Search Results for ‘whos who marketing’
July 13-17 is World Who’s Who Week – Want to gain local media attention, exposure for your business and to become the Go-to person in networking? Do what the late Pamela M. Hutchinson of Davie Florida, the creator of Who’s Who in Black South Florida – a directory of black professionals. On several occasion, the local newspapers featured her directory and when she died wrote a glowing tribute to her and the service to the community her directory provided.
It was the impetus for my team creating the Who’s Who Among Women in Ecommerce Directory to promote women who do business on the web. You can check it out here: http://www.wecai.org/whoswho.htm What kind of Who’s Who Directory could you create featuring of a specific group of people or organizations in your community? (BTW, I created this holiday because I could not find one that focused on this topic).
July 13th is Embrace Your Geekness Day – “The future of advertising,” says Charlie Jones, chief marketing officer of RedPeg, an Alexandria, Virginia–based agency, “will be about creating unexpected connections to memorable, real-world experiences in ways that bring brands to life.” So how about electrical outlets in airport terminals? Bradley and Montgomery’s new campaign for Chase Commercial Banking includes ads just above 90 outlets around Indianapolis International Airport. When you plug in your laptop, you see the ad.
Source Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Zany & Non-traditional Holidays!
July 10th, 2009
The classic, Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath was selected by Fortune Magazine as a “must read” in their October issue. You can get a copy of Selling to Big Companies at Amazon.com.
Jill’s book is filled with great ideas for how to sell to large companies. And in today’s challenging sales environment, this is a book whose time has come.
You can get a preview of the book by downloading the first two chapters at Jill’s website at http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com/content_display.jsp?top=8497&mid=8925
November 14th, 2008
Excerpt from Promoting Your Business on the WEB Special Report.
Create an Affiliate Program. Here’s how it works: an affiliate program pays a commission to other sites whose links to the retailer result in an actual sale. Your goal is to build a network of affiliates who want to make money by promoting your offers to their own prospects and clients. By doing so, you increase your own circle of influence using their circles. Setting up and managing an affiliate program is easy, once it has been installed. It does take work, both on the creative side and on the technology side. Once set up, an affiliate program is one of the best and least expensive ways to increase sales and achieve more targeted traffic. Affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable and effective, because you only pay for performance, not for traffic. That means a sale has to happen or no one gets paid. One of the most successful affiliate marketers I have ever met is Rosalind Gardner. She wrote a book called “The Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online,” which I highly recommend.
Want more ideas to promote your business on the WEB? Get a FREE copy of the 8-page Special Report Promoting Your Business on the WEB TODAY!
October 10th, 2008
October is….
Diversity Awareness Month – if you don’t have the opportunity to travel to far off lands, get involved in a community organization where the participants are ethnically or spiritually different from you. Join an organization such as sister cities and get to know about our world.
National Book Month - Host a book fair, invite a local author to do a book signing, collect books for a local school or library. Read a good book in your industry and write about it in your newsletter. Have a recommended reading section of your newsletter and on your website and announce your picks for the latest books. Or you can do what my friend Susan does and be a volunteer reader for a book critic for a local newspaper. You get to write a brief summary of what the book is about and rate it.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Volunteer with the American Cancer Society (ACS) or Gilda’s Club (or other similar organization whose purpose it to raise awareness of and to help women with breast cancer). How does this help you market your company? Well, I have been a volunteer with ACS for 17+ years now and started out in fundraising, moved on to programs and services and then began teaching their “triple touch” program to women in my community. I am now a “Triple Touch Training Instructor” and teach the teachers. Although it is not meant to be a marketing ploy – by being involved in a community organization that appeals to many, not only do we make lifelong friends – people learn about my company and quite often become my customers.
Women’s Small Business Month - Do what the WECAI Network™ did and host an event in celebration of Women. It was “How to Grow a Million Dollar Business (with pre and post events too). The event features wealth experts in prosperity, million dollar marketing to the affluent, million dollar networking, million dollar publicity and more! You can check it out at WHEREWOMENPROSPER.com. Contact experts you know (or have heard of) and invite them to participate.
October 4th, 2008
Is your business on the decline? Have you been looking for business in all the wrong places? Can’t compete with the “big guys” because you just don’t have the budget to pour into an advertising campaign to build your brand? Do what Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer did… Pour your advertising and marketing dollars into sponsoring subcultural events.
According to Marketing Sherpa.com, Pabst did just that and in 2003 they experienced a 15% increase in market share after a 20 year loss of almost 90% of its volume.
According to Neil Stewart, Senior Brand Manager for Pabst Blue Ribbon “We went for driving word of mouth and buzz,” They did this by sponsoring local musicians and events in specific markets. These events included fashion shows, kickball and dodgeball tournaments, art exhibits and scooter rallies. Pabst would support the events by donating beer (if permissible) and/or money to help them print fliers.
Over time, the Blue Ribbon brand developed a network of ambassadors to further help promote Pabst.
Before you consider sponsoring events like these, the article suggests you ask the right questions: They include finding out whose heard of the event, how fun it will be, who has sponsored in the past, how unique the event is and how much buzz it will create in the community.
September 29th, 2008
Redcats USA a multi-title apparel catalog company sponsored a fashion show in conjunction with the Mass College of Art – the top prize? A job as designer for the company’s women’s apparel catalog.
Students were challenged to design a complete ensemble for the Chadwick customer taking into account customer demographics and price points. The winner was chosen from 30 students in the MassArt’s fashion design program whose outfits were worn during the fashion show.
What type of contest could you host to get media attention and the attention of your target audience? How would you promote the contest? Who would you promote the contest with/to?
September 18th, 2008
Looking for ideas to write about in articles, on your blog or in your EZINE?
Use the Calendar!
Here’s one that I use – http://www.brownielocks.com.
I search for news about the day, ask friends, find the flowers, people and uses for…. Or ways to celebrate and the result is an example of a post I did about Wear Purple Day:
Today is Wear Purple Day!
Why was purple worn by royalty? Mainly because purple dyes were so hard to make. Using lichen, the plant had to react with ammonia (this meant urine in ancient days) and sit out in the air for 2 weeks. Then it was mixed with pot ash to be used as a dye. This was much harder than just boiling berries or leaves for other colors, so purple dye was only for the wealthy. Today, all you have to do is spill some grape kool-aid and everything turns purple.
More about the color purple:
The earliest archaeological evidence for the origins of purple dyes points to the Minoan civilization in Crete, about 1900 B.C. The ancient land of Canaan (its corresponding Greek name was Phoenicia, which means “land of the purple”) was the center of the ancient purple dye industry. Tyrian Purple,” the purple dye of the ancients mentioned in texts dating back to about 1600 B.C., was produced from the mucus of the hypobranchial gland of various species of marine mollusks, notably Murex. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye. Legend credits its discovery to Herakles, or rather to his dog, whose mouth was stained purple from chewing on snails along the Levantine coast. King Phoenix received a purple-dyed robe from Herakles and decreed the rulers of Phoenicia should wear this color as a royal symbol.
According to one article in Paper, Film and Foil Converter Rome, Egypt, and Persia all used purple as the imperial standard. Purple dyes were rare and expensive; only the rich had access to them. The purple colorants used came from different sources, most from the dye extraction from fish or insects.
The imperial purple of Rome was based on mollusk from which purpura comes. Emperor Aurelian refused to let his wife buy a purpura-dyed silk garment, as it cost its weight in gold!
An interesting article on About.com says “Purple is often associated with Royalty and Spirituality: Purple is royalty. A mysterious color, purple is associated with both nobility and spirituality. The opposites of hot red and cool blue combine to create this intriguing color.” … giving purple both cool and warm properties.
Purple is also associated with creativity and imagination. However too much purple can lead to moodiness and disharmony.
Other Purple facts:
Purple has been long associated as the color of mourning for widows in Thailand.
The Purple Heart is given to U.S. Military soldiers wounded in battle.
Oprah Winfrey got an Oscar for her role in the movie “The Color Purple” which was based upon the book of the same title by Alice Walker.
The rock star Prince played the lead in the 1984 movie Purple Rain. The film was very successful earning nearly US$100 million at the box office. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
There’s a book called Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium by Judith Herrin about, three Byzantine empresses–Irene, Euphrosyne, and Theodora and how they changed history (In the eighth and ninth centuries). Their combined efforts restored the veneration of icons, saving Byzantium from a purely symbolic and decorative art and ensuring its influence for centuries to come.
According to Everything2.com “Contrary to popular opinion, the word “purple” does have rhymes in the English language. In fact, there are two rhyming words, abet words that aren’t used in today’s vernacular. Hirple is a British word, which means “to walk lamely or hobble”. Curple is a word out of Scotland, which refers to the hindquarters of a horse.”
Nature is abundant with purple flowers: In fact, purple flowers are among the most popular with both men and women. Some purple (and shades of purple) flowers include Iris, Roses, Carnations, Dianthus, Violets, Sweet William, Daisies, Allium, Status, Hibiscus, Orchids, Morning Glories, Tulips, Crocus, Hydrangea, Lilac, Peonies, Liatris, Pansies, Wisteria, Stock, Larkspur, Chrysanthemums, Eryngium and Alstromeria to name a few.
In fact, in the past 2.5 years I have designed more purple themed wedding and bridal decorations than at any other time in my 27+ years as a florist.
From this post you may guess that one of my favorite colors is PURPLE! I love the way it makes me feel inside and out. Looking at it makes me smile and wearing it makes me feel special. How about you? Will you be wearing purple today? And what is YOUR favorite color?
For more ideas, get your FREE Copy of the 2008 Edition of Your Marketing Calendar TODAY!
September 9th, 2008
“Communities can extend the edge of the corporation in truly transformative ways — tapping into new talent, helping design products and services, providing customer support and, most importantly, building the brand with the customer.” Ed Moran
What if your website could be THE place where people connect online? Where they could meet one another, exchange ideas and leads, keep up with current trends, learn about new opportunities and develop relationships?
I’m not talking the traditional Social Networking Sites that are made exclusively for meeting, mingling and networking. Not another Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn. Although that is not a bad idea ~ and a topic for another post.
I am talking about a website that sells something and offers their visitors a place to share ideas and discuss items of interest to them along the theme of what you are selling. Add a forum to your website to increase your prospects! Forums can generate traffic, provide valuable customer feedback and build loyalty to the brand. Forums can give your customers a voice, a place to express their opinions about the product.
But online forums are not for everyone. It all depends on what you sell and if the product has enough diversity to lend itself to forum topics that would interest enough customers/clients to make the effort worthwhile. Lawn and Garden sites, Network marketing companies, sports fans and sites that sell products for pets are likely highly successful because the visitors have a PASSION for the product or the topic. If you sell detergent or mailboxes or office supplies your site might not be the ideal site to create a community forum. In my opinion a blog might be a more ideal option, a place where you can share your expertise with your customers about how to use the products as well as place to offer advice on ancillary topics that would interest them. Also another topic for discussion.
So why have an online forum for your business site? According to Bobybuilding.com CEO Ryan DeLuca “It’s about becoming the place where people come to talk and learn and meet.”
Consulting companies like the David Allen Company have a growing number of followers and active participants to their forums. According to their site, they have 10,761 Members. And their forum activity looks robust. Why? I am sure it’s because the topics are things their visitors are interested in learning more about or sharing.
I also found GAMING sites with active forums. Sites like GameReplays.org have forums that allow their fans to discuss the Company of Heros game at http://www.gamereplays.org/community/-CoH-Section.html. According to their site they have 90,736 registered members.
And then there’s sites like Bodybuilding.com which espouses more than 1.1 million users!
The drawbacks to forums are many. And you should be aware of them as well. Spam is perhaps the biggest issue. People posting stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand. I was on a forum the other day about how to turn an audio file into a podcast and one of the forum “members” posted the following: “I am searching for a partner to walk around the globe in support of our troups.” Well that may be a worthwhile post but had absolutely nothing to do with the topic. Of course everyone just ignored the poster. But I still find that sort of thing annoying and rude.
Other drawbacks include the cost of implementing a forum, the costs to monitor the forums, lack of participation, inappropriate participation and staying on topic (even for those who know and follow the rules this can sometimes be a challenge), marketing the forums so your target audience knows its available and also really expressing the benefits of participating so people want to be there. And let’s not forget the negative feedback that could occur from a dissatisfied customer. Too many of these can do more harm than good and be the downfall of a company. But then again, what’s wrong with that? If the company sells an inferior product then perhaps it shouldn’t be allowed to sell to unsuspecting buyers!
Building online forums is relatively inexpensive. If you’d like to try a do-it-yourself platform, try the Forum Co where you can set up a free forum at http://www.forumco.com/. vBulletin http://www.vbulletin.com/ is a professional, affordable community forum solution which according to their site has “Thousands of clients, including many industry leading blue chip companies, have chosen vBulletin – It’s the ideal choice for any size of community Or just ask your webmaster or webmistress to design it for you.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote a great article “Why Most Online Communities Fail. According to the article Ed Moran, a Deloitte consultant who just completed a study of more than 100 businesses with online communities said: “Not surprisingly, these sites failed to gain traction with customers. Thirty-five percent of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members … The article said one of the reasons for failure was that “Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.” You can read the rest of the article here: http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/07/16/why-most-online-communities-fail/
Before you do consider adding a forum, think about your goals for the forum. What is the aim or purpose of the forum? What do you want your forum to look like? Who would you like to participate? How will you market the forum? And the big question: WHY? Why do you want a forum in the first place?
Forums are one of the original social networking platforms for building communities online. Once you have done your due dilligent, answered the questons above and studied your target audience for receptivity, you will be able to make a better decision about marketing your online business with a forum. Your forum can help you build word of mouth referrals for your small business, help you develop and perfect your brand, your business operations and your business offerings and more than that you will be able to help your targe market have, do or be better at something.
August 25th, 2008
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” Abraham Lincoln
CUSTOMIZE IT – If your state or country only requires you to have one official license plate, you can create a plastic license plate with your company name on it. If that isn’t possible, then buy customized license plate holders with your company name and URL around.
CD IT! - How about creating a CD brochure to give away when you attend networking events. In fact, the mini CD is very effective and most people will keep it to look at later.
GIVE IT AWAY – Donate prizes/services to a local radio station for their on-air contests and promotions.
For those that love useless trivia (like me)… Whose face launched the milk mustache campaign 10 + years ago?
Answer to Market Trivia: Naomi Campbell.
August 20th, 2008
