Online Marketing for Marketers

The worldwide excitement and energy generated from the election last week turned a lot of marketers moods (53% if we line up with the popluar vote) into ones of optimism.  For others, concern and caution.  But for all, we wrestle with the economic uncertainties which I believe mirror the duplicitous nature of Online Marketing pudits as we try to determine what will happen to the industry over the next 6 months. So, in all the readings of late, interviews done at the past 5 marketing conferences and general conversations had with fellow marketing peers, I have been able to finally gather my thoughts, review my notes and decide on my top 5 priorities for 2009.  My hope is this helps others with their clouds of confusion. Read more

The day after our historic election in NYC, I had a lunch meeting to discuss a marketing conference I was pulling together with an old association partner and the subject of “what do we call this conference” came up. Phrases like Emerging Media, Digital Marketing and of course my favorite, “New Media.” was tossed around. I stopped mid-sentence and said, “New Media…. what the heck is that? What does that really mean?” and my counterpart shrugged as if to say, yeah I don’t know either.  Read more

Every small business has some initiatives in place to garner new business. The smart ones are constantly on the look out for new business. One of the reasons many small businesses fumble in their marketing is simply because they are watching the small picture. They approach each initiative as an isolated instance, whereas they should try to coordinate the entire effort. 

Here are a few fumbles you might recognize and a suggestion for recovery: Read more

We all mistakes everyday but if you’re a marketer your mistake can cost a company thousands or even millions of dollars.  It’s not easy to be a marketer and that’s because managing and building relationships is not an easy thing to do, especially for a large corporation.  As a marketer (or social media consultant) it’s easy to make a lot of assumptions that inevitably lead you down the path of an unsuccessful marketing campaign.  So what are some of the most common mistakes that marketers make? Read more

ROI. They want to see it from us. CEOs, COOs, clients. They want and they expect us to show ROI. Not in click-throughs. Not in press releases picked up. Not in web site or blog hits. ROI means return on investment. Investment is measured in dollars and cents. So is ROI. So why do so many of us respond with things such as: Read more

Before starting on this let me take a moment to talk about how I define Social Search Optimization (SSO…another acronym…I know). In my world SSO is the process of taking your Social Marketing programs and optimizing them so that they can rank in the Search engines.  The goal in my mind is to have as many page 1 listings as possible in which you control the experience.  The first question that I usually get when discussing this is “How does social and SEO go together?”  So let me explain… Read more

Legendary rock band AC/DC just released, “Black Ice” their first new album in over eight years. Black Ice was released on October 8^th and rocketed to the top of the charts selling nearly 800,000 earning it the distinction of being the year’s best-selling rock debut.

Black Ice marks the band’s second stint at #1 (1981’s For Those About to Rock … We Salute You reached the peak several weeks after its initial release), and the first chart-topping debut of the band’s more than 30-year-career. Read more

There was a time when Marc Evon Enterprises enjoyed a comfortable living manufacturing skate blade guards. You see Marc had the patent on the product, and little in the way of competition. Everything changed when his patent ran out, and the world of skate blade guards changed forever. The first to seize on the opportunity were the Chinese. The marketplace was almost immediately flooded with exact copies of Marc’s blade guards costing many dollars less. Alarming as this was, Marc decided he wouldn’t just roll over and play dead - he would fight. Read more

So, I am sitting here looking through the latest B2B magazine, BtoB’s Best 2008 and a thought strikes me, How come “return on investment” or “campaign success metrics” don’t matter enough to report on?

At a time when the economy is tightening every day, our clients want quantifiable results. They are watching every dollar spent and demanding that we measure the return on each. Yet, almost 30% of the issue is all about the “Best Creative” - with no mention on the success of any of the campaign. More interestingly, the issue hi-lites the tops Brands, Marketers and Creative - nothing about the most successful campaigns based on their return. Read more

The best marketing campaigns are well rounded with mass email, direct mail, radio and on on. There is a new medium that is quickly disrupting the marketing world in a big way. And for any Chief Marketing Officer to neglect this fact will miss a tremendous opportunity! Some call it “The Third Screen”. First ads on TV(1st screen) were popular, then computer(2nd screen). Now we have the mobile phone as the third screen to do every advertisement you can imagine. One major thing to keep in mind about the mobile phone(3rd screen). Its ALWAYS with you! This is very cheap, and very effective marketing. Read more