It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on the EMP blog. I’ve been busy catching up on episodes of Shark Tank and counting down to the release of Star Trek Into the Darkness. If you don’t remember who I am, I’m Max Speed, the guy on the Pole Position Marketing team who says things other team members wouldn’t dare say. Maybe that’s why they haven’t let me post for awhile?
While the rest of the team would like me to share some web marketing news, I’d like to share something from the final frontier… space. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go visit Timelapse and view timelapse videos of anyplace on Earth created from nearly three decades of images collected by NASA’s Landsat in collaboration with Google and Time.
Here’s what the rest of the team has been reading…
This week our crew chief has been in the Big Easy imparting his SEO wisdom to the attendees at PubCon. While the chief is away, the crew will play. Well, we managed to squeeze in a bit of play time with Cylon, the chief’s lovable dog who’s been a little forlorn. So, what’s been happening in web marketing this week? Here’s a sampling of what the pit crew has been reading.
There’s an old adage that says “The pain of losing is twice as strong as the joy of winning.”
This principle can help your business if you use it wisely. Even the threat of potential loss creates agitation in people that plays a powerful role in their decision making. Psychologists call this the principle of scarcity. It says that humans hold more appeal for things that they perceive will become less available in the future. This is why you see scarce items get valued at ridiculous prices. For example, a baseball card might be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars simply because there are not many of them in existence. The same goes for cars. The actual raw material value of the card or car is the same as any other with the same amount of raw materials used to create it. But, the value of the item is not in it’s physical worth. The value is in the possession of it.
In the offline world, you wouldn’t invest tons of money in a sloppy-looking, incorrect-grammar-ing, confusing, and unknowledgeable salesman that wasn’t able to serve your customers needs in the ways they wanted to be served, would you? So, why would you do it online? Would you like to buy something from this guy?
The truth is, your website is your digital sales rep. It’s the go-to “person” in the online world for customers looking for your solutions. In light of all the activities you may do online, this is your digital home. It is THE preeminent piece of your digital existence. Kinda makes you think a little more about what you do with it, right?!?
There are many cultural forces built into every society that has ever existed on the planet. Some are stronger in certain societies than others. One of them is called the rule of reciprocity. It says that a person (or group) should try to repay what another person has provided. More simply put, if someone does something for you, you have a natural tendency to want to do something for them.
Salesman live by the mantra ABC (Always Be Closing), thanks in part to the movie, Glengarry Glen Ross.
I recently read a post, Evolving Sales from ‘Always Be Closing’ to ‘Always Be Helping,’ written by Aaron Aders. In the post Aaron proposes salesman and marketers should take the approach of being helpful in order to gain new clients, and to instill trust in existing ones. I wholeheartedly agree with his premise.
In fact, I felt the need to create a mantra for Link Builders (or whatever we’re calling it these days), because everyone needs their own mystical formula that inspires them to new levels of achievement. Right, Elves?
A few years ago, I went ahead and got myself a nice liberal arts education. You know, the kind that’s supposed to “prepare you for the real world” by affording you the opportunity to take courses in communications, science, budgeting, psychology, etc. I must say that it’s a good thing too, considering I landed in the profession that I did. I was recently working on something and feeling a bit “stretched” out of my comfort zone when I realized just how many hats inbound marketers are called to wear throughout the daily trappings of their careers.
There seems to be a new online trend. Businesses are jumping into online campaigns and throwing money at different marketing channels because “it’s the thing to do.” They set a fixed marketing budget aside for the year and that’s it. It’s in stone until we talk about it again next year. A big reason for this kind of practice is that these companies don’t actually know what kind of return they’re getting on their investment.
Pete and Repete were walking on a bridge. Pete fell off. Who’s left?
Repete? Ok, Pete and Repete were walking on a bridge. Pete fell off. Who’s left?
Repete? How about we just move on…
In marketing, when something works it gets repeated and repeated again and again. Never letting a good campaign go to waste, imitators will jump on board and drive it into the ground until it’s no longer effective.
We’ve seen this with the Got Milk? campaigns. It wasn’t long before we started seeing imitators touting got sand, got rice, got mold, got Jesus and even got poop! (Like, who doesn’t?)
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