Internet Marketing Consulting for Free

I came across this great video on Alan Weiss's blog. It is hillarious and unfortunately way too real for people in my field of Internet marketing and I am sure Alan posted it because of how true it is in all consulting fields.

If you happen to be one of the clients in this video let me ask if this looks any different from our side of the table.

Toledo Social Media Breakfast 4 - July 10th, 2009

We didn't want to crash everyone's Freedom day celebration known as 4th of July weekend, so we have moved the Social Media Breakfast this month to the Friday after the 4th; therefore the event will be on July 10th this month same place (Elks Lodge in Sylvania Ohio) and at the same time (7:30 to 8:00 is registration. program starts at 8:00) and the same price ($15.00 advanced registration or $20 at the door) Now onto the important stuff, content. This month we chose to put together a program for how to use social media marketing for non-profits.

Let's face it some of the hardest working people are the tireless employees and volunteers of non-profit organizations. This economy stinks right now, which makes these wonderful people have to work even harder to keep from losing ground. We decided that we would focus one entire breakfast on their unique needs for marketing and communication by showing them how to use social media to communicate with their constituency, volunteers, donors, and the community.

These groups have such a great message to tell we hope that coming to our breakfast will help them learn how to tell it better and it in a different channel. This session would be a great learning experience for employees of non-profits, volunteers, and board members. If you fall into any of these categories you should take a morning and come and learn. You will walk away with a unique perspective of how to use this amazing communication channel to tell the world your story.

When: July 10th
Time: 8:00 A.M.
Where: Elks Lodge on Holland Sylvania in Sylvania
Cost: $15 advanced registration $20 at the door.

See you there!

Google Study Shows Execs Are Viewing Web

A few years back there was a survey that came out that cited how many CEO had never accessed the Internet. We have come a long way since those days. B2B magazine came out with this study by Google showing that C-level execs are indeed viewing the web and using it for research.

If these execs are using the web first hand what are they finding when they come to YOUR site? Do they find a web site that is a template or has all kinds of poorly written copy with lots of misspellings in it? Worse do you have a web site up or is it something you "will get around to"?

Most small and medium sized business owners would kill to have 10 minutes to speak directly to a C-level executive. Entire sales books have been written on how to circumvent the "gate keeper" and get those precious few minutes with the C-level executive. When you do actually get in front of them you are pushing your message at them and hoping to interest them enough to ask you for more information or a meeting to discuss it further. Unfortunately pushing your message at anyone is not the best way to get them to remember or take action. How would you like to change that psychology?

According to this study a web site now meets all of these things and more...

1. Direct Communication: According to this study there is no gate keeper the executive is willing to go and read this stuff themselves. They are not delegating it and they aren't being tricked into going. They are doing it willingly.
   
   
2. Different Psychology: When you reach an exec the old fashioned way by scheming past his gate keeper you are pushing your message at him or her. With web site they are pulling the message to them... totally different psychology and mind set to have your potential buyer in. They are actively involved by clicking and reading their way through your site. They are taking in your message as opposed to trying to repel your message in the old paradigm.
   

However all of these benefits are lost if you have a poor web site or worse no web site at all. Having a poor web presence is like meeting this executive face to face and being dressed in sweat pants and a dirty T-shirt. Not having a web site is like standing this executive up for a meeting you had scheduled. Most people would never consider doing the either of these so why would you have a web site or no web site that does exactly that?

Assume this exec comes to your site and it is clean and neat as well as being well written. The exec is not immedately offended by the appearance or the copy which means you are starting off on the right track. Now problem two surfaces, what are you doing on the site to get the executive to take action and become a qualified lead?

Most sites do a very poor job at moving the visitors to their web site from casual browser to active prospect. Without your visitor making this critical shift you aren't building leads which isn't going to help your business grow. There are many ways to help your visitors make this shift which I will talk about in a future post.

If you would like to speak to an Internet marketing consultant that understands all of this and can help you and your company take that next step please give me a call today. I will be happy to give you a free no obligation consultation to discuss your project and marketing needs. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Blogging - The Marketing Advantage

Toledo's premier Social Media Breakfast number 3 is coming up on June 5th at 8:00 A.M. You don't want to miss this one! Dave Rigotti will be showing the group how to use blogging to blast your marketing efforts through the roof! Here are just a few things he will be covering...

• Should I blog?
• How do I get started?
• What should I write about?
• How do I integrate a blog into my current marketing efforts?
• How do I maximize effectiveness?
• How do I measure effectiveness?
• What are some resources for getting started?

Act now and there is a bonus....

Each event has been pulling in 60-70 entrepreneurs, small business owners, and business leaders, which makes it a fantastic networking event as well. Still not convinced, then let me throw in an awesome breakfast. Our caterer puts out a spread that is to die for!

You get all of this for the low, low price of $15 bucks if you register ahead of time at....

http://smbtoledo3.eventbrite.com/

If however you are a procrastinator it will end up costing you an extra $5 bucks for a total of $20 bucks at the door... still an incredible deal. However we want to save you a buck or two as the old AT&T commercials used to say so register now at...

http://smbtoledo3.eventbrite.com/

I promise you it will be well worth your time and you will learn a lot of great stuff about using your blog to boost your marketing efforts. Dave has been running some very successful blogs for a couple of years now so he is the person you want to be listening to. I know I have convinced everyone reading this to attend so sign up today and I guarantee...

It won't wibble, wobble, shake, break, rust, bust, collect dust, or go out on a Saturday night!

Man, I watch way too many infomercials :)

Also want to point out our sponsor this month is...

PWG Marketing...

Toledo's Small Business Coach

Check him out today!

PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... I: wait... wait... Rank: wait... Traffic: wait... Price: wait... C: wait...

Is Social Media Marketing a Scam?

I came across this article in PC World today where Robert Strohmeyer is writing about all the charlatans that have showed up on the social media marketing scene as consultants. I believe Robert has several valid points in his article, but I also believe he is being a bit short-sighted as well.

On the positive side I believe he is absolutely correct that suddenly a ton of "consultants" have come to the party and all of them seem to have the "secret" to utilizing this new tool called social media. Unfortunately this has been the case since time immemorial anytime a new technology or phenomenom hits that suddenly there is a ton of people claiming to understand the secrets and are the ONLY consultants who can show you how to cash in.

Also on the unfortunate side is a willing group of people who are dying to learn the "secret" or risk being left behind that they pay some of these clowns a lot of money for bad or useless advice. It is an unfortunate side effect of any new marketing medium being born. However he goes on to say that people go to social media to avoid being marketed to and that any marketing done there will have negligible benefits. Really? I would ask exactly how he is defining marketing and how it is being performed.

Over this post and future posts I will offer a few alternative points of view on this issue. As a real life Internet marketing consultant and not just someone between jobs at the moment I have to look at all of these tools and try to see how they can be used to better market your organization. Here is one suggestion that comes to mind right away...

Market Research. Doing research is a critical piece of marketing for any company big or small. Unfortunately most marketing research is extremely expensive to do and for small businesses it simply is not in the budget. For large companies they simply would not consider any research that isn't done by a large well credentialed market research firm, at least in most cases.

However social media allows someone to be the fly on the wall as the saying goes. It allows both small and large business marketers alike a chance to listen in to the marketplace and see what your potential customers are saying. Listen enough and you are likely to find out what they want and don't want in products and services and probably how to sell to them as well. Admittedly uncovering this information in the midst of all the other conversations going on isn't going to be easy or straight forward, but it can be done. Also unlike formalized market research where customers are filling out surveys or participating in some type of focus group the information you will get from social media is more raw and some would argue more real. People are more relaxed in the social media spectrum then sitting in some room with a focus group. Because there is a certain sense of anomonity in some social media situations people sometimes feel more willing to open up and share feeling, thoughts, and ideas. The point is that this market intelligence is out there if you are willing to go and look for it.

Market research through the social media spectrum is also not just a waiting game and hoping that someone will talk about your product or service. There are whole communities out there that make up your target market. Join this community and offer value, i.e. read that to not mean sales messages. Talk and share. Once people trust you then you can probably ask some specific questions and get some answers from people. In short social media is a conversation starter and there is nothing wrong if some of that conversation is about a business, product, or service.

There is also ways to use social media to get new customers and retain old customers. Real, measurable, and significant ways to do this. I will share those in a future blog post. To give you a taste, remember what I said at the beginning of the post, it is how you are doing the marketing not that you are doing it. I believe this is where Robert has gone astray in his article, but I give him credit for making several valid points and pointing out that yes indeed there are lots of charlatans out there; but just because this might be true doesn't mean that social media can't be a valid and useful marketing channel. Stay tuned for some future posts on this issue.

NY Times on Pay to Click Fraud

Here is a story I came across done by the NY Times on pay to click fraud. They were one of the papers that did an extensive write up about this a few years ago. Here are my past comments on pay to click fraud To catch some readers up essentially what click fraud is is advertisers paying money for pay to click advertising where the people clicking on the ads are getting financially compensated and therefore are not really potential customers.

How does this situation occur?

In short I can set up a web site and choose to sign up for Google Ad Sense where I display ads that are paid for by other people on my site. When a visitor to my site clicks on one of those ads I get paid a small fee by Google for delivering the person that clicked on the ad. Now in an honest world people set up good content and advertisers support that content development with ads. People that are interested read, watch, or listen to the content and support the advertisers by clicking on the ads. Everybody is happy, sort of.

The problem occurs when one person really wants to cheat the system. They put Google Ad Sense on their web site and use either automated software or worse a large network of individuals to go to their web site and click on those ads. Every click earns them some coin. Google and Yahoo as well as other advertising providers have forensic departments and ways of supposedly figuring out which clicks are fraudulent and which ones are not. I won't spend a lot of time discussing the massive effort this must take or the obvious mistakes that must occur. I think most of my readers are smart enough to figure out the obvious problems in supposedly catching all the fraudulent clicks.

However like email spam the main issue here is economics. There is a financial motivation for people to set up sites, display ads, and find ways to generate clicks both legitimately and fraudulently. The one power on the planet I have utmost respect for is the power of economics. As long as their is economic gain to be had people will find a way to subvert and move around almost any type of blockade or system created to stop them from doing said activity. Simply put no matter what Google or Yahoo do they will never stop click fraud because the financial incentive is there to subvert any protections they put in place.

However one option not explored is to remove the financial incentive. If advertisers weren't paid by the click or Ad Sense didn't exist then the only money to be made would be by Google or Yahoo themselves and it becomes pretty simple to figure out who benefits then.

The issue however is a complex one because some people completely support their web businesses on ad revenue. These individuals provide excellent in demand content that people will read, watch, etc. and then support the advertisers. I am not suggesting this model go away I am simply saying that as long as dishonest individuals have an economic incentive to perform or encourage click fraud this will be a problem.

Right now Google has a methodology in place to track the quality of landing pages and ads. Poor ads and landing pages will pay more money for advertising and ultimately could find their ads disabled if they are too poor. Perhaps a model that evaluates the content on web sites where people will display ads is a good idea. I realize this is subjective and who gets to decide the standards, but we have all seen "web sites" that are simply parked domains loaded up with advertising links. This type of thing is not good content.

There is a distinct probability that those sites are major sources of click fraud because their isn't really any content of value on said site. It is simply taking advantage of a domain name and maybe the owner is perpetrating fraud by using automated software to go to the domain and generate clicks or writes a virus that infects computers to go generate these clicks. The hardest to detect is when the domain owner sets up a willing network of individuals to go and click on these ads. This last scenario looks like a real people doing a legitimate click through.

Therefore, I am suggesting two key things. One, as long as economic interest is there to perform click fraud it will always occur and the only way to completely stop the fraud is remove the economic interest. The second key take away is that a good first step to removing the economic motivation, at least, partially, is to judge content. Quality content providers get ads and poor or non-existent content does not. How one judges content and what is quality is an argument for another day.

Social Media Breakfast Toledo Number 2

If you missed the first Social Media Breakfast in Toledo on May 1st, than you missed an amazing event! We had an incredible turn out and delivered some really good information to small business owners on how to ride the Social Media Wave to help them market better and become more successful. If you missed that event I encourage to NOT miss number 2 which is in two days!

Techrigy Founder/President Aaron Newman will discuss the social media platforms and monitoring tools available; brand names, trends and other examples of what can be monitored; ways to measure and analyze your results and related topics.

Social Media Breakfast-Toledo #2 is 7:30-9:30 a.m., May 1, at Toledo Elks Lodge #53, 3520 Holland-Sylvania Road, Toledo. Registration by or on 5 p.m., April 29 is $15, and $20 afterwards. To pre-register, visit http://smbtoledo.eventbrite.com. Seating is limited to the first 100 registrants.

Nearly 80 people attended the inaugural Social Media Breakfast-Toledo April 3. Those who cannot attend the May 1 event can watch it stream online live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/social-media-breakfast-toledo.

The train is leaving the station, question is will you be on it. Register here