soulati.com

Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Crutchfield Direct Meets Content Marketing

By

Crutchfield-Direct-MailThere are few marketing catalogs good enough to devour and some you should trash. For them all, you ought to get on the “do not mail” list (can I get a personal assistant, please?).

The catalog I devour is Crutchfield. It is full of the most advanced tech gadgets from stereo speakers on a carabiner to cameras, earphones, and deck speakers for that outside life we all love to wish for.

I’m not an audiophile, but I sure do love tech toys. Didn’t I recently tell you we were all game players? I digress.

Direct Mail Say Hi To Content Marketing

Crutchfield is taking the direct mail catalog to new heights, and they are impressive ones:

On page 12 of the most recent not-junk-mail sales catalog is a piece fit for a blog post, “Making A Mustang Rock; We do the research so you know exactly where it fits.” It gets no link because it’s not online; it’s in print and mailed to me.

The article (yes, I said article) is for Mustang enthusiasts interested in souping up stereo speakers in the dash for Mustangs built in 2005-2009.

Throughout the authoritative piece that smacks of research and original proven content are photos of the speakers for sale.

In the sidebar is a feature of the guy, Jason, who’s been working for Crutchfield 18 years. He’s the savvy dude who fits your car with tech gear.

At the bottom, are two call outs —

  •  First is oriented to establishing more authority, “We’ve done profiles like this for 38 more vehicles; hit crutchfield.com/vprofile to read more, etc.:
  •  The second is definitely a favorite of Crutchfield customers and prospects…Outfit My Car, where Crutchfield has created a database of 17,000 autos and what the audio requirements are for each with a lot of “free installation accessories.”  Check that out at crutchfield.com/whatfits.

photo-32Why Crutchfield is #RockHot

  • Have you heard that content is king? I know you have or else you’ve been under a rock for two years.
  • This type of blog-postesque content that melds sales with content marketing is brilliant.
  • Not only that, the experts behind the story are featured right there; authority zudes from the content.
  • They showcase their database of extensive vehicles and product requirements.
  • Products are seen in action and help illustrate the story IN THE SALES CATALOG.

If you are a content marketer, it’s time to get creative, just like this. We’re living in a souped up time for business opportunity…just like those Mustangs Crutchfield is outfitting with sound systems.

 

By Jayme Soulati

Enhanced by Zemanta

10 Marketing Tips To Make 6 Minutes Of Fame Longer

By

baconSouth By Southwest or SXSW is happening right now. I will attend some day; it’s on my list. What happens there? Do companies become famous overnight and do videos of feats go viral? It’s been known to happen.

Have you ever thought about what happens after six minutes of fame?

I was in the audience for the Jenny Show in Chicago once; they asked me a question about being single in the city and I was on TV. It wasn’t for six minutes; more like six seconds…and what happened next? Nothing. It was a big let down after my stint on camera wearing a stupid grin because when you frown on TV you look like a convict.

Remember those streakers who ran nudey through the Sunday football game or the collegiate games? Bet they got more than six minutes of fame; probably a mug shot and criminal record for showing items that should always remain covered.

How To Make 6 Minutes of Fame Live Longer

It seems to me, as an over-the-top consumer of news, that companies are trying really, really hard to earn six minutes of fame. Social media has done that. Everyone is hungry for word-of-mouth marketing to up the ante and boost their brand into the stratosphere.

The Super Bowl comes to mind, especially when there’s equipment (aka clothing) failure. Advertisers who spend millions of dollars are expecting infamy.  The Old Spice commercial still engages the sexual energy; yep, definitely more than six minutes of fame. The video I featured here by the guitarist for the Chicago Music Exchange who played 100 riffs on the history of Rock ‘n Roll certainly went viral, but I can’t tell you the guy’s name.

Fame is fleeting, Folks.

What Marketers Can Do For Fame and Fortune Every Day

Instead of worrying about how you’re going to capitalize on a fad, trend or current event, consider the following to be famous every single day, not only for six minutes:

  1. Keep your messages updated; adjust them as your company grows with the times.
  2. Change up the team every now and again; hire a fresh perspective to give new eyeballs on current marketing or public relations. I know just the person.
  3. Try a new social media channel and master it. Just like a master gardener who makes the flowers grow with five green thumbs, you can earn a green thumb and sow the seeds for your company.
  4. Listen. When you hear someone say social listening is a new trend; it’s really not. All that means is someone is tuning in to their community and the social media channels to see what’s trending in their vertical market.
  5. Read. Read the bloggers and media outlets that can teach you; if you find yourself yawning over an article, then move on. There are more than 1 million blogs to peruse; 10 of them should be ripe as learning grounds.
  6. Engage. You have to; there is no excuse for not engaging with your community, prospects, customers, employees, and peers. Please remember, you never know if a reporter is visiting your channels to see if your stream is healthy. When you engage as a company or brand, your community engages and evangelizes with and for you.
  7. Rather than seek six minutes of fame and fortune (which rarely exists), create strategically strong integrated marketing campaigns for the long term. With the right smart marketing team in place, you can brainstorm ideas for 12 months that keep your brand consistently focused and marketed.
  8. Tune in to news events and create a smart campaign that ties in with it. Have you seen the craze called bacon?  Every day, someone is talking about bacon and not necessarily eating it. For some zany reason, the Baconators have taken over the social sphere with anything and everything relating to pork strips.
  9. Live, breathe and eat bacon. The Oscar Mayer agency, 360i, did some heavy social listening and determined that bacon was hot stuff; however, no brand had capitalized on the bacon trend. It devised an awesome social-media-infused PR campaign called the Great American Bacon Barter “in which a penniless comedian traveled cross country trading Oscar Mayer’s new Butcher Thick Cut bacon for essential such as food, a night on someone’s couch, or NFL tickets.”  Oscar Mayer’s CEO said the campaign was successful because of the “culture of curiosity that’s fueled by using data to drive creativity and commerce.”
  10. Dig in deep to your company culture. Can you define your company culture? I’ve always been fascinated by this…what is the definition of culture in business and how does it play out in marketing? Ask yourself.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta

Take Social Media Higher With Niche Networks

By


English: Infographic on how Social Media are b...

English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Keeping up with the Joness is none too rewarding for companies, especially when it comes to social media adoption.

Most companies look at their peer group to identify what the nearest competitor is up to and then everyone is eventually following suit buoyed by the earliest adopters.

Many of the businesses that jumped in whole hog bright and early earned the most attention from consumers who wanted to engage with smart brands. Companies slower to adopt are finding it more of a challenge to tally likes, RTs, plusses, or followers.

But, all is not lost for the smartest and savviest social media adopters.

In 2012, users on the Interwebz grew 19.2 percent over 2011, according to eMarketer. There were 1.43 billion users on social networks, and we all know that Facebook boasts the first billion.

As adoption levels taper off, users are going to branch out into smaller networks that are more manageable. Inc. magazine shares a story about the pending 2013 backlash in social media adoption and the “emergence of smaller-scale, niche networks.”

Here are ways your company can benefit from the expected 2013 trend:

1. Shore up the big four or five channels and determine which few are the most beneficial relating to the strongest return on investment of money, time, team, and sales.

2. Stay the course with these, and begin to look around for smaller channels that are ripe for brands to engage with.

3. Understand your customers’ behavior and how they use social media. What do you know about consumer behavior patterns?

4. Study up on online behavior; there is a burgeoning field addressing human interactions online. Companies can benefit from this knowledge.

5. Develop programs that reward customers for their loyalty. Imagine a loyalty program on steroids. How many ways can customers be rewarded with simple recognition that ultimately costs the company pennies?

With loyal brand evangelists, companies can reward with a badge for a Facebook page or other profile page. Simple? Loyalty costs only as much as the creativity around implementing the program.

In the Inc. story, several mentions about smaller, niche apps becoming popular showcase where users are heading to get out from the clutter of 1 billion Facebook users:

Path
App.net
NextDoor
Yammer
MindMixer (I like this site on first impression!)

Also in the story, companies were advised to watch, listen and participate with a non-sales approach. The goal for companies is to jump to the next phase of relationship marketing and reap the benefits of the ever-changing online community.

 

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta