The Name Game: How To Make A Name For Yourself Online

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. Thankfully, in the digital age, it’s possible and quite easy to make a name for yourself and your business through advances in social media and public relations. Here's how.

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In this day and age of instant communication, you think it would be much simpler to get the word about your business to interested parties. But often the opposite is true, and it’s a generally long and detailed process to make people understand how awesome you are.

Why is that? During the early stages of the Internet, when information wasn’t so readily accessible and the population online was much lower, it was easier to make a name for yourself. But the ease of use and accessibility of the Internet has made it so more and more folks log-on each day. This includes tons of businesses and interesting personalities, all of which are vying for a spot onstage.

Luckily, even with all of these competitors, it’s possible to make a name for yourself and your business. Advances in social media and public relations give you an edge every single day to make a difference… you just have to know how to use them!

1. First Steps

One of the earliest steps you must take when making a name for yourself is to decide on what your “brand” is. Your brand is anything that separates you from everyone else – something that is instantly recognizably “you.”

Companies like Coca-Cola and Nike have gone to great lengths to design and nurture their brand. When you see that check/slash symbol, you know you’re looking at something Nike has made. And Coke’s red and white designs instantly make you thirsty.

Your company needs something like this to visually separate you from the thousands upon thousands of other companies out there. When customers and the general public see your brand, they should instantly recognize it as your business. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a logo, either; it could be your shining face if you’re willing to put yourself out there.

2. Making A Name

Now that you’ve successfully designed a brand for your business, it’s time to spread it around the world! There are countless avenues for you to try your hand at marketing and PR, including social media sites like Twitter, sending out press releases, and even new tech like QR codes.

But for the most bang for your buck, I would suggest utilizing social media to its full potential. Nowhere else can you reach potentially millions of users with such little effort. Plus, if your business or product is extremely niche, you’re job might be even easier because you’re likely to find communities of people specifically interested in what you’re selling.

One rule to remember when making a name for your business: go where the customers are! If you’re spending all your time on Facebook, but all your customers hang out in communities elsewhere, you’ll still end up with an “Out of Business” sign on your door. Always remember to seek out who you want to market to and you’ll never have a problem with making a name for yourself again!

How have you made your brand stand out from the rest?

© Copyright 1998-2012 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Game Changer: How Social Media Is Altering The Advertising Landscape

It goes without saying that marketers today have a ton of advertising options available to them, and far more than ever before in history:  print (newspapers, magazines, newsletters, etc.); radio (terrestrial and satellite, TV (cable, network, and online); online (websites, blogs, search engines, and e-mail); product placement (TV, films, and video games); and outdoor (billboards, transportation centers, and a myriad of out-of-home options).

And for those brands fortunate enough to have the dollars to spend on multi-faceted advertising campaigns, this never-ending list of choices makes it difficult to allocate dollars to any one medium with predictable results. In the end, most advertisers throw money at a combination (or all) of these channels  to generate the widest possible coverage with their primary target audience. It's not a bad strategy, although it can be extraordinarily expensive. In addition, it's one which has been followed for years, dating back to the "Mad Men" era of mass marketing, and long before the advent of online, satellite radio, and some of the newer, more technology-centric alternatives.

So where does social media fit into the advertising picture? Certainly, it presents yet another confounding series of choices to make when developing an ad campaign:  promoted tweets? Display ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace? A compelling viral video posted on YouTube, and then doubles as an online video ad? Some or all of these? In the end, social media has dramatically altered the landscape of advertising, but the key question remains:  for better or for worse?

MDG Advertising, an award-winning agency headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, has attempted to get to the bottom of this by mapping out the many changes in advertising between its two primary timeframes:  the mass marketing era, and the new media era (read: now).

The findings are compelling. First, in the mass marketing period, the primary objective of an ad was to deliver a message to a targeted consumer in a one-way communication. However, in the new media age, the brand has to engage the customer in a conversation, and that requires two-way communication:  message disseminated to the consumer, and then listening to and responding to that consumer's feedback. Second, there is tremendous demand for and interest in online video ads, and that interest carries over to the mobile sector.

Check out MDG Advertising's infographic below to review all of the agency's findings on how social media platforms continue to alter the landscape of advertising. Click here to view a larger version of this image:

Competition You Can't Ignore

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Rajesh Setty, an entrepreneur, author, and speaker based in Silicon Valley, and a creator and seller of limited-edition prints at Sparktastic. This piece, which discusses the importance of identifying and monitoring indirect competitors, originally appeared in Amex OPEN Forum. Why is this critical? Because most companies only pay attention to direct competitors...the ones who pose the most obvious threats. However, competition can come from a variety of sources, and it's important to know exactly what those sources are so you can devise an appropriate marketing strategy that deals with them appropriately. You can follow Setty on Twitter at @rajsetty.

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First, there is no product or service that doesn't have competition. And if you tell someone that your product has no competition, what they hear is that there isn't a big market for your product...which isn't good.

Having clarified that, let’s look at the two big categories of competition.

On one hand, you have direct competition for your business — this is mainly other companies that are making the same promises that you are making. Lot of factors about the competitor (such as size of the company, pricing of their offerings, brand and image, etc.) will influence how much they will affect your business.

On the other hand, you have indirect competition. As the name indicates, this kind of competition is easy to miss.

Here are five of them to consider:

1. There is no “real” need now.

This is a mindshare competition. This happens when you create products that are “solutions waiting for problems.” There is a big “lean startup” movement going on (at least in Silicon Valley) where products are co-developed with customers. Most often, that’s not the case—someone develops a product because they see a need for it and assume everyone has that same need. If you have a solution that is looking for a problem, you need to go back to the drawing board.

2. There are mediocre, but less expensive, alternatives.

Whether you like it or not, if there are less expensive alternatives to what you are offering, there will be a large majority of people who will opt for it. Quality and standards are relative and varies based on taste. What one thinks as mediocre may be perfectly acceptable to someone else.

3. There are “minimal” alternatives.

Your gizmo may do everything from video chat to bringing your newspaper in the morning. You may also be adding new features every other month. The point is that not everybody wants all your features. 37Signals built a huge business building products with no-frills. Eighty percent of the people out there can get by using a product with minimal features and 80 percent is a large enough market to focus on.

4. People generally maintain “status quo.”

This is the hardest one to recognize and digest. Before your product or service came into the market, life was going on and life can go on without people having to use your product. In general, status quo will be maintained only because the alternate option is “to change,” which is not easy to come by.

As you design products, think of incentives that you can provide for people to embrace your product. It is harder than you think.

5. New ways of serving “needs” emerge.

You may remember products like Sony Walkman, floppy disks and VHS tapes. During their times, those products were popular and served the needs of people. Things changed and new products that changed the game emerged. With these new products, the way the needs were served changed—be it more capacity, more convenience, speed or new capabilities. Once that happened, the old products became obsolete and entered the end of their product life cycles.

© 2011 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

How To Make Your PR And Marketing Believable

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Erica Swallow, an associate editor of partner content at Mashable, where this piece initially appeared. All marketing and communications relies on credibility, or in this case, being believable, to be truly effective. Read on for a more detailed look at this important issue.

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Public relations and marketing professionals have dug themselves into a hole. With the overwhelming amount of PR spin and marketing messages flying at consumers on a daily basis, individuals are constantly on guard, trying to spot the underlying motives behind each claim, motto, message or deal that brands introduce. Many times the assumption by consumers is that marketing messages are motivated by greedy or deceptive intentions. This phenomena is what Ogilvy’s senior vice president of global strategy and marketing, Rohit Bhargava, recently called a “believability crisis” during his presentation at Mashable Connect 2011.

“Affinity has become the new secret weapon — we believe in people and companies that we like,” said Bhargava. For those in the public relations and marketing industries, it is important to gain back the trust they’ve lost from consumers by understanding what makes people, ideas and organizations more believable.

Bhargava spoke about what he calls Likeonomics, which “explains the new affinity economy where the most likeable people, ideas and organizations are the ones we believe in, buy from and get inspired by.”

What makes a person or organization believable, then? Bhargava said that Likeonomics is based on being simple, human, brutally honest and emotional.

1. Simple

To be more believable, the first step is simple and based on personal relationships, said Bhargava. “Be genuine, be honest, be open.” He believes that this concept has powered the social media revolution and the brands that have embraced it.

Bhargava pointed to Ally Bank as an example of a brand that gets it. Using the slogan “Straightforward,” the bank sheds light on deceptive industry practices and aims for complete transparency on rates and terms. Says one Ally ad, “we make money with you, not off you.”

2. Human

If you’re trying to build relationships, it’s a good idea to be human. Simply said, but not easily done.

Bhargava pointed to Innocent, a UK beverage brand that puts a lot of initiative into showcasing the humanity behind its brand. Each winter, Innocent runs the Big Knit, in which Innocent fans knit and send in hats to place on top of its smoothie bottles that are placed in stores. For each hat knitted, the company pledges 25p to Age UK to help make winter warmer for older people across the UK.

This initiative not only illustrates that the company’s founders care about those around them, but it is also a genius marketing idea. Walk into any grocery store and take a look at the beverage aisle (or almost any aisle). Row after row, you’ll see similarly shaped and colored packages. Now place smoothie bottles with cute knitted hats into the picture — get the point?

3. Brutally Honest

After ranking last in a consumer preferences survey of national chains in 2009, Domino’s Pizza launched its humility-filled Domino’s Pizza Turnaround campaign, which featured consumers hating on the product. Consumers complained that Domino’s Pizza crust tasted like cardboard and its sauce tasted like ketchup, among other pitfalls. Domino’s listened and its chefs got to work, reinventing a “new pizza.”

Relationships of any type are based on trust — trust isn’t possible without honesty. Bhargava said that brands must practice “brutal honesty and extreme transparency” in order to “get people over that hump of ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t trust that what you’re doing is anything more than spin.’”

Bhargava noted that “disclosure is not the same thing as honesty.” Outing the naughty deeds that your company participates in on your annual report isn’t enough.

4. Emotional

Founded by eccentric millionaire Christian Ringnes, The Mini Bottle Gallery is billed as “the world’s first miniature bottle museum.” Having recently visited the museum in Oslo, Norway, Bhargava told the story of its founding and why its so unique.

Ringnes “treats the museum with a great sense of humor, because he realizes that he has built an entire museum around something that most people who might think of visiting consider silly or at least strange,” said Bhargava. As a result, he doesn’t take himself too seriously when he markets and promotes the gallery. “The museum itself features a built in slide, a monthly award for the “tackiest miniature bottle” and even a fake brothel with a collection of 40 custom bottles from the 40 legal brothels in Las Vegas,” explained Bhargava on his blog.

Because collecting the mini bottles is his personal passion, it’s Ringnes’ goal to get potential visitors emotionally invested in it, too.

© Copyright 2005-2011 Mashable, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Are You Making Something?

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by world-renowned marketing expert and best-selling author Seth Godin. It’s a short, but intriguing, essay about work and what is required to create lasting value, often short- and long-term objectives of the product development and marketing functions.
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Making something is work. Let's define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.

Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up... she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.

Two weeks ago, I took a five-hour plane ride. That's enough time for me to get a huge amount of productive writing done. Instead, I turned on the wifi connection and accomplished precisely no new measurable work between New York and Los Angeles.

More and more, we're finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren't. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I'm writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.

One reason for this confusion is that we're often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:

The Two-Device Solution
Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.

Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking... anything that doesn't directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not... draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don't like the results from that line, draw a new line).

Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, "break time." And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you've just learned something important. Go, make something. We need it!

Copyright © 2011 Seth Godin. All Rights Reserved.

Take Your Time To Develop Your Brand

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Deborah Shane, an author, entrepreneur, radio host and expert, that first appeared in Small Business Trends. Shane is a well-respected author, entrepreneur, radio host, and marketing expert who writes for several national business, career, and marketing blogs and Websites. In this interesting commentary, Shane asserts that that the branding process...for any company...is a steady one which only gathers momentum and awareness over time. Find out why...
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Does your brand splash around and do cannonballs off the side of the pool, or do you dive straight in and swim with a smooth, steady stroke? Rome wasn’t built in a day and your personal brand, reputation or business brand can’t be, either.

Trying to rush it, bombard people with it and be too much in people’s faces is not going to make them notice you faster or get them to buy more consistently. In fact, think about all the emails and newsletters that you now block, delete and unsubscribe to. People tell me all the time they are only following and getting emails from people and companies that really connect with them and provide them with timely information they want and need.

There are some really great professionals and companies who I like and admire, but I just don’t want daily emails (and sometimes it’s two or three a day). Those relentless reminders, repeated offers, re-framed messages, reminders about offers ending, multiple articles just posted on their sites, and so forth really turn me off. Probably turn you off, too.

What’s the best practice here and does this help or hinder brand development and recognition?

Just when I think I’ve gotten through all of them, another slew of them downloads into my browser. I am really exhausted trying to keep up. Aren’t you?

More and more people I am speaking to are putting new boundaries on emails and email marketing. We know how important and effective email marketing, is but how often and for what reason do we need to be sending email marketing messages?

I am on my social platforms a few times per day; post two to three blog articles weekly; and write for several other business, career and marketing sites. I also try to send a dedicated, purposeful email out to my permission-based email list once per week; about every two months I send out a themed newsletter.

So, how much more do I need to do to be out there to grow my brand and authority?

I believe it’s the consistency of your activity, the length and content of your messages, and finding just the right frequency that develops a brand organically over time. Brands should meander with purpose to where they are being naturally led.

No need to rush it or bombard people with your brand. Let it unfold, be consistent and “go with the flow.”

© Copyright 2003-2011. Small Business Trends LLC. All rights reserved.

Post-Sale Marketing: 10 Ways To Continue Customer Conversations

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Eric Groves, senior vice president of Constant Contact, which first appeared on AmEx OPEN Forum. Constant Contact helps small organizations grow their businesses by building stronger customer relationships via easy-to-use, affordable communications tools that engage casual customers, members, prospects, and passionate customers. In this excellent piece, Groves explains several important ways for firms to enhance their relationships with their respective customers AFTER the sale is over — an often-overlooked, but critical, component of the marketing process.
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For too many small business owners, once a customer leaves your shop or your service is completed, the conversation ends. But it doesn’t need to stop there. If you can continue those threads of dialogue online through e-mail, newsletters, and social media, you have a better chance of building stronger ties to your customer base. This, of course, will lead to repeat business.

The trick is to find the balance between providing your customers with relevant information, while not abusing your online access to them by trying to sell them more “stuff.”

Whether you have infrequent in-person contact with customers or you see them every week — or even every day — the No. 1 rule in moving in-person conversations online is to consistently provide relevant information to the customer that will improve at least one aspect of their lives.

So just how do you connect with those customers and engage them in both the real and virtual worlds? First, you need to get their permission to contact them via e-mail; do that by asking at the point of sale, on your website, on social media, at events -- wherever you interact. Then create content that will engage and help your customers, allowing you to be seen as a partner, not just a vendor.

Engaging customers in more meaningful dialogue that’s focused on them will inevitably lead to longer-term, more profitable customer relationships. If you’re committed to turning today’s business transactions into actually connecting with customers, here are 10 things to keep in mind.

1. Treat the receipt of an e-mail address like a customer pact where you agree that it will never be abused, shared, or taken for granted.

2. Never send unsolicited communications.

3. Always provide free expert advice in your newsletter.

4. Never use the communication as a substitution for advertising.

5. Don’t overstay your welcome: Be brief, be relevant, and be gone.

6. Use compelling, yet not misleading, subject lines to prompt subscribers to open the communication or to follow the online stream.

7. Start a conversation that begins and ends with your customers. Think ‘you, you, you’ and not ‘me, me, me.’ Then point them to an online destination where they can share their thoughts and opinions.

8. Strike a balance in your frequency of communications to gently remind customers of your products and/or services, yet allow enough time in between to actually be missed.

9. Track the readership using tools that provide insight into opt-outs, unopened e-mails and the like to assess the interest of your customers.

10. Provide information that illustrates your expertise that your subscribers don’t already know and can’t easily find elsewhere.

Remember: If you focus on the relationship and engaging customers in meaningful ways, the sales will automatically follow.

© 2011 American Express Company. All rights reserved.

The CMO's Guide To The Social Landscape

In my experience, I have encountered occasions when even the most insightful, experienced marketing professionals, including chief marketing officers (CMOs), are not as up to speed as they should be on certain tactics. Doesn't matter if it's online advertising, viral marketing, direct mail, or search engine optimization (SEO). It's not necessarily because they're not savvy, knowledgeable, or experienced about these strategies. Rather, it's usually because they've only worked in organizations where more traditional approaches were required, or perhaps, they lacked resources (usually financial) to design and execute fully-integrated, comprehensive campaigns...even though the intent to do more was there. In other instances, the dynamics of the organization and industry simply demanded that a limited number of marketing channels be employed to achieve desired results. It happens. No one company can absolutely do everything in the marketing realm; it's virtually impossible.

And this scenario is often found with social media, which leaves many senior executives scratching their heads, particularly about its utility, revenue generation, brand awareness increase ability, return on investment, and the list goes on and on. Typically, they know they should have some sort of program, but they're not sure how to structure it, fund it, or manage it. Much has been written about how to obtain buy-in on these initiatives from the C-suite, so I won't cover that ground again here.

However, what I will present today is one of the most comprehensive guides I've ever seen that spells out, in very clear terms, exactly which social media platforms should be used to create certain marketing outcomes. For the C-suite, it doesn't get any better than this.

Check out this handy guide, entitled "The CMO's Guide to the Social Landscape," and developed by CMO.com and SEO firm 97th Floor, have created the chart below showing which social networks are best to achieve various organizational, customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing goals. How useful are Facebook and Twitter for SEO purposes? Can Flickr actually drive Website traffic? Is LinkedIn useful for customer communications? If dealing with these questions are part of your day-to-day responsibilities, then you'll definitely want to check this out and then save it.

Make sure to click on the image to view this amazing infographic in PDF format, and then add this to your resource folder. We did!

On-Campus Marketing: Do's and Don’ts For Connecting With Students

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Elizabeth Johnson, assistant editor of My Dog Ate By Blog, a site which focuses on politics, technology, and pop culture issues related to education. In the following piece, Johnson outlines several useful tips for brands interested in connecting with students through on-campus marketing. Annually, Corporate America spends hundreds of millions of dollars interacting with and engaging college students, a highly-influential audience that represents over $300 billion in spending power.
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Students have a wealth of potential when it comes to consumerism. While both high school and college students are sometimes on a limited budget, they also have more of a disposable income. When it comes to getting the attention of students, it helps to know how to properly market to them. You don’t just want to get to campus and start throwing fliers around. While board postings don’t get a lot of attention, there are ways to make sure that your messages are heard. Here are a few do's and don’ts that are helpful to follow when marketing to students on campus.

Do bring food. Students have big appetites that their budgets sometimes don’t allow them to indulge. Even those super skinny girls, who bat their eyes and say they’re dieting, will be drawn to tables with free food. You don’t have to break your marketing budget providing a five-star dinner. Many will be happy to take a look at or even try your product with the promise of a slice of pizza or a bag of chips.

Do know how to utilize fliers. You see them everywhere on both college and high school campuses. Students are constantly bombarded with fliers. People stick them on telephone polls or cars, and they are shoved into a students' hands constantly. Why give the students another piece of paper they’re going to throw away? Still, there are ways to use fliers and places to put them that will get their attention. Silly as it sounds, the backs of bathroom stalls are a great place. The janitor might take them down, but students will read them while they're up.

Do understand the needs of the students. It’s offensive to show up on campus with a marketing campaign designed for 45-year-old professionals. While there’s sure to be a few of those on campus, some might even be students; you need to understand who your base is here.

Do get in good with the faculty. If your product is student-specific, especially if you’re marketing a textbook or bookstore, professors might be willing to help you out a little. They might dedicate some time at the beginning of their class to a brief presentation, if you make your case clear and specific enough.

Don’t bother a student while he's trying to get work done. When a student is sitting in the hall with his head down reading a chemistry textbook, don’t go up to him, get his attention, make him look up, and hand him your flier about your product. He’s there to do work and if you bother him while he’s trying to learn, you’re sure to lose at least one potential customer.

Don’t give away free junk. Food is not junk. Food is what a student wants. Unless you want to hand out something a student wants, such as a nice pen or an iTunes gift card, don’t bother distributing anything.

Don’t step on the teachers. If a teacher is kind enough to allow you some class time with his or her students, don’t speak for longer than three to five minutes. Make sure you cater your presentation to the class, and thank the students profusely afterwards.

If you follow these rules, and try your best to be respectful of the campus environment, you might find that students are the most responsive and loyal consumers out there.

Great Business Lessons from Horrible Marketing Strategies

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Alana Horowitz which first appeared on Business Insider, a new business site with deep financial, entertainment, green tech, and digital industry verticals. We're all familiar with the well-documented crises outlined below, but what about the important lessons that should be learned from them? Horowitz lays out the key takeaways from these famous faux pas.
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You can learn a lot about business from marketing history. Some of the most successful companies were born from great ads and publicity stunts (think of Apple's groundbreaking 1984 spot). On the other hand, bad strategies can be just as educational.

Here’s a look at what some of the biggest marketing failures can teach you:

The move: New Coke.

How it flopped: In 1985, The Coca Cola Company unveiled its first formula change in 99 years. The public was outraged. Replacing a tried-and-true classic with an unknown version would be like trying to change the national anthem to a Justin Bieber song. Coke quickly learned not to mess with brand loyalty and brought back the old formula 79 days later.

What you can learn: Stick to your brand. If you aren’t getting complaints about a service or product, there’s probably no need for drastic changes. On the other hand, it’s important to tap into your client or customer base and find out what they really want. Coke’s biggest mistake was trying out a new formula without ever asking consumers if there was anything wrong with the old one.


The move: Starbucks takes over the world.

How it flopped: Starbucks relies on its omnipresence as its primary form of advertising. How often do you buy their coffee because you literally can’t think of anywhere else to go? But there’s a downside to Starbucks’ ubiquity. There are so many stores (not to mention licensed franchises and grocery store products) that the brand itself has become watered down. It represents consumerism, not great coffee and friendly service.

What you can learn: Let your company grow naturally. Don’t force expansion or your message will become as diluted as a cup of Starbucks’ coffee.


The move: Kenneth Cole jokes about Egypt.

How it flopped: This year’s protests in Egypt were many things -- tragic, chaotic, revolutionary -- but funny wasn’t one of them. However, that didn’t stop designer Kenneth Cole from tweeting, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our spring collection is now available online.” Public reaction was so bad that Cole ended up deleting the tweet and issuing several apology statements.

What you can learn: Bad publicity is almost worse than none at all. A recent Google search for Kenneth Cole brings up articles about the social media misstep right under its own Website. If you think a stunt might offend people, it’s best to hold off.


The move: The Titanic is called "unsinkable."

How it flopped: Everyone knows the story. The luxury steamship was marketed as unsinkable -- until it was felled by an on its maiden voyage.

What you can learn: Whether it’s to one client or 3,500 passengers, don’t make promises unless you know you can deliver. Reliability is crucial, especially for a new business.

© 2011 Business Insider, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Link Between Online Advertising And Public Relations

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Jonathan Gardner, director of communications at Vibrant, a worldwide leader in contextual technology and the leading provider of in-text solutions. For several years now, marketers have sat back and watched as digital media has blurred the lines between communications disciplines. With this in mind, Gardner discusses why PR pros should continue to be mindful of developments in the online advertising world and how these impact the public relations domain...for better or for worse. This post first appeared in PRNewser.
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Going into 2011, it is clear that the worlds of online advertising and marketing are being shaped by tremendous forces. But why should anyone outside of advertising care? Because in our experience, none of the disciplines live in isolation: developments in advertising, communications, and PR all resonate with the others in the marketing universe.

In 2011, we think there are phenomena that are of particular relevance to those throughout marketing and communications: the continuing debate over online privacy (“do not track”) and the evolution of content and social media.

Consumers will need to decide what information they want marketers to have in exchange for access to content and advertising that is relevant to their wants and needs. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg put it, the public is unclear if privacy is still a “social norm.” And while government debate over online privacy continues, the industry is advancing an agenda of self-regulation. There is widespread agreement that there needs to be increased transparency in how marketers engage in behavioral targeting.

Whatever the outcome of the privacy issue, marketers are looking beyond behavioral to contextual technologies, which still allow precise targeting at scale. We see surging interest in a whole slate of new contextual marketing innovations that use banner ads, rich media, and video, along with established in-text advertising. This year will bring “super-relevant” dynamic ads with custom content that changes based on the content of a site’s page.

Smart communicators know the new world of content is defined by opportunities – all the new channels for content and the evolution of consumer product companies as “content producers.” PR professionals are stepping up to put in practice what they preach: using social to grow the network effect of communications content, within and beyond their organizations, in B2B and B2C, in every marketing channel. We’ll see amped-up integration of social-sharing and recommendation tools that bridge content and ads, such as toolbars, which have already made inroads with publishers.

As media and technology converge across devices and platforms, the content and channels are crossing boundaries and borders. And so for advertising and communications, what happens in one area will surely be impacting the other in 2011 more than ever before.

© 2011 WebMediaBrands, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Crowded House: How Marketers Can Use Crowdsourcing For Maximum Impact

Outside of social media and viral marketing, crowdsourcing has arguably become one of THE hottest communications techniques in recent years to be used by marketers for greater engagement of, and interaction with, target audiences of all varieties. But for the uninitiated, what is crowdsourcing, and how is it being used today by businesses? Let's explore further...

Crowdsourcing: Origin and Definition
For starters, the term "crowdsourcing" was first coined by Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, in his seminal feature story, "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," in the June, 2006 issue of the publication. It is a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing." Howe still writes for the magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. He also continues to cover the phenomenon on his blog, Crowdsourcing.com, and he wrote a book, Crowdsourcing: Why The Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, on the subject which was released in September, 2008. According to Howe, crowdsourcing is defined as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee; it could also be an external third party, such as a PR firm or advertising agency), and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. In his article, Howe explains that because technological advances have allowed for cheap consumer electronics, the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished. As a result, brands are now able to take advantage of the talent and real-time input of the public for all sorts of different marketing and product development programs.

How Does Crowdsourcing Work?
Essentially, crowdsourcing acts as a distributed problem-solving and production technique. In a typical crowdsourcing scenario, an issue is broadcast to a known or unknown group of people requesting solutions and/or input on the topic. Individuals, also known as the crowd, then form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions to the requesting company. Going one step further, the crowd can also potentially sort through all the proposed solutions, and pinpoint the most appropriate ones. In the end, these best solutions are owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place — the crowdsourcer — and the winning individuals in the crowd are usually, but not always, rewarded with prizes or some other form of recognition.


The Four Main Crowdsourcing Strategies
According to Howe, there are four primary crowdsourcing strategies:

• Crowdfunding: An open call to raise funds for a specific business, individual, cause, or non-profit organization.
• Crowdcreation: An open call requesting individuals to join a crowd interested in the requester's mission, products, or services.
• Crowdvoting: An open call for the crowd to vote for a specific choice.
• Crowd Wisdom: An open call to solicit the collective opinion of a crowd, rather than a single expert, to answer a question.

The Benefits of Crowdsourcing
As explained by Howe in his book, and as reinforced by many to today's top marketing experts and social media strategist, crowdsourcing offers the following benefits:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payments are based on results, or not offered at all.
• The organization can tap a wide range of talent than might not be present in its own organization.
• By listening to the crowd, organizations obtain direct insight into their customers' desires.
• The community may feel a direct connection with the brand of the crowdsourcer, the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Real-World Examples from Today's Marketers
With the advent and global popularity of social networks, much of today's crowdsourcing is orchestrated through major social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, many companies also request input from their respective crowds through their corporate Websites, e-mail newsletters, direct mail pieces, print and online advertisements, and other forms of marketing communication — or in many cases, most or all of the above, to obtain the absolute widest range of feedback from all possible sources. From the marketer's perspective, the more feedback from a brand's multiple target audiences, the better. Marketers can then analyze all of the input and solutions from the crowd, and strategically use that information to best solve the problem.

As mentioned at the beginning, in addition to tapping into the talents and expertise of the crowd, crowdsourcing has become a very popular, low-risk communication channel for directly interacting with and engaging target audiences, and convincing customers that their feedback is both useful and highly valued. Years ago, this high level of engagement was very difficult to create and maintain, but through the aforementioned technology-based vehicles, it is easy and natural in society today.

In terms of real-world examples, here are some excellent recent instances of crowdsourcing at work:

• Gap: Last month, when Gap introduced its new brand identity without consumer input, there was so much negative pushback from long-time Gap shoppers about the visual presence that the company ultimately pulled it down and went back to its original design.
• Procter & Gamble: The company employs more than 9,000 scientists and researchers in corporate R&D, but still have many problems they cannot solve. Employees now post these issues on a dedicated crowdsourcing Website called InnoCentive, and offer large cash rewards to more than 90,000 “solvers” who make up this network of backyard scientists.
• TopCoder: A software development house for outsourced projects. What separates TopCoder from its competitors is that the work is crowdsourced to a community of over 180,000 members from over 200 countries in a competition format.
• Wikipedia: Technically, the globally-popular online encyclopedia is a crowdsourcing-driven initiative.

In many instances, the crowdsourcing initiative is not as extensive or comprehensive as these examples. It could be as simple as a restaurant chain such as Denny's, Red Robin, or California Pizza Kitchen asking its respective crowds to submit ideas for a brand-new healthy menu item. Or a consumer brand, such as Johnson & Johnson or Kraft, asking for the crowd's input on a list of potential names for a new product to be introduced next year. Or a technology company, such as HP or Apple, requesting opinions from its consumer base on choices for a new celebrity spokesperson. And the list goes on and on. Anything that marketers can think of, where consumer or user input would be valuable, is fair game for crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing isn't going away any time soon. In fact, it will become far more prevalent as additional companies realize how extensively they can leverage the collective minds and expertise of their respective customers. So, the next time your business needs some form of creative or strategic direction, ask the crowd. You'll be pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of the input.

This Season, Social Is The New Black

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Philippe Guegan, vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel, a New York-based social media and branded content agency that takes brands from Content To Commerce, and appearing recently in MediaPost's Social Media Insider. It is an excellent, well-articulated commentary in which Guegan explains how the rise and prevalance of social media closely mirrors the explosive proliferation of digital marketing several years ago, and why social is fast becoming less about experimentation and more about regular production. It's definitely worth spending a few minutes to read...
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Fashion victim, fashionista: these are words not easily applied to me. However, I have learned one valuable lesson over the years by observing an industry that's always on the lookout for the next big thing: if you wait long enough, past trends and patterns will make a comeback.

This is exactly to the case with social media right now. As all things social start to mature, the same evolution that took place in the digital marketing industry only a few years ago is emerging: social is fast becoming less about experimentation, and more about regular production. In fact, production is the key word in many ways, which I'll come back to a bit later.

In recent months, a noticeable shift has taken place among the clients and prospects we've talked with at our agency. They fall roughly into three categories: those still experimenting with social media, those using social media consistently as a tactical add-on to their marketing activities, and those trying to make social a more central, strategic component of their marketing efforts.

As we approach 2011 budget deadlines, more and more marketers are trying to switch gears and move from using social as a tactical add-on to making it a core component in their overall efforts. Small, medium and large companies want to know how they can streamline, automate, budget, and measure social media and social marketing. How can it move from a series of handcrafted singular projects to a more consistent, more repeatable, more predictable undertaking?

We have clear answers to that. The key challenge remains implementation.

Marketing integration may have been the Holy Grail for advertisers over the last 15 years, yet the agency world became increasingly fragmented during that period of time. Many agencies that initially dismissed digital as a peripheral activity are now bent on not making the same mistake again with social.

Agencies rightfully see social as central to the future of marketing and work to develop in this space as fast as they can. Yet each agency, each discipline, looks at social through a very narrow lens that only puts the emphasis on their original core competencies. And, this is what really spells trouble for marketers.

Back to the issue of production, as mentioned earlier: It is tempting to draw parallels between social content production/earned media on one hand, and advertising production/paid media on the other hand. However, the comparison can be misleading in many ways. There are at least five key differences in social that every marketer should bear in mind:

1) Forget one-size-fits-all messages targeting "lowest common denominator" audience. Recognize that fragmentation is here to stay, and embrace it at every step.

2) Frequency and freshness of content matter more than production values. Increase your execution capability and move to rapid-fire, low-cost production cycles.

3) Campaigns have a limited shelf life, but quality content is a valuable and reusable asset. Build your library for the long term and ensure that you will be able to do "reruns."

4) Stop thinking (and budgeting around) campaign flights and push marketing. Start thinking about ongoing engagement. Audiences can no longer be turned on and off on demand.

5) In a genuine two-way, real-time conversation, it is hard to separate the production arm from the distribution arm. Your brain is connected to your mouth for a reason.

Larger creative and media agencies have legacy economic models built around scale and size that make it difficult to adapt and operate profitably in a world of exponentially fragmented audiences and touch points. When it comes to social, the question is not whether "they get it," but whether they can evolve to become as fast and nimble as marketers need them to be. Even Web agencies, in spite of their digital DNA, can sometimes struggle with things like video production or labor-intensive, low-tech conversational engagement.

The long-predicted new marketing paradigm is finally here. Marketers need to start thinking, behaving and organizing themselves as content producers who treat engage consumers as audiences, instead of fully outsourcing this function to external publishers. Content is still king, after all.

A new species of agencies is emerging to deliver solutions that meet this new paradigm Built from the ground up to meet the new realities of turnkey content production and distribution, agencies with a studio mindset and roots in video program production and distribution can create a competitive edge from a creative, execution and dissemination standpoint.

It's official: Social is now well beyond a passing marketing fad. Amid this environment, marketers find it increasingly challenging to differentiate brands, products and messages. The push for a constant flow of newness is becoming a key operational requirement -- just like in the fashion industry. One thing is certain: social is the new black.

Philippe Guegan is vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel. Philippe previously spent more than 15 years planning, implementing and measuring digital and integrated marketing programs at several marketing agencies.

© 2010 Media Post Communications. All rights reserved.

E-Mail and Social Media: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Editor's Note: The following is a useful and highly-educational blog post, which details how to effectively integrate of e-mail and social media communications, written by the outstanding editorial staff at MarketingVOX, an online publication which keeps marketers and media professionals abreast of industry news, trends, and culture.
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When Ben & Jerry’s announced this summer that it would exclusively market its products via social media – discontinuing its e-mail marketing initiatives – eyebrows were raised. While there has been much debate over the advantages of e-mail versus social media, few advocate entirely ditching one for the other. In fact, the best practice gaining traction is to integrate the best of these channels. Unfortunately few firms have done so, leading to siloed e-mail and social media marketing operations.

The benefits of this approach, though, are clear. A study by Emarketer, for example, called "Maximizing the E-Mail/Social Media Connection," found that joining the two approaches provide new avenues for sharing and engaging customers and prospects. "The two channels can help each other, offering the opportunity for marketers to create deeper connections."

12 Tips
To nudge firms along this path, CoTweet and ExactTarget, in their latest report, The Collaborative Future, offer 12 tips to integrate these channels.

1. Promote Facebook games, applications, and competitions in e-mail and on Twitter.
2. Feature winners of Facebook competitions in your e-mail newsletter.
3. Tweet about exclusive content that’s only available to e-mail subscribers.
4. Promote exclusive deals on Facebook and Twitter, but make it only available to e-mail subscribers.
5. Post links to Web versions of your best e-mails on Facebook and Twitter.
6. Include Like and Follow buttons in e-mail newsletters and promotions.
7. Include links to your Twitter and Facebook pages in e-mail newsletters.
8. Collect e-mail addresses at the point of conversion for consumers who link to your site from Facebook and Twitter.
9. Create an e-mail segment containing Twitter followers, and provide them with additional “insider information” through e-mail.
10. Include questions posted on Twitter and Facebook in your e-mails, and then answer them.
11. Encourage e-mail subscribers to post questions on Facebook and/or Twitter.
12. Host videos on your Facebook page. Include links in your e-mails and post links on Twitter.

© 2003-2010 Watershed Publishing. Reprinted courtesy of MarketingVOX, a Watershed Publishing property. All rights reserved.

60 Proven Ways to Increase Your Online Marketing Influence

Editor's Note: The following is an extremely insightful guest blog post about cultivating online influence written by Jeanne Hopkins, director of marketing at HubSpot, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Internet marketing startup whose software helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads, and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers.
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On July 7, in the late afternoon, I tuned in to The Influencer Project. For the next 60 minutes (actually it was closer to 62 minutes), I listened to 60 online experts tell at least one proven way to increase your influence online. We’re talking real experts like David Meerman Scott, Anne Holland, Brian Solis, Todd Defren and our own Mike Volpe, and all of the unmentioned names are equal in expertise to those I mentioned. While some of the advice was obvious, like create valuable content or get on Facebook, what resonated was that these experts – all of whom have influence online, so they do know what they’re talking about – were passionate about their one or two tips.

As a sponsor for this event, we have permission from ThoughtLead, the program organizers, to offer our community both the audio file and the complete transcript. For those of you who don’t have 62 minutes to spare, I’ve taken the liberty of shortening it even more – to 60 sentences.

This will give you the headlines, but you may want to take the additional time and understand why these experts came up with their practical advice. I cannot remember when I've received this much solid advice in such a short amount of time.

1. Stop talking about your products and services and create valuable content.

2. Increase conversion rates on your landing pages by improving your buttons.

3. Build your thought leadership and digital influence through transparency.

4. Demonstrate commitment and increase your digital influence through consistency.

5. Know where you’re going, then make what you say about the people around you.

6. Follow better people.

7. Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.

8. Make connections online, then meet the person in the real world, offline.

9. Create content that stands for something: ‘Higher purpose content marketing.’

10. Look under the hood of the shiny new technologies coming out.

11. Believe in ‘social objects’ as the way we socialize and share with others.

12. Avoid ‘incestuous blogging’ and look outside your circle.

13. Start talking to people.

14. Think about your narrative strategy because people connect with stories worth telling.

15. Find people who have your audience but not your products and co-create with them.

16. Establish influence either through complete honesty or absolute fakery - not in between.

17. Give your content roots and give it wings.

18. Try Facebook advertising.

19. Develop your online influence by getting offline and meeting people in real life.

20. Get very, very good at filtering and aggregating content.

21. Be early in the news cycles of any conversation of interest, then make context explicit.

22. Increase visibility through web video; the fastest way to get your message out there.

23. Feel passionate about your content and overcome your fears of reaching out.

24. Defy convention where it’s appropriate.

25. Share good content consistently.

26. Let your passion shine to create meaningful relationships and build deep connections.

27. Learn how to talk more about other people.

28. Get on Facebook, get on Faceboook now, and use it for your business.

29. Make people around you more successful than you are, and share stories from the heart.

30. Talk about what you know because content is always king.

31. Make something worth talking about.

32. Get your self properly interviewed.

33. Repeat your tweets.

34. Get more influence online by moving offline.

35. Really understand your audience, then build things that really help them.

36. Master one niche, own that niche, then use webinar marketing to promote your brand.

37. Think about what gifts and expertise you have that you can leverage to help others.

38. Map a strategy for integrating social media with other tactics.

39. Change from thinking about my influence to our influence.

40. Get active in other people’s communities.

41. Build "digital dimensionality" by showing your many different sides.

42. Listen to the conversations taking place around you, then start to engage.

43. Network with other influencers and make them aware of your consistent value.

44. Think about the authenticity, consistency, and depth of your voice and story

45. Be willing to shake up your world.

46. Learn to be a storyteller, understand the psychology of people, create quality content.

47. Share ideas liberally and get increased accountability from the digital community.

48. Establish your business model before you attempt to become influential online.

49. Be consistent, connect the practical with the profound, and listen for the silence.

50. Find a unique niche you can own, focus on it and become known for that.

51. Find out what social network your customers are using and be there for them.

52. Build a community of readers by figuring out ways to get people talking.

53. Make friends along the way by helping others achieve their goals.

54. Think about social media as strategy to enhance your existing marketing goals.

55. Be systematic in establishing relationships with those on the same business path.

56. Become an advocate for gifted up and comers as they enter social media.

57. Start the media arm of your company that educates, inspires and entertains.

58. Give more than you get and build trust and relationships over time.

59. Take a look at what you have that others can’t do and use it to get where you need to go.

60. Figure out your value, identify influential individuals and connect to them directly.

© 2010 HubSpot, Inc. Reprinted courtesy of HubSpot, Inc. All rights reserved.

Five Steps To Dealing With The Relentless Pace Of Marketing

Editor's Note: The following is an insightful, well-written essay authored and posted earlier this week by Todd Defren, principal of SHIFT Communications, and one of the world's most highly-respected public relations (PR) bloggers and social media experts. Defren's writings can be found on his blog, PR Squared, which is also required reading on The CMAC blogroll below. I enjoyed and agreed with this commentary so much that I am reprinting it here for all of you, my esteemed readers.
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The advent of social media has not only made the marketer’s role more strategic and complicated, it’s also made it much more BUSY. Our client was waxing nostalgic for the days when “getting ink” was the big mark of success.

Now it’s:

1. Get ink.
2. Track and engage influencers ranging from Scoble to a momblogger to a Facebook group admin.
3. Escalate customer service issues found online before they become a mess on Twitter or Google.
4. Develop fresh, compelling content, every single week (or every single day!) for the social media outposts including the corporate blog, the YouTube Channel, the Facebook Page, the Twitter stream, LinkedIn Answers, Slideshare, etc.
5. Keep tabs on competitive content.

“There are days when I just want to chuck it all,” the marketer said. “The job has become relentless, the requirements for content are voracious. Every day you see someone ELSE post something brilliant and buzzworthy — and you’re jealous and afraid — but then that bit of content is buried under something ELSE even better … So you realize that even the brightest bit of content you create has, at best, a 2–week shelf life, and by then you’d better be thinking about your Next Big Thing …”

Sound familiar? (Tired, yet?)

The cruelest part of this story is that this client contact wasn’t even 30–years-old yet! Despite their youth they were already exhausted.

This is a dilemma for every marketer, every PR agency, everyone. We recently lost a great employee because she had “crisped” from the pace. It’s understandable. I haven’t blogged in almost 2 weeks (due to a brief vacation and a busy schedule), and I’ve literally been in a near-panic about it, as I watch my friends like Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, David Armano, Valeria Maltoni, Jason Falls, etc. blog their booties off, with great content all along the way.

What to do?

When faced with overwhelming to-do’s, I find it best to break things down into the smallest parts possible. This doesn’t necessarily make the job easier in the end, but it does help to re-focus the mind on what’s important.

First: decide on your goals. Is your goal to be the coolest & most popular? Is your goal to be known as a thought leader in your industry? Is your goal to boost SEO for search terms related to your space? If you don’t figure this out, you’ll drive yourself nuts because lacking a plan, your ego will take over and drive you mad.

Second: ask for help. The voracious Interwebs should not be faced alone, not forever. For my part, I have initiated a series of casual conversations with friends and colleagues to enlist their aid in planning (and developing) “what’s next,” both for this blog and for SHIFT’s other digital embassies.

Third: set a reasonable pace. There will always be someone smarter, more prolific, and more popular than you or your company. Don’t fall prey to the need to compete on the speed of content creation; instead, set a pace that you know won’t drive you bonkers.

Fourth: “under-promise and over-deliver.” For example, promise youself you’ll write “One good blog post per week” (sounds reasonable), and if you write a second or (gasp!) a third post — you’ve over-exceeded a reasonable goal by 300 percent! Granted, this is related to “pace” but it extends to other areas such as measurement (see below), commenting on external blogs, developing a new series of Facebook quizzes, etc.

Fifth: measure. You’ll probably have to do this for your boss, anyway, but even if you don’t, set some reasonable metrics that you’re sure you can readily and easily track. There are tons of tools, both free (Google Analytics, Facebook Insights) and not-so-free (Sysomos, Radian6) that can give you a grasp on how you’re doing. Write those goals down and track your progress.

I hope this helped you. (It helped me!) Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. A marathon takes training, endurance, and sticktoitiveness. Mostly sticktoitiveness.

The Top 10 Real-Life Branding Icons Of All Time

Like just about everything in marketing these days, truly successful branding — in which a visual identity, icon, tag line, or spokesperson (or oftentimes, all of the above) becomes synonymous with the brand being pitched to consumers, and the product or service being offered — is a challenging combination of art and science. This may be a trite statement which trivializes, and even oversimplifies, a very complex process which takes years to unfold, but marketers know deep down it's unequivocally true. And that makes experienced branding experts worth their weight in gold when trying to differentiate a consumer or business brand from those of competitors.

So which real-people branding icons (and we're just talking about actual persons here, not animated or animal characters) are the most popular of all time? In this interesting piece yesterday in Wallet Pop, Aol.'s consumer finance digest, the site outlines its top-10 list which includes some very recognizable icons...some of which have fallen by the wayside over the years, while others have been reinvented for today's savvy consumer:

1. Mr. Whipple; Brand: Charmin toilet paper.
2. The Marlboro Man; Brand: Marlboro cigarettes.
3. The Maytag Repairman; Brand: Maytag appliances.
4. Rosie the Waitress; Brand: Bounty paper towels.
5. Madge the Manicurist; Palmolive dish soap.
6. The "Where's The Beef?" Lady; Brand: Wendy's.
7. Mikey; Brand: Life Cereal.
8. Ernest P. Worrell; Brand: Numerous.
9. Joe Isuzu; Brand: Isuzu cars.
10. Josephine the Plumber; Brand: Comet cleanser.

Of course, if we were to expand this list to include animated or animal characters, then we'd be able to add such equally-recognizable icons as Mrs. Butterworth, the Michelin Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Geico gecko, the AFLAC duck, and countless others.

Interestingly enough, though, with the exception of Maytag, which conducted an attention-getting contest in 2007 to find a new individual to play an updated, 21st-century version of the Maytag repairman in its print and broadcast advertising efforts, most of the brands, including those mentioned above, have dropped or severely curtailed (such as Marlboro) the use of actor-based icons in their marketing programs in favor of other tactics. And that makes sense, as campaigns due tend to run their course and become stale after years of years of the same schtick.

My favorite from this list? The insufferable, but still lovable, Mr. Whipple....of course:

In 1999, Procter & Gamble relaunched its Mr. Whipple campaign for Charmin using actor Dick Wilson, who played Whipple for years, and passed away in 2007 at the age of 91. Here is his glorious return spot:

And what does Charmin use now to differentiate its brand? Those cuddly animated, but somewhat annoying, bears that are constantly showing us how inferior TP sticks to their posteriors.

Email To The Max: Maximizing Email Newsletter Efforts

Like many other communications consultants, I'm a huge proponent of email marketing, and more specifically, in regularly crafting and distributing informative newsletters to highly-targeted audiences (as opposed to some monolithic database of contacts).

Why? It's relatively easy to do, it's a great way to reinforce branding, thought leadership, and subject matter expertise, and it's very cost effective -- all of which are important to cash-strapped small businesses looking for excellent value and results with every single marketing dollar spent.

The glaring problem with most email newsletters is that they're solely designed as one-way communication vehicles: from the company to the recipient. Very few offer opportunities for customer feedback or engagement, and as a result, the sender misses out on a great opportunity to garner valuable input from prospects and clients that can be utilized to refine email marketing initiatives and other critical marketing programs.

So why not switch it up so that your email newsletters are working FOR you rather than AGAINST you? To do this, I highly recommend the following the advice outlined in this piece, written by Prasad Thammineni, CEO of OfficeDrop, which was published yesterday in Small Business Trends. In this great article, Thammineni recommends the following steps for taking your email newsletters to the max:

1. Use every newsletter as a test.
2. Allow replies.
3. Use unique URLs to track links in your newsletter.
4. Include surveys to boost participation.
5. Use a marketing application.

By incorporating this advice into your next email campaign, you're almost certain to take your email newsletters to the next level, and receive higher customer feedback and engagement. And trust me, that's a good thing.

Guerrilla Marketing: Defined In Today's Terms

The term "guerrilla marketing" has now been around for 25 years, if you can believe it, and it was coined and popularized by marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson through his book, Guerrilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business. The international best-seller has spawned 27 other related, guerrilla-themed business books, and Levinson's guerrilla concepts have influenced marketing so much that today his works appear in 41 languages and are required reading in many MBA programs worldwide. You can check out Levinson's official site here.

I recently became reacquainted with this seminal tome, now in its fourth edition, and that leads me to this post today. Nothing whatsoever against Levinson or the concept, but guerrilla marketing is somewhat of an outdated term nowadays that has given way to more current terminology, such as buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, grassroots marketing, viral marketing, crowdsourcing, and social media/new media marketing. Honestly, one just doesn't hear it mentioned much any more when discussing marketing options. Regardless of what it's called, all of the functions I just named can be grouped under the guerrilla marketing umbrella, and this approach remains a viable (and dare I say it? necessary!) component for most small business marketing programs today. As has been proven by Levinson, and countless companies who have implemented programs of this nature over the years, guerrilla marketing...in whatever form, or by any other name...can be extraordinarily useful to firms with limited resources.

So how is guerrilla marketing defined today? I really like the definition offered by my colleagues over at UnderstandingMarketing.com:

"Guerrilla marketing is a very low budget way of promoting a company, series of products or services, or specific marketing campaign. Rather than use traditional forms of expensive advertising and promotions, guerrilla marketing instead leverages imagination, time and energy while utilizing word-of-mouth resources to get in front of people with a specific message. Guerrilla marketers rely on creativity and ingenuity to leverage unconventional forms of marketing to get people excited about a specific marketing campaign. Some guerrilla marketing tactics are more reliant on energy, like handing out flyers at a large public venue. While other forms rely more on ingenuity, like developing a fun Web-based game and emailing to everyone you know (this is also known as viral marketing) hoping that they will then email it to everyone they know, and so on. This form of marketing used to be deployed by only small business. But today even large corporations like Burger King utilize guerrilla marketing and viral video to create all kinds of excitement with people all over the world."

As you begin to formulate your company's marketing program and supporting tactics, you should always look at initiatives in the guerrilla marketing (i.e., low-cost, but still effective, communications tactics) arena that can potentially help your business, and generate sales, new business leads, brand awareness, and other forms of visibility.

If Your Social Media Program Isn't Working, Here's Why...

As a follow-on to my Friday post about the important need to make a strong business case for a robust social media initiative with concrete objectives, I thought I would offer this complementary guidance.

Many SMB owners who often dive into this arena without a definitive strategy and comprehensive plan in place usually complain to me that their efforts are NOT paying off. No surprise there. And that makes sense, no matter what marketing tactic is being implemented. One needs a game plan for any business initiative so it can generate the desired return on investment (ROI). It only makes sense, right? Usually, good planning = good results.

I recently revisited an excellent commentary, written by Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media, and published on SmallBizTrends.com, which succinctly explains the top six reasons behind the failure of most social media programs. And these points certainly bear repeating here. Here they are:

1. You have no framework.
2. You don't have great content (According to Barone, and I agree, this is the most important tip!)
3. You're targeting the wrong site/audience.
4. You're putting the wrong people in charge.
5. You're not listening.
6. You're just dabbling with it.

Follow these tips and techniques to maximize the impact of your social media efforts. If your program IS working, but not as strongly as you'd like, then perhaps it's time to revisit some of these areas to see where improvements can be made. Make your time, energy, and resources work for you. If you're going to invest in this channel, it makes sense to do it right from the get-go.