We've Moved The 60 Second Marketer Blog

A big thank you goes out to all the followers of The 60 Second Marketer and our blog. The good news is we've moved our blog so that it sits inside our website. (Marketing Tip of the Day: If you use your blog to generate awareness and traffic for a website, it should sit inside the website as opposed to outside the website, the way this blog did.)

If you're interested in following blog posts on The 60 Second Marketer, just click here and you'll be taken to our blog. Or, if you're interested in another blog we write called Marketing That Works, you can click here and sign up for those postings.

In any case, it's been a terrific and wild ride this year. We're glad you all could join us.

See you soon!

Consumer Behvior Models

Not long ago, Dr. Micheal Belch wrote an article for The 60 Second Marketer that outlined many of the most famous Consumer Behavior Models. He did an excellent job of pointing out the key differences between many of the models.

"For decades researchers have attempted to understand consumer decision processes, recognizing that decisions are, in fact, often a process rather than an immediate behavioral response," wrote Dr. Belch. "Understanding this process has been a priority not only for marketers and those attempting to understand consumer behaviors, but also others in the disciplines of sociology, rural sociology, social psychology, cognitive psychology and communications, among others. Their research has led many to believe that decision processes move through a cognitive (thinking) to an affective (feeling) and then to (conative) behavioral sequence. While critics argue against such processes, nevertheless, they have been adopted by many marketers and used to develop a variety of marketing strategies."

The entire article can be seen on The 60 Second Marketer site by clicking Using Consumer Hierarchy Models to Improve Your Marketing ROI. It's one of our more thought-provoking articles.

Check it out!

What Starbucks Knows About Marketing That Gillette Wishes It Knew, Too

Not long ago, The 60 Second Marketer posted an article from a terrific book by Jonathan Salem Baskin called Branding Only Works on Cattle.

In the book, Mr. Baskin says the old-school thinking about branding doesn't work anymore. The new school is that a brand is what people do with your product or service. (It's actually a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.)

If you're interested in reading a case history from Mr. Baskin's book, you can check it out on The 60 Second Marketer website. It's called What Starbucks Understands About Branding that Gillette Wishes It Understood, Too.

Enjoy!

Apple, Nike and The Three Biggest Mistakes Most Marketing Directors Make

By my estimate, about 60% of all marketing campaigns are snoozers. A snoozer is a campaign that is so boring, so uninteresting and so lame that it slips by unnoticed by 99.99999% of the people it reaches.

A great campaign will typically do three things:

1. It'll make you stop and listen;
2. It'll make you interested in a product or service;
3. It'll make you desire what's for sale.

Who hasn't been affected by a campaign that accomplishes these three things? Have you seen the new iPhone commercials? If so, you're probably itching to get your hands on one, even if you don't really need an iPhone.

And who hasn't watched a Nike commercial and thought, "Wow! Running looks fun! Who knew?" It's part of what makes Nike one of the most successful companies of our generation.

As a marketing person, it's your job to understand what makes a great campaign. But it's just as important to understand what makes a bad campaign.

There are three big mistakes many marketers make, resulting in wasted money and, worse yet, lost revenue. Here are the three big mistakes:

1. Not getting inside the mind of your customer: All great campaigns get their start when a marketing person has an intimate sense of what motivates the customer prospect. What are their needs, desires, interests and dreams? Just as importantly, what are their fears, pains, insecurities and wounds? When you understand these, you have the foundation of a successful marketing program.
2. Assuming your customer is as interested in your product as you are: Do you know why great ad campaigns work? Because they break through the clutter. Despite the fact that "break through the clutter" is an over-used term, it's true -- the average person sees between 5,000 and 20,000 messages a day (depending on which research you believe). No matter what the figure, it's your job to be one of the two or three messages that a consumer remembers on any given day. That happens when you spark some emotion in the mind of your prospect: fear, love, happiness, joy, saddness, longing, euphoria, etc.
   
3. Not creating a dialogue with your customer: The days of running a commercial on network television and reaching 80% of your target audience with a one-way piece of communication are over. Today, you need to open up a dialogue with your prospect so that they can talk to you when they want to and how they want to. Think email marketing, blogging, YouTube marketing, article marketing, Twitter, LinkedIn and a whole slew of other new and emerging marketing tools.

The reason most marketing campaigns are snoozers is because most marketing directors don't know the top 3 mistakes many marketers make. By keeping an eye on these issues, you can give your campaign every chance it needs at succeeding. There are no guarantees, but you'll be ahead of the vast majority of marketing directors out there.

Five Ways to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business

Social media continues to be a hot topic for marketers and business-owners alike. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn are all the rage. But many of our readers have asked "How can I use LinkedIn to improve my marketing?"

Fortunately, one of our loyal contributors answered that question in a guest post called "Five Tips on Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Business." It's a great article with plenty of new ideas on how to use LinkedIn to increase your sales and revenues.

Check it out. And be sure to post your own ideas on using LinkedIn to grow your business!

The 60 Second Marketer's Other Blog

A big thank you goes out to all the kind people who visit this blog. We're going to continue posting on this blog for the foreseeable future. But did you know we have another blog located inside our website? (This blog sits "outside" the 60 Second Marketer website.)

If you're interested in checking out our full-blown, all-decked-out blog, just click The 60 Second Marketer Blog. There, you'll find all sorts of cool tools like a Tag Cloud, email sign up and other snazzy tools.

As we said, we aren't going anywhere -- we'll keep updating this blog. But if you want the super-deluxe, real deal, visit our full-blown, decked-out blog located inside the 60 Second Marketer site, just click on the links you've seen here. We promise, you won't be disappointed.

Okay, wait a minute. You might be a little disappointed if, say, you were expecting our super-deluxe, real deal, full-blown, all-decked-out blog to give you a back rub or something. It won't do that. But if you're looking for good, well-written tips on marketing, then it's worth checking out.

19 Mobile Marketing Terms You Should Know By Heart

Mobile marketing is one of the hottest topics in marketing right now. It seems as though every time you turn around there's a new mobile marketing vocabulary word that you need to learn.

The good news is that the folks at The 60 Second Marketer have done a little work on your behalf and tracked down the 19 Mobile Marketing Terms You Should Know By Heart. It's a quick read, but an important one.

Check it out. And let us know if there are any terms you think we missed!

Top-Rated Network Programs from Nielsen

Every so often, we check the Nielsen Media Research data on the top-rated U.S. broadcast-network programs just to keep an eye on what's hot and what's not. It's also a good way to stay on-top of popular culture.

It's still amazing that 35+ years after the program started, 60 Minutes is still going strong. That's just flabbergasting.

Here's the data for the week ending November 9th:

1. 60 Minutes, CBS, 18.5 million viewers
2. CSI, CBS, 18.2
3. Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 17.1
4. Sunday Night Football, NBC, 17.6
5. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 15.9
6. Dancing with the Stars -- Results Special, ABC, 15.8
7. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 15.7
8. Criminal Minds, CBS, 14.3
9. SNL Presidential Bash, NBC, 14.4
10. CSI: Miami, CBS, 12.7

The 8 Most Important Things to Know About Using Twitter

Okay, so you've signed up for Twitter. Now what?

Organic Search Specialist Kyle Wegner recently wrote an article for The 60 Second Marketer in which he explained how to sign up for Twitter. But Twitter has a culture of its own and can be very confusing. So, as a follow-up, his latest article explains the 8 Most Important Things to Know About Using Twitter.

If you want to become a Twitter Power User be sure to check out this article.

What are the Best Days to Send an Email Campaign?

Not long ago, The 60 Second Marketer team conducted an analysis outlining the best days of the week to run an email campaign.

We found that the only legitimate way to find out what the best day is for your business is to conduct an A/B split test of your own. By taking a "control" email and testing it against other days, you'll be able to test your way into a good sense of the best day to send out your emails.

So the question is, "That's fine, but where do I start? Aren't there a few days of the week that work better than others and can't I start by testing those?"

Well, yes, there are some days that work better than others and you could start by testing those days. With that in mind, here's how we broke out that information on The 60 Second Marketer website:

Monday

Positive: Office work has not filled inboxes yet

Negative: Consumers are in “work mode” and won’t be focused on non-work tasks

Best Practice: Send emails late Monday morning, after consumers have cleaned the weekend spam from their inboxes

Tuesday

Positive: People have organized their week, and can find personal time for emails

Negative: Emails poised for a weekend response may be too early

Best Practice: Use Tuesday for emails that request action during the workweek

Wednesday/Thursday

Positive: Consumers are planning their weekends and gearing up for personal time

Negative: Time during the workweek is running short, and requested action may be pushed back to the following week, or even forgotten about

Best Practice: Focus leisure and weekend notifications during these key weekend planning days

Friday

Positive: Studies indicate fewer total emails sent compared to the rest of the week, increasing visibility among the myriad of other messages

Negative: Consumers hurry to leave the office early, and may not take time to view non-work related emails

Best Practice: Send emails early in the day to give consumers more time to take action. An unopened email from Friday will sort to the bottom of an inbox on Monday, and is often discarded

Weekends

Positive: People check emails on weekends, too, so weekends may have untapped potential

Negative: A weekend email may seem overly-intrusive to some people

Best Practice: If possible, try to avoid Sundays and focus on Saturdays, which may have a better response rate

For more information on all forms of marketing, be sure to visit The 60 Second Marketer website where you'll find articles and video tutorials on all the newest tools, tips and techniques in marketing.

Marketing Lessons Learned from the 2009 Political Campaign

There are a number of valuable lessons we can all learn from this year's political campaign. No matter who you're voting for, both campaigns have done some very insightful and amazing things when it comes to marketing.

Here's a short list of lessons that marketers of all stripes can learn from. It's taken from the "other" 60 Second Marketer blog, which can be seen by clicking 60 Second Marketer Blog.

In any case, here's the list:

1. Stay on Message: Both candidates, but particularly Obama, developed a message strategy early in the campaign and never strayed from it. Obama’s theme was “Change” and McCain’s was “Country First.” Even when current events (like the economic melt-down) forced a change of focus, the overall theme stayed the same.
2. Occasionally, Do Something Unexpected: There will be those who disagree with us on this, but our point-of-view is that McCain’s selection of Palin was a brilliant move. Yes, she came up light on experience, but remember — prior to the announcement that she was going to be his running mate, McCain was dropping in the polls. The selection of Palin added a new energy to the campaign and, as a result, McCain’s numbers jumped 5 to 8 points, nearly putting him ahead of Obama.
3. Develop Grass Roots Campaigns: Both McCain and Obama used Social Media to inspire their political base. You could argue that Obama did a better job of it, but both candidates recognized that a good marketing campaign uses everything from slick TV commercials to text messages to communicate their messages.
4. Stay Above the Fray: It doesn’t matter if you’re Crest Toothpaste, Enterprise Car Rental or Starbucks, when you’re the leader in the category, it’s your job to take the high road. We’re fortunate that the days of Bush-era “Swiftboat” techniques are behind us, but it’s particularly interesting that Obama, as the market leader through most of the campaign, followed the classic marketing principle that the leader in any campaign should take the high road and rise above any mud slinging that goes on.
5. Be Relentless: Do you know that John McCain is flying to 5 states today? That’s a positive sign that he’s determined to finish strong. Remember, as a marketer, your job is to keep pushing to the very end of your campaign. Don’t let up. Don’t relax. When your campaign is completed, there’ll be plenty of time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your success. But until that time, stay on message and keep pushing for victory.

The bottom line is that both candidates have done a pretty good job with marketing. Sure, each candidate has made their fair share of mistakes, but overall, marketers of all stripes can learn some good things from what both McCain and Obama have done with their campaigns.

Are there more ideas we should add to the list? Any objections to what I've written above? Let me know!

Have the Dannon Activia and DanActive Yogurt Ads Crossed the "Truth In Advertising" Line?

With increasing frequency, consumers are reading labels and analyzing claims made by the products and services they buy. And you know what? Lawyers are reviewing those claims, too.

With that in mind, we'd like to direct your attention to an article that Jon Andersen with The Andersen Law Firm has written for the 60 Second Marketer called “That Annoying First Rule of Advertising: Always Tell the Truth.”

In the article, Andersen comments on a couple of recent incidents -- one that obviously crossed the "truth in advertising" line, and the other which dances just a little too close to it.

Trying to stand out from competitors is no easy task, but before you start tossing around claims such as “award-winning” or “clinically-proven," you better make sure you have the evidence to substantiate those claims in court.

Check out the article. We think you'll enjoy it.

What Coke, Pepsi, Google, Apple and Budweiser Know About Marketing That You Should Know, Too.

There's a secret to marketing that everyone reading this blog should know. It's the key difference between marketing that works and marketing that doesn't.

In the past, marketing was about a one-way street. That is, you figured out what made your product different from the competitors and you had a one-way monologue with your target audience via TV, radio or print.

But today, marketers like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Google, Starbucks and Apple know that marketing is a two-way dialogue. The advent of the internet fueled this new trend. And it's really taken off in the Web 2.0 world of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and a whole host of other social media tools.

To highlight the key secret to marketing, The 60 Second Marketer team put together a video that can actually read your mind. Think we're kidding? Then check out Marketing Magic on The 60 Second Marketer website. It not only makes a great point about marketing, but also mysteriously reads your mind.

Let us know what you think. Actually, we can read your mind so we already know what you think. Instead, just send us a comment so other people know what's on your mind, too.

Twitter Goes Global

Twitter is one of the hottest phenomenons on the web. So hot, in fact, that it's spreading around the globe -- quickly.

This chart highlights the spread of the Twitter phenomenon. The U.S. has about 40% of all Twitter traffic followed by Japan, Spain and the U.K.

What makes Twitter such a hot application? It's the next step in the democratization of the web. By leveraging the power of social communities everywhere, Twitter has grown in influence and authority.

Will it become the next YouTube or Facebook success story? Well, yeah, it kind of already is.

Will it be monetizable? That remains to be seen.

New York City: The Most Courteous City in the World?

Wow! Who'd have thunk it!

A recent study by Reader's Digest has ranked New York City as the most courteous city in the world.

New York City?

Actually, if you've been to New York recently, you've probably noticed that the city is jam-packed with nice, friendly people. This is a far cry from when I lived there 25 years ago. During that time, New York was most famous for the "Yuppie Murder" and other less-than-honorable things.

But apparently, over the past few years, New Yorkers have banded together and realized that the best thing they can do to make their city even better is to treat visitors with respect and decency.

Hats off to New York and its fine citizens. It's great to see that one of America's greatest cities is welcoming visitors with open arms.