Biznology

For those of you that don’t know, Bill Hunt and I have a new edition of our book coming out. I’ll talk more about it later this week when I have a chance to discuss the changes in depth. For today, I’d like to share four podcasts that we recorded that copywriting guru Heather Lloyd-Martin moderated, including one with David Meerman Scott, author of the bestselling The New Rules of Marketing and PR and the co-author of the new Tuned In.. The first podcast is on search marketing basics, the second on changes since the first edition, the third on social media marketing, and the last on Web site search. Check out the details after the break.

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by Frank Reed
Search marketing is a mystery to many. Part voodoo, part black magic and chock full of snake oil salesmen. It’s the marketing world’s version of a black hole. Business owners don’t want to get too close to it for fear of being sucked in, never to be heard of again. (Tip: Getting sucked into a black hole can ruin your whole day.) While search marketing is now a requirement for effective marketing in the new economy, it is fraught with more shapes and sizes of practitioners than even I care to admit. Today we will take a look at a few profiles of search marketing providers that exist, as well as some tidbits to help you navigate these treacherous waters so you safely land on the shore of a search solution that best fits your business needs. While this list is not exhaustive, I do think it hits the high points. If I offend any search marketers out there, please remember that I too am one of you. I would love to hear your feedback (or defense).

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I thoroughly enjoyed my time today at the Digital Marketing Symposium, held in Times Square in New York City by Richmond Events. You can check out the slides for my workshop, “Converting Online Visitors to Customers” and my closing keynote speech, “How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules,” but I also wanted to share with you the most insightful thing I heard today. The morning keynote speaker, John Moore (veteran of Starbucks and Whole Foods), told us, “Only confident brands should use social media marketing.” He explained that if you doubt that you’re so special, or you worry about what your customers really think, stay away from social media and instead invest your money in whatever will give you that confidence first. That’s good advice for anyone.

Do you act like your Internet customers covered themselves with vanishing cream? I mean, you suspect they are out there, but you don’t really treat them the same as you treat flesh-and-blood customers that walk into your store? If so, you really ought to read my new post on Small Business Answers, “Are Your Customers Invisible?”

I spent an enjoyable two days in Orlando speaking at TMW’s TRANSFORUM 2008, a conference for the transportation services industry, which I knew little about previously. They were interested in learning more about Internet marketing, but I especially enjoyed a session where I talked about how other aspects of business, beyond Internet marketing, could also benefit from a “Do It Wrong Quickly” approach. If you have the right feedback loop, and you can experiment quickly and cheaply, you can apply the same approach to many aspects of business. Learn more by checking out my slides for “Business at Web Speed.”