GoodBuzz Blog

Play Marketing – Advertising that Respects People

Feb
24

By

Marketing Wisdom for 2010

Category: business networking, Leads Groups / Referral Networks, News Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

MarketingSherpa has just released “Marketing Wisdom for 2010″. It’s a real source or marketing wisdom. It compiles the best advice on topics such as social media, search, email, lead generation, testing, and more.

70 Marketers and Agencies Share Real-Life Stories and Lessons Learned.

You can download your Free copy here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/Wisdom2010.pdf

Below 3 excerpts of lessons learned by fellow business people:

REWARD CLICKS WITH A GOOD OFFER
We got a doctor’s website on the first page of Google through paid search and watched his traffic increase by 400% in one month. He still was not getting new patients. We added a new patient form to the home page of the website. He still was not getting new patients. Remember this: No one will ever give you their name, email and phone number if they don’t get anything in return.
So, if you have the new patient form on the upper-fold of the home page of your site, offer your visitors something for giving your their information. The doctor offered discounted services to those that filled out the form, and he has now had three record breaking months of new patients this year and is on track to break his record for most new patients in one year.
Stuart Draper, Get Found First LLC
www.GetFoundFirst.com

SEGMENT LEADS BY INTEREST
Instead of including leads in every campaign, we decided to segment them into campaigns by their areas of interest. To do this, we divided leads by their past activities within key topics and solutions (white paper downloads, webinar registrations, previous campaign responses, etc.) then slotted them into campaigns centered on those key topics and solutions. As a result, we experienced a significant increase in conversions and more than a 300% increase in our response rates, including clickthrough rates and open rates. At the end of the day we are able to better communicate with our leads with messaging relative to what they are interested in as well as run multiple campaigns simultaneously.
Farrah Hylton, Ariba Inc.
www.ariba.com

DON’T OVERLOOK COMMUNITY PAPERS
While daily newspapers continue to struggle, a portion of the publishing industry is not only surviving, it’s thriving. And yet community papers are often overlooked by marketers. This year in particular, community newspapers offered a major opportunity. As resources continue to get cut, many papers are increasingly turning to outside sources for content, including public relations agencies and trusted article-placement services. Marketers who are able to deliver compelling content and story ideas can take advantage of the loyal audience, hyper-local focus and popular online presence that community papers provide.
David Olson, ARAnet Inc. www.aranetonline.com

This booklet could be a source of leads generation through business networking, leads groups or advertising.

Jun
8

By

We need You. We Want YOU to Lead US.

Category: Business Strategy, Conversation, customer relationship, leadership, Linkcrafter, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

When we’ve started Linkcrafter we’ve asked ourselves  “Why 90% of the Internet traffic goes to ONLY 5% of websites”. We’ve discovered that:

  • 7 of the top 10 web properties are search engines
  • 22 of the top 50 web properties are search engines and web directories.

Browse and search have become the most time-consuming and frustrating activity for consumers.

People are looking for trustful and relevant information to reach the best services, companies and products that could satisfy their needs. 90% of the traffic goes to these websites because they are trying hard to help people solve this problem.

What will happen if you become a resources center or a knowledgeable friend for your customers?

You become a Traffic magnet.You are a knowledgeable professional. You Know a lot and Now  We need You. We Want YOU to Lead US.

According to a 2004 Forum Corporation study on cross selling, 88 percent of customers with spending power welcomed product and service suggestions that help them. The same is true in the B2B world—clients prize sales professionals who empathetically understand their business and make suggestions on how to improve it.

Linkcrafter helps companies and businesses to become solution providers for their customers through real-time interaction and involvement in their customer’s solution-hunting process.

Instead of giving Planners, calendars, T-shirts, Mugs, Foie Gras,  coupons, or other material or monetary gifts to customers as incentive to build relationship – most of these incentives fail to build loyalty - Linkcrafter solution helps you provide Information as a gift ™ to your customers.

What is information as a Gift ™?

“Information as a gift ™” means to pay attention to your customers’ and contacts needs and interests for products and services other than your own, and give them relevant and trustful information to help them reach good services providers.

Since one company alone can no longer autonomously create consumer experience, Linkcrafter members pay attention to their customers’ and contacts needs and interests for products and services other than their own, and send their customers to other business for Free as a powerful way to build loyalty and Growth.

You become known as a powerful resource for others—and when you have the reputation for being a strong resource, people start turning to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, connections, etc. This keeps you visible and your business top-of-mind when people need your products and services. This, in turn, will greatly increase the number of referrals your customers will send to your business.

You don’t need Money to start. Information, Recommendation are intangible things you can give again, again and again without being left broke.

“Information as a gift ™” has a tremendous power to induce positive emotional connections to customers and contacts. The positive emotional connections in turn has the power to turn customers and contacts into voluntary advocates for your organization, generating a consistent word-of-mouth referrals and a Nonstop Viral Buzz for your business.

How it works?

“Simply go to that address book and list out the 20 percent of your contacts who matter most. Do you know their interests? Their biggest dreams and goals (professional and personal)? If you don’t then that is a place to begin. Once you do, mark down next to each name what specific actions you can take that will help that person realize those goals. What connections can you make for them? What knowledge can you transfer to them? Call them up. No agenda. No ‘asking for the business.’ Just deliver value relevant to them and keep doing it.”

Howard Mann

Is Your Company Still in the Dark Ages?

Most companies aren’t prepared for this new approach to marketing. Companies who co-create customers experiences with other qualified companies will keep themselves far ahead of the competition.

How do you accomplish all of this? We’re not going to lie. It takes a change in mindset.

Business people become super-connectors, people who know a lot of people, and know their interests, skills, and needs of everyone in their social or business circle and connect them together.

Jun
3

By

Content Marketing without Creating Content Yourself.

Category: Business Strategy, Conversation, customer relationship, leadership, Linkcrafter, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

Content marketing is a “Keep in touch” strategy that involve information sharing with the purpose to engage customers or prospects.

“The motivation behind content marketing is the belief that educating the customer results in the brand’s recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.

The idea of sharing content as a means of persuading decision-making has driven content marketers to make their once-proprietary informational assets available to selected audiences.

In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.

Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty better than traditional marketing techniques.

Marketers may use content marketing as a means of achieving a variety of business goals, such as thought leadership, lead generation, increasing direct sales, improving retention and more” – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What I’m doing here is Content marketing for Linkcrafter.com. I’m providing information with the purpose to Keep in touch with Linkcrafter’s customers in a meaningful way and engage prospects and visitors to this blog in way that may induce them to try Linkcrafter solutions.

Content marketing works.

It could take the form of custom magazines, print or online newsletters, digital content, websites or micro-sites, white papers, webcasts/webinars, podcasts, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, round tables, interactive online, email, events.

One of the most difficult part of content marketing is the information creation. It demands a lot of time, and could cost a lot of money too. That is the reason why the huge majority of websites, blogs are debris, almost never updated, and the main reason why small business owners, freelancers, services professionals don’t know what to write to their customers in their newsletter,  never update their websites.

To Create content is difficult and complex. To create continually content to keep in touch with customers on regular basis and engage prospect is close to impossible for most small businesses owners, entrepreneurs or freelancers.

What is then the  secret about “Content Marketing without Creating Content Yourself”?

Linkcrafter is a content marketing solution without the Need to create the Content Yourself.

When we’ve started working on Linkcrafter our goals were very clear. We wanted:

  • A solution that brings peace of mind to entrepreneurs: simple, easy and durable, not another short-lived marketing solution,
  • A solution that works consistently, what ever the background of the user, and
  • A solution with zero advertising cost and Zero time wasting in networking.

We have reached all these three goals, and It’s a whole new World in marketing

How it works?

We help companies to provide “Information as a Gift™” to your customers. It means provide information and recommendations to your customers based on their needs and interests for other company’s services and products.

Instead of giving Planners, calendars, T-shirts, Mugs, coupons, or other material or monetary gifts to customers to build relationship, what in most cases fail to build loyalty, Linkcrafter helps companies to use “Information as a Gift™” as a powerful incentive to build loyalty and attract clients.

Let us find out more about what this concept entails and how it works in the first place.

1.    Sharing Needs
During casual or business meetings or conversations, Your contacts and customers share with you their needs or interests for other companies’ services or products: “I need help to choose”, “I need help to find the right information”, “I need help to find to the right person”, “I interested in this and that”, etc.

2.    Listen
If you do business as usual, you just tuned out this information, because it’s not your business matter, and you have no straight answer to these questions. Now, you listen and take note, because you know that this is a huge marketing opportunity.

3.    Community Help
You seek for information and connections that could help your customers. If you can’t personally access relevant and trustful information, you post your customers’ needs to Linkcrafter community of professionals, which are willing to help.

4.    Filtering Answers
You receive answers from several professionals and companies and you could review them, rate them and select those which are more focused and relevant to your customers need or interest.

5.    Giving a Response
After filtering the vast amount of information you received or searched for, you contextualize it, put your stamp of approval, add a personal touch, then send it to your contacts or customers like “Information as a Gift”.

The system works mostly by using information created by other professionals or sources  that is filtered and sent privately to customers and contacts.

We call it “Information as a gift ™” . Like gifts, you don’t have to create it, but you have enough flair to choose the most relevant content to sent at the right time.

“Information as a gift ™” has a tremendous power to induce positive emotional connections to customers and contacts. The positive emotional connections in turn have the power to turn customers and contacts into voluntary advocates for your organization, generating a consistent word-of-mouth referrals and a Nonstop Viral Buzz for your business.

Today Linkcrafter is The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting Noticed and Attract More Clients Without spending money on advertising or wasting time in networking.

May
30

By

How to Find Eternal Peace in Marketing.

Category: Business Strategy, Conversation, customer relationship, Linkcrafter, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Here we go:

  • You have a great product or service but getting no interest or attention to grow and succeed
  • You have tried few or many things, but the results were not what you had hoped for
  • You have wasted thousands of dollars in advertising with no sustainable results
  • You have tried networking everywhere without no concrete results

When it comes to marketing today, small business owners, freelancers, services professionals are stressed and it’s no wonder. Since most traditional marketing strategies (yellow pages, print, flyers, etc.)  don’t work very well, marketing has turned into 1,001 things to do that have indifferent results at best.

Most small business owners have turned to what has been labeled “small business marketing techniques” like:

  • post to forums only to be banned,
  • spam blogs with comments,
  • bribe bloggers to write articles with your keywords,
  • send press releases to journalists in desperate hopes they’ll write about your product,
  • browse social networks getting more ‘friends’ who couldn’t have the slightest interest in becoming customers.

A poll in France found that 88 percent of marketing and sales-related professionals are stressed people. A Harvard business school survey found the complexities of stress forced 53 percent of marketing executives to outsource their marketing activities.

Even an abbreviated list of a standard day in a marketing department includes:

  • Cold calling
  • Prospecting
  • Tracking
  • Creating print media
  • Spending time on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, and other social networks
  • Interactive marketing
  • Search marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Keyword optimization
  • Organizing promotions and events
  • Press releases

It’s time to switch to a Single Action Marketing solution: “Information as a gift ™“.

“Information as a gift ™” means to pay attention to your customers’ and contacts needs and interests for products and services other than your own, and give them relevant and trustful information to help them reach good services providers.

Instead of giving Planners, calendars, T-shirts, Mugs, coupons, or other material or monetary gifts to customers to build relationship, what in most cases fail to build loyalty, this solution helps you provide “Information as a Gift” to your customers.

You become known as a powerful resource for others—and when you have the reputation for being a strong resource, people start turning to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, connections, etc. This keeps you visible and your business top-of-mind when people need your products and services. This, in turn, will greatly increase the number of referrals your customers will send to your business.

It’s a whole new World in marketing: One simple, enjoyable action, repeated over and over, that gives you your life back, and puts back time into your marketing department – not to mention the alleviation of stress !

Single Action Marketing Solution

You don’t need Money to start. Information, Recommendation are intangible things you can give again, again and again without being left broke.

“Information as a gift ™” or IRaaS has a tremendous power to induce positive emotional connections to customers and contacts. The positive emotional connections in turn has the power to turn customers and contacts into voluntary advocates for your organization, generating a consistent word-of-mouth referrals and a Nonstop Viral Buzz for your business.

How it works?

“Simply go to that address book and list out the 20 percent of your contacts who matter most. Do you know their interests? Their biggest dreams and goals (professional and personal)? If you don’t then that is a place to begin. Once you do, mark down next to each name what specific actions you can take that will help that person realize those goals. What connections can you make for them? What knowledge can you transfer to them? Call them up. No agenda. No ‘asking for the business.’ Just deliver value relevant to them and keep doing it.”

Howard Mann

It’s time to switch over to a single marketing solution that works.

What’s more fun – cold calling or sending a brief, heartfelt note to help a customer out of a rough spot? At the end of the day, which do you think will leave you feeling like you’ve accomplished something good for your customers? Which do you think will endear your customer to the company?

Apr
25

By

How Good Doctor Farley Used IRaaS to Boost His Marketing.

Category: Business Strategy, customer relationship, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

IRaaS is a marketing approach that started as a way to help friends, but  ended up being a game-changing innovation that redefines the role of business in our contemporary world, and accomplishes what others called impossible:  marketing without spending money on advertising or losing time in networking events. 

Professionals and Companies that adopt IRaaS commit to actively paying attention to their customers’ dreams, needs, and interests for products and services other than their own.  They also commit to actively seeking the necessary information and connections to help their customers achieve personal and professional goals.

Dr. Stephen Farley wants to use the IRaaS approach to find more patients for his clinic. As he goes about his daily appointments, he asks questions of his patients, learning about their work and personal life and some of the frustrations or problems they’ve been having.

The good doctor takes notes as he writes down symptoms and goes through the process of checking his patients’ health. That afternoon, when he has a spare few minutes, he goes to his IRaaS network and asks for help on a few of their problems.

He gets back several possible solutions from his network, which he then reviews. He finds what he thinks is the best solution for each of his patients, and sends each one a short email.

Dear Jerry,
I hope the medication I prescribed is helping your back pain. I wanted to drop you a quick note because you mentioned you were having trouble finding an insurance policy that offers comprehensive health insurance with a fixed cost and $25 co-pays. I’m enclosing the name of an insurance agent who provides a package I’m pretty sure would work for you. I’ve let him know you may be in touch.

*******

Dear Mrs. Baxter,
I thought you might enjoy this article from Business Profiles – it seemed right up your alley. Hope all is well with the family and you’re feeling better soon.

*******

Dear Cameron and Jennifer,
I’m looking forward to your gallery opening immensely, and I was wondering if I could be of some service promoting it. It occurs to me that many of my patients may be interested – would you like to put up a poster or any flyers you may have in the waiting room? I can also include the exhibition in our monthly newsletter if you can give me the info by Friday. Again, I’m delighted to be attending and happy to do anything I can to help make the opening a huge success. Just say the word.

*******

Dear Claire,
Congratulations on the birth of baby Emily Rose! I know the wait was both joyous and anxious for you, and as your OB-GYN I’m relieved both as a doctor and a friend that all your hard work and devotion to your health has paid off. I wish you, your husband, and your beautiful new addition to the family much happiness. I look forward to meeting Emily soon.

*******

Dear Mr. Rosenberg,
I hope you’re feeling better; flu season can be wretched. You mentioned you were having trouble keeping up with the office while you were home sick because you haven’t a cell phone that receives email. I looked around a bit for you and had many people recommend me this phone as both affordable and easy to use. I hope this helps you keep up with everything – but don’t work too hard! You need lots of rest to get over that flu.

Every one of Dr. Farley’s patients just got a personal message from a man who sees dozens of people every week. They know he cares and they know that he is interested in their lives. The next time any one of those patients hears a friend complaining about his doctor, or needing a new one in the area, who do you think they’re going to recommend?

Trust in the law of reciprocity. You don’t need to ask for referrals. Customers who are devoted to you and your business will want to do you favors. They’ll not only be delighted to recommend you; they’ll sing your praises to anyone who will listen. A genuine gesture of selfless friendship is extremely rare. Don’t diminish it.

A Word of Warning: Never Ask Anything in Return

It’s tempting to tack on an extra sentence or two to push for that sale. The good doctor could very easily have added in something like, “Could you recommend my services to anyone who might be interested?” It doesn’t seem like it would do any harm, after all that goodwill. And the customer probably needs a boost to help them recommend me to others.

Don’t be tempted. Asking for the sale will immediately undo all the good work that’s just been accomplished. Instead of feeling cared-for and appreciated, your customer will immediately feel manipulated.

“He doesn’t care about me! He’s just using me to get new clients!”

“The highest form of public relations is human relations. People buy from friends, so it’s crucial to make the human bond before you can make a lasting business bond.  Always Develop The Human Bond Before The Business Bond”. Jay Conrad Levinson

Apr
16

By

7 Ways Advertising Could Hurt Your Business

Category: Business Strategy, Conversation, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment

Advertising is aDouble-Edged Sword. It could help your business get off the ground as it could hurt and compromise definetly  your business.

1. You could awaken the big  bear sleeping next to your tent
Advertising could be interpreted by competitors like a threat, a declaration of war,  and their reaction could be damaging. You never know how they will react to your move. Like our friends Mitch Meyerson and Jay Conrad put it, It’s a Jungle Out There! You are surrounded, All around, by thousands of same businesses vying for the same bounty. Several of these businesses are grossly larger than you. Some have the power and personality of Godzilla. Many of them are far better funded than you. Some have been successfully operating their businesses since prehistoric times. They thrive on competition. Some of them can run more ads in more papers and more commercials on more stations than you’ll ever run. They can mail more materials to more people than you’ll ever mail. They can outspend you in every area of marketing that money can buy.

Do you want competition? You could have one that you may not be able to sustain. Good luck to you.

2. You could appear desperate  and frighten away good clients and prospects
98% of small businesses advertise ONLY when they are in trouble, when they are desperate about the future.  My first reaction when I see advertising from a company I’ve never heard about is always “huh … another company in trouble”. It looks to me like these crowds of desperate professionals who haunt networking events in their towns. They start active networking ONLY when they are in trouble :

  1. when they need to find new clients to close some financial gap in their business,
  2. when they are fired, and they need a new job,
  3. when they are feeling lonely and are looking for new friends.

Sorry, if you see yourself in any of the cases above, you are surely a looser networker.Networking won’t work for you well. The same for advertising, Don’t start advertising when you are in trouble, it won’t work … well.

Savvy clients are wary about Small businesses which suddenly start  to advertise. it’s  just a bad sign you are sending outside. 84% of B2B advertising campaigns result in Lower sales. Be careful.

3. Customers you get with advertisment are hard to keep and less loyal.
Customers you acquired by advertising  are hard to keep because of the promise you made in your advertisings. Advertising promises are ALWAYS overstated. You can’t keep such promises, and soon you’ll find yourself haunted by disappointed customers.
Do you know how to handle difficult clients? You’ll need a training after each successful advertising campaign.

Customers you acquired by advertising are less loyal and need costly loyalty program to be kept. They will evaporate the same way they come, in droves.

4. You can’t stop advertising if you succeeded at the first place beause of advertising
If you succeed because of advertising, it’ll become  like a drug for you. You just can’t do without it. Advertising will be your answer to most of your problems. You’ll need the dose to keep your equilibrium.

Don’t get in such a trap. You’ll ignore most  of the market signals for change in business model and in customers needs till it’ll be late.

5. If you are under attack, you won’t be able to react and be heard
Most customers today just tuned out advertising message. Savvy marketers know when to advertise. They advertise  to

  • crush weak competitors
  • leverage an ongoing PR buzz
  • defend  business territory when under competitor attack

If  you’ve abused your advertising right, you’ll be deprived of  the virtue of advertising when you’ll need them. Your message will be tuned out or  you’ll look desperate. Think about it.

6. Your Cusotmers hate you, because they know that you are doing the fancy advertising with their money.
Customers know that you add  your Advertising cost to the price they pay. Don’t abuse advertising, you’ll become uncompetitive soon.

7. Your business is Not built to last, because you need Advertising to stay afloat
A business built to last doesn’t need advertising to stay afloat. A business built to last use advertising like a Chess Master to tease competition, to crush a new entrant in its business territory  or to give something back to the community  or to entertain and build brand.

Check if you have the right to Advertise. Our previous post “Do you have the right to advertise?” explained very clearly the moment and situation in which You have the right to advertise and for what you have the right to spend your money.

I strongly advise you to read this post. It’s one of the Best articles you could find on this blog.

Apr
12

By

Stand for a Cause or have a POV (Point of view)

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Companies which are indifferent to everything except making money with their products or services (which they think are great by themselves) will soon or later burn out of gas; they won’t sustain.

Standing for a Cause or Having a POV (Point of view) is one of the 7 emotional triggers marketing manager could use to build their business reputation and create unbreakable bond to their customers and community.

Most business people are afraid to stand for something. They think “we are in business, we are not politicians, we are not social activists nor zealots. We need to stay neutral and serve as large as possible people who wish to come to us”. This is a wrong attitude, and such an attitude will not work well in the new economy. You can’t be everything for everyone.

You need to stand for something: a cause or a point of view.

When you stand for a point of view or you are fighting for a cause YOU HAVE AN ENNEMY. You need enemy. Your enemy could be a business practice, an industry category, a goverment, a tradition, a technology, a danger you perceive, etc.

You Make Meaning in Your Company when you stand for something or have a point of view.

Meaning is not about money, power, or prestige. Itʼs not even about creating a fun place to

work. Among the meanings of “meaning” are to

  • Make the world a better place.
  • Increase the quality of life.
  • Right a terrible wrong.
  • Prevent the end of something good.

Goals such as these are a tremendous advantage as you travel down the difficult path ahead.

If you answer this question in the negative, you may still be successful, but it will be harder to

become so because making meaning is the most powerful motivator there is.

Itʼs taken me twenty years to come to this understanding. - Guy Kawasaki

Recent Studies ( http://bit.ly/16jljZ) found that:

- 85% of Americans say they have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about. This number remains unchanged from 1993 survey results.

- 85% feel it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause in their marketing (compared with 66% in 1993).

- 79% say they would be likely to switch from one brand to another, when price and quality are about equal, if the other brand is associated with a good cause (compared with 66% in 1993).

- 38% percent have bought a product associated with a cause in the last 12 months (compared with 20% in 1993).

- 87% of employees at organizations with a cause marketing program feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company as opposed to 67% of those at companies that do not support causes

    In business selecting a good enemy is more Powerful than any other business strategy or innovative idea.

    • Dell selected a big enemy and won big.
    • Starbuck selected a big ennemy and won big
    • Apple stands for “Computer as an Experience” opposed to “Computer as a Tool”. It’s very very exceptional to see an Apple Computer thrown by their owner on the street for the garbage collector.
    • Google stands for “Simplicity” opposed to “portal”
    • IBM, Sun stand for “Open source” opposed to “proprietary” technologies
    • FREE business model stands against Subscription business model

    If you want to play first class you Need a good, juicy, big and hairy enemy.

    When you have a point of view or you have a good enemy it’s EASIER to build a community of “religious” followers and go to take down the Goliath.

    I strongly recommend to any business people who wish to stand for a cause or develop a winning Point of view (POV) to read the excellent book of Gary Hamel “Leading the revolution”.

    Apr
    5

    By

    Do You have the Right to Advertise?

    Category: Conversation, Winner Choice Tags: , , , 3 Comments

    You are about to discover one of the most safeguarded secret of marketing. Few companies have fully understood it and use it very swiftly to punch their competitors.

    You’ll be surprised to learn that Not All companies have the right to advertise, even if they have money for it.

    Advertising is a right you have to acquire first before using it; and a customer has to know you first before you advertise to him, if not you fail.

    My first reaction when I see advertising from a company I’ve never heard about is always “huh … another company in trouble”. It looks like these crowds of desperate professionals who haunt networking events in their towns. They start active networking ONLY when they are in trouble :

    1. when they need to find new clients to close some financial gap in their business,
    2. when they are fired, and they need a new job,
    3. when they are feeling lonely and are looking for new friends.

    Sorry, if you see yourself in any of the cases above, you are surely a looser networker.
    Networking won’t work for you well.
    The same for advertising, Don’t start advertising when you are in trouble, it won’t work … well.

    As a matter of analogy, you have the right to kiss the sweet girl only when the hard part of the seduction is finished. The Kiss comes as a conclusion to a long dance of words, smiles, laugh and endless conversation and social biases confirmation. Don’t use advertising as a seduction tactic, advertising is the Kiss moment.

    The advertising secret we want to share with you is a little bit hard to understand and has three principles :

    1. Advertise ONLY when you don’t need it.
    2. If you NEED to advertise, don’t.
    3. Advertise ONLY when you are in control.

    The three principles say fundamentally the same thing, but let go through them One by One.

    The first principle : Advertise ONLY when you don’t need it.

    You have the right to advertise only when your business is doing well, when you are acclaimed by the industry, you have new product everyone is talking about so much that you don’t need advertising at all.

    It’s at this precise moment that have the full right and privilege to advertise, and it will fully work for you: it’ll help you reach people who have never heard about, people who don’t trust you, people who were not opened to your ideas, and people who were not doing business with you. When these people will  start looking for validation of your message or start checking your record they will find multiple resonance in the press and from influentials that will convert them 10 times more easily. At this precise moment you can grow your market and mind share.

    This marketing tactics is mastered to the infinite by Apple. Apple advertise mostly when it doesn’t need it, when all the press, tv, blogs, influentials are talking about his new products or innovations. Incredible Powerful.

    The second principle: If you NEED to advertise, don’t.

    You don’t have the right to advertise:

    • if you need to attract new clients,
    • if your sales are declining sharply,
    • if you are start-up or a company no one has ever heard about,
    • if you have financial trouble,
    • if have public outrage over you.

    There are three main reasons you should Not advertise under these circumstances :

    1. You are blinded in such conditions, and most people tend to take bad decision and send the wrong message out,
    2. You lack the reputation, the credibility, the confidence or the buoyancy necessary to succeed an advertising campaign,
    3. You are likely to use the good money to chase for the bad money. Like Warren Buffet put it, you’ll give a bird in hand for two birds in the bush.

    When you don’t have the Right to advertise, you have sometime more powerful left to you:  PR (Public Relations).

    “Most recent brands were built by PR. In fact, an astonishing number of brands, including Palm, Starbucks, the Body Shop, Wal-Mart, Red Bull and Zara have been built with virtually no advertising at all.

    Advertising lacks credibility. The crucial ingredient in brand building is credibility, an ingredient that only PR can supply.

    The big bang approach is obsolete. Traditionally new brands were launched with a big-bang advertising approach. That concept should be abandoned today in favor of a slow build-up by PR.

    Advertising has an important role to play. But not in launching brands. Advertising should be used to maintain brands once they have been established through publicity.” – Al Ries & Laura Ries, Today, great brands are built with PR, not advertising

    The third principle: Advertise ONLY when you are in control.

    You have the right to advertise when you can use advertising like Chess Master to tease competition, to crush a new entrant in your business territory  or to give something back to the community  or to entertain and build your brand.

    It’s the most funny level of advertising.
    You seat like on a control tower with an awesome confidence, with a feeling of invincibility and you have such a deep pocket. Woow! I love it.

    The dream of all marketer is to reach this level of marketing inside a company who has the luxury to advertise just because it’s fun, just because the other guys are too weak to react or because the local school pupils need some money for their party or alike social responsibility verbose.

    Good luck to you. I hope you grasp it.

    We can help you.

    Apr
    1

    By

    Pivotal moments in marketing history

    Category: Business Strategy, leadership, Winner Choice Tags: , , , , Leave a Comment

    The idea started as a way to help our friends, then we use it for our clients, and it ended up being a game changing innovation that disrupts the main patterns and logics behind the entire marketing industry, redefining the role of business in our contemporary world, and accomplishing what other called impossible: marketing without spending money in advertising or losing time in networking event.

    We knew then that this idea had the power to profoundly change the over $600 billion advertising industry. We called it IRaaS™ (Information & Recommendation as a Service), and it’s a marketing strategy that is literally changing the way companies grow and build business.

    Imagine …… just for a moment …… a marketing solution that helps you
    Be Wanted and Welcomed in Your Clients’ and Prospects’ Mind ….
    Imagine …. quitting  From chasing customers to Customers coming to you
    Imagine Receiving faster, more enthusiastic and more qualified responses to any promotion, Turning more prospects into good paying clients
    Imagine your customers and contacts turning into an army of free sales people and voluntary advocates for your organization, Generating a consistent word-of-mouth referrals & a Nonstop Viral Buzz for your business.
    And imagine Now …. having all these astounding results without spending money in advertising or wasting time and resources in countless networking websites, clubs or events.

    In summary, IRaaS is The Fastest, the Easiest, and the Most Reliable System for companies to Get Noticed and to Attract More Clients Without spending money on advertising or Wasting time in networking.

    • You spent No money in advertising,
    • You waste No Time in networking,
    • But you grow your business sales, visibility and brand

    That’s a whole new world.

    Never before, a marketing system has been so simple and so powerful at the same time to ignite company’s visibility and dope its capacity to reach large audiences without spending money in advertising or losing time in countless networking clubs, events or websites.

    No book to read, no course to follow, No marketing plan to craft. IRaaS changes business people from simple sales hunter to community leaders. The main conviction behind IRaaS™ is that the next generation of marketing successes will belong to customers-empathic organizations that, beyond personal best, take it as a mission to simplify consumer’s life.

    As a marketing solution, IRaaS doesn’t stack up as just one more precarious solution, a one-shot move, time-consuming and unsustainable.  IRaaS isn’t something you have to start again and again with uncertain results.   Nor is it a process that adds to your business stress – like posting to forums (only to be banned), spamming comment forms on blogs, bribing bloggers to write articles for you, sending dozens of press releases to unsuspecting journalists, hanging around events stressing about finding new prospects, endlessly browsing social network and business hub websites and losing precious entrepreneur time.

    It’s the end of marketing as we knew it.

    IRaaS™ intention is to put an end to this, to bring a durable, sustainable marketing solution, the one that last, the one that bring peace in your mind and unleash the potential of your business, giving you back time to concentrate on what you like to do.

    As powerful as it is as solution, IRaaS™ works very simply by asking companies to send their customers for free to other businesses, providing them with information and recommendation based on their needs/interests for other companies products and services.

    You can read my personal story behind this marketing innovation here : The Story behind IRaaS.