propDAVE : Managing an Internet Marketing and Web Development Company

EpikOne and Champlain College’s 3rd Online Marketing Bootcamp opened eyes and provided both the strategy and tactical guidance for interactive marketing pros – all here in our backyard of Burlington, Vermont

This is a key piece of a bigger story about a rapidly growing industry and one that is finding a perfect home here in Vermont. That story, I’ll hold for another post, and instead hit on the key themes and take-aways from this 4-day conference.

Having now had a few days to digest and after numerous internal discussion here at Propeller, the big takeaways for me included:

• Of Avinash’s many words of wisdom, “analytics in aggregate is crap” was particularly meaningful. He spoke to the need to segment and put the numbers into context, in order to provide any hope for meaningful insight.
• Segmentation applied to almost every aspect of online marketing. From the strategic level of segmenting markets and profiles to the tactical level of segmenting the goals and filters in analytics or for geography, purpose or profile in Adwords.
• Media Investment vs Buying was a particularly strong point Dave Winslow focused on. This is ever more relevant when looking at Google’s huge step into the media marketplace (radio, newspaper, television). This is a game-changer – Hello traditional media buyers….
• Social Marketing. Its huge, but still darn tough to put a business case with direct ROI against. This is where people are interacting though in massive numbers. Average age is climbing and currently 34. Very strong opportunities for direct interaction, feedback, concept testing, SEO, branding and loyalty building.
• Mobile & Local. GPS enabled phones and the next version of iPhone.
• Usability and user profiling. Dani spoke well of segmentation and applying personas which you use to drive design and usability decisions. Usability is a balance.

Event Keywords:
> Google Google Google
> Mobile
> Local
> Social
> Segmentation
> Surveys
> Profiling/Personas
> Relevancy
> Bounce Rate
> Data visualization
> Usability
> Test Test Test
> F Pattern
> Ethnography
> Informavors

EpikOne and Champlain College’s 3rd Online Marketing Bootcamp opened eyes and provided both the strategy and tactical guidance for interactive marketing pros – all here in our backyard of Burlington, Vermont. Propeller represented well with our crew present all week.

Dr. Elaine Young of Champlain (Social Marketing Maven) setup a Tweme (Twitter group) for people to post their impressions throughout the event. I can’t say that I fit the Twitter user profile, however If I were age 15 and maestro of the cell, I might have entered:

> Dave Winslow from EpikOne. MC and driving force behind the event. GA Dude.
> Dave: design democracy via testing
> Dave: segmentation clustered with unique paths/offers
> Dave: changing media buying to media investing, where investment principles are applied to marketing decision. Analytics provides the measurement for ROI
> Dave + flip flops + bike = leg in cast

> Avinash Kaushik from Google makes analytics “sexy cool”? Occams Razor. Job title : Analytics Avangelist…
> Avinash > Bounce Rate > “They came, they puked, they left.” Key metric to keep under 50% with less than 25% ideal.
> Avinash > Segmentation: “Data in aggregate is crap”. Just seeing that X visitors came to your site is useless without the context of the source and behavior. Use to measure long tail value.
> Avinash > Surveys. Big surprise to everyone. Most annoying and poorly designed survey – 24% success rate. WOW. On-Exit surveys very very powerful tool to gather information from the user you’re targeting. Tool to combat the HPPO and test assumptions.
> Survey tool: 4 square

> Champlain College is one beautiful campus. Food is amazing. I want to go back to school.
> Pizza rocks

> Alec Newcomb from MyWebGrocer
> Alec: Time spent online: 30%-40% yet only 9% ad$ spent on online tells us that much more spend is coming.
> Alec: 82% of iPhone users browse Web on the device. GPS enabling will make local/geo targeting super relevant.
> Alec: Social/Consumer generated content providing ad space inventory.
> Alec: Average age on social networks: 34. Badge value for marketers key tool.

> Mark Boujould – from EpikOne : ONLINE ADVERTISING
> Mark: SEO – no change in the rules
> Mark: Inbound links and PageRank: Link harvesting via competitive research: compete.com
> Mark: Value of Google Webmaster tools to see what Google sees in your site.
> Mark: SEM/PPC: Google owns over 75% of online ad spend feeding over 90% of Google revenue.
> Mark: Email: Still incredibly effective on an ROI basis
> Mark: Email: Use the service providers with built-in testing, reporting and to ensure delivery. Link tag.

> Efe Cimrin - from EpikOne : SOCIAL
> Efe : Threadless.com models the power of open source/social with a company that pulls its product and consumers from its own social network. Recently on cover of Ince: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080601/the-customer-is-the-company.html
> Efe: Difficult to manage – similar to value of brand. Loyalty and WOM marketing. SEO
> Efe: Break.com – ad supported model profiting by pulling only the good user generated video.
> Efe: Social Resources: Kickapps, Pluck.com, Ning
> Efe: Social analytics: “persistence of engagement”. Social tracking: Socialmedia.com, techrigy

> NOTE: The word “recession” only mentioned by someone noting that its not affecting this group. Probably propelling it.

> Paul Skarvinko from Epik : GOOGLE ADWORDS
> Paul: GA trackable 800 numbers: Mongoose Metrics and Adwords offers its own: Google to find.
> Paul: Competitive intelligence: use adguru.com or compete.com
> Paul: Local geo targeting
> Paul: Pay per action (still in beta) : don’t pay unless visitor converts
> Paul: Google’s expansion into media buying/placement: game changer.
> Note: The lack of traditional ad agency representation at this event: must be busy digging their sand holes. Good.

> Dani Giandomenico – from EpikOne : USABILITY
> Dani: Digs Optimus Prime and Theory
> Dani: Robert Rubinoff: Usability is a balance of Branding, Usability, Functionality, Content
> Dani: Ethnography (new word for me) – anthropological focus on ethnic groups. Applied here to creating personas (again, Segmentation).
> Dani: Comedian
> Dani: F Pattern & Jacob Neilson
> Dani: Homepage usability: 30 seconds, won’t read > scans for navigation options, won’t scroll, will select things in the featured area (top line of the F)

Web 2.0 and Social networks and media are certainly the flavor of the day in online marketing. With tools like Ning now enabling any organization to develop their own feature rich social network/media community site, the question is whether or not it makes the most sense to build your own or invest in the communities already established. It’s a strategy question that looks at the pros and cons of building and pulling people into your community, or reaching out to communities that might already exist.

Here are some steps I’d suggest taking in making this decision.

1. Reality Check: Is this initiative a knee-jerk reaction to a shiny new object, or part of a strategy? Be honest. If so, what is its priority level within your integrated marketing plan and what resources (financial and human) will be available to setup and maintain?

2. Research what is already out there: What blogs, discussion groups, social network/media pages/groups are already focused on your industry, sector, product/service, or your individual organization. The results may surprise you.

3. Research tools and service options for building your own: Google “create your own social network”. Pick three, dig deeper, compare. Bring in your developers and designers to learn what customization options exist from a brand/design perspective, and what technical resource might be required to implement. At this point, all you need are ballpark numbers just to get a sense of what you could be investing. Multiply those numbers by 2 if not 3.

I expect after step 2, you may have realized that building a social network will not replace the need to also get out there and engage in all of those social media and social network sites. Good. Get out there and engage.

If your goal in creating your own social networking site is to “control the message”, you still don’t get it. Get out of the way of those that do.

Any organization with a product or service that is strong enough to bond people should strongly consider developing its own social network. The opportunity to build a community surrounding your brand is extremely powerful. People are self-defined by the brands they feel passionate about. Whether it’s their car, their radio station, their favorite ski resort, or their laptop… these brands contribute to their individual brands - this social phenomenon is extremely viral.

One quick check: if you think you’re customer would wear a t-shirt with your logo – you already have a community.

If you have a few moments watch this:

Here is his Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/m0serious

He has a whole series of these. The content of his lyrics are all right on too. He’s correct about the SEO, SEM and Social points and how to optimize. He delivers it very well.

So my point is that this is an individual representing his company’s brand - though his company likely has no control of it. There is no company branding - though he does list and refer to his company in his profile. He also expresses his religion (though not specifically), mentions family, music, sports.. Evidently the videos are created in his work space.

For some execs, this might be a little troubling. Others might love that it demonstrates the culture and passion of the employee. We hear the story all the time about the need for brands to get over and embrace the fact they cannot control what customers say about them. Here, its a lesser told story about employee’s impact on the brand, and again how the company looses more control of it.

To really understand you’re client’s business you need to experience it. Right?

It was that idea that drew our three man executive team out to Valdez Alaska to visit our friends (clients) at Valdez Heli-Camps. We do quite a bit of work in the winter/resort/travel/recreation category and these are the clients we naturally feel obliged to visit - to maintain our connection with the experience or course. It sure is a tough job.

Unfortunately in Alaska, weather kept us from actually flying… however what is excellent about this operation is that they have these really cool cats as backup.

What was my point??? I almost forgot… right. We were there to experience the product, and we did. From that we truly understood what their client’s pain points were and what opportunities were being missed. I was also motivated to setup social media channels for them on my down-time and throw in some extra work off the clock. What comes around, goes around.

So, if you happen to own a heli ski operation, give us a call

Some pix from the week: http://flickr.com/groups/valdezhelicamps/

There is simply no doubt that even in the economy down-turn that Internet Marketing is going to continue to crush it. Brands have to compete even harder for those tight fisted consumer dollars, and presenting brands in these new spaces requires new approaches. What is likely most attractive to marketing directors and CFOs alike is that online marketing performance is very measurable, and the medium enables very fast course corrections - based on performance.

Which course to take? There are the table steaks that you have to focus on first. Your site needs to be first optimized for SEO. No tricks, just good solid keyword development, followed by segmentation and application of those shorter keyword segments in a way that tightly aligns all of the SEO page elements.

Then the options open considerably. Key is to have a partner to guide you. One who knows your business and the internet marketing options.

I think we’re seeing the maturing of networking and social media sites, and marketers are beginning to get their value (even if their bosses don’t yet). They’re responding to marketers needs while balancing the needs of their audiences. They offer brands space to both present content and connect visitors. YouTube offers Channels and Groups, Flikr offers Groups, Facebook and LinkedIn provide Pages. As users join/fan your brand page/group, the “cred juice” of each person flows to the brand and carried virally. On people’s Face profiles, for example, you see the groups and pages they have joined. A key feature of Face is that as members update their profiles and join groups/pages all their friends are flagged with “John joined xyz” on their News Feeds.

To get it, you have to use it. Join Face, LinkedIn (if you haven’t already). You can skip MySpace. Create a group on Flikr and post some photos. Each has all the privacy control you’ll need. Just make sure you’re acquainted and then discover how addictive they are. Then you’ll get it.

In pursuit of success one model I strive to follow is one of “continuous evolution”. I became more focused on the concept while learning about multivariate testing (a more advanced version of a-b-c testing), where variable elements are introduced and tested for conversion success on a web page.

It’s a process of experimentation, where through trial and error we test multiple images, calls to action, copy, headlines, button colors, etc. In the process there are elements that fail and succeed. The goal is to find the best possible combination of variables that deliver the most success. The lesson I take from that is that without those failures, we would have no successes.

The concept of Continuous Evolution is one that I’m interested in applying to everything I can. So, in a recent managers meeting to plan direction for the upcoming year, on a culture and leadership level I proposed we do more to embrace failure.

Instead of proposing that we encourage failure, my point is simply that in order to evolve, one must expect to make wrong turns in the process. One can either hide those failures to appear more perfect, or accept that failure is part of the learning process, and that to not share the failure and discuss what can be learned puts others at risk of making the same mistake and weakening the overall organization.

My lovely wife used to work for Red Bull. The experience made a great impression on her and she often reflects on the company’s management style and how it shaped the culture of the organization. In stark contrast to more recent company’s where she experienced cultures where ownership of failure was avoided at all cost, she found at Red Bull, not only an acceptance of failure, but even a celebration of failure. At Red Bull, employees were (and perhaps still are) encouraged to share their failures as much as their successes, so that others could learn from them and not make the same mistakes themselves. Employees were even rewarded for sharing what went wrong, especially when doing so contributed to overall improvements.

I think that regardless of the scale of the challenge, the best solution will come out of a series of failures. So long as those failures are shared and learned from, they will ensure success in the long run.

In contrast to a Six Sigma error-elimination paradigm, I pursue a continuous evolution model that embraces failure, but not any failure. Not the failures from negligence or lack of strategy. Instead I embrace failure from calculated risk taking and experimentation. Tests that are quantifiable and from which conclusions can be drawn that move us ahead.

In the words of Thomas Edison: “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

More Reading:
How Failure Breeds Success : Business Week : July 06
Embracing Failure at Work : Some examples of what goes wrong when you don’t.
Embracing failure is a necessary step for successful entrepreneurs

The term Partnership gets thrown around a lot. For some, its marketing copy. For experienced agencies, its a core mission. This assumes that any agency worth their pixels wants to continuously increase their value. That value arrives when the agency has a seat at the business strategy table to provide guidance that can extends well beyond the surface of a website. An interactive marketing and technology partner that can deliver custom applications and system integration can serve as a key partner in opening both new revenue paths, and providing operational and systemic efficiencies that save money. Getting to that seat however takes trust which takes time to earn.

What is the value to the Partner?

• First there is the Quality Bump. We’re dealing with people here, and when our team members feel they are Partners, their motivation shifts from trying to impress me to impressing you.
• The Access Bump. There is tremendous demand for interactive work, and the resources of any decent agency will always be taxed. Whether conscious or not, Partners will get their jobs pushed to the front of the line.
• The Efficiency Bump. Once we know your business and have experience walking in your shoes and talking with your customers the better we become. The time we spend on discovery lessens and depth and accuracy of our proposals increases. We become an extension of the Partner’s organization and intuitively know the path to take.
• Finally there is the Emotional Reward Bump. Here, the agency is rewarded with the pride of seeing their Partner succeed. Having a partner that genuinely feels that pride is a huge bump for both organizations.

Partnerships are relationships between people with both business needs and emotional needs. Its a two-way relationship and it only works if transparent communication runs both ways and takes into account the Golden Rule. I treat customers as I’d expect to be treated, and I expect the same in return.

A Partnership is an investment. Any investment requires a degree of due diligence and it generally takes time. Therefore, an agency shouldn’t expect to get the keys to all the doors and for their clients to spill their guts on day one. It generally takes the successful execution of at least one sizable project for the relationship to become established and trust earned. Of course the degree of trust is dependent upon the level of success in the execution - which puts the pressure first on the agency to perform. If that step is made successfully, and the first degree of trust is earned, then doors should open (client’s turn). That is a step that the client has to make, and once we’re actually at the table - literally sitting at strategic operations and marketing meetings - then You have a partner from which you will get a value bump that will last a very long time and yield results that you can’t even guess at.

Thanks to our many Partners.

Social marketing is continuing to buzz as we explore new routes and destinations, and sure enough its a key topic at Online Marketing Bootcamp here in Burlington Vermont. Champlain College and EpikOne have pulled in some world-class speakers to discuss both the strategies and tactics. In contrast to the mega conventions, this week-long series provides depth and a less formal intimate setting for these discussions. (ok, that’s my plug).

The obvious point is that these networking and community oriented user-generated content sites are where consumers are, and its . More importantly, these are where influencers are. They are sharing videos, photos and building networks. Some call it one big popularity contest for those who want to see and be seen. Sure that is a common trait of many users, but the users are moving up the age and sophistication level, and so is the content and applications. The fact is, its completely addictive. The technology has come down to a level where anyone can create their own presence online. A user’s collection of photos, videos, applications and associations begin to paint pictures that reflect each individual’s personality.

Have you been into a Quicksilver store and seen their brand box filled with random items like a blown-out flipflop, postcard from Cost Rica, a broken leash, sand, etc… all attempting to paint a brand through kitchy objects? In the same way a blog, a profile on Face, MySpace, or vids on YouTube offer a similar opportunity to present a less tucked-in view of an organization’s culture. In that way, these profile provide great tools for recruiting as well.

Some are very well disguised. Here Humel, who is selling chic sports wear to that evasive 20-30 year old, uses a myspace profile to draw in users. The branding is subtle, and the page is very well thought out.

Here is a less subtle facebook profile for Sugarbush Resort. Basically, the conversation about your company is happening out there. Its your choice about whether or not you want to be there to respond or at least listen. Here its off the company website, so there is less risk and more freedom to take risks and test concepts.

Much more on this to come.

What are the three recommendations I have for clients who wish to get the most value in their online investment?

1. Choose your partner very very carefully.
2. Invest in Strategy
3. Combine Offline with Online

Choosing an Internet Marketing & Web Development Partner
This needs to be a long post all on its own… but to summarize, while category experience can be very comforting, that should not be the number one consideration (number 3 perhaps). Instead, I’d focus on the company’s creative energy, their reputation, and their process. Review the portfolio carefully and look for blogs where you might get an informal view of the company’s style and focus. Within that process, I’d rate the company that front-loads their projects with discovery and planning the highest. One size fits all usually means experts at none.

An Internet Marketing Strategy is Essential
Website, blog, social media, search engine optimization and search engine marketing are today’s internet marketing tools. Each serves an important role and each depends on the other to be effective. The growing complexity in online marketing requires deeper planning.

The good news is that the tools for marketers to track channel/campaign performance have kept up. The key however is to be clear about your organizations key performance indicators and to focus on their conversions. Further, placing a value on each conversion enables the marketer to track actual ROI and apply resources accordingly.

Combine Offline with Online
Is offline still relevant? Of course it is, but in new ways. It serves as an important vehicle to drive visitors online (snicker snicker). Of course it serves other purposes (which you can only try to measure as effectively as online), but really where is the conversion taking place today? Where do you spend the least for that conversion today? Point made.