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

Post from: Bizzia

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Stale and outdated testimonials lose their value rather quickly.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)

Post from: Bizzia

A few days ago, my son woke up crying. Usually some milk and a little cuddling take care of it and he goes back to sleep. That night it wasn’t the case. We made sure he was okay and checked all the basic needs. He didn’t want milk, and he kept crying even as we held, bounced and walked around with him. We were at our wits end. Since he did not seem ill, we just settled into bed with him and held and comforted him. We just let him cry it out while soothingly talking to him. Eventually, his crying eased up and he settled down. He finally was sleepy enough that we could put him back in the crib. There was nothing wrong with him except he was overtired. He just needed us to be there with him, and let him “get it out.”

And sometimes companies need to allow their customers to do the same. Many of us have had calls where the customer service representative interrupted us and didn’t let us tell them what was wrong. It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You need to teach your customer service people to let customers tell their story. Let them get everything out, and then you can ask questions and figure out how you can help. Sometimes, people just need you to acknowledge their frustration, even if you can’t make things better. But if you constantly cut them off, they’re only going to get angrier.

I used to work for a cell phone company and got a lot of irate calls. People get highly agitated when it comes to their mobile phones. One tactic that worked well for me was to just let the customer rant, rave, and scream, if needed. Then when they were done venting, we could address the real problem. I learned quickly that interrupting to ask questions only fired them up more. Waiting until they finished, and then asking questions in a calm manner went a long way towards defusing the situation.

I recently read of another writer who had a problem with her cable service. The bad customer service, along with policies that offer better deals to new customers than it does to existing, caused her to look for alternatives. Another customer lost.

In this economy — or any time — you shouldn’t be driving customers away. Take a long look at your current practices. Are they good for the customer, or just convenient for you? You can’t afford to push away your customers. None of us can.

image: sxc.hu

Post from: Bizzia

Bloggers are not like newspaper reporters (although there are some who have a journalism background) and sending them press releases generally doesn’t work. Why would they write about your company or product? They aren’t getting paid like reporters, so writing something for free rarely appeals unless it’s a charitable cause close to their heart. Don’t underestimate the power of the mantra, “What’s in it for me?”

This is a different game. If you want to get a blogger’s attention, you must first pay attention. You must get to know them. Read their blogs. Find out if they blog semi-anonymously or if they freely post their names (I do). If you send them an email that says “Dear blogger” or worse, you get their name wrong, they will immediately trash your missive. When you can’t take the time to get the details right, why should they take the time to hear what you have to say?

Some companies do take the time to build up a relationship with bloggers. They listen and learn what works. What really surprises me, though, is that companies don’t ask for help up front. If you know someone who’s fairly active in the community, knows names, knows blogs, and is so entrenched that they know the bloggers and their audiences, why not just ask that person to consult with you?

That’s right, if you want to pitch mom bloggers, why not find a mom blogger who knows exactly who might be open to the company and even help you improve your pitch? It’s not foolproof of course, but you certainly have a much larger chance of success by talking to someone who knows the scene. It’s the same with business blogs, techie blogs, and politics. Find someone who already knows. Ask them to help.

It doesn’t dismiss you from doing your homework, but it can help cut your time by giving you a list of people to talk to and get to know. And then, you might be a little closer to actually getting it right.

image: sxc.hu

Post from: Bizzia

ecomxpo

Said Debra Haym, eComXpo’s executive director: “The research for this conference with high caliber marketing executives indicates an intense interest in seeking out the opportunity to discuss many pressing and urgent issues of the day. We have worked hard to create a speaker line up to provide the best catalyst for fresh thinking and energized debate. We expect eComXpo to provide an exceptional platform and that, going forward, it will be viewed as having been a significant and influential gathering.”

Panel discussions and presentations will cover many subjects including affiliate management, search marketing, flogs, site analysis and social media.

“There are strategies to keep revenue up and find hidden opportunities in a downturn economy,” said Joe Pulizzi, the founder of Junta42, who will be speaking at the conference. “By staying focused on the customer, not the market, you will see a jump in your profit even in current trying times.”

Post from: Bizzia

With Bing Shopping, online users can compare prices, compare opinions, compare products and interact with other users. Microsoft claims that the simplicity of the design aids users as far as allowing them to make their choices faster.

Cashback Shopping is a major draw for Bing Shopping. As a marketer, you can reward the shoppers who purchase your products from Bing Shopping by giving them cash back on each purchase. You can control the amount of the cash back with a number of tools in the merchant center.

Bing Shopping also offers a cost-per-click model. With the CPC model, you only pay for each visit to your product. Like with search engine marketing, you can easily cap the amount of money you spend on a monthly basis.

All in all, Bing Shopping looks like a low-risk opportunity for online marketers to attempt to draw more attention to their products.

Bing Shopping (Image: Bing.com Screen Cap)

Post from: Bizzia

But what if you do want to stand out? What if you do want to garner attention and distinguish yourself from among your competition? Then you need to be remarkable. You need to have something about your product that is different enough that people take notice. One way to do this is employ the process of edgecraft.

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s book Free Prize Inside and it has me thinking a lot about edgecraft. What is it? It’s finding the edge of a problem — something that will make your product or service more remarkable. Pushing the limits. Godin mentions that in order to stand out, you can’t just be a restaurant that has moderately good-looking staff. You need to have supermodels or weight lifters or identical twins. Something that stands out.

So think about this in relation to your business. What small tweaks can you make that pushes your product closer to the edge? Something that’s easily implemented, something that you think you can actually do — not just something that sounds good. Where’s the hole in your market? What is your competition missing that you can grab and implement?

Sometimes it’s the small innovations that propel products to the top of consumers’ interest. It’s putting Silk soy milk in the refrigerated section next to the regular milk. It’s making invisible braces or pumping up water with vitamins. Think about it in relation to your product. Take some time to think about the way-out, seemingly crazy ideas and some that are more manageable. Somewhere in there you just might find something that’s right for your business.

Then make it happen. If you want to grow, break free of that comfortable position you find yourself in. Get noticed. Become remarkable. And then come back and tell us about it.

image: morgueFile

Post from: Bizzia

You can create a fan page based on your business or product, if it’s something that’s appropriate for what you do. People are fans of more than just musicians, causes, and TV shows. If your customers are naturally congregating on Facebook, you can give them a place to hopefully talk with other customers about your product. And you can push information out to them by posting news, promotions, and other information to the fan page.

If you Twitter, you can set your Twitter stream to cross-post to your Facebook wall. You can also set other services like StumbleUpon, delicious, and even a blog to post short blurbs to Facebook. Why would you want to do this? For starters, it keeps your content fresh. Secondly, if you’re sharing information with your customers — and it’s helpful information — you become a trusted source for them.

You can also see what’s important to your customers. By seeing what they and their friends are talking about, it gives you a better idea of how to best interact with them. Maybe you’ll see a problem they have that you can solve. If you can offer a solution without being pushy, just offer to help, you improve that relationship.

Just make sure than you join in on conversations and do more than just promote you or your product. Add some substance to whatever it is people are talking about. If you only say “Buy this, buy this, buy this” people will ignore you. Do it enough and they’ll start telling others to ignore you, too. Don’t spam. Offer value. Earn trust. Give a little something extra. Build a fan base.

image: lumaxart.com

Post from: Bizzia

How do you get followers on Twitter? Here are some tips:

1. Follow Others
Find people on Twitter who you find interesting and follow them. Many times, those people will return the favor and follow you. If you are marketing a business, try to find customers on Twitter.

2. Be Active
No one wants to follow someone who never tweets. Aim to have at least a couple of tweets per day — especially early on when you are trying to build your followers base.

3. Promote Elsewhere Online
Don’t rely just on Twitter for your marketing. If you have a Facebook or MySpace page, promote your Twitter page there. You can also promote your Twitter in the signature of your email and anywhere else you spend a lot of time online.

4. Promote Offline
Many people have added their Twitter contact information on their business card. For businesses, you can put the information on everything from flyers to receipts to coupons.

5. Quality Over Quantity
While getting followers is important, be sure to remember that quality counts. When you are following others, just don’t follow anyone. That may make your Twitter seem like it is spam related.

Twitter Followers (Image: Flickr)

Post from: Bizzia

Burger King is entering the scorn territory with its new Super Seven Incher Ad. If they meant to hint, they, ahem, blew it.

Image: Burger King

While sex may sell, who exactly is Burger King trying to sell to with this ad? If it’s women, they miss the mark with likening this sandwich to the male anatomy and a certain, shall we say, sexual act. And if they want to sell to (heterosexual) men, do they really think guys will relish putting something like that (with all that it implies) in their mouths?

Seriously, Burger King. Between the words (blow, fill, juicy, yearn) and the image of a woman with her mouth wide open, could you hit us over the head any harder?

What do you think of the ad? Clever? Trying too hard? A little bit tasteless? Let us know.

Post from: Bizzia