| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
marți, 7 august 2012
Celebrating 3,000,000 @WhiteHouse Twitter Followers
Seth's Blog : Long-term manipulation is extremely difficult
Long-term manipulation is extremely difficult
In the short run, it's easy.
It's easy to fool someone or lie to them or give them what they think they want. It's easy to write a great block of copy, to sell on credit, to grab the attention of the mob.
Not so easy: to build mutually profitable long-term relationships that lead to satisfaction, trust and work worth doing.
Lincoln was right about fooling people, but along the way we often forget that while trickery is easy, the longer path of keeping your promises is far more satisfying and stable.
More Recent Articles
- There isn't one shark
- Time frames
- The difficult challenge of media alignment
- This or that?
- "But first I'll try to make you feel really bad"
[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]
Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.
| Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
luni, 6 august 2012
Damn Cool Pics
Damn Cool Pics |
| The Greatest Books of All Time [Infographic] Posted: 06 Aug 2012 12:44 PM PDT When 125 great writers were asked which authors had earned their homage, they had plenty of suggestions; in fact, enough to fill the book The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books. Since we don't have space to feature all 544 works mentioned, we'll stick to this short and sweet infographic from Flavorwire highlighting the best of the best. Click on Image to Enlarge.  
|
| You are subscribed to email updates from Damn Cool Pictures To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
President Obama on the Shooting in Wisconsin
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Generate Great Ideas by Connecting with Customers
Generate Great Ideas by Connecting with Customers |
| Generate Great Ideas by Connecting with Customers Posted: 05 Aug 2012 07:53 PM PDT Posted by Kate Morris Who here took a marketing class in school? *waits for hands* If you were a marketing undergrad like myself, you want to shoot the next person that says "pick a company and build a marketing plan for them." For those of you that were spared the annoyance of hearing about Starbucks year after year, count yourself lucky. (Don't get me wrong, I love Starbucks, check my credit card statement.) Marketing students are well versed on how to develop out of the box ideas for companies all over the world. Know why? They don't have to implement any of them! It is amazing how everyday politics and budgets can hinder the ability to brainstorm really good ideas. Creating a marketing plan out of the blue is something everyone should try. It is truly amazing how many great, yet simple ideas come out of starting fresh and thinking not as an employee, but as an outsider. The key is getting out of your own head to generate fresh ideas. Forget Yourself and Find ThemThe first step is to get out of the office. For consumer facing industries, it's time to go find your customers. If you have the ability to visit a retail location, do that. You don't need hundreds of customers, you just need a few. If you are an online retailer, look up some of your clients and ask if you can visit them. Find real people and ask for 15 minutes to chat with each of them. No, I am not kidding. This might be difficult, but it's worth the time. If you are not a retailer (more B2B), do as the online retailer does and look up your clients to go visit a few. Flying across the country does not work for many businesses, so you'll need to get creative. If all else fails and all of your customers are far away, ask to Skype chat with a few. You need to enter their world. Don't come to the meeting with questions prepared. Don't take more than the time they give you, and try to be brief. Simply chat with them about their day. Ask them how their life is and how your company fits in. You don't want company specific feedback, you just want to see how you fit into their life and what is on their mind at the moment. Really get to know them. Take notes. Give them a $5 giftcard and sincerely thank them for their business. (PS: you probably have a customer for life now) Get Outside of Your BoxNow that you are in the mind set of your customers, don't go back to work. (Believe me, your boss will understand when they see these ideas.) Instead, find one of those co-working places in major cities. If you aren't in a major city, visit somewhere that isn't home or work. It can be a coffee shop, but try to pick somewhere you can be creative and productive for a few hours. If that means the local library or a friend's office, then cool. Now, sit down and think like your customers. What would they say your marketing plan should be? What makes your company/client the place to go to for your products/services? You want to be the favorite place your customers go online and offline when they need something related to what you do. How do you make your company that important? Don't be you, be your customer. What would you want done differently in your company? Find a whiteboard, a notebook, a computer, or similar. Write down everything that comes to mind. Most Important: Answer Without Abandon Take those questions and just answer. Don't think about what is plausible. Don't consider what other people will say. You want the ideas that you don't have to implement, which is what makes this exercise fun and awesome. Don't consider cost for ideas, just get them all out there. Your only concern should be how to make your customer happy. Don't think about selling them more, getting links, shares, or email sign ups. Just make them love you. Do they already love you? Woo! Now, how do you get more people to love you? Other questions to ask yourself if you are stuck include:
The Result: Great Ideas The above is a brainstorm that turned into a marketing plan for Dick's Drive-In in Seattle. The key take-aways were to have a spokesperson, "Dick," that had a van he drove around in to drum up love and business. If any of you have Uber in your city, think the ice cream truck promotion. They would also give away t-shirts in addition to yummy deluxe burgers. By the time these guys were done, everyone in that room was hungry. The kicker here is that Dick's is not a client at Distilled. They a well-loved local eatery. Everyone knows who they are and how to get a yummy burger. They probably don't need help online, but they can get help with this 30 minute brainstorm and marketing plan by people who do not work for them. And the idea was fantastic. I was not a part of this team, but I can only imagine the applications. Ahem, Links?I mentioned that these brainstorms can turn into major successes for you, including link building ideas. I can't promise that every idea you come up with will result in killer link building, but I have faith that if these ideas are actually customer focused and impactful, any number of them can get the attention of the media and make your customers want to share your business with their friends. More specifically, let's use the ideas above for Dick's Drive In.
What are the great ideas you have had in the past to grow your business? I'd love to hear them and maybe I can give some ideas of how I would turn them into link building ideas. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!       |
| You are subscribed to email updates from SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Seth's Blog : There isn't one shark
There isn't one shark
Happy Days is famous for jumping the shark. In an episode near the end of their run, the writers ran out of ideas and want so far to please the masses that they wrote a script in which Fonzie, wearing a leather jacket, rode water skis up a ramp and over a shark.
Since then, the kind of people who like to say, "no one goes there anymore, it's too crowded," are happy to point out when a popular organization jumps the shark.
The thing is, there isn't one shark. There's your shark, my shark and their shark. The masses have a different shark than the early adopters do.
For some, Apple has already jumped the shark. A new upgrade or a new TV commercial might be a step too far, and they walk away, sad that yet another cutting edge organization has succumbed to mass mediocrity. For others, they're just feeling safe enough to take a shot, and the shark is nowhere in sight.
The insight is to have the empathy not to confuse your shark with the shark of the kind of person you're hoping to delight. Choose your customers, choose their shark.
More Recent Articles
- Time frames
- The difficult challenge of media alignment
- This or that?
- "But first I'll try to make you feel really bad"
- It's a long story
[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]
Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.
| Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
Postări
