Marketing Outside the Box

Want to create a buzz and get people talking about what you’re doing? How about doing the opposite of what people expect. Many people call this thinking outside of the box and this is where your right brain can definitely come into play. This is where you should start saying “why not” instead of “don’t go there.”

If you feel that your marketing message is constrained by certain parameters, ask yourself whether those parameters are real or imaginary. How far could you push the envelope without overstepping, how creative can you be without it backfiring? Whenever you see a viral video or hear of a highly successful “off the cuff” marketing initiative, try and take time to understand how the initiators formed their thoughts. Put yourself in the role of the most highly paid executive on Madison Avenue, famous for constantly thinking outside of the box and see how you could enhance your position.

If you are in a niche not known for its jocularity, inject some! Maybe you’re an accounting service provider – create a video about something funny and lighthearted around tax time.

Surprise all your clients and prospects by giving something of great value to them at no charge and also on a regular basis. Establishing yourself as the experts is, as we know, a smart move in the world of Internet marketing. Look into your crystal ball and see where the next growth area may be in your particular niche and then go out of your way to create a meaty white paper or newsletter.You will place a resounding stamp on the subject and put yourself ahead of the game.

Remember that not all journalists have their finger on the pulse and many of them have so many other projects going on that they’re more than willing to receive expert opinion on any matter or valuable insight that you could provide them. Use the power of public relations to your advantage. Once again, anticipate questions that arise and how you could link your niche to any hot, trending, newsworthy activities or events.

While you are feeling in a global and giving mode, consider hosting your own virtual tradeshow. This idea is emerging, just as the power of the Internet is increasing exponentially. As exhibition or attendance at any tradeshow can be costly and time-consuming, attendance at the virtual tradeshow can take place from the security of the office or a comfortable home. If you set up and host a virtual tradeshow within your industry, you can achieve a considerable brand recognition and some additional earnings potential as well.

If you are involved in Internet marketing and the provision of online services, you may well not have considered the gold mine that is literally outside of your door. Bricks and mortar operations can all benefit from online exposure and rather than focusing on marketing your products online all the time, approach some of the more than 50% of off-line businesses that have no web presence whatsoever.

Have you seen any great ‘outside the box’ marketing messages?

Matthew Toren

Understand Your Traffic Streams

If there is one thing that we would like you to take away from this blog post, it is that you cannot use generalizations when it comes to tracking and testing your marketing efforts. You really need to understand where your traffic streams are coming from and micromanage each stream, effectively, if you want to make an overall improvement in your performance. It makes little sense to try and establish averages over a number of different initiatives, just so that you can see how you are doing in overall terms.

We always seem under pressure to come up with statistics, to show that we are being productive with our time or initiatives or to prove that the money truly is “well spent.” The truth is that any analytics program worth its salt will enable you to drill down and really analyze every single visitor.

If you favor Google Analytics, you may have one of those plug-ins added to your blog to show you how you are doing through a summarized form, complete with miniature graph over the last 30 days. You will see your average “bounce rate,” and this may send you running for the hills, but after all what use are these figures by themselves?

The whole purpose of tracking and testing is to make changes. For sure, you could be the smartest marketer in creation or just plain lucky, find that your promotional and advertising methods work right out of the box and you need to do little to modify. We all know marketing a business is about trial and error and even the most educated and successful among us make mistakes and need to make changes. Be prepared to understand that you need to track each initiative before you put it in place, associate results with that particular track and you must be able to differentiate those results from any other concurrent initiative.

It is important to develop separate landing pages and associated anchor text, crucial reference points to enable you to quickly see where consummated sales originate. Remember also that a good proportion of visitors to your site will be poorly qualified and these will certainly help to skew your conversion rates.

If you are lucky enough to have a very highly trafficked site and have not taken steps to differentiate your sources, you will find it very difficult to move forward with any confidence. Whatever you may do to try and increase conversion rates in one particular area will be difficult to quantify as your average conversion rate, bounce rate or simple visitor rate will tend to absorb your efforts.

If you have not set up a trackable, definable list of goals and events and your landing pages are insufficiently identified, then it may be time for you to start afresh, redefine your objectives, come up with a plan and a means to track it and set a future date to start understanding and manipulating your traffic streams correctly.

Are all your traffic streams profitable - if not which ones are dragging you down?

Adam Toren

Online Marketing Trends for 2010

We’re often asked where we see trends emerging and especially at this time of year, with a virtual clean slate ahead of us. 2009 was certainly a revealing year and if nothing else, helped to show us how Internet marketing is here to stay, as the industry in general trended upward during the brutal recession. While many organizations may have reduced their total marketing spend, the ratio of funding allocated to online initiatives markedly increased.

While economists and other soothsayers predict that the business world will aim for solidity and cautious growth during 2010, it is worth keeping an eye on the emergence of certain trends to help you plan your online and Internet marketing endeavors through the months ahead.

Video is a very strong online medium and should be incorporated in your plans as soon as possible. While a picture tells 1000 words, a video can be even more powerful and if you portray the right message to the right people, you can end up with a significantly enhanced return on your video marketing investment. Don’t just create videos outlining what you do or why, but show real-world examples of how you can benefit the potential client and make sure that your creations are adequately marketed. It’s no good just showing these videos on your website home page, you should create a YouTube channel or go for more detailed video marketing, using one of the many great services available to you online.

Mobile marketing is certain to take significant steps forward in 2010. We have seen recent moves by Google to incorporate mobile advertising platforms and to help them increase their long reach into our smartphone fueled worlds. While it’s not necessarily time for you to run out and purchase your “dot mobi” domain name and associated web presence, keep an eye how your clients and potential customers interact with their mobile devices. This is without a doubt going to be a very dynamic environment this year.

Social media will continue to carve its own important niche in the marketing world and by the end of the year will have gained even more relevance. We hope that it will not be called “new media” by that time and that each of you will have a concerted, interactive presence and be clear about your objectives.

In the world of search engine optimization, micro-targeting is the next big thing. Search engine algorithms are becoming so smart, so dedicated to providing webmasters with workable results, that it will pay you well to ensure that your site, blogs and all online properties are highly optimized from a content perspective. More than ever, fresh content will be required and it must be good content, too.

While talking about trends, look at Google Trends frequently. At the time of writing, two of the top three hot trends are internet – related: the new Google Nexus One phone and the rumors swirling around the Apple iSlate tablets.

Matthew Toren

Can Your Small Business Culture and Values Win You Sales?

In the United States, do we really value the culture of our people as much as we say we do? After all, this is supposed to be a country that was founded and based on a coming together of cultures, a veritable melting pot, as they say. Culture is something that we should all cherish as it makes us all stand out in one way or the other and allows us to create and diversify. As those sage spokesmen and women say again, it takes all sorts to make a world!

When it comes to marketing, why not go back to your roots and really focus on what makes you and your business different? Where do you hail from and are your standards, beliefs, approaches and values a core part of how you do business? If not, then maybe they should be. By pandering to your strengths in terms of how you essentially live and breathe each day, then you should be making yourself and your brand equity stronger and more vibrant as well.

Always remember that it is to tough to fundamentally change who or what you are and you should be very cautious if you think that you can portray layers and elements that do not really represent your true spirit. However, be free to really underline and take advantage of the things that make you tick.

Very often our small businesses are built on a solid foundation of reputation. If you are known as being a helpful and enthusiastic trigger and always go out of your way to make things happen, then capitalize on this “yes we can” popular culture and make your glass permanently half-full from a marketing perspective.

We know how important social interaction is and how people like to deal with a real, live human being, even though this is becoming more challenging in our increasingly virtual world. With customer service, make sure that your staff are all on the same page and treat the customer in a positive and happy way each day. You will be surprised how clients and prospects warm more to your organization if a genuine feeling of love is being exuded!

Pander to your strengths. If your organization is operating on the cutting edge of your particular niche and if you business is known for its ingenuity or innovation, make your marketing exciting and interesting as well. Don’t be afraid to use individual personalities if they fire when challenged and be careful before repressing any unusual or out-of-the-box ideas.

These days it is very populist to be “green” and any organization that puts the issue of sustainability ahead is sure to gain footing as we go forward. Climate related issues are not going away and as more scientific evidence becomes apparent, linking our lack of efficiency to environmental damage, an organization that operates via the culture of the environment will likely gain market share.

How do you use your culture to best effect?

Matthew Toren

Win Sales with Holiday Offers

‘Tis the season for gift giving and rampant consumerism, so why not join into the spirit? With Black Friday & Cyber Monday now behind us, there seems no let-up in the number of special offers available, to try and jumpstart our economy in this traditionally heavy traffic period. As a retailer, you may have been looking forward to this month all year and it may take on added significance in 2009 as we wind down what has been, by any standards a challenging year.

If competition throughout 2009 was difficult, the advent of Black Friday and the holiday season has really placed an emphasis on ingenuity. Deals abound and it is no good just coming up with a few uninspiring loss leader adjustments, you really have got to set yourself apart, to connect with would-be purchasers and to get them to buy from you.

Be careful when coming up with deals related to your products or services, as it can be easy to project that they’re not worth as much as you suggest. You still need to justify your rates and must be able to market the business when all of this December madness has come and gone. This is where you will need to innovate and most definitely set yourself apart from the competition. Always sharpen your intelligence and find out what your competitors are offering and where possible, go the extra distance.

Good marketing is about creating a perception of value and then suggesting that the product or service is available at much lower cost. The best offers pile on the benefits of purchase, almost creating a “must have” urge within the consumer to buy. It is a good idea to offer certificates to existing clients and try and focus on those who may have purchased from you before and lapsed, or to pay attention to those who have expressed an interest in your services.

If you offer recurring services, consider a very steep discount just to get the prospect to try your wares. If you can really stand behind your product or service and are confident of your ability to perform, then you hope that once they are in the “system,” they will be pleased with what they receive and will continue to subscribe to your business.

Try and enter into the spirit of the holidays, as after all we have seen enough of Mr. Scrooge all year long, without letting him have his way right now as well!

What are Your Holiday Specials?

Matthew Toren

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