Holistic Technology Enabled Internet Marketing Solutions

The second day I spent at Inbound Marketing Summit did not disappoint – the day started out with a bang and ended on a high note. The biggest takeaways for me yesterday were based on the themes of relationships, relevancy, and change.

Enchantment to Create and Strengthen Long Lasting Relationships

First off, let me start by saying that Guy Kawasaki is awesome. He’s been in the business for a while, he’s super smart, he publishes great content, and I learned yesterday, he’s also great speaker. Yesterday he introduced the audience to “The Art of Enchantment;” also a book he has just recently written. Guy describes the idea of “enchantment” as “creating a relationship that is long lasting, mutually beneficial, and voluntary.” This sounds like the kind of relationship we desire; whether it be with a friend, a family member, your co workers, and even your vendors and clients. He explains that you can apply this idea of enchantment to starting a business, making decisions,  and creating long-lasting relationships. The three pillars of enchantment, as Guy defines are: to achieve likability, trustworthiness, and quality. This talk was great because it reminds us to shift our thinking from getting what we want and take the extra time to create a change that is mutually beneficial.

Takeaway: By becoming more enchanting, you will deepen your relationships.

Relevancy in the Context of Mobile

I had been looking forward to the panel discussing mobile marketing all day. I had seen Tim Hayden speak before and knew that this was a “must-see” session. Along with Tim, of 44Doors, were Rich Miner, a Partner with Google Ventures, and John Puterbaugh of Nellymoser, Inc. This panel did a great job touching on different aspects of mobile and insights into how it effects how we market to our customers.

The theme that I noticed right away was the idea of relevancy. During this session it was suggested that the mobile handheld device is the most intimate device that humans have ever had. I agree; I wake up and the first thing I look at is my cell phone, during quiet times or waiting in lines I look at my cell phone, I use my phone to connect with people, I use my phone to keep my calendar and my notes, and my alarm clock, my cell phone is the last thing I look at before I go to bed. So what does this mean for us marketers?

Mobile marketing offers us a huge opportunity; however, the gentlemen of this panel remind us, we will still market the way that we have been, but we can use the mobile medium to reach our customer base in an easier, faster, and more simpler manner. Our message, however, needs to be relevant to the mobile medium.

Best Buy was used as an example to describe this rule. Best Buy has QR codes on the little signs with the product details in their store. After scanning the QR code the mobile user is taken to a page that shows them the same exact information that can read on the product detail sign. What’s the point, right? However, below the product detail information is buyer feedback – now, this what we want when we’re shopping! Best Buy could do this better if they move the buyer feedback to be one of the first things a mobile user sees when the scan the code.

Takeaway: Keep relevancy top of mind when offering a mobile user experience.

Driving Change

Dan Heath, of BrightSight Group and author of “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” ended our time at Inbound Marketing Summit. I was skeptical at first, wondering how this session would apply to my job and the services we offer our clients. But the more Dan spoke, the more I started understanding that this idea of change could effect the roots of, not only business, but life choices in general, the more intrigued I was.  Dan acknowledged that as marketers our jobs are changing so fast and we need to keep up. But sometimes change is hard and we are resistant.

One of the things that stuck out to me was that many times when things aren’t working we pick it apart and dissect it and anaylze it without really changing what we’re doing. Dan suggests that instead of focusing on what is wrong, focus on what’s working and then try to clone that. I really like that idea; it shifts the way we solve problems. His session left me with a breath of fresh air and I look forward to digging into his book to learn more.

Takeaway: Switch the way you think about problem solving or making a change; approach it from a positive angle.

Thanks for letting me share and digest what I have learned the past few days. I am sure more inisghts will come up as I go through notes and if you have any questions about anything else that was presented at Inbound Marketing Summit 2011 please tweet me!

Greetings from Inbound Marketing Summit 2011!

My brain is already crammed with lots of great takeaways from this conference and I still have one more day to go! I thought the best place to start digesting some of what I am learning and hearing is right here on this blog – to share with you!

The biggest takeaways from yesterday are things that we talk about on this blog and in our webinars; what I believe is the future of online marketing. The first is the idea of differentiating yourself from your competition by embracing the uniqueness of your company and the second is offering a personalized online experience with your audience in all the stages of the buying and customer cycles.

Being Different is Hard

Yesterday morning, Youngme Moon started the conference off with one of the most thought provoking sessions of the day. Youngme is the Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School and author of “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd“. She presented the importance of differentiating yourself from your competition. She explains that as we try to keep up with the competition, we end up conforming and becoming more like them. The way to do this, she told us, is to embrace what is different about your brand and don’t be afraid to say “no” when everyone else is saying “yes”.

Youngme talked about Ikea; a huge brand that people LOVE. We all know that Ikea is different, it has a unique shopping experience, the store offers a restaurant, and childcare; what other furniture store does that? People LOVE this store and they tell Ikea how much they LOVE the store but they also offer feedback telling them if they could be a little bit more like XYZ Furniture Store they would love it even more. Youngme explains that by offering something less, Ikea is giving customers more. Ikea is really creating a loyal fan base where they see Ikea as irreplaceable; there is no substitute.

Similar case studies were shared that described different companies’ visions to really stand apart from the competition, be proud and profitable while being different. Although it’s hard and sometimes uncomfortable, Youngme reminded us that in order to get some traction, it requires some friction. Differentiation comes from lopsidedness and from resisting the temptation to “over-listen” to customers. The hardest part of being different, however, is having an idea on how to be different.

Presenting Your Unique Qualities

The idea of presenting uniqueness also came up during a breakout session presented by Bret Peters, a Partner at Fig Leaf Software. He spoke of some case studies where the brand had a unique offer but chose a creative way to present that content to reach their individual marketing goals. One case study that really stuck out to me is how the American Association of Museums changed the way they presented their premium-only content. Previously, the user had no access to see what the premium content was unless they logged in first. To try an increase memberships, American Association of Museums created an internal Google Search and allowed all of their content to be searchable. However, if one of the results was distinguished as premium content, the user would navigate to a log in page. By making this change they saw an 8% increase in membership in the first month!

What makes your brand unique? Are you taking advantage of it and presenting it to your audience in a creative and captivating way? How are you differentiating yourself from your competition without conforming?

Personalization is the Future of Web

One of the sessions yesterday was “Inbound Marketing 2.0″ presented by Brian Halligan, CEO & Founder of Hubspot. He explained the idea behind Inbound Marketing 2.0 is really about creating a “Segment of 1″ as a web experience for each individual user.

At Hall, we talk a lot about developing unique content for all your different audience types. Once you are able to identify who you are talking to, you can speak more intimately to their needs and specific challenges, which, in result, can lead to improved conversion rates. Think about your website and what you know about the audience that visits it. Some people are researching, some are buying, some are even your current customers.

Brian used examples like Netflix and Pandora; where, once you’re logged in, you are given suggested music to listen to or movies to watch based on what you already like. These websites adapt to your own personal preferences. The experience offered makes the user more likely to continue to use these services because they make it easy to consume information that you like.

The idea of “personal experience” also reminds me of when I worked at Walt Disney and helped kicked off the “Year of a Million Dreams.” Throughout the year, cast members sought out a guest and gave them a “dream” or something special. Though it might have been something small like a free cast member pin, the experience was something unique to a single person or family, but made a memorable impact. This is what encourages word of mouth marketing and customer loyalty.

In all your marketing mediums; website, social networks, email, mobile, direct mail, don’t send one broad message. Segment your audience – get as granular as your data allows – be direct and speak to the individual needs of each segment. Think of your website as your “personalization engine” is how Brian Halligan put it. Not only will this likely improve conversions, this will also strengthen relationships between your brand and the customer. From brochureware to interactive experiences, personalization on the web is what we’re moving towards in the future.

What are some ways you can personalize the experience you are offering your audience? Are your sending targeted messages to the right audience?

Lots of good food for thought and I’m sure I’ll be thinking and blogging about these topics more in the future!

Yesterday I spoke to the Mid-Maine Chamber about Social Media for Business and I am putting the finishing touches on my Measuring Social Media presentation for Social Media FTW. Needless to say, I have been thinking a lot about measuring social media, web marketing and even SEO.

Before working at Hall, I worked for a large radio station group. Before the radio station, I worked for a small magazine. In those years of experience I don’t remember clients or advertisers asking for the ROI of their ad. It was just something they did. In the case of radio, they usually were happiest when someone came into their store and said ‘I heard your ad on the radio’.

So why the demand now on ROI for online marketing? I have a few ideas but I will stick to the point – Online marketing is more measurable than any other kind of marketing.

I am a numbers girl. I like them. I could drown in them and with online marketing you have more numbers than you know what to do with.

With web advertising, you can see exactly how many people clicked on your link, went to your landing page or converted on your site.

With SEO, you can see how many people searched for you, whether your ranking for key search terms rises or drops, how much of your website traffic comes from search engines, how many people are linking to your website and so much more.

Social media, the belle of the ball, is being falsely accused of being unmeasurable. There are lots of key data points you can measure in social media.

• Traffic to your site data
• Fan/Follower data
• How often people interact with your content
• How well some content performs over others

So where is all the worry coming from? These days we need to justify our cost and spend with actual results and not just hope. Find the data points that you feel are important to show success and start measuring!

Photo credit:

Photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar

In marketing lectures, webinars and keynote speeches you may hear the term ‘KPI’ a lot. In a recent conversation I had a colleague ask me what a KPI actually was and how I use them. So I thought I would talk about that here briefly.

KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. A KPI is nothing more than data points along the way to help you determine whether or not you are reaching your goals. The key is that you are making progress on the way to a strategic goal.

KPIs are talked about a lot when we talk about measuring social media efforts. Since there is no Easy Button on measuring social media, each company needs to determine what success looks like for them with their social media marketing and determine what data points they are going to collect along the way.

A KPI is going to be different than a metric measurement. For example, let’s say you are trying to get more leads and you are going to do that by publishing a really informative eBook. If you are using Twitter to promote an eBook you are distributing – your number of Twitter followers would be a metric but the number of eBook downloads that were referred from Twitter would be a KPI.

There are zillions of things you can measure, especially in the world of online marketing. If you focus more on KPIs that are moving your bottom line or getting you to your goal – you will have a better assessment of how well your internet marketing campaign is going.