Guerrilla e-marketing DORSET - Bridport

Editor's Notes

• #4 So what is Guerrllia Marketing – is one of those unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Sometimes they just happen – other times they are carefully planned to make them propagate in a viral way very quickly. Guerrilla marketing campaigns are unexpected and unconventional; potentially interactive; and consumers are targeted in unexpected places. The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, engaging and thought-provoking concept to generate buzz, and consequently turn viral
• #5 The online world has changed dramatically even since we last drew up a list of 100 useful sites in December 2006 . In the interim, there has been a revival of the browser wars - with Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari making surprising inroads into the Windows monopoly, and offering a new vision of what browsing can be like. Many of the sites listed here were not available when we did our last list; although longevity is a mark of pride online, it is difficult for companies set up in the 1990s to reinvent themselves quickly enough to take advantage of new technologies. Although of course rapid change brings casualties too: it's possible that with all the economic turbulence going on that some of the sites here won't be around in a year from now, or that their now free services will have become paid-for. That doesn't diminish their usefulness, though; it just underlines their determination to survive. The biggest changes since 2006 have been in the fields of collaborative online services that let people in different locations work simultaneously on projects. Collaboration in 2006 was very much focused on words, but now you can create presentations that look as though they were made with expensive packages. And then you can share those presentations, or look at other work that people have done - and even download them. You can convert files without needing expensive systems. Collaborative working has never been easier, even across different platorms. The web really is becoming the operating system, as the rise of the "netbooks" (aka ultraportables, aka Liliputers) emphasises. The growth of location-based services - particularly those which you can choose to log yourself in and out of, thus protecting your privacy - has been rapid. A parallel growth has come with the mobile web; there's no escaping the fact that Apple's iPhone has revolutionised how its users, in their millions, think about the internet . For them, it is no longer something that is experienced well on a computer and then badly on their mobile phone; the mobile version of Safari has made browsing on the move an altogether more pleasant experience, which it never was before. That opens up new vistas: location-aware task managers can adjust the order of your to-do list based on what the GPS unit in the phone is telling you, so that while you're in the supermarket it will remind you about the cereal you need, but in the office it will tell you to send that important memo right away. Video, of course, is now everywhere. YouTube was already dominant in 2006, but now the BBC's iPlayer is taking over. If it makes its technology available to all, perhaps the UK will become a nation of video makers and watchers.
• #6 Some of the largest Internet players have also cottoned on to the fact that Social Media is the next big thing – there are now over 300 social networking sites available on the Web - some are aimed at bringing individuals together, whilst others are focussed purely on building business to business relationships
• #7 Pre-1998 the web was used essentially to publish information Commercial phase – distinguished by e-commerce and trading online Now - Networking phase – it is about taking part – the web is predominantly used for social interaction The online world has changed dramatically even since we last drew up a list of 100 useful sites in December 2006 . In the interim, there has been a revival of the browser wars - with Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari making surprising inroads into the Windows monopoly, and offering a new vision of what browsing can be like. Many of the sites listed here were not available when we did our last list; although longevity is a mark of pride online, it is difficult for companies set up in the 1990s to reinvent themselves quickly enough to take advantage of new technologies. Although of course rapid change brings casualties too: it's possible that with all the economic turbulence going on that some of the sites here won't be around in a year from now, or that their now free services will have become paid-for. That doesn't diminish their usefulness, though; it just underlines their determination to survive. The biggest changes since 2006 have been in the fields of collaborative online services that let people in different locations work simultaneously on projects. Collaboration in 2006 was very much focused on words, but now you can create presentations that look as though they were made with expensive packages. And then you can share those presentations, or look at other work that people have done - and even download them. You can convert files without needing expensive systems. Collaborative working has never been easier, even across different platorms. The web really is becoming the operating system, as the rise of the "netbooks" (aka ultraportables, aka Liliputers) emphasises. The growth of location-based services - particularly those which you can choose to log yourself in and out of, thus protecting your privacy - has been rapid. A parallel growth has come with the mobile web; there's no escaping the fact that Apple's iPhone has revolutionised how its users, in their millions, think about the internet . For them, it is no longer something that is experienced well on a computer and then badly on their mobile phone; the mobile version of Safari has made browsing on the move an altogether more pleasant experience, which it never was before. That opens up new vistas: location-aware task managers can adjust the order of your to-do list based on what the GPS unit in the phone is telling you, so that while you're in the supermarket it will remind you about the cereal you need, but in the office it will tell you to send that important memo right away. Video, of course, is now everywhere. YouTube was already dominant in 2006, but now the BBC's iPlayer is taking over. If it makes its technology available to all, perhaps the UK will become a nation of video makers and watchers.
• #8 What is Social Media - Social media is a combination of user generated content (UGC), consumer generated media (CGM) and traditional published content across a variety of technologies and web-based platforms including social networks, blogs, video, websites, mobile devices, email, and more. You can see why the major corporations are liking this concept – they provide the social networking tools – users provide the content
• #9 Social media has created a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content . Everybody now has an opinion and a view – and these Social Networking tools – have made it even easier to do so Social media is instantaneous 67% of Internet users are engaged in some way with social media
• #10 Social media is inexpensive – personal connections – can spread incredibly fast (only got to see how news travels on Twitter) Social media has turned content readers into content publishers and connects people around the world who otherwise would never know each other or have anything in common
• #11 Here is a mind map diagram representing how these tools and websites connect with one another. Different aspect of our lives covered by different social tools
• #13 In a recent survey by Nielsen – one of the most respected Internet study companies showed that nearly 20% of users are now looking to social media sites, blogs, facebook etc – user generated content.
• #14 Social Networking gives you the opportunity to reach out to new audiences and markets – get to know your customers better
• #15 Before sprinting down the wrong path and wasting time and money, its important that you analyze your market, audience, and demographics Social Media can target decision makers, consumers, donors, create a buzz about your company, a service or product, spread good news or deal with bad news i.e. crisis management, get market feedback/surveys PR firms and Advertising agencies are developing entire departments to exclusively help clients develop and implement social media strategies
• #16 Take a look at three of the largest and probably the most talked about Social network tools at the moment
• #17 Facebook – it is said that women are more akin to social networking because of their natural socialising skills – no surprises then that 55% of facebook users are female. Facebook’s strengths lie in its ability to help people connect and stay connected
• #18 Business profiles are an easy way of giving your business a presence on Facebook
• #19 1. Meet friends. Now Facebook is not just for school kids. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more professional users. 2. Get business contacts. With more than 200 million users, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers, your JV partners… and, of course, your competitors. So don’t miss out. 3. Instant gate opener. Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a dialog with highly successful-even famous-people who were previously otherwise unreachable. 4. Build relationships. By engaging in conversations with your prospects and customers, you can better adapt your marketing and business services to meet their needs. 5. Increase visibility. By consistently showing up, posting relevant information, and being a thought leader, you can increase visibility and credibility as an expert in your area. 6. Build your personal brand. Now, the lines between business and personal have become blurred. You can reveal as much or as little about yourself as you wish, allowing you to personalize your brand. 7. Target your niche. Users volunteer vast amounts of information about themselves that you can readily access. These kinds of demographics, psychographics, and technographics would previously have cost fortunes to access. 8. Get quick top Google placement. Create a Page for your business and ”push” information to your “fans.” Pages (for business) and Profiles (for personal) are indexed for optimal search engine positioning. Facebook has a page rank of #7 according to Alexa. 9. Create targeted Ads. With Facebook Social Ads, you can test out extremely targeted advertising for minimal cost. For example, only targets those in Malaysia, or only target teenage females betwwen 15-20, etc. 10. Free marketing. Facebook is totally free to use (except for the Ads) and with regular activity you’ll end up with more traffic, more subscribers, and more paying clients too.
• #20 Rallye Sunseeker – enabling organisers and fans to share their experiences together – the organisers reap the rewards of the fans exuberance and support for the sport
• #21 Here we have a local Holiday Park using facebook to keep visitors informed of special offers etc
• #22 Twitter is the kind of “new kid on the block” – been around for a couple of years now – one of the fastest growing Social Networks. An interesting statistic here though is that 5% of users account for 75% of all activity – so although there is a lot of hype about Twitter at the moment – not everyone signed up to it appears to be fully engaged.
• #23 Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The 140 character limit on message length was initially set for compatibility with SMS messaging, and has brought to the web the kind of shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMS messages.
• #25 Brands have been using twitter for some time – Asda using it to promote offers
• #26 Dell Outlet has confirmed sales of $1m form its Twitter Dell Outlet account – interesting use of this account – customers giving feedback on companys website design and how it might be improved. e.g. Captcha tool. Live interaction between customers and Dell staff.
• #27 Local Hospice – Weldmar Hospicecare using twitter to reinforce its brand and position itself as a caring organisation
• #28 Local Hospice – Weldmar Hospicecare using twitter to reinforce its brand and position itself as a caring organisation
• #29 Linked in - business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003[1] mainly used for professional networking - Facebook for Grown-ups – Facebook for Suits
• #30 Linked In is based around Personal profiles but you have the option of adding Company profiles, set up or join groups
• #31 Company profiles – opportunities to build your brand
• #32 - Excellent place to begin searching for people with similar person business, and interests
• #33 Social media is all about starting conversations and building relationships Linked In is quickly becoming one of the best business tools of our lifetimes Use Linked In as an “Ice Breaker” Ask yourself – who do you want to connect with?
• #36 So how can you use Social Networking to improve your online presence?
• #37 Social Media needs to be part of your whole marketing plan / Find out where your customers are first / Come up with measurable goals Do one thing at a time / It is a commitment, / ….. not a campaign
• #38 Know your customer Know what they want Know how they think Know what they think about you Know what they think about your competitors Know how they can and want to access you What language do they use to find your products/services ?
• #39 Google Web options – a powerful set of tools that Google have released – search videos, blogs, forums and reviews. Clearly see where Google are placing the emphasis in the future.
• #40 Google Alerts – keep yourself informed with daily, weekly emails of references to specific key phrases on the Google search network
• #41 Linked In is also good for researching bio’s and resumes, recruiting employees, generating leads, staying on top of relevant news, and performing due diligence on prospects, potential employees, potential bosses, and other professionals
• #42 Very fast – are close to real time. Use twitter search to find out what people are “buzzing” about. Trending topics shows the most popular keywords appearing in the Twitter timeline Click on a keyword to get a refreshable timeline. Tweetdeck – follow target keywords
• #43 Easiest place to start with Social media is to choose one or two tools and then have a go - Have a good look around and see how things work Set up an account and build your profile / Look for “friends” to invite and link with / Start a “Group” relevant to your products or services Build “Facebook pages” – developed by Facebook for SMEs
• #44 Start Participating / Talk about company news, personal news, industry news, product news, or anything that readers & subscribers may find useful / Stay away from really controversial issues and never talk religion or politics
• #46 Biggest tip with all of these tools is to make sure you have a complete profile – this is the content that will help your search engine positioning
• #47 Add a picture / brand it / make it your own
• #48 Add a picture / brand it / make it your own
• #49 Give people a chance to talk and interact with you / Ask questions / Let some of your personality shine through / Think about the platform and its limitations
• #50 Provide expertise in a field – become “the person to know” / Make your content compelling to read / Have a reasonable mix of tweets, links, and re-tweets / Don’t spam
• #55 Viral Marketing: There is nothing quite as valuable as a friend's referral. This is the premise of viral marketing. On the Internet it's quick and easy to let someone know about a great website, company or product. Like a virus, a good idea can be spread at an incredible rate, passing from person to person and steadily increasing awareness of a site. By turning their own customers into sales agents, businesses can implement viral marketing as an effective, inexpensive promotional tool.
• #56 Viral Marketing: There is nothing quite as valuable as a friend's referral. This is the premise of viral marketing. On the Internet it's quick and easy to let someone know about a great website, company or product. Like a virus, a good idea can be spread at an incredible rate, passing from person to person and steadily increasing awareness of a site. By turning their own customers into sales agents, businesses can implement viral marketing as an effective, inexpensive promotional tool.
• #57 Viral Marketing: There is nothing quite as valuable as a friend's referral. This is the premise of viral marketing. On the Internet it's quick and easy to let someone know about a great website, company or product. Like a virus, a good idea can be spread at an incredible rate, passing from person to person and steadily increasing awareness of a site. By turning their own customers into sales agents, businesses can implement viral marketing as an effective, inexpensive promotional tool.
• #58 Gives away products or services / Provides for effortless transfer to others / Scales easily from small to very large / Exploits common motivations and behaviours / Utilizes existing communication networks/ Takes advantage of others' resources
• #59 In December 1996 Hotmail had 500,000 registered users – less than a year later they had over 12,000,000 users. This astonishing growth rate was down to the fact that every single email sent from Hotmail included a small advert promoting the service in the footer
• #60 Create a buzz about your product / service. / Include references to it on email signature blocks, blog postings etc. / Get other people involved
• #62 The use of video on the Internet is probably the “next big thing” if it is not already.
• #63 Give your business a face not just a website. Increase trust by allowing your customers to hear and see your personal passion about your products and services through a video. 3. The internet is hungry for information. If your YouTube video has information that your client base is seeking, they will find the video to get that information. 4. YouTube has a search function. If you do a good job of Titling your video, creating a good description, and providing relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags, your potential customers will find you through the search mechanism on YouTube. They may also find you because you are related to other searches they do and videos they watch. 5. YouTube videos show up on Google Searches and other similar search engines. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website. 6. By adding YouTube videos to your Google Maps Local Business Center listing, MerchantCircle listing, Yelp.com and others, you improve your ranking on those local search engines, and that helps to improve the ranking of your website. 7. You can add your YouTube video to your website as a URL link, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-0VIHJCRk , or as an embed (see below). By putting the video on your website, you generate far more chances of it being seen. This is where you can really build trust and increase reasons for your customer to shop with you. 8. You can add your YouTube video to your blog, your facebook, you can Tweet about it, and you can socially bookmark the original video, the article on your blog, and the facebook entry. All of these increase the chances of the video being seen, and also benefit your activities on these other web tools. 9. Daily Motion and other video depositories similar to YouTube may pick up your video and add it to their listings. But if you don't want to wait and see if they do so, you can upload the same video to each one, or you can use an aggregator to put the video up on numerous of these sites all at once. 10. A single YouTube video that we did for a client for less than $300 resulted in the sale of a $6000 bicycle. This is just one of many such examples. The best part is that the YouTube video is listed on page one of a Google search for Specialized Transition and is going to still be selling bicycles for this client a year from now. Create an account with YouTube Only registered users may upload videos to YouTube. Registration is free and takes only a couple of minutes. I recommend: Visit the YouTube signup page and register. Start with a free "Standard" account that allows you to upload any video that is under 100 MB in size and less than ten minutes long. Upload a video to YouTube YouTube accepts many different video formats and converts them all into the same format for YouTube automatically. Your company may have videos from commercials, from training DVDs, from screen-capture programs, or from informal videos shot with a digital camera. I recommend: Follow YouTube's instructions for uploading a video. If your video is not less than 10 minutes in length, or is greater than 100 MB, you can use a free program like Microsoft Movie Maker to split the video up and compress the file size. Try free screen capture program, Cam Studio. Add transitions and splice together clips with YouTube Remixer. The type of video you upload might be a commercial (like this one for Dove or Flea Market Montgomery, each with millions of views), or it might be a message from your CEO (like this one from Salesforce.com), or it might be a "how-to" video (like this one from Backpacker Magazine). Promote your video Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, promote the video by placing the video on your own website, or using YouTube's promotional tools. I recommend: Every YouTube video has an embed code. If you place the embed code on your own website, visitors can watch the video right on your site. Also, YouTube supports promotional strategies such as using tags and forming groups. If you "tag" your video with keywords that describe the video, it is more likely to appear in search engines when people look up those words. Groups allow people to place similar videos together in one place, so if someone sees a video similar to yours, they are likely to see yours as well. Find out how to embed the video in a blog, or learn more about using tags.
• #64 Yelp.com and CitySearch both maintain that having a YouTube video on their listing for your company doubles the likelihood that the visitor to your listing will take some kind of action. What their claim leaves out is that a poorly created video will not produce those kinds of results and might have a negative effect. On the other hand, there are dozens of other good reasons to create one of more YouTube videos for your local small business other than its effect on Yelp.com. 2. Not every business, but most, will generate more customer calls and decisions to shop if the client has a reason to trust you. The written word is good at this, because folks tend to trust what has been made permanent on paper or screen. But you can really increase trust by allowing your customers to hear and see your personal passion about your products and services through a video. 3. The internet is hungry for information. If your YouTube video has information that your client base is seeking, they will find the video to get that information. 4. YouTube has a search function. If you do a good job of Titling your video, creating a good description, and providing relevant keywords in the title, description, and tags, your potential customers will find you through the search mechanism on YouTube. They may also find you because you are related to other searches they do and videos they watch. 5. YouTube videos show up on Google Searches and other similar search engines. It is not uncommon for a thoughtfully keyworded YouTube Video to show up higher than your $5000 website. 6. By adding YouTube videos to your Google Maps Local Business Center listing, MerchantCircle listing, Yelp.com and others, you improve your ranking on those local search engines, and that helps to improve the ranking of your website. 7. You can add your YouTube video to your website as a URL link, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV-0VIHJCRk , or as an embed (see below). By putting the video on your website, you generate far more chances of it being seen. This is where you can really build trust and increase reasons for your customer to shop with you. 8. You can add your YouTube video to your blog, your facebook, you can Tweet about it, and you can socially bookmark the original video, the article on your blog, and the facebook entry. All of these increase the chances of the video being seen, and also benefit your activities on these other web tools. 9. Daily Motion and other video depositories similar to YouTube may pick up your video and add it to their listings. But if you don't want to wait and see if they do so, you can upload the same video to each one, or you can use an aggregator to put the video up on numerous of these sites all at once. 10. A single YouTube video that we did for a client for less than $300 resulted in the sale of a $6000 bicycle. This is just one of many such examples. The best part is that the YouTube video is listed on page one of a Google search for Specialized Transition and is going to still be selling bicycles for this client a year from now. Create an account with YouTube Only registered users may upload videos to YouTube. Registration is free and takes only a couple of minutes. I recommend: Visit the YouTube signup page and register. Start with a free "Standard" account that allows you to upload any video that is under 100 MB in size and less than ten minutes long. Upload a video to YouTube YouTube accepts many different video formats and converts them all into the same format for YouTube automatically. Your company may have videos from commercials, from training DVDs, from screen-capture programs, or from informal videos shot with a digital camera. I recommend: Follow YouTube's instructions for uploading a video. If your video is not less than 10 minutes in length, or is greater than 100 MB, you can use a free program like Microsoft Movie Maker to split the video up and compress the file size. Try free screen capture program, Cam Studio. Add transitions and splice together clips with YouTube Remixer. The type of video you upload might be a commercial (like this one for Dove or Flea Market Montgomery, each with millions of views), or it might be a message from your CEO (like this one from Salesforce.com), or it might be a "how-to" video (like this one from Backpacker Magazine). Promote your video Once your video is uploaded to YouTube, promote the video by placing the video on your own website, or using YouTube's promotional tools. I recommend: Every YouTube video has an embed code. If you place the embed code on your own website, visitors can watch the video right on your site. Also, YouTube supports promotional strategies such as using tags and forming groups. If you "tag" your video with keywords that describe the video, it is more likely to appear in search engines when people look up those words. Groups allow people to place similar videos together in one place, so if someone sees a video similar to yours, they are likely to see yours as well. Find out how to embed the video in a blog, or learn more about using tags.
• #65 Business Link – created it own YouTube channel – branded accordingly etc – grouping videos together in a great presentable format.
• #67 Look for an angle Look for the competition Get a feel for YouTube Think how else it could be used
• #68 Not expensive – these little Flip Video cameras are ideal for taking short video clips for web
• #70 Email marketing – probably one of the easiest Guerrilla Marketing tactics to employ – use your own Email software or buy-in additional tools. Use it to Build Loyalty / Remind clients that you are still around / Advise clients of full range of services / Provide easy access to latest – news/advice/offers
• #71 Not expensive and it is effective – great thing is that with the right tools it is fully measurable
• #72 Direct Marketing Association has carried out some Benchmarking Surveys – with some interesting results for showing how effective email marketing is
• #73 It costs six times as much to attract a new client as it does to increase revenue from your existing client base Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your client base
• #76 Some rules to follow when using email marketing - Pre-existing relationship / Opt in or Double Opt in / Sender is clearly identified Unsubscribe instructions with EVERY email / No consent = SPAM / Anti-Spam laws apply to Individuals davidlakins@hotmail.com = individual david.lakins@keymultimedia.co.uk = corporate
• #77 Measuring email marketing using a number of different tools can offer
• #78 Key to successful email marketing – decide on your goals, decide on your format
• #79 Plain text – no problem with being read in most email clients like Outlook, hotmail etc
• #80 Key to remember with HTML emails is the checks you need to carry out in order for them to be viewed in different email clients. Most e-newsletters are built with older style of coding – tables etc to accommodate as many email clients as possible.
• #81 Lots of tools out there – monthly subscription fees for fixed amounts of email sends
• #84 If you have anything valuable to say, then the answer is YES In comparison to a company newsletter, BLOGS are meant to be short and personal Blogging is a great way to keep your followers updated, provide timely information and updates, and share your opinions - try not to make it too controversial Blogging builds loyalty and brands and keep you on people’s minds 51% of journalists read blogs to story ideas Increase search engine results 28% of all search engine results are now linked to social media and social networking sites
• #89 The real cost of social networking is your TIME The more time you invest, the more results you should see Set up your profiles, add as much information as possible including work experience, education, skills, activities, etc Try and set aside part of your week making new introductions Writing a BLOG could easily take 30+ minutes
• #90 Do your research and make sure you are targeting the right audience Spend your time wisely – don’t try to be everywhere Start networking, join groups and participate in discussions, make comments and share opinions Promote your social media profiles / groups / blogs / fan pages in every email signature, newsletter blast and website page Have fun, be patient and track your success