Online Marketing Heroes

Certainly, one has to have a degree of ego involved with starting one’s own blog, after all, these are my thoughts; thoughts I presume are of interest to someone. Sure, perhaps it isn’t really “ego” but, needless to say, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t hope someone cared and derived a modicum of value. With that it mind, it is with great pride, continued hope, and a shedding of a layer of humility that I let id loose, take a moment to do more than wax poetic, and share with you one of my most honored moments.

Wiley, famed publisher of Frommers, For Dummies, and CliffsNotes, recently shipped, “Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus” to major bookstores. Internet advertising experts interviewed for the book include consultants, agencies, CEOs, PR professionals, advertisers, and publishers discussing everything from paid search to PR, social media marketing to affiliate marketing, SEO to online retail.

Featured:
Joan Holman, Greg Hartnett, Jacob Hawkins, Mark Oldani, Jeffrey Glueck, Lauren Freedman, Tamara Adlin, Steve Rubel, Greg Jarboe, Eric Ward, Jordan Gold, Heather Lloyd-Martin, Chris Baggott, Ed Shull, Brian Lusk, Lee Odden (should I really link to Top Rank again? seems gratuitous), Jill Whalen, Liana Evans, Perry Marshall, Kevin Lee, Ron Belanger, David Fischer, Phil Terry,

Patrick Duparcq (who has, perhaps, the first online marketing college course I’ve seen) and… me.

Lee Odden reached out to a few of us and asked of those involved to share a summary in a collaborative post. I’m not going to steal his thunder but I don’t think he’ll mind if I borrow the idea. Here are a few excerpts:

Yahoo’s Ron Belanger on search
It started out as a direct marketing medium, but today more and more traditional marketers (including brand marketers) are beginning to utilize search engine advertising.

• Use search advertising to take advantage of high-impact moments where a customer is interested in receiving a product or marketing message.
• Search marketing isn’t just for national advertisers; local businesses can use search marketing to target down to the individual market level.
• Social search lets you locate and communicate with passionista: your most passionate brand advocates.
• Search advertising is a low-barrier, low-risk medium. It costs you very little to get started, and the potential results are huge. So dip your toe in the water and start advertising!

Didit Co-Founder Didit Kevin Lee on analytics and optimization
We are in the midst of a change in the advertising ecosystem and those marketers who embrace change with passion will triumph over those who fail to evolve with the massive shifts in consumer behavior and preference. Paid Search Marketing and Online Media is only the beginning of this macroeconomic shift in the way content and advertising is “consumed” by the consumer. Marketers will increasingly rely on data-driven models for media and advertising, but they better be sure the data is accurate and the models comprehensive. Bad data is sometimes worse than no data at all.

• Consumers are beginning to pay attention only to advertising that’s relevant to their needs.
• The way to reach consumers online is via narrowcasting a relevant message to each individual segment of your target audience; not by mass marketing a general message that everyone sees.
• Creativity in online marketing involves the ability to analyze data and formulate strategies based on that analysis.
• Search needs to be considered in relation to other forms for advertising; everything interacts with everything else; nothing is a silo onto itself.
• Carve out a portion of your marketing budget for experimentation with new media and advertising types.

KeyRelevance Director Internet Marketing Li Evans on priorities and SEO
“search marketing” isn’t about title tags and keyword densities anymore, search marketing has taken on a whole new meaning with the search engines trying to deliver the most relevant and engaging experiences for their users. Marketers need to realize, the days of “post-Florida” are gone, this is a whole new marketing medium that we ourselves need to adapt too.

• For the time being, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Ask are the most important search engines; the smaller players don’t have much chance of breaking through the ranks.
• Google is the big dog, of course, but other engines might be better to reach particular types of users.
• Even though search engines rank different factors differently, the same basic SEO techniques will help your ranking across the board.
• When optimizing your site, focus on relevant content first and link building second.

TopRank® and Online Marketing Blog’s Lee Odden on social media and blogs

• Publish your media to different sites and channels to maximize the potential search engine hits—images to an image-sharing site, videos to YouTube, and so forth.
• All media are valuable, but none so much so as text, because of its importance to search engines.
• Most blog software is search-engine friendly out of the box and can provide a platform for delivering fresh content for the search bots.
• When content gets noticed and cited by multiple blogs, you get multiple links back to your main web site—which drives direct traffic and can increase search engine rankings.
• To succeed with social networking, you have to be transparent and honest. You must provide value in order to receive value.

I confess not knowing the illustrious set of folks interviewed as well as Lee so head over to Top Rank for more excerpts. Author Michael Miller though has done a fabulous job aggregating the most important considerations from the great variety of online marketing considerations. If you want a phenomenal, general overview of everything you should know, grab a copy of the book.

As for myself? A chapter on local marketing

• Optimize your site for local search & make sure you include locality information as part of your keyword set.
• Focus on local directories as much as you do the big search engines.
• Think beyond the business listing. You’ll retain your customers with a business listing but attract customers with search engines like Zvents.
• Make sure you have a version of your site available that’s optimized for mobile devices.
• Include latitude and longitude information for inclusion in upcoming GPS-enabled devices.

Good god… Am I going to have to start a book club?

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