My Top 10 Marketing New Year's Resolutions

Here are my marketing resolutions for 2006. Feel free to steal these, or leave a comment to share your marketing (or life) resolutions for the new year.

1. I resolve to understand my customers better. What drives them, what motivates them, and how to reach them in a way that is helpful -- never intrusive.

2. I resolve to try to blog more frequently and eloquently.

3. I resolve to put a real effort into making trackback work effectively.

4. I resolve to try to determine why dmoz.org has become so awful about adding new sites.

5. I resolve to try to get back to reading the Marketing Sherpa Best-of-Weekly newsletter on a regular basis. It is the best marketing newsletter on the planet.

6. I resolve to learn more than necessary, and teach as much as possible. Marketing Profs is a great resource for online marketing wisdom. You can find a great summary of life lessons here.

7. I resolve to be more strategic in my thinking and planning.

8. I resolve to write more clearly and effectively. And avoid using sentence fragments. Really.

9. I resolve to build more bridges than I burn.

10. I resolve to be a better dad and husband. Work is important, but it's not the most important part of life.

My bonus 11th resolution is to try to get back to communicating more regularly with my online friends, including Yvonne at Lip-Sticking, Jay at Smart Marketing, Albert at Marketing Edge, Skip at Marketing Genius, Kelly at Kelly Allan Associates, and Thad at Moreover.

Best wishes to you for a happy new year, whatever your resolutions may be.

*****

Terms: marketing resolutions, marketing wisdom, business blogging, Moreover Technologies

The portal for Web marketing strategy: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Email Newsletters vs. Blogs Part 2

My post several weeks ago about the emergence of blogs and the decline of the e-newsletter drew a thoughtful comment from Monty Loree of Express Marketing. Mr. Loree contended that "With direct email, you're in control of staying in touch with people and inviting them back to your site." While that's indusputable, my point was that you don't need a traditional email newsletter to accomplish that task.

As Suzanne Falter-Barns points out in her blog here, collecting email addresses from your blog visitors is both easy and a great supplement to RSS feeds. Then, rather than sending out a traditional e-newsletter -- with all of the planning and formatting that requires -- you can simply send a brief note to your email list each time you post (or weekly if you are posting more frequently than that) inviting your recipients to revisit your blog and check out your latest musings.

Your blog becomes the content container for the information you would have previously included in your e-newsletter, but with all the advantages of blogs -- timliness, informality and search engine-friendliness.

You can also feel free to copy my "build your own newsletter" concept. It may appear lazy, but I prefer to think of it as innovative.

*****

Terms: email newsletter, e-newsletter, business blogging, internet marketing

The Web marketing portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Follow-Through is Critical to Online Marketing Efforts

In Web marketing, just as in hitting a golf ball, swinging a baseball bat or kicking a football, the importance of follow-through can’t be overstated. In sports, failing to complete the motion means a shorter drive, hit or kick – in other words, you won’t achieve the desired result. The same holds true for marketing. Launching a campaign or activity without the proper follow-through can mean poor results and/or unnecessary cost.

For example, one company I spoke with had spent a considerable sum of money on a search engine optimization (SEO) project for their site – but never bothered to monitor the change in their search engine positioning. When a (smart) consultant followed up with them later, he investigated and discovered that their search position had barely budged. Had the company known this sooner, they may have been able to get extra work or a partial refund from the SEO firm, depending on contract terms. They would have at least known that their investment hadn’t really paid off.

Another company developed an extensive set of keywords and launched a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign. However, they monitored the program only at the very highest level: total pay-per-click (PPC) spending, and total click-throughs. They did no keyword optimization, no bid optimization, and worst of all, no conversion tracking. So, they essentially knew how much they were spending and how many clicks they got, but had no idea which keywords were drawing well or poorly, how effective their headlines and copy were, or even whether any of the traffic actually converted to paying customers.

Finally, there is the all-too-common example of Avery. I’ve written about this office products company’s Web site before here, and that analysis still holds true – the company does have an excellent site overall, one that is feature-rich and does a lot of things right. However, they fall down in an area that is common, particularly for large-company sites: their “Contact Us” information is extremely limited, giving site visitors no way to contact individual departments within the company, much less individual employees. And their follow-up is, as is again all too common, virtually non-existent. Companies invest in Web sites in order to drive business.

Putting together a great Web site and then not responding to your site visitors is like opening a restaurant and then ignoring all of those people sitting at your tables. What’s the point?

The bottom line is, as one of my former colleagues was fond of saying, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” Online marketing can be a powerful tool for promoting your business, if done right. Don’t launch a campaign of any kind without measurement built in first. Monitor and measure your results so you can adjust variables (such as copy, headlines, keywords and bids) to maximize your response and optimize your spending. Make it easy for prospects to contact you, and if one raises their hand, by all means contact them – not through an auto-responder but through a real live employee of your company – as quickly as possible.

*****

Terms: online marketing campaigns, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search engine positioning, auto-responders, SEM

The Web marketing resource portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

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Talk to a Customer

Marketing professionals too often get caught up in communicating with "markets" to remember that a market is an abstract construct. "Markets" don't buy anything -- people, that is customers, do.

It's a great exercise for marketers to occasionally talk to a real customer. Ask the sales representative in charge of the account first: in some companies, this is required, and in any case it's good practice. You'll need to assure the sales rep that you are not checking up on them; you are rahter trying to determine how well your department is doing in helping them to be more effective. No one likes someone looking over their shoulder. Everyone likes help.

Ask a customer three key questions:

- How well does our company seem to understand your problems?

- What do we do really well?

- Where could we improve?

The purpose of the first question is to determine how well your marketing literature is hitting the mark, and to find out if you are really speaking your customer's language. You may be promoting feaure A of your product, when feature C is what customers really care about.

The second question is open-ended: you are trying to determine, broadly, what your company does well. This is what to promote. Your customer has just told you your value proposition -- not what you think your value proposition is, but what your customers percieve.

The third question is more focused -- you are looking for an answer specifically related to communication. How well are you getting your message out to customers? Are you advertising in the right trade magazines? Is your Web site effective? If your customers are telling you to lower your price, well -- why wouldn't they? That's mildly interesting, but not in the least helpful. Drill down to get to answers that tell you specifically how you can communicate to your customers and prospects more effectively.

It's amazing what you can learn when you connect with actual flesh-and-blood customers, rather than thinking in terms of abstract markets.

-----

Terms: customer communications, Web site marketing, market research

The Web marketing resource portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

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Email Newsletters vs. Blogs

When WebMarketCentral was first launched, the plan was to offer an associated newsletter. After careful consideration, this ain't gonna happen. E-newsletters were, not so many years ago, a clever and unique idea (good newsletters anyway). Just a few short years later, email newsletters are beyond ubiquitous. Even the most laggard of sites offer one. People are sick of them. Email in-boxes are overflowing, few people are signing up, and fewer still are actually opening the newsletters they do receive.

Suzanne Falter-Barns does a great job addressing the issue of blogs vs. e-newsletters here. Blogs are more immediate, faster, easier, less formal, and with comments, more interactive.

In the case of WebMarketCentral, I thought about what my newsletter would include if I wrote one: a link to my latest blog posting, e-commerce news and Web marketing news headlines, a sponsor or two, and some humor. Since pretty much all of that is already available on the site -- generally with RSS feeds as well -- I decided, instead of writing a newsletter every week, I would offer a build-your-own-newsletter capability on the site. It won't have an elegant format, but it will get the job done. And it won't clutter up your in-box.

Oh, and another highly useful marketing site: Mike's Marketing Tools offers an excellent search engine rank checking tool that lets you quickly and easily see how well your site shows up, for any search term you specify, on 10 leading search engines. Very slick.

*****

Terms: newsletter marketing, blogging, Mike's Marketing Tools, search engine position check, search engine rank check, Web marketing news

The Web marketing resource portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

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Two Helpful Marketing Research Sites

Got marketing research to do? Want to stay current on a topic, industry or company? Here are a couple of sites that can help.

One that's probably familiar is Individual.com. This is a free customized news service that enables you to choose topics you'd like to track -- news, trends and analysis on your competitors, customers and target markets -- and then scans and delivers this content to you via email and the Web. While it includes ads, and doesn't have the wide breadth of sources of a fee-based service like Moreover, it does a reasonably good job of keeping you informed about the topic(s) of interest to you on a budget.

A second helpful tool, one that I hadn't heard of until recently, is BPubs.com. This is a search engine that searches only business publications. If you're looking for information on a specific company or industry and are overwhelmed by the worthless crap turned up by standard search engines, BPubs.com can help by narrowing your search to only business publication sources.

*****

Terms: marketing research tools, Individual.com, BPubs.com, business research

The online marketing and e-commerce portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

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How to Start in a New Marketing Role – RAPIMMR

It’s not the most elegant of acronyms, but it is a solid approach to new marketing campaigns or roles. I was recently pointed to a report from Spencer Stuart titled “A Blueprint for Top Marketers’ First 100 Days.” It’s short and worth a read, but I was expecting more of a detailed roadmap. What their advice comes down to is: talk to lots of people in your new company, establish relationships, and get them on board with your plans. That advice is solid and useful, but hardly profound.

So, here’s the roadmap I would propose, based on the acronym RAPIMMR:

R: Research. Jumping in right away with a “master plan” based on your past experience, but with no input or buy-in from your new co-workers, is a recipe for disaster. Ask lots of questions, of lots of people. What’s been done in the past? What’s worked, and what hasn’t? What’s been considered, but not tried? Ask about marketing programs, key messages, competition, and objectives. Do this both to gain knowledge as well as establish relationships. Who has great ideas? Who is really knowledgeable about certain topics?

To quote Kelly Vizzini, CMO at application virtualization company DataSynapse, from Marketing Sherpa’s case study on the firm: “When marketers go to new jobs, some say `Here’s my plan I’m going to do all these things.’ That’s the kiss of death. Why would I presume to create a whiz bang plan when I haven’t sat down and talked to my own internal audience? You have to sit down and ask them where their pain is, what works, and where are you struggling?”

Also critical is to learn about the company’s systems in place. Suppose that you want to do a targeted email campaign to existing customers in a particular industry segment; has the company even done market segmentation? Can you easily pull the list you need? Do they have tools in place to track the results once the campaign is launched? If not, you’ll need to pursue other ideas (while also working to get adequate system capabilities in place).

A: Analyze. Armed with the raw data, discussion notes and other facts from your research, what does it mean? What conclusions can you draw? What tactics are even realistic in the short term? What should you avoid? Who needs to be involved? Why am I asking so many questions? Because this analysis will be a key part of the next step, which is…

P: Plan. Based on your research and analysis of the results, develop your marketing plans for the appropriate time frame (immediate, quarter, annual). Consider messaging, medium and of course, budget. Discuss this up and down the authority change, to get the right people on board (and of course budget approval). Tweak as necessary.

I: Implement. With your plan and budget approved, now is the time to take action. Fully develop your messages, obtain lists, contact publishers, make changes to your Web site, etc. – make it happen.

M: Monitor (and modify). Track your results in as close to real-time as possible, and make mid-course adjustments as necessary. How are keywords performing; did you bid too little or too much for certain words? Tweak your bids. Are certain messages pulling better than others? If you are asking for registration or direct purchase, how are conversions; does the landing page and/or registration form need changes?

M: Measure. At the appropriate point – end of the quarter or campaign – summarize your results. Which programs did well? How does your cost per lead or sale compare across different media or campaigns? Gather all of the key information and metrics for the last stage of this cycle, which is…

R: Review. With measurement data and analysis in hand, determine what worked well, what could be done better, and what if anything failed. Review this with the key people you identified back in the first “R” (Research) stage. Share your results and get their input. This final “R” now serves as the initial “R” for you next round of analysis, planning and implementation, so that over time, this acronym actually becomes RAPIMMRAPIMMRAPIMMR… Not melodic perhaps, but (hopefully) solidly methodic.

*****

Terms: starting in a new marketing role, a marketers first 100 days, planning marketing campaigns, strategic planning for marketers, developing marketing plans

The portal for Web marketers: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

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WMC Interviews: Yvonne DiVita

I was honored this week to speak with author, blogger and expert on smart marketing to women online, Yvonne DiVita. Her book Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online is raising eyebrows and helping smart marketers improve their results, and her witty and widely-read blog was honored as one of the Best Blogs of 2005 by Marketing Sherpa.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before Windsor Media Enterprises? What’s your background?

Yvonne DiVita (YD): I've been a writer for my entire life. In fact, I got myself in trouble in 2nd grade because all I did was write (and illustrate -- boy those pics should be worth $$) stories about kids and pets. My teacher called my mother. Together, they tried to convince me I needed to do things like math and science, too. Guess I buckled -- I made it into the third grade and beyond.

So, writing is in my blood. From thereon, I spent the majority of my time writing and reading. In high school I was the one everyone came to for help with term papers, although I really didn't like writing term papers. It was a prediction of future competency, however. Today, instead of writing fiction (though I still do that), I'm primarily a business writer. From the contacts and experiences of writing for business, came my desire to help other writers in their pursuit of publication. Now, I'm both writer and publisher.

WMC: How, when and why did you get started in this business?

YD: Short version -- I was frustrated being an employee. Though I had plenty of opportunities to write, I worked for a number of start-ups in the late 1990s, as a web-content writer, and I was being published both online and off, I wasn't accomplishing any real goals. I was merely pleasing others. During that time, I began to notice that women were flocking to the Internet -- many times to shop. Their busy lives were preventing them from getting out to the all-American mall. So, I thought, "Hey, here's a place I can make a difference." And, I wrote a book on Smart Marketing to Women Online. The title, BTW, is more provocative -- Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, a guide to getting women to shop at YOUR website. In the book I advise businesses to get their marketing message in front of JANE, as opposed to DICK, because Jane controls the sale of over 85% of the goods and services in this country.

I chose to published via print-on-demand, rather than struggle with a traditional publishing method, and have all rights to my book revert to my publisher. I knew POD would allow me to be in control, and to maintain my copyright. The experience was less than pleasant. The company I chose was reputable -- they had been in business for over five years, a lifetime in the POD world, and they had many, many books to their credit. Their customer service, however, was lacking. In the end, I was a frustrated customer. I did not end up with something I could be proud of (contentwise, yes -- bookwise, no) and...the POD firm refused to market the book because of the title. As if they didn't know the title from day one!

When I discovered the book was being printed right here in my hometown of Rochester, NY, and that WE are the hub of the print-on-demand world, I knew what I had to do. I knew I had to start my own POD firm, and offer authors a complete range of services, from cover design to page layout, to editing, proofing, testimonials, and even marketing. And, that's what I did. Two years ago. Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC gave birth to WME Books, and I'm glad it did.

WMC: Who do you target? Who is your ideal or typical client?

YD: Over the last two years we have refined our business model. I don't do fiction. The market for it is huge, but saturated. And, my core niche is women in business. So, WME Books targets professional women in law, medicine, and business. We enjoy working with men, also. But, the hope is that we can encourage more professional women to write books and use POD as their publishing model.

WMC: What is your key differentiator (or differentiators)? What separates you from your competition?

YD: We're online experts. I, personally, since writing my book, have a large, worldwide connection to the women's market. Since women buy and read over 60% of the books published (in the U.S.), it stands to reason that marketing books to the women's market is the best approach. That's what we do. We use the Internet (primarily blogs) to connect our authors and their books to their core audience. Because blogs are excellent book marketing tools. No other POD firm offers that kind of cutting-edge marketing.

WMC: How do you market/promote your business?

YD: We don't do much marketing, other than writing in Lip-Sticking (my marketing to women online blog) and Aha! (our authors-helping-authors blog). We've been very fortunate to have clients come to us via referrals. Down the road, I'd like to do a direct mail piece to women's organizations. I speak, also. So far I've spoken in Illinois, Denver, TX, NYC, and locally around upstate NY. That helps get the word out effectively, also. And, it sells books.

WMC: What’s the biggest or most important marketing lesson you’ve learned since you got started in all this?

YD: The most important marketing lesson I've learned is to differentiate myself from my competition, and to be comfortable with that differentiation. It pays to be in a niche market, but only if you understand the niche and can talk the talk. We know writing and publishing, and we know blogging. Together, those three elements of our business make us stand out from the crowd.

WMC: Anything else you’d like to add?

YD: I'd like to add that marketing requires attention and effort. NOTHING is for free! Don't believe those folks who try to sell you "10 Ways to Market Your Business on a Budget." That's sales-speak for a lot of bad advice. You can market on a budget, indeed. But, it takes EFFORT and CREATIVITY! I suggest folks read Mark Hughes' new book, Buzz Marketing. He has some original, engaging, smart ideas and he gives concrete examples.

And, don't forget...if you want to get in front of the women's market online, you can't beat my book: Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online. I'm working on Smarter Marketing to Women Online, the 2nd in the Dick*less Marketing series, which should be out in early 2006. Watch for an announcement on the Lip-Sticking blog.

*****

Terms: Yvonne DiVita, smart marketing to women online, Dick*less Marketing, Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing, Windsor Media Enterprises, publish-on-demand, book marketing

The Web site marketing strategy portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Blogging for Business

Recently added to WebMarketCentral.com, the Web marketing portal, are three new pages providing Internet marketers with everything they need to know (for now) about creating and maintaining an effective business-related blog. I've compiled everything I know and was able to find about business blogging onto these three pages: Why Write a Blog for Business?, How to Create an Effective Business Blog, and Best Practices in Blog Marketing (how to promote your blog once it's built). Also included are links to some of the most helpful blogs devoted to business blogging, such as Business Blog Consulting and Why Marketers Should Blog.

A few samples:

A blog is a place where your employees can speak to customers and prospects in their own unique voices. It is a place to demonstrate the collected knowledge and expertise of your company (that is, your people). And, through comments, it is a place to have a conversation with your customers and prospects, informally and openly. Compared to other marketing media, a blog is closest to a (well-written and informative) newsletter, but easier, faster, cheaper, and with the benefit of interaction. (More)

Blogs are fast and easy to create. Anyone in your company with an interesting story to tell or knowledge to share can contribute. They are less formal than a newsletter. They are interactive. And they are loved by the media as well as by search engines. (More)

Use keywords and key phrases in your blog posts. Keep in mind that search engines like Google treat each post as a separately searchable page, so simply using one to three keywords or phrases in each post is sufficient to get your blog noticed. (More)

The navigation on the WMC site has also been improved, with new separate areas for the directory of Web marketing resources and online marketing knowledge.

I hope you find the new stuff useful.

*****

Terms: business blogging, blogging for business, business blog, marketing blog, Internet marketing resources, Web marketing directory, how to promote your Web site

The Web marketing strategy portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

WMC Interviews: Farrakh Azhar

I had the distinct pleasure this week of talking to Farrakh Azhar, founder and CEO of WebGreeter / LiveAdmins. While there are several companies that offer Web site chat software, WebGreeter is unique in offering both the software (hosted) and the operators who handle the chat sessions. In short, WebGreeter customers not only have no software to install, they also don't have to staff the Web chat function. Customers pay only for what "chat resources" they use, and still get all the advtanges of greeting prospects as they visit their sites: increased visit length, greater "stickiness," and ultimately higher conversion of visitors to customers.

WebMarketCentral (WMC) : What did you do before starting WebGreeter / Live Admins?

Farrakh Azhar (FA): I began my professional experience as a businessman, helping the family-business in Import/Export, Retail and Manufacturing. After graduating from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1991, I started working for International Business Machines (IBM), assisting them in Data Networking and Operations. Later, I became a consultant and started designing, engineering and implementing large IT infrastructure projects for fortune 500 clients.

My consultancy experience increased by accepting assignments related to IT infrastructure projects with large IT bases such as Ameritech/SBC, People’s Gas (Gas Company of Chicago) Key Stone Steel Mill, The U.S. Military and Chicago Public Schools (one of the largest school systems in the U.S.).

I joined ABN AMRO in 1997 as a Project Manager in the Network Services Group and was promoted to Senior Project Manager and Systems Officer after six months.

I went on to help the bank develop project management lifecycles and processes in order to make the deliverables produced by the IT organization more market driven and cost effective, making products more attractive for the potential customers and enhancing the efficacy of the entire process. I also helped the bank build a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team, service level management team, and a procurement team.

WMC: How, when and why did you get started in this business?

FA: It was while I working with Fortune 500's of Chicago develop and implement business and technical processes that I struck upon the idea on an online live service support team. So, I did some research, wrote an 80-page business plan, decided to start my own business, and started working on it. This, coupled with my process engineering background and business sense that I had acquired earlier, helped me with the execution on this business plan. It seemed like a logical progression at the time.

WMC: Who do you target, i.e. describe your ideal or typical client?

FA: Our business strategy has been to grow from smaller customers to larger ones, and therefore we have been targeting larger customer as we go along. Currently we are targeting customers with a large web presence in the retail space who can utilize both our customer service and sales support abilities.

WMC: What is your key differentiator (or differentiators), that is, what separates you from your competition?

FA: Well, we do not have much of a competition today in our space. But, we do have a bunch of businesses who are trying to sell software-only solutions. We are in the business of providing the human representatives who sit behind the computer screens all day long and greet every one who lands on our customer's website. This is what differentiates us from all the rest of the businesses associated with the Live Chat support space.

WMC: How do you market/promote your business?

FA: We use multiple marketing methods such as outbound call centers, email, search engine marketing (SEM), banners, PR, and last but not the least, word of mouth which has proven to be the foremost and best marketing strategy for us by far.

WMC: What’s the biggest or most important marketing lesson you’ve learned since you founded Live Admins?

FA: My biggest lesson learned was when I decided to put my staff on the phones and chat at the same time. We learned the hard way, that once you put a person on the chat, he/she can not work the phones. This is because, once you are on the phone, you cannot do anything else. Since then, we have had two different teams, one for chat support and one for phone support. I will urge other organizations who are thinking of implementing chat and phone support utilizing the same people to learn from our mistakes. Think through your call center processes before you do this; for the most part I recommend the two separate teams theory.

WMC: Anything else you’d like to add?

FA: Another lesson I learned was not to spend our marketing dollars on print media. I was spending huge amounts on print media and chamber of commerce-type networking which did not materialize for us at all. The reason: our customers are predominantly web-driven people who understood the web very well, and are most were getting their information from the web for most of their business and personal requirements.

Also you can get a clearer picture of the workings of our service from the following press release:


Web Greeters Offer Opportunity to Keep in Touch With Online Visitors

CHICAGO (May 5, 2005) – Online businesses are in a fierce competition to lure in visitors to their sites and turn those visitors to customers. Still, between 95 percent and 97 percent of them click away within two minutes.

A 3-year-old company in Chicagoland has come up with a simple but smashing solution: Web Greeters. Web Greeters offers Web site owners an opportunity to keep in touch with their online visitors in real time with real salespeople available on the Web site. The idea is not to wait for the visitor to click but to greet every qualified visitor and say: "Hello. I am the Web site greeter. How can I help?" before they end up on a competitor's Web site.

"After providing this service for the past three years and our extensive research before that, we found that most visitors who end up on a Web site by mistake leave within the first 30 to 40 seconds," said LiveAdmins CEO and founder Farrakh Azhar. "The rest would click away usually to a competitor's Web site within 2 minutes. Of the ones who stayed for 2 minutes, they can’t even remember which site they visited the next morning. Because of this knowledge, we greet the visitor first to engage them in a pleasant chat and to keep them on the site longer.

"Our service not only provides a software tool but also a small team of well-trained sales personnel allocated to each specific Web site operating from remote locations in Asian countries. These Web greeters help visitors browse through the site, provide information and answer queries.

"Apart from our research findings and the extensive training our operators go through, our operators also have real-time information about each visitor on screen such as from which site they are coming from, on which page of the Web site they are currently on, what they are reading and how long have they been here. All this information provided by our software helps our operators in their decision-making process while they greet each visitor individually to convert them into customers.

“During our three years of experience, we manage to keep between 10 percent and 35 percent of visitors on the site whereas without Web greeters only between 3 percent and 5 percent of visitors stay on a site for more than 2 minutes. That is a substantial increase in the conversion ratio with the help of Web greeters.

"We have also found out that the number of visitors willing to continue a chat with our greeters varies in different industries. The percentage for the least-likely industry comes to average 10 percent, which again is a substantial number.

"These percentages are indicative of visitors who not only willingly chat with our greeters but also trust them to leave their phone numbers along with e-mail addresses for further contact. In contrast, only about 3 percent of visitors leave their contact information on a site and that mostly is just an e-mail address.

"To visitors who decline to chat, our greeters are trained to say: 'Thanks for coming to our Web site. If you need any help, feel free to click on the button and I'll be here to help.'

"We have found that between 20 percent and 30 percent of the visitors who initially decline to chat but continue browsing by themselves end up clicking for the online help once they have settled into the site. It was also found that the response was much better if the look and feel of the chat window was customized to integrate with the Website design.

"When we asked the owners what they felt was the best feature of the service, most said that the best part of the service is that it is provided for 12 hours, which spans working hours across all time zones in the U.S. Our business is kept open even during off hours of the day with a polite and professional salesperson who gives the visitor a feeling that we care while generating many more qualified leads.

"We're the most experienced company in the area of implementing chat-based Web site customer service and sales support. We have put in a lot of research and effort into learning what to say, how to say it, when to say it and when to throw a smiling face to ease difficult moods. We found that between 25 percent and 30 percent of second-time visitors ask to talk to the same live agent they chatted with before, which is proof of Web greeters building relationships with customers to benefit the sites.”

The service becomes very affordable as compared to phone-based call center services since live Web greeters can have multiple conversations simultaneously. This enables the Web site owners to greet and get in touch with many more visitors for much less and even during late and off hours of the day.

A testimonial from one of our satisfied customer sums it all: “We are very happy with the service," said Verne Harnish, a member of Gazelles. "The key point you need to make is that having a Web site without a Web greeter is like having a store without any people in it. I couldn’t imagine walking into Nordstrom and just wandering around while hoping to find something and then purchasing it. While some people might like this, I like to walk up to a person, tell them what I’m looking for and have them take me right to where it is.”

More testimonials are available online here: http://www.webgreeter.com. You can view a TV interview with Azhar here: http://www.liveadmins.com/newcltv.htm. A list of present customers can be made available on request.


To view this document online please go to : http://www.eprairie.com/releases/viewrelease.asp?postID=407


*****

Terms: online chat, chat software, search engine marketing, SEM, Web Greeter, WebGreeter, Live Admins, LiveAdmins

The e-commerce portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

One Company That "Gets" the Web -- And One That Doesn't

While doing some Web strategy consulting work recently for a large office products company, I evaluated several competitors' Web sites. One site -- Avery.com -- stood out not only as the best in the industry, but as an example of creativity and utility uncommon in any industry. Another competitor -- MeadWestvaco -- unfortunately for them, served as a prime counter-example (or perhaps an example of how to do almost everything wrong). I have no association with either of these companies, and my comments are intended to be illustrative and constructively critical rather than disparaging.

Avery is a company that really "gets" the Web, and it shows throughout their site. It has all of the basics one would expect, such as full e-commerce capability and a newsletter aimed at their target market, office managers. A nice touch is that all past issues of the newsletter are kept online in a searchable archive. Even more impressive, back issues are searchable by section, topic or specific issue; and most are available in both HTML (better for online reading) and PDF (better for printing) format.

In the Photo ID section, the "Three Ways to Buy" feature simplifies this process (online, by phone, or using an online form to contact an Avery representative).

The “Ideas” section shows Avery products in use for specific business and home projects (e.g. “Give thoughtful client gifts”). Their “Advanced Search…Office Products” feature is very useful – it enables visitors to select exactly what areas of the site they want to search (site-wide, products, ideas or software).

Avery has a large selection of clever and creative “product demos” done in Flash – these show the features and advantages of each product. For example, here’s one for Printable Hanging File Tabs. This is very cool.

Possibly the coolest feature on the site, however, is rather than merely providing templates or downloadable software, they have a feature called “Avery Print." You simply select which Avery product you’d like to print – for example, 1/3-cut filing labels – click “Next,” personalize a design, enter your text for the labels, review your labels, then print them. Complete instructions and troubleshooting help are provided. You can even save projects on their site for later re-use or modification. This is way ahead of their competition.

On the other end of the spectrum is MeadWestvaco. I’ve never seen a large company Web site, and rarely even a small company Web site, this incredibly awful. They still use frames, for example, which are highly navigation- and search-engine-unfriendly.

The logo in the upper left corner of the site leads to a separate corporate site rather than to the MeadWestvaco home page, which would be standard navigation practice.

They offer free clipart -- but the selection is extremely limited. Their templates apparently don't support versions of Microsoft Word newer than Word 2000 (PC) or Word 98 (Mac). They also offer two free applications for download, called KwikFill and EzEnvelope -- but the site offers no explanation of what these applications do, how they work, or what they are compatible with, just a "download" button.

The copyright date on this page is 2000, and the company’s history abruptly ends in 2001.

Although the site lists products (catalog items) on pages like this one, it provides absolutely no information about how or where to purchase their products. Maybe you should click that shopping basket graphic on the left? (Whoops, sorry, forgot about the frames; from that last link, you'll have to go back to the home page to see the shopping cart.) Nope, that tells you that your cart is empty and sends you back to the catalog!

MeadWestvaco’s sister sites are a bit better, but not much. AtAGlance.com offers e-commerce functionality, but when I clicked on the first product in the “Expanding Files” product line, the site gave me this message: “OUT OF STOCK We're sorry, this product is currently out of stock and there are no substitutes available at this time. Note: Color is determined at time of shipment. We cannot accept requests for specific colors.” The product comes in different colors, but I can’t tell them which color I want??!! In fact, when I first visited this site, three of the four products listed in this category were out of stock. Hmmm…try a different category? How about Folders / Portfolios? Two of the first three products in that category were also listed as out of stock.

In the “Where to Find Our Products” section on the At-A-Glance site, they list retail stores that carry their products – but they don’t link to any of their sites online, so you can’t immediately check the retailers’ Web sites for availability of any of the products listed as out of stock on the At-A-Glance site. Are you a business purchaser looking for a dealer? The site doesn’t list dealers on their site, but gives you a link to “email us” for dealer information – unfortunately, this is a dead link.

What would you expect to find in the “What’s New” section of the site – the latest company news perhaps? Nope, it just shows a photo and description of a new product – but no way to order the product from this page!

In the FAQ section on the At-A-Glance site, under “Why isn’t the Mead product I’m looking for on your Web site?”, one answer is that some products can be found on Mead.com. However, when you visit the Mead site, and click on “Shop,” the link takes you…back to the At-A-Glance site. Ouch.

Some companies get this stuff, and some don't; in short order, the latter are likely to have their lunch eaten by the former.

*****

Terms: web site design, web strategy, e-commerce best practices

The Web marketing and e-commerce portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

WMC Interviews: Albert Maruggi

This week, I had the chance to sit down with Albert Maruggi, principal of St. Paul-based marketing agency Provident Partners (and huge baseball fan). His agency assists companies in a variety of industries in all areas of marketing, with particular expertise in PR, events management, integrated marketing and podcasting.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before founding Provident Partners?

Albert Maruggi (AM): Worked in radio for a number of years. I was a television reporter and anchor. I also shot and edited video for news stations. I was a political reporter who made the jump to being a press secretary for a Member of Congress. From there I became Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee and then held public affairs management positions in the Bush '41 Administration.

WMC: How, when and why did Provident Partners get started?

AM: When I could not get my flight from LA to MN on September 11, 2001 I drove back home. I did a lot of thinking on that trip and I made two promises, 1) take my family on vacation to southern Utah, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. 2) Start a marketing firm that was a full service outsourcing asset to midsize companies, those between $20 and $150 million in annual revenues.

LA to Denver 13 hours, Denver to St. Paul 12 hours – One speeding ticket in Golden, Colorado. Speed 100, empathic officer priceless. I got off with a considerably reduced fine as opposed to being hauled into the pokey.

The reasons for starting the company were simple: as a VP of marketing for a $70 million company I knew I had two internal customers. The VP of Sales who would say “Where are my leads?” and the CEO who would say “Do more with less.”

I believe that a VP of marketing can outsource the experts he or she needs to get specific objectives met and then not carry that overhead. I see disturbing trends in marketing technology such as web development, Flash etc, that should make every marketer quake in their boots. An internal marketing lead has a difficult time juggling company objectives, politics, travel let alone new technologies, channel marketing, and PR.

Our profession is in transition and you must demonstrate value every day.

WMC: Who is your ideal or typical client?

AM: We are best suited for companies that have a limited marketing staff or a VP of Sales and Marketing. This situation best utilizes the four core expertise areas of Provident Partners; those being, creative ideas, public relations, lead generation, and multi-media production. We think creatively about the big picture and execute flawlessly over the details.

Our typical client has marketing or single project budget of between $50,000 to $100,000. For that they must expand brand ID, generate leads, secure media coverage, and have a better than average appreciation for public relations.

WMC: What are your key differentiators? What sets you apart from your competition?

AM: We have a unique mix of national talent and industry knowledge in technology, manufacturing, and professional services. We have, bar none, the best service record of any firm in our space. Our clients are all referenceable. I tested as an ENTP on Myers-Briggs. That means I hate letting anyone down. Our clients use this trait to their advantage.

WMC: How do you market/promote your business?

AM: Podcasting, advertising, email newsletters, media coverage, direct mail, webcasts, and calling. Or yes, there’s the secret weapon that we use too, but if I include it in this question I’d have to kill you. You understand right?

WMC: Absolutely, we'll just move on. What's the biggest or most important marketing lesson you've learned since starting Provident Partners?

AM: Never assume people know you or have heard about you. Always talk about your clients and never you. You mean nothing, your clients and their success means everything to your prospect.

WMC: Anything else you'd like to add?

AM: Two eggs, a stick of butter, two cups of brownie mix, stir, pour in pan, lick spoon, repeat.

*****

Terms: Provident Partners, marketing agency, ad agency, podcasting

The Web marketing and e-commerce portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

New Blog Friends for WMC

Marketing is about relationships. And one of my favorite aspects of blogging is "meeting" new people across the marketing blog space. Over the last couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of exchanging emails with several prominent bloggers, all of whom have made me smarter.

David Wolfe at Ageless Marketing
Many bloggers provide tips, which are very helpful. David, however, provides something even more valuable – wisdom. David shares a lifetime of experience on topics such as branding, consumer advertising and earning customer trust.

Sarah Eaton at BeTuitive
Both Sarah and her blog are delightful. Her specialties are email marketing and uncommon observations. A highly useful feature of her blog is the topical category listing.

John Moore at Brand Autopsy
A brilliant, visual and wide-ranging blog on branding. Highly recommended for anyone interested entertaining commentary on consumer and business branding, from a brilliant and eclectic mind.

Michael Smock at Maneuver Marketing Communique
There are marketers who are effervescent, artsy and hyper-creative – and then there’s Michael Smock. Not content to cuddle customers, he concentrates on crushing competition (don’t tell ME I can’t alliterate). He blasts bad marketing. He uses war metaphors and predator imagery. As I am currently working on a Blue Ocean consulting project, I found his commentary on the book particularly compelling.

Ankesh Kothari at Marketing eYe
A remarkable blog which ranges from big thoughts (life, philanthropy) to simple yet effective marketing ideas. I like his suggestions so much that I borrowed a couple for the Best Practices in Blog Marketing page on web marketing portal WebMarketCentral.

Harry Joiner at Marketing Headhunter
An executive recruiter in the marketing arena (explains the blog title), Harry expounds on topics like key marketing skills, people moves, and new opportunities. He’s smart, direct, and well worth the read.

Laura Ries at the Origin of Brands Blog
Co-author with her father, Al, of popular marketing books such as The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR and The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (my personal favorite), Laura brings the same intelligence, sensibility and fluent style to her blog. This is an entertaining must-read for anyone in consumer/retail marketing.

Terms: Blue Ocean Strategy, marketing blogs, web marketing portal

The portal for Web marketing and e-commerce: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Big Brother Really IS Watching You

While this is not a political blog, government actions that specifically affect online marketing or e-commerce are fair game. Several states have recently begun sending nasty letters to taxpayers who purchased tobacco products online from several e-retailers, including eSmokes.com.

How did they obtain information on these customers? This issue is about far more than the perils or expense of smoking; these actions have the potential to affect anyone and everyone involved in online marketing or e-commerce, anyone who buys or sells anything online. Do you sell products online? Are you absolutely positively certain that you comply with EVERY state and federal tax statute enacted in the last 100 years? Ever purchased anything online, maybe a book or CD, perhaps some jewelry, say back in 2001? Are you certain that the online retailer paid all appropriate taxes on your purchase? Disturbing? Absolutely. Please read on.

First, the state actions: the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on this activity in late July of this year, although for some mysterious reason the articles can no longer be found on their site. I was able to track down one of the articles here. Minnesota, among other states, is apparently using a dusty 60-year-old law called the Jenkins Act, originally enacted to combat cross-border cigarette smuggling by the Mafia, to bypass the normal channels of obtaining evidence and simply demand that legal, private companies in other states simply throw open their customer records to state investigators. This law may run afoul of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, not to mention Indian tribal sovereignty.

There are several problems here. First, no state has any more right to search through your online purchasing records than they do to break down your door and search your home. There needs to be evidence of a crime, probable cause to believe that you were involved in it, and a warrant granted by a judge before the state can legally search your online history or your home. Several states have therefore violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches. The Jenkins Act itself may be an unconstitutional violation of the Tenth Amendment.

Second, if the online retailers were acting illegally, isn't it logical to prosecute them? To use an offline analogy, if the proprietor of a local retailer in your neighborhood, let's call it John's Bait Shop and Beauty Supply, decided to increase his profits by simply failing to pay sales taxes to his state, that would be clearly be illegal. The state would no doubt pursue John in this case. However, it is inconceivable, unless the state not only knew but could prove that John's customers were in on this activity, that the state would track down John's customers for payment of back taxes.

Minnesota, along with Michigan and at least 10 other states, have violated the Constitution in their pursuit of higher revenues; even more disturbing than the fact that online retailers have been forced to throw open their confidential customer information is that the major credit card companies are also exposing their records (which means of course, your records). And Minnesota "intends to work with the U.S. Postal Service and commercial transportation companies to monitor cigarette deliveries to residential addresses." So Big Brother is now searching your mail and FedEx packages as well.

Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle is one of the few sane politicians fighting this practice.

The state of Minnesota, along with the other participating states, apparently believe that it is fine to violate the Constitution in their pursuit of revenue. They've violated the privacy of their citizens. They've violated certainly the spirit, if not the letter, of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Worst of all, however, they have violated the trust of the entire e-commerce marketplace.

To the long list of nefarious cretins intent on stealing your private online information -- hackers, spammers, perpetrators of fraud -- we can now add state revenue officials. They want your money. They won't stop with tobacco users. Express your outrage. And watch your back.

A Cluetrain Moment

I just finished reading The Cluetrain Manifesto (yes, I know C-2001, I'm a bit behind on my reading). Those of you who've read this book will understand the reference. For those of you who haven't, I'll provide a more detailed response to the book in some future post, but it is well worth the read.

Anyway, I had a "Cluetrain moment" last week when I met an extraordinary gentleman named Brad Cleveland, CEO of a rapid plastic injection molding prototyping company called Protomold. I don't know if Brad has read the book or not, but he certainly gets it, and lives it.

The company has been using a wide variety of marketing tactics for some time, including search engine marketing / pay-per-click, print, direct mail and email marketing, but decided to hire an outside telemarketing firm to test that tactic as well. On one occasion, one of the telemarketers deviated from the script and upset a customer, who then called a CSR at Prototmold. Brad was notified immediately (Cluetrain factor #1: he actually has a system in place to notify him of any customer complaints that come to CSRs). Brad promptly contacted the customer, apologized and made sure things were okay.

When I mentioned that I found this extraordinary, Brad humbly shrugged it off, saying that most CEOs in his industry probably would have done the same thing. Cluetrain factors #2 and #3: a CEO who is both responsive to customers and modest.

One more thing: Brad also checks Google frequently to see where his company is being talked about (including forums and blogs) and what's being said about the firm. It's not surprising that a CEO like Anne Holland of Marketing Sherpa would do this sort of thing, but it's a very Cluetrain activity for a CEO in plastic injection molding space. So it probably isn't surprising that Protomold is one of the fast growing companies in the state, ranking #2 on the Deloitte Fast 50 for 2004, and named the fastest growing private company in Minnesota last year by Twin Cities Business Journal.

Brad attributes the company's success to its proprietary software that enables the company to produce prototypes much faster than industry standard, and to the company's aggressive and smart marketing. I would add that having a CEO who clearly has a clue is a key reason as well.

Keywords of the week: The Cluetrain Manifesto, Marketing Sherpa, email marketing, search engine marketing

The portal for Web marketing and e-commerce: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

It's News to You

Marketing professionals, particularly those focused on online or Web marketing, depend on the latest news from a wide variety of sources to help them stay current on their craft. While there are obviously some excellent news sites available (such as MarketingVOX, ClickZ and BtoBonline), it's impractical to visit all of them and way too time-consuming to sift through all of the articles that don't matter in order to find the ones that do.

But now you can get all of the pertinent content, from literally thousands of online sources, in one place: the new Web Marketing News and E-Commerce News pages on WebMarketCentral.com. I try to avoid being too self-referential here but I'm really excited about these new feeds and I think -- and hope -- that you will find them useful. The feeds are powered by Web content provider Moreover Technologies. Moreover pulls literally tens of thousands of articles from more than 10,000 online sources, categorizes them, and delivers news feeds on specific and/or custom topics in near-realtime.

There are several Web content providers listed in the WebMarketCentral directory; each has its own strengths and limitations, and specific applications for which it is the best fit. Moreover is generally considered the leader in current awareness solutions.

Keywords of the week: web marketing news, online marketing news, e-commerce news

The portal for online marketing: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Ubiquitous Ads, Disappearing Freedom

The brilliant and entertaining Anne Holland at Marketing Sherpa recently blogged about the proliferation of advertising, and the need for marketers to save themselves through relevant targeting. She mentioned sand-sculpture advertising on the beach and other examples of the "loud shouting" sometimes done by marketers instead of delivering focused, relevant messages in targeted media.

I stumbled (or rather, paddled) across another example yesterday. My son and I canoed down the scenic and wild St. Croix river on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. While making our way down river, I occasionally glanced down at my paddle to make sure I was pushing water efficiently. Imprinted on the front side of the paddle was, not surprisingly, the name of the camp where we'd rented the canoe. However, late in the trip, I turned the paddle over and glanced at the back of it, on which was imprinted -- the Pepsi name and logo.

What brilliant marketer at Pepsi came up with the idea of putting their logo on the back of canoe paddles? How much did that cost? Was there any way to measure the ROI? Was it not possible -- even likely -- that there was no ROI? (I don't think there was a Pepsi machine around for miles). Oh, how nice it would be to have that kind of marketing budget to spend...

The other thing I noticed, at the camp sites where we parked, rented our gear, and stopped along for breaks along the way, even in the relative remoteness of the St. Croix valley, was the proliferation of "no" signs. There were rules when I was young too, of course, but it just seemed that there weren't so many. While our trip down river was beautiful and wonderful overall, it was annoying to see so many "no" signs even in the wilderness.

No parking. No daytime parking. No overnight parking. No parking anytime. No swimming. No fishing. No alcoholic beverages. No non-alcoholic beverages. No food or beverages. No running. No motorized vehicles. No non-motorized vehicles. No experimental vehicles. No promotional vehicles. No smoking. No cigar smoking. No pipe smoking. No fish smoking. No wet bathing suits. No dry bathing suits. No littering. No loitering. No loud music. No soft music. No bad music from the 70's (okay, I made that one up, but I'm positive that someone's thought of it). No sun bathing. No nude sun bathing. No fully-clothed sunbathing. No pets. No children. No shell collecting (I'm NOT making that one up). Permit required. License required. Sticker required. Life jacket required. Insanity required. No screaming (AAAAArgh!).

Even the great outdoors in the "land of the free and home of the brave" has become as regulated and restricted as the most dense (in at least two senses of the word) urban core. Thanks to a small number of ill-behaved boors and large number of trial lawyers willing to sue anybody anytime anything bad happens to anyone anywhere, freedom gets eroded and life gets more rule-bound.

That's how it, sadly, has happened in the real world. The Internet is still, by comparison, a wide-open frontier. Regulation encroaches however; how long can we keep the Web (relatively) free? Yes, unfortunately, there are people who go online to do bad things: spammers, hackers, virus-writers and fraudsters. The law-abiding need to be protected. I hope that we can obtain this protection, predominantly if not entirely, through technology solutions (and more precise targeting by legitimate marketers), rather than asking the government to do more. In so many areas of life, we've already asked the government to do too much -- leading to higher taxes and reduced freedom. I hope that we can keep the "no" signs from proliferating on the Internet for a long time to come.

Keywords of the week: online advertising, targeted marketing

The Web marketing portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

WMC Interviews: Kelly Allan

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to Kelly Allan, founder of and senior associate at Kelly Allan Associates in Columbus, Ohio. Kelly's firm assists companies in a variety of industries with marketing and operations consulting, helping them to streamline business processes and achieve better results. Kelly has been widely published -- and is just a really nice guy.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before starting Kelly Allan Associates?

Kelly Allan (KA): I was a writer, producer/director of educational programs for The University of Michigan Medical Center. Had I stayed, I'd be retired, fat, and unhappy. I had a great boss and great colleagues, but it wasn't what I really wantedto do. Staying would have been a compromise. I tell young people, "Don't sell your life for money. Go take some chances."

WMC: How, when and why did Kelly Allan Associates get started?

KA: I started the company full time in 1976, at age 24. I was too young to knowany better! There are people who, when they read about the evils ofdrinking, they give up reading. I decided to give up being an employee and follow my dream of starting a company. I started the company in my bedroom. It was difficult, but I loved every minute of it. I still do.

WMC: Whom do you target, that is, who is your ideal or typical client?

KA: The ideal client is full of energy to make things happen and to get things done --in an enlightened, healthy way. Our clients are local, national, and international. There are only a handful of companies that do both marketing/sales work and operations management work. We are one of them. When you do both, you attract companies that already have a systems view ofhow things really work. That puts us more in sync with presidents andCEOs --and increases our effectiveness on their behalf.

WMC: What is your key differentiator (or differentiators)? What separates you from your competition?

KA: I started the company with the ignorant notion that we ought to be able to pay for the cost of our advice and services by saving clients a LOT of money --or by making them a LOT more money. I figured we should promise that if within 90 days we couldn't provide a payback that couldn't would more than cover the cost of our work, we shouldn't take on the work. As Mark Twain said, '"Why not go out on a limb? That's where all the fruit is." Amazingly, we still live by that ignorant notion of extreme accountability. And, we like fruit.

WMC: How do you market/promote your business?

KA: We don't need much promotion because we tend to keep clients for a long, long time. Many have been with us for more than a decade. So, we are somewhat picky about adding to the list. Nor do we grow for growth sake. Many of my 25 associates have been with the company for more than a decade. New business often comes via word of mouth. We are also the only authorized contact point for Peter R. Scholtes, and we conduct seminars and consulting on his behalf. (Peter wrote The Leader's Handbook and The Team Handbook).

WMC: What's the biggest or most important marketing lesson you've learned since starting Kelly Allan Associates?

KA: I learned this lesson in the rain forest of Ecuador while doing client work: you must be able to prove you can do what you say you can do. You need to prove it quickly, compellingly, honestly, and humbly. If not, you might get killed.

WMC: Anything else you'd like to add?

KA: I encourage people to move things along quickly, yet thoughtfully. Did you hear about the new microwave fireplace? You can enjoy an entire evening in front of it in fewer than eight minutes. Now that's moving things along.

*****

Keywords of the week: marketing consulting, operations consulting, marketing portal

The Web marketing portal: WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

Yvonne and Jane

If you market to women, or like reading about marketing to women, or just enjoy exceptionally well-written marketing-related blog copy, check out Yvonne DiVita's Lip-Sticking blog. As a strictly b2b marketer, and a guy, I'll acknowledge that I'm as clueless on this subject as the Hahn beer guy (if you've never seen these videos, you must).

Yvonne writes about blogging, conferences, copywriting, advertising and other related topics from her own unique perspective and with her own inimitable style. A great example is "5 Things About Your Website that will send Jane Screaming in Frustration" -- although these apply equally to men.

Who's Jane?

*****

The portal for online marketing, WebMarketCentral.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentral.com

WMC Interviews: Jay Lipe

WebMarketCentral had the chance to sit down (figuratively speaking) with Jay Lipe, founder of marketing consulting firm Emerge Marketing, to talk about his background and his company, and to tap into his Web marketing wisdom. Herewith, the inaugural WebMarketCentral blog interview.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before Emerge Marketing?

Jay Lipe (JL): My background is pretty much all in marketing. For almost twenty years, I’ve worked to market companies, products, services, universities, cities, even politicians.

After I received my MBA in Marketing from Northwestern (Kellogg School of Management) in the 80’s, I worked for marketing powerhouses like General Mills, Novartis and Select Comfort. I went as far as I could on that track, then I launched my own business, Emerge Marketing in 1994. I help small companies (less than 100 employees) gain focus in their marketing.

WMC: How, when and why did Emerge Marketing get started?

JL: September 23, 1994. On that day I met with a good friend who is also a top-notch strategic consultant. He encouraged me to start my own marketing practice and when I got home that night there were two voicemail messages from potential clients (neither of whom he referred). Things happen for a reason.

My first two years were spent helping Fortune 500 companies with outsourced marketing projects. Then I was hired by a $3 million manufacturer that needed a marketing plan. I continued to work for that company for another 2 ½ years and realized that serving small business people made my heart go pitter patter.

WMC: Who do you target, that is, who is your ideal or typical client?

JL: Small companies (to me, less than 100 employees), I work only with the president or owner, this person is usually a non-marketer and in their first meeting with me they say something like “I know we need to be marketing, but I’m not sure where to begin”.

WMC: What is your key differentiator (or differentiators), that is, what separates you from your competition?

JL: I have red hair and I play drums—I’m the only red-headed, drumming, marketing consultant that I know of!

Really though, what makes me unique is that I focus exclusively on smaller businesses—those with less than 100 employees. And I come from a big company background (worked in marketing management for General Mills, Novartis and Select Comfort). So, I can take the strategic marketing concepts that the “big boys” use, and boil them down to a level where small business people get them, and do them.

WMC: How do you market/promote your business?

JL: To me, successful marketing leverages variety. To that end, I use a variety of marketing vehicles to promote my business. They include:

The Emerge Marketing website – This is a key tool for me to connect with the online community. On my site I feature all my services, over 25 free articles on small business marketing topics and copies of all my newsletters. Check it out at http://www.emergemarketing.com/.

My Smart Marketing blog - I frequently update my blog with marketing how-to’s for the small business. In fact the tagline for my blog is “Jay Lipe’s blog at the intersection of Small Business Street and Marketing Avenue. Check it out at http://jaylipe.typepad.com/smart_marketing/

In 2002, I wrote my first book, The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Business, and it has really helped expand my business. Three different kinds of people buy the book: 1) Early-stage entrepreneurs who have launched a business within the last 5 years 2) Established business owners with less than 10 employees who want more significant growth and 3) Small business leaders with larger companies (up to $100 million) who want growth, but without an internal marketing department.

I’m now at work on my second book for Dearborn Trade Publishing, due out next year.

I also give about 20 speeches a year in front of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Associations and Small Business organizations.

I write a lot of articles for online and offline publications. My advice has been featured in publications like Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, United Press International, Marketing News and the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune.

I also publish an online newsletter called Jay Lipe’s Marketing Tips and Tools. If any of your readers want to be added to my subscriber list, they can sign up at my website.

WMC: What’s are the most important marketing lessons you’ve learned since starting Emerge Marketing?

JL: 1) Marketing has its own process – In accounting you close every month and you follow a standard process to balance your books. Small business leaders need to understand that marketing involves a process too. You analyze, plan, implement, and then analyze again. For more specifics on how a company can use this marketing process, I’d suggest my book The Marketing Toolkit for Growing Business.

2) Patience is a marketer’s best friend – Even brilliant marketing takes time to shine. People are too busy these days to drop everything and take notice of your marketing. You must do a new marketing initiative at least 5 times before your audience even notices. Any company that doesn’t stick with a new marketing effort for at least 5 times is short-changing itself.

3) Technology rules – The company that focuses on helping small businesses with their technology problems will make a lot of money. I’m just a little bit tech-savvy, yet I still feel overwhelmed by technology at times.

WMC: Anything else you’d like to add?

JL: Marketing is a discipline all its own. If you’re a non-marketer who’s responsible for your company’s marketing, you have to learn the discipline. In some recent research from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, more than one-half of the small business owners it surveyed launched their venture without any prior marketing or sales experience.

Also, this is increasingly becoming the Age of Marketing. These days it seems, business owners must know how to market their companies just to survive.

Google Notes, Good People

First, I noted in my last rant here that "The Web's most popular search engine still won't find all of the words "Bronto Topica Silverpop" on WebMarketCentral, even though they are all listed on the Hosted Email Marketing Services page." Well, I checked again today and -- Google still won't find these terms on the WMC site, but it found my blog post (top spot). Guess I need to keep working on my search engine optimization.

Second, one of the most enjoyable things about running WebMarketCentral thus far has been the outstanding people I've been able to "meet" (in some cases, just via email). Kelly Allan gave WMC one its first real links. Jay Lipe, president of Emerge Marketing, agreed to be the subject of the first (of many to come) WMC blog interview (to be posted soon). And just today, Skip Lineberg at the Marketing Genius blog gave WMC a nice endorsement. The opportunity to develop new relationships with great people is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do.

Search Engine Optimization 101

New on WebMarketCentral.com is a page on Search Engine Optimization Basics, a how-to guide to getting at least decent placement for your site on the major search engines. While expert search engine position services offer more sophisticated techniques, this guide covers the basics of text optimization, meta tagging, alt-text for images, page naming, links and code tweaking for those without a big search budget.

Having exposed my knowledge and experience on improving one's search position, it's embarassing that the WMC site isn't showing up more respectably on the search engines yet. Through yesterday, a Google search for own press release brought up a number of sites where the release had been posted -- but missed the press release on my site! (Google is finding it today.) Also up until yesterday, Google couldn't find the name "Jay Lipe" on my site, even though it's in both the text and meta tags for my marketing-related blogs page. Again, that's working today. The Web's most popular search engine still won't find all of the words "Bronto Topica Silverpop" on WebMarketCentral, even though they are all listed on the Hosted Email Marketing Services page.

The bottom line on all of this seems to be that the final paragraph of my SEO basics page is spot-on: "The final step in improving your search engine positioning involves the least effort, and yet is the hardest -- waiting...It can take several weeks for Google to find your site, and about the only thing you can do to speed this up at all is to try getting your site linked from more sites so you are easier to find." Hopefully, within a few weeks, I'll be able to report much improved results -- and validate my own advice.

Gratuitous key phrase of the week: WebMarketCentral, the Portal for Web Marketers, Officially Launched (my press release -- we'll see if/when the search engines find this)

WebMarketCentral Gets Official

After several weeks live, WebMarketCentral.com has now been officially launched with this press release. Most of the world won't see the release until PRWeb releases it tomorrow, but you can see it on the WMC site today.

Our goal, as always, is to help Web marketing and e-commerce professionals to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently by showcasing the top marketing books, providing useful advice, and providing an extensive directory of helpful online marketing resources.

To that end, we've also recently added to the site a directory of Marketing and Operations Consulting firms, including some of those whom we have found to truly outstanding such as Kelly Allan Associates and Green Point Partners.

Nest week, we'll post our first interview with a key player in the online marketing space. Until then, best of luck to you, and stay tuned.

The Hydra of Web Site Development

Like the Hydra of Greek mythology, though much more benign (and not to confused with the 1990 Toto album, one of their weaker efforts), effective Web site development requires many heads. Perhaps not nine like the Hydra, but at least four: a technologist, a graphic designer, a writer, and a Web strategist. Finding all four skill sets in one individual is as rare as finding the next Michael Jordan in basketball, though finding two may be possible.

Many companies -- and not just small ones -- make the mistake when looking for Web development talent of focusing on the technology side: "knowledge of HTML, Java, Flash" etc. is among the absolute requirements in their want ad. While technology skills are important, they are not necessarily key, any longer, to the development of a truly effective online presence.

Take this law firm site for example: the graphic design is simple yet elegant, and technologically it works fine; but the navigation could be improved (Who are they targeting? What exactly do they want me to look at first on this site?) and much of the content has been written by lawyers (and reads like it). Yes, particularly in a larger company, it is important to enable multiple individuals to contribute content to the company Web site in their area of subject matter expertise, but as the brilliant Anne Holland of Marketing Sherpa pointed out in this column, it is also important to have a "keeper of the words" in order to maintain consistency and ensure the maximum impact from your Web communications.

So, for smaller firms who can't afford to hire a Web team, the question becomes: what talent do we hire and what do we outsource? Actually, the technology and graphic design aspects are the easiest to outsource. Virtually every Web hosting company now offers easy-to-use content management tools from entry-level (e.g. GoDaddy's WebSite Tonight) to professional-grade (such as the Neuance tool from Neulogic), taking the technical burden off the business. Graphic artists are generally not hard to find locally, and since complete site redesign is something most companies only undertake once every two to three years, it makes little sense to hire one full-time (unless you have a lot of other needs in this area). If you're not sure where to look, there are national marketing temp firms such as The Creative Group and Aquent who can connect you with professional graphic artists on a project basis. If you don't have the budget to hire a graphic artist, Web site templates for a variety of popular site-building and content management programs are available for prices ranging from free to about $100.

Writing is a talent you should have in-house. Although this individual does not need to be dedicated solely to Web writing (unless you have a very large and dynamic Web site), this individual should have knowledge of how to write for the Web: in other words, the "4-C" ability to write content that is compelling, clear, concise and consistent.

Most important is the Web strategist. This is the person who can answer the basic questions such as "Who exactly are we targeting with our Web site?" and "What are the key messages we want to communicate?" as well as determining what content should be on the site, how the navigation should flow, and what special features/capabilities should be incorporated (e.g. news feeds, stock feeds, links and resources, events, Webcasts, white papers / expert knowledge, online support, e-commerce, online chat etc.). This individual will be key to the success of your online marketing efforts; he or she won't be an entry-level marketer and won't come cheap, but will be critical. The Web strategist doesn't necessarily have to be an expert in technology or graphic design, but if you can find one who can also write, that's a bonus worth paying for.