The "Going Back to 1.0" CEO Made a Big 2.0 Comeback

All good things come to those who wait…

Remember several months back I had shared a story about a CEO who was “threatening” to go back to web 1.0 ways? Many of you have, since then, asked me about this CEO and I am beyond happy to report that after several months, discussions and strategic marketing planning, the CEO caved and has given the green light for:

• an entirely new web site (presently underway, under construction)
• all social media-related outreach and effort (there’s a catch here … read below)
• completely new approach towards, and tools for, email marketing

This is just such an exciting time for me and for the client as we are venturing forth with a renewed sense of refreshed marketing energy unlike before but getting to this point was not easy nor was it an overnight process. Let me tell you how we got there …

How it was done

Persuading the CEO was not all that easy. In fact, I had received a lot of feedback from marketers who essentially said to dump the client and move on to greener pastures. I couldn’t do that, however. This client has been with me for a long time and I have a loyalty thing. Not only that, the client has so much potential to be and do more. I absolutely *had* to see this dilemna through to its fruition.

Overall, I had to do the following to turn this CEO’s mindset around:

• Give it some time
  I knew we both needed some space and time on the matter. He was a bit jaded about marketing at the time. I was a little disillusioned that he didn’t seem to “get it.” So for a while, we just let it go. I knew that soon enough, I’d find the the right opening of opportunity to bring the subject back up again.
• If possible, let them bring the subject (or something related to the subject) up
  A few short weeks after the CEO began threatening web 1.0 regression, he received an email promotion from a competitor who was using online video to discuss a key industry topic. Not long afterwards, the CEO began asking, “Hey, why aren’t we using videos?” …. D’oh! Well, that was part of our whole 2.0 discussion … so this was a foot back in the door for this subject. Despite the opportunity to bring the matter back up in full, the Marketing Manager and I (yes, we were working in very close collaboration) touched the subject lightly simply stating we had brought that up once before but he didn’t seem all that interested. Ooooohhh I love reverse psychology

The whole online video issue seemed to perk the CEO’s antennas a bit which led to some very healthy discussions about marketing plans for 2009. The CEO wanted a complete 2009 marketing plan on his desk shortly after the New Year. “How much honesty do you want?” I asked. His response: “Go for it.”

And I did …

The 2009 Marketing Plan

With the Marketing Manager’s full blessing, I was tasked with the creation of the company’s comprehensive strategic market planning for 2009. This was an exhaustive document as it included many key areas as typical marketing plans do. But this marketing plan was special. It was our golden ticket to really hone in on our issues with regard to the CEO’s marketing mindset and web 1.0 leaning ways.

Ideas for Defining a Company’s Current Situation for a Marketing Plan

As you can see from my no-holds barred approach, I was forthcoming in identifying the reality of the marketing situation for this company. Much of the nitty-gritty details have been stripped for obvious reasons but I’ve shared enough information here with you to help you see some of my approach. My goal here is that if you can take any of this language to help you better position an idea, a plan or describe some of the challenges you or a client faces, then I’ll feel great because I believe some of the items I’ve touched on in this document are very relevant realities in many companies and organizations, no matter their size or budgets.

Today…

After having read many of the on-target findings with regard to what other competitors are doing and reading, first hand, where some of the lost opportunities were at, the CEO has swallowed his web 1.0 pill and is now allowing the Marketing Manager and I to proceed full force into web 2.0 land.

Presently, my hands are a bit full in getting the company’s digital marketing efforts into this new and exciting direction and I hope to share some of the work to this end soon in the near future.

For now, I just want to thank everyone for their comments, ideas and emails asking for an update to this story. I hope you all get a lot out of my “current situation” truth document and I encourage you to freely copy/paste/edit any of the language I’ve included in that document into your own market plans, proposals or any other document where you are required to outline specific pros, cons and challenges of any marketing big picture.

If any of the information I have shared is helpful to you, please leave me a comment below to let me know about it

Good luck!