Lots has happened since my last post in December, and therefore, the focus and content of this site will change a bit to accommodate what’s happening.

I accepted an offer with R/GA in New York as an Executive Producer. I started yesterday. I’m now in the process of relocating my family to the area, and as such, time will be short, as I’m anticipating a lot of work–both professionally and personally–as the transition happens.

In the meantime, I still need to indulge my creative side. As such, Content Theory provides a great venue. In my last post, I talked about a Content Theory podcast in 2010. I was vague on purpose, because I was still formulating a vision around what I thought would be engaging, entertaining, unique (in a marketplace full of podcasts), and most of all fun for me to produce.

I’m getting a little closer to what I think that sounds like, but I know that now that I’m more free to do this as a personal project, I’m going to push myself a lot harder to develop the program.

The podcast will take a bit longer to get up because of this, I’m sure; but I’m more excited about it now than I was before, too. I hope you’ll have a listen.

Stay tuned.

The best thing to happen to the web for small businesses was The Social Web, because it opened up countless new opportunities for marketers to see, hear and react to what their customers were saying to them, about them and with them in conversation (if they were willing to engage with the customers).

Yet very few marketers have moved successfully into this space to date.

Many small business owners I speak to express a lot of skepticism for these tools (and I’m talking here about platforms like Facebook and Twitter), because they don’t feel comfortable with them, or don’t understand how to use them.

Then I ask them if they talk to the customers that come into their shops, or call them on the phone. They laugh and look at me like I’m nuts, and (of course) answer, “Yes.”

“Then you can use these tools to help you draw more business,” I say.

Now they’re excited. And they should be. And so should you be as a small business owner who’s still on the fence about using Social Web tools to get more customers.

It’s not as daunting to use these tools when you realize one important thing: the Social Web is as valuable a communication platform to you as any other, it’s just a bit less formal. Because essentially, it’s an ongoing conversation.

So what’s the big secret to success?

Same as it ever was. There is no secret.

No matter what media you use to connect with your customers or potential customers: being open, authentic, and responsive usually works. On the Web, you have the extra leverage of using or developing your own tools to be innovative, and offer your customers special offers that you can track and measure success from as you get more comfortable with your online marketing.

In fact, I know of one plumbing company based in Rhode Island that has used some of these tools in a very innovative way, and it’s increased their business several-fold. (I’m currently putting together a case study on them, so I’ll talk about them in a future post.)

The point is: The Social Web makes it possible for you to not only reach your customers, but hear back from them, too, so that you can improve your marketing efforts, and increase your business.

But how do I do that in 140 characters?

You don’t. Like I mentioned, social media is a more relaxed forum for communication. It’s not like a billboard, or an ad you place in a community bulletin, or on the local cable networks. It’s an ongoing interaction with your customers, so you don’t have to “do it all” in one message, or have a script written. You just need to know who you are (a.k.a., brand strategy), and respond to the community you are a part of (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), as they need you.

Think of it like a virtual neighborhood. When you’re strolling around the neighborhood, you bump into people, have conversations, and generally go about your business. In this environment, hard sells don’t work. Pitching doesn’t work. But being authentic, helpful and sincere does. It does in the online neighborhoods as well.

If most of your communications are about interacting with and helping people, or responding to others after listening to them, you engender trust, engage with people honestly, and create an impactful, emotional message, and get more business.

Is there a formula?

No. Every brand is different. But the key to it all is sticking to your own voice, and realizing that the digital channels are complementary to your other media efforts. What you do online doesn’t have to be crazy, wildly different or done just because “your competitors are doing it.” It just has to be consistent to what you’re doing elsewhere. And it has to connect emotionally with your customers who are experiencing your brand in that space.

David Ogilvy contended that the most important word in advertising is TEST.

While he spoke mainly about pre-testing prior to launch, testing is more important than ever as budgets shrink and the demands for accountability are growing.

From email marketing to social media, marketers need to focus their efforts on developing communication strategies that are tied to their business objectives, so conversions can be measured, and campaigns can be optimized to deliver better results over time.

It’s common sense, and a marketers dream come true … but one that’s not easily realized.

Here are three things that you can do right now to move your organization in the right direction:

1. Choose What You Measure.

There’s a saying that goes, “Measure twice. Cut once.” But if you are measuring everything, the only thing you can be sure of is that it won’t be clear what to cut, or why. Tethering the data you are mining to your business objectives, marketing strategies and communication tactics will give you the filters you need to create a higher signal-to-noise ratio, and a better idea how you are doing.

2.    Pay Attention. Consistently.

Generating daily, weekly or monthly reports serve a purpose: they give the impression that work is being done. But the real work is in what actions you take after analyzing the data – not in the generation of pretty reports.

By not viewing the data with your objectives, strategies and tactics in mind, reports basically create the data equivalent of highway hypnosis, whereby you’ll just keep on driving when you should be turning, exiting, or pulling over to check your map.

3. Determine An Effective Optimization Strategy.

This step likely takes more work than the previous two, because at its core, it involves getting agreements from other departments and team leads to take action on the data that you analyze once the answer is staring you in the face.

If we jump back to the highway hypnosis metaphor for a minute: we are all creatures of habit and we generally get used to “the way things are.” And while data reports are interesting, they aren’t always tied to actionable outcomes.

First and foremost, it’s important to remember that although a lot of work goes into the planning, preparation, and launch of marketing communications plans, expecting all programs to be extremely successful in the real world is not realistic. Although, it doesn’t necessarily have to mean a total “do-over” either.

It’s simpler than it seems

If you’ve covered off on the first two steps recommended above: choosing what you measure and watching the data as it comes in as it relates to your strategies, tactics and objectives relative to the communication streams you are pushing out, you will be able to quickly identify what isn’t working. And starting over simply becomes a tweak, not an overhaul of your process and program.

In my next post, I’ll cover Social Media: How this new marketing channel is evolving and how direct marketers can use it to strengthen their online campaign planning and executions to deliver more conversions.

I consider myself to be very spiritual, yet I’ve never brought my inner life to my work, as what I do for a living is consult with businesses that want to improve their relationships with their customers, and sell more goods and services.

Yet it just occurred to me that by applying Gautama Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path when you are developing your go-to-market plan for your digital presence, you just might find your own little nirvana. Allow me to illustrate.

Some Context

First, for those who might not be familiar with Buddhism, here’s a quick primer.

The Gautama Buddha is considered to be the key figure in Buddhism. He founded it. He was the Supreme Buddha. And since he was first, he should have that title. I’d take it. In any event, once he became an ascetic, and became enlightened, he divulged his teachings to his monks.

The basic jist was that there are Four Noble Truths which explain that life is suffering; what the nature of suffering is; what the origin of suffering is; and how to get rid of it. Getting rid of suffering means following the Noble Eightfold Path or more simply: The Way. The eight steps in this path to enlightenment–and consequently an end to suffering–in order, are: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Enough of the spiritual coaching. If you are interested in exploring Buddhism further, I recommend A Buddhist Bible

The Digital Marketing Way

Let me take each of the Eightfold Path steps, and provide context around how it applies to marketers who are interested in executing effective digital marketing communications (and this includes that now nearly gag-inducing phrase, “social media”).

1. Right View. Translation: this ain’t television or radio, and it ain’t the 1950’s. Audiences have never been more splintered, and marketers either have to spend a lot more money getting their ads onto every conceivable digital channel that’s got an audience–which is financially impossible, even for Microsoft–or, they have to get a lot more savvy about where they are placing their marketing messages. They might even want to think about different ways to deliver messaging.

2. Right Intention. As audiences are showing their overwhelming preferences against interruptive experiences, and for experiences where they can control the types of advertising they see, that means one thing to marketers: don’t misrepresent yourself. You’ll be clobbered for it.

3. Right Speech. This ties directly into number two. As you do begin to communicate with prospective customers in the digital space, you have to craft your messaging differently. Just slapping up a banner ad doesn’t work. In fact, it’s recently been shown that almost 50% of U.S. Internet users ignore banner advertising (source). Find ways (using social media is one) to converse with your prospects, and not sell to them. It seems un-intuitive, but it works.

4. Right Action. The Internet has taken marketing to new levels because of its ability to enable people to take action while they are consuming your message or content. Make sure you provide the ability for a prospect to become a customer in a way that’s easy, intuitive and fun.

5. Right Livelihood. Your business does one thing well that makes it money. Make sure that you figure out how to do that thing well online. Meaning, if you sell linen laundry services to restaurants and hotels, maybe putting up a Facebook page isn’t all that conducive to growing your business.

6. Right Effort. Similar to Right Livelihood, you need to focus your efforts on developing experiences or communication plans online that achieve your business objectives. If your primary business objective is to sell comic books, banner ads are likely not going to be a very smart investment for you. Both because of what I mentioned earlier in this post (nobody reads them), and because the unit prices of comic books are too low to justify expenditures whose goal it is to maximize reach online. It’s burning money.

7. Right Mindfulness. This one is the hardest for people who didn’t grow up with the Internet as a tool. But it’s not impossible. I didn’t have the Internet either growing up. And no, I’m not telling you my age. Suffice to say, if you spend a little time online, signing up for a few newsletters, social media networks, etcetera, you’ll get the hang of it.

Aas I alluded to, getting the mindfulness down with regard to digital marketing is about letting go of your preconceptions or habits, and allowing yourself to really see what unique and innovative ways there are to market your business online. It is possible to gain an innate understanding of the marketplace and opportunities here. You just have to remain open to it.

A good suggestion for doing this is: if you have an employee who is young, and considers themselves savvy about the Internet, ask them for ideas about how you might market yourself online. I’ll bet you’ll be surprised to find out they have some amazing insights that can directly benefit your business.

8. Right Concentration. Another challenging step on the path of digital marketing, but one worth taking. A lot of the efforts you make at first are not going to give you immediate growth. You have to earn some credibility. And to do that, you need to concentrate on developing your messaging over time.

Find out where your prospects hang out. Listen to what they’re saying about you, or your competitors. Watch what your competitors are doing. It’s a lot of work, but it will help bring some perspective to your specific category and business objective online.

I hope these insights help your digital marketing efforts, and bring success to you and your business.