I took this line from Clayton Makepeace, but we truly believe in his words.  I was taught something similar a long long time ago – STORIES SELL and FACTS TELL.

“Nothing sells better than a GREAT story your customers can share on your behalf. And your job as the marketer is to find a signature story worthy of telling.

The ability to tell a great story is easily learnable, and is something you should consider a must in today’s business environment.”

Just take note the next time you read, listen or watch any online, TV, radio, magazine, newspaper ad. (or maybe just look at your advertising copy….opps did I just right that).  Are you telling YOUR STORY or spurting off facts.

Thanks for the nuggets (and trip down memory lane) Clayton.

Here is just another very cool example of how an Ontario golf course is using social media to create some free press, offer value to potential customers, and maybe just maybe close some business. (there is no maybe here – they are driving in customers to their cash register).

We came across a great website today called paywithatweet.com Here is the summary from their site:

In today’s world the value of people talking about your product is sometimes higher than the money you would get for it. ‘Pay with a Tweet’ is the first social payment system, where people pay with the value of their social network.

It’s simple, every time somebody pays with a tweet, he or she tells all their friends about the product. Boom.

It seems like a great concept. We haven’t tried it out yet, but we’re planning on it. We’ll let you know how it goes. Better yet, give it a try yourself. If you’ve all ready tried it let us know your thoughts.

Ever wonder what the difference between Traditional Marketing and Modern Marketing?

Marketing in a nutshell is creating awareness and demand for products/services.   The Traditional marketing in a quick overview was a manufacturer with a product or service – a bunch of middleman including traditional advertising (print, radio, tv) and customers. Roughly 65% of all the money in the product mark up was spent within all those middlemen.

Modern marketing has a manufacturer and consumers.  There is the direct to consumer route.  The middlemen are still there but have been simplified and have undergone lots of changes.  Publicity through modern communication tools (print, tv, radio, cell mobile, internet) are providing the end consumers convenience and ease of getting information about a product or service.  The mark up costs to consumer has decreased because of the consumer’s ease of getting access to the product without all the middlemen.