This Sunday is Mother’s Day (Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!). “Celebrating Mom” has become big business for many small businesses. While there are many stores and services hoping to bring in shoppers (and I’ll share some of my ideas below), there are some sharp guerrilla marketers looking to “ride the wave” and cash in on all the sentiment.

Build Traffic

You may wonder how you, who may not offer products or services normally associated with Mother’s Day gifts, can benefit from the holiday. The real question is, could your site benefit from more exposure, more traffic? If the answer is “Yes,” start considering ways to chat, blog or share about Mother’s Day.

Perhaps the easiest thing to do is Continue reading →

The Avengers movie, in its first six days internationally, has earned $218 million. Some experts predict it will make $500 million after this weekend and, in doing so, be in the black after just one weekend in America. With reviews being overwhelmingly positive, this just in… The Avengers are hot.

Last week, I covered the topic of what I like to call “Riding the Wave.” (Probably a good idea to read it to better appreciate this blog). Basically, it is latching on to another entity’s popularity and coming along for the ride. I gave a recent example of The Weather Channel shamelessly posting an article online, “The Hunger Games and Weather.” With this weekend’s The Avengers opening most likely surpassing The Hunger Games $152.5 million debut, a new super power has entered the arena.

Doing a search on Google using the term “Avengers,” over 5,000 news articles appeared the night before the movie releases in America (5/04/12). While it seems every single online magazine/newspaper/blog and news source has someone giving a review of the movie, there were plenty of other clever ways to tie-in to Marvel’s blockbuster without paying any royalties or fees.

Here are some of the highlights: Continue reading →