No time to do cards this year? No problem. I had our interactive team put together this handy 90 Second Card Creator. Now you can quickly and easily create your own online holiday message by mixing your favorite card (by Merge Volunteers) and your favorite music choice. All of us at Merge are grateful for your friendship and trust. We wish you all the best this holiday season.

For most businesses, effective marketing is less about how much you spend than the brainpower behind your decisions. I see our marketing peers focusing on getting clients to spend more with over-simplified statements about spending on marketing in a downturn. It is well documented that marketing in a downturn is critical, but spending with no idea of what your return will be is just flat wrong. This applies in an up or down economy. Most small to medium size businesses cannot afford an executive level CMO. I mean someone who has the experience and depth to build an outcome-based marketing plan and execute against a specific return on your investment. Small to medium-sized businesses often execute marketing projects with minimal or no outcome-based strategy. The impact of this is wasted money, minimal results and the directionless malaise that comes from executing tactics with no discipline.

Ninety Seconds take away:

If you do not have the expertise internally to perform this role effectively…“rent”. It may sound strange, but it is a simple idea that has been a low cost, high return service for our clients. All of our senior marketing people know they will be CMO for several companies. Ten hours a month of the right executive will yield far more results than 160 hours of someone who executes tactics alone.

Due to real world budget constraints and the lack of consolidation in the white label social networking space, we often have to make technology decisions before finishing our homework on strategy. Prior to this decision, we map out our audiences and create an ideal list of communication tactics to best fit the needs of the audience and the goals of the community. We do this while taking into account the existing communication tools they are already using. The resulting list is typically short and covers the spectrum between closed communication and open collaboration. An example of closed communication tools are email, phone, messaging. An example of open communication tools are blogs and forums,White label social networking vendors tend to take the approach that volume is everything and the more tools they offer, the better they stand out from their competition. While this looks great on paper, there’s a necessary balance that must be struck as to not overwhelm users with too many ways to communicate.If you put 100 people in a room, give them 50 ways to communicate, you’re likely to end up with 50 separate conversation silos each with no more than two people. This wouldn’t meet the objectives of most communities, where you want the broader community engaging in larger conversations. If you were seeking one-on-one communication tools, you’d likely be better served by e-mail, phone conversations or text messaging. Many of which you’re already using today without the community.

Ninety Seconds take away:

When you think about communication channels less is more and sometimes the tried and true dull ones like email and phone work best. Don’t let the shear wealth of features distract you from a simple elegant solution. In many cases you need to turn off most of the bells and whistles to meet your real objectives.

I started this company smack dab in the middle of the ‘90-‘91 recession. We had a quick ramp up while in the depths of the downturn, and we landed two huge clients we had no business landing for a start-up agency. It was dumb, naïve luck to put so much energy into getting my new company’s word out at a time when most people were pulling back into silence and the mood was grim. I was not aware at the time that I had just learned a couple lessons about times like these…lessons that I feel even more strongly about now, after almost 20 years, 150+ clients, and two other recessions before this one.Here are the two very simple lessons I learned living through previous recessions while helping our clients navigate through the same:

1. Recessions always end…I mean always, including this one.
2. Your biggest opportunities are often right smack in the middle of a downturn.

Ninety Seconds take away:

• Spend less, market more and better, keep it simple
• Measure the outcome of every marketing dollar you spend
• Use the Internet more…old media less
• Make your message crystal clear
• Meet more people face-to-face and do an excellent job following up with them

Last year we launched The Mulling @ Work web site for Emory’s “@ Work” radio show. The show recently received a 2008 Gabby Award of Merit for Best Non-News Radio Program.

Today we’re proud to announce that we’ve expanded the online resources on the site and added the ability to Buy “The Mulling Factor” Book and Take “The Mulling Factor” Assessment.

Enjoy the site, and we look forward to hearing how we can continue to improve and evolve MullingAtWork.com.

Executive to lead Merge’s new CMO-for-Hire Practice

I am happy to announce that we have added an excellent leader to the Merge team, Judy Fergusson. Judy is the Founder and former CEO of Bright Impact a top Merge competitor. Judy led an excellent marketing firm for over 10 years. When I learned the leader of one of our toughest competitors was available, I dropped everything and called her. At our first lunch we connected immediately as we share the same vision and values for our company. Judy has a lot of passion for Marketing that produces tangible business results…

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