf’s take on the event. Lee and I look forward to meeting YOU at the NEXT Leadscon!

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

That stated, we DO need to keep ourselves educated and with an ear to the track. Digital does move fast and users of digital adopt quickly but in ways that are highly predictable if you think about it. In the words of ‘alternate reality’ advertising guru, Brian Clark, “It was never about the computers. It was never about the applications. It was never about the sales channels. The Internet was always about the people, which is why email, IM, multi-player gaming and similar developments have always been the “killer apps” of the social Web.” In the words of Deborah Schultz, “Technology changes, people don’t.” So what’s all the noise about?

More importantly, what are the trends that we should NOT be watching or investing our time in? Where does the digital marketing/ad industry house its most well-crafted hooey? Let’s separate the wheat from the chaff and decide on what trends aren’t worth our time.

Join us!

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

Happy Easter!

May your weekend be restful and joyful.  We’ll be back next week.

Yours Truly,
Jeff, Lorrie, Lee, Amanda and Michael.

(43 Minutes)

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A new breed of American worker is challenging everything the old guard holds sacred: from giving orders, to dress codes. They are called “millennials.” According to media reports, there are about 80 million of them — born between 1980 and 1995, and they’re rapidly taking over from aging baby boomers. For the most part, they were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers… or all winners. They’re given trophies just for participating and they think that a business-as-usual ethic is a waste of time. They have little time for employers with old school thinking and rules.

Corporate America is so unnerved by all this that they’re hiring consultants to teach them how to deal with this generation — one that only takes “yes” for an answer. The workplace has become a psychological battlefield. The millennials seem to have the upper hand. Why? They’re are tech savvy, with every gadget imaginable almost becoming an extension of their bodies. They multitask, talk, walk, listen and type, and text. And their priorities are simple: they come first.

So who are these people and is what we hear in the media really true? To what degree and to what degree is this being over-sensationalized? What ARE the expectations of the people entering our workforce and are they out of line with those who are in need of hiring them?

Joining is special guest, Sam Harrelson!

(35 MINUTES)

The job market for social media and marketing is taking off. Yet what the hell is social media to begin with and are marketers well-equipped to staff up and get the job of…. of… uhh… what’s the task at hand again? Oh yes — “Engage, Engage!” Today, “customer empowerment” is the new buzz term — supplanting “word-of-mouth” and “buzz” marketing. What is this all about anyway and, more importantly, how can a business owner or marketing steward actually hire talent to get the job of engaging and empowering done? Should they hire talent?

Marketers are being told to ‘engage’ their customers, form digital communities and participate in a ‘conversation’ in highly ‘authentic’ ways using this thing called social media. Problem is ’social’ isn’t clearly defined and appears to have serious interdisciplinary considerations — it seems to straddle PR, mar com, promotions, customer service just to name a few. Marketers seem ill-equipped to get the job done on the strategic (organizational) and tactical (human resources) sides. Social marketing is emerging and marketers are practicing as they pioneer. They’re trying to chase down customers that are increasingly immersed in all things digital.

But is what we’re talking about marketing at all… really? Do customers really want honest-to-goodness ‘relationships’ with marketers or do they just want more control over what and how they buy or consume? A new breed of social media agencies and service providers claim to have all the answers and, yes, they’ve convinced a good number of marketers to steam ahead rather blindly. But we know better.

So how should an organization go about hiring social marketing staff?

How should they organize and staff up?

Is it too early to even talk about this kind of thing for most companies and if so why?

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

I once worked for a CEO who called it “GSD” — Getting Shit Done. Everyone on the team of our startup Web marketing company had to come up with our own systems to GSD each week. For me that meant creating systems that kept me focused and productive. It also meant being able to close the deal — earning commitment from clients.

Much like we’re always selling we’re always needing to GSD to earn our keep — whether we’re working for ourselves or for others as employees.

This week I asked the gang — a group of successful professionals — to reveal their secret sauce behind the systems they use (the games they play with themselves) to keep on track while at home, at the office (or at this thing called a “home office”).

How do you manage priorities? What decision-making process do you use in a hyper-connected, always on world where everything seems to be a priority? How do you actually Get Shit Done each week? Do you GSD?! What are common hurdles that must be cleared and how do you clear them?

What are some good resources for people who are seeking help in getting organized and Getting Shit Done in their lives?

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

(30 MINUTES)

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Here’s what I posed to the gang this week: Give me an ugly Web site and I’ll give you a winner! Sure, brains like Rex Briggs tell us that “What Sticks” is what sells but at the end of the day, it’s not about ideas and positioning — it’s about execution and getting people to dig deep. The buck stops with people and Web sites that SELL by convincing people to instinctively slap down the charge card and push BUY IT NOW.

As I see it… on the Web, the uglier the site the better it sells. Yet is it myth or is it true? If it’s true how is it that these single pages filled with text and an occasional audio or video testimonial are sooooo ugly yet wildly effective? Heck, what is “good design” or a “good user interface?” Is it changing? Do “human-computer interaction” gurus like Jakob Nielsen hold the answers? Are there multiple best practices and how can one choose which is right for them?

Let’s try to understand the choices. Let’s figure how to actually make the Web design decision — whether you’re building their own Web site, using a template or outsourcing it to a tech-savvy helper. What is the process of creating a “good Web site” that sells?!

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.

For most people, the word “salesperson” gives them the willies. It nearly implies deceit. Why? We ALL know what it’s like to be pitched and pitched poorly. Yet in today’s work environment — no matter what industry we work in — we are always selling. It permeates our daily lives and is programmed into our subconscious habits. Don’t believe me? You have to convince your boss that it’s ok for you to take a week off; you have to get your colleagues to support a project or you have to convince a company to use your company. Heck, if you’re single and out at the bar you’re pretty much selling! See, I told ya so. But there ARE different approaches out there — some more effective than others. What’s the secret sauce? I might suggest to you: authenticity or connecting emotionally. Is this, in fact, what’s behind Microsoft’s $45 BILLION attempt to woo Yahoo?

Bottom line is YOU are, indeed, a brand. Sounds trite but it’s worth considering — since we live in an increasingly “marketing-oriented” world. You may think you’re ‘above all that selling nonsense’. Selling is for dummies who didn’t go to college and can’t do anything else, right? Wrong! We all MUST sell and sell well to live fulfilled lives.

This week the gang discusses/debates how to…
- Improve our batting averages with person-to-person selling
- Understand the secret sauce that GOOD sales people have (those who have remarkable influence)
- Get are arms around what constitutes “a Web site that can sell”

Share your feedback, comments, suggestions, news tips or saucy gossip here on our blog! We’ll consider sharing it with listeners on our next program.