Author Archive

As it turns out, plenty! I went to a Boston Red Sox game with my family this weekend and, in between buying outrageously priced $6 hotdogs and $5 Cokes, I thought about what America’s past-time has in common with marketing. I know, you may think it’s a bit of a stretch, but these simple analogies are actually pretty obvious…

1. Keep your eye on the ball – Let’s start with the most apparent. It takes an intense focus and concentration to hit a 90 mile-per-hour fastball. You’ve got to have the same kind of deliberate attention to your business and your marketing efforts. Don’t take your eye off the ball!

2. Be (baseball) ready – During every single pitch, I noticed infielder Dustin Pedroia go into his “baseball ready” stance. On his toes, ready to respond, and completely ready for anything that might be hit his way. Are you paying attention in your business? Are you nimble, prepared and ready to react?

3. Swing for the fences – It’s rare that you see a wimpy, half-assed swing in the major leagues. These guys are playing like they mean it! In your marketing efforts and in your business in general, you’ve got to take big swings. If you want to hit home runs, you’ve got to swing for the fences!

4. Work as a team – No matter how good the individuals on the team are, it’s the team that wins ballgames. While this is painfully obvious, you need to ask yourself how teamwork can benefit you. Are you developing relationships and joint ventures? Are you leveraging your partnerships? How can you use the combined efforts of your team to win?

5. Have a game plan – While pro ball players may make it look effortless, they never take the field without a game plan in place. Baseball, like business, is a game of strategy. Plan ahead. Study the competition. Know your strengths and weaknesses. And most important, execute.

6. Focus on fundamentals – While at the Sox game, my son asked me why “Big Papi” still takes hitting practice. If you want to be the best, I explained to him, you’ve got to be great at the basics. You’re never too good to practice, and it starts with the fundamentals.

7. How you play the game is how you play in life – This was another “life lesson” moment for my son. The players he most admires are the guys who are as great off the field as they are on the field. You’ve got to bring your “A” game every day, both in business and in life!

8. Never give up – The guys in the “bigs,” as they call the Major League, understand that it ain’t over til it’s over. To succeed as an entrepreneur, you’re going to need that same kind of dogged persistence and determination. The Red Sox have become famous for 9th inning heroics and come-from-behind victories. Take a page from their playbook and keep playing hard all the way through!

9. Be aggressive – Good ball players hustle. They run hard. They act quickly. They don’t let up. How are you playing in your business? Can you put in even more effort? Can you push a little harder?

10. Use a variety of “weapons” – A winning baseball team like the Red Sox uses many different ways to win. They have a variety of weapons in their arsenal: hitting, pitching, defense, bench strength, late inning rallies. Are you using an assortment of marketing weapons in your business? Look for ways to add some depth to your playbook and don’t rely on just one or two methods.

The Red Sox won the game we attended, but I can’t say I’m surprised. The defending World Series Champions do a lot of things right, and they find a way to win. Follow their lead and your business should be off to a winning season!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Sign up for Lou’s free mini audio course about using Online Video at http://www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com.

by Lou Bortone, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach & Video Whiz

As a former television producer and video editor, I’ve got some deep-seated beliefs about video quality. After 20 years in TV, old habits die hard. To me, a “jump-cut,” or video where the scene or frame “jumps” or cuts without a smooth transition, is the cardinal sin of video. In traditional television, jump cuts or bad transitions are simply unacceptable. That’s why we use devices like cut-aways and B-roll (background footage)

But online video is totally different. Anything goes. Quality takes a distant back seat to content. Even those dreaded jump cuts seem to be tolerated. I can’t fight back the tide any longer. I give up! I guess I was wrong to insist on broadcast quality when it comes to online video. After all, sometimes I just use a $35 web cam. And my only “real” video camera is a cool, little $150 “Flip” cam. (OK, so my video partner has a professional $15,000 camera!) Still, I’m finally willing to drop the quality argument and join the online video masses.

The thing about web video is that it’s easy and accessible – so anyone can play! The medium is the message, as sixties scholar Marshall McLuhan once said about traditional television. And when it comes to online video, only the message matters.

It’s not easy for a former TV producer to say this, but don’t worry about the quality of your online video. Just fire up your web cam and join the party. Jump in. Upload to YouTube. Put your face on facebook. Online video is guerrilla marketing at its core: Fast. Easy. Inexpensive. And driven by imagination more than technology.

Want an even cooler, easier way to send and receive video postcards at the click of the mouse? Stay tuned and watch this space for a really big announcement about a new environment that leverages the best of Web 2.0 innovations like online video. It’s going to change the way we collaborate and communicate!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Sign up for Lou’s free mini audio course about using Online Video at http://www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com.

By Lou Bortone, The “Online Branding Guy”

In a recent Guerrilla Marketing Coaching class, we focused on the power of fusion marketing, a.k.a. joint ventures or strategic alliances. The concept of collaboration could not have been proven any more appropriately than with Mitch Meyerson’s brilliant Amazon.com campaign for his new book, Mastering Online Marketing.

Mitch practiced exactly what he preaches and coordinated a series of perfect partnerships, skillfully leveraging the power of collaboration and cooperation. The campaign resulted in Mitch’s book hitting the top spot on three different Amazon bestseller lists. And as anyone who has ever published or marketed a book will attest, this is no small accomplishment.

My colleague and fellow Guerrilla Marketer Monroe Mann is another excellent example of someone who uses fusion marketing to make a bigger bang. Monroe teamed up with Jay Conrad Levinson to co-author Guerrilla Networking. Anytime you can partner with the father of Guerrilla Marketing, and tap into the power of an incredible brand, you’re on the right track!

In an effort to model the masters, I’m now dipping my toes into the inviting waters of fusion marketing. After connecting with Monroe Mann in a Product Factory class, we stayed in touch and bounced a few ideas off each other. As a result, we worked together to co-author Battle Cries for the Hollywood Underdog, the entertainment industry edition of Monroe’s Battle Cries book series.

The possibilities for joint ventures are truly endless, and the final result is always exponentially more powerful than going it alone. And when you play well together, you end up playing a much bigger game!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Sign up for Lou’s free mini audio course about using Online Video at http://www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com.

By Lou Bortone, Your Online Branding Guy and Guerrilla Marketing Coach in training

Everyone is telling me to get over it and move on but, for me…well, I have to find a lesson in everything. Super Sunday is over and will be soon forgotten, but the only thing that can take the sting out of this football fan’s disappointment is to find a way to learn something from it.

So, like 97.5 million other people (second most watched show in US TV history), I watched in disbelief as the New York Giants stunned my 18 – 0 New England Patriots. It’s being called the biggest upset in sports history. Records were supposed to be shattered, but the only things broken on Super Sunday were the hearts of loyal Pats fans.

What can Guerrilla Marketers learn from this historic sports lesson? How can we apply this to our businesses and our brands? What are the “weapons” the Giants used that entrepreneurs can adapt? Here’s my take-away from the game:

1. It pays to be the underdog – Fly under the radar and you may surprise everyone!
2. There’s no such thing as a sure thing – Just ask the Vegas odds-makers and sportscasters.
3. Use “shock and awe” to overwhelm your competition – The Giants put incredible pressure on Tom Brady, sacking him five times. What can you do to shake up the marketplace?
4. Use your full arsenal of weapons – One of the pillars of Guerrilla Marketing philosophy is to use a variety of marketing weapons. Look how the Giants used every element of the game – passing, rushing, defense and more – to dominate.
5. Unleash a relentless attack – The Giants kept coming back at the Pats, again and again and again. Their never surrender attitude is an example you should use in your business.
6. Take a page from the competition’s playbook – On the final, winning drive of the game, the Giants looked like, well, the New England Patriots! What can you learn from your competitors?
7. A win is a win is a win – It doesn’t have to be pretty, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. Learn as you go, make adjustments, and find a way to win!

Guerrilla marketers take heed! Past performance is no guarantee of future results, as they say in the stock market. You’ve got to bring your A-game every day. There’s always a way to outfox your competition, no matter how invincible they may seem.

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Visit his websites and blogs at www.LouBortone.com.

One of the very first things you learn in the Guerrilla Marketing Coaching Program is that EVERY contact with your customers and prospects is marketing. Each and every point of contact – from the way you answer your phone to your e-mail signature to your website to those goofy photos you posted on Facebook – makes up your personal brand. All of it! If you don’t believe me, just Google yourself and see what you’ve put “out there.” (You can be sure that everyone else who is considering working with you is already Googling you!)

Okay, now as soon as you pull those not-so-flattering New Year’s Eve party photos down off of Facebook or Flickr, take inventory of your personal brand to ensure that you’re sending the right marketing message. How are you putting yourself out there? Is your marketing consistent? Is it intentional? Is it professional? Is there continuity in all of your marketing materials?

If you’re a copywriter and your e-mails are riddled with typos because you were just “zipping off a casual note,” what kind of message does that send? If you’re starting up a business but your e-mail address is still “Schmoopie102,” who’s going to take you seriously as an entrepreneur?

In the age of viral videos and social marketing, we’ve got to be more vigilant than ever about how we brand ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world. Obviously, this applies to our print materials, business cards, products and packaging. But it also goes for the way we act, communicate and conduct ourselves. (Jamie Lynn Spears, are you listening? So much for your “Britney’s sweet, squeaky-clean little sister” brand!)

You’ve got to guard your personal brand like you’re in a casino with hundreds of cameras trained on you. Think back to that scene in the remake of “Oceans 11” with Julia Roberts and Andy Garcia. Casino mogul Terry Benedict gets caught on camera betraying Tess and he loses her, because – in his casino – “someone’s always watching.” Same is true on the wonderful world wide web, so mind your brand!

Oh, and please don’t visit my Facebook page until I have a chance to pull those photos!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Visit his websites and blogs at www.LouBortone.com.

As Guerrilla Marketers, we are (or at least we should be) acutely aware of the lifetime value of a customer. We know that it costs six times more to sell something to a prospect than it does to sell to an existing customer. So what are the true costs of a lost customer? If you’ve lost a client due to poor customer service, you’ve not only lost that sale, but likely future sales from that customer. But the true costs go well beyond that one dissatisfied customer.

It used to be that if a customer had a bad experience, they’d tell a handful of people. Today, in the Internet age, that one customer’s wrath can go viral and spread like wildfire. The damage to the “offending” company can be devastating. Take the well-documented tale of “Dell Hell.” In case you hadn’t heard of that PR disaster, journalist and blogger Jeff Jarvis had some misfortune with a Dell laptop, and his experience was so bad that he blogged about it. Word of the Dell Hell incident mushroomed, and soon the Internet was littered with similar complaints vilifying Dell. The public outcry became so loud that it got the attention of CEO Michael Dell, who eventually sat down with Jarvis to try to make peace.

Although that particular story had a relatively happy ending, with Dell going on to address the complaints and become much more proactive in the area of customer service, you can only imagine the millions of dollars in lost sales due to the terrible press. One man’s bad experience – a single, lost customer – led to a firestorm of negative publicity and lost customers for Dell.

Next time you’re wondering what one customer is worth, think about Dell Hell and the true costs of an unhappy customer. It can mean the difference between a lifetime of ka-chings or a lifetime of disappearing dollars!

Lou Bortone, your online branding guy (www.OnlineBrandingGuy.com)

How to turn your website into a TV channel with video blogs

by Lou Bortone

Online video, video blogs, vlogs or vodcasts are all different names for the same basic concept: Using the Internet to broadcast a video message. As an advertising and promotion tool, online video continues to explode in popularity. Putting video on your Web site or blog is a low-cost way to get in on the “Online Video Revolution” and differentiate your product or service. And it’s never been easier or less expensive! There are several ways you can use your own “TV channel” on the web:

• Tape a personal introduction or welcome message for your website
• Publicize or highlight a special product offer or company promotion
• Share company news, updates or executive briefings with your customers
• Use your video for product demos or training
• Videotape customer testimonials to generate new business

Shooting: Of course, before you can jump into Online Video, you have to have a video! Fortunately, this has never been easier. What you use to shoot your video depends on your goals, budget and available equipment. Since your video is headed to the web, quality is less of an issue than if the final product was for TV. Web video can be shot with a standard consumer camcorder or, you can even capture your video using an inexpensive webcam. Remember, your final product is only going to be as good as your raw footage, so shoot more footage than you think you’ll need and get several different takes and angles.

Digitizing: Next, you’ve got to get your footage into your computer in order to format it for uploading to the Internet. In most cases, you can just connect your camcorder directly to your computer and transfer the footage right into your editing program. Then, get your video Internet-ready with the editing/movie software that came with your computer, such as iMovie on the Mac and Windows Movie Maker for the PC. For a more professional product, you could upgrade to Final Cut Pro for the Mac or Adobe Premiere for the PC. Once the footage is “digitized” in your editing system, you can optimize it by saving the file as a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 video file. (Some systems will give you additional options, such as saving your video as a Flash file).

Vlogging: Although you can post your video on free video hosting sites, you’ll need to set up a blog account if you want to create your very own video blog. You can set up a free blog very easily at Blogger.com. Other blog platforms include Movable Type, TypePad and WordPress. Once you’ve got your blog platform, you’ll be able to create posts – including video.

Bringing it home (to your website!): Most online video hosting sites also allow you to copy the HTML code and “embed” the video into your own blog or web page. Take the video you’ve posted on YouTube or Blip.tv, for example, and just cut and paste the HTML code they provide for your video right into your blog’s HTML editor. There are more advanced methods, but using “embed” codes is fast and free!

Tips &Tactics:

Finally, here are a few special considerations for web video:

• Since your screen is typically much smaller on the web, avoid wide shots with a lot of people in them. It just doesn’t translate well on the Internet.
• Avoid pans and zooms. Rapid movement is harder to watch on a smaller screen.
• Keep it simple. Don’t go crazy with a lot of titles and graphics. They may be too small to be effective.
• Keep it short – Less is more on the “short-attention-span” Internet!

For a quick-start demo of uploading video to YouTube in under three minutes, check out this brief Camtasia video at: http://onlinevideoguy.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/video-upload-demo/ Then just experiment by posting your own video online and you’ll soon see how easy it can be. I look forward to seeing you online!

© 2007 Lou BortoneLou Bortone is an award-winning writer, marketer and television producer who spent over 20 years in the television industry, including several years as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide in
L.A. Today, Lou specializes in helping entrepreneurs create breakthrough video for the Internet. Email Lou at lou@theonlinevideoguy.com or visit http://www.theonlinevideoguy.com