Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

It is inevitable that I end up explaining the evolution of the web several times a week. Whether with clients, prospects, peers, family or friends, the web and social media have hit a point of intersection where advertisers and consumers are now in the same dialog. Even Googling and facebooking are terms my seven year old uses regularly.

In times past, the “mother-in-law test” as I called it (no offense, Grandma C.), was a litmus test to determine how simple an idea was. I would just ask, “Would your mother-in-law get that idea?” If the answer was “No.”, then the concept was either bad or overcomplicated. Well, here is my “mother-in-law test” for the state of marketing on the web today, so tell me if I have passed my own test. Read the rest of this entry »

Good thing inbound marketing and social media have no selling season.

As the holiday season approaches, the prime selling season for real estate and many other industries is winding down. Now that your Fall marketing push is coming to a close, it seems natural to take it easy in December and January with your traditional outbound marketing efforts. But what about your inbound marketing efforts?  Fewer prospects may be showing up at your sales office during the winter months, but it doesn’t mean they are not doing their homework online. If a prospect visits your Website, you’d better look alive if you want to be on their short list for consideration.

Here are some things you can do to “Winterize” your website and maximize your opportunities online to be in good shape when the selling season rolls back around next Spring. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, good question. And the answer is, maybe. We still believe that the core of any successful marketing campaign is Marketing Relevance, that meaningful connection between your product and your prospect or customer. So even in the age of blogs and tweets there is no silver bullet as we all have the same marketing channels, but our products have different benefits to different audiences.

We start first with do you know your product and do you know your prospect?  Have you narrowed your messaging down to one single battle cry? If so, lets talk about if there is an opportunity to leverage social media. If not, then the cart is way before the horse and lets talk about your market position and how we create a compelling reason to buy.

Let’s assume that you have the positioning thing covered.  Now, are we clear on the meaning of Social Media and Web 2.0 initiatives?  Here is our brief take on it. The Web 2.0 phenom was predicted years ago and was based on the guiding principal that giving is more powerful than taking. That getting like-minded people together from an offline community and providing an online platform would create an opportunity for an exchange of thoughts and ideas. In the beginning, this was via online forums and community groups and many marketers strayed from the idea of giving up control of their brand on a platform that they can’t always patrol. As communities grew, more people joined. As more people joined, more people contributed.  As more people contributed these community portals took shape.  Before too long, something else happened. Instead of people talking in specific communities, they started speaking on their own, own their own sites or blogs. Now the topics were personally relevant and happened independently of established communities. Now the power was in the hands of the individuals.

Over time, blogs took over content, and communities became social networks. These networks started connecting relationships: past, present and future. The relationships began to blossom and people started connecting again. Sharing community, experiences and thoughts. But not just surface level thoughts like cocktail party chatter but thoughts with unique flavor and personality. Thoughts with personal relevance and intrigue that really connected people through transparency and life stories. And these thoughts have become real time and broadcasted to the world instantly. So now through Twitter and facebook we all know all things about all of our relationships all of the time. It’s like we are our own interactive news channel and the world is our audience. But instead the monologue of traditional media, we now have a dialog.

So, do you need to be using Social Media? The answer is still maybe. Maybe if you have an existing offline community that may want to congregate online. A customer base? A prospect database? A group of like-minded individuals that share a similar interest or affinity? If so, are they online already?  Do they use social networks already? And how? Do they post photos, watch videos and contribute to blogs? Passively participate from the sidelines?  Or still think Twitter is a bird from a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, I remember the days of cold calling companies to offer Web site design.  The question was “do you have a Web site?” Many small businesses did not. Even if they did, many had no clue how to get to their site. If they could actually give me their Web address, I would often find their “site” was a directory listing page they shared with all their local competitors. True story. The call often ended with them telling me they didn’t need a Web site. And maybe they didn’t. Then, anyway.

These days, everybody knows they need a Web site and most companies have one. But they don’t always know how to get the most out of it. In other words they may have a Web site, but it may not work very well. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that marketing budgets fall into two camps these days: I cut my budget because why throw good money after bad. Or, I am spending a lot less but I still getting no immediate results. It has been said that we create the worst of habits in the best of times and I think the “good ole’ days” of the early 2000’s have given us a microscope instead of a telescope. What I mean by this is marketing, like wise investing, should be done with the long-term in mind, not the short-term. Placing every marketing decision under a microscope when we know times are tough is like watching your 401k bounce around everyday. In the end, you create a lot of anxiety and are so short-term focused that we often begin to make emotional decisions because we need some instant gratification.  And if the dollar did not move the needle in 30 days, then it was a dollar wasted.
Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, by now you’ve read countless opinions and infinite blogs as to why marketers should continue to spend in a downturn. Historically, brands that spend in a downturn capture marketshare. Yada yada yada. Blah blah blah.

So here we are, closer to the end of this mess than the beginning. In the midst of all this darkness, something fascinating has been taking place in the world of media and marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

We just concluded an alumni awareness effort last week for Furman University called http://www.DoNotCallMeAtDinner.com that leveraged database marketing and social media to create a new approach to alumni relations. Although all of the results are not yet tallied, we had some insights that we wanted to go ahead and share.

The campaign was designed to create alumni awareness and increase participation with Furman University alumni while raising funds through online donations. Like most universities, Furman has a Spring Call-a-Thon that yields predictable results but is perceived as an annoyance to many donors. This year the approach was to attack that philosophy head-on and promise not to call alumni at dinner if they made an online gift by May 15, 2009. A parody of the famous Apple/PC television spots was used to help drive home this point.

The success of the campaign was measured on the increased participation from the 90s and 2000s classes of alumni that have historically had lower participation rates in traditional campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like people don’t like being “sold to” with boastful advertising. I know because the content writers, bloggers and self-proclaimed social media gurus have told me this over and over. And over again.

Really? Thanks for clearing that up. Read the rest of this entry »

Kirby takes home the crown.

So recently we found out that  a few ladies around the office had held a vote and decided that Kirby took home the Crown as far as best looking guy in our Westend office building. As much as I was crushed, I decided I have to turn this into a positive for the rest of us not-so-blessed, almost-mid-life-crisis, tire-carrying wannabees.

So my analogy here is as much as great work is often judged on looks alone, lets remember that often there is great beauty on the inside as well. That inner beauty is called brilliant strategy and when executed right is like a Super Model with a few Ph. D’s.

So I ask, is your brand beautiful on the inside?