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You’re gonna love this gizmo! It’s a cool creative solution to the problem of max-ed out electric power strips, and it’s ideal for your creative department. The PowerSquid™ Surge Protector takes your old, gray power strip to a whole new level. Its sleek cephalopod design frees each outlet from the confines of the surge protector, putting them on their own flexible cord to make it more flexible and functional, as well as offering greater reach and ease of use. Bonus: it easily accommodates bulky transformers that can block outlets on traditional power strips!

Hugs and success,

Wendy Maynard, Your friendly marketing maven

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It’s very exciting! Along with Jared Degnan of 20 Something Marketing, I am launching the Marketing Diner! This is a podcast or Internet Radio Show where Jared and I banter about current affairs in the marketing world. Jared is a young pup of 25 and he calls me {ahem} a marketing veteran.
Our tagline: The Marketing Diner serves up fresh perspectives on marketing, consumer culture and a profession you have to be a just a little mad to love. Always tasty, hot, and savory!

And {drum roll please} the first episode will be launched on June 1st! Hooray! I welcome your feedback and comments.

Listen to the promo here: http://www.marketingdiner.com/show/MDPromo1.mp3

Hugs and success,
Wendy Maynard

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I’ve taken an excerpt from a chapter of “Don’t Make Them Think.” This brilliant  book is written by Steve Krug. This book is an incredible eye opener, especially for creatives who may be designing purely for the beauty of the site or for writers - like me - who may have a tendency to want to put the next great novel on a client’s website.

Why are things always in the last place you look for them? Because you stop looking when you find them. —Children’s riddle

In the past five years I’ve spent a lot of time watching people use the Web, and the thing that has struck me most is the difference between how we think people use Web sites and how they actually use them.

When we’re creating sites, we act as though people are going to pore over each page, reading our finely crafted text, figuring out how we’ve organized things, and weighing their options before deciding which link to click.

What they actually do most of the time (if we’re lucky) is glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for. There are usually large parts of the page that they don’t even look at.

We’re thinking “great literature” (or at least “product brochure”), while the user’s reality is much closer to “billboard going by at 60 miles an hour.”

What we design for vs. The reality

As you might imagine, it’s a little more complicated than this, and it depends on the kind of page, what the user is trying to do, how much of a hurry she’s in, and so on. But this simplistic view is much closer to reality than most of us imagine. It makes sense that we picture a more rational, attentive user when we’re designing pages.

It’s only natural to assume that everyone uses the Web the same way we do, and—like everyone else—we tend to think that our own behavior is much more orderly and sensible than it really is. If you want to design effective Web pages, though, you have to learn to live with three facts about real-world Web use.

Fact of life #1: We don’t read pages. We scan them. One of the very few well-documented facts about Web use is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages.

The net effect is a lot like Gary Larson’s classic Far Side cartoon about the difference between what we say to dogs and what they hear. In the cartoon, the dog (named Ginger) appears to be listening intently as her owner gives her a serious talking-to about staying out of the grabage.

But from the dog’s point of view, all he’s saying is “blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah.” What we see when we look at a Web page depends on what we have in mind, but it’s usually just a fraction of what’s on the page.

What designers build vs. What users see

Like Ginger, we tend to focus on words and phrases that seem to match (a) the task at hand or (b) our current or ongoing personal interests. And of course, (c) the trigger words that are hardwired into our nervous systems, like “Free,” “Sale,” and “Sex.”

You can only get away with a site that people muddle through until someone builds one down the street that makes them feel smart. If life gives you lemons… By now you may be thinking (given this less than rosy picture of the Web audience), “Why don’t I just get a job at the local 7-11?

At least my efforts might be appreciated.” So, what’s a girl to do? The answer: if your audience is going to act like you’re designing billboards, then design great billboards.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard

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With the boomers fighting their aging and new technologies more readily available, plastic surgery is becoming increasingly popular. Even if you’ve never considered a new nose, a new ad campaign developed by DDB Canada allows you to “try on” a new nose while drinking your coffee.

Not sure how you are supposed to see your new nose, but perhaps it’s all about how others see you anyway…

Hugs and success,

Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven
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I try to keep my finger on the pulse of what other marketers are doing. This means that I subscribe to a lot of online newsletters and I get a lot pf promotions for online products.

But lately I’ve noticed a bit of a trend. I’ve received a number of e-mails in the last couple of months like this one:

It turns out that email delivery has been problematic over the last two weeks. So, you may have missed one of the IMPORTANT email messages I sent you over the past two weeks….Here it is again…

It just seems a bit funny that so many people are having issues. I recognize that there are often problems with e-mails and servers. And if that’s the case, by all means resend! However I DO hope that the server and e-mail problems aren’t a made-up excuse to resend an offer.

If any marketers are using a made-up excuse as a way to get the attention of their subscribers, then by all means STOP! It’s unethical.

I welcome any comments on the topic. Do you think this is a marketing ploy? Or is it simply what the senders say it is - e-mail and server issues?

Hugs and success,

Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

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A noteworthy way for you to get exposure and new customers is public speaking. As a small business owner, it is always a more powerful position to be in the front of the room than in the back. You further position yourself as an expert and reinforce the brand as YOU. People tend to perceive speakers as being more important than non-speakers.

Create a core talk that reinforces your specialty and practice it. Come up with a compelling title for your speech. Remember, your presentation isn’t a sales pitch; it’s a way to showcase your expertise. So, provide great, practical information that is helpful to your listeners.

Make the same speech in lengths of 30 minutes, 45 minutes and 90 minutes. This will be a talk you can use over and over again. Show confidence by using humor and letting your passion shine through! For a fabulous article on sensuous speaking, read Kare Anderson’s article, “Speak English Like It Tastes Good.”

During your speech, your audience gets an opportunity to “meet” you without obligation and to get a feel for your personality, style, and expertise. The people who like your approach will either hire you or spread the word about your company.

Your audience is a goldmine of prospects, so don’t miss out on this opportunity. Be sure to pass around a sign-up sheet to collect the names of attendees. Tell them they will receive a free special report or a subscription to your ezine.

In every city, there are associations, service clubs, and support groups that are looking for speakers for their meetings. Check your telephone book and highlight some of these. You can start with smaller groups as practice.

After you feel comfortable with your speech, seek out larger groups who have members in your targeted audience. When you call, ask for the name of the person in charge of lining up speakers. Offer to speak for free and explain the ways in which your speech will benefit the group’s members. Be sure to mention the remarkable title you developed - it will help sell your presentation.

Once you begin to promote yourself as a speaker, groups will hear about you and you’ll find yourself getting requests, as well. After you begin to get more engagements and feel at ease with speaking, add more topics to promote. If a group liked your speech, you can tell them you have new material and they may ask you to return to speak again.

Develop a speaker’s sheet that you can send to groups. Create a page on your website that describes your expertise, background, and speaking style. Include testimonials if you have them. Hand out information to your audiences about you, your company, and your services. If you have information products, you can often offer these for sale for people to purchase at the event.

Public speaking is a powerful way to get new customers and leads, so be sure to incorporate it into your quiver of marketing techniques. You’ll find opportunities abound when you commit to getting yourself out there!

ACTION ITEM: What idea do you want to develop into your core talk? List three potential ideas right now. Then, come up with an attention-getting title. Show them to your existing customers and ask them which one is of the most value to them. Develop the “winner” into a speech of different lengths.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly marketing maven

Go Marketing Maven! for your free small business marketing ideas and strategies guide…

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Marketing certain things is okay. And other things…well certain things should be off limits. Like what, you ask? Well, like jewelry made from cockroaches. I’m all for developing a new niche, but this one is just gross. (I guess wearing them is better than eating them).
From News of the Weird:

Salt Lake City fashion designer Jared Gold recently began offering jeweled brooches featuring brightly colored Swarovski crystals affixed to a live, 3-inch-long Madagascar hissing cockroach that a woman can allow to roam a short distance around her dress or jacket via a silver chain affixed to the roach’s back. The brooch sells for $80 at Gold’s website. An April New York Post story quoted an animal-rights spokesman as calling the bauble “just the gift” for the “person who doesn’t mind a small animal excreting on them throughout the day.”

And this from the online store, Black Chandelier:

“Each roach takes about an hour of painstaking work to achieve his final magical glory. All roaches are male to ensure sterility, and come complete with a leash set. This consists of a gorgeous pin you attach to your clothing with a chain that clasps to the cockraoch’s carapace to keep him from running amok. The lifespan of these animals is approximately one year if housed and fed properly. This is not a guarantee, it is an estimate. Roaches love fresh bananas and must have access to fresh water at all times, a very damp paper towel or cotton ball will do the trick. Dehydration is the main cause of death. Keep him in a little terrarium in the dark and he will love you and be very responsive to your touch.”

Riiight…

Want to read more. Here’s another article for your viewing pleasure. And now that I am absolutely grossed out, it’s time for the Maven to sign off.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly Marketing Maven

P.S. If anyone orders one of these things, be sure to send a picture. I’ll post it here on Kinetic Ideas.

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Ever feel like you are drowning in e-mails? Yeah, me too.

A while back, I wrote some tips on how to Tame the E-mail Dragon. My business partner at Kinesis just sent my team a helpful blog entry from Richard Kuo with even more advice.

Here is a summary:

1. Define specific times to check your e-mail.

2. Disable automatic e-mail downloading and alerts.

3. Use a “Getting Things Done” workflow for managing e-mail.

a. Set up an “Action Required” folder under your Inbox.

b. Move all your existing e-mail out of your Inbox and into the Action Required or Reference folders.

c. Moving forward, keep the Inbox empty by filing incoming e-mails.

4. Use filters to help sort automated e-mails from actual people e-mails.

5. Know when to use e-mail.

For busy marketers and other professionals, the more you get organized, the more time you have to interact with customers and leads. Go to Richard’s blog if you want to read the entire article.

Hugs and success, Wendy Maynard
Your friendly Marketing Maven

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