Marketing Big Bang!: How To Create Something From Nothing
Is the desert full of nothing?
I was driving through Arizona a few months back and as we made our way across the desert I wondered how could anything be sustainable in that environment?
It seemed like there was literally nothing there except sand and a few scraggly briars of cactus.
Chris Brogran wrote a post this morning about how he would start a business if he had nothing. What would the basic elements be? It is a great look at the basics needed for a sustainable business.
A few days later I was reading a childrens book about the desert and came to learn that there is a lot going on in the desolate desert, especially at night. Every business needs essentials that help to sustain it even in the harshest climate.
I wrote an article a few months ago about what the essential elements of a Marketing Plan were. These are the necessary things you need to survive in the crazy world of marketing. A world that believes in the “Big Bang Theory,” where you can create something out of nothing! Probably not possible, but you would be surprised what a well-thought out marketing plan could do when you are in what seems to be a desolate situation.
Company Marketing with Kajabi
Screen shot from Kajabi
This is a great video. Not only for how company marketing with Kajabi will change the game for many marketers, but also just the production value.
I love the way Andy Jenkins produces videos. The guy has got talent. When I heard that he was one of the forces behind the new Kajabi platform I came on board as an affiliate (see link to video).
I think it’s going to change the way EVERYONE markets online
very soon. And after you watch this, it’ll probably make a
convert out of you too.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO EXPLAINING KAJABI HERE: http://get.kajabi.com/funnel_events/316?kjba=80548302
Marketing Plan Structure
I get asked this question frequently, “what do I need to include in my marketing plan?” I have written an article about what is included in a marketing plan here.
I am also posting this Youtube video from a previous Q&A program which answers that question as well. You can check out the video by clicking below or watching the Marketing Plan Q&A replay.
Disney Advertising Focuses (as it should) On The Customer
Company advertising should be more than just cute ad campaigns. If it is part of an integrated marketing plan, the target audience of the advertising should be able to totally relate to the message of the ad.
Disney theme parks have just announced a new Company Advertising campaign (reported in the L.A Times) that will focus on the experiences of the guests (that is whatthey call their customers). The new campaign will show their guests engaged with the various rides and features of the park – a “from the guest” point-of-view depiction.
This is good marketing. It shows the Disney park being enjoyed by someone who will most likely be a lot like themselves. If they can show the experience and get the potential customer to project themselves in the same situation, they will be successful.
It is important when creating an advertising campaign for your company that it is part of an integrated marketing plan. Learn more in this article about the differences between company advertising and company marketing.
Video Teaching – The Next Big Thing?
This is Ted. If you haven’t experienced it yet watch it now. This specific talk focuses on how web video is taking the innovation process to the next level.
If you aren’t using web video in your marketing mix you should seriously consider it. Don’t hold on to your best ideas, but rather share them and see how the world can improve on them.
If you need help starting. begin by creating a marketing plan that gives you a guide into the future.
How A Strategic Marketing Plan Is Similar to A Personal Development Plan
As I was surfing the web today in search of a good personal development site, I came across www.StevePavlina.com . I had never heard of Steve’s work before, but when I started digging into the site I came across all kinds of great resources.
A Strategic Marketing Plan is very similar to a personal development plan because it uses a similar process. You start out with an assessment of where you have been, where you are now and environmental factors that currently affect your situation. In a Marketing Plan this is your situation analysis.
You then move on to identifying where you want to be in the future and set goals. Very similar to steps 2 and 3 of the marketing plan process. You follow this with choosing how you are going to accomplish goals and when you are going to complete the tasks (sounds like the strategies and tactics of a marketing plan, doesn’t it?).
The final section of the marketing plan is creating your budget. I’m not sure if many consider a budget for personal development, but you do need to afford whatever you set out to achieve, or at least have a monetization plan.
Check out this SampleMarketing Plan process and see whether you agree or not if these to planning methods are similar.
Marketing Campaigns For Politicians Get Creative
Setting your politics aside for just a moment, let’s take a look at how a challenger to one of the most powerful people in congress is using creative ads in his marketing campaign.
This ad for John Dennis (posted on YouTube) takes a classic movie loved by just about everyone and makes his political points through the creative use of imagery and plot parrallels.
Of course we don’t like the wicked witch and we immediately relate to the “freedom” represented by the bucket of water that is tossed on the incumbent by our challenger.
These images can be powerful. In an article I wrote recently about memorable Marketing Campaigns, I presented some old campaign themes that hadn’t been used for two decades but the punchy sell-lines are still fresh in our memory.
The possible downside to this ad is that the viewer may get caught up in the visuals and remember only the Wizrard of Oz, but John Dennis is hoping they remember that his the one who will make the “wicked” politicians of Washington, D.C. melt away.
Google Adwords Announces New Online Marketing Tool
Google has announced a new free tool called, “ACE” – Adwords Campaign Experiments, which is being rolled out internationally.
A blog post on Click-Through-Marketing alerted me to the news that this was announced by Jason Shafton of the Inside AdWords team.
I have not seen the tool yet, but it apparently will have some of these features:
- Test the outcomes of changes to keywords, placements, and bids
- Reduce the guesswork and risk with making changes to campaigns
- Screen out fluctuations involved with your competitors as they can affect your before and after campaign measurements.
It has been reported that users who have beta-tested the tool gained more confidence about the impact of changes made to their campaigns.
Google Adwords is an effective way to gain quick traffic to your website, but you must be careful how you set up your campaign or you could quickly lose lots of money. The pros and cons of pay-per-click advertising should be weighed just like with any other marketing tool .
Make sure you check out this article about creating an Online Marketing Plan, which talks about 6 rules you must follow when marketing your company online.
Business Marketing With Social Media – 6 “musts”
Melody Biringer writes in the Seattle City Brights blog that there are 6 “musts” needed for every Social Media Marketing effort. I agree with her 6 points, but have a few more of my own to add.
Melody talks about the essentials of having a strategy and integrating that strategy across all the deparments of your company. She also suggests to listen first and reply when necessary, even a simple Thank You in some cases. Finally she mentions to give more than you receive and build relationships on quality, not quantity. These are all excellent points.
I would add to the list some of my own essentials:
1) Know your basic social media financial metrics. This includes, at minimum, your social media spend (cost) and having a way to track your revenue from the efforts you engage in. Tracking is fairly easily to accomplish if you have things like Google Analytics installed on your site and use specific tracking urls with all of your engagements.
2) Enhance your ability to conduct financial analysis on Social Media Marketing efforts by knowing additional numbers, such as Customer Acquisition Cost for all of your marketing initiatives and Lifetime Value of Your Customers. These numbers will help compare one effort to another and help you compare “apples to oranges.”
3) Know your people cost. I wrote about this in a post titled, “Marketing Your Business With Social Media.”
Quite often businesses jump into social media marketing with being prepared to track and then lament about the problem of being able to know whether it is paying off or not.
Take the time to create your tracking system and your social media marketing efforts will be much more easy to integrate into your company marketing plan.
Marketing Campaigns for Windows 7 Phone to Exceed 1 Billion Dollars
Marketing Campaign To Exceed 1 Billion Dollars
Microsoft wants to stay in the game and will spend over 1 billion dollars for just the marketing campaigns to launch the new Windows 7 phone.
Jay Shah over at Techgote comments that this could be a case of “too little, too late.” But, will Micrsoft just lay down and lose another piece of the computer market? Not likely.
Of course the consumer will be the ultimate decision maker on this. I will have to say that after a clunky introduction of Windows Vista, that Windows 7 operating system has been a welcome addition to the computing arena.
Will the Windows 7 phone be just another “me-too” smart phone? I’ve already talked about how marketers need to get on the mobile marketing bandwagon by beefing up their mobile marketing campaigns. I guess Microsoft doesn’t want to get left out of this new frontier either.
I’m curious to know if the Windows 7 mobile platform will allow for more than one window, or browser, to be open at the same time? This might be a unique feature and allow for some differentation.
Whatever they spend on their marketing campaigns, Microsoft is always a little late to the party, but they seem to be usually raking in the cash on the back end.
What do you think? Will you give the Windows 7 phone a try or are you in love with your i-phone or other smart mobile device?
