Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
One of my favorite blogs to read is Conversation Marketing. I personally think Ian Lurie is a genius. I love his simple, conversations writing style and advice. My favorite posting in February was about 15 principles of interactive marketing. I thought I would share it with everyone at Indigio. I think this lists speaks volumes to working at an interactive agency and interactive marketing as a whole. Overall, great advice to remember.
15 Principles of Interactive Marketing by Ian Lurie
- No one’s lives depend on what we do.
- But people’s livelihoods do. So take your work seriously, and take pride in it.
- 75% of your audience uses a search engine to find you. Get used to it. All the banners and ‘viral’ marketing on earth won’t come close to results produced by a top 5 ranking for a relevant phrase.
- But, a broad base is better. Don’t rely on just one marketing vehicle. Build a complete internet marketing strategy that includes, at a minimum, paid search, organic search, e-mail and online PR.
- Never underestimate the power of an angry customer.
- Never underestimate the power of a happy customer.
- Pretty is great. Easy is better.
- You’re not the customer.
- Karma exists. Treat customers and prospective customers with respect, and they’ll reciprocate. Spam them, annoy them, and lie to them, and they’ll retaliate.
- Risk is necessary.
- Risk without measurement is suicide. Analytics are a must.
- IT is not marketing. Don’t make them run the web site. It’s not fair to anyone.
- A web site does not equal an internet marketing strategy.
- Plan, but adapt. Don’t be stubborn. Listen to what your customers tell you in their response.
- All marketing has a message. What’s yours?
My favorites are #4, #7, #12 & #13, as I feel these are the things I feel are most often missed with internet marketing.
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
If the answer is no, then stop. Without a plan, you will not find success. Sorry.
Indigio has built and will be assisting the Denver Botanic Gardens with the launch of their first blog this week. The blog is already live to the public, so feel free to check it out at http://www.botanicgardensblog.org/. It is a great move by the Denver Botanic Gardens to bring technology to the Gardens, while allowing their organization to be seen as true experts.
Their blog is something Indigio built with one days notice, so expect to see it evolve in the weeks to come with more customization and richer creative elements. However, I am a believer that it is sometimes more important to get something to market today and perfect it tomorrow, than wait for perfection. This is a perfect example of this philosophy.
With the launch of their blog, Denver Botanic Gardens will be working very hard internally to ensure frequent posts and create their own voice. I remembered that I read several great blog posts this past month that offer great advice on launching, maintaining and growing loyalty to a blog, so I figured I would share these post with our pals at Denver Botanic Gardens, but with all our readers.
Check out these blog postings: Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
More and more companies are adding blogs to their sites with only one thought in mind - more conversions. This is what they think - Blogs bring traffic - traffic brings conversions - A BLOG WILL GET US MORE SALES!!!
Then they see that they are getting thousands of hits to their blog while only getting a couple more sales so they stop blogging and think of it as a failed project.
This is a very bad way of thinking about your corporate blog. Of course your blog can be used as a sales tool, but that’s not all a blog is. When you effectively use social media along with your blogging it not only will get you a lot of traffic and spread the word about who you are/what you do - you also can get other people to start talking about your company on their blogs and linking back to you.
From an SEO perspective - links are all I care about. When you get to the front page of Digg or whatever social site you use you’re more likely to be mentioned somewhere else. This happens because a large percentage of social media junkies are running blogs of their own (sometimes several) and they will link to great content - always.
The more links you get the higher your page rank is going to be and you can spread that link juice your blog post is getting to your other pages - the ones that are high converting but rank poorly in the search engines for the keywords you want.
From a user perspective - You get your name out, people who didn’t know you existed now do. Sometimes more importantly than getting the word out - a corporate blog can put a personal face on your business. Blogs open the lines of communication with your users. Would you rather buy from someone you could have an open dialog with - or - someone who turns his back to you?
Don’t miss the point - Corporate blogs are more than just about conversions.
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
As you know I like to promote interesting blog postings I come across. Today is a little different in that I am promoting a blog entry from my personal blog. I know shamless, self-promotion. However, I feel unlike most of my personal blog entries it is actually interesting enough to share.
So give it a read. The entry mentions former Indigians - Dean Burney & Micah Baldwin, current Indigian - Wayne Rodgers and Lifetime TV - so how can you resist finding how those things all come together in one posting.
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Tired of too many social networks? Looking for one stop shopping, instead of 10 sites you need to log into each day to see what your friends are doing? Is 1/2 your day spent keeping up with your friends and collegues on blogs, Facebook and Twitter? Well look no longer!
There is a new site that will pull all your friend’s content to one place called Spokeo. It is being described as a social network and blog aggregator. On the homepage, it says find your friends or track your friends (this sounds disturding in a way), but that is exactly what it does. After signing up for the site and adding all my contacts, I am not sure if it is cool or just plain creepy.
How does it work? Read the rest of this entry »
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Many of you have not heard about the rising star that is working among us. He lives like us, works like us, eats like us and sleeps like us. The one thing that sets him apart from all of us is that he is a true shinning star. His website was recognized as one of the top ten SEO blogs. If you haven’t guessed who this Star is yet, it is our very own Dave Winget; The SEO Expert of Indigio. The next time you see Dave give him a pat on the back or better yet buy him a coffee for gracing you with his presence!
Check out the other top ten SEO blogs as well as Dave’s website to see what all the hype is about: Biglist Search Marketing Blogs
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
A special thanks to our Director of Creative, Sara Pacheco, who hosted two Brown Bag lunches this week to show interested Indigians the wonders of blogging and Indigio’s new blog (if you are reading this you found the new blog, congrats!).
Sara and Web Designer, Michael Bucks, did an amzing job of setting up this blog. Their hard work and dedication to this blog are truly appreciated.
So my fellow Indigians - blog away and if you missed the brown bag lunch or need help with blogging in WordPress, please see Sara or Michael. they only charge $11.64 for assistance.
