Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

by Dave Rigotti on June 19, 2009

This post is part of my notes from the Online Marketing Summit I attended in June 2009 in Cleveland, OH.

Aaron Kahlow, Founder & CEO, Online Marketing Summit & Institute

Entire “wave” has been pulled down and fear is affecting good business decisions. This leads to short-term thinking and high levels of accountability. Everyone is faced with the same thing and that’s where you need to start.

C.Y.A. and have stopped new initiatives. In a very “no” phase (no time, no resources, no budget, no support, etc). Good information is hard to find.

Ask yourself: “Is the Universe friendly?” If yes, then capitalize, not survive.

  1. Prioritize and pick the winners
  2. More percentage of budgets will come your way
  3. Put yourself in a position where people come to you for answers

Overall perspective: Online retail up, overall retail down. Amazon and Google profits up, Circuit City and newspapers are closing. Behavioral change – people moving to internet for information. 100% of people prefer electronic communication over traditional.

Industry has changed and need to have some structure:

  1. Foundation: Website
    63% of people who go to your website will, if they don’t find what they are looking for, will never visit your website again.Epicenter of online marketing. Brand is affected by the website. Treat website as capital expenditure and budget for effects on all marketing. MUST think about the user first.
  2. Pillar 1: Search
    Most people seeking information start at search engines. SEO greatest single impact for marketing. ENORMOUS returns. Find a way to maximize your assets and get found to level you should. Don’t let technology get in way.
  3. Pillar 2: Email
    Almost 100% of communication starts or ends with email – you can’t do marketing without it. Anchor for social media. Should be treated as an integrated strategy, not silo campaign.
  4. Pillar 3: Analytics
    Justify incremental changes and drive exponential return through A/B and multivariate testing. It becomes the ultimate indicator for where business and clients are. Align with business goals, change nomenclature and customize reports. Instead of using “pageviews, visitors, etc” call reports “indicators” and change the nomenclature for top management.
  5. Social Media Roof
    Social media enhances and isn’t (yet) a strategy by itself. Determine object; get engaged and don’t re-invent the wheel.