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(The QR codes to the left are identical, and will all take you to the “About JR” page on this website.)

Q) What is a QR code?
A) Everybody knows what they look like, but what exactly do they do? This answer is from QRstuff.com:

 
A QR Code (it stands for “Quick Response”) is a cell phone readable bar code that can store website URL’s, plain text, phone numbers, email addresses and pretty much any other alphanumeric data.

Q) Do you have to have a smartphone to use QR codes?
A) Yes, unless you’re using QR codes to patch a leaky waterbed.

Q) What are the best services to generate QR codes for my marketing purposes?
A1) That depends on your needs. My favorite is goo.gl. (That’s the whole URL – there is no <.com> after.) Goo.gl will shorten the link for you, give you a QR code, and TRACK IT’S PERFORMANCE*. That’s right. It will display a graph showing when and how often your shortened URL has been accessed via the QR code.

*You need a Google account to use goo.gl, but there are so many great reasons to have a Google account, not the least of which is this tracking feature for your QR codes.

A2) Another great QR code service is QRstuff.com, mentioned above. It will create QR codes that activate ALL KINDS of URLs or other information, such as:

• a phone number
• a Google Maps location
• an iTunes link
• a telephone number (just press “call” to make the call)
• a YouTube video
• a plain text message
• and many more!

You can also select various sizes, according to your project needs.

Q) Are QR codes customizable, or do they all look like random black squares inside a white box?
A) They are somewhat flexible. They can contain colors, and even be hand-drawn. The code to the right will take you to the website for a great Indianapolis restaurant. If it doesn’t immediately register, pull the phone back just a bit when you scan it. Note the hearts, words, PacMan, and Space Invaders character, and other icons.

Q) How should I use QR codes?
A) Like many marketing tools, this is only limited by your imagination. Because the QR code reader is a smartphone application, please don’t use a QR code to route visitors to your standard (non-mobile) website. Use them to send visitors to a YouTube video for your non-profit’s fund-raiser. Use them to provide a special phone number for ordering your brand new product or service. Use them to direct visitors to your MOBILE webpage, if you have one. Use them to conduct a QR code-based scavenger hunt of your favorite customers, or to direct visitors to your Eventbrite invitation for your open house or seminar.

Q) Any questions?

Continue reading »]]> My children and their spouses recently gave me a USB turntable and a couple of vinyl records for my birthday. I am extremely grateful, and at the same time, paralyzed. Here’s why.

The Return of Vinyl

I’ve had a couple of boxes of record albums on the top pantry shelf for…ever, it seems. The latest date on any of the albums is from the early 1980′s. Those are my albums.

We also have some albums from the 1950′s and 1960′s. They belonged to my wife’s parents.

Time for a flashback: While I was in college, I fell in love with vinyl records. Yes, I LOVE them. I took radio production classes, in which the instructor taught us the proper way to handle and clean vinyl records before playing them. I heard and saw the difference it made in the sound. My dorm had a radio station, where I practiced the things I was learning. I was neck-deep in vinyl every Sunday from 8 p.m. to midnight.

Those albums of mine are in like-new condition. I’m almost afraid to touch them.

And how do choose which albums to digitize, and burn to CD, so I can listen to them again? How do I approach the task, when it could take weeks or months to get the selected albums done? What do I do with them AFTER they’ve been digitized?

These albums now sit in stacks on the kitchen table, waiting.

Then I realized that the real roadblock had nothing to do with the records. I was delaying because it meant I would have to tackle a completely different project that literally has been on my desk for years.

Part of the Problem

The mess on my desk.

I need a spot to put the turntable, near my desktop computer. But I’ve never been able to get my desk cleaned. Not even half-way. Ugh.

Then, it hit me. I remembered that I had proclaimed it The Year of the Banana. I have bunches of “rotten bananas” and even more bunches that could “spoil”, strewn across the entire desk, and even on the file cabinet adjacent to my desk. My integrity is at stake.

Is this my attempt to get someone to volunteer to hold me accountable – to figuratively standing over me with a ruler, and slap my hands when I stray from the task at hand to check Facebook…again? No, as it turns out, it’s my encouragement to you. And to myself.

What is holding you back from doing that thing that will give you a great deal of joy, satisfaction, or feeling of contribution?

Have you decided never to buy a motorcycle because they’re too dangerous?

Fine. You’ll never feel the wind in your face, or hear the roar as you zoom across the open highway. They have safety classes. Take them.

Have you been putting off making a major change in your health habits because health clubs are expensive, and you always end up quitting?

Fine. Die early. Or, enroll today. Right now.

Have you neglected to join an emergency services team because you don’t know if you have time, or you just don’t know who to call?

Fine. Never see the relief and love in the eyes of a child when you carefully hand them their family dog, after retrieving him from the basement of a tornado-ravaged house. Or, call your local Emergency Management office. They will tell you how to get started.

Your joy is waiting. MY joy is waiting, in a stack on the kitchen table. Let’s get moving.

Continue reading »]]> I was reading Jeff Goins’ blog about writing and being a writer. He recently posted an article about building a “platform” of content that people come to anticipate and appreciate. Perusing the readers’ comments, I ran across this statement, and I think it’s a gem, a thing of beauty:

“So I have found peace in being me. And as I grow, I give more.” –Ngina Otiende

I’m finding that the more positive a blog is, the better the comments tend to be. Great job, Jeff, in fostering an audience that listens, and contributes value as well.

Continue reading »]]> In the last several weeks, Best Property Marketing (our Virtual Tour and Real Estate marketing service) experienced a surge in Commercial Virtual Tour business. These have been strictly buildings in North Central Indiana that are for sale or for lease.

The main client for these VTs has been Tom Harrold at Harrold-Chandler Real Estate. Thank you, Tom, for your business and your trust in us!

Here’s an example: 1626 E. Jefferson Street, Kokomo (The “Guyer the Mover” facility)

We’ve also submitted quotes for other Commercial clients, and hope to continue to grow in this area. If you know a commercial property manager in Central Indiana, we would appreciate the chance to demonstrate the value of using Virtual Tours to increase their marketing impact.

Briefly, some of the benefits of including a Virtual Tour with your Commercial Real Estate listing:

• This marketing tool can help show the layout and flow of a property, as well as the condition of a property, and approximates the experience of “being there.”
• An excellent method of qualifying your prospects. If they’ve seen the Virtual Tour, then call for a visit, that means they are sincerely interested.
• They show the potential buyer that you are serious about selling or leasing the property!
• Their marketing impact and visual appeal is superior to a slide show of still images.
• The web link for a Virtual Tour can easily be posted to Facebook or Twitter, or e-mailed to an interested shopper!

Commercial Virtual Tours start at $200*, which includes 4 Hi-Res panoramic “spins” (up to 360°) plus 10 still images. For additional cost, we can provide up to 30 combined images (spins and stills). Your tours can also include dimensions, feature descriptions, maps, and floor plans. For more information, contact JR via (765) 997-8687, or jr@bestpropertymarketing.com. Thanks for your interest!

*Typical. Multiples or special applications can drive the investment even lower!

Continue reading »]]> Hello, friends and fans of the Marketing Mercenary! I want to apologize for the six-and-a-half weeks since the last post here.

*Whew* I feel better. Don’t you?

Instead of making excuses, or even explanations, I’ll just jump in and post some new (and not-so-new) items that will bring us up to date. Thanks for your patience!

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The Year Of The Banana

It’s my own decision. I have not seen it proclaimed on any calendar or news site.  I am posting this for my own benefit, and if it helps you – great! For me, 2012 is officially The Year of the Banana.

Last year, I read “Do The Work” and “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. Both of those works talk about defeating Resistance, and producing results in your vocation, hobby, or other of life’s goals.

This morning, thanks to a link that was tweeted by my writer friend Erik Deckers (@edeckers), I landed on the blog of another writer by the name of Jeff Goins. Goins’ post was called “The Last Writing Prompt You’ll Ever Need.” and it lead me to his e-book, which I’ll let you discover on your own. The e-book was very similar to Pressfield’s work, with a kinder, gentler style.

With Goins’ material fresh in my mind, I started to make breakfast. I began thinking about how long it has been since I updated this blog. In my hand at that moment was a banana.

I peeled and sliced it into a bowl, then added cereal. I realized how the banana could represent many of my work efforts, and my frustration with my own lack of results. You see, if you peel back the skin of a banana, you have a limited amount of time before it turns brown and mushy, and must be thrown away. Even if you leave the skin on, eventually that banana will go bad.

So many of my projects have been “peeled,” and even “sliced,” and never “eaten” (completed). Or, they’ve been left with the skin on, and never even started.

What a colossal waste.

My first productive act of 2012 was to print out a photo of a partially peeled banana. At that moment, for the banana, it must be “completed,’” or you might as well throw it away. In order to bring this sense of purpose and urgency to my work, I have posted the photo on my project board, next to my desk.

“Which banana will I peel next?” will be my starting point, with the determination that, once begun, I will continue on that project (no matter how insignificant or daunting) until completed. If another urgent matter takes me away from that peeled banana, I only leave it with the  mental note that it deserves my full attention as soon as I can possibly return to it.

Please pardon the pun, but, having proclaimed this The Year of the Banana, I can see 2012 being a lot more fruitful.

–JR

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Kit Wessendorf and Greg Bell

Marketing Mercenary was recently called upon to shoot video for Indianapolis-based 12 Stars Media. They are developing training materials for the Indiana Association of REALTORS, in conjunction with Neupath. Neupath is one of many small businesses housed at the Kokomo business incubator site, Inventrek.

I say all that to say this: It’s the complimentary nature of these various businesses that have brought them together (MM included), and their willingness to seek help with certain tasks, instead of “doing it all in-house”. The direct benefit will be some great training tools at very reasonable cost. The side benefits will be the relationships formed and renewed, that can lead to further business or referrals for future opportunities in multiple directions.

To paraphrase “Hannibal” Smith from The A-Team, “I love it when a team comes together!”

Pictured are Kit Wessendorf, producer for 12 Stars Media, left, and Greg Bell, former Kokomo sportscaster from WIOU and Z92.5 fame, on the right. They are recording voice-overs for the “non-talking-head” segments of the training videos. Marketing Mercenary supplied the audio equipment, set-up help, and comic relief, of course.

Also present was Kathy Harbaugh, Indiana Association of REALTORS, (former VP of the REALTORS Association of Central Indiana in Kokomo), and Don McCreary, Neupath.

It was great seeing Greg and Kathy again after several years. I worked at Z92.5/WIOU while Greg was the sportscaster there. I met Kathy when I first started my own business, producing virtual tours for various realtors in Kokomo and surrounding areas. We have all progressed in various ways, but are all still doing things we love and value.

Who knows? There may be room for you in the next project!

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Many folks expressed hesitation to build an on-line presence on Google+ for their business identity, due to the lack of an equivalent to Facebook’s Fan Pages. Google, in fact, had forbidden companies to set up Google+ profiles.

Today, that changed. Google now has “Google+ Pages”, encouraging businesses to identify themselves this way. Apparently, the intent is to make it possible for businesses and individuals to connect and share (via the Circles) in the same fashion.

Marketing Mercenary has claimed a Google+ Page. The icon above is our Google+ Badge. You can click on it, and it will take you to the new page. At least initially, we intend to post similar content to Facebook and Google+. Why the redundancy? It’s about your preference. You pick the platform you like. We’ll do our best to be there for you.

Continue reading »]]> Kokomo City Hall in Kokomo, Indiana, October3, 2011. The Indiana State Chamber of Commerce awarded Kokomo the title of “Community of the Year 2011.” In this video, you’ll hear the announcement and related comments from Mayor Greg Goodnight. You’ll also hear remarks from Kevin Brinegar (Indiana State Chamber of Commerce President) and Jeff Cardwell (Kokomo/Howard County Chamber of Commerce Chairman).

Marketing Mercenary shot, edited, and delivered this program to you via YouTube.com. Please click the image to watch.