How To Drive Traffic With A Blog

Blogs are different than regular static sites. Although a blog is really just a fancy word for a content management system, therefore it is just a regular site with enhanced and easy editing, a blog has a sense of urgency and "newness." People read blogs because there is a general feeling that the information posted is more current compared to static sites.
This is true when the blogger is very regular with new material and gives people a reason to tune in frequently.
Promoting a blog, I have found, is far easier than promoting a regular website for many reasons.
Because you can create "news" on your blog at the drop of a hat, you can create buzz. Buzz is infectious, produces links from "buzzed" website owners looking to present their visitors with a buzz, and gets you attention that is harder to acquire for regular sites.
You can promote a blog through RSS and get subscribers who would rather use a "podcatcher" (a newer phrase that simply means they subscribe to your RSS feed rather than your email list with a tool like FireAnt http://fireant.com).
People like being anonymous in this over-emailed world of ours. Getting subscribers to a blog via your RSS feed means you are offering a way for the justifiably paranoid to access your material without committing their personal information in the exchange.
So you have another way to promote here as well. Rather than sending people to your opt-in page only, you can grab RSS subscribers on every page of your blog, no matter which page they come through.
Now you can trade links, or trackbacks, with other bloggers in your niche which is a much more highly respected and valuable form of reciprocal linking that Google actually loves.
Having a blog means you can "podcast." Podcasting is making audio and video files available in your posts that can be picked up in your RSS feed by people using places like iTunes.com to find multi-media content. This is a MASSIVE new open market of people really getting into iPods, especially the new video iPods, and seeing what their new gadgets can really do. By creating an informative how-to video and podcasting it from your blog, you can get listed in iTunes and other podcast directories that are practically empty on many niche topics right now!
These are things you can do with a blog that you cannot do very easily or at all with a static site.
Don't forget that there are other directories only bloggers can promote in. Directories like Syndic8.com and Daypop.org are only open to bloggers with RSS feeds. While everyone else is working down in the trenches on their one-dimensional static html site, bloggers can enjoy promoting their sites in far less competitive areas with extreme amounts of traffic flowing through them.
In short, a good blog with the right plug-ins will give you marketing power I wish I had when I was starting out. My blog would be 7 years old this year and would have an archive section a mile long with content syndicated all over the web established over those 7 years! This time next year you are definitely going to wish you had started your blog today! Especially when you consider the vast potential of audio and video podcasting and syndicating your content easily through your feed to places that only accept bloggers. Static sites need not apply!
Written by Jack Humphrey

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Package Design Show Helps With Consumer Connections

The Packaging That Sells conference features advice from brand owners, retailers, designers and others on packages that “pop”.
Making a connection with the consumer in a few seconds is one of the main goals of effective packaging design. Helping packagers reach that goal is the purpose of the Packaging That Sells IV conference, to be held Nov. 1-2 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
Sponsored by BrandPackaging, a sister publication to Food & Drug Packaging, the conference’s theme is “Power Your Brand Through Packaging.” It will feature advice and shared experiences from representatives of some of the top names in consumer goods, including General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline and Procter & Gamble.
Packaging That Sells will be co-located with Pack Expo International, North America’s largest packaging-related trade show, under a location agreement with the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). Pack Expo will run Oct. 29 to Nov. 2. This union brings together the packaging industry’s biggest trade show and the hottest conference for brand marketers and package designers. Packaging That Sells attendees receive complimentary admittance to the Pack Expo show floor.
“While Packaging that Sells IV is entirely self-contained within McCormick Place, our co-location with Pack Expo adds value for our marketing and design attendees, paving the way for them to explore the realm of brand packaging with their more technical counterparts,” says Harry Stagnito, president of Stagnito Communications, the publisher of BrandPackaging and Food & Drug Packaging.
Those who can benefit from the conference include brand owners and marketers, vice presidents of marketing, package designers and developers, directors of new business development, retailers, packaging suppliers and more.

The keynote address will feature Dan Pink, author of “Free Agent Nation” and “A Whole New Mind,” talking about how to inject “right-brained,” creative design thinking into an organization. Other topics will include: how to reinvent private label brands; how to design packaging to increase usage; how to measure and enhance the value of new packaging innovations; conducting a retail design audit; marketing to children and pets; sustainable and otherwise “green” packaging; and brand nostalgia.
Other presenters will include:
Todd Woloson, CEO, Izze Beverage Co. By establishing a simple yet beautiful design, Izze has enjoyed triple-digit growth since its founding in 1992. Woloson will give Packaging That Sells attendees a rare look into the workings of this skyrocketing brand, which is taking on the cluttered beverage market and winning over discriminating consumers with its model of simplicity and transparency.
James White, senior vice president, corporate brands, Safeway. Safeway is well on its way to reinventing the way that retailers view their proprietary brands. And White is leading the effort with the retailer’s O Organics line, which has been designed and is being managed as a consumer packaged goods style brand within a major retailer.
Shelley Gunton, top dog, Castor and Pollux Pet Works, and Craig Ostbo, principal, Koopman Ostbo Marketing Communications. Case studies with Petco and PetSmart, two of the biggest names in pet product retailing, will reveal the particular challenges of marketing a product whose “consumers” can’t talk, much less express packaging preferences.
The Big Moo panel. The Big Moo, a book edited by Seth Godin, features 33 leading marketers’ views on what it takes to be remarkable. Five of those authors will participate in a lively panel discussion that examines “the remarkable” in brand packaging from each of their diverse viewpoints.
Jay Gouliard, senior vice president of packaging development at General Mills, brings a legendary career’s worth of packaging insight to the mix. Donna Sturgess, vice president of innovation and strategy at GlaxoSmithKline, leads an innovation practice for GSK’s consumer business. Dean DeBiase, CEO of Fathomonline, represents the interface between the Internet, the brand and the package. And Jackie Huba, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists and the upcoming Citizen Marketers, will bring her noted perspective on word-of-mouth marketing and customer-created content. The panel will be moderated by Julie Anixter, chief marketing officer of the laga design studio and Big Moo co-author.
Keith Wilmot, director of sales design, Pfizer. When Pfizer introduced a club-store size bottle of Listerine, sales grew by double digits. This case history will tell how packaging improvements like a built-in hand grip and larger cap drove sales by encouraging use.
Julia Townsend, executive vice president and general manager, Kayser-Roth. Kayser-Roth decided to introduce new product categories, an updated look and a new brand voice to its No Nonsense Pantyhose. The company passed up traditional advertising in favor of making a connection with consumers through key product “touch points,” including the Internet and packaging.
Scott Young, president, Perception Research Services. Brand marketers find it more important than ever to cost-justify the packaging changes or improvements they recommend. Young will share key principles of successful packaging innovation and discuss how consumer research can be used to identify opportunities and determine if new packaging systems are likely to have a positive financial return. The presentation will share research findings, case studies and “lessons learned.”
Written by Pan Demetrakakes

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2006 Best-of-the-Best Marketing Sites

Ten sites that all marketers should know well.


Alacra Industry Spotlights (Finding Company/Industry Information)

Until 2005, the information found on this site was restricted to subscribers but now it’s open for everyone. What will you get? Informative guides and advice for researching over 40 different industries. The listings and details are impressive and should be a first stop for those not sure of how to begin researching a particular industry.


ClickZ* (Internet Marketing)

Internet marketers’ top news and information site continues to produce useful how-to articles, industry news, statistics and much more. Whether you are a website marketer or advertiser, check this site out on a regular basis to keep abreast of all that is going on in the online marketing world.


CMO Magazine (Marketing Publication)

Chief Marketing Officer Magazine does what many business magazines and specialty marketing sites do not – they allow free access to excellent articles. Since its launch in September 2004 the site has offered articles from its monthly magazine as well as regularly updated marketing news, blogs, webcasts and other features. Let’s hope the site doesn’t go the way of the other business content sites and remains freely accessible. (Update February 2006: Well maybe I should have said that I hope it doesn't go the way of other good sites and close down! Yes, it looks like CMO Magazine published its last issue in January 2006. While old articles are still accessible, the site is no longer producing new content. That's too bad because they did produce high-quality work. Maybe they should consider dumping the print format and resurrect themselves as a web-content site. PC )


Google Analytics (Website Metrics)

Marketers would be foolish to undertake online marketing without having access to website traffic information in order to learn how visitors reach and navigate their site. Over the years there have been many companies offering free website tracking programs. Most of these were advertising supported and provided very basic tracking data. Google Analytics takes the free web reporting to a new level with an extensive array of information items. While the service got off to a slow start when it was first introduced (i.e., too many signed up and overloaded the system), once it is up to speed it should serve as an indispensable tool for small-to-medium sized websites.


MarketingExperiments* (Internet Marketing Research)

How much do you expect to pay for good research designed to improve your online marketing? How about zero, zilch, nada! MarketingExperiments’ unique proposition is to offer results of real controlled testing they conduct on the web. Experimental topics have included setting product price, designing PR news releases, search engine advertising and whole heck of a lot more. Results of their work can have immediate impact for almost any marketing effort.


Pew Internet and American Life Project (Internet Research Reports)

This is another excellent site for getting the results of Internet research studies. While the main mission of this site is to look at the Internet’s impact on a wide range of American activities, a good third of their frequently released reports cover topics of interest to marketers. The reports offer great insight on how people use the Internet and what it means in their everyday lives.


Research on Research (Market Research Design and Methods)

For anyone involved in serious market research this site offers a collection of over 60 articles on topics ranging from A (analysis of variance) to W (weekend audits) with lots more in between (sorry nothing yet for X, Y or Z!). Access does require registration (and probably being added to a mailing list) but the information gained is well worth the effort.


Trendwatching (Idea Generation and Market Trends)

This may possibly be the most interesting new site we found in 2005. The concept: identify and give meaning to emerging trends that could be of interest to marketers. While the stories are sometimes a little over-the-top, they are generally well-written and, best of all, provide insight to trends happening around the world. While these guys may find it challenging to identify new trends each month, so far the job they have done is first-rate.


WebmasterWorld (Internet Marketing)

While the name may imply this is a techie site, the fact is WebmasterWorld is also one of the best places to learn about Internet marketing. Within this forum site, are loads of great tutorials, ideas and insights into getting the most out of an online marketing effort, and especially search engine marketing.


Wikipedia - Marketing* (Marketing Basics)

Back on the list for a second year, the open information Wikipedia continues to develop into a very good marketing information source. It biggest strength lies in offering definitions to a large number of marketing terms.


* Denotes 2005 Best-of-the-Best Marketing Site.

Courtesy http://www.knowthis.com

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