Biznology

Most of you are aware of the marketing funnel, which describes the different phases in the buyer’s journey. A typical way to slice up the funnel is in terms of  Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Loyalty, and Advocacy as shown in the diagram from Adam Cohen’s blog at right. With limited budgets, in what phase of the funnel do you concentrate your resources? Some folks believe you invest the lion’s share of your resources at the conversion or purchase phase because it is the most efficient. Others believe the Awareness phase is the most important, because developing it is the surest way to grow your business. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Last month, I explained how I help executives descend a common learning curve, to get them to buy into outside-in marketing. Most executives from traditional marketing backgrounds build branding campaigns and drive eyeballs to them through advertising. I explained how this model doesn’t work especially well in digital, where the target audience is more skeptical and proactive than in traditional media. Rather than being pushed passive messages, the digital audience needs to be pulled into active engagements. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Lawrence OP

As a trained journalist and former newspaper reporter, I’m conditioned to look and listen for details. It’s a skill that obviously comes in handy when you are doing marketing work. But you may have noticed that a lot of marketing and public relations content is oddly free of details. Companies would rather claim to be a “leader,” to offer “comprehensive solutions,” and tout their “fast-growing” status than provide information that would prove (or possibly disprove) these claims. This is not an accident, nor is it an unconscious action by corporate marketers. A tension exists between peoples’ natural curiosity and the desire on the part of businesses to keep details and specifics to themselves.

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Google Analytics (Photo credit: Kansir)

Yesterday, Rob Petersen, Tim Peter and I gave a Webinar on using analytics to make search marketing decisions.  How is your search marketing working? Are you getting the results you want? Maybe you don’t even know how to measure results. Your analytics are essential to your initial search marketing plan and improvement plans. No matter where you are starting from, understanding how to measure where you are and take it to the next level makes all the difference. Do you know how your Web analytics can drive your search improvement plan? Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Wikipedia

If you are like most marketers, it’s a constant battle to get permission, resources, funding, priority–fill in the blank of what you need to do your job and don’t have–for your marketing programs. In some ways, it is especially galling with search marketing, because you would think by now that the evidence for its importance is so overwhelming that you could run on faith. But marketing is a business, not a religion, so it isn’t enough for us to believe in search–we need to prove it. And that usually means numbers. Read the remainder of this entry »