IMS Day1 – Morning notes & take-aways

If you missed parts of the 2011 Inbound Marketing Summit here’s some of the best take-aways.

 

 

Youngme Moon on being different and standing out

  • Embrace your negatives as part of your brand to stand out
  • No one can tell you how to be different, you must have an idea for how to be different which is hard
  • You must be willing to ignore your critics
  • Negative markers is one of the most important tools marketers have for differentiation
  • Differentiation in a crowded market comes not from well roundedness, but almost always from lopsidedness (focus on strengths only)
  • Customer will almost always be able to how to improve but they will almost never be able to tell you how to be different
  • Different and crazy can look the same at first
  • To be different is to be alone. What makes it feel risky but also captivating to behold
  • Doing anything you aren’t passionate about can feel a lot like work.
  • Examples: Twitter (140 characters), IKEA (self service), Mini (crazy small

 

Chris Brogan on using Google+

  • Fall in love w/the People & where they are not just Technology
  • The biggest thing about Google+, when it’s all boiled down, is its impact on search
  • We want to talk to the real person, not their PR agents
  • Favorite part of Google+ is the ability to have deeper conversations around content.
  • Find people on Google+: Findpeopleonplus.com
  • Find people on Google+: Group.as
  • Fill in About page otherwise people don’t get to know you
  • Fill in “Current Employment” with the most interesting content because that’s what people see when they roll over your image
  • Why to be in Google+ – because it ranks more highly in the Google search rankings
  • Don’t abandon your main website, you own that.  You don’t own Google+ content

 

Brian Halligan on version 2 of inbound marketing

  • Inbound version 1 was about fixing top of the funnel: spam, cold-calling, interruption based marketing
  • Inbound version 2 is about the middle and bottom of the funnel: conversion, etc
  • Old world marketing model
    • Asymmetric relationship
    • Sales had power over the customer (and had power within the organization)
    • “Enterprise death-march” sales process
  • New world marketing model
    • Symmetric relationship
    • Customer has the power; Power needs to shift from sales to marketing because sales gets involved at the bottom of the funnel
    • New B2B buying process starts with search (search remains a useful tool throughout the process)
    • Content becomes a sustainable asset that appreciates over time, as opposed to traditional marketing where you rent space.
    • Gen1 website was brochureware. Gen2 was putting in a CMS. Gen3 is making them personalized

    MOFU – Middle of the Funnel

    • “Conversion expertise” is the common trait of the most successful marketing companies
    • Uses the “network effect” to improve the customer experience
    • Personalized experiences improve value and increase conversion rates
    • Build a moat around your business using inbound marketing
    • Organize around purpose: TOFU & MOFU
    • The profile of new-age marketers: digital native, content creator, analytical and social reach
    • Company examples: Netflix, Amazon, Google, Pandora

Content Management Systems and Platforms – Panel Discussion

  • CMS value is getting the right message to the right customer in a timely manner
  • Use theme of : Bait –> Hook –> Sinker
  • Need to be able to repurpose content across multiple channels
  • You need a strategy to leverage your CMS.  Tools alone have no value. YET the strategy has to be flexible and iterative
  • “Engagement Value” scoring the ability of behaviors/actions to convert to a customer. How to do you measure the value of your website activites.
  • Use A/B testing and thresholds to measure the value of content
  • The system is only as smart as you are. You need to understand your analytics. Be ready to fail faster.

Use Rockstar LinkedIn profiles to promote the Band

Photo Credit: Jamie Quinn who likes to make fun of how well I shred in Rock Band

Most think of LinkedIn as a way to promote yourself, but actually it’s a flexible tool that also allows you to promote your brand or company too. In this Double LP set (ahem – two post series), I’ll show how you can use LinkedIn “apps” and “sections” to do just that.

So Let’s Rock it! First up, LinkedIn Apps…

LinkedIn Applications

Apps are a powerful way to connect your content and engage with your fans. LinkedIn provides applications that plug-in directly to your profile. I’m focusing on how these apps can help you:

  1. Stay social with your fans
  2. Show off your best content
  3. Aggregate your full collection of content.

Social Outreach

Social Outreach is simply making a purposeful human connection with your audience. LinkedIn provides two apps that foster social connections:

  • Polls (LinkedIn) – Conduct regular (monthly/weekly) polls to judge audience sentiment, get feedback on recent changes or gauge interest in new features.  You’re giving everyone a chance to vote and shape new ideas.  Still not sure what kind of polls to conduct? Look at the news headlines and make a connection to your products/services.  Once the poll is created anyone can include it in their LinkedIn profile.
  • Events (LinkedIn) – Going on tour? Is your company sponsoring a seminar? Let those visiting your LinkedIn profile know about it!  Add the Events app to your profile and add or create in events. See who else is attending the events and start connecting!

Content Outpost

Content Outposts are the bread crumbs that lead prospects to you – you know like the flyers you put up around town just before your next gig.  LinkedIn provides several ways to include these outposts into your profile.

  • Portfolio Display (Behance) – Great way for creatives and artists to show off their portfolio.
  • Slideshare Presentations (Slideshare) – I suggest doing more summarized presentations on Slideshare with the call to action of driving viewers to your website or microsite for the full content.  Depending on the value of the content, there is a potential to use this as a lead generator.
  • Google Presentation (Google) – Similar to, but probably less popular than (?), Slideshare.

Content Aggregator

If your company has content on social networks, LinkedIn provides an easy way to aggregate that content into your individual profile.  Remember, we’re using individual profiles to represent the brand.  These apps are a great way to present your thought leadership (thought leadership is kind of like your guitar solo – it’s what you do better than anybody else), so let’s get to it:

  • Tweets (LinkedIn) – If your company has a twitter account you can pull that content into your LinkedIn profile.
  • WordPress (WordPress) – If your company is using a WordPress blog this is your go to app.  It allows you granular controls over which posts are visible in your LinkedIn profile.
  • Blog Link (SixApart) – like the WordPress app, but also supports Moveable Type, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc.

[warning]And if you think you want to out try The Reffs on Rock Band, let me know.  My 8 year old is a mad woman on the skins and my 10 year old can belt out a tune -  with feeling[/warning].

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 9-10-11

Here are 5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed.

1. Only 1 in 10 smartphone users use a check in service like Foursquare / Gowalla

[link] Interesting that 25% of Latino smartphone owners using geosocial services.  This matches up with their research showing that minorities use twitter more than whites.  Other Pew findings:

  • only 4 percent of adults use their phones specifically for check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla, the same as in November.
  • 23 percent of all adults have used a location-based service to get directions and recommendations.

MY TAKE: This suggests that location based services in general and check-in apps in particular are not keeping pace with overall smartphone penetration – a missed opportunity. I still think that LBS is going to be huge but it will only huge when it DISAPPEARS into the mobile experience.  I wrote how Google’s acquisition of Zagat is a move to provide a full mobile experience.  Location is part of the equation, but keep looking at the bigger picture.

I personally had a great Foursquare experience this week.  I took the little guy to the Lego store and there was a Foursquare special that granted a free special lego with a checkin.  I feel there is inherent value for customers and brands here, but it’s just going take time to play out.

Alien Lego received with Foursquare checkin

2. HTML5 loosens Apple grip on apps

[link] Application makers like Financial Times are investing in HTML5 as a way to escape Apple’s iTunes store.

MY TAKE:

Apple impact: significantly reduced profits from its iTunes store

Marketing Technologists impact: HTML5 provides a way to develop an cross-platform mobile application using one set of code

3. Death To Banner Ads! Social Media Campaigns That Worked Without Them

[link] Companies mentioned: Klout, Wildfire and Mr. Youth

MY TAKE: I don’t see banner ads.  I think my brain has trained my eyes to find what I’m looking for on the webpage without noticing the surrounding ads.  Although I don’t have direct experience with ad networks, I really question their value.  Look for campaigns that engage with audiences and avoid those that interrupt them.

4. Lead Nurturing: Fewer emails yield 225% more sales leads

[link] Great case study from marketing sherpa providing 3 simple steps to achieving more with less.

MY TAKE: This is Marketing 101: STP: Segmentation –> Targeting –> Positioning

Stick to these basics and avoid “spray and pray” tactics.  It requires more thinking up front but as this case study shows, the results can be dramatic.

5. Who’s Using Question and Answer Sites?

[link] I’ll tell you who – the  young (18-34) and the affluent.

MY TAKE: If you serve this market, this information suggests that product managers should establish a presence on sites like Quora.  Look for customers asking questions about your product and services and set up “FAQ-like” areas where you address typical customer service questions.

How Zagat fits into Google’s mobile lifecycle

What’s Google’s strategy behind acquisition of Zagat?

I’ve seen a few ideas:

  • Travel offering? Another option if the ITA acquisition falls through
  • Upgraded Location Based Services? Reviews increase the value of Google’s LBS checkin service
  • Local Advertising? I don’t see how Zagat significantly ads value local search

I believe the sum is greater than the parts. I think the Zagat acquisition is part of Google’s larger mission to create a full suite of services that embed itself to peoples lives.

 

The Mobile Lifecycle

Mobile

Android already has the largest share of mobile systems. Although the Android ecosystem doesn’t have the best or most apps, Android itself does a lot of things well.

Search

Good old search. Search is typically the start of the transaction.

Reviews

This is where Zagat comes in.  Users will value the high quality reviews that I expect are much better than the reviews available from Yelp (whose review quality is often spotty).

Deals

Google has a GroupOn like coupon service called Offers in beta.  Most pundits are predicting the demise of GroupOn and I never understood the $6 Billion offer from Google.  There are no barriers to entry for competitors.  GroupOn has little competitive advantage and I believe retailers will come to see coupons as just another part of their Marketing spend.  If Google can bundle that into their ad spending the customer has a more convenient option.

Check-in

Google has check in capability with Places.  I’m not certain that Places integrates with Google+ Circles, but it should.  I know many people are still wary of the idea sharing their check-ins publicly and being able to share your connection with a specific circle of friends is an added safety.

Payment

Google is an early leader in Near Field Communications (NFC), also known as mobile payments.  Google Wallet is on the way and currently testing with the Google Nexus 4G and Citi MasterCard.

Sharing

After the decision making about where to go (eat, shop, hangout) has been made Google mobile users can share their activity with their circle of friends using Google+ Circles.

What’s missing?

The mobile lifecycle makes sense to me, but I’m not convinced it’s complete.  What is missing?

  1. Elegance – As typical with Google, it’s solution will be fully functional but it’s implementation will most likely miss the grace, easy of use and subtlety Apple iOS users have come to expect. I’ll be surprised if people fall in love with Google’s mobile life.
  2. Favorite Places – it’s a bit of a pet peeve but as a Foursquare user, I don’t think the interface does a good enough job at showing my favorite Places and matching them up with my friends favorite places.  Google could jump on that opportunity
  3. Gamification – is the experience fun?  I’m thinking of Mayorships and badges and such.  Don’t forget the game layer.

What do you think of Google’s mobile platform? Hit me in the comments.

Push Big Ideas Out. Draw Audiences In.

Where does Digital & Traditional Marketing intersect?

Probably one of the biggest areas of confusion for marketers working to understand digital marketing is “how does digital marketing fit in with traditional marketing?“  Actually the questions don’t come that way they sound more like:

  1. Do we need a Facebook page?
  2. Does social media mean we should spend less on our website?
  3. What if someone says something we don’t like, can we delete it?
  4. Shouldn’t we build a iPhone app?

[important]Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing are mutually beneficial not mutually exclusive[/important]

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing

The figures below show the difference between the old world (traditional marketing techniques) and the new world (traditional marketing enhanced by digital marketing).

The noticeable difference is the addition of a “Social Outreach” circle.  But before we go into that, let’s go over how the traditional elements are recast in their digital world.

“New” Core

The core are your owned media properties – your company and product websites.  To address the early concern of “do we still need a website”, yes.  Never abandon your owned media. The various social media networks have varying policies regarding who owns what when you post on their networks.  For that reason alone you want to maintain your main web presence.

As hinted, the content of your website must change.  Posting 20 page whitepapers is becoming rather staid. Your main content needs to be updated to be more interactive and interesting.  You’re not just competing with your typical product and service competitors, you’re competing with everything that may steal the attention of your audience.  Make sure website visitors have their questions answered and the interest piqued. Further, your new core needs to allow your customers/prospects interact with the content.  This may be accomplished by allowing thought leaders to maintain blogs and allow readers comments. [A word of caution, the more anonymity commenters are able to have the more likely the comments will be ugly]

“New” Amplifiers

Traditional amplifiers include TV, radio, print and display.  To that equation we add technical amplifiers like Search Engine Marketing, mobile, RSS feeds and email registration.  These Digital Marketing techniques improve your ability to get the word out.  The name of the game is “Lead Generation.”

Social Outreach

So what’s new? Social Outreach.

[important]Social Outreach is using social media to nurture and strengthen the bonds with customers and prospects[/important]

Let’s review some examples of social outreach:

  • Using LinkedIn groups for feedback, idea generation and updates
  • Organizing formal or informal Meetups (or tweetups)
  • Active social listening and responding to customer complaints
  • Engaging with passionate customer segments seeking product advice

Admittedly, social outreach is a fuzzy idea, but the difference with social outreach is the purposefully human connection.  This is hand-to-hand marketing, getting out there and interacting with your customers on a personal, individual level.

In terms of customer segments, I see social outreach as focusing on your existing customers.  Social outreach allows you to:

  • Maintain relevance and top of mind
  • Deal with customer problems while they are still relatively small problems
  • Obtain referrals because your customers know you and like you
  • Build “earned media” by leveraging your customers to drive “Word of Mouth”

Let’s revisit the questions mentioned

Now that we’ve covered of Digital Marketing supports Traditional Marketing, let’s revisit the common questions mention earlier:

  1. Do we need a Facebook page? Maybe you need a presence on Facebook (is that where your audience is?)
  2. Does social media mean we should spend less on our website? Your website is as important as ever but it can’t be the only place for your content (use content bread crumbs the sites your customers visit)
  3. What if someone says something we don’t like, can we delete it? You can’t delete what someone says about you (you don’t have control over your customers)
  4. Shouldn’t we build a iPhone app? Mobile is an important part of your strategy (but consider the content and the customers interaction with it on a mobile phone)

Drive Ideas Out. Draw Audiences In.

To recap, how does Digital Marketing interact Traditional Marketing?  It helps drive ideas out and draw audiences in. Digital Marketing doesn’t supplant traditional methods, although it may change them a bit. Marketers have new tools in their toolbox to get their message out.  Rather than just relying on broadcast messaging there are new mediums available to find and connect with customers and prospects.

A recent tweet from Laura Fitton said it best:

[notice]Stop pushing. Start attracting. Stop interrupting. Start engaging.[/notice]

I happily credit Nate Elliot and Forrester research for planting the seed in my head with Nate’s research The Interactive Brand Ecosystem.

Load more