Marketing can be a very complicated process, especially when your customers know that they are on the receiving end of the advertising. In the modern age of the Internet, fewer people want to be sold on something and more people want to be informed. That’s why while you still want press releases and killer product pages, you also need something more.

That’s why it can be a great idea to invest in creating a stellar white paper or infographic. This works almost like passive marketing, because it helps to establish you (or your company) as an expert in your field. You are providing the audience with useful or interesting information, and then they see that you are the source. This adds value and credibility to your brand.

In the case of infographics, good ones will oftentimes get picked up by popular blogs that report on your niche, whether it is related to automobiles, Internet marketing, the wedding industry, or any number of other areas. This again works as “free” advertising for your company, since your logo or brand name is attached to that infographic.

Best of all, you don’t really need to produce the infographic yourself. There are many freelancers on the Internet who are available to complete the entire process for you, including the background research, layout, typography, and more. Outsource to these professionals, have your name attached to the project as the official sponsor, and enjoy the passive brand awareness building.

There are more and more advertising opportunities on the Internet with each passing day. You can purchase advertising directly from a number of websites, just as you can advertise on Facebook and Twitter too. YouTube is another intriguing channel to consider.

There are two prominent video-based ad placements that could prove to be valuable parts of your overall marketing campaign. First, there is the pre-roll. Many popular videos on YouTube allow for a “pre-roll” video that is played before the main video. Some of these can be skipped after a few seconds, while others must be played through in their entirety.

The other big option is direct advertising with the content creators themselves. They can then promote your product or service in the middle of their own videos. You can see the Netflix interstitial in most of the newer videos from Epic Meal Time, for instance.

The question of which option is more effective is a tricky one. The pre-roll is played right away, but sometimes can be skipped. The interstitial can also be skipped by the very nature of fast-forwarding through that section. And both can be perceived as an annoyance by some viewers. What do you think? Which ad placement is more effective?

Semantics and rhetoric play integral parts of any marketing campaign, not surprisingly, so you’ll find that the careful choice of words is incredibly important in all your advertising and web copy.

Recently, I came across a “promise” from a certain corporate consulting business that really didn’t promise anything. The wording on the front page of the website read: “We guarantee we will increase your sales by up to 300% or more in the first month.”

That sounds like a bold claim, but think about what they are really saying. Your sales can be increased by up to 300%, which means it could be low as 0%. Your sales can also be increased by more than 300%, according to this claim. In effect, the guarantee is saying that your sales could increase by any amount between negative infinity and positive infinity, a promise that promises nothing.

Is this deceptive? Perhaps, but it goes to show you that careful wording of any and all of your marketing copy can not only attract new customers, but also protect you in case you don’t achieve the results that are desired.

Twitter is a fantastic tool to use for marketing your company, its products, and its services. It’s a great way to get the word out about what you do, as well as about any specials or promotions you may have. However, you need to be mindful of when you send these out.

The time of day can have a dramatic impact on the relative success of a “promotional” tweet. If you have a restaurant that largely caters to the late night crowd, it’s unlikely you’ll get much attention by announcing something at 8am. Sending out the message at 9pm may not be the best either, since these people may already be out.

There is no such thing as the perfect time for every tweet. Instead, it depends on a number of factors and that’s why you should track the relative success of your tweets. If you are sending out a link, use different tracking URLs and send out the tweets at different times of the day. After several of these, you should start to see a trend emerge as to when the tweets are the most viewed and when the links are clicked the most often.

As with any other aspect of marketing and advertising, getting the right metrics can make a huge difference on whether your promotion succeeds or fails. And the time of day for a tweet can play a huge role in that.

When it comes to most conventional trade shows, there’s an expectation that each company will have its own booth and that’s where people can go to get information about their products. That may be true, but you shouldn’t limit yourself to just that paradigm.

In the case of a trade show like Penny Arcade Expo or the Consumer Electronics Expo, it is very common to see cross-marketing between companies that work together. The computer industry is a great example of this. A case maker may use the RAM of one company, the processor of another, and the hard drive of yet another in a display unit. All three of those partners represent advertising opportunities.

Similarly when it comes to the video game industry, the console maker, an accessory maker, and the game developer might all be promoting all three of their products. That’s not a competing product, since all three work within the same ecosystem. That helps with brand recognition and brand presence, spreading as far across the trade show floor as possible.

And this isn’t restricted to consumer electronics and technology. Companies from all kinds of different industries can consider leveraging similar partnerships. Travel trade shows, for instance, might see cross-promotion with hotels and airlines. The possibilities are endless and the opportunity certainly shouldn’t be ignored.

Twitter has largely been embraced by the mainstream. News forecasters and other television personalities sometimes have their Twitter usernames flashed on the screen. Companies tell you to follow them on Twitter, prominently displaying the bird logo on their websites.

But that’s just for the usernames. As another way to spark the conversation, many television shows have also started to display a hashtag somewhere on the screen. On Top Gear USA, you may notice #TopGear shown in the corner. The same happens with shows like #Fringe. By doing this, they are encouraging interaction on Twitter among users other than their own Twitter accounts.

This costs virtually nothing for the producers to add, but it can result in huge rewards for the companies and television shows. I’ve even seen some TV commercials and print ads that not only show the company’s Twitter username, but also a preferred hashtag. This is about brand presence and consistency. In the case of Top Gear, it encourages people tweet with #TopGear rather than #TopGearUSA, for example.

The irony is that hashtags aren’t even required in Twitter and they haven’t been needed for some time now. Putting “Fringe” and “#Fringe” in a tweet is read the same way and can be searched the same way. Hashtags still have value, though, and this creative marketing is one way to capitalize on that.

In this increasingly competitive market, it can be difficult to get yourself noticed. Even if you manage to get your product on the shelves of a major retailer, many customers browsing the store may not ever know it’s there.

That’s why we’re starting to see a trend toward the “store within a store” format. In certain Best Buy locations, for instance, you’ll see a section that is dedicated completely to Apple products. It’s not really being shown as a department as much as it is being shown as its own store… which just happens to be inside of a larger store.

The same thing has happened at a Memory Express store in Richmond, BC. Western Digital has set up its own “store within a store” in that Memory Express location, showcasing WD products and giving this line more visibility than its direct competitors.

The concept isn’t new. Many shopping centres in Asia have department stores where the clothing is split up based on brands and each brand effectively has its own “store” within the department store. This kind of marketing adds to the visibility and could help to get you noticed.

The brick and mortar business certainly still exists. From restaurants to clothing stores, people still go to physical locations to buy many things. However, more and more business are looking to cut away the overhead and work exclusively as online-only entities.

Without getting into the pros and cons of such an approach, we must also ask another question. If your business is online-only, do you still need to have physical business cards? If so, would you still put your mailing address on them or is just the web address sufficient?

Realistically, it really depends on the nature of your business. If it’s the type where you are still shipping and receiving physical products, then you will likely still want to put a physical mailing address on there. If you are a web consultant or a graphic designer, on the other hand, a conventional mailing address may not be as necessary and it becomes a matter of personal preference.

To all the web-only business owners in the audience, do you still have business cards printed? What information do you choose to include on these cards? Do you include or omit the physical mailing address?

Social media and social networking have absolutely taken the world by storm. It really has opened up the communication channels for individuals and businesses alike, but are you getting maximum value out of it?

Absolutely, a big part of getting the most out of Twitter is to get active engagement with your customers and fans. However, even if you’re not as active on Twitter as some other companies, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get some value from it. In fact, just make sure your customers know that you are on Twitter and that they know your Twitter username.

This is critical, because it means that when they mention your brand, they are more likely to use your username (@company) rather than just your company name (company name). This lends itself to having their followers click through on the username and learn more about you. It’s much less likely that someone would copy and paste the company name into a search engine to learn more.

This is why, above all else, your Twitter bio, background image, and profile URL be kept up to date. They need to be informative, directing interested parties to your website to get more information about what you have to offer. Get on Twitter, get the mentions, and build your brand presence online.

As you’ve surely heard by now, singer Amy Winehouse passed away this past weekend. There was a significant response (with varying opinions) throughout the social-sphere, including Facebook, Twitter, and other realms online.

Keen eyes would have also noticed that within the same day as the announcement of her death, Apple started to feature Winehouse on the main page of iTunes. This showcasing of the artist could have been seen as paying tribute or commemorating her work. However, it could also be construed in a different way.

It could also be seen as capitalizing on an opportunity. Some people may say that this was mildly unethical or in bad taste, while others see the showcasing as a smart business move on the part of Apple.

What do you think? Was this a strategic move that paid dividends into Apple’s iTunes coffers or was it a move in bad taste that should be frowned upon?