InterviewWhat is online marketing?| 00:00 | (music playing)
| | 00:04 | Jeff Layton: Hi! I am Jeff Layton and I am
here at lynda.com studios and I'm sitting down
| | 00:08 | with author Lorrie Thomas Ross, and
today we're going to have a conversation
| | 00:12 | about online marketing.
| | 00:14 | So, tell us a little bit about online marketing?
| | 00:16 | Lorrie Thomas Ross:
Online marketing is an umbrella term.
| | 00:19 | It's all encompassing, everything
from the website itself which sometimes
| | 00:23 | marketers forget that that is the
nucleus of their online marketing, search
| | 00:27 | engine marketing, social media
marketing, affiliate marketing, online
| | 00:30 | advertising, email, blogs, everything.
| | 00:34 | Jeff Layton: So using blog, social media,
it sounds a lot like it's about relationships; is
| | 00:39 | that key to online marketing?
| | 00:41 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Absolutely.
| | 00:42 | So, when you're using these tools--
and it's not the tools, it's how we use the
| | 00:46 | tools to build relationships--
| | 00:49 | we want to be using tools in a way
to build awareness, to educate our
| | 00:53 | customers, to serve them.
| | 00:55 | Customer service is one of the
biggest pieces of the marketing puzzle, to
| | 01:00 | support sales and ultimately to connect, and we
do that through communications and understanding.
| | 01:06 | Jeff Layton: So that's
sounds very business-oriented.
| | 01:08 | Is there an aspect of it that's also
personal and connecting, because that seems
| | 01:16 | very focused on business school?
| | 01:18 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Sure and so
let's look at--so online marketing is all of these
| | 01:23 | different vehicles, if you will, to
help build your business, and the way that
| | 01:28 | we can be distinct with marketing is
to be human, to have that personality,
| | 01:33 | whether we are a large corporation
and we are being human through videos or
| | 01:38 | content that way or if we're a smaller
business and we are being more approachable
| | 01:43 | by just being real.
| | 01:44 | I mean even things like the about page of
your website can talk about your hobbies.
| | 01:49 | It can have your credentials, where you
went to school if that's applicable to
| | 01:53 | connecting with your
customers, down to, at the end,
| | 01:55 | I think on my website I say something
like I have a husband and a daughter and
| | 01:59 | live with my grumpy old cat.
I have something, and I can't tell you how many
| | 02:03 | people comment on that, and it's not
necessarily my education or anything.
| | 02:07 | It's that last little personal
touch, and that's how we connect.
| | 02:11 | And relationships is all about
building connections and how do we build sales?
| | 02:15 | Through connections.
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| Making a personal connection| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: Would you say people are more
likely to do business with you if they have that
| | 00:04 | feeling that they know you?
| | 00:05 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: There is certainly that element.
There is that--it's the approachability if you will.
| | 00:10 | I can't say that I am necessarily seeing
my clients boost their business because
| | 00:15 | they mention they have a dog or they golf,
| | 00:17 | but it does create that more
well-rounded approach to business, and it's just--
| | 00:24 | there is a saying in sales
that it takes an average of seven touch
| | 00:27 | points to make a sale. And when you can
become memorable, when there are things
| | 00:31 | that people think of when they think of you or
they say, "Oh, you like to golf, I like to golf,"
| | 00:37 | little things like that sometimes
can be small factors that make a big
| | 00:40 | difference in the overall marketing puzzle.
| | 00:42 | Jeff Layton: What if you're a larger
organization? That seems a little more challenging to
| | 00:46 | put the human face on it
or make that connection.
| | 00:49 | Do you have any advice for large organizations?
| | 00:51 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It's a great question,
and it's very important one to think about when you are
| | 00:56 | branding your business.
| | 00:57 | There are some organizations that
really leverage the thought leader behind the
| | 01:01 | organization, and it can be that
personality that helps drive the business.
| | 01:05 | Depending on how that's done, it can
also be challenging, or sometimes it's a
| | 01:11 | disconnect between the person who is
the spokesman or spokeswoman for the
| | 01:14 | company and then the employees that
are acting on that person's behalf, so it
| | 01:18 | is something to think about.
| | 01:20 | What I have found is if the brand wants
to still be approachable, authentic, and
| | 01:25 | build relationships, but not be overly personal,
| | 01:28 | what they can do is they can be
personable by talking about charitable
| | 01:32 | organizations they donate to or things
that the staff does as an organization,
| | 01:38 | even if it's being part of a
softball association or things like that.
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| Improving your online marketing| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: What if I am a small business or
just a business, what's one step I could take
| | 00:06 | to help my marketing effort online?
| | 00:07 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Number one step is creating
content, and they say in online marketing content
| | 00:12 | is king, especially with search engine
optimization--that's a phrase has been
| | 00:16 | tossed around for years and years.
| | 00:17 | Whether you are a small business or a
big business, people want the expert,
| | 00:22 | they want the authority, whether
it's the authority in a product or the
| | 00:25 | authority in a service, and in the word
authority is the word author. And when
| | 00:30 | you author content, it doesn't have to be
in a book necessarily, it could be in
| | 00:34 | ebook, it could be on a blog, it could
be articles that are on your website,
| | 00:38 | even press releases that are
educational and informative, that helps educate, it
| | 00:42 | helps build awareness.
| | 00:44 | Sometimes it multitasks to build search
visibility, which I love, but all of that
| | 00:48 | thought leadership that's created in the
form of content--and it's not just text
| | 00:52 | now, Jeff, it's actually
videos too, which is exciting.
| | 00:54 | It can be videos, it can be blog posts,
Facebook posts, Tweets, pins on Pinterest.
| | 00:59 | So, it's a really creative way now to
create content, but I would say that's the
| | 01:04 | best thing you can do.
| | 01:05 | Jeff Layton: Speaking of Facebook, Twitter,
Pinterest, it can be a little overwhelming all
| | 01:10 | the tools that are out there,
more keeps bringing up every day.
| | 01:14 | Do you have any advice for someone
who might feel a little overwhelmed,
| | 01:17 | saying "I've got to be on everything, I think."
| | 01:19 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Yeah, the marketing
therapist to me always says like take a deep breath.
| | 01:24 | It's natural to be overwhelmed, and I
think it's actually healthy. I call folks
| | 01:28 | healthy skeptics that start to feel that, and
| | 01:31 | what I encourage everyone to do is
just to stop and think. And as adults, we
| | 01:37 | learn by doing and we self-educate,
but then we roll up our sleeves and we get
| | 01:42 | in there, and sometimes if you are
feeling a little overwhelmed, what you can do
| | 01:45 | is choose to not jump into
something, whether it's Pinterest or Twitter
| | 01:48 | immediately. But the beauty of
online is that you can watch and you can
| | 01:53 | observe. You can go to Facebook and
see what other organizations are doing.
| | 01:57 | You can go to Pinterest and just play
around, and start to build your strategy
| | 02:01 | about what's going to work best for
you, and also what you can mindfully
| | 02:05 | manage. It's important.
| | 02:06 | I always joke that I'd like to support
an abandoned blog shelter, because there
| | 02:10 | are so many blogs out there on the web
that get started and then the business
| | 02:14 | owners say, oh, we don't have time to
blog or it's like, well, again that's the
| | 02:18 | tool, but it's how do we use the tools?
| | 02:21 | So, being a healthy critic about what's
going to work for you and thinking about
| | 02:25 | what you have time to manage is
certainly important, but I would say that the
| | 02:30 | ease of adoption of these tools--
whether it's Twitter, Facebook--blogs is very
| | 02:35 | manageable, and getting started is not
as difficult sometimes. I mean, often you
| | 02:40 | can go to lynda.com and search for
things and take courses or you can go to
| | 02:44 | Google and type in "how to create a
Facebook page" and just take small steps.
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| Finding new customers| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: How do you find new
customers? Is there a research that you can do?
| | 00:03 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Tons
of things that you can do.
| | 00:06 | There is the quantitative
and the qualitative approach.
| | 00:09 | What I encourage every organization to
do, whether your for-profit or nonprofit,
| | 00:13 | is to think about who your ideal
customer is. And new businesses often think like
| | 00:19 | "I just have to go get customers."
Think big and think positive and think, okay,
| | 00:24 | well, who is an ideal customer?
Everything from they could be in a certain
| | 00:28 | geographic location, if it's a type of
customer, whether it's a certain education
| | 00:32 | level or a certain demographic.
| | 00:33 | So, I'd say first start with the heart,
and then secondly, you can use things
| | 00:39 | like analytics to see where your website
traffic is coming from, go look at your sales logs.
| | 00:44 | If you have a CRM, which is a customer
relationship management system, see where your
| | 00:50 | best customers are coming from.
This is a fun fact.
| | 00:52 | At my agency we actually keep an
Excel spreadsheet, and we've done this for
| | 00:56 | years--and it's kind of old school, but
it's worked for us--and we keep a log of
| | 01:00 | where all of our leads come in
| | 01:02 | from it we also look at where the
sales come in, and we are very clear on not
| | 01:06 | only where our business comes from,
but the best ways for us to spend our time and our energy.
| | 01:11 | Jeff Layton: So you've identified patterns?
Lorrie Thomas Ross: Exactly.
| | 01:14 | Jeff Layton: And so you know where you are
wasting time and where your time is well spent.
| | 01:17 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Right, so we look at the
quantitative, but we started with really just the honest
| | 01:23 | qualitative. And one of the easiest
things you can do with online is to have a
| | 01:25 | little question on your Contact page
that says, how did you hear about us?
| | 01:29 | And it's that little step that makes a
big difference and you'll be surprised.
| | 01:33 | It could be--it might come from one
great customer. Maybe you have kind of a
| | 01:39 | brand ambassador that's a big
spokesperson for you, or it might become a business
| | 01:43 | partner where you say, oh my gosh, I
had no idea XYZ company was referring so
| | 01:46 | much business. Or hmmm, I can
actually measure my radio ads by seeing that
| | 01:52 | little thing on the website--but
just being open to that feedback.
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| Getting others to talk about your business| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: How can I get
others to write about my business?
| | 00:02 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Getting folks to write
about your business, you can--I use the analogy
| | 00:08 | in sales, the more you require someone to
do, the less likely you are to get the sale.
| | 00:13 | So here's an example.
| | 00:14 | Let's say you have a big event coming
up that you want a journalist to cover
| | 00:20 | in the local paper.
| | 00:22 | If you write a press release that has
the who, what, when, where, why, how, and
| | 00:26 | who cares all in there, and great
headline, the subhead--that little secondary
| | 00:30 | line under the press release--the
quote from the business leader, everything,
| | 00:34 | and you are able to literally spoon
feed them their story, and they say, great,
| | 00:39 | thank you, copy-paste or there is
almost little to no work to be done, your
| | 00:43 | chances of getting your
story out there are much better.
| | 00:47 | Let's say you want to be visible to an
audience on someone's blog. You can offer
| | 00:53 | to guest write an article, but don't
just email that blogger and say, hey, I'd
| | 00:57 | like to guest write for your blog.
Go that extra level and say, I love what you
| | 01:02 | are doing, my company shares the same
philosophy, I'd like to write an article
| | 01:06 | for you about blah, blah, blah.
Here are some samples of what I've written.
| | 01:11 | I've seen some organizations go
through the steps of actually writing a piece
| | 01:15 | and taking it directly to someone.
And there are article marketing sites that
| | 01:19 | you can publish content on.
| | 01:21 | Some experts are able to get guest
blogging opportunities on some of the big
| | 01:26 | blogs on the web, but there is a
lot of creative ways to do that.
| | 01:28 | But at the end of the day you
have to remember that whatever you're
| | 01:33 | delivering to someone that you want to
do something for, there has to be some
| | 01:37 | value in it for them,
| | 01:38 | whether it's going to help them look
great by writing a great story, you've down
| | 01:40 | all the work for them or it's going to
be a valuable piece of content that they
| | 01:44 | are sharing, whether it's a product
release that, let's say it's a product that
| | 01:49 | photographers need to know about.
| | 01:51 | If that content is something it's
going to enrich the readership then your
| | 01:57 | chances of getting published are much better.
| | 01:59 | Jeff Layton: Speaking about spoon-feeding
reporters, there was something on The Daily Show
| | 02:04 | with Jon Stewart where they played
clips from these reporters from around
| | 02:08 | the country that were repeating the same exact
phrase for a new story. It was really funny.
| | 02:12 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Yeah, and that can happen,
and it's like they just get that little sound bite,
| | 02:17 | and it's the difference
between spending and investing.
| | 02:19 | So when you--you think of, oh I have
to spend the time to write that press
| | 02:23 | release, well you're actually
investing the time to do it right so that when
| | 02:27 | the content is delivered--
| | 02:28 | well, what's the point of hitting a
bunch of journalists with a mediocre press
| | 02:31 | release that's not going to go anywhere?
That's spending time, but if you invest in
| | 02:35 | doing something meaningful, you have
chances of getting published, and you can
| | 02:38 | repurpose that press release on your website.
| | 02:41 | The search engines can pick it up, it
lives on your site for years and years,
| | 02:45 | your press page looks robust and full,
and your customers and potential customers
| | 02:49 | go, wow, that organization is doing so
much. So it's this multitasking marketing
| | 02:54 | that can really happen with the web.
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| Advice for when your company says "make a viral video"| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: So it seems that oftentimes
companies just tell their marketing team "I want a
| | 00:05 | video that's going to go viral."
Is that really a good advice?
| | 00:08 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: I am trying not to crack up.
| | 00:12 | I wish it were that simple.
| | 00:14 | Videos that go viral do
so oftentimes organically.
| | 00:19 | It can be that fluky thing of a mom
and dad posting a funny video of their
| | 00:25 | child that everyone--it's just one of those
things that the time, the place, everything works.
| | 00:29 | I've seen a lot of big brands create
videos that do not mention their brand, that
| | 00:36 | have no reference to them, the words are
not in the description, and they are done
| | 00:40 | in a way that are so relevant to
the product, they are entertaining.
| | 00:46 | And that's really the combination is
they need to be relevant, entertaining, and
| | 00:49 | useful, and sometimes when you like if
you layer those three circles and you
| | 00:53 | have that link middle point, that's
one thing that helps. But the content and
| | 00:57 | the videos, there are viral if they are
applicable, but there is no guarantee.
| | 01:03 | I mean, that's the thing. I wish that
CEOs could say "go make a viral video" and
| | 01:08 | that would magically happen.
| | 01:09 | But I would encourage anyone who is
creating video content to do so in a way
| | 01:14 | that's going to be helpful to the target market,
| | 01:18 | something that can be repurposed again--
whether it's something that can be shared
| | 01:23 | online, on the blog, on the website--
but also done in a way where it is executed
| | 01:28 | in a way where it's fun to watch.
Everything from preproduction, production,
| | 01:34 | postproduction, so it's done well.
| | 01:36 | Some of the largest brands out there
have done really neat videos, whether they
| | 01:40 | are surf videos or athletes doing
back flips and certain clothing lines that
| | 01:47 | have the right music, the right timing,
even the right deployment of them that
| | 01:52 | it's the right time of the
year or something like that.
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| Story selling| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: How important is
story to marketing, having a story?
| | 00:04 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: I call it
story selling. It's a great question.
| | 00:09 | Storytelling is a way to really take
your--the kind of cold interface that we
| | 00:17 | have online--because we are behind our keypads
or on our mobile devices--and when we can
| | 00:22 | have a little more story,
it's really where the connections happen.
| | 00:27 | Think about when you are
sharing something in the news.
| | 00:30 | Usually you are sharing it because of that
story, or you read something in the local media.
| | 00:37 | Well, sometimes that's a story that
was pitched by a public relations
| | 00:40 | professional or an employee of an organization.
| | 00:44 | Your about page of your website could
be a place where you share the philosophy
| | 00:48 | of the organization, how it was
founded, why you are in business.
| | 00:52 | That messaging is a way that goes into
that marketing from the inside out that
| | 00:57 | we were chatting about, to truly
create that realness in that connection.
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| Branding yourself| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: It sounds kind of like we are
talking a little bit about personal branding, and
| | 00:04 | you and I worked on a
course together on branding.
| | 00:07 | Jeff Layton: Do you have any advice for
people out there to personally brand themselves?
| | 00:11 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It goes back to content.
I've seen thought leaders position themselves and really
| | 00:15 | elevate their businesses as personal
experts, and for personal branding, whether
| | 00:21 | its photography website design, law,
whatever it is, by blogging, by sharing
| | 00:25 | your thought leadership.
I think that's a great way to go.
| | 00:28 | A lot of folks buy their own domain name
and they build their website, even if
| | 00:32 | it's a one-page website that just kind of
has a bio. You have your Google+ account.
| | 00:35 | I have a course on Google+ too where
you can build your personal profile and
| | 00:40 | that gets picked up in the search engines.
| | 00:42 | There is an analogy we use at my company--
we call it TWD, what stands for Total
| | 00:46 | Web Domination, and it's a joke.
Jeff Layton: That's a little aggressive.
| | 00:50 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It's a little aggressive.
We like to laugh and have a good time.
| | 00:53 | I have actually seen CEOs of
corporations, folks that we represent and
| | 00:59 | we will spend time making sure that
their personal brand is developed because
| | 01:03 | they might be a big piece of the
overall company's marketing puzzle.
| | 01:07 | I know there is one client in particular,
we even buy his name on Google AdWords,
| | 01:12 | because we've measured it to the point
where we know that people click on the
| | 01:16 | ad with his name on it, they go to the website,
and they are great leads, great customers.
| | 01:21 | But it's also important for us, not
only to have his company name in phrases
| | 01:26 | specific to the service he provides
come up, but also his name, everything from
| | 01:31 | his blog, his Twitter account, his
YouTube videos, everything. And it's TWD; it's
| | 01:37 | Total Web Domination.
| | 01:38 | But it's been a great asset to the
business because people who are looking for
| | 01:41 | this particular service get to know the
company, but they also get to know that
| | 01:46 | there is a real person and
real people behind the company.
| | 01:48 | And it's been a really--it
was a good branding approach.
| | 01:52 | And so personal branding can be for
small business but also can be something
| | 01:56 | that's addressed for a large organization.
| | 01:57 | Jeff Layton: Sounds like we are going
back to the authenticity and the connections.
| | 02:02 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: True.
Jeff Layton: Yeah?
| | 02:03 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Yeah, authenticity is a
word that's been used a lot in the world, but it
| | 02:09 | makes a lot of sense for online
marketing, and it is about being real. And it's
| | 02:11 | the power of our personalities,
whether we're a corporation or we're
| | 02:15 | professionals building our business,
and that can come through through our content.
| | 02:19 | Jeff Layton: So who is
the real Lorrie Thomas Ross?
| | 02:22 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Take my mask off.
| | 02:25 | Anyone who follows me on Facebook, they
see I am a mom, they see I am a geek, I
| | 02:29 | love my web marketing stuff.
| | 02:31 | Actually, anyone can go to my website.
I have a pretty goofy picture on my About
| | 02:34 | page, it's kind of like Austin Powers.
| | 02:35 | Jeff Layton: So I've seen it.
| | 02:37 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Yeah kind of a spoofy thing,
and even my company name is called Web Marketing
| | 02:41 | Therapy. And I had people say, "Oh you
can't say that" and that's--no one wants
| | 02:46 | therapy. And I am like, well, that's
kind of what we do, and we call people on
| | 02:50 | their problems and we diagnose things
and stage interventions, but it's all with
| | 02:54 | a sense of humor, and that happens
to be our organization's authentic
| | 02:58 | personality and approach.
| | 03:00 | It's not for everybody, but we do find
that we attract the ideal customers and
| | 03:04 | the ones that are truly ready to get on
that therapy couch or people that hire
| | 03:09 | me as a speaker that say, "Oh, yeah,
she has definitely got a little bit of a
| | 03:13 | personality," but it is what they want.
| | 03:15 | So I'd encourage folks to be true to
themselves, but in a way that's still
| | 03:21 | on-brand but also on-purpose for
the customers you want to attract.
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| Working with a small budget| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: How can I maximize
my investment on a small budget?
| | 00:06 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It's being creative, and
remembering that the heart of marketing is about
| | 00:10 | communicating, connecting,
understanding your customers, and serving them, and
| | 00:14 | so what you can do on a minimal
budget is look at the free tools out there.
| | 00:19 | You've got Facebook, you have Google+,
you have blogs that you can set up for free.
| | 00:24 | I mean you can go online. There's a ton
of different platforms you can use, and I
| | 00:29 | would say to self-educate.
| | 00:30 | That's one of the best things you can do.
| | 00:31 | I mean shoot, you can go to lynda.com and I do that,
I type in things and I'm able to self-educate.
| | 00:37 | You can go to Google and type in
"how to set up Twitter" or whatever on end, and
| | 00:42 | also just pay attention to what other
organizations are doing and do things in a
| | 00:46 | way that--think of it as steppingstones.
| | 00:50 | Sometimes website optimization
might be expensive, but it might be a big
| | 00:55 | investment that lasts the life of your business.
| | 00:57 | But I would say using the free tools
out there and just being out there and
| | 01:01 | communicating and offering value to your
customers is the best thing you can do.
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| Investing rather than spending| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: Do you have any other gems like
that where people could be investing rather than
| | 00:05 | spending their time?
| | 00:06 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: One of my favorite examples,
I often go into organizations and do audits,
| | 00:10 | whether it's virtual or on-site, and
my favorite thing is when I start to see
| | 00:15 | efforts that people are doing and I hear,
"Oh, we take like ten hours a month to
| | 00:19 | get our email newsletter compiled and
everyone contributes," and I say, "Great.
| | 00:23 | Where does that email
newsletter go once it's sent?"
| | 00:26 | And they say, "What do you mean?" and I
say, "Well, after three days, that email
| | 00:30 | newsletter, if it's not opened, isn't
going to be read, most likely, by the person
| | 00:34 | in their inbox. We can repurpose that content.
| | 00:37 | Let's say it's a long newsletter.
| | 00:39 | We can take the different paragraphs
and those can get repurposed as blog posts.
| | 00:44 | Maybe reword it a little bit to be
more conversational in tone to be
| | 00:47 | appropriate for a blog.
| | 00:49 | But it's repurposing that content."
And I am a California resident and I always
| | 00:53 | like to talk about recycling, which is
good for the planet, but also recycling is
| | 00:57 | really good for your online marketing
as a way to use the assets you have in a
| | 01:02 | different way to get what you want.
| | 01:04 | And it could be press
releases that were written and emailed to
| | 01:08 | a journalist. Those press releases could
get repurposed as individual new web pages.
| | 01:13 | It could be the title of the press release,
then you click it, and it opens to a new page.
| | 01:18 | The search engines can pick it up for
visibility, and for credibility, your
| | 01:23 | clients, board members whoever can see
what's going on at the organization and
| | 01:28 | say, "Oh, wow! I knew something I didn't know."
| | 01:31 | So it's just being creative and
remembering that we would like to tell people,
| | 01:36 | tell them what we told them, and tell
them one more time, and you know it's--
| | 01:40 | people don't wake up and go, hmm,
good morning, I'm going to go someone's
| | 01:44 | website and see what they doing
or hmm, let me go check that blog.
| | 01:46 | If we have our content in different
areas, it increases our likelihood of it
| | 01:51 | being read, and it can be
repurposed in certain ways.
| | 01:54 | A press release is not appropriate to
get copied and pasted them the blog.
| | 01:57 | A press release is formatted in a way
that's appropriate for that use, but a blog
| | 02:03 | post is more conversational,
more written the way that we talk.
| | 02:07 | So it's just using those
little things creatively.
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| Understanding the importance of social media| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: So how important
is social media to my business?
| | 00:03 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Social media is going
to vary from organization to organization.
| | 00:07 | I would encourage any business owner,
large and small, to be prepared that it's
| | 00:11 | going to be part of your business
whether you are participating in it or not.
| | 00:15 | Think of organizations that
have online reviews on Yelp.
| | 00:19 | You don't necessarily create your own account.
| | 00:20 | You might have people reviewing you,
and you can be aware of it and be part of
| | 00:26 | the game or you can hide under a rock.
| | 00:27 | But social media is not going away,
and social media is everything from
| | 00:31 | blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest,
Google+, online reviews, and a lot more.
| | 00:40 | So when we're looking at social media,
an organization needs to think about what
| | 00:44 | is going to make most sense to their business.
| | 00:47 | And if you're in the financial
world and you have to run all your content
| | 00:52 | through compliance, you know it may not
make sense to be doing a bunch of blog
| | 00:55 | content because--or may be it does
because you can run it through compliance
| | 01:00 | and once the approve, then you can
post it on your blog and its approved, and
| | 01:04 | maybe you can do little
Tweets or things like that.
| | 01:07 | But on the flip side, let's
say you don't like writing.
| | 01:10 | Well, maybe the blog isn't going to be the best fit,
or you need to think about who is going to manage that.
| | 01:14 | But I would encourage every
organization to have a social media presence.
| | 01:19 | Social media is a way to humanize your business.
| | 01:22 | It's a way to have creative
conversations and really create
| | 01:25 | meaningful connections.
| | 01:26 | It's a way to bring your customers
together and build community, and it's also a
| | 01:30 | great way to multitask and invest
your time on social media and reap the
| | 01:35 | benefits of search engine optimization.
| | 01:37 | Social media and search engine
optimization often go hand in hand, and you can
| | 01:43 | Google a business and you'll see their
website, their Twitter account, their
| | 01:46 | YouTube channels, you'll see blended
search engine results, and it just creates
| | 01:52 | more options and more
potential ways to reach people.
| | 01:54 | And it also gives your audience choices.
| | 01:56 | Let's say they like videos,
great; you have a YouTube channel.
| | 01:59 | Let's say we love Twitter, great;
you might be answering customer
| | 02:01 | service questions that way.
| | 02:03 | So it's a matter of just thinking, and
it's not only thinking of what you can
| | 02:07 | manage, but also, you know based on
your business model, what's going to make
| | 02:11 | the most sense.
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| Experiencing success through blogging| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: Do you have any examples of
success stories with small businesses, maybe
| | 00:05 | helping them take that next step to get
to the next level in marketing themselves?
| | 00:09 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Absolutely! One of my favorite stories
is I got a call years ago, and someone
| | 00:12 | found me, probably I think from like
Google, you know searching for a marketing
| | 00:17 | consultant, and she said,
"I'm interested in having you help me." We got on the
| | 00:23 | phone. We looked at our website.
| | 00:24 | The website was very antiquated.
| | 00:26 | It was very kind of low-budget, which
not to say that, some low-budget websites
| | 00:30 | can be fantastic, in this case, this looked low-budget.
| | 00:34 | And it just didn't position
her properly and she had incredible credentials,
| | 00:40 | you know great success story, and the design,
the interface just didn't illustrate that.
| | 00:46 | I mean the content on the site was
wonderful, brilliantly written, but kind of
| | 00:50 | lost in the amateurism of the site.
And I suggested that she redo her website and
| | 00:56 | she very quickly said, "No, I just redid
my website, I don't want to do that, and I
| | 01:01 | don't spend the money. What else can I do?"
| | 01:03 | And I said, "Well, based on
your expertise, you could blog."
| | 01:04 | She said, "What's that?" And I said, "Well, it's a way
for you to share your expertise."
| | 01:09 | She says, "I don't want
to give away my expertise. That's what I charge for."
| | 01:12 | I said, "Look, nothing is going to take
the place of you, but you can write about
| | 01:15 | current events, things that your
potential customers might be searching the web
| | 01:20 | for and give them bits of advice.
| | 01:22 | There's always something out there on
the web that's for free in a certain industry.
| | 01:26 | And so she shared enough to be
helpful on and did it in a way that was
| | 01:30 | noncommercial, truly educational. That became
her number one business tool. She spent nothing.
| | 01:36 | She went to Google and said, "How do I
setup a blog?" and I think got set up with you
| | 01:40 | know a pretty easy, do-it-yourself tool,
shared her thought leadership, got out
| | 01:45 | there, built a lot of connections.
| | 01:46 | She would say that she liked other
resources, and she might recommend other
| | 01:51 | resources for her customers, and these
other websites were like, "Oh, thank you" and
| | 01:55 | they would write about her, and it
was true social media in action.
| | 01:59 | Yeah, she's incredibly, incredibly
successful and now has a team and has built
| | 02:04 | her business, and eventually redid
her website in time and probably it's
| | 02:08 | redone now several times.
| | 02:09 | But it was just a really great example
of someone that rolled up her sleeves and
| | 02:14 | got out there and used the power of
the social web to build your business.
| | 02:19 | Jeff Layton: And it taps in to something you
said earlier: she was authentic to who she was.
| | 02:24 | Jeff Layton: I guess it was just getting over
that trepidation of giving away her expertise.
| | 02:28 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: True, and it's a really
natural concern to have, because you don't want to --I
| | 02:34 | mean, you can have a bunch of people that love you.
But if you're not paying your bills that's a challenge.
| | 02:37 | In her case being strategic about her
blog, finding that fine line between what
| | 02:42 | was thought leadership authority type
content, that was helpful, that would
| | 02:47 | bring people in and help people
connect with her in seeing, get to know her
| | 02:51 | before they did go ahead and buy.
| | 02:53 | They call it know, like, and trust online,
and you need people to know you, to like
| | 02:58 | you, and trust you, and just getting them
into the blog was a way for them to know her.
| | 03:05 | Through subscribing to the blog they
began to like her, to trust her, and then
| | 03:10 | the ideal clients, the ones that had
the budget to hire her for her services,
| | 03:13 | eventually were the ones that kind
emerged on their own.
| | 03:17 | Jeff Layton: Wow.
Lorrie Thomas Ross: Yeah.
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| Hiring an online marketer| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: If I wanted to hire someone to
help me with my online, what are some of the
| | 00:05 | traits or qualities I should be looking for?
| | 00:07 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It's a great question, and there
are so many different types of professionals.
| | 00:11 | Some professionals are
experts in search marketing;
| | 00:16 | some are experts in social media marketing;
| | 00:18 | some say they do Internet marketing, and
you need to find out more of what that means.
| | 00:23 | So, what you need to do is understand
what holes you have in your business.
| | 00:27 | And it might be a void in content creators.
| | 00:29 | Well, then maybe you're finding a copywriter.
| | 00:31 | And that copywriter might need to
have expertise in your niche area.
| | 00:35 | Let's say you need help
of social media management.
| | 00:38 | Maybe that could be someone
on a small contract basis
| | 00:43 | that's helping you out.
| | 00:44 | So, I'd say first and
foremost know what you want.
| | 00:47 | Second even need to look at the
experience of the organization. What's the
| | 00:51 | saying? that you want to be a slow to
hire and quick to fire. But you really want
| | 00:55 | to be slow to hire and
find the right organization.
| | 00:57 | You don't want an organization that's
going to send you a proposal where your
| | 01:02 | company name was replaced you know
by the next person there pitching.
| | 01:05 | You want someone that truly
ones to help your business.
| | 01:07 | And the best thing you can do is talk
to a handful of people and get to understand
| | 01:12 | what their expertise levels are, and
find someone that you find is a really good match.
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| Keeping up with the latest trends| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: So, you do you have any advice
for keeping up with ever-changing trends?
| | 00:05 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Trends in technology,
trends in marketing tools I mean, gosh,
| | 00:08 | there are new things popping up all the time.
| | 00:12 | I encourage any professional to be
aware of the trends, but you don't have to
| | 00:17 | have a PhD in the technology or the tools.
| | 00:19 | What you can do is do what you do
best and hire others to do the rest.
| | 00:23 | And that being said, knowing what holes
you may have in your online marketing
| | 00:28 | puzzle, and finding the
right people to fill those holes.
| | 00:31 | I mean that could be having an
intern help set up a social media page.
| | 00:36 | It could be an employee that
helps take over an email newsletter.
| | 00:40 | It could be a contract person that
helps you write your blog content, where
| | 00:45 | you talk and they type
| | 00:46 | and they help produce content that
you're editing, and making sure it has your
| | 00:49 | stamp of approval, but it's still
done in a way that reflects the thought
| | 00:53 | leadership of you or the organization.
| | 00:55 | But, yeah, it's really knowing what
your unique abilities are and then having
| | 01:01 | other folks do the rest.
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| Starting a career in online marketing| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: How does one
start a career in online marketing?
| | 00:02 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: First, you want to know what
area of online marketing that you want to get into,
| | 00:07 | and then the best thing you
can do is just get experience.
| | 00:10 | I heard Anthony Bourdain speak years ago.
| | 00:12 | He actually came and did a lecture in
Santa Barbara, where I live, and he was
| | 00:16 | saying that, just get an
internship or be willing to work for free or do
| | 00:21 | dishes or do something that you
can do to get your foot in the door.
| | 00:22 | I find that in order to build a career in the
online marketing world, you need experience.
| | 00:29 | And you don't have to
have necessarily twelve degrees.
| | 00:32 | It's still a fairly new industry.
| | 00:35 | But what you do need to have are
some success stories behind you.
| | 00:38 | And that can mean that helping your
dad with his website for his business or
| | 00:44 | doing social media marketing at your
local nonprofit as a way to build your
| | 00:49 | credentials, offering to do an internship.
| | 00:52 | But especially in the online marketing
world, you can create a lot of positions
| | 00:56 | and you can network and connect. I mean shoot,
| | 00:59 | you have got LinkedIn and all
these social networking sites to see what
| | 01:02 | kind of jobs are out there.
| | 01:04 | And you can connect with people in your world.
| | 01:06 | But, I would encourage anyone who wants
to start in online marketing to figure
| | 01:10 | out what area that they want to work in,
| | 01:11 | whether it's email, online
advertising, content creation, online public
| | 01:15 | relations, social media, and then you
know understand it, self-educate, and be
| | 01:21 | ready to apply and get to work.
| | 01:24 | Jeff Layton: You know, thinking about that,
doing it for free, a good friend of mine started
| | 01:29 | out just by doing his own videos and blogging.
| | 01:33 | I think it was originally about dating.
| | 01:36 | And then he did a video for the Harvard
Graduate School of Education, a thank-you video.
| | 01:42 | Well, he ended up parlaying that
into getting a career as a video online
| | 01:48 | marketing social media person for
the school. Since then he has gotten to
| | 01:53 | interview Oprah, he has gotten to
interview Arne Duncan, several notable people.
| | 01:58 | But, he just started out by doing it for
free because he was passionate about it.
| | 02:02 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Absolutely, and when you have
those success stories, and you can leverage that.
| | 02:07 | And whether you build your own
personal website or whatever it is.
| | 02:11 | I mean, LinkedIn can be a great way to
build your resume and to have those
| | 02:15 | key words and phrases. My husband was actually
recruited off of LinkedIn.
| | 02:18 | His bio had all of these descriptions
of the types of expertise he has, and he
| | 02:24 | was not looking for a job, but he
was recruited that way. So, yeah!
| | 02:29 | I mean you can build a career you want.
| | 02:31 | And just the beauty of today's
social web is that it is social, and it is
| | 02:36 | about making connections.
| | 02:37 | So, if you want to connect with someone
professionally, you don't just send that
| | 02:41 | LinkedIn connection.
| | 02:42 | You send a message with that
connection that says, "I watched your courses on
| | 02:46 | lynda.com, blah, blah, blah. Here's the
work I'm doing, I'd love to connect."
| | 02:51 | Just a little bit of that extra personal touch.
| | 02:53 | You know, there's folks that I've met
who've asked for me to make introductions
| | 02:57 | for them, former students who've done
things like that, and you know it works,
| | 03:01 | but yeah I love that video.
| | 03:03 | That's how it works.
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| The future of online marketing| 00:00 | Jeff Layton: It seems over the years I've
noticed a real change in online marketing.
| | 00:04 | I had banner ads at one point.
| | 00:06 | Nowadays, on my mobile phone it
knows where I'm at and it might give me
| | 00:10 | advertisements based on my location.
| | 00:13 | Or Google, if I do a lot of searches,
next thing I know I'm getting ads
| | 00:18 | that relate to that.
| | 00:19 | Do you have any idea where are we going next?
| | 00:21 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: I think what you're
referring to is sometimes it's the targeting, based on the
| | 00:28 | content whether you're on a social
media, thing, whether it's like Facebook or
| | 00:31 | something, and it's targeting or trying
to target based on your location, your
| | 00:35 | age, what content is on your site.
| | 00:38 | Or if you've visited website,
sometimes you're retargeted,
| | 00:40 | and the ad will follow you,
whether it's a text ad or a banner ad,
| | 00:44 | until you take an action, or if you
don't take an action after a certain number
| | 00:49 | of times, that following goes away.
| | 00:50 | I really see the future is actually not--
there's always going to be new technologies.
| | 00:55 | The only constant with
online marketing is change.
| | 00:57 | There will always be something new,
and I've got started in the industry in 1999 selling banner ads.
| | 01:02 | So, it's you know I've gone through Dotcom
Boom and the dotcom bust. I have seen a lot.
| | 01:06 | I think what's going to happen is the
future is going to take a giant step back,
| | 01:11 | and it's going to move really into the
peer-to-peer, people-to-people type of
| | 01:17 | marketing where we're just
getting more and more human online.
| | 01:20 | And consumers are making
choices based on what is convenient,
| | 01:23 | and convenient isn't just location or price.
| | 01:25 | It's really where their hearts are going.
| | 01:28 | And so, I see, you know, with the
future of mobile and texting
| | 01:33 | and social media, I see the
organizations that are winning, the ones who are
| | 01:37 | really doing marketing from
the inside out, from the heart.
| | 01:40 | Jeff Layton: What does that exactly mean?
| | 01:42 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: It means that
it's not the technology necessarily.
| | 01:45 | It's the authenticity of the
organization and realness. It's you know not
| | 01:50 | having a lot of robotic type of
execution, but messaging that's not only on-
| | 01:54 | brand, but on-purpose.
| | 01:56 | And that purpose can be right targeting,
the right messaging to someone, the right value proposition.
| | 02:02 | At the end of the day we make our
purchase decisions based on want, not just need.
| | 02:06 | And who do we want to support?
People that provide us value, with marketing themes
| | 02:11 | that are bigger than their brand
and bigger than their business.
| | 02:14 | We don't want to go online and get a bunch
of messages about why this company's great?
| | 02:18 | Why companies are so great? It's
| | 02:20 | all I want to see is what's in that for
me is the true message in online marketing.
| | 02:25 | And so the organizations that can
really get to the heart of that and do
| | 02:29 | execution that's supporting that and
using a diverse marketing portfolio,
| | 02:35 | they are the ones that are going to win.
| | 02:36 | We always say in marketing that you
want to tell them, tell them what you told
| | 02:41 | them, and tell them one more time.
| | 02:42 | And so that can be done through video,
through website content, online press
| | 02:46 | releases, search ads, and more.
| | 02:49 | Jeff Layton: Lorrie, thank you for
joining me today in this conversation.
| | 02:53 | Lorrie Thomas Ross: Thank you.
Jeff Layton: And thank you for joining here at Lynda.com.
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