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The first reaction I’m probably going to get for writing such a hot-button topic is, “Garry, why’d you talk about my company”.  Don’t you worry, it’s not your company, or my company, or any company, it’s most companies.  Face it, if you knew the questions to ask, skills to look for, business processes to change, you’d be retiring at forty in the Caribbean or embarking on your fourth start-up.  Finding and keeping top online marketing talent is tough, mainly because of the things you can’t change. Read more…

With all the talk lately about new and emerging technologies, social spheres, and potential easy wins in online marketing, it’s hard to decipher the signal from the noise.  A shaky economy doesn’t help matters, because many companies are moving to either increase short-term gains or foster long-term strategy and right the boat.  Fragmented advice is easy to come by, so I present to you one cohesive strategy of online marketing with a few tactical real-world examples of how you might implement change. Read more…

On the heels of a relatively productive first day at SES Toronto, day two delivered more of the same.  With an impressive keynote address, and more sessions packed into a somewhat busier trafficked day, business certainly did pick up.  As some of you probably noticed, yesterday I finally caved and relented to the hype that is Twitter, and actually started using it and <gasp> kinda like it. Read more…

You know: given the current economic crisis, turn out for SES Toronto is actually better than I suspected, and so is the production value.  Granted, it’s no San Jose, but it’s pretty good for an extremely niche Canadian/Torontonian online marketing conference.  Sticking mainly to the affectionately named “Geek Track” (others were categorized “Nuts & Bolts” and “Corporateville”), opened my eyes to several new trends and strategies. Read more…

Am I the only one that isn’t too excited about Google Wave?  What’s promised as the next big thing in social media and online collaboration definitely sounds interesting, but it’s definitely still a pipedream.  Will it be a flashy new Google Docs-type platform, or will it fall flat, like Google Knol?

One thing is for certain, the technology is pretty cool.  Think of all the internet was promised to be, and think of what it is today.  Now think about the possibilites of actually working from home, across business units, and from across the world.  Now you’re getting closer to Wave…

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In marketing, vendor and partner transparency is king; more transparency equals better client relations.  In the online marketing world, there’s the tendency for vendor relations to languish or stagnate by maintaining the status quo. After watching Google as an advertising vendor for many years, they simply aren’t that kind of company.  With the web being what it is today, clients and agencies that use Google Adwords are very vocal about improvements they’d like to see made, including the improvement of transparency.  Google’s new Search Based Keyword Tool is one such improvement: more better. Read more…

Picking a winner can be hard.

No doubt, an internet marketer’s toughest job is finding the right mix of advertising cost, overall brand value for ad placements, and conveying value proposition to drive conversion.  We can collect all kinds of valuable information through web analytics including visitor pathways, conversion funnels, top content driving revenue, and even cool stuff like demographics and socio-economic indicators.  But finding sites that can supply us with our most valuable prospects can be tough.  Enter Behavioral Targeting from Google Adwords. Read more…

It pains me to have to write this post, because anyone who’s willing to throw their money at online marketing shouldn’t have to bear the cross of sitting through boldface lies.  Unfortunately, I’m brought into meeting after meeting to consult for my clients in an effort to qualify online marketing vendors that promise the world.  Fortunately, I’m always up for a good show, and don’t mind playing the naive web analyst. Read more…

The first blow appeared to come from economic uncertainty in the presidential race, and mixed emotions on economic growth numbers.  The second blow undoubtedly arose two weeks ago with the news of investment banking collapses and takeovers, plunging the markets into a downward spiral.  It seemed that the markets were optimistic about the so-called $700-billion dollar Government bailout, but it was not to be and resulted in the third blow to companies across the US.  But hope springs eternal, especially in light of economic hardships, which always tend to spur innovation and opportunity for those that take calculated risk.  Online marketing may be the key that catalyzes the next innovation. Read more…

If Google hadn’t already converted a whack of internet denizens into big brother conspiracy theorists, it might just finish things off by forcibly pushing fence-sitters into wearing tin foil hats.  Using Nasa’s base near Mountain View, sinking optical fibre into the Pacific Ocean, and bidding for wireless frequencies were all big stories that more or less made reasonable business investment sense, but c’mon – launching a satellite into space? Read more…