The Invention of Lying and Liar Liar toy with the idea of being incapable of telling a lie. What if this concept was applied to the world of marketing? What would advertisements and promotions look like?

Easy Choices

If companies were incapable of lying about their products, consumers may have an easier time with choosing a product or service. Think about it, you’re shopping for a used car and you’re torn between two selections. If the salesman was incapable of lying, he would tell you that the radiator has a crack in it, and it’s been in a flood.
Consumers spend hours shopping around and comparing products and services, but if a company is incapable of lying then those countless hours could become mere minutes.

Trust

If you can’t lie, then there is no need to be skeptical. Consumers tend to be critical by nature, but if you remove lying from the equation, then there is no need to be.

Ethics

One of the best examples for questionable ethical behavior and lying are the cigarette manufacturers. They knew for years that cigarettes were harmful and dangerous, but they continued to market them in an innocent light. If you remove lying from the equation, companies would be incapable of hiding the truth from the public. A lie-free world would create a sense of transparency. In turn, more companies may engage in ethical behavior. Those that don’t would probably lose business quickly.

Business As Usual?

So you can’t lie, big deal. Well, sometimes we need to. If you take away the ability to lie, you take away a buffer. In a lie-free world, trade secrets could be compromised, and confidentiality could cease to exist. Do you think products like Krispy Kream would exist if people knew how unhealthy they were from day one? Let’s revisit cigarettes. If consumers knew about the health risks that were associated with them from the time they were created, would anyone purchase them? Some companies need to lie to survive.

Walk The Walk

How many times have you purchased a product or a service, only to be disappointed with it later? Was it because of false promises and pretenses? If it was, a lie-free world could eliminate this issue.
People can expect so much from a company due to its marketing, but if it was completely honest, customers would know what to expect and nothing more. Puffery, which is responsible for a large portion of exaggerated expectations, would probably stop being used since it is a form of a white lie.

What’s the benefit of realistic expectations? Higher customer satisfaction. Since the customer no longer expects the product or service to deliver false promises, they can evaluate it in realistic terms and base their satisfaction off reality.

Also, customers no longer have to take a gamble when they try something new. They’ll know what sort of outcome to expect.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly…

You’ll be able to tell these businesses apart and determine if they are a good company or a bad company. If a business can’t lie, they can’t spin the facts in their favor, or if they do, they will have to tell you.

Shifting Tactics

The focus for marketing may shift from big sales to repeat business in a lie-free world. Businesses won’t be able to dazzle their customers with lies and empty promises. Instead, they’ll be forced to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of their product and figure out a way to market it to be appealing to their customers.

Over the top commercials may shift to a more dialogue oriented style where the product is described for what it is, and nothing more.

Also, the fine print and disclaimers associated with a product may change. I have a feeling that the fine print of a product would be less confusing if people were incapable of lying. Rebates and warranties would be easier to understand. Marketing promotions would be a lot more clear-cut as well.

True or False: I need to be on every platform.

Ok look, if you’re going to use social media marketing you should probably invest your time in a Twitter account and a Facebook account.  A majority of your customers and clients probably have an account as well, and you need to be where they are. Do you really need to have a Foursquare account, Digg account and an RSS feed? No! Don’t waste your time and energy on social media marketing accounts that are going to hardly be viewed or utilized. Keep it simple.

True or False: Social media is a fad.

Considering that Facebook users are multiplying like rabid rabbits, I would say this is false. Even Twitter seems to be hanging in there. Having said that, joining the social media world really isn’t bandwagon jumping or fad-following. It seems that social media accounts are becoming a necessary accessory for businesses.

True or False: You can brand without being online.

Sure, you can brand without having an online presence, but why would you want to? It’s like trying to bake a cake without all of the ingredients! It’s just not right! The internet is your friend, and if you use it properly it can be one of your best allies when it comes to branding yourself. Think back to the Old Spice commercials you saw on TV. Now I want you to go to Youtube and search for that same Old Spice Guy. Seriously, go do it…NOW! You probably discovered his question and answer segment where he actually answers questions from his Youtube viewers. The Old Spice Guy is an extension of the Old Spice brand because he is a persona, and he has expanded his persona to the online world. What’s the end result? Your brand is remembered and thought of in the real world.

True or False: I need a huge marketing campaign to create a brand.

False. Branding yourself can be as simple as creating a catchy slogan and/or pairing it with a great graphic. It doesn’t take television advertisements and print to get your brand out there. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing these days. Especially now that Twitter exists. Think about it, a customer has a positive experience with your business and they tweet about it. That tweet is seen by their friends. People tend to gravitate towards products that have personal testimonials attached to them because they trust their friends and family. You see where this is going don’t you? Before long, you could gain twenty customers because of one tweet.

Also, a brand doesn’t have to be a logo or a slogan. It can be a lifestyle or a piece of culture. Take Apple for example. Apple has created a culture around its company. Apple followers line up again and again for the latest and greatest product from them because they want to buy into their brand so they can be a part of the Apple culture. Think back to the I-pod commercials. They were hardly ground breaking; most of them featured shadowed people dancing around a colorful room. I wouldn’t exactly refer to that as a call to action.

Apple is successful because it markets an extension of itself.

True or False: If I make it, they will buy it.

You might have the perfect product, but if you don’t have the proper buzz around it your product could just sit on the shelf and collect dust. The same goes for services. You need to generate an interest in your product. Give out samples, show demos, promote on social media sites or even try more traditional marketing methods. You have to get the word out.

True or False: Spending more money on advertising means more results.

If you don’t build your brand, then no amount of advertising can help you. Advertising is trying to provoke a person to make a purchase. It’s persuasive material, and it’s biased. Sure, advertising is useful, but only after your product has proved itself credible. Why do you think businesses are eager to get their products featured on Oprah? She offers credibility because she tests her products before giving them her personal endorsement. Also, Oprah isn’t an infomercial or an advertisement.

True or False: You need a logo to brand yourself.

Zipbloc, Marlboro and Puffs are just a few examples of companies that don’t have notable logos. They’re recognized by their label and font only. Don’t believe the hype. A logo is not the end all, be all of branding. You can have a successful marketing campaign and brand yourself without a flashy image. This is great news for the budget conscious business person.

True or False: I don’t need to revisit branding after I’ve executed it.

The world changes, your customers interests change, and wants and needs shift over time. Why wouldn’t you revisit branding? It’s your job to connect with customers, and your brand is the best way to do so. However, if your brand is old and dated, customers won’t be able to connect and relate to you. You have to keep refreshing your persona and image.

True or False: My company is huge, so our branding strategy has worked.

Large companies are not immune to branding failures. In fact, if a branding campaign does not go over well, a larger company has more to lose. If you are a part of a small business, your clientele list is significantly shorter than a multi-million dollar corporation. What does this mean? If you experiment with branding, and it isn’t a successful campaign, you have less to lose because your brand only reaches a limited audience. A large company with national recognition could ruin its reputation and credibility in the eyes of millions of customers if their branding campaign goes belly-up.

Have you ever noticed that people tend to act differently when they are online? It seems that we’ve forgotten how to act, so  Momma Manners is here to deliver a much needed lesson.

Mind Your Manners
Do you have an online business or an online presence? If the answer is yes, then you need to be extra careful about your online persona. Your social media accounts and websites reflect your character. Wouldn’t it suck if you lost business because of some drunken Tweet you decided to post,  because you posted a disgruntled Facebook comment after dealing with an antagonizing co-worker? If you don’t think your clients are researching you, then you’re senile. Here is a challenge for you, search your name or your company’s name and see what the search results yield. Be sure to use more than one search engine.

I Deleted Everything!
The first thing you should remember is that nothing is truly deleted from the internet. You can remove a snarky comment on someone’s blog, but your unkind words are still floating out there in cyberspace.

How Should I Conduct Myself?
Carry yourself online the same way that you would in person. Don’t post or write anything that you wouldn’t want on the first page of a newspaper.

Spelling—Try to avoid abbreviations or poor spelling on your social media accounts and website. We know that social media accounts are more casual than an office e-mail, but it is better to be overly formal then to be unprofessional. Your websites and pages are a reflection of your organization, and of your own character. Don’t tarnish your presence.

Watch Your Temper

One of your clients may have made you mad, or maybe a fellow employee really ticked you off, but don’t air your dirty laundry online. It’s just embarrassing and immature. Employees are losing their jobs over social media postings, and you don’t want to lose clients over something you wrote. Think before you type!

Keep It Separated—Make a professional and a personal social media account. It sounds like common sense, but some people haven’t figured out that it isn’t a wise decision to merge the two. If you have a Facebook, you should have a personal account attached to your personal email, and you should have a professional account connected to your professional email. There is nothing wrong with friending your customers and clients, but you don’t want them associating on the same page as your crazy cousin.

Censor Yourself

If you don’t have anything nice to say ,don’t say it at all. It’s an oldie, but definitely a goodie. Yes, you can post statements under an annonymous screen name, but if someone finds out who you are, you’re screwed. Just don’t do it!

Friending

Don’t friend your boss on your personal Facebook account! That’s what LinkedIn is for.

Responding—If you’re going to have a fanpage or some other form of social media, you need to engage your followers. If they posted to you, take the time to respond to them.

Keep It Clean—You and your friends may have a cool nickname for each other, but don’t make it a screen name. Also, keep your clothes on! We know you worked hard for that Adonis figure, but if a client were to come across a half-naked picture of you, I’m sure they won’t be impressed.

I Can See You!

Yes, there are privacy settings, but the world is a small place. There are ways to work around privacy settings on social media pages and websites, so keep that in mind when you are writing your content and posting images.

Music—If your website has music make sure that it isn’t offensive. Sounds like a no-brainer, but we all know what happens when we assume.

Language and Tone—Don’t use profanity! Also, if you’re trying to portray a certain attitude through your website (like sarcasm), you may want to reconsider. Your written content may come across as funny to you, but it may come across as offensive to another. Language and tone should be a special consideration if you’re conducting business internationally. Remember that context of your message can be received differently; depending on who is reading your website or posts.

Ultimately, if you wouldn’t want your grandma to read it or see it, then maybe you should reconsider what you’re about to publish.

Now it’s 2010, and social media is embedded in the daily functions of our lives. Businesses check their media feeds while they have their first cup of coffee. News stories are now being broken on Twitter before a reporter can reach the scene. People are meeting in person through social media connections (Tweetups and Facebook events). Let’s not forget that people are also constantly connected to the internet through their cellphones, computer or laptop.
If social media is still just a silly trend in your mind, you’re probably behind the curve. My marketing professor told me, “In the business world, only the fastest survive.” He’s absolutely right. If you can’t stay current, then you’ll become obsolete.

Swim Fast or Die

Where are you?… what are you doing?… twitter made it popular, and if that didn’t make our current online sociali-sphere (made that up) a stalker’s heaven, location-based social networking just up the ante.

Almost every smart phone out today has some sort of Geo location capability. Whether it’s through an integrated GPS (real GPS) or estimating your location based on your nearest cell tower (Fake GPS), “They” know where you are at all times. Clever business guys took advantage of this fact, threw in a map and created the phenomenon of location-based social networking. It is estimated that by 2013, three of the major location-based social networking players will account for over 3.3 billion dollars in revenue! That’s a lot of cheddar. The fascinating thing is that analysts are speculating that this is just the beginning.

Imagine a world where businesses are fully tuned in to the where-a-bouts and geographic buying patterns of its consumers. Where brands can track and influence people in places where it was only possible to assume they would be. Have you seen “Minority Report”? No? good time to go watch it… Yes, that’s where I think it’s going. Companies will take the cookie cutter messages they threw up (I don’t mean vomit even though it’s close), on a billboard and make it feel more personal to you. I have been seeing more and more digital billboards on my daily commutes. Just imagine… you’re going down the street, you look up, and the billboard in front of you says, “Hey [insert name here], wanna party like it’s 1999?…Prince tickets on sale now”. Click, buy, done… I just bought Prince tickets. Join me.

Location-based social networking means more than just informing stalkers of your where-a-bouts, or a new tool that wives and girlfriends can add to their “check up” repertoire. For businesses it will create a whole new dimension of selling, less wasted money on making an ass out of you and…well, themselves.

Want to check out a good list of location-based social networks? Click Here. corner6Labs doesn’t actually officially endorse any of them…although Travis, our VP of Sales, seems to be a 4-Square junkie. Word of advice…don’t try to steal his “Mayor-ship” he is very possessive of them and rather competitive.

Happy Stalking!

BTW, are you going to the June 18th “Nothing But Net” event put on by the Magnus Media Group? We are! Send us a quick note on twitter to let us know you will be there. We will even say hi and buy you a big Junkie drink!

I came upon such a holy grail recently that I couldn’t help but sharing. “The Art of SEO” by Eric Enge and bunch of other people. As passionate as I am about SEO, I usually approach anything that has to do with the topic with reluctancy, because lets face it, most people tell you the same crap so called SEO experts have been spewing since 1994 (the good ole days of Infoseek). Here is the crap I am talking about, the question of question that just gets under my skin, and usually asked about a brand new website… “Is the website Search Engine Optimized?”. Maybe someone forgot the definition of optimization, but correct me if I am wrong, and I very well may be, how can you optimize something you haven’t had the chance to test and tweak? The question should rather be, “have you chocked enough self important keywords into the website’s meta keyword and title tag? and doused the content full of sentences that don’t make any sense because we had to get the keywords in there?”. Not to mention the fact that SEO is no longer just an on-site affair. Please don’t get me started, back to the book.

Armed with the reviews of the smart and good intentioned folks on amazon, I embarked on my bathroom reading journey of this book. The authors did an incredible job outlining a lot of theories missed by most other examiners of the SEO topic. The book gives you more ammunition to fight with than Rambo-in- the-middle-of-the-jungle-with-his-never-ending-supply-of-bullets-and-sharp-pointy-objects-carved-from-his-knife. Moreover, they point out one very crucial thing many SEO firms fail to tell you, Every SEO campaign is almost as different as a finger print. Different brands, different goals, uneven playing field… GO figure. The thing that strikes me is that this book was actually written in 2009, but seems to be more current than some of my other SEO readings which make me think that Eric, Stephen, Rand and Jessie (I assume we are on a first name basis, even though I don’t know them) are what you call forward thinkers. I love forward thinkers.

To sum it up, your company needs to be relevant in organic search…It’s not a luxury, it’s a must. To push you in the right direction, go get this book. Nope, I am not getting paid for this post (not saying I don’t want to), so don’t get any ideas.

When I say “me” or “I”? I mean  Dwamian Mcleish .

Follow me on twitter at twitter.com/dwamianm.

Follow corner6labs at twitter.com/corner6labs

If you are like us, you constantly check your web stats, email metrics and other Key Performance Indicator data to help figure out how your online efforts are being received. Hopefully I don’t have to stress the importance of being borderline obsessed with doing this. In fact, if I have to stress that, then you and I really need to have a little sit down. Metrics is the Grand Puba of learning. You may not be aware of it, but your brain auto-magically collects and analyze you life’s metrics in order to help you develop and even more primitively, to survive. In short, data is your friend. If you don’t know what is or isn’t working, then chances are you are fishing with dynamite, and while one could argue that it is a good approach to catching a lot of fish…and thus a terrible analogy, I would argue that all you create is a mangled mess.

Like many companies in our current economy, we are being super aggressive with our online branding efforts, so we have three maybe even four different types of campaigns running at all the times.  How do we keep track of them all? and better yet, how do we know which ones to keep running.

So you waited, now here is the sweet, sweet nugget. Drumroll…

KEEP A MARKETING JOURNAL AND RECORD EVERYTHING.

You laugh?! This may sound strange, but one of the first things we did at corner6labs was to keep a marketing journal. This seems like a no-brainer to us, but we have yet to say, “We keep a marketing journal” to someone and the don’t look at us as if we just punched a baby. Keeping a marketing journal helps us narrow down the answer to that elusive question…what the hell happened on Nov 6th. Looking over your blog traffic, your email metrics, your website metrics, will do you no good if you don’t know what you did to earn those numbers.

The other side of having all-that-metrics  is knowing what to actually do with it…but as I said, one thing for you today, so that answer may lie in a phone call.

As a marketer, I have been waiting for analysis of search engine effectiveness to include measures for user relevance and the power of the communications to establish connections.  I am encouraged because that finally seems to be happening. According to Dwamian Mcleish and Jose Guerra, SEO is passé; the new term should be Content Search Optimization (CSO). Communications specialists like me should be cheered because the system has finally begun to catch up with what we always knew.

Graphic designers have similar concerns to those of content providers.  They believe that attractive, easily navigated sites will increase the power of the organization’s web presence. Unfortunately, the traditional measures by search engines do not include many metrics for these factors.  In fact, only recently have search engines begun to read flash so designers were cautioned not to use those impressive graphics.

Similarly, search engine rankings required that content developers integrate as many key words as possible in the copy but also keep it short. This is not useful to the reader however, because target audiences expect messages to respond to their need.  Packing search terms into the text does not add value for the reader.  It was just another way of gaming the system to increase visibility of the website on the Internet.

The goal of the search engine is to provide highly relevant, easily accessible information to the consumer. Consumers will benefit as organizations begin to realize that the easy measures are not enough anymore.   As the website owner, attracting visitors through high page ranks is about helping them find you but it is also about delivering value once they are there.  Overall, you increase your rankings if you build that trust over time.  At the Branding SIG for the DFW AMA on February 2nd, Dwamian said that the search engines are beginning to develop measures that incorporate content relevance into the rankings.  It cannot happen too soon.

If yes, then call us. If not, then you are just probably finding ways to keep your job and we recommend you to read the 6 tips below and then tell us how they worked for you.

1. Don’t Spend Your Entire Marketing Budget. Costs saving initiatives have been more popular than ever before. If you can manage to not spend your entire marketing budget you will be rewarded. Showing savings is always a good thing these days, and who cares if you hurt your lead generation volume and quality or stall your brand building efforts. What is more important though is to get a tap on your back from your boss for finishing the year strong. Nobody will hunt you down if you don’t continue your efforts to capitalize on the upturn of the economy we will see in 2010, right?
2. Keep Reducing Headcounts. Everyone had been letting people go and most have successfully managed to survive this economic crisis based on these decisions. These types of initiatives are effective and opportune to let go of low performing employees. You can always hire top performers later in the year; although you may not have enough budget. Remember you saved so much money by not spending your entire marketing budget that your boss will probably decide that you could do a great job with a smaller budget in 2010.
3. New Market Segments are Not Worthwhile. Although, trends such as the high broadband Internet penetration, the surge of web 2.0 tools and the social media boom are making it easier and easier to reach out to smaller segments in very cost effective manners, many people would argue that is not enough. Segments based on race, language, gender, age or sexual preferences are not big enough yet to allocate enough resources. No one cares that one of every five young adults today (ages 18 – 34) are Hispanic, which are ONLY about 50 million people. And nobody believes in Forrester estimates that Hispanic disposable income as a group will grow to $1.4 trillion by 2013 from $951 billion in 2008.
4. Search Engine Optimization is Overrated. People justify SEO investment with arguments such as that more than 1 billion people worldwide, ages 15 years and older are Internet users or that more than 74% of the US population uses the Internet. Also that organic search drives 75%+ of all search traffic. What value does all that have? How many people really use the Internet to purchase or influence product purchases? Not many really, the penetration of ecommerce, on product categories such as computer electronics and media (books, music and videos) is ONLY 25%. There are still lots of people that you can reach out to without using the Internet, so why bother reaching out to these demographics, right?
5. Email Marketing is From the Past. Email marketing started in the mid and late 1990’s, which is a long time ago in Internet history. It boomed in the early part of this decade, but as of a couple of years ago many argue it is being replaced by social media marketing and other new media channels. Companies used to BLAST emails because it was easy and cheap, but CAN-SPAM laws, anti-spam software and other tools are allowing people to hide from email marketing messages. Let’s look at some stats again to support this argument. Email open rates are above 30% in many industries and click rates get up to 6% or higher. So if you are a small or medium size business and you have an opted-in list of prospects and customers of let’s say 10,000 emails, you are directly reaching ONLY 3,000 people and building strong relationship via your content or offers with ONLY 600 people… EVERY TIME YOU SEND EMAIL CAMPAIGNS.
6. Social Media is a Fad, Let Your Competitors Go There First. Much has been said about the reach of social media, the engagement capabilities it adds to the mix, that is taking Word-of-Mouth marketing to the next level and that is incredibly more cost effective than other tools. But, it is so new that many marketers feel threatened or not knowledgeable enough to jump into it, so they are waiting for others in the industry to lead the path to figure out how to use it. Let your competitors work with “social media” marketing firms and create some success first before you join. Why take any risks? We still need to survive 2010, right?

We like to share ideas, thoughts, best practices or whatever we feel like writing about in lists of 6. But, you can add to it…so, If you are going to take one risk, make it sharing your thought and believes with others. Feel free to comment, tweet, share or do whatever you want to do with this.

Jose Guerra
Principal

I am not your dad , your step dad or your boss in trying to tell you how to run your business. In fact, all I can do is talk to the wind and ask the question “why is your brand such a big secret?”. If I were you I would be looking at what is wrong and why this very crappy economy is kicking your a$$ more than some or your competitors. The main excuse, “well the big guns have mad cash they can throw at experiments with new age marketing, social media and other alternate forms of brand communication”, we don’t. You know what, you are right. Why would you update the way you have been approaching your consumers when what you have been doing is working so well. BTW, how were those quarterly numbers? I say bull$hit. Social media came about with you in mind. If you are dropping a suitcase full of cash into it and wondering how and when you are going to see the returns, then you are not only approaching it with the wrong attitude…but you are probably doing it wrong. Keep it up and I predict that you will be taking an eviction notice off your door in six month or less.  Who am I to be this honest? If you are concerned then I have done my job.

We keep saying the catch phrase “Social Media Marketing”, but I anticipate it will get worn out and annoying as the phrase “Web 2.0″…plus I think a lot of companies quiver at the word “social”. I am on a campaign to rename social media marketing to XY-Media Marketing or XY-Marketing (some variation of that. It’s not trademarked..so grab it while you can). XY Media is about brand adaptation and brand employment. It’s finding creative ways of mixing the old (X-Media) with the new (Y-Media), to reach the demographic that influences consumerism. Companies must learn to adapt in a climate that demands that they be more in e-touch with their consumers. These days, you just cant get away with winging it because you will suffer.

I see some old executive around his desk puffing up, fist to his desk saying “We are old school”. You know what? Old school does matter, when you are selling newspapers or 1961 Model-A Fords, but these days, you better get current and quick. I take that back, you can’t even sell newspapers or Model-A Fords anymore without being current.

Companies keep asking the obvious question “How do you measure ROI from this new media endeavour?”. Frankly I am sick of that question but I understand their concern. Just because it is a valid concern doesn’t make it a less annoying question. Let me ask you this, how did you measure the ROI of that $10,000 billboard you bought last month? Marketing has a lot to do with tactics and execution, so if you didn’t plan on a way to get metrics for your campaigns then once again, you are doing it wrong.

Let me wrap this up because now I am starting to rant. There may be no real purpose of this post other than to clear my head on a Monday morning, so there you have it. My thoughts exactly. Put in your two cents here or on our facebook fan page @ www.cornersix.com/facebook

Peace.