CONTENTS

UN MARKETING

Chapter 1: Hierarchy of Buying 1Chapter 2: A Word on Experts 4Chapter 3: Trust Gap 7Chapter 4: Restaurant Th at Didn’t Get It 11Chapter 5: Cold Calling 15Chapter 6: Aiming Your Company at the Bottom

of the Barrel 17Chapter 7: Pull and Stay 22Chapter 8: Reasons Why Companies Don’t

Use Social Media 25Chapter 9: Social Media (Social Currency as Well) 27Chapter 10: Twitter versus Facebook versus

LinkedIn versus Google+ 30Chapter 11: Social Media Platforming 36Chapter 12: HARO—Platforming Example 42Chapter 13: Th e Game Has Changed: Immediacy and

Relevancy 44Chapter 14: Publicized Customer Service 47Chapter 15: Don’t Bank on the Bold 53Chapter 16: Seven Deadly Social Media Sins 55Chapter 17: How Twitter Changed My Business 63Chapter 18: Tassimo 69Chapter 19: Local Twitter 73Chapter 20: Domino’s—Word of Mouth: Mouths

Are Moving . . . 77

Social Marketing _9781118839973.indd iSocial Marketing _9781118839973.indd i 26-04-2014 18:46:2126-04-2014 18:46:21

Contents

Chapter 21: Naked Pizza 80Chapter 22: Don’t Feed the Trolls 82Chapter 23: Tweetathon 85Chapter 24: Your Website—Old School versus

New School 88Chapter 25: Captchas 99Chapter 26: Experience Gap 102Chapter 27: Raising and Keeping the Bar High—Cirque 105Chapter 28: Stirring Coff ee 108Chapter 29: Experience Gap for Small Biz 115Chapter 30: Using Stop Start Continue 118Chapter 31: Zappos 121Chapter 32: Rockport 126Chapter 33: FreshBooks 129Chapter 34: Why You Can’t Learn From Millionaires 132Chapter 35: Transparency and Authenticity 135Chapter 36: My Transparency on Twitter 137Chapter 37: Your Transparency on Twitter 139Chapter 38: Affi liates 141Chapter 39: Testimonials 143Chapter 40: Best Sellers 145Chapter 41: Why Being a Work-at-Home Mom Is

Bad for Business 147Chapter 42: Hello? Walmart? 149Chapter 43: Idea Creation 151Chapter 44: Idea Delivery 154Chapter 45: Doing In-Person Seminars 159Chapter 46: Tele-Seminars 164Chapter 47: Tele-Summits 168Chapter 48: How and Why I Created a Summit

Ebook Instead 171Chapter 49: Viral Marketing 177Chapter 50: Undercover UnMarketing 201Chapter 51: Putting It Into Practice 207Chapter 52: Lush 210Chapter 53: Trade Shows 212

Social Marketing _9781118839973.indd iiSocial Marketing _9781118839973.indd ii 26-04-2014 18:46:2126-04-2014 18:46:21

Contents

Chapter 54: Social Media at Trade Shows 221Chapter 55: UnNetworking: Why Networking

Events Are Evil 223Chapter 56: Th e Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author 227Chapter 57: Th e UnTour 231Chapter 58: Th e UnEnd 234

THE SCIENCE OF MARKETING

Introduction 1

Part I: Content 7 Chapter 1: E-Books 9 Chapter 2: Webinars 25

Part II: Channels 35 Chapter 3: SEO 37 Chapter 4: Twitter 53 Chapter 5: Facebook 75 Chapter 6: Pinterest 101 Chapter 7: Blogging 109

Part III: Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) 127 Chapter 8: E-Mail Marketing 129 Chapter 9: Lead Generation 153

Part IV Analytics 171 Chapter 10: Analytics 173

BUILD IN SOCIAL

Introduction 1Chapter 1: How the Social Web Works 11Chapter 2: Designing Your Business Around Social 31Chapter 3: Every Business Is Now a Media Company 51Chapter 4: Communities Are the New Markets 75Chapter 5: Meet Your New Business Partners 95Chapter 6: Business Is Now Personal 113

Social Marketing _9781118839973.indd iiiSocial Marketing _9781118839973.indd iii 26-04-2014 18:46:2126-04-2014 18:46:21

Contents

Chapter 7: Social and Local Are Built-In Mobile 131Chapter 8: Creating Digital Marketing Assets 153Chapter 9: Relationship Selling in the Trust Economy 171Chapter 10: Avoiding the Race to the Bottom 189

ENGAGEMENT MARKETING

Part I: Rev Up Your Engagement Marketing Engine 1 Chapter 1: Th e Engagement Marketing Cycle 3 Chapter 2: Deliver a WOW! Experience 17 Chapter 3: Entice to Stay in Touch 31 Chapter 4: Engage People 49 Chapter 5: How Engagement Marketing Drives

New Prospects to Your Door 73

Part II: Get More Business With Engagement Marketing 83 Chapter 6: How Social Visibility Happens 85 Chapter 7: Engagement Marketing in Action:

Real-World Examples 107 Chapter 8: Engagement Marketing Tips and Tricks 133 Chapter 9: Overcoming Common Obstacles 145 Chapter 10: Resources 161

Social Marketing _9781118839973.indd ivSocial Marketing _9781118839973.indd iv 26-04-2014 18:46:2126-04-2014 18:46:21

bindex 03/24/2014 18:56:51 Page 252

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 1

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 2

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 3

Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.

Scott Stratten

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 4

Copyright © 2012 by Scott Stratten. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise,except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, withouteither the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of theappropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers,MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests tothe Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley &Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online athttp://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their bestefforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to theaccuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any impliedwarranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created orextended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies containedherein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional whereappropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any othercommercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or otherdamages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact ourCustomer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at(317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some materialincluded with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version youpurchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more informationabout Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Stratten, Scott.UnMarketing : stop marketing. Start engaging / Scott Stratten.— Rev. and updated.

p. cm.ISBN: 978-1-118-17628-3 (pbk)ISBN: 978-1-118-28842-9 (ebk)ISBN: 978-1-118-28841-2 (ebk)ISBN: 978-1-118-28840-5 (ebk)

1. Relationship marketing. 2. Viral marketing. I. Title.HF5415.55.S76 2012658.8'02–dc23 2011042846

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 5

For UnJunior

ffirs 03/21/2014 15:43:48 Page 6

ftoc 03/21/2014 16:0:15 Page 7

Contents

Introduction xi

1 Hierarchy of Buying 1

2 A Word on Experts 4

3 Trust Gap 7

4 Restaurant That Didn’t Get It 11

5 Cold Calling 15

6 Aiming Your Company at the Bottom of the Barrel 17

7 Pull and Stay 22

8 Reasons Why Companies Don’t Use Social Media 25

9 Social Media (Social Currency as Well) 27

vii

ftoc 03/21/2014 16:0:15 Page 8

10 Twitter versus Facebook versus LinkedIn versus Google+ 30

11 Social Media Platforming 36

12 HARO—Platforming Example 42

13 The Game Has Changed: Immediacy and Relevancy 44

14 Publicized Customer Service 47

15 Don’t Bank on the Bold 53

16 Seven Deadly Social Media Sins 55

17 How Twitter Changed My Business 63

18 Tassimo 69

19 Local Twitter 73

20 Domino’s—Word of Mouth: Mouths Are Moving . . . 77

21 Naked Pizza 80

22 Don’t Feed the Trolls 82

23 Tweetathon 85

24 Your Website—Old School versus New School 88

25 Captchas 99

26 Experience Gap 102

viii CONTENTS

ftoc 03/21/2014 16:0:15 Page 9

27 Raising and Keeping the Bar High—Cirque 105

28 Stirring Coffee 108

29 Experience Gap for Small Biz 115

30 Using Stop Start Continue 118

31 Zappos 121

32 Rockport 126

33 FreshBooks 129

34 Why You Can’t Learn From Millionaires 132

35 Transparency and Authenticity 135

36 My Transparency on Twitter 137

37 Your Transparency on Twitter 139

38 Affiliates 141

39 Testimonials 143

40 Best Sellers 145

41 Why Being a Work-at-Home Mom Is Bad for Business 147

42 Hello? Walmart? 149

43 Idea Creation 151

Contents ix

ftoc 03/21/2014 16:0:15 Page 10

44 Idea Delivery 154

45 Doing In-Person Seminars 159

46 Tele-Seminars 164

47 Tele-Summits 168

48 How and Why I Created a Summit Ebook Instead 171

49 Viral Marketing 177

50 Undercover UnMarketing 201

51 Putting It Into Practice 207

52 Lush 210

53 Trade Shows 212

54 Social Media at Trade Shows 221

55 UnNetworking: Why Networking Events Are Evil 223

56 The Awesomeness of Being a 2.0 Author 227

57 The UnTour 231

58 The UnEnd 234

Acknowledgments 237Index 241

x CONTENTS

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 11

Introduction

“GOOD AFTERNOON!”It was the start of an exchange that would set off a chain of

events that would shift my opinion of a billion-dollar establish-ment with one simple act. Let me explain. It’s no secret I “enjoy”Las Vegas. After going there 15 times in the past four years, I con-sider myself an unofficial tour guide and resident of Sin City.

A place that you definitely cannot miss on the strip is theWynn—very fancy, very pretty, and very expensive. Because theplace cost $2.7 billion to build, I assume selling 99-cent hot dogsisn’t going to make that money back. I really didn’t care about theWynn—not in a negative way, it just wasn’t on my radar. After get-ting comfortable staying at MGM Grand, The Venetian, and otherplaces, I didn’t really see a need to change, until that Saturday.

I had a meeting at the Wynn during the BlogWorld confer-ence. I strolled in through the majestic doors with a friend ofmine. As soon as we walked in, we spotted a man (Wes) using alarge carpet-cleaning machine. He wasn’t in our way, so we reallythought nothing of it, but he thought differently. He stopped whathe was doing. He looked up and smiled. Not one of those “it’s partof my job to smile” ones, but a genuine, warm, authentic smile.

xi

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 12

And then he said, “Good afternoon, and welcome to the Wynn,please enjoy your day,” all the while looking us right in the eye,like it was his mission to ensure that we knew he meant business.

His welcome changed my entire perception of the Wynn.Almost $3 billion went into making this megacasino resort, and itwas one guy who made me want to stay there. He made me want totell the world about it—made me want to blog about it. The carpet-cleaning dude. I have passed hundreds of people cleaning in casinosin Vegas, but I’ve rarely been given eye contact, and not once feltwelcomed. As a matter of fact, I have never, ever been greeted likethat by anyone in Vegas. It is wonderful and sad at the same time.This gentleman, who made me feel welcome at his place of employ-ment, was not only exceptional, but he was extremely rare.

Casinos (and probably most of you in business) all have thesame stuff for the most part. All accountants offer accounting ser-vices, all coffee joints serve coffee, and all five-star resorts havefancy smells, spas, and pretty patterns. But only one resort has Wes.

Marketing is not a task.Marketing is not a department.Marketing is not a job.Marketing happens every time you engage (or not) with your

past, present, and potential customers. UnMarketing also takes itone step further—it is any time anyone talks about your company.Word of mouth is not a project or a viral marketing ploy. Themouths are already moving. You need to decide if you want to be apart of the conversation, which is why I call it UnMarketing—theability to engage with your market. Whether you employ thou-sands or are a one-person show, you are always UnMarketing. It’swhat comes naturally, not being forced to do things that make youill.1 It’s authentic, it’s personal, and it’s the way to build lifelongfans, relationships, and customers.

1*Cough* cold calling *cough*

xii INTRODUCTION

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 13

That’s the one line that you need to believe to UnMarket.If you don’t believe that, return the book. Trash-talk me onTwitter.2 Tell me that cold calling is a great tool if you know howto do it right. Just put the book down.

If you don’t believe that your business is to build relation-ships, then tell me that the foundations of some of the greatestbusinesses in the world were built through cold calling.What worked decades ago does not work as well today, if at all.Getting a 0.2 percent return on your direct mail piece isn’t cut-ting it anymore. Placing an ad multiple times in a newspaper3

because “people have to see something seven times before act-ing” is a crock.4 You need to return this book if you say, “Idon’t have time to build relationships online!” and yet will drive45 minutes to a networking event, stay three hours, and drive 45minutes back home.

You need to read this book if you’ve had enough of the old-school ways of marketing and want to believe there is a betterway. You are the person who wants to believe that if you are yourauthentic self, you have no competition. That even though youmay have thousands of providers in your industry to compete with,you bring unique things to the table (which you do).

Let’s focus on building relationships and still building abusiness instead of throwing aside those who don’t want to buy(Buy or Good-bye) and build lifelong relationships and a

If you believe business is built on relationships, make building themyour business.

2 I’m @UnMarketing, just FYI for a place to point your insults.3 For those reading this in 2020, newspapers were things that used to be delivered door-to-door by kids initially, then by creepy dudes in vans at 4 AM. They were pages of adswith a sprinkle of articles. I know, weird, eh?4 I think that phrase was made up by an advertising sales rep. Brilliant.

Introduction xiii

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 14

profitable lifelong business, today. Being authentic has nothing todo with being cheesy or passive, and you don’t have to sing “WeAre the World” and hold hands. Being authentic means that youfocus on what you bring to the table. That is what separates youfrom others in your industry. If you are your authentic self, thenyou have no competition. I know you have been told to act likeother people, talk like other people, and market like all the peo-ple, but it is time that you unlearned everything and started toUnMarket yourself.

xiv INTRODUCTION

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 15

flast 03/24/2014 18:52:26 Page 16

c01 03/20/2014 17:3:36 Page 1

1Hierarchy of Buying

I SURVEYED MORE than 1,000 business owners to ask “Why do youbuy?” See Figure 1.1 for the results.

When the need arises, customers buy first from people theyknow, trust, and like. The higher on the pyramid you are withyour market, the less competition you have. We take it from thetop down:

■ Current satisfied customer: Obviously, people are going to buyfrom you if they already do and are satisfied. The key term hereis “satisfied.” Even though customers are current, this doesn’tmean they are happy.

■ Referral by a trusted source: The first thing I do when I needsomething I don’t already have is to ask people I know andtrust if they know of a provider, which is easy with sites likeFacebook and Twitter. I can get a pile of recommendations inminutes. Are you on the tip of the tongue when someone asksfor recommendations within your industry?

■ Current relationship but have yet to purchase: Potential cus-tomers know you, trust you, but have yet to buy from you. And

1

c01 03/20/2014 17:3:37 Page 2

that’s okay. The key here is that when they have the need foryour product or service, you are in the front of their minds.

■ Recognized expert in the field: You’ve built a platform and areconsistently in front of potential customers with helpful adviceand tips that relate to your industry. You want your marketto say, “This guy/girl knows what they’re talking about! I needto learn more about them.” If done right, this leads them into“current relationship” status.

■ Search through ads, random searches, and so forth: We getclose to the bottom of the barrel here. Potential customersdon’t know anyone who provides the service, and have nevermet anyone, so they randomly search for a business that canhelp. You’re not only at the mercy of a search engine here, but

Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of Buying: Service-Based Business

2 UNMARKETING

c01 03/20/2014 17:3:37 Page 3

price now becomes a huge decider to the point that you almostbecome a commodity seller. You don’t want to be here.

■ Cold call: Most of your market isn’t sitting around saying “Youknow, I need an accountant to help my growing business, soI’m just going to sit here until someone randomly phones meto offer me that service.” Cold-calling is time-intensive withhorrible results. Companies encourage it because it has a “lowcost” upfront, but what’s the cost of annoying 99 people in arow to potentially talk to someone who may hire you based onno trust and price alone? I’m starting a movement to changethe phrase from “cold-calling” to “telespam.” That will put astop to the courses; no one is going to sell an ebook about“The Top 10 Ways to Better TeleSpam!”1

So the question is simple: Where on the pyramid are you focus-ing your marketing efforts? The lowest point with high com-petition and low margins? Or the middle while aiming to get tothe top?

The main reason people don’t focus on the middle is because ittakes time. There, I admitted it. Building trust takes time. Foster-ing relationships takes time. So if you’re looking to make the quickbuck, go ahead, slide into the greasy bottom level, and enjoy. Justtake a shower afterward.

1 I just jinxed it. Someone is going to write this. I picture a guy with greasy hair who runsmultiple free seminars in hotels about how to get rich quick in a time of recession. I go tothose events just for the free muffins.

Hierarchy of Buying 3

c02 03/20/2014 18:14:15 Page 4

2A Word on Experts

LET’S THINK BACK to what we learned from the hierarchy of buying.To successfully UnMarket your business, your goal should be to getto the point where you are a recognized expert in your field. Youcan choose to be recognized for a certain discipline, whether it istime management or sales or marketing in general. You can alsoaim to be recognized as an expert in a specific industry. What youhave to realize is that there is an important difference betweensomebody who is selling something and somebody who is an expert.This is one of the problems when you use advertising or direct mailfor your marketing: If your potential customers do not have an im-mediate need for your product or service, then you are potentiallyturning them off and losing them for the future. When you positionyourself as an expert with useful information for people, your mar-ketplace will always have a need for that information. You havesuccessfully pulled people into your funnel, you have their atten-tion, and now you need to do something great for them.

Contrary to popular belief, I am not opposed to advertisementsor direct mail. It is just that in general these methods are executed

4

c02 03/20/2014 18:14:15 Page 5

poorly. They are almost always doomed to fail, and companies puttoo much focus on them. Advertising or a listing in the YellowPages or (cough) even a cold call can “work” if whoever is in con-tact with you at that very moment has that exact need. Andtherein lies the problem. You have to blast your message to tens, ifnot hundreds of thousands or even millions, of people in a spraypattern just to try to grab a few. When you position yourself as anexpert in the field, your message is not only in front of people whowant to see it, but they have asked to learn about it.

One of the mistakes I see new business owners make, especiallyin the service industry, is that they don’t consider themselvesexperts. Countless times I’ve talked to new clients who balk at theidea of being known as an expert. They tell me they’re not readyfor that yet. They are adamant that they need to do their worklonger to call themselves an expert in their field.

Webster’s dictionary defines an expert as “having, involving ordisplaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or expe-rience.” You have to be an expert to run your own business. You’renot going to be an accountant or a nutritionist or even a virtualassistant if you don’t know something about your industry. Sure,you may not be the expert in the field, but you can certainly be anexpert.

People who claim to be the top expert in a certain field oftendo it in a way that excludes everyone else. In declaring the topspot, these people claim they know the most and everything thereis to know about a certain thing. Really, nobody can claim that.Most industries are ever-changing and evolving, as are marketingtools. Of course, customers are always changing, too, as are theirneeds. A self-proclaimed expert in social media, the one who saysthat he or she is the expert in social media, in a field that didn’texist a year or two ago, should best be avoided.

Pause when you consider hiring someone who calls themselvesthe expert. I understand because I also get uncomfortable sometimes

A Word on Experts 5

c02 03/20/2014 18:14:15 Page 6

with getting that title of an expert or guru in social media. I amone of the experts in relationship marketing and social media whois a great tool to use for that. But for me to claim that I am theexpert would be doing a disservice to everybody who is involved inthe field.

What is stopping you from calling yourself one of the expertsin your field? Being an expert is not an official designation. Youdon’t get a certificate in the mail, nor do you get a cookie. You arean expert when you say you are one. You know how I became anexpert in relationship marketing or UnMarketing? I said I was one!This doesn’t mean you can become an expert in something youknow nothing about. An expert has experience or training in acertain field. Once you have that base set, if you don’t have theconfidence to call yourself an expert, then you really need to lookat yourself. You have to ask, “Why would my customer try to hireme if I don’t think I’m great at what I do?”

Once you’ve accepted the fact that becoming a recognizedexpert in your field is one of the things you need to do to launchyour business off to a great start, we now focus on the term recog-nized. It doesn’t do anybody any good to be an expert only in yourown mind, although this does happen to many people all the time.You don’t become an expert by just telling people you’re anexpert—people tell you and then they tell others. When you aregreat at what you do, other people will say it for you. So focus onpositioning yourself with the knowledge you’ve obtained and setout to help other people with it unconditionally. Use what I layout in this book to help put you on the right path to not onlypositioning yourself but also staying as a recognized expert in yourfield for a long, long time.

6 UNMARKETING

c03 03/20/2014 18:40:4 Page 7

3Trust Gap

WHY DO YOU buy the things you do? Turn the mirror on yourselffor a minute and think about how you make choices about yourown purchases.

Trust is one of the main drivers of that hierarchy. The higherthe trust, the more likely it is that someone will do business withyou. This is an important point in service-based businessesthat many business owners fail to recognize. One of the biggestchallenges is to get someone to try a service for the first time,so companies offer ways to get you to try it “without risk.”Unfortunately, we often equate this with giving something awayfor free—but this does not always address the issue of trust.

Before speaking at a professional organizers conference, Iresearched a bunch of their websites and noticed that many orga-nizers were offering a “Free Consultation” of their potential cus-tomers’ home organizational needs, to get their foot in the door.By focusing only on price as a barrier to making the first purchase,they were missing something important. Of course, I do understandthat price objection is a legitimate issue with many potential cus-tomers. However, there is also a tremendous trust gap. This is the

7