I have surfed an 18 foot wave -Ya it was a rush. I have sparred with a 260 pound guy who had a left jab that felt like a right hook. I’ve SCUBA dove at 125 feet to watch the gray sharks. I have jumped off a 50 foot cliff into the ocean -and I don’t like heights. I do these things because I want to, not because I have a death wish. Sure each activity carried a certain amount of risk. But with training and practice I can make sure I’m prepared. This risk to reward ratio is also how I approach Extreme Marketing; and when the day is done the reward  is worth pushing the marketing limits.

What is Extreme Marketing?

Extreme Marketing is about creating new and imaginative ways to use the latest marketing tools to promote your brand or service. But before I go higher and faster I’m going to make sure to DO IT RIGHT! Sometimes bigger is NOT better. It is NOT about crashing …or failing. It is about correctly using every marketing tool available. This translates into:

• Search Engine Optimization -Being above the competition in Google.
• Social Networking -Using sites like Twitter to promote a brand, promotion or event.
• Traditional and Online Marketing -Coordinating a direct mail campaign with a landing page.
• Creative Promotions -Attract customers with a text messaging campaign.
• Email Marketing -Knowing how to contact customers using an email campaign.
• Logos and Branding.
• …and more

The owner of Caliber, Dan Ryan, has a quote he likes to say,

“If you always do what you have always done …you will only have what you had before.” -By the way Dan is the king of extreme automotive marketing.

This saying is what Extreme Marketing is about. It is why I keep pushing myself to stay ahead of the competition. I will not lie, it is not always easy to motivate myself. There are many days I don’t want to develop a new technique, or learn the latest marketing tool. But something in me will not rest and I’m always searching for the next best marketing technique.

The First Step To Extreme Marketing

Extreme Marketing means being in front. Blazing the tail and cutting a path “…being ahead of everyone to enjoy an unspoiled view.” For some clients the “Extreme” part starts with taking the first step on that untraveled path. For the conservative business owner who is still trying to learn how to email, I might start with a website. Later we might talk about a landing page for a pay per click campaign? However for the client that is ready to take their marketing to the next level, I can also create a marketing campaign that uses all the latest tools. This might include: designing a website and blog, create a promotion that uses text messaging and an online contest. Or, a client might want to coordinate a direct mail campaign that uses an online sweepstakes to generate a buzz around their product, service and brand.

The possibilities are endless. The point is that marketing does not need to stop at a direct mail postcard …at least not if you are into Extreme Marketing.

If you have a marketing technique that has worked for you make sure to share it with our readers.

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When at home, shopping and working, my wife and I try to do the green-thing. Our trash service offers a small recycling program, so we separate our plastics from the other trash. We also try to support manufactures and products that are earth friendly, just our little way of doing our part.  When I am at work, I try to offer clients earth friendly options. For example, instead of using a vinyl banner, a client might want the option of using a 100% cotton banner. If a client is going to press, I try to offer products like: recycled paper, eco-friendly based inks and soy based solvents.

Going Green Facts

The other day I read an interesting study on the going green topic. It was from greenmarketingcoalition.com –they claim:

• 43% of companies plan to increase spending on green marketing practices in 2009.
• 82% of consumers are focused on buying green products and services.
• 7 out of 10 consumers pay attention to company practices regarding the environment and 35% have a higher interest today than
• 57% of the population is now aware of the term “carbon footprint” up from 38% in 2007

Although the article did not give a “sample size”, my unscientific assumption is that the study is in line with today’s business and consumer sentiments. I’m basing this on present marketing and advertising trends. For example, banks are finding customers like the ease of at home banking. Sure banking at home saves time, but banks are really playing up the environmentally friendly benefits too. There are programs like, Your Easy Branch -a paperless at home banking program designed and developed Marketing Hawks, a bank marketing firm. Through programs like Your Easy Branch, banks are finding that customers like the fact that banking at home is earth friendly. On the other hand, banks like these programs because it reduces their operating cost by lowering the amount of printed material and postage. Furthermore, banking at home means less driving -something I think most of use can agree, the less driving the better.

Companies Going Green

Paperless programs are just the beginning. Frito-Lay is putting out Sun Chip bags that contain plant-based materials. Banner companies are offering 100% cotton banners that are sprayed with a bio-degradable fire-retardant. Printers are using more recycled papers, eco-friendly inks and solvents based on soy. All this in an effort to emit low traces of volatile organic compounds. Deer Park, a bottled water company, brags about their small labels saving trees. Coca-Cola Japan has produced a new bottle that is 40 percent lighter than comparable water bottles; and it can be twisted and crushed when empty.

Examples Of How Going Green Can Save You Money

I think “Going Green” is great. It can save a business money by:

• reducing direct mail cost.
• products can be made lighter reducing shipping costs.
• smaller labels can lower print cost.

Furthermore, customers are becoming increasingly drawn to the various types of going green programs, like:

• going paperless.
• using recycled products.
• using bio-degradable products.
• using low emission products.

I found a good article by The Sierra Club, it is called The Green Life: 10 ways to Go Green. But if you know of a good environmentally friendly product make sure to let us know. Or, if your company is going green make sure to tell us how.

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What You Need To Know About Facebook

Earlier this week I noticed Facebook was going to be starting to allow “vanity” urls. I thought, “that will be nice.” As the story goes, I noted the date, but the time-line did not sink in (I was doing too many things at once) …in other words, it is happening this weekend! So here I am giving everyone a shout-out to make sure they know this will be taking place.

To be clear the rush starts, June 13, 2009 –at 12:01 estern time.There are a few names that have already been reserved (or blocked) by Facebook, but if you have a business, trademark, or custom user name you want to use, you will want to act quickly. Does this mean setting your alarm clock for 11:45pm so you can be at your computer when 12:01 strikes? I guess that just depends, but at least now you know (hopefully you are reading this before the deadline).

In any case here is the article about facebook vanity urls, from the facebook blog.

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…in a one-on-one discussion, Jayaram [Twitter's new VP of Operations who until recently, was VP of Search Quality for Google] confirmed that Twitter Search, which currently searches only the text of Twitter posts, will soon begin to crawl the links included in tweets and begin to index the content of those pages.

cnet logo

The New Twitter Search

This improvement to Twitter Search will have two effects.

It will keep the existing users tweeting and it will increase the number of new users. The bottom line is, an improved twitter search will make Twitter more valuable at a time when Twitter and Social Networking are seemingly everywhere.

Twitter Search

Tips on Using Twitter

There are a lot of ways to use Twitter. Let us know how you use Twitter. Is it for business or personal? Do you use Twitter for branding? Or, do you tweet your latest blog articles? When you comment on how you use Twitter make sure to include a link to your twitter account and tell us what you think of Twitters new search.

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It is always interesting to see a huge company like Kraft Foods change their logo. But for the first time Kraft has also added a tag line. This new addition to their brand is,  “making today delicious“. For a company like Kraft, a change in their logo really reflects a new company image and brand. In this case, the new Kraft Food’s logo is much lighter, softer and sleeker. The new Kraft logo has a much fresher feel, with a burst of flavor at the end. I’m suspecting this is to parallel a more healthy, delicious selection of products.

So why change this iconic logo? Not only was the BIG BLOCK font and BOLD RED outline not current and hip, but it was heavy. Heavy and bold are two descriptions that are juxtapose to today’s attempt at health healthier. After all, Moms don’t want BIG BLOCK kids eating heavy food. They want healthy, sleek children eating nutritious and natural food. So does this new Kraft logo achieve all this? Will we start to see a new line of products hit the shelves? My guess is the new logo design is just the beginning of a big marketing and advertising push that will be in full swing come summer. There will be more TV ads, radio ads …and yes, internet marketing. I’m sure we will soon see a Kraft Twitter account filled with tweets about nutrition and information on healthy eating. Today a new Kraft logo, tomorrow a healthier, more delicious Kraft product.

Now do you think the new Kraft logo is a copy of the Yoplait logo?

logo design -Kraft Logo and Yoplait Logo

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Social networking is changing the way people work and play online. Social networking sites are nothing new to the internet, in fact you probably heard of Geocities and Usenet, two early social networking websites. But unlike Geocites and Usenet, today’s social networking websites like: mySpace, facebook, digg and the recently popular LinkedIn and Twitter, appeal to a broad range of users that go beyond teenagers.
From the graph below you can see a sharp increase in “social networking” based on search volume.

Social Networking Trend - source, compete.com

What is social networking?

Generally a social networking website is an online community that is based around either professional or personal relationships.

If you visit a social networking website, you will find the majority of sites are created around a niche and membership is usually free. Once you join you will create a profile based on both personal and professional information. When your profile is completed,  you can:

• Join groups.
• Chat.
• Discuss topics in a community forum.
• Post news or articles.
• Search for other members with similar interest.

Why do people use social networking sites?

The appeal of social networking is different for everyone. On a personal level it is a great way to meet interesting people with similar interests. On a professional level, social networking sites have become a great way to:

• Expand a company’s online brand.
• Promote business articles.
• Promote blog posts and blogging.
• Keep current on the latest news.
• Watch the competition …ok “spy” on the competition.
• Meet colleges.
• Find employment.

From the points above, I want to discuss blogging. Blogging is huge online and social networking websites are a great place to promote a blog. But to really understand how big blogging is, I’ve gathered some information starting with the three most popular blogging platforms WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.

popular blogging software: Blogger, WordPress and Typepad

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Blogger -#28,147,310 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “blogger”: #1,716
• Unique visitors WordPress -#22,147,374 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “wordpress”: #6,466
• Unique visitors Typepad -#9,611,366 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “typepad”: #11

Note -The Unique Visitors metric only counts a person once no matter how many times they visit a site in a given month. Unique Visitors are typically used to determine how popular a site is. (stats from–compete.com)

Now add those statistics to the an estimated 175,000 new blogs every day; the total as of 8:23 CST on June 27, 2008 is: 209,593,000 (source -Technorati’s count on February 11, 2008 via: youdesignit.blogspot.com)

So with social networking you can promote: a blog, yourself, find contacts, find a job, promote articles and meet interesting people …and more.

Most popular social networking sites

The recent serge in online social networking also has a lot to do with how social networking sites are adding new features and languages. Sites like Facebook have seen a huge increase in popularity as they expanded internationally, while simultaneously improving user control over content.  Recently facebook’s efforts have resulted in huge growth, overtaking mySpace.

Facebook and MySpace unique visitors

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Facebook -#73,787,766 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “facebook”: #355,929
• Unique visitors mySpace -#53,066,785 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “myspace”: #366,765

To help demonstrate how big facebook and mySpace have become, here is a graph the compares the unique visitors of mySpace, facebook and Google.

Unique Visitors For Google, Facebook and mySpace

Interesting Stats:

• Google unique visitors: 130,285,302 (2/08-2/09)
• overall daily search estimate for keyword, “google”: 445,684

Two more popular social networking sites used to promote articles, blogs and news are Digg and Stumbleupon. I’ve also added a niche site that focuses on developing business contacts, the social website is called LinkedIn:

Unique visitors to Digg, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn

Interesting Stats:

• Digg unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #33,433,760
• LinkedIn unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #11,228,746
• Stumbleupon unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,418,609
• Daily estimate for keyword, “digg”: #1,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “LinkedIn”: #4,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “stumbleupon” : #1,074

Flickr, Photobucket and Webshots are three social networking sites related to photo sharing:

Unique visitors for: Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots

Interesting Stats:

• Photobucket unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #24,470,242
• Flickr unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #23,769,885
• Webshots unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,565,611
• Daily estimate for keyword, “photobucket”: #27,828
• Daily estimate for keyword, “flickr”: #24,227
• Daily estimate for keyword, “webshots”: #5,392

Two social networking sites for blogging communities are BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog:

Unique visitors for BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog

Interesting Stats:

• blogCatalog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #1,898,783
• MyBlogLog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #955,648
• Daily estimate for keyword, “blogCatalog”: #53
• Daily estimate for keyword, “mybloglog”: #49

Finally, “at this time”, the hottest social networking site is called, Twitter.

Social networking site, Twitter

Interesting Stats:

• Twitter unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #7,935,441
• Daily estimate for keyword, “twitter”: #8,074

There are many reasons why someone will use social networking. For business it can mean additional exposure to brand and products. As an individual, a social networking web site may offer an online community with other people who share common interest. Either way, the social networking style website has become very popular with men, woman and childrren …the numbers don’t lie.

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The internet is a lot of things. It is social networking. Online marketing. Websites. Blogs …and more. But did you know that the internet is a great tool for promoting your brand? I’m not just talking about your logo stuck in the top left corner of your website. No. I’m talking about thousands of people seeing your logo every day! Of course to do this you will need a few things, starting with a logo. Next you will need an avatar and logo icon. And finally you will need a favicon. If you are not familiar with an avatar, logo icon or favicon don’t worry, I will show you what they are …just keep reading. As for a logo, I am going to show you why investing in a custom logo is worth every cent. I’m not going to talk about colors, text or symbolism of using blue vs red. For a business person you need to know how and why a professionally designed logo is better than a free logo. So, today I’m going to show you five ways to market your brand online and how a custom logo will increase online branding options in ways a free logo does not. Speaking to the business person, this means more profits. So lets get started.

With the help of a logo the internet can become a conduit for boosting a brand. This is especially true when a logo is incorporated in an avatar, logo icon or favitar. What all this amounts to is more real estate in more places.

To begin taking complete advantage of the internet and online marketing,  your internet branding campaign will require three tools:

1. A LOGO- a logo is the first tool a business needs in order to take advantage of online branding opportunities. With the aid of screen shots I will demonstrate that online marketing can boost your brand to incredible heights. Furthermore, you will see why a logo requires a professional graphic designer whom understands the internet and how a logo design can be applied to an avatar, logo icon and favicon; something a free logo design software does not provide …and this is a huge disadvantage when using free logo software.
2. LOGO ICON and AVATAR – Compared to a logo, the logo icon and avatar are usually smaller. As a professional graphic designer when I design an avatar or icon logo I focus on a small part of the logo that carries over some specific and recognizable element in a usually small area.
3. FAVICON – Simply put a favicon is an avatar for your browser. It is usually very small so it needs to be designed with one recognizable element from your logo.

With this simple explanation of how an avatar, logo icon and favicon are based off a logo, lets go over how they are used in an online marketing campaign, social networking, blog or website.

First, lets start with the website with the logo in the top left corner. This is a common place for a logo since it is one of the first areas the eye will go.

Next, the favicon is displayed in the visitors browser next to the domain name in the address bar. It is also displayed if the website is bookmarked, so when the user opens their favorites, your logo is there too.

Put the website and favicon together and you get some impressive online branding. Imagine your visitor or customer seeing your logo as displayed below!

Using social networking to increase your brand exposure can be done using an avatar. One such method is using Twitter to splash your logo/avatar across the twitter network. Here is a snap shot of my tweetDeck, only imagine your logo being displayed everyday in front of your followers …WOW!

Using Twitter For Online Branding

Perhaps now you are beginning to see the value of having a professional graphic designer create your logo? Specifically, a professional can design with all these elements in mind. This can leave a lasting impression and one that should not be left up to some free logo design software.

If you are still not impressed, let me show you more. Online branding goes beyond Twitter. Another method is one that has been around the internet for years, that’s right …the forum.

A forum is another online branding opportunity to display your logo

Forums also have profile areas where your logo design can be viewed.

Forums also have profile areas to display your avitar or logo

Estetica Design Forum is a great community with discussions around graphic design and website design, but if a forum is not for you, than try to use one of the newer social networking communities. For example, one of the more popular professional social networking groups is called LinkedIn.

Finally, using FeedBurner to syndicate your blog can also be a way to promote your brand by adding your logo to your blog feed.

Branding

I hope you are starting to see the picture and how a professional graphic designer can take your logo and use it to turn the internet into an online branding machine. For a business, a professionally designed logo is more than colors, pictures and text that goes on a website or business card. Furthermore, I only touched on five ways to market your brand online: website, social networking, forums, favicon and you RSS feed (FeedBurner). I did not even touch on a dozen other online branding resources available to boost your brand online; which for all the bottom liners means, increased profits though branding.

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I want to give you a tip on how a professional SEO firm optimizes for inbound links. Most SEO firms will say a domain name should have your keywords in the title. This is true. Having a keyword phrase in your domain name title is a good search engine optimization technique for improving your sites organic ranking in Google. But beyond this SEO tip, having keywords in your domain name has another direct benefit related to Inbound links. In SEO a professional seo consultant will stress, you want your Inbound links to use keywords. This is also a great seo tip, but how about when you don’t have a choice? That’s right, some websites will just add your domain name and you don’t have an option (or opportunity) to modify the linking text. This is when I know, as an SEO consultant, that having a keyword phrase in the domain name can really add some extra punch to inbound links and organic seo. I want to stress that:

having a domain name that includes a keyword phrase will make it possible for every inbound link to enforce a keyword, especially when you do not have an option of adding the linking text.

There is one last point that I want to addressed regarding domain names. There is a growing trend that Google seems to be adding value to a brand, or branding. I mention this as a reminder that your brand is also a very important consideration and your domain name is a very good way to enforce your brand. So don’t stuff your domain name with keywords, making your domain name spammy; this will only hurt your efforts.

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What I really like about having my logo displayed in the bookmark section next to my website name is, even if someone is not visiting my web site, everytime they open their bookmarks they will see my logo. Second, when someone does visit my website, my logo will be added to the brower’s tab, offering one more spot I can enforce my brand. Importantly, if someone creates multiple tabs while surfing the internet, my logo can still be seen next to my website’s name. Furthermore, if I choose to animate my favicon, animations (or scrolling text) are supported.

So now you know why I call a favicon a branding super hero, the question is …do you want Mr. Favicon helping you enforce your brand? If you do you …getting a favicon is easy! Just read on…

I want to start by citing my source on Favicon’s, a blog called learning webmasters. The author, Shardul, wrote about favicons and how they enforce branding. Also, in Shardul’s post, “adding a favicon to a website“, he provides a great link to a website that makes creating a favicon easy, create a favicon.

Personally, I feel that branding is very important in the long term success of a business. However, I believe branding is one of the more difficult marketing tactics, that takes a long time to establish.  Furthermore, traditionally branding relied upon expensive direct mail campaigns and billboards that had limited exposure and were gone once the mail was trashed or the billboard was passed. However, now there is a favicon. It is inexpensive and effective. Yes, it is small, but mighty. It is visible even when your site is not visited. Tada! It is Mr. Favicon, Branding Super Hero.

Sure my Mr. Favicon analogy is a bit silly, but my point is how powerful a favicon can be. So here’s to silly … and Mr. Favicon! It is not every day we get to meet a branding hero …thanks Mr. Favicon.

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As 2009 approaches search engine optimization strategies have increasingly incorporated social networks and media. The new (and improved) tread in SEO is about, “creating personal relationships with others”. The old fashion word of mouth, grass-roots doing business with friends mentality is back, and better than ever.

In the past, SEO stressed code, site structure and links. However today, SEO is changing. Optimizing is not only about good HTML, site structure, and links, but SEO now includes online social networks and the opportunities they provide. It is not about asking for business or clicking on Adsense links, it is about community and helping others first.

Networking is nothing new, only the medium has changed. For years businesses have joined clubs and organizations where they network and meet others in the community with similar interest. Today, the internet has it’s own set of clubs and organization that provide similar relationships, only online. There are a number of sites that exist: Blogcatalog, Digg, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and FriendFeed …etc, each of these provide interesting tools that when used together create both personal and professional benefits that translate into friendships and traffic to your website or blog.

Excluding the trend setters, I don’t think there are not a lot of companies doing this right now. That is why, getting creative and incorporating social media and networking into search engine optimization (seo) is so important.

The important thing is to be in front of the trend. The popularity of social media is already evident, but incorporating sites like Twitter, Blogcatalog or FriendFeed into your professional campaign is not as common. In this regard, you don’t want to chase social media after it takes off. If you are playing catch up you will only be wishing you had pushed the limits. Don’t wait for the masses, keep learning and testing what works, and what doesn’t work.

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