(Part 2) Best products from r/marketing

Hey bud, it can be hard starting fresh on any new project (it's also my favorite thing in the world). I'll try my best to help you get the ball rolling!

Who is your target demographic?

This is the best place to start. Try to visualize your perfect customer. Seriously! Write out their exact age, gender, hair color, etc. Even give them a name (John, Jane?). Now, no matter what you do, that is the person you want to attract with your marketing strategies.

When you're planning a campaign, ask you yourself, "Would John/Jane go for this?"

It sounds dumb but trust me, it works.

What does John/Jane like to do?

It's important you know your target demo's likes/dislikes (for obvious reasons).

Let's say your target demo is Jane Doe, a 56 year old woman who has just started planning her retirement (a little late for that, I know). Let's pretend she's a secretary at a school and spend a lot of time on Facebook. Well, did you know the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is 55+ females? You could create a Facebook page for your financial institution and advertise it to only women above 55 years old that have listed interests such as "retirement planning" or "retirement". As for Facebook content, maybe you post finance tips a few times a day and soft-sell your services every one and a while.

Start planning!

Even though I don't know much about the business, I'll give you some of my ideas.

It's a finance institution so I'm guessing you're targeting 45+ to people about to retire. Mostly men, right?

For social, focus on Facebook and Twitter. Create a Facebook page, post 80% useful content (like the "tips" I talked about before) and 20% soft-sell your business. Start doing the same thing with Twitter (don't post the same stuff though). Use Twitter as a listening tool. There is an awesome "Advanced Search" tool that allows you to search for keywords and narrow it down by location. This is amazing for local businesses. You can type in "finance help" or "money help", narrow it down to users within whatever city, and instantly find people who are asking for your service.

Also, look into Facebook advertising like I mentioned before. Great way to hyper-target your demo.

Once you have a bit of an audience, start to think about Webinar's. They're a great way to provide tons of content to your audience, answer their questions, and provide a call to action at the end.

Start a blog. Focus on local keywords (i.e. "miami financial institution" instead of "financial institution"). If you don't know anything about SEO, here is a good starting point. Then watch this video.

RESOURCES

• SmartPassiveIncome.com
  
• Moz.com
  
• SocialMediaExaminer.com
  
• Likeable Social Media
  
• Anything by Seth Godin
  
• YouTube videos on how to use Google Analytics
  
  I threw a bunch of information at you so if you have any questions or need any more help, let me know! Feel free to DM me.

In theory any company can create a compelling and active Facebook page but honestly, there are just some things that are more interesting than others.

I happen to have an easy target market for FB: Women ages 25-50 in upper incomes who love fashion, family, and parenting.

If you had an an insurance company it would be a lot more difficult to find compelling shareable content that relates to insurance. So what you have to do is the "Jab, Jab, Right Hook" where you appeal to other things your target market is interested in and then for every 5 jabs (shareable content) you right hook them with a call to action in regards to your specific product.

For example, your non-profit could start to tug on heart strings by showing the people who are getting help by the grants. Tell stories about how your non-profit benefits others. Share other non-profit stories in your same genre. Post articles about the different areas your non-profit focuses on.

Facebook is like a great big cocktail party and you want to be the the most interesting and compelling person at the soiree.

Dude nice blog.

Also for airawear........ I NEEEED IT

but it looks too good to be true.

Like the more complex something is the more ways it can fail.

Like im sure Im gona be stoked when I get it but for how long?

Wires and circuits being flexed all the time under the weight of my body

Batteries being scrunched up by me and overheated by my body heat and being covered with layers. What if it goes all samsung on me WHILE IM WEARING IT! Its like a really shitty suicide vest.

Whats the basis for the "massage" exactly? Is it just a derivative of the mall massage chairs that only massage the lattisimus dorsi? If so while yes it feels great but is it actually based on medical science massage disciplines?

If you could prove the product has all of these points covered I guess it could be a huge shield for the common curmudgeon responses.

Im a strong proponent of simple and reliable unless absolutely proven to be effective and amazing (ie smartphones). I also strongly also buy things that are "buy it for life".

Thats why for me Id probably get something like this instead

https://www.amazon.com/The-Pressure-Positive-Company-B2/dp/B0010B8CGM

What makes the airawear superior to this little piece of plastic?

Dont sweat it too much. A curmudgeon like me is probably not your demographic anyway


Also I checked out the product vid and id like to recommend a background music

Your vid

background music

Play these 2 at the same time. Let me know what you think. That song is royalty free and i believe only costs 20$

Hey, I think I'm in a sort of similar situation, I recently finished my bachelor in Communications and after taking an analytics course, realized that I wanted to go into marketing research/analytics.

Here's my point of view from several months of exploring different avenues to get to the career that I want:

• I can go back to school for a one year post-graduate certificate, where I will be taught theory and most likely will have to do a 4 months work placement of some sort where I'm not guaranty to actually learn or gain experience + there is the cost of the education (I don't know what your situation is, but in my case it's even more expensive because I am considered an international student).
  
• I find an internship on my own, in a company in which I share the same values with and know would be the perfect learning environment for me, plus there is an opportunity to grow. After that, once you get the internship, work your hardest to show that you want it and you're good at it. Now while doing that, never stop learning about marketing and reading marketing and business intelligence blogs or articles, as well as practice your excel skills if you can. I really feel like the hardest part here is to get your foot through the door. You do have a business background tho, so it should be easier to find an entry-level position or internship in marketing.
  
  I feel like everything you would be learning from degree or certificate where you physically have to go to class would be the same as taking a Coursera or a certification from DMA.
  
  I just found this book too, it's really useful if you want to refresh your memory about excel and see how you can use it for marketing.

Would love to add anyone on Goodreads if you use it too :) [Add me](https://www.goodreads.com/thedoerco
)

• Tested Advertising Method
  
• Ogilvy on Advertising
  
• How to Change Minds is a sales book, but it's got an easy to understand framework to understand how people make decisions that I have found useful for marketing
  
• The Ask Method Gives some great jumping off points on how to ask questions for marketing research, and how to organize that information to make decisions about your marketing and your product
  
• Positioning and Repositioning by the amazing marketing strategist Jack Trout of Disney and Coke, are good foundation reads if you don't know anything about marketing. If you know what a USP is, skip Positioning but I did like Repositioning. I did like Positioning as a refresher of a variety of different concepts that I have read more detailed individual books on.
  
• Integrated Marketing Communications to learn about more broadly how to make all of your marketing communications work together towards a common business goal. The book itself is about using marketing campaigns across different channels (tv, radio, print, online) in a coordinated effort, but it will help you understand how to use email, social, paid ads, and other marketing systems you develop together.
  
  Second Influence. Getting Everything You Can is good if you are basic in marketing, I would not recommend it for people who are more advanced.
  
  If you don't know what a "business goal" is, you need to read this:
  
  
• Scaling Up Every marketer should understand the processes that drive growth in businesses, because you are trying to manipulate those levers with marketing. You can also reverse engineer your prospect's business and explain the gains of your services in the terms of processes that drive their revenue when you're pitching them, too.

I think you need to explore why you would want to get in to marketing a bit more. Others here may disagree with me, but as a seasoned Marketing Professional, I see the career path as a duality; You either enjoy working with numbers (Data Analysis / Market Research), or you enjoy strategic planning with an emphasis on Psychology and Human Profiling.

Being a marketing 'Manager' will come when you garner enough experience. You're not going to get a job out of college as a marketing manager; believe me - they'll want 6-10yrs experience with the majority of your time managing at least a small team of people underneath you.

So - that's for qualifications down the road. What qualities exemplify a great marketer? Like I said previously, it depends on which of the two areas you're looking to get in to. I recommend you take a business or general course in statistics with an emphasis on real world application. It should either fascinate you, or make your brain hurt; or maybe a combination of the two. Once you have that under your belt, I'd recommend taking a psychology course and reading a few books in your leisure time like 'The Science of Influence'. Yes, it's a sales book, but it underlines what sales and marketing both have in common; being able to read nuances, and predicting people's behavior.

Depending on which one of those two areas you enjoyed more (if you enjoyed either one of them at all), I would say then you could venture forward with finding a suitable school, taking on debt for a degree, etc. Hope this helps, PM me with any additional questions you have.

• You need to develop your agency's voice and persona. Interview the founder(s) and management, find out what characteristics they want to project. Then research the agency's target audience. Knowing these two things will help you strike a balance in your content creation
  
• Read this and [this] (http://www.abookapart.com/products/the-elements-of-content-strategy) for great advice on content strategy. You will need to get the agency management to define their 1-3 year business goals, and then review all website and social media content to see how it measure against delivering on these goals. This is a qualitative content audit. Do one of these at least once a quarter.
  
• As for social media, post content that is of value to your target market. Also post your own writing in amongst these 3rd party links. Your blog posts need to position the agency as experts and thought leaders. Take current topics, and give your agency's opinion on them. Be articulate, insightful and brief.
  
• I wouldn't latch onto the fact you're a cloud-based agency as a USP. Most clients don't care about your internal structure, they just want to get the work delivered. Create an overarching story/narrative for your agency, and then craft messages that help deliver the story to your target market. This narrative should play out across all your channels so your prospective clients will see a consistent message. e.g. Red Bull's narrative is their association with extreme sports. If they suddenly posted content on My Little Pony this would be off message.
  
• Think of your social media activity as the beginning of your sales funnel. The most powerful e-marketing tool is still email, so if you haven't already, learn about MailChimp. Your aim is to post content of value on social media and get readers to op-in to your email newsletter list. Once they are in you can use MailChimp to post other content of value to them right into their inbox, and that's where the magic happens. MailChimp will give help you measure open rates and click rates. You can learn who on your list is an active reader and what content resonates with them. MailChimp will let you group readers together, so you can segregate lists and push specific content to them. The more content of value you send, the better picture you have of whether they're a good prospect for your agency. They will move down your sales funnel and eventually, if all goes well, you can pop the question, and they'll be your client.
  
• All of the above takes time

I'd include the referral process when you notify your current loyal customers of sales. You could give them a specific code to share so that you can easily track who the new customers are. Check out Banana Republic or J Crew's email marketing for an idea. Their best offers are always called friends and family sales, giving their customers the idea to share before they even read the offer.

You basically need to do two things here, make sure you are maximizing your customers CLV(sounds like you are) and make sure they see enough value in producing a referral to your company. Value could be even better sales, one time group offers, reward points, free shipping, or an offer from another company you associate with(think a complimentary product).

Also read The Referral Engine by John Jantsch

What kind of marketing will you be doing?

There are a lot of good resources out there. I've been in some marketing role for the past 10 years (developer working in support of B2B marketing, B2C/e-commerce, currently B2B targeting large corporations) and depending on what you are doing I could help point you in different directions.

One thing you have to figure out is how metrics driven you will be. The past few years have shown a big shift from marketing for marketing's sake to true measurement of performance (i.e. ROI).

There is a great book called "Marketing Metrics" that talks all about this. There's another good web site, MarketingNPV.com that talks about marketing measurement.

While that is at a higher level (in other words, if your boss doesn't do this stuff now it will be hard for you to come in and try to change his mind) you will want to focus on a few other things. Some books that have helped me a lot in terms of general marketing education:

Building Strong Brands - if the role is more brand focused. Obviously doesn't hurt to learn this stuff as growing and updating your perspective always helps.

Copywriter's Handbook - I think this is necessary for any marketer. Learn how to write succinct selling copy. In my experience, learning how to use words well is a key skill in any marketing role. I've used it to write tag lines, brochure/collateral copy, web copy, large PDFs for lead generation, press releases, etc.

Copyblogger - Good online resource. They are very salesy (always trying to push some eBook or webinar), but if you can deal with that there is some good knowledge there.

Good luck! Marketing can be very fun... just prepare yourself, in this industry there are a lot of people who are much better at marketing themselves than marketing their company or product. Fortunately, as more executives and marketers start focusing on measurement of results, these people will be weeded out.

Hope this helps.

VijayAnna, I don't know what stage the startup you're joining is at, but be very careful when choosing what type of content to read. Startup Marketing strategy (Growth Hacking) is nowhere near the same as Corporate Marketing strategy.

As a preface, I'd recommend reading Full-Scale which will give you a good idea of some of the challenges/differences between the two worlds and how to successfully scale a startup using the right data.

Here are three blogs I wrote at my previous company that I tend to share when people want a good foundation to start doing social media marketing:
The Ultimate Guide To Content Curation

How to Use Buffer to Share Like a Social Media BOSS

Three MUST-USE Tools to Optimally Time Your Social Media Posts

Some of my other posts on that blog will also be beneficial when you want to dive deeper into the nuances and "tricks" of individual social networks.

Disclaimer: My previous startup offers digital marketing courses online. I managed their internal profiles and trained/consulted external clients on their behalf. They offer individual courses for FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc that cover everything from beginner concepts (how to set up a profile) to the more advanced concepts (interest-based ad targeting). Check them out at SMMU.com and if any of the courses catches your eye, lmk and I'll see what I can do to get you a promo offer (or better).

Some things to check out:

• The list mentioned in the sidebar
  
  
• This Wikiversity page for a good high-level intro
  
  
• Book: Positioning for brand strategy
  
  
• Books: Influence and Fascinate for consumer psychology concepts
  
  
• Book: The Tipping Point for big how big ideas take off
  
  
• Book: Don't Make Me Think for website usability
  
  
• Website: Hubspot marketing hubs (I haven't actually looked too much into this site, but it looks ok at first glance).
  
  These are just some specific things I've found helpful in the past, and most of them (the books) are related to specific concepts, so keep in mind that there are many other topics that you should look to other sources for. For example, for search engine optimization, there's Seomoz.org. For low-cost marketing alternatives, there's Guerrilla Marketing. For ongoing general marketing tips, there's Duct Tape Marketing or various things from Seth Godin. All things considered, I'd say you should become familiar with the high-level marketing topics (the Wikiversity page), then tackle those topics in more detail by googling around or asking for recommendations on reddit.
  
  Side note: Might not appear entirely relevant to you at this time, but it's never a bad idea to brush up on your Microsoft Excel skills. Many marketing associates (especially in industries related to taxes, etc.) have to deal with Excel a lot, and therefore can benefit from learning optimal/automated ways of doing things in Excel.

Gladly!!

Google is the one of a very few fortune 500 companies without a dedicated VP of Marketing http://www.google.com/about/company/facts/management/

They have seldom run any ads, with only airing just a few for chrome this past year, and one for their search right around the time of their launch.

Most of their advertising comes from the android platform, and is actually marketed by carriers and the device makers, not from google directly.

Co-founder larry page once said "If we've used marketing, we've failed." http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/22/googles-larry-page-once-said-if-we-have-to-use-marketing-then-weve-failed/

They believe that the qualities of their product stand by their own merit (which has proven true), and that if they have to market it to get market share, then they havent created the best product they can. I love Google, but it would be a marketing nightmare to work in that kind of culture. It's a shame because a few smart campaigns showing the integratedness of their products could really help them spread the auxilary services (docs, calendar, etc)

I really recommend reading this book on google if you want to know more, it was a fantastic read.

EDIT: Their sales for adwords is also entirely automated, there is very little selling that google does. Their branding is also very clear, and thus very rigid. They won't be changing anything anytime soon because they dont have to. With their branding the way it is, it would be hard to edge out a new campaign. They have great possibilities, but I don't think they would be a good client.

These are great suggestions. I would add:

• Contagious by Jonah Berger
  
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (it's on every list, and with good reason)
  
  Also, I'd like to give away 5 copies of each of my books for folks here:
  
  
• Jolt – Unconventional marketing that works
  
• Marketing for Developers
  
  ** Edit: looks like all the free books are gone! Hope they're helpful for you folks!

A book that I found very helpful was Groundswell - Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

"Contagious: Why Things Catch On" by Jonah Berger

http://www.amazon.com/Contagious-Things-Catch-Jonah-Berger-ebook/dp/B008J4GQKW/