Just ask my friends. There’s a lot not to listen to.

I use AWeber as my email service. It’s pretty good. Don’t like it as much as I thought I would. But it has some nice features that the other big names didn’t have when I started with it.

It allowed me to easily set up a blogcast each week. But it was deceptively easy and I was determined to design it myself…hey I know blogs.

Know your limits my friends, that’s all I can say.

I’ve changed the design of my blogcast template 6 times. It gets worse every time.  I’d like to publicly thank those of you who’ve suffered though my stubbornness. Others didn’t.

Sometimes the teacher needs to be reminded of his own lessons. It happens to the best of us.

I’m going back to the drawing board. I’m hiring my web design partners to do a professional job.

Like I should have done in the first place.

Lesson learned.

Posted by: Steve Banis

This is a tool offered within better equipped email platforms that allows you to program a series of messages to be delivered to your target lists at designated intervals.

What makes this so powerful is the ability to let these campaigns run by themselves. Further, with some extra work, you can separate, qualify, and bring your targets closer to doing business with you by following multiple communication paths.

Scooby Doo, where are you?

For example, say you want to reach customers that are interested in collecting old lunchboxes. (I had Scooby Doo in 2nd grade.)  Some of these babies go for thousands of dollars. (Mine got thrown out, along with my baseball cards. Thanks mom.)

So you set up a landing page showing off examples of some boxes you have for sale.  It also explains that you have a real nose for locating those hard to find boxes that make a collector drool.

Then your targeted communication program brings you visitors to your site who sign up to receive more information.  Now here’s where the autoresponders get to work.

You’ve written a series of messages that goes to every new person who signs onto your list.  Out goes a welcome message immediately.  Next day, you send them a little biography about yourself, and the big finds you’ve made in the past and how you’ve seen some of your clients make lots of money on their lunch box investment.

Lead them to water

One week later, you send out a testimonial letter with a story from one of your customers.  It says that you helped him relive his childhood and connect with his son by finding him the exact box he had when he was 8 – the Rocky and Bullwinkle one with a bright blue background. It made him cry.

Two days later, you send an email asking your reader to let you know what kind of interested party he is…a real collector looking for that hard to find, expensive treasure or someone just interested in the topic.  You can now create two lists from those who respond – qualified buyers and tirekickers.

Now separate them into two lists, and send each their own set of email messages. For the qualified list, it may pay off to make them personalized.  All the while, you’re bringing the qualified prospects closer and closer – without ever picking up the phone.

It takes thought, creativity, intuition, hard work, and a little bit of talent. But once you’ve got your process, it’s all automatic.

Posted by: Steve Banis

You give readers a chance to get to know what you’re about and provide them a forum for discussing your ideas. Posting regularly (at least once or twice each week) offers search engine spiders the one thing they crave most: new content. So it helps with SEO.

The best blogs try to provide a service to readers. Good information, insights, and tips. That’s what keeps them coming back and builds your credibility.

Blogs also provide an essential service to its creators…it lets them think out loud.

We take in so much information that it’s hard to remember all of the little observations that can turn into big ideas each week. So writing is a chance to noodle through your thoughts, organize them, and pick out a few gems.

Panning for gold

This process goes on all over cyberspace. And readers are the big winners. You can mash up your favorite blogs using your reader. This allows you to decide which “gems” have value to you.

My fellow bloggers are some of the most brilliant and creative people on the Web. I use their ideas in my business and for my clients almost every day.

I’d like to share a few of the best resources I’ve found on the web for marketing ideas and information in hopes that you’ll find a little extra help in these difficult times.

• • • •

(the brief descriptions are by EvanCarmichael in his post last year)

• • • •

Duct Tape Marketing Blog – The award-winning John Jantsch offers his astoundingly practical advice, tips and tricks for small business marketing.

Seth Godin’s Blog – One of the most famous names in the industry, Seth Godin’s blog has long been a favorite for all things small business marketing. As the author of the most popular ebook ever, his blog never fails to give you advice you need.

Marketing Profs – What started as a simple blog by marketing professor Allen Weiss in 2000 has today turned into a fully-staffed venture that provides marketing know-how and offers valuable B2B articles and event information.

Brand Autopsy – How do you conduct a marketing physical for your brand? Check out John Moore’s blog to find out.

Marketing Sherpa – Using case studies, surveys, and other techniques, Marketing Sherpa researches what works – and what doesn’t – in all things marketing. (BMB note: Emarketers and online merchants will find studies by affiliate Marketing Experiments extremely useful)

• • • •

This list is by no means complete. In the future I’ll try to add to it so you can extend your own blog library.

…your comments on the burstmarketingblog are always appreciated.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Twitter is all the rage. Facebook is adding thousands of fans. LinkedIn and MySpace are like old friends. There are millions of subscribers in them thar servers and marketers are gonna be darn sure they get their share.

Hold on little doggie

It’s true. Social media can be a very effective component of your overall marketing mix. But it’s not a panacea. Think of your social media profiles as a sort of virtual satellite office.

Your “headquarters” is your web site. It’s where you want to drive traffic, show them your wares, make your offers, capture their attention, and add them to your community.

The personal profiles and groups you create on places like Facebook are a distribution channel for your content that propagates from your website and related items like your blogs.

Direct marketing begins with the identification and location of your target audience. You want to deliver your message wherever they hang out, play, live, and work. Many of them are now on social media sites. That’s the reason you want to be there – because they are.

Be a good host

Of course, once your “satellite office” is open, you’ll need to “hang out a sign” and tell people you’re there. Invite them over. Serve some drinks. That’s where the real hard work comes in.

Just like on-site SEO, it takes hours and hours of tedious and focused work to make your social media effort successful in the long term. And like in real life, you need to network your way in with the cool people (at least those that are perceived as cool by your targets). Be seen in other popular groups. Participate in discussions. Show your personality. And again, invite people over.

Now do that day after day. Week after week. Month after month.

Leverage your customers, your prospect email lists, and other communities you’re involved in. Invite them to your groups.

And always have something for group members to do. Play a game. Watch a video. Go to an event.

A good host always has a plate of cookies out on the table for guests.

Social media works. It may seem less expensive on the surface than other forms of marketing communications.

But it sure ain’t cheap.

Posted by: Steve Banis

My son thought otherwise. He got me a new CD that he thought was “daddy-ish” – new age piano. Very zen. Clearly my boy thinks I need to take a chill pill.

After dinner I thought I’d break out the new CD and listen with my coffee and leftover cake.  I’m not going to go into details – but the 10 minute fight I had with the CD packaging did not leave me feeling very zen. If the music industry wants to know why CD sales have dropped so precipitously, they can add terror packaging to music downloads.

They made it impossible for me to enjoy the gift of my new CD.

Many businesses are packaged like that CD. They make it nearly impossible to enjoy the experience of doing business with them. A couple of months ago I wrote about Microsoft’s insanely ineffective inbound call center that turns off prospects even before they can get information about their products.

Companies who have a virtual monopoly are notoriously hard to do business with. Just mention the names of Time Warner, Verizon, or National Grid here in Albany and people will instantly shoot you dirty looks.

Open you door – wide

The ease of doing business is one of the key drivers of winning new customers and keeping you existing customers satisfied and loyal. I’m old enough to remember the first bank ATMs.  Before ATMs, everyone stood in line for all of their banking business. ATMs and credit cards are the reason no one seems to carry cash anymore – you can grab 50 bucks almost anywhere.

A Self service checkout at the local supermarket gives you a sense of empowerment because you perceive a greater sense of control over the transaction.  Even some offices of the Department of Motor Vehicles – long the poster child for poor customer service – allow you to make an appointment to take care of your needs without standing in line for hours.

Don’t make the mistake of forcing customers and prospects into a single path to accessing your products and services.

Take a look in the mirror and act accordingly

Does your website provide clear contact and customer service information?

Does your phone system let people easily talk to the person they want to reach?

Do prospects have to get company or product information ONLY from a salesperson?

In this 24 x 7 world, customers will do business when they want, where they want, and with whom they want.  Your job is to be sure to make your entrance way as wide as possible.

Posted by: Steve Banis

For those of us in the marketing business, the Super Bowl is more than the game on the field and the halftime show. It’s about the strategic decision to spend $3 million for a 30 second ad and how to make it pay off (although the economy has forced some last minute discounting by the network).

Since you’ll be thinking about advertising during the game (at least some of the time), here are the 3 biggest lessons to remember:

1. Don’t Hide - the economy makes it even more important to communicate
2. Get Permission – because so many people watch for the ads, they’re basically giving you permission to sell to them.
3. Integrate – use different tactics to get more bang for your buck. Smart Super Bowl advertisers make every attempt to integrate Internet and social networking tactics, along with advance PR and direct marketing.

I typically root for the underdog. Phoenix in this case.  To me, it’s like helping a smaller business beat the big guys. I like winning smart.

Speaking of smart, here’s Mary Ann Rogers’ take on the big game and the need to keep your message out in front.  (Steelers 27 Cards 20; My heart’s with the Cards but my head knows better. Now if the Cards had a running game…)

The Super Bowl is here

People everywhere are stocking their fridges with an endless supply of beer, chips and deep-fried goodies.

And since I have no personal affiliation with either of the teams playing in Sunday’s game, I will resign myself to watching the next best thing – the Super Bowl commercials!

Taking into account the current economic state and the fact that a thirty second spot costs a whopping $3 million, can we expect this year’s commercials to be as effective as in years past?

In previous blog postings, Banis Marketing has advised area businesses not to run for cover during a recession, but rather market smarter and more efficiently. And from the looks of a recent CNN.com article, several big-name NFL sponsors like Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Bridgestone, FritoLay and GE are doing just that. (Click here for more.)

It’s Worked Before

Anheuser-Busch, famous for their Clydesdales and talking bullfrogs, has been a cornerstone of Super Bowl advertising for years, winning the top spot in USA Today’s “Ad Meter” for the last decade. This year the brewer has recruited comedic star Conan O’Brian and purchased an additional 30 seconds of air time, ramping up their total commercial time to four and a half minutes.

Anheuser-Bush chief creative officer Bob Lachky said, “We’re trying to reassure the viewer, and our consumer, that we’re here and we’re strong and we’re never changing.” (Click here for more.)

That’s exactly the right message to send in this economy. Remind your target audiences that you’re relevant and reliable.

“What makes the Super Bowl unique is that this is the one time every year where, instead of complaining about advertising, we celebrate advertising,” said Peter Blackshaw, chief marketing officer for Nielsen Buzz Metrics. “You can’t really beat the reach.”

But not everyone is embracing this idea of recessional-style marketing. Past Super Bowl advertisers FedEx and General Motors will not be running ads in this year’s game. Blaming the economy and “bad timing,” these two giants aren’t willing to pay the hefty price tag for ad space.

“As a country, we are in unprecedented economic waters,” said Steve Pacheco, managing director of advertising at FedEx. “A Super Bowl ad buy is not where we should put dollars at this time although, in the past, the value of doing so for FedEx has been indisputable.”

While most Capital Region businesses won’t be running ads in the Super Bowl, the need to out in front of your target audiences is still the same.

So if anyone gives you a hard time for paying too much attention to the Super Bowl commercials on Sunday, just tell them its market research.

Posted by: Steve Banis and Mary Ann Rogers

In case you missed the news, and I would have if Mary Ann Rogers (our new ‘voice of the Millenials’) hadn’t told me, the makers of Dr. Pepper are in hot water with heavy metal band Guns N’ Roses over a seemingly failed promotion.

In truth, the promotion was a success – A BIG ONE – but it’s gonna cost Dr. Pepper a lot of business.  Here’s the story:

In March of this year, Dr. Pepper offered every person in America a free can if Guns N’ Roses released their new album by the end of this year.  This album has been 14 years in the making and been delayed countless times.  The odds seemed against them making the deadline. (Click here for more on the subject.)

To the shock of music fans world wide, Axl Rose did in fact release the album, Chinese Democracy, this year. And as a good marketing citizen, Dr. Pepper stepped up and put the word out to visit their website on Nov. 23 to register for a coupon redeemable for their free can of soda.

Unfortunately for Dr. Pepper, their web site servers couldn’t handle the increased traffic and crashed under the demand, leaving Dr. Pepper lovers parched and angry.

Even though Dr. Pepper worked to correct the issue-extending the registration deadline an extra day and creating a toll-free phone number for coupon redemption-the whole experience left an unappealing taste in the mouths of many Dr. Pepper and Guns N’ Roses fans alike.

Less than a month later, both of their Wikipedia pages already feature info on the issue.

Viral promotions such as this giveaway are designed to spread across social networks with the ultimate goal of capturing information on loyal customers and attracting new ones.  The trouble with a promotion that actually “goes viral” is that you can’t control the message once it’s out there.

In this case Dr. Pepper wasn’t ready to handle success.  Instead of a purely positive mojo, they’ve created a backlash that can wipe out and reverse that momentum.

For your business, there’s a really good idea buried in this story.  Promotions, properly handled and prepared for, can be a very cost effective strategy to solidify and build customer relationships.  Just remember, the Internet puts everything on the permanent record.

Be careful what you wish for…and be prepared to get it.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Today, too many marketers, agencies, and advisers think that setting up a Facebook or Myspace page, a Linkedin profile, a Squidoo Lens, or tweeting on Twitter makes them a social networking expert.

Social networking sites and applications are designed to bring people together online, and, employed wisely, they can be good tools for building online communities. However, this is only one element of an effective “social networking” program.

Excepting a few very unique business models (amazon perhaps) – all social networking programs, and in fact ALL marketing programs, must ultimately involve human interaction. Facebook and others are good at sorting people and helping similar birds of the same feather find their flock.

Bringing people together online is an important step, but the next step is to create opportunities for touchpoints. Principals and/or their representatives need to meet, diagnose problems, propose solutions, build relationship, and establish trust.

Trust, is required to inspire action.

It’s fun and easy to join online groups, post comments on blogs, and share thoughts and ideas. But the proliferation of spam filters, firewalls, and virus scanners are evidence that while cyberspace is fun, good sense dictates that you’re not taking anyone home to meet your mother until you’ve checked them out first.

So go ahead, get social. Just don’t forget the feel of a firm handshake.

Posted by: Steve Banis

Whatever your political leanings, you had to feel sorry for the President tonight (and for the American people). Watching him – with hat in hand – ask the public to “rescue our economy” was a devastating sight. So again, dear readers, we are required to find success amid the swirling winds of uncertainly.

In response to a tough economy, savvy marketers have been accelerating the movement of their budgets away from broad based advertising vehicles to measurable, targeted communications. Primarily, that means online tactics. While I strongly believe in web-centric marketing in this environment, for those in the right situation, now more than ever it’s critical to be practical.

Look within.

If you’re fortunate enough to have a solid circle of customers, the best marketing dollar you could spend, and for some, the only marketing dollar you should spend, is on relationship building with your customers. In fact, expanding your circle to include vendors, distribution partners and others business relationships could be your best opportunity.

Want to be more aggressive? Consider looking to your competitors. Yup, your competitors. You’re not the only one shaking your head right now – that gal in the other rocking boat is your competition. Chaos, uncertainly. Change is coming – everywhere. Is it time to team up with your competition to gain market share, control cost, and have a broader client circle to build relationships with? Could be.

Don’t stop looking for new customers. Use your web presence as a jumping off point to build new relationships. But look to your circle of existing relationships to reinforce your presence in their lives, provide comfort, and look for new opportunity.

The search within can produce the highest returns.

Posted by: Steve Banis

The first form asked my name, rank, and serial number. After submitting, I was sent to a second general request form that I had to fill out. It had something like 8 required fields. I dutifully filled it out and then I hit submit. After all that, you’d think I’d finally get the list I wanted, wouldn’t you? Well, I’m afraid not.

Even though the initial page promised that I’d get my list if I’d fill out their forms, they had the nerve to tell me that they’d have someone call me in 24 to 48 hours. They didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me that whoever called me would finally get me my list! Not knowing if I’d ever get what I was asking for, I sent an email to the address provided specifically requesting said list.

Needless to say, if I weren’t doing homework, I’d have left the site the minute I couldn’t find a button that got me what I wanted right up front.

Moral? Thinking from the client’s point of view is a competitive advantage. Even if your competition is Microsoft.

Posted by: Steve Banis