Cool Marketing Thoughts

Hola chicos & chicas! It’s time for the great Carnival Of Marketing, a linkdump of fresh and tasty stories from all over the world. I’m glad I’m participating in this series because there’s so much good stuff being written that a short overview and some pointers once a week might help us marketeers to get a grip on the humongous stream of data the interweb provides. So, let’s kick it off and see what’s worth reading elsewhere. Welcome to my carnival!

For those amongst us on the sales rep department, making cold prospect calls is often hell. It’s the last thing you want to do because you’ve got to start at the bottom of the chain of familiarity, introducing yourself and the product from zero. Suzanne Falter-Barns attented a teleclass with Wendy Weiss, the alleged ‘Queen of Cold Calling’ and has listed up seven points you should pay attention to while making cold calls. – [check it out]

When you’ve created a good product, other people will start to give it away for free. There’s a few reasons why they do that. First of all because your product is good. The other reason is that it would place their product at least on the same level of quality. One thing you’ve got to do is ask yourself if your product is good enough to give it away for free. StopBuyingCrap takes an interesting look at the how and why. – [check it out]

I don’t know who Patty is, but apparently you can ask here anything. [hold your jokes] – Patty influences 80% of all vehicles purchased in the US and buys aproximately 50% of all new and used cars and 40% of all trucks sold in the US. “Ask Patty” invites all women to share their stories, books, ancedotes ( good, bad, funny or sad), ask questions, offer answers, information and news for the benefit of all consumer women. I really had no idea that it was so big. Jody DeVere, president of Ask Patty writes about her organization and reaches out to the online women/consumers. In the post she sent in for this carnival she explains all about Ask Patty – [check it out]

David Maister has moved a terabyte in data from the free stuff he’s been putting on his website. That’s pretty neat. The resources he’s sharing are podcasts, videos and articles in .pdf format. There’s some really interesting stuff over there, but of all those things you should really take a look at his latest article “Adventures in Modern Marketing”. This article is about some of the lessons he has learned (or relearned) about marketing in an Internet world, through his own recent marketing activities. – [check it out]

Jack Yoest is thinking about why the web-based competitors are winning the readership. ‘Reach’, ‘frequency’ and ‘awareness’ drive the marketers’ attention on placing ad dollars. To know where the future is, and how, when and where you can have a moment to grab the attention of your audience, read his article. – [check it out]

Nedra Kline Weinreich wrote a really nice review about Katya Andresen’s new book “Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes”. This is not a how-to book, but it should be the first step for nonprofits who want to understand how to apply marketing concepts to their work. It will give you a good overview of the lens through which you need to filter your messages and materials. Head over to Spare Change and tune in, if you’re into nonprofit things: order the book. – [check it out]

The Long Tail is also applicable in real estate. The long tail phenomena that’s most relevant to the Tomato is how online real estate searches in your area are not always as obvious as “San Francisco real estate.” Showing up in the top 10 for such a search is not happening. Not to worry, being found online by your next lead doesn’t have to depend on which searches are most popular. Getting exposure online is as easy as writing about your industry on your website. Find out more about this and… – [check it out]

Marketing and advertising are very closely related. That’s why I’ve decided to also point in the advertising direction. It’s always nice to see what visuals are being used, which tricks, what sort of billboards or print ads… because very often you’ll get some inspiration or find new ways to market your products. So, here are a few links from the land of ads:

There’s two archives I frequent a lot when I’m looking for inspiration. One of them is AdsOfTheWorld, where Ivan is archiving ads and billboards from all over the world. It’s really a wicked large archive, you can spend hours and hours browsing the ads, seeing what has been done, thinking about how you could integrate one idea or another in a marketing campaign of your own. Daily updates. – [check it out]

Another fine archive to drop by is adverlicio.us, the world’s tastiest collection of online advertising. It’s in fact a large archive of all sorts of banners and teasers that are being used on the internet. If you’re considering an online campaign, be sure to drop by here and see all the good ideas that have been launched and that have proven to be successful. I’m sure there’ll be some things you can ‘redo’ or ‘make better’ if you want to promote your product or service online. Note that the ads don’t always link to their target, but that they’ve been listed to see what has been done, so clicking doesn’t always take you to the advertiser’s site – [check it out]

So, thanks for joining me this week for the Carnival of Marketing. The next episode is going to be hosted at Seeds of Growth. Submit your blog articles here!