It was a sort of an epiphany that some people may not understand what an internet marketer actually does, and the mind through which we operate.  Here’s my answer:

Intelligent – Internet marketing professionals are intelligent.  We have to know what the current trends are in the market, what’s going to impact a targeted market, and what the new strategies and technologies are to make that impact.

Methodical – Believe it or not, there actually is a method to our madness.  While some people just throw out marketing efforts, hoping to make something work, Internet Marketing Professionals are armed with best practices, current market trends, and a plethora of analysis to make sure the efforts made on behalf of our clients are successful.

Poetic – Yes, poetic is a great description of an Internet Marketing Professional.  What we do can be compared to writing a great poem.  It may never end up in a classic literature textbook, but our goals are the same.  Poets and IMP’s are both driven by what will move someone.  In the case of Internet Marketing Professionals, we want to move someone to a specific action, and that is practical poetry (even if it doesn’t rhyme).

Have you taken the time to talk with an Internet Marketing Professional to discuss how to move your business forward?  If not, reach out, and let’s make something great happen for you!

Written by Josh Decker

We’ve also heard from a lot of you that you’d like a Facebook page, but aren’t sure how to set it up. Take a look at the pages we’ve done for Atlanta Women’s Specialists and Happy Baby Solutions. Looking for a more custom look? Take a look at this custom welcome page Kemba, our creative director, designed.

Sign up to get a Kindle book of your choice every month for 12 months and get a free Kindle. Amazon presents you with ten book choices, and since the cost of delivering it is zero, there’s plenty of margin for all…

He has several more ideas so surf on over and check them out. It’s a smart, aggressive strategy. I hope Amazon is paying attention. I might add an idea or two of my own such as partnering with universities and textbook manufacturers.

What do you think? Is the Kindle going the way of the 8-track? Is Steve Jobs about to do it again?

Yeah, I know it’s childish of me to pile on but this is the kind of thing that spreads faster than strep. The days of protecting your image and brand are OVER. Not just for BP, but for all of us. You can’t protect it; you have to sit up, take your lumps like a man (pardon the sexism), own what you did if you screwed up, do everything you can to make it right. Don’t take shortcuts or b.s. your customer (I’m talking to you, Toyota and you, Sigg, and you, BP) because we’re onto you and we will tell all our friends who will tell their friends and so on and so on and so on.

And you will live in infamy forever.

I still have businesses tell me they don’t want a Facebook page or a blog because they’re afraid they’ll get negative comments. Seriously? That’s what you’re worried about? The COMMENTS? How about the actual issues your customers have? Address them. And you know what? When you address them forthrightly in a public forum, most people will forgive you and even reward you for doing the right thing.

Having said that, I think it’s too late for BP. What do you think? Any shot of damage control here or are they done?

It’s diabolical, isn’t it? Actually, it’s what I would do if I were in their situation. But still . . . ewwww. . . it’s kind of icky, isn’t it?

Author: Kemba Johnson

What you would give to a client, you should always give to yourself first.

I’m standing in a Mexican supermarket choosing pastries called besos, empanadas de crema and tabasqueños. No, I wasn’t grocery shopping (well, maybe a little), I was working.

New Thought Marketing was putting together a Cinco de Mayo gift box for clients. And we wanted to include some delicious Mexican pastries. If the boxes were long enough I’d just include the churros from my favorite stand and call it a day… after I tested them one more time of course.

But the box wasn’t long enough. So there I was on my grand pastry expedition. The first sweets I tried were frankly just okay. If I got these in a box, I’d think the idea was cool, but I wouldn’t be excited.

Off to the next place where the empanadas were soft, fresh and delicious, with a light dusting of sugar on top. Perfect. Two bakeries and six pastry tastings: It was a difficult job, but someone had to do it.

So the moral of the story (and yes there is one) is test your marketing promotions in order to give away value. It may be just a 10-cent pen. But if it has your name on it, it represents your brand. So it had better be a good pen, one that you’d like someone to give to you, not one that you have to shake to get to work (don’t you hate that).

At New Thought Marketing, we will often take a client to a promotional items showroom. Not only does this allow our clients to discover new promotional ideas, it allows them to test the quality. As much as you can, try to think about what a customer would be excited to receive, instead of what you are willing to give away.

Sometimes the answer will surprise you… and can actually be cheaper. For example, a major long distance company (I leave which one to your imagination) was offering 30 free minutes, 60 free minutes or a free long distance call of any length to new calling card customers.

Not only did the free long distance call win more new customers, it was also the cheapest, costing about $2.95 on average vs $11.50 for the 60 free minutes and $5.75 for the 30 free minutes. Without testing or putting themselves in the customers’ shoes, the company would have lost potential new customers.

Which one would you have chosen? Think about it: What is 30 minutes or even 60 minutes worth to you? It’s a little too nebulous to wrap your mind around. But a free long distance call…well, that’s a free call to your mother to say everything you need to say. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. A conversion is ultimately more valuable than free minutes.

In the end, I hope our clients found the pasties delicious…I know I did. Too bad I didn’t have the pleasure of searching for the perfect margarita mix!

On a pure cost-per-thousand people reached (CPM), Super Bowl ads are inefficient. So if you’re a hard-core numbers person, look elsewhere. But on an “event” marketing basis, the Super Bowl offers a number of important advantages. First, it’s one of the few shows people watch for the commercials. Second, because it’s sports and a huge event, most people do not DVR it and fast forward through the commercials. And last, but not least, media outlets (and bloggers!) post their favorite spots so if yours is a good one, it has the potential for additional exposure.

There’s also some research to indicate that sports viewers are more engaged with the content and therefore with the ads.

So who’s in this year? Alas, it pains me to report that GoDaddy will be back with two spots. I have no idea how scantily clad the actresses will be but I hear that Danica Patrick is reprising her role as the “GoDaddy girl.” Boy, I am so bummed I didn’t get that.

Bridgestone is sponsoring the halftime show again this year, which will feature a performance by The Who. That just happens to be my husband’s favorite band.

Anheuser Busch will be back. Monster’s back. Dorito’s is back with ads created by amateurs. Ad Age has the full list here if you’re curious if your favorite brand will be there.

Who will be talked about the next morning? Something tells me Twitter will be abuzz during the game with people loving or hating on the commercials — in addition to tweeting about the game. I’ll be curious to see if Twitter’s trending topics match up with post-game favorability ad scores.

I meet lots of social media skeptics, people who think it’s just another waste of their time. And some of it is. But I think most of us agree that we want to hang out where our customers are hanging out, and increasingly, that’s online. They are interacting on Facebook, using Twitter to communicate, uploading videos to YouTube and blogging. It’s important to cruise this virtual town square and insert yourself in these online conversations.

The women of WCR understand this. They are building their local association chapters, in addition to building their individual businesses. They are dynamic and motivated. They understand that in times of economic distress, it’s more important than ever to step up one’s game.

Tomorrow, we are going to teach the group how to use Twitter. Twitter, for all its bare-bones functionality (it is, after all, just short messages), is still baffling for new users to figure out. The interface is not intuitive; that’s why so many people use Twitter apps like Tweetdeck, Twhirl and the like. For new people just getting started, the learning curve can be steep. What’s a “retweet?” What’s the difference between an “@reply” and a “dm”? Heck, what’s an “@reply” anyway?

Given how confusing it can be to get started, it’s remarkable how much Twitter usage has grown: it grew an astonishing 2,613% year to year (July 08 to July 09). Somebody’s figuring it out. Your customers? Your competitors? Might it be time for you to find out?

Thanks to the WCR for asking us to be part of their retreat.

They knew what they were saying. They knew it was dishonest. That they didn’t know they’d get caught is shocking and stupid.

I honestly don’t think there’s enough BPA in the bottles for it to be a problem. But I’m pissed that they lied and I, like millions others, will never buy another Sigg bottle again. This is a bummer. I liked them so much I’ve blogged about them on my personal blog. Even bought a cute custom wrap for my husband’s bottle.

And the CEO of Sigg does not seem to know a lick about damage control. Sure, he claims to be reading and responding to emails personally. But then he goes and says stupid things like, “if retailers keep our old bottles on the shelf, there’s nothing we can do about that.” (I’m paraphrasing slightly.) Dude! You should be out front, apologizing, replacing bottles like crazy, getting independent testing to verify that your bottles and liners are now 100% BPA-free, etc. Actually, you should resign and let someone else clean up your mess. Because you lied. You double downed on your lie when questioned about it, and you’ve broken the consumer’s trust. That’s hard to win back. And since nobody will trust a word you say, you should step aside and let someone else try to mend the fences.

I would not want to be this guy’s PR firm.

I once worked for a guy who asked me to lie to the media. I looked at him like he had two heads and refused. He told me that I was his Vice President, that I was playing in the big leagues, and that I needed to do what was expected of me. Regrettably, I didn’t tell him to go f-himself. Fortunately, the magazine did not pick up the story and none of us had to decide whether we were going to do as we were told or risk losing our jobs.

If Sigg’s CEO had really come clean and reached out as I described above, his customers might be forgiving. As it is, he just handed his competitors several market share points. Kleen Kanteen, here I come!

Footnote: I tried to link to Sigg’s Facebook page but it’s disappeared. Is some ticked off fan messing with them? Or are they shutting down their community to avoid letting people have a place to post negative messages? Do they actually think the conversation will stop? No, it’ll just move on to someplace else where they won’t get to insert their voice . . . like Twitter or blogs. Stupid, stupid, stupid.