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vineri, 14 februarie 2014
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The Best Way to Suck at Marketing - Whiteboard Friday
The Best Way to Suck at Marketing - Whiteboard Friday |
| The Best Way to Suck at Marketing - Whiteboard Friday Posted: 13 Feb 2014 03:16 PM PST Posted by randfish When we take a data- and profit-driven approach to marketing, we can get so caught up in maximizing returns that we forget we're dealing with people, treating our customers as simple transactions. If we're looking for loyalty, we need to change that approach. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand details the virtues of marketing for long-term success and moving away from that transactional model.
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard! Video TranscriptionHowdy Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week I wanted to talk about something I see from a lot of marketers where we just kill ourselves, people. We're dying. We're really sucking at our jobs, and the reason seems to be very consistent. It seems like this is almost the best way, the most popular way to suck at marketing. I'll show you what I'm talking about. So here's our marketer, and he or she has good intentions in mind, but he goes out and looks at every opportunity with the same lens on. So goes out and looks at partnerships and sees only the possibility of business development. Goes out and looks at other blogs and other places in the industry where they might contribute and sees only a guest post opportunity, a chance to earn a link. Goes and looks at their landing pages and sees customers, potential customers coming to their site and thinks only: "How many? What's the highest percent of those people that I can possibly convert to put in their credit card right now and buy something or make a transaction happen?" They look at conferences and events and see only, "All right, how do I speak there?" Or "Should I sponsor it?" And "How do I get the most customers I possibly can out of that event? How do I get coverage from press, media, and bloggers? How do I turn this advertising placement into ROI? How do I turn these people on social media, who are interested in my topic, into people who follow me, become my customers, and amplify my content?" This transactional model of thinking is actually really similar to how we do a lot of discussion in the marketing field. I'm guilty of this myself. I talk about: "Oh, well, if you're looking for folks on social media, how do you turn them into followers of yours? How do you turn them into amplifiers?" These are important topics. They're good tactics, but this view, this idea that all these people are just a chance to make money, just an opportunity, it's almost like the prostitution of marketing. If you think about the difference between dating and paying for a physical relationship, they're thought of in such different ways. One has all sorts of positive and romantic and long-term associations in the world, and the other has incredibly negative connotations. I won't get into the morality of our different views on these things, but this same thinking applies in the marketing world. We've all been on the receiving end of it. We've all been these people who are reached out to by this transactional marketer. Transactional marketing results in only one thing -- transactional relationships. Those transactional relationships are representative because every interaction is viewed exclusively through this "how are you going to become money for me," which is an ugly, ugly way to think and an ugly way to be thought of. We all can feel it when it's coming from someone else. It means treating people merely as conduits. They're conduits for either attracting or becoming customers. When you think in this model, you prioritize something that's actually dangerous to your long-term success -- your short-term success. It's funny how the inverse correlation works. But if you're constantly focused on the short-term return over the long-term relationship or relationship potential, the transactional model means that people and customers are going to abandon your brand as soon as it's no longer the best transaction for them because they have no preexisting relationship. They have no loyalty. They have no love for you or your company or your product. It's merely, "What are you doing for me right now because I'm giving you dollars?" No one is cheering for your success. That's so frustrating. How do you build a community? How do you build a social following? How do you attract an audience if no one's cheering for your success? These folks are somewhere between ambivalent and sometimes antagonistic. I'm sure you can think of brands. A lot of times people complain about this when it comes to utilities. Think of your relationship with your cable television provider or with an airline with whom you've been very disappointed. These kinds of classic transactional models apply. There's no brand loyalty. Occasionally, when there is, it's so special, so unique, so rare and weird, that we talk about it and blog about it and tweet about it and share it. Perhaps the worst part is there's no long-term magnification. One of the things that I always talk about, that Moz always talks about, and that we've had a lot of success in investing in channels of all kinds is that because there is a long-term focus, because there's a relationship that's being built, we are essentially biasing to get long-term returns over short-term returns. That means, over the long term, more and more people magnifying, amplifying, saying nice things, helping us out when they don't need to because they have that connection with the brand. If you're missing that, the flywheel that you should be building with things like SEO, with things like social media marketing, with things like content marketing encounters too much friction, and it actually becomes a transactional model, just like paid advertising, and you lose a ton of the benefit that you would normally get from inbound channels. So don't do it. Instead of doing this, I would urge you to seek common ground with every kind of relationship that you build and seek common ground apart from purely the relationship, although business and professional topics are certainly great places to start with those. If you can find the things that you have in common -- these two for these guys -- among any of these kinds of partners that you're interacting with and any type of outreach that you're doing, any type of relationship that you encounter, it's going to remove the purely transactional from the model. The thing is it has to be authentic. You can't do this in such a way that you're sort of going down a checklist of, "Oh, yeah, hi Fred. It's nice to meet you. Are you also a Seahawks fan, because I am a fan of this football team?" It's insanity. It's obvious. Authentically seeking out relationships as you're going relationship building, rather than biasing and prioritizing the transactional model, can be felt in every interaction that you have. Go out of your way to help. Go out of your way to help, and do it before you're asked to do it. One of the things that I love to do is when I encounter someone who impresses me, a product that impresses me, a company that impresses me, I like to share it. Because I have a reasonably nice social following, that actually turns into a lot of amplification, and those people are often very appreciative. But when someone shares something of mine, even if they have five followers on Twitter, no presence on Facebook, they pinned something on Pinterest, and they have four followers on their Pinterest board, it doesn't matter. Especially if they're doing it before there's any kind of interaction or before there's any kind of ask from me, it shows me that they truly care and they value something of mine, and that feels good. That's a great way to start a relationship. Don't negotiate hard to get every last penny. I think that one of the things that we're trained to do again as marketers is, in these kinds of marketing opportunities, we go out and we see, "Well, what's the maximum that I can possibly get? I'm going to push this other person up against the wall until they're getting minimum return and I'm getting maximum return." This is actually a terrible way to build a relationship. Of course, it results in this feature where people abandon the brand as soon as you're not providing the best service to them or as soon as you're not the best transactional option for them. So if you can follow these things and go and change the way you do outreach, the way you do social media marketing, the way you do business development, the way you do advertising placements, the way you do pitches, generally speaking, I think you're going to see a much greater return. All right, everyone. Hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard Friday. We'll see you again next time. Take care. Video transcription by Speechpad.com Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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SES London – Day Two
SES London – Day Two |  |
| Posted: 14 Feb 2014 04:44 AM PST
If day 1 of SES London 2014 was the ‘look smart and make a good first impression’ day then day 2 was the day when everyone relaxed and wore a jumper. Things were scheduled to kick off with Ian Carrington from Google, so primed with lots of questions the audience settled in for another day of talks… Keynote – Ian Carrington, UK Director of Performance at GoogleKey takeaway – Google is mobile first As you may expect, Ian Carrington’s talk was something of a sales pitch from Google. That observation aside there was some interesting material to come out of the opening keynote of the day. Most obvious was Google’s focus on mobile. Carrington confirmed Google’s ‘mobile first’ approach and his main message was that if your website is not optimised for the mobile experience you stand to lose out. Carrington can also be credited with what was arguably the fact of the day; 90% of mobile devices sold in Japan are waterproof, apparently so that people can use them in the shower! Brilliant Blogging, Best Practices to Enhance Your Customer Reach – Lee Odden & Bas van den BeldKey takeaway – Content and ideas can be found on every street corner Lee Odden of TopRank kicked of this session by explaining how important blogging has been for him. Odden explained how blogging has seen his brand receive notable media coverage with no PR and close sales without the need to employ sales people. Odden’s primary piece of advice was “don’t be a blogging wimp, follow through with what you stand for”. Odden’s talk was followed by State of Digital’s, Bas van den Beld. Bas explained how ‘lack of time’ is a common excuse that people use when discussing why they don’t blog but he argued that time is not the issue, instead it is a lack of inspiration; if you have inspiration the writing is easy. On the subject of inspiration, Bas’s opinion was that “content ideas are on every street corner” and used the example that when walking to the conference hall in Westminster he considered how interesting a blog written by a cab driver could be; simple notes on the characters the cab driver has had in their car. Bas van den Beld’s other key piece of advice was to focus your content on other people; content you write about yourself just isn’t as interesting! A good session delivered by two blogging experts who hit home about the power of a structured and smartly executed blogging strategy. Game, Set, ROI: Developing an Effective Search & Social Strategy – Jonathan Beeston & Nick BeckKey takeaway – The aims of search and social are often very different, so make sure you track results correctly Jonathan Beeston of Adobe kicked things off by explaining that the aims of search and social strategies can often be very different. To help explain his thinking he used the diagram below: As you can see, social sits comfortably alongside four different departments but marketing (and search) is only one of them. If the aim of social is to influence PR then the goals that we associate with a successful search campaign wont apply. A pertinent point that is often overlooked when planning a campaign. Beeston also touched upon the challenges of having different teams and departments working on the same campaign. He concluded that team structure is a crucial part of making the likes of PR, search, customer support and product innovation work in harmony. Next up was Nick Beck who spoke of the importance of employing a scientific approach to testing the effectiveness of social media. Beck took us through various examples including an experiment run by Eric Enge who asked whether Google Plus shares cause changes in ranking. The experiment concluded that there was no evidence of Plus shares driving rankings but they do potentially drive the indexing of new content. Google Changes a Lot! Hummingbird, Not Provided, Enhanced Campaigns: The UpdateKey takeaway – Google is not your friend This was a panel made up of Tim Grice, Crispin Sheridan and the ever opinionated Ralph Tegtmeier. The session focused on the relentless changes coming out of Google with a particular focus on the Hummingbird update, not provided and enhanced campaigns. Tegtmeier summarised that Google is not our friend in the sense that their clear and primary concern is to perform as an advertising platform. This was a session full of snippets and insights on how the search industry is evolving. Among the gems was Tim Grice’s belief that we must assume that someone will manually review your link profile – it is becoming a human process. Sheridan added to this by explaining that companies will require larger teams of people to manually check things. Tegtmeier rounded things off by taking the audience on a foray through the world of black hat SEO, explaining that his cloaking tactics are so effective and his opinion that negative SEO is the fastest expanding part of the industry. True or false, Tegtmeier displayed his ability to make the audience gasp at regular intervals. World Class Local: Optimising Listings, Place Pages, & Beyond – Gregg Stewart & Peter YoungKey takeaway – Search is becoming more about context The final talk of the day focused on local search and was kicked off by Pete Young. Young explained the concepts of explicit and implicit search; explicit is the keyword that the search engine user types in and implicit is everything that Google knows about you. The idea is that Google uses all of the implicit information you provide; location, language, time of day etc, to build up a better picture of what you are looking for. Young explained how an understanding of this concept is an important part of optimising for local search. Gregg Stewart’s talk moved on from Young’s theory based ideas to the practicalities of making the most of local search. Perhaps the most important message to come from Stewart’s presentation was that consistency is of vital importance. The idea being that Google relies on your business name, telephone number and address to be the same across different platforms and this is how they identify you as a local business with good local reach. ConclusionSo that wraps up day 2 of SES London 2014 – lots of notes again and the day was finished in the pub talking with some of the speakers from this year’s conference. Lots of good things to come out of that so notes to follow soon. Day 3 is next! The post SES London – Day Two appeared first on White Noise. |
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Seth's Blog : Two magical sentences missing from most job ads
Two magical sentences missing from most job ads
If you're working to build a unique culture staffed with people who make a difference, consider:
"If you're not looking for a job, this might just be the job for you"
and, once the job is under consideration:
"You know, this might not be a good fit for you."
Most jobs seek the low bidder, the person desperate enough to work cheap, or to sign up right now, and most jobs stress that 'this is a great place to work' (implying 'great for everyone.')
When you staff a place with idiosyncratic miracle workers who in fact have plenty of other options, it's a lot harder to fill those jobs, but a lot more likely you'll build something extraordinary once you do.
Posting this on Valentine's Day is not ironic. As important work gets ever more personal, so does hiring... "Who's available?" is not a good selection driver for work or for life.
[The flipside of the situation is also true: I frequently see job descriptions that are basically impossible to fill as specced. If you can't think of a single individual that you've worked with over your entire career that would be the perfect fit for this job--and work on the terms you're prepared to offer--there's something wrong with the job you hope to fill. Wishing is not a strategy.]
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joi, 13 februarie 2014
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- Retail Sales "Unexpectedly" Decline; December Revised Lower, GDP Estimates Follow
- Meet Janet Yellen "The Chair"
- Italy's Prime Minister Letta Resigns Under Pressure; Party backs Renzi; Rise of the Oligarchy; Trial by Fire Coming Up
- ECB Seriously Considering Negative Interest Rates; New Central Bank Mottos
| Retail Sales "Unexpectedly" Decline; December Revised Lower, GDP Estimates Follow Posted: 13 Feb 2014 02:41 PM PST In a rare, back-to-back performance, retail sales in the US fell for the second month after a downward revision put December sales into the red. Blame the Weather In a blame the weather tactic Reuters reports Retail Demand a Bit Cooler. While the two straight months of declining sales most likely reflected frigid temperatures, there were also signs of general weakness creeping in as online sales also fell.GDP Estimates Bloomberg reports Retail Sales in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell 0.4% in January Sales at U.S. retailers declined in January by the most since June 2012 amid bad weather and uneven progress in the labor market, signaling the economy was off to a slow start in 2014.Retail Sales Charts Here are a couple of Retail Sales charts from the census department.  The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differ ences, but not for price changes, were $427. 8 billion, a decrease of 0.4 percent (± 0.5%)* from the previous month, but 2.6 percent (±0. 9%) above January 2013. Total sales for the November 2013 through January 2014 period were up 3.4 percent (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The November to December 2013 percent change was revised from +0.2 percent (± 0.5%)* to -0.1 percent (±0.3%)*. Percentage Changes  This month the major increase was gasoline sales. Is that a good thing? More importantly, note that general merchandise sales are barely up year-over-year. Auto sales and parts is what fueled the overall year-over-year advance. How long can that last? Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Posted: 13 Feb 2014 01:34 PM PST In one of her first official pronouncements, Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen Lays Down the Law, Seeks Gender-Neutral Title of "chair" rather than "chairwoman". This prompted a humorous email discussion of ideas between a few friends including Pater Tenebrarum at the Acting Man blog (see Not a Woman, Just a Chair). Pater states ... With a nod to inspirational guidance provided by our friends BC and JJ, we hereby present a few pictures by our graphics artist Morty Leydenfrost (note that in spite of superficial similarities in methodology, Morty isn't really an economics/markets guy and was hitherto actually not aware of the inimitable work of Williambanzai7). Here are a few images his team created. Easy Chair  Taper Chair  Rocking Chair on Fur  Given that I have nothing but scorn for Bernanke and Yellen, the images seem appropriate. Nonetheless, apologies offered to anyone who does not see the humor. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Posted: 13 Feb 2014 11:40 AM PST Under severe pressure following weeks of messy name-calling, Italy's prime minister Enrico Letta resigned. 39-year-old Florence mayor, Matteo Renzi, will stand in. President Napolitano refuses to call for elections, so questions of legitimacy are sure to arise, and indeed have already. The Financial Times reports Letta to stand down as Italy's PM after party backs Renzi. Italy's prime minister Enrico Letta has been ousted after a brutal power struggle with party leader Matteo Renzi.Rise of the Oligarchy I have been following this crisis for some time on both Eurointelligence and the Financial Times. It's been clear for months that Letta would not survive and Renzi would be in. Mud-slinging has been all over the Italian newspapers. Yesterday, on the Huffington Post Italy, writer Lucia Annunziata commented A dramatic crisis, a ridiculous management We now know that neither Matteo Renzi nor Enrico Letta fear the warnings of history. Ridicule is the only proper term to define the political climate. A relay of government, ie, a change in the leadership of the country is played between two individuals who discuss face to face as if it was their place to decide among themselves how, when, and if, who assumes power when neither of them was voted in.State of Delusion Before today's resignation, Eurointelligence commented on Letta's Desperate Budget Deficit Situation. A good characterization of the Letta's government's state of delusion came in a statement by Fabrizio Saccomanni [Italy's minister of Economy and Finance], who said yesterday that no matter what happens politically, the good work of the government needs to continue with interruptions.Trial by Fire Coming Up Letta is gone and Renzi is in, but what does that mean? Italy desperately needs work rule reform, smaller government, and commitment to tackle its bloated debt, now at 130% of GDP. Can Renzi face those challenges and survive? How? Eurointelligence wants a "completely different banking union" but that's as likely as rainclouds on the moon. Euriontelligence also says it's "far from clear that more generous deficit rules are going to solve the problem." Actually, it's crystal clear that more generous deficit rules will compound the problem, not solve it. I read Eurointelligence not for its solutions and recommendations (which frequently are ridiculous), but rather because it frequently has a very good synopsis of the symptoms of the problems at hand. A trial by fire in the form of rising interest rates is coming up. Let's see how Renzi, Germany, and the ECB respond. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| ECB Seriously Considering Negative Interest Rates; New Central Bank Mottos Posted: 13 Feb 2014 01:48 AM PST Central bankers need new mottos. I happen to have a few proposals.
ECB Seriously Considering Negative Interest Rates Appropriate mottos out of the way, let's turn our attention to the silly idea of the day: negative interest rates. Via translation from El Economista, please consider ECB Seriously Considering Negative Interest Rates. Coeuré Benoit, a member of the European Central Bank government, said today that the ECB is 'seriously' considering negative interest rates.Forcing capital impaired banks to lend is blatantly stupid. The expected result is higher losses. As a fundamental matter, it's actually mathematically impossible to lend excess reserves. For discussion, please see Notes From Steve Keen on "Lending Reserves" Regardless of the mathematical impossibility, people (even central bankers) want banks to lend their reserves to stave off deflation. The deflation-fighting idea is also ridiculous as noted in Deflation Theory Reality Check: Why Inflation is Severely Understated; Feel Good Effect With the above in mind, additional motto suggestions are welcome. Addendum: I received a number of interesting mottos from readers. The best one was from Steve who proposes "We don't care. We don't have to, because we own you." Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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