Think Outside the Box

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Larry

Did you see the Superbowl this year? If you're like most people, even if you didn't want the Superbowl, you had to see the commercials. They are everywhere now. If you miss the commercials on Superbowl Sunday, you can find them on the Internet monday morning.

I want to mention a commercial in particular. The Doritos Commercial. Frito-Lay ran a contest. They wanted to run two fan created commercials during the Superbowl. They got 6,100 entries. The winning entry scored one million dollars and instant fame. (Check the commercial out here: SuperBowl Doritos Commercial )

Jonathan Friedman said it cost him $20 to make the commercial. It cost Frito-Lay a cool million to Friedman for all his hard work, and however many millions the Superbowl spot cost. But they generated a lot of buzz with the contest and huge individual windfall. Heck, that may have even been a steal for what an advertising agency would charge to develop a commercial specifically for the Superbowl.

It's a little bit of a gamble when professionals aren't involved, hoping that something good would come from the thousands of entries, but it paid off well.

– Large reward (which may still have been less than they could have paid an agency to develop the commercial)

– Rags to Riches story (Jonathan Friedman made a significant amount of money in a short time)

– Company gets Goodwill / karma for helping out a little guy

It's a nice story at the end of the day.

People have taken to the Internet in droves. We shop online, play online, work online. We find miracles and dreams online. The Internet has discovered and carried more and more people off to Hollywood. Singers, actors, stars! A YouTube video and a dream! Of course, a lot of the people who get discovered on the Internet have spent a LOT of time getting themselves seen. They have a TON of material—usually videos, usually linked in some fashion to current trends—and are hoping that if their name pops up in enough places that someone will notice them.

Marketing and promotional materials—either for products and services or for the people who are reaching for fame—are a necessary part of selling online. You have to have materials out there, just the same as in the physical world. Flyers, mailers, billboards, t-shirts. Everything is going digital. Think about your avatars and signatures in forums or discussion areas. Think about all the YouTube videos you can be out there making that cross-connect and link back to your materials. Did George Clooney just have a baby? Do you run a parenting site? Take a bit of his fame and do a video about why you think he would or wouldn't be a good dad and how your product could help him!

The moral of today's stories are, think outside the box and use tools that are available to you. Here at the Internet Marketing Training Center we're here to show you how to think outside of the box and properly utilize tools in rewarding ways.

Content Marketing: Pinterest And Infographics

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Tom Antion

Pinterest broke unique visit records last month with their fun and interactive image sharing site. Pinterest lets you “pin” photos and videos that you discover on the web to your virtual “board” so the rest of the world can see them. Other users can comment and share the images that you post and you can do the same for them. When you click on the image or video itself, it takes you directly to the website where the user found it. This is a great way to drive traffic to a website in a fun and unpresumptuous way.

Some photos seem to be more popular than others for sharing. On Pinterest, pictures of food and jewelry are the hottest shares, and people click on the photos to get the recipe or craft ideas. For the most part, these foodie blogs and Etsy stores are getting their fair share of business using Pinterest. While most marketers are still trying to figure out how to get traffic from Pinterest with information products, the idea of the “infographic” has caught on.

An infographic is a fun, clever and informative image with all sorts of facts and figures about a particular topic. It's far more engaging than just another written article, not because it has any more content than an article, but simply because it's different and easily shareable. With content marketing and syndication, easily shareable content is more important than the details. If it's not shareable, the ‘syndication' part is stifled, leaving the content lonely on your website unread.

I've included a snapshot of an infographic here on this post. Obviously it's a lot larger than this, but you get the idea. You can create these in photoshop for your own business and post them on your blog and website, then share them on popular sites like Pinterest.

Guide To Choosing A Career

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Tom Antion

https://imtcva.org/

The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is an Internet marketing school designed to teach you everything you would need to know about selling your products online. No only can you sell your products and services, you can also get hired by companies looking for the same thing. Check out https://imtcva.org/ for more information.

Free Content Helps Eliminate “List Exhaustion”

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Tom Antion

Do you ever get so many sales pitches from one or two companies in your email inbox that you can't stand to open them anymore? Maybe that last “open” you did was to un-subscribe? That happens a lot lately with the email strategies businesses are trying to use. They have a hard time knowing exactly what the best kind of reaching out they should be doing. Most people who use their database list for email marketing fall into one of two categories: those who send out too many emails (list exhaustion), and those who are scared to send out enough (neglected list). The way to get around this hump is free content.

For those marketers who send out too much email, it's important to find the rhythm of your list. How often do they really want to hear from you? You can go as far as to poll them to make sure you're not killing them with mail. A heavy amount of unsubscribes could also be an indicator. With free content however, a solid core of readers will love to hear from you if you are offering real solutions to real problems. Content builds trust and rapport, and will keep your brand at the ‘top of their mind.' The best email is one that has value. It's your job to figure out what is most valuable to your readers and how often they want to receive it. With those two problems solved, you're well on your way to successful email marketing campaigns.

For those marketers who don't send out enough email, free content can help you feel at ease. If you're nervous about ‘offending' or burning out your list, solving their issues with your message can build you into a solid, trustworthy brand. Everyone loves free stuff – they will open the email as long as it has value. Again, finding the right rhythm regarding how often to send email out is the key to a happy list.

Now about pitching. Obviously, after a number of emails have been opened that offer ideal and free solutions, your list will be receptive to offers of helping them further with their problems. Most free content can be disguised as ‘eye openers' or offering real solutions to problems that the readers didn't even know they had. Let your list figure out what's important to them, and they be receptive to products, training or advice to help fix it. A pitchy call-to-action is not necessary. A link to an important resource (your product) is all that's needed. Trust your prospects that they'll do the right thing, and more often or not, they will.

IMTC offers the latest training in Internet Marketing techniques to help start and grow your business.

Vimeo Changes Interface to Compete with YouTube

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Marc

In the world of video marketing, YouTube is king. However, there are many other video sharing sites that still get a lot of traffic. One of them being Vimeo. Vimeo has just changed its layout in order to make it easier for users to find other content on the site. With the new redesign, it's easier for users to follow subjects, keywords, and other users. Vimeo is known for its high quality videos and simple embedded player. Vimeo found that most bloggers had accounts on both YouTube and Vimeo, yet they would always embed videos on their blogs with Vimeo's player because there are no ads displayed over the video. With these new features, Vimeo is hoping people will be attracted to the site and use it as another marketing tool as well as for their viewing pleasure.

Video Marketing is one of the fastest growing aspects of online marketing. See what else is HERE.

Writing Business Sales Letters: Are You Focusing on Your Company Instead of Your Prospects?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Tom Antion

Most business sales letters, promo pages and lead generation pages love to focus on one main item: themselves. It stands to reason that a website promoting a business should talk about themselves as often as possible: how great they are, how easy their products are to use, how often they ‘beat' the competition and other self-aggrandizing features. However, it is becoming clearer to online advertisers and copywriters that concentrating on the visitors themselves has a wider range of interest. Anything that sounds too ‘pitchy' can easily raise walls of objection in the visitor, even if it is crafted to sound like useful features. Remember, it's all about them.

What resonates with most readers is what can benefit them right now. On the Internet, most people are searching for information as opposed to radio and television, where commercials are a break in entertainment. The Internet above most other media, is a vehicle for making decisions: where to find the best deals, how to locate the nearest dentist, how to save money on their taxes and other information. This ultimately means that the end result needs to look more like ‘immediately usable benefits and answers' rather than sales pitches. Good website copywriting can include both the elements of benefits and subtle pitch.

One thing that stands out to visitors subconsciously is the overuse of the words “We” and “Our” in the copy. While it is a very small error by most copywriters, it has a negative effect on the reader. It has a sense of ‘inward' marketing, trying to draw the reader into the copy, rather than an ‘outward' or inclusive feel to the reader. Reaching out to your prospect and touching the points of why they ended up on your website in the first place (concerns, understanding, problem solving, empathy) can make them drop their defenses and open up to receive a subtle pitch.

Good copy has a 2 to 1 ratio of customer focus to company focused jargon. At IMTC, we teach you how to write better copy. This can make you very valuable to big business because you will understand what elements drive online sales more effectively than their in-house marketing people (who love to focus on company ‘benefits'), or any outsourced people could ever dream of being. And you can probably work from home as well. Check us out…

Using Contests To Dominate Online Content Marketing

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Tom Antion

If you can't seem to write enough blog posts, Tweets, Facebook updates, email blasts, Youtube comments and even produce online videos to promote your business, get other people to do it for you. By running a contest, you could have thousands of folks all over the web spreading the word of your products and services. This is a form of content marketing, and using the power of social networking, has never been easier.

This can be a powerful way to advertise a new product launch or to just get more people to your website. It creates a ton of links that can drive traffic to your site from all of the most popular places on the web. It can generate a ton of Google searches for your name or the name of your product. It's more content than you could ever post yourself, coming from hundreds of different accounts. Some links, like ones from blogs or Youtube videos, could work for you for years, as they stay archived in search results. Some links, from Facebook or Twitter, although short lived, could generate a lot of buzz and excitement in the short-term.

In today's world of interactive marketing and strong networking ties, it's time to use that strength to spread your advertising bucks across the web. If you want to know more, or start a new career as one who conducts and manages these contests for someone sales, IMTC is the place to get started.

Midlife Career Changes

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Tom Antion

https://imtcva.org/

Is it time for a midlife career change? The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is an Internet marketing school designed to teach you everything you would need to know about selling your products online. No only can you sell your products and services, you can also get hired by companies looking for the same thing. Check out https://imtcva.org/ for more information.

Using the Power of Social Networking to Make Money

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Tom Antion

I know you hear that all of the time. Use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to make money. Most of the claims are just fancy scams that are trying to sell you something. But in this post, I want to give you some real tips on how people are using the reach of the vast social networks to start partnerships and help promote each other's products and services. 4 years ago, I was contacted by a young woman via Twitter who was interested in getting together for a number of projects. She found me through a keyword search of Twitter pertaining to “Relationship Advice” and wrote me a private message. After talking back and forth for a while, we started conducting paid teleclasses together, which in turn led to a radio show that we hosted together for over 2 years. We also collaborated on a book.

When you have a radio show for that long, it's important to have a steady roster of interesting guests so your listeners come back again and again. But where did we find them? My partner Gabriella would simply post on her Facebook account that we were in need of guests, and people would pass the post around (share) to their friends. As how the six pixels of separation go, we booked some pretty heavy players. They would advertise on their websites that they would be a guest, and in turn, we got tons of new listeners. Some shows had upwards of 1400 listeners a week. Because of the high listenership, when we would recommend that our audience go buy a certain author's book, that author would report back to us of huge sales that week. And of course, we promoted ourselves as well.

All this activity was due to social networking. We had no connections to the industry, had no experience up front on how to make money. We simply used Facebook, Twitter and BlogTalkRadio to build this model business, all for free. We never, ever paid a dime to make our money. I've since moved on to become the head instructor of IMTC. I'm glad to announce that my partner Gabriella is still doing the show every week and is nearing her 4th anniversary show. She has become a very successful author and very well-known in her field. Finding people to work out business partnerships with has become easier than ever due to the access of social networking. Sending a simple email could start a whole new career for yourself, and networking with the big players could be, as we say, only just a click away.