GDMI Corporate Blog

To be an early adopter is to be a risk taker. New technologies are fraught with bugs and the road to prosperity is littered with the corpses of failed early adopters. However, with great risk comes great reward.

Early adoption of a new technology is the short cut to success in a mature market. It allows the bold protagonist to cut through a market that is typically dominated by a handful of titans and reach the target audience in new and innovative ways.

A prime example of this is the travel industry. The early adopters in the online travel industry are now its giants - Expedia, Travelocity and the like. How does any new company manage to compete in an industry that is so dominated by these entities? The answer is to become an early adopter of the next wave of technology. Step forward the new darling, www.TripAdvisor.com.

Trip Advisor recognized early the opportunities that social media and user generated content afforded the travel industry. When a user searches online for a vacation, particularly in a location that they have never visited, it has always been fiendishly difficult to choose a hotel, a resort and a destination. Part of the difficulty is that there is always the suspicion that you are being sold a bill of goods. The travel industry has always been in the position of not only selling the user the vacation, but also of being the primary source of information regarding the resort or hotel. That immediately presents a conflict of interest. How can we as users trust the people that will profit from our buying decision to give us all the impartial information we need to make an informed decision?

Social media and user generated content has cut to the core of this argument and provided users with a solution. Trip Advisor recognized the opportunity early and fully leveraged the new technology as an early adopter. The key was that Trip Advisor established itself as an unvarnished forum for individuals that have visited the destinations and stayed at the facilities to rate them. The platform allows the individual to rate based on a number of set criteria, as well as write an editorial comment and recommendations and upload their photos of the destination. This allows other users to get a much better sense of the destination prior to booking. Unsurprisingly, it has been a roaring success and Trip Advisor is now one of the aforementioned titans in the industry. This success is built almost entirely on the back of their foresight as an early adopter of a technology that provided them with an edge in one of the most competitive markets online.

Cast your mind back a few months ago and you will recall that Microsoft was on the verge of buying up Yahoo. The marriage made sense - the company that owned the third most used search engine was looking to buy the number 2 search engine as a last ditch effort to catch up with the search engine behemoth that is Google. At the last minute, Yahoo rejected what it considered to be a low ball bid and decided to partner with Google. This decision made so little sense that it even led to a stockholder revolt led by Carl Icahn.

Fast forward a few months and the kabuki dance continues. With revenues suffering and layoffs announced, the Yahoo board is considering a return to the Microsoft offer. I expect that Microsoft are still interested, but now have a much stronger hand to play and as such are likely to offer even less than before.

The endgame awaits - my prediction is that Microsoft will acquire Yahoo and that the combined entity will still haemorrage market share to Google. I believe that the search contest has been won and that smarter minds should now focus on the next wave, social media and beyond.

GDMI has been ranked the 9th best PPC management company in the US by Top SEOs:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/topseos/rankings/prweb1562494.htm

The selection of the firms is based on a few of the following factors:

• How is your PPC campaign monitored actively and how are the bid adjustments made?
• How were your click-through rates improved?
• What techniques were utilized to lower the cost per conversion?
• Are the PPC campaign reports useful and easy to understand?
• By what % have you increased your PPC budget and over what time?

As I write this, we are less than 72 hours from the likely end of a momentous event - the 2008 US Presidential election. While I have on occasion discussed it in passing, particularly in reference to the wildly successful paid search campaign GDMI has built and managed to sell Obama branded merchandise, I have to date refrained from exploring what I believe is the central lesson that SEM professionals can learn from this campaign.

The campaign has been dominated by a number of meta narratives, chief among them the collapse of the housing sector and the subsequent financial crisis. This has clearly benefited the Obama campaign. However, the Obama campaign has a critical lesson to teach us; the success of strategy over tactics.

To the casual observer, Barack Obama has a great number of appealing characteristics. With his eloquence, unmatched in recent years, his overwhelmingly positive and hopeful message and the historic nature of the race, he makes for a very compelling candidate and narrative.

The most important factor in this race however has been the unflinching focus by the Obama campaign on a strategic approach. From before the days of the Iowa caucus in the Democratic primaries, the Obama campaign focused on the long game, putting together a strategic plan and sticking to it through their most difficult days.

This is in direct contrast to the approach taken first by the Clinton campaign, and then currently by the McCain campaign. Both of these campaigns have been obsessed with a tactical approach, utterly focused on winning the daily news cycle. This has provided us with a spectacle that has something of a freak show quality to it.

While the Clinton and McCain campaigns have had many tactical victories, the approach they took has damaged their respective meta-narratives. John McCain is no longer viewed by the electorate as the steady hand in a time of crisis. This is entirely as a result of the campaign that he has run. Meanwhile, polls repeatedly cite Obama’s temperament and readiness to be president.

While we do not know who will win the election in a couple of days time, there is no doubt that at this point, the McCain campaign needs a miracle to fend off an electoral college landslide. The job of a campaign is to put your candidate in the position to win - the campign has clearly failed to do that, even if there is some deus ex machina that hands the win to the Republican.

Even if Obama does not win, the Obama campaign’s strategic approach has succeeded overwhelmingly in putting the Democrat in a position where he is almost certain to win.

The lesson for marketers? Craft a compelling message. Devise a powerful strategy. Stay disciplined and focused in executing that strategy. You may not win, but you will provide yourself with the best possible chance for victory. Yes We Can.

When marketing B2B offerings, there is often a temptation to take the path of least resistance; namely to throw up a few landing pages and drive some paid search to them in an effort to generate leads quickly. While this may be effective in generating a number of responses in relatively short order, it is likely to be ineffective over the medium to long term. This is a result of the unique challenges of the B2B environment:

• The B2B industry is often a niche market. As such, the focus must be narrower than the wide net that is cast in B2C marketing.
• Within the B2B niche, the target audience is even smaller (for example, C-Suite decision making executives). The key is to market in a way that focuses on this relatively small universe of prospects.
• The sales process with many B2B marketers is often much longer than that enjoyed by B2C marketers. A B2B sales process can often last weeks or months, even years. A B2B marketing program has to take this into account and be designed to engage the prospect at regular intervals during the course of this long process.

These are the reasons that preclude a simple paid search campaign as the most effective approach in B2B marketing. For these marketers, a branding strategy is the most effective long term approach. Branding is effective in B2B marketing for the following reasons:

• When executed properly, it is by its nature strategic. This in turn implies an eye to the medium to long term.
• With a relatively small universe of potential prospects, the focus is on making the strongest possible first impression. This leaves a powerful impression of the brand in the consciousness of the prospect that can last a long time.
• By defining the brand early and continuously reinforcing this brand over time, it allows the marketer to build a narrative around this brand that engenders an emotional connection.

The final point is particularly pertinent in the B2B sales process. While we like to consider ourselves logical and dispassionate decision makers, the truth is that on a sub-concious level our decision making is driven by emotional triggers.

This begs the question; how do you generate an emotional connection when you operate in a deeply unglamorous industry (for example, manufacturing)? The best answer and example I have ever seen is the series of television ads produced by Dow Chemical. If you have a few spare moments, I urge you to go over to YouTube and watch their ads (the one titled ‘The Human Element’ is a personal favorite). These ads have the audacity to take a chemical company (very unglamorous) and produce a brand that is lyrical, poetic and a thing of some beauty. It is an impression that lasts deep in the consciousness and triggers those emotions that guide our decision making process.

The folks at Dow Chemical understood that clever branding is an elementary factor in B2B marketing. Once this brand is identified and built, the B2B marketer is then in a position to promote it using paid and natural search as well as social (Web 2.0) media.

The most important factor in all this is that before the message is broadcast, the heavy lifting is done, with the brand carrying the B2B marketer to success.

There is a perception in the B2B community that online marketing is for the kids, for the mass marketers and for consumers. It has no place for the elite B2B marketer who is looking to target the C-Suite executive. The fact is, nothing could be further from the truth. The reasons are myriad, but the approach does differ from the B2C marketer. In the B2B world, it is the scalpel that works, not the hatchet. This approach can be characterized as follows:

1. Act strategically, not tactically - the smart B2B marketer knows that the sales cycle is long, so the focus is on building a strategy that relies on a long, steady accumulation of trust and credibility rather than leaping in for the kill immediately.
2. Devise a strategy that is multiplatform - do not rely on just one platform but recognize the fact that your target audience is likely to research a variety of sources before making a buying decision. Make sure you have a robust presence on all the platforms they are likely to use.
3. Advertise where they cluster - there are certain B2B platforms that your target audience are more likely to congregate than others. Advertise on LinkedIn, not MySpace.

A question that is often heard with regards to paid search campaigns is why should we bid on keywords for which the client already ranks naturally? Is this not a waste of money?

At its core, this strategy all goes back to managing not only the brand, but the narrative. If you fail to define your brand, you can count on your competitors defining you in the minds of your target audience. If you cede the narrative, you face an uphill struggle.

A clear example of this unfolded before our eyes this past week. At a crticial time in the global economy, Congress rejected the bailout that was necessary to get the credit markets moving. This came as a result of the howl of protest from the public at the thought of this bailout. However, at its core, this is a result of a catastrophic failure to manage the brand and controll the narrative.

While this action is necessary to move credit and protect the entire global economy, how was it originally framed? It was defined by its detractors very early as the ‘Wall Street Bailout’. In effect, the public was told that their tax dollars were being used to bailout fat cat financiers who had gambled and lost. In that sense, it is not surprising that there was a revolt. The more responsible elements of the government have since realized this and have now started defining the action as a necessary ‘rescue for main street’.  However, this is a reactionary initiative now; the damage is already done.

The lesson is clear - Manage the narrative, manage the brand or get swept away by elements beyond your control.

So Congress has rejected the bailout and we are running around screaming that it is all going to come to a crashing halt. Make no mistake, this is a pivotal moment with credit seizing up around the world. What’s a responsible business person or marketer to do?

The answer is to absolutely positively NOT do nothing. Don’t run for the hills. Don’t bury your head in the sand.

Recognize that the only person that is going to bail you out is yourself. We see this every day. As I write, one of our long standing B2C clients has expanded their media budget ten-fold during the course of this year. Understand that this is a responsible business owner who is only increasing his spending based upon the stellar results we have been achieving on his behalf. This picture is mirrored by one of our B2B clients who has tripled his spending this year as a result of the huge accompanying increase in revenues that have been generated.

The strategies for these e-commerce clients have been very similar to each other: Build a test campaign with a high ROI on Google, then move swiftly to expand it to its limits on that platform followed by a rapid expansion to Yahoo, MSN, Facebook and other platforms. This is the online equivalent of the Powell Doctrine - meet your competitors with overwhelming force. This is the time to ride the search tsunami. Be brave. Be bold. Bail yourself out.

OK, so the World did not end. Those nutty Swiss scientists activated the Large Hadron Collider and we did not all collapse into a black hole. The universe is safe for another day from meddling Europeans, so why does it feel like everything is coming to an end?

You would have to be pretty myopic to not feel nervous about the general state of the economy, the general state of civil society and the general state of the World. So as we all turn into a bunch of paralyzed concern trolls, what options do we have? The first option is to turn into a surrender monkey, declare that we are all doomed and stick our collective heads in the sand. However, as my colleague Doreen Domask has said, sticking your head in the sand is a sure way to get your backside kicked.

I prefer the alternative as laid out succinctly by Doreen - Go Big, Go Long and Go Wide. She explains:

“With many of your competitors running for the hills, this gives you the opportunity to sweep the board with an aggressive maneuver. Fortune favors the brave at a time like this so increase your investment since there are bargains to be leveraged. This is a time to be the wolf and not the sheep.”

“To go long is to act strategically and not just react to a series of tactical crises. Put your long term plan in place with clearly articulated goals and stick to it.”

“Finally, to go wide is to diversify. Too many online marketers are single threaded, focusing only on banner advertising or paid search. Treat this like a stock portfolio and diversify your efforts using a variety of tactics and platforms. Do not limit yourself to paid properties, but bolster this with natural search and social media marketing.”

“The key”, she continues, “is speed. If you are in a B2C industry, the fourth quarter and the holiday season could not be more critical at a time like this. For B2B marketers, the upcoming quarter is when your clients are planning their 2009 budgets. With a typical B2B sales cycle of 3 to 9 months, this is the time you need to get in front of them.”

She concludes, “it is this disciplined approach that has allowed our clients to achieve their goals in this difficult environment.”

So take heart my friends. There is a way out of this, but it takes fortitude and planning. And GDMI.

Without a doubt, the biggest story of the cycle is Hurricane Palin as the Alaska governor roars through the Republican convention. While this has undoubtedly energized the Republican base, all appearances indicate that the VP nominee (presumptive) is having her image defined by others in a less than flattering light. However, there is evidence that the McCain campaign is working hard to reclaim the narrative. The evidence? Try googling ‘Sarah Palin pictures’. Among the top paid search results: “Sarah Palin Photos: Get Official Campaign Photos of Governor Sarah Palin Today! JohnMcCain.com/Palin.”

This is clearly a problem for the campaign and further highlights the yawning chasm in how the McCain and Obama campaigns have approached the Internet as a campaign tool. The correct approach would have been to build the narrative online ‘naturally’ through multiple properties, an organic search and grassroots social media approach. The fact that the running mate decision was so far out of left field and was such a surprise meant that this approach was not possible and the McCain campaign is now playing catch up and paying the price for it in real financial terms.