Bank Marketing: Incenting bloggers to spread your message.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Incenting bloggers to spread your message.

Dairy Queen is treating bloggers like royalty. They’re trading $5 gift cards for blog posts. Why am I bringing up DQ in a Bank Marketing blog? Because bank marketers need to look beyond their industry for inspiration. . . especially if it’s a great idea that can be transferred to their financial arena.

The corporation claims to have over 200,000 mentions in the blogosphere and they want to sweeten that number with this promotion. DQ launched its own blog, Creating Smiles and Stories, only this month. The blog, which will be written by employees, will include “stories, news, products, events, promotions, DQ in the News, advertising, fun stuff, DQ people in the community, and around the world.” In a Feb. 25th post headlined “We Got A Sweet Deal for You!”, the DQ folks asked the question of bloggers,“what deal you’d make with us to try our Sweet Deals for free?´ The blogger is asked to send an email to DQ with a link to their post. The first 250 bloggers to do so received the gift card. In a matter of hours, DQ had surpassed their goal. In addition, the writer of the best blog post will receive DQ Sweet Deals every week for a year.

This is a very inexpensive promotion for a company the size of DQ. The value of the cards was only $1,250. And, I can guarantee you that their message about their Sweet Deals meals will spread faster than melting soft serve. Their word of mouse was a quick and effective way to launch their blog, too. In upcoming weeks, I’ll examine how bank marketing departments can harness the power of the social media. And, how a little promotion just like DQ’s could get you some positive press.

The company also launched a Twitter account just two days ago. It’s sure to follow the success of their year-old Facebook presence with its almost 85,000 fans.

(Do you suppose this post qualifies me for a DQ treat?)

1 comment:

Glenn Evans said...: Link building is another way of some SEO (Indianapolis-based) companies use in promoting a product or service. This is done through blogs and other social networks. Staying in Indiana's business district, I witnessed the emergence of the internet marketing (Indianapolis) strategies.; December 2, 2010 at 10:22 PM

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My Story: The Twisted Tale of the Wayward Writer

How did I get to the point of writing a blog? It goes back to journalism school. Well, maybe I’m jumping ahead here a bit because I was never aimed for a writing career at all. In fact, I was a business major, marketing to be exact, at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Part of the biz school curriculum was an Introduction to Journalism. Hey, they wanted us to be well-rounded. Well, my instructor had quite the writing pedigree . . . from the Wall St. Journal to the Washington Press Corps. And, he had a dominating personality to match. Every year he took a couple of students under his wing and pushed them to the limit. I was lucky to be one of Mr. Polk’s chosen. He had seen potential in me. And so my fate was sealed. I switched majors in my junior year and literally immersed myself in journalistic endeavors.

Those were heady years when students had lofty goals of changing the world. I, too, dreamed of righting the wrongs of the world through the mighty pen. While I was offered a newspaper job, financial reality reared its head. I took a job for a fatter paycheck as Manager of PR at a financial services company. So there was another twist in my career path, steering me to this point in time.

I bummed a couple of more writing gigs, immersing me more into the crazy, creative copywriting world of advertising. But that was to prove tame compared to where I was headed. I found myself as the sole in-house writer at Litton Microwave. A colleague whose dad was a creative director at one of the major ad agencies told me I didn’t belong in corporate advertising, but writing legit ads for the big boys. But making the transition from corporate to agency is unheard of. The doors are closed to lowly corporate writing hacks. Sheer determination won out, and I convinced a small agency to hire me as their only copywriter! I was now official. . . I had the credentials of an agency behind me! But in three years, I went from a five-man shop to the largest agency in the Twin Cities with its several hundred employees. The title impressively read Creative Supervisor in Campbell-Mithun’s promotion division. I discovered that I not only had the creative ability, but I could see beyond the creative assignments and go much deeper into the client’s requirements. That’s why I was called on to develop and write marketing plans, strategic programs and tactical solutions for those clients, in addition to writing the actual creative. Tired of waiting to see what the AEs brought in for assignments, I struck out on my own and founded J. Arnsdorf & Company.

But why the financial specialty? I’ve always been tight-fisted about money. . . my own and my clients. I guess they call it fiscal responsibility. While working with many agency people, from AEs to creatives, I’ve found that many would rather be bitten by a hive of bees than work on a financial account. The assignments are deemed too mundane, not flashy enough for the wizards of words. That’s not my philosophy! I strongly believe that responsible financial marketing is essential to our futures. . . for the consumer as well as the banking industry. The current economic climate is now confirming my long-held beliefs. Plainly said, banking is simply an important service and product. From cashing that first paycheck to navigating the complexities of a retirement account, our financial decisions profoundly affect our lives. And, we make many financial decisions throughout the day. . . from buying a latte to opening a sweeps account. It’s an exciting, essential industry, one I’m pleased to be part of.

If you’re interested in learning more about J. Arnsdorf and Company, go to www.jarnsdorf(dot)com

Bank Marketing

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Incenting bloggers to spread your message.

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MEET JULIE ARNSDORF

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My Story: The Twisted Tale of the Wayward Writer

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