SOR 014: Scott Cramton

Guest:
Scott Cramton

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Scott Cramton runs the Murder Mystery Co., providing both public and private interactive improv performances across the U.S. Over the last dozen years he’s had the opportunity to experiment with marketing and advertising options to figure out approaches that work extremely well… and a few that might bankrupt you.

At the end of the interview, I ask Scott to share some of the biggest wastes of marketing money he’s seen over the years. He had several, and the insights that this conversation opens up around advertising in general are very helpful to keep in mind as you’re honing your own marketing tactics.

In this episode:

• search engine optimization – how SEO will play into your marketing (hint: localization)
• online event calendars – is listing your event on local event calendars worth the time
• a creative way to get testimonials – sometimes being entertaining is more important than being authentic
• a fresh take on FAQs with video – we’re all in the business of being creative and entertaining, and there’s no reason you can’t take the most traditionally boring parts of a website and make them captivating
• should you be using Groupon – the answer is it depends, it can make you a lot of money or it could cost you a fortune – Scott goes into a lot of detail on how to work a daily deals site like Groupon
• the danger of obvious ads – a study of how advertising can train people to ignore your promotions
• using your cast after the show – make life easier on both the actors and the audience by giving them an activity (a photo line) after the show

Items mentioned:

• Murder Mystery Co. – Scott’s company that offers public and private interactive murder mystery events
• Fiverr – the website where Scott discovered the puppeteers who created the puppet testimonials featured on the site
• Buyology – a book that includes (among other things) some discussion of how traditional advertising can hurt your brand (Amazon affiliate link)
• Murder Mystery Co. on Facebook – not a lot of stiff corporate status updates here

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