My Top 3 Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

Lee Odden published a reader poll at TopRank asking you to help him identify the 3 digital marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2009. At the time I took this screen shot with the top 30, 159 votes put Blogging at #1, search engine optimization (SEO) at #2, and Twitter at #3 over 45 items on the list.

It's finally hitting home that all that great work people do with blogs is also great for your SEO, especially when your blog is specialized and written by someone who is passionate about their subject matter and understands search.

The items in bold are my three votes. Respectively at #3, 13, and 30 on the list. There's a certain symmetry to the choices I made. I'm not surprised by the results so far. Why? Because the tactics floating to the top utilize the top two characteristics of the Web to the fullest - linking and search.

Search is probably the one thing that is becoming increasingly granular and interesting. As well, linking is becoming more valuable in the context of search and to stave off information overload. Many have already remarked about the value of Twitter as a human filter.

If I have a relationship of content trust with someone in my network, I will most likely follow a link they share. This is the peer to peer conversation the Forrester research about corporate blogs was talking about and it should make you think about priorities - trust first, links and any type of push/pull come later.

Onto my votes and why.

My #1 is #3 - Microblogging (Twitter)

As an individual, I don't have a huge following on Twitter and tend to follow those people who engage in conversation with me. The tool can look confusing to people who do not spend enough time on it - listening (reading) to the conversations, watching trends, learning how people use it in different ways.

Last week I wrote about what Twitter is and how you could consider integrating it in your digital mix. There are a few other choice posts on Twitter linked there as well, if you want to dig a bit deeper.

Mixed tweets will provide better results. Contrary to what used to happen with much of traditional marketing, digital media is about mixing many different things, testing, adapting, and going with the flow within a context. Please don't do more of what doesn't work.

In Twitter's case, a mix of types of messages works much better than just one type. It's a social network, after all. For examples, look at the streams by Hoovers (Tim Walk is the author) for business, John Byrne (editor-in-chief, Business Week) for media, and that of the MIMA Summit (I spoke there last October) for events.

I'm planning to start integrating it for events. Making connections between participants, learning about what's new in the program, being able to follow an event you cannot attend - the content, images, streaming video links, etc. - are all ideas for using a microblogging tool at events.

Public relations or marketing? What do you think? Both?

My #2 is #13 - Corporate Web Site

Despite the fact that most company sites are done at a huge time cost - everyone needs to be in the loop, wants their page in the site, etc. are common items for discussion, especially in B2B - they are still the first place someone would look/search for specific information. Better yet if the company has name recognition before the search even begins.

SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) can be put to work to help out as well. Plus, I truly believe that the web presence of the future will be layered horizontally in thirds with each being editorial impact, community building, and marketing or commerce. There are ways to make your Web site sticky.

The action is where the interaction is and today, thanks to broadband and newer content management tools, it's possible to make a site lighter, more efficient, and more interesting. Videos, podcasts, eBooks and many other interactive elements can really help you design a user experience that takes into account different learning styles.

Content needs a different treatment on Web sites to make a difference in your customers' viewing habits and needs. There's room for awareness, discovery, and validation on a corporate site.

Is this the next generation portal? Skinny and deep? Wide and thin? What do you think?

My #3 is #30 - Contextual Advertising

I talk about marketing by context building a lot. Contextual advertising is targeted to the specific individual visiting a website (or page within a Web site). A contextual advertising system scans the text of a website for keywords and returns advertisements to the Web page based on what the user is viewing.

One example of contextual advertising is Google AdSense program. What's interesting about contextual advertising is that instead of having media planners make the choices, computers make the placements across thousands of Web sites.

You may have noticed that Google shifted your RSS from FeedBurner recently (make sure you move your feed by February 28). That happened also to help stimulate the utilization of AdSense. I don't use AdSense with this blog - this is to give back to the business community, you. However, there are blogs and sites that make good use of it.

Do you use AdSense? Is it working for you?

____________

Those are my main three selections for 2009. There's still plenty of room to vote. Lee says they usually get 400 or so votes. As you do that, I wanted to leave you with a parting thought on paid and earned media. Integrated to me means they work together - and they do in this case as well.

In the post, David Armano writes: "Earning digital media doesn't mean it's free. It's not. It's just that instead of paying directly for a placement or making arrangements with a partner—you are paying for the time and resources of people who will investigate what's being said about your brand and engage on your behalf."

There is a cost associated with both - it's up to you to decide which one scales better for your customers and your business. We will talk about blurring the lines and integrating your digital media next week. Make sure you include your questions in the comments, there is a lot of ground to cover.

What digital media are you using? How are you measuring your results? What are you planning to integrate? What will you disconnect?

UPDATE: You might be interested in learning that at 532 votes (March 2, 2009), my picks are about at the same number on the final list. Twitter shifted to #2, switching places with SEO, and Contextual Advertising to #29.

Comments

[Colby Gergen]

The last part of your post sounds an awful lot like what many marketers I read are calling "the new ROI". Is that what you were trying to get at there or did I misread?

Also, I was shocked that contextual advertising is ranked so low. Why do you think that is? Is it because the poll is polling readers and not exclusively marketers/advertisers?

In response to your question whether Twitter is public relations, marketing, or both: I believe that people are trying to hard to classify Twitter. It's not quite like traditional public relations or traditional marketing as I have learned them. I believe (and I'm not expert, I'm still in school) that too many companies that use twitter are trying to force it into one of those areas. I'm not saying that companies wishing to have an active and successful Twitter presence go out and hire someone for the sole purpose of that, but instead just assign it to an active, conversational, and likeable person already on staff. And don't tell them they're doing PR or marketing (or even community building), just tell them to do what they do and do it in the best interest of the company. Trying to classify Twitter is slowing it's opportunity to grow in use and effectiveness for your company. It's like trying to classify a two year old boy as a future football player or scientist. You have to let it grow to see what it is fully capable of.

Sorry if this seems like fragmented thoughts, I'm typing this in Biology!

[Howard]

At my work we're focusing on social network participation. That includes Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Ning, YouTube, and Blogging. I'm only here to get the ball rolling so for people without a social media or marketing background, it will be much easier to sustain vs. some tactics that require more specialized skill. One thing I like about social media is the usability. You don't need to be an "expert" to know how to listen, engage, and be involved. I'm focusing on many other things on this list as well, but I'm hoping encouraging employees in my office to participate will help the sustainability of the projects I am building and creating buzz around.

[Suzanna Stinnett]

Here. We're sailing across an ocean in a fleet of boats. Some are racing yachts, some are powerboats, a few are single-handed rowboats. Not many are well-appointed. The sky is highly changeable, none of us can predict tomorrow. Ahead are islands of inclusive prosperity. If we share our resources we can all arrive on the beach. What a party that will be! (By the way, the powerboats will need the rowboats in order to get to shore.) Meanwhile we are learning everything from each other.
Possible Productive Thinking: Rather than classify the current tools, define what you like and why and why not. Practice being wide open to creative ideas; the future is unrecognizable, so don't look for anything familiar. Like a child: "This is new! I like this one!"
I want to know more about collaboration. Inviting thoughts, if I may, here:
http://tinyurl.com/dxzrg2
love
Suzanna

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Cory - I've written quite extensively on ROI. What I'm talking about here is trade offs and integration. The only marketing worth doing is that which works. You might need to test many combinations to get there, however. It would be like saying you want to run a marathon, but never do the work to get there. Business takes serious training, too. More than classification with Twitter I was going with use - how are people using it in their mix? Social media is a lot closer to PR than it is to marketing... as for contextual ads, I think it's the mix of readers. Or maybe many marketers don't have experience with digital media.

@Howard - funny how human qualities and Liberal Arts are creeping back into the equation with social media. Did you know that they don't teach marketing communications on B-School? Nor they teach sales. Sustainability is key with social media as it is with relationships. You can't just turn them on when you need that extra sale.

@Suzanna - hmmm, I thought I was sharing how I use the tools and why. There comes a point when we've got to know what to do with our duck, so to speak. Collaboration is but a pipe dream without a destination. It is also a lofty goal in today's reality. Many of the people I met throughout my career (and that includes social media, BTW) have been too busy climbing on other people's backs to get what they wanted to even consider collaboration. My being expansive and open to creative ideas has been seen as a huge liability by many organizations and recognized only by a handful of visionaries. I get what you're saying. Hey, even here when I write an expansive post I get no traffic or comments. No judgment, just the way things are.

[Karel zeman SEO Dubai]

Great post and great poll. Wow, it’s refreshing to see that blogging and micro-blogging top the list as that’s what I’m focusing on. And good the see that all-out spam is at the bottom, thank goodness. It will be interesting to see what happens as time goes on because I hear from clients and biz partners that people are having a hard time staying on top of blogging and micro-blogging. It takes a lot of time that people don’t have and so they fall behind, which makes for a not-so-great blog/micro-blog. Any ideas on how people can stay on top of it? Blogging and micro-blogging are kind of like the new email — a new sea of data in which to drown!