Blog - Page 139 of 181 - McLellan Marketing Group

The next generation of social media specialists

September 3, 2007

…are already in training. Sure, there’s MySpace and Facebook, but look out because here comes SugarLoot.com.

This teen-driven site hosts contests that encourage the kids to:

Upload videos
Upload photos
Participate on their blog
Create relationships that support mutual votes and “fan” rankings

The traffic numbers are staggering. Not only is this site attracting kids by the boatload, but it is also attracting advertisers. Prizes for the contests come from companies like Petco (cutest pets), Apple, Westin, M&Ms, American Express, JVC, Dell and others.

It’s also being used to hype upcoming movies. The Clique is a book series aimed at teen-aged girls. Through SugarLoot, they are running a contest where the grand prize winners will get to audition for a role in the movie adaptation of the books.

One of the contestants has over 18,000 views of her audition.

We McLellans were late to the party, but in just a couple days, my daughter’s audition has over 100 views. And we hadn’t even e-mailed the grandparents yet!

My point? If you think your business doesn’t need to pay attention to social media – think again. Tomorrow’s customers are learning it today. You’d better do the same.

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What goes around…

September 3, 2007

I've always believed that if you give first, without worrying about what you will receive — you always get more than you expected.

I explore this notion in a guest post over at Emerging Customer. The two authors of that blog, Michelle Lamar and Christine Wright have given me the perfect example of this theory.

They heard about Age of Conversation and our goal to raise money for Variety, The Children's Charity as well as creating exposure to the ideas of 103 authors. They came up with an amazingly generous offer. Any (or all) 103 Age of Conversation authors have been invited to be a guest author on their blog.

Michelle and Christine made the offer, asking for nothing in return. But according to my theory…very good things will happen to them. The first being that the readers of this blog will check out Emerging Customer and enjoy its content enough to subscribe.

Thanks again to Michelle and Christine for helping tell the world about Age of Conversation and giving all 103 authors an opportunity to introduce themselves to EC's readers!

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Blogtipping — September 2007

September 2, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I enjoyed this past month.

As is the blogtipping tradition, (created by Easton Ellsworth) I'll offer a few reasons why I like the blog and one suggestion for improvement.

This month's nods go to….

Loyalty Marketing Blog is Jonathan Treiber's "industry watch" on loyalty marketing.

Things I love:

The depth of information.

That you don't stop at just giving us the facts, you also give us your insight.

Lots of great current case studies in the posts.

Suggestion:

You don't seem to link out to other bloggers within your posts. I think that would make you much more findable and add even more depth to your analysis.

SpinningSilk Multi Media is a tightly woven blend of tips, stories and recommendations. Patrick and Heather Greer have grown their business from a moonlighting gig to a full-time thriving business.

Things I love:

The diversity of your posts.

How you share your own experiences and hard learned lessons.

Your natural, engaging style of writing.

Suggestion:

How about some visuals to illustrate more of your posts?

A relatively new blog on the scene, IowaBiz.com is a small business owner's dream come true. 12 experts, each with expertise in a different arena, offering their best counsel for building and growing a successful business.

There are some bloggers you'll recognize and some you should get to know. Every day, a new business insight in a different area. Chock full of smarts.

Things I love:

Clean, simple design. Easy to navigate and explore.

Love all the different blog authors and their varying styles.

Every day, a practical tip or insight. What's not to love?

Suggestion:

Get rid of that McLellan guy!

There you have it discerning readers…until next month's blogtipping adventure!

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I’ll give you a toaster….

September 1, 2007

Remember when we were kids and banks would offer toasters, clock radios and stadium blankets in exchange for opening a checking account?

Well baby, we have NOT come a long way.

All too often, when a company tries to bribe potential customers with incentives, they fail to really understand the math that's going on in the prospect's head.

The key to developing a good incentive offer is understanding the value of what you are offering versus the cost of what you want in return. Check out my post at IowaBiz.com as we explore the good and bad of incentives.

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Are you being held hostage by your web developer (part 2)

September 1, 2007

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post asking the question “are you being held hostage by your web developer” which garnered some excellent and lesson packed comments.

They’re just too good to take the risk that you feed reader users might have missed them. So read carefully and heed their hard earned warnings.

Look for a web developer who gets both function and fashion

“Finally I would list to suggest to anyone looking for a web developer to look for a company committed to both Design and Development. Some companies do a really good job of creating a great looking or flashy site but it has limited backend functionality. A lot of people are tempted to go with a service because of the “look” they can provide. The most important aspect of “design” is usability across platforms and devices.

Look for a company who is committed to good programming practices that can accommodate future changes and security concerns. We are big believers in giving in giving our clients RSS functionality so their message can go to their customer/reader base instead of making them go to their site manually ever time.”

Patrick

Ask your developer for key information BEFORE you need it

“You should always get the FTP information, user name, password and hosting information in writing. Put it away somewhere safe.

I also provide clients with a CD back up of their site at least once a year or more frequently if they want one.”

Char

Don’t let them scare you into staying

“She has a very small business and a small footprint on the web, so the only way she’s getting all this spam is because her current website is plastered with her email address. But her company never told her this before, or advised her about how to prevent spam–despite the fact that her spam is incredibly high for what she does on the web–they happily let her get deeper and deeper into spam-hell.

And now that she wants to switch, they’re trying to frighten her into staying. Very frustrating!?

Katie Konrath

Be ready to do it yourself in a pinch

“Make sure you have someone in-house who can update, manage, and add content to the site. There’s nothing worse than having to rely on external sources for something you could easily do yourself.”

Ryan Karpeles

Don’t overlook blogging software as a website content management option

“For a couple of non-profits, I’ve built sites using hosted (free) WordPress blogging software (some of the templates are nicely set up to create pages/tabs that resemble regular websites). Tied into those sites are Google calendars (free), and storage of files at Box.net (free). I’m not a programmer, but with these kind of tools, as long as the web presence is not too extensive as far as information and use of forms, it’s do-able. And, of course, maintenance is a breeze – no need for a programmer, just train the user on how to use the free tools for administration.”

Steve Woodruff

Get references

“Ask around… a lot. I almost went with someone who was very nice and very helpful but in the end she realized her work and time might not be a good fit for me. She referred me to Mike Sansone and Sandra Renshaw. I consider that to be entrepreneurial divine intervention. With the right tool and their help, another star is born. Ask around…A LOT!!!”

Sherry Borzo

Ask smart questions

1. How long have they been in business?
2. Who are some of their other clients?
3. How do they deal with customer service issues?
4. What kind of training/information will they provide when the site launches?
5. Can you select the hosting provider, with their help?

Ian

You don’t have to be a techie to maintain your site

“It has mostly been said here but I want to add my vote for users insisting on control of their content. Simple software such as Contribute allows even the most tech-disabled of us to manage our content easily. And changing content frequently is the best way to grow visitors to our site.”

Lewis Green

Document your details

“In other words the vendor should supply a notebook of all critial passwords for everything about the network. I am a small shop (3 people) and when we build out a new network we supply all relevant info about their network.”

Loren Nason

Begin with the end in mind

“I always advise folks to make sure that whoever they select to develop their site or blog understands that it’s a marketing tool and should be an element of their marketing plan, not a standalone project. I just got a call from a company (referred to me by a client) to help them understand why their web site wasn’t coming up in the search engines. I took a look at the site and source code and it was very obvious that the site was not designed or developed with search engine marketing in mind (even though they told the client that SEO was part of the project).”

Debra Murphy

Thanks to all these experts for sharing their good counsel with us. Remember…there are lots of good web developers out there. Don’t settle for anything less.

It’s not art, it’s a website

What’s the matter with you people? You’re supposed to be marketers!

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Product packaging — is it part of your brand or disposable?

August 30, 2007

A recent article in the New York Times focused on how product packaging trends have changed over the last 10-20 years. The trend, as late as the 90's was that companies would retain a packaging design for 7+ years. Today, the trend is less than 2 years. (To the left, Kleenex is now available in oval shaped boxes.)

The article lists many reasons why a company might shift packaging more often today.

Shorter attention spans of the buying population
The movement from container to a 3-D on-shelf ad for the product
Harder to expose audiences to mass media messaging, so have to grab them at the venue
Turning the mundane (tissue boxes, cleaning bottles) into decor
Trying to reduce package size/cost
Functionality (Coors label turns blue when it is just the right temperature)

An extreme example — Mountain Dew is changing its packaging 12 times from May-October. Wow. (see examples to the right)

So what do you think? Are they messing with their brand? Is this sort of revolving door packaging a good thing? Does it matter what the product is?

Related posts:

In the pink or just ick?

More packaging brain candy

Have you committed a Cardinal Zin?

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As we were saying…about watching differently

August 29, 2007

There's a new beta in town. Hulu.com

Their goal? Nothing big. Just to give you access to the world's premiere content, when, where and how you want it.

Here's a bit of the CEO's welcome letter.

Welcome to Hulu! Our passionate and growing team here has been very hard at work on a service that we're quite excited about. We'll keep you updated with news as we go along.

The first bit of news we'd like to share is that we have a name: Hulu.

Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it.

So do you suppose Hulu will have :30 spots?

Thanks to Jon Burg for giving me a head up on this beta release. Check out his comments as well.

You can sign up to be a part of the beta as well.

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We watch differently. We will advertise differently.

August 29, 2007

A recent study released by The IBM Institute for Business Value suggests that thanks to DVRs, we are actually watching MORE television. But fewer ads.

As DVRs and other technology allow us to skip over the :30 spot — you have to know that advertisers will find a new way.

What do you think that new way will be? Read more about the study and its implications in my post over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.

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New bloggers toolbox

August 27, 2007

A couple months ago, I asked for your help. I said:

As fresh faces leap into the blogging waters faster than we can count them, it occurred to me that it's in everyone's best interest (and just good manners) to offer a helping hand to the neophytes. We're helping clients launch blogs on a regular basis and for many of them, these is new territory.

But I need your help. Someone helped you…now it's our turn!

Well, help you did! I have now compiled everyone's suggestions and organized them by the following categories:

Are chock full of practical tips
Act as a living lab on how to write compelling blog posts
Demonstrate how to build a community
Teach marketing tools
Are welcome wagons – bloggers who spotlight newbies

The toolbox will now have a permanent home here at Drew's Marketing Minute. Watch for a button along my sidebar.

Feel free grab the button and share it with your readers as well. Hopefully, the toolbox will be a resource that bloggers new and old can find value in for a long time.

Special thanks to the contributors. If I missed anyone, please let me know and I will add your contributions.

Contributors:

Spinning Silk Multimedia

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A quick trip around the blogosphere!

August 26, 2007

Scott Monty celebrates his one year blogiversary this week. Scott's blog is a great mix of marketing musings, old and new. Always worth a read.

Blogger Social Details are in…and the registrations are beginning to build as well. April 4-6th in the Big Apple. We really hope you can make it.

Robert Hruzek is calling on all of us to change the world, starting with ourselves. Count on Robert to set his (and our) sights high. Check out his challenge.

If you loved the Z-list and the W-list, here's another one for you. The Black Entrepreneurs Toolbox from Bootstrapper.

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