Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Aesthetic Intent: A Podcast That's Driven By Innovation

Yes, the rumours are true; I've left MacLaren MRM and will be starting a new job in a few weeks. I can't reveal the details of the new gig yet. As a loyal reader of this blog, however, you'll be one of the first to hear the news.

Meanwhile, I wanted to let you know about one of the projects I'm most proud to have worked on during my time at MacLaren MRM. It's a podcast series called Aesthetic Intent and it's for the Buick division of General Motors of Canada. Aesthetic Intent quietly launched during my final week at the agency, and to the best of my knowledge is the first ever podcast by a Canadian automotive manufacturer. Even more noteworthy, in my opinion, is that this podcast is NOT about cars.

Aesthetic Intent is a six-part podcast series that "deconstructs the connection between passion and beauty" and features interviews with an eclectic group of people. Each episode is smart, engaging, and authentic ... as well as "inspired by the new Buick Enclave." It's not an infomercial for the vehicle, and the only quasi-advertising content appears discretely in the last few moments of each podcast episode.

Kudos to General Motors of Canada for continuing to be an innovator in the Internet marketing space. Yes, I said "innovator." There are very few 'traditional' Canadian companies that have invested as heavily in the Internet channel, and launching this podcast is just another example of GM Canada's enthusiasm for the medium. Regardless of whether or not Aesthetic Intent turns out to be successful, you've got to give GM Canada credit for trying new things. I'll miss working with them for this reason.

I also want to tip my hat to the great team at MacLaren MRM that I worked with on this project. It was quite an adventure getting this unconventional project off the ground, however I am confident that all the time and effort will pay off.

Check out Aesthetic Intent and let me know what you think. And if you like it, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Joost's PR Flacks Invite Hacks

I think it's time to start your office betting pool on how long it will take before the new Joost Internet television service is hacked.

If you haven't heard about Joost yet, trust me, you will. Regardless of its obvious merits (of which there are many, don't get me wrong), based on Joost's current rank and trajectory on the Web 2.0 Hype-O-Meter, it's already shaping up to be this year's Second Life. And it's only February!

While I am genuinely excited about the potential of this still-in-beta service, and I do NOT condone hacking or piracy of any kind, Joost's creators are all but begging the hacker community to take a run at it.

In today's press release announcing Joost's partnership with Viacom, Joost is described as being "powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform."

Piracy-proof?

Now maybe Joost's PR folks got a little overexcited, but issuing a press release boasting that your online video service is "piracy-proof" is like waving a red cape at a bull.

Do I want Joost to be hacked? No, of course I don't.

Do I think Joost will be hacked. Yes, of course I do.

Name a "piracy-proof" video technology that hasn't eventually been hacked:

• "Scrambled" cable TV? Hacked.
• Direct-to-Home Satellite TV? Hacked.
• DVD? Hacked.
• HD DVD? Hacked.

Anyone spot a trend here?

I truly hope the Joost folks prove me wrong. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Seven Things I Learned at the 2006 Digital Marketing Conference

Last week's CMA 2006 Digital Marketing Conference was information-packed and very inspirational, and I'm not just saying that because I am a member of the Conference Committee!

While I learned a lot more than just seven things at the Conference (I took 15 pages of notes), there were a number of key points made by various speakers that really struck me:

1. The Internet marketing talent shortage is now a reality the world over. Get used to it.
2. The number one thing that is holding clients back from investing more in Internet marketing is lack of knowledge. As Steve Levy of Ipsos-Reid so succinctly put it, "clients need to be educated before they are sold."
3. Marketing in the age of the Internet is all about conversations.
4. It's not about the Web page, it's about the clicks.
5. Podcasting is in its infancy like the Web was a decade ago. Now's the time to get in.
6. It's not about people coming to the content, but content coming to the people.
7. RSS readers will become the new portals.

For an excellent summary of the presentations given at the Digital Marketing Conference, and to continue the conversation, be sure to check out the Canadian Marketing Blog.

Seven Tips for Creating Better Internet Video

Long before I became an Internet marketer, I studied filmmaking and worked in the feature film and television industry. With the increasing interest in shooting original video content for the Internet, either for streaming or downloading, I thought it would be beneficial to share a few production pointers.

If you're planning on shooting video for the Internet, here are seven tips that will help improve the end product.

1. Start with the best possible image quality.
   Garbage in, garbage out, right? Use the best quality video camera you can get. Ensure your shots are properly lit and avoid low light and high contrast lighting situations.
2. Capture clean audio.
   Use a good quality microphone. Do not use the one on the camera. Shoot in a environment where you can eliminate or at least minimize background noise (such as traffic).
3. Minimize movement.
   Any extraneous movement within the frame is problematic as it only makes your footage harder to compress. Keep your subjects fairly static and always use a tripod. Where possible, try to avoid zooms, pans, tilts, and other camera movement. If you must introduce movement into a shot, keep it slow and steady.
4. Beware of detail.
   Avoid overly detailed or complex shots. Crowd scenes are particularly problematic. Make sure your backgrounds are not cluttered - a solid colour is best - and that the clothing performers wear does not have intricate patterns. Eliminate movement in the background. If you can't, use a shallow depth of field to minimize the problem.
5. Think big.
   Your footage will likely be viewed in a tiny display window, not on an IMAX-sized screen. So shoot and use lots of close-ups and make your titles large and simple.
6. Keep the editing simple.
   In post-production, avoid rapid editing. Quick cuts and shots of less than one second in length may get lost or mangled during compression. Stick to straight cuts. Dissolves and elaborate shot-to-shot transition effects can cause problems during compression. When in doubt, use a good old straight cut, although fade ins and fade outs are OK.
7. 'Dumb down' the audio mix.
   Subtle, densely layered audio tracks don't respond well to compression. Keep your audio mix simple and clear. In fact, pretend you are mixing the soundtrack so that it will be legible on the world's crappiest AM radio. (Remember those?) If you can make it sound good on that, it will sound good on the Internet.

Good luck, and happy shooting!

Site Search Best Practices

We all know that anything to do with search is hot these days.

And now the smart companies are starting to take a closer look at the search engines on their own sites.

Whether you call this "site search" or "internal search" or 'who-knows-what' search, I predict this area is going to see a lot of excitement and evolution in the next few years.

I recently completed a fascinating site search consulting project for a large media company. Since they publish a number of magazines, they have a vast content archive and a vested interest in making it as easy as possible for Website visitors to be able to get to their content as efficiently as possible.

My company was hired to help the media company understand how to improve their site search. During the course of the project, my colleagues and I developed an unofficial list of what we started to refer to as "Site Search Best Practices." These best practices are independent of any one particular site search system (i.e., the technology solution) and will be of benefit to any company, large or small, that is implementing site search.

So, without much further ado, here are some of our Site Search Best Practices:

1. Make sure you are measuring usage and other key metrics related to site search so that you can keep track of the impact that any fine-tuning to the system makes. You can't manage what you can't measure.
2. Most site search systems allow the Website owner to configure the default search results layout a number of different ways. For instance, you usually have control over whether or not the results display the article's full URL, author's name, publication date, etc. Consider your particular target market and configure the search results layout in a way that is most relevant for them. If you don't know, ask them!
3. Include a highly visible link to 'search tips' content on every search results page, preferably adjacent to the search input text field, and make sure this content is written in plain English and kept up-to-date.
4. Automatically display 'search tips' content if the user's search does not generate any search results. Don't just strand them on a page that says, "No results found."
5. Follow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices when creating new content/pages (and design templates) because a page that is well configured for an external search engine will also be well configured for an internal search engine.
6. If you are using a content management system (CMS), ensure that your internal content development team understands how to properly input and tag the content they are creating and why this is so important.
7. Synchronize your site search system's crawling/indexing schedule with your content publishing schedule, whether that be daily, weekly, or monthly. And make sure it stays in sync.
8. Configure the site search system to automatically notify representatives of your company's IT department AND content/publishing department in the event the system goes offline. Because it will, and you want to be the first to know.

Since the site search landscape is in a constant state of flux, I consider this list to be very much a 'work-in-progress.'

Should Video Play a Role in Your Internet Marketing Plans?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video clip worth?

I recently purchased my third Webcam - a gift for a friend - and it really got me thinking about the power of video on the Internet, both as a communication and a marketing tool.

Regardless of whether or not the video is live or pre-recorded, downloaded, streamed, or podcast, it's impossible to deny the power and impact of full-motion moving images served up online.

There's an inherent immediacy to video that static images and words usually can't capture, and I'm of the belief that video can, and usually does, engage people on a more emotional (even primal) level.

Now I'm not saying this because I used to work in film and television and want to return to that world, nor am I proposing that you run out and start adding video clips to your Website just because you can.

I do recommend, however, that you seriously evaluate what it is you are trying to communicate and ask yourself if, perhaps, video can and should be used to convey, or at least support, your message. Don't do this to be 'cool' (whatever that means these days) or because the competition is doing it, but do ask yourself if your customers would be better served by a 30-second video clip versus a 30-paragraph Web page. (This is a good question to ask, anyway, because the answer might be neither!)

Keep in mind, too, that with the high rate of broadband penetration in North America, any video elements that you incorporate into your Internet marketing plans will be accessible to the majority of surfers.

Finally, if you are going to produce video for professional use, please have it created by people who know what they are doing. One of the downsides of the invention of the camcorder is that anyone who can find the "record" button thinks they know how to produce high quality video. Now that I *am* saying because I used to work in film and television!

No Wonder Our Parents Are Confused

One thing I'm willing to bet every Internet entrepreneur reading this has in common is that your parents still probably don't fully understand what you do for a living.

I can't tell you how many times my parents (both of whom are highly educated professionals) will inform me that they ran into someone at a party that was "in the same line of work as you are, dear." When I do a bit of digging, nine times out of ten it turns out that the supposed 'industry colleague' they've met is actually a Web designer or IT support person.

"For the last time, mom and dad, I don't build Websites and I don't fix computers! My clients already have Websites and IT people. What they don't have is enough sales or a reliable way to accomplish that."

At least that's what I imagine myself saying to my parents, but usually I just thank them for the information and politely change the topic. I can hardly blame my parents, or anyone else I meet who is confused about what Internet marketing is, when I see how some of us describe what we do. For instance, check out what one agency that I have been told does Internet marketing uses on the "Services" page of their corporate Website:

"We provide channel agnostic Relationship Marketing services that focus on the customer experience of the brand. A synergistic consumer experience is created with a holistic end-to-end approach that encompasses all points of contact."

Huh? Honestly, have you ever seen so much jargon in one place at one time? (Buzzword Bingo, anyone?) I work in the business and have re-read that paragraph several times and I still don't know what this agency (which shall remain nameless) actually does. Can you imagine what a potential client reading that would make of it? Perhaps that's this agency's ingenious marketing strategy: be as cryptic as possible so that the reader will be motivated to contact them for clarification:

"So, I'm looking for an agency and was browsing your Website just now to find out what your company does but I couldn't understand your services description so I thought I'd call you instead to find out."

Then again, maybe not.

Jargon or no jargon, the onus is on us as Internet marketers to do a better job of explaining what we do, myself included. Especially now that many lay people are becoming aware of the concept of "Internet marketing" even if they have little or no clue what it actually means. If we can find a way to explain to our parents what we actually do for a living, then we will have made great progress - both for ourselves and for our profession.

Mom and dad, I think it's time we had a little chat...

Invasion of the Fake Blogs

Last fall I became a fan of the ABC TV series "Invasion" and not just because one of the main characters is a blogger, although in a typically dumbed-down TV sort of way.

Recently, I was wondering when the series would start up again, so I went to the ABC Website in the hopes of finding out some more information. Instead of a traditional show page or mini Website about the series, the ABC Website links to a fake blog titled "Dave's Diatribe" located (rather cleverly) at:

www.didyouseethelights.com

The 'blog' is 'written' by Dave Groves, the character in the show that is the blogger, played by Tyler Labine, an actor from Brampton, Ontario. I doubt the actor writes the 'blog' himself, though.

"Dave's Diatribe" features "Dave-Approved Extras", profiles of Dave's "Family, Friends & Foes" and "Links to the Truth" (a quasi blogroll). The whole thing is wrapped up in a faux cheesy design complete with frosted beer glasses.

On the one hand, it's noteworthy to see a blog (sort of) being used in this manner to promote a television show, especially considering ABC used to be a pretty stodgy network.

"Dave's Diatribe" is so obviously fake, however, and blatantly toes the corporate party line, that once you get over the initial "wow, that's cool" reaction it becomes a let down.

It awkwardly intermingles informal blog 'entries' by Dave with official flak-approved marketing copy. Even the 'comments' seem overly sanitized; I wonder if they are even real.

I do admire the fact that the 'blog' is written in character (as opposed to being an on-set "journal" by the actor, which has been done to death), but I am not aware of ABC or the show's producers promoting the blog's URL (or even its name) in the show, which screams lost opportunity.

Call me old school if you like, but where are the downloadable desktop wallpaper images of the mysterious "Dr. Frosty" (played by Kari Matchett, yet another Canadian) and the other attractive cast members?

Finally, and somewhat ironically, there's also a whack of more 'mundane' content related to the show that I would be interested in (such as information on when the next episode will be aired) that is obscured (or has been omitted) due to the blog format.

ABC, I commend you for promoting "Invasion" via this fake blog, but in your attempt to jump on the blogging bandwagon you have forgotten some of the marketing fundamentals.

The $1.90 E-Commerce Course

Want a fast, cheap, and practical course in the art and science of online retailing? Look no further than trying to sell something yourself on eBay. I'm serious.

It really doesn't matter what you sell on eBay, or even if you make a profit the first time out, the experience and learning you will get is far more valuable. Here's why...

First you have to write a short item listing line, which teaches you the importance of writing compelling copy in a very short amount of space. This will come in handy when you have to write email subject lines, copy for banner ads, and search engine advertising text ads.

Then you have to shoot and upload a photo (or photos) of the item you are selling, which teaches you how to do product photography (and how hard it is) and how to convert a high-resolution digital photo into a low-resolution file suitable for viewing on the Internet.

You have to craft an item description, which teaches you how to write engaging copy that accurately describes what you are selling, highlights its benefits, conveys the credibility of the seller (you), and inspires the reader to take the desired action: bid on your item. You will also want to figure out how to include heavily searched keywords and phrases in your copy, which will come in handy when you have to write copy for Websites.

You have to set a minimum price you're willing to accept for the item, which teaches you how competitive the pricing of products is on the Internet and how important it is to do your research before you set your price.

You have to select a product category to list your item in, which teaches you how cluttered and confusing the competitive landscape can be and the importance of distinguishing yourself from the competition.

You have to respond to email queries from potential customers, which teaches you about email customer service and how important timely and clear communication with people is, especially those who do not have a solid grasp of the English language.

You have to handle the actual financial transaction for the sale, which teaches you about the various online (and offline) payment options as well as the commissions and fees anyone selling on the Internet has to pay in order to receive payment.

Finally, you have to package and ship your item to the customer, which teaches you how time and labour intensive fulfillment of e-commerce orders can be.

Leaving aside how much fun it can be (even just as a hobby), selling on eBay is like e-commerce boot camp, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get some affordable and hands-on experience in the e-commerce trenches.