Make Them Laugh 'Til They Buy

 By Hector Cisneros

Courtesy of Workingthewebtowin.com

When it comes to marketing online, everyone is always looking for a way to get a promotion to “Go Viral.” Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.  Out of the four billion videos shown on YouTube on any given day, maybe a handful will catch the imagination of viewers enough to pass onto their friends and family.  Of those, one or two may take viewership to the next level. (I suspect that most of these are cat videos.)  However, the media likes to tout those videos that manage to achieve millions of views.  If you’re looking to catch lightning in a bottle with a new product, let me give you a little history of a couple of entrepreneurs who have come before you.

YouTube vs the Boob Tube

 By Hector Cisneros

Image courtesy Pixabay

If you own a business, you’re always looking for ways to promote yourself, your products, and your services.  One of the most dynamic ways of showcasing all three is via video.  Video allows you to show as well as tell what makes your business special.  It can take viewers inside your operation to get a peek at the people and processes that make your business tick.  In short, video can help you part the curtain that separates prospects from clients by letting them know, trust and like you.  And you can do this in a way that informs and entertains.  Then all you have to do is deliver your message to the masses.

Is Humor Marketing’s Secret Weapon?

By Hector Cisneros

Quirky Humor Courtesy of Flickr

What makes an advertisement memorable? Is it the graphics, the color scheme, or the high-priced celebrities? Is it the guarantee, the amazing claims, or clear and easy to understand call to action? Or, is it something as simple as humor blended into your message? In this episode of Working the Web to Win, we will look at several elements, especially humor and how it is used to make advertisements and commercials memorable? We will explore some successful start-ups who have made it big and we will take a good look at how humor is used in commercials, both past, and present. So, strap on your funny bone and get ready to be tickled pink as we explore humor as a marketing secret weapon.

Lights! Webcam! YouTube action!

Courtesy of  en.wikipedia.org

By Danny Murphy

Did you ever wonder how some businesses have the time and resources to make videos for YouTube and other social media outlets? What is the difference between videos that go viral and videos that are just out there? What does it take to make an effective video for a small business? This article is about the way some businesses are using video as part of their marketing mix. One surprising thing it that production costs are way down and it doesn’t take much to get started. Read and learn from this week’s Working the Web to Win article about businesses that use video and how you can get video to work for your business. These days almost anyone can make a video and put it on YouTube. Millions and millions of videos are being produced, posted, and shared. Here are a few interesting stats from YouTube. 

Is Your Business Still Waiting for the Movie to Come Out?

By Carl Weiss

Courtesy of Flickr

The vast majority of people love watching videos. This is borne out by the rapid growth on Netflix online, Hulu, Vudu, Ultraviolet and other online service that have emerged in the past decade. Large movie  studios and major networks are all scrambling to create a winning online video presence. So, why aren’t small and medium size businesses doing the same?

Going Postal - With Touch Marketing

By Hector E. Cisneros

Many businesses spend tons of money generating leads and finding prospects on the Internet. Internet marketing is the norm today for any business looking to grow its customer base. But did you know most businesses leave more money on the table because they neglect the customers they already have? Touch marketing is the best way to ensure you stay top-of-mind with existing customers. However, providing the right level and frequency of touches can be either a godsend for generating more sales, or a nightmare for scaring away your customers. In this episode, we will explore the do's and don't’s of touch marketing and provide you with a checklist of the best practices so you can keep your hard-earned customers and benefit from selling to them … time and time again.

Is Humor a Weapon of Mass Distraction or Attraction?

By Carl Weiss

The Good Humor logo used until 2000 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the big questions you see marketing people debate is whether humor improves the sale of products or detracts from the sales of products. Even in our firm, we debate this issue. I believe that done properly, it does both. People are always looking for that magic bullet to get an edge over their competition and I should know.  

Being an Internet authority means speaking in front of groups of business people from time to time.  Whether the topic du jour is related to search engine marketing, blogging for business, social networking or the ins and outs of pay-per-click matters not.  What is a certainty is that as soon as the presentation is finished I will find myself buttonholed by someone who wants to know the secret of success online.  It’s as if my dissertation was meant to be an appetizer and the real meat and potatoes of online marketing could only be revealed to those bold enough to corner me after the fact.  “Okay, you got me.  If you really want to generate a million clicks, this is what you have to do...” As much as I wish there were three-magic-beans that could magically transform a stale web presence into a rock star, for the most part there is no such animal.  (As I like to point out to a number of people, I am a technician, not a magician.)