Marketing Experts News

Seth Godin - Success On Your Terms

It's time to change the game. To play your game. To lead instead of follow.

People who can think for themselves, on their feet, without a roadmap will succeed in the new connected world. People who need roadmaps must evolve or go extinct.

 

Thanks to Creative Mornings and Seth Godin for this great, inspirational, education.

Seth Godin Shares Top Free Things Every Site Should Do

This very useful checklist for marketing any site at any stage of popularity from master marketer Seth Godin is sure to perk up your promotion.

Check it out here.

Direct Selling & Internet Video - It Can Work

This great video from Greg Jarobe & Reel SEO proves what many of us have known for a long time:

Internet video is the way to go and you CAN sell things with it, if you know how:

 

Contact me to add some celebrity appeal & star power to your video productions!

Boost Your Alexa Rank In 1 Week!

Jason Fox generously shares these simple steps to boosting your Alexa rank. It's easy and you can follow it as a checklist to repeat over & over again. Thanks Jay for the great share! Click the link below to check it out.

Boost Your Alexa Rank In Just 1 Week!

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Playstation 4 Announcement - Branding With A Soul

Sony has a soul. They proved with the opening of their PS4 announcement video that they know who they are and what they're doing.

While profits are important, because a business can't survive without them, staying true to the soul of your brand will keep the profits rolling in and make them grow - a lot.

Know what your company is about. What's your mission? Your vision? Your purpose? What do you represent? This is your brand's "soul". Knowing it, staying true and coordinating all of your marketing around it will build a company with staying power.

It has to be bigger than the "small stuff". That low level viewpoint of what you and your customers are doing day to day. It is the ESSENCE that you represent.

And it should weave throughout and permeate every message that comes from your company. Every promo piece, every email, every press release, every customer service call, internally and externally. It should be completely ubiquitous throughout your organization and be reflected, no matter how subtle or overt, in everything you do.

And a note on the song at the opening of this video: It took me a while to find it because there aren't many posts on it yet. But I did.

The song is called Monster Hospital by Metric and you can download it on iTunes.

Enjoy! -- Toli

 

 

Seth Godin - Pearls of Marketing Wisdom

If you do nothing all week but watch this video, it will be worth it.

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Seth Godin on The Icarus Deception, risk-taking and why it's better to be sorry than safe [Video]

"Life Is Too Short Not To Do Something That Matters" - Seth Godin

Seth Godin - How to get your ideas to spread

2012 Marketing Trends - Free Report Download

SmartBrief on Social Media & Adobe have given us this useful and informative report on what to expect in 2012 & beyond for digital marketing.

You can download it here.

The Business Of Video Games

This video gives a great perspective & overview on why interactive media such as video games can be highly profitable if done right. It also gives perspective on how to wreck something great if done wrong.

 

Mass Effect 3 Joins New Coke In Marketing History

Congratulations Bioware. You’ve now joined the ranks of New Coke in the annals of marketing history.

For those too young to remember, back in the day the top muckity mucks at Coca-Cola decided it was time for a “change” and that they should change the formula of Coca-Cola to something “new & different” in order to boost sales, their image and “keep up with the Joneses” (i.e. Pepsi).

Needless to say this change was met with great consumer outrage and horrible PR for Coke. So a few months later they changed the flavor back and came out with “Coca-Cola Classic” which is why you see the word “classic” on your Coke cans today.

At least the execs at Coca-Cola had the humility and courage to acknowledge the errors of their ways, admit they screwed up and give their paying customers what they wanted. CNBC did an entire special on Coca-Cola in which they admitted this and talked about it openly. You can watch it on Netflix or Hulu.

Will we see the same humility and courage from Bioware? So far, I think not. Their response to the public outcry about the ridiculous ending to Mass Effect 3 has been smug and arrogant at best. Bioware changed their successful “formula” in the creation of the ending to Mass Effect 3 just as Coca-Cola changed their formula for the Coke the world had come to know and love. Same song, different key.

What if Coca-Cola had said, “It’s OUR beverage and ‘artistic vision’.” “WE are the creators of Coca-Cola and we can make it taste any way we like.”, etc.,etc. Would the media have jumped to their defense as many mainstream game media have with Bioware? I think not.

The fact is that any business, any PRODUCT, has a responsibility to give its paying customers what they want or risk going out of business. Anything “created” can frankly be considered “art” because art by definition is the creation of something. But, as soon as commerce enters into the equation, the task at hand expands and must by necessity include the ability to exchange that “art” with one who will in turn pay money. If someone won’t pay for it, then commerce makes a quick exit and viability crumbles.

So Bioware and EA, what you need to do is recognize that you are in a COMMERCIAL business and as such have a responsibility to deliver art that people want to pay for and are happy with in order to stay in business. If you just want to be “artists” and “do your own thing customers be damned” then go ahead and make your “art” your own way. But don’t try to sell it or make a business out of it.

My suggestion is that Bioware, EA and especially Casey Hudson and the other execs behind the so called “artistic vision” of the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco take a lesson from the good old billionaires at Coca-Cola and eat your humble pie, knock off the arrogance and turn out a NEW, APPROPRIATE ending to the game, then “sit back on the beach and live off the royalties from the vids” purchased by your now HAPPY CUSTOMERS.

Related Links [Video]:

ME3 Ending DLC Discussion

Excellent Analysis Of Why The Ending Is "Broken"

The Business Of Gaming - Great Overview Of How This Happened In The First Place

Great Sales Leads: Are They An Endangered Species?

GREAT SALES LEADS:  ARE THEY AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?

Whenever the subject of leads is brought up these days most lead buyers will talk about how bad the leads are getting, how hard they are to find, and how expensive that they are to buy. In addition to these challenges, the companies that have traditionally supplied leads are dropping like flies. This is because the methods used to generate leads are disappearing fast such which includes email marketing, telemarketing, and fax broadcasts.

What is the ultimate lead and how can one possibly find them these days? The ultimate sales lead has the following characteristics:

The prospect is ready to buy right now

• The prospects IS the decision maker
• The prospect has the money to buy now
• The prospect has already seen your offer and
• Has made the decision to buy from you
• The prospect is not being talked to by a large number of your competitors

Does this sound like the perfect lead? Of course it does. Is there some magical potion to produce such a lead? Actually there is, but only if you set the program up correctly. What is this program? Search engine marketing, otherwise known as paid search advertising coupled with a carefully designed lead generation site.

Google is considered by many to be the major player involved in the search engine field. Their service is very effective if the campaign is set up correctly. That is a big if though. It has been found that over 50% of all companies that attempt to use Google fail in their efforts.

One can use a firm like InTouch Marketing (www.intouchmarketing.us), a company that was awarded the highest expert level bestowed by Google, to correctly set up one’s campaign. There are independent consultants who promote a certain level of expertise, but whose qualifications are unverifiable. If someone claims that they can set up a campaign overnight one should be very wary. It is simply not possible to establish a proper and successful search engine campaign without several weeks’ worth of detailed research and testing.

The other key to lead generation is the use of a proper web presence that is designed to create leads. Many web sites are simply designed to graphically impress a visitor, yet produces nothing in terms of leads. A good lead generation site or page educates the prospect and then gives them specific action to do..

By having the right web site presence and driving traffic to the site, through paid search ads, one can truly create the ultimate lead. Remember that people who are searching for something on the internet have already made a buying decision. The key is how economically one can push prospects to a web site and then whether the site is effective or not. The prospects are certainly out there on the internet looking.

On a typical day at the end of 2004, some 70 million American adults logged onto the Internet to use email, get news, access government information, check out health and medical information, participate in auctions, book travel reservations, research their genealogy, gamble, seek out romantic partners, and engage in countless other activities. That represents a 37 percent increase from the 51 million Americans who were online on an average day in 2000 when the Pew Internet & American Life Project began its study of online life. This trend is ONLY going up.

Another Pew study identified that fact that over 50% of all online purchases are now PRECEDED by an internet search. 36% of all internet users under the age of 30 say that they could not live without internet search engines. This illustrates what many in ad agency executives now take for granted—that people, in higher and higher numbers, are using internet information, not mainstream media related advertising, to make buying decisions. Every day, more and more people are turning on computers versus the TV set for information and entertainment.

The lesson to be learned here is that one has to control one’s own lead generation. Companies can no longer depend on third party lead providers as a sole source for their new prospects. The ultimate lead can be found. They are all over the internet searching right now.

Bruce Prokopets
Executive Editor
Press Direct International
In Touch Media Group