It’s a contest kinda day here at Sparkplugging. Wendy Piersall plugged my Marketing Makeover contest (which I encourage you all to enter for some great prizes that will help you improve your marketing on little or no money), so I’ll throw another contest out there.

I also wanted to tell you about Whirlpool’s Mother of Invention contest. Moms, we come up with great ideas every day. Why not get paid for them? If your invention idea is chosen, you could win:

• A $20,000 grant for the grand prize winner
• $24,000 in grant money for the four runners-up
• Home appliance prizes
• Invitation to business boot camp where winners will receive guidance from Whirlpool and industry experts

And Whirlpool has added a “Green” category, so get your environmentally friendly thinking caps on!

by Natalie Grbic

Many business owners contemplate over which type of marketing technique they should utilize to market their product or services. In my opinion, both online and offline marketing will produce results. The answer is completely up to you.

Offline marketing includes leaving brochures, business cards, and catalogs at high traffic places. Newspaper ads are another great example that some people decide to use. Online marketing consists of pay-per-click ads, press releases, social networking sites, and purchasing leads. Of course there are plenty of more examples one can use, but these are just a few important ones.

Your business belongs to you, so deciding which method fits your company is your choice. You may encounter some trial and error, but trial and error is good because it gives you insight on which technique works and which does not. Many people find that online marketing works for them and have no desire of changing. However, it could be the opposite for people who use offline marketing.

Both online and offline marketing techniques produce results. Although, keep in mind that the key point is that the more you expose your business, the faster things will go and the cash will start rolling in.

Susan:

Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if online or offline marketing is better for you (likely you’ll have a hybrid of the two).

• Are my customers mostly local?
  • If yes, there are more offline techniques that will work, such as networking, local ads in publications and phone book ads. You can also include online pay-per-click ads targeted at a geography
• Do I have a product I can sell anywhere?
  • Online is the answer for you. You should have an online store and advertise on search engines and sites related to what you do.
• Do I have a small budget?
  • If so, more online techniques will fit your budget and get you more results.

I’ve always prided myself on my creative marketing solutions. I scoffed at people who owned franchises. What possible challenge could there be in taking your marketing out of a box and putting it up?

Truly I felt the same about a franchise business as a whole. I built Egg Marketing & Public Relations from the keyboard up, and a “turnkey solution” just never appealed to my entrepreneur spirit.

Enter my husband. Entrepreneur, lover of all opportunities, big or small. He convinced me to buy a Marble Slab Creamery near our home (not really: 20 minute commute) in Orlando. I was skeptical, but I love ice cream, so hey, how bad could it be? And since I am a Marketing Eggspert, I would handle the take-out-of-the-box marketing.

Except it was more than that. Sure, the franchise company provides us with instructions and posters for each promotion (which is actually refreshing: we don’t have to hire a graphic artist to handle each promotion!). They walk us step-by-step through when to hang the posters and how to make the most out of it.

But then there are so many other ways we can market. We can take cakes to local businesses as a means of introduction (trust me: that gets me a smile and half off a massage at the Massage Envy in our shopping area!). We can put coupons in the apartment complex newsletters. We can send the schools free coupons and tell them about our fundraising. The possibilities make me dizzy with marketing fever.

So here are the lessons I’ve learned about franchise marketing:

1. You are not restricted by franchise marketing rules (well, they discourage you from posing nude with the ice cream, but beyond that, it’s fair game).

2. You are only limited by your own creativity.

3. Free ice cream goes a long way. (Thanks for lunch every day, Panera!)

4. Be open to partnerships with other businesses, and your marketing will go even further.

5. Listen to employee ideas (maybe not the Karaoke night one, though).

6. Utilize your resources. The franchise firm is there to provide you with marketing assistance. In fact, you’re paying for it, so use it!

7. Everybody loves ice cream.

8. After a hard day’s work in marketing, nothing hits the spot like Coffee ice cream with Heath and caramel in a waffle bowl!

I’d love to hear from you! Do you own a franchise? How do you market outside that box?

by Natalie Grbic

Have you ever thought of hiring a marketing firm to assist with your marketing needs, but was not sure of the quality the firm possessed to achieve successful results? In order to build that confidence in a marketing firm, you must understand what marketing effectiveness is. According to Wikipedia , marketing effectiveness is “the quality of how marketers go to market with the goal of optimizing their spending to achieve good results for both short-term and long-term.”

To better understand marketing effectiveness, take a look at the four dimensions of marketing effectiveness below:

1) Corporate – Companies have certain limits to follow, which include the ability to change, the amount of their budget, and size.

2) Competitive – How well do companies take action compared to their competitors?

3) Customers/Consumers – Understanding how consumers behave and what purchasing habits they have.

4) Exogenous Factors – Other factors companies cannot control such as weather, inflation, and government regulations.

Marketing effectiveness can be executed in many different ways, but to fully understand how marketers can achieve the results you are looking for, you must look at each of these four dimensions and see how a marketer can carry out the tasks you need for your company.

Susan:
Potential clients ask me to assure them I can get results for them. What are results? Do you want a 100% increase in sales? Or just an increase in brand recognition? Know what your objectives are before interviewing a marketing or PR firm so that the firm knows what you expect of them.

I find most companies aren’t sure who their target audience is, let alone what their real marketing needs are. And that’s fine, because that’s Egg’s job, to help you figure all that out. But you should also be able to answer questions about the four dimensions Natalie outlines above.

• Do you have budget constraints when it comes to marketing? Do you even have a budget?
• What are your competitors doing?
• Who are your customers? How do they like to receive their information?
• Are there other factors that can affect your business (my roofing client is impacted by the possibility of hurricanes in Florida each year)

Think YouTube is something teenage girls are wearing, akin to tube tops in the ’70s? Think again. It’s actually one heluva marketing tool, reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers every day with its videos. Think about your consumers. They’re not watching your commercials. They’re not looking for you in the phone book. How are you supposed to reach them?? Try video. Video marketing is the next frontier of the marketing world. It doesn’t have to be high tech, but it does have to be useful. Here are some different examples to get your wheels churning.

• My client, BackDrop Headboards, used a video to explain how its headboard with an inner air cushion worked. It was informational and draws the viewer in by showing a visual of a product they might not see in action otherwise.
• PRWeb came up with an amusing video (see below) that explains how a press release distributed through their site works. It simplifies what can be a daunting process for some, and breaks the ice for those considering the service.
• The Onion, a hard-hitting news network, has a channel on YouTube, which helps them reach a wider audience with its broadcasts.

So, as you can see, there are so many ways you can market your business with videos. The great thing about YouTube is that once you create and upload your video there (a very simply process nicely explained here) is that it’s easy to put on your own website.

So, if you’re ready to experiment with videos, here’s your chance. Enter Egg Marketing’s Marketing Makeover Contest. You could win some of the $2652.90 worth of prizes up for grabs! If you’re a business owner who’s finding it difficult to market in economic downturn, this contest will help you get on your feet. Winners will receive consultations, ebooks and advertising from some of the top internet marketing experts today. Entry deadline is May 30, so get filming! (and if you insist, you can also enter with an audio or typed submission as well)

-Susan

I know I’m supposed to stick to marketing things, so we’ll say the topic today is word of mouth marketing. Yea. Really I just want to talk about this new service I discovered, thanks to Zane Safrit at Small Business Trends. It’s called Jott. Have you heard of it?? I hadn’t either.

Here’s what it does. If you’re like me, you’ve tried to write an email, text message or note to yourself while driving (and this is why it took me until very recently to buy a SmartPhone. I know it’s dumb yet I still do it.) Jott allows you to call a number and record a note, reminder or message to yourself or someone else. The best part? It’s F-R-E-E.

So I’m driving down the road, thinking about the Marble Slab Creamery my husband and I just bought (no we will NOT be blogging about my eminent weight gain), and I had some questions I wanted to ask the previous owner. Knowing I won’t remember them, I just hit Jott, programmed into my phone and record my questions. It sends them to my email.

I can send my husband text messages to buy bananas by recording my voice.

And I just found out you can record events to link into your Google Calendar. And have searches for items on Amazon sent to your email. HOW COOL IS THIS???

And in the true fashion of Marketing 2.0 (yes, I’m bringing it back to marketing) the site is very interactive. It encourages users to suggest new uses for the service. They’ve been featured in several major publications and blogged about across the board.

Way to go, Jott. I want to be on your team.

-Susan
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by Natalie Grbic

As the semester comes to an end, I stop and think how much I have learned this semester. I took five Marketing classes, which let me add, was a full load, but I enjoyed every single minute of it. Not only do I like Marketing, but I use it in every day life. Just like you!

Marketing is used each day by everyone. You may think you’re immune to marketing messages, but you’re not. For instance, when you take a trip to the grocery store, the grocery store is marketing its products to you, and you, as the consumer, are part of the marketing process. You react to price changes, bad/good customer service, and interactions with other consumers. Another example would be driving down the highway and noticing billboards. Companies advertise their products/services everywhere; therefore, marketing is part of everyone’s lives.

Being a Marketing major, I tend to notice more advertisements than I did before I took marketing courses. I flip through magazines, and notice all the ads that “pop out” at me. I find really good ads with bright colors and unique, catchy phrases. Other times I flip through and observe advertisements that are boring, unexciting ads that would never catch the consumer’s eye.

Susan:

I used to be one of those people who thought I was immune to marketing. I don’t let commercials tell me what to buy. I scoff at magazine ads. But a window display of shoes…well, that’s not really marketing, is it?

Marketing is sometimes subtle. It’s the Cadillacs that subtly fill your screen on the underrated show Daybreak (I SWEAR I don’t just watch it because Taye Diggs is in it!). It’s Fall Out Boy’s YouTube “Beat It” video. It’s my blog. Marketing is anything that gets you to move, be it to buy something, visit a website or go to a store.

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I want my readers to be the first to know about the Eating Cereal with a Fork Marketing Makeover Contest sponsored by my company, Egg Marketing & Public Relations. If you’re stumped as to how to market your products or services in this economic downturn, you need to enter this contest.

Just upload a creative video to YouTube telling us why you need a marketing makeover. We’ll choose our winners based on creativity and need. For complete rules and to enter the contest, click here.

Three winners will receive a boatload of great marketing tools and advice from some of the leaders in today’s online marketing space, including:

• Advertising on our very own Sparkplugging website (thanks Wendy)
• Learn how to use affiliate marketing from Affiliate Marketing Sweetie System
• Consulting with social media expert Chris Brogan
• $100 in Miva Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Corporate identity printing services (business cards, letterhead and envelopes) from Print Pelican
• Publicity reports from The Publicity Hound
• Interview on Small Business Trends Radio
• A business consultation with Liz Strauss
• Corporate identity package from Infinite Ideas & Designs
• Advertising on Etienne Teo’s Blog
  

Here’s the press release that will go out Thursday:

Marketing in a recession got you down? Egg Marketing & Public Relations is here to help. The company announces its Eating Cereal with a Fork Marketing Makeover contest, which launched this week.

Entrants are asked to submit creative videos of why they need marketing help. Business owners can sign up at www.eatingcerealwithafork.com/contest.

“We wanted to get creative and help people find a way to market their products, despite the economy,” said Susan Payton, owner of Egg Marketing & Public Relations. “Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, and we have some great sponsors that will help the winners learn techniques they can do themselves,” she stated.

Payton recently wrote the ebook, Eating Cereal with a Fork: Maximize Marketing in a Recession, which helps business owners get the most out of their marketing without overspending. In fact, she said, “By implementing these seven marketing techniques, businesses will actually save money on marketing while increasing sales.”

Entries will be accepted until May 30, and winners will be announced June 6. For more information, visit www.eatingcerealwithafork.com/contest.

What are you waiting for? Go make your video and sign up!

Don’t worry, you’re in the right place. Welcome to the new home of The Marketing Eggspert Blog! Please add my new address as a bookmark.

I’m thrilled to be joining the ranks of such notable bloggers on Sparkplugging like Wendy Piersall, our Sparkplug CEO, Kelly McCausey over at WAHM 2.0, Edward Mills at Ask the Coach and many other talented bloggers. I hope you’ll take the time to explore the blogs of my new neighbors.

Stick around. You’ll get the same great advice for marketing in a Web 2.0 world (with a much better design!).

OH YEA! AND DID I MENTION??

Today is my blog’s first birthday! Happy birthday to me! What a landmark, to celebrate my blog birthday on a new site! It’s been an amazing, educational journey this past year. Thank you to all of you who actually read my blog!

Stay tuned for exciting announcements this week. It’s party time!

Susan

Facebook. LinkedIn. Squidoo. MySpace. Twitter. Bebo

It’s great to have so many tools available to connect to others and promote your own business. But when is enough enough?

.

I see an epidemic here in the marketing world. People are using not one, not two, but dozens of social media tools to promote their companies…and for what?? They have no time to work on their business. And they may not even be getting anything out of their efforts.

Don’t get me wrong. I am the Marketing Eggspert, so I’m all about social media and using the internet to promote your brand. But I have to say, today’s social media market is just too much for me. It was fine when we had a few basics, but now I’m getting invites from sites I’ve never heard of that are clones of the originals. It’s not possible to be everywhere.

Recently my new mastermind group from Sparkplugging.com and beyond encouraged me to join Twitter. I did. If you’re not familiar with it, Twitter is like instant messaging on steroids. You decide who you want to “follow,” meaning keep up with. People tweet messages on what their doing or interesting websites, blogs, etc. I’m following people I know at least a little. But it’s hard to follow the conversation, and it’s a time suck. You could spend all day reading other people’s tweets. It’s addicting, yes, but effective? Maybe for some, but I simply don’t have the time!

So how can you keep from being bombarded with too many social media sites to choose from?
1. Survey each site and see who its target audience is. You may not want to push your insurance product to teens on MySpace.
2. Ask friends and colleagues which sites they’ve got the most out of.
3. Do research online before you sign up. See what professional social media experts have to say.

Deborah Brown over at Small Business Trends has a great article that refers to other blog posts that give you advice on what social media tools are worth it and which ones are overkill called “Social Media: Valuable Marketing Tools or Time Waster?” Check it out.

-Susan

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