In Response to Jackie's Blog Regarding Content Marketing

I'm glad you brought this up because I think that an important part of online marketing is understanding in what stage of the buying process a potential customer is.

What companies now want to do is reach customers when they are ready to make a purchase but in my opinion that's extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Google offers ways in which businesses can try to reach customers when they are ready to buy a product. They have made agreements with several businesses and created a network that advertisers can analyze on the internet to see whether or not their should spend money advertising their product on certain websites. Sounds complicated but I'll try to explain.

For example, if a business sells bicycle clothing, they can choose to advertise on websites that are all about bicycle accessories or even forums that people use to discuss cycling, etc... this way, instead of spending money on advertising to a global audience, they can advertise to a very specific and small group of people that is much more likely to be ready to buy their product.

Here's the Google Display Network

The statistics are quite amazing... Just the other day I searched for statistical data about The Knot which is a website that provides resources primarily to women who are engaged. They have a very expensive and prestigious vendor program that costs a lot of money if you want to advertise with them. Just our of curiosity I looked to see what their audience's interests were and none of them are photography services so now I know that as a wedding photographer, if I ever wanted to invest advertising money at the Knot, I would be wasting my time.

Are there any other tools provided by Google that are powerful for marketing? How could else could you use Google's Display Network to improve your marketing plan?

Abstract Marketing

One of the photography blogs I subscribe to for tips and inspiration recently interviewed a celebrity photographer who has implemented an incredibly unique form of marketing for his business. This photographer's name is Kareem Black and he calls it "Abstract Marketing"

Here's a video interview where he explains his way of marketing his photography:

His product is flexible enough that he has the ability to use this kind of marketing. However, I think that other products might not allow this kind of creativity because it would not reflect the brand.

This was his method of abstract marketing. Can anyone else think of any other ways that a company can use abstract marketing to create "buzz" about a product?

In Response to Dan's Blog about Fast-Food Promoting Health...

We see this time and time again not only with fast-food companies but with any company that is trying to capitalize on the popularity "green and healthy" products.

At the grocery store there's soaps, chips, beauty products and even desserts that are marketed to appear "healthier" or "good for the environment."

I don't think that these companies should get away with it. They're not actually providing a better product, they're simply manipulating its image to convince consumers that they've changed their product. This is misleading and as consumers we should not allow them to get away with it.

Unfortunately, legislation only goes so far in monitoring and controlling these misleading marketing tactics but as consumers we should do our homework before we purchase a product and not fall prey to these lies that continue to make these companies richer at the expense of our money and health.

Using Google Analytics to Benchmark & Track Progress

I've been using Google Analytics to track the behaviors of my visitors when they visit my website. This helps me identify pages that they spend the most time on, which pages they visit and which ones they don't. It also helps me identify how much of my web traffic is new traffic and how much of my traffic are returning visitors. This way I can see whether or not any changes I make to my site to increase its ranking are working or not.

When William Faulkner visited our class one of the things that he said that I found most memorable was that we needed to set measurable goals as a way to determine whether our marketing plan is working.

For my photography business, one of the ways I measure the success of my marketing strategies is through Google Analytics and its benchmarking tools.

What better way to track progress than through numbers? These tools are completely free and incredibly powerful.

In Response to Chris's Blog Regarding Egypt

I absolutely agree that countries should take a marketer's approach to encourage interest in their country. After all, so many countries rely on tourism as a large source of income and the better they're able to market themselves the more people will want to visit.

Take Australia, for example: A while back they had a contest that would allow two people to live on the coast of Australia, all expenses paid for two years so long as they would blog their experience.

This was a very creative and unique way of Australia to get people interested in their tourism industry. They had millions of entries, which suggests that they were able to reach a huge audience and they were able to promote themselves in a way that is memorable.

How could Egypt use a creative marketing strategy to create revenue?

Let's Talk About Social Responsibility

One of the environmental factors that affect businesses and in turn affect the way businesses market is social responsibility. I'm a big believer of investing part of a business's resources to the greater good of the local, national or global community.

I also understand that photography is an incredibly powerful marketing tool and that people and problems that affect us directly or indirectly and it is our responsibility to lend our skills to those who may not have the resources to hire a professional photographer.

Many photographers (of all kinds) will take on the task of devoting part of their year to shed light to a cause that they are passionate about. Here are some examples:

-Locally, photographer & professor John Willis of Southern Vermont founded the Insight Photography Project and provides subsidized photography classes for young residents of surrounding towns.

-Celebrity photographer, Jeremy Cowart started the Help Portrait project to connect photographers to people in their communities that may need photography services but can't afford it.

-Commercial photographer Chase Jarvis founded the website CreativeLive as a way to democratize learning. For the past year they've had free video lessons on how to build your website, on photography and on watercolor. He's brought some of the best photographers in the industry (including above-mentioned Jeremy Cowart) to teach anyone with a computer and internet connection to improve their skills.

-And finally, photographer Chris Jordan paid a visit to Midway Island to photograph birds who died from consumption of the bitsand pieces of plastic we litter and throw into the ocean every year.

This kind of social responsibility accomplishes two things: 1. It sheds light on an important issue and brings a solution 2. It is a way of marketing.

Knowing that you are hiring somebody who is not simply interested in profits but also cares about the community will give clients added satisfaction when using their services. This is why this is an important thing to consider when marketing a brand or product.

Can you think of any other companies that use social responsibility to complement their marketing strategies or their business plans?

In Response to Jackies Blog Regarding Social Media Blitz

I think that this example can be applied to our marketing plans for Country Life.

Social networking not only makes a business more visible, it helps creates conversations with potential customers and what this bakery did was a very clever and perfectly placed marketing strategy that helped them come back from a slow winter season.

We should use Facebook as a way of helping Country Life create conversations with customers but also, having a Facebook page will help them connect and network with other businesses in the area. This will not only allow them to share specials with these businesses but also learn from what other businesses are doing.

Social networking tools can be very powerful if used wisely?

What other social networking tools do you think Country Life could use to "create conversations"?