R.N. Johnson Creative Marketing

In this third part of our series we cover an important topic. Based on recent pieces we’ve seen online, or in magazines, many private business leaders are frustrated with the complexity of digital marketing and it’s new applications, online tools and strategies. While many of today’s consumers blithely transition to the Next Thing,* a host of marketing managers and corporate VP’s find themselves camped on the threshold of important changes.

Our Online Marketing Awareness Map

How to make the right decisions with so many new choices? We’ll admit there’s no single easy answer to that question. But then, marketing has never been easy. Web 2.0 is often called the participatory Web, a place where blogs, social networking sites and media sharing sites have transformed the world of marketing.

Our own efforts in this regard are straightforward. We developed an Online Marketing Awareness Map as an early step in creating a visual tool for discussion. It has since led to a laptop presentation, and to this particular series of Infusion Blog posts (please see Part I and Part II if you haven’t already read them).

Your Website Is The Base Station For Your Online Marketing Program

Websites

Our map begins (see illustration) with the top circle, labeled Websites. Today we field fewer questions about websites (we’ve all seen our share). Yet many clients do not fully realize their website is just the beginning of their online marketing program. Yes, it must be supplied with good content, usability, optimization and branding. It is indeed the base station for an entire online marketing program. Yet, it’s also a latent form of energy. For most business websites there’s much to be done in bringing real excitement, traffic and new results. Often the goal is to transform a static asset into a compelling and effective online marketing program. Think of  your business site as the first step. It’s important to have a sense of where that latent energy may be going: to substantiate your credentials, or tell a product story, or generate direct e-commerce sales. The purpose and overall depth of content on your domain may suggest a follow up strategy for online marketing.

Online Advertising

Moving clockwise to Online Advertising, our next circle. Again, few of us are strangers to this. By online advertising we refer to web based ads such as banners, tiles, widget ads or sponsored listings on Google (organic listings are discussed in Content Marketing). For banners, tiles and other units we’re looking at a Push Strategy similar to offline advertising, where you pay for exposure based on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Sponsored listings emulate the search characteristics of organic listings in everything but price, since you must pay for them, typically using a Pay Per Click (PPC) model. Online advertising in all its forms… requires a direct monetary investment. Dollars for traffic!

Dollars for Traffic!

For many marketers this is as far as they go: build a website and buy online ads linked to specified landing pages. An ecommerce site with branded items or specialty merchandise, coupled with good prices can do this pretty well, especially if they have read their niche properly.

Content Marketing - Builds traffic, credibility and reputation.

Our next category is Content Marketing. We see Content Marketing as long content designed to display thought leadership with high “favorables” on search engines. This means well developed websites, blogs, or sites in combination with blogs. With a blog you add fresh content and a new page to your domain with every post. Attract visitors with comments and your blog is building inbound links, another natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit. Blogs build traffic, credibility and reputation — nice things to have for one’s professional life or brand.

A good approach to blogging may require originality, or an Outside the Box approach to a niche topic. But it doesn’t have to be creative per se. Start by solving a problem your audience cares about. Find a voice. Build trust, confidence, desire. Be engaging. And, don’t oversell. In effect, you may want to begin by commenting on something that others in your industry have expressed or said. When you begin blogging, you’ll want to read other blogs and make appropriate comments. Join the discussion. Just don’t be too obvious about selling or becoming a shill for your product. Think of yourself as attending a business reception. Show a sincere interest in something someone else has said or written, that’s a good way to obtain natural reciprocity in a return visits to your blog.

Blogs humanize a brand, which is a very special thing. Who is blogging these days? A huge number of organizations and people involved in virtually every business and profession, from software development, training and freelancers, to product manufacturers, distributors, wineries, galleries and travel destinations, etc.

As with everything else, you’ll want to open yourself and your business to further innovation. Think of it as a creative fusion between the offline marketing you may be accustomed to and the new digital marketing you’re seeking to engage.

This discussion of the Online Marketing Awareness Map continues in Part IV.

Stay tuned.

Best wishes…

Greg Johnson

We’re continuing our discussion of digital marketing strategy and why many marketers should look at their business with fresh eyes. In this post, we will briefly review two illustrations, then look into how Web 2.0 might affect your future marketing decisions.

Traditional Sales Funnel - Push Strategy

In the Traditional Sales Funnel the marketer targets a “universe” of people through demographic and psychological profiling and sends out branded messages in conventional advertising campaigns, public relations, direct response, sales promotion, trade shows and other tactics. In simple terms this is known as a Push Strategy. The marketer is pushing his message through to a targeted population, hoping to inform, persuade, remind and influence their purchasing behavior.

As you’ll note in the illustration, nestled nicely under the target universe is funnel which represents the collective efforts of the company’s sales department. Essentially, the marketer is looking to generate “precipitation” from their advertising in the form of sales leads, retail traffic, bounce back cards and other prospect behavior. The company seeks to control the funnel as their sales people work to convert their prospects into customers.

Internet Sales Funnel - Pull Strategy

Now in contrast to this, let’s take a look at an Internet Sales Funnel, which is considerably different from the traditional one. Here the entire world sits atop the World Wide Web. Although there is a certain amount of Reach and Frequency based advertising in this model,* the primary focus is different than conventional advertising.

By virtue of the sheer mass of Internet activity, for business, education, shopping, and entertainment, etc., a natural funneling takes place based on the stuff people are doing online.  This funneling phenomenon occurs every minute of each day. Someone searches for a digital camera, or advice on photography, or photographic supplies, or a professional photographer. Each user finding appropriate sites and information without any third party controlling of their quest for information.

The marketer doesn’t control this funnel. Instead of pushing a message through to a targeted online audience, the marketer engages a Pull Through Strategy to capture a share of traffic from people who are looking for their service or product in real time on the Web. Translation: every day people are looking for you. They have begun their shopping online. They’re already funneled into millions of discrete points of interest. Your task is to pull your fair share of this traffic by being in the right online place at the right time with a profitable click through rate.

How To Be Found Online?

How to be Found Online?

That’s the big question for most online marketers. Here’s a short list of the most often used techniques:

1. Online advertising: includes display ads or sponsored listings on websites & search engines. Basically you are exchanging dollars for traffic, based on Cost Per Thousand (CPM) impressions or Pay Per Click (PPC).
2. Content marketing: through blogs, social media, wikis, media sharing, email newsletters, webinars, etc. You are investing your time and resources in building great content and optimizing your web presence, so it becomes much easier to attract more visitors and traffic. Technically speaking, organic results from search engines is free.
3. Traditional marketing activities such as advertising, direct mail and public relations.

Spending money to generate traffic from online advertising is done in two distinct ways: A) through a somewhat traditional model of reach and frequency exposure** from banner ads; or, B) through sponsored listings sold as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements.

The second method of online discovery is through Content Marketing. Here we open the world of Web 2.0 and start thinking about blogs, social media, wikis, media sharing sites, email newsletters and webinars. Essentially, we’re seeking to engage in spirited Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices by creating a site, blog, wiki or social networking that results in higher organic search rankings, or viral marketing exposure. Link building, online conversations and social bookmarking are continuous efforts which the marketer might choose for this strategy.

Our third method, Traditional Marketing, won’t be covered in this series—except as it may help us make a particular point or reference. The thrust of our effort is focused on Web 2.0, content marketing and social media.

Outside The Box Thinking Can Help

Most users engaged in serious online advertising or content marketing are surprised at the amount of time they need to develop effective keyword phrases. Using the Google Adwords Keyword Generator can help you create hundreds of keyword phrases. But don’t let the software do your thinking for you. Instead, take the time to consider your customers. Stand back from them, think of them as people (don’t pigeon hole them) and ask what they might type into a search query if they wanted to find your product or services. Doing this forces you to relate to them more personally. For many companies this is truly outside the box, because it makes them engage the psychology of their customers.

Stay tuned. There’s more to come on innovative thinking.

Best wishes…

Greg Johnson

This may be a great time to restart your business in a much more innovative direction.

There’s such an abundance of information on Web 2.0 that it is hard to write a focused summary of current use. The term Web 2.0 emerged in 2004. It is a popular label for the “participatory web” now so prevalent in the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Flickr and other social media. Additionally, Web 2.0 encompasses the continued growth of the blogosphere, and the ever increasing number of hosted applications that run through web browsers and allow users to own and control their own information. This architecture of online participation, and its surging popularity, has changed the face of marketing.

Transitioning To Digital Marketing

So, the question of how to think outside the box on marketing using Web 2.0 is a very important question if you’re thinking about using social media, or building and maintaining your professional blog, or engaging in link building and search engine optimization (SEO).

We have seen marketers who think that a blog is a static thing, similar to a website. They may also assume their blog content should mimic their other advertising and marketing, not fully realizing they need to completely retool their approach. Additionally, we see and hear a lot about social marketing from customers who seem willing to dismiss it as too much work. They fear it will become a huge drain on their time and lead to false starts in an unproven medium.

Digital marketing presents a path of confusing complexity for many potential clients. Where a comprehensible program of traditional methods once prevailed, a new set of digital choices has emerged that represent game changing possibilities. Additionally, this new paradigm may not fit in with the current company culture.

If you have encountered Infusion Blog before, you may be aware that our firm (rnjohnson.com) specializes in working with independent companies. Many of our customers are transitioning to digital marketing. This blog is written for them. We make it our business to synthesize information and provide helpful guidance to independent marketers (i.e. small companies) about what to do and why.

Looking At The World With Fresh Eyes

As a first step, we have stressed the need for all parties to start looking at the world with fresh eyes. This may be a great time to reexamine your core strategy and marketing tactics using new techniques and restarting your business in a much more innovative direction.

But you need to look at the basics and be creative about content. To gain online traffic to your blog, you’ll need to jump start the process with new thinking, analysis, product demonstrations or a more effective and creative way to showcase  your expertise. Maintaining a blog allows customers, prospects and outside experts to interact with you online. But, the old command and control management style may get in the way. That’s why you’ll need to spend time thinking “outside the box” on a host of new questions.

• Are you ready to provide compelling blog content on a regular basis?
• Have you been visiting blogs, or participating in social media on your own, taking the time to understand what others in your industry are doing?
• Are you ready to respond helpfully and quickly to blog posts?
• Do you have a strategy for attracting readers and leveraging the blogosphere?
• Most of all: are you prepared to think outside the box?

Most people think creativity has more to do with art, music and literature and less to do with business, science and engineering. But that’s not the case. Creativity is the act of producing new ideas, approaches and actions. Innovation is the process of generating and applying ideas in a specific manner and context. Both definitions apply, especially if you’re planning to leverage Web 2.0  for your business.

But how to do this? What’s the best way to engage this process?

Good question. We have been working on this five part “Outside The Box” series as a way to share our thoughts and research. There’s so much occurring with Web 2.0 applications in social media, search engine optimization and link building that it is virtually impossible for a smaller marketing agency or company to stay abreast of everything. Our solution is to adhere to the principle of simplicity (some may say we’re simplistic) in seeking original ways to categorize or map the world of online marketing, to break out the fundamental action steps a potential client might use to prioritize their investment.

We considered a wealth of data. There’s such a long list of sites, blogs and major publications covering the world of technology. We’re grateful to the writer’s, contributors and publisher’s who enabled us to stand back and consider the larger picture of online marketing:

• Hubspot.com
• Online-Social-Networking.com
• Medialifemagazine.com
• Mediapost.com
• Mailchip.com
• Copyblogger.com
• Wearesocial.net
• Web-strategist.com
• Online.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal Online Edition)
• Ephrononmedia.com
• Wikipedia.org
• Mashable.com

Since we allude to innovation, and the ability to think outside the box on Web 2.0, we thought it might be fun to reference the Nine Dot Puzzzle (at right) and ask you to attempt it on your own. We’re told the puzzle appeared 1914 in a early humor magazine and that it was rediscovered after WWII. If you have never worked on it, please print this page and try to connect the dots. For the answer, see Part IV Thinking Outside The Box On Strategy.

And here is one final question: would you like to share a creative online marketing solution with us?

Test your creativity... Answer: See part V of series.

We would love to hear from you.

Best wishes…

Gregory Johnson

Next up is Part II: Thinking Outside The Box On Web 2.0, Blogs and Social Media