Superb internet marketing community & FREE industry reports (no catch!)

I wanted to draw you attention to a FREE resource for those of you who want to benefit from a community of the world’s digital marketing and ecommerce professionals. Econsultancy exists to help its members “sharpen their strategy, source suppliers, get quick answers, compare notes, help each other out and discover how to do everything better online.” I have to say that it is a great source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce.

imho there’s no shortage of marketing opinion online, but being ten years and with 71,000 marketers Econsultancy is pretty special.  Bronze membership is FREE and there is more info here.

These are complimentary reports you get for free upon joining (there’s another 20+ too!).  Great, er, value!

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Online PR Industry Benchmarking Report

By Michelle Goodall and Aliya Zaidi, December 2008

Overview Authors: Michelle Goodall and Aliya Zaidi Pages: 35 Features: Survey-based research about the Online PR Industry, with expert input from respected industry commentators.

Digital Outsourcing Survey Report

By Econsultancy, December 2008

This report, produced in association with Lemon Digital Production, is aimed at agencies who are interested in the business case and challenges associated with outsourcing digital work.

SEO Supplier Showcase November 2008

November 2008

Online Customer Engagement Report 2009

By Econsultancy, November 2008

The third annual Online Customer Engagement Report has been produced in partnership with cScape. This research is based on a survey of 1,300 respondents carried out in September and October 2008.

Email Marketing Briefing – November 2008

By Econsultancy, November 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Email Marketing held in autumn 2008.

Comparison Shopping Engines Survey Report 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This DoubleClick-sponsored research is based on a survey of retailers and agencies carried out in August and September 2008, with the aim of understanding more about the use of comparison shopping.

Paid Search Marketing Supplier Showcase October 2008

October 2008

Paid Search Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Paid Search.

Affiliate Marketing Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This free, 11-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Affiliate Marketing.

Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, September 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation.

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The Services Econsultancy Provide:

Reports: Econsultancy is an award-winning online publisher of reports covering best practice, user experience benchmarking, market data, supplier selection, template files, trends and innovation aimed at internet professionals who want practical advice on all aspects of e-business.

Training, Learning & Development: Econsultancy operates a highly popular training division, used by the world’s leading brands for staff education, both in-house and via public courses. We provide training across all areas of digital marketing and ecommerce and at all levels from accredited one day courses to formal qualifications including diplomas and a Masters in Digital Marketing.

Events: Econsultancy hosts over 100 events a year, including conferences such as the Online Marketing Masterclasses, Future of Digital Marketing and Digital Cream as well as regular Supplier Showcases, Roundtables, the annual Innovation Awards and a range of social events.

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Free memberships of marketing clubs, and online resources are ten a penny.  You just have to surf, or browse LinkedIn groups to see that.  But Econsultancy is very different.  I’d highly recommend you join if you are an internet professional who wants practical advice on all aspects of e-business.

Tech vendors outline their future direction

If you are a marketer in the technology sector, and want or need to keep track of the big technology plays, Andy Mulholland, Cap Gemini’s CTO, has pointed out two big technology events well worth tracking. These are just two events where the industries big wheels come out and define where they have spent and are spending their R&D dollars.

First up is ‘The Cloud Summit’, (or rather ‘the next generation platform’ as the event subhead suggests) and the second is Enterprise 2.0.

To stay up to date on these events, follow Cloud Summit on Twitter here, join the group on facebook here, and if you are a LinkedIn user, join the group here. The official facebook page for Enterprise 2.0 is here.

….and it would be rude not to: the Cap Gemini CTO Twitter stream is here.

Where are you on the stairway to heaven?

David Armano’s excellent diagram of the ladder up to Brand Heaven and the ladder down to Brand Hell. 

Résumé (or CV for us Brits)

I really like Seth Godin. Who wouldn’t in a role like mine? But today he got it wrong.

He said;

If you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a résumé at all.

I agree that jobs don’t get filled by people emailing in résumés, especially jobs in start-ups, or remarkable organisations. You need to raise your head above the parapet – either by knowing someone on the inside – or by standing out from the crowd. But here’s what I think – you’d be daft NOT to have a résumé.

In a world dominated by ‘average’ and ‘ordinary’, the easiest, fastest and most efficient means to show how remarkable you are is to stand out alongside ‘average’, and show it for what it is.

Be close enough to warrant comparison. Far enough apart to stand out.

update 18/03/08 Think about it. The fastest runner on earth runs the 100 metres like everyone else.  He doesn’t go off and create his own gig to show how fast he is……

Yes the bog standard résumé format is crap. But remarkable, amazing and just plain spectacular folk will use this fact to their advantage. They’ll re-write the rules, but still under the banner of a ‘résumé’. They’ll also realise that re-writing the rulebook for getting employed is a bad idea. Because some cretin, somewhere in corporate-ville will ask for a copy anyway.

Bother having a résumé. Just make it unlike anyone else’s.

A map of the Internet & Web trends

Information Architects have presented their Web Trends Map (2008 beta). This time they have taken almost 300 of the most influential and successful websites and pinned them down to the greater Tokyo-area train map. By the way, I posted about previous versions before, here.

Ok so what is it? In simple terms its 300 of the most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. All the real detail, irony and laughs are captured here. Absolutely wonderful.

I could spend days looking at this. And I will when they get it down to 1024 x 768!

Zag your way to brand differentiation

It’s not new. But I am reading Zag which is all about the notion that radical differentiation is the #1 discipline of high-performance brands (and I really want to shout about it!)

If you have read it. Apologies.

BUT if you haven’t, part 1 of the Zag workshop explains why differentiation is key:

Bonus. New to Marty Neumeier? This is just as awesome.

Why next year will be make or break for traditional media

I’ve never copied anything into my blog verbatim so I really want to reference the source on this one……so for the absence of doubt what follows is taken entirely from The Business, and was authored by David Crow (Not me). It is a great piece, and I think you should read it.

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It is hard to overstate the changes that took place in the media in 2007. In Europe, this was the first ever year that 16-24 year olds – the consumers behind today’s technological revolution – accessed the internet more frequently than they watched TV. Now, nearly eight years into the millennium, even the heretics who dismissed the internet as a flash in the pan are realising just how wrong they were.

While 2008 will be a year of flux, some things are unlikely to change. Circulation figures for daily paid-for newspapers will continue to dip, with the odd exception; the best editors will be the ones who adopt a two pronged approach of managing the decline in print sales – instead of trying to avert it – while investing more and more resources in their digital operations.

The Daily Mail – one of the few papers to post a year-on-year increase in November’s ABC figures – will continue to be the envy of all on Fleet Street. Last month’s assurance by editor Paul Dacre, 60 next year, that he has no plans to step down came as a relief to shareholders; it is hard to imagine the paper reading the mood of modern Britain so expertly without him. In 2008, the title will build on its newfound digital success after it hit the ground running earlier this year.

Sunday titles will continue to fare better than their daily counterparts in 2008. The Observer – which reported a 1.41% year-on-year increase in November’s ABCs – is testament to the fact that the peculiar British relationship with Sunday newspapers will remain strong. All eyes will be on how its integration with The Guardian goes, however.

Daily freesheets will be one of the few print products to see increasing revenues in 2008. Metro, owned by Associated Newspapers, is likely to be the star of the sector; its combined regional distribution – currently at around 1.4m – will continue to rise and, at some point in 2008, overtake the Daily Mirror’s circulation.

The latter, along with nearly every other daily and Sunday red top – with the inexplicable exception of the Daily Star titles – will watch The Sun continue to demonstrate that it is possible to build a successful red top brand online and in print. Hopes that the Mirror will be able to follow suit are fading.

Across the pond, staff at the Wall Street Journal will realise that Rupert Murdoch’s plans to turn the title into a global power brand can only benefit the newspaper. Media coverage of the presidential election – like Australia’s recent vote – will be increasingly defined by web giant Google, which will come into direct competition with newspapers and broadcasters by reporting the contest first hand.

DAB digital radio will continue its march to become Britain’s preferred radio platform. By the end of 2008, 30% of households will own a DAB radio, with sales rising by 26% to 2.6m units worth £200m. 4 Digital – the consortium behind the 10 new digital radio stations that will launch next year – is hoping to open up digital radio in the way Channel 4 boosted the fortunes of digital Freeview TV.

The new stations will provide some much needed competition to the BBC. E4 radio, which will focus on the youth market, will go head to head with Radio 1 while Channel 4 Radio – a contemporary speech station with what the consortium call “public service values” will provide an alternative to BBC Radio 4. Earlier this month 4Digital poached the controller of BBC Radio 5 Live, suggesting it is serious about taking on the Beeb. BBC radio stations account for 54% of all radio listening and a massive 86% of speech-based listening; 2008 will be the year that this starts to change.

For established broadcasters, next year will be one of unlikely alliances, formed in an attempt to see off the growing threat from new competitors. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will launch a joint on-demand service, enabling customers to download content from all three broadcasters on one platform. The trio hope that the on-demand service – codenamed Kangaroo – will provide an alternative to Sky+ and Virgin On Demand.

In America, Murdoch’s NewsCorp and NBC Universal will officially launch their joint internet TV effort, Hulu, a website hosting popular shows such as Saturday Night Live and Journeyman alongside user-generated clips. Google’s YouTube will continue to be the product to beat.

In 2007, social networking sites finally reached the tipping point, becoming truly mainstream for the first time. In 2008, they will be increasingly counted alongside TV, newspapers, magazines and radio as the fifth staple of the consumer’s media diet.

Facebook will continue to be the social network to beat, although top-dog status will bring new woes. Mark Zuckerberg, its founder and chief executive – once the poster-boy for the Facebook generation – is fast becoming a scapegoat for the increasing panic over social networking and privacy. Having bungled its attempts to reassure customers over their concerns, Facebook will have to get better at managing its success.

The firms that succeed in 2008 will be those that focus on the needs, desires and interests of their consumer in the contemporary marketplace – and discard their archaic, elitist prejudices born of a different era. For those still referred to as the “traditional” media, 2008 will be the make or break year.

A new definition of marketing

Oh dear God. A new definition of marketing.

Its taken 30 years, and folks are up in arms. The UK Chartered Institute of Marketing’s (CIM) new (draft) definition of marketing definitely swaps brevity for verbosity; and I am not convinced.

Old: ‘The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.’

New: ‘The strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand. It does this by building brands, nurturing innovation, developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits. By operating customer-centrically, marketing brings positive return on investment, satisfies shareholders and stake-holders from business and the community, and contributes to positive behavioural change and a sustainable business future.’

Hmmmmm. Not sure either? Tell you what, wanna read the 3000 treaty that is supporting (justifying) the change. Thought not.

Its called ‘Tomorrow’s Word: Re-evaluating the Role of Marketing’. Apparently (according to the treaty) whilst marketing has become more sophisticated, ‘its status with the customer and the rest of the business has never been lower’. Rubbish.

The reason why marketing gets a bad name is because ‘professors’ and bodies like the CIM insist in over complicating the discipline, being verbose, and circling the basics. Here’s my primary problem. Just count how many ideas are in the new definition alone. There’s at least a dozen. And does the wording deal with marketing as a function or a process, or both?

If you want to go deep – write a manifesto. If you want to write a definition (does the world really need a definition, is it possible that one size doesn’t fit all?) – keep it sweet.

Here is the US Marketing Society’s definition, ‘The creation of customer demand, which is the only sustainable form of growth in business.’

The definition from the American Marketing Association (AMA), the US equivalent to the CIM, reads: ‘Marketing is an organisational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its stakeholders.’

That’s seems better.

OMG! as the CIM plans its tour of the UK to canvass opinion on the proposed change among its membership, I can safely say “that’s a tour bus I’m glad I’m not on.”

And while a definition is sought like some kind of holy grail, I’ll just try and keep doing what I think is right – with my own personal definition of marketing:

• Making products and services remarkable
• Thinking about marketing as not about the art of tricking people into buying stuff they don’t need, but about spreading ideas that people love
• Always trying to do stuff that is anticipated, personal and relevant

And most importantly, remembering that even if I think I’m in charge, I’m not. The customer makes up the rules (and definitions) and can change them when she wants, as quickly as she wants.