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911Copywriters Podcast - Episode 2 - Out Now

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The Money Machine: Online Marketing Cheat Sheet




Enjoy! -- 911 Copywriters

EPISODE 2 IS OUT NOW..... CHECK IT OUT....
Secrets of Online Marketing is now exposed......

Launch Of New 911 Copywriters Podcast

The all new direct marketing podcast is now activated to serve you. The show is loaded with incredible tips on how to rewrite your own chapter in Internet history ~!!

911's podcast

Give it a listen!



Enjoy! -- 911 Copywriters


Take note that we are offering some special offers in these episodes. We are also sharing our secrets on how you can best market your services.

Your Online Driving Force

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
As I write this venture capital companies are funding off shore ventures in China and India. There is a dwindling interest in getting behind new companies and upstarts in America. The face of Direct Marketing is changing dramatically as we know it.

Marketing is being re-invented. The communication process between vendor and customer is in a state of overhaul. The core process of how the relationship works is still intact and goes along with textbook definition. But the ways that relationship can flourish are being challenged.

It is getting so precise now where we, (as marketers) can create our own financial realities. It is no longer a crap shoot. We can also eliminate a lot of the steps and the waiting period factors when it comes to making a sale.

It makes the efforts of top marketing legends Dan Kennedy and Jeff Paul seem a little tired. A marketing guy can now topple the search engines in a matter of hours and create sales within 24 hours of making those changes. Instead of printing an ad for lead generation and waiting for those people to contact us and then leaving a message on an 800 number or being directed to a web site….. we can contact them online.

We just have to find out where they are hiding…..

ONLINE COMMUNITIES ARE KEY
My Space is kooky and at times very ugly to look at can offer some incredible tools. It is outrageously popular lately. The other thing is that tapping into online communities like this and inviting them to come into your site is nice. Spam doesn’t stand a chance next to a warm invitiation like this.

Creating your own online community is possible. When you use a service like Podomatic you will create a subscription list. People will tap into your podcast and become a fan. In a typical week I can generate 156 new listeners and subscribers.

The key is to keep on inviting them to new things, new shows, new online messages, new web site updates and so on. You want to keep on inviting them to new happenings. Sales will follow as long as you continue this buying process.

AREN’T SEARCH ENGNIE RANKINGS MORE IMPORTANT?.........
Search engine rankings are important of course. But it isn’t until you start building online communities and relating to them on a 1-1 basis that things start to happen. Marketing maven Joe Vitale talks about how people like to feel special and important. You can do that with customized emails, and database capture and using that information for sales.

Align your site with those who are in your market. You can partner with sites that have a Google ranking of 8 or higher. The Google ranking system goes from 0 – 10, (10’s are rare) and you can benefit from getting inbound links from them.

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

WTF Is Pop Secret Mountain?

The Big Idea Magazine recently had a minor write up on a strange new sensation. The article clamed that http://www.popsecretmountain.com was created from fan generated content. This is somewhat hard to believe because of the high quality of this site.

Don’t get me wrong, this site will strike the newcomer as somewhat odd. But the quality of the mini films on this site are done by a talented eye and handled with fine craftsmanship. The artists who put these together obviously know a lot about video compression, frame rate, lighting and special effects. In short, they are miniature commercials with a cult film like appeal.

The hero is, Kaptain Kat, who has a way of growing on you. I hate to admit it but I found myself going back to re-experience this curious site. Pop Secret of course is the crunchy microwave popcorn snack. Up to this point I never realized they had a cat in a pirate costume for a mascot and found this connection somewhat puzzling.

What this site does though is interesting. It has artwork and cut and paste code for myspace users. It wants you to help it grow virally. That is the one smart thing this site does. The rest of it is somewhat entertaining with its Monty Python type animation.

It’s “user content” however must be staged. You will notice that the video clips on this site are not pumped in through YouTube.com like most viral campaigns. These clips are being pulled in through the server that this site is hosted on.

The other thing to take note of is that even though the animation is television quality they have never aired on broadcast. This all goes back to the narrowcast ideology once again. This is smart because it is saving a fortune of money when it comes to building a brand.

This is cult branding at a root level. And as much as I hate to admit – it’s quite brilliant for what it is doing on this subtle level.

More start ups and new brands can learn from what it is trying to convey. This site delivers too in its quality. I doubt very much that it is fan generated.

This type of thinking can refine a brand and encourage sales.

It’s cutting out a lot of middlemen. This avoids union costs, studio time, broadcast fee’s, airtime space, and wasteful advertising dollars.

Films of this quality can be cut on Adobe Premiere, and compressed into a MOV file.

Getting any ideas?

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

Podcasting: The Secret Backdoor

• 
  
  Getting to the top of the search engines has become a lot easier. In fact, getting into the top ten for whatever field you happen to be in is a heck of a lot easier. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to get what you want – but now you can customize your targets and results.
  
  This can lead to sales. These are not just local sales either – I am talking about going International. This week alone I was targeting American leads but ended up getting orders from Germany, Halifax and Nova Scotia. Needless to say I was somewhat flabbergasted.
  
  Through the advent of podcasting and positioning yourself in the search engines these types of results are typical. This becomes addicting very quickly as you truly become self empowered.
  
  Make sure your podcast plugs your website – and spell it out carefully on the recording so people can find you.
  Position your podcast in three key areas on the web including, podcast directories, blog directories, and Myspace.com.
  Keep consistent.
  
  The podcasts you put together do not have to be very long. 9 Minutes is the longest I have ever gone. After you post your podcast then make sure it gets the right type of promotion.
  
  Don’t be surprised if you are suddenly viewed as an expert in your field. You should note too that 40% of the American population HATES TO READ. SO you should take advantage of that and create your “narrowcasts” to be sales pitches and inform the listener why your product is worth buying.
  
  These can be soft sales pitches. But this is your chance to be conversational.
  
  The subscription rates came in this morning too and I was somewhat shocked. I had listeners and subscribers in Australia, Ireland, Europe and all over the USA. Every day that number grows with people wanting to get involved with my discoveries and take part. I am downloaded automatically into IPODS and connected to new audience members through a growing number of RSS feeds.
  
  My company, “911 Copywriters” will be creating three new lines of podcasts through our brand, MobileCast.
  
  One will be for the Fashion, Beauty, and Culture area.
  One will be centered on Direct Marketing.
  One will be focused on music and the arts.
  
  These will be led by Ted Cantu – co-founder of the Original Ann Arbor Artists Co-OP. The goal of these podcasts are to lock down the audio oriented customer. These are the ones who are stimulated by video and audio only and base their buying decisions on what they see and hear.
  
  While most of us have the tendency to buy in this frame of mind. The listeners to these podcasts will most likely get involved when they hear about something they can relate to in their everyday experience.
  
  If you do not factor in this 40% into your marketing plan you are missing out. Not including audio services for this market can be the equivalent of starting out in the selling game at 60% instead of 100%. It is better to make allowances for this elusive group.
  
  The best part about it is that it really does work.
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  Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.
  
  

Recent Jackpot Shatters All Doubts

By the time you read this it will be all over the news. Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, creators of www.youtube.com have cashed in their enterprise to Google. The giant search engine company paid a reported 1.65 BILLION dollars.

The next phase of whats to come should tantalize even the hardest cynic. Enter the phase of customized advertising by invitation only.

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

The New Blood: Shaking Up The Remaining 38%

As I write this traditional marketers are shaking. In fact, they are trembling. I should know. I am the one who makes them tremble. Instead of forking over 24 - 40 thousand dollars for getting my marketing message out there I have found a back door.

This back door allows me to do something that no marketing company out there can do. I can tap into the missing 38% of the population who make buying decisions from auditory learning only. IN other words. 38% of the population hates to read. They avoid it. I have tools in place right now as we speak that taps into that buying sector.

Why is that important?

Up until a few months ago, companies were gladly handing over $4,000 a month just to cover Google Ad Sense. But thanks to recent innovations with podcast technology and blogging and now vlogging, (video blogging) the whole marketing gambit as we know it has been flipped over on its ear.

Incidently, SEO and SEM is getting a heck of a lot smarter too – and more precise.

WHY PODCASTING MATTERS
I just checked out my subscription list for a new podcast show I developed and found out we gained an additional 24 new subscribers. What makes this even more interesting is that my podcasts were automatically downloaded to users Ipods while they were sleeping. Just going by the search words alone we were able to get picked up in many new “markets”.

“24 new subscribers? WHAT? Big deal…….”

Well friend, it is a big deal when you consider that number is actually higher than the number of unqualified customers we used to generate out of our weekly radio show. In fact, some weeks we were lucky if we got 10 new callers. I would answer their questions live on the air and then they would call me at my home and drive me up the wall, (often asking the same questions over and over again without purchasing anything).

The beauty of what I do now is that I put this marketing message in orbit and invite people to listen to it. This is actually easier then doing things the traditional way and getting sponsors to support my weekly radio show. The old way was expensive. This new way isn’t costing me nearly as much and I have some loyal listeners. I get fan mail too which is nice.

That number is growing daily. Right now there are only 44,000 podcasts in existence. That means its very early in the game and the time is now if you are going to do anything in this arena.

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty.com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

BURGER KING: THE MOTION PICTURE

(Or The Strange, The Fearless and The Brave)

The recent issue of Forbes is a hoot. It just hit the newsstands, its the one with www.Youtube.com on the cover. There is an article in there that you must see to believe. On page 68 you will find a beaming grin of Russ Klein hanging out with the cast of the Burger King stable. The plans he is weaving are…… interesting.

The plans are underway for a Burger King movie centering around a youth who happens to live on top of a Burger King restaurant. The film is an oddball comedy hoping to gain a cult phenomenon like Napoleon Dynamite or an Empire Records.

Whether or not this fan will do a great job of recruiting the “heavy users”, (those who eat at fast food places more than15 times a month) remains to be seen. But they know the niche is out there. That is just the thing a lot of online companies don’t seem to get.

Too many start up companies assume that the market is just going to be there waiting for a new thrill. Burger King and companies like Threadless, (www.threadless.com) understand the power of building cult brands and marketing to them for serious profit.

The customers are groomed and conditioned to buy and to spend more upon each visit.

So is this a wrong thing to do?

That depends on what you want your customer to do. I must admit I find the whole thing somewhat appealing. I tend to alternate my fast food choices when the need arises. But lately Burger King has been edgy with their copywriting, (read the inner notes on the Angus burger wrapper) and check out the smart copy on the soft drink cup.

They also do something smart with their positioning. Dr. Angus is a riot. I like the way he swaggers in front of the screen and takes pot shots at the fat epidemic of America. This is a direct jab at the overly hyped Atkins Diet. Dr. Angus even has his own web sites for the www.angusdiet.com which was still up a few weeks ago.

I have a sense of humor and I do not mind being manipulated as long as there is some humor involved. These guys make me laugh. The food isn’t terrible but there are days when I can surely pass on the fare.

This works better for me than some of the ultra geeky tele-visual offerings from Tim Horton’s. You know the ads where this pencil thin geek goes around haunting every cube within eyeshot and earshot until co-workers give in and go to lunch with him.

Guilt doesn’t work well. Humor sells. I started to go to Quiznos because of the singing dust balls with guitars. Then I found out they had a kick ass pepper sauce that I would have otherwise have overlooked.

Even Dave Thomas from Wendy’s used to lay down a heavy guilt trip. His beef, (no pun intended) was that he laid out all these salads and nobody was coming in to eat them. He had no laughter, no smiles, he was all gruff about it, as if to say, “get in here and buy my stuff”.

That is a tactic that rarely works. Nobody owes you a dime just because you declare yourself a business. Its all about the customer. That goes for any business.

THE CULT OF PERSONALITY
Okay, the phrase fits but it was named after a famous song in the 80’s. You get the drift. So will your customers if you play it right. The customers are the ones who will call the shots in your company. If they start to buy differently than you expected then you need to tailor your delivery and adjust to their buying behavior.

Example: I built www.windsorbeauty.com and we are the S.E. Michigan sellers of the incredible Schwarzkopf hair products. But when the cosmetologists arrived to the site they didn’t use the shopping cart the right way. Instead of getting a password and entering they used the site as sort of an online catalog.

They would call the 800 number to tell the operator what products they wanted. Were they wrong? YES. To me they were 100% wrong but they were still ordering. So we had to make adjustments and accept that this type of ordering was a little quirky. That is alright. We are still making money with this crowd – just not the way we expected.

We also had to admit that the customers for this market DON’T READ. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Its just that most of our customers are audio learners. HELLO PODCASTS. We had to create a hip podcast that this market sector would listen to and benefit from. NO BIG DEAL. That is the beauty of online marketing and interactive communication.

You have to adjust to the needs of your customers. After all, they are the ones who are keeping you in business.

Right now as I write this there is a phenom going on called, THE BIG IDEA REVOLUTION and it’s a weekly podcast. This guys deal is that he wants everyone to start thinking big and change the world. Its fun for about five minutes.

I would rather get the guts of how to change and shift customer buying behavior. Things are changing at a rapid pace. This is no time to get cute. We tried that in the late 90’s with the whole dot com fiasco and look what happened to our venture capital firms – they suddenly got cold feet in the early 2000’s and started funding offshore business ops.

This isn’t the time to THINK BIG.. its time to GET INTELLIGENT.

But back to Burger King, these guys got it right. They are adjusting to their core audience and delivering goods and services that appeal to them and its working. The average franchise now pulls in 1.1 million a year.

What are your customers telling you?

Are you listening?

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty,com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.

The Age Of Ferocious Online Marketing

THE NEW BUSINESS MODELS

I started reading the Chicago Times every Sunday, not because its my favorite city on the planet, but because of the changing face of business. Not everyone “gets it” and as usual…..The Chicago people are on top of these changes and kicking major butt on the online marketing scene. And that’s good.

No it’s not only good…. It’s AWESOME.

There is no comparison to what is happening in other cities. Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of disheartening conversations about the changing face of the Internet. An overwhelming amount of top people who should be “in the know” are still waving banners for Macromedia Flash and championing web sites which are little more than “online digital love letters” to interactive multimedia. They offer little more than digital fluff.

THREADLESS
This innovative t-shirt company had a great idea. First they would hold a contest to see what the people wanted to wear. They had a t shirt design contest for the best artwork and had a vote. The winners were able to sell their shirts online. When the company needed a market they sold the winning shirts back to the ones who voted for them. This is OPT IN customer marketing done to an absolute T.

The result? 18 million dollars of revenue.

How long can this last? Not sure. But one thing is for certain, this sucker punched the t shirt industry and shook the ground of even the most heavy handed cynic.

The three young men who pulled off this miraculous masterminded stunt are barely in their 20’s. The designs for these shirts are what really struck me as odd. Most of them didn’t really have much of an appeal to me. I’m slightly older and from another generation when BIG was in. I go for loud, bombastic, in your face designs.

The designs from Threadless have more of a worn in feel and there are traces of speckled paint and fading colors. IN short, they look like something you may of pulled out of a used bin at your local Goodwill.

Not to come off hard. These designs are BRILLIANT in their simplicity. They surely connect to their core audience. And this is where a lot of businesses fail to succeed. They let the audience gain control over their purchasing choices.

The core audience are the ones who will be buying and wearing them after all. This is where Threadless gets it right – continuously. This business model is all about customization. This is simply outrageous.

But can this type of daring innovaton be copied and perfected? You bet. But it is going to take some finagling to make it right for your market.

What was the word from Detroit? To quote an offbeat advertising hack I met with from the Winchester Group in Farmington Hills, MI………….

“What the hell is an online art director?” he said glumly.

Exactly.

Once again, Detroit, with its narrow minded thinking will most likely be left out of the game.

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Ted Cantu is the creator of Mobile Cast and www.911Copywriters.com he has handled the marketing for such innovative groups like www.WindsorBeauty.com and contributes to several blogs and podcasts such as….. http://911copywriters.podomatic.com. He served as a top rated art director for Interactive Web Marketing groups in Chicago and New York City.