A Man Walked Into A Phone Booth
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
An old wise man once said:
‘To love is to suffer.
To avoid suffering one must not love.
But then one suffers from not loving.
Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer.
To suffer is to suffer.
To be happy is to love.
To be happy then is to suffer.
But suffering makes one unhappy.
Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.
I hope you’re getting this down?’ -Woody Allen
Google Analytics: Optimizing AdWords
This is an excellent video on optimizing Adwords using Google Analytics. Anyone with a website business should know this!
In this tough economy when many advertisers are cutting their online ad budgets, it’s important for all of us to review optimization tactics. What do you do when you start or are handed an AdWords account? Here’s an optimization “how-to” primer for you all.
Getting Your App Out There with App-o-Day
We’ve been exploring all sorts of ways to get our apps on as many iPhones and iPads as possible.
One good platform we found is App-o-Day. Their model is to offer their users a free app every day. They do this through their own app, which features a single free app each day.
This will only work if you can make your app free for a few days and then turn it back to paid. The result is a huge number of downloads in a single day.
We tried this out on our game Beetle Bounce, and it worked like a charm.
What’s in a Name? Naming Your Company
Karen Milde, CEO and Co-Founder, Reframe Marketing Inc.
When naming your company there are a number of things to consider. A name too common and it will be disregarded without a second thought, too original and abstract and the function of the company may be missed. This can be an overwhelming task, as a name is capable of making or breaking a company. Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started.
You Say Campaign, They Say Camp-pain: Keys to Email Marketing
With each day comes new emails marketing random products from floor rugs to prescriptions to spa services 1.) it’s overwhelming. 2.) It’s frustrating. Society has gotten to the point where these generic messages go to a junk folder that you don’t ever look at. As a small business, are you wasting your time, energy and resources for nothing? Can you get ROI out of your email campaigns or should you skip this form of advertising all together?
Absolutely invest the time and energy into email marketing right along with direct, social and mobile. Your return on investment relies on your marketing campaign and your brand identity depends on it.
3 Ways to Create a Marketing Plan on the Fly
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO, WavePlay
If you are a CEO managing your startup day to day, it’s time to stop putting out fires or jumping from one perceived opportunity to the next without results. To get organized and grow your business in 2013, create a strategic marketing plan to focus your team on gaining traction and attracting investors.
Tell Your Company Story: 5 Ideas for Content
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO, WavePlay
For a startup, as well as an established business, sharing a compelling story is the fastest way to secure funding and attract customers. There are several reasons why storytelling delivers a tremendous advantage. Competition for funding, media attention, partners and customers is fierce–storytelling can help you get noticed and gain visibility. When competitors are offering comparable products and services, the key perceivable difference often comes down to branding, and storytelling is an excellent tool for expressing your brand.
Common Startup Marketing Mistakes
Karen Milde, CEO and Co-Founder, Reframe Marketing Inc.
What surprises me is when they tell me they burned through their funds via a bunch of online marketing campaigns and justified the amount spent by saying they needed to stay ahead of the competition and to acquire more customers. I find that Founders sometimes get so caught up with the idea that the more they spend the more customers they will gain that they lose sight of what marketing is all about and that is when marketing mistakes happen.
Smart Startups Sell Benefits, Not Features!
by Karen Milde, CEO & Co-Founder, Reframe Marketing Inc.As the initial management team to the startup, it’s natural to push all the great features available or added to the product/service due to the amount of sweat equity that has been put into getting something off the ground. However, keep in mind, a majority of customers are not interested in the details, they just want something that will solve their problem. If you want to provide details, just do not put all of it on the homepage. Instead, point them to other sections of the site or create a features section.
Inspiration Breathes Life Into Branding
Karen Leland
by Karen Leland
One of the first things I do when I start working with new clients on their personal or business brand is to ask them to consider what mood or energy they consciously strive to bring to anything they do. In other words:
What is it that you can be counted on for in terms of your presence? Not what do you do (the description) or even the how (the mechanics) of what you do, but the way you do it.
Marketing isn’t Evil — It’s Good for You
Jeff Goldsmith
by Jeff Goldsmith, Marketing Consultant
Have you ever felt distrust for the marketing department? I’ve heard it said that marketing is “evil”, “manipulation”, “spam”, and “the dark side”. Still, everyone expect results, glowing stories in the press, high quality leads, droves of downloads, viral growth. Good buzz early on in a startup can convince investors to fund a project, and perhaps that is manipulation. However, buzz is not marketing’s strongest potential contribution. The greatest good marketing can do is to clarify the core message of a company – and prove it with analytics.
“Ruby Sparks” Reminded Me That Persuasion Marketing Sucks
Karen Leland
by Karen Leland
“Yup, instead of changing himself, he’s going to try and change her.” That’s what my friend Randy turned to me and said during a pivotal plot point in the new film “Ruby Sparks”.
Now I don’t want to be a spoiler and give the big reveal away, so I’ll stay away from the details, but suffice it to say that the scene that followed was painfully hard to watch.
Why Your Personal Brand Wants You To Take Time Off
Karen Leland
by Karen Leland
I recently returned from a conference that was wall to wall with smart, successful, type A movers and shakers from the worlds of government, academia, business, entertainment, the arts, sciences, publishing and social profit.
Being around all those high-powered brains made me mindful about how our personal brands, be we small business owners or award-winning academics, can benefit from vacations and time away to rest and renew, regroup and redefine who we are today.
Top Android Market Alternative App Stores
So you’ve submitted your app to Apple’s App Store, Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s NOOK and Google Play… what next? Is that all you can do?
Actually, there are a number of other apps stores out there than accept Android apps. These include…
AT&T App Store
http://developer.att.com/developer/forward.jsp?passedItemId=2400458
Verizon App Store
http://developer.verizon.com/
Opera App Store
http://apps.opera.com/en_us/developers.php
GetJar
http://developer.getjar.com/
MobiHand
http://corporate.mobihand.com/developers_signup.php
Five Ways to Kill Your Digital Brand
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO, WavePlay
Are you trying and failing in your use of social media to get your brand noticed and gain traction in the eyes of the business community potential investors? Succeeding or failing to leverage your digital brand depends on your approach. The good news is that you have an opportunity to correct what’s not working, starting today. Here are five ways to kill your digital brand–correct any one of these pitfalls and you will begin to see results. Correct all five pitfalls and enjoy the traction that comes from being a digital branding artist.
Marketing Your App: Banner Ads vs. Bots & Human Water Armies
It’s tough to spend 6 months or longer working on an app and have it get buried in the App Store.
As a result, many app developers and startups restort hiring shady companies to boost their app’s ranking by using bots (overseas computers) and human water armies (cheap labor) to download their apps. Both of the methods distort the App Store rankings, making it even harder for legitimate developers to get their apps into the top 50.
The real question we need to ask ourselves is: why is it more acceptable to spend huge sums to buy downloads via ads than using a bot farm or human water armies?
3 Key Steps to Launching Your Brand
by Julie Legrand, Off The Ground www.offtheground.biz
Branding is a very complex challenge. People often mistake a brand for a logo, but it’s much more than that. Often startups think branding is just an annoying thing on their “to do” list so that they just ignore it and push it off until they’re big enough for a full-time marketing team. Big mistake. Yes, branding does cost money, and to do it right, it’s a rather involved process. But it costs a lot more to rebrand later on in the game.
Here are minimum 3 steps a start-up needs to take to launch their brand:
How to Promote Your Event on a Shoestring Budget
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO of WavePlay
Whether producing a single event or a series of seminars to raise visibility with customers and prospects, we all need promotions to fill the room, and traditional promotional venues such as advertising can be costly. I’m going to assume that your topics, speakers, dates, registration fees (if any) and locations are on target. If you want to promote your events on a shoestring budget, consider these five tips:
5 Tips for Creating an Explainer Video
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, WavePlay
An explainer video can act as your virtual salesperson, explaining your value proposition, 24 hours a day in any location. Explainer videos share, in clear words and pictures, just what it is you are offering to the marketplace.
Explainer videos are especially helpful if you are a startup with a novel concept, or if what you are selling is at the prototype stage, or if you are selling in wide geographic domestic or international markets, or if you are a service firm “selling the invisible.” Here are five tips for creating an effective explainer video:
5 Most Effective Strategies to Expand Your Network
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
By nature I’m a crummy networker. I know this might strike you as odd, coming from someone who teaches how to attract business, but this is a fact. I’m a crummy social networker, I’m a crummy Happy Hour go-er, I’m a crummy Chamber of Commerce attendee, and in general I’m a crummy schmoozer. When given a choice I’d rather go to the small dinner party rather than to the bar, would rather be one to one coaching a client friend than stand in front of a crowd and speak; no one would ever mistake me for the “life of the party”. That would have been my ex husbands job. And I was glad he was there to take on that role as it got me off the hook. One can see how this might prove a bit problematic given my field of choice, which relies heavily on attracting clients so that I can help others do the same.
5 Tips for Entering the U.S Market
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO, WavePlay LLC
If you are a company taking its first steps toward expansion to the U.S. market, check out these five promotional tools to help you succeed, even when you cannot commit to a full-time presence in the U.S.
Branding and promotions will never take the place of interpersonal relationships. However, if you have personnel in the U.S. on a somewhat regular basis, even if it’s one week per month or two, you can leverage promotional tools to establish your brand, raise your visibility, make sales calls more effective, and create an on-going dialogue with clients, prospects and partners.
Email Marketing : Alive and Well
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
You can relax now. All this buzz about blogging. Blah-blah-blah-blah- blogging. Will she never shut up about the many great virtues of blogging?
Probably not, but today I will give you all a break and tell you what you’ve been longing to hear for a while now: email marketing is still alive.
How to Get More Media Coverage via Relationship Marketing
Lyne Noella
by Lyne Noella, CEO, WavePlay LLC
Are you interested in gaining more media coverage without spending an extra penny? Understanding the basics of relationship marketing can help you reach that goal. I’m going to assume that you know the basics of writing and distributing a news release. If not, have a member of your staff enroll in a local community college to ensure your approach is in line with what editors expect. That being said, the best way to get ink is to invest in quality relationships.
12 Most Relevant Things To Do When Creating an Online Marketing Strategy
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
3 weeks ago I ran a contest asking for great idea’s to help me get my blog onto 12most.com, a website that has taken over my brain. I had to have my blog published there. Why? Who knows; I love the concept and the creativity, and the writers are top notch. And I got some great responses, although it was hard, wasn’t it, coming up with topics that weren’t just 12, but 12 MOST….that tripped most people up. I also promised that the winner of my little contest , should it get me accepted into 12most.com would win either a multi page, in depth website analysis, or if the winner could care less about the optimization of their website or a website at all, a 30 minute marketing consultation on the subject of their choice.
6 Free Techniques to Bring Traffic to your Blog
Suzen Pettit
by Suzen Pettit at Omaginarium
A year ago, In February of 2011, I wrote an amazing article titled : “It’s a New Dawn; Protect Your Online Reputation”. It was one of the first blogs I’d written and I was filled with great confidence about the vast value it was going to offer my “online community”. After all, I have awesome services to sell, and I knew people would hungrily sign up for them, and most definately hire me to protect their online reputation. I was targeting a strategic market, offering services at a competitive price and providing interesting content on various platforms. All the stuff the big gun Joe Pulizzi talks about.
LaunchRock – Landing Pages Made Easy & Viral
LaunchRock helps you instantly build a prelaunch landing page and adds all the hooks so that it can go viral.
Here’s some adivce they give on their site:
Five lessons for a friend-fueled viral launch page:
1. Ask for help: Your friends care about you and want to help you succeed.
2. Lines, Not Dots: Share a story line with friends not just a snapshot.
3. Snipers, Not Shotguns: Target small circles of friends with catered emails.
4. Keep it fresh: Continually show your friends how your business works.
5. Don’t be annoying: Be comfortable asking for help, but don’t over do it.
How to Market & Promote iPhone, iPad & Android Apps (Part 5)
Steve Hoffman
by Steve Hoffman, Publisher of Founders Space
Okay, your app is now live. Here’s what you need to do to keep your app visible and healthy.
Post-Launch Phase – Marketing & Promotion
- Take advantage of services like TapJoy and Millennial Media to buy installs and boost your app’s rank. But don’t get carried away. These guys can cost you a bundle, and unless your app performs, it can be a waste of money.
- Avoid advertising on the Web. These clicks seldom translate into mobile downloads.
- Look for new partnership opportunities.
How to Market & Promote iPhone, iPad & Android Apps (Part 4)
Steve Hoffman
by Steve Hoffman, Creator of Yumby
The day your app hits the App Store, you need to be ready to respond to anything and everything. This is your biggest single day for marketing and promoting your app, and here’s what you need to do.
Launch Phase – Marketing & Promotion
- Upon launch, email blast all the journalists you didn’t contact ahead of time. Point them to the press release and the App Store, so they can download your app. Also include a link to a video of your app. Journalists are lazy and often won’t download your app unless they find the video compelling.
How to Market & Promote iPhone, iPad & Android Apps (Part 3)
Steve Hoffman
by Steve Hoffman, Publisher of Founders Space
Right before your app launch is the most critical time for marketing and promoting it. You need to cement all the key relationships and make sure everyone knows your app is about to hit the App Store. If you do a good enough job and are lucky enough to get on Apple’s radar, the chances of getting featured go way up.
Prelaunch Phase – Marking & Promotion
How to Market & Promote iPhone, iPad & Android Apps (Part 2)
Steve Hoffman
by Steve Hoffman, Publisher of Founders Space
It’s never too early to start marketing and promoting your app. Ideally, you should begin right when you start development. As you build out the app, you should be working on marketing and promoting it to all the key influencers, including bloggers, strategic partners, potential users, etc.
Development Phase – Marketing & Promotion
- Identify your target customer. Is it Moms between the ages of 35 and 45? You need to know exactly who will be using your app and why they’ll download it.
