Event marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing strategies in the industry right now.  Whether companies focus on upscale events, street teams, or in-store events, more and more consumers are becoming enthralled with the craze.  While reading articles this past week, I found the following article that talks about the popularity of photographs in event marketing.  Event Marketer magazine suggests that photo activation among consumers during events not only pleases customers by actively participating, but it allows them to continue engaging with the product post-event.  Photographs taken at certain events, if done right, can help create a relationship among consumer and brand.

This past summer and early fall, several companies have focused on photography and the post-event engagement among consumers.  Home Depot has teamed up with NASCAR and College Game Day to help co-sponsor fans getting their photographs taken behind NASCAR scenes and with football hot shots. By giving away a mystery amount gift card when the customer goes to the NASCAR or College Game Day site to get their picture, both companies are gaining customer loyalty.

Oscar Myer has been using its infamous Weinermobile to its advantage this summer.  While most consumers see the weinermobile and whip out their cameras for a photo op, Oscar Myer thought that they would capitalize on consumer interaction and brand loyalty by bringing its mobile to a number of festivals, fairs, stores etc.  They ran their new campaign advertisements and allowed consumers to "get in a picture with the weinermobile." These pictures were then put online in hopes that when fans came to retrieve their pictures they would stock up on other  related products. 

Event marketing is becoming more and more popular among companies as they get tired of traditional marketing strategies.  Engagement with consumers at these events is also helping this marketing strategy take off and become popular among the numbers.

 Last night I had the privilege of seeing Gary Kunath, founder and CEO of the Summit Group speak at Miami University.  While Gary is like a father figure to me, it was extremely impressive and motivational to see him up in front of a large crowd. 

Gary spoke about being marketable.  About how experience and interaction among consumers is what is driving business these days.  Rather than enticing people through advertisements and creating a brand through traditional marketing strategies, it is time for us to switch gears and build our brands based on experience. 

For small business marketing, this is especially true.  To gain the repeat customers you desire, it is important that companies create a strong in-store or online experience.  By offering interactive marketing where consumers can not only see the product or service, but can use the product/service, or talk to the employees and other consumers, consumers tend to become brand loyal.  In addition, having pages out there on MySpace and Facebook that allow consumers to engage actively in a company's interactive marketing, makes it easier for consumers to talk to one another about the product, trust one another about the benefits of the product, and it also allows them to be reminded each day that the product/service is out there and ready for them.

The same hold true with the employees within the business.  The more they interact and have fun with those they can relate to their colleagues, the more loyal they become as well.  So, as you begin to build your company's marketing strategy remember that is important to have fun, be yourself, and entertain the consumer through positive interaction and communication. 

I heard the other day that "marketing costs for small businesses are just not justifiable."  Many businesses often think that marketing is not one of the more important costs within the business--small businesses especially.  However, small business marketing is often what makes or breaks companies. 

Small businesses should have a very cost effective marketing strategy.  It should include email marketing, building a website, maintaining SEO, and blogging for sure.  While in the office, I help a lot of mainstream businesses who can afford at least a good majority of the marketing services that we provide, there are companies and groups I deal with outside of work don't or may not want to devote as much money to their marketing as they should. 

Since I am very involved in the horse world, I will use that market as an example.  As the horse world continues to grow rapidly, it is important more than ever now that riding stables, show facilities, and trainers use marketing to their advantage.  It is important to create websites and pages on MySpace and Facebook for them since their main target market is teenagers.  Especially for those barns located near college towns and major universities, SEO and website enhancement are EXTREMELY important.  High school students looking to ride after school often make sure that their university either has an equine program or has a riding facility near by. And how do they find that....the Internet of course!

So while people may think that marketing is not always worth the money put in, I'll tell you from a market that I never thought would make it online, it is! Marketing is important to all businesses--especially small businesses who think that they cannot afford it.

In addition to a strong blog and website content, one of the leading small business marketing strategies is email marketing.  Email can not only get pertinent information out to clients/customers, but it can be a personalized message to clients that make them feel like a large part of the company and its motives.  While the information that goes into the email is important to get right, it is also important to get the design of the email correct so that it is aesthetically appealing and has easy usability.  While building the template for a new client of ours, I began looking through articles that could give me email marketing tips about content and layout.  I came across the following:

8 Email Marketing Tips
Email Marketing Tips, Tricks and Secrets

Just reading through these during the email marketing design phase helped me think about what was important to candidates and to the business writing the emails.  Once I got into the mind set of what each party would like, it was a little easier to create the layout and content.  Without searching through email marketing content, I felt as though I was just building emails and learning through trial and error what works and what doesn't.  However, once I took the time to look through why email marketing was positive for companies and clients, and different email tips, email marketing became easier for me to understand.

I just finished writing an article for one of our clients, Partner Finance, a local finance and accounting executive search firm.  Entitled Staying Marketable in a Down Economy, the article proposes what finance and accounting professionals should do to weather this current storm, whether they're looking for a job right now or simply trying to stay in the one they have given the market turmoil. 
   
Unfortunately, it's times like these that many realize the need for a personal marketing strategy.  It's now that so many kick themselves for not doing what it takes to be prepared before the storm hit.  Kind of like a company that spends nothing on a marketing strategy and execution plan until sales dry up, and then they wonder why the results don't come immediately.

Spend some time on your own brand development exercise.  What makes you, well, you?  Find your strengths.  Then put them to work, and insulate yourself to market fluctuations.



The advice is suitable for just about anyone today.  Check it out.  I'd love your feedback.

After just over a month, I think I'm finally settling in.  I've begun to learn enough of the marketing strategies to begin venturing out on my own now.  Rather than having to be helped every other minute, I am finally feeling more confident in my abilities and the work that I am producing.  In fact, even client phone calls are becoming less intimidating and more fun.  I feel as though my learning curve is beginning to subside and I can finally use my learned marketing knowledge in my extra marketing activities outside of the office.  I am able to apply concepts from the office to websites that I have created and now feel more confident in measuring the success they are producing.  While I still have a lot to learn about small business marketing and different interactive marketing, email marketing, and event marketing strategies, I at least feel as though I am not in the dark as much when we do sit down with clients.

Phew! I thought this might have been a long, rough road, but the reality of the matter is, when you put your mind to it...I guess it is achievable. 

This week, I have been working on researching B2B marketing strategies for one of our clients.  Upon trying to find information, Brian directed me to a site called SlideShare. I had never used this site, let alone heard of this site, but was pretty amazed at the amount of content that was on the page.  SlideShare is a site that allows users to upload slide presentations on just about any subject.  The presentations, range in size and depth, but are great tools when trying to research certain subjects.  I wish that I had known about this site while I was still in school because of the vast amount of information that you can find.  I suggest you check it out!

While getting ready to come to work this morning, I had the news on in the background and couldn't help but overhear a news story about a new interactive marketing strategy.  Since most conventional marketing strategies are becoming obsolete and marketers are having to turn to new progressive measures, companies such as Reactrix are setting the bar high. 

Reactrix has come up with an interactive display within malls and specific stores that allow consumers to participate in a number of video games.  These displays are made up of a digital pad on the floor playing advertisements within a video-game realm.  Rather  than just playing advertisements that consumers often block-out, Reactrix is making their advertisements come to life.  This interactive marketing not only grabs consumers' attention from afar, but is longer lasting among consumers as well.  The more fun the game that the advertising is allowing consumers to play, the longer consumers remember the brand, and the more awareness that brand receives.

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Interactive digital signage and interactive marketing does not stop there.  The company GestureTek is using similar approaches among the gesture-based digital signage.  Rather than only sharing advertisements through games on the floor, GestureTek is using table tops, wall mounts, and interactive decorations.  They also branch out from the interactive games and provide consumers with interactive visual displays of all different effects.  Click here for more information.

Due to the lessening popularity of traditional marketing strategies, more companies are going to be engaging in more consumer interactive advertisements and several other forms of interactive marketing.  Companies that are already ahead of the ball like Reactrix and GestureTek,  have definitely closed this gap of the future!

Tim Manners had an interesting post last Thursday.  Has your Cincinnati advertising agency or Cincinnati marketing firm become irrelevant?  He thinks so, primarily because he says they've become too dependent on the advertising and not enough on the merits of the actual products and services themselves.

I see a lot of this - great ad campaigns that are well written, artfully designed, and oozing with carefully deliberated marketing strategy - and yet, they seem to talk over the consumer.



As Mr. Manners relates in his new book:

Relevant brands understand certain principles:

• Insight. Relevant brands care about what we actually do, not just what we think.  (Side note:  Here's a great company that helps you figure that out.)
• Innovation. Relevant brands know the difference between what's purely remarkable and what actually works.
• Investment. Relevant brands understand the imperative of sparing no expense when it comes to satisfying our needs.
• Design. Relevant brands live and breathe simplicity.
• Experience. Relevant brands realize that it's more important to touch us in real life than on television.
• Value. Relevant brands are more than worth every penny.

So, are we creating the advertising because we depend on it to justify our businesses or are we truly speaking to the consumer?

Getting my feet wet within a new company has allowed me to gain a lot of knowledge in a short period of time.  I have learned more about internet marketing in two weeks than most college graduates do in half a year.  That being said, I have noticed a very interesting trend among companies both in the Cincinnati area, and through research and time spent playing on the internet, companies across the world--Websites.  While many companies put a lot of thought and time into making sure their website not only educates readers, but is aesthetically pleasing, many do not. 

A lot of content among websites is either poorly written or is not helping the company in any way, shape, or form.  Content among websites is extremely important for companies to get ahead among their competitors.  Not only does it tell a story about the company and their mission, but it is an essential tool when pulling customers to the site.  Through techniques, such as search engine optimization, companies can see how the content and the way it is written, helps the website become top ranked among search engines like Google and Yahoo.  By having their site toward the top of the searched sites, companies can draw consumers to their website easier and hopefully gain an advantage over their competitors. This is the same with the aesthetics of the website as well.  Sure a website may have great content and be extremely well-written, but without a good layout and a strong color scheme, the website can be easily over looked.  It is important for companies to create an attractive page that is not cluttered or one that makes your eyes jump from an important part of the page to a less important part.  For example, taking the customer's eyes away from content related to the product/service to look at a picture in the opposite corner.  Clearly, we need more websites to capture an audience for more than just graphics!

It also amazes me that many companies are unaware of the advantage gained through strong websites--especially when they only have a small marketing budget to work with in the first place.  I feel as though many companies cut corners to save money and time by creating their own website without the proper knowledge of how effective their website can be.  Little do many people know, even just taking the time to write an effective and detailed script for websites will help draw consumers more than one that is written so poorly it cannot make it to the top of the search.  I believe more marketing consulting companies need to focus on this branch of a company's marketing strategy.  They need to push this idea of a stronger website so that companies can get ahead easier and more effectively. 

The old phrase "you learn something new everyday," does not even come close to the amount of information that I have acquired during my first week on the job.  Coming into the office, I knew a lot about the theories and definitions of many marketing strategies, however, I had never really been able to apply them completely to the real world from a small business marketing firm's point of view.  Now, though, I am beginning to feel extremely comfortable about blending theories and applications together with a hint of creativity and a new perspective. 

Not only do I feel comfortable sharing my ideas within the office, but after a meeting with one of our clients, I feel as though my fresh ideas will spread like rapid fire with our clients as well.  While sitting in a meeting, I couldn't help but sit back and listen as to how other businesses operate and brainstorm ideas.  I really took the time to immerse myself in their culture to understand exactly who they are, how they operate, and what is important to them.  This not only allowed me to feel part of the group as we discussed new marketing strategies, but made it easier to come up with ideas that matched the positioning and brand development of the company.  While each company is ultimately unique in its processes, I found that my adaptability to create ideas or suggestions works in other settings that I am not used to.  I now realize that whatever setting I am thrown into, I feel confident enough with my ideas and intuition about the culture of the company to be able to create some solid ideas.   Whew! I was hoping this would be the case!

In addition to feeling confident within the office, I now feel confident with taking my ideas out of the office.  I have now even been able to take a majority of concepts out of the office now and apply them to the other areas of my life.  After learning more techniques regarding search engine optimization and email marketing tips, I have been able to continue creating a strong marketing tool for a local horseback riding facility.  Even the knowledge I gained from our client's perspective, has allowed me to help this same facility with its brand development and creatively sharing this positioning with its clientele. While i could do this to an extent before working with ROWhy! Marketing, I have a lot more to offer knowledge wise to other passions within my life. 

Who knew that even after one week of work and the immersion into a small business and its culture would not only tell you about the type of worker you are, but would give you enough knowledge to begin applying techniques to other areas of your life?

Today was an exciting marketing strategy day for us at R.O. Why! Marketing.  I began the day with an intensive marketing strategy session with a client that focused on brand development and market segmentation.  After weeks of analysis, we came together to put things in motion toward achieving the company's $100MM revenue goal.

Some of the questions on the table were:

• How do we differentiate ourselves in a market that is cluttered with like firms?
• We know what's unique in our business model, but do customers value that?
• If they don't value what we feel is unique, is it truly a differentiator?
• Do we continue to serve broad markets or should we tailor our solutions for niche markets, as the The Long Tail professes?
• The path to $100MM has several different, but equally valid approaches, as proven by larger competitors.  Which marketing strategy is best?
• What is our brand today, and what should it be in the future?

All good questions, and together over the next few weeks we'll answer them, and create a go to market strategy that delivers on the brand promises.

In your business, which approach prevails?  Single solutions delivered to broad markets or multiple product variations tailored for smaller, but potentially more lucrative niches?  Pursuing The Long Tail takes courage.

Are you willing to ignore the masses and differentiate, tailor to smaller niche markets, and say no to some business in order to own your niche?  Perhaps Macy's is starting to embrace this approach.  Will you buy more?

Would your customers?

I subscribe to a free service that let's me know what stories and sources reporters are looking for.  It's called Help a Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com)  You should check it out.

So this morning I get an email about a contest that an online resource for those going through divorce is holding, and they're asking for promotion ideas.  The winner receives a Kindle.  Although I think the Kindle is super cool and of course I'd like to have one, I also get totally jazzed about coming up with interactive marketing ideas.  Companies today are looking beyond email marketing, search engine optimization and other brand development strategies toward more interactive marketing approaches to involve their audiences.  No, I'm not the first to suggest a viral video marketing strategy, but I believe that this approach has a lot of merit if building word of mouth is important to you.

Here's the idea I submitted:
(Remember, this is for a website that provides resources for those who have gone through a divorce, so the strategy needs to fit.)

Potential titles:

The ‘Dear John, It’s Over’ Video Contest
The ‘I never meant to hurt you’ Video Contest
The ‘It’s Over!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’m Starting Over…I Need a Makeover!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’ve got to get something off my chest’ Video Contest

Potential promotional copy:

Hey, divorce is a difficult thing to go through, and through these tough times we could all use a little laugh, right?  [Contest sponsor] announces the ‘I never meant to hurt you’ video contest.

Is it time for a divorce?  Time to tell your significant other to take a hike?  Need to come clean about seeing ‘someone’ else?

• Have you  been burned by your PC too many times?
• Cheated on your PC with a Mac?
• Had a Miller Lite while your Bud wasn’t looking?
• Has Windows Vista taken you for granted one too many times?
• Time to say goodbye to your 3 year old’s binky when it no longer quiets your little hellion like it promised to?

Confess to your ‘significant other’ about it in a short, funny, 2 minute original video.  What counts is  humor, originality, video production quality, and the tangible metric – YouTube views.  Videos must be sent to [the contest sponsor's website] where they will be screened (for inappropriate content) and uploaded to the contest channel on YouTube.  [The contest sponsor] embeds the YouTube video code into the site and builds a quick polling feature to allow visitors to vote, and the highest combination of website visitor votes + YouTube views wins.

Here’s an example of a script for a video:  Telling your SUV that you’ve been seeing a perky little hybrid.

“Hi honey, we need to talk.  We’ve been together for a long time.  We’ve had some tough times and some really great ones too.  But over the years I feel that I’m the only one putting the effort into this relationship.  I take care of you, keep you looking great, and I will say that you’ve been pretty reliable.  But the world around us has changed.  Gas prices are skyrocketing and frankly, people think we’re unsafe.  They just look at us differently now, and as hard as I have tried to remain content, this relationship just takes everything out of me.  I fill you up with my love every week, but then I have nothing left.  No passion, no excitement, and no money.  It costs so much more now to keep this relationship going than it ever used to.  I feel taken advantage of, and I….I’m so sorry…I just can’t do this anymore.  I need to tell you that there’s someone else.  For the last few months I…God I can’t believe I’m telling you this….I’ve been seeing a hybrid.  No, it’s not someone from work, and I really wasn’t looking.  It just kind of happened.  I’m so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you, but I need to go this direction in my life right now.  It’s what I need to feel like myself again.  And you’re going to be fine, really!  I think we’ve both been pulling each other down.  You’re a smart, good looking, enormous SUV with a strong personality and a command for the road.  There are other people out there that would appreciate you, give you all the gas you need and not feel guilty about it.  You know, the wealthy elite.  I just can’t afford to give you what you need anymore.  I’m so sorry.”

We'll see if the idea wins the contest, and I'll of course post it here, but let me know what you think.  Have any viral video ideas or examples you'd like to share?

I was inspired today by a great blog post by Seth Godin.  In it, he compares marketers to lawyers, charged not necessarily with telling the truth, but with arguing for the client, their product, their practices, etc.  We're paid to claim that our client's products are the best, even if they are not.  Clients hire us to build email marketing campaigns, event marketing programs, interactive marketing strategies, and other marketing strategy efforts to sell the product or the service, even if it's not the best; even if the customer would be better off with nothing at all, or heaven forbid, a competitor's product.

What about when a client hires a Cincinnati advertising agency like R.O.Why! Marketing?  They want email marketing tips and ROI marketing programs that grow their business.  They need a newsletter and they know that what they need is a newsletter.  But what if they don't?  What if they're wrong?  What if they really need something else?  What if R.O.Why! Marketing isn't right for them?

It's happened before, on each end of the spectrum.  Just this week we landed a client who felt that email marketing was what they needed.  While email marketing does need to be a part of the mix, we believed it was not the right time.  After we considered the ultimate marketing results they were looking for, their culture, the budgets and timeframes, we felt strongly that blogging for business was best for them.  We could have just sold them an email marketing program for more money and more profit.  It would have been easier, but it wasn't right.  Their audience expects more and while we were hired to serve the client, I believe we were really hired to serve their customer.

We've also had to walk away from business because the product couldn't live up to the marketing claims.  The company needed to make dramatic changes to the product itself in order to make it competitive, and good for customers, and worth buying. 

As Seth says "...marketers still have the chance to be believed. But trust belongs to statesmen, not lawyers."

As any individual or corporate blogger knows, comments posted to your blog are an important element to building a dynamic conversation and an ongoing relationship with your readers.  It is very important to solicit comments whenever possible, asking customers, employees, partners and even the general public to chime in with their reactions to your posts.  This feedback on your blog give you a sense for how your message is resonating, allowing you to directly address comments and perhaps tailor your communication to better suit your readers' interests.

While the tone, nature and information shared in comments posted to a personal blog may be of little concern, when it comes to blogging for business, oversight of your blog posts and comments is critical.   Organizational blogging efforts must strike a delicate balance between freeing the passionate voices within and the external market to share their insights with the corporate need to keep the blog on strategy from a branding and messaging standpoint.

For example, today we received a comment posted to our blog that began as follows:

"Our web is wholesale jewelry. This is the largest wholesaler of the jewelry and all the commodities made by handmade. You can wholesale thousands of jewelry easily and quickly. The minimum order is $100. We specialize in..."

This is of course a blatant attempt to promote products & services by an unethical marketer.  Instead of finding blogs specific to the wholesale jewelry business, this person is attempting to post advertisements on every blog they can find.

Had our blog been built using some of the free tools out there, this comment may have made it onto our blog unnoticed, confusing our readers and eroding the value of our blogging efforts overall. 

Instead, we use a blogging for business platform that helps protect the company from off-strategy posts and comments, and ensures that we deliver valuable blog content that our readers want.  The marketing-related conversations being held on our blog don't get interrupted by irrelevant messages, and our relationships remain protected.

Want to see a demo of a blog platform that delivers all the benefits of blogging for business (including automatically keyword optimized blogs built on a search engine marketing strategy) while delivering the brand and messaging oversight that's critical to your business?  Click the Contact Us link above to get in touch.

In many B2B marketing environments, there is a belief that the marketing strategy and communications plan has to be different from that of consumer companies; that companies buy differently than people do.  While you may be dealing with longer sales cycles and purchasing departments, committees and POs, I believe that the purchase decision in a B2B environment is far more similar to that in B2C than it is different.

Whether you're picking out a new pair of shoes for yourself, or new wireless devices for your distributed sales organization, I believe you'll buy from people (and brands) that you like.  Once B2B marketers and sales teams get through the lengthy sales process, the proposals and price quotes (ick are those no fun,) most find that it comes down to the one on one relationship between people within the buying and selling organizations. 

My accountant is someone I like personally.  So is my banker, my IT consultant, the owner of my payroll company, and my insurance broker.  Sure, we went through a needs analysis, proposals and contract negotiations, but first and foremost, I liked them.

Your customers are no different.  I understand that you sell complex ERP software that needs buy in from many different stakeholders.  Yes, there's an RFP process that you have to follow to have a chance of winning the bid for that new facility your company will build for the customer.  But if they don't like you, personally, your odds of winning go way down.  If they don't identify with you and the brand you represent, you're out.

To like you, customers must get to know you and your people.  They need to get on the inside, understand how you think, and see the human side of your organization.  This is why blogging for business makes so much sense.  By allowing your employees to have a public voice, your customers get to see and hear who you really are.  Blogging for business isn't the same as any other form of business writing.  Blog writing teaches humility, and in each post we discover the person behind it.  The personality, the passions, the expertise.  Our customers start to form a bond with us as they identify with our thinking.

Open up your business and let your customers in.  Get rid of the corporate marketing speak, and let your employees share their voice.  Speak to your market in the same way your favorite personal brands speak to you.  You'll soon discover that your customers buy from people they like as well.

Here at R.O.Why! Marketing, we've had quite the new business development push going, and it's really starting to pay off.  We are very fortunate to have been recently chosen as the Cincinnati marketing firm by two area companies: DocuStar and also by Star Base Consulting.  We will be delivering a variety of solutions including marketing strategy, email marketing, direct mail, interactive marketing, and a corporate blogging platform.

The other story behind our new business push is the flurry of requests we're receiving for quotes.  It seems that many firms are talking with Ohio marketing agencies and shopping price.  We are being asked for quotes on search engine optimization, quotes on ROI marketing measurement, quotes for email marketing programs, etc. 

While we certainly appreciate the interest, we will not reduce what we do to a commodity.  At R.O.Why! Marketing we sell marketing solutions that grow businesses.  Period.  Have a problem like too few leads?  Not enough sales?  Customers not fully engaged?  We can help you solve that, but it starts with a relationship.  We need to build one together in order to properly address your challenge.

How much to send emails to my database?
In one example, a company asked us for a quote for an email marketing program.  Well, anyone can provide email software.  Anyone can deliver a tool at a price, but it's what you get for that price, the expertise in email marketing, the best practices, knowing what to avoid, the support, the on call status, etc. that makes all the difference in the world.  I just can't communicate all of that without meeting the company. or without writing a ridiculously long proposal that no one would read.  You need to hear it in my voice, read it in my face, shake my hand and know that you're talking to the company that CAN make it happen.

We sell the solution to the problem, the expertise.  The tool is just the tool, and if it's just quoted like that, it will be compared to other tools without an appropriate appreciation for the differences in features/functionality, and the company and people behind it.

Everything can be obtained cheaper.  Are you sure that's what you want?