This is an interview by Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv. Our marketing approach should understand the numbers, but we must learn to see people as people and not just a bunch of data. See what Chris has to say about this and pay special attention to the results of a well done Twitter sale (the one about car services). If you can’t see the video,click here.

So, hear what master Brogan has to say and practice it. If you are a marketing guy or are trying to promote your company, remember that the best results in marketing are obtained when honesty, integrity and loyalty (to the customers) are practiced.

Ma Cualli Ohtli!

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

Bing Tweets - Twitter to show in Bing

Direct from Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, we receive news of the future in search. What is being called “real time search” which involves using data from Twitter, facebook and similar services to include information currently surging about a search. In this regard, Bing has taken a big step forward by securing a deal with Twitter to include Tweets in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

There is also a deal with Facebook, but details about this have not been provided.

Want to see the beta? See it here.

This change in search will mean that using social media will become more important than ever. You will be able to see twitter feeds related to a link directly from the search without having to visit the social site to get the details. This adds a new perspective as people will be actually talking live about a subject and those comments will be shown in real time while you search.

For marketing this has many implications, simply starting from developing new ways of promoting a service and the fact that exposure to bad press will be more than an uncomfortable reality. Companies who don’t take care of their clients or have disgruntled customers will now be exposed live and online.

We can easily imagine coming out of a retail store where we dealt with a more than unfriendly salesperson, pulling out the phone and immediately tweeting about the bad experience to let the world know. Every user online searching for that store or a product from that store will be immediately exposed to that tweet. This may or may not influence the other users’ decision to visit the store or buy online from it, but the store has no control over what is said. The only control may be giving good service and reasonable prices.

Another application for this new offering is related to what has been happening with microblogging services. Twitter has allowed for people to report events as they happen. Many important journalists have their twitter account and constantly tweet about new articles and things happening around. Now, the tweets will no longer be circumscribed to Twitter.com, anyone (even those who presently are twitterless) will be exposed to what people are saying about the subject and in time, the tendency will be to finally fall to the pressure and get an account in Twitter.

Its an interesting time to be online. The brave will establish themselves, the rest will follow. Where is your company today?

Ma Cualli Ohtli!

More about this from the blogosphere:

Ben Parr

Chris Crum

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

Verizon has launched an aggresive baiting campaign and its breaking the iPhone’s marketing to give Android’s spot in the world of smartphones (and very soon, superphones).

Verizon’s new ad not only spoofs and mocks iPhone’s advertising style, but completely trashes iPhone’s known issues and annoying quirks.

I know most people feel compelled to justify the expensive iPhone purchase and pretend the iPhone has no faults, but just as Verizon’s ad points out, it does have many of them.

The add completely breaks iPhone advertisement by smashing the “pretty” factor associated with iPhone and contrasting it against Android’s might and power. The message is pretty clear… that and that Verizon is not getting iPhone service.

I wrote an article talking about what “real marketing does” and showing a dissection of Steve Jobs’ state address and the usage of keywords tied to specific products. This is another kind of “real marketing”, were Verizon takes a highly beloved and publicized concept and turns it completely in its head. That’s pretty much taking the bull by the horns. Will this strategy ultimately work? Will the “Droid Does” campaign put a dent in Apple’s impressive marketing machinery? We’ll see, may the best marketing team win.

Food for thought:

1. Droid makes clear reference to Android (Google’s cellphone OS based on Linux)

2. The website is similar to the TV commercial, but adds an interesting couple of lines: “Don’t you wish you had a robot sidekick that moved at light speed, could get you out of any problem and lived in your pocket?”

3. For fast readers, did you notice that at the bottom of the commercial a line stated: “Droid is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd., licensed to Verizon.”?

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

Online advertising spending has a downward trend and some believe it will continue

As internet users evolve, they stop clicking at the first thing that moves. I remember when the internet was this strange new thing (circa 1993) and most of the time I was just trying to find what to click. That certainly changed over time. The internet has become an every day tool for most of us. The internet has permeated the way we do business, make purchase decisions, share information, keep in touch and work.

Most kids now can’t even conceive a time when there was no internet. It’s not uncommon to hear, “Dad, what did you do before to find this or that when there was no internet?” or “Really? There was no Google?”. As users (and consumers) grow online and evolve, the internet changes with them. Along with users and the web, marketing has to constantly evolve and adapt.

On my previous post, I talked about brand awareness and how some businesses benefit from this effect online. Browsing today, I found two articles about how clicks on display ads* are dropping. This has happened before, and is repeating as the most recent wave of new online users is learning and avoiding unwanted ads. Internet makes users active evaluators of the information offered and rarely are we searching for a new ad, unless you work for marketing and want to check out the competition.

I have been telling my clients that more than the stats (Click Through Ratio’s, Clicks) that most online marketers focus on, we should look at exposure, brand awareness and what Dean Donaldson calls “Dwell”. What is Dwell? I’m not sure, but I can consider it as the effect of the user hovering around your ads, not necessarily clicking, but being marginally aware of the information contained in it, and by this effect, actually generating a print in their minds which can be considered a form of brand awareness. Hence, the term Dwell will fit right into this phenomenon.

If your online expert, internet marketer or even, web designer, talks only about clicks, their missing on the effect of a well managed brand presence as brand awareness. It does matter how you position your brand, the most innocuous and simple advertisement online can mean bad associations (eg. a flicking banner annoying the user, an ad popping up and bugging the prospect) and an unconscious negative perception of what your product or service is. This would make your prospect, of course, less likely to buy from you.

Some numbers from ComScore and Starcom “Natural Born Clickers” study:

• Click on display ads has dropped 50% in the last two years;
• Consumers exposed to display ads are 65% more likely to visit the advertisers site than those that had never seen an ad;
• Half of all clicks on display ads come from lower income young adults.

In summary, heavy paid ad clickers are young, male and with low income… hardly what most companies envision as their target audience.

Ma Cualli Ohtli!

*Display ads are usually ads inserted in webpages with images, text or a combination of both.

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

Marketing is about exposure and being in the client’s mind when the need arises. That is why marketing gurus talk about “Brand Awareness” which is the knowledge a consumer/prospect/client has of a brand’s existence. This is specially important for products or services that have a high cost and require a long sales process. Examples of these are Real Estate, Cars, Mortgage Brokers. This also helps with services or products that are not a regular need, that are only needed in particular situations. Examples of these are some Translation Services, Lawyers and other situational services.

What’s this got to do with Search Engines and on top?

I was talking with a potential client about internet marketing services for his company. His company provides one of the services mentioned above and definitively can benefit from “brand awareness”. He wanted to know how being online and having internet marketing get him clients. My explanation is simple:

By creating Brand Awareness and having a permanent presence where most consumers are spending their spare time, can definitively help bring those clients when the need for his services arise. Lawyers in particular know this. That is why they invest in newspapers, radio ads, television ads, charities, having their firm’s name on the building their offices are located in and yes, a presence online. Specially now, being available online creates brand awareness. People who don’t necessarily need you now, can come in contact with your brand and when they need you, if your branding is good, they will remember your brand and call.

The question is, can I be on top and would it benefit me? Yes.

To be on top of search engines, there’s a couple of basic principles. When SEOs (Search Engine Optimization Experts) look at a website, this is what we do:

• Review of your site content or structure
  • Verify the code and the actual text
• Technical aspects of website development. For example:
  • Hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript, Flash animations, etc.
• Content development (content is king)
• Management of online business development campaigns
• Keyword research
• Quality of Incoming or inbound links

Additional to all those factors, it is even better if your SEO company is also an internet marketing agency that understands customer demographics and psychographics and focus on conversion (getting a visitor to take an action on your site).

Send me your questions below and I will answer directly or with a new post.

Ma Cualli Ohtli!

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

Wow! I love Apple! Its always a marketing inspiration, no matter where I am and what I’m doing. Most people like the brand, heck, even love it. Some poeple are extreme fanatics and go out and constantly promote it. That kind of brand loyalty, WOM (Word Of Mouth) and supermarketing effect makes Apple a sure marketing example to quote. This edit of Apple’s Keynote address in September 2009 is a way of dissecting the event. Notice how the keywords are related to each product and subject.

If you want to see the whole presentation, click here. Additional sweet spots to note, Steve Jobs is an excellent storyteller, the first thing he does upon entering the stage… he tells a story. A deep, emotional, quasi personal story that everyone can relate to. But not only that, he also associates other key concepts to Apple in the process. One being “generous”, as in, Apple’s customers should be generous (he uses “we”) when buying an Apple product (boy they are pricey!).

Steve Jobs and his marketing team are the real geniuses. Granted, Apple does have some great features, but the “cool, amazing” factor is what really brings the brand to where it is. Steve Jobs did it in his first tenure at Apple, and Apple was successful. He was fired, Apple went through a hard spot as there was no good marketing behind it, then Steve Jobs was begged to return, and the marketing party started again! Hats off to the smart marketing used in Apple.

Two lessons:

• Always associate extremely powerful and postive concepts to your brand.
• Learn how to tell deep, emotional stories to win your audience.

Leave your comments and questions below. I’ll answer as soon as possible or if necessary, create an article around your question.

Ma Cualli Ohtli

©2012 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.