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.

Pin This!: 7 Pinterest Marketing Tips For Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post, written by Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist at Intel Corp., and first appearing in this post on American Express OPEN Forum. Pinterest has taken the social media world by storm in recent months, and businesses of all sizes and in all industries are trying to  figure out how to make the online bulletin board work for them. In this informative article, Walter offers seven very useful tips, particularly for business-to-consumer companies, on how Pinterest can be fully leveraged for marketing purposes. 
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The image-sharing site Pinterest has been constantly in the news for the last few months. At first glance, the site seems to be nothing more than a place to share photos of shoes, recipes and crafting ideas arranged on aesthetically-pleasing pinboards, but according to a study by Shareaholic, the site now drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. So how do you make that leap from putting together whimsical boards on your profile to generating website traffic?

1. Show Your Personality, Tastes, Interests, Or Values

Your Pinterest profile shouldn’t be a copy of your website: it can be used to show a more fun side to your business. As well as showcasing your own work, you can use it to show more wide-ranging interests, such as a commitment to environmental issues, pictures of the place you live, local events you support, or your staff’s pick of movies, books or music. As well as having a Pinboard of their own products, Victory Jewelry also show boards of spiritual inspiration, Harry Potter and LEGO creations. This helps to make their brand stand out by helping to project some real personality.

2. Mark Your Content

If you are an artist, photographer or designer, you may wish to watermark your website images. Although Pinterest recommend only using images directly from websites rather than from image searches, making sure your images can be attributed to you not only helps to prevent potential copyright issues, but means that if images are used indirectly on Pinterest, you know that they can be traced back to your website if someone is interested in your services. This photograph by Gallery by Laura has been marked so that it can always be traced back to her studio website.

3. Give Tutorials

You can go beyond product images to get your message out there: YouTube videos can be pinned to boards in the same way as any other thumbnail so you can show off your expertise with ‘How To’ videos for aspects of your business. You can have a mix of learning techniques on a Pinboard, such as videos, infographics and storyboard images, like this board from Hero Arts. The content can then be shared both within Pinterest, or onto other networks.

4. Show Behind The Scenes

You might be concerned if your business is service-based, rather than product-based, that you won’t be able to use it to drive sales. But you can use Pinterest to show behind the scenes at your company, with boards about your staff, local environment and industry, or other ways of using interesting images to help people find out about what you offer. Rocket Clicks is a service based company, but they still provide plenty of interest on their profile by showing photos of their staff, their inspirations and industry infographics.

5. Go Beyond Your Website

Make use of what is possible with the Pinboard format by putting together ‘looks’, lifestyle ideas, or show your products in real environments to show how they can work. These inspirational boards from Bandhini Design show how their products can contribute to lifestyle aspirations.

6. Make Sure Your Products Appear In The Gift Section

Pinterest has a dedicated gift section, searchable by price range. If you have an e-commerce site make sure you tag your images by price when you upload them, that way they will automatically appear on the Gift Page. As with this image from Econica Fashion, Pinterest will add a price tag on the corner of your image and copy it into the sales section.

7. Help Others Find Your Content

Remember to make your content easy to find by using #tags in your descriptions, as well as labeling your Pins and Boards with obvious titles. Users can search by Pins, Boards and People, so make sure your company name reflects what you do, for example including the word ‘Design’ or ‘Kitchens’ after your name. You can also have a company website link for when people click on your profile image. These Boards by Ben Tyler Building and Remodeling are all logically labeled to help users find their images.

Like all social media networks, Pinterest is about community, and the same rules apply as on any other network. Share others’ content, don’t be too ‘salesy’, ‘like’ and comment on images shared by others, and engage in the conversation. Above all, pay attention to Pinterest’s own Etiquette Guidelines if you’re not sure how to get started.

© Copyright 2012 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

6 Ways Brands Can Get Chummy With Consumers

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Carrie Ferman, chief executive officer of Remark Media, a global digital media company focused on developing social media businesses that incorporate relevant, high-quality content. In this informative how-to guide, which originally appeared here on iMedia Connection, Ferman explains why personalization has become essential for brands striving to make meaningful connections with consumers, and how companies can learn to take these valuable relationships to the next level. You can follow Ferman and Remark Media on Twitter at @RemarkMedia.
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As brands, we strive to create deeper long-term relationships with consumers because, ultimately, our financial success depends heavily on our ability to build and maintain brand equity. Cultivating a dialogue that results in continued engagement is a vital means of accomplishing this objective. While the web has become a key platform for facilitating these types of interaction, conversation simply for the sake of conversation does not always produce engagement. For dialogue to be productive, it needs to be meaningful to the consumer; that means it needs to provide relevancy and value. This is where personalization, or as we call it, the "personal web," comes into play.

According to a Forrester Research report, "As the general content of the web gets broader, individuals will cease aimless surfing activity and gravitate toward sites that deliver products and services customized to their needs. Sites must plan now to respond to this expectation or risk being left behind as the web changes to a personal medium."

The personal web is about delivering the right information to each consumer at the right time, to the benefit of both consumers and businesses. For consumers, personalization means eliminating information overload by providing relevant and timely information that addresses their specific needs, allowing for activation and decision-making. For businesses, personalization provides a cost-effective avenue for gathering information about consumer preferences and behaviors that can be factored into brand messaging and targeting. It also can directly improve site performance by increasing conversation rates, lowering abandonment rates and improving retention performance.

E-commerce businesses like Amazon.com pioneered the personalization of customer experiences by implementing filtering and recommendation technology. Today, the proliferation of smart technologies and social graphing has further enabled personalization so that it can become an intrinsic part of brand strategy.

So how can brands leverage these capabilities to form a more personalized relationship with their customers and truly embody the personal web? The following are six ways to do just that:

1. Do Your Homework

Apart from demographic segmentation, information regarding source of entry (search, direct, click-through), web history, and social graph all can be extremely valuable in tailoring one-to-one experiences. Invest in new tools and applications that allow you to better understand your customers, their preferences and behaviors; and then use this information to create customized experiences, user-by-user.

2. Create Dynamic Homepages

Pushing your brand message is important but you need to do so in a way that resonates with each consumer. Many types of people are coming to your site, with individual learning styles, modes of interaction, and different ways of seeking and finding information. There is no "one size fits all" approach for your whole audience. Avoid static, pre-built pages, and instead try rotating your content, using dynamic insertion and recommendations based on your homework, leveraging text, video and audio when appropriate. These techniques draw in the consumer, increase your opportunities to connect and provide you with additional preference information to fine-tune personalization.

3. Invite Participation and Feedback

People derive value by contributing. They feel valuable, relevant, proud and, even more importantly, included. These positive feelings can pave the way for positive brand associations. Participation can be either indirect and passive, or direct and active, and both types have value. Encourage indirect and passive participation through action-oriented titles, using a conversational tone to your text, and incorporating links into podcasts and video blogs. Encourage direct and active participation by asking questions about customers' opinions, needs or experiences, offering opportunities to create or rate products, and taking polls, to name a few methods. Creating an online environment that fosters participation opens the door for building a bond and developing relationships.

4. Make Content Complete and Easily Accessible

Be it messaging, product information, how-to articles, or FAQs -- relevant content can fuel engagement, particularly social engagement. Be the main source of complete information about your brand, and consider providing complimentary informational or interest-focused content around your products and services. Additionally, ensure that this content is easy and intuitive to find. If not, you will likely experience high bounce rates. Invest in intelligent organization architecture, smarter search, and dynamic formats like Q&A.

5. Adapt Content-Targeting Practices

Thanks to cookies, advertisers can serve up targeted ads based on search history, location, social sharing, and even emails. Leverage this same technology to serve up targeted content which, like the ads, appeals to your customers' preferences, interests and needs. They will find value in being served content that relates to interests for which they have already exhibited a passion. This demonstrates your understanding and helps to further build a trusted, personal relationship.

6. Provide Interest-Centric Communities

Passion around a topic or interest stimulates conversation and engagement. Provide the opportunity for your customers to unite around their passions. This can lead to positive brand associations, while allowing for your brand to be incorporated into the conversation in an organic and authentic manner. Move beyond message boards by utilizing sophisticated discussion platforms that are intuitive, in real time, and that seamlessly interact with content.

In today's landscape, the personal web is not a competitive edge, but rather a critical success factor necessary for building meaningful relationships. Delivering strong results through personalization doesn't have to be costly or complex. Current technology and process approaches allow for personalization in a way that was not thought possible just a few years ago. The most effective brands will leverage the above techniques from inception, strategically weaving personalization into their brand strategy for the dual benefit of their business and their customers.

© Copyright 2012 iMedia Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Keepin' It Real: Why People REALLY Follow Brands Online

Here at Marketing Mulligans, we're all about keepin' it real, regardless of whatever marketing subject we're  riffing on. So here's an interesting take on why people REALLY follow brands online.

Obviously, most companies know by now that creating positive online brand experiences leads to loyal customers. And that usually leads to increased sales, greater brand recall and awareness, and other positive residual marketing effects, such as positive word of mouth and the sharing of promotions and discounts with friends, family, and colleagues.

So what are the reasons behind following a given brand online? How do customers perceive online experiences? What compels them to share certain information with others? New research from Column Five and Get Satisfaction has some answers:

• The top three reasons people follow brands on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are:  special offers and deals, they're already current customers, and the brand's interesting content.
• More than half (53.47%) of respondents follow two to five brands on Facebook.
• Almost all (97.09%) said an online experience has influenced them to buy — or not buy — a brand's product or service.
• Nearly half (45.88% percent) of all consumers have bought a product or service from a brand they follow on Twitter.
• Nearly three-quarters (70%) have participated in a brand-sponsored online contest or sweepstakes.

For more insights, check out the infographic below:

A 3-Step Guide To Planning Social Advertising Campaigns

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Charles Lumpkin, vice president of product management and innovation at BLiNQ Media, the leading Social Engagement Advertising (SM) pure-play media and technology company for the Facebook platform. This commentary, which offers a three-step guide to designing and implementing social media advertising campaigns, originally appeared in MediaPost's Online Media Daily. You can follow Lumpkin and BLiNQ Media on Facebook at Facebook.com/BLiNQMedia or on Twitter at @blinqmedia.
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The amount of first-party data available on Facebook and other social networks is enough to make an excited brand marketer foam at the mouth. But social media advertising isn’t as simple as just matching ads to consumers. Successful social branding campaigns require careful planning and testing. More often than not, they uncover unexpected correlations between brand and consumer.

When plotting a social media campaign, there are three criteria to keep in mind above all others: creative, targeting and optimization. Consider the following as you prepare a campaign:

Creative
Effective advertising gives users a reason to click. The creative needs to convey this reason, whether it’s a compelling offer or a call to action. Users flock to social media platforms to converse and share with friends, so your creative team should produce short, catchy ad copy with a conversational tone.
With a few creative ideas in hand, you can test dozens of combinations of text and images. Our internal studies have found that images are responsible for 70% of the response rate on social ads, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Test images that are visually jarring or out of the norm.

Every in-ad image should have a single subject, and that subject should take up a large portion of the graphical real estate. Space comes at a premium within social ad units, and group shots can make an image murky.

If you’re using Facebook, take advantage of Like-gates for fanning campaigns and try to match the creative to target sets. Social’s targeting capabilities enable advertisers to match different messages and creative to different audiences for maximum performance.

Targeting
One key step in running a successful campaign is planning. Consider the target demographic and how you might reach them, based on their interests. This can be done concurrently with creative design, as the two fit closely together. When advertising to moms, try daytime TV show targets to appeal to their interests. It is important to sift through many different targets and think about their inclusion in the campaign before it begins.

Marketers would be wise to use Facebook advertising products, like Friends of Connections Targeting, which leverages the social graph to grow their base, building scale off of a group of consumers who match their criteria by targeting their friends.

Facebook’s Sponsored Stories product is also a great tool for reaching new users on the network. This ad format is triggered when a consumer Likes a brand’s Facebook page, application or place. The activity is then promoted across the network to their friends, via a sponsored story ad, increasing the likelihood that friends will notice this activity in their News Feed.

Optimize
Once the creative has been tested against several different audiences, it’s time to optimize the combinations that achieve the best results. Don’t be afraid to kill all the losers, because you’re going to reward the winning campaigns. Once you build new fans, re-market to them to build engagement and drive branding goals.

Even if your campaigns hit your desired level of success, don’t stop experimenting. Constantly ask yourself, if you move more budget to social, will it replicate this success on a larger scale? Can you expand on the targets that are working?

Social advertising is opening a world of opportunity to brand marketers, but some of the biggest opportunities are initially hard to see. Keep experimenting with creative and targeting, because you never know which unlikely corollaries will drive brand results.

© Copyright 2012 MediaPost Communications. All Rights Reserved.

Six Tips For Getting Your Product In A Movie Or On A TV Series

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Katie Morell, a Chicago-based writer and editor who frequently contributes to OPEN Forum, where this piece originally appeared. Ever wondered how different products and services ACTUALLY end up in theatrical films, and on cable and network television series? It's a difficult process called product placement, and it's big business. However, if you're a small business owner, you can still engage in this marketing practice, but you'll need to follow these tips.

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During a recent trip to New York City, I dragged my husband across town for one reason: to visit Magnolia Bakery. Why, you ask? Well, as a Sex and the City fan, my mouth had watered years ago watching Carrie and Miranda chow down on Magnolia’s cupcakes, and ever since, I vowed to try one myself.

So on a warm night in late May, we stood in line, chatted up a few tourists visiting with the same inspiration, bought our cupcakes, and feasted. I was in heaven. After all, I was eating the same pastry as the stars of my favorite show.

Think about this for a minute; In today’s rushed society, very few of us have time to watch commercials in their entirety—instead reaching for the fast forward button on our DVR — so advertisers have to get creative, and product placement is a great way to score face time with customers in a credible way.

How much did the Sex and City placement help Magnolia Bakery?

“Had that placement not happened, we would still just be a little bakery in the West Village; because that show was so iconic, we became a cultural icon ourselves,” says Steve Abrams, owner.

Since the appearance, which aired more than 10 years ago, shows such as Jimmy Fallon, Weeds and Saturday Night Live have also featured the bakery. According to Abrams, every spot developed organically.

“They all came to us — it really is a fluke, but now we are a part of culture in New York City and the world,” he says, adding that the bakery has locations in Los Angeles and Dubai, and is currently setting up a worldwide franchising model.

Understanding The Business

Small business owners can land great spots by developing their own strategic marketing plan (see tips below), or by hiring a product placement company to lobby studios on their behalf. Most companies that do this are located in Los Angeles — a few include C3B Hollywood, Hollywood Branded, and The Marketing Arm.

These companies are popular with big brands—such as FedEx, when the company landed a starring role in Castaway, Pepsi in Back to the Future, or Reese’s Pieces in E.T. Brands pay large sums of money to product placement companies and studios for such prime slots and there is a lot of competition.

Luckily for small business owners, little brands have an easier time slipping into on-air placements (and doing it for free), says Jennifer Berson, president of Jeneration PR, a Sherman Oaks, California-based public relations firm focused on fashion, beauty and lifestyle.

“Small products are less likely to compete with paid advertisers—for example, a show that has Pepsi as an advertiser will not place a bottle of Coke in a scene,” she says. Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a product placement campaign:

1. Focus On Your Iconic Offering

Berson suggests looking at your inventory and zeroing in on a product that is uniquely yours (Magnolia’s cupcakes, for example). “Make sure it is something that sets you apart — your most popular thing,” she says.

2. Focus On Geography

This is a two-parter. First, if your product fits into the exact location of a TV or movie, you may have a chance of a placement. Second, if something is being taped in your area, offer your brick-and-mortar location as a possible taping site.

“Try to make the location consultant’s job easier by offering your location to shoot for free—it will help their budget and adds tremendous exposure and value to your store,” Berson says.

3. Contact The Right People

Finding the TV/movie product decision makers is easier than you may think. First, Berson recommends logging on to The Internet Movie Database, signing up for the Pro membership and searching for in-production movies and television shows that fit your product category or geographic location.

Identify the production company in charge and pick up the phone. If you have a hair care brand, for example, call the hair department.

“Tell them you are a huge fan of the show, you have a great hair solution that could be a good fit for the cast, and would love to send them your range of products for free; before you know it, you could be the hair brand of choice for Desperate Housewives,” she says.

Alternatively, call and ask for the prop master or wardrobe department, says Berson. Just offer your product for free and “they will happily take it; just make sure to offer two pieces for cases in which they have to re-film scenes,” she adds.

4. Promote Aggressively

After your product airs, promote the heck out of the placement. Using the hair-care example, secure a quote from the stylist of the show and use it in your sales and marketing materials, Berson suggests.

She also recommends sending out press releases to local press, posting photos on your website and alerting in-store customers to the placement.

5. Watch Your Capacity

Imagine this scenario: Rachael Ray promotes your product on her show and within 12 hours, you have 500,000 orders—about 450,000 more than you’ve ever had. If you have a plan on how to handle those orders, great. If you don’t, you have a big problem.

“If you get on something big, people will be looking for you and you need to know how to handle it,” Berson says.

6. Don’t Be Scared

Hollywood types aren’t as scary as they seem. You never know—a phone call could land your product in Leonardo DiCaprio’s next Oscar-nominated movie.

“Don’t be afraid; if you had enough gumption to start your own business, you have what it takes to pitch these people," Berson says. "Just remember that you are making their job easier and if they hang up on you, just try someone else.”

© Copyright 2011 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

23 Things Great Brands Do With Social Media

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Lisa Barone, co-founder and chief branding officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media, and other digital media services. This piece first appeared in Small Business Trends. Each and every social media campaign is different (obviously), but there are certain commonalities among high-profile brands that contribute to their success with programs of this nature. This piece explores those dynamics in detail, and outlines some best practices for you how you can adopt some of these elements for your company's social media marketing program. You can follow Ms. Barone on Twitter at @lisabarone.
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No one wants to invest time in something only to be mediocre at it. We want to be great. But before you can be great you have to understand what being great looks like. What are you trying to achieve and what are you aiming for? What do people who are great at X look like? Because before you can be better than them, you at least have to be equal. And that takes some understanding on your part.

Do you want to be great at social media? Well, below are 23 things that great businesses do in social media. Maybe you can help me and add to my list in the comments.

Ready?

Great social media brands…

1. Bring sexy back to word of mouth marketing.
2. Dedicate time to answering questions from customers, potential customers and people first learning about the brand.
3. Constantly poll their community for opinions, feedback, and criticism.
4. Make it a habit to highlight other brands that are doing cool things, even if they’re doing it outside of their particular industry.
5. Start conversations that others are scared to have.
6. Give their employees a unique voice and the permission to connect to others.
7. Regularly save the day.
8. Push back the curtain to give their audience a better understanding of how things work, why they work that way, and what the company believes.
9. Bleed company culture.
10. Use tools to monitor their social media activity and makes adjustments when things aren’t working.
11. Don’t take social media too seriously, but are too smart to view it as a joke.
12. Understand the importance donuts and share them regularly.
13. Don’t forget to tie offline events into what they’re doing online so there’s cohesion between strategies.
14. Track their brand name in social media and knows when to respond, how to respond and how to engage brand advocates.
15. Give us “the why” to go along with their social media calls to action.
16. Plan for social media as to not leave channels voiceless for long periods of time just because they’re busy.
17. Never, ever automate human interaction.
18. Understand social media doesn’t belong to just the marketing department, but the company as a whole.
19. Enter the waters with a social media plan to help guide their interaction and make sure they’re getting something for their investment.
20. Use their social media plan to avoid falling victim to Shiny Object Syndrome.
21. Understand that social media is the medium, not the message.
22. Pass on insights gleaned from social media throughout the entire organization so that the right people are hearing the right conversations.
23. Have clear social media guidelines so that employees know how to engage on behalf of the brand and connect with customers.

What else? What makes a brand stand for you you?

© Copyright 2003-2011, Small Business Trends, LLC. 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.

7 Web Design Elements That Annoy Online Visitors

Editor's Note: The following is another 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. How many times have you visited a Website, and been completely annoyed with one or more of its features (or lack thereof)? Probably in the thousands, right? Well, here are the top 7 Web design elements that put off users, and the actions that small businesses can take to address them.
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If you want to build a successful online presence, you need to have a fine-tuned Website that brings visitors in and gets them to take action once on your site. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have the first part down (getting traffic), but when it comes to actually converting visitors into customers, they fail miserably.

That’s because a lot of sites are annoying. They drive visitors away almost as quickly as they arrive. To add insult to injury, the frustrated visitors usually end up going to a competitor’s site to get their needs taken care of by someone else.

Here are 7 things that annoy Website visitors:

1. Slow loading times.

I’ve seen studies that say Internet users give a site eight seconds to grab their attention. If it doesn’t satisfy them during that short time period, they’ll back out and go elsewhere. People are impatient. That’s why it’s so important to have a fast-loading site. Here’s a good post with tips for increasing site loading speed.

2. Autoplay music or video.

Seriously, this isn’t 1998. If your site starts playing music or video as soon as someone lands on it, you can bet more people than not will leave. It’s intrusive and annoying. Give visitors the option of playing the music or video. Don’t force it on them.

3. Cluttered layouts.

Have you ever walked into a messy room and tried to find something? It’s overwhelming, right? The same thing goes for a cluttered site layout. If every single space on your site is filled, you’re going to overwhelm visitors and make it too difficult for them to use your site. Remember, less is usually more, and white space is your friend.

4. Poor navigation.

Internet users have grown accustomed to using sites in a specific manner. They expect the navigation to be along the top or left-hand side of the page. They expect the navigation to be clear and the site to be organized in a logical manner. Don’t try to change this up. Keep it simple.

5. Forced registration.

Look, I understand you want to collect data for marketing purposes from your visitors. But there’s nothing more frustrating than forcing visitors to register before they can take certain actions. Most people don’t like giving out a lot of their personal information, so you’re only going to drive them away by doing this.

6. No contact information.

Your visitors shouldn’t have any problems getting in touch with you. You should have a dedicated contact page on your site, contact forms throughout, and you can even post your phone number or other contact info on each page of your site.

7. Too much Flash.

There’s nothing wrong with having some minor Flash elements on your site, but when your entire site is based in Flash, you’re going to have some problems. First, you’re losing most mobile internet users. And then you run into problems with simple usability issues like bookmarking pages, clicking the back button, etc.

What are some other things that annoy you on Websites? Please leave your comments here.

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The Efficacy Of Alcohol Promotions In The Digital Age

Even in the era of successful, attention-seizing digital marketing and social media campaigns, consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers remain fervent proponents of expensive product sampling programs — by mail, in store, and at special events — because it puts offerings directly in the hands of consumers, increases trial, and creates short-term spikes in sell-through.

Now, we can debate the advantages and disadvantages of product sampling all day long, as I did in my recent blog post concerning WHEATIES® Fuel. However, traditional brand management theory holds that consumers are likely (but not guaranteed) to try a product if given to them at no cost, and almost equally as likely to buy it, particularly if its regular size is offered at a substantial discount (via a coupon). In the end, marketing experts agree, this process usually leads to increased sales of the product, although the size of the increase varies widely. It all makes sense, and it's a tried-and-true technique that's been employed by CPG manufacturers for over 50 years. In fact, sampling programs are practically must-haves for all new consumer product introductions... from peanut butter, to disposable cleaning wipes, to men's deodorant.

But here are two interesting questions: 1.) What if the consumer product is a beer, wine, or spirit, instead of a breakfast cereal or laundry detergent? 2.) Do the same rules, dynamics, and end results apply? Perhaps...but let's explore this further.

I got to thinking about this last night as I attended a monthly mixer, held at a popular local high-end steakhouse, for the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce's Young Professionals Group. Upon entering, I was bombarded by in-restaurant signage, lighted premium items, large table tents, and an attractive bevy of girls wearing solid black, super tight-fitting attire, sporting trays of free shots, and swarming the restaurant's patrons, most of who were over the age of 55 (this restaurant is located adjacent to a retirement community). No, this promotion wasn't for Miller Lite, Jägermeister, Jose Cuervo, Johnnie Walker, or some new trendy, super-premium vodka; it was for Hpnotiq (pronounced "hip-not-ic"), the distinctive blue liqueur which blends vodka, cognac, and fruit juices, and is bottled in the Cognac region of France. It was a successful promotion, at least for me: before I knew it, I had two nice pens that light up (blue, of course), two lighted lapel buttons (also blue), four free shots (valued at $7 each), and two T-shirts. Not a bad haul.

I knew Hpnotiq had been around for some time, but I decided to investigate further. Hpnotiq was the brainchild of Raphael Yakoby, a 26-year-old college dropout from Long Island, New York, who created the spirit in 2001 after seeing a blue perfume bottle at Bloomingdale's. Within one year of its introduction, it became popular in New York's trendsetting nightclub scene. Originally distributed by Great Neck, New York-based Wingard, Inc., Yakoby sold the Hpnotiq trademark and the distribution rights to Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. in January of 2003 for a reported $50 million. Heaven Hill also distributes dozens of other alcohol brands, most notably the Christian Brothers line of brandy, cognac, and related products. For the record, Yakoby is still in the liquor business. In 2007, he created NUVO, a pink vodka and sparkling wine liqueur packaged in an elegant, tapered square bottle that looks more appropriate for a high-end perfume than booze.

Obviously, alcohol distributors spend millions of dollars annually on guerrilla marketing and sales promotion programs just like Hpnotiq's to drive sales and brand awareness of specific products. But do they actually generate the desired results? In some cases, absolutely, but much of it has to do with consumer behavior, alcohol consumption patterns, and venue and audience dynamics. Consider the following:

• Cordials and liqueurs do not typically exhibit the same consumption characteristics as beer, wine, and select staple spirits, such as vodka, gin, and rum. Cordials and liqueurs are viewed as more appropriate for special occasions, or for sipping a single glass after dinner -- not consumed in multiple servings or mass quantities. In addition, these spirits are just not as popular as they once were years ago, although one can argue that Hpnotiq's initial success defied this convention.
• Not all bars are created equally, and as with any marketing activity, venues must be carefully selected to match the audience of the alcohol brand. In the case of last night's promotion, the venue and audience were all wrong for Hpnotiq, which claims to "make every girls' night out a little more fabulous," and is obviously targeted at women 21-35. Need evidence? Take a look at the brand's official Website and Facebook page, as well as the image above. Outside of my gathering, the steakhouse patrons skew toward senior citizen age (55+) because of its proximity to the retirement community, and therefore, lie well outside of Hpnotiq's core demographic. Definitely not a good fit.
• There must be an incentive to purchase the product in the future, such as a coupon, or a call to action to register consumers online so they may be targeted in the future. Hpnotiq had none of this.
• Most bar promotions for alcohol brands are all about fun, free/cheap booze, free branded stuff, and interacting with hot babes -- not really about "selling" the product. They're great for sampling and trial. Product information is limited. Most of the women I've talked to who've been hired for these gigs know very little about the products themselves; they simply regurgitate whatever they've been told by the promotions company retained by the distributor, and that's very little. Next time you see a Jägerette, ask her about the product; I bet good money she doesn't know much about it other than what it tastes like.
• Historically, alcohol promotions in bars and nightclubs have proven to be EXCELLENT tactics for increasing brand awareness, but additional marketing is required to convert that awareness into sales. Just the way it is.

When it comes to alcohol sales promotions, it's apparent that the same rules and dynamics that apply to CPG product sampling are not in play here, and as a result, they require additional strategies and tactics to generate sales increases. There's no question that Hpnotiq is a unique, highly-differentiated offering with excellent branding and strong marketing assets. But last night's program was at the wrong venue and with the wrong audience: a recipe for disaster.

And when that occurs, no amount of branding or money can save you. As Hpnotiq says in its tagline, it must "Live Louder," and engage in more appropriate target marketing, if it wants to succeed in the long term.

Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance: Part II

Need more evidence that proofreading is absolutely paramount in the marketing and communications process? Then look no further than this gem, which I snapped with my BlackBerry several weeks ago:

This lousy, unprofessional banner was placed in the storefront window of a new computer repair retail location situated in a local shopping center I frequent a great deal. At the time, the store had not opened yet. I even called the number listed on the banner to offer the owner my services prior to the grand opening, but I never received a response. The obvious questions: how could the owner miss such a glaring mistake, and how did the banner manufacturer not catch this before producing it????

Interestingly enough, when I returned to the store a week and a half later, the offending error had been painted over in a non-matching shade of yellow, and new copy, outlined in black electrical tape, was in its place. How professional...

The moral of the story, beyond the simple need to proofread for idiotic spelling and grammatical errors? If you're going to spend the money to create any form of advertisement or piece of marketing collateral, such as this banner, please make sure it is professionally produced and manufactured. And if you make a mistake, don't cover it up with paint and electrical tape; simply make a brand new one! Argh...

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.
________________________________________________

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.

Drake University Fails To Make Grade With New D+ Advantage Campaign

As the higher education market has become more competitive and sophisticated over the past decade, both for-profit (e.g, Corinthian Colleges, DeVry University, University of Phoenix, etc.) and traditional non-profit universities have proactively created and executed integrated marketing communications campaigns designed to garner more students, faculty members, government funding, research grants, alumni support and donations, corporate partners, and enhanced local, regional, national, and global reputations in specific disciplines.

After all, higher education is big business, with billions and billions of dollars at stake each year, so it makes sense that today's generation of colleges and universities aggressively differentiate themselves using a broad range of tactics to achieve certain objectives. Most of the campaigns I've seen focus on typical criteria: the latest US News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek rankings, recent awards and research grants, diverse student bodies and faculties, athletic team prowess, cultural, social, and recreational opportunities, and a whole slew of other benefits and value adds. In addition, most of the campaigns are relatively conservative and predictable, but occasionally, I see real flashes of genius, creativity, and brilliance. Unfortunatey, this is not one of them.

And that leads us to Exhibit A for collegiate marketing gone awry: Des Moines, Iowa-based Drake University's new "D+ Advantage" campaign. That's right: D+. As Brett Michael Dykes points out in this piece on Yahoo!'s The Upshot, "If you were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a higher education, would you want the end result to be known as a 'D+' education? Probably not." For the record, the tag line for the new campaign is not all that bad: "Your passion + our experience."

But the general problem with the campaign is in the execution. As we all know, and as numerous Drake faculty, students, and alumni pointed out, D+ is universally synonymous with sub-par academic performance. Adweek's Tim Nudd noted on his AdFreak blog that the campaign "seems to position Drake as a school whose standards barely exceed total failure."

Drake University officials defend the campaign as "intentionally edgy" and appropriate for the target audience. In a communiqué to students, faculty, and alumni, university leaders said, "The D+ was not designed to stand alone or represent a grade. Instead, it was designed to be paired with prose and draw attention to the distinctive advantages of the Drake experience. Our experience in the survey and in the field suggests that the kind of students whom we want to attract to Drake easily understand and appreciate the irony of the D+, and that it is having the intended effect of encouraging students to find out more about what makes Drake so special."

That very well may be, but when it comes to traditional branding and on-point marketing creativity, there's only one letter grade for Drake University that makes sense in this case: F.

Actually, the campaign could have packed the same punch if it was dubbed "The Drake Advantage" and was branded with a compelling, but alternative, visual presence.

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.