Four pieces of advice for a tight economy

Quick post here:

1. Narrow your focus. Classic branding strategy and business strategy is to ensure you are narrowly focused on doing "one thing" and doing it right. Hey - big car companies - take note! Don't blow your brains out (and budget) by trying to be everything to everyone. Figure out one thing and do it right. E.g. GMC = Trucks (focus only on trucks ... get out of SUVs), Chevy = Cheap family cars (focus on Cavalier, Malibu, and Impala ... get out of Corvette and Camaro), Pontiac = Sporty cars (focus on Grand Am ... ah heck ... kill the brand entirely), Cadillac = Luxury (focus on real luxury ... get rid of the low end models).
   
2. Focus on your brand. Be sure you know what you are all about in the eyes of your customers, and how you deliver that to your customers.
   
3. Become low cost. Look to Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, and others. Figure out how they deliver great service and great customer experiences at low cost. How do they keep their customers happy, their employees happy, and earn a profit at the same time (even in this ugly economy). Adapt those lessons to your business model.
   
4. Innovate by providing an alternative at a lower price. If you are looking at your business and thinking "How do I innovate?" Look simply at your product or your competitor's products and figure out a cheaper alternative that will fundamentally change the market. Then figure out how to create that product and go after the market. Eventually work your way up the food chain through the higher end models. A good example of that is virtually all of the competition to the North American Auto Industry. Volkswagon introduced the bug in the 50s at the low end of the market, and scared the North American Auto industry out of that space, then came back and ate their lunch at the mid-end (even at a premium price). Honda did it back in the 70s starting with the Civic. Then ate the high end with the Acura line. Hyundai did it in the 80s starting with the Pony. This year they won top quality honors for a luxury car. Watch out ... here comes Kia.

There are four things you can start doing tomorrow!

Getting high Google rankings - a Mug's Game?

I've been in business for quite awhile. And maybe call me jaded but I'm beginning to question the value of latest holy grail of marketing - SEO and web optimization. Not because it doesn't make sense to target your audience and measure effectiveness of your marketing effort. Of course it does.

My rising doubt arises about the ability of marketers to actually realize this potential without putting all resources and budgets into this one marketing basket.

Two events over the past twenty four hours really have me pondering this question.

The first is a "free" assessment of my website - www.interactivevoice.ca by a consultant who specializes in web optimization. While the assessment was OK and indicated my website would never reach page 1 on Google, it begs the question - who cares? My company is small, specialized and not interested in catering to the whole world, or even the whole marketing industry. To even start the process would cost several thousand dollars. I don't see the how the ROI potential.

The second shoe fell today while ready the Search Insider blog on getting first page listing on Google. Apparently the odds of getting a first page listing are around 500000:1. To beat these odds, requires a lot of focus, resources and likely outside help (expensive help).

I don't know what the answer is but my question is: is it worth it? Or are we forgetting the real basics of good marketing?

On-line numbers

Following are some statistics on current internet usage in the U.S. In some respects, the numbers are pretty staggering in terms of time spent online. On the other hand, it begs the question, if this is the average are online marketers ignoring alot of the market who aren't "heavy" users?

Average U.S. Internet Usage, Combined Home & Work, (Month of December 2008)
Sessions/Visits per Person 59
Domains Visited per Person 108
Web Pages per Person 2,353
Duration of a Web Page Viewed 0:00:55
PC Time per Person 68:23:22
Active Digital Media Universe 166,120,474
Current Digital Media Universe Estimate 225,748,755

Source: Nielsen Online, January 2009

Email big brother is coming

According the Deloitte, 2009 may be the year email volumes decline among business users. Not because of a change in behavior by employees, but as a result of actions taken by employers to reduce costs and manage productivity. In some cases, the prediction is filters will be placed on the amount of emails received or sent, storage capacity limited or even "email free" days established.

If this scenario does come to pass, what will be the impact on your email campaigns to business clients or prospects?Maybe none as it will take time and effort to impose this type of discipline.

But it does suggest there may some potential threats, particularly for marketing related email communication. If employees are restricted to how much time they can spend reading emails, the quality of your email newsletter will need to be superior to your competition. Not only in terms of quality of graphics, ease of navigation and overall appearance, but also in terms of content relevance. If it doesn't provide content that helps the reader do their job better or keep them current, it is likely they won't have time to read all the newsletters they get.

There also is going to be increased difficulty in subscribers actually receiving your newsletter. And it may not be their decision. This trend - if it does materialize - speaks to the need to integrate alternative communication channels for customers to send or receive your message. Direct mail, increased use of voice communication, use of text messaging along with email can play a bigger role in communicating your message. The great thing is they all can be work together and the results totally measureable.

Super Bowl Ads

Check em out and vote. ... Youtube's got 'em.