Online Marketing Strategies

Yellow Pages Suck

2007-11-26T07:42:00.000-05:00

For years they were considered the �??lifeline�?? for businesses to reach potential customers. 10 to 15 years ago I would have considered that a true statement. (It could be because that was the last time I knew where my phone book was!) Today, it is just simply not inaccurate, and I would challenge anyone who thought otherwise.

Why? Every year the Yellow Pages rate card goes up 3-7%, yet less and less people actually USE them. The decline in use closely mirrors the adoption of broadband internet service. With that, a large portion of young adults and business buyers NEVER consult the Yellow Pages at all �?? and they are controlling an ever-expanding portion of the dollars spent! Now, if your target market is one of the two population groups that is not adopting broadband internet services (the lower social-economic segment and the over 50 segment) you should be just fine.

Need more specifics?

Ad Placement

Wouldn�??t it be nice if every company�??s name started with �??A�?? so they could ALL be at the front of the directory? Let�??s take a look at a pretty popular Yellow Page category: Heating and Cooling!

After eight full page ads and just as many half page ads that are horribly designed, yet begging for attention, you finally get to the phone number listings themselves. There you will find 70 (seventy �?? not a typo) companies that start with the letter �??A.�?? A-Fast Heating, A Perfect Climate, A-Plus Heating, AAA Heating, Aaron�??s Heating�?� you get the point. How in the world are you supposed to stand out? I guess you buy a bigger ad.

Multiple Category Listings

Let�??s assume you were a general contractor. Right out of the gate we can put you in that category for a nominal fee. What happens if people aren�??t looking for a �??general contractor,�?? but rather a painter. You provide painting services yet you will not be seen when that person is looking �?? unless of course you buy that category too. The next potential customer wants someone to do a little bit of drywall installation �?? you do that as well, but again you are only listed under general contractor. I guess you�??ll be buying another category?

Now, your budget is not very big to begin with, so what happens when you spread that budget over the 14 categories that a potential customer MIGHT look for you under? Your listing is diminished to next to nothing, and you might as well not be in there at all.

Ad Modification and Spending

I recently spent an afternoon with a local business who spends $13,000/month on Yellow Page advertising. After I picked my jaw up off the floor and realized that equated to over $150,000/year I started to chuckle and asked if he would like to keep more of that in his pocket.

He told me two things that really stuck out during the conversation.

His business is dead November 15 �?? March 15. It is season and no one is in need of his service during those months. Regardless, Yellow Pages will still bill him $52,000 during that time where his phone will not ring one single time. If you knew this about your business �?? wouldn�??t it be nice to turn OFF your advertising during this time?
He recently added a new service to his business and was waiting until the new Yellow Pages came out so he could start advertising! Who said print isn�??t dead? It seems like the moment a piece of paper rolls off the printer, it is already out of date. Why in the world does this business have to wait until the next printing of the Yellow Pages to START advertising his new service? What if the new service is a bust? He can�??t do any testing of less than a year with this advertising method.

Shouldn�??t YOU be in control of when your ads are modified and how much you are spending? Wouldn�??t it be nice to do so on a monthly basis �?? or even a daily basis?

Measurable Results

�??50% of our marketing dollars are wasted every year, the problem is we don�??t know which half!�?? Sound familiar? What about �?? �??80% of my business comes from the Yellow Pages.�?? Heard that one too?

The fact of the matter is �?? if you are not measuring your marketing, you are wasting money. Unless you have a special 800 number for every category in the yellow pages you will have NO idea of what is working and what it not �?? and at this point we are ONLY talking about leads. What happens after the call? Did they close? If not �?? why? When will you follow back up with them? What if 2 weeks go by �?? do you remember where they came from or do you just chalk it up as �??another Yellow Page lead?�??

Still not convinced?

You are reading this online �?? if I were wrong, you�??d be reading this in your Yellow Pages!

Wondering where I got a copy of the Yellow Pages? After visiting with my grandpa this Thanksgiving I asked to borrow his copy for this blog entry. I know he�??ll need it back.

Post Office For Sale

2007-09-20T00:57:00.000-05:00

Type �??Email Marketing�?? into your favorite search engine and tell me what comes up. Chances are [okay fine, I�??ve already done this and know for a fact] you will be bombarded with a million Email Service Providers (ESPs). Constant Contact spends a ton in online advertising so I�??m pretty sure they came up number one for you. Who else did you see? Jango Mail, MyEmma, SilverPop, ExactTarget, CampaignerPro, Vertical Response�?� shall I continue?

Are these really �??Email Marketing�?? companies? The answer is �?? No. When is the last time you bought a post office? Jim, that is a ridiculous question? Is it? Think about it for a second. Let�??s say you are going to deploy a direct mail campaign. What are your steps? You have to define your audience, write your copy, design your piece, stuff it in an envelope, slap a stamp on it, and drop it in the mail. Did I mention buying a post office? Of course not. The post office can help you by providing the stamps and envelopes, but the rest is up to you.

To me, ESPs are nothing more than post offices. They provide stamps (costs of each email sent) and envelopes (delivery mechanism for your message). You still have to�?� define your audience, write your copy, and design your piece. Don�??t be fooled by their templates, because like most things that are free �?? they stink. Why does this matter? For the most part all of the ESPs are the same. Some have more bells and whistles than the others, but none are responsible for your success.

Spend your money where it can have he most impact �?? in the strategy and creative development. It�??s not the envelope that sells, it�??s what is IN that envelope and the REASON for why you sent it. Once you completely grasp that concept you will truly be doing �??Email Marketing.�??

Who Killed the Internet?

2007-08-26T15:31:00.000-05:00

�??It has stopped evolving. Your Internet experience today is not much different than it was 5 years ago,�?? said Billionaire Mark Cuban, author of BlogMaverick.

Stopped Evolving???

Mark, four years ago when I started reading your blog, I had to check your website once a week to see if you had updated it. Today, I open up my RSS reader, and all the information I choose to receive is sitting there waiting for me. That alone is a pretty big change in my Internet experience. For a guy who made his money selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo �?? I�??d have thought you�??d put a little more brain power into your blogging.

The Internet is not dead, and by no means is it boring. The Internet as a platform is replacing the need for traditional mediums such as TV, Radio, Newspapers, and even Billboards. For a platform that has only been commercially available for 13 years, I�??d say that is an astounding accomplishment. The Internet allows for the constant evolution of engagement and interactivity.

When is the last time you actually engaged with your TV? Research companies would love for you to believe that the average American spends roughly 26 hours per week in front of the tube. Get real! The TV is a passive medium. Like the radio of old, it is more than less background noise while you eat dinner, talk on the phone, play with your kids, etc.

The internet is changing the way we live. Artificial intelligence, in the realm of personal preferences allows us to see what we want, when we want it, and most importantly �?? HOW we want it. The Internet is beginning to understand and remember what we do. Some may think this is �??Big Brother-esque,�?? but ultimately it is simplifying our lives.

As cities start becoming blanketed with free or public wi-fi, our �??always on�?? culture will become more and more dependent upon the Internet and its ever expanding advancements.

Mark, you recently posted an entry about how you had forgotten how to write. Could it be that you have forgotten how to use the Internet?

Chief Digital Officer�??s �?? A Whole New World

2007-07-19T07:20:00.000-05:00

The increasing adoption of a new title, Chief Digital Officer, has signaled the dawn of a new day for marketing. No longer will the web be seen as �??just another marketing channel.�?? Companies will now be able to harness the full ability of interactive marketing.

It wasn�??t long ago (okay, so it still happens today), when having a website and sending out a templated mass email was the extent of a company�??s online campaign. A former colleague of mine coined the phrase, �??make me a website clown!�?? (Thanks Todd) The fact is, having a website is not just a check in the box for a marketing plan. A website is more than an online brochure. A website has the opportunity to be a living, breathing, element, which can engage a user, and allow them to interact with us the way they choose. Say good-bye to one way communication.

As companies increase their knowledge of the web, they will expect more out of the money they are spending. They will expect strategic planning, effective execution, and most importantly �?? measurable results! Donald Trump once said, �??Hope is not a strategy.�?? He couldn�??t have been more right. It�??s great to have a beautifully designed, rich media website, but what happens when visitors arrive and don�??t do what you expect them to do? Or worse yet, what happens if no one ever finds your website?

Gone are the days of the tech-savvy IT guy in the corner of the office directing the vision and functionality of a website. It requires a broader understanding of all aspects of a company from sales and marketing, to operations and includes IT. It�??s time to challenge the old habits of a company and bring together the entities that formerly worked in silos.

Are You Local?

2007-07-09T00:49:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of chatter lately about 'local search' in pay per click advertising and search engine optimization. It seems some people are confused about the differences between geographical local targeting and keyword local targeting.

For educational purposes, lets create a company that we will be attempting to market online. Let's say we have a landscaping company in Wichita, Kansas, called Premier Lawns. Now, how would we start an online marketing campaign for Premier Lawns? Unless they were a franchise with several locations spread out over many cities, chances are they can only provide their service within a 100 mile radius. That being said, it doesn't make any sense for them to advertise to anyone outside of that area, or does it?

This is where we begin Geographical Local Targeting. Parameters can be set to tell Google (or your preferred search engine) to only display paid ads within a geographical vicinity of Wichita, Kansas. So, if we were bidding for such phrases as 'Lawn Care,' 'Landscaping,' 'Lawn Maintenance,' etc, only searches that were physically located within a 100 mile radius of Wichita would see, and thus, be able to click on our ads.

That concept is pretty handy for paid search advertising with such broad phrases, but what about optimizing their site to be listed organically? If you type in a vast phrase like landscaping (go ahead... try) you will find many articles from about.com,hdtv.com, wikipedia .com, etc, etc etc. This presents the need for Keyword Local Targeting. We have already determined that the people who can actually use the services of Premier Lawns are going to be located near Wichita, so why not put the city in the search queries? 'Wichita Lawn Care,' 'Wichita Landscaping,' 'Wichita Lawn Maintenance,' ... you get the point. This brings local relevance to the broad search phrases making the results more desirable.

How else does this concept fit? Let's assume you live in Austin, Texas, no where close to Wichita. However, who is to say you might not own a second home there or maybe a rental property? You might find yourself needing lawn care while you are away from the home. In that instance, Premier Lawns could be of valuable service to you. If they limited their online campaign to only geographical local targeting, there would be only a slim chance of you ever knowing about them. But, by adding in the city name to the search query, Premier Lawns makes themselves accessible to potential customers outside of their geographical limits.

Will this be Carry-out or Delivery?

2007-07-02T01:55:00.000-05:00

Pizza delivery is a multi-million dollar industry. So, why is it that they are so bad at sending relevant offers and promotions to their customers? They are notorious for sending coupons and product promotions through snail mail as well as Sunday newspaper advertisements.

Let's take a look at a few of these blunders:

The Mailbox - Once a safe haven for personal correspondences the traditional mailbox has become overrun with untargeted and unsolicited junk from 'direct-mail' marketing companies. Nearly all junk mail falls into two categories, either unread and trashed, or stacked in a pile and forgotten about.
The Newspaper - The percentage of a pizza companies target audience that subscribes to, purchases, and/or reads a traditional print newspaper is approaching zero.
Competition - Let's assume for a second that the previous two challenges were not true. As one goes to their mailbox or opens up the Sunday newspaper, the amount of competition for ad space of pizza purchases is amazing.

What can be done?

Targeting - Most people have a 'usual.' Pizza companies should take the buying patterns and tendencies of their customers into consideration when sending promotions. (i.e. Customer A in Indianapolis, Indiana buys three medium one topping pizzas almost every Sunday at 12:30pm - Consider sending an email Saturday night or early Sunday morning with a savings promotion for that customer or even offer them an alternative to their 'usual.'
Acquiring - Other than the customers who never go outside of their 'usual,' the internet can be a great way to acquire new customers. Chances are, when a customer wants pizza they have already thrown away the junk mail where a pizza company sent their last ad. Therefore, make those same ads available online through PPC ads, paying online for the customers who WANT to see your promotion.
Make it Convenient - If a customer is sent an email promotion, or clicks on a PPC ad, and WANTS to buy, they should not have to change their mode of operation. Don't make them pick up the phone, allow them to interact in the same means they found you.

There is a huge opportunity for local pizza companies to compete with the big chains online. It is not a matter of if �?? but when?

Find. Get. Keep. (Part 3 of 3)

2007-06-14T11:05:00.000-05:00

KEEPing Customers Loyal to your Business

You�??ve found your prospects. You�??ve gotten them to become customers. Now what? Remember the old adage about the 80/20 rule? It says that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers. There is also a saying about how it is cheaper to keep your existing customers then to find new ones.

If all of that is true �?? wouldn�??t it make sense to have a strategy to stay in contact with these people? I�??m positive that anyone reading this probably reads other blogs, they probably subscribe to several email newsletters, and I�??m pretty sure they are probably members of social network sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.

As consumers (or better yet �?? someone else�??s prospects) we must remember that we WANT information, we WANT to be communicated with about topics that interest us, and we WANT to better understand. So, as a consumer if you know this is true, why then when you switch hats to play the role of business owner, or marketing manager do you NOT think YOUR customers want to hear from you?

Find. Get. Keep. (Part 2 of 3)

2007-06-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

GETting Prospects to become Customers

In Part 1 of this series I mentioned a phrase, �??It�??s not about you.�?? Guess what �?? that still hold true in the �??Get�?? portion of the cycle as well. You could have the best looking site in the world (in your opinion), but if it does not DO what you want it to do (in most cases convert prospects into customers) is it really that good?

When a prospect comes to your website there used to be an old statistic that said you had seven seconds to capture their attention in order for them to stay on your site. Today �?? you�??re LUCKY if you get seven seconds. Prospects want information. However, they want it in ways that make sense to them. You might be thinking to yourself �?? �??fine, we�??ll figure out how they want it, and give to them that way.�?? That would be great if there were only one type of prospect. Unfortunately, you will have some that want to watch a video, some that will want to see an animated demonstration, others will want to read about your service.

Kind of makes things a little more complicated doesn�??t it? Your website must be engaging. It should be clear and focused and provide as much information as a prospect would desire in a means that makes the most sense�?� to THEM.

Find. Get. Keep. (Part 1 of 3)

2007-06-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

FINDing Prospects Online

So you have webpage. For some reason you go to Google (or Yahoo)�?� type in your company name and�?� BAM you don�??t come up anywhere. Why is that? Why would you not be able to type your own name into a search engine and find your site? In August of 2005 there were 19.2 Billion (with a B) web pages indexed by Yahoo. Is there any surprise that it is more challenging than ever to be indexed by the search engines under relevant keywords?

Prospects ARE out there looking for your services, but if they can�??t find them, that website you just paid $25K for is going to be pretty useless. In order to find your prospects online, you have to know (or at least try to figure out) what they are searching for. Let�??s pretend you are a Professional Business Advice Consultant for example. How many people would type that phrase exactly into a search engine?

If you guessed zero �?? you win. Some may give up right there claiming �??but that IS what I AM!�?? Have you ever heard the phrase, �??It�??s not about you?�?? It couldn�??t be more true in this example. It is clearly NOT about you! There is a HUGE market for �??Professional Business Advice Consultants,�?? but your prospects are searching for business coaching, business advice, small business consulting, starting a business, etc.

The key to being found online is to be relevant to what your prospects are searching for and then implementing a strategy to cut through the clutter known as �??competition�?? and get them to YOUR site.

Introducing Web 2.5

2007-05-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

Wait�?� Web 2.5?? What happened to Web 2.0.

It�??s a buzzword that by now we are all familiar with, and most �?? are tired of hearing. But what exactly is 'Web 2.0.' Is it really the stage of the Internet revolution we are currently experiencing?

To answer that question, let�??s actually take a step back and figure out what Web 1.0 was. Web 1.0 viewed the Internet merely as a proprietary means for delivering content. During this time Netscape actually coined the term �??WebTop�?? in hopes of replacing the �??DeskTop�?? that Microsoft was the King of. The problem was, a browser was not going to eliminate the need for a desktop. What it ended up being was a server to control the data. With that theory company websites were simply online brochures. For the most part, you couldn�??t interact with the content or really even DO anything with it. The companies controlled the dialogue. Their marketing message is all you got. What if you wanted more information? What if you had suggestions for use, or even feedback on how a product could be made better? Your best bet at that time would have been to contact the �??Webmaster.�?? Everything worked in silos �?? rarely, if ever, interacting with other websites or applications.

Okay - Web 1.0... silos, pushing information, owner controlled data... then what exactly is Web 2.0?

Originally coined by O'Reilly - Web 2.0 is viewing the internet as a platform, where YOU control the data! The best example of how Web 2.0 works is Google. Now, the fact that they are a mutli-billion (billion with a B) dollar company, it's easy for them to be the leader. However, the examples that I will explain is what I'm trying to focus on. Google's original business model was simply Internet searching, a model that has not changed significantly since the 1970's. The basis of an Internet search is composed of three elements: the crawl, the index, and the query processor. So, how then did Google explode the way it did, and why is it a good example of Web 2.0? (The Search by John Battelle)

Google is not a stand-alone operation. As you surf the net, try your hardest to avoid Google... and I don't mean Google.com. Try to avoid using one of its API's (Application Programming Interface) that another web developer has implemented into its site. Try to avoid Google AdSense - a network of hundreds of thousands of website all displaying Google search or ad content. Okay, so you see how everyone else is using Google, so does that make it a Web 2.0 example? Not completely. With that example alone it may just sound like a good software program that people have found to make them more successful online. The Internet is a two way street. All those examples showed how you can use Google on other websites, but what else can you do with Google? Google not only pushes its content out to other websites - it pulls content from other websites to be displayed on a personalized homepage. In simple forms its an RSS reader, where you can pull sports scores from ESPN, or headlines from CNN, or new posts of your favorite blog, but if you're not aware Google basically has its own version of Microsoft Office. The difference being - it is completely online. Google Docs (Microsoft Word), Google Spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), GMail (Outlook)... and where do you save all of these files?? Answer - Online. Google epitomizes using the WEB as a PLATFORM. Going back to what Netscape TRIED to do in the 90's... Google is replacing the need for a 'DeskTop.'

Okay - Okay... at this point you may think I'm working for Google, and am just an advocate of their products. Unfortunately that is not the case. :-)

Web 2.0 is about Harnessing Collective Intelligence.

When was the last time you shopped on Amazon.com? You probably realized that it is a lot more than just books these days. However, I will use its origins for this example. Could you not go to BarnesandNoble.com and do the same search for a book that you could at Amazon? And, could you not get the same results, and pay nearly the same price? Of course you could. But what makes Amazon.com so powerful? YOU DO! User participation in rating the books, customer data in search vs purchases, all of this enables Amazon to lead with the most popular selection based on what people like YOU have said and or done.

With the Amazon example you start to see how YOU are a big part of Web 2.0. One of the most unusual applications of Web 2.0 (at least for me) is Wikipedia. The reason is because again... YOU control the information. Wikipedia is a online encyclopedia that is comprised of data and information supplied by its users. It can be edited by anyone. The thought behind it is with enough eyeballs on it - the bugs will work themselves out. I guess this means there will be no more door to door Encyclopedia Britannica salesmen! :-)

In summary Web 2.0 is all about you. Your thoughts, your information, your knowledge, your habits, etc.

Now wait a second... isn't the title of this piece 'Introducing Web 2.5??' It sure is!!

Web 2.5 is all about what we do next. We now have all of this user data... now what do we do with it? Web 2.5 is about the MEASUREMENT and relevance to business objectives. How can we take all of this user content (Videos, Blogs, iTunes Syndications, etc) and bring them together via XML or other web services that can easily be consumed on a computer OR more importantly ANY portable device? How do we learn from the lessons of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 to better engage audiences with interactive experiences? How can businesses leverage 'Web 2.0' and provide CLARITY on not only what all of this information means, but how it is all related (Key Performance Indicators and the RIGHT metrics)?

The new model for Web 2.5: FIND. GET. KEEP... all backed by: MEASUREMENT!