I have a new venture I’ve started, the Profitable Female Consultant. My mission is to help work-at-home moms and female consultants make more money. You can read all about why I started it at my other blog as well as view the site.

If you’re friends with WAHMs or female consultants, please forward the link to them. Thank you!

One thing that drives me insane is seeing pictures of buildings on company Websites (whether large or small companies).

As I’ve said on numerous occasions, people do business with people, not buildings, so why not add pictures of your team on your About Us page? Even better, why not include video, that way savvy companies are now doing?

I’ve also been promoting the idea of going for a walkabout through your company in order to glean ideas for Web content. I’ve always thought this a great idea, but how do you do implement it if you’re a company where people sit in cubicles and peck away on keyboards all day? What exactly do you tour?

How to combine the two?

I scratched my head about this for awhile and hit on the idea of asking companies if I could tour them in order to feature their people on my blog. I needed a test subject, so I called Jonathan Kay, Ambassador of Buzz for Grasshopper Group, and asked if he would be my guinea pig. He immediately said yes.

The result is my first video — Let’s Tour Grasshopper. In it you’ll find four brief interviews of the people inside the building where Grasshopper is located.

The video gives you only a brief sense of just how much Grasshopper interacts with customers as well as how busy they’ve been developing new products. Since filming the video, Grasshopper has come out with Spreadable, the product Jonathan talks about in the video. (Spreadable lets companies increase word of mouth referrals; Grasshopper Group has also developed Chargify — a simple recurring billing system).

This was a real learning experience

Let me just say that while it sounds easy to go out and buy a cool Flip video camera, interview some people, and then upload the video to YouTube, it’s actually not. I made all kinds of filming errors, such as talking over my subjects.

I also had to figure out how to cut down about 60 minutes of “tape” into the three and half minute video you see above. That took awhile and a lot of back and forth between me and my video editor.

Despite all the mistakes and the humble product, I’m very happy and can’t wait to do the next one.

Thank you, Jonathan, and everyone at Grasshopper Group. You were welcoming and hospitable and open with your information. I wish I could have shown the interviews in their entirety. I’m really impressed at what you’ve accomplished and where you’re going as a company — and I’m honored to showcase you on my blog.

I’ve noticed people on Twitter talking about QR codes, so of course they popped out at me while I perused the November 15, 2010 issue of Fortune. Specifically, companies are using them in ads: in this particular issue, Time, Fortune and Ford ran ads that included QR codes.

What is a QR Code?
According to Wikipedia, “a QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.”

Because they’re so new, the three ads gave instructions for what to do with the QR code — which is how I learned that you need some background info in order to see the marketing riches behind these funky codes.

“Simply scan the QR code with your smartphone” . . . uh no.
The ads for Time and Fortune carried easy to follow instructions — “simply scan the QR code with your smartphone.” To me, scan means “scanner,” as in a scanner iPhone app, as in RedLaser, which is a really cool app, in case you don’t have it.

RedLaser does scan the QR code and then gives you a URL. You then have to cut and paste the URL into your iPhone’s browser, a two-step process. You can also download QR scanner apps. My son, who is much geekier than I, immediately took on the challenge of downloading QR code apps; we spent close to an hour trying to figure out how the codes and apps worked.

The problem with using RedLaser to scan QR codes is that you have to ensure the code is in an upright position. To do this, I had to tear the ads out of the magazine and then hold the ad steady while trying to scan the code. This process worked for the Time and Fortune codes, but this is because the printed codes were fairly large. The Ford ad didn’t work at all and I think this is because the code is too small.

After trying to open the Ford QR code via TwittQR (see below) I finally followed the instructions on the ad, which read, “Simply open your phone’s browser and download the free app at gettag.mobi [from Microsoft] or text “MFORDTOUCH” to 4FORD. Then follow the directions to snap this tag and see MyFord Touch come to life.”

This worked. After downloading the app and then scanning the code, I was taken directly to a mobile Web page advertising Ford’s new 2011 Edge.

(You Droid users have it easy: a scanner is part of your phone.)

QR codes now part of marketing campaigns
During this trial and error time, my friend Margie Dana, founder and President of Print Buyers International, and I tweeted back and forth about our frustrations with QR codes and the apps. (Margie also has a new book out: “Print Buying Made Simple,” 138 pages of advice for print buyers. Be sure to check it out.)
In the middle of this, @SpeakFeel tweeted me to say I should check out TwittQR.com for an easy way to handle QR codes.

All you do is take a picture of the QR code, open your Twitter phone app and tweet the picture to @TwittQR. TwittQR then sends you back the URL, which appears in your timeline. You can then click on the link to view.

It took me a couple of tries, but I finally got it. The entire process made me see that I needed to write about this topic, because as I told Margie, if I can’t figure it out, how will non-marketers?

Since he had tweeted me the link to his QR app, I asked Noel Webb, Vice President of SpeakFeel Corporation if I could interview him. (This, my friends, is Real Time Marketing in action. See how it works?)

Svedka Vodka integrates mobile, Facebook
Noel’s company is the genius behind TwittQR and the new Sveda vodka campaign that’s been getting some buzz in the trade press. Posters around Canada advertising Svedka also included a QR code. When people tweeted the code (via TwittQR), they received a message with hashtags “#SVEDKA” and “#TwittQR” plus a custom message and a short URL that went to a mobile site.

Once there, people could then sign in via Facebook and “Like” the Svedka Vodka Page. (For those of you not using Facebook, this means that any time Svedka puts out a message to its “Friends,” that message shows up in their personal profiles. This is why companies are drooling over Facebook’s 500 million users. Who wouldn’t kill for that kind of one-to-one marketing?)

“One of the goals of the campaign,” says Noel, “was to increase the number of Facebook fans, which we accomplished. Svedka also outsold Smirnoff for that quarter.” You can read the full campaign details at Mobile Marketer. You learn more about TwittQR and SpeakFeel Corp. at Going Cellular.

Are QR codes the next best thing?
I definitely see the potential of QR codes and how marketers can use them to engage people by getting them from print to Web. However, the downside is that QR code use is not standard nor are the apps, something pointed out in the Going Cellular post.

In addition, marketers need to use language carefully. As my experience shows, telling people to “simply scan using your smartphone,” isn’t “simple” nor do you “scan” if you’re using an iPhone. And making people download an app, as the Ford ad did, is ok, but it did take me a few minutes. In our now “instant world,” these few minutes are the difference between campaign success and failure.

What’s your experience with QR codes and how do you think B2B companies can incorporate them into the marketing mix? If you’re a B2B company and have successfully used a QR code in a campaign, I’d love to interview you for a blog post.

UPDATE: Also check out these related items:

The CueCat — A barcode reader from the 1990s used for scanning barcodes in catalogs (way before its time, unfortunately). Hat tip to @PeterKretzman.

JagTags — Tags used by consumer brands, such as Macy’s. Hat tip to @LoisGeller.

2d Code — A magazine that is the definitive resource for all things QR Code. Edited by @RogerSmolski (and a hat tip to him).

Nice e-book from Schenkel / Stegman Communications Design, written by Stephanie Tilton of Savvy B2B Marketing fame, and sponsored by AG SalesWorks: Gear Up for Success: 8 Steps to Get Sales and Marketing Cranking in Unison.

As the title states, the e-book covers how to get sales and marketing to work together in order to “sell the way buyers want to buy.” As we all know, the Internet has completely upended how companies sell to other companies — and it’s more important than ever that companies’ sales and marketing teams be on the same page with regard to defining, attracting and nurturing leads.

Stephanie culled insights from blog posts and articles online, and interviewed leading experts for ideas and recommendations you can put into play today. Strategies include:

1. Identifying your ideal customer
2. Defining a qualified lead and processes for generating and nurturing them
3. Developing messaging and executing a more comprehensive yet targeted marketing strategy
4. Creating content that attracts, engages, and nurtures
5. Connecting where prospects spend time
6. Implementing an inside sales/teleprospecting strategy for lead follow-up and qualification
7. Handing leads off to sales
8. Closing the loop, measuring the results, and refining your strategy and tactics

Even if you’re an advanced marketer, you’ll find lots of nuggets in this e-book. I especially like the tip from Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot. “Every time a lead enters your system,” he says, “automatically find the lead’s Twitter and LinkedIn profile, so the sales person can see what is on the lead’s mind (by following them on Twitter) and who is most closely connected to them (by looking at the LinkedIn info).”

In addition, your CRM system should incorporate the various feeds from social media platforms for each lead. With this information inside the system, sales people and teleprospectors doesn’t have to do time consuming research to see what each prospect is thinking / talking about. It’s all right there in the lead’s record.

Whether you’re a small or mid-sized B2B marketer, you’ll get a great deal of information from Gear Up for Success. You can download your copy without having to register for it.

61 out of 100. That’s the number of Fortune 100 companies that didn’t respond to an email from best selling author David Meerman Scott requesting information.

The big names are astounding: Abbott Labs. Comcast. DuPont. General Dynamics. Ingram Micro. Pfizer. United Technologies.

You can find the full report and analysis in David’s new e-book, Real-Time: How Marketing and PR at Speed Drives Measureable Success (and his new book, Real-Time Marketing and PR, a MUST READ).

One could argue that these multi-national companies are too big to respond to an email from a book author. After all, they’ve got so many more important things to do. And besides, anything can go wrong with an email, as I’ve learned when people say they’ve sent me email but I never received it.

I’m sure a few of the 100 emails David sent didn’t reach their intended recipient. But still, 61 out of 100 – that’s almost two-thirds of Fortune 100 companies that didn’t respond to a simple email.

As David points out after analyzing the Fortune 100 and their stock prices, the ROI of real-time engagement with customers, media, and prospects is glaringly apparent:

Fortune 100 companies that engage in real-time beat the S&P 500 while others, on average, underperformed the index.

Not answering an email from an author who writes about marketing and PR in the Internet age not only makes you look bad, it costs you money.

This holds true for small and mid-sized companies, too. I’ve heard horror stories of small companies who send all Web inquiries to an email address that rarely gets checked. In fact, I had an electrician to my house a couple of weeks ago who said that the email on his Website doesn’t work. (But he’s so busy, he didn’t seem to care, which is a shame.)

Email is a pain in the butt, but . . .

Look, I know email is a pain. I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle with keeping up with it. And sometimes things do fall through the cracks and to my horror I’ll realize I haven’t returned someone’s inquiry in a timely manner.

Unlike our Big League Fortune 100 cousins, however, we small business owners really have no excuse. And due to our size, the performance expectation is higher. I don’t expect an answer from a big company. I do expect to get one from a small company — and fast.

When you build a Website, you’re basically building a path to your business that anyone in the world can use to get to you. This path is used by spammers, clueless PR people, vendors who want your business — and prospects interested in your offerings.

This means that instead of keeping people at arm’s length via a contact form, which I often see companies do, you have to make it easy for people to contact you. This is why I think small B2B companies should post their phone numbers and email addresses on every single page of a Website (rather than just the Contact Us page).

When people do contact you (and I’m talking about real people, not spammers), return the favor and reply back to them. Who knows, you could end up a with a sale (which is what happens for me on a regular basis) or you may get a good write-up about your company in a book, blog post or news article, as the following examples show:

Does Your B2B Website Need a Facelift? — An interview with Samuel Greengard of ChannelPro SMB.

Are Customer Testimonials Smart Marketing Tools? — An interview with Lisa LaMotta of Forbes.com

Personal Branding Through the Eyes of a B2B Marketer — An interview with Dan Schawbel.

What do you think? Have you had a company respond to you in real time via email or Twitter? How do you feel when you call a company and get a “real” person answering the phone instead of voice mail? I’d love to hear your stories.