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Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Need to Know. Afficher tous les articles

mardi 12 janvier 2010

Goodbye WebMarketCentral; Hello Webbiquity!

Webbiquity logoAfter four and a half years and 440 posts, this will be the final entry on the WebMarketCentral blog. But fear not loyal fans of this blog (yes, all three of you)—I will continue to write about b2b marketing, social media, SEO, interactive PR and whatever else pops into my mind at the new Webbiquity blog.

To those who've enjoyed and/or been enlightened by this blog, thank you for your support, and I'll hope you'll continue reading my new blog. For those who have followed WebMarketCentral in an RSS reader, here is the new feed:

http://webbiquity.com/feed/

For those subscribed to this blog by email: in order to avoid any risk of spamming, I will not be moving subscribers over automatically. You'll need to resubscribe on the new blog (but it's easier than on this one).

If you link to this blog (bless you!), please update your link to:

The Webbiquity Blog
http://webbiquity.com

I'd be most grateful.

Why the change?

When I first created this blog and the companion website at webmarketcentral.com, having a separate blog and site seemed to make sense strategically. Now it's just confusing. Also, the development platforms chosen—Blogger for this blog, FrontPage for the website—were solid picks in early 2005, but aren't the tools I would use, or recommend, today. WordPress is now a powerful and flexible enough platform to accomplish everything I was formerly trying to do with two separate web venues.

I'll continue to write on similar topics, but with more of a focus on using SEO, social media, content marketing and other techniques to maximize individual and organizational online presence, as well as taking advantage of increasing interactivity to make and expand connections with customers, prospects and industry influencers online.

Thanks again for reading WebMarketCentral, and I hope you'll follow me to the new blog. I look forward to your comments and feedback.

*****


Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom
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jeudi 10 décembre 2009

Twin Cities Top 10 Titans in Social Media Announced

Judy Grundstrom at the Just JudyJudyJudy blog yesterday announced the Twin Cities Top Ten Titans In Social Media 2009, chosen by a distinguished group of judges.

It's a very interesting list. The winners come from a variety of backgrounds, including politics (Dusty Trice), broadcast media (Jason Matheson and Alexis Thompson of FM 107.1, Jason DeRusha of WCCO TV), the arts (Kate Iverson), corporate marketing (Kelly Groehler of Best Buy), and PR agencies (Blois Olson and David Erickson from Tunheim, the brilliant Jennifer Kane, and, um...me), among others.

You can find details of the top five and 6-10 winners on Judy's blog. It's quite an honor to be named to this list, and it helped me pick up a bunch of cool new local Twitter friends (I still don't like the term "followers," sounds too Kool-Aid-drinking cultish) like Aimee Cheek, Allison Janney, Tara Olson and Morsekode.

Judy also discussed some of the winners on the December 9 Jason & Alexis show on FM 107.1.

If you live in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area, want to make some connections here, or just want to keep up through social media on what's happening here in frozen tundra, the Top 10 Titans list is a great place to start. Thanks Judy!

*****


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jeudi 24 septembre 2009

Looking Back at 400: Top 10 Posts

As I recently passed 400 posts on this blog, here is a look back at the 10 most popular items here of all time. The list has changed considerably since the last look back after 300 posts.

#10: Best of 2007: Website Design, February 4, 2008

Reviews of articles and tools on website design, including a couple of pieces from the brilliant and frequently cited Stoney deGeyter. Not sure exactly why this one remain so popular, but here it is at #10.

#9: How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy, March 4, 2009

A summary of research from MarketingSherpa, Eloqua's Steve Woods, and green marketer Lorna Li on how marketers should approach social media strategically. As the old saying from the financial world goes, no one plans to fail—but many people fail to plan.

#8: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 4: B2B Traffic Building, May 15, 2007

Original research on the quantitative impact of social bookmarking on b2b site traffic. Much has changed since then, and social media is now an integral part of SEO efforts. But this post was one of the first to provide hard data on the benefits.

#7: How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan, December 6, 2007

A guide to crafting a strategic marketing plan, starting with target markets and working through high-level strategies, specific tactics, and the tools needed to implement planned actions.

#6: How to Use Twitter for Business, May 6, 2009

Detailed summary of an outstanding presentation (includes video) delivered by Chris Abraham of social PR firm Abraham Harrison and Anamitra Banerji, product manager at Twitter, on how to develop a targeted Twitter following, develop a strategy, improve productivity with Twitter tools, and other Twitter best practices for business.

#5: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan, October 8, 2008

Another strategy piece, this one on working outward from a solid website design, SEO and SEM through broader marketing tactics and media.

#4: The Social Media Email Signature, Septenber 18, 2008

Thanks to some Twitter luv from Guy Kawasaki, this post produced the largest single-day traffic spike ever on the WebMarketCentral blog. It shows creative examples of Web 2.0 / social media email signatures from early adopters of the now increasingly common practice. A more recent post here explained how to create a cool graphic social media email signature.

#3: Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices, September 20, 2007

Hard numbers to help benchmark the performance of Google AdWords campaigns is hard to come by, which explains the popularity of this post. Based on recent data, the average CTR for b2b AdWords programs remains in the 1.1%-1.3% range, with a typical conversion rate of around 2.8%.

#2: Average CTR for Banner Ads - New Data, September 16, 2008

As with AdWords, benchmarking data for banner ad performance is also difficult to find. This review of MarketingSherpa data holds up well against more recent figures. Typical CTRs for banner ads remain in the 0.15% to 0.3% range, with any performance above 0.5% qualifying as outstanding. The conclusion presented here holds true: banner ads are primarily valuable for branding, not direct response.

#1: Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR), August 14, 2007

The all-time most popular post thus far on the WebMarketCentral blog remains this piece providing industry data to help set goals and benchmark the performance of email marketing, newsletter sponsorship and banner advertising programs. Clearly, marketers love benchmark data.

*****


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mercredi 15 juillet 2009

The BMZ Content Portal for B2B Marketers Gains Traction

There's been a lot of activity since the B2B Marketing Zone (BMZ) officially launched two weeks ago. Traffic continues to grow and the number of featured bloggers has doubled.

Awareness has been expanded through posts from prominent b2b bloggers like Brian Carroll, Ardath Albee and Cece Salomon-Lee.

Also this morning, Rebel Brown (who's got one of the best blogger names anywhere) posted an informative interview with me and Tony Karrer, the technical and creative guru behind the site and the underlying Browse My Stuff technology platform. Her post provides more details about the purpose, goals and future plans for the BMZ site.

If you're looking for one place to find all of the best b2b marketing and PR content—filtered, aggregated and neatly packaged—or you'd like to contribute content, check out the B2B Marketing Zone.

*****

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mercredi 1 juillet 2009

New Hub Site Focuses on B2B Marketing Intelligence

A new B2B marketing community site, B2B Marketing Zone officially launched today. Conceptually the site is a bit like Social Media Today and other targeted content portals, though it's the first (that I'm aware of at least) focused specifically on providing information for B2B marketers.

Hosted by community organizer (I mean that in a good way) Tony Karrer using his Browse My Stuff technology, B2B Marketing Zone features content from rockstar B2B bloggers like Brian Carroll, Paul Dunay and Newt Barrett. Additional bloggers meeting the high standards for the community will be added over time.

The home page displays the latest and most popular content, with the ability to drill down into specific topic areas such as social media, email marketing, analytics and YouTube. The site is designed to make it easy for visitors to navigate to specific content, and drives traffic for member bloggers.

Learn more about the launch, how the B2B Marketing Zone works and how to participate in Tony's latest post.

With this launch, B2B Marketing Zone joins a small but growing number of sites like B2B social media hub FYIndOut.com that specifically address the needs of B2B marketing and PR professionals.

*****


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vendredi 16 janvier 2009

Five Resources for Job Hunting Online

The news about unemployment just keeps getting uglier as the jobless rate recently reached its highest level in 16 years. If you are one of the people behind these numbers, my best wishes and prayers are with you. Been there, done that, and it's not something I'd wish on anyone (well, almost anyone, but...). Seriously, it's stressful and frustrating, and for all who now find themselves involuntarily seeking new career opportunities, I hope your search is as quick and productive as possible. Here are a few resources that may help.

Social media guru Chris Brogan has written a free ebook on Using the Social Web to Find Work that, in Chris' words, "takes you from the specifics of using LinkedIn to your benefit, into some ideas on how to grow and nurture your social networks ahead of a need for them." This is a great resource to check out even if you're not out of work (yet).

The Marketing, Advertising and Sales Career Opportunities center on WebMarketCentral.com provides pre-filtered job searches from CareerBuilder, as well as career advice and a job seeker toolkit with guidance on topics such as making your resume stand out from the crowd.

MarketingSherpa provides a career classifieds section for high-profile marketing and PR positions. These postings tend to attract a lot of resumes, but if you're a marketing rock star, your next opportunity may be here.

The Ladders offers MktgLadder, a service dedicated to six-figure marketing and PR positions. It's fee-based but not terribly expensive ($15-$30 per month depending on the time frame chosen) and the positions don't draw quite as many unqualified resumes as those posted on free job boards like Monster.

Finally, a relatively new service is TopJobLeads.com. They promise to have all resumes reviewed by an experienced recruiter, who then matches skill sets with companies actively recruiting in the candidate's are and provides contact information for the actual decision makers, thereby avoiding "gatekeepers." The model has potential, though at $10 per lead the cost could quickly take a toll on an unemployed candidate's budget. I couldn't find much written about the company or CEO Rick Probstein, so if you have any experience with this company, please leave a comment below.

Good luck and God be with you.

*****


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lundi 12 janvier 2009

How to Avoid Bad SEO: My SEOmoz 15 Minutes of Fame

I had the honor of having a guest post on how to avoid bad SEO consultants published on YOUmoz last week. Based on my own experience, and citing the work of lots of smart SEO experts, the post provides advice on how to spot SEO spammers and scammers, as well as how to find an effective, reputable firm to provide SEO services.

The final post looks a bit link-heavy as it was edited down quite a bit. Still, overall, I think the edits made by the SEOmoz team improved the post (I tend to get a bit wordy sometimes).

The post didn't generate quite as much traffic to this blog as I thought it would. I'm not sure if that was because:
  • SEOmoz doesn't get as much traffic as one would expect;
  • SEOmoz readers don't often click on links within posts; or
  • my post just wasn't interesting (but I got all thumbs-up and generally positive comments, so don't think this is the case).
Regardless, it was an honor and I hope you have a chance to check out the post.

*****


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lundi 24 novembre 2008

Looking Back at 300: Top 10 Posts

On the occasion of the 300th post on the WebMarketCentral blog, and to see how things have changed since the first 100 posts, here are the 10 most popular posts of all time so far.

#10: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan, October 8, 2008

The most recent post to make this list presents B2B marketing as a series of concentric layers, with SEO at the core then moving outward from highly measurable online direct response tactics to broader brand advertising.

#9: Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1), January 28, 2008

Summaries of and links to a dozen outstanding articles on SEO from some of the top pros like Lee Odden, Jon Rognerud and Danny Sullivan. Also, I think, the first time on this blog I made the case that SEO is far from dead.

#8: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 7: The Best, June 26, 2007

"Based on two months of testing across a half-dozen B2B websites and blogs, these Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites produced the best results, in terms of driving direct traffic and having active, engaged discussion communities." Of mostly historical interest now, from the early days of social bookmarking, before Mixx, Sphinn, Propeller and Twitter took off.

#7: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 4: B2B Traffic Building, May 15, 2007

The first post where I showed, quantitatively, how social media can accelerate traffic growth for both blogs and commercial websites.

#6: Selecting an Advertising Agency, June 7, 2005

The second post ever written on this blog and the only post common to both this list and the top 10 after first 100 posts.

#5: Best of 2007: Website Design, February 4, 2008

Eleven outstanding articles on blog posts on website design tips, tactics and tools from experts like Stoney deGeyter, Ralph Wilson, Mark Jackson, Jay Lipe and Kalena Jordan.

#4: How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan, December 6, 2007

My recommended outline for crafting a strategic marketing plan, from high-level business objectives and strategies through marketing and PR tactics and tools.

#3: The Social Media Email Signature, September 18, 2008

A look at how traditional email signatures have evolved into their Web 2.0 version, now incorporating elements such as LinkedIn profiles, blog links, Twitter pages, Facebook, StumbleUpon, even Second Life IDs. Includes notable examples from social media pros like Jon Rognerud, Viewzi evangelist Giovanni Gallucci, and Guy Kawasaki.

#2: Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices, September 20, 2007

Various estimates for average click-through rates (CT) from Google AdWords along with 14 best practices to make search engine marketing programs more successful.

#1: Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR), August 14, 2007

And the most popular post thus far on the WebMarketCentral blog covers...industry data to help set goals and benchmark the performance of email marketing, newslettor sponsorship and banner advertising programs.

That will do it for me this (short) week. Happy Thanksgiving!

*****


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mercredi 27 août 2008

Briefly: My Interview with Jon Miller

Jon Miller at marketing automation vendor Marketo, just posted his interview with me, B2B Marketing Thought Leadership: Tom Pick. I'm a bit too modest to be totally comfortable with a title like that, but I appreciate the compliment nonetheless.

So, if you'd like to read my blathering on about marketing innovation, blogging, social bookmarking, SEO, SMO, SEM, b2b lead generation, lead management and B2B marketing and PR in general (which maybe you do, since you're here after all), check out Jon's interview.
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mercredi 25 juin 2008

Top Blog Posts in First Three Years of WMC


It's been three years since the launch of this blog, and it still gets less traffic than the Huffington Compost (sigh). Maybe I should set my goals a bit more modestly? Oh well, at least I write my own stuff.

Anyway, taking a look back at the first three years of the WMC blog, here are the ten most popular posts as chosen by you, my elite (in the good sense!) and loyal readers. It's an interesting mix of old and new, tactical and strategic, original and derivative.

10. Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing, January 18, 2008—A wrap-up of some of the best blog posts of 2007 on social networking and social media marketing strategies and tactics.

9. Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 1: Alexa Rankings, April 29, 2007—the Alexa rankings for 42 popular Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites, with Alexa's lack of precision and measurement shortcomings duly noted.

8. Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools, January 9, 2008—the very first post in the "Best of 2007" series, providing a list of the best tools for analyzing and optimizing SEO efforts as well as blog posts on SEO tools from sources like SEO Position (now SocialSEO), SEO Company and Web Worker Daily.

7. How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan, December 6, 2007—my take on how to write a strategic marketing plan, written after several Google searches revealed little of value on this rather important topic.

6. Best of 2007: Website Design, February 4, 2008—links to some of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on website design considerations to consider from the outset, such as intuitive navigation, relevant visitor-focused content, and SEO.

5. Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 4: B2B Traffic Building, May 15, 2007—my attempt to provide a quantitative answer to the question of whether, and how much, tagging content on social bookmarking sites helps drive B2B web traffic.

4. Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 7: The Best, June 26, 2007—the summary, after a 60-day test, of which Web 2.0 social bookmarking sites produced the best results, in terms of driving direct traffic and having active, engaged discussion communities.

3. Selecting an Advertising Agency, June 7, 2005—one of the first posts ever on the WMC blog, this was my take on how to select a marketing/PR agency, from the client perspective (before I moved to the agency side).

2. Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices, September 20, 2007—the difficulty of obtaining benchmarking data for CTR and other AdWords measurements, and 14 steps to optimize your results, regardless of what the average values actually are in your industry.

Drumroll...

1. Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR), August 14, 2007—in planning online advertising and email promotion budgets, it's critical to calculate the likely ROI upfront whenever possible, as well as to establish campaign benchmarks. Based on several studies, this post shows typical CTR ranges for email newsletter ads, email campaigns (blasts or internally-produced enewsletters), and banner ads.

There you have it, the ten posts you thought were the best so far. Thanks for your support over the first three years; onward and upward.

*****


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jeudi 15 mai 2008

What Email Marketers Need to Know


Three new how-to guides recently added to WebMarketCentral offer valuable guidance to email marketing practitioners. Since I don't know everything (as if that wasn't obvious!), these have been authored by some veteran professionals in the field: Dan Forootan, president, and Neil Anuskiewicz, sales director at hosted email marketing platform provider StreamSend.

Selecting an Email Service Provider (ESP) provides a list of the top 10 criteria to consider when choosing a hosted email marketing platform for your organization. Key considerations include deliverability, reporting, list management and split testing capabilities. Price makes the list—at number 10.

Email Marketing Best Practices offers five tips to maintain high deliverability rates and avoid being perceived as a spammer. These include techniques for proper list building and maintenance, message design, list segmentation and complaint handling.

Finally, Using Google Analytics to Track Email Campaigns shows you how to use campaign management features within Google Analytics to track not only the number of visitors generated by your campaign, but also the number of pages they visited, average time on your website, percent of new visitors to your website and the average bounce rate—useful statistics that may not be provided by your email service provider. Understanding visitor behavior enables you to more effectively provide the information your buyers are seeking, keep them on your website longer, and increase conversion or purchase rates.

*****


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mardi 11 mars 2008

Best of 2007: Amusing and Creative Marketing Stuff


Sell your soul on eBay. Buy trash at Target. "404 Error" pages that are actually entertaining. A bedtime story about search engines. A rap about link building. What's going on here?

It's the final—and best—installment of WebMarketCentral's Best of 2007 series. Here are some of the most humorous, creative, and just plain odd, yet strangely relevant to interactive marketing, blog posts and articles from 2007. I hope you have as much fun reading these as I had writing about them!

A Bedtime Story (or The Future of Search) by Alt Search Engines

The delightful story of a grandfather and his amazingly-tuned-in-to-search grandson talking about the "future" of search engines, when they will be able to show a virtually unlimited number of results on a single page (NoFoodHere), display search results as two-dimensional maps (KartOO), search within a tag cloud (Quintura), and do other cool things.


Hitchhikers Guide to Linkless SEO by SEOish

How to improve your Google PageRank, create link bait, use social media optimization, and other SEO advice presented as Douglas Adams would have written it, if he were an SEO guy. A must-read for fans of the Hitchhiker's Guide who also need to drive web traffic.


404 Pages - Funny, Geeky, Disturbing by Squareoak

404 error pages don't have to bland. Here are a collection of some of the most creative and imaginative ways to tell site visitors they've mistyped a URL or reached a page that no longer exists on your site. Want even more interesting ideas for your 404 error page? Smashing Magazine provides an extended collection.


The GoogleBalt's Great American Road Trip: Five Street-View Optimization Tips by MediaPost Search Insider

With Google driving the country gathering scenes for its Street View maps, Rob Garner outlines five things you may want to do (e.g., dress for success, keep your blinds closed) and not do (grow pot on your windowsill) lest the Googlebalt's cameras snap you.


Does Sex Sell? by The Origin of Brands Blog

Sure it does, says best-selling author Laura Ries in this entertaining and insightful blog post, for products like " perfume, condoms or erectile dysfunction drugs," but...hamburgers?!


Behind the Scenes of Branding by Marketing Genius from Maple Creative

Skip Lineberg provides a rare glimpse inside the branding discussions at a major advertising agency, as the assembled marketing team works through crucial concepts such as a product's Brandapalooza Index and Brangelina Factor.


The 6 Most Overhyped Technologies by Cracked

Writer Chris Bucholz reviews six technologies that some people decided were so cool they had to be developed and hyped without wasting time on silly things like market research, including eBooks and the Internet on your TV.


Funny Adwords Contest: Round 2 by Google Analytics Blog

Mark Curtis supplies a very funny yet cautionary post on the dangers of using variable keyword insertion in Google and Yahoo SEM ads.


Link Rap w/da Moserious by The Link Spiel

No one is sure why we really needed this, but Moserious does a rap here about link building. So bad it's actually kind of good.


The complete Best of 2007 series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design
Best of 2007: Blogging for Business
Best of 2007: Marketing Research
Best of 2007: Interactive PR
Best of 2007: SEO Copywriting
Best of 2007: Strategy and Branding
Best of 2007: Web Analytics
Best of 2007: Web 2.0 Sites
Best of 2007: Cool Online Tools
Best of 2007: Miscellaneous Marketing Stuff
Best of 2007: Amusing and Creative Marketing Stuff

*****


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