QR Codes means Quick Response. I’m assuming you already have seen examples on web pages or in magazines, but these tools have yet to meet the mainstream. How can you use QR Codes as part of a viral marketing strategy?

I will show you how we do it.

Small Box had a lead generation tool called the Free SEO Score Card. Over the year that we ran the program, it helped us land many new clients who wanted to use Small Box SEO Services. Let’s say we wanted to take that same service viral using QR Codes for a limited time.

Want it to go viral? Add that same QR Code to your Twitter pictures, your Facebook photos, make it embeddable.

Want to go guerilla? Put it on fliers, stickers, or on the side of a car.

Never done a QR before? Google is your friend, find an app for your smart phone and try it out. And then call Small Box at 317-254-0932 and let’s come up with some ideas on how we can use QR Codes to build your business.

Now if you have a QR Reader for the iPhone or Android platform, take a picture of the above image and it will take you to the Small Box SEO special. For this demonstration there is a limited time offer, but it captures lead information who would be suitable for ongoing marketing and added to our CRM.

Social Media Demographics Infographic

Overview

This is a fantastic infographic from Flowtown discovered while updating our research on social media optimization. Two things that caught my eye was the age  of Facebook users. 1/3 of Facebook users are 35-54 yrs old?? So I decided to check some facts.

The Data

The data was taken from DoubleClick’s Ad Planner (now owned by google).  Digging a little deeper I found the following statement about the demographic data:

“Ad Planner demographics are generated through demographic inference algorithms that combine third-party demographic data with Google sample data. The third-party demographic data is licensed from an industry-accepted consumer research panel operated according to industry best practices by a full-service research firm.”source

Seems thorough enough for me.

Facebook Stats From Double Click Ad Planner

Then I visited Facebook’s ad tool. Check out the “estimated reach” (of an ad) to 15-34 yr olds and 35-54 yr olds. They show nearly double the  younger users.

Ages 15-34

Ages 35-54

Bottom Line

It’s always important to understand the context. This data set useful for knowing where to advertise to users, which can inform social media marketing, but doesn’t necessarily tell you where to connect with users on a social level. And, in my opinion, advertising and connecting are two different things that are growing farther and farther apart.

Other Resources

There a great blog by Brett Borow titled 10 Musts for Marketing to Women on Facebook.

For more scholarly information about social media/networks, check out Danah Boyd, a social media researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

A value swap is what occurs when a visitor to your website gives you their information for something they consider valuable. It’s not a monetary transaction but can lay that foundation. An example of a value swap would be giving visitors a white paper or some valuable information after they fill out a form with their contact information.

It’s a fine line to walk between giving site visitors enough information to convince them of your expertise while not giving away the farm. A value swap can help create some balance. On our site we have an SEO Score Card that we give away for free in exchange for visitors taking the time to tell us about their website, search keywords they want to target and some other information. These score cards take about an hour to make but they also serve as a valuable sales tool for us. After delivering the score card we are in an excellent position to recommend Small Box services to fix any problems the score card revealed.

Our client Antique Helper gives free antique appraisals in exchange for contact information and this creates auction consignments. Someone wanting to know what their antique Tiffany vase is worth might also be interested in selling it via auction when they find out it’s worth $3000!

Does your website have a value swap? Why not? I would guess every business has some piece of information they can swap. Figure out what that is and start swapping!

I was hanging out on Musicalfamilytree.com, a Small Box project focused on archiving Indiana music and conversations about it, and one of the members, Kevin D. McCollough, used a term I hadn’t heard before- “Fanvertise”. He asked if it was ok to “fanvertise” on the site and then linked to something he liked. Sure, I said, and hey, that’s a really cool word! I did some searching and it appears that it has been used a few times but not much. Right now if you Google fanvertise the post from Musical Family Tree shows up near the top of page one and the comment was just left yesterday. That means it’s not in widespread use in my experience.

So I wrote up a quick definition of Fanvertise and posted it to my Twitter account. Here it is as well:

Fanvertise- when a person or “fan” promotes third party goods or services without direct compensation.

I would consider it a sub-category of Viral Marketing but mostly I just like the word better. Viral has a nasty, sickish sound to it, right? Fanvertise sounds fun and captures what people are really doing.

So how do you get Fanvertising? It is obviously much more desirable than traditional advertising since it’s free and the other is, uh, not. It’s also cheaper than traditional PR since PR agencies can be pricey too. Both advertising and PR are often needed and are usually effective if executed correctly but they don’t have nearly the ROI of real and mostly free (not counting your time) Fanvertising.

I see Fanvertising as a 3 step process:

Fanvertising Step #1. Be awesome at what you do, you cannot suck. You have to have the happiest customers on earth or at least in your industry. In being the best you will give your customers the emotional foundation for singing your praises via every channel at their disposal.

Customer service should be treated as a marketing expense not an afterthought. Happy customers will bring you more customers. This is true in the B2B and B2C worlds.

Instead of focusing on selling your product or service, focus on making your current customers happy. They will then do the selling for you. This is the core of Fanvertising. Don’t think about new customers until you have taken care of your current ones.

Fanvertising Step #2. Be an enabler. Give them the tools to tell their stories, not your story. Your story doesn’t matter that much on its own. It only has really impact when combined with a customer’s story- “I’ve spent years looking for a good carpet cleaning service and now I’ve found it in XYZ Company, check out their website, Facebook page, etc- here. Highly recommended!”. If you don’t have easy ways for your fans to Fanvertise your company then they will most likely move on and not get around to it. Make it super easy.

Fanvertising Step #3. Say “thank you”. Don’t ignore feedback, good or bad, acknowledge it, engage in a conversation if it’s bad, spread it around if it’s good. Remember what the Bible says- “Let others praise you”, just don’t forget to say “thanks!”.

In the brave new world of Social Media there are so many opportunities for Fanvertising. Make sure you are following these three steps and Fanvertising will start growing your business.

Determining what to budget for a new website can be difficult. Many times a company has a “brochure” site from 5 or even 10 years ago and is now ready to build a “real” website. In my experience companies choose a number based on their current cash flow or what they paid the first time around. “If we paid X dollars then we should pay 2 times X this time”. I can understand that way of thinking but I think there is a better way of determining the correct budget for a best-in-class website.

First off the Web and media has changed substantially since that “brochure” site was launched. In the late 1990s and early 2000s it didn’t do much harm for a company to have a brochure style website. But now companies need to see their websites more like broadcast platforms. Often times their website’s content will be accessed as much from third party sites and services (Google Local or Maps, Search Engines, RSS feeds, Social Media etc).

Companies need to think of websites as being similar to radio or TV stations that are broadcasting their content 24/7. Websites are no longer just destinations. They are channels that flow out and across the web in various formats. At least that is what a modern website does. So before you think about what to spend think about how this is not the Web of the late 90s or early 2000s. Heck this isn’t even the web c.2006!

So how much should you spend on a modern website that acts as a broadcast platform?

I recommend looking at your media budget and determining a percentage to invest in the Web . I would recommend at least 50% since it’s pretty clear from all the data that the Web has the best and most demonstrable ROI of any marketing effort. The take that amount and extend it to 3-5 years. If you spend $2000 a month on marketing then allocate $1000 a month to the web times 36 to 60 months.

The beautiful thing about the Web is that you can test and see what works, tweak and repeat until you are seeing a phenomenal return. Every investment takes time to bring a return but with the Web you will be able to see it more clearly and usually more quickly.

Seth Godin writes

It’s a good question, here’s how I would answer:

The web seems really complicated but not to me. I just see it as a series of decisions that require particular expertise to do correctly. The best decision is the one that makes the next one seem more apparent. There is never going to be one person who is right about everything all the time. What’s important in doing a web site, or marketing strategy, or making any series of decisions is to make each one as close to right as you can so the next one is clearer.

We do that by first and foremost attracting the top talent in the region. Then we challenge them to do more, to understand the implications of these important decisions. Then we provide what we hope to be the top level of customer service for our clients.

The results are clear to me, some are big and some are small. I take a small amount of pride in knowing that we are growing while other web companies are going out of business or shrinking. But what I take the most pride above all is the relationships that I have built with those in the box with me, and the way we extend it to our clients. Of the huge number of sites we have helped produce, 99% of them are still online exactly as we launched them.

Key to our growth is the way we have extended our services beyond designing and programming websites. It is a complete array of services our clients need, and some they don’t. That’s the real Small Box difference right there, whatever people think they know about us, there is more.

One of the things Small Box has always prided itself on is our web design services, however one of my goals is to take it to the next level. Done well, design:

• reinforces brand identity
• integrates online and offline content visually
• creates a usable and informative display
• attracts the right audience to your business

All that is to say that a high level design execution is important to the brand of your business. But the process of branding is about much more than your logo and tagline. For many small businesses they only get a chance to focus on this smallest part of their visual identity because of budget constraints.

But Small Box is looking for clients who want to do a complete integration of their online and offline identity with a true brand exploration process. If your website has outclassed your print materials, we want to talk to you. If your catalog or brochure is first rate but your website is not, we can fix your problem.

And if your online and offline marketing materials are not matching up to your competition, not reaching your target audience, or not promoting your products and services the way they need to – well let’s just say we can do it all.

Let the powerful minds of Small Box put our high level designs to work for you, to build your business identity as a leader among your audiences.

Why would you settle for anything less?

I just got back from a week at Disney World with the family. The week before that I was out with the worst case of the flu I have ever had, awful stuff. So it feels like I’ve out of action for a while. Here are some quick observations from Disney World that I wanted to share with everyone. I will spare you my flu observations!

• Retirees- Disney employs many retirees across the board, mostly in public facing roles. They are generally cheerful and seem happy to be there. I have to wonder if the recent stock market downturn has driven these folks back to work unwillingly. If so you can’t tell.
• America still needs to go on a diet and Disney ain’t helping- I was shocked at how many overweight people were walking around Disney, or driving around in motorized scooters as the case might be. This country is still very much over weight. It was really sad to see young families with parents that were too heavy to walk. I’m sure there are many reasons for this, genetic or behavioral, but the bottom line is that as a country we are still a long ways from the picture of health. Disney employees, however, were generally trim and in good shape. Also, the Disney meal plan comes with dessert at every meal. I have to say it felt weird turning down chocolate cake but I was afraid I would put on some serious weight if I actually followed their “plan”. There is an easy fix to help their visitors to be a little healthier. Offer fruit or yogurt as well as normal desserts.
• Love the Fast Passes!- the days of standing in line for hours are pretty much over at Disney. Now you simply go to the ride, get a Fast Pass and then come back during the times on the Fast Pass ticket and practically walk right onto the ride. This works since they only give out so many Fast Passes for each time slot and you can only get Fast Passes every 2 hours but if you time it right you can hit all the good rides at each park and the rest don’t generally have long lines. Made me wonder what kind of business applications this kind of approach could have, maybe for new Apple products…
• Quick review of the parks- Animal Kingdom is the best, best rides and shows, most interesting areas (Asia and Africa seem really authentic but what would I know), lots of plants, animals and shade everywhere you go. We spent 3 of our 7 days there. The Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were our least favorite. The Magic Kingdom just looks dated in many areas and is way too crowded. Hollywood Studios is just not up to par with the other parks. Epcot was fun, we liked the countries. I suggest you find the Tin Toy museum in Japan. It’s a little out of the way but well worth the visit.
• It’s not a small world!- Disney World is HUGE! Not just the parks but all the resorts, Downtown Disney (which is almost a park in itself) and all the water parks and various side attractions. I was continually shocked by the depth of the place. You would go to a resort and it had its own attractions, amazing restaurants, water park etc. We stayed in Old Key West which had a full golf course, a water park with a decent slide, tennis courts, arcade, a couple restaurants, boat rentals, etc. And I think it’s not one of the better resorts after visiting a couple others for dinner. The place is massive, I had no idea. One critique on all this- their signage could be a lot better. We got lost many times driving around the campus. They would often only give you one sign for your resort and then you had to kind of guess the next few turns to get there.
• Disney as a case study- my wife, who is in HR, and I were always amazed at how well run everything was. It was like their 60k employees were all working from the same playbook. They had drunk the Disney koolaid and were happier for it. We never saw bickering or complaining among the staff. They all used the same lingo -”Have a magical day” from the bus drivers to the waiters. The veneer was bulletproof. It felt a little creepy at times but I understood the purpose. I’m sure there are some sour apples behind the scenes but for the most part it really seemed that Disney’s culture was in sync with its brand- they really wanted you, especially the kids, to have a “magical” time.