brand communications

Mar 08 2012

If You’re Gonna Hand Out A Business Card…

New Here? Why not download a free book. Social Media for First Graders.

Yes, I did it. I was at a lunch meeting and, at the tail end, I gave the other party a business card. A card that looked something like this one:

We sorta instagrammed it, for effect

Now, with the advancement of technology, with mobile phones and iPads and apps and the like, you’d think that the business card would be dead. But it’s not.

In fact, the business card exchange takes very little time – and there isn’t that dance macabre of whether or not you know the person (LinkedIn request?), whether or not you have met the person ever (Facebook request?), or whether or not you’re about to get spammed (the opt-in email address confirmation thing – more on that in a few).

So, since you asked, here are official tips that you can put to use with those most trusty of networking tools: business cards.

1. Don’t Scrimp on Paper

I’m going to assume for a half-second that your business cards are under your control – if you work for a mid-sized company or a big brand, standards are decided on by an Ivory Tower somewhere. Let’s hope those folks aren’t stingy with the paper stock.

Your business card’s paper stock is one of the most important decisions you can make.

Go thick. Go glossy. 14 point is the minimum. Mine are 16. The extra couple points (or millimeters of thickness) plus the glossy finish make a serious impact.

2. Design is Important as Heck

Hire a professional. Heck, go to fiverr.com and get someone to design one. I don’t care how you get it done; but, unless you are someone with a knack for graphic design, outsource this key function.

The back of the card is important to use, too. Go with one of a couple approaches:

Logo with links on a color background
Your logo – but again with color
OR space to write on.

BUT – don’t go with just white space. Here’s the approach we took:

You can write on the back

3. While You’re at it: No Dumb Titles

Thankfully, the bulk of the business cards sitting on my desk do not use dumb titles.

But there are a couple. “Chief Awesomeness Officer,” “Marketing Guru,” and “Master of Innovation and Vision” are some examples of what you want to avoid.

My card does not have a title on it – which is a great way to avoid having to reprint when you (a) promote yourself, (b) demote yourself or (c) get direct feedback from someone telling you that your title is dumb. (Consider this a warning: I have witnessed people delivering this news to someone. I have more tact than that: I use a blog.)

4. Handing You My Card Does Not Give You Permission to Spam Me

Start with a direct email, please. “Hey, Dave, great meeting you last night. We do a newsletter from time to time, and I’d love to put you on the list. Is that okay?”

You can even ask while you’re getting my card from me; if I give you permission, write that on the back of the card, along with the date.

Hey, it’s a Marketing and Networking Jungle out there. Try these tips with your business card. Trust me, you’ll make a positive impact. OR avoid a negative impact.

Feb 21 2012

Internet Marketing Vs. Social Media Marketing

Hi. If you’re new here, be sure to learn more about our FORWARD:MARCH program, with private coaching starting March 1 and webinars kicking in on March 6.

We have often said that the work we do here at Area 224 – and the 12 Minute Marketing program we launched last year – has been at the intersection of Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

Guess which camp we think Pinterest is in?

But what do we mean by that?

Good question…and, even though we see some real differences between the two – in approach, in positioning, and in numbers – we think both sides can learn lots from each other. Here are some key learnings:

Internet Marketing is All About Numbers.

Social Media Marketing – while getting better at it – is more of a “soft science.” Here’s what we mean:

Uber-Marketer Frank Kern has talked quite a bit about specific programs he has done – and he has opened the kimono and shared the nitty-gritty numbers. Like this:

10,000 emails sent
27% open rate
97 sales
$1397 per sale

The ROI here is unclear – we don’t know how much was invested in all facets of this campaign, but we can tell you this: Internet Marketing focuses on Sales Numbers.

To take it a step further, there’s a guy named Ryan Deiss – also someone who falls into the “Uber-Marketer” camp – who has often said that he zeros in on one absolute number before deciding whether or not to get involved in someone’s product launch:

Earnings Per Click. (Or, if 100 people click on a landing page, and 5 of them order a $49 product, take 5, multiply it by $49 and you get $245; divide that by 100 and you come up with $2.45 per click.)

Meanwhile, Social Media Marketing is Less Mature about Bottom Line Impact

Very simply put, if we have to explain any of the above concepts to you, you are probably NOT an Internet Marketer. You might be a Social Media Marketer.

OR, at the risk of being even more direct, you might just be “in Social Media.”

This is one area where big brands and big agencies have failed in the past: they’ll hire based on soft numbers that might be rather suspect. 5000 Facebook friends (the limit). 25,000 Twitter followers (many of whom may well be bots).

And, to expect “Social Media” to translate immediately into “Social Media Marketing,” you MUST have an Objective.

Gone are the days (and these were a couple years ago, mind you) where brands can say “get me on Twitter” or “get me a Facebook fan page” and have that translate into some definition of success.

Campaigns and Landing Pages are more the domain of Internet Marketing

Yes, I said it out loud: Social Media Practitioners – the experts, gurus, ninjas and rock stars you have heard so much about – these folks tend to NOT be very good at running a campaign that goes beyond really soft sciences like “engagement.” You’re possibly going to hear terms like “number of Retweets” and “number of Facebook Fans” – but, from the Social Media folk, you will not hear anything that makes the ears of the sales people ring.

“We drove 1000 people to the landing page, and 125 of them filled out a form. All of them received a white paper from our firm; we were able to reach 15 of them by phone in the first week after the white paper arrived. We have appointments with 5 of them to talk about their business needs.”

A hypothetical quote…but which type of person produced it?

Internet Marketing is always wearing a Sales Hat

This might be the greatest difference between Social Media Marketing and Internet Marketing:

Internet Marketers always have a number attached to their name.

One reason yours truly got out of traditional PR back in the middle of the last decade: fighting for budgets and not being able to quantify the value you bring to an organization is TIRING stuff.

Our Point: if you’re in Social Media, think first like an Internet Marketer.

Oct 10 2011

How Not to Build a Team

I received an email from a well-known figure – or, more accurately from the headquarters of a well-known figure – and it got me thinking about the RIGHT way to build a team.

The email started off on the right foot, sortof, with a subject line that said “Unacceptable Affiliate Advertising Methods.” We won’t tell you who it was from…so we’ll use the name “Joe Shlabotnik.”

It has been brought to my attention that some affiliates are using unacceptable advertising methods to promote my products.

The incident I’m referring to was when an Affiliate used a picture of a well known author along with a picture of his book in a PPC ad driving people to a training webinar with Mr. Shlabotnik.

Interestingly enough, I knew the exact thing to which Joe Shlabotnik was referring: an ad on Facebook from a week earlier. It looked a lot like this:

Did they ask him first?

It annoyed me at least a little – since I’m a big fan of Tim Ferriss, the author whose image was being used.

But what was even more interesting here was the chain of events leading to this email. In fact, it went something like this:

Dave sees PPC ad.
Dave signs up for webinar from advertiser.
Dave listens to first few minutes of webinar, throws up a little in his mouth when watching Joe Shlabotnik talk about his 14,000 square-foot house.
Dave exits the webinar, only to receive a few more emails from Shlabotnik Worldwide.
Dave opts out of future emails from Shlabotnik.

All this happened, mind you, before I got the scolding email from Joe Shlabotnik himself.

This, Gentle Readers, is no way to build a team.

What’s the takeaway here? A couple things:

1. Guard Your Brand Carefully

Joe Shlabotnik himself told us he created so many techniques that are being used by Internet Marketers that we’re probably using them right now and don’t even know it. So why does he need so many Affiliate Marketers to help make things happen for him?

In this case, he probably decided that he needed to “Funnel” us all through his marketing program, casting such a wide, uh, funnel that it was a pure numbers game. Get 1,000,000 eyeballs and even if you convert at a tiny tiny number (let’s say 0.1%) you still have 1000 paying customers.

But at what price? Did the guy or gal who was sending out the offensive emails really need them to draw eyeballs to a marketer so successful he practically invented Internet Marketing?

2. Choose Your Affiliates Carefully

We are in the middle of our Affiliate Recruitment campaign for 12 Minute Marketing right now, and I can tell you this: we are turning some people down. Once you get too big, you lose control of who is saying what about you – and that may have been the case with Mr. Shlabotnik.

Or, it may not matter to him – it may be more important to grow a big team and have no control over it. Don’t know, but that’s no the way we plan on doing it.

3. Have a Moral Compass

And use it. Whether or not this was authorized by Mr. Shlabotnik – and maybe it was – it’s definitely toeing the line.

In this case, using someone else’s image to sell your own product? Not cool.

What’s most interesting here?

Shlabotnik doesn’t need to use another author’s image to get ahead.

Learn from this, fellow marketers. Guard your brand carefully, Choose your affiliates carefully, and have a moral compass. Please.

Oct 06 2011

What’s NeXT For You?

The Legacy of Steve Jobs is without question. But the comeback from failure – lost in all of the discussion of product development success – is a book we can all take a page from.

When Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, the world mourned a titan of industry – and, when the San Francisco Chronicle’s article on Jobs’ life mentioned his name in the same sentence as “Ford, Edison and Disney,” well, you have no argument here.

Read the article from the Chronicle Here: SF Gate Link.

His successes were much ballyhooed, and rightly so; when people like President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg are mourning your loss, your legacy is safe.

Zuck Status Oct 5

The NeXT Computer was a high-end workstation that, frankly, didn’t catch fire. At a cost of $6500, it was too expensive for a world that, in the late 80s and early 90s, didn’t have the concept of the office computer fully ingrained into the culture.

Didn't work like a charm

(You can read more about the computer itself on this Wikipedia entry, which is quite light on content.)

As a consumer product, it failed.

We’re all going to fail. It’s what comes next that’s important.

Jobs once said that “getting fired from Apple was the best thing that happened to me.” The firing led to the launch of NeXT, which, while not a commercial success, did have a good chunk of infrastructure that was trailblazing. In fact, the intellectual property at NeXT was valuable enough to get the company bought by Apple Computers in 1996. (Another Wikipedia entry here.)

Turns out there wasn’t much of a market for the computer itself – 50,000 units were sold. But the operating system served as the precursor to Apple’s OS.

Failure Is an Option.

Failure to Learn From Failure Is NOT an Option.

We’re all going to get dealt cards in life. Businesses rise and fall. Promotions come and then the new boss comes in and they’re meaningless. Your startup will be groundbreaking but it won’t make you money.

You may not be as gifted and brilliant as Steve Jobs, you may not give a rip about computers or tech or iPhones or what have you.

Whether you sing on stage or sweep up after the performance, you’re going to screw up – and you’re going to get the chance to learn from the screwups.

Fail miserably then ask…

What’s NeXT For You?

Oct 03 2011

Beefiest, Juciest Social Campaign Yet?

Sponsored Hashtag

Ready to take your marketing viral? All you need is a tweet…

Actually, the Tweet is just the beginning. You probably need a few thousand other things.

Behold: Wendy’s, the American Burger Chain, launches new burgers today.

Here’s a video where Wendy herself explains the new burger.

httpv://youtu.be/j2U4cR2c20s

Now, before you say “that’s cool” or “that’s lame” or “I don’t eat meat,” you probably need a little more background. Like what you’ll find in this video:

httpv://youtu.be/3oFxSKrMv5Q

If you weren’t alive way back when the very first Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” ad aired (January 10, 1984, starring Clara Peller), you probably think the guy in this commercial is just wearing an ironic throwback T-shirt of some sort. But it was huge, an amazing cultural meme (before the word “meme” really meant anything), and it gave rise to all sorts of pop culture awesomeness.

So…why NOT? Seriously, if you’re Wendy’s and you can bring a hefty dose of nostalgia, why wouldn’t you?

Photo by alanwhitaker, used with CC License

In fact, this campaign is borderline brilliant, and definitely meme-worthy, for a couple reasons.

1. “Engagement” at the point of purchase is what it’s all about. Right?

By resurrecting an old campaign and breathing new life into it, imagine the types of responses Wendy’s front-line employees will get at the store when someone buys this new, beefier burger.

“Here’s the beef!”

“You call this beefy?”

“Your tweets are dumb.”

The immediate ROI from this campaign isn’t going to be evident. You need to give this time – people need to try the new, beefier, jucier burgers before deciding to come back again. Or not.

But the engagement here is all about the discussion…at the point of purchase…about the actual product. Good use of dollars. But why else is this brilliant?

2. The “Where’s the Beef” Throwback doesn’t show the original commercial!

I’ve got to say that might be the coolest part of this campaign. You have to start looking for the ad on YouTube – the commercial with the young man wearing the shirt doesn’t show the Clara Peller commercial at all.

The old ad stands on its own merits – and the phrase became a catchphrase – so why grab the actual old commercial? Even more interesting when you visit reason 3:

3. The “I didn’t know that!” Factor.

Yes, Wendy’s was named after Dave Thomas’s daughter, Wendy. So they don’t revisit the old Clara Peller ad, but they do revisit the pig-tailed little Wendy ad – serving as a means of re-introducing Wendy, Dave’s daughter, AND the new burger. You’re bound to find something you didn’t know: There was an actual Wendy! She was Dave’s daughter! She’s now a spokesperson for Wendy’s!

Even if this is all just common knowledge, you actually have, in this marketer’s opinion, a BETTER throwback: to days where a guy starts a burger joint, names it after his daughter, and focuses in on quality food.

What can we learn here?

Time will tell if this is a breakthrough success, and if the “social” element of this campaign catches fire.

But, if you integrate with old content you have – “repurpose, repurpose, repurpose” – and you get “Holistic” with your social media (it’s not just one thing, it’s multi-faceted, etc.)…you have a chance at success.