The SystemicMarketing web site and blog will launch next month, but in the meantime they have asked the top marketing book authors, marketing professors, marketing analysts, and CMOs on Twitter to share their favorite definitions of marketing. Here are a few, but the rest can be viewed on their website:

My definition of marketing goes something like this:

“Good ideas are a dime a dozen, but implementation is priceless!” - Mike Blaney

“Marketing is how value is created, commuted, and communicated from a firm or person to a customer.”
–Dave Aron, Associate Professor at Dominican University
www.Twitter.com/ProfAron

“Marketing encompasses activities that maximize the value to the customer and the return on investment when bringing a product or service to market.”
–Sam Decker, Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice
www.Twitter.com/SamDecker

“Good marketing is developing trust between a consumer and a product. Great marketing is developing trust between a consumer and a product without the consumer even knowing it happened.”
–Jesse Friedman, Professor at Johnson & Wales University
www.Twitter.com/Professor

“Marketing: to identify, acquire, and retain higher-margin clients.”
–David Harkleroad, Chief Marketing Officer at Hay Group
www.Twitter.com/DavidHarkleroad

Marketing is communicating to your customers and prospects what you want them to do and why.”
–Simms Jenkins, Author of “The Truth About E-mail Marketing” from FT Press
www.Twitter.com/SimmsJenkins

“Marketing is understanding customers’ needs, and then fulfilling those needs better than anyone else.”
–Jim Lyons, Professor at the University of Phoenix
www.Twitter.com/JFLyons

Marketing is telling a story to a targeted customer segment that they want or need to hear — resulting in some behavior change or transaction. In order to build a long-term relationship with the customer, the story must be valuable, relevant, compelling, and consistent, and must truly solve the customer’s pain points.”
–Joe Pulizzi, Coauthor of “Get Content, Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing” from McGraw-Hill
www.Twitter.com/JuntaJoe

Marketing is the process of persuading others that what you have is what they’ve always wanted.”
–Michael Stelzner
Author of “Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged” from WhitePaperSource Publishing
www.Twitter.com/Mike_Stelzner

“Marketing is an integrated communications process which develops messaging that attempts to gain attention from people in order to accomplish specific objectives.”
–Eric Yaverbaum
Coauthor of “Public Relations For Dummies: Second Edition” from John Wiley & Sons

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

The big 4 webmail services are Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail and while their users should generally behave in the same manner there are subtle differences that a marketer should be aware of. The most obvious one is that Hotmail is used by more home users and I would think a younger audience versus Gmail which is used by a lot of business people.

MailChimp, an email distribution service studied success metrics for marketing e-mails sent through  these 4 services showed that Gmail users were most likely to open and click on e-mails. Another important metric, open rate, varied from a low of just over 20% for e-mail sent to AOL users to a high over nearly 31% among Gmail users. The click rate, or the number of times users clicked on links on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts was more than 7.4%, compared with rates between 4% and 5% for Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail users.

Open Rates
Hotmail-23.8 %
Yahoo! Mail -24.5 %
AOL- 20.1%
Gmail- 30.9%

Emails Sent
Hotmail – 63.5 million
Yahoo! Mail – 54.8 million
AOL – 28.8 million
Gmail – 29 million

According to comScore, Gmail is the third-most-popular e-mail property among US Internet users, though it posted the highest growth rate between July 2008 and July 2009. Unique visitors to the service rose 46% to nearly 37 million.

Top  Email Properties (thousands)
Yahoo!Mail – 87,224 (2008) 106,166 (2009) Up 22%
Windows Live Hotmail – 45,886 (2008) 47,115 (2009) Up 3%
Gmail – 25,304 (2008) 36,959 (2009) Up 46%
AOL – 45,111 (2008) 36,407 (2009) Down -19%

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

In a post I wrote in April 2009 titled Coupon Use Hits Early 1990’s Level I reported that coupon

There's a coupon in here somewhere!

redemption in the fourth quarter of 2008 grew nearly 10% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

In 2008 there was a 5% increase in the number of coupons made available to consumers for a total of 317 billion coupons. This distribution is not just up over the previous year, but is back up to levels from a decade ago.  If there are 330 million people in the US that would mean there were 960 coupons distributed per person.

Text messaging and email are quickly emerging as ways to obtain coupons in the US, with 8.6 million (8%) of the country’s households currently using one or both of these methods to receive money-saving offers, according to an analysis from Scarborough Research (pdf) that explores and ranks the ways households obtain coupons.

According to the study consumers who obtain coupons via text messages and/or email tend to be young, affluent, educated and female, the study found. Scarborough data revealed that they are 14% more likely than the average adult to be ages 18-24; 51% more likely to be a college graduate or have an advanced degree; and 6% more likely to be female.

Ways Households Typically Obtain Coupons (%)

• Sunday newspaper 51%
• In-store coupons 35%
• Mail 31%
• Preferred customer card/loyalty card    21%
• In-store circulars 20%
• Weekday newspaper 17%
• Product packages 16%
• Magazines 15%
• Text Messages and/or Email 8%
• Internet Sites    7%
  (Source: Scarborough Research, Scarborough USA+ Study, Release 2 2008)

It is interesting how often we read about the demise of the newspaper, but I forecast it will be many years before coupons distributed through text messaging and email come anywhere close to the levels of newspapers.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

You may think you are alone in celebrating Halloween, but nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of Americans were planning to celebrate Halloween in 2008 and spend an average of $66.54, according to the National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch. This compares to actual 2007 results showing $5.07 billion was spent and  58.7% of consumers saying they planned to celebrate Halloween. So don’t miss out this year.

Click for a larger image

The best way to celebrate with your clients and prospects and show your appreciation is by handing out treats in a Halloween candy box complete with your branding on it.

These candy boxes are the perfect size
4-3/8″ long by 1-7/8″ wide by 2-5/8″high plus the roof

They come in two styles; Jack-o-Lantern or Trick or Treat

They are food-grade and sturdy, glossy cardboard construction

You can have your logo or a message imprinted in the  2″ x 1-1/4″ oval (See below)

The Cost*
Qty   200 – $0.99 ea
Qty   300 – $0.89 ea
Qty   500 – $0.79 ea
Qty 1000 – $0.59 ea
* Plus $ 19.99 set-up fee. Slightly higher in Canada.

How will people celebrate Halloween? People will celebrate Halloween in a variety of ways

• Handing out candy (73.7%)
• Carving a pumpkin (44.6%)
• Decorating (50.3%)
• Dress in costume (35.3%)
• Throw or attend a party (31.1%)
• Take children trick-or-treating (33.6%)

Consumers will spend an average of $24.17 on Halloween costumes (including costumes for adults, children, and pets) in 2008. They also will be buying candy ($20.39 on average), decorations ($18.25) and greeting cards ($3.73).

Samples of 4 color imprinting of a message and logo. The “Talk to Keehn” imprint is the name of the client.

Imprint for Customer boxes. (Click for larger image. )

Click for larger image

This post is specific to users of Ubertor websites, but if you are thinking of a website or upgrading your existing one please visit my demo site at www.mikeblaney.com.

Ubertor websites are the most cost-effective way for small businesses and Realtors to have a professional and effective internet presence….without breaking the bank. Realtors pay as little as $ 37.00 a month with no contract to sign and commercial websites are only $ 9.99 a month.

As an Approved Vendor for Ubertor I am excited to extend a special offer that makes your decision even easier; the first 4 months for $ 1.00. Click here to register your website using my vendor code and let me know when you want to get started. Fantastic websites start at as little as $ 150.00. No really.

For existing Ubertor users I have compiled this list of 12 great enhancements and upgrades to update your website and attract more visitors.

1. Update to the new modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen template like this one you are looking at in the light red theme. Other colors such as blue, green and gold are available) The biggest difference you will see right away is the size of the listing photos. Click here to see the actual size difference. It will impress both the vendor and the buyer.
2. Add the Featured Listings widget to the home page (Click here and look on the right) This is a $ 295.00 value that I can offer as part of my basic package.
3. Activate the Active Listings Map (Click here) This is a great way for people to pinpoint where your listings are.
4. Add a Twitter Widget to the home page (Click here and look on the left) If you are not on Twitter I can explain the pros and cons help you sign up if you are interested.
5. Add the SEO package for anyone at the $ 55.00 or $ 77.00 level (no charge for the option, but there is a fee to optimize your website) This allows you to customize the page title with a keyword phrase and a unique title for each page which appears as a more compelling sentence in the blue link on Google. You can also set your meta keywords, meta description (shows in Google as black text) and page description which is used for the site map.
6. Add flash banners (Click here for a good commercial application of flash banners or go to my website to see samples of exciting new banners you can add to your website) If you are upgrading from an old style Ubertor website we can add new banners or upgrade your existing ones. Click here for a few samples.
7. Add custom Status and Badges (Click here and see the badge that reads “Incredible Investment”) There is a limit to the number of characters, but the font color and background can be customized.
8. Add a custom tab to your listings to highlight features or important information (Click here for a Special Features sample complete with photos)
9. Update your home page with search engine friendly content with outbound links. My home page is an example of one that is informative, is sprinkled with keywords and has links to other websites; all things that search engines look for. You need to write about yourself, the areas you work on, the types of homes  in the area and anything else related to real estate. This is what the search engines look for.
10. Start blogging with relevant content to attract buyers and sellers. Don’t believe me? Type a search on Google with the words “Ambleside open house” and I bet at least 9 out of the 10 results will lead back to an Ubertor blog. Ubertor blogs are MAGNETS for search engines and if you do not have the time or inclination and want to improve your search engine rankings then you can hire us. We have a number of “ghost blogging” options available that will get results. Check out our Guest Blogging Service
11. Add photographs to your website. By adding photographs with descriptive “alt tags” your website will be more interesting and the description gets indexed by search engines for image searches. If someone is looking for an image of your city they might be planning to move there! We have a library of pictures that we can use on your website or we can locate the right ones for you.
12. Add relevant content that search engines can index and will result in the right people finding your website. If you are stumped then let us do it for you. Typically we can add a page of content for as little as $ 45.00 per page. Examples are Important Community Numbers, Top 10 Lists for Buyers, Schedule of Events for your area, Community Information (with lots of outbound links), Checklists etc

Please email me at marketingguy2shaw.ca or call me at 800-568-8338 to discuss your requirements.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

There are three inalienable truths about building your business through referrals; you need to ask for referrals in person, you need to make it as easy as possible for someone to pass on a referral to you and you need to make the referring person aware of how grateful you are for them thinking about you and your business.

Okay there are at least 10 other truths, but start with these three and your business will thrive.

But why doesn’t your phone ring off the hook with client’s referring you to their friends and associates? I think it boils down to these three myths that many of us believe in about referrals.

Myth # 1.  Customers Know What You Do and How Your Services Can Benefit Their Friends

Fact: Not in a million years. When was the last time you told them?

Never assume that they are fully aware of the many services you provide and how those services

The Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus

can benefit your clients’ associates. In fact you may be surprised at how little your clients know about what services you offer. They rarely know exactly how your services can benefit their friends or associates or even if your services are appropriate for others.

If your clients are confused about which services you offer and which ones would benefit their associates, they probably won’t refer you. It is important to simplify your services and describe them in easy to understand terms that everyone can understand. It’s also important to focus on just one or two of your services when you follow up with your clients. Make it easy for your clients to refer you.

Myth # 2. Your Business is Uppermost in Your Clients’ Minds At All Times

Fact: Give your head a shake! They don’t even think about you because they are too busy with their own lives and business.

Your clients rarely think about your business and your services. They have a million more pressing matters that they must address. This is one of the most costly misconceptions small business owners have about their customers. They think their prospects and customers will remember them when they are ready to buy.

That coupon or even gift certificate you gave them six months ago is hidden under a pile of unread magazines, or under the refrigerator.

If you want to bring your business to the top of your clients’ minds, then you must follow-up with them on a consistent basis, with helpful information and special offers.

Myth # 3. Your Clients Are Always Looking for Referrals for Your Business

Fact: Not even your mother is.

Have you ever had someone hand you a stack of his or her business cards and then say, “If you come across anyone who you think might be able to use my services, please pass along one of my cards”? What did you do with those business cards? Round-filed them? Threw them away? No one keeps your business cards in their pocket just waiting for an opportunity to promote your business.

Almost always the referral comes when someone is talking to your client/customer about your particular service or business and a light goes on and they say “I know so and so and think they would be able to help / sell / assist you”.

One last stumbling block which could be myth number 4. Your clients know you need referrals to build your business. To the outside world we are all doing well and it does not appear we need business. You are probably telling people how busy you are which is a sure sign you don’t need referrals. Stop! Let people know you would like their referral business and they will start to think more about how they can help.

A recent survey of 1,000 individuals to discover how much men and women differ in the home-buying process by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC produced some expected results for marketers. Men and women make purchase decisions differently.

Communications Research (ICR) were commissioned to  ask the following  questions such:

1. “How long did it take for you to know that the last home you purchased was right for you?”
2. “If you found the home of your dreams but had concerns about its security, would you still be interested?”
3. “Who wears the pants in the relationship when it comes to making major financial decisions?”

Here is a summary of the results:

Women may be inclined to make up their mind more quickly than men …
When asked how long it took before they knew their home was “right” for them, almost 70 percent of women had made up their mind the day they walked into the house, vs. 62 percent of men. Conversely, significantly more men needed two or more visits: (32 percent of men vs. 23 percent of women).

Women would rather live closer to their extended family than to their job …
55 percent of women find it more important to be closer to their extended family (those that do not live in their household) than to their job, compared to only 37 percent of men.

A home’s security is a deal-breaker for both men and women …
64 percent of women said that if they found the home of their dreams but had concerns about its security, they would no longer be interested. More than half of men agreed (51 percent).

Couples say that no one “wears the pants in the relationship” in terms of major financial decisions …
When asked who wears the pants in the relationship (when it comes to major financial decisions, such as purchasing a home), almost 70 percent of respondents living with their significant other said it’s actually mutual.

However, 23 percent think that they, themselves, wear the pants in the relationship, not their partner. More men than women said this (26 percent vs. 20 percent, respectively).

Men and women agree on how they would use a spare room, for the most part …
When the respondents were asked how they would use an extra 12 x 12 room if it could be anything they wanted, men and women agreed on the top three most popular, and very practical, responses:
Bedroom: 25 percent
Office/Study: 15 percent
Family Room / Den: 11 percent
However, men really do want a “Man Cave”…

Interestingly, out of the 8 percent who indicated they would turn that spare room into an entertainment center, it was  men leading the charge.  In fact, four times as many men as women said they would use the extra space for recreation / entertainment.

A while back I wrote a post called Twelve Quick Insights On How Marketing Impacts Women Differently Than Men based on the book by Marti Barletta “Marketing to Women: How to Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market.” According to Marcia Sutter, Director Client Services of the TrendSight group “Chances are that women are the primary purchasers for virtually everything that your readers are selling. They control more than 80% of all consumer spending and represent the majority of corporate decision makers as well.” You can pick up a copy of Marti’s book and visit her website at www.trendsight.com to learn more about this lucrative market.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

I have a Google Profile which can be found at http://www.google.com/profiles/mike.blaney.

Why? My first reaction was to make sure no one else took the name just like on Facebook where I registered http://www.facebook.com/mikeblaney as soon as the personalization feature became available. A Google account seems to act as a business card on the internet. One application is if you do not have a website or blog, but you want to introduce yourself to someone, just send them a link to your Google profile where they can learn more about you.

What is a Google Profile? “A Google profile is how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.”

You can also allow people to find you more easily by enabling your profile to be searched by your name. Simply set your existing profile to show your full name publicly.

If you are interested in creating your own profile you can follow this link http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=97703&hl=en

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

For those of you who subscribe to this blog I admit that this is a bit of an ad disguised as a blog post so you are forewarned. But if you or anyone you know wants to learn more about websites then it will be of interest to you. I can’t always blog about marketing because even a marketing guy needs to be marketing.

I  have been helping clients gain an internet presence for the past few years with most of them using a customizable, templated website from a company called Ubertor based in Vancouver, BC.  Coincidentally they were recently awarded the Most Innovative Web Service Award at the Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco.

The five main reasons I selected Ubertor as a supplier of websites are:

Click for a larger image

1. The sites are totally optimized for search engines.
2. They have a built in blog which attracts search engines like bees to honey.
3. There are no contracts. It is month to month.
4. They have a Content Management System in the back-end a 5 year old can use.
5. They are affordable. As low as $9.99 a month for a business or service. Real estate specific versions range from $ 37 to $ 77 per month depending on the number of listings etc.

And the number one reason is the new website design they have announced.

Take a look at my sample website using the light red theme which features some of the enhancements including an optional flash banner which really catches the reader’s eye. The first thing you will notice is the full screen width, enhanced menu bar and 3 column layout. There are about 20 different banners that you might find interesting.

The new template is modern looking, easier to navigate, full screen and displays information more effectively. It screams WEB 2.0!

It is a widescreen template with an excellent menu layout, 3 columns, customizable and comes in 14 different color combinations. (click here to see the blue samples)

ARE YOU READY TO TAKE YOUR WEBSITE TO THE NEXT LEVEL?

To kick off this new template I have a special offer for you. The first 4 months for only $ 1.00.  A savings of between $ 40 and $ 300 depending on which service you pick. Click here to register for the service or call me at 800-568-8338.

What if I am an existing Ubertor user?

While an existing Ubertor user can upgrade to the new template just by going to Set-up – Template and choose “Ubertor Top Widescreen Beta” there is one small catch and that is your existing banners are too narrow for the new look. That is where I come in. I have dozens of banners you can choose from, some of which you can see by clicking here or I can modify your existing banner to work with the wider template. Click here for examples.

On a more technical note the home page can now be customized with a number of embedded widgets or small programs such as:

• Search Site
• Agent Info (Business Card)
• Blog Items
• Custom HTML
• Page Content
• Listing Category
• Single Specific Listing
• Fetch content from external URL
• Featured Listings

What does an upgrade cost for an existing user?
My fee for a typical upgrade is in the range of $ 75.00 to $225.00 depending on the number of banners that need to be modified. The low range assumes one banner. It also depends on the number of widgets (see above) you want to add to the home page.  It might be a good time to have me update other things on your website to make it more search engine friendly.

How long does it take?
Typically by the next day the new template is fully operational.

Does everything I have work with the new template?
Yes the template has been fully tested.

How do I get started?
1. Pick a color.
2. Give some consideration to the banner or banners you would like.
3. Call me at 604-618-5512 or 800-568-8338 or send me an email.

What else can I add?
Ubertor has announced custom badges for your listing photos. See an example by clicking here where it says Incredible Investment across the listing picture. I can also offer at no charge the Featured Listing option which is normally a $ 295.00 one-time charge. This alone pays for the new website.

What if this is my first website?
Please call me to discuss the options and I will provide you an estimate. You can see samples of some of my website clients by clicking here. Most of them are Realtors, but with this new template I think this is the best solution of all for an y kind of business.

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.

To me a sale price should be a discount from a regular price and the two prices should be clearly marked so a shopper can make a comparison and determine if the sale price is of value? But what if you don’t know the original price. Is it really a sale?

A local restaurant launched a special month long promotion offering prices rolled back to the

Not a Sale

1990’s. They used banners at their location and advertised in the local newspaper which caught my eye.

As we go to this restaurant once a year and always found their food excellent I thought I would pack up the kids and check out what 1990’s pricing was like. Now they did not specify early 1990’s or late 1990’s so I wasn’t sure if we were rolling back 10 years or 20 years, but it still seemed like a great deal.

We arrived at the restaurant which seemed busy for a Tuesday night and were shown to our table. A crisp, new menu was handed to each of us and I eagerly opened it to see the difference in pricing between the 1990’s and 2009. The new looking menus should have prepared me for this, but there was no 2009 price stroked out with the 1990’s price beside it. There was no hint at comparison in fact. The regular dishes were there with a single price beside them.

When the waiter came by I cheekily asked him “How do we know that these are prices from the 1990’s?” His clever response was “Don’t they look lower than our regular prices?” I guess that would have been a fair question if I had been to the restaurant in June, but all I saw was Chicken Souvlaki at $ 12.95 and as far as I was concerned that seemed like a regular price to me. A poll around our table established that $ 12.95 was lower than most Greek Restaurants, but the lack of follow-through on what should have been a great promotion left me thinking I had been had..and the service wasn’t great either. Was service in the 1990’s bad?

If you enjoyed this article and don’t want to miss the next one click here to get my marketing posts by email as soon as they are published. You will be prompted for an email address and you are set to go.