The WSJ has a fantastic overview of internet marketing in their article called The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. The following are bullet points from the article and additional links.

• Don’t just talk at consumers — work with them throughout the marketing process.
• Give consumers a reason to participate.
• Listen to — and join — the conversation outside your site.
• Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.
• Don’t control, let it go.
• Find a ‘marketing technopologist.’
• Embrace experimentation.

Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web
Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration
Beyond Enterprise 2.0
Systems Marketing for the Information Age
How to Market to Generation M(obile)

Zale's Google Adwords Ad with Address Information

Zale's Google Adword Ad with Map

Google Adwords ads have started adding brick-n-mortar address information to the information displayed in the ad. Clicking on the address information in the Google Adword ad will insert a small Google map where the user can then “Get Directions” or “View larger map”. I am unsure if the map options are charged to the advertiser.

Additionally, Google is adding product information to Adwords ads. A different Zale’s Google Adword Ad had a link to”Show Products form Zales”.

Zale's Google Adword Ad with Product Link

Clicking on the link displays displays a series of relevant products on the Google search engine results page (SERP) based on the keywords entered by the user. I am unsure if the advertiser is charged for this feature.

Zale's Google Adword Ad with Product Information

“The goal is to teach, cajole, and encourage this stranger to become a friend.  And once she becomes a friend, to apply enough focused marketing to create a customer.”

-Seth Godin, Permission Marketing, pg 63

Managing a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for a brick-n-mortar store has its advantages and disadvantages. Internet marketing professionals are accustom to studying analytic data, crunching numbers, and optimizing campaigns on conclusive data. But for brick-n-mortar stores, internet marketers are forced to rely on the same subjective data used for TV, radio, and print marketing. A lot of marketing managers focus on impressions and a lot of mangers focus on clicks but most internet marketers know that either of these metrics are easily manipulated by bid, position, ad copy, keyword relevance, etc.

This Costco ad caught my attention recently:

Costco AdWord Ad

Initially, I thought the ad was odd because it was promoting Black Friday (Friday, November 28) and I was viewing the ad on Sunday, December 21. I let this obvious error go because I figured Costco was referring to “all” Fridays before Christmas as Black Friday.

Second, I tried to figure out what triggered the ad. My Gmail account is almost empty (keeping with good GTD principles) but there was a Kohl’s email (you get a Kohl’s email everyday). Either Costco was using a very broad term like “Christmas” or “Sale” or the competitor term “Kohls” but neither term seemed very targeted or relevant.  It would have been much wiser for focus on the keyword “Costco” or use keywords relevent to the products in the promotion.

The most asinine aspect of the campaign was the landing page:

Costco Landing Page

Not only was the Google AdWord ad copy out of date, the campaign expired six days ago on December, 15. Costco’s marketing manager or Costco’s SEM firm had forgotten to pull-down the campaign after it had expired and were now just wasting money.