This is post #7 of a 15 post Case Study of Radical Marketing applied to Web 2.0. These 15 posts will become my first ebook that will be available on this blog. Don’t miss any of these posts by subscribing to my RSS Feed.

This post is about the 2nd rule of Radical Marketing. You can read rule #1 here:

The 2nd rule of Radical Marketing is:”Be sure that your marketing department stays small”.

The majority of you won’t relate to this rule since you don’t have a marketing department. But I guess you are a little ambitious and you some day you would like to have your own marketing department for your company.

If you read all the previous posts of Radical Marketing then you already know that Radical Marketeers are usually the CEO, president or general manager of their company. You might ask yourself: How does a CEO, president or general manager of a company can also run the marketing department? I know it sounds crazy, but the thing about Radical Marketeers is that their company runs on marketing fuel. Legal departments and treasury departments do matter, but these companies without a marketing department wouldn’t stand a chance.

When you’re so dependable of your marketing crew, it’s very important to be very meticulous with every decision and strategy you delegate on your marketing department. Radical Marketeers are very skeptical in leaving marketing decisions, which are life or death, to employees who might not be as motivated as them. In older posts I explained that this could sound a little bit as mistrustfulness, but the truth is that every human being cares more when there’s money involved.

Another reason why Radical Marketeers like to maintain a small marketing department is that usually big departments, of any kind, tend to delegate to the last level of hierarchy, in other words, to the more inexperienced. How can you tell an employee with no experience to make a decision in behalf of the whole department? I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. It’s called Bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy can work two ways:

1) One type of bureaucracy is that no one can make a simple decision without being approved. This may sound correct and as it should be. But when you have thousands of employees and dozens of departments and managers, a decision may take too long and be lost along the way.
2) The other type of decision is the one of the last paragraph. Big companies hire too much unnecessary managers who are lazy enough to delegate their own responsibilities to their subordinates. This doesn’t sound so bad right? Well, the problem is when the manager’s subordinate also delegates the same responsibilities to their own subordinates.

Which one is better?

In my opinion, I choose none. Bureaucracy shouldn’t exist. That’s why nowadays bureaucratic companies have been migrating to more flat organizations with only necessary departments and only necessary managers.

Since the majority of blogs are independent blogs without employees, they don’t tend to have marketing departments. If they do have marketing departments, then they’re a one man operation.

Like I said on the last post, by nature bloggers are Radical Marketeers and they understand that they need to be the front men behind any marketing decision.

NOTE: If you cant see the WOP, click here.

If you would like to buy the “Radical Marketing” book of Sam Hill and Glenn Rifkin, click here.

WOP!!!

Learn more by following me on Twitter and becoming part of my RSS Feed.

This is the second post of a 2 post chapter of marketing and perception. You can read the last post here: Marketing and Perception (Post 1)

Perception is everything in Marketing.

In the last post, you read about how perception it’s the first thing you need to know before launching any king of product or service. In this post I’m going to show you how to build your own perspective of your blog. This perspective is the one that you will want to sell to your readers, but I need to teach you first how to build the correct one.

Before starting, I need you to remind yourself that the human being absorbs almost everything through its eyes. This means that if a human being sees something unpleasant, its mind is going to reject any other thoughts related to what it’s seeing.

For example, if you see a disgusting food of plate your mind will immediately will tell you not to eat it. It could be the most delicious plate you will ever taste but your mind will reject it without even processing that it’s going to taste amazing. I want you to remind this because perception is assimilated through our eyes.

1) MAIN GOAL: The first thing you need to know when building a perspective is the main goal or objective. What’s your main goal as a blogger?

- I want to inform: Do you want to inform your readers? (News, Updates)
- I want to teach: Do you want to teach readers? (Tips, lessons)
- I want to give advice: Do you want to give advice to your readers? (Recommendations, Opinions)
- I want to sell products: Do you want to sell products to your readers? (Product Reviews, Affiliate Marketing)
- I just want to write what’s on my mind: Do you want to have a diary?

2) DESIGN: The design is the most important part when building perception (Remember the eyes)

- Theme: Choose a theme that suits your needs: header, sidebar, footer, widgets, etc. Simple themes won’t be soothing to your readers eyes.
- Header: A simple name on your header won’t be enough. Get a logo and come up with a catchy phrase or slogan. Branding will help you get word of mouth among new readers.
- Sidebar: Try to have a full widget sidebar. Having a search bar and your blog’s archive won’t get your readers to navigate through your blog.

3) Domain Name and Hosting: Few blogs without a domain name and a hosting plan make it in this business.

WHY?
People will believe you’re not in it for the long run and you aren’t serious enough about blogging.
A domain name and hosting plan won’t cost you more than $15 a month. Pay it in advance and it will be even cheaper.

4) Banners: Some people say that displaying ads on your blog is disrespect to your readers. Well my opinion is that they’re just plain stupid.

If you don’t show ads on your blog (especially image ads) then you’re telling your readers that your blog isn’t important enough for advertisers to buy a spot on your blog.

In my opinion, text ads from contextual advertising are not the best way to advertise your blog. On the other hand, image ads make your blog is important enough to you offer private advertising.

I use three types of advertising on this blog:

o Text Ads: I have text ads at the end of every post. I use them here since I feel that they blend with the related posts.
o Image Ads: I have image ads inside every post.
o Affiliate Banners: I have affiliate banners on my sidebar.

Don’t be afraid to use any type of banner on your blog, but be careful not to obscure your blogs content.

5) Personal Touch: The word blog means “web log”. A web log was created for people to write on the internet anything that they want. That’s why that they gave it the name “log”, to make it completely personal.

Now, if a blog is supposed to be personal, then you need to maintain a personal touch to your blog.

HOW?
- Always giving your personal opinion and point of view.
- Write something about yourself once in a while.
- Be personal when replying comments.
- Write an about page.
- Don’t be afraid to use your name and a personal picture.

By following these easy tips, you’ll be able to find your blog’s perspective in no time. But remember that the perspective you give yourself about your blog, it’s going to be the only perspective your readers will ever have.

WOP!!!

Learn more by following me on Twitter and becoming part of my RSS Feed.