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Duct Tape Marketing: Share or Die

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:33:06 -0400

Share or Die

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

If the explosion of the web and social media has taught business anything it’s that you must put out tons of great content and be willing share, let others copy, use and otherwise exploit it your, not their, benefit.

The old school model of proprietary content locked, either behind a 27 field form or worse, copyscape or encryption model, is not only silly it’s hurtful to your brand and business growth.

By making your content easily and freely passable, in fact encouraging folks to do so, you must acknowledge that even your most cherished secrets are nothing without the execution to bring them to life and the energy you invest in trying to protect your content could be better used connecting with clients anyway.

Influential Marketing Blog: How Algorithms Could Finally Revolutionize Social Media Marketing

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 23:43:43 -0400

It is nearly the anniversary of the closing of a 3 year quest you may have heard of. The Netflix Prize was a $1m contest launched by the popular video rental service to improve their movie recommendation engine by a specific algorithmic percentage. The challenge was open to any and all mathematics and University teams and was finally awarded on September 21, 2010 to a team that submitted their winning entry just 24 minutes before the closing of the contest.

Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: A peek inside the ideal fundraiser-philanthropist relationship

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:22:31 -0400

Two people I thoroughly admire are speaking together on this topic next week. Don’t miss the serious(ly) helpful dialogue, Nonprofit 911: The Fundraiser and The Philanthropist Talk About the Art of Exponential Fundraising. It’s a conversation between nationally recognized fundraiser Jennifer McCrea and active philanthropist and board member Jeff Walker. Hear directly from the people involved how fundraising really works (hint: it’s about relationships) and how to transform your organization.

Using examples from their years of working together, they will discuss how to:

* Motivate your board to engage in fundraising
* Identify and recruit donors and partners to make your organization stronger, not drained of resources
* Make the perfect ask by telling a great story
* Turn shared values into action

This webinar will root you in fundraising best practices, core fundamentals and emerging trends, and then introduce you to strategies and techniques drawn from the presenters’ extensive experience to build co-creative partnerships, an abundant pipeline of resources and new fundraising opportunities with donors at all levels.

Duct Tape Marketing: 5 Ways For Small Businesses To Get In The Location Game

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:26:21 -0400

5 Ways For Small Businesses To Get In The Location Game

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Location based check-in type services are this year’s overhyped topic – with good reason. While you may not understand why someone wants to be the mayor of their barber shop, you do need to recognize the behavior that social location services such as Gowalla, Foursquare, Yelp! and Facebook Places represents for the local business.

Gettingattention.org: Links Corrected – Spot the Next Great Nonprofit Taglines — Vote for 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Award Winners

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:38:00 -0400

Great Words Promoting Good Causes

Vote now for the winners of the 2010 Taggies — the 3rd Annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards.

Seventy tagline finalists have been carefully culled from the more than 2,700 taglines entries from 1,700 nonprofit organizations in 13 vertical sectors from health to civic benefit.

This year, for the first time, voters will select program, fundraising and special event tagline award winners, in addition to the strongest organizational taglines. The addition of these three new tagline types gives more organizations a chance to showcase their best efforts to engage their target audiences.

1,200 of your peers have already voted in the last week! Now it’s your turn to select the best!

Voting will sharpen your understanding of what works and what doesn’t messaging wise, and inform and inspire your organization’s communications.

Frog Loop: Ten Fundraising Strategies to Test Right Now

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:09:17 -0400

Are you stuck in a fundraising rut and looking to try some creative fundraising tactics to engage your supporters? Check out Network for Good’s “How to Raise A lot More Money Now” which lists 50 fundraising strategies by some of the best fundraising experts including Jocelyn Harmon of Care2, Mark Rovner of Sea Change Strategies and Sarah Durham of Big Duck.

Here’s the cliff notes version just in case.

1. Don't ask your donors to solve huge problems; ask them to solve solvable problems.

2. Overdo it. Be too dramatic. Too emotional. Too strong. It's a lot easier to tone it down than it is to pump up weak and underdone copy.

- Jeff Brooks, True Sense Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing: Weekend Favs September Four

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:28:04 -0400

Weekend Favs September Four

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr.

Good stuff I found this week:

Paper.li – organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag

12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them – A must read even if just for the cartoons with each breed.

Duct Tape Marketing: Delivery is the New It Thing

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:22:48 -0400

Delivery is the New It Thing

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

if you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business or products and create a killer competitive advantage you may not have to look any farther than how you delivery of your products and services.

Now, delivery is a fabulously flexible term when applied to business, so I use it here to talk about physical deliver of goods as well as digital delivery or information and even delivery of consulting or plumbing services.

I’ve done a fair amount of polling of late trying to find out why people choose one company over another and I have to tell you that while good service and cool products rate high – convenience is number one every time.

Kivi's Non-Profit Communications Blog: Training: Getting More Media Attention

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:33:55 -0400

Our September E-Clinic is all about getting your nonprofit and good cause more media exposure, and registration is now open!

During this month-long e-clinic, you’ll get the training and coaching you need to learn how to get the media interested in your organization and your cause today. You’ll get the basic media training that all nonprofit communicators should have, but just as importantly, you’ll get up-to-the-minute takes on what nonprofits need to be doing right now to get their stories published and produced by the media at both the local and national levels.

The “Get More Media Attention for Your Cause” E-Clinic includes three training sessions, two coaching Q & A calls, and two e-guide downloads:

Webinars on

How to Be an Effective Spokesperson for Your Nonprofit
Getting the Media to Love You and Your Good Cause
How to Be Seen as the Go-to Expert in Your Field

Coaching Q & A Calls on

Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: Fun facts: The US nonprofit sector in a video nutshell

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:40:10 -0400

Check out this great video by the Ben Klasky, executive director of a Seattle-based nonprofit called IslandWood. He told me as part of his duties, he teaches a class on nonprofit management. He said his students are always stunned by the size of the nonprofit sector. (1 in 10 US workers are employed by nonprofits; revenues earned by US nonprofits are greater than the entire economies of Saudi Arabia and Sweden combined, etc.!)
So he made a video to make the point for all of us. Check it out!

Duct Tape Marketing: WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:33:37 -0400

WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

On the spectrum of really big marketing tactics, the email signature isn’t terribly sexy, but this little touch can say a lot about what you do and how you connect.

If you’re like me, you send a lot of email so why not make sure your email signature is working in the background for you. This doesn’t mean you need flashing lights and honking horns, but you should supply recipients, even those that contact you often, with all the necessary contact details, including social profiles, so that you are easy to connect with.

Frog Loop: Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising: Presentation

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:28:39 -0400

It's hard to believe but summer is coming to an end which means year-end fundraising is just around the corner. Are you prepared to ramp up your fundraising strategy this month? Wondering what the latest best practices are and what kind of fundraising results you can expect? Check out Care2's latest web presentation Hot or Not: What's Sizzling in Online Fundraising, featuring fundraising experts - Steve MacLaughlin, Director, Internet Solutions, Blackbaud, Donna Wilkins, President, Charity Dynamics, Jason Wood, Director of Internet Services, The Salvation Army National Headquarters and Eric Glader, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2.

Kivi's Non-Profit Communications Blog: Ideas to Boost Your Creativity

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:54:53 -0400

This month at Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we presented a series of webinars aimed at helping you get more creative with your nonprofit communications, including using metaphors and humor. I heard from many people who want to guest blog for me, so you’ll see more creative ideas here in the coming months.

For now, here is a roundup of some recent blog posts to get you thinking more creatively. This roundup is also the August edition of the Nonprofit Blog Carnival.

Creative Uses of Technology

Many nonprofits are contemplating creative ways to use mobile technology. Jason Dick presents Mobile Giving Research and Opinion posted at A Small Change- Fundraising Blog, along with How Does Mobile Giving Work? and Text to Give Pricing.

Gettingattention.org: Open It Up — Engaging Your Base Behind the Scenes

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:10:34 -0400

In an era where even Loehmann’s (THE original discount ladies clothing store w/famously-communal dressing rooms, spent many Saturday afternoons there with my mom as a child) has a Facebook page, you know it’s hard to get through to your network of supporters, much less engage them.

But giving folks a chance to go beyond — whether behind the scenes, after the show or standing in the shoes of – is a great way to do just that. Here are two great examples:

==> Behind the scenes: As a long-ago member of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, I was invited to participate in a behind-the-scenes tour of the entomology (bugs) department.

It was incredibly compelling, and gave me a real understanding of what it takes to find, research and exhibit the incredible shows at the museum. The research side of the institution is something the public is largely unaware of, and this was a powerful way to show how an exhibit evolves.

I renewed my membership for several years thereafter.

Duct Tape Marketing: Creating a Boutique Business

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:57:39 -0400

Creating a Boutique Business

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Sarah Petty (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes

The term boutique is often associated with fashion or beauty related businesses, but it’s a concept that can apply to any business. Case in point is this week’s guest on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Sarah Petty, who by her own designation, owns and operates a “boutique” photography business called Sarah Petty Photography.

Influential Marketing Blog: 5 Ideas From A Global Journey Through Beer Marketing

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:44:13 -0400

It is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities.

When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense of being strategic. With campaigns that seem to change almost monthly and taglines that rarely last for more than a football season, it is easy to dismiss beer marketing as irresponsible spending to promote a high margin product. Is there more to beer advertising than 30 second eye candy and girls in bikinis? Here are a few popular marketing campaigns for beer - along with their corresponding marketing strategy that may yield some surprising lessons ...

1. Be Unique (Red Stripe Beer)

If you have ever had a Red Stripe beer from Jamaica, you know that it has a very unique bottle shape, shorter and stubbier than most others. The bottle sets the beer apart more than anything else, and this fact is brilliantly parodied in this ad featuring their central spokesperson - the Jamaican guy who loves nothing more than celebrating what beer can do with his trademark expression of Jamaican joy: "Hooray Beer!"

Frog Loop: Nonprofits Take a Dive into Mobile Apps

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:29:09 -0400

Kivi's Non-Profit Communications Blog: Can Nonprofit Communications Be Funny?

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:45:17 -0400

I think so, and so does Kerri Karvetski who is our guest speaker at tomorrow’s webinar, Funny Ha Ha! Using Humor in Nonprofit Communications (Wednesday, September 1, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT).

I just got a sneak peek at Kerri’s presentation and it’s loaded with tons of examples to get you thinking more creatively. She also shares five “Formulas for Funny” and some very practical tips, such as

Funny is Hard. Don’t go with your first idea. Keep brainstorming until you have 10 ideas.

It’s OK to Copy. Find something funny that someone else created that’s related to your cause and share that with your supporters. Kerri provides several sources of funny stuff you can pass on, or if you have a little money, that you can customize to make your own.

Commit to It. If you are going to use humor, you have to go all in with the premise or joke.

Duct Tape Marketing: Duct Tape Coaching or Going It Alone

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:55:32 -0400

Duct Tape Coaching or Going It Alone

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

One of my long-term missions is to build a network of small business marketing consultants that are equipped to install the Duct Tape Marketing system and essentially bring an end to all small business struggles.

I admit it’s an ambitious mission, but I love helping small business and so I created the Duct Tape Marketing Coach Network. This growing global enterprise uses our tools, systems, brand and network to create a marketing coaching business and attract small business owners that like the idea of a marketing system.

Duct Tape Marketing: 5 Ways to Make a Database For Your Customers

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:01:49 -0400

5 Ways to Make a Database For Your Customers

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Standard marketing CRM type practice suggests that you should create and supplement a database of customers and prospects with the idea that you build more and more information to use to help build deeper relationships and create additional selling opportunities.

What if you look at database building as a service you provided for your customers? Now, in some cases that might be a good service offering as a profit center, but I’m talking about providing a service that simply allows you to differentiate your business by adding value in ways that your competitors aren’t even thinking about.

RSS, search technology, and a slew of online apps have made the creation and streaming of database kind of content a pretty simple affair.

Frog Loop: Blog Picks of the Week

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:24:18 -0400

After scouring the web, two articles caught our attention this week. Check them out and feel free to share your own picks of the week.

The Death of Facebook
Geoff Livingston wrote a thought-provoking piece this week about the death of facebook.

"Who in their right mind would predict the death of Facebook given its ever increasing dominance? But this is a question everyone asks, 'What’s next?' said Livingston.

Frogloop readers also ask this question frequently. As nonprofit campaigners know, it's critical that we understand what's coming down the pipeline and be nimble enough to redirect some of our outreach resources. Also, don't place all of your eggs in one basket. Check out Frogloop's article "Is Your Nonprofit Too Social Media Dependent."

Duct Tape Marketing: Weekend Favs August Twenty Eight

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:54:11 -0400

Weekend Favs August Twenty Eight

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr.

Image credit: Charles Lam

Good stuff I found this week:

Color Blender – Input two colors and this tool will show you all the mid-point colors created by blending the two – very useful for finding complimentary colors

Duct Tape Marketing: The Most Wasted Page On the Web

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:33:20 -0400

The Most Wasted Page On the Web

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Among the millions and millions of web site pages out there, one kind of page is often wasted space just begging for some marketing think. And no I’m not talking about the About Us page, but it might be close second.

Most businesses online understand the need to capture leads through ebook, seminar and email newsletter sign-ups. Depending on the service you use the technology that drives these forms almost always redirects the subscriber to a success or thank you for joining kind of page. More often than not these pages are default generic pages created by the email service provider and left so by the user.

Allstate’s thank you page gives some nice instruction on what to expect next.

Kivi's Non-Profit Communications Blog: Write Your Marketing Plan in One Day

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:53:58 -0400

I know how busy you are. I also know how much better you’d feel about your communications work if you had a focused, creative, and realistic marketing plan guiding your decisionmaking.

That’s why I’m teaming up with Nancy Schwartz in October to provide a one-day, in-person, intensive marketing plan workshop.

Look who’s already signed up for the New York City and Washington DC events:

a statewide ballet
a watershed protection group
a journalists association
a cultural council
community health care providers
several international cultural organizations
a group assisting people with spinal cord injuries
family service organizations
religious charities
and more.

You can join us too, in New York on October 7 and in Washington on October 28. Plan with us for one day, and you’ll have a blueprint you can use forever.

Duct Tape Marketing: 5 Ways to Get Rockin Reviews

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 09:21:44 -0400

5 Ways to Get Rockin Reviews

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Reviews and testimonials have always been a nice way to offer third party proof that your company does what it says it does and that your customers are happy campers and willing to talk about it. Reviews, however, have become even more important now that local search directories like Google Maps and Yelp! have made them a foundational element for ranking well for local search.

Getting reviews and testimonials on a routine basis takes a proactive and committed approach if you are going to generate them on a consistent basis and still generate them authentically. (Fake or over the top review generation campaigns can actually produce negative results.)

Below are five ways you can look at systematically creating reviews.

Do the reference track

Frog Loop: Bye, Bye FourSquare. Hello Facebook Places?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:23:18 -0400

Facebook who now has over 500 million users, launched Facebook Places, a geo-location service to compete with location apps like FourSquare. In a nutshell, Facebook Places uses check-ins and allows you to see where your friends are and share your location.

Although Facebook did not copy FourSquare’s popular competition features such as the ability to earn mayorships and badges, this is clearly another move by Facebook to try and be the ultimate social network that wants to do everything.

Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: DMA Crowd Slams Watchdogs and Donors Who Like Stars - But What’s the Solution?

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:28:34 -0400

If you work for a charity rating agency, you did not want to be at the DMA Nonprofit Federation meeting this week. Watchdogs were about as popular as canines at a cat convention. First, you had the keynote speaker - Dan Pallotta, author of Uncharitable and a big critic of watchdogs like Charity Navigator and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance. He laid out a provocative, controversial and compelling case for allowing charities to operate like capitalists - paying to get good talent, spending and risking what’s needed to do effective long-term fundraising, and being judged on social value created rather than overhead spent. There was some good thinking there - and some pointed potshots. In the process of making his case, he slammed watchdogs for perpetuating a simplistic focus on how much charities spend on “overhead.” The audience loved it, of course. Direct marketers are labeled as fundraising “overhead” and the less efficient of them have been called out by watchdogs, sometimes with good cause. It was a joy for them to hear “overhead should be dead.”

Duct Tape Marketing: How To Increase Landing Page Conversion

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:19:23 -0400

How To Increase Landing Page Conversion

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing podcast with Rick Perreault and Oli Gardner of Unbounce (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes

Landing pages, those web pages you create and use to entice visitors to take a single action, have come a long way in terms of functionality and use. Internet Marketers have used them for years and with the introduction of services and practices dedicated to the use of these tools every small business can benefit from using highly optimized landing pages. I’ve been on a bit of rant about this topic so see the related posts below for more.

Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: ‘Old” donors give more - so do we stick to the same ‘old’ fundraising?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:32:55 -0400

That’s what everyone is saying at the Direct Marketing Association conference here in New York, where I spoke this morning with fellow bloggers Jeff Brooks, Sarah Durham of Big Duck, Roger Craver of the Agitator and Karen Zapp. Jeff Brooks says people under 50 don’t give enough to merit much cultivation at all. Then the authors of the report, Heart of the Donor, Insights into Donor Motivation and Behavior for the 21st Century, said older donors are the most generous - and they give primarily through the mail.

So should you write off anyone remotely youthful? Forget the Internet for the next two decades? Errr…. no.

The Heart of the Donor study said those in the 25-54 age range tended to give both online and through the mail. Lisa McIntyre says:

Duct Tape Marketing: Mooing On

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:39:36 -0400

Mooing On

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Linchpin will likely not be the last book Seth Godin publishes in a traditional way.

If you live primarily inside the echo chamber of the online marketing world you’ve undoubtedly heard that Seth Godin, author of at least 12 books that we know of, has pulled the plug on the publishing industry by proclaiming that he no longer intends to publish books the way they are traditionally published. You can get the full story on Seth’s blog, from MediaBistro and even the Wall Street Journal.