Marketing Q & A

Watch social media explode!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:01:00 +0000

If you don't believe social media is having a huge impact on marketing, watch this chart for a few seconds.

7 SEO Tips for Better Search Engine Rankings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

If you’ve done the obvious things on your website for search engine optimization (SEO)—like sprinkle keywords through your home page and have a value proposition that says what you offer that others do not—you can further increase your website ranking using some of these ideas.

1. License your domain name for multiple years. This tells search engines you plan to be around for a while.

2. List the geographic areas you serve. This lets search engines know what “local” means to you, so they can bring the right “local” customers to you.

3. Give your pictures “alt tags.” Alt Tags are HTML elements that let you describe a picture. Use them because search engines cannot decipher pictures (or other types of rich media, like Flash and videos).

4. Use cascading style sheets (.css). Cascading style sheets let you put all the formatting in one file so the search engine does not have to interpret it—and accidentally rank “font” or “cell” as your most frequent keyword!

5. Use simple sentences and use keywords as the noun in your sentence. This is the easiest, most direct way to talk to customers and to search engine. “Marketing for Software Companies that Want To Grow” communicates more clearly than “Could Your Marketing Use A Boost?”

6. Put a local phone number on the page even if you use an 800-number. Without it, rival companies in your immediate area could out-rank you in searches conducted by local prospects.

7. Change something on your homepage frequently. This tells the search engines your site is not static brochure-ware, which also helps your ranking.

MultiPlanet follows the work of SEO researchers carefully to keep our clients up-to-date on the latest search engine advantages.

Contact me directly to discuss your company needs.

--Paige

MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc.

Aligning the stars for you.

3 Business Benefits of Social Media for Software Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

People often ask me about the benefits of a social media. If your business is going to invest in something, you want to know what you get in return, right? Basically, social media offer several benefits.

First, social media helps your search engine ranking.

The bigger your website, the better your search engine ranking. Most software companies don’t have extremely large website. Social media lets you add posts and blog items that rank like web pages. Blogs and social media posts also help your sales effort. You can alert buyers to the latest upgrades and features quickly. This is important because buyers today want to learn all they can about your product before they contact your company.

Social media give your sales people more sales material. As they speak with prospects, they can refer them to your blog, Facebook page, etc., for more information or discussion about a feature. They can also show prospects a presentation on YouTube or SlideShow about a particular feature. This is especially handy when talk with prospects over the phone.

WordPress, Google+ page, YouTube, FlickR and SlideShow are popular platforms for storing company information. They are free, easy to use and indexed by the search engines. Facebook and Twitter are good mechanisms to use to let people know you have new information available.

Second, to aid lead generation, you can embed organic keyword in your posts. Using the same keywords in your blog items and posts that your prospects use in their online searches helps your prospects find your product. Put a tagline describing your product’s benefits and the geographic area you serve at the bottom of your blog/post and you now have a free ad online. Be sure to include a click to a contact form on your site.

Third, lead nurturing is a natural use of social media. Social media lets you contact people without disrupting them the way a phone call, or even an email, does. In effect, a prospect can ask a question without inviting a 10-minute sales pitch from you. Just be sure you are diligent about answering questions. And, yes, every question deserves an answer.

Prospects don’t want to be sold. They want to find appropriate product for their needs, kick the tires, get other people’s opinions about the company’s reputation, expertise and how they treat their customers, and maybe even use the product for free before they start a sales conversation.

Social media lets you publicize your attributes in all these areas.

See you on the net.

--Paige

MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc.

Put your marketing on steroids

Need help starting your social media program? Just shoot us an email, call or comment below.

pmiller@multiplanetmarketing.com, 610.687.2690.

The Answer to January 10 "test yourself" question:

In January 2010, Disney World’s “Give a Day, Get a Day” promotion offered a free one-day pass to Disney World to anyone who signed up and worked on the National Day of Service celebrating Martin Luther King’s birthday. More than 600,000 people took advantage of the offer.

Anatomy of An Amazing Marketing Deals

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Marketing people are creative, and they often earn their stripes by solving business problems with creative marketing.

The Philadelphia Inquirer illustrates this perfectly with their marketing campaign to increase subscribers. In November 2011, they began offering a tablet PC for $89 with the purchase of a one-year subscription to the digital version of the newspaper ($10 a month).

Stroke of Genius!
This is a stroke of genius. What does the Inquirer (an all other newspaper) face? Younger readers aren’t buying newspapers because they get their news from the Internet.

Let’s look at what the Inquirer did. You may have heard the phrase “a problem in search of a solution.” If you tweak that phase a little bit and think of it as “a problem in search of another problem” you have a marketing perspective that can result in amazing deals. Someone at the Inquirer was smart enough to think that way.

Think of the Customer
Instead of thinking about their own problem, the Inquirer thought about the problems of their desired client. What do young people want? Education, jobs, family….Ok, those are too big for even the Inquirer to solve. What do young people want for Christmas? Now that’s a more manageable problem.

So, what do young people want for Christmas? Kindles, music, iPhones, Uggs, Wiis, North Face jackets, digital cameras, iPods, video games, iPads. iPads…iPADs! Give the Millenniums iPADS . . .wouldn’t that be cool?

Give it a WOW-factor!
Note that last line above. Whatever you use as an incentive must have a WOW!-factor.

An iPad fits the bill perfectly. It lets the Inquirer apply another old marketing adage, “give them the razor for free and sell them the blades” (or the more modern version of “sell them the printer cheap and make money on the ink cartridges).

Now you have the “buy a subscription and get a tablet cheap” marketing offer.
When the iPad turned out to be too expensive, the Inquirer teamed with Arnova, which offers a great tablet on the Android Gingerbread operating system, the same OS as the Kindle. (My daughter has practically given up her MacBook in favor of the Arnova tablet.)

To recap: Think about your objective and what your desired client wants. How can you combine their current behavior, desires or wants with your objectives?

It takes brainstorming. It takes lots of “what if we….,” and “wouldn’t be great if…” thinking to devise a creative approach, but it results in great marketing.

Test Yourself
So, test your own skills. Answer this: How did Disney World increase attendance by African-Americans in 2010?

I’ll post a link to the answer in the next blog. In the meantime, post your thoughts.
–Paige
MultiPlanet Marketing specializes in creative thinking. Let us work with your management or marketing team to develop solutions for your challenges. Contact me at 610.687.2690. –Paige Miller

Five Steps to a Successful Marketing Strategy and Road Map for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Which way is your marketing going in 2012?
A strategy shows you the way.

Hope your holiday's were fun! Now it's back to work and time to start the New Year right with a strategy to guide you through the next 12 months. Here’s how to get started.

A marketing strategy sits between your business plan and your marketing plan. Your business plan defines your market—the group of people who have a problem you can solve—and states the message you want to use to explain the benefit of your product or service.

Your marketing strategy states how you plan to attract those people. Your strategy depends on:

1. Your Budget. Set a budget, even if it is only a small amount. Don’t skirt the issue by asking “what will it cost?” or saying “Tell me what we need and I’ll get the money.” It’s a waste of time to develop a $5MM budget if you only have $50,000 to spend. It doesn’t matter what you need if you can’t afford it. The goal is to maximize the impact of the money you do have. If nothing else, start with 15% of revenues. That should get you into the ballpark.

2. Your Purpose. What do you want to accomplish? Drive people to the website to buy your product? Educate prospective customers to nurture them toward a sale? Build your brand in the marketplace so you make the RFP and short lists of major prospects? Decide now, so you don’t spread yourself and your staff too thin. The more purposes you have, the less successful you will be at any of them.

3. Your Goals. Determine what metrics will best mark your success: leads generated? downloads? Free trials? Sales? Visitors to the site? Sign-ups for the newsletter? Next, set realistic and stretch goals for those metrics. Use last year’s goals as a guide, if you have them. If your company is new to marketing, set modest goals. Better to succeed and feel a sense of forward motion than to set high goals, fail and drain the energy out of the effort.

5. Determine Your Strategy. States how you plan to spend your budget and use your resources. What will you emphasize and what will delay until later? Which marketing channels will you use first? Why? (Do the research to find out how other businesses like your succeeded.)

6. Build Your Road Map. The final element of your plan is your Road Map, which says what you will do each month and who will do it. Keep your budget in minds as you determine which trade shows you want to attend, which publications you want for your articles and which websites or social media sites are best for reaching your customers.

A strategy and road map helps ensure your budget lasts the full year. Too often, “things” come along during the first half of the year that consume your budget, leaving no money for critical end-of-year efforts to meet company sales goals. A strategy and an eye on the calendar makes marketing more effective.

What’s the biggest marketing mistake you’ve seen that a good strategy would have prevented? I’ll give a shout out to the marketer who provides the best example.

Happy New Year, --Paige

MultiPlanet Marketing

For help developing your strategy, contact MultiPlanet Marketing.

Meet the Press Loves Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Interesting to hear so many marketing references on Meet the Press yesterday. One of the commentators at the roundtable said one of the presidential candidates was an example of "as we say in marketing, resistant dependency. When customer dislikes you but has to use you--like the cable company."

(Ted Koppel tapped the guy on the arm and said something to the effect "don't bash the cable company--not on this network." Everyone laughed. NBC is owned by Comcast cable company.) I never did find this sound bit on their website so you could hear it. But I digress.

I hadn't heard the term "resistant dependency," but it's a good one, and I tucked it away for future use.

Also, Dick Gregory (1) referenced a tweet sent by a viewer, (2) mentioned Ron Pauls "positive sentiment" on Twitter (wonder what listening software NBC uses), and (3) is seeking input on "What are your ideas for the debate?" on Facebook.

Looks like Meet the Press Loves Twitter. Fast, easy way to connect with your audience. Good job.

How Good is Copy Cat Advertising?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:15:00 +0000

The number of TV ads today that blatantly copy the ad concept of another company seems to be increasing. Think of Kindle with the young man (Kindle in hand, white background) talking to the young lady about book reading. Remind you of anything? How about the Apple Mac ads with Justin Long and John Hodgman.

Or how about the Girl in Pink ads?

Hey, if it works for one, why not for others? Obviously it's a low cost format--couple people, blank stage--but, if the actors and dialogue are engaging, that's all you really need or is it?

Quick, without looking back, what company does the Girl in Pink ad? Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon?

I didn't get it right when I first looked on YouTube for the clip.

So why was the Mac PC and Kindle so memorable, but the Girl in Pink less so? Could it be the format works for tangible product but not intangible ones? Did showing various cell phones with different screen confuse the message? Or is this format losing its appeal? What do you think?

5 Strategic Marketing Insights from Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:11:00 +0000

Amazon homepage

Most people think of Amazon as an e-commerce site where you buy books. But, actually, they are a major player in (1) retailing, (2) e-commerce development (3) inventory outsourcing, (4) advertising, and (5) IT hosting.

What can we learn from Amazon? Plenty.

1. Over the last few years, we watched as Amazon moved from online bookstore to online e-book, Kindle and Kindle Fire tablet seller. That was a great move and a logical one, given what happened to the music industry. Lesson One: You must evolve your product even if it cannibalizes your current product. (If you don't, someone else will.) Now the Kindle Fire launches them into the tablet market.

2. As logical as the e-book extension way, so was their business extension into consumer goods. If people come to your site to look for books, why not add more products to the drop down list? Lesson Two: leverage your brand recognition, traffic stream, reputation and skill sets based on your selling model. Amazon realized they were not in the book business but, rather, the online retailing business. Borders and Barnes & Nobles were way late to that party.

3. With their huge inventory of products, it's only logical to want to advertise those product. But the more products you have the bigger your marketing budget has to be, right? Apparently not. Amazon crowd-sources some of their marketing, letting bloggers and website owners recommend products and link the reader directly to Amazon or display banner ads for a small cut of the revenues.

Lesson Three: Your customers are an asset; let them help you. This concept borders on genius to those who do not spend 8-hours a day online. This concept is evidence of a complete immersion in Web 2.0 and social media. Basically, its the Google and Facebook model, but at the the personal website level. It leverages your customer-base, using the latest social media concepts and technology.

4. Amazon also provides a e-commerce solutions through their Webstore for anyone who wants to be an e-tailer. They offer everything from website design to hosting, shopping cards, credit card processing and inventory management. Again, they are leveraging their core competences and staying at the fore-front of the e-commerce tidal wave. Lesson Four: White label your technology to smaller companies.

5. All of these Amazon services require computer storage and CPU. And when you are good at hosting and managing websites, what do you do? Make hosting and managing applications a business line, too. In fact, Amazon Web Service is one large provider of cloud computing services. They provide hosting for Hoot Suite, TMZ, Farmville and many, many others. Now, if they can get Kindle Fire users to store their music in the cloud, think of the growth. Lesson Five: If you have to do the work anyway, do it for others, too, and charge them.

Amazon's expansion seem entirely logical and, in fact, the best strategic paths are the ones that are no-brainers. Marketing a new product shouldn't be an uphill climb. (If it is, your product is not filling a need better than your competitors fill it.)

But Amazon is very unusual in that each component in its supply chain--from marketing to technology to customer service to operations--does double duty as a product. Every department is expert enough at what it does to sell its services outside the company. And that's a strategic marketing plan few companies can achieve.

If you were Jeff Bezos, what would be your next strategic move?
--Paige
MultiPlanet

Bachmann Wins Debate--according to TweeterCloud

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:03:00 +0000

Who "won" the Republican debate tonight? According to the cloud I ran on TweetCloud.com, Michelle Bachmann did. Her name is the largest. Romney shows up, but the rest of the field is barely visible.

Your Blog Can Work Harder!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:29:00 +0000

Your blog already does double duty for you by adding content to your website—which Google loves—and drawing people to your website—which you love. But it can do more. And since writing a blog is not the easiest task, why not get every benefit you can?

You’ve probably already optimized your blog site, right? You have your name or website domain in your blog’s URL, and your blog title uses your top-most keywords, as does the short description (inside the HTML meta description tag) about your blog’s main focus.

Naturally, you write magnetic copy, and every post is tagged with keywords and links to at least one other blog items on your site. You also know that every blog entry is the equivalent of a web page, from Google’s perspective, so you’re building your reputation, adding followers and improving your Google ranking all at the same time.

And, of course, you have a sign-up widget, a blog roll, a link back to your website, links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, delicious/Digg/Reddit, etc., an RSS feed and a cloud index. You announce your new blog posts on Twitter and Facebook, HOWEVER . . .

More to do!
There is still more work your blog can do for you!

1. Make sure your website points to your blog, so you get all the credit Google can give you. Your blog host has a page where you can tell them the name of your web domain, and your website host has instructions for setting up the “C-Name record” that networks need to link one place to another . Do the blog site first.

Then, if you can understand the instructions for setting up C-Name record at your host site, do it. (Be aware that the instructions are for programmers and the questions make no sense to the layman.) If you have problems, do not hesitate to call them. If the technical support person does not understand what you are trying to do, call back later and talk to someone else. They do this all the time.

2. Add your blog to your website menu and make sure it is in your sitemap. Again, why not get the maximum Google credit for your efforts?

3. Make your blog a micro-site by adding an About page and a Contact page and other pages for services, products, etc. Give each it’s own URL with keywords, title tag and meta-description.

4. Add a category widget to your site and assign each post to a category. Google loves it, and it lets your reader find topics more easily.

5. Use a picture in each post and include a roll-over description (which pops up if the for some reason the picture doesn’t appear). This gives Google a little more content to feed on. Go into the HTML code and look for the Alt tag (alt=“ ”). Put your description between the quote marks. Don’t forget to use appropriate keywords.

6. Up your keyword density to 2-4% per post, write at least 500 words and use a keyword in the last sentence of your post. Google loves all this.

7. Blog about topics that are of interest to different segments of your audience, so you attract new people to your blog. Be sure to use keywords appropriate for that audience so you come up in Google search engine results for more search terms.

Now you’re really cookin.’ Make that blog earn it’s keep!

Google TV - Way to Market! (marketing tip)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:33:00 +0000

Google announced today that Google TV is live! And it is "live"--depending on what your definition of "live" is.

Apparently it's live somewhere inside Google, Inc. and a few select TV vendors have access to in. But that's it.

Oh, you wanted to see it, try it out, maybe even buy it? Sorry, it's not available.

You thought "live" meant "available?" Did you fall off the marketing pumpkin truck yesterday?

What's alive and going full force is Google's pre-sale marketing machine -- just in time for Christmas.

They are warming up the audience with teasers. Announcements about the channels they'll have, like NBC, CBS and Amazon. Amazon?? Did you know Amazon has something like 75,000 movies and TV shows you can download--that is, if you have the required set-top box. Supposedly, Google TV won't require a set-top box.

This is classic marketing: advertising what's coming in order to stop prospects from buying a competitor's product before you get your product to market. Would you dare buy a set-top box now, knowing Google TV doesn't require one? No.

Note also that no specific delivery date is given, just "coming this fall." That separates "selling" from the "delivering," which is a godsend for the production people who are trying to get all the back-office pieces in place--the channel contracts, testing of all the system upgrades, the customer support call center, the online documentation, etc., etc.

So the marketing people have been unleashed to get every TV station, tech magazine and blogger (myself included) creating a buzz about Google TV. They already have over 3 million pages mentioning Google TV on the web. Well done, Google.

Of course, strategically, Google is placing itself as the gatekeeper to the Internet -- But that's a topic for another blog.

Apply Apple's Marketing Genius to Your Business

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:36:00 +0000

Apple is blazing a new path for its products. Could your company do the same?
Read the following and think about the questions at the end.
We all can learn from Apple.

Apple's iPad is changing the game. If I owned Microsoft or Dell, I would be very concerned today. Not because the iPad is a new type of limited-purpose computer that looks snazzy, but because it's a new computer "footprint" with an Apple operating system.

Apple is hitting the computer market in its most vulnerable spot: hardware design.

Hardware manufacturers have not evolved much beyond the laptop "style,"--other than to decrease weight and increase battery life. Why should they? People are happy with laptops and, besides, the applications that laptops run don't need to be turned sideway, flipped with a finger swoosh, or expanded with an "unpinch" motion.

Apple is changing that. And now, if you wanted your laptop to work like your iPhone (and who wouldn't? Have you seen the iPhone!!), you will need to buy an iPad. (And rest assured that the iPad will evolve into a full-fledged business computer in a very short time, now that 3-rd party developers can get at it.)

So what does that mean for Microsoft? Suddenly, their operating system is running on the wrong hardware!! And, guess what: the people who own the iPad hardware have their own operating system. So, Microsoft is on the path to obsolescence, not because their operating system isn't good, but because the hardware it runs on it looking old. Microsoft and Dell have been attacked from the rear!!

What have we learned?? Apple's Wisdom:
(1) Even large companies have weaknesses.
(2) To overcome the competition, you have to change the game (not take on the competition).

Apply Apple's wisdom:
(1) Think about your product or service and all its components. Draw a picture if you can. Where does your offering touch other people, companies and markets, etc.
(2) For EVERY component of your offering, what could you do to sabotage it if you were a competitor? For example, for every concept you promote as a consultant, what could change to make your advice wrong? These are your weaknesses.
(3) Now reverse that thinking, what could you embrace to make your product better? If you were not constrained by time or money, what would you do to improve each component/feature of your product?

Are the ideas coming yet? Keep at it. They will. It may take a few weeks of mulling this around in your head before the real brainstorm hits.

Apple may not have had the genius to foreseen it's long-term path when they introduced the iPod, but somewhere along the line they did. And now the competition will be scrambling to catch up while Apple builds market share. Apple has changed the game.

Maybe you can, too.

Let me know your thoughts,
--Paige
Paige Miller
MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc.
Always thinking ahead.

Commercials Will Get Quieter. Broadcasters must say to advertisers: "Want air time? Fix the volume."

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:48:00 +0000

Finally, the Congress is requiring the FCC to do something about the volume of TV commercial!

Have you noticed how commercials have gotten louder in the last year or so? I've taken to hitting the mute during every commercial break. But loud commercials aren't new. A few years back my husband and I had a good laugh when the dog, sleeping on the rug in front of the TV, jump straight up in the air when a loud commercial come on.

The House voted this week to require the FCC to adopt within a year the Advanced Television Systems Committee regulations, which were created by an industry organization. Rep Anna Eshoo (D. Calif) drafted the bill, saying, "Volunteerism hasn't worked for 50 years."

TV broadcasters say it will require special equipment to control the sound-levels of the myriad videos they get. Is that really necessary?? Why wouldn't Broadcasters simply require all commercial made after December 16, 2009 to have sound within a prescribed range? "If you want air time, control the volume of your commercial." Common sense reigns. Problem solved.

Of course, that's when the blackmail will begin unless all the broadcasters --NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox --put the same demand in their contracts.

Gap Commercial for Preteens Clothes: Almost Perfect

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:33:00 +0000

"Ahhhhhhhhhh Formal Attire Officially Retired Hey Mom and Dad guess what? 1-2-3-4 not gonna wear it anymore I love my comfy sweater. I love my comfy sweater. How cute are these boots? How cute are these boots? Forget those girly dresses. Forget those girly dresses. Or talk to the moose. ah-ah. The moose."

Making a great commercial always requires R&D and art. Gap has created a great one this season for their pre-teen girls' clothes.

1. The product is great. Having been the mother of a pre-teen, I can tell you they suddenly have their own opinions about what to wear. Mom is no longer competent to select outfits (it's the start of those eye-rolling years). These colorful, rugged, age-appropriate, no-frill outfits let today's girls be active and cute.

2. The kids are engaging. What mom wouldn't want to have a happy, playful pre-teen? Yes, they have their opinions. Yes they're a little flirty (just like a pre-teen is). But they are still playing like little girls--- "talk to the moose" (a cuter, less sassy version of "talk to the hand") and "rowing" across the floor together. Most of all, they make it acceptable to be cute! And that's what pre-teens should be.

3. It sells to the Mom. Age-appropriate, warm, comfortable, and cute are important concepts to a Mom trying to dress a kid for school. That meme comes through loud and strong.

I can see why the commercial has gotten a little push-back because the dance is a little flirty (but really, it's more innocent than it is flirty). But I can forgive that; pre-teens ARE a little flirty. And compared to what they see on TV (e.g., ads for Victoria Secrets show), this is nothing.

All in all, Gap did a great job and I can watch this commercial over and over and smile every time. Good Job.

Google grabs Facebook and Twitter Content -- Why It's Important

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Google now picks up streaming content from Facebook and Twitter. Isn't that terrific?
It might not be obvious, but it will make a big difference in the world. It is a momentous event. Why, you might ask? Three reasons:

1. It is democracy at its purist. Now anyone who has something to say can get the word out to more people. No more hiding behind the Twitter login wall. Hiding public opinion just got harder. You don't have to have a radio station or a TV station to have a shot at influencing people's opinions.

2. It will unlock more creativity. Just like the Internet changed the music business by letting artist go directly to the public with their music, other industries--and especially the media--is about to be hit by the same tidal wave. If you have shot at being heard, you're more likely to take the risk of speaking.

3. It levels the playing field a bit more. Everyone can join the big leagues now; the same tools that mega-companies use to advertise and persuade are available to businesses of all sizes. It's been that way for a while, but this just makes one more pass of the steamroller over the media landscape.

Of course, with this new exposure comes new (actually very old) responsibilities.

1. The whole world is a small town. If you grew up in a small town, you know what I mean. Everyone knows your business, everyone knows who you are, and if you misbehave, someone tells your mother. There is no hiding. And that's the way it is with your digital identity.

Talk long enough and everyone will figure out if you are a concerned citizen or a jerk. People who prove themselves as trustworthy on the Internet will have more opportunities to be heard and to be followed. Of course, there will be those who try to cheat--with false identities, phony emails and scams, but that has always been the case.

It is a new era. There are new rules, and they are just evolving.

Paige Miller,
MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc.
Twitter: MultiPlanet
Facebook: MultiPlanet

Branding: Step Two--Finding your market niche

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:27:00 +0000

To successfully brand your company, you must decide which "game" you want to play in--that is, which market niche within your industry. It sounds easy and, often, it is. If you sell PCs, you're in the hardware industry and you're competing with Best Buys, Radio Shack, Dell online, etc. See? Easy.

But many times, especially for smaller companies, it’s more difficult to sharpen the focus. Do you design software and sell it (like Adobe)? Do you write custom software for other companies (like Accenture)? Do you write software for individual companies to bridge the gaps between software companies (like Perot Systems)? Or, do you provide contract programmers to help companies complete software projects (like Adecco)?

If you do a little of all of these--congratulations!!--you get to compete with IBM! Now do you see the problem? People want to hire the BEST person for the job they have. If your product or service offer is broad, you won't be perceived as the expert in anything. So pick ONE specific service area to focus on.

And here a tip: Pick the one that is the MOST LUCRATIVE in your geographic region.

Finding the market niche that (1) best fits your company's talents, (2) is most lucrative, and (3) has competitors that are vulnerable is well worth the investigation. After all, that's "where the money lives" for your company. Honing in on that market means the difference between running a business and climbing uphill.

Paige Miller, President
www.MultiPlanetMarketing.com
Success without Boundaries
Marketing for digital technology products

Branding: Step One--Defining your Company's Personality

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:54:00 +0000

How do you see your company? What is its personality?

Are you a heads-down-at-the-desk coding company that takes on the most complex applications? Or are you the we-hear-what-you-don't-say company that adds value. Or are you the faster-cheaper-better company that can knock out an application in days?

Every company has a personality. And it serves you well to define that personality and hone and hone. It's key to your branding strategy.

Ask yourself and your staff the following questions to tease out the core personality traits of your company:
1. What kind of project do you hate to see coming in the door.
2. What customer did you enjoy working with the most in the past? Why?
3. Do you like working directly with clients?
4. When a customer calls, what is your first reaction?
5. Do you think customers are from Mars and programmers are from Venus.
6. Do you like to train customers?
7. Do you periodically check-point your programs with the client as you move along?

There are dozens of questions you could ask yourself, and often companies need an outsider's help. After all, it often takes an outsider, such as a friend, co-worker or headhunter, to help a person recognize his or her best skills and attributes when writing a resume.

Spend time defining your company's personality. Once you do, you are well on your way to branding your business.

Sidewiki - This changes everything!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:51:00 +0000

OK, Sidewiki is mind-boggling! It's like talking back to the TV--you don't know if anyone is listening, but it feels good to get stuff off your chest! Now, however, people might actually hear you when you counter something that appears in the New York Times or on CNN!

Oh, this changes everything!

Bet people scramble to turn this thing off! (and how do you do that?)

in reference to: Features - Toolbar Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Got content? SEO Is Great, But Content is King

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:41:00 +0000

If your small business has thrived mostly by "word-of-mouth" marketing, you know you need to invest in marketing to go to the next level. Word-of-mouth marketing eventually becomes too slow a sales channel for most companies (except those that come out with disruptive, cool technologies, like the iPhone).

Interactive marketing might be the right next step for your business--but recognize its advantages and, more importantly, its limitations.

Interactive marketing includes optimizing your website (SEO), setting up your Facebook and Twitter pages, building links, buying AdWords and building great looking landing pages.

But, sooner or later, interactive marketing leads to harder stuff: CONTENT, lots and lots of content.

Content is still king. Content builds your brand, your reputation, your persona and the niche for your product. Content lets people get to know your company, what it does, and what it stands for. Social media sites exist to be a show place for your content and a forum for communicating with your customer.

So, before you hire a tech-whiz to jump into interactive marketing, realize that someone in your organization will need to feed that person CONTENT--lots and lots of content.

And who will develop that content? Developing content can be difficulat, especially if you already have a full time job running, say, the product development department or the sales department. If you aren't ready to answer that questions, you aren't ready for interactive marketing. It may be more cost-effective to hire a marketing person and, then, hire a sub-contractor to do the SEO, social media and AdWord set-up and tracking.

Don't let the dazzle of the Internet tools blind you to the need for a solid content

--Paige Miller
MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc. - celebrating our 10th year!
pmiller@multiplanetmarketing.com
Certified Inbound Marketing Professional
If you have not thought about multi-planet marketing, you haven't considered all your marketing options.

Why Internet Marketing is Taking Over the World

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Marketing techniques have changed more in the last five years than in the last 25 years. The Internet is now the advertising channel of choice for many large businesses, most medium-sized business and virtually all small businesses. Its low cost and wide reach makes it a practical and cost-effective marketing tool. Consequently, the Internet environment is alive with new tools, websites, techniques and marketing opportunities for the many firms that want to take advantage of the vast exposure the Internet offers.

Similarly, as businesses become fluent in the Internet tools, find their audiences on the web, and reap financial rewards for their efforts, they want to try more techniques and experiment with the latest ideas. As their Internet marketing efforts endure, their longevity is rewarded with higher rankings and greater exposure by Google, the primary search engine and "traffic director" for the web.

More than 9 BILLION searches were conducted by some 59 million people on Google during the month of June 2009, with an average of 304 million a day. For example, approximately 385,000 searches were conducted for "financial planner(s)" during July 2009, with 590 of those searches specifically requesting a financial planner in Philadelphia.

Tapping the flow of traffic that crosses the Internet is what Inbound Marketing is all about. You must create content, promote it and analyze the results. LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and dozens of other sites help you promote your content. But, like any marketing program, Internet marketing is a building process over time. Careful and knowledge-based experimentation leads the way to your audience, and success begetting more success.

Not to do Internet Marketing is to miss the greatest parade of buyers in the history of the world.

--Paige Miller
MultiPlanet Marketing, Inc.
Success without boundaries
For help with your Inbound Marketing program, contact me at pmiller@multiplanetmarketing.com

What is a “Brand?”

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Originally, “brand” was short for “brand equity,” meaning, the additional increase in a company’s sale price that is attributable to the company’s name.

The phrase came into being in 1988 when Phillip Morris purchased Kraft Foods for four times the company’s book value. Kraft commanded the premium price because its president knew that any new product bearing the Kraft name would fair better in the market place than the same product bearing another company’s name. http://tiny.cc/vhrP7

After that landmark sale, “building your brand” became a marketing focus.

A brand represents the reputation of a company—its fairness, honesty, respect, quality, helpfulness and integrity—in every aspect of its contact with the public (and in today’s transparent world, its employees). Everything counts, from a smile on a clerk’s face to the amount of quality testing before a product is shipped.

The value of a company’s name is inextricably link to its logo. While a company with enormous brand equity usually has a readily recognizable logo, a slick logo does not make a valuable brand.

Today, many marketing companies tout “branding” as the creation of a new, dazzling logo, advertising campaign, social media campaign, etc. And, indeed, it is all that, but true “branding” is much, much more.

Email Campaigns - Who Opens the Email?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:41:00 +0000

Who Opens Email? Folks in the religious, telecommunications and travel industries are the most likely to open an email, but even they only open about two in ten. Large businesses and consumers open about one, maybe two, out of 10 emails. And dentists and doctors? Forget it, they open only one, 0k--maybe tw0, out of every 20!

As more people read emails from their cell phones, it will be harder to track the open rate, since cell phones don't trigger the mechanism that let's email programs know the email was received or open. If your open rates drop but your click-through rates stay the same, you should suspect your audience has a lot of cell phone users. Tuck that little demographic away in your brain for future use.

For more statistics about email marketing, read the research report released by MailerMailer.
For help with creating an email campaign to nurture your relationships with your prospects and clients, contact me at MultiPlanet. (pmiller@multiplanetmarketing.com)

How to Make Your Email Campaign Work Harder

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:15:00 +0000

We all get to much email. But email is still one of the most effective and least expensive channels for advertising, so marketers are not about to stop hitting the Send button. Email marketing’s average ROI is reported to be $45.06 per dollar spent, more than double Internet marketing’s ROI of $19.94 per dollar spent, according to the Direct Marketing Association.

But not all email campaigns are successful. Some fail miserably. Why? The wrong message to the wrong audience at the wrong time. But that begs the question of what is the right message, what is the right audience and what is the right time?

The people at MailerMailer have new research that can help you get the mechanics of emailing right, so you can focus on what's inside the email.

Who Opens Email? Folks in the religious, telecommunications and travel industries are the most likely to open an email, but even they only open about two in ten. Large businesses and consumers open about one, maybe two, out of 10 emails. And dentists and doctors? Forget it, they open only one, 0k--maybe tw0, out of every 20!

As more people read emails from their cell phones, it will be harder to track the open rate, since cell phones don't trigger the mechanism that let's email programs know the email was received or open. If your open rates drop but your click-through rates stay the same, you should suspect your audience has a lot of cell phone users. Tuck that little demographic away in your brain for future use.

And, yes, click-through rates do correlate with open rates; the more people who open the email, the higher the click-throughs. Also, the more items there are to click, the more click-through you will get. Click-through rates for the second half of 2008 were about the same as for the first half, so the economy really didn't have a significant impact last year.

When do emails get opened? About 33% of the people open an email within two hours of receiving it, another 40% open it by 24 hours, and only another 10% open it by 48 hours. Which means, the results of you email campaign are pretty much in within 2 days.

Less obvious and more interesting are the facts that:

More emails are opened on Mondays--and more click-throughs happen on Monday--than any other day.
Emails with short subject lines (35 characters or less) are more likely to be opened.
Emails with the recipient's name in the subject line are LESS likely to be opened, but those with the recipient's name in the message.

(3) Most popular words in subject lines. While the available research does not correlate the most popular words in subject lines with the most click-throughs and conversions, we have to believe that marketers use the words that perform the best when writing their subject line. (Ok, maybe they don't experiment enough and are all sheep following the same sheppard, but let's put that aside right now.) At any rate, the most popular words are: news, party, newsletter, free, night, sale, com, update, holiday and week.

Some of those aren't surprising, like sale and free--the two most beautiful shopping words in any language. And news, update, and newsletter aren't too surprising either, but I'm stumped by night, holiday and week. Go figure. Guess that just proves we do need market research to find those nuggets of information that our gut instincts could never provide.

So, what have we learned? That a newsletter updating a group of ministers about a free party and sale the Monday night before the Christmas holiday would have the highest open rate ever recorded?

No! What we've learned is there are certain patterns of behavior within different audiences that we would do well to monitor and to use as guidelines to increase our marketing success. Also, that all behaviors are not obvious (week as a most popular subject line word??), and it's that little extra information that separates the good from the best.

Keep reading. Keep learning. And Happy Marketing.

American Idol setsTwitter on Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:11:00 +0000

The Tweets heard 'Round the World.

Twitter was a cacophony of chatter last night when Kris Allen took the American Idol title. Congratulations, comments and four-letter words scrolled down the Twitter monitoring site I was watching faster than pennies flashing by on a gas pump. Whether people were surprised, angry, stunned, delighted or disgusted, they were tweeting.

Adam Lambert, American Idol and Kris Allen were the most frequent words mentioned in tweets almost from the time American Idol came on 8:00 pm ET. In general, people loved the show--until the winner was announced and viewer consensus broke along party lines. Everyone had something to say. Adam Lambert shifted into the Most Frequent place, but early in the morning, Kris Allen moved to the top place.

Statistics on Twitter are hard to find (much less verify), but it looks like more than 362,000 tweets were posted by some 191,000 people in the first hour after Kris was proclaimed the winner. In the 2nd hour, some 144,000 twitters chirped their thoughts 259,000 times.

But, alas, the peeps picked up steam between midnight and 3:00 a.m. ET, as the West Coast TV viewers saw for themselves that America loves an underdog. The number of active twitters grew to 221,000, then 231,000, then 254,000 during that time period, and their warblings grew from 466,000 to 527,000 and then to 543,000 messages.

While it was exciting and fun to watch American Idol sing and dance it's way to the finish line, with the audience rocking and screaming, it was equally exciting to see what Americans thought as they pumped their elation or angst into cyberspace via Twitter. What a fascinating experience to be part of a crazy crowd scene while sitting quietly at home.

If twitter hadn't found it's place in the world, it has now. Twitter analytics will be the new Gallup poll and Nielsen ratings rolled into one.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:28:00 +0000

Social media is moving so fast. How do you keep up? Tell us:

Who your favorite marketing blogger is.
Who your favorite Twitter is