Mediaboss Marketing

By Dick MaggioreSpecial to The Canton Repository

A few short years ago, not many would have connected public relations folks with the digital revolution. But a funny thing happened along the way.

Digital and PR got hitched.

In the late 1990s, the so-called digital revolution gained a toehold as web development boomed. Few people other than those who were building websites understood what was happening. They knew a lot about coding but not so much about the content.

In the beginning, websites were basically online brochures. We even had a special name for early websites: brochureware.

As the web began to grow, so did the demand for content.

Something was missing, however, as the function of websites as online brochures fell short of providing enough gratification for those who visited. Visitors customers and prospects wanted more. They wanted information. They wanted knowledge. They wanted perspective.

In our agency's PR wing hangs a sheet of blue paper with a line that sums up the role of the work. It fits as well today as it would have 50 years ago. The line is: "The more we treat PR like news the more we will appeal to people's desire to know over their desire to be sold."

Fast forward to 2017 and it has become the still-emerging and still-evolving movement that many label "content marketing." PR and digital now are married. To understand, consider that public relations traditionally has been involved with telling companies' stories through the news and entertainment media.

PR professionals' storytelling talents track extremely well with many of the digital marketing activities. As agencies have learned, we are in a new day for an old profession.

As the internet continued to evolve, more online marketing tactics were developed. That naturally increased the need for content of many different kinds. More information. More knowledge. More perspective. Even interaction.

Most PR people are writers. So it was natural for the work to migrate to the PR departments to manage much of the online activity from the upfront strategy through execution.

Lots of stories are being told by lots of talented writers. But even the greatest of stories go unheard if nobody notices them. The same goes for the best, most relevant, most engaging digital content.

Google to the rescue. The single-most powerful way to get your website or page to come up high in a Google search organically is with the right search words or phrases. Those search words or phrases are written as part of the content presented on web pages.

Google's promise to people who use its search engine is to serve up just the right content.

Online is just another way to distribute a message a new media. If you can write for newspaper, magazine, radio and TV, then why not online?

The line between the advertising copywriter, who has a degree in advertising or creative writing, and the public relations copywriter, with a degree in journalism, has been getting fuzzier by the day.

Add a new category of writers: the digital copywriter. She brings a new set of talents to our industry.

Digital copywriters are a combo deal: Combining the skills that get noticed by search engines with the talents of the PR writer capable of casting stories in the third-party light that is still the hallmark of conventional PR. Success in conventional PR happened when a newspaper reporter, a trade publication editor or a TV or radio personality reported the brand's message.

Messages from third-parties often PR-fueled messages are judged in general as more believable than advertising messages.

Today, writers of articles, news releases, blogs, emails and other PR-related materials must include keywords to help the online pages where that content is published appear high in Google searches. The goal is to be on the first page of the search engine results.

Communicating online involves PR writing, ad writing and digital writing, along with paid and non-paid placements. Of course, all of this must be interesting and relevant, and written with this hard fact in mind: We have so little time to get the attention of our prospects and customers.

The payoff, however, is well worth the effort.

No less an authority than entrepreneur Richard Branson cited the value of storytelling in marketing communication strategies.

"A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad," Branson said.

We agree and see it continuing to be a driving force as digital marketing grows.

Dick Maggiore is president and CEO of Innis Maggiore, founded in Canton in 1974 and today the nation's leading positioning ad agency, building strong brands for companies in competitive markets here and across the country.

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Dick Maggiore: PR's storytelling heritage helps boost brands' online traction - Canton Repository

The PROSPER Show is pleased to announce its continuing education conference for established Amazon Sellers, March 13-14, 2018, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas. Aimed to support online sellers seeking to improve their business on Amazon, this conference features several ex-Amazon leaders and uses a workshop and seminar approach to help Amazon sellers learn how to sell more online.

PROSPER Show President, James Thomson, a former Business Head of Amazon Services, remarks on the 2018 conference We are thrilled to have more than 1,000 large Amazon sellers joining us for this 2-day intensive educational event, and networking with one another, as they work to stay up to speed on the latest developments on the Amazon marketplace, and to stay ahead of competition.

This convention about Amazon is ideal for intermediate and advanced Amazon online sellers seeking to learn from industry veterans, to network with one another, and to dig into advanced topics through workshops. The exhibitors and sponsors of this event include many of the leading solution providers supporting marketplace sellers including private label sellers, advanced sellers, and general merchandise sellers.

The 2018 keynote speaker of the PROSPER Show will be Michael Gerber, the author of the best-selling The E-Myth Revisited, and the Worlds #1 Small Business Guru (according to Inc. magazine). With other 25 sessions at this event, highlight topics include:

The 2018 PROSPER Show will be co-located with the SourceDirect and ASD Market Week shows (March 11-14, 2018) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. PROSPER Show attendees will be extended free access to these two shows, where they can meet with over 2,500 vendors, including more than 400 overseas factories. For more information on the full agenda and list of PROSPER Show speakers, see http://www.ProsperShow.com.

About PROSPER Show

Prosper Show brings top sellers and solution providers together to reveal secrets to sell more on Amazon. This online marketplace convention brings hundreds of internet marketing consultants and seasoned Amazon Seller coaches together for a two days of Amazon workshops. This show is not sponsored by or affiliated with Amazon.com LLC or any of its business subsidiaries.

Read more:
PROSPER Show Announces 2018 Internet Marketing Event - PRUnderground (press release)

Salisbury has the fastest city-wide internet service in the country but it's losing millions of dollars.

About two years ago, Salisbury improved the download speed of its city-owned internet service to 10 gigabits per second, making it one of the fastest systems in the country. By comparison, Google Fiber is one gigabit. Salisbury officials predicted that Fibrant would create jobs and attract new businesses. But Fibrant is losing millions of dollars annually and city officials are considering a way out.

When Salisbury officials issued more than $30 million in bonds to launch the Fibrant high-speed network, most saw it as a great investment. The area had lost thousands of jobs in the late 1990s when several textile mills closed. Officials predicted Fibrant would fill that void and attract businesses that needed high-speed internet. But Salisbury Councilman David Post says the General Assembly put up a road block.

"The legislature passed the level the playing field law, Post said. It tied our hands saying we couldnt go outside the city limit and the intention when we built it was for it to go well outside the city limit. We have nowhere to grow.

That is unless Fibrant gets an invitation for services from a municipality or company. So far, that hasnt happened. But still, the word around the city was that Fibrant was profitable. That is until two years ago when Lane Bailey was hired as the city manager.

Then-Mayor Paul Woodson told me that Fibrant was now making money and was in the black, Bailey said. I started to delve into it more and I went to the mayor and individual council members and said were not making money. Were doing a direct subsidy to Fibrant from the general fund.

Bailey found that over the past four years, Fibrant lost more than $3 million a year. Plus, when Fibrant was initially launched in 2010 at speeds of one gigabit, Councilman Post said, The first couple of years when Fibrant lost money we borrowed money from the water fund, $8 million. And we went through a period of years where we took a lot of the Fibrant expenses and put them in the general budget so you couldnt see it so it looked like Fibrant was making money until this year.

According to Post, currently, Fibrant is close to breaking even but the city still has to pay off the money it borrowed to build the network, more than $3 million a year.

Residential customers pay between $44 a month for basic service to $100 for the 10-gigabit speed. Fibrant needs about 4,500 customers to turn a profit, but it only has about 3,200 subscribers.

We had a really bad start, severe outages and businesses couldnt afford that and residents are quick to change television or Internet if they dont work. Its been an uphill battle ever since, Post said.

Service reliability is now at 99.9 percent but marketing has been poor. That was the conclusion of a consultant and Mayor Karen Alexander agrees.

We realize that marketing is probably the largest hole we have in the operation, Alexander said. We are working hard to come up with a marketing plan that will allow us to compete.

Fibrants marketing budget is $100,000, officials say, and it has one sales rep for commercial customers and one for residential. Not much for a company that competes with the likes of Google, AT&T and Spectrum.

City officials have refinanced the bond debt at a savings of $438,000 a year. But it will take the city 12 years to pay the debt off with Fibrant still forecast to lose money in the meantime. Selling Fibrant would not bring in near enough to pay off the debt. In January, city officials solicited bids from private companies to help them run Fibrant and are considering two proposals. One involves a lease agreement, the other a management agreement. Mayor Alexander wants to take thing slowly but Councilman Post says a solution is needed quickly.

I think Fibrant is the most critical issue facing the city because it takes resources away from so many other needs. I mean $3 million for a town that has a $35 million budget, thats a lot of money. It is stealing from us big time, Post said.

Mayor Alexander chooses to see having the fastest, citywide Internet service in the country as a long-term investment.

More:
Salisbury's 10 Gigabit Internet Service Losing Millions - WFAE

Carspring, the London and Berlin used car buying platform founded by Rocket Internet, has picked up 5 million in Series B funding. Backing the round are Rocket Internet itself, along with Channel 4s Commercial Growth Fund, which offers media in the form of TV advertising in return for equity. In other words, a portion of this round (1.3m) isnt cash per se. A number of other unnamed investors also participated.

Launched in 2015, Carspring is described as an online used car dealership and moves the buying process for a used car entirely online. On the supply side it sources used cars from a network of used car dealers, while the demand side sees it put in place numerous features to make buying online both trustworthy and extra convenient.

This includes mechanical checks to ensure vehicles makes the Carspring grade, a 6 month warranty on cars bought, home delivery, and a 14 day money-back guarantee although Im pretty sure the latter falls within distance selling regulation anyway. Either way, a big part of the startups pitch to consumers is that its processes can be trusted, with no or little downside buying a car online rather than in person. In addition, the company provides financing to let you buy your car through instalments.

The importance of putting weight behind the Carspring brand would also explain why the company is investing heavily in above the line advertising and taking media-for-equity investment from Channel 4. While VCs are fine with significant dollars being spent on online marketing, which is highly targeted and trackable in terms of ROI, they arent always so keen on lots of their cash being sloshed on TV ads. Channel 4s Commercial Growth Fund offers an alternative way for the right kinds of startups at the right stage to invest in and potentially benefit from television since only equity swaps hands.

To that end, in respect of Carspring, Vinay Solanki, Head of Channel 4s Growth Fund, says he looks for highly disruptive early stage companies that are solving consumer problems but are not typically able to access TV advertising in their growth stage without help. We can also expect to see Carsprings first TV ad campaign air in the not so distant future.

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Carspring, a London and Berlin startup that lets you buy a used car online, raises 5M Series B - TechCrunch

If youve been paying attention, you know about Mobilegeddon, Googles 2015 algorithm change that assigned preferential search results for mobile websites.

While Google rolls out an estimated 500 algorithm changes a year, this was one had important consequences for business owners and their (mobile) websites.

What this really meant was that Google assigned favored results for mobile sites, punishing those whose websites didnt translate to mobile devices.

How do you know if a site is mobile friendly?

If you have to scroll, click and fool around trying to read a site on your phone, its not mobile-friendly. That site is not meeting the design specs for responsive designadapting to all devicesdesktop, tablet and phone.

All of this is, of course, in response to the overwhelming growth of users who access everything from their phones, which is now more than 60 percent.

A scramble to become mobile-friendly

The result? A mad scrambling to convert sites to mobile.

In many cases, businesses are able to do some workarounds rather than having to create a whole new website, which is always a major undertaking.

Ive worked on quite a few WordPress conversion projects, successfully salvaging the old site to make it mobile-friendly, rather than starting from scratch and building a whole new website. Big savings in terms of time and money.

Look out for Mobilegeddon 2017: A mobile-first strategy

Google is rolling out a mobile-first index thats being called Mobilegeddon 2017.

As with Mobilegeddon 2015, site effectiveness and search results will be affected unless youre prepared.

Mobilegeddon 2017 is Googles new mobile-first index. Google is changing their index of web pages from desktop pages to mobile pages. No longer will a user be served up two different experiences.

Why does Mobilegeddon 2017 matter?

As with the algorithm change in 2015, If you dont optimize your website for mobile, your audience wont find you unless they stay on their mobile devices.

he organic traffic on your website will nosedive. Your site will not show up in search results as well as on those that are optimized for mobile.

Adapting to or preparing for Mobilegeddon 2017

Does your website meet Googles ever-changing algorithms? Copy and paste your url into Googles Mobile Testing Tool website for a quick analysis.

Youll get three ratings: one for overall mobile-friendliness, one for loading speed on mobile and one for desktop.

While the mobile-friendly ranking is most important, the loading-speed time is important as well. If your site takes too long to load, your audience will give up and go elsewhere.

Failed the mobile-friendly test? An opportunity

If you failed the test, its probably time for a new website that meets the global standards for responsive design. This may be the impetus to stop procrastinating and create a new website.

Styles have changedtheyre simpler and more streamlined. Chances are your content is no longer relevant and your images are outdated.

This is an opportunity to create an important new marketing tool for your business.

Janet Peischel is a writer, Internet marketing expert and the owner of Top of Mind Marketing. Contact Janet at 510-292-1843 or jpeischel@top-mindmarketing.com.

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The Internet Marketer: Mobilegeddon 2017: What You Need to Know - Napa Valley Register