Making Decisions

I was sitting in a brainstorming meeting the other day, and the CEO of my company made an excellent point. He said, "A good decision is better than a bad decision, but a bad decision is better than no decision at all." We live in a society where we are discouraged from taking risks and making mistakes. We would rather make no decision than make the wrong one, so we end up wasting so much time looking for the best possible choice. Just think of how many opportunities you could be missing out on because you are spending more time trying to make a decision than choosing one and acting on it. Sure there is a chance you could be wrong, but a wrong decision doesn't have to be a bad thing. You just learn from it and correct it. I bad decision ends up being a bad thing when you notice it but fail to do something about it. A good example is our current mortgage situation, or the issue in Iraq. What if the Pilgrims sat around trying to figure out if it would be better to leave or stay, then we may not be here today.

So if you find yourself pondering over a decision, just put something down and try it out. If it doesn't work fix it, because a bad decision is better than no decision at all.

Optimization can help you work smarter, not harder

This is an update to the My Reaction of the Boston MarketingSherpa B2B Lead Gen Summit post.

MarketingSherpa just put out an article Seven Tactics to Improve Your Lead Gen: Top Takeaways from Sherpa’s B2B Demand Generation Summit ‘08 . I was quoted in tip #6. Optimization can help you work smarter, not harder, where I was talking about how we get together monthly to review results and see what can we test that will help move the needle.

These are some excellent takeaways, and I highly recommend reading all of them.

I also got kudos from my friends at ion interactive on my presentation in their blog entry titled Marketing Sherpa B2B Lead Gen Recap.

That's it for now; I'm headed home to catch the rest of the debate.

My Reaction of the Boston MarketingSherpa B2B Lead Gen Summit

Since I have some time to kill before my flight back home I thought I would post my reaction to the Boston MarketingSherpa B-to-B Lead Gen Summit. Over all I thought it was a good summit. The case studies were insightful, there were the right number of "relevant" vendors, and there were plenty of chances to network with the attendees.

The one thing that I would change about the format is that I would make the summit on a track schedule and give the presenters 45 minutes instead of 30. I know the benefit of having all the presenters in one room is that you don't miss anyone. I just felt that 30 minutes wasn't enough time to really get into some of the topics, with ample time for Q&A. Also by having the summit on a track schedule you can omit the sessions that you are not interested in without feeling like a jerk when you walk out. We all know that there are those one or two session that don't peak your interest.

Here are some of my important takeaways from the summit.

People buy from people, not websites
Make sure that your website, landing page, email blast, etc has a human feel to it. Consider the users intention or motivation when your are creating these elements. At the end of the day people would rather buy from people. Your website is just a tool to pass along your message.

Change your thinking when it comes to lead gen.
Think of People rather than Process.
Think of Touches rather than Attempts.
Think of Relationships rather than Contacts.

There are 4 areas of the buyer cycle Invitation, Initiation, Intensification, & Consummation.

The key to moving a prospect through this process is to know what the prospect is thinking at the transition of each of these elements, and act accordingly. At the transition from Initiation and Intensification you are building trust. This is when the user is looking closely to character, and how effective you are.


Clarity trumps persuasion
In regards to landing pages, no matter how strong your call to action or offer is if your page is not easy to use and clear you are going to loose that user.

There should be a marketing funnel and a sales funnel
Leads should not go to sales till it has been worked through the marketing funnel. Some people may consider this the "nurturing" process. In this phase you are establishing trust, building thought leadership with the user. The fact is salespeople don't have time to deal with leads that are not ready to buy. Also by having a sales person call too early is an easy way to scare the lead.

70% of all leads are not "sales ready"
Because of this fact you need to make sure that you have a marketing funnel with processes in place to move the lead through the funnel. That way you only deliver high quality leads to sales.

Every company needs a Universal Lead Definition (ULD)
A ULD are the elements that make up a "sales ready" lead. With a ULD in place you will have no question on if the lead is "sales ready." Brian Carroll used the acronym BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline)

There should be a process in place on how to hand off a lead from marketing to sales
If you do not have such a process in place you there will be problems. You will have leads that fall through the cracks, and know one will know why. This process will also establish accountability.

People, Process, Technology....In that order
Once you know the people that you want, and the process to get them, then bring in the technology. Dennis Head quoted IDC, and said that "Technology alone is not going to move the needle, you need a defined process."

Those are a few of top themes from the summit; if I get some time over the next couple of days I will post some more. I would love to hear what your thoughts are on these topics, so if you have an opinion or something to add please leave a comment.

Now that the wedding is behind me time to get back to blogging

Wow it really has been a while since my last post, but I have an excuse. For those who don't know me personally I got married to my sweetheart of 6 years on Aug 16th up in Malibu. So for those of you who are already married, you know what it's like when it's "crunch" time. And for those of you who are about to get married hang in there cause it's worth it!

I have to say the last 6-8 weeks before the wedding was the most stressful time of my life. There were so many little details that we had to take care of. Making sure the rooms were booked, getting gifts for the bridal party, planning the rehearsal dinner, making sure Courtney (my wife) was sane. So with all of that, and all the stuff going on at work there was no time for blogging.

I have to say even though it seemed like it came and gone in a flash, the wedding was a big hit. Everyone had a good time, and there were no major train wrecks. That is all thanks to Courtney, she did most of the planning. I just tried to be as supportive as possible and not get in the way. =oD

After the wedding we spent a week in Hawaii on the big island to un-plug and relax. Someone told me that my honeymoon would be the best vacation of my life, and they were right! After a year of planning a week in paradise it the perfect way to unwind.

So now that my second job of wedding planner support is over I can get back to the business of online marketing. Before I took my hiatus I was planning to write a 3 part series on analytics, but I just attended the Online Marketing Summit, and my head is swarming with ideas so I might have to change it up a bit.

If you were not able to attend the summit, you missed a good summit. The information was fresh, the speakers were very knowledgeable on their subject matter, and above all it was a good place to network and learn. There was some really good takeaways; one of my favorites was on the topic of social media. In the final keynote: Big Brands, Big Plans I asked if there was a measurable way to measure ROI in social media. The collective response was that with social media it shouldn't just be about ROI it should be about engaging with your users. If you get your users more engaged in your brand eventually the sale will happen. Also another good point is that social media doesn't have to just be about blogging, or being on facebook. If you have a product letting your customers rate the product and give feedback is a form if social media. Finally one of the panelist said "Don't just jump in to social media just to check something off of a list. You should use social media in a way that is aligned with your overall marketing strategy." If you want to check out some more good points from OMS check out my twitter feed. If you were at OMS please feel free to comment with your feedback.

So stay tuned because over the next few weeks Im going to be posting some good topics on analytics and paid search.

Also if you are going to the MarketingSherpa B-to-B Demand Gen Summit in Boston or San Francisco let me know. I will be co-presenting with ion interactive on the topic of Optimizing SEM Strategies from Keyword to Conversion. We will be talking about our success with increasing our paid search conversion rates. The whole summit looks to be a promising event, so if you have the extra time and money I encourage you to come out.

So I'll leave you with a couple of pics from my wedding & honeymoon, Enjoy!

5 Strategies to Improve Your Online Marketing

I was in Chicago for my company's partner summit where I led a session give our partners tips to help them improve their web marketing, and to get feedback on some upcoming web programs that we are launching. The focus group was held at 7am on day two of the summit, so we weren't expecting a large turnout. The partners that did show up really enjoyed the tips, and provided us with excellent feedback. Our product syndication program was well received. We learned that one of their major issues with the web is maintaining their website. A lot of our partners don't have an in-house web person, so any changes that come up can be a long costly process. The content syndication program will allow them to focus on what they do best, and not have worry about maintaining our product info on their websites.

Below you can view the presentation & the takeaway doc that I passed out. The partners aren't web guys, so I kept everything as high-level as possible. Even though the presentation was designed for a storage reseller the concepts can translate to any industry.

| View | Upload your own

5 Simple Strategies to Improve Your Online Marketing Results

Purchasing Fact:92% of all technical buyers go online FIRST to research a possible purchase*

*According to Forrester Research

Is your website portraying the right impression of your company? With the customer now in control of the experience, they are able to gather information without interacting with you directly. Thus, your web presence is the digital representation of your company, and a poor web presence can lower the amount of online and offline sales. Here are some simple strategies to improve your web presence and increase your conversion rates.

1. Provide Your Users With Fresh, Relevant Content
Because most users stop by your website first to do research, it should always contain fresh, relevant content. This will make an impression when the user is ready to purchase. According to a recent study by Enquiro Search Solutions on technical buyers, the number one influencer of purchase is the vendor's website. Websites that contain inaccurate or fragmented information gives an unprofessional impression of your company which can lead to missed opportunities, loss to competition, and negative impact to the bottom line.

2. Present Simple Website Usability
Poor website usability is another factor that can drive away potential sales. Make it easy for the user to find what they need quickly and effortlessly. The harder it is to use your website, the less people will want to buy from you. You can improve the usability of your site with the following tips:

1. The main navigation should be easy to use.
2. Your users should be able to find what they need in three clicks or less.
3. It should be obvious how to purchase your product.
4. Contact information should be highly visible.
5. Use layman's terms. Stay away from corporate or technical terms that might be hard for your user to understand.

3. Develop and Utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
According to Marketing Sherpa, 98% of B2B buyers search in Google, so if you apply proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques you have a better chance of being found in search engines by potential customers. Contrary to popular belief, SEO is not a trick that you play on search engines in order to rank higher. Optimization is defined as organizing your content to provide the most relevant experience. Search Engine Optimization is not an overnight process. It takes time to prove to the search engines that your content is relevant. Here are some techniques to improve your overall SEO:

1. A unique 6-13 word page title that contains important keywords from the page content.
2. Description meta tags that match the body content.
3. Keyword phrases that users apply to search for you.
4. Link important pages throughout your site using a keyword phrase rather than a product name (ex. Disk Based Backup Solution rather than REO® 9100).
5. Stay consistent in the way pages are linked and the phrases used.

4. Increase Conversions with Landing Pages
Whatever the marketing activity might be, landing pages provide users a custom experience and keep them focused on the offer at hand. The goal of the landing page should be to convert users into customers. If you are able to get more conversions with the same amount of marketing spend, then you will deliver more net business and lower your cost per lead. This cannot be achieved by just dumping users to the homepage of your website, they will get distracted and navigate elsewhere. Here are some tips for successful landing pages:

1. Start with a clear call to action.
2. Include document downloads; white papers and case studies are preferred over product literature.*
3. Keep your lead forms short and concise. Only include the fields that are vital to helping your sales team spot qualified leads.

*According to Marketing Sherpa

5. Use Web Analytics to Measure Your Site's Effectiveness
Web Analytics are essential for measuring the success of your web marketing and refining your process. With analytics, you are able to determine which keywords customers use to find your site, what pages customers find valuable, and what online campaigns are successful. There is a variety of web analytic solutions on the market, but if cost is an issue, consider starting with Google Analytics; their solution is free, and easy to use. Web analytics can be a little overwhelming, but it is important to remember to measure what matters. Measure metrics that are going to help improve business. High web traffic may look good on paper, but it doesn't mean anything if your site has low conversion rates. Every company has a different set of metrics that they find valuable, so it is important to sit with your team and decide which metrics are important to your business, and which metrics should be omitted.

What I learned from a 9 year old

My flight back from Chicago was on Southwest, and if you have ever flown on Southwest you know how hard it can be to get a good seat. Well it was a packed flight, and this Mother was having a hard time finding a seat for her and her three boys. After some shuffling around the oldest son sat between my colleague and me, and the lady and the other two boys were able to get a row to themselves.

I thought that the little guy might feel awkward sitting between two strangers, but I was wrong. On the four hour trip home he told us story after story of his various adventures, and different things that he have learned over the years. I have to say if you pay attention you can really learn a lot from kids. Kids have so much imagination, and to them nothing is impossible. While we were looking through a magazine the little guy looked over at me and said "Did you know big-foot lives in South America?" Not really knowing what to say I said "Oh really?" He said "Yeah, I have never seen him, but Im sure he looks like a big gorilla." They are also willing to give anything a shot, and work at it till they get the hang of it. In one of the stories the little guy told me about some of his favorite Wii games. He said that he is not that good at Super Smash Bros, but he likes to play it anyway, because one day he will get better. Finally kids are so curious, and love to learn. The little guy had no problem asking questions. He asked me about my job, if I liked my job, what sports I liked to play, if I went to college, if college was hard, if I had any kids, and the list goes on.

Kids aspire to be just like us, but I think we should try to be more like them.

The American Gangster is the Ideal Marketer

So this post goes out to my buddy Steve. He kept pushing me to watch The American Gangster. He wanted me to watch it not just because it was a good gangster movie, but because it was all about marketing. He knew I would like it so much that he bought it for me for my birthday. So I finally got around to watching it, and I have to say he was right I LOVED it. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe did an awesome job. This movie is up there with Blow, and Scarface.

My friend Steve was right about the marketing as well. Unless you are a marketing geek like myself you might have got lost in the gangster theme and not had paid any attention to the marketing undertone. Denzel's character was the ultimate marketer. He wasn't like the typical gangster/drug dealer. Brand awareness, and customer loyalty was everything. He did the opposite of all his competitors; he made sure that they had the highest quality product at the fraction of the price. He made sure his brand "Blue Magic" stood for high quality. At one point in the movie he found out that someone was impersonating his brand with a lower quality product. He put a stop to that, because it was bringing down the brand.

We should all strive to be like Frank Lucas...
Let me rephrase that; we should all model our business practices after Frank Lucas. He said to run a TRUE business it takes honesty, integrity, hard work, and dedication.

Using Online Media to Mesure the Success of Offline Media

First tip of the day ALWAYS carry your camera with you, because you never know when you are going to need it.

So with that said I was driving up in LA last weekend, and I get to a stoplight and right in front of me is a white billboard with huge black letters that read "I am over you Sarah Marshall." with a link to www.ihatesarahmarshall.com Of course I was currius, so when I got home I went to the website. At first glance it looks like a typical guy who's ranting about his ex-girlfriend Sarah Marshall. If you look further you find out that it's promoting a movie called Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's produced by Judd Apatow, those who do know him he is the guy who produced Superbad, Knocked up, and 40 Year Old Virgin. At first glance this movie looks like it's going to be just as funny, but Im getting off track...

This is a BRILLIANT way to crate buzz for a movie. It looks like some rich shmoe is pissed off at his girlfriend, and wanted to let the world know. The billboard demands attention. The billboard is simple, look handwritten, and point back to a microsite. That way the success of their offline efforts can be measured.

And for you movie buffs it even comes with a Red Band Trailer

When I look at the billboard it makes me think that this is what life would be like if the world of myspace & facebook was offline. We would see billboards promoting our favorite youtube videos, and links to our blogs.

So even though I wasn't able to snap a picture I was able to find this pic on the ihatesarahmarshall.com website

Greatings from the Online Marketing Summit!

Today was day 1 of the Online Marketing Summit here in San Diego. I feel that this is one of the best marketing summits of the year. It's a place were marketers from all markets could get together and talk about best practices, strategy, and get feedback on marketing ideas. It is a vendorless environment, and the sponsors that presented provided advice and case studies on what worked. In fact if they plug their company we are encouraged to boo them. =oD Leading up to the event we were asked to participate in the OMS forums so that we could get the ball rolling, and give the presenters an idea of what what we wanted to learn about. Some of the topics of discussion were Social Media, SEO, Paid Search, and Email Marketing. I am a big advocate on education, and I think the topic is excellent. If we all get together and go over the issues we can work things out, and build a better environment for the user.

With that said I will step off my soapbox, and get to the good stuff. The day started out with a panel discussion on Social Media and it should be leveraged by marketers. The big idea from that discussion was Social media is still too new to pinpoint the best ways to provide ROI. When it comes to Social Media ROI shouldn't be the focus. The focus should be more on building connections, and providing a platform for communication between you and your end users.

In the SEO session, lead by Ray "Catfish" Comstock we went over SEO best practices. The highlights from the session included using Goggle's Webmaster tools to better understand your organic positioning. Also the best way to optimize your site is to provide authoritative content. Finally the end result for all your SEO efforts should be about the end user.

In the Email Marketing session they covered that you should treat your different subscribers different. You shouldn't market to your new users as the same as you would frequent buyers or lapse visitors. Also you should consider your subject line early in the process.

After lunch I got to lead a round table discussion on online conversion. It was refreshing to know that even though we are all in different markets we all share similar challenges. Some of the challenges included being able to bring in targeted leads, and dealing with internal politics.

The advanced tactics in paid search provided the Ah-ha! point of the day. You should include your channel partners in your search efforts in order to take over the google ad space. Also you should work with dayparting and geotargeting, to increase clicks, and provide a more targeted campaign.

At the end of the day we had another panel discussion where the gurus gave insight on the future of marketing. We all agree that the web should be the epicenter of all your marketing efforts. All of your marketing activities should point back to your website.

Finally we had a town hall meeting were we got to get everything off of chest, and go over what worked for the day.

Day one was awesome, all the panelist had an excellent insight on all the issues, and where the market is headed. The day ended on a high note with cocktails and dinner.

I'm excited to see what's on deck for day 2!

Ease of use for your users should come first...

Even if it means it takes a bit of work on your end.

Yeah I know it's been ages since my last post, but when you are a busy marketeer sometimes personal blogging takes the backseat. With that said on to my topic.

One of my biggest pet peeves is a site that is hard to navigate. If I can't get what I need within 3-5 clicks I feel like I am wasting my time. In a world where everyone is trying to get things done quickly and efficiently you can not afford to have a website that is hard to use. Being a designer I understand the need to have a website that is well designed, but if your design makes your site hard to use then your site is worthless.

Here are my top 5 tips that will improve your users experience on your site

1. Have a good Navigation Structure
Your nav bar is how your user moves through your site. Take the time to make sure that your navigation scheme is orginized which makes for fast travel through your site If your website is large you might want to consider putting like items into sections and having a sub nav.

2. Develop a Sitemap
Other than assisting in the area of SEO, your sitemap is a place that users turn to when they need to find something in a hurry or when they get lost. Organize the links in a way that's easy to follow.

3. Make it easy to get back home
I know this seems like a no brainer, but I still run across sites that make it hard to get back to the homepage. I don't think just making your logo a link back to the homepage is enough. Also at the very least sdd a link in your nav that goes back to the homepage. You might want to consider adding a breadcrumb trail to your site. Breadcrumbs are becoming more popular they help the user understand the hierarchy of your website. It also gives them a way to jump up to higher levels of your site.

4. Allow the user to search for what they want.
This is a big one for larger sites, but consider adding an internal search feature on your site. This will give the user another tool to find what they are looking for. Adding a search bar is not hard, and very inexpensive. Sites like google will allow you to have a search bar on your site in minutes by just adding a bit of code that they provide to your website.

5. Ask for feedback
Just like a car it's always good to fine tune your website. Have some outside users go though and QC your websites navigation and usability. Give them a list a things to find and see if it takes them more then 2 clicks to find it. Take their feed back and use it to improve your process.

Freebie! Make a custom 404 page
I couldn't cut the list down to 5 so you get one for free. No one likes getting the ever so hated "page not found" page. To fix that create a custom 404 page. Have your 404 page redirect to the sitemap, or provide a group of common links. This way you will help those users that get a bad link or try to access an old page find their way.

I know there are many more areas that I could cover, but I feel that those are some of the major points. If you have those points covered you know that your users will have a good experience on your site, and be able to find what they need with ease.

Get people hyped on your product and they will turn into walking billboards

Earlier this week I was asked what my favorite search engine was, and without a doubt I said google. As I thought back I realized for the 10 years that google have been around I have used them for 9. An old design teacher of mine introduced me to google. I needed to do research on a project, and he said use google.com, because they have better results then yahoo, and excite. He told us that he found them through a friend. Ever since that day I used google and never stopped. This proves that word of mouth advertising is extremely powerful. As humans we react better to human interaction, and we are more likely to believe someone that we speak to over something that we read. If someone is excited about a product or service they give off a vibe that you can't always pick up from reading about it. So if get people hyped on your product it will sell itself. In order to get people hyped you first have to have a product that will fit the needs of your target demographic, then you have target your loyal customers. Give them the opportunity to preview your product first, and make them feel special for hanging in there with you. In turn they will spread the word.

At the company that I work for we do not sell directly to the end user; we rely on our channel partners to sell our products. For us our channel partners are our customers and they are who we cater to the most. We know that they have a choice on what company's product that they sell, so we make them feel special for selling our product. We ask for their feedback, and take that into consideration when we upgrade, or design new products. We give them in give them discounts and benefits that they can pass on to their customers. Because the service and dedication that we give to them they aer eager to sell our product and promote our brand.

In the April edition of Wired, they had an article on 2-Way Talk. They call it the era on nonstop two-way business. They also list a number of companies from Amazon to Apple that gets their customers involved with their products. It gives them a sense of ownership, and it makes them want to spread the word.

Get out there and get your customers involved and those customers will bring you new customers.

Are you remarkable?

As you my discover from reading my blog that I am a big fan of Seth Godin. He is an incredible marketer, that has an eye for marketing. While reading his blog I came across a recent post where he shows the video of the first time he presented the "Purple Cow" concept. This video is the overview of his Purple Cow Book

The "Purple Cow" concept is the very concept that got me hooked on marketing. He talks about how we are in the world of mass media and inorder to succeed you need to have an idea that is remarkable. You need to think outside the box and come up with an idea that jumps out at people. Before that I hated marketing, and I thought marketeers are people who force thier products down EVERYONE'S throat. Seth talks about targeted marketing, and how you should market you product to people that are listening to your and in turn they will tell others. In my opinion word of mouth is the best form of advertising. If you can get a small group of loyal customers hyped on your message they will tell their friends, and from there the idea virus has begun. We are in a world where the traditional methods are not working. People don't watch TV, and read magazines like they used to. We don't move in a linear fashion, we watch our TV programs when we want to, and we read blogs and news feeds. So if you are to spark the intrest of a potential buyer you have to come up with an idea that is remarkable