1) Natalie Knows Her Stuff: Be an Expert

Natalie has built her site into a wine-lover’s favorite.

Which wines go best with the “green food” that we’ll enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day, such as corned beef and cabbage or Irish stew? How about those fresh spring vegetables that will soon be on our plates?

“Green foods are the problem children of the wine world,” says Natalie. “But as a stubborn hedonist whose grandmother’s name was Brophy, I’ve found some terrific wines to drink with them on March 17.”

2) Natalie Knows Good Business: Reach Your Audience

How did Natalie market her successful website to her on-the-go clientele? She went mobile.
Natalie launched the new mobile application for iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Droid and other smartphones. Developed by Cerado, this app builds on the success of her Drinks Matcher and includes all the pairings in the original app, plus thousands of wine reviews, recipes, articles, blog posts, glossary definitions, cellar journal and winery directory. You can access the new app at www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp.

3) Natalie Knows Her Customers: Give Them What They Want

Knowing what her online customers liked, Natalie transferred it over to the mobile app. And, the new app is free. It’s like having a sommelier (and leprechaun) in your pocket.

The Nat Decants Free Mobile App features the following:

- Find 380,000 professionally tested food and wine pairings (not generated by computer algorithm)
- Access thousands of wine reviews by an independent journalist
- Search the reviews by winery, price, score, region, grape, vintage, food match
- Track your wines in your virtual cellar and add your own journal notes and scores
- Search a directory of 10,000+ wineries to buy wine or plan a visit
- Find thousands of tasty, tested recipes for every wine
- Get wine savvy with articles, glossary definitions & blog posts
- Share on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail with friends

In essence, what she has done is taken her entire web presence and converted it into a mobile application to meet the needs of her on-the-go clientele.
Brilliant!!

And in case you were wondering about those green food pairings:

Natalie’s Top 10 Green Wine & Food Matches

1. Corned beef and cabbage: Pinot Blanc
2. Irish Stew: Cabernet Franc
3. Spring Asparagus: Gruner Veltliner
4. Field greens salad: Riesling
5. Tomatoes: Pinot Noir
6. Green peppers: Sparkling Wine
7. Grilled veggies: Rose
8. Green peas: Sauvignon Blanc
9. Spinach and bacon salad: Merlot
10. Artichoke: Verdicchio

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To get the free Nat Decants Mobile App visit: www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp
About Natalie: Natalie MacLean is an independent journalist and author of the bestseller
Red, White and Drunk All Over. Natalie’s site is the go-to resource for food and
wine lovers. You can find her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nataliemaclean and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/nataliemaclean.
About Cerado: The mobile development company Cerado, Inc. created the Nat Decants Mobile
App. Founded in 2002, Cerado creates mobile and web-based solutions that enable businesses, associations and organizations to better connect and understand their customer and member communities. www.cerado.com.

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Apple approved an iPhone app yesterday called Nude It, which allows you to point your iPhone at a victim and see them sans clothing. (Apparently ladies underwear doesn’t count as clothing, as it is reported that the app doesn’t see through them. How a piece of software knows the difference between a blouse and a bra is beyond me. And does it know the difference between men’s underwear and ladies underwear, so we girls can see all but the boys can’t? Questions that I’d like to have answered, so comment back if you get this app. )

Imagine the fun! Weekly staff meetings suddenly become much more interesting. Baseball takes on a whole new meaning. Nightclubs become reminiscent of Greek orgies. You get to check out the goods first when dating.

But then I worry about what happens when the sickos get a hold of this app. What about the child molesters and sex offenders?  Let’s hope they don’t own iPhones.

The YouTube video about this app already has over 725,000 views, and the US has been anxiously waiting the approval of this app by Apple. If there’s one thing the marketing industry can take from this app release, it’s something we already know: Sex sells. We’ll see how well this app sells, but I bet it will do just fine. And that’s the naked truth.

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Google offers a way for you to enter your business onto those maps that show up in Google search results. You’ve seen the red arrows on Google Maps. Ever wonder how they got there? I always figured they paid college kids a buck ninety-seven to drive around and input that stuff. I don’t know, maybe they do.

The news is that starting last May 2009, you can enter an arrow for your business. You can enter your business name, type of business, address, hours, etc. You can also get statistics based on the clicks on the results. And it’s all free!

Here’s the skinny from Google:

There are well over 150 million searches a day on Google. That’s a lot of potential customers. Marketing is all about telling those potential customers about your business, and this is a free service that helps you do that.  Check it out and let us know how it works for you.

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Go to Google Local Business Center

upon seeing an augmented reality magazine for the first time.

The December 2009 issue of Esquire Magazine has diminished the line between paper and pixels. Using augmented reality (AR) to enhance its reading experience, the magazine shows us some of the uber-coolness that is the current state of AR.

At a large indoor amusement establishment a few years ago, I stood in line to experience “virtual reality.” I donned a heavy pair of goggles, and had gloves attached to my hands. Through the goggles I viewed a scene, which I was able to walk through and interact with. It was an incredible experience.

AR, as Esquire Magazine demonstrates this use of it, is sort of the opposite of that. The scenery exists on your computer screen, and you interact outside of the experience. It works like this. Printed on the magazine page is a black and white square with a pattern on it. After downloading an application from their site, and turning on your computer’s webcam, you hold the magazine up so the webcam “sees” the box. Then the fun begins.

First, an image pops up, much like a video. But it has a 3D look, and by turning and tilting the magazine page, the image reacts by moving, turning, and tilting on your screen. It’s also referred to as a “digital hologram,” which is a pretty fair description. It’s a little difficult to manage holding the magazine and viewing the screen at the same time, but the results are worth adding that to your skill set.  After all, you can only move your mouse in a 2D fashion, but you can move the page with the AR grid in real-life 3D and get the corresponding response on your screen. Yeah, it’s cool.

Esquire Magazine’s AR demos include an introduction by Robert Downey, Jr., an art show, some jokes, a fashion show, and some music. Your input triggers their response, simply by moving the grid from the appropriate page in front of your webcam. It’s similar to what you do with your mouse when moving the googlemaps street view or using keyboard commands to move through a video game, but smooth and seamless, and mouse-less.

What’s In It For Marketers?

Imagine the possibilities! For starters, if you incorporated AR on your website, the novelty of AR could be enough to drive prospective clients to your site. Send clients a printable pattern, provide a website with AR capabilities, and your customers could view your product in 3D. They could “visit” your store. They could interact with your widget. You can tell more of a story about your product. And you have to admit, listening to a new jazz CD is better than reading about it.

What else? Any marketers using this type of AR? Let’s hear from you.

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To see Esquire Magazine’s demo:  http://bit.ly/EsqAugRealtDemo

To see GE’s demo: http://bit.ly/ARGESmartGridDemo

Click on the left demo window to see what the experience is like.

Click on the right to print a grid to try it yourself.

More tomorrow on other uses of augmented reality.

How about your prospective clients? Do they have the right tools to find you?

Whether or not your brand or product already has a presence online, you are missing out if you are not using paid search as a marketing channel. Recent research has shown that 40% of all people on the internet querying a search engine will click on a paid search link first, and that number is increasing.

Paid search allows for unprecedented targeting and tracking, letting you, the Chief Paid Search Detective, control expenditures down to minute details. You can run a paid search campaign with $20 or $200,000, and the $20 campaign is not necessarily at a disadvantage. It can earn the same ROI.

Ready to jump in? Just look before you  leap.

Here are ten of the most common paid search mistakes that you want to avoid when starting your campaign.

#1 Ego Bidding – This mistake usually results from emotional attachment to a certain keyword or campaign on the part of the bidder. For example, the bidder decides that his/her phrase must rank number one on a particular engine. In most cases, the bidder simply wants the satisfaction of running a search and seeing his/her keyword in a top position. Sometimes, they want to rank a phrase using  internal language, which is irrelevant to most searchers. This mistake can easily result in inefficient spending of the budget, and can often deplete your daily budget before dinner…or even lunch.

#2 Too many keywords per ad – This mistake is common to people fairly new to paid search; it’s easy to fall into but easy to get out of as well. Adding too many keywords to one ad group often leaves you with irrelevant keywords generating impressions for the ad.  First, these non-targeted impressions will decrease your quality score because your click-through rate will likely decrease. Second, these irrelevant keywords will cost you extra money.

#3 Focusing on budget instead of ROI – Paid search campaigns are not like other marketing mediums, so viewing them as another line item in your budget is a mistake.  The trackability and accountability that paid search offers allow it to run more efficiently than other types of marketing. Focusing on what you are spending instead of what you are getting in return leads to inefficient bidding and a campaign that does not maximize the benefits that paid search offers. Instead, manage paid search on a day-to-day basis, adjusting your bids and keywords in order to capitalize on the return on your investment.

#4 Not learning from your competitors’ strategy – Some paid search programs and software offer the ability to track what your competitors are doing online; what keywords, where they bid, when they bid, etc. Especially if you are going up against larger, more established brands with larger paid search budgets, you must learn from their strategies so that you are not two steps behind. With this approach, you should be able to circumvent a lot of the guesswork and gain on your competitors with efficient bidding, even on a small budget.

#5 Forgetting to think negatively – A common mistake in the campaign planning process is not thoroughly researching negative keywords. Positive keywords will drive traffic to your site, but negative keywords will filter out the traffic that you don’t want. For example, if you are selling Nike sneakers, and you are bidding on the general phrase “sneakers,” you would want to negative keyword “Reebok” or any other brands competing with Nike. This negative keyword will ensure that anyone searching “Reebok sneakers” is not directed to your ad simply because they typed in sneakers.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

How can you be sure you are ready for the onslaught of potential customers?

Read the abbreviated story here, or click to read the entire article from MarketingTips.com.

Quick Tip #1:  Add a benefit to your headline

If the headline on your web site isn’t grabbing your visitors’ attention as soon as they read it, you’re losing sales. That’s a fact. And nothing grabs a visitor’s attention like a compelling headline with a clear benefit.

Quick Tip #2:   Feature seasonal specials in the first fold of your homepage

It’s important that your special be featured on the first fold of your homepage. (The first fold is the first screen of your homepage that is visible without scrolling.) Remember, you want to make it EASY for your visitors to find and buy your products. The best way to do this is by making sure that every single visitor to your site sees your featured specials.

Quick Tip #3:   Send out a holiday e-mail promotion

Remember: The clock is ticking! You really don’t have time to go out and acquire a bunch of new traffic in time for the busy holiday rush. But the good news is that you don’t need to. If you have a list of customers and/or subscribers, you’ve already got an incredibly powerful database of people who are just waiting to make purchases from you!

Quick Tip #4:   Consider replacing third-party ads

Take a moment and think about whether or not your site is using the first fold of your web site effectively, especially if you’re hosting advertising for other companies.

Figure out approximately how much money you’ll receive from hosting third-party advertising over the holiday season. Include all revenue from any banners ads, skyscraper ads, text ads, etc. that are located within the first fold of your site.

Now, ask yourself whether you could make more by replacing these third-party ads with ads for your OWN products. For many businesses, even one sale would be worth more money than their banner ads generate for them in a whole month!

Quick Tip #5:   Offer fast, flexible shipping

There’s one thing that continues to scare people about buying online for the holidays: late delivery. There’s nothing that drives customers offline and out to the shopping mall faster than the idea that their kids’ Christmas presents won’t arrive until the 28th of December!

If you use a major nationwide delivery service such as UPS or FedEx, you’ll want to feature this information. People will feel much more comfortable ordering from a site that uses one of these services than one that ships through the mail.

Also, be sure to tell your customers that they MUST order by a certain date in order for you to guarantee delivery by Christmas. This will save you a lot of headaches when disgruntled customers call you on Christmas morning wondering why the products they ordered on the 23rd haven’t arrived yet!

Quick Tip #6:   Offer to ship gifts directly to recipients

If possible, offer to ship your customers’ purchases directly to the gift recipients. This saves your customers the hassle of waiting to receive the package from you and then sending it out to someone else. This is a great way to add value to your service without any additional cost to you!

Quick Tip #7:   Include some sales material

Each package that you send out as a gift from someone else should include a flyer, brochure, or coupon from your company. After all, the recipient of this gift is the perfect potential customer!

Quick Tip #8:   Offer online gift certificates

Gift certificates can be an easy way to boost sales for sites that sell products and services to niche markets.  If you are selling a service online, gift certificates are a great way to turn your service into a gift! No matter what you’re selling — it could be spa packages or landscape design — I can guarantee that your service would make the perfect gift for somebody out there.

Plus, you can remind your customers and subscribers that since gift certificates can be delivered electronically, they make great last-minute gifts. Personally, online gift certificates have saved the day for me a few times!

Quick Tip #9:   Explain why your product (or service) would make a great gift

At this time of year especially, it’s important to remind people why your product would make a great gift idea. Of course, sites selling products like neckties or Christmas ornaments won’t need to worry about this as much, but what if your site is selling something like office supplies?

Quick Tip #10:   Offer a “Book Now and Save” promotion

One of the biggest problems encountered by some online businesses is that they suffer from what I call a “Holiday Hangover.” Not only does business fall off in the month BEFORE the holidays, it also suffers during the month AFTER, when people don’t have any money left!

Because of this, it can be a real challenge for some businesses to get revenues back on track in the New Year. One of the best ways to deal with this is to motivate your customers to purchase your product or service NOW for the New Year in exchange for a discounted price or value-added bonus.

Final Thoughts

The holiday season is a make-or-break time of year for many online businesses. And just because you haven’t found the time to set up a comprehensive holiday marketing strategy doesn’t mean that you can’t turn a great profit over the next couple of weeks.

But you do need to take the time to implement some of these quick tips IMMEDIATELY… do whatever it takes to get your site ready for the holidays NOW. Every day you wait is another day of missed opportunities and lost profits!

The great thing is that all of the tips I’ve just given you can be implemented quickly and easily. Most of these should only take you an hour or two to set up on your site, and the results will make you wish you had started much sooner.

Happy holidays!

Here’s the secret: You wouldn’t start a new billboard campaign without careful planning, would you? Of course not. Yet many companies seem to jump right in to a social media campaign without giving this type of marketing the careful consideration that other types get. Why? It is a new medium to many, and we’re still learning the ropes. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others can be very effective – if done with a little planning.

Here’s a 10 point road map to help you plan to make the most effective use of a social media campaign, taken from a recent webinar presented by Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer of the 60 Second Marketer. Already using social media? Review to see if there’s a new idea for you.

1. Competitive Assessment: What are your competitors doing in this space already? What can you borrow from them?

2. Internal Situation Analysis: How much awareness is there of social media within your company? Is there an understanding that it can be measured and create a positive ROI?

3. Major Objectives: What are you trying to accomplish with your social media campaign?

4. Consumer Thought Process: What is the typical sales cycle for your product? How much trust do you need to build before you can make a sale? (Hint: The more expensive the product, the more trust needs to be built.)

5. Key Strategies: What approach are you going to take in order to have a successful program?

6. Brand Essence: What is your brand essence and how are you going to communicate that using social media?

7. Positioning: How is your brand currently positioned in the marketplace? Where do you want it to be positioned as a result of your social media campaign?

8. Essential Message: What is the essential take-away you want consumers and prospects to have after engaging with your brand via social media?

9. Tactical Plan Overview: Which social media platforms are you going to use for your program? Which tools are you going to use to measure the success of your program?

10. Executional Roadmap: What are your SMART Goals for this plan? How are you going to be held accountable for them?

Careful planning will make the time spent well worth it, and make you look like the whiz that you are. Just don’t forget to have fun and be creative with your campaign. You may be the next trend setter, with competitors following your example!

10 Countries with the Largest Facebook Usage:

1. United States                 94,748,820

2. United Kingdom          22,261,080

3. Turkey                             14,215,880

4. France                              13,396,760

5. Canada                             13,228,380

6. Italy                                   12,581,060

7. Indonesia                       11,759,980

8. Spain                                    7,313,160

9. Australia                            7,176,640

10. Philippines                     6,991,040

In the US, 43.04% of online users are on Facebook. And in the United Kingdom, 51% of online users are using Facebook.

What does that mean for marketers? Get on board! Facebook is a huge global opportunity! And it’s free!

Visit our Facebook page, 60 Second Forum,  to get an idea of what it looks like.

You might, if you have anything to do with choosing product design. The Color Institute, parented by Pantone, the inventor of the numeric system for the spectrum of hues, forecast trends in colors based on worldwide research. It’s important for marketers to know as they plan their campaigns. Websites, newsletters, products, packaging… they all can be impacted by the colors they use.  How are the hot colors of the season chosen? Fortune Magazine’s October 26 issue has an interesting article that describes how.

1. Worldwide Trends: A team of researchers travel the globe to look for trends in signage, clothing, graphics, and the like.

2. Consumer Psychology: With Starbucks’ rise in the last 90’s, and the success of the movie Chocolat, the color brown began to have a favorable connotation. Good taste and high-quality food are thought of now, instead of the dirt and wood that use to be the immediate come-to-mind.

3. Economic Impact: Safe neutral colors become more popular in downward economies. Expensive items tend to be neutral, but less costly items will be used add a splash of color.

So what’s the next mimosa yellow?

The consumer trend for the upcoming year seems to be influenced by a desire to retreat to someplace else. Colors will have a fantasy, escapism theme. For Spring 2010, expect tomato puree’, aurora (yellow with a tint of green), and turquoise.

Download the Spring 2010 Color Report, and get ready to use color for marketing success.

It is important to get inside the mind of the consumer.

You need to truly understand their needs to be able to market to them. An article on our site, Using Consumer Decision Hierarchy Models, by Dr Michael Belch, outlines some hierarchy models on how consumers respond to advertising.  It comes down to looking systematically at the step-by-step decisions consumers make during the process of making themselves happy.

A recent study, Money, Sex, and Happiness: An Empirical Study (Scandinavian Journal of Economics) found that sex is the activity that produces the largest amount of happiness. Commuting to and from work produces the lowest level of happiness. Hmm. No surprise to us here at Marketer. We’re motivated by happiness, not frustration.

What does this mean for you? For your product, find out what the hidden motivators are.  A person doesn’t buy a Porche because they like the German engineering. They buy it for the sex appeal. Picture yourself hanging out by the lake, leaning casually on your Porche. “Hey, baby,” it says. On your wrist, there is not just any old $10 watch, but a Rolodex. You need it to show others that you are a discerning fellow. Who cares that any old watch can tell time? And of course you are wearing the latest designer clothes. After all, you need those labels to demonstrate how successful you are. Yes, you are a very dapper person, leaning on your Porche by the lake.

If you as a marketer know that I need to be a sexy, discerning, successful consumer, market to those motivators!

Marketing Tip: Find out what the hidden motivators are for your product or service, and leverage them for success.

P.S. If you are now ready to get rid of that Porche, or even the watch and the clothes, send ‘em my way!