In yesterday’s post, I mentioned Andy Sernovitz of MarketingProfs and his list of ingredients found in good word-of-mouth marketing. Then I asked you to figure out what was missing from my list. (Note: It’s on Andy’s list, but I purposely omitted it to make a point.)

The missing link is the same thing that causes a lot of products, services, blogs, and companies to crash and burn. With it, you’ve got a shot at success. Without it, you’re doomed. What is the missing ingredient?

It’s what makes something — anything — exciting, buzzworthy, viral. It’s simple, once you think of it. Ready?

It’s having a fantastic product (or service). Then adding some features that make it remarkable. (”Remarkable”= “worthy of remark” = word of mouth!)

Sure, it’s obvious and elementary. But look around at many businesses today, especially some online businesses and Web applications. You’ve got to wonder, what is so special about this? What were these people thinking? Who did they think was going to use (buy) this?

Online or off, I believe the biggest problem most small businesses have is cultivating their uniqueness. Your Unique Selling Proposition, to use the old marketing textbook phrase. It’s really tough to distinguish yourself from competitors when everyone is offering essentially the same product or service.

Finding and promoting what’s different and fantastic about you — that’s the essence of all marketing. Once you find (or add) that, copywriting and promotion becomes easy.

I’m not saying this roller-coaster economy is a recession, mind you — although Bernanke now seems willing to consider it a possibility.

Faced with hard times like these, what does a small business do about its marketing? How do you continue to attract customers and clients now, when it’s most important?

Marketing gurus say, “Keep smiling.” Ad agencies say, “Keep spending.”

Forbes points out that “for some marketers in specific situations, it might actually be good advice to increase their budget during a downturn… Categories for whom bad times spell boom times. Outplacement firms and debt consolidators come immediately to mind. True discounters are also well positioned to prosper.” The article, written by two market strategists, adds:

“If the downturn spurs consumers to become more avid “nesters” who seek more and better entertainment alternatives at home, then categories from consumer electronics to video rentals to popcorn might benefit.”

What’s your plan? What are your strategies for holding on — or prospering — during the current business cycle? Are you cutting your advertising/ marketing spending? Boosting it? Changing strategies? Are you slashing prices? Adding value?

Let the rest of us know in the comments.

Photo by Susan Noble Smith

The mortgage market is in turmoil, thanks to the subprime fiasco. Millions of homeowners face foreclosure, mortgage lenders are losing billions, new loans are impossible to get — hey, wait a minute.

If mortgage loans are so hard to get, why are Countrywide, Ditech and other big lenders still running TV ads every 5 minutes? Even the National Association of Realtors is running ads, saying there’s never been a better time to buy a house. (Better for their members, maybe.)

Despite all the foreclosures, lawsuits and investigations, the mortgage industry is still spending money on ads like a drunken sailor. A big chunk of the buy has shifted to the Internet, but the total spend is staggering.

In fact, they’re spending more now than they did during the height of the housing boom, according to today’s New York Times.

Naturally, what’s good for the advertiser is not necessarily good for the customer. “There may be some good, legitimate offers,” a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission told the Times. “But it’s a good time for consumers to be especially wary.” Gail Cunningham of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, adds, “Consumers need to read between the lines of everything (the advertisers) are saying.”

Another brand shoots itself in the foot. Botox, the popular anti-wrinkle drug, and its competitor, Myobloc, have both been officially linked to dangerous botulism symptoms. In a few cases, the symptoms were so bad that children given the drugs for muscle spasms have died, according to the Food & Drug Administration.

This should not be a shocker. Don’t these wrinkle-challenged women (and men) realize that Botox stands for “botulism toxin?” Score one for truth in labeling, at least.

Don’t they realize they’re letting (in many cases, encouraging) their doctors to inject a deadly poison under their skin — all in the name of vanity?

Is it the doctors? Haven’t plastic surgeons been diligent enough in informing their patients about the risks?

Or is it those damnable TV ads for pharmaceuticals, the ones aimed directly at consumers. You know the type: “Ask your doctor whether this crap is right for you.”

This kind of advertising is outlawed in every country in the world — except two. (The other, I believe, is New Zealand.) And it ought to be outlawed here. Creating a demand for your product or service is one thing. Creating a demand for dangerous drugs is another. It seems to me it’s only a short hop from there… to the creep dealing smack or crack on the street corner. He’s creating a demand, too. “Psst. Hey, man — the first one’s free.”

Waste Management is not in the garbage-hauling business, thank you very much. It’s actually an environmental services company. That’s the brand-bending message contained in the $25-30 million a year the company spends on print and TV ads. To reinforce its message, the New York Times report, the ads highlight:

“… the amount of energy it generates from burning trash each year (enough to power one million homes), the amount of acreage it has set aside for wildlife habitats (more than 17,000 acres), the number of trees it has saved by recycling paper (41 million last year). It printed some of those facts on the sides of its trucks — all of which are now painted green, of course.”

From a marketing standpoint, the company has its work cut out for it. Not only must it overcome a Tony Soprano-style image, there are still memories of those embarrassing Enron-style accounting strategies it employed in the 1990s. And WM’s target audience is about as fuzzy as they come: influencers:

“(They’re) the people who attend public hearings about landfill expansions, who try to have recycling legislation enacted, who lobby their churches or municipalities or school districts to be customers of “green” companies.”

Now the company is pushing its message beyond TV to the Internet. It’s buying ads on several leading newspaper sites including the NY Times, and is negotiating with broadcast and cable stations to put links to its site on their Web pages.

The broad reach and accessibility of the Internet is important, said a company spokesman, because “our goal is no longer just to educate, but to also create a preference for our company over our rivals.”

Sounds like marketing to me…

I’m a big fan of intelligent marketing. You know, giving the customer credit for being intelligent, not treating him/her like a total dunce. And using facts and information to make a persuasive case for why you should buy.

I hate ads that are annoying, intrusive and insulting. (Just like you, I suspect.) So I was delighted when PC World recently spotlighted the Ten Most Annoying, Frustrating, Irritating, and Sinister Online Ads. Author Tom Spring nails ‘em:

“Some of these ads flash, blink, vibrate, and somersault around your browser window. Others expand, pop open a window (even if you have a pop-up blocker), and play sounds or video. The most sinister don’t appear to do anything at all and quietly attempt to hijack your PC.”

Call me old fashioned, but pissing off prospects doesn’t seem like a smart way to do business. Sure, you might lure in a few suckers — once — but it’s no way to build a long-term relationship.

The article even has the guts to mention annoying ads on their own website.

“I asked one advertising insider (who didn’t want to be identified) if he would confirm my suspicion that some advertisers intentionally make it impossible to find the Close button. His response? ‘Of course they do. These advertisers know they are getting away with something. And that ’something’ is not about making your life easier.’”

That’s why I urge my clients to attract clients by offering them information of value — rather than using old-fashioned marketing tricks. Would-be customers want to study and learn what makes one product or service better than its competitors. And the closer they are to a buying decision, the more eager they are to learn, and the more details they want. After all, their goal is to make a decision, place their order, and move on to the next thing. Why not give them the facts and figures they want?

PS: If you use Firefox with the AdBlock Plus extension, you may never even have seen these aggravating ads. (grin)

PC pundit John C. Dvorak thinks Google-style “relevance” ads have failed, and he’s sick of them.

“Every move I make on my computer—and, for that matter, every channel I click to on my TV set—is monitored and used as a basis for “context relevance” advertising.”

Dvorak is tired of the loss of privacy as Google, Doubleclick and a dozen others plant tracking cookies on his computer (and yours). But his real gripe is that Google’s pay-per-click ads often don’t work. Sp^mmers are exploiting the system, ruining the results and turning PPC into just another advertising fad.

They’re only relevant, he says, when you actually want to buy something.

“Today’s advertisers try to trick us into buying when we might not want … This is acceptable up to a point, (but) we’ve passed that point. Relevance advertising came about because traditional advertising (failed) to do its job.”

Dvorak would prefer what he calls “intelligent” ads — the kind Madison Avenue doesn’t make any more because they don’t win Art Director awards.

“Personally, I prefer an advertisement that tells me something new… Intelligent sales pitches do not bother me in that context. But these sorts of ads are now gone as relevance advertising heads to the diving board to do its bellyflop.”

What do you think? Is Dvorak all wet? (Sorry, that swimming pool metaphor is stuck in my head.)

What’s your experience with AdWords? Is it working for you? Do you plan to do more, less or about the same? Post your thoughts in the comments.