Marketing – general

Considering The Last Thing

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We have a client who runs a tiny, local restaurant review site.  As you may know, we advise our clients that advertising – paying to put yourself in front of others – should be the last thing they consider when putting together their marketing plans.  Not because "it's a rip-off" or some other negative reason, but because there are a ton – hell, two tons of things you can do for free or at minimal cost that will put you in front of your audience before finding a medium and paying them for some space.

But in examining or client's options, we had to agree that is was time to begin to advertise.  We wanted to put their web site in front of people in their area who were looking for "restaurant reviews" right now, but we didn't want it to cost an arm and a leg.  This is a tiny site, and is still not breaking even.  So we went with Google AdWords, and set a daily budget that would barely get you a cup of hot stuff at your favorite coffee house.

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Motivational Pix – UPDATE

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We've now completed 23 inspirational quotes "mini posters" which will be posted every Monday (except Labor Day, September 1st) at 10 AM Eastern time.  We hope you find them both visually interesting and mentally stimulating.  Please feel free to share them, even print them out as pictures and tack them on your wall for inspiration.

We're working on even more of them, and may release the whole pack in one ZIP file at some point.  We encourage you to post any comments you may have.  Thanks for keeping up with them, and with Agile'.

Motivational Pix

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We currently have the next 9 weeks of motivational quote pix in the bag.  We'll be putting more of them together soon.  We've got enough to last at least through the summer.

Watch for the newest pic with quote to be posted at 10 AM Eastern every Monday.  We hope you find them motivational and inspirational, and that they help you on your road to success!

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I’m Here To Kick Your Butt

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lazy_dudeI had someone contact me recently who wanted some help.  He wanted to figure out how get get from where his company was at to "the next level, dollar-wise."

"Okay.  I need to know what your current dollar volume is by year and by month, your current marketing and sales goals, and where you want your sales to be on a yearly level."

"That information is proprietary.  I don't know if I can give that to you."

I get it.  We've been conditioned that money is what we're all after, but to talk about it is a dirty thing, like sex or food.  Or maybe. . .

"You don't know, do you?  I mean, what your company's income is.  So you don't know where you want it to be.  You just know you want it higher."

"I'm sure I've got the figures some where.  How 'bout I call you back when I find them?"  You don't have to guess – he hasn't called me back.

If someone called you and asked for directions, what would you want to know?  First question – where are you now?  Second question – where do you want to go?

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Facebook Pages For Business

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We have a detailed article on using Facebook Pages to promote restaurants.  Hopefully it will see the light of day in a publication soon.  How did we come to write this article?

Well, Agile' has two restaurants as clients, and we set up and maintain their Facebook pages (along with maintaining their web sites).  As a result of that, we picked up a restaurant review site, CNYDining.com, as a client a few years back.  It languished for some time, but recently we renewed it's lease on life.

Friday night, we used FB's "Promotion" utility to get the name of the site out there.  Technically, what we were hunting for was "Likes" on the CNYDining Facebook Page.  As a by-product, we were hoping people would travel through to the actual web site.  We did this with the smallest of budgets – $5 per day.

Results: In less than 48 hours, we were well over 50 likes for the page, and the statistics for the main site show a steady increase in the number of visitors, which confirms that they've been coming through from the FB Page.  Miniscule numbers, right?  We also launched a Twitter account for them, and the first tweet just went live around midnight.

Our next step is to put together a give-away keyed to FB Page "Likes."  We're looking at a couple 2-for-1 dining coupon books.  Total cost (with shipping to the winners) should be around $50.  I'm planning to reach 250 likes that way.  And to get more, we'll do what I've been advocating all my clients do: ASK.  Ask them to suggest the site and the Page to their friends.

Use High Quality Gimmees

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I'm against the use of gimmees (freebies, give-aways, junk, etc) in trade show booths.  If you don't start doing it, you'll never have to stop.  Just like smoking cigarettes.  Both can be bad for your health.

I've had a dozen conversations like this one, but it serves as a good example.  I'd had a booth at several B2B trade shows where I was near the same printing company.  During this one, they were giving away pads that looked like melon slices.  At the top was printed "Honeydew List."  They had stacks of other pads out on display, but this was the most popular by far.  People were coming by and literally taking away half a dozen at a time, without asking or even being talked to by the booth staff.  Word was getting around, apparently, as I heard people coming up the aisle saying, "Those honeydew lists are around here someplace."  By the middle of the afternoon, those pads were all gone.

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