Planning, Startups, Stories

Two Old-New Search Engine Aberrations

Some things don't change. Search engine optimization (SEO) is all the rage, and for good reason. I'm certainly a believer. But I can also see that some of the real core factors are human nature as it always has been, before and after SEO was invented.

1. Who was it that said even bad publicity is good?

I picked up this interesting story from CNET today, in which a 36-year-old model tried to sue somebody for nasty, mean remarks about her on a blog, and ended up in search engine heaven. All the meanness happened on one day last August, and on one blog, which seemed to have been created for that purpose only. Then the blog disappeared. Until the model sued Google to get the blogger's identity.

The result: the model and the blog win. You're reading about them. And wouldn't have otherwise. CNET blogger Caroline McCarthy wrote:

Meanwhile, the search terms "Liskula Cohen" and "Skanks in NYC" skyrocketed to the top of (ironically) Google Trends, earning "on fire" ratings. Hey, considering that I'd never heard of Liskula Cohen before, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one, this might've been the best thing that ever happened to her.

Remember the old saying about even bad publicity being good publicity? I'm intrigued by the thought that she did the whole thing herself. Great publicity. But no, it won't work for you or me, if that's what you're thinking. This is one area in which being an original thinker really matters.

2. Words that Sell

I posted here a couple of years ago now about words I won't put in the title despite the temptation. It was a story of my old days in wire service journalism, 30-some years ago, and a list of words that made headlines more successful. You can guess some of those words:

He swallowed again, then started listing the words: "naked, violent, brutal, cruel, vicious, rape, clash, showdown, face-off, fists, bare, nude, stripped, fight ... " I can't remember them all.

Flash forward to yesterday, I'm watching Twitter, and suddenly: Strange, I thought, why would Guy Kawasaki do that? Right there in Twitter, a link to GardeningNude.com? So I clicked, and discovered that despite that blog's misleading title, it's actually a well-done blog on environmentally friendly gardening, developed by a serious person, and offering serious content. Is Gardening Nude a search engine advantage? I bet it is. And I bet smart blogger Shawna Coronado knows it is too; is it coincidence that she awards a "naked gardener of the week" award every week? And the award is for good work, community service, and has nothing to do with clothes or lack of clothes.

Is there a business lesson in this? Yes, I think so. You can use some techniques cynically to get a quick pop -- I mean I think so, actually, because in truth I have no way of knowing for sure that Gardening Nude gets more traffic than it would have if it were named something more descriptive. I'm just guessing.

There is the fishbowl problem that comes up when you get a lot of people coming to your site looking for something you don't have. Still ... is that a high-class problem?

ps: thanks to Caroline on Twitter for that CNET article on the model.

Patently Obvious and 20 Years Too Late Award

Here's an email subject line that's just plain asking to be made fun of:

Study reveals generating customers is the biggest marketing challenge for small businesses.

Wow! Imagine my excitement. Who would have guessed? And here we all thought the biggest marketing challenge was tethering the balloons in the Thanksgiving Day parade.

And that email, with that painfully obvious study discovery, came from none other than the Yellow Page Association of America (YPA).

OK, quickly now: when was the last time you looked something up in the Yellow Pages?

For those of you who might not remember the Yellow Pages, it was a big book of very thin pages listing local businesses by type, alphabetically. In other words, a slow, heavy, and hard to use precursor of the quick Google or Yahoo! search that you now do on your phone as well as your laptop and desktop computers.

Gee, do you think maybe the Yellow Pages Association has an ulterior motive? Here's more:

The study also found that an overwhelming majority (62%) of small business owners do not use outside support for their marketing efforts, indicating that many may not be aware of the ample resources available at little or no charge (please see news release ...).

In times like these when every dollar spent must be justified, YPA members, who have their fingers on the pulse of issues affecting small businesses, can provide free professional opinions to those looking to make smart marketing decisions.

Maybe I'm being unfair here.  But I don't like unsolicited emails. Don't tell me the Yellow Page Association has fingers on the pulse of anything. What you ought to be telling me is how the people who used to sell Yellow Page ads are now helping people get listed in Yahoo! searches and Google Maps and the other things which have replaced them.

Oh, and yeah, maybe they should change that association name too.

Packaging Design Can Kill (Your Business)

Design came to mean a lot to me in business when the lack of it nearly killed my business in 1993. The Palo Alto Software of those days had only me and two other employees. We got into retail with packaging that was environmentally friendly and ethically "nice" (and I've tried to find a better word for it, but for smaller boxes using recycled materials with dull colors, particularly back in 1993, I can't think of one).

Kathy Kolder, a VP at Fry's Electronics, put it very concisely: "Tim, your boxes suck." In fact, they almost killed the company.

So I came to appreciate design; and the fact that I'm not a designer. Packaging design for retail feels almost like a tax, adding no value, really, but required.

And I've learned that it isn't a matter of what I like. There's none of that "I know what I like" business with me and packaging design. I know enough to know that what I like is completely irrelevant.

What's design? What works and why? The fact that I don't know makes me only that much more appreciative of good design when somebody else points it out. So take a look at what gets honored as  great book designs for 2008:

The Book Design Review

I'm not claiming any expertise on this subject, just thanks for the list here, with the visuals.

One of my mentors sent me to the design shops in the late 1980s, when I was too far into the do-it-yourself mode. It felt like a tax, but it helped. Then, through the following years, cheapskate at heart, I forgot, and started doing it myself by 1993. Never again.

Charity Add-on: Does it Work? Is It Real?

(Note: I posted this first on Small Business Trends, and I'm reposting it here for convenience of readers of this blog. Tim)

I got an email over the weekend from an online retailer asking me to post about its new offer of donating "5-10% of the company's profits to charity." A press release explains that there's a drop-down menu at the end of the online purchase process, offering a choice of charities including MADD, Teach for America, Doctors Without Borders, and so on.

Frankly, that's not news. Local supermarkets and such have been doing that for years. Other websites do it.

But it interests me, so I ask you: does it work? Are you going to seek out the online retailer that does it? Is this real, or is it just a ruse, as in a cynical attempt to spin?

I'm quite cynical about giving a percent of profits. I think it's kind of a ruse. I don't doubt that they actually do it, but "profits" and "percent of profits" is a deceptive term. I think it's often used to quietly trick people into thinking "percent of sales price" when it's really just a percent of that tiny bit that's left over after all costs and expenses are paid.

The whole illusory nature of profits comes to mind again after that annoying flap in the presidential debates. I'm sure a lot of people misunderstood how big a company has to be before it produces $250,000 of profits before tax. Profits sound like money, when they're really just the leftovers.

In my mind, after 30 years of running my own business, profits are third priority, after cash flow as first, and growth as second. Even in good years, giving even 10 percent of profits in most businesses means less than a penny per dollar of sales price.

Furthermore, I really wonder, aside from the profits gambit, how much do people take greater good into their purchase decisions? Do you?

And, if you do, are you going to seek out retailers who offer up a percent of profits, as opposed to goods made in developing nations, or not made in sweat shops? How are you going to sort through that?

And, if you do, are you still going to be doing that these days, when you're worried about your house value, or the threat of widespread recession hitting the sales of your own business?

People Are Annoying -0r- Why I Want to Sell to Commander Data

If only we could just target computers to buy our stuff, instead of people. Some days I want to sell to that guy Commander Data in the Star Trek TV series and movies. He was a computer.

Disclosure: I'm not a Star Trek fan. I can't even say "trekkie." In fact, I know of Commander Data only because I was dragged to a Star Trek movie by a beloved family member. I thought he was the best character in it. If you don't know him, here's a YouTube link (or you can click the video below).

So why Commander Data? Because he isn't human, which means he doesn't have two extremely annoying human traits. He doesn't lie, and he does read.

1. People Lie

This comes up today because of  Who's Who and Who's Not in the Freakonomics blog yesterday. (That's one of the world's great blogs, by the way.) Steven Levitt tracks some research related to the who's who business. More than half the who's who claims of military honors were bogus. People lie.

People are even more willing to lie when it's a survey, or a form to fill out, or a poll. (Have you heard about the Bradley Effect, by the way?) When I was at Creative Strategies International we used to do polls of people's intention to buy, and the respondents were always exaggerating their budget. Ask people in a survey how many hours they spend watching television, or what their income is, or books they read, and they lie. We know about the problem in resumes.

I can't resist adding an old joke my mother used to tell, maybe just because it's a great memory -- she was born in 1923, and died years ago of cancer -- but it fits. The frat boy asks the girl: "Do you drink?" "No." "Do you smoke?" "No." "Do you neck?" (And for those of you who don't get that expression, cool it, this was my mother, after all, and she's referring to the 1940s). "No."

"So what do you do?" the boy asks, with a bit of frustration.

"I lie," she answers.

2. People Don't Read

People don't read instructions. They don't read manuals. They don't read signs. They don't read labels. It's amazing how much you can't communicate with simple signs.

We had a software problem, years ago, that we thought we'd solve by putting a dialog that made sure people understood the tradeoffs in taking one path in the options. Nobody read it. People called to complain. So we added a click, stopping the program, so they had to click "OK" to indicate they'd read and understood. Nobody read it. We put it in red. Nobody read it.

On the Web, you try to clarify commercial problems, putting it in simple words, as simple as you know how to do. Still, half the people don't read it. Put it in red, and require a click, and they still won't read it.

Conclusion? I like Commander Data. He doesn't lie. And he reads.

Marketing Plan Opportunity - Today

My friend and colleague John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing, sent me this overnight. I had the pleasure of participating in one of his workshops last month in Chicago, and I highly recommend it.

If you're anywhere near Northern California, or going to be on Nov. 13th and 14th, Jantsch will be doing a two-day marketing plan event in person. The workshop includes our new software, Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing--the special version Jantsch developed in partnership with Palo Alto Software--and the goal is for you to have your marketing plan done right then and there, and with his help.

In his e-mail, Jantsch said the organizers are offering a 25 percent discount to my readers today through Monday, Oct 27th. So if you're interested, sign up now.

For that discount, use special purchase code EBMK1108 by midnight Monday, October 27. That's $1,121.25 per person ($1,495 regular price).

Click here
http://www.e-myth.com/seminars/ducttapemarketing/

Be Afraid, Maybe. Plan Better, Definitely.

I was happy to see yesterday that TheStreet.com has picked up my Entrepreneur.com column Economic Crises Calls for Better Marketing Plans, from this month. Here's the link to the original on Entrepreneur.com, although I think they're the same.   

For the record, I think I wrote that column with the title "better business plans" but it became "better marketing plans" in edit, because I do emphasize the marketing plan first. That edit is fine with me, though, because the article cites John Jantsch and his views on the marketing plan.

Here's what was happening as I wrote that column a few weeks ago:

As I write this, uncertainty crashes all around us like a violent hurricane. Now is the time to bolster your sales and marketing plans and get ready for disaster business planning. Lehman Brothers went under, Merrill Lynch was picked up in a fire sale by Bank of America and AIG needed government assistance to stay afloat.

Also, we're worried about the Chinese pulling their money out of our economy, sending us spiraling further downward. And nobody has figured out what to do about huge federal spending deficits. Then there's trade deficits (although the plunging dollar will help curb that problem), the subprime crisis, plunging real estate values, a crashing stock market, not much hope for venture capitalists getting money out of their investments for a while, and, wow, take a breath, what else? 

Oh, yes ... I know ... do you plan during this kind of chaos, or just duck and cover? Is business planning out of the question? Is it useful? 

Let me answer that question with another question: Who do you want to be when the hurricane is coming? Do you want to be one who carefully boards the windows and lashes everything down, closes up and then evacuates with time to spare and a basic plan? Or would you rather be the one that does nothing and ends up drowning or gets rescued by brave people risking their own lives to do it?

And here's what I recommend, even more today than when I first wrote it: 

Using that analogy, I'd suggest that what you ought to do as the storm comes--or preferably before the storm--is review and revise your plan to include everything and anything your business or startup needs during a crisis.

Go first to your sales and marketing plans. Review them conceptually. What are you selling, and how will your business offering fare during hard times? Take a step back from the business and give that some real thinking. Some shifts in demand are predictable; some changes in customer base are predictable, too.

When I was doing economic analysis many years ago, I discovered that some markets reacted in strange ways. For example, when there was a big economic crash, the luxury car markets would hold up better than the economy car markets. On the other hand, during the current real estate crash, sales in California are up over last year, but they're driven by the low end, particularly transactions on foreclosures. Similarly, you should think about your own sales when watching for the signs. Think: What's changing that might affect my business' sales?

John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, recently suggested that the best thing to do in hard times is focus more and focus better. By narrowing your focus, you can concentrate on your best customers, your key market segments and the parts of your business that are most important to you. That seems like very good advice.

Don't settle for just a conceptual review. Dig into your numbers. Open up your sales forecast and expense budgets and take a long, deep look into what parts of your numbers are most likely to fall off and why. Review and revise. Look at your expenses, and cut where you can. Then look back at your sales and imagine which of your customers, including how many, are doing the same as they plan for their business, therefore reducing  their orders from yours.

Unfortunately, during the weeks that passed since I wrote that, the need is more, not less. 

Pride of Not Authorship

I'm happy today to not be the author of Marketing Plan Pro. Why? Because the author of the new version is John Jantsch, marketing guru, the man who built Duct Tape Marketing.   

Getting John on board was a big deal for us. He's the ideal author of marketing plan software.

Not that it wasn't very easy to work with him. He's a hero around our offices: smart, unassuming, fun, and effective. The ideal partner. So on the contrary, it's been a pleasure to develop the new version together.

What's really the big deal is moving our platform beyond the single-intellectual-author model that we've had for more than 20 years, built around my relationship with Business Plan Pro. I love business planning, I work with it almost every day, and I write about it constantly. It's easy for me because I believe in it.

The trouble was, as the company evolved, that we weren't leveraging that model with other experts in other areas.

That is, we weren't doing that until now, with the release of the new Marketing Plan Pro 11. Now we are. In the same way that I live and breathe business planning, John loves marketing, and his "Duct Tape" genius has given marketing a much better place in the world of small business. John's kind of marketing is accessible, manageable, and practical (Duct Tape is a great name for it). He loves it, he works with it every day, and writes about it constantly. It's easy for him because he believes in it.

I've come to believe that this kind of business, the expert-in-a-box (sort of) that we've built with Business Plan Pro, needs authorship. Our product development team does the code, and the interface, so they're the ones who really build the software (and it's a team, in fact the largest team in our company). No one individual could do that. But the core content, the idea of it, the main concepts take living with, and working with, those elements come out best when there's an expert as author. As John is with Marketing.

This is the second big release of the new management team that took over Palo Alto Software last year. I'm really proud of this product, and proud of that new team.

Marketing: Creating Wants or Filling Them?

I saw a study once showing that the incidence of headaches in the U.S. has grown in proportion to the volume of advertising of headache medicines. Is that cause or effect? Does marketing actually create the need? I think there's research about some other manufactured needs. Marketers didn't invent bad breath or body odor, they just increased the awareness.

I grew up aware of yellow teeth because of the Pepsodent commercial, pervasive in my time, "you'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent." When I was in grad school back in 1970, the dean of the Journalism school, an advertiser, told us that this was the most effective advertising campaign in history.

I'd like to think that marketing is about identifying needs and wants, not creating them; more like filling them with business offering. And given that you need to know people to understand their needs and wants, the finer the aim on target, the better. Or at least that's what I hope.

There's a line in Sheryl Crow's song, Soak Up the Sun:

It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got.

Then there's Seth Godin's post today, Destroying Happiness.

Why are so many people happy? "What you have doesn't make you unhappy. What you want does."

And want is created by us, the marketers.

Maybe. Can marketing create headaches? Sure. Bad breath? Have you seen the commercials about bad breath in dogs? Is that good marketing? How about targeting and product development?

Several world views relate happiness to not wanting things. That's very Zen. Pretty Christian too, from what I know, and Jewish, and probably Muslim, but then I'm hardly an expert. That's just my impression.

The new world, I hope, is about identifying and filling needs and wants that already exist. That's better business. Cheaper marketing. It doesn't have to be a better mousetrap, it might just be a more specific cable channel or website, or better target marketing in clothes, food, housing, and even energy.

The Steven Wright Guide to Content Marketing

I was delighted to see this in my Alltop view yesterday morning. I've been a fan of Steven Wright for years, and in this post, Brian Clark does a very nice integration of some of Steven's one-liners with thoughts about content marketing.

Just to pique your interest, here are the one-liners he includes:

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.”

“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”

“Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don’t have film.”

“Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.”

“The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.”

But that's just to get you interested, you should click here to go read Brian's post. My only complaint is that I wish I'd thought of it first.

And then there's the clip here, following, six minutes of Steven Wright standup comedy. Click here for the YouTube source if you don't see the video.