You have probably noticed the trend of progressive businesses and business people toward "getting real" or (buzzword) "transparent."

Make no mistake about it, this is shrewd marketing at work. And it's great. At it's heart, is a swing toward a sense of honesty about things. Real, legitimate, fair companies have nothing to hide. Lifting the veil on how things work, showing your imperfections as well as your strengths works to create trust with customers. Customers want to feel a personal, human connection with business. I've ranted at length here about how irritating and powerless you feel when "the system" at MegaCorp disallows a personal, human touch. Progressive companies, those that are defining the future, hide behind no such "system."

We could all do well to incorporate this kind of "realness" into our interactions with prospects, customers and the pubic in general. The best success a company can have is to build a base of customers, one at a time, by being fair, honest, real and exceptionally good. Mark my words -- the successful companies of tomorrow will follow this pattern. Those that don't will dwindle when the first opportunity for a customer to defect arises. And that opportunity will come. I don't care if you're a doctor, a bank, a phone company, or a software company... nothing is forever and failing to get real with your customers will spell your demise.

Here are examples of a few diverse companies that are getting real:

Southwest Airlines: The "Airline" series on A&E where cameras capture the good, the bad and the insane as SWA allows nearly unrestricted access for camera crews to capture every day life in the terminal.

Microsoft's Channel 9 as well as the free flowing MS related discussion that Scoble has on his blog. Unfiltered and real, it's great stuff with a strong following.

BzzAgent, a company that businesses can hire to help ignite word-of-mouth marketing through it's "agents" (I'm one) who are offered free product previews and asked to honestly share their opinions with the public. This business has a model that almost demands secrecy and that teeters on the brink of dishonesty, but they have opened their doors wide with their blog where they divulge freely and openly.

And this little gem I found today: Zach Braff, the main character on Scrubs who plays Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian has a new movie out, which he wrote and directed. He also has a blog. Candid and real, interesting too. And the official site for his movie is loaded with DVD-extra esque "real" clips, interviews and blurbs that really create that personal touch. Nice work Zach (and/or whoever is advising your marketing).

Of course these ideas aren't that new. Ideas articulated by The Cluetrain Manifesto and a bunch of others since have set the stage. At this point it's just a matter of watching the number of converts. And it's happening. And it's very cool.

What can your company do to start getting real? Need some ideas? Let's talk.

So, during the whole mania surrounding the dotcom boom, I was more of a participant in the mania, than I was an investor, but it still gave me a nose bleed. I worked for a high rolling dotcom company that was burning cash with a flame thrower. It was an incredible time to be a part of the economy. Then, like everyone else, after the pizza parties and late night workfest lunacy died down I looked around and realized it couldn't last forever. That was the year 2000. And so the decline began. Since then, along with everyone else, I've wised up.

And I think this year marks the starting-over point. The Nasdaq is back where it was before the insanity hit. The economy, when analyzed by experts instead of politicians, shows signs of strength, measured improvement and strong growth potential. I think it's time to get back into the market, return to the business practices that caused the steady growth of the years preceding the bubble, and it's time to get on with life.

Get back in the stock market, re-invest in your business, look for opportunities to be frugal, but aggresive. Take this chance to pick up where we left off in 1998 and excel. Look for ways to leverage the tremendous technologicial advances of the last 5 years. Dedicate yourself to doing something remarkable, something that hasn't been done before. Take pride in how you do business, set your sights insanely high. Ignore naysayers, hire optimists, stay competitively paranoid, look for great ideas, then execute on them.

Sure, the future looks different than the past. It's scary, like all unknowns are, but what are your options? Cower and wait for someone else to jump off the high-dive and see that they survive? Invent your own high-dive and be the first to jump off it. Be amazing, surprise your customers, do something great.

To celebrate the 30 month anniversary of ZipTracker (seemed as good/silly a reason as any) I've changed the pricing model to better allow non "power users" access to the rich ROI reporting that everyone wants when they do any kind of Internet-based marketing.

Before, using ZipTracker cost a minimum of $99/mo. Now, folks can get rich ROI reporting for as little as $5/mo if they just have 1 campaign. Plus the 15-day free trial still stands.

The main draw for ZipTracker has always been its ability to track click throughs and exact leads and/or sales income per a specific campaign (example: an eblast or a banner ad). And it works with any campaign, offline or on. If the destination is your website, it works!

It also has rudamentary support for your own home grown affiliate program and other features. It has evolved in response to customer needs. Chances are, it probably does what you need. If not, I might be able to add it in. Check it out.

K, done pitching :o)

Free ebook from the Creating Customer Evangelists folks. (Still the best business/marketing book I've ever read). My review is here.

Just downloaded it, can't wait to read.

As self-proclaimed Website Makeover Guru, I hereby dub this advice, right on. Of course the tips themselves are lightweight, but the advice is solid.

I've bolded the indispensable, high bang for the buck ones.

1. Reduce the number of site pages.
2. Make the site a marketing tool.
3. Set up an e-mail program.
4. Create an online reward for prized customers.
5. Speed loading time.
6. Give visitors greater, self-directed control.
7. Get fashionable.
8. Invest in a content management system.
9. Insure visibility on search engines.
10. Align the site to the organization.
11. Add testimonials or success stories.

Here's another bit of advice : 5 common mistakes to avoid
1. Make sure customers can contact you.
2. Include product pictures.
3. Give detailed product descriptions.
4. Always provide pricing information.
5. Offer competitive information.

And finally, here's Scoble carrying on about the virtues of blogs in business. But you're alreaedy sold on that, right?

If you care about business and marketing, you need to be subscribed to Cool News of the Day. This is absolutely the best email I get.

BMW motorcycles, according to Mr. Atkin, is a cult brand that is "even more mysterious than Harley Davidson." Did you know that BMW publishes "a directory of 12,000 BMW owners (listed by phone number only) willing to help other BMW owners who are hurt, lost or just have a flat tire far from home"?

Cool, I just subscribed to idea a day. Found it in Seth's latest (and superb!) book.

Advertisers are reaching new dizzying heights of desperate. Of course that's because advertising is dead. I'm not the first to proclaim that. And to be clear, obviously not all advertising is dead.

Yet.

So allow me to narrow that.

Annoying advertising is dead.

Note:
The Do Not Call national registry
Myriad spam prevention techniques
TiVo (and the like) for fast forwarding through commercials.

Now this: Adnoodle is a company that will pay you to be annoyed by annoying ads.

Do they really think this will work?

Instead of paying the financially strapped to listen to your annoying ads, why not just create something truly great? Some service, or some product (or both) that just blows people away? Then you wouldn't have to spend money on annoying advertising.

You know that Krispy Kreme doesn't advertise, right? They don't believe in it. Instead, they make a superb product, and give lots of it away free. That's the kind of "advertising" I can get warm fuzzies about.

Or yesterday, I was with my family (parents, siblings) and my Dad was telling us about the amazing experience one of his co-workers had with Dave Smith. Dave Smith, for those not in Spokane, is our "local" car dealer of choice. Local is a funny word of course, because he's actually in Kellogg Idaho. Also known as "the middle of fetching no-where" North Idaho. At least 2 hours in the car from Spokane. And he's the largest Dodge dealer in the world. The largest GMC dealer in the Northwest. Which is, frankly, absurd.

So why is he so successful? When he's out in the middle of fetching no where?

Well, he does do some advertising, but so do all the other car dealers in town.

The ones that are 5 minutes away, and sell the same thing that Dave Smith does.

He's so successful because of conversations like the one my Dad had with his co-worker, and that he then had with us. And this buzz about how amazing the service and buying experience is at Dave Smith permeates the city. No annoying advertising needed.

And finally, Costco. Costco doesn't do any annoying advertising. But they are mind-bogglingly successful. I go several times a week :) and there's never a parking spot. If you've been there, you know why they are so successful. They sell amazing products, at amazing prices, in an amazing setting.

And get this. Last night in that family meeting my sister mentions her recent Coscto experience. She has a DVD player. She bought it at Coscto over a year ago. One of her kids must have stuffed too many Peanut Butter sandwiches in the DVD tray because it finally quit working. So she took it back to Coscto. No problem they said. Go grab a new one. Oh, and here's a $10 refund, the price has dropped $10 since you bought that old one.

Imagine if you will how many people will hear about that story. Imagine how much it cost Costco in advertising ($15 maybe?) to get her raving about it for months to anyone that will listen.

Annoying advertising is dead. Dead, dead, dead. And no amount of packaging will make that annoying advertising work for you. Don't do it. Instead - be remarkable. Be amazing. Give your customers a reason to advertise for you.

[Update 6/2: as promised I raised the price of my Makeover Roadmap. But only from $500 to $750. I think this still helps me accomplish what I want, and keep it within reach for most anyone. And remember that the price of the roadmap is deducted from price of the project should you proceed to have me help you implement anything I suggest.]

[Update 5/21] Seth reports from the front lines. Verdict? Not quite there.

Is this a purple cow? (A remarkable business move that causes people to buzz, remark and builds good will.) Looks like it!

Help another passenger carry a bag, stay upbeat during a difficult situation or assist a flight attendant and you could earn one of 5,000 roundtrip tickets Song will give away in June for redemption between September and November.

We'll see if it's enough to help the compete with the other low priced powerhouses SouthWest and JetBlue.

P.S. They also have a nearly perfect website design -- 10/10. Take notes.