BoostStrapping

An Intern's Take: What BidMYAtoZ.com Should do for Digital Marketing

Alpha Chi Omega's Neil Dutta offers his take on digital marketing for this PitchFest 2008 contestant.  



This year I had an opportunity to attend the business plan competition held by the San Diego Venture Group. Needles to say, I am very glad I went. Some very bright minded individuals showed up for the finals to pitch their business plans for a shot at $10,000 and possibly venture capital funding. For those of you who did not make it the three finalists this year were:

1. BidmyAtoZ.com – In my opinion these guys had the best model and idea that you wrap your head around. Services made easy that you can shop and book online. Really basic and huge potential.
2. Life Modeler- This was a really complex human biomechanics simulation software. Used mainly by orthopedic surgeons for development of devices and treatment of patients. I also feel this software has huge potential in revolutionizing the medical industry.
3. TheSportsTv.com- Online resumes for amateur athletes in order to help them manage their careers. These athletes can upload videos and their statistics which allows them to connect with coaches, college recruiters and professional scouts all over the country.

While TheSportsTV.com won the contest I thought I would come up with some marketing ideas for BidmyAtoZ.com. Interesting enough I received a flyer in the mail for bidmycleaning.com which is one of their first micro sites. I would be curious to find out how many people will actually follow through and visit the site from that flyer. I think Bid my A to Z has a great product that fills a void people need in their lives today. Now they need to expose this concept to the world. A sure fire way to help spread the word is a good social media campaign. It would not be a bad idea get bloggers and article writers to help spread the word. It may cost money but having relevant blogs with lots of readers will be marketing dollars well spent. There are also plenty of home improvement/ service forums and discussion boards on the web that should also be utilized to their advantage. Video sharing and social networking sites should also be used initially. Since the first 6 months is always a testing phase it would not hurt to try and use all social media available and monitor to see what produces the best results. Making a YouTube channel and showing people how easy it is use the site may be very effective and it might not, but why not try? Start working on SEO even if it’s a more long term project. One of their big competitor’s service magic rank’s for a lot of great key words which is surely a big part of their success. And last not but not least a great PPC and e-mail marketing campaign along with everything else is sure to get them on the right track. One good thing they have going for them is that they are the first to make a platform which focuses on instant bids rather than lead generation. With a good marketing strategy I think they are on their way to success.

-Neil (Alpha Chi Omega)

eBoost Consulting Launches Executive Education

Demystify Digital Marketing, Identify Where Your Money is Going, and Why. 

Educating our community's business leaders is a big part of who we are here at eBoost Consulting.  To help you create digital marketing strategies, eBoost Consulting offers Executive Education.  By truly understanding your customers through user personas, definitively learning what and how to measure progress, and clearly identifying which scenario works best for you and your company in this downturn, you will be well-equipped to improve market share and return on investment - yes, even during these economic times. 

The intensive course will be held on Saturday, January 24th, from 8:00am to 5:30pm.  This is a one-day, limited engagement designed for C-Level executives, senior marketing executives, and VP-level professionals who are either accountable or responsible for creating and executing marketing strategy for small to midsized companies. 

The course of study has been specifically structured to help you learn optimally.  Be forewarned that there will be a lot of information through the day's course.  Through dynamic lectures, real-life case studies, and small, intimate breakout sessions, you will be introduced to the newest and most effective strategic marketing tools available.  You will return to  your organization well positioned to deliver measurable results. 

Click here for registration information and reserve your seat.  Pre-registration lasts until Dec 20th.  Please note that we are limiting the seats to 15 people.  Reserve your seat today. 

-johnny

Winter Innovations

Over the last few weeks I’ve come across several new innovations on the web which I thought would be of interest to our loyal Booststrapping readers.  Enjoy!

Social Networking Connected
Facebook connect allows partner sites to connect you to your profile using your Facebook login and post information on other sites back to your Facebook profile.  Google has a similar technology called Friend Connect which is less user friendly from what I’ve read on other blogs.  To see an example of Facebook Connect in action check out Vimeo or EventBrite.  My mind is racing about the multitude of implications for Advertisers and Social Media Marketing.

Multivariate Testing For Banners?
TechCrunch has a great post on Snap Ads which is an optimization tool for banner ads which uses layered photoshop files and rules to test auto optimizing banner ads to increase performance.  TechCrunch reports that a recent 3 day test led to a 1922% increase in CTR.  For an ad format still predominately sold via CPM’s this tool could bring new life to media buys.

Customized Food
Organic Johnny tipped me off to Me and Doji which brings customization to your breakfast buy allowing you to build your own cereal with the choice of more than 30 all natural organic ingredients.

Social Learning
iKnow! brings Web2.0 to language learning by letting people learn languages in groups based on personally relevant content.  The platform was launched by Cerego who plans on building other learning portals from their social learning platform.

Adapting Your Digital Marketing for the Changing Economy

A special guest post from Alpha Chi Omega's Justin "...Credible" Goodman.

Recently there have been a multitude of articles and blog posts in regards to how to stay alive in an economy that makes life more difficult. Having read through many of these articles I admit that there are a multitude of good ideas and valuable information throughout. However, all the information included in the articles are things that should not just be done because of the down economy.

For example, one article talks about further targeting your PPC campaigns to optimize geographically. This is a great idea! But why aren’t you doing this already? It should not take failure to push you towards success. You should have already been optimizing your PPC.

Another article talks about increasing content on your site and providing customers reasons to buy from you and no other retailers. Again, great idea, but why has this not already been implemented?

Perhaps these articles and blogs should not be titled dealing with the economy, but instead a refresher course on digital marketing.

While thinking about this, I wondered, why now, when money is clearly the tightest it has been in a long time, are people going out and either spending their time or money to do something that should have been done all along?

At this point, is the cost of time and money worth the benefits gained by going through and optimizing everything that should be worked on and optimized already? Is your time more valuable now when money is tight? Should you start working on these things now? Or should they be put off until things start to turn around? Will making all these changes help in time?

The clear answer is that you should not have to make these changes, and that in fact you should be monitoring your success. Unfortunately it appears that this is not the case. So the answer comes down to an individual basis.  Do the costs outweigh the benefits right now?  You definitely should implement PPC and SEO optimization as well as the plethora of other trustworthy suggestions, but is now the time? If you are doing these things yourself and you find yourself sitting around wishing business was better, YES! Act now, the down economy is a great time to learn new tactics and new ways of improving business. If you are hiring someone to do the work for you, will they be able to help turn your business around fast enough to keep you in the positive? If yes, again ACT NOW! If you are in a business that really cannot be helped instantly by having that extra bit of traffic then you really should consider why you have not acted already and how you are going to prevent this kind of thing from happening again in the future.  I would never recommend not making improvements, but there is definitely a time and place for everything, the key is to determine when to implement these improvements.

-Justin

(Note: Justin is a part of our Alpha Chi Omega class of interns.  Check out their blog here: eBoost Interns Blog)