Jerry Bader Articles

How To Develop A Brand Story Communication Strategy - Click To Read Article
Marketing campaigns should always start with a communication concept: a conceptual premise and framework that attracts attention and engages an audience in a way that penetrates each viewer's mind, and captures the audience's collective consciousness. It is the foundation of your brand story.

Your Website Doesn't Need A Traditional Call To Action - Click To Read Article
Sales people are taught, you always need 'a call to action,' a request to act or lose the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm sure you've seen the infomercials, website presentations, online direct marketing come-ons, and even high-pressure seminar and tradeshow presentations that will never be repeated, so you better act now. You're familiar with the language used: "act now and we'll send you two pieces of junk you don't need, but wait there's more, call in the next ten minutes and we'll add a third useless item."

Your Website As Persuasion Machine - Click To Read Article
The combination of the Internet, the Web, and technology has democratized business almost beyond recognition. Today the small, nimble, clever adaptor has the competitive advantage over their bigger, slower moving, 'we've-always-done-it-this-way' competitors; but the confluence of the Web environment and digital technology is one thing, how to use it effectively is another. Not every trendy social networking gimmick, user generated irrelevance, and pointless viral voyeurism is a productive business communication tactic.

Your Website's Missing Ingredient - Click To Read Article
"My mechanic told me, 'He couldn’t repair my brakes, so he made my horn louder.'” - Comedian, Steven Wright We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you're like most business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffic to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright's mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it's your brakes that need fixing.

Why Feature-Selling Fails - Click To Read Article
When customers buy your product or service, what exactly are they buying? Are they buying the features that you offer, or are they buying something else, something you may never have mentioned in any of your marketing and advertising material?

What's Wrong With E-Commerce Websites? - Click To Read Article
What is going on with e-commerce websites? It appears that online entrepreneurs spend so much time worrying about website traffic that they ignore the customers who actually want to buy something.

What Makes Your Business So Special? - Click To Read Article
The one question every business, branding, and marketing consultant asks is "what makes you special; what makes you different?" If you want to grow your business and get to the next level, defining what makes you special is a good place to start. Most businesses are copycat companies, selling the same thing, in the same way as most of their competitors, making for a real challenge in providing an adequate answer to the "what makes you so special?" question. But fear not, it is easier than you think.

Which Website Visitors Are Potential Clients? - Click To Read Article
With today's website tracking software and services you can find out a lot about the people who visit your website. You can learn where they're from, what kind of browser they're using, how long they stayed on your site, and a whole lot more. But what all this high tech intelligence won't tell you is what kind of people they are, and how likely they are to be transformed by your Web presentation from viewers to customers.

Viral Marketing, Let's See How it Works - Click To Read Article
The biggest problem most websites have is that they are instantly forgettable. They sell or say the same thing as hundreds or thousands of other sites; to an audience that is so quick to click-away that a large percentage of their traffic never appreciates why they should buy anything or listen to what's being said.

Website Content - It's All About The Why? - Click To Read Article
Every week I get asked to look at business websites and tell the owners why they're not getting the results they want. Some of these sites are straightforward brochures, others are e-commerce catalogs, and some are those direct-mail-style pitches reminiscent of old mail-order magazine subscription schemes ported-over to the Web. Some have incorporated do-it-yourself audio and video and some even had this media professionally produced; still the results stink. Why?

Web-Content Conundrum - Click To Read Article
The Web consumes content like a teenager at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Lots and lots of content makes you more search engine friendly, helps establish your knowledge and expertise, explains in detail what you offer, and justifies that offer with all the explanations, statistics, and rationale you can muster. The problem is nobody reads it.

Web-Video Campaign Creation 101 - Click To Read Article
Maybe it's just us but I'm finding more and more clients open to the idea that Web-commercials need to be something different, something entertaining, something informative, and most of all something memorable. It isn't about creating something viral for the sake of being viral but rather something that is worth the time and effort to sit through.

Web-Marketing Analysis Questionnaire - Click To Read Article
Your website presentation is how you tap into your audience's subconscious desires. If the feature-benefit approach hasn't yielded the results you want, perhaps it's time to try something different, and that starts with asking the right questions.

Upgrading Your Company Website - Click To Read Article
Dealing with website development issues can be an overwhelming task. There are many things your marketing team must consider, in fact, there are so many things to bear in mind that many of the most important ones never get dealt with, or are buried under competing interests.

Video Microsites - The Brand Story Campaign Solution - Click To Read Article
Everyone wants to do more business. Everyone occasionally runs a promotion, a new marketing initiative, a product launch, or a new seasonal lineup. Everyone has a website stuffed with all kinds of content ranging from the important to the useless. But only the truly smart business minds understand that campaigns require their own space and identity if they are to succeed. And when it comes to using the Web as your vehicle for such a campaign, the obvious solution is a Video Campaign Microsite.

The Plan 4 Steps To A Website Brand - Click To Read Article
You read all the blogs on website design, you know all the ins-and-outs of search engine optimization, and Google Adwords. No one is going to pull a fast one on you. You know your business, your market, and your needs. Or do you?

The Art Of The Sale: Developing Website Content - Click To Read Article
The questions you need to ask yourself are why do I have a website; what purpose does it serve, and what do we expect to achieve? Only after you've answered these questions can you develop appropriate content for your site.

The Brand Story, A Tale Worth Telling - Click To Read Article
Everybody likes a good story and why not? Stories are entertaining, instructive, engaging, and above all human; they connect people to people, and businesses to customers. Stories are about communication and communication is the essence of marketing.

The Brand Story Web Marketing Process - Click To Read Article
If websites have one overarching goal it is to create confidence in whatever the website is promoting and who's promoting it. It doesn't matter if it's a product, a service, a sales campaign, or an idea, if the presentation is not minimally credible or optimally motivational, then it fails as a means of marketing communication.

Seven Words That Will Make Your Website Worth Viewing - Click To Read Article
What are the seven most important words associated with Web-marketing. I'll give you a hint: Search, Engine, and Optimization don't make the cut. So what words do make the list? What are the seven words that will make your website worth viewing?

SEO ROI & The Conversion Rate Dilemma - Click To Read Article
What do legitimate search engine optimization firms charge? Like most things involving the Web, prices are all over the place but if the price is extremely low you can be assured that the quality of the service will match the price.

Search Engine Optimization, Google, and The Reptilian Code - Click To Read Article
Search engine optimization dominates the thinking and to a large degree the marketing efforts of many small and medium-sized companies, but have you ever noticed that many of the largest and most profitable companies in the world ignore many SEO techniques.

Shaping Web Audience Preference - Click To Read Article
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had the power to convince people that your product or service was exactly what they needed, and as a consequence your in-box was filled with inquiries and your e-commerce site was stuffed with orders. Wouldn't that be great? And isn't that exactly what you want to achieve with your website?

Priming The Mental Pump: A Branding Experience - Click To Read Article
It appears that creating a well thought-out experience for an audience triggers actions and reactions buried deep in the primitive area of the brain that is related to our most basic survival instincts that override the areas of the brain associated with more modern rational analysis.

How To Make Web-Advertising Worth Watching - Click To Read Article
It has become an article of faith that the Web is all about content; content is King on the Web as opposed to television where commercials are king. It seems that television networks just can't wrap their heads around the Internet and fit it into their standard commercial box. The traditional media's tactic of last resort, buying-up the competition and imposing its commercial will, just won't work with the Internet. Businesses that want to succeed on the Web must learn how to turn their commercial message into content as a seamless entertaining presentation.

How To Construct A Web-Video Advertisement That Works - Click To Read Article
More money is wasted on advertising than other business function. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular throw money at advertising in a vain attempt to establish themselves in the marketplace. However, there is hope that the democratizing nature of the Web environment can even the playing field and allow smaller companies to deliver their marketing messages effectively. But before that can happen, the potential advertiser must understand what the big boys have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to find out: how to create an advertising campaign that motivates and persuades customers to do business with you.

How Much Face-Time Does Your Website Need? - Click To Read Article
How much time does it take your website to deliver your marketing message? Assuming the site traffic you generate is the least bit interested in what you have to say, how much of what you're saying do they remember, or more to the point, how much do they need to remember?

How Far Can You Push A Talking Head - Click To Read Article
Let's talk about talking heads, and why adding one to your website might just be the smartness thing you've done since dumping the SUV and fast-food, and opting for hybrids and salads. Okay - perhaps that's asking too much, but you get the point.

Giving Voice To Your Marketing Personality On The Web - Click To Read Article
Every company has a personality whether they know it or not. If you don't develop and foster an appropriate marketing personality for your company, your employees and customers will do it for you, and that could be disastrous. Successful companies pay serious attention to creating and implementing a dominant corporate identity; and use it to deliver a consistent, coherent and cohesive Web-presence in the methodical and persistent pursuit of the company's core marketing objectives.

Enhancing Web Effectiveness With Audio Sound Design - Click To Read Article
The average person is exposed to an assault of stimuli each and every moment of our waking day. Some of this stimulus catches our attention, but much is filtered out as extraneous, useless, or unimportant. This filtering is our way of handling the constant barrage of information we endure. As marketers it is our job to cut through all the meaningless, random white noise of life and penetrate the consciousness of our targeted audience with our marketing messages.

Does Your Website Need a Magic Act? - Click To Read Article
Most companies sell a variety of products or services, but they are not all created equal, some are more important, and more profitable than others. At the heart of any website design project is the underlying goal of attracting attention, and directing that attention to the product, service, or concept that is being marketed. In that regard, an effective website sales presentation is a lot like a magic act

Create A Branded Website Host - Click To Read Article
For those businesses that really don't know how to effectively use the Web, or those that are interested in actually using their websites for more than a digital brochure, the answer is clear: your website's most important marketing objective is to connect with a relevant audience and build a productive relationship.

Creating A Successful Online Sales Strategy - Click To Read Article
You have a website, and perhaps you're even a professional salesperson, and as such you know that the best way to sell someone something is face-to-face, but have you seen the price of gas lately? So whether your customers are local, national, or international, the cost of getting to them is just too darn high to make any money. You could call them on the phone or email them, but with voice mail, spam filters, and all manner of gatekeepers, it is literally impossible to get to people, even when they're waiting for your call. It's never been easy to sell, but in today's jaded, cynical, frustrated business climate, the job is even harder.

Brand-Personality Self-Analysis - Click To Read Article
Marketing is difficult because it is unlike any other business discipline. Most of our business day is filled with left-brain tasks that may be complex but are for the most part logical and procedural in nature whereas marketing and branding are right-brain activities governed by that hated enemy of rational business thinking, psychology.

Awaken Your Brand's Cognitive Itch - Click To Read Article
The term 'cognitive itch' was first used by James Kellaris of the University of California to describe the experience of music that gets stuck in your head and you just can't get rid of it. This same phenomenon can result from watching commercials, Web-videos and even full-featured multimedia websites.

7 Tactical Reasons To Use Mini Campaign Websites - Click To Read Article
How many websites should your company have? That's a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea never crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?

8 Things That Motivate Web-Audience Response - Click To Read Article
It's always a good idea to stick to the basics. When businesses stray too far from the fundamentals, problems arise, but sticking to the basics doesn't mean boring people into a state of unconsciousness. If Web-visitors' eyes glaze-over upon entering your site, you've lost them before you've begun.

All Websites Are International - Click To Read Article
Tip O'Neill, the late Speaker of The House of Representatives is often quoted as saying "All politics is local," meaning a politician that helps a constituent with a problem is likely to win that vote based on the personal assistance provided, irrespective of that politician's stance on the larger, more weighty, geo-political issues. What then of business, is all business local or international?

A Web-Branding Blueprint For The Experience Economy - Click To Read Article
Change is inevitable; as an economy matures, ages, and ultimately evolves into something new, adjustments must be made to our business development, marketing and branding. Failure to adapt to new realities results in potentially unwanted dramatic consequences.

A Website Without Video Is Like... - Click To Read Article
Do you like Jell-O? It's okay I guess; I mean it's not a hot fudge sundae is it? But if you add a little whip cream, then my friend you've got something worth calling dessert. My question to you is, does your website have that something extra, that dollop of whip cream on top that says, "oh mama let me at it," or does it just lie there squirming in your dish with the sound of Peggy Lee's voice ringing in your ears, "is that all there is?"

9 Practical Reasons Why Web-Audio is a Necessity - Click To Read Article
Many business people are scared-off by an assumption that multimedia solutions like audio are expensive - but that is just not the case. Audio is far more cost-effective than video, animations, and other labor intense rich media creative. If you hire the right people who know what they are doing, you can have an audio presentation professionally produced and incorporated into your website for a budget within the reach of any serious marketer.

Advertising's Most Important Word - Click To Read Article
If you had to guess the single most important word in advertising what would it be: free, special, discount, sale, new, improved, bigger, better? So many words have lost their meaning or been corrupted by misuse or abuse that it is not an obvious choice. The words luxury, exclusive, and world class have been rendered meaningless after being applied to everything from eight hundred square foot condos to restaurants that serve microwave frozen dinners. We can't even rely on light, diet, or low carb to actually describe what's inside a package.

6 Critical Elements in Creating Successful Web-Marketing Campaigns - Click To Read Article
Marketing can be an extremely frustrating and expensive exercise if we mistakenly view it as merely an advertising function. Any discussion of marketing should be preceded by a definition of exactly what we mean by marketing: marketing is not just sales, or advertising, or promotion, but rather a combination of all these functions plus more.

A Case for Marketing Experimentation Making Failure Work For You - Click To Read Article
We all know what success is: it's meeting goals and expectations based on how we define them. But do we learn from success? In most cases no. In fact success establishes the status quo, ingrains conventional wisdom, stifles innovation and creativity, and promotes the repetition of the same methods, technologies, and ideas that have always been used, even when those methods no longer work.

8 Brain-Branding Website Techniques Part I - Click To Read Article
According to eMarketer August 2008 video ad spending will increase a thousand percent over the next five years. This means Web video is on the way to becoming the must-have Web presentation tool.

8 Brain-Branding Web Presentation Concepts, Part II - Click To Read Article
In '8 Brain-Branding Web Presentation Concepts, Part I' we discussed the first four brain-related marketing concepts that if incorporated into website presentations help generate brand preference purchase decisions. Part II continues with the next four concepts.

18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference - Click To Read Article
If you've been looking high and low for the secret of Web success, today is your lucky day. We've put a little something together that we call '18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference.' Eighteen concepts to think about that may just give you an edge on your competition; in fact these ideas may give you an edge, period. So if the same old left-brain thinking that everybody else is using just doesn't get you where you want to be, try these creative concepts on for size.

11 Ways To Drive Traffic Away From Your Website - Click To Read Article
While watching a Toronto Raptor basketball game I saw T.J. Ford, one of the fastest players in the league, rush down the court like a man possessed and proceed to throw the ball behind his back to a trailing Andrea Bargnani. The trouble was the ball sailed over the head of the seven-foot Bargnani into the second row of seats. Ford, himself, ended up with a beer and popcorn facial after landing in the lap of a front row patron. So what does this have to do with website design and marketing you ask? A lot.


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