Read this interesting article in DM News this morning about how Web sites offering layaway plans are selling more. If you think outside of the box on this you maybe you can see how you can do something like this, or something similar.
Here’s a copy:
Sales & Marketing Clarity
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Social Media Map
Overdrive Interactive has this cool Interactive Social Media Map available with live active links for easy clicking.
You can this to your desktop if you can use this often for easy access.
Click here to upload Interactive Social Map
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Timing Is Everything In Social Media
Timing is everything in social media. It's so much easier to post the video on YouTube and to immediately follow it up with an announcement on twitter. But that isn't the best way of doing it.
Your objective for marketing and social media is to prolong the message. Your strategy means everything!
Below is an example of doing this beginning with a video.
If you are beginning with a video on YouTube, you will want to post your video, and wait a week then make the announcement on Facebook, wait a week and announce it on LinkedIn, wait a week and announce on your blog, and wait a week to post on Twitter.
Let’s look at the timing using a picture.
Facebook is known for its pictures so you want to begin your social media journey with a picture. It's important to only upload one picture at a time. The spacing (timeline) will improve your promotional longevity. The biggest mistake people make is uploading all their pictures at once. You definitely never want to do it this way.
When you begin with the picture, you post one picture with some really good tags and then wait. I suggest waiting a week to allow the picture to run across Facebook’s media system. Then timeline it across your other social media contacts. Again, spacing it out to other social media sites, your blog, newsletter, etc.
For instance, you begin with the picture on Facebook. Wait a week. Then place the picture on LinkedIn. A week later, your blog, then Tweeter a week later.
Everything needs to have an embedded command. If you don’t know how to write embedded commands there are places on the Internet to help you.
In summary format, an embedded commands tells the viewer what to do next after watching the video, after seeing the picture, after reading your blog (this is usually easily you want them to subscribe to the blog), and your tweet need to also have a embedded command.
And that's one of the number one mistake I see most often on tweets – there isn’t an embedded command at all or a poor one. And if I do see an embedded command there isn’t any mention of a benefit for why I need to click there.
So when you're thinking about your social media promotion, think about timing, think about your purpose, think about your embedded command, but always get the timing right!
And yes, this all takes tracking. So an editorial or publishing calendar needs addressing.
Technorati Tags: marketing,promotion,social media,tip,techniques,timing,Facebook,LinkedIn,Twitter,editorial calendar
Sunday, June 28, 2009
How to Create and Use Word Clouds or Tag Clouds in Your Marketing
It’s Sunday and my play time with new stuff -- my research today is word clouds -- how to use them and how to create them. Here is the result of my play:
You may even be wondering why you should? Let me answer this as we continue.
Word clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
Some blogs services create them for you and even change with each post.
But did you know there’s a FREE place you can create them to use in other ways?
Continue reading "How to Create and Use Word Clouds or Tag Clouds in Your Marketing" »
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sell the Happy Hen
Last Saturday was the first day for my volunteering at the Arlington County weekly Farmer’s Market. I’m one of their roving reporters. My assignment for my first visit was to observe.
So I did.
I talked to the vendors, gathered names and ideas for stories and sat and watched buyers.
Strawberries is a big seller this time of year. So I sat on the lawn and watched the three vendors I could see who were selling them. Two had about 10 pints for sale. The third about 40 displayed. The one with more had a line of 30 or so people waiting to purchase. The other two no line at all. It was extremely fascinating to watch. I was so curious as to why the one had a line and the other’s weren’t making any sales. I was hoping to have enough guts to approach a few people in line to find out but never could get up the courage. I’m going to be watching for this again on my next visit.
I want to know was it because their pints looked fuller – and they did. Was it because their strawberries looked bigger – and they did. Was it the strawberries? Was it because they were under a tent and the other two were not? Was it because of the other items they were selling? I’m returning next week just to see what changed and to continue watching.
Across from the strawberry vendor with a line I saw this Happy Hen ad. It was on 6 x 9 white cardboard. I watched. Then I walked around to see who else was selling eggs and how they were selling them. No contenders. The vendor kept revolving the two cartons. Someone would purchase a dozen and the vendor would replace it with another dozen carton. Always having only two on display. They were selling well too!
When I looked at the eggs they weren’t even medium size. In the store they sell extra large, large and medium. Well these were even smaller than medium. And the price wasn’t a bargain for sure.
So why were they selling? Was it convenience? Could be. They could be thinking, “Well, now I don’t need to go to the market just for eggs.” I even thought this.
Actually, she was selling the story behind the product. She was implying that if the hens were happy you would be as well when you ate them. Cool huh! I asked one purchaser. She said she liked the idea she was buying from someone who took better care of her hens. Hmm, nothing in the sign said that. I actually heard this three times from different purchasers.
This proves many marketing principles. First, perception is created by the story people connect to it. Happy Hens paints a picture for the prospect immediately in just a few words. There was a implication that her hens were happy and the ones who lay the eggs that you purchase in the story weren’t – the differentiation.
I wonder if the other strawberry vendors could have added a sign “Happy Strawberries” or “Happy Strawberry Plants” and sold more?
Of course, there were many other marketing principles being worked here. Think about it and learn how to use the Happy Hen sign to your advantage.
I know I am . . . where can I place a Happy Hens sign?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
25 Web Sites You Can Use to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
Here are 25 directories and methods you can post your blog information and increase visitors.
How you list your blog on these sites depends on their submission requirements.
Some sites, like Blog Rush, require a reciprocal link or for you to display something they sell.
Squidoo allows you to set up a webpage on a topic. Then you can add a link to your blog from there or products you may be promoting.
Some submissions just require your blog’s URL.
I suggest submitting one at a time and then review your statistics to see how it did or didn’t make a difference. This will let you know where to spend your time in the future.
1. MySpace.com – Still the number one social networking site. Create a profile, add some friends, and gently promote your blog.
2. Facebook.com – The second most popular social networking site on the Internet.
3. Squidoo.com – Join Squidoo and set up a page related to your blogging topic with links to your blog.
4. HubPages.com – HubPages is a site that has a similar business model to Squidoo. Users, or “hubbers,” create hub pages, where you can discuss any topic you’d like.
5. Knol.com – Knol is a Google service based on the same business concept as Squidoo.
6. Twitter.com is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets).
7. Stumbleupon.com – StumbleUpon will help you discover new sites based on your interests. Visitors can rate the web site through comments. It’s a free service; however, you can pay to have your site “stumbled upon.”
8. Digg.com is a social news site with a social networking aspect. Here you can share your site’s content with other “diggers.”
9. Mixx.com – Similar to Digg.com and striving for popularity.
10. Craigslist.com – It’s free. It takes just a few minutes to register and post an ad for your blog.
11. Technorati.com – Technorati is a search engine for blogs. Register with them, “claim” your blog and then use their tools to promote your blog.
12. YouTube.com – Make a 3-5 minute video about your blog topic and link it inside your blog.
13. EntreCard.com – They advertise their “Entre Card” as your online business card. You place the EntreCard widget on your blog and other members can “drop” their card to you fast and easily. Afterwards, you drop a card by visiting their blog. Each time you drop a card you acquire a credit you can then use to advertise on other blogs.
14. Blogcatalog.com – They advertise themselves as a social network for bloggers. It’s a place for you to connect with other bloggers, participate in groups and discussions and so on. They require a widget on your blog.
15. BlogRush.com– You will be required to place a widget on your blog before you can be listed. You can earn views if people sign up for an account when they click on your widget. It’s a free service but runs like an MLM.
16. Delicio.us.com – De.licio.us is a social bookmarking site owned by Yahoo. You’ll be able to store, share and discover web bookmarks.
17. Pownce.com– You can share information like files, links, events, and messages with approved people.
18. My.Yahoo.com – Set up a My.Yahoo page and add a link to your blog.
19. Yahoo Answers – Answer questions related to your blog topic here and at the end add the link to your blog.
20. Blogsearch.Google.com– Submit your blog to Google’s blogging directory.
21. LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a social networking site geared toward business professionals.
22. Online Directories – Submit your blog information to other directories such as DMOZ, and Yahoo
23. User Groups – Join or start a User Group about your blog topic. They are a great place to connect with like-minded people. A few popular group communities are Google Groups, Yahoo Groups and MSN Groups.
24. Participate in Forums – Join some on same topics or ones with your target market. Add your blog address after your name.
25. Blog Pinging Sites – When you ping your blog, what you are doing is letting a number of sites (search engines, for example) know that your blog has been updated. They will then crawl and index your site so your new post is updated in their records. Pingomatic.com is one of my favorites. Some services like WordPress already handle this for you.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Learning To Build Relationships First Hand
Today, I attended Julia Karpeisky’s live webinar for lawyers in Washington DC. The title was, “Building Cross-Cultural Competencies.” Her knowledge and experience in this area as a translator, coach, and mentor shined throughout the hour with stories and her experiences.
Julia is the president of JMK Contact Inc., an International Interface Service. After listening to her, I decided to bestow on her a new name -- Intercultural Relationship Strategist.
One item I left with was how American lawyers are generally focused on billable hours and not in developing relationships. They want the facts and that’s it. Yet, in other countries, it’s the reverse.
Being so direct offends many other cultures. In these cultures, the relationship comes first, including building trust. Biblical stories are great illustrations of this.
Julia introduced two important terms -- particularistic and universalist cultures. A particularistic culture considers the human relationships more important than rules. These include their set of values or practices. Of course, universalist the opposite. Universalist takes the direct route and omits most or all of the relationship building aspects. For example, China is a particularistic culture. The United States universalist. This gave me deeper insights as to why our President faces so many challenges with China. Just as they have with us. This is also why many communication challenges are experienced between a universalist culture and the Middle East.
My thoughts are still expanding on this. Especially on how our cultural understanding affects Internet marketing and sales.
If you have a web site or are in the planning stages of one, how does all this affect the content you include or exclude. Even the design elements, like colors and graphics, and even the type of sales method to use (or not to use).
Does this mean we need to change our web site to accommodate the culture of every country in the world? The big companies do it. When you visit their web site, they present a map, and you choose the country. And when you choose the language, you are also choosing it’s culture – at least on a well-planned site you do.
How does a small company handle this same issue? Or is it a lost cause because the budget is smaller? Creating a cultural-center web site is quite expensive.
Even if you sell just inside the U.S. market, how would this affect you?
The United States is a melting pot of various cultures. If who you are selling too includes, which I’m sure it always does, individuals from a particularistic country how do you also balance it with a the universalistic culture?
Over the past few years, the introduction of adding next-click hyperlinks early in the copy, and sprinkling them periodically throughout the copy, rather than just including them at the end, has bridged the two together. One allows the direct link, no relationship needed choice, while the other focuses on building the relationship for those with a particularistic culture prefers.
Right now, my brain feels overwhelmed just thinking about this, let alone coming up ways to redesign my own web sites. You may be feeling this same way.
How does all this play into how we do market and sell whether it’s over the Internet or you’re selling cars at a local dealership?
Honestly, can’t quite answer this – yet!
Hmm, I just remembered, a friend used to sell life insurance policies in people’s homes. She encountered different cultures all the time. This would be a good lunch conversation.
Do you know of someone to call or meet who can enlighten you on this topic?
In addition to this question, maybe you belong to a networking group who would like to focus on this as a learning topic?
Another “something” I left with . . .
The experience of being part of a live webinar -- watching the equipment and people in action -- was great education. Since it was live, I watched Murphy’s Law creep in now and then and some very creative solutions on how they were handled. I encourage everyone to find an experience like this. Arrive early and observe. Or better yet, volunteer to help out and learn first hand.
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