Did someone finally gather the courage to challenge the web giant?
Yebol.com – A new search engine, whose public beta (testing) version launched on 27th July 2009, is blatantly challenging Google in the search engine sector. It is quoted as “aiming to eliminate the need for refined, secondary, or advanced search steps, as currently required by Google and Yahoo!” (Wikipedia)
This new search engine is built using semantic development and also uses artificial intelligence to pull in data from various encyclopedias, news articles and medical journals to provide the users with more accurate and organized search results.
Ok but what does all this mean? This means that if you search for a term, let’s say, ‘cancer’, on Yebol.com it will not only give you the results generated by other search engines, such as Google, at the centre of the page, but on the right hand side of the page it will also provide you with options such as, ‘causes’ ‘preventions’ ‘treatments’ of cancer from other sources to provide a more accurate solution to your problem.
From a business perspective, this means that in the future, Google may have to share its monopolistic rule of Adwords’ online advertising business that totalled revenue of US$ 21 billion in 2008 (Google.com). Yebol.com is quoted as saying “We see the Future of Search as being very different than today's current Pay-Per-Click dominated structure” (Wikipedia), which means that Google would need to act fast if it wants to maintain its throne (or are they already up to something behind the curtains).
As for me, at the moment, I sometimes only use Yebol.com for generic search terms. Since it is only in its beta (testing) stage, I am not ready to shift my homepage to Yebol.com just yet. Google has done a remarkable job of injecting free softwares such as Adwords, Analytics, Gmail and a bunch of others in my blood and it will take a whole lot more for another search engine to fill in Google’s massive shoes!
Monday, 7 December 2009
Friday, 2 October 2009
How do I measure ROI in Social Media Marketing?
"Yes I know social media is a great marketing tool, but how is it going to affect our bottom line?" A marketing director threw this question at me at a conference yesterday. I get this question from marketers and accountants in all sorts of ways you can imagine! Some say it out blatantly, "so where's the money in it?", others have a more subtle take on it, something like "what financial benefits is it going to yield?" .....fair enough... if you're investing your money into something you deserve to know if and how will you get it back.
What we're all after is the return on investment (ROI) of social media marketing. And I would like to use this platform as an opportunity to answer all those questions pointing towards 'How do I measure ROI in Social Media Marketing?'
I have come across several blogs which say that ROI of social media marketing is very difficult to calculate. One of these blogs mentions that this form of marketing is based on conversations and people's chats about products or brands would not say how many prospects actually convert into customers. Hence it is difficult to define the monetary return on it.
I completely disagree!
Let's first break down ROI:
What we're all after is the return on investment (ROI) of social media marketing. And I would like to use this platform as an opportunity to answer all those questions pointing towards 'How do I measure ROI in Social Media Marketing?'
I have come across several blogs which say that ROI of social media marketing is very difficult to calculate. One of these blogs mentions that this form of marketing is based on conversations and people's chats about products or brands would not say how many prospects actually convert into customers. Hence it is difficult to define the monetary return on it.
I completely disagree!
Let's first break down ROI:
Cost of investment: Technology (cost of setting up a social media forum) + People (wages of employees maintaining this forum).
Gain from investment: New customers (increase in sales) + Increase in brand loyalty (we can find this under the heading of 'Intangible Assets' as Goodwill in our company's balance sheets).
Therefore....
The formula simply gives us an accurate return on investment on social media marketing. Having said this, we should be clear on the fact that benefits of this digital marketing method would exceed more than the ROI percentage that is calculated using the above formula. Since the content here is user generated, the social media forum gets a life of its own. It's beyond our control as marketers or web developers to anticipate the extent of its growth.
Mark Zukerberg (Facebook owner) says he had no idea that someday Facebook would have more than 65 million members - not because he's trying to be humble! It's because the magnitude of social media marketing is impossible define in financial terms
So yes, it's impossible to 'anticipate' but fairly simple to 'calculate' the ROI.
In social media marketing, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Look around, it seems that feeding our children is not our priority any more! Maybe something more important has taken its place. Our prime concern today is that our website is at least among the top five on Google. And everyone is doing everything in their power to climb the search engine ladder.
Wait a second folks, let’s stop and first think about what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is? It is a process of improving the traffic on a website through search engines. But how do you do it? The most common and sleaziest way to do this is to fill in your homepage with keywords. Which means if you are a an Italian restaurant in London, you would cleverly squeeze in the words ‘Italian’, ‘Restaurant’ and ‘London’ as much as you can on your website so that the search engine detects it and put you higher up on their search list. Well, if you are thinking along these lines, two things I would like to tell you here, one – you are practically trying to cheat the system and two – this method does not work anymore!
So then how do you make your website search engine optimized? Well, there are a couple of brilliant and genuine ways you can do this.
Coining a Word: A way towards the top of the Google ladder is to create a word that is small, easy to remember and is new. For example if I come up with a new dish in my Italian restaurant in London and decide to call it ‘Giffel’, now if you type the word ‘giffel’ and ‘food’ together in the search bar, it would automatically bring my restaurant on top on Google. The logic is similar to that of coining famous words as ‘Jeep’, ‘Hoover’, ‘Pampers’, and ‘Thermos Flask’, only now its being used to optimize your website on ‘Google’ – which is another example of coining a word that we know means ‘search’.
Show that you Care: Another way to move ahead in the race is to build trust. Did you know that a few years ago one of the best search engine optimized website was not of Coca-Cola or Microsoft, but in fact it was of a family-run French bicycle company? Yes, and the reason behind it was that the prime objective of the website was not to advertise more and more bicycles of that company but instead it was to help people who owned bicycles. It mostly contained all the information a bicycle owner would need, right from the instruction manuals to assembling a bike to repair broken chains. Google recognized this and gave them the top seat for bicycle searches. So the point is, if you are selling anything make sure you offer business support to your customers and don’t always look to push sales, because sometimes that is not the best way to go.
Even a Ferrari needs Servicing: You can not come out as a winner by simply making the best or the world's most expensive website and letting it fly on the internet. If you want to win the race you have to stop in the pits! Make sure you keep your website updated. Add new pages and new articles from time to time. Add links to other relevant sites. Or maybe even play with the design a little if you can, to give it a refreshing look. What impression would I be leaving behind today if at the bottom of my website it says Copyright © 2004?
I personally think that the best websites are ones that serves a purpose of helping customers achieve what they are looking for - not confusing them.
Wait a second folks, let’s stop and first think about what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is? It is a process of improving the traffic on a website through search engines. But how do you do it? The most common and sleaziest way to do this is to fill in your homepage with keywords. Which means if you are a an Italian restaurant in London, you would cleverly squeeze in the words ‘Italian’, ‘Restaurant’ and ‘London’ as much as you can on your website so that the search engine detects it and put you higher up on their search list. Well, if you are thinking along these lines, two things I would like to tell you here, one – you are practically trying to cheat the system and two – this method does not work anymore!
So then how do you make your website search engine optimized? Well, there are a couple of brilliant and genuine ways you can do this.
Coining a Word: A way towards the top of the Google ladder is to create a word that is small, easy to remember and is new. For example if I come up with a new dish in my Italian restaurant in London and decide to call it ‘Giffel’, now if you type the word ‘giffel’ and ‘food’ together in the search bar, it would automatically bring my restaurant on top on Google. The logic is similar to that of coining famous words as ‘Jeep’, ‘Hoover’, ‘Pampers’, and ‘Thermos Flask’, only now its being used to optimize your website on ‘Google’ – which is another example of coining a word that we know means ‘search’.
Show that you Care: Another way to move ahead in the race is to build trust. Did you know that a few years ago one of the best search engine optimized website was not of Coca-Cola or Microsoft, but in fact it was of a family-run French bicycle company? Yes, and the reason behind it was that the prime objective of the website was not to advertise more and more bicycles of that company but instead it was to help people who owned bicycles. It mostly contained all the information a bicycle owner would need, right from the instruction manuals to assembling a bike to repair broken chains. Google recognized this and gave them the top seat for bicycle searches. So the point is, if you are selling anything make sure you offer business support to your customers and don’t always look to push sales, because sometimes that is not the best way to go.
Even a Ferrari needs Servicing: You can not come out as a winner by simply making the best or the world's most expensive website and letting it fly on the internet. If you want to win the race you have to stop in the pits! Make sure you keep your website updated. Add new pages and new articles from time to time. Add links to other relevant sites. Or maybe even play with the design a little if you can, to give it a refreshing look. What impression would I be leaving behind today if at the bottom of my website it says Copyright © 2004?
I personally think that the best websites are ones that serves a purpose of helping customers achieve what they are looking for - not confusing them.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
Nostalgia
Choclates and Vicks Vaporub are two things I can’t seems to live without. Chocolates – in any form and for obvious reasons. Vicks Vaporub – NOT in any other form! I need to have a small jar with a blue cap and a label that says “VICKS” in dark blue. Why do I need it? Not because I have a runny nose or a cold, its just that the smell reminds me of the time when I was five and my mum used to put it on me every night before going to bed. So today I keep one next to my bedside because the smell of it takes me back to my childhood memories.
The company may not have ever thought about a customer like me, someone who would buy their product not as a remedy for sickness but instead for increasing satisfaction. Very interesting!
Brands today do not focus on this market – it is often over looked because, firstly they do not know that such type of a market exists for their product and secondly even if there is a market it is relatively a small one. But what brands fail to recognize is that if they manage to create a market for people like me, then it maybe a small but an extremely loyal segment that they would create for their brand.
My mum is crazy about Vimto (the raspberry drink)! She claims she loves it, not necessarily because of its irresistible taste, but because she used to have it when she was young. And now when the brand re-launched itself after so many years she can’t seem to have enough of it because it reminds her of the time she used to have it with her school mates.
I appreciate how some brands are capitalizing on this aspect – the nostalgic aspect, where brands are not gaining market share because their satisfying or creating a need; all they’re doing is re-launching themselves exactly how they were in the past, making sure they do not change even a single bit of their famous line of product so as to take their customers back in time…and the hook is that there can’t be a substitute for it – She just would not settle for any other raspberry drink!
Coke followed the same strategy; they did it by re-launching their classic coke in glass bottles with Coca-Cola written in plain white. Pepsi obviously has followed them. Just the other day I was checking out computer games over the internet. I noticed something very interesting. Most new, high-definition games come with a free trial version and if you like the game you can purchase it for a certain price. While surfing I came across SONIC the Hedgehog from SEGA, a game first launched sixteen years ago with low graphics, but it’s a game I used to play when I was young – when I got my first gaming console, every kid had to have it then. Back then I completed that game at least more than twenty times but still last week I ended up paying the highest amount I have paid for an online game recently. I just had to have it. Not because it’s the best game in the world but because I had childhood memories attached to that game. Probably one of the best purchases I made this year!
Do you have a product you loved as a child? Would you want to write to that company and ask them to re-launch it? Or maybe YOU could attain rights to bring it back to market.
The company may not have ever thought about a customer like me, someone who would buy their product not as a remedy for sickness but instead for increasing satisfaction. Very interesting!
Brands today do not focus on this market – it is often over looked because, firstly they do not know that such type of a market exists for their product and secondly even if there is a market it is relatively a small one. But what brands fail to recognize is that if they manage to create a market for people like me, then it maybe a small but an extremely loyal segment that they would create for their brand.
My mum is crazy about Vimto (the raspberry drink)! She claims she loves it, not necessarily because of its irresistible taste, but because she used to have it when she was young. And now when the brand re-launched itself after so many years she can’t seem to have enough of it because it reminds her of the time she used to have it with her school mates.
I appreciate how some brands are capitalizing on this aspect – the nostalgic aspect, where brands are not gaining market share because their satisfying or creating a need; all they’re doing is re-launching themselves exactly how they were in the past, making sure they do not change even a single bit of their famous line of product so as to take their customers back in time…and the hook is that there can’t be a substitute for it – She just would not settle for any other raspberry drink!
Coke followed the same strategy; they did it by re-launching their classic coke in glass bottles with Coca-Cola written in plain white. Pepsi obviously has followed them. Just the other day I was checking out computer games over the internet. I noticed something very interesting. Most new, high-definition games come with a free trial version and if you like the game you can purchase it for a certain price. While surfing I came across SONIC the Hedgehog from SEGA, a game first launched sixteen years ago with low graphics, but it’s a game I used to play when I was young – when I got my first gaming console, every kid had to have it then. Back then I completed that game at least more than twenty times but still last week I ended up paying the highest amount I have paid for an online game recently. I just had to have it. Not because it’s the best game in the world but because I had childhood memories attached to that game. Probably one of the best purchases I made this year!
Do you have a product you loved as a child? Would you want to write to that company and ask them to re-launch it? Or maybe YOU could attain rights to bring it back to market.
Monday, 4 May 2009
Walking talking Billboards
Quick!! Think of one way in which you can promote your brand.....
What did you think of? Adevertising? Promotions? Or Word-of-Mouth?
If you thought about these then you think like most people and if you think like most people then should you call yourself any different?
Look around you while you’re sitting on your desk in the office, (or stand up if you’re in a cubical!) what do you see? Yes you see your partners, you see friends and you see your colleagues. But if you’re like me then you see walking, talking smiley billboards which cost you nothing and are one of the best sources that would promote your corporate brand.
The question is HOW? And the answer is straightforward. 'Employee Branding' is what it’s called – It is a simple process by which you educate your fellow employees about your brand, its goal, its mission and things you as a company have done in the recent past as a whole to meet those corporate objectives.
Posting your mission statement on the wall is not enough and neither is having it on the front page of your annual report. It’s most effective when you gather your employees every month or even weekly and tell them about the company’s vision and how they have made it possible to get one step closer towards the corporate goal.
It is very easy to forget the long-term objectives of a business when employees spend their whole day dealing with short term queries. Yes, we do need to prepare those over due financial statements, we need to get the new website out of the way, but always keep track of the direction in which the organization is progressing. And if you are able to communicate these objectives of the long-run to your fellow employees, they would feel much more closer to your brand.
Here’s a tip: carry out a small survey – go around and causally and ask your employees of what was your company’s growth last year? See if they know what your annual turnover is? You’ll be surprised to know that most of them would not know the answer to these very obvious questions. So if they don’t know, they can not boast about it to others. It’s actually sad that they are unaware of what they have achieved as a team – as a company.
My point is, that among the hundreds of meeting you have every month, gather all your staff for 15 minutes to tell them how the company is progressing and thank them for their efforts.
This would help you in 2 ways: a; Your employees will get a massive boost of confidence as they will know the positive effects of their combined efforts on the firm along with a pat on the back with that ‘Thankyou’. b; if they go out anywhere in conferences or a business event, they’ll be aware of the current progress of the company and would be able to market it well.
So now wherever they go or who ever they meet (personally or professionally), rather then saying, "I am working on the bank reconciliation statements this week", your employees would be able to boast "We have grown 15% this year." It not only promotes your brand, but it also keeps the employees informed and makes them feel proud of themselves by being, though, a small, but an integral part of a corporate family they dedicate 8 hours of their day, everyday.
What did you think of? Adevertising? Promotions? Or Word-of-Mouth?
If you thought about these then you think like most people and if you think like most people then should you call yourself any different?
Look around you while you’re sitting on your desk in the office, (or stand up if you’re in a cubical!) what do you see? Yes you see your partners, you see friends and you see your colleagues. But if you’re like me then you see walking, talking smiley billboards which cost you nothing and are one of the best sources that would promote your corporate brand.
The question is HOW? And the answer is straightforward. 'Employee Branding' is what it’s called – It is a simple process by which you educate your fellow employees about your brand, its goal, its mission and things you as a company have done in the recent past as a whole to meet those corporate objectives.
Posting your mission statement on the wall is not enough and neither is having it on the front page of your annual report. It’s most effective when you gather your employees every month or even weekly and tell them about the company’s vision and how they have made it possible to get one step closer towards the corporate goal.
It is very easy to forget the long-term objectives of a business when employees spend their whole day dealing with short term queries. Yes, we do need to prepare those over due financial statements, we need to get the new website out of the way, but always keep track of the direction in which the organization is progressing. And if you are able to communicate these objectives of the long-run to your fellow employees, they would feel much more closer to your brand.
Here’s a tip: carry out a small survey – go around and causally and ask your employees of what was your company’s growth last year? See if they know what your annual turnover is? You’ll be surprised to know that most of them would not know the answer to these very obvious questions. So if they don’t know, they can not boast about it to others. It’s actually sad that they are unaware of what they have achieved as a team – as a company.
My point is, that among the hundreds of meeting you have every month, gather all your staff for 15 minutes to tell them how the company is progressing and thank them for their efforts.
This would help you in 2 ways: a; Your employees will get a massive boost of confidence as they will know the positive effects of their combined efforts on the firm along with a pat on the back with that ‘Thankyou’. b; if they go out anywhere in conferences or a business event, they’ll be aware of the current progress of the company and would be able to market it well.
So now wherever they go or who ever they meet (personally or professionally), rather then saying, "I am working on the bank reconciliation statements this week", your employees would be able to boast "We have grown 15% this year." It not only promotes your brand, but it also keeps the employees informed and makes them feel proud of themselves by being, though, a small, but an integral part of a corporate family they dedicate 8 hours of their day, everyday.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Make sure everyone wins
I am one of those people who never won anything at any contest! I've collected thousands of soft drink caps, looked behind loads of tea labels and searched below paint boxes to find the magic numbers,... numbers that would make me win something... anything!!
Well, wait a second... I did win something once, yes, I can recall at age ten I was trying to look for the jackpot numbers under Pepsi bottles that would earn me a ticket to go see the finals of the cricket world-cup in South Africa, but instead the numbers I got, entitled me only to an A3 poster of the players.
Now whenever I sit around with friends and the topic of contests or lotteries come up, I tell them this story. Why?? because I actually managed to win something once, even though it was a lame poster!
So my point is, if you have an event or a corporate gala, don't give out everything as freebies, package some of the things in such a way that it means something to the recipients. This will make them remember that they 'won' something rather than just 'receiving' it. And make sure ‘everyone’ wins, as this increases the chances of getting the story to people who weren't there. Be clever with it. But How? There are tons of ways you could do that. For example at a television game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, car manufacturer Hyundai surprised everyone by deciding to give all ten participants (not only the winner) a car each at the end of a game show rather than investing an equivalent amount in a couple of commercial breaks for a certain episode.
Now that’s clever marketing! because that is a story, and people like telling stories. And it works, especially if you have even one winner like me, who just won a poster once and now goes around town telling his story and unintentionally increasing the brand awareness of Pepsi!
Well, wait a second... I did win something once, yes, I can recall at age ten I was trying to look for the jackpot numbers under Pepsi bottles that would earn me a ticket to go see the finals of the cricket world-cup in South Africa, but instead the numbers I got, entitled me only to an A3 poster of the players.
Now whenever I sit around with friends and the topic of contests or lotteries come up, I tell them this story. Why?? because I actually managed to win something once, even though it was a lame poster!
So my point is, if you have an event or a corporate gala, don't give out everything as freebies, package some of the things in such a way that it means something to the recipients. This will make them remember that they 'won' something rather than just 'receiving' it. And make sure ‘everyone’ wins, as this increases the chances of getting the story to people who weren't there. Be clever with it. But How? There are tons of ways you could do that. For example at a television game show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’, car manufacturer Hyundai surprised everyone by deciding to give all ten participants (not only the winner) a car each at the end of a game show rather than investing an equivalent amount in a couple of commercial breaks for a certain episode.
Now that’s clever marketing! because that is a story, and people like telling stories. And it works, especially if you have even one winner like me, who just won a poster once and now goes around town telling his story and unintentionally increasing the brand awareness of Pepsi!
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Marketing from the Heart
There are two types of categories in which I can classify subjects – Logical and Emotional. As I come from an undergraduate university that allowed student to have bi-majors (double concentration), I noticed that majority of the people surrounding me focused on Finance and Accounting.
Well, the equation was pretty straight forward – we all knew that a bank job or a stamp from one of the Big fours obviously meant faster growth and more money. The struggling engineers and architects from the science and engineering departments hated us anyway for putting in a fraction of amount of work as them, when by the end of the day we all were working towards a bachelor’s degree regardless of the concentration.
To be honest, I don’t blame them, we used to actually feel sorry when at 11:00pm we’d be out chatting in the café while they in the laboratory tried to figure out why methane smelled so bad!
Subjects such as Finance, Engineering or even Economics are more ‘logical’ subjects, however to excel in a field like marketing or psychology, what pays off is being an ‘emotional’ thinker. Assets will always be equal to liabilities plus capital; you can turn the world upside down but this equation wouldn’t change. But there is always a new idea hidden in the dark corners of your brain, yet to be discovered, an idea that will sweep-off the customers at the next product launch. There is always a new formula for a new event in marketing and do you know what’s the best part? – you’ll never be 100% sure of what works. You’ll have to go with what ‘feels’ right at that time; for that target audience; in that moment; for that purpose.
You can be quite sure that you’re a good Accountant by knowing why Working Capital goes under balance sheet, because there is a ‘logic’ behind it. As for those of you out there who decided to go for a degree and career in marketing, and really want to excel in it, your brain will not be the only organ that will guide your daily work decisions.
Well, the equation was pretty straight forward – we all knew that a bank job or a stamp from one of the Big fours obviously meant faster growth and more money. The struggling engineers and architects from the science and engineering departments hated us anyway for putting in a fraction of amount of work as them, when by the end of the day we all were working towards a bachelor’s degree regardless of the concentration.
To be honest, I don’t blame them, we used to actually feel sorry when at 11:00pm we’d be out chatting in the café while they in the laboratory tried to figure out why methane smelled so bad!
Subjects such as Finance, Engineering or even Economics are more ‘logical’ subjects, however to excel in a field like marketing or psychology, what pays off is being an ‘emotional’ thinker. Assets will always be equal to liabilities plus capital; you can turn the world upside down but this equation wouldn’t change. But there is always a new idea hidden in the dark corners of your brain, yet to be discovered, an idea that will sweep-off the customers at the next product launch. There is always a new formula for a new event in marketing and do you know what’s the best part? – you’ll never be 100% sure of what works. You’ll have to go with what ‘feels’ right at that time; for that target audience; in that moment; for that purpose.
You can be quite sure that you’re a good Accountant by knowing why Working Capital goes under balance sheet, because there is a ‘logic’ behind it. As for those of you out there who decided to go for a degree and career in marketing, and really want to excel in it, your brain will not be the only organ that will guide your daily work decisions.
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