Summertime's ending ... and the living was not so easy. Baltimore's favorite season is coming to a close. The O's are in full swing at Camden Yards, the smell of charcoal BBQ smoke fills the last warm dusky evenings, and the local crab shack is recovering from the Labor Day weekend push. But this year, summer wasn't as carefree as it's been in the past. Recession rumors, first fueled by the subprime mortgage crisis, failing financial institutions, the stalled real estate market and skyrocketing gas prices seem to have led to economic slowdown reality. Everywhere, consumers curtailed summer expeditions and stuck closer to home, and the mood in the Baltimore business community is definitely somber.

With summer at its close, let's take this opportunity to reflect on how the values of summer are the same ones that can help us strengthen our businesses during the tough economic times coming this Fall. Summertime has always been about appreciating the, well, sunny things in life – time with family and friends, great fresh foods, and fun activities. It's really about getting back to basics, right?

To recalibrate our business mindset and prepare for a strong start out of the gate this fall, let's all rally for a return to the business basics. Here are the five things that form the foundation of a successful business.

1. Products and/or services that are meaningful and usable
2. Positive perceived value
3. Customer Service with a sincere and truly helpful spirit
4. Motivated, productive employees
5. Cost-effective marketing that delivers solid, positive return

I'd like to share a little bit about my experience with the last of these business basics. This past April, my agency celebrated its 10th year of existence. Could I possibly have already survived a decade in the online marketing industry? During this time, the digital medium has developed faster than I ever thought possible. Every day there's another technological innovation shaping and defining the true value of the Internet.

Just read a few of my past posts to see some of the new developments and trends, and forget Web 2.0 – Web 3.0 is already on its way!

In the early days, one technology revolutionized the mass use of the Internet: the search engine. Search engines made the exponentially growing Internet surfable and made household names out of companies like Google, Yahoo!, Alta Vista and suddenly it was, Microsoft who? Search engines also provided one of the world's largest (and most profitable) marketing channels, yet how to best leverage the power of search engines has been something that’s eluded marketers, even today.

Improving search engine rankings, officially known in the business as “Search Engine Optimization” or “SEO,” has been described by some as “voodoo, black magic” or “too complex and ever-changing.” At industry conference ad:tech, SEO was voted as one of "Top Three" best online marketing tactics in 2007, yet the largest companies have been the slowest to optimize their Web sites. When nearly 70% of users prefer to click on “organic” listings than paid ones, when page one organic rankings can result in an 18-fold increase in site traffic and when 36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose Web sites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field, you have to wonder why neglect of SEO is so rampant!

Here's some food for thought about SEO.

1. Showing up in the first few pages of a search engine is the easiest way to drive substantial traffic to your Web site and to increase your company's visibility online. It's the equivalent of having a better location and a bigger sign for your business.
   
   
2. Of all your advertising and marketing tactics, on and off-line, SEO is BY FAR the most inexpensive tactic you can consider. If you're recessionary budget is on a diet, shifting dollars to search is a wise move.
   
   
3. The idea that SEO is too complicated and difficult to execute is a myth. With an experienced, knowledgeable search marketing team and a solid web developer in your corner, SEO will not be a strain to implement.
   
   
4. Unlike much of the rest of your marketing efforts, the Internet makes tracking and measuring your results possible, and organically-referred search engine traffic is no exception. Wouldn’t it be nice to know your ROI for a change?
   
   
5. Dollar for dollar, SEO provides more qualified Web site visitors, leads, and sales than any other marketing tactic. Search engines provide 80% of all Web site visits and using search engines is the Number Two activity that people do online behind checking email. Think of it this way, for each keyword you optimize on your Web site, it's as though you have another salesperson in the field soliciting and converting leads for your business.
   

I think the argument is pretty convincing, and it’s why, despite the fact that I own an online marketing and advertising agency that performs all kinds of online and search marketing (some which cost a lot more money), I still tell new prospects that if they’re not covering the basics with SEO, they’re doing themselves a disservice. During an economic downturn when dollars are tight, it makes more sense than ever.

Self-Serving P.S. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. Our "Summer of SEO" promotion, which we're extending exclusively for CityBizList readers, is offering 10% off our SEO services – a cost savings of $1500 or more! Visit our Web page or email me direct, hollis@webadvantage.net, to learn more.

Labels: Baltimore, search engine optimization, seo

  11:05 AM •  0 Comments •

Best Online Marketing Practices for Today's Economy

There's no longer any doubt that a slowing economy is on every Maryland businessperson's mind. For my citybizlist post I thought I'd discuss how businesses can use online marketing for cost-efficient and effective marketing during a downturn.

In a recent February report, "Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession," leading Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff, predicted that interactive marketing tactics such as search marketing, social media (blogs, social networking), and email may actually thrive in a recession and/or slow economy. He remarks that unlike the last US recession, when dot-com and venture capital monies dried up fast, consumer companies advertising today have much more stable budgets. If a recession were to hit, these companies would most likely be looking for cheaper advertising opportunities and will move away from TV, radio, and print towards online advertising. In his report Bernoff doesn't make the distinction between large multi-national corporations and small and mid-size businesses, but I believe whether large or small, companies will be hard pressed NOT to turn to online marketing during an economic downturn.

What’s the Internet’s appeal as a marketing channel? The Internet is one of the most measurable, trackable advertising mediums available; therefore it can provide a greater ROI and transparency than traditional media like radio, TV, and print. In the business world, the top two activities performed are reading email and conducting searches via search engines. Internet advertising also provides a more cost-effective way of reaching your ideal customer by demographic, location, and as of late, even user behaviors, like time spent browsing before purchase, or likelihood of a person clicking on an ad while watching videos.

Whatever the tactic under consideration, it's wise for businesses to start developing their online marketing strategies now. For companies focused on local business, here are five best practices worth considering as a foundation for an online marketing strategy during these economic times.

1. Buy search engine visibility with paid search (PPC) – If you do not have a presence in the major search engines, you might as well consider yourself invisible to a certain segment of prospective customers. To counteract this, consider launching a small, measurable search advertising campaign, like Google AdWords, that can have immediate ROI. Pay per click (PPC) advertising is the most cost-effective, quick results advertising available. Also online directory advertising like Yellowpages.com and local search in Google or Yahoo might be worth testing.
   
   
2. Build towards free search engine visibility with search engine optimization (SEO) – So that you don’t have to keep paying for your search engine visibility with PPC, consider search engine optimizing (SEO) your web site so that search engines can index and list your site higher in the pages of their search results. SEO is the workhorse of Internet Marketing. It provides much needed visibility for businesses who are competing for fewer and fewer dollars. SEO is highly measurable, easier to execute, and less costly than many offline marketing tactics.
   
   
3. Retain existing customers with email – Focus on customer retention and up-selling to your existing customers by developing an email strategy. Present valuable information special offers and new products as a means to hook your readers. Automated email list management solutions exist for all sizes of databases and complexity of needs.
   
   
4. Leverage existing content and marketing assets for social media purposes - Post photos, videos, PowerPoint presentations, whitepapers, surveys, and podcasts to generate interest in your products/services and to engage in social media marketing through blogs and sites like YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, and iTunes.
   
   
5. Find and engage with your niche audience and their online communities – During a slower economy, consumers are much more deliberate about the kinds of purchases they make, therefore, the role of influencers in social media discussion groups and blogs are more important than ever. Join the discussion but don’t be blatantly commercial – be informative, offer opinions, respond to complaints…just get involved because if you don’t, someone else might take control of your brand.
   

  11:45 AM •  1 Comments •

Survey Says... If you've often wondered understand what your target prospective buyer really looks like or where you can find more of them or what your current customers think about you or how you improve my products and services to better keep up with their needs or any other seemingly unanswerable questions, have you ever considered conducting an online survey to get direct answers? Recently, as part of the research I conducted for an article I was writing about women and online advertising for my bi-weekly ClickZ.com column, I decided to do just that – produce and run an online survey. Since my agency has oftentimes been asked to do likewise for our clients, I thought our CityBizList readers might like to learn from my insights.

Step One: Developing the Survey Strategy & Questions

The initial idea for my article and survey came from recent studies that show that women are commanding a larger and more powerful online market share. Since one of my agency’s specializations is advertising to moms, these statistics were particularly interesting, but I wanted to understand the context of how women online interact with online ads. After seeking the kind of research I wanted and finding nothing, I decided to undertake a survey of my own.

I had my initial motivations for conducting my survey (gathering data for my article), but I also knew that if I generated enough responses, I would have something even more robust to work with: marketable industry data in an industry hungry for such data. So I developed a strategy to make further use of this survey, like publishing a white paper, generating a press release to distribute to the media, using the white paper to solicit new clients, posting the findings to our web site, sharing them with our partner companies, and all sorts of other ways in which we can distribute this information.

Writing the kinds of questions that yield you useful responses is the most critical step in executing surveys. How to develop survey strategy and survey questions?

Tips:

• Develop a solid set of goals for your survey. Ask yourself: What do you want to learn from the answers? How will you respond / use the results? Your answers will determine the type of questions you will be asking.
• Estimate the necessary size of your respondent pool. Having a statistically valid survey vs. just getting a general sense of trends will determine how many respondents you need to get.
• Once you know how many respondents you need to get, determine how long you're willing to run your survey. If you don't get all the respondents by that date, you need to decide whether or not you're going to close your survey as planned regardless.
• Keep your audience in mind – avoid jargon, replacing terminology with words your common survey respondent will understand.
• Write up your draft questions – ask yourself, Will the answers to this question really give me the information you will need?
• There are multiple formats of survey questions: multiple choice, select any/all, true/false, ranking, matrix and open-ended are the most common. Selecting the proper formats for each question can make a total difference in the depth of and ability to analyze survey responses.
• Recruit a survey tester (or two) who best meets your survey audience target and have this person take the survey – this will you edit confusing questions and/or add additional relevant ones.

Step Two: Selecting Your Online Survey Tools

For our survey, we used the online survey tool, Survey Monkey, which we’ve used in the past and is inexpensive ($19.95/month for unlimited surveys up to 1,000 respondents each survey) and user-friendly. There are, however, a large number of survey tools to choose from depending on the volume of surveys and respondents, and budget, reporting, and analytics needs. A few others include: QuestionPro, SurveyGizmo, and Zoomerang. These tools make facilitating, delivering and measuring your surveys quite easy.

Tips:

• A must is to select a survey tool that allows you to build survey questions in multiple formats.
• Custom brand your survey pages by uploading, via the survey's tool, your logo and/or other custom branding; alternatively, you can embed the survey within your own website pages.
• Take advantage of survey logic tools. Many survey programs offer the ability to take a respondent down a particular path of questions, depending upon the way each question is are answered. For instance, a pre-qualifying question for our survey determined if the respondent was male or female – people who selected "Female" were admitted to the rest of the survey; men were taken to a page that told them they were ineligible. In the case of a client survey, you could use survey tool logic to separate those who buy product A from those who buy product B.
• Use the survey tool's distribution features: most survey applications provide different distribution methods like email blasting, survey URLs to distribute on your own, and code for website popup windows. Take advantage of these services to get your survey in front of your audience in as many ways as possible.

Step Three: Recruiting for Your Survey

You've set up a great survey. Now you have to have people complete it. Large research companies maintain regular panels of respondents, but for those of us executing sporadic surveys – particularly those that are not for existing clients – you need to come up with a way to get your survey out there and get responses so you gain enough critical mass to have results worth analyzing. This can be the hardest part of survey execution.

Tips:

• Consider using a compelling incentive. For our survey, we made a promise to respondent candidates that if we reached our response goal, we'd make a donation to a women’s issue such as breast cancer or domestic violence, which respondents voted on. In our case, our cause-related incentive was the way to go, but for you it might be a freebie (t-shirts, free download, gift cards, etc.) or credits (for existing customers).
• If you use an incentive, it's a good idea to have shorter deadline to close the survey. People tend to act more immediately when they know there's a looming deadline.
• Plan to market your survey in one capacity or another. The most common way is to email it to existing email lists, but you might also want to consider an online ad campaign or a grassroots/viral marketing effort. In the case of our survey, we developed banners to post on a popular site for moms, we solicited blog posts on leading women’s blogs, and conducted our own friends-and-family email campaigns.

Step Four: Crunching the Numbers and Using the Findings

Once you complete your survey, the fun begins! It's time to crunch the numbers and understand your results. The analysis phase of conducting a survey is crucial if you want to be able to accurately make statements about the findings. Don't be surprised to find that your results are not what you expected, in which case you need to consider what this will mean to your post-survey strategy.

Tips:

• Analyzing survey data: the more you plan on using your survey results more formally, the more likely you might want to use a statistician to do so. If you don’t have one in-house, considering contracting one – you will get an unbiased point of view and expert insight.
• Use the data! There are numerous ways to leverage survey data, as Bill Pollock, a former Gartner analyst now with his own consulting firm, Strategies for Growth, advises:
• Improve internal processes (help desk, customer service, etc.)
• Refine your product and service lines
• Identify what respondents think are your most compelling selling/talking points - and build them directly into your sales, marketing and promotional collateral
• Predict future sales potential for your new or existing products and services
• Identify what your customers will be looking for from you in the future, and make sure you can deliver on what the market wants.

• Share your results. Don’t forget about the short-term publicity of your survey findings. Develop a white paper that users can download from your site, issue a press release with some key findings, pitch the media with your survey story, think about using video and audio to supplement your survey results. For instance, an interview with a key player from your company, discussing the survey results.

Online surveys are terrific tools to help you advance your business. They can be fast, inexpensive and easy to execute. I hope this post has been helpful. As a sidebar, if you’re interested in reading the results of my survey on “Women and Online Ads,” email me, hollis@webadvantage.net, and I’ll send you the results once we publish them.

Labels: hollis thomases, surveys, webadvantage

  1:42 PM •  0 Comments •

B2B Podcasting 101 – Why Businesses Should Create and Use Podcasts for Sales and Marketing For a lot of you, the word “podcasting” might only sound vaguely familiar. You probably know that somehow it’s technology-related, but you might be thinking that it’s not really something you need to know for business application. Think again.

As with many new technologies, a lack of understanding commonly clouds the benefit of using that technology. With podcasting, the benefits as a sales and marketing tool for business can be enormous and the barriers to entry relatively low.

So for my latest blog post, I asked local podcasting guru and author of “The Business Podcasting Book,” Greg Cangialosi, to help demystify podcasting. To keep it topical, you can listen to the second half of this interview as an actual podcast.


Hollis Thomases: Hi Greg. Thanks for helping me out with this topic. Please tell our readers why you are uniquely qualified to be interviewed about Podcasting for Business?

Greg Cangialosi: My early experience with the medium and having the opportunity to produce some of the first podcasts for a handful of the largest corporations in the world puts me in a unique position to discuss podcasting technology.

As a result of experimenting with my own podcasts and leveraging the relationships that I had developed in the public relations world, I produced the first podcasts for the Disney Corporation in early 2005.

Since then, I have been involved with over 20 podcast productions for companies of all sizes. Most notably my experiences with GM, Disney, Verizon Wireless, DOW Chemical, and Waters Corporation, presented me with opportunities where I was able to see what worked and what didn’t, and how companies should ideally be set up to efficiently produce new media.

I have spoken and presented cases studies at three Podcast Academy events over the past two years and have also spoken at the New Media Expo. Also, late last year, my new book, “The Business Podcasting Book: Launching, Marketing & Measuring Your Podcast” was released.

Hollis: For those not as tech savvy, what’s the simple definition of a podcast? What distinguishes a podcast from listening to an audio clip on someone’s web site?

Greg: A podcast typically is an audio or video file which is distributed over the Internet. The main distinction between simple audio and video on the Web and an actual podcast is that even though audio / video can be viewed online, a true podcast is associated with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed (which is another Web vehicle for subscribing to content). The presence of an RSS feed allows listeners to subscribe to your podcast, via an RSS reader, or an application like iTunes. Your subscribers will then be alerted every time you publish new podcasting content. That content can then be listened to on a computer, or a portable media device like an iPod.

Hollis: Why should businesses even be thinking about podcasting? What are the benefits? Are there any kinds of businesses that might NOT benefit from podcasting (or who might benefit less)?

Greg: Simply put, podcasting presents yet another opportunity for an organization to extend their message. It provides the ability to publish content that can literally go global, while at the same time building a base of subscribers tuned in to what your organization has to say. A good podcast initiative can extend every marketing or communications effort that an organization currently employs. The most common uses for podcasting are advertising / marketing, public relations, education & outreach, and training.

In planning for its use, think well in advance about your podcast: what will it cover, how frequent will it be distributed, who is the audience?

Podcasting really applies to companies and organizations of all sizes -- that’s one of its unique advantages. Every organization needs to communicate to customers, prospects, members, the media, etc. With a low barrier to entry, podcasting is available to every company with very minimal investment needed up front. If a picture is worth a thousand words, just think what adding a voice or a face to your company can do for your communications.


Do we have your attention? Interested in learning more about podcasting like:

• How difficult is it technologically to get into podcasting? What are the barriers to entry?
  
• What are some hosting & syndication options for podcasts?
  
• What are some business podcasting best practices? Is there a max length a podcast should be?
• What should a business do with its podcast(s)? How do they “get it out there”? How do I build a subscriber base?
  
• What are some of the common missteps businesses might make when podcasting?
• What about advertising in podcasts?
  
• Can you name some sites with good business podcasts?
  

If so, click the below link to go to the podcast and listen for yourself to the rest of the interview. I’m also providing some resources links so you get started producing your own podcast series.

Happy podcasting!



PODCASTING RESOURCES

Greg Cangialosi’s "The Business Podcasting Book: Launching, Marketing, and Measuring Your Podcast." Greg can be contacted at greg@blueskyfactory.com, 866.216.2583. Buy Greg's book on Amazon.com



Podcast Examples

• Wine Library TV: Gary Vaynerchuk
• Good Company Podcast – American Psychological Association
• Wellness at Work – Meritain Health

Podcast How Tos

• Useful Definition of Web 2.0. from Wikipedia
  
• Podcast Free America
• How to Podcast Library
• How to Make an Interview Sound Great
• Editing for Professional Sounding Podcasts
• Podcast Production Hows Tos

Audio Software

• Audio Hijack Pro
• Audacity
  

Podcasting Directories, Submission Services, & Podcast Advertising

• Blip.tv - Video and podcast host
  
• Viddler.com - Video and podcast host
• PodCast.com - Podcast directory
• Podango - Hosted distribution
  
• PodSubmitter - Podcast submission service
  
• Liberated Syndication - Free and paid podcast syndication services
  
• PodTrac.com - Connects podcasters and advertisers
  
• Kiptronic.com - Dynamic Ad insertion in podcasts
  
• iTunes Podcasts – Also see their help topics to learn how to prepare a podcast for iTunes

Association of Downloadable Media

Labels: business podcasting, podcasts

  12:55 PM •  0 Comments •

Repeal of 6% Computer Services Tax Imminent? If you’re in the Maryland technology industry, by now you should be familiar with the furor brewing over the 6 percent “computer services” tax passed by the Maryland General Assembly. The tax, which extends to services like computer facilities management, custom computer programming, computer system planning, software and communication technologies, computer disaster recovery, hardware or software installation and computer maintenance and repair, was tacked onto SB 3, the Tax Reform Act of 2007 as a means to help close Maryland’s FY2009 deficit.

The problem is that as the approval of the tax moved through the state assembly, the industry had very little advance knowledge nor opportunity to respond (more on this later). The assembly apparently held a Special Session on a Saturday, debated it on a Sunday, and sent it to the Governor for approval on Monday.This 6 percent tax is a full five points higher than the similar sized state of Connecticut, and will be on top of the already increased Maryland corporation tax, which goes from 7 percent to 8.25 percent as of the New Year. Talk about Solomon Grundy!

Once the news about the computer services tax got out, a groundswell of disbelief, frustration and downright outrage emerged from the tech community. I first learned of it from my Greater Baltimore Technology Council (GBTC) email discussion list. The GBTC’s founding charter forbids them to lobby, so a grassroots effort has begun on the part of some of the members to hire a lobbyist to seek a repeal of the tax. The Tech Council of Maryland, which is the only technology council in the state with full-time government relations staff, is working hard to get this tax repealed.

Since returning back from our Christmas holiday break, I have twice been personally contacted by government officials seeking my feedback. The first was via my county (Harford) office of economic development in respond to an email questionnaire from David Karol, a Business Representative for the state’s Department Of Business And Economic Development; the second time was by direct phone call from Jack Cahill, the state’s Director of Corporate Attraction. Both were seeking input they could take back to state Secretary David Edgerley.

I spoke at length to Cahill, who said that speaking to him would serve the same purpose as completing the email questionnaire. Although my company doesn’t qualify for this tax, I still feel very passionate about it, perhaps because I also sit on the IT Steering Committee of the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board (GWIB) in which we’re trying to figure out how to save IT jobs and grow Maryland’s IT industry. See the juxtaposition of the problem here?!

Not only at issue now with this computer services tax is the matter of IT business retention, but also the sheer impact of how this will change Maryland’s computer industry in its ability to be competitive. Why pay more for services in Maryland when the purchaser can just as easily go to Northern Virginia (or further) now? If a company tries to offset the tax by reducing its prices, it cuts into not only the company’s revenues and therefore its ability to hire and grow, but down go profits and a company’s reason to stay in Maryland.

Although my company is not directly eligible for this new tax, it nevertheless will affect my business. Most of our local strategic partners will be hit by this tax, so if their costs go up, so will ours. We are also an extremely technology-reliant company – almost all the companies affected by this tax will affect our business. For that matter, however, please tell me what companies are not technology-reliant these days? You can’t even go to a hair salon or restaurant any more without coming across a touch screen monitor and computer software governing their entire operations! Again, who thought through the impact of this tax?

For small businesses like mine located in the northeast corner of the state, just 20 minutes south of the Delaware state line, such a tax could definitely mean the difference between staying or relocating. I’m actually one of those individuals that commutes from out-of-state into Maryland, and I’ve loyally kept my business here because of how the local government has helped me. In fact, I’m now firmly invested in Maryland, having recently purchased a nearby building into which to move my business. Cahill said that he has spoken to several computer service companies with far less motivation than I have to stay in Maryland.

I found Cahill a sympathetic ear and am impressed that the Secretary cared enough about the smaller Maryland technology business community to send out his emissaries on this mission (so I guess I’ll have to forgive him for copping out early on my Maryland SBA 2007 Small Business Person of the Year Award speech – it was a good one; I was sorry he missed it.) I don’t think it’s ever too late for government to seek the input of its constituents (even if I can no longer even vote in this state, which is worse because I am not even empowered to remove those who voted for this stupid tax in the first place).

Cahill shared some other feedback with me:

• Apparently the legislators told Julie Coons, the CEO of the Tech Council of Maryland, that no vote was going to take place the day of the Special Session debates and that her presence therefore wasn’t needed. She’s now steaming mad that she was misled (and I would be too).
• Smaller businesses are likely to be the most negatively affected if this tax goes into effect. Most big businesses Cahill spoke to said they’ll be inconvenienced, but that they’ll just have to shift operations around the country to protect their bottom line…which still means a loss of jobs in Maryland.
• Others like me who sit on the GWIB IT Steering Committee are beginning to feel like the whole process is now an exercise in futility. I’m ready to resign the group.
• Cahill believes that the tax has a good chance of being repealed, particularly because of the outcry from the industry. See Guys – it pays to be united!
  

I am hopeful that our General Assembly will come to its senses and give more logical thought to the impact of this tax it so swiftly and irresponsibly passed. This is not about passing the buck – it’s about thinking about the long-term future of an important state industry. I’m not too hopeful that any great lessons will have been learned because politics is politics, but the great thing about our country is that at least we have a voice.

And in my most humblest of voices I say to you all, may 2008 bring you health, happiness and continued prosperity.  4:38 PM •  0 Comments •

How Email Has Ruined My Holiday Joy You gotta love email, right? It’s fast, easy and free. While I admit that these days email is something I can’t live without, I have to say, it’s just about darn near ruined one of my little pleasures in life: checking my postal mailbox.

There’s a part of me that must just be that old school that I can remember a time when people actually used to write letters to one another to stay in touch. Getting a personal letter at the end of a long and difficult day was truly a treasure. I’d open up the letter and savor its contents, appreciating the stationary on which it was written and the careful selection of words used to communicate whatever news its author was telling. Even the sign-off was an important clue to your relationship at that moment in time: was it “Love” or “Hugs & kisses” or “xxooxxoo” or just a simply, “Yours truly”? Oftentimes I would save these physical letters in drawers, boxes or scrapbooks to re-read or recall a special occasion.

Nowadays, all that has changed. Nothing good arrives in my postal mailbox except for the occasional magazine. Everything else is crap: bills, junk mail, and unwanted catalogs. Even now, during the holidays when people still send the obligatory Christmas card, do I no longer look forward to emptying my mailbox. The whole daily experience is just a total let down. My poor postal carrier: I don’t even look forward to seeing his mail truck drive up the street anymore. I wonder if he and his peers have noticed this kind of waning enthusiasm from all their route customers?

To make my point more clearly, let’s compare email and postal mail:

• Does anyone really get excited about getting emails these days? I’d have to say no. Do I look forward to launching my emailbox, the equivalent of opening my postal mail box? Gosh, no. Do I rush to open my email? Hell no! Can I sift through my email box to find non-standard envelopes that typically indicate personal letters? Nope, can’t do that. Worse still, I’m a person who without spam filters would get 300+ emails a day, so I can genuinely say that I actually rue email-filled days... and rarely do I get a respite.
  
  
• Does anyone really treasure the process of reading an email? No, not really. Maybe if it’s from a family or friend you’ll get a kick out of the content; or, if the author happens to be very clever and witty it’ll be a good read. But treasure an email – doubtful.
  
  
• With email, can you distinguish the sender just from that person’s handwriting style? No. And for those of us who have ever gotten a kick out of trying to decipher someone’s really bad handwriting, gone are those days of mystery.
  
  
• Is there anything physically appealing about an email? Any lipstick kisses sealing the envelope closed? Any spots or splotches indicating what the sender might have been doing with your letter before sending it? Any way of dabbing the email with a favorite perfume? Any insertions of cash or small tokens? Nope, nada, niente.
  

It’s hard for me to imagine that there is now a whole generation of younger people who really don’t even understand this lost joy. To them, email, text messaging and chat rule. But at least I can make allowances for them because they know no different. What I’m really saddened by is that the abandonment of letter-writing has happened universally, parents and grandparents alike. People of all ages have slipped into an email vegetative state. We’re all too pressed for time or too lazy to act any differently.

So for those of you as disgusted as I am by the state of your postal mailbox each day, I say TAKE A STAND! Pick up a pen and write a letter! Make it fun or friendly or passionate or tender. Put a little heart and soul into the endeavor. Break out of your digital shell!!

You might actually enjoy the experience, and your postal carrier and your recipient will thank you.

Labels: email, holiday

  4:09 PM •  0 Comments •

Who’s Afraid of Online Marketing?


In the spirit of the Halloween season I started thinking about scary things like spiders, thunderstorms, ghouls, vampires and online marketing. What’s that you say? Online Marketing? Yes, dear readers, the fear of online marketing is real. In my nine plus years of working in this industry, I’ve seen my fair share of nervousness and hesitation when it comes to putting your company out there on the Web. With the seemingly daily changes in Internet technology (think Google algorithms, Web 2.0, Wikipedia and other terms that almost require a translator to understand!), how could it not be scary to put your money, effort and good name into online marketing? Add to that a resistance within your company – potentially from upper management or your IT department – and you’re on your way to a full-blown phobia. So what’s a marketer to do?

So for my Halloween blog post, I’m going to play the role of web marketing therapist helping us all face our common online marketing fears and providing a few tips on how to overcome them (or at least make them a little less scary).

Social Media ≠ Scary Media

At the top of my current list of common online marketing fears is Social Media. Why do I keep writing about social media? Because very few of you in the average business community are doing it – what are you afraid of? You ought to be taking part in your virtual community, and what’s more, I believe there will come a time when your customers and clients will come to expect your presence in a social media community.

Are you having issues with consumer generated content (CGC) like comments to blog postings or product reviews or faux sites or other content created by customers/clients? Do you fear putting your headshot on a Facebook profile will ruin your image? Having trouble setting up your site with RSS feeds (or even knowing what they are or why to use them)? Is the challenge of making your own video to post on YouTube or developing a podcast to distribute daunting you? Do you only want to think of your mobile device as a phone and not for any kind of marketing or ad campaign?

If you believe that a company must always control their message then no wonder social media gives you the heebie-jeebies. In this day and age, it’s not going to work to be a control freak. Social media dictates that the message must be fluid, organic, and part of a collective voice. But what’s even scarier than giving up a little messaging control, is putting it completely into someone else’s hands. Everyone online has a say and an easy way of making it public. To that end, right now someone is probably talking about your company – on a personal a blog, on their MySpace page, on a consumer advocate site like www.consumerist.com, on a listserv, on a comment/feedback posting. Whether positive or negative, you’re probably already part of the social media community whether you participate or not. When viewed that way, engaging with your audience and being an active voice in your community is a huge benefit to your company’s online visibility and, more importantly, in managing its reputation. Social media participation can be a proactive way of letting your audience know who you are and what you stand for.

If it’s production costs you’re worried about, there are plenty of relatively easy and FREE ways to engage with social media audiences: set-up a blog (Blogger, WordPress ), a photosharing account (Flickr, Shutterfly), add a comment to your favorite blog, start sharing your favorite sites, bookmarks or news stories by using StumbleUpon, de.licio.us or Digg or set up a Facebook or MySpace account.

Or start simple: take a deep breath, go ahead and put that profile on LinkedIn. You really CAN do it!!

Creepy Cooperation

No matter where I go or who I seem to talk to, almost everyone on any side of a Web marketing story has departmental cooperation issues. The sales team wants to ecommerce enable their web site and doesn’t understand why a switch can’t be flipped to make it so; the marketing department wants a customized landing page with a form on their web site but hasn’t thought through the building and data collection issues; the advertiser wants to run their ad on a dozen web sites and doesn’t accept the fact that not all sites accept the exact same size and format of ad so they’ll have to pay for reformatting changes; the CEO wants “simple changes” to their site that really take months and considerable resources to do; the IT department has to juggle networking and PC problems along with web implementation and doesn’t feel Marketing’s request should take precedence. The list goes on and on.

It’s not that all of these parties are intentionally trying to be uncooperative. Oftentimes, it boils down to mediocre communication skills, a lack of understanding of implementing the request and poor advanced planning. In a typical business culture where everyone is expected to “get it,” admitting one’s ignorance isn’t easy.

If departmental disconnects come in part from a fear of not “getting it,” then it’s important that we are open to asking questions, being alright with being wrong, and seeking advice from trusted advisers who can steer us in the right direction and help us make informed decisions. Working together with each department as a team and making sure that everyone on that team understands and agrees on the objectives of the campaign, the reasoning behind the tactics, and the anticipated results, is a good start towards an effective, collaborative, Web/IT/marketing strategy.

BOO! You Need to Spend Money Marketing Online!

According to most of the latest marketing surveys and analyst forecasts marketing budgets are moving from traditional tactics to online ones, yet there is still an enormous reluctance, particularly on the part of traditional businesses, to “take the plunge.” Why is this? Think about what your typical customer does most of his day. If it at all involves using a computer, chances are pretty strong that he’s also using email, search engines and the Internet in general. So is spending money on search engine optimization or pay-per-click keyword campaigns, email marketing or banners ads rather than on direct mail pieces, newspaper ads, or radio spots seem like a scary nightmare?

What might be scarier is that you’re missing an important way to reach your market. Your customers are online morning, noon, and night. They’re getting their news and their sports scores, they’re researching products and vendors, they’re shopping, and they’re engaging throughout the entire Internet. If you’re not marketing online (or if your web site’s not very well done), you may in fact, alienate prospects that might otherwise expect you to be promoting yourself online better. Studies have shown that search engine users believe that the top ranked companies on search engine results pages are also the leaders within their industries. And to further alleviate your fears, online marketing tactics also happen to offer some of the highest ROI and ROAS when compared with traditional tactics. It’s frightfully easy to track online campaigns so you could tell, for instance, that a pay-per-click advertising lead could cost you as little as 70 cents. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all advertising channels could boast that you’ll always know where and how your advertising dollars are being spent?

A Chilling Final Thought

I hope I’ve eased some of your fears about online marketing. I promise -- it’s not as daunting as it all may seem sometimes. But there’s one final thing I’m afraid of as Halloween approaches: the endless cornucopia of candy at the office! Computer stations fill with Twix crumbs and keyboards become sticky with caramels, waistline expansion is inevitable with diets everywhere a-crumble, and executive decisions are fueled by mini Snickers binges. The list of atrocities goes on and on. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Happy Halloween!

Labels: online marketing

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