Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Discover "Minivertising" at 2009 CMA National Convention

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!

That's the rallying cry for a presentation I am giving at the Canadian Marketing Association's National Convention in Toronto on April 28, 2009.

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at Canada's largest marketing conference. This national convention is held each spring in a different city and welcomes thousands of attendees.

Here are the details:

"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
10:30 - 11:30 AM
Register for the conference

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small! Until recently, it was expensive if not impossible to market to a highly segmented target audience. Not any longer. Discover how marketers and entrepreneurs can use social media and emerging Web tools for affordable and effective mini-targeting. No matter what the size of your company is, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.

If you’re a marketer, you will learn how to use the principles of minivertising to generate interest for your client’s products and services, no matter how constrained their budgets are. If you are an entrepreneur or business executive, you’ll discover affordable and measurable ways to attract highly motivated customers to you, almost overnight.

For more information and to register, visit the CMA National Convention Website.

I hope to see you there.

P.S. Here is a link to the list of Minivertising Resources.

Seven Killer Reasons to Attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference

As you may have noticed, I've been busy spreading the word on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter about the 11th annual Digital Marketing Conference, which is being held in Toronto on October 29th and 30th. I'm on the Organizing Committee for this year's Conference and after months of planning we are now finally able to publicly share our excitement about the speakers and sessions we've arranged for you to experience.

Here, in my opinion, are seven of the best reasons to attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference:

1. Rob Master from Unilever will be talking about how one of the world's biggest traditional advertisers has fully embraced digital marketing, especially social media.
2. David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, will be riffing about Disruptive Technology. David's brilliant and entertaining, which is a rare combination in my books. Here's a link to a funny video of David Pogue in action!
3. Everyone I talk to these days is struggling to hire good people. That's why we've persuaded Charlie Gray from Google and Bruce Powell from IQ Partners to talk about how to recruit and retain digital marketing talent.
4. The videogame industry is bigger than Hollywood, and so we've lined up Ron Bertram from Nintendo of Canada to reveal how he helped take the company to the top of the videogame market in Canada.
5. Just in time for the biggest shopping season of the year, Derek Szeto from RedFlagDeals.com will share an awesome and uniquely Canadian Boxing Week case study.
6. The Experience Exchange Roundtables are back by very popular demand. This is your chance to pick the brains of some of the country's smartest digital marketing minds. I'll leave it up to you to decide if I qualify for that title, but I will be leading a roundtable on Domain Name Strategy.
7. Coming up right after the Roundtables is the Networking Reception. The company I work for, Tucows, is sponsoring the reception and we've got a few treats in store for attendees so you definitely won't want to miss this.

So there you have it, a small taste of the inspiring and informative agenda we've got planned for you at this year's Digital Marketing Conference.

Don't wait until the last minute to register. For the last several years, the Digital Marketing Conference always sells out and we literally have to turn people away at the door. Head on over to http://www.the-cma.org/digital for more details and to register today.

I hope to see you there.

"Minivertising" - Join me in Vancouver to Learn About this New Marketing Strategy

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!

That's the rallying cry for a keynote address I am delivering in Vancouver on September 11, 2008.

British Columbia Association of Integrated Marketers (BC AIM) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at a Marketing Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Here are the details:

"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Presented by BC AIM
Thursday, September 11, 2008
11:30 AM - 2 PM
Four Seasons Hotel, 791 Georgia Street West, Vancouver, BC
Register for this Event

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small! Until recently, it was expensive if not impossible to market to a highly segmented target audience. Not any longer. Discover how marketers and entrepreneurs can use social media and emerging Web tools for affordable and effective Mini-targeting. No matter the size of your company, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.

If you’re a marketer, you’ll learn how to use the principles of Minivertising to generate interest for your client’s products and services, no matter how constrained their budgets are.

If you’re an entrepreneur or business executive, you’ll discover affordable and measurable ways to attract highly motivated customers to you, almost overnight.

For more information and to register, visit the BC AIM Website.

I hope to see you there.

Buffalo Stampede: The Power of a Generic Domain Name

I love it when I stumble across a great Internet marketing case study as I am just going about my day-to-day life.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a quick day trip to Buffalo, New York. At one point during the day, we needed to call for a local taxi, so my wife whipped out her mobile phone and began dialing. I was puzzled as to how she happened to have the number of a Buffalo taxi company at her fingertips. So I asked her about this.

As it turns out, my wife - who is the more practical one in the family - knew that we'd need the services of a local cab company while we were in Buffalo, so prior to our trip she had turned to our mutual friend, Google, for help.

It turns out that she had typed "Buffalo taxi" into the search engine. My wife was presented with the first 10 results out of over 3 million. Quickly scanning the Google results page, she saw "Buffalo Taxi Cab" (second from the top) and the URL www.buffalotaxicab.com. And that's what she clicked on. And that's who got my wife's business. (Yes, even with the crappy, one-page Website that currently resides there.)

I was intrigued by all of this, so I asked my wife how and why she chose this particular taxi company. She explained to me that the number one thing that got her attention was the fact that the company had "the best Website address." She went on to explain that, based on the fact that this company was using buffalotaxicab.com as their domain, she figured they were "legitimate" and "had their act together."

My wife is right, of course. buffalotaxicab.com is a terrific generic domain name that not only clearly explains what the company has to offer, it is intuitive from a type-in perspective, and it is also loaded with the keywords that are ideal for high search engine ranking.

The thing I found most interesting was that the clever company that owned this domain name consists of just two guys with two cabs. But by having this great generic domain name, two guys with two cabs beat out dozens of larger competitors for my wife's business.

Way to go, guys. And thanks for planning ahead, honey.

The Serious Business of Funny Email

It's no secret that using humour is a powerful marketing strategy that marketers can use to attract and acquire new customers. Every day we're likely to see a whole raft of 'funny' ads, the collective effort of creative teams who have worked very hard to come up with them.

I'm sure that you have, at least once in your life, been attracted to the products or services of a company because their marketing material made you laugh. (The same can be said of marketing material that is intended to make you cry, but that's another blog post...)

But what about using humour to retain customers? Which companies are making their current customers laugh for all the right reasons?

A little company called CD Baby is.

Until a few weeks ago I had never even heard of CD Baby. I stumbled across them while trying to find out where to purchase the debut CD from a Canadian band I admire, Delhi 2 Dublin. It turned out that their CD was available at CD Baby, an online music retailer that calls itself "the little store with the best new independent music."

"Cool," I thought to myself. I quickly found and ordered the CD on CD Baby's Website, and then promptly moved on to the next item on my to do list.

The next day, I got an email from CD Baby confirming that my CD had been shipped. This was no ordinary email, however. While most e-tailers send confirmation emails to customers once a product has been shipped - which is a best practice - this was the funniest and most memorable order confirmation email I have ever received.

Here's an excerpt:

"Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow...

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package..."

So as not to spoil the surprise should you ever become a customer of CD Baby and receive one of these emails, I have left out some of the email's content.

Not only did I laugh out loud when I read this email, but I immediately showed it to my wife (who was sitting near me at the time). "Wow. That makes me want to buy from them," she said. I couldn't agree more.

Thanks to the clever use of humour in their order confirmation email, CD Baby not only forged a tighter bond with me as one of their current customers, but they also motivated me to share my positive experience with prospective customers - first my wife, and now you.

And that's nothing to laugh at.

An Insider's Perspective on the Multi-Billion Dollar Domain Name Industry

As loyal readers of this blog will know, last month I was in Miami, Florida to attend the biggest domain name industry event of them all, TRAFFIC. While I was there, I recorded interviews with several of the domain name industry's major players. Upon my return, I turned these interviews into six special "road trip" versions of my Marketing Martini podcast, four of which have been released so far.

If you'd like a glimpse inside the rather secretive, multi-billion dollar domain name industry, I encourage you to give these episodes a listen. Here are a few highlights...

What's a live domain name auction? Find out from the man who runs the top one in the world.

In Episode #29 of Marketing Martini, I talked with Monte Cahn, Founder and CEO of Moniker.com, about the world's largest live domain name auction. It was only after the interview that I realized Monte also hosts his own podcast, Domain Masters. Such a small world!

Ever looked up the perfect domain name for your business only to discover it wasn't available to register? Don't give up hope just yet; a good domain could still be within reach.

In Episode #31 of Marketing Martini, I chatted with Peter Lamson of NameMedia about the "aftermarket" for domain names. In a stroke of accidental marketing brilliance on my part, this episode was released shortly after NameMedia filed to go public.

Did you know that buying a domain name is no longer the only way you can gain use of it?

In Episode #32 of Marketing Martini, I spoke with Jonathan Boswell of LeaseThis.com about the notion of domain name leasing. Jonathan was such an interesting interview subject that he inspired two episodes.

I have received such amazing feedback from listeners about this special "road trip" series of interviews that I wanted to bring the series to your attention. Enjoy!

TigerDirect's Brilliantly Obvious Video Idea

Sometimes the best ideas are so obvious that you can miss them altogether.

There I am, surfing the Website of Tiger Direct, one of my favourite computer and gadget retailers, when I spot something I've never seen before on a retailer's Website: an embedded video link from something called "TigerTV."

I had been looking at the product detail page for a GPS unit, and this page had all the usual things one would hope to see, including detailed specs, lots of product photos, plus candid customer reviews.

But there, smack-dab in the middle of the page, was a link to a YouTube-hosted video about the GPS unit.

What the heck, I figured, I'll click on the video link and watch a bit of it.

Seven minutes later(!) I realized I'd just watched what was essentially an infomercial for the GPS unit. And you know what? I actually found it helpful. Even though the video was produced on a shoestring and the host was a little over-the-top (OK, a lot over-the-top), I still learned more about the features and benefits of the GPS unit in those seven minutes than I did spending twenty or more minutes reading the written content on the product page.

Why doesn't every online retailer do this? Or at least do this for those 'complicated' products that require that little extra merchandising effort.

Don't say it's "expensive" because you can churn out infomercial-quality videos like the TigerTV one for very little budget. And since Tiger Direct is using YouTube to host and stream the videos, there are no additional storage and bandwidth charges.

Such a smart idea ... and so obvious in hindsight. Yet I'd never seen a retailer do this before. Have you?

Crossing 10,329 Miles with Communication Consultant Lee Hopkins

Last week I had the honour and pleasure of being interviewed by Australia's Lee Hopkins for his provocative Better Communication Results podcast. Despite the fact my Skype connection kept disconnecting us every 6 minutes or so, Lee and I had a lively 30-minute discussion about search engine optimization, business blogs, and social media.

One of the questions Lee asked me triggered me to tell the story of a friend who recently launched an online store and was looking for help with the search engine optimization.

Because my friend's store was created using a database-driven e-commerce solution that was not designed with search engines in mind and would therefore be impossible to properly optimize for search engines, I recommend that my friend focus his efforts instead on creating a blog related to the product he was selling.

I told my friend that this would be a far more effective way to generate targeted traffic than trying to optimize the existing site. Not only would it be good for the search engines, it would also be good for prospective customers. This is not the first time I've made this recommendation to someone, nor will it likely be the last. That's right, yet another great reason to consider launching a blog.

You can download an MP3 file of the full interview (14 MB) or, better yet, subscribe to Lee's podcast feed so you can receive this and future episodes of his Better Communication Results podcast.

Search Engine Strategies Toronto 2007 - Day 1 Highlights

The Search Engine Strategies Toronto conference was held in Toronto, Canada on June 12-13, 2007 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. As always, it was a tightly-run event that was jam-packed with valuable information.

Here are some of the highlights from sessions I attended on Day 1:

Session: The Canadian Search Landscape

• Canadians conducted 12 billion search engine queries in 2006.
• Canadians are now conducting an average of 1.4 billion search engine queries per month.
• 80% of Canadian search queries are for Website content, 18% for images, and the balance are for video content, which is growing fast
• Depending on whose numbers you want to believe, Google currently has approximately 75-80% of the Canadian search engine query share, with Yahoo! and Microsoft evenly split over the remaining 20-25%. Expect Microsoft's share to increase as they continue to invest heavily in search.
• MSN adCenter's a 'bargain' deal for Canadian paid search advertisers because it is still relatively new and there's less competition.
• Only a small percentage of advertisers are taking advantage of the Quebec search engine advertising market; lots of great opportunities to get cheap traffic this way.
• 50% of Canadian search queries are related to finding a product or service.
• 78% of Canadians will turn to search engines to research a product or service.
• Martin Byrne from Yahoo! Search Marketing made the interesting observation that companies who have top ranking organic search results convey a "perception of [brand] leadership."
• Canadian searchers are knowledge seekers not bargain hunters.
• Canadian searchers are engaged: they are very active, will look at more brands, explore more choices, and like to build and share their expertise.
• 82% of Canadian businesses with Websites engage in online advertising, but only 36% of them use search engine advertising or search engine optimization.
• When asked why they weren't using search engine advertising, the number one reason Canadian businesses cited was "too expensive" ... which, of course, is ridiculous.
• Search engine advertising in Canada is now as large as the entire online advertising market was in 2004.
• In general, Canada is a less competitive search engine advertising market, which means there is still a great opportunity for advertisers.

Session: Search User Behaviour

• Searching from the Web browser's toolbar has increased 57% in Canada over the last year.
• Toolbar makes searchers more loyal to a specific search engine, and more engaged with that search engine; they conduct more searches.
• When it comes to having an impact on an online purchase, running search engine advertising alone can have a 20% lift, running online display advertising alone can have a 20% lift, but combining the two can have an 83% lift!
• Google image search is starting to get a significant amount of Canadian search traffic: 2% per month and growing.
• On average, a typical Canadian Website can expect to generate about 80-85% of its search traffic from organic listings versus 15-20% from search engine advertising.
• 1 in 4 searches are triggered by offline advertising. Television and print advertising aren't dead yet!
• Mainstream search engines (i.e., Google, Yahoo!, MSN) are the number one choice for B2B product or service research.
• Of those B2B researchers who want to go directly to a potential vendor's Website, 27% of them will still use a search engine to find that Website.

Stay tuned for highlights from Day 2...

Window Tinting Search Reveals Smart Use of Video

Did you know you can buy and install special tinting film on your home windows to reduce the amount of heat transmitted into your house? It's kind of like tinting the windows of your car, except, well, it's your home windows.

I had no idea such a product existed until about 10 days ago when I Googled "residential window tinting" and quickly found myself at Gila Film Products, makers of window tinting film. Not only was I thrilled to discover there was a solution to my problem (the south-facing rooms on third floor of our house were turning into saunas) but I also stumbled across a great use of video on a corporate Website.

The Gila Film Products Website features a "how to install the window tinting film" page that includes a downloadable 11-minute instructional video that covers topics like the tools you need, preparing the work area, and correcting mistakes. Sure, I read the written instructions (also available on the Gila Website in both HTML and PDF flavours), but it was also extremely helpful to be able to watch the video and see how the professionals apply the window tinting film.

My wife, who helped me with the task (and lived to tell about it), also appreciated watching the video because she's one of those people who prefers to be shown how to do something rather than read an instruction manual. (I believe these are referred to as "normal" people!)

I'm not for one moment suggesting that this is the most groundbreaking use of video on the Internet. It is, however, an incredibly helpful and practical idea, and one that benefits everyday people...in the here and now. I only wish there were more manufacturers like Gila Film Products that offered "how to" videos like this on their Website. It's a smart idea, simply executed, and the world can always use more of these.