Preneur Marketing

Renegade Publicist Finally Goes Live

2007-07-07T16:48:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

After many months of talk and hype RenegadePublicist.com has gone live...

Make sure you shoot over to www.renegadepublicist.com now and watch the video.

There are also a couple of amazing FREE gifts awaiting your arrival.

cheers,

Pete

p.s. www.renegadepublicist.com

Yellow Pages - Is it worth it?

2007-06-12T07:51:00.000+10:00

PART 1:

I was driving into the city last night to pick Fleur up from work (yeah, she had to work on a public holiday) and saw this sticker on the red ute ahead of me..

Now it may be hard to see, but the big yellow sticker reads

Find Us In The Yellow Pages

It may just be me, but WHY THE HECK would you pro-actively encourage your competition to look in a medium filled with adverts from your competition?

You wouldn't send out a direct mail piece to your prospects and stuff the envelope full off flyer's from the opposition, would you?

You wouldn't put links to your direct competitors on the websites landing page, would you?

I can only conceive one I (some-what) logical reason for sending your prospects to the yellow pages where your competition also advertises...

And this is... if your competition sucks...your advert stands out like dogs balls and your advert is full of benefit driven elements.

Unfortunately, by the look of this ute and its lack of calls to action and USP's (YES, you should put these on all your advertising mediums, and you car is definitely one) this wasn't the case...

In part 2 of this series on Yellow Pages advertising I will share with you my thoughts on advertising in the Yellow Pages in general... stay tuned.

Brands and Business Models

2007-05-31T20:58:00.001+10:00

If a big chunk of Coke, Microsoft and Apples' value is based on the brand itself... why do so many entrepreneurs spend so much time growing their infrastructure (staff, buildings, equiptment)?

Look at it this way... If you are growing a business to one day sell it so you can sit on the beach drinking Pina Colada's (and get caught in the rain), then the elements you should really focus on developing are the sales processes, the value your services offer, and how it's all perceived by the public... No-one really gives a rats about the stuff 'behind-the-scenes' !!

As an entrepreneur you only have a finite amount of capital you can invest into a business, and those fund can go toward growing the infrastructure or growing the brand.

In my mind this only adds fuel to the 'it obviously pays outsource' argument. Don't 'invest' in things that can be outsourced!

What are you focusing on growing in your business?

Technorati Tags: brand value, outsourcing, entrepreneurship, business building, brand

Cool PR Tool....

2007-05-06T21:39:00.001+10:00

Hi Guys,

I am trying to kill two birds with this one post...

Firstly I am testing this cool new web 2.0 tool called Clipmarks (www.clipmarks.com) and am using it to tell you about...

This really cool media directory thats available from Media Monitors - as you will read below it provides the details for every media outlet in the country...

Check it out...

clipped from www.mediamonitors.com.au

Mediadirectory

Mediadirectory is Australia's most comprehensive and authoritative hard copy media directory. Revised and reprinted monthly, it provides details for every media outlet, editor and important correspondent in Australia.
Mediadirectory has a user-friendly format with a detailed index, and provides useful and comprehensive guides and contents throughout.

The Nametag Guy gives away his 4th book for FREE!

2007-05-03T06:00:00.001+10:00

It just seems to be the week for freebies...

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you would be familiar with my friend Scott Gisnberg. He's the guy who wears a nametag 24/7 to increase approachability and encourage people to be more friendly.

Well Scott released his 4th book yesterday, titled 'Make a name for yourself' and for some reason he is giving it away for FREE.

It's available on Amazon to purchase here, but if you check out Scott's blog you can download it in ebook format for free.

Seriously make sure you click this link and check the FREE ebook out - It's his best work to date.

Technorati Tags: pete williams, scott ginsberg, nametag, make a name for yourself, approachability, free business ebook,

FREE Audio Cds....

2007-05-02T21:50:00.001+10:00

I have access to some complimentary copies of the May Edition of 'Business Essentials' for those who read this blog.

Business Essentials is the first subscription-based audio business magazine in the world and every month covers relevant insights, case studies and reports about today’s best business practices are presented in an entertaining audio CD format. With Business Essentials you can listen and learn while you drive and in this months edition they interview YOURS TRULY. Typically the monthly invest for the program is around $35 but if you act fast you can get your hands on an advanced copy at no cost.

So if you are one of the first 20 people to send an email with your name, address and phone number to pete@preneurmarketing.com.au I will get a complimentary copy out to you this week.

For more info on Business Essentials, check out www.be.com.au

Technorati Tags: pete williams, business essentials, audio magazine,

What I Leant From Gary Halbert

2007-04-18T18:31:00.000+10:00

Technorati Tags: gary halbert

In Prince Of Print Has Passed

2007-04-11T07:42:00.000+10:00

I woke up this morning and in typical fashion jumped onto bloglines to keep abreast of my latest RSS feeds...and what I read was incredibly sad.

The world greatest copywriter, Gary Halbert, passed away last night in his sleep.

For those of you unfamiliar with Gary, he has been termed 'The Prince of Print' and is regarded as the worlds best copywriter...

His teaching style was very, shall I say, unorthodox and in your face.... but none the less, his message was GOLD.

Gary’s death will leave a big void in the marketing community for years to come.

If you never had a chance to meet or learn from this amazing man, you missed out on a valuable (and profitable) opportunity.

However, you still have the opportunity to learn from this true master of persuasion as Gary had a newsletter site where he published his thoughts, tips and tricks.

So in true Gary Halbert style... All you 'shitweazels' check it out at, The Gary Halbert Letter: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/

Tags: copywriting gary halbert copy writer halbert

All New Keyword Research Tools

2007-04-06T15:12:00.001+10:00

In recent weeks I have received quite a few emails regarding the reference to Overture/Yahoo's Keyword Research Tool which is mentioned on pages 27-30 of my book.

As revealed in my book, this was a fantastic tool used by entrepreneurs in my 'inner circle' to do some investigative market research.... and find out how interested people were their idea/niche/product.

It showed you how many times a particular search term was searched online and thus gives an indication of 'interest level' in your idea.

Unfortunately, the Overture Keyword Research Tool is now DEAD.

Basically, the tool got hit so hard that Overture's servers couldn't handle the traffic and they shut it down... Now I am not saying my book was the sole cause for this... essentially a lot of [insert bad word] people began to write 'automated scripts' that spammed the service and made it impossible to use due to sporadic behaviour.

But don't worry I have explored the web high and low to find a replacement tool for you... and guess what... I found 2 !!!

Both tools are obviously modeled after Overture's and make fantastic alternatives...

1. Free Search Term Suggestion Tool by Keyword Discovery.com

Thye say their keyword data is complied and collected from a number of search engines to provide a far more accurate cross section of searches performed world wide..

Check it out here: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

2. Free Keyword Suggestion Tool by Wordtracker.com

On their site you simply enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.

Check it out here: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/keyword-suggestion-tool.html

Now with the Wordtracker tool they calculate the daily search volume using the following formula:

Number of times
keyword appears in
our database
----------------------
Total number of
keywords in our
database

Estimated total number of
daily queries on all search
engines*

Estimated daily
volume of searches
for the keyword

So for a keyword that appears 9,000 times in our database, this is the number of daily searches that we predict:

9,000
-------------
328.0 million

578.4 million*

15,873 daily searches

* Every day, on average, we collect about 3.64 million search terms from Dogpile.com and Metacrawler.com, who according to Netapplications.com account for 0.63% of searches across all engines. By combining these two figures, we estimate that the total daily searches across all engines is 578.4 million.

So to all of you who emailed me, 'thank you', and I hope this helps !!!

If anyone knows of other tools that would be of help to us all please leave a comment on this blog and let us know.

p.s. If you want to watch a couple of cool videos on how to use the wordtracker tool check out Ed Dale's blog here:

http://tubbynerd.com/2007/02/04/part-1-your-new-best-friend/ and http://tubbynerd.com/2007/02/04/part-2-your-new-best-friend/

Technorati Tags: overture, yahoo, keyword research, market research, wordtracker, word tracker, keyword sugestion, search term suggestion, pete williams, ed dale

A Must Have PR Resource

2007-03-31T14:33:00.001+10:00

This short video gives you a quick overview of a must have resource for getting FREE PUBLICITY.

I highly recommend you watch this short clip, then visit www.qwc.asn.au

2007-03-30T14:14:00.000+10:00

A great friend of mine Rohan Merry of Instant Property Services just sent me this link to a fantastic video on YouTube..

Check it out, its very inspirational.

Technorati Tags: inspiration, youtube, facing the giants

Scott Says It Again

2007-03-27T21:02:00.001+10:00

Read the latest from my mate Scott Ginsberg's blog here - Its titled '33 random thoughts I jotted down at the Phoenix airport'.. and it's pure GOLD.

I mean it - READ THIS NOW !!

You will not regret going here now.

Technorati Tags: scott ginsberg

Find out all the information about your postcode

2007-03-27T10:29:00.000+10:00

Matt Newton points us to this really cool tool from the team at News Limited.

It's a little online tool that allows you to

"Discover how different postcodes live, starting with your own. Brought to you by News Limited Community Newspapers, Postcode Power shows you just how well community newspapers know different postcodes and how you can use that knowledge to target any audience more effectively."

http://community.newsmedianet.com.au/home/postcodepower/

Some stuff I didn't know about my area (3182)

46.1 % male residents vs 53.9 % female residents
5.67 % are living in sin!
53.04 % have had tertiary education
2.16 % own a Porsche
8.04 % of population are sexually active
109554 is the average income ($)

Interesting eh ?

Technorati Tags: matt newton, postcodes, market research

International Google Searching

2007-03-25T21:04:00.000+10:00

Here is a neat little trick I came across that allows you to make Google display the search results as if you were searching from an different country.

See, with the Googles adwords program, advertisers can choose to display their ads to only certain countries, thus eliminating wasted clicks. If your business can only service people in Australia, what good is having your adverts displayed to those in Belgium, right ?

So, whilst doing some "strategic industry research" for On Hold Advertising I wanted to try and find some proactive international on hold companies (read: overseas adword advertisers) I could contact and create some strategic marketing alliances with (more on that technique in another post). But given I am located in Australia, its not that easy...

However what I discovered is that by adding the code '&gl=us' to the end of a searches url, it will display those results as if searched from that country.

For example, if I search 'messages on hold' from Australia I get the results and adwords from Australian companies that have added 'messages on hold' to their list of keywords. And the url that is generated is:

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=messages+on+hold&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-44,GGGL:en

Now by adding the code &gl=us to the end of this string in the browsers address bar I get the results as if I was in the US.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=messages+on+hold&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGGL,GGGL:2006-44,GGGL:en&gl=us

Neat trick to see what the pro-active businesses in your industry are doing online...

If you want to do this for other countries here are Googles Country Codes.

Technorati Tags: adwords, google, messages on hold, on hold advertising

Bartercard Entrepreneurs Course

2007-03-22T10:13:00.000+11:00

The team at Wealth Creator Magazine have just released details of the upcoming Entrepreneurs Course bought to you by Bartercard.

I am honored to say I am one of the presenters at the Melbourne event... So if anyone is keen to here me speak, make sure you register as soon as possible as there are strictly limited seats.

To register for this event and more information download brochure (pdf)

Year Of The Idea

2007-03-21T19:09:00.000+11:00

I can't believe I missed this...

In early January the Australian Institute For Commercialisation published a press release "calling on all Australians – from individual inventors and entrepreneurs to those working in industry, research organisations, or government to adopt 2007 as the Year of the Idea."

"Everybody has at least one idea everyday, but how many people actually do something with them? Ideas have the capacity to transform our lifestyles, our businesses and our economies and yet many of these ideas are hidden or even discarded. Now is the time to harvest more ideas and reap the rewards."

I couldn't agree more...

Something else I pulled off their blog is:

"The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas” is a famous quote from double Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling"

Revamped On Hold Advertising

2007-03-19T19:57:00.000+11:00

For those of you playing along at home...we have just launched an all new website for On Hold Advertising.

Please check it out and leave me your comments:
www.onholdadvertising.com.au

Technorati Tags: on hold advertising,messages on hold

2007-03-16T09:54:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

I just wanted to touch base and let you know what I am up to this weekend, because I hope you'd like to contribute.. and if you do, I have a thank-you gift I'd like to give you.

See this weekend is the Geelong Relay For Life. The Relay for Life is an overnight team event to raise funds for cancer research, education and patient support programs.

How does it work?

It’s a team challenge! - The challenge is for teams of 10 or more to complete a relay-style walk or run at selected venues throughout Australia. Team members take turns to keep their baton moving overnight, enjoying the sensational festive atmosphere created through entertainment, camping, spot prizes and, most importantly, the vibrancy of the hundreds of lively people on the track!

How can you help ?

Now I am not looking to team members, that's all taken car of.... but what I am looking for is support from you in the 'fund raising area'. Almost everyone has been affected by the terrible disease of cancer and it is important that we all work towards a cure. If you would like to help contribute to this great cause please click the button below now, which will take you to a paypal site where you can make a donation of your choice.

or pay directly via the Relay For Life page here

The Thank You Gifts

Now I would hope that you would want to contribute for the good of the fight alone, it is that important, but if you do help I would like to personally say thanks by giving you a couple of gifts taken from the upcoming publicity course I am finalising.

In the course that's about to be released, there will be a number of audio interviews I have conducted with a number of 'power players' from the media world... Giving you insights and secrets to generating publicity for your business, cause or venture. During the conversations I was amazed at the quality and depth of knowledge these experts were willing to reveal - they are very powerful resources.

Although my team think I am nuts for letting some of these out of the bag early, I want to raise as much money for the fight against cancer so I am willing to give you advance access to 2 of these interviews (valued at $49.95 each) for simply making a donation of any value.

Yep, you can make a donation of only $1 (although I hope you would contribute more than that) and at the end of the relay I will shoot you an email with a secret link to the following two interviews:

1. Dale Beaumont of Kapow Media

This has to be one of the best interviews I have ever been involved with, in just over an hour Dale and I reveal almost everything there is to know about the media...

- The inside secrets on how the media works...

- The power of publicity for your business, cause or venture...

- The top story angles that the media LOVE....

- How to get your story to the media to ensure it gets printed

- How the journalists rate/review your pitches to ensure you get through the clutter.

2. Dan Janal - Pr Leads

Dan is one of the worlds foremost experts on the PR game. He was instrumental in the launch of AOL throughout the USA and the tips he reveals include

- How to get journalists coming to you for stories

- How to generate publicity internationally

- What journalists look for in an interviewee

- How to use the internet to generate publicity.

So please help the fight against caner and contribute to my relay for life team now by clicking the donation button below.. every dollar counts!!!

p.s. I thnk you in advance for your support

2007-03-16T09:52:00.000+11:00

Click the button below to donate.

Go Bullets !!

2007-03-10T16:31:00.000+11:00

Just a quick post to congratulate my boys - the Brisbane Bullets, on their 2007 NBL Championship.

Fo those of you who don't know, I am a huge basketball fan and grew up with the Geelong Supercats basketball team. Now the current coach of the Bullets, Joey Wright, was once a player for the Supercats and hence by link wih Brisbane.

Anyway, well done guys - Enjoy the celebrations in Vegas !!!

Technorati Tags: Bullets, NBL, Basketball

Killer Media Event In Melbourne

2007-02-21T09:08:00.000+11:00

I just wanted to let you all know of a KILLER event in Melbourne next Tuesday... Networx are putting in an event titled 'Maximise the Media' that every business owner or entrepreneur should attend. They have put together a panel of some of the 'media power players'... who will reveal a tonne of secrets.

It's my Birthday on Tuesday and Fleur has something planned for us, so I can't attend - If you go, please take notes and let me know the 'golden nuggets' that will be revealed.

More Details

Topic: Maximising the Media

Date: Tuesday 27 February, 2007 (My Birthday)

Time: 6.15 - 8.30pm

Venue: The Point, Aquatic Drive, Albert Park Lake
(coin pay parking out front of venue)

Speakers:

* Ian Gilbert, Deputy Editor, M Magazine (The Age)
* Justin Smith, Producer - Neil Mitchell, 3AW
* Raquel Stevens - Senior Producer, 9am (Channel 10)
* Tony Kaye - Managing Director, Seeking Media

Cost: $37 members,$59 Non-members. Finger food provided. Pre-presentation drinks now included! Post presentation drinks available at bar prices.

Bookings: Essential. Please book online today to ensure your place. We accept all CC and also Chq/Money Order/Direct Deposit. If you have any problems booking, please call 03 9328 1958. IMPORTANT: Three business days notice is required for refunds to be offered. Substitutes are welcome after this time.

For more info click here...

Preneur Marketing Update

2007-02-20T08:17:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

I just sent out a quick update to my database....

If you missed it read it here: Preneur Marketing Update

Pete

Marketing 101

2007-02-08T10:39:00.000+11:00

MARKETING TERMINOLOGY
- courtesy of Maureen Holloway, radio personality at http://www.q92fm.com/more_mo_blog.php

1. You're a woman who sees a handsome guy at a party. You go up to him and say, I'm fantastic in bed.
That's Direct Marketing

2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a handsome guy. One of your friends goes up to him and, pointing at you, says She's fantastic in bed.
That's Advertising.

3. You see a handsome guy at a party, go up to him and get his phone number. the next day you call and say, Hi, I'm fantastic in bed.
That's Telemarketing.

4. You see a guy at a party; you straighten your dress. You walk up to him and pour him a drink. You say, May I? and reach up to straighten his tie, brushing your breast lightly against his arm, and then say By the way, I'm fantastic in bed.
That's Public Relations.

5. You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He walks up to you and says I hear you're fantastic in bed.
That's Brand Recognition.

6. You're at a party and see a handsome guy. He fancies you, but you talk him into going home with your friend.
That's a Sales Rep.

7. Your friend can't satisfy him so he calls you.
That's Tech Support.

8. You're on your way to a party when you realize there could be handsome men in all those houses that you're passing by. You climb onto the roof of one situated towards the center and shout, I'm fantastic in bed.
That's Junk Mail.

9. You're at a party and this well built man walks up to you and grabs your ass.
That's President Clinton.

New Copywriting Blog

2007-01-30T07:51:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

Just wanted to let you all know of another new blog that has appeared on my radar. Brent Hodgson, is not only a good friend of mine but he is also one of Australia's leading copy writers - doing work for some of the most well known info-preneurs in OZ.

Well, he has just released a new blog which I highly recommend. It covers everything from sales copy to search engine optimisation.

Check it out: Brent Hodgson, Copywriter

Technorati Tags: copywriting, brent hodgson, SEO

They's and We's...

2007-01-24T10:25:00.000+11:00

We are about to put on a new team member in the next week or so, and it's got me thinking about 'employee intergration' and how long it takes a new employee to feel "part of the team".

See..I was recently listening to someone give an elevator pitch for a company they had just joined only weeks prior - Something that stood out during his short presentation was he kept referring to the law firm as THEY.. they do this... they do that... they will keep you out of jail and the arms of Brutis. It was like the company that now paid his wage was a third party or an arms lengths away. Not something he felt involved with yet.

Later that same day, I was having a conversation with someone who had only been wih his empoyeer for a couple of months but his vocabulary was completely opposite - we do this... we do that... we we we all the way home. He was part of the team.

This got me thinking... when does a THEY become a WE ?

As employeers, co-workers and managers how do we make the transition from a THEY to a WE faster, easier and as efficient as possible ?

Great Guerrilla Campaign

2007-01-23T08:23:00.000+11:00

Advertising For Peanuts points us to a fantastc geurilla advertising campaign run by a travel agency in Munich. I just love creative geurrilla marketing and this is up there with the best...

Check it out: http://advertisingforpeanuts.blogspot.com/2007/01/travel-agency.html

Technorati Tags: advertising for peanuts, guerrilla marketing, travel agency, munich

Australian Monopoly

2007-01-22T21:16:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

I just came across something that I think is realy interesting. They are making an Australian version of my favorite game - MONOPOLY. And the best thing is we can help shape the boards make-up by voting on which Australian landmarks should be which - imparticular the dark blue property typically known as Mayfair. .

Check it out at http://www.monopoly.com.au/

Also, you can view live stats of which state is winning the dark blue property race. As I write this it is currently a tie between Victoria and South Australia at 23% of votes each.

Now the marketing lesson to take from this is... If you go and vote, do you think the chance of you buying the game when it comes out is higher? I voted, and I will probably buy a copy... Now how can you get your clients/customers/prospect involved in new product development?

I'm Causing Divorces - New Newsletter

2007-01-19T21:04:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

So Fleur bailed on me tonight to spend time with her girlfriends...so I have spent Friday night home alone!! To keep me occupied I sent out an email to my Preneur Marketing database and thought I should share it with you too.

Anyway, Intellicontact.com which I use for email distribution has this neat 'publich archive' feature which allows me to link to a page that publishes my emails.

So check out the email here - I'm Causing Divorces

It covers three important points:
1. A Gift
2. A Request For Help
3. A Reminder (which is irrelevant to you)

That link again..... I'm Causing Divorces

See ya soon,
Pete

Technorati Tags: preneur marketing, pete williams, intellicontact, fleur
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I've Found the Secret ..

2007-01-17T10:40:00.000+11:00

So for all you out there that want to know how to come up with GREAT MILLION DOLLAR IDEAS here 's the secret of Newton, Archimidies and Einstein - MENTOS ... well, that's what Mentos are trying to get you to believe in this advertising campaign...

Kinda cool eh ?

Customer Questions

2007-01-14T16:23:00.000+11:00

Is this how your sales team treat customer enquries?

After getting my 'start' in retail and seeing all types of customers.... it amazes me how so many retailers continue to treat opportunities to reinforce a brand, cement a relationship and turn a sale into a life long customer, with poor customer service . As Seth Godin referred to recently in a post on his blog you may know better but are you too lazy to implement ?

Dilbert Comic Strip Archive - Dilbert.com - The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams - Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, Dilbert, Customer Service, Retail, Customers
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43 Things to Do In 2007

2007-01-13T07:58:00.000+11:00

Acorn Creative points us to 43 Things. As they describe... It’s a social networking site where you can interact with others who are trying to attain the same goals as you.

Check out 43 Things now and add yoyur 2007 goals.

Technorati Tags: Acorn Creative, 43 Things, Goals, 2007

Today...Your Past DOES Equal Your Future

2007-01-12T07:37:00.000+11:00

We’ve all heard from the motivational speakers, self help gurus + personal development experts that your past doesn’t equal your future and you have the power to ensure your previous thoughts, actions and performance don’t effect your future.

Up until yesterday I would have agreed whole heartedly and in most circumstances still do.

HOWEVER, in today’s world, the information age, where every bit of the world, every statistic, each useless bit of information about you and your past is accessible via Google, you can no longer erase your past... the past that is available and accessible to everyone with a PC (or Mac) that is.

So as you do your morning affirmations to ensure you do everything in YOUR control to start your future right, just beware that your future now travels alongside you at the speed of gigahertz…

U.S. Pizza Franchise Accepts Payment In Pesos From Spanish Patrons

2007-01-08T12:36:00.000+11:00

Brad Williamson of BizMAVERICK has posted a great story on smallbusinessbranding.com about a fast food chain in the USA doing some creative marketing...

There’s this pizza joint called Pizza Patron (59 stores), that’s headquartered here in my hometown of Dallas Texas, that truly understands their consumer demographic of Spanish customers.
Many Mexican residents of Dallas have just recently traveled from Mexico, and have a surplus of Mexican currency sitting there in their wallets that’s going unspent. Pizza Patron had a marketing brain fart and decided to give these people a place to spend their pesos as they’re now accepting them as payment for pizza.

I think it's brillinat as it reinforces a companies commitment to thier brand position.

Read the entire stroy here:

U.S. Pizza Franchise Accepts Payment In Pesos From Spanish Patrons » Small Business Marketing And Branding

What can you do that's like this, links with your brand and will create a buzz?

Technorati Tags: viral marketing, pizza patron, marketing
, BizMAVERICK
, Brad Williamson
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Retail Marketers Lookout !!!

2007-01-06T08:49:00.000+11:00

Morning All,

I had to jump online this morning to let you know about a new blog. Those of you in the retail space will be extremely interested to find that Shannon Curtis has finally increased his 'accessability' and created a blog.

Shannon Curtis is one of the world leading experts on retail marketing and has helped numerous businesses double thier retail business within 9-12 months, without discounting or spending a fortune on advertising. His stuff will change any retail business.

The blog is very new with only a few posts, but I wanted to let you know early so you can start to harness his power. Whether you are directly in retailing or not, your products and services will have to pass through the 'retail sector' to reach the end consumer so I encourage you to keep abreast of these ideas.

Check out Shannon's Retail Marketing Blog now.

Pete

p.s. how funny is this pic ;)

Technorati Tags: shannon curtis, retail marketing, retail, profitable clothing retailer
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The Nametag Guy on NBC

2007-01-05T11:24:00.000+11:00

That Nametag Guy is at it again. This time Scott Ginsberg was featured on NBC. I am a 'huge fan' of Scott (actually Fleur thinks I have a man-crush) and encourage all of you to get in his circle and read this material on a regular basis.

Because Santa bought me an ipod this year I have finally got around to listening to Scotts Podcasts and they were far beyond my expectations (even though I have a man-crush and think Scott's "Super-Awesome"). Check them out at: http://hellomynameisscott.com/default.aspx?SiteArea=podcast

Here is the video of his NBC interview:

Technorati Tags: nametags Scott Ginsberg

A Dude That Will Go Places

2007-01-04T09:44:00.000+11:00

Ed Dale shares this great little video about an inspiring US teenage entrepreneur:

Technorati Tags: inspiring entrepreneur, supermarket
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2006-12-29T19:13:00.000+11:00

Merry Christmas All,

Just recorded this quick podcast my new toy (thanks Santa!)

Pete

p.s. If you are on the newsletter list check our inbox in a week or so for some exciting news.

Another PR Feature

2006-12-22T15:19:00.000+11:00

Hi All,

Just wanted to tell you to keep your eyes out for the new Wealth Creator mag. In the Jan/Feb edition there is a two page spread about me and my adventures.

You can get a preview here: Wealth Creator Magazine - Pete Williams: The G Force

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Great Adverts

2006-12-20T08:17:00.000+11:00

What a great advert series...

Technorati Tags: great adverts, condoms

Great Cartoon

2006-12-19T09:57:00.000+11:00

I just stumbled across this great site: www.MarkJoyner.name. Mark Joyner is a #1 best-selling author of over a dozen books
translated in almost as many languages and posts a great cartoon blog almost everyday. Below is my favorite.

Visit Mark Joyner for more of his

personal development brain puzzle cartoons.

Technorati Tags: Mark Joyner, Business Cartoons,

Opertation Gatorage

2006-12-19T07:26:00.000+11:00

The American Copywriter points us to Operationgatorage.com

This site is a great spoof on the steriod abuse situation that is happening in sports - and the best thing is its an Australian campagin !!

Technorati Tags: gatorade, american copywriter

What Makes Up A Present (product) ?

2006-12-17T16:00:00.000+11:00

I was on my way back from a keynote speech in Brisbane last week when the air-hostess started a conversation with a young girl in the seat behind me. The young girl was on her way to Melbourne to spend Christmas with her father, and was telling the hostess what the gift her Mother had already given her was.

She was enthusiastically explaining how she was given a beautiful bike that came with a water bottle. Given the excitment, over what most 'outsiders' would consider a pointless inclusion, the waterbottle, the hostess asked the girl - "What are you more excited about, the bike or the waterbottle that came with it?"

The obvious anser is the bike... but to the surprise of the hostess and myeslf the girl wasn't sure which she liked the best?

Her mother had most likely spent a decent chunk of change on the bike, giving little thought to the waterbottle that came with the bike. To most, it would have been a simple 'add-on' with little value, but to this young girl the waterbottle is what makes the entire package exciting.. it's the clincher... it's the difference between a bike and an experience.

What are you offering your clients (and kids this Christmas) to turn your product into a bigger experience ?

Technorati Tags: gifts, add ons, christmas
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Beginner's Guide to Digg

2006-12-06T07:44:00.000+11:00

There is a lot of talk about WEB 2.0 and the different apps that are around. One of the most popular is Digg.

"Digg is a site that will help you avoid the process of digging and
instead, get exactly what others have dug up so you can see some of the
great sites/stories/things out there on the Internet."

Neil Patel of Pronet Advertising has put together a short but great guide to Digg - Check it out at: Beginner's Guide to Digg

Technorati Tags: Digg, Web 2.0, Neil Patel
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Ego-centric Marketing

2006-12-05T09:01:00.000+11:00

I continually come across small business owners marketing 'about themselves' not thier prospect. A perfect example of this is the 'Under New Management' sign.

Seth Godin talks about this in his latest blog here:
Seth's Blog: Under New Management

Technorati Tags: Seth Godin, ego-centric marketing
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Effective Communication Online

2006-12-05T08:59:00.000+11:00

How are you communicating to your prospects on your websites landing page?

I ask this because I recently came across a website which had this copy on thier landing page:

XXX Pty Ltd is in the business of helping customers in Australia and New Zealand with Enterprise Application solutions and services to align each business with their unique objectives.
Our team of Business and Application specialists work with clients to discover potential areas to incorporate “lean” processes and procedures, then design and implement solutions ensuring value is achieved/exceeded at each stage.

In the words of Rove Mc Manus.....What the ?? I had no idea what they were talking about and I was a prospective client!

Unlike most vistiors to the site, who would click back and Google another provider, I decided to digg a little further and found this..

XXX Pty Ltd is committed to delivering business efficiencies through technology. Through a systematic approach of applying latest business practices with best of breed enterprise applications, XXX pty Ltd can deliver significant business improvement and can demonstrate a significant return on investment for your business.

Now that makes more sense to me... Not perfect but close to my desired outcome....There is benefit there...

Now check our sites landing page - Are you 'strategically' (sarcasim) hiding your benefits from your prospective clients ???

Pete Williams has...

2006-12-04T08:26:00.000+11:00

I was driving to the office this morning and was listening to The Cage on Triple M and they were discussing 'Googling your name' and the funny things that appear. Some of the weird and wacking things listeners where calling i,n and saying appeared when they Googled theselves, motivated me to check out myself ... So here we go - the funniest things that appear on Google when I search 'Pete Williams has'

Peter Williams has been given official endorsement by the legendary British 1960's pop icon and film star JOHN LEYTON to produce an instrumental CD tribute to him.

How cool is that!!!

Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual

That' a relief for Fleur

Pete Williams was a partner at Morrison Foerster LLP, a leading international law firm.

Pitty I haven't passed the B.A.R. exam

Peter Williams has diverse research interests including star formation and the dynamics of the interstellar medium

Star Formation - does that mean how Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie walk the red carpet?

Peter Williams has shown there is nothing which is impossible

I'm going to quote this one!

Peter Williams has featured as a minor role in several famous films such as Catwoman

It was so mich fun working with Hallie Berry.

Pete Williams has reported on sports, business, and fitness for more than 15 years. He’s the author or co-author of seven books

It appears 'How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality' isn't my first release ???

So, what have you done?

Technorati Tags: google, pete williams has
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Preneur 2.0 - Walking The Talk

2006-12-02T19:34:00.000+11:00

As you guys know, I'm all about IMPLEMENTATION... So who would I be if I didn't 'walk the talk', right?

So...after spending the day with Ed Dale and Frank Kern at their Under Achiever Life seminar in Melb I came straight home and implemented something they spoke about... listen to the audi to find out more !!!

Pete

Another Round of Publicity

2006-11-28T09:39:00.000+11:00

Ok, so it's been awhile between posts... Sorry about that, the PR bandwagon took me on another road trip...

If you are interested I am featured in this weeks 'Bulletin' cover story. The article titled 'Confessions of a Gen Y' is about, you guessed it Gen Y and what makes us. It's a really interesting article and Katherine Fleming did a great job.

I was also featured in Novembers Independent Financial Advisor Magazine - you can download the article here.

Also keep a look out for this month Australian Anthill - rumor has it my book gets a thumbs up ;)

Cheers,

Pete

How To Be That Guy

2006-11-28T06:19:00.000+11:00

So Who is THAT guy? Well, 'That Name Tage Guy' is Scott Ginsberg. See my good buddy, Scott is the only person in the world who wears a nametag 24-7-365 (since November 2, 2000 to be exact).

Why? To encourage people to become friendlier and more approachable.

Scott is recognised as "The Authority on Approachability" & "The World's Foremost Expert on Nametags" and has been featured on/in CNN, The Wall Street Journal and even Ripleys Believe It Or Not.

He is also the author of 3 books, his latest being 'How To Be That Guy'. Scott kindly gave me a copy of 'How To Be That Guy' when we caught up on my most recent trip to the USA. I started flicking through it on a flight from Dallas, Texas to Sacramento, California and couldn't put it down.

Here are the 'gems' I pulled from the book:

The word 'Cool' dates back around 100 years. Tenor Saxophonist Lester Young populised the term in jazz circles in the late 1920s. [pg.32]
Scott created his own word 'UNCONCELABLE' - which means becoming so cool people can't help but to talk about you, your product or your business. [pg.35]
You need a two or three word brand description. When Scott was being interviewed on CNN he was asked for a two or three word description to go under his name on screen. What would your two or three word brand description be? [pg. 44]
A simple yet powerful quote; "You don't have to be great to get started;but you have to get started to be great" - Scott Ginsberg [pg.76]
'Genericide' (juh.NAYR.uh.syd) n. The process by which a brand name becomes a generic name for an entire product category... I know all about this but never had a name for it [pg.104]
The entire chapter titled 'The most important word in marketing'. So powerful you MUST buy the book just for these 7 pages [pg.111-118]
Another quote "The most UNFORGETTABLE and MAGNETIC brands are participatory" -Scott Ginsberg. Think of all the products you get to 'play with' before you buy, or think of all the adverts (radio and TV) that you quote all time time! 'NOT HAPPY JAN' - This is all participatory [pg.124]
The 5 key elements of an impactful business card... Luckily for me I had 80% coverd on my cards. [pg.139]
'Internetworking'; The development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships online"... If you want to succeed at all you need to develop your internetworking abilities to grow your exposure online [pg.148]
I need to get a FLICKR site... I will let you know when mine is up, but for the meantime Visit Scotts Flickr site [pg.162]
There are 3 reasons why people buy from you: 1. They've HEARD you 2. They've heard OF you 3. Someone they TRUST has heard OF you [pg.183]

I also learnt a few other things about Scott; He has a strange fetish for fruit and veg [pg.54], I want to play him in golf [pg.149] and I want to visit Puerto Vallarta [pg.176]

So basically you NEED to buy this book, it's not a suggestion, it's a requirement to keep reading this BLOG [lol]. Because Scott self publishes, the book is excellent value and I have only covered a tiny portion of what's inside!

Check out Scott's site now http://www.hellomynameisscott.com/

Cheers,

Pete

Buyers Check List Example

2006-11-27T08:25:00.000+11:00

A few blogs ago I wrote about creating checklists for your buyers and helping them make educated purchases.

Check out the original blog here:
http://preneurmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/05/sales-checklist.html

Well I was in Bunnings the other day and saw this!!! I wasn't aware that
A/ Bunnings marketing team subscribed to this blogs feed
B/ A big company like that can implement techniques so quickly.

Either way, this is a perfect example of a 'Buyers Check List'... It helps the buyers of Charcoal BBQ's not forget anything and helps increase the sales of 'add-on' products for Bunnings.

Great work Bunnings !!

Increase Coupons....

2006-11-13T06:18:00.000+11:00

This is a very creative and 'ballsy' advert from the team at Stella Artois.

For those who are non-drinkers; Stella Asrtois is positioned as a "reassuringly expensive" beer and this campaign ties in so well with that.

Some of the most effective marketing and advertising is done by turning the coin over and doing things completely opposite to the status quo.

The Week That Was....

2006-11-10T09:59:00.000+11:00

I am going to continue my ego strocking for another post and update you all on the latest round of media my new book is recieveing.

My good friend Scott Ginsberg - 'The Nametag Guy' kindly posted a blog about my Selling The 'G venture and the new book. Check out the blog here.
Mike from Melbourne Neighbourhood Radio and I did an interview late last week which is featured on thier curent online radio show here.
The same interview is also on the 'I Love South Melbourne site'
I was also featured in the Herald Suns Fully Frank Section last week - A big thank you to John Beveridge for the article. The article is below if you are interested.

The profits in the Percentages

2006-11-08T06:10:00.000+11:00

Ok, we have all heard the saying "it's the one percenters that make the difference"... Well as true as it is, it's not what I am talking about here.

I am talking about how percentages affect the pricing of your product. In my book 'How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality' I spend a lot of time talking about pricing and how to calculate a price for your product that will give you the maximum amount of overall profit.

I would like to expand on this topic today and throw another theory I have developed into the mix - 'The Theory of Pricing Percentage'

This 'theory' is designed to help you effectively price your product to ensure that the maximum number of 'customers' in your target market can buy your product. See, most entrepreneurs take a very egocentric approach to pricing - they either develop a pricing stucture based on

the costs required to supply the product
the gross profit they wish to make per sale
or a combination of the two

'The Theory of Pricing Percentage' however states "It's not how much you sell your product for, it's what percentage of your target's disposable income it costs them"

In other words; you should set your pricing based on what your customers can afford in terms of their disposable income.

For example, if you are selling 'widgets' that your target market purchase on a weekly basis you should consider setting the price as a percentage of their weekly disposable income. If your target markets weekly disposable income is, say $400 - a charge of 2% would be a cost of $8. Where as if your target market has a disposable income of $900 per week you could sell to them for $18 (the same 2%).

Charging them 2%, results in the same 'pain cost' to the consumer, and in theory the same level of inertia to overcome.

Now when I say 2% I am not saying make the price tag say 2% of your disposable income and make them bring in a pay check to calculate the costs; what I am saying is do some research and work out approx what 2% of your typical cutomers disposable income would be and charge that flat price.

The Best Definition of Direct Mail

2006-11-06T08:40:00.000+11:00

Direct Mail expert Gary Halbert says that Direct Mail Advertising is like a small child:

It’s totally useless if you give it more than one thing to do at a time.

I Didn't Know TV Involved Exercise

2006-11-03T07:33:00.000+11:00

So bright and early yesterday morning a hire car appeared in my driveway to take me to the MCG for a live interview on the TODAY show with Jessica Rowe.

Everything seemed to be going well, except for the rain. Arrived at the G to meet a crew member from Channel 9 and the publicist from Wiley. However, about 15mins prior to my live cross we found ourselves scratching our heads wondering where the camera-man was !!

8 mins to the live cross and still no show... 6 mins.... 5 mins.... Then the phone calls from the studio in Sydney began. They had double booked the camera-man and the only option we had was to hightail it to Bourke St were another live cross was being filmed.

Channel 9 switched segments around to give us extra time to make the dash across down and I eventually made it to the Bourke St Mall for the live cross and book plug.

If you are interested in seeing the interview you can view it on the ninemsn site here:
http://ninemsn.video.msn.com

2006-11-01T09:53:00.000+11:00

If anyone is interested I am being interviewed on the TODAY show Thursday morning regarding 'How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality'.

Make sure you switch to Channel 9 at around 8:15am Thursday November 2 to view an interview between myself and Ross Greenwood.

P.S. I am also on 3AW Sunday afternoon at around 4pm with Dennis Walters.

Featured in 'Million Dollar Mine'

2006-10-30T07:31:00.000+11:00

I have been featured in the October, 2006 edition of Robert Allen's Million Dollar Mine Ezine - the e-newsletter for the New York Times Best-Selling book, The One Minute Millionaire.

Robert Allen and his team used my Selling the 'G venture as a success story. As most of you would know the idea to Sell the MCG came from reading Robet Allen and Mark Victor Hansens great book.

Here is an excert from the e-zine:

Success Story
After reading The One Minute Millionaire at the age of 21, the story of Paul Hartunian and his 'selling the brooklyn bridge' venture really was an "AHA" moment for me (I am currently 24).
I then began to look around Australia for how I could do a similar venture at home - At the same time, Australia's version of 'Yankee Stadium,' The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was getting redeveloped. I was able to rescue from the wrecking company a bunch of timber...
Read Pete's Success Story

They even kindly told the work my book title ( you can see that when you click the 'read Pete's success story' link)

If you are interested in signing up to their e-zine visit: http://www.oneminutemillionaire.com/newsletter/

Agony Ant Article

2006-10-28T11:29:00.000+10:00

In the October/November 2006 edition of Australian Anthill, I wrote a brief editorial response for their Agony Ant section relating to On Hold Advertising.

The question I responded to was: "I want to replace my annoying 'on hold' music with an on hold message, what should I communicate on it?"

If you want to see my response along with other great articles I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of Australian Anthill. There is a great article on 'How to diagnose a business blunder..before it turns toxic'.

Or, you can see my response by clicking on the image to the left.

I'm A Real Author

2006-10-25T07:34:00.000+10:00

Well, it's finally available. After lots of hard work, yesterday I received a small number of advance copies of my new book 'How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into A Reality’' from my publisher. In the ‘spirit’ of Pinocchio’s “I’m a real boy’”… "I'm a real author!"

The nations next best-seller (wink wink) is being released nationwide through books stores in a few weeks, but if you would like to get your hands on one of the few 'early editions' you can do so on my site TODAY ONLY at http://www.preneurmarketing.com.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3

FREE SHIPPING: Thursday afternoon the online store is going to automatically start charging for shipping, but if you order today I will happily shout you the postage ;) That’s my way of saying thanks for the support, and for buying it from me.

SIGNED COPY: This feels a bit egotistical but like all 'good authors' do, I will even sign your copy for you ;)

If you can just take 2 mins, go to http://www.preneurmarketing.com.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=3 complete the ordering process, I will post you a copy straight away.

Accommodation Manager Guide Article

2006-10-20T20:24:00.000+10:00

For those who are interested, I recently contributed an article to The Accomodation Managers Guide (AMG, on the power of on hold advertising to the accommodation industry.

Check out the article here:

Trade Exchange Spending

2006-10-17T20:35:00.000+10:00

In my new book there is a chapter on the power and profits to be made through bartering and trade exchanges. I am a big advocate of becoming a member of a trade exchange, in particular Bartercard, as it gives you exposure to a completely different economy and a powerful way to increase your bottom line.

In the latest edition of Bartercard’s monthly magazine ‘B Savvy’, there is a great article on the use of trade dollars towards phone bills, focusing on M2 Barter Telecoms.

M2 Barter Telecoms is one of Bartercards largest members, and is the work of Troy and Adam Bowen, my partners in On Hold Advertising.

Check out the article here:

YOU CAN, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN !

2006-10-12T08:53:00.000+10:00

If you think you are beaten you, are,
If you think you dare not , you don’t
If you like to win, but you think you can’t
It is almost certain you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a person’s will --
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before --
You can ever win a prize

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or Later, the person who wins
Is the person
“WHO THINKS THEY CAN”

Author unknown

Google Base

2006-09-25T20:05:00.000+10:00

Google has released a new service called Google Base:

Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content, which we'll make searchable on Google (if your content isn't online yet, we'll put it there). You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they do related searches. In fact, based on your items' relevance, users may find them in their results for searches on Froogle, Google Maps and even our main Google web search.

It looks interesting (plus anything Google touches seems to turn to gold), so I have just uploaded my book onto Google Base - How To Turn Your Million Dollar Idea Into a Reality At Google Base

The McFake.... Do you want real fries with that?

2006-08-12T12:08:00.000+10:00

Here is a picture of the Fake McDonald's - this is the McDonald's restuarant that is used in every commercial and movie you see. As the story goes this lonely and empty McDonalds is just waiting in the back of an industrial park near La Puente, California to be filmed. I also hear they have every single McDonald's uniform in every size from every country in the basement - and all the different furniture too. For those of you how want to visit Ronald next time you are in California, this site offers direction.

Selling Protection

2006-07-12T07:31:00.000+10:00

So I received a letter the a few months back from my accountant offering 'Tax Audit Protection' - As you can see from the attached letter the investment would only cost $22 and protect me for upto $1100 worth of costs if I was audited. Not a bad insurance policy to take up at such a low price, I am sure a large number of this accountants clients took this offer up. For those of you who have read about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Safety (Security/Protection) is very very important to people and one of our core needs.

Lets look at it from the Accountants point of view - Firstly from an cost balance of view. They will need to sell 50 'policies' for every audit they need to complete. I am not sure of the odds of people getting audited but I would almost bet it's less then 1 in 50.... Obviously the Accountant can look back trough their records to see what % occurred in the past, to make sure the bases are covered.

Secondly, what are they really selling? Well unlike most services accountants offer - they are not selling time? Generally you pay the account for their time to complete a BAS statement, File a return etc etc. As the $22 is not covering a direct effort on the accountants behalf, it's merely a opportunity/possibility. If the account sold 1000 of these to their large client base, that's $22,000 of additional income they would otherwise wouldn't have had.

How can you do the same in your business?
- An 'All Purpose Tradesman' could sell call-out protection; For $250 you are covered for 10 hours of work if/when needed in the next 12 months.
- An 'Auto-Mechanic' can offer a labour protection: If your car breaks-down in between scheduled services, $88 will cover the labour to fix the job.

The Drivers of Business...

2006-06-26T07:20:00.000+10:00

What creates turnover? Sales? Customers?

Well if you breakdown how turnover is calculated you will find:

Turnover = # of customers x # of transactions per customer x $ spent per transaction.

So if you have 2000 customers each purcasing from you twice per year and spending $100 per sale you would have a turnover of $400,000 - not a bad business.

So what would happen if you were able to increase each area by 5% - just 5%.
Thats 2100 customers each purchasing 2.1 times and spending $105. Thats a $463,050 - an increase of 63,050 or 15.76%. So by increasing the business drivers by only 5% your turnover will grow by over 15%.

Ok so how do you actually grow those drivers..

Well most people focus on growing the # of customers by simply advertising... By often forget about the other drivers...

You can increase the number of transactions by putting in place a frequent buyers system like subway's stamp club..

You can increase the # of items purchsed by following McDonalds and simply asking 'would you like fries with that?'

You can increase the $ spent by again following McDonalds asking 'would you like to supersize that order?'

Virgin Mobile Offends...

2006-06-19T15:43:00.000+10:00

This is a brilliant marketing piece Virgin Mbile attempted to run in the UK - unfortunetly it was banned as it was believed:

1. it was likely to cause serious or widespread offence;
2. it was not sufficiently clear that the insert was advertising material;
3. the tone of the insert could cause undue fear and distress; and
4. it could encourage children to emulate the language used in the insert.

Read more about it at: http://www.bestrejectedadvertising.com/ban/I.html

Keeping them hanging around....

2006-06-13T08:13:00.000+10:00

What do you do in your business to keep the customers hanging around?

Its amazing but on average 94% of marketing budgets are designed to get the customer to make inital contact (phone call and or comming into the store) with little effort effort or focus on when they do.

Once they are in the store you have only won half the battle, you need to implement systems and stratergies to maximise the actual interaction.

One 'retail' store I know of offers all their customers a cup of coffee - its a brilliant stratergy as each client now has to 'linger' in the store while they wait for the coffee to be made, wait for the coffee to cool to drinking temperature and then actually drink it.... Imagine what would happen to your bottom line if all the people who walked into your store stayed for 3-4 times as long???

Targeting A Captive Audience...

2006-06-09T08:39:00.000+10:00

Ok, so not your average post or marketing medium for that matter - but it is very creative and targets a "captive audience". We all know if you can target a captive market and get them to interact with your message you have done very very well.

This one is for ESPN's football (soccer) channel.

This one is for the MINI with the tagline reading
'Test your handling skills" ... and yes they are mini witches-hats in the bowl.

Here a couple of other bathroom related pics - not really advertising anything but they made me laugh.

Interactive Billboards - Part 2

2006-06-01T12:15:00.000+10:00

Here is another couple of interactive billboards - I love these as they are so creative.
This one is for KINKO's Office Supplies in the USA.

I am not sure who has to mow the lawn daily - but another great interactive billboard. This time for BIC RAZORS.

Word Of Mouth Marketing

2006-05-28T09:44:00.000+10:00

We have all experienced the brilliance of Word of Mouth Marketing in our businesses, it is a powerful way to "spread the word". In a recent article that was posted on the Customer Evangelists Blog. The numbers say it all ....

56: The average number of times an American discusses brands in ordinary conversations every week.
72%: The percentage of brand-related opinions delivered from a person to a family member or personal friend; 13% are delivered to co-workers and 7% are delivered by a professional or expert on the topic. (I suppose that puts us marketing bloggers in the distinct minority.)
41%: Number of conversations about brands that reference an item seen or heard in the media or in marketing material; 15% refer to an ad, 8% refer to a form of editorial or entertainment content, 5% refer to a point of purchase item, and 4% refer to the lowly coupon or other promotion.
62%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly positive."
9%: Percentage of marketing-related discussions described as "mostly negative."
92%: Percentage of word of mouth conversations that occur offline; 71% of those occur face-to-face, and 21% occur by phone.

These stats are courtesy of a new study (PDF) from the Keller Fay Group.

A Real 'Gift' Voucher

2006-05-25T09:14:00.000+10:00

I received a gift voucher the other day, it was the typical DL size certificate that was valid for $50 at the given store. I really appreciated it, however it got me thinking - Why don't stores actually make their gift certificates actual gifts?

I mean wouldn't it be more enjoyable for the gift giver to be able to wrap something substantial up as opposed to simply giving an envelope? For example couldn't a clothing store actually print t-shirts which are the actual gift certificate - It wouldn't cost more then $5.00 per t-shirt to produce but I bet they would sell 10 times as many gift certificates because they are unique and are tangible.

A Shoe store could embroid the gift certificate into a sock?
A Hardware store could engrave small shovels?
A Hairdresser could engrave a small hand-mirror?
A travel agency could create a 'message in a bottle' style gift voucher?

Sales Checklist

2006-05-19T09:05:00.000+10:00

Do you have a sales checklist in your business?

Sales checklists are a great sales tool - Not only will they help your customers make the right choice of product but they will more often then not upsell your customers into additional products.

A Paint store could create a checklist they give customers when they enter the store titled 'The A1 Paint Job Checklist - Everything you need to know and to create a killer paint job'. They could then list all the items required to do a perfect paint job
1. 9m brush
2. Roller
3.Turps
4. Masking Tape etc etc

A Travel Agents checklist could include:
1. Airport Parking
2. Car Hire
3. Travellers Checks
4. Luggage etc etc

By simply assisitng and educating your customers its amazing how many add-ons you will be able to incorporate into the sale.

Interactive Billboards

2006-05-15T10:14:00.000+10:00

What a creative way to promote your product... This interactive outdoor ad for Friskies bird seed makes a wonderful connection to the product, the audience and the product benefit - I think the birds like it aswell. I communicates everything it needs to in a straight forward way- yet, at the same time very very innovative.

3M have also embrassed the growing trend of intereactive billboards with this unqiue approach to advertising thier 3M Bandages.

Stamp of Approval...

2006-05-11T11:39:00.000+10:00

Nightclubs across the UK are getting creative and using specially designed stamps as proof of entry for patrons. The person would then wake up on Saturday morning and be reminded of the free CD offer in Saturday morning's Guardian newspaper.

This creative marketing exploit gets the Preneur Marketing 'Stamp of Approval' -terrible punn I know ;)

Two Lessons, One Blog

2006-05-08T10:59:00.000+10:00

Ok.. So I messed up. I had planned to write about a particular marketing idea/concept that required a photo - but when I went to take the photo of the 'thing' I wanted to capture, it had gone... But from that I now have 2 Entrepreneurial lessons to cover...

1. DON'T PROCRASTINATE
I know its an obvious lesson but don't do it... and too many people do. I had driven past what I wanted to photograph numerous times and each time said to myself 'next time' and then one day it was gone - never to return. If you have an idea or task, simply get it crossed off your to-do list now - not 2moro or the next day. As an entrepreneur you will no doubt come up with some other amazing idea that needs to be done and the to-do list will grow exponentially if you don't act now...

2. CREATIVE 'SHOUTING'
So this is what I was trying to get to initially with this blog. There is a chemist on the Highway to the Mornington Penninsula here in Melbourne and it has been very creative in getting it customers attention - shouting its message.
See..the store next to this chemist had a HUGE window frontage and had obviously been empty for quite some time. What the chemist had done is 'rent' the window space of the store next door and had it sign-written with a huge promotion/advertisement 'shouting' to the thousands of cars that passed everyday. It was a very simple and cost effective way to get its message out and ensure passer-bys didn't miss them. People spend thousands to advertise on billboards along that road but this chemist was able to grab as much attention ( if not more because it was different) as those billboards for a fraction of the cost..

[inset picture here - D'OH]

How can you creatively and effectively SHOUT your message to potential clients or customers?

Creating A Market

2006-05-02T15:49:00.000+10:00

Check out this blog post on how KitKat created a market in Japan - its a very unqiue approach to ceating demand for a product and expanding into a new territory..

http://alphamale.typepad.com/blog/2006/04/how_kitkat_beca.html

The Interest in Petrol

2006-04-29T10:11:00.000+10:00

I was having breakfast yesterday with some guys and gals from the Paragon Club (www.paragonclub.com.au) and as you do at these "business related" gatherings, discussion turned to the economy and the effect it is having on some of the members businesses and their clients... The question that was unresolved was "What's going on in the economy?"

Also, one of the members of the group has just purchased a Mercedes Benz (drool, drool) and with the price at the pump currently the question was uttered "Whats it cost to fill up?"

Steve McKnight of www.propertyinvesting.com made a great commentary on all this and instead of emailing it directly to those around the table, as requested, I thought I would post it here and share it will everyone.

I don't need to tell you that it's becoming more expensive to fill up the
car. Yesterday, when driving to the airport, the price per litre of petrol was
123.9 cents, four hours later, it had jumped to 139.9 cents.
Putting this in
a different context, based on a sixty litre tank which is used over a week's
driving, that petrol price increase equates to $9.60 more to fill up (per week),
or just shy of $500 extra per annum. Further assuming an average 30% tax rate,
that $500 equates to around $710 of pre-tax earnings.
So, piecing this
together, unless fuel prices go back down, in this case you've suffered a pay
cut of $710. Ouch.
And translating this to a real estate context, this is
about the same as a quarter of a percent increase in interest rates on a
$275,000 mortgage (from 6.25% to 6.5%).
The point to note then is that even
though interest rates are not going up at the moment, the loss of earnings as a
result of the higher cost of oil is having an equivalent effect for many
people.

Taken from Steve McKnights 'Insider' newsletter, April 21, 2006

We all know the fuss that is caused when interest rates rise, and the 'yelling' that happens in the media when the pump price rises - but this really made me think about the actual effect it is causing at the bottom of the chain.....

Creative Marketing Stories

2006-04-28T07:49:00.000+10:00

Guy Kawasaki has put together some really interesting stories on companies driving their competition crazy with creative marketing.

When Security Pacific Bank merged with Bank of America many Security pacific branches were closed. First Interstate Bank rented trucks and parked them in the lots of the banches that were closing. Then First Interstate employees in those trucks then helped people open new accounts as there were leaving the banks.

In 1986 British Airways ran a promotion to give away 5,200 seats for travel on June 10th. Virgin Atlantic Airways ran ads that said, “ It has always been Virgin's policy to encourage you to fly to London for as little as possible. So on June 10 we encourage you to fly British Airways.” The British Airways promotion generated a lot of news coverage, but most of the news coverage also included a mention Virgin's funny ad. It cost British Airways a lot more than Virgin to get this coverage.

A research company surveyed 750 white-collar worker around the United Sates. The research showed that 81 percent of the people believed that casual dress improved morale; 47 percent believed that it increased productivity; 46 percent said they considered casual dress as a attraction to work for a company that permitted it, and only 4 percent thought a casual-dress standard would have a negative impact. When Levi Strauss found out about the study, it let thousands 0f publications know about it. The company also even put in a toll-free hotline to help companies implement a casual dress standard. Guess who was sure to benefit from greater knowledge of this study? Levi Strauss, of course, because of its Dockers line of clothing.

A Goodyear store in Chattanooga, Tennessee faced a predicament: it wanted to put up two Goodyear signs. However, the local law stipulated a one-sign limit. Undaunted, the store manager spelled out Goodyear in marigolds in a flower bed. The city inspector considered this a violation, but the public supported the store, so the city government backed off.

An electrician with only one truck was constantly razzed by his competition because his company was so small. To fake them out, he finally painted three different truck numbers on the right, left, and rear of the truck. International Harvester couldn't get steel to its factory in Melrose Park, Illinois because of a truckdriver's union strike. The company couldn't use non-union labor because of snipers on the freeway. Finally, the company rented school buses and dressed drivers as nuns, loaded the buses with steel, and made the deliveries. No one would shoot at school buses driven by nuns, right?

Check the original blog out at: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/six_more_crazy_.html

The Government Gets Entrepreneurial...

2006-04-27T18:37:00.000+10:00

I know, I know.. This sounds like baloney, I was just as shocked as you are when I actually opened some mail from ASIC and saw this:

I recently received some mail from ASIC relating to a company I recently established and in amongst some legal paperwork was this UPSELL LETTER.

For those of you who haven't gone through the exercise of creating a company, once your new entity is created you receive a very bland certificate of registration - however some genius who is working with ASIC (oxy-moron I know) has put in place an up-sell process.

This up-sell process is encouraging company directors to purchase a commemorative record of registration which looks a lot nicer and impressive then the generic document. They have 12 different designs from 'Australian Birds' to a 'Technology' styled certificate (plus two new designs on their website). They are even offering a pre-framed certificate offer at a higher cost. That's a two-level upsell offer !!!

What are they charging for this service? Well $39.95 will get you "a special display of your company's details" or for the low price of $119.95 you get one certificate framed.

I applaud the government for becoming a true business and taking some time-tested stratergies from the real-world and applying it to their services. Lets hope this income generating approach catches on so they can lower our taxes ;)

Until next time - consider how you can offer a similar upsell to your own clients? Can you create a Commemorative Version ? Or 'Franklin Mint' your product to give your customer two choices at different price point?

P.S. In the cover letter they have even put a call to action with the names of the people (and their direct contact number) who you can speak with to order over the phone - Amazing !!!

It's Started !!

2006-04-27T08:24:00.000+10:00

Hi All,

Well I am now officially a 'blogger'.

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with interesting thoughts, ideas and observations about the world of marketing and entrepreneurship.

I will be posting regularly and include examples of creative and interesting marketing endeavors, links to great sites and blogs along with thoughts and ideas of impactful marketing tools and techniques that you can implement.

Please visit this blog frequently and I encourage you to post your own comments in response to my posts.

Cheers,

Pete W.