Your Online Ecosystem

One of the common parallels drawn when discussing the Internet is its similarity in behavior to biological ecosystems.  Humans are part of a larger ecosystem known as the planet earth and your online presence, such as it is, is part of a global pool of online information accessible by anyone anywhere known as the worldwide web.  Like it or not, we are all swimming in a digital stream increasingly characterized by frenetic technology shifts, rapid change and instant updates.  The scene is in constant motion and there is usually no choice but to jump in and swim.  

But the plunge does not need to take place with your eyes closed or one hand tied behind your back.  While some missteps are inevitable going online, applying simple foresight can stave off some major problems.  Of immediate interest in the ecosystem are several factors:  the environment or industry we work in, the prioritized objectives of the online presence, the brand and culture of the organization and the roles and responsibilities of the development and maintenance teams.  With this as context, virtually any online information goal can be achieved now at a modest investment.  What follows are some thoughts to help sort through this.

Online Marketing: The New Rules

Chief Marketing Officers have a lot to think about these days.  In the good old days, say 1990, there were about six marketing channels to be concerned with:   direct mail, tv, radio, print, phone and display.  The number of channels doubled by the end of that decade and, by 2010, the number of channels has doubled again.  In addition to the original six, channel options now include: web sites, email, social networks, blogs, SMS, paid search, landing pages, microsites, podcasts, wiki’s and others. 

Doing it all is not an option and, fortunately, that isn’t necessary.  As you contemplate your approach to the challenge, consider the following:

• The customer is now in control.  
• The top 2 ways to reach customers:  web and email.  Gaining fast: social media, which have already overtaken email. 
• Content remains king. You can't fake it, so don't try. 
• Search driven web today, social networked web tomorrow.

The days are long over where marketers command significant influence over consumer buying behavior.  Today, customers have a choice and hold the influence.  It’s a world where anyone can relay their experiences almost instantly to millions and, consequently, user experiences with your enterprise need to be of the highest quality possible.  Elements such as web content need to be timely, relevant, current and, ideally, personalized. 

90% of all users today have a search engine as their home page and 50% of all web activity is initiated by a search engine.  But there is a deeper story emerging:  25% of the searches for the world’s top 20 brands link to user generated content such as blogs and reviews.  What is being said about your brand matters more than ever and needs to square with your positioning.

This rapid evolution presents significant enough challenges by itself.  The challenge is further compounded in a struggling economy when marketing budgets are getting tighter.  In response, marketing investments are now forced to be lightweight, nimble and adaptable to changing conditions.  The good news is technology is providing a significant assist in this area.  

Contact me if you would like more information on how to optimize your online marketing investments.

Web Site Development: The New Reality

As Collins and Porras note in their book Built To Last, the Tyranny of the OR pushes people to believe that things must be either A or B, but not both.  Change OR Stability.  Conservative OR Bold.  And countless other examples. 

A long held belief in software and web development, this tyranny has manifested itself this way:  Good, Fast and Cheap, pick any two.  You can have high quality and speed of implementation, but it will not be low cost.  Or an affordable and rapid implementation, but it will not be of high quality.  The basic truth in this idea is a function of the approach and tools used by the developer:  are they reinventing basic designs, hand-coding simple objects or are they preoccupied with graphic artifacts like flash with dubious end-user value?   If so, the tyranny persists.  But today, the tyranny has given way to the "genius of the and" for development of the vast majority of web applications.

Using the right tools, rapid development of a high quality site at a very low cost is within reach of almost any enterprise.  It is truly an online marketing and e-commerce trifecta.  Great sites are being built, operated and maintained for much less than the cost required even two years ago.  Common sense information organization and design, coupled with the efficient graphic presentation and the right tools can put your online marketing goals within reach at a fraction of what you are spending now.  The tyranny of the OR is over for web site development.  See the Sites section for examples.  Contact me and I will show you how this can be true for your online marketing efforts.