January 23 and 24, 2009
Friday afternoon began with two very informative presentations. The first was by Public Relations Director Bryan Bjerke of Paulsen Marketing stressing the positive effects of the media for your business. Some highlights were: get to know the gatekeepers -editors, reporters, producers and know their needs and deadlines and get a good understanding of what “news” is. Use a weekly newspaper and local radio stations; if you are in the “Feature “ section be honest--your credibility is very important, don’t exaggerate! Identify your opportunities, events and special days and always invite the media. Find out who reports on B&B’s in your area and make sure they know you are a source for your industry. Find a new angle for your coverage. Use U-Tube with a picture and a story. He said, “Scratch wherever there is an itch!” Determine who you want to hear about you and your industry. Express your passion for what you do…if you have it be proud of it!

Our second speaker was Andy Sernovitz discussing “word of mouth” advertising and making people happy. He discussed the “red envelop” packaging changing the subject from the product to management. He gave the illustration of how people will talk up your business just because you offered something free like phone calls. They become your best telemarketers. Find things you can do to get people talking about you and your business. Give them a fresh reason to talk about you and make it simple: offer blogs, quotes, sharing emails, ‘My Space’ etc. A new love (for or about something) is powerful. Incentives stop word of mouth advertising. Don’t put your money on this principle. He illustrated with the chocolate problem: don’t recommend something normal, it has to be better than good: keep adding“freshness” every 3-4 months. There are three reasons why we need to do this 1) you - the company; 2) ME the talker- who are your talkers? They are regular people that like to be important because it boosts their desire to be helpful, smart, and important: and 3) US- the group that says “I’ll talk about you because I feel like I belong. Then he shared the 5- T steps: 1) Talkers - find people who will talk, 2) Topics - Give people a reason to talk. This is not your marketing message but a story that is repeatable; 3) Tools - Help the mechanical tools message spread; 4) Taking part - Join in the conversation; 5) Tracking - measure and listen. Talkers are not necessarily customers. Heinz Ketchup had a contest to create a commercial so they developed a “tell a friend” form. He suggested putting a “tell a friend” form on your website (its free advertising) or on U-Tube. And make sure no one leaves your place of business without something in their hand--something to share. How do you take part - BE A FRIEND.

We also had a video presentation from Click Rain, Inc. helping companies to look at multi-marketing plan, look at all the pieces of the pie. By the end of 2009 2/3’s of companies will be online. Forty-one percent of internet users use search engines, My Space, E-bay, MySpace.com, Craig List and U-Tube and #7 was Yahoo. On your marketing strategy, the website is the hub of your online marketing efforts. First impressions or image is what gives a clear call to action. Don’t skimp on your website building. You want it to be polished so they will make contact. Make it a no-brainer: put reservation information on each page.
Concerning search engine marketing:
Paid Search - Google, AdWords, Yahoo, NSN, Facebook;
Organic Search - SEO 75% of search engine results page clicks are on organic. Lots of people don’t use paid search, i.e. they would use Rapid City BB
Emails - low cost, highly effective, frequency. Newsletters add 10% increase. Create a filed on your web site for email addresses
Social Media - Become familiar with the mediums, engage where appropriate and blog.
Site analytics - put on your web site so you can see who is coming on, monitor reports, blogs, adjust as needed. Budgets are flexible. Online marketing offers rifle approach vs. shotguns approach so you can allocate costs to the highest return