Archive for the ‘Online Marketing’ Category

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Don’t Believe the Hype. Social Media isn’t Free!

Friday, August 20th, 2010

Many ‘inspirational’ videos on the web compare the virtues of traditional advertising with social media marketing and plot the cost of traditional advertising as being ferociously expensive compared to its new fashionable digital cousin.  I protest!

In the above video the newly appointed web wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk is quoted as having spent $15,000 on direct mail to get 200 new customers, $7,500 on billboard advertising to get 300 new customers and Twitter is credited with producing 1800 new customers for….FREE!

The back-story looks a little less simplistic.  Mr Vaynerchuk is a very unique, charismatic and non-conventional wine critic.  Gary has worked in the wine business for many years and decided to create a video blog back in early 2006.  His style is very energetic making traditional wine critiques appear antiquated.  His production quality has risen over the years and his personal investment in nourishing his following has been extensive.

Gary has many unique and un-repeatable advantages to his online marketing strategy:

  • He got in early and had obtained extensive offline coverage in the Wall Street Journal, GQ magazine and on TV with Ellen and Conan O’Brian because of his first mover advantage.
  • His technique was counter-intuitive to the market norm as the wine industry is typically conservative.  His unconventional style, whether intentional or not, would be considered as disruptive in his market.
  • He has spent more hours than most promoting his online reputation.
  • He has remarkable charisma and passion in front of a camera.

So why is Gary shown in web videos as being the normal kind of social media success? He is clearly the exception.  Why is Twitter credited for his success when it’s his highly entertaining content that drives his following?  Gary lead a successful business before he went online.  What is the cost per-hour needed for his massive input?   Should we celebrate his unique timing, personality, passion, depth of knowledge, eccentricity, first mover advantage and disruptive techniques as being free?

Twitter is a great tool.  It is wonderful at connecting you with like-minded individuals.  However, it fails to deliver if your content is poor and you have nothing of interest to say.  Creating content of interest to followers takes more than a Twitter account. It takes creativity, opinion and leadership.  If your business is successful, it takes that very expensive commodity of your time to supply the story that spreads.  If you’re time rich it takes creativity. Most frequently it takes a blended approach to marketing using traditional and digital channels.  Don’t believe the hype!

Gary Vaynerchuk has spent thousands of dollars of his time creating his own brand and followers.  His videos are entertaining and unique.  It is this investment and creativity that has caused his success.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »

OMG WTF is d internet doin 2 us? I’m not ROTFL as IMHO it’s nothing 2 LOL about

Monday, August 9th, 2010

At the time of writing it is a few days from 12 July, a day when traditionally Orangemen in Northern Ireland march to commemorate the Battle of the Boyne.  But I’m still trying to work out why my friends recommend I join a Loyal Orange Lodge when I send them a joke on email or Facebook?

Those of your who have recently taken your life in your hands by trying to organise a babysitter by text message will know that our attention spans are getting shorter, our spelling more contrived and our ability to understand the world in anything more than 50 characters ever diminishing.  However the final straw for me was when a university lecturer friend of mine told me recently that he had to inform his marketing students that when they submitted their essays it wasn’t OK to use “2” instead of “to” etc.

I can't talk to you right now, I'm reading your Tweets

I can't talk to you right now, I'm reading your Tweets

Surely the madness has to stop?

We have got used to people in meetings checking emails on their iPhones and texts on their Nokias.  Over dinner loved ones drift out of conversation to check their three inch squared screens.  The subliminal message?  ANYTHING in the world which may be happening on the three inch squared screen right now is more interesting than this conversation :-(

A wonderful world of embarrassing Facebook updates is emerging, with people posting messages and pictures that in years to come they will unquestionably regret.

  • Let me tell you every part of my life – “just woke up, had breakfast, stuck in traffic OMG what is that driver doing”
  • Kid bore – “my little Johnny scored the winning goal for the school team today, reminds me of his Dad when I was his age, er, I mean he was his age”
  • Embarrassingly slushy psychology – “my best friends are like a fairytale … they were there from once upon a time … and will be there until happily ever after” huh?
  • Sympathy baiter – “could really use some good news now, but thankful that I have such good friends”
  • Regret and attempted recall but too late – “hates Jennifer (tagged) who will never do that to me again”
  • Farmville and Mafia Wars advocate – “Andrew needs another 100,000 points to kill a family on the Upper East Side”
  • The “in” comment – “Long runs the fox so watch your back, you know who you are”
  • Serial status updater – “single” is too needy, “it’s complicated” is too sleazy and “married” is too smug
  • The nosey stalker –  me!

Twice now I’ve had the experience of reading on a CV that a job applicant’s hobbies include “American history, reading and going to the gym” and been faced with the challenge of believing what I read on LinkedIn “I enjoy American history, reading and going to the gym”, or what I watch on Facebook “I love slamming tequila on a Saturday night”!

Duke of Wellington

Duke of Wellington, look what you've started, you eejit

The Duke of Wellington famously told one of his mistresses who tried to blackmail him “publish and be damned”.  Nearly 200 years later, legions of people are doing exactly that, but unlike the Duke’s mistress there is no potential financial gain to be enjoyed.  In the UK the National ID Card was vociferously resisted yet Facebook is doing more to compromise personal privacy than ID cards ever could, with the ultimate irony that it’s not government, but people themselves, driving this.

Perhaps I’m just getting to the age where I despair that people who are younger than me didn’t do things the same way I did when I was their age but something nags at me – we are publishing in haste and some day we will repent at our leisure.  I can’t be the only one who fears that in our rush for immediacy we are losing our ability to make good decisions, to absorb and share information, and to enjoy the rich essence of human relationships?

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Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing | No Comments »

The Online Marketing Strategy Funnel

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
funnel

Use the funnel to determine the marketing tools & content needed for each part of the customer journey

Creating an online marketing strategy is as much to do with balance, as it is to do with tactics.

I created this funnel to help me check if I am addressing the entire customer journey when constructing an online marketing strategy.  Whether you are after customers, votes or donations, the process is the same.

Driving traffic to a website isn’t the same as converting a prospect to a customer. Many marketers feel that if they had more traffic they would get more customers.  My experience tells me that if you focus harder on converting prospects already on your site the outcome is much more profitable.

For many businesses, the sales process doesn’t take place online so the purpose of the web presence is to drive sales opportunities to the phone.

Some businesses, like hotels for example need a blend.  A hotel may wish to promote and sell hotel rooms online without ever speaking to a customer, whereas for conferences and weddings the hotel would like to get customers to visit their premises as this is a consultative sales process.

Understanding the customer decision making process determines how you create a successful customer journey and eventually determine the tools needed and the emphasis you put on each channel.

There is evidence left at every stage of this funnel to allow for forensic analysis of the sales process.  Perhaps it’s time to get CSI on your web strategy.

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Posted in Advertising, Email Marketing, Online Marketing, Online PR, Permission Marketing, Social Media, Websites | No Comments »

Social Media is Just Another Wheelbarrow

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
It's what's in the wheelbarrow that creates success

It's what you carry in the wheelbarrow that's important, not the actual tool

“What a marvellous construction. A splendour on the landscape. The most wonderful house this town has even seen, but tell me Paddy, how did you make such a marvel?”

“Well” said Paddy, “I got a great architect to design it, a firm of quantity surveyors to get me a bill of quantities, a team of skilled builders to help me build it and highly creative artisans to help add the finishing touches”.

“Amazing” exclaimed Jim, still looking and scratching his beard in amazement.  “And tell me Paddy, I see a wheelbarrow over there, did you use that when making this spectacular building?”

“I did Jim” Paddy said hesitantly wondering why Jim had asked.  “We used wheelbarrows, diggers, hammers, cranes…loads of tools, why do you ask?”

“Ah, so you did use a wheelbarrow then Paddy, that’s where I went wrong when I tried to build my new house.  Next time I’m getting me a wheelbarrow”.

We all fall victim of talking about the virtues of adopting technology as if it is the technology that creates winning online marketing strategies.  In my thirteen years experience I have yet to see a successful online marketing campaign that has worked simply by deploying more technology wheelbarrows. Successful online marketing requires architects plans, engaging personas and communication artisans. It requires interdependencies between chosen tools and most of all, it requires skilled communication and creativity.

It is your creativity that makes your social media campaign work.  It is your creativity that creates engaging content.  It is you that shows leadership and inspires others.  The web just gives you loads of wheelbarrows to use to get your ideas to site.  So I declare it’s time to stop paying homage to the wheelbarrow and start paying time or money on getting creative and inspiring others.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Still to find a home | 1 Comment »

Online Crimes of Passion

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Crimes of Passion

Passionate about killing for love

Since the dawn of time, how delighted you say you are to announce something, how passionate you say you are about a certain subject matter, or your report on your mood generally has been of no interest whatsoever to your potential customer.

Web copywriters of the world, this remains the case, and if it ever changes I promise you, as my solemn oath, you shall be the first to know!

Bleating on inanely about how thrilled, excited, passionate, fervent, ardent, zealous, avid, obsessive or fanatical you are about your subject matter is of absolutely no interest to me, or your other customers.  And yes I did use a thesaurus to get all those words.  But you started it!

The briefest of journeys around the web will convince you that the web is just falling over itself with this sycophantic self serving copywriting style.  This vanity parade is the online equivalent of talking about yourself in the third person; something Gareth Dunlop has a strong dislike for.

I recently tried to get car insurance online and was pleasantly surprised to see a product which matched my needs exactly with just the call to action I was looking for “get a quote”.  I followed the link to read “Thank you for your online enquiry.  Every day in Ireland we continue to insure a significant number of people and we are very keen to have you as a customer.  To get a quote please phone 0800 123456 8am – 6pm on week days.”

Does their marketing team have any understanding of how little interest I have in the number of people they insure on a daily basis?  Or how little it matters to me that they are keen to have me as a customer?  Perhaps their marketing team go home to their loved ones and say “You know what honey, Insure Co were quoting EUR 1000 to insure me for the year and Crash Co were EUR 750, but Insure Co are continuing to insure a significant number of people in Ireland.  I think that’s worth at least EUR 250, let’s go with them?”  Good luck to the man who tries to make that one fly with my wife, he’s a braver / stupider / faster man than I am!

Lately this farcical copywriting style has started to manifest itself with passion.

We are passionate about design.
We are passionate about sofas.
We are passionate about tax optimisation.
We are passionate about rainfall numbers in Co Clare 2000 – 2010.

OK, so I made the last one up, but the others are real.

Child's First Steps

A child's first steps - BORRRRRRING - compared with tax optimisation

Think about what makes you passionate.  Gourmet food and fine wine?  Seeing your children take their first step, or learn to read?  Watching Brian O’Driscoll score a try?  A former lover from college days?  Not me, it’s tax optimisation that gets me going.  At first I was merely keen, and then became interested, expressive almost, but before I knew it I was passionate.

But not as passionate as a company I read about online just last week.  “To say we’re passionate about [ subject matter x ] is an understatement.”  An understatement!  Wow!  Imagine what words they would have used if it was a real statement?

Perhaps my favourite of all time is “Company X – passionate about everything”.  Surely these people must live on coffee and Red Bull just to keep their energy levels at the requisite levels to continue this joie de vivre for every single aspect of life?

The facts are simple.  People go online not to read promises, but to do things.  Don’t tell them how fervently you bounce out of bed in the morning to serve them.  Just serve them.  Stop yarning on about how excited you are about doing business online with them.  Just do the business online.  Enough already about how thrilled you are to provide a public service.  Just let the public renew their passport, get a new driving licence, find out when their bins are collected, or whatever matters to the public.

Those who can’t, bleat on about how passionate they are online.  Those who can, do.

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Posted in Marketing, Online Marketing, Websites | No Comments »

Search Engine Optimisation to become Online Reputation Optimisation

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Let’s start with the good news.  For those of you running excellent businesses, the relationship between how you run your business and the impact of your marketing has never been closer.

Significant shifts in society, accelerated by the internet, have meant that customers are getting better and better at not listening to polished marketing promises, so how can customers not listening to you be good news for marketers?

It’s because according to Nielsen (Global Online Consumer Survey, 2009) research, 35% more people trust the recommendations of friends than trust radio adverts.  Even 15% more people trust the opinions of strangers!  Therefore the thousands of customers-turned-salespeople which good businesses generate mathematically outweigh even the most impressive marketing budgets of companies with massive wallets and no advocates.

We have stopped trusting big business and started trusting “people like me”.  The comment, recommendation, endorsement, or anti-endorsement of a friend, or even a complete stranger, means more to us now than the words and promises of big business.  And nowhere is this more true than online, where the view of “people like me” is more easily found than ever before.

Verizon protest

The quintessential bad day? Let down by your telecoms company and jeans just too short for your boxers.

Consider the plight of Verizon and their beleaguered marketing department seeking to communicate to America how the organisation is being true to its mission and why that matters to its customers.

“As a leader in communications, Verizon’s mission is to enable people and businesses to communicate with each other. We are also committed to providing full and open communication with our customers, employees and investors.”

Lofty stuff.

However their customers know that their bills are impossible to decipher, compulsory data plans are punishing, dropped calls are maddening, and customer care is not advisable for pregnant women and those of a delicate medical disposition.  And there’s not a damn thing the Verizon marketing team can do about it.  The only way Verizon can improve its marketing is for Verizon to improve its business.

It’s no longer just a cliché that your business is your marketing.

The Google search “Verizon Sucks” has over 17,000 results, “I Hate Verizon” has more than 7,500.  They are the fifth most hated brand online according to Less Everything.  That’s at least 22,500 “people like me” who are influencing what I think of Verizon.  It’s going to take a lot of marketing consultants, a lake of cappuccino, and an unthinkable amount of smiley facey stock photography for me to ignore what they’re saying to swallow the corporate line.

adsf

Struggling to work out how to hold both the tick and the briefcase.

None of this has gone unnoticed by the clever people at Google.  Their unquenchable obsession for relevancy has meant that in recent years, on top of their regular search results they have more closely integrated local search, social search, video search and image search.

Performing well on Google over its first ten years required an ability to identify key phrases, and simulate popularity via inbound link building.  As Google’s big brother department gets its paws on more and more data related to what our customers actually think of us, our online reputation will have an increasing impact on our search engine performance.  Simply put, what our customers say about us on UGC platforms will be more important than the number of inbound links to your website.

It’s official, the days of running a second rate business and papering over the cracks with first rate marketing are over forever.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Online PR, Permission Marketing, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »

Setting Realistic Online Goals

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Charlie sells business supplies.  The web offers him the ability to sell to clients outside his normal geography of 50 miles around his distribution centre. His wholesale supplier can deliver directly to all of his new clients anywhere in the UK and Ireland with no real effort or cost.  It’s perfect!

Nice pens, poor online marketing plan.

Nice pens, poor online marketing plan.

When Charlie got his web designers on the job, they created a fantastic online business-to-business outlet.  They did everything right.  The site looked great, the site was optimised and was perfectly formed for search.

After 6 months of no new customers Charlie started to blame the designers for the lack of sales.  “How could they have got it so wrong?” claimed Charlie.

Charlie explained how his attention to customer service set him apart from the competition.  However he never made it to the top 10 in Google searches and Charlie felt the web had let him down.

On examination, Charlie’s claim of offering better customer service was the same claim that all his competitors made.  His competitors online included Viking Direct, Eurooffice, Staples and WH Smith.  The competitors had spent millions on natural Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).  His sale price for goods was nothing special either.  On reflection Charlie admitted that he had no real differentiator and gave potential clients no compelling reason to switch to him.

Had Charlie set the goal of the website to, improve customer service with existing clients, create up-sell opportunities and increase average order size or increase advocacy (get his customers to talk about how good his business was) and get new customers that way, then his online goals would have been realistic.

Charlie can still get a great return on his online investment. He is now setting realistic goals and creating a multi-channel online marketing strategy to achieve those goals. He still feels a little cheated. He listened to the hype, the false promises of overnight success but with his realistic goals now in place he stands a much higher chance of winning.

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Posted in Online Marketing, SEO | No Comments »

Is this Northern Ireland’s biggest social media epidemic?

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

What a difference a day makes? In just a few short hours the Derry/Londonderry City of Culture Bid 2013 has exploded across social media.

The good people of this country have embraced the cause and I do believe we are witnessing the first truly organic, citizen-driven, social media campaign in Northern Ireland.

The message that the Maiden City should be recognised for this prestigious honour has been championed by the people of Derry and beyond. They have taken their passion online and it appears to have gone viral.

Facebook users showed their support by changing their profile pictures to the Derry 2013 logo.

Facebook

Then came the Tweeters. Twitter avatars adopted the same logo and last night a Derry blogger created a Derry City of Culture Twibbon, an icon overlaying the profile avatar.

Twibbon

With more fans than the other finalists, Facebook is alive with chatter about the cause and on Twitter the #derry2013 hashtag is being added to tweets. Others are registering their support on the Derry/Londonderry City of Culture website as well.

The Derry/Londonderry City of Culture 2013 bid is now in the hands of the people.

We wish Derry/Londonderry the best of luck in their endeavour to win the UK City of Culture 2013 bid. We hope our fellow citizens continue to show their support for the bid.

Is this civic explosion of passion the element needed to push Derry ahead of its competitors and win the bid?

Get involved…..

Change your Facebook or Twitter profile pic.

Add a Twibbon to your Twitter avatar.

Add this badge to your website.

Register your support on the Derry/Londonderry City of Culture website.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Online PR, Social Media, Websites | No Comments »

Offline marketing isn’t dead … but silo marketing is

Monday, May 10th, 2010

We’re all getting a bit tired now with claims that offline advertising is dead, and it’s time to put to bed the rumours of its death as nothing more than great exaggerations.  But why are so many happy to herald its demise?

It’s clear to everyone involved in the world of communications that we are experiencing consumer behaviour change at a staggering rate.  Intuitively we know that things aren’t as they were.

On a technical level intelligent mobile devices, faster internet access, cheaper hardware, an ever improving web and the social media revolution have all been catalysts for change.  Societal upheaval has complemented this, as trust in big business has never been under greater threat, and traditional religious and class influences are weakening on a monthly basis.

Angry Customer - grrrrrrr!

Angry Customer - grrrrrrr!

This has led to a cynical, marketing-proof, knowledgeable consumer, confident and armed with independent thought.

How have we as marketers reacted to this change?

Therein lies the rub, as there has been no consistent response to the new opportunities brought about by changing consumer behaviour.  Too quickly we have rushed to our comfort zones, too often (though not exclusively) along generational lines.  It seems the new generation of marketing executives fresh out of college overvalue online communication, particularly social media, and are too quick to dismiss offline communications out of hand.  At the other end of the professional generational spectrum, groups of battle hardened senior managers, who have been through too many fads to believe the latest one, have neither the patience nor the inclination to listen too carefully to the hyperbole laden promises of online marketing.

Evidently neither party is correct.

Companies who have grasped the opportunity this change brings have implemented a vision which ensures that the senior management are challenged to think about the power of digital marketing, and fresh eager young executives are given clear guidelines and targets around how their online marketing activity fits wider marketing and commercial goals.  In short, senior and junior staff are united, not divided, by a common language.

Used to its fullest potential, the ability to integrate online and offline marketing correctly is the most exciting opportunity we’ve had in years to influence consumers at all levels.

Marks and Spencer Model

Woolly cardie, slippers and tank top nowhere to be seen?

Proof, were it needed, that offline marketing is alive and well, is the new 90 second M&S advert featuring the fabulous five – Dannii Minogue, Ana Beatriz Barros, VV Brown, Lisa Snowdon and Twiggy.  It’s stylish, sassy, sexy, confident and dramatic; a good old fashioned above the line campaign to influence consumer perceptions and challenge the notion of M&S as frumpy and dated.

Unsurprisingly it has generated a significant amount of comment online, particularly on social media and discussion forums, not all of which are commending its stylishness and fabulous production values.  Ranking high in Google are forums and blogs containing comments such as “But these are not just clothes, these are M&S finest quality cardies and slippers” and “This is not just a tank top, this is an M&S tank top”.

What a massive opportunity for M&S marketing people to listen, engage, respond to and challenge preconceptions online to complement the offline above the line showcase advert.  When M&S, and others like them, embrace the huge opportunity this affords, we can put foolish talk of the death of offline marketing behind us, and look forward to a new more integrated future.

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Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Online Marketing, Permission Marketing | No Comments »

The unaffordable cost of irrelevancy

Monday, April 12th, 2010

I have a friend who says that if you want the worst website imaginable, you simply have to get five brand and design people in a room drinking lattes.  The rest will take care of itself.  That expensive exercise in ego-nomics has been responsible for some of the worst home page horror stories and landing page shockers that have dogged the web since its inception.

Swag Burglar - clearly a very evil and bad man

Pantomime Villain - boo hiss - down with this sort of thing

The enemy used to be obvious.  Dressed in a stripy suit and carrying a bag on its back labelled “swag”, it typically took the form of an intro page, replete with moving graphics, occasional sound and “reinforcement of brand values” to really give the user an “experience” of “the brand”.  It screamed loud and clear “our design team can do animation” and “we don’t care about our customers”. It sharpened up the response times of users all over the world who found the “skip intro” link in mere nanoseconds.

In time, the most indulgent of web teams realised they were simply annoying their customers and so got rid of their frustrating Flash intro pages. However, too many of them have simply replaced the swag burglar with a more subtle, respectable enemy.  Dressed in a smart suit and saying all the right sounding things, this enemy isn’t so crude as to bore your customers with animated intro pages but rather makes them weary by hiding the important information in behind the dross.  Using age old techniques like CEO welcome messages, photos of the team, publishing everything and hoping that the customer can make their own way through it all, the respectable enemy has the same devastating affect on the effectiveness of your website.

Stanford University’s Director of Research and Design, BJ Fogg, published in his Persuasive Technology paper that irrelevant home pages cause 71% of people to leave immediately without going any further.  Can you believe that?  71%!  That’s like being rude to everyone who phones you up between Monday morning and Thursday lunchtime each week.  It’s like burning nearly three quarters of your mail when it arrives in the office or not replying to emails for a week.

We have to get beyond the notion that websites are beauty parades because we are paying an unsustainably high price for vanity publishing.

Conroy - one of the few true gents left

Conroy - one of the few true gents left

I was driving home from Dublin about a year ago and I was caught speeding just North of Dublin (or rather I mean a “friend” was).  He wanted to know how to pay his fine and so he visited the Garda website at garda.ie to find out how.  The first choice he was asked to make was “first time visitor” or “previous visitor”.  My friend immediately thought this was a trick question so opted for “first time visitor”. You can imagine his relief to see a smiling picture of Noel Conroy, Garda Commissioner, welcoming him warmly to the site, explaining its many features.  He couldn’t recall the last time he visited a Garda station to pay a fine only to be invited to meet the sergeant who would welcome him warmly to the station.  He felt sure that Noel would understand that he sped because he was in a hurry as his Mrs was expecting him home and he simply hadn’t noticed his speed.  After the warm welcome from Noel he pressed “enter site” and was finally able to work out how to pay his fine.

My friend couldn’t help wonder how long he would have lasted on the site were it not for the fact he needed to pay his fine.  He pondered that if it had been a B2B, e-commerce or an e-government website he would have been long gone along with 71% of everyone else.

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Posted in Online Marketing, Websites | No Comments »

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