Social media is all the rage in the marketing world, especially the small business marketing world. I know this because it is what I do and what I hold seminars on. And I talk to business owners everyday who say “oh, I already have a Facebook page”. As if that were enough. I often equate it to a decade ago when businesses thought they could just build a web site and their sales would skyrocket. We all know how successful businesses were who had a site with no strategy.

I use this blog to give you real world examples of good and bad marketing which I tag as “Brilliant” or “Daft”. This is not to highlight or criticize the companies in my example, but rather to get you to think. Are you doing something similar? How can you make it better? If it’s a good idea, can you use it in your business?

I encourage my clients and audiences to look at what is working in other industries and apply it to their business. I absolutely love this example below by a guy looking for a job in advertising…

Does that give you any ideas on what you could be spending your AdWords budget on other than fighting for those hot keywords?



Through the magic of a friend’s Facebook status update, I was introduced to woot.wine today which naturally led me to their main site – woot!. This is a great business model for the internet – the deal of the day. Woot! offers one deal per day, usually an electronics item. The deal is only good from 12am CST for 24 hours or until that item is sold out – no back orders, no returns. They have harnessed the power of the internet not only in their business model but also in their use of Twitter. This is an obvious fit for Twitter with followers receiving the tweet as soon as deal is available – Brilliant!

I’ve signed up for their woot.wine alerts and can’t wait to order my first deal!

]]> http://www.laurabcreative.com/blog/2009/03/social-media-opens-up-whole-new-world/feed/ 0 http://www.laurabcreative.com/blog/2009/02/never-asked-questions/ http://www.laurabcreative.com/blog/2009/02/never-asked-questions/#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:55:33 +0000 admin http://www.laurabcreative.com/blog/?p=210

I was visiting my County web site today and visited the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and saw a link at the bottom of the page to Seldom Asked Questions followed by a link to Never Asked Questions (NAQ). What a clever way to include info that might otherwise not have a home on the web site or that might make the FAQs really long. However, this is info they wanted to include and I bet it gets a lot of traffic. Here is the first entry from the NAQ section:

Nobody asked us, but we thought you might like to know:

How is “Loudoun” pronounced?

It’s pronounced like the word “louden.”

What can you do to make your web site a little less serious while still providing the appropriate information to your audience?

This bag belongs to my friend Barbara. Isn’t it great?

Barbara sells Cookie Lee jewelry. It’s great stuff. What I really love about Barbara’s bag is that wherever she goes, she is marketing to everyone who sees her without saying a word. You can see she’s inserted some promotional text along with jewelry samples into the clear pockets on the side of the bag. Brilliant!

What are you doing to promote your business when you are out in public without saying a word?

I can’t stress enough how important a good domain name is for a company, especially a small business. Competition out there is tough enough. Don’t make it even harder for your customers to find you by having a less than memorable domain name. At this point in time it may be difficult to secure yourbusinessname.com. But take a lesson from Zip Dry Cleaners and find  a .com that is memorable and not too far off. They use 321zips.com. Brilliant!

Domain registrations are cheap so secure similar and alternate names for your business as well. Washington Sports Clubs is part of a large company that also owns New York Sports Clubs, Boston Sports Clubs, and Philadelphia Sports Clubs. Their main domain is mysportsclubs.com. However, they still have failed to secure mysportsclub.com which was only first registered in 2003 and is up for sale. When I used to frequent their web site to check class schedules, I could never remember which domain was correct. How happy would I have been if the proper site popped up whether I included the “s” or not? Daft!

I love a good cross promotion. I saw this sign at 7-Eleven today. I can imagine all the cubicles across the country with opposing red and blue cups. In fact, I see myself frequenting my local 7-Eleven in the next four weeks because it’s a fun, slightly subtle way to support your candidate. At this time in the election season, what a great way to make 7-Eleven coffee exciting with the tie-in to the election and the CNN show.

Who can you partner with to cross-promote and give you a new way to position your product or service?

My local grocery store has upgraded their kid-friendly shopping carts to TV Karts. Talk about making your product it’s own advertising. The cart looks like a car so toddlers feel like they are driving. The cart has two screens. One shows your little one an episode of a favorite TV show – we prefer Dora the Explorer. The other shows the adult commercials for grocery store products along with buttons to push for more information. At one point during our short shopping trip today, the screen flashed a store directory but I couldn’t get back to that screen on my own later. The cart also includes a drink holder which fits in nicely with the Starbucks located inside my Safeway. I may never leave. Brilliant!

If these carts stay a free service, great. However, I fear that in six months or so, I will be inserting quarters into the TVKart to use it. I am hoping that the advertisers who are getting space through the adult screen will be the ones who foot the cost.

If you want to learn about self promotion, especially the shameless kind, you need to look no further than professional sports. Last night on the first episode of HBO’s Hardknocks, a full minute of the show was devoted to promotion of totees.com. A new line of t-shirts created by Terrell Owens.

T.O. took advantage of the opportunity for added exposure through the show. He planned ahead and got samples of the tees shipped to the Cowboys practice facility during the first week of training camp and filming of the HBO show. The show shows T.O. opening the box, looking at the tees and also looking directly into the camera to plug the web site. He also gave samples to all his teammates so that virtually every casual or training room shot of the players includes players wearing the tees. Brilliant!

I think Starbucks is lobbying to get there own category on this blog. I just got an email from them stating that if I take my receipt from the morning into Starbucks after 2pm, I can have my favorite cold beverage for only $2. And, not only did I do that this afternoon, but two of my friends mentioned it to me this evening. Talk about spreading the word. All this from a simple registration system for their gift cards. Brilliant!

What are you willing to offer your customers in exchange for a chance to continue to market to them on a more personal level?

Any questions?

I am sure the first question this eye doctor used to get was, “Do you accept my insurance?”. My guess is that with this sign, this office has saved itself time and attracted more foot traffic since everyone walking by knows the answer. It got me to walk right in the door and make an appointment for tomorrow.