Category Archives: Marketing - General

Gender Makes a Difference in Mobile Ad Marketing

Marketing, Marketing - General, social media marketing

Smart PhonesA recent report on mobile ad marketing published on the BizReport site concludes that men like ads in the mobile format more than women do.

Why do you suppose that is?

And isn’t this a problem when women control the majority of the consumer spending — as much as 80%?

Do you agree with their conclusion or do you think that most of the mobile ads being distributed right now are targeting young men instead of women?

I’d be interested to hear your take on it.

Smart phones have taken over desktop sales, but brands are lagging behind when it comes to optimizing their websites, blogs and email marketing for mobile.

Recent articles in eMarketer , B2C, and SocialAxcess all point to the reasons why we (as marketers) need to be flexible and reach out to the consumers where they are — on their smartphones.

So how can a small business accomplish ecommerce without spending a small fortune?

Suggestions for marketers to keep up:

* Focus your efforts on iPhone and Droid phones, don’t worry about Blackberry and others. 

*Create a simple web page without a lot of downloadable graphics that can easily be seen, read and navigated on a smart phone.

Let me know your thoughts — both on the gender issue and on how to keep up with your company’s mobile marketing efforts — by leaving a comment below.

Creative Commons License photo credit: MJ/TR (´･ω･)

Yahoo Uses Cause Marketing to Market GOOD SEARCH by Donating to Charity with Every Search

Marketing, Marketing - General, tactics, Viral Marketing

Q. How is Yahoo! marketing search against the Google search engine?

A. One individual and one charity at a time.

Imagine trying to compete with Google! It makes me sigh every time I think about trying to go up against that Goliath!

One way Yahoo! is competing is by encouraging people to give to their charity of choice by using GoodSearch.com. With every search conducted on the Yahoo!-powered GoodSearch.com, approximately one penny is donated to an individual’s favorite charity.

It was started 6 years ago by Ken Ramberg (the former founder of JOBTRAK, now a division of Monster.com) and JJ Ramberg (an MSNBC anchor and the former Director of Marketing at Cooking.com.) After realizing what a fraction of the $8 billion generated annually by search engine advertisers could do if it were directed towards organizations trying to make the world a better place, they launched GoodSearch in 2005.

I believe that they have developed a strong social media sharing page as a tool for making it relatively easy for an individual to market the search.

Notice how it is organized with text links and anchor links, along with snippets of code for people to pop into their Facebook, Twitter or Blog. I like how the individual can measure what the search donations are to their specific charity.

You may want to look at their “Spread the Word” page if you’re trying to get people to spread the word about your organization by providing tools like widgets, codes and toolbar information that individuals can use to share on their pages.

And if you’re a marketing professional in fund raising and development, trying to stretch your marketing budget, you might want to consider using Good Search for your organization.

If you’ve had experience with Good Search, please leave a comment below. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Co-Marketing Cuts the Cost of your Marketing Budget

Companies, Marketing, Marketing - General

Wondering how to do more marketing with your budget?  Perhaps you may want to consider co-marketing.  Two companies with the same target market and non-competing products can work together to promote their products and services.

Even if you are a business to business marketer, you can pick up some tips from the business to consumer marketing category where the budgets are much higher. Here are a few examples:

Chevy Silverado commercial features Hasbro toys  Three quarters of the video focuses on Hasbro toys, but only the last 15 seconds feature the product that the commercial is actually about.

Volvo and Twilight New Dawn commerical and promotion Taking advantage of the Twilight craze, Volvo offers a promotion tie in with the upcoming New Dawn movie

Friskies Cat Food and Puss n Boots Movie A recent commerical with animation from the Puss n Boots movie with a live action cat advertises Friskies cat food in a light-hearted commercial that draws in the “awwwww, isn’t that cute” factor.

What other co marketing programs have you noticed?  What company offers a product to the same target market as yours but is not a direct competitor?  Could you both benefit from a tie in marketing program?  They only work when it is “win-win.” Leave your comment below. Thanks!

How to Get Meaningful Branding out of Mindblowing Social Media Tools

Marketing, Marketing - General, social media marketing, strategy, tactics


This infographic — the Conversation Prism by Brian Solis — is a social media classic.

Filled with everything.  Organized by color. 

Still, everytime I look at it, I get overwhelmed. (Click here for the full graphic.)

And I’d say I’m one of those individuals who embraces all the new websites and technology.  To me, the key to this marketing infographic is the center… The names will change on the edges, but the strategy will remain core.

Because this info is shown in grey, it’s easy to overlook it. The peacock feathers of the prism distract the eye from the important reason to be.

If you’re overwhelmed by all the social media opportunities, take a moment to study the grey parts: the brand strategy rather than the individual social media tactics.

How to Leverage Your Good Publicity for Added Marketing Value

Marketing, Marketing - General, tactics

[pullquote]”Pull a Quote to Highlight a Specific Product Benefit”[/pullquote]Did you recently parlay a press release into a full feature story?

Was your company favorably showcased in an important trade journal or business publication?

Improve the marketing impact of this strong public relations by extending the reach to your prospective customers by using a variety of marketing tools.

Email: If you have an email list of individuals who have purchased your products and services in the past, consider sending an enews announcement about the recent article to your e news mailing list with a link to the recent article.  You may want to pull a quote that specifically addresses your product or service’s unique benefit and highlight that information. 

Reprints/Clippings: Julie Wassom, marketing expert for child care centers and alpaca farms suggests ways to use reprints and clippings:

  • Send a copy of your article in a special mailing to prospects, customers, and referral sources, as follow up to your Guess Who’s In The News? notification.
  • Include it in wave mailings in your direct mail marketing program.
  • Mail it to local affiliate members who can kite-tail on the good industry promotion it provides.
  • Insert in a rack in your show booth with an accompanying sign that says “Take One!”

Read her entire article about how to Extend Your Audience After Good Publicity.

Blog about it: If your company has a blog, this is the perfect place to write an article about the article.  Don’t pull the published piece into your blog in its entirety.  Instead, pull sections and briefly quote the article with links back to the publication’s website.  You don’t want to miss the implied endorsement of the publication that wrote about your business, or it will just be another blog post written by you instead of by a knowledgeable staffer at the industry or consumer publication.

Link on Social Media: Use your company Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn account to post links to the article.  Make sure you select the proper thumbnail before you hit submit.  I find that it is better to log into them separately rather than trying to save time and posting once for all three mediums.  It’s just that what LinkedIn can show, versus Facebook — or the 140 characters of Twitter — is vastly different.  Also the make up of the audiences on the three mediums also varies.  While the subject and message is the same, you’ll want to modify the actual comment before you link to match the medium. 

If your business markets to consumers in your local area, don’t forget Yelp, Google Local, Yahoo and other sites like Zagat, and CitySearch. Find out which type of links can make a big difference.

Website links: Your website could add a new page under the about us tab that features Customer comments and pull testimonials out of a favorable article with a link back to the actual publication.

How will you use favorable publicity to improve your marketing efforts and speed up the sales process? Leave a comment below with a note about what has worked for you.  Include a link and I’ll moderate the comments to make sure it’s a “real” example.