Jessica Knobbe

Are you kidding me? So if you haven’t read this yet Microsoft pulled out of it’s original deal with Seth MacFarlane after they looked at the content of the show Family Guy which apparently included “riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.” 

Uh yeah.  That’s one episode.  I’m sorry but, really?  REALLY?  They are claiming they chose to partner with the show based on audience comp data and and (this is great) “creative humor” but apparently no one took 30 minutes out of the day to actually watch the show.  Its syndicated, it’s literally on all the time.  It’s out on DVD.  Heck there are even ripped episodes on YouTube.  And probably the assistant outside your office or the guy in the graphics department has watched an episode or two, why don’t you ask them?  Now Microsoft looks more curmudgeonly then usual and is fitting into Apples “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” stereotype perfectly.

Lesson: Be careful what you decide to tie your brand to without proper research.  Just because you have data reports doesn’t mean they are the full story.

I am putting an internet marketing strategy pitch together for a local pet store.  After searching keyword phrases to see if they were indexed at all (more on that later) I finally reached their current website and was greeted with…. a splash page.  Ugh, why?  Yes I want to enter your site that is why I came here.  Look, I understand that there are a couple of situations where this might be appropriate: if your website contains adult content or if your website is in multiple languages.  But splash pages are typically a search engine optimization no- no- they are invisible to the search spiders.  They lack keyword rich text. They lack internal links. Even if the spider could see your website, it couldn’t travel to where the good stuff, aka your content, is hiding.  Also keep in mind those with slower browsing speeds are just sitting there, growing impatient as this page loads as it’s most likely stuffed with ginormous graphics and music that I’m going to shut off anyway because I work in cubeland and for what? Just so that I can hit a button to enter?  Not a very compelling call to action. 
Granted we can expect to see advances in indexing flash especially with the new Adobe/Omniture partnership but until that happens remember a splash page is really just a wall between your website and the world.  Also, increasingly people are entering websites from many angles based on long tail keyword search phrases and the idea of a homepage is even becoming obsolete.  Consumers want direct, fast and relevant results.  You might want to re-evaluate whether a splash page provides any real value to your consumers and your SEO strategy.

When most people think of social media they think “Free Advertising!!”  Not so fast there buckaroo!  You need to stop and consider a few things:

• What are your marketing goals?  Just saying “I want to be on Facebook” and “Everyone’s on Twitter- why am I not on Twitter?!” is worthless unless you set a benchmark and these tools actually help you achieve that goal.  If your target demographic is Adults 45-64 being on Twitter is going to miss that audience by a mile.

• Are you going to hire a consultant to help you lay this out?  If you want to do it right I would say yes you are because there are tactics and strategies involved.

• Once this is all set in motion, who is going to keep it running?  Are you going to do it? Do you have time to do 3 blog posts a week and a monthly newsletter?  I was at a round table last night and one consultant panelist put it brilliantly “I am not selling you a goose that lays golden eggs, I’m building you a crank, you still have to turn it to get results”

Social media is a great option for so many businesses as part of a full marketing arsenal.  Listening to your audience online is a huge asset and can really help you get a feel for the sentiments of your brand and it’s strength’s and weaknesses.  Just make sure before you dive in you know how deep the pool is and that you can stay afloat.

The Wikipedia definition of search engine marketing is as follows:  

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.

You can also think of it as the variety of methods used to deliver your website or ad to based on a search query.  Think of how powerful that is.  People are looking for specific goods or services based on targeted keyword queries.  Show them relevent information and content you are already light years ahead of the curve and in the first stages of the sales funnel.  Instead of treating your ad as something disruptive to their experience they are ready for engagement and purchase.

Make sure that you are optimizing for the right keywords and phrases.  Make sure your content is relevent to what you are optimizing for.  Know your target audience and how they will search for your product.  Just because someone in the industry refers to it as a Whatchacallit, your audience might know it more commonly as a Whoozerwhatzle.   Are you optimizing for Whoozerwhatzle?  Because if you are not, someone else probably is.

Jay Berkowitz, one of my instructors from my USF Internet Marketing program has started a great social network group on Ning called InternetMarketingClub.org.  This is a great spot for all things related to the online world of marketing with videos, a forum space, upcoming event notifications, networking and a blog space.  Hope to see you there!

Admittedly, when I think of Estee Lauder, social media is not really the next thought in my head.  But a new promotion brings them together in a fascinating way.  AdAge reported yesterday on a new campaign aimed at bringing Estee’s target demographic into the social media groundswell and are “offering free makeovers and photo shoots at its department-store cosmetics counters coast-to-coast to produce shots women can use for their online profiles.”  Can you say awesome?  Not even technically in their target demographic of women 35-55 they have me intrigued as I can’t seem to find a decent picture of myself to use on my professional social media profiles.  I will be interested to see how they measure ROI.  Will it be based on an increased number of fans on their Facebook page? Will it be the number or photos or the amount of merchandise that they sell because of increased traffic to the counter?  The host department store gets the fringe benefit of increase traffic in the doors as well.  Are they going to piggyback this with a promotion as well? 
What do you think?

We adjust our message based on our audience. We do this every day when talking to friends, co-workers or family.  If I am at a networking event talking about my job the jargon that I use will be vastly different than if I’m talking to my Grandma.  If I am talking to someone that has never cooked more than mac and cheese out of a box my description of how I made this soup will be vastly different than if I am talking to a foodie friend.  Don’t forget these principles when working on a project.  Sometimes we get so deep into something that we can no longer see it at a top line level and lose who our true audience is. 

I was working on a project I learned quickly that things that made complete sense to me were not user friendly for the intended audience- I forgot to adjust my message. It’s because I was in too deep. Realizing my error, I started my own mini focus groups – a small sample of my target audience and polled them. Can you use this? Do you understand this? Is there a better way?  In the end the outcome I intended was less painful for all involved as my audience was less frustrated and more apt to return clean results. 
Just remember who you are targeting and ask them “Does this make sense?”