If you're interested in learning more about digital marketing (blogs, podcasts, social networks, etc.), there’s a free conference coming up in Toronto on Nov. 15 that you can't miss.
Talk is Cheap is an evening “unconference” at Centennial College’s Centre for Creative Communications (in east-end Toronto), on Nov. 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. It offers a series of 20-minute presentations about use of Web 2.0/social media in public relations. Topics will include blogging, podcasting, wikis, social networks and social media newsrooms.
Here’s the powerful part. An unconference is a conference where sessions and content are determined (and delivered) by the participants. If you know something about social media, you can volunteer to present. Or if there are specific topics you'd like to see covered, you can suggest them and hope somebody takes up the challenge.
The name "Talk Is Cheap" recognizes that social media is about conversation, and represents a less expensive tactic than most other forms of marketing.
I've volunteered for a topic, based on what I’ve learned about the power of blogging vs. print. So come on out and spend some time talking up the future of marketing.
The CCC is located at 951 Carlaw Avenue. It's north of Danforth Avenue and one block west of Pape Avenue, at Mortimer. There’s parking nearby and the subway a few blocks south.
Sign up here.
Read the schedule or suggest a topic here.
(It’s all wiki-based, which means you add your own input onto a document page that’s accessible to all. If it’s confusing at first, stick with it. It’s part of your initiation into "we" media.)
Showing posts with label digital marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital marketing. Show all posts
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Having a Blast in E-Marketing
Congrats to seven great Canadian entrepreneurs.
Blast Radius, one of the most successful young growth firms in Canada (as measured by the very first PROFIT Hot 50 list of Emerging Growth Companies, away back in 2000) has just been sold to an international direct-marketing firm.
Why should you care? Because it’s a key indicator of the digital marketing revolution, which you should be part of (as I've written here, here and here).
Founded in 1996 by seven Vancouver film schol grads, Blast Radius specializes in digital marketing and social networking. It has 400 employees, offices in the U.S.
and Europe, and clients such as Nike and Starbucks. (Click on the pic at right to see more clients.) The buyer is New York-based Wunderman, which calls itself “the most diverse digital relationship marketing network in the world.”
What’s interesting to me (and to you, if you care about marketing trends) is the explanation from Wunderman CEO Daniel Morel. According to marketing news service ClickZ, the increasing migration of ad budgets into Internet channels (especially search engine marketing) is pushing Wunderman to ramp up its digital services. "I'm surprised at the speed at which clients are moving real communication dollars into the [digital] channel," said Morel. In fact, he expects that one day the history of advertising will be divided into "Before Search" and "After Search."
Blast Radius CEO Gurval Caer gave ClickZ an example of what this means. "We have some built-in tools to identify how best you can tap into social networks in a way that is sustainable and truly meaningful to the brand and its community," he said. Helping companies share content and experiences with customers with “is core to our brand."
Caer contrasts this with Wunderman's experience in data-driven relationship marketing. "Wunderman has a modern operating system with data and results at the core -- not storytelling," he says. "It's having to redeploy those core competencies from traditional direct marketing and direct mail to the new environment." (Click here for the full story.)
The marketing world may be in a huge state of flux, but it’s clear that things are advancing fast. Is your firm keeping up to date?
(Thurday afternoon update: If you're interested in more info on social media/digital marketing, I have just updated my "tags." You can read my past posts on search, Internet marketing, blogs, etc. , by clicking on the "digital marketnig" tag below. See, this is the power of interactive media!)
Blast Radius, one of the most successful young growth firms in Canada (as measured by the very first PROFIT Hot 50 list of Emerging Growth Companies, away back in 2000) has just been sold to an international direct-marketing firm.
Why should you care? Because it’s a key indicator of the digital marketing revolution, which you should be part of (as I've written here, here and here).
Founded in 1996 by seven Vancouver film schol grads, Blast Radius specializes in digital marketing and social networking. It has 400 employees, offices in the U.S.
and Europe, and clients such as Nike and Starbucks. (Click on the pic at right to see more clients.) The buyer is New York-based Wunderman, which calls itself “the most diverse digital relationship marketing network in the world.”What’s interesting to me (and to you, if you care about marketing trends) is the explanation from Wunderman CEO Daniel Morel. According to marketing news service ClickZ, the increasing migration of ad budgets into Internet channels (especially search engine marketing) is pushing Wunderman to ramp up its digital services. "I'm surprised at the speed at which clients are moving real communication dollars into the [digital] channel," said Morel. In fact, he expects that one day the history of advertising will be divided into "Before Search" and "After Search."
Blast Radius CEO Gurval Caer gave ClickZ an example of what this means. "We have some built-in tools to identify how best you can tap into social networks in a way that is sustainable and truly meaningful to the brand and its community," he said. Helping companies share content and experiences with customers with “is core to our brand."
Caer contrasts this with Wunderman's experience in data-driven relationship marketing. "Wunderman has a modern operating system with data and results at the core -- not storytelling," he says. "It's having to redeploy those core competencies from traditional direct marketing and direct mail to the new environment." (Click here for the full story.)
The marketing world may be in a huge state of flux, but it’s clear that things are advancing fast. Is your firm keeping up to date?
(Thurday afternoon update: If you're interested in more info on social media/digital marketing, I have just updated my "tags." You can read my past posts on search, Internet marketing, blogs, etc. , by clicking on the "digital marketnig" tag below. See, this is the power of interactive media!)
Friday, September 21, 2007
Why blogs are better than print (there, I said it)
I’ve tried not to commit the cardinal sin of blogging – which is blogging too much about blogging.
But the other day I was struggling to explain to someone why blogging is such a powerful medium. For instance, yesterday my blog recorded its 35,000th visitor. That's pretty exciting – but it’s small potatoes compared to my average column in PROFIT or MoneySense magazines, which reaches more than 100,000 people. So why does blogging intrigue me so much?
Because reading a column in a magazine is essentially a passive act. The only natural thing to do once you've finished is to turn the page (literally and metaphorically). That's certainly all that the technology encourages you to do.
Reading a blog post, by contrast, is generally a more conscious act – with many more potential outcomes. If you're intrigued by the topic or the writer of a blog you've just read, there are many follow-up steps you can take.
This has huge implications, not just for writers, but for anyone marketing or promoting themselves or their business. So here are 12 reasons why blogs are better than magazines, billboards, newspapers and other media – even those with greater reach:
* people come to blogs because they are interested in the topic – whether they have deliberately targeted your site or arrived by accident through a search engine link
* people usually know how to find a blog again if they want to
* not only can they bookmark blogs they like, they can even subscribe to their favourites so they never miss another update
* people can contact most bloggers directly with questions, comments, requests, and suggestions
* blogs are generally more welcoming of a dialogue than newspapers, ads, columns, etc.
* using standard web analytics, bloggers can see how many people visited the blog, when, and from where (country or city). That makes those readers more “real” to the writer/publisher than the thousands of people who read newspaper articles and ads – but leave no trail behind. And by checking web-search terms, the bloggers know what those people were interested in or looking for.
* blogs often link directly to references, sources of more information, and action steps, providing instant gratification for readers wanting more (e.g., if a blogger mentions a good book, they will often include a link to where you can buy it right now if you wish)
* blogs are generally more timely (no long production or distribution delays), thus of greater perceived impact
* readers can interact with other visitors around specific ideas or topics through comments (and sometimes emails)
* ability to go deeper: if you like this writer or topic, you have instant access to their previous blog posts and can find much more
* ability to copy and paste means you can “own” that information, by printing out or storing it as a digital file (which then becomes searchable on your own computer)
* the blogger often includes links to their other sites, projects or products, enabling interested readers/consumers to pursue deeper relationships with that person or business automatically.
I figure that the difference between blogging and print (or TV, radio, and other one-way media) is comparable to the difference between seeing a billboard with a picture of a dog, and play-wrestling with a golden retriever in your living room .
Which would you rather do?
And which would your customers rather do?
But the other day I was struggling to explain to someone why blogging is such a powerful medium. For instance, yesterday my blog recorded its 35,000th visitor. That's pretty exciting – but it’s small potatoes compared to my average column in PROFIT or MoneySense magazines, which reaches more than 100,000 people. So why does blogging intrigue me so much?
Because reading a column in a magazine is essentially a passive act. The only natural thing to do once you've finished is to turn the page (literally and metaphorically). That's certainly all that the technology encourages you to do.
Reading a blog post, by contrast, is generally a more conscious act – with many more potential outcomes. If you're intrigued by the topic or the writer of a blog you've just read, there are many follow-up steps you can take.
This has huge implications, not just for writers, but for anyone marketing or promoting themselves or their business. So here are 12 reasons why blogs are better than magazines, billboards, newspapers and other media – even those with greater reach:
* people come to blogs because they are interested in the topic – whether they have deliberately targeted your site or arrived by accident through a search engine link
* people usually know how to find a blog again if they want to
* not only can they bookmark blogs they like, they can even subscribe to their favourites so they never miss another update
* people can contact most bloggers directly with questions, comments, requests, and suggestions
* blogs are generally more welcoming of a dialogue than newspapers, ads, columns, etc.
* using standard web analytics, bloggers can see how many people visited the blog, when, and from where (country or city). That makes those readers more “real” to the writer/publisher than the thousands of people who read newspaper articles and ads – but leave no trail behind. And by checking web-search terms, the bloggers know what those people were interested in or looking for.
* blogs often link directly to references, sources of more information, and action steps, providing instant gratification for readers wanting more (e.g., if a blogger mentions a good book, they will often include a link to where you can buy it right now if you wish)
* blogs are generally more timely (no long production or distribution delays), thus of greater perceived impact
* readers can interact with other visitors around specific ideas or topics through comments (and sometimes emails)
* ability to go deeper: if you like this writer or topic, you have instant access to their previous blog posts and can find much more
* ability to copy and paste means you can “own” that information, by printing out or storing it as a digital file (which then becomes searchable on your own computer)
* the blogger often includes links to their other sites, projects or products, enabling interested readers/consumers to pursue deeper relationships with that person or business automatically.
I figure that the difference between blogging and print (or TV, radio, and other one-way media) is comparable to the difference between seeing a billboard with a picture of a dog, and play-wrestling with a golden retriever in your living room .
Which would you rather do?
And which would your customers rather do?
Thursday, September 06, 2007
5 Rules for Better Communication in a Web 2.0 World -- Part II
Earlier I posted about my speech in Burlington, Ont. on Sept. 4 on “Communicating in a Web 2.0 World.” Here’s the takeaway from that session: five tips for getting noticed and communicating more effectively in a world where everyone is talking at once.
1. Know your customer. If you're going to reach the greatest number of customers and prospects, you have to know who they are and what their media habits are.
We know that more than 70% of car buyers do research on the Internet before they visit a dealership. How do your customers seek out information? Are they reading ads in the paper, searching on Google, or reading blogs? Are they talking with friends on FaceBook, or over the back fence? Would they read your blog, would they subscribe to an email newsletter, would they respond to a contest for the best home-made video of someone trying out your product?
2. Get people’s attention! When you know what you want to say, say it well. Stand out. Be lively, be interesting, be fun. Don't hold back. And never, ever be boring.
Most ads, most brochures, most website copy is dull. Boring. Written by people who didn't understand people’s needs to be entertained, amused, teased and intrigued. Take a chance, hire a marketer, and find a way to be dazzling, fascinating, habit-forming.
3. Make it easy for your audience to find you. Archive all your ads, your press releases, your product specs or announcements, your newsletters. Get an SEO specialist to give your site more Google juice (i.e., a higher ranking on the search engines). Trade links with other businesses. Put your URL in your ads and n your business cards, let people know where to find your blogs, newsletters or limited-time coupons. If your market can't find you, it doesn't matter what you're saying.
4. Overuse the word “You.” Have your customers and their needs in mind at all times. Don't talk about your products or services – talk about how your products and services solve their problems. Get over yourself and put the customer and his or her needs at the centre of all you do.
5. Experiment. There is no one fix for every business. If blogging isn’t for you, maybe you'll make a splash with YouTube videos or pay-per-click advertising. If newspaper ads work for you, stick with them, but experiment with interactive elements that help you build your database and communicate with more customers directly.
Above all, ask your customers what they're listening to, what they're reading, how they're using the net. That's how you can focus on the best opportunities for your business to stand out, be heard, and serve its customers better.
1. Know your customer. If you're going to reach the greatest number of customers and prospects, you have to know who they are and what their media habits are.
We know that more than 70% of car buyers do research on the Internet before they visit a dealership. How do your customers seek out information? Are they reading ads in the paper, searching on Google, or reading blogs? Are they talking with friends on FaceBook, or over the back fence? Would they read your blog, would they subscribe to an email newsletter, would they respond to a contest for the best home-made video of someone trying out your product?
2. Get people’s attention! When you know what you want to say, say it well. Stand out. Be lively, be interesting, be fun. Don't hold back. And never, ever be boring.
Most ads, most brochures, most website copy is dull. Boring. Written by people who didn't understand people’s needs to be entertained, amused, teased and intrigued. Take a chance, hire a marketer, and find a way to be dazzling, fascinating, habit-forming.
3. Make it easy for your audience to find you. Archive all your ads, your press releases, your product specs or announcements, your newsletters. Get an SEO specialist to give your site more Google juice (i.e., a higher ranking on the search engines). Trade links with other businesses. Put your URL in your ads and n your business cards, let people know where to find your blogs, newsletters or limited-time coupons. If your market can't find you, it doesn't matter what you're saying.
4. Overuse the word “You.” Have your customers and their needs in mind at all times. Don't talk about your products or services – talk about how your products and services solve their problems. Get over yourself and put the customer and his or her needs at the centre of all you do.
5. Experiment. There is no one fix for every business. If blogging isn’t for you, maybe you'll make a splash with YouTube videos or pay-per-click advertising. If newspaper ads work for you, stick with them, but experiment with interactive elements that help you build your database and communicate with more customers directly.
Above all, ask your customers what they're listening to, what they're reading, how they're using the net. That's how you can focus on the best opportunities for your business to stand out, be heard, and serve its customers better.
Communicating in a Web 2.0 World – Part 1
How do businesses get noticed and heard in our noisy, overcrowded Web 2.0 world? That was the topic of a short presentation I made yesterday to a breakfast meeting of the Burlington Network Group, a business group that meets biweekly at the beautiful lakeside Water Street Cooker restaurant, in Burlington, Ont.
Web 2.0 of course refers to the whole gamut of creative new online communication tools and channels. In Web 1.0, you used the Internet to read stuff or order products and services. Today, Web 2.0 turns consumers into producers, by enabling anyone to interact with
websites, praise or critique products and services, blog, podcast, post videos, advertise or sell advertising, etc., etc. It even lets you create products for you or others to buy – such as the Canadian Entrepreneur coffee mug from CaféPress.com, which I handed out to a lucky audience member yesterday to salute their pioneering efforts at blogging.
Among the best tools for small business I cited blogs, search engine marketing, Linked-In and Facebook, and Google’s Adwords, the pay-per-click service that lets you target your advertising directly to qualified prospects – and in which you only pay for results (i.e., when someone clicks on your ad to learn more). It amazes me how many people don't know about this powerful product, and how cost-effective it can be.
As I said in my speech text (I spoke mainly from memory, so the actual wording varied):
“AdWords (along with its counterparts from Microsoft and Yahoo) is one of the best targeted marketing methods ever invented. Big businesses are using it more and more, and you should be looking into it too.”
Click here to learn more. And no, Google isn’t paying for this recommendation. I just think every entrepreneur must explore the potential of this medium.
And here’s the payoff: Advertisers can not only target their pay-per-click ads by topic and geographically, but you can also use it to test, test, test. If your copy doesn't sell – that is, it doesn't convince consumers to click on your ad - you don't pay a thing. So it provides free marketing lessons, which shuld interest any business that normally can't afford to test advertising variables. You can find out what copy works best, what headlines make people act, and which sites and keywords produce the most clickthroughs. And it’s so affordable - you can set your own prices and limit your maximum monthly spend.
I got a number of people to agree to look into Adwords this week. I hope you do, too.
In Part II: 5 Rules for Better Communication in a Web 2.0 World
Web 2.0 of course refers to the whole gamut of creative new online communication tools and channels. In Web 1.0, you used the Internet to read stuff or order products and services. Today, Web 2.0 turns consumers into producers, by enabling anyone to interact with
websites, praise or critique products and services, blog, podcast, post videos, advertise or sell advertising, etc., etc. It even lets you create products for you or others to buy – such as the Canadian Entrepreneur coffee mug from CaféPress.com, which I handed out to a lucky audience member yesterday to salute their pioneering efforts at blogging.Among the best tools for small business I cited blogs, search engine marketing, Linked-In and Facebook, and Google’s Adwords, the pay-per-click service that lets you target your advertising directly to qualified prospects – and in which you only pay for results (i.e., when someone clicks on your ad to learn more). It amazes me how many people don't know about this powerful product, and how cost-effective it can be.
As I said in my speech text (I spoke mainly from memory, so the actual wording varied):
“AdWords (along with its counterparts from Microsoft and Yahoo) is one of the best targeted marketing methods ever invented. Big businesses are using it more and more, and you should be looking into it too.”
Click here to learn more. And no, Google isn’t paying for this recommendation. I just think every entrepreneur must explore the potential of this medium.
And here’s the payoff: Advertisers can not only target their pay-per-click ads by topic and geographically, but you can also use it to test, test, test. If your copy doesn't sell – that is, it doesn't convince consumers to click on your ad - you don't pay a thing. So it provides free marketing lessons, which shuld interest any business that normally can't afford to test advertising variables. You can find out what copy works best, what headlines make people act, and which sites and keywords produce the most clickthroughs. And it’s so affordable - you can set your own prices and limit your maximum monthly spend.
I got a number of people to agree to look into Adwords this week. I hope you do, too.
In Part II: 5 Rules for Better Communication in a Web 2.0 World
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Cluing in to Search Marketing
I’ve found that many business owners (like many other marketers) are still confused about search engine marketing: what it can do and why it works. In his company’s blog last week, Gord Hotchkiss, CEO of Enquiro Search Solutions in Kelowna, BC, offers one of the best illustrations I’ve ever seen of the power of search marketing.
Warning: some of Gord's analysis is heavy going for non-professional marketers. But if you stick with it, you'll have had a free, cutting-edge course in Internet marketing with a huge potential payback.)
A few weeks ago, Gord accused Ontario Tourism of not having a search strategy. Responding, the provincial agency claimed to have "an extensive search program". If that's true, Gord maintains, you can't tell from the results. Ontario Tourism’s site didn't show up when Gord Googled such key terms as Ontario vacations, Ontario resorts, Toronto vacations and Ontario holidays.
“This proves too good an example of the disconnect I see all the time," writes Gord: "managing a search campaign to budgets, not objectives. I stand by my original claim: Canadian advertisers aren't clueing into the power of search.”
Ontario Tourism’s spokesman claims to be buying thousands of "targeted keyphrases" and using heavy geo-targeting to focus on prime markets. That makes sense, says Gord, if your budget is limited. "“But in this case, are budgets really limited?"
Or click here to read Gord Hotchkiss’s full post.
Warning: some of Gord's analysis is heavy going for non-professional marketers. But if you stick with it, you'll have had a free, cutting-edge course in Internet marketing with a huge potential payback.)
A few weeks ago, Gord accused Ontario Tourism of not having a search strategy. Responding, the provincial agency claimed to have "an extensive search program". If that's true, Gord maintains, you can't tell from the results. Ontario Tourism’s site didn't show up when Gord Googled such key terms as Ontario vacations, Ontario resorts, Toronto vacations and Ontario holidays.
“This proves too good an example of the disconnect I see all the time," writes Gord: "managing a search campaign to budgets, not objectives. I stand by my original claim: Canadian advertisers aren't clueing into the power of search.”
Ontario Tourism’s spokesman claims to be buying thousands of "targeted keyphrases" and using heavy geo-targeting to focus on prime markets. That makes sense, says Gord, if your budget is limited. "“But in this case, are budgets really limited?"
Note from Rick: At heart I’m a print guy, so I know the value of media advertising. But if your market is actively using the Net to make its buying decisions, you must be exploring these pay-per-click models (e.g., Google AdWords). They may or may not work better than what you're doing now, but they're certainly promising. And experimenting with them costs you almost nothing. Go ahead, get started."Let me share some things I was able to dig up on the site. First of all, Ontario Tourism is doing print (lots of print) and TV (lots of TV). The goal? To drive people to their website. Full-page 4-color ads are running multiple times in over 70 dailies and weekly newspapers and 9 magazines. One 4-color full-page ad in the Toronto Star would run about $54,000. Circulation of the Toronto Star is 350,000 (on an average day). An excellent conversion rate for a newspaper ad would be 0.5% That means, ideally, 1,750 people would actually visit the Ontario Tourism website. That would be a cost per visitor of $30.85. If the ad doesn't work that well, the average cost climbs dramatically. And you pay whether or not the ad works.”
“Now, courtesy Yahoo Canada and a recent survey, let's look at what actual travelers cite as the most important influencers in making travel plans. Search and websites are tied for number one and two, used by 51% of respondents in a recent survey. Newspapers and print? Only used by 7%. But yet, only 2.1% of Canadian ad budgets get spent on search, and 42% gets spent on Newspapers and Magazines."
“So, where is Ontario Tourism in the search results? They're only geo-targeting the prime markets, and then only for a 3-month period (April through June). Only 1 of
the 7 highest traffic key phrases I found (using an Ontario IP) returned an ad or an organic listing for Ontario Travel (the site also hasn't been organically optimized). More specific phrases, like Ontario Summer Vacations or Ontario Wine Getaways, did return more ads. But by bidding on specific phrases (even thousand of "long tail" ones) and not on the more popular ones, Ontario Tourism is catching less than 10% of all the people using search to plan a vacation in Ontario. And unless you're in the top sponsored ad locations (which few of the ads I saw were) you're actually only being seen by a small percentage of those searchers (usually 10 to 30% of them) on the results pages you do appear on. So, according to 97 out of 100 people who are using search to find the official site for Ontario Tourism, they're not "doing search"."By the way, you could maintain top spot in Google and Yahoo for all the top traffic phrases for less than $2 per visitor. Remember, that ad in the Toronto Star cost, at a minimum, 15 times that!
“Is it really "smarter" to ignore 97% of the people who are actively searching online to find you so you can spend more money running ads in newspapers for the 99.5% of people who have no interest in your site at all? And the real irony here is that if people don't click on a search ad, you don't pay!"Take a fraction of that budget from the Toronto Star and blow out the geo-targeting and time parameters and go for the high-traffic phrases. After all, there might be people in Saskatchewan or Nova Scotia that are planning a trip to Ontario. Or, perhaps they're planning their trip in September, or February. If not, it's not costing you anything. Try getting the Toronto Star to offer the same pricing model!”
Or click here to read Gord Hotchkiss’s full post.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mesh on the March
The Mesh conference on Web 2.0 and social media is up and running again for its second day.
If you’re like me and tied to a desk today, you can get a feel for what’s going on by following the Mesh newsblog. It provides updates on some of what’s happening, as well as attendee comments and links to a photostream on Flickr.
Most interesting item, to me, so far: two of my favourite Canadian Entrepreneurs, Ron Dembo and Austin Hill, are launching an open-source program to help computer users save energy – and then brag about how much they're saving to their friends. Talk about nailing it!
Click here to keep up with the Meshinations.
And for more, check out co-founder Mark Evans’ Tech Blog.
Or visit arch-rival and cofounder Mathew Ingram's blog.
If you’re like me and tied to a desk today, you can get a feel for what’s going on by following the Mesh newsblog. It provides updates on some of what’s happening, as well as attendee comments and links to a photostream on Flickr.
Most interesting item, to me, so far: two of my favourite Canadian Entrepreneurs, Ron Dembo and Austin Hill, are launching an open-source program to help computer users save energy – and then brag about how much they're saving to their friends. Talk about nailing it!
Click here to keep up with the Meshinations.
And for more, check out co-founder Mark Evans’ Tech Blog.
Or visit arch-rival and cofounder Mathew Ingram's blog.
Monday, April 23, 2007
What NOT to put on your website
In an article this week at ConnectITNews, author Jeff Wuorio examines “Nine things not to have on your Web site."
1. Your photo on the home page. "Your Web site should be all about the viewer, not about you.”
2. Visual (and audio) overkill. "Technology needs to be there for a reason."
3. Too many confusing menu options. Keep your site structure simple. "People can hold between five and nine pieces of information in their memory at once.”
4. Information that could lead to privacy or security breaches. Have a security expert and perhaps even an attorney review your site to see if it offers any information that could be misused.
5. Information that could tip off competitors. "Think like thieves," says one Web security expert.
6. Undue jargon and techno-speak. Keep your copy and content straightforward. Have a non-expert review it for clarity.
7. Content that makes your business sound too good to be true. "Don't make your Web site an ad. Make it an interactive conversation with your audience."
8. Unsupervised chat boards. If you want a chat area, have a moderator approve every submission.
9. Bad links and outdated material. Review your site regularly for content and links that have gone the way of mood rings and pet rocks.
For the full article, click here.
1. Your photo on the home page. "Your Web site should be all about the viewer, not about you.”
2. Visual (and audio) overkill. "Technology needs to be there for a reason."
3. Too many confusing menu options. Keep your site structure simple. "People can hold between five and nine pieces of information in their memory at once.”
4. Information that could lead to privacy or security breaches. Have a security expert and perhaps even an attorney review your site to see if it offers any information that could be misused.
5. Information that could tip off competitors. "Think like thieves," says one Web security expert.
6. Undue jargon and techno-speak. Keep your copy and content straightforward. Have a non-expert review it for clarity.
7. Content that makes your business sound too good to be true. "Don't make your Web site an ad. Make it an interactive conversation with your audience."
8. Unsupervised chat boards. If you want a chat area, have a moderator approve every submission.
9. Bad links and outdated material. Review your site regularly for content and links that have gone the way of mood rings and pet rocks.
For the full article, click here.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The future is mobile
As a former editor of two national magazines, I’m a regular reader of D.B. Scott’s Canadian Magazines blog, to find out what’s happening in my old industry.
Yesterday’s post makes me feel the phrase “old industry” is way too apt. DB was summing up a new study on wireless broadband users, and concluded that this new medium is going nowhere. DB writes:
DB concludes that magazine publishers can go back to sleep when it comes to adapting their content to wireless devices. (They can keep working on developing desktop applications, which has been tough enough so far.)
I don’t buy it. In a comment on his blog this morning, I wrote:
Substitute the phrase “savvy entrepreneurs” for “clever magazine publishers,” and you’ll realize that this is a job for readers of Canadian Entrepreneur. There is huge long-term opportunity in wireless broadband applications. People are still devising exciting new applications for the Internet (e.g., my PROFIT magazine stories this month on Canadian Web 2.0 case studies, here and here).
Mobile broadband is a whole new frontier – one of many new opportunities that make being an entrepreneur today so exciting. Too bad some people don't get it.
Yesterday’s post makes me feel the phrase “old industry” is way too apt. DB was summing up a new study on wireless broadband users, and concluded that this new medium is going nowhere. DB writes:
According to a story published by the Centre for Media Research (Media Post), a new study has found that barely 5% of people access the internet from a mobile device -- even if their handheld is equipped for it. And only 1 in 5 access news or television on their devices. 50% of respondents to the study by Media-Screen say mobile internet access doesn't fit into their lifestyle. 58% have internet-equipped mobile devices that they don't bother to use.I too wonder who all these people are who want to watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" on their teeny cellphone screen. But I know that bad connections, inadequate hardware (so far), and high prices for broadband data services have held up development of this whole sector.
DB concludes that magazine publishers can go back to sleep when it comes to adapting their content to wireless devices. (They can keep working on developing desktop applications, which has been tough enough so far.)
I don’t buy it. In a comment on his blog this morning, I wrote:
It's not so much that people are rejecting mobile Internet applications, it's that these services are not yet ready to serve a mass market. Much like cellphones in 1984 or the Web itself in 1996, they are not ready for prime time.
They key lesson of new media is that they create all-new forms of content we couldn't have imagined previously: like reality TV programs, or eBay and MySpace. Clever magazine publishers should be looking not at how consumers are using wireless data now, but how they might use it in future.
Substitute the phrase “savvy entrepreneurs” for “clever magazine publishers,” and you’ll realize that this is a job for readers of Canadian Entrepreneur. There is huge long-term opportunity in wireless broadband applications. People are still devising exciting new applications for the Internet (e.g., my PROFIT magazine stories this month on Canadian Web 2.0 case studies, here and here).
Mobile broadband is a whole new frontier – one of many new opportunities that make being an entrepreneur today so exciting. Too bad some people don't get it.
Monday, March 26, 2007
10 Website Tips
Stephen Jagger, co-founder of Ubertor, a Vancouver-based real-estate software company, has a great blog on real-estate marketing at http://blog.ubertor.com/
And if you understand marketing, that means it has lots you can learn from even if you're not in real estate. Any professionals marketing their services can benefit from Stephen’s experience.
I especially like March 19 posting on 40 ways to make a great real estate agent website. Because virtually every tip applies to anyone trying to market themselves and professional products or services.
Here’s his top 10. I’ll let you visit his site for the next 30.
1. Add a blog: write about you, your business, your expertise, your area, etc.
2. Write a good biography that talks about you, your education, past employment, places you’ve lived…
3. Include home page content that contains your full name, company name, neighbourhoods you work, phone number, etc.
4. Add video about yourself
5. Get testimonials from clients. Be sure to include their full names as it adds more credibility to the testimonial
6. Get rid of all canned content and take the time to write your own text in its place
7. Add Meebo to your site so that you can chat with your visitors
8. Use Google Analytics to track your traffic
9. Add a feature listing to your home page, be sure to change it every few weeks
10. Make your cell phone and email address known. Have them on every page
Click here for the rest of Stephen’s list.
And if you understand marketing, that means it has lots you can learn from even if you're not in real estate. Any professionals marketing their services can benefit from Stephen’s experience.
I especially like March 19 posting on 40 ways to make a great real estate agent website. Because virtually every tip applies to anyone trying to market themselves and professional products or services.
Here’s his top 10. I’ll let you visit his site for the next 30.
1. Add a blog: write about you, your business, your expertise, your area, etc.
2. Write a good biography that talks about you, your education, past employment, places you’ve lived…
3. Include home page content that contains your full name, company name, neighbourhoods you work, phone number, etc.
4. Add video about yourself
5. Get testimonials from clients. Be sure to include their full names as it adds more credibility to the testimonial
6. Get rid of all canned content and take the time to write your own text in its place
7. Add Meebo to your site so that you can chat with your visitors
8. Use Google Analytics to track your traffic
9. Add a feature listing to your home page, be sure to change it every few weeks
10. Make your cell phone and email address known. Have them on every page
Click here for the rest of Stephen’s list.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Your starter guide to Social Media
Sean Moffitt of BuzzCanuck is probly be Canada’s top expert on word-of-mouth marketing – which in these days of wikis and blogs and YouTube and social media can be more powerful than ever.
“Unfortunately,” says Sean, “word of mouth just doesn't happen, and like most great things in life, it starts with a first courageous step into the unknown.”
Fortunately, he has offered 29 links to get you started. I hope he doesn't mind sharing them with you here.
Visit http://buzzcanuck.typepad.com/ for much, much more.
Great introductions to word-of-mouth marketing:
- How To Sell In Word of Mouth Campaigns to Your Boss
- The 10 Steps to Building Your Corporate Podcast
- An Entry Level Guide to Vlogging
- How to Visit Second Life
- How to Be Blogged About
- How Bloggers Should Approach Companies
- How Companies Should Approach Bloggers
- Setting Up in My Space
- Posting on YouTube
- Mastering Word of Mouth Conversations
- Setting Up a Photo Blog
- How to Get Traffic To Your PhotoBlog
- How To Generate Buzz
- How to Use Linked In
- Conducting an SMS Campaign
- Nailing the Tricks to Viral Advertising
- Researching Word of Mouth
- Measuring Word of Mouth
- Keeping it Ethical
- How to Look At Social Media from 3 Corporate Angles
- Steps to Building Brand Communities
- Mastering The Ultimate Question You Should Be Asking
- BuIlding Great Brand Experiences
- Setting Up Corporate Blogging Guidelines
- Building Your Social Media Optimization
- How to build Consumer Generated Media
- How to Harness Happy Employee Word of Mouth
- How to Start a Wiki
Visit Sean’s website http://www.agentwildfire.com/
“Unfortunately,” says Sean, “word of mouth just doesn't happen, and like most great things in life, it starts with a first courageous step into the unknown.”
Fortunately, he has offered 29 links to get you started. I hope he doesn't mind sharing them with you here.
Visit http://buzzcanuck.typepad.com/ for much, much more.
Great introductions to word-of-mouth marketing:
- How To Sell In Word of Mouth Campaigns to Your Boss
- The 10 Steps to Building Your Corporate Podcast
- An Entry Level Guide to Vlogging
- How to Visit Second Life
- How to Be Blogged About
- How Bloggers Should Approach Companies
- How Companies Should Approach Bloggers
- Setting Up in My Space
- Posting on YouTube
- Mastering Word of Mouth Conversations
- Setting Up a Photo Blog
- How to Get Traffic To Your PhotoBlog
- How To Generate Buzz
- How to Use Linked In
- Conducting an SMS Campaign
- Nailing the Tricks to Viral Advertising
- Researching Word of Mouth
- Measuring Word of Mouth
- Keeping it Ethical
- How to Look At Social Media from 3 Corporate Angles
- Steps to Building Brand Communities
- Mastering The Ultimate Question You Should Be Asking
- BuIlding Great Brand Experiences
- Setting Up Corporate Blogging Guidelines
- Building Your Social Media Optimization
- How to build Consumer Generated Media
- How to Harness Happy Employee Word of Mouth
- How to Start a Wiki
Visit Sean’s website http://www.agentwildfire.com/
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Clear the Track - Here comes Kaboose!
Toronto online photo-sharing company BubbleShare, a Web 2.0 technology in search of a business, has just been snapped up by Toronto-based Kaboose Inc., a collection of advertising-driven portals targeting kids and parents.
You can read about the $2.25-million deal in Mark Evans' Maple Leaf 2.0 blog here.
Kaboose is a pretty fascinating company with a worldwide growth plan. If you want to know more, you can read my Kaboose profile from the latest issue of PROFIT Magazine. Just click here.
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