Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a gamer. You can read all about it on my other blog. Sometimes I spend some time looking through videos on YouTube of games that I’m interested in buying so that I can see if they’re worth the purchase or not. Why then are video game companies forcing YouTubers to take down videos of playthroughs and such? Don’t they understand that this is how gamers find their products? I just saw a video by a well known YouTube commentator that pretty much sums up my feelings as well. He uses some vulgar language so it may not be safe for work, but here’s a link to the video anyway.

This is what happens when you let accountants and financial folks take control of your business. They do a great job of organizing, and re-investing your money. But why are marketers letting them do their job for them? As a marketer, it’s your decision as to how your products and / or services get promoted. I’m of the philosophy that you should use any and all tools in the box to get your message across.

In this day in age where consumers (especially gamers) are spending less time watching / listening / paying attention to commercials, why would you want to take your products out of a media that they are paying attention to? It makes no sense to me. I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how video game marketers usually do a horrible job (someone please hire me, I won’t let you down), and today I see yet another example of that.

If you are a decision maker at your company, please do not limit your marketing opportunities, or alienate your customers by trying to stop them from using current technology to promote your products or services. Use these guys to your benefit, and profit by them. 

What do you guys think? Agree, disagree? Are there any other examples out there that you can think of where companies have done this? Let me know in the comments below. 

I was going over some data at the marketing charts website and was kind of surprised to see a report stating that business to business companies don’t have much of a social media presence. I read the report, and it got me thinking. What could these companies accomplish with social media, and how should they use it to their advantage? It seems we (as marketers) focus alot on business to consumer social media marketing, especially when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and maybe that’s the major problem. So I’d like to discuss some ways that business to business companies can use social media to their advantage. Let’s start by discussing…

Top barriers to social media for business to business companies

According to the report, there are 4 main reasons why b2b companies don’t focus as much on online marketing. Here we go…

1. Insufficient personnel to maintain - It’s not surprising that this is number 1. So many companies have downsized, and they are continuing to do so (HP just let go of a ton of people the other day). However, why do you need to hire more people to do this? Here’s what I think. I would solicit blog entries from employees and offer some sort of reward for entries that are picked. Wow, pretty simple. Every one of your employees should have a presence on LinkedIn. If not for the company, then for their own good. Encourage them to post and answer questions. Now you have a social media presence and you didn’t even have to hire anyone.
2. Lack of organizational knowledge - I’m not sure what they mean by “organizational” knowledge, but I think that if you don’t know something you need to go and figure it out. There are a ton of online resources to find out more about online marketing. There are tons of books out there. If you don’t have time to research them yourself, then pick a different career. To think, these guys call themselves marketers. You should always make time to educate yourself.
3. Preference for traditional marketing - Let me say something here (like you have a choice). I prefer traditional marketing. And yet, I still engage in online and social media marketing. Why? Because I see the advantages, and also because a marketer needs to use any and all weapons at his or her disposal. If you aren’t using social media, you’re leaving a big weapon in the armory collecting dust. There’s no reason for that.
4. Perceived irrelevance to their field - Bottom line: you have to go where your customers go. This is 2010, take a deep breath and say it with me now, twenty-ten, soon to be eleven. People go online to find information. When you go fishing, you probably go to the lake where there are tons of fish. Why is marketing any different. Sure you’re dealing with a company, but that company is made up of individuals. And individuals like to go online to educate themselves. If you have a presence online and provide relevant information, then those individuals will find you. That’s called marketing.

What can b2b companies do to take advantage of social media

1. Start a blog - We’ve talked about it before. People go online to find information. Provide useful information to people and they will find you (and your company). Provide information on all aspects of your industry and your business. Like I said before, solicit entries from your co-workers (you’ll be surprised at all of the great ideas and talent that you have on board). If you can become an industry expert, then you can’t help but increase your brand awareness… and your profits.
2. Get on LinkedIn - People go to Facebook to interact with friends, relax, and play games, and all that good stuff. People get on LinkedIn to interact with other professionals, and to learn. You and every one of your co-workers should have a presence on LinkedIn. You should spend time asking and answering questions, linking up with other professionals in your industry, and basically becoming a part of the community.
3. Be one of the few - The fact that not many b2b companies are using social media means that the ones that do are ahead of the game. Going back to the fishing analogy, if you’re the only one at the lake, you’re going to catch alot of fish. Get started, stop making excuses and do it. Your competition will hate you, but your customers and prospects will love you.

What do you guys think? How can b2b companies take advantage of social media? What other obstacles do they need to overcome?

Here’s a link worth checking out if you are involved in social media. I’ve seen alot of corporate social media pages, and I have to agree. Most companies still don’t really get it. There’s so much that you can do with social media, but most just exist. Check out what Mikal Belicove on the American Express Open Forum has to say about it.

Wise words from one of my favorite bands (Rage Against the Machine), “know your enemy”. In marketing, you are competing with other companies, and even industries (look at how movie theaters compete against DVD, and television) for scarce money. In order to succeed, you need to arm yourself with all the knowledge you can about your competition. You need to know their strengths, weaknesses and strategies, so that you can develop your plan to defeat them. Great, so you already knew that. But how do you go about obtaining this information? Here are some quick tips for you…

1. List your direct and indirect competitors. How are you going to learn about your competition if you don’t even know who they are? As one of my old mentors (and good friend, you know who you are) would say, “make a list”. Don’t forget to include both direct (companies that provide similar products or services to yours) and indirect competitors (companies that provide products or services different from your own that satisfy the same need).

2. Pay them a visit. After you have your list, you should visit your competitors website and learn what you can. Not only will you learn about their products and / or services, you will also learn how they are marketing themselves, what they think of their own brand, and you will be able to get an idea of which type of customers they are targeting. You can also learn about their history, and the officers of the company. If there is a trade show, visit them and find out all you can. If they have a store, go in and patronize them. Find out what you can up close and in person. It’s important to do this early so that you will get a fresh impression of what type of business they run.

3. Dig a little deeper. Visit www.hoovers.com and check out their financials. If they are a publicly traded company, then there are tons of sources to go to get additional information. Go to www.dnb.com and check out a credit report. Remember those officers you learned about in the previous step? Google them and find out more about them. This will let you know a little bit more about how decisions are made at this company.

4. Set a date to follow-up. Like all marketing, competitive analysis is a process not a project (we’ll probably discuss this in detail in a future post). This means that you need to set up a follow-up date in your calendar so that you can go through the process again, and find out what’s changed. If you’re dealing with professionals, then your competition is looking at you just like you’re looking at them, and they’ll react to whatever strategy you’ve chosen to take them down. Do yourself a favor and stay vigilant.

Once you know all about your competition, you can use this information to find out what you can do better or differently than them. Develop your strategy and watch the competition suffer. We’ll talk more about how to take these suckers out in the future.

Hey, I’m not an expert on competitive analysis, so if any of you readers have anything to share, let me know in the comments, or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

Many times, when we discuss how to grow business we only discuss tactics. However, I think an overall understanding of the strategy behind the tactics is the more appropriate place to start. Afterall there are only four ways to grow your business, and an almost infinite number of tactics to accomplish these. I’ll illustrate these points using one of my favorite pastimes, comic books. Here we go…

1. Get new customers: This is where many tactics focus; “how can we get more customers?”. This is vital to success, and is the best way to begin growing your business.

Comic publishers are constantly creating new books, and re-launching others. How many times have we seen a new issue #1 come out. One of my favorite comic characters is The Punisher. The guy has about 20 #1 issues (Punisher ongoing, Punisher War Zone, Punisher Max, Punisher War Journal volume 1 and 2, etc). Look at how many comic book movies have been released. As a matter of fact, look at how many times comic characters are licensed period (tooth brushes, action figures, bed sheets, etc). Sure, the comic companies make a ton of money licensing these heroes and villains, but the licensing opportunities also serve to create interest in the comics. Don’t even get me started on crossover issues; moving right along….

2. Increase the average dollar amount per transaction: This may seem like a “no brainer”, and it is. If the average transaction is worth more money, then of course, your business will increase. This is assuming that the same amount of customers purchase your product or service; obviously you will need to focus on the laws of economics. Simply increasing the price isn’t what I’m talking about. This could also mean lowering cost or adding value added merchandise / services (did someone say “bags n boards”?). Basically, think of any way that you can increase the average dollar amount of the transaction.

If you read comics, you probably realize that prices have been slowly increasing over the years. (insert old man voice) Why when I was a kid, sonny, comics used to be a buck per comic, now the average price is about three dollars. Some special issues are even four dollars per issue. But remember, it’s not just about price. Increasing the number of books you take home each month is also part of this equation (enter the crossovers, and event stories).

3. Increase the average number of transactions per customer over a certain period of time: Notice the part where I said “over a certain time period”. This timeline is very important, and many marketers seem to leave it out. Basically, if a customer purchases more often, then you will grow your business.

New comics come out every week, but for the most part a new issue of a given book will come out once per month (12 issues a year). Let’s say, you have good taste, and read Deadpool. That means that you have three books per month that you may consider buying. Oh but wait, he’s also going to make an appearance in that new X-Men book, so you may want to consider that one too. You get the idea. Now imagine buying books for more than one character with each character appearing in multiple books. Punisher + Deadpool + X-Men + Spider-Man + etc = you, broke.

4. Increase the length of time your average customer stays loyal to your business: A customer will only be a customer for a finite period of time. Even a lifetime customer will go away at some point. We all die at some point afterall, however business is forever… in theory anyway.

I can’t remember where I read it, but I remember seeing somewhere that the average comic book reader sticks around for about 4-5 years. By creating event stories that are basically sequential, companies like Marvel comics have been extending this readership past the 4-5 year mark. Beginning with Avengers: Disassembled (and continuing with House of M, Civil War, Planet Hulk, The Death of Captain America, The Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and The Siege), Marvel has offered at least one major story per year, each one building on the momentum from the previous story. This creates a much larger epic arc for each character and keeps readers coming back to see what will happen next.

These are the only four ways you can grow your business. As you can see, the tactics are nearly limitless, but by understanding each strategy, you will have a much clearer understanding of which tactics to employ, when, and for what purpose. Remember, good marketing should lead to sales.

What do you think?

Here we are, the final trend in Seth Godin’s Meatball Sundae, “new gatekeepers, no gatekeepers.” It used to be that large companies only worked with other large companies. Basically a big company would pay top dollar to promote a product on television with commercials, reviews, news stories, whatever. Smaller companies couldn’t afford to do things this way and were therefore left out of the party. Those times are over. How much does it cost to be on YouTube? That’s right, absolutely nothing. And even better, the audience actually seeked you out, and therefore you didn’t need to interrupt anyone. Wow, you just bypassed the traditional gatekeeper.

The true gatekeeper in today’s marketing landscape is Google. If you can be on the first page of Google it means that you’re among the most relevant pages on the internet regarding your chosen topic. But unfortunately many of us will not be on the first page of Google. We need help. Which means that you need to look at other ways to promote your webpage, podcast, video, blog, etc. You can have excellent content, but what does it matter if no one sees it. We’ve discussed some ways to get your name out there, but the most important of all is to just go out there and be a part of the community you are trying to build. If your site is about marketing, then go out to all the marketing blogs and comment on the things that are interesting to you. Before long, you will have the visitors, listeners, and all that good stuff.

So yeah, I’m looking at you guys that visit, but never comment. I know you’re there because I check Google analytics. I dare you to comment on this post…. if you’re marketer enough. And be sure to leave a link back to your own blog.

Well, that’s it for Meatball Sundae. I hope you guys dug it… dig it… whatever. I recomend reading the book yourself as there’s tons of insights I’ve left out. It’s definately worth it if you’re serious about online marketing.

Notable quote from this section:

• “The web is the biggest haystack in the history of mankind, and you’re just a tiny little needle. You might be sharp and you might be shiny, but without help, no one will ever see your webpage, listen to your podcast, or watch your video.”

Now is not the time to be mediocre. People want something inexpensive, or they want something of exceptional quality. No one wants “just good enough”. Right now we are in a recession, which means that now more than ever before, products need to fall in to one of those two categories. It used to be that wealthy people were so far removed from us average Joe’s. But the truth is, wealthy or poor, consumers are all very similar. When it comes to a product that is important to you, it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you will spend top dollar for the quality. Likewise, when you are looking at a commodity, or something that you don’t think too much about (salt is salt after all), price becomes more important. Seth Godin discusses this with his thirteenth trend in Meatball Sundae,”the wealthy are like us.”

Godin mentions that there are more wealthy people today than ever before. I guess this book was written a few years ago, because I’m actually seeing the opposite trend. I think that because of this current recession, more people than ever are starting to understand what it’s like to be poor. When you’re poor there are alot of things that you have to do without. Sacrifices must be made so that you can afford the things that you and your family need. If you are going to spend alot of money, alot of thought goes in to the purchase, and quality becomes even more important than it used to be. Even those fortunate enough to have jobs right now are feeling this pinch. Afterall, they are probably supporting an out of work spouse or partner. With this in mind, you need to begin thinking from the point of view that your product (or service) needs to be the inexpensive option, or the best quality option. If you are mediocre, you’re dead.

I could go on and on, but you probably would get bored and I’m sure you get the idea. The final trend discussion is coming soon.

Notable quote from this section:

• “It turns out that not only are the wealthy like us, they are us.”

Sometimes it’s the little adjustments that you make that can mean the difference between success and failure. Minor tweaks, things that increase efficiency, small improvements that maximize the effectiveness of your product or whatever (look at pro football where one yard can mean the difference between a win or a loss for that week, or basketball where one team usually wins by one or two points). Small things can mean big money for some companies, but it’s the big ideas that will set you apart from the competition. Seth Godin discusses this as his eleventh trend in his book Meatball Sundae, “The triumph of big ideas.”

In a world where all companies seem to behave the same, a big idea can make you stand out. A big idea demands attention. Look at what Nintendo did with the Wii. I’ve played video games all my life. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I love video games. But what about all those people out there that have never picked up a video game controller? I remember when controllers only had a joystick and a red button, but today controllers are more complicated than ever. How is a first time gamer going to make heads or tails out of it to enjoy a game, much less actually be good at it? Nintendo created the motion controller in the Wii to appeal to that person. Now “casual gamers” (as they have been dubbed) and “hardcore gamers” alike can enjoy the same games. Parents can play with their kids, and everyone has a great time. It’s no wonder that Nintendo is such a successful company. They get it.

What are some of your favorite big ideas? Discuss below… or else.

Notables quote from this section:

• “A big idea can spread so far and so fast that the market leader cannot stop it.”

In business, you want to create a product that fills a need. If the solution is scarce, then it becomes more in demand. This is basic economics. However, according to Seth Godin, the things that previously were scarce are now common, and things that were common in the past are now becoming scarce. In his ninth trend “the shifts in scarcity and abundance”, Godin discusses these shifts in detail. Here’s his list of things that used to be scarce, but now are common:

• Hard drive space
• Manual labor
• Overnight shipping
• Airtime
• Shelf space
• Long distance phone service
• Knowledge about other people

Many of these things are very important to businesses today, but they are readily available, and therefore inexpensive. If you previously made a majority of your money on one of these categories, you’ve probably had to re-adjust your focus, specialize, or come to terms with lower profits.

Here’s Godin’s list of things that were previously common, but now are scarce:

• Spare time
• Attention
• Ability to pollute without consequences
• Trust
• Sufficiently trained workers
• Open space, clean water, and other natural resources

Yeah, I think we can all agree on these. There have been companies taking advantage of these things for a while now (bottled water companies, online schools, handheld gaming systems, etc), but you need to find out how to take advantage of these for your business. Think about it, and keep these opportunities in mind when you create new products or market your existing ones. If you can fulfil the scarce needs of your clients and customers then you will be on your way to profits.

Discussion 12 coming soon.

Notables quote from this section:

• “Create and sell something scarce and you can earn a profit. But when scarce things become common and common things become scarce you need to alter what you do all day.”

I remember when I first discovered ebay way back in the day. Thankfully I had a job back then, and spent most of my disposable cash on all kinds of products that I just couldn’t find in stores. I used to by manga (Japanese comics), out of print books, out of print CD’s and old NES games. It was fun and cool, and it opened up a whole new world for both companies and consumers. With ebay and other auction sites like Bonanzle customers can now buy products directly from each other. As a matter of fact it’s about time for another shameless plug (it’s been a while since the last one). If you’re a woman, and are into clothes and stuff, check out my friends auction site here. Seth Godin’s discusses this with his ninth trend in Meatball Sundae, “direct communication and commerce between consumers and consumers.”

Many businesses have been created (or have become more successful) because of this new trend. My favorite bookstore in the world, Half-Price Books has taken advantage of this customer to customer interaction. Sure, they buy and sell used books, but I’m talking about their community meeting groups. I don’t know if all of their locations offer this, but the main store on Northwest highway in Dallas offers a place for clubs and groups to meet up and discuss their chosen topic. That means all you pen-and-paper rpg folks can game it up, all you manga readers can get together and swap and discuss books, poets are welcome to come out and try their new stuff out on an audience, Star Trek fans can live long AND prosper (how about that?), etc. I don’t know of any other company that offers this type of meeting place, and I applaud Half-Price books for doing this (HPB marketing team, please start promoting this stuff).

Instead of fighting against this trend (look at what software producer Electronic Arts is doing to punish people that buy used games; they call it “project ten dollar”), companies should embrace and even encourage their customers to interact with each other. Let’s be honest, the genie’s already been let out of the bottle anyway; we’re going to talk to each other whether you like it or not. Get with the program and create a place where your customers can talk to each other. If you don’t, just don’t be surprised when you competition does (and takes home some extra goodwill and business as well).

Trend ten discussion coming soon.

Notable quote from this section:

• “As social networks become more powerful, consumers will gravitate to each other, not just informing each other about their experiences but banding together into unions that will pressure organizations for more of what consumers want.”