Marketing - The Bold Approach Method

Here is an ad that works

It's funny, forces its way past past Broca's area of your brain and gets your attention while forcing you to watch.
And . . .

It's in Japanese.

But hey, the subtitles are great too!

If you want to know how to make your marketing and advertising work, this is a good place to visit.

Web Presence Playing An Even Larger Role In Small Business Advertising

Interland research reports that more 69% of small businesses (revenue under $1M in sales) report that they consider their website to be “critical in driving business.” What are you doing to make your web presence more powerful? Are you taking advantage of all the opportunities to make sure that people who are finding you on the web are converting? Is your site a powerful selling tool? Here are just a few things you can do to leverage the power of your site:

1. Be sure you have powerful informational pieces that support your business (brochures, white papers, studies etc.) that can be downloaded and referred to regularly.
2. Use Google Adwords effectively. Adwords can drive a tremendous amount of business to your site.
3. Develop your blog, even if you don’t have a full blown website, set up a blog. Get your ideas, thoughts and opinions known. Blogs have a lot of credibility because most of them are opinion oriented rather than sales oriented. Be sure and lead with your best information and then encourage the reader to take some next step.

For a complete look at what outlets other small businesses are using to motivate their clients, have a look at the article showing all of the information from the study.

Seth Godin Stops In To Talk About The Free Prize Inside

I wanted to really find out how to become a Free Prize Thinker and the real differences between marketing as it is today and as it could be if it were delivered with a Free Prize. Seth REALLY delivers. Enjoy.

1. What is the difference between Free Prize thinking and current marketing ideology?

Current marketing thinking goes like this: We have money, we have power. We can command (take) attention from our targeted consumers whenever we want by buying ads. If we buy enough ads, and the ads are targeted right and the creative is good, the ads will make a profit and virtuous cycle will be created.

Free Prize thinking says: The only way to get through the filters is to have people talk to each other about the remarkable stuff we're doing. And more often than not, that conversation is about something magical inside the product, not in the spin we're putting on it.

2. How does someone become a Free Prize thinker?

The hardest step is acknowledging that you're not in charge of the conversation. That'll force you to go back to the drawing board to make something worth talking about. After that, you'll be irresistibly drawn
to the edges.

3. How often should you evaluate your business from this new way of thinking?

How often can you? That's how often you should! No quarterly reviews! In the world of fad and fashion, things happen way too fast for that.

4. What are the fundamental issues starring marketers in the facethat they don’t see?

Marketers are viewed by the CFO as a cost center and by the rank and file as hype-mastering dilletantes.

They need to change the dynamic and essentially get everyone in the company to work for the marketing department, to build the marketing right into the product or service from the very start.

5. Is there a difference in application for small vs. large companies when it comes to creating the Free Prize?

I'm inclined to say not really. Sure, it's harder to get more people on your team in the big company, but this is made up for by the increase resources available. I think the biggest difference is that small
companies have no choice but to measure, so they're doing this faster because they know the old stuff isn't working. The big companies can coast longer before they get nailed.

6. How does relevancy and the Free Prize work together to create the optimum customer experience?

Well, why talk about something that's not relevant to what you WANT? By definition, that's the only way to create a conversation. You can't force it.

7. What was the Free Prize in the book that almost everyone will overlook?

I think people aren't pushing themselves on the Edgecraft front as hard as they will once they get more into the ideas. That and the footnotes are pretty funny.

8. What’s next for Seth Godin?

A nap!

I have no new book in the works. I really want to help this idea settle in for a long time first.

Thanks for sharing these insights with us Seth and keep up the great thoughts, marketing and marketers everywhere need them.

If you haven't already bought Seth's new book Free Prize Inside, get it today!

Now go get that nap!

Last Stop On The Business Blog Book Tour

I deeply appreciate Todd at A Penny For, for inviting us to take part in this unique opportunity to promote a book and for allowing us to share the valuable insight of a seminal marketing thinker like Seth Godin with you. The Business Blog Book Tour (BBBT) is a very interesting model that shows how powerful subcomponents of the web, like blogs, can be to your business. Check out Seth's page at the BBBT and then go backward and read all of the powerful information that Seth shared with all the different blogs that participated.

Keep your browers pointed this direction, hopefully Todd will have another author that we can share with you soon!

Special Blog Guest Seth Godin

We'll have a special guest on the blog tomorrow, Seth Godin, author of "Free Prize Inside - The Next Big Marketing Idea." Seth will answer some great questions and show you how to create your own free prize. If you don't already own the book why not go to Amazon now and order it, your bottom line will be very happy you did. Bold Approach is the last stop on Seth's Blog Book Tour and we are excited to have him here!

A blog I read regularly that you should too is Wonderbranding. Michelle Miller is genius and I truly enjoy her thoughts and writing. You will too.

Making Blogging For Your Business Easier and Free!

Blogger.com has made using their blogging tools easier and it is still free. Virtually anyone can have a blog at this point and if you are a savvy business, you’ll get yours going right away.

Watch for your upcoming book: The Business Of Blogging – An expose on how to make blogs work for your business and why you MUST have one.

How to Alienate Your Valuable Clients

I’m traveling to Houston tomorrow and I wanted to get a car from Hertz, but they have no cars available in the city at all and even though I’m Hertz highest level “club” member, they can’t tell me exactly why, just that it is a “sell out.” But that if I want to pick a car up at 5:00am the following morning, they will have plenty . . . That lets me know that they have cars waiting (since they can’t be sure everyone or even someone will return a car prior to 5:00am so they can rent it. And, since I don’t get in until 10:00pm, anyone who brought a car back the night before could surrender the car to Hertz and them to me. But somehow this all makes sense to them, and my treatment is correct, yet they can’t fully explain what a sell out is or why their treament of one of their best customers is correct.

But that isn’t the best way to alienate a customer. The best way to do it is to do something like this:

So since I can’t get a car, I opt for a car service. I call a car service that I found on Google that says it is a twenty four hour service. When I called, I said so you are open twenty four hours a day and have drivers working twenty four hours a day? Their answer “Yes, we have drivers ready to drive twenty four hours a day, they can respond in five minutes notice.” Great. So I go ahead a book a car because it was actually cheaper than renting a car. They quote me the price for my pickup at the airport and then another price $10 higher. So me being the dumb customer I am, I ask, why $10 higher? Their answer: “Because we have to pick you up so early in the morning.” Even dumber me: But you just said you were a twenty four hour service. Them: “We are but it costs more if we have to pick you up early.” The really dumb me: If you are a twenty four hour service with guys standing by to drive why am I being penalized?” Them: “You aren’t sir it is just our policy, you might be able to find someone who won’t charge you an early pick up fee if you look around some more.” The sane me: Never mind, I’ll pay it because my time is worth more than $10 and I’ve already wasted that much getting to this point with you.

So guess who I’ll never use again? That’s right and guess who I’ll tell everyone I know not to use if they need to be picked up from Houston Intercontinental Airport. You got it. The only reason I won’t tell you the exact name of the company in this post is that you might actually use them and that would really be doing them a disservice. They need to fail faster on their own.

I’ll let you know how my ride goes if it exceeds my expectation.

What crazy policies or unexplainable events do you subject your customers to? Examine your processes, shop your receptionist and order takers to see how your customers are being treated firsthand. Aggressively correct any deficiencies you find to create an even better customer experience.

And when you do, your clients will reward you again and again with their dollars and the references of their friends and family.