14 Online Marketing Wake-Up Calls from @Avinash – SES Chicago

Online Marketing Magic blankets the Midwest as SES Chicago kicks off this morning. Audience members packed the room and gulped coffee anxiously awaiting to know what Avinash knows.

Curious to know what makes Avinash Kaushik (Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google) roll out of bed each morning? Surprisingly, it’s not data.

3 Simple Ideas Keeping Avinash’s Finger Off Snooze

1. Influence: The ability to find people and brainwash them that they need our products or services.
2. Experience: Most websites suck according to Avinash. And he’s on a one-man mission to fix them.
3. Value: If we solve the 2 problems above and can’t make money doing it, we’re doing it wrong. And that’s no fun at all.

How do you reach the intersection of influence, experience and value and find Online Marketing Magic?  Start with 14 online marketing Wake-Up Calls spanning from Analytics to Social to Mobile.

14 Online Marketing Wake-Up Calls

#1 – Solve problems related to Influence, Experience and Value
Start by identifying the 3 W’s: What influence you have and what influence you will need going forward to have an impact.  What’s the current visitor experience on your website? Where can you make it more audience-centric and less sucky?  What business value  is created by your digital footprint; website, social etc?

#2  - Don’t Obsess Over Data
Data should be collected and analyzed is service of Influence, Experience and Value.

#3 – Move Beyond the 2%
Most companies spend a lot of time and money acquiring web traffic (owned, earned and paid). If you are in the top 50 websites in America, the average conversion rate is 2% What about the 98%? Stop ignoring them.

#4 – Pay attention to Micro-Conversions
We need to identify Revenue along with the value coming from interactions of those who don’t immediately buy.

#5 – Understand Economic Value
Identify the other types of success from your website. Newsletter signups, Wish Lists, Reviews, Social Interactions, Sweepstakes.

Of those who signed up for the newsletter, how many ended up buying something within 1 month, 3 months etc. You have to be tracking this to get beyond short-term value.

#6 – Create an Economic Value Map
What creates Near Term value? Midterm Value and Longterm Value?  We can’t truly understand the impact of marketing activities without understanding micro-conversions and who eventually converts months later.

#7 – CPC’s are not a metric of success!

#8 – Identify Converting Paths on your Website
It’s more complex than you probably think. That’s ok.  Check out this site to help you make sense of the data. http://d3js.org/

#9 – Create and Repeat this 3 Step Process

1. Create a hypothesis of what the ultimate online portfolio looks like
2. Test
3. Be less wrong every single day

#10 – Stop Shouting at People
The efficiency in marketing isn’t the ability to shout louder and more frequently. Let’s find the intent of our audiences and serve their needs.  Each day we are losing our ability to find people and shout at them a little more. The ability for friends / networks to influence each other is what is and will continue to grow.

#11 – Twitter
Is Twitter as another PR channel the best we can do? Something to think about.

#12 – Facebook
Stop being a ‘Like begger’. Give them content of value and they will like or share.  They already liked your page, stop being so needy.

#13 – Increase your Social Media Effectiveness
Start measuring the following.

1. Conversation Rate (# of audience comments per social contribution)
2. Amplification Rate (# of retweets / shares / etc)
3. Applause Rate (what should we focus on doing more or less of – # of positive clicks per social contribution)
4. Economic Value (sum of short and long term revenue)Understand that the goal of Social Media is to create and engage an audience in the channel. Not create the network and stiff arm them to your website.

#14 – Stop Ignoring Mobile
Do you understand what the mobile platform allows? And that you have the opportunity to become a part of your audiences’  lives?

Check out Beneful’s site on your mobile device. The first 2 options are tools to help you find places to eat and play with your dog. The second is about dog parks.  They get that you likely aren’t looking to buy dog food from your phone.

Now you know what Avinash and the audience at SES Chicago knows.

To make this advice manageable, it’s a good idea to identify which items are likely to have highest impact and are the most feasible to execute. Then, feel free to put the others on snooze until you’re ready.

What Online Marketing wake-up calls have you encountered?

Catch me and others from TopRank team live blogging all week long. Or feel free to say hello!

Capture more Online Marketing Magic when Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing presents;  ’Optimizing B2B Content Across the Sales Cycle‘ on Wednesday at 3.15.

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