Category — marketing

I just read an interesting post on Search Engine Land that got me thinking Its titled, Local Search, A Solved Consumer Problem. It takes an interesting perspective on local search, but Mr. Berk is right, from a consumer standpoint, local search is largely solved. But writing a blog post on that, is like writing a blog post announcing that email had taken over snail mail. Local search has been solved ever since the Yellow Pages first began to evolve 40 years ago.

If I want to find “Cantina Restaurant in Saratoga Springs” and I type in “Cantina Restaurant in Saratoga Springs” well, lets just say that Google isn’t in its infancy. When you search for the business you are looking for, you can be pretty damn sure that you will find the name address and phone number in Google (or Bing!) Thats not the issue, and there shouldn’t be a professional related to local search that finds this information enlightening. The issue in local search is finding information about local places, the businesses there, things happening, and what people are talking about. In other words, what are people talking about, what are they doing, and where are they doing it?

The golden triangle (coined from Fred Wilson) is in the answer to the who what where and why questions. If I already know where I want to go, the business I am seeking shouldn’t have to pay or jump through some elaborate hoop to get my business - they’ve already earned it. That problem doesn’t need to be solved. What is interesting to me, and what alot of people I know are working on, is how do I find out what is going on and where to go when I want to try something NEW, or find something I didn’t already know about. If I’m a local business and I’m having to spend time, money and effort reaching the people who already know about me and are looking for me, I’m in trouble. I want to reach the people who know about me but aren’t thinking about me, or the people who are thinking about what I offer but don’t know about me. In other words, I want to reach the consumers that AREN’T actively searching for me (obviously I still want to do business with those seeking me, but that should be inherently solved, and as Matthew pointed out generally has been solved).

There are a lot of potential solutions to this problem coming out. Foursquare,  Loopt, and others let me know where my friends are right now, maybe someplace I love, maybe someplace I’ve never been, but Gary’s there so I might want to check it out. UpNext, and Buzzd are all telling me what is happening near where I am based on my location - right now. Thrillist, FlavorPill, etc tell me where to go this weekend. There are lots of options out there, but there is no ubiquitous brand to seek out when looking for who, what and where locally. That problem is still yet to be solved.

Declaring a problem to be solved is often a silly thing, especially if it is not the incredible invention you just patented that solved said problem. Most of the time, the real innovations don’t solve a problem we even knew we had, they leap right over the prognosticators and create something nobody else even thought of. I didn’t know I had a search problem before I found Google, and that problem is solved (well Bing maybe doesn’t think so). There will always be better ways to organize information, and right now Google is the gatekeeper of information. Google created the solution to organize information, and make it easy to find when I am looking for something specifically. What hasn’t been solved yet, is a way to deliver me what I’m looking for before I even think about what exactly it is I’m looking for. The solution to that problem would be something worth writing about. What you don’t know might not be able to hurt you, but it could be really cool.

Maybe that Tarot Card lady outside my apartment is on to something

I’ve come on to several new products in the past few weeks; one is Clickable, a web based application to manage and optimize your PPC campaigns, and second is Outside.in for publishers. I love the fact that both of these great tools allow you to test their features, judge their value to your needs, and then make an informed purchasing decision.

One of the biggest fears I have, and most consumers have, is the fear of post purchase doubt. I don’t want to feel wrong, and I don’t want to fret that I’m making the wrong decision. I mean I have trouble clicking “Send” on emails some times because I’m nervous there is a typo or an ambiguous phrase somewhere, so I am ridiculously meticulous about any major purchases or commitments. So one of my favorite things, both as a consumer and as a marketer and creator of goods, is the ability to try it before you buy it.

How can I make an informed decision to purchase this x thousand dollar tool if I don’t know its going to work for me. Sure it works for them, but they’re not me, I want to see it work for me. You would never buy a car without a test drive (at least I wouldn’t), so why would I commit thousands of dollars and hours towards something if I can’t give it a whirl around the block first?

The ability to test something out gives the feeling of confidence in your product that both consciously and sub-consciously builds trust in your product. It gives consumers the extra bit of assurance needed to make a commitment. As a consumer it shows the producer is willing to stake the deal on their ability to deliver, and as a producer it makes me feel comfortable asking for a bigger sale. When everyone at the table is happy, the deal goes smoothly and everyone can walk out with their head up knowing they are confident in their decisions.

I understand why most companies don’t give their products out for free to try, because they are scared people will return them. And some people always will because its just not possible to please everyone at the same time. Sometimes its not the right fit, but if you’re willing to extend the confidence in your product to a test drive, its going to reap rewards, build relationships and ultimately end with bigger, better deals and happier customers.

A lot of people wonder how Twitter is going to make money. They certainly have alot of options considering the mass of loyal users they have, but choosing the right one will be key to them transistioning from a cool tool, to a useful and sustainable product. I believe that Twitter will have to charge its users to use it, at least business users (companies) and that Twitter will grow into more of a utility than an application. Just like telephone lines.

Roughly 134 years ago, Bell and Watson struck a chord across some wires and invented the first practical use of the telephone. It would revolutionize the way people communicate, making the world smaller, in an instant you could speak to someone on the other side of the earth. (of course they still had to build that network..) But here we have twitter, and it provides the same type of utility that phone lines do, or email. It is revolutionizing the way people are communicating with each other, only this time - the network (the internet) is already built.

In creating their new Twitter 101 guide to using twitter for businesses (http://business.twitter.com/), twitter is taking its first step in the direction of charging businesses to send specials and deals out to their followers/customers. And that makes sense, particularly if they begin to implement freemium upgrades, additional features, and perhaps guidance and service upgrades for small companies.

The freemium model has worked online for years now, and many of the most successful companies use it to lower their customer acquisition cost to near zero. Its an interesting idea for Twitter, I’m looking forward to seeing how they execute. I know for a fact that, and I’ve seen it first hand across several dozen small businesses - Twitter offers a great service to gain and bring back your customers quick and easy. And thats something worth paying for.

There seems to be an interesting problem developing that most of the major SEO firms, organizations and analysts are missing - difficulty of inclusion. Its the term I’m giving to the amount of steps, and relative difficulty that it takes to get your business listed on major search engines and in local directories.

I’m going to outline some of the problems small businesses face, although not complete, but this is what I’m working on trying to fix every day.

• Local Business Databases - We have tried and used several different data providers. (ALL of the big ones) and unless you are using an extremely complicated importing script and combining every single database you can muster you are going to have an embarrasingly incomplete database. Yelp does a very good job including everything it can, but it still isn’t perfect. And thats just my problem as a publisher. There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses missing from all these databases, and that means they aren’t getting found online. At all. If I am opening a new business, or I have a business thats been around for years, I have to first make sure that I am being included in these data lists before I can even start to think about optimizing my listings. The folks at getlisted.org are doing a cool thing, but I’ve yet to come across anyone who is using it (and our company doesn’t get updates from getlisted and we have 900k businesses listed across our network - why is that ?) The small business world needs a uniquitous listing solution across all possible local listings - an openID for small businesses if you will.
• Learning - I am Joe the Plumber, I have a fleet of trucks, I have insurance on those trucks, I have 12 employees, I have workers compensation insurance, I have tools, I have angry customers, I have happy customers, My boiler just broke and my kids want new tricycles. I have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on in my life and I just found out when you search for plumbers in MyTown my competition gets 80% of the phone calls. WTF? What do I do now? I could spend a few hours scowering the internet and reading blogs about how to set up my LBC listing on Google and in Yahoo, and submit to GetListed. (there are alot of great resources out there) But if I don’t know these blogs, its gonna take me a couple hours just to find them, then its gonna take some time to find the article I need. It could take just a few minutes, but if I’m still using my hotmail account I probably don’t know what a blog even really is. And I have a long way to go if I don’t know what a blog is. Quick reality check for all you local search bloggers, the average small business owner still doesn’t have a website, heard about twitter on cnn, reads the local newspaper and is 47. Sure my generation has grown up with basic knowlege of the internet but if the internet is a foreign world to you, how are you going to succeed in it. You won’t make a very good French diplomat if you can’t speak French We need easier tools, and better knowledge bases for small business owners. Again, more ubiquity
• Depth vs Breadth - I want to be listed first in google, first in yahoo and on every local search directory that is applicable. In the yellow pages world, all I have to do is spend more money and buy the biggest add. Boom, more business than I can handle.  In the Google world, there is soo much more that needs to be done to succeed. You need quality relevant content, you need links, you need a good domain name, you need all of these other factors, many of which you can’t just buy. And thats just Google. There are whole lists compiled of what to do for each search engine. I can spend many days and go down the checklist for just one. There is so much to do.
• Options - If you give a person 12 options they’re more likely to pick none. There are too many places to advertise, there are too many places to start. First you have to pick one, and then you get going. There needs to be a uniquitous place to start, a local search center. Getlisted again is that idea, but they aren’t executing and how can they if noone esle is observing this problem (or atleast thinking about solving it).

Lastly, I as a consumer find it so frustrating when I can’t find the business I am looking for. I want their phone number, I want their menu, do they sell what I want and can I trust them? If i’m a restaurant in NYC I better be damn sure I’m monitoring my Yelp reviews and encouraging my patrons to “give me some love” But if I’m in Maine or North Carolina, where do I start? That problem exists and at some point we are going to have to solve it. Google is just going to scour the internet, or use a third party data set. Yelp just compiles data sets. But if the business I want isn’t in that data set, im screwed. We need local people to ensure data accuracy and completion. Otherwise businesses will fall through the cracks and that obviously hurts the business involved, but it also hurts us consumers. Because if the little shop that sells the computer bag I want is 2 miles away but It doesn’t come up in google for that term, and nothing else does, I’m not going to buy the bag I want - from anyone.

Today was a very exciting and exhausting day. Introducing some new people to the site, adding some great people to the team. Its amazing. Welcome to 2009.

I have an interesting perspective on what I’m doing. I learned my tricks from battling in the streets. When I first started I walked the streets with a blue  paper folder (the kind with the pockets), print outs from Word with a description of my new website.

“Thats, great kid. Let me know when someone else is on it.” - Ok

I learned that small businesses don’t really care about the internet. They dont care about SEO, they don’t care about fancy algorithms and pre-roll ads. They care about getting customers in their door and making them happy. I learned quickly that if you can make marketing easy for them they will listen. I learned that if you could show them new customers at a lower CPA than the local paper, they would not only listen - they would buy.

I have great idea’s everyday, I have a really great idea in my head right now and I know its 6-10 months away from happening.  In the past few weeks I got my girlfriend to start blogging, I think she finally understands how Twitter is cool and she even set up and iGoogle page this weekend. My parents have a computer in the kitchen (you have no idea about my parents - whats facebook?). People are using the internet to find things they need. - But of course they are Jamie! - Yes, but now they’ve realized they can find all kinds of crazy things they need on the internet easier than with their (insert non web-based tool). There are so many great things to do out there, the internet is going to explode when this economy recovers.

People aren’t leaving their neighborhoods like they used to. And if they are they are planning their trip from their desk, via the internet. They are searching for local businesses, for location specific activites and destination related things to do. This is what we mean by local. This is why Google introduced its OneBox (those bastards!) and its why everyone and their mother is started the latest and greatest local search site.

Well I didn’t figure out local was cool last quarter. I didn’t notice people were starting to ramp up local searches in June, not even of ‘07. I’m not telling you 2009 is going to be “the year of local” [trumpets sound]. But I am loving it. Loving the buzz, loving 2009 trend predictions from J.P. Morgan and Barclays. Loving the fact that a small company from Boston is dominating a huge billion dollar company with an almost identical name because its thinking small.

I’ll leave you with this, because you’re probably in the same game I am somehow or another. So cheers:

Internet activity continues to increase as the medium plays a more significant role in people’s lives, and this increased usage and dependence should leave Internet companies well-positioned when the macro environment improves.

- Barclays’ Doug Anmuth

I live in a nice apartment building.  It isn’t the nicest one you can live in, but the rent isn’t cheap and they try to present a very high class image.  But they only do just enough to keep me from complaining. When they come to fix the something in my apartment, they do about 90%. The gym is always a mess. It is just good enough to not lose people.

But it isn’t excellent.

My New Years Resolution it to never once say to myself “good enough.” Good enough is exactly the oposite of what it should be, great. Clearly I am not a revolutionary here (if you haven’t read the book you should), but thats my resolution. To be great. Not really good, or almost. But great, all the time in everything I do.

I’m starting tomorrow. Every day I’m going to add a “song of the day” and at least a few short words about my thoughts. I have so many, but I never seem to get them down here, and I’d like to use this blog to look back at ideas and to have a conversation about them. Clearly the latter is not happening.

The holidays are a time of traveling, eating gift giving and spending time with Family. I turned off the blackberry for a few days and tried to avoid any lcd screens (other than my tv, because I crush James Bond during breaks). It was brilliant. I feel refreshed and ready to get back to work, of which I have plenty.

Of course it didn’t work entirely. My mom and brother got new iPods. My dad got a new all in one charging dock and in place  of Christmas cards, we sent hundreds of photos out digitally to the extended family. I was needed for all of these actions and had to troubleshoot a Picasa issue that was not letting my Dad share photos properly.

The point of this post is to layout some predictions for 2009. I have been way to immersed in my own technology recently and I really don’t know enough about emerging technologies to comment on which ones will be the most famous next December. But I do know that digital is going to be it. Everyone is going to realize that the cost-effective power of the internet is actually something to take advantage of - not just to talk about how “neat” or “cool” it is.

Heads of businesses are going to adapt or get passed by leaner more efficient companies. Layers of Presidents and Vice Presidents that clog the business process are going to be gone. Large excessive manufacturing is going to begin to disappear. Newspapers will realize that spending millions of dollars printing papers is not cost effective and actually do something about it.

The power of the internet will become mainstream in 2009.

Yes today the internet is mainstream, everyone uses it from time to time. Most everyone uses email frequently and people can find things they need with Google. But everyday people are going to realize all the great benefits of the internet. The communication mediums that it has created (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) and not just look at them and say “wow, this technology is really cool. look how many people use it!” but they will sit down and actually use it themselves to make something worthwhile and relevant. Average users will take advantage of the really cool tools the “web 2.0″ world has made us. They will make their business process more efficient. To gain new customers. To make new “real” friends. Even to buy real world virtual goods.

I’m not in tune enough to tell you whos going to be behind all the great apps and widgets. I just feel very strongly that it will be 2009 that makes it all mainstream.

I think 2D barcodes are so cool. As a marketer I am truly excited about the ability to quickly and easily capture an offline impression into a measurable transition online. Its a great way to get relevant data about how often my marketing is reaching a targeted person. Just as powerful as a Click-Through in my mind, only not online.

As a publisher, I’m excited to see this technology become commonplace and be used to validate buys and placement.

As a person, I think it would be intriguing to point and shoot at a barcode for a movie ad and watch the trailer on my phone right there. Or see and ad for 30% off that thing I was thinking about buying this week and buy it right now. There are some pretty cool mobile apps out there now that are doing similar things with actual barcodes. Oooh, imagine when that gets semantic….

Local is good, and it is a significant part of the entire advertising market. Some estimates say that up to 54% of all adverterising is local, or locally based. In our increasingly localized and connected world, the power of local search, local content, and locally based interaction are unquestionably becoming key components of the advertising arena. Agencies and Local SMB’s are both very increasingly using local based targeting, or local search as an element of their campaigns. According to a new eMarketer Report, In 2008 Internet Yellow Page advertising is expected to reach $1.2 Billion in ad spending. Measurable to say the least.

Local content is largely becoming focused on user generated content; topix.com, outside.in, and others are focusing on creating a platform for people to share their reactions and feelings on locally relevant issues. The number of review sites (the likes of Yelp, BooRah, etc) seem to be doubling by the minute. While it is no question that people are extremely interestedin sharing their content locally, again how are these companies going to monetize this revenue?

Today, I saved $800 on a minor bumper repair to my car because I was researching some competition, checked out Topix, and found a video ad for a bumper repair place promising to save me hundreds. Well they did, and I had a long conversation with the owner of the business. He has totally abondoned anything in print, he created the video himself, and is advertising locally online to spread the word. Only purchasing a few text ads pointing to his website, he has designed his own viral campaign. Here’s the video:

This is how local advertising is going to be monetized. Simply, I was looking for something local, I found it and completely unintentionally I found something that I needed. Video can become a power tool in one’s local arsenal, and is quickly becoming sought after. I am now endeared to topix (they do have a ton of comments from nearly any city you visit), and I literally saved over 800 bucks to fix my rediculously expensive bumper. Local at its finest.

So listen up advertisers, agencies, publishers: here is the lesson - keep it local, keep it relevant and make the relationship meaningful. While there is no question in my mind (and many others’) that print YP’s and newspapers are no longer a useful advertising outlet and that online local search is the place to be, if you can make the ad meaningful, important, relevant - you can make money. This is nothing new, it seems rather simple, but to truly monetize a local site you can’t rely on CPM’s from exchanges or Honda, Verizon and others (a recent Borrell report estimates the relative CPMs for IYP is $3.65 vs. $9.29 for print YP) . It’s gotta be local, because that way I (the user) can convert that page view into a handshake. And isn’t that what local is really all about?

I think so, and I can’t imagine why any business out there will over look the power of a handshake and a friendly smile.

I have tons of fake internet money. And I’m planning to get a bunch more, my question is what is everyone going to do with all their fake internet money. Alot of businesses out there are converting thier giant audiences into real money, but what are the large sites doing to monetize their views and return their investors money. Rounds C and D are exciting and there were alot big numbers thrown around last year and earlier this year, but when is that all going to come around. I’ve got a hunch that it isn’t.

Youtube became so succesful because it was free to its users, no money and no interuption cost of advertising. Facebook continues to be successful with its users because it limits the interuption cost as much as possible, but I would consider Facebook to be the field-leader in monetization. There are alot of competitors in an increasingly crowded space launching new platforms after their second and third rounds of funding all going after the same ad dollars (Zvents, outside.in, and many more). I’m not the only one who warns of seeking the same ad dollars with similar audiences.

I’m just curious who will be funding these companies in 6-8 months, will the economy pick up, or will ad networks save the day. There is some data showing a slowing online advertising atmosphere, however there is much more optimism towards online ad growth. I can’t see all of these local search competitors succeeding down the road, but the ones that do will own large shares of local markets and have a palpable relationship with these local markets. I cringe when I see “People Love Us on Yelp!” stickers - for a reason, they’re there and they are good.