In working with entrepreneurs, one of the challenges I repeatedly come across is the marketing of innovative products on a shoe string budget.  The challenge is that the massive marketing budgets of years past have literally wired consumers into certain ways of thinking and the only way to really undo that is to massively market your idea.  That is unless someone has already planted the seed for you.

To illustrate the point, I’ll use the topic of household laundry.  As a guy, I’ve been wired to use hot water and bleach for anything that looked funny or smelled funny.  Of course, that strategy is only for white clothes but that hasn’t kept me from razzing my Mom that I put bleach in with my colored clothes.    Best of all, bleach is cheap and you can literally buy it on any street corner.  Then came along three scientists, Dr. Hannah Howard, Dr. Erin Miller, and Dr. Rachel Williams, who figured out that a sodium percarbonate, Na₂CO₃•H₂O₂ to be exact, would do a better job and was safe with colors.  Yeh, let’s explain that to the world!

Marketing this to the world was not cheap!  You and I came to know the product by the brand name OxiClean through the company’s late spokes person Billy Mays.  They spent millions in infomercials and obviously had great success.  The challenge that many entrepreneurs and inventors face is that they don’t have the budgets nor the marketing knowledge to take their idea to the heights of OxiClean.  Still, there are things that they can leverage.  One of them is mainstream television.  Whether it be the news or a sitcom, someone has likely discussed the topic of your invention and this can be leveraged through online marketing and social media in a cost effective manner.

The Costanza

George Costanza and his whacked out parents were arguably the characters that made the epic sitcom Seinfeld the hit show that it was.   His antics were not only hilarious but they were memorable.  One of the most memorable episodes for me was the one about Costanza’s exploding wallet.  Basically, George had this huge wallet and the episode centered around everything he had in it and relevant topics like back pain and organization.  Unfortunately, YouTube has the embed code for this video disabled but you can view it here.

This past year we were introduced to an inventor who was looking for ways to take the marketing of one of his products to the next level.  The product is a mans wallet that is thin by design.  It is called the Savvy Caddy.  Though his initial efforts with the product have done very well, he was specifically interested in connecting with consumers looking to solve a problem that weren’t necessarily aware of the thin wallet category.  Some problems that men have with their wallet are disorganization, the destruction of magnetic strips on credit cards, cracking credit cards, and back pain caused by sitting on a large wallet.  Ironically, the inventor, Alan Beckley was not a Seinfeld fan.  Of course, during our first meeting, I said, “Well, we already have your spokesperson and it won’t cost you a dime!”  Of course, I was thinking of George Costanza and the Seinfeld episode.

Creating The Problem

One of the biggest challenges product marketers have is getting consumers to realize a problem and make a connection between their product and the problem.  We as consumers live within the realities of the past and are often quite fine with what they subject us to.  Our elevators still don’t have “Undo” buttons and every time we fill up our cars we go through the ridiculous exercise of unscrewing the gas cap.  Still, until the problem is clearly created in our mind, we will continue on in life without the urge for a solution.  Mens wallets have been a problem for a long time.  Yet, it took a 1/2 hour episode of Seinfeld to truly create the problem and you still don’t see men associating their wallet with their back problems.  Thus, a starting point like “the Costanza” will not make your product fly off the shelf but it does give you a launchpad for an online marketing campaign that cost millions to create and will not cost you a dime.

Summary

Not every inventor will find a perfect match like “the Costanza”.  Still, it is worth while to look at television and even stand up comedy for simple launchpads that could make sense for your product.  If they don’t exist, you might be able to find a local comedian or actor to help you create a short video that you can use on YouTube to get the ball rolling.

In full disclosure, I am writing this post with my wallet sitting on my desk next to me as it has gained some weight this week.  I’m actually about to call Alan and order a wallet!

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by Jerod Morris (@jerodmsf)

It is on nights like last night when I am most glad that Mavis Beacon taught me typing.

I had the pleasure of going to the monthly meeting of the Social Media Club of Dallas last evening where the guest presenter was John Jantsch, one of the most influential marketing thought and theory leaders for small- and medium-sized businesses. It just so happens that the majority of our clients are small- and medium-sized businesses, so I knew immediately that this would be a most beneficial use of a Thursday evening.

Because I wanted to be able to share what I learned with you (and so that I wouldn’t be distracted by the baseball scores on my iPhone) I decided to put my super-warp-speed-barely-look-down-at-the-keyboard typing skills (thanks Mavis!) to good use. The fruits of my note-taking labor are below, cleaned up a bit from their original form so that they make some semblance of sense.

If you have any questions about the notes or want an idea expatiated further, feel free to leave a comment, email me (jerod [at] orangecaster [dot] com), or go to John’s Duct Tape Marketing blog.

You will also want to be on the lookout for John’s new book, The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself [affiliate link to Amazon], which I got an advanced copy of and which John was nice enough to sign.

First, here are the slides John used. Then, my notes are below.

Update: You can also read my other post from this morning, over at How-to-Blog.tv – “4 Lessons for Bloggers From John Jantsch’s Referral Engine Presentation“

Continue Reading…

When Jerod came to me as a new employee with the idea of creating a sports blog so that he could have a testing ground for his passions around both social media and SEO, I said, sure.  What is amazing is that this blog has grown from an experimental project to a heard voice in online sports.  18 months later, the site has accomplished more than either of us would have imagined in our wildest dreams.  With Jerod’s leadership, this sports blog dedicated to Midwest sports has reached the 2 million page view mark, has over 16,000 total pages and 3,614 hand written posts, was in the Top 100 most popular sites on Digg.Com for February of 2010, has been featured on ESPN, referenced by hundreds of newspapers, featured on the front page of The Huffington Post, and has more front page appearances on Digg for this month than Yahoo Sports, CNN, and ESPN.  In 2009 it broke the Top 50 sports blog list.

MidwestSportsFans.Com has been hitting on all eight cylinders ever since the Spring of last year.  With only 6 months of traction as a blog on the Internet, Midwest Sports Fans was a prominent source of Internet information for March Madness 2009.  The single highest source of page views on the blog was last year’s March Madness preview post having over 60,000 page views.  This weekend, Jerod set out to break records as he posted the March Madness 2010 preview post on MidwestSportsFans.Com.

March Madness is always a crazy time of year and it is evident from the search and interactivity online.  I’m excited about our preview coverage on MidwestSportsFans.Com and am looking forward to keep with the content that Jerod creates!

Jerod congrats on your accomplishments with Midwest Sports Fans and at Orangecast!

(Oh, and did I mention that in 18 months he went from “employee” status to having an equity stake in the business?  The power of blogging. . . .)

I just recently wrapped up a project for a client that is launching a new silk bridal bouquet business.  When I took a look at the project, I immediately new we’d be teaming up with Carol and Joe over at Prism Web Media as this type of site was right up their alley.  What was uncertain was how I’d go about positioning the site from an online marketing perspective.  That is when I decided to check out the competition.

There are certain industries that are notorious for having terrible websites.  The wedding industry IS NOT one of those industries.  That is why when I got out and started looking at the silk wedding flower sites, I was shocked as they were terrible!  Though I don’t have near the eye or experience that web designers like Prism has, I do think like a marketer and am going to share 4 key points to any online product site:

Represent The Experience - If you are selling sporting tickets, make your clients feel like they are in the stands.  If you are selling wedding goods or services, have a site that is representative of the event and the emotions.  Take a hard look at your site and ask yourself if you are happy?  Does it represent you in the industry.

Show Off Your Products – If you are claiming that you have great products, then show them off with high quality pictures that capture the product in context.  This is especially true when you are asking someone to trust you since they are buying online and can’t walk into your store to evaluate them in person.

Busy Sites Are Confusing Sites – Each of the sites I looked at in the industry had 25 things taking place on the front page.  Sites should be complete providing product information, product catalogues, testimonials, and more.  Still, it all doesn’t have to be on the home page.  Give your visitor a peaceful experience and get them to your products with ease!

Don’t Chase Away Potentioal Customers – Of the sites I visited, many of them had auto play music and videos as well.  Let’s see here. . . .when do brides “to be” shop?  While they are at work!  If they hit your site and music goes off when they hit your site, they are going to hit the back button as quickly as possible.  Don’t do that!

At the end of the day, I am a search and social media guy and do not pretend to be a designer.  However, I have a life on the other side of the equation as a consumer.  Take a look at your website.  Does it do what you want it to?  Orangecast site has some short comings.  We know it and it is on the priority list.  If your industry or competition has poorly designed sites, capitalize on it!