The way information is broadcast determines how people listen.

Throughout history, the biggest technological advancements have all been ways to communicate more information to more people. Starting with the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, television and the internet were all giant leaps in our ability to communicate more effectively.

The world is a virtual information fast food joint. And today, the ways to broadcast information outnumber the stars. It’s important to know what your customers are listening to and how they are tuning in to hear.

Mobile is here to stay

As time goes on, technology is trending toward mobile. Nielsen reports that smartphones now make up 40% of mobile phones in the US. Research firm SNL Kagan projects 100% saturation in the US by 2013. With numbers like these, it’s downright foolish to ignore the mobile market.

But what does that mean? New apps? QR codes?

I was just at CTIA – Enterprise and Applications in San Diego, walking the trenches of the wireless world learning what is new with communication. From new iPhones, to apps that help you navigate the grocery store, to colorful QR codes the mobile marketplace is exploding with new ideas and new potential.

Opportunity Arising

While chasing the “next big thing” may be exhaustive, new technologies in mobile offer a new communication channels. Currently there are 3 realms of physical to digital short-range communication that are gaining traction.

Initiated

The idea behind initiated communication, like QR codes, is a physical hyperlink for the real world. Practically, implementations of QR codes are barbaric because it requires the user to take the effort, press a few buttons, and wait for a download. Also, conversion rates are difficult to measure. Yet QR codes are being used in new ways, however use is most likely when the user is bored to tears or incentivized by a chance to win. QR codes are most effective when a captive audience desires an online experience, such as at a bus stop.

Passive

Passive communication, such as NFC, is a way to push and pull information. NFC (or ‘Near Field Communication’) is close proximity communication, ie. within 10 cm. NFC touts power saving advantages; however users need to be very close to the sensor surface to activate communication. In reality for NFC to work, you have to rub your phone on the sensor, similar to this PayPal video. Google Wallet is an example of NFC technology in action. Nokia Research Group launched an NFC game that interacts with an application running on the smartphone. As you can imagine, there are plenty of un-realized opportunities that could utilize this form of communication, especially in commerce.

Interactive

Have you ever imagined what items would say if they could talk? Bluetooth 4.0 will give items a voice for years. A Bluetooth 4.0 device can run for 2 years on a coin cell battery. The concept is Bluetooth reinvented, removing all the problems with normal Bluetooth.  Bluetooth 4.0 is not made for voice or audio – it is primed for communicating small bits of information within a range of 60 feet. It does require a battery and chip which means higher costs, but will interact seamlessly with phones. Bluetooth 4.0 will broadcast information to phones and apps with settings that will allow you to determine what you see and what you don’t. Bluetooth 4.0 has the most opportunity for opt in experience and rich interaction. The best part is no effort is required on the users part.

Applications of Bluetooth 4.0 will reach health and fitness “smart sensors” (Nike+ is a great example). Many other applications remain untapped, imagine your phone notifying you of sales and specials of your favorite stores and restaurants as you walk by. Also to note, the latest Apple and Nokia phones implement Bluetooth 4.0 not NFC as the low power wireless standard.

The advances we see in mobile today will allow us to communicate with our customers in new and better ways. While it may be hard to know exactly which thing will be the next big one, mass adoption of new technology usually comes with ease of use and draw to use the technology. Technologies, especially in mobile, that emerge will allow us to make things easier and more convenient for consumers. Watch for signs of early adopters educating their less technical friends as a key sign for technology proliferation.   As a surfer, I enjoy seeing the similarity between new technology and waves. See the opportunity on the horizon and get into position.  Ride the wave and see where it goes.

Have you ever written and performed a song? I haven’t. I imagine it’s one of those sublimely transcendent experiences of bringing something truly enjoyable into being.

I say “enjoyable,” but I know that any song that I write will probably be awful. I can barely clap along in time with music, let alone write a song — a clever, popular song, no less.

Branding, much like songwriting, is more art than science. Ask most graphic designers — even ones just finishing school — and they’ll invariably say they “do branding.” But, just what does it take to “do” branding?

Well, what is it that people do to write a song? Do they conjure it from thin air? Do they find a song they like and tweak it a little? (I’m looking at you, Vanilla Ice.)

Truth is, there’s no one right way. But there are about a billion wrong ways.

10 percent inspiration

Finding yourself at the beginning of the creative process is daunting. Staring at the blank page is tough. Nobody’s best work begins with just staring at a blank page. You have to have inspiration, that elusive spark that leads you down a path of creative exploration.

With music, having a rich body of knowledge of human foibles, relationships, and pain helps you write songs with meaning and depth.

Similarly, for branding, knowing what others have done, and what is visually and emotionally stimulating can help you create marks that are attractive, appropriate, and distinctive.

In either case, you have to live life.

You have to do things, have meaningful experiences and relationships. Learn from others, make mistakes, and build upon the foundation of your past work.

90 percent perspiration

In 1989 Vanilla Ice sampled the song Under Pressure, in his recording of Ice Ice Baby. Freddie Mercury and David Bowie, the artists who first created Under Pressure’s bass line, were not credited. Call it lazy, call it thoughtless, but it sure was popular. Eventually, Mr. Ice was made to paid Bowie and Mercury for using their song, and credited them for their work.

In 1975, NBC spent $1 million (over $4 million in today’s dollars) developing a new, bold logo. That logo unfortunately was also the logo of the Nebraska ETV Network, a chain of PBS stations. NBC settled with Nebraska ETV Network the next year, giving them television equipment and money for a new logo.

In both cases, NBC and Vanilla Ice come out embarrassed. It may seem obvious in retrospect, but when you want to distinguish yourself from your competitors, copying them isn’t the right way.

Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. You can simply search for what you want, and you’ll get people that will sell it to you. However, that doesn’t make it good or memorable. It may even get you sued.

This is where the perspiration comes in.

In branding, as in music, inspiration takes sweat. The blank page doesn’t fill itself up the same way the melodies don’t write themselves.

There’s no easy way out when it comes to being creative. Illustrator Tim Biskup says that when you start drawing, you have 10,000 bad drawings in you that have to come out before you can draw well.

There are no shortcuts.

Spoilt for Choice

Not long ago, Hyder Media asked me to develop a new brand for their company. Kenny wanted something that reflected their independent spirit without sacrificing the reliable, trustworthy foundation he’s built with his customers.

I designed six options for Hyder, in a wide variety of styles. From friendly to trendy to stolid to iconic, I wanted to provide a menu of choices that was diverse enough to appeal to a variety of tastes. If none of the marks fit the bill, then at least I’d have a feeling to shoot for with further revisions.

Kenny liked several of the options, but preferred two: The one he chose that you now see on this site, and a very basic block H formed out of negative space.

The mark that Kenny chose was originally intended to be a gritty, authentic, no-nonsense mark that would convey street-smarts and a boots-on-the-ground aesthetic. Kenny liked the mark, but not the grit: He was concerned that some of his more conservative clients might not share the same taste.

A revision later, and the new Hyder Media mark was born. It was paired with an extended sans-serif, Trade Gothic, to give the mark a solid typographical foundation.

Can’t Unsee

Like a song, a logo, at a glance, tells the story of your company. There are sometimes little visual details, like the famous white arrow in the FedEx logo. Other times, it’s a feeling you get, like comfort or tension.

More often than not, the only thing you want from a logo is for it to be remembered.

Songs can be remembered for all the wrong reasons: Songs that you remember hearing amidst a bad breakup, or songs that are overplayed on the radio. Timeless songs, on the other hand, we remember fondly.

With branding, we make ourselves memorable. Hopefully for the better.

As for timelessness, in music or identity, only time can tell.

The internet today is like an active volcano: highly volatile and constantly changing the landscape. It’s impossible to know when something new will erupt and become the new giant to out-shadow all others.

Because of this, now every time there’s a new eruption, marketers flood in to stake their claim at the top. But where does your site fit in? Do you struggle to keep up with every new outlet? Or are you focused on what you know to be tried and true?

Your Biggest Love Is Your Weakest Link

In the recent Google hearings, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman testified: “about 75% of Yelp’s traffic, overall, is sourced through Google one way or another.” He continued to explain how Google could have a very big negative impact on the traffic and success of Yelp, describing the potential absence of Google from their marketing strategy as “devastating.”

This is obviously a big problem for Yelp. While Google may be a strong source of traffic and revenue for them, it’s actually a weak link. With 75% of their traffic coming from Google, Yelp is dependent on Google. And in this case, dependency is weakness.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Google Basket

As we have recently seen through the Panda debacle, Google can change in an instant. If like in Yelp’s case, your site receives the majority of its traffic from Google, the next update has the potential to wipe your site off the map.

That’s why every solid online marketing plan should spread its eggs around, don’t put them all in the Google basket!

Diversify Your Marketing

We need to start thinking about diversity. Just like any investment plan, success is best achieved through diversity.

So, how do we diversify? First, let’s take a look at some statistics:

% of internet Users Who Do Each Activity

Source: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

How Internet Users Spend Their Time

Source: Nielsen

Reports show that email and search are the most popular activities online, but social media dominates when it comes to where users actually spend their time.

To me this means that at the very core, every online marketing plan NEEDS to include: email, search, and social media.

Email

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most widely used forms of online marketing. And there’s a reason: it works.

The reason this form of marketing is so popular is because it’s the best way to directly communicate with your audience. With email, you gain the ability to send your audience updates, product offers and news whenever you want.

The best email marketing goes un-noticed. Not that it doesn’t get read, but the best email marketing doesn’t feel like marketing to the recipient. That’s because when your audience signs up for your email list, they want you to email them!

A well built opt-in email campaign is the perfect platform for your business to market content, products, and deals to people who asked to hear about them.

Tips for getting started:

• Sign-up for a service

Aweber and Mail Chimp are the only two services to consider, both have affordable pricing models so you can get started.

• Add the forms to your site

Most services will have an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to create and add a form to your website. There are plenty of plugins and add-on’s that can assist you with any popular platform such as WordPress. For more tips on where to put your forms, see this article.

• Add Popups

While some may consider pop-ups annoying, they work! Just make sure to control where your pop-ups occur manually, as long as they don’t show up all the time, you shouldn’t scare people away. Suggested services: Popup Domination or Pippity.

• Content

Once you’ve mastered the above, you’re should be set to go. Now it’s time to pump up the content and start collecting addresses!

Search

As we can see from the report above, search has been a close second to email for a decade, and continues to be on the rise.  This makes search a vital part of any healthy online marketing campaign.

While for many, like Yelp, search is a major piece of the traffic pie, many still have failed to capitalize on search opportunities.

While it’s great to be found in search when someone is looking for you (some don’t even show up for their own name!), the potential to show up for what you’re selling is even better.

The trick is to figure out how people are searching for your products, and then show up in those results.

Tips for getting started:

• Keyword Research

Figuring out what you should rank for is a crucial step to successful SEO. There are a number of tools available that can help you with your keyword research. If you’re just starting out, check out Google’s free Adwords Keyword Tool. Start out with the keywords that come to mind, and then refine your list with suggestions from the tool. For more information on how I do keyword research, check out this article I wrote.

• On-site Optimization

Next it’s time to start getting your site in order. Simple things like title tags, url structures and adding an XML Sitemap have the potential to make big differences in your search performance. For a good basic overview, check out the Google Guide.

• Links

Lastly, to perform well in any competitive environment, you’ll need to get some links. Link building is an often debated topic among SEOs. Tactics and techniques for link building are somewhat of a debate. But the gist of it is: the more that other websites link to you using the phrase that you are trying to rank for, the more likely it is that you will rank highly for that phrase. So the goal is to try to influence other websites to link to you. There will be more on this in a later post, for now simply stray away from any paid linking programs or networks.

Social Media

While still an underdog in number of users, social media is a major force when it comes to online activity. Internet users spend far more time on social media websites than any other form of website.

Social media is also still in a growth phase, meaning more and more users will be on social media websites every year.

This make social media a mandatory piece of your marketing strategy.

Tips for getting started:

• Focus Your Efforts

Refine your focus in social media, don’t worry about having the most friends on every site. Be active and engage your audience on a personal level. Nobody cares for accounts that friend everyone and post links all day.

• Go Niche

Did you know there is a social network just for whiskey drinkers? Today, no matter what industry you’re in, there is a place online where people are talking about what you do. Whether it be a forum, a sub-reddit, or a full blown social network, people are talking and they want to listen to you. Find the communities online that are specific to what you do and get involved.

• Sharing Is Caring

Social media is and should be exactly that: social. Get over yourself and share stuff. Share your own stuff too, but make yourself valuable to others by sharing and spreading useful information and ideas. In turn others will share your useful content, when you have it

Spread Your Eggs Around

The key to a successful marketing strategy that will last is diversity. Not putting all of your eggs in one basket will help you to withstand the tides of the internet.

Not only will you be protecting yourself from becoming dependent, you will in-turn have a better and more well rounded marketing campaign that will last.

For more information and tips on how run a successful marketing campaign sign up below!

Yesterday I announced the launch and redesign of this website.  Redesigns are fun, exciting, and motivational. I started thinking about new topics to write on, old drafts I have saved up, I even got a few inquiries from potential clients. But as I was responding to feedback on twitter during the day, an interesting retweet came across my stream:

“Why is quality website design so important for the success of an online business?” While most people perpetuate the belief that good design is important, few people explain why.

Design is most commonly thought about in terms of how something looks. Yet design implies more than just aesthetics. Design means the style, composition, and functionality of any product. Good design pertaining to websites means not only do they look great, but that they are built great, and work great.

Aesthetics

When you see a site for the first time you instantly start making judgements about what kind of site it is, what its purpose is, and the people behind it. It’s intrinsic to us, first impressions are everything. How your website looks is going to make an impression on your users. And apart from just having a good looking website, good design means a good impression.

The design of your website ought to be a reflection of the brand image you are trying to establish. How you brand yourself and set up your brand strategy are important, and design is the way to establish your branding. Design aesthetics are the face of your branding and business.

Composition

The most unthought of part of design is composition; how it’s made. With a lot of things, the design process — how things are made, is thought to be the business of engineers. But the composition of your website you should be concerned about, it directly affects your bottom line.

The structure of your website affects things like: security, load times, and search ranking. While search rankings and security have obvious implications to the success and/or detriment of your site, so do the other things like site speed and load times. Kissmetrics reports that Amazon.com saw a 1% decease in sales with every 100MS increase in load time. What if you could simply increase your revenue 1% every time you made your website a tenth of a second faster? The performance of your site is easily the most important aspect of the design. After all, what does it matter if your website doesn’t work?

Functionality

The functionality of your site is the fun part. What your site does is the purpose of your presence online. Good design uses its functionality in order to differentiate itself from the competition. What you do with your website is what give you your edge.

Good design is also intuitive. Websites in particular have to be intuitive. When a website isn’t intuitive it directly decreases performance; retention rates will decrease, conversion rates will drop, and you will lose repeat visitors. A website isn’t like a smart phone where a user will spend hours to figure out how to do the task they wish to accomplish, they will simply find a different website. Good design incorporates functionality that is easy to use and user-friendly. Making your website an enjoyable and unique experience for your users will inevitably increase user loyalty, retention rate, and revenue.

All successful products on the  market have one common element: good design, and any website with aspirations needs the same. It’s like Henry Ford said: “Every object tells a story”, and so should every website.

Between email spam, pop-up ad’s, and phishing attacks, it feels like the days of genuine marketing are long gone. On the internet, it seems as if marketers have taken an “anything goes” approach to getting their product in your face. These unfortunate by-products of our mass exodus to online immersion have given marketers a bad name. What many don’t realize is, the websites and brands online that you love and trust have simply mastered the basics of Marketing 101.

The 4 P’s

The four p’s of marketing are the pillars of what a good marketing strategy should built on. They stand for: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Good marketing realizes the essence of each of these concepts at their core, and applies them to their unique contexts. As we rapidly evolve into an internet centric culture it’s important that we understand fundamental concepts as these in our online contexts.

Product

There is no marketing without product. Many understand the product side of the marketing equation, but it isn’t as one dimensional as it is often demonstrated to be. Clearly stated: your product is either some physical thing that you are selling, or a service that you offer. Understanding that you need a product before you go to market is trivial, what isn’t obvious is the effort that is required to substantiate yourself from your competition.  Your product is the foundation and the cornerstone of your business; it’s what your business is built on, and what holds it together.

So many internet start-ups today launch a product or service really quickly, and then bust their asses trying to market themselves to everyone and anyone thinking that just the right mix of magical marketing is going to get them “there”. Marketing is important, but marketing, sales, exposure, nothing can help you if you don’t spend enough time making your product great.

The majority of your time, money, and focus should always be spent on developing, improving, and expanding your product.  Companies that have longevity in the marketplace are notorious for improving their product, expanding their offering, and developing new products. There is no other way.

Price

In the world online, it seems like things are either free, or way over-priced. We seem to have lost the science and psychology of pricing as marketers. We either are making things free so people will like us and spread our free products around to as many people as virtually possible, or we are overtly greedy with our over-pricing and thoughts of how rich we might get.

There has to be a happy medium. Ever wonder why almost everything you buy ends in .95 or .99? Because it works! The simple side to pricing is figuring out how much it cost you to make your product, and figuring out a price point that allows you to remain profitable and in business. But taking it further, how much exactly will your customers pay? How much is too much? Are you making too little a profit?

Just like you test metrics on your websites to determine what buttons work better, what copy performs better, you should test your pricing models as well.

Place

Before the era of internet marketing, the “Place” part of the equation meant finding stores that would carry your product, where your product was located on the shelf and getting your product to be physically visible. Today, most of us have our one niche of online marketing that we are comfortable with, and we push our products there. We are good at this, and have success. But there are SO many avenues online to expand your visibility it’s hard to keep up.

People tend to stick to their comfort zone, but if you’re looking to expand and grow your business it’s time to look in a different place. Why continue to stick to SEO, PPC, and Social Media? What about display advertising, lead gen, or email marketing? Most online businesses are only in one or two “places” to moderate success, why not go somewhere new and expand? God forbid we actually get our product into a physical store.

Promotion

As marketers, we are all very familiar with the promotion part of the equation. What I find interesting about the 4 P’s is, promotion is listed last. I think the ease with which we can promote things these days gets us over excited about the process. To the point where we even begin promotion before we have the product.

Promotion is obviously an important and critical step, not to be diminished. But as marketers, I think we need to be reminded not how to promote, but how not to promote. Our over-zealousness tends to lead us to do things that are downright annoying when it comes to the promotion process. Maybe it’s because we just get so excited about our products that we want to do everything we can to get them out there, maybe it’s because we’re marketers and it’s in our blood.

The thing to remember is, over-zealous, cheap promotion isn’t helpful, and isn’t making your product look good. Promotion is about looking good and making your product look good. Auto-tweets, spam emails, phishing attacks, and begging people doesn’t make you or your product look good.

There are many places, and many ways to promote your products; just be sure that you look good when you’re doing it. Stay Classy.

Photo Credit: Leo Reynolds

A friend of mine is a writer/editor for a company that publishes reference books and research materials. Despite my upmost respect for her as a writer, we often get into debates about grammar and whether or not commonly used phrases are proper English. She favors what you would call a descriptive philosophy of the English language. In her words:

In a descriptive philosophy of English, the language is described as it is used rather than how certain authorities prescribe it should be. In a prescriptive philosophy, the rules dictate the language. For example, our generation often says: “I’m gonna” rather than: “I’m going to” — a prescriptive grammarian would deem this incorrect, whereas a descriptive grammarian would not ascribe any right or wrong to its usage but rather would accept the language as it is spoken and adhere to the belief that language largely dictates the rules.

Whether or not she is right or wrong about this and other arguments is an ongoing debate — however, I believe that the idea of prescriptive vs. descriptive philosophies has ramifications in other areas as well. In my world this means marketing.

Marketing, whether online or off, ought to be thought of as descriptive in this same sense. Your marketing should be defined by the needs and opportunities presented from your customer base.

Chevrolet vs. Chevy

Recently, Chevrolet told its employees that they were to no longer to use the word “Chevy” in an attempt to consolidate their brand. I am not going to even try to understand their thinking on this decision. All I can come up with is “WTF?”

Not only has Chevrolet been using “Chevy” to brand themselves for years, “Chevy” is a part of its customers’ vernacular. I can’t remember the last time I heard someone refer to their Chevy as a “Chevrolet.” It just doesn’t feel right. From a number of standpoints, a case can easily be made for Chevrolet to employ the use of “Chevy” as strong branding tool:

• It has less syllables and is easier to pronounce and spell
• It’s a nickname, which often indicates a term of endearment
• It has been heavily saturated into pop-culture, including various songs

Someone obviously caught on to these things back in 1957 when they started incorporating “Chevy” branding into their television advertisement campaigns, and the two names have been synonymous ever since.

Prescription for Failure

Someone clearly forgot to remind the corporate executives at Chevrolet of the old idiom “If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it.” Rather than continuing to run with “Chevy” and capitalizing on the familiar and trusted brand that its customers have embraced, the company is choosing to prescribe a marketing strategy that is contrary to its own success. This is a clear and obvious mistake on Chevy’s part because they are trying to conform to a rule they think ought to exist.

When there are no physical, legal, or moral ramifications to breaking a rule, why would anyone choose to continue to adhere? Especially when abiding by that rule means serious detriment to your revenue stream, reputation, or any other measure of success?

Rules Are Meant to be Broken

While there are not necessarily rules that dictate the do’s and don’ts of marketing, there does seem to be a correlation of tactics and methods used.  The concept of  “descriptive marketing” would say that we ought to use any method or tactic that makes it easier or better for us to market our products/services, rather than following a set method that has been predefined. While this makes sense in theory, I don’t always see it put to use in practice. I see people blindly follow rules set out by Google, not knowing the real consequences or rewards of breaking them. People following a “code of conduct” online, because “spamming” is bad and annoying — but what if it made you more money? Droves of readers follow the advice of bloggers they’ve never even met rather than doing their own testing, prodding, and problem solving. If we are fine with using the phrase “I’m gonna” because it facilitates our speech, even though it may be prescriptively incorrect, what limits us from pushing the envelope in our work, lives, and other areas?

Imagine what your conversations would look like without descriptive colloquialisms; now conversely, imagine how big your horizons could be broadened if you began to think descriptively about your marketing, branding, and vision casting. Maybe it’s time to start thinking differently. I know I’m gonna.

Photo Credit: the_munificent_sasquatch, z5, voteprime

Paul Rand. Does that name ring a bell? How about Saul Bass, Henry Steiner, or Lindon Leader? If you googled it, you already failed.

Today there is a lot of talk about branding. As more people are realizing that you need to put some real marketing behind your business, they look to “branding” as a silver bullet to polish off their efforts. While branding is not the end all be all play to a marketing strategy, it is the cornerstone, and it is important.

You Reap What You Sow

As online professionals turn for help with branding needs and education, they are forgetting one thing: crap in, crap out. Looking to your favorite social media site as a study in branding is like trying to develop an ear for music by hanging out in a high school parking lot.

Internet brands are full of life, color, cheer, and excitement; but when it’s longevity you’re after, these qualities are thin and fleeting. What most don’t understand is, internet brands are created to capture today’s audience, to spark this week’s conversation. While some may disagree, when was the last time you were on MySpace, 43things, orkut, friendfeed, Xanga, or bebo? Not to mention the countless sites that have long since closed doors.

Is this what you aspire to? To have your brand rise to the top, just to slowly decline until you are eventually forgotten about and replaced by the newer, shinier version of you?

Learn From The Pros

Like any discipline, students should look to the masters. If you’re my age, several of the brands above have been around your whole life, and their branding consistent with minor changes for decades. This is the mark of a master.

Calling Card

Wikipedia defines “Brand” as: “a name, sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business.” In other words, your calling card. When you look at the logos depicted above, you relate to each one not only with a recognition of who they are, but with a feeling.

Likewise, you want your customers to relate to you. Your brand, your brand image, should convey an emotional response to your audience rather than just serve as a marker for you are. Your brand isn’t your name-tag, it’s your identity.

4 P’s

Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. At the epicenter of the venn diagram of the 4 P’s is your brand. Your brand should be able to establish and make your audience feel good about each of these 4 things in one consolidated message. The 4 P’s are essential building blocks to establishing your brand identity, and your branding is your representative.

Consistency

Consistency is key. Establishing trust, authority, and community are difficult enough one time around, don’t shoot yourself in the foot with multiple re-brands, complete re-designs, or 180’s with your offering. Take the time, get it right the first time, and all of your efforts will be consolidated down the road.

Any sudden changes or sporadic moves make customers question stability. If changes need to be made, better to boil the frog slowly.

Get Rich Slowly

By now, most are weary of the ability to “get rich quick” or the numerous “make money online” schemes that are out there. Building and growing a business into a trusted brand is a slow and arduous process that takes lots of time, with many hard fought battles. But as it is written: “Good things come to those who wait.”

I’d like to clarify a few myth’s that I think have been widely spread. In the land of online marketing there are many techniques and tactics used to improve the performance of a website, drive traffic, and grow an online business. In the scheme of marketing as a whole, online marketing is relatively new and it’s practices still evolving.

However, this does not in anyway give validity to the notion that any tactic used by a marketer online isn’t “real” or directly measurable in any way. I’ve heard a number of times now, from people who have some idea that online marketing is a sort of “soft marketing” technique, used to indirectly market brands and businesses. All Search Engine Marketers, Social Media Marketers, and Online Brand Management professionals provide valuable services with measurable results. These are real marketing tactics, that drive real and definable results, not part of some soft marketing campaign.

SEO is Not Soft Marketing

Surprisingly, there seem to be a large number of people out there who seem to think that SEO is some sort of soft marketing technique. I think this is due to the fact that there are now so many fly-by-night “SEO’s” making cold call phone calls to business owners trying to pitch SEO services, and not explaining exactly what type of results they will deliver, or how they will get the work done.

Clarification

SEO is cold, hard, and directly measurable. Any SEO who is worth a grain of salt will measure the results of the campaign he/she is working on. Rankings equal traffic equal conversions equal cash. SEO equals ROI.

Social Media is Not Soft Marketing

It is a little more understandable that people would think that social media marketing falls into the realm of soft marketing, but it doesn’t. Sure marketing for social media may increase your “brand awareness”, but SMM isn’t a big guessing game when it comes to results for businesses and websites.

Clarification

The guys who do it best will tell you, social media marketing is a great way to drive traffic and links to your site. AND it isn’t just about setting up a twitter page that looks like your website. There are tons of other ways to market for social media that can drive large quantities of relevant users to your website.

Brand Management is Not Soft Marketing

Out of the three, by FAR brand management is the one that gets hammered the most as a soft marketing scheme. I think this can mostly be blamed on the fact that the majority of people just don’t understand what brand management is. And when you have something that isn’t widely understood, confusion spreads.

Clarification

Plainly, brand management is when you use various marketing devices to increase the image of a brand. Michael Jordan, as we all know, was largely sponsored by Nike which in turn helped them create one of the strongest, most recognizable brands in the world. Little do most know, he actually preferred Adidas. This was STRONG brand management move on Nike’s part. Not a “soft” attempt to “increase brand awareness.”

I have been apart of several search campaigns where the goal was to push negative results for a brand query off of the first page. If a query for your company’s product returns a listing with an affiliate site with a title tag of “DON’T BUY [PRODUCT NAME]”, as a way to entice clicks — you probably want to get that off the first page.

Brand management is an important part of many businesses marketing strategy that involves clear and defined goals with measurable results. Just like the saying “It pays to advertise.”

Don’t Be Fooled

All marketing campaigns, online or offline, are created equal. Businesses need to make money to make it, and it’s the job of the marketer to help them get more business and make more money. Not all marketing campaigns are successful, but they are all measurable.

Photo Credit: Express MonoRail

Let’s face it: you don’t like to make decisions. It’s ok, I don’t either. The problem is everyone in the world thinks we do! We are constantly bombarded with choices, options, and decisions to make about everything we do and everything we buy, but are these choices what we really want or need?

Case #1

You’re at the grocery store buying some soup because you’re sick You go to the soup aisle to decide which type of soup suits your palette. After five minutes pass, you realize that you’re staring aimlessly at all of the choices! There are hundreds of soups! You decide on clam chowder because it’s your favorite, but there are 3 different variations from each of the 4 different brands. You end up grabbing the one that you decide has the prettiest label because, how else are you to decide? You also grab some chicken noodle just for good measure.

In this case, it’s great to have a variety of choice for those with different appetites, but anyone who has been to the grocery store (especially if you’re not a regular shopper) can identify with standing in the aisle, gazing off into never-never land at all of the countless choices for any number of different products.

Case #2

Despite the recession, life has been good to you and you decide its time to get yourself a new whip. You have your sight set on something sporty, so you decide to check out the new Bugatti Veyron, the $1.7m price tag is merely a drop in the bucket for a baller like you.

As you configure your Bugatti on the website before heading over to the dealer, you realize you have a whopping 29 color combinations to choose from! How on earth will you ever decide which one is perfect for you? Do you like the white on soft silver, or the white silver on grey silver better? Camera one, camera two. CHOOSE NOW!

I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve bought 3 new cars in my adult life — 2 of them there was one color available on the lot, and 1 of them I chose between 2 colors. My car right now is grey, because that’s what they had, and I like it. Simple.

Et cetera

How many more scenarios like this are there? What are we going to eat for dinner, what movie do you want to watch, what kind of cell plan to get, where do you invest your money, and on forever.

Psychologist Barry Schwartz said: “If everything is possible, you don’t have freedom —  you have paralysis.” This statement brings a whole new meaning to the cliché “Less is more.”

When choice is given to the individual at infinite detail, it creates chaos. As marketers it is our job to look for ways to expand our markets and often this results in more options, more choice, and ultimately more decisions for the end user. The problem is, when we leave decision in the hands of the customer, we take it out of the hands of the expert.

When Nike launched their “NIKEiD” campaign that allowed buyers to design and purchase their own custom shoe, it got major attention. I personally know several people that jumped on the opportunity to design their very own shoes right away. As a result of this campaign, I have seen some of the ugliest shoes EVER to come from a major shoe brand. What was previously handled by a professional, the design, is now a series of options and choices for the untrained consumer; and the result is potentially catastrophic.

Less Really IS More

Like it or not, all clichés are cliché for a reason. There is something powerful about simplicity. It’s why all Apple computers are silver and all iPods are either black or white. It’s why gas stations offer 87, 89, and 91 octane gasoline. It’s why 70% of users in the US prefer Google to other search engines.

Simplicity, and removing extraneous choice strengthens the offer of any product and/or service by putting the focus on what’s really important. Most people think they want all of the choice to themselves; but when it comes down to it, they find it much easier to choose between clam chowder or chicken noodle, than having to sift through a hundred different soups.

In the land of opportunity entrepreneurs, marketers, and just plain smart people are constantly looking for the thing that can give them an edge, an upper hand to their competition so they can dominate the market. But, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything — would you capture it or just let it slip?

Last night as I was surfing YouTube, I came across an extremely interesting Michael Jordan interview, that I think can serve as a valuable lesson to anyone in marketing, branding, or any related field:

Now it doesn’t take an avid sports fan to realize the GIANT opportunity that Adidas passed up by not giving MJ a contract. I like MJ’s humility in not indulging in “what if’s” — but I would venture to say that if they hadn’t made this mistake, it’s quite possible that Adidas and not Nike would be worlds leading supplier of athletic shoes. Considering that Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time and one of the most iconic and popular athletes ever, I don’t think these “what if’s” are too far out of reach.

This poses the question: would you brush off Michael Jordan just like Adidas did? Surely Adidas had good reasons at the time for the decisions they made, even though it may seem un-fathomable to us today. What opportunities are you missing out on because they aren’t a part of your plan or strategy? Are you afraid to “gamble” on new opportunities or investments for fear of losing? Can you afford to not make any mistakes and potentially pass up something that could transform you or your business in a way that you couldn’t possibly foresee?

Adidas made the mistake of denying MJ a contract even though he wanted to sign with them because they didn’t feel it was right for their brand. Well sounds like it was the perfect time to make it part of their brand. Remember that your brand strategy is a guideline, not a rulebook. If opportunity knocks and you don’t open the door, well there’s not much hope for you then, is there?