Quick Poll Regarding Outsourcing of Business Functions

I realize that this poll isn't quite up the alley of my usual topics of discussion, but I was curious as to what business functions are looking to be outsourced in 2011. If you don't mind...

USAA - I Love These Guys!

Every December I look forward to an email from USAA Insurance Company. Being an "ex-military brat", I was fortunate to take advantage of USAA's services when I started to drive through my Dad's Army service during the Vietnam War era. I receive this email from Josue (Joe) Robles Jr., Maj. General, USA (Ret.) and CEO of USAA Casualty Insurance Company every year. In short, it states;

"As a valued policyholder, you are part of the community of military families that USAA is here to serve and we are pleased to put money back in your pocket with this year's auto dividend. This dividend is a benefit as a policyholder, and it's just one of the things that make USAA different from other financial services companies. The following summarizes your dividend and we'll place a receipt in your USAA Documents Online within a few days."

This year, my check was for $115 and change. They credit that amount to my account. How excellent is that?! This form of year-end customer appreciation could be done across many industries. I will never leave USAA. Period.

Everything you know about COLOR might be wrong

I recently saw this SlideShare presentation attached to my LinkedIn account page. The author's name is Will Longaphie. He's a Canadian graphic designer. He takes the time to break down the perceived primary colors and enhance their definition a bit. It's sort of a "everything you learned as a kid is wrong" approach. Interesting look at the world of color, or COLOUR as he spells it. Take a look...

On-Demand Motivational Messaging

I found an interesting application that sends motivational messages directly to your cell phone. All you need to do is tell the company, MyWilson (inspired by the movie, "Castaway") which subject you need help with such as, quitting smoking, saving money, personal training, sales motivation, etc. and they will send a text message to your cell phone. You'll receive daily reminders and motivational messages to help you meet your goals. You can try it for free for 48 hours and then pay them month-to-month by credit card for a nominal fee. A simple way to use on-demand technology to keep you focused!

Aligning Marketing and Sales

A good friend of mine, Joe Zuccaro, is the owner of Allinio. They are a marketing automation services company dedicated to helping firms align marketing & sales, automate lead management processes, and grow revenue. He recently posted a presentation discussing the challenges of aligning marketing and sales from a "birds-eye" view. I found this presentation extremely entertaining and right on the mark. It's critical for the Marketing department to be on the same page as the Sales department. Marketing needs to reach out to the sales folks and visit clients on a constant basis. The Sales folks need to proactively communicate with the Marketing folks on a monthly if not weekly basis. Marketing folks should be on the Sales team conference calls and in their meetings. Alignment is critical in today's business environment. Ignore it at your own peril!

Checkout Allinio's presentation below:

Live the Beautiful Game - Interactive Facial Integration

Found a great interactive link sponsored by Cisco that allows you to upload a picture of your face and then integrate it into a commercial. Pretty clever stuff. Imagine if you had a database of client faces and you could create visually personalized ads distinctly for them. Pretty cool...

Great Conversation About Inbound Marketing

Found this great interview about inbound marketing and social media between John Moran at BlueWave Marketing & Promotions and Brian Halligan, CEO of Hub Spot. Brian is "trying to build a California-style company in the heart of Cambridge, Massachusetts." Sounds like an exciting place to work. Check it out...

On-Demand and Online File Conversion - Zamzar!

Quite often I come across a PDF document that I've created and need to make changes to that document. The problem is that I sometimes lose the original. It would be nice to "just convert" the PDF to a DOC file so that I can make those changes. Well, I came across an online (SaaS) application called Zamzar. They currently have a slew of ways to convert files of all shapes and sizes (including video) to another file type. No software to download; it's all software as a service. Give it a try at www.zamzar.com or watch the video below to learn more.

Accelerate Your Web Site - Critical On-Demand Tool!

I found this Australian company called Aptimize. They make a web site load faster. It's a critical point in on-demand marketing that we sometimes overlook. All these social media web sites don't mean diddly if they are too slow to load or complete a task. The company's CEO, Ed Robinson, does a great "laymans" explanation of the benefits of Aptimize's services. His use of live action and simple animation is fantastic (from a layman's point of view, of course)! Check it out and when you're finished, download their sample report.

Bach and Integrated Marketing Campaigns

I'm a huge fan of J.S. Bach. Probably because his music is full of ADHD-laced 16th notes which was common for the Baroque period of classical music. 16th notes are fast and allow for integration and scaling of other musical instruments. Bach's style was also notable for the way he built his musical compositions on a common theme. He would start out with one instrument and then add additional instruments building on the common theme. In the end, he would have a beautiful, flowing masterpiece. Just listen to the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, 3rd movement (allegro). It builds and builds...

What does this have to do with integrated, on-demand marketing? Think about it. With a true, integrated marketing campaign, you start with a medium and specific theme (just like Bach); be it a design, message or whatever. You then add additional marketing mediums (instruments) to compliment the original medium without losing the theme. By the end of the multi-touch, marketing campaign, you will have created a beautiful, flowing masterpiece and hopefully a positive ROI for your efforts.

In the words of Corporal Walter O'Reilly of M*A*S*H fame, "Aaahhhhh, Bach"!

YouMail - Integrating your mobile phone, voicemail, email and SMS

I recently signed up for a free service called YouMail.

YouMail provides a robust replacement for your mobile carriers voicemail system. Some of the features include Visual Voicemail, Voice-To-Text, Personal Greetings (they've got a whole library of these), Voicemail Sharing, Unwanted Caller Blocking and Voicemail By Email. It took around 15 minutes to set everything up and provides much more of a visual experience then my mobile carrier's voicemail system. Best of all it's free!

Another great example of integrating conventional and online marketing technology... ON-DEMAND!

YouTube Direct - On-Demand Reporting for the Rest of Us

So YouTube is now offering the rest of us an opportunity to shoot video news footage and upload it to our favorite news channel's web site. The news channel gets to approve it first, of course. What a fantastic way to get grassroots video footage of breaking stories onto the Internet and airwaves. Check out the YouTube Direct video of their service offering: