Part 2 with a Q&A covering:
• the value of a strong corporate ID.
• the essence of good marketing.
• "G-Cred"
• SEO (Organic vs Paid)
• Creativity vs. "Disciplined" Creativity.
• growing organically using Social Media
G-Cred, a term coined by John Follis in ‘05 and accepted by Wikipedia in ‘06, has become part of the Web 2.0 vocabulary. What is it and why must every product, service, professional person and business have it? Listen to the interview:
(From my Social Media 2007 talk in Chicago.)
1. Smart/Sexy Brand Builder
It's a Cost-Effective, Easy, Cool Way to Get Your Company Message Out:
• Do something that fits your brand.
(ie. Church podcasting sermons, Publisher podcasting book excerpts.)
• The “Cool” factor.
It establishes and/or reinforces a forward-thinking/leadership perception.
(Depending how well you do it. Be creative.)
2. Broad, Free, Easy, Distribution.
• RSS feeds (ie. Feedburner)
• iTunes
3. Ad Media Outlet / Tip #1: Take advantage of the self-promotion without being tacky.
• Use "soft-sell" plugs for your own products/services. (Embedded in the audio content.)
• Because of the strong niche aspect of podcasting, listeners will be much more receptive.
4. Ad Media Outlet / Tip #2: Sell Outside Sponsorships
• Within podcast.
• On the website itself.
5. Ad Media Outlet Tip / #3: Turn guests into clients.
With an interview format it's easy to invite any guest that you'd value as a client.
It allows for the opportunity to develop a peer-to-peer professional relationship.
6. New Business “Attract vs Chase” Strategy / Tip #1
• Engage: To sell, you must first engage prospects and build relationships.
• Educate: Offer your company’s product or service-related insights to help build/increase your value perception. Offer helpful business tips as “Teasers” or a “How to” audio book.
> Know your audience’s hot buttons.
• Optional Formats:
> Straight info/tips
> Co-host / banter
> Host w/Interviews
7. New Business “Attract vs Chase” Strategy / Tip #2
Use selected clips as targeted, prospect-specific emails to current prospects.
• Audio provides a stronger emotional connection.
• The "Tease Factor." (ie. Prospect: "What is it?")
8. Great Product Demo Opportunity (w/Video podcasts)
Examples:
Household Products:
• The Blendtec Blender.
Technology Products:
• "The PhotoShop Guys" for PhotoShop training.
• "Internet Business Mastery" for podcasting, blogging, SEO, etc.
9. As a PR Tool.
• Latest News/Info Outlet.
• New Product intro.
10. Helps with Organic SEO via descriptive “show notes."
The more descriptive/relevant the text (key words, links) the more magnetic it’ll be for searches. (See “G-Cred” post below.)
_____
Relevant Quotes:
“The best business solutions are more creative than expensive.”
-- Kenneth Cole
"It’s not just about technology. It’s about creative application of technology."
-- John Follis
For more info:
The Marketing Show podcast lets you hear different business owners and managers discuss their business, their marketing challenges, and their solutions. So, you gain helpful marketing insight while they talk about their product to a worldwide audience.
Marketing Therapy
Because anyone running a business needs therapy.
I was on the phone recently with a yet another marketing expert promoting yet another Effective Marketing seminar -- this one being promoted through the New Haven CT Chamber. Curious, I checked out the expert’s website only to get an ERROR message when I did. Unbelievable. And enough for me (or anyone) to brand this "expert" as a poser. Now I was even more curious so I decided to give her a jingle.
I politely told her about her down website. She replied with the standard excuses acting like she knew about it. I doubt she did. She then informed me that her seminars were doing very well and tried signing me up. I felt complelled to remind her that she's a marketing expert with a broken website.
She was good gabber with strong corporate connections that clearly helped her cause. But she was no marketing expert. As she continued trying to sign me up I Googled her name. Three of the first four listings for her name were for an Essential Oils distributor. I couldn't help wonder if she was. The only one that related to her at all was for LinkedIn. When I mentioned that she acted like she wasn’t even sure what LinkedIn was. Considering that she only had one LinkedIn connection, she probably didn’t.
My conclusion: If this woman is doing successful marketing seminars, with her online cluelessness, she won’t be doing them for long.
Hear John discuss the marketing challenges that all business owners face, the ways to overcome them, and how to succeed in a Web 2.0 marketing world.
So I was on the phone today with yet another expert promoting yet another seminar. Considering this expert’s website gave me an ERROR message, I was curious.
Apparently, her “How to Market Your Business” seminars were doing quite well (as I was told) with more attendees than she could handle. (Well, maybe.) She was clearly a good promoter with good connections that helped her cause. So, as she was answering my questions about her marketing seminar, and trying to sign me up, I Googled her.
Three of the first four listings that came up were for an Essential Oils distributor. The only one that related at all to her was for LinkedIn. When I mentioned it to her she acted like she wasn’t even sure what LinkedIn was. Considering she only had one LinkedIn connection, she probably didn’t. This woman may have been a good saleswoman, but she was no marketing expert.
In this hype-happy, what-to-believe world, it comes down to a very basic, fundamental thing: credibility. How does one get it? How does one convincingly communicate it? And is there a Good Housekeeping Seal of the 21st century?
"Street cred" has been one recent barometric buzzword. Defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "acceptability or popularity, especially among young people in urban areas," the legitimacy of street cred should not be minimized. As discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, the urban environment of street cred has been the birthplace of more than a few trends that have found their way into the mid-American mainstream. As true as that is, however, in today's high-speed cyberspace, street cred is … well … so 2005. There's a new cred in town, and it's called "G cred."
If you haven't guessed, the "G" is for Google. And while the term G cred may be new to you, it's been in the Urban Dictionary for over a year:
G cred (n.): Google credibility. What someone sees when they Google your name, business, product, organization or whatever. It's an increasingly important measure of legitimacy and how seriously someone will take you.
More than the cred of the day, G cred is the cred of the next decade. In her new book, The Credibility Factor, market communications strategist Jennifer McLean offers support for that claim: "While there are multiple forms of credibility found within a company or product, Google is playing an increasingly important role in the perception puzzle. The bottom line is: Credibility fosters trust, and Google is here to stay as a measure of that credibility."
As Google and the Web continue to mature, online visibility will equate to credibility on every level. It does now, through blogs and a myriad of social media sites that have become a respected, easily accessible and exponentially expanding source of cred. In short, word of mouth on steroids. What's important to realize in this Web 2.0 world is that G cred doesn't just apply to every business, product and organization. It also applies to every professional. And that's not a new thought. Respected marketing gurus like Tom Peters and Seth Godin have been preaching the value of building one's "personal brand" for years. Godin's Purple Cow champions the value of standing out and "being remarkable." Similarly, in The Brand You, Peters explains how career survival is not about blending in but about standing out:
"Regardless of age, position or the business we happen to be in, we need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."
If that was true when Peters wrote it back in 1997, just imagine how true it is today. And that means visibility online. If you do a Google search on yourself and little comes up, or it's dated, well that's not good. If you happen to be someone in the marketing communications business and that happens, you'd better hope it's not a potential client or customer doing the searching.
So, got G-Cred?
_________________
John Follis
The Follis Marketing Report
http://www.thefollisreport.com
True story:
I had a client who was a big fan. She told me she adored my agency site…sat in the front row of all my speaking gigs…read all my marketing articles and raved about me to her associates. We’d also partnered on a successful project for one of her clients. Finally, she hired me for needed marketing help with her web site.
Her site problems were obvious. It was painfully dull with long rambling text and poor overall page design. It was also lacking in any kind of brand message or personality. I made some simple suggestions as she took copious notes. So, when a couple months passed with no follow-up word, I logged into her site to see what she’d done. She’d done nothing.
When I rang her she seemed tongue-tied, making excuses and changing the subject. Bothered, but trying to motivate her, I commented: “I’m sure you’re very busy, but an online presence is something that needs to be a priority. You can bet your competition knows that.” To which she replied, “I have no competition.”
Huh? No competition? This woman had hired me for marketing help. I replied: “You’re kidding, right?” Actually, she wasn’t. And, after a few minutes of listening to her non-sensical rationalized reply I couldn’t bare it. I just got off the phone.
I'm very proud to say that have a list of two dozen clients who’ve sent the most grateful testimonies of how their sales have jumped as a result of our collaboration. You can see them at Client Letters. In my 30 years in business this is only client who’s ever requested marketing help and then disregarded it with the rationale that they have no competition.
Oh, if you're wondering, her business is Web Design. Which is why I'm serious when I say that some business owners really do need a therapist more than they need a marketing expert. Especially with smaller business owners marketing one's business can trigger some deeper personal issues that can severely interfear with business success. And, it's the reason I began Marketing Therapy.
The logic behind Marketing Therapy is simple:
The better I can tap into your business-related psychological and emotional issues (ie. fears, desires, perceptions, expectations, etc) the better I can help resolve your marketing issues.
Yes, I know I'm not a shrink. I’m merely suggesting that psychological awareness and sensitivity goes a long way when it comes to problem solving. In any field.
A few years ago I did volunteer work for a 24-hour telephone crisis line. Before being allowed to answer a single call each volunteer was required to go through a 50-hour training program -- to prepare them for any type of crisis call. One of the best things I learned from that 50-hours of training was something called “active listening.” It taught the importance of not just listening to what the person was saying verbally, but also what they were feeling emotionally. At the time I didn’t realize just how much that training would help me in business.
As described in my story sometimes a client's erroneous perceptions are too deeply embedded for a successful marketing effort. And no amount of listening or dialogue can help.
I did hear back from that business owner a couple years later. She had lost a key employee and was forced to move her business to a less desirable part of town. The reason for her call? She was considering more marketing help.
In our hype-happy, what-to-believe, Information Nation, it comes down to one very basic thing -- credibility. What is the Good House Keeping seal of the of the present and future?
For many, it's blogs and other social networking venues that foster and spread open discussion and untainted perspective on everything. That open-source context has given way to the term "Street Cred" as a new barometer of credibility. With the proliferation of this Internet Truth formula, I suggest one better...
G-Cred.
"G" is for Google which has such universal acceptance that "to Google" something, or someone, is part of our cultural lexicon. From a business perspective, Google is a Godsend. If you're checking out a product, company, or person, Google is both an instant information resource as well as a worldwide publicist. With that, Google has become the ipso facto barometer of credibility.
As Web Two-Oh whizes ahead at the speed of bandwidth, online visibility will equate to professional cred in every area. It does now. If you're doing due diligence on someone and little or nothing comes up in Google, that doesn't bode well for the subject of that search.
And, the relevance of G-Cred is not limited to those creating scholarly works, running Fortune 500 companies or marketing themselves as pundits. It applies to anyone in a professional career. Marketing gurus like Tom Peters and Seth Godin have long preached the value of creating and building one's personal brand, regardless of who you are. Godin's Purple Cow discusses the importance of standing out and "being remarkable." And, ten years ago Peters' The Brand You, commented on how survival is not about blending in, but rather, standing out.
"Regardless of age, position, or the business we happen to be in,
we need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs
of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most
important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You. (And)
for most branding campaigns, the first step is visibility."
If that was true ten years ago, you can imagine how much more true it is today, especially with Google. So, if The Web's the Way and G-Cred is King, the only question is:
How's yours?
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© 2007 Follis LLC. All rights reserved.
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