Alternative Marketing:

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Alternative Marketing What Happened When
Etailers Dove Into Blogs, Podcasting, and RSS
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First, a 15-minute Primer on Blogs, RSS,
Podcasting

• Stephan Spencer, Founder President
• Netconcepts

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Blogs

• Online journal, organized in reverse
  chronological order
• 439 million Google search results for blog
• 3 types news blog, writers blog, our blog
• The community of bloggers blogosphere
• Blogosphere is rich with interlinkages
• Bloggers always cite (and link to) their sources
  in their posts
• Links also appear in blogrolls, trackbacks,
  comments, RSS

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RSS

• Better than the Inbox
• Unspammable content delivery channel to
  individuals
• Viable replacement for enewsletters
• Web-wide Syndication
• Propagate deep links that drive traffic and
  search engine juice
• You should be fired if you do a marketing site
  without an RSS feed. - Robert Scoble, Microsoft

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Slashdot headlines syndicated on Nanodot.org
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The top result was thanks to syndication via RSS
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How subscribers follow RSS

• Web-based aggregator
• Bloglines (now owned by Ask Jeeves), My Yahoo!,
  MyMSN, MyFeedster, etc.
• Installed application
• NewsGator (Outlook plug-in), Sage (Firefox
  plug-in), Pluck (IE plug-in), FeedReader, etc.

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RSS

• Help subscribers keep their finger on the pulse
  of your business/industry
• Compel webmasters to post your content
• News alerts, latest specials, clearance items,
  upcoming events, new arrivals, new articles, new
  tools resources, search results, a books
  revision history, top 10 best sellers, project
  management activities, forum/listserv posts,
  recently added downloads,
• For blogs latest posts, latest posts by
  category, latest comments per post,

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Subscribe to search results on MSN Search
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Subscribe to search results on Yahoo! News
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Subscribe to deals with online retailers
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Subscribe to articles
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Subscribe to podcasts
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Subscribe to a feed personalizedto you
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Podcasts

• Time shifted Internet radio
• Mainly for downloading MP3 audio clips, but video
  can be podcasted as well
• Podcast-capable RSS reader automatically
  downloads audio/video clips and syncs them to
  your MP3 player

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Moblogging

• Sign up for a free Flickr.com account
• Email photos from your cameraphone to your blog
• Subject line becomes the title message body
  becomes the body of the blog post

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Positive Buzz for Voltaic

• Solar-powered backpack from small start-up
• Blogging friend Treehugger blogged about it
• Then got picked up by CoolHunting
• Then got picked up by Gizmodo
• A flurry of orders ensued.

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Negative Buzz for Kryptonite
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Search Engine Optimizing Blogs/RSS

• Rankings can be manipulated
• Implied endorsement
• Combination of on-page and off-page factors
• On-page
• Body copy, title tags, headings, etc.
• Off-page
• Links act like votes. Votes weighted. Favors
  A-list bloggers.
• Link text very important (Google bombing)

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Email blogging_at_netconcepts.com for this 39-page
transcript plus the accompanying audio recording
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What Happened When eHobbies Dove Into Blogs

• Seth Greenberg
• CEO, eHobbies

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6/14/05 Added blog to sitewide header and
homepage hyperlink
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Indexed within 1 day
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eHobbies Blog Key Stats
of site traffic Before 5/19/2005
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Blog launched 5/19/2005 2.5
Moved to header 6/14/2005 5
Blog Coupon Usage 8/10-8/31 5 of daily
orders
Blog Conversion Rate is 2x greater than site
conversion
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The Good
The Bad
The Ugly

• Too many3rd Parties involved

• Organic Search

• Diary rather than Dialog

• Personality

• Competes with Message Boards

• Received Great Press Coverage

• Personality

• Gets Our Point Across(new products, content)

• Demands Attention and to be nurtured

• Effective for our audience

• Instantly Publish Reports

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ICE.com

• The 10 Commandments of Corporate Blogs

By Pinny Gniwisch EVP Marketing/founder
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1. Editorial
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2. PR
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3. Current Trends
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4. Promotions
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5. Customer Feedback
4 Comments

• Customer interaction on a new level

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6. Natural Search Ranking
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7. Sales

• 68 Sales past month
• 140 sales part 3 months
• 346 sales past 6 months
• 0.82 conversion

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8. Company Vibe

• - Creating an Environment of Cohesiveness and
  involvement

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9. Being at the Forefront
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10. Beyoncé
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SteveSpanglerScience.com

• Steve Spangler, Founder and CEO

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Diet Coke Mentos Candy Making Learning Fun!
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Insta-Snow Video
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What happened on June 1, 2004?
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Product Sales
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If a blog increases brand awareness...If a blog
creates a buzz...If a blog generates
sales...Hmmm?
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www.SteveSpangler.com
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Blog launched on July 6, 2004 Steady increase
in sessions What about sales?
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Increase in sales attributedto the blog?
Blog spike!
Newsletter spike
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What should I blog?

• Best-selling products
• Did you know? product information loaded with
  keywords
• Feedback from customers
• Behind the Scenes information
• Customer testimonials

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Podcast Interview Style
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Mentos Eruption?

• One roll of Mentos candy
• 2-liter bottle of soda
• A room filled with ooohs ahhhs!

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Now Its Time for QA!

• Stephan Spencer
• Founder President, Netconcepts
• sspencer_at_netconcepts.com
• Seth Greenberg
• CEO, eHobbies
• seth_at_ehobbies.com
• Pinny Gniwisch
• Founder EVP Marketing, Ice.com
• pinny.gniwisch_at_ice.com
• Steve Spangler
• Founder CEO, Steve Spangler Inc.
• steve_at_stevespangler.com