Cincinnati Internet Marketing Blog

Cincy AMA Seminar on Online Networking October 31st

2008-10-13T16:54:59-04:00

So what are you doing on Halloween morning besides preparing copious amounts of candy for trick-or-treaters? Nothing? Then check out the seminar the Cincinnati AMA is having; "Decision 2008: Link, Tweet, Plax or Blog?" a panel with Kendra Ramirez of Sales Konnect, Steve Phillips of Purple Trout, Brian LeCount of ROWhy Marketing and Michell Lentz of Write Technology.

They are going to talk about online networking using LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo and blogs, including the pros and cons of each channel and how to use these tools effectively. The event is going to be at the Kenwood Towers on Montgomery Road and it's $30 for AMA members and $45 for non-members. You can register here and at the link above. Should be a good discussion!

Personally I think that for business professionals being on LinkedIn and spending a little time to fully fill out your profile and building your network is a no-brainer, as is blogging for many firms. By the way, here are the Cincinnati I-marketing Czar's LinkedIn profile and my Twitter profile.

Plaxo is from what I have seen is not bad though I haven't used it much. I like Twitter, particularly when my friends and colleagues send links to helpful info, links and articles, and like it less when people clutter it up too much with the mundane and business start following me just to build up their followers.

Also, Doug Hall of the Eureka Ranch is the guest speaker at this Friday's AMA luncheon, and that should be really fun, so if you haven't registered for that yet, get on it! Just click the link to register.

So what's your vote? LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo or Blogs?

Your CMO Cincinnati I-marketing Group Member Spotlight

2008-10-08T20:57:19-04:00

Business Name: Your CMO, LLC

Business Website Address: www.yourcmo.com

Contact Name & Info (feel free to include blogs, profile links (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.):

Steve Phelan

steve@yourcmo.com

(513) 240-9845

http://yourcmo.blogspot.com/

Internet marketing or Web/Interactive services you provide:

Search Engine Advertising

Content development

Other marketing and related services offered:

Strategic Planning, Direct marketing, Product development, Qualitative research, Sales promotion, Campaign management, Consumer Relationship Management programs, Sales support

Time in business / Experience of Principals and/or Staff:

30+ years of B2C and B2B marketing

Unique Selling Proposition (positioning, why someone should work with you):

Focus on understanding and fulfilling target customer needs.

Experience from developing and introducing 21 different products & product lines.

Describe your typical client profile (size of company, industries):

Small to medium.

Specialties in Consumer Packaged Goods and Financial Services.

Case study of a successful client, project or design portfolio sample:

Managed acquisition (direct TV and online direct) and retention (email CRM) for a general purpose prepaid Visa Debit Card company. Increased cardholder base 50% in 14 months.

What is one important trend or problem in your clients need to address, & how do you provide clients solutions to it?

Advertising should be the last step in the marketing process. Before they are ready to generate awareness, most firms need to put a great deal more effort into selecting proper target customers, fine-tuning products, and improving their customer-facing functions (such as customer service and billing).

New Google Phone Coming October 22nd

2008-09-24T09:00:20-04:00

So just in time for Christmas, Google can now begin to dominate the mobile phone space, and probably mobile advertising (like they already do the Internet marketing industry) with the release of the G1 phone through T-Mobile on October 22nd.

Here's a short Google Phone article from Breitbart with a picture of the spiffy new $179 gadget that features a touchscreen, trackball and full keyboard.

There will soon be a whole bunch of phones released using Google's Android operating system and you can bet many of them will be displaying a whole bunch of mobile ads Google will be more than happy to serve up to folks. I saw an article yesterday where Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated he expected Google to eventually make more money selling ads on cell phones than on desktops. Considering their revenue in the last quarter was $5.36 billion, that's a pretty amazing concept, don't you think?

As Americans embrace the mobile web (using their cell phones to access the Internet) as people in some other countries do, we'll see many more ad dollars shift to mobile advertising. Google is poised to rake in a lot of those dollars.

Circuit Social Media Presentation This Thursday

2008-09-22T16:43:35-04:00

Here's a local Cincinnati technology marketing event you might want to check out!

The Circuit is having another of their popular Breakfast Bytes presentations this week. The topic is: MARKET YOUR BUSINESS USING SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS/SOCIAL NETWORKING and the presenter is Kendra Ramirez of Sales Konnect.

The meeting is this Thursday from 8-9 AM at the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, Room 500, (Rookwood, 3805 Edwards Road - 5th Floor) and is only $15 for Circuit members and $20 for non-members. You can get additional details and register here.

If you're looking to learn how to use social media for your business and personal career, this should be very informative for you.

PS - Don't forget the next Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting is next Thursday October 2nd.

Cincinnati I-marketing Group Meeting October 2nd

2008-09-21T09:54:10-04:00

Eight years strong and still going!

Yes the Cincinnati I-marketing Group, which I founded along with Jack Langworthy (then with Lottery.com) way back in 2000, is still alive and well and we're getting together again to talk about Internet marketing news, trends and best practices.

The next Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting will be Thursday October 2nd from 5:30 to 7:00 at our location of Web Media Tools: 18 West 7th Street, Third Floor above Provident Camera (between Race & Vine). You can park in the Gramercy lot on 7th, a block away at Fountain Square or at a meter nearby. Our host Ed Estes and I will look for out you.

On the 2nd I want to talk about a couple of Internet marketing news topics including the launch of Google Chrome. After that Kris Olson will talk about wikis and Michelle Lentz of My Wine Education (www.wine-girl.net) with give us some tips on blogging. As always we'll also network and have some snacks and this time the beer is compliments of Catalin Macarie of Cat Creatives.

As always meetings are free but if you'd like to attend I request that you send me an email to RSVP at robbunting@gmail.com.

I hope to see you on October 2nd, for the next Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting.

Rob Bunting
Czar, Cincinnati I-marketing Group
robbunting@gmail.com
937-312-1400

PS. If you aren't familiar with wikis, check out this handy YouTube video: Wikis in plain English by Lee Lefever of CommonCraft to get you ready for Kris' presentation at our meeting:

Cincinnati AMA Luncheon Next Friday

2008-09-12T13:25:04-04:00

The Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association is having their September luncheon next Friday, September 19th at the Covington Radisson and the speaker will be Kevin DiLorenzo discussing the topic Building Bonfire Brands.

You can learn more about the presentation and register online at the Cincinnati AMA website.

Here is a quick rundown of the other upcoming Cincinnati AMA events, details of which or also available on the chapters' Current Events page:

Marketing Job Transition Group (Pat Frew's gang) - Tuesday Sept.23
Market Research SIG - Wednesday Sept. 24
N KY Business to Business SIG - Friday Sept 26
Member Orientation - Wednesday October 1
Job Transition Group (Harvest Networking) - Tuesday October 14
October Luncheon with Doug Hall of Eureka Ranch - Friday October 17
November Luncheon with KT Remus of Urban Active - Friday November 21

Also, please mark your calendars for 5:30 - 7:00 on Thursday October 2nd for the next Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting. I'll have details posted early next week!

Internet Marketing Lessons from the Obama Campaign

2008-09-05T10:49:17-04:00

This morning I found this very interesting & informative Clickz article: Google Grabs Most of Obama's $5 Million in Online Ad Spending

The article details how the Obama campaign has spent over $5 million on online advertising this year with dollar figures for specific publishers. Where has the campaign chosen to spend the majority of its' money? Most of all, SEARCH!! Over three million dollars (about 60%) has been spent with Google, with Yahoo a distant second followed by Centro (which buys ads on TV station, radio station & newspaper websites), CNN.com, MSN & Facebook.

The fact that the Obama campaign has chosen to spend the most money on search makes a lot of sense as this enables them to reach people who are actively seeking to learn more about or read editorials, blogs or news about candidates & issues AT THAT MOMENT! Talk about reaching your target audience!

Some of the key advantages of Internet advertising are very applicable to political campaigns. Here are just a few examples:

Online advertising tends to be much cheaper and produce a better ROI (Return on Investment) than traditional advertising so campaigns can get more bang for their buck
Online advertising is more effective at directing people to a website (all people have to do is click on an online ad vs. having to go to the web after being exposed to an ad in another medium). Thus, folks are more likely to view a candidate or organization's content, donate online or forward it to a friend.
The geographic targeting can be much more precise online, so that fewer ad dollars are wasted communicating with voters outside of a candidate's district. This is a real problem in Cincinnati, as we border Indiana & Kentucky. Whenever I hear a radio ad or see a TV ad on a Cincinnati station for a Kentucky candidate I feel bad for them as I know a huge percentage of the people who just heard or saw the ad won't be voting in their district.
The demographic and psychographic (values, beliefs, interests, lifestyle) targeting opportunities online are huge, particularly on social profile sites where members have provided that info in their profiles, such as age, marital status, political leanings, favorite candidates, etc.
Better tracking of results. A campaign can track: exactly how many saw the ad, how many people clicked on the ad, what those people did on the website (donated, emailed a friend, etc.) and how much money they donated. So a campaign can compute exact ROI figures and the cost of acquiring a new supporter.

Other campaigns, organizations and businesses can learn from this example. If you'd like to put some of these advantages to work for you, Call me! 937-312-1400.

(I'm Rob Bunting the I-marketing Czar and I approved this message)

Google Launches A Web Browser: Google Chrome

2008-09-02T21:16:32-04:00

Today Google released a new open-source Internet browser program, called Google Chrome.

The link above will take you to a comic-book like site that explains the process in which Google Chrome was developed and the advantages Google is claiming Chrome has over other browsers, including asynchronous processing and that if one tab locks up that event does not crash the other tabs that are running. Another interesting feature is a privacy mode called "Incognito" in which nothing that occurs in the browser is logged on the computer.

Here is the link to Download Google Chrome. If you click on the Learn more about Google Chrome link you're taken to a page with videos (from YouTube of course, which Google owns) that demo the various features and at the bottom of that page are videos on the story behind Google Chrome and a link to the comic book mentioned (and linked to) above.

Here is an International Herald Tribune article on the launch of Google Chrome.

I've downloaded Google Chrome and my first impression is it seems pretty cool and does seem to be faster than IE & Firefox. Google is not only trying to dominate the web, but also the desktop so I hope this new development helps to show you why Microsoft has been trying so hard to acquire or merge with Yahoo to compete.

I welcome your feedback on Google Chrome and thoughts on what Google's launching an open-source browser means for the future of the web.

Intrinzic Insight: Marketing in an Uncertain Economy

2008-08-19T14:26:16-04:00

Intrinzic Marketing & Design is having the next Insight presentation next Wednesday the 27th on "Marketing in an Uncertain Economy". Here is the info.

In uncertain economic times everyone is affected. As consumer confidence fluctuates, an array of questions about how to successfully market arise:

How do you adjust your marketing programs to be sensitive to economic concerns?
How do you take advantage of the opportunities you are presented with?
How do you make the budget go as far as possible?
How do you continue to ensure that ROI goals are met?

Join Intrinzic for a historical perspective and timely discussion on an uncertain economy’s affect on marketing budgets, strategies, and how to be cost effective while still remaining relevant to your audience.

Kelly Blake, President-Elect for the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Marketing Association, will also be joining us to share key findings from a just released AMA study on Marketing in an Economic Downturn.

Intrinzic Insight: Marketing in an Uncertain Economy
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 | 7:30 am – 9:00 am
Newport on the Levee Community Center
One floor below Intrinzic offices | Breakfast will be provided

Limited seating is available, please RSVP by August 22nd to insight@intrinzicinc.com or call 859.261.2200 Or learn more at www.intrinzicinc.com/insight
Please respond by August 22nd.

Twitter 101

2008-08-14T12:29:08-04:00

So I just had a friend call me asking me to explain to her what Twitter is all about and if it is worth her time. Twitter is exploding in popularity and therefore a really hot Internet marketing topic right now, so here is a quick crash course and I'll go into more details about facets of Twitter in future posts. Your comments or suggestions on using Twitter are more than welcome!

Twitter is a free "microblogging" site where users can post short messages, called "tweets" (like the sound a bird makes) of no more than 140 characters that answer the simple question "What are you doing?". Twitterers post updates about what they are up to in their personal life or professionally so that their friends or colleagues can follow that information. What each Twitter user wants to tweet about and who they want to follow (receive updates from) is up to them.

Once someone signs up for Twitter they can go to the site and see the most recent updates from all of the other Twitter users they are following on one page (20 of them anyway) and even choose to receive updates through instant messaging, SMS, RSS feeds, email or through an application like Twitterific (for a Mac, iPod Touch or iPhone) or on Facebook.

There are over 2 million people using Twitter these days and that's growing rapidly. It's pretty addicting for a lot of people and one of the biggest problems Twitter has faced is the site going down because of the huge volume of tweets flying around.

There's a great two-minute video of Twitter in Plain English on YouTube I recommend you check out to better understand the concept.

Twitter is a great social networking tool you should be aware of whether or not you choose to sign up, but it is free after all so it won't hurt to give it a try. In future posts I'll describe and provide some case study examples of the Internet marketing uses of Twitter, such as for PR and customer service and welcome your examples as a part of that process.

Want am I doing? Click here!

Is Cuil Cool?: New Search Engine from Ex-Google Employees Launches

2008-07-28T13:52:54-04:00

A new search engine, Cuil (pronounced "Cool") has been developed and launched by some ex-Google engineers backed by $33 million in venture capital.

Cuil is claiming their index of websites is largest, three times larger than Google and ten times that of Microsoft's Live Search and that their engine methodology is based more on web page content and less on popularity (inbound links).

Cuil is also promoting a greater level of privacy as they are stating they do not save search histories or surfing patterns, as Google does.

Here is an AP article on the launch of Cuil an article from WebProNews and a pretty detailed article by search engine expert extraordinaire Danny Sullivan on his site Search Engine Land.

Based on my brief test today my first reaction is similar to those of others I've read -- I'm not impressed at the results and it seems they are trying to work out the kinks as pages are taking a long time to load with many images not displaying.

What are your thoughts? Is Cuil cool? Do we need something better than Google?

Cincinnati AMA Digital Marketing Summit August 28th

2008-07-22T07:54:58-04:00

Is Your Marketing "Disco" or Digital?

The Cincinnati chapter of the American Marketing Association is having their first annual Digital Marketing Summit on Thursday August 28th at Great American Ballpark's Club 4182.

This half-day event will feature leading marketers sharing their thoughts on what's happening now—and what's to come—in digital marketing. Speakers will include Pete Blackshaw of Nielsen Online, Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, Ed Estes of Web Media Tools and others.

You can get more details and register online on the Cincinnati AMA website's Digital Marketing Summit page

Cincinnati SEO Presentation September 19th

2008-07-17T17:58:48-04:00

Steve Phillips of Purple Trout & Kelly Berkemeier of ISOCNET are presenting "SEO & Beyond" as part of The Circuit's Regional Entrepreneur Forum series on September 19th from 8:00 - 9:00 AM at the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati on Edwards Road.

This should be good presentation for folks looking to get an overview of search engine optimization and how to implement SEO tactics.

You can register for the event, which is only $10 for Circuit members and non-members, on The Circuit website.

Yahoo Rejects Another Microsoft Offer

2008-07-15T11:05:53-04:00

The ongoing Will They or Wont They? Yahoo-Microsoft saga keeps on rolling along just as it as for the past 2 years. Any day now I'm expecting Brett Favre to be named Yahoo CEO and starting Quarterback in a deal that will send Jerry Yang to the Packers for an Internet pioneer to be named later.

Over the weekend Yahoo rejected an offer from Microsoft and Carl Icahn that would have sent Yahoo's search business to Microsoft and allowed Icahn to run the rest of Yahoo's business. This Bloomberg story has the current Yahoo-Microsoft details

We may finally see some resolution soon as Yahoo is will to accept $33/share for the whole company, which by the way is what Microsoft offered in May. Yahoo's shareholder's meeting on August 1st promises to be fun.

I think the key takeaways here are that 1) Google is so powerful Microsoft REALLY feels they need some type of merger with Yahoo to compete and 2) Search is and is expected to continue to be the cash cow of online marketing and that's why Microsoft is trying so many different things to get a hold of Yahoo's search unit.

Stay tuned. Maybe Carl Icahn will show up at Packers training camp in two weeks to compete with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job.

Internet Marketing News Articles from June 26 Meeting

2008-06-29T17:22:11-04:00

We had a great Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting this past Thursday. My thanks go out to all those who attended for coming and participating in the discussion, as well as Ed Estes of Web Media Tools for hosting us. Our next meeting will probably be in August or September.

Here are links to news articles I went through and we discussed at the meeting

UK Online ad spending to overtake TV this year: http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1748087420080617?rpc=28

Facebook Heads MySpace in Unique Visitors: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/302914bc-40a7-11dd-bd48-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Big dollar signs for microblogging service Twitter: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/06/big-dollar-sign.html

Google insists its Android phone is still on track: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-insists-its-android-phone-is-still-on-track-852884.html

It was really enlightening and satisfying for me to see that online ad spending will exceed TV this year in the UK, and in a few years that will likely be the case in the USA as well. For all of you out there still doubting the Internet as an effective advertising medium... WAKE UP!!!

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com participated in the $15 million round of funding for Twitter, which had over a million unique visitors in May. Twitter and Facebook are really hot Internet marketing topics right now.