In the past, marketers have had to carefully plan ahead because getting it wrong was just too expensive. But today you don't have to get it right out of the shoot.  Now you can start fast, change fast, and relentlessly optimize your way to success. We can do it wrong quickly…then fix it, just as quickly!

 

In Do it Wrong Quickly, Internet marketing pioneer Mike Moran shows us how to do that–step-by-step. Drawing on his experience building IBM.com, Moran shows how to quickly transition from “plan then execute” to a non-stop cycle of refinement.

I recently had a chance to run a few questions by Mike and I think you'll enjoy his answers. But brace yourself -- he's a funny engineer.  I know, I had trouble with the concept too!

Many of your readers are probably entrepreneurs stuck in a corporate culture.  If they get what you're saying but their boss does not - how would you recommend (other than reading your book) that they begin to infuse this idea into their company culture? 

Reading my book and buying copies for their 20 closest friends is by far the best thing to do, but oh--you ruled that one out. I think that we marketers need to challenge ourselves to work just as hard at marketing inside our companies as we do outside.

We all think of ourselves as these very persuasive people that can get customers to consider new ideas, so why do we feel so stuck trying to explain something new to the boss? I say it's because we don't apply ourselves.

If your boss resists, do what you would do with customers that resist--try to understand what the blocks are and overcome them. For example, suppose your boss is extremely risk-averse, and trying something new scares him to death.

In that case, you might want to point out how dangerous it is for us to avoid this new important thing that our competitors are doing and customers are responding to. So if he really responds to fear, then scare him even more about the status quo.

Analyze what moves your boss and then pitch to that impulse, the same way you tailor messages to your target market.


How would you recommend that agencies help their clients embrace this thinking? 

Read my book--oh wait. Sorry.

One of the things that drives most CEOs and CFOs nuts is that most marketing can't be shown to contribute to the bottom line. It gives them fluffy stuff like "increased brand awareness."

If you adopt a metrics-based approach to Internet marketing, then everything an agency does produces tangible impact in money terms--which helps clients justify bigger marketing budgets over time and gets them promoted over their peers who are still pitching name recognition and customer satisfaction.

Any agency that can explain how their clients become heroes in their jobs can cause them to embrace this thinking (or at least give it a warm handshake).

Off-line consumers are changing as well.  How does all of this translate for the local, primarily face-to-face business owner, like the butcher the baker or the candlestick maker?  Is your premise only a web-based one?

 The book focuses on Internet marketing of all varieties, but these ideas work offline, also.

In fact, some of them are stolen from offline direct marketing. Anyone sending out direct mail pieces or catalogs already knows how to "do it wrong quickly" because they judge the effectiveness of each piece based on response. They know what they send out the first time is wrong and they use the response to each version to tell them how to keep changing to get higher response.

Direct marketers tweak their materials over and over to get the highest response they can. One of the big messages of my book is how you can apply that thinking online.

If you could only use one tool (blogs, podcasts, Twitter, wikis, Facebook etc.) to track and observe your potential customer, which one would you choose and why?

I'd use a Web metrics package, such as Google Analytics or CoreMetrics.

As important as it is to listen to what your customers say (and I spend a lot of pages on that), it's even more important to watch what they do. In the end, observing customers seeing your marketing message and clicking (or not) and buying (or not) tells you more than what they say.

Listening is important, but if you only do one thing, watch. A Web metrics package is the easiest way to watch, and Google's is free, which is personally my favorite price.

Is there a specific industry that desperately needs to "get this" more than others?

I don't know any industries that really have this down, but the ones that staring at the biggest culture changes are heavily-regulated industries.

Those industries are used to creating very effective one-way messages (even online), but they are scared to death to respond to customers in public because then they have to go off-message.

It's hard to talk to anyone in pharmaceuticals or financial services without hearing about what their lawyers say about all this risky business. The problem is that the biggest risk of all is to sit out this change.

The first company in each regulated industry to figure this out will have a bigger edge than the first movers in other industries, because their competitors' organizational cultures will be excruciating to change. Oh, and did I mention they should read my book? Oh, yeah. Just checking.

Despite getting closer to the holidays, it seems the conference circuit is just getting warmed up. If you’re one of my many groupies, here’s where I’m speaking over the remainder of the year.

National Tour Association Convention 07 - Nov 2-6

OK, this one’s aimed at anyone in the travel, hospitality, and tours industry. I’m holding two presentations. The first is on blogging for the travel industry. The second one is on search engine optimization.

Blogworld Expo - Nov 8-9

Yep, I fly from Kansas City to Las Vegas to speak at what is shaping up to be the largest blogging conference of the year. You’ll find me–along with Vanessa Fox, Aaron Wall, and Stephan Spencer–discussing SEO for blogs. Then it’s straight on to Integrating New Media into your Marketing Mix.

WebmasterWorld Pubcon - Dec 4-7

Pubcon is one of my favorite conferences. You can’t beat it for networking! I’m down to speak on three different sessions. Reputation Monitoring & Management, Search and Blogging Reporters Forum, and Competitive Intelligence.

I hope to see you at one or more of the above!

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Just a heads-up that starting today, we’re going to more strictly enforce our comment policy. In particular:

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Please use your real name or commonly used nickname. This only applies to those that wish to be considered for the Top Commentators list–which doesn’t use nofollow. If you don’t care to be on the list, feel free to use what you want (within reason)–we’ll simply filter your name from the list.

If you have any doubts about the use of your current commenting name, please contact us.

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Online retail sales are growing by all accounts—but, paradoxically, this is somehow translated as a negative for the industry, indicating that it’s “immature.”
Of course, there’s the good news:

Online retail sales in the United States jumped 23 percent, to US$28.4 billion, during the third quarter of this year compared with the same July-September period in 2006.

The retail surge was led by sales of video games, consoles and accessories, which showed a year-to-year increase of 199 percent.

And the not-so-good news (emphasis mine):

“Online retail spending continues to grow at rates in excess of 20 percent year-over-year, which suggests that the market is still far from maturity,” comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said. “Even online travel commerce, which is a more developed market, continues to experience double-digit gains.”

Of course, a lack a maturity in an industry doesn’t mean that it’s more liable to talk back, flounce off to sulk and slam the door behind it. Despite these negative connotations, the immaturity of an industry may only indicate that we can expect a lot more growth spurts from it.

But you know if online retail slowed even the slightest bit—even if its growth were only in the single digits—naysayers would come out of the woodwork from every quadrant to tell us that they knew eCommerce was a fad.

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Welcome to the first Byline Book Review. Unfortunately the book is not hot-off-the-presses, but if you like concentrated doses of truth and relevance, Jim Collins’ Good to Great is a crucial read and one that may change your perspective on business for good.

I finally committed to reading it during my flights to and from NYC this weekend, and I could feel the strangers next to me peering over my shoulder to read along.

The premise: Good is the enemy of great (do you love it?). Collins and his research team set out to determine how a select few companies were able to turn themselves around from just being “good,” or even bad, and achieve greatness. In order to define “great,” the research team examined Fortune 500 lists from 1965-1995 and narrowed down a list of companies that sustained great results (profits) for at least 15 years. It also compared these “great” companies to their “good” competitors, who were never able to sustain the same level of success.

It took five years, but Collins and his team were able to cull their findings down to a few key characteristics that define a great company, as well as the key characteristics that mark certain doom. Instead of me summarizing the empirical findings, I will just quote a few words of wisdom from within, which were backed by extensive and convincing research. Hopefully they will convince you to read the whole thing:

* Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organizaton is the only path to greatness.
* Not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth.
* …culture of discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy.
* Everyone would like to be the best, but most organizations lack the discipline to figure out with egoless clarity what they can be the best at and the will to do whatever it takes to turn the potential into reality.
* The good-to-great leaders began the transformation by first getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus), and then figured out where to drive it. . . the key point is that “who” questions come before “what” decisions - before vision, before strategy, before organization structure, before tactics.
* “Level 5″ refers to a five-level hierarchy of executive capabilities. . . Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves.
* Collins believes that potential Level 5 leaders exist all around us, if we just know what to look for, and that many people have the potential to evolve into Level 5.

I will stop at seven, since Nicole and I believe that all lists should contain an odd number of items, unless of course there are 10

I encourage you to read the book and let me know what you think.

Posted by Rebecca

InterActiveCorp, owners of such diverse properties as the Home Shopping Network, Evite, Match.com, TicketMaster, CitySearch and perennial favorite underdog search engine Ask.com, released their Q3 numbers today—and their total numbers aren’t so good:

Profit fell 4.2 percent. . . . Profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30 fell to $71.8 million, or 24 cents per share, from $74.9 million, or 24 cents per share, last year.

However, there is good news. Apparently, the home shopping industry is turning around! What? I know that you’re up watching those informercials at 3 AM.

Oh, and the revenue of the media and advertising unit (which includes Ask.com) is up 40%. While that wouldn’t be good enough for Google (who was, if you’ll recall, a “failure” with only 58% growth in Q2), this is Ask, people!

IAC said that “Ask.com revenue grew, due to an increase in revenue per query and queries.”

This is good news all around—not just for Ask and IAC. Any search engine that can gain ground in number of queries and revenue per query is a reminder that Google hasn’t quite cornered the market and those other guys still have a place in the market.

The media & advertising unit saw $189.8 M in revenue this quarter, up from $135.5 M in Q3 2006. Their operating income (including amortization) came to $15.4 M, which doesn’t sound like much compared to their revenue, but is quite a bit of an improvement over the $2.1M loss reported last year.

As long as the rest of the company doesn’t come crashing down around them, it appears that Ask.com is doing something right!

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Halloween is a big holiday for spending. Reports that the figure is between $5-7 billion in spending and the average adult spends $65 on the holiday. Just ask Kate Maloney who at 26 made the Inc 500 list as founder and CEO of Costume Craze.

Here’s how Halloween spending breaks down: $21 for candy, $12 for cards and $38.50 for costumes (see this post on popular costumes for the season). Halloween decorating is also a big industry, second only to Christmas. Unity Marketing says decoration sales grew 21 percent to $3.2 billion in 2006 over 2005.

I always enjoy how into Halloween and other holidays Google gets. I wish other retailers would follow suit. My question of the day - why the restaurant The Melting Pot doesn’t make a Halloween version of fondue. Yes, my site has a touch of Halloween all year round.

What is Halloween about for you? For me, forget candy, it’s all about the costumes. No other day of the year can you see an overweight man with a beard in a purple cape and underwear walking across the grocery store parking lot. I love the little bird costume I saw on a toddler with her teetering legs in tights poking out the bottom. It’s creativity that everyone can see.

Happy Howling!

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By Manoj Jasra

Microsoft Corp. and SEMPO Institute, www.sempoinstitute.com, announced today an education alliance in which personnel from 20,000 affiliates of the MSN search engine will have access to SEMPO Institute’s online learning program designed to provide in-depth knowledge of best-practices in search engine marketing.

As part of the new alliance, personnel from the MSN affiliates will be able to take SEMPO Institute’s Fundamentals of Search Marketing class.  SEMPO Institute also offers online classes in Advanced Search Engine Optimization and Advanced Search Advertising.  Fundamentals consists of 14 lessons intended to give the student a high level understanding of the essentials of search engine marketing.

Since SEMPO Institute launched in early 2007, the student feedback has been very positive – 80% say they would recommend the Fundamentals course. “All companies need the fundamentals of search marketing in order to implement an e-marketing strategy,” says SEMPO President Jeffrey Pruitt. 

Additionally Microsoft has chosen to renew its Platinum sponsorship level for another two years. “The participation of companies such as Microsoft helps SEMPO be in tune with the needs of our professional members, and helps to generate innovative programs such as the SEMPO Institute,” - SEMPO President Jeffrey Pruitt. 

Yesterday I was able to catch up with SEMPO’s Manager of Business Development, Katie Donovan, to get first hand insight on the latest news:

[Manoj Jasra]: How does SEMPO’s new alliance with Microsoft help SEMPO?

[Katie Donovan]: Microsoft has been a sponsor of SEMPO for some time. Microsoft’s sponsorship renewal for another two years indicates how important the search engines find SEMPO as a professional organization whose members come from more than 630 companies in over 30 countries. We are able to provide access, insight, and feedback from the professionals who are using the search engines. In the same manner, providing access to the search engines is an amazing benefit for our members.
The alliance for our Fundamentals of Search Marketing course to Microsoft affiliates help SEMPO Institute grow awareness of our courses very quickly. Microsoft’s support of the course for their affiliate education program gives added credibility to SEMPO Institute’s courses as an critical resource for search marketers.

[Manoj Jasra]: Is SEMPO actively pursuing alliances, is this something Yahoo or Google would be interested in?

[Katie Donovan]: SEMPO has various alliances and sponsor relationships. Microsoft is SEMPO’s Platinum Sponsor and as such benefits from perks not available to all sponsors. Microsoft and SEMPO may opt to expand this relationship to additional courses and/or affiliates. SEMPO may also decide to roll this type of program out to Yahoo or Google at a later dates. For the time being, as our Platinum Sponsor Microsoft is enjoying a courtesy period of exclusivity.

[Manoj Jasra]: With 80% of people saying that they would recommend SEMPO’s fundamentals course, how will SEMPO try to grow that number even higher?

[Katie Donovan]: SEMPO Institute strives to meet the students and the employers needs with our courses. We are happy with the 80% rate of recommendation but want to grow it even higher. We currently are conducting research to see what adjustments can be made to help grow that number. We will review the results and make informed decisions when the results are available.

About Manoj Jasra

Manoj Jasra is the Director of Technology at Enquiro Search Solutions and has been in the Search Marketing Industry since 2002.  Manoj also authors the Blog: Web Analytics World which offers his insight on Search Marketing, Web Analytics and Technology.

Pilgrim Partners: Pre-order Andy’s new book - Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online