Archive for June, 2009
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 26th, 2009
This week at a Fashion West Event, I participated on a panel alongside Liz Gaige of Market Navigators and Barbara Breuner of Blue Citrus Design. We had assembled in order to provide our different perspectives on marketing and to answer questions from the audience.
During the intro Liz reminded us of the core considerations you should take into account when taking your product or service to market: the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Promotion and Placement.
Products are the products or service you intend to offer, who they are intended for and how they will impact your intended audience;
Price is how much you will charge for your offering;
Placement is how you will take your product to market (ie bricks and mortar store, online, distribution etc);
Promotion is how you will spread awareness of your product.
Social media is a means to promote your offering but it is only one of many tools that you can use. Before you embark on promotion you should always take time to research and plan for the first three.
Always use a mix of marketing tools to promote your offering, in addition to your social media efforts, for added impact. Which you choose will depend on your audience and goals and could include online advertising, search engine marketing, direct marketing and so on. The message should be consistent and complementary across each of these so that your brand becomes more recognizable.
By taking marketing fundamentals into account your social media and overall marketing efforts are more likely to succeed.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 25th, 2009
This most excellent article landed in my inbox today in the form of Seascape Web Design’s monthly newsletter. The article gives you 7 common sense tips that will help you get more out of your newsletter campaigns. These considerations are very valuable when putting together an effective e newsletter campaign and, even better: they are tried and tested. Thanks for sharing Katy!
7 Tips for Writing More Effective Newsletters
It’s very important to keep in constant contact with your prospects to keep you and your services top of mind. One very effective way to do this is to send out a monthly newsletter. Some write newsy emails with updates on recent events and pics of their children. But a far more effective strategy is to provide information about your industry that your readers will find valuable. This also helps to establish you as an expert in your field. Here are 7 tips that will help you to get started.
1. Put your newsletter subscribe form on every page of your website. You never know which page your visitors will enter your website so it’s a good idea to have your subscribe box on every page near the top.
2. Offer a FREE REPORT to entice visitors to sign up. Did I get your attention? Nothing gets people’s attention better than a FREE offer. This also gives your visitors a free sample of your valuable information.
3. Have copies of your previous newsletters available on your website so that visitors can see that you really do have a newsletter that is worth subscribing to and you won’t spam them. For example, view back issues of our Monthly Tips Newsletters.
4. Write list articles like this one. Highlight in bold the first sentence of each paragraph. This serves as a catchy headline. And then write a short paragraph providing further explanation. These types of articles are very popular on the Internet are very easy to read quickly.
5. Use a headline in your subject line. When I first started sending out my monthly newsletter, the subject line read Monthly Newsletter. When I started putting the title of my article in the subject line, I received a much higher response rate.
6. Send out your newsletter at the same time each month. This way your subscribers will start to look forward to reading your newsletter.
7. Newsletters are meant to be educational so be careful about putting ads in them. Many people don’t like getting huge one page ads in their email box. But many like reading informative articles to help grow their business. So place your ads in a smaller second column or at the bottom of your article. Be sure that your ad content compliments your article content.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 19th, 2009
Its been ages since we had a Friday Funny especially a Being Five one from George Sfarnas. I thought this one quite apt.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 18th, 2009
As your site gets established and gains attention, the inevitable link request emails will begin to appear. Here’s Jose Uzcategui’s blog post following one such email he received recently:
Today I received a letter requesting a link from my blog. Because Im a relatively small player, I though some of you might be interested in seeing what one of these looks like.
Link building is ultra-very important when trying to build our sites authority, page rank, and overall SEO awesomeness. What is “link building†you say? Its any strategy used to get links from other websites pointed to your website.
How do you it? There are many ways, and one of them is sending a letter to the sites owner requesting a link just like the letter I received today. Heres the letter:
Good morning,
My name is Xxxx Xxxx and I work at a company called Xxx Xxxxx Xxxxx. We are a publisher of a variety of leading business and industrial sites across North America and Europe.
I have noticed that your organizations website, http://www.joseuonline.com/, is linked to http://www.boardoftrade.com/ which is a Board of Trade in Canada. I am writing to you to request that you please also link to our Canadian industrial business site called Canadian Trade Index at http://www.ctidirectory.com/.
Why link to http://www.ctidirectory.com/?
* Canadian Trade Index is Canadas leading industrial website (comScore, March 2009) with nearly 9 million annual visitors.
* The site plays a key role in connecting buyers and sellers of industrial products.
* The site features a rich, relevant and searchable database of industrial products and the suppliers, distributors and manufacturers of these products.
More information about us can be viewed at www.ctidirectory.com/pages/about_us.cfm.
For these reasons, its likely that your constituents that visit your site may find Canadian Trade Index to be a valuable resource to source, buy and sell industrial good and services.
Would you please place a link to http://www.ctidirectory.com/ on your site?
Thank you for the consideration and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at my email below.
Regards,
Xxxx Xxxxx
Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx
XX@XXXX
905.xxx.xxxx xxxx
I am sending this email to you using an address I found on your web site. If you no longer wish to receive emails from me, please click here: unsubscribe. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Xxxx XXxxx xxx-xxx-xxxx ext. xxx.
The lack of perosnal detail tells me that this is probably the work of some automated system, so Im probably not goingt to act on it. Having said that, I did check Canadian Trade Index site advertised here.
I believe in these letters, as long as they are personal and have sound reasons behind them. Have you ever sent one of these? Im curious on the results. Feel free to coment here.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 11th, 2009
I recently received another Facebook wall post, claiming to be from Mark Zukkerberg, regarding the over population of Facebook. I thought I would forward bring it to your attention. Its yet another hoax.
This is not the first go around for these spammers. This time around they have corrected the grammatical errors and spelling mistakes and have taken out the request for donations so it is actually less laughable and looks more realistic. Don’t be duped by it – Facebook has other ways to track whether you are using your profile regularly.
If you receive this post, the best thing to do is to simply ignore it and please DO NOT forward it to your friends. You should also consider removing the Super Wall or Rock You Live application.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 11th, 2009
I am partipating in A Red Bench’s telesummitt today and the topic is blogging so to celebrate, here are some do’s and don’t corporations should take into account when blogging.
1. Keep entries to one page or less – a blog entry should be short and to the point – people don’t like to scroll endlessly.
2. Blogs are intended as on-line logs or journals and are more informal than other marketing mediums so write accordingly.
3. Use simple terms – dont include jargon or abbreviations unless you are sure your audience will understand otherwise it will simply put them off.
4. Dont use your blog as a forum to attempt to promote or sell – its not appropriate.
5. It is generally accepted in the blogosphere that you can quote from another blog as long as you state your source and link back to it.
6. Remember to add value. This is huge. If you don’t tell people something they don’t know then they have no reason to come back. Think about who your intended audience is and write posts that are informative – share useful links to cool sites and on-line services.
7. Emoticons may be okay for a personal blog but in a corporate one they look unprofessional. Unless your target audience is the under 20 consumer crowd then its best to avoid using emoticons at all.
8. Its good to include video clips, images and podcasts as long as they are relevant to your topic.
9. Dont use fonts that are too large or hard to read and be sparing with capitals (no need to yell!).
10. When you include links to other web pages, always remember to check that your links work before publishing your blog article (theres nothing worse than clicking on a link in anticipation only to find that it doesnt link take you where its supposed to).
11. The most important part of your post is the title. Take time to craft a title that will make people want to read more.
12. Always consider your corporate brand and image when blogging. Before you post anything, consider if it reflects your brand.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 08th, 2009
1. Define Your Twitter Strategy
Don’t venture into Twitter for the sake of it. Like any marketing activity, decide what you want to get out of it and be consistent. Twitter is a great tool to make instant and powerful connections, but offers endless opportunities for distraction. Don’t fall foul of those distractions – decide on your strategy and stick to it. The old faithful “Who, What, Why, When, How” can always be counted on to keep you straight.
2. Employ Tools to Help
Your Twitter strategy can be made easier using the right tools. You might want to manage multiple accounts, or deal with multiple timelines – there are tools to help. See a definitive list of Twitter applications here: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps (Thanks to @marismith for the link). Use them wisely.
3. Create Your Follow Policy
Don’t waste time dithering about whether to Follow someone or not. Decide on your Follow Policy from the outset and don’t stray from that – it’ll save you lots of valuable time.
4. Be Social
A community relies on interaction between members. Don’t forget to offer value to your community and you’ll receive value in turn. Engage with as many relevant people as you can – it’ll pay dividends and enhance your Twitter experience. Remember, your social network (on Twitter and elsewhere) is part of your business capital. Make sure it gives you best value, and protect it.
5. Measure, Measure, Measure
As Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki) points out “Twitter is arguably the most powerful advertising mechanism since television” – and you wouldn’t run a television ad without measuring the results. Use tools to track and measure results in the same way as any marketing campaign.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 04th, 2009
Next week I have the honor of being part of the Red Bench Teleseminar where I will be talking on Thursday about the importance of blogging for business. I thought therefore that this would be a great opportunity to highlight why blogging is, in my opinion, still the best tool in your social mediua marketing arsenal.
Blogging is the top social media marketing tool when it comes to reaching your audience online. Granted, Twitter is a close second but blogging remains top for many reasons. Here are just some of them:
1. Blogging can kill several birds with one stone. For example you can build your brand, establish your expertise but it has the added benefit of making it easy to update your website regularly and keep those search engines happy.
2. You can say much more with a blog than you can for example with Twitter or on Facebook. You aren’t limited in anyway and you can use the forum to get really creative (if you so wish) and showcase your brand more effectively.
3. Blogs are really versatile, they can be used internally (for HR purposes, to communicate corporate messages and to build rapport), and they can be used to reach an external audience (new customers, partner relations and investors).
4. Blogs give you more control. Many companies are wary of using social media because of the perceived risk of negativity. With a blog you have more control over that. You can choose to block certain comments or even better address them directly for all to see.
5. You can make money by blogging. Look at recent Third Tuesday presenter John Chow as an example. If you so chose you can easily monetize your blog by adding sponsor ads but remember to consider your brand and visitor loyalty before you do.
I am not saying that your shouldn’t use other social media or online tools, just that blogging tends to give you the bext bang for your buck.
The Red Bench Telesummit takes place next week on Wednesday and Thursday and covers everything you need to know to hit the ground running with your on-line marketing. Guest speakers include Dan McComb – co-founder of Biznik, Nancy Marmolejo – social networker extraordinaire, Dan Hollings – super strategist, LinkedIn expert Chip Lambert, Gillian Muessig - SEO Expert from SEO Moz, Rich Brooks web design and Internet strategist and Shama Hyder Facebook evangelist.
Register for the telesummit here.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 03rd, 2009
A while back we checked out the Spacelocker an online “meeting place”. Its our job here at Out-Smarts to keep a head of new technologies and check new tools out however whimsical they are.
Today Spacelocker or someone pretending to be Spacelocker spammed us and our contacts. Our gmail was hacked and those in our address book got an email inviting them to join Spacelocker. I want to make it very clear that we did not send out invites to anyone and on the contrary we discourage you from signing up for Spacelocker. Any company that is willing to spam its users to promote itself is beyond contempt.
Here’s a link to Gmail support explaining the situation. Please do not sign up for Spacelocker or you risk the same happening.
This is a product aimed at youngsters and I encourage all parents, teachers and caregivers to take note as well – if they can’t be trusted with email then how can they be trusted with our children’s profiles?
Here’s some hypocrisy from Spacelocker’s Privacy Policy:
“No Spam
Spacelocker condemns spam. We email users and their friends only when it has been provided for and agreed to under our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service prohibit all users from engaging in any activity involving spam on our service. Violations of these policies may result in immediate termination of service and legal action against any spammer. Such violations may subject the sender and their agents to civil and criminal penalties.”
If you received the email from Spacelocker, please accept our profuse apologies. It didn’t come from us. We don’t do Spam.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, June 02nd, 2009
Have you ever had a marketing, branding or web strategy question but were afraid to ask? Well be hosting our next “Ask the Experts†panel on June 3rd at the YWCA on Beatty Street, where you can come along and ask anything you want – yes absolutely anything!
* Liz Gaige from Market Navigators will address marketing inquiries
* Christine Rondeau from Bluelime Media will be discussing web design and development
* Ryan Thompson from Twin Fish Creative will provide answers about branding
* Ill be on-hand to speak about social networking and social media marketing.
These panels are casual and informal. Simply register, show up and join the conversation. Organized as round-tables, we like to keep these small, so that you have the chance to ask your questions and hear what others have to say. These are ideal for budding entrepreneurs, individuals wanting to launch themselves in a new venture or existing companies who may be stuck and not sure where to go next.
We are currently holding a 2-for-1 promo, so bring a friend or colleague along. Hope to see you there.
