The Lonely Marketer

Many small business marketers are considering social media a viable way to connect with their target audiences. The question is not so much “if” social media is an option, but more “how” and “when”. I speak from experience. I’ve gone from “if” and am not at the “how quickly” stage.

But, how do I jump in and where? An article written by Kathy Sharpe called New Social Marketing Opportunities highlights what has been going through my mind. Kathy outlines how to make the most of your time and money. I agree with most of her points (but, not all). One I do agree with is:

“3. Social networking is more than video. Blogs are still proliferating madly. Instant messaging is even more pervasive. IM and blogs require less time from the consumer than creating a video or even downloading one. Add to that the potential for real dialogue between the brand and the network and the magic of video pales just a little. If you are sampling a new product and want feedback, as well as the viral push these media provide, go “retro” and integrate these tactics into your program.”

I don’t think small businesses need to go right to video to create a viral campaign that socially draws in their target market. Pick out 30 legitimate small businesses and you’ll only find a handful that have taken their message via video to youtube.com and myspace.com.

A more realistic goal would be to step out and create a discussion through blogging or online community boards. Know your audience - if they’re primarily at youtube.com and myspace.com forget what I just said and go create video. Otherwise, you probably have a good understanding of where your target market goes for answers - meet them there with a chance to interact. Blogs are still very new to many small businesses - don’t think this method has come and gone.

Kathy also says to skip the banner buys. I don’t think you should abandon ALL banner buys. I agree that too many banner ads is not a good thing, but there is a branding component that you’d lose as well as a driver of traffic to your site if you abandon them completely. Plus, a really good banner ad can draw people into your social media interaction. Granted these are bigger companies, but check out the Home Depot and Tellabs posts I did highlighting their social media effort. They both included great banner ads that drew me in.

What I really like is that social marketing doesn’t break the bank. Small budgets can make a big splash! How are your social marketing plans coming along?

A few hours after I posted yesterday about my review of Google’s Website Optimizer, I noticed a message on the Google Group Board designated for the Optimizer Beta. Google clarified how the Optimizer affects organic search rankings:

“We’ve recently noticed some confusion about whether Website Optimizer affects organic search rankings, so we wanted to take a moment to clear things up.

Website Optimizer is designed to keep your original content visible in the HTML source code of your page at all times. As a result, your original content is visible to crawlers, which means there should be no major impact on search engine ranking. However, if you implement changes to your content after using Website Optimizer, they’ll have the same effects as any content changes that you would typically make to your website.”

This only makes sense to me, but it was nice to see in writing. I suppose, given what the Optimizer does to content on the site, one could wonder how it might affect search rankings.

Again, thumbs up to the Optimizer. Small business marketers who are looking for the edge against bigger budget competitors could really make use of this ultra-affordable tool.

Why isn’t the Google Website Optimizer getting more attention? I think the tool has real potential. I’ve had the opportunity to test it the last few weeks and I think Google has really developed something useful here. Finding content that converts on landing pages and improving Quality Score are just a couple of the perks I see right off the bat.

The Website Optimizer is built into the Google Adwords interface and helps you find out which content will convert best on your landing pages. Lead generation forms, newsletter sign-ups, purchases are all examples of conversions that are tracked. If you’re using Adwords you may already be tracking conversions with their Conversion Tracker. The Optimizer tool only enhances the service by telling you which combinations of graphics and text lead to those tracked conversions. What is really slick about this tool is that it takes care of revolving options for the different elements you are testing. Want to test three different headlines and two images? Just input those options into the Optimizer and it will revolve them on your live site. Over time the tool tracks which combination of headline and image converts the most.

Here’s my rundown of the process. Note, I’m not a web developer and have only limited experience with coding. But, if you’re a small business marketing manager, you’re probably at a similar level. Despite some complexities with my site, I’d rank the Optimizer very high for ease and explanation.

The first step is identifying which pages will be tracked. The screen looks like this:

Pretty basic. You name the experiment, identify the url of the page you’ll be testing, and identify the url of the conversion page - i.e. the page the customer gets to that you designated as a conversion. Thank you page, document download page, etc. are examples.

Step 2 is tagging the test and conversion pages with the Google code. The first option impressed me the most - the option to have the tagging information prepared for you or for your web team. The screen looks like this:

Excellent option! If you have someone that takes care of your site, simply pass on the url provided by the optimizer with the necessary instructions. Otherwise, if you’re up to it, give it a shot yourself.

I tried it myself and was impressed with the explanations given. You’ll need to install a large block of javascript code on the test page, tags around page items you’re testing such as headlines or images, and finally tracking code on the test page and the conversion page. I think on most websites, this will be a breeze. I ran into some trouble because my company’s site utilizes XML and the code Google provides did not get along real well with the XML. They provide an unbalanced script tag that looks something like this for a headline:

Apparently, unbalanced script tags and XML don’t play well together. I had to turn it over to the company that helped develop our site and they came up with a solution. If you run into a similar problem, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I’ll go further into the solution with you.

The last part of step 2 is simply having Google check to make sure everything is in place which they do pretty easily.

Step 3 walks you through creating variations. Again, a very easy process. I chose to test a headline, an image, and some text on top of a form on my test page. The tool shows you the original headline or image based on your page code and walks you through adding variations. A preview page also lets you try all the combinations together to see how they will look.

From then on it’s smooth sailing. You can watch the results of your experiment by seeing conversions by combination or conversions by page sections (headline, image, etc.). Both give you good insight into what elements work the best together to give you the most conversions.

One thing I thought would be handy to add to the tracking page would be a bounce rate tracker which told you which combinations caused people to leave the site right away and which combinations led them further into the site even if they didn’t convert for you.

Overall, for a service that is bundled in with Adwords, you can’t beat it. It gives you a chance to find out which pieces of content or images are of most interest to your customers. Yes, there are other services that do this for you and I’m sure some have many more features, but I like this because it’s built into Adwords and I don’t have to pay any more to use it. Thumbs up to Google on this!

Surprisingly, I haven’t seen too much blog posting about this. Any thoughts on why? It’s a major addition to Adwords. I did see Diana, Michael, Andrew, and Nancy post information and reviews on the Optimizer. Geordie Carswell also threw out an invite to offer input on the tool as he’d not seen much either. Here are a couple of other resources for those interested in giving it a try.

• Website Optimizer overview
• Website Optimizer overview presentation
• Website Optimizer installation guide
• Sign up for beta test (it might already be rolled out for everyone - I’m not sure)
• Grokdotcom Website Optimizer Resources
• Ophir Prusak’s Google Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks

If you know of other good reviews or have thoughts of your own, please let me know. I’ll add good links to the post as my intent is for this to be a resource for people considering the Optimizer. I’m curious to know if others see this as a great addition or if you’ve had issues and concerns.

Here’s some good reading from last week…

• Striders, Box Scores, Blood Blisters: Brian Oberkirch writes a great post with fun ties to sports. One one week until Baseball starts!
• B2B Search Marketing: Branding’s Best Friend: Another good article from Search Engine Land focusing on search marketing for BtoB.
• Buy Branded Keywords? A Case Study on Traffic, Conversion and RPV: Jonathan Mendez has some great insight on using branded keywords in search marketing.
• Becoming a blogevangelist: Anne-Marie Nichols talks about blogging being a great tool for personal expression as well as business growth.

In other news…

• Xerox set to launch branding campaign
• Use Social Networks to Target Ads
• IDC forecasts 8% increase in tech marketing spending

From The Lonely Marketer…

• Message in a Wine Bottle: Interview with Rosenblum Cellars
• Tips For Quick Email Marketing Responses
• More City Marketing In My Own Backyard

That’s all for this week…enjoy the rest of your weekend!

The Lonely Marketer SBM-In-Action Interview Series: Rosenblum Cellars

One of the fun aspects of writing for this blog is the chance to step outside of my marketing world and learn more about how other industries market to their unique target markets. If it weren’t for the chance encounter earlier in the year with a Rosenblum Vintners Cuvée bottle of wine I would have missed a chance to do just that.

I wrote a post earlier in the year about my discovery of a “peel-off” label (I’ve since learned that the correct name is a “Wine Find” label). The post drew quite a bit of attention peeking not only my interest, but the interest of many readers about how a winery markets their brand. Wanting to learn more about how wineries approach marketing, I sent an email to Roseblum Cellars and Michael Kohne, their Director of Marketing, was nice enough to respond and take the time for an interview.

Many thanks to Michael for his thorough answers and great insight into the world of wine! Here was our interview:

Michael, thank you for taking the time for an interview! I appreciate it. I’m a big fan of Rosenblum wines and have been looking forward to learning more about your marketing efforts. Without giving away all of your marketing plan strategies, could you give an overview of how you market a wine or winery for those who aren’t familiar with marketing in your industry?

“Ultimately great wine is and should be about what is in the bottle. This being said, with so many bottles available in the marketplace we marketers have to target consumers by conveying a message of quality (so those consumers choose your wine over the competitors). Wines produced domestically have certain consumer indicators like the grape variety(ies), vintage, regions, etc conveyed through print. Outside of those qualifiers producers must package the wine to evoke their message. Label shapes, fonts, images (such as a winery icon), paper stock, foiling, colors and additional text-based classifications (i.e. Reserve, Bottle Numbers, Estate Grown, etc) all help convey a story and should hopefully subconsciously market your brand.”

From a marketing standpoint, how do you go about deciding what a wine bottle will look like and how it will appeal to its drinkers?

“One has to acknowledge their target audience. Generally speaking, ‘grocery brands’ which look to move volume at lower prices have to stand out on a shelf. These brands look for pull through design and catchy names (and animals which these days seem the rage). While a boutique brand, with a small amount of wine to sell at higher prices, tend to focus on traditional and historical aspects likening their product to some great old-world Winery and generally have a less-is-more philosophy. At Rosenblum we have products that fit both categories and we have to create a different “feel” for each, while at the same time creating some consistency through the whole line so as not to dilute what one can do for the other in terms of brand loyalties.”

Can you tell us a little about the “wine find” label on your Vintners Cuvée that grabbed my attention and how you decided to implement that into your label design?

“Wine find is a tear-off portion of a wine’s back label that allows consumers to tangibly hold the wine’s exact information. This perforated portion is a particular feature that benefits a winery like Rosenblum where there are multiple bottlings of the same grape but use different vineyards, blends or proprietary names. Take for example Zinfandel where Rosenblum makes 20-some-odd bottlings, the winery was at a certain point receiving calls from all over the country inquiring about somehow acquiring (whether buying direct or through a local retailer) a certain wine which consumer had had at a restaurant. Of course only remembering that it was a Zinfandel our service department was not able to pinpoint the exact wine the costumer was searching for. Now, with the ‘wine find’ feature the winery is better ensured (on a retail level) to give the consumer better service by making sure they acquire (or get information on) the exact wine they’re inquiring about.”

Rosenblum Cellars produces over 40 different wines, including Zinfandel, Syrah and Petite Sirah varieties, to name a few. Will you be using the label for each variety or is there a certain market you’re appealing to and will only place it on certain bottles?

“The winery uses the ‘wine find’ technology (as it was printing technology that allowed this feature to be cost effective enough for the industry) on most all of there wines. The exception in our case pertains to our Reserves. At a certain point the consumer is savvy enough to know what he/she has purchase and if they are buying $45 to $55 bottles of wine ($100-$150 on various restaurant wine lists) then they are at the point of knowing what that wine is and have no problem communicating which wine it is that they want.”

What do you hope to accomplish by using part of your bottle for the peel-off “wine find” label? Are there goals and tracking methods you’ve attached to the effort?

“The winery feels the “wine-find” is a general service - both for our customer as well as internally. Currently we do not track “wine-find” instances, although we hear feedback from service and sales all the time. Of course, considering our production level (100K+ cases) my guess is that only a tiny percentage of folks have used “wine find” although that small percentage is better than nothing!”

Lastly, where do you see the wine bottle design going? Does the future hold more unique marketing efforts such as your label?

“The question of bottle design can only be answered by individual wineries and what they want to accomplish, as well as what consumers will allow to happen (via their buying power). Synthetic closures, waxed capsules, screw caps and wine in a box are just some of the packaging choices on the horizon. Some are better than others but again only if the consumer is going to buy the product will it make producers look to change. As for Rosenblum, we are fairly progressive. We recently changed labels in an effort to organize our vast portfolio, and also use only synthetic closures to avoid any TCH issues (a mold issue from corks, commonly referred to as “corkiness”, that taints wine). The synthetic corks we use are particularly advanced and come from a company called Nomacork, but now that is a whole other interview… “

I usually try to sneak in an email every week or two talking about email marketing. Although the debate rolls on as to whether email marketing is dead or not, I still think it has a very legitimate place in any marketing plan. I had a post planned, but came across this short and sweet set of tips in a BtoB Online newsletter I receive. The author was Clint Smith, co-founder of Emma - a web-based email marketing and communications service.

The content caught my eye because I’m sometimes at fault for cramming too much product information into email creative and forgetting to give the reader a call to action or a reason to click-through and come to the site. Many times less content and a strong, visual call to action is the best plan. Here is what I found from Clint:

“There’s nothing like the cha-ching of clicks, orders and activity on your latest campaign. But how do you inspire your readers to act now instead of relegating your e-mail to the dreaded When-I-Get-Around-to-It bin? Here are four quick tips:

1. Send when they’re ready. It’s 9 p.m. and your big campaign is finally ready. But are your readers in a position to respond if you send now? Think carefully about your timing and aim for a window when recipients are likely to be ready, willing and, well, awake.
2. Give them a sense of urgency. Subject lines are king these days, so craft one that gives your readers a deadline. Do I need to respond today? Is this my last chance? Will someone turn into a pumpkin at midnight? Let e-mail procrastinators know the buck (or at least the offer) stops here.
3. Tell them what you want them to do. Senders sometimes lament the fact that no one clicked but, looking at the e-mail, it’s not clear they ever wanted anyone to click. Whatever your goal is—pushing people to the site, encouraging event signups or selling your latest tropical-themed sweater collection—make sure your e-mail makes its intentions clear to everyone who reads it.
4. Let them do it near the top. In newspaper circles, they call it burying the lead. In e-mail circles, let’s call it burying the link. If there’s something you want your readers to do, have them do it near the top of your e-mail. Wait until the end of the story to invite them over and you may end up being the only one at the party. Please don’t drink all the punch.”

Remember, you don’t have to give away everything in the email - just enough to wet the appetite of the reader and entice them to come to your site where you start to close the conversion.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Iowa and their excellent marketing plan to draw professionals to their state. They cited their values and way of life as perks on top of challenging careers. Interestingly, the post was one of my highest generators of traffic in the recent months. Who knew Iowa marketing would be such an interesting topic?! Mike and Claire enthusiastically commented, Drew, Adam, and Spa Clientéle posted about it and Chris had a different take on my perception of this as unique.

As someone who has direct experience with this topic, Chris nailed it - this is not unique - other cities have been doing this for awhile. Yesterday, in my Minneapolis Star and Tribune newspaper the headline, “Coming Together” stuck out in the business page. Minneapolis and St. Paul have spent years trying to convince the general public that they are two separate places with their own set of unique values. But moving forward they will be marketed as one big community to outsiders and visitors.

“”This is the culmination of three years of academic research, market research and hundreds of meetings with business and community leaders to find out the perceptions of the Twin Cities from people who have lived here their whole lives, as well as transplants and people who don’t live here,” said Rebecca Monro, associate director for the Institute for Research and Marketing at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. “People come here to visit for reasons different than we thought.”

It really doesn’t seem to me that it would take three years of research (and probably tax dollars) to figure this out. But, there is probably more to this than I realize. There is a two hour program coming up to discuss the study, but they’re charging $45 to attend. Yikes…you can be sure I won’t pay that to get a better look at this.

That doesn’t mean I’m not curious and interested to hear more - I’d even like to be involved. I do wonder how they’ll market this and what mediums they’ll use to spread their message. Hopefully, they’ll take a look at Iowa’s efforts. But, my feeling is they’re promoting a destination rather than a place to work. Maybe they can convince outsiders we have more than a giant mall!

I usually run my weekly recap on Saturdays, but many fun family events put the computer and The Lonely Marketer on the backburner for a day. But, I’m back and ready to highlight another week of great posts and articles. Here goes…

• Why Google Website Optimizer is a Win-Win: Andrew Goodman runs a story about Google’s new Website Optimizer. I suspect we’ll be seeing more posts about this tool - including my review coming this week.
• Paid Search Back-Checks, Slays Dragons, Asks for Little in Return: I’ve read Andrew Goodman’s book, but I don’t think I’ve yet to link out to him from this blog. And here, on my weekly recap are two references to articles he’s written. Andrew’s new column on Search Engine Land is sure to be a hit. This was his first post on that site.
• 3 Ways Social Media Marketing Helps SEO: Search Engine Land is quickly becoming a hub of great marketing information by expanding into many areas. This article by Cameron Olthuis highlights how social marking can play a role in ranking better on search engines.
• Convince me in Five Words or Less!: Christine Buske writes on Small Business Branding about writing a great tagline for your marketing strategy.
• Why Search Engine Optimization is Crucial for Your Small Business: Jake Matthews from 10e20 makes the case for the importance of SEO for small businesses. I couldn’t agree more!
• Do People Use Feed Counters to Show Off? Top 10 Ways to A Massive Subscriber List: Andy Beard talks about showing subscriber counts on your blog and methods to increase subscriptions.
• Corporate Blogging Strategies: Doug Karr has an excellent post about corporate blogging. He also offers resources for further research and methods for developing a corporate blog.
• Content Workshop: How to Make Long Content Easier to Read Without Sacrificing Creativity: Not only does the Internet Marketing Monitor blog get my nod for one of the best blog designs, but it also has great content. This article about making long content easier to read has some great information.
• Using the Internet to Bridge Marketing and Sales: Scott Orth at Search Engine Guide writes about better collaboration between marketing and sales and how the Internet can impact that.

Articles from elsewhere….

• The Death of the Page View
• Planning & Buying, Better Off Alone?
• IAB puts out industry guide to Internet lead quality
• Ad revenues for Yellow Pages, local search expected to register healthy growth

From The Lonely Marketer….

• Are Your Customers Forgetting About You?
• Another “Why Didn’t I Think of That” Idea
• Info on Branding and Ad Networks in PPC
• ‘March Madness’ Keyword Lacking PPC Creativity
• Major News Portal Embraces Social Media

Wow, it seems these recaps get longer and longer each week, but they do continue to get high traffic so it looks like most people like them. If you have content related to small business marketing and I’m not seeing it, please let me know. I try to keep these recaps to information that is useful to the small business marketer.

I came across an article announcing USAToday’s new site redesign that incorporates new social media features.

“The redesigned Web site allows readers to scan other news sources directly; see how readers are reacting to stories; recommend stories and comments to other readers; comment directly on stories; participate in discussion forums; write reviews (of movies and music, for example); contribute photos; and better communicate with USA Today editorial staff.”

I checked out the site and it also has a blog named Community Center that keeps readers up to speed. Overall, I think they did a nice job. They’ve definitely reached out to their readers and have asked them to contribute to the discussion.
Why does a small business marketing blog write about a large news portal? Well, it really has nothing to do directly with SMB marketing, but it does show how bigger organizations are changing directions and embracing social media features. They’ve reacted well to what their readers are wanting. Small businesses can do this as well and probably at a much faster and effective pace. Don’t forget to give your customers the tools to interact with you.

Anyone else have any examples like the USAToday site?

Hey advertisers - where are you?! Today starts the event that causes a major drop in US work productivity - The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Better known to some of us sports nuts as March Madness. I woke up this morning curious to see which companies and products were going to take advantage of today’s hot words - March Madness. Would a non-sports related product kick off a campaign hoping to grab the attention of sports fans? Would colleges run a campaign to draw interest in their schools? It seems to me the options are endless - but, maybe that is just me.

I started with Google and searched for ‘March Madness’. Not much interesting - the sort of results I would expect. Ticket buying and betting sites. Yawn. Tivo, the most notable of the product-related results, ran an ad near the top talking about recording two games at once. Great ad, poor follow-through. The landing page was generic with only one mention of basketball at the bottom - not even related to recording two games at once. I was hoping to see basketball graphics or game-related content.

Buried last - after clicking on the Sponsored Links text was www.coloradopen.com. Buried that low, I doubt they’ll get too many clicks, but the ad is creative. The landing page lacks basketball content, but is educational and would provide good information if I was looking for ink refills.

Next was Yahoo - again I searched on March Madness. This was a little better. There was still the usual betting and ticket sites, but sprinkled in was some campaign and related product advertising. MyCokeRewards ran an ad that said I can collect points and get March Madness rewards. The landing page talked about rewards but nothing related to basketball. Will that cause people to leave the page? I was less interested.
But, I did finally find someone advertising a product and taking advantage of March Madness. Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta ran an ad near the bottom on page 1 of the results. Atlanta is the home of the Final Four so they’re obviously trying to show their hotel as a destination for people coming into Atlanta for the big games. The landing page is their generic hotel description which is okay, but I thought something telling me the proximity to the arena where the games will be played would have been helpful.

I’ll be curious to see if any other advertisers pop up throughout the tournament. I was expecting to come away knowing who all of the sponsors were for the event. Maybe I tried the search too early, but this typically is the most exciting weekend. Besides exciting basketball, this will be another game to follow!