JephMaystruck.com » Small business

Permission Based Marketing

Jeph — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:17:40 +0000

A long, long, time ago advertisers would interrupt people to get their message in front of them. Commercials interrupting your favorite show, coupons in your mailbox, awkwardly placed billboards, branding of anything and everything, commercials interrupting the top 10 countdown on the radio, telemarketers trying to sell you something, sales people showing up at your door, and video billboards promising even more interruptions than static billboards.

There was no permission established so eventually these were bound to fail once the market was saturated with messages competing for the next chance to interrupt you.

Enter Seth Godin coined term “permission based marketing“.

I need to be friends with you for you to show up in my Facebook newsfeed or to be able to post on my wall.

I need to be following you on Twitter to receive your tweets.

I need to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter to receive it.

I have never been forced to watch a Youtube video, I choose what I want to watch.

I can’t force you to read my blog, it’s your choice.

Notice a trend here? To communicate with people you must have their permission, no matter what medium you use. Marketing hasn’t gone anywhere since “social media” took over, it just got smarter. The winners now will be the ones who understand permission based marketing and come up with the newest innovative way to acquire permission. It’s the next generation of word-out-mouth.

On the other hand, I hate to hear campaigns talking about “mass-text-messaging” services and mass e-mail marketing. Just further attempts at interrupting more people to tell them a message they don’t want to hear.

If you want to delve further into the topic pick up this book:

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You can’t hide your reputation

Jeph — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:30:40 +0000

Anytime you cross someone in a bad way they will remember. Your reputation is your business. We have the ability to communicate online with thousands of people instantly, it is what those people say about you that becomes your reputation.

Humans remember the bad things much longer than the good, if you have broken someone’s trust in the past I’d suggest working on making it better soon because it’s going to take a while. Think of the last person who broke your trust, have you worked with them since? How do you feel about him/her?

Trust is a peculiar trait, difficult to earn but once trust is established amazing feats can be achieved. On the contrary, if you lose someone’s trust it is extremely difficult to earn back and you probably ruined the relationship you had with that person. In the small business landscape that Saskatchewan is, you can’t afford to break someone’s trust, word spreads too quickly.

Remember:

you can’t hide your reputation
acquiring and keeping ones’ trust will be one of the most important things you ever do in business
bad things spread much faster than good
people who really do trust you will defend your reputation as if it were their own
if your business is not based on integrity you will lose in the long run

Photo Credit: Kat Jackson

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Cause marketing: a diamond in the rough

Jeph — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:27:35 +0000

Cause marketing is utilizing a non-profit organization as a means of putting a for-profit brand or product in front of someone in return for fundraising and awareness. Anytime you partner with a charity for anything it is a win-win situation. The charity gains funding and exposure to a group of people it may not have been able to touch and the company gets to show people that they actually do care by helping out a charity.

Cause marketing is growing in part because some large players are getting involved such as Pepsi with it’s refresh project. Other companies have the charity aspect as a part of their day to day business like Toms Shoes, their fascinating business strategy is worth a read.

The example I love to tell people about is a local company. Coda Clothing & Shoes (@CodaClothing) throughout the year does not promote the store or sales via any mass media type other than the large billboard on the side of their building shown here:

Instead of telling everyone in Regina to come to Coda, they host Charity fashion shows where a large amount of money is donated to a specific charity and Coda gets to show off their new line of clothing. It’s difficult not to like companies like Coda that are active in the community, that care about your city, and that want to give back.

I love the concept behind cause marketing because in this ever-changing marketing world you can never be certain as to what is the best medium to be broadcasting your message on. Cause marketing works because it’s like putting a huge sign on your company’s building that says, “WE CARE”.

So when you’re thinking about the next big ad campaign to roll out with, why not pair up with a charity and try help them too, you’d be surprised at what you can do.

Pictures courtesy of Coda Clothing & Shoes

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56 uses of social media in Saskatchewan

Jeph — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:35:39 +0000

Instead of “news” build your own RSS reader
Begin following local bloggers in your RSS reader and keep searching for new ones
Challenge a local blogger, disagree, leave a comment
Offer to write a guest post for a local blogger
Offer to write a guest post for an industry specific blog
Hold a local specific contest (Treasure hunt via Facebook?)
Start a local restaurant review site, make it fun
Ask for feedback of your product/service via Twitter
Offer to take pictures at an event and start a Flickr account for them
Host a picture contest
Host a picture caption contest for other businesses
Encourage patrons to take a picture of their meal and share it online for 25% off the meal
Tell stories about your product on a blog
Host a community blog with many different contributers
Start selling your product on Facebook
Encourage employees to offer reviews of the company via LinkedIn
Start a local trivia blog (written, video, picture)
Offer free products/services to people with lots of friends on Facebook
Put your website on all printed material
Put your Twitter name in places where no one would expect to see it (get creative with this one)
Put your blog and Twitter name on the inside of a box of donuts and deliver them to potential readers
Put your blog, vlog, landing page or video in your e-mail signature
Start a collection of local website on Delicious, sort them in a meaningful way
Host an online garage sale
Host an actual garage sale via Ustream
Add you company to Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and any other geo-location service
Offer different deals on Foursquare, see what works
Host a city wide treasure hunt via Foursquare
Host a 24 hour Foursquare challenge
Leave an unbelievable “deal” on Yelp and see who takes you up on it
Document the entire Foursquare challenge on YouTube
Do a video production of your safety manual
Record the “Monday morning announcements” on YouTube, make them fun
Set up Google alerts to monitor your company’s name being mentioned
Add you business to Google maps (seems simple but many people overlook this one)
Give me a reason to go to your website daily
Host a local “Tweet-up”
Offer to begin a Twitter account for a large local event
Setup an your automatic e-mail the next time you’re on holidays to say “you’re only responding to requests on Twitter”
Have a video contest, offer a large cash prize
Make a video explaining everything about your organization
Make a video about a different employee every day until you run out of employees
Start a YouTube channel for your company and post a video per week about industry specific topics
UStream your Friday at the office
UStream a different place/person in your office weekly
Have a “submit question” box on your homepage, answer every question that comes in
Submit a fascinating story to Digg and Stumble Upon once a week
Sell T-shirts on your home page for charity, let people vote on the charity
Start a Foodbank challenge with one of your competitors, document everything on a picture blog
Create an interactive fundraising tool on your website
Encourage all of your staff to fill out their entire profile on LinkedIn, make it a company wide activity
Host an appreciation BBQ for the employee of the month, video tape it and post all the pleasant things said on your company blog
Start an e-mail newsletter and fill it with the most helpful information/links in your industry
Recognize employees who go above and beyond on your company blog
Put your Twitter name on a billboard by a busy street
Give free coffee to everyone downtown who becomes a fan of yours on Facebook

This is just the beginning of what you could do, the possibilities are endless. Have anymore you want to share? Please do!

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Your Marketing Strategy? Start with a goal…

Jeph — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:50:36 +0000

If you own a small business in Saskatchewan what do you do to market yourself?

If someone gives you advice on an advertising tactic you “should” be doing, ignore it. In todays marketing world you must define your goal before any thoughts of a tactic are brought up.

Do you buy the big billboards on Ringroad? Maybe a large ad in the Saturday Leaderpost? Nah, make a Facebook fan page, everyone’s on Facebook, right? How about a commercial on the Wolf, Regina’s most popular radio station, that oughta bring in some new clientele! All these tactics I’m sure would work for some organization if executed correctly but that does not mean you should be using them.

Yes social media is growing but in Saskatchewan the adoption rate is much slower. Yes billboards have worked in the past but that does not mean they’ll work for you.

Define your goal first then look at your at your tactical options. Confused? Give me a call I can help you clarify.

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Mosaic + Foursquare=Match Made in Heaven

Jeph — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:34:14 +0000

The business applications for Foursquare seem to be increasing. As more people join, the more attention the platform is getting from businesses. Albeit Saskatchewan is a little behind the “checkin” train but that doesn’t mean some businesses are trying Foursquare on for size. Just today I found this on Twitter.

Coda Clothing may not explode with business but I went and bought a shirt to get in the draw, will you?

I believe those who could benefit the most from Foursquare are events like Mosaic. In a three day span, thousands of people will be traveling to and from nineteen different pavilions. Like the Haggis at the Scottish pavilion? Leave a tip for everyone else who checks in there. Want to know which pavilion your friends are at? Or better yet, which pavilion is the most popular? Check Foursquare.

For the Mosaic organizers, create special badges for those who checkin to ten, fifteen and all nineteen different pavilions. Offer a prize to people who checkin at all nineteen pavilions. The pavilions themselves could have a swarm badge where if over fifty people checkin, all food is 50% off for an hour, just as an example but you get my gist.

Why would Mosaic do this? Where is the economic return? How about all the story’s and tidbits of information that people will write about on Twitter and Foursquare. I’m sure the organizing committee would be interested in the feedback left online about how Mosaic 2010 was. Capture and share the positive messaging, and deal with the negative upfront. All the positive comments that were made online now become your messaging towards tourists thinking about visiting Regina. It’s the authentic online story being told that is going to attract people to come in future years.

It seems like a very cost effective method of spreading the word about Mosaic and garnering feedback on how to improve this long standing tradition we host every year in Regina. What do you think? Would it work? Would you checkin somewhere to get a discount? Heck, I sure would!

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Do I Foursquare or Gowalla?

Jeph — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:00:46 +0000

Location based social networking is on the rise. Though you may not have heard of Foursquare or Gowalla their growth has exploded across the US and some of Canada. Combining gaming elements and using the location provided by the GPS in your smart phones, these applications allow you to “checkin” to places to earn points. Just this past weekend Foursquare exceeded 40 million checkins.

Why should you care?

When visiting a new city or wanting to eat at a different restaurant, you can see where people have been checking in to and what they have recommended to eat. Venues have a feature where you can add a tip for others to see when they checkin. Example: On Foursquare, if you checkin at Wasabi in the Normanview Crossing (in Regina), you will see my “tips” which notify you that the Bonnie and Rose roll is my favorite roll and the Roll-Bento is my favorite Bento box.

Now anywhere I go that I experience something amazing (like the Bonnie and Rose Roll at Wasabi) I can leave a note for the next person who checks in.

For business:

It doesn’t take a business strategy jedi to see how a business could benefit from location based applications. Many businesses have already begun offering discounts for those who checkin at their establishment.

In a World where word of mouth is still the most powerful medium, applications that allow us to voice our opinion more readily will increase in value. The more messages that are thrown at us via advertising efforts the more trust we will put in authentic messages from people we trust.

Are you on Foursquare or Gowalla? What is your opinion of location based applications?

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What Would You Do? a case study

Jeph — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:33:21 +0000

When I was 18 my brother bought me my first beer kit at Harvest Brewing, we transformed a part of the basement into a brewery, beginning a life long hobby. A couple years later I switched to wine and never looked back. Over the course of roughly 5 years I have made well over 100 kits (3000 bottles) of wine.

I have always patronized Harvest Brewing, one of the managers there would always go out of his way to ensure I was taken care of. For the store his attitude paid off, I was loyal, never buying from anywhere else and telling everyone interested that Harvest Brewing was the place to go. It wasn’t just the staff, I think Harvest Brewing’s wine kits are better, a couple months back I made a kit from a different store (it was for a lovely gal I make wine for, not myself) and the instructions alone were enough to make me quit drinking altogether.

So they have a great product, the employees go out of their way to help customers, what could possible be wrong at Harvest Brewing?

I went there last week to pick up a kit and chat about attracting new clientele and possibly helping begin a “You Brew” program in the store or in homes. The response I received was don’t even try, it isn’t worth your time. The owner is unreachable.

The store that has kept me there so long told me that the owner doesn’t care, he doesn’t have the time of day to listen. If you don’t care about your company at least fake it to your employees so they don’t pass that on to your customers.

Immediately I felt shameful for being a long time customer of a store who’s owner doesn’t care about his employees or store and is just trying to make a quick buck. Yes I’m over reacting and I know there MUST be more to the story but I’m not sure what I should do.

Would you pursue the owner and let him know the message his employees are conveying? Change stores immediately? Not do anything and keep helping a store who’s owner doesn’t care? Please help.

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Wasabi

Jeph — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:40:22 +0000

I love sushi. My favorite place is Wasabi at the Normanview crossing. The other day I wasn’t sure what time they closed so I decided to Google them. I couldn’t find anything, not a phone number, address, nothing. Now all I want is the basics; hours open, location, menu (with prices), God forbid a testimonial or two! Go ahead, try find them on the internet.

I know they can get all this done with minimal to no work at all on their behalf for $1,000-$1,500. So what’s stopping them? Probably the cost. But if the average person spends a minimum $10 it would take 100 people who found their site online and convinced them to come thru the door to achieve the site’s break even point. What would you do?

They could take it one step further and have pictures of everything on the menu (their menu is HUGE) or have a Sushi tutorial, teach me about it, give me something more than I’d expect to find on their site. But first things first get a site.

The amazing thing about this Wasabi is that it has a beautiful interior and is the most inexpensive in town (unverified) but a bento box here is $9.99 and it’s delicious! You can’t tell me more people wouldn’t go there knowing this and why not spread the word? Start a Facebook group when you join you get 50% off your next visit, then at random once every month that same offer is sent out to all the group members. It might just work, but first they need a site.

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Semantic Markers

Jeph — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:21:02 +0000

Martin Lindstrom is a fascinating individual, he did a seven million dollar marketing study on the brain and wrote a book about it; Buy-ology: The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. I encourage you to read it but what got me thinking was a recent podcast put on by Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch. Talking with Mr. Lindstrom, they simplified it down to semantic markers. Lindstrom says, “Semantic markers are like a slap on the chin” in a negative or positive way. Our subconscious makes most of the decisions for us so brands should be trying to create these subtle markers in our minds. Lindstrom goes on to say that small companies should be taking advantage of semantic markers to get a lot of value out of the marketing effort with very little effort.

So how do you create a semantic marker in someone’s mind? By going to extreme’s and doing something completely unexpected but so memorable it is embedded in our minds. Remember how good Burger Baron’s billboards were? They were different and were actually funny that they stuck out in our minds, you’d chuckle to yourself when you thought of Burger Baron.

How about the Roughrider’s Watermelon heads? Difficult not to talk about those. It allowed Roughriders fans to show the league how dedicated they really were. It was different and definitely not for everyone.

Just recently the apparel company 22 Fresh came out with a new outlet store on Facebook.

The only way you can buy anything in the store is if you have “Scrilla”, and you can buy Scrilla or earn it.

This store isn’t for the average person, then again, regular people don’t wear 22 Fresh, it’s cool, it’s new, and you have to have the Scrilla to afford it.

What’s different is memorable.

Lindstrom also discusses why we don’t see more of this ingenious advertising regularly and he attributes it to organizations being too conservative and trying to please the masses. When you set out to tell everyone a message, no one hears. Most of the advertising messages we see are targeted at a large number of people and the result isn’t surprising. The more conservative, politically correct, respectful, polite the message is, the easier it is for us to ignore it.

So the next time you want to tell everyone about your product don’t, come up with a different message, a different medium, cross the line, offend someone, do something that has never been done in your industry, evoke emotion. Otherwise you are just making noise.

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