Portrait of a youthful Steve Jobs

How can a golden age of online marketing take place amid turbulent stock markets, high unemployment and a growing European financial crisis that threatens the U.S. Banking system? Maybe it’s premature to say “golden age.”  Just one more dramatic downswing and we may see a double-dip recession. Yet, when I think of all that’s been happening I say quietly to myself, “hey, this may be the golden age of Internet marketing.”

It may be wise to address this issue because the transformational power of technology has grown more quickly than other parts of our economy. Considering the end of an era with Steve Jobs’ passing, one can easily assert that a very special golden era has also passed with him.

Moammar Gadhafi: Brought down by cell phones?

But there’s something about social media and the state of all things digital that keeps me thinking we’re in the midst of a spectacular run, with everything accelerating at Tech Speed.  Indeed, the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, and the stunning swiftness of the Arab Spring, was sustained by cell phone technology.

With regard to marketing, just take a look at the customer. He/she is an empowered person with Mouse-in-Hand who enjoys enormous and unparalleled freedom:

• Finding great websites and blogs
• Great information on nearly any product or service
• A robust era of social media sharing
• A  host of ways to publish and republish individual passions and ideas
• With everything one could possibly want online everyday

Yet people are not getting into the car, or punching their phone lines as they once did with basic questions. Clearly online content is profuse — as wide as it is deep. The customer has become very savvy and well educated before contacting a particular business about a specific product.

Business-to-business and business-to-consumer, everyone sees the same thing: human behavior has fundamentally changed. Right now people are looking for your product: locally, regionally, internationally. Their quest for information growing. If you own or manage a business, are you taking advantage of everything that’s happening? Are you seizing the day? Or, are you still waiting for something, or someone, to light a match under you so that you can finally take action?

Here’s three big reasons to move:

• Internet Marketing is continuing to grow and evolve.
• The Internet is beginning to mature, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin now dominate social media (with Google + on the way up)
• The customer has spoken. They have the mouse, cell phone and tablet in hand. They’re excited by the Internet and it shows.

The time for action is now. You have every reason and incentive to get underway with that next idea or strategic campaign. There’s blogging, content marketing, micro-sites, mobile media, search engine optimization, online advertising and more. These tools are tremendously adaptive and effective. But you should think of them as much more than a random shopping basket of techniques. You’ll need a strategy to make everything work. (Full disclosure: that’s what our business is all about, finding the best strategy and tactics for the company involved.)

So, what do you think? Is this the Golden Age of Internet Marketing?

As always, your comments are greatly appreciated.

Working with clients allows you to accumulate experience in small doses over a long period of time. Yet it can be difficult to distill all that experience into a great company story. Even when you have worked with a talented founder who has made a strong impression in their industry, it can be difficult to figure out what made their contribution so compelling.

Somerset Maugham, the British writer once known as the “most famous writer alive,” was often asked the question, what makes a good story? He responded by saying a good story must ‘interest’ the reader. Seems pretty basic doesn’t it? However, in the U.S. we’re a little more demonstrative. We like to think in terms of great stories, exciting movies and unbelievable products, etc.  So what makes a ‘great’ company story?

Great company stories don't require charismatic founders, but it can help.

Think about Steve Jobs and Apple Computer. What an unbelievable run! America’s top technology company (having finally supplanted Microsoft just last week). I recall purchasing the original Macintosh computer in 1985 as a young man, just a few months after its introduction. It was an obvious choice based on the machine, its POP displays and the friendly little screen with mouse and trash icon. The store’s staff downplayed it by saying I would feel ‘silly’ dragging a file to a little “cartoon trash can,” it was unbusinesslike, etc. Yet there’s such a great story here: Epoch making design and quality; a cult like following; a founder who leaves the company; the company in a sudden dramatic slide; the founder returns to an even greater success, etc. And, it’s all still going strong of course.

Dithering Over Details Can Make It Hard To Uncover The ‘Underlying Drama of The Brand’

As a creative marketing professional, I think it’s very much part of my job to find that story for each of our clients and help them work on it in their branding and marketing without allowing it to come across as self-serving, boring or egotistical. How to make the story memorable is also challenging. The raw material must be there, but the right solution may not be so obvious. The client may be inclined to downplay himself, or the product may need renewed positioning so the prospective customer can perceive it in dramatic terms. There’s literally  hundreds of issues that can arise. Clients often want to tone down the narrative and make it safe, universal or compliant, thereby turning a great story into something perfunctory or dull. Dithering over details can make it hard to uncover the ‘underlying drama of the brand.’

That last one is a paraphrase of Leo Burnett on advertising. As Leo inferred in his book, the underlying drama of a product, company or brand requires some digging and a little insight — if not some great streak of luck — because it takes a client with an open mind to let the story come out on its own terms.

One customer of ours is inherently interesting because of where he began in the U.S. aerospace industry. Mr. Egon Jaeggin helped in building the first hand held camera used in outer space. He has been active with prime contractors, such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, over the past forty years. His firm Numerical Precision Inc., built the Mini Power Tool for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Upgrade Mission, completed last year. The Power Tool allowed the astronauts to remove fasteners in outer space that were never meant to be removed, all the while sustaining an astonishing range of temperature extremes.  The entire mission was so riveting (forgive the pun!) that a first rate film documentary is now touring through OmniMax Theaters and currently showing in Chicago. Mr. Jaeggin has shown the Power Tool to selected groups, from industry VIP’s to a local Veteran’s Group in his home town.  Yet, he always remains self-effacing in his comments. Never talking in a way that might over shadow or diminish the achievements of his client (a note of disclosure: we built and currently maintain their corporate website, email newsletter, and other marketing programs).

The Fundamental Truth

Despite his soft-spoken style, Mr. Jaeggin enjoys a world-wide reputation in his field. We have never burnished his firm’s reputation with hype. What his company does takes years of hard work to achieve. Which brings me to the core point of this post. You need to be connected firmly to a fundamental truth, one that naturally supports and underlies a strong product or service, in order to express the unique qualities of a great brand.

A great story sells itself. But it must be presented well, in a compelling way. And, it has to connect with people. I believe there’s almost always a good tale of innovation at the heart of every great entrepreneur, service concept or product that’s enjoyed continued success.

Perhaps you have something that comes to mind? A great product or service which you have observed in the making?

Please take a moment and reply to this post if  you will. We would love to hear your thoughts on the ‘underlying drama of the brand.’

The reasons people ask this question differ slightly. Perhaps they’re skeptical because a previous advertising campaign didn’t work. Or their website generates little interest or comment. Some are uncomfortable with the hustling and hype they associate with marketing and they assume we will be offering the same old stew.

That’s why we don’t just sell creative services; we produce creative marketing. There’s a difference. Creative marketing is based on two principles:*

• That a great idea is often based on a new combination of old elements;
• That a new combination of old elements depends on the ability to see relationships.

A common definition for marketing means matching products and services with the people who need them. In practice it is the sum total of everything a client may be doing to gain customers and keep them. Creative marketing looks at baseline fundamentals. In particular, how the customer sees the product, including the psychology, product quality and underlying chemistry that makes the sale. Between every product and its best customers… there is an individuality of relationship which may lead to a big idea.*

Why hire a creative marketing firm?

Let us list a few reasons:

1. To save money and attain higher ROI
   Much of what you’re currently doing may be a waste of time. That’s the part where you save money. When you move on to more effective techniques, you end up with more qualified prospects per dollar. Assuming your conversion rate is a good one, this means higher ROI.
2. To help you drive better results
   There are so many new and exciting ways to engage customers. The Web is the fastest growing marketing medium in the world. We can help you make good use of it.
3. To gain outside perspective
   We look at your product with fresh eyes and help you focus on the most compelling message. The outside perspective we bring to the table is one of the best reasons to form a relationship with our firm.
4. To attain renewed focus on what matters most to your business
   You’re paid to focus on your customers and their needs. Not the tedious time it takes to handle your own direct marketing, web development, advertising or online marketing. By partnering with us you can spend more time working with your customers and serving them. Isn’t that the best use of your time?

Additionally, since you will be hiring us for what we do best, we can help you by continually look for better ways to increase the results of your marketing.

Peter Drucker puts it well: “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results. All the rest are costs.”

Fixing your website is easy, right?

Maybe. But many times the makeover process can be quite confusing. In reality, with so many possibilities at hand, the process of upgrading or “fixing” a website is never as easy as it may seem. The plethora of themes, ideas, functional technologies and web properties make it a challenging prospect for many smaller business to consider how to update their sites.

I want to reinforce the importance of staying grounded in your thinking when you plan a website, or revise one that’s currently online. Many of our clients have traditionally fallen into one of two distinct categories of web development:

1. Those who yearn for new applications, technology and dazzling effects;
2. And those who simply want a more effective business tool.

Now, you may think we prefer clients who want new applications and technology. Yet, our practice tends to attract more practical, grounded business people who are less focused on pyrotechnics or dynamic functionality. In fact, most of our customers don’t feel very romantic about the Internet. Instead, they want sound methodology and analysis to provide a more profitable return on their investment.

We’re happy to comply with their needs. After all, it’s their demand that drives our business.

However, this duality can present a curious dilemma: Despite the growth of the Web, desire for new technology must be considered in light of a site plan that’s based on the appropriate use of today’s resources. Right now, the Web is the fastest growing advertising medium in the world, out pacing television, newspapers, magazines, radio and other traditional media (which still lead in market share, but the gap is narrowing). Many leading marketers are seeking a competitive edge in user generated content, wireless computing, video blogs, social networking websites, behavioral targeting, and the continuing evolution in search engine marketing.

Yet, website developers and clients often confuse methods and goals in becoming deadlocked or compromised for the wrong reasons on site development priorities. The rush for new database functionality, online video or multimedia may seem promising. Yet, basic navigational problems, obscure page designs or difficult information architecture may be doing more harm than good. It is here that a well grounded viewpoint can help.

The grounded business person will move carefully with a well developed plan based on improved usability, well designed and informative product pages, better writing, and a solid navigational scheme.

We know of one construction implement manufacturer who was so caught up in a protracted redevelopment process that they let their site languish unchanged while the redevelopment effort bogged down. They’re intentions changed from basic makeover to a bigger project that could have been done in phases. The impact in lost business may never be fully realized or known.

At times the rush to be with it by making use of the latest functionality, may lead you down the wrong path. High tech enthusiasm may send the wrong signal. Though your next website should reflect a timely image, it may be more profitable to revisit the basics first. In essence if you stay grounded, you may be better off.

Here’s what current usability studies tell us to address as a first priority:

1. Fix the stuff that’s broken. There’s a good chance your language is drawn out and difficult to read online. Your photos may be too small or poorly lit. Try running a usability test of your current site with a small targeted group. You may be surprised to learn that the most important action items may not be high tech.
2. Consider this: people don’t spend much time with the first visit to a website (they move on quickly if they don’t find what they’re looking for). Because of this its important to design each main topic page as a landing page for your site. In supporting deep link visitors you’ll need to think critically about the content on all of these pages. It is crucial to the success of your site.
3. Check your navigation. Make sure it’s consistent, well thought out and easy to use, with good descriptive text for labels and links. Each page title should match the link names. Many sites lose visitors through poor information architecture.
4. Make sure every page communicates the essence of what your site is about. People will scan the page to make their decision to read further, or move on. Make sure they get the point quickly on every page of your site.
5. Provide information that real users actually want. The purpose of a site is often obscured by the many creators and cooks who conspire to build it. The problem comes when someone pays a visit. Users want to know whether your services meet their needs, and why they should do business with you.
6. Now that you have done justice to the basics, look to the burgeoning world wide web and its many high tech innovations. By staying grounded at first, you’ll be in a better position to seize that new competitive advantage.

Clients often react to marketing as if it is just fun and games

Big mistake. Great marketing is resolute. Great marketing is supported by strong data and analysis. It is the product of a well founded strategy executed with passion and intelligence.

For The Times They Are A Changing

Remember that song? Driving my daughter to High School last week, she put the CD in the dashboard player. It was Bob Dylan’s “You Better Start Swimming…” I smiled when I heard the song.

“I didn’t know you liked Bob Dylan.”

“Everyone likes Bob Dylan dad.”

Then it hits me. It’s 6:30 AM and I realize Bob Dylan is a very successful marketer. Indeed, one might listened and learn:

• Successful marketers know how to swim. They know what it takes.
• They have learned to kick hard while under water.

For start up marketers the truth of these lyrics couldn’t be more succinct.

• You’d better start swimming, or else.
• Start ups must be on target with their strategy.
• They have to know how to do the right things.
• One out of five make it.

Then there are the more grown up corporate realities on marketing: The average tenure of a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is now less than two years; Ditto for the average agency relationship with clients. Most newspapers are scrambling to maintain their franchise (attempting to reinvent themselves online due to falling readership). And, fewer family firms are surviving.

Better start swimming or: You’ll… Sink… Like… A… Stone!

Here’s more:

• The internet is now the fastest growing marketing medium in the world.
• This year brought new pressure on the up-front TV Spot market. First time ever another medium has put such pressure on TV spending.
• Consumer generated media is all the rage. Consider the rise of Blogs, Facebook, YouTube, wireless computing, and Google’s unbelievable run.
• Not to mention The Long Tail.
• The Internet has brought unprecedented change.
• Technology now allows us to do things we could only dream.

If there’s a point that I want you to remember it’s this: marketing is very serious business. It’s always has been serious. Even more so now. For the times they are a changing!

Sometimes I think clients often continue to react to marketing as if it is just fun and games. Big mistake. Great marketing is resolute. Great marketing is supported by strong data and analysis. It is the product of a well founded strategy executed with passion and intelligence.

When you “go to market” you’re placing a substantial bet on the future.

Tonight we’re going to talk about how to swim. How to go to market. What to worry about, etc. Yet, we’re also going talk about changing times.”

Let me hit you with this one: Successful websites can be analyzed by understanding the visitor’s sense of smell!

As crazy as it sounds this concept reflects scientific findings in human-computer interaction research which date back to the early 90′s (a nearly pre-historic age in computer technology) at the Palo Alto Research Center in California. Back then Stuart Card and Peter Pirolli used the analogy of wild animals gathering food to better understand how humans collect information online. This led them to the concept of “information foraging.” Hence the idea of information scent in predicting how people actually follow up on a spoor of data and then continue in following the path to hit upon the information they’re seeking to find.

It’s all so figurative, of course. But, that’s what makes the analogy so appealing. You can’t actually smell anything online (unless your computer keyboard becomes very dirty). But your eyes can translate what you’re seeing and reading into a warmer feeling, which is akin to the scent a predator picks up as it follows a path to its prey.

The website developer’s job is to make that scent appear when it should, to make it a bit stronger at every step, so the information forager continues on the right path and reaches his goal on your site.

There’s an inversion of natural selection here. No prey wants to be caught; but your website does. You want your site to be easily found and captured. You want people to satisfy their quest on your site’s pages and links. It’s our job to make it as easy as possible. We want them to catch the scent of a successful hunt and reinforce it as they click the links. To do this we make your site a nutritious meal (or even a delicious little snack) and allow the forager to sniff it out early as an easy catch.

Here are a few things we do to enhance the smell of success for information foraging:

1. Spend time on links and category descriptions. This takes some analysis and preproduction time, but it’s very much worthwhile. With so many navigational options available through a search query, the hunter has too many choices at every step. She can loose the scent quite easily. There’s work to be done here that you don’t want to short-change.
2. Avoid using jargon and cute words that have no common usage or “scent.” Slogans cannot be saught out ahead of time by people who don’t know what they mean. Unless you have a universal household trade name, try to make use of short, common English nouns and verbs to in your headings, link names, navigational elements, and copy.
3. Keep it easy for the visitor to know where they are in your site at all times, and provide stimulating links and for them to continue their efforts in drilling down to interior pages and information that will satisfy their search.
4. Use informative product pages. Don’t assume anyone knows your product names and model numbers. They won’t know them or find them on their own. Too often product pages are nearly barren of any real meat (hence no real scent to smell).
5. Use great product photography with people shown enjoying product benefits. This helps the visitor identify with the information and understand how the product will help them.
6. Drawing the visitor with the right scent is a cummulative process. Make sure these message elements find their way into main topic pages as well as the “deep links” on your site.

Today Web visitors use search engines as ‘answer engines’ which they view as part of a single, integrated Internet resource (for a great discussion of this pick up a copy of “Prioritizing Web Usability” by Nielsen and Loranger). They don’t think or care very much about individual websites. Their information grazing habits have turned them into answer engine query animals turning stones to find digestible nuggets of information.

Here are the four things they may be doing as they encounter your site:

1. They go to their preferred search engine and type a few descriptive words.
2. The look at the top listings of the search engine results page.
3. They visit some of the sites they find on that page, but leave quickly after a minute or two… at best.
4. They view most pages for less than half a minute.

With such pressure to communicate effectively, you’ll want to:

• Avoid fluffy talk, vague language, misleading statements, or poor graphics and photography.
• Give them well written and concise information
• Avoid the temptation to engage in a concentrated sales pitch.
• Make sure your site is lean, well designed, easy to navigate.

It may not seem to be earth shaking news. But these four behavioral patterns influence everything else. The moment you consider building a website, you should start thinking as much about how people succeed in their tasks using the web, and how they fail. It’s not just a question of what you want to say about your products, what photos you use, or the baseline functionality (though that’s certainly important). The whole issue of usability will affect how successful your new site will be.

In short, web  users are far less invested in your product or brand. So think a bit differently about what they want and need. Step outside the box regarding your day to day activities and what might interest you. Think about them.

It’s all about the customer. Do everything you can to catch and hold their interest.

Most Web users simply do not take the time to scroll down a web page, at least not very far down anyway. This may be disconcerting if you’re a website publisher or marketer. It’s likely you have worked hard on your site’s content and delivered a lot of good material and data.

Did you do the right thing in developing longer copy that takes up several screens of information?

Or, should you start over with shorter pages which require less scrolling?

It is a question every site designer will consider at some point. Just how much information constitutes a page? Based on usability and tracking data, most site visitors don’t scroll past the first screen of a landing page. Just over 40% of them remain for a short time on the first screen before choosing to move on, or back to the search engine results page (SERP) to click another link.

For professional and business to business sites a higher proportion of users will take more time to investigate site offerings. In fact, more experienced web users will do more scrolling than people who are less comfortable on the web. The experienced user knows that important information is often hidden below the first screen on many websites. However, for any site geared to consumers, it’s very important to think through the content that will appear “above the fold” (i.e. the top portion of a folded newspaper) on the first screen of the landing page.

This is a quick business. Since most web pages offer up convoluted writing and limited information at best, users often make the right decision to keep on clicking instead of scrolling and reading. It is important to be there with what they want by providing well written headlines, subheads, and pin-pointed copy above the fold, or on the landing page for their keyword query.

What’s the best approach?

Shorter pages can be seen more easily, yet genuine in-depth content requires longer treatment. Learn the proper way to engage the visitor with strong opening copy. Make good use of text links within the content so your visitors can find related information easily without leaving your site or returning to the search engine results page.

It’s in your interest to keep them engaged and interested. Additionally, don’t be shy in helping them find your product or service offerings. You must know how to present good copy headlines above the fold to gain their interest and engagement.

A short post before I go home tonight. It’s been along day. Sump pumps in the morning, my car to the repair garage this afternoon. Websites under construction, in varied states of readiness.

I’m too am ready… to go home. Connect my son’s iPod with the iMac (the system upgrade has not gone smoothly). So I’m ready to head for the door. Then all of a sudden I think, “Hey, the Blog!”

So here I sit, thinking of fruit stands, a.k.a. the fruit stand theory of marketing. Had a thought to add concerning this ancient and venerable theory (something akin to marketing Darwinism). But it ain’t quite so just yet. My brain is a little bit heavy.

The theory is simple enough: that many business owners think of marketing as they once thought of the lemonade stand they had when they were kids (the lemonade theory?). You set up the stand, place your merchandise on it, set your price and wait for business. Why it’s known as a fruit stand theory I can’t say. Unless people think of fruit stands as a more grown up substitute for the lemonade kart. Perhaps fruit stands were an early model of immigrant success. They were very simple: Sort ‘em, stack ‘em and price ‘em, and you’re on your way. (e.g. I’ve been told that the Dominick of grocery fame started out with a hot dog cart near Wrigley Field).

What I love most is how simple, logical and true to life the analogy seems to be. Many clients had a fruit stand in mind when they started their business. (and some think of it quite fondly). It represents a simpler time when the expansion of the U.S. economy managed to lift many businesses all at once, each of them able to focus on their product and manufacturing. Marketing could be kept simple.

A fruit stand with great fruit and other goods. Plenty of traffic.

And it all seemed to work so smoothly.

As mentioned in previous postings, I have spent a long time before the mast in marketing. I want this blog to say more, or convey more thinking, apart from incessant handwritten notes which I am guilty of preserving in three ring binders.

One of the things we like to say does not yet exist much in writing. For us these four qualities, or properties, beautifully express what we provide: Energy, Excitement, Opportunity, Sales (or, EEOS for short).

Perhaps, it sounds jingoistic. Yet, marketing programs will produce strong benefits if done well. And for the millionth time as we dutifully sound the note, “increased profits and growth”… well, how many times can we say such bland pronouncements with a straight face?

It actually goes further than this. I’ve come to think if anyone asks me what they should expect from a successful marketing engagement I would say it comes down to four things:

• You should feel a strong uptick in the Energy level within your company.
• The program should produce real Excitement in your staff, sales force and customers.
• It must take advantage of a genuine Opportunity in your market.
• It must deliver a sustainable return in new Sales.

These four properties may be less profound than the breakthroughs of modern physics, quantum mechanics, or anything so noteworthy. Yet, when they ask us what to expect, we tell ‘em:

Energy! Excitement! Opportunity! Sales!