BMA Marketing’s blog

Another fine idea in Ben Hart's AUTOMATIC MARKETING is to create a list of businesses that are "complementors"!

I emailed 3 business last week. 2 are certainly what I used to call competitors, but as I reviewed their web site I found that we do not really offer the same services!

No response yet.

I also contacted list companies that I buy lists from each time I close a sale. I suggested that I might be able to help their prospects or past customers who are slow to reorder due to being in need of a specific service I offer. If the list company can connect us and I can help their prospect/client, I will need to...order a list from the list company!

Complementors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Complementors is a term used to describe businesses that directly sell a product (or products) or service (or services) that complement the product or service of another company by adding value to mutual customers; for example, Intel and Microsoft (Pentium processors and Windows), or Microsoft & McAfee (Microsoft Windows & McAfee anti-virus).

Complementors are sometimes called "The Sixth Force" (from Porter's Five Forces model), a term which was coined by Adam Brandenburger.

Before its use in business, the word was used to describe a color that is complementory to another color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementors

I had a good experience creating my proof-of-concept video brochure using Windows Movie Maker.

While creating version two, Windows Movie Maker choked on some files. Other users report that the "server error" was not easy to fix.

I found an awesome online video editor called www.JayCut.com

Good news: I used their new beta version two editor and created my version two video brochure in minutes!

Bad news: The v2 editor does not let you save your work!

So, I used a CamStudio.org to do a lame screen recording. My PC choked trying to play and record so the video quality is poor.

I just purchased Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 ($70) and will rebuild version 2 in that app while I wait for JayCut.com to make their version 2 editor live.

I am sure PowerDirector will blow JayCut away, but sometimes having hundreds of options can slow you down. Plus, I don't like installed software since I do marketing night and had to install PowerDirector at home. With JayCut.com I can login from anywhere anytime!

Here's my "version 2 video brochure"...

Resources...
- I used www.jaycut.com  in place of Windows Movie Maker
- images from www.bigstockphoto.com
- video from www.shutterstock.com
- the Excel video was created with freeware www.CamStudio.org
- I lost vid-quality due to my work-around where I captured the JayCut v2 video with the CamStudio app.

Shout out to Ben Hart's book "Automatic Marketing" www.directmarketinginstitute.com for inspiring me to start creating some multimedia marketing.

Very crude version 1 of my "multimedia brochure" is complete.
 I tried not to get bogged down on perfecting the script or trying to find
the perfect images or video clips. My focus was to complete a Version 1 -
asap.
 The plan: now that I have a "version 1", I can tweak and improve as needed.
Next I'll replace the place-holder images and video with licensed content
for a few dollars.

 Here's the simplest creation process I came up with...
- read and record flyer text into Audacity (www.audacity.sourceforge.net)
- drop audio recording into Windows Movie Maker (all Windows PCs have this)
- search www.BigStockPhoto.com for images
- search www.Pond5.com for video clips
- drop images and video that match narration into presentation
- save and upload to www.Youtube.com
- embed video on my website and into my email marketing

 I got a (shocking) quote of $3000 from someone who produces Flash
presentations, so being able to create some sort of multimedia content
within a few hours seems like a good alternative for now.

 Here's the multimedia brochure presentation...
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRsnJKCmwJA

EXCITING NEWS... BMA Marketing is now a consulting Partner & ReSeller of "Automation
Anywhere", an amazingly powerful piece of software that can automate any
kind of computer task, from the most complex to the very simple. Automate Windows applications, Web tasks or legacy applications. It is the
only automation software you will need.
 
Easier automation - No programming required. Create automation by recording
the steps you take. Or, use pre-defined automation templates, point & click
actions & sample tasks make automation effortless.
 
Business users with no programming or IT experience - can use the task
recording feature to record actions without writing scripts. Or use
pre-defined automation templates to create an intelligent, automated task in
minutes.
 
 
MY STORY...
 
I have a long history with Automation Anywhere, having used it years ago. I
meant to get my business a copy of this wonderful tool a long time ago, and
it's embarrassing how many issues I have cleared up in the last few days
since putting Automation Anywhere to work...
 
- I had 500+ fax numbers that needed to be moved from one system to
another...done.
 
- My QuickBooks system can now update my CRM, and vice versa...wow!
 
What's next? I have a bunch of failed fax numbers and email addresses that I
can now create a process around. The Automated Task will step through the
failure messages, locate the related contact records in my contact database
(CRM) and flag the fax/email as invalid and in need of research by my staff.
If the contact has spent money in the past, I could even have the automation
take another step and send a letter by US Mail letting them know that my
recent communication attempts have failed and that we need to talk and get
an update on their contact info - and current needs!
 
 
PLEASE SEND PROBLEMS MY WAY...
 
If you know of any businesses that are performing REPETITIVE time-consuming
tasks (invoicing, event management, email marketing, etc.) manually on their
computers over and over...please have them call or email me - you'll be a
hero for helping them find a way to eliminate productivity killing tasks.
 
Let's AUTOMATE!
 
Chris
 
Chris Swanson
BMA Marketing
800-603-3985 Ext 42

Find out why offering customers coupons or giving them free products is beneficial for your business.

While the name guerrilla marketing was conceived in 1980 with the first guerrilla marketing book, there is evidence of guerrilla marketers way before that. In 1895, C. W. Post, the cereal manufacturer, offered the first money-off coupon ever issued in the United States. The one-cent off coupon came with Grape Nuts cereal. By turn of the century standards, this was very guerrilla-ish, and a lot of money. Today the use of coupons has grown so much that consumers have saved over $4 billion dollars since coupons were invented. Not bad for just a little clipping and redemption. Coupons bring a consumer to a business to spend more than the incentive cost of the coupon. That's the basic concept of using coupons. That's guerrilla marketing.

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