What I would do online if I were you
That is, if you haven't done it already. I probably don't have to convince anyone that as a business today you have to be online; the question is more likely what you should do, and how much of it. There are hundreds, and hundreds of people online giving you all different advice, which in some way makes it harder, rather than easier to determine what you should do.
So why are you reading this instead? Possibly because you've read some other posts I've written and decided to come back, or you know me personally and decided to follow this blog. In either case, the fact that I have your attention is a demonstration of what you can achieve online without spending a dollar.
Just a reminder why you should do this....
Most of all, your competitors do it badly - I can almost guarantee that your competitors don't do half of the things they could be doing online. The vast majority of businesses still see marketing (and therefore their website) as a "set and forget" kind of thing. There's an immediate opportunity. Look at your competitors and see what they do badly.
Top things to do
Invest time in content - the more you've thought about your niche, and how you position yourself away from others, the better. This means that you can use SPECIFIC key words in your content and page titles that will help people understand your differentiation, and search engines find you. Make sure people can find the information they may be looking for FAST. Don't be gimmicky; people are in a hurry.
Invest money in design - create an online presence that makes you look bigger than you are, and is a window to you and your brand. If you do have some money to spend, spend it on someone who can help you with design. Why would you go through all the effort to get someone to your site, to present them with an image of you that is crap? YOUR NOT A DESIGNER, AND THEY'RE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.
Make a blog a key page of your site, so you have your own media outlet. It is STILL the way to give your prospects and customers value that they won't get from your competitors. If you're looking for ideas for online PR in particular, Read David Meerman Scott's "The New Rules of Marketing and PR".
Get active in social media - If you are in B2B make sure you are on LinkedIn. If networking is the lifeblood of most B2B marketing, than you have to invest time in continuously building your network online. A LinkedIn account with two contacts is useless. A LinkedIn account with 50 or 100 is starting to get pretty powerful.
Start a Twitter account and use it wisely; contrary to popular believe, your customers won't give a toss if you're stuck in an airport, you've just divorced or if you're playing with your kids. (Yes, all of these have come through in my Twitter stream of professional contacts) What you DO want to do is use it to follow your customers, (if you can), post links back to your blog, or to other sites your customers might be interested in. Or to promote a special, only to your web followers. Your Facebook page can be automatically updated with your Twitter update too.
Experiment with Google pay per click advertising, BUT spend the time researching the best possible keywords, the same keywords you have used right throughout your website content. If you have extra cash, use an agency. In Melbourne, I'd use Salsa
Be as local and specific as you can, and use the phrases that describe your specific niche and your local market as much as you can.
It's going to take time -Whatever you do, online or off, it is going to take time and as the saying goes, the best time to start is yesterday, but today is the second best option.So, what are you waiting for?
Did I miss anything?
Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneer blogs
Ok, I admit it. I was flattered when Julian Cole listed my blog as one of the Top 50 Australian Marketing Pioneers blogs. A lot of entries I don't recognise, but Servant of Chaos, Brand DNA and Better Communication Results have been setting the standard for some time.
So why does it matter, beyond making me feel good?
It's great to see someone make the effort and look around in his own backyard. We're probably all passionate about the opportunities today's web offers to share ideas and collaborate.
I'd like to see more Australian organisations get involved and take advantage of the fantastic opportunities today's web offers.
To spread the word, we need to connect in the "real" world as much as online
The thing is that to spread the word to the people who are not participating, we often need to go"offline", because that's where the audience is. They're conversations over a coffee, or a presentation, or articles in the print media or other traditional media.
that top 50 list of people are probably all doing exactly that. And that's why local is important. We need to be on the ground, face to face or in the local media as much as online. So that's the other reason I'm excited about this list. Thanks Julian.
See the full list here and check out some great blogs.
Time to sound out your advisors – online or on leave?
Overall, marketing and PR agencies and professionals haven't come to grips with the online world. Media and communications people believe that "online" and "digital" is about technology rather than media and simply haven't got their nut around it. Why is this important? Because it takes time to learn. Marketing professionals who wait until their clients demand it from them before they do are in trouble.
There are digital specialists of course. But try and find a PR agency that demonstrates an understanding of current online media. Try and find leading advertising agencies that demonstrate an understanding of online media not through words, but through their own presence and behaviour online.
Speak to them about online and they are likely to refer you to their "web guy" who "is really smart"" and gets all this "technical stuff" or "their specialist partner". Just don't ask me. Ask about social media and web 2.0 and it gets worse.
Greg Verdino is is not shocked to read the result of a survey by "TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony that "agencies don't get it". Nor am I. (After all, even newspapers put anything to do with online media under their technology section, here in The Age and here in the "Tech&Web" section of The Times).
Why is this so? Everything they ever need to know is a mouse click away. All I can think of is that it is either laziness or arrogance.
If they had a poke around and took an interest, they would found that understanding and participating in online media is not about technology. It hasn't been for quite a while. They would see that it is all about media and communications. Which, after all, is their world.
Joseph Jaffe thinks it is almost too easy to lay into agencies, but they are the external marketing advisors to most companies so I think it is warranted. Over to Joseph with a few tips to marketing professional regarding social media:
To help you in your quest, here are 3 pieces of advice:
- Stop being so damn arrogant and deluded to think you can do this yourselves. You can't. This is all about humility.
- Stop trying to automate the whole process and solving your problems by a quick technology acquisition fix. You're drowning in your own data and laziness. This is labor intensive.
- Stop trying to scale the whole process and replicate your old bad habits. This is about planting seeds and sticking around long enough to reap the rewards of care, consideration and hard work.
Clients deserve better. If you are a client, you deserve better. The people I am ranting at here are unlikely to read this of course, because it's a blog. But if you are a client, expect more. There is no excuse for PR or marketing people not to have a solid grip on digital media. And I mean everyone, not a dedicated "Geek". It is no longer something for tomorrow or for other people. Media and communications people should be leading the way.
(image source as far as I can track it: http://www.oneletterwords.com/weblog/)
The biggest hole in paid search marketing strategies?
The amount of money being spent on Google adwords and other paid search marketing today is significant, including a lot of small businesses. One of the key success factors is that it's relatively simple to execute. Maybe simple to execute, but not necessarily simple to get results, especially in B2B marketing.
Getting a click through to your site (at the right price) is not necessarily the key challenge: it's getting a result from that click. A lead, and preferably a qualified one.
So what is the biggest hole in most b2b paid search strategies?
I'd argue that it is the landing page (the page the ad clicks through to). Although significant dollars are invested by companies to get their ads on the top of the list, once a potential customer clicks through, they end up on the home page which doesn't do anything for them.
Jon Miller has an interesting business in Marketo, which provides B2B marketing automation software and shares some great tips in a guest post at Online Marketing Blog: Ten tips for lead generation landing pages.
Read the post, but the ten points in short are: (my "bolding")
1. First Impressions Matter
2. Have an Offer
3. Remove The Navigation
4. Use Graphics Wisely
5. Make Your Content Scan-able
6. Only Ask What You Really Need
7. Capture Implicit Information
8. Have Reasons to Give Valid Info
9. Say Thank You
10. Test… But Don’t Over Test
If you are currently investing in paid search and you don't follow these guidelines currently, I bet you'll improve your results by taking this to heart.
(photo courtesy Astrovine)
Have you killed anyone lately?
- If you ever have to create presentations, you need to see this.
- If you ever wondered how to fuel word of mouth, take a leaf out of Alexei Kapterev's book
Guest post by David Meerman Scott – The New Rules of B2B Marketing
This is a guest post from David Meerman Scott, thought leadership and viral marketing strategist and the author of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly".
For decades, B2B marketing and PR has focused on only two ways to get noticed, buy your way in with advertising or beg your way in with PR. B2B marketing and PR people have operated under the assumption that you either had to pay big bucks for ads, tradeshows, and direct mail, or rely on magazines, newspapers, radio, and TV to tell your story. That approach might have worked fine when the only way that people found answers to problems was to search tradeshows, Read industry journals, rely on “experts” (analysts) advice and opinions, and interact with company salespeople.
But now buyers are finding answers to their problems online. They search Google, read online portals and news sites, listen to bloggers’ advice and opinions, pay attention to word-of-mouse from peers and friends, and visit company websites
So what’s a marketer to do? The answer is to think like a publisher and create compelling online content in the form of YouTube videos, online news releases, blogs, podcasts, and online media to reach your buyers directly. Each of these things also has an opportunity to go viral, with others telling your story.
Being successful means, as Yoda said in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back: “You must unlearn what you have learned.”
Old rule: Buy your way in with advertising
As marketing people, we’ve all learned rules that worked in the offline world. But to succeed on the Web using the new rules, old habits must be unlearned.
“Stop shouting BUY MY PRODUCT” (people turn off overt advertising, especially online). You need to unlearn the marketing habit of constantly pitching your product. Instead create content to help people answer their problems.
Old rule: Beg your way in with PR
- Your buyers are not nameless faceless metrics. They are people like you and me who want to consume valuable content.
- You must unlearn the idea that media and analysts are the only ones who can tell your story. Instead, the web has made PR public again.
New Rule: Publish your way in with great content that your buyers want to consume.
- You must unlearn interrupting people with “messages.” Instead, publish online content they want to consume
- You must unlearn the use of gobbledygook about your products and services. Instead start from the problems and needs of your buyer personas.
- You must unlearn spin. Instead, understand that people crave authenticity and transparency.
- You must unlearn being egotistical and trying to force people to adapt to your terms. Instead create online content people want to consume
- You must unlearn the assumption that you must buy access. Instead, create something that goes viral and let millions of people tell your story for you.
- You must unlearn the idea that the “clip book” is the only way to measure your communications efforts. Instead, consider how you can reach people directly.
- You must unlearn the idea that “leads” are the only way to measure your marketing efforts. Instead, consider how you are engaging your buyers and building a position as a trusted resource.
If you wondered what excellence in lead generation is about…
The amount of stuff written on lead generation is mind boggling, but as with everything, sometimes people come up with something useful. Hat off to the guys at raintoday.com, for creating a really useful and readable e-book, called "The One Piece Of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without ".
Ten people, ten different interpretations
The concept of having ten people write an individual piece on the same subject works well, and I particularly liked the opening piece by Jill Konrath who writes as if she was a prospective buyer. This is a short bit which paints the picture:
“In short, I have way to much to do, ever-increasing expectations, impossible deadlines and constant interruptions from people wanting my attention”
Another one that got my attention was Ardath Albee's article "Tales to keep them talking" which argues the importance of having a content strategy to drive the conversation, based on the "essence" of your company. (which is really the brand essence as I see it)
So what's the gist?
The observations may not be earth-shattering, but they are succinct and the achieve their objective to cover the most important issues, not all the issues.
- Understand who you want to talk to, agree this within the organisation
- Have an ongoing conversation, not a series of one-off communications
- "Nurture leads", or in people language keep a two way communication open; a considerable portion of sales actually comes from these leads
- Measure what you do, or don't do it at all
Download the e-book here - I think you'll enjoy it.
Great B2B Marketing resource
If you're business is B2B, you should read this blog, "modern b2b marketing" by Jon Miller from Marketo. It's a good mix of practical tips, great links to other resources and strategic thinking on what makes B2B work. Highly recommended.
His link posts are a great B2B resource; a bit of a treasure trove.
Jack Trout and Al Ries – the record set straight
I emailed Jack Trout to let him know about the wikipedia entry on Positioning which showed the names of Gary Sinclair and Mart Reilly as the authors of his (and Al Ries') legendary marketing book. Between my email and my blog post on the subject, someone has changed it back to "Jacques Trout" (Jacques??) and Al Ries. Looks like it was just a bit of vandalism.
So in some ways Wikipedia works; it is self-correcting, as supporters would say.
On the other hand, how many people have seen the entry in the meantime? How long had it been like that before someone picked it up?
Is it significant? I think so. People are turning to Wikipedia in droves and use it as an Encyclopedia; for them it is the final word on a particular issue.
Here are the website traffic stats for wikipedia.org versus Encyclopedia Brittanica over three years:
Quoting the wrong author in your marketing essay is probably just embarrassing, but what if there is an entry on you, your firm or your product that fundamentally changes someone's perception?
Will they check back once in a while to see if it has changed? I don't think so. It's a very tricky problem.
Jack Trout never wrote “Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind”.
Well, not according to Wikipedia anyway. This is the entry:
A product's position is how potential buyers see the product. Positioning is expressed relative to the position of competitors. The term was coined in 1969 by Gary Sinclair and Marty Reilly in the paper "Positioning" is a game people play in today’s me-too market place" in the publication Industrial Marketing. It was then expanded into their (my bolding - dk) ground-breaking first book, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind".
There is a lot of argument about the power of Wikipedia, its accuracy and what it can do to your brand. This is probably someone's prank (as anyone can edit the page) but either way, I don't think Jack and Al will be too impressed with this attribution. Or what it does to their respective brands. People take Wikipedia seriously after all...
PS: Scroll to the bottom of the wikipedia entry and you'll see they are mentioned in the references,
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