One of our biggest mantras here at 10e20 is to test out various social media outlets for clients and find what work, regardless whether or not it’s currently a “hot topic.”  Believe it or not, social media is more than just Facebook and Twitter, and one of my favorite sectors (for buying unwanted gadgets) is community deals sites.  A week or so I posted over at Search Engine Land about how to use these deals sites to help your business.  I broke down how you can use this to help your sales and talked about the following items:

• Don’t be too promotional
• Make sure the deal is easy to see from the submission
• Offer affiliate commission
• Use coupon codes
• Have a really good sale

If you want to read more (with full details), head on over and read the full post!

50897 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2010/01/25/how-to-use-social-deals-sites-to-help-sales/How+to+Use+Social+Deals+Sites+to+Help+Sales2010-01-25+20%3A30%3A36Greg+Finn

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I recently ran the inaugural Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in Las Vegas (well, I ran the half because I’m doing a full marathon in February). The Rock ‘n Roll Marathon series is sponsored by P.F. Chang’s, a Chinese restaurant chain. This week I received a card in the mail from P.F. Chang’s. It thanked me for participating in the inaugural Vegas Rock ‘n Roll race, and it contained a little card that gives me 15% off my dinner bill at any P.F. Chang’s until the end of 2010.

While I’m not the biggest fan of the restaurant (I think I’ve eaten there a total of two times), I was impressed. Over 27,000 people ran the race, so for all of them to receive a 15% discount for a year is a pretty generous offer. It got me thinking about customer deals and what businesses do to make their clients feel special, like they’re part of an exclusive, elite group.

27,000 of us had something in common. We all participated in an inaugural race for an event that will continue year after year, and most of us ran (or walked) one of two distances (and we’ve got the medal to prove it). This milestone put us in a special “club” of sorts, and P.F. Chang’s acknowledged us as being special. They didn’t send the discount offer to all of their customers, just the ones who signed up for the race.

What about your website? Everyone can offer a coupon code or free shipping, but what about singling out certain groups of customers, such as your oldest members or your spendiest clientele? How can you reward your most loyal customers to make them feel as if they’re in a special group that sets them apart from everyone else? Here are some suggestions:

• Offer extended return policies. Although Best Buy oftentimes serves as the Internet’s whipping boy, they do have some programs implemented for their most loyal customers. If you rack up enough points using their Reward Zone card, you get upgraded to Premier Silver status and get additional perks like a longer return policy.
• Extend free shipping to loyal customers. If you’ve had a customer who’s been loyal for years and has given you lots of business, offer free basic shipping as a thank you.
• Reward your oldest fans. If you’ve had a handful of customers who have supported you since you first launched your business, or if you had a group of people who participated in an inaugural event (like the marathon), consider extending a special “veterans” offer to them, like 10% off their purchases during your anniversary year or free goodies to thank them.
• Highlight “super star” customers. Yelp highlights random users in their email newsletters. One time they featured my profile and I was geekily excited, even though all I got was a little TLC in a weekly email. Give shout-outs to certain users and make them feel special via your newsletter, Twitter, blog, etc. A little attention goes a long way!
• Give dedicated customer service. If you’ve got big spenders, make sure they stay big by offering a dedicated customer service line or a private contact form reserved for your spendiest clientele.

I’m not saying that you should ignore your other customers to favor your big ones, but maybe you should think about going the extra mile and rewarding those who have stuck by you and supported your business for years and years. I’ve been a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly for over 13 years(!), yet they’ve given me no indication that they appreciate my loyalty. Is that going to stop me from renewing my subscription? No, but it also doesn’t make me want to go out and sing their praises to my friends and family. That would probably change if I were to receive some sort of thank you or perk for being a longtime subscriber.

Do you take any measures to “spoil” your loyal customers? What other suggestions do you have to show appreciation to your most ardent fans?

Don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed!

474013 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/12/22/making-your-customers-feel-special/Making+Your+Customers+Feel+Special2009-12-22+22%3A21%3A09Rebecca+Kelley

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Maybe most recognizable from “The Man Show,” Adam Carolla recently set up a podcast (warning: can be explicit) in 2009 when his job as a radio personality was terminated in the spring due to a station format change.  Before breaking into radio, Adam was a carpenter/boxing instructor, a blue collar worker.  Over the span of around 10 months, Adam’s podcast has become a huge hit and has inked deals with CBS Radio and created his own network.

I have listened to the podcast routinely and have honestly been surprised by the entire process of how well this podcast and network have been developed.  There are some valuable lessons that I have learned from watching this unfold that I thought I would share with you.

• Be Consistent

  One of the most impressive things about Adam’s podcast is that he has put one out every weekday since he started.  Each podcast is around an hour, and he simply doesn’t take days off.  I think this has been one of the main reasons that the podcast has been so successful.  It is always in the top podcasts on iTunes and was named one of the best podcasts of 2009, and I think a lot has to do with the unbelievable consistency of the show.

  What I Learned: Whether it be blogging, tweeting or simply updating your content, consistency is paramount.

• It Takes Money to Make Money

  Adam has mentioned back in May that hosting costs have been around $9,000 per month when he started and he didn’t even attempt to monetize the podcast until September.  Rather, he focused on building an audience and creating quality content.  Do I think that this venture will be profitable down the line?  Absolutely.

  What I Learned: Too many times people care more about upselling their customers rather than building their customer base.  Build your customers up with quality content, then worry about making money.

  

• Loyalty in Fans are Powerful

  An old co-worker of Adam’s recently came down with a brain tumor and has some pretty steep medical bills.  In order to help out, Adam decided to throw a benefit and advertise through his podcast.  Adam asked his listeners to help support the cause, and against the advice of his agent he rented a 1,200 seat venue.  His fans responded hugely and he sold out the event. With the event and the download purchases, he ended up getting Bryan $150,000 in support.

  What I Learned: Loyal fans are worth their weight in gold.  Many times building your community instead of going after sales will pay off when you need it.

• Embrace Your Community

  One thing that Adam has really done well in promoting himself and his podcast is embracing his users by attending Blog World, interviewing others in the new media field, taking Skype calls, giving interviews to bloggers, using social media to communicate with listeners and podcasting live at events.  To me it has been eye-opening to see how well he has branched out to really reach those who would enjoy his show.

  What I Learned: No matter what your background is, you should cater to the audience that will be able to help and support you.

• Go Outside of Your Comfort Level

  Sure, Adam had been on radio before, but coming from such a blue collar, non-technical background to a digital format is quite a change.  Adam isn’t the savviest user of technology and was literally swinging a hammer 20 years ago, but still went all-in on a semi-proven new media technology.

  What I Learned: Embracing different venues outside of your core proficiency can pay off.

  

• Utilize Your Strengths

  As mentioned earlier, Adam is a former construction worker and is still quite blue collar at heart.  Some of his hobbies include working on cars and rehabbing homes.  Adam has now turned his knowledge of these topics into spin-off shows.  He created a podcast about cars called “CarCast” that topped iTunes when it launched.  Even more recently, he created a podcast about home improvement called “Ace On The House.”  These different venues will provide advertisers segmented opportunities for advertisements (he has already started running ads for Microsoft Sync). 

  What I Learned: Use your knowledge to create quality niche content.  If you are really knowledgeable in specific areas, utilize that knowledge to help your audience

• Don’t Give Up

  Adam was good at radio and he knew it.  Unfortunately, his employer changed strategies and he was left without a job.  Instead of quitting and getting paid to sit on his couch until his contract ended, he did something about it, and has set himself up quite well for bringing in significant income down the road.

  What I Learned: Don’t stop when someone turns you down if you believe in what you have.

• Leverage Your Assets

  Seeing that he built up a quality audience and network and found success in getting users to listen to his podcast, Adam just launched a new podcasting network, “ACE Broadcasting.”  He just launched a new sports podcast, “Spider and the Henchman,” which jumped into the top 10 most popular podcasts in the first week:

  

  What I Learned: If you are good at something, harness that momentum and use it to build your business.

So even though Adam and his podcast might seem a bit juvenile to some, the strategies that he is using are outstanding and can be used by all of us in our marketing and business initiatives.  I have really learned quite a bit from watching the podcast grow, and hope that you can take some things away from this as well.

468113 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/12/21/what-the-adam-carolla-podcast-can-teach-you-about-marketing/What+the+Adam+Carolla+Podcast+Can+Teach+You+About+Marketing2009-12-21+21%3A06%3A01Greg+Finn

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Earlier this month I came across a post on Brains on Fire called “Why You Don’t Need Social Media Consultants.” The author of the post basically says that social media is common sense and that you shouldn’t need to hire a consultant to help you essentially be yourself on social networks. From the post:

“If you listen REALLY closely to their advice, you start to realize that most of it you already know. Because you have all the basic tools you need: Your humanity. Your ability to communicate with people around you. And your intuition. Because when you think about it, using social media is just a natural extension of yourself. Asking questions. Listening. Responding. And remember, social media apps are tactics. And tactics are tools. Sure, you might need some guidance on how to use that bandsaw, but you picked up a hammer and pretty much got the gist after you hit your thumb a few times.”

I agree with the author…to an extent. I think social media is easy to grasp because I do it for a living and know the ins and outs pretty handily. However, as the post comments point out, you’d be surprised how many people have a problem with social media marketing, if not for themselves then for their business. It’s one thing to create an account on Twitter for personal use and update it with what movies you’re excited to see and what you’ll be cooking for Thanksgiving. It’s another thing to figure out the best approach and highest ROI for a company profile.

The best argument I can make pretty much echoes the one Danny Sullivan made last month when he countered Derek Powazak’s opinion that SEOs are b.s. We’ve all heard the “SEO isn’t rocket science” argument and that “all you need to do is hire a decent web developer.” In Danny’s post (read it if you haven’t yet — very eloquent), he points out various scenarios where people DO need SEO, like a real estate agent who doesn’t know how to rank for her local market, or a man who sells shipping cases and has dupe content/dynamic URL issues. Sure, all of these issues seem like a no-brainer to us, but for many business owners and webmasters, they’re hard issues to tackle without a little bit of guidance.

I think it was Danny who had a great analogy in justifying why you would hire an SEO (or SMM) consultant, which I’ll paraphrase here: “Everyone knows that you need to exercise and eat right to stay healthy and fit, so why would anyone hire a personal trainer or nutritionist?” Sure, everyone knows that in theory, but some people need the support and guidance of an expert to help them get on the right path to wellness. Other folks need a customized diet and regimen that works specifically for them and caters to their individual needs.

Look at that guy needing to hire someone to help him build muscle! What a sucker!

And that’s no different than a business hiring a social media consultant to help them determine where they need to participate and what exactly they want to say to their audience. Maybe they just need to learn the basics in order to get the ball rolling, or maybe they have an in-house social media marketer but signed on for a company-wide training led by you to help everyone else understand the importance of SMM. Or maybe they’re all well-versed with social media but need some guidance on how to roll out a contest or sweepstakes across multiple social networks. Whatever the need, lots of people still require the help of a social media consultant, whether it’s for a few quick questions or to help with a full campaign.

I argue that yeah, lots of people don’t need a social media consultant, just how lots of people don’t need SEO help to get their site ranking well, or they don’t need a personal trainer to get in shape and achieve washboard abs. But others do need help, even if on paper social media may seem like a “no-brainer.” It doesn’t mean that the company is stupid for not being able to do it themselves; if anything, it’s great that a company is able to identify an area where they’re deficient and are hiring people to help get them up to speed. Isn’t that better than complete ignorance of a situation or, worse, mishandling something because you’re too proud or cocky to hire outside help?

We work with a lot of great clients and teams of smart, successful people. Helping them with their social media efforts is extremely rewarding because we get to lend a helping hand to a variety of issues, from basic training to building customers to running advanced campaigns. Some companies and people don’t need our help, and I say good for them, but a lot of companies do need some advice and assistance, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

429312 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/11/23/why-you-might-need-a-social-media-consultant/Why+You+%28Might%29+Need+a+Social+Media+Consultant2009-11-23+22%3A56%3A00Rebecca+Kelley

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Business.com recently published the results of a social media study that surveyed about 3,000 North American business professionals to see how social media is used and how it impacts their working lives. Below is a summary of the findings, as well as areas of opportunities based on the results.

Result #1: Webinars and podcasts are used by 69% of the business professionals surveyed.

What this means for you: Since webinars and podcasts were cited as the top social media resource for business professionals, if you’re a B2B maybe you should think about incorporating some tutorials onto your site. Offer something useful and interesting that your audience can digest visually (videos), audibly (podcasts), or interactively (GoToMeetings, webinars, etc).

Result #2: Facebook is dominant for B2C companies (83% of the respondents use it compared to 45% for Twitter), while B2B companies seem to use both fairly equally (77% have a profile on Facebook and 73% have a Twitter account).

What this means for you: More and more companies are using social networking sites to reach out to their customers. You need to decide if maintaining a presence across multiple sites is ideal for your company. See what your competitors are doing and note how successful their efforts are. At the very least, register your brand names and hold onto them — you don’t necessarily have to set anything up, especially if you don’t have time to properly manage your social presence, but you should at least nab your profiles before someone else does.

Result #3: Of the people who use social media for business purposes during work, 62% visit company/brand profiles on social networking sites, and 55% search for business information related to these sites. From the survey results: “Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most active users of social media as a resource for business information, particularly in micro (<10 employees) and small businesses (10-99 employees).”

What this means for you: Companies should think twice before blocking social media sites at work, as there’s clearly considerable business value in allowing employees to use social networks for research, competitive intelligence, marketing, etc.

Result #4: The average company surveyed was in the process of planning or executing at least 7 different social media campaigns; however, over half of the respondents working on the campaigns have less than 2 years of experience using social media for business purposes.

What this means for you: The learning curve for social media marketing has gotten pretty massive and steep in just a short period of time. A lot of businesses are starting to understand the value in social media marketing but are ill-equipped and ill-staffed to get started. This presents a huge opportunity for knowledgeable consultants who are experienced in Internet and social media marketing to pick up some clients and spread their wealth of knowledge across different companies.

Result #5: Two essential social media success metrics identified in the survey are building brand awareness and improving brand reputation. However, nearly 66% of the companies that stress the importance of these metrics aren’t sure how to measure them or interpret standard/easily accessible performance reports.

What this means for you: Social media ROI can be tough to measure but is still a top concern for business who are engaging in social media marketing. Come up with regular reporting metrics (like referral traffic from Facebook and Twitter, track/chart positive vs. negative mentions over time) for your business or your clients and be consistent with your tracking and your reports. The changes may be subtle, but every little effort counts in the grand scheme of things, especially when your goal is to make money.

437910 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/11/17/social-media-survey-results/Business.com+Social+Media+Survey+Results+%28and+What+They+Mean+for+Your+Business%292009-11-17+23%3A06%3A07Rebecca+Kelley

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Last post I discussed blending social media into your business cards, now let’s get into those biz cards again. With Pubcon and other conferences coming up, a lot of business cards will be being dished out. Stay on top of your social connections and utilize some of these resources.

Creative Business Card Ideas

MOO minicards are smaller versions of the classic business card format. They allow you to print 100 different images on the fronts. This can be great with promotions or coupons.

Here is a great business card Flickr set of inspirational, beautifully designed business cards. Also check out the Business Card Group Pool at Flickr for some more creative ideas.

Humor can be a great way to capture someone’s interest and keep in memory. It also serves as an icebreaker of sorts and can easily get a conversation moving along.

Virtual Business Cards

Some are advocating a paperless business card world, but the technology (or acceptance of this technology) isn’t there just yet. Sure, it’s cool to ‘bump’ your iPhones and share contact information (or maybe you would rather shake?), but not everyone is carrying an iPhone and this makes virtual cards unstable.

There are also hundreds of sites that offer services to make a virtual business card. Card.ly and Contxts allow users to make a “tiny” portfolio online in which they’ll be able to integrate into networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) or share via SMS.

Although I think the main idea and green aspects of a paperless business card are commendable, I won’t be jumping on that anytime soon (much like how Kindle hasn’t make the paper page go the way of the dodo yet). I recommend recycled paper for card, as the environment matters. The one big advantage printed business cards have over any virtual method is that they serve as a reminder. Once information goes into your phone or PDA, how likely is it you’ll remember to look at it again?

What to Do with All Those Business Cards You Have?

CloudContacts is a service that scans all of your business cards that you have gotten over the years from conferences and networking events and transcribes and connects your business cards on social networks, email services and CRM systems. This allows you to access your business card contacts from anywhere in the world. Or you could just throw them all away…

Personally, I have a bin of business cards that I have gotten or collected because I met the people or I just saw the card and thought it was visually appealing. Some are beautifully designed and given such personal touch, while others are clean and classic. Whatever the reason that I saved these cards, I like the tangible aspect of them- hard proof that they are out there doing business! These cards are more than just information about how to contact someone; in a way, they are a piece of each person.

Making the most out of your business cards can sometimes be the difference between making a connection or breaking one. By using some creative ideas and utilizing other networks, you can be sure to stick out of the stack of cards.

419627 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/11/05/get-busy-with-your-business-cards/Get+Busy+with+Your+Business+Cards2009-11-05+20%3A27%3A21Patrick+Winfield

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When you’re networking, you want to make it easy for the person you’re meeting to remember you and to find you later. Having a business card is integral to this process, and not having a card could lead to a missed opportunity. The card should be a reflection of your ideas, style and the way you want to be perceived by any new contact that you hand it to.

Social media sites are the places to make contacts and keep in touch with them. If your business cards have multiple social site URL’s on them, you need to make sure that these accounts are syncing with each other and with the printed word.

Usernames and Vanity URL’s

Having your Twitter URL, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. on your business card is important. You want people to connect with you and interact with you after you meet, and this is done with social media. Including your Twitter URL is especially important. If someone forgets who you are when looking at your card, the easiest way to get an idea about you is to check out your Twitter profile. They most likely won’t call you or IM you and say, “Hey, I met you but forgot who you are. Who are you again?”

Having vanity URL’s on all of your social sites is a great idea. Especially if these names are the same, they help contacts find you much easier. For example, you can find me at Twitter.com/patrickwinfield or at Linkedin.com/in/patrickwinfield.

With LinkedIn you must enable your LinkedIn page to have a public profile. Then you simply enter either your username or the URL of your public profile. This way, the URL to your profile page is something other than random numbers and associates with you, making it easier for contacts to find you.

Facebook also allows you to register a vanity URL with your profile name or a similar name. To learn more about this and how to prepare/secure them, read Greg’s post on Facebook usernames.

Look at one of Zappos’ new Twitter-styled business cards with the Twitter id and “Powered by Twittering” verbiage. Since Twitter is such a big part of the Zappos culture and brand, they know that featuring the URL is enough (in addition to the normal information) and added a little tagline on the back that reinforced this idea.

By blending your business card with your social media accounts, you are creating more opportunities for potential customers and contacts to find and converse with you. Just be sure to sync these accounts and various usernames so that the connection is in place!

41579 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/26/blending-social-media-into-your-business-cards/Blending+Social+Media+into+Your+Business+Cards2009-10-26+20%3A27%3A20Patrick+Winfield

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Guess what?  Social networking online is very similar to social networking offline (in the real world)!  Big surprise?  Believe it or not, for some, it really is a surprise. Whether you are looking to grow your network, influence, awareness and reach or advancing your professional and personal goals it’s important to recognize that being successful in social networking online and offline are very similar.  Most of us know the rules for networking in the real world, but it’s important to remember them for online, particularly if you are making your first moves into online social media and social networking.  The following are tips to become a decent social networker in either medium. Most tips apply in both scenarios.

Know the organizer: Make it a point either when you arrive at the event or prior to leaving the event to thank the organizer for putting the event together,  let them know that you wish to attend future events and that you met some great contacts. Knowing the organizer and letting them know you appreciate the hard work needed to put together an event may put you in position to share the highest level of invite status in the future. Find out who runs things and take the mindset that you owe them something.

Offer assistance: If you really like the event/group, offer that you’d like to be a part of helping to organize future events by volunteering time and some of your core capabilities. Help your fellow social networkers by advancing their goals, sharing their goals with others or by introducing them to a new contact in your network. Make a solid public recommendation if you honestly believe in what they have to offer.

Be polite: Enter conversations gently and in a meaningful way with something to add. Don’t interrupt existing conversations in progress, but work you way into conversations. As a conversation hits a lull or comes to a conclusion, start it again, this time with a twist. Avoid cursing. There is no need to curse and swear to make your point. If you’re succinct in your discussion, people will get the point. Use of words like F*&K and SH%T become very unattractive after a while and show a certain lack of professionalism after some time.

Smile: No one likes a all the time.  Stay away from negativity, and don’t dwell on bad news. Bring uplifting anecdotes and share in the positives.  Clean yourself up and dress well.  Represent yourself with a decent looking avatar / profile image. Ask some of your closest friends and contacts what they honestly think about your profile image.

Meet the influencers: Take time to understand who the influencers are in the room, who are long time members and pay deference to their contributions to the organization. Share your experiences with them about the group. Ask questions of the influencers as they know a ton about the group and how to become established within the group. Perhaps you can help an influencer in some other area of life and they can help you within the social network group?

Meet the newcomers: Show a bit of bi-partisanship and don’t put all your focus on the influencers or the organizers all the time. A newcomer could one day become an “influencer”, so you should try to meet some of them. It’s important to show the rest of the group that you are not just looking to network up, but that you care about the development of the entire group.  After all, Susan Boyle was a newcomer, right?  Good for those who introduced themselves to her before she went on stage!

Follow up: Follow up with the people you’ve met in the network and at the event. Don’t leave your new contacts hanging. Make sure to follow up with some form of contact (phone call, email, hand written note) recognizing that you’ve met them and showing them you care about their work. Help them in their endeavors and help them reach their goals first, and they will be apt to help you.

Don’t sell and don’t spam: Tread lightly on the commercial approach. Don’t blanket the party with your pitch, your business card or with how great you are. If you try to sell things to your social network and you constantly GLOAT, chances are you will be rejected in some way.  This reminds me of a social marketing post we made some time ago where we said:

” [social marketing] is about acting like a human and networking in it’s traditional form; being a part of the discourse, part of the conversation, meeting people and not sucking people into an E-commerce funnel.”

Bring a gift: Bring something to share at the event. Bring insights, a new contact or bits of information that others can benefit from. Don’t come empty handed. Bring an actual gift or bring your knowledge of a subject to contribute to the group discussion.

Find new events: Find new events, go to them and cross-connect the contacts you meet at one group with the contacts from another. Turning your friends on to new events helps them understand that you care about their development.

Introduce a new person: Bring a new person to the group who you think will add value for the rest. You’ll be in the good graces of the new attendee and likely the rest of the group for expanding the network in a meaningful way.

Relate: Make sure you remain relatively on-topic in discussions. Speak about the industry and if the conversation veers into the personal or off-topic, at least make sure those you’re speaking with  have a remote interest in what you’re discussing.  If they can’t relate, you’re done!

What are some of your social networking tips?

239034 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/04/30/social-networking-101-basic-tips-for-online-and-offline-social-networking/Social+Networking+101%3A+Basic+Tips+For+Online+and+Offline+Social+Networking2009-04-30+14%3A54%3A19Jake+Matthews

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When Neil H. Borden came up with the Marketing Mix and Professor E. Jerome McCarthy grouped the Mix into “the 4 Ps” they were probably not considering 21st century marketing and promotion channels on the Internet.

After all, this was in the middle of the 20^th century and Google, Yahoo and MSN/Live.com search engines and Internet Social Networks did not exist at that point. Still, this enduring and universal marketing concept applies to the web.

I’m always focused on how the 4 P’s of Marketing apply to Internet Marketing. So how do the 4 P’s apply to the Internet?

The first P in Marketing: Product

Product can be an actual product or service that you are delivering to you the market weather direct to consumer (B2C) or to businesses (B2B). On the web, it’s crucial to show your product on your website. If you are a retailer with an E-Commerce site, make sure you spend the money to show your products up close and in detail. Spend the money to get good photos of your products and make a great design on your site. It doesn’t need to be flashy (or Flash!), but make sure that a potential customer can come to your site and see the main products that you offer and see them in detail. Take the time, spend the money effort and resources to accurately describe your products and services.

If you are selling a service, this is something that a customer cannot touch or feel, so make sure you have some case studies on hand. Show your case studies, trials or demos on a website and please make sure you do all of the above in a search engine friendly manner. If you leave out the search engines in the equation, you losing a big opportunity on Placement and Promotion; P’s 3 and 4.

The second P in Marketing: Price

Don’t be afraid to show your prices online and in your Internet advertising. In most cases, displaying a price on an ad, whether a PPC, Contextual, Banner, or even in your organically listed search links in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), you’ll get better click through rates and likely more inquiries and conversions if you come right out and display your pricing.

In high-end service businesses this can be a bit tricky, but even there, to grab a potential customer’s attention, it can be valuable to display your price. Who cares if the competition sees your pricing. If you have a high quality product or service you can stand by…your going to win. Further, in a high end service business, by displaying your price, you can thwart contact from unwanted customers who don’t fit into your requisite budget ranges.

The third P in Marketing: Place and Placement

Placement on Major Search engines – Google, Yahoo, Live etc…Placement from a discovery perspective is controlled on the web really through search. When someone uses the web, it’s critical to make sure you show up in search for relevant terms. If you are not on the major search engines for terms related to your business, you are not taking care of placement and you’re likely to not be found or discovered in this important pull-marketing channel.

Placement on vertical search engines / guides and Local Search – finding the right vertical search engines like a business.com can make or break your placement. Trade and business directories and vertical search is one of the most important channels. Don’t miss this. Localized search submissions to places like www.local.google.com can make all the difference in being found and being successful as well.

Placement through affiliates - working with affiliates and developing a large and profitable network can be tremendously productive for many businesses.

Promotion through Display Advertising – Media buying for display, banners on CPM or CPC basis and email drops can be tremendously effective if properly placed and designed with the user and target audience in mind. Create outstanding design, powerful and unique copy-writing and make sure you have effective landing pages (tested with a group) to handle your display or “push” types of Internet advertising.

The fourth P in Marketing: Promotion

I don’t care if your business is retail B2C or B2B, you need to leverage nearly every promotion channel and strategy online.

Promotion on topical, industry and trade sites – seeking out the right industry sites is ever more important as the web user becomes more and more specific with their bookmarks and areas of the Internet that want to visit over and over. Get in front of the target audience in an effective way.

Promotion through Search Marketing - Put a big focus on search weather SEO, or SEM / PPC, it’s crucial to have strong search engine promotion and placement (full disclosure – we do SEO). On the organic side, Strategic Link building and high quality directory and article submissions can go a long way.

Promotion through Social Media – levering groups on the major social sites, promoting viral content and developing and strong following in social media is critical to long term success and properly placing your product or service in front of the right people.

Promotion through Public Relations – PR and reputation management is important. Don’t be shy to get out in the media and blogs and be mentioned for what you do and the quality of your products. Leverage the newest and best available channels. Make sure you are paying attention to the most influential corners of the Internet. As a side note, Steve Rubel did a fun post about the 4 P’s of Blogging which is worth a read.

Nowadays marketers are considering 7 P’s, but I figure if you tend to the “original” 4 P’s, it’s a good start.

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147823 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2008/02/06/product-price-place-promotion/The+4+P%27s+of+Marketing+Online2008-02-06+18%3A40%3A02Jake+Matthews

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I get angry when I see companies buy pricey media such as print, television, radio or outdoor and they don’t take advantage to tie that media buy to the web in an effective way. What do I mean by this?

Take for example a large billboard on the side of the highway that has a message about a specific offer from a company, and the only web address displayed is the company’s main domain name eg, www.company.com I feel that this is a wasted advertising opportunity to have just your main domain name listed. Much in the same way Danielle pointed out when off-line link-bait is often not leveraged properly on-line, targeted messages, spaces, interactivity and landing pages should be created and matched on-line for off-line media buys.

I believe that every advertising buy should have a targeted message behind it and accordingly specific media creatives and goals to go along with it.

Recently I found a couple of examples of companies that are tying print and TV to web pretty well – Marathon Oil, Prudential, Fidelity, Chrysler and Burger King:

Marathon Oil print ad:

www.marathon.com/garyville

Prudential print ad:

www.prudential.com/retirementincome

Fidelity print ad:

www.fidelity.com/rolloverleader

Another company that’s doing it well from Television spots to the web is Chrysler with the Jeep brand. They have an interesting campaign which features singing animals having fun around the 2008 Jeep Liberty. The TV spot is very catchy and they use the web URL www.jeep.com/sessions to bring visitors into the site and have an interactive view of their Jeep Liberty. A truly great and targeted campaign.

A couple of reasons to have specific landing pages for these TV, print and off-line campaigns are as follows:

1. targeted messaging.
2. better interactivity and audience response.
3. higher conversion.
4. tighter tracking, analytics, and return on ad spend (ROAS) information.

When are some good times to use specific URL’s and landing pages for off-line advertising and marketing?

1. Trade show exhibitor – if you are spending thousands to go to a trade show and display as an Exhibitor, you want to make sure you can track and manage those leads. Create a specific landing page for booth visitors to follow up with your company and put that on your print at the show. For example, if I am a chemical company and I exhibit at a scientific show in Boston, why not create a campaign and page around www.chemicalcompany.com/bostontrade2008 and have targeted lead/follow up forms on that page so that you can channel and track leads. A special offer always works well.
2. New product launches – with a new product launching, take advantage of the internet’s great interactive media capability. Don’t just send the traffic to your company’s main homepage and let all the traffic from a targeted message be lost in the rest of your site.
3. PR campaigns – drive traffic to a specific message on your site and as above, leverage the web’s interactivity to track response from users.

In some cases a campaign is worth creating an entire micro-site. An example of this is Chrispin Porter + Bogusky’s creation of WhopperFreakout for Burger King.

When using off-line media, don’t be afraid to match the on-line component pound for pound. The results will astonish you, and your target audience will be that much more pleased and responsive!

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14678 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2008/01/30/leveraging-the-web-for-off-line-media-buys/Leveraging+the+Web+for+Off-line+Media+Buys2008-01-30+19%3A49%3A42Jake+Matthews

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