Posts tagged economic development
The world’s most broken marketing process
Sep 4th
Marketing is all about the consumer. Realtors make it all about themselves. What other industry routinely plasters their faces on business cards, billboards and print advertising to sell a product? This is like marketing a new Internet service by publicizing the computer. Instead of ads and messages that promote truly helpful services and information, realtors proclaim “I’m a “million dollar seller” or “who’s who in Paducah real estate for 2005.” Is this going to sell a home? Serve a customer? WHO CARES?
Where are most of their ad dollars spent? Print. Where are most customers? Internet. In fact, 90 percent of all real estate searches begin there. One local real estate conglomerate just started a new full-color glossy magazine for home sales. What marketing genius is making these decisions?
And social media? Blank stares.
Here’s another marketing anomaly. The open house. Who comes to an open house? Nosey people who have nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon and people scouting for a robbery. Success rate of this activity? Near zero. One realtor said in 10 years she had never sold a home through an open house.
Of course there are exceptions, but here is the marketing strategy of most realtors: “Do what everybody else is doing — which is what has always been done. And then collect a 6 percent commission.
The process of enlisting an agent, dealing with a lender and closing on a home is enveloped by mountains of paperwork and waste. Money is thrown at inspectors, appraisers and a host of other paper pushers who have no incentive to provide true value or improve their services. This is an enormous business opportunity for an enterprising person. Here’s a free “new real estate” business plan:
Now wouldn’t you sell your home through a company like that?
Your website’s radical new role in the social web
Aug 27th
Graphic: Metro Denver’s website is built to shuttle people to meaningful content, wherever it might be.While every marketer seems to be immersed in Web 2.0 these days, let’s not overlook the changing role of the organization’s website in this marketing mix. If you’re not re-thinking the role of your traditional website, you should be!
Websites began as digital receptacles for traditional print content and slowly evolved to be more interactive and useful. The social web is changing all that … radically. Today, there are thousands of places to store and promote company content, and not all of it is going to be generated by friends. That’s why a new core strategy must be to populate the social web with as much accurate and useful content as possible. In my classes, I refer to this as an organization’s “information eco-system,” and it must be systematically maintained, monitored and nurtured.
Your website is no longer just a “destination.” In this environment, the company website becomes a content engine and quarterback, efficiently directing people throughout the eco-system to the news, information and applications they need to meet their needs, wherever it might be.
In research I’ve been conducting on the use of social media among economic development organizations, I came across a terrific case study in Metro Denver. Denver has methodically populated its information eco-system with rich and meaningful content, including a top-notch blog. Search the social web, and it will inevitably lead you to content that guides you back to the website, which is organized into user-friendly buckets of information. Need to go back out to the ecosystem? Links to social media connections are right on Denver’s landing page. This is a brilliant example of putting customer needs at the forefront of strategy, execution and design.
As you hurtle onto the social web, don’t leave your website behind or your social media presence will be sub-optimized!
Twitter contest promotes economic development
Aug 15th
“The Great Retweet” is using hashtags, links and give-aways to involve members in a viral campaign to promote its first “Demo Day & Tech Expo” in Roanoke, VA, September 18.
Up until the day of the event, anybody who promotes the region through a tweet and includes the hashtag reference #NCTCDemoDay is eligible to win a weekly prize drawing that includes:
· Two tickets to a collge football game
· A free weekend stay at a local hotel
· A free tradeshow booth
· $100 cash
The contest has some other rules, including provisions against turning this into a spam fest, but I think it is a wonderful and innovative use of Twitter to promote an event, generate engagement among a target audience, and provide some good fun!
City attacks unemployment through social media
Aug 8th
Jennifer Yeager, Marketing Communications Manager, said some of the success so far includes:
o 112,00 webpage views
o More than 1,000 registered job seekers
o 1,500 Twitter followers (growing >100/month)
o 6,331 job-related Twitter posts
o Anecdotal evidece of succes from emails and direct messages:
“Your work helped us close that candidate”
“Awesome twitter feeds on jobs in Richmond!”
“The folks at Richmond Jobs Net sincerely care about finding Richmonders jobs in the community.”
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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