Having just graded your online promotional assignments, I thought that the following articles were timely, as they provide some concepts for you to consider as you start thinking about your final project.
Besides thinking about what differentiates your company and products from the competition, it’s important that you also consider how relevant you are to your customer. Without that consideration, you’ll be marketing in a vacuum.
Apparently the consumer market is moving towards simplicity, whether it’s ice cream or pet food. While this article focuses on food products, it can apply to other products. Is your client creating needless complications in the marketing process (including pricing)?
Search engine optimization techniques could easily be a course unto themselves. While the basics are covered in the modules, I wanted to provide you with a sampler of the resources out there. Most recently I came across a video describing the bell curve of keyword searches, which I think does a good job of explaining why the less popular keyword phrases (i.e. the ‘long tail’ of search) for your product aren’t necessarily the least valuable.
Additional resources include the following articles:
I know you all are probably knee deep in e-commerce and online promotions right now, but two recent news items came up that I had to share, as they are relevant to the net neutrality issue.
John McCain is trying to block net neutrality in the Senate by preventing the FCC from governing communications. Ironically, it’s named the ‘Internet Freedom Act’, though it seems that only the ISPs receive freedom. Of course, Jon Stewart has his explanation for net neutrality and McCain’s new position.
In Europe, there is a move to allow ISPs to disconnect households where a single member has been found to violate copyright infringements three times. This ‘3 strikes’ rule apparently allows for no judicial oversight, in addition to setting a concerning precedent. However, one might argue that this is less extreme than recent RIAA fines in the U.S.
What do bad Photoshop editing and free speech have in common? Watch the below clip from the Rachel Maddow show to find out.
Essentially, this story is as much about a large company trying to claim digital copyright laws against a blog. What I find interesting here is that the original blog that hosted this image, which was hosted by Blogspot (Google owned), was forced to take the image down without any questions or discussion. Yet BoingBoing’s Canadian hosting service refused to capitulate to threats, which ultimately forced Ralph Lauren to take a closer look at the offending ad and review its threats against BoingBoing, as they did not seem to have anything to do with copyright protection.
In light of the branding section in Module 4, some interesting articles related to the shifting branding landscape.
Marketing budgets don’t need to be huge to succeed (think $700 a year!)
How brands can better understand what being friends on Facebook means from a marketing perspective.
Companies are moving away from brand manager to brand advocates – people who are passionate about the brand, more real time focused and able to implement programs quickly.
Some articles of note related to website usability & search.
Interesting thoughts on usability & conversion at a search marketing conference last week. (Note: Lisa Barone’s tone here is informal, but the subject matter is genuinely important)
Three spheres of web strategy – we’ll touch upon the community and technology spheres a bit during the social media sections.
Recent research discovered that social media use resulted in more time spent on email (not less)
Advanced thinking about email marketing – success is not how big your list is, but how engaged and interested your readers are with your brand. Think this is a viable metric? Or just warm & fuzzy magical thinking?
Incentivizing readers, making sure your newsletters are timely & relevant, and other email marketing tips from a recent marketing conference.
I came across this video via Mashable, and the Economist does a great job presenting some very powerful statistics. Many of them surprised me (most notably the Rickroll one). Which one(s) were a surprise to you?
