Dec
24
Ho! Ho! Ho! Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, you surely know Santa Claus! But have you ever thought about what a nifty marketing genius sits inside that fur-lined red suit? Right, so he’s an overweight mythical elf, and the last time you took him seriously (if you ever did) probably was a good few decades ago, but Santa still has a ton of marketing tricks up his sleeve. After all, who else can claim to be responsible for singlehandedly generating so much business revenue all over the world, year in, year out?
We came across this article on marketing lessons you can learn from Santa and figured it would be a good idea to show you how you can apply Saint Nick’s tried and tested marketing wisdom to your online marketing too.
1. Santa is unique
Red suit… Sleigh… Reindeer… You just can’t mistake Santa. Actually you can spot him coming from miles away, because he’s really one of a kind!
Think of what makes you unique and different from your competitors and keep that in mind as you market yourself on the Internet. Use every opportunity to bring out the qualities that make your company stand out. We’re not talking about bragging here, but about making sure that you don’t keep the best stuff hidden from view.
And you probably don’t have to dress up in red felt to get noticed, but if you’re looking for some extra publicity mileage, how about coming up with a captivating publicity stunt, film it and upload it to YouTube? It could very well spread like wildfire!
2. Santa gets loads of free publicity
Santa may be the stuff of children’s fantasy, but he gets so much free word-of-mouth publicity - the sort that grownup marketing experts would exchange their business suits for silly red outfits to achieve! What’s more, he’s in countless songs and movies, and he probably gets more free air time on radio and TV than anyone could even dream of. Do you ever hear Santa saying, “I’m the kindest, most gentle old man and would do anything to see children’s smiling faces” or anything like that? He does not need to, because he already has millions of people blowing his trumpet for him!
If you’re not doing it already it’s high time you let your satisfied customers do some of the talking for you. Ask nicely and you’ll probably find many will only be too happy to give a testimonial of the good service you have given them. By featuring these customer testimonials on your website, you’ll get your message out in a way that’s so much more credible than you ever could manage on your own.
There are also lots of ways you can get free publicity on the Internet. One is to start a blog and fill it up with interesting articles that others will want to link to. Or if you’re looking for a quick fix of free online PR, you can write a press release and post it for free on several specialised websites such as the following:
http://www.free-press-release-center.info/
http://www.pressnewsnetwork.com/
3. Santa always listens to his customers
Every child knows that Santa is ready to listen to what they want, and he must hold the world record for the most letters received in a single month. But, more importantly, Santa’s attentive ear is probably the single most important thing behind his unbeatable customer satisfaction track record.
With the Internet, it’s now easier than ever for you to communicate with both existing and potential customers and hear what they have to say. A contact form on your website is a good start, but nothing beats the kind of two-way communication you can achieve through your business blog, where you can learn what your readers think by giving them the chance to comment on your posts. After all, if you ask your customers what they want and work to provide them that, you can’t possibly go wrong, can you?
4. Santa gives away things for free
How can you forget about someone as generous as Santa, who gives away so many free gifts every year without expecting anything more than a little snack in return?
Give your clients a taste of the value you can offer them by giving away something for free. If you sell real estate, for example, you could offer a free download of an e-book guide on buying property in your particular area or even a guide to moving there. Or how about a free week or month’s trial of whatever services you offer? If you’re really ambitious, you could come up with an idea for a small, but highly useful, software application and get someone to program it, put your branding on it and make it available for free download from your website. Not only do you have a chance to establish contact with potential customers and acquire their e-mail address, but if you make your handout really valuable, people will pass it around!
5. Santa knows what he’s selling
Santa has proven himself to be a master at what he does - not simply squeezing down chimneys and delivering gifts, but making hopes and dreams come true.
Once again, your blog is a very useful tool at establishing yourself online as an authority in your field. When you express your expert opinion on topics related to what you are selling, your readers come to see you as a source of knowledge and will look up to your company as experts who know what they are talking about.
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So, Happy Holidays from us all at Sorted Sites! And in between bouts of merrymaking (or even if you don’t celebrate at all) think about applying some of Santa’s marketing wisdom for the benefit of your own business.
Dec
11
While social networks are great for keeping in touch with a whole range of people, from current clients to old friends, your privacy is one of the biggest concerns or at least it should be! It doesn´t take much more than a couple of brain cells to figure out that you must be careful what you publicly post out there on the Internet. If it´s online and public, people are going to find it and if you´re not careful, sooner or later some sensitive information about you may fall into the wrong hands.
When Kevin Colvin recently requested emergency leave from his intern job at Anglo Irish Bank´s North American division, a couple of his crucial brain cells apparently decided to take leave too. Kevin got busted when his boss spotted a photo of him on Facebook dressed up as a fairy for a Halloween party when he was supposedly on special leave to attend a family emergency in New York. Absolutely hilarious stuff, but the incident should still be a huge eye-opener as to how careful you must be with the information you make public online about yourself.
Maybe it´s time to not only take a look at what you´re posting into your Facebook (or other social networking websites) but to also go into your account settings and review your privacy options carefully to carefully specify what information about yourself you want to make public and what you´d rather only share with trusted friends or specific network groups. Watch Geoffrey Ponder´s video below to get an overview of how to do this in Facebook and a rundown of the privacy options available.
Turn off your Facebook’s Beacon now!
One very important privacy aspect of Facebook that´s not covered in the video above is the controversial Beacon program that Facebook added at the beginning of November 2007. Before you get alarmed, you can now turn Beacon off and we´ll be telling you how!
Beacon is a program that sends data from external websites you visit or shop on to Facebook. This data appears on your profile allowing other users to see what you´ve been up to. This can of course have potentially unpleasant consequences as was the case with the poor guy whose purchase of an engagement ring for his girlfriend was prematurely revealed to her by his Facebook profile.
But more pertinently, Beacon gives advertisers a wealth of information about your online habits so they can better target the advertising you see. There have also been reports of the tracking going on even when you are not logged into Facebook. It´s just stunning how Facebook could be so naive as to not see the huge backlash coming when they initially forced Beacon upon their users.
On the 5th December 2007, Facebook´s founder Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the controversy and acknowledged it was an overzealous attempt to increase profit margins. He also said that Facebook would allow users to turn off Beacon completely. He said:
Last week we changed Beacon to be an opt-in system, and today we’re releasing a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. You can find it here. If you select that you don’t want to share some Beacon actions or if you turn off Beacon, then Facebook won’t store those actions even when partners send them to Facebook.
So, if you use Facebook, do your privacy a favour and turn Beacon off. Here are more detailed instructions about how to do it. You really only need to follow the first six steps. The extra bit for Firefox users is added security, but not absolutely necessary. And remember, as you enjoy the benefits of social networking, give a thought to your privacy and be careful about what information you reveal online. You never know who may be watching!
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