The Follis Marketing Report

Marketing with Social Media (Part 1)

The big picture about Social Media and why you need to start building "G-Cred."

John Follis interviewed on Blog Talk Radio

John Follis discusses Marketing Therapy and his book "How to Attract and Excite Prospects - A marketing guide to getting the best results."

Follis at Yale Entrepreneurial Institute / Final Part

Final part with a Q&A covering:

• Associating a business with a Social Cause.
• The Role of Research with a Small Business.
• Measuring Sales Results.
• Guerrilla Marketing Strategies and Tactics.

Play:

Follis at Yale Entrepreneurial Institute / Final Part

Final part with a Q&A covering:

• Associating a business with a Social Cause.
• The Role of Research with a Small Business.
• Measuring Sales Results.
• Guerrilla Marketing Strategies and Tactics.

Follis at Yale Entrepreneurial Institute / Part 3

Part 3 with a Q&A covering:

• Importance of having a great product.
• Case Study: Sorrell Ridge Jam
• Viral Marketing.
• Case Studies: Jib Jab and Blendtec
• Marketing the "Emotional" benefit.
• Measuring Effectiveness.

Follis at Yale Entrepreneurial Institute / Part 2

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

Follis on "G-Cred" -- The New Credibility.

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:

10 Ways a Podcast can Build Your Business.

(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.

How to blow your credibility.

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.

Follis Interview

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.