The end of the year is always a good time to take a look in the rearview mirror, to see where our efforts have taken us over course of the year. For marketers, the shift from traditional advertising and marketing methods to the cheaper, faster, trendier social media and online methods was in full swing in 2009.  We don’t expect that to slow down in 2010.

I came across two good articles and a video that explain these trends better than I ever could, so hopefully this will provide food for thought as you plan 2010’s marketing strategy:

First, if your business is just getting started with social media, Willa Plank at the WSJ writes the “Three Best Ways to Use Social Media” for small business. Practical and low-cost advice.

If you have some time on your hands, refill your coffee and enjoy Augie Ray’s apocalyptic post, “2010: The Year Marketing Dies.“  Ray’s premise is marketing as we know it will fade away and be reborn better and stronger. And hopefully more measurable.

Finally, this video does a great job of telling a story of a ski resort that cut its print budget entirely (in favor of online tactics)  after taking a careful look at their customer behavior. Which reminds us again that marketing can’t operate in a vacuum; include all parts of your business in the marketing strategy.

At MOD this year we will be delving deeper into the worlds of email marketing and the effective and strategic use of social media, for both our business and for our clients. And we’ll be keeping a close eye on Wisconsin school funding issues as districts continue to struggle with rising costs and diminishing revenues.  It’s an exciting time to be in the ever-changing PR and marketing business. A new decade, new challenges!

What’s your prediction for 2010? Gaze into that crystal ball and leave us a comment.

Happy New Year,

Kate

kate@mktondemand.com

Full article: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007367

eMarketer published a overview of a recent study conducted by Hurwitz & Associates (source check – they were hired by Campaigner, an email service provider).  The shift we’ve seen among our own clients is reflected in the study results, namely:

“Small businesses are rapidly shifting their marketing initiatives from traditional media to digital marketing media tools, including social media such as blogs, forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc., email marketing, search engine marketing and webinars and podcasts (Figure 1). While traditional media, such as direct mail, tradeshows and newspaper advertising still have a part in many small businesses’ marketing playbook, they are being overshadowed by digital and social marketing alternatives.”

Radio/TV, business journal/magazine and trade magazine advertising round out the bottom three marketing tools used by small businesses.

What’s your new media strategy?

Kate Winckler
kate@mktondemand.com

Came across this interesting tidbit on ClickZ, for those of you who are trying to grow your in-house email list. It’s worth taking the time to do it the right way.

A JupiterResearch/ClickZ executive survey last year asked 286 e-mail marketers, what had been their most effective forms of e-mail address acquisition in terms of quality and quantity. A total of 81 percent said their own Web site, while 24 percent said in-person/in-store events. List purchase wasn’t even a method of choice. (click to enlarge)

The bottom line?  Push customers and prospects to your web site with integrated marketing tactics, such as traditional advertising, SEO, and social media. Once they are there, make it easy for them to start a dialog with you, and show them the value you offer in exchange for their email address.

kate@mktondemand.com

Another great idea for public school districts! (I love Google Alerts.)

This blog post came out today about a new social media campaign. This Ohio school district is integrating a micro-site, Facebook page, Flickr postings and video into their social media strategy. Their goal is to use  social media in a full-scale marketing campaign to engage and recruit students and engage and communicate with parents. Ten students have been recruited to take video with Flip Cams and blog about their experiences.

Is YOUR district ready to dive into social media?

Read all about it here!

http://socialavenue.blogspot.com/2009/09/hi-point-journeys-look-at-high-school.html

Kate Winckler

kate@mktondemand.com

Marketing On Demand LLC

You may already know that helping schools build better relationships with their communities is a special passion for Kate and me.  So we’re thrilled to have been interviewed for this article in the Wall Street Journal.

Like many issues surrounding public education, this subject brings out some strong feelings.  (Scroll through the ‘comments’ to get a taste.)   Many ask the question: Why are we spending taxpayer money on marketing when our schools have so many other problems?  For the most part, we’ll let the politicians argue the details.  But it’s a legitimate question – schools have intense budget pressures right now, and every penny has about ten different places it could be spent.  So why marketing (or communications)?

The way we see it is that there are great things going on in every public school.  There are also problems in every public school.  Whether or not you send your kids to your local public school, the quality of your schools affects every aspect of your community — from property values to public safety.  We are depending on this next generation of kids to care for us as we age, solve some pretty messy problems, and work for us in our businesses.  And bad press to the contrary, we think most of the time  public schools do a pretty darn good job.

When we work with Superintendents and school boards, we hear the same things:

“We’re a great school district…but no one knows it.”

“We know we need to communicate better, but we don’t know how to do it.”

“Everyone only hears the bad things…not the good.”

“We’re always feeling defensive and like we’re apologizing.”

Advertising may be the right solution for some situations, but spending big dollars on a TV or billboard campaign is not the only thing schools can do to retain (or attract) students.  It may be easy…but it’s expensive, and in many cases, not very effective.

Our work with school districts focuses on building community support and positive word of mouth.  We identify what is important to communities, help schools use the right messages, and develop plans to share these messages in a way that makes sense, both logistically and economically.  By building support we build solutions – and in our book, that’s money well spent.

What do you think?

Thanks to Erica Conway at C2 Graphics Productivity Solutions in Milwaukee for her wise insight on social media strategy:

Embrace New Technology While Staying Grounded in Strategy

Twitter, Facebook, Social Media, YouTube, LinkedIn, Meetups, Tweetups and all the other new media channels can be tantalizing….! Embrace the new channels as appropriate to your needs, but also hold on to your initial strategies. Keep all decisions about new media channels rooted in the strategic approach that guides your marketing, advertising and media buying decisions already.

Regional thought leaders in social media have emerged, offering training, advice, case study material, guidance and consulting, to help you integrate these new channels into your marketing mix.

A few thought leaders to watch:

Cd Vann, www.sohobiztube.com

Steve Glynn, www.spreenkler.com

Trivera owners Tom & Marjie Snyder, http://www.socialmediamilwaukee.com/recap.php

Kate Winckler
kate@mktondemand.com

Marketing On Demand LLC

Woody Allen once said “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”  While he was probably talking about his career in movies, his statement has a lot of marketing wisdom to it, as well.

Being at the top of someone’s mind when they’re ready to make a buying decision is what volumes of marketing textbooks are devoted to.  And, for the most part, you can boil it all down into “showing up.”  Maybe your business shows up as a postcard – a TV ad – a email newsletter – a phone call – or by attending a chamber event. 

The world of Search Engine Optimization is all about showing up, online.  It’s not plastering your business name everywhere where no one cares — it’s about providing the content your customers want to read, and showing up when your customers are ready to make a decision.  If you attract customers via the web, this is an area you need to know about.  It’s hands-down the most cost-effective web marketing strategy available. 

You have every intention of sending out an email newsletter.  You know it’s an amazingly inexpensive way to communicate.  You intend to do SOMETHING with all of those customer email addresses, but the process of getting it all together is more than a little overwhelming.

If you have a small marketing department, or are a business owner who “does it all,” you may quickly find that any newsletter demands a significant amount of your time and attention.  You have to manage your list, learn a new software program, come up with a design, test it, write articles…and too often, the whole process falls to the bottom of the list.

What would it be like to have all that off your plate?  Now, you can find out.  We’ve developed two great new email newsletter programs especially for busy marketing managers that include professional layout, design and editing, along with automatic list management.  All you have to provide is your articles and a file of your email addresses.  We’ll polish it up, edit it, make it look pretty, test it and send the whole thing out for you. Check it out!    http://www.mktondemand.com/services.htm#email

How to make spiders love you

This may give you the creeps…but if you’re responsible for marketing your company’s website, you need to know how to make yourself more attractive to spiders.

No need to run away screaming.  We’re not talking about the eight-legged inhabitants of basement corners.  These spiders, also called robots, are what search engines like Google and Yahoo, “send out” to “crawl” all over the internet, categorizing and ranking websites. 

If the spiders and robots like you, they reward you with high rankings in the search engines. 

So, why should the savvy marketing manager care about influencing robots and spiders?    

Your customers who know your name or your website address can find you without a problem.  But what about people at their computers, asking themselves…

            Where can I buy a new furnace in Oconomowoc?

            Who is the best financial planner in the Waukesha area?

            What banks are near my new house?

            How can I ship my motorcycle to South Dakota?

            What was the name of that great builder?

If your name doesn’t immediately come to mind, your customer will open up Google or Yahoo and see what comes up. Try it — put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes, and see what happens.

Google and Yahoo want to serve up sites that are fresh, up-to-date and relevant, so you keep coming back.  They display the sites that the spiders like the best, first.

If your website hasn’t been updated for years, or is all graphics and pictures, it doesn’t have any delicious text for the spiders to munch on, which makes you pretty much “invisible.” (aka, WAY down on the list for Google.)

The cure for invisibility: SEO  

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is all about arranging and adding to your website in order to make it more attractive to these spiders.  When spiders see your site, they tell their search engines (Google and Yahoo)  “Hey, this site has a lot going on — look here!” Robots and spiders love fresh, relevant, up-to-date content.

Where you want to be is high in the “organic” or “natural” listings. For an easy-to-understand explanation of organic vs. paid listings, click here.

The good news is that getting started with SEO is affordable for small businesses.  Usually, you DON’T need to redesign your entire website!  Good SEO can often be LESS expensive than traditional advertising, and can open up broader geographic markets.

Have you ever been driving down the road, when you suddenly spot a mosquito hovering inside your windshield?  Then take your eyes off the road, and go through all kinds of crazy contortions just to try to kill it?

Is it really worth risking your life to smash it into oblivion?

Yes, it’s entirely possible that this ornery sucker will buzz around your head, bite you in the shoulder and cause you an itchy welt for the rest of the week. But it’s probably not worth risking a car accident to deal with it.

Many people deal with a similar situation in their organizations. They may spend their time and energy dealing with annoying, vocal “mosquitoes” (complainers, petty agendas, doom and gloom about the economy, splinter groups), taking time and energy away from important marketing goals.

So how do you keep the mosquitoes at bay? Start by developing and implementing a well-thought-out, goals-based communications plan. In the simplest possible sense, this means identifying your messages, identifying your audience, and deciding when and where you want to reach them.

One of our clients is a public school district with its share of mosquitoes. There is no doubt they have to be dealt with. But because the district has identified their message and planned out their strategy well in advance, their information campaign has a better chance of staying on track. The administration recognizes that they can’t let distractions take attention away from the other 99% of the public they need to reach.

Look at it this way: that mosquito may be the most important thing in the world to you that minute, but the other drivers can’t even see it. All they see is you slapping wildly and veering from side to side.  Invest in good communications (or some powerful bug spray) and keep your message moving on down the road.