Marketing 101 Marketing 101

Marketing 101 isn’t a thing. Markets change, people change, delivery methodology changes. Some things stay the same, most things do not. So here are 101 marketing things that are current this week.

1. When building an email template in an email marketing utility (MailChimp, Campaign Monitor etc.) remember that your message will be going to different mail platforms on different devices using different security restrictions. Elaborate designs are cool but may also break or be blocked depending on how complex they are.
2. A User Experience Map helps businesses devise the roadmap that they want their customers to follow when dealing with their business, and how the business reacts at each stage. Every business should have one.
3. Google My Business is not only useful for search engine optimisation purposes but also allows users to find it on Google Maps using voice search.
4. Uptime Robot is a free service which alerts you if your website goes offline. This is useful to know so that you can fix any issues before your visitor’s head over and see a blank page.
5. For a website to be “secure”, it requires the integration of an SSL certificate, which stands for Secure Sockets Layer. An SSL certificate encrypts data that travels from a user’s computer to a website and back.
6. There’s a cool little website called Why No Padlock (whynopadlock.com/) which lets you run your website through it to identify the insecure assets on your site.
7. Cool free tools like Canva, Square Space, and Piktochart have enabled people to experiment with design and website creation. It has also led to a boom in Graphic Designers, Web Designers, and Marketing “specialists”.
8. Advertisers for hamburger brands find models with small hands so that the burgers look larger.
9. The crinkly sound of chip packets is intended to capture the attention of children.
10. The best way to generate more leads is to have previously developed and tested a marketing and sales strategy so that you have strings to tug on if you need to increase or decrease your enquiries.
11. Alarmingly, the Yellow Pages still exists.
12. One of the most underutilized marketing services is a competitor analysis. How can a business position itself as “different” if it has not examined its competitors?
13. Above the line advertising refers to mediums that broadcast to mass general audiences, such as TV, radio, cinema, printed press, and billboards.
14. Below the line advertising refers to the use of more specific methods such as Google and social media ads, PR, events, and content marketing.
15. File types with transparent backgrounds include .ai, .eps, .png, .gif, .svg, .WebP.
16. When suppliers ask for a high res logo or image, they typically mean a .pdf, or .eps file.
17. Vector files are created using lines to build an image (such as a logo or icon) whereas bitmap files use dots to create images (photo-based images).
18. Enlarging vectors can be done without losing quality. Enlarging bitmaps cannot (or certainly not easily).
19. The main reason why print material prices vary from one supplier to another is usually down to paper quality, thickness and texture. That is why 100 business cards may cost $50 with one supplier but $200 with another.
20. Websites typically consist of three parts – files, hosting (or online storage space), and a domain name.
21. SEO stands for search engine optimisation and should be treated like an ongoing review and revise concept. SEO responds to search trends, trends change, ergo so should your SEO efforts.
22. Using #hashtags in social media posts creates links that when clicked provide a list of all results that have used that hashtag.
23. Advertising, marketing, and public relations aren’t the same thing nor are they all encompassing, just as orthopedic, neurosurgeon, and cardiothoracic are all surgeons but with very different skillsets.
24. Circulation statistics with regards to media distribution refers to how many people receive a copy, not how many people use or read a copy.
25. Email marketing material (newsletters for example) is usually tracked by an invisible image that loads when the recipient receives it. This constitutes a “view”. It is possible though that the recipient can read the material without loading the tracking image, or may load the tracking image but not read the material.
26. It is extraordinarily difficult to grow a large following on social media organically unless you are associated with other brands or products that do have a large following.
27. Buyer dissonance is the negative thought process that occurs when a buyer makes a purchase but becomes aware that an alternative product may provide greater benefits than the one purchased.
28. A/B Testing refers to comparing two variations of a single variable (an advertisement or email message for example) to determine which variation performs better.
29. What you expect from marketing and what is delivered is often misaligned. This is not because of any trickery, but more so because assumptions from the buyer and clarity from the provider are misaligned.
30. Attention to detail is important. Perfectionism is crippling.
31. Marketing relationships usually go sideways because the main decision maker within a business is not directly engaged in the process.
32. Not everything in marketing has ROI. And some ROI may take years.
33. Small businesses in particular turn to marketing when they are experiencing a crisis. This is the worst time to do so.
34. Google Reviews cannot be deleted by the business being reviewed. They can be flagged to be reviewed by Google, but Google will only remove them if they are convinced that the review is fraudulent.
35. Speaking of reviews, they are becoming more and more meaningless (but also more persuasive). Services exist now that are paid to add reviews to your Google listing simply to increase your review numbers.
36. WordPress (website framework) is free. Many WordPress themes are free. Setting WordPress up so that it looks like a respectable business website takes a lot of work and will likely cost some amount of money.
37. A website is not a set-and-forget asset. Back-ups should be scheduled periodically as should updates. This does not need to be costly but does need to be done.
38. When people refer to a website as being responsive, they are referring to how it responds on different sized devices, e.g. mobile phone, tablet, laptop, large screen etc.
39. Having a great website is less important than how you get people to your website.
40. Website “speed” can be compromised by a million different aspects. These aspects can be anything from your webhost’s server speed, to the amount of traffic visiting your site, to the file size of pages or images on your site. It is not often a single cause.
41. Becoming proficient in search engine optimisation, Google Ads, or social media marketing cannot be done via a half day seminar. This sh*t is complicated and takes time to understand.
42. If you have not done a competitor analysis, it is impossible to have a value proposition or unique selling proposition.
43. The letters CMYK in colour modelling refers to Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). All printed colours use a percentage of these colours to create every other colour.
44. Setting up Google Analytics is easy. Interpreting and making decisions based on Google Analytics data is not.
45. Google Data Studio allows you to create cool graphics based on your Google Analytics data which makes reading the results much easier.
46. Vision, mission, and core values communicate to the greater team what the business stands for and what it is trying to achieve without leaders constantly needing to articulate it.
47. The value proposition articulates the value a product or service provides to the customer. If it cannot be quantified or proven, it isn’t a value proposition.
48. Marketing plans usually suck because no one is assigned the task of implementing them. A map is worthless unless someone follows it.
49. There are loads of free marketing tools online, but quality marketing skills cannot be downloaded.
50. Adobe CC (Creative Cloud) is the standard for desktop creative works (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator etc.). Free alternatives include GIMP (Photoshop alternative), Inkspace (Illustrator alternative), and Scribus (InDesign alternative).
51. There was a time when advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Google could be done by anyone who could click a mouse. That is not the case anymore. It is by no means rocket science, but to do it well requires experience and skills.
52. A good source of free stock images is pixabay.com. It is not as good as a subscription site but useful none the less.
53. Most cell phones these days can provide good enough photography for websites and social media. Though an eye for good photography is still needed.
54. Impressions refers to when an ad or content appears on a screen. It does not mean that anyone did anything with it, only that it was viewable.
55. Marketing should be a forever-effort. Marketing done well is a controllable mechanism within a business and can be modified and utilised as needed to navigate a business as needed.
56. Apple’s most innovative creation was their packaging. The iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone, the iPad wasn’t the first tablet, and the MacBook wasn’t the first laptop. But they did create packaging that people could not bring themselves to throw away.
57. CRMs are essential business tools. CRM stands for Customer Relationships Management. It is not a magical marketing or automation engine that can run a business on its own.
58. Letterbox drops still work. Not for everyone, but they still work.
59. Generally speaking, Real Estate agents do the worst marketing.
60. If you remove the criminal element and detrimental impact on society, drug cartels have the best business models – huge margins, low cost of production, heaps of repeat customers, few competitors, minimal tax implications, and robust demand for all occasions. Plus, they are useful invitees at parties.
61. The five P’s of marketing are people, place, price, product, and promotion. This has been expanded on over the last 15 years or so, but these are the basic elements.
62. People refers to those involved in the process of selling.
63. Place refers to where to sell your products or services.
64. Price refers to how you want to be perceived by the market – budget price, premium, or somewhere in between.
65. Product refers to what it is you are selling.
66. Promotion refers to how you aim on advising to your market that they need your product or service.
67. There are no such things as ladies and men’s toothbrushes, ladies and men’s perfume, and ladies and men’s sunglasses. Our teeth, sense of smell, and eyes are not gender bias. Marketing has created these markets.
68. Colgate has a million varieties of toothpaste. This is not because they have demand for a million varieties, but rather it allows them to take up more real estate in supermarkets.
69. Hi-fi retailers will occasionally be incentivised by TV suppliers to move more of their products. To assist with this, it is not uncommon for the settings on all other brands to be modified so they look less spectacular, and then connect the promoted units to demo media to show off their capabilities.
70. From what we have seen, the most successful small businesses are the ones who do the extras as standard when it comes to looking after their customers. Not just doing a good job or being courteous but doing things that raise eyebrows and make people talk.
71. Marketing works. If there is an issue with a business’s marketing, it is usually down to the provider, not the concept of marketing itself.
72. If business revenue is trending at a constant growth rate over a number of years and a business wishes for that trend to increase significantly above the historical trend, one of two things must occur – more customers, or higher prices. This requires a shift in marketing and/or sales effort (or a heap of competitors to go out of business).
73. DIY fills us with a sense of achievement and accomplishment. This is often why when we whip up a brochure or poster ourselves in MS Word or MS Publisher, we are convinced that it looks great, but our target market is used to seeing high-grade professional material.
74. It is important that we love our own brand, but it’s more important that our target market loves it.
75. The greatest barrier to purchasing is inauthenticity.
76. Editing PDF’s can be done but it’s a bit of a wild ride. Adobe Acrobat allows for PDF editing, but fonts and character styles can sometimes go askew. MS Word can open most PDFs but again, the format may go bizerk in some cases.
77. With regards to web search error codes, anything starting with a ‘4’ is usually a client issue (the users end, such as 401, 403, 404) whereas anything starting with a ‘5’ is usually a server issue (such as 500, 502, 503).
78. The HTTP in web addresses stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTPS includes the word “Secure”.
79. https://www.responsinator.com/ is a cool little website to test how your website looks on different screen sizes.
80. With regards to web coding, HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and sets the structure for websites.
81. With regards to web coding, CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet and sets the style for websites.
82. With regards to web coding, PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor and controls most of the dynamic content in most standard websites (such as animations, image or roll-over effects, and interactive components).
83. The first ever online social network was created in 1997 and was called Six Degrees.
84. EDM is an acronym for Electronic Direct Mail
85. Business cards refuse to die, but that’s not to say that they can’t be a useful tool for your business.
86. CPC in digital advertising refers to Cost Per Click. This literally means how much you will be charged if someone clicks on your advertisement.
87. CTR in digital advertising refers to Click Through Rate. This is the percentage of viewers who click on an ad when they see it (just “seeing” the ad is measured as an impression – refer to number 38).
88. The QR in QR Code stands for “Quick Response”.
89. In the 80’s, if your business wasn’t in the Yellow Pages it may as well have not existed. Social media has since replaced the Yellow Pages.
90. A marketing channel refers to the process of transferring the ownership of goods or services from production (creator) to consumption (end user) using people, intermediaries, and activities necessary to do so.
91. An advertising channel is the platform used by a business to advertise products and services.
92. The phrase above the fold refers to the section of a website that we see on our screens before we scroll.
93. Google Ads Remarketing is why certain types of ads follow us around online, for example, if we land on a website to look for steak knives, we will suddenly see a lot of steak knife ads from that supplier appearing on the websites we visit.
94. Facebook Remarketing works in a similar manner except the ads will start showing in your Facebook feed.
95. Meme is short for “mimeme” which heralds from Ancient Greece and means “imitated thing”.
96. A landing page on a website is literally the first page you “land on” after taking an action (such as clicking a link). In online marketing, a landing page is usually implemented to achieve a result (selling something or requesting a sign-up) and limits the options to navigate away from the page.
97. Bounce, with regards to website analytics, refers to a single-page session on a website. In other words, if you visit knightriley.com.au/gift-cards-what-a-neat-idea/ and then leave the site without visiting any other part of the website, your session would be considered a “bounce”. “Bounce rate” refers to the frequency of this occurrence in comparison to multi-page sessions.
98. Getting “banned” from Google is a thing and is known as being de-indexed. Basically, this happens if a website is designed to trick search engines into receiving a better ranking on Google then it actually should.
99. Demarketing refers to the process of aiming to slow demand. Businesses may wish to do this if there is an issue with supply (and a fear of disappointing a mass market) or if they wish to reshape their target market (and discourage other markets).
100. Social marketing refers to the application of marketing concepts and techniques in order to achieve objectives that benefit society as a whole rather than a particular group or business.
101. Cause marketing is when a business aligns and supports a not-for-profit or social cause, usually to gain marketing benefits from their association, or through genuine alignment of values.