It's every marketers dream: to be at the top of the list of companies that a consumer will go to in order to buy a product or interact with a brand. My close friend Patti swears by Amazon. While I like Amazon and have had great experiences with them, I often forget to check them for products beyond books and movies, which goes back to their original brand message when the company was first launched as the world's largest online bookstore.
One of the smartest things that Amazon has done is add customer reviews of products. I will often go to their site to see reviews and then buy on their site or at a brick and mortar location. For Patti, she loves the time-saving convenience of shipping everything; for me, I often like to see a product in person before I buy it (however, free shipping often will entice me to just go ahead and place the order online).
One way of determining who is on your A-list online is to figure out what passwords you have memorized for different websites. Yes, many of us use similar passwords on different sites. However, different security guidelines often prevent people from doing just that (minimum number of characters, letters and numbers, etc.). I started listing the sites for which I remember passwords in order to see where my priorities are online. The few I always remember on the first try are: Yahoo Mail, Facebook, Blogspot and online banking. There's my A-list.
Then there are the sites I remember after a few tries: Amazon, iTunes (I don't always have to log-in), Twitter, Oriental Trading (for craft supplies for my daughter), Evite, Disney Rewards, and Google Analytics. That's my B List.
Finally, there is the bizarre mix that is the remainder of my password accounts. Shopping sites I use once or twice a year, news sites that require log-ins (I love the New York Times, but I have probably had to register 4-5 times over the years...), frequent flyer accounts (these are the worst), and every other site that requires a password that seems memorable at the time and quickly gets lost on the way to long-term memory.
I understand the need for security and for marketers to "monetize" their sites through consumer tracking, but do we really need a log-in and password for every site we visit? Can we have a default password that says "Iwillneverrememberthispassword." What, I should write it down and pin it up next to my computer? There's some good security... Someone may pretend to be on TripAdvisor and write glowing reviews for hotels I don't like.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Losing Control of Your Marketing
At yesterday's MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World virtual conference, David Meerman Scott spoke about the "New Rules of Viral Marketing." He spoke about how marketers need to Lose Control of Your Marketing (title of his free ebook) in order to be effective in today's digital world. This is the second meeting in two weeks where I heard about this loss of control of the marketing message.
On one hand, marketers are excited because their messages can be extended over blogs, RSS feeds, fan pages on Facebook, fan sites, pass-along email and video and so on. As a result, marketing budgets can be extended by spending less and doing more. The messages are also more effective when passed along by peers instead of a large company trying to sell its goods and services (when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?). In yesterday's blog entry, I talked about how the Obama campaign used these tactics to help win the Presidency. On the other hand, the fear among marketers is that the message will be changed and come out wrong--the online version of a game of telephone.
David started his presentation about viral marketing with a story that mirrored this message. (He's a good viral marketer because storytelling is a great way of passing along a message that people will remember.) The story is about the VP of Marketing at Universal Resorts in Orlando and her goal of launching a new theme park at Universal Studios. She could have spent the typical millions of dollars on TV, print, radio and so forth, but she took a different approach. Instead, she told 7 people. The park is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and she told 7 of the most popular bloggers about it in a secret midnight webcast. After the webcast, the bloggers were excited to break the news on their sites. The followers of those blogs then started talking about it, and then the mainstream media picked up the story about the theme park. As a result, they estimate that within 24 hours, 350 million people were exposed to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Of course, this was very risky because it goes against traditional marketing model of "buying attention" from TV, print, radio, magazine, websites, search engines and so on. Unfortunately, these risks don't always pay off. As reported in AdWeek and Forbes.com last month, Skittles changed their homepage over to Twitter to see the great buzz about their candy. Unfortunately, the Tweets soon turned from "Skittles taste good" to "Snickers can beat up Skittles " to "Hersey's can #*%! the $#!% out of Skittles any day." Needless to say the campaign was quickly pulled. However, the good news is that Skittles got more press than it has in a long time. It would interesting to see if there is a positive impact on sales over the quarter. Unfortunately, if my 7-year-old had happened to ask me to pull up that site to see if there are any Skittles games and instead glimpsed some new words, you could be sure that I would have been one angry mom.
There are no easy answers. Marketing on social media is a work in progress. However, marketers really don't have a choice because companies and their products and services will be talked about online whether or not the company has its own online presence. The good news is that everyone's opinions can be heard...and the bad news is that everyone's opinions can be heard.
On one hand, marketers are excited because their messages can be extended over blogs, RSS feeds, fan pages on Facebook, fan sites, pass-along email and video and so on. As a result, marketing budgets can be extended by spending less and doing more. The messages are also more effective when passed along by peers instead of a large company trying to sell its goods and services (when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?). In yesterday's blog entry, I talked about how the Obama campaign used these tactics to help win the Presidency. On the other hand, the fear among marketers is that the message will be changed and come out wrong--the online version of a game of telephone.
David started his presentation about viral marketing with a story that mirrored this message. (He's a good viral marketer because storytelling is a great way of passing along a message that people will remember.) The story is about the VP of Marketing at Universal Resorts in Orlando and her goal of launching a new theme park at Universal Studios. She could have spent the typical millions of dollars on TV, print, radio and so forth, but she took a different approach. Instead, she told 7 people. The park is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and she told 7 of the most popular bloggers about it in a secret midnight webcast. After the webcast, the bloggers were excited to break the news on their sites. The followers of those blogs then started talking about it, and then the mainstream media picked up the story about the theme park. As a result, they estimate that within 24 hours, 350 million people were exposed to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Of course, this was very risky because it goes against traditional marketing model of "buying attention" from TV, print, radio, magazine, websites, search engines and so on. Unfortunately, these risks don't always pay off. As reported in AdWeek and Forbes.com last month, Skittles changed their homepage over to Twitter to see the great buzz about their candy. Unfortunately, the Tweets soon turned from "Skittles taste good" to "Snickers can beat up Skittles " to "Hersey's can #*%! the $#!% out of Skittles any day." Needless to say the campaign was quickly pulled. However, the good news is that Skittles got more press than it has in a long time. It would interesting to see if there is a positive impact on sales over the quarter. Unfortunately, if my 7-year-old had happened to ask me to pull up that site to see if there are any Skittles games and instead glimpsed some new words, you could be sure that I would have been one angry mom.
There are no easy answers. Marketing on social media is a work in progress. However, marketers really don't have a choice because companies and their products and services will be talked about online whether or not the company has its own online presence. The good news is that everyone's opinions can be heard...and the bad news is that everyone's opinions can be heard.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The Rise of the Virtual Conference
Today I attended MarketingProf's Digital Marketing World Spring 2009 conference on the Internet. Having attended over 100 traditional trade shows in the U.S. and Europe over the years, I was skeptical that a virtual conference would measure up. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the immersiveness of the experience, the content of the sessions, and the actionable take-aways for everyday marketing.
Yes, virtual conferences have been around for years. I have also attended my share of webinars--some of which have been more useful than others. However, in this age of drastically cutting back budgets, virtual conferences really have their opportunity to shine. Today's conference, for example, had 12,000 registered attendees. The only potential shortcoming may be how easy it is to "blow off" the meeting because there are no sunk costs and no accountability. It would be interesting to see how many people registered versus attended the show.
After logging on this morning, I was greeted by a video of Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs (in case you are unfamiliar, they are an online resource for over 300,000 subscribers from the marketing profession). Video elements add a much-needed component to virtual conferences. I then saw a virtual landscape of a conference center. I was able to enter the auditorium and any scheduled presentations. I was also able to jump back and forth between the Trade Show Floor (including exhibitor booths), the Networking Lounge and the Resource Center. All areas had live chats in process and access to files relevant to the talks (I downloaded several White Papers on Social Marketing and a Media Kit from one of the exhibitors that I found to be relevant.)
My only problem was getting to the talks on time; just like in real life, I got caught up on the Trade Show Floor. I was also able to multi-task, sending out emails and even making lunch while listening to the talks. The first session I attended was on Facebook Community Building Success Stories, which included a panel from companies as diverse as Cirque du Soleil and 123greetings.com. A main take-away was that if you are a large marketer, there is an online conversation about you. By using social marketing, you can actually be a part of that conversation. Cirque du Soleil actually has 7 Facebook pages (for each of the shows they have) that are company sponsored, but they also support their top fan sites with any information or help they may need.
The Keynote speech and Q&A session were given by David Plouffe, Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign Manager. He spoke about Online Branding Strategies and Tactics. Regardless of people's politics, they seem to realize that Obama's marketing strategies greatly helped his campaign. For instance, they grew their email list to 13 million opt-in registrants who not only received up-to-date information about the candidate, but also used this information to influence others. They also used InDemand Media to have a show available to voters during the campaign. They found that video was king for their Internet efforts on mybarackobama.com, as well as files on personal and policy issues as they surfaced. By having the "New Media" department report directly to him (on the same level as Finance or Communications), David was able to better evaluate and use new ideas. When asked about the future, he said that all of these new ideas will seem antiquated by the next election--citing that Twitter didn't even exist when the last election began.
Well, I've been typing this during a break in the conference, so I need to get back to the next session on Viral Marketing...more on that later.
Yes, virtual conferences have been around for years. I have also attended my share of webinars--some of which have been more useful than others. However, in this age of drastically cutting back budgets, virtual conferences really have their opportunity to shine. Today's conference, for example, had 12,000 registered attendees. The only potential shortcoming may be how easy it is to "blow off" the meeting because there are no sunk costs and no accountability. It would be interesting to see how many people registered versus attended the show.
After logging on this morning, I was greeted by a video of Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs (in case you are unfamiliar, they are an online resource for over 300,000 subscribers from the marketing profession). Video elements add a much-needed component to virtual conferences. I then saw a virtual landscape of a conference center. I was able to enter the auditorium and any scheduled presentations. I was also able to jump back and forth between the Trade Show Floor (including exhibitor booths), the Networking Lounge and the Resource Center. All areas had live chats in process and access to files relevant to the talks (I downloaded several White Papers on Social Marketing and a Media Kit from one of the exhibitors that I found to be relevant.)
My only problem was getting to the talks on time; just like in real life, I got caught up on the Trade Show Floor. I was also able to multi-task, sending out emails and even making lunch while listening to the talks. The first session I attended was on Facebook Community Building Success Stories, which included a panel from companies as diverse as Cirque du Soleil and 123greetings.com. A main take-away was that if you are a large marketer, there is an online conversation about you. By using social marketing, you can actually be a part of that conversation. Cirque du Soleil actually has 7 Facebook pages (for each of the shows they have) that are company sponsored, but they also support their top fan sites with any information or help they may need.
The Keynote speech and Q&A session were given by David Plouffe, Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign Manager. He spoke about Online Branding Strategies and Tactics. Regardless of people's politics, they seem to realize that Obama's marketing strategies greatly helped his campaign. For instance, they grew their email list to 13 million opt-in registrants who not only received up-to-date information about the candidate, but also used this information to influence others. They also used InDemand Media to have a show available to voters during the campaign. They found that video was king for their Internet efforts on mybarackobama.com, as well as files on personal and policy issues as they surfaced. By having the "New Media" department report directly to him (on the same level as Finance or Communications), David was able to better evaluate and use new ideas. When asked about the future, he said that all of these new ideas will seem antiquated by the next election--citing that Twitter didn't even exist when the last election began.
Well, I've been typing this during a break in the conference, so I need to get back to the next session on Viral Marketing...more on that later.
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