JDM Marketing Blog

Big Marketing Ideas has Moved - Sort of.

2011-07-08T17:13:00.001-05:00

This post will be the last big marketing idea on the 5-year-old Big Marketing Ideas blog, well, sort of.

The blog (most of it anyway) is moving to JDM's new website at: http://jdm-digital.com/news/. Head over that way for the latest self-promoting news, best practices, and hopefully some interesting reads.

So, for the final Big Marketing Idea...Never be afraid of change. ;)

Mobile Marketing Statistics

2011-03-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Mobile marketing is finally gaining traction. Check out some of the cool statistics in the below image. Feel free to re-purpose it if you like.

Related mobile marketing articles:

Compdata Surveys – eComm Accordion

2011-03-29T11:17:00.000-05:00

Compdata Surveys sells compensation and benefits data to VPs of HR for many large organizations looking to retain top talent and stay competitive.

Their original site was so complex, it had to be built on a custom CMS platform and when the time came to update the site for maximum SEO, it came to the team's attention that potential customers' tended to restrict their purchase to the industry and product category available on the screen. Few, if any, added to the cart and kept shopping.

The challenge to the JDM Labs team was how to display over 1400 products and 4 variations on one screen in a way so simple anyone would be hard-pressed not to buy a few complimentary products.

The answer was a jQuery-powered accordion plugged into the Wordpress admin with all the functionality, logic and customization the client requested.

After more than a million lines of code, 500+ change orders and four months in technical development, the new site went live over Christmas weekend 2010.

Take a look for yourself (http://compdatasurvey.com/order/) and comment your feedback below.

About Compdata Surveys

Compdata Surveys is a national compensation survey data and consulting firm. Over the last 20 years, we have amassed the largest and most comprehensive database of current compensation and benefits information. Each year, we gather compensation information from 5,000 organizations covering more than 6 million employees across the country.

Impact Achievement Group's New Website

2011-03-14T18:03:00.001-05:00

Impact Achievement Group, provider of assessment, coaching, and leadership development training focusing on employee selection, retention and engagement, recently launched their all-new website.

Developed in association with HRmarketer and JDM Labs, the new server-side PHP site features an updated brand, easy-to-use tabbed navigation and XDC forms to streamline the hand off between marketing and sales.

Learn more about Impact Achievement Group's new site from the team at JDM Labs.

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages

2011-02-21T20:11:00.001-06:00

Landing Pages are one of those web page types that can become the real workhorse of your online advertising efforts. Here's just a few easy ways to increase conversion rates of your landing pages so this workhorse becomes the star of the show.

1. Test, Test, Test - The 3 Keys to Landing Page Success

Before we get into the really juicy stuff, I want to remind you to test your landing pages--and test often.

It's as easy as identifying testing goals. Then coming up with two identical landing pages and changing just one thing about them—preferably the call-to-action. This split-cell test (or A/B Test) is a statistically valid way of testing a change in your strategy and knowing (not guessing) how much better (or worse) it works.

2. Add ToolTips to Form Fields

Every fill out a form yourself and wonder, "Why do they need to know that about me?!" Research has shown (and our gut feeling says they're right) that privacy online is more critical to users than ever before. Allowing landing page visitors to roll-over a "?" icon to display a small ToolTip explaining why they are being asked that question and how that information is going to be used will drastically increase conversion rates.

If you need a little technical help with ToolTips, consult the JDM Labs Codex. There's a post in there all about ToolTips. Feel free to steal.

3. Less is Definitely More

For God's sake, keep any lead forms minimal. Ask yourself what information is really critical and what is 'nice to know'. Eliminate any field that is not critical.

As a rule of thumb, JDM recommends keeping your form fields down to 5 questions: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number, and one qualification question such as a Title/Role drop-down.

4. Helpful Form Validation

Try to get away from the old JavaScript error window when the user doesn't complete all required fields. Instead, get creative. Allow users to complete their phone number or email--not both. Also, having fields throwing an error highlighted is handy. Finally, pay close attention to your validation error messages. "Missing Fields" is not a very helpful error message. Instead, use something like, "Please enter a valid company email" or "Please enter your 10-digit phone number."

5. Get Above the Fold

Try to put your call to action well-above the fold. Also, try to keep your form either on the top-right or only partially below the fold.

Stay tuned to JDM's Big Marketing Ideas blog for more Landing Page best practices. If you have any ideas or questions, feel free to comment them below.

JDM Celebrates 4-Year Incorporation Anniversary

2011-02-17T10:51:00.001-06:00

Today, February 17, 2011, JDM is celebrating our 4-year incorporation anniversary. A big thanks goes out to all our fantastic clients, partners and our talented marketing team.

So much has changed and yet so much has remained the same over the last four years. We've lost. We've won. We've played. We've mourned. It's been quite a ride.

We're all looking forward to the rest of 2011 and to new ventures, new partners and the evolution of marketing. Stay tuned. There's lots more where that came from.

Take a Tour - Forget the Demo

2011-02-11T10:48:00.000-06:00

With all sorts of SaaS businesses, the most critical phase of the sales process is the demo. The trouble with converting sales prospects into sales opportunities is low conversion rates. Here's a Big Idea to increase your demos by 10 to 15 percent.

Time was, providing demonstrations to prospects was something few were offering and set those prospects at ease. "It's not a sales meeting—it's just a demo." they would think. Today, everybody uses 'the demo' and the vast majority use it as an excuse for a sales meeting. Now, prospects are far more reluctant to accept (much less request) a demo for fear of a 20-minute hard-sell.

Big Idea :: Ditch the Demo!

While the everybody's are pushing hard for the demo, offer a "Tour." Instruct sales team members to leave the hard-sell at home, but other than that, it's a demo by another name.

JDM has already experimented with re-positioning our clients' product demos as "product tours" and found as much as a 10% or 15% increase in conversion rates—almost overnight.

Why?!

I'm sure you're wondering why. Let's play a quick mind experiment. Pretend you don't know anything much about Quickbooks and read the following two sales pitches.

I'd like to invite you to take a Quickbooks Pro demo.
Would you like a quick tour of Quickbooks Pro?

Which of the above two sales pitches feels less like a sales pitch and more as a free learning opportunity with little or no obligation to buy? I would wager the second on--as our research suggests.

Which one did you pick?

Google PageRank Update - Does it Matter?

2011-01-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

Google has just announced an update to the PageRank values of many sites within the Google Toolbar. This is the first significant toolbar PageRank update since April of 2010.

So are you, excited? Upset? Sad? Angry? Yes, Google has updated the PageRank you see in the Google Toolbar, but what does that mean and how does it actually effect you? We put the question to the super-tech nerds from JDM Labs. Here's their take on how Google's PageRank update effects you.

Cornish Time

2010-12-21T09:22:00.001-06:00

For those of you that don’t already know this, the southern-most part of England is known a Cornwall and the inhabitants of this very rural part of the country are a breed all their own. To the Cornish, you see, time is relative to what they would rather be doing. That is, if you ask a Cornish plumber what time he’s coming by to fix your emergency, he’ll likely respond in earnest, "directly, of course." "Directly", in Cornish, essentially means, whenever I don’t have something better to do and the pub is closed.

To the Cornish, the hectic work schedule of Americans is proof that we can't do anything in moderation. To them, we work too much. We earn too much money and spend far more even than we make. As a visitor to Cornwall, it’s hard to argue with that logic.

I've never met a Cornish marketer, but I feel as though one would argue that American businesses focus too much on urgency and not enough on priority. I can’t tell you the countless hours JDM spends on tangential work that somehow has been assigned unequivocal urgency.

To be clear, if your house is flooding, a Cornish plumber will be there in no time. If the faucet is dripping a little, you’d be lucky if he’s there within the week. That’s right; the service provider is dictating priority to the customer!

So before you call your lawyer, your accountant or your marketing firm to say the sky is falling, remember Cornish time and ask yourself, "Is this really a priority or just perceived urgency." If it’s the latter, perhaps it’s something we should get to "directly."

Cornwall is an absolutely beautiful part of the UK. See for yourself in Marea Downey Photography’s "Cornwall Collection."

Social Media Chatter-to-Sales-Lead with Google Realtime

2010-12-15T09:14:00.004-06:00

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, you’ve certainly heard about "Google Instant." What you may not know about is Google’s "Realtime," a new(er) feature that can turn all that brain-bleeding online chatter into useful marketing data that, for the savvy marketer, can translate into uber-relevant sales opportunities.

For the longest time, business executives, sales members and even some marketers have been asking themselves (and me) "how can I turn my social media efforts into profits" and I'm getting pretty tired of hearing about it. So, let's talk briefly about how to turn all that mind-numbing chatter into sales leads and do it for free using Google's Realtime.

First off, we have to find this undervalued feature. Go to http://www.google.com/realtime and enter a search term. As an example, let’s say you’re a home remodeling company. Do a search for "New House" with the quotations to filter out the stupid stuff.

Here you’ll see today’s Facebook updates, tweets, blog posts, etc. from people bragging, complaining and otherwise discussing their new house. As you run through today’s information and then this month’s and so on, you’ll quickly find numerous opportunities to reach out to prospects (via twitter if it’s a tweet, Facebook if it’s a status update or blog comment if it’s a blog post) to see how your remodeling & renovation business could help.

Whatever the contact medium, the soft-sell is a must, but your contact could not be more relevant or timely!

In reality, using Google Realtime in this way is primitive compared to solutions that can monitor hundreds of key words at once for as little as $500 per month (in the case of MutualMind), but this does, at least, illustrate that all that social media chatter can translate to into a lot more than a necessary evil. It can translate into a sales contact that is relevant, timely and (hopefully) profitable.

Any chance I’ve put the "how does twitter make me money" stuff to bed?

I hate passwords

2010-11-15T07:21:00.009-06:00

These days, it seems that everybody has some sort of online client portal they want to manage you through. Currently, I'm maintaining a list of over 350 different usernames and passwords for all the various portals I'm supposed to be using. Worse, my company has been working on a client portal too. Et tu, JDM?!

So rather than bore you with all the features the new portal has, let me just mention my favorite—Auto-Login Links.

That's right; "Auto-Login Links" allow authorized myJDM users to login without entering a username or password. Every message, notification or online invoice comes with a special link allowing users to arrive not just at the most relevant page on myJDM, but without even seeing the login screen.

The JDM nerds are all excited about the release, the security, the integration, the navigation—whatever. I'm just excited that at least my company's portal is one less password every one of our clients has to remember.

Passwords are so last month!

Check out all the shiny new features of myJDM in our Shameless News release.

GREAT Marketing will Ruin a GOOD Product

2010-11-09T08:20:00.002-06:00

Sounds counter-intuitive doesn't it, but it's absolutely true. Great marketing can simply ruin a low-quality or even good-quality product or service. Before you dismiss this post on its face, let me offer an example we can all relate to.

Banking in the 00s has become a "Gotcha Marketer's" paradise. Sky-high ATM fees, bank fees, huge conglomerates with no ties or interest in the community. It's all pretty discouraging.

According to Bart Narter, senior vice president at Celent, a banking industry research firm, "Overdraft charges, in particular, generate customer steam. Fee income, primarily from bounced checks and overdrafts on debit card, account for close to half of all bank profits."

So while banks have been running brilliant marketing campaigns with spectacular offers like "Free Checking," "24-hour online banking" and "no minimum balance", the joke is on each and every one of us. Big banks simply can’t live up to their own hype and still turn the kind of profits their investors demand.

A recent J.D. Power and Associates survey reports that satisfaction with banks in general, out of a possible score of 1,000 points, is now at a level of 748. That's down slightly from 763 three years ago. But what has really plummeted is loyalty. In the 2007 survey, 46% of customers said they "definitely" would not switch banks in the next 12 months. That figure has fallen to only 34% of customers in 2010, which represents a 26% decline.

So while great marketing can win you new customers, it's how you deliver your product or service that ultimately retains them. Let your marketing promise the stars and you will only disappoint those hard-won new customers.

The Halloween Consumer Spending Index

2010-11-01T13:11:00.000-05:00

These days, the economy is far more scary than ghouls and goblins, but that didn't stop Americans from embracing the (expensive) delights of Halloween.

This year, U.S. adults spent about $5.77 billion to celebrating Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation, up from $5.07 billion in 2007. Who says cobwebs can't stimulate the economy?

That's good news in an otherwise grim economic outlook. The Commerce Department said last week that Gross Domestic Product, shrank by 0.3 percent in the third quarter, largely due to sharp declines in consumer spending. This leaves little doubt with economists that we're in a recession that may be long and deep. However, on the heals of Halloween retailers are reporting far more treats than tricks.

Contrary to the grim picture economists are touting, the "Halloween Consumer Spending Index" seems to be up from last year which may signal, an albeit slow, domestic economic recovery.

NPR wrote a whole article last week, "In Tricky Economy, Halloween A Treat For Retailers." We'll have to wait and see if the holiday spending spree carries over through the "golden quarter."

AT&T Pre-Game Experience Campaign

2010-10-20T17:39:00.001-05:00

Recently, AT&T launched its Pre-Game Experience campaign.

The combination: event, Web 2.0, and Social Media Marketing campaign targets young, college football and tailgating enthusiasts. There's also a very Web 2.0 photo contest to win tailgating necessities like flat-screen TVs and BBQ grills.

The micro-site is gorgeous, XML is valid and built on a heavily customized CMS.

The only thing that seems to be missing is a strong social media component. There is no Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media marketing medium that we can find anywhere on the site itself. Perhaps this component is being added later... Until then, take a look: http://gamedaytradition.att.com/. It's a really cool little site!

New Website Launched for Cowgirl Consulting

2010-10-19T15:40:00.002-05:00

JDM is proud to announce the launch of another B2B website for our client (and partner), Cowgirl Consulting.

Started by Fort Worth CRM expert, Anna Rodriguez, in 2009, Cowgirl Consulting has experience developing solutions for more than a dozen large national and international companies on marketing automation and integration.

The new site (http://cowgirlconsulting.com) features W3C valid XML, social media integration, table-less CSS/Javascript layout and next generation search engine visibility.

"JDM is a great firm to work with." Says Rodriguez. "Their intuitiveness and creativity is spot on. I was comfortable leaving the creation of my website completely in their hands and I got exactly what I wanted, and it looks better than I imagined. The entire experience of working with JDM has been uncomplicated and enjoyable."

If you're looking for marketing automation or customer relationship management (CRM), we highly recommend contacting Cowgirl Consulting. Tell 'em JDM sent you!

Take a look and comment on this post with any feedback you may have.

Don't Penalize Payment!

2010-10-15T13:11:00.002-05:00

On the first day of my very first pricing class in college, the professor opened with the following one-line statement: "Never make it hard for customers to give you money!" The point was simple. Get as sophisticated as you like setting up pricing structures, but for god's sake, don't make it hard to actually pay. So why do so many businesses not just make it hard to pay them, but actually charge a penalty if you don’t pay them in the manner they prefer?!

I recently found an unpaid bill under the stacks of paperwork on my desk. It was due in just a few days, so rather than chance it, I decided to call the automated payment line and pay via their check-by-phone service. To my surprise, they wanted to charge an additional $12! I have to pay more to pay on time?!

I'd understand if I was speaking with a human, but this was a totally automated system—not a human for miles. The service only costs the business a few cents, so where does the extra $12 go?

Business owners, it's a bad idea to make it difficult for customers to pay you. It's even worst to penalize them for paying you via an instant payment method. That said, how do they get away with this? The answer is exactly what that same professor said at the end of the last day of class: "...in the end, something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it.” As long as customers are willing to pay $12 to pay their bill, those businesses will keep up their Gotcha Marketing strategy.

Probability Marketing

2010-09-20T08:36:00.003-05:00

We're results junkies, but the only thing we like more than results is observed, hard data. Why? Because campaign data allows us to apply statistical models to our sales and marketing pipeline framework, affectionately nicknamed SPOC (pronounced "spock").

"SPOC" stands for Suspect / Prospect / Opportunity / Customer. Using campaign data, we can begin to predict (assign a probability to) how leads will progress from the Suspect zone all the way to the Customer zone. We call this transition percentage, a "Conversion Rate." Once calculated (or estimated for early campaigns), we can determine a sales and marketing budget that will generate a positive ROIm as well as the most efficient marketing mix.

SPOC, for all it's complexity, is simply a Probability Sales & Marketing model. The value of Probability Marketing is marketing dollars and resources can be deployed cost-effectively, results are predictable, and employees are motivated and aligned with the larger corporate objectives.

The near-term results of Probability Marketing are shorter sales cycle times, higher conversion rates, and higher average sales prices.

Effective sales and marketing starts with quality (from lead qualification) and then quantity (from increased campaign frequency). In other words, it's more cost-effective to "Aim Small, Miss Small."

Beyond the basic principal of Probability Marketing here's a few things the model proves time and time again:

Start by creating marketing assets (qualified house list, portals, downloads, videos, etc.) and sales assets (ROI and TCO calculators, case studies, testimonials, etc.).
Never put a sales person "in front of" a prospect with less than a 33% chance of close.
Streamline the sales, marketing and closing process. As they say, never make it difficult for customers to give you money!

Don't Be the Used Car Salesman

The final big idea of Probability Sales & Marketing is breaking with the traditional "used car salesman" model. Classic sales training is all about the Art of Persuasion—getting a prospect to buy by manipulating the 5 steps in the buying decision. Probability Sales & Marketing, instead, uses the Art of Agreement and Commitment. Only high-probability prospects - those willing to commit step-by-step to the buying process - are worthy of sales and marketing's time.

How do you determine who these "high-probability prospects" are? It all comes back to Probability Marketing.

Learn more about the Value Equation and Perform Businesses from our friends at the Ephor Group.

URL Shorteners Wolves in Sheep's Clothing?

2010-09-08T18:55:00.003-05:00

URL shorteners, such as bit.ly and tinyurl, are services that help take longer URLs (which can be over a hundred characters long) and transform them into manageable links that almost never exceed 20 characters. URL shorteners are not new—TinyURL has been around since 2002. But their popularity has skyrocketed with the rise of Twitter, which only allows for 140 characters in any message.

So what could be so wrong with something so innocent?

Technical Difficulties
From a technical standpoint, URL shortening services add another layer of indirection to an already creaky system. A regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver, the publisher's DNS server, and the publisher's website. With a shortening service, you're adding something that acts like a third DNS resolver, except one that is assembled out of unvetted PHP and MySQL, without benevolent oversight. In the ecosystem of a link, each party is harmed to some extent by URL shortening.

bit.ly.spam.ly
Let's face it, without a reverse lookup, that shortened URL could take you to all sorts of spammy places. Although early-adopters quickly found ways around this problem, late-adopters to microblogging find these strange URLs wolves in sheep's clothing.

It’s clear that URL shorteners will be around as long as micro-blogging (which shows no sign of slowing down. The challenge for the web community is to find ways to enjoy the benefits of URL shorteners while protecting against their downfalls.

Other Big Ideas:

Get Mashable's 2 Cents
Delicious Founder, Joshua Schachter's thoughts

Aim Small, Miss Small

2010-08-23T09:01:00.001-05:00

I've never been much for hunting, but I do like target shooting. A friend of mine taught me to "aim small, miss small." In other words, aim for the whole beer can and you might miss it entirely. Aim for the hole in the "g" on the label and, even if you miss the letter, you'll still hit the can.

"Aim small, miss small" also applies to B2B direct marketing.

Most direct marketers play the numbers game and send their generic message to anyone they think might have even the remotest interest in the message. Then they're surprised when unqualified responses trickle in.

If you "aim small" and develop a small, but highly targeted list, a highly relevant message and drive them to equally relevant content, response rates will drastically increase.

I know what you're thinking: small list = few responses (even with a high response rate)—and you're right. The key is your targeted message can only "miss small." You can't get too far off-base if you're speaking to a very select group of prospects the way you can when you're speaking to an entire demographic.

"Aim small, miss small" is the motto of evolved direct marketers who demand the highest quality responses at a price that will generate a positive ROIm. It also spells trouble for beer cans.

That's Marketing...

2010-08-06T13:30:00.004-05:00

On countless occasions, professional marketers find ourselves explaining not just what we do, but what marketing, in general, is.

I like to use the following explanation—especially after a few cocktails. Feel free to use it yourself. It's not trademarked...

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, I'm fantastic in bed.

That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, He's fantastic in bed.

That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, Hi, I'm fantastic in bed.

That's Telesales.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."

That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, "I hear you're fantastic in bed."

That's Brand Recognition.

Well, I hope that helps anyone out there having trouble explaining marketing activities to friends and family. I have a few more for Social Media, Online, etc., but they're a little too racy for a corporate blog—even JDM's.

Stay tuned to @MarketingEvolve on Twitter for a few others too scandalous for Big Marketing Ideas. Got one of your own? Comment them below.

SEO Gold Hidden in Keyword Analytics

2010-08-02T08:35:00.000-05:00

These days, online marketers understand the importance of data, but manipulating huge data-sets looking for that pearl of marketing wisdom, can be a challenge—to say the least. As Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik explained in an interview for Search Engine Strategies 2010 Expo, most people only look at the first 10-20 results that their analytics tool provides. However, this is only the beginning of what the data can show.

Kaushik makes a good point. The real keyword gold is hidden in the diffused data after the top 20 results. The problem is manipulating that data efficiently, finding a pattern and correctly interpreting it. There are lots of tools out there that can help with data manipulation (including HRmarketer's new keyword tool), but none that help interpret it (which is why JDM's iAnalytics™ are a service, not an application).

Any SEO-er worth his salt will be quick to admit that SEO is more art than science.

Social Media Marketing Tips from OMS

2010-07-23T11:50:00.002-05:00

The 2010 Online Marketing Summit was recently held in Dallas. Take a look at a few of our social media learns from the conference.

Forget "Inbound or Outbound" Marketing Communications

During almost every session, "Forget inbound or outbound" was the mantra. The Big Idea is all about two-way dialogues that are relevant, local and compelling. Delivering your marketing message to the individual—not the demographic. "Personally Engaging + Emotionally Intelligent + Highly Interactive = Dramatic Customer Results," According to Ephor Group's Charles Bedard.

Leverage Web 2.0

Web 2.0, or the ability for users to generate content for you by interacting with your website, is the key for small and large businesses with anything resembling a content marketing strategy. If you're a smaller company, form a "content team" that adheres to an editorial calendar. However, don't expect them to do ALL the work. Leverage user generated content. Case in point, Amazon leverages its user to write most all of its book and product reviews. It would simply be impossible to hire experts to write a review of every book, CD and product.

Develop a Culture that can React Quickly

These days there are countless tools that allow you to monitor social media mentions, trends and analytics, but what can you do with all that real-time data if you can't react quickly and efficiently?

The trick is to develop a culture that allows for quick reactions that can ride a trend wave. Encourage employees to participate (personally) in social media discussions around your business and its activities. If you can weigh in on the trends surrounding your brand in a relevant, value-adding way in real-time, you're already weeks ahead of your competition.

Forget "Web Chat"

There was a time that being able to chat live with sales support staff during the buying decision was the epitome of a modern brand. These days, its reputation as a value adding service is completely shot. According to Patrick Bultema, web chat has "been polluted by call center mentality and over-scripting."

Save your breath–er–fingers.

Relevant Social Media Content:

Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?

2010-07-16T13:44:00.009-05:00

In 2007, MySpace reached critical mass with just 3 million members and the thought began to creep into everyone’s mind that the giant may soon be toppled. After a combination of technical & security fowl-ups and a surge in spam, the giant, indeed fell.

Facebook, fueled by early adopters saw an influx of new users who jumped from the sinking MySpace ship, quickly grew and eventually monetized.

Today, TechCrunch announced that Facebook is approaching 500 million users (100 million more than just 5 months ago).

As even more users flock to Facebook, and the social media site begins to be just as noisy an informer as Twitter, we must ask ourselves:

"Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?"

If so, what might this mean for social media in general?

SugarCRM, How Sweet It Is…

2010-07-13T09:32:00.001-05:00

CRM solutions have been broadly recognized and widely implemented as part of any sales-focused organization's sales and marketing strategy. These days, leveraging a CRM solution as a touch-point between sales, marketing and customer service is 21st century marketing 101. The challenge for small businesses or even medium-sized businesses working with ever-tighter budgets is that a CRM initiative can equal a significant increase to their operating overhead.

Enterprise-level solutions like SalesForce.com have recognized that they must tier their product, but even the lowest tiers can cost hundreds of dollars per employee, per month. Wouldn't it be great to start off with a CRM solution whose tiers go all the way down to FREE? Meet SugarCRM.

SugarCRM simplifies implementation and adoption by cutting out everything but the tools you really need to develop a marketing engine that streamlines the sales process and quality customer support that keeps lost customer rates to a slow drip.

Sugar's bottom tier (called SugarCRM Community Edition) is 100% free. You simply download a ZIP file and install it on your web server (if that sounds scary, JDM has a CRM service package just for that). If ever you find you outgrow the Community Edition, you can upgrade to one of their other tiers—which are still less expensive than a comparable Salesforce CRM tier.

SugarCRM is used by big names like Coca-Cola, Men's Wearhouse, GoDaddy and thousands of small companies all over the U.S.. Indeed, even JDM uses a customized version we call SugarJDM.

If budgets are tight or the timeframe for rolling out a CRM was yesterday, we highly recommend looking into SugarCRM, but don't let the technical stuff bog you down. That's something JDM can handle.

Learn more about some of the other players in the CRM space in our post: "The State of CRM."

"How to SEO for Bing" SEO Article

2010-07-06T16:49:00.007-05:00

JDM has certainly discussed SEO before in articles, white papers and blogs. Nonetheless, the question comes up in conference call after conference call: "How is Bing different in terms of SEO?" To address this question, JDM has just published a new SEO best practice article, "How to SEO for Bing."

Fundamentally, Bing isn't that much different than other search engines. In fact, according to Bing's Principal Group Program Manager, "SEO is still SEO. Bing doesn't change that. Bing's new user interface (UI) design simply adds new opportunities..."

JDM's "How to SEO for Bing" article tackles a few key ways to capitalize on those 'new opportunities' they mention.

Learn more about this and other SEO articles on our Bathroom Reading resource page.

Google TV? Probably Not.

2010-06-07T13:01:00.004-05:00

Recently CNN Money, got into it about Google TV. There have been rumors about Google integrating TV and the Web in much the same way Netflix revolutionized movie rentals, but details have been scarce. That is, until now.

At JDM, we see the value in targeted, trackable and relevant advertising principles (finally) being applied to the good old 'boob-tube.' However, we're skeptical. The list of boondoggles is as long as it is prestigious. Microsoft had WebTV. Apple has Apple TV. HP killed a line of smart TVs; its mediaSmart set top boxes haven't done much. Intel announced plans for a Liquid Crystal on Silicon smart TV chip in 2004, only to kill it months later admitting it was a money-loser.

Basically, Silicon Valley + TV dreams = Failure. Why?

Fundamentally, it's because the public doesn't buy TVs to surf the web. They buy them to watch TV. Until this fundamental mindset can shift toward your TV being more of a "media center", any attempt (even by Google) is doomed to fail.

The Good News for Marketers

The good news for marketers is that the technology necessary to finally target, track and make relevant TV ads is finally being developed. With highly targeted (perhaps personalized) marketing messages communicated during relevant programming media buy costs will diminish in much the same way online ads have remained affordable.

The Bottom Line

There's a tremendous marketing opportunity here, but who's going to be the one to shift the status quo? Is it Google? Probably not...

JDM Closed in Memory of Sian & Bruce

2010-06-02T09:30:00.005-05:00

JDM will be closed this Friday, June 4th in memory of two employees who have died in as many weeks. We will be re-opening on Monday, June 7th.

Bruce Benesh, former JDM Business Development Director died two weeks ago and Sian Logan, Film, Video and Photography Associate died late last week.

The circumstances are still unclear regarding both deaths, but what is certain is both will be sorely missed. Our most sincere condolences to their friends and family.

The 5 Second Focus Group

2010-05-24T17:22:00.011-05:00

Traditional focus grouping, eye path mapping, and split tests are all valuable tools, but they're cumbersome, expensive and slow. Enter "FiveSecondTest.com."

Created by an Australian duo at Angry Monkeys, FiveSecondTest.com allows designers and developers the ability to run a fast (and mostly free) test on any new comp.

Let's face it, with fast approaching deadlines and unreasonable expectations resting on creative design and web development marketing activities, who has time for the traditional focus group, eye path mapping and A/B split test approach?

Take it for a spin yourself. Here's the test we set up for JDM's new homepage flash. It's good karma...

Mobile Marketing: 2010 Best Practices

2010-05-07T08:45:00.002-05:00

There's been a lot of chatter about mobile marketing but little movement. That is, until you consider that the majority of carriers are offering flat-rate data plans leveraging 3G and 4G bandwidth and everyone (and their mother) never leaves home without their sensor-rich, wireless web-ready, palm-top computers that--oh yeah--also happen to make phone calls.

The majority of the experts agree, 2010 will be the year the mobile web gets its wings. That's great for consumers, but what does it mean to marketers?

Before businesses dive head first into mobile marketing, there are a few best practices to observe and a few stupid trends to avoid.

Dig into the latest mobile marketing best practices in JDM's new "Mobile Marketing: 2010 Best Practices" article--now available on our "Bathroom Reading" resources page.

Whether or not 2010 will be remembered as the year mobile marketing came of age, it's time marketers became familiar with the best practices for leveraging these ubiquitous devices. Viva Mobile Revolution!

Google’s New Anti-Link Spam Algorithm

2010-05-03T09:22:00.003-05:00

Inbound links generally signal to search engines that the site being linked to must have some credibility and, perhaps, should be rewarded with a higher page rank. After all, it's very difficult to make a significant number of people link to you. They must be doing it because they believe you have some real value to offer—unless it's Link Spam.

Link Spam takes advantage of these link-based ranking algorithms using all sorts of black-hat techniques like Link Farms, Hidden Links, Spam Blogs, Page Hijacking, Cookie Stuffing, etc.

It's been rumored around the net for months that Google is working on a cure for Link Spam and on March 3rd, Google's Matt Cutts posted a blog asking for users to report link spamming directly to Google.

You might be wondering why Google would resort to snitch-tactics...? We believe it's because Google has a new Link Spam-fighting algorithm and they're looking for a significant sample size to test it against.

Recently, JDM began testing a service called "WhoLinksToMe" to begin researching the SEO value-for-effort of building a reputable inbound link portfolio for clients and monitoring it closely.

As the following table shows, inbound links are about quality not just quantity. We're expecting Google's new Link Spam algorithm to simply exaggerate this fact.

Hopefully my mother is right and cheaters never win.

More SEO News & Best Practices:

Website Loading Speed Factored into Google Search Rankings - SEO News
Search Engine Visibility - SEO Article
Google: The Relationship Algorithm - Blog Post
SEO Lies, Myths and Misconceptions - SEO Blog Post

Mistakes in Web Design

2010-04-26T08:43:00.003-05:00

JDM has been developing B2B websites for a long time. Throughout that time, we've come across numerous egregious website design offenses committed by amateur web developers. Here's a few of the most common web design mistakes to look out for.

1. Reliance on PDF Files for Online Reading
People hate coming across a PDF file while browsing a website. It breaks the flow. Even simple things like printing or saving documents are difficult because standard browser commands don't work. Layouts are often optimized for a sheet of paper, which rarely matches the size of the user's browser window. Bye-bye smooth, vertical scrolling. Hello tiny fonts.

PDFs are great for printing and for distributing big documents that need to be printed. Reserve it for this purpose and convert any information that needs to be browsed or read on the screen into real web pages.

2. Un-Scannable Text
A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read.

Write for online, not print. To draw users into the text and support scannability, use best practices like descriptive headlines & sub-headlines, short paragraphs, readable fonts (san-serif), and bullet lists.

3. Violating Design Conventions
There's something to be said for consistency in website layout and design. Remember that users spend most of their time on other sites. In other words, if you deviate too far from the conventional, your site will be harder to use and users will up and leave.

4. New Browser Windows for Each Page
Opening a new browser window for each new page is beyond irritating. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows (particularly since current operating systems do a miserable job of window management).

5. Not Answering User Questions
Today's users are highly goal-driven on the web. They visit a site because there's something they want to accomplish—maybe even a purchase to make.

Perhaps the worst example of this is not answering their price question. No B2C eComm site would make this mistake, but it's rife in B2B. All too often "enterprise solutions" are presented so you can't tell whether they are suited for 100 people or 100,000.

Afraid of "sticker shock"? Don't be. Better to qualify visitors than lose qualified, prospective customers because you were ashamed to get down to brass tacks.

Extra Credit Reading?

Business-Building Website - White Paper
JDM's Online Marketing Services
Performance Website Package - Details & Pricing

Marketers Not Using RSS Should Be Fired

2010-04-19T08:13:00.002-05:00

Any marketer using an inbound content marketing strategy, but not RSS, should be fired." exclaims Justin Downey, Managing Director of JDM. "All you have to do is understand the basics to understand the immense value of RSS and that's what this most recent marketing best practice article sets out to accomplish."

The article, "Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Simplified," tackles the following topics:

What is an RSS Feed?
How does it fit into the Marketing Mix?
How do I generate my RSS Feed?
RSS/XML Syntax & Examples
How do I promote my RSS Feed?

Learn more and register to download our latest best practice article on our resources page, Bathroom Reading.

See the release on our Shameless News Media Center: 'Anyone Not Using RSS Should Be Fired', Says Downey :: Shameless News

Reebok's Soft Ad Strategy

2010-04-13T07:19:00.002-05:00

Reebok's "Pick Me" commercials, where real, professional athletes showcase impossible feats in order to pitch themselves as good Fantasy Football picks, is certainly entertaining. However, as common in B2C marketing, the strategy of the ad campaign is soft (if it exists at all). What are they actually selling?

Very cool, but is the ad strategy successful? Your move.

iAnalytics - Freedom from Analysis Paralysis

2010-04-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

This week JDM is rolling out our new iAnalytics™ (or "Interpretive Analytics") service package. This new service will free participating clients from misinterpreting campaign metrics and offer accurate, decision-critical information to help make every campaign more successful than the last.

How does it work?

Jonah Lehrer, the author of "How We Decide" explains the physiological case for "analysis paralysis."

Too much information is paralyzing [because] our prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that's responsible for deliberate, rational decisions, is a pretty feeble part of the brain.

It's kind of depressing to hear that, but it's actually a relatively limited and bounded part of the brain. It can only hold about seven pieces of information in the prefrontal cortex at any given moment. So when you try to think through, even a banal decision, you can very quickly overwhelm your prefrontal cortex.

So imagine what happens when modern marketing metrics offer thousands of so-called 'Key Performance Indicators' (or KPIs). According to Mr. Lehrer's research, all too often we focus on exactly the wrong seven indicators and therefore make erroneous decisions.

JDM's experience sorting through this mountain of data to find the pearls of wisdom allows us to zero-in on what's really happening, what's working and what's not. Then, we offer our unbiased findings in online iAnalytics™ reports to clients updated quarterly, monthly or weekly.

Learn more about JDM's new iAnalytics™ package on our website and check out Jonah Lehrer's new book, "How We Decide."

Online PR Trends to Follow

2010-03-29T09:12:00.005-05:00

According to Janet Thaeler's (@newspapergrl) article on AMEX's OPEN Forum, the Internet has made it easier to find media contacts and form relationships with journalists, but more importantly the rise of social media and online PR has meant bypassing the media and going directly to your audience. Online PR has changed the PR industry and it’s not going back. While many of the same PR principles apply, there are a lot of new expectations for PR professionals.

Here are a few key trends to watch.

The Line Between PR and SEO Continues to Blur.
Who should do your PR, your online marketing company? Your PR firm? Both? While traditional PR may be excellent at finding the angle or pitch and have relationships with the media, they may not be the best choice for SEO.

A big part of SEO is building quality links – including links from authority sites – like brand name news sites. A link in a New York Times blog or story is a trusted link. What's one of the most efficient ways of getting onto one of these authority sites? Online PR.

Another factor in the Online PR/SEO equation is social media. People share and often include links to news stories, blog posts, YouTube videos and the like. Google has added these conversations and given them more weight in search results than in the past. So even links in 160 character tweets are valuable. They can lead to higher authority which is rewarded with higher search engine placement.

Social Media Press Releases and Social Media Marketing Requires New Skill Sets.
If you've ever discounted social media, consider that according to Nielsen, social media usage has increased by 82% in the last year alone.

Social media, especially when integrated into an online PR strategy is no place for your salesy boilerplate. Try to imagine how you would message your value and differentiation at a cocktail party. Allow your message to have a drink and "loosen up." No one wants to be sold to via a tweet, but we'd love to hear the ups and downs of your business.

Traditional Media is Tapping Into Online Networks for Story Ideas and Promotion.
Traditional media, often short-staffed and overworked, is depending more on online networks and the people who have built them for their stories. Recent research says 89% visit blogs and social sites to do research.

Interestingly enough, rather than hurting TV or traditional media, online networks and offline networks are simply feeding off each other. It appears the media is actually giving a knowing nod to these online sensations.

In much the same way that TV is being buoyed by the Internet, savvy PR professionals stand to benefit, but only if they capitalize on these trends and expand their skill sets. Some are partnering with online marketing companies. As they do this, they’ll become even more relevant to their clients.

Learn the latest best practices for online PR in JDM's Online Public Relations article. Also, learn more about JDM's mPR campaign package.

Email Marketing - The Future or Necessary Evil?

2010-03-16T08:19:00.004-05:00

During 2009, the U.S. spent $13.4 billion of direct marketing dollars on email marketing. Some estimate email marketing's average ROIm is as much at 40X. That's quite a return. However, speaking to the average consumer (as well as the average B2B buyer), email is the last medium they would like marketers to employ. So, is email marketing the future of direct marketing or just a necessary evil?

For marketers, email represents a way of touching subscribers at home, at work and (thanks to smartphones) on the go. It's also significantly less expensive than traditional direct mail marketing. However appealing email marketing may be, it does have a few challenges:

Slow List Building - CAN-SPAM Act requires marketers build their own opt-in lists
Easy List Attrition - Opt-ins can unsubscribe permanently from your list at any time
Email Filters - Even the most basic email filters catch wanted emails by mistake
Low Activation - Although easy to click, email is not a proven medium to activate a new purchase cycle.

Email marketing best practices can help overcome many of these challenges (see JDM's "Design Your Email for Delivery & Response" email marketing best practice article). However, traditional direct mail has few (if any) of these drawbacks, but many still regard it as too expensive or even antiquated.

Fact is, they are not mutually exclusive.

At JDM, our feeling is that email marketing will never fully replace direct mail. Rather, these mediums work best when they work together. Our research has show that in every respect, integrated direct marketing (e.g. email, online and direct mail together) performance is greater than the sum of its parts.

What do you think? Is email marketing the future of direct marketing or potentially its undoing?

Google: The Relationship Algorithm

2010-03-09T11:11:00.004-06:00

Often I find myself explaining SEO and 'visibility' to clients in terms of a relationship. It's a pretty useful analogy, so I thought I'd share it. Feel free to take credit for it.

Google Is My "Other Girlfriend"
I've made peace with the fact that I'm in a relationship with search engines, like Google, as well as my girlfriend. The way I'm constantly trying to figure out what Google is thinking mirrors the way I'm always baffled by my girlfriend's line of thought. So let's take a stab at understanding Google's ranking algorithm as they can not possibly be as complex as my girlfriend's.

Communication is Key
When you're speaking with someone and hoping to begin a relationship, you have to let them know about you, who you are, what you do, and what your interests are in life. When you're building a website, you also need to be communicating to search engines who you are, what you do, and what interests might bring people to your website. You can't just skirt the topic, you have to have content that's relevant and makes "semantic sense". By that I mean, using real sentences not "keyword stuffing".

The way you present yourself and dress says something about you too. No it's not being shallow. A stained and wrinkled 'Blame the Intern' T-shirt sends a message. It sends a message in much the same way as header tags (h1, h2, h3), ALT tags and META tags do. They send a clear signal about your page's content, what's important, and what's obviously not.

Meta-tags are Pick Up Lines:
Do you believe in love at first sight…or should I walk by again?

You only have one chance to make a first impression, and being far too forceful can have just as negative an impact on your chances of impressing search engines, as an attractive woman. In your first conversation, you need to be truthful about what it is you actually do. If you claim to be "in finance" and turn out to be a cashier at the local Quickie Mart, then you aren't going to be seen as particularly trustworthy.

In your META, TITLE and DESCRIPTION tags you need to describe what it is your site is about, without adding items that you don't actually cover. Recently, Google's been making changes that make keyword stuffing a thing of the past (see our blog post on keyword META tags).

Think of your META tags as "pick up lines." You don't want to be pushy or totally misrepresent yourself. Girls (and Google) see right through that stuff.

Don't hate the Player, Hate the Game
If the people who know you refer to you as "shady", or "flirtatious", then a woman you want to be in a relationship with is going to be second guessing you, questioning your actions and generally not secure in her relationship with you. Likewise, if you link to shady and disreputable sites and they to you, you're hanging out with the wrong crowd. Search engines look at not just the number of inbound links, but the quality/credibility of the sites linking to you. A single link from CNN is worth more than a hundred links from SPAMMERS-R-US.

See our post on "Google's New Anti-Linkspam Algorithm" for more information.

It's All about Trust
To summarize my analogy, no relationship can function without trust. Without it, both partners will start taking on negative behaviors, and trust me, you do NOT want to have Google as your Ex-Girlfriend! But if you stick to the straight and narrow, and faithfully update your content, find trustworthy links and friends to support you, then over time you'll form a positive and fruitful relationship with Google—I mean your Girlfriend...

I Now Pronounce You Man and Search Engine
Let's make a commitment to ethical SEO practices. Repeat after me:

I SEOer,
Take Thee Google,
To Love and to Optimize for,
With useful, unique content
through serp changes and algorithm updates,
For Adsense or Adwords campaigns,
Till Death or Server Outage do us part.

Related Stuff

SEO Tips: What's a Sprite Map?
Articles: "Search Engine Visibility"
Get Found™: SEO Service Package

Report Suggests 10-20 Percent Hiring Increase

2010-03-01T08:53:00.000-06:00

Amidst the doom and gloom in the job market, a new hiring trends report, published by our friends at HRmarketer, finds 31% of hiring professionals will be staffing up by 10-20 percent in 2010.

The report, "Trends in HR Marketing: HR Buyer' Behavior: What to Expect in 2010," is based on data from human resource and employee benefit buyers collected during October and November of 2009 and has some really interesting findings.

Learn more on JDM's Shameless News media center.

The report, itself, is available for direct download from HRmarketer. No registration is required.

Ardent Believers

2010-02-19T10:12:00.003-06:00

All too often, an organization's strategy comes down from the corporate mountain and the Brand comes right out of the marketing department. Both are imposed on the most critical human resources—those at the bottom. How can you get the boots on the ground to become ambassadors of the Brand and the corporate strategy? How do you build an organization of 'ardent believers'?

As a major shareholder in an oil & gas exploration company, I know my way around a board room. It's funny how some things make perfect sense there on a white board, but none in the field. Instead, let’s develop a corporate strategy that’s not so specific as to impede the boots on the ground while still being free of corporate puffery. As my father likes to say, "Folks, everyone can say the word 'Tango'—damn few can dance!"

Once you've got a corporate strategy that's measurable and accountable (read: has dates and numbers not meaningless adjectives), go to the boots on the ground. Ask not what corporate can do for them, but what can they do for corporate. Challenge them to come up with local strategies that mirror the overall corporate strategy. Then reward those who make innovations that help achieve that strategy.

For example, if the corporate strategy is to cut production overhead by $1 million by the end of Q3, then the local managers could devise strategies like, running the power-hungry manufacturing processes at night when electricity is cheaper. Impose an over-simplified, silver-bullet strategy and watch your ego slump along with profits.

Build an organization of innovators and ardent believers by giving those at the bottom the authority to make small but meaningful changes you and your white boards wouldn't come up with in a million years.

Related Posts:

JDM Celebrates 3-Year Incorporation Anniversary

2010-02-17T09:25:00.003-06:00

Today, February 17, 2010, JDM is celebrating our 3-year incorporation anniversary. A big thanks goes out to all our fantastic clients and our talented marketing team for helping us reach and exceed our business goals during such a hard time in our history.

Over the last weekend of the month, JDM will be having a corporate retreat at the D3 Ranch and It'll Do Golf Resort. We'll be posting photos from the retreat on our Facebook Page. Stay tuned for more Big Marketing Ideas as we look forward to another great year!

Branding Trends for 2010

2010-02-10T10:43:00.000-06:00

In Robert Passikoff's, "Top 10 Brand and Marketing Trends for 2010" article for UTalkMarketing.com, he makes a few good points but neglects a larger issue facing brands in 2010. Passikoff writes:

Old tricks don't work/won't work anymore

In case your brand didn't get the memo here it is -consumers are on to brands trying to play their emotions for profit.

In the wake of the financial debacle of this past year, people are more aware then ever of the hollowness of bank ads that claim "we're all in this together" when those same banks have rescinded their credit and turned their retirement plan into case studies.

The same is true for insincere celebrity pairings: think Seinfeld & Microsoft or Tiger Woods & Buick. Celebrity values and brand values need to be in concert, like Tiger Woods & Accenture. That's authenticity.

They won't need to know you to love you

As the buying space becomes even more online-driven and international (and uncontrolled by brands and corporations), front-end awareness will become less important.

A brand with the right street cred can go viral in days, with awareness following, not leading, the conversation. After all, everybody knows GM, but nobody's buying their cars.

What Robert's not mentioning is the erosion of Brands as value-adding, differentiating assets. Today, competing brands look more alike than ever before and consumers are quickly not caring.

Perhaps branding (traditional branding that is) has become antiquated. In 2010, building a brand that comes out of the marketing department (rather than the organization as a whole and its loyal customer base) is like trying to give yourself a nickname. It just won't stick.

Related Posts:

Valentine's Day Marketing Ideas

2010-02-01T08:09:00.001-06:00

Like most holidays, Valentine's Day brings out the worst, most hackneyed and cliche'-ridden marketing programs of the year.

Shame on marketers who want to offer clients a "sweetheart deal" or run a heart-shaped ad with "we love our customers!!!" on the diagonal—note the ever-so-effective triple exclamation marks.

Here's a couple (get it?) Valentine's Day marketing ideas that give cliche' a wide berth.

Marketing Idea :: Be Mine on a Dime
A new bakery sends locals a tiny, heart-shaped box. It contains a single chocolate and a tiny card. The outside copy reads: "Will you be my valentine?" The inside copy reads, "Say yes, I'll give you 15% off any box of chocolates between now and Valentine's Day".

Marketing Idea :: A Call to Tardy Cupids A flower delivery service runs a radio ad on Valentine's Day saying "Okay, so it's Valentine's Day and you've got nothin'. No flowers, no card, no candies - nothin'. Buddy, we're about to save your ." Ad goes on to explain how they have operators standing by, ready to take emergency orders for their "Last Minute Package" - flowers, candy and a nice card with her name and your name pre-printed. Order by 2 PM and receive delivery by 6 PM. This one could be brilliant—albeit logistically tricky.

From all of us at JDM, have a happy, cliche'-free Valentine's day!

Online Marketing & Promotion Article Published

2010-01-19T09:26:00.000-06:00

Kevin Costner is told repeatedly in his 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, "Build it and they will come." If only Internet marketing was so easy.

Download our online marketing and promotion article.

There's a lot of passion and anticipation in developing a new or redesigned web presence, but many stop short when it comes to promoting it.

"It's simply not enough to assume that 'if you build it, they will come." Says Justin Downey, Owner of JDM. "You must actively promote, build traffic channels and keep it updated. That's why we published, Don't Just 'Build It and They Will Come'."

The article offers the latest marketing best practices and a few cheap and easy tactics for promoting, building traffic channels and keeping your new site fresh and up-to-date.

Learn more and register to download our latest online marketing and promotion article on our resources page, Bathroom Reading.

MMA Fight Gear Site Launched

2010-01-14T10:15:00.001-06:00

JDM is excited about launching their latest website, www.OneHitQuit.com, an online shop for a variety of different MMA apparel and gear.

"We designed the website to look really brutal, but not distract from the products. I think we accomplished something really cool." says Jenee Oxley, Creative Director of JDM. "The use of Google Checkout makes shopping this eCommerce website a breeze."

One Hit Quit offers completely original designs for t-shirts, tank tops, jerseys and accessories. Go to One Hit Quit's website to check out the latest and most unique MMA apparel.

About One Hit Quit

One Hit Quit was founded in January of 2008. The goal was to create a quality MMA clothing line to bring fans & fighters quality fight gear with the latest and most original designs possible. Based out of Dallas, Texas the line was created by fighters for fighters and lovers of the MMA lifestyle.

One Hit Quit promises to bring their customers the highest quality, exceptionally stylish fight gear, clothing and accessories. They're in it to win it and and they will never TAPOUT!

Social Media Marketing in 2010

2010-01-04T13:38:00.003-06:00

According to a new survey by Chief Marketer, firms that are not fully utilizing and integrating blogs, micro-blogs (like Twitter), bookmarks, video, sharing, etc. aren't completely behind the times—yet.

The research shows 68% of B2C marketers coordinate their digital and traditional activities, compared with 58% of B2B marketers. The main reason cited by those who are not utilizing (or at least not integrating) social media is a lack of budget, coupled with a lack of in-house expertise. Many also remarked that their activities have gone completely online and therefore there's little to integrate.

Get the rest of the results of the survey on JDM's Shameless News center.

Learn more about JDM's social media marketing services in our Social Media Kit package.

Gift Card Trumps Coupon

2009-12-16T09:41:00.000-06:00

The trouble with a majority of promotional coupon campaigns (especially during the holidays) is that their intrinsic value is often much higher than their perceived value. That is to say, they cost more than they are valued by the recipient.

Here's a big idea. Offer a coupon card whose value has a minimum (say, $15) and a maximum (say, $500). The actual value of the card can only be determined at checkout. Then, send the cards to your loyal customer base, ideally multiple times.

Imagine, if you will, the excitement of purchasing something knowing it's $15-off but hoping it's up to $500-off. That beats a static coupon any day!

There's someone in my tea!

2009-12-03T17:10:00.003-06:00

These are made by German design company Donkey Products. They come in three sets, each with five tea bags: RoyalTea (shown), DemocraTea, and StripTea. We're not sure what each of the flavors are. I shudder to think actually.

From a marketing perspective, you can't help but appreciate the humor-meets-function aspect. There's something to be said for novelty value, especially in marketing and product design.

Way to 'Resist the Monkey' Donkey Products!

Scorched Earth Branding

2009-12-01T08:05:00.001-06:00

Hot Brands tend to end up in one of two places. Some burn too bright and fade quickly. These are remembered as fads. Some others burn hot and simmer steadily for decades. These Brands become iconic.

So, what's the trick to steering your Brand toward iconic? The good news is, you have more control than you think. That's also the bad news.

Take Crocs™, for example. This ugly-but-functional shoe manufacturer pioneered a proprietary light-but-tough foam shoe and, initially, marketed it to sporty customers unimpressed with style-over-function.

Crocs' sales soared in the early years until their own Brand bubble burst just a few years later. Where did Crocs go wrong?

No Supply Limitation
Remember Economics 101? If you saturate the market with your product, demand and/or price will plummet. While they racked up some amazing short-term sales, the strategy turned out to be "scorched earth" in the long term.

Line Extension Indulgence
Rather than sticking to the line of products that built their brand, Crocs extended their line to include products that—gasp!—looked good. This strategy ended up turning their Brand from a quirky-functional shoe company to a company that makes mediocre shoes for the masses.

Loss of the Core
A Brand's core customer should be held on to with a death-grip. Once you began marketing to the masses, all bets are off. Unfortunately, when you try to appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one.

What's the learn? If your brand is burning brightly, consider yourself lucky. Now it's time to utilize strategies to make it an icon. The scorched-earth strategy your investors are craving will leave your brand a fad wearing Crocs.

Learn more about How Crocs Crashed on Ries' Pieces branding blog.

S39VJGNXZUCQ

Star Creek Energy's New Website

2009-11-25T09:36:00.003-06:00

Today, JDM launched Star Creek Energy's new website. The website features table-less CSS, SEO best practices and positions Star Creek and it's senior team members as leaders in their field.

Take a look and let us know what you think: http://www.StarCreekEnergy.com.

A LITTLE ABOUT STAR CREEK ENERGY COMPANY

Star Creek Energy, based in Houston, Texas, creates oil and gas exploration projects using geology and geophysics. They invest, along with their partners, in prospects and exploration plays with compelling reward-to-risk ratios. Most of their current projects are in North America, but their geoscience staff has international experience.

The State of CRM

2009-11-23T10:23:00.001-06:00

Sales Force Automation (SFA) and its big brother Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms have taken off in recent years, but what's the current state of the CRM market and what barriers to adoption still exist?

According to Silverpop (an engagement marketing solution which blends CRM, SFA and marketing automation together), Salesforce.com is the most popular solution by a landslide, accounting for almost 40% adoption by the several hundred surveyed (see graph).

What's more astounding is the lack of adoption. About 20% reported using no CRM solution at all. What's the disconnect?

The answer is, for a majority of B2B companies, CRM platforms are a valued asset to senior management and a necessary evil to sales and support staff tasked with learning and using the solution daily.

The solution?

First off, CRM and SFA solutions are all based on similar GUIs and use similar terminology, so when the sales team learns one platform, learning a different one is cake.

Secondly, solutions like these are supposed to be tools, not "TPS Report" hoops for them to jump through. Demonstrate the solution's value to team members, enforce its use above all other methods of communication and watch as adoption skyrockets.

As a former client put it to his staff, "If it ain't in Salesforce, it doesn't exist!"

What's a "Sprite map?"

2009-11-18T10:31:00.005-06:00

Here's a great website development tip to improve SEO visibility and website load-time.

I'm sure you've heard of a site map and its value for SEO, but a sprite map is completely different. When you put an image in a web page, the browser downloads the image as a separate HTTP request. That means, every image is another HTTP request. For example, if the site's main navigation has six links, each with a rollover image, that's 12 HTTP requests (not to mention the initial request for the page).

Each HTTP request for an image file is about 50 bytes in size. If you compile all your most used images into one big image file (a "sprite map"), you condense those 12 HTTP requests down into 1 HTTP request. More importantly, you save all of the file size overhead for 12 different files and HTTP requests for each. Using a little CSS you can simply display the appropriate part of the sprite map at the appropriate time and place.

There is an added bonus to sprite maps—less markup (or code). More and more search engines look favorably on a high ratio of text to code. Using sprite maps instead of hundreds of lines of JavaScript rollovers and tons of wasted space calling each image separately means a fast-loading, well indexed web page with all the functionality of before.

There's tons more marketing tips where that came from.

JDM's Dictionary of Marketing Jargon

2009-11-12T07:30:00.002-06:00

Marketers love our jargon. To help make sense of the endless abbreviations and made-up words, we at JDM took it upon our self to write our own Marketing Jargon Dictionary.

You can view the dictionary or click on any of the double-underlined links littered throughout our new website.

Keep in mind, The Marketing Jargon Dictionary is a work in progress. Suggest your favorite marketing jargon for inclusion in the dictionary in the comments section of this post.

JDM 2.0 Launch

2009-11-06T10:45:00.005-06:00

Codenamed 'JDM 2.0', JDM's new website was launched today amidst much anticipation (PRweb).

JDM has refreshed our website every year since our incorporation. This time we wanted our outward appearance to match the talent and expertise contained within.

Take it for a spin at: http://www.MarketingHasEvolved.com/

The new JDM site features:

Table-less, W3C compliant markup
Advanced SEO within a refined JavaScript GUI
Contextual Help (Marketing Jargon Dictionary)
CRM Integration (sugarJDM)
Client Portal (myJDM)
Mobile-Friendly Website (JDMobile)
Online Social Network Integration
Direct Marketing Automation
Real-time Campaign Management/Analysis

Andy Boyd, the lead developer on JDM 2.0, puts it best: "We wanted to demonstrate how JDM's technical expertise serves the overall strategy—not the other way around."

So, what's next for JDM? Two words: "Project Blitz." Stay tuned to Big Marketing Ideas for the latest.

Online Marketing Can Kill Your Brand?

2009-11-05T13:30:00.001-06:00

On InfoSys' blog, writers Simon Harper and Zoe Schagrin argue:

There is no doubt that new technologies are causing a permanent shift in the way companies and consumers communicate. But what makes these new channels so attractive – low cost, ease of implementation, global reach – also makes them dangerous for companies who don’t understand their nuances or just how drastically digital marketing has evolved. Some of the biggest names in business have entered the new digital marketing arena with good intentions only to wonder "how could it have all gone so wrong?"

Keep in mind that online marketing blunders aren't the domain of small firms making rookie mistakes as some might think. Some of the biggest names in business have made equally large mistakes recently as outlined in these high profile examples.

According to InfoSys, online marketing mistakes are often due to one of the following:

A lack of transparency or authenticity
A hastily assembled campaign due to the easy ability to create and distribute digital content
The digital campaign is a "one off" and not integrated with the larger marketing message
Failure to monitor the message after launch and/or the lack of a mitigation strategy
An inability to balance controlling and protecting the brand while providing consumers a voice

Companies must acknowledge that this is no time for amateur-hour, as savvy consumers leave little room for silly mistakes.

HRAdvance.com Gets an Upgrade

2009-10-22T16:27:00.004-05:00

Today, HRAdvance.com was upgraded with a 6-scene flash animation and light-box offer.

Just two months ago, HRAdvance launched its new corporate website. Now the site has been upgraded with a flash animation designed to help inform visitors regarding the cost of health care benefits, solutions, and HRAdvance's products and services.

Take a look for yourself at: http://HRAdvance.com/

Social Networking Replacing our Beloved Email?

2009-10-20T11:46:00.009-05:00

The Wall Street Journal recently published the story, "Why Email No Longer Rules." The writer, Jessica E. Vascellaro, talks a lot about the increasing number of people jumping on the social media bandwagon, and how that could have a negative effect on the way people use email today. Are people jumping on the social media bandwagon? You betcha! And why not? It's free, easy to use, and you can communicate to the masses. But are they using email less? Nielsen doesn't seem to think so in their recent study.

Thinking about social networking versus email marketing, I felt this warranted a blog post.

Integrating email marketing into your overall marketing mix is pretty simple. However, a majority of businesses (particularly in B2B) don't have a clue how online social networking fits in the mix. Consequently, they use social media in much the same way they use email—offering valuable content (allegedly for the good of their audience).

Truth is, social networking is not replacing anything. Modern social networking sites are an amalgamation of Instant Messaging, Email, blogging, etc. Email (and therefore email marketing) is here to stay. Can't we all just get along?

Extra Credit?

Value Equation's: "Email Officially Replaced by Social Networking"
VerticalResponse's "10 Reasons Why Social Media Won’t Replace Email”
Chris Crum at WebProNews' take

People Cheat at Golf - Who Knew?

2009-10-12T17:10:00.006-05:00

In an interview on NPR, behavioral economist Dan Ariely tells Kai Ryssdal about a survey of golfers that exposed how their approach to the game correlated to the way they worked.

What did they find out?

According to the study, “if you look at law enforcement, education and government, people in those three industries basically cheat on average, as do people in sales, marketing, advertising and so on. But the people in law enforcement, education and government think that they're the most honest, while the people in sales and marketing and advertising cheat just the same but they think they come from industries that are much less honest.”

"Cheating in golf is kind of a good example for how we think about day-to-day tasks." Ariely continues, "The fact that people can take a mulligan or how they can cheat on golf, I think tells us that there is a lot of corner bending in the business world. And what I worry about is that once we start down this path of immorality, even with small bending of rules and cutting corners here and there, that this tendency could become bigger and bigger and really a part of the collective understanding of how business is actually done."

As a marketing guy, business man and It’ll Do! golfer, unfortunately, I just don't agree. I would define 'business' as an entity that makes money for its investors in a legal and ethical way. The reason I wouldn't just leave it at 'businesses make money' is that there are always ways to make money in illegal and unethical ways. The difference is risk/reward and running a legitimate business these days is risky enough. So what if I want to take a mulligan on the weekend!

BlairGMC - New Brand, New Website

2009-10-06T09:55:00.006-05:00

JDM is proud to announce the completion of Blair General Maintenance Contractor™ corporate rebranding.

The new Blair GMC™ features a modern, clean Brand, simple content tone and a new logo bug. To kick off the new brand, Blair GMC™ launched their new website: www.BlairGMC.com.

The site features table-less, valid XML mark-up, interactive flash and (recently rolled out) Salesforce.com integrated forms.

More than just a cosmetic change, Blair General Maintenance Contractor™ is built on a 40 year reputation of cost effective, self-performed, facilities maintenance quality.

Learn more at: http://www.BlairGMC.com.

Considering a corporate rebranding yourself? Check out our post, "Ruin a Rebranding in 5 Steps" first.

Keywords Don't Matter

2009-09-23T12:42:00.005-05:00

It's long been the case that webmasters spend entirely too much time worrying about their META keyword list.

Fact is, they don't really matter. To prove it, here's a video from Google.

There you have it. Keyword META tags don't matter. Just another SEO misconception. For more, check out our post: "SEO Lies, Myths and Misconceptions."

When I Grow Up, I Want to Work in Marketing

2009-09-16T09:29:00.004-05:00

A great spoof of Monster.com's "When I grow up..." TV ad campaign.

Supposedly, this piece was originally intended to be an Addy awards show opener. Nevertheless, it's well done and very funny—especially if you're already in the marketing, advertising, PR business.

Viral Marketing is Dead

2009-09-08T10:44:00.004-05:00

A decade or so ago, when email had reached critical mass, we all realized that certain attachments had the power to propagate themselves.

The video of the dancing baby; the endless forward-this-for-good-fortune-but-die-a-painful-death-if-you-don't emails; they went round every inbox and very quickly, marketers had the brilliant idea that they could do the same for their clients.

They (we) were right of course. If you had the right piece of content, you could send it to a few and let it spread too many. We have grown up a lot since those days and, thankfully, the viral marketing epidemic is over.

Share a Little, Share It Often

The reason we say viral marketing is dead is not because content no longer spreads in the same way—quite the contrary. But the idea that you could create a flash game or a funny video and expect it to get a million hits and downloads within a week is now patently naive. Now that hundreds of thousands of videos are posted on the web every day, we need to get with the current thinking, which is that we need to do a little, but often, and keep it relevant.

Social media means that all content has the power to propagate itself. That's what we do on social media: we share information. We bookmark it so others can see it, we add comments so our opinion is added to the original discussion, we share views on Twitter, and we share images, videos and presentations for the good of our fellow man.

We do not expect each piece to "go viral". This is a redundant expression (in the original late-nineties sense) and of little relevance to what most B2B marketers are trying to do.

Think About Your Target Audience

A responsible brand that is trying to use social media to inform and support its market will put out useful content knowing that a reasonable number of interested users will look at it. Some will pass it on, others won't.

We're no longer trying to create an online marketing pandemic; we're simply producing valuable, informative material that will gradually but steadily find its way to our audience. The idea of material spreading virally is not the problem; it's the idea that we should aim for the online equivalent of swine flu every time.

Viral marketing is dead; long live social media.

HR & Benefits Visibility Will Never Be The Same

2009-08-24T08:36:00.001-05:00

JDM has just launched a new corporate website for HRAdvance. The site, which features valid XHTML table-less markup, positions HRAdvance as the market standard for dependent eligibility and hosted HR visibility solutions provider.

See for yourself at: http://www.HRAdvance.com

HRAdvance’s new website is more than just an online brochure. It combines thought-leadership, solution overviews and integrated sales force automation to help prospective customers quickly understand HRAdvance, their solutions, and the value of the service.

Check it out and don’t forget to give it a grade on the adjacent poll. Also, check back soon to review their flash animation which is nearing completion.

Niche Thyself

2009-08-15T08:46:00.002-05:00

Think “everyone” is a potential buyer of your product? Think again and niche thyself.

I know no one wants to be pigeon-holed, but positioning your product or service as everything to everybody is a losing strategy. Instead, focus on your strengths and the audience that stands to benefit the most from them. If you don’t know your ideal customer, research. If your strengths are too varied, categorize them. If your market is homogenous, compete on price and quality.

Besides, your audience has probably already niche you. Challenging that perception with a broad, complex marketing message is like trying to give yourself a nickname. It just won’t stick.

Are TV Ads In Trouble?

2009-08-12T08:42:00.003-05:00

Love them or hate them, TV advertising pays for much of the content we love to watch, but could the uneasy truce between TV sponsors and TV viewers soon be broken?

Bob Garfield, ad critic for Advertising Age and co-host of the NPR show On the Media, argues in an article for Slate.com, "the long-standing, two-way partnership between advertising and content is due for a violent rejiggering." As the Internet has strangled traditional newspapers, so too it may traditional TV.

Garfield foresees the classic, 30-second TV spot replaced by interacting with consumers online, analyzing their complaints and desires (as revealed on their blogs, tweets, and website comments) and provide utilitarian information to those who seek it. He dubs his approach, "Listen-omics."

We think he's confirming the paranoid fear of marketing "Ad Nauseam" has been peddling since 1993.

The Truth

People don't hate advertising. People hate irrelevant advertising. Men don't want to see ads for tampons any more than ladies want to see Viagra commercials during their favorite shows.

As more and more channels are offered and viewership becomes increasingly segmented, advertisers can become increasingly targeted with their ads. The more targeted they get, the more relevant the ads become.

Are TV Ads in Trouble?

In their current state, yes. However, the line between TV and the Internet is blurring by the day. Soon, TV will be an interactive advertising medium--perhaps with opt-in ad subscriptions. Now, where have I heard that before (blog post from October, 2007)?

Excerpts from "Is Television Over" by Seth Stevenson

Hybrid Only Car Parking is a Bad Marketing Idea

2009-08-05T11:31:00.007-05:00

Over the last few weeks a new JC Penny's in Fairview, Texas has been test marketing "Hybrid-Only" parking spots. Amidst Walmart's plans only to carry sustainable products in its stores, this move by JC Penny's to 'go green' seems to miss the mark.

As parents (JC Penny's target audience) gear up for another school year, they pack the kids into their Suburbans and hunt for a Penny's parking spot only to find the prime 10 spots are for hybrid vehicles only? Look, we're all for fuel-efficiency, but alienating your target audience by forcing them to park and drag their kids 200 yards to your doors is a leap in the wrong direction.

Here's a big marketing idea for Penny's: change the signs to "Family Parking Only," and offer reusable shopping bags tagged with discount bar codes to encourage shoppers to return to their store with the bags for a discount, albeit a smaller one, at checkout.

Using preferential parking as a means to hop on the green ban-wagon is a cop-out and a bad marketing idea.

What do you think? Comment or take our blog poll.

SEO Lies, Myths and Misconceptions

2009-08-03T08:35:00.005-05:00

At JDM, we offer SEO services, especially in conjunction with websites we're developing for clients. That said, we have had enough of the rampant lies, myths and misconceptions regarding SEO.

So here are just a few we'd like to put to bed:

Misconception: "Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Guarantees Permanent Top Placement"

Well, this is partly true. Search Engine Advertising, such as Pay-Per-Click (See our post on how BP used PPC), guarantees top placement of relevant ads, but not permanently and certainly not for free.

Fact is, no one can guarantee permanent, top placement. Placement is the sole domain of search engines and they’re success is based on displaying only the most relevant results (be them ads or organic results). What’s more, search engines don’t want the same listings to show up over and over again. To that end, they constantly modify their super-secret search algorithms (sometimes daily).

A search engine professional's job is to stay up-to-date on these changes, but "guaranteed, long-term placement" is a big red flag and a common misconception.

Myth: "Search Engine Optimization's Goal is Top Placement"

This myth is as wide-spread as it is inaccurate. Search Engine Optimization’s goal is to make a site more "findable." At JDM, we call it "Search Engine Visibility". On average, website's only receive 6% to 7% of their traffic from commercial search engines. A site that has undergone Search Engine Optimization should shoot for that number to increase to 10% to 30%—at best. It's important to note that SEO is based on visibility and relevancy. That is, how well a search engine spider can read the site and index it as well as targeting search queries (keywords) that are of maximum relevancy to the site. In other words, if the site doesn't receive the top placement you want, don't just blame SEO—blame the content.

Lie: "META Tags are the 'Secret Sauce' of SEO"

This is our favorite SEO myth. META tags are used by search engine in their results, but their weight on the rank of the site is beyond minimal. Here’s a rule of thumb: if your SEO team thinks their META tags can force search engine spiders to return to your website within a specified period of time, at best, they have no idea what they're doing.

SEO Lies, myths and misconceptions—oh my!

Look, don't get overwhelmed. Just know that all you have to do is develop content for your website that is relevant, timely and informative to your target audience. Trying to hire an SEO expert to out-smart search engines is like hiring an accountant to out-smart the IRS. It just won't end well.

JDM Client, Roxanna Oil, Awarded Sidney Powers Medal

2009-07-29T16:16:00.005-05:00

Marlan Downey, Chairman of Roxanna Oil Company and client of JDM, recently won the prestigious Sidney Powers Award from the AAPG.

A big congratulations from all of us here at JDM!

You Can Afford to Interview

2009-07-27T11:22:00.007-05:00

As job seekers have been told for months, the job market is a lagging indicator of a return to economic stability. For businesses looking toward 2010 optimistically, a there’s a catch-22 developing. They can’t afford to hire, but they need to hire to grow.

First off, I would argue they can afford to hire—just not in the same way they have in the past.

Consider reorganization of responsibilities to maximize do-ers and minimize redundant managers. Additionally, even if there just doesn’t currently exist a budget to hire, there is a budget to build a stable of qualified job applicants. That way, when the time and budget are right, you can pull the trigger while your competition is still placing expensive ads on job boards.

Building this stable of qualified job applicants isn’t expensive or particularly complicated. The process involves developing an online Careers Section, application qualification, and developing new hiring practices.

When developing an online Careers Section, consider incorporating:

The Story and Vision of your business
Employee Testimonials
Hiring Policies
Corporate Organization
Opportunities for Advancement
Current Team Profiles

Since rolling out JDM’s Careers Page 3 months ago:

It has risen to our third most popular web page;
We have received over 70 qualified applicants for just 5 open positions;
and we didn’t pay a penny in advertising.

If your business is in a similar HR catch-22, consider that even if you can’t afford to hire—you certainly can’t afford not to try.

Looking for a little HR expertise? Check out these HR rock stars:

HRAdvance – HR and Benefit Solutions
Achilles Group – Outsourced Human Resource Management
HRmarketer – If you’re marketing to HR decision makers, look no further.

All Storage Gets an All-New Website

2009-07-09T01:00:00.001-05:00

JDM is proud to announce the completion of a new business-building website for our client, All Storage Arlington.

The new site features:

Flash Animation Highlighting All Storage’s Value
W3C Validated Markup
Fresh, New Content
Easy-Error Finding JavaScript on the Forms
SEO Best Practices to Increase Page Rank and Search Engine Visibility

The goal with the new site was not to stray too far away from the core Brand, but rather graduate its design to the next level. JDM employed our creative and technical expertise to develop a site with fresh content, eye-catching, but simple design and industry-leading search engine optimization (SEO) practices for maximum search engine visibility and page rank.

Have a look for yourself at: http://www.AllStorageArlington.com.

About All Storage Arlington

Whether it’s a little spring cleaning or a big storage project, All Storage has the self-storage area you require. With over 40 rental unit sizes to choose from and the largest freight elevators in Texas, All Storage is the perfect self-storage company for all your storage needs.

Learn more about developing a website that generates business with our white paper,
“Easy Marketing :: The Business-Building Website.” A short registration is required.

JDM Takes on Its First Intern

2009-06-25T08:33:00.001-05:00

With a Bachelor of Business with a specialty in Marketing from Texas Tech University, Brittany Snethkamp joins the JDM team as our first participant in our Director-Level Internship program.

Her varied management, customer relationship and production experience make her a valuable, albeit temporary, addition to the team.

Working directly with JDM’s Managing Director, Brittany will learn about both business management and asset management. Throughout her internship, she will be developing her "Personal Branding" campaign. Stay tuned to http://www.haveyouseenbrittany.com/ for the results of her work.

Learn 5 Things People Don't Know About Brittany Snethkamp on JDM's Team page.

Learn more about JDM's Internship Program.

David VS Goliath Marketing

2009-06-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Chances are your business is not the market leader. There's good news however. Like the Chicago Cubs, everyone roots for the underdog.

Paul Flowers published his underdog marketing principles in his book, "Underdog Advertising." Just as David toppled Goliath with a well-aimed rock, the disciplines introduced in his book help underdog businesses hit the mark and become the real winners.

Underdog Advertising Core Principles:

Think Outside the Box
Take Risks
Strategy before Execution
Be Contrary
Select Your Battlefield
Focus! Focus! Focus!
Be Consistent
Demonstrate Value
Speed & Surprise
Be Patient

Recently, I sat down with Paul Flowers and discussed how technology and innovation impact the market underdogs. Get the details of our discussion on JDM's website: "Underdog Innovation"

Purchase Paul Flowers’ book, Underdog Advertising, on Amazon.com.

Daydream Away

2009-05-17T08:04:00.004-05:00

Got a tough problem to solve? Try daydreaming.

Contrary to the notion that daydreaming is a sign of laziness, letting the mind wander can actually let the parts of the brain associated with problem-solving become active, according to Kalina Christoff of the University of British Columbia in Canada in a story for MSNBC.

Until the results of the study, scientists had thought that the brain's "default network," which is linked to easy, routine mental activity, was the only part of the brain that remains active when the mind wanders. But in the study subjects, the brain's "executive network" — associated with high-level, complex problem-solving — also lit up.

The less subjects were aware that their mind was wandering, the more both networks were activated.

"This study shows our brains are very active when we daydream — much more active than when we focus on routine tasks," Christoff said.

What's the takeaway for marketers?

Marketing, advertising, PR and the like, all require an understanding of the fundamentals, but their true power lies when we understand enough about these fundamental rules to know how to break them in the interests of creating a successful campaign.

So daydream away. The best marketing ideas are not found in a blog (not even this one). They are inspired by the world around us and born of our imagination.

Learn how your creativity, rather than your budget can win you business at your next trade show with our trade show tip, "Resist the Monkey."

Direct Mail Marketing Postage Rates Increase

2009-05-11T16:12:00.003-05:00

Today, the USPS announced yet another postage rate increase. The price of a first-class stamp has risen to 44 cents.

The implication for direct marketing is simple. As postal rates go up, direct marketing budgets are less capable of delivering marketing messages to intended audiences with the same frequency. Ultimately, direct mail and postal list rental will no longer be a cost-effective medium. Marketers will need to consider alternatives such as email to pick up the slack.

Given this trend, what alternatives and new marketing best practices can direct marketing employ to enhance its efforts?

Check out JDM’s Direct Marketing Alternatives list on our website for a few ideas (no registration required).

Business is NOT a Game of Chess

2009-05-04T12:37:00.007-05:00

Although hundreds of business books have been written about chess as a metaphor for running a successful business, this is just not true. Instead, the Chinese game of Go is a closer approximation of how to run a successful, sustainable and profitable business in today’s market conditions.

Funny that a 2,500 year-old Chinese strategic board game could prove a far more accurate business model than the almost cliché game of Chess, but it’s true. Chess is a game of strategic attrition. The goal of which is to achieve a single and specific objective—force the king to surrender.

Time and time again we see this mind-set played out in business—with dire consequences. Businesses set single and specific objectives. They use their human capital as well as their investment capital like pawns to mount a campaign.

It doesn’t matter how large your organization or how much market share you might currently have. What matters is that you’re playing a game of attrition against a single objective which cannot be conclusively determined to be correct until you’ve either achieved it or failed to achieve it. By then it’s too late anyway.

Rather, business is like the Chinese game of Go. Go has a generalized objective (surround your opponent) and a strategy based on controlling the most amount of territory using the fewest pieces possible. The addition of a single new piece has a negative consequence and therefore you are forced to alter your strategy in the direction of efficiency over brute-strength.

Each department are like stones on a Go board. Marketing, Sales, Operations, Human Resources, Production, Distribution, etc. should work together toward a generalized objective and with as much overlap as possible.

So, forget Chess. These days no business is too big to fail and none are too small to succeed.

Check out “Learning the Most from the Worst” to learn a few lessons I’ve learned about how NOT to run a business. It’s an oldie, but a goodie.

The "Counter-Slander" Campaign

2009-04-24T14:33:00.006-05:00

Heard about BMW’s "Marketing Ambush?"

In Santa Monica, California, Audi posted a billboard advertising their new car as a direct competitor to BMW’s. The billboard sported the smug headline: "Your Move BMW."

How did BMW respond?

They purchased the billboard right next to Audi's billboard, added a billboard extension and, countered with the one-word headline: "Checkmate."

This marketing ambush is a brilliant move on BMW’s part. The ad is a beautiful combination of expert media placement and inspired copy writing.

This is the perfect example of the Slander-Campaign Strategy. It's also a great argument against the slander campaign strategy.

Learn more about this and other campaign strategies from JDM.

RedZee Visual Search V. Text

2009-04-20T07:39:00.002-05:00

Got a call not long ago from a sales guy at "The fastest growing new search engine on the web"--or so he said. At JDM, we need to keep our ears to the ground so I took the call.

Apparently this fancy new search engine called RedZee, uses a visual interface rather than just the old-fashioned text-based stuff we're all accustomed to.

RedZee has a cute animated mascot developed by Pixar. The visual "Fan" interface looks a lot like Apple's Cover Flow. Which is great--for covers. But as a search interface, unfortunately, the form steps on the function.

While it's very nice to be able to see your search results as visual images, you can't really judge the quality of a search result from a thumbnail screen preview. Full-page text results allow you to determine the best results at a glance. Also the sponsored search results are not obvious, so it's difficult to determine the organic results from the paid.

Is JDM just too used to the tried-and-true search engine interface? Give it a go and let us know. http://www.RedZee.com

For more information about search engines with innovative interfaces see our post: "Search Engine Innovation."

Google Mobile - April Fools

2009-04-10T09:33:00.004-05:00

On March 31st at 10-till midnight, Google posted the following on their mobile blog.

Ever had a word on the tip of your tongue but just couldn't remember it? Or perhaps blanked on a person's name in a socially awkward situation? Or even suffered memory deterioration due to ordinary aging or questionable life choices? If so, [Google] Brain Search for mobile may be for you. Using our new CADIE technology, we can now index the content of your brain to make it searchable, thus bringing you aided retrieval of memories.

Nice April Fools joke, but it makes one wonder.

If, today, the world's wisdom (I use that word loosely) is accessible in fractions of seconds and I still can't remember where I left my keys, is all that information all that useful? Perhaps the majority of information searched on the web is more akin to junk food than we might admit.

Regulating Viral Marketing

2009-04-03T10:00:00.004-05:00

According to Financial Times.com, U.S. advertisers are bracing for regulatory changes they fear will curtail their viral marketing efforts through emerging media like online social media and blogs.

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing new guidelines on endorsements and testimonials that would hold links in the word-of-mouth chain liable for untruthful or exaggerated reviews of products or services.

For example, if a blogger received a free sample of sunblock and then incorrectly claimed on their blog the sunblock cured their ache, the FTC could sue the company for making unsubstantiated statements and sue the blogger for making false representations about the company.

The advertising industry has argued that the revised regulations are too stringent and would stifle innovation in the emerging fields of social media and blogging. It remains in favor of self-regulation.

The FTC argues, "The guidelines needed to be updated to address not only the changes in technology, but also the consequences of new marketing practices. Word-of-mouth marketing is not exempt from the laws of truthful advertising."

Unfortunately, word-of-mouth marketing is a creature all its own. The FTC will find it difficult to regulate product gossip online or offline. Advertisers have been trying to just influence that viral gossip for decades, but, people talk, they blog, and read whatever they like.

The advertising industry has done an exemplary job of self-regulation and U.S. consumers are some of the savvies in the world. What self-respecting American consumer would make a purchase decision based solely on what they read on someone's MySpace page?

Whatever happened to "caveat emptor" (Let the Buyer Beware)?

"It'll Do Golf" Website Launched

2009-03-17T10:46:00.003-05:00

I think it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, Golf is all about putting a very small ball in a very small hole using tools ill-suited to do so. That kind of describes my golf game. Which is why I’m excited about a new website. The It’ll Do! Golf website is now live.

Check it out at: www.ItllDoGolf.com.

Developed by the guys (and gals) here at JDM, the It’ll Do Golf website offers the latest information on the happenings at the It'll Do Golf Course and Club™. It offers the public and members a chance to learn a little more about the course and club, showcases some pictures (in case anyone's thinking of running for public office) and, of course, encourages visitors to take a little piece of the It'll Do Golf Club with them by purchasing their own It'll Do! gear from It'll Do Golf's online store.

As they say at the It'll Do Golf Club--"Victory through Mediocrity!"

Share Your Big Marketing Ideas

2009-03-09T08:00:00.002-05:00

JDM's Big Marketing Ideas blog has published the best in marketing best practices, tactical execution tips, and industry news for over two years. In that time, our readership has grown to about 1,300 blog readers per month and 1,090 email subscribers in numerous industries including Energy, Construction, Consulting, Accounting, Law, Shipping and Retail.

Do you have a big marketing idea?

Share your marketing ideas with our audience by submitting your blog post for display on our Big Marketing Ideas blog.

Go to http://www.marketinghasevolved.com/blogged/ to send us your ideas. If chosen, your post and a link to your website will be featured on our blog and RSS feeds for free.

Please review our editorial guidelines prior to submission.

A blog is a community. Join the conversation.

Pricing Strategies :: How Low Can You Go?

2009-03-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

A recent article by INC magazine entitled “How Low Can You Really Go?” reexamines modern pricing strategies and it got us thinking. Cutting prices is a knee-jerk reaction to slowing sales and price cuts raise some tough questions:

Will deep discounts cheapen your Brand?
Once cut, can you raise them again?
How do you deal with narrower margins?

Here are three pricing strategies to consider:

Woo the Recession Worriers

People don’t want to spend money in this economy. The money they do spend they want to feel like it was practically a steal. Woo these customers by slashing prices on your middle to bottom-shelf products or services while leaving the top shelf priced as is. Purchasers will tend toward the middle-lower shelf stuff, but the top-of-the-line stuff will keep their bargain in perspective.

Bottom line: Low-cost items will help make up a significant portion of 2009 sales, even if they fall short of last year’s numbers. These days, there’s little room for inflexibility.

Cut the Fat. Leave the Meat.

Some are hesitant to cut prices with the assumption being customers will never pay full price again. Some even try to compete on service rather than price. However these days, service is great, but CEOs are shopping at WalMart. Cut your prices, but cut them with a scalpel not a hatchet. Consider cutting costs on products with manufacturer goal rebates, renegotiate shipping costs and offer free shipping, cut prices on services with the greatest margins.

Bottom line: Competing on service instead of price is tough. Offer limited, carefully crafted discounts and it will boost sales without branding you as a discount seller.

But, Wait, There’s More

Perhaps businesses could learn a thing or two from Ron Popeils’ famous line. Consider not discounting the price of your products or services, but rather offering more of those products or services. BOGOs (Buy One-Get One), free accessories (buy a drill-get a free set of drill bits), and complementary offers (purchase digital cable and get internet and HD DVR for free) are quantity and quality bundles that will add value to a static price. You’ll also make Ronco proud.

Bottom line: Bundling more for the same price can be an effective way of staying competitive without cutting deeply into profits. Beware, however, of overload. Your product or service must be bettered with quantity. I only need one toaster.

Get more marketing tips on JDM's website here.

JDM Celebrates 2-Year Incorporation Anniversary

2009-02-17T11:28:00.004-06:00

Today, February 17, 2009, JDM is celebrating our 2-year incorporation anniversary. A big thanks goes out to our fantastic clients and talented marketing team for helping us reach and exceed our business goals over the last year.

JDM reaches this milestone as proof their business model of no-nonsense, up-front pricing coupled with innovative marketing services are a better way to run a marketing firm.

While many marketing firms are unable to remain profitable in this economic downturn, JDM is well positioned for growth in 2009 and for radical expansion in 2010. Our plan is to chum the water and pinch our pennies in 2009. We'll own the market in 2010.

So, what’s next for JDM?

JDM is aggressively building out it's associate base though our new Careers page. We're also further expanding our service offering to include mobile marketing, mobile websites, social networking and offline public relations.

Happy birthday, JDM!

Read the full release in our Media Center.

The Future of Mobile

2009-02-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for landline phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16. And fewer teens are wearing watches now because they use their phones to tell time instead. So it's safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented.

However, have you ever considered just exactly how powerful these ubiquitous devices are? The phone that you have in your pocket, pack, or handbag is probably ten times more powerful than the PC you had on your desk only 8 or 9 years ago. It has a range of sensors that would do a Martian lander proud: a clock, power sensor (how low is that battery?), thermometer (because batteries charge poorly at low temperatures), and light meter (to determine screen backlighting) on the more basic phones; a location sensor, accelerometer (detects vector and velocity of motion), and a GPS navigator. And most importantly, it is by its very nature, always connected.

Project these trends out another ten years. You will be carrying with you, 24x7, a very powerful, always connected, sensor-rich device. And the cool thing is, so will everyone else. So what are you going to do with it that you aren't doing now? Here are some possibilities:

Smart alerts:
Your phone will be smart about your situation and alert you when something needs your attention. This is already happening today -- eBay can text you when you've been outbid, and alert services (such as Google News) can deliver news, sports, or stock updates to you. In the future these applications will get smarter, patiently monitoring your personalized preferences (which will be stored in the network cloud) and delivering only the information you desire. One very useful scenario: your phone knows that you are heading downtown for dinner, and alerts you of transit conditions or the best places to park.

Augmented reality:
Your phone uses its arsenal of sensors to understand your situation and provide you information that might be useful. For example, do you really want to know how much is that doggy in the window? Your phone, with its GPS and compass, knows what you are looking at, so it can tell you before you even ask. Plus, what breed it is and the best way to train him.

Crowd sourcing goes mainstream:
Your phone is your omnipresent microphone to the world, a way to publish pictures, emails, texts, Twitters, and blog entries. When everyone else is doing the same, you have a world where people from every corner of the planet are covering their experiences in real-time. That massive amount of content gets archived, sorted, and re-deployed to other people in new and interesting ways. Ask the web for the most interesting sites in your vicinity, and your phone shows you reviews and pictures that people have uploaded of nearby attractions. Like what you see? It will send you directions on how to get there.

Sensors everywhere:
Your phone knows a lot about the world around you. If you take that intelligence and combine it in the cloud with that of every other phone, we have an incredible snapshot of what is going on in the world right now. Weather updates can be based on not hundreds of sensors, but hundreds of millions. Traffic reports can be based not on helicopters and road sensors, but on the density, speed, and direction of the phones (and people) stuck in the traffic jams.

Tool for development:
Your phone may be more than just a convenience, it may be your livelihood. Already, this is true for people in many parts of the world: in southern India, fishermen use text messaging to find the best markets for their daily catch, in South Africa, sugar farmers can receive text messages advising them on how much to irrigate their crops, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa entrepreneurs with mobile phones become phone operators, bringing communications to their villages. These innovations will only increase in the future, as mobile phones become the linchpin for greater economic development.

The future-proof device:
Your phone will open up, as the Internet already has, so it will be easy for developers to create or improve applications and content. The ones that you care about get automatically installed on your phone. Let's say you have a piece of software on your phone to improve power management (and therefore battery life). Let's say a developer makes an improvement to the software. The update gets automatically installed on your phone, without you lifting a finger. Your phone actually gets better over time.

Now, if we can just train it to do your laundry ...

Learn more about text-based mobile marketing in "Short Codes :: Mobile Text2Lead."

Valentine's Day Marketing Ideas

2009-02-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

Like most holidays, Valentine's Day brings out the worst, most hackneyed and cliche-ridden marketing programs of the year.

Thumbs down to everyone who wants their client to offer a "sweetheart deal" or run a heart-shaped ad with "we love our customers!!!" in a diagonal banner (Note the three exclamation marks, so much more effective than just one!!!).

Here's a few Big Marketing Ideas to help you get away from the cliche.

Idea :: Be Mine on a Dime
A new bakery sends locals a tiny, heart-shaped box on Valentine's Day. It contains a single chocolate and a tiny card. The outside copy reads: "Will you be my valentine?" The inside copy reads, "If you say yes, I'll give you 15% off any box of chocolates between now and the end of the month".

Clever, personal and useful.

Idea :: Rehab is for Quitters!
A rehab center runs an ad with a stunning woman looking straight into the camera with the headline: "Wouldn't you like to be my Valentine?". The body of the ad would go on to say that, if you accept the invitation, you could join her in getting really wasted, wrecking your car, losing your job, making yourself sick, destroying your marriage, etc. The point is that not every alcoholic or drug addict is homeless and rough looking ... at least, not at first. Get help now, etc.

Now that's a good use of a topical opportunity, powerful, unusual, counter-intuitive messaging.

Idea :: A Call to Tardy Cupids
A flower delivery service runs a radio ad on Valentine's Day saying "Okay, so it's Valentine's Day and you got nothin'. No flowers, no card, no candies - nothin'. Buddy, we're about to save your butt." Ad goes on to explain how they have operators standing by, ready to take emergency orders for their Last Minute Package - flowers, candy and a nice card with her name and your name pre-printed. Order by two PM and receive delivery by six PM.

Brilliant--albeit logistically tricky.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day Big Marketing Ideas readers!

A Lesson for Economists from Marketers Regarding Stimulus Bill

2009-02-11T10:21:00.003-06:00

The stimulus package in recent days has come under more scrutiny for its jumbled contents than for its colossal size. President Obama said it himself; there is no silver bullet that’s going to fix the economy. That’s the problem with economics—it’s not a science. You have to arrive at solutions though intuition and a lot of iteration. What else does that sound like? Marketing.

Marketers have a huge number of tools in our toolbox just as economists do. We use Advertising, Public Relations, Direct, Outdoor, Online, Mobile, Broadcast, Print, etc. while our economic counterparts can use (with legislative approval) bonuses, interest rates, bailouts, tax cuts, spending, earmarks, etc.

What’s true for marketing is also true for economics—they are not sciences. In either case, you can’t test your hypothesis under controlled circumstances so that means a whole-lota-guessing and measuring.

Unlike economists, when marketers approach a campaign with specific objectives, the goal is to maximize the budget effectiveness by spreading it wide enough to cover all necessary bases, while narrow enough so the marketing investment is substantial enough to have a positive impact.

The proposed stimulus bill (or bills) is spreading the budget in much the same way a marketing campaign would. What marketers do well and economists do rarely however is carefully measure the effectiveness of each of the tools utilized. When a tool is found to be highly effective, marketers supplement its budget. When a different tool is found ineffective its budget is cut back.

Regardless of the form of the final approved stimulus bill, I hope our country’s economists will closely measure each and every penny spent as part of this stimulus to see where our tax dollars are or are not effective and act accordingly.

In the end, I hope they’ll be held as accountable as we, marketers, are. But I won’t hold my breath.

Super Bowl Ads Becoming the Corporate Jet of Marketing?

2009-02-03T12:27:00.003-06:00

This year Super Bowl ads ran a whopping $3 million dollars per 30-second spot. Although ads have run more than $3 million per spot in the past, this year marks the highest starting price to date. The question becomes, in an economy like this, does this kind of marketing convey stability and positive Branding or are Super Bowl ads becoming the corporate jet of marketing?

If you missed the game, check out JDM's Top 10 Super Bowl Ads of 2009.

Few would argue the game this year was more exciting than the commercials, but at such a hefty price tag, consumer cynicism must be on marketer's minds. It's simply naive to think consumers won't find businesses spending this kind of money on ads after massive layoffs shameful.

As the corporate jet was a symbol of corporate success, power and influence in the 80's and 90's, so too were Super Bowl ads. They have astonished audiences every year for decades. Today, however, those times are over. The corporate jet is now a symbol of corporate greed, mismanagement and misplaced priorities. Perhaps it's time marketers understood that $3 million dollar super bowl ads will soon position their Brands in a similar light as the super corporate jet.

Miller's ads prior to the game say it all. "$3 Millions Dollars per 30 Seconds?! That's $100,000 a second! Our ads should be 1-second long and just say 'Yeah!'"

Well said, beer delivery man!

Getting a Marketing Job

2009-01-13T12:00:00.001-06:00

Getting a job in marketing is a difficult proposition. Marketing, by its very nature, is invisible and the talents necessary to develop world-class marketing activities are difficult to impossible to qualify.

At JDM, we're not too worried about qualifying job candidates though high-pressure interviews or competitive internships. We utilize a strategy of "don't tell us what you can do—show us!"

Here are our 5 tips for showing a marketing firm you understand the art of marketing and not just the science.

1. Market Thyself
What better way to demonstrate your job qualifications as a marketer than to market yourself? Consider yourself a Brand. How would you position yourself in relation to your competition? How might you differentiate yourself? This is a perfect time to think long and hard about who you are and what you will bring to a marketing organization. For example, write your own boilerplate. This is sometimes referred to as an ‘elevator pitch’ but in reality, your job pitch doesn’t have a 7-second time constraint. Your bio on various websites, your resume, and your cover letter do, however.

Caution: Generic buzzwords like “people-person”, “awesome personality”, and “fast-learner” are not ways to differentiate your personal Brand. They are “Me Too” tactics and often denote their opposite (i.e. “fast-learner” means “don’t know anything—yet”).

2. Personal Business Collateral
At very little cost and effort, you can develop your own personal business collateral. Consider things like a logo, letterhead, and even a business card. If you lack design or writing skills, outsource. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a job that demands both of the skills—it’s best to show them off from the get go.

Caution: The purpose of this activity is to make you stand out and to further develop your personal Brand. Whatever you do, don’t put together template collateral with dry, boring content. You want to go into marketing, advertising, PR? Be a little creative. Here are a few tips to get you started.

3. Develop a Call-To-Action
It is important to have a clear and concise call-to-action for any campaign. Your campaign for a marketing job is no different. Should they call a specific number, email, fax? Develop a clear and campaign-specific action for your potential employers to contact you.

Caution: Make sure this line of communication stays static. You never know who puts your information into a file for later follow up. If they find a disconnected number or the email bounces back, they won’t try to find you.

4. Ready, Aim, Fire
As with all modern marketing, determining your target audience is key for a successful campaign with a high response rate. Think hard about what criteria a firm needs to have to be a fit for you. Here’s a few to get you started:

Commute time?
Company size?
Large part of small company or vice versa?
Corporate Culture?
How flexible is the scheduling?
How steep is the corporate ladder?
Benefits/Vacation?

Once you’ve determined your target audience, you’re ready to start aiming. Put together a list of potential employers and their contact information. Once you’re list is complete, do a little research on each to help tailor your marketing message and fire!

5. Work your Leads
Employers and hiring managers are busy people. Keep in touch with them. Don’t expect them to follow up with you. Work your leads, subscribe to their blogs and online social networks. The longer you stay in touch, the more likely a position will become available.

If you're interested in a career program or would just like to learn more about marketing job opportunities at JDM, check out our new careers page. Couldn't hurt, right?

Also, don't forget to check back often. We're growing quickly.

Online Investor Relations Portal

2009-01-08T06:30:00.003-06:00

Investor Relations (IR) is an important part of any PR effort. It is the vital communication artery between senior management and/or board of directors and the company's investor base. Traditionally, this communication takes place through printed media, but who says that's the most efficient or even secure medium for such an important and often sensitive discussion?

Today, the technology exists to develop a portal into which investors from all over the world can access securely. As these portals only have up-front development costs and little or no ongoing costs, they are a powerful way of cutting out the substantial costs of producing and delivering large volumes of investor relations materials. Aside from the printing and shipping cost savings, a secure online investor relations portal adds value to the conversation with on-demand information access, information security and portal personalization and customization options.

For more information on secure online portals, check out JDM's Touch-Point™ portal package.

An online investor portal is not designed to take the place of face-to-face meetings or video podcasts from senior management. It's designed to take the place of the hundreds of thousands of investor dollars spent on those over-designed, over-priced, printed annual reports we are all so accustomed to.

Break the mold. Save paper. Secure and personalize your message. After all, it is your investors to whom you are held most responsible.

2009 Marketing Flops

2009-01-05T12:15:00.003-06:00

No one could have predicted that 2008 & 2009 would see the US banking system nearly collapse, the Big 3 automakers beg for money from congress and the loss of a half-million jobs in November of 2008 alone.

However, 2008 also saw the adoption of E-books and podcasts, Twitter addicts and new Search Engine browsers and rather than try and predict what will be the 'next big thing', here are three things we predict will flop in 2009.

Flop :: Internet Explorer 8
Everyone's talking about it. Few really care. Google Chrome and FireFox will continue to take huge bites out of IE8, which will probably be released on December 31, 2009 so Microsoft can barely keep their promise.

Flop :: RSS as we know it
In 2009, the average web user will continue to refuse to even sniff curiously at traditional RSS feeds. Eventually they'll try and change the name to something like NNO, until everyone realizes that's '666' on their touch-tone dial.

Flop :: Analytics
That's right, analytics (AKA web stats). Don't get me wrong, we love analytics. But they're gonna flop big-time in 2009 when everyone looks at everyone else and says "Holy crap. There's no standards!" If a pageview on Google Analytics isn't a pageview in Omniture, how the hell can anyone compare anything? Look for 2010 to be the Year of the Standards, and for someone to make millions of dollars talking about "Analytics 2.0". At which point, they will be beaten severely with "lead pipe 2.0".

Learn more about JDM's upcoming "2009 Marketing Trends" report and register to receive it a full month before it's publicly available.

Pre-Register for 2009 Marketing Trends Report

2009-01-02T05:43:00.000-06:00

Big Marketing Ideas blog readers are offered a chance to pre-register to receive JDM's 2009 Marketing Trends paper this month prior to its public release in late February.

Follow this link to pre-register for our 2009 Marketing Trends paper.

Light-Hearted Internal Marketing

2008-12-22T04:38:00.001-06:00

Sometimes JDM's blog can be a little too serious. For those of you who agree, I submit the following.

It's about 3 minutes long, but a perfect example of a creative, low-cost way to communicate a marketing message that doesn't feel like a sales pitch. Enjoy!

2009 Marketing Trends Survey

2008-12-18T17:27:00.004-06:00

2009 may be the most pivotal year of this decade. Having the latest and most forward-looking information regarding marketing, advertising and public relations will be critical in the year to come. That’s why JDM is developing our 2009 Marketing Trends paper and we’d like your input.

Take our 1-minute marketing in 2009 survey at: www.MarketingHasEvolved.com/2009 and receive an advanced copy of the report before it's made available to the public.

Marketing in a Down Economy - without Discounts

2008-12-01T21:47:00.001-06:00

Amid concerns that this year’s black Friday would be weak, retailers got off to a better-than-expected start. Deep discounts encouraged consumers to spend an additional 7.2% more than they did last year. Momentum ebbed on Saturday however, raising concerns that shoppers were merely exploiting those massive sales discounts.

The question becomes, can retailers survive this economic downturn without resorting to deep discounts? To answer it, we asked our own Justin Downey to give us a few big ideas regarding marketing in a down economy—sans discounts? Here are his thoughts:

Sometimes marketers are under such pressure to offer discounts they fail to realize the unsustainability of those promotional plays. Before you rush to the bottom, consider the following:

One :: Discounts Do Not Equal Value

In uncertain times, people are looking spend less, but that does not necessarily mean paying the absolute lowest price. The perception of “value” or “bang for your buck” becomes the paramount concern. If you are spending more wisely, why waste it on a poor quality product just because it’s “cheap”. Think of Target’s “Expect More, Pay Less” campaign. Simply-put, they increased the quality and selection of their products while keeping the price about the same.

Two :: Security is Important

While we’re talking about “value” and consumer perceptions, security and safety are also important components. Offering longer warranties, promoting the Brand as stable with a long life ahead of it will all help to build a level of comfort in a time when even the largest businesses seem venerable.

Three :: One Size Does Not Fit All

While consumer spending and confidence are down, businesses like to make rash decisions and treat all potential customers as “deal seekers.” Beware, a broad-stroked strategy like this is often a mistake. When times are lean, a deep understanding of the differences in your customer based will have a pronounced effect on your business performance.

Four :: Protect the Brand

If your brand is like Walmart, now is a great time to keep your brand promise. For everyone else who’s brand has rested in areas like innovation, services, selection, quality, etc., switching to a model based solely on discounts may make recovery impossible. Consider showcasing how your attention to innovation has paved the way for your relentless, consistent consumer value.

Don’t believe me? Keep a close eye on Neiman Marcus. They’re making deep discounts into a Brand that has stood for innovation, quality and stature for 100 years, now they’re looking like Macy’s. How could they ever recover in the long-term what they’ve given up to stay afloat in the short-term?

Five :: Find the Mid-Term Opportunity

Speaking of Neiman’s, there is no doubt consumer and business customers will be seeking value in response to the pain and uncertainty in the economy. However smart marketers with the resources and vision to consider alternative strategies in the mid-term are those that will come out on top.

As my dad used to tell me, "Don’t sell your car for gas money."

Related Resources:

Holiday Hiring Frenzy Needs Answered with VoiceScreener

2008-11-25T16:54:00.005-06:00

harQuen (pronounced "har * ken") unveiled the beta version of VoiceScreener on November 23 of this year.

VoiceScreener lets its account holders set up a web-based dashboard to develop and distribute custom-recorded phone interviews so business owners, hiring managers or recruiters can quickly and efficiently find those perfect candidates. VoiceScreener couldn't come at a better time--especially in this holiday job market.

Employers easily set up a VoiceScreener account and create as many job campaigns as they like online. They then record their greeting, the screening questions and send applicants invites through an automated email. Applicants respond to the invitation online enter their phone number and wallah -- the VoiceScreener magic online assistant calls them to conduct the interviews and the employer can easily screen the results at their convenience.

Of course VoiceScreener was not designed to take the place of live interviews, but like many other types of pre-screening tools available online today, it does help you get to the short list quickly and easily.

Opponents of the technology argue it may appear a little impersonal. A cold, automated phone system could drive away potentially good candidates, but that’s just more of a reason to spend a little time adding a dash of corporate culture into the recorded questions.

Alternative uses for the technology include:

Qualitative Phone Surveys
Customer Testimonials for use in Audio Podcasts or Customer-Focused Radio Ads
Market Research

Check out HRmarketer’s blog post, "Pre-recorded phone interviews the easy way with VoiceScreener" for more information and a special HRM blog reader promotion. Don’t forget to subscribe to their blog too. It’s an excellent source of news and information regarding the Human Resource Marketplace.

Interested in something a little less corporate? Check out Comic Wonder, a competitive joke telling site, also from harQuen.

Retooling the Automotive Industry

2008-11-18T07:58:00.002-06:00

The US automotive industry is famously miss-managed. According to the Associate Press, General Motors (GM) posted $2.5 billion in losses just in the third quarter of this year. They have already announced they could run out of capital by the end of 2008!

GM's management (much like the other 'Big 3' automakers) has resorted to tactics of old like trying to boost liquidity, slashing production, boosting sales, and suspending their 401K matching program. All of these are business band-aids and a Public Relations nightmare.

Everyone's talking about the problem; few offer solutions that don't amount to huge government subsidies.

I've given it a lot of thought and here are two things JDM would do if we were in charge of the Auto Industry, or at least GM.

:: "On-Demand" Sales and Production

Imagine keeping an inventory of only about 20 cars for test drives and curb appeal. Now imagine a kiosk-based sales process similar to Dell's custom computer purchasing model.

Besides simplifying the purchasing/financing process, this would also greatly reduce GM's cash-flow problems as they try to predict future consumer spending and market trends during design and manufacturing. Imagine test driving a car you’re really interested in and then custom-designing your actual car with all the options, colors, extras you want and none that you don’t.

They need to be thinking Dell, not Henry Ford. We’ve come a long way since the Model T. It's time their business model caught up.

:: Less Innovation; More Renovation

Why does a "new" automobile model have to come out every year? Imagine the huge savings in research, design and manufacturing if truly "new" model cars and trucks only hit the market once every three years.

If car manufacturers shifted their focus from developing automobiles on such a limited time-frame and spent that extra time and money on developing really great, recall-free cars with extended warranties, they would go a long way to digging themselves out of this hole.

Of course, they could offer models equipped with the latest technology yearly or even quarterly, but we don’t need their best attempts at a new model each and every year. The costs are far higher than the opportunity yields—especially in this market.

That's our two cents. What do you think?

The Brand Bubble: Don’t blame the brand - blame the business.

2008-11-13T17:28:00.004-06:00

John Gerzema and Ed Lebar recently published a book which speaks to a previously unknown bubble in the US economy. This bubble represents $4 trillion dollars in the S&P market capitalization alone. It's twice the size for the subprime mortgage market and accounts for one-third of all shareholder value.

Give up? It's 'brand value'!

The book is entitled “The Brand Bubble: The looming crisis in brand value and how to avoid it.” Learn more about it on their website: www.thebrandbubble.com.

Marketers refer to 'brand value' as the value consumers put on one brand over (or under) another. Think of it as how much more you would pay for brand name paper towels versus the store-brand stuff.

The Brand bubble alleges that investors are irrationally overvaluing brands as consumer brand loyalty falls dramatically.

Here’s the thing.

This Brand Bubble (if there is one) is likely relegated to the highly homogenized products and services of the B2C marketplace. Are you particularly brand loyal to Pfizer's drugs over Bristol-Myers Squibb's? I doubt it.

This Brand Bubble really comes down to those businesses who have been riding their own coat-tails far too long. They may promise new and better, but we end up with tried and true. The only way consumers and investors will see them beginning to live up to their name is when that bubble deflates a little. If a business is only worth its logo, then the bubble could burst. Since any investor who chooses his or her investment portfolio based on those businesses with the pretties logo deserves a swift kick in the pocketbook, I see no danger here.

The Brand Bubble may be crying “The sky is falling!”, but we all know how that turns out.

Branding is an important part of a successful business. However, when consumers look to the less expensive, generic product, don’t blame the brand—blame the business.

Related Links:

Learn about Rebranding on our post: “Ruin a Rebranding in 5 steps.”
Having a Brand Identity crisis? Check out JDM’s Brand Identity services page.
How do your favorite brands measure up? Check out The Brand Bubble’s BrandAsset Valuator.

Take a Vote Hour

2008-10-30T13:54:00.003-05:00

In the last election in 2004, 20% of registered voters who didn't make it to the polls said they were "too busy" or had conflicting work schedules (2004 US Census).

The Vote Hour is an independent, bipartisan effort among domestic CEOs and business owners to publicly announce their support for employees to take one hour away from the office to cast their vote for the next President of the United States.

All JDM employees will be granted their Vote Hour so their voices can be heard on November 4th.

Spread the word, forward this post and tell the country to take a Vote Hour. It's the most important job we have on Election Day.

Learn more about the Vote Hour movement at: www.VoteHour.org

2008 Internet Advertising Report Published

2008-10-29T15:30:00.001-05:00

UK-based, Research and Markets announced yesterday the completion of their "Internet Advertising Market Assessment 2008."

Here's the gist:

93% of respondents have Internet access from home
Of that 93%, 92% had broadband access at home, at work, or in their place of education
82% of respondents reported shopping online this year
48% reported being deterred from shopping due to perceived risks of fraud
57% stated they were influenced to go online by offline media, like magazines
Traffic driven from other online advertising activities remained stable since 2006
28% stated they had clicked on Internet advertisements
52% reported that rich-media Internet advertisements worked better or attracted more attention
There was a 6-percentage point growth in installed internet advertisement blockers

Read the full release on Research and Markets’ website.

Is this data good news or bad news? Bring on the comments!

Mistakes Marketing Professors Make

2008-10-27T13:00:00.006-05:00

In last Monday’s Wall Street Journal, there was an article titled "Mistakes Marketers Make" written by Dr. David Corkindale from the Universirty of South Australia's International Graduate School of Business.

Unfortunately, Dr. Corkindale understands how to write the kind of article editors love to publish (i.e. trying to turn conventional wisdoms on their head) however; these "mistakes" are really his "misconceptions". Let’s take six--one at a time.

Misconception 1: Companies Need to Find and Target the Market Segments for Their Brands.

Wrong says Dr. Corkindale. Aim at the broader market. The profiles of those who buy different brands in a particular product category are not that different. Marketers who only target a certain buyer lose potential business - and spend unnecessary market research dollars on segmenting the market. In one recent marketing study, nearly 50% of consumers said they bought the same brand of gasoline regularly. However, after studying their purchasing behavior for 6 months it was found they only bought their brand 6% of the time.

Ironically, Dr. Corkindale has over-generalized his attack on targeting. Targeting is not a broad tactic. By its very nature it is designed to help tailor a marketing message for maximum effectiveness. Gasoline brand-loyalty is a terrible example. It's a limited homogeneous product. No one drives an extra 3 miles for brand loyalty when you’re running out of gas. Instead, ask yourself, "Pepsi or Coke?"; "Mac or PC?"; "Marlboro or Camel?".

Targeting and market research works. Otherwise, we’d shoot from the hip with a potato gun and hope we get close to our ideal buyers. This misconception stems from drawing broad generalities from minute observations. Anyone can see that logic gap.

Misconception 2: Loyal Customers are the Most Valuable.

Wrong again, according to Dr. Corkindale. Totally loyal buyers of a brand tend to make up only 10% of all buyers - and they often buy less frequently than other buyers. A company that focuses on gaining and retaining these buyers may not be doing the smartest thing.

First off, no customer is "totally loyal." Furthermore, how does Dr. Corkindale define a "loyal" customer? I would assume that a customer that buys less frequently than others is not a particularly loyal customer.

Loyal customers are indeed valuable. They can become the champions of your Brand. Treat every customer as the most valuable customer, but provide incentives for loyalty. Without loyalty, any incumbent competitor can swoop in and take all your hard-earned customers.

Misconception 3: To Succeed, You Must Differentiate Your Product.

Not according to Dr. Corkindale who says that doing so restricts your product's appeal to the small set of customers who like what you did differently. What most customers want is not differentiation but products or services that are simply better at doing the routine things they expect.

That is differentiation. It's crafting a message that demonstrations how your product or service 'does it better, faster or cheaper'. That’s the whole point. Without any differentiation, you're "me too"-marketing. Someone please remind Dr. Corkindale that necessity is the mother of invention—not marketing.

Misconception 4: Promotions Bring in Extra Worthwhile Business.

Nope - promotions just attract people who were already customers. The result? Giving discounts to the people who would have bought anyway. And the new customers you do attract often don't become frequent customers, says Dr. Corkindale.

This may be true, but not because promotions or incentives are a common marketing mistake. It's because they're commonly poorly executed. Most people don't have the faintest clue how to generate a buzz, develop a power-play promotion, and derive ideal buyers out of it such that the whole thing creates a positive return.

Give away a chance to win a tropical island with every can of soda, and you’ll convert very few new, loyal customers. Offer the latest iPhone with twice the memory at 1/3rd the original price, and watch everyone in America storm your stores.

Misconception 5: The Company that is best at Marketing the Four P's (product, placement, price, promotion) Wins.

Half correct says Dr. Corkindale who says that equally important is "brand strength". A strong brand is one that people trust and that has a track record of high quality and reliability. Companies need to do everything possible to nurture their brands.

There's nothing wrong with Branding. However, like a celebrity spending more time worrying about their public image than honing their craft, too many companies over-emphasize brand nurturing. It's hardly on par with the 4 P’s.

Misconception 6: Marketing is All About Hunting and Capturing Clients.

Not anymore says Dr. Corkindale. The Internet has changed everything. Consumers proactively hunt out and evaluate you online. They use the internet to find and make choices about the products they buy.

Try again, Dr. Corkindale. Customers are usually passive hunters until something peaks their interest in seeking you out. Maybe a potential customer is looking for a Halloween costume and so Googles it to find online shops. Building an optimized website, developing channels for traffic to enter your website and making it as easy as possible to make a purchasing decision are key to acquiring these customers. All are marketing activities designed to acquire and retain customers online. In other words, we might not be stalking our prey online, but we can set traps and use lures.

Although writing an article highlighting the mistakes in conventional marketing wisdom will get you published in the Wall Street Journal, it doesn’t mean you’re right. Marketing by its very nature is more art than science. There are no over-arching right and wrong ways to market. It takes an approach focused on the specific not on the general—a common misconception in Academia.

Now That's a Scary Direct Mail Campaign!

2008-10-22T19:22:00.002-05:00

I've always liked Halloween. No other holiday combines our love of bite-size candies, silly costumes and scary stories. In the spirit of Halloween, here's a scary direct mail campaign and it's a true story!

Let's Mail Severed Feet!

While working on a dimensional direct mail campaign with an HR services firm, the idea arose that there exists a company that sells chocolate feet. "Get our foot in the door!" exclaimed one of the marketing team members.

Soon the discussion meandered off course to whether we should send white or dark chocolate feet to prospects when the team leader stopped the conversation dead with a simple question, "Where is the mail list primarily focused?"

"Texas." Someone replied.

"It's 104 degrees in Texas right now! The chocolate will no doubt melt and the effect will be us sending what looks like severed, rotting human limbs to our prospects. Why don’t we just send chocolate horse heads while we’re at it?"

There was a long silence in the large conference room until someone muttered, "Their website doesn't offer chocolate horses..."