I was just fortunate enough to present at #MTS2011 – the Mountain Travel Symposium – here in Beaver Creek, CO. The title of my presentation was Marketing Online, Tools & Strategies to Grow Top-Line Revenue. An extremely broad topic, with way too much data and insights, I have posted the presentation on SlideShare and have embedded it here as promised.

Specific to travel, we looked at opportunities to improve revenue online, talking about the tools, processes, and insights we use to do so. Plus, we handed out lasers to make the presentation more interactive, a big hit indeed. We walked through a planning process designed to find tactical flaws related to revenue, and create active steps to build effective programs as a result. Great crowd, thanks for having me!

A week ago I was lucky enough  to present at Social Media for Business (SMAZ), an Arizona social media conference that draws over 300 attendees from the state and beyond.  Fred von Graf, the curator and networking machine Arizona is so very lucky to call our own, always puts on a great show, and this time, SMAZ featured Jay Baer and Amber Naslund’s book tour stop for “The Now Revolution” a social media must buy, and a must see if they come to your town.

I’m definitely blessed – Fred has allowed me speak multiple times knowing that I’ll bring something new to the table if asked to do so.  While I’ve presented planning steps, resourcing suggestions, and orchestrated content marketing and strategy discussions around social at SMAZ, and have seen many others present how-to’s, talk about metrics, inspiration, and more, I couldn’t recall seeing an industry focused presentation beyond some great ones geared towards non-profits.  In turn, I created and presented “Social Media Best Practices for Hospitality” an industry focused tip deck that I hope you find helpful, and I hope to expand on as time goes on.

Of course, there’s some number of them to allow this post to “go viral” – 8 in this case.  In order, the tips you’ll find inside include:

1. Understand Content Demand In Relation to Your Business
2. Identify, Quantify, and Examine the Opportunity Around Topical Points of Interest
3. Organize Internally for Success
4. Be Hospitable (for crying out loud)
5. Encourage the Behavior you Desire
6. Social Location/Mobile Opportunities
7. Get the Right Kind of Help
8. Utilize Remarketing to Extend the Conversation

Take a look and let me know what you think.  Was there something I missed?  I’ve also included some references to properties doing it right – be sure to follow them for real life references beyond the relevant life of this slide deck! Thanks to Altimeter Group and Jeremiah Owyang for the great study referenced, and as always, Brian Solis and JESS3 for the Conversation Prism (I have one in my home and work offices, what would I do without it?).

While our observation didn’t start as early as last year’s Black Friday 2009 review – we were taking screen shots at 6:00 v. 4:00 a.m. – we have followed up our 2009 review with insights into Black Friday 2010 related digital marketing activity.  A quick recap of findings from last year:

• Large brands bought most of their traffic with few optimized for search and running relevant social media promotions (paid v. earned)
• Open competition between online and offline retailers was in full display, with online retailers winning the battle online in their domain
• The post-click experience left much to be desired, especially from those paying for traffic – largely a missed opportunity given the budgets put towards purchased eye-balls, ignoring the opportunity for “earned” attention, but hardly an odd occurrence (and thankfully – that’s what keeps us employed)
• Social media integration was weak, as was integration into customer lifecycle marketing programs (email, mobile, social, etc), a missed opportunity to extend the impact of the advertising investment by incorporating ongoing relationship building post the Black Friday buzz and realizing long-term ROI

For the most part during Black Friday 2009, large brands specifically ran traditional online campaigns, paying for traffic, hoping for an immediate sale, and leaving opportunity for more relevant and deeper engagement with new prospects and existing customers on the table.

Was Black Friday 2010 any different?  Yes and no, and begin.

Gentleman, Start Your Engines – Wait, You Already Did!

One of the biggest differences from 2009 to 2010 that we noticed was how early many began  releasing their Black Friday 2010 deals and/or related discounts.  It appears that in an effort to break through the clutter and differentiate, competitors of all sizes began releasing deals before today, an interesting trend that may prove to  threaten the impact of Black Friday on the consumer mindset.  Of course, the morning frenzy at brick and mortars does not appear to be in jeopardy any time soon, but many deals began early online, and sometimes offline, begging the question what meaning will days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday have over time if we as consumers are exposed to periods of “season long deals” v. one-time opportunities with perceived urgency?

Everybody and Their Mom – Mass Marketing to the Masses Online

target black friday twitter sponsored ad

While your mother historically may have been more likely to think about Black Friday as an offline event, it is clear that advertisers in 2010 were expecting, or expecting to affect, a change in that mindset given their increased activity and apparent spend online.

Here we see a sponsored twitter listing from Target, a tactic not possible last year, with a relatively high price tag.

While more noticeable, it wasn’t just large retailers advertising online.  Many small and medium retailers and organizations utilized local and social channels to participate in the online marketing conversation and feeding frenzy, leveling the playing field through smart content and conversation marketing.  Here we see an example from Local First AZ promoting “Local Week” an organization dedicated to promoting local merchants in a united effort to compete against large retailer budgets and reach.

Retailers were also making it easier than ever before for those more comfortable with the offline experience to have a bit of both worlds as we noticed a wide variety of retailers allowing for online purchase and in-store pick-up, a tactic used for quite some time by those who also desire foot traffic to the store for up-sell opportunities (and who practice nimble inventory movement and management across stores).

A no-brainer, but a conclusion none the less, all retailers are seeing the power of online as both a marketing tactic and conversion mechanism, and we expect to see even more tactical expansion and online competition next year for the growing online revenue we assume they are receiving.

Aggregators v. Retailers – A Guide to Sales, and Direct Competition for Consumer Attention

We also noticed that a plethora of aggregators like www.blackfriday.org , www.blackfriday.com , and www.blackfriday.info entered the mix at heightened levels in 2010, utilizing a full array of earned media tactics to combat traditional retailers and guide the conversation.  Did it work?  While we can’t see true traffic results, stats like the following show at a minimum where attention is paid and where large retailers are potentially feeling the competitive pain”

BlackFriday.info – 319,935 Facebook fans

Sears – 276,894 Facebook fans

Getting Down to Brass Tactics

As mentioned in last year’s post, the tactical activities implemented historically by most retailers have followed the basic flow of offline ads generating interest, if that interest comes online pay for the connection through paid media channels, and then hope for a one-time sale.  Beyond the addition of a few more tactics this year, not much has changed with this group.

Again this year we see many of the same players dominating paid search including both online and offline retailers competing head-on:

Noteworthy, even more noticeable than last year, aggregators have dominated the earned search space where over 80% of the clicks happen, a continued missed opportunity for retailers continuing to pay for traffic they could earn with permanent content and strategic content marketing strategies across the web and blogosphere given the power of their sites and outposts across the web.

Big-Box Retailers: This year, we saw a slightly wider variety of tactical executions, but much of the previous year’s strategy, especially from the big box retailers like Sears, JCPenney, Target and Walmart.  While each had displayed tactical expansion, few have fully leveraged earned and owned media to the extent possible, again relying on brand recognition and ad budgets to do the heavy lifting.

Walmart held a relatively steady position in comparison to last year, missing the opportunity to expand reach and effort through new mediums.  In terms of websites, Walmart continued to essentially post its offline ads online.

This treatment was overly blah, missing the opportunity to connect with consumers on a deeper level. Walmart did create a sense of urgency, messaging that the deals were good for today only, but missed the chance to spread messaging and promotion through its user base and create brand loyalty.

Some areas of website growth included better Facebook integration. While much more is possible, JCPenney integrated Facebook’s ” like” functionality allowing web visitors to inform their networks about a product they found interesting.

JCPenney did the best job in the competitive set in fact, also allowing visitors the ability to share their finds in other social networks.

Better than a general share this button, JCPenney is informing visitors that their Facebook presence is the place to interact with the brand, also nudging the visitor to add brand reach in their desired social network.

In social, all big box retailers received some mention and orchestrated various levels of Black Friday attention, though the effort was not well maintained by any with many opportunities for direct engagement on pages wasted.  Some did have a Black Friday tab, even setting it to be the entry to the brand experience for the last few days, a definite recommendations for all.

Of note, Sears did a great job obtaining fans and enticing fan deal participation through their “wish together” holiday themed Facebook promotion.

On a local level, Walmart, like its competitors we were able to view (we did not for the record visit the locations of all on the list and likely missed examples of some participation) also missed the boat, with more savvy marketers taking advantage of the situation.

In 2010, Target Raised the Bar:

Of the big-box retailers, Target exceeded the efforts of the competition by expanding its  into many new mediums, and prioritizing consumer relationship building for the long-term.  As aforementioned, Target expanded paid activity to include a twitter sponsored presence.  Target also continued to promote customer lifecycle activity and connections through website conversions like mobile and email calls to action.  Target also had the most relevant Facebook presence, highlighting its Black Friday activities and enticing consumers with a related promotion which was integrated through all digital touch points, and evidenced here

Online Retailers: Like last year, the leaders in terms of innovation and perceived effectiveness were the online retailers. Players like  Dell and Amazon continued to push the envelope, integrating their websites with their social outposts, and effectively buying targeted media to walk prospects through the process.

Amazon especially excelled, clearly defining their communication channels and directing users to their place of interest based on the purposed topics and themes (see Amazon’s Facebook presence, its @amazondeals twitter account, website and more).

Amazon also excelled at website enhancement.  The titans of innovation and testing, Amazon added new features to the site to display current Black Friday offers with inventory display, expired offers and upcoming deals.  Effectively creating a reason to engage across the web Amazon is this year’s Black Friday leader in online retailing, pitting a competition between Target and amazon.com for first in 2011.

But of course, this is merely our opinion, and revenue numbers aren’t here allowing us to see the real proof.  Who do you think took home the prize?  What efforts were noteworthy for you?

Mike Corak

Mike Corak leads the strategic planning operations Tallwave, and is co-founder of www.digitalmarketingstrategy.com. An active member of the digital marketing community and frequent blogger and speaker, Mike’s passion is interactive marketing. Mike’s developed and implemented winning digital and integrated strategies for hundreds of companies over his 12 year career including the likes of Coca Cola, ConAgra Foods, ConocoPhillips, FedEx, Fujitsu, Nike, Office Depot, and Walt Disney. Contact Mike at mikecorak@gmail.com, or interact with Mike here: twitter, LinkedIn.

While anticipation of the November beta release of SpyFu’s “SEO Recon Files” grows throughout the search industry, SpyFu is releasing a free portion of the product early called “Keyword Groupie” on Monday complete with clever messaging and supporting video content including this SpyFu Keyword Groupie Intro.

Exciting news indeed, not only because we are able to get an early glimpse of the parent product release, but more importantly, because it’s actually useful!  The product is advertised to take a look at both paid and organic keyword coverage by domain, both identifying current coverage, and showing a larger set of data including keywords not currently in existing campaigns.  Breaking these keywords out into a topical hierarchy, keywords can be easily exported, ready for loading into paid search campaigns and planning tools for SEO’s and content creators.

Here’s an example of what data a “groupify” returns for Nike.com returns:

Organic keywords that Nike is ranking for are available in the first category, as paid keywords appear in the second.  Then, all related organic and paid keywords show in the next categories providing keyword insights for PPC campaign expansion, and SEO keyword and content targeting.  Above, keyword clusters reveal both top sorted results as well as clusters based on “trailhead” keywords and their derivatives, extremely useful for categorization in paid campaigns, and the avoidance of extensive excel keyword sorting tomfoolery.  It is assumed that the recommended results come from derivatives based on SpyFu’s extensive SERP database, a goldmine of information indeed for keyword research usage.

As part of SEO Recon Files, it will be interesting to see the full product offering.  From someone who does more keyword research and categorization for content planning than should ever be admitted in public, I see great value for usage beyond search, including developing content strategy and social media planning.  On my wish list, I’d also like to see keyword search volume to help with keyword and cluster prioritization as well as the ability to enter specific competitor domains to control my “universe,” both obvious requests that I would anticipate in future releases.

In sum, bravo SpyFu for finding extra value in the data you’ve been collecting for some time now. On behalf of the interactive community, I’m proud to be the first to say thank you for providing more access to it.

Reference links:

How to Information: SpyFu Keyword Groupie University

Intro Video: SpyFu Keyword Groupie Video

PPC Video: SpyFu Keyword Groupie Video – PPC

A special thank you to Mike Roberts and SpyFu for allowing DigitalMarketingStrategy.com a pre-release product sneak peak-we’re already using it and look forward to the full SEO Recon Files later this year.

As many of you know, Digital Marketing Strategy was honored last week to be included in Aaron Kahlow‘s Online Marketing Summit regional conference in Phoenix (Mike Corak – “Relevant Content is King” session, David Hibbs closing keynote panel – email expert).  A great show, and like an avalanche, OMS continues to gain steam with many of the digital industry’s best and brightest attending and speaking.  The Phoenix summit was the kick-off of the new Online Marketing Summit tour, a 23 city show with stops across the US and Canada.  If it’s coming to a city near you, I definitely recommend checking it out – a perfect mix of local and national insight, with strong networking opportunities.  The Phoenix version featured topics including social media, content strategy and distribution, search, email, usability and loads of case studies presented by tactical experts and communication executives alike.  It appears future shows on the tour will have more of the same – a great formula – fantastic!

As a follow-up to my presentation at OMS Phoenix (Relevant Content is King)

I would like to share some of the Q&A generated at the event and directly to me over the last few days:

Q – With Yahoo!’s purchase of Associated Content (slide 14), and the growth of other large content publishers like Demand Media, what can smaller publishers do to compete with these entities?

A – The content production and distribution game will not be won solely through the quantity of content produced, but rather, by the return on investment the produced content provides.  Extremely relevant, link worthy content that results in conversions, more than eyeballs and visits, is what both advertisers and target audiences desire, and what publishers will eventually be held accountable to.  While small publishers may not possess the ability to build content in the same mass and with the efficiency of larger players, they will have the opportunity to outwork and outsmart larger publishers through niche understanding of communities and target audiences, and frankly, creativity and relentless elbow grease.  Let’s remember, content publishers don’t determine what content is noteworthy – the public does, and by understanding what content is in demand (through search demand research), and what that interest means (through search and social conversation analysis), smaller publishers can get one-step closer to outperforming the competition.

Q: In reference to your navigation naming example (slides 43 and 44), should smaller players that have a harder time ranking for competitive phrases use less popular keywords?

A: No.  While it’s tempting to leverage the power of a site’s architecture to rank in search for all targeted phrases including less competitive long-tail phrases, you’re better off using the most common vernacular in way-finding messaging to ensure you make the most relevant connections possible with the user.  Further, this behavior, along with matching linguistics in titles, meta, headlines and copy, is shown to encourage those linking to your pages to use this common vernacular in their links, helping sites rank for those more competitive phrases over time.

Q: How do you know that consumers use the same language online as they do offline?  Have you seen improved results from this type of research for communications in both online and offline communications?

A: The short answer is that we’ve tested this theory and it holds true in all online and offline communications.  Why?  Because requests for information and conversations online are conducted by actual real people!    More scientifically, typical offline to online behavior shows that people take interest generated offline to online tools like search engines to fulfill their interest, meaning that data taken from search shows offline content interest by nature.

Any other questions? Feel free to ask them here.  For the record, we’re looking to improve the content of this presentation for future speaking opportunities, and would appreciate any feedback you may have.  Thank you as always!