The Lonely Marketer

I’m on vacation this week and had a chance to clean up a very cluttered Google Feed Reader. I started with close to 175 subscriptions and cut it down to 100. I also organized my subscriptions into categories…BtoB, SEM/SEO, Marketing, etc. I learned something through the process - anyone using an RSS feed to spread their message needs to understand that RSS feed marketing will soon play a role.

I had too many blogs I was subscribed to and not reading so I needed to clean house. As feed readers become more common so will the act of cleaning them up. So, how do you avoid being cut out of a reader? Here are some RSS marketing tips that I learned:

• Consistent Posting: If there hadn’t been a post in the last month, the feed got cut. Post consistently to let subscribers know you’re serious about your message. At least once a week is reasonable.

• Have Some Original Content: Sites that posted complete text versions of other’s content and added slight commentary show lack of creativity and meaningful original content. Linking to articles is great and gives additional resources, but have something to say about it!

• Let Me Share: If there is a post I want to bookmark on del.icio.us, don’t make me have to go to your site and wait for it to load. Let me hit a button to bookmark from my reader. I didn’t cut all feeds that didn’t allow me to do this, but it was part of my decision. Show some community involvement by adding some social features in the feed.

• Break Up Your Text: People get bored with endless paragraphs of text. Break it up with a picture, bullet points or something to rest the eyes.

• Forget the 30-Part Series: I saw one blog that just kept pushing next chapters in a very long series. You’re alienating new subscribers by not mixing in some different content. I don’t have the time to catch up on the series.

• Show Number of Comments: Maybe this is just me, but I like to see how many comments there are on a certain post. It’s nice to see if there is a conversation happening that I might want to check out.

• Don’t Bombard The Reader: If your blog is a company blog, don’t push your product or service in every post.

• Title, Title, Title: Coming up with unique, engaging post titles is tough, but you need to try. Developing a style or angle allows readers to better understand you.

• Give A Little: Feed readers keep people from visiting your site and seeing your personal touches. Don’t forget to sprinkle in a little about you so your readers feel an attachment to you in their reader.

I’m always surprised to read articles like this one that talk about media buyers not answering their phone or treating media sellers poorly. Speaking from experience, I think small businesses can seize an opportunity by building relationships with sales people that sell media placements such as print advertising, online ads, or other media placements.

Like other small business marketing managers I get plenty of cold calls from people wanting our business. I understand the frustration that goes along with constant phone ringing and sometimes very bad sales approaches. But, a good marketing manager will see the opportunity in this. Here’s my tip sheet for taking advantage of that:

• Record who calls: Admittedly, I can’t get to all the calls, but I do write them down if the caller leaves their contact information along with who they’re from and what they have to offer.
• Return calls or answer the phone when possible: I know this is time consuming, but I feel sellers deserve a call back or a pick-up. You never know what they have to offer or what kind of deal you might be able to negotiate. If you aren’t interested in what they have to offer - strongly and respectfully tell them that.
• Maintain a spreadsheet: I’ve gotten in the habit of maintaining a spreadsheet of companies and representatives who call. You never know when your company goals will change and you may want to shift your priorities and budget to new mediums. This allows you to see who has called and what they had to offer.
• Make a Connection: I’ve learned one major aspect of media buying - there is always open media slots that weren’t sold and need advertisers. Don’t be afraid to make connections with sales people and even develop solid relationships. When they have opportunities for discounted or even free placements, you will be at the top of their list. People like to reward people they like!
• Treat People With Respect: Have respect for the people on the other end of the line. They’re doing a job just like you are. If you can make their day by not treating their cold call rudely, you’re not only doing the right thing, but you’re also developing a contact that could help your company down the road.

Remember, keeping a positive attitude and respectful approach to callers leads to good outcomes. That may sound corny, but I can tell you that it works!

Here is an actual conversation with a trade show attendee at a recent show: (Attendee approaches booth and engages us in conversation)

Attendee: I see your ads all the time and thought I’d stop by and see your products.
Me (digging for info): Thank you! Do you mind me asking where you see our ads?
Attendee: I’m a fairly new IT Manager setting up a new network and I’m constantly searching on Google and Yahoo for data networking info. I always seem to see your ads. You guys seem to have just about everything I need.
Me: Can you speak a little louder into the microphone? My review is coming around.

Yes, I did say that and no, he didn’t laugh. Maybe he didn’t quite understand that I live for hearing one of my paid search (PPC) target audience members utter the words that he thinks we have everything he needs because he sees our ads at the right time and in the right place. Although the joke bombed, he stuck around and we got a decent lead.

Where paid search is concerned, I divide my audience into two groups - those that have been touched by our brand and those that have not.

Don’t Know our Brand

I have sets of ads that are focused on keywords that are brand indifferent. These searchers want answers and they’re willing to hear from multiple companies. I’m not as concerned with pushing the qualities of our brand here. I want these people to get to our site so my ads are filled with industry buzzwords that they need to hear in order to feel confident that we can provide the answers for which they’re looking. Some of our brand attributes might persuade them, but I think advertisers get a little quick on the trigger to promote brands to these searchers. Once to our site, our brand messaging plays more of a prominent role.

Know our Brand

I’ve seen some debate among paid search advertisers about the need to bid on trademark or branding keywords such as a company name or company product name. Put me in the camp that you absolutely should be advertising on these terms. Typically, these terms cost less and the amount of advertisers on the search engine results page (SERP) are less. I feel this is where you have a big opportunity to push brand attributes. You can further instill confidence with the searcher by building your brand. They already know you…now you can let them know why they should buy from you.

Don’t underestimate the branding power within paid search advertising! As always, I like to provide readers additional resources and opinions. Here are some relating to PPC and Branding:

• 9 Cost-Effective PPC Branding Strategies

• Branding Strategies for PPC
• Google as a Branding Platform
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Tips
• Brand Building and Web 2.0

Thank you Lonely Marketer readers!

I’ll be honest, when I first started authoring The Lonely Marketer in the beginning of the year I wasn’t sure who would read the site. I felt I had good things to share, but there are so many smart and well-written sites out there. I wasn’t sure where this would go.

Well, thanks to you - my readers and contributors - I’ve reached some major milestones this week! Yes, there are sites with much more impressive stats, but I’m proud of where this has gone and I’m so appreciative of all of you who have been a part of this site’s success.

Here is what has happened this week:

500 subscribers! I saw the stat on my site this morning. But almost more importantly my 300th comment happened this last weekend as well. I was so happy it was Drew McLellan of Drew’s Marketing Minute that was the 300th. Drew is an example of why I started this blog. I’ve never met Drew, but we’ve corresponded on email many times, commented on each other’s blog, and have participated in joint projects. I consider him a friend and look forward to meeting him in person one day. If I had never started this site, I wouldn’t have met him as I wouldn’t have met many others.

I’m sure many friends and family wonder why I spend hours at night building this site when there is no money coming from it. Well, I consider the friends I’ve gained, the solid business contacts, and the knowledge I’ve gained from others….absolutely invaluable!

A big thank you to other site authors who have referred me the most visitors! In no particular order, they are:

• Brad Geddes
• Lee Odden
• Drew McLellan
• Paul Jahn
• Jon Miller
• Matt McGee
• Douglas Karr
• Michael Jensen
• Todd And
• Chris Brown

Thanks again to all who have made this site so much fun to maintain and grow!

Marketing forums and communities are a great way to network, share experience, gain knowledge, and drive visitors to your site. There are an abundance of great communities out there for marketing professionals - I wish I had time for more! Below are a couple of sites at which I participate - but for much different reasons:

• MarketingProfs Forum: I’ve recently started participating in this forum and I’ve really enjoyed the experience so far. The interactions are genuine and there is a quality exchange of information. I not only learn something but get the chance to spread some of my knowledge. I’ve also walked away with a few new business connections I didn’t have before.

• Yahoo Answers!: I’ll be honest, I like this for the traffic it drives to my site. I can usually answer a few questions a week and draw people to the Lonely Marketer. I have made a few good contacts out of it as well.

Can you recommend 2 sites to your readers that you think are worth participation and why?

I’d like to put together a list of recommended marketing forums and communities on the Lonely Marketer. If participation is good, I have a page set up that would be great to fill in with your recommendations. If you’d like your recommendations included in the list, you can:

• Leave a comment on this post
• Write a post of your own for your readers and link back to this post. I’ll see the trackback and include your recommendations.

Any recommendations from you will include a link to your site as the source of the recommendation. Thanks in advance for anyone that chooses to participate!

I’m betting a majority of my readers have heard the No Follow/Do Follow discussion around somewhere but have not dug in too much to figure out what it means.

Quick definition: Many blog platforms such as Wordpress or Blogspot automatically set up comments on blog posts with “Nofollow” which means the address you typed in when commenting is not tracked by Google or Technorati. Also, when other bloggers link to a post of mine and their trackback is set up as a comment with their url, that is also not tracked by Google or Technorati. For more in depth analysis and I’m sure a much better description visit Andy Beard’s blog. He’s a ring leader in this effort.

What it means for you: So, I finally got some time this weekend to find a plugin and get Do Follow installed on my site. Actually, the whole thing took 30 seconds - I thought it would be much bigger of a deal. Now your comments and trackbacks are treated as links by Google and Technorati and you can get more “link love” from the Lonely Marketer!

I agree with Chris - this is supposed to be social media, right? Why should my post be tracked by search engines, but your contributions are not? The conversation should be followed - not just my opinion.

Happy Memorial Weekend! I hope you’re all enjoying the nice, long weekend. For those of you new to the Lonely Marketer this is one my weekly recap posts. I bookmark a ton of posts weekly that relate to small businesses, marketing, social media or just something unique. At the end of the week I select a handful that I thought really hit the mark. Here are a variety from last week.

• Do You Go Where Everyone Else Goes: Drew does a great job of coming up with insightful questions. This time he wraps a question around a panoramic video clip of Times Square. Talk about stimulus!

• RSS Heading Toward Mainstream Adoption: Anita Campbell talks about the growth of RSS feeds and how they’re becoming vitally important to blogs and websites that distribute information.

• The Conversation Monetizes Itself: Mack Collier writes about social media monetizing itself. Mack’s equation makes alot of sense, but as I commented on his post, I don’t think it holds up in the board room today. But, the reason I highlighted his post is sort of a ‘hat tip’ to Mack for writing about a polarizing topic for marketing managers. Mack started a conversation that will be discussed many times over in the coming years. My personal opinion is that if Mack wrote that post two years from now he’d get a collective, “well, duh” from his audience. But, currently we’re in a phase where social media in a marketing plan is still something we need to justify.

• Don’t Over-stuff Your Feed With Too Much Advertising and/or Flare: Derick at Internet Marketing Monitor highlights a good topic for businesses getting into blogging. Don’t waste too much space with socialization flare. Some is good, but too much will take away from your professional feel.

• How to Succeed in Business Blogging Without Trying: Mike Sansone, a social media coach, has a quick post with a high impact message about what it takes to succeed in corporate blogging.

• Curing Customer Service at the Doctor’s Office: Cam Beck hits on a topic that irritates me more than almost anything else. The general lack of customer service and respect for people’s time at the doctor’s office. Thank you, Cam!

Have a great rest of the weekend and we’ll see you next week!

If you’re visiting the Lonely Marketer from your MarketingProfs “Get to the Point” newsletter, thank you for taking the time to check out my site! Please take a look around and if you like what you see, you can subscribe here or receive my posts via email here. Thanks again for your time!

If you’re not coming via the Get to the Point newsletter from MarketingProfs, you may not be receiving it - and that, my loyal readers, is a mistake. Christian Gulliksen and Val Frazee are publishing the newsletter and they’re doing a great job.

Get to the Point runs three times a week and what you get is digestible, quick-hitting, useful marketing information that pertains to small business. With all the email clutter out there, this newsletter is refreshing. Ann Handley of MarketProfs describes it perfectly in her recent post.

You can see all recent issues here and you can subscribe here. It’s well worth your time!

I was reading through my daily onslaught of newsletters, emails, blog posts, articles, etc. and I saw the word Engagement crop up more than a few times. The thought crossed my mind that five or ten years ago that term was not even on the radar for marketers or it had a totally different meaning. All of sudden, you better know what that means and how to implement the metric if you want to get a good marketing job.

I did a little digging and came up with a few posts that help define engagement and what it means to you:

• Engagement as metric
• Engagement Marketing: Share The Love
• Branding, Customer Engagement, and Neuromarketing
• Social Media Marketing: Rules of Engagement
• Sure it Sends Traffic, but What Do the Visitors Do?
• How do you calculate engagement? Part II
• Measuring Engagement Metrics for Social Media Marketing - Part 1

One thing that is clear is that engagement means something different to every marketer. Engagement for me might mean a lead while engagement for you could mean an online purchase or a website visit. I think the term is being defined by the day as we find new ways to measure our social and online marketing efforts.

What does engagement mean for you?

If you’re a PPC (paid search) fan like me you’ll want to check out this new tool from Marketo. An announcement put out Monday talks about the official release of the Marketo Search Marketing tool. As stated on their website, the solution consists of two parts:

“Marketo Pay-Per-Click
Marketo’s pay-per-click management software drives traffic to Web sites by improving the performance of pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. The solution uses a portfolio-based bid optimization algorithm to maximize business results for a target budget. It also enables marketers to make “what if” forecasts for leads and opportunities generated from search, to discover new, relevant keywords, and to continuously improve pay-per-click advertisements through rigorous A/B testing.

Marketo Landing Pages
Marketo’s landing page optimization software converts traffic into leads by letting users create, publish and test branded landing pages in minutes using an intuitive PowerPoint-like interface. Custom landing pages improve PPC campaign performance since relevant landing pages get better ranking and dramatically higher conversion rates. “

Jon Miller, Vice President of Marketing and the author of the Modern B2B Marketing Blog, contacted me a while back to participate in their beta program. So far, I’m very impressed with the functionality. I think the portfolio-based bid optimization algorithm could be very beneficial for small business marketers. I haven’t played around with the landing page tool, but after watching Jon’s demo of it I’m convinced many companies will find it useful.

Kudos to Jon and his team for a great PPC product! Plus, you have to check out their website - in my opinion it’s one of the best designs I’ve seen in awhile.