Know an individual or business doing something cool to promote themselves online? Let me know about it and they might be featured as part of Marketing Monday.
This week’s inspiration actually came to me as I was driving in the middle of a snow/ice storm back home from Christmas festivities.
A radio ad in the middle of the Maine woods had the familiar Marden’s jingle but urged me to join Marden’s on Facebook and Twitter. I especially perked up when they mentioned to visit the Marden’s website to see the weekly flyer before it got into the newspapers.
For those of you less familiar, Marden’s is a Maine institution, known in part for its cheesy catchy jingle “I should have bought it, when I saw it, at Mardens!” and for its great deals on everything. (If you don’t have to feed it, Marden’s sells it.) It’s a salvage store with locations across the state, meaning its inventory is not only location dependent but also constantly changing.
Marden’s would no doubt be a success in Maine regardless of publicity (Mainers are in general a practical people who love a deal) but all it’s promotional efforts have made Mardens the success it is today.
Here’s what Mardens is doing right:
Marden’s has put a face on their company: The Marden’s Lady.
There seems to be some mystique around the Marden’s lady. I’ve heard rumors that she isn’t even from Maine and that she’s the wife of one of the store bigwigs but based on the website, neither of those pieces of gossip is true.
Fact is, when you’re a corporation, you can hide behind a logo but you are made much more memorable if you can put a face to a company. This is the same reason I urge people to put photos of themselves on their business websites; the whole thing makes you seem more honest and personable.
The Marden’s lady is a working actress who books gigs but by simply going around the state and otherwise living her life, also reminds people of Marden’s wherever she goes.
In additon to the Marden’s lady, you can also get to know the Marden’s buyers on their company site. Neat! And doesn’t knowing someone make you want to shop at the store they are at a little more? It certainly makes me want to.
Marden’s isn’t ignoring traditional advertising.
Getting rid of your entire traditional marketing budget in favor of going completely online? That’s a bad idea! Instead of seeing online advertising and traditional advertising as separate (or even competing) interests, link the two together for a cohesive approach. Use your radio, television, or newspaper ads to tease your website and have video, audio, or pdfs of your traditional advertising on your website.
I’m online all the time but it was the radio at that reached me in relation to Marden’s, so do your homework and find out where your customers are (online and off) and be there.
Marden’s has redone their website…and has given people a reason to visit.
The old Marden’s website had the theme song automatically playing when it loaded (kind of rude, especially embarrassing if you are trying to sneak a peek at work!) and I couldn’t find anything on it.
While the new site isn’t impressive design-wise, it is functional and doesn’t have annoying music in the background. A website can always be improved upon, and thank goodness Marden’s did something about theirs.
A well designed site is certainly admired, but if that isn’t a possibility for your company, at least make sure your website has information people are looking for, well organized content, and easy to read graphic elements and text.
Taking it a step further, by providing exclusive information on their website, Marden’s is giving customers a reason to visit. Because as the internet gets bigger and bigger, your customers need a reason to look at your site whether it’s good information, fun distractions, or an inside scoop.
So whether you want to become one of Marden’s 3,000ish Facebook fans or sign up for their free newsletter, this company is making it easy to keep in touch, online and off. Is yours?
Breaking Even Communications is a full service internet marketing company based in Bar Harbor Maine that can help you or your business with this sort of thing. Just contact Nicole; she’d love to help you out!
Photos for this post are Creative Commons-licensed content: