I’m from an old-school marketing background. I got my marketing degree back in the early 90’s and it helped educate my views on how to market a message or product, and continues to help me shape strategies today.

But there’s one thing that stands out clearly from these early days – the numbers game is utter bullsh*t.

My educator and many of my fellow students subscribed to the theory that numbers are the linchpin of any marketing campaign. The more eyeballs your message reaches, the more potential for interest.

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Stacy Karacostas here from http://www.success-stream.com with another quick audio marketing tip. In case you don’t like listening to audio, below are the transcripts for today’s podcast, “An Easy Way to Make Your Small Business Marketing Materials Way More Effective… And Make Sure They Get Read!”

I’ve often noticed that when I talk to my clients about their products or services, they say the most amazing, engaging and interesting things. But when I read their marketing materials it usually sounds more like the teacher from the old Charlie Brown cartoons “wha wha, waa waa, waa whaaaa”.

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With the importance of content in online marketing, many businesses are hard pressed to come up with original articles, blog posts, videos, images, presentations, etc on a regular basis.  There’s a myth that once you publish something, that all who matter will see it. That’s simply not true.

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Is your startup practicing inward facing dog?  That is, are you overly focused on things going inside the company with too little attention on what might be going on outside the company?

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Want to know how to make an SMB (small-medium business) owner or marketer crazy? Tell them that although they are completely convinced that they need to do search engine optimization, or paid search, or whatever else they heard in passing about Internet marketing, that they need to put the brakes on. The reactions range from shock to curiosity to relief and all stops in between. So why would someone who is providing search marketing services tell someone to slow down? It’s something that is not usually native to the search marketing industry. It’s called planning and strategy.

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It seems that crowdsourcing is fast becoming the “next big thing.” Whether you call it “social answers,” “help engines” or something else, there’s a growing trend of asking those in your network to help you out with advice. Heck, there’s even a new search engine being built around the concept!

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Ancient philosophers believed life could be broken down into six different directions:

1. Above, or Heaven - this reflects your dreams and hopes.
2. Below, or Earth - this is your grounding and where you are now.
3. Forward - where you want to be in your life.
4. Backward - what you’ve overcome and left behind.
5. Left - those who give you inspiration.
6. Right - the people you trust most (both right and left are interchangeable - they’re basically your “armies”).

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Have you ever wondered how much text (or copy) you really need in yourbrochure, Website or ad? This is a question I get from my small businessclients all the time. And it’s a darn good one.

After all, we constantly hear that people don’t read anymore. And a lot of
Web designers will try to tell you not to write more than 250 words of copyper page. Yet direct mail and Internet marketers and copywriters have proventime and again that long text usually outsells short copy-even these days.

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A lot of small business owners are thinking about social media marketing, but are not sure if or how to do it. A lot of them have heard about how Twitter tipped the balance in the last US election. But many business owners still are not sure.

Yesterday I was meeting with a group of SOHO entrepreneurs. To give you an idea of the crowd, there was…

• A local real estate agent
• A local gift catalogue agent (who can sell across Canada)
• A virtual assistant (Drop me a line if you want her contact info)
• A local mortgage broker
• A local home decorator/renovator

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Let’s just cut to the chase. The great bailout debate has no definitive answers for anyone. Some say it rewards bad behavior while others say it has to happen for us to continue. If you so desire, you can find support for either side then you can engage in spirited and ultimately pointless debate about the merits of your choice. Sounds like a colossal waste of time and energy doesn’t it? It is, so don’t do it.

Instead learn something today. Since the talk around Frank Thinking is about Internet marketing I always encourage people to educate themselves as much as possible regarding this important business discipline. Why do I keep harping on this? Because it’s important for anyone who owns a business, has responsibility for marketing in a company or anyone who is claiming to be an expert in the field to know more than just buzzwords. Here are some thoughts on why.

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