The Tao of Marty summarizes the OVER (gain) versus UNDER (loss) philosophy we used to make over $30M in online sales with hundreds of thousands of orders. Want your ecommerce site to make money online? Read and share the Tao of Marty.
Research and publish the best content.
Get Started for FREE
Sign up with Facebook Sign up with X
I don't have a Facebook or a X account
Already have an account: Login
Startup Revolution
37.3K views |
+0 today
 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Biggest challenge to great web marketing may be learning to THINK like an Internet marketer. Here are 5 Secret Tips to help you become a great IMer: * Know your Over / Under. * Card Count & Double Down. * Become A Nowist. 
BogDan Wrzesinski's curator insight,
December 3, 2014 2:36 AM
:) — ♛♥♪♥ Well done. Come Invite URL http://tsu.co/GodSent247 @GodSent247 #tsu
Scoop.it!
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Quality Deserves Freshness QDF is important to "new SEO". This post & Haiku Deck share marketing, tactics & strategy tips so QDF works for not against you.
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Startup Tips From CEO Dognition - The Personality Test For Dogs
Lunch With Smart Dogs at Triangle Startup Factory
Kip Frey (www.linkedin.com/pub/kip-frey/36/b09/384 pictured in middle above) is a smart entrepreneur who one might say has "gone to the dogs". Kip spoke at Free Lunch Friday at +Triangle StartUp Factory today about Dognition (https://www.dognition.com/ ).
Dognition is a Myers/Briggs personality test for dogs. During an hour long fascinating conversation Kip made several points we've heard consistently from Chris and Dave at TSF such as:
* Ideas that "seem true" create their own momentum.
* Look for ideas that "create a new category".
* Ideas with great partnership hooks work best since partners help create scale with OPL (Other Poeple's Lists) and OPC (Other People's Content).
Dognition is a cool idea since we humans are always anthropomorphizing our animals. Now you can do a test AT HOME with your dog to figure out which one of 9 classifications your dog's personality falls within. You can compare your dog to dogs in your area, across the country or possibly the world (soon Kip mentioned they are already speaking to interested parties in China).
I found Kip and Dognition's #brandingstrategy fascinating. Kip and the team at Dognition spent a year working on the #DIY version of their test. They needed enough data shared by "citizen scientists" after taking their test that the hard work created in the lab held up even in the DIY home version.
"I think people are more interested in their dogs than in their DNA," Kip said at one point and I agree. There are 70M dog owning families in America (so one in three roughly) and each year brings 7M new dogs to market.
_____________________________________
Branding vs Scale
The tension between creating a brand with meaning and the scale necessary to support that meaning was interesting. Kip decided to do a deal with Purina One to gain scale. Sounds like he had to defend the sizable deal with his board because they were worried about "brand purity".
#branding is tricky. Too much scale too fast could marginalize the brand. The science at the core of the test is something that could be seen as goofy in the wrong context. By doing an exclusive with Purina One for 2014 Dognition gets millions in partner ad dollars - the test is a freebie if dog owners complete a 28 day "Purina One 28 Day Challenge" (http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page ).
Cool promo and great legitimacy for Dognition and possibly just the right amount of scale. Partnerships bring interesting challenges. Dognition can get swallowed whole by Purina, and can anyone spot the BIG #socialmarketing error on the Purina One challenge page? http://www.purinaone.com/dogs/28-Day-Challenge/main-page
ERROR - Love that Purina is using Tweets, but seeing 46 day old Tweets HURTS the social legitimacy of their campaign. A 46 day old tweet from a customer is fine IN ROTATION, but what if the only representation I see has old content?
When curating old and new social content from Purina and users always have something in the roll that is current, only several hours hold max. Using customer Tweets is brave, but stale in its current implementation. Even if the Purina staff creates Tweets today that related to something that happened 46 days ago have something current on social.
Building a #story off of #UGC is what +CrowdFunde is all about. Conversations require different #contentcuration and #contentcreation than promotional push. Purina One's misuse of #SMM is a perfect validation for a tool like CrowdFunde that helps create, curate and converse with the most valuable content on earth - User Generated Content (UGC).
By isolating old tweets without a clear understanding about why they are there, other than being self congratulatory, Purina destroys what they hope to build - active, alive conversations.
We think Dognition will have great conversations since learning your dog's personality feels like something MADE for social shares, but HOW you share social conversations is tricky as a big brand like Purina proves. Turning conversations into #engagemn and #loyalty is trickier still.
Cool talk today with many lessons for #startups and #Internetmarketers . Dognition is going to be on 60 Minutes in April and they will have a reality TV show on Nat Geo Wild so conversations will happen. Team at CrowdFunde wishes our fellow Durham #startup luck and a free CrowdFunde installation if they want to discover how to build community on a scale hard to knock down or duplicate...because building ongoing engagement after initial novelty is based on the quality, frequency and value of Dognition's (and any brand's) CONVERSATIONS!
Thanks to Kip for speaking with TSF startups today! Marty
PS. Kip asked for feedback on the Dognition site and since I know there are a lot of ecommerce conversion experts that follow me send me your thoughts and I will pull together 5 to 10 "would be better if" kinds of feedback for https://www.dognition.com/ .
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Without revenue a small business is just a hobby. So, how does a typical small business go about getting clients and revenue?
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Without revenue a small business is just a hobby.
Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns.
Great Curatti.com post by @CogentCoach Michael Nelson. Agree, " Without revenue a small business is just a hobby." Also agree, " Typical small business marketing follows a path of diminishing returns", but have a thought to add there.
Michael discusses the diminishing returns of a reference network that slowly decays out (from previous employer). Diminish returns also applies to many things Small to Medium Sized Business do to "advertise" their business.
All the networking, advertising and hand wringing a SMB does WITHOUT a viable website / blog is diminished by more than half. The ONLY way to assure what you did today GROWS is to create a "getting bigger everyday" online presence (period, full stop).
Important to find marketing that produces the opposite of "diminishing returns', marketing where you get MORE back from less effort over time. Michael describes this well too:
This saturation and frequency of use make digital marketing a great option for marketing and building relationships with your prospects and clients.
"While digital marketing is a great option, it is a confusing milieu of platforms, services, tools, etc. Rather than chasing about trying to do a bit of everything, it’s best to create a system and measure your results. When you get comfortable, you can add a bit more or expand your reach with your system."
"Create a system" or as P&G taught me all those years ago, "Work your plan" is important. Here are some tips for that system:
* Do a core set of activities DAILY.
* Always reserve 20% (or so) of your time to test new ideas, tools, websites, and partners.
* Reserve another 20% of your time to respond to and curate content from your previously shared content.
* Follow people who help you (since it is an online Thank You Note) and follow people you can learn from.
* Keep life and business in balance and don't get discouraged since it can take months or a year before content marketing begins to scale.
* Don't worry about "breaking" anything. Internet marketing is like building sand castles on the beach and the tide is always about to come in.
* Learn to SURF trends, don't try and wrestle them.
Great post and YES you must build a viable, sustainable and growing Digital Marketing Ecosystem if you want to do anything these days.
Marty
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Interesting, funny & sad watching car dealers create web & social marketing. Getting better is easy, fun and CHEAP as Web Marketing For Car Dealers shares.
We think of car dealers as "startups" because they need to start over and pivot their THINKING. Many of the tips shared in this Curagami post (http://www.curagami.com/magical-thinking/web-marketing-101-for-car-dealers/ ) such as:
* People not THINGS Sell.
* Stories and People, People and Stories...matter.
* Humanize your approach and thinking.
* Let THEM (customers and brand advocates) HELP.
apply to stsrtups too so killing a pair of birds with a single blog post today. Picture is of me (left) and Travis Lunsford in front of a ROGUE (seemed appropriate lol).
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
Warren Buffet's Haiku Deck Lesson
One of the hardest web marketing lessons my former Direct Marketing bosses taught was to think Darwinian thoughts. I wanted to improve laggards.
Don't waste your time, came the advice and important digital marketing lesson, double down on winners. This wise lesson was just taught again by Warren Buffett.
Warren's Tips For Startups Haiku Deck has been on top of the 36 decks I've created. I started watching views by deck several months ago and my DM bosses lesson holds true.
Warren Buffett's Startup Tips (http://shar.es/10AbWU )
Buffett Gains: 878
Total Views: 8,100
% Gain: 12%
Social Media: It's A Conversation Stupid (http://shar.es/10AHlZ )
Gains: 1,915
Total Views: 6,297
% Gain: 44%
Once again Buffett proves the rich get richer.
This truth doesn't mean Social Media: Its A Conversation is unimportant. Knowing what is trending is a CSF (Critical Success Factor) for any web marketing team, but Buffett does prove Darwin was a web marketing pro long before there was a web. Double down on winners and leave laggards stands as one of the most important "laws" of our web marketing ecosystem :). M
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
![10 Reasons Blogs, Articles and Guest Posts ROCK Startups via @jodyporowski [6 via @Scenttrail] | Startup Revolution | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/cctmqOim5s_uV-crLfoSeTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Marty Note
Love this Jody Porowski post since she shares directly and doesn't lay claim to expertise she doesn't have (rare). I also love here reasons for why content marketing matters beyond pure traffic generation such as:
1. Drive Traffic.
2. Increase Awareness.
3. Create new Connections.
4. Produce Warm Fuzzies.
Great list. I would add:
5. Creates online community (net effect of 1 - 4).
6. Voice is authority, authority is reputation, reputation is all.
7. Provides grappling hooks out to social media to accomplish #2.
8. Shares values and nonverbals communication such as WE LISTEN (especially when you curate or incorporate content from users).
9. Promotes User Generated Content (they won't share if you don't).
10. Define your USP and UCA (Unique Selling Proposition and Unique Customer Aspiration).
YES, we live in a post content-shock world, but construct a website without a voice and see how it performs (it won't). Stories, shared intimacy and risk form the basis of any successful online community. Remember 1:9:90 Rule says 1% of a site's visitors will advocate and share valuable UGC (User Generated Content), 9% will vote and share especially content from the highly trusted 1%ers and 90% read and visit (important to traffic numbers but hard to engage).
We used to think content and voice was the ante for an Ambassador Program or the creation of valuable brand advocates and Sheraps. Team Curagami changed our mind recently and now advise customers such as Moon-Audio.com (manufacturers amazing audio cables and sells high-end headphones and earphones) to ASK for help NOW.
Continue to develop content and voice since the more trusted you are the greater chance you have at the gold at the end of the web marketing rainbow - sustainable online community. BUT ASK FOR HELP immediately, specifically and often.
Such a great post by Jody I couldn't help adding a riff from my experience as a content marketer, content curator and former Ecommerce Director. Added to Startups Revolution because content marketing is one of the rocks many startups get hung upon. Don't over think content marketing and create something daily.
|
|
Scooped by Martin (Marty) Smith |
Scoop.it!
We are emotional people on a spiritual journey. Why is logic the most common approach to online selling? 5 Tips so your digital marketing makes less sense.
Startups BELIEVE in the widget. Talk to any Venture Capitalists and they will tell you they invest in teams not ideas. Ideas change. Teams capable of making the many pivots any new idea needs are worth their weight in gold.
Go to 100 startup websites and teams, if they are there, are pushed to the background as the WIDGET takes center stage. This is because we believe the way to "make a sale:" is to use logic.
Logic is tyranny when what we seek is emotional connection . This post shares 5 tips to avoid logic's tyranny:
* Listen More.
* Control Less, Collaborate More.
* As community forms listen and curate.
* Empower your advocates and Sherpas.
* MOVEMENTS not campaigns.
Startups need to forget the widget and remember we are spiritual beings having a human experience not the other way around.
|
|
Rescooped by Martin (Marty) Smith from MarketingHits |
Scoop.it!
As creatives, we all want to produce work that's unique and worthwhile, but this often seems at odds with the commercial pressure to cater to the lowest common denominator. Yet the mass market isn't the only market with money. Find the right niche market and you could be in business, producing work you love in a way that'll keep you going right up to retirement.
Marty Note
When my ex and I created FoundObjects.com (now gone except in the WayBckMachine) helping Magneitic Poetry Kit become a $50M specialty gift we discovered two important ideas:
* Everyone has a gift idea they want to share.
* Alternative distribution can create everything from a lifestyle business to a big win.
At Found Objects we used the web as a great B2C testing ground and to keep our B2B partners honest. If our B2B partners passed on something we thought was cool we could make a market for it ourselves via direct sales.
This Creative Bloq post updates our Found Objects experience with the many contemporary tools that can help a dreamer realize their dream even without a FoundObjects.com. Great Brian Yanish Scoop and post.
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com
