Email: The most important channel for B2B marketing

As a data driven marketer, I get really excited when I see the comparison of how different channels perform. For me email is by far the most important channel. Rather than talk too many words on the topic, I found this infographic from Visually which says why it is important.

Tax: Expense or liability?

I filed my tax returns for the previous financial year yesterday. Finally! It's one of those tasks that is boring, manually tedious (even with a Mac compatible software this time) and low value creation in terms of intellect and wealth.
This pie chart from IBISworld (www.ibisworld.com) got me thinking on the fact that a tax is an expense. If each one of us, was a business, I would've viewed it as an expense. But, as an employee, I have always treated it as a liability. By liability, I mean, what is left after tax is where I start from as a revenue to the household! I now work in the salary packaging industry - and as a marketing guy. And still I realised this fact only when prompted by the chart. Food for thought - to be smarter about taxes. Not avoidance, just being smart about reducing expenses. $500 saved is as good as $500 earned!

Social media checklist for brands

This was a really good guideline for social media managers of brands that was posted on my Google+ feed by Fatemeh Fakhraie. Simple yet very useful!

Re-building trust one step at a time

The last few weeks have been good for me and trust. I am generally a naive kind of guy anyway - very trusting in the good of the world.Let me straight get into.

Last month, I lost my wallet in the train in Sydney. I didn't know I'd lost it either. I thought I'd left my wallet at home. Then I got a call from Pooja saying that she'd received a call from my insurance company saying they'd got a call from Wynyard station in Sydney CBD - they had found my wallet. Not knowing my wallet was lost was a relief, but having found it and picking it up from the train station manager - a nice lady - who had accounted for every cent in the wallet - was uplifting!

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. A guy's car was in front of our house a for while and he looked like he was trying to do something to the tyres. He knocked on our doors and said he wanted to borrow $50 - he had lost his credit card and he needed NRMA to come fix his tyre. Again, with a lot of trust, I gave 50 bucks - giving him the benefit of the doubt. What if he was saying the trust - would be rude - someday I'll need help or someone I love and care about will need help. More than anything else, he looked like he was telling the truth. He gave me his driver's license to take a photo of. Again, on the very next day, he had dropped the $50 note in a little envelope and saying thanks for helping him out.

These 2 incidents have reinforced that trust is alive and well. We all need more such incidents to bolster our trust in trust!

There's never a right time

It's too hot, it's too windy! Or my boss is not in right mood. These are all common excuses I come up with for not doing something. I wish to change but translating to action is a bit weak. I'm sure I have company from many people.
Yesterday was Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. One of key message of his was "Be the change you wish the world would have!".
Got me thinking about the multiple excuses I have for not making that last effort.
Change is not easy. The older we get the more ingrained our assumptions are. Our assumptions are based on our reality. Being an agent of change is hard work. Gandhi saw non violence as a means to win a battle of minds and wits. He was successful in so many ways!
How can we implement some basic philosophies of change? A small commercial phrase "Just do it!".

Communicating the benefits of reliability for a utility

Utilities are the hardest services to differentiate from a marketing and branding point of view. When was the last time you thought of switching a payroll provider, or an electricity provider?
In the world of IT and technology infrastructure, change is a pretty common theme. What are some themes that are common to all utilities?

• They are talked about only when something goes wrong
• There's not a lot of excitement about the service provider

But in the world of marketing, everything can be differentiated and worked on. You just need to find the unique messaging or pain point. This LinkedIn inmail message from Macquarie Telecom was a stand out for me. I was so impressed that I took a screenshot of the message. The Inmail says it all for me.

Left, right or center?

It's election time in Australia. The politicians are trying to get everyone's attention on who had a better policy.
Watching Q and A (#qanda) last night listening to the 3 sides of politics (Liberal, Labor and Green) and 2 sides of media (News Corp and non news corp), I figured that no one really has a vision. This election is important for my job - clearly Labor policy has been on the go and is a threat to my job and an entire industry built around FBT on cars. But what does it mean for my kids' future?
My own standing in the political landscape is really mixed. I'm a social and economic liberal. The Liberal party comes close on my opinions of economy,  but social policies don't cut it. I don't think war mongering on boat arrivals is a good idea. That's where Labor has really conformed to the right by playing a populist tactic that sounds like this "Stop the boats". The Greens have a different ideology - but I have seen far too many idealists get corrupted by power. 

In effect, the choices are pretty bleak from a futuristic point of view - however, on economic credentials, I do have a problem with Labor. They are stuck in an era of industrial action and labour unions - where there are no industrial jobs left anymore. We are in a knowledge economy now! Therefore, the grand action plans that are built in an industrial era, a school system that creates more industry workers is not a solution. It's time for "real change" ;).

Regularity is more important than frequency

It's a strange reality that consistency is rewarded and regarded much more than sparks of occasional brilliance.
In every sphere of life and examples I have seen - blogging, eating, sleeping,  exercise ... regularity and predictability are more important than anything else. Why is this so?
Well mankind or even life in general is built around patterns of space and time. A routine builds patterns in our mind and reading a pattern becomes easy if there is predictability. We teach our kids about the Hare and the Tortoise. Yet the message can be taken to every domain.

The boat ride

Every Friday I try to take the ferry home. The walk from Town Hall to circular quay gives extra steps on my pedometer. The view of the opera House and just tgd relaxation of the motion of a boat is such a beautiful experience. I used to do this every day both ways of commute to the office. Sydney is home.

Trying a different mode of public transport

Gamification of walking and fitness is the best thing to happen to my fitness. Ever since the jawbone up band has come into my life, a small switch in perspective has occurred.
What I used to consider commute time is now exercise time. Walking 10000 steps a day is not easy. I have met tge target only 3 out of 15 days so far.
Data has become such an integral part of our every day lives. As a marketer, many times, data is an end goal in itself. How many times do we get thrilled about the number of site visits, page views, bounce rates. Like in marketing, wearable devices are going to explode - there are going to be tracking devices for every activity we perform. And as a marketer, I can relate these statistics to control the way my body reacts. Exactly, like how we know what data points are important for our website.