Tag: mash-up

Monday, December 23
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Marketing Tips
Social Media is a Means to an End 

Will social media ever rule the internet? That’s the question posted in this great article from the Business2Community blog.  Author Justin Wong notes that many of us spend tons of time on social platforms. “But when it comes to social media for businesses and how much weight you should give this tool when it comes to your overall marketing strategy, it’s important to put things into perspective. Social is not the be all end all like some people believe it is. It should always be seen as a means to an end when it comes to your business and not an end in and of itself.”

That’s exactly right. Wong also offers this great tip: “Having your social media followers subscribe to your email list, via your newsletter or content offer, gives you the most control over your social media following as a business owner – take control of your destiny!” 

Amen!             

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Marketing Funnies
Mocking those Dire Predictions

I founded MarketVolt more than 18 years ago. I began hearing predictions about the “death”of email marketing about 17 years ago. Email marketing is alive and well — as are those predictions about the death of such-and-such marketing channel. This cartoon captures that idea. Very funny.   

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Speaking of Bad Predictions…

From QR codes to tablet computing, this great article traces all the “next big things” that didn’t turn out to be so big, after all, over the last decade. It’s an interesting, amusing read. 

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Marketing Inspiration
Daughter of Former Slaves Made Fortune
 
Sarah Breelove was born on this day in 1867 to former slaves on a plantation in Louisiana. By the time she died in 1919, she was known as Madam C.J. Walker, and she was the wealthiest self-made women in America. She invented a line of haircare products for African Americans and built a business that earned her a fortune. She was a generous philanthropist and arts patron. Here’s an excellent article about her from Entrepreneur magazine.                 

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Marketing Tips
Payback for Those Abandoned Cart Emails 

Anyone who left the online store before completing the purchase has probably received an “abandoned cart” email — one of those annoying messages urging you to return to the store and complete your purchase. As a marketing guy, I get it; it’s a good strategy to increase sales.

But as a consumer, I find those emails annoying. Now we can cash-in on the practice. I heard this tip on the morning news today… When shopping online, register for the site with your email, put items you want in the cart and then sign out. You may get an abandoned cart email; and if you do, it may include an incentive for you to return — a coupon code or some other discount to sweeten the deal. If you can wait to complete the purchase, it’s worth a try. 

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Quotable

“I got my start by giving myself a start.” Madame C. J. Walker 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, December 16
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Entertaining Ad
Thinkbox Employs Tooth Fairy to Pitch TV Advertising

I like this ad by Thinkbox, a consortium of television broadcasters designed to promote TV advertising…

Funny and entertaining, while also promoting the value of their service. 

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Security Tips
Turn Off Bluetooth if You Leave Devices in the Car

Thieves are using an inexpensive, readily available device to detect nearby devices with bluetooth. They walk past parked cars, detect whether there’s a device in the car, and break-in if there is.  The lesson: Turn off Bluetooth (or power down the device altogether) if you’re leaving it in the car. Here’s an article from Popular Mechanics that explains it all. 

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Marketing Tips
Is Your Business as Visible Online as It Should Be? 

Here’s a great presentation from a recent Experts 4 entrepreneurs event in St. Louis. Marketing expert Will Hanke from Red Canoe Media offers some great tips to help you get your business listed and noticed online. Simple ideas, critical to business success.                

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Marketing Tips
Payback for Those Abandoned Cart Emails 

Anyone who left the online store before completing the purchase has probably received an “abandoned cart” email — one of those annoying messages urging you to return to the store and complete your purchase. As a marketing guy, I get it; it’s a good strategy to increase sales.

But as a consumer, I find those emails annoying. Now we can cash-in on the practice. I heard this tip on the morning news today… When shopping online, register for the site with your email, put items you want in the cart and then sign out. You may get an abandoned cart email; and if you do, it may include an incentive for you to return — a coupon code or some other discount to sweeten the deal. If you can wait to complete the purchase, it’s worth a try. 

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Quotable
Wise Words from Margaret Mead

Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead was born on this day in 1901. She said… 

“It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age…” 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, December 9
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Marketing Tips
Subject Line Dos and Don’ts

Here’s the latest post from the MarketVolt blog:

Want to Get a Prospect’s Attention? Here Are Some Subject Line Dos and Don’ts

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Funny Ad
Grocery Chain Releases the “Worst Song in the World” 

I really like this ad from the French grocery chain Monoprix. 

If you’ve ever watched a music video — especially ones from the early days of MTV — this will make you laugh. 

It also constructs an effective story that delivers a strong marketing message. 

Funny and instructive. 

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Marketing Ideas
Bus Company Improves Its Surveys and Sees Results

Greyhound is a massive corporation using enterprise software to run its marketing and sales. Still, small businesses can learn from this article that describes how they improved their customer feedback process. You don’t need to invest in premium survey tools to do what Greyhound did; you should see similar results. 

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The Power of Community
How a Small Businesses Fended Off a Giant

Every business can learn from this story of a family-owned frozen yogurt shop that built its business the right way and survived when Dairy Queen came to town.   

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Quotable
Big Bird Wisdom

Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who gave life to Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on PBS’ “Sesame Street” died yesterday. In one of the articles about him, he said, Big Bird was the character most similar to himself. So here’s a quote from Big Bird to remember the man who created him… 

“Bad days happen to everyone, but when one happens to you, just keep doing your best and never let a bad day make you feel bad about yourself.” 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, December 2
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Brilliant Marketing
Alaska Airlines Targets Niche Market with Irresistible Promotion

Last month, Alaska Airlines encouraged impulsive surfers to hop aboard and fly to Hawaii by offering last-minute discounts that increased as the island waves grew larger. 

The airline ran the ads on surfline.com, a site that offers surfing forecasts for sites around the globe. The higher the predicted surf in Hawaii, the greater the discount. 

That’s a great example of targeted advertising.  

Here’s an article from Adweek about the campaign (no charge, but you have to register on the site to read it).  

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Recommended Reading and Viewing
“A Beautiful Day…” is a Beautiful Movie

I greatly enjoyed the new film about Mr. Rogers, starring Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

After you see it, I encourage you to read the 1998 Esquire article on which the movie is based — a long, but fascinating read. 

Then I encourage you to listen to this episode of the Big Questions podcast in which Cal Fussman interviews the author of that article, Tom Junod. He is the focus of the film, and in this interview he discusses his real-life interactions with Mr. Rogers and how the film got it right. 

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Marketing Funnies
Making Fun of “Forever 21” and Similar Brand Names

The clothing and accessory retailer “Forever 21” filed for bankruptcy in September. 

That’s not funny. But this cartoon is.

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On This Day
“Thriller” Debuts on MTV

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying Michael Jackson’s influence. On this day in 1983, MTV aired Jackson’s 14-minute version of “Thriller” for the first time. Many consider it the most influential music video ever. Here it is. 

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Quotable
Fred Rogers

“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, November 25
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Cool Marketing
REI: Practicing What They Preach

I really like REI’s approach to Black Friday. Rather than hosting doorbuster sales like other retailers, they close their doors and encourage their employees and customers to opt-outside. 

Here’s the explanation on their website.  

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Marketing Tips
The Power of Split-Testing

We say it a lot in these emails: Test what works. Here’s a great article from the smart folks at Crazy Egg about the benefits of split-testing. 

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Clever Campaign
Philadelphia Cream Cheese Reimagines the Holiday Table

This advertising campaign caught our eye and made us laugh.

Kraft, the makers of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, are encouraging us to serve cheesecake at our Thanksgiving meals. Their pitch: A conspiracy theory about culinary cover-ups.

Here’s the description that accompanies the advertisement on YouTube:

Cheesecake is the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert. Why haven’t we heard about it? Because the people in power didn’t want us to know. Follow the Cheesecakers Society as they expose one of the biggest cover-ups in American History!

Funny!

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Recommended Listening and Viewing
Belated Love for Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon”

Nick Drake was a singer-songwriter was gained little notice (and sold few albums) when he was alive. He died on this day in 1974 at age 26. Two years earlier, he released his album “Pink Moon.” Critics and music buyers shrugged. Then in 2000, Volkswagen released this ad, featuring the title track from that album. The ad was critically acclaimed. Music fans loved it… and Nick Drake. Within 30 days of the ad’s release, Drake sold more albums than he had in the previous 30 years. 

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Quotable
Andrew Carnegie…

…was born on this day in 1835. He said:

“He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.” 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, November 18
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Marketing Tips
Embrace Emotion in B2B Marketing

This is a great article — helpful whether you sell to businesses or consumers. Understand your target market and appeal to their emotions. This article explains how B2B marketers can do it. The lessons apply to all marketing. 

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Marketing Humor
Bold New Ideas? Not so Much…

I like this cartoon about how some organizations welcome innovation…

…or don’t. 
 

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Email Marketing
Looking for Some Marketing Ideas…? 
 
Email marketing is about much more than newsletters. This article offers some great ideas for how to move beyond the newsletter to maximize your email ROI. 

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Recommended Listening
An Album that Lives Up to the Pre-Release Hype

I can’t get enough of this album: The Highwomen — the debut release of a country music super-group featuring Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Natalie Hemby. Here’s the album review from Rolling Stone. There was a lot of hype before this album was released in August. It lives up to all the hype. 

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Quotable
Jackie Robinson on Dignity

On this day in 1949, following his third season in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson won his first and only National League MVP award. The first player to break baseball’s color line, Robinson said this: 

“Life is not a spectator sport. If you’re going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you’re wasting your life.” 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, November 11
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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I usually finish each Mash-Up with a meaningful quote. But today is Veterans Day so I’ll jump right in with a quote:

“The valor and courage of our young women and men in the armed services are a shining example to all of the world, and we owe them and their families our deepest respect.”

– Bill Frist

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Military Marketing
Veterans Began as Recruits and Recruiting Begins with Marketing
 
I was born in 1965, eight years before the United States ended the military draft. I remember as a kid wondering whether I would fight in Viet Nam when I grew up. 

By the time I was 18, the Viet Nam war and the draft were distant memories. I remember from those days the constant television ads aimed at recruiting young people like me to join the military. Recruiting is big business — marketing business. 

Here’s an interesting article from Army Times about how the military struggles struggles to meet and beat projections and how it adjusts when they fall short — just like so many businesses. 

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The Business of Supporting Veterans

Most cities across America have chambers of commerce designed to help veterans. In MarketVolt’s home town, St. Louis, we have the Midwest Veterans Chamber of Commerce (MVCC). Their mission: “To be the central resource for veterans in business, individuals and businesses that support and hire veterans and non profits that provide resources to veterans to learn, grow and connect.”

I encourage you to find chambers like this in your community. Learn about them. Spread the word. Support them. As the MVCC site says, chambers like this are “Uniting veterans in business for the prosperity of all.”

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Marketing Lessons from Two Young Men

Here’s the latest post from MarketVolt’s blog — the story of a brilliant marketing story. The post describes the most successful direct mail letter in history and learn why it worked so well for so long. 

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Recommended Listening 
Van Does it Again

Van Morrison released his first album 52 years ago. He released his 40th studio album last month. Three Chords and the Truth is a great album — maybe not his best, but right up there. I highly recommend it. 
 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, November 4
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Email Tips
The Power of the Pre-Header

See that fine-print copy at the very top of this email? That’s called a “pre-header,” and it’s something you should include in your emails if you want to increase open rates and engagement. Here’s an article that explains why and offers some tips for writing good ones. 

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Productivity
“.new” Domain Extension Launches Apps Quickly
 
If you have a Spotify account, type “playlist.new” in your browser’s address bar to create a new playlist. No need to open Spotify first.

Do you use Google calendar? Type cal.new in the browser to create a new event. 

Doc.new will launch a new Google docs page. 

Reservation.new will launch Open Tables new reservation page. 

Businesses can register domains with the “.new” extension to create shortcuts to their online applications. 

Here’s an article that explains it all. 

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Fast Food Chain Got One Part Right — The Apology

Yesterday (Sunday 11/3) was National Sandwich Day. How did you celebrate!? A few days back Chick-Fil-A encouraged email subscribers to celebrate by visiting their stores to buy a chicken sandwich. The only problem: Chick-Fil-A is closed on Sundays. Soon after sending the first email, they sent a simple, concise, to-the-point correction/apology. Here’s an article that tells the story and reminds us that a simple, direct apology is the right approach when your business gets something wrong. 

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Perfecting Your Presentation
Three “E’s” Help Your Audience Get It

Here’s another great quick-tip video from Fred Miller, the man behind No Sweat Public Speaking. If you want your audience to connect with your presentation and “get it,” here are the three “E’s” to include.  

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Quotable 

You’ve heard me say it often: Emotions, not rational analysis, drive buying decisions. Here’s an oldie-but-goodie article that proves it.  
 

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

onday, October 28
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Marketing Laughs
Brands with a Sense of Humor

I found this article that catalogs funny product descriptions from e-commerce brands. Sometimes we take ourselves and our businesses too seriously. I like it when a brand has some fun.

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Marketing Tips
“Negative” Marketing Can Have Positive Results
 
Customers buy your products and services because they fulfill some desire or they protect against a bad outcome. So it follows that, occasionally, you have to talk about bad outcomes in your marketing. Going “negative” does not make you a bad, negative person. Here’s a post from our blog that explains…

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The Power of Combining Social Media and Email

I love this infographic from Payfort that reminds us how important email marketing remains. The intro to the graphic notes: “Email marketing still plays an important role in business and remains one of the most effective ways to reach your customers…but it doesn’t need to be in direct competition with social media. Here’s how you can combine the 2 platforms for the best results!” 

Good info in this graphic!

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Wise Humor
Friends and Followers are NOT The Goal

Here’s a spot-on cartoon from Marketoonist that nails the mistake so many marketers make with social media. The goal is not more followers. 

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Quotable 

“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.” 

Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and theologian (The Praise of Folly), born on this day in 1466.   

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom

Monday, October 14
MarketVolt’s Monday Mash-Up

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Know Your Customers, Strengthen Your Business

I like this article that offers four simple ways to “know thy customer.” As the article notes, “To increase brand loyalty and relevance in this competitive digital era, you have to show customers that you “get” them.” Amen.

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Marketing Tips
How to Use Simple Surveys to Improve and Grow Your Business

One of the recommendations in the article above: Survey your customers. I agree. In fact, last month, I shared that same advice (and tips on how to do it) in a live presentation at an Experts 4 Entrepreneurs (e4e) event. Here’s the video from this presentation.

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Funny Advice
Video Reminds Us to Get to the Point
Speaking of e4e, thanks to e4e founder Bill Prenatt for sharing this hilarious video with me. I now share it with you. The simple idea: Why say in 10 words what you can say in one? 

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Great Advertising
Job Posting Site Captures the Misery of Being Stuck in a Bad Job

I love the print advertising campaign from PNet, a South African job posting service. Good marketing leads prospects to say, “I can relate.” If you’ve ever been stuck in a bad job, you can relate to this.

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Quotable 

On this day in 1926, “Winnie the Pooh” by A.A. Milne was first published. Here’s something Pooh said:

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

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Any reading, listening, quoting, resourcing that you think we should share? Send us a tip.

Until next time, enjoy the rest of this week and the weekend.

Tom