Be current

Create a contest that that is relevant to the current events. For example you could create a holiday contest with a virtual Easter Egg hunt. Hide Easter eggs on your website each day, for a period of time and invite your Facebook followers to join the contest. The first player to find an egg and click on it wins a prize. Perhaps it could be gift cards to the surrounding businesses within your community or your own products. All of the clues and hints to find the eggs could be posted on Facebook to drive people to your site!

People love photos

Run a contest using photos of your products, or business. Ask Fans to snap a picture of your products / business (or better yet, of them using your products!) and post the photos on your wall. As a reward give those that have posted the photo a gift card as a thank you.

Another option is to have Fans post a photo of themselves, could be seasonal such as Halloween or of them using your product. Then ask FANs to vote on the best photo and give a reward for those voting and a reward for the best photo.

Make them guess

Run a guessing game contest the same day of every week. The guessing game could be a word jumble of local businesses or landmarks, a picture of a local place where people guess where it’s taken, or old standby of how many items are in the container.

Ask for insight

Ask Fans to share tips on how they do things. The tip with the most unique comments or likes could win a prize. An example could be “what are your tips to growing a great vegetable garden”. Keep it light and fun, not to technical.

Favorite quotes

Ask fans to submit their favorite quotes. This is simple and can be applied to just about any business. The person who got the most likes or comments on their quote wins the prize.

Thank them for “likes”

Run a weekly contest where you’re giving away a prize for those Fans that have Liked something on your wall. Each week, put all the names of the “likers” in a list and do a random drawing to pull names.

Facebook offers a lot of ways to connect with customers, Friends and fans. Please share your Facebook contest success stories in the comments.

The “Direct Mail” Brochure

Direct mail advertising is most often use to communicate a message to a lot of people – usually a tactic meant to reach large quantities. Since direct mail materials are likely to reach customers who are not necessarily expecting your information and may have a large stack of mail to sort through, it’s important to make this type of brochure stand out!

When creating a direct mail brochure, remember that the brochure will serve as many readers’ first introduction to your company. You should communicate your value proposition, what sets you apart from your competition and how your unique strengths will benefit them as a customer. The goal with direct mail brochures is the whet their appetite enough to get them to call your or visit your website.

The “Response” Brochure

When people ask about your product, they have expresses some level of interest and therefore should be considered differently. Since they’ve already expressed interest, write this brochure to take your prospect to the next step in the buying process. This piece should be a bit more specific in addressing how your value points can address their points of pain. Be sure to include facts and testimonials as well.

The “Leave-Behinds” Brochure

This type of brochure is named for the brochures you leave behind after meeting a potential customer. Generally these people are fairly interested in your product or services since they’ve given you the time to talk about it. This type of brochure should be written to be your voice when you aren’t there – reiterate your sales pitch but in the written word.

Write this type of brochure with a complete description of your product and its benefits. Think more Features, Attributes and Benefits, or FAB as we say in the biz.

The “You May Also Be Interested in This” Brochure

This is the brochure you give to recent clients to let them know about the other products / services you offer that may be relevant to their needs. Be sure to demonstrate how your products / services work together and complement each other. This brochure is a great way to demonstrate that you are in-touch with their needs and able to serve them in more ways than one.

Now that you know the types of brochures, figure out where they fit into the buying process for you. When all else fails, remember the audience, where they are in the buying process, and what they need to be communicated to progress to the next stage in the buying process.

Gmail has a feature called Priority Inbox, which automatically sorts your “important” emails to the top. The basic idea is that Gmail will prioritize email from senders that you interact with the most.

In order to predict which messages are important to you, Gmail uses some of the same technology that it uses to weed spam out of your Inbox. To predict which of your incoming messages are important, Gmail automatically takes into account a number of signals, including:

* Who sent the email (For example, if you email Bob a lot, it’s likely that messages from Bob are important.)
* What terms it includes (If you always read messages about soccer, a new message that contains those same soccer words is more likely to be important.)
* The actions that help us determine which people/terms are important to you include: replying, using stars, archiving, deleting (Messages you star are probably more important than messages you archive without opening.)

This is all done automatically, and no humans ever read your mail.

The takeaway for email marketers? Well, it’s kind of the same old story. Send awesome emails. If your recipients are more engaged and interact with your emails more often, you get priority. Here are some tips for sending more engaging emails…

• Get to know your engaged subscribers – segment, segment, segment
• Be more human, get more replies – be personal, not to “corporate”
• Write effective subjects lines – They won’t engage, if they don’t open it
• Test, test, test – if you email isn’t tested against the SPAM filters, it may not even get delivered

How often should you post on your business’s Facebook Page, and when?

Over the last six months we have been experimenting with the frequency of posting Status Updates on Facebook on the ServiceNoodle Facebook Page and the Small Businesses Facebook Page. From posting twice a day to only twice weekly, I have tested all levels of frequency in posting until finally settling on posting 3-5 Status Updates a week. At that rate “Unlikes” have minimal and the total number of “Likes” has grown at a steady rate.

But a recent change by Facebook has me reevaluating my frequency in posting yet again. Beginning November 1, users can now unlike your page directly from their News Feed. Previously users had to go to your page and scroll all the way to the bottom left to unlike your page. If users thought your content was boring or too frequent, many just hid your Page because it was easier. Now it’s just easy to unlike:

That said, now would be a good time for many Facebook Admins to step back and reevaluate as well:

1) Have a look at your Insights to see if your Unlikes have increased since November 1. If so, try posting less. I suggest 2-4 times per week although many customers will tell you even less than that.

2) If your Status Updates get very little “Thumbs Up” or “Comments”, then perhaps your content also needs to be re-evaluated. If all you post is marketing-related content (we’re awesome!) rather than a wide variety of content with a particular focus on offering special promotions and deals, then there is a good chance your customers are tuning you out. It just a  matter of time until they hide or unlike your Page. Your work is to find out through a process of trial and error what kind of content is interesting to your supporters. Much easier said than done, I know. It’s also worth noting that more Thumbs Up and Comments = More News Feed exposure.

3) Studies show that mornings are the best time to post on Facebook, but don’t just post in the mornings and never at the same time each and every day. If you want to reach all of your customers, then you need to mix it up. Not everyone starts their day with Facebook (though a lot of young women do). Try a Tuesday morning, a Thursday morning, and Friday at noon. An occasional Saturday morning post would be wise as well.

A final caveat: Large national and international brands have a different experience on Facebook and social media in general. They usually have a lot of fresh content, a product that people use in their daily lives, and a brand that customerts can whole-heartedly dedicate themselves to. Think Starbucks, Walmart, and Life is Good. These brands can (and usually do) post two or three times a day, and yet retain and even grow their Likes through frequent posting. But most small to medium-sized businesses  just will not have that same experience. You’ll have to experiment to see what works for your business, but I strongly suggest that in light of Facebook’s recent change, you err on the side of caution.

Maybe I just pay attention to marketing more than the average person, but I am continually surprised by the amount of wasted effort and money people spend on marketing. So much so, I thought maybe I would just simplify the process for companies and easily define for them 5 ways to waste their marketing dollars

Wasteful idea #1: Don’t collect email addresses.

One of the most cost effective ways to communicate with clients and prospects is through email. When you don’t spend the effort to ask permission to add your contacts to your email distribution list, you are not utilizing one of the most cost-effective ways to stay in front of them.

Wasteful idea #2: Get big Yellow Page Ads

I am constantly surprised by the amount of money still spent in this area. Do people still think Yellow Pages is worth the money? Come on! I have talked with companies who spend $1,000, $2,000, even $5,000 per month on ads.

Wasteful idea #3: Don’t put effort into your website

Your website is a view into your company 24×7. It speaks for you when you are not there to speak for your company. Many times, it is the first impression a prospect or “influencer” may have for your company. For many of our service clients, one or two new sales in a year as a result of website improvements can more than pay for the effort.

Wasteful idea #4: Sponsor events without purpose

It’s amazing how many opportunities small businesses have to sposor something. A table at a networking event here, or a sponsor at a community event there, or for $$ we will put your logo on this here. Unless you see it worth doing as “good-will” such as an opportunity to give back to your community (which is not marketing any more by the way), you must adhere to a couple of principles: first ask what you should expect as a return on your investment, and secondly ask to speak to someone who has done it before you to make sure they feel it was a good investment for them. Not always does that mean it will be for you, but you can learn an awful lot that way.

Wasteful idea #5: Buy print ads

You want to blow through a marketing budget quickly, buy print ads. They are as expensive as they ever have been, but now there are much more cost effective ways to advertise including Google ads, even Facebook ads if your target audience is found there. Be creative when trying to reach your audience. We have two clients that actually traded ad space. One placed the other’s ad on their website, and the other printed flyers and taped them to their take-out boxes. Little to no cost for each!

These points seem pretty simple when you step back and think about it. Be honest with yourself if you are spending money in the above ways. Are you just doing so because you want to do “something”? Is there a better way to spend your marketing dollars? If you want some help doing it better, give us a call.

What are we doing in those 700 billion minutes? Probably perusing the more than 30 billion pieces of content that is shared each month. Or maybe visiting one of the 80 community pages and groups that the average user is connected to. There are over 900 million pages, groups and community pages that people interact with on Facebook.

What is a Facebook page? According to Facebook, “A Facebook Page is a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with people on Facebook. Once created, you can develop and optimize your Page to ensure that it best represents your brand.”

Creating a customized Facebook page is a cost effective alternative to a website if you are just starting your business. With all of the customizations that can be made, it can be as effective as a website – especially if your target audience is already on Facebook.

Three Hats Marketing can set up a custom fan page for you, all you need to do is contact us!

Fear is “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.”

All of this got me thinking…thinking about how we live in a world of fear and we have choices to subdue our fear. Fear is an emotion that is related to future events, like worsening a situation.

For example, we have health insurance because we are AFRAID that we might get sick. We wear seat belts for the FEAR of getting into an accident. We use sunscreen as a form of PROTECTION against something we are AFRAID of.

There are two types of fear: panicked and deliberative. When I saw the spider, I panicked. A decision like whether or not to take a risk is more deliberative fear.

I’m sure you as a business owner are faced with different fears everyday. One of those is most likely the decision on whether or not to hire additional employees. Hiring an employee is very, very expensive. Not only does it cost you their salary or hourly wage, but you have to pay for overhead expenses that a lot of people don’t realize. The obvious expenses include benefits, sick days and vacation days. The not so obvious expenses include the cost of office space to provide them a place to work, utilities for the office, a computer and phone, software and so-on and so-forth.

Hiring an in house employee is the norm. Veering away from that norm by hiring an outsourced employee would probably make you nervous because not many other companies are doing it yet. It’s not the norm.

What if I told you that hiring an outsourced marketing employee saved you money AND grew your business? Would that ease your fear? What if an outsourced employee had the same relationship with you that an in house employee would, but they just aren’t in the office every single day?

While there certainly are some situations where hiring a full-time employee is the best option, there are many situations where a single employee simply cannot offer the broad skill set or high level of expertise that is required. Typically an outsourced marketing employee is the best option for businesses that have a broad range of needs but can’t afford a full-time employee or the business model can only support 1-2 marketing employees.

At Three Hats Marketing, we work with businesses as outsourced Marketing Managers or Marketing Directors to ensure your business goals & objectives are met by implementing the proper marketing strategies, plans and tactics.

Make a smart business decision and consider Three Hats Marketing for your marketing needs. Throw away your fears just as I did after the spider died

Oh and I will remember to bring my RAID tomorrow

• emergency situation- all emergencies are situations
• office setting- it’s just an office…
• free of charge- it’s either free or it’s not free. Plus, what else would it be free of?
• planning process- all planning is a process
• healing process- all healing is a process
• crisis situation- like emergencies, all crisis’ are situations
• daily basis- it’s just daily
• knowledge base- it’s just knowledge
• risk factor- all risks are factors.

While I’m on the subject of words to use and not to use, here is a list of redundant phrases:

• added bonus- a bonus is something in addition to what is expected
• closed fist- a fist is a hand that is closed
• future potential- potential means you are capable of becoming at a later date and future is a later date
• first annual- this one bugs me the MOST! How do you know the event is going to be successful enough to have it again next year? Annual means occurring every year, but if it’s the first year, it hasn’t occurred every year yet.
• seeing the sights- sights are things you see, so use one or the other
• revert back- revert means to come or go back
• young children- children already insinuates a person that is young
• unique individual- all individuals are unique
• combined total- a total is the sum of all things
• true fact- all facts are true
• exact same- it’s either the same or it’s not
• close proximity- it’s either close or it’s not
• past experience- an experience is something that has happened already

For all of the phrases listed above, a good way to check yourself is to say your sentence with both words, then say your sentence with just one of the words. Does it still make sense? If so, then leave it out.

You only have so many chances to get your point across, and in the age of social media, you may only have a certain number of characters you can use, so leave these words out, and give yourself five (+/-) extra spaces!

What phrases or words would you add to the list? Post them in the comments section!

How did they do it?

Old Spice kicked off the “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign in February 2010 with the first ad airing during the Superbowl. To date, the original ad has attracted almost 17 million views just on YouTube.

The brand itself wasn’t forced upon the viewers, instead they used a funny, casual and memorable approach. They are marketing to women who want their man to be attractive and to men who want to be attractive.

Visit their YouTube page to watch some of the videos.

Last week, Proctor & Gamble representative Michael Norton told BrandWeek.com that Old Spice is now the No. 1 brand of body wash and antiperspirant/deodorant in both sales and volume.

Old Spice added an integral component to their campaign in mid July. The “Old Spice Guy”, Isaiah Mustafa, used videos to personally respond to blog and Twitter posts commenting on the campaign. The response videos have been viewed more than 40 million times.

The lesson in all of this? Social media marketing can work in your favor if done correctly. Oh, and sex sells.

According to a survey conducted by Salary.com, 64% of respondents reported wasting one hour or less each day, 22% waste approximately two hours daily, and 14% waste three or more hours each workday.

What are these employees wasting time on? Well based on the survey, the most time was spent on internet use, socializing with co-workers and conducting personal business.

One interesting thing to note from the survey is that three out of four people feel that office related activities cut into their own productivity time on the job. Office related activities include fixing someone else’s work, dealing with office politics, waiting for co-workers to finish something you need, attending work-related meetings or events and administrative work.

A common issue that a lot of employers face is making sure they are getting the highest level of productivity out of their employees as possible. It is important to remember that a $50,000 salary costs the employer a lot more than $50,000 because of benefits, sick days, wasting time online etc. Plus you have the cost of an office space, utilities, bonuses and technology.

What might be a good solution to this issue that so many business owners are facing?
With budget cuts and lower revenue, it would appear that hiring a full-time employee is not a smart business decision in all situations. Why don’t employers consider outsourcing some areas of their business? An outsourced employee is considerably cheaper because there is no need to pay for benefits, training, sick days, etc. Not only does it cost less money, but it is less of a risk than hiring a full-time salaried employee. Outsourcing areas of your business means you are allowing industry experts to take ownership in their personal area of expertise.

At Three Hats Marketing, we offer outsourced marketing employees to companies. Imagine getting a very experienced marketing director or marketing manager for a fraction of the cost of an in-house marketing employee.

Give us a call to learn more about our outsourced marketing services.