For those that haven’t heard, there has been quite a bit of controversy over Google’s decision to “blacklist” some search terms from Google Instant. Basically, these terms won’t show up in Google’s suggestions once you start typing your search terms. You can still  search those terms, however. You just have to hit enter to see the results.

For some, this screams censorship. For others, this is Google helping keep people from material they may want to avoid. From my point of view, it is neither. Instant is a helpful tool, but if certain words don’t generate hints, you can still get results once you press enter. On the other side, people may still run into material they find offensive accidentally. Google’s algorithms aren’t perfect, and likely never will be.

Censorship must be defended against. However, let’s not waste energy on instances where that isn’t the case. As Google has gotten bigger, they have veered somewhat from their “don’t be evil” mantra. It’s important to call them on the carpet when they don’t live up to that standard. Nonetheless, let’s not get too worked up over something that really isn’t a big deal.

Have you ever known someone that has had a great idea, product or story, and thought, “The world should know about this! ,”? If you haven’t, one day you will. You will also be faced with the prospect of either helping that person get that message or product out to the world, or find yourself encouraging them to do so. Most likely that person will say, “nah” because they don’t understand or are scared of marketing. But without marketing a product, service or story; nothing happens.

What may surprise you, coming from someone who works in the digital marketing space, is I don’t think marketing on the internet is always the best answer or the only answer for every company. Okay, get back off the floor and read on. It amazes me that people really think there is a “silver bullet” and spend thousands of dollars trying to find it. They also believe that everything online can somehow be put on autopilot and that that alone will catapult them to the top of the massive search engine heap. One day that might be true, but not today. That’s why every aspect of marketing should be considered; online and off to build a comprehensive, strategic marketing campaign.

So now that we have established that marketing online and off isn’t that easy, what do you do to best market your product, service or story? Well, this is where good marketing strategies take center stage. However, I want to warn you; it takes work. You have to know what you are getting yourself into. Discovery, story, information and dialog take place. Taking advantage of all strengths and assets and finding resources to help fill in the gaps. Understand, this a battle! No one would walk onto a battle field today with nothing but a pocketknife and a stick. That’s why getting all the ammunition and weaponry available is a must!

The great news is all the above is more accessible than ever before to all levels of business, including solopreneurs and small businesses. Know going in that if you want to win at selling a product, service or story, then understand that marketing strategies matter. Without really thinking through your marketing you end up squandering your strengths and loosing assets thus becoming frustrated. When I hear someone say “that thing (the internet/TV ad, etc.) doesn’t work”, I know there walks someone who didn’t have a marketing strategy, and that my friend is why marketing strategy matters.

I’m about two beats away from ridding our Digital Marketing company of the “digital” prefix altogether. There seems to be this expectation that the marketing we do is somehow fundamentally different in its approach than any other marketing activity, simply because it’s digital. But it’s not. In fact, digital strategies that are not solidly rooted in Marketing 101 basics fail the test every time.  Our roots are solidly planted in the deep soil of all the best marketing knowledge to come before us.  Remove the word “digital”, and we are still a marketing company.

Digital marketing is a useful term, but only insofar as it describes the medium in which we work. We still need to understand market segments, demographics, psychographics, and the common human experience in general. We need to know what the triggers are for people in a specific market, and we need to find compelling stories to tell about why one product or service is better than another in the same market. Our clients know we will take these fundamental understandings and employ solid strategies in the digital space. It’s not magic just because it’s cutting edge. We still have to do our homework the same as any worthy marketer.

We reach people in different ways today, but the essential work of finding them and reaching them still looks much like it did in a previous era.  My bookshelves are filled with marketing psychology books and marketing management courses, all of which do not mention the internet or email, or web sites, or Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  They were written before those strategies existed. Does that mean that the concepts within them are outdated? With few exceptions, they still hold true today.

The exceptions are notable, of course. The savvy consumer of today doesn’t tolerate the old “buyers are sheep” paradigm any more. They are exercising full control over their choice in the marketplace, and that’s a great thing. Does it change the buying triggers? Not really. Good marketing doesn’t always have to create the desire, so much as tap into the desires that already exist in the marketplace. The work of marketing is primarily concerned with ferreting out those emotional and logical justifications, and aligning the product or service in a way that gives the consumer the ability to purchase from you.

I do not always see those in the “Digital Marketing” camp talking about basic marketing principles. perhaps it’s all a foregone conclusion that any discussion of digital tools and tactics takes into account the rudiments of marketing best practices, but from what I read, that’s not always the case. Too often, the justification for the use of a digital tool or platform comes more from a sense of what is possible (i.e. provided features) and not from a solid understanding of the more human triggers of desire, belonging, need, opportunity, knowledge or advancement. That’s a shame. The digital space is a fun playground for marketers. But we squander our clients’ resources when we do not start at square one in building an understanding of their products, services, customers, prospects and marketplaces before we go out to play.

Now that I have your attention by using the “groove” word, let’s talk about how to find what works for you and your business when it comes to online marketing. If you were to listen to the latest guru you might think that the best game in town when it comes to marketing your product is on the social networking sites; mainly Facebook and Twitter. However, if you caught the stats from PowerReviews and the e-tailing group this past week you would find out that the social networking sites only account for 5% of a products search starting point. That’s not to say that there are not some great reasons to be associated with the social networks and that one day this just might be the search panacea that is predicted; it’s just not today.

The latest stats show that 57% of the searches for products start with a search engine, 20% actually go directly to the brands website while 18% will research the product at a retailer website. The way they break down the social side is 3% use a social site while 2% will ask a question on The latest stats show that 57% of the searches for products start with a search engine, 20% actually go directly to the brands website while 18% will research the product at a retailer website. The way they break down the social side is 3% use a social site while 2% will ask a question on Twitter. So while everyone is yelling about social, the guys still concentrating on search engines are rocking along getting more eyes on their products. Again, this is now and not next week, next month and certainly not next year. That’s why it’s important to have someone watching what is really happening online and not just listening to the hype. As things turn to the next “big thing”, which may be something totally different than Twitter, Facebook or search, you and your company stand a better chance of being in the right position to take advantage of it, if you are dealing with reality and not hype. That’s the first step to finding your marketing groove online.

I’ve been talking a lot about the positive aspects of promoting your business on websites like Yelp, Citysearch and Facebook. As I’ve said before, it really helps you engage your customers. However, I’ve got an example of how not to respond to negative reviews.

Essentially, a couple was kicked out of a hotel because the manager accused them of writing a bad review on tripadvisor.com. The manager even went so far as to call the police. Naturally the police declined to arrest them as it was clearly a civil matter. However, the real question to ask is why the manager thought his business would be helped by persecuting someone who may or may not have written a bad review. These sites, including tripadvisor.com, offer the chance to respond to criticism. In many cases a problem can be diffused simply by engaging the customer proactively. The manager of that hotel decided to respond to criticism in an adversarial way. Again, not the way to go.

By and large, your customers are going to be reasonable. You never know what is going on in their life that day. Maybe they’re just having a bad day. Being defensive about criticism will only exacerbate the problem. You’d be better served by responding in a positive tone with an offer to help. You’ll be amazed at how much goodwill this will generate.

Back when the only way to find a business was by letting your “fingers do the walking” through the Yellow Pages, it was relatively easy for the business owner to change and/or forward a phone number. It was easy to get that address changed through the post office as well in a reasonable amount of time along with sending out change of address cards to vendors, clients and other “must haves” on your list. Yes, when the only source was the big yellow book there wasn’t much thought that had to go into a move, opening up another location or just making a business change of some sort; merger, name change or changing from one type of business to another. However, now that the internet pulls from multiple sources to get your NAP, (business name, address and phone number) all of a sudden it’s not as easy to get and maintain control over.

There is no longer just one place to go where you can enter in your new or changed information and then forget about it. In fact, there are many places you now have to visit to make sure your business listings are correct. We have heard of businesses that have had to revisit listings and directories multiple times before their information is corrected. Many businesses either don’t know this is something they need to pay attention to or find it too hard and time consuming to bother with so they don’t. The problem with not paying attention and correcting your NAP is the search engines (Google, Bing, etc) look to see that the NAP is consistent on as many listings as possible to put that business as high on the local listings as possible. NAP confusion can cause your business to be “out of favor” with the SERP’s, especially when it’s all about local search. You might beat it in time but in the mean time your competitors just might shoot right by you in local online listings.

It seems counter-intuitive to give away your your knowledge in order to get more market share. In fact, some would say it’s downright irresponsible.  How can you protect the expertise that ensures your livelihood when you willingly give it away for free?

The truth is that the more you give away, the more the market understands that YOU are the expert they’ve been looking for.  Solve people’s knowledge problem, and they’re more apt to give you the opportunity to solve the real underlying problem – and pay you a premium to do so.

One of the goals of a content strategy is to prove expertise and share valuable knowledge with those in your market (potential and current customers). To some extent, consumers on a knowledge quest have a low expectation of the quality of the content out there that might address their immediate need. Finding the good stuff can take a while, too.

Think about it: how much time would you expect to spend trying to find out the difference between sea salt and kosher salt? Like most, you would start that query at the Google search box. A quick look at the results for the phrase “difference between sea salt and kosher salt” tells me that not many fine salt purveyors have tried very hard to answer this most basic of food questions.  Way at the bottom of page one, I found a salt brand (Morton’s) and a salt seller (Salt Works). The first results were forums, recipe sites, and a TV network site.

The return on an investment spent answering this question better than the others would pay off handsomely, I would think. The principle at work here is that by giving more and better content than your market expects, you can become a resource in their minds. And the distance between the act of coming to you for knowledge about salt types and the act of coming to you to buy salt is not a big one. Any marketer worth his salt could easily bridge that gap. Sorry. I had to do it.