antarctica|DIGITAL

It’s hard to believe it’s been only two weeks since the Internet Marketing Conference!  I hope you had a great time and were able to pick up lots of great tips for improving your own company’s marketing strategy.

In the spirit of improving your marketing, here are some tips that our team thought were quite interesting.  As we kick off the last quarter of 2009, I hope you find these useful:

• Make sure your marketing doesn’t suck
  Avinash Kaushik’s keynote speech was universally enjoyed and provided an often amusing look at how online marketing can sometimes suck and what to do about it.  Avinash talked about usability, navigation, and pay-per-click that actually works!  Make sure you’re tackling the fundamentals before going too deep.  Even the big companies fail in this.  More information on Avinash’s blog at http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
• Which way works best?  Form a hypothesis!
  This was touched on several times by various presenters including Avinash Kaushik and Widerfunnel.  Sometimes it’s the least obvious solutions that work the best.  Form a hypothesis stating how a change you want to make will result in an improvement, then run tests to see if you’re right.
• Leverage social media
  Focus on providing value to your audience.  By helping others succeed first, the relationships that you build today will yield results for you tomorrow.  This is an obvious extension of the adage “you reap what you sow”, but is often overlooked by many people jumping into social media.  When you leverage social media, make sure you do it in a way that embraces the community you participate in.  Antarctica has a free guide on engaging via social media: http://bit.ly/1wjVWv
• Marketing to women
  When interacting with women through your website, in social media, or through other marketing, make sure you incorporate female communication style.  While both genders have many commonalities, it’s the subtle differences that can have a profound impact on effectiveness.  More information on Holly Buchanan’s blog: http://marketingtowomenonline.typepad.com/
• Real-time search: it’s here to stay
  Your current SEO tactics aren’t going away, but you’ll need to adjust those tactics to also include more places users will find you and the topics you market.  What’s your Twitter search strategy?  How often do you appear for a given hashtag?  Is it too much or too little?  More information at: http://bit.ly/F7ej1
• Friends & followers?  That’s not relevant anymore
  Today, the measure of authority in social media isn’t how many people read what you write, but how often what you write gets shared.  Deliver value first and foremost and others will retweet, reshare, and repost your content.  How’s your influence?  http://www.viralogy.com/
• Watch TED videos!
  Many commented how they love watching these videos for inspiration.  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design… but it has expanded beyond these roots and introduces interesting topics from the thinkers and doers in the world.  I’m sure you’ll be inspired too: http://www.ted.com/
• Plan your campaign execution
  Nothing derails a great online campaign like poor planning and execution.  Make sure your online campaigns include engaging elements designed to bring people back, refer their friends, and meets the organization’s objectives.  As Avinash might say… make sure your campaigns don’t suck!

Did you learn any other valuable tidbits you’d like to share?  Leave a comment below!  We’ve also posted some pictures of the event on our Facebook page.  All the best in your marketing efforts!