Learn/Online-Marketing-is-the-New-Marketing
Revision as of 21:27, 8 September 2010 by Aliza Earnshaw (talk | contribs)
By [[User:{{{Writer}}}|Ray King]] on September 8, 2010
Ray King is vice president of Anvil Media Inc., a search engine marketing firm in Portland, Oregon. Hallie has gained a national reputation as a seasoned SEM executive, regularly speaking at industry events and writing for publications such as Search Marketing Standard. She serves on the board of SEMpdx, a Portland search-marketing association, and is active in other business groups, including the American Marketing Association, Web Analytics Association, Portland Advertising Federation and Oregon Entrepreneurs Network.
TV commercials, billboards, magazine ads and e-mail spam are all designed to interrupt our consumption of other content and steal our attention away. These forms of traditional marketing have provided excellent ROI for many years as the art of deciding where and when to place an ad has become a refined science.
With the advent of tons of information becoming available online and users being able to get to it anywhere and anytime, we are becoming less tolerant of being interrupted, given that we can easily search for information and get it. People promoting their products isn't a problem, in fact, we crave product information, but WHEN we want it. We generally don't like being interrupted (well, Superbowl ads aside).
Internet access everywhere and search allow us to get TO vendors, rather than have them come and interrupt us. So the promoter's challenge (your challenge if you are a marketer), is to put enough quality information out there so that you can be easily found by the right buyer at the right time.
Below are some great books on how to do just that and more importantly, how to get into the right mindset. It's easy, it's also a lot of work and it's also the future of marketing!
- Having created Webmaster Central at Google, Vanessa Fox is an SEO expert from the inside out. In this book, Marketing In The Age Of Google, she explains how online search often leads to offline purchases and other key high level concepts. What is unusual is how well the explanations then transform to the tactical steps. The methods are sophisticated and well explained.
- {{{2}}} (visit) ~ Gary Vaynerchuk is so excited by the possibilities of Social Media that he practically screams it out in this short and inspirational book. He was not a tech head when he stared, but with some hard work and common sense and turned his knowledge and curiosity about wines into a huge success. It's a great story and highly motivational for anyone who wants to turn a personal passion into an online business.
- {{{2}}} (visit) ~ Outbound marketing is what we did; Inbound marketing is what we need to do. The title of this book defines an ethos and an era that divides the new marketers from the old. The book is chock full of practical advice for companies wanting to get found by their prospective customers using search. Authors Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shaw are also the founders of Hubspot.com and creators of WebsiteGrader.com.
- What Would Google Do? Jeff Jarvis. I found the first half of this book very insightful and well worth the read. He does a great job explaining the history and key success factors of many major players of the last decade, Goolge included of course. The second half describes how a little Google-think could be employed in different industries and sectors. What could the educational industry do if it thought like Google, etc. I found that a bit less inspired, but still fun to read.
- {{{2}}} (visit) ~ It's hard to believe that someone could make a great living and career working just 4 hours a week -- and I don't really believe him when he says that. But this book is compelling because it's all possible in today's world. He teaches us how to outsource just about everything necessary to run a small business online. This includes product design, sourcing, lead generation, website design, order taking, customer support, etc. He also explains a critical lesson in market research -- measure your audience's willingness to buy as early as possible ... and don't ask your friends, they're useless in giving you objective feedback. Make people take out their credit cards, then you'll know. Tim is also very disciplined in his approach and this book gets you in that mindset. He's wonderfully merciless.
- GroundSwell, by Charlene Li. We all know that users are contributing more and more and power is shifting towards them. Charlene does the research and break users into groups: readers, participators, creators, etc. (I think there are 7 or so, but I can't remember them all). There is great detail on the psychology behind participation and what companies can do to tap into all that potential. And there is a ton of potential, just look at what Wikipedia did with just a sliver of the time being spent by user/contributors.
