Microsoft's Bing.com Commercials

Over the past few weeks I have seen many TV commercials for the new Bing.com search engine. I must say these commercials are doing nothing to excite me into wanting to use bing.com instead of google.

The bing commercials talk about information "search overload" and suggests we are not finding the information we really want when we use a search engine, and we are instead being offered too much information. True.

However, the big problem I see with the bing commercials is they do not not show how bing solves the too much information problem. Maybe they are hoping the element of curiosity will make us want to try bing to see how it is better. Rather expensive gamble.

A better campaign would be to show people doing different searches and being thrilled with the information they find - exactly the information they were looking for. That would get my interest. Show me the benefit. Prove Bing is a better search engine. Show me why I cannot live without bing!

Another statement that was made in the bing commercial is that it's not just a search engine, it's a decision engine. What the heck is a decision engine? Is it going to make decisions for me? Not sure if I want that. What if it makes wrong decisions?

Once again, I hope you see the mistakes large companies are making in their advertising. Too much focus on being cool and branding and not enough focus on proving benefits and showing why you cannot live without their product.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group advertising agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Get rid of duplicate content on your website ASAP

I just learned the hard way that having pages with similar content can get you removed from search results. I kept wondering why I could not get indexed by Yahoo so I finally contacted them and asked what was they problem. They responded saying it appears I have duplicate content so my website was completely removed from Yahoo's search results. I just spent the morning going through every page on the website to make sure no content was overlapping with other pages and asked Yahoo if my site is acceptable to them now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as I do not know what more I can do. Every single page is completely original content now.

So, the moral of this story is, if you have a website, make sure you do not have any duplicate content with other pages on your website or you may find your website removed from all search engine search results by Yahoo, Google, and MSN (now "Bing").

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing firm
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Marketing for law firms

I just added a brief outline for media marketing for personal injury and medical malpractice attorneys. You can read it at:

http://www.geisheker.com/marketing-for-law-firms.htm

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to create catchy slogans

Every business should have a great slogan. Sadly, most slogans are awful and completely meaningless. I would say that maybe 5-10% of slogans are good. The rest are total garbage. If you want to create great catchy slogans, I have created a simple formula that I use to create slogans for my clients.

First of all, a great slogan should in 3-10 words explain the number one most valuable benefit of doing business with your company, and you should try to have your benefit be unique instead of saying exactly the same thing your competition says.

So here is my formula: My business promises you: "your companies #1 most valuable benefit in the eyes of your customers".

If that is as clear as mud, here are some examples:

My business promises you: "Widgets that last 20 years, guaranteed or free replacement".

My business promises you: "Shipping packaging so safe we'll double the cost of your item if it breaks".

My business promises you: "The home of the unbelievable 101 ice cream flavors".

See a pattern here? To make a great catchy slogan, use your #1 most valuable and unique benefit as your slogan. And remember to focus on the benefit that is most valuable to your customers--not what you assume or guess it is. If you do not know what your #1 benefit is in the eyes of your customers, ask them and they will tell you.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Volkswagen Commercial and facebook

I just saw a Volkswagen commercial where instead of showing their website URL, they showed their Facebook URL - facebook.com/vw.

I find it interesting that they chose to send people to their Facebook page instead of to their corporate website. I guess they are giving social networking a try although not doing the best job of it.

This was a fairly good commercial because it was focusing on a major benefit - free scheduled maintenance on all 2009 models. Very smart marketing.

But here is where they fell short. They should have given people a reason to go to the VW corporate website to get more information on the free maintenance program, to see virtual tours of the cars, to enter a contest to win a 2009 VW, etc. If you are going to spend all of that money on TV advertising, at least excite your potential customers into taking action so you can get their contact info (sign up for an email newsletter) to do more personal direct response marketing to them via email and direct mail.

In regard to them social networking on facebook, instead of just showing the URL for a very brief second, they should have told viewers to come and be their friend on facebook and enter a contest to win a 2009 VW. Give people a reason to do something and to interact with your company. By just showing their URL, they missed out on so many great opportunities to create relationships with people who viewed their TV commercial.

Large companies must do a far better job of using direct response marketing tactics to excite prospects into taking action so the company can get their contact information in order to do one-on-one personal marketing via email and snail mail.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

guerilla marketing definition

Business owners always ask me about the definition of guerilla marketing and what the heck is it.

First of all, Guerrilla Marketing is a term coined by the brilliant marketing strategist Jay Conrad Levinson. Jay has written many books on Guerrilla marketing that you can purchase at bookstores and online. I have read most of Jay's books and they are outstanding. If you want to improve the results you get from marketing, reading Jay's books is mandatory.

Okay, so what is Guerrilla Marketing? I consider it to be using intelligent direct response advertising. Instead of throwing zillions of dollars at broad ad campaigns like many large companies do, Guerrilla marketing is smart laser focused niche marketing using direct response tactics to increase sales and the return in investment you get from the money you invest in marketing your business.

To learn more about Guerrilla Marketing, I recommend you visit Jay Conrad Levinson's website at http://www.gmarketing.com/

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group advertising agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Free Marketing Plan Ebook

Hello Everyone,

I have updated my free marketing plan ebook titled "How to Write a Marketing Plan & 100+ Marketing Strategies to Successfully Market Your Business."

Download it for free at http://geisheker.com/marketingplan.pdf

You can also give it to friends and colleagues. Just do not sell it.

Click here to Tweet this article.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Good joke by Warren Buffet

I was just reading FORTUNE magazine and read a good joke by Warren Buffett about climate change (page 22 of FORTUNE June 22, 2009 issue).

Warren is talking to Bill Gates about global warming and the fact the we all end up six feet under. "Given that I'm 78, I'm likely to be subject to climate change soon--I hope not too soon."

Click here to tweet this joke

Peter Geisheker
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
(920) 471-1638

An investment opp and a new way to help non profit organizations

If you are seeking an investment opportunity and a way to help non profit orgs, check out http://www.communityfundingpartners.com/

Peter Geisheker
The Geisheker Group marketing agency

Why healthcare insurance companies have a conflict of interest

Right now as you know from watching the news, there is a fight between Democrats and Republicans over healthcare. Should it be run by the government or by private insurance companies?

Here is my view. Healthcare insurance companies are FOR PROFIT businesses. What this means is they make money and make their shareholders money by earning as much money as possible while spending as little as possible. Economics 101 right. Now let's think about this. Insurance companies lose money (i.e., lower profits) when they pay medical claims. So it is in an insurance company's best interest NOT to pay your claims if your get sick or injured. Yes, you read that right. An insurance company's primary job is to earn a return on investment for shareholders, NOT to pay medical claims. That is why insurance companies deny so many claims and nickel and dime doctors and hospitals so much.

The whole purpose of insurance is to protect you against something bad happening to you. But there is a huge conflict of interest when you have for profit companies in charge of paying claims because the more claims they pay, the less money they make in profits for shareholders.

Now, if the government runs healthcare, it is not a for profit agency handling claims. Therefore, they do not have incentive to deny you of the healthcare you need. I know republicans are for small government and capitalism, but when it is your life at stake, I choose a socialist healthcare system where I know I will be taken care of over a for profit business doing all they can to deny me healthcare so they can increase their profits.

Click here to tweet this blog post

Peter Geisheker
The Geisheker Group Advertising Agency
(920) 471-1638

The importance of PR in growing your business

Over the past 2 years I have focused much more of my time on PR as a business building tool. In fact, I now consider PR one of my most important duties to ensure the success of my marketing firm.

The reason I am spending so much more time and money on PR is that it has proven to be an outstanding marketing tool. It has provided me and my marketing firm with instant expert credibility, national exposure to hundreds of thousands of business professionals, and it has led to us acquiring several new clients.

Another reason why PR is so important is that if your company is getting more PR than your competition, and it is not that hard to do, people prefer buying from a company that is talked about in the media compared to a company that is not talked about.

Any business that does incorporate PR as one of their most important marketing activities is missing a huge piece of the marketing puzzle.

Click here to tweet this blog posting

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Why marketing determines if your business lives or dies

The quality of your marketing is the number one factor in determining if your business will be a success or failure. If your company’s marketing message demonstrates the value of buying your product or service over that of your competition, your business will prosper. If your marketing message does a poor job of demonstrating the value of your product or service, your business will fail.

Understand that all customers (B2B and B2C) care about the same thing – if I purchase this item, what’s in it for me? What beneficial end result will I receive? And, will the end result I receive from buying this item be better than if I bought a competing item? Explaining to customers why your item produces the most desirable end result is the job of marketing.

You may say that customers should flock to your door because you have developed a better mousetrap. Sorry, but that is not how the world works. The company that wins the most customers is the company with the most appealing marketing message for their mousetrap, not the better mousetrap.

Simply put, the company with the marketing message that most appeals to what customers want, is the company that wins the most customers.

Click here to tweet this blog posting

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Awful customer service

Over the past two weeks my project manager has been calling several magazines to get rate cards and to discuss their advertising policies. The problem is she keeps getting voice mail and the magazines are not calling back when she leaves voice mail.

Is it just me, or are these magazines insane? We are calling because we want to give them money to advertise yet they are not returning our phone calls.

Your answer may be, well if she left a voice mail that says, "xyz..." the magazines would call back. Maybe, but that's not the point. When a customer calls you, you first need to answer the telephone, not send them to voice mail. Second, call people back! Have some respect for your customers.

Businesses that treat customers poorly deserve to go out of business. I am so sick and tired of horrible customer service, especially when businesses are crying the blues that they are not making any money. Maybe if businesses started caring about their customers instead of being so worried about the all mighty buck, they would start seeing an increase in sales.

People, we deserve better service. Do not allow businesses to treat you poorly. Those that treat you poorly do not deserve your business, so do not give it to them.

And if you are a business owner reading this, if you want a competitive advantage, treat your customers like royalty and they will LOVE YOU and make you rich.

Happy Friday!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

The 3 most common reasons why marketing fails

As the CEO of a marketing firm and a marketing copywriter, I see horrible marketing every day. Here are the 3 most common mistakes I see businesses make with their marketing which causes their marketing to fail.

Marketing mistake 1: Not focusing on a niche market that really needs and wants what you are selling. To be successful in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, you absolutely must focus your marketing on serving a specialized niche market. This is especially true and a matter of survival if you have a small marketing budget. If you ignore this advice and try to market to a large general market before first becoming the market leader in at least one or two small niche markets, I can guarantee that you will go broke and then go out of business. However, if you do decide to focus on serving a small niche market, you greatly increase your odds for business success with far less financial risk.

Marketing mistake 2: Focusing on features instead of benefits. A feature explains a fact about what a product does such as a specification. For example, the new ZZ car has anti-lock brakes. That is a fact about the car - it has anti-lock brakes. The problem with only listing a feature is that a feature does not explain how it benefits a person. Why would you want a car with anti-lock brakes? The answer to that question is the benefit. Anti-lock brakes are much safer because they keep your tires from locking up and skidding so you do not lose control of your car. Therefore, if you drive a car that has anti-lock brakes, you are less likely to be in a car accident and killed. The benefit is the positive end result. People buy benefits, not features. Therefore, in your marketing, you absolutely must focus on benefits instead of features. The more powerful you can make your benefits, the more successful your marketing will be.

Marketing mistake 3: Not marketing on a consistent basis. At any given time, a market will only have about 1-3% of its population interested in buying your product or service. For example, let’s say you are a home remodeling contractor and you meet with 100 home owners. On any given day only about 1-3 people may be interested in buying your home remodeling services. That means up to 99% will not be interested in buying your product or service right now. However, in a week, a month, or a year, they may be ready to buy because their needs have changed. If you are only doing your marketing on a one-time basis, you are missing out on 99% of the market that may buy from you in the future. That is why you must consistently market to your target market month after month forever. If you are going to market with sales letters, send out sales letters to your contact list every single month. Many of your prospects may have to receive your sales letter 6-12 times or more before they will be ready to buy from you. If you advertise in a trade publication, advertise every single month. Many people will need to see your advertisement over the course of several months (or years) before they will be in the market to buy from you. If you advertise on the radio, don’t run your ads for a month and stop. Keep running them month after month. Think of marketing as out of sight, out of mind. If you are not constantly marketing to your marketplace so your name and the benefits of your product or service is in fresh in their minds, they will forget about you very quickly and buy from the company that is consistently marketing to them.

If you follow the advice given in this article I guarantee you will quickly see an increase in the success of your marketing program and your business will grow and prosper.

Click here to Tweet this article

To your success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Why being positive is so important to success in life

I believe that one of the biggest factors in being successful in business and in life is your attitude, specifically, having a very positive attitude. During a recession, being positive can be difficult, but you must do it.

My advice for how to stay positive is, you have no choice but to force yourself to be positive. Positive people attract positive outcomes. By forcing yourself to be positive and thinking every day that things are going to get better and new opportunities and success will come your way, those positive things will come to you. Positive energy attracts positive outcomes and negative energy attracts negative outcomes. That is why you see positive people always having good luck as if by magic and negative people having negative things happen to them as if they were cursed.

Negative people seem to create a dark cloud that follows them everywhere they go. Positive people have bright blue skies overhead. Success in life IS produced by your attitude and having a positive attitude is the key to success. It sounds too simple to be true but it works. I used to be a negative person and my life reflected it. I was always unhappy, I was broke, I got sick a lot, and life sucked. Then I read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill and decided to take his advice of forcing myself to think positively even though a part of me thought it was nonsense and would not work.

But it worked, and it worked incredibly well. Slowly but surely my life turned around. I felt good, I was no longer getting sick, I was making money, I was gaining new friends, and life became very positive for me. People would say I had the Midas Touch, and I did. The Midas Touch is a positive frame of mind. If you are positive and you expect great things to happen to you, they DO!

So, stop complaining. Stop whining. Think positive. Start expecting great things to come your way. Look for the silver lining in everything. And then watch your life change as all of your dreams start coming true.

To your success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to be more creative

As the main part of my job is creating marketing materials and advertising campaigns, being able to turn on creativity every single day is very important. Here are my top 5 ways for staying creative and coming up with innovative ideas on a daily basis:

1. I get my blood pumping by listening to my favorite music. This puts my brain in a "happy place" and coming up with creative ideas is easier.

2. I will grab 3-5 magazines and start thumbing through them. Seeing different ideas in advertisements and story headlines always helps me generate tons of new ideas very quickly. In fact, I would say it is probably the best brainstorming method there is as you can generate so many ideas so quickly by skimming through magazines.

3. Walk around. Sometimes by just going into a different room I will have new ideas. It is amazing how your environment can quickly change your thought process and open new idea channels.

4. Put a favorite movie in my computer's DVD player and either watch it or just listen to it in the background. I find that Harry Potter movies work especially well for opening up my creative channels.

5. Write ideas down as quickly as possible on a white board. Just write, write, write. Let the ideas flow and try to keep up.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Bizarre Giant Cheetos commercial

Ok. I am watching TV and relaxing and a commercial for Giant Cheetos comes on. In this commercial they are measuring the mouths of these people with very distorted large mouths. I was actually kind of sickened by it. Reminds of of something you see in a horror movie. Just wondering if anybody else was as turned off by this commercial as me? In my opinion, this type of commercial makes people NOT want to buy the product.

Thoughts? Comments?

Thanks,

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
(920) 471-1638

New Social Media Marketing Service

Unless you have been hiding in a cave for the past couple of years, you are aware of the fact that social marketing has become one of the most powerful marketing channels on the planet. Basically, it is Internet word of mouth advertising on steroids and it takes place on social networking websites (facebook, twitter, myspace, etc.) and on personal and business blogs.

So why do you care?

You should care because social media marketing is a very powerful marketing channel for your businesses, and its power is growing every single day.

BusinessWeek said it best in their article entitled, "Social Media Will Change Your Business":

"[Y]ou cannot afford to close your eyes to [blogs], because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business--including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate.
Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite."
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2008/db20080219_908252.htm

Social media - interactive, frequently-updated forms of websites - is becoming the backbone of online marketing today. It started with blogs, but it has now expanded to include social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Together they are changing how business is done and how companies are interacting and communicating with their markets.

Five of the top ten Fortune 500 companies have blogs. How effective are they? A Cymfony/Poter Novelli study reported that 76% of companies that they surveyed reported an increase in media attention and/or website traffic as a result of their blogs.
http://www.buzzmarketingwithblogs.com/weblog/item/study_shows_blogs_increase_media_attention_for_companies/

To help your business take advantage of the tremendous power of social networking, The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm has developed a comprehensive social media marketing program called "The Online Authority Package" and it includes the following services:

The Online Authority Package includes the following services:

* Complete blog creation and management service to painlessly connect with your target market and create value for your readers

* Includes all prices associated with building and maintaining a blog

* Regularly-scheduled blog posts to offer value for readers and drive them to take action, written by a professional copywriter
[Note: a minimum of one post per week, length determined by frequency]

* Blog performance will be closely monitored and reported to client on a weekly basis

* Blog marketing to drive new potential customers and clients to your business

* A daily focus on building your social media presence through Twitter (over 8 million visitors per month) and Facebook (over 50 million visitors per month), if applicable

* Other proven strategies to drive traffic to your blog, such as guest posts on other blogs and submission to blog directories

* Mailing list creation and engagement to promote brand familiarity and increase customer loyalty

* Building of a mailing list to provide continuous, open communication with your target market

* E-newsletter sent out at regular intervals will provide further value to your audience - most e-newsletters will be sent once per month or on a biweekly basis

* A press release written and distributed on prweb.com, the Internet's top press release distribution service for social media placement

If you are ready to take your business to the next level by taking advantage of the power of social networking word of mouth advertising, call Michael Pecora today at (920) 471-1638.

Please note that we are only accepting 10 clients for this service as it is very labor intensive. The price is $3000 per month and we will only work on a minimum 6-month contract.

To your business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing agency
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

How to respond to unhappy clients

The best way to maintain client relationships is with frequent communication. The top reason a relationship with a client becomes strained is a business's lack of staying in touch with that client. At minimum, a business should contact its customers once per month, especially with B2B business relationships. This can be done by email, telephone, direct mail, or in-person visits.

If a business does run into a situation where they have a strained relationship with a client, the way to handle it is to communicate with the client and apologize. Ask what can you do to fix the problem so the client is happy - and then do it. Business is all about one-on-one relationships and it is no different than the relationship you have with your friends, family, and your significant other. When problems arise, and they always do, talk it out. Ask what you did wrong and how you can make it better. The majority of the time a problem can be solved by just taking a few minutes to talk about it.

To you business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing companies
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
http://www.geisheker.com
(920) 471-1638

Make your marketing communication easy to understand

In regard to how to communicate complex information to consumers and stakeholders, being unique or innovative is not nearly as important as being very easy to understand.

As I have worked with many technology companies, the number one problem I see over and over is they use complex language that is very technical and difficult to understand. Sometimes they do this to show off their technical prowess and sometimes it is written by an engineer who does not know any better. The problem is a confused customer will not buy. Let me repeat that. A CONFUSED CUSTOMER WILL NOT BUY!

The key to successful communications is to make the complex very simple. If your communications cannot be understood by the average 12-year-old, you are writing at too high a level. People want easy to understand information that they can read once and immediately understand. So make your communications as simple as possible. Use analogies people will understand. The easier it is to understand your communications, the more successful your business will be. Simple sells.

To you business success!

Peter Geisheker, CEO
The Geisheker Group marketing company
"We don't help you compete, we help you dominate"
(920) 471-1638