Fryer's Blog in the Mountains

Political Blog Spam

Here in the US, a nice cut & paste blog spamming program for a political candidate. 

and you could win valuable prizes!

Reminds me of a sales training program years ago where they said "Be sincere, even if you don't mean it."  <sigh>

Burton Snowboards + Poaching = Clever Marketing

Hi, my name is Bruce and I'm a skier.   About 10 years ago, many resorts did not allow snowboarding, but that changed quickly.   Today in the US, there are just 4 resorts that are skier only including Alta and Deer Valley here in Utah (out of 9 resorts locally).   

So Burton had a contest: Poach a ski only resort, make a video and we'll give you $5K.    Pretty clever and hats off to Nate Bosshard.  For ~$20K  Burton got a great buzz in the community and it wasn't through an advertising campaign.

Here at Deer Valley (rated #1 by Ski Magazine) Andrew Braden won the prize submitting this video.  (disclaimer: Andrew is a friend of our family).

Are you a "tried & true" marketing person using only approved methods, or are you reaching out to your customers in numerous non-traditional ways?

InsideCRM Is Spamming the Bloggers

I'm really getting tired of this.   I get an email from Amy S Quinn telling my about a real cool CRM article from InsideCRM (notice I did not link them, go Google them).    My first clue was Amy has a gmail address.  Oh no! Then I searched that name and found she (if it is a she) is also promoting Walmart's in-store clinics and a piece from HRworld.

What's ironic is InsideCRM has a piece about "Flip the Script: 34 Scripts and Ideas for Getting Back at Telemarketers".    Now if only they would publish an article about getting back at web sites that spam bloggers to promote their websites.  Maybe I would subscribe.

Word of Mouth Marketing

This is a subject I touched on a while ago.  But I get a little queasy trying to directly influence this.  To me WOM happens because you are doing a good job for your customers.  Now a good metric of this is the answer to the following question: "Would you recommend __________ to a friend". 

What brought this to mind is an agency called Keller Fay.  Their claim is they can measure and directly impact word of mouth about your brand.   Since I'm in charge of marketing I get to hire the agencies to help us.    But, hold that thought for now.

I also love linked-in.  When we were looking for real estate in Redwood City I found Mike through linked-in.  He was great and got us exactly what we needed.  So when our son was moving to Denver and was interested in a company there, I fired up linked-in.  Turns out an old Novell buddy of mine knew someone in common with that company.   He forwarded my request, and they stopped it cold.  Why, because they didn't know me. (duh)  Pick up the phone and call me.  I love meeting new people.

So here's where the story comes together.  Turns out that person runs marketing for the WOM agency.   Do you think I'll be putting them on my short list?

Today's lesson.   Always give more than you expect to get back.  If someone asks for help, give it to them.  You never know who they know or in this case, may be in the position to directly help them.

Just for fun, let's see how good Keller Fay's tracking system is and if they pick up this blog.

It's been 48 hours.  Nothing yet.  Someone flunked WOM 101.