McIntosh Marketing Blog

One of the most tired and true forms of marketing and PR for any business is to put on events. Even with the proliferation of social media and internet marketing tools, event planning still plays a major role in how we do business, connect with new potential clients, as well as reinforce our brand message with core players.

A great way to advertise and market your event is using all the internet based tools available. And now one resource, Eventbrite http://www.eventbrite.com/home/, any business can now utilize their resources to effectively and broadly promote any event or special occasion. To date, Eventbrite has help to sell over 13 million event tickets for their members.

Eventbrite really offers a simple, yet comprehensive package that allows you to:

• Build a customized and professional online page for your event.
• Promote your event with social media sites, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, etc.
• Manage system that allows you to track your events, plus prints check-in lists and badges.
• Has several methods of collecting payment, with a very small fee for collecting the money for your event.

Eventbrite has done a great job in meeting the needs for the B2B world in helping them to put on professional looking events that taps into the power of online marketing tools and social media.

You wouldn’t think that luxury entertainment and high-end marketing would be surviving, but it is in fact thriving.

And no one else proves that better than Lux5. http://www.lux5events.com/ In a world swirling in bad news on unemployment, recessions, bank repo’s and credit crunch, Lux5 has taken the ultimate high road to success.

Based in Orange County, CA, The Lux5 Group has become one of America’s premier live media providers,  focusing on luxury entertainment and high-end brand marketing. Lux5 stages ultra exclusive events that span from rare and exotic automobiles to million dollar yachts, haute couture fashion shows, VIP lounges to the most glamorous  brands from all over the world.

Since Lux5’s inception, this savvy group of marketing mavens has been setting the stage for spectacular venues around the nation and even across the globe. Lux5 have become specialist in creating a unique environment where luxury is put within reach of progressive individuals, and where high-end brands fuse fashion and glamour with modern lifestyle.

And like Lux5, the rest of the world of glamour and fashion, they too are recognizing the power and influence of web marketing tools and social media.

At the recent Reuters Global Luxury Summit, (http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-48980520100602) that has drawn international companies, is where senior executives from design houses and prestigious store chains brainstormed and networked about business trends and strategy. The Web interface may not have been the obvious alternative to traditional marketing channels, like magazines and television once upon a time, but it has evolved to become an inevitable solution.

If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said there is no way we are going to have any sort of evening clothes business online,” said Alexander Bolen, chief executive of U.S-based fashion house Oscar de la Renta according to Reuters.

Luxury firms are essentially riding the wave of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter where a loyal following creates interactivity with obvious benefits like word-of-mouth and statistics producing marketing results.

“The Internet is becoming more important—not so much to sell (products), but as a communication tool,” said Francesco Trapani in an interview with Reuters. Trapani is the chief executive of the Italian jewelry, watches and perfume group Bulgari, which is the world’s third-largest jeweler.

Face to face contact and tactile approach still has a role to play when it comes to the luxury goods market.

Imagine being in an industry that has more demand and need than is being fulfilled. This is the sad, but opportunistic story of the CPA. While so many businesses are being penalized by the IRS for bad accounting and tax handling, the lone CPA himself suffers for lack of new customers.

About seventy percent of CPA’s and accountants are single practitioners. Many of these CPA’s are never formally educated in marketing, advertising, much less SEO, blogging and other vital internet marketing tools. According to Sterling Management Systems http://www.sterling-management.com/ of Glendale, CA, these CPA’s are seen by other business professionals as the experts on how to manage a business. While accounting is most definitely an important factor in managing costs and profits, it is an after the fact analysis point.

What most is most deficient in a CPA’s acumen is how to generate leads, sales and higher levels of profits. And this is why they have been losing past clients while not adding enough. Their clients are dying from a lack of marketing “how-to” to stay afloat and even expand after the storm has subsided. Most of their clients are not even blogging from their existing web sites.

Another option is for the accounting world to partner up with the SEO and web design world, forming an allied partnership to help businesses do what needs to be done to not fall into the traps that so many businesses do. ANd believe me, there are many SEO guys out there that could utilize a new channel of business referrals, particularly from a trusted source – the CPA. When you consider the opportunity, having one place to keep your books and taxes IRS “bullet proof”, while also showing effective web marketing techniques is one powerful package of services.

While the partnership is ideal for both, universities and colleges will need to recognize the need to include in a CPA’s education the need to understand the basics of web marketing, blogging and basic marketing strategy.

Ask any business person, “What if you had infallible financial records and a profitable marketing plan?’, and I think you will see the opportunity that exists to two industries, both looking for more clients.

At no other time in Man’s history has there been such a challenge to make a better world. And at no other time has the playing field be leveled to such a degree to give a voice to those who want to make that change.

With the advent and proliferation of social media, those who want to bring about positive social influence have a powerful venue to find their voice, as well as access to an almost unlimited audience to hear their words of wisdom or dissent.

Imagine if Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. had access to this powerful medium. They would have not only embraced the technology, but the opportunity to reach tens of millions with their powerful message of social justice and equality.

If you are someone who is trying to bring about positive social influence, regardless of your cause or dream, you need to embrace social media, blogging and all internet marketing tools. One such example is The Route Out, http://www.therouteout.org/. They have come to realize that we need to have ethical leaders in order to get our country out of the many messes it now faces. At the core of our problems of our nation, The Route Out recognizes that we need leaders with integrity.  Using the non-religious book, The Way to Happiness, http://www.thewaytohappiness.org/ as their main text, they aim to bring about social reform at the very top with our Congressional leaders.

And the people at The Route Out are not alone. Hundreds of millions of people are members of social betterment, civic, political and religious organizations trying to bring about a better world. To truly be effective in delivering your message, you need to develop a comprehensive online marketing and social media strategy. And that strategy starts with a commitment to not only your cause, but equally to become a dedicated student, educating yourself on how to bring that message via your web site.

Suggestions: Read “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” by David Meerman Scott, subscribe to our blog, attend seminars on social media and internet marketing tools, read books and in general learn from those that are experiencing success.

If you are trying to change the world for the better, I salute you. Now take your commitment and as well become an educated denizen of internet marketing and social media.

Who would of thought that one of the people I would be helping would have a home based business, literally.

Pattie McDonald and her husband, a retired postmaster, rent their beautiful home for vacations nestled in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. http://www.lakeozarksvacationrental.com/. Per Pattie, the vast majority of her new business comes from those who find her vacation rental in various online vacation directories, many of which come from those who live in neighboring Illinois. Directories are just one of many internet marketing tools that can be utilized as an inexpensive marketing tool for a home based business.

In discussing what Pattie needed, I could see that a lot of terminology was being thrown out at her, but no one really took the time to educate her on how to use additional internet marketing tools that are simple, and most often free. For instance, I told Pattie that she could geo-target her online marketing and advertising by doing something very similar with Craigslist.org. By posting her ad and link on the “vacation rentals” line in the HOUSING section of the Craigslist home page. http://www.craigslist.org.

I found out that Pattie had a new web site, but did not have a blog imbedded within it. Not only is a blog a great way to continue to build original content, so key for SEO purposes, but it is a great avenue to share news and your passion for something as beautiful as a vacation home in the Ozarks. Her blog now becomes a funnel for information about fishing, local activities, special prices, amenities and much more. To build your ranking on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines, it is important to continue to build a continuing stream of relevant and consistent original content. And without question, blogging is one’s best bet to grow organically in search engines.

Pattie’s success will come about by simply doing the following:

• Continue to submit to vacation type directories.
• Geo-target her marketing by submitting ads with free online classifieds, such as Craigslist, Kijiji.com and Backpage.com.
• Get a blog installed within the web site. We recommend this is done on a WordPress format.
• Blog often; at least once a week. Ensure that your blogs contain original content.
• Ensure that your blogs on registered with top blog directories. http://blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=47
• Install your web site with more popular social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. Make sure your blog submits to these automatically.

Any home based business can use simple internet marketing tools, such as blogs, free online classifieds and social media to generate a huge amount of traffic and thus long-term profitability.

It is tough to talk to someone who is really smart and is who not really sharing their intelligence, insight and experience with those that are so desperate for what they have to offer those in need.

Very few professions are under marketed. Most industries and professions spend billions to convince you that you need to buy or join. As Seth Godin refers to it we now live in a world with, “Interruption Marketing.”  We try to get by in life, do well, solve our problems and hopefully gain some piece of mind. While on our way we get interrupted with radio ads, billboards, spam, pop ups, text messages and now advertisements on our mobile devices. It is endless and mind numbing.

But CPA’s are different. It is one field that is suffering from “Marketing Deficiency Syndrome.” (Please, do not take this as a serious diagnosis. I do not need some wacky psychiatrist now using my blog to invent some new disease.)

But it is true, the need for CPA’s and their services outweight their actual delivery. It is one of the few fields that is still stuck in old-fashioned think that is hampering its own expansion and profits. Do you realize how many businesses suffer from bad bookkeeping? Almost all. Do you know how many business people and entrepreneurs have tax problems, IRS suits and other messes that are not being confronted or resolved? It is in the tens of thousands.

I had lunch with a highly knowledgable CPA last week. A real smart business man who went on to tell me success after success of assisting the near hopeless with tax situations that would have stumped most others. As he was talking, I asked him if he had been blogging any of these successes. Not only was he not blogging, he was not sending these successes out even on email or through snail mail in a newsletter. He did not even know what a blog was.

A CPA’s best opportunity to demonstrate his acumen, other than face-to-face in person or on video, is through a blog.

This CPA was passionate and had no voice. He did not realize that for every one person he saved from IRAS purgatory, there were thousands in his area that were suffering from the same malady and malaise. His blog is the perfect venue to share his passion with the world, as well as educate the apathetic and worried. Done right, his blog could eventually reach tens of thousands and even get him into places he never dreamed of.

In that conversation he told me an old adage that has died along with the Dodo: “Hang out your shingle, let your reputation speak for itself and they will come.” Sorry, but a CPA firm is not the Field of Dreams. Those days are gone for the CPA who wants to rise above being a single practitioner and has a desire to rise above 70% of his industry counterparts. And he can do this through a well-written blog that is consistent and offers informative content.

Have I become a big fan of Foursquare or what?  I want more badges and I want them now!

Having never been a boy scout, I now get to live the dream of earning badges at the age of 47. I looked in earnest on how to earn them and what it took to build up my badge collection. Not only is there quite a long list of potential badges to earn (http://www.4squarebadges.com/foursquare-badge-list/), but when you visit Foursquare’s site you will find that they even take suggestions on developing even more badges.

Now other than an intense dose of self-indulgence and egocentric gathering, how can this Foursquare be used to benefit your cause, business or efforts to market yourself? Now realize that I am a newbie. I even have the Foursquare badge to prove it too! So please add to the list of ideas. In fact, share them with me as you see fit.

1.  Plan an “Swarm Event” with your top customers. This is when you get 50 or more people to check in at one time. This not only brings back the old customers, but events like this ignites word or mouth advertising, key to the survival of any business. Plus events like this just plain fun! The more the merrier.

2. Ask your regulars to tell their friends that they are there, when they are there. Offer incentives, discounts or freebies for doing so. People love making a difference, being a force of change and helping others to make money. Use incentives to do so, like Contest Burner offered by McIntosh Marketing.

3. Ask Foursquare to develop a special badge for your own place. Come up with a unique idea on why this should be. The fact that your place earns Foursquare followers a special badge is just great viral marketing. Check in with Foursquare on how this could be done.

4. Let your imagination run wild. I am sure that there are many people out there much more proficient in social media and Foursquare possibilities. Let me know some of your ideas so that I may share them with others who would love to expand their Foursquare knowledge, skill sets and above all – earn more badges.

When I say his name, unfortunately not too many people have heard of this legendary giant of advertising.

He has often been called, “The Father of Advertising.”  In 1962, Time called David Ogilvy, “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.”  Author Kenneth Roman wrote a book about David Ogilvy titled, “The King Of Madison Avenue.” There is no doubt that David Ogilvy still shapes contemporary thought on the practices of advertising and selling even to this day.

While the methods have dramatically changed over time, the basic philosophy has not. Some things about Man himself are timeless. David Ogilvy intuitively knew this better than most people. And because of that, David Ogilvy shaped and developed his craft to near scientific results.

David Ogilvy was not only brilliant and pragmatic in the arts of advertising, marketing and selling, but he also made it his life’s effort to educate others. He believed that individuals and companies could be better served if they were to engage in advertising properly. For a successful company meant jobs, increased productivity, higher sales and earnings and thus a better way of life. He truly served as a business coach, way before the term was coined.

Ogilvy’s advertising philosophy followed these four basic principles:

• Research: Maturing as he did from a background in research, David never underestimated its importance in advertising. In fact, in 1952, when he opened his own agency, David billed himself as research director.
• Professional discipline: “I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.” David codified knowledge into slide and film presentations he called Magic Lanterns. He also instituted several training programs for young advertising professionals.
• Creative brilliance: David had a strong emphasis on the “BIG IDEA.”
• Results for clients: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”

Here is a video from David Ogilvy. may you listen, learn and in some way find a better way to bring about more prosperity for your company, your family and yourself.

The words we use have so many meanings that they have begun to represent the same ideas. As they have become garbled, we have become confused. And so it is with the two words, marketing and selling. They seem so interchangeable that they have list there important distinctions and how they operate one with another.

In plain English, marketing is senior to selling. Selling is simply one part of marketing.

Marketing starts with ideas, and from there a survey of opportunities, possibilities and needs within a market. Someone had to conceive of the pet rock before it could be sold. Marketing is large and often complex mix of technologies, of which sales is one part. Marketing also includes market research, industry trends, sociology, surveys, design, branding, beta testing, PR, packaging, social media, web sites, copy writing, distribution, pricing and host of other methodologies and branches of business.

I hear many small businesses call their marketing efforts selling and many of their efforts to sell more, marketing. It may seem like I am being anal, but in reality it is important to not only know the difference, but to also understand the totality of what those words mean and represent in terms of action and depth of planning and application.

I have seen people struggle in their sales, not because they were unsociable or had halitosis. They simply had no marketing strategy, as well as basic marketing skills, and thus thought too small. Or in some other way went about their small business venture like Helen Keller driving a car. They were completely able and capable as a person, but yet still blind.  Helen Keller was an amazing person. She changed the world more than most people who can hear and see. But putting her behind a car and having her drive the Hollywood Freeway at rush hour is far from prudent.

While it may seem time-consuming, becoming educated on the techniques and methods are far faster and more effective than being ignorant. Short cuts never build success or empires. In fact, short cuts are just that. They cut things down and your goals come up short.

George Washington Carver once said, “There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation.” Never was this more true in small business, particularly in the fields of marketing and sales.

Unique content is still king in online marketing. Search engines still love unique content, and the more useful content there is on your website, the more opportunities you give searchers to find your products and services. Here are some easy to follow online marketing tips concerning how to more effectively use original content:

• Record everything and transcribe it all into text. Interviews, training sessions with your staff, questions asked of you from your clients, surveys, conversations, product DVD’s, personal opinions, etc.
• Convert support emails into FAQ pages on your web site
• Turn PDF’s into HTML pages (although PDF files can rank on their own)
• Initiate and publish videos about everything your company does, stands for and problems that it solves.
• Successes and testimonials that you have achieved.
• Turn solved problems and unique experiences into blog postings and online articles.

We often here on what can be offered as unique?  Each story that you hear from a customer is unique, just like the individual themselves. What you may not realize is that the conversation that you are having in “real life” are the very conversations that people are having within the online world.

The nest time you ask yourself in frustration, “What unique content can I add to the online conversation?”, you simply need to step back and listen. Listen to what people are saying, how they are saying it and what language they are using to describe their problems, their hopes and their goals. As well, read articles in local papers and industry blogs. from these conversations all you have to do is feature your solutions, your own spin to the conversational mix and your views on how conditions could be changed or rectified.

Everyday, so many interesting stories are happening all around us. Everyday, we make observations on how we view things. This all can be rapidly turned into original content for your web site, your blog, press releases and online articles.