Here are some good points discussed by Mike Parker in an article on real estate marketing over at Rismedia.com. Mr. Parker is a principal at the Blackwater Consulting Group, Inc., and specializes in online marketing services for Realtors® and real estate professionals.

His article is about real estate and is written for the real estate professionals. But his points are so right on that anyone can benefit from them. Straight and simple.

Here are the 3 online marketing myths according to Mr. Parker.

Myth 1: The most popular place consumers look for homes online is Realtor.com®
Fact: The most popular place consumers look for homes online is Google®.

Good point. The key element here is the looking and the finding. It’s the search. It’s true that a few people will know the big name sites and will go directly there (chalk it up for good marketing on their part). But the vast majority of us will head straight to our favorite search engine first. It’s a habit and a necessity. This is the power of Google. This is the power of Google marketing. Many people will probably end up at a big name site anyway, but it will be because they rank high in the search results, using their on-target keywords.

Myth 2: You need to be on every portal that is real estate related.
Fact: You really only need to be able to be found by search engines.

Good point. It may be true in the early days of search technologies, when search engines were still going through development stage. Back then, portals were a good shotgun approach. But search engines have now matured and are giving great user experience. Chasing the portals is just a waste of time. Here’s one caveat: depending on your industry, there may be portals that you’ll want (or need) to be on. The bottom line is, have a marketing strategy and follow it.

Myth 3: It’s impossible for ‘the little guy/gal’ to compete against the big guys/gals in online marketing.
Fact: It’s the opposite that is true; you can compete with anyone online.

Good point. The Internet and online marketing is a great and important equalizer. It does not make your competition disappear, but it does help take your business to the competition. It levels the playing field, and it allows anyone to learn to effectively compete online. Like any other business endeavors, it’s not a cakewalk. The marketer still have to develop skills and techniques, but it’s easier and cheaper, and if you do it right, faster, to achieve your marketing goals.

All three myths are important to debunk. To me the last one is especially critical. Anyone can compete online. This is well-known to many, yet it’s still a powerful statement.

If you want to succeed in the online marketing game, then know your facts and debunk the myths.

So do you have an online marketing myth to share?
Is there an industry that may not follow “accepted” online marketing wisdoms? and why?
Are there new data we can use to guide our online marketing strategy?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Online Marketing Myths: These Won’t Help You Succeed in Real Estate, or Anything Else

This economy is not getting better any time soon. I think most people by now would agree, whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. In fact it does not matter which side one’s on, because being either is not going to change current situation. There are only two things that matter: the external market conditions which you can’t control, and us ourselves which we can control.

Markets have always been cyclical. Adding on top of this are external unforeseeable events that either cause the market to go up and down, to improve or worsen. Lots of theories and analyses will be explored for many years to come. For me I like to keep it simple. Let’s get to the core of a marketer as an individual.

First, understand that it will get better, then it will go down again, then again it will improve, and so on. We can’t worry too much about this. We do need to keep an eye on it however. Meanwhile our energy must be directed toward improving business. To me this last statement is true in both good times and bad times.

So during this tough time, let’s not retreat and take the ‘wait and see’ stand. Out job is to help our clients/employers take products and services to market. People will always need products and services. Even with “luxury” things, there are always people who can afford them and/or want them. As smart marketers, we need to recognize the changing market winds and readjust ourselves. This means learn new tools and techniques, be more creative and innovative, and work harder.

It just makes sense.

How about you, what are your thoughts? Do you have a different perspective? What are some other good advice for a marketer in this environment?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

For Marketers: This Is Not The Time To Retreat!

So here I am talking/blogging about the new Pepsi logo. It’s really what Pepsi wanted in the first place.

For those not familiar with this marketing event, just Google something like “pepsi 25 new logo marketing” and you’ll have plenty to read. In a nutshell, Pepsi recently released a new logo on their cans by sending out 3 individual packages to 25 select members and thought leaders of the online social media crowd. This Pepsi’s innovative new campaign is being dubbed by many the “Pepsi 25″.

Darryl Parker over at Parker Web Marketing is keeping a list of who actually received the packages, and then blogged about it. Apparently only Pepsi knows who the 25 are, so the identities of these bloggers have to be pinpointed manually,

I would expect that, if you’re one of these 25, there is no obligation on your part to participate. It is not known if they were compensated other than receiving the packages. In fact receiving any compensation would all together defeat the purpose of this whole campaign, so therefore I think it’s safe to say that if any one of these folks blog about this event, then Pepsi would have achieved a successful viral marketing campaign.

Here are what a few other bloggers say about this:

• Pepsi Cooler at FriendFeed.
• Jennifer Laycock’s The Choice of a Social Media Generation.
• Mack’s post over at his The Viral Garden.

I think this is a bold move on Pepsi’s part. Let’s pick it apart shall we? First off, many bloggers feel that Pepsi should target the smaller, more relevant group of Pepsi evangelists instead. But I tend to disagree. By choosing the supposedly biggest 25 marketing bloggers, Pepsi is shooting for the largest potential spread of viral marketing. Why go small when you can go big. This takes guts but it was a strong business reason.

Furthermore, if only one blogger decides to say anything about this, then Pepsi would have a success. By the very nature of social media, the selected “experts” cannot NOT blog about it. By the very nature of viral communication, the selected “experts” cannot by themselves find out who’s who, then agree among themselves not to blog about it. This is the beauty of social media. Even in the case of Mack’s post, where he absolutely refuses to mention the brand or company name, it’s hard to hide what he’s talking about. His post even made the list of 25 kept by Darryl Parker at Parker Web Marketing.

In the end, this is actually only part of a much wider, longer campaign that Pepsi’s running. According to AdAge, Pepsi finally seems intent on regaining its share. Its strategy involves three years; $1.2 billion; a complete packaging, merchandising and marketing overhaul of its soft drinks. So this is only the beginning.

Pepsi is a very large company with a very large marketing budget, and they will do what they need to do. Large corporations have done great marketing before, and creative marketing have been achieved way before social media arrives on the scene. This is another example that big corporations are making an effort in the social networking arena. And it’s refreshing to see Pepsi finding a good way to mix it up with their marketing push.

If you’re not approaching social media like Pepsi does, with bold creativity, detailed planning, clear goals, high intelligence and most importantly, utmost respect, then don’t get into it at all.

So what’s your take on Pepsi’s approach?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Don’t Get Into Social Media: The “Pepsi 25″ Social Media Rebranding Campaign.

Here’s something older but especially relevant in this time of continued growth in social media marketing. Most online marketers know it’s from a post by Josh Bernoff called “The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy” at Forrester Research, Inc. I include it here for my own benefits, and maybe for those who reads my blog.

P is People. Don’t start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, use social networks. If you’re reaching out business travelers, consider ratings and reviews. Forrester has great  data to help with this, but you can make some estimates on your own. Just don’t start without thinking about it.

O is objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective before you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

S is Strategy. Strategy here means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterwards? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.

T is Technology. A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.

Still very wise words.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

The POST Method: a Mental Note.

Here’s a sampling of what big and small businesses are doing to promote democracy and their businesses at the same time. Here are some of the election day’s marketing activities and specials making the news today.

Chitose Suzuki/AP

Babeland, a store defined by spokeswoman Pamela Doan as “a sex-positive, women-friendly retailer for sex toys and accessories,” is just one of many businesses offering voters an incentive to go to the polls Tuesday. Summing up the promotion, Doan said: “Sex crosses party lines.” Read more…

Starbucks is providing voters nationwide with a free cup of coffee if they reveal a ballot stub or “I Voted” sticker. Voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia can also earn a cup of coffee at a local Eat’n Park outlet. Read more… Update: To comply with a federal statute, Starbucks has extended the offer to everyone, vote or no vote, reported seattlepi.com.

Interestingly, some of these promotions may be illegal, as written here at ktla.com, Nationwide Offers of Freebies for Voters is Illegal in California.

How about 7.5 things you can get for free on Election Day in Seattle? Courtesy seattlepi.com. Among the above mentioned, add:

• Krispy Kreme. It won’t get you a chocolate glaze, but an “I voted” sticker is good for one star-shaped red-and-blue-sprinkle doughnut at Krispy Kreme.
• Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Participating scoop shops are giving away a free scoop of ice cream between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday. Forecast calls for a high of 49 degrees, so you can be sure it won’t melt.
• Rock the Vote. A reader blogs that MTV’s Rock the Vote is offering free music downloads in exchange for a pledge to vote.
• Irwin’s Cafe. On a reader tip, we learned that the neighborhood cafe Irwin’s in Wallingford is offering a “pay-what-you-want” promotion all day on Election Day.
• Cupcake Royale. This tip came from the folks at West Seattle Blog: All three Seattle locations of the popular cupcake shop will be giving out one free babycake to each customer who voted and a free “I’m pro-cupcake and I voted” sticker to anyone who buys 12 cupcakes Tuesday as part of their “Vote, Babycake, Vote” promotion.
• Full Throttle Bottles. Pizza, coffee, cupcakes. Guess all we needed was booze. Erika Cowan of Full Throttle Bottles, a specialty beer and wine seller in Georgetown, says voters get 11 percent off All day Tuesday.

• Chick-fil-a: Get a free Chicken Sandwich for all voters.
• Shane’s Rib Shack: Get an entire free “Vote America Meal” of three chicken tenders, fries, and a 20 oz drink.
• Daily Grill: Free Happy Hour Appetizer on Election Day. (CA, DC, MA, MD, OK, OR, TX, VA, WA)
• California Tortilla : Free taco (DE, MD, DC, PA, VA, WV)
• If you simply pledge to vote, you can download these awesome songs for free:
  • Maroon 5 – Not Falling Apart
  • Sara Bareilles – Many The Miles
  • Phantom Planet – Dropped
  • Raining Jane – Incline
  • Menomena – Wet and Rusting
  • Michael Franti and Spearhead – Hey World (Don’t Give Up Version)
  • Ry Cuming – Home
  • The Duke Spirit – This Ship Was Built To Last
• If you live in Dallas, enjoy FREE TATTOO REMOVAL.

ClickDeals.net has some more, including:

• Free beer – Voters only – HandleBar – Pensacola, FL
• Free Beer (or soda) at Todd Conner’s Pub – Baltimore, MD
• Free Car Wash with Voting Receipt on 11/4 – Haddad’s – (Pittsburgh, PA)
• Free Bus Service – Charlottesville, VA
• Free TTA transit service to seniors and Medicare Card Holders on Election Day (Huntington, WV & Ironton, OH)
• Capital Metro – free rides on all fixed route bus service for Election Day (Austin, TX)

Still more deals are listed here from Dealighted.com.

Nothing like riding a high visibility event for some free publicity.

And don’t forget to vote.

Vote Today.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Marketing In A Democracy: Free Stuff For Your Vote – Election Day Freebies.

It’s always scarier, and more difficult, for large companies to embrace social media than for smaller companies to do so. It’s been discussed widely around the web and blogosphere, and is a general consensus at least for now.

As time progresses, however, it’s refreshing to learn about larger companies actually making the effort. As Lee Odden posted on Online Marketing Blog in Oct 30, 2008, How Big Companies Use Social Media @ BlogWell, big guys like Dell, Walmart, Cisco, UPS and Home Depot are seeing values in social media, and are making a corporate effort to get involved. The Blogwell conference, organized by GasPedal, aimed to help large corporations navigate the minefields of social media marketing.

According the Blog Council, which is a community of senior executives in charge of social media at the largest corporations in the world, best practices for corporate social media participation include the following checklist:

• Disclosure of Identity
• Personal/Unofficial Blogging and Outreach
• Blogger Relations
• Compensation and Incentives
• Agency and Contractor Disclosure
• Creative Flexibility

Mr. Ogden blogs that “Disclosure and honesty are key”, which I think is right on. He further lists a number of characteristics that companies should take with them from the Blogwell experience:

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Why Companies Should Not Get Into Social Media.

Black hat SEO is defined as “SEO techniques or practices that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.” There are various different ways other websites define this, but the gist of it is it is unacceptable practice from both a search engine’s and human’s point of view. I’m using BHSEO for short and interchangeably with black hat SEO in this blog. One can read about BHSEO through various other more authoritative sources on the Net.

I say “point of view” because I think it’s mainly subjective, and it strongly depends on the state of search engine technology. The word “acceptable” itself is subjective. In fact in the early days of search engines it was even considered best practices. Here’s how I look at this issue.

Currently (late 2000′s time frame) black hat SEO techniques are considered bad, while another set of belief, namely white hat SEO techniques, are the way to go. BHSEO techniques do this: they “unethically” present content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users. The results are:

• They break search engine rules and regulations, which aim to provide accurate search results for users,
• They create a poor user experience, because the site the users end up at are not relevant to the their search goals.

In the earlier days of search engine technology, the search engines (SEs) themselves actually created conditions for these techniques now called BHSEO. The SEs through their “archaic” algorithms allowed these practices to flourish. It was only over time that people were able to define what is considered “good user experience” and improve and modernize their codes to try and stop these less desirable practices. In this sense BHSEO practices are just leftover techniques from bygone days.

I believe as SE technologies progress and new search ideas implemented, we will continue to refine the definition of user experience and will force some if not all of current white hat SEO techniques to become black hat SEO techniques. It’s just a natural progression of the search world. Like most everything else, new ideas and standards will render older ones obsolete and irrelevant. Black hat SEO techniques aren’t bad, they just outlive their time and some people just wouldn’t let them go.

Good effective marketers should not discount BHSEO totally. Instead good marketers should know them, understand them, then continue to learn about new, more relevant marketing tools and best practices, including new SEO techniques and requirements, and apply them for the benefits of the clients.

What’s your view on BHSEO? Will white hat SEO eventually become BHSEO themselves? If so which one?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Will White Hat SEO Become Black Hat SEO?

Marketing Charts summarized a recent study done by the CMO Council, called “Driving The Bottom Line From The Front Line”. The study highlights an alarming reality among large, multinational companies: marketing and sales collaboration and effectiveness are rated as poor according to the organizations’ own assessment.

Here are some results summarized at the Marketing Charts page (noted here with my thoughts on the subject):

Unifying Sales and Marketing Still a Challenge for Most Companies.

• Barely 12% of sales and marketing professionals say they have a well-integrated, real-time view of all customer interactions, while only 37% report good visibility into prospects, pipeline, deal flow and conversion rates.
  • Thoughts: It is not a surprise on this one since we all experience very busy workload during a typical day, thus having no time to look at or analyze the data. Eighty-eight percent lacks visibility into customer interactions – that could be a lot of sales being missed. And 63% lacks the ability to see the sales process, prospects and pipeline- again this may lead to sales left on the table or going to competitors. To improve these numbers I think companies will have to either 1) add analysts to their team to provide additional support, or 2) implement policy to force the team to regularly slow down and look at what they have and re-prioritize, then proceed again.
• By comparison, 20% indicate that marketing hands off leads to sales, yet marketing has no insight into conversion and close outcomes; 13% say most leads are never captured, qualified or acted upon; and about 11% report they have no on-premise or on-demand CRM system in place.
  • Thoughts: Seems like a regular team communication is one solution to implement here. The goal here should be to get everyone on the team to collect data and report on results. One good approach is to do this manually for a while so it becomes second nature or habit to all parties involved. Then phase in a new work flow to automate and streamline the process. A full-featured CRM system is not necessary in the initial step. One needs to take baby steps first before walking and running. My motto The speed of going slow™ has served me well in many occasions and can be applied successfully here.
• Among those who have CRM applications, only 13% view the application as highly valued and widely deployed, while 42% see growing acceptance and adoption.
  • Thoughts: I think CRM systems are too complex, not user-friendly and require a steep learning curve. And it’s difficult to remember and use all the features in order to maximize the benefits. In addition people tend to have preferences for a particular tool, maybe something they’re already using or have used. On the other hand it’s very important to have a single system that the team can share, especially in corporate environments. Again I think The speed of going slow™ also applies here. The key is do not train people in one single session and turn them loose. A more effective implementation method is to give everyone an overview, then phase in portions of the system over time, in small chunks. This would force everyone to take small bites at a time, use them, get used to them, understand and like them, while keeping the level of competency consistent across individuals. No one on the team should feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the tool. Do this over time and the collaboration will improve. Problem solved.
• While CRM systems tend to be mandated and adopted across the sales organization, they tend to be more selectively embraced by marketing teams in business units and departments.
  • Comment: Ha I spoke too soon. The thoughts above also apply to this one.
• Data analytics, reporting and forecasting tend to be the biggest deficiencies in optimizing the functionality and usability of current CRM solutions. The top three areas highlighted by nearly 50% of respondents were the ability to easily create analytic reports, customization of the application and forecasting capabilities. Real-time and historic analytics placed a close fourth (40%) adding to the call for more analytics and user friendly tools.
  • Comment: While this may be partially due to the tools (and their limitations themselves), I think there are 2 factors playing out here. One, it’s just a convenient excuse by the users so they don’t have to deal with it. Or, two, the organization picked the wrong tool to begin with. While it is expected that tool developers should constantly improve enterprise CRM systems and/or create new and better ones, my experience tells me that, for a tool to be successfully implemented, it has to be properly evaluated and tested against understood, real requirements. Requirements should drive everything. Once the requirements are known, a set of best practices/processes/workflows must be created and evaluated against each candidate CRM system. The two critical elements here are the requirements and the best practices/processes/workflows. Too many people just jump in, buy the tool and start using without doing those two things. They’re setting themselves up for failure for sure.
• While 50% of those surveyed said they had pretty good or extensive visibility in to customer accounts and business activity, the other 50% said they had trouble finding customer account data, did not have enough information, or none at all.
  • Thoughts: Hmmm, assuming these are in context of the previous findings above, I would venture to say: know your requirements, get the proper tool, understand how to use it, then create a process and a habit to use it, and always improve your process and tool.

On other key findings:

• Most respondents consider their companies to be sales-driven and, to a lesser degree, product-centered or customer relationship-based. Just over 10% viewed themselves as channel dependent, and only 27% believed they were marketing-minded.
  • Thoughts: Gotta get 100% (or the majority) of those employees to be marketing-minded.
• Respondents agree that the top three measures of sales performance and productivity are lead quality and ROI, conversion and close rates, and level of action on opportunities – all of which would benefit by a deeper alignment and integration between sales and marketing.
  • Thoughts: I think this should/must be a top-down policy/directive. Left alone, individuals within the two departments may start on their own to collaborate. But in my view it’s just an accident that they do so. Why wait for accidents to happen? The C-levels should initiate it.
• When marketers were asked how they viewed sales, 40% said they had some top producers but there was mostly a need for improvement.
  • Thoughts: I don’t quite understand this one. All organizations have some top producers, and everyone can stand some improvement.
• Sales professionals tend to have a tactical view of marketing, with only 10% seeing marketers as market-savvy and on-target with demand-generating campaigns. Some 41% say marketing provide good/right content and sales-support materials.
  • Thoughts: I would agree with the sales guys here. Not everyone wants/has the ability to do sales. But almost everyone thinks he/she can do marketing. My observation tells me many marketers are not qualified at their posts, lacking a lot of marketing basics (either learned through formal schooling or from the trenches), while they employ the “trial-and-error” marketing technique.

Todd Ebert has his own take about it in his blog here: CMO Council research: 2/3rds of us are not effective.

So what do you think about this sales – marketing relationship? How does it work at your organization? What’s your best/worst experience?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Sales and Marketing: How Do We Join Forces?

Here’s something I like from reading Paul Barsch today:

“Life, including business, is a series of choices. Read much, ask questions, and spend the time to do the analysis. Then choose wisely. Flying by the seat of your pants and making choices haphazardly without the facts or reviewing all the angles is a recipe for much heartache.”

See this full article “Marketing Champion Focused on Customer Analytics: Q&A With Paul Barsch, Marketing Director of Teradata” by Roy Young over at MarketingProfs.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Flying by the seat of your pants…

Post-It Jaguar

One of the more well-know events, the 3M Carjacks of the Post-It Note Jaguar, is an interesting case study of mine because it is so simple and so big. Of course in hindsight it’s easy to critique, but if one looks at this as an observer and marketer, what is the real learning opportunity here?

Well there are obvious things, although I won’t waste time discussing them here as others have beat them to death around the Net. One only has to read the way the event unfolded. And it is easy to just say, “Oh 3M did this” or “3M should have done that.” But to me the one thing that still puzzles me is the inaction from 3M’s part. Maybe silence is the best new damage control in this case, I don’t know. I’m still searching for some indication or response from the company. Still not successful. Valeria Maltoni asks the same question in her article “Where is 3M in the Conversation About the Post-It Note Promotion?“.

Without being judgmental, I’m wondering how a large company like 3M would respond to the world about an event like this. Here’s a theory: there’s really no need to publicly respond to this. Internally, maybe 3M managers had meetings, decided that it’s in their best interest to learn the lesson and move on. They may have reprimanded the employee(s) responsible for this, or they may not. The proper thing to do is sending their marketing personnel to a refresher/crash course on marketing in the new social networking age. There are lots to be learned and relearned.

Aside from all the blogs in the web, I don’t think 3M lost much out of this. The campaign itself may have been very successful financially (I’ll have to check on this and update this sentence at a later time).

View the original Post-It Notes Jaguar photos on flickr.

View a video: ABC News with Scott Ableman telling his story, as shown on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EZuEvOv7ug

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

3M Post-It Note Carjacks: Still searching for the answer…