Category: marketing

Last weekend’s New York Times ran a remarkable expose of US based online entrepreneur Tony Russo’s business methods and how he’s built a business on bad online reviews.

Mr Russo’s model is basically to upset customers, they then complain in online forums which creates more links to his website, something we’re careful not to do here, those links in turn give his sites higher Google rankings.

Crazy stuff, particularly when you read the allegations of his  behaviour in the NY Times article which claims he stalks unhappy customers, calls their mobile phones and even masquerades as the complaining client to reverse credit card disputes.

This is an interesting side effect of gaming search engine rankings and how consumers use sites like Google and Bing. In recent times being in the first dozen listings on these sites has been the holy grail of online marketing with the reasonable assumption that a first page result will win customers.

Up until recently that assumption has been correct as most consumers have grabbed the first sites they have found when searching for a service or product, but now that’s changing as customers are increasingly checking comments, reviews and social media sites like Facebook before deciding to buy a product.

So this news isn’t as good as it looks for the shonky merchant as the market gets savvier. Today’s customers are finding ways to dig a little deeper than just the superficial initial search, and when the purchase is going to cost a few hundred dollars most cost conscious buyers are going to spend the extra ten minutes checking out the seller’s reputation.

As online markets develop, we’re moving away from the high visibility marketing methods of the mass media era to something similar to the word of mouth driven marketplaces of the 18th Century village or town square.

This is particularly true in the hospitality industries where the review sites like Eatability and location based services like Foursquare and Facebook Places are become venues for happy, and unhappy, customers to share their experiences.

Our names as reputable businesspeople are mattering more than ever and not just with customers, but suppliers, staff and creditors as well. We’re returning to the days were a businesses person is only as good as their word and our words will bite us if we can’t be trusted.

We have to get over the idea that all news is good news and that a thousand online friends or mentions are a measure of success, we and our business are now being judged on our quality and value that we deliver. It’s something we need to keep in mind every time a customer contacts us.

Chris Thomas’ Smartcompany column last week suggested the latest Google search changes will see a lot of wasted Search Engine Optimisation investments, this saga illustrates a couple of peculiarities about the Internet that all business owners should keep in mind.

The most important is that almost all the Internet tools we use are privately owned. When we use Google, Facebook, Twitter or any of the myriad other online applications, free or paid for, we are beholden to their regulations.

Nipplegate was a good example of this, regardless of how silly Facebook’s rules are regarding nudity it is their their sandpit and if we want to play in it we have to agree to their rules.

This is why it’s important we have our own websites, so at least we have some control over our content and a central place for our customers to find us regardless of other sites rules and problems. Although your own web address is still subject to the sometimes arbitrary whims of domain registrars and Internet filters.

We also need to be careful of not getting too obsessed about the net. Often we spend too much time perfecting our SEO strategy, harvesting likes on Facebook or gaining Twitter fans. It’s like the days when we discovered desktop publishing and whittled away hours playing with fonts and the position of clip art.

Getting the fonts, web key words or Facebook page right is important, but we should never forget that it’s our product that matters. The best website in the world means nothing if we aren’t delivering a product our customers believe is value for money.

Big businesses are struggling with this because in the days of mass media it was possible to bury your mistakes under an avalanche of advertising, for smaller business without a corporate marketing budget they had to deliver a consistently better product or they’d be extinct.

Today, the tables have been turned in that small businesses can afford to be distracted by the bling of cheap, easily accessible online marketing and lose touch with the people that really matter – our customers.

“How do I advertise on LinkedIn? Asked a business owner at a recent workshop.

While I answered that LinkedIn advertising probably isn’t the right path for many small businesses, one of my fellow presenters, Lara Solomon, disagreed and made the point LinkedIn is an important marketing tool.

There’s no doubt about that as a marketing, rather than an advertising tool, all online channels — including LinkedIn pages — are important to businesses as customers, suppliers and potential staff check the web before doing business with an organisation.

A good illustration of this was over the weekend when digital marketer, Raz Chorev, called out chicken chain Oporto’s for not training their staff on honouring Foursquare deals. Raz also made a point about censoring web comments which might be the topic of a future post, but really isn’t the issue here.

Raz’s comments appeared on Twitter, Facebook and on web searches. To their credit, Oporto responded quickly by isolating the damage, explaining their position and learning a lesson on letting their staff know about all the offers they post.

It isn’t just cranky customers posting on their own sites or any one of the thousands of review services such as Eatablity or Tripadvisor, we’re being judged on the comments of ex-employees, suppliers and even the quality and content of our own online utterings.

our brand is out there, on line, all the time.

A surly call centre, missed deliveries or billing mistakes all add up and damage our brands. Eventually, the massed weight of negative comments can overwhelm even the best, most expensive advertising campaign.

Our brands, both as individuals and our businesses are bigger than just marketing, we have to make sure we are consistently doing the right thing by our customers, suppliers and staff.

We’re in an era of accountablity which forces us to deliver on our promises. This is not a bad thing.

An effective web presence that makes the most of traditional marketing, the Internet and social media is essential to for any growing business.

The Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets workshop brings together three of Australia’s leading Internet and marketing experts; Paul Wallbank, Michelle Gamble and Lara Solomon to reveal the secrets of finding and keeping customers online.

We’ll be covering how the Internet fits into your marketing plan, setting up an effective web presence and using social media to spread the word about your business.

Thanks to our corporate supporters, Sensis, we’ll have an iPad to give away to one of our lucky attendees.

Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets will be held in Sydney on September 28 where Lara, Michelle and Paul will show you how to get a cost effective presence online.

Registrations are open now for a discounted early bird rate at the Marketing Angels website. Move fast as spaces are limited

Entrepreneur magazine discusses changing your definition of marketing. Dan Kennedy has some good examples of businesses that have used tools such as membership and market positioning to grow, but I’m not sure they can be treated as marketing.

All of the examples; Starbucks, Disney, Florida timeshares, barbers and gourmet pizza shops illustrate some great business models which is exactly what they are; ways of doing business that engage the customer and sell a better product.

The marketing aspect is simply telling the story of why the business is better, unique or why it does something so well.

One of the problems with marketing is it’s often about telling porkies, not about describing the product or why the business is unique. This type of marketing fails when the customer finds they’ve been sucked in.

In the past, big brands have been able to get around this by using mass media to shout it louder and stronger on the idea that if you repeat the lie often enough, people will believe it.

Marketing is part of your business DNA, you have to tell your story to get business. The key is to be telling a true story based on your product’s strengths.