Marketing Idea Guy » Creating Buzz

ISPCON: the Marketing Spotlight

Peter — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:26:32 +0000

Next week, Jack Brandt of Register.com and I are back at ISPCON to do another session on Marketing. For those that read this blog, here’s a thank you gift – the presentation early.

As many of you know, I don’t use PowerPoint during my sessions, but these are the ideas I will be trying to convey about Marketing, Messaging, and Guerrilla tactics.

No Advertising Needed

Peter — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:10:14 +0000

Michele Miller writes a blog post titled, Making an Impact with No Advertising. It is about a pool guy who grew his business with great customer service. In today’s business environ, great customer service is rare. Consumers are so used to poor service that it isn’t even commented on any more. So White Glove or Fanatical Customer Care can be a differentiator.

Using New Media Marketing

Peter — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:33:18 +0000

New Media Marketing means Blogging, Podcasting, Social networking, and the like to produce buzz and word-of-mouth for your client, product or company. Here in Tampa Bay, the AMA (American Marketing Assoc.) has a New Media Special Interest Group that has events to discuss this twist in marketing. If you can’t get to the events, you can read this article, The 411 on Web 2.0 Marketing.

Scoble’s Starfish

Peter — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:53:55 +0000

In the December 2007 issue of Fast Company magazine (you read it, right? if not, subscribe today!), Robert Scoble wrote about the ways that presidential candidates are using New Media to attract an audience. Blogging, texting, video, webcasting, social networking, and tracking. Businesses can take a cue from this starfish – Scoble’s Starfish. This multi-legged strategy can be used to get people talking about you; coming to you; bringing others to you. (This strategy only works if it allows the consumer to have a conversation with you in the manner they want).

Some folks want all info on their phone (especially those iPhone fanatics). Some want to have a forum. Some will want to share with content they help create. No one way works for everyone. Let your audience decide.

(Google “scoble starfish” without the quotes and see the results.) Scoble has 2 videos where he discusses the starfish (see here). The diagram is on Flickr, but wordpress prevents me from showing it.
Robert Scoble is a blogger and author of a book on blogging titled Naked Conversations.

Corporate Blogging is Different

Peter — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:48:55 +0000

I blog for a trade journal; a trade association; my clients and here about sales & marketing. (Soon I’ll be blogging for another industry media group; the industry being telecommunications). Last night at the AMA Tampa Bay New Media Night, I sat with 11 people to discuss blogging. We were led by Deana Goldasich from Magnetic. The only bloggers at the table did NOT work for corporate. My eyes were opened to how difficult open communication is for corporate. Lawyers, PR, executives — all have to review and approve.

Blogging is about having a conversation about your industry, marketplace, customers, products and services. It needs to be Authentic.

It does not need to be 2-way. Most of my conversations happen off the blog in email or phone calls. (Rarely do people want to “go on record”).

Marketing is about Story-telling. Blogs and New Media are just another way to tell the story to a different audience.

Deana’s suggestion was a book, The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil. I went searching for the top corporate blogs and found this list for 2007, 2006, and 2005. (I could not find the top 10 list on Technorati, but then I did not spend much time looking either, since Google is my best friend ever!)

I found a couple of resources for the PR and Corporate people:

Top 10 Risks for Corporate Blogs
New ROI of blogging report from Forrester

We ended the night discussing whether blogging was over. My opinion is that companies that do not reach out to their community / customers / marketplace will have to compete on price alone. Consumers want to hear authentic stories about how their purchase is helping the world or makes them smarter or high-class (plainly, the purchase needs to be justified). Traditional Media doesn’t work as well in our changing and fragmented culture, so New Media will have to be incorporated.

Guerrilla Marketing Idea # 100

Peter — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:19:37 +0000

PSF Wiki

Peter — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:15:45 +0000

PSF stands for Professional Services Firm like IBM. But UPS is a PSF in the Logistics business. Tom Peters has started a PSF Wiki. It is a place for you to tell your stories about incredible service. When have you received incredible service?

Microsoft on the Holiday Season

Peter — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:13:49 +0000

In the Microsoft newsletter, Insight, there was a blurb about an article on the Holiday Season. While the blurb had great info, the article was so-so.

“Holidays are critical to the success of countless businesses. It’s essential to map out plans to make the most of those holidays months before they occur. So no matter what time of year you begin planning, consider the advantages of being prepared.”

The author did get the part about planning right. If the holiday season is a big revenue generator for your business, you should have planned for it in July. Here are some ideas:

Gift Certificates
Shopping Parties
Lunch-n-Learn (technology is out-pacing the consumers’ knowledge)
Special-a-day in-store and online, advertised by email, postcard, poster, on-hold, and maybe by phone.
Gamer’s Day and Kid’s Day and Security Night and Storage-Backup-Insurance-Peace-of-Mind day.

Advertising AIDS

Peter — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:30:28 +0000

Want a tough gig? try coming up with a remarkable ad campaign for AIDS. Well, a bunch of big ad agencies took the challenge. Their results can be seen here.

Tee Shirt Marketing

Peter — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:33:05 +0000

Emily Chang writes about a new form of tee-shirt marketing by Reactee. According to Emily, it’s like this:

At first glance, Reactee is a fairly straightforward, albeit unique, approach to design-your-own clothes. You go to their website, design a t-shirt, and publish it in their catalog. This is all done rather Cafepress style. Where it starts to get interesting is the message. Reactee shirts, (Reactees) are designed to market something. It may be your band, club or business, or a non-profit you belong to, or of course, you can advertise something slightly more self-indulgent like “Think I’m Hot?”. With each shirt goes a unique keyword. People on the street who see your message and text-message the shirt’s keyword to Reactee receive a short customized reply which can be changed or updated by you at any time. Hence Reactee’s slogan: Cause A Reaction.

It is all about causing a Reaction.