Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of watching Joe Laratro present his famous "SEO Diet" at the Florida Direct Marketing Association (FDMA). It was at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, gorgeous hotel and awesome presentation! I have received over 30 e-mails since Thursday asking me for a copy of Joe's presentation with very kind and supportive words about Joe. He definitely killed it and inspired so many people! One of the e-mails said "Wow, your presentation was awesome today. It was a whole Pubcon week, all sessions, into 1 hour. A nice wake up call for many including myself."

If you are interested in receiving a full copy of Joe's SEO Diet please send an e-mail to ldemarco@tandem-interactive.com :)

Super Bowl Sunday Marketing

 

With Superbowl XLVII two days away (February 3rd: San Francisco 49ers vs. Baltimore Ravens) it is not just a day that decides the new NFL Champions but it is the largest day in marketing as well. With an average cost of $3.8 Million per every 30 seconds of air time, this is an expensive figure for any company.

For the cost of 30 seconds of Super Bowl advertising, you could buy: 

1. Over a week of Homepage Advertising : AOL, Yahoo! and other larger publishers sell their day-long homepages for an average of $500,000 a day. So for the $3.8 million cost of airtime you could ensure 7+ days of full homepage landing on a large digital media site.

2. Over 100 Million Impressions on Hulu : Hulu sells its video ads for $30 CPM (Cost Per Millions).

3. 200 Pieces of Branded Content : Buzzfeed charges $100k for 4 - 5 pieces of branded content.

4. Be YouTube for a Week : YouTube's homepage ad cost $500,000 a day.

5. 1 Month of Twitter's Trend Topic: Promoting Trending Topics on Twitter sells for about $120k a day.

6. 50 Million Forbes.com Impressions: Forbes charges $80 CPM for ads, but even with 50 Million Impressions on Forbes this is still only half of the potential audience for a Super Bowl ad.

Although these would options would get attention and drive ROI for your brand, they do not deliver the success that has been measured from Super Bowl Sunday Advertising. 

A survey showed that 36% of Super Bowl Watchers will be using a Mobile Device or Tablet during the game to see sports news and behind-the-scenes commentaries, and that 52% will use social media throughout the game to talk about plays and commercials. 

So here are some ways that you engage an audience on Sunday without a $4 Million dollar invoice from CBS:

• Tell your audience something new about your company, some breaking news that has a strong call to action from your social platform to your website. Give your viewers something to do with their smart phones or tablets.

• Try driving your viewers to a "Facebook Contest" where they can engage in  a sweepstakes offered by your company. Giveaways are always a good way of engaging your audience and getting their attention with an incentive. 

• Use Sharable content; make ads and extensions easily accessible and shareable through Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. These social platforms will be seeing increasing traffic during the game and your brand should be part of the conversation!

• Focus on a long term connection with your audience. Your ads and digital campaigns should do more than just entertain, they should engage your audience by demonstrating your value for each customer. By valuing each person individually rather than as a group, you make their decision down the road to choose you easier. This can be achieved by sending them to a site with information about yourself and your brand/service. Strive to make them understand that you care about them, not just about sales.

Neuromarketing: What the Brain has to do with Sales

For years, Marketers have always thought the key to sales was the right advertising and SEO. As we have seen in the past 5 years with the growth of technology and the progress of apps, SEO is not where marketing ends. Neuromarketing is the newest and most advance form of marketing that is beginning to surface across the globe. Before the study of Neuromarketing, we would never have associated science with sales. But this is definitely a cup of kool-aid you want to get your hands on.

Research has shown and explained to us throughout school that we only use 10% of our brain. Of the 10% of the brain that we use, 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. So the majority of businesses, marketers and advertisers are only stimulating 5% of their customers brain. So here are 5 tips to helping you market more towards your clients brains then just your brand:

1. IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU : Don't focus about saying how great your product or service is, but tell your customer why your product is right for them. Let your product sell itself and people will come running.

2. GET TO THE POINT :  We live in a society that everything needs to be short, sweet, and to the point. Don't give your potential buyers the run around. They want to know what the product is and WHY THEY should buy it. We are impatient creatures and we don't want our time to be wasted, so sell it short and sweet.

3. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS :  Pintrest monopolized the market by doing less talking and more selling through visuals. What we see connects directly with our unconscious brains, which is exactly what you want to reach. Use pictures whenever possible to help sell concepts quickly and efficiently.

4. STRONG START; CAPTIVATING CLOSE : People usually remember the beginning and the ends of things more than the middle. So make sure that you start and end strong, this can make or break the deal.

5. SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY : Do not be to bold or dramatic, your brain wants simplicity. Statistics have shown that too many options when a person is looking to purchase an item can cut sales dramatically because they get overwhelmed and confused with so many options. Make the decision easy for the customer so they engage in it, and always make them feel like they are making the right choice.

Tandem Interactive Goes Green with a GEM E4 Car

I have been in the market for a street legal golf cart for a year or so. I have always been enamored with the GEM cars. Tandem’s office is right on Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale and we see these luxury golf carts or simple open air electric cars all day.

After doing a little research I found that Pompano Nissanwas a South Florida GEM Car dealer. A week before Christmas I decided to check it out. I met Bill Clements, the GEM Sales Representative, and test drove my future toy. This particular one was a 2011 model that had not sold. We worked out a price and I was on my way to my big family surprise.

Bill was amazing through the process. Pompano Nissan needs some work in the GEM area, but I think they will get there. They were not prepared with companies to finance the vehicle. I reached out to my old client City County Credit Union. Ashley Dietz, Marketing Manager, led me to Jodi Lyon in their loan department. Jodi was amazing. Working with the bank was amazing. They bent over backwards and even worked late to make sure the financing was in order so I could pick up my GEM the next day! If you need a loan in SouthFlorida for a Car, I would check them out! Since the vehicle is not in the NADA guide, we had to be a little creative with the loan, but the rate was still very good.

I dropped off the payment and watched the car get loaded on the trailer for delivery. There were a few open items with Pompano Nissan. I upgraded the wheels, but we had an issue with whether the lug nuts and center caps were part of the package. They resolved the issue. The title work is taking a little longer than expected, but they promptly printed me a second temporary tag. Pompano Nissan just opened a storefront for the GEM vehicles; I think they will do very well with them. I would highly recommend working with Bill there. He has been invaluable in helping everything get done.

This is a picture of my boys in the GEM Car:

 

I think this is one of the safest NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) around. I like it better than Street Legal Golf Carts for my kids because of the three point seatbelts and the forward facing seats. We have already put 100 miles on it. I do get some funny looks driving it around town. It is fully battery powered and is incredible for the environment. So that brings me back to it being another step for Tandem Going Green. While it has the range to drive it to work, getting around the Fort Lauderdale airport would be hairy because of the speed. I can totally see having it parked downstairs at some point and having all the employees use it for our snack runs and lunch breaks.

Hello Everyone :)
My name is Lauren DeMarco and I am a link builder/copywriter here at Tandem-Interactive but I am also blessed to be the Aunt to Lena and Joe Laratro's two amazing little sons, Joey and Giovanni. I am very honored to hold both of these titles, and watching these little boys grow has changed my life forever!

One of our favorite things to do is to have movie nights with popcorn and oreos! Toy Story 3 seems to always win!

 We also enjoy walking to dinner, our most recent walk was to Burgerfy..it was delicious! Joey and Giovanni LOVE Star Wars just like their daddy, so it was a necessity that they brought their light sabers!

Here is Joe and Giovanni at Toy Story on Ice for Gio's third birthday! Do you see the resemblance?

And here are just a few more of my favorite pictures of them:

What can I say, I am a very proud Aunt :) I hope you all enjoyed this! Take care and best wishes!
-Lauren DeMarco

Helping Customers Help People

Casey Portner of Portner Counseling Group is a long time customer and friend. Casey has dedicated his life to helping young people who suffer from the disease of addiction, alcoholism and mental illness. Casey came to me when he first opened his practice in Pompano Beach and was looking for ways to drive traffic to his new website, and to grow his new business. I took a look at the site and was immediately impressed with the work he had done. I was excited about getting his campaigns setup and went right to work. Casey does everything from drug and alcohol evaluations to individual and group counseling to interventions. Based on the wide variety of services offered we came up with several different adgroups and ads for Casey as well as a multitude of keywords and keyword phrases.

As soon as the campaigns went live Casey saw increased traffic to his website as well as an increase in phone calls asking for more information on the different counseling services he offered. Over the years this traffic has continued to increase and his practice has grown from just a handful of clients to a robust practice. Casey runs several therapy groups during the week as well as a large contingent of individuals that look for his guidance on a weekly basis. It is a wonderful feeling for me to know that I in some small way am helping people in need find the help and support they are so desperately seeking.

It is always a pleasure to help customers grow and succeed, but in Casey's case it is extra special to know that it's not just him that's succeeding it is the clients that are getting better one day at a time!

Bill

http://portnercounseling.com/

Manti Te'o: Innocent Athlete or Guilty Publicity Stunt

Last night, an article written by Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey caused a national up rise with the emergence of a story no one thought was possible. In September of 2012, Notre Dame's Senior Captain Linebacker Manti Te'o suffered from the loss of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, then the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua.

One of the NCAA's top 15 draft picks is now America's top story: "Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking and Inspiration Story of the College Football Season, is a Hoax". The story was released January 16th at 4:10pm on Dead Spin and has surfaced all over the sports world within 2 hours with the help of Social Media Marvels Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Te'o was dating this woman by the name of Lennay Kekua, a Stanford Grad, that he met back in 2009, and she passed away from Leukemia hours after his grandmothers death on September 11, 2012. The inspiration came from his statement saying that "she didn't want me to go to the funeral because she wanted me to stay here and play the game". Te'o lead the Irish to victory against Michigan State and Michigan, giving Notre Dame a 4-0 record start for the first time in 10 years. Notre Dame's head coach Brian Kelly awarded the Game Ball to Manti Te'o in name of Lennay Kekua on Sept. 22, 2012 following the win over Michigan.

As you read the story by Burke and Dickey you will see the truth unravel on Manti Te'o and his so called girlfriend Lennay Kekua. The story provides proof and evidence through Tweets and Instagram of how Lennay Kekua never died and never met Manti Te'o. Was Te'o just the victim of a horrible internet hoax (like his and Notre Dame's alleged statements say?) or what Te'o using the dead of his girlfriend as a publicity stunt to gain fame? Until the story appeared yesterday, Te'o never said anything about a hoax or that he found out she was not real. ESPN Mike and Mike reports that if these allegations are true, and Te'o was involved in this immoral hoax for publicity, there could be a drop of interest in the draft. How can teams trust a player, A CAPTAIN and leader of their team, when he is a liar and involved in such deceptive acts. This is definitely a big hit for Te'o (alleged of being a top 15 draft pick) to be bumped to a 6th round pick. With Pro-Day and the Combine around the corner (in March) this was not a story that Te'o would have wanted leaked. The uprising of the hoax has caused a new trend on Twitter and Instagram with the creation of the hashtag #TEOING and a growth in popularity with the word #catfish. We will see what happens as the story continues to unfold.

Find the article by Burke and Dickey here and decide for yourself:
Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend: the Most Heartbreaking and Inspirational Story of the College Football Season is a Hoax