Viget Engage : The Marketing Lab

Is Planning Impotent? Redscout + PSFC Presents “Spur”

2009-11-06T17:55:00Z

PSFK (my favorite "blog", hands down), has teamed up with Redscout to create a video series entitled "Spur", the focus of which is to look at the digital planning industry/career.

In their own words:

Over the next two months, PSFK will be hosting Redscout’s SPUR video series. It will explore the intersection of brands, strategy, innovation and the world of account planning. We hope to spark a lively discussion, and inspire those working in the field.

Check out episode one, Is Planning Impotent?", it's got some very interesting remarks:

Los Angeles Goes Google

2009-10-28T18:03:00Z

Looks like the Go Google campaign is working.

Despite heavy lobbying from Microsoft, L.A. City Council voted to outsource email and other apps to Google. Wow.

LA is the second major city behind DC, who signed up last year, to go with Google in the larger struggle for the estimated $20-billion market for email and office software that Microsoft now dominates.

Under the deal with L.A., Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to the nation's second-largest city. In terms of numbers, that's 30,000 city employees! Many of whom (I'm guessing), probably didn't even know Google had such services. Aside from the press and the money, this win goes a long way at legitimizing Google's enterprise solutions.

One can't help but feel slightly bad for Microsoft who seems to be taking hits from two of the web's biggest players: Google and Apple.

Yahoo! and Bing Search Marketing Agreement - What’s the Deal?

2009-10-27T13:56:00Z

Ever since the announcement that Bing and Yahoo! will fold into one search engine, there have been a lot of questions as to when exactly this will happen, what it means for advertisers, how it will affect users, and whether it will hurt Google. I have spent some time trying to find answers to these questions, and thought I’d share what I found.

Most important to note is that the transition from Yahoo! to Bing will take anywhere from 12-24 months, starting in the US and then expanding to other regions. Therefore, advertisers’ and users need not worry about it just yet! When the transition is finally complete, here are some key points to know.

What exactly does the agreement entail?

Yahoo! will adopt Bing’search engine.
Yahoo! will take control of premium search advertising for both Yahoo! and Bing (Current Yahoo! premium advertisers have a dedicated sales team).
Display advertising on other Microsoft and Yahoo! properties (such as Yahoo! finance) will not be affected – only search ads.

How will this affect search marketers?

Advertisers will now use Microsoft’s AdCenter platform to manage both Bing and Yahoo! Search campaigns.
Advertisers buying through AdCenter will have no control as to whether their ad appears on Bing or Yahoo! Search.
Advertisers should benefit by only having to work with two search platforms versus three.

How will this affect users?

Users will benefit from being able to search a larger ad inventory. This means there will be chance of finding a relevant ad for a search, which will hopefully give users an overall better search experience.
Users will still be able to search via Yahoo! or Bing. Yahoo! will keep its interface and functionality, as well as its “Yahoo! Search” brand, but it will have a “Powered by Bing” logo at the bottom of the page.

Yahoo! and Bing will probably never overtake search leader Google, who (along with its partners) currently owns about 73% of the market, according to ComScore. However, the agreement may help Bing make a dent in Google’s market share, perhaps forcing Google to improve and innovate in order maintain or increase its share.

Despite a few drawbacks (such as not being able to pick which search engine your ad appears on), I believe the agreement is a good thing. Not only will it make the lives of advertisers a little easier (managing two instead of three networks), but it also lays the foundation for a more competitive and innovative search landscape. I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the search market once the transition is complete!

Social Media Monitoring Tools

2009-10-22T12:00:00Z

Yesterday's Middle School Marketing meeting focused on something we talk about a lot: social media monitoring. Long-time attendee Wendy Scherer of The Social Studies Group kicked things off with a brief presentation that highlighted pros and cons of various monitoring tools.

No one argued that there are a number of tools available for monitoring brand(s) on the web. The trick, however, is find those that work best for you. Key take aways from our discussion included:

Set Up is Key: Regardless of the tool, time is required to set tools up so they're meaningful. The old, "junk in, junk out" phrase seems to apply; the time invested upfront will surely pay off later.

Time Commitment Required: As with any monitoring tool, time is required to review and analyze data. Similarly, it's not just about the information tools provide, it's what you do with the information that sets you and your social media strategy apart.

Sentiment Stinks: Overarching consensus was that no tool does a "great" job getting sentiment right. Human review is still needed. Tools like Open Amplify seem to be making headway, but we weren't convinced it replaced good ol' fashioned human review.

No Tool Does Everything Well: Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. Some might be great at blogs and Twitter, but lacking on general media clips; others might provide in-depth data, but not sexy charts and graphs. Long story short: you'll likely need more than one tool to get all the data you need.

Whether using a free or paid tool, social monitoring is critical for those looking to engage with customers in meaningful ways.

As always, thanks to all who attended. We're looking forward to next month's discussion!

Google Analytics Improvements - Site Engagement Goals, Mobile Reporting, Multiple Custom Variables

2009-10-21T18:03:00Z

Last year, after attending the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant's Summit, I blogged about wonders such as advanced segments, the API, and custom reporting. This year, there are some pretty cool additions once again, including:

Multiple goals
Engagement goals
Mobile tracking and reporting
Advanced analysis
Multiple custom variables
Analytics intelligence
Custom alerts

Goal Improvements - Engagement Goals & 20 Goals / Profile

Now you can define pages per visit and time on site as a conversion.
Additionally, remember that time you could only have four goals per Google Analytics profile? Those days are finally over! Now, 20 goals per profile are comprised of four goal sets each containing five goals. In other words, you can track up to five goals in one goal set, and see the total aggregated conversion rates for one set, as well as each individual conversation rate.

Mobile Tracking and Reporting

You can now better measure mobile marketing efforts within Google Analytics with expanded mobile tracking. It supports PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX in this release - and, of course, JavaScript. Here are some instructions.

Advanced Analysis - Advanced Table Filtering

Previously in Google Analytics, you could only filter reports by text (pageview name, search keywords). However, you can now filter by metrics (bounce rate, time on site, etc.).

Multiple Custom Variables

Finally!
Custom variables allow you to segment users by naming their cookies with relevant information. For example, once someone logs in you would name them "member" and segment accordingly. Previously in Google Analytics, you could only store one variable per user/cookie using the setVar method. Now, however, you can track multiple variables per user/cookie! I'm really excited about this one.
Some instructions and more details are here.

"Intelligence & Custom Alerts"

I'll just let Google Analytics tell you:

We're launching the initial phase of an algorithmic driven Intelligence engine to Google Analytics. Analytics Intelligence will provide automatic alerts of significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics and dimensions over daily, weekly and monthly periods. For instance, Intelligence could call out a 300% surge in visits from YouTube referrals last Tuesday or let you know bounce rates of visitors from Virginia dropped by 70% two weeks ago.

Also, you can now set up daily, weekly, and monthly triggers. I'm not that excited about this one, but this will be a big deal for some users.

These are some really awesome improvements! As Google Analytics says, these new features are powerful, intelligent, and flexible. Any questions?

Some Related Videos

Engagement Goals and Multiple Goals Video

Google Analytics Advanced Table Filtering

Google Analytics Pivoting & Secondary Dimensions

Google Analytics Intelligence and Custom Alerts

Improving Local Search Listings

2009-09-28T15:58:01Z

When thinking about local search listings most people think of the Yahoo!, Bing and of course, Google. Other well-known listings may also come to mind: Yellowpages or Superpages, but marketers should not discount the smaller players in the market.

Many of these smaller local search sites offer valuable resources that you may not find in some of the larger, such as reviews, recommendations, photos, and promotion features. Even more important, however, listing your business in all local search directories makes it easier for your customers to find information on your business, which is critical to not only driving more traffic to your web site, but also generating more phone calls and delivering more customers thru the door.

A few tips to note when working with local listings:

Keep your listings updated – double check listings that are already in directories. It can be more harmful to your business to have wrong/incomplete contact information than no listing at all.
Keep your listings consistent – customers often perform multiple searches when researching a product or service. Inconsistent information not only confuses customers, but also reduces credibility.
Include keywords in descriptions and categories – most searches on local listings directories are keyword based, so use effective keywords in your description to ensure that your listing shows up in search results.
Remember that most local listings are free – by not listing your business you are missing out on free, targeted traffic in your area.

Here are some examples from the collection of smaller, local-search directories:

Merchant Circle: A great place to build out your full profile inclusive of maps, special offers, newsletters, blogs, and reviews

Insider Pages: A quickly growing player among local search listings, Insider Pages also allows you to add photos, coupons, and reviews

Yellow Page City: Yellowpages may be the primary go-to when searching for a business, but Yellow Page City also draws in a decent amount of traffic, offering your basic business listing.

Yelp: While several other local search sites offer the option to review a business, Yelp is probably your best bet for actually getting reviews. It is rapidly becoming one of top websites for business reviews.

Do you have any other websites, resources, or tips for improving your local search listings? If so, feel free to share them in a comment!

Design or Marketing - Chicken or Egg?

2009-09-22T09:05:00Z

So, what comes first? Marketing or design? Design or marketing? One often dictates the other, or one holds the other back. "Classic chicken or egg situation."

I was reading a post this morning about the iPod Touch, and this quote struck me:

I’m a firm believer that a good design strategy expresses a product’s marketing concept, or great marketing should be a reflection of a design’s intent. They are quite interrelated, especially if a design or marketing strategy is consumer focused.

So which comes first? I think that's actually the wrong question. The title of this blog post suggests a false choice. Why do we have to choose?

I suppose by now you realize that I believe that marketing and design are more than just interrelated, they are married. Of course, when the rubber hits the road we often see just the opposite of integration. We see designs that don't accurately convey the true essence of the company or product, and/or we see marketing that doesn't tell a story and lives disconnected from the true design. We see a hand-off...one is retro-fitted to accommodate the other. We see a good design handed off to push marketers, or we see marketing copy driving design execution. And we the people are suffering for it. We are forced to wade through disjoined experiences, rather than seamless interactions.

Of course, even if integration does take place it still comes down to execution. Thinking about the above example of the iPod Touch (sorry to use Apple as an example...sort of too easy, isn't it?), which came first? The design? The marketing? Or did they both evolve in a healthy coexistence? I'd like to think the latter. I'd like to think the engineers, the designers, and the marketers were in a room talking about everything from functionality and look and feel, to how to emotionally connect with people and position the product.

I'd like to think that it wasn't on accident or by sheer luck that Apple's iPod Touch page, related emails, and in-store kiosks look, feel, and behave exactly like the actual product. I'd like to think that the seamless experience I get to enjoy is because Apple ignored the chicken or egg pitfall - they understood that both marketing and design are inextricably reliant upon one another. Just like a married couple, they are separate but act as a unit.

Twitter Takes the Wind out of SEOs Sails

2009-09-11T16:54:00Z

SEO 101: Links matter. The more relevant links you have from domains with a high PageRank, the better. Twitter has a high PageRank, you can provide relevant links, so...Twitter is good for SEO. Right?

Wrong.

To those of you who are trying to convince people to use Twitter for the sake of SEO, Twitter does nothing for your link juice -- which, in my opinion, is awesome.

I still think Twitter helps your search presence, but it doesn't help SEO the way you might typically think. Here's why.

Twitter Adds rel="nofollow"

Awhile back, Twitter added the nofollow tag to their "Web" links. Why? Spammers.
Spammers then decided to add links in their "Bio" field. Again, Twitter added the nofollow attributes.
Now, as of this month (maybe sooner, I just noticed it this month), every single external link on Twitter contains the nofollow attribute - that includes the "Web" field, the "Bio" field, any links within your tweets, and even the time stamp and app links.

What is nofollow?

Within a link, you can insert the following script: rel="nofollow" which tells the search engine spiders, "Don't follow that link." In other words, no link juice will get transferred from domain #1 to domain #2.

Why I think this is Awesome

Call me a purist, but I like Twitter without spam. I like it when people tweet things they actually care about, and I like knowing that spammers can't jump on to Twitter and clutter things up with irrelevant and annoying tweets. I also like that it forces companies to actually think about why they're using Twitter. SEO "experts" can no longer encourage companies to use Twitter just because it's good for SEO. This encourages tweets without meaning, very little strategic thought, and haphazard involvement - all of the things that will get you burned on Twitter.

How Twitter Still Helps Search Engine Presence

All that being said, tweets are still indexed, and so is your Twitter page. When someone performs a search, they just might see a tweet containing your brand name alongside their search phrase. If your tweets are keyword rich, people may actually find your tweets before they find your on-site page. Not only that, but it helps with brand recognition. If you search for "Viget" our Twitter handle is usually in the top 5 results.

In summary

Twitter can help your search presence through brand awareness and it possibly some long tail keywords; however, it won't do a thing for your link juice - and that should hopefully scare off most SEO spammers.

Post Purchase Follow-up is Priceless

2009-08-26T16:14:00Z

I was talking to a friend last week who recently purchased a new car. She mentioned that she was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal email from her salesperson; following-up on her purchase and asking her if she was enjoying the car and/or if she had any problems or questions.

This got me thinking about my recent car purchase.

I bought a new Mazda about three months ago and I have yet to receive any sort of post-purchase follow-up from my salesperson or dealership. The only relevant email I received was a request to fill out a survey from corporate Mazda USA:

For my friend, that quick email made her feel more comfortable and warm toward that brand, dealership and specifically that salesperson. Most importantly, she is now serving as an organic word-of-mouth-marketer – telling more people about her new car, dealership, and post-purchase follow-up and recommending that car, dealership, and salesperson to others in the market for a new car. The best thing about the email that my friend received was that it wasn’t all about sales, rather quite the opposite.

Post purchase follow-up gives companies a great opportunity to provide value to customers, garner feedback, and improve post-purchase satisfaction and create an overall positive customer experience. Here is a great example of how one salesperson followed up with a handwritten note (and check out the comments for other good examples).

Of course, a handwritten note or personal email may not be feasible for every company. For example, if your entire purchase process is executed online and you never interact with anyone, it would be quite hard for the company to send out a personalized note. If, however, I’m spending several hours directly with a salesperson (or in my case, 6 hours), I don’t think a short email is too much to ask for. If I had received a quick call email from my salesperson you better believe I would be referring people to that dealership/salesperson and I would be more far more inclined to become a loyal Mazda customer and repeat buyer myself.

From The Onion: Google’s Behavioral Targeting Opt-Out Plan

2009-08-24T14:23:00Z

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village - The Onion

If you're interested in reading something legitimate about Google's Behavioral Targeting, you might enjoy these posts:

PSFK Good Brands Report 2009

2009-08-21T11:55:00Z

PSFK just launched its Good Brands Report 2009. It’s a quick read and worth checking out. While there are a number of common traits shared by the Good Brands who made the report, I found this one particularly fascinating:

Of the top 100 largest advertising spenders in 2008, none of them made it onto this list.

You can read the full back-story and download the report here (it's worth it) as well as enjoy the report below (if you have any issues viewing it, you can check it out directly from SlidShare as well).

Good Brands Report 2009

View more documents from PSFK.

Middle School Marketing: The Convergence of Print and Digital Marketing

2009-08-20T16:13:00Z

Jeff Goldscher is the President of Havit Advertising, and a frequent attendee at Middle School Marketing.

This month, we reached out to the msm crowd with a simple question. What is the future of print in a digital world? Who better to help guide the conversation than a fairly old-school direct marketer (me) and his father, a 30 year veteran of the printing industry. And based on the discussion, I think we were right.

We started with a passionate defense of the printing and print advertising industry. Direct mail still works, people still read print magazines and request brochures, billboards still appear alongside major roads. And new media can learn strategically from what old media does - focusing a message in limited space, engaging audiences with a strong call to action, thinking marketing first and media second. The printing industry faces its challenges, but has already moved into areas like data management and online fulfillment services.

Where the conversation turned was when we started talking about convergence of print and online. How a billboard gets better with a text call to action. Or how on-demand printing gives consumers the opportunity to recieve customized brochures at home. How augmented reality makes static boxes come to life with a webcam and a pc. This is where the future lies - taking a tactile experience and not eliminating things but making them better. (Even this blog post was partially written on paper, finished on an iPhone - there's real-life convergence for you.)

Finally, what's the role of the Agency in all this? It's our job to lead our clients to the best solution possible to reach their marketing objectives. Usually, that involves multiple media formats and a strategy that links them all together. It's part of the role we have always played, and expect to see continue. That's part of what MSM is all about - bringing new and old school marketers together.

Bacardi Mojito Branded Utility Fail

2009-08-19T08:09:00Z

Last week I wrote about my love for the Cheese and Burger Society. This week, I write about my not-love for Bacardi.com.

My brother and I wanted Mojitos (should I be ashamed?). My hermano suggested we go to Bacardi.com, being certain that they would have a good recipe for a Mojito. Three steps later, I decided to never use that web site again.

Step 1: Use the calculator.

I was actually really excited about this. We needed to buy supplies, and this was definitely going to come in handy. First, I told the calculator had 8 people and the party should last 4 hours. I was told I need 2 bottles of BACARDI, 24 limes, 2 cups of sugar, and 11 packs of fresh mint. Seriously?

In an attempt to have the calculator display only one bottle of rum, I incrementally reduced the number of people and the duration of the party until I arrived at 5 guests for 1 hour. Below is what happened:

Really...I don't need any rum? None? It's magical!

Step 2: Print the recipe.

So, I bailed on the calculator, moving on to the recipe section. I found my recipe, clicked the "print" feature, annnnnd....

Step 3: Email the recipe, print it from my email.

Finally, last resort, I chose the "email this to a friend feature." Yup, that broke.

I swear to God, I was not looking for Dragonberry BACARDI.

Step 4: Stop using Bacardi.com.

Branded utilities have so much potential; but if the "utility" part isn't working out, it can actually do more harm for a brand than good. Next time I look for a drink recipe involving rum, I'll be looking somewhere else.

Google’s Sponsored Links Move on Over

2009-08-17T20:29:00Z

Google’s sponsored links have inched their way over to get a little closer to organic search results. This shift happened on August 11th. Now when you run a search you'll see something like this:

One theory for the change is that Google is following Bing’s lead. Running a search on Bing will give you quite similar looking results - sponsored search ads appear fairly close to the organic search results.

Furthermore, according to a study that User Centric performed earlier this summer,

Sponsored links on the right attracted more attention on Bing (~42% of participants per search) than they did on Google (~25% of participants per search).

The big question is will this new ad location drive more attention and more importantly, more qualified clicks to advertisers’ web sites? Only time will tell. I certainly will be monitoring advertising performance to see if ad location does indeed have an impact.

Nissan LEAF - Powered by Twitter?

2009-08-14T19:05:00Z

Nissan recently put their hat in the ring of energy-efficient vehicles with their announcement of the 100% electric, zero-emissions Nissan LEAF. (To be fair, they’ve had an Altima Hybrid since 2007 but the technology is licensed from Toyota). As is the case for many hybrid and electric vehicles, a key part of the message is centered around technology. In fact, it’s the technology that auto manufacturers are hedging their bets on. A quick read of Nissan’s initial press release for the LEAF yields tech phrases from “laminated compact lithium-ion batteries” to “exclusive advanced IT system”. One way to try and communicate that you're on the bleeding edge of technology is by engaging consumers through the latest popular communication channels.

Enter Twitter.

The LEAF micro-site prominently displays a form for visitors to submit questions to a Nissan expert along with an embedded Twitter feed of previously answered questions. The page claims it is “powered by Twitter” (which it is, I suppose) and even includes the Twitter logo. In many ways, this is a fresh approach and valiant attempt at integrating a popular social media tool within a micro-site. In other ways, it falls a bit short.

What I like:

Interactivity - The site solicits questions and, from what I can tell, answers relevant ones in a timely fashion.
Fresh content - As new questions are asked, answered, and approved, content is created and pushed to the site.
Share-ability - The site integrates sharing features of the most popular social media outlets.

What I don’t like:

Lack of True Twitter Integration - While the question and answer functionality might be “powered by Twitter” it doesn’t take advantage of the service’s key benefits (quick content, interactivity, connection, transparency, and rapid response). As such, there is no real benefit to having the site “powered by Twitter”.
Weak Connection - From what I can tell, when a question is answered and approved by Nissan it is posted to the micro-site and as a tweet from @NissanEVs to @EVQuestion. The problem is it doesn’t show up as a question from me (@dougkushin) on Twitter or the micro-site. This is a huge miss! Since Nissan never @replies me I would never know if and when my question has been answered unless I constantly check the micro-site or follow @NissanEVs. Nissan is missing an opportunity to connect with customers directly.
Haphazard Background Design - @NissanEVs background of tiled Nissan logos leaves much to be desired. Nothing custom, nothing creative, nothing but tiled logos. Why not do something creative or useful like @chevyvoltage, @scottmonty, or @ford?

What I would do differently:

Simplify - Create one definitive Twitter account.
Open up - Display the full Twitter feed directly on the micro-site. Include all (relevant) questions submitted as @replies on the micro-site.
Connect - Capture users Twitter handles from the micro-site and @reply them the answers directly.

I applaud Nissan for taking a huge step in creating energy-efficient and environmentally friendlier cars and I welcome their desire to connect with consumers and address their questions openly. Yet, the current implementation has room for improvement. Judging by their responsiveness to date (see below), there's hope.

(Note: To their credit @NissanEVs has already responded to Josh's tweet about some of the confusing ways they are executing the Twitter integration and has made positive tweaks to the micro-site).

Cheese and Burger Branded Utility Microsite

2009-08-12T14:42:00Z

How do you get people talking about cheese? More specifically, how do you get people talking about Wisconsin Cheese? You could post a lame banner about how their Cheddar is better than your Cheddar. You could Tweet about how great Wisconsin Cheddar is. You could ask bloggers to talk about how great Wisconsin Cheddar is.

Or, you could create a branded utility in the form of a microsite that is humorous, useful, interactive, helpful and interesting. And that's exactly what Shine Advertising of Madison, WI did by creating the Cheese and Burger Society.

First, what is branded utility?

An overarching concept focused on providing meaningful marketing that improves people's lives and adds value to the user.

The Cheese and Burger Society microsite does all of the above, and here are some additional reasons why I think this idea nailed it:

It's different: Sure, you could talk about cheese all day long. But why not talk about cheese from the angle of an American classic, The Cheeseburger? By highlighting the cheeseburger, cheese is part of the mix; but doesn't have to be the focal point.
It's engaging: The design, the copy, and the entire vibe make you want to read more.
It's got personality: The copy is cheeky, and the voice overdub of Patrick Warburton (aka Putty, or Joe Swanson) perfectly exemplifies what I would expect a cheeseburger's voice to sound like. And it's seriously funny ("Without Cheddar the world would be a sad, sad place for mouths").
It's useful: Each burger allows you to print the a pager including the burger recipe burger and suggested accompaniments. I learned about cheeses I didn't know existed, and I now have an idea for my next cookout.
It works: The site funtionality does exactly what it's supposed to (the form could use some help).
It's got brand focus: There is a sweepstakes involved, but the sweepstakes doesn't overtake the site. It's a secondary call to action, and if you do choose the sweepstakes from the splash page, you are quickly forwarded through all the burgers. By forwarding you through the entire collection, it suggests that the giveaway isn't as important as the content. It's a cohesive manifestation of brand self-awareness - it knows what makes it work and it sticks to it.
It's got legs: People love cheeseburgers - just ask the 30,000 Facebook fans. You can upload photos, share recipes, and just talk about cheeseburgers because, damnit, you want to talk about cheeseburgers!
It's attractive: The food photography is gorgeous, and I love the site design.

Go check it out! Have a chuckle, get some recipes, and become the newest member of the Cheese and Burger Society.

6 (stunning…) Posts on Not Letting Strategy Fall Victim to Tactics

2009-08-10T18:46:00Z

This weekend Matt Dickman, Paul Isakson, and Seth Godin wrote three excellent posts along the same vein that are worth checking out. We wrote a few similar posts recently, so I thought I'd aggregate them for your reading pleasure. Here's the theme:

Strategies should never be limited by the toolset. Yes, toolsets can inspire good ideas but, once again, we should start strategic planning by asking questions like,

“What will truly involve the user? How do we connect them with our brand? How do we connect with them? How do we improve their lives? How do we surprise them? How can we help them overcome their problem? How do we achieve our/their goals?”

The problem occurs when we start with tactics - when we start by asking questions such as, "How should we use Twitter?" As Godin puts it,

In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a strategy... and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the strategy that they never really embraced in the first place.

Enjoy the posts:

Do you have any more to add to the list? Slideshares? I'd love to read more.

Establish Your Brand’s Message Before Jumping into Social Media

2009-07-31T13:51:00Z

Our MSM meeting last week about the importance of creating a clear marketing message as a marketing agency got me thinking about how this same concept can be applied to several companies/brands. I’ve come to notice this common pattern:

Company/Brand A gets swept into the online world
Company/Brand A immediately invests loads of money in time into a new “web 2.0/viral/social media” initiative
Company/Brand A fails to determine its objective and goals, develop a strategy for implementation, or create a clear and unified message
Company/Brand A does not see the results they had expected
Company/Brand A panics

All too often I’ve found myself reading about or looking at a failed Facebook campaign, Twitter strategy going haywire, or a social microsite falling short. The reason behind several of these misses was the fact that the company or brand failed to define their core values, identify goals, or establish a consistent message.

As I read Paul’s recap of our MSM meeting and the struggles agencies face, I saw clear parallels between the solutions offered up at MSM for agencies like us and solutions for the company/brand side, which I’ve outlined below.

Agency: Be a specialist. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Company/Brand: Differentiate. Find your main specialty or differentiator and stick with it. Are you known for your customer service? Your sleek design? Your safety features? Focus on what you’re good at and don’t try to be something you are not. (For a more in-depth read on how you to effectively differentiate, check out Josh’s post).

Agency: Focus on your core clients and serve them well.

Company/Brand: Focus on your core messaging. Establish what you want your message to be, and clearly convey it. Start internally, so that every employee understands and can communicate the message. Once you’ve established your message internally you can then effectively and efficiently communicate it externally, to the rest of the world. Large brands have messages across several channels – promotions, investor relations, press releases, advertisements. Having a consistent message across all these channels will strengthen your brand and increase awareness and recall.

Agency: Get your foot in the door. If you do great work you can land a related job with a bigger company.

Company/Brand: Start small and then grow. Don’t get caught up in the social media wave and push out a huge social media strategy as fast as possible, simply because everyone else is doing it. Take time to plan out define your goals and plan out a strong strategy. Test out the waters on a smaller scale, and then expand. Social media requires constant attention and engagement; it is important you have the time and resources necessary to succeed before jumping in.

If you want to read about more ineffective (and effective) brand strategies check out this article. If you have any more tips, leave them in a comment here!

Rumored Microsoft-Yahoo! Deal Is Smart for Both Companies, and Helps Out Advertisers

2009-07-28T12:52:00Z

Yahoo! has apparently taken to heart the phrase, “If you can’t beat them, join them”. Yesterday AdAge reported that the company will likely strike a deal with Microsoft to replace its own search engine with Bing’s.

The deal, expected to be announced this week, is a great strategic move by both Yahoo! and Bing. Although the deal forces search marketers to adapt their tactics, it also gives them some new opportunities to expand and (hopefully) streamline their processes.

Although I ripped Bing in a prior blog post, they deserve props for this business decision. Aside from beefing up the number of Bing users (to 30% of the search market, according to AdAge), the Yahoo!/Microsoft deal creates synergies, making 2+2=5. How many companies, especially small businesses, would have paid for coverage on both sites, but chose only one because the time constraints of building and optimizing two separate campaigns weren’t worth the incremental traffic? The deal removes this barrier.

Yahoo! now has a way to maintain its brand despite its dying search engine. Bing has hurt Yahoo! a lot more than it has Google, and with the massive investment Microsoft plans to dump into Bing, Yahoo! would certainly have had to match the investment to compete. Instead, Yahoo! can utilize Bing’s more powerful search engine to drive visitors to entertainment, news, and sports sections of the site (a recent focus), while still earning revenue from search ads.

Source: Compete

The change will undoubtedly require adaptation from search engine marketers, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing, necessarily.

Here’s what I’m most excited about: the potential to optimize small campaigns better. When clients have small budgets and extremely-targeted campaigns, it can be hard to tell which keywords are working and which are not, since the number of impressions and clicks for each keyword can be relatively small. If this information is consolidated into one advertising platform, rather than spread out between Panama and adCenter, search marketers will have more campaign numbers, leading to clearer decisions.

Plus, a new report shows that click-through-rates on Bing are 50% higher than Google and 20% higher than Yahoo!— might we see an increase in traffic from Yahoo! in the future? And who can complain about anything that pressures Google to become better?

It might require some extra short-term work for marketers, but in the end, I’m all for anything that helps out the little advertiser, makes decision making easier, and pressures the rest of the industry to step up its game.

Differentiate

2009-07-27T15:22:00Z

Not everyone's product, service, or company is as groundbreaking and sexy as the iPhone. What do you do when your product or service is boring?

Differentiate.

Godin defines it as a Purple Cow, Neumeier couples it with four other requirements for an awesome brand, and Trout says "Differentiate or Die." They all agree that in order to have a brand that people connect with, you have to find something to differentiate yourself.

Example

Wufoo has gotten plenty of press (Samantha wrote about it here) for being fun, innovative, full of energy, and joyful. It builds forms. That's it. Forms. When is the last time you used any of those words to describe forms? They have found a way to differentiate themselves. And they didn't just do it through a facelift design, or some clever messaging. They did it with everything. The functionality, the design, and the messaging are highly complementary. They are all...different.

In my mind, what differentiates Wufoo?

Messaging like the reports section telling you, "Oh no, buddy! There are no reports! Let's go make one!"
Little poems and famous quotes splashed throughout the site
A playful and inviting visual design
The default avatars crack me up
The UI provides encouragement both through slick functionality and clever notifications

Honestly, it's fun, fast, easy to use - just like their tagline.

A Few Guidelines

Of course, differentiation for the sake of differentiation can actually be a bad thing. What if American Apparel (who has done a great job of differentiation through quality products, great customer service, and excellent brand and product focus) decided to make all their t-shirts backwards - tag on the front with a high neckline? That, would suck.

Here are a few guidelines for differentiation (somewhat specific to the web):

Be useful - backwards t-shirts are not useful
Be holistic - marketing, design, messaging, and functionality should all complement one another. Marketing bleeds into design, design bleeds into messaging, messaging bleeds into functionality. Either everything compliments one-another, or everything is disconnected
Be true to yourself - if you're not funny, don't pretend you are. If you are funny, be hilarious
Be open to change - yes, you have to be true to yourself; but, if you're not fun and you're trying to reach kids - you might need to make a change
Be fearless - don't let timidity kill creativity
Be honest - what really does make you great? Zappos sells shoes. So what? So does Payless. Zappos exploits their amazing customer service. They're honest with what they're good at

The Takeaway

If you're in agency land, push your team to help your clients be truly unique. Find a useful way to differentiate your client or you client’s product and you'll be a hero. (Almost) every company has something unique no matter how "boring" their product or service is. Find it. Exploit it.

If you're not in agency land, find an agency or find a few of your own employees who will help you identify or create something unique. Figure out what makes you different, and then exploit it. And lastly, learn to appreciate being pushed out of your comfort zone.