websense

TKG has been doing search marketing seminars for several years now and we’ve had a lot of fun doing them. We’ve primarily run them ourselves, which has created an interesting challenge for us of course, but we’ve had such good response to them that we keep it up.

For our next search seminar on May 15th and 16th we’re trying something a little different. We’re bringing in some other experts who specialize in various areas of web marketing. We’re also changing up the format a bit to allow more one-on-one time with all of the presenters, so our attendees can leave with more value. Our goal is that every attendee will be able to leave our seminar with an actual to do list for optimizing their individual site. We never want to have a “typical seminar” where attendees come, listen to a bunch of speakers, then return to their offices and do nothing with what they’ve learned.

So, if you’ve got interest in Search Marketing and you can get to Akron in May it’s worth your while.

Speakers include:

Jake Baillie from STN Labs
Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends
William K. McHenry, PhD from Akron University
B.J. Mithcell from Business.com

I don’t always agree with the “mainstream” opinions, and this is one that will probably drive people crazy, but I don’t think email spam is such a big deal. We waste more time complaining about it and trying to avoid it than we would if we just shut up and hit the delete key.

Why do we view it as such a different thing than the junk we get in our physical mail boxes, or the newspaper? With, of course, the exception of course of the “adult” items that are fairly easily filtered out.

If we stop and think about it for a moment and consider a few points, we might just put less effort into it and actually cut the volume of junk mail that is sent in the long run. Consider this:

If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t do it. So, if you don’t like it, don’t respond to it. Let market forces take over.

Filtering: we spend so much time and money filtering, that spammers will send 1000 emails, just to get 1 into your inbox. If we didn’t make so much hype and try so hard to block it, they would be able to send 1 email to get 1 email into your inbox. Then, you have the choice to either delete it or respond to it. So, we’re actually spending valuable time, lots of money and other resources, to encourage them to send more!

At the end of the day, email marketing works. Some percentage of people respond to it. So, marketers are going to do it. I can tell you that I’ve had many conversations with customers who are in one breath complaining about spam email they receive, and in the next asking me where they can buy a list of email addresses so they can market their business! So, maybe we’re all hypocrites to one degree or another.

When anyone complains to me about their spam, the first thing I ask them is “have you ever bought something as a result of an email special offer?” Almost 100% of the time the answer is “actually yeah, now that you mention it”.

So, just like anything else. We want the spam that we want, and we want to reserve our right to complain. As long as we respond to it, they will send it, no matter how many times they have to send the same email to get into your inbox.

If you really want to cut down on spam, just quit responding to it.

If you’ve got a great idea that involves leveraging the web, but you’re not quite sure where to start, you might want to check out Jake Baillie’s new venture, STN Labs. It’s a pretty cool concept of active investment, for web based companies. In other words, they’ll do more than just finance you. You’ll gain access to the vast experience of their team.

If Jake’s knowledge and talent are any indication of what their team is like, they’ll be a huge asset to any company getting involved.

I commend these guys for taking the initiative to give something back. Yeah, I’m sure they’ll make some money in the process, but they’ll also help get some great ideas off the ground.

Ok, something that drives me crazy. RFPs for web development.

Honestly, they make no sense at all. Don’t get me wrong, we get tons of them, and reply to every one, but at the end of the day; are they really serving the company that sent them out? Nope. Here’s why I say this:

What does an RFP accomplish:

• It demonstrates the creative writing skills of the author
• It consumes time writing about and requesting services that the author usually knows little about

What doesn’t an RFP accomplish:

• It doesn’t allow you to get to know the people you might be working with
• It doesn’t allow their expertise to influence the quality of the project you are requesting
• It doesn’t allow the creativity of the “vendor” to influence your decision/project

Developing a website of any significant size or scope isn’t going to be addressed effectively in an RFP. It just can’t be done. As I mentioned, we see a ton of them and almost none of them that come in add any real value for the person who sent it. Most often, they are requesting old technology, wrong technology, or even things that just don’t exist. Why? Because the read about it somewhere or cut and pasted it from something they grabbed off the web because their boss told them to put out an RFP.

If you’re charged with getting your company’s website developed and selecting a vendor, I suggest you do the following things:

Identify possible vendors by: searching the web, asking friends/colleagues, contacting developers of sites you’ve used and found to be well built.

Look at their work, not just their portfolio. Ask them for more clients that aren’t posted on their site. Don’t just browse the sites, but see how well they rank in the search engines, see how long it takes them to load, if they are e-commerce, try and get through the checkout process. If you get confused during the process, think twice, or at least ask the vendor some good hard questions.

Call their customers. Not just the ones they give you, but identify some of their customers and call them without permission.

Once you’ve seen some work you’re impressed with and talked with their customers, spend some time and get to know the vendor. If they are doing their job right, you’re going to have to work with them a lot, so get to know them and their company, and let them get to know you. They’ll be able to do the best job for you by knowing you and knowing your goals, not by reading an RFP that you dreaded putting together anyways.

If you’ve found yourself in an organization that requires the RFP process, fine. Find yourself a vendor you like and trust and see if they’ll help you put it together. I know they’re a necessary evil sometimes.

The main point is, don’t make decisions based on a piece of paper. Get to know the people you’re going to work with.