One Half Amazing!

Mashable recently featured an indie film production company that used some pretty creative marketing in order to put butts in the seats to see their latest documentary – Ready, Set, Bag! Of course they used twitter and set up a channel on Blip.tv, but the thing that really impressed me was their use of Groupon to sell tickets to see their show.  Starting in the Seattle market, Groupon subscribers were able to purchase tickets to the premiere through one of their daily specials.  Not only did the film makers gain lots of exposure  from the Groupon deal, but it also allowed the theaters to take a chance on an indie film by essentially guaranteeing a level of attendance to their show ahead of time – something that hasn’t been possible before.

This got me thinking of similar industries that could take advantage of Groupon or similar deal sites.  Movies are great and you could also do the same with up-and-coming bands trying to fill a venue, newly minted authors, artists or even attendees to a local event or festival.  Heck, I could even see niche Groupon-like sites taking advantage of this idea to market to music and art fans.  This type of model works great for all parties involved.  Venues know what to expect in terms of attendance, the producer of the product gets exposure for their work and the customers get an exclusive deal at a great price.

What other sort of ways do you think they could expand upon the Groupon model? Let me know in the comments below.

In case you were interested in the Ready, Set, Bag! documentary; I’ve attached a preview below.

PlaceWidget gives an interactive widget to add to your company’s website for showing off your best Fousquare guest.  What a great way to spread the word about your business and offer up special deals to customers, and to coax them to check in regularly.

The widget displays the Foursquare mayor along with their picture. It also shows tips for that venue that Foursquare users leave about what to try, buy, or do at that particular location.

The widget is easy to setup.  Find your Foursquare business location, determine your widget size and the site spits out some Javascript code to paste into your site.  Right now, they only offer skyscraper size banners, but a WordPress plugin is rumored to be coming soon that will allow you to customize your widget.  via TechCrunch

Want to convert me?
Big buttons, clear and concise.
Always be testing.

Opticana Eyewear took a $500 online marketing budget, bought 10 misspelled domains and used them to offer users a special coupon. Buying misspelled is nothing new, but I like how they tied this back to poor vision. Very clever.

How could you use this same strategy with other businesses?

Everyone and their brother seem to be doing online marketing and social media predictions for 2010 so I thought I’d dust off my crystal ball and take a deep look into what I think the new year will hold. In the spirit of your sanity I kept each prediction to 140 characters or less (I thought this was a novel idea, but it looks like TrendSpotting beat me to it). Let’s hope these are better than last year.

My predictions

• Everybody gets their own iPhone and mobile app.  Sites like MotherApp, GameSalad and Swebapps make it too easy.
• Apple, Facebook or Google will open up and allow publishers to do micro transactions across web with ID & buy digital content everywhere.
• Google Nexus One phone = game changer.  Google will disrupt wireless industry, create new business model for cell phones.
• Buzzword of the year will be “experience.” Companies figure how to create engaging touches  &  inject customer love in every level/dept.
• ^^ above companies forced to create small hybrid groups of PR, Mkting, HR & Cust Service focused on set of clients rather than specific duty
• Adwords gets a 2010 upgrade – smarter, better customer choice, maybe even image ads in results…gasp.  Advertisers forced to get better.
• Advertisers & Marketers will put QR codes everywhere – ads, websites, physical products. Objects will all be connected & enhance experience.
• SEO gets disrupted because of personalized search and Google Caffeine.  Folks who dominated will whine as they lose position.

Predictions from friends

• @clayhebert - Consolidation, mainstream adoption, snake oil exposed, budgets shift from trad to digital, real experts valued & rewarded
• @buckdaddy – Whrrl beat FourSqaure in location based social network. FTC rules will hurt 1 person badly like w music piracy. Available SM jobs will grow
• @jtrigsby – Multiple feeds will converge and enable filtering to produce a more usable life stream of information. Some are doing it now, look for more
• @skippytpe – Social games continue further into meat-space. Mobile media consumption continues to outstrip capacity. Revolution: there’s an app for that.
• @jtrigsby – Number of followers will become less important than quality of friends. Numbers will still be important though, so maybe friend tiers?

Give me your thoughts/predictions/wishes in the comments below.

SEOMoz did a great Whiteboard Friday video on using SEO to grow and expand your e-mail marketing list.  Here’s the synopsis and corresponding video.

Step 1 – Attract the Right Audience
Target keyword searches in which users are looking to find out more or discover information related to your product or industry.

Step 2 – Deliver Compelling Landing Pages
Build your credibility right off the bat by providing guides, data points, reports and interesting blog posts directly related to the search terms the user found your site with.

Step 3 – Offer Something Awesome (and even Free)
Increase your signup rate by offering an extended report or content relevant to your user’s needs.

Step 4 – Deliver Non-commercial Messages First
Don’t try to sell the user something in their first e-mail message.  Fulfill expectations, grow trust and build great relationships before anything.

Step 5 – Iterate
Repeat your actions.  Keep getting better and improving on your results.  Tweak and test.