6 stupid marketing mistakes

Thanks Ed!

Yes, presence, not site is key! And by web, I am talking mobile extensions too. Eventually it will be a matter of optimizing your entire digital brand identity, but we are not quite there yet :)

Great article Adam, some interesting points raised, from the involvement and commitment required to sustain a social networking campaign through to a somewhat moral obligation to ensure some form of "fair play" when it comes to encouraging uptake.

I agree with some of the comments that follow, but you've answered those, so fair play(again). The comments relating to SEO were on the whole, I thought accurate, you can SEO and existing website, but as you say it is a whole lot easier to consider SEO at the construction phase. In fact its a whole lot better to consider digital media/marketing/publishing/optimising in one big take and usually gets the best results when done so.

I still encounter many people who want to just "refresh their website", when what you really want them to be asking is "how can we improve our web presence".

Look forward to reading more from you. Cheers.

In agreement!!
Rather than using it for simple promotional copy, a roundabout wayof working might get you bet results, as in the case of the Mars Lander experiment

http://toastedbytes.com/2008/11/twitter-an-effective-marketing-channel/

Thanks for mentioning my Index... like anything in life, there are good and bad examples to follow. With Twitter, personality and engagement are critical. Take a look at the Molson twitter crew for an example of ppl that "get it."

Will do! Thanks.

Metin

Thanks for the comments and encouragement!

As for the piece you wanted to add--I would love for you to write something up so I can post it on my blog where I am continuing the conversation.

I would love to do an experiment--you write me a post and in turn, I will plug your company on my blog. The real win is meaningful discourse across media properties!!

http://amediacirc.us/2008/11/12/caution-before-marketing/

Adam,

Right on! We especially agree with you on the misuse of Social Channels like Twitter by brands and strategists.

And more attention need to be paid to a Web presence campaign, and not enhancing a Website.

Thanks for summarizing some of the issues we are faced with.

We'd like to also add that User Generated Content campaigns need to be monitored more closely; an all out but directionless Engagement should not be compromised at the expense of Interactivity.

I appreciate the time you put into sharing this information. Many of us use the excuse we are too busy, and that's a real cop out. Is cop out one word or two?
Anyway, thanks. There was a lot of great learning in your article. I look forward to more.

Ditto for "making the site secure". Build it in from the start - it's cheaper and more effective.

@Dave : BREAK OUT THE DEFIBRILLATOR, THIS SITE'S GOING INTO ARREST!

I love how Twitter has changed the way we address people--even in comments we use the @ symbol

@Joseph,

Agreed! The very best option is to build it right (or, as you stated, taking vitamins) from the start.

But with the economy wrecking havoc on budgets, many places can't afford to build from ground up (er, uhm, more accurately, they don't want to spend on this), I just felt it was a bit over-the-top to say that sites can't be fixed ... like saying, "The patient is having a heart attack ... but stop trying to save him, he's beyond help". :-)

@Dave : I think the title is a little off, but I go back to an adage "Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

You can perform some optimization on a site after the fact, but it's really just band aid work. It's better to have an SEO strategist on the team from the beginning to help craft architecture, file naming, and the various other SEO aspects.

Why perform triage when you could simply have taken vitamins to prevent thinning blood?

Why bail out the water, when you could have built a better boat?

Why....am I posting so many examples. You get the idea.

Tristan

Glad you are on board!

Now let's amplify the message to the decision makers.

Dave

To be honest, I am totally on your side! That portion was a plug for all the SEO's out there and a bit of linkbait to get people thinking.

I love your analogy and yes, there are ways you can fix a site--but I feel the mentality must change. People must begin to think about these things upfront. Just ask Toby Evers of Morpheus Media. That guy can fix your site up, but if you are planning on building something new, you MUST work with an SEO (or suffer the consequences)

Nice article Adam, linking it back to how some big companies are still pushing billboard style campaigns to online marketing shows some still have to shift to a commitment to customers and so to engage online with people

I like this article and agree with most of what was said, with the exception of the part about "Existing sites cannot be 'SEOed". I disagree.

To more accurately use your home building analogy, I certainly wouldn't build a house from the top down ... but, I could install 1,000,000 lights on my roof in order to get my house noticed by astronauts in orbit. Isn't that the point of SEO - to get discovered?

I agree with the sentiment that building a site from the ground up with SEO best practices in play is the best option. But all hope is not lost for existing sites! There are plenty of tactics (e.g. even just simple on-page SEO stuff like use of tags, using keywords in "alt" attribute for images, keyword-rich tags, etc.) that can be implemented in order to increase online visibility.

Perhaps the title should be "Existing sites have more trouble getting SEOed than new ones" ... not nearly as catchy as yours, though.

Agree or disagree?

Again, enjoyed the article. I follow Greg Verdino's work a lot, too.

Zip

Thanks for the comment, and you are right, the crayon blog has not been updated in a bit. We are working on rebuilding it, but in the mean time, we have 4 avid bloggers:

Me: www.amediacirc.us
Joe Jaffe: www.jaffejuice.com
Greg Verdino: http://gregverdino.typepad.com
Jane Quigley: http://www.janequigley.com/

As you can see we are committed to the space, and the conversation.

Great article, Adam. Thanks for articulating so well many of the thoughts buzzing round my head recently.

So... thought I'd check out the Crayon website. And guess what? Your blog hasn't been updated since July! Obviously your colleagues haven't read this piece yet...