In my career thus far it was very clear I was marketing to women. If I wasn’t directly marketing to women, I was indirectly (going through women to reach men). I find myself in a unique position now of marketing to men. Being in BtoB High Tech, our customers are mostly men. In fact, in my life both at work and growing up (4 brothers, all computer geeks) means I was surrounded by men. So it’s surprising that I still don’t really know as much as you’d think about marketing or even talking to men. I’ve seen times when this has hurt me.

I tried to think of someone who markets well to men. I immediately thought of The Rich Jerk. I’ve been reviewing his ebook for another project. He markets to men who want to be rich and attract women (most of you want at least one or both of these, right?).

The Rich Jerk’s marketing is effective but as a woman it makes my blood boil. It completely turns me off (still would love to interview him – if anyone could arrange a phone interview). However, his ebook sells well and he’s doing innovative things (like his infomercials). He has done a superb job at branding his ebook, better than any I know of. It’s not just an ebook, it’s a lifestyle, a feeling, a message.

After thinking about it, it’s obvious that Go Daddy also markets to men with their “Go Daddy Girls.” I’m a loyal customer (despite the fact their branding doesn’t appeal to me).
There is certainly much more talk and writing about marketing to women. Anyone have any good resources about marketing to men? The funny thing is I asked a marketing professor at a business event. He couldn’t find the article but he did say it wasn’t that flattering to men, lol. In my case it’s a high tech product and is being sold to small to medium sized businesses.

As usual, your input is welcomed and appreciated.

Well, it’s official. Google bought YouTube for $130.5 million ($1.6 billion) in stock.

“The all-stock deal makes YouTube by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history. Last year, Google spent $130.5 million buying a total of 15 small companies. ” – LA Times

This site had a great chart of web 2.0 buyouts or rumored buyouts. As you’ll see the Ebay Skype purchase is the highest on the list at $2.6 billion.

My boss uses YouTube as to cheer up his daughter when she’s fussy. He pulls up YouTube and searches for videos of soft furry puppies and other things she’ll enjoy. Works like a charm.

I use YouTube (need RSS) to stay educated on internet marketing and to find product demos. I learn better this way than reading it…Has your company posted a video on YouTube? If so, put it in the comments section, especially if it’s internet marketing related!

In researching different email marketing solution providers I’ve begun to think about something I wouldn’t have before I started working at Cymphonix. Spyware.

If you share server space with lots of other businesses (something small businesses often do to cut costs) you risk getting blacklisted because of something someone else did. Essentially your company shares its reputation with a lot of other unknown companies. So if they introduce spyware through a web page they link to and it gets blocked, so do you!
That’s why I’m not going to use a service like Constant Contact, I want to build our email marketing for the long term. If we get blacklisted it will hurt our deliverability for years to come.

Thanks to Eli’s generosity I will try eloop and give feedback (I love asking questions to my blog readers, it makes me smarter and I get to talk with great people). You can buy a dedicated IP address. Or, if you want to keep costs down and share one, they limit the number of accounts on a server to around 10.

When you’re looking for an email marketing solution, be sure to ask about Spyware. If you want to really know, get Sunbelt software, or a complete solution like Cymphonix (an in-line network appliance that combines spyware blocking with a lot of other features, priced for small to medium-sized businesses).

When you’re a small company and you want to start an email newsletter without getting IT involved, be sure to ask about spyware and who you’ll be sharing space with. Zeop is a free solution that claims no spyware. I think what I’m learning will make a good article when I’m done researching it.

Thanks to Eli for this tip.

Buyerzone is a site that connects buyers and sellers. The seller pays a per lead amount which vary in cost. Buyers fill out lead forms specifying what they are looking for. They get between 4-6 quotes from sellers who fit their criteria. The categories are very broad (if I were selling call center software this may be the place to go!). Most of the Internet-related lead requests are full (for web design, web hosts, SEO, etc).

They generate leads with print, radio, TV, and online captures.

“For the past ten years, BuyerZone.com has served as a trusted purchasing authority to millions of small and mid-sized businesses nationwide. Over two million businesses rely regularly on our advice columns and Buyer’s Guides appearing in more than 30 of the nation’s top business magazines and newspapers, including BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine, and many more. We also make frequent appearances on CNNfn, CNBC, Bloomberg Television & Radio, and Business Radio Network. In addition, we are a key component to shopping and small business channels for some of the most heavily visited sites on the Internet, including Yahoo!, BusinessWeek, inc.com and MSN.”

Anyone used this service? It seems like a great tool for businesses. I’m going to try it as a consumer and I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have you ever tried to get a blogger to blog about your event, product, or something else you were interested in? How did it go? I’ve read some interesting studies about launching products through the blogosphere. I’m really curious about effective ways to get buzz for your business on blogs.

Lee Odden blogged about how to pitch to a blogger (which made me remember I still need to post about Dave Taylor’s book Building your Business with Google). He has a great list of articles and blog post talking about how to reach bloggers.

Have you pitched your product or service to bloggers (not just one but a strategy)? How did it go? What did you learn?

I wonder if Google changed something that is affecting my blog readership. All week my numbers have been lower by quite a bit. I talked to my friend and she said the same thing is happening with her blog.

Does anyone have any insight?

Are you noticing any difference in visits to your blog this past week?

At the end of July my cell phone contract with T-Mobile ended and I started the process to port it to Vonage. It’s now October and the process has not been completed. Both companies say it’s the others fault. Meanwhile I pay $70 a month and have 2 cell phones and 1 VoIP phone.

I can’t cancel T-Mobile until Vonage cancels the porting request. They aren’t in today. Each time I call each company I go through the phone trees. They make you type in your phone number or the last digits of your social security #. Then you get a live representative and one of the first things they ask if for your phone number or last 4 digits of your social security number.

This is getting ridiculous. I’m going to cancel both. This has cost me for too long. There should be a place I can complain. They should be able to port a number (that I’ve had for 3 years) in a reasonable length of time. I guess that’s too much to ask. I have to go through phone tree hell just one last time. I think I need to listen to some Wayne Dyer or do some meditation. This situation makes me crazy each time I call about it. And Monday will be the last time I call about it.

I need to get an email program such as Constant Contact to send and track email newsletters. I have used Aweber and they have a great reputation. I just think the usability and user experience is so poor. I don’t like using it, so I don’t send as much email.

For example, when I type an email in Aweber, it’s unclear that when I save it that means it’s going to be sent. They have tutorials and documents but I don’t want to have to spend that much effort to learn it better. I’d much rather go with a seemless solution that is intuitive to use.

Does anyone use an email program to send emails to maybe around 500-1000 subscribers that you recommend and like using? I need to be able to segment lists and see where people click (not just open rates).

The single most valuable lesson I learned that had immediate impact from Paul Allen‘s class last year is learning about Google AdWords and Dynamic Keyword Insertion. Jim Ericson was a guest lecturer and explained the technique. I later called and asked for a more detailed explanation.

Today I’m elated to see that since I started my new job our number of visits to our web site off Google ads has increased over 7X from what it was the months previous (it was holding steady). That’s in three months. It is without spending any more money. These are often high quality leads.

How did this happen? First, I babysit the campaign. I check it often and add new keywords as I read and learn more about the business I’m in. I test ads. I dayparted our campaigns so they only run when they’re more profitable or give higher quality leads.

However, one of my favorite ways is using dynamic keyword insertion. I know to many of you this is not big news. But if you’re not using dynamic keyword insertion you should be.

How Dynamic Keyword Insertion Works

Rather than making a new ad for a group of related keywords, make the title or headline of the ad change automatically depending on what someone types in. Here’s how: {KeyWord:INSERT DEFAULT TITLE HERE}. That’s all. If the keyword or phrase is too long it will show the default title. Otherwise it will show exactly what someone typed in to search.

Example: You make an ad with the title like this: Buy {KeyWord: Flowers} Online. If someone types in buy a dozen red roses, and red roses is one of your keywords, and you’re using dynamic keyword insertion, your ad title will show up: Buy Red Roses Online.

Watch the Numbers

I have only really run an extensive paid search campaign since I started this job. I had dabbled in it a little before that but it never got off the ground. At first spending someone’s money so fast (or my own) was either intimidating or disasterous. I hate to bleed money. If you make a mistake and don’t watch closely it could quickly end up costing you a lot. But the opposite is also true. Make a good ad and you can quickly see great results (strong conversion rates).

Paid Search – A Creative Outlet

I find running a paid search campaign a very creative and satisfying part of my job. I love writing the ads but especially love when I see the effect on conversion rates almost instantly. Instant gratification for my writing or creativity. It just doesn’t get much better than that.

I’ve had some great teachers in real life and books and hope to continue to see continued PPC success.

Now if I could just get a dedicated graphic designer and web programmer to build landing pages and do more versions to test. This usually gets pushed back but I believe the payoff could be huge.

The Art of Business Blogging: Find Customers, Employees and Partners with your Personal Publicity Engine.

Paul Allen of Provo Labs will be speaking tomorrow on The Art of Business Blogging

Friday, October 6, 2006
8:00 – 9:00 AM – Open Networking
9:00 – 10:00 AM – Presentation

Location:
Miller Business Innovation Center (Miller Corporate Partnership Building) Salt Lake Community College
9750 South 300 West Sandy, UT 84070 (map )
Cost: $5.00 at the door

Contact Info:
(801) 957-5284 or rsvp@utahfirstfridays.org