Marketing Autopsy Blog » Inbound Marketing

Brands, Social Media, Authentic Relationships and Ultimate Success

Cuong Huynh — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:13:08 +0000

JD Lasica recounted the Your Brand, Their World event at Razorfish on August 18 in San Francisco. The goal was to draw social media thought leaders and experts together to “discuss the ways in which social media is changing the relationship between customers and brands, and what it means to marketers, merchandisers, product developers, customer service organizations, R&D and senior management.”

Participants included Garrick Schmitt, GVP Experience Planning for Razorfish and an expert panel consisting of Megan O’Connor, Levi’s; Michael Brito, Intel; Marisa Gallagher, Razorfish; Sam Faillace, Shutterfly, and Jon Swartz, USA Today (moderator.) In addition, an engaging audience of social media and marketing specialists was present to share their views.

Here are some of ideas and highlights coming out of the panel and audience interaction.

An interesting tweeting strategy for business: the 80-20 rule. Michael Brito tweets 80 percent personal and 20 percent business, which is a great reference for both beginner and experienced tweeple. If you are not sure about what mix your messages should have, this is a good starting point.
Social media should not be the ultimate marketing tool but must be an important element in the marketing mix. Not all companies need a Faccebook or Twitter account. Ultimately, the key is to know what you want to achieve with social media and select the appropriate tools to meet your goals.
While return on investment (ROI) is not an easy thing to quantify from social media marketing activities, Marisa Gallagher mentioned one of the best metrics: sales. This is right on because regardless of your goals for a specific campaign (brand awareness, survey participation, opinion gathering, etc.) what really matters to all company is sales.
On Twitter followers, following and the value of realistic interaction, a great bottom line message seems to emerge. It’s this: “You can effectively interact with maybe a small finite number of people, but do not discount the benefit of having many more followers/friends. They may be lurkers and never interact with you, but they have their own networks, can like/don’t like what you say/offer, and will share their opinions about you with the world.”
Someone from the audience offered a clear, simple and easy to understand roundup of inbound vs. outbound marketing. “Outbound is the traditional form of interruption advertising (commercials on TV, a billboard interrupting your thought process), while inbound marketing is about people opting in or getting recommendations from friends.”
Here’s a little “Ah-ha!” moment on why a company decided to deploy (or not) social media: “The auto companies don’t have as much fear jumping into social media as some of the other incumbents because it’s do or die for them,” as commented by Gallagher. Sure, we all know the phrase: “Live everyday like it’s your last.” That’s how you make a difference.

There are a bunch more great takeaways from that meeting. Read more of JD Lasica’s post “Social media, brands and the way forward” over at socialmedia.biz.

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

Brands, Social Media, Authentic Relationships and Ultimate Success

How to Write Relevant Content by Understanding Search Behaviors

Cuong Huynh — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:45:44 +0000

Content and relevant information are king. We all heard marketing experts say if you want to attract visitors, you should provide relevant content. Even Google itself says so in its Webmaster guidelines. Let’s face it. Web users, both the consumer and the business kinds, are all after a single thing when using their search engines: information. So it makes good sense to give them exactly what they want. You’ll achieve your SEO goals fasters, while retaining visitor loyalty at the same time.

Knowing what web users do is the key to attracting them to your site. You have essentially two challenges:

To be found by information seekers, and once found,
To attract and retain them.

While we can follow a number of steps to address each of these challenges separately, there are things we can do that benefit both, killing 2 birds with one stone, so to speak. Let’s look at some key behaviors of typical web visitors:

Web users are information hounds. Because of the speed and convenient of the Internet, information is always at the users’ fingertips – both good and bad information. So give lots of information, and differentiate yourself from the amateurs with great quality content.
Web users are analytical. While the fingers are clicking, the minds are on high level of awareness and working overtime. There are only two kinds of visitors that matter to you. One is the browsers who want something but not sure exactly what. The other is those on a mission to find exactly what they want at the best deal they can get. Either way, the web users are actively analyzing the content they find.
Web users are impatient and critical. Because of the available choices and the speed available to get to those choices, web users have been trained to be impatient. If they can’t find what they want, they’ll just move on to the next provider.
Web users scan content. They don’t read content. Web users know there may be better choices out there waiting for them to discover, and their impatience kicks in. Web users are fast scanners. So if your content is thousands of words long and contains just fluff in the first paragraph, or requires 3-4 paragraphs to lay out your case, then you’re losing readers fast.
Web users don’t like to be sold. Sales pitches are so old school. You and I don’t like to be sold, we like to decide for ourselves. So consider dropping the aggressive spiel.

If you stop and think about it, these are exactly our own behaviors, aren’t they? It’s pretty easy to understand and all you have to do is focus your efforts on what many call “inbound marketing” instead.

So what do we do with these behaviors? The best thing to do is addressing them head-on. Marketers have a single goal which is to sell something. But amateur marketers don’t realize that it’s very easy to fall into the selling mode trap. It takes more effort, but with much more effective results, to attract attention through a good combination of relevant information and great value proposition. The sales process will follow naturally.

Here are a few tips on writing relevant content.

Define your topic clearly and early in your content. This gets you found in relevant searches above your competitors, and lets visitors know immediately that they are in the right place with the right information, effectively answering their key question: “Am I in the right place?”
Keep your content short and to the point. If you have a lot to say on the subject, break them into sections, bulleted lists, or even series of articles. This does 2 things: a) it answers quickly the visitor’s question “is there something for me here?” and b) facilitates their tendency to scan your content.
Drop the use of teasers and fluff. I’m never a fan of teasers. They waste my time and indicate to me that the website has nothing to offer me. If you have to read through paragraphs after paragraphs of copy, and at the end still have to take additional actions with the promise of receiving the information sought, wouldn’t you feel cheated? So take the direct approach, don’t play around and make the content easy to get to.

The bottom line: consider how your visitors like to consume content and present your information to benefit their search. In the end, if your content is relevant with clear value proposition, you’ll reduce your bounce rate without resorting to sneaky tactics.

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

How to Write Relevant Content by Understanding Search Behaviors

Viral Marketing: Create a World Wide Rave with David Meerman Scott

Cuong Huynh — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:55:27 +0000

I missed the webinar and a chance to win his new book, but, courtesy of Hubspot’s Internet Marketing Webinars, here’s the video with David Meerman Scott discussing viral marketing, Feb 13, 2009.

David Meerman Scott’s World Wide Rave rules:

Nobody cares about your products (except you).
No coercion required.
Lose control.
Put down roots.
Create triggers that encourage people to share.
Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep.

Viral marketing. World wide rave. Looks like Mr. Scott is trying to brand a new social media phrase. I have no problem with this, but here’s real social media at work: he can do this because he’s become a “thought leader”, and we’re virally spreading his message.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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

Viral Marketing: Create a World Wide Rave with David Meerman Scott

Reason Companies Fear Social Media and Blogs: Maybe It’s Communication Itself

Cuong Huynh — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:34:23 +0000

Could it be that communication itself is a hindrance to corporations in adopting social media and blogs? Sounds counterintuitive but definitely possible. Consider the following.

What are some characteristics of getting involved in social media or maintaining a corporate blog? Is it being honest with your message? Is it being involved in the conversation regularly? Is it allowing comments, feedback and critiques to come back to you whether or not you want them? Is it having to take risks that you may lose trade secrets, private information, etc.? or is it all of the above?

Yes it’s communication itself. It’s the fear of getting or receiving something back unexpectedly – good is OK but what if it’s bad? It’s the fear of the unknown that’s outside of the normal outbound marketing, which marketers have control over. It’s the fear of the unknown and the what-ifs. It’s the fear of inbound marketing.

Admittedly, getting involved in corporate social media and blogs does require attention to the details mentioned above. These are in addition to the POST Method that I blogged about last November – People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. But the reality is, if you have to take time thinking about each and every message or structuring and molding every communication piece before relating to your customers, then you may not understand your company, company culture, and value propositions as well as you should. Of course there are important and proper communication channels for corporate announcements, press releases and the like, but day-to-day relationship with your customers and prospects should be a tactical strategy in the same vein as public relations (PR). It should be constant.

So what ’s the solution? Maybe start with the following:

Understand that social media and blogs can be valuable corporate tools.
Create clear and flexible policies that foster more intimate communication with customers and prospects while minimizing risks to the company.
Empower the right individual(s) to carry out social media and blogs, working closely with every other departments within the organization.
Constantly monitor results (quantitatively and qualitatively) and be nimble to change direction as needed.

So what’s your experience? What have you found working successfully at your organization? Share with us in the comments.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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

Reason Companies Fear Social Media and Blogs: Maybe It’s Communication Itself

One Secret to Successful SEO, If You Don’t Do Anything Else

Cuong Huynh — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:30:38 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important element of getting a website found by the Internet content reader. After all, without a reader to consume your content, there’s no reason for anyone or any organization to have a website, thus no reason for online marketing and SEO.

The reader, or consumer of content, normally uses some kind of search engine such as Google, Yahoo, MSN (or a whole host of others) to find the information s/he needs. But we as marketers must always keep one thing straight: SEO and search engine are only a mean to an end. SEO is not the end goal itself. It is the content that is the end that serves the readers. This is the reason why providing relevant, useful information for visitors to consume is a crucial step in the SEO process.

Think of it this way. Decisions you make and things you do to attract visitors to your site must be based first and foremost on what’s best for the visitors. If this is not the case, even if a visitor somehow finds your site, s/he can and will immediately leave if the content searched for does not exist. Good content attracts high traffic. Conversely, useless content repels visitors.

In summary, if you do nothing else but just concentrate on creating great and captivating content, you already have a winning SEO strategy in place.

So are you spending a good amount of time on developing great content as part of your SEO strategy?

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

One Secret to Successful SEO, If You Don’t Do Anything Else

Who Doesn’t Want Inbound Marketing?

Cuong Huynh — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:10:44 +0000

So HubSpot gave us another very easy to understand and easy to explain term: Inbound Marketing. It wraps everything about Web 2.0 into a neat little package. According to the article “Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web“, the current recession is pushing the next wave of marketing on the Internet. And it’s a good thing. Evolution is good.

Marketers are seeing the value of Inbound Marketing. While we can’t totally do away with traditional marketing, or Outbound Marketing, marketers can certainly step up their Inbound Marketing with little to no additional costs. Considering these 3 key components that make a successful Inbound Marketing, one can see why it’s so powerful.

Content – Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business. Content is king.
Search Engine Optimization – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximize your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.
Social Media – Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

The beauty of it is anyone can successfully put them to use at very low costs. You don’t have a budget for this? Or your budget has just been scaled down? No worry, you can still run an effective marketing campaign. Here’s a graphic comparing Outbound and Inbound Marketing, courtesy of HubSpot. If you work up a marketing budget for each side of the table, it’s not hard to see the budget needed to do the left side is going to overwhelm the one on the right.

Print ads, TV ads, cold calling, trade shows, email blasts will continue to cost a bundle to do. On the other hand, blogs, eboks, viral videos, SEO, webinars and RSS are all very affordable to start or even expand in activities. To be fair, Inbound Marketing does require specialized knowledge and skills, and this is a good thing. It forces marketers to move with the time. It will weed out strong marketers from the weak ones. It’s the natural law of survival in the business jungle.

Pounding your message out to the customers? Not too effective anymore and too costly. Attracting customers coming to find you? Now everybody wins.

So consider these. Inbound Marketing costs much less than traditional marketing. It has better targeting with self-qualifying customers. And it is an investment with word-of-mouth and viral effectiveness.

If it’s not already in your marketing game plan, then you may as well make Inbound Marketing your new year’s business resolution. But don’t wait. Start today. Remember, you don’t need a budget to do this.

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

Who Doesn’t Want Inbound Marketing?

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

Cuong Huynh — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:24:30 +0000

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

The POST Method: a Mental Note.

Cuong Huynh — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:14:54 +0000

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.

About Marketing Autopsy

Cuong Huynh — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:53:32 +0000

Thank you for visiting Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Marketing Autopsy Blog is a place to collect, share and discuss the good and bad marketing ideas, with special attention on enterprise social networking, new media, inbound marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. It’s also a place to collect new thoughts, tools and trends about the ever changing marketing world.

It is undeniable that in marketing it is critical to keep up with techniques, ideas and tools that are continually developed and made available. Learning must be unrelenting so that we can effectively serve our clients/employers in any business climate. There’s nothing like a great marketing campaign executed efficiently, with innovation and creativity, on time and budget, with measurable results and buzz, all while achieving established goals and our client reaps the benefits.

Today online marketing strategy is even more critical as inbound, social network and viral marketing give a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. In this environment, it is important to understand what to do as much as what not to do in inbound marketing and SEO marketing.

Critiques, suggestions and ideas are always welcome. Please subscribe to Marketing Autopsy Blog if you haven’t done so already. Also follow me on Twitter @cuonghuynh.

Cuong Huynh

Marketing Autopsy Blog » Inbound Marketing

Brands, Social Media, Authentic Relationships and Ultimate Success

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