“Wow! How do you stay on top of it all?”

I’ve heard this question asked in many different ways, as a response to hearing about what DragonSearch does.  And the answer points to the essence of what we’re all about – staying on top of an incredibly rapidly changing industry: online marketing.

Back when I operated a digital development company, my partner and I knew whatever anyone needed to know in the company, and were able to share the knowledge.  As time went on, we became more specialized, and depended on a lot of really smart people to know their bailiwick.  Today, this idea is even more prescient, with each individual on our search marketing team developing an expertise to share with the others.   One person REALLY knows ecommerce on Facebook, another REALLY knows about social media video sites, and on and on.

One of the ways that everyone stays on top of their game is to really get to know a resource, inside and out.  Here are a few of our top resources:

SEMPO

SEMPO is the trade organization for search marketing professionals.  As such, it provides training courses, research papers, and a little bit of promotion for its members. Individuals can join at $299 per year, while corporations pay $1K – or 5K for a super-duper status.  http://www.sempo.org

Market Motive

Market Motive is all about training. Our own Etela Ivkovic recently obtained SEO master certification through their course. Eta thought the experience was thorough, and on a high-enough level to warrant more participation with this resource from our company.  The Chief Education Officer and founder is Avinash Kaushik, author of some great books on web analytics, and probably one of the nicest all-around people in the industry. The guided courses cost a chunk of money, but you can get access to the course work for under $300 per month.  Well worth it.  http://www.marketmotive.com

Search Engine Land

SE Land is a news and information site for search engine marketing, and is headed by industry guru Danny Sullivan.  The people behind SE Land are also the same who put on some of the big industry expos.  There is a level of access for site subscribers which cost $149 per year, which gets you access to some additional content, and a beefed-up profile.  I should also include here a link to Sphinn, which is an internet marketing news portal, along with some robust discussion forums. http://www.searchengineland.com and http://www.sphinn.com

SEO Moz

SEOMoz is a membership-based organization which provides access to a lot of great content and tools. (And it’s REALLY about the tools). They have levels of membership from $79 per month to $2k per month (providing different levels of use of the tools).  http://www.seomoz.org

Marketing Profs

With their little blue bird even before Twitter was ever imagined, this membership-based site provides seminars, white papers, videos, and more.  Marketing Profs is more pure-marketing (as opposed to online marketing) than the other knowledge sites listed here.  The pro membership is $279 a year, and well worth it. http://marketingprofs.com

Media Post

Media Post publishes publications, websites, provides research, and hosts events.  Their events are major – right up there with the Search Engine Land events.  OMMA is one of my favorites (it helps that it comes to NYC), while I skipped Social Media Insider this year.  The daily emails I receive from Media Post are some of the few that I still subscribe to (no one, I mean NO ONE can possibly read everything that is available and great – you’ve got to make your choices).  The Media Post online sites are FREE! As is OMMA in NYC this year.  Alas, the price tag on Search Insider is what kept me away this year.  http://www.mediapost.com

Mashable

Mashable is probably the leading source for social, tech and web online.  Getting your blog post listed on Mashable is a feather in any online marketer’s cap. Now that I’m mostly reading blogs on my iPad in Pulse, it’s easy to keep up with what seems like an endless flow of information.  FREE.  http://mashable.com

The cost to an agency

When I add up all the potential costs of the above resources (and it isn’t easy – it depends on how much training you want, for instance) we could easily spend 10+ next year on these resources.   But then, that would be an low cost indeed for keeping our organization current with all of the shifting sands of online marketing.

Did I leave anyone off this list? Who do you think should be included here?

Google’s Personalized Search Results & Other Links Between On- and Offline

SEOMoz posted recently about how “Personalization of Google Results Creates a Huge Advertising Opportunity.” As usual, Rand Fishkin is on to something.

Essentially, the concept involves using offline (or traditional advertising mediums) to tell people to take a specific action online. In this case, Fishkin suggests that directing viewers/listeners to Google a brand name that will “bias” future related search results towards that brand. And it’s all possible thanks to Google’s personalized search results – the now default search mode where expressions of brand preference or brand affinity “influence” future searches in favor of the brand’s domain.

That’s Really Awesome And All Rand & Imma’ Let You Finish, But There’s More To It

The opportunities to create offline marketing campaigns that deliver online results go far beyond the brand preference mechanism of personalized search. Fishkin talks about the 2010 Super Bowl and how advertisers were focused (maybe obsessed) with driving people to their digital properties. He wonders why advertisers didn’t take a page from Pontiac’s marketing playbook and tell viewers to Google their brand name. After all, Fishkin suggests, it would have made more sense to do it now than in 2007, when the Pontiac spot ran.

The opportunity expands far beyond branding, though, right? Think about the nature of Super Bowl ads, especially. It costs a ton of cash to buy time, but your message reaches one of the largest television audiences all year. Sure, you can make a flashy/quirky/funny ad that people will talk about and marketing-types will salivate over. For the most part, within days that experience has been forgotten (actually, so has the Super Bowl).

Offline Marketing Can Feed Your Online Search Marketing Efforts To Create Way More Impact

Let’s say, hypothetically, JEEP had the phrase “four wheel drive” absolutely dominated in search results. JEEP had almost total control of the first page of Google search results with the closest competition down near the bottom of the first page. JEEP then runs a Super Bowl spot telling people to Google “four wheel drive.” So, hopefully, you would have millions of people Googling “four wheel drive” and pretty much automatically clicking on the JEEP website on the search results page. Not only have you branded JEEP as the four wheel drive vehicle, but you have enticed millions to act in a way that would most likely cement your “ownership” of the four wheel drive search phrase for who knows how long.

It’s almost like the original TV spot was a really expensive catalyst that created huge and lasting benefits in the digital world, while the real world effect would have faded after a couple days.

Offline Ads Have More Than Just SEO Implications…What About PPC & Social Media?

Who cares about PPC and social media? Just kidding. I do. Deeply.

Anyway, a PPC campaign could supplement the SEO-based theoretical situation described above. Take the above scenario and let’s say JEEP doesn’t have that solid lock on the search phrase “four wheel drive,” but they do appear on the first page. So JEEP would then launch a PPC campaign centered around their Super Bowl spot with ads triggered by searches for “four wheel drive.” That puts their brand at the top of the page, thus enabling people to see both paid and organic results and reinforcing JEEP’s lock on the phrase “four wheel drive.”

The social media implications for an offline/online marketing integration would be almost too numerous to list. Think about it – you can build up buzz about your offline marketing efforts before, during and after the actual ad runs; you can leverage aspects of the advertisement that lend themselves to interaction with your customers through social media (i.e. – solicit off-road stories from JEEP owners for future ads, etc.). Social media allows for such a constant, personal relationship with current or prospective customers that the possibilities for enhancing offline ads probably change daily.

Heck, send people to your Facebook page rather than the homepage of your site. If they like what they see (and if you are properly shepherding people to your site from your social network properties), they’ll find their way to your site. By doing that, you’ve also strengthened your social network with another fan/follower. Everybody wins (and you win twice).

The Point Is, You Can Stretch Your Offline Marketing Dollars Much Further By Sending People Online

Everyone flashes their website address in TV ads; tacks it on to the end of radio spots; and throws it in their ad copy for newspaper runs. That’s a lost opportunity. Send people to search engines or your social network and make sure they don’t get lost along the way. It still works to drive traffic to your site (which was one of the goals of your offline marketing effort in the first place) and boosts your SEO efforts; builds your social media real estate; and could show some healthy ROI for a well-constructed and executed PPC campaign.

Proof That Offline Advertising Can Lead To Search Engine And Online Success?

Would this work? I don’t know. I honestly haven’t tried it. It sure seems like it could, though, right? What you’re doing is marketing your brand and at the same time, bolstering the ease with which people can find your site. It’s a self-sustaining loop, really. Instead of driving people directly to your site, direct them through the infrastructural channels of the Internet in a way that greatly strengthens that infrastructure as it applies to you and your site. The stronger the infrastructure, the easier it is for people to find you.

Stop thinking of your offline marketing efforts in terms of ad buys and short-term attention getters that need “replenishing” fairly often.

Start thinking of your offline marketing as “legacy advertising” that will have lasting effects on your online presence for the long haul.

Or disturbing, depending on your view of online advertising and the technological metropolis that gave rise to it.  According to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children ages 8 to 18 spend most of their day (7.5+ hours) utilizing a smart phone, a computer, and, of course, a television.  This means a number of things for those who have a message or product to deliver/present to the public, and indicates that the field of Internet Marketing has a very healthy future ahead—assuming nothing happens that either takes us back to the stone age, puts our fate in the hands (or jaws) of zombies, or both (which would really suck; who wants to fight zombies without guns or chainsaws?).

The Non-Apocalyptic (and Zombieless) Future of Internet Marketing

With so much time being devoted to being ‘connected’ in one way or another, SEO and SMM, though rapidly changing as the years pass, will likely take on an even larger role for businesses and organizations.  Not having a website for an enterprise, or any kind of online presence for that matter, might turn out to be the equivalent of not having either a physical sign or nominal brand as far as this new generation is concerned; thus whatever that enterprise is doing or wants to do will neither be heard nor spoken of by a target audience with a ton of potential—you know, $$$$. 

And here comes an almighty bulleted list for the future:

• It’s a cliché by now, but good content will matter more than ever – As I implied in a previous blog post, when you have an audience that is continuously overwhelmed by the information and options presented to them, you better be sure that what you have to offer—i.e. your brief appearance in the chaotic limelight—is relevant and, most importantly, exceptional.  When there are, say, over one hundred other websites competing for the same spot, you really have no other choice. 
• Be open to the change in strategy that is inevitable when it comes to online engagement — Change does not have to be a difficult thing by any means, especially if all signs point toward its getting you more $ (or exposure—people get into marketing/advertising/etc for many reasons).  As more studies similar to the one mentioned above become more accessible and obtain a place in the public consciousness, the need for innovative online marketing should slowly rise to the status of no-brainer in due course.
• Finally, let people find you – Of course you have to be aggressive with your marketing tactics, but that doesn’t mean you have to be officious (your audience can always go to someone less annoying).  There are a lot more customers than there are businesses, and the Internet is structured more around the former than the latter nowadays.

Here’s to a connected, zombie-free future.