10/02/08 by seobrien | Fun, Google, Insights / Research | 1 Comment »
Having pointed out my complete ignorance of the cheerleading world yesterday (“Can I Get an S?”??), I feel I need to steer the laughs, jeers, and finger pointing as far away from me as possible in hopes of staving off the cheer hate mail no doubt being written to me even as we speak. Obviously, I meant to say, “Would you give me an S?” “Please”
Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, Rewiring the World from Edison to Google
has some great insights on the impacts Google and the evolution of the internet have had on our lives. At the end of the day, he, with a common-man voice on the world stage, perhaps better validates that the future of marketing is digital than the industry pundits and experts so valiantly trying to point out the same thing.
Where’s the humor in that? He shares those thoughts with quintessential American Steven Colbert. Enjoy!
08/14/08 by seobrien | Insights / Research, Local, Natural Search / SEO, Paid Search, Search, Social Media | No Comments »
I’ve had the distinguished honor of having an article featured in this month’s edition of Event Solutions Magazine bringing to their audience some of the most basic online marketing tenants that we so easily forget as still being foreign to most marketers. What are the basics? How does one get started? Here’s an excerpt:
Most event marketers overlook the tremendous potential their websites alone have for promoting events, and with so many buzzwords floating around about advertising online, it’s easy to get lost. Here are a few of the easiest ways to get started – and some of the best-performing tools to market events successfully.
The premise of the article is simple: marketers more frequently advertise events than the brands, products, or services available through their business. The event draws business by way of the promotion, sale, seminar, or other attraction that motivate the conversion. The challenge lies therein: an event is temporary so how does one success in marketing it online?
- Be Search-Friendly, Get Found
- It’s All about Optimization
- Go Local
- Engage the Social Community
You’ll have to pick up the article or wait until next month when it should be available online. I’ll keep you posted!
04/11/08 by seobrien | Affiliate Marketing, Analytics, Blogs & Blogging, Brand Marketing, Comparison Shopping, Conferences / Events, Display Advertising, Fun, Insights / Research, Local, Natural Search / SEO, Paid Search, Search, Social Media, Vertical Search, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
ad:tech San Francisco, the interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition, starts next week at the Moscone Center. The show blends keynote speakers, topic driven panels and workshops to provide us with the tools and techniques needed to keep up and compete. It has, perhaps, the best show floor in the industry making it one of the must attend conferences if only to get up to speed on new vendors, services, and technologies.
While social networks are potentially creating some effective marketing opportunities, traditional and effective internet opportunities remain unsaturated. Search, rightfully so, commands an ever increasing portion of Internet ad spending, local is still an open market (though I’m bent on changing that), and profound improvements in Web-based video technology are threatening to change the definition and economics of “television”.
Who attends:
Brands, Agencies, Publishers, Portals & Service Providers, CEO’s, CMO’s, Marketing Execs, Brand Managers, Creatives, Media Buyers and Planners, Product Managers, Solution Providers…
Who else is going?
I’ll be there, in fact, with a booth behind me so stop by 5684 say hello!
03/05/08 by seobrien | Affiliate Marketing, Analytics, Blogs & Blogging, Brand Marketing, Comparison Shopping, Display Advertising, Google, Insights / Research, Local, Natural Search / SEO, Paid Search, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Vendors / Agencies, Vertical Search, Web 2.0, Yahoo! | 9 Comments »
Certainly, one has to have a degree of ego involved with starting one’s own blog, after all, these are my thoughts; thoughts I presume are of interest to someone. Sure, perhaps it isn’t really “ego” but, needless to say, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope someone cared and derived a modicum of value. With that it mind, it is with great pride, continued hope, and a shedding of a layer of humility that I let id loose, take a moment to do more than wax poetic, and share with you one of my most honored moments.
Wiley, famed publisher of Frommers, For Dummies, and CliffsNotes, recently shipped, “Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurusâ€, to major bookstores
. Internet advertising experts interviewed for the book include consultants, agencies, CEOs, PR professionals, advertisers, and publishers discussing everything from paid search to PR, social media marketing to affiliate marketing, SEO to online retail.
Featured:
Joan Holman, Greg Hartnett, Jacob Hawkins, Mark Oldani, Jeffrey Glueck, Lauren Freedman, Tamara Adlin, Steve Rubel, Greg Jarboe, Eric Ward, Jordan Gold, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Chris Baggott, Ed Shull, Brian Lusk, Lee Odden (should I really link to Top Rank again? seems gratuitous), Jill Whalen, Liana Evans, Perry Marshall, Kevin Lee, Ron Belanger, David Fischer, Phil Terry, Patrick Duparcq (who has, perhaps, the first online marketing college course I’ve seen) and… me.
Lee Odden reached out to a few of us and asked of those involved to share a summary in a collaborative post. I’m not going to steal his thunder but I don’t think he’ll mind if I borrow the idea. Here are a few excerpts:
Yahoo’s Ron Belanger on search
It started out as a direct marketing medium, but today more and more traditional marketers–including brand marketers–are beginning to utilize search engine advertising.
- * Use search advertising to take advantage of high-impact moments where a customer is interested in receiving a product or marketing message.
- * Search marketing isn’t just for national advertisers; local businesses can use search marketing to target down to the individual market level.
- * Social search lets you locate and communicate with passionistas–your most passionate brand advocates.
- * Search advertising is a low-barrier, low-risk medium. It costs you very little to get started, and the potential results are huge. So dip your toe in the water and start advertising!
Didit Co-Founder Didit Kevin Lee on analytics and optimization
We are in the midst of a change in the advertising ecosystem and those marketers who embrace change with passion will triumph over those who fail to evolve with the massive shifts in consumer behavior and preference. Paid Search Marketing and Online Media is only the beginning of this macroeconomic shift in the way content and advertising is “consumed†by the consumer. Marketers will increasingly rely on data-driven models for media and advertising, but they better be sure the data is accurate and the models comprehensive. Bad data is sometimes worse than no data at all.
- * Consumers are beginning to pay attention only to advertising that’s relevant to their needs.
- * The way to reach consumers online is via narrowcasting a relevant message to each individual segment of your target audience; not by mass marketing a general message that everyone sees.
- * Creativity in online marketing involves the ability to analyze data and formulate strategies based on that analysis.
- * Search needs to be considered in relation to other forms for advertising; everything interacts with everything else; nothing is a silo onto itself.
- * Carve out a portion of your marketing budget for experimentation with new media and advertising types.
KeyRelevance Director Internet Marketing Li Evans on priorities and SEO
“search marketing†isn’t about title tags and keyword densities anymore, search marketing has taken on a whole new meaning with the search engines trying to deliver the most relevant and engaging experiences for their users. Marketers need to realize, the days of “post-Florida†are gone, this is a whole new marketing medium that we ourselves need to adapt too.
- * For the time being, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask are the most important search engines; the smaller players don’t have much chance of breaking through the ranks.
- * Google is the big dog, of course, but other engines might be better to reach particular types of users.
- * Even though search engines rank different factors differently, the same basic SEO techniques will help your ranking across the board.
- * When optimizing your site, focus on relevant content first and link building second.
TopRank® and Online Marketing Blog’s Lee Odden on social media and blogs
- * Publish your media to different sites and channels to maximize the potential search engine hits—images to an image-sharing site, videos to YouTube, and so forth.
- * All media are valuable, but none so much so as text, because of its importance to search engines.
- * Most blog software is search-engine friendly out of the box and can provide a platform for delivering fresh content for the search bots.
- * When content gets noticed and cited by multiple blogs, you get multiple links back to your main web site—which drives direct traffic and can increase search engine rankings.
- * To succeed with social networking, you have to be transparent and honest. You must provide value in order to receive value.
I confess not knowing the illustrious set of folks interviewed as well as Lee so head over to Top Rank for more excerpts. Author Michael Miller though has done a fabulous job aggregating the most important considerations from the great variety of online marketing considerations. If you want a phenominal, general overview of everything you should know, grab a copy of the book.
As for myself? A chapter on local marketing
- * Optimize your site for local search—make sure you include locality information as part of your keyword set.
- * Focus on local directories as much as you do the big search engines.
- * Think beyond the business listing. You’ll retain your customers with a business listing but attract customers with search engines like Zvents.
- * Make sure you have a version of your site available that’s optimized for mobile devices.
- * Include latitude and longitude information for inclusion in upcoming GPS-enabled devices.
Good god… Am I going to have to start a book club?
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