[Bonus points for spotting a Latewirer in th' above photo by Joe Johnston aka @RealJoe !]
I'm so used to slouching in th' back of rooms, dissecting and criticizing what folks have to say, and scowling at presenters from behind my composition book that I'm generally unprepared to hear a talk from someone who is inarguably, scintillatingly awesome. This Wednesday, I was sulking around Gangplank as usual, prepping for another in a series of usually-pretty-darn-good lunch presentations on business, tech, and marketing. Somewhat bafflingly for me, on deck for that day's talk was Joe Johnston (real name!), an oldish guy that I'd heard of before, as the restauranteur behind Joe's Real BBQ, a place famous for giving away free BBQ sandwiches once every year. This guy, I knew, was also behind th' latest in-crowd hangout, Liberty Market.
Now, see, I respect successful businesspersons. I also have a basic, reactionary, but often-justified snobby attitude about "latest in-crowd hangouts" and other signifiers of hipster culture. Never having been to Liberty Market, and having been to Joe's real BBQ only once (and I have to admit, I still prefer Honey Bear's), I didn't have a clear idea about what sort of insight this old sandwich-slinger would have to offer a room full of bad-attitude tech goons and myself. His topic was "Social Media and the Third Place," which sounded pretty bog standard except I wasn't sure what any of this had to do with baseball. And, gee, social media advice is like bad debt : a lot of people have it and would love to pass it on to you.
As it turns out, Joe Johnston is a real interesting cat who puts a lot of thought into what he does. He's got a wide range of knowledge, a compelling story and some pretty darned neat ideas about how to run a real live brick-n-mortar business. He showed up wearing a breezy Hawaiian-style shirt and a straw porkpie hat (indoors, which is bad manners if you ask me, but hey, he's the millionaire). Here's the brief :
Joe Johnston is an old-school Arizonan who grew up on a family farm in Gilbert in the 1960s. He studied electrical engineering at Stanford and practiced that lucrative trade for several years, until a backlog of pleasant memories from his college coffeehouse haunting days and Ray Oldenburg's now-classic book "The Great Good Place" drove him to become heavily interested in and soon professionally involved with what Oldenburg called "Third Places."
According to Oldenburg, the "First Place" is the insular place where we live with our families, sleep, and play 'Scrabble.'. The "Second Place" is the workplace, a much more structured environment where we might spend even more time than we spend at home. The "Third Place" is a highly unstructured environment away from home where conversation is the main activity, ideas are exchanged, and culture is created. Classic examples of "Third Places" are pubs in Britain, cafes in France, barbershops, and coffeehouses in the 1960s USA. Phoenix has often been derided as being bereft of an indigenous urban culture; Joe figured it was high time he did something about it.
His first attempt at creating a "third place" began in 1989 when he and his pal Tim Peelen realized that there weren't any coffeehouses in metro Phoenix and decided to give it a shot. They started by developing what they believed to be a superior product -- good-quality "gourmet coffee," buying various raw bean varieties and test-roasting them in Joe's popcorn popper. When a few winners were ready, they opened up a joint on Mill Avenue in Tempe, right near ASU, and called it Coffee Plantation. To hear Joe tell it, it was a pretty good "third place" and the first coffeehouse of its kind in Tempe.
[ That last bit is funny to me, because by the time I got to ASU (after Joe and Tim had sold it to some business swine), Coffee Plantation was boring, stifling, had mediocre product, and was mobbed with lame folks at all times. Goes to show maybe how one person's persona can anchor a whole enterprise, and the whole thing can spin off into the choppy seas of wackitude when that person leaves).
Johnston and Peelen offloaded Coffee Plantation because it got too big. This is interesting and gives a little insight into what these guys are about. Joe said that after opening up a few more locations and a separate roasting facility, totaling over 150 people on the payroll, it stopped being fun and conceptual and started to turn into a real operations drag. Idea-guys don't like dealing with stacks of HR paperwork and worker's comp claims filed by reefer-sick baristas who burned themselves with cappuccino foam while chatting up fellow Phish fans on the other side of th' counter.
So, Johnston took a year-long sabbatical to travel around th' country eating delicious food. [Tough life huh] Like all non-alien humans, he has a special love for barbecue. He got an idea to start a BBQ of his own, and spent a lot of time in Texas sampling the local variations and looking for the best site designs and delivery / service systems. In 1998, he opened Joe's Real BBQ, which as I mentioned is pretty good. I give him definite props for developing his own distinctive sauce, which is worth a try.
That highly informal restaurant was a raging, hoot-n-hollering success, so Johnston figured he was on a roll and opened up Joe's Farm Grill, which uses fresh produce from his urban farm (more on this later), and then Liberty Market, the most abstract sort-of-restaurant of them all. With Liberty Market, Johnston unplugged completely from the heavy operations chores to focus on design, menu, and conceptual guidance. He seemed pretty stoked about it.
[fun fact : I realized after I'd spent a long time typing the previous section that this story had probably been typed out before, considering that this guy is like super famous. Sure nuff, I could have just cut-and-pasted from the 'About' pages on the restaurant Web sites]
After hipping the crowd to this background, Johnston ripped into a discussion of Oldenburg's "8 characteristics" that define the Third Place and what they mean for business. He also passed around nice handout sheets, which is something that I've never seen before at Gangplank but that was much appreciated :
[Note : despite all th' talk about class, I'm no Marxist and I doubt that Joe is either]
1) Neutral ground : the third place has no formal leader, is not 'hosted,' has no time constraints [e.g., no waitresses rushing you out of your table after the dinner], and is designed for maximum comfort level -The key things here are the lack of hierarchical structure and lack of serious time constraints. Re : the latter : most places have to close sometime, but if you're only open 4 hours a day, that's not going to give people enough flexibility to get really comfortable)
2) Leveler : the experience is designed so that people from all walks of life feel comfortable; all socioeconomic classes are eligible to participate. This illustrates the idea of commonality and requires that the barriers to entry be reduced to the lowest levels possible. - Low barrier to entry is vital here. At Liberty Market, Johnston sets the barrier at $1.66 -- the price of an espresso. He says he'll even work out deals with homeless people who have no cash (what about Pee-Wee Herman?). Of near-equal importance is that what staff there are don;t behave in a snobby way that turns people from certain classes off. This leveling concept is necessary for the exchange of ideas between classes that sparks creativity and interesting convos.
3) Conversation : This is necessarily the main activity at the "third place." The convo must be "lively, with lots of discussion, and lots of buzz," says Johnston. The idea here is to foster communication. - Part of this is making sure that it's easy to converse in the space. This means tables put together to encourage groups to mix, and music that's not too loud. This last point is seriously overlooked by many establishments aspiring to be 'third places,' 78% of whom deem it essential to blast "Stir it Up" at 97 decibels while I'm trying to hear someone speak.
4) Accessibility -- this is related to #1 -- the place has to be accessible during a broad swath of time throughout the day. People need to be able to drift in and out according to their own natural schedules. - In Johnston's example, Liberty Market opens at 7am and closes after a late dinner. Again, it's crucial that people not feel rushed.
5) Regulars : Any establishment wishing to be a "third place" needs to take care that its regulars are looked-after and that the stage is set for their enjoyment. The regulars foster conversation, draw in new participants, and provide the cultural spark of the place. - The regulars set the cultural tone, so it's vital to recognize them and not tick them off.
6) Low-profile : The physical design of the space should be kind of plain (though inviting), utilitarian, and not over-wrought. it should just be a comfortable structure that allows focus to remain on the people and conversations. -Gangplank is a good example of this. Th' place looks like a classroom and is inside an industrial space, but that 'blank' atmosphere is ideal for free-ranging thought development and unconstrained talk.
7) Playful mood : The overall vibe must not be serious, boring, annoying or pretentious. -Instead, it should be upbeat, joking, and full of enjoyment. Overbearing atmosphere stifles conversation and culture, and will keep 'fresh' people far away.
8) Homelike : this means that the place should have an element of physical and psychological comfort that puts one at ease. -In practice, this means having couches and other homey touches around, reading material, etc
A lot of places recognize the value of being a "third place" and aspire to be one, but they're not. Restaurants want to bundle you out of there as soon as your check's paid; Starbucks charges for Web access, Burger King feels like an Orwellian nightmare, etc. Neglect of any of the principles above can prevent the third-place culture incubator from forming.
How 'social media' relates to the "Third Place" concept : -Twitter is kind of like a 'third place' online. Very low barrier to entry, all-inclusive, strictly conversation-based, etc. In practice, it's possible and advisable to 'leverage' this virtual 'third place' to promote the physical 'third place.' The place owner / organizer / idea person can use social media not only to generate word-of-mouth (and keep track of what the word is), but to directly keep in touch with customers. The latter is especially important when considering the vital nurturing of regulars that all 'third places' need to succeed. You can pass along special offers to them, get their invaluable feedback on potential changes and plans (from menu to construction ideas) and keep track of / thank them for their visits and reports. Social media helps you let the regulars know that they're relaly important. - In social media interactions as well as those in 'meatspace,' it's advisable to hew close to the old rules of conversation as possible : 1) Remain silent your share of the time -- don't hog th' airspace 2) Be attentive while others are talking 3) Say what you think, but be careful 4) Avoid topics not of general interest. You might really really want to talk about how your toothbrush tasted funny this morning, but others likely give no hoot. 5) Say little or nothing about yourself, talk about others and their adventures and achievements ( note : some have suggested an 'eight-to-one' rule : for every comment you make about yourself, spend eight talk segments on others ) 6) Speak in as low a voice as will allow others to hear.
In addition to these ideas and his business history, Johnston spoke briefly about his 'mid-century Modern' housing development, Agritopia, which also contains the sustainable, no-pesticide-or-herbicide farm he uses to supply his restaurants. This idea of a self-supporting urban agriculture community is radical and, while I wouldn't live there personally as a matter of lot size and loathing of HOAs, this idea probably represents a good model for future community development.
Johnston's focus on design, "third place" ideas, and self-reliance are seriously invigorating. Judging from the audience reaction, he inspired quite a few other folks to take a big-picture view with an eye for vital details and invest some energy into doing something right -- or as he says, "from the heart." (47,959)
Looking to raise some capital for your new online turnip twaddler portal enterprise? Noah Dyer from WealthNet Partners and Nicholas DiBiase from Hepnova lay down the rap about how branding, both business and personal, affects your chances with potential investors. Learn to avoid generic muddled garbage and imitating 'The DOC' when in crucial meetings! Don't make those "angel investors" bop you over the noggin with their harps.
Marketing is a pretty tough activity to go about doing. It's half science, half guesswork, and two-halves the need to swing iron balls around the room in order to convince people to take huge risks for unclear levels of reward. Sort of like mountain climbers or petty thieves, marketers tend to stick together and try to cover for each other's mistakes. The difference is, when a marketer screws up, there's no rope or pro bono attorney around to save them.
The online marketing consultancy MarketingProfs hosted an all-day conference on digital marketing today. Over the course of eight 45-minute presentations by a variety of marketing 'gurus,' including the amusingly-named-but-obviously-no-dummy Obama marketing kaiser David Plouffe, the subjects of how accountability, fear, and realistic objectives act on the marketing process were discussed along with specific tactical measures. The entire 'even't was wrapped in a hideous 3D graphic interface environment, the most distinctive feature of which was the disturbingly detailed digital hooters on a yelow-clad woman rendered in the foreground. A definite general consensus emerged across these presentations :
1) Digital marketing outlets will strongly supersede 'traditional' outlets, and this trend will be amplified by the straitened economic climate. It is absolutely necessary to identify and maintain a cohesive strategy and consistent message across all channels.
2) The way to draw in new buyers is to publish high-quality content that is relevant to their needs, publish frequently and without barrier, and publish in as many formats as practical. High-quality, high-volume content is SEO incarnate and is the backbone of business social media.
3) The mandate of the digital marketer is to "go where the conversation is" -- that is, to locate each potential cohort of the target market with respect to their communications and media channels / hangouts , and actively pursue them there as part of the lead-nurturing effort.
5) Marketing activity is increasingly about establishing two-way communication with prospects, as opposed to the one-way trumpeting of message that characterizes 'traditional' marketing
5) Using the language of the target market and eliminating gobbledygook is now positively vital. The target will surely tune out 'noise' that they deem to be 'inauthentic.'
6) Maintain frequent contact with leads and existing clients that is consistent in message and tone.
7) Include many media types in the general marketing plan and in the blog specifically : video, photos, text
8) Reduce or eliminate barriers to your content and encourage the user to share it; watch reaction closely to plan future moves; learn from and engage with negative feedback
9) Use every available sensible channel to promote your message and spark conversations with leads -- turn conversations into conversions by building trust, which in turn engenders loyalty
10) Most users just want to consume content, not contribute, so don't place too much importance on things like blog comments, etc
11) Understand that the sole purpose of all marketing efforts is to achieve sales, and a metrics infrastructure must be in place for evaluation of each effort's effectiveness.
Only 11 rules for 8 hours of talks? That sounds like a pretty good deal... but then again, this was 'free,' and there was less educational value in an average day at university, so I guess there's little room for complaint.
The bottom line, so to speak, is that the marketer can't any longer just lounge around the office, buy ads on the company credit card, pass out pens and magnets at tradeshows attended only by competitors, and schedule press conferences that make your average insomniac-loner Latewire hang look like a live taping of "Soul Train." I don't like having to actually 'do my job;' I'm blaming Geithner for this.
Following are the raw notes drawn from each presentation
K D Paine's "Measuring What Really Matters in Social Media"
-Social media efforts are a part of all modern marketing efforts, but measuring their effectiveness can be challenging. -The purpose of social media is to establish a strongly mutual relationship with leads and clients -Use Web metrics to track how many of your primary Web site's sessions are drawn in by social media, and then assess "engagement index" of these sessions (comparing unique and repeat visits, looking for sessions of greater than 5 minutes' duration) -The marketer must understand the role of funneling the maximum number of qualified leads in for nurturing by the sales force -The social media era is bringing the business world back to a condition of being based on real relationships between people, just as it was in the pre-mass-media era. Only now, these relationships are conducted and managed digitally.
David Plouffe's "Art of the Possible : The Obama Playbook"
-The real challenge is not to merely reach people, but to reach them with integrity and consistency. -Have the 'big questions' settled from the get-go -- that is, be sure of your core message and your strategy before proceeding, and don't deviate from those -Also, be sure that everybody internally and externally can see that these things are clearly established -Then, you can focus on execution and tactical adjustments -In order to increase the body of people who feel positively connected to your brand (that is, your 'support pool'), your message must sync up with their current needs and with your strategy -Repetition is key : contact people many times, gathering intelligence from each attempt to tailor the next one -As intelligence is gathered, adjust your tactics -- not your message. The message must remain consistent! People will feel empowered to pick up on it. -Attempt to instill excitement in new contacts, and be sure that the individual or channel delivering your message has credibility -- don't use questionable vehicles to deliver your message -Use all available channels that make sense, and remember that on-demand delivery is key -- the user wants to determine their own information stream -Treat all channels equally; people don't want to feel ignored or shortchanged -It's OK to 'lose control' of the conversation -- allow negative chatter, monitor it (and try to engage and address it, and certainly learn from it), and especially allow for creative user-generated content that promotes your brand. Note that negative chatter will provoke strong defense from those loyal to you -Encourage people to interact with you, and be aware that the perception of authenticity is required to avoid setting off the audience's 'BS meter,' and that comes in large part from the perception of endorsement by real people -- that is, users. -But it's not OK to lose control of your message - consistency of core message is vital regardless of delivery or tactical variance -Diversify and target media - reach people where they live! -Be ready to provide easy access to free information on customer demand. Create your information architecture to make this access painless for the user. For example, visitors to the Obama site could enter their zip code and instantly find caucus and polling places. -Accept risk! The biggest risks pay out the most because they're more likely to produce innovation (which gains attention), and because a staff will push themselves to excel in a high-risk situation because of the high cost of failure -Explore all digital media avenues including Flickr to post relevant photos, and SMS text messaging -The email list remains the most effective way to deliver message, and attention must be paid to its growth -Video is the most potent delivery medium of all, and its inclusion is part of any serious campaign; do as much video as possible. It's great for SEO as well, However, not all audience segments watch -Make your Web site the hub and home of your campaign; make the audience feel comfortable there and give them reason to spend time there -Embrace new technology as appropriate, but always be sure that it is in line with your strategy -Decisions about the way your human resources are structured have real meaning -- for example, the Obama campaign did not subordinate the New Media department to the Communications department as was the norm -- put leading-edge teams on equal footing with established ones -Human-to-human contact is power, but it's hard to get good metrics for it. Use every opportunity to to give people a consistent, compelling message and a clear call to action -Don't 'fight the old war' -- instead, constantly evaluate results and look for ways to keep people better engaged -Remember : people carry out their own research, so provide as much information as possible so that the audience can carry on their own conversation
Laura Ramos' The Impact of 2009 on Marketing Budgets
-This will be the year that we see the scales tip irreversibly toward digital marketing as people turn away from channels that are expensive and resistant to metrics (such as trade shows) -Distinguish between the old model and the new model of marketing : -Old model : Seller offers -> buyer responds -> need is fulfilled -New model : Buyer needs -> sellers match -> interaction is engaged -This is the new 'community market' -In reality, instead of the seller 'qualifying' leads, it's the buyers who qualify the sellers -- the process takes on elements of partnership -Digital channels, especially web and emai, dominate the 'marketing mix,' but there is still confusion about the role and utility of social media, so budgets for it are hard to get -Email still beats all for return on investment, with search marketing (organic and paid) close behind -- recognize that blogging and other content publication is part of the SEO effort -Smarter, cheaper marketing is necessary; the relationship-building aspect is an important bonus of many digital channels -Unity of message and strategy across all channels will increase your brand status -The goal is to 'extend your brand awareness beyond the edge of the funnel' -- that is, achieve a situation wherein many people who are not even potential leads are still aware of and talking about you -- this is the 'community' aspect -Brand-building and lead generation aren't conflicting goals - they're mutually reinforcing -In summary : the tough times do and should make companies want to slash underperforming initiatives, and the relatively low dollar cost and measurability of digital marketing channels make them the clear choice for the current era
David M. Scott's New Rules of Viral Marketing
-Scott's concept of creating a 'world wide rave' through intelligent, user-centric, barrier-free marketing is covered in his book of the same name -In short, if you really want to get the word out, you must : -Create compelling content that people are actually interested in and that also relates to your business --for example, a dentist wrote an e-book called "Healty Mouth, Healthy Sex" -- people love sex! -Remove all barriers to this content - no sign-ups, logins, etc to make audience shy away -- 'lose control' and let the audience copy and redistribute under Creative Commons license -Target people who influence your intended audience -- see famous example of Harry Potter theme park launch where the marketer contacted 7 leading Potter bloggers and offered them a special webcast; each blogger blogged it and their efforts netted over a quarter million impressions the very next day -The key here is to plug into a pre-exisiting current of interest, relate it to your brand, and create compelling free content to draw the audience to you
Dunay, Nightingale, Pulizzi on Business-to-Business (B2B) digital marketing tactics
-Are you a marketer or a publisher? Trick question! In today's user-driven marketing environment, marketing is publishing -The so-called "80/20 rule" is now reversed. Today, we spend 80% of our resources generating the content, and only 20% distributing it -- this is a major advantage of the low cost of digital publishing channels -"Content marketing" is the art of understanding what your potential customer needs to know, and delivering that information in a compelling way that is going to create a change in behavior -Vital stat : over 90% of business purchases begin online, with the customer doing their own research -We should approach our digital marketing like a 'content factory' : develop, produce, market, syndicate -The syndication step is achieved by having your content on every available portal and channel; "publish once, syndicate much;" Digg and social bookmarks are a big part of this -Encourage employees (with proper coaching) to engage in "brand co-creation" by talking about the company / product on their own sites -- this is good for employee morale and lends authenticity to your effort -The blog is the "Swiss Army knife of marketing" : it's SEO, branding, thought leadership, and inbound marketing at once -Adding content types will increase audience engagement; add video, photos, email capability to blog and publish these types in their own appropriate forums as well -Harness user-generated content to increase the referral rate to your primary Web site -Again : your content must be "authentic" in tone, cannot be 'white noise' or gobbledygook -SEO : "Own it on Google!" - nail down not only individual keywords, but check your Web analytics for keyword strings of 4 or more words -- these account for 56% of search contacts and must be considered. These strings are also much cheaper than short strings for PPC ads -Use your online newsroom to feed content and photos (brandmarked) to starving trade publications for free -Who has time for all this? Who consumes it? Well, marketers must have time to engage in these activities, as it's now their job; the people will consume quality content, but bear in mind that they do it at their will, not yours
Naslund, Menchaca, and Day on the Anatomy of an Effective Blog
-Set real goals for your blogging effort : have identifiable strategy, and listen to / watch audience reaction for clues on tactics changes / needed content -The effective blog will incorporate video, text, photos -Blogs are vehicles for 2-way discussion : this is a great way to interface with customers and learn from them -- however, don't stress if comment rates are low -- most people just want to read, not write on blogs -'Go where the conversation is' and be sure to address hot topics -- in news and industry -- within your content to capitalize on buzz (use this tactic for PPC SEO as well) -Pick the most thoughtful, articulate, and enthusiastic people on your staff to create your "content team," and empower these people -As people are brought onto content team, educate them about the "rules of engagement" for this type of media : good quality writing, good grammar and spelling, no blatant pitching, no pointless jargon -Tech types can be of special help in blogging, including tech leaders and even tech support -- these people have knowledge that others want; leverage it! -Blogs have a knowledge base / wiki-like function as well, so make the content instructive where possible; this will also benefit organization internally -Guest bloggers are good; ghost bloggers not usually -- actual writer should be ID'd in byline -How often must it be updated? At least once a week for posts, ideally once daily. Video and other media components should be at least weekly. More is better in all cases! -How much time / what kind of resources will this effort consume? A fair bit, and it'll be an additional channel, not a replacement for other channels. People in your organization are going to have to be willing to flex on scheduling and update any time of day; however, capital outlay is not really big. This is a human-intensive operation. Dovetails into modern workstyle : People's work is becoming an integrated seamless part of their overall lifestyle -Blogs can be an effective counterpunch to media wrongs : cf Dell's handling of battery recall. Get your version of the story out there! -Social media is woven into the fabric of business, so repost blog content on all available channels. Is it viable for B2B? Yes, but be aware that openness isn't well-ingrained into the business practices of B2B -- judiciously introduce it, and be OK with reduced reciprocity without endangering your competitive advantage. Be aware that businesses are composed of people, and that those people want information and trust just like any consumer does -It's vital not to weaken on commitment to quality and frequency of updates -- staleness is poison to the audience and your bottom line; don't slack off -How to deal with detractors : first, know that people will come to your defense if you're strongly or unfairly attacked. Second, use this as an opportunity to reply and address real concerns; this will really improve your image amongst the audience base. Potential customers will watch to see how you deal with PR challenges; if you do well, you win loyalty, which is money in the bank -Note : clear potentially touchy blog posts, like those directly attacking competitors, with your legal counsel -It's usually best to break news ASAP so you don't get beaten to the punch -Day-to-day blog management can be a challenge : posting, responding to comments, to dealing with Flickr, YouTube, etc -- so be sure to allocate enough time -Use metrics to prove the viability of your blog
Miller, Tripi, Gilberg, and Croissant on Building Your Email List on No Budget
-Since email is known to be the most effective marketing component, email programs are expected to deliver good return on investement -In lean times, the instinct can be to panic and get super-aggressive : resist this! -Instead, get more creative in your presentation, use search and incentives to capture more addresses. -Tie your PPC ads explicitly to your email list and a discount incentive, for example -Engage in 'Co-registration" partnerships with other organizations -Use every engagement opportunity to collect addresses, and then develop targeting programs that tailor first email to known interests of that specific user (this data is to be found in referring page -- that page's content provides clues to user interests; merchandize your email with relevant product -Remember : every email must include a clear call to action -Then, go back into your file of previously-gathered contacts (clients and prospects both), and send them a reactivation message through the right channel. If you don't have their email address, send snail mail incentive packet or even telephone them. -Note : don't buy an email list. List rental is legit, purchase usually a scam - Summary : collect at every opportunity and tailor each email as closely as possible; measure all results
Aaron Kahlow and Enrique Gonzales on How To Leverage Social Media and Usability to generate Return on Investment
-The key to profiting from these digital marketing activities is to understand human behavior -Economic factors and media / tech landscape shift are at work to effect major change in consumer behavior -Look at your own behavior and that of your peers for guidance -Don't get overwhelmed and reactionary, resorting to spam and other old-school tactics that are bound to fail -Figure out how to embrace the 'alarm' of the current panic and pull all your resources and knowledge together to understand the customer -Be aware that people prefer digital communication to any other avenue : it occurs according to the user schedule, fits into multitasking, leaves record, low hassle -- we're well past the 'tipping point' of digital dominance -Look at the history of the last tech revolution -- the Age in Industry -- for analogues -All future sales interactions will be driven by the user, who seeks out their own solutions -The Web site is the hub of all marketing activity : Traffic, usability, and retention combine to create conversions (when leads become engaged customers) -Usability is of utmost importance; it's when something works well for its intended use. Your Web site is there so that customers can get the information they need to make and execute a buying decision, and do what you want them to do. -Re : Web : comply with minimum standards, judiciously follow best practices, and employ pre-existing tech and learned conventions to harness user familiarity. -No longer does the business manipulate the customer into a sale; the customer has the information and the power; they don't want to be pushed around at all, and indeed want to have a real control over the process. They don't usually want to talk to a sales person, but do want access to feedback channels -Understand how the user sees the site : they are on a single mission (to find what they need); they scan text (not read), and they eye tracks from upper left of screen down and then diagonally to the upper right before landing center bottom. Use this knowledge when designing your site to capitalize on key 'real estate' -Where / why are you losing customers? It's all in places that you as a marketer can fix : - Inappropriate target audience - Unclear marketing message - Slow page load - Unengaging "look and feel" - Clumsy site navigation - Ineffective presentation - Inadequate selection - No access to real-time help - Uncompetitive price - Ineffective tools to assist selection of product
-The bridge between usability and your site is not design : it is "information architecture" -The user has expectations -Figure out how to display the info that meets those expectations -Then, display it! This is what is effective, and is the #1 priority -Understand what portion of the "universal experience" describes your users' experience, and capitalize on it -Social media is the ultimate manifestation of "usability," because it is all-user -Word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing method, and this effect is "on steriods" with social media -Social media sites get more traffic than any other class of sites -This is because social media is 2-way communication as opposed to 1-way -- it's telephone vs telegraph -Consider the "social media customer" and their characteristics: -Passive vs. Active -Loyal vs Advocate -Consumer vs Contributor -They want a 'say' in things, but don't want to be forced into anything -- including interaction with sales or marketing -So what to do about social media? Well, not every organization needs to harness every single social media channel -First, identify your objective and strategy, then determine whether a given channel is right for your efforts -Why now? Because the tech is there, everybody's online with broadband, the metrics are deployable, and the conversion rates are factually good. For example, a user reading a blog post is more than 30% more likely to buy than one that has not read. -How to execute : first, participate in normal social media activities to understand the consumer behavior -Then, don't reinvent, but replicate other successes -Remember : you must plant keywords richly to achieve SEO, but take great care to remain authentic. -Test each effort on small or medium scales first if practical, then expand -Remember : go where the convo is : if a customer segment participates in a given social media channel, you must go to that channel -The elements of search marketing : On-page and off-page -On-page : this is 'content galore' on your primary site -Off-page : this is links from blogs, forum posts, wiki articles of high authority, social sites -Return on social media efforts can be long-term, but loyalty rewards are worth it. (38,883)
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