Millions of people around the world are active on message boards and forums. With topics that range from business to celebrities and from sports to cooking, message boards and forums are a way of life for many people. In fact, many people consider the fellow members at the message boards and forums they visit as part of their extended family.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder why a ton of money is made per year by marketing on message boards and forums. If you own a message board or forum, tapping into the loyalty of your members is the key. By giving an accurate account of a product or service, you’d be surprised how many of your members will follow your lead.

If you are looking to market on a message board or forum that you don’t own, your best bet is your signature. Many places allow you to place a link in your signature, which you can obviously use for marketing purposes. However, be sure to check the rules of the specific message board or forum to make sure that you aren’t breaking any rules.

Marketing on message boards and forums (Image: Flickr)

When you send an email to potential customers, are you using that opportunity to market your business? When looking at your overall marketing plans, don’t forget the smaller steps. Think of small and easy ways that you can subtly get your business name out to people. While long signatures can be annoying, you do want to put several elements in each and every email you send.

Here are some key elements to insert into your signature:

• Your name - first and last. Make sure people know which Jane, Mike or Steve they are communicating with.
• Your business name - that’s a given, but many people actually forget this.
• Your slogan or branding. Use the opportunity to reinforce your branding.
• Your web site address. Let people know where to find you!
• Your phone number or email address. Remind your customers how they can reach you. Go ahead and put your email in your signature - it makes it easier for someone to copy all of your contact information into an address book.

You could also include your title, company address, fax number, and other information. But the above elements are the essential ones.

In addition to using this signature in email to customers, think about using a short signature to promote your business to friends, family, and acquaintances, too. However — and this is a big however — if you’re forwarding risque or off-color jokes and pictures, you don’t want to associate your business with those activities (unless that actually is your business). If you’re writing a note just to say hello and chat casually with someone, it doesn’t hurt — at the very least — to put your web site address in your signature. Remember that friends and family can refer customers to you, too!

There are many other simple things you can do to promote your business every day. What are some of your favorites?

image: www.lumaxart.com

The cigarette industry has gotten a lot of heat as of late in regards to their marketing practices. According to Bloomberg.com, Altria Group and Reynolds American have been sued due to the marketing of “light” and “ultra light” cigarettes.

The lawsuit claims that the claims that these “light” cigarettes were fraudulent. The suit, which was filed on behalf of cigarette smokers in the state of Tennessee, hopes to garner class-action status.

Court papers filed by the plaintiffs in the city of Nashville had this to say: “Their marketing, which emphasized reductions in tar and nicotine, was false and misleading.”

Altria Group, which formerly went by the name of Philip Morris Companies, is one of the largest tobacco-related companies in the world. It has more than 10,000 employees.

Reynolds American has in excess of 6,000 employees and reportedly sells more than 25% of all the cigarettes sold in the United States.

Cigarette Marketing (Image: Flickr)

There’s an interesting trend on Facebook. People use their real names and talk about real life events. While many of these same people want to be anonymous on most of the internet, they let those barriers down on Facebook. And it may be, in part, due to the fact that much of Facebook’s information is not available to search engines. Users can restrict their profiles to be seen by friends only. And that makes them more comfortable with sharing personal information.

On the other hand, there’s Google. You need SEO, page rank, and search results with Google. People only find you when they’re searching for you - or more likely searching for your product. If you want the walk-in customers, you still need Google. But if you want referral traffic, you’re increasingly going to need Facebook.

As more people use Facebook, it becomes a place to find product and service recommendations. Do you want to choose a random business from a generic search, or would it work better if you got reviews from friends? Most people are going to prefer help from a trusted source. As people post links to videos, news articles, or cool new things they found, others are seeing those links and clicking them.

Your marketing plan is going to need to accommodate both sites. If you want people to find your site through searches, you’ll need to continue optimizing your site for Google traffic. But as more people get their information from Facebook, you need to make sure you’re providing the content that people want, and make it easy for them to share it with friends.

image: morgueFile

New customer incentives are important to many businesses. Attracting new clients is key to your growth. So many companies offer specials to attract new blood, especially companies that offer monthly recurring services like cable and mobile phones. And that six months of free or reduced service can be quite attractive.

But what happens when your current customers see the offer? Many people see the “new subscriber” exclusion and just move on. Why should they? Don’t loyal customers deserve a “thank you”? Why do companies work so hard to gain new clients while they ignore the established ones?

If you currently exclude your loyal, paying customers from deals and incentives, stop and think about why you do that. Is it the way it’s always been done? The way your competition does it? The way the industry does it? So what. Isn’t it cheaper for you to keep the customers you have? And what’s wrong with offering them a loyalty discount for a few months?

Because once companies get a certain amount each month from customers, they’re afraid to give it up. To get less. If you offer customers a loyalty discount for a few months, they may demand that price all the time, right? Maybe. So what if they do? What’s the worst that can happen — they leave? If you don’t offer them something for their loyalty they may leave anyway.

So if a discount isn’t what you want to offer, what other perks can you offer your loyal customers? Referral incentives? Think about your lowest cost items. The ones that you could offer for free. Why not offer that item for free after a year of service? Or bundle it free with a new service? (Just make sure it’s something that customers will actually want and not just a token offering.)

Change things up. Think about how you can thank your customers for staying with you instead of irritating them with “new customer only” deals. Either allow them to request the same deal — and only give it to those who bother to ask — or offer them an alternative. You do have an alternative in your arsenal, don’t you?

image: sxc.hu

If you market music in any shape or form, a recent study by NPD Group shows that you should definitely consider Twitter for your next marketing campaign.

Marketing Music on Twitter (Image: Flickr)

The numbers are actually quit staggering. According to the NPD Group survey, 34% of Twitter users have bought digital music recently compared to only 16% of non-Twitter users. 41% of Twitter users have listened to online radio, while the non-Twitter number is only 22%.

Additionally, 39% of Twitter users have watched online music videos recently compared to 25% of non-Twitter users. One third of Twitter users have bought a CD recently, while less than one quarter of non-Twitter users have bought a CD recently.

Said Russ Crupnick, an NPD Group analyst: “Twitter has the potential to help foster the discovery of new music, and improve targeted marketing of music to groups of highly-involved and technologically savvy consumers, but it has to be done right. There must be a careful balance struck between entertainment and direct conversation on one hand, and marketing on the other. Used properly Twitter has the power to entertain — and to motivate music fans to purchase more new albums, downloads, merchandise, and concert tickets.”

With the legendary entertainer Michael Jackson, it’s an interesting time to take a look back and see how companies utilized Michael Jackson’s fame to market their products. Not only did he take entertainment to a new level, Michael Jackson took celebrity marketing to a new level.

In the mid-1980s, Jackson signed a deal with Pepsi to market the soft drink. At the time, Pepsi was a distant second place in the industry to Coca-Cola. But thanks to Michael Jackson’s fame and the all-inclusive Pepsi marketing push, the soft drink company was able to catch up to Coca-Cola.

Jackson’s initial marketing deal with Pepsi was worth around $5 million. At the time, it was an unheard of amount to pay to a celebrity. Looking back on it, that amount looks like a bargain for Pepsi.

On the other hand, not all of Michael Jackson’s marketing was a success. He signed an extremely lucrative deal with LA Gear to market the shoe company. However, after negative reviews to their early advertisements, LA Gear pulled the plug.

Will Michael Jackson prove to be a powerful marketing posthumously? Only time will tell.

Michael Jackson (Image: Flickr)

Jarvis Direct Mail, Inc. is offering a free direct marketing eBook that offers a lot of tips and tricks regarding direct marketing. The eBook, entitled “The Direct Mail Marketing Little Black Book” is available for download at JarvisDirectMail.com.

While direct mail can be a very effective means of marketing, it requires a lot of knowledge and tracking. Prior to starting a direct mail campaign, you should know how to measure the performance, the most effective mailing formats and how to catch the customers’ eye.

Said Jeff Jarvis, the company’s CEO: “If a business fails to effectively market to its target audience, the campaign will do very little in terms of getting the attention of those people who are most likely to make a purchase. With our free marketing book, we offer all of the ‘insider secrets’ that can help a business develop a solid direct mail marketing campaign.”

Direct Mail Marketing (Image: Flickr)

You want your marketing to appeal to your ideal customer. Hopefully you’ve taken the time to thoroughly understand who your customer is, what she wants, and how to appeal to her. You want to connect. But you also want to be edgy and interesting and new. None of the old, stodgy marketing for you. It’s all about the new and shiny. Except for one thing: sex sells. You’ve heard that mantra for so long that you go with it. Throw a little sex in that marketing plan! Spice it up!

Wait. Go back to your customer profile. What is this person’s age? Income? What are her hobbies? Now think again about your marketing. Do you want to titillate — or offend? Using sex in your marketing will have you walking a fine line. If you’re only after a young, edgy crowd you just might get by with it.

But if you want to attract a more affluent, closer to middle age customer, then you need to consider exactly how far you should push the sexual content. A little innuendo, a little suggestiveness may not hurt. After all, people don’t seem to be too offended by little ms. green M&M vamping it up. But push as far as Hardee’s, Burger King, or Mars candy and your customers may push back.

Don’t forget that there’s a vast amount of people between LA and New York that prefer marketing to be honest, straightforward, and family-friendly. And if you want longevity for your company or product, you should probably make sure that you’re speaking to the largest group possible. That doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Just tone it down a little, will you?

image: morgueFile

Testimonials can be a very powerful marketing tool. Customers want to trust a company before doing business. Testimonials of positive experiences can help build that trust. Here’s a step by step process on how to use testimonials in marketing:

1. Get the testimonials
Getting the testimonials can be difficult. But after successful transactions, it’s appropriate to ask for a testimonial. The easiest way to ask for and receive a testimonials is via email. Whatever you do, don’t make up fake testimonials.

2. Collect a group of testimonials
One or two testimonials aren’t very helpful. You should have at least a handful of testimonials prior to marketing the testimonials.

3. Get permission for usage
When you get the testimonial, ask for permission to use the customer’s name. In some situations, customers may even be willing to supply their email, phone number, website or other personal information. But be sure to get the permission in writing.

4. Display the testimonials
If you have an online startup, you can place the testimonials online in an easy to access area of the website. If it’s not an online startup, you can include testimonials in brochures or any other paperwork distributed by your company.

5. Update the testimonials
Stale and outdated testimonials lose their value rather quickly. Be sure to keep fresh testimonials coming. Dating each testimonial can show a history of quality business practices.

Do your customers give you two thumbs up? (Image: Flickr)