The awesome, e-marketing folks at Emma, have a new blog. Well, new to me…
Anyway, go check it out. You’re sure to find all sorts of useful bits of information on email marketing. Trust me, these guys know there stuff and they’re just plain fun!
Archive for July, 2007
Flippin’ sweet, Nashville is holding its very own BarCamp!
Here’s how the website, Barcampnashville.com, defines the event:
“We will create the greatest digital festival in the history of Nashville. We will bring together entrepreneurs, technology visionaries, digital creators, music revolutionaries and marketing gurus under one roof for twelve hours of education, innovation and recreation.”
I’ll dumb it down for you. It’s a gathering of geeks (tech geeks, marketing geeks, entrepreneurial geeks, and everyday geeks) to talk shop, eat, and socialize.
From that description, you know I’ll be there!
From Marketing Operations Partners,
“Marketing Operations is a thorough, end-to-end operational discipline that leverages processes, technology, guidance and metrics to run the Marketing function as a profit center and fully-accountable business. It reinforces Marketing strategy and tactics with a scalable and sustainable enabling infrastructure, as well as nurturing a healthy, collaborative ecosystem, both within and outside the Marketing department, to drive achievement of enterprise objectives.”
What?
Clearly the person who wrote this forgot the #1 rule of writing for the Internet; keep your sentences short and don’t use buzz words. Why? You should never put the reader in a situation in which he must figure out what you are trying to say. They should be able to read your text one time and know exactly what your company is all about. Buzz words make the reader jump over unnecessary hurdles.
Let’s list the buzz words used in this paragraph: leverage, scalable, sustainable, collaborative ecosystem, enterprise objectives.
Did I miss any?
Remember when marketing used to be fun? The marketing team for The Simpsons movie remembers. They’ve converted 7-11 stores into Kwik-E Marts, let towns compete to host the movie premier, created a website that will let you upload a photo to “simpsonize” yourself, and painted a 180 ft. Homer next to one of Europe’s landmarks.
As a result of the team’s focus on fun, their marketing efforts have gone viral and have got coverage from the national media.
Remember to incorporate fun into your next viral campaign.
Thanks Piaras for letting me know about this!
Example of a stupid, useless marketing study
Published July 17, 2007 Marketing Observations Leave a Comment
This week’s publication of Marketing News contains an interesting article on Paypal versus Google Checkout.
This past June, eBay pulled all its keyword ads from Google’s U.S. site in response to a major Google blunder. What blunder? The Google Checkout team planned a party during eBay’s annual “eBay Live” event in the same city. Google called its party “Let Freedom Ring” – a reference to the fact that eBay’s Paypal does not allow Google Checkout as a payment method.
After eBay pulled its advertising, Google canceled the party but eBay has yet to relent its boycott. That’s bad for Google because eBay spends tens of millions of dollars a year with Google.
Lesson for the day: Don’t try to take screw over one of your biggest clients.
Take a look at this hilarious rap video created by two regular Joes. It went viral over the Internet (via YouTube) and got McDonald’s attention. Now McDonald’s is airing it, unedited slightly edited, on national television.
Say hello to citizen marketing!
Great move by the McDonald’s marketing team. Now I can’t stop thinking about the nugget rap!
Hat tip to Virginia over at Brains on Fire for leading me to the video.
Some people just don’t get that fibbing in advertising is an awful idea.
An Internet ad popped up on my screen this morning disguised as an error alert message. When I saw the ad, I was shocked, not by the ad itself because this type of ad isn’t new. In fact, it’s been floating out on the web for about ten years now. What shocked me was that there are companies that still use this bait-and-switch form of advertising.
My department leader and I encountered a bait-and-switch method of a different kind when we went looking at a house he was thinking of buying. The house was pictured in a magazine but, when we drove to the address given, we noticed some glaring differences. While the house itself looked the same, the land around it did not. The real estate agent had obviously paid someone to edit the photo to remove the cattle fencing around the property and remove the huge, slopping hill in the front yard.
Why do this; why would you lie to potential customers? I understand you feel the need to get people to your website and feet to the property you sell but don’t lie to get them there. If you do, you’re telling your potential customer that you’re willing to lie. They’ll then wonder what else you’re willing to lie about including the benefits of your service, the effectiveness of your product, your willingness to price match, etc. Don’t forget, these people have friends and they’ll tell them of your deceptive tricks.
The problem is that you’re thinking only two feet out in front of you while you should be thinking a hundred feet. Do you think my department leader looked at any more houses listed in that magazine? He did not. Do you think that I will go to the company that displayed the error alert ad when I need anti-virus software? I will not.
Why would we do business with a liar?
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