I’m near launch of a subscription site and am now delving into what rate(s) to charge for advertising on the site . . . really know little about structure of that so any advice would be helpful.

###

Jay’s Answer: An advertiser will care about how many unique visitors you get, where they come from, if they buy from you, their demographics, etc. The more information you have, the more valuable your visitors potentially are to advertisers. To get some of this information, you’ll need to install web analytics (such as: http://www.google.com/analytics/).

As for the value of an ad, it depends on how much you can show how targeted your visitors are and how willing they are to spend $ (and how much).

As for ad rates, here are some articles that you may find useful:

• http://www.workz.com/
• http://www.problogger.net/
• http://forum.abestweb.com/
• http://answers.google.com/

Here in Eugene, Oregon we’re starting a green business network: GreenLane. We need a tagline, and our various members have not come up with anything yet. Can you help?

We want to attract businesses who are either already making strides towards sustainability, or would like to move this direction. They would care about our network because there is nothing like this in Eugene, even though Oregon prides itself in being “green.” They would also care because we will market ourselves accordingly, to attract more business. Because they need help knowing how to become more sustainable, and we will offer resources to that end. Because they want to network with other green businesses to pass business, collaborate, and encourage one another. Because Lane County (which is where Eugene resides), and Oregon in general, will be working towards building greentech clusters that bring more and more business into the area, encourage sustainability, etc.
There are no other such networks in this area. The goal-to bring more business to ourselves and each other and to build sustainability in our region.

###

Jay’s Answer: Try these on for size:

• Better Choices For Your Home
• Not Just A Business. A Green Business.
• Excellence Assured. Naturally.
• Businesses Aligned With Your Values.
• Green Business. Not Just An Idea. Our Core Value.

Scott von Eschen spent his early youth in suburbs of Minneapolis and Chicago. His family’s move to Spain when he was eight years old sparked a lifelong love of international adventure and travel. Scott is a graduate of Dartmouth College where he majored in Geology, leading him to a two year stint as a geologist for a small oil company in Amarillo, TX. Scott returned to Dartmouth for his MBA and then embarked on a 9 year investment banking odyssey in New York, Tokyo and San Francisco where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions. In 1993, Scott acquired majority ownership in Adventures Cross-Country and became President/CEO.

Website: www.adventurescrosscountry.com
Email: svoneschen@adventurescrosscountry.com

Adventures Cross-Country
242 Redwood Highway
Mill Valley, CA 94941
(415) 332-5075 ext. 223

Our small, B2B company is trying to ramp up its marketing, and we’ve given ourselves the challenge of making marketing headway for an entire month without hiring any outside services or incurring any outside costs at all, using our elbow grease alone. We’re open to both old media efforts and online footwork.

###

Jay’s Answer: Before you try to make headway, spend time to figure out your strategy:

• What market segment has been your largest customer?
• Why have they been buying from you (and not your competitor)?
• Who are your competitors now? (things may have changed)
• What have your customers biggest feedback/complaints have been?

Once you’ve gotten clear on who you have been selling to, spend time to figure out (i.e., brainstorm) who else (i.e., other niches) would benefit from your offering. Notice that you might have to change the language of your marketing materials to appeal to them. [Cost $0]

Next, look at your website. Does it have analytics installed? If not, add it (Google Analytics is free). It’ll provide invaluable information about who’s visiting your site, what they’re looking for, how they found your site, etc. [Cost $0]. Once you have data, see what other pages you can add to your site to specifically appeal to the market niches you’ve identified (above).

Next, segment your customer list (CRM). Have you tracked who’s purchased from you, why, when, etc.? Segment your list based on purchase habits, region, industry, etc. This will allow you to make a more targeted e/mailing in the future, talking to the segment’s specific needs. This will result in a higher percentage of sales if you’ve done your homework. [Cost $0]

Get current in your industry. It might mean due dillegence on competitors, reading journals/blogs/books. Talk to customers (call your own, etc.) to learn what products/services they need (both before using your offering and after). Learn what they need. Become up-to-date about new technology, innovations, and problems. [Cost $0]

Write articles. If you have some new offerings, observations about the industry, case studies, or cautionary tales, write about it. Submit the articles to well-read journals in your field. Also place the articles on your website, mention it on appropriate blogs, and submit to article banks. [Cost $0]

Once you have identified your customer’s needs, you need to communicate your offering in language that inspires them to take action.

Both the restaurant and consumer paint industries know this very well.

Here’s some of the offerings from the restaurant at Madrona Manor:

Seared Hokkaido Scallops
Eggplant pur?©e, compressed zucchini, lardo, spicy basil

Liberty Farms Duck
Roasted breast and crisped confit, hazelnuts, summer beans, quinoa

Cart “a Glace”
Ice Cream Sundae, hand-churned tableside with minus 324 degree nitrogen, chocolate sauce, almonds, whipped cream, cherries on top

The key to their mouthwatering copy (for me, at least) is in their choice of adjectives: seared, Liberty Farms, compressed, roasted, crisped, and hand churned.

Studies have likewise shown that people prefer exotic names of colors, rather than the tried-and-true simple names (blue, light blue, sky blue, navy blue, etc.). For example, here are names from Dulux Paints: Japanese Maze, Caymen Lagoon, Sultan Spice, Mexican Mosaic, Peppermint Beach, Fragrant Cloud, Shangrila Silk, and African Adventure. It doesn’t matter that the names don’t convey the color group (red/blue/yellow). They are the names you see when you look at the can of paint or the color swatch and they sound so…exotic. And if you use an exotic named paint, you hope your life is now a little more exotic. (Do you think you know what names match the color? Play the Paint Game.)

So in your next marketing copy, take out the thesaurus to find juicy, emotional, and exotic adjectives that will inspire your prospects to take action (and separate yourself from your hum-drum competitors).

It used to be that only big companies could afford to create a marketing message that was highly visible: newspaper ads, direct mail, television, radio, skywriting, sponsorships, etc. But modern technology allows people to create one-offs inexpensively: email blasts, your own ink-jet printer, local digital printing, or even personal 3D fabricators.

These modern fabrications allow you to more easily create guerrilla marketing messages – putting your message in places people would not have previously considered. Initially, this will be fun and innovative. And as more businesses copy the idea, it’ll become annoying unless the message is well-targeted to the proper audience.

If no one else is doing this in your business niche, lead. If others are doing it, do not simply copy their idea. Do something remarkable. For example, donate to a sponsored charity for everyone that comments on your marketing message. Or, if everyone else is filling banners with lots of words, put up a blank banner with a small message (“Talk is cheap. Watch my actions.”).

Asides:

• Neil Gershenfeld described this phenomenon in a 2006 TED Talk.
• Zazzle.com has a wide variety of products you can customize for do-it-yourself-ers.
• If you need a recommendation for professionals who can help create high-quality custom products at an affordable price, contact me.

Marketing is not yet a science, which means that there’s no guarantee that “if you take this action, you’ll get this result”. You may have a lot of anecdotal knowledge and strong hunches on what will get results. However, if you don’t understand how people react to your message, you are likely to be guessing.

The new field of neuromarketing is attempting to understand how people react to marketing messages. While you can segment your lists and split test, you are spending time (and money) trying to tease out what action produces what reaction.

Buy•ology is similar to Predictably Irrational, which attempts to unravel why people react the way they do to marketing message. However, Buy•ology’s premise is by studying the brain (fMRI and EEG) you can understand how a message gets processed (and by extrapolation, what reaction it’s likely to cause).

While the book doesn’t contain any keys for adjusting your own marketing, it does contain a number of fascinating stories about what works (and doesn’t):

• Graphic warnings about the dangers of smoking actually increases the desire to smoke.
• How product placements that are seamlessly integrated into a show work magnificently.
• How “mirror neurons” cause us to unconsciously want to mimic people around us
• How subliminal messaging can be used to shift our emotional state
• How somatic markers trigger our irrational choices for products
• Why sexual imagery doesn’t always sell
• What religion can teach us about improving branding (feelings of belonging, clear vision, an enemy, sensory appeal, storytelling, grandeur, symbolism, and mystery)