Jeff's Online Marketing Thoughts

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Actually Agree

Recently Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all agreed upon a Sitemap protocol that Google has been supporting for some time now. This is an awesome development to see the big three in search agreeing on things, because it makes things easier on Web developers and Online Marketers. Today it seems like when you target one search engine you at times harm rankings on the others. I hope this is the first of many standards that are established to help ease that problem. There is no reason that you shouldn't have one on your site to help search engines crawl your site. I even see the smaller search engines following in the near future and supporting the same protocol. 

What Do You Love?

Sorry for the light posting lately, I have been away celebrating and supporting my wife who gave birth to our second child on November 8th. I'm back and ready to dive back into the world of online marketing.

As I get back into work, I think about my two daughters and how much I love them and my wife. I leave them every day to go to work so I can support them. I'm glad that I have a job that I enjoy because it makes it easier. Work does not come before my family, but I have to love the work I do, otherwise it would be impossible to leave them every day.

What do you love? When you go to work every day, do you enjoy work enough that it makes it okay to leave the things you love?

The Suffocating Effects Of A Big Company

John Battelle had an interesting post about Google becoming too big and the concerns about it becoming unable to achieve what made it great in the first place. I wondered about being too big before but this article got me thinking about my own company and how as we've grown, we have had to put different processes in place to make things "easier".

Seth Godin has a book on the subject, Small Is the New Big, that I've only read pieces of but I would still recommend because much is based on his blog that I'm a big fan of. The part that resonates with me that both Seth and John talk about is the agility that is needed to be successful. The more people that I have to get approval or input from just makes every task longer. The reasons that those people and processes are there make perfect sense, at least they did at the time. Now when you look at things it takes too long and people are not happier today then they were before, I might even argue that it is worse. That goes for customers and employees the same.

If you want to be successful, you need to move quickly. Opinions and advice from others is good, but get out of the way of people trying to make your Web site successful. How can you start talking about hours and days rather than in weeks and months?

Good Use Of Video Marketing

There is a set of videos on YouTube from Blendtec who make an industrial strength Total Blender. They put their blender to the test with things like blending a rake handle or turning marbles to dust. Seth Godin talked about it on his blog and says that if it is worth watching people will watch it. For me, when I watch the videos, suddenly I have a strong desire to buy one, and that is what good marketing is all about.

What fun things can you do with your products that will get people talking? One place to look, do your employees do anything fun/strange/different with your products around the office? Can you make a video of that to get people talking about your product?

Analysis Without Action Is Worthless

Interesting article in ClickZ by Neil Mason on customer centricity and tying that to Web analytics. A line from the article that I couldn't agree with more was this:

"...none of the output from our analytics work is of any value if the business isn't organizationally and culturally prepared to do something about it. Analysis without action is merely an interesting pastime."

I run into a number of companies that think having a good Web analytics package will solve their Web sites problems. It is the people that can analyze to find actionable items and actually implement them that will help their Web site. Do you have a person or team on your staff that can do this for you?

Returning Movies To Blockbuster

I thought this was an interesting article about Blockbuster and a new program they have where you can return DVD's rented online to their store. The interesting part is that they will then give you a coupon for a free in store movie rental. It also automatically flags the next movie from your online list to be sent out. I think the intriguing part is how Blockbuster has really paid attention to the consumer and how their desires change, sometimes daily. The majority of their online customers probably also rent from their stores, so they are facilitating any way the customer wants to interact with them.

The lesson for online marketers, allow your customers to reach you in the way they want to at that moment. Not everyone has a retail store like Blockbuster, but are you allowing customers to contact you via email, chat or phone?