New Venture Marketing

Tsunami Relief

In the wake of this week's tragedy in Asia, the earthquake and Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, I wish to express sympathy for all those affected and our prayers for your recovery. 

We can help make a difference by giving (in the U.S.) to the American Red Cross  International Response Fund,  Network for Good Tsunami Relief Care or Save the Children fund Asia Earthquake / Tsunami Relief Fund.  Let's show that we can make a difference!

Some Housekeeping

I'm going to be shutting down the syndication portion of the blog for the holidays in order to make some small adjustments to type fonts and layout of each post.  You should still be able to search the blog and website.  However, when I switch the syndication back on, readers will be notified of the updates to many of the earlier posts.  Just disregard them.  The changes will not be substantive.

With best wishes for a healthy, happy holidays and New Year, Robin

Leveraging Search for Greater Impact

I sat in on a seminar yesterday, "Leveraging Search for Greater Impact" , presented by PR Newswire which was first rate and rich with possibility.

The premise of the session was that "the real power of the Internet lies in search engines and their ability to connect customers, stakeholders, influencers and media directly to the content they seek... offering a much untapped, by extremely effective means for delivering information to those most likely to act."

"Journalists," said Michelle Horowitz, VP of Content Development, PR Newswire, "will research the news wires, internal archives, search engines, company sites... but ultimately, it doesn't matter where they go for information.  Journalists [and many others] will heavily rely on the on search engines like Google or professional search services such as Factiva and LexisNexis."

So if you want your company to be noticed, and more importantly, for press and others to get their information from you, you need to get your website listed as the top result when your company or products name are searched.

Business Blogging Seminar

I see that Marketing Profs will be sponsoring a webnar tomorrow on Blogs: What Every Marketer Needs to Know Now" given by Blogging and Internet strategist B.L. Ochman.  Ochman is very knowledgeable, and I recommend the seminar for anyone who wants to learn more about the use of blogs in business. 

The seminar is set for December 16 at noon to 1:30 Eastern (9:00 am to 10:30am Pacific time).

Plus Marketing Profs is offering a price break to anyone who attends and wants to sign up for their Premium service, also very worthwhile.

Online Press Rooms

I can't think of a client today who doesn't post some sort of company news on their site, typically in the form of news releases, company events and press coverage.  While this information is useful, it is not sufficient in an age of 24/7 communications when audiences are both local and global. Today an online press room is key to provide access, easy-to-find and use information an editor or analyst might need, without trying to track it down, piece-by-piece.

The changes that are required are not big ones, but they are essential.  For the company which is not yet public, it would include:
.   virtual press kit with:
         .  company backgrounder
         .  executive bios & contact information
         .  basic company FAQs
         .  downloadable product shots
         .  downloadable company logo (s)

Don't Publish for the Sake of Publishing

From the desk of content management guru, Gerry McGovern:

   Don't publish for the sake of publishing. You may have one key message that you leave on your homepage for years. It's not a matter of having content that is new or old; it is a matter of having content that is relevant and useful.
   
   Some organizations hardly ever bother to update their websites. There are stories on the homepage that can be months—if not years—out of date. These  organizations simply don't understand that leaving this content on the website is damaging to the professional reputation of the organization.
   
   However, some organizations publish new content even when they shouldn’t. They fall into the trap of thinking that publishing is about news. Yes, an element of publishing can be about news, but that is not what the core purpose of publishing is. At a basic level, publishing is about getting the right content to the right person at the right time at the right cost....
   
   If you are not an organization that creates news, then don't have a prominent news section on your website. If you have one major message, then it is perfectly okay to promote that message in the center of your homepage every day of every year....

   It's not about being new. It is about being useful. Your job as a website editor is to make the difficult decisions in relation to what really matters to your key readers. How does news help them complete the task that they came to your website to do.

I couldn't agree more.

Vanishing Mass Market: From Mass to Micro Marketing

The impact of powerful new digital technologies on marketing has hastened the transition from mass marketing to micro marketing. These new digital media enjoy with several advantages:

 .  They provide companies more finely-tuned market segmentation -- the ability to reach smaller, more focused slices of a targeted market.

  · They enable marketers to provide information more finely tuned to the specific market segment and specific customer needs.

  · They allow the marketers to analyze and track a program’s impact, return and cost.

         · Finally, new on-line approaches can be implemented, evaluated and changed very quickly.   “Vanishing Mass Market", BusinessWeek, July 12, 2004

Because these new micro marketing tools are still in their infancy, I plan to discuss how they can be used, how they are different from what we have done before and what can be learned in the process.

Micro Marketing: Targeted On-line Ads

I recently had the occasion to talk with Alka Joshi about work her firm , Alka Joshi Marketing, www.alkajoshimarketing.com/portfolio.htmdid for Openwave’s Developer Network, and  think it a fine example of the power of applying new micro marketing techniques to on-line ads.   

Business Blogging Conferences

I see there are several conferences coming up which look very good, if you are interested in learning more about Business Blogging.

 The first is the Blog Business Summit to be held in Seattle, January 24 - 25 and
“show you how your business can leverage current real-word blogging techniques, tools and platforms to promote and enhance your ventures. With an all star list of bloggers. Robert Scobble, Molly Holzschlag, Brian Alvey and Glenn Fleishmann, D.L. Byron, Lenn Pryor and others."

New Communications Forum:

The second is New Communications Forum: Blog University which its producers promise “will provide you with an in-depth, hands-on exploration of the future of communications….[From] marketers and journalists who have pioneered the use of these new tools and technologies. They will share their in-the-trenches experiences as early adopters of these new communications tools.

New Communications Forum 2005 will be held in two venues: NewComm Forum America 2005 will be held in the US near Silicon Valley, CA and in Europe, Feb 7 - 8 in Paris.

It is for senior communications professionals from leading companies and PR and marketing communications agencies.

The How to Blog 101 Series

From Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion a good way to get started on the road to corporate blogging:

T. L. Pakii Pierce is writing a series titled The How To Blog - 101 Series. Here's a rundown of his courses...

How To Blog 101 - What is Blogging and Why Should I Blog?
How To Blog 102 - Planning Your Blog
How To Blog 103 - Choosing the Right Blogging Tools and Software
How To Blog 104 - Publishing Your First Blog Article
How To Blog 105 - How To Promote Your Blog
How To Blog 106 - Blogging For A Living

Convergence Marketing

I’ve been rereading Convergence Marketing, and thinking about the impact of the Internet on business and our clients. The premise of the book is that while the Internet doesn’t change everything, it does create a major shift in how customers behave and in turn how business must operate. The Dot.com era, the authors say, taught us that successful companies don’t simply throw out the old technologies and practices in favor of new ones, but rather integrate them into their total mix.

The same applies to marketing tools and practices. Traditional techniques, such as advertising, PR, and direct mail, have not been replaced, but they sure have been impacted by a witches brew of new tools from blogs and wikis to RSS and news aggregators.