I am NOT a big fan of brand marketing. In fact, I think most of it is a massive waste of time and money. Most small business owners are well advised to invest in direct marketing efforts where they can be sure of what they’re getting for their advertising dollars.
That said, some brand marketing campaigns are memorable and this one falls squarely in this category and is well deserving of a BIG thumbs-up.
I stole this video off of Popeye’s Vancouver Crossfit Optimum Performance site. If you want an awesome workout be sure to look him up. As for the video, just watch it and see if it doesn’t make you laugh first and then think. Talk about a strong message.
If you’re doing any kind of sales or marketing at all you know that very few sales are made on first contact. Instead, it is commonly believed that a customer requires an average of 7 points of contact before making a purchasing decision. I suspect that number is even higher if you count online communications and if you sell a higher priced product or service.
The good news is that with all of the modern technology keeping in touch with prospective customers has never been easier. Just as importantly, you’re now able to do so without being annoying or intrusive.
Here are some ways of doing so.
SMS
Over 50% of cell phone users under the age of 35 indicate that text messaging is the most important feature when looking at buying a new phone. Cell phones are also turned on 24/7 and we keep them with us a good percentage of that time as well. Finally, 95% of all text messages are opened and they’re opened within an hour of being sent.
All of this would suggest that SMS will be the preferred method of marketing in the very near future. The way to leverage this media now is to have customers and prospective customers opt-in to receive your messages. As texting is not free this is often easier said than done.
Social Media
If Facebook were a country it would be bigger than the U.S. in population. Twitter is almost as big. Both allow businesses to interact with customers in a way that has never been available before. These channels are not simply pushing out information but they’re creating conversations. Smart companies can provide great information in the form of coupons or special promotions for followers and they can gather feedback in real-time. The other nice thing from a small business owner’s perspective is that all of this communication is free.
Email
Speaking of free, I’m still stupefied to see how few businesses put in the effort to build and maintain an email list of their customers and prospects. This should be a no-brainer for any company selling products or services with a high life time value. While the open rate for email continues to diminish, it is still a very cost-effective marketing medium and one that should not be over-looked.
Direct Mail
It may seem strange that a high tech marketing guy like myself advocates the use of direct mail but I go with what works. As the world gets more ‘connected’ and technology-focused a lot can be said for a simple, hand-written Thank You note. Nothing will set you apart from your competition faster than a tangible note sent through the mail. I use these all the time and it still makes me smile when someone thanks me for sending them a Thank You note.
High-tech or low tech the gold really is in the follow-up. How you approach your customers depends on their technology level and buying habits but one or more of the above will work.
At the beginning of 2009 I was in the U.K. rubbing shoulders with all kinds of marketing minds and the topic of ‘mobile marketing’ kept on coming up. Everyone was talking about it and as embarassing as it is to admit now, I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.
I thought mobile marketing was placing signage on taxis or the back of rickshaws. That’s mobile, right?
Of course what they were actually talking about was getting marketing messages out through mobile devices. Even back then I saw the potential but I didn’t really get how it all worked. Fast forward two years later and I’m proud to say, “Dude. I get it. I REALLY get it.”
Let’s look at the facts first. When anyone over the age of sixteen leaves the house they bring three things – a wallet, keys and a cell phone. The cell phone is on 24 hours per day and on the person 18 of those 24 hours. There are approximately 2 billion Internet connected computers in the world but 5 billion cell phones. For every phone call a person under the age of 40 makes, she sends 5 text messages.
Speaking of text messages… While you would be lucky to get an open rate of 20% on an email campaign, 95% of all text messages get read and the majority of those messages are read within an hour of being sent.
It is also estimated that over 50% of all conversations taking place on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Four Square, etc.) are created on mobile devices. I don’t know of any business owner that still thinks he or she shouldn’t have at least some sort of social media presence.
You’re likely thinking, “Interesting stats but what does all this mean?”
Marketing goes where the eyeballs are. Look around at cell phone usage now. It is crazy. Everyone is texting, talking, sending pictures and videos and listening to music on cell phones or iPads. Personally, I think it is sad that everyone is isolating themselves from human contact but I also see the potential to reach anyone, anytime – as long as it is done in a way that doesn’t annoy or offend.
The point is to set up a mobile version of your site now. Get people to opt-in to your sms list and start rewarding them for doing so. Stop paying $5 per click on Adwords and pay $0.05 per click on a mobile network. Make it as easy as possible for mobile users to reach you. Click to call is ideal for this. It is lead generation on steroids.
Mark my words, we haven’t even scratched the service of what is going to happen to marketing over the next 3 years. Everything is going to go to mobile and on-demand. Traditional ad agencies are going to be scrambling while businesses that ‘get’ social media and how it can be leveraged through mobile devices are going to eat up everything.
Small and local businesses that get on it first will be poised to win. The restaurant owner with an SMS list of 1,000 customers doesn’t need to sit in his empty restaurant on a Tuesday night. One text saying, “Chef went crazy and made too many springrolls again. Free springrolls if you get here before they’re gone” will bring in customers at very minimal costs.
More importantly, if mobile marketing is done properly, we can actually provide a value-add service to consumers. I’m busy. I don’t want to search for stuff and I don’t want to think too much. Send me text specials or coupons to the movies on my phone. I’ll use them.
Get wireless, go mobile. Your customers already have.
At a very high level, the Google robot looks at two aspects of your website when determining where to rank it. The first is your on-site content. This includes how your site is structured and the content (words, audio, pictures and videos) that your site contains.
The second aspect that Google looks at is your in-bound links. When other sites link to your site Google sees it as a ‘vote of confidence’ and the more sites you get, the better your ranking will be. Of course, as with all things related to Google, it isn’t that easy. Where those links are coming from and how other sites link to you are also important. The more important (or higher authority) the site that is linking to you is, the more valuable that link will be.
This is all basic search engine optimization stuff but important to review in light of today’s discussion. What I do want to talk about is linking strategy. Of course, given the information above, it stands to reason that if you get as many links as possible from as many sites as possible your search rankings will improve. That only makes sense.
However, many SEO experts are incredibly paranoid about getting links. They believe that getting too many links too fast will land you in the infamous Google sandbox, your site will get de-index and you’ll never receive another visitor through Google’s organic search results.
Here is why I believe that all of this is hogwash and why you can never build links too fast. That isn’t to say that you should use stupid tactics like link farms and free for all listing sites but you should never be worried about other sites linking to you. Why? Because who links to you is beyond your control. I can’t stop a porn site from linking to my blog anymore than I can stop the rain from falling during the winters in Vancouver. I can control who I link to but I can’t control who links to me.
And Google knows this. Why is this so important? Because if a site could get penalized for what other sites link to it and if I wasn’t such a nice guy, I would spam all of my competitors’ sites. I’d place links to their sites from all these shady sources and they would get de-indexed. Of course, it doesn’t work that way.
All of those links would likely be discounted but it is hard to imagine that Google would destroy a site because of something that is clearly beyond a webmaster’s control AND can be so easily gamed. Same thing goes for duplicate content but that is another discussion.
At the end of the day, inbound links is one of the main criteria that Google looks at when rating your site. I’m not suggesting that you spam to get as many links as possible but I am saying that you shouldn’t worry about getting too many links too quickly.
These are called viral campaigns (people pass around great content) and the number of links to a site increases immediately. This the nature of good marketing on the web and Google expects this to happen. They are not going to penalize you for it.
Everyone talks about search engine optimization and how to get a site to the top of the search rankings. SEO experts go around and around in circles debating what Google may or may not be thinking and make every possible excuse not to do something.
I hear it every day. “If that site links to us, Google may not like us anymore” or “We can’t get too many links at once or Google won’t like us anymore.” It drives me absolutely crazy because everyone is just pontificating rather than testing and seeing what works and what doesn’t.
So what does work? I’m glad you asked. Creating good content works and it will always work. Google has always been consistent in the fact that it will reward sites with good content. When a site has good content other sites will mention it and link to it. That is why Google puts such an importance on incoming links.
At the same time your customers and future customers will appreciate you putting out valuable information. And I’m not just talking about good content on your site. You can post helpful information on Facebook, in forums or any of hundreds of social media sites. When people find this content they’ll pass it around.
They’ll tweet about it, they’ll friend you and they’ll send it to their friends and colleagues in their social networks. Guess what all of that does? Right! It creates more and more links and more and more actual traffic back to your website.
Let’s quit trying to ‘game’ Google. Google likes good content and your customers like good content. And at the end of the day, creating good, helpful content is a whole lot more rewarding and enjoyable than buying links or begging site owners to link to you.
What you may be asking is what constitutes good content. That part is easy. Solve your customers’ problems. Whatever you sell – whether it is a product or a service – solves some kind of a problem.
Every day you probably get the same questions over and over about whatever it is that you do. Those are your Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs. Answer those freely both on your site and on remote sites.
If you’re a business owner I know that you’re the expert in your field. Share that expertise whenever and wherever you can online. That effort and the fact that you’re actively and willingly helping people will come back to you in droves.
During the time Eric spent working with our firm, we recognized an immediate increase in web presence, which translated to genuine sales opportunities. Eric manages to bring creative thinking together with an eye for return on investments to his projects. I would not hesitate to use his services again.
Dallas Macas
President, Trek Escapes
Eric is a pleasure to work with and brilliant online marketer. What he doesn't know is not worth knowing.
Lee Phillips
Amiqus Consulting
Without fail Eric was available to guide our blog and to overcome any marketing problems we've encountered along the way. I don't know where we would be without his help.
Susan McCord
BeaverTalk.com
Even after 13 Months the sales leads that Eric generates still provide a greater return than any other source we buy from. I have no intention of looking anywhere else.
Jim Duval
Able Acceptance Corp.
I've never had an easier sales job than when I worked with Eric at Sao Paulo English. Our online lead generation and email follow-up system allowed me to simply follow-up with prospects that already knew exactly what we did. Most often, I just needed to ask when they wanted to start.
Cheda Mihajlovic
Business Development Mngr.
SaoPauloEnglish.com
I am NOT a big fan of brand marketing. In fact, I think most of it is a massive waste of time and money. Most small business owners are well advised to invest in direct marketing efforts where they can be sure of what they’re getting for their advertising dollars.
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