In This Issue

• Consistency & Frequency for Success
• Marketing Classics: The Rule of Three and Four
• Cool Resource: Screencasting

Also This Week

Vending Your Tweets

Should you vend out your social media activities? Read this article and decide for yourself. Warning: Strong opinions ahead...
Should You Vend Your Tweets? »

DIY Marketing Month Underway!

By now, most of you have heard that June is Entrepreneur's DIY Marketing Month. Download our cool new e-book with 30 marketing ideas in 30 days and join the 30 day marketing e-course.
Check 'em Out »

Mindmap of the Week:
Marketing Consistency Map

This may be a bit revealing on my part, but this is just like the actual mindmap that I use to keep our daily marketing & biz dev activities in order. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD »

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

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Quick Marketing Tip

#2: Get Slightly Famous

Does everyone who should know about your business know about you? How would you know? Have you asked them? Spend some time this week mapping out your stakeholders, the messages you send them and determine how you can get from 'unknown' to well known.

Better yet, sign up for the DIY Marketing Month e-course for this and other important lessons in marketing.

Tuesday June 2, 2009

Consistency & Frequency for Success

This article is part confession and part lesson. One of the greatest challenges of any marketing program, especially in companies that are not ‘marketing organizations at heart’ (for marketers at heart, think P&G or Coca-Cola) is keeping up the consistency and frequency while staying the course. It seems that every week I have a conversation with an organization that’s challenged with marketing consistently and with the right frequency, especially when it comes to adding social media marketing into the equation. As a confession, I have the same challenges. Yes, you know it... In light of all this, I have a few thoughts on consistency & frequency and how to keep things on track.

1. Map out your activities.
2. Calendar it!
3. Raise your CPA. (Content Potential Awareness)
4. Start writing your 2010 and 2011 plans now.

Read the Entire Blog Post on Consistency & Frequency »

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Marketing Classics: The Rule of Three and Four

Those that know me know that I'm a huge fan of classical marketing writing. Stuff from the 20's through the 80's that most of us have forgotten but that's still so highly relevant today, especially with all of the new tools & channels that we have to wade through. So, in each newsletter from now going forward, I'll be highlighting a classical marketing concept and pointing a a resource to learn more about it or to refresh your marketing memory.

This week's concept is from some work done in the 60's & 70's by the Boston Consulting Group on what they called the "The Rule of Three and Four".

The Rule of Three and Four states that in any stable competitive market (now, it's up to you to define the 'market') there are rarely more than three or four main competitors (think soft drinks, diapers, cars, etc) and those competitors exist in a world where the largest of them has no more than four times the market share of the smallest.

Why does this matter?

1. Defining your relevant market and its boundaries is of utmost importance. (redefining is even more important, over time!)
2. Challengers who expect to topple a competitor must outmarket them by capturing independent market sectors first.
3. The rule is not easy to apply, but it's effects on the company that does not abide can be undesireable (to say the least)

For those who are still looking at this cross-eyed, remember back in the early 80's (or, from your busienss textbook that talked about the early 80's!) when Jack Welch, the then CEO of GE told the company that every GE business unit should be number one or number two in its market, or else. Or else what? "Fix it, sell it or close it". Well, the Rule of Three and Four is one of the oft forgotten business & marketing classic where Jack's mandate was derived from.

This 'rule' that Welch applied turned out to be one of the more effective mandates of his time, so much so, that scores of companies have adopted and profited from it since, even if they don't know where the idea originated.

Read more about The Rule of Three and Four»

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Cool Resource: Screencasting

According to Jon Udell at O'Reilly, "A screencast is a digital movie in which the setting is partly or wholly a computer screen, and in which audio narration describes the on-screen action." Screencasting has been around for a long time -used to market software products, and to train people on the same - but its use in marketing is fairly recent. There are myriad ways to use a screencast in marketing. Most often, screencasts find their way into a marketer's aresenal as a tool for recording PowerPoint presentations to be used as online video or as a lead generation or content delivery vehicle.

How do I make a screencast?

Screencasts can be created by recording a webinar through a tool like GoToMeeting or more often by using a piece of Screencasting software called Camtasia Studio created by a great little company in Michigan, TechSmith.

Learn more about Screencasting at TechSmith »

See our recent screencast on namespace reservation »

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