Social Media Optimization & US President Election

Mr. Barack Obama was not only the first Black American to become the president of United States, but also the first social media president.  Anyone who has noticed the way how he used the web to his advantage would agree with this statement. Social media is so powerful??, can it take a person to winning podium?? Let us see…

Mr. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the favorite candidates for the presidential post.  Before contesting the election, Barack Obama led an ordinary life as a citizen of the U.S, while Hillary Clinton had been the First Lady of America.  She was a known face and had made her impression on a number of American citizens through public appearances as the First Lady.  These aspects of her personality and her familiarity as a public figure was indeed a huge advantage and Mr. Obama was faced with the challenge of drawing public attention and winning their hearts.  He used the web to do this and it was indeed very well received.

Apart from having an official website and canvassing online like other candidates did, he harnessed the power of social media and used it as a platform to share, communicate and connect to people.  This not only gave him a wider scope to be visible, but also offered him a medium to connect to people and converse with the common. He used blogs, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook to propagate and reach out to people.  This created trust in the minds of people and gave them a chance to learn the prospective development Obama as a president could make. The communication was two way, winning people’s heart to great deal.

The Stats go like “ Since February 2007, Mr. Goodstein, who is the External Online Director for “Obama For America“, has helped attract nearly two million supporters on MySpace, about 6.5 million supporters on Facebook, and 1.7 million supporters on Twitter. This strategy of using social networking tools worked well, enabling the Obama campaign to out-maneuver Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which was enjoying the support of the institutional base of the Democratic Party.“

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again. If you are selling products/services or just publishing content for ad revenue, social media marketing is a potent method that will make your site profitable over time.

NIk!

[Via http://infozoneinc.wordpress.com]

Why New Year Greetings are Better than Christmas Cards

Savvy B2B companies stand out with differentiated communications

Did you notice a change in the assortment of “holiday” and “Christmas” greetings you received this year? No doubt you saw many more electronic greetings, as did I. How did these electronic greetings differentiate their sender? Did you see any stand-outs?

For me, there was only one e-greeting that stood out from the pack, and it wasn’t even a card sent specifically to me! It was, in fact, a card by Eloqua that had gone viral: http://holidays.eloqua.com/index.html.

Chances are your organization doesn’t have the budget for a production at the level of Eloqua’s. So how do you stand out in the sea of holiday greetings? Send a New Year communication instead!

Here are 3 reasons I believe New Year greetings are much more appropriate in the B2B setting:

Reason #1: It’s About Business Going Forward

Christmas and holiday greetings are considered year-end communications. In essence, they’re a company’s last-ditch effort to communicate with a customer before the year ends. Wouldn’t you much rather be perceived as forward looking? What better way to enforce a “thank you for your business, now let’s do more” message than to say it upon the New Year?                                          

Reason #2: Everyone Has a New Year

In today’s global marketplace your holiday message will reach people who celebrate the “holiday season” in a myriad of ways—or even not at all. But everyone has a New Year! Around the world the calendar year begins on January 1, which makes it a universal holiday that will leave your message little room for social error.                                           

Reason #3: Being Last Will Make You First

At the end of the year the chances that your message will reach the recipient are small. Even if your greeting is opened, it will be opened by someone who is preoccupied with all they have to do before they can dodge out the door for their year-end vacation. And by the time your customer returns from his/her vacation, your holiday greeting is long forgotten. On the other hand, business goes back to full swing the first business week of the New Year, meaning that your customer will more than likely be in the office and freshly focused. Wouldn’t you rather communicate with that person?

Bottom line: there is a virtual sea of competitors battling for your customers’ mindshare, so it’s imperative to stand out amongst the crowd. In my opinion there is no better way than to communicate a business-centric message at the opportune time; otherwise, you risk having your message fall by the wayside.

[Via http://staceyholleran.wordpress.com]

Why doesn’t my website show up in Google or other search engines?

This is probably the question I get asked most from people who have put up websites and then sat back waiting for the world to find them.

“Why doesn’t my website show up in Google or other search engines?“

As much as we might like to think otherwise, the world is not looking for you specifically. If they were, they could just type your web address i.e. briancurrin.com directly into the address bar of their favourite browser and up would pop your website.

What people on the internet are looking for is solutions to their problems, and if your website offers the right solution, then it needs to appear on the first page of search results.

For example, I would like to have music people (musicians, studios, labels, shops) who live in Cape Town, and who are looking for help with online marketing, find me.

Search “online music marketing cape town” on Google and see the results.

And then search on Bing, another popular search engine.

Or Yahoo.

And try searching for “marketing south african music on the web“

If you are into Tourism, try searching “online tourism marketing cape town“.

Or Fashion, online fashion marketing cape town

So who are you talking to about your online marketing?

Contact me on brian@currin.co.za

http://briancurrin.com

Further reading

[Via http://briancurrin.wordpress.com]

High Definition Denver

High Definition Video Denver

VS Video Productions a Denver based video company with over 18 years of experience offers our clients uncompressed high quality High Definition video production services at a reasonable price. We utilize the Panasonic HVX-300 P2 High Definition camera. This camera has a variety of options, being able to shoot in 1080,720 in AVC intra and DVCPRO HD codecs and can also shoot in DVCPRO standard. The camera allows us to quickly transfer your footage from P2 cards directly to the editing system, thus saving our clients many hours of digitizing footage before you can start the editing process. To find out more information call us at:

303 671-7308. Visit us at http://www.vsvideoproductions.com

[Via http://vsvp1262.wordpress.com]

This is also called Marketing

I had been to Spencer’s one fine Sunday, two weeks back. Two men were blocking almost every person trying to enter into Spencer’s. And they were distributing some forms for filling it up.

When I tried to walk past them, S called out to me with forms in his hand.  I looked at him questioningly.

Fill up these forms and get a free gift from Spencer’s – S told me, as that was what that sales man had told him.

I was hesitant. If Spencer’s is giving a free gift to all the customers, they’ll do it inside, where you bill the things.

But S was insistent and put a pen and a form in my hand. They only need our name and phone number was his argument – it won’t take a lot of time to fill.

I am again against giving my phone number to Tom, Dick and Harry on the road. And there was no indication on the form, that its Spencer’s who are doing this free gift promotion.  No Company Name was printed on the form. Why does S take it so easily ?????

So, we filled up two forms, one in my name and one in S’s name, but I wrote S’s number on both the forms.

After a fortnight, yday, one man called up.

“Sir, you filled up a form sometime back at Spencer’s. Remember ?????  Congratulations, Sir !!!! You have been shortlisted among the top 20 winners. And I am very happy to inform you, that you have got gifts, not one, not two but three. They are Kitchen set worth 5000/-, One week stay at Munnar and a One Night stay at a Beach Resort on the outskirts of Chennai.  Can you come over to our Office by 5pm today and collect your gifts ?????? “

Now, I am sitting stunned listening to all these.  Who on this earth will give three free gifts, to the top 20 shortlisted winners, just for filling up a form ????? What do they want from us ???????

Then, when I checked out their Office Address, I found that they are a Holiday Resort Company, trying to sell the holiday shares to people. They make a few people attend a meeting and talk and talk and mesmerize the crowd into buying holiday shares.

And when we didn’t turn up at the meeting, at the scheduled time, they kept on calling us.  Even after politely refusing the gift offer and clearly telling them that we cannot attend the meeting, the calls continued.

Then my Dad told me that he had attended one such meeting and Thank God, he got some urgent call, he left half-way through.  Only if you buy the holiday shares, you’ll get all those free gifts, was explained later in the meeting, I believe.

It’s such a cheap marketing initiative, is my opinion.

[Via http://umsreflections.wordpress.com]

People and Systems

While startups are constantly creating and tweaking their systems and processes within their own organization, most larger organizations are entrenched with them.  Whether you operate within a large company or you are selling to them, learning about the people who influence/make decisions and understanding how to address the constraints the systems and processes of their organization place on them is crucial to a successful selling process.

In simplistic terms, there are two buckets you need to become more familiar with, people and systems.

• People address: hierarchy, influence, decision making, early adopters, and subject matter experts.

• Systems address: hardware, software, procedures, and necessary steps to get sign-off for sales.

Together, these buckets help you identify the who and how to move your agenda forward.  Perhaps even more importantly, if you understand an organization’s people and systems and you can develop a sales map that will identify potential roadblocks and lead you to replicable workarounds resulting in a more efficient sales process.

Plus, you can incorporate common findings from the sales mapping process into your product and service offerings to better serve your customer’s needs.  Now that’s a win if I’ve ever heard one.  I’d recommend you learn the people and systems in your product and sales process landscape to improve your hit rate and reduce your sales cycle time line.

Did you like this post?  Please consider subscribing to the RSS feed.

[Via http://sharris.wordpress.com]

Email Marketing Budgets to Rise in 2010

Four out of 10 marketers reported that their email budgets in 2010 would increase, and nearly half (47%) said their budgets would stay the same, according to a survey of 300 email marketers by SilverPop – despite the fact that nearly nine out of 10 (88%) said the recession continues, and three-quarters said it’s hurt their business.

Marketers, however, will be refining strategies and goals in response to the ongoing tight economic times. While the majority (52%) expect to focus on increasing customer loyalty, 51% of marketers expect to drive incremental revenue with their email program – a number that increases to 65% among companies with larger email budgets.

Signs of Success

Email open and click rates experienced year-over-year increases in Q309 vs. Q308 as the industry headed into the traditionally busy holiday season, according to a separate report – the latest email benchmark report from Epsilon.

Epsilon’s Q309 North America Email Trends and Benchmarks study revealed that email open rates increased from 19.8% in Q308 to 22.0% in Q309 (an 11% increase), while 12 of the 16 industries Epsilon tracks had an increase in open rates over Q308.

Click rates were 6.2%, an increase of 5.1% from the same time last year (5.9%), the analysis found.

Additional Q3 findings:

• The average volume per client increased 7.5% from Q308. The non-bounce rate dropped slightly from Q209 (93.5% compared with 94.1%), but was virtually unchanged from Q308 (93.6%).
• Six of the 16 industries measured saw an increase in all three metrics – opens, clicks and non-bounce rate – compared with last year.
• The retail landscape improved greatly compared with Q308. Of the four retail subcategories, 11 of the 12 metrics increased compared with Q3 of last year.
• Emails from financial services companies continued to enjoy the highest open rates among industries measured. Though click rates were down vs. Q308, emails from consumer products companies enjoyed the highest click rates in Q309 among industries measured.

“As we enter the holiday season, a time when email volumes increase substantially, it is extremely important that email marketers incorporate best practices to break through the clutter,” said Kevin Mabley, SVP of strategic & analytic consulting at Epsilon (via Marketing Charts).

“Timely, relevant offers that reflect customer preferences and behavior will drive the most opens, clicks and conversions. In addition, marketers should consider strategies that incorporate triggers and transactional messaging as part of the purchase cycle.” Mabley added that email marketers who remain focused on a data-driven email marketing strategy continue to outperform the rest of the pack.

Source: http://www.marketingvox.com/email-marketing-budgets-to-rise-in-2010-045829/?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=mv&utm_medium=textlink

[Via http://tanericten.wordpress.com]

One Play Wonder

Imagine if a professional football team had only one offensive play. That play was highly successful the first time they used it; worked like a charm. Short screen pass to the right. Then, over and over and over again, they used that same pass for every play, every game.

Opposing teams would know exactly what to do to defend the play. No surprises. No anticipation. There’s three words to describe this one play wonder…boring, lifeless, ineffective.

The same philosophy applies to your entrepreneurial efforts. Are you a one play wonder?

Do you rely on a single method of marketing and selling because you had great results once?

Have you forged a badge-of-honor because you’ve “always done it like this before?” After all, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Do your clients yawn at your “canned” approach to marketing and CRM?

My point is: if you’re using only direct mail…try building your social media network too. If you’re spending hours a day managing your social media network…try outsourcing that task to a freelance site like www.guru.com, www.elance.com. or www.odesk.com and make a few cold calls.

If you only rely on cold calling to market yourself, mix it up and try a combination of cold calling and direct mail. If you use the same tired sales letter for every mailing, supercharge it for more power. If necessary, hire a copywriter to kick it up a notch. If you are used to sending snail mail sales letters, create or re-design a dynamic website or homepage to draw a larger audience.

Can your competition “read” your same ‘ol marketing plays and beat you to the client?

Remember the no surprises, no anticipation reaction of the opposing team mentioned above? That’s what your clients and competition experience when your approach to marketing and CRM is a one play wonder.

Add some spice and variety to your marketing and CRM! You’ll not only see an increase in your client base, you’ll punt your competition to the other side of the field.

[Via http://winningproof.wordpress.com]

Guu Restaurant... a perfect example of successful word-of-mouth advertising

My friend Sepi recently took me and my fiance Ben to a japanese bar called Guu on the corner of Robson and Bidwell.  It’s a place that you could easily miss at a blink of an eye, and so if it weren’t for Sepi, I would never have found this place.

I walk in the door, expecting to enter a quiet, spaceous and zen-like restaurant just like most high-end sushi places are in downtown Vancouver and hence was very surprised to walk into a small crowded room full of loud diners, and even louder staff. It took me a good minute to realize that what was going on… Apparently, the staff would scream hello, goodbye and thank you in japanese to patrons walking in and out of the place. And later on, I discovered that they scream orders in unison as well. I felt like I was in a street market back in Asia. Hmmmm, feels like home.

Sepi was already seated by the bar across the open kitchen, and so we took the seats beside her. I take one quick look at the menu and realize that I wasn’t familiar with a single thing on it. Neither did Ben.  Like a kung fu master eager to teach her eager students, Sepi calls on our server and starts picking tapas for the three of us to share – salmon carpaccio, beef carpaccio,  calamari, these heavenly squid balls, grilled sea-salted pork cheeks, prawns, a hotpot dish, and all these other extremely tasty things. I do not remember all their names, or even how to pronounce them, but they were all delicious. I’ve never enjoyed so much garlic in my entire life.

The atmosphere made the food taste even more authentic. The screaming, the loud music, the lack of elbow room, the friendly staff (who are mostly Japanese speakers) and the happy patrons made me feel like I was actually in Japan, not that I have been there, but now I definitely want to make a trip there. I could tell that the people around me were regulars to this place. They loved the staff so much, that they buy them a sapporo or two and the staff happily swallow it down after screaming what I believe to be “Cheers” in japanese. I was so into my food that I barely noticed the pile of people standing in the little waiting area, and overflowing out into the street, waiting in the cold to eat in a small place like this one.

I later checked Guu online and found that the website wasn’t awesome, and there seemed to be no advertising going on about this place. Makes me realize that a restaurant – or any business for that matter – can be really successful, even without a huge marketing budget. If you’re good, you’re good. If your clients love you, they talk about you – and word of mouth is the cheapest and most effective method of marketing there is.

I’m definitely coming back here again and again. I should have to make sure I come in before rush hour. Thank you, Sepi, for introducing me to one of Vancouver’s many secrets.

[Via http://meowgarita.wordpress.com]

Understanding your Transmitter / Receiver make-up.

Here’s a fantastic presentation that you must check out, if you haven’t already! Its the Social Media Study for 2009 By People from Cossette.

While the presentation talks about a lot of great statistics, I had one key take-away from it. If you’re looking to figure out whether nows the right time for your organization to get serious about social media – you may want to start by trying to understand your Transmitter/Receive make-up (refer to slide 31). As the slide indicates, there will be 2 types of Transmitters and 2 types of Receivers. On the Transmitter side, you might want to involve people from your organization, people from external agencies that work closely with you or even certain customers. By figuring out who falls into what category, you might be able to get a better sense of the kind of content you will be capable of producing. The same goes on the Receiver side as well. However, you may not always be able to find clear data. In many industries, social media adoption has been so slow that one can’t base decisions on existing patterns. So, in cases like that you might have to rely on your gut feeling as well…but at least you’ll be able to set better expectations and hopefully meet them one step at a time.

Social Media Study 2009 by People from Cossette View more presentations from Impact Research.

[Via http://interpretivist.wordpress.com]

Lead Generation A Case Study

About two years back, one of the leading software companies in India wanted to generate leads for its software services business. Their target market unlike any company in India was the US Market where dollars glitter.

This was the time when I was looking out for a Job change and through one of the Job Portal’s I got connect with this gentleman. I joined them in their sales team without studying their bank balance. The very first day I got to see their balance sheet just to realize that they were running under huge loss for the last couple of years. Even their website was a junk. Every prospect that I talked to complained about the website and never came back.

I escalated this to the management and after a couple of discussions they came back and told me to implement a lead generation process. From a long term perspective I suggested an In-House team to generate leads, and one of my colleagues who had an upper hand suggested to outsource the lead generation process to a third party organization who charged about $1200 per month per person. We identified two different organizations where they decided to execute two separate lead generation campaigns on different verticals.

That makes it $ 2400 per month per person. Both the organizations promised 6 qualified leads a month. Having been in the industry for some time it actually sounded crap to me. I still sticked on to my suggestion of hiring In-house team for lead generation, because having been in the Industry the definition of a qualified lead could vary depending on organization to organization. Having defining the qualified leads for these vendors, they failed to deliver a quality lead which was expected. 3 months Pilot project and that was the end of the story. The website of the organization was still not revamped from where it all started.

The CEO really failed to see the bigger picture. At times of the Internet where in SEO/SEM play a big role in lead generation, this organization did not even consider a suggestion from an employee to revamp the website for good. Call it ego or lack of intelligence I am not sure. Soon I left the organization because I knew things where not working. Later they fired about 100 people. The 200 plus team reduced to about 100.

Today that organization has been sold off to a different company at much lower price than what it’s worth off.

Being a CEO:

Running an organization with 200 employees just does not mean running an organization. It also means running 200 different families who are depended on this organization. It also means touching the hearts of 200 different families.

Being a CEO is just not easy. It’s not all about being the CEO. It’s also about making a difference to the society.

PS: ServoSell is a group of independent Marketing & Software Consultants, helping small and large businesses grow. ServoSell enables you to forget your “Marketing-Operational” issues and helps you focus on your core competencies, Strategies and Sales.

[Via http://ajeeshvenugopalan.wordpress.com]

New Contact Info

Hey Everyone,

Our new website will located at www.effectuateinc.com.  Look for the official launch to take place in early January!

Meanwhile, we have new contact information.  Brian can be reached at Brian (at) effectuateinc.com (brian@effectuateinc.com) and Albert can be reached at Albert (at) effectuateinc.com (albert@effectuateinc.com).  General e-mails can be sent to info (at) effectuateinc.com (info@effectuateinc.com).

Happy (almost) Friday!

-Brian

[Via http://effectuate.wordpress.com]

Presenting the Chevy Volt Dancers

How quickly dreams can become nightmares.

Just a few days after the engineering team behind the Chevrolet Volt triumphantly rolled out the production version of its much-anticipated car for journalists to test, the folks in marketing [who should probably be fired or publicly flogged] followed it up with folk music, break dancing, and what looks like a few rejects from a 1986 high school production of the “Pirates of Penzance”.

Click here for VIDEO of the Chevy Volt Dancers

Word that General Motors had commissioned a theme song for the car called “Chevy Volt and Me” first turned up last week on gm-volt.com, an independent blog dedicated to the development of the car.

With lyrics that include lines such as “what will get us out of first gear? A better EV. Not that that’s a big idea(r)”, the milquetoast tune seemed anathema to the high-tech, next-gen image GM has been crafting for the car up to this point.

Now there’s the video.

Although it looks more like a “Saturday Night Live” skit, the dance routine that was performed on the Volt display at the Los Angeles Auto Show is all too real. Captured by a visitor who uploaded the video to YouTube, three females wearing puffy shirts and the aforementioned break dancer, who also plays air guitar, shake just about everything on their bodies for the duration of the song. Often out of sync. Reportedly, the cringe-inducing interpretation of an electric-powered future took place every hour during the ten days of the show.

When asked about it during a web chat with journalists on Monday, GM’s newly-minted head of marketing, Susan Docherty said she hadn’t “yet seen the Chevrolet Volt song and dance but it sounds like I need to spend some time tonight on the web viewing this.” [Duh! How does this get past the HEAD of marketing?]

She’s not the only one.

Source: FoxNews.com

[Via http://joetheflow.wordpress.com]

Nearly Free Workshop

Kim Brand & Jeff Bowe speak at Business Ownership Initiative:

Sales & Marketing 2010 (and Beyond)

“How I wasted over $200,000 and three years on

ineffective marketing schemes and inept sales strategies

and why you don’t have to.”   Kim Brand, Co-Presenter.

“You can learn selling the hard way which is having

hundreds of prospects telling you no without telling

you why or you can learn it the easy way which is to

have someone give you the tactics and strategies that

lead to yes now. It’s your choice.”  Jeff Bowe, Co-Presenter.

What: Business Ownership Initiative (BOI) presents Sales & Marketing 2010 (and Beyond).

This four hour seminar will be conducted over two days and will be co-presented by Kim Brand, Serial Entrepreneur and President of Computer Experts and File Engine and Jeff Bowe, Chief Sales Strategist at ACTUM Group, a leading sales training and sales management company.

When: January 27-28th, 5:30-7:30PM each day.

Where: 4755 Kingsway Dr., Suite 314. (Near 46th & Keystone)

Why: You won’t get a better ‘reality check’ than to hear us talk about real world sales and marketing problems and solutions for small businesses from the perspective of an entrepreneur and sales pro.

Special Bonus: BOI normally charges $20 for this class…that’s cheap!  But everyone that attends will receive a $20 discount coupon from Computer Experts – your net cost is zero and your upside potential is huge and a free chapter from Jeff’s book, Get INFOCUS Get Cash!

You need to call now to register:  (317) 917-3266 ext. 100.

Space is limited, call today

[Via http://infocusselling.wordpress.com]

The Secret Of Get More Sales Online With These 7 Steps

The process of marketing involves earning for the business by identifying, anticipating and satisfying the requirements of the customer. The conventional methods of dealing with potential and existing clients have been completely modernized by online marketing. The Internet provides marketing professionals with a whole new set of ideas. Nowadays, the Internet is being widely used. Many geographical locations are now under the broadband network. Tools that are part of Web 2.0 ensure that customers experience the true power of the broadband technology, giving them a great multimedia experience. You will gain a deeper understanding about website marketing by checking out that resource.

You must first recognize the market you would like to center your efforts on to succeed at online marketing. Considering the type of goods or services you wish to sell to your targeted market, try to understand the make-up of your probable customers. While taking note of the make-up of your targeted market, you may be in a position to re-work your product and services to conform to the newly understood needs.

There are numerous techniques to get visitors to the website. You can have your own blog. Free publication of your articles on leading websites is another option you have. Other options include paid advertising and online press releases.

A frequently updated website that is professionally designed and having appropriate content is essential to keep the visitors interested. Leading the visitor to the inner pages entails designing an appropriate home page for the website. To facilitate search engine optimization, place your keyword phrases strategically on the important pages of your site. You will find that further information on internet marketing agency is on that site.

It is a good idea to know your visitors’ preference before taking them to the ensuing pages. However, this needs to be done very subtly, lest you drive away your visitors. The user must be provided with information in relation to your products so that he is persuaded to make a purchase.

Educate the visitor about how your products and services are better than those of your competitors. Explain how your products and services are of high perceived value and low perceived risk. Content that signifies your good standing in the market must be prominently displayed on the site. Customer appreciation is a real boon in this regard.

Compelling offers must be broadcasted prominently on the site so as to induce the visitors to buy your product. Visitors must be given the choice to select their preferred mode of payment along with the facility of multiple communication channels to reach you. The user may not buy the product during the first visit, but you can always have a system of pursuing the matter till you get a response.

Preferably, your website must have a database working in the background. The database application will be useful to maintain the records of all your business deals. The website must contain a control panel which would help you in understanding each transaction and attend to those which need immediate attention. The control panel will present you with an outline of the past data that is relevant enough to make your decisions with regard to your business.

[Via http://internetmarketin1992.wordpress.com]

Never Halt Your Marketing!

Greetings everyone,

An IDEAL rule of marketing is NEVER halt your marketing.

This is what I have been adamant about for years and have declared it shameful to even think about, so now the question is, “How to re-crank your marketing plan?”

A positive attitude of PRESS and move forward are very much needed. The following, details the challenges to overcome in a marketing plan and creative plan to combat when marketing is halted.

Challenge 1:

Your audience forgets you fast! Without being in the eye of your audience daily, you won’t be remembered. The point of marketing and advertising is for people to know about you and your services.

Challenge 2:

Understanding that you will have missed opportunities because you are not in the game. If you are not playing in the game, there is no opportunity to win.

Challenge 3:

Your competition is picking up YOUR missed opportunities. The competition is creating relationships with potential clients or customers and in this economy establishing those relationships are marketing gold.

Challenge 4:

Starting over. You can’t start a business without marketing and you can’t maintain a business without it. Without marketing there is no business.  The time and money spent to gain share of MIND is wasted. Once you stop marketing you have lost share of mind and really must start over.

When developing your marketing plan knowing these basic challenges will help structure your marketing campaign to succeed after you have halted your marketing.

There will be many posts sharing how to overcome being out of the eye of your audience, so sign up to receive blog updates.

It is always a Blessing to Share, Dream a World

Lisa Henry

Marketing Coach, I Got Ideas!

[Via http://sweethorn.wordpress.com]

How Eben Pagan Turns Your Bad Habit Into A Philanthropic Act

This morning I rolled in a few minutes late to Eben Pagan’s latest live event: “Master Maps of Success” with Wyatt Woodsmall, Ph.D and Eben Pagan and was relieved that the five minutes I spent this morning painting my toenails red didn’t make me $20 poorer.

You see, Eben has created a “game” for people like me who suffer from habitual lateness. The game is that three minutes before the seminar begins in the morning, or when returning from breaks and lunch break, he cranks up “Lets Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas. That’s when the fun begins. By “fun” I don’t mean that at the sound of will. i. am’s voice breaking out with: “and the bass keeps runnin’ runnin’ and runnin’…” the seminarians are triggered to spontaneously join in an ecstatic hard-core hip hop dance frenzy. By “fun” I mean that ten seconds before zero, the whole room begins a collective countdown as people fumble furiously to reach their seats by the time the clock strikes zero. There’s a large glass bowl by the entrance to the room and  whoever is still standing at the moment the clock reaches zero must return to the bowl and forfeit $20. Eben then donates all the money in the bowl to Charity: Water, Scott Harrison’s non-profit devoted to providing fresh water to villages in Africa.

The amazing thing is that my $20 goes to providing an actual human fresh water for twenty years. I mean, my entire $20. Charity: Water gets private funding for administrative costs, so when you donate  $20, the entire $20 is spent on building a well so that women and children no longer have to trek for hours to the nearest sewer-posing-as-a-valid-source-of-drinking-water to fetch water, then carry 80 pounds of water back home in vile, chemical ridden fuel cans just so they can be supplied with enough water to survive. Your $20 goes towards fulfilling someone’s most basic needs so that they can be free to engage in more productive activities. Like, say, learning how to read and write.

I must admit, I’ve “donated” quite a bit of money to Charity: Water from being late at Eben Pagan’s events. Has Eben Pagan transformed my bad habit into an act of goodwill and philanthropy? Well…

This morning the conference began a few minutes late, allowing me the grace period to arrive “on time.” I’ll donate to Charity: Water anyways.

Today I am grateful to the remarkable people out there in the world like Eben Pagan and Scott Harrison who have devoted themselves to the service of improving and evolving the condition of our planet.

1 in 8 people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water

[Via http://whyimgrateful.wordpress.com]

Are You Remarkable?

Becky Shankle (@ecomod) is thinking out of the box… the IKEA box to be more specific.

Becky is the founder and lead designer at eco-modernism. In addition to designing and installing custom kitchens and baths in the Raleigh, NC region, she has launched an innovative IKEA kitchen services. By promoting her firm as IKEA specialists, she differentiates eco-mod from the dozens of other kitchen designers in her region. She’s a Purple Cow. She’s remarkable. She has found a way to inspire people to “remark” about her firm (here I am writing about her… so it worked).

How can you transform your firm to be more remarkable?

Learn more about Becky and eco-modernism at her website, her blog or follow her on Twitter.

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[Via http://markrlepage.wordpress.com]

Shiny Horny People...

Apparently, this detergent ad from the States had feminists frothing at the mouth (See what I did there?). Something about it being sexist and even encouraging rape or some such. Anyway, the ad has been pulled. Here’s what all the brouhaha is over:

I don’t see it but then I am technically a rapist according to Marilyn French (No. I didn’t hyperlink it. Google her, dammit. Do something for yourself for a change. Sheesh) by virtue of my Y-chromosome and my heterosexuality.

At any rate, I think this ad would have been funnier if it was a guy in the shower instead. And the bubbles were voiced by women.

Wait. Does that statement make me sexist?

[Via http://phr0g.wordpress.com]

Are Social Networking Personas Useful as Market Research Data?

CHALLENGE:

Marketers are increasingly using behavioral targeting and harvesting information on individuals found on the internet, such as Facebook and MySpace. But are social media participants creating false personas in cyberspace and are marketers creating invalid strategies due to their reliance on these data? Are marketers basing strategies on imagined personas? A study comparing Facebook personas with their real-world authors found a strong correlation between impressions created by personas and their real-world counterparts. Personas who were liked, were also liked in the real-world.

HOW THEY RESEARCHED IT:

Professors at the psychology department of Tufts University conducted the study comparing Facebook personas to real-life counterparts using 37 undergraduate volunteers. Undergrads were individually paired with one of six confederates in a four-minute “get-to-know-you” meeting. The confederates rated the undergraduate subjects on a number of dimensions related to likability. Undergraduates from another university viewed videos of the meetings and coded specific cues about the subjects’, non-verbal expressivity. Undergraduate subjects’ Facebook page was accessed by the researchers with the permission of the undergraduate subjects. Undergrads from a private university then rated the undergraduate subjects based on his or her Facebook page in terms of likability, and these ratings were combined to reveal a final “Facebook liking” score.

WHAT HAPPENED?:

Results from the survey indicate that impressions made through social media are similar to those attained through real-life interaction. The correlation between confederate liking and Facebook liking was statistically significant, and males and females were perceived similarly across all variables. Positive first impressions based on Facebook correlate to increased webpage expressivity and likewise positive first impression based on dynamic behavior correlate to increased non-verbal expressivity. In accordance with previous research the study finds no evidence of a linear relationship between self-disclosure and impressions of liking with relation to face-to-face interaction or personal web pages respectively. Other concluding evidence finds that online behavior is similar to that of personal interaction, for example people who disclose personal information and are expressive in face-to-face interactions tend to display the same traits on web pages. An interesting caveat of the study is that self-disclosure and expressivity are unrelated to one another, both online and in dynamic interactions. Overall concluding evidence shows that while there is some divergence between online and real-life personas, for the most part the two are very highly correlated.

WHY MANAGERS SHOULD CARE:

Marketers in today’s technologically driven business environment rely increasingly heavily on social media to provide a glimpse of what consumers want. The issue of whether or not social media accurately portrays consumer personalities is therefore an important concern for anyone using the Web to glean information about the consumer market. For marketers this study reveals positive news: searching Facebook sites is not for nothing. Nearly all Gen Y consumers update information on at least one social networking site, and older consumers are increasingly joining the trend. A high correlation between real-life and online personalities means that marketers can use the social networking sites to gather lifestyle information from consumers who may otherwise be unwilling to share, or instead of using costly and time consuming methods primary data collection methods. Social networking sites should not be the sole source of consumer research as there is some differential between dynamic interaction and online personas.

CAN YOU HELP?

Comment back by sharing how you have implemented data gained from social networking sites to improve marketing and promotional strategies. Does this study make you feel like you can rely on Facebook profiles or do you think more research is needed before you will rely on social website data? If you have been relying on social website profiles, have these profiles been efficacious?

From Max Weisbuch, Zorana Ivcevic, and Nalini Ambady “On being liked on the web and in the ‘‘real world”: Consistency in first impressions across personal webpages and spontaneous behavior,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45 (2009) 573–576

[Via http://omura.wordpress.com]

A whole other to do!

So, seeing as it’s my last week of school before finals, I am training for a new job, and I just have so many affairs to get into order, here goes nothing!

School:

- Exhibit review

- Marketing questions 21 and 22

- Marketing plan project

- Da Vinci notebook: 15 pieces

- Written analysis: 3 to 5 pages

- Artwork packet

- Anthropology project one

- Anthropology extra credit

- Anthropology test three: Dec. 11

–Fill out study guide

- Anthropology final

–Compile all study guides

-Art History final

–Fill out study guide

- Return The Hobbit

- Science Fiction/Fantasy final paper

Errands:

- Call lawyer

- Call hospital

- Call Shear Success

- Call Cefcu

- Parking services

- Mail everything

- Call camera repair place

- Pick up hangers, garbage bags, LED lights (blue 2)

- Tanning

Training:

- Study for bus/passenger endorsement

- Go request paper receipt/actual permit

- Make appointment for TB test

This is my life right now, LOL. Everyone wish me luck, because I am pretty sure that I am going to pass out from the stress of it all. BUT, after next week I will be free from school with what I believe will be amazing grades. Also, I will start behind the wheel training. Christmas is coming up. Austin is staying with me for a while, which is nice.Woo!

[Via http://bohemianraps0dy.wordpress.com]

Are the best products developed with a practical purpose in mind?

Lately I’ve been getting quite a few questions about Google Wave: what do I think about it, how do I see it being used, will it replace email and how, and many more.

for the record, I love the idea of Google Wave. While I might not be the biggest fan of the hype surrounding it or the seemingly counter-productive release strategy (why Google chose to release a closed system product that relies on social interactions through a scarcity model I’ll never quite understand), I do think the concept behind the product is great. Being able to centrally track all the different branches that inevitable clutter the “reply to all” landscape of an all-inclusive email chain is very appealing. Giving latecomers to the party the ability to run the tape back and step through the instant-replay in a way that can make sense of the fractal-ness is a very good thing.

The real challenge of Wave

And while I love the idea of Wave, I fear that it is a technology that is woefully ahead of its time. The biggest problem with Wave, at least to my way of thinking, is not in the functionality, the implementation or the execution. The biggest problem with Wave will come with its adoption.

By positioning it as an quasi-email replacement, the Wave team will end up facing what Seth Godin describes in his blog “Can’t Top This” – they’ll find themselves trying to prove that what they’re selling does email better than email. They’ll find themselves trying to prove that even though their system isn’t totally integrated into the mobile experience, its better than email. They’ll find themselves trying to prove that even though their product isn’t hooked into newsletters, email notifications (Facebook, flickr, etc), its better than email. And even if they’re not going to position their product against all the many uses of email to which we’ve all grown so accustomed, they’ll have to show us how passing around that PowerPoint deck for team review by Wave is different than passing around that PowerPoint deck for team review via email.

The business case

More and more these days it seems that many product discussions begin and end with the business case. Even in better economic times, it was increasingly imprudent to pursue a product without a clear constituency in mind. This, of course, is an incredibly good thing: having these discussions early and often force us both to set clear goals and objectives for the product as well as clearly define the feature sets and use cases we’d like to pursue. Continuously asking “what’s the business case?” is, in short, a good thing.

The flipside: scientific discovery

In a previous life I spent quite a bit of time in science research. And while nearly every grant written in basic science research will tie the work back to key understandings in major disease processes, much of the work (on the academic side, at least) is devised and carried out without a clear commercial/medical/practical objective in mind.

I’ll never forget the day I sat in a seminar given by my advisor, listening to an M.D. asking the oft-repeated $1M question of “What does this mean for my patients?” My advisor, a man who had heard that question a few too many times for his liking, went on to make what I thought was a very important distinction, albeit in a not-so-eloquent way: “What does it mean for your patients? I don’t know what it means for your patients. But then again, I don’t know that I care what it means for your patients either. I care about the science, someone else will care about how it relates to the patients.”

The X-Ray. Penicillin. The electron. All of them things that were discovered and studied without the slightest idea as to their practical application or commercialization potential. But in the end, all three went on to do quite well from both a societal and commercial standpoint.

Are we crowding out discovery, or simply “outsourcing” it?

There must be, of course, a balance between discovery and commercialization. We must be able to go off on exploratory flights of fancy to wherever the wind may take us while at the same time remembering that we do have bills to pay. Where is that balance, and can we find both within the same organization?

Current models in technology and medicine suggest that its not possible for both to peacefully coexist under the same roof. In pharma, for example, much of the development pipeline is being filled by acquisition rather than “organic growth.” Risk profiles, economics, operations and culture all net out to a partnership between startups (academic or otherwise) dealing in discovery and larger companies dealing in commercialization. Other areas of medicine follow similar models, as does much of Silicon Valley.

What’s next?

I’m not saying that keeping the business case in mind is necessarily a bad thing, nor am I saying that discovery for its own sake is bad. The point of this post is to wonder whether there’s some way for the two to gracefully coexist in the New World Order.

[Via http://notanmd.wordpress.com]

Advent Marketing Results

This company has recently been added on Expopedia, the tradefair service finder. Visit our website for more information.

Advent Marketing Results

Cruzen street 2320

TN 37211 Nashville (United States)

More information about Advent Marketing Results …

An overview of the available activities for Advent Marketing Results …

• Marketing

[Via http://expopedia.wordpress.com]

Product Marketing is NOT Marketing Communications

While we know that Product Management is a listening (or inbound communications) role and that Product Marketing is a talking (our outbound communications) role, it is not very surprising that some folks confuse Product Marketing with Marketing Communications.

In a B2B setting, Product Marketing talks about products – and does so in a strategic way, addressing five important, strategic questions:

• What products will be offered (i.e., the breadth and depth of the product line)?
• Who will be the target customers (i.e., the boundaries of the market segments to be served)?
• How will the products reach those (i.e., the distribution channel)?
• At what price should the products be offered?
• How will customers be introduced to the products (i.e., advertising)?

These strategic answers plus product features and benefits must be handed over to marketing communications folks. The tactics of writing, graphic design, coordination with the printer and enforcement of the trademarks or usage of the logos all fall within the realm of the marketing communications people. They understand proper grammar, journalistic writing styles, color palettes and font choices.

If you are a product marketing manager with control issues, you will still want final review of all marketing communications creations to ensure they “get it” and that they properly address the information provided to them.

Looking from the outside in, since many product marketing managers cannot draw, spell or discern colors, some tasks are best left to the professionals.

[Via http://outsideinview.com]

Design the Right Calendar for the Right Occasion

Even if you have an appointment calendar on your computer or mobile phone, it is nice to have a print calendar that you can hang on your wall or bulletin board. Paper calendars not only look nice, they are easy to use; all you have to do is grab a pen and write down what you need to remember. There is no waiting for the computer to boot up, nor is it necessary to remember to charge it. Below are several types of calendars and ideas for designing them to fit several occasions and purposes so that recipients can benefit from your gift.

 

Count Down to the Big Day

Count down calendars can be fun to send out for a variety of reasons. You can send them to members of a wedding party, the caterer, photographer, and florist. Or send them to target customers to count down to your store grand opening. They can be made in postcard size, four by six inches, and mailed to everyone very inexpensively. Put an attractive picture to one side, and then add the necessary months on the other; start with today and end with the important date in a super sized typeface. Then people can pin the card to a bulletin board or stick it to their fridge with a magnet, and they will know exactly when the big day is.

 

Christmas Photo Calendars

You can also send a print calendar with Christmas photos on each one. They can be done in postcard size and feature an attractive Christmas themed picture of your family on one side, and a calendar for the month of December on the other. You could also highlight the days you will be visiting. You can also send them as promotional gifts to customers and place dates of your big sales on the calendar.

 

Appointment Reminder Calendars

Business owners can give out a print calendar in business card size as appointment reminders. A really attractive way to design your business card is to put a photo of you in your place of business on the front, covering about one-third of the card. Then to the side put your logo, name, slogan, and phone number. On the back of the card print a line for the client’s name and have calendars for three months on the bottom. You can then circle the client’s dates. That way clients can keep their cards in their wallets as a reminder.

 

Monthly Reminders

If you host monthly meetings for a group like a book club or a dinner club, you can order calendars in postcard size to send out to members. Just feature an attractive photo on the front, and print a twelve month calendar on the back with the meeting dates highlighted. For the front of the card, choose one image that relates to your group, and make it cover half to two thirds of the card. Make the image in light colors, and then print the name of your group in black ink to make it stand out.

There are so many ways to creatively use a print calendar, both for personal and business use. Just be sure to use a professional online printing company for top-notch results sure to impress everyone on your mailing list!

[Via http://adcreative.wordpress.com]

How to Avoid Dumb Mistakes in China

What a powerful, practical learning lesson:  “Three Dumb Things Foreign Companies Do In China.”

1.  Failing to localize your advertising.

2.  Trying to be trendy.

3.  Not making things big.

Chinese like things big. They are proud to have the world’s largest airport, the biggest building under one roof, the tallest hotel (pictured) and even the world’s longest laundry chute (at the Park Hyatt in Shanghai). Chinese tend to equate bigger with better. They don’t feel respected and won’t buy if a brand has a tiny store that doesn’t stock the newest season’s products. They know from the Internet and from traveling abroad what exists in other markets, and they want brands to have as big a presence in China as elsewhere.

Hint on what works:

Companies that convey the message that their brands can be trusted — and also that they can meet the needs of local consumers.

Read all about it here.

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney

[Via http://womenentrepreneursgrowglobal.org]