Is Marketing becoming too easy?

I read a post titled Idiocracy in Action in the SEOBook.com Blog where Aaron Wall made a point about how easy marketing has become to implement and measure that makes everyone thinks that they can be a marketer.

One would argue that be allowing everyone the ability to be a marketer it takes the "art" out of marketing. I have to disagree with that. These are just tools that allow us to do our jobs easier and more efficient. It still takes a skilled marketer to know the best way to break through the noise. It goes back to my post on Reality Mining, with all the noise it's becoming more challenging then ever before to engage our target audience. There are just too many choices. Because of this we need to streamline our process, and that's what these tools do. Also in the corporate environment marketing teams are becoming smaller, but expectations still continue to rise. So we look to these tools to help us do more with less.

I see it like this; just because I have a hammer and some nails doesn't make me a carpenter. In turn just because you have purchased paid ads, and have a google analytics account doesn't make you a marketer. It's what you do with those tools that matter. Are you able to look at the data to determine ways to enhance the user experience, or do you just throw money at it and hopes something stick?

I think one of the main things to take away is that it levels the playing field in some cases. We have the ability now to run more targeted campaigns, which in turn cost less. This allows the smaller fish to compete with a much larger fish and come across as an equal.

Yes there are tools that make marketing easier, but do you have what it takes to use these tools to their full capacity?

Dinner with Sam The Cooking Guy

Yesterday my fiancée and I went to a cooking class that was put on by Sam The Cooking Guy. For those of you who don't know who he is, Sam has a cooking show that airs on CTN / SD 4 out here in San Diego along with Discovery Health. His show is really entertaining, and it's not like your average Food Network show. He calls his show a "Reality Cooking Show." The show is shot from his house, there are no scripts, and he does everything in one take (mistakes and all). The recipes are easy to make, and all the ingredients you can get from the local market. One of my newfound hobbies has been cooking, and I have to say a majority of the things that I have made have come from his show.

When I saw that he had a class on Mexican Food (One of my favorite cuisines!), I had to sign up. The class was held at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center, and it was an intimate crowd of about 40. It was a really fun evening. Sam went over 6 dishes and 2 cocktails. My favorite was the Chicken Enchiladas. Throughout the evening he told funny anecdotes, and at the end of the night he stayed around to chat, take photos, and sign autographs.It was refreshing to see that he was same the happy go lucky guy that you see on TV.

I think one of the things that I really admire about him is his drive and determination. When he quit his job, and decided to start a cooking show there were tons of people that criticized the idea, and said that he would never make it but he didn't let the naysayers discourage him. He was very passionate about the project, and he kept working at it till he succeeded.

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

I have the SEO Blues

My Buddy Ray Catfish Comstock, from Business Online just wrote a new song The SEO Blues if you deal with SEO on a daily basis you could relate. I spent a good portion of this week working on our SEO, and I know most of the points in the song hit home.

Wow I must be in a promoting mood, but that should tell you something about good content it begs to be spread. You feel like you are doing a disservice to your fellow man if you keep it to yourself.

When it comes to viral marketing you can't fake the funk. If you want your message to spread it has to be something that your audience can relate to, and would want to share without you asking them to.

With that said make sure to pass this to all your friends regardless if they like SEO, post it on your twitter, myspace, facebook, linkedin, Wiki, and blog ;o) hahaha!

I guess that makes me a New Media Douchebag LOL

Happy Spring!

Are you a New Media Douchebag?

Do you use facebook, myspace, twitter, blogger to rant and rave when you should be working? I guess you too are a New Media Douchebag. Big thanks to my Friend Larry Van Doren for sharing this funny video with me.

While you are watching the video think of this... What should we call new "New Media" since it's not really new anymore?

Reality Mining: The future of marketing, or a privacy nightmare

I read an article the Marketing Profs Daily Fix Blog Titled: What’s Next for Marketing? Reality Mining, where Paul Barsch talked about how with the advances that have made in the cellular industry with GPS and internet enabled phones they have the potential to be able to mine more than just your calling info. MIT professor Sandy Pentland calls it "Reality Mining". He believes that they have to ability to record everything from your physical activity to your conversational cadences. With all this information at their disposal they have the ability to proivde customized plans based on all of these traits. As a marketer I feel that this is exciting news. We will have more advanced tools at our disposal to take behavioral targeting to the next level. We can further segment our audience and provide them with a more personalized marketing experience. But on the flip side of the coin one will argue that this is borderline invasion of privacy, and have the potential to compromise our personal information. Maybe cause I'm on the marketing side, but I don't really see any problem with this as long as the user is aware that this is going on, and have the ability to opt-out if they choose to. With the decline of mass media, its tools like this that will allow us to scope out that niche market that will actually find value in our message.

The "Secret" to Marketing Success is Gaining Momentum

For those of you who don't know me personally, you may not know that I over the last year I have lost a good deal of weight. The other day ago a friend ask what my "secret" was. I said that I didn't have a secret. Then they said, "Then how did you do it, what was the formula to your success?" I then went on to explain that I didn't have one thing that led to my success. I tried a bit of everything some things worked and somethings didn't. Just like everyone I had good days and bad, and at times it seemed like it would be impossible. When I found out what worked, and started gaining momentum i just got easier. Then it just felt like I was on autopilot.

You are probably thinking what does this have to do with online marketing. Just like in the scenario with my friend a lot of people wants to know the "secret" to success with online marketing. I look at it like climbing up an over a big hill on roller skates. When you are at the bottom looking up it may seem like an impossible task. As you start up the hill your progress is slow. There may be times when you feel like you may loose control at any minute and slide all the way to the bottom. As you continue on you may slide back a bit, but you keep pushing. Once you get the hang of and you start to build momentum it gets easier and easier. By the time you are up and over the hill it requires very little effort on your part, and you just coast along.

In The Wizard of Ads, Roy Williams used the analogy of pushing a car and inertia. When you first start you use every ounce of strength that you have to get it going, then as you get going you find strength that you didn't know you had. It gets easier, but you still have doubts. Once you get some distance behind you get confidence and push even harder. Before you know it are trotting behind the car barely having to push at all. He goes on to state that the law of inertia is your enemy at first, but becomes your ally in the end.

When it comes to online marketing there I don't think that there is a "secret recipe" or "formula" for success. Just because it worked for one person doesn't necessarily mean it will work for you. What you have to do is take a little bit from here, and a little bit from there. Some things will work and others will require a little tweaking. But once you start gaining momentum you can glide along and bask in the glory of your success.

Research the voice of your user

My original plan was to finish my recap on OMS, but I feel that this is an important topic to touch on.

The success of your company depends on how you are able to align your business to the needs of your audience, The best way to do that is to make sure it's in a way that they understand. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well it's harder then most people think because they don't take the time to research their audience. The easiest thing you can do is tap into your current customer base. You already won them over, and they will be happy that you value their opinion. Find out what they like or dislike about what you have to offer, and how can you do it better. Too many companies don't do this because they are scared of negative criticism. If we all agree that everything should be about the user, they should be the first person you turn to when you need feedback. They are the ones buying your product. Not only do you have to listen to their needs, but you also have to put it in a way that they understand it. On Saturday I got to hear a session on Business Intelligence by Doug Lenos, and he said you need to harvest the voice of the user. Well how do you do that you might ask. When you are doing your keyword research you need to find out what types of keywords that your users are searching on to get to your site, and use those keywords to write your copy. You don't want to make it hard on them, because you would have lost them before they even got to your door. The reason why this topic is fresh on my mind is because I had a friend come up to me and ask me to help him do some research on a product that he wanted to buy. I sure no sweat, and spent an hour or so on google, and sent him a whole list of links to check out. He was shocked to see that I was able to find so much "useful" information. He was shocked to hear that all I did was search on google. I asked him what resources did he use when he was researching, and he said google. Then I asked him what keywords did he use. The keyword phrases that he used were very broad. He told me that he didn't spend much time, and was hoping to find something rather quickly. He also told me that not once did he go past the first page. When I told him what phrases, and techniques that I used he said he would have never thought of that. This is a perfect example of how end users search. If you do your homework, and research what keywords and phrases your customers are using to get to you and provide them with relevant information you will get them every time. Sometimes I forget that figuring out keyword combinations is what I do, and this is not something that the average user does.

When we are marketing our product a lot of the time we don't take the time to view it from the eyes of the user. I guarantee you this: If you take the time to research the voice of your user, and align your business around them you WILL be rewarded.

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.