Jeff's Online Marketing Thoughts

It's The Internet, But It's Just Marketing

The funny thing is how much people fear the Internet, especially people that have been in business more than the past 5-10 years, because the game really hasn't changed that much. Yes the medium is different and speed to market is insane, but the concepts are no different then they were 20, 30 or 40 years ago.

1. Know your customers - If you don't know your customers, what their pains are and what they need to make their life easier, how do you know what to market to them? The biggest tragedy today is how easily people get blinded by technology and don't consider how it impacts their customers. Customers are the lifeblood of any company and you need to truly care about them to be successful. There are plenty of other businesses out there that will gladly steal your customers, don't give them a reason to leave you.
2. Know who you are - The marketplace gives people more choices than they know what to do with. In order to stand out you have to think about what makes you different in the eyes of your customer, that they will notice and talk about you. If all you offer is the lowest price people will shop elsewhere because, while price is important, people want good customer service and a company that stands for something. Figure out what you want to be the best at and do that. Stop following the competition and imitating everything that they do.
3. Know your objectives - In any marketing activity you should have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish, and it should be clearly measurable. If you are trying something without knowing what you want to gain, how will you know if you should do it again or not? Don't start a blog just because everyone else is doing it. What do you hope to gain and how will you know if you are successful?
4. Measure - The best marketers have always been good at collecting objective data that gives a true picture of how a campaign faired. It is surprising the number of people that don't measure things on the Web when it is the easiest channel to track things on. When you know what your objectives are, you should be able to measure the data to give you facts in determining what works and what doesn't.

Nothing I've said has to be any different on the Web than a traditional method. The fact you don't know the technology to use in delivering your idea is not necessarily your responsibility. Be able to describe the project and what you hope to achieve, what you will need to measure and how this impacts the customers. Once you have that definition work with your IT staff, vendors and other partners and your own network. More often than not you will find someone that can point you in the right direction.

Don't make your job about technology, keep it about marketing. You never know because some solutions are worse once they involve technology. Find the best, right and simplest solution to solve your customers needs, always.

Facebook vs. Google - The Future Of The Internet

I heard many people talking about setting up an account on Facebook so I had to follow the crowd and see what the hype was about. I had thought of it as one of those sites where kids spend way too much time rather than getting out and talking with people face-to-face, or *gasp* get some exercise. But I have to admit, it is pretty intriguing. While I still have some work to do to get my profile up to par, looking at it from a business standpoint you can see why marketers are exploring Facebook more and more. The ability to connect with people, interact and share with your friends is turning the Web from a "You and the World" model and mimicking real life, your small group of friends that you share, talk and interact with on a daily basis.

John Battelle talked about how Facebook still seems to be turning down offers to purchase the company. This got me thinking in the difference that Facebook has that really gives it an edge over Google. Everyone has tried to take on Google at their own game, trying to improve on the process of search. Where Facebook is a more legitimate threat is that they are changing the game, much the same way Google changed the game when they came along. They are looking at it from the network you have rather than what you as an individual are searching for. After all, are you more likely to trust the results of the vast network of Google servers calculating what you want to see or the recommendations of your friends and family?

Thinking About Changing Your Technology?

I'm sure you have dealt with this question as everyone has these same problems at one time or another. You aren't happy with your current technology provider or they just aren't keeping up with the technology to give you the site your customers expect and demand. In order to stay competitive you need to make a change. This isn't going to be about which technology choices are best, but more about what to consider when choosing a technology.

1. What are you missing? - This needs to be the first place you start because often there is something that isn't keeping you happy, but until you take the time to sit down and document what it is that you are missing you will have a harder time determining what you want to find.
2. What is there that you can't live without? - Often systems aren't the worthless piles of junk they are made out to be. If they were worthless you would have switched a long time ago. What features are there that are very nice and you need to ensure are there in the new system?
3. How long is it going to take to select? - Going through a vendor analysis is a time consuming process, expect to have someone spend the majority of their time contacting prospective vendors, setting up demos, working with everyone that needs to be in on the decision to ensure you make the right choice, selecting vendors, hammering out contracts and negotiating terms. Even if that is a group of people and each have a piece of the responsibility it is going to take time, how does that fit in with your plans? What else is that going to prevent getting done?
4. What is the stability of the vendor? - In this age where companies (especially technology companies) are started, merged, restructured, consolidated, acquired and closed, what would happen if 6 months from now there is a change in the selected vendor's structure? You need to have some sort of understanding to make sure the proper terms are in the contract before you sign. Nobody likes being stuck and scrambling.
5. What is it going to take to migrate? - You've gone through the process to select the vendor, now that you have the system you are going to have to set it up. Make sure you talk with other customers of theirs to understand what it takes to launch. You probably have hundreds or thousands of products, with pricing and content. You not only will have to move that but you have to consider all of the other pieces as well. What about your customer's profiles? Do they transfer over or will they have to setup a new one? Same goes for order history. A plan needs to be made on how to transition.
6. How long will you run two system? - You will run two different systems, there is no way around that. It might be short but even while you are launching your new site you have to maintain the old. Sometimes for an extended period of time. What is the impact of that going to be on your business? Usually it means that there is more work as some things are doubled with the two systems.
7. How will your customers react? - I hope you are doing all this for them, if not then you need to rethink why you are making the decision to change. When you change, what is their reaction going to be? Are they going to like the change enough to ignore the pain? Yes, there is going to be pain. I know you expect a flawless transition where none of your customers know any difference, but that is just not the case. Customers will feel pain. Hopefully not all and hopefully not bad, but you need to expect it and be prepared in how to handle it.
8. Do you trust who you are working with? - This should probably be the first question you ask, because it is often what really causes you to make the choice of selecting another vendor. If you don't trust who you are working with it is not going to be successful.

I would always suggest to try and work things out with your current vendor because as you can see there are a lot of factors to consider. Work with their leaders even if it means going above your current contact to get to the power. Nobody likes to lose business so ask them what they are going to do differently to fix the issues that you have. Then, and this is the key, give them a date that they have to hit. If they can't do it by that time or don't deliver, everyone should know that the change is coming. Also, there is a good possibility that the overall costs will be less to go with your current vendor, but you have to have the data to compare.

At the end of the day though it is a business and if the change needs to be made, make the change and don't look back. Asking yourself the questions above will help you get a clear picture in your mind and to your prospective vendors, what is going to make you successful.