SWOT Analysis - Know Thyself
March 22, 2007
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SWOT Analysis is a marketing term used to analyse a situation, business, marketing campaign or individual. I find this to be an extremely useful thing both individually and for a team.
SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
I’ve whipped up a worksheet which you can use in any of your projects. If you want this particular worksheet unbranded then please email me directly I’ll be happy to remove the branding from the original PDF document.
You can grab your SWOT Analysis worksheet here.
Things to keep in mind when performing a SWOT:
- Be Honest. There is no sense in performing this exercise if you’re going to try to idealize the process.
- If presenting this to a team then give them the weekend to complete the document.
- Again if you’re presenting this to a team then make it anonymous.
- For a team process finally consolidate the information and have a roundtable which integrates the best of the input.
- Consistently going over the process will get everyone into the groove of performing this exercise often. It’s very helpful.
- This is for more than marketers. Distribute it around the company in different departments.
The types of SWOT Analysis I generally like to try:
- Business - analyze the organization as a whole.
- Operational - Be frank about the workings of the company.
- Marketing - this is the most obvious one.
- Campaign - go further down one level to actual campaign, it may only take 30 minutes to complete this document once you’re in the habit.
- Competitive - taking a close look at the business climate and landscape will allow you to constantly be aware of where your market heading.
- Team - if you’re a leader sometimes you may be thinking somewhat differently than your employees. This could be a reality check. Don’t worry though. Reality Checks are good.
- Personal - when going through employee assessments give them a SWOT. It’s insightful to look at yourself and assess your strengths and weaknesses.
The key here from a Marketing perspective and in terms of amanlysing your marketing directives is honesty. At least be honest with yourself.
Great marketing involves failure, remember if you’re a baseball player who bats a lifetime average of .300 you’re going to the Hall of Fame but you still miss 7 of every 10 pitches thrown at you.
Download The SWOT Analysis Worksheet Now
Marketing Lessons | 10 Reasons American Idol Is Great Marketing
March 20, 2007
Why is Vote for the Worst a very solid way to market a niche social networking website?
Why is American Idol a brilliant marketing concept in general?
American Idol is BRILLIANT for embracing Vote for the Worst. To give you background if you’ve never heard of this, Vote for the Worst is a site encouraging viewers to vote for the worst idol contestants.
The site openly criticizes American Idol - did American Idol sue them?
Cease and Desist?
None of the Above. Brilliant. Read on.
Here’s my take on this phenomenon and if you haven’t seen this clip of Paula Abdul on David Letterman then have a peek first:
While you do that, think about the fact that American Idol is not so much about the singing or even the “business” - it’s about connecting to the audience (the customer):
- American Idol has never claimed to be anything more than it is. By the very name American Idol they make the marketing of music very real. Great musicians exist everywhere, but being an “Idol” is a bit more than that.
- American Idol brings the user into the equation, it’s real - everyone knows they are being marketed to, that’s never been the issue. American Idol is honest, performance, personality, bringing users (customers) into the equation - once you do that then marketing can be fun.
- The American Idol franchise is self deprecating. That’s important, especially Simon Cowell - he is an extremely saavy personal marketer. From Ryan Seacrest to the judges to the participants. They really don’t take themselves too seriously, that translates right down to the viewers (the customers).
- They embrace the community especially sites like http://www.votefortheworst.com - on David Letterman the site came up in conversation with Paula Abdul. Did the producers of Idol sue the creator? They did exactly the opposite.
- Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson are extremely good judges. Look at example after example: Jennifer Hudson was never shot down by anyone on the show - the public voted against her. They give great advice for musicians while giving the participants excellent marketing advice. They are knowledgable, they’re an authority.
- The power is given to the viewers. The judges can give all the commentary they want but at the end of the day even someone who is of subpar talent relative to the other contestants will still be given credit - look at Sanjaya tonight. Horrible performance but he had a young girl crying in the audience. Simon Cowell made the statement (I’m paraphrasing) “That little girl’s reaction says it all”.
- The American Idol judges don’t really matter - they are there for the performers not the show. They are more professional opinion, the reality is that fame and potential futures have little to do with “professional” opinions. It’s the masses who decide. American Idol embraces that key point.
- Making a very shallow industry something real people can relate to on a very real level. In general when we see the music, film and television industries they are so far separated from the real person it’s ridiculous. American Idol makes the process real - and it’s about time.
- The franchise embraces criticism. Being able to embrace criticism is one of the most powerful ways to appeal to the vast majority of real people.
- The music industry is about more than just pure talent. How a singer relates, how they dress, how they sing - “Choice of song for you”, intelligent and experienced insight from experienced judges which does NOT determine their future on the show. If you are a marketer, the franchise they have created has incredible depth.
Stepping back.
Think about the budgets you as a marketer, internet or otherwise, are spending on your programs. Is it achieving the points that a show like American Idol is acheving? This applies all over the place in the 21st century.
If your dollars, concept, business plan, operations and philosophy are not achieving what American Idol is achieving then you needs to step back and think for a bit.
I know I do.
Last point: If you wrap a piece of poo in pretty wrapping paper with a shiny bow, at the end of the day it’s still a piece of poo in pretty paper.
Web 2.0 - Something to think about.
March 20, 2007
I have no idea how I missed this:
Captain America is NOT Dead! (Picture)
March 20, 2007
Does no one read the other books? Straight from the pages of Civil War: The Initiative #1. This book was released the exact same day as Captain America #25, where he supposedly died. I am personally glad that he really isn’t dead. I mean come on - Captain America dying?!??!?!?
Everyone just calmmmm down now.
Outlaw biker gangs have set up their own IT departments
March 19, 2007
Organized crime groups, including outlaw biker gangs, have set up their own highly sophisticated IT departments for debit skimming and credit fraud operations. The IT expertise among organized criminal gangs is on par with legitimate business.
888.com Blog Spammers Attempt to Bribe Bloggers
March 19, 2007
888.com sucks. Their affiliates, partners and themselves are direct sources of blog spam which are the bane of the bloggers existence. This kinf of thing drives me mental, especially considering the cheeziness of the promotion.
A couple of other things. If you are a blog spoammer then you are no anything near to an internet marketer. By spamming a blog you are doing one thing and only one thing - alienating your best bet at a targeted customer.
Let’s review:
- bloggers spend more time than average online
- bloggers tend to me more computer saavy and have a lower threshold of fear for purchasing online
- bloggers tend to participate in other communities
- bloggers tend to advocate (positively or negatively) products which they like (or dislike).
Now, it makes PERFECT sense to attack the blogger with unwanted, bandwidth eating junk comments on your potential customers personal or business website. If this is not the most ridiculous marketing strategy on the planet then I do not know what is.
Of course 888.com is also known for malicious use of toolbars, autoinstallers, spyware, prolific spam, malware, and blog spam. Naturally I am going give you a text link for a chance at a REAL LIVE TSHIRT!?
Please people let’s not support this kind of lame marketing. One of the reasons there is a serious lack of consumer confidence in the online world is due to the shady, dirty, disruptive and down right insulting marketing tactics of 888.com.
Podcasting Tips - Promoting your Podcast
March 7, 2007
Podcasting is an interesting new form for internet marketing and although popularized by Apple, the Podcast format has taken on a number of different forms.
Remembering that the original intention of the podcast was that a user could simply add the cast to their iTunes playlist via tools such as iPodder (I’m referring to the days previous to built in iTunes support). This made streaming audio media very accessible since you didn’t have to listen to the show at a specific time, in fact you could simple download a series of show to your iPod and take it with you, conveniently listening anytime you wished.
Since then the podcast has taken on a life of it’s own - and to a certain degree it has also diverged away from downloading podcasts directly onto an iPod. Flash Players, Podcast Directories, iTunes have all achieved the same goal. Mainly:
Removing the content from the presentation.
What exactly does that mean? Back in the day the content (in this case a radio show or audio clip) was directly tied into the presentation layer (how the user interacted with that media). The podcast format (which is a text file or XML file in a specific format) has allowed web developers to present podcasts in a variety of ways and on a variety of devices.
For instance - if I were to go to the Podcast Directory at ESPN you’ll see the following:
As a user I have a number of options from here:
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I can listen directly on the site using their player.
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I can download the audio file and listen directly in my favorite media player.
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I can add it to my iTunes directly.
In addition to this I have a number of other options which are not highlighted here:
- I can add it to a personalized homepage such as http://my.yahoo.com and that will allow me to listen to the most recent episodes.
- If i have some basic web development experience I could also add it to my own homepage using any number of flash based player tools such as Pupuplayer.
- I can go to a directory service such as Podcast Alley and look up the show there and listen directly from their site.
Those are the most basic of options, but the point is the same - as a user or web developer I control how the content is presented. This is a key to “Web 2.0″ and it is also a feature of internet marketing which makes podcasting so popular and effective.
No longer am I forcing a user into a specific location on my site, rather I am giving the user the ability to present that content outside of the scope of my website. This is a VERY disconcerting thought for most marketers.
For many years the idea would be to drive the potential customer into the site using every available technique, on the surface it would appear that by syndicating the content so it can be presented outside of my site that I am going against all things marketing.
No wonder internet (or new media) marketers might be hated (although I would tend to think misunderstood) by traditional marketers.
The real idea to get your head around when publishing a podcast is the fact that you will have the ability to attract your customer back to your site through providing excellent content in a way that makes the customer want to visit your site for more information, to make the purchase, join the site, whatever it is that your end goal might be (aka The Key Performance Indicator - KPI).
So what are some of the things you can do to promote your podcast effectively? Since people love lists, I’m going to give a brief overview:
- Ensure your podcast has a goal. Is it to inform? Upsell? Build customer loyalty? New customer acquisition? Set a goal for the podcast and stick to it.
- Continually update your podcast, even if it is weekly. Highly variable schedules ensure that your listeners will forget about your podcast.
- Market your podcast to your current customers. They can begin to seed the listener base - they’ve already got your trust, build on that.
- Use Feedburner - learn their interface and use their tools. Not only can you track your podcasts (to see who is listening when and how) you can promote through their built in tools. This is a great way for you to begin promotion of your podcast.
- When using Feedburner - make sure you enable TotalStats Pro and the Enhancing Ping service. A ping service will notify other directories and sites when you update your content. This is a great way to build knowledge about your site and your podcast.
- Create chiclets - those small little icons that allow people to add the podcast easily to your radio pages. Make it easy for the user to take that podcast and make it theirs. Do not force them to come back to your site - if they like your content they’ll come to your site!
- Submit your podcast to iTunes and create album artwork - users will then add your podcast into their iTunes desktop media player (which will then transfer your podcast to their iPod when they sync it up).
- Submit your RSS (Podcast) address to http://podcasts.yahoo.com - they have their integrated player so you only need to provide the address and they do the rest!
- Ensure that your radio page has an EASY way for people to refer their friends to your podcast. Referrals will (almost) always result in higher rates of success. It’s the trust thing and your single largest trick to success in the world of podcasting and new world marketing.
- Create podcast only promotions. Exclusivity and time sensitivity are incredibly effective ways to reach a consumer audience. Create promotions which will entice the user to listen to your show, cross promote your show through other media forms (email, print, banners, partners) at which point you create promo codes and offers specifically to get people listening to your show and listening on a regular basis.
- Involve your listeners. It’s an Audio format, use the telephone and get in touch with your them. Create features of your customers. Bringing them into the show gives them ownership over the medium, over the site, and utlimately over your product. Once that customer has become an advocate, they do your marketing, when they do your marketing, you don’t have to!
- Call it a podcast but avoid technical references! The majority of web visitors do not care about what a podcast is technically. Remember one of the reasons that the iPod was such as success was that it removed any technical knowledge burden from the user. It was simply, clean easy to use and played music. Your podcast should be simple, easy and fun. The more easy to navigate options your users have the more interest you’ll generate - plus more people than developers, internet marketers and geeks deserve to have access to rich media content such as podcasts.
- Accept the fact that they may listen elsewhere. Your users may not actually visit the show site in order to get the content. This is alright! Breath deeply, and relax - the more points of dostribution you carry the more successful your show will be.
I may actually add a downloadable checklist for podcasting
- or -
Now go, scatter, run and podcast.
