Archive for ‘Marketing Techniques’

January 1st, 2013

11 Best Blog Posts from Dave Kerpen, Jay Baer, Erik Qualman and Others

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I don’t know about you, but for me, the challenge with the internet isn’t that there isn’t good content — it’s that there’s so much good content.

People like Dave Kerpen, Jay Baer, Erik Qualman, Michael Stelzner and others are constantly sharing helpful tips and techniques that can help you grow your business. Because there’s so much good content out there, I spend part of my day just sorting through what I want (and need) to read.

With that in mind, I’ve selected 11 best marketing blog posts to help you kick things off for the new year. Each post has an insight or a tip that can help you make 2013 your best year ever, so take a spin through them. And feel free to leave a comment below with your favorite blog post so you can add to this list of the best marketing blog posts.

Here goes:

  1. Top 10 Unlikeable Companies of 2012 by Dave Kerpen. Dave and I are good friends and meet just about every week with Erik Qualman, Andrea Vahl, Chuck Martin and others on our Five Star Speakers initiative. This is one of my favorite posts this year, especially since GoDaddy is on the list.
  2. 26 Truths About Me and Convince and Convert by Jay Baer. This 5,000 word post was so good I printed it out and read it in bed while watching the New Year’s Eve celebrations. This is an amazingly transparent post with tons of great information about Jay and his team at Convince & Convert.
  3. Socialnomics Video 2013 from Erik Qualman. Erik is another good friend and a key player on the Five Star Speakers team. He’s best known as the author of Socialnomics and Digital Leader, which are both excellent books. If you haven’t seen his updated version of the Socialnomics video, check it out — Erik has an amazing ability to take simple statistics and turn them into interesting insights.
  4. How to Build a Platform and Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Stelzner. This is actually a video interview conducted with Michael Hyatt. Michael Stelzner is the founder of Social Media Examiner (always worth reading) and Michael Hyatt is one of my absolutely favorite bloggers and authors. Get to known them both by checking out this post.
  5. Google Plus Emerging as a Back Door to Top Search Results by David Meerman Scott. I got to know David as he mentored me through the launch of Go Mobile and came away impressed with his desire to help others. Most of David’s posts are insights and perspectives on where digital communications is and where it’s headed, but this post is more of a “How To,” which is what makes it especially useful for members of the 60 Second Marketer community.
  6. The 10-Step Content Marketing Checklist by Sonia Simone and Brian Clark. Damn, I wish I was half as smart and eloquent as Sonia and Brian. And I’m not just saying that. Copyblogger continues to impress with great content that’s extremely well-crafted and articulated. The post mentioned here is just one of many great examples on their site. Check it out.
  7. SEO: 10 Secrets You Can Use to Get Google to Rank Your Website Higher by Lon Safko. There’s an interesting story behind this post. Lon, who is part of the Five Star Speakers team, sent us all an email with tips on SEO. I suggested that his email was so all-encompassing that it should be turned into a blog post. Now, a version of it is on Lon’s website (as well as ours!).
  8. 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Following by Andrea Vahl. When I have a question about Facebook, who do I turn to? Either Andrea Vahl or Phyllis Khare, both of whom know more about Facebook than anyone else I know. Check out Andrea’s post to kick start your Facebook initiative.
  9. Walking Before Running into Augmented Reality by Chuck Martin. Chuck is one of the smartest guys I know. This post from him offers some excellent insights into the world of augmented reality. Put on your thinking cap and check out this post. When it comes to mobile, Chuck is the guy.
  10. The Social Customer by Adam Metz. This isn’t a blog post as much as it’s a book by my friend Adam Metz. If you want to learn how your business can use social CRM to acquire, monetize and retain fans, friends and followers, check out this book. It’s packed with useful tips and techniques.
  11. Re-Branding, Re-Designing and Re-Inventing: 3 Signs it’s Time by Phyllis Khare. I’ll make one prediction for 2013 that I know will come true — some company in Southern California is going to hire Phyllis Khare to run their marketing and social media and will grow by leaps and bounds as a result. Phyllis is one of the authors on Facebook All-in-One Marketing for Dummies and knows this stuff inside out. This is a great post by Phyllis with some good tips on re-inventing yourself.

I hope you find these posts helpful. I know I have. And let me know about any other posts you think are worth reading in the comments section below.

Jamie Turner is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile.” He is also a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

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August 28th, 2012

How to Use the Safko Wheel to Discover Hidden ROI Opportunities in Your Marketing

We’re honored to have Lon Safko, author of the bestselling book, The Social Media Bible, as a guest writer for the 60 Second Marketer. Lon’s newest book is called The Fusion Marketing Bible which talks about what comes after social media.

I discovered Fusion Marketing as a result of constantly being asked in interviews “So, what comes after social media?”  Social media has change the way the world markets, sells, and communicates forever. And it has caused us to change at speeds we have never seen before. Of course, all this begs the question, “What’s next?”

I decided to take that question on as a challenge.  I asked myself, “Where will marketing and sales organization be in say, five years?  How will we be treating traditional, digital, and social media marketing?  That’s when I realized that Traditional Marketing + Digital Marketing + Social Media Marketing = Fusion Marketing!

I realized that even now, if you are still calling yourself a “Social Media Expert” then you’re announcing to the world that you have been left behind.  If you’re an expert in Facebook and Twitter, then you’re trying to build a entire marketing strategy restricted to using only one or two tools from all of the marketing tools available today.  Facebook is not a strategy.  Twitter is not a strategy.  They are only tools.

If you’re still stuck looking at social media as a stand alone marketing technology, then you’ve been left behind.  Today the term V.P. Social Media Marketing sounds normal, but it is already as obsolete as V.P. of Billboards.  Companies that recognize social media marketing as one set of marketing tools out of many, will be ahead of the curve.

What is Fusion Marketing? Fusion Marketing is the next generation of marketing that brings all of our 6,000 years of traditional “push” or “monolog” marketing, the exciting digital marketing tools of the Internet, and social media or “dialog” marketing and fully integrates them into one seamless toolset that will accomplish every objective you set at no additional costs!  Fusion Marketing is such a totally new concept of “Interconnecting” all of your marketing tools that it has been accepted by the United States Patent & Trademark Office as “Patent Pending.”

As part of the Fusion Marketing concept, I also invented a tool to help you implement your Fusion Marketing called the Safko Wheel.  This tool is available for free with the pre-purchase of the book at www.TheFusionMarketingBible.com or you can make one from scratch.

What follows is information about how Fusion Marketing works, how the Safko Wheel works, and how you can use these tools to discover hidden ROI opportunities in your marketing.  When you visit www.TheFusionMarketignBible.com, you can purchase the book and download your free $25 Safko Wheel Marketing Toolkit — or you can just make one yourself.

 

An Example of The Safko Wheel

Traditional Marketing Wheel

 

Traditional Wheel Analysis

Step 1 – Select Your Traditional Tools

In Step 1, we will start by selecting (or creating) the Traditional cards (red), for the Traditional Marketing Tools you used last year, then place them around the Wheel.

Step 2 – Perform Fusion Marketing

Fusion Marketing is about “fusing” all marketing tools together to create new opportunities.  To begin, select one Tool from the Wheel.  Study that Tool for a moment and understand how it really works.  Then, randomly select a second Tool from the Wheel and study it.  Now, connect Tool 1 to Tool 2.

Now, ask yourself the question “How can they work together?” such as what if you “put a coupon on the back of your business card” or “put a coupon on your brochure”?  We know that business cards represent a strong interaction, face-to-face, and most likely, you “touched” the other person in the form of a handshake.

Would putting a coupon on your brochure make a customer more likely to purchase while holding or viewing your product brochure?  Of course it would!

Make Multiple Connections: The next step is to keep Tool 1 and move around the Wheel connecting it to different Tools and discover the opportunities.  Next, move completely around the Wheel keeping the first Tool and connecting it to a different Tool.  When you have completed this, repeat this process with an adjacent Tool and write down all of the discovered opportunities.  Can you see how many different opportunities that can be discovered by looking at your Traditional media in this way?

Make Reverse Connections: Once you have gone around the wheel making the one way connections, now you can make reverse connections.  Start with first Toolset (Tools 1 and 2) and “reverse” the connection to identify additional opportunities. Move around the Wheel again making reverse connections such as “put your personal contact information on your coupon,” or “put a QR code on your coupon to view your product brochure.”

If you had a real person to speak with, an individual who represented your company with their personal contact information on your coupon, would that make a prospect more likely to exercise that coupon and converter from a prospect to a customer?  It would!

Digital Tool Analysis

Step 3 – The Trinity of Social Media

Start with The Trinity of Social Media; Blogging, Micro-blogging, and Social Networks. With only these three Tools, you can accomplish 90% of the total success social media has to offer. Next, add in other Digital Marketing Tools; e.g.: SEO, SEM, Facebook (social networks), Youtube (video sharing), Email, etc.  Tools that you wish to incorporate into this year’s plan or you can look at all of the Tools, first.  If you aren’t familiar with all 20 categories, please read The Social Media Bible (www.TheSocialMediaBible.com).

An Example of The Safko Wheel

Digital / Social Media Marketing Wheel

 

Step 4 – Perform Fusion Marketing

Refer to Step 2 above and repeat the process of Fusing all of your Digital / Social Media Tools together to discover new opportunities.  How many can you identify?

Fusion Marketing Analysis

Step 5 – Create A TraDigital Toolset

In this step, you combine the Traditional Marketing Tools with the Digital / Social Media Marketing Tools you have selected and place them around the Wheel to create a custom TraDigital toolset. And start making connections once again.

Step 6 – Perform the Cost of Customer Acquisition (COCA)

You will quickly see that there are just too many possible connections.  None of us have the time or resources to pursue all those opportunities.  Actually, with the 20 Top Traditional and the 20 Top Digital / Social Media Tools, there are 8.15 x 1047 or 8 with 47 zeros after it.  We have to trim it down somehow, someway that makes sense.

To do this, we will perform the Cost of Customer Acquisition on each Tool (campaign).  Start by listing all of the Traditional campaigns you performed last year on a white-board, yellow pad or spreadsheet.  List every expense, be sure to include all of your overhead.  Total the columns for those expenses.  Estimate the number of new customers each campaign generated.  Finally, divide the totals for each of the expense categories by the number of new customers.  This is your Cost Of Customer Acquisition, (COCA).  These numbers will surprise you, some in a good way and some will cause shock.

Step 7 – Eliminate and Prioritize

Here we you eliminate campaigns that were ineffective; the ones with the poor ROI.  This will provide new human and financial resources that we can use later.  Prioritize the remaining Tools you will use for this year’s Fusion Marketing Plan.  Add in any new Tools (cards) you wish to incorporate this year.

Step 8 – Perform Fusion Marketing

Once again, refer to Step 2 above and experience the process of Fusing all of your Tools together to discover new opportunities.

Strategy, Objective, Tool, and Tactic Development

Step 9 – Define Strategy

In this step we will define “strategy” and create all of the strategies you will need to build a successful Fusion Marketing Plan.  Strategy = Objective + Tool + Tactic.  A Strategy is the outcome, not an item.

Create Objectives:

Let’s begin by creating 5 Objectives (goals); such as; “increase email list,” “drive more attendance to presentations,” “perform webinars,” or “develop more product awareness.”  Write them down.

An Example of The Safko Wheel

Strategy-Objective-Tactic-Tool Wheel

Step 10 – Work the Wheel

Now it’s time to work the Wheel by placing one of your Objectives from above in the center of the Wheel. Select each Tool, one at a time, and ask, “How can I use this Tools to achieve that Objective?”  Move around the Wheel connecting each Tool to that Objective.  These connections are your Tactics.  Try making multiple connections; using two Tools to connect to the Objective.  Continue around the Wheel.  Record every Tactic.  Repeat with next the Objective until you have fully developed all five Objectives.

Step 11 – Prioritize Your Objectives

Next we will prioritize each Tactic for each Objective then prioritize each Objective, because you can’t do everything.  Remember, now that you have performed your COCA in Step 6, and have eliminated campaigns with a poor ROI, you now have human and financial resources to accomplish additional Objectives.

Step 12 – Finalize Your Fusion Marketing Plan

It’s the combination all of the Tools and Tactics for each selected Objective that becomes your final list of successful Strategies. Combine all of your final strategies to form your new Fusion Marketing Plan.

Execute with Success

By utilizing Fusion Marketing and the Safko Wheel process you will only spend resources on your most effective Tactics, on your most effective Strategies, using the most effective Traditional Marketing Tools combined with the most effective Digital Marketing Tools.

That’s Fusion Media Marketing!

Fusion Marketing is about looking at all of your tools, campaigns, objectives, conversion strategies and everything you do in marketing in a completely different way to identify hidden opportunities to increase your ROI without spending any additional money.

For more information on Lon Safko go to LonSafko.com, to learn more about Fusion Marketing, and to get your free Safko Wheel Marketing Toolkit download, go to TheFusionMarketingBible.com.

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November 15th, 2011

How Complex is a Marketer’s Job Today? This Chart Has the Answer.

In 1965, you could reach 85% of the TV viewing audience by running just 3 TV spots. Today, in order to reach 85% of the viewing audience, you’d have to run over 125 commercials. This statistic alone is proof that a modern-day marketer’s job is much more complex than it used to be.

The chart below, shared with me by the kind folks at ExactTarget, drives home the same point. In the early 1990s, marketers had a handful of tools that they had to manage. Today, the number of tools a marketer needs to manage has grown by more than 500%.

Given the complexity of running a marketing campaign these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if the three martini lunch started making a comeback.

Posted by Jamie Turner, Founder of the 60 Second Marketer and co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile.” He is also a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

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July 14th, 2011

Top 10 Marketing Tips to Use LinkedIn to Your Advantage

LinkedIn is a great social networking tool for businesses, recruiters, marketers and professionals wishing to connect and establish relationships. Many users sign up to be a part of the professional community but are unclear as to how to establish connections and use this tool to their advantage.

AccountingDegree.com filled us in on some top tips to amp up your LinkedIn profile. I’ve broken down the top 10 that will help you get connected, establish meaningful relationships and use this tool to your full advantage.

1. Brand yourself: You don’t want to get lost in the mix, so it’s important to make your presence known. How? For starters, always make sure you have an updated professional photo to help create a personal connection with others. Personalize your URL link, it’s a great way to make yourself more marketable versus keeping the random URL given to you by LinkedIn. Include a summary so those connecting with you can learn more about you and your experiences. Think of this as your mini commercial selling yourself to businesses and marketers.

2. Increase your Visibility: LinkedIn ranks high in terms of page ranks in Google. Best way to get your profile more visibility is to make your information public by selecting “Full View” in settings. This increases your chances of coming up in search engines and gives you a greater possibility to connect with more professionals and companies.

3.  Promote yourself: LinkedIn allows you to publicize your profile so use this to your advantage. You can also create a LinkedIn signature to include when you comment on blogs or other social platforms. It’s a great way to get your profile out there across multiple social mediums.

4. Groups: Start a group or get involved in a group, either way this is an area you want to be involved in. When you start a group you become the “connector” and center of the conversation. It’s a great way to let people know your strengths and create a community of people with similar interests that can ultimately help you expand your personal database.

5. Applications: There are lots of great LinkedIn applications out there, however for all you bloggers, WordPress blog RSS is the cream of the crop. This app gives you the ability to syndicate your blog through your profile so those connected with you can view your blog and be updated with new posts and information.

6. Events: Connect with your fellow LinkedInners beyond the social networking page. From conferences to happy hours there is always something going on in the business world and you should be a part of it. Check out events in your area and view the RSVP list so you know who will be in attendance. Message your connections and let them know you will be there too.

7. Be a Resource: Listen to your connections questions and show that you can be of service to them. Show them what can you and your company bring to the table. Introduce your connections with others and become the “connector” and a person of resource. It’s a great way to grow your influence on LinkedIn.

8. Use Keywords: It’s the same concept when you are publishing blogs or websites, you want your link to appear as an answer to whatever keyword was entered into the search engine. Pick some keywords that you want to be associated with when searched. Use these words in your public profile to increase awareness about your brand or company and improve your search ranking.

9. Repurpose Content: So, what does this mean? Post content and mentions about you or your company on LinkedIn to spread the word and brag a little big about your accomplishments. Company Buzz is a great tool that sifts through Twitter to find whose talking about your company and what’s being said. Highlight these mentions on your profile and add to the buzz.

10. Customer Company Profile: This customizable page option helps company’s enhance their recruiting tactics and provide a targeted experience for potential connections. Through this tool a company can provide prospective employees with updated career information as well as participate in recruiting efforts.

Posted by Rebecca Wilson, Marketing Analyst for the 60 Second Marketer.

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June 29th, 2011

Top 10 Must Have Applications to Build Your Company’s Facebook Page

The Social media sphere is an area where businesses and marketers need to be, but many are unaware of how to move beyond the initial faze of creating a Facebook page. For those of you that have a page, but are not quite sure where to go, this blog is for you. Adding a Facebook application can not only move your page from ordinary to extraordinary, but also help increase traffic and interaction from your fans and followers.

So where do you start? Below are the top 10 Facebook applications that can help take your Facebook page to the next level.

1. Wildfire

This is a great application for those interested in implementing a social media marketing campaign. Applicable for businesses, bloggers ad agencies and non-profit organizations, this application helps you design branded interactive promotions.

If you’re interested in doing a contest, sweepstakes, product giveaways or giving out coupons this application can help.  This app gives you the ability to design your promotion with their customizable promotion builder. They also make it easy for you to publish your promotion to all of your social network platforms so all of your fans and followers are made aware of the campaign.

Running a sweepstakes or contests is a great way to build brand awareness, increase followers and their engagement as well as drive traffic to your site.  After all, according to Jupiter Research, companies that run contests or sweepstakes have twice as many fans on their sponsored social network pages as those that don’t.

2. Wizehive

This application helps you build a web-based contest. They make it easy for you to create contest forms and surveys through their Facebook contest software. This app allows you to customize your forms and voting system, so if you want the public to decide the winner or have a randomized selection process, they can make it happen.

If you’re interested in turning a profit, Wizehive allows you to charge a fee through their system to generate revenue for entries. This application may not be the most affordable, so check out their site to see if it’s right for you. They offer three different plans that range in price from $750 (silver plan) to $7,500+ (platinum plan).

3. Votigo

This is a full-service photo and video contest application that allows you to do a lot with your Facebook fans and customers. Not only does it allow you to create customized promotions, but it also allows you to tap into the registration data so you can learn more about your contestants and build a more extensive customer database. This app focuses on user-generated content allowing for video and photo submissions, comments, voting and support for YouTube embedded content. Their services range in price, but start around $5,000.

4. SocialFly

This application acts as your personal secretary. It’s a great way for marketers to  keep in touch and keep up with their  businesses contacts. The application has a notes system that allows you to create and setup reminders as well as develop notes to help you organize your contacts. Their location feature allows you to identify where each of your contacts live or where you have to be at your next meeting.

5. Telephone and Voicemail

These applications allow you to communicate with your fans and customers on a more personalized basis. You can talk, IM, leave a voice mail and voice chat all through Facebook. It’s a great option for those that want to interact more with their customers and allows those in business to communicate more efficiently.

6. Networked Blogs

This is a great app for all you bloggers. It basically provides you with a community of bloggers allowing you to connect with others,  promote yourself and promote other blogs on your Facebook page. It’s an easy way to import your blog feed through your Facebook page, so all your fans and followers will be updated with your recent posts. The app also helps categorize the different blogs you read, making it easy to navigate through your favorites.

7. Web Trends Analytics

Want to learn more about your fans and the success of your campaigns? This is a great tool to do just that. This app pulls information from your Facebook page allowing you to track your social media efforts. You can track conversions, engagement, who you’re active followers are, what they’re doing on your page and the ability to earn more about their demographics. It’s pretty simple and very effective at pulling insights, allowing you to dig deeper into your Facebook audience.

8. Buddy Media

Buddy Media calls themselves a power tool for your Facebook page. And they’re right. They have the ability to amp up your page and take it to the next level. Their platform helps you build your audience, increase engagement, drive fans to your site, launch pages, track feedback and make updates easily.

9. Context Optional

This is a pretty cool company that helps major companies design and manage their brand on social media platforms. Their sophisticated technologies provide businesses with analytics tools to track their social marketing campaigns and measure results. Their Social Marketing Suite is designed to help you create and publish applications and find solutions for your brand’s Facebook page. Context Optional has created effective branded pages, interactive branded applications and has helped businesses develop integrated social marketing campaigns.  You should check it out.

10. Virtue

Virtue is a web development company that can do a lot for your company. They specialize in web application development, web site promotions and developing software to run across your social media platforms. What can they do for your Facebook page? Step-by-step, they help you design a branded page, your own branded application as well as market your application through their SEO services. They focus on concept and strategy so you’re not just creating a page or app to create one. They give it purpose and the ability for you to track your results and find opportunities to advance your social presence.

We may have missed a few cool Facebook Apps that you’d like us to mention. If so, let us know about your favorite Facebook App in the comments section below.

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Posted by Rebecca Wilson, Marketing Analyst for the 60 Second Marketer.

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