3 Questions Your Customers Want You To Answer

by Bob Hazlett on February 5, 2010

At times we get so wrapped up and focused in ourselves that we forget the real questions that your customers want you to answer.  When selling any new product, service or big idea make sure you answer the following 3 questions from the customer’s point of view.

  • What’s in it for me (the customer)?
  • Why should I care?
  • Why should I believe you?
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Hack Your Competitors Super Bowl Advertising

by Bob Hazlett on February 3, 2010

NOTE: I originally posted this story last year right before the Super Bowl.  I thought it was timely and in addition, I’ve updated it with a little more information. I will agree that this technique is sometimes frowned upon in the search world.  This is by no means a supplement for creating an amazing product.

Don’t have $3MM to spend on a 30-second Super Bowl commercial? Take advantage of your competitors deep pockets by bidding on long-tail memorable ad keywords that your competition may have missed. For example, Career Builder put out a series of spots during last year’s game that focused on “Follow Your Heart.” Users who searched on the “follow your heart” terms most likely didn’t remember the brand behind the commercial.  Monster.com took advantage of Career Builder’s publicity by bidding on their tagline and directing a large amount of focused traffic right to their site.

NEW: Here’s how to get started.  AdAge has a list of 2010 Super Bowl commercials and the creative behind them.  First, take a look at your competitors and see if you can find any holes or key terms from their spots that may stand out in a user’s mind.

Results from Google keyword tool

Next, drop on over to SpyFu and input your findings from above.  So for example, I’m a competitor to Dockers and I see that they’re running an ad with the song “I Wear No Pants.”  From what I’ve found via SpyFu and cross-referenced through Google Adwords tool, I see there isn’t much bidding going on for the term.  There isn’t a lot of search volume on this term either, but that could change.  Again, we’re really just trying to find a small niche of long-tail terms.  The likelihood that you get rich on these is slim to none.  Heck, you may even want to go as far as registering a keyword happy domain and using it for a landing page.  I hear that www.I-wear-no-pants.com is available.

Lesson: If you’re the guy paying $3MM for a single TV commercial, make sure you have a little extra left over for other channels as well. If you’re the guy who can’t afford the budget, riding your competitors coat tails, doing a little recon and spending a few hours setting up a landing page could turn you into the MVP.

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Stay Curious

by Bob Hazlett on January 30, 2010

Stay curious my friends.

‘curiosity’ from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

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One Half Amazing! Is Growing. Free iPhone App, Featured on AllTop, Kindle Edition.

by Bob Hazlett January 24, 2010

My first priority with One Half Amazing! has always been the users.  I want to make sure that you have the best experience possible.    Without you, I am nothing.  You inspire me, motivate me and push me to get better. For that, I’m forever grateful.  With that, I’m excited to announce some great new features.  [...]

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Here’s What I’m Reading This Weekend

by Bob Hazlett January 23, 2010

Waiting on the NFL playoff games to start and need to kill a little time?  Here are the articles I’m reading this weekend.

35 Beautiful and Effective E-commerce Sites. One of my predictions for 2010 is that “experience” will be the big web buzzword.  Smashing Magazine has put together a set of attractive online stores that [...]

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Got A Business? Show Off Your Best Customer With A Foursquare Widget

by Bob Hazlett January 17, 2010

PlaceWidget gives an interactive widget to add to your company’s website for showing off your best Fousquare guest.  What a great way to spread the word about your business and offer up special deals to customers, and to coax them to check in regularly.
The widget displays the Foursquare mayor along with their picture. It also [...]

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Twitter Haiku

by Bob Hazlett January 15, 2010

Twitter, Twitter, oh!
Everyone an expert. Link.
All I got are bots.

var addthis_pub = ‘onehalfamazing’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, twitter, google, facebook, reddit, live, more’;

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Social Media RFP Template

by Bob Hazlett January 14, 2010

The Social Media Request for Proposal template is for companies to help them choose the right social media partner.  It runs through the mandatories such as strategy, reputation and monitoring as well as the almighty questions about R.O.I, metrics, project management and community.
If you’re looking for a social media agency, here’s a good jumping off [...]

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Digital Marketing Haiku – Always Be Testing

by Bob Hazlett January 13, 2010

Want to convert me?
Big buttons, clear and concise.
Always be testing.

var addthis_pub = ‘onehalfamazing’;
var addthis_language = ‘en’;var addthis_options = ‘email, favorites, digg, delicious, twitter, google, facebook, reddit, live, more’;

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Setting Up Your Own Social Network With BuddyPress

by Bob Hazlett January 12, 2010

If you’re a WordPress user, its now even easier to create your own social network with BuddyPress.  Previously you had to install a different version of WordPress called WordPress MU to get this functionality.  Here’s how to get started.
BuddyPress Now Supports WordPress Single User: No WPMU Required! – WordPress MU and BuddyPress plugins, themes, support, [...]

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Opticana Eyewear’s Clever Marketing Campaign

by Bob Hazlett January 10, 2010

Opticana Eyewear took a $500 online marketing budget, bought 10 misspelled domains and used them to offer users a special coupon. Buying misspelled is nothing new, but I like how they tied this back to poor vision. Very clever.
How could you use this same strategy with other businesses?

var addthis_pub = ‘onehalfamazing’;
var addthis_language [...]

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Get More Video Views With These Optimization Tips From YouTube

by Bob Hazlett January 4, 2010

Mark Robertson of ReelSEO caught up with YouTube’s Matthew Liu to get some insight on best practices for optimizing your videos. Here’s what he had to say.
Content

Creative should be engaging and compelling enough for users to comment, rate and ultimately share.
Shorter videos (2-3 min) perform better than longer (~10 min) videos.
Learn from your video Insights.  [...]

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The New Google Analytics Feature That Will Help You Timeline 2010

by Bob Hazlett January 1, 2010

If you’re a Google Analytics user, you’ll be happy to know the GA team is slowing rolling out new features. One of the coolest and most needed in my opinion is the ability to add annotations to your data over time.  Annotations are small notes and snippets you can add to your timeline.  They’ll help [...]

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2010 Digital Marketing Predictions in 140 Characters

by Bob Hazlett December 22, 2009

Everyone and their brother seem to be doing online marketing and social media predictions for 2010 so I thought I’d dust off my crystal ball and take a deep look into what I think the new year will hold. In the spirit of your sanity I kept each prediction to 140 characters or less (I [...]

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Weekend Reading List

by Bob Hazlett December 19, 2009

Here are some interesting posts that I’m catching up on this weekend.

Do-it-yourself iPhone applications – Great article covering a services such as Swebapps and GameSalad that help you get your iPhone app or game off the ground with little investment.  ReadWriteWeb also published 13 tools to build your own iPhone app.
100 Social Media and Content [...]

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