Up Market

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• The Idea Manifesto
• Why Gamification Has Value for Marketing
• Can Your Website Pass This One-Minute Test?
• Pinterest Marketing: How to Market Your Brand or Products on Pinterest

The Idea Manifesto Posted: 02 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT You will often hear it said that creating a manifesto is a great way to spread an idea. A few months ago I wrote this post about ideas and realised that what we really needed was a manifesto, to illustrate the messy truths and blurred edges of ideas themselves. One of my wonderful clients, graphic designer Grace Oris took on the challenge of designing THE IDEA MANIFESTO. To download the image in either color or black and white, go here.

Why Gamification Has Value for Marketing Posted: 02 Apr 2012 03:00 AM PDT By using game elements, interaction with brands can be stimulated, potentially improving impulse sales, increasing brand awareness and perhaps building trust.

Can Your Website Pass This One-Minute Test? Posted: 01 Apr 2012 03:00 PM PDT Ever come across a website and struggle to figure out how they can help you? Or even if they care about helping you at all? “Our unique combination of personal attention and enhanced marketing strategies are designed exclusively for your business.” “We are a dominant market leader; other companies cannot match our capabilities.” Wow. These are (slightly edited) actual excerpts from a real website. They claim they’re dominant, but doing what?  What do their clients get? I can’t tell.  Can you? Here’s the test Don’t worry, it will only take a minute. Go look at the first page of your own website (it’s OK, I’ll wait). While you’re looking, count up the number of times you use words such as “we”, “our”, “us”, “me”, ‘my” or “I’. Then count the number of times you say “you”, “your”, and “yours.” Back? How many did you get for each one?  Did the word “we” outnumber the word “you”? Or was it the other way around?  If you counted far more words talking about your clients, than yourself, congratulations! If not, it’s time for a fix! Why does all this matter? When people come to your site, they’re looking for solutions to their problems. Talking about yourself too much sends the message (even if you don’t mean it), that you’re mostly interested in promoting yourself, rather than helping other people. Who wants to work with someone who cares only about themselves? Talk about your readers, not yourself What visitors do want is someone who can solve their problems.  A company that demonstrates that they understand what’s bothering their clients, and can help them stop the pain and get what they want. This could be anything: a new facebook page, an email marketing plan, or a banking app that doesn’t crash every five minutes. Go try it. See what happens. Oh, and if you have any guesses about what that mystery company does, post them in the comments. Photo Credit: William Warby

Pinterest Marketing: How to Market Your Brand or Products on Pinterest Posted: 01 Apr 2012 12:00 PM PDT The approaches to marketing on other social networks don't apply to Pinterest.

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