Not ever author wants to speak in front of audiences, although speaking has been the publishing industry standard for promoting books. (It remains the gold standard for building platform prior to publishing a book as well.) While most publishers will expect you to do at least some speaking as part of your book marketing and promotion plan—and even self-published authors should be out speaking as a means of selling their book—authors also can build relationships on the Internet. In fact, the online community has become an ever-growing source of marketing and promotion opportunities for writers.

Today, John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, is back to tell us how nonfiction writers can take advantage of those online opportunities to build relationships and sell more books. He offers some great tips that any writer can utilize from the comfort of their office and at little or no cost other than some time. Yes…you will have to take time away from writing to market your book. Resign yourself to the fact that you must take on the business of writing. Remember, though, that marketing revolves around creating relationships, and relationships can be fun. Your online book marketing efforts can be enjoyable.

How to Build Online Relationships and Sell More Books
By John Kremer

The most important thing you can do to market yourself or your books online is to build relationships with the top websites that your target audience already goes to on a regular basis. You want to have you and/or your book featured on high-traffic websites devoted to your subject area (or those websites that attract your target audience).

That means that, if you have a book on crocheting Halloween sweaters, you want your and your book to be featured on websites devoted to crocheting sweaters as well as those devoted to Halloween costumes and apparel. In addition, to reach your target audience of middle-aged women (the primary demographic for crocheting sweaters), you also want you and your book to be featured on websites targeting women, such as iVillage.com and PopSugar.com.

To find the websites devoted to your key subject area (like crocheting), use the Google or Bing search engines. Focus on developing relationships with the top 30 websites you uncover on these search engines for your keywords (such as crocheting sweaters).

To uncover the high-traffic websites devoted to your targeted audience, you can use the search engines, but the search engines aren’t as useful in uncovering targeted audiences. A better way to find websites targeting your audience is to ask your friends (via your blog, your newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or the knowledge-focused websites featured at http://www.bookmarket.com/ knowledge.htm.

Once you have found the websites with which you want to create relationships, offer them good content. The top-rated and high-traffic websites get that way by offering lots of fresh good content. Most of these websites don’t create that content themselves; they get it from people like you and me.

Check out your targeted websites for how they feature content—and then offer them that kind of content. If they like doing book reviews, offer them a copy of your book for review. If they like doing interviews, offer to do an interview (and tell them why their visitors would be interested in what you have to say). If they feature guest blogs, offer to write a blog for them.

Other content you can offer them includes: excerpts from your book, articles based on your book, relevant news stories, podcasts, videos, on-going columns (Q&A or commentary), statistics, survey results, polls, and more.

Once you begin offering great targeted content to websites, they’ll come back to you again and again for more content. That’s how you create a long-lasting relationship with key websites.

About the Author

Book marketing expert John Kremer is the owner of Open Horizons. He is the author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, The Complete Direct Marketing Sourcebook, High-Impact Marketing on a Low-Impact Budget, Do-It-Yourself Book Publicity Kit, and Celebrate Today.

As a book marketing consultant, his clients include a self-published author who has sold over two million books, a new age publisher with 60 titles, and a $100 million publisher with a rapidly growing list of 1,000 titles.

John Kremer, President
Open Horizons
P O Box 2887
Taos, NM, 87571
575-751-3398
JohnKremer@BookMarket.com
http://www.bookmarket.com
http://www.TenMillionEyeballs.com

Help writers find the wonderful information and resources at Write Nonfiction in November all year:
Vote  WNFIN One of Writer’s Digest’s Annual 101 Best Internet Sites for Writers

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Don’t forget to sign into the WNFiN social networking and chat room and tell us what you are writing about or start a discussion.
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Sonic branding is nothing new, but truly creative people find new ways to change and evolve sound, aligning it with other hot branding trends. I have to wonder, with all this talk about crowd sourcing, can we get some sonic identity advice from our target audiences?

Rumblefish and Indie Vinyl

One particular example comes from a sonic branding and music licensing agency called Rumblefish.  Pabst Blue Ribbon approached Rumblefish to help them boost sales in a couple of their cult Indie music-loving but lagging markets.  This was their solution:

Rumblefish listened to and interviewed 200 bands from each target city and picked the 15 best songs. We then produced PBR-branded CDs and 7″ vinyl records and gave every copy to the bands–no strings attached–to distribute to their fans. Bands were so enthusiastic about the project, many threw CD release parties on their own initiative.

I think Rumblefish definitely got it right with the Indie music and the vinyl 45.  But what if they had asked their target audience to vote for their 15 favorite songs instead of conducting interviews?  Trusting your brands sonic identity to the audience, now that’s crowd sourcing.

Make sure to check out the new video I posted to Vod Pod.  The new Discovery Channel “I LOVE THE WORLD” commercial is a great addition to the “I LOVE THE WORLD” family.  Might even beat the original.

Target Market Bull's Eye

Social media marketing with Facebook ads could be better than Google Adwords.  One reason is because of the super-detailed, super-targeted features inside Facebook that allow you to advertise to your specific target audience.

It can be a much more scientific way to get in front of your target market with Facebook pay per click (PPC) than it is with Google Adwords PPC advertising.  If you do it right, the only clicks you pay for are those that generate leads and sales.  In other words, the clicks would be free.

If You’ve Lost Money With Google Adwords, Try Facebook Advertising.

Facebook Advertising

Right now I have my very first FB pay per click ad running.

It links to the synnd landing page designed for internet marketing (IM) professionals.

If you are an affiliate marketer with Charles Heflin’s SEO 2020, then you have in your back office this very same landing page as affiliate marketer with Social Media Science.

If you click on the copy of my Facebook ad here, you will see that landing page.  Just click on the  Buzz Building ad to the right.

When Facebook members click on it like you just did, that costs me an average of $0.50 per click.  Clicking on it here costs me nothing

Identify Your Target Market With Specifics Inside Facebook

When creating my first Facebook PPC ad,  I chose “internet marketing” as the keyword.

That’s a fairly small targeted niche on Facebook but it’s growing by leaps and bounds.

If I had picked the keyword “social media marketing” I think the niche would be even bigger.  We’ll see.   Stay tuned because that will be my next test to see if my ad performs better using the keyword, “social media marketing.”

Facebook will show your ad to people who have indicated an interest that relates to the keyword you choose.

Facebook profiles are flagged inside the data base of  Facebook.  People who obviously relate to “internet marketing” are the people who can see my ad right now.  If you are one of them, Facebook knows all about you, based on what you say, who your friends are, etc.

Facebook Advertising

Anyway, back to my ad.  As an affiliate marketer, I had a little trouble with Google Adwords.  Google used to allow me to link directly to my affiliate’s landing pages.  Now they won’t.

Even if I had a domain name for the Social Media Science landing page I’m using in this Facebook PPC ad, Google wouldn’t allow it.  Someday, Facebook probably won’t either but right now they do!

And look at the traffic I’m getting as a newbie Facebook advertiser!  LOTS!

But it’s dwindling.

I want to watch it a few more days and maybe tweak things a little, maybe the title or maybe change the keyword to “social media marketing.”

Just remember that when you are testing changes in your ad, only test one change at a time.  Otherwise you won’t know which change made the difference in performance.

I’m so thrilled so far with how fast I got to 10,000+ impressions (views, not clicks, thank goodness!)  With Facebook, who knew PPC could be so much fun!  But did it generate leads and sales for me?  Watch for my next post.  I will probably call it something like

The FUN-damentals of Generating Leads And Sales With Facebook Advertising

I will go into the click through rate (CTR) that I’m getting and how many leads and sales are happening as a result of this ad so come back to www.SynndSEO.com often!

Media

The Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D.

The music video, “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas (which can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYZ78FXTdiY&feature=related)  is filled with disturbing images of women and ideas that do not appear to be morally destroying on the surface but when regarded with a close eye are completely revolting to regard.

THE FIRST MINUTE (0:00-1:00):

In the first THREE SECONDS of the video, there are three women walking, however, you do not see their face, nor their entire backside; only their butt and legs. From this first image, the viewers are informed that these three ladies are not entirely human, but are simply a pair of legs and a butt. Moving through the video, the first 25 seconds are mostly made up of various women and men getting ready for their evening out;  there is an African American man with a fro-pick doing his hair (a racial slur), Fergie applying lotion to her leg, while her leg is in her face (an unrealistic expectation for women, hyper-sexualization), a woman applying lipstick and other various make-up (women must look attractive), a woman putting on heels (attractiveness),and the most classy image of a naked women showering (attractiveness, hyper-sexualization). The next 20 seconds of the video are people (both men and women, but generally more women) coming to this party. At 39 seconds, Will.I.Am is seen to be sitting on a bed while he repeats the phrase “I gotta feeling that tonight’s going to be a good night. That tonight’s going to be a good night. That tonight’s going to be a good, good night.”  The hidden implication of this phrase while he sits on the bed should translate the lyrics to be “I gotta feeling that tonight’s going to be a good night. That tonight’s going to be a good night. That tonight’s going to be a good night because I’m going to get laid.” From this image, young boys are shown that in order to have a “good” night, you must get laid and have sex. While this phrase plays we are also seen an image of Fergie in a bra, thong and feather boa. Thus sending young girls the idea that, they must dress like this in order to have a “good” night. By the end of the first minute we are reintroduced to the idea that women are just butts and legs, that both men and women need to look their best while going out through the preparation they take and the wonderfully, necessary image of a showering women. So in the first minute we are told that women are not full beings, they are less than human, that women must be sexy, that both men and women must look attractive in order to have good nights, that a man must have sex in order to have a good night and that a women must dress sexily to have a good night… Pathetic.

THE SECOND MINUTE (1:00-2:00):

In the first 30seconds of the second minute we are shown flashes of men and women passing by going to the party and arriving at the party, without truly seeing their faces. By not seeing their faces, we are unable to give them an identity causing them to become objects or “scene furniture” within the video. Throughout the last 30 seconds of this minute, women are seen as objects of sex; gyrating on the men as well as on each other, and their scantily clad clothing. However the most interesting symbol,  to me, that is used in this minute is the feather duster. Fergie, as well as other women in the video are seen throughout, using the feather duster on one another and on the men.  The symbol of a feather duster within a women’s grip is that of cleaning, and taking care of the house. These women are doing neither in this video. The feather duster is used as a symbol of seduction while promoting the value that; women are to stay at home and clean the house while the man brings home the bacon. This lesson is both degrading to women and men. Women are not limited to house work and the pressure of financial supporting  a household should not be solely the men’s responsibility either. 

THE THIRD MINUTE (2:00-3:00):

This minute generally contains more scenes of partying, the hyper-sexualized image of women, the return of the classy, and ever-so-seductive feather duster. However, new to this minute is the introduction of alcohol and lesbianism. Alcohol is shown as a gateway into this “good night”, in the sense that it allows for the people to relax and let their emotions flow. After saying “Fill up my cup” while holding a red disposable cup which is usually associated with beer, Will.I.Am yells Mazel tov, which in Hebrew translates to good luck (http://www.yourdictionary.com/mazel-tov). This phrase is then followed by “look at her dancing… just take it off”. What a Hebrew wishing of good luck has to do with alcohol or a girl’s dancing can generally be lead back to the idea of having sex. Most people link good dancing with good sex, and the idea that people are more susceptible to have sex while under the influence of alcohol is a proven fact. Even the phrase “good luck” can be viewed in a sexual matter because another phrase for sex is “getting lucky”. Also regarding sex within this minute, is the introduction of lesbianism. In the video, around 2:40, there is a scene with two women kissing. From this scene, the viewer can gather that it is alright for two women to publically display their affection for one another but if two men do it is not socially acceptable. These two women kissing is meant to be displayed as sexy, erotic and engaging to male audiences, who would be repulsed to see two men kissing on screen rather than the women.

THE FOURTH MINUTE (3:00-4:00):

This minute includes the band, and other random people partying in a room while dancing with glow-in-the-dark paint on their bodies. The infatuation of needing to paint their bodies with this paint can be directly taken from the lyrics “let’s paint the town.” The phrase “let’s paint the town” is used throughout daily life and is used to convey the emotion of wanting to go have fun; which, is the entire plotline of this music video.

THE FIFTH MINUTE (4:00–5:00):

The last minute of this music video, continues with scenes of partying where women are used as objects of sex and are hardly clothed, and alcohol is seen throughout. Another image of the traditional house-wife female is portrayed at 4:20 when a female is seen to be taking cookies out of an oven and her cookie tray is overthrown, causing the female to appear helpless when her and her cookies are thrown to the ground. Immediately after this scene, the camerea cuts to a scene where a women has fallen on the ground for no particular reason. Both of these scenes, emphasize women’s vulnerability. Continuing on to the end of the video, women are seen to be; rolling on beds, or leaving the party while stumbling and only seen from their back side. The final scene that viewers see is that of a woman curled up on the grass clutching a beer cup while the words “THE E.N.D.” surround her. “THE E.N.D.” is the Black Eyed Peas’ new album and the last three seconds of their video serve to promote that new album, in which this song can be found on. Proving these last three seconds to be a direct advertisement for their album.

CONSIDERATIONS:

In my opinion I think the target audience of the Black Eyed Pea’s music is girls aged 12-24 since they lay within the pop culture and mainstream music that is regularly played on radios and tv. However, the young teenage girls from ages 12-15 are the most susceptible to the hidden messages throughout the video because they are unable to distinguish (since they lack the knowledge to distinguish) between reality in the videos and what is purely done to sell the music. This young bracket of girls is being exposed to unfair and unrealistic images of women, in which they aspire to be in order to have a “good night”. Their entire definition of having fun is redefined by this video because, now, these young girls are being led to believe that in order to have fun you must; first, dress scantily, second, be drunk, third, let any man do whatever he wants to you, fourth you must be innocent and clean the house and bake cookies but at the same time make-out with other women and various men. These ridiculous necessities to have fun cause these girls to go to drastic measures in order to prepare for their fun. These young girls can possibly develop eating disorders in order to get the right look, they put themselves in danger by dressing scantily in public leaving multiple opportunities to get raped or abducted by child porn advocates, and most of all their self-esteem is damaged beyond repair.

PERSONALLY:

Personally I am disgusted at all the hidden messages that this song and this music video contain and what their implications imply. I’ve always found it funny when one my 6-year-old students comes into hip-hop class and asks to listen to this song and other songs like Low by Akon, and when they sing along and dance their own dances to the various songs. But when I realize what they are singing and what they could be implying with their own cute dances, it is shocking to see that they do know what some of the words mean and can easily act them out. I never put much thought into it before but now that I can identify some of the ways that these little 6-year-old girls are getting the messages through the music that their parents listen to and the programs that their parents watch, it is very sickening. I now hope to limit the amount of inappropriate music that I use while teaching the younger students, and try to focus on keeping the songs clean as well as the choreography and costumes un-suggestive.

LYRICS VERIFIED BY http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/b/black_eyed_peas/i_gotta_feeling.html

Ok, so we covered some basic visual design elements for a website.  The visuals are what captures the attention of the audience.  But once you have their attention, what do you do with your site visitor?  Unless there’s something relevant there for them to read . . . to discover,  most likely they are going to click that mouse and move on.  If you are an e-commerce site- you just lost a sale.  If you are a non-profit organization and you want to change attitudes- the only thing you’ve changed is what is showing on the visitors’ screen.  It’s a lot like fishing.  You don’t fish with dead worms.  Fish might just be fish, but they’re not stupid.  They won’t bite on dead bait.  They’ll come up to it because it’s made a noise in the water, but once they take a closer look, they’re off to find some fresh, live worm wiggling on a hook somewhere else.  That means, the fisherman with the live bait just caught the state record large mouth bass, and you ended up with, well . . . a dead worm.  Not the greatest of analogies, but you get the picture.

So, what kind of content does a company need to add to its website?  Something relevant.  Let’s go back to the fish story again.  Would you put, say . . . a carrot on the hook?  Not if you want to catch that big mouth bass.  You want to use bait that catches the fishs’ attention and lures him to the hook.  Worms, minnows, hellgamites, special-made lures . . . in my case, whatever is in my teenage son’s tackle box (he’s the real fisherman).  The fish he caught in this picture was out of Burnsville Lake in Braxton County, West Virginia.  

In Harley-Davidsons’ case, the type of content they include on their website deals with motorcycles.  If you check out the site, you will see they give the basic information on the motorcycles they make, locations of stores, history and financial data of the company, contact information and accessories.  But they go a little deeper for the avid Harley fan with factory tours, a special section for owners, videos, a museum, and upcoming events.  Then, just when you think Harley-Davidson has covered all of their basis, they give a little more.  They diversify the message to capture the attention of select segments of the population.  Beginner riders, women, veterans and Hispanics.  There are sections specially devoted and designed just for these target audiences.  What a way to build a relationship with a group of people.  My favorite has to the be “Harlistas” pages.  The visual design is so beautiful. The content is directed straight towards this special group of people through wordage, discussion, special features and more.

So all in all, that is one of the keys to perfect content.  Giving the information to the customer that they need to make an informed decision and build a relationship with the company.  An added bonus is changing information to encourage return visits, and hopefully repeat purchases, donations, whatever.  If the only information HD gave on their website was motorcycles and how/where to order them, they would make some sales.  But because they have created meaningful content for the viewer, they have sold more than motorcycles, they have sold the company as a whole.  That’s better than catching the state record big mouth bass . . . it’s like having all the bass in the lake jump right in your boat for you.

By using this secret lead generation weapon, which has been used by thousands of people just like you, you will quickly save loads of time, effort, and money building the opt-in email list of your dreams.

If you have an email list of any kind, or if you simply want to get the word out about a product, service, or offer, then List Builder Pro will help you reach your target audience at an affordable price.

My name is Erik James …

You may or may not know me. I have been instrumental in helping thousands of email list owners and advertisers drive truck loads of targeted and responsive opt-in email addresses to their web forms and autoresponders for instant contact and immediate follow-up.

My list of members who trust me to build their email lists reads like a “Who’s Who” of the online marketing world. Some of my members are well-known and highly respected Internet marketers. For example, using this powerful list building system, List Builder Pro has helped build qualified email lists for these well-known and highly respected marketers:

Continue Reading…

A former colleague of mine used to always say, “It’s impossible to boil the ocean!” Basically, what he meant is that you need FOCUS.  In marketing, this relates to identifying a niche that will benefit from the products or services you offer. From that, you can concentrate your marketing efforts on the select target audiences that would be most profitable to go after.

The concept of “understanding your target audience” is, ironically, one of the most misunderstood in small business management. It is not enough to know whom you should go after, but how you should go after them as well.  Different audiences have different psychographic personas, purchasing behavior and media consumption habits. Even within industries, specific businesses differ. Individuals have different titles, departments and job functions. They may even belong to different associations within their industry. All markets are not equal. Understand the behavior and needs of your potential customers so you will have a better chance of capturing them through a tailored message.

A perfect example of this is a client of mine, Schedulefly.  They provide online employee scheduling technology.  But they don’t provide it for just anyone.  They provide it for the restaurant industry.  Not just the entire industry, but for independent and small chain restaurants.  Sure several other industries can use and benefit from their technology and they have several clients outside of the restaurant industry.  No problem.  But their success is based on the fact that they have not been distracted by the temptations to try and be all things to all people.  They have focused their sales and marketing efforts on restaurants and have quickly moved from just another provider to the number 2 provider in the industry.  That’s powerful!

We all want to grow our business and grow it quickly, but you can’t conquer all. Start small. Pick your top target audience and then have laser focus to own that market.  As you begin to gain traction with your audience, leverage that success to start expanding into new markets.

My 5 Cents:

1. Identify your best target audience.
2. Determine how best to reach your target audience.
3. Build messaging specific to the audience.
4. Start small and then build on your successes.
5. Focus! Focus! Focus! Dominate! Dominate! Dominate!

My blog is designed for the students, out of school youths, as well as for the teachers. It contains about my experiences in encountering my ICT class. Tutorials and discussions of our previous and past lessons are included. My vision in my blog is to serve as an informative source and reliable guide for all concern people regarding on ICT lessons. For the students especially to the out of school youths, they will be benefited with this. Through surfing on my blog they could directly earn knowledge and it will easy for them to learn the different lessons. Hence, they are not just benefited with lot of informations but also their computer skills will be enhanced and developed. Furthermore, upon learning those lessons, they can earn money on it in applying the skills they earned. Moreover, for the teachers, it will be easy for them to teach their students in the particular lesson. Teachers don’t even need to discuss their lessons instead, just let their students refer to my blog.

The New York Times reported The Washington Blade has closed.

The Blade was a newspaper owned by Window Media and Unite Media, and its target market was the gay community.

The editor of the newspaper, Kevin Naff, said he was surprised at how quickly things happened.

He said corporate officers were waiting for him when he showed up to work on Monday.

According to the Times, the paper’s approximately 20 employees “are determined to come back and make a go of it as an independent entity.”

Naff said their first independent meeting is today. 

I admire their enthusiasm to bounce back as an independent newspaper, possibly a nonprofit organization. I support niche publications and I wish this one well.

For the entire NYT article, click http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/media/17window.html 

Funky, spunky, 2008 (established 1969)

Relevance … what is important to your core target?  What do they really care about?  Are you addressing it?  The first step to in any marketing is to identify your core target … then knowing what they care about.  Sounds easy, but if you’re looking at a blank canvas … where do you start?

Start by contacting me … I have a process that makes this simple.  You’ll  end up with a blueprint that you will build from and end the end – you’ll have success.

From the Wizard of Ads:

What Do Your Customers Care About?
Peg the Needle on the Relevance Meter If You Want to See Results

Ads are often written under the assumption that we can get people to care about things they don’t really care about. But this approach rarely succeeds.

Traditional ad-think says:

1.    Target the right people
2.    Leverage the right media (visual media for visual products, etc.)
3.    Use creativity in delivering your message.

But nontraditional ad-think gets far better results:

1.    What you say matters most of all. Speak to a felt need. Good advertising isn’t about the product or the company that sells it. Good ads explain how the customer’s life will be different.
EXAMPLE:
Don’t say, “Dr. Bill Dipweasel was voted gentlest dentist in Saginaw County.”
Say, “Get your teeth fixed. You’ll be more attractive and your confidence will skyrocket. People will treat you differently.”

2.    How you say it is critical. Clarity is more important than creativity. Talk like people. People don’t say, “I’ve elected to have cosmetic dentistry.” They say, “I’ve decided to get my teeth fixed.” (Dr. Bill Dipweasel will give you push-back on this because he doesn’t think “get your teeth fixed” sounds professional. Also, he wants the ad to be about him.)

3.    Deliver your message using whatever media offers the best psychological environment. In what moments would a candidate for cosmetic dentistry be most open to the message we crafted about being treated differently?

Advertising works best when it speaks to what customers already care about. This is called “speaking to a felt need.” I’ve never met anyone that’s had a secret, unmet desire to go to the dentist. But tens of millions of us secretly wish we were more attractive, more confident, and that people treated us differently. Capiche?

Good ads aren’t about the company that’s paying for the ad. Good ads are about the reader, the listener, the viewer of the ad. This is especially true when writing classified ads for employment.

A man attending a class at Wizard Academy confessed that, working part time, he had made more than $850,000 in employee placement fees as the direct result of a single chapter he had read in my second book. I congratulated him on having had the perception to recognize the potential in that chapter.

Last week I received an email about that same chapter in my second book from William, an Acadgrad living in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Dear Roy,

I received an email from my business partner (Thatcher) earlier today, telling me that we had found the perfect applicant for an opening we have in our company. I crafted the job ad based on one of your chapters in the second Wizard of Ads book.

This is what I replied to him: “She’s perfect. The Wizard of Ads is a genius, and this girl is just what we want, don’t you think? I mention the Wizard because I used an article of his on writing job ads for that one. He said the person we were looking for would recognise themselves in the ad, and we wouldn’t be swamped with tedious junky mass-applications. And indeed that’s what happened.”

So thank you, Roy, for all your amazing free advice; I have yet to meet this girl, but judging by the application, I think she should fit in well.

Eternally gratefully yours,

William

That chapter, by the way, is called “Writing Classified Ads for Employment.”  It’s chapter 76 in a 101-chapter book called Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Here’s an example of the strange type of classified ad that always gets superior results.

William, I’m glad you found the perfect employee. I look forward to your next visit to Austin.

Yours,

Roy H. Williams

Ms Kwa screened snippets of the movie, Minority Report during NCT tutorial in week 1. It was interesting, yet it made me fearful of how scary technology can be in the future.

The show revolves around the year 2054, where John Anderton (acted by Tom Cruise) is the chief of the Precrime, a police department that uses future vision to prevent murders.

Anderton is predicted to be involved in a murder. To avoid iris recognition, he has his eyes surgically replaced in order not to be caught.

I was amazed at the scene where Tom Cruise walked into the building, and there were advertisements ‘talking’ to him. Yes, the advertisements knew who exactly its target audience was through iris recognition, thus the advertisements naturally filtered out those people whom weren’t targeting. It’s a brilliant thing i would say, for both consumers and advertisers. Consumers get what they are interested in without the clutter, advertisers target the specific crowd, saving both time and money.

However, i think technology can also be a very scary thing! Imagine walking on a street, and a stranger knows everything about you. Privacy will be something that is foreign; everything you do will be known by anyone and everyone. Sure, i don’t deny that technology is one of the biggest blessings in our lives today. What would we do without the computer, the telephone, the world wide web? Seeing or talking to someone across the globe can be now easily done in just one click. What can be done by humans can now be done by machines faster and more economically. I appreciate technology for that, but if one day technology were to predict the future, to know so much (and too much) that nobody would have any privacy, would technology still be something that people seek, or something they avoid?

Some food for thought.

So you know what your ideal clients looks like in your mind.  You know factors about not only their physical persona, but also things about their ideals, values and activities of choice.  What’s missing–where do these people ACTUALLY exist?

Finding where your ideal client actually lies is not a challenge that can’t be met.  Consider everything you know about your ideal client.  Some examples are:

You know their relative income level–What types of jobs and job titles do they have?  What types of offices are they working in?  Are they involved in professional clubs and activities?  Based on their profession, are they more or less available at certain times of the day? 

1. Check into these organizations to see if they offer “Business Parnter” memberships.  Make friends with the board members, they can serve as your greatest introductions to other members.
2. Get on boards of charities these people may support or participate in.
3. Host business lunches and happy hours in restaurants close to their offices for a better chance to connect with that crowd.

**Note:  Do not do anything in an insincere fashion.  Working for charities and oranizations for no other reason than to ’sell’ something to the members will gain you an awful reputation.  Make sure you make a personal commitment in everything you do.

You can picture the local areas and neighborhoods in which they live–Are there local events and activities you can sponsor?  Are there golf or tennis clubs in the areas that you could join? 

1. Check for local newspapers, radio stations, and magazines.  If these publications and media outlets are directed to a specific socio-economic and geographic location, you might find using them for intial advertising efforts is a great way to give your company some name recognition.
2. Sports and activity clubs are rich in prospects for certain finacial advisors.  Spend time getting involved in the club, take the time to practice and participate in your sports, and then get friendly in the locker rooms.  Simple questions can open doors to greater friendships and conversations with other members.  After you’re cleaned up, DO NOT LEAVE!  Spend time hanging around the bar or clubhouse to meet more people.  Make friends with the bartenders, they can give you great information on members of the club.
3. Sponsor events or gift give-aways at local events such as charity concerts, festivals and even parade/holiday events.  Make sure your team is out there participating in coordinating shirts expressing your company name and logo.  Seeing a friendly face in the community connected to your company will bring you to mind when locals are seeking services.

There are many ways to find those people who fit your profile of an ideal client.  Take the time to think like they would think, and do as they would do.  Find yourself frequenting locations they may frequent and associating with people with whom they would associate.  Becoming better friends with your clients will not only strengthen your working relationship, but you will also be exposed to their friends who probably have similar qualities to your clients and could use your services.  Networking is the key to finding your ‘fountain’ of prospects, and keeping your face in the crowd always serves a good purpose.

Sit down and make a top ten list for:

• Places my prospects work
• Organizations my prospects are involved with
• Places my prospects spend social time

Places on your calendar to visit these locations and see what types of people you can find!  Fond Farewell!

When you send out your e-zine or publish your blog, you are competing for your reader’s time and attention. Do you know what your target audience wants from you? Have you asked? Listened closely? Taken a survey? Read your e-mail? Have you taken a look at Google Hot Trends or Twitter’s Trending Topics to get a clue about what matters to the average Internet user?

Never assume they are looking for your product or service (or ads about what you sell). They are online looking for solutions to their problems, quick fixes, inexpensive (and sometimes costly) remedies for what ails them. They want answers to life’s troubling questions. They want things to make sense.

They have access to a trillion Web pages. A few mouse clicks and countless freebies, bargains, and special offers as well as information and misinformation pop up for their perusal. How do they decide what and whom to trust? Make it easy for them. Demonstrate through your consistent quality posts that you are a reliable, trustworthy expert on topics that concern them most. Provide value. Share. Be the answer to questions they have not yet thought to ask. Let them know you understand and you care.

There are many types of financial service firms that cater to a “wealth” of people from many different income levels, problems and backgrounds. The best way for a business to begin growing, or to rejuvinate growth in a stale company, is to make sure you have clearly defined your target audience.

A target audience is different from a niche in the beginning. While you may define a broader target audience to begin gathering customers, you do not have a niche until you being servicing one sector of a community in a specialized way or develop processes to help a certain group of individuals.

So, let’s just start with target audience. Who do you want to reach? What is the picture of your ideal client? You first have to know who you are before you can decide who you want to market toward.  Ask yourself these questions about your business/services:

• What services am I currently offering?
• Do I have packaged solutions or processes that will not work for any particular audience?
• Are my services marketable in my local community, or nationwide?
• How much time am I willing to spend on a client?
• How many clients can I handle at my current capacity and staff capacity?
• How many clients can I handle at my future projected capacity?

Now you have a basis of understanding about yourself that will help you in choosing a target audience.  Think about these questions:

• Will clients expect any services from me that I do not currently offer?
• If so, how can I avoid alienating that audience who wants those services?
• What is the minimum level of investible assets I will require of a new client?
• Is there an industry/industries that I can target that will guarantee this level of client?
• How much time does my “ideal client” expect to be spent on their financial plans?
• Do I have the same lifestyle as my “ideal client?”  If not, are there things I can modify in my lifestyle to more closely align with my “ideal client?”

Do not forget to factor in those demographics and psychographics.  When you mention to a center of influence, referral partner, friend or even client what an “ideal client” would look like to you, they should be able to paint a picture in their mind and think, “I know exactly who she’s talking about!”  Consider:

• Age
• Gender
• Education
• Income
• Marital Status
• Stage in Family Life Cycle
• Lifestyle
• Social class
• Opinions
• Activities
• Interests

Make a list of all of these characteristics that paint your “ideal client.”  This is not a list that you would completely share with everyone around you, but it gives you the perfect picture of what you’re looking for in business.  You can immediately qualify people you meet based on certain areas of the list, and then dig deeper in additional meetings to see if they meet additional requirements to be in your target audience.

Fond Farewell!

5 F’s of Social Media

Over a few posts I will highlight a number of case studies highlighting examples where brands have successfully implemented a social media concept.  To help illustrate the cases I may also identify a couple of the social media disasters.  A great recent example is the DSGi Facebook group where employees openly criticised customers.

However in this post I would like to highlight something that I call the 5 F’s of social media.  Don’t worry I’m not going to teach 5 new profanities beginning with the letter F.  Us marketeers like simple number-letter concepts to help add context to a piece of theory (4 P’s of Marketing).  This will also help me frame the case studies in future posts.

My 5 F’s theory does exactly that.  It highlights 5 distinct criteria – that if all are met, I believe most social media campaigns or activity will succeed.  Each campaign doesn’t necessarily have to hit all the buttons and success could also be achieved by simply turning up the volume on one or two of the areas.

Familiarity

To make any social media/participative marketing campaign a success brands really need to understand their target audience and the objectives of engaging with them.  If you can really get to grips with who your audience is and what they want then you will gain a genuine connection.  With this connection the community or audience should do your work for you, participate and  help towards growing the campaign.

The best method to underline the importance of this particular F is when people get it wrong.  Pepsi’s recent campaign “helping men pull girls” which helped alienate half their audience (namely women).  They obviously had great intentions to undertake something cool and exciting on social media utilising app technology – however it seems to be a classic case of letting the technology rule the idea.

Even if your intention isn’t to run a ‘cool’ participative marketing campaign but to have a presence within social media, you still need to be familiar with your target audience.  Remove the word media from social media and you have social.  People using these channels generally do so to communicate with each other.  They align themselves with likeminded people and as a consequence, generally don’t like companies just plying them with promotional messages.  Brands need to earn trust and the right to have a place talking to people via social.  You need to be familiar to know what messages people want to receive, above all you must be open enough to reflect the audience wishes and feedback.

Fortune

Fortune covers two angles.  Participative marketing campaigns can be amplified if brands put budget behind them.  Social is not free.  You need to make the same investment in those campaigns as you would any other.  Don’t be so blinkered to imagine all promotion has to take place through social media.  People engaging with social media also consumer other media, the Obama campaign perfectly illustrates.  The campaign lived within social media, utilising strengths of various platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, however substantial investment was made in traditional channels to support this activity.

That being said, the investment doesn’t necessarily need to be in promotional activity.  Participative marketing can benefit from having a great (relevant) payoff for the participants.  A prize or even an ongoing cash amount for people submitting entries (Walkers – Do Us a Flavour).  This incentivises participants to think in detail about their response or become more creative.  The lure of some ‘fortune’ will also help spread word of mouth associated with your campaigns.

Fame

In 1968, Andy Warhol once famously created the phrase, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”  This seems to be the undertone for the society we currently live in.  With the rise of reality TV shows and YouTube heroes, everybody does have their opportunity and indeed millions are positively striving for their shot at fame.  Just look at some of the hopefuls on XFactor.

With this in mind, if you can offer the chance of fame as part of your social media strategy, no matter how small, their is a greater chance of success.  As with the familiarity section, the accolade has to be in tune with your audience.  There is no point providing the platform to be an Exhibitor in the Tate to a group of stereotypical football fans.  Neither would a DJ contest be of any interest to a group of traditional BBC Radio 4 listeners.

If you get it right, the element of fame can really engage with your audience.  Even if the fame is only restricted to a particular social network.  The YouTube phenonomen is a classic example of this.

Fun

As with most activity online, making it fun is a key consideration.  If you can entertain your audience you are more likely to gain the talkability factor.  A sense of fun adds an element of personality to a brand.  This does not necessarily mean the concept has to be funny, more just fun, engaging and entertaining to the audience.

Again, being in-tune with your audience is crucial.

Forwardability

If you have one or all the of the above elements cracked to a good level then you should have produced activity that has the potential to be forwarded.  Your presence needs to be in peoples’ e-mail boxes.  On their phones and referenced on their individual social media profiles.  Your need to be so current to the audience and reflect what they want that they are proud to be associated with the brand.  The audience will do the work for you.

Remember, get it wrong and they are just as likely to forward to their friends but paint a very negative and potentially damaging response.

The package

So this was an initial attempt at placing some theory behind social and participation marketing.  This is by no means exhaustive and I will hopefully come back from time to time to refine the concept of the 5 F’s.  I will also be looking at some case studies to critique and test my theory of the 5 F’s, so if you have any candidate campaigns or brands, please feel free to contact me.

When did we go from not valuing anything that is given away for free, to expecting, no wanting what is free and holding anything that we have to pay for as having “strings attached” or “having agendas”, the least of which is wanting to manipulate us into buying whatever it might be that they are selling?

Perhaps we have been disappointed too many times. Have we become jaded because the presents under the tree have, upon closer inspection, turned out to be illusions, the boxes more glittery paper and shiny bow, than substance? We open them up wishing for a brand new red wagon and find what is inside is merely a cardboard cut out of a red wagon. Merry Phreakin Xmas. Betrayed trust is trust never easily granted again.

On the other hand, perhaps we suddenly remembered that the Oneverse, the OneMother, the Gaia, all give “it” away for free, the only catch being we have to keep on growing, moving, evolving. Infinite power and abundance goes to those who are least afraid to listen to the song coming out of the Void, where all things exist as One.

As you read this, people are logging online. Many people in fact. Many of whom you will never meet. You will never get to shake their hands or share a hug with any of them.

Imagine that scenario from a marketer’s perspective. Your goal, hence your livelihood, depends on connecting with those online strangers. Questions is, how in the world can that be done and done effectively? Increasingly, one answer is social media.

Just as the name implies, social media revolves around the idea that people can build a relationship of sorts with others, who they have not physically met and probably never will, by bridging their solidarity with shared interests. If you are a marketer, it is imperative you harness these opportunities to some degree. In order to do this, it would be wise to begin your marketing endeavor by reading Jessica Want’s post at iMedia Connection. As an information architect at the New York City interactive marketing agency Flightpath, she provides some insightful perspectives on how to go about making social media work for your intended purposes.

It may seem simply silly to state this but I bet some folks out there fail to relate this pretty important component of social media, relate to the audience! There is no way any marketing venture will result in satisfactory results if no attempts are made first to understand the audience, what they are like, how to they see things, how do they feel about particular issues. Basically, this is the equivalent of electronically walking in the audience’s shows. Taking the time to do this sort of activity will likely provide solid dividends down the line.

Unless full faith can be had in independently owned online spaces, it would be helpful to own your own parcel of online real estate to use as the launching pad for any interactive social marketing campaign. The form of this space can take on a plethora of forms, depending on many factors such as your target audience or financial considerations. Whatever form the space takes on, it’s success will be restricted if it isn’t easy! Remember the old adage, “Keep it simple, stupid!” Well, it is very apt in this type of situation. Don’t build a marketing effort through social media where users have to go through cumbersome registrations, perform security checks, sell their favorite pair of jeans or go download a hefty file that will take occupy a nice chunk of their hard disk. These are not easy. They are not generally fun; at least I am making a guess the majority of people would not be smiling after all of these tasks.

To be clear, this is not an exhaustive list of tips on creating social media that is actually useable. Rather, it is meant to bring attention to the topic and highlight a couple of what I think are the most important points presented by Ms. Want. I encourage you to read more at her post. What do you know; I am being social and utilizing media doing it! It is funny how things work out that way.

Even the best design is only effective if it reaches its intended audience. Here a few useful tips to apply when targeting your layouts to  a specific or niche market.

Define Your Viewer: Begin by defining who your audience is. Retirees? Urban dwellers? Members of the NRA? NPR listeners? Generation X?

Put Yourself in the Mindset of Your Viewer: Look at the media that your target demographic typically reads and watches. Which newspapers, blogs, magazines, books, websites and T.V programs do your audience members consume?

Learn Their Vernacular: How do members of this group speak? Are there key phrases or terminology that members use?  Understanding the language of your audience will resonate with viewers and will help your message come across as more genuine than terms or slang that are unfamiliar to the average group member.

Put Yourself in Their Shoes: Try to see things from your audience’s perspective. If you are not a member of the group, this requires pretending that you are for a few moments. What makes this group tick? What are values, goals and even obstacles that this group faces? Do your research on these issues if necessary.

Talk Directly to Your Audience: Try arranging for a member of this demographic to look at your design ideas to see if your message is on target. Doing so will give you valuable perspective, and will let you know if your design is headed in the right direction. This is a simple step, but one often overlooked by designers. Doing so can save you a lot of time, disappointment and failed marketing dollars.

Follow these steps, and you’ll be well on your way to creating poignant, relevant designs that hit a bullseye with your intended audience.