Part 1: Television Advertising

Inbound marketing is about getting found, rather than marketing to a mass of people that are trying their best to block you out. Many inbound marketers focus solely on new marketing and ”non-interruptive” techniques, shunning traditional outbound marketing ideas such as email blasts, telemarketing, direct mail, TV and radio ads, and even print media ads, billboards and tradeshows.

While I wholeheartedly agree that modern consumers are using technology to disrupt outbound marketing strategies that have worked in the past, some of the strategies, when used properly, can be modified to work beautifully in today’s marketing world.

Outbound Marketing and Consumer Savvy

In my series, I will address how technology and savvy consumers have created challenges for businesses wanting to advertise their products or services. I will also present solutions that have been used to overcome these challenges, and ideas that small business owners can use to tap into the game.

Combining old media with new techniques - creative commercials and self-produced online shows can help you reach an audience.

1. Television ads

Problem: DVR and TEVO have allowed consumers to record and then fast-forward through expensive commercials. Many TV viewers no longer watch live television. Instead, they create timers for their favorite shows, then watch them on their schedule. By skipping through commercials, a one hour show can be cut to just 40 minutes.

Solution 1: Unpredictable commercial breaks 
While set-top recorders have changed the way consumers view television, there are ways that advertisers have continued to retain an audience. Networks like NBC and FOX no longer stick to a format that starts and ends prime-time shows on an hour and half-hour time grid. Instead, I need to set my DVR two to three minutes before a show starts or risk missing the beginning of the episode I want to view. During playback, the previous show ends and the new show begins immediately. When the first commercial does play, it is difficult to forward to the correct spot without stopping several times because cues that in the past would mean the programming is back on are now followed by another commercial. Even an experienced commercial fast-forwarder like myself finds that it is sometimes easier to advance through the advertisements to a certain point, then watch the last few commercials to avoid passing the beginning of the show, rewinding, and having to watch the commercial anyway. In this model, the advertisements that are at the tail of a commercial break are the ones I view most.

Solution 2: Creative and entertaining advertising 
Even low-budget commercials are getting more and more creative, and often the line between programming and advertising entertainment is blurred. The pricey commercials that play during the Super Bowl are a good example, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has recorded that football event only to skip through the game and watch the advertisements from companies who paid an exhorbant amount to have me learn about their product or service.

Superbowl aside, an ad slot during prime-time network television is still priced out of reach for most small companies. How are the large players ensuring that eyes are on their expensive commercials? Many companies are using actors from the shows that are being watched, or A-list actors that people want to listen to. These known faces often make consumers hold off on the fast-forward button. Another technique to keep viewers engaged is to present the commercial as a mini-show in itself, which encourages us to watch the content to see what the advertisement is even about. Another technique is to offer such creative and orginal content and presentation style that viewers are enticed to watch from beginning to end.

Solutuion 3: Product placement and show sponsors
I don’t mind seeing blatant use of Apple computers on NBC’s 30 Rock, or a Toyota Sienna being prominently named and utilized on Bravo TV’s Top Chef. In fact, I find it useful learning about new brands of cookware on a cooking show, or the new features of an electronic device through a fictional TV story. In the “olden days” TV shows were sponsored by one large company. That one company was often mentioned throughout the show and a pitch was offered during each commercial break.  If that model come back we would know what company or companies are sponsoring each show. When I watch public television with no commercials through my local PBS station, I take the time to watch what company sponsored Antiques Roadshow and the new Electric Company for my kids, and hearing about Robert Mondavi wine as a sponsor of America’s Test Kitchen has stuck in my brain.

Marketing solutions for the rest of us.

Most  business owners don’t have the budget to spend on a  network television ad, but thankfully, evolving technology has brought TV to the internet, and the internet to TV, meaning even companies on a small budget can get into the game. Large technology companies like Google and Netflix have been in the midst of mergers and acquisitions to offer viewers a television/internet combined experience. In the not-to-distant future, set-top internet boxes will allow television viewers to watch programming and internet content seamlessly on one screen. Conversely, internet viewers can now watch television content on a computer screen or portable device, so there is no longer a need to sit in front of a tv set to watch your favorite shows.

Because of the movement that blurs the line of where viewers are watching television content, small businesses can now sponsor an online show, place their commercial at the beginning of online video content, or work with viral video owners to make their website URL visible to millions.

But why stick with advertising on someone else’s video content? Internet solutions such Ustream.tv, LiveVideo.com, LiveStream.com and Justin.tv provide anyone with a computer and a camera a way to present their own live programming to anyone who is willing to watch. No longer reserved for large companies with huge advertising budgets, presenting live broadcasts about your product, service or event is a great way to engage customers and provide them with an interactive way to learn about your product. The Post Punk Kitchen hosted a vegan cooking show that highlighted the chefs playing punk rock music and demonstrating recipes. Their show developed a steady following, which boosted their online credibility and although new episodes are no longer being made, the website still ranks number two in Google under the keyword ’vegan cookbook.’ Not only will producing your own online show attract visitors, you can increase search engine rank by putting diverse content in multiple locations online.

When a plumber offers a weekly show with household tips, an author presents a monthly writing workshop, or an electronic store broadcasts timely technology updates for customers, all of these methods are an inexpensive way to have your own TV show and can help businesses reach a larger audience.

If your business marketing budget doesn’t allow for a traditional television commercial, create your own commercial to place within existing online content, or develop your own online show with your company as the title sponsor. Either way, new marketing levels the playing field and helps any size business be seen and discovered, as long as you are going where your audience is. I’d love to hear your feedback as to how you are using online commercials or producing your own online shows to increase your internet presence and gain exposure.

Coming soon in Part 2: Email Blasts and Lead Nurturing

Mashable just posted an article about the new Calvin Klein ad campaign that features one large QR code on their billboard. Above the QR code image are the painted words, “GET IT UNCENSORED.” Smartphone users that scan the image are taken to a racy video/commercial that would be too sexy for TV.

This giant QR code appears on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can scan the code with a smartphone to view a racy advertisement. Image from Mashable.com.

I think the ad is brilliant advertising. Although smartphone users are causing a dramatic rise in mobile media marketing, most people have no clue that the odd design of squares that make up a QR code is actually a powerful marketing tool. What techies and savvy marketers have known for a while, though, is that the QR code can take your audience to the exact place they need to be, and they make the choice to go there by deciding whether or not to scan the code in the first place. It is inbound marketing combined with traditional print media.

As a restaurant owner, consider using a QR code on a menu to take your customers to a video that shows them an exclusive tour of your establishment or the process of how their meal is prepared. A doctor’s office could hand a brochure to their patient with a general overview and a QR code that takes them to a web page with extensive information about the topic of their visit. The content can be read on a smartphone while the patron waits for a meal or the patient waits for their appointment.

You can create your own custom QR code for free at http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ . People are using the codes on t-shirts, business cards, on print ads, and on stickers that are left in locations for people to find and scan. It’s a great business tool to get creative with and invite interaction with a growing niche of customers and clients who are using smartphones.

Click here to read the entire Mashable.com article about the Calvin Klein campaign and QR codes.

Has your business used a QR code for advertising? I’d love to hear about it!
-natalie

Using social media to promote a political message:

Regarding the communication that occurs among online social media users:
“I often use the analogy that these conversations are not new. People have always talked politics around the watercooler, at the office, over the backyard fence.

And, in the same way, people are always talking about these things online. And if you are not there and able to put your perspective and your official voice out there, then you are not part of the conversation, and I think what you wouldn’t want to do is not be part of the conversation.”
-Adam Conner, associate manager for privacy and public policy, Facebook.

In the same transcript from PBS.org’s Newshour, Capitol Hill senators encourage politicians to use social media to reach the market where they can best broadcast their message. A common theme in traditional marketing seems to be “go where the people are.” And if millions of people are using online media to communicate, then going online is a good strategy.

And while outbound marketing techniques such as mailing postcards or newsletters to large groups of people can rack up a rather substantial bill, inbound marketing and reaching people through social media is relatively inexpensive.

“All this technology to restructure the relationship between the government and the constituents, I think is a — it could be a radical transformation, no less impactful than when television began to impact that relationship.”
-Matt Lira, media advisor to House Minority Whip Eric Cantor

Social media: it’s not just for small businesses anymore.

If you are confused by the many social media references and resources and unsure how it should all be used, you are not alone. In a recent survey conducted by a trio of social media and marketing leaders, almost 40% of respondents with no social media campaign indicated they “didn’t understand the concept.” The full story on PRWeb is here.

From conversations with small business owners and individuals in Pagosa Springs and Denver, I would think that the number could be even higher.

When I excitedly mention to my clients that they should consider implementing these great new tools that are free and can bring in customers in ways that outbound marketing techniques can’t touch, their eyes get glazed over, or roll back in their head as they recount their woes with social media experiments.

Some business owners say they wouldn’t even consider using social media because they can barely figure out how to use the internet or place an online order. Other clients say they don’t need to do any social media marketing because they’re doing just fine. A writer commented that he is about to retire so he didn’t feel a need to deal with blogging or Facebook.

But most of my clients who are small business owners or self-employed artists, builders, musicians or craftsmen express interest in social media but lack the knowledge to implement a good plan. Some are already using Facebook and blogging, but don’t understand how to link those tools to their website. And after spending the last 8 months intensively reading, listening and studying marketing and social media, it is apparent that with how much buzz is going on about the topic, real explanations are hard to come by.

I can find post after post of the same information about how important it is for businesses to start using social media sites. Statistics abound! There are hundreds of pages that explain how to set up your Facebook page, how to use Tweets, and how to share your blog posts. But the ‘why’ behind all of it has been very difficult to find and sift through. I am thankful that I discovered Vaynerchuk’s ‘Crush It’ and Shah and Halligan’s ‘Inbound Marketing’ books, and I have mentioned them so often on my blog that I don’t even have to pick up the books to check their name spelling anymore!

HubSpot.com is a great resource for social media information and updates, and they even host free webinars on the subject if you are interested in training. To share information that I have learned in the past 8 months, I will be hosting my first workshop in Pagosa Springs on May 12th! I am excited to educate people about social media and to help them understand the concepts that are missing from so many of the posts I am reading.

To that 40% (or more) of you that don’t use social media because it’s hard to understand, I say be patient just a little longer, seek out those who can offer you real advice, and eventually the dust will settle to reveal the inner workings of inbound marketing strategies. 

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to do what I can to shed light on those topics here.

Using experience, advice and techniques learned from researching  Social Media trends and inbound marketing strategies, I have developed a 20 step list of tasks that a small business owner can undertake with a commitment of a half hour a day. Check back for blog posts that elaborate on each step!

20 steps to Social Media Success

After you have established your marketing objectives and how you will measure success, use these 20 steps to implement your plan:

1. Pick a name that will work on all of your social networking sites.
2. If you don’t already have one, create a website.
3. Write down a list of 30 ideas for blog topics, based on conversations you have over and over again with your clients or questions you are asked all the time. Take a few weeks if you have to, but build your list to at least 30 topics.
4. Create a Twitter account with your chosen name and link to it from your website.
5. Find a nice head shot or photo of you to use on all of your networking sites as an avatar.
6. Create a Facebook personal page, then add a Facebook fan page.
7. Sign up for a Facebook simple URL to make it easy for people to type in your Facebook address. Keep it consistent with what you chose in step 1.
8. Create a blog with your unique name using an online site like WordPress or Blogspot. If possible, keep it hosted in a database on your own server. (GoDaddy is great at making this easy to set up and integrate.)
9. Sign up for Google Alerts for your company name and relevant industry terms. This will help you track new information as it happens. Start receiving alerts for keywords that will keep you in touch with your industry.
10. Find good bloggers who are writing about your field or trade and who have ideas and information that interests you. Subscribe to their feed. Leave thoughtful comments and participate in the conversation. Ask questions, or answer questions from others. Don’t sell and don’t market. Just let them know how great you think they are!
11. Search the web and identify your competitors who are getting found online, narrow them down to only the best few, and add them to your Google Alerts. Keep track of what they are doing, what they are saying and what is working for them so you can do it better.
12. Using your list from step 3, as well as new ideas you’ve been jotting down, create Blog content that is thoughtful, unique and informative. This is an important step! Don’t try to market and sell, write like you would be talking to your customers about something that excites you. Don’t make the posts too long, and you don’t have to do them all at once. Just a few each week is a good start!
13. Re-broadcast posts from other bloggers whose content is relevant to your industry by discussing why you agree (or disagree) with what they said and posting it to your own blog. Include a link to the original post.
14. Create a StumbleUpon account and spend a few minutes each day stumbling and voting on topics relative to your industry. Befriend those who are submitting interesting and relevant sites.
15. Create a YouTube account with your unique name, even if you won’t be using it right away or ever.
16. Consider creating a YouTube how-to video. It can be just a few minutes long. People love videos!
17. Pay attention to your own blog comments (they will come!) and engage those who took the time to write. Answer a question, or leave a comment about something that was said.
18. Promote other bloggers. Just as in Miracle on 34^th Street when the Macy’s Santa promoted the competition, Gimble’s Department Store, you can promote the people who you find helpful or those who link to you. Stumble them, Digg them, re-Tweet their ideas. It will all come back around to you.
19. Add your blog’s RSS feed to your website to share your information with site visitors.
20. Have fun!

This list can be expanded, of course, but these 20 tasks will set you on your way to being a functioning part of the world of online social media. I’d love to hear your feedback!

Special thanks to Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah and Gary Vaynerchuk. Their books provided fresh, insightful and useful information that stood out from the same messages being repeated over and over in different ways.

According to an interesting article on MediaPost.com, research by HubSpot.com shows that businesses are starting to use more resources for Inbound Marketing, while traditional outbound marketing budgets are remaining flat or even dropping.

As I continue to tell my clients who are small business owners in my little town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Inbound Marketing is slowly but surely becoming the standard in marketing to customers who are savvy at seeking out their services. Because many businesses still do not understand how inbound marketing works, or the importance of setting up a successful inbound marketing plan, they are lagging behind and letting the competition get a jump on them.

In Gary Vaynerchuk’s ‘Crush It’, he explains why right now is the time to start using the social networking tools available to create an inbound marketing plan, and by ‘now’, he means yesterday! It is obvious from studying how inbound marketing works that it takes time to setup and implement the strategies, and the longer you wait, the longer it will take to enter that market niche.

The town I live in is pretty darn small, and most of my clients are the sole-proprietors of their business. There is much information that deals with how to implement a social media plan into an existing marketing department, but my goal is to offer assistance to the business owners with no departments, no staff, and no budget.

Remember Mr. Carpet from my Inbound Marketing article? His website is progressing and his blog will follow shortly. He is still skeptical about being able to make blog posts on a regular basis, but as I explain to all of my business clients, finding the time is really not that hard.

Over a glass of wine the other evening, a news story came on the TV. The sound was muted but the image of rock star Bret Michaels came on the screen and Mr. Carpet proceeded to tell us the details of his condition, how it happened, and the prognosis. A few days later, as he was telling me that he couldn’t possibly find the time to create a blog post each week, I reminded him of his detailed account of the 80′s glam rocker. Finding that kind of useless information takes time, and it was time that wasn’t being put into his business. Instead of reading about the star’s condition, he could have been typing a blog post.

Most of my clients feel they are over-burdened as it is and echo Mr. Carpet’s belief that they cannot possibly fit in another task of writing blog posts. But with some creative planning and self-assesment of wasted time, they will find that the problem won’t be finding the time to create social media content, but limiting how much time they spend.

In Gary Vaynerchuk‘s book ‘Crush It! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion’, the author discusses the need for people to realize that talking about your passion will become part of doing business. As a computer consultant and tutor, there is common content that I tell my different clients over and over again. A realtor recites the same speels for her prospective clients, and so does Mr. Carpet. 

By cutting out time reading insignificant celebrity news on the internet or dropping one TV show a week, anyone can find the time to write about what it is they did that day. And if Mr. Carpet spends fifteen minutes creating a blog post about how to remove a urine stain from a couch, not only can he refer future clients to the information, he can be found by potential clients that don’t even know his name but are searching for that topic.

How many times do small business owners get stopped on the street or in the market and asked the same questions over and over? Post the answer just once and you can hand those people your card and refer them to your blog post that addresses the question. And when they share the great answer with their friends, they are doing your marketing for you.

Once you change your mindset and realize that blogging is an extension of your business and will increase your reach, you won’t want to be reading about the next celebrity marriage that failed. You will want to be creating great content that you will be excited to share with others.

So stop reading this and get to it!

 In Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah’s book ‘Inbound Marketing’, the team shares their experience as marketing experts and web developers to help the rest of us understand how all of the new social media tools can help businesses.

The last sections of the book deal with turning all of your social media efforts into leads by attracting customers, gathering contact information, and nurturing the leads to turn them into sales.

Living for 16 years in a town whose entire county population wouldn’t even fill half of a sports arena in a large city has had its disadvantages in my professional development. Our county has probably only a dozen businesses that have more than 10 employees, and the majority of business owners have no employees at all. These ‘mom and pop’ businesses as they are known often realize the need to begin a social marketing plan, but don’t have the resources to do so.

The advantage of living in a small town, however, is that marketing researchers like myself can read the practices suggested by Halligan and Shah and watch the process happen on a micro-scale. By working with small business owners in a small town where networking and reputation is everything, I can better understand how forging connections online can help a business gather leads and convert them to sales.

In this little town, people tend to shop and use services from those who they have met or have a personal relationship with. For example, when you personally know five realtors and it is time to list your house, people tend to go with the realtor they have built a relationship with. Business is business and just because you know someone doesn’t necessarily mean you will do business with them. If you are familiar with the realtor who is in your Rotary group, who volunteers at community events and knows the area, and who has been keeping you up-to-date on local real estate trends, you will most likely choose him or her over the others.

Small business owners can invest a few hours a week to use inbound marketing tools that will engage your customer base and maintain a dialogue. Even if the interaction allows a customer to vent or complain, by addressing the problem openly and professionally, you are building trust with your other clients who watch the process.

Building trust by sharing both the good and the bad will allow your customers to get to know you. Whether the lead lives 1000 miles or two blocks away, they will be more likely to purchase your product or use your services if you have engaged them, nurtured a relationship and built their confidence.

My best friend’s husband is a carpet cleaner and has decided to create a website. Being a web developer, I told him I would help him set up a basic page and would trade for services.

As I am learning more about how to concentrate on pulling people into your website (inbound marketing) rather than reaching out and interrupting your client base (outbound), I decided to use the carpet cleaning and resoration as a good example of how inbound marketing could help grow his business.

I explained to Mr. Carpet that there are probably things that he tells his clients over and over again. He takes it for granted because he says it all the time. But for someone who is getting their carpets cleaned for the first time, or just had their house flooded because they didn’t inspect the hose on the washing machine, the information is new and important.

When I mentioned to Mr. Carpet that sharing the information via a blog would be a good way to educate people and introduce them to his services, the first thing he said was, “Yeah, if they pay me for the information.” And therein lies the paradox.

Based on information from online research and webinars, and reiterated in Halligan and Shah’s Inbound Marketing book, it may not make sense to share industry information that your clients are paying for. But by doing so, you are building a reputation and customer trust, which should bring in new customers and thus, more revenue.

When a potential client reads a blog article by Mr. Carpet on why a dry cleaning system is no better than a wet system in a low-humidity climate, he is offering valuable information that will help that client make an informed decision. When that potential client needs cleaning services and has a choice between Mr. Carpet and Mr. X, both of whom they do not know, who do you think they will choose?

The same paradox can be used for any business. A realtor can create trust by blogging about the trends in the market that her competition doesn’t want to mention because they may expose something negative. A hunting outfitter might share not only happy stories, but also events that his clients should be aware of and plan to avoid. By offering content that will educate potential clients, the goal is that they will share this information with others, link to your site, and eventually become a client.

Changing your the marketing strategy of your small business to draw people to your site, rather than spend money on attempting to reach your client base, will allow you to do what you do best. If you have a good product or service, share it with others and they will come to you.

And keep in mind that the time you spend creating a blog post will result in a marketing piece that can be found by anyone in the world, from now until forever. That ad you put in the newspaper or magazine is gone within a month. Print advertising is useful to draw attention to your blog or website, but should not be the only way you are reaching out to your customers.

Because I live in a very small town (the entire county has a population of less than 15,000), my access to a learning campus is very limited. In attempting to learn as much as I can about Social Media, I have spent the last several months reading, listening, watching and gleaning as much as I can from real-world examples on how social media can be used to grow a business.

Through online webinars and in-person seminars, I have discovered that the field of Social Media is quickly changing and it is difficult to find a ‘best practices’ information site, or a ‘how-to’ page. What I have done, though, is cull hundreds of blogs and pages that talk about how social media can be used and by doing so, I have slowly developed my own expertise on what tools are out there and how to use them.

If there is one thing that all social media experts have in common, it is the message that using social media tools takes time, and follow through is important. There’s nothing worse than stumbling across someone’s Facebook page or Blog only to find that it was set up a year ago and hasn’t been updated since.

Throughout the next year, I hope to post information that I have learned from studying the concepts and practices involved with Social Media. I feel like I’ve attended my own personal university and have a good grasp on how it works, why businesses should use it, and how the phenomenon is turning the old concept of outbound marketing into a new world of inbound marketing.

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, founders of HubSpot.com, have written a very informative book called “Inbound Marketing – Get found using Google, Social Media and Blogs.” The book discusses the need to stop pushing your message out and instead start pulling customers in.

It seems that new a era of inbound marketing is upon us, and with the way the internet is growing, it isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. I hope to share more of my thoughts and findings in future posts.