Do you do traditional customer research?

Do you find that the loudest person in the room tends to skew the results?

What if you had a research network you could tap into at any point in time to get feedback? Well, you can, and communities that are built online can help you do it.

I spoke with Dan Neely, CEO of Networked Insights and an advocate of customer-driven market research. I got a chance to ask him how customer-driven research works and how the best companies are taking themselves out of the center of research efforts and putting their best customers there. He also gives us some sage advice for this year.

Build your customer research network before you need it!

About Dan

Dan Neely serves as Networked Insights’ Chief Executive Officer. Dan brings to Networked Insights more than 10 years of management, operational and entrepreneurial experience with technology, manufacturing and services companies. He is an expert in customer intelligence and has hands on experience with the challenges companies face in gathering relevant, real-time insights about their customers.

Prior to starting Networked Insights, Dan co-founded Market Performance Partners, which guided companies in market ownership through customer intelligence. Previously, he served as Director of Strategy for Scient. Scient was the fastest growing services company in history, had a successful IPO, grew to more than 2,000 colleagues and launched more than 40 ebusinesses. Before Scient, Dan worked at Deloitte and was part of a team that launched esurance, the first online insurance company.

Dan holds a BBA from the University of Georgia.

You can’t hop into a cab, step into an elevator or walk down the street without passing someone using a Blackberry, iPhone or other type of mobile device. Business professionals, students, police and even your kids are connected every second of the day. As a result, more and more carriers are recognizing the inherent value of mobile technologies as a productivity tool and have embraced them.

But what does this mean for the marketer?

I decided to dig a bit deeper with two experts in the field, Jeff Sass, VP of Business Development at Myxer, and Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Officer at crayon. I asked them to help us understand the state of mobile marketing and what we should be experimenting with in 2008.

Enjoy …

Mobile Marketing: What you need to be doing in 2008

About Jeff

Jeff Sass is Vice President of Business Development at Myxer, the leader in mobile content downloads. Jeff has more than 25 years’ experience in the technology and entertainment industries, with a major focus in the last 10 years in the Internet and mobile space. Jeff has also been the successful president/CEO of two Internet startups in South Florida and was a co-founder and CEO of mobile commerce pioneer BarPoint.com. He has also written and produced for film and television and has a deep understanding of the content business that is unique for a technology executive. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

You can text “Jeff” to “69937” (MYXER) for more info. Jeff has two personal blogs, his Sassholes blog at and the parody blog.

About Greg

Greg Verdino is Chief Strategy Officer at crayon, a marketing consultancy that helps marketers join the conversation by leveraging the power of community, dialogue and partnership with consumers. Greg writes a widely read marketing blog, was a contributing author of The Age of Conversation (one of Advertising Age’s ‘Books You Should Have Read’ for 2007), speaks frequently at industry conferences and has been quoted in many publications including BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, AdWeek, Ad Age and more. Prior to joining crayon, he led the emerging channels practice at Digitas and toiled for more than 15 years in advertising, direct marketing, technology and media.

The debate over how to make money with podcasts began shortly after they were rolled out. At first, the natural inclination was to do pre-roll or post-roll ads on podcasts – much like existing media such as TV and radio.

But some very successful companies have ignored this strategy. They have developed their own business model that has allowed them to earn money from their passion.

Here are 9 ways to make money from podcasting:

• Become a podcast consultant – Why not help those who are trying to get started with podcasting by hanging out your own shingle and offering your services?
• Start a full-service podcasting company like podango.
• Form a podcast network like PodTech and offer services as well.
• Charge for premium content – If your content is that valuable, charge for it
• Podcast advertising – Companies like Kiptronic will do audio ad insertions and share the revenue. They also do post read (listen) ads.
• Solicit donations from listeners – PayPal has an app you can put on your site that will allow folks to leave you a tip (think tipjar).
• Score valuable schwag – Barter with companies for things you need to keep your podcast series going.
• Employ a sponsorship model – An example here is MommyCast, which keeps its product recommendations really relevant to its audience.
• Build a huge following and sell your company – Wallstrip, which was bought by CBS, tapped into a huge audience, and it paid off.

If you are going to consider advertising in your podcasts, think about your listeners first. I suggest you start the show first, and then run the ad, so listeners are not lost the second they tune in. And think about listeners on an iPod shuffle. If all they hear at the very beginning of your podcast is the same ad, they will be disoriented, they won’t support your advertiser and they may even opt out of your podcast series.

Imagine an event where all the content is delivered online, either “live” or recorded. This “virtual event” is delivered with an easy-to-use, game-like interface, and it includes features for social networking.

Unisfair, a company based in Menlo Park, Calif., is offering a virtual event product and service that can revolutionize how we deliver information to large audiences. After reading some recent FactPoint research on virtual events, I decided to explore this further with Brent Arslaner, VP of Marketing at Unisfair. I wanted to figure out what marketers should be doing with virtual events in the coming year. Enjoy …

Virtual Events: What should you be doing?

About Brent

Brent Arslaner oversees all Global Marketing ensuring Unisfair maintains its leadership role providing Virtual Event solutions.

Prior to joining Unisfair, Brent was Vice President of Marketing at Jamcracker, a leading provider of On Demand Delivery solutions. Before Jamcracker, he was Vice President of Product Strategy at Kana Software where he defined corporate strategy and built strategic partnerships.

Brent went to Kana through its acquisition of Broadbase Software. At Broadbase, he was instrumental in driving the IPO process, successfully acquiring and integrating six companies and growing the company to over $100 million in sales. Earlier, Brent held senior marketing positions at PeopleSoft and Intrepid Systems.