www.4yourownsafety.com
Because online marketing can be dangerous!
For Your Own Safety

Launch of the 2008 Online Effectiveness Survey

Today I launched a new initiative for our business, and we're calling it the 2008 online effectiveness survey.

So, what does that mean?

Well, we're asking business what activities they are engaging in online, and what is working for them. Its a very brief survey, more of a poll, but we're hoping to get some general trends and correlations out of the data. From this, we're going to produce a report for participants about some current "best practices".

In addition to this, we're offering a free website evaluation for anyone who wants it, with takeaway search engine optimisation tips.

Further, we're ...<< MORE >>

Marketing outside and inside the fishbowl - Episode 2 of For Your Own Safety

In this episode I chat about the the social media marketing fishbowl, connecting inside and out of it.

This is episode 2 of the podcast For Your Own Safety -  the 4 minute online marketing podcast with real life examples of WHAT NOT TO DO and 4 safety tips.


Download | Duration: 00:04:05



My 4 Safety tips for this episode were

  1. Stay in the real world,
  2. Don't make a meatball sundae out of it,
  3. Earn your way into the conversation,
  4. Know your audience and the space you're in.

My thanks to CC Chapman, Mitch Joel, Joseph Jaffeand Seth Godinfor inspiration and ideas.

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The Death of Traditional Advertising

Cam Beck, over at Marketing Profs, recently wrote an insightful post called "The Publisher's Paradox: Why Traditional Advertising Models Are Dead"

The traditional publishing model for newspapers, magazines, etc has been to create great content, and sell advertising space on it. The author recounts how the digital scene has turned this model on its head.

Consumers now expect to get access to great content, not pay for it, and not be interrupted by advertising while consuming it. This is leading towards the decline of some traditional media giants, and the way advertising has been done.

Some marketers and advertisers have countered ...<< MORE >>

Viral marketing by a genuis

Seth Godin has to be one of the most forward thinking marketers around, what ever he writes is worth reading. He has authored books such as The Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and more lately, Meatball Sundae. You can get one of his books FREE, in ebook format. To download his manifesto on viral marketing and idea viruses click the link. This has been out there a while but I only came across it recently and enjoyed it thoroughly.

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Respect your list of lose it! - Episode 1 of For Your Own Safety

This is the very first episode of the podcast For Your Own Safety -  the 4 minute online marketing podcast with real life examples of WHAT NOT TO DO and 4 safety tips.

In this episode I chat about the dangers of email marketing and looking after your list. You can play or subscribe from here or in itunes.
 

Download | Duration: 00:04:00



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... or just be human

"... or just be human." This was the closing comment of a recent post of Seth Godin's, after riffing about an impersonal note he received from a mail merge from a large corporation.

It got me thinking about how screwed up the whole marketing thing can be. Obviously, he meant, just be a GOOD human, because it would be so very human to do the normal marketing thing, and push our agenda, expound our features and benefits.

Really great marketing should remove our agenda. It really should be personal, not just "personalised". We should keep in mind that being a human at its best, is when we show more concern for others than for what we are selling. That they are a human with feeling, fears, loves, hates, concerns, needs. Our product or service is most probably not at the top of the agenda...

I believe that the really great marketing of the future is not just going to get better at putting ourselves at the top of peoples agenda, at interrupting, at reminding. The really great stuff is going to be when we show interest and concern in what others are interested in and concerned about.

Maybe then we get the right to talk, as one human to another.

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Do everything with design in mind

Do everything with design in mind. That design should be to communicate in the easiest and most concise manner to your audience, to make it as easy for them to understand, talk and buy from you. To get them to do the
one thing that is most important.

I was at an internet marketing seminar today which was jam packed full of general information I already knew :p We had the opportunity to hear from a very successful Australian marketer, and the information was great, but I had heard it all before.

What really stuck for me was making the ...<< MORE >>

Marketing Outside of the fishbowl

CC Chapman has this really descriptive concept about social media and the people who play in it called the fishbowl. Now apply this to marketing. See, my ideal client is highly unlikely to be listening to this podcast. They prbably dont even knwo what one is yet. But these are the people I want to work with, people who I can help to educate and navigate the new media space.

So, I have all these really great tools in my kit for connecting and communicating with people, however the poeple I want to talk to are not online, not linked ...<< MORE >>

"The thing about free"

Seth Godin did an interesting post (nothing 'remarkable' about that, Seth, you should do something on the problem of becoming so regularly remarkable that you aren't remarkable anymore, if such a state is possible) called "the thing about free". It discusses the value of using 'free' in marketing. A summary could be that giving something away for free will win you the attention of your audience briefly, but that we value those things that we pay for, even though the fee may be nominal.

This is extremely relevant to the field of online marketing as almost every decent website you see is offering something for free, whether its information on a blog (such as this one), or free newsletters, free evaluations, reports, the list goes on. This is a standard tactic, one which I use myself and encourage clients to utilise.

I've often heard people from various walks of life discuss the value of free things. The conclusion usually ends up placing the same value on that which is not paid for, as advice unasked for. It is about respect, if something costs you nothing, then you most probably won't value it, "easy come, easy go" style.
The difficulty that I find in the current marketplace is that everyone else is giving something away for free, and clients and customers expect it.

This is certainly not some kind of absolute truth, but marketers and sales people always need to take care in their generosity. I like to be generous, and give of myself and my time, but I know that I need to keep in mind that if there isn't some kind of cost to my time, advice or services, then they are probably going to be wasted on the recipient anyway, because they will not value it enough to take action on it.

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Brand ownership, domain ownership

How much is Melbourne worth? Someone in America thinks its worth about $200,000, melbourne.com that is, reports the smh.com.au technology section recently, in an article about the loosening of rules surrounding the ownership and trading of .au domain names.
Domain name ownership is a basic insurance level of retaining control of your brand online. Why bother buy mybusiness.net.au when you already have mybusiness.com.au? Although extension like .net are less used by searchers and consumers, registering these domains is a great way to protect your corporate identity online.

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