Marketing Maestro: August 2008

Last week was great!  There were 5 highlights that made my week!  Each is related to social media and search marketing (SEO).  It felt as if a lot of hard work was really starting to pay off. Let's start with the #1 highlight of my week:

1 - Google Search
Friday I get a call from a woman who mentioned that she found my phone number after searching Google for Trump and Tax Liens.  I have been working on my own personal SEO for a while now, but never thought I would be part of a result for Trump and Tax Lien.  For all those who say SEO is not worth the time or money I say think again.  After directing this woman to the correct person she learned about some of our other training (she had no idea existed) and is probably going to enroll in a program.

2 - WSJ and SEO
We posted a blog to the Trump blog titled Accidental Landlord-How Does It Happen?. Based on an SEO recommendation we changed the original title.  Wouldn't you know it but the next day the WSJ ran an article with almost the exactly same title.  How is that for timing?

3 - LinkedIn and Trump U Client
As much as I enjoy social media connections I do try to consider the connection request before accepting a new connection.  To me it is not about how many "friends" I have but the quality and usefulness of the connection. Last week one of our clients sent me a request.  I didn't know who they were but they took the time to explain who they were, why they wanted to connect, how they found me etc.  I accepted the connection and started a dialog.  This student was attending a training in San Francisco so I reached out to the instructor and asked that they make a connection.  This student was very happy to receive the extra attention and sent me a follow up note with valuable feedback about her training.  This once again proved that social media does have a business purpose.

4 - Found New Resources
Twitter is another social media site I have been using.  Based on some of the relationships I formed by following and reading content I hired one of my "social media friends" to help us with a few projects and have been exploring and talking to a few others.  Social media does work if you contribute interesting and useful content.

5 - Active Rain and Blog Commenting
Just last week one of our clients who uses AR posted a blog and mentioned our training.  I of course took the opportunity to comment back and initiated a dialog.  The client then responded back.  A perfect example of successful relationship marketing using social media.

Big Take Away (in case it wasn't clear)
Participate in social media.  The time spent will help grow your business and build your reputation.

Do you have any social media success stories you want to share?

What does the price of gas have in common with the price of postage stamps?

Not much, but when the price of gas goes up $.01 it costs the post office around one million dollars.

What does this mean for direct marketers?  Well, since we can't control the price of gas we need to prepare ourselves for a postage increase next year.  Another increase is expected in May 2009, with the amount to be announced in February.  Don't worry just yet...any increase will be limited to the rate of inflation.

The US Postal Service recently posted a $1.1 Billion loss for their 3rd quarter.  A portion of this loss was blamed on higher fuel prices along with a number of other reasons having to do with mail volumes and the economy. You tell me will we pay more to mail a postcard next year?

If you use direct mail to market your business you should keep mailing (assuming you generate a positive ROI on your efforts) and start thinking about how another increase will impact your marketing efforts.  How can you reorganize your marketing plans to maintain your current mail volumes? What other marketing channels produce an acceptable ROI?

Let me know what you're planning to do if the price of postage goes up again.

The house behind mine was torn down and is in the process of being rebuilt.  Forget the extra large house being put up that doesn't concern me at all but the owners yesterday cut down about 50 feet worth of trees (the property is 210 deep) which were each 50 ft+ tall.

Call me what you will but the site of seeing the land next to your home basically deforested is sad.  Especially in today's environmentally friendly climate I would have thought that town's had rules about cutting down trees.  The owners barely left a signal tree standing and they are not done yet.  The trees still standing have red 'X' marks sprayed across the tree trunks.  Trees require almost zero maintenance and have many benefits.  Why cut them down? We bought our home because as the previous owners said it was 'tree beautiful'.

My guess is they are going to put in some sort of pool or sports court. To each their own I guess.

I think I will plant a tree in their honor when they move in as a welcoming gift...

Melissa Campanelli, Editor-in-Chief of eM+C Magazine recently interviewed me about Trump University's secret to online success.  We covered a number of interesting topics including multivariate testing, behavior targeting and social media. You can read the interview online. If you are marketing your products or services online it is worth checking out their site and considering a subscription.

I am happy to answer any AR member's questions about anything covered in the interview just leave me a comment and I will do my best to respond.

Enjoy.