Waiting for Google

It is a funny image, if you do not have to deal with it, waiting for Google search engine to update its cache. As I mentioned, we made a number of changes on the website to reflect the new product direction. So, I have been monitoring the Google search results to ensure that it is being shown. How long do you think it would take? A data point - according to our internal log/sensor, Google bot comes to our site daily. Well, it took a total of eight days. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not complaining as such - but it does provide some perspectives on what kind of lead time any one revision could take. (I have heard story about two weeks cache update, but I rather not think about it.)

So, part of the website revision include a number of specific search terms that we try to get high ranking on - get the top two spots for prime search engine real estate. There are two variants. For one, we clearly kicked ass. Of course, it is a term that nobody is using. Hardly difficult, but, a victory is a victory, however you dice it. The second variant, and naturally the one that I really really want, got the site bumped up to the third company position but fourth entry on the search result. (This happens when one site has several pages that relate to the search term.) So, the next objective is to become the second company on the list (third entry.) I have a few strategies that we have implemented and we will see what happens in another eight days.

Staying on Google, we also implemented the Google conversion tool. It basically tracks the number of people who clicks on your AdWords ad (Google paid-advertising) AND conducts a conversion activity (leaving their contact info in our case.) It may not sound much, but it sure will provide a load of interesting data. Of particular interests to me, I would like to find out how many of our leads came from non-paid Google search vs. the paid-advertising. And, this will help me get a sense of what kind of budget allocation and further paid-advertising fine tuning ideas.

Separately, I am lining up all the duckies for the product launch. Buttering up analysts, consultants, and reporters to make sure that they pretend to be interested. This is a capitalistic system and these rules of the game are not meant to be a measure of a person's true self. Now, I do not mean doing anything illegal. But, take for example; the easiest way to curry interests with analysts is when you are a major paying customer of his firm. Now, you may say this is a clear case of interest of conflict, but I would argue that if I have the money, I want to ensure that the analysts are informed of what I/we are up to and we get regular feedback from the analysts' impartial perspective.

Anyway, let me stop before I spill all the little dirty secrets in the life of marketing.

Revising the data sheet. When it comes to collaterals, my personal experience is that it is simply easier to start from scratch instead of fixing the existing library. I have found the majority of collateral design in Microsoft Word are not taking full advantages of its rich function set and make revisions beyond adding a few texts just darn difficult. Now, I will not blame you when I see your poorly formatted Word documents like I would if you do not regularly scrub your e-mail lists. On the other hand, take it from me, it is not that difficult to figure out how to do text boxes, tables, insert and format images, manage section, or setup header/footers. It is a bit tedious to learn but, if you take pride in your work, it is really worth that extra ten minutes looking up the Help.

Anyway, after reading an article about LL Bean's direct mail philosophies, I am planning on doing a promotion-oriented Google campaign. Still thinking it through, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

Oh, btw, we closed a few deals and still filling up the leads pipeline from all the marketing activities. So far so good.

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Hot chocolate with Mr Whupp-ass

Sorry for the long absence.

So, the major band-aid fix for the website went up. Visually, it does not look that different. However, if you read the content and see how it is structured, it definitely shifts the focus onto the new product line and optimized for search engine. It just went live this Monday; so, I am anxiously monitoring the search ranking daily.

the next major step is to clean up the website on a more fundamental way. Take out products that we no longer want to sell, add a few more verticals and collaterals on the product space that we are interested in.

I am not trying to make marketing a boring thing, but it is mostly grunt work. And, if you mind the daily tackle and heavy lifting, this ain't for you.

So, what have I been doing lately? Blasting. Send out e-mails to let people know that we exist and we offer a worthy solution. Then, unleash the sales people to follow up and hound these leads. One thing that I do want to point out is that while this process sounds a bit gruesome, the truth is that a good sales/marketing campaign will take you off the target list if you would say that you are not interested. Think about it, why waste time on you if you are not interested. And, as a corollary, if any of your salesperson thinks otherwise, he/she should be fired.

Oh, also very important is that you always scrub the e-mail list. Nothing is more annoying than keep getting blasted when you have indicated that you want to be off the list. For me, it is a karma thing, I want to be treated the same way - so do the honorable thing and scrub your list regularly.

Another thing that I am trying to put my arms around is to do a regular webinar. I will probably combine this with the blasts and assorted Google initiatives. Still do not know exactly the structure yet. More thinking is required.

Finally, a product launch. This is going to be interesting. I am working with our PR team on orchestrating journalist and analysts reviews and package things around it to announce the two new products/versions in May. It is coming up and I have no idea if I can pull this one off. Hope to have a better idea by tomorrow, but we will see.

BTW, we got paid - I mean we got several seven digit checks from a deal that we worked on for a long time. It is nice to get the check and deposit it in a bank. Mr Whupp-ass and I grabbed some hot chocolate afterward as celebration.

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