Posts in Digital Media Marketing
Business-to-business ebooks: Spreading your ideas for free
E-books have become a very significant medium, partly because people can instantly see the value of a product that looks like for-purchase content but can actually be downloaded for free. In my opinion, e-books should be material people want to read, compared to the dense and usually boring white paper, which our buyers feel they should read but often don't. More...
How freelance journalists and writers can use Google’s Keyword Tool to get work
I’ve already blogged about Google’s Keyword Tool now displaying absolute search volumes. I thought it would be worth looking at a practical example. I keep hearing from various freelance journalist and writer friends that it is tough finding commissions these days - not just journalistic work but also PR and general copywriting. It occurred to me that perhaps they could put their writing talents to good effect by testing the water with some PPC advertising (this presumes of course that they have a blog or website - and that it is properly set up to capture and convert traffic).
Here’s a quick look at some fairly obvious keyword terms - the first figure shows the search volume in the UK for June 2008 and the second figure the expected cost per click for a 1 - 3 ad position. More...
Google reveals keyword search volumes - and why you should care
Don’t know how I missed this one, but last week - and without much fanfare - Google announced that it would now reveal approximate search volumes from within its Keyword Tool.
The excellent Jason Baer at the Convince and Convert blog makes some very good observations as to why this is going to have a big impact on digital marketing. In particular when he says:
“If Google makes the marketing and advertising business as transparent as travel planning and stock purchases, the only agencies that will be able to survive are those that can add real value in messaging, creative, and integrating data into actionable tactics.”
I would of course include PR in the above too. More...
Hanging out with Robert Scoble at Tapulous, producers of Tap Tap Revenge, the #1 iPhone game
I am a huge fanboy of Robert Scoble. From his pioneering scobleizer blog (which he started while at Microsoft) to his new gig as Managing Director of FastCompany.TV, Robert is always doing interesting things on the Web.
Robert wrote the terrific forward to my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. The forward is the perfect way to introduce the new marketing world we’re all living in today. I am so grateful for him doing that for me! (Thanks again).
Remarkably, Robert has produced over 1,000 videos on the Web. I tagged along with him yesterday afternoon and evening to watch him in action. More...
A viral marketing story suitable for bedtime
Perfect for a summer weekend, check out this ebook of Seussian commentary on the difficulties YOBI CIO Jen O'Meara encountered with "new marketing".
Then, watch as Jen uses YouTube to explain what to do when viral marketing just doesn't work.
(She even bangs her head against her desk…again.)
Wordle - extending the fascination of a tag cloud
For those obsessed with tags - and what marketer wouldn't be based on the fact that you want your brand to be a tag as often as possible, and to understand how your content and products are being tagged - check out Wordle. Bringing style to the tag cloud.
Here's one I ran for MarCom Professional just now (click on it or here to see the original), and then a description of Wordle in their own words.
"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. More...
Beck’s Live Studio
One of the most innovative and exciting things we’re working on right now is Beck’s Fusions, a unique art and music fusion project that runs throughout this summer, as part of Beck’s longstanding support of contemporary arts and music. We’re working on a digital venture called Live Studio, open to anyone willing and able to display their artistic talents and express their individuality.
The challenge is to create a work of art to a specific music track. Film yourself creating a work of art to the music and upload the video to the Beck’s channel page on MySpace. More...
Man v. Banner Advertising
The less effective they are, the more jarring and interfering they have become to try and wring every last drop of attention out of their audience, so thanks to Scott Monty for highlighting this tongue-in-cheek look from current.tv at just how bad banner advertising has become: More...
End-to-end marketing: the possibilities of a new Internet protocol
We're just about to go through a complete renumbering of the Internet, and I think some marketing issues and opportunities will emerge along the way.
The way the Internet works today means that just less than 4.3 billion different Internet devices can be addressed uniquely... an address being just that, the unique identifier stating where packets of information are sent from and where they should go. So just as my work address is Building 5, 50 Brook Green, London, W6 7BJ, UK - a unique address at which I'm sure to receive anything you send me - my current IP address at this Boston hotel is 209.190.164.35. More...
How to get your emails opened
I was in a client's office the other day and she told me that she needed time to sort through her emails - her inbox had 720 unread emails dating back weeks on end...! Yet she is not alone; people sift through their emails and only open the most important ones, saving the "maybes" until later - when they just delete them without reading them...! Many people just can't be bothered to deal with the messages; they reason that if the message was important the sender will get back in touch anyway. More...