Facebook Ads: Do they even work?

A recent infographic from WordStream asks the not so age old question: Facebook vs. Google, which is more valuable?  The findings of this infographic include:

• Facebook: 51% reach of all Internet users
• Google: 90% reach of all Internet users
• Facebook Q1 2012 Revenues: $1.06 Billion
• Google Display network Q1 2012 Revenues: $2.9 Billion

Featured Team Story

Jolina Pettice - 5 Conversion Marketing Tips – As Easy as Candy from a Baby?

I know from experience, wielding candy away from a baby (or in my case a toddler) isn’t actually that easy.  It takes purpose, planning and creativity. Easy or Not, here are 5 must-read tips for conversion marketing to make sure you outpace your competition and reap the sweet rewards.  Via Search Engine Land.

This Week In Online Marketing News

Facebook Goes Down For Over An Hour
According to Zuckerburg, Facebook never crashes.  Well, apparently that is no longer true.  For over an hour on Thursday evening Facebook went dark.  Users have taken this opportunity to poke jabs at Facebook making statements such as “Facebook is down…just like its stock price.”  Via TechCrunch.

3 Ways to Keep Customers From Straying
According to this article there are three basic ways to turn your customers, into customers for life.  These techniques aim to demonstrate your ongoing appreciation and commitment to these customers that in turn makes them loyal to your company and generates long-term sales.   Via Inc.

Facebook Adds Scheduling Functionality
Facebook has finally added a scheduling feature for posts which was previously only available from 3rd party applications like Buffer and Hootsuite.  According to this update messages can now be scheduled up to 6 months in advance in 15 minute intervalls.  Via AllFacebook.

It’s Time for IT to Take A Social Stand
Organizations have historically relied on their IT or technology officers to offer guidance and education on the newest technology trends.   However, the quickly evolving social media trends have been led with few exceptions by the Marketing team.  This article provides some great insight into shifting roles within organizations, as well as the overlap of IT and Marketing.  Via InformationWeek.

Salesforce Opens Their Pockets For A Buddy
According to recent reports Salesforce.com is working on a deal to acquire Buddy Media, a five-year-old organization that helps brands manage their Facebook presence.  According to sources Buddy is valued at more than $800 million, but they are unaware of what the actual purchase amount will be.  Via AllThings.

Mobile Payments to Surpass $171.5 Billion This Year
Does this headline have you seriously considering amping up your mobile optimization budget?  Maybe it should!  According to Gartner’s Forcast on mobile payment the average annual growth is expected to be an average of a 42% increase through the year 2016.  Via BtoB.

News From the Top(Rank) Team

Brian Larson – Recovery on the Horizon From Some That Were Punished By Penguin
On May 25th Matt Cutts of Google announced that Penguin 1.1 had officially been released.  According to Cutts this new release should impact less than 0.1% of English searches.  As this release was merely a refresh and not an actual change to Google’s algorithm not everyone will be fortunate enough to recover quickly.  Via Search Engine Watch.

Sara Duane-Gladden – Facebook Ads: In GM’s Case, Brand Expectations Were Overzealous As an update to the featured news from last week, “Is Facebook Advertising the Problem?  Or Are Brands Expectations the Culprit?”, it has become clear that GM’s expectations were at issue.  GM wasn’t happy with featured stories or sidebar ads, it wanted to take over your Facebook page. And thankfully, this time Facebook wasn’t selling: It understands its platform and user-base, even if certain overindulged marketing departments (used to getting their way) do not.  Via Adage.

Kodi Osmond – Will Google+ Local Encourage Users?
Earlier this week we posted a news item on the release of Google+ Local.  As of Wednesday the service went live.  Do you think this integration will help drive more usage of Google+?  Read on to find out more.  Via AdWeek.

Shawna Kenyon – Eyes on Pinterest: How People Look at Your Boards A study conducted by EyeTrackShop used the webcams of 600 participants to track their eye movement as it related to Pinterest and the other popular social sites.  What they discovered was that users on Pinterest had a tendency to look from top to bottom and focus less on user/profile info as where eye movement on a site like Facebook was tracked moving from left to right and then down.   Via Mashable.

Time to Weigh In: When it comes to the battle of social ads vs. Google ads which is your preference?  Are they stand alone or should they be used simultaneously?  Converting customers can be difficult, what have you found works for your organization?  Are you still reeling from the Google Penguin release, or have you been virtually unaffected?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Online Marketing News: Facebook vs. Google Ads, 5 Conversion Tips, Google+ Local Launch, Google Penguin Refresh | http://www.toprankblog.com

But Twitter is just one social platform of many. Tweets are just individual messages out of many. When it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of your social media participation, are you evaluating individual tweets, status updates, and comments or the overall experience others have by consuming your content?

Twitter has been amazingly valuable to me personally, to my online marketing agency and for my book, “Optimize.” But if I evaluated each tweet, the obvious assessment would be that my Twitter participation is more often a failure because the vast majority of the individual messages I post do not result in public content interactions from others. But does that mean my Twitter involvement or Twitter itself is a failure?

Have you ever posted a message that received little if any response, only to have someone mention to you in person or on another social channel their reaction? Did you think to yourself, “I didn’t think anyone noticed” because your network didn’t respond publicly?

While there’s a lot of media attention about social media, there’s also a lot of skepticism because people often evaluate based on the presence or lack of immediate public reaction. You might hear things like, “I tweeted and nothing happened” or “No one in our boring industry is on Facebook/Instagram/(fill in social network here).”

The point of social media engagement isn’t about participation and that’s the big disconnect for a lot of people. Engagement and participation are a means to a bigger picture end.

The mistake I see a lot of people making in regards to social media participation and with content marketing too, is that they evaluate individual messages, content, or social objects vs. seeing the effect those social and content objects have as a whole.

To evaluate personal or even professional social media effectiveness, consider the collective impact of your participation, not just individual actions. Part of the value social networking brings is that people come to know you. They see some of your personality but also your professional interests and expertise.

The outcome of that kind of connection can translate into trust and confidence in your expertise, even though you’ve never met in person or done business together.

In my many years as an online marketing consultant, I can’t even count how many times prospective clients have approached me saying, “We follow you on Twitter, read your blog, and have a project we’d like to hire you to help us with.” What’s not to love about that sales cycle? What’s the cost of a sale when a new business educates itself to a sale and seeks you out?”

To make a little more sense of how to better understand the value of individual social media participation, here are a few essential questions to answer:

Who are you? What do you want to be known for? What do you stand for? What’s unique about you?

What makes you special? How are you incorporating your professional “unique selling proposition” into your social content, sharing, and engagement?

Have you looked in the social mirror? Have you looked at the past 20 tweets that you’ve published? Do the same on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, or other social networks you’re involved with. When looking at 10 or 20 social content objects together, you can see what kinds of messages you’re sending and determine if those threads support your social objectives or not.

Are you reactive or proactive? Are you thinking about the impact of your social content on others or is it mostly a form of self-expression in the moment? If you have professional objectives from your social participation, think about that each time you tweet, update, or comment.

What’s it like to experience you on the social web? Rather than viewing each tweet, update, comment, or blog post as a standalone engagement effort, think about how others will view the cumulative of your social engagement. What memes can be found within your own social content streams? Do they support what you stand for? Do they reinforce what you want to be known for?

Sure, social networking can be fun and the satisfaction that comes from seeing a tweet get retweeted by hundreds of people or a Facebook status update get hundreds of “likes” and numerous shares is motivating. But think about the overall experience of others that follow you, not just each individual piece of micro-content.

Some connections may never interact with you until they’ve seen the 10th super interesting thing you’ve posted. It would be a shame to stop or assume a lack of success prematurely just because you’re focused on social sharing counters instead of the larger impact your social content and participation has on those who are connected to you.

Does this mean you shouldn’t monitor the impact of individual social and content objects? Of course not. Just don’t think you’re a failure or that the social platform isn’t for you just because of what’s not directly observable. Consider both the public and latent impact of your social engagement and you’ll realize the crack-like spikes of retweets don’t compare to the overall winning of hearts and minds within your community where it matters most.

A version of this post originally appeared on ClickZ, Social Media Smarts.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | 5 Tips For More Impact From Social Media Participation | http://www.toprankblog.com

With the sun starting to warm-up Lake Minnetonka where the TopRank Online Marketing HQ is located, it got me thinking about how the disciplines of customer optimization and fishing are similar. You may laugh at that idea, but given my tendency to leave each fishing trip with 5-7 less lures, an impressive sunburn and zero fish, I have spent a lot time reflecting on how to elevate my fishing ‘game’.

So if you’re a marketer who is trying to better connect with your audience, or an outdoors enthusiast trying to better connect your fishing net to a Northern, here are 3 Ways Customer Optimization is a lot Like Fishing.

1) Know Your Fish

Outside our offices at TopRank is the 14,000 acre+ Lake Minnetonka. Try casting a line in a random location in a lake this size with no idea of what what type of fish you’re trying to catch. Trust me, you’ll come home empty handed. Through research, good anglers know the different fish that inhabit a lake. They also know traits about the fish that will influence when, where and how they fish.

The same lesson can easily be applied to online marketing. Without a solid understanding of the different groups that buy or use your services, your content is doomed to fail.

What to do?

Conduct research of your own by working collaboratively with your sales and product teams to compile information on your buying personas. You’ll likely be surprised by how quickly that information can develop into a more strategic marketing plan.

2) Use the Right Lure

Until I was 15 years old I thought every fish was caught with a worm and a hook. If only it were that easy. Different fish eat different food based on their specific needs. Take the mighty Musky for instance. It’s a large fish that requires sizeable prey to thrive, so why would it waste it’s time on a little worm? It likely won’t. Understanding your audience is the first step, knowing what they want and/or need is what comes next.

What needs do your services fill? How do those needs relate to your different personas? Understanding these points will drive the type of content you create. At the end of the day your different customer segments may buy the same product, but how and why they purchase the product could be very different (think time savings, cost savings, competitive advantage, etc.), and so should your content.

3) Go Where the Fish are Biting

Walleye spawn when the water temperature hits approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit. They also are very specific in where they tend to spawn, preferring depths of 10-15 feet just off the shore. Wow, I wonder if that information would be valuable to someone trying to catch Walleye?

Your customers have tendencies too. They trust certain news sources, they prefer specific social channels and they search with keywords that match their needs. Survey your customers, dive into your analytics and listen in social. The answers to ‘where’ and ‘how’ your customers consume and share content will begin to emerge. And when they do, map your content channels to different themes and audiences in order to build your own customer-centric editorial plan.

Now, where’s my fishing pole?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | 3 Ways Customer Optimization is a lot Like Fishing (and vice-versa) | http://www.toprankblog.com

One of the most important factors when running an online marketing program is adaptability.  Sometimes we’re given a significant warning of a social media platform’s change or the changes have little impact on the marketing value of the platform.  But other times we may not be so fortunate.  With Facebook in particular, the landing pages and sub-pages that many companies were relying on were no longer available as a means of marketing to customers once the new timeline was implemented.

How well have companies adapted to the Facebook Timeline for Pages update? Here are 3 big brands (2 of which happen to be based here in Minnesota) that I think have done a great job.  There are always areas that can be improved upon but overall, these companies appear to be on the right track.

Best Buy – Keeping Customers Entertained

Best Buy’s Facebook page has a little something for everyone.  From music, to movies, to video games it’s all there.  The gaming subpage for example has a video featuring a new game, a poll for users to vote on their favorite, and a smattering of new releases.

Likes: 5,940,357

Standout Feature: Easy Access to What You Want
Best Buy has done a great job of providing subpages based on the interest of their customers.  One example is that of the gaming page.  This page previews a video featuring a new game, a poll for users to vote on their favorite aspect of the game, and a smattering of new releases available for purchase online and in-store.

Engagement Strategy
At first glance it appeared that Best Buy was not responding to some of the negative comments that have been posted on their page.  Then I realized that the majority of those comments were posted within the last hour.  I did a little extra research and found comments from earlier this morning (it is a holiday) and saw that they are consistently responding.  Some of the feedback is very negative but they have found a way to extend an offer to help the disgruntled customers.

Another item that stood out to me was that Best Buy is actually including printable coupons in some of their posts.  Customers can use the coupons in store to get deals on their favorite CD’s or games.  I thought this was an inventive way to utilize Facebook timeline posts to drive in-store traffic.

Area for Improvement
There is not much information regarding larger ticket items.  As a consumer I would typically turn to a place like Best Buy for larger purchases such as laptops, audio equipment, or gaming systems.  There may be a reason Best Buy has excluded these items but I think it could be a great platform for discussing specials on these more expensive items.

Target – Planning & Collaboration

Target Corporation’s Facebook page is all about planning ahead.  Whether it’s giving a gift to a friend or registering for your wedding, Target has everything under control.

Likes: 12,926,376

Standout Feature: Give A Gift With Your Friends
Target has developed a Facebook application that allows you and your friends to put money towards a giftcard for an individual.  Perhaps you’re all attending a wedding and want to go in on a present together, or don’t want to burden one person with all of the costs for a gift.

Wedding planning is also a differentiator on Target’s Facebook page. Target provides easy access to their online catalog and even offers 10% off of items from a couple’s registry that were not purchased by friends and family.

Engagement Strategy
One thing I really liked about this page was the integration of #TargetChat.  Not only users participate in a live chat but Target also archives and shares previous chats run by their company.

Area for Improvement
Target’s posts appear to be focused more on news releases than their customers.  I understand it can be difficult to find that balance between branding and outreach but I think Target could benefit from posting less news, and more information that will effectively engage current and potential customers.

Ford Motor Company – Sharing A Little Bit of History

Ford Motor Company takes a lot of pride in their organization’s long history.  Founded in 1903, you would be surprised at just how much this auto industry giant has documented over the years.

Likes: 1,513,894

Standout Feature: Today in Ford History
Ford has gone so far as to create a timeline that goes back all the way to their founding in 1903.  Any time a new car was created, or a significant event took place, Ford documents this information on their Facebook timeline.  This is definitely one of the most creative ways I have seen timeline used thus far.  Even if you aren’t a history buff, I’m sure you’ll find Ford’s approach interesting.

Engagement Strategy
One thing that Ford has implemented that I didn’t see much on the other two brands was explicit questions to their audience.  Ford runs a series of polls on their Facebook page to determine what type of cars their audience can see themselves in.

Another feature I appreciated was that Ford is asking questions of their audience that is not explicitly related to their products.  They are working to form a relationship with their customers that is not entirely focused on the products they are trying to sell, but the things that are important to their customers.

Area for Improvement
Overall I think that Ford has done a fantastic job of adding a unique twist to their page, while engaging customers at the same time.  The quantity of information being released will push down or archive posts that are recent making it more difficult for customers to interact with those posts.

Small and large businesses alike can learn from the three BtoC brand examples of brand Facebook pages.  A common theme that you will notice through all of these reviews is that each company found a unique way to appeal to their audience.

What is the lesson that we can learn from these examples?  Knowing what your customers care about is key in developing a strategy that will encourage them to interact.

Are there other companies that you think have taken their Facebook strategy to the next level?  Which brand Facebook pages do you like best as a consumer? As a marketer?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Facebook Timeline: How Target, Ford & Best Buy Embraced Change & Won | http://www.toprankblog.com

I’ve always said that tools are only as good as the skills of the people using them and the moving target of social savvy customers along with a rapidly evolving social web make social media marketing skills acquisition a bit tricky. I think part of the answer to the distracted approach to social media marketing efforts like corporate blogging could be arrested by mastering these basics.

If I were only to give 5 content marketing tips to a company that wanted to get the most for and from its customers through blogging, here are the tips I’d give:

1. Customer. Problem. Solution. 
Gather information related to what your target audience wants, likes and needs related to your industry, company, products and services.  Develop key value propositions about what your blog will stand for and the things your blog will solve for those people the business is trying to reach.

The mistake many companies make is to either talk solely about themselves, their products and services or worse: to never talk about themselves, their own products and services. A balance is the key and the trick is to find that balance for your own situation.

The “customer” for your blog need not be limited to people who buy. Other audience considerations include the people who influence buyers but may never be buyers themselves, journalists, other bloggers, industry analysts, business and marketing partners, existing customers, current employees and potential employees. What problems will content published on a blogging platform solve for them that will also help advance your business?

2. Define the Topics.
Once you’ve decided on goals, audience and key value propospitions the blog will communicate, the next step towards constructing a great corporate blogging plan is to identify the topics. The outcome of this exercise is the start of your blog editorial plan. Some inspiration and long tail definition for topics can come from a SEO Keyword Glossary and the Social Media Topics Glossary.

In fact, any content or media produced and promoted through a business blog should be leveraging SEO best practices. Being visible through search as well as sharable through social networks is a powerful combination. Download a free XLS file for keyword glossary and editorial plan here.

As a company gets more advanced in their content marketing, an editorial approach for specific customer segments and their sales cycle can be developed as outlined in this workshop from my presentation at Fusion Marketing Experience.

3. What’s the Story? Plan the Narrative.
Storytelling is one of the things that’s most often missing in many SEO-centric efforts towards blogging. Without an underlying story that connects what the business stands for with satisfying target audience information needs, the business blogging effort becomes more mechanical than meaningful.

Planning topics for specific audiences is great, but tying them together through a themed content plan, topics and keywords is even better. That means a story expressed through text, images, audio, video, interactive applications and any other content or media that can deliver the customer/brand experience in a meaningful way.

4. Attract & Grow Your Audience.
One of the most effective models for business blogging and community development uses a hub. We like a hub and spoke model of content marketing and social network engagement which allows for a deep, topical repository of knowledge to be supported by a constellation of social networks and other channels of content sharing.

As part of the ongoing business blogging effort, it’s important to factor in time to participate on other blogs and social networks with resources and links that point back to useful information on the brand’s blog. Many online versions of business publications also publish blogs, so it’s worth monitoring for articles on relevant topics and providing useful insight in the comments or even linking back to those articles from the business blog. The combination of links and off site engagement can expose the brand’s expertise to the media as well as new audiences that are not currently aware of the brand’s blog.

5. Set Goals, Monitor Progress, Measure Results, Refine. Repeat. 
With any content marketing, it’s important to engage in an adaptable cycle designed to make iterative improvements to content effectiveness. That means based on goals, monitor progress through key performance indicators like on and off blog comments, links, mentions, sentiment, referred social network traffic, referred search engine traffic and the behaviors of visitors one they arrive on the blog. Analysis of KPIs should reveal opportunities for improvement in SEO, messaging and interaction to result in more desirable business outcomes for the blog.  It’s an ongoing process and like the tasks of content creation and promotion, should be expected for as long as the blog is intended to be a communications tool to attract and engage.

Business blogging is a journey, not a destination. As a communications tool, it has the ability to contribute to thought leadership, lead generation, customer service, recruiting and many other business goals.  The question is, do you have a plan and are you working that plan as an ongoing, adaptable process?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | 5 of the Most Important Content & Social Media Tips For A Successful Business Blog | http://www.toprankblog.com

The Local Web – The Single Largest Opportunity For National Brands

This infographic by Balihoo shares the significance of marketing locally to your potential customers.  According to this infographic:

• 73% of online search activity is related to local content
• 82% of local Internet searches follow-up offline
• 23.6%  the percentage that digital media is expected to represent of advertising by 2015

Featured Team Member Story

Sara Duane-Gladden – Is Facebook Advertising the Problem?  Or Are Brands Expectations the Culprit?

GM made waves last week when it pulled $10 million in annual spending from Facebook, but are the ads really at issue or are marketing expectations? According to a recent poll, 61% of US Facebook advertisers used ads for awareness purposes, yet a hefty 44% expected them to generate conversions. So… which is it? Engagement doesn’t necessarily mean sales, and sales don’t necessarily mean engagement.  Via eMarketer.

This Week in Online Marketing News

Google Knowledge Graph Claims First Victim
The content box on Google search results that previously showed “People and Pages on Google+” has disappeared.  This section has been replaced with with a variety of Knowledge Graph related content.  Read more from Search Engine Land.

Your Most Valuable Customers Might Not Be Who You Would Think
Customer feedback is essential for B2B and B2C companies alike.  Without that feedback (negative and positive) it will be virtually impossible to improve your offering.  This article provides additional insight into why customers that don’t give you immediate praise, could be worth a lot to your organization.  Via Inc.

Facebook IPO: Individual investors get burned – The Facebook IPO brought plenty of press and just as much drama due to a falling stock price and stories about NASDAQ technical glitches and communications with large investors that were not shared with the general public. Via CNN Money & SmartMoney.

Desperately Seeking Google’s Approval
As we discussed last week, Google’s Penguin update has left many small businesses lost and looking for help.  The first step in fixing your ranking problem is understanding why they fell in the first place.  For more read this article by Danny Goodwin from Search Engine Watch.

Facebook’s new Camera app mirrors Instagram - Facebook has agreed to pay $1bn for Instagram, but the acquisition has not been completed. Instagram will be run as a stand alone service and Camera will use Instagram-like features. The new app Camera only works on Apple products. Via BBC.

TopRank Team News

Jolina Pettice – 10 Lessons from Sara Blakely You Wont’ Hear in Business School (or most corporate environments)
The youngest female Billionaire in history, and creator of Spanx, shares 10 business lessons she used in the years it took her to go from idea to prototype to being on Oprah.

Anyone in the Online Marketing industry should take this quick read and think about how it can be applied to the marketing we are doing on behalf of clients or organizations.  Any many organizations failure is a bad thing, but as Sara says failure is part of the process. If you aren’t failing, you likely aren’t pushing the envelope and chasing a big enough goal. So marketers, go forth and test, fail, learn and succeed!  Via Forbes.

Shawna Kenyon – Why Marketers Should Get to Know Customers’ ‘Digital Selves’
Are today’s marketers under-utilizing the extensive amounts of personalized data their customers and potential customers are sharing online? Chad Warren, Adobe’s senior manager of social media thinks so. When companies can connect with customers based on the things they love, advertising becomes more about applying knowledge and allows for more meaningful engagement with customers.  Via Mashable.

Time to Weigh In: In terms of a local Internet marketing strategy what has your organization done to attract local customers?  What have you found works well, and what doesn’t?  After Facebook’s nose dive in the stock market this week, what do you think is in store for the social media giant?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Online Marketing News: Local Optimization Opportunity, Facebook Advertising Issues, Google Knowledge Graph Takes Over | http://www.toprankblog.com

When was the last time you heard of a really successful email campaign? Or TV ad campaign? Or a campaign on any channel for that matter? It’s likely been awhile.

The reason that isolated, channel-specific campaigns are rarely discussed these days is simple: they rarely work. That by no means is saying that email, or TV, or social, can’t be incredibly effective platforms to market your messages. Cross channel (see multiple channel) marketing is effective because each of these platforms can have an impact, when integrated into a holistic campaign.

It’s with this in mind that Maria Pergolino, Marketo’s Senior Director of Marketing, led the Marketo Summit panel discussion ‘Engaging with Cross Channel Marketing’.

Joined by Marketo users Tricia Reilly of VMWare and Loretta Jones of Echosign, Pergolino started the session by asking each panel member to share their journey to adopting Marketo’s marketing automation solution. After Reilly and Jones reviewed how their business needs and market demands led them to Marketo, the discussion then changed gears and focused on some ways VMWare and Echosign leveraged data from Marketo to identify and develop a cross-channel marketing strategy to more effectively nurture prospects through the sales funnel.

The session featured several case studies, but Pergolino’s own story of Marketo’s recent campaign to re-engage stale contacts really resonated with the crowd. Here are the details on how fortune cookies drove $200K in revenue for Marketo.

Marketo’s Fortune Cookie Campaign

Challenge: Reinvigorate high value but inactive email subscribers.

Strategy: Re-engage these stalled contacts through a multi-touch, customized campaign.

Tactics: Pergolino’s team deployed a marketing mix aimed at a targeted audience segment that included: email, direct mail, web content and phone calls.

Marketo’s marketing team started the campaign by leveraging the sales teams insights and asking them to nominnate contacts to target for the campaign. After the lists of contacts were cleaned to remove old or inaccurate data, the campaign was ready to launch.

1. Fortune cookie baskets were sent to targeted contacts
2. Each basket included a definitive guide resource, as well as a personal letter
3. Once the package was received, the e-signature for the package created a notification within Marketo, triggering an email to the contact
4. A follow up call was then automatically scheduled with the appropriate sales rep through Marketo’s integration with Salesforce.
5. Optimized web and social content was crafted and published to reinforce the key messages

Results:  Pergolino shared that the cost to Marketo for developing and executing the campaign was approximately $13,000. The return was slightly higher, with $200,000 to-date in revenue…with more opportunities in-progress.

Food aside, this story reminds us of the importance of connecting with our audience it different ways. Direct mail, email and phone enabled Marketo to effectively push their strategic message and inspire action, while their optimized web content allowed them to pull in the target audience to destinations that moved them along the funnel.

Have you had success with a cross channel campaign?  What’s your fortune cookie story?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Marketo Summit Session: Engaging with Cross Channel Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com

Jay Baer Keynotes Wednesday Lunch Session at 2012 Marketo Summit

There has long been a widely held (and incorrect) belief that social media is a B2C sandbox. ’Stay out B2B marketers, this social thing has nothing to do with you.’ Of course, there have been countless studies that have documented B2B marketers successes in driving results in social.

With the notion that social is only for B2C debunked, in its place now are new myths. Each chalked-full of misinformation and hyperbole regarding B2B’s ability to implement, engage and monitor social. Jay Baer, President of Convince & Convert, lead a high-impact and high-energy presentation at the Marketo Summit aimed to call-out and ‘destroy’ some of the more prevalent myths.

The session was titled ‘Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media‘, and here are the 7 myths Jay shared.

1. My Customers Don’t Use Social Media

As Jay puts it, the people who believe this are projecting their own lack of social media adoption. Forrester research shows that 81% of online adults use social media. Regardless of whether your business is B2B or B2C, it is people who ultimately make the purchasing decisions…and 81% are using social.

2. Social Media Is Not Worth the Trouble

Forrester research also found that 86% of business technology decision makers use social media for professional reasons. Jay argues that social is actually MORE important for B2B than B2C. Why? With longer sales cycles, social can actually reduce the touchpoints needed to close a sale.

3. Social Media Doesn’t Apply to Our Business

Here’s the litmus test: does your brand have a story to tell? If you answered yes, than social applies to your business. It’s a forum to tell your story. According to Jay, the primary reasons any business uses social are:

• awareness
• sales
• loyalty

Of course, these reasons apply to ALL businesses.

4. If Nobody Tweets About Us, Then We Don’t Need Social Media

If people aren’t discussing your brand in social you shouldn’t use this as a free pass to continue to ignore this platform. In fact, this highlights the opportunity that exists for your business. People should be discussing your brand, but you need to give them something to talk about. Or as Jay more succinctly put it, content is fire and social media is gasoline. Together, they are powerful (and a fire hazard).

5. Having a Page=Having a Social Media Strategy

There’s no participation points or ribbons in social. Creating a page does not equate to have a real social media presence. ‘Don’t do social, BE social,’ says Baer.

6. Social Is Just Marketing

Social is very much a customer relations management tool as well. Businesses need to start thinking of each customer as a reporter. If a person has a poor customer experience, where will they turn? Social media. Consider this, 70% of customer complaints on Twitter go unanswered. Would you ignore 70% of your incoming calls or emails? Your customers deserve a response, regardless of medium.

7. Social Media is Not Measurable

Jay goes on to say, only half kidding, that the most overrated metric in the history of math is Facebook ‘likes’. A much more powerful metric is tracking behavior. For an excellent B2C example of social influencing behavior in a measurable way, Jay shares the story of California Tortilla.

Within social, California Tortilla gives clues or passwords for free or discounted items. So one day the message may be ‘say ‘fresh’ to our cashier and receive free chips and queso.’ With that, California Tortilla is effectively influencing behavior and driving consumer demand, and all in a measurable way.

Some Interesting Social Stats to Know

• In 2010, consumers consumed 5.3 pieces of content before making a purchasing decision. In 2011, that number jumped to 10.4.
• 33% of B2B marketers have fully embraced social media marketing.
• B2B customers contact a sales rep after 60% of the purchasing decisions have been made.

What myths or barriers have you encountered while developing a B2B social media strategy? Share in a comment below and let’s see if we can’t take a page from Jay and debunk yours too.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Marketo Summit Session: Destroying the 7 Myths of B2B Social Media by Jay Baer | http://www.toprankblog.com

Note from Ashley: Please welcome this guest post from Shawna Kenyon, an Associate Account Manager with TopRank Online Marketing.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, if that’s true then how many is an Infographic worth? Infographics are all the rage right now, and it’s not surprising B2B marketers are paying attention. When people talk about infographics we often hear the phrase ‘data visualization’. That’s because we have the means to transform information that could otherwise be deemed bland or boring, into something creative and compelling.

There is a method to the madness.  According to studies, 83% of learning occurs visually whereas people only remember 20% of what they read.  In a world of information overload it is essential that we present our customers with information that is easy to read, digest, and share.  Below I have included 4 Tips that will keep you from going off of the data visualization deep end.

#1 – Walk Before You Run

It’s tempting to jump head first when creating an infographic, but that’s how projects get messy and end up behind schedule.  In order to effectively create and market an infographic I recommend answering some basic questions that will set your team up for success.  These questions could include:

• Who is the target audience?
• What is the response you’re looking for?
• Is the infographic going to speak to a specific service or niche, or to the brand as a whole?
• What format will you use?
• What color themes best represent core messaging?

Once you can answer the questions above, the next step is to consider how the data you’re trying to convey can be represented visually. And remember, this is an INFO-GRAPHIC so there needs to be a mix of useful information and eye-catching images. Too much of one or the other can leave the reader feeling disenchanted and confused.

#2 – Know the Goal

By now we all know that goal setting and working to attain goals it is the best way to accomplish desired outcomes. Infographics are no different. We rarely succeed with one hand tied behind our back so do yourself a favor and understand the ‘why’, before tackling the ‘how’. When setting goals ask yourself:

• What are you trying to achieve with this information?
• Is the goal inbound links for SEO?
• Increased traffic?
• Social buzz?
• All of the above?

#3 – Share and Share Alike

It’s no accident that companies of all industries and sizes are tackling social media head on. It works. And it works on a number of levels. Now is not the time for tunnel vision. Get the word out and make it easy on your readers to do the same.  Some of the steps you can take to increase sharability include:

• Adding social share buttons (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +)
• Know when to publish your content. For instance avoid publishing on Sunday mornings and holidays. Friday afternoons are also not ideal as people are getting ready for the weekend.
• Use calls to action. Though it may seem obvious, your number of shares can increase dramatically when you tell readers how you’d like them to share your content.

#4 – Promote, Promote, and Repeat

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If an infographic is published, but nobody knows how to find it, does it have an impact? My guess is you already know the answer to that question. An infographic is like any other piece of content; it needs to be promoted in order to be successful. There are dozens of tactics you can implement to increase your infographic’s visibility online. Here are just a few:

• Create a blog post
• Schedule Tweets that speak to specific
• Break it out into a PDF and promote on Slideshare
• Promote via email blast or email marketing campaign
• For 11 Ways to Promote your infographic be sure to check out this article from Lee Odden

In the end there are no hard and fast rules to creating and infographic. However, there are many blog posts, presentations, and yes infographics out there that can take the fear out of creating your own infographic.  I’m curious to know what experience you have had with infographics or how you feel about infographics as a consumer.  What do you think is the most important part of an infographic?  Why do you think some infographics succeed, while others fail?  Do you have a favorite infographic that you would like to share with our readers?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Infographic Feeding Frenzy: 4 Tips for Wading the Waters of Data Visualization | http://www.toprankblog.com

Have you ever felt that your marketing strategy was beginning to take on some unhealthy habits or perhaps fattening up in all the wrong places? Perhaps it’s been awhile since you took a long hard look at your strategy and looked at it for what it should be, an ever evolving and improving means of communicating with your customers.

Keeping pace with quickly changing Internet marketing trends can be exhausting, and frankly overwhelming. However, it is essential that your team offers new and inspired ideas to your prospects and customers. Why? Because if you don’t, someone else will.

2012 has many changes in store including: Over ¾ of the population will be online, smartphone shoppers will reach 68.6 million, and more than 90% of social networkers will be on Facebook. What should that tell you? It’s time to get off the couch and start strengthening your marketing strategy to better target your customers.

#1 – Stretch Your Content

Whether you’re new to marketing or are a marketing expert this is one step you should never skip. Avoid becoming overwhelmed by simply taking the time to stretch out your current marketing assets. How can this be done?

• Repurpose existing blog posts as articles or social media posts
• Curate content from other news sources to share with your network
• Drive traffic to existing content by creating multiple varied social media posts

#2 – Don’t Skip Your Warm Up

I’m sure you’ve all heard the expression “walk before you run”. The same can be true when creating your online marketing strategy. If your strategy is based solely on ideas your own ideas then are you really considering the needs of your customers? Before we jump into the 5k marathon it is important that we step back and identify some vital information about our customers. This can be accomplished in many ways including:

• Identify the habits and preferences of your customers online
• Run A/B testing on campaigns to help formulate your hypothesis

#3 – Take Your Marketing Strategy For A Jog

After identifying what strategy you believe is best suited for your customers it’s time to test. You may find that what you thought you could do, isn’t quite working out and your plan needs tweaking. Take this opportunity to make changes while your plan is still in the planning phase, you wouldn’t want to make a run for it and pull a muscle – that could put you out of the game for weeks!

#4 – Add Variety To Your Marketing Approach

The dreaded marketing rut, every marketer has been there at some point. You may have had success with particular content types and built your strategy around that one tactic. Today we must rely on not only creating content that our customers will enjoy, but creating it in the format that they are most likely to consume. Popular forms of content that should be a part of our marketing hub and spoke could include:

• Video
• Images
• Status Updates
• Microblogging
• Case Studies
• Articles
• Audio
• Blogs
• Webinars
• Testimonials
• Buying Guides
• E-Newsletters

#5 – Avoid Cravings & Falling Back into Bad Marketing Habits

This is another step where having the support of your colleagues is important. Perhaps you had a bad month: blog readership is down, engagement on social networks just isn’t taking off, or your clients are unhappy with results. Instead of reverting into your former bad habits, this is an opportunity for growth. If something isn’t working, change it or determine what small tweaks you can make in order to increase your chances for success.

#6 – Monitor Progress

Measurement is one of the most important exercises in your marketing mix. Without proper measurement, you will be ineffective in scaling and duplicating your process. Set a series of goals and benchmarks for your team and track which bad habits you’re losing, as well as the strength and momentum your revitalized marketing plan is gaining.

#7 Don’t Expect Results Overnight

No matter what the late night television infomercials tell you, it’s impossible to lose weight or become healthy overnight. Taking your marketing strategy to the next level is a journey that will help your team build process along the way. The time that it takes to generate results will vary from company to company depending on your industry, if you are B2B or B2C, and who your audience is. Don’t become discouraged, if you stick with your newly energized marketing strategy you WILL see results.

I’m well aware that many of these “exercises” are easier said than done. However, I am a strong believer that it’s time for us to get tough and make a change. Deciding to make a change, is half the battle. I’m curious to know: What have you found is your biggest marketing hurdle?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | 7 Exercises to Revitalize Your Marketing Approach | http://www.toprankblog.com

The failure to communicate is probably the most important cause of failure with client and internet marketing consultant relationships. Everything from managing expectations to performance reporting are affected. One of the most common outcomes from a lack of communication in a consulting engagement is the failure to implement.

Tweet This: What’s worse than bad social SEO advice? Failure to implement the good advice that gets results.

There are many reasons for a failure of implementation when it comes to online marketing tactics and the fault lies both with consultants and client side marketers alike. Here are a few common reasons for each. Hopefully you can identify whether your situation falls into one of these categories so you can avoid wasting time, money and lost revenue growth for all.

Marketing Consultant Implementation Fails:

• Selling Incomplete Expertise – Not understanding what it really takes to implement a certain type of consulting can result in the agency not properly preparing the client for what their obligations are for successful implementation. “Fake it til you make it” is a common practice with consultants and agencies breaking into new areas (like all the SEOs getting into content marketing now or PR/Ad/Interactive agencies getting into SEO a few years back) and a common casualty is the inability to follow through.
  Lesson: Consultants need to develop processes for new areas of expertise, bring in outside consultants to build the practice area expertise and be up front with potential clients to ensure adaptability and to manage expectations. The other lesson is to simply not over-state capabilities and sell things you don’t know how to do.
• Failure to Assess Capabilities – A review of both internal and client side responsibilities for successful implementation is critical. A company that says they want to develop a content marketing strategy and hires a consultant who says yes without identifying the company has no intention of hiring writers or tasking employees with content creation is a major fail for all.
  Lesson: Understand the essential processes and tasks involved with new consulting engagments and identify the capabilities of anyone at the company who may be potentially involved with implementation. Confirm in the agreement who will do what and what is expected.
• Failure to QA & Manage Tasks – While many client and consulting engagements begin with good intentions all around, projects that take months for discovery, strategy and implementation can go off track if they are not managed properly.
  Lesson: Consultants must manage and share a timeline. They must also require time to oversee implementation and ongoing QA of content, SEO and social consulting implementation because it is inevitable that client staff or other consultants will implement partially, differently than intended or overwrite good work 6 months down the road.

Client Side Marketer Implementation Fails:

• Lack of Consultant & Tactical Due Diligence – Companies that hire consultants will get more value for their investment when they have some awareness of how the tactics they’re hiring for actually work. Too often companies hire social media “brandividuals” or chase after a shiny social media object tactic without really having an idea of how things fit in their marketing plan.
  Lesson: Either some effort is put forth to gather that knowledge through internal efforts or education is made part of the consulting engagement.  In particular, SEO and social media brandividuals and hot social apps in the press need to be vetted for real-world expertise, experience and practical application for the business.
• Mis-Alignment of KPIs vs Business Goals – Imagine a company hiring a consultant to grow a Facebook fan page to 10,000 fans. The consultant delivers. But then the company fires the consultant because revenue didn’t increase.
  Lesson:  A responsible marketer should identify measurement goals that account for progress AND business outcomes. Consultants can view a goal like fans, followers or rankings as easy money but the connection to business value must be made. This one is on both client and consultant. Corporate marketers must be able to answer “why” when they identify performance measures that do not have a direct impact on business objectives.
• Lack of Influence and Internal Support – Ambitious marketing managers who have become aware and educated about the significant impact of an integrated SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing program may get budget to hire a consultant only to discover that PR, Social, Content, Legal, HR and other parties that need to be involved are “not on board” with key implementation approvals and tasks.
  Lesson: As research is conducted into what is involved with bringing an outside consultant into the mix, it’s important that client side marketers map out who they will need to work with internally to get tasks implemented. The time to grow that internal network of “friendlies” should begin long before the engagement begins.  Identify how those peers will benefit from participation and cooperation with your consulting investment. Make sure they have a clear picture of the benefits for themselves, their group/department and the organization overall.

Of course there are more ways to fail internet marketing consulting implementation than the short lists above, but the key is responsibility about capabilities, planning, managing expectations, allocating appropriate resources and most of all: communication.

It takes two to tango and if a consultant is involved it will inevitably be deemed the consltants fault. That’s why it’s essential for online marketing consultants to properly identify key characteristics of companies that are capable of implementing or able to adapt or adjust to enable proper implementation. In the end, we all want a 360 degree win and that requires better communication during prospecting, kickoff, engagement and with ongoing consulting.

If you’re a corporate marketer, what are some of the fails you’ve seen from consultants that have caused failures of marketing implementation?   Your turn consultants: What implementation fails have you experienced and how did you overcome them?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Classic Marketing Consulting Fail: “What We Got Here is a Failure to Implement” | http://www.toprankblog.com

Top 250 Internet Retailers

Social networking for retailers makes sense right? Make your brand visible where your consumers are spending the most time. This infographic from Campalyst shares information on one of the things that helps makes retailers successful online, a social presence. Key findings include:

• Number of followers by social platform
• How success on social networks is distributed
• The most followed industries on specific social channels

Featured Team Member Story

Mike Yanke – Who Will Win the War of the Sidebars?

While Google made headlines this week with the launch of its Knowledge Graph (ie a new sidebar element designed provide facts the search giant has amassed on people, places and things), emerging force Bing made its own announcement last week with a platform relaunch, complete with a social sidebar. So what sidebar format will most engage users – a vast collection of knowledge on people, places or things you may never see – or a vast collection of facts on people, places and things you may see every day? Check out Search Engine Land for more on both Bing’s social sidebar and Google’s Knowledge Graph.

This Week in Online Marketing News

Facebook IPO Could Place Its Value at $104 Billion
The social network priced its shares at $38 apiece, valuing the company at $104 billion. The average first-day “pop” for a technology company is 32 percent; if Facebook follows that trend, it’ll be worth $137 billion by day’s end. Via Bloomberg.

Who Invited Penguin & Panda to the Party?
Google’s new penguin update has many organizations confused, frustrated, and angry. It seems that many sites have seen a sudden drop in traffic, and are blaming “Penguin” and “Panda” for the decline. This article covers the importance of knowing which update affected your traffic as well as tips for gaining some of your traffic back. Via Yoast.

57% of Facebook users Never Click Ads
Facebook’s public offering has generated a lot of buzz and anticipation. However, the ineffectiveness of advertising and user distrust due to policy changes may stunt aggressive growth goals. Curious to know other results of this poll run by CNBC? Via MSNBC.

Is Google+ Becoming a Ghost Town?
This week Fast Company received exclusive insights into Google+. If it’s true that Google+ is the company’s “social spine” then they are in need of some serious adjustments. The picture painted by the data shows very weak user engagement, waning interest and minimal social activity. Via Fast Company.

9 Ways to Be An Expert, Without the Attitude
There is a fine line between providing valuable information, and the stigma that comes with being thought of as an expert. This article provides 9 helpful tips that you can share valuable information in an influential way without being perceived as a jerk. Via Brass Tack Thinking.

17 Steps to Becoming a Content Curator
Many people curate content without even thinking about what they are doing. Re-sharing an article from a friend or colleague, or collecting and sharing a series of blog posts on a particular topic. There are some very simple rules that you can follow to properly curate and share the information you find online. This guide from Econsultancy covers the basics to set you up for success. Via Econsultancy.

TopRank Team News

Kodi Osmond – Yahoo Debuts Big Data App Called “Genome” at Internet Week
Genome, over-simplified, refers to the biological information needed to build a living thing. If one thinks of data as capturing the behavior of a living thing, then data must be a “living thing”, too. Perhaps this was the logic used when Yahoo named its big data software, scheduled to release in July. Read more of Yahoo’s press release and what EVP of Americas Rich Riley had to say at Venture Beat.

Shawna Kenyon – What People really Want vs. What They Share on Social Media
Social media monitoring company NetBase published a year’s worth of its own data and compared it against a Harris poll to determine the gaps between what people say in social media updates compared to what they actually want. They found that in general people are ‘emotional sharers’ but in actuality tend to be quite logical when asked a direct question. This article poses an interesting comparison between men and woman within a number of categories. Via Mashable.

Roxanne Hagberg – Google Search Just 1,000 Times Smarter
(We all know that Google’s Knowledge Graph is big news this week. Our team found this change to be very important for our readers so we have included another review from Mashable)

Google taps into a variety of knowledge databases to roll out “Knowledge Graph”, the next generation of search. Knowledge Graph allows users to quickly narrow their search to find the most relevant results. Via Mashable.

Brian Larson – Saving Time in Google Analytics
I remember the first time I really, really dug into a Google Analytics (GA) profile. I logged into GA at noon and the next time I looked up it was time to go home. There’s no doubt that there’s a tremendous amount of valuable information in GA. There’s also no doubt that it can be easy to lose time data mining in this tool. Search Engine Watch’s Eric Stiu shares ‘7 Time Saving Google Analytics Custom Reports’. Via Search Engine Watch.

Time to Weigh In: Wow, this was a big week in SEO and social news. Google “Penguin” as well as their new “Knowledge Graph” are on the minds of many organizations. Has your company seen any significant decreases in traffic since this release? Do you believe that Google+ is a truly effective mechanism for engaging customers and clients socially? What updates would you recommend Google+ make to increase usability and engagement?

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Online Marketing News: Facebook IPO: Worth $104 Billion, Google Penguin & Panda Party Crash, G+ Ghost Town | http://www.toprankblog.com

Photo Credit: Geoff Livingston - Flickr

[Note from Lee: The growing trend towards integration of marketing and communications disciplines has brought a tremendous demand for guidance and insight. I'm happy to say that my friends Geoff Livingston and Gini Dietrich have published a new book about just that. We rarely publish guest posts but the message of integration and optimization in this book blend perfectly with our core messages here.]

One of our favorite books to come out in a long while is Lee’s Optimize. We love the three discipline approach — content, search and social — to online marketing. Without integration across all marketing disciplines we fail to understand the customer experience.

We just published Marketing in the Round on a overarching integrated communications, traditional and new, and see online as the backbone for all marketing today, on or offline.

Consider the customer experience. They weave between traditional broadcast and print media into online seamlessly. For example, someone could ride their local train or subway, see ads, surf the Internet on their mobile phone, read a magazine (on their tablet or not), or a host of other activities.

You get the point. Customer media use supersedes tactical practices. That’s true for both B2B and B2C, though as Lee points out in his book, these sales cycles are very different.

Multichannel marketing applies to traditional print, broadcast, mail and PR approaches, too. They should all be optimized for search, too, with messaging and keywords that will invoke familiarity with stakeholders regardless of which media form they are seen.

Think about it. Customers search when they are looking to find something. If you optimize online ads, content, social and SEO so that search indexes your company’s name first, then you absolutely need your print ads, direct mail, press documents, white papers and broadcast ads to use the same keywords.

A customer may not even realize it, but they are mentally associating these words — message components — with your brand. When they search, they will use the keywords, and your optimized content will naturally come up in the top results. More importantly, it will already be familiar to your customer.

Take it a step further and add your creative, ads and content to the web site in a the modern press room. Transcribe the broadcast media so the keywords are searchable. Make them shareable. and start real discussions on them. Even ask for feedback on the ads. All of your traditional content can be repurposed, optimized and indexed for social and search.

That’s why all marketing disciplines should be integrated and operate together as a collective whole. Marketing in the Round discusses selecting traditional tactics and newer disciplines like social, online and mobile. It’s about how to weave them together to achieve the common objective.

Geoff Livingston is an author and marketing strategist, and serves as VP, Strategic Partnerships for Razoo. A former journalist, Livingston continues to write, and most recently he co-authored Marketing in the Round, and authored the social media primer Welcome to the Fifth Estate.

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communication ?rm. She also is the founder of the professional development site for PR and marketing pros, Spin Sucks Pro and co-author of Marketing in the Round.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | All Marketing Should Be Optimized – Geoff Livingston & Gini Dietrich | http://www.toprankblog.com

At TopRank Online Marketing, we are fortunate to provide consulting to quite a few innovative B2B companies that serve other marketers. A great example of that is PRWeb and parent company, Vocus, both long standing clients.

In late 2011 Vocus welcomed Jason Jue as Chief Marketing Officer. As Vocus & PRWeb’s Account Manager at TopRank, I was keenly interested in getting to know Jason better and learning his plans for the future – and what better way than through an interview for all readers of Online Marketing Blog to see?

In this interview Jason talks about the undeniable convergence of PR and marketing, what social media metric is most undervalued by many PR and marketing professionals, where marketers should invest for 2013 and his vision for Vocus.

Tell us a little bit about your background and what excites you most about joining Vocus?

Prior to Vocus, I was Vice President of Marketing at Rackspace and had several executive positions at Dell in the US and Asia, marketing to businesses. Vocus offers cloud marketing and PR software to businesses in every market sector and size that want to reach and influence buyers.

I’m excited about sharing with businesses how easily our products work wonders for our current customers. Some of the leading marketing consultants such as Sirius Decisions and MarketingSherpa use our products to maximize their online publicity.

For some people, Vocus is synonymous with Public Relations software. Can you speak to how and when Vocus first expanded to offering marketing solutions?

We have always believed PR to be a core part of “promoting a product or service” or marketing. Many customers who buy our PR software have a marketing title, and we’ve recently seen faster growth in this group. These customers use our social media and PRWeb news release features of our PR software. For them, we created a cloud marketing suite which integrates search, publicity, and social media marketing. Our cloud marketing suite was the most successful product launch in Vocus history, and will be even better when it includes email later this year.

Do you see PR and marketing professionals as two separate audiences? Or are they converging disciplines?

In marketing teams that have PR and marketing professionals, we continue to see them as two audiences with different product needs, although their roles are converging, especially around social media. PR professionals are using social media for brand positioning. Marketing professionals use social media for lead gen. Meanwhile, for the millions of businesses who have few, if any marketers at all, the marketing functions blend together.

Use your crystal ball and give us a glimpse into the future. How will the Vocus offering change over the next 2 years? Where do you see the most opportunity for growth?

The future of marketing is simple and powerful integrated campaigns. Every marketing team realizes that when working together on unified and integrated campaigns, lead generation and brand perception results are much better than working alone.

I know that sounds like a pipe dream as marketing complexity has increased to address the everywhere all the time customer. Today’s customers are constantly switching back and forth from website, news, social, search, email, and mobile. To add confusion, each specialty has their marketing tools resulting in silos and disjointed communication.

In the near future, marketers will be able to buy cloud marketing software to easily manage integrated campaigns. It will incorporate the trendy with the tried-and-true tactics of marketing The essential elements will work together for better results in lead generation and brand perception. And, it will recommend how and when to engage with prospects and customers.

Seem unbelievable? I think it’s unbelievable that it hasn’t already happened. In the past 15 years, every corporate function, from marketing to sales to HR, has seen a proliferation of technology tools. Marketing is the only function without a major product suite. IBM is doing it for large enterprise marketing. We are integrating all the important marketing tools into a cloud marketing suite so every business, large and small, can easily achieve big results .

Staying on social for a moment, what is one social metric that you think may be most overlooked by PR and marketing professionals alike? On the flip side, any stat that you view as overvalued?

The most important social media metric is how many people actively recommend your product or service. I think the most overvalued metrics are fans, followers, and likes.

As 2012 is well underway, what is one investment you think marketers must make in order to succeed the rest of the year and into 2013? (i.e. invest in mobile marketing)

Focus on marketing fundamentals that will dramatically accelerate growth. Who is your target customer? What product or service should you develop for them? How should you promote to them? Why should they buy from you?

Then, find the best product for you that simplifies all the marketing tactics and trends. This product will then let you focus on the marketing fundamentals.

Thanks, Jason!

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Interview: The Future of Cloud Marketing Software with Vocus CMO Jason Jue | http://www.toprankblog.com

Release Your Internal Marketing Warrior

In March of this year I made a decision: I wanted to get healthier.  The problem I have always faced is that I didn’t see the point of exercise, just for the sake of exercise.  Treadmills and stationary bicycles never did much for me, but I was looking for a way to regain some focus and start down a healthier path.

About a month ago I spoke with my good friend Ali who had recently started a training program to become a yoga instructor.  She convinced me to attend a class with her and I even though I’ve done yoga before, this was an entirely new experience.  After 75 minutes in a sweltering room (enduring one of the toughest workouts I’ve had in a while) the strangest thing happened. I felt stronger, lighter, and more focused.

Many times as marketers we get caught up in daily tasks and lose focus of what is really important.  When we lose focus, we may become uninspired, lazy, and complacent.  It is undoubtedly just as difficult, yet as essential, to breath new life into our marketing plans as it is to jumpstart our bodies.  The question is: where do we begin on the road to creating a “healthier” internet marketing strategy?

4 Tips For Strengthening Your Internet Marketing Plan

# 1- Become An Agent of Change – Don’t be Afraid to Try New Things
Fear consumes many people both personally and professionally.  A fear of failing or disappointment can often lead to a stagnant and uninspired plan for dominance on the web.   Instead of allowing fear to make an appearance, instead recognize that mistakes will be made, but they will be a learning experience. What are some changes you can begin implementing today?

• Surveys of existing customers
• Develop different ways of communicating with your audience (blog posts, social media outreach)
• Ask questions of industry thought leaders
• Join new virtual groups on LinkedIn
• Begin attending more events locally to gain industry insight

# 2- The Journey Is Just As Important As the Destination – Just Make Sure You Document
Along the way to creating your “perfect” internet marketing plan, there is a lot to learn.  Remembering that the journey leads to our destination will put us in the right frame of mind to learn from the experience.  As you’re making mistakes or experiencing success it is essential that you document the steps that you took to get there.

# 3 – Take Some Time to Breathe – Step Back and Survey the Situation
A true marketer knows that our industry is a very customer-centric business. Without our customers we wouldn’t have jobs.  It can become very easy to fall into time sucking tactics that may only put us further behind.  Before jumping head first into the newest social media platform or marketing tactic take some time to ask a few questions:

• Who will we target with this approach?
• What will be our core messaging or strategy?
• Why should we include this tactic?
• How will my team accomplish this tactic and how will this benefit my customers?
• How much will this cost in both time and money?

# 4 – Have An Open Mind – Brainstorm With Your Team Regularly
Collaboration with fellow team members can be of benefit to all parties involved.  Not only will collaboration open up new ideas, but it will also improve buy-in from other associates.  If you’re in an internet marketing rut, or just looking to breathe that new life into your plans to dominate the search and social web, be aware of the resources you may already have at your disposal.

All of the tactics mentioned above will lend themselves to creating a stronger, more cohesive marketing plan.  At one time or another, most of us have faced a situation where we knew our plan wasn’t working, but weren’t exactly sure how to fix it.  I hope that these tactics will become part of a stronger plan and give you the jumpstart you need to get on the road to internet marketing success.

I’m curious to know what experience you have had as a marketer attempting to breathe new life into and strengthen your internet marketing plans?  What were some of your biggest obstacles and what was the most important lesson you learned?

Namaste.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Channel Your Internal Marketing Warrior: 4 Tips for Strengthening Your Marketing Plan | http://www.toprankblog.com

Are you optimizing your conference experience?

TopRank receives a lot of value from having me speak at conferences but you don’t have to be a speaker to realize a positive return from events. Small, large online or offline, there are numerous ways to optimize and maximize your return on conference involvment both in the short and long term.

If your company is considering whether to send you to events because of uncertain return or benefits, show them the following list.

In fact, if I were running a conference, I’d make sure these tips are shared with attendees, sponsors and speakers alike.

The first step in getting more value out of event attendance is to understand the “why”. What benefit that brings value to the business can you get from attending conferences, workshops, webinars and educational meet/tweetups? I like to say that I can “make money” at any conference. The reason why is that I am specifically aware of multiple ways to create value with events – beyond simply prospecting for new business. Here are 5 key benefits you can create from event participation and goals you can set for each:

1. Grow Your Network

There is no substitute for a quality network. It takes time to grow a personal network and if you’re advocating for your company, then community development is also ongoing. Attending events online and off are essential for productive networking that can result in a variety of valuable outcomes including:

• Recruiting
• Collecting competitive intelligence
• Vendor and consultant sourcing
• Partner sourcing
• Prospecting for new customers.

When you attend events, set goals for the kinds of contacts you want to make. Go so far as to make a list of people you want to meet if they’re particularly important to your goals. Initiate new connections with qualified prospects, marketing partners, vendors to outsource to and job candidates. At the same time, reinforce existing connections with contacts in your social networking pipeline. Each day, tally them up and plan how you will follow up. Follow on Twitter, connected on LinkedIn. Share useful tips, links and info that are relevant to your interactions with them. Give to get, but have a purpose and a goal for the connection.

Make sure you have goals and a purpose to your online and event networking. If you leave it to chance, you’re leaving a LOT of value on the table – for your competition.

2. Get Smarter. Repeat.

There are numerous benefits to attending conference sessions. The obvious is to hear smart speakers give presentations on important topics with useful tips. Sometimes speakers deliver on that promise and sometimes they don’t.

Don’t let bad conference content get in the way of getting smarter.

Pay attention to how the speaker gives their presentation and observe how the audience responds. You might think the information isn’t useful to you, but if the attendees are leaning forward, writing notes and holding up their phones and ipads to take pictures of the presentation slides, then the speaker is connecting.

You can benefit from understanding how the information is presented as much as from the actual tips. The format, sequence, design and presentation of information that connects is a model you can leverage for your own purposes: whether it’s speaking at a conference or event yourself or communicating and persuading people internally.

Planning your conference session attendance is essential. Think of how many sessions will you attend and how will you capture the information presented. Will you take notes on an iPad, laptop or (gasp) on paper? Will you take photos or video (where allowed)? Do you know where to get a copy of the speakers’ presentations? Introduce yourself to speakers and ask them a key question on video so you can review later and share with your team.

When meeting new people, discuss the sessions with them. Compare notes – it’s a great way to network and to get other opinions. Before the conference, make a grid or a plan for which specific sessions you’ll be attending. Often times, there is not much time between sessions and the difference between getting a good seat and standing room only can be a matter of minutes and you might miss out on the session entirely because rooms can fill up.

3. Curate and Create Content

Content Marketing is hotter than ever but sourcing content is probably one of the biggest challenges for companies getting into the content publishing realm. The good news is that events from Twitter chats to webinars to keynote presentations and breakout sessions all provide opportunities to capture, curate and even create content. Some examples include:

• Liveblogging – Transcribe what the speakers say word for word. Listen for key quotes or pieces of information and make a “list post” around a specific topic. Pre-write an article about the session topic and fill in stats and quotes from the speakers.
• Interviews – Reach out to speakers in advance and collect tips from their presentations as a way to help boost attendance to their session. Shoot video interviews of speakers or other smarties at the conference. Record podcast interviews with the same people. Capture single tips on video from a large number of people and compile into one video. Go to exhibitor booths and ask them for a 30 second pitch on video and compile them. Survey attendees on what they like best, tips they’ve heard, etc into a compilation video. With video, you might want to get sign-offs. Also, non-speakers may be reluctant.
• Journal – Keep notes and write a summary of key points from the day and publish like a journal entry. Link to other bloggers that are publishing liveblog posts at the same event.
• Curate – Use a tool like storify to curate the buzz of the conference. You don’t even need to be at the event to do this if a conference hashtag is used consistently.
• Track Your Own Buzz – If you are speaking, make sure someone from your team is tracking mentions of you, your company and topic on social streams like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Monitor any liveblogging of your presentations as well. Give people an incentive to liveblog your sessions too. If anyone liveblogs one of my presentations, I will send them a copy of Optimize (for example). Curate those mentions into a roundup post on your company newsroom.

Think about how you can leverage your conference experience to create new content for your company blog, articles, or process documentation. Set goals for how many content objects (blog posts, articles, videos, tweets, images) you’ll create each day. Organize what you will capture, with who and with what devices. Plan where you’ll publishing this content and when as well.  For curation, compile presentations posted to Slideshare, interviews others have posted to YouTube and liveblog posts covering interesting sessions – then add your own commentary as the icing on the cake.

The content you capture and create can supply a company blog with numerous posts and show clients, staff and prospective clients that you are on top of what’s happening in the industry.

4. Share the Smarts: Knowledge Transfer With Your Team

The explicit purpose of attending conferences is to hear industry experts share advice and insights into topics that your business can benefit from. Collecting actionable tips, statistics and other useful information form conferences to share with your team, clients and other groups in your organization can multiply the value of one person attending an event. If multiple people attend, the value can be even greater.

To make knowledge transfer from conference content work, it’s important to create a process for information capture, synthesis and distribution.

• Capture: Target specific speakers and sessions. Write questions you want answered and if the presentations do not contain those answers then pursue subject matter expert speakers to ask them directly. Capture information in text, audio, video and image. No one ever comes back from an event thinking they took too many photos. Maybe the wrong photos, but not to many. Also, be aware of conference policies on video and image capture.
• Synthesis: When you formulate questions, have specific applications for your business in mind. When you get the answers, filter the information in a way that will be practical and useful when it is shared – vs. all theoretical. Discuss the information and tips collected with fellow attendees to filter out what’s most useful.
• Distribution: Have a plan for how you will present the useful tactics, insights, statistics and case studies with your co-workers, clients and other interested parties.  You could write a report, you could create a presentation to give live or via webinar, you could compile video clips and images to narration. Individual tips could be saved on an internal knowledge base blog according to category. You could have a post-conference brown bag lunch discussion or a more formal presentation. There are many different options, but have them in mind before the conference to increase the likelihood they will actually happen and in an effective way.

Knowing you will be required to present the information you are gaining at a conference with the team back at the office can helps you focus on takeaways and practical interpretations of what’s being presented, instead of what you don’t like or the lacking presentation skills of the presenter.

5. Optimize the Marketing Value of Events

For nearly all events, I like to break things up into pre-event, during and after.  You could actually further distinguish near-after and long-after as well as a recurring component if the event is held at regular intervals, like many are on an annual basis.  Many conference speakers rely on the event to do the marketing. That’s a big fail.

Here are a few tips before, during and after the event to gain more attendees, more media coverage and post-event value:

Before the event:

• Write headlines, descriptions, tags and make trackable short URLs
• Pre-write tweets, updates and decide on a hashtag
• Submit your session to event listing sites, create events on Facebook and LinkedIn
• Create a contest or buzz around your presentation to inspire others to tell their networks
• Issue an optimized press release
• Schedule interviews with media attending the event and/or local media
• Connect with other speakers in advance
• Create a teaser for your presentation
• Announce your event attendance through email and your social channels
• When you meet people before your presentation, don’t be shy about sharing when you are speaking
• Create a check-in notice on Foursquare inviting people to attend your session

During the event:

• Create content the audience can participate with. I like to take photos of the audience and post to our Facebook page so they can tag themselves.
• Use tweetable, shareable content in your presentation
• Give something away to motivate desired behaviors like asking questions
• Always include a report or fulfillment piece in your thank you page
• Have someone on your team monitoring tweets and buzz during your presentation. Interact as appropriate

After the event:

• Curate buzz about the presentation into a blog post and/or newsroom post
• Follow up on questions asked and fulfillment deliverables
• Connect with new contacts through appropriate social channels
• Thank the conference for having you
• If you were on a panel, thank the panelists and moderator
• Thank any livebloggers that covered your session
• Use media coverage from the event in your newsroom, corporate email and other communications
• Follow up!!!!!

This should probably have been turned into an ebook on the topic, so congratulations on making it to the end of the post!  Heck, maybe we will make it into an ebook and add a few forms, checklists and examples.  In the meantime, share this list of tips with those in your organization that hold the purse strings for your event attendance. Try one or two of these tips for your next conference and share what you’ve done to get more value out of event attendance.

As always, if you like these tips, be sure to get your copy of Optimize for a deep dive into an integrated approach to optimizing your online marketing.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | 5 Ways to Optimize the Business Value of Attending Conferences | http://www.toprankblog.com

Actionable Social Analytics

This recent infographic by awareness takes a dive into social analytics.  In an era where virtually every brand is online, it is essential that action is being taken off of the data we are collecting from social networks.  This infographic provides not only some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that your company should be tracking, but how to calculate these numbers as well.  Examples of the KPI’s your company should be tracking:

• Brand Awareness & Reputation
• Marketing Program Effectiveness
• Lead Generation Effectiveness

Use LinkedIn to Get Juicy Industry Scoop
LinkedIn has proven to be a great recruiting mechanism and means of connecting business professionals.  Many organizations are now using the social networking platform to gain insight into potential clients.  Sounds a little bit like stalking to me, what do you think?  Via Inc.

You’re Fired! Facebook “Likes” Gone Wrong
Should companies have a say in what their employees post on social networks on their own time?  Can these posts or “likes” be grounds for termination?  That is exactly what judges are trying to figure out based on two recent cases where employees claim they were fired for what their employers deemed inappropriate “likes” on Facebook.  Via BtoB.

Google is King of the Mountain on Mobile
comScore’s Mobile Metrix report examines mobile media usage across different devices, applications, and web browsing.  According to this report, Google is leading the pack by reaching over 98% of the U.S. mobile audience.  Via TechCrunch.

Use Social Media to Target Existing Customers
Social media can be used in a variety of ways to target new and existing customers.  Your team can take a customer centric approach which involves answering questions and solving issues.  Additionally, social networks are a great way to offer loyalty programs which encourage repeat business.  This article offers 5 great tips for using social media to target your current customers.  Via Social Media Examiner.

Online Marketing News From the Top(Rank)

Shawna Kenyon – Facebook’s Stock Price in Context
Facebook is going public, well kind of. Last Thursday they announced the release of 337,415,352 shares to hit the marketplace, making Facebook one of the most valuable US Internet companies to date.  But is Facebook really a good investment? How does the offering/pricing compare to its tech counterparts?  Check out the Infographic in this article to see how Facebook stacks up.  Via Mashable.

Brian Larson -‘Cannibalization’ Not Good For Fast Food…Or Any Other Business
To be clear, we’re talking the cannibalization of revenue. Fast food giant Wendy’s launched the ‘W’ burger last year and saw sales for the new product display consistent growth. So where’s the problem? Sales of the ‘W’ burger were rising while higher ticket items were dropping. In effect, Wendy’s had been successful in down selling their menu. Let this delicious example be a friendly reminder that just because you can launch a product doesn’t mean you should.  Via AdvertisingAge.

Mike Yanke – Google Extends Search Results with ‘Sources’ Area
Extended information about movies, books, people and music will soon start populating the third column Google results as the search giant confirmed its ‘Sources’ experiment this week.  Learn more about this experiment – and see some early screencaps – in this article posted by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land.

Kodi Osmond – Google, Big Data & What it Means for SEO
Big data – it’s exactly what it sounds like.  Marketers have always been astutely aware of how gathering and analyzing customer data allows for relevant, impactful, and timely communications.  Google, one of the grand poobahs of big data companies, has alluded to how big big data will be for the future of search.  So is big data really the next big thing, and what big impact will it have on search marketers?  Via Search Engine Watch.

Time to Weigh in: Has your company used LinkedIn to target customers in the past?  If so what were your results?  What is your policy or preference on employees and social media usage, both personal and professional?  We look forward to your feedback on the news articles we found the most interesting this week.  Have a great weekend.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Online Marketing News: Take Action on Social Data, LinkedIn Gets the Scoop, Google Reigns Supreme, Google & Big Data for SEO | http://www.toprankblog.com

When you have a business that relies on attracting new business online the sheer volume of options can be confusing. Should offline advertising efforts transfer to online? Maybe email marketing? What about SEO or the hot topic, social media? So much focus is placed on tactics and channels, that a lot of misplaced digital marketing budget gets wasted or spent inefficiently.

To bring some clarity to the myriad online marketing options available, I think it’s worth marketers taking a holistic approach that starts with an essential understanding of goals and customers. Who are your best customers? Who are your worst? What do your best customers care about? What are their pain points and goals? While you’re answering those key questions, think about how your solutions meet the needs of your target audience and what stories you can tell to bring align those interests to a common goal.

To be an effective online marketer in today’s fast changing environment, it’s important to understand the customer journey though the sales cycle. That empathy helps internet marketers adapt to any changes in consumer behaviors. Curiosity about technology and trends will help marketers become smarter regardless of what changes occur in the industry, with specific channels or applications.

If you want to learn more about how a more customer centric and content focused internet marketing approach could work for your business, please give us a call or come to one of the events listed below. Over the next month or so, I will be speaking at a number of events drilling down into the strategy and mechanics of such an approach. Of course, a great complement to these events would be the book that Joe Pulizzi says will, “help take your online and content marketing to the next level”.

May 16, 1:00 pm Central
Webinar:  Optimize & Socialize for Better Content Marketing
Online Marketing Institute: Register Here (free)

The answer to better content marketing isn’t simply adding more content. Designing content that’s meaningful vs. mechanical for customers that inspires engagement and business outcomes enables brands to reach more people ready to buy, refer or share. This webinar will provide a framework for an Optimize and Socialize approach to content marketing that attracts, engages and inspires community and sales.

Key Takeaways:

• 3 Key consumer trends that spell opportunity for Social SEO
• A Framework for an optimized and socialized content marketing program
• How to plan search and social content across the sales cycle
• Essential KPIs and business outcomes for Social SEO and content marketing

May 23rd, 4:45 pm Pacific
Solo Presentation: Sales Cycle Optimization With Content, SEO & Social Media
Marketo Users Conference (Client), San Francisco: Register Here

While Google.com handles over 11 billion queries a month, competition for attention on the search and social web is at an all time high. There are over 65,743,590 blog posts published each month and more video is uploaded to YouTube in that time than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years. Content flows in every direction throughout a variety of platforms, formats and devices. The mass adoption of the social and mobile web has facilitated a revolution of information access, sharing and publishing.

Guiding customers on their journey through the sales cycle in that environment requires an integrated approach to content, optimization and social media marketing. Optimizing the sales funnel is essential to attract, engage and inspiring customers to buy and this presentation will provide attendees with a framework and tactics to develop their own Optimize and Socialize approach to sales cycle optimization.

June 1st, 8:00 am Central
Presentation: Optimize – How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing
Social Media Club, Redwood Falls MN: Register Here (free copy of Optimize for all attendees!)

How can small businesses approach their online marketing to achieve better visibility where customers are looking and socializing online? This presentation on Optimize will provide attendees a framework for organizing their content marketing that leverages both search and social media to attract more customers, shorten sales cycles and retain existing customers. Some of the key presentation topics to be covered:

• Major shifts in consumer search and social trends
• Key opportunities to improve online marketing strategy and performance
• How to integrate customer-centric SEO with social media and content marketing
• Using this knowledge to attract, engage, and inspire more sales online

June 7th, 9:00 am Eastern
Track Keynote: Optimize and Socialize for Better Content Marketing
BlogWorld New Media & Expo, New York: Register Here

Search, social media and content marketing are converging, and consumers are using numerous ways to discover, consume and act on content. In this session, you’ll learn how to use content marketing best practices to design information that inspires audiences to share, buy and recommend your brand.

Key Points
1. Learn the framework for an optimize and socialize approach to content marketing
2. Understand the framework for optimizing across the customer lifecycle
3. Know the difference between KPIs and business outcomes for web and social measurement

June 8th, 9:00 am Eastern
Keynote: Attract & Engage More Customers With An Optimized State of Mind
Vocus Users Conference (Client), Baltimore: Register Here

The worlds of Marketing and Public Relations are converging and now, more than ever, communications professionals need to accelerate their internet marketing skill sets to create a competitive advantage. This presentation provides an integrated approach to using content for optimizing awareness, engagement and action.

June 11, 10:30 am & 3:30 pm
Enterprise SEO
Content Marketing Optimization
SES Toronto: Register Here

Enterprise SEO: This session will also include a proven model of organization for your enterprise-level SEO campaign as well as a summary of key metrics that you should be measuring to drive ongoing SEO strategy.

Content Marketing Optimization: Pandas and Penguins and Zebras Oh My!  If your SEO is all about chasing tricks and shortcuts with content and links, then this session isn’t for you. If you are interested in building a competitive advantage focusing on customer centric content marketing that works with or without search engines, then make sure you have a front row seat.

It will be a busy 30 days but there’s been so much interest in a more integrated approach and with Optimize, that it’s been a real pleasure meeting and exchanging ideas with marketers looking for a more holistic perspective to marketing on the web. I hope to see you at one of these events.  To get a tase of these types of presentations, take a look at this deck from the Fusion Marketing Experience conference that I presented last week in Antwerp. It’s currently featured on the home page of Slideshare.

For anyone that liveblogs these events, please be sure to email me the link to your post and I’ll send you a copy of Optimize. If you have one, I’ll send you one to give away to your readers.  lee at toprank dot org

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | Holistic Optimization Across the Sales Cycle: Optimize Speaking Events May & June | http://www.toprankblog.com

During that process of continuous optimization, it’s important to take the temperature of trends for your specific target market as well as at a broad level. I’d like to use this post to take your general social media temperature when it comes to the most important social networks for business. This is a gut feeling check for how you perceive the list below of social media/network properties that companies are currently using for business purposes.

Please take a few seconds and take the following poll about mostly U.S. centric social media and networking sites. Pick up to 3.

Of course a proper digital marketing strategy that includes a social media component would identify specific social networks relevant to the target audience, but I think there’s some value in tapping into general trends and perceptions as well. I think there’s a bit of a rub between the idea of using a social network for fun as a user and using that same social network as a business. Therefore, it will be interesting to see which social networks, besides the obvious, are perceived as best for business use.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | What Are the Most Important Social Networks for Business? | http://www.toprankblog.com

Marketing Deja Vu Getting You Down?

At some time or another we have all experienced that eerie sense of familiarity where we’ve “been there” or “done that” before.  Whether it is an actual memory or simply a “brain fart”, deja vu is an interesting experience.

Let’s assume for a second that deja vu is real.  If you found yourself in a situation you knew for certain you had experienced before that had ended badly would you have the tools necessary to change your course of action?  Many organizations have faced and continue to deal with “marketing deja vu” or ending up in the same situations over and over again.  What can you do to avoid making the same marketing mistakes more than once?

*Speaking of deja vu: If you are looking for additional tips on improving your marketing strategy be sure to reference the posts from the TopRankBlog archive that appear in this post.

4 Tips For Avoiding Marketing Deja Vu

#1 – Learn From Your Previous Marketing Mistakes

The best way to avoid repeating mistakes?  By learning from each experience.  Do not expect that you will have different set of outcomes from the same actions.  We must remember that marketing mistakes can mean a decrease in current customer base, as well as the loss of potential new customers.

3 Tips for Learning From Your Marketing Mistakes:

• Mistakes happen, the worst thing you can do is avoid dealing with the problem
• Move on but don’t forget the lesson you learned
• Don’t let frustration get the best of you

We All Make Mistakes:  20 Social Media Marketing Do’s & Dont’s

#2 – Create A Structured Marketing Process

Errors can in large part be attributed to lack of process.  A structured process provides a framework and guideline for accomplishing your marketing goals.  Marketing process improves your ability to:

• Plan effectively for future marketing needs
• Implement & Scale your marketing plan
• Test, implement, and refine marketing tactics

Implement A Process: Practical Tips to Make Your Blog More Useful & Interactive

#3 – Don’t Rationalize Bad Marketing Decisions

One of the biggest mistakes we can make as marketers is to rationalize bad decisions.  It is important that we accept and face the fact that we didn’t make the best choice.  Once we’ve overcome the hurdle of admitting fault it’s time to take action:

• Focus on why a particular marketing tactic didn’t work
• Determine how your team can improve going forward
• Debrief other team members so they can avoid making the same mistakes

To Be Avoided: 4 B2B Social Media & SEO Blunders to Avoid

#4 – Ask for Help & Advice to Improve Your Marketing Plan

Pride should never get in the way of improving your marketing strategy.  Some of the best ideas come from where you least expect. Suggesting collaboration with other team members and influentials can:

• Help you come to a conclusion for next steps faster
• Remind you of mistakes they may have made in the past that you will want to avoid
• Provide a fresh set of eyes that may have a different perspective

Get the Help You Need: 4 Tips for Becoming A Better Influencer

Take Action

You may have heard some or all of the tips listed above prior to reading this post.  However, I want you to ask yourself:  How many of these tips has my team actually implemented and stuck with?  A good starting point to get on the right track to avoiding ‘marketing deja vu’ is to ask yourself and your team a few simple discovery questions:

• What are 3 instances in where your marketing team has made the same mistake more than once?
• Did you expect different outcomes each time the mistake was made?
• What were those expected outcomes?
• What have you done to rectify these mistakes, or adapt your process to avoid them in the future?

Remember, if you can’t answer these questions on your own perhaps you should try asking other team members.  Or you may want to consider or contacting an agency like TopRank Online Marketing to learn how you can attract and engage current and prospective customers by avoiding common marketing mistakes.

Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.

© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. | It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again: 4 Tips for Improving Marketing for Small Business | http://www.toprankblog.com