Online marketing has evolved tremendously over the last decade. Within a single decade the interest and need for understanding this space has grown to insurmountable lengths. And there are the select few carrying forward… 

In compiling our second ranking of the Invesp’s Top 100 Marketers, we struggled with determining the exact criterion because every marketer has made contributions. We determined that marketing your company, your products or yourself had to meet four requirements.

First, we asked, what are this specific person’s achievements? Bryan Eisenberg, who ranked high up the list, transformed himself from a company CEO, to a speaker and resource to the online marketing world, within a single year.

Then we assessed the particular individual’s reach. Blog subscribers are not enough to make you qualify, although it is considered. But really, how much influence does this marketer really have? Writing a book can score some big points since that can broaden reach and influence.

Next we determined whether or not they contributed any new ideas to the online marketing world. Guy Kawaski was one of our top marketers last year, and he has made the list this year although he dropped in ranking significantly. The reason being that although he has continued to grow AllTop, there hasn’t been any new contributions that we have seen from him in 2009.

Lastly, we tried to measure how much these marketers help their online communities. Ideas and influence are great, but is there anything tangible that followers had experienced. Aaron Wall’s community has been able to grow their businesses tremendously by following his advice. His contributions to his fellowship has resulted in tangible, monetary growth.

To calculate the final rankings, the Invesp team, as well as some top marketers ranked all candidates (whether nominated for voting or not) for each requirement. Individual rankings were averaged into a composite score to create the final list.

The voting process was important to see what the online marketing community felt. We did not affect our process with the voting results because they are two entirely different points of view.

This ranking is intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word. Does everybody on this list belong on the Top 100 Marketers? Who did we overlook? What did we get wrong? Join the conversation by commenting now.

© 2006-20010 Invesp

Many people believe that value is part of what you make, that somehow there is such a thing as a “natural fair price”. We know as consumers this is not true, otherwise we would not pay for expensive spring water that is not as pure as what comes out of our tap, or as the following quote demonstrates, buy diamonds …

Yes, diamonds have a romantic benefit, but it is all in the mind. A terrificly executed long term advertising and PR strategy. Check out this quote from The Atlantic (December 11, 2006)

as Edward Jay Epstein uncovered in “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?” (February 1982), the idea that diamonds make a good investment is a false one. Diamonds, he argued, are nearly impossible to sell once bought because “any gain from the appreciation of the diamonds will probably be lost in selling them.” He recounted one test conducted by a British magazine: the editor bought diamonds in 1970 and tried to sell them in 1978, but could not sell them for a price anywhere close to the one he had originally paid. Epstein also wrote of a wealthy woman who tried to resell a diamond ring she had bought for $100,000 from Tiffany & Co. in New York City. After shopping the jewel around in vain, she gave up.

I would advise you to read up on the whole diamond story, it really is a case of advertising over logic, and even when we know this to be true, still we continue to buy into it.

So what is the point here? Well, while you might think the point is that diamonds are at best a bit inflated in the pricing department to say the least, the actual point is that value is not a constant, and value in your prospects mind needs to be created.

I was reminded today as I read a free ebook that was 1000% superior to a $37 ebook I had read only days before. Why can the $37 ebook sell all day long at that price? Because the $37 ebook had a higher perceived value, and that value was reinforced by the fact it was selling at $37!

No two people are going to look at the same product and value it the same, and each will have priorities that you must connect with. A starving man is probably not going to jump for joy at your offer of accupuncture, but as I sit here with RSI and a pain in my kneck, I would willingly pay $100 for someone to stick needles in me in the next five minutes!

You must understand what is valuable to your prospect and then show how your product, service or offer delivers what they want and need and more.

What do they get for their investment? Each of us wants to spend a dollar and get a buck fifty back, either in cash terms, power, status, utility or emotional benefit.

You must communicate the benefits in a way that will translate into a high perceived value, even if you are giving your product away. The only “fair price” is what your customer is happy to pay.

© 2006-20010 Invesp

Most companies I come across are wasting their marketing budget.

A lot of those companies are struggling right now, and I do not think it is a coincidence.

Want to know where the biggest profit leaks are coming from?

Let me ask you a question.

What is marketing for?

How you answer this question is fundemental to the problem we are talking about. If you do not know what your marketing approach is trying to achieve, and what it is not trying to achieve, then you can not plan or manage it effectively.

Most people would answer that marketing has something to do with …

• Selling
• Generating interest
• Building a need
• Taking product to market
• Persuasion

… and so on.

Those are all worthy goals.

But what about learning, insights, research and planning? Should not those be part of your marketing approach also?

How about bringing back customers for more?

Now I know some would say that these things are important but someone else’s job.

We all know that it is less expensive to sell twice to one happy customer than it is to sell twice to two customers.

The fact is the same techniques and tools you use to drive awareness and desire can be used to generate feedback and customer loyalty, and if you work it right your campaigns can cover multiple aims at once.

Your biggest win though is by getting things right in the first place.

You should be finding out what prospects actually want and need to buy before trying to persuade them to purchase what you want to sell, you waste fewer resources on a no-chance proposition, or make a good product sell even better.

If your marketing is only out there trying to convince brand new prospects who do not want to buy then you are wasting your marketing budget, but at least now you know how to fix it!

© 2006-20010 Invesp

With this one simple change to any marketing campaign you can improve up to DOUBLE your results over all.

In fact, this small change has taken campaigns I have worked on from negative to super profitable.

The problem is, this tactic is so simple and straightforward, it is often overlooked.

Are you guessing what this important factor is? …

You might have guessed from the picture, but the answer is repetition.

Why is repitition so important?

The fact is the first time you communicate with your prospects or audience they might miss the message completely. Your email might go missing, they might be busy and distracted, it might be misinterpreted, there could be a technical error, the listener or viewer might switch channels, or might not be alert when your advert goes out. Print adverts are at the mercy of printing problems, skimming, current events, and the stories your ad is sandwiched in between.

Just repeating once gives your message more chance of being seen and acted upon. But you should not stop at one repeat. In fact, some studies have shown you need to repeat up to seven times to hit your market well.

• Post follow up direct mail letters and post cards.
• Send a sequence of emails.
• Tweet multiple times through the day to catch different time zones.
• Place print ads for multiple issues run rather than a one-off.

It’s cheap and easy for electronic marketers to repeat a message and there are very few arguments against it. There are ways to remind people without duplicating your exact wording if you are worried about being boring or annoying!

In traditional media then there are obvious budgetary reasons why someone might stick to one attempt, but even then the additional costs of having another round almost always pale in comparison to the returns you get. Even when your prospects do see the first message, the follow ups can often spur them into action, especially when time  or scarcity are involved.

Just small incremental improvements can be well worth while. Even with a tiny additional growth in response you can more than double over all response when you repeat, repeat and repeat.

Don’t believe me? The numbers do not lie – Try it!

What happens if you send out the same email message for seven iterations and get a small additional response each time? Let’s see

1. 100 total responses
2. 115 total responses
3. 132 total responses
4. 152 total responses
5. 175 total responses
6. 201 total responses
7. 231 total responses

So in this case if we had only sent the email once, even with just a 15% boost from each email we would have missed out on 131 potential sales. In fact this is quite restrained, ordinarily the second and third emails would tend to do much better, and when done in an auto responder sequence can actually see a lift at email six or seven as prospects make their mind up to buy in.

Regardless of your actual results you absolutely should test this. You could be losing out a lot by not repeating yourself.

Photo: hryckowian

© 2006-20010 Invesp

It can be frustrating for people who want to grow their business using online techniques. Everything seems so complicated.

You do not just have the marketing stuff, which seems a weird combination of creativity and psychology, art and science (along with a large dose of good luck). Then there is all the technical stuff, like emails, websites and advertising.

In fact the technical stuff is largely a commodity now, outsource it to a reliable contractor and all you need is the marketing approach. Thankfully at its core this can be really simple.

If you have done any reading at all about marketing I am sure you have come across the acronym AIDA. This stands for:

• Attention/Attraction
• Interest/Involvement/Interaction
• Desire/Decision
• Action

I learned from Wikipedia that some folks are adding an ‘S’ for Satisfaction now. I like that because for a while I have been teaching something similar. For now though let us concentrate on the old AIDA and assume that your product and service kick ass

Putting AIDA into action online comes down to:

1. Attract prospects and immediately tell them WHY you are talking to them.
2. Interest them in WHAT you have to offer in a way that appeals to their needs and Desires.
3. Help them Decide. Tell them WHY they should care, why NOW, exactly what to do so they Act.

This works in email, on the web, or even social media. Even better if you combine all three.

Attraction consists of getting attention, via an advert or a good email subject line. Interest is about the words and phrases you use, and of course video and audio can be used to good effect. Paramount is providing the “WIIFM” – What’s In It For Me. Give reasons rather than a list of features.

All this is pointless if the prospect does not take action, so you need to tell them EXACTLY what to do, make it easy, and give good rationale for why they should take action now rather than delay.

It’s easy to complicate all this stuff but nearly every tactic or technique boils down to this basic list.

© 2006-20010 Invesp

I am sure you have experienced this or know someone close who has.

You see an offer, think it is exactly what you are looking for, and try to grab it while the deal is hot, only to be told “Sorry, we just sold the last one but we have this more expensive and less desirable option …”.

We experienced it just today.

There was a flight we found ideal for everything we needed for our winter vacation. It had the right stop over, and even the plane I wanted to fly on (the new Airbus A380!).

As we saw that flights were being picked off fast, and the price was going up like a rocket, we jumped on the booking button and bashed through all the required details, including all the passport information and so on.

I would like to point out they made sure my email was added to their newsletter at this point.

Next, next, next, right up to the final notice … sorry, these seats are no longer available. Please try again.

So they have ALL our details, right down to inside leg measurements and NOW they tell us the seats have gone?

A friend had a similar experience with buying a van for his business. He saw in the local news paper a dealer was offering a nippy little Ford in standard white with low mileage (one careful lady Grandma owner, used for taking kittens to salon).

He called up, made an appointment. When he got down to the dealer at the specified time he was told the van was sold out but …

It is obvious what these companies are up to.

They think once you have made a commitment and have enough feelings of ownership, that you will not want to lose that claim, and so are willing to buy whatever junk you are offered, just to avoid the loss.

In fact what happens is either bitter feelings and ranting to whoever will listen and on the internets, or severe feelings of buyers remorse. Neither of which are condusive to customer loyalty, excellent word of mouth or repeat/up/cross sales.

The lesson is obvious. By chasing the quick buck they destroy long term customer value, but by actually treating customers ethically and generously they could have a customer for life.

© 2006-20010 Invesp

Someone just tried to sell me over the phone again. This was not a cold call, it was down right subzero.

When will people ever learn?

Here are all the things the person got wrong:

• This was my very first contact with this company
• They did not know who I was or what I did (and this was a business to business call!)
• My home number is ex-directory
• While scripts can be useful, this guy stuck exactly to the script without pausing for breath, even when I tried to interrupt
• His only answer to my objections was “but you are missing out, it is really good”
• At no point did he ask any questions other than if I wanted to buy his product

You know you need to woo your prospect? This was the caveman approach to dating.

Now do not get me wrong, the direct approach can work, but far better if:

1. You do your research
2. You get to know the prospect
3. You relate the product as a solution to the prospects current needs
4. You warm up gently
5. You answer objections, preferably before they are raised, but absolutely when they are raised

Simple stuff really.

Personally, I do not do any sales, have not done for a few years, because my customers come to me pre-sold. Much better for a shy and reserved person such as myself.

If you would like to know how, I have written a free 7 day series on creating content sites for business which is a good start.

© 2006-20010 Invesp

Sometimes it is the small things that make the big difference in your sales. A company recently proved this to my family. Their $1 act of kindness was rewarded tens of thousands of times over!

It is funny the changes companies go through when they are told that there is an economic slowdown approaching. In a drive to cut costs and increase profits, many businesses forfeit good customer service and start billing customers for every little thing, or up-selling unnecessarily.

An example of this was recounted to me recently where a big-name computer store attempted to sell a customer a whole new computer system because the hard drive lead on their existing computer was faulty.

It doesn’t matter if this is institutionalized bad customer service or profit fear motivated, it is plain to anyone with half a brain cell that this is not the way to grow long term consumer trust!

A couple of articles ago I said I was in the market for a new car. Well, we did buy the car and are currently enjoying the new car smell while the dealership who got our business is enjoying the healthy profits from our lack of negotiating skills, heh.

The difference that made the difference? A $1 bulb.

My wife found a warning light one morning and took the car to a dealership to have it checked out. Turns out we just needed a replacement back light bulb. In the past dealers have billed us not just for the replacement piece, but also fees for looking into the problem and the time to put it right. Not this time, the repair manager just swapped it out and sent us on our way.

I used to work for advertising and marketing agencies before going solo. One of the frustrations was that clients could not talk to me directly to have their problems solved without first going through layers upon layers of account handlers, project managers and salespeople. All of those people added cost, bureaucracy, inefficiency, obfuscation and frustration.

The funny thing looking back is as the dotcom crash whittled down our company size from hundreds to around a dozen, our customer service and client results improved. We were empowered to make a difference rather than just make sales.

Making a difference does make sales, just not perhaps right away. That small act of customer service by the dealership landed them with a brand new car sale.

• Everyone in your business is in sales
• Be generous with customers and they will be with you
• A penny saved today could prevent you earning big bucks tomorrow
• Allow the people who can make a difference to deal directly with customers
• Empower staff to make the good judgment calls

© 2006-20010 Invesp

Over the last couple of months, I had the chance to meet hundreds in the SEM/SEO industry. I attended a successful SES NY conference and spoke at SMX Toronto and ACCM in New Orleans.

Many companies are not admitting it, but this year has been a tough one. I spoke with an executive who runs a large PPC company. Their sales were down by 40% in the first two months of this year. Another executive who runs a mid size e-commerce operation told me that their international orders from the UK dropped by 90%. Their US sales dropped by 30% for the same period. The national unemployment rate is hovering around 8% with some states reporting much higher rates. Of course, our own city Detroit is reporting unemployment rate close to 23%. I am not here to talk about all the gloom and doom you already see. I also have little interest in telling you that online marketing is the way to go and that it will save your company. I am trying to understand the impact of this down turn on the practice of SEM/SEO industry. So, here are few trends I think you will see over the next 6 to 12 months.

1. More people will enter SEM/SEO field.

Search engine marketing is one of the easiest fields to start a business in or to get into. There is no lack of social media experts, SEO consultants and SEM professionals [who bring little value to client work]. With people getting laid off, many will be tempted to get into SEM field. You do not have to go far to see this happening already. SEO training offered by Bruce Clay at SES NY was fully sold out. You actually had to get on a waiting list to get into the class. As a result, this industry will grow and will become more saturated. Expect to see hundreds of more experts over the next few months. Of course if you are in the business of training SEO, this is great news for you. But how about the rest of us working in the SEO/SEM field? For the top companies, this means very little in terms of competition. However, if you rely on local market for business then expect a lot more competition. Perhaps the other side affect will be in terms of industry reputation. An industry that promises to deliver decent income with no barriers to entry attracts many snake oil salesmen. It will be interesting to track the reputation of the SEM/SEO industry over the next 12 months and see how others react to it.

2. Lack of standards will burn many companies

 As business owner you are never sure you are hiring someone who can help you unless you are hiring the top companies in the field. I talked to a business owner who spent over 20k on SEO for his e-commerce store. He does not understand SEO and can only judge the results. There were no results. Did he waste his money? Yes he did.

I am not sure if we need standards or certification in the first place for the SEO/SEM field. In some professions, such as law or medicine, you have to take an exam before you are allowed to practice. This exam does not guarantee that you will be good at what you do, but it does guarantee that you meet a certain minimal level of knowledge. In other professions, such as computer science, certification is insignificant. The way you measure a good software engineer is by presenting them with complex problems and the time it takes to solve them. You do not need a certificate to prove your work. But in SEO, who sets the standards? Search engines or Google in particular have little interest in revealing how their algorithm works. Search engine optimization comes down to deconstructing software algorithms. And while we might conclude that certain factors do help ranking, the actual reason why these factors have an impact on ranking might be completely different than what we assume.

I was reminded of the need to get some sort of exam when I chatted with a gentleman who runs SEO for one of our clients. I was discussing with him duplicate content issues that were created due to a new navigation scheme we introduced to the site. His response was, “duplicate content is a myth.” I am afraid my client will learn duplicate content is not a myth the hard way. Does this guy need to get some sort of certification?

3. More conferences

I do not know what to make of this trend but we are seeing a number of new conferences spring up all around the place. Is it a well thought and direct response to the first two points? I am not sure. The SEO/SEM person who wants to go to an industry conference has good options to select from. With varying price points that range anywhere from $350 to $2,000. This is a time where conferences that differentiate themselves will continue and those who do not will eventually die. With competition come discounts so it is good for the attendee of these conferences. I know that conferences that target beginners seem to do well but I think that advance conferences (think SMX advance) where we actually learn something new will gain more popularity in the industry.

4. Consolidation

We have not seen much of this yet but I suspect that if things do not improve by August, you will start seeing some companies merging together. You can see the start of this with many one man companies folding. Many of these independent consultants are looking for more steady employment instead of having to chase one client after the next.

5. More SEO companies will jump on the band wagon of conversion optimization

Three years ago, few companies talked about conversion optimization. The concept of testing was foreign to many in the field. Nowadays, everyone talks about testing, personas and conversion rates. It is good and bad at the same time. I have always said that conversion optimization is a lot more than testing. Testing is not but one element of the optimization process. So, while I welcome this new attention to CRO, I remind people that poor testing is a waste of time and money.

6. More tools

Many SEO/SEM companies are building new tools. As links get harder to acquire, tools are an effective link bait mechanism. That however does not discount the value of these tools. Some of the tools help automate the manual tasks done by SEOs, some provide competitive intelligence value and finally the suite of testing and analytics tools continue to grow. As more companies will continue trying this new venue, the space will get more crowded and its effectiveness will diminish.

Your Turn:

Well, instead of rambling on why don’t you share your thoughts with me? What do you think some of the big trends in online marketing in the next 12 months?

© 2006-20010 Invesp

My wife and I just went to buy a new car … and left with our old one.

You can learn a lot about sales technique by seeing how it is done badly from the other side of the counter!

Let me set up the scenario:

1. We spent a good 20 minutes looking at the exact model we were interested in while making all the appropriate yummy noises and asking all the good questions.
2. The sales person was polite, reasonably knowledgeable and not at all pushy.
3. It was clear from the start that we wanted to buy, not just browse.
4. All the long time staff at the show room know us, as we have been customers years and have had all our cars serviced there.
5. There were no other customers in the place the entire time we were there.

This sale should have been easy!

Happy, loyal customers, who know exactly what they want, want it now, and are ready to pay?

Here is where the learnings come in. There were several good reasons why we did NOT buy:

• Trust – We were ready to buy, we had a rapport with the sales person … why do they go and do all those well-known car-sales tricks of calling the boss or disappearing into a closed-door office for 30mins? If you already have a sale, why the shenanigans? Deal with us face to face and with some transparency. We know you have to make a profit and we are willing to pay, why the tactics?
• Price – All we ask is for a fair price. Once you start doing the sales voodoo where numbers seem to become plastic and imaginary my eyes glaze and I start to doubt anything you say. I’m not there to haggle, tell me how much and where to sign. If the price is different from listed you had better give me a good reason.
• Configuration – And once you give me a price, don’t up-sell me crap I don’t need or that should be built-in. When we said we want a certain model and colour (picked from your brochure no less), don’t try to sell me an entirely different car that just happens to be 20% more expensive but clouded in mysterious jargon and brand names so I can’t make a fair cost comparison.
• Urgency – Did I already mention we were ready to buy? Why the fake urgency? I don’t have to make this deal today, no matter what you or your “boss” say.
• Logistics – And after creating false urgency you make out we have to wait some crazy delay. When you have no customers and the model isn’t even new.

Sometimes a good sales approach is simply supplying the facts and getting out of the way:

1. What you are offering
2. The price
3. How to get it

Why do people always try to squeeze that extra buck and spoil the sale in the process?

© 2006-20010 Invesp