Working with AI: Copyright, Ownership, and Plagiarism
Navigate the Legal Maze of AI, Generative Works and Copyright Laws. What you need to know to protect your creative work. Explore the Complex World of AI, Copyright & Creator Economy If you create content, in any form such as written works, artwork, client work, creative or coursework...then you need to protect yourself. In one of the most engaging discussions on Endless Coffee Cup, [...]
[Podcast] Preparing for Google’s Search Generative Experience
Anticipating the Impact of Google's Search Generative Experience Assessing the change in search results, content, and revenue. How will Google Search Generative Experience Change the Industry? John Shehata joins me on the latest edition of the Endless Coffee Cup podcast. We look into the impact of search generative experiences, AI, and the changing landscape for publishers. Here are the key takeaways from our conversation: [...]
[Podcast] SEO is Changing…But How?
Social Media Careers: The Challenges and Rewards Examining the diverse skill set of a Social Media Marketer SEO is Changing...But How? Welcome to the Endless Coffee Cup podcast, where we freshly brewed insights on Digital Marketing. Matt Bailey is joined by long-time industry friend and SEO expert, Greg Jarboe. In the latest espresso shot of wisdom, Matt and Greg dive deep into SEO's evolving [...]
[Podcast] How to Stay Safe and Sane in Social Media Marketing
Social Media Careers: The Challenges and Rewards Examining the diverse skill set of a Social Media Marketer Social Media Marketing Careers: What to Expect We dive into the ever-spinning world of social media marketing—where timing is everything, and evergreen is king. We discussed how repurposing content not only keeps your feed fresh but educates and engages your audience. Repurpose with Purpose: Jennifer and Matt [...]
[Podcast] SEO’s Reputation Problem
The SEO Industry Stinks We Need an Industry Divorce from the Term, SEO. What is SEO? The ever-changing definitions of a concept. SEO, We need a divorce. I weigh in on the controversial and often misunderstood world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Reflecting on my own journey and the evolution of SEO, it deserves a ton of criticism. however, SEO is also responsible [...]
[Podcast] Goal Setting for Personal and Professional Growth
Crafting Your Vision Goal-Setting for Personal and Professional Growth What Are Your Goals?As the host of the Endless Coffee Cup podcast, I have the pleasure of delving into all manner of topics, from career development to personal growth, entrepreneurship, and everything in between. In an effort to dive deep into the art of goal-setting, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with the insightful [...]
[Podcast] Social Media Professional Anxiety?
Social Media Professional Anxiety Exploring the Challenges Faced by Social Media Marketers So, you want to be a Social Media Marketer... This episode sheds light on the complex, yet rewarding world of social media marketing. From understanding the fluid nature of social platforms to acknowledging the mental health aspects, this discussion provides a comprehensive view of what it means to be a social media [...]
[Podcast] Lessons on Customer-Driven Acquisition and Scaling a Business
Unconventional Entrepreneurship Wisdom How Do I Grow and Scale My Business? Sure, there is a lot of advice about starting a business... Business schools try to prepare you, many people have advice for you, but listen to those that have done it. It's nothing like the textbooks say. Michael has "been there, done that" taking multiple businesses from idea to exit, generating millions of [...]
[Podcast] AI Prompts for Humans
Do you Instruct Humans With the Same Intensity as AI? The Necessity of Clear Communication for Human Productivity How Detailed Are Your Human Prompts? 26% of all deadlines are missed each week due to lack of clarity; Anatomy of Work Index 44% of respondents say that Communication barriers lead to a delay in projects, missed performance goals and lost sales, The Economist The most [...]
[Podcast] 2012: The End of the Pre-Social Media World
2012: The Year that Technology Changed Us Forever From Mayan Predictions to Technological Convergence: Reflecting on 2012's Significance From Mayan Predictions to Technological Convergence: Reflecting on 2012's Significance We go back to the year 2012, a year that was associated with doomsday prophecies, but in reality, brought about significant changes that have shaped our modern world. I explore the convergence of three groundbreaking technologies [...]
[Podcast] Overcoming Your Fears of Speaking and Presentation
Overcoming Fears of Speaking and Presentation Overcoming Stage Fright: Lessons From A News Anchor About Dealing With Video Anxiety Elevating Your Public Speaking Skills and Embracing Authenticity Matt sits down with former news anchor Kerry Barrett to delve into the world of public speaking, overcoming fears, and embracing authenticity. What surprises people is that Kerry had, and still has anxiety about speaking in front [...]
[Podcast] Cultivating a Culture of Learning: Strategies for Engagement in Employer Training
Cultivating a Culture of Learning: Strategies for Engagement and Continuity in Employer Training Unlock Employee Potential and Improve Workplace Dynamics Employers can increase retention through training programs. In this episode, Monique Russell returns to share her insights on the power of up-skilling and re-skilling, and how it can lead to growth, differentiation, and improved workplace dynamics. We explore the importance of creating a culture [...]
[Podcast] Backward Entrepreneur: Real Advice About Starting Your Business
Unconventional Entrepreneurship Wisdom What does it take to go from an Idea to $20 Million? Sure, there is a lot of advice about starting a business... Business schools try to prepare you, many people have advice for you, but listen to those that have done it. It's nothing like the textbooks say. Michael has "been there, done that" taking multiple businesses from idea to [...]
[Podcast] Yesterday’s Social Media News
Yesterday's Social Media News What's Happening to Social Media? Dive deep into the latest developments in the ever-evolving world of social media. Joined by regular guest Greg Jarboe, we explore the revolutionary changes happening on YouTube, from the introduction of shorts to the rise of new content creators. We dissect the decline of Twitter, its impact on advertisers, and question the branding change to [...]
[Podcast] Unlocking Transformation: Communication Skills for Personal and Professional Growth
Unlocking Transformation: Communication Skills for Personal and Professional Growth Monique Russell, the dynamic force behind Clear Communications Coach, joins me to talk about the importance of communications skills in modern marketers. The dynamic Monique Russell joins me to talk about the wide world of Communication Skills. As a dynamic speaker and communications expert, Monique's passion lies in centering and uplifting her audience, making them [...]
Defining the Difference between Certificates and Certification in Digital Marketing
Decoding Digital Marketing Certificates and Certifications: Defining the Standards for Industry Recognition One of these is not like the other. In today's competitive job market, individuals seek various credentials to stand out from the crowd. Two popular options are certificates and certifications. While they may sound similar, these designations are completely different in terms of requirements, validity, and industry recognition. Especially when it comes to Digital Marketing, the speed [...]
[Podcast] Beyond the Algorithm: Navigating the Mental Health Aspect of Social Media Marketing
Beyond the Algorithm: Navigating the Mental Health Aspect of Social Media Marketing Meg Casebolt, author of 'Social Slowdown' joins me to discuss the pressures faced by creators and consumers alike. Long-Term Content Strategies for Lasting Impact on Social Media FOMO The constant need to stay ahead of trends and conform to the algorithm, combined with the distractions and interruptions of social media notifications, can [...]
[Podcast] Analyzing the Food Ecosystem: Crops, Brands, and Foods in Agriculture Marketing
Marketing AgricultureCrops, Brands, and Foods in Agriculture Marketing Analyzing the Food Ecosystem: Crops, Brands, and Foods in Agriculture Marketing In this week's episode of the Endless Coffee Cup podcast, we delve deep into the world of agriculture marketing. Join us as we explore the complexities of the food industry, from understanding the cost of growing food to the importance of supporting local farmers markets. Our guest, [...]
Is a Certification Important for Digital Marketing?
Why is Certification Critical for Digital Marketing Careers? Digital marketing has become an essential component for businesses seeking growth and success in today's digital age. In this fast-paced field, staying ahead of the curve requires a deep understanding of the ever-evolving digital landscape, and a holistic view of strategy. Enter certifications – the shining badges of expertise that mark professionals as having attained a demonstrated level of skills and understanding. [...]
[Podcast] How to Advance Your Marketing Career
Digital and Social Media Marketing Certifications Establish Your Confidence and Credibility Soft Skills in High Demand: Communication, Problem-Solving, and Management On this episode of Endless Coffee Cup, I sit down with Jennifer Radke to discuss the value of certifications in marketing and social media management. Our discussion covers the importance of specific platform knowledge and communication skills, as well as the need for strategic [...]
[Podcast] Google’s Antagonistic Relationship with Publishers
Google's Antagonistic Relation with Publishers Google needs publishers for content, but it's a one-way relationship. Google v Publishers In this episode, we delve into the ongoing competition between publishers and bloggers, focusing on Google's role in this dynamic relationship. After Greg posted about Google's death blow to publishers (AI-based search results), I invited Greg to share his thoughts on the publishing industry and it's [...]
[Podcast] Father’s Day and the Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance? Father's Day and Work-Life Balance as an Entrepreneur. "How Can You have Work-Life Balance and Be Successful As An Entrepreneur? I was asked this question when interviewed by a publication for Father's day. They asked for "wisdom from an inspirational dad." Well, Socrates said, “the only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.” I would say that quote best describes [...]
[Podcast] Technology in the Classroom
Technology in the Classroom Should Big Tech be in classroom education? How Did Big Tech Get Into Your Kid's Classrooms? If your child is in school, then you've probably had to deal with Chromebooks, Google Classroom, and other Big Tech based resources used by your school. But have you given it thought about the implications of allowing Big Tech - in this altruistic role [...]
[Podcast] What Does it Take to Be a Rockstar CMO?
What Does it Take to be a Rockstar CMO? "I Enjoy Building Great Brands and Developing People" - Ian Truscott How Does a Rockstar CMO build an effective Marketing Team? Matt welcomes fellow Marketing Podcast Network associate, Ian Truscott, host of Rockstar CMO podcast. Ian talks about the challenges of building marketing teams and the importance of developing people to be successful. He answers [...]
[Podcast] It’s All About the Brand – Primal Branding
Primal Branding: An Interview with Patrick Hanlon How Brands Build Passionate Fans What is Primal Branding Patrick Hanlon has consulted with the worlds biggest brands (including the UN) and he shares what all of the big brands have in common. Based largely on his book, Primal Branding, he shares the seven elements of a brand: creation story creed icons rituals sacred words nonbelievers leader [...]
[Podcast] Books: The Ultimate Long-Form Content
What Books Impacted Your Career? I'm returning to my book-reading roots. In this episode I'm sharing about my frustration with digital media and why I am returning the the best long-form content: books. In doing so, I am going through my bookshelf to find the books that have made the biggest impact on my digital marketing career. I'll tell you why they made such [...]
[Podcast] Are Social Media Skills Overrated?
Are Social Media Skills are Overrated? Marketers think so, but they are in high demand. "Social media is the most overrated skill by businesses, marketers say" According to MarketingWeek's 2023 Career and Salary Survey. What makes social media such an easy target? Why are social media skills considered "overrated" by marketers? Business demands for social media marketers are at an all-time high, and the [...]
[Podcast] Public Information & Crisis Communications
Public Information & Crisis Communications The Role of the Public Information Officer The Unique Role of the Public Information Officer My good friend, Christine Townsend, has probably one of the most interesting backgrounds in communications. Not only a police officer herself, but she served as the Head of Corporate Communications for the City of London Police - during some of the most watched events [...]
[Podcast] When NOT to Communicate
Podcast Spotlight: Tiny Giants Listen in to T Osinubi's podcast interview of Matt A podcast swap, as I feature previous guest, T Adeola and his podcast: Tiny Giants Good friend, two-time guest, and fellow Marketing Podcast Network host, T Adeola recently started podcasting again with his focus on spotlighting niche influencers. I was a recent guest on his podcast recently and he asked such [...]
[Podcast] AI is the Genie…What’s Your Wish?
AI is the Genie....What's Your Wish? It's all in how you ask your question. AI is the genie in the lamp. It can grant wishes - but be careful how you state your wish! Just like the literal genie, AI can give you what you want, but probably not the way you want it. It is all in HOW you ask your question, or [...]
[Podcast] Two Old Journalists Turned SEO’s
How a Mix of Journalism, Anthropology, Mistakes, and History Makes for Good SEO: Lets talk about search today... How a Mix of Journalism, Anthropology, Mistakes, and History Creates a Good SEO Two Old Journalists Turned SEO's Fellow Marketing Podcast Network host, Seth Goldstein, joins Matt to catch up on the industry. Hear how they both come from journalism background and how it influenced their [...]
[Podcast] LinkedIn’s 2023 Most In-Demand Skills report
LinkedIn's 2023 Most In-Demand Skills What are the critical skills in today's workplace? The LinkedIn 2023 Most In-Demand Job Skills report came out a few weeks ago, and it is full of interesting facts, findings, and insights. Matt breaks down the hiring and skills trends as they appear in the report. Implications are clear for job candidates - it's not the hard skills or [...]
[Podcast] The Nuance of Marketing the News: Digital Marketing for Publishers
The Nuance of Marketing the News: Digital Marketing for Publishers News publishers have a completely different experience when marketing content - Long-time friend John Shehata stops by the Endless Coffee Cup Podcast to talk about his experience in Media and Publishing, with an emphasis on SEO. Having held VP-level positions at both Disney/ABC and CondeNast, John brings a unique viewpoint to the digital marketing [...]
[Podcast] How to Get Hired: Certification, Education, Experience, or Attitude?
How to Get Hired: Experience, Education, Certification, or Attitude? Listener question: I don’t think someone will get hired just because they have a certification – don’t they need experience? And how do I get experience if I am not working in the industry? What are the critical factors that employers are looking for when hiring candidates? It might surprise you that those with the [...]
[Podcast] Space: Marketing, Technology and Life in the UAE
Marketing: Space, Technology, and Life in the UAE A Casual Conversation about Space, Technology, and Marketing Fellow podcaster Izzy House, from the Space Marketing Podcast drops by to have a conversation. Matt is frequently traveling to the United Arab Emirates, where space technology has been at the forefront of the headlines. The UAE is a young nation, but has become a major player in [...]
[Podcast] What Can We Really Expect from AI?
Separate Fact from Fiction; Hype from the Help about AI Go Beyond the Hyped-up Headlines and Over-promised Opportunities About AI What can we really expect with AI? Will it replace humans? Will it take over the world? With the recent hype and excitement about ChatGPT and AI, Matt talks with an AI expert, Cal Al-Dhubaib, about the realities (and limitations) of AI technology. You'll [...]
[Podcast] Reporting from the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai
Reporting from the 1 Billion Follower Summit in Dubai Following the 1 Billion Follower Summit in Dubai Follow the adventures of Greg Jarboe and Matt Bailey as they take on Dubai and attend the 1 Billion Follower Summit! After attending and speaking at conferences for the past 15 years, we finally get the chance to sit back and watch one of the most amazing [...]
[Podcast] How Should You Start Your Digital Marketing Career?
How Should You Start Your Digital Marketing Career? Should you go work for a brand, business, or agency? Listener question: I am just starting out in my digital marketing career, and I want to be a freelancer and eventually start my own agency, what career advice would you give me? I hear this question often, and I think there is a hesitancy to go [...]
[Podcast] Is Certification Better than a Degree?
Is Certification Better than a Degree? What is the best way to show that you have proven skills in the Digital Marketing industry? How do you validate your depth, experience, and understanding of Digital Marketing? Disclaimer: I teach certification courses and I contribute to certification competencies for the OMCP. But what's the value of a certification? I teach over a hundred classes a year. [...]
[Podcast] Marketing the Metaverse
Marketing the Metaverse The Metaverse is in all of the headlines, but to describe what it is - that's another story. Just as the internet evolved into HTML and browsers, so the shift into immersive technologies will challenge marketers, content creators, brands and just about anyone else who wants to reach people. But is Meta's vision what we really want? Do we really want [...]
[Podcast] Why Don’t We Teach History of Digital Media and Marketing?
Why Don't We Teach the History of Digital Media and Marketing? A focus on the immediate present prevents an understanding of our digital tools and their impact on our culture Those that don't learn from history are bound to repeat it History is a funny thing. There are many lessons that we can gain and benefit from. In this fast-moving, ever-changing world of digital [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – #7 Presentation
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #7: Presentation Skills Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills that are in demand, and have always been in demand. Both employers and job seekers can build powerful, sustainable marketing teams when they focus on [...]
[Podcast] Marketing the Biggest Event in the World: Expo 2020
Marketing the Biggest Event in the World In October 2021, the world convened in Dubai for Expo 2020. Delayed by the pandemic, it opened and welcomed millions of people from around the world. For the next 6 months, over 24 million people visited Expo 2020 and marveled at the experience. 191 countries particpated, many by building amazing pavilions that shocased their country and their [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – #6 Asking Questions
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #6: Asking Questions Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills that are in demand, and have always been in demand. Both employers and job seekers can build powerful, sustainable marketing teams when they focus on [...]
[Podcast] Marketing to Affluent Hispanics
Marketing to Affluent Hispanic Communities The beauty of America has always been its cultural diversity. There is much that we can learn from each other and celebrate among each other. Gabriella Alcantara-Diaz joins me at the conclusion of Hispanic Heritage month to discuss the evolving, culturally diverse landscape. The Hispanic community is becoming increasingly affluent, which has significant implications in economic growth, lifestyle preferences, [...]
[Podcast] The History of Search Engines
The History of Search Engines The History of Search If you regularly read articles about search engines, then you've probably read Barry's words. No one else is so synonymous with search engine information than Barry Schwartz (aka, Rusty Brick), who has been reporting on the changing landscape of search and search technology since 2003. Barry is one of the most recognizable personalities in the [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – #5 Business Acumen
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #5: Business Acumen Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills that are in demand, and have always been in demand. Both employers and job seekers can build powerful, sustainable marketing teams when they focus on [...]
[Podcast] Government Communications & Marketing
Government Communications and Marketing Government Communications and Marketing Unless you've worked in government, you may have never thought about the marketing skills crossover in public information and government communications. Government communicators are part many federal, state and local government offices, and their job is to inform a variety of audiences: press, public, private industry and more. Similar to marketing, they must identify their audience, [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – #4 User Experience
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #4: User Experience (UX) & User Interfaces (UI) Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. Part 1: 7 Digital Marketing Skills that Won't Go Out of Style Part 2: 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Won't Go Out of Style: #1 Media Literacy Part 3: 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Won't Go [...]
[Podcast] Let’s Get Nice!
Let's Get Nice! Let's Get Nice! Dave Delaney, CEO of FutureForth, joins the show to discuss his book, the ROI of Nice. Dave conducts training and workshops at companies around the world, enhancing communication and workplace happiness - by teaching how to be nice. Dave gives us his NICE method for managing or working within teams, and we debate the work from home, return [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – #3 Analytics
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #3: Analytics Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. Part 1: 7 Digital Marketing Skills that Won't Go Out of Style Part 2: 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Won't Go Out of Style: #1 Media Literacy Part 3: 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Won't Go out of Style: #2 Writing In [...]
[Podcast] Marketing Space: The Final Frontier
How Do You Market Outer Space? Marketing Space Professed "Space Nerd," Izzy House joins the podcast to talk about the exciting realm of space and how she is working with companies to tell their stories to the public. We maybe know a tiny fraction of what is happening in space, as the launches get the media attention. Izzy presents the research, development, manufacturing, and [...]
[Podcast] Google Search Ads – Losing Keywords and Control
Google Ads: Why are we losing keywords and control of our campaigns? Ashley Jones, (formerly Ashley Schweigert) visits the Endless Coffee Cup studios. We revisit Ashley's last visit and the discussion about the changes with Google Ads and challenges for new advertisers. Then, we examine the recent changes and moves within Google Search Ads. From changing keyword targeting to automatic Smart Ads to dealing [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – Writing
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #2: Writing Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. Part 1: 7 Digital Marketing Skills that Won't Go Out of Style Part 2: 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Won't Go Out of Style: Media Literacy In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills [...]
[Podcast] Defining Social Media, Part 3. Social Commerce, Advertising & Analytics
Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 3! Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 3 Did you miss the first parts? Here is Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 1 and Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 2 Long time friends Matt Bailey and Greg Jarboe are partnering on an upcoming book from Wiley, "Digital Marketing Fundamentals: OMCP's Official Guide to OMCA Certification." The core of the book is [...]
[Podcast] 7 Skills That Never Go Out of Style – Media Literacy
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Skill #1: Media Literacy Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. Part 1: 7 Digital Marketing Skills that Won't Go Out of Style In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills that are in demand, and have always been in demand. Both employers and [...]
[Podcast] Defining Social Media, Part 2. Content Marketing, Influencers, & Audiences
Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 2! Content Marketing, Influencers, & Audiences Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 2 Did you miss the first part? Here is Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 1 and Part 3; Social Commerce, Advertising & Analytics Long time friends Matt Bailey and Greg Jarboe are partnering on an upcoming book from Wiley, "Digital Marketing Fundamentals: OMCP's Official Guide to OMCA Certification." [...]
[Podcast] 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style
7 Digital Marketing Skills That Never Go Out of Style Invest in the individual instead of investing in trends. In the single shot episodes, Matt will respond to listener questions, comment on past guests, and bring up news beyond the headlines. In this single shot episode, Matt compares the popularity and emphasis on trends to the skills that are in demand, and have always [...]
[Podcast] Defining Social Media, Part 1. Channels, Platforms, & Changing Rules
Defining Social Media Marketing, Part 1 Channels, Platforms, & Changing Rules Long time friends Matt Bailey and Greg Jarboe are partnering on an upcoming book from Wiley, "Digital Marketing Fundamentals: OMCP's Official Guide to OMCA Certification." The core of the book is defining each area of digital marketing and outlining the critical skills and knowledge necessary to achieve the OMCA Certification. As a major [...]
[Podcast] Everything is Fake!
Everything is Fake! Single Shot episode with Matt Bailey We live in a (digital) world of fakes, frauds, and filters. From inflated user counts to clickbait headlines and filtered influencers, how can we know what is true? Growing up, we said that we "had to see it to believe it." Later it became "trust, but verify." Unfortunately, in this age the mantra is "assume [...]
[Podcast] Podcasting as Counter-Narrative
Podcasting as Counter Narrative Decolonization through the Podcast Medium Podcasting enables voices to be heard. Podcasting is naturally anti-establishment, as it enables under-represented peoples to be heard. Though this medium, listeners can easily access a variety of viewpoints, sources, and opinions without restriction. In many cases, podcasts offer alternative views than are presented in traditional news and entertainment media. The stories and information provided [...]
[Podcast] Why a Podcast? Single Shot with Matt.
Why a Podcast? Single Shot episode with Matt Bailey In the single shot episodes, Matt will respond to listener questions, comment on past guests, and bring up news beyond the headlines. In this single shot episode, Matt talks about online engagement, the nature of podcasting as a medium, and answers a listener questions about podcasting in both personal and data terms. Join the discussion [...]
[Podcast] Let’s Agree to Disagree
Let's Agree to Disagree A blueprint for building bridges instead of walls Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff are the featured guests as they bring us commentary on their new book, "Let's Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management and Critical Media Literacy." The book is part textbook, part guidebook, and full of inspirational examples of people who made an effort [...]
[Podcast] The Value of Networking
The Value of Networking The Value of Networking I sit down for virtual coffee with LeTip CEO, Kim Marie Branch-Petit to discuss the value of networking. If I could point to one piece of advice that I would give to any business, entrepreneur, salesperson, student - or anyone who wants to further their career, it's to build a network. Your personal network is like [...]
[Podcast] Avoid Burnout and Increase Productivity
Avoid Burnout and Increase Productivity Reduce Stress and Increase Productivity For any business professional, burnout can be just around the corner. There are many warning signs, but we seem to be able to suppress them, ignore them, and make excuses. Dr. Tomi Mitchell walks us through some of those signs, which can’t be ignored. Not only will burnout reduce your productivity, but it will [...]
[Podcast] Memes as Propaganda: A Meme Analysis
Memes as a Propaganda Tool Why do Memes capture our Attention? Memes have been called the currency of the digital culture. Matt calls them the ultimate thought bomb, and our guest Joshua Nieuburrt calls them leaflet propaganda of the digital age. But what is it about memes that capture our attention and make them so powerful and effective at communication and persuasion. Memes gain [...]
[Podcast] Starting a Business? Where Do You Start?
Starting a Business? Where Do You Start? What does it take to start your own business? Starting your own business isn't just a consideration, it's a valid career choice! In a recent survey, 70% of Americans viewed starting a business as a career choice. And it's attracting all ages, as startup founders are trending younger than the average age of 34! Globally, a record [...]
[Podcast] Why No One Talks About the Long Tail Anymore
Why Doesn't Anyone Talk About the Keyword Long Tail Anymore? Remember the Long Tail? When Google removed keyword referral data from analytics in Sept 2013, the SEO industry took a big hit. You can debate about the merits of this move, as many have. What it did was effectively transform the SEO and keyword industry. Without seeing how nuances of wording and phrases affected [...]
[Podcast] Turn the Tide on Programmatic Fraud with Analytics
Turn the Tide on Programmatic Fraud with Analytics Turn the Tide on Programmatic Ad Fraud with Analytics Dr Augustine Fou, Ad Fraud expert, joins Matt once again to talk about the increasing awareness of ad fraud. Nearly every day there are reports and articles detailing how ad fraud funnels millions of dollars away from publishers and supports everything from hate speech to international espionage. [...]
[Podcast] Creating Arabic Influencers
Creating Arabic Influencers Creating Arabic Influencers Arabic is spoken by 300-400 million people in 25 countries, yet is only 2% of the content online. Meet Rashid Al Awadhi, who is leading New Media Academy in Dubai to transform the Arabic region through digital skills and developing influencers. But it's the the typical "influencer" that you might think. They've developed influencers who are changing the [...]
SiteLogic launches digital marketing certification courses
SiteLogic launches digital marketing certification courses which feature more learning by doing, less watching video. Students who’ve completed Matt Bailey’s preparatory course on LinkedIn are earning 87.32% pass rate on OMCA exam, among the highest in the industry Canton, Ohio – Matt Bailey, the founder of SiteLogic, today announced the launch of a series of Digital Marketing Certification Courses which feature more learning by doing and less watching video. [...]
[Podcast] Marketing’s Meaningless Language Problem
Marketing's Meaningless Language Problem Marketing has a problem with language...it's meaningless. From impressions to engagement to brand love, marketers have a problem with language. Words have been emptied of meaning, buzzwords have replaced meaningful thought, and outrageous concepts are worshiped as the "next big thing." Matt brings these observations to Linguist and Educator, Norah Jones, to get an outsider's view of what happens to [...]
TechCred Ohio Training: OMCA Certified Digital Marketing Professional
Certified Digital Marketing Professional Training SiteLogic Training offers a 40-hour online coached course to learn the skills and competencies needed for OMCA certification. What is the OMCA certification? The Online Marketing Certified Associate (OMCA) certification is a worldwide standard for digital marketing that verifies the skills, education, and experience necessary to drive digital marketing initiatives. A passing score on the OMCA exam is required for [...]
[Podcast] So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?
Starting Your Own Business There have been more searches on Google for "start a business" than "find a job." If starting a business is in your thoughts, then you need to listen in and hear from 2 people who have done it, made the mistakes, and can provide advice to how to start, where to invest and how to grow. Longtime friend and agency [...]
[Podcast] Google Ads: Search and Display
Google Ads: Search and Display How can we handle the increasing complexity of Google Ads? Matt talks with Google Ads expert Brad Geddes about the recent changes to Google Ads. Increasingly, advertising is becoming more complex, creating difficult choices for SMB's and Enterprise advertisers alike. Budgets, technology, confusing language, and G4 or Universal?!? Who can handle all of this? This is why we talk [...]
[Podcast] Holiday Emails: The Most Wonderful Time of Year
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Black Friday and Holiday Email Campaigns The Most Wonderful Time of the Year for Holiday Email Marketing Many retailers make 50-75% of their revenue in the last 2 weeks of November and first weeks of December. Email is the cornerstone marketing tool for retailers as they ramp up efforts to reach customer, gain new customers, and increase [...]
[Podcast] Examining the Customer Journey
Building the Customer Journey What does it take to build a real-world customer journey? After reading a well-known source that claimed that people "don't just wake up and decide to buy," Matt takes issue with the formulaic and template-driven journey. Because people really do wake up and buy things without traveling the marketer's well-planned journey. Mary Czarnecki joins in to provide practical advice about [...]
[Podcast] The Rich Investment of Multicultural Marketing
The Rich Investment of Multiculturalism While this conversation takes place during Hispanic Heritage Month, this conversation with Gaby was long overdue, and it certainly won't be the last. Multiculturalism is not just a good idea in marketing, but good practice in life to understand and relate to the rich experiences brought by other cultures. In marketing, we can be very tone-deaf with messaging if [...]
[Podcast] Why is SEO so Undervalued?
Why is SEO so Undervalued? Greg Jarboe joins Matt to talk about the "undervaluing" of SEO. Both long-time experts see search engines providing the bulk of visits to websites through analytics. Yet, despite the evidence, companies are spending more and applying more resources to social media and new unproven platforms! Even with the data that shows the value of investing in search engine [...]
[Podcast] Privacy, Data Ownership, & Google Analytics
Who Owns Your Data? + What's Wrong with Google Analytics G4? Stéphane Hamel has given data and privacy a lot of thought, If you are concerned about data and privacy issues, then listen in as Stéphane outlines critical ownership issues of data and the consumer expectation of privacy. Listen in to learn what Stéphane means by #NoConsentNoTracking! In the last half of the show, [...]
[Podcast] Therapy for Marketers
Marketers, We're All In This Together. Mary Czarnecki joins me to talk about issues that marketers face. As we both train for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), we see a lot of similar issues in marketing departments across the spectrum. We've found that most of the problems are not unique! In fact, the vast majority of problems, frustrations, and difficulties are universal experiences. [...]
[Podcast] Google Strong-Arms an Update
Google, The 800-pound internet gorilla, forces an update. Google’s new update hit in May, Core Web Vitals or Page Experience. This update focuses more on technical aspects of the site than content. However, at the same time Google discontinued AMP, which publishers had to invest heavily to maintain their presence in the search results. These changes will strain the Google-publisher relationship even further. Even [...]
[Podcast] SEO Myths That Won’t Go Away
6 SEO Myths that just won't go away. SEO is a tricky business to begin with, and it isn't helped by the amount of dis-information that is constantly published online. Matt was recently asked about a few tactics that he through were done and buried, but alas! These myths were alive and well and being recommended by a professional SEO agency! T. Osinubi joins [...]
[Podcast] What Modern Marketing Can Learn From Ancient Philosophy?
Philosophy and the Modern Marketer What can we, as modern marketers and advertisers leaning into the 21st century, learn from Ancient philosophy? We have a lot to learn, according to Industrial Philosopher, Christina DiGiacomo. With 20 years in advertising and 10 years studying Practical Philosophy, she brings a fresh approach from history to solving the many issues that we face today. [AMAZON] Aristotle: [...]
[Podcast] Interview with Mark Schaefer about the Influencer “Minor Leagues”
The New Influencers: More Celebrity than Authority? Matt interviews Mark Schaefer about his recent article, "Emphasis on celebrity over authority is blowing up influencer strategy." Mark explains how influencers are made up of the top tier of celebrities, then the next tier of authorities or content experts. Finally, the "minor leagues" which is made up of aspiring influencers. However, aspiring influencers are adept at curating [...]
[Podcast] How to Ask Questions
How to Ask (Great) Questions Questions Lead to Discovery. Why Don't We Ask More Questions? Matt Bailey talks with linguist and educator, Norah Jones about the importance and value of learning to ask questions. Questions enable us to give voice to our curiosity and “tap into humanity.” Unfortunately, in too many environments (home, school, corporate culture) we are discouraged from asking questions, as they [...]
[Podcast] The Value of Trust in a Digital Economy
How Valuable is Trust? John Marshall joins Matt to follow up on his previous appearance on Endless Coffee Cup, where he talked about his new book, Free is Bad. They talk about the reception of the book and the prevailing opinions about online privacy. John shares about his upcoming series of videos, “Can I Trust It?” which brings up another line of discussion about [...]
[Podcast] ‘Straight Outta Context’ with T Adeola Osinubi
What is the Value of a Formal Education in Digital Marketing? Many in the digital marketing industry think that a formal education is unnecessary. T. Adeola Osinubi not only disagrees with that thought but is also taking action to remedy the situation. In his book, Straight Outta Context, he explains how he was taken in by bad actors who were more than happy to [...]
[Podcast] Google’s “Smart Campaigns” Aren’t So Smart
What Happened to Google Ads? New advertisers signing up for Google Ads search ads are being treated to a “training wheel” experience, according to Matt. Matt and Ashley look at the sign-up and set-up process through the eyes of a new advertiser and find too many areas where the instructions are unclear, incomplete, or simply unavailable. These new “Smart Campaigns” may cost advertisers more [...]
[Podcast] Influence, not Influencers!
Build Brand Influence That Lasts Jason Falls joins Matt to discuss the power of influence in marketing, rather than the emphasis on influencers. Most of what is called "influencer marketing" misses the mark, according to Jason, as it focuses on the wrong things. Building influence is an online and offline activity that a business or organization needs to develop to create effective persuasion. It [...]
[Podcast] How to Create Amazing Content on YouTube
How to Create Amazing Content on YouTube The YouTube Creator formula: Get Better Everyday Greg joins Matt once more to continue their last discussion, YouTube's Secret Sauce. This conversation turns towards the process of making great content for creators and marketers. While the discussion focuses primarily on YouTube, the power of video is unmistakable. In this episode they dive into further aspects of creating [...]
[Podcast] Email Isn’t Going Anywhere!
Email is the steady, reliable channel that marketers dismiss at their own risk. Email is far from dead, dying, or going away. Despite bold pronouncements from industry experts, social media giants, and marketing insiders, Email has outlasted and outperformed every year. Even with the pandemic, email stats have grown, showing that a work-from-home population is tied to email more than ever. Email is the [...]
[Podcast] Exploring Our Primal Brain
How Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioral Science Inform Our Choices and Behavior. Matt Interviews Tim Ash ahead of the release of his book, “Unleash Your Primal Brain.” Tim Ash is one of the industry’s leading experts on conversion optimization. He has used his education and background in Cognitive Science and Computer Engineering to distinguish his approach. Matt & Tim discuss how evolutionary psychology explains many [...]
[Podcast] #52: YouTube’s Secret Sauce
YouTube's Secret Sauce: How to Reach, Engage, and Enchant Audiences Why do Brands Struggle on YouTube? YouTube is dominated by creators, instructors, and seemingly everyday people. As opposed to major media platforms such as AppleTV, Netflix, Amazon, and others, YouTube has enabled people to create and develop content and find audiences around the world. How were creators able to grasp and develop this platform, [...]
[Podcast] #51: B2B Virtual Selling Skills Are Lacking
Exposed by the Pandemic, B2B Virtual Selling Skills Fall Short In large part, B2B sellers have not evolved their virtual selling skills. A recent survey showed that the B2B virtual selling process is broken - but it is not because of the technology! Rather, when virtual presentations remove the sizzle, buyers don't see much substance. In the world of B2B sales, personality, charm, and [...]
[Podcast] #50: The Myth of Microtargeting
The Myth of Microtargeting Publishers moving to a contextual-only ad model are experiencing better sales and revenue. Will eliminating third-party cookies make the internet experience better? Dr. Augustine Fou returns to the podcast to explore recent events surrounding third-party cookies. These cookies enable the ad-tech industry to programmatically pinpoint an audience by collecting massive amounts of customer data. But how effective is microtargeting based [...]
[Podcast] #49 Fake News, Clickbait, and Digital Literacy
Fake News, ClickBait, and the Value of Conversation Nolan Higdon, the author of The Anatomy of Fake News, joins Matt again to talk about the post-election analysis of clickbait, fake news, and issues of digital literacy. This conversation reaches into many related facets, such as critical thinking, content marketing, ad fraud, and logical fallacies. Conversation is the main topic. The value of conversation, especially [...]
[Podcast] #48 Free is Bad
Free is Bad Have you considered how much of your daily digital routine is FREE? Have you ever stopped to think about all of the “free” things that you use every day? Email, Search, Web Browsers, Social Media, Apps, News & Information? All of these things cost someone, and they have to be paid for somehow. Unfortunately, according to John Marshall’s new book, Free [...]
[Podcast] Are Marketers Ignoring the Impact of the Pandemic?
Marketing's Lack of Empathy in a Pandemic Where is the Real Empathy? Any number of marketing media articles are focused on the economics of the pandemic. From spend estimates, sales estimates, and consumer psychology. Especially as we head into the holiday season, we are being bombarded with news and advice about how to position, brand, and sell in these "unprecedented times." But where [...]
Endless Coffee Cup #46: How to Spot FAKE News
How to Spot FAKE News and What to Do About It In this podcast, an interview with Nolan Higdon, author of The Anatomy of Fake News. Matt interviews Author Nolan Higdon about his recent book, The Anatomy of FAKE News: A Critical News Literacy Education. In a lively discussion, Nolan covers the historical roots of fake news (further back than you might imagine) and [...]
Endless Coffee Cup #45: Searching for Keywords
Don't Overlook the Most Powerful Tool in Marketing: Keywords Keywords are the foundation for digital marketing. They provide in-depth marketing data of searcher intent, word associations, and buying factors. So why is this important tool so overlooked? And why is Google slowly taking keyword data away? Many believe that AI will replace the need for traditional keyword research, but that may be a short-sighted [...]
Endless Coffee Cup #44: Is the Sales Funnel Dead?
Is the Sales Funnel Dead? Is the Traditional Sales Funnel an Effective Tool in Modern Digital Marketing? The past few months have brought about very interesting views of the traditional sales funnel. New funnel shapes and interpretations are created daily, such as the flywheel to the bowtie and more. Matt and Ashley discuss the changing application of the sales funnel and the helpful visualization [...]
Endless Coffee Cup #43: Search Engine Algorithm Studies
Decoding Google's Search Algorithm How reliable are the SEO Studies that claim to have reverse-engineered Google's search algorithm? In this episode, Jeff Ferguson of Amplitude Digital and Jennifer Hood, Data Analytics Consultant join Matt to discuss the accuracy of studies of Google's search engine ranking algorithm. Many SEO companies claim to have tested multiple aspects of the ranking algorithm and then use this data [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #42: The Amazing World of Ad Fraud
The Amazing World of Ad Fraud Uber turns off 2/3 of their programmatic ad spend ($150 million) – and sees no change in results. A CNBC reporter with no programming experience created a website with plagiarized news content, got approved by ad tech partners and started making money by selling ad impressions – within days. A recent ISBA Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study – [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #41: The Need for Digital Literacy
The Need for Digital Literacy Skills Fake News, Deceptive Ads, Propaganda Matt and Ashley met up and recorded a socially-distanced podcast a few weeks ago. Of course, the conversation turned to the overwhelming amount of fake news surrounding COVID-19. But beyond fake news, there is a substantial problem in people’s ability to discern what is true and what is false information online. In addition, meme [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #40: Effective Online Learning
What is Your Experience with Online Learning? What does it take to create an effective online training experience? Classes are moving online! But is that a good thing? Many are complaining that instructors don’t know how to use the technology, and it might be leaving a bad impression of online/distance learning. My guest in this episode is Dr. Jennifer Summerville, an instructor for my master’s [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: Measuring the Effectiveness of Training
Calculating the Return on Training Many people need to maintain hours to retain their certification and those hours have moved to online training. Even more, virtual workshops, lectures and social distancing measures have increased as more people are forced to work from home. How does a training manager measure the effectiveness of their training? There are significant obstacles. Most notably competing priorities, lack of [...]
Podcast: Master Your Personal Presence Through the Webcam
Master your Personal Presence Through your Webcam Master your personal impact, persuasiveness and presence though your webcam. Welcome to this "Sheltering in Place" edition of the Endless Coffee Cup Podcast. As the world events have forced us to do business through the internet, the only external personal interaction is through our webcams. In this episode, Stewart Bewley joins Matt to talk about how we [...]
Endless Coffee Cup #37: Tap Into Neuromarketing
Tap Into Neuromarketing Did you know that there is a part of your brain that makes decisions quicker than your rational, logical thought? Your unconscious mind reacts quickly to stimulus, which then influences our reactions and rational thinking. Welcome to the world of neuromarketing! For years, advertisers have known and utilized techniques that tap into the unconscious mind faster and more effectively than traditional, rational [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #36: Don’t Go Chasing Algorithms
Don't Go Chasing Algorithms "HELP! I’ve lost my rankings in Google! It must have been the new algorithm!" If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this from a panicked email or call….well, you know the story. The reality is that 99.9% of the time, anytime someone believed that their website was a victim of the latest algorithm change – it wasn’t [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #35: Defining Content Marketing
Defining Content Marketing What is Content Marketing – Really? Content marketing is a huge buzzword, but what it stands for really isn’t all that new. Strip away the buzz and you have attention-grabbing content. That’s it. As every piece of content, it’s about leveraging marketing channels in a smart and strategic way to make sure that content gets in front of the right people [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #34 – Investigating Influencer Marketing
Investigating Influencer Marketing Influencer Marketing has become one of the latest shiny objects in marketing and popular culture, but does it deliver? Matt and Ashley delve into this topic and provide examples of influencer marketing both done well and performed poorly. Matt and Ashley discuss the following topics: How should a business approach influencer marketing? How does it compare to other marketing channels? [...]
6 Degrees of Lameness
Another day, another crop of terrible LinkedIn connection requests. Now don't get me wrong. I love LinkedIn. But has LinkedIn become Tinder for business professionals? Every request seems to be a stale, uninspired attempt at making a sale. But let’s be serious, it isn’t even a real connection.
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #33: “Marketing Plans”
50% of business owners do not have a marketing plan for 2019! By nature, the majority of business owners are not marketers. As such, many see taking time to think about marketing the same as going to the dentist. In a recent study, 86% of business owners prefer to spend their time on activities other than marketing!
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #32: “Working with Google Ads”
For the Business Owner, Google Ads can be Frustrating - Google Ads dominates the paid search market, and offers a host of options to allow advertisers to pinpoint potential customer with amazing precision. However, too many times, business owners receive a free $50 coupon, only to lose a few hundred after they attempt a campaign.
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #31: “Digital Accessibility Matters”
How important is Accessibility in Digital Marketing? Honestly, most have never thought about that question, so you may not be alone. Kim Krause-Berg joins Matt to talk about recent developments in Accessibility. Primarily driving this discussion are the recent increase in accessibility lawsuits. Past court rulings put websites in the same class as a commercial business; they have to accommodate and provide for anyone to access their store just as much as their website.
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #30: “What Are the Marketing Skills of the Future?
Michael Stebbins, Chairman of OMCP, joins Matt to discuss the skills marketers will need in the Age of Automation. Michael brings data from the 2019 OMCP Role Delineation Study conducted earlier this year, as well as interviews with hiring managers. Though the study is not published yet, the finding support the trends that Matt sees in the field: Soft Skills are increasingly in demand!
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #29: “Have SEO Best Practices Really Changed?”
Longtime associate Ashley Schweigert joins Matt to talk SEO. Recently, Matt ran across a training video that claims that SEO Best Practices have changed, and has some contention with that claim.
OMCP 2019 Role Delineation Study
How Do You Spend Your Marketing Time? The OMCP (Online Marketing Certified Professional) Certification performed a Role Delineation Study at the beginning of the year. The study asked participants to rank how much time they spent in each discipline. In addition, participants were also asked to provide insight into the required education, experience and training for each of these roles.
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #28: “Make a Prepared Pitch”
Matt’s LinkedIn inbox is full of requests, and most are lamentable as they are forgettable. Sue Grabowski joins us again to discuss the dismal state of “making the pitch.” When you send a LinkedIn request – are you taking the time to create a relationship or simply adding a connection? Sue and Matt wonder if social media and networking technology has reduced the value – and the effort- of making a good pitch. Especially pitches made through Email and LinkedIn Requests.
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #27: Find Your True Voice
Find Your True Voice Matt is joined by Stewart Bewley of Amplify. Stewart helps people to find their true voice. Having met while training at the same client, there was an instant friendship between Matt and Stewart. Both are in the business of teaching and empowering their students, Matt through marketing and Stewart through presenting. Of course with so much cross-over, there were a [...]
Avoiding Shiny Object Spending
So what are you buying when you pay for Influencer marketing? Unilever thought their agencies had found them a quick way to reach a broader audience: by partnering with successful, influential social media personalities who could amplify the brand's message to legions of new followers. Brands like Unilever pay for exposure based on the size of the influencer's audience. The more followers an influencer has, the more brands will pay [...]
Too Much Data, Not Enough Insight
That's the issue being faced by companies today. Because while data is everywhere, and there are a million ways to collect it... ...there's a lack of marketers who know how to read, interpret, and analyze that data in ways that drive decisions toward measurable business goals. In fact, 75% of marketers agree that a lack of training and education is the biggest barrier to making smart, informed business decisions. [...]
Procter & Gamble v Amazon
Procter & Gamble is going head-to-head with an 800-pound gorilla. Their game plan is to spend less. Amazon – and other major players dedicated to the digital advertising and retail spaces – are eating the lunch of some of the planet’s biggest competing brands. Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser across its 50 brands, was forced to reassess their approach to digital marketing management in an effort to [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #26: Selling Social Media
Selling Social Media Sue Grabowski joins me again as we discuss how to approach social media. With all of the negative press about social media, trends and attitudes are changing quickly. How can businesses react and approach this dynamic, yet volatile channel? Facebook’s changes have exposed social media for what they are - ad platforms! Because they have to make money, their product is people. [...]
“Your business has to be on Instagram!” . . . . is something I’ll never say!
Unless I know your business, it’s an irresponsible piece of non-advice. I am amazed at how many newsletters, articles, and posts simply repeat the same mantra over and over, and yet the only thing that changes is the “channel of the day.” I call it the Shiny Object Syndrome. What’s popular gets the attention and becomes the focal point of marketers and managers. Unfortunately, most marketers jump on board out of [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #25: “A Digital Marketing Trainer’s Playbook”
Digital Marketing Trainers Playbook In this podcast Matt and audience favorite Michael Stebbins of OMCP get together and of course, talk training. The passion to train and help organizations is clear as they share their behind-the-scenes stories as trainers. Get a few tricks of the trade and hear how trainers can be effective - beyond their material. Mike turns the tables about midway through [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #24: “Disrupting Sport”
Disrupting Sport In this podcast we go back to the subject of sport marketing, as Jim Kadlecek returns to join Matt in the studio to discuss disruption in sports. Beyond the playing field, there are enormous events that are shifting the landscape of sport. The biggest is not only the rise of player and team analytics, but back office analytics as more teams and [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #23: “High Fidelity”
High Fidelity In this episode, Ben joins Matt again as they discuss something that is very dear to many of us - Music. However, Ben’s background in sound engineering lends to the discussion of the quality of the music that we listen to. All joking aside, is today’s music different in sound quality? How does “personalized” music affect how we enjoy music? Now that everyone [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #21: “Sensationalized Headlines”
Sensational Headlines Ben Bailey from 2nd Beach stops by to catch up on the latest headlines. There is an amazing amount of headlines in the pile, and what distinguishes them is outright contradictions, fad-chasing, recycled content and selective facts. Fake News? How are we to know? Matt and Ben read through the headlines and discuss the reality behind the articles. They point out blatant [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #20: “Profitable Testing”
Usability: Profitable Testing Usability Conversations #3 Kim and Matt continue the conversation from the last show, as they delve into further testing and usability concepts. While the obstacles to good usability are well documented, Kim and Matt work through the common objections, difficulties and solutions. While suggesting testing plans and constant reviews, they maintain the focus on the bottom line of testing - improved [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast #19: “Usable Websites”
Usable Websites In the second of four episodes featuring usability guru Kim Krause-Berg, Matt and Kim talk about the types of usability tests and what they are intended to show. You'll hear about the power of a persona walk-thru, be introduced to "heuristics," and learn the value of a task-based test to evaluate your website. Of course, you'll also hear plenty of real-world examples [...]
Easy Usability Evaluation
I don't want to read - Take me to the podcast! Begin by asking 5 Questions about your website: Is my brand and my offer clear? With less than three seconds, can a visitor identify your brand and what you do? Many times, we are all too familiar with our company, and we neglect viewing it through a visitor’s eyes. While the site may be “old” to us, [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Usable Expectations”
Usable Expectations Pay attention to this episode! As Kim and Matt agree, the simplest changes to a website can make the biggest impact in your business. Of course, it is all about knowing which changes to make. That is where Kim's experience in Human Factors enables her to find the problems that website designers, owners and marketers will often overlook. They discuss multiple factors [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Marketing Sports”
Marketing Sports In this episode, Matt welcomes Jim Kadlecek to the show. Jim teaches Sports Marketing at Mount Union University and has been in the business of sports his entire career. If you have ever been curious about sport is marketed off the field, then this show will be a treat! There is a significant difference in marketing a product that may do well, [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Social Handshakes”
Social Handshakes Matt welcomes Jason Bruckner, Social Media Manager at Sanctuary Marketing Group. Matt and Jason talk about what makes a great Social Media campaign, as well as expectations versus reality of social media marketing. Matt and Jason both share about campaigns they’ve worked on as well as campaigns that have their attention as an example of great execution. They'll provide their opinions about the necessary elements [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast “Entrepreneurial Analysis”
Entrepreneurial Analysis Michael Stebbins of OMCP.org joins Matt again to discuss business ideas, starting businesses and the entrepreneurial world. You'll hear helpful advice and steps to evaluating ideas throughout this podcast, along with a healthy dose of real-life stories and accounts from both Matt and Mike. They cover a lot of ground (and drink a lot of coffee!) - everything from how entrepreneurs see the [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Holiday Marketing Wrap-Up”
Single Serving: Holiday Marketing Trends After the billions of dollars spent each day in the 2016 Holiday season, what were the big winners and losers in terms of marketing? It may surprise you. Some older, channels have become incredibly reliable at producing an incredible ROI. Some new channels have not lived up to the promise. In a different format, Matt provided a "single serving" [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Training Programs”
Another conversation with OMCP Founder, Michael Stebbins In this conversation Michael and I dig into the competencies required for digital marketing. We discuss training practices, standards and core skills necessary for this industry. How does one go about developing a standard competency for a young industry? Most of the digital marketing skills have between 15-5 years of accepted skills, and some have yet to [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Marketing Standards”
My conversation with Michael Stebbins, founder of OMCP This is the first of three podcasts with my friend Michael Stebbins, or "Silicon Valley Guy" as I tend to call him. Mike and I go back many years in the digital marketing industry, and out paths converged years ago. We both have a passion for teaching people, and Mike has pioneered multiple ways to do just [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Measuring Usability”
Usability & Analytics My brother Ben joins me again to talk about analytics, testing and usability. I ask Ben to provide specific "where to start" advice for anyone wishing to improve their business through user experience. You may be surprised to find that as an analyst, Ben starts with usability! We discuss analytics to start, but we move quickly into the areas of user [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Targeted Analytics”
When is Google Analytics Not Enough? In this episode my brother, Ben Bailey, joins me to discuss analytics. Ben is a well-known analyst in his own right. He has consulted with some of the world's biggest brands, as well as with Analytics companies. And (as I tell people) he may be my brother, but he is the best analyst I've ever worked with. The [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Just Rhetoric”
So, What is Rhetoric? Rhetoric saturates our daily lives, yet many are unaware of the powerful means of persuasion that are constantly leveled at us in marketing, politics and social conversation. "Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." -George Orwell Just Rhetoric You may have heard politicians dismiss each [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Communication Art”
Communication Art "Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master” -Christian Lous Lange Sue joins me again as we explore the modern difficulties of communicating through electronic media. What makes it so difficult and how does it create so many mis-communications? We explore the science behind human communications and how electronic media exploits the worst of communication’s faults. However, we try to identify means of [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Scottish Tour”
Scotland Tour In this episode, Matt is on his "UK Tour.” One of the highlights of his time in the UK is taking the train north to Scotland and meeting up with one of his best friends in the business, Brian Mathers. Brian is one of the most respected marketing voices in the Scottish business community. He regularly teaches seminars around the country and [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Life Experiences”
Life Experience "Success is a terrible thing and a wonderful thing... Just do what you love.” Gene Wilder, 1933 - 2016 Matt and Sue are often asked to speak to university students and provide career advice. We both found the college experience helped build a foundation to do many things in life, not just a single career. Those experiences centered around specific classes or subjects, and [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Advertising Words”
The Words We Choose Words are central to this episode. How words are used, interpreted or even abused. Words are powerful influencers and invite us to participate, or words can be repelling - pushing us away. Our discussion starts with Agency practices. The evolving “advertiser” from Mad Men to today. What do people think when we say that we work in marketing? Creative processes, [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Shiny Things”
What distracts you? Headlines dominate the early part of the show, as we begin with a study which reveals that the majority of Fortune 500 marketers are looking for the next “silver bullet” market shifting technology. What is is that attracts us to the silver bullet mentality? Do we truly believe there is only a single "magic" thing that will radically grow our business? [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “In-valuable Content”
How Valuable is Content? The nature of online marketing has forced a dramatic increase in content. Everyone has become a publisher, as new content drives views, shares and even rankings. But what has this produced? Has the sheer amount of content available cheapened content overall? Matt and Sue cover headlines that attempt to place a value on content, describe reader behavior and assign responsibility for [...]
Endless Coffee Cup Podcast: “Authentic Marketing”
How Can You Be "Authentic" in Marketing? Matt and Sue attempt to get a handle on the latest buzzword and break it down into how marketers should approach authenticity. Does Authenticity mean accurate? Truthful? Caring? Personal? Let’s dig in to the meanings and implications of authenticity. However, this leads us into other areas of marketing and provides some honest introspection on what marketing really [...]
Endless Coffee Cup podcast: “Sexy Data”
Sexy Data In this podcast, "Sexy Data," Matt & Sue talk about how clients and agencies look at activity as a metric, rather than results. The headlines lead us into areas of client expectations and asking better questions about your target market. Matt loses his mind over a headline about "Big Data” which brings us into a discussion about data, customers and customer relationships. Of course, 'Sexy Data’ [...]
Data Requires Trust
Using Customer Data For Your Marketing? Better have Trust First. “I don’t like this,” my wife said as she tensely slid the mailer over to me. A local car dealer had sent a "For Sale" sign that displayed her name and vehicle: make Is marketing getting too invasive? model and year. They claimed to be looking for that model of car to purchase, as there is a demand for it. [...]
The Overlooked Marketing Channel: Customer Referrals
In the marketing space, there is constant talk about customer advocacy in social media, making moments matter and all things surrounding the digitally-based customer conversation. However, I believe that we tend to get wrapped up on all things digital (maybe because it can be measured, or get large budgets) and we tend to forget the most standard of marketing channels - the customer referral. I keep a library of old [...]
Simple Sales Wisdom: Follow-up after the Sale
The Amazing Follow-Up Benefits of a Welcome Series Email One of the more interesting psychological phenomenon surrounding sales is the concept of the post-purchase regret or “buyers remorse.” Buyers remorse is a common experience after making a significant purchase. When we invest in a major decision, it costs us, either in terms of a hefty loan or a significant amount of money, and we wonder if we made the [...]
How Technology can Improve Your Speaking and Presentations
The past few months have been busy on the speaking circuit. I love traveling to new cities and meeting people in different industries. It's always a fun time to spend learning about an industry and the nuances involved for their specific marketing needs. Preparing for a Presentation When I am speaking at a conference, I really like watching other speakers and learning other aspects of marketing. I noticed some [...]
Simple Sales Techniques: My “Yes, but” Rule
How to Screen Prospects Great Clients My consulting company, SiteLogic, has a steady stream of prospects that we have to work through. Since I've been in sales for over 30 years now, I find that one of the easiest ways to get good clients is to screen them before they become customers. The more time you spend in qualifying your leads and knowing the real motivations of the prospect, the [...]
5 Storytelling Lessons for Effective Communication
Earlier, I wrote about the 5 elements to help you to communicate compelling data. From comic books to novels; fiction to fact, there are consistent elements of telling a story that are just as effective when making a presentation. Your presentation can be about anything, but to keep the attention of your audience... Here are 5 C's of Effective and Memorable Storytelling: Clarity: Focus on your primary message. Leave details [...]
Communicate Data with Stories
Let's face it. Don't Be Boring With Your Data! Charts, graphs and reports are not an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon meeting. They are the death blow to a PowerPoint presentation. They are flat, boring, repetitive, and disengaging. The problem is that people do not care about data. Unless you provide a reason for them to care. They key is the connection. Stories are the most powerful [...]
Peer Pressure and Social Media – When to Just Say No
Just Say No - You mean I don’t need every social network? With the variety of social media avenues to take, how do you choose the best one for you and your cause? You may be hindering your message by blasting it across a variety of mediums rather than using particular social media avenues. There is a common and telling tale. You started small by posting snippets to Facebook, but [...]
Data is Subjective
Effective Communication A good friend of mine recently delivered a talk on how to increase one-to-one communication. She made the point that all electronic communication is ultimately binary - which is data. A wonderful observation, replete with significant implications. Communication is an Art. It requires active participation at the face-to-face level. Most communications students can quote the "90% of communication is non-verbal"mantra. But in today's business world, communication today is [...]
6 Reasons the IT Team Shouldn’t Be In Charge of Your Website Strategy
Too many people (you perhaps?) incorrectly assume that building and maintaining a website is only a technical endeavor. Because PHP, CSS, Java, and HTML (scared yet?) are literally considered other languages, its easy to assume that the translator - your IT team - is your website’s most important asset. They’re the ones who can make it work, after all. So IT ends up at the forefront of your web strategy [...]
Make Your Business Bigger by Marketing Smaller
Don't fall for the lie of big numbers In my presentations, I always refer to the marketing principle I learned over 20 years ago; "big numbers lie." The reasoning behind that simple statement is that we tend to get distracted or impressed by large numbers, and rarely take the time to understand the context behind them. How do we get dazzled by big numbers? Here are two examples: [...]
4 Lessons Content Creators Can Learn From Journalists
Writing the perfect headline. Create and Curate Content (That Gets Read) The internet is a black hole of information. One second you are being productive, the next you’re laughing at pictures of grumpy cats or pinning a new recipe you’ll swear to make soon. As a content creator, this makes it especially challenging to capture your audience's ever-shifting attention - and keep it. You only have a brief window [...]
Do You have a Marketing Problem or Process Problem?
What's Your Problem? Can you self-diagnose your technical marketing problems? I find that many businesses are somehow unable to self-assess. I think it is the nature of being inside an organization and part of a multi-functional organism that prevents us from being able to see all of the components that must work together to accomplish objectives. This is why consultants are such a necessary evil (not that I'm [...]
A Brief History of Social Media Trends: Consolidation and Diversification
"There is nothing new under the sun" - Solomon Updating the world on your status. Breathlessly, the media is reporting Facebook's sagging numbers as teens look elsewhere for sharing and networking. What will happen?!? Facebook has become the default platform where everyone shares everything. How else will Grandma be able to know if I'm OK, or see our pictures? So, teens are leaving to find a little bit [...]
Analytics in Football Terms
As Super Bowl Sunday approaches, it's clear that most people have football on the brain. As an Analyst, I have analytics on my mind most of the day, but football is also one of my passions. Because of this, I decided to combine two of my favorite things to help you understand "the game of analytics" in football terms. Possessions are like Acquisition How you acquire visitors to your website [...]
5 Semi-Pro Speaking Tips
Not one of "those" lists to improve your speaking. In the past few months, I've been seriously underwhelmed by the amount of articles online that claim to be full of "speaking tips." Attention to small details make a big difference Really, how many times can you re-hash the same basic concepts? Unfortunately, in this glut of "content marketing" I guess we are bound to see a certain amount [...]
Speaking Tips: Remove Idioms in your Speech
Improving your Speaking and Presentation Skills I'll never forget the experience. It was one of the funniest, if not horrifying examples of an idiom gone wrong. The Danger of Idioms I was speaking at a conference in France, along with 3 other English-speaking presenters. One of the presenters on the team had a habit of using idioms - not just in his presentations, but in regular conversations. He used them [...]
5 Ways to Work Deliberately + 1 Challenge to Work Profitably
Work Deliberately and Profitably Remove distractions – work intently Yesterday, I wrote about the choice to go about my day and my work by being deliberate. Instead of attempting to do 5 things at once, do one thing at a time, complete it and move on. Be deliberate about the work, the task or whatever it is you intend to do. Stop multitasking! Here are ways that I [...]
Not resolved, but deliberate.
Making Resolutions Deliberate Action With the new year comes an unending stream of articles on making resolutions, keeping resolutions, breaking resolutions and the "good intentions" of people to improve something about themselves in the next 12 months. While I try to resist this urge to make lofty resolutions that I know will be tested by the third week of January, there is something about doing something different in [...]
A Solution to Not Provided Channel Data
Not Provided If you are familiar at all with Google Analytics, you may have noticed the New Acquisitions Reporting and Channels Section that replaced "Traffic Sources" on the left side bar. While re-learning the location of these features may be a bit like going from riding a tricycle to learning to balance on a bicycle, Google has improved the information being presented in these reports overall. The Overview Report This [...]
A Margin of Importance
Overwhelming Data Making sales is one thing, making money is another. In working with so many people over the year, it is wonderful to be a part of amazing discussions and learn insights into so many businesses. Typically, I am meeting with the online marketing teams and spending time troubleshooting issues that range from technical problems, analytics tracking, or copywriting. I've often compared online marketing to a very [...]
False Correlations: When actions don’t follow goals
It's a disease. One that proliferates the minds of even the most practiced and experienced marketers. Equivocating actions to results, even though upon reflection or examination, it is clear that the action does not match the outcome; a non-sequitor. A false correlation is the assumption that one set of actions will result in a desired change, even though it is directly related. cor·re·la·tion [kawr-uh-ley-shuhn, kor-] noun 1. mutual relation of two [...]
Better Email Marketing Pt. 5 – Landing Page Optimization
In this series we will be identifying some of the biggest questions and concerns associated with email marketing. From finding the right vendor to understanding how people read emails, we will be diving into it all to help you make your email marketing efforts more successful and profitable. Now that you’ve picked the right vendor, constructed a plan of action, considered the overall design of your email, and thought about designing [...]
Save Time & Resources: Stop Reporting Irrelevant Information
Reports Show Your Company Culture When working with companies, one of the main things I look for is the reporting system and what information is being delivered every month. The reports are always interesting, as they show me what kind of company this is, even without experiencing the culture. Marketers feel helpless when all that seems to be requested or generated are the basics: unique visitors, time on site, rankings, [...]
Better Email Marketing Pt. 4 – Mobile Tips
In this series we will be identifying some of the biggest questions and concerns associated with email marketing. From finding the right vendor to understanding how people read emails, we will be diving into it all to help you make your email marketing efforts more successful and profitable. Now that you’ve picked the right vendor, constructed a plan of action and considered the overall design of your email, it’s time [...]
Marketing Mix 8-29-2013
Recommended Books Here is a book that I will heartily recommend for anyone who is operating an eCommerce site - or thinking about operating an eCommerce site. Managers and entrepreneurs alike will benefit from Shirley Tan's wisdom in Ecom Hell: How to Make Money in eCommerce Without Getting Burned. The book is also less than $7.00 for the Kindle, but it is also FREE from the Kindle lending library - [...]
On Building Loyal Customer Relationships
Loyalty and Data Privacy What? Me Worry? As an online marketer, I am very intrigued by the technological ability to gather so much information about buyer segments, loyalty marketing and customer relationship management. While I am concerned about privacy and the overwhelming nature of the NSA data-collection happening among our own citizens, I am simply amazed by the notion of knowing so much about a customer’s behavior and how to [...]
Better Email Marketing Pt 3: A Good Design
In this series we will be identifying some of the biggest questions and concerns associated with email marketing. From finding the right vendor to understanding how people read emails, we will be diving into it all to help you make your email marketing efforts more successful and profitable. Now that you've picked the right vendor and constructed a plan of action, it's time to consider the overall design of your [...]
Better Email Marketing Pt 2 – 6 Questions to Consider Before Sending out an Email
In this series we will be identifying some of the biggest questions and concerns associated with email marketing. From finding the right vendor to understanding how people read emails, we will be diving into it all to help you make your email marketing efforts more successful and profitable. After you've chosen the right vendor for your email marketing efforts, it's time to start thinking about your messaging. 6 questions to [...]
Better Email Marketing Pt. 1 – How to Choose the Right Vendor
In this series we will be identifying some of the biggest questions and concerns associated with email marketing. From finding the right vendor to understanding how people read emails, we will be diving into it all to help you make your email marketing efforts more successful and profitable. Email marketing can be complex, so is choosing an ESP (Email Service Provider). With so many potential providers with a vast range of [...]
Interpreting Analytics – Things to Remember & Consider in Your Reports
Finding the most valuable data for your business within Analytics can be tedious work. You may also find yourself navigating in discouraging circles, enduring distractions that cause you to forget what you were analyzing, or completing the same tedious steps to generate the same report every month. Google Analytics has provided several basic tools to help eliminate these scenarios. I will outline these tools using the data for my own [...]
The Elusive Reader
People do not read online content. Nearly every study since the dawn of the browser has shown the same thing, people do not read your website. However, that is not to say that they do not read anything! You can move people's eyes through your content, and emphasize the important information that will; Guide people to their content Make the critical information findable. People [...]
5 Steps to Better Presentations
Make Your Presentations Memorable On average I speak about 40 times a year at conferences, events and in-house training. When I am speaking at conferences, I always like to sit in on other speakers to pick up industry knowledge, and see how other presenters refine their craft. What Great Presenters Have in Common Your presentation slides are an extension of your content. I've noticed that "great" presenters have [...]
What is the Real Need?
Relying on Old Sales Wisdom I love reading old sales training books. I find that the practical wisdom in them is a refreshing change from much of today's glib thoughts on the reach of the latest social media. Sales is a hard science, by comparison. It relies on decades, centuries of experience in understanding people and how they react. Sales teaches you, more than anything, to be a student of [...]
SEO & Grade School Basics: Setting up Heading Tags
Remember in grade school when you had to write outlines for every paper you wrote? You had to turn those outlines in before you even started putting pen to paper, and it was for a grade. Take this same concept and apply it to your SEO strategy on your blog or website. Before you start generating a blog post or landing page, revert back to your elementary school eduction for [...]
Planning for Success with your Content Marketing
How Effective is your Marketing Plan? How much of your day is spent Reacting? It's a curious question, and one that I would love to see a poll taken among marketers. How much time is actually spent executing a clearly developed plan, as opposed to reacting to whims, fires and shiny objects. What is the result of your typical work day- was it spent reacting to situations as opposed to [...]
Improve Your Marketing Today
What can you do to improve your online marketing today? The problem with this question is that it implies that there is a list already in existence that you can pull from and apply. Without specific plans, you could always find an idea from reading 'advice columns' and simply apply it and see if it works. But let's go back to the first problem - what do you know to [...]
Four Features to Save You Time in Analytics
Finding the most valuable data for your business within Analytics can be tedious work. You may also find yourself navigating in discouraging circles, enduring distractions that cause you to forget what you were analyzing, or completing the same tedious steps to generate the same report every month. Google Analytics has provided several basic tools to help eliminate these scenarios. I will outline these tools using the Leopard Nation website. 1. Segments [...]
Big Numbers Lie – Ego Edition
Big Numbers Lie - Always Lessons Learned about Big Numbers In a phenomenon that is not just peculiar to the digital marketing industry, people love big numbers. Big numbers communicate a sense of accomplishment, movement in the right direction, and that things are "good." Context sheds light on big numbers However, I have learned one important principle during my years in online marketing, and that is that big numbers always [...]
7 Tips for Creating a Blog Content Marketing Plan That Really Works
With every new year, there comes new trends. Every 12 months (or 12 minutes) there’s something new grabbing our - and our clients’ - attention. Based on these new channels, methods or trends, we can start to shape our marketing goals to be more effective and profitable. When’s the last time you created an annual content plan for your website, blog, email and social media channels? With so much out [...]
Interview with BOA Small Business Community
How can Small Business Owners Keep up with Online Marketing? I was fortunate to be interviewed by the Small Business Online Community of Bank of America, and some great questions were posed. Small business owners have a lot on their minds these days, from the pressures of running a business to employees, books, legal, etc. Online Marketing is demanding more and more time from the business owner, and is unforgiving [...]
Seeking Challenge is the Path to Improvement
Be Uncomfortable. How many people seek to be uncomfortable? Unfortunately, maybe not enough of us seek out discomfort, because it is the only way we can grow. Too many people would rather be reinforced than challenged. It is always more comforting to hear what we believe and be affirmed in our beliefs rather than to hear what we do not like. It's always easier to say "yes" to a [...]
Pinterest for the Small Business
Just when you thought there couldn’t be one more social networking site to put your time into...Pinterest arrived. If you ever had a bulletin board in your room growing up, it was probably covered with pictures and notes all showing off your personality, hobbies, dreams and ideas. The same goes for Pinterest - A way to organize and share all of the inspiring things you find on the web. Think [...]
Consistency and Clarity
If there is one thing I notice (too much), it is fonts. I love fonts. I love seeing the differences and subtle uniqueness. Just a slight change in the "weight" of a font can give a word more "weight" in its presentation. In fonts, the depth, or lack of, understanding of the principles of Consistency and Clarity becomes obvious. While driving, I am amazed at the number of billboards [...]
Clicks, Conversions and Costs
What are you measuring? In the sessions I teach around the US and around the world, I find that people have been programmed to think in terms of clicks. Clicks, Rankings and Conversions are the big three terms I hear when people describe their online strategy. As an industry, the online world is difficult to see in a relate-able and contextual format, as there is so much to consider beyond [...]
The 2012 Election: A Digital Marketing Frenzy
There’s no denying that the 2012 election has been full of strategic digital marketing campaigns. From the YouTube ads to the promoted Facebook posts, you’re probably tired of seeing Obama and Romney plastered across your computer screen, your smart phone and your iPad. Not to mention your friends who have been Tweeting incessantly about binders full of women, Obamacare, and anything and everything to try to convince everyone else that [...]
When Should Your Business Send Emails?
Traditionally marketers have been told to schedule their email campaigns to be sent out early in the day on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. However, a study by MailerMailer shows those days and times have some surprising changes. It seems Sunday through Thursday have some of the highest open and click through rates, Sunday being the highest. Open Rates Sunday overwhelmingly beat out the other days with a 12.3% open rate [...]
The Worst Chart I’ve Ever Seen
Are You Suffering from Bad Data? A few months ago, a client sent me a report that they were getting from a vendor. Their request was that I "interpret" the data, as it was not clear that the data supported the statements of success that followed. The client suspected something was off, and he was right. Statistics can be manipulated, charts can be made to look good, and unless you [...]
Martha Stewart + Snoop Dogg / Bacon + Chocolate / PPC + SEO
On the surface, some things in life just don’t seem to compliment each other. There are sides people take and most times, they put a stake in the ground and can’t be convinced otherwise. Herein lies the fundamental issue - pairing seemingly disparate things can lead to amazing results. Just be open to the possibilities. Lots of clients come to us and tell us that they make all their money [...]
5 eCommerce Tips To Cash In Holiday Shopping
When was the last time a partner you worked with provided you with some information about your website engagement that actually compelled you to make a change on your website? The holiday shopping season is here. This year, cash in with some simple advice that will make a big impact. If you aren’t continually changing your website to improve usability for your customers, it’s time to stop resting on your [...]
5 Ways that Old Sales Wisdom Works Online
Old Sales Wisdom, for Effective Online Marketing Make Online connections with Sales Wisdom When I was considering career options, my father impressed on me the importance of sales training. One of the things he said, which i found to be true; "you will always be able to use sales training." Regardless of the industry, market or profession, what I learned in my earliest sales training has been helpful [...]
5 Keys to Better Presentations
Presentation Media Your slides are an extension of your personality I've been giving presentations for over 20 years now, and have used everything from a overhead projectors, slide projectors, whiteboards, chalkboards, PowerPoint and Keynote. Living through the evolution of a presentation media has been a fascinating transition, as a good speaker adapts the presentation to the media and is able to make it work for him. In addition, [...]
Nail Geo-Rankings and Learn Where Your Site has Optimal Impact
There are many obstacles in understanding the reach of a website, and organic geo-rankings are just one more thing we need to pay attention to. Observing how your site ranks for targeted keywords in different regions can affect your marketing and optimization strategies, particularly if you are using organic rankings as a Key Performance Indicator. As a rule of thumb, rarely use rankings as a KPI because of the many [...]
5 Easy Email Rules for Better Open Rates
Everyone knows that getting people to open emails these days can be a challenge, especially when we are getting inundated with dozens of messages a day. Make sure you are using these 5 basic rules and you can ensure that your message will get read and your open rates will improve leading to more sales. Send it from a real person Make sure your emails are coming from the appropriate [...]
Social Media Lessons for the Small Business from the Olympics
Every two years, the world comes together for what is one of the most amazing events in human history - The Olympics. With that event comes all the many ways to consume the cvast amounts of information generated from the games. Whether you check for updates on your smartphone or watch NBC’s (here in the US) or other network showing, there’s no mistaking the vast presence of social media that [...]
Transform Your Web Analytics in 3 Questions
Sadly, I find that many companies are still reporting the "Caveman Analytics" of; Unique Visitors, Avg. Time on Site and Page Views. I call this Caveman because we were generating these reports back in the middle 90's. If these reports are still being generated, you can save some time and money by simply stopping those reports! They do not lead to reporting success, goals or achievements. Here are 3 [...]
What type of hosting does your business need?
Web hosting has long been a hot topic of discussion in the internet marketing world and with good reason. Hosting is the foundation of your site just as bricks and mortar are the foundation of your home. If your home has a weak foundation, this leaves what is inside your home vulnerable. You wouldn’t build a home out of feathers and glue with expectations that it would stand through a [...]
Becoming a Data-Based Business: The Medium is the Message
Social Media Messaging What is Your Message? The primary foundation of any social-media participation is to first evaluate your business and your message. Your message is of significant importance. It communicates who you or your business is and the value that you bring to the marketplace. Your message is the hook that brings people to your website, makes them curious to know more, and persuades them to take action. The [...]
Becoming a Data-Based Business: Making Your Own Trends
Using Data to Make Better Decisions Marketing Woes A couple of news stories hit the wire that really captured my attention this week. Mostly in the social Media Marketing arena, the first article was about how retailers are closing their FaceBook stores. Gamestop, JCPenney, Gap and others were the first to explore retail on Facebook. Only a year ago analysts and Social Media experts were excited about the potential of [...]
Becoming a Data-Based Business: Knowing What to Do, Why and When.
Finding the "It" Factor One of the more interesting things about running an online marketing agency is trying to find common factors among those employees and associates that are able to excel and understand the online marketing world. Trying to find that intangible “it” so that when the time comes to hire and expand, we can get the right people. You see, it’s more than being able to perform [...]
Caveman Analytics
I couldn’t believe it when i saw it, but here it was. A national retailer sent me the analytics reports that their SEO company was giving them. In exchange for paying this SEO company thousands of dollars per month for SEO and analytics, this retailer was getting nothing more than screenshots of Google Analytics; screenshots that showed Unique Visitors, Page Views, Time on Site and Top Content. I never thought [...]
FaceBook Marketing for Businesses: Would your lawyer agree to this?
Who owns your social media marketing content? I had a great question posed to me at a seminar a few weeks ago. The question concerned the ultimate ownership of content, especially when using social media. I knew that FaceBook takes ownership of your content, but I was not sure how the Terms of Service actually read. So I went there to see FaceBook's legal policy on ownership of Intellectual Property [...]
Google Analytics Limits Marketers – Claims “Privacy”
An interesting move from Google has search marketers reacting in anger, amazement and disgust. Google, after years of providing search referral information, has decided that users that are “logged-in” to Google will no longer have their search terms show up in website analytics. This move has marketers fuming, as this is an important metric to measure in terms of developing a clear understanding of the search words that people use [...]
Color, Contrast and Text Size
3 of the most important elements in designing the content of a webpage are color, contrast and font size. These three elements are amazingly useful when used properly, and mean the difference between action or ignorance. Understanding the important part that these three elements play in capturing the visitor’s attention is critical to today’s online marketing. Google Analytics finds the Interface Google is the most recent company to understand the [...]
Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day
Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day This exciting project was the work of over 14 months of research and development for presenting a start-to-finish guide to internet marketing. The book covers the testing of your current site or the considerations to starting a new site, and the development of marketing campaigns to extend the visibility of a business. What Others are Saying... Already the book has received great reviews from [...]
Your Search Engine Rankings Reports are Wrong
Search Engines do not like ranking report software. Period. In the past, some search engines allowed an API access key to be used for ranking report software, and it can still be utilized today. Without utilizing the API key for the reports, you could be blocked from accessing the search engine. Software-automated queries drain resources, bandwidth, and inflates ad impressions, which is used to compute quality score for Pay-per-Click Ads. [...]
Google Analytics and Bounce Rate Loyalty
Bounced visitors are worthless right? Not necessarily, they may be loyal to you, and visit many times.
Search Engines, for all of their innovation, fail innovators
Re-designing or redeveloping a website has become a major issue for companies, as they seek to refine their online presence and invest in their websites. However, more than ever, the search engines are the biggest obstacle to website improvement. Planning for a Re-Design I find that in our development and Information Architecture consulting, one of the largest hurdles that we encounter is dealing with the transition from the old website [...]
Analytics – Fun and Easy Part 3: Segmentation Finds Motivation
Part 1: Analytics: Is it Fun or Easy? Part 2: Ambiguity is Opportunity Part 3: Segmentation Finds Motivation Why Segmentation? Segmentation is the principle that people come to the website for many different reasons, they enter at many different points, the see different pages, and are looking for many different pieces of information. Basically – you can’t treat all of your visitors the same way, neither in the marketing and [...]
Analytics: Is it Fun or Easy? Part 2- “Ambiguity is Opportunity”
Part 1: Is Analytics Fun or Easy Part 2: Ambiguity is Opportunity Hamster-Wheel Analytics From Part 1, setting goals is the first and only place to start when developing an analytics strategy. Otherwise, the analyst or the website marketing manager will spend the majority of their time developing reports with numbers on them. The rest of their month will then be spent justifying why those numbers are higher or lower [...]
Website Analytics – is it Fun or Easy? Part 1
Hearing the questions from so many that come to my seminars, one would think that analytics was difficult or hard to grasp. Seriously, it has caused great wonder as to why the concept of analytics would prove such a perplexing and daunting task to so many people. Unlearn Analytics At the heart of the matter, I believe, is that many people have been incorrectly “trained” based on their thinking and [...]
The Myth of “Technically Accessible”
This has been stewing for a while. Just brimming under the surface. An brewing anger towards companies that do not understand accessibility, nor the commitment that is required to be accessible, but will give it a light treatment simply as a sales tactic. Basically, I’ve had it. I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore. I’ve worked with too many projects where a vendor has [...]
Multi-Channel Marketing and Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
Multi-channel merchants suffer from a self-fulfilling prophesy, and it is completely understood. On the surface, it makes perfect sense. For those that slept through Psychology 101, Self-fulfilling prophesy is when you tell yourself that you are no good at math, you keep telling yourself this and as a result, don’t study as much, give up easily, so that when you finally take the test, you score low, and you mark [...]
The Importance of Context in Content
I’ve read two books in the past few weeks, and have been amazed at the difference they make in my understanding of two subjects: Grammar and Algebra. I wish I have had access to these two books while in school, as I know they would have made an impact on my learning and understanding of the subject matter. I hate x I used to be really good in Math, until [...]
The Ability to Question with Authority
Cultural critics and wordsmiths gather around for this outstanding foray into verbal investigation. Have we lost our way when declaring ideas? Why has the declarative been exchanged for the inquisitive? Have we lost our ability, or our nerve, to declare our thoughts with confidence? Highlights include: “We’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know . . , a long time ago.” “It is [...]
Matt Bailey giving MarketingTalk at Google
I traveled to the Googleplex to be a presenter for their “MarketingTalks@Google” series. This is an awesome invitation, spawned from the “Analytics According to Captain Kirk” segment in my analytics training and presentations. I’ve known the staff at Google Analytics since their Urchin days, so it’s always nice to see their success and adoption into Google. I was in San Jose for Search Engine Strategies that week, [...]
Analytics As a Subversive Activity
Your analyst is the most dangerous person in your company. A good analyst is one that cannot be trusted to follow the company line. They probably always ask for proof or data to back up claims, they challenge long-standing assumptions, and they don’t settle for status quo. That’s their job. A company needs to be questioned to grow. Questioning is the only way that companies can get past lock-step obedience [...]
Analytics 1.0 – A Case of Velleity
Expecting Different Results From Doing the Same Thing Velleity is a word that has dropped out of the general vocabulary, unfortunately. I am attempting to bring it back, as it has more relevance now than ever. Velleity is a desire to see something done, but not enough desire to take action that will make it happen. Wow! Reporting v Analyzing In my analytics training classes I ask the attendees about [...]
Small Business Website Marketing Frustrations
Anyone who has worked for or run a small business knows how hard it can be to get good marketing advice. Everyone from the high priced consultant to the guy you buy your laptop from has advice on how to get ahead online. Most of them are wrong. It can leave a small business owner so desperate for advice, they'll take it from anyone. Even the guy sitting next to [...]
If Someone Wants To Talk About You, Encourage Them!
When it comes to blogging, I find myself on both sides of the coin. Here at SiteLogic, we heavily advocate blogging for business as a great customer service/link/traffic resource. We also know how valuable it can be to have an influential blogger talk about your company or product. On the flip side, I am also a hobby blogger with a decent following and increasing influence in my niche. Even if [...]
Make Your Website Content Explode
The importance of words Mao Tse-Tung understood the power of words when he wrote that “words are like little dynamite sticks in people’s minds . . . .” He was talking about communism, but the same holds true for marketing. Words are much more than labels, they are potential explosions that will connect and create an emotional response. Don’t let your website languish with wimpy, neutered copy. Create explosions with [...]
The 30 Second Sound Bite is Dead, All Hail the 140 Character “Twitterbyte”
The New Speed of Mass Communication The past few conferences and events that I have attended witnessed the party-crashing technology of Twitter. If you are new to Twitter and not sure what it is, or haven’t even heard about it, here is the best way to describe it: imagine seeing all of your friend’s Instant Message conversations with each other and you – and being displayed to the world. It’s [...]
Engagement: What Is It?
What is Engagement? At the recent eMetrics conference in Toronto, Canada, I heard a number of people talk about site engagement. They all seemed to have their own idea of what it was exactly, but for the most part, it all had to do with time on site and page views. Time on Site/Page Views Engagement I heard the Director of Customer Intelligence and Analytics for a certain major software [...]
Concerned about the Recession? Invest in your Website!
The ROI of Search Engine Optimization, Usability, and Analytics. I’ll tell you why I love what I do. I love helping other people be successful in their business. And this industry provides the tools for making an impact. Right now. SEO, Usability, and Analytics are the best investment that you can make for your online business. If you have never looked at optimization, usability, or 'real' analytics research for your [...]
Everything I know about Social Media I saw in a British Pub
The Social House I recently came back from an extended trip to England, where my wife and I spent some time in Northern England with Mike Grehan. Mike is incredibly passionate about living in Newcastle, and should be knighted as an evangelist for Northeastern England. Visiting Mike’s pub was probably the most enjoyable experience I had. Not in the least of which was the glorious fish ‘n chips and sticky [...]
The Convergence of Online and Offline Networking
Networking Builds Business John Jantsch once posed a question, “Is networking online really that different?” Precisely. It’s not. Networking is the best way to grow your contacts, your business, build sales and relationships. I’ve found that the more pervasive social networking tools are online; they still reflect the primary essence of personal networking. I have met countless people online, yet when we are able to finally meet face-to-face, it changes [...]
Marketing Rocks on YouTube
I am a child of the 80’s. Play some New Order, Yes, or Van Halen and you’ve got my attention. And yes, I’ll even admit that I like the power ballads, especially from Journey. I mean, really, who didn’t grow up in the 80’s and slow dance to “Open Arms?” That song was standard homecoming and prom material. Well, couple my love of 80’s music and internet marketing and this [...]
Marketers Need to Learn Romance
There has been a proliferation of articles about using social media and how marketers see this as a vast new land of opportunity. Unfortunately, the majority of stories also feature how marketers fail miserably at establishing trust in these social media spaces, and most of that has to do with the attitude of the advertisers. Too many times, marketer’s feel as through social media has been created for their benefit, [...]
Social Media and Reputation
This thought provoking article, 4 Ways Social Media Can Ruin YOUR Reputation, brings to mind the saying of my grandmother's: " You are known by the company you keep." While some may dispense with this as old-fashioned advice in the new socially-networked world. I find it to be true now more than ever. Privacy not invaded, but given away I've done many presentations to parents about social networking and what [...]
5 Typical Website Obstacles: 2008 Version
From years of troubleshooting websites for companies, I have consistently run up against the same problems. The size of the company, or the website for that matter, has very little to do with these problems, however I usually find that larger companies have these problems at unusually higher rates than smaller companies. Each of these problems can kill your internet marketing campaign in the search engines. They have critical importance [...]
When Bad Reviews go Good
I am a strong advocate for customer reviews on websites, Studies have shown that they are used by many consumers and have a direct impact on people making a decision, whether it is for a book, music, restaurant, or hotel. However, I usually come up against a typical objection: what about bad reviews? We’ve all heard it. Business owners are horrified at the prospects of someone leaving a horrible review [...]
Content v Creative – Where does the Customer Count?
I had a very interesting conversation with Charles Prescott, the VP of Global Education for the Direct Marketing Association. Charles comes from a direct mail background, whereas I am a child of the internet. We like to joke with each other about which is the better medium, but ultimately we know that there is a lot that we can learn from each other. Direct Marketing Success One of the things [...]
Interested in Viral Marketing? Give me something to talk about.
In the Most Obvious Headline of the Year, eMarketer tells us that “Poor Content Makes Viral Marketing Fizzle.” Really. Jupiter Research reports that only 15% of viral campaigns get passed along. The reason viral marketing rates are so low? Poor Content. (What a surprise) I do many planning campaigns throughout the year, and we’ve heard more than our share of lame pitches. We have companies tell us that they want [...]
SiteLogic joins Market Motive
There are a some people that I highly respect in this industry, so when a few of them got together and started a company - it got my attention. When they said that they were starting a training company, I got very interested. The combination of John Marshall, Michael Stebbins (both formally of ClickTracks) and Avinash Kaushik (author of Web Analytics an Hour a Day) joined forces because of their [...]
SiteLogic Expanding Training Opportunities
SiteLogic expanding into more training opportunities: 2007 This has been an extremely busy summer, and there has been no lack of productivity. In fact, things have really been heating up in a number of areas. SiteLogic’s commitment to training businesses in internet marketing has been significantly enhanced by creating relationships with a number of organizations. Now You Know Media Did you know that the average commute time in the US [...]
Airline Delays and Word of Mouth.
Anyone who has flown has probably experienced the unfortunate delays that are consistently plaguing the airline industry. As much as I travel, I expect it, however it has been rare. For some of my friends, their only time flying this year resulted in a frustrating experience. Amazingly, they were delayed twice On the way there, and on the way back. I understand that the airplanes face tough choices and that [...]
Marketing without Metrics?
Mike Moran from IBM made a very insightful post a few weeks back. Unfortunately, I don’t think it received the attention that it should have. It really is the frustration of many consultants and marketers like myself who go through all of the pains to help clients market themselves effectively, but they just don’t get the fact that analytics has EVERYTHING to do with marketing. Like Mike, my approach in [...]
What’s the Customer’s ROI?
Many times businesses are so focused on their own sales and return, that they neglect the very people that provide those sales. I find this on many sites, where there is no information available to make even to slightest decision about the product or about the company. Contentment for a Dollar This became very real to me the other day, from the simplest of situations. I went to the store [...]
3 Principles of International Website SEO
I have always fielded questions concerning international strategies, primarily that of US-based companies branching into Spanish-language websites or content. However, the frequency of these questions have increased the past few years, along with the variety of international markets that companies are looking to target. There are a few levels of international strategies that I have observed and had the pleasure of consulting and analyzing for the campaigns. They range from [...]
Are You Creating a Customer Experience?
While browsing websites for gift ideas, I am constantly seeing the awesome potential of multimedia. Now that there are multiple social websites for almost every kind of media, the potential for customers to be exposed to your experience is limitless, and really inexpensive. My wife loves wind chimes, and I found some very interesting and different types of chimes. However, as most ecomm sites go; there is usually a picture [...]
The Rules of the Conversation
Scenario #1: You are in a conversation at a party, maybe with one or two other people, and someone comes up, interrupts, and starts talking about something completely different. They typically end up controlling the conversation and the original groups quickly excuses themselves to leave and find new conversations. Scenario #2: You are at a networking event, maybe for a chamber of commerce or a conference. You are in a [...]
The Consumer Break-up
Topics just seem to write themselves. Once I start done the branding pathway, content springs up all over the place. Much like you notice more VW’s on the road after you just bought one. Here's a funny mini-drama about the break up of a consumer and an advertiser. Much like the debate that goes on between branding (corporate objectives) and optimization (searcher objectives) this video goes to the heart of [...]
Branding v Optimization- Something Has to Give.
Hot on the heels of my last article, "The Basics of Search Engine Optimization", many commenters and emailers have let me know their opinions and stories about branding conflicts with search marketing. In-house SEO's feel the pain more than the rest as they struggle to keep the keywords in front of the searchers, only to have corporate directives control the page title, relegating the website to the 3rd or 4th [...]
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization
This morning, I presented at the Direct Marketing Association’s ACCM conference (for catalog retailers.) I always enjoy these specialized conferences because we can talk specifically about selling products online and how SEO can increase business, simply from changes in how one approaches the website. This presentation was inspired from a question asked from a prior conference. The question asked what is the top 3 things that businesses do wrong? It [...]
Social Traffic: Useless Gossip or Powerful Word of Mouth
From the earlier article that I wrote, Social Media Under the Microscope, a lot of conversation was spawned as a result of the data findings. Many questions seemed to have been answered, as many people responded by confirming the same data on their sites. However, there were some new questions created from the data. The most fascinating questions revolved around defining the difference between different social media technologies, such as [...]
No Goals – No Analytics!
I was reviewing some old articles on analytics when I caught last summer's DM News Report on Analytics (PDF). I was impressed at the amount of information contained about the business case for analytics, all coming from some very intelligent people. The great thing was the consistent thread of thought throughout the entire report: Analytics is growing – and it’s more than web stats – it is marketing intelligence. Unfortunately, [...]
How to Get Links Without Trying
“How to Get Links without Trying” or Organic Link Building Linkbaiting is a hot topic right now. However, one of the funniest definitions of creating linkbait was to “forget linkbait, think about the user first, and develop content for them.” Sounds noble enough, yet I find it extremely humorous. Mainly because of the language involved. The word “linkbait” implies that someone would not have linked to you unless they were [...]
The Three C’s of Marketing: Revisited – Content, Context, Community
In a previous article I talked about the 3 C’s of Marketing as explained at John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing. However, in a recent business meeting, an associate explained their 3 C’s as the following (which was remarkably similar): Content, Context, and Community. I have to say that this resonated with me much more than the other version. Context In the first article, it was Content, Contact and Community. The [...]
Robots.txt for the Rest of Us
The robots.txt file. Nothing can be more confusing to a website owner as the robots.txt file. Born out of technology in the programming world, the robot.txt file is nothing more than a server command for search engines. Unfortunately, while search engines understand the file, humans have a difficult time understanding machine language. The Google blog is now running a two-part series on understanding robots.txt and the robots meta tag. Both [...]
Analytics According to Captain Kirk
The Red Shirt Phenomenon In my seminars, I enjoy teaching analytics because the fun is in finding effective and memorable methods to help people understand the concepts. One of my favorites is an analysis of the Red-Shirt Phenomenon in Star Trek. What? You don’t know about the Red Shirt Phenomenon? Well, as any die-hard trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam to the planet with [...]
American Idol: Increased traffic, fewer conversions, buzz kill
“Audience growth doesn't necessarily mean sales growth.” . . . Now where have I heard this before? Ben cites some amazing statistics of the phenomenon that is American Idol. As I am writing this, YouTube is removing the American Idol audition clips for copyright violations. Great job AI, nice way to beat down a loyal audience. You have the ultimate buzz builder happening right in front of you and you [...]
Observing Accessibility
For many years, I was heavily involved in the Accessibility Community for programming, testing and developing accessible websites. So much so that I even ran a blog on it for many years. Many times, in my speaking on various subjects, I do not get the opportunity to delve into accessibility and the importance of it. Recently, I was able to observe some user accessibility testing of a large application, and [...]
Social Media – Under the Microscope
There has been a stir in the SEO community; the buzz this past year has been all about social media. Getting your site listed on Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, whatever the flavor, it’s all getting to be the same. Grumblings, faint at first, have been rising against the cross-current cheerleading of these social media properties. Social Media Blues There are a number of reasons for discontent. Being de-listed by a few [...]
The Lost Art of Sales
Search seems to be at the top of mind for companies and entrepreneurs that develop sites and expect the world to come, much like the proverbial mousetrap. Unfortunately, the best designed and optimized website will not see the light of a monitor unless there is something that draws users and provides a good experience. While search gets the headlines, there is a lack of the ‘nuts and bolts’ activities that [...]
Online Politics Suffer from Lack of Content
The Pew Project’s latest numbers show that 60 million Americans went to the web for political information in the 2006 election. Unfortunately, they didn’t find anything. OK, that last part was a joke, based on my currently jaded view of American politics. I feel that this is one of the unique times in our political history when people on both sides, no matter how extreme, can look at each other, [...]
Spending some quality time with the Lexington Advertising Club
I had a great time this week speaking to the Lexington, KY Advertising Club. The hospitality was outstanding and the event was a lot of fun. There were over 100 guests to the luncheon, and many stayed afterwards into the afternoon for an extended Q&A time. The questions were very good, and I definitely want to get back to Lexington very soon, as the people were very inquisitive and were [...]
Three Downsides to Social Media
Many articles in the past months have left people wondering as to the future of social media sites such as DIGG, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Netscape, and many others. Lee Odden shared his frustration when he saw his site banned from DIGG. Knowing Lee and the great content he provides, I and many others were shocked to see that the DIGG community could easily kick him out. A few dedicated spammers can [...]
10 ways that SEO (website marketing) is like Sales
It seems like I’ve always been in sales. Even when your background is marketing it sometimes just turns into raw sales. I’ve always been fascinated by the sales process, but just as horrified by it at the same time. Growing up, I always equated sales with Herb Tarlek and gaudy sport coats. Yet somehow, the concept of sales is something that has always come naturally, yet there are always lessons [...]
Destructive User Testing with Rayco
Here at the World Headquarters of SiteLogic, I become the focus of some very destructive user testing. No, not website user testing – this is much more exciting, and makes much more noise. As I posted in the 5 things you may not know, I am on a sizeable plot of land here in Ohio. When I bought it, it was very overgrown, as it hadn’t been maintained much in [...]
5 Things You May Not Know About Me
So I got tagged by Matt McGee, and this thing has spread like wildfire. Apparently, there is a tagging thing going around where, if you are tagged, you have to tell five things about yourself that people may not know. Matt McGee, we’ll definitely have to meet up at the next SES – I think we only saw each other in the hallways in Chicago. Well, here we go. I [...]
Unofficial Marketing Awards for SES Chicago
Last week’s Search Engine Strategies in Chicago probably holds the distinction for being the coldest SES on record. This presents some interesting logistical problems, such as how far can one walk to a restaurant before losing feeling in their extremities? How can you be sure to get the cab driver who is NOT on their first week on the job? And other critical entertainment related questions. Because of the location, [...]
College Students Can’t use Search Engines
Do you ever read an article about some research that stays with you for days, maybe weeks? That happened to me this month as two articles, seemingly unrelated, stayed with me throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. Jacob Nielson and the Digital Divide The first, by Jacob Nielson, discusses the current state of the digital divide. An interesting exposition of the state of the divide, which is not one of “have’s and [...]
The Difference Between the What and the WHY
A timeless post has been made at the Church of the Customer Blog. It is a post that will most likely receive little attention – inverse to the attention that it should receive. It isn’t popular to talk about the shortcomings of the US educational system, but it is an issue that is clearly preventing this country from developing the worlds next generations of thinkers and innovators. Why does engineering/math/science [...]
Google, Yahoo and MSN combine to help website owners.
Google sitemaps has been a boon to large websites, it has enabled site owners to submit an xml structured document of all of the pages in a website and receive reports about the indexing and compatibility of the site. In a surprising development, Yahoo and MSN combined with Google and announced that the sitemap protocol would be accepted at Sitemaps.org, where one submission will go to all three of the [...]
Book Review: Why We Buy
Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping. This was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in the past few years. While it briefly touches on Web sites and Internet marketing, I felt there were a lot of crossover ideas for both on and off-line retail. It was amazing as methods of signage, store and product layout, dressing room decor, the impact of males shopping with or [...]
Questions about the DMA SEO Certification
The announcement from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) that it would offer SEO certification was received with skepticism within the SEO industry. This was not a surprise. Many have asked why or who, especially because some see that the DMA may be treading on on their territory. Conversely, the announcement was received with excitement within the DMA and from those outside of the SEO industry. The DMA has been featuring [...]
Links are Worth Much More than Rankings
The other day, my friend Jennifer and I were having an argument discussion about what has really changed in the search optimization industry since the early days. Her contention was that content was the most important in the early days and links were fairly insignificant. My counter to that argument, “Links have always been critical.” Her counter was, “Well, yes; they were as important, but not to rankings.” At least! [...]
Celebrate Usability!
Next Month, November 14, 2006 is World Usability Day. A day for celebrating those things that are easy to use and understand. A day to celebrate products that do not require extensive instructions in order to put them together or use. Because isn’t that what we really want? To NOT use the instructions? I am celebrating a month early with the instructions on how to use my hotel alarm clock. [...]
Visualizing Edward Tufte
Last week I had the privilege of attending a seminar given by Edward Tufte. Tufte is recognized as an authority on Data Visualization and he offers extensive examples of incredible diagrams that engage the reader by communicating extensive amounts of information through diagrams or the written word. This was one of the most interesting seminars I’ve ever attended, and I strongly suggest this seminar to anyone that has to communicate [...]
Google Buys YouTube – Needs ID to Write Check
Google buys YouTube, the popular video sharing site, for a paltry $1.65 billion. This surprised many industry watchers as Google has typically bought start-ups before they became popular. YouTube has far surpassed expectations of popularity, which is also why the deal seems so large for Google. Buying YouTube will also bring with it a few interesting problems. The first of which is to figure out how to monetize YouTube in [...]
DMA SEO Certification
No major organization has offered SEO Certification to this point; however the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) has officially announced a SEO Certification Program that will be initially offered at DMA06 in San Francisco. The program offered in San Francisco will be the Level 1 Certification, with a Level 2 offered later. Initially, there are four Level 1 modules that will be offered at DMA06, and there are ten modules that [...]
Seperate Signal from the Noise
I’ve realized something about blogging. It takes work to keep updated and have a constant stream of original thoughts. I never want to parrot other people’s content, which is why I always want to comment if I link to another blog. Simply linking to another page isn’t really interesting, opinions and a context create value for a reader. I was kicking myself for not making a recent post lately, and [...]
Google and Intuit offer Combined Service
QuickBooks 2007 will incorporate four Google applications, AdWords, Maps, Google Base, and Google Desktop. The interface will allow QuickBooks users to interface to paid keyword campaigns and Google Maps business listings. The Google Base interface will allow merchants to upload their product inventories into Google Base. Intuit has an estimated 3.7 million small and medium-sized businesses. This is an amazing joint venture between two market leaders. Google CEO Eric Schmidt [...]
Target must stand Trial for Inaccessible Website
In what is being called a landmark precedent for accessibility, Federal District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled on Thursday, September 7th, that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. Target had filed for a dismissal by arguing that no law requires them to make an accessible website. The Court denied this motion and held that both federal and state civil laws apply to [...]
Do Customers love you MORE when there are problems?
The other night I went to my local drive through to grab a quick meal for the family – of course, it was a big order. After paying for the meal, I parted ways with the drive-thru window, only to get home and realize that I did not have the kids’ meals. Of course, I was incredible angry. All of my horrible drive-thru experiences came rushing back. To this day [...]
Google Music Trends
The Archives: Shuttered Google Services From 2006: A new service is available from Google Talk, and it blows my chances completing a Google-free week. Well, technically, I still haven't done any Google searches though, so maybe I can still make it. A few weeks ago, Google gave Google talk users the option of displaying “What’s Playing” as their personal message. This week, Google rolls out Music Trends, a window into [...]
Google Free Week, Wednesday
So far, the Google-free week test has been going well. I made the commitment last week after a dinner with Ask.com at Search Engine Strategies. Some of us felt that we just had to “Give Ask a Chance”, as Ask seems to be the favorite underdog of the SEO community. This was extremely easy to do. I use the FireFox Browser, which you should be using as well! There is [...]
San Jose wrap-up
Search Engine Strategies San Jose was a great show this year, as exhibitors and attendees increased by 30% from last year. There was a lot of excitement and plenty of things going on. The evening parties seemed a little disappointing, as both Yahoo and Ask provided some fantastic parties last year, but both opted for low-key invite only parties this year. (Both of which involved loud music in a small [...]
When Entertainment is News
This is one of the prophetic visions of Neil Postman. In his book, Entertaining Ourselves to Death, which I had to read in college, he provided a clear warning about the diminishing quality of broadcast news, as the line between entertainment and actual news was disappearing rapidly. I’ve read most of Postman’s books, and I highly recommend them to anyone who has anything to do with media and technology. Well, [...]
How you say it
In what has become one of my favorite blogs to read, Creating Passionate Users has to be one of the best blogs about taking care of your customers. Kathy Sierra recently posted an interesting picture about how important graphics are to communicating ideas. This graphic, a sign posted at a trailhead, was the example: Unfortunately, this picture may be worth a thousand words, but those words would be in confusion, [...]
Avinash Interviews ClickTracks CTO
Reading Avinash Kaushik’s blog has become an anticipated event in my day. Today was no exception. Avinash interviews Dr. Steven Turner, CTO at ClickTracks. Anyone who has heard me speak at a conference or training seminar knows of my love (is that too strong of a feeling?) for ClickTracks, so this was a very special treat. It was very interesting to hear what one of the main creators of the [...]
Search Engine Strategies, San Jose 2006
In what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to the land of silicon, Search Engine Strategies is gearing for next month's visit to San Jose. I have to say of all of the SES events, San Jose seems to be a hands-down favorite of everyone. The New York SES is bigger every year, but it's in early Spring. Yes, Times Square is in walking distance, but something about the summer in [...]
Jacob Nielson’s Long Tail
Usability Guru, Jacob Neilson weighs into the Long Tail discussion with some incredible data from the log files of UseIt. Amazingly, it shows that the Ziph distribution (former name of The Long Tail) looks to be a constant on the Internet. Regardless of the name, the phenomenon is that the total amount of pages, referrals, terms, etc. after the top 10 will far exceed the numbers of the top 10 [...]
Book Review: Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail
With great anticipation, I pre-ordered Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail two months ago. I received it last week and have read it through fairly quickly. I enjoyed the book as it was much more of a social commentary than a business manual. I like this approach, as the long tail is not a “how-to”, but a “because why”. The difference is vast between those, as it is the difference between [...]
What Creates Your Business Value?
In speaking to hundreds of people a year about marketing their websites, there always seems to be a theme among them. I’ll get to that, so bear with me. First I have to explain where I am coming from before I say where I’m going on this . . .In reading through the news this morning, everything seems to be either in love with MySpace or bashing it - Yes, [...]
Analytics is Not a Passive Activity
I’m surprised by the number of people that fire up their analytics programs and blindly expect to be “spoken to” about the status of the site. I’m not sure what people expect, as clicking through endless charts and graphs yield as much information as quickly paging thru that novel you’ve been putting off – neither results in much enjoyment or insight. Avinash Kaushik has another excellent post about the topic [...]
The 3 C’s of Marketing.
From Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch explains the three C’s of a Universal Business Strategy – could this be The Unified Theory? From the thinking that ultimately, every business is an information business, in that marketing involves information communication. Jantsch’s 3 C’s are: Content, Contact, Community. Jantsch explains, “Content is simply the development of highly valuable content. Contact is simply making contact with a audience hungry for this content and [...]
ClickTracks takes a stance on Click Fraud
With the release of their 6.1 product, ClickTracks has taken a step away from the pack of analytics vendors by providing a tool within the product to find “bad patterns” in paid advertising. Ideally these patterns will help site owners and managers to identify click fraud and other unnatural behavior, but it will also be a useful tool in quickly identifying ads or ad groups that are simply not performing [...]
Why are Analytics so Difficult?
Almost every company I talk to wants to know which data table, which numbers, which analytics package will provide answers. The unifying question is “What should we be looking at?” I restate the question to say what they really want to know: “How can we get the answers we need?” Avinash Kaushik writes a brilliant analysis of what to do with that expensive analytics package. Summary: toss it and hire [...]
How Users See Your Site
The past few weeks have been a blur – at least my kids still remember me. It started by going to Toronto to speak at the Search Engine Strategies conference. I decided to attend a few of the sessions that I had missed at the prior conference and hopefully pick up a few new ideas. Fortunately, I attended Gord Hotchkiss' session where he shared further results of his eye tracking [...]
Direct Marketing Association Catalog Conference
Spending time at the DMA Catalog conference was a great experience. Getting a perspective of marketing from many angles was a great thing. I actually sat in on a session on using list marketing – it blew my mind a little, but then I pictured how they would view a typical SEO session. I met many great people, Amy Africa was a great usability speaker and had one of the [...]
Going to the DMA Catalog Conference
I'm waiting on a delayed flight to Chicago, heading to the DMA Catalog Conference this week. It will be interesting as my first session is the first session of the week, bright and early Monday morning at 8:15. Somehow, I'll need to register and get my badge and find the room at the mighty McCormick Place. If you are in the Chicago area this week, drop me a line, as [...]
LEGO’s Incredible Marketing Strategy
The LEGO Company has been making great moves lately, moves that are building the online presence of the company and rewarding loyal customers. I remember playing with Lego’s as a child and they provided hours of entertainment – I’m very glad to see that the company and the Lego is healthy and growing, especially in this age of computers. Lego’s were one of the first toys I bought for my [...]
Blogging your next Career Move
Make a Career Move...by Blogging Blogging can be a good move for your career. Blogging shows that you are more than an observer in your profession, and willing to share socially about what you do and your opinions in it. According to a Boston Globe reporter, “A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field.” In related stories, many business magazines are also running stories about how [...]
Old Media learns SEO
When the New York Times has an article about tweaking your headlines for the search engines, you know that the word is out. While the article makes some points on writing styles and some of the challenges that editors now face when attempting to write misleading witty and creative headlines to sell their stories to readers. Newspapers have begun to understand that their sometimes clever headlines may not provide the [...]
Pssst! Adobe! Please listen to your users!
Do you ever check on your own products and see what people are saying about them (or you) online? I was able to be on a panel discussion during last week's eCommExpo where we talked about viral marketing. It was a very good experience and the Q&A portion was a lot of fun. I felt I learned as much as I taught by listening to the other panelists. Today, I [...]
Viral Marketing Gone Wrong
However, it was the doomed from the start, says Jackie Huba at Church of the Customer. Anytime you give the public the tools to create something for themselves and have it displayed at that company’s website, you are asking for trouble. Chevy was asking for people to take a variety of clips, music and create their own commercial. People could add graphics and slogans, but the campaign was taken over [...]
Analytics get Big
WebSite analytics is big business, and getting bigger. Unfortunately, most companies still do not see how web analytics can "save" their websites. Which I just don't get. In my speaking around the country, I always talk about the importance of analytics, how every decision about the site can be made from intelligence gained from the analytics. Yet, I always hear the same excuse, "It's something I know I should be [...]
Media Marketing by the Masses
I first heard about this a few months back, when someone blogged about the attention Snakes on a Plane was getting from simply the combination of the title and the lead character, Samuel L. Jackson. I must admit, those to elements create some interesting images in my head. Apparently, it does for others as well, but to a whole new level. Google now has over 2 million results for "Snakes [...]
Focus Groups reflect an Artificial Life
An excellent observational post over at Customer Listening. The writer draws an analogy between taking his son to an aquarium and a marketer observing what he thinks is a real life focus group behind a one-way mirror. The aquarium may have real fish, but the environment is artificial. Life is sustained by scientists, students, diets regulated and very little "Law of Nature" is experienced in the aquarium. In the same [...]
Google Penalizes Marxist Parody Site
This happened early last week, a Marxist parody site, The People's Cube, seemed to have been dropped from Google's index. Now, as a Marxist parody site, this was picked up in the conservative blog, Little Green Footballs (of Dan Rather memo-gate fame). Of course, this picked up steam as a conspiracy from Google to suppress a comedic view of Marxism. Shortly afterwards, Matt Cutts posted an explanation that had little [...]
Kinderstart Sues Google.
In the latest of ridiculous lawsuits against Google, this one has to be one of the most pathetic, creating a firestorm of criticism from the SEO community. If a website is going to sue Google for losing rankings, they should at least educate themselves first as to what the typical reasons are for losing those rankings. The Google Guidelines are probably the most underutilized resource for webmasters and web managers. [...]
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