marketing strategy (3)

Posts Tagged ‘marketing strategy’

Social Media Stragglers Get Skewered

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

It’s January. 2010. Time to step things up.

If you’re a small business, a destination, an event, you’ve got to get on the ball. You need a social media plan.

Because you can’t be one of those people that says, “We need to be on Facebook,” or, “Better start Twittering,” or, “We need to ‘do’ social media.”

You really can’t. It wasn’t okay before, either. But now it’s totally out of the question. You must change.

There are more reasons why than I could even go into. But I will say that everything about digital marketing has changed, and it will never go back. Keep up or get left behind.

And before you start, you have to plan.

Here are four quick ways to start planning for digital marketing today, pokey…

-Learn Jumping into social media without learning about how to use it it is a lot like every single item here. You can do some pretty serious damage to your brand just screwing around. So learn a little about the parts and pieces before you run in shouting about your company.

-Plan Here’s how you end up with an online billboard instead of a communication engine: don’t plan. Can you imagine going through the whole process of building your online marketing, only to have something completely useless at the end of it? Wait. A lot of you don’t have to imagine it.

-Prepare Not the same as planning. Preparation comes when your plans are in the works. What will you do when your plan for digital marketing is launched? That’s what you’re preparing for. One big preparation tip: Put one person in charge. Nothing suffers as much from committee creep as social media.

-Listen So you’re ready to jump in and start friending and poking and tweeting the crap out of the place. Great. The best way to start is to shut up and listen. Social media is a big cocktail party. Get a feel for the conversation. Hell, find the conversation. It’s worth taking the time to listen before you go around shouting; it might encourage you to actually use social media in a way people appreciate.

Which is to say, being social.

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Why Audit Your Online Content?

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Because you can.

Meaning, digital content is easier to manipulate than other forms of content. So use that to your advantage when you work on your digital marketing by going through an audit.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. A content audit can be a bear of a project to tackle. Some people even recommend a continual audit, if your assets are big enough to demand it.

And just for clarification, we’re defining an audit as building a spreadsheet that lists your assets by going through everything you’ve got, and IDing it all. You inventory the category, the keywords, the meta data, the traffic, the strength of the writing, the consistency of the writing, and on and on. The more info you account for, the better you’ve audited.

A content audit can be like a bit of light housekeeping, or a spring clean where you have to rent a dumpster. It all depends on the kind of maintenance you do, and what condition your content was in when you moved it in.

Why (Really)

So, a bit beyond “because you can”, here are some reasons to audit:

-You’re getting a new site. Don’t take all your junk with you; audit before the move, and only take what’s useful. Same goes for a site overhaul, where reasons for an audit don’t need much explaining.

-You’re looking at your analytics. Amazingly, very few small businesspeople are actually paying attention to where their traffic comes from, where it goes, and what it does while it’s there. If you’re one that does, do an audit to see what people are actually doing on your site. Then, make more content like that.

-You’re organized. It’s one thing to have a site map, and quite another to have an audit. It’s the difference between the TV you have now and something like this. It’s easier to see what you’ve got.

-You want to find out what you need. An audit is just as good at showing you the holes in your content strategy as it is at showing you where your strengths are, especially if…

-You’re doing keyword research. It sure will be nice to have an at-a-glance reference at where you can put your research to work. Tweaking keywords can be tedious, but usually because there’s not a good enough map to follow. Your audit will take care of that.

It’s about time for an audit of the Matterhorn site. I’ll let you know what we find.

Tags: content, content marketing, content strategy, marketing strategy
Posted in Content Creation | No Comments »

Are You A Twitter Ninja, A Guru, Or A Jedi?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

These references are done. Played out. Finished.

It’s a new decade, so let’s put them away forever. Please.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you probably don’t need to read any further. But just in case, here’s the deal: Guru, et. al. were terms used throughout the 00′s to lend a little tech savvy speak to your bio in an informal (zany?) way. These idioms were little one word cues that branded their designees as in-the-know. Geek marketer code.

(Guru is a little older. Still, though… ugh.)

Okay, I’m going to give you the fact that I am a self admitted word geek. I’m hypersensitive to language. When people start using words that are fashionable, I’m the first to ignore them. To each their own.

But these words are too egregious to be ignored anymore. I’m calling for an immediate boycott. This is a cease and disist order from saying anyone is a “blogging ninja”, a “WordPress jedi” or (gasp) a “social media guru”.

It’s over.

But far be it from me to be a critic without proposing a solution. For the 10s, here are the words that will be quirky designations for expert:

General, Wrangler, and Matador.

Go ahead. Try them out. That guy who gave the keynote on Twitter is a General. Four Stars.

See? It works great.

Jill is a total wrangler when it comes to Facebook.

I guess what I’m trying to point out is that, no matter what catchphrase people are using, information and the folks that wield it are either useful or not. They either help or they don’t. They either use their powers for good, or… hey, now I’m doing it!

You get the point. It’s probably best to just let your actions do the talking, rather than calling yourself something or other that, let’s face it, 10 years from now will sound like a catchphrase from a bad sitcom.

But if you’re dead set on trying, I hope you’ll use the ones I put out there. If you start using them now, your vocabulary will be way ahead of the pack when the rest of the Twitter-verse comes around.

You’ll be a language matador.

Tags: business trust, content, marketing strategy, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Digital Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Why Digital Marketing Matters

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

I just got a note from a partner thanking us for introducing him to social media.

How cool is that?

Actually, I can tell you exactly how cool it is: Very. Totally. Super. Way. It’s actually Ice Cold.

Here’s why: I spend part of my day reading the biggest and best marketing blogs. These are posts written by brilliant folks who have defined digital marketing in some way.

They are the game changers. It’s fascinating to have at my fingertips the tools, the tips, and (most importantly) the thinking that goes into what they do. I constantly try to steal as much as I can from them.

I’m not one of those guys.

At least, not yet. I’ve got some great ideas about digital marketing, mainly the content side of things. But it’s going to be a while before the book comes out (titles, anyone?).

One of the advantages, as I see it, to being one of “those guys” is this: you don’t have to convince anyone to listen to you. People are either interested, or they’re not. (Disclaimer: Those people work their asses off saying things worth listening to. There’s a difference.)

In other words, game changers aren’t getting the call unless businesses are, in a big way, already on board. CEOs like the tune, and want the whole album. Or MP3. Or insert your own metaphor that doesn’t suck as bad as mine.

Not so with a lot of small businesses.

As marketing changes, small business owners are (correctly) suspicious of the Next Big Thing. They don’t have teams of marketers doing research for them; they’re running most of the business by themselves, keeping all the plates spinning at once (that metaphor’s a little better).

And people hate change. That’s a given. Change in business is an efficiency vs. value equation. Is it more efficient to stay the course, or is the value of the coming change worth the struggle of getting on board?

I got to ask Chris Brogan a question about this on an online radio show not long ago. It was something like, “Hey, Chris. Thanks for taking my question. You’re brilliant. (I didn’t actually put that stuff in, but it was implied.) What do you do when you work with a company that you have to work to convince about the value of social media?”

Honestly, he was stumped. He good natured-ly said something like, “That doesn’t really happen.” And I know what he meant. But it was a case of same planet, different worlds.

Because that happens all the time. Just because we work in digital marketing doesn’t mean we don’t have to sell the idea of digital marketing, social media, content strategy, and the rest. And in order to do that, there’s a lot of education that goes on. Both ways.

So, when I get a note like I did this morning, it means there’s one more business that’s joining the conversion. One more business that’s listening to what its customers have to say.

Another business that’s being more than its marketing.

Man, that’s a great feeling.

Have any notes like that one to share?

Tags: business relationships, content, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, partnerships, Social Media
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

Best Ideas Of The Week

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Friday seems like a good time to reflect.

That’s what this new feature on the Matterhorn blog is about. Pat and I are online a lot, of course. And we stumble on some pretty cool stuff throughout the course of a week.

There’s a lot of things that we see that we’d like to write whole posts about. So we do. But other things don’t fit for one reason or another (usually a time shortage). That’s what the Best Ideas Of The Week is for.

Enjoy…

“This I Believe” is an amazing series of short radio essays from people across the spectrum of American life, many famous, some not. Here’s one by movie and TV producer Brian Grazer about leaving your comfort zone. And surfing.

One of our favorite thinkers and marketers, Seth Godin released an ebook called “What Matters Now”. It’s available for free download, and is the kind of thing you really want to share with as many people as you can.

We’re big believers in quality content, partly because of Joe Pulizzi (@JuntaJoe on Twitter). He’s been writing about how to use content strategically for a long time on his blog. This week, he posted a list of 100 predictions for 2010 on content marketing and social media. These are thoughts from some of the best and brightest; it’s well worth a look.

If you’re an iphone user, you probably need the type-’n-walk app. Amazing that this didn’t come out earlier.

18 minutes well spent is a big deal in the age of the internet two-point-whatever. Robert Ballard, an oceanic explorer with too many discoveries to name, gives a fascinating talk about the new age of ocean exploration, and how much left there is to know about 3/4 of the planet. It’s the kind of thinking that gets you thinking.

Finally, if you’ve never heard John Henry Faulks’ Christmas story, you owe it to yourself to gather up your loved ones and have a listen.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Matterhorn.

Tags: business relationships, content, dec_14, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, Pat Strader, Social Media
Posted in Digital Marketing, Partnership, Social Media | No Comments »

Are You Creative, Or Clear?

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

It makes sense to be creative.

First of all, creativity is fun. People respond to it within your company and among your customers. With billions of web pages vying for attention, the creative ones, in both design and content, tend to have more people like them.

If more people like them, there’s more chance for interaction. Considering the channels of interaction now available in the world of social media, that’s hugely improtant; interaction is what your site is for.

The question to ask then is: What is your site doing creatively? Is it creative for its own sake? Is it clever? Because clever means most people won’t get it.

There’s a widespread fact/myth that gets spread around the web that the average site visitor reads on a 5th or a 7th grade level (I forget which one). I’m sure there’s some truth to it. Clarity is important above all else.

So, that fact/myth shouldn’t matter much if you remember that most visitors aren’t coming to your site to read (visiting your blog is a different story). They want information or help performing a task. That’s it.

But, they also need to know that the task is worthwhile, that the information is valid. That’s where creativity matters. Clarity and creativity need to be on equal ground.

Skip creative and go straight to creatively clear.

Tags: content, Digital Marketing, marketing strategy, writing
Posted in Content Creation, Digital Marketing | No Comments »

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Why Audit Your Online Content?

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