pimpyourmarketing.com

I just got back from Mexico. Though this entry will be short, I wanted to let everyone know there is some SERIOUS marketing happening south of the border. How else do you get people to flock to a pretty godforsaken desert in the middle of heat, dust, and poverty?

That said, we had an excellent time. The Cabo brand lived up to its name - not because we were interested in partying our asses off (only a little) but because the people all went the extra mile to show us we had made the right choice in choosing Cabo as our destination. And though we would’t have come in any event unless a buddy of ours hadn’t been getting married, we did find the place relaxing, fun and enjoyable (once you looked past the bone dry desert - not at all lush like Puerto Vallarta).

If you go, consider the Cabo Surf Hotel. It’s next to San Juan, which is nicer than Cabo anyway, and is a little slice of heaven. You can read my review here: http://www.tripadvisor.com.

Good marketing gets you to take a chance on a product - or a trip. Then it makes darn sure that the promise of your purchase is fulfilled. Cabo did that, in spades. I was taking marketing notes.

Viva Mexico!

Just when I thought I was toast - and would forever remain one of those stone-age cats who would never figure out this blogging stuff - I got thrown a little bone.

Apparently - Google Analytics is working now.  It took a bit of time to kick in, I guess, but when I visit the Google Analytics site now, it tells me that www.pimpyourmarketing.com is ‘Receiving Data’.

Joy.

But now I’m going to run a quick Google Ad Words campaign (as discussed briefly here) to get the traffic up and see if in fact the traffic spikes in the Google Analytics report. Then, I can rest easy as it relates to this.

So I told you how badly ‘The Hottie & The Nottie’ did at the box-office. What a drag. But I also told you the film wasn’t nearly as bad as the critics made it out to be. Paris Envy, I guess.

But now it’s my job to figure out how to market the DVD here stateside. Generally you start with your forecast of how many units you want to sell. Then you multiply those units by the SRP, or Suggested Retail Price. This give you your Gross Profit. Then you take 15% of the Gross to come up with your marketing budget - reserving another 5% for what’s called MDF (or in-store) promotions, etc.

So if your forecasted sales are 100,000 units, and your SRP is $19.95, you can expect to Gross close to 2 mil. Taking 15% of that would give you a $300,000 marketing budget. That’s the general formula. And it sounds like a lot (and it is) - but relative to the major studios this is a relative drop in the bucket (or especially companies like Proctor + Gamble - which spends tens of millions selling soap).

Now, let’s just say the Marketing Gods would have my soul if I gave you actual numbers as it related to this DVD. But we expect to do well - so we have to spend well. And smartly.

So what to do?

As most good marketers do, we struggled with the ways to spend our budget. We knew we needed a strong online component, so we focused on a mix of traditional banners with a strong Word of Mouth and blog campaign. This constitutes about 30% of our campaign. We then decided to forego print entirely, in favor for print promotions. Paris is so hot with so many mags, as long as we gave away good swag (like signed posters), we knew we’d get coverage. And we have. Then we pointed some similar resources at radio promotions - and again: By giving away simple swag like posters and Hottie & Nottie make-over kits, we’re getting ample radio coverage announcing the release and release date (May 6th, a shameful plug). But there was one more thing:

TV or not TV?

Usually, I’m against spending so much on what I percieve to be so little. TV is a broad approach to a broad market - and though it works great for Budweiser or SpiderMan 2, it’s not the most efficient way to spend a buck, generally speaking (but there are exceptions). In this case though, Paris is such a strong personality, we decided to pick the network she would appeal to most - and do a blitz on MTV for two weeks. A simple 15 Second spot. This came in at about 50% of our budget. Look for it.

The jury is still out of course on how any of this will work. Hey, if I knew which 50% of my marketing was effective, I’d be a genius. But we’re covering a few bases and working to spread awareness.

But we all know it’s about more than spreading awareness. It is about creating a conversation. That’s where we’ll discuss blog marketing - and online initiatives in general. Because there are places where this works, and places where you just end up getting flamed.

And people love to flame Paris. So buyer beware.

Out.

So, you think you want to launch the baddest blog in town? Or maybe you have a few posts, and now you want to get the attention of the online world? Beautiful. Let’s consider a couple ways of getting the word out:

1. Standing on top of your desk chair and screaming your URL out as loud as possible. This is especially good in cubicle settings or over intercoms. Getting paged with it in airports is a pretty good coup as well.
2. Reaching out to your network via email. This is especially a good idea if you’re blog is up to snuff and you feel good about the content. Send out an email with a link to your blog and see what happens. I haven’t done this yet because frankly my blog is still in Alpha stage and looks like crap, but this will be something I pursue once I feel confident my peers will get value from the experience. Until then, I’ve got a little work to do.   This can be done weekly or bi-weekly if you have new content, maybe you attach photos from your blog etc that have viral potential (like pics of animals or kids).
3. Digging around for like minded blogs and making comments  on those blogs. If you’re smart about this - and your blog is relevant to the discussion - you can put a link back to your blog.  But people can frown on this if your link really isn’t relevant to the discussion and then flame you, so beware.
4. SEO: Search Engine Optimization. Make sure the pages on your site are optimized for search engines, especially Google. There’s no cheaper way of getting traffic.
5. Google Ad Words: Driving people to your site with paid advertising.
6. Press Release: Sending out a press release to various editors of mags, both online and off.
7. Utilizing StumbleUpon and other social networks: Getting people to talk about your blog and getting it picked up by StumbleUpon is a good thing. EAsier said than done, but here’s a good place to start.

There’s a ton more things to consider (like Twitter for example) but the above represents a pretty good place to start. And no, the list is far from complete. But I’m going to start executing some of these initiatives over the next few weeks, and we can see how they work. Poke around the web yourself as well and see what’s out there. Driving traffic can be tough - but there’s no reason you can’t do it. It will just take time, effort, and most importantly persistence.

Blog on.