Frenzy: 55 Big Marketing Ideas to Acquire Customers and Supercharge Your Sales

By John Thomasen

Need help with your Marketing? Want to jumpstart your Sales and User Acquisition? Look no further than Frenzy: 55 Big Marketing Ideas to Acquire Customers and Supercharge Your Sales.

Frenzy provides insights into the marketing programs of some of the world's most successful companies, including eBay, TiVo, and Fujitsu. From Strategy, Branding, Online Marketing, Viral Marketing, Positioning, Promotions, and more, Frenzy covers it all in a straightforward manner that is clear and actionable.

"Many real-world examples that will benefit any marketer."
-Business Week

"A fantastic book packed with genius ideas you can use immediately to improve your marketing...Thomasen knows marketing inside and out."
-Silicon Valley Business Journal

"Frenzy provides many great examples of successful programs from the top brands in the world."
-Financial Times

"Don't waste another minute! Get this book and learn techniques that will accelerate your business."
-San Jose Mercury News

Included are the following 55 big marketing ideas:

Strategy
1. Copy the Dallas Cowboys
2. Cause a Riot
3. Focus
4. What is Marketing?
5. Reductionist's Nugget
6. Understand the Situation
7. Limit Choices
8. Outsource Everything

Market Research
9. Understand Your Margins
10. The Value of a Customer
11. I Hate Surveys
12. I Love Surveys
13. ROI is Almost Meaningless
14. The Truth about Testing

Brand Marketing
15. Tell Me a Story
16. Are Brands Important?
17. Swarm Them
18. Is There a Point?
19. How to Increase Mobile User Acquisition 2147%
20. Design Matters
21. How to Triple Traffic for No Extra Cost
22. Personas Place People with a Product
23. Acronyms
24. Learn from Vitamin Water

Positioning
25. Find Your Position
26. Reward Yourself
27. Inside Out
28. How to Triple Sales at a Major Computer Company
29. The Revitalization of TiVo

Promotions
30. Pay the Customer, Not the Media Company
31. Incentives Work
32. Keep Loyalty Programs Simple
33. Sweepstakes Work
34. Start Near the Finish Line

Viral Marketing
35. The 3 Ms of Viral Marketing
36. The Real Psychology of Viral Marketing
37. Hack Your Growth

Advertising
38. Give Me the Features
39. People Remember Images
40. Dramatic Visuals
41. Stopping Power

Online Marketing
42. The Best SEO Idea Ever
43. The Key to Retargeting
44. Alternative Keywords for Search
45. The Great SEM Lab
46. How Not to do Content Marketing
47. How to do Content Marketing
48. What's Important in Affiliate Marketing
49. The 20% Rule of Social Media Marketing
50. Does Email Matter?
51. Don't Stress Over CPM, CPC, and CPA

At the Workplace
52. Leverage the Knowledge of Others
53. Involve Everyone in Marketing
54. The Best Question You Can Ever Ask
55. How to Run an Effective Meeting

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Thomasen
• Release date: Nov 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9780972016391

John Thomasen

John Thomasen is the author of John's Marketing Gems, John's Online Marketing Gems, and Frenzy: 55 Big Marketing Ideas to Acquire Customers and Supercharge Your Sales. Thomasen is a Silicon Valley marketing veteran who has launched highly-successful marketing programs at some of the biggest and best brands in the world, including eBay, TiVo, and Fujitsu, as well as various high-tech startups.

Book preview

Many real-world examples that will benefit any marketer.

-Business Week

A fantastic book packed with genius ideas you can use immediately to improve your marketing…Thomasen knows Marketing inside and out.

-Silicon Valley Business Journal

Frenzy provides many great examples of successful programs from the top brands in the world.

-Financial Times

Don't waste another minute! Get this book and learn techniques that will accelerate your business.

-San Jose Mercury News

Frenzy

55 Big Marketing Ideas to Acquire Customers and Supercharge Your Sales

John Thomasen

Author of John's Marketing Gems and John's Online Marketing Gems

Published by John Thomasen at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 John Thomasen

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN# 978-0-9720163-9-1

Contents

Introduction: Why Frenzy?

Strategy

Copy the Dallas Cowboys

Cause a Riot

Focus

What is Marketing?

Reductionist's Nugget

Understand the Situation

Limit Choices

Outsource Everything

Market Research

Understand Your Margins

The Value of a Customer

I Hate Surveys

I Love Surveys

ROI is Almost Meaningless

The Truth about Testing

Brand Marketing

Tell Me a Story

Are Brands Important?

Swarm Them

Is There a Point?

How I Increased Mobile User Acquisition 2147%

Design Matters

How I Tripled Traffic for No Extra Cost

Personas Place People with a Product

Acronyms

Learn from Vitamin Water

Positioning

Find Your Position

Reward Yourself

Inside Out

How I Tripled Sales at a Major Computer Company

How I Helped Revitalize TiVo

Promotions

Pay the Customer, Not the Media Company

Incentives Work

Keep Loyalty Programs Simple

Sweepstakes Work

Start Near the Finish Line

Viral Marketing

The 3 Ms of Viral Marketing

The Real Psychology of Viral Marketing

Hack Your Growth

Advertising

Give Me the Features

People Remember Images

Dramatic Visuals

Stopping Power

Online Marketing

My Best SEO Idea Ever

Retargeting

Alternative Keywords for Search

The Great SEM Lab

How Not to do Content Marketing

How to do Content Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

The 20% Rule of Social Media Marketing

Does Email Matter?

Don't Stress Over CPM, CPC, and CPA

At the Workplace

Leverage the Knowledge of Others

Involve Everyone in Marketing

The Best Question You Can Ever Ask

How to Run an Effective Meeting

Introduction: Why Frenzy?

You know those wild stories that pop up each year about what happens at retail stores on the day after Thanksgiving. The all-night camping, the broken windows, the fights in line, all in the hope of getting that flat screen television for $199, or securing that toy that will bring a smile to your child's face. (By the way, remember the Tickle Me Elmo toy, and how parents went crazy to get that item. Now there are probably thousands of them stuffed in landfills across the country.)

Much of the conduct that takes place during this shopping period is reprehensible, and I certainly don't condone it, but from a marketing perspective, there is a lot of good work that goes in to creating such a frenzied shopping atmosphere.

I used to tell co-workers that I wanted to create a marketing campaign so good that it would cause a riot. I wasn't interested in launching a campaign that a group of prospects might find simply compelling, but rather something that would cause people to lose their mind a little, go hysterical, and go out of their way to get whatever it was that we were promoting.

I jokingly suggested that if consumers came to our corporate headquarters and demanded to speak to the CEO because they did not get the offer being advertised, then we will know that we have succeeded.

Certainly I was being facetious with the riot part, as well as hoping people would come to our office, but the goal was absolutely to put something out there that would generate a frenzy at the very least.

I wanted to name this book Cause a Riot because I feel that the Holy Grail of Marketing is to elicit this sort of euphoric, visceral response from a group of prospects. Also, metaphorically speaking, using a word such as riot seems more compelling than using a standard marketing acronym such as AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action)

But ultimately I felt that such a title might be slightly insensitive, so I settled on the word Frenzy.

…

A marketer's dream is to have a product or service that is so great and so loved that you can just stand back and watch the customers pour in. The frenzy, if you will, takes care of itself in these instances.

Think of In-N-Out Burger on the West Coast of the United States. It's an institution. I can't think of a time when I've driven past an In-N-Out restaurant and there hasn't been a line wrapping itself around the building. Or how about Apple, and the reaction that their customers have to new product introductions. You literally have to take a number to gain entrance to an Apple store in the Bay Area of California.

Unfortunately, we can't all be so lucky, and are forced to get very good with our marketing in order to sell our products and services. This book is for those marketers; those that need an injection of creativity and spark to go along with their skills.

Perhaps what you need is better messaging, better targeting, a more refined position, new visuals, a big promotion, or something else that will get prospects to notice who you are, like your products, and get them to take action and become customers. I lay out ideas for all of those topics in this book, because I have been in these situations often in my career.

I hope that you will find something in this book that will help take your business to the next level. Let's get started.

STRATEGY

Copy the Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys football team was dominant in the early 1990s, winning a few Super Bowls and creating a dynasty that few other teams have ever matched.

What made them so good? Was it their star-studded roster of Hall-of-Fame players? Was it their coaching? Did they have better facilities? Did the refs give them favorable calls?

I am sure all of these things contributed in one way or another to the success of the Dallas Cowboys, but the most important thing they did was execute their game plan, and in doing so out-executed their opponents.

The Cowboys did not outthink their competition-like so many in football feel must be done-and create numerous trick plays and intricate offensive and defensive schemes. No, the Cowboys had a very simple game plan. In fact, it can be said their offensive playbook consisted of only four plays: An Emmitt Smith run to the right, an Emmitt Smith run to the left, a slant pass to wide-receiver Michael Irvin, and a hook pass to tight-end Jay Novacek. That's it. Everyone in the stadium, including the opposing team, knew what the Cowboys were going to do, but they still could not stop them because Dallas was able to execute with near perfection.

I often bring up this story of the Dallas Cowboys to Marketers who insist on being overly-creative; who feel that execution is boring, and that the big idea is in creation, not execution.

You do not need to have an amazing marketing plan, or a bunch of creative programs, channels, or messages to be an effective marketer. First of all, if you need to get that creative with what you are trying to sell, then