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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 34: How to Show Support Without Showing Your Ass

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 34th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  First, thanks again to everyone for supporting the show, June was another strong month for downloads and I’ll have the complete recap of how the podcast and blog did in June up here early next week so be looking for that.

In today’s episode I wanted to focus on how your brand can show support, without showing its ass.  Whether it’s a holiday, a court ruling, a tragedy, brands are looking to communicate to their customers that they support their feelings and empathize with them.  But there is definitely a right and wrong way to do this.  In this episode of #FanDamnShow I talk about three things to keep in mind:

1 – If you can’t send that tweet, Facebook update or post that picture to Instagram without promoting your brand, then don’t send it.  The idea isn’t to leverage a holiday or event to promote yourself, it’s to show support for your customers.  The circular is where you can run your sales.

2 – You shouldn’t directly promote your brand but you can promote ideas/themes that relate to your brand.  For example, if your company sells safety products, instead of promoting those items now for the Fourth of July, instead how about publishing a blog post on how to safely enjoy fireworks this weekend?  That content is related to your brand but it isn’t ABOUT your brand,  And it creates value for the customer.

3 – Never ever NEVER use a holiday, event, tragedy to promote your brand.  This is how your brand becomes a case study at the next social media conference.  Just say no.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again on Wednesday!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 33: How to Make Money From a Conference

Hey y’all!  So many of you attend social media/digital/content marketing conferences every year, and it can be a huge expense.  But with some planning and effort, you can wipe out the expense of attending conferences and even show a profit!  That’s what I talk about in today’s episode, walking you through how I did this with my own conferences and turned a $2,500 expense into $20,000 of revenue!

The bottom-line is this:  If you are judging the value of a conference on strictly the sessions, then you’re doing it wrong.  In fact I would argue that the sessions are typically the least valuable part of most conferences.  I didn’t say they weren’t valuable, they are, but to maximize the value you get from conferences, you need to view the sessions LAST, not first.

Start with the attendees.  Who is going, what companies and agencies do they represent.  Check out hashtags and groups that are set up for the event and start interacting with attendees as soon as you can before the event.  Is there anyone that you can set up a business or professional meeting with?  Anyone you could interview for a podcast, blog post or white paper?

Next, examine who will be speaking.  Same thing, is there anyone you can set up a business meeting with, or is there someone you can interview for your podcast or site or other?

Finally, look at the sessions.  Make sure topics are covered that match the areas where you need deeper knowledge.  If you are going with a team, try to split up so that you don’t attend the same sessions, or have one person in a session while another does interviews or has a meeting in the hall.

Take an audio recorder!  Olympus has several models on Amazon for under $50.  Great for note-taking and for sharing transcriptions with your team.

I talk about this more in-depth in the podcast, but there are so many options available to you for getting more value from conferences.  If you plan properly, and hustle, you should be able to come home from a decent-sized event a much smarter person and with likely 2-3 week’s worth of content for your blog/podcast/site.

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again on Wednesday!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 32: Spotlight or Groups; Which is Better For Creating Fans?

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 32nd episode of #FanDamnShow! In this episode I talk about the best way to create fans, is it best to focus on spotlighting individual fans, or should you create a group environment?

Let’s think about this in a rock star perspective:  Look at the concert.  A concert is such a powerful marketing vehicle because it brings together a rock star’s biggest fans and puts them all in the same place.  This is incredibly powerful because it lets those people connect with each other around a shared passion.  You see the same thing at sporting events and to a lesser degree at an industry conference or similar event.  But value is created for the people that participate in these events because they can connect with and learn from each other.

But what about putting the spotlight on individual fans?  When you are just starting your efforts to create and connect with your fans, highlighting individual fans makes sense.  But after your efforts grow to the point where you have a group of fans connected to each other, then it makes sense to do both:  Focus on your group of fans, and also spotlight key fans within that group that are helping it grow.  This could be an online group you have on Facebook, LinkedIn, or maybe an email mailing list.  The vehicle that brings the fans together isn’t as important as actually bringing the group together.

So I hope you enjoy this episode, it’s a short one at around 10 mins, so please give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments! Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is nowavailable on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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Sponsored Post: Marketing Writing Bootcamp From Marketing Profs

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Note from Mack: This is a Sponsored Post from Marketing Profs that ties in with their #Blogchat Sponsorship from May.  If you would like to learn more about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, click here and if you register with code FANDAMN you can save $200!  Also, Kerry O’Shea Gorgone and I talked about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp on the latest episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. 

As a marketer, writing comes with the territory.

And, it’s imperative you stay at the top of your game, not just in one skill or discipline, but in all of them.

That’s why we created Marketing Writing Bootcamp: 13 classes tailor-made for anyone tasked with a variety of writing duties.

Marketing Writing Bootcamp will provide you dozens of tips and techniques for enhancing your writing style and teach you to write with a relentless focus on your customer. From presentations, sales proposals, and press releases to websites, blogging, and case studies—this course will cover it all—making you a better writer, and a better marketer.

These online classes, delivered in easy-to-digest 30-40 minute increments, are specifically designed for busy marketers like you.

When you enroll in Marketing Writing Bootcamp, you’ll learn from over a dozen of the best and brightest instructors in the world of marketing writing.

At the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Produce copy faster
  • Eliminate needless clutter in your writing
  • Craft delightful, clear content
  • Differentiate between voice and tone (and understand why they matter)
  • Humanize your brand and relate to your audience through engaging stories
  • Transform your ideas into stories that stick
  • Practice the craft of writing effectively and regularly

And, as a special offer to Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show listeners, visit http://mprofs.com/fandamn   and use promo code FANDAMN when you enroll to save $200 on Marketing Writing Bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

So, whether you’re in direct response, corporate communications, product marketing, freelance services, or just get pulled into writing occasionally, I’m confident that Marketing Writing Bootcamp will provide the training you need.

Plus, we have a 7-day money-back guarantee, so if you aren’t satisfied with what you’ve learned, we’ll refund your enrollment fee. No questions asked.

 

TESTIMONIALS

“I found the Marketing Writing Bootcamp to be one of the best organized and most informative sessions I’ve participated in—either in person or online.”

Cheryl Miola about Marketing Writing Bootcamp

 

“I LOVED the course. I’ve found every single presentation helpful, insightful, and rich in content.”

Melissa Mischak about Marketing Writing Bootcamp

 

Great job with this topic! I enjoyed it and am going to find out if my company is using these techniques and if not, I may just end up looking like a hero!

Amy Smith about Marketing Writing Bootcamp

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 31: The Legal Concerns of Social Media With Kerry Gorgone

IMG_9824I am thrilled to welcome Kerry O’Shea Gorgone as the first guest on The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  Kerry spoke at the Y’all Connect conference in Birmingham last week, and I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of her time to talk about some legal issues regarding social media and marketing in general!

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut first a reminder that this episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

Kerry was kind enough to talk to me about two topics for this episode of #FanDamnShow.  The first was legal implications of live-streaming, and how to know if your social media contest is legal.  Here’s the Show Notes:

1:50 – What do brands need to know if they plan on using Meerkat or Periscope for live-streaming

3:00 – Prepping your live-stream, what you need to know before you get started

4:00 – Some music artists are encouraging fans to live-stream their concerts.  Is this ok?

5:45 – How to carefully plan your live-stream

6:45 – What if a brand’s fan creates a live-stream promoting that brand, could the brand be liable?

10:00 – What Kerry does for MarketingProfs and also what the Marketing Writing Bootcamp is all about

14:15 – The basic differences between a contest, a sweepstakes and a lottery (Hint: You may think you are running a contest but you may actually be running a lottery, be careful!)

16:40 – What to do to make sure that you are running a contest and not a lottery

 

Kerry has also written a couple of great posts on these topics:

Live-Streaming With Meerkat & Periscope: A Marketer’s Legal Checklist

How to Keep Your Social Media Contest From Becoming a Trial

Influence Marketing and the FTC’s 4Ps of Disclosure

I hope you enjoy this special episode of #FanDamnShow with Kerry Gorgone!  Please give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments! Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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The Art of Empathy: How to Get People to Give a Damn About You

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Lady Gaga was performing a concert and staying at a hotel in that city. As usually happens, her hardcore fans figured out which hotel she was in, and lined up outside hoping she would come and meet with them, which she did.  One of the people standing in line was a homeless man that had a ring he wanted to give Gaga, an ‘engagement’ ring.  

Gaga met with the fans in line, and when she reached the homeless man, she graciously accepted his ring, then she leaned toward him to take a picture.  The homeless man immediately leaned away from her and whispered “But I smell…” Without missing a beat, Gaga whispered back “Don’t worry, I smell too…” and leaned back toward him to take the picture.  

Loosely put, empathy is your ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes.  I would also argue that as a marketer, it is one of the most important skills you can hone and develop.

The problem is, there are many things that tug on us and make it more difficult to practice empathy:

  • Preoccupation with our own problems.  Why should I care that this guy can’t make his car payment this month, hell I am behind on my mortgage!
  • Having too much on our own plate.  That sounds terrible, I would like to help, but right now I need to finish this project.  I’ll come back to this when I have time.
  • Past history. This guy? Last year I asked him for help with my job search, he never returned my call.
  • Not caring. Ugh…everyone needs help! I need help too, who is going to help me?

A big component of empathy is recognizing that someone needs help.  There’s also a big distinction between someone that wants help, and someone that needs help.  Too often, a person that needs help, won’t ask for it.  This is a terrible flaw I have, I never ask for help when I need it.  I don’t want to be a burden to the very friends that would be happy to help me, if they could.  But still…

And many people feel this same way, which makes it even more important to be perceptive and to notice when someone needs help that might not be willing to ask for it.

Let’s be clear:  I’m not talking about someone that wants help.  People are usually more likely to ask for help they want, vs help they need.  Or perhaps they need help, but don’t realize they do.  As a marketer, it is incredibly important to realize when a customer needs help.  Not only so you can actually help them, but also so you can realize that the need for help can be affecting how they act toward you.  Needing help with say a product failure can lead to anger, fear, desperation, depending on what the product is and what it means to the owner.  It’s one thing if a customer can’t figure out how to put the toner in a printer and quite another if their truck has just broken down on the interstate at 10:30 PM.

Empathy allows you to  put yourself in the shoes of your customer and see their point of view.  It allows you to understand why the guy on the interstate is yelling at you on the phone, it’s because he’s stranded on the interstate at night and he’s scared.  But if you show empathy to your customers when they need your help the most, that’s one of the most powerful ways to build lifetime advocates for your brand.  It starts by making an effort to listen, be perceptive, and actually caring enough to do these things.

How do you get people to give a damn about you?  By first giving a damn about them.

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 30: Measuring the ROI of Social Media and Brand Advocacy

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 30th episode of #FanDamnShow! In this episode I talk a bit about finding the ROI of your social media marketing or brand advocacy efforts and how to structure the measurement process.

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut first a reminder that this episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

Social Media ROI is a big struggle for a lot of companies and it doesn’t have to be.   A good way to get a handle on figuring out the value that your marketing efforts are creating is to do a little planning BEFORE you launch that initiative or campaign.  Here’s a quick checklist:

1 – Ask “What will success look like?”  In other words, before you start that blog or that outreach campaign or launch a brand ambassador program, ask yourself what needs to happen as a RESULT of this in order for it to be a success?

2 – What are you trying to accomplish?  Raising brand awareness?  Improving customer loyalty?  Generating sales?  Think about what you want to happen.

3 – What metrics will you measure that tie back to your goals?  If you want to launch a blogger outreach program to increase sales, how will you measure if sales are up?  What metrics will you track?

4 – Measure meaningful metrics, not easy ones.  This is where a lot of companies mess up.  Just because it’s easy to track retweets on Twitter or Likes on Facebook doesn’t mean they impact your bottom line or indicate that you are reaching your goals.  Put in the time to figure out what the more meaningful metrics are to your company, and measure those.

 

So that’s what I talk about in this episode of #FanDamnShow!  Please give it a listen and let me know what you think in the comments! Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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How Your Twitter Community Can Help Your Blog, Tonight’s #Blogchat Topic With Jessica Northey!

Update: Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat with Jessica Northey!

So let’s talk about Jessica Northey for a second.  She created #CMChat as a country music chat on Twitter, and has literally turned it into an empire.  It has its own website.  It has its own awards event.  She knows some of the biggest country music and rock stars. Blake Shelton. Garth Brooks. Ronnie Dunn. Alabama.  The Oak Ridge Boys.  She also works with some of the biggest global brands.

Jay Baer? Chris Brogan?  Brian Solis?  All rock stars in this space and I think they are brilliant.  But if you look at everything that Jessica has accomplished in the last 3 years in this space, she holds her own with anyone.

Which is why I am thrilled that she’ll be returning to co-host #Blogchat tonight!  We’ll be chatting about how you can leverage your Twitter community to grow your blog.  Here’s what we’ll be chatting about:

8:00 – 8:20 – What’s the best way to build a following on Twitter?  Jessica will tell us what’s worked for her and how you can do the same.

8:20 – 8:40 – How can you use your following on Twitter to help promote your blog content?  

8:40 – 9:00 – Jessica will talk to us about how she grew #CMChat from a Twitter chat into a literal online and offline empire.  REALLY pay attention to this portion because I think Jessica has been brilliant in creating and building the #CMChat brand.

If you are one of the 2 people that aren’t already following Jessica (over half a million followers on Twitter) then follow Jessica here.  We’ll get started tonight at 8pm Central.  If you want to sponsor #Blogchat in July, here’s rates and details.

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My Blog Traffic and Podcast Audience Results for May

For every month in 2015, I’ve set specific goals for growing my blog readership, and podcast audience.  The end goal is that by December this blog will have at least 100,000 visitors for that month, and the podcast will be downloaded at least 10,000 times for December.  Every month I am going to write a post like this recapping how I did in the previous month, and share any lessons I have learned.  The goal is to help you learn how to build a blog readership and podcast audience as I do.

First, here were my goals for May:

Blog – At least 65,000 visitors

Podcast – At least 2,000 downloads

My blog traffic in May was 39,000 visitors, averaging 1,258 visitors a day.  In April, the blog’s traffic was 40,980, averaging 1,366 a day.  So a slight decrease, but not nearly as bad as it has been the last few months.  If you’ve been following these monthly updates, you know that in February I made some backend changes to the blog.  I switched from Godaddy’s shared to managed WordPress hosting, and I deleted a ton of plugins.  The upside to these moves is that site performance, especially load times, was greatly improved.  Avg load times for the site went from about 6 seconds before, to around 2-3 seconds now.  Unfortunately, as soon as I made these changes, I noticed that traffic started dropping, especially search traffic.  Here’s how each category of traffic did in May vs April:

Search traffic – Down 3.61%

Direct traffic – Down 13.28%

Referral – Up 1.9%

Social – Down 41.67%

Other – Up 362.65%

A note: The ‘other’ traffic spiked because Google Analytics apparently moved Twitter referrals from my blog’s Social Warfare plugin from Social (Twitter) to Social Warfare, and started counting it in the Other category.  Which is why Social had a sharp decline, and Other was up sharply.  Move the Social Warfare-based referrals back to Social, and Social traffic was about flat last month.

It appears to me that search traffic has almost reached a point where it is no longer falling.  I am hopeful that once search traffic completely stops falling, that it will start increasing again.  This is what weekly search traffic looks like for January through May:

Jan-MaySearchTrafficAs you can see, search traffic has been going more or less sideways for the last few weeks.  I am hoping that this will mean a slight increase in search traffic in June over May.

BTW, what about mobile search traffic?  As you may remember, Google claimed that it was going to start using mobile-friendly sites as one of its ranking signals.  Meaning, if someone searches on a mobile device and your site is mobile-friendly, Google said it would consider that and rank your site’s content higher as a result.  Or at least not penalize your site’s content while content from a site that was NOT mobile-friendly, would be penalized.

So I made sure that Google was reading my site as mobile-friendly in time for its April 21st deadline for doing so.  So what type of jump did I see in mobile search traffic in May?  Not much, in fact I saw an increase from 10,954 mobile search traffic visitors in April, to 10,970 in May.  An increase of 16 visitors.  Definitely not the jump I was hoping for, but at least it didn’t go down!

I wrote 13 posts in May versus 12 in April.  I would like to write at least that many in June.

Podcast Numbers and Overview for May

While blog traffic was down again month, podcast downloads again did very well in May.

The goal for May was at least 2,000 downloads of the podcast, and The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show actually had 4,444 downloads in May. So the number of downloads exceeded my goals by over 100%.  Here’s the number of daily downloads so far this year:

PodcastDLsJan-MayThe podcast continues to do far better than I expected, so at this point as long as monthly downloads increases at all in June, I’ll be happy.

So those are my blog and podcast results for May.  Here’s my goals for June:

Blog traffic – At least 70,000 visitors

Podcast – At least 2,500 downloads

These were the goals I set for both at the start of the year.  So it looks like the blog’s goal will be all but impossible to hit, and it looks like the podcast’s goal will be all but impossible to miss.  Honestly I will be happy with any growth for both over May numbers at this point.

I’ll be back in one month to share my results for June!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 29: Stop Comparing Your Reality to Their Highlight Reel

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 29th episode of #FanDamnShow! In today’s episode I switch gears a little bit.  Today I wanted to talk about the risks associated with comparing yourself to others.  We all do it, but the issue is, we aren’t getting the full picture.

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut before I get into the Show Notes, a reminder that this episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

A few years ago I noticed that a blogger got like 50+ comments on every single blog post he wrote.  I remarked to a friend how odd it was that they could do this, because they only posted once a month or so.  Yet without fail, every post got 50 or so comments.  While here I was sitting writing 2-3 posts a week, and getting a fraction of that.

The friend said “You know those comments aren’t coming from his blog, right?”  The friend then told me that this blogger had an email list of over 100,000 people that he had built up over the last 10 years.  Turns out, this blogger would send every new post to his email list, and they would go to his blog and 50 or so of them would leave a comment.

Which illustrates the point that we never know the whole story when we compare ourselves to someone else.  And online we are never getting the full picture, just what someone else wants to show us.  And each of us knows what are reality is.  We know where we succeed, and where we fail.

But on Facebook, we just see the successes.  And when you see 100% success from someone else and compare it to your failures, it’s easy to feel inadequate, or that you don’t measure up.

Which is exactly why you need to stop that.  And that’s what I talk about in this episode of #FanDamnShow.

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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