I listened to a podcast earlier today from Christopher Penn and John Wall (Marketing Over Coffee … my favorite marketing podcast) and the discussion revolved around blogging, new media, podcasting, etc.  Nothing really new there.

The little twist that Mr. Penn threw in, that I thought was interesting, was consciously infusing your podcasts with keywords and phrases.  The logic is that your cast may be quoted or, in part, transcribed back into text-based mediums.  When this happens, your cast will likely be found by surfers using those keywords.  This is indeed an interesting little twist on how to view your own content creation.

So, instead of simply interviewing people or randomly talking for the sake of creating a podcast, you should include podcast keyword/phrase preparation as part of your entire content creation strategy … which is, of course, a part of your overall written marketing plan.

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In December 2006 I spent several weeks leading up to the New Year, in collaboration with Allen Voivod at Epiphanies, prepping a guide called Go Nuts in 2007! I was thinking about how to make another big splash this year by putting together a monster list of links to great posts and articles I’ve read throughout the year. The idea would be to save you tons of time and energy researching stuff and coming up to speed on the new ideas that have hit the Internet Marketing scene in the past 12 months.

Well, it looks like I was beaten to the punch by Tamar Weinberg in her post Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007. Not only is this a fabulous list, it only includes a couple of the posts I would have included on mine. Soooo, instead of writing my own article (which I still might get around to), I’m going to spend the next week-ish wading through Tamar’s excellent post. I recommend you do the same. THANKS TAMAR!

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In a post titled “Your Ad is Not For You“, Seth writes:

“… stop advertising to yourself. You’re already sold. You’re not the target market.“

I would also suggest that this applies to; marketing, brand development, logo design, tagline writing AND specific campaigns/initiatives withing advertising, marketing and branding.

Very seldom is a business owner their own target market, yet it’s an all too common story in the agency businesses to hear, “… let’s change that, I don’t like it…. It doesn’t really fit me.”

Instead of zeroing in on what moves you, shift your paradigm and put yourself into the shoes of your ideal target audience…. Better yet, go out and actually ask them questions that will help focus your ad, marketing and brand efforts!

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Allen Voivod gives us a great (and funny) review and wrap up of the RainToday webinar he attended yesterday afternoon. I would have attended it as well had I not been eyeball deep in a project…. I say that comfortably because I saw the same event announcement that Allen saw and thought how interesting it would be.

Here’s the point Allen makes;

” … if you think [snip] telemarketing is a dead end, you…€™d be wrong. Telemarketing… may not… get people to buy, but it got people to go to the presentation …€¦ where they were much more likely to buy.”

AND, to extend Allen’s logic, it was the email marketing that got him (and many others to go to the webinar). AND, a webinar is best presented if you give multiple levels of product for the attendees to buy. AND there should be some type of follow-up with each attendee to extend the buying experience into the future so it will lead to new sales.

The bottom line: Email marketing is not dead. Telemarketing is not dead. ADVERTISING, however, is quickly fading away and is being replaced by comprehensive, well thought out, integrated marketing plans…. These new strategies replace hard-sell, advertising tactics with a rich mix of; education, information, free interchange of ideas and helpful advice … all leading to, of course, the sale.

It is, indeed, a new world.

The “take-away” tidbit: When creating your integrated marketing plan, give away the “What and Why” and lead your give-away directly to the point where you “Sell the How.”

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Seth points us to Mashable.com. The first post there caught my eye … and should yours too. It’s entitled “20+ Free Press Release Distribution Sites“. If you’re not utilizing the news release (using David Meerman Scott’s preferred term) as a major vehicle of marketing, you’re missing out on one of the fastest, cheapest, most effective strategies available to you.

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I have several clients that are in the middle of trying to embrace the New Rules of Marketing … different mixes of blogs, online news releases, online article posting, social networking, etc…. Not unexpectedly, they are each struggling in different ways with this paradigm shift…. My prediction is that only one will truly be “successful” in the next 12 months.

Today, Seth writes:

Organizations don…€™t fail because the Web and the New Marketing don…€™t work. They fail because the Web and the New Marketing work only when applied to the right organization. New Media makes a promise to the consumer. If the organization is unable to keep that promise, then it fails.

Hear, hear! So, WHAT is “the right organization”, you may ask?… The right organization (the one that will succeed) is one that has the moxie to fully and completely embrace the paradigm shift…. One that is willing to chuck the old and adopt the new…. One that says “DASH the old way of advertising” and re-invents itself using the new rules…. One who pushes their way through the Dip (using another Godin-ism) and finds itself in the brighter greener pastures of the New Media.

If your organization can’t take this bold approach with such vigor, there is a strong possibility that the effort would be for naught and that you aren’t “the right company.”

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A new client of ours, Closet Place in Wolfeboro, is winding down their brand strategy development, is hip-deep in web site design (new site to go live in a week or two) and has started some creative marketing pieces…. Their first piece is a coupon where they offer a free report - a Closet Planning Guide…. The recipient would be given a web page address where they can provide their name and email address to get the report for free.

During a phone consultation this morning, we were talking about other creative ideas on how to integrate traditional marketing strategies…. During the conversation, off the cuff, I outlined a series of steps that they could use in a marketing campaign…. Three goals in almost all of their marketing would be to;

• Connect with people directly … after they identify who they want to target
• DON’T sell! … Connect!
• Have the campaign be content oriented

After they stated they wanted to target new home buyers that have recently moved into a new, local housing development, here’s the quickie campaign I outlined :

1. Contact a local contractor who would also like to reach this same target market…. Offer to do the design, production and distribution of a marketing piece if they pay for the printing…. A local window installer would be a good choice here…. A good, low-cost piece would be a “door hanger”.
2. Hire a local teenager to distribute the door hangers on the door knobs of the entire housing development.
3. The copy on the piece will refer to a free offer of the Closet Planning Guide.
4. It will also provide a URL for a landing page that “squeezes” the visitors name and email address.
5. Set up an autoresponder that lets the visitor know right away how to download the Guide.
6. Set up another autoresponder that follows up in two weeks to find out if the person had any questions…. In this same email, give them another freebie report … maybe something like “top 10 closet organization mistakes.”… Tell them when your next tradeshow will be so they can meet you in person…. Maybe provide links to discount coupons.
7. Repeat these steps with similar campaigns but different high-value reports and information. In the next autoresponder, ask if they’d like to sign up for your free e-newsletter.

So, what have we done?… … We’ve created a campaign that is EXTREMELY low cost (less than $300-$400), is content oriented (not salesy), and establishes multiple direct contacts with people who are somewhat interested in what you have to sell…. More importantly, we’ve integrated seven different marketing strategies; door hangers, landing page, special report, auto-responder, tradeshow, coupons, and e-newsletter.

It’s this final step of marketing integration that allows the user to be enticed into a long term relationship where you provide a steady stream of high-value information…. Indeed, they will eventually buy from you OR will have you at the top of their mind when the topic of your services comes up in conversation.

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