When I started my blog a few years ago, I thought it could be a great tool to financial independence. After many years that included sleepless nights, the generated revenue from Pay Per Click advertising is too low to pay for anything. I read about many bloggers that are making big money. Is making money from blogs just a gimmick?

Blogs are tricky. While most of the top blogs as ranked by Technorati fall under politics, news, technology and gadgets, you’ll find some generic social blogs that offer variety of content. So, is there a winning formula? Yes, don’t look for one. Having said that, there are few essentials that you need to know and work by. First, the key to a successful blog is to write from the heart. You will enjoy the experience, which will reflect on your posts and on your readers accordingly. Second, if your blog attracts segments of people that are attractive to promote to advertisers, consider annual advertising contracts instead of Pay Per Click since you don’t have the volume. Just make sure that your content doesn’t end up promoting or criticizing the advertisers not to lose your integrity.

Third, contrary to many advices out there, don’t worry so much about marketing your blog. If your content is different and is worth promoting, the public will spread it on your behalf. Finally, stand out. Blogs that write about food, politics, and other popular topics are common. But if that’s where your passion is, then make your style pop. Otherwise, you’re not giving readers a reason to become loyal. Of course, you need to keep it real; if you’re blogging about what social humiliation of slow ants might be like, don’t expect to be ranked one of the top ten very soon…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: media vs. advertisers
• want culture? visit museums. this is business
• two cents: war at work

People in this market are lazy. We invite customers and consumers to attend our products launches but they don’t show up. What can we do to get some attention?

We all read about the same boring corporate releases about a product launch or a new promo event. We all see the pictures that accompany these articles. You know, the ones with some executive management cutting a ribbon, pulling a fabric away to reveal the product, or my favorite, using flashing lights and smoke machines. Hurray! And we wonder why customers lose interest in attending or why the press is not eager about the event! How can anyone get energized about such events, seriously?

The first step towards exciting the public to attend an event is to have an exciting event. Let go of all the used and abused ideas. Get creative. If you don’t know how, ask a group of some newly hired young employees – even if they were from different departments – to create a taskforce and brainstorm for the launch. Fresh minds can add great value. This is a good alternative if you can’t hire a professional event management company – underline the word ‘professional’. The second step to increase attendance is to create interest and excitement in the way you promote the event and in the way you invite your audience. If you’re not excited about it, why should they? How do you know if you’re coming up with different ideas? If whatever concept you come with has been done before, it should be left alone…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: saying no without the ‘no’ part
• two cents: no country for old bankers
• two cents: to care or not to care

Almost for the entire retail market, summer season means sale, discounts and promotions. The financial crisis forced us to lower our prices below the norm. We can’t afford to go lower one more time. And if we don’t, competition will. We’re stuck. What do you think?

Once upon a time, there was one grocery store in each neighborhood selling soap, cheese, bread and oil. When customers wanted soap, they asked for… you guessed it, soap! There were no ‘brands’. But then, competition got involved and ‘brands’ were developed to help customers differentiate between products. With time, customers couldn’t see the difference between these products so they went by price. This is where the first war price was ever born. As prices started to go down, maintaining healthy margins that can help the companies to grow became almost nonexistent. When the situation got so unbearable, brands focused on adding more value to their products so they can justify increasing the price.

Slowly, the rest of the market started to follow and before you knew it brands were competing on benefits and features, value, lifestyle and experience. This cycle repeats itself every now and then for different reasons and influences. This time, it’s the financial crisis that caused the dip in margins. If you want to get out of it, don’t focus on price. Focus on introducing new products, adding more value and on developing unique customer experiences. And if you feel that a promo is an avoidable, make them fun and engaging so that customers gladly pay you…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: sales target blues
• two cents: I say quality, you say price
• two cents: crisis? freeze

When we emailed people on our list about our new product only once or twice the response rate was very low. But when we started to send them multiple emails about different products some complained about the volume of emails and others opted out from the list. What can we do to manage email marketing more effectively?

As with food, your brand communication can be like gourmet restaurants where they are visited less often while their offering is filling and memorable. Alternatively, your emails can be like fast greasy food; nice at the beginning but heartburning after having it a number of times in the week. Which direction you take depends on your brand’s journey, but you know what fast food can do to your health! Email Marketing rarely works from just one email. Sometimes, it goes to the junk box, gets overlooked, or gets deleted by mistake. And this is why many brands repeat their email communication several times. Smart brands, however, get creative in repackaging the content to test different ways of capturing their target’s attention.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean that your readers won’t see through it, and in time, will react the same way they do to repeated emails of the same layout. Consider other techniques like using email as a teasing tool with links to the material rather than pushing an online brochure in one email. You may also want to consider mixing offline with online so you don’t overdo emails. All in all, regardless of the frequency or approach you choose, just remember that you’re not the only brand communicating with your prospects and customers. Living in the information age has its advantages, but it also makes people easily have ‘communication overload’; so balance is key…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: you’ve got ephoto!
• two cents: born to email
• we behave online today like the 1950s

We want to create a sound for our brand like Microsoft when you open the computer or like Zain and McDonalds at the end of their commercials. We gave this job to our advertising agency and we sat with studios and musicians. Nothing worked. Who can do this?

You went to the butcher and asked him to sell you a wedding dress. The butcher didn’t want to let you down so he cleaned his white apron, added a couple of sleeves from his own white shirt and gave it to you after spraying some of his wife’s perfume on it. That’s what happened. And that’s why you couldn’t get what you’re looking for. Specialization exists in the world for a reason. Advertising agencies should handle only advertising. PR agencies should do only PR. Branding agencies should do only branding. Sounds logical and common sense, yet not many agencies apply it.

Most agencies look at the local market as too small to be specialized and that’s why many of them prefer to be full service agencies. Unfortunately, many full service agencies outsource the jobs quite often not to the right provider. What you’re looking for is agencies that are specialized in soundscape, a sound designed to introduce, enhance or remind the audience of the brand experience; known also as sound logos, soundmarks, and more. While Sound Agencies are a few around the world and their work can be quite costly, if you’re managing a large-scale brand, you might want to consider investing in a sense that only a few brands play on…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• we behave online today like the 1950s
• two cents: two brothers, a location &
  a restaurant
• two cents: the small planner

Advertising is costing more and more everyday across different media types. In some cases, the price is triple what it used to be a few years ago. No matter how much we increase our budget every year it just seems to be not enough. Any advice?

I’ll take both sides on this one. First, I’ll wear the hat of the Media Entrepreneur. Media companies participate in governmental bids and tenders to win the right to use certain spaces for advertising purposes. This process happens every few years and the bids keep increasing, which means advertisers have to pay for that increase. Other media companies are just too large to keep cost down. As they aim to compete in the market for the advertisers’ budget share they have to hire more staff, renew their equipment, and find new ways to attract you and others to spend your budget with them. Again, someone has to pay for it; and that’s you, Mr. Advertiser.

Now, I’ll wear the hat of the Mighty Advertiser. The only fixed aspect in life is change. Market trends change. People’s tastes change. Products and services change. Why should Media planning remain the same? If a certain media is eating your budget alive, drop it. And don’t say, “What about the competition?” You know that each brand has its own positioning. You don’t have to be where your competitors are. One of the best words you should remember in business (and you can use it to name one of your kids too. I won’t judge) is differentiation. Think of different ways to communicate with your customers. Imagine you’re banned from that media or your budget was cut in half. You’ll have to think differently then. Why wait? Think differently today…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: social media in developing countries
• two cents: where’s my money, blog?
• two cents: quotations, bids and no contracts

Everyone is talking about Online Marketing and how cost effective it is. We tried Email Marketing by using the same newspaper ad to maintain consistency, but we had no strong results? Is Email Marketing a myth?

Far from it. Email is one of the most effective tools of Digital Marketing, but only when done right. However, the most common form of Email Marketing spreading in Kuwait is the one that shouldn’t be used, which is the exact same exercise your company tried; make a photo file of the print ad and give it to one of those so called database companies to invade hundreds of thousands of innocent users’ email accounts. No wonder it doesn’t work. Email Marketing is NOT photos of print ads; consistency doesn’t mean ‘sameness’ of visuals. It’s not mass emails to a list of individuals who didn’t give their contacts and permission to be contacted.

Email Marketing is an opportunity to engage and delight customers and consumers who gave you permission to email them with tools that can’t be applied offline. Take advantage of technology: Create video and/or audio material and link your email content to it; give advice; educate; entertain; research; reward and involve loyal enthusiasts to help bring your brand to life. Can every business do all these activities and should they? Of course not! Be selective but get busy online. Kuwait has over 33% market penetration (people online). Most of them come from the highest purchase power segments. Spending 70% of your budget on print is a thing of the past…and that’s just my two cents.read what others have read

• two cents: how do I email thee?
  let me count the ways
• two cents: social media in developing countries
• two cents: green marketing in developing countries