I'm excited that we have my friend Greg Verdino, vice president of Powered, hosting the MarketingProfs seminar this Thursday. Greg will be talking about something he calls "micromarketing," as he just published a book with the same title earlier this month.

Greg's book hasn't arrived in my mailbox yet---curses for choosing Super Saver Shipping!---but I had a chance to chat with Greg about the book's fundamentals recently.

AH: OK, so what are you talking about when you talk about "micromarketing"?

GV: We all know what mass marketing looks like---grand gestures, splashy creative and big budget media buys designed to reach and appeal to the widest possible audience. The problem? This type of marketing is less likely than ever to actually appeal to anyone at all. In large part, this is due to the splintering of mass culture into millions of niche microcultures, and the hyper-fragmentation of mass media into an infinite channel microcontent universe (in other words, that pesky social media thing).

In microMARKETING, my thesis is that in today’s environment businesses can achieve better results by tapping directly into these trends---or as I say, by “thinking and acting small”---than they can by bucking against them and pining for the good old days of Super Bowl spots and homepage takeovers.

AH: So when one door closes, another opens ... as you say on your site (quoting Alexander Graham Bell).

GV: Right. In contrast to mass marketing, micromarketing emphasizes the use of small gestures (like one-on-one, person-to-person interactions), simple social media approaches and the amplification effect you get when the right people start spreading your messages and content throughout their social graphs.

AH: Can organizations of all sizes be micromarketers?

GV: Absolutely. In the book and in the presentation for Thursday’s seminar, I draw examples from big companies like Ford, Coke, Walmart and Samsung on the one hand. And microbrands (by which I mean small businesses and even individuals) like By Lauren Luke, #blamedrewscancer and author J.C. Hutchins on the other.

Because micromarketing is all about doing the right small things to get big results, it’s less about the size of your organization and more about your willingness to think differently and take new approaches.

AH: What else are you covering Thursday?

GV: In addition to giving attendees a peek at some of the key concepts from my book, the seminar will be packed with plenty of real world examples and actionable ideas that they can begin applying to their own businesses as soon as the session ends---it’s not all theory and it’s not just the same old stuff social media experts have been hammering on for the past three years.

As an added bonus, I have a beautiful speaking voice that makes for some mighty fine online listening.

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To Greg's last point:  It's smooth as buttah. : ) See for yourself at Greg's last presentations for us in the past here and here. (The latter gives an excellent tutorial on Second Life, if you happened to miss 2007 entirely.)

Hope to see you Thursday! Preregistration is not required, but you might want to save the date. Don't miss this one! (Of course, you can always access it On Demand later, if you do. )

Note: This seminar is free for MarketingProfs Pro members.