Biznology Blog by Mike Moran

Where Business and Technology Come Together

November 21, 2008

Selling Search Marketing: Prey or Pray?

by Frank Reed

If you've ever wondered whether you are the client of your search marketing agency or just another victim of a marketing predator, read on. Small business owners, because they must be generalists, are especially vulnerable to fast-talking specialists who over-promise and under-deliver. If you are concerned about becoming prey and don't know what else to do but pray, I have some advice for you.

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November 20, 2008

Are You Telling Your Customers Off?

by Eva Lyford

Do you consider yourself customer-friendly? Always looking to start the conversation—or continue it? You might be surprised to find that a common practice is undermining any friendly sentiment your e-mail recipient might receive. I'm talking about donotreply@ e-mails. Often, with today's smartphones and e-mail preview panes and popup alerts, the sender's name and first lines of the e-mail are your first impression coming through the inbox door. If you are presently using a donotreply@ address in your e-mail marketing, stop what you're doing right now and spend some time figuring out how to get over it—because a donotreply@ address in your e-mail marketing is about as effective as halitosis in a breath mint salesman.

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November 19, 2008

Being Cranky for a Living

I guess there's a way to make a living at being cranky. I've long enjoyed John Dvorak's columns, stemming all the way back to the early days of the PC, and he certainly has elevated the curmudgeonly column to an art form. But I guess I wonder whether it sometimes is more entertaining than informative, such as his recent provacatively titled "Google Must Die" column. He does the usual complaining about how search results aren't any good and it's insane to expect them to improve as long as we use this ridiculous PageRank thing Google invented. Perhaps I am too close to the business, but I am more likely to sit in wonderment about how good search is than to bemoan its very real failures.

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November 18, 2008

Does Personalization Really Work?

After my post on personalization yesterday on personalization, someone asked me, "Does personalization really work?" I don't think he meant that kind of thing that I proposed yesterday (to make sure that the list of everything a customer buys from you online and offline is available to them on your Web site for reorders). I think he meant personalization with a capital "p"—the sexy high-tech stuff that fills those trendy marketing articles.

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November 17, 2008

Personalization Is for Big Companies, Right?

You might have heard lots of talk about personalization, and perhaps you have even taken some steps to personalize your own Web site. But most small businesses haven't. Some might find the whole concept intimidating. Others might believe that it requires technical ability or resources unavailable to them. Neither has to be the case. In my latest post for Small Business Answers, see how small businesses can learn a simple technique from a large business that personalizes their Web site for their best customers. Read more in "Personalization Is for Big Companies, Right?"

Posted by MikeMoran at 4:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

November 15, 2008

It Ain't Easy Being Lean

by Frank Reed

Regardless of age, most of us know who Kermit the Frog is--an American icon. (It says a lot about the US, since he is just a puppet after all, but that should be discussed somewhere else other than Biznology). Kermit once lamented that "It ain't easy being green." Well, today I can hear the SMB (small and medium business) market echoing poor Kermit's sentiments with its own cry of "It ain't easy being lean."

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November 14, 2008

Helpful Marketing: A Case Study

What does selling memory chips have to do with your business? It might seem like your business is miles away from memory chips, but I bet they have one thing in common: Your customers need help to buy from you. I wager that your customers have questions that your Web site might not answer, questions that none of your competitors help with either. And that provides you with an opportunity. Will you dare to be different? Are you willing to step out and help your customers in ways that no other companies do? Instead of telling yourself that it's not your job, will you go beyond your job and use your marketing to be truly helpful? Read my new post on Small Business Answers called "Helpful Marketing: A Case Study" to learn about one company selling memory chips that didn't settle for the status quo.

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November 12, 2008

We can all agree that consensus is dumb

Consenus. Geez, how can anyone be against consensus? Well, I am. And I think that if you listen to what I have to say, I can get all of you to reach consensus that it's a bad idea, too. I like being a team player, but not on a losing team. Praying to the god of consensus decision-making is one way to lose. And the larger the organization that tries to reach consensus, the more destined they are to lose in the game of Internet marketing.

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Posted by MikeMoran at 3:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 11, 2008

IT Conversations Podcast on the New Edition of SEM Inc.

Phil Windley at IT Conversations interviewed my co-author Bill Hunt and me about the Second Edition of Search Engine marketing, Inc.--the interview was conducted a few weeks ago and I am finally getting around to posting it. It was wide-ranging conversation on search marketing, focusing on the business of search, what stops big companies from succeeding at search, what the steps are to search success, and much more. If you're interested in almost an hour of search marketing talk with Bill and me, tune in to "Search Engine Marketing on Technometria with Phil Windley."

Posted by MikeMoran at 4:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

November 10, 2008

Shopping Cart or Content Management System?

I was recently asked what the right choice is for a Web site, a shopping cart or a content management system. You won't be surprised to hear that the answer is, "It depends." Now, you probably wouldn't spend a lot of time reading my blog if you got helpful advice like "it depends," so I decided to write a few hundred words about what it depends on. If you're interested in the right approach, head over to Search Engine Guide to read my post called, "Do you need a shopping cart or a content management system?"

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