Beyond the Buzz Marketing

Is anyone watching this show? I do. I watch it faithfully and I don’t miss an episode. Mainly it’s because no matter what the task is, marketing is always forefront in the competition. You need to have a really good handle on marketing to be able to succeed at this competition.

One thing struck me as I was watching this week’s (4/19) episode. Well, actually, several things struck me but one stuck with me long enough to make me sit down and write a blog for my business about it. When one of the players found out that another player was trying to go to her ‘competition’ to raise money, she went ballistic. I don’t use that phrase lightly. A lot of foul language was spewed about their offices and a phone call was put on speaker phone where this contestant reamed out someone who wasn’t even in the game.

I was appalled at her actions and the fact that offices (both her office and the other team’s office) were at a complete standstill while she ranted and raved and cursed loudly enough to hear it plainly up and down the hallway.

When this was brought to the warroom in front of Donald, Ivanka and Piers, all three of them were completely nonplussed with this player’s meltdown. She brought in money, she stopped the ‘attack’ on her team, and she won the challenge - what does it matter how she played?

Now I may not be the career expert that my client, Dondi Scumaci is, (visit her website at www.dondiscumaci.com for fantastic career advice and guidance!) but I can say with some clarity that I believe businesses DO care ‘how’ you get to the finish line. If you are representing a company, you must comport yourself with respect toward clients and others both inside and outside of the business. You ARE a representative of the company and you are their face when you’re working with others.

I don’t believe that companies today are so focused on results that they will put aside their morals and their public image. They want results, but I believe it’s just as important to maintain a professional image with those results.

When representing a client, I am always vitally aware that I am their personal representative. In a social media world where everything is ‘instant’, you need to maintain a filter that will allow you to always put your best, most professional foot forward. When one push of a button instantly puts a comment, press release or public image online, it is not just the fact that it’s instant, it must also be instantly right.

It’s not enough to know the Internet, marketing or networking, it’s also important to remember that you’re putting your company image in someone else’s hands and to trust that person or company implicitly.

Recently I was approached by CWAHM (www.cwham.com) to put together an article on effective newsletters. Newsletters are a key component of many marketing campaigns and though in recent years they’ve evolved from paper format to electronic, the basic tenets remain the same. With an effective newsletter you can increase your client list and establish yourself as a ‘go-to’ expert that people can trust.

Your Mailing List:
If you don’t yet have a database or mailing list or you’re just trying to grow the one you have, here are a few ideas to consider.

Always have a link on your website. When people come to your website they are seeking information. A newsletter sign up is a perfect way for them to continue to receive information. Have a clear visible sign up and make sure people know that a newsletter is available.

Also, don’t be afraid to use social media to increase your database. Places like Facebook, Twitter and yes, Myspace, are viable means of reaching out to potential clients.

Is your newsletter visually balanced?
Once you’ve increased your mailing list and are ready to put together your newsletter, check your layout. On first glance is your layout evenly balanced with text and graphics? This is a fine line to walk these days. People are busy and they don’t want to get bogged down in too much text and information but at the same time, they’ll quickly toss ‘fluff’. Make sure that the graphics highlight your content and don’t pull attention away from your message but also that you don’t overburden your reader with too much text. Make sure you have solid content balanced with eye pleasing graphics.

Share your expertise!
When you write your articles, think of ways that you can make yourself and your newsletter a more valuable resource to your readers. Include content that they can apply to their business, workday or home life immediately. The more you’re able to accomplish this, the more you’ll be able to position yourself in their lives as their ‘go-to’ expert. Your readers will come to rely on you and trust your advice and opinions. This is invaluable when it comes to marketing your products or services!

Timing is key!
Once you’ve built that database and have a solid actionable newsletter, timing is critical to ensuring that your newsletter doesn’t get tossed in the virtual trash can! Have you ever heard the joke that you should never buy a car that was built on a Monday or a Friday? This is true of newsletters as well. Timing is critical when sending out your newsletter. On Monday mornings, what is the first thing that most people do when arriving at the office? Most likely, they’ll turn on their computer and begin to sort through their email. Those of us who do this also know that on Monday mornings, you have an entire weekend’s spam emails to delete. In an effort to ‘clean out’ their inboxes, most people will hit delete much more quickly while filtering through their spam emails than if they were to receive your email during the day. Friday, there’s a whole different aspect to consider. More often than not on Fridays people are more likely to take the afternoon off or be rushing through their projects so they can clear their desks for the weekend.

The easiest way to be sure that you’re hitting at an appropriate time is to make sure you’re sending on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and time it to arrive during business hours in all the time zones that are relevant to your database. In the same way that people are more likely to hit delete on Mondays, they’ll also be more likely to delete first thing in the morning if it’s arrived during the overnight hours.

Happy Newslettering!

As happens every year, people around the world are making (and unfortunately already) breaking their resolutions for 2009. Most of the time, we find that as we do this, we’re hard pressed to keep up with drastic lifestyle changes or new fresh decisions on how to manage our businesses. Marketing is no exception.

In addition to viewing the new year as a fresh clean slate, it’s important to look back at the previous year and examine what worked and what didn’t. This enables you to set reasonable goals and expectations based on what we learned in 2008.

In the next few weeks I’ll be addressing some trends and ideas in marketing that you may want to keep in mind as you put together marketing plans for your business.

Marketing is not always, and should not be expected to be, ‘instant’. Does anyone remember that commercial a few years ago where the small company made their website live and instantly started receiving hits? Then quickly, they realized they were in over their heads and everything turned from ‘fun’ to scary? I have clients mention that commercial to me several times a year, all of them saying that they’re afraid to have that happen. They don’t want to end up over their heads. So they don’t proceed with marketing plans, afraid to step out. On the flip side of that, I’ve also had clients who have dropped my services after just a week or two because they didn’t receive the instant gratification. They were expecting results similar to those of the commercial.

Both of these approaches to marketing will backfire for you and your company and do you more harm than good. For those who are afraid to venture forth because they don’t want to be overwhelmed, a good solid marketing company will take into account your budget, what you can and can’t offer to clients and work within those parameters to ensure you have the best marketing plan to suit your needs. They will partner with you to manage expectations, and help assist you in both defining your marketing plan and dealing with business growth based from that plan. They will be your support team so you won’t be alone in what can sometimes be a frightening and nerve wracking venture. And remember, no marketing company should ever push your company beyond its limitations financially. With the abundance of marketing possibilities in today’s environment, everyone, no matter how large or small their budget may be, has some marketing potential that they can leverage.

At the same time, if you’re looking for instant gratification, you’ll be disappointed. No matter how large, prestigious or promising the marketing company sounds, no one is going to be able to offer you the ‘instant’ of the aforementioned commercial without a huge financial layout. Social networking, blogging, and other ‘instant’ forms of communication are invaluable tools, but they never promise ‘instant’ results. Hiring a company to do marketing for you and then letting them go because you haven’t seen enough ’solid’ results in the first week or two is a huge mistake. First, you could end up bouncing from company to company to company and never really gaining anything of value. It takes time to build a relationship, settle into the core audience, and find what works. Second, you could be inappropriately assigning success to the wrong things. If you hire a company that puts a marketing plan into place, then move to another plan in just a few weeks, the success you’re seeing may be a false success. You could be seeing results from the first company’s work and incorrectly assume that it’s coming from the second company’s plan. This can set you and your business on a course that will take you away from the success you’re seeking.

As you look to establish new goals for 2009, remember to manage your expectations and keep your goals attainable. Doing this will help you keep a better perspective on how to grow your business and keep moving toward the success you envision!

From Foxnews.com:

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354638,00.html

BOSTON —  If a stay-at-home mom could be compensated in dollars rather than personal satisfaction and unconditional love, she’d rake in a nifty sum of nearly $117,000 a year.

That’s according to a pre-Mother’s Day study released Thursday by Salary.com, a Waltham, Mass.-based firm that studies workplace compensation.

The eighth annual survey calculated a mom’s market value by studying pay levels for 10 job titles with duties that a typical mom performs, ranging from housekeeper and day care center teacher to van driver, psychologist and chief executive officer.

This year, the annual salary for a stay-at-home mom would be $116,805, while a working mom who also juggles an outside job would get $68,405 for her motherly duties.

One stay-at-home mom said the six-figure salary sounds a little low.

“I think a lot of people think we sit and home and have a lot of fun and don’t do a lot of work,” said Samantha Russell, a Fremont, N.H., mother who left her job as pastry chef to raise two boys, ages 2 and 4. “But they should try cleaning their house with little kids running around and messing it up right after them.”

The biggest driver of a mom’s theoretical salary is the amount of overtime pay she’d receive for working more than 40 hours a week. The 18,000 moms surveyed about their typical week reported working 94.4 hours — meaning they’d be spending more than half their working hours on overtime.

Working moms reported an average 54.6 hour “mom work week” besides the hours they spent at paying jobs.

Russell agreed her job as a stay-at-home mom is more than full-time. But she said her “job” brings intangible benefits she wouldn’t enjoy in the workplace.

“The rewards aren’t monetary, but it’s a reward knowing that they’re safe and happy,” Russell said of her sons. “It’s worth it all.”

I know that title might make immediate sense to most of you reading this, but many times people are yelling at their clients without realizing that they are.

I went into a restaurant for the first time recently and when I sat down to eat, I was immediately bombarded by orders. Not by a server or any person, but by signs and notes written all over the restaurant and the menu. On the wall over each table was a sign that said “We love your children, but we don’t love them all over the restaurant. Please confine them to your table!” On the menu were numerous notes ‘taped’ over other areas of the menu. “No substitutions!” “No coupons!” “No discounts!” “Served as is - no changes!” Even though no one had physically approached me and begun yelling, it felt as if I were.

 I’ve had many clients approach me and want to include all sorts of ‘we don’t’s’ all over their websites, pamphlets and print advertising. I know personally that this comes from a sense of frustration with people constantly asking the same questions again and again, but it’s highly likely that you could turn a prospective client away by ‘yelling’ at them without saying a word. If your business (whether it be brick and mortar or online) spends more time telling someone what you won’t or can’t do than it does telling them how you can serve them, you’ll miss more than you realize. When I see a store or a restaurant filled with “We don’t” or “We won’t” then I go the other way. This will happen online as well. If someone sees a list of what you won’t do on your site or in your store, THEY will go the other way.

Instead, try flipping those ‘won’t’ and ‘can’t’ phrases upside down and tell people what you CAN do for them. Keep positive. You can explain what you aren’t able to do for them and cushion it with what you are able to do. Example. “Though we don’t ship overseas, we do ship a variety of methods inside the continental US.” By addressing the ‘don’t’ in the beginning of the sentence and then moving to what is available, a positive feeling has been left in the customer’s mind.

 Staying positive and upbeat will help your clients/customers remain positive and upbeat with you and your services.

This morning it was announced that two powerhoues of television entertainment, Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick (”30Something” and “My So Called Life”) are creating a web only entertainment program.  You can read about it here. This isn’t anything new really. Companies have been doing it for years already. Fireside Entertainment, a company I work with, has a series currenting running on LMN.tv called “Inspector Mom” that’s been on for nearly a year. No, the big story here is two-pronged.

First, the website that will be airing the content is Myspace. It’s not connected to a television network or movie studio. It has no other connections to entertainment other than being a social networking website. So content that’s going directly to Myspace for its premiere is a first.

Second, in that article it states “In a new wrinkle, the show also will have its own social networking site called quarterlife.com.

‘Sending viewers in a loop back and forth from episode to the site could help build an audience,’ Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said.”

This isn’t new either. Programs in recent history have shown that having a gathering place for fans can have an incredible impact on programming. The fans of the show “Jericho” have successfully brought their show back from cancellation after having a place to gather, discuss the program and create a viable battle plan. And the fans of the show “Farscape” have recently received news that their program is going back into production for original webisodes four years after the program was cancelled.  What’s new here is the idea that they are going to send viewers to a website partnered with the show. Another social networking site which could be seen as competition for Myspace and a website created specifically with the fans in mind.

Too often a website is an afterthought when it should be the first thing that people are discussing. And it doesn’t matter what you’re selling. Products and services run the same way in this process. I explain it this way. Picture a clothesline. That’s your website. Now ‘hang’ the rest of your marketing and promotion off of the ’clothesline’.  Busines cards, pamphlets, fliers, coupons, leaflets, promotions, giveaways….all of your promotion should refer back to your website and your website should support all of that promotion. 

No matter what you’re selling, a website should be the clearinghouse for your clients and your ‘fans’ to come and find out more about the product. Rather than an afterthought, the website should be the core component of your marketing and promotion. If you keep this in mind, you’ll have a better understanding of what belongs in your website, how you want it to perform for you and, on top of that, you’ll be further ahead than the people out there who still see websites as something ‘extra’ that they can live without.

Not too long ago, Business Week came out with an article on their website titled “No Geeks Required”. It stated that with today’s templates and how to books, anyone can build a website for their business and save money by avoiding pricey web design firms.

As a business owner and a marketing professional, I’d have to strongly disagree with the direction that this article could lead someone searching for web design. Yes, you can create your own website. Templates and graphics that are ‘ready made’ make it easy. In fact, fourteen year old kids build their own sites and spaces on the Internet every day, often with more ease than the rest of us college graduates. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the best choice for your business.

A professional graphic designer can move your business beyond a mortar and brick storefront and into the Internet realm in a positive and professional way.  In many instances having a professional graphic designer work for you will place your business in a completely different universe for sales and professionalism.

A professional web designer will have experience in what works and what doesn’t for a website. Many people have favorite colors or fonts that are beautiful for an email or a pamphlet you might send out, but are completely off putting when placed on a computer screen. The site also needs to be manageable for your clients or customers as well as visually satisfying. A gorgeous design means nothing if your clients can’t work their way through the site easily.

Be careful of thinking that a book from the library or a night class or two will take the place of a professional web designer.  The job might get done and you could end up with a website for your business that you didn’t need to pay for, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to get the same job done as a professional web designer’s work. Saving money and being smart in finance is always a good thing for your business, but your website is your resume. Don’t skimp on quality when that is the ‘face’ of business that you’re showing the world.  There are many affordable web designers out there these days that do fantastic professional work and don’t require a second loan on your home to give you what you want and need for your business.

If you’ve spent any time at my company website, you’ll see that my company tagline (logo, slogan, branding, identity) is “There Is No Box”. I don’t believe that there is some box that we need to fit all of our ideas into or toss them aside. I don’t think that everyone needs to be the same and I do believe that each and every company, product and project is worth a million ideas in and of itself.

Now this being said, I must say that I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel. Some ideas work and take off and we shouldn’t be afraid to use those ideas to better ourselves. What we shouldn’t do is take someone else’s work as our own or be afraid of a new idea.

Recently I had a long discussion with a business owner who hired me to rebrand his company identity. He knew it had been long overdue and he wanted to start from the ground up. But when I sent him my ideas and work, he was distressed. He wanted to know where I had gotten my ideas. Well, I explained to him, they are unique ideas that I came up with based on the research I’d done into his work. This bothered him because he had wanted me to go to his competitor’s websites and use their ideas for his business. He kept complaining that he’d never done his own website before and companies he’d hired in the past had always just used all of their information from his competitor’s websites. He’d even asked my web design partner to go to competitor’s websites and take their graphics so he wouldn’t have to worry about supplying us with information.

Just a friendly reminder to prospective clients out there - we really do come up with creative and original marketing and web ideas for your company. We research your business ourselves and bring you concepts that will work specifically for your business and your customers. If you are looking for out of the box creative thinking with new fresh ideas and innovative approaches then we’re the company for you. 

You know what I’m talking about.  It’s all over the news today. A viral marketing stunt by the Cartoon Network gone bad. I’ve swung back and forth with my feelings on this. My immediate reaction was sympathy for the marketing/pr folks who are just trying to find a new way to get the word out. All of us in this business know how that feels. My secondary reaction was that they got what they wanted. They’re on the front page of virtually every major news source in the country.

 Interference Inc. is known for their guerilla tactics. It’s actually surprising that they haven’t gotten this kind of negative press before now. As shown in this article from 2001, http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/808381, previous stunts have included plastering advertisements over all manner of public areas including park benches and train stops. It also, in a few cases, got as big as spray painting logos on sidewalks. Sam Ewen, the CEO of Interference Inc., makes a very strong point that their advertising ’stunts’ are always positive messages. They try not to beat you over he head with it or garner negative reaction. After all negativity doesn’t usually create a fan of a product or company. But this specific ’stunt’ involved placing these boxes all over the country and on these boxes, the characters were set to ‘flip off’ people as they were driving. With this sort of premise, I would have been surprised if the stunt hadn’t garnered some other sort of negative publicity regardless.

The question also must be asked why they believed this would create good buzz. If you’re not familiar with Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) then is having a cartoon character you don’t recognize flip you off as you’re driving the best way to draw you to a program? To the best of my knowledge, there was no corresponding billboard/print campaign that would explain who these characters were or where to find them. Even in the midst of yesterday’s chaos, had there been a corresponding campaign to let people know about the signs….but wait. Would that have still been a viral marketing stunt? Is it a good marketing stunt if you need to use traditional marketing in order to explain the stunt? That’s a good question.

Something else to consider is legality. From a professional standpoint, I’ve worked a variety of venues with promotions and there’s always permission involved somewhere. You can’t hang a banner in a parking lot without permission of the store or location. You can’t go to a public park without a permit. You can’t place advertising in windows without the permission of the owners. I’m not sure why no one thought to alert the city governments that this would be happening and see if a permit was necessary. After all, they weren’t just plastering bumper stickers. These were electronic devices placed simultaneously in key areas in cities around the country. I have no doubt that somewhere someone is saying “I told you this wasn’t a good idea.” But did anyone in the chain of events stop to think “Do we need to make sure this is okay first? Before we connect this electronic device to this bridge?” For a company this size that’s done larger campaigns, they should have known better.

To be fair to both sides, reports are stating that there were a large number of calls about the boxes in Boston all at once. No one’s fessing up as to whether that was part of the plan or if someone intended to get the group in trouble. According to police/911 reports, no one seemed overly concerned about the boxes when they called. No one felt they were bombs or that their lives were in danger (again, according to police reports) so did it garner the buzz they’d been seeking? Perhaps. The phone calls may have been part of the kick off plan. If that’s the case, both companies who signed off on this idea need to be aware that creating what appears to be a dangerous situation isn’t acceptable marketing.

 Also, it must be noted that the boxes were in place in major cities across the country for several weeks without any issues. No one else noticed electronic boxes stuck to bridges and roads in major cities around the US? For weeks? And now everyone’s in an uproar? No one noticed people putting the boxes up in the first place?

What it all comes down to is the reaction/response they got. Boston handled the complaints appropriately. And Interference Inc. got their client noticed.  But in this day and age electronics attached to major bridges isn’t a wise course of action.

Should the city be charging people under terrorist acts? Turner Network, owners of the Cartoon Network, immediately notified authorities of the boxes and their purpose. In fact, Turner called other cities across the country and informed them of the issues as well. They also offered unqualified cooperation.  Personally I think the authorities should fine the PR company and Cartoon Network and call it good. If it’s really necessary, then require them to do public service for the city for a year. But arresting individuals who were hired by a legitimate company to put up signs seems a little over the top. The companies need to know that they messed up. Beyond that, it seems like you’re shooting the messenger.

I admit it. When a year ends, I am one of those people who is always interested in looking back at the trends. Top television shows. Top music. Top movies. And this year when I was looking over the list of top movies, I noticed an interesting trend.

 According to Box Office Mojo, the top ten movies of the year rated as follows:

1: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

2: Cars

3: X-Men The Last Stand

4: The DaVinci Code

5: Night at the Museum

6: Superman Returns

7: Ice Age: The Meltdown

8: Happy Feet

9: Casino Royale

10: Over the Hedge

Now, in looking at this list, it’s pretty clear cut statement that the best movies if you want to make money are going to be family movies. It makes sense. Families with children (myself included) are all over the country looking for something that they can safely take their kids to go see. The movies are few and far between when you look at the sheer number of movies released each year. (Over 600 in 2006 alone!) So that’s pretty much immediately clear. “Night at the Museum” even made the list and it was only released two weeks before the end of 2006. That goes to show that a good story that’s done well has a pretty decent chance of making it big at the box office.

What isn’t immediately clear is how unoriginal the list is. Out of ten movies, five of them were movies from known franchises. You could make it six if you counted “The DaVinci Code” in that list since it was based on such an astoundingly popular book. This means that more than half of the movies were counting on the buzz from their predecessors. And this wasn’t even known as the ‘year of the sequels’ as previous years have been.

 This begs the question - Is Hollywood running out of stories to tell? Or is it just looking in the wrong places? Are there any new/fresh stories out there? Or is everything just a rehash of something that’s already been done? What do you think?