Written on January 21, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing
I have been talking more to the people who are doing the work of social media so the readers of Marketing Pilgrim can step back from the news and the theory to get some feet on the street perspective. More and more those feet on the street are C level executives who are embracing social media to brand themselves and their companies. Kent Huffman of Bearcom Wireless has put together a list of these socially active CMOs on Twitter.
One of these folks, Ted Rubin (@tedrubin), exemplifies the energy and effort that is required to make a place for oneself in the social web for business. I interviewed Ted by e-mail recently to learn about the who, what, where, why and how of his social media efforts as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of the Eyes Lips Face (e.l.f.) Cosmetics line. I challenge you to find a more active C-level marketer out there.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself. What is your marketing experience and what is your mission as CMO for e.l.f. Cosmetics?
Prior to joining e.l.f., I served as Senior Managing Director of Marketing and Business development for Eastern Union Commercial and RealProspex.com, the fastest growing and most innovative commercial real-estate-listing site in the country. I was also President and CEO of The Black Book and responsible for its turnaround and eventual sale to a private equity group, and have held senior level positions at 1-800-Flowers and Yoyodyne, a Yahoo! company, in addition to running my own internet marketing and business development consultancy which serviced a vast array of online and traditional companies.
As Chief Marketing Officer for e.l.f. Cosmetics, my responsibilities include communicating with and building e.l.f.’s client base, leveraging brand equity through strategic marketing programs, and creating/managing a major thrust into social media initiatives and partnerships. I also focus on strengthening both core products and line extensions, including the extremely successful Studio line and Minerals collection, both launched under my tenure and growing rapidly.
EyesLipsFace.com considers itself not only an e-tailer, but a pioneer of social commerce… a beauty and trendsetting destination site with approximately ten to twelve million page views a month, several hundred thousand monthly visitors and over two million members. I believe the key to continued success is identifying with the customer. Listening is finally getting the respect it deserves through Social Media… listen and adjust your message to make it relevant to your consumer. Brand loyalty declines due to lack of relevance… a direct result of not listening.
Number one is always try to understand who your customer is and stay true to your brand. At e.l.f. we position the brand with a unique approach toward beauty, accessibility, interactivity and consumer engagement.
2. Tell us how long you have been engaged in digital marketing (social media , search etc) and what venues you are currently using.
I have been involved in digital marketing since 1997 when I joined Seth Godin at his online direct marketing company Yoyodyne, which was acquired by Yahoo! a year later. I scaled and continued development of Yoyodyne’s most successful and only profitable product, “Get Rich ClickSM”. My team blew away sales projections from $20,000 in February 1998 to sales in excess of $6 million in the back half of that year – beating projections by more than 200 percent.
Currently at e.l.f. we are very totally immersed in affiliate, search, email, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing… as well as intertwining all of that with a robust earned media presence. In addition we maintain a seven day a week blogging presence and have built a very strong relationship with the Mommy and Beauty Blogging community.
3. Why have you chosen these avenues and are there others that you are considering?
I have chosen these venues because they lend themselves to performance marketing and allow us to either only pay for acceptable results or extend our footprint without the need for a traditional media budget.
We have an extremely high brand visibility and combined with our phenomenal “Affordable Luxury” model we are a great fit with many publishers (and work with most including Hearst, Conde Nast, Hachette Filipacchi, Time, etc.) and websites/bloggers for special features… especially in today’s economic environment.
We are featured regularly in blogs, magazines, newspapers and TV news reports on a daily basis. e.l.f. does not have a traditional marketing budget. The majority of our marketing is through PR, cross promotion, partnership, content sharing, and/or rev share with other websites. We work very aggressively enhancing the e.l.f. client base through hands-on marketing initiatives and are focusing on leveraging and continuing to grow brand equity through strategic marketing programs, partnerships and an aggressive Social Media strategy.
4. You stated in a tweet recently, “This recession, unlike past few, w/hav long term impact on consumr shopng habits. Ignor new valu paradigm at ur own risk. Could you explain what you mean by this?
This recession, unlike other recent downturns, has reached deeper into the wallets and more importantly psyche of most consumers. In addition the effects on the purchasing power of the average consumer will be longer lasting and most have seen the light for the first time in many years about the importance of building a savings base. Due to this, “Value” is now king… “Value” being a combination of price “and” quality. Simply put… consumers want more for less and will insist upon this for a long time to come.
5. Moving forward how do you intend to embrace this new paradigm for e.l.f? What will your marketing efforts look like in 5 years as a result of this shift?
The beauty of our business at e.l.f. is that we were pioneers, trailblazers and trendsetters in this regard. We were doing this when everyone else was raising their prices… even those brands that offered nothing more than fancy packaging for the higher prices.
EyesLipsFace.com is not just an etailer, but a pioneer of social commerce… we have become a beauty and trendsetting destination site with a few hundred thousand monthly visitors and in excess of 2MM members. Check out “the buzz” section on our website… . The majority of e.l.f.’s products are sold for only $1. Our single item price points for our three lines are $1 (our standard line), $3 (Studio line), and $5 (Mineral line).
In today’s rapidly evolving marketing world I am not sure what we will be doing next year, so five years out is not something I am even pondering. My hope is to continue to build upon what we have done to date with regard to engaging and interacting with our members/customers/prospective customers to build a relationship with our brand that will be loyal and enduring.
6. If you were to give someone who is new to the marketing game a bit of free advice what would it be?
Research the social media/marketing medium and become knowledgeable. There’s nothing better than first hand experience. Later, there are many things you will be able to delegate, but this is the one thing that you need to do. I spent months researching and understanding social media before I made many moves in the space for e.l.f.
Build a following for your personal brand. If you are able to build a sizeable audience for your personal brand then you are closer to developing a social marketing strategy for your company.
Set management’s expectations properly so everyone understands what you are trying to accomplish and how to measure those results.
Build a strategy with measurable goals, such as number of followers, growth rate and interactions, but don’t avoid areas that may not be measured accurately as these are potentially very valuable to the company’s bottom line down the road.
Get your hands dirty… interact with your audience and provide that personal touch that a brand so desperately requires.
7. How important do you think video and interactive content will be in the near future?
I think video, and the ability to put a face to the name of user-generated content, will play a huge role in the growth of social media marketing. When the next phase is complete, and the average consumer can manage the ability to embed a link that can click through to a product from a YouTube or other ubiquitous video platform, the next generation advocate/affiliate will arise and become incredibly valuable to a retailer/brand.
In January 2009 we launched a sister site ASKelf.com that hosts all user-generated content posted about e.l.f. around the web, primarily focusing on video, and will soon be integrating it into our site in a significantly upgraded format as the The e.l.f. Beauty Network.
We just re-launched our site this month with a new design and will be adding the The e.l.f. Beauty Network as soon as the design is ready to fit in and some important upgrades are made.
Thanks to Ted for his time. As noted at the start, he may be the “hardest working man in C-level social media”. If you have any questions ask away. I suspect Ted will be willing to “interact” here at Marketing Pilgrim.
See original here:
C Level Social Media Action from Ted Rubin
Tags: consumer ,cosmetics ,customer ,director ,energy ,light ,marketing ,mommy ,network ,people ,president ,street ,yahoo
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Written on December 2, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: Object, book, marketing, seo
Next week is the final search marketing conference of the year for me and most others in the SEM industry: Search Engine Strategies Chicago is a MidWest focused event that will offer keynotes from the likes of Jeff Jarvis, Author of What WouldGoogle Do? and a multitude of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced breakout sessions covering SEO, PPC, Social Media and many other related web marketing topics.
I know there are plenty of agencies and companies that are experiencing slimmed marketing and travel budgets, wondering if marketing conferences are worth the investment. Sponsoring and exhibiting are a big part of many companies marketing strategy and for those companies that do it right, with pre, during and post show promotion, it’s very productive. Even at small shows.
The majority of attendees at SEM conferences are buyers and sellers of search marketing and related services. They go for many reasons ranging from knowledge, to networking to business development. Attending 10-15 conferences every year for the past 4+ years has provided me many opportunities to realize how to get the most out of marketing conferences.
Whether the investment in attending a conference is on the company’s dime or the individual, it’s important that conference attendees get the most out of their time at events by setting goals. Managers sending individuals to conferences should be clear about expectations. Company staff should be sure to talk with others within the organization or teams that have attended the same or similar events to gain their insight.
Here are 5 of the most valuable things you can get out of conferences to multiply your investment:
1. Networking – Set goals and identify how many qualified prospects, marketing partners, vendors to outsource to and job candidates you will meet. Schedule meetings, dinners and other social activities IN ADVANCE. Each day of the conference, tally them up and plan how you will follow up. Get creative with meeting new people in between sessions after the conference at social activities and my personal favorite: over food. In my experience, the single most productive situation for generating the most valuable contacts for biz dev, recruiting and many other reasons is over breakfast, lunch or dinner. Coffee works too.
Write notes on the back of business cards and either use a single social network for follow up connections like LinkedIn. Or, segment the contacts you’ve made into groups and choose the best social network to use for follow up. Some people are best to connect with via Twitter or Facebook. Others are best with LikedIn.
2. Knowledge – Know in advance which sessions will you attend and how you capture the information? It amazes me how many people come to sessions and sit there, listening and doing nothing to document what they’re learning. HUGE mistake!
Take notes on paper or laptop, photos, audio or video (where allowed). When meeting new people, discuss the sessions with them. Compare notes – it’s a great way to network and to get other opinions. Before the conference, make a grid or a plan for which specific sessions you’ll be attending. Often times, there is not much time between sessions and the difference between getting a good seat and standing room only can be a matter of minutes.
If you have multiple staff attending a conference, be sure there isn’t unnecessary overlap by planning out who goes to what session. Then follow up during (if possible) or after the conference to share what was learned. At TopRank, our team will liveblog sessions and then create a PowerPoint presentation when they get back to share the most important, actionable things they learned at the conference with the rest of the team. Staying current is one of the few ways to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in the SEM business.
3. Content – Think about how will you leverage your conference experience to create new content for your company blog, articles, or process documentation. Set goals for what types and how many content pieces you’ll create each day. The content you capture and create can supply a company blog with numerous posts during and long after the conference. Remember that content comes in many forms: photos, video and audio. If you have an iPhone, AudioBoo is an excellent app for recording and promoting podcasts on the fly. If a speaker has uploaded their PPT deck to Slideshare, then see if you can embed that presentation in a blog post along with your observations.
Liveblogging is not for the weak at heart, so keeping it simple to the main points of a session is just fine.
Creating content from conferences shows clients, staff and prospective clients (if you are an agency or consultant) that you are on top of what’s happening in the industry.
4. Knowledge Transfer – It’s important to decide how will you pass on the information you’ve acquired to the rest of the team. As I mentioned above, TopRank staff take the highlights from a conference and create presentations which they share during all-hands team training sessions which occur every 2 weeks. For many people, knowing they will be expected to demonstrate new knowledge and especially, practical tips, helps create an appreciation for capturing such information during sessions rather than simply sitting there and wondering where to party that night.
5. Socialize – Speaking of parties… After hours events are excellent opportunities for conference attendees to relax, network and share information. Make no mistake, post session networking can be an art form. While it’s important to relax and have fun, be clear about objectives and make a goal of attending a dinner each night of the event if possible. Some dinners are a tradition amongst long time friends, some are sponsored by vendors and some are spontaneous events through new connections and wanting to continue the conversation after the day’s sessions.
After hours events can be good opportunities to capture video or audio interviews, but do it early. There’s less noise, more light and less slurring of words. 
As you can see, there are many more opportunities to get value from marketing conference participation than keeping up to date with an industry. Pre conference goal setting and planning, well defined processes as well as follow up and post event knowledge sharing can all multiple the value organizations realize by sending employees to educational events.
What are your best tips on getting more out of conferences, workshops and training seminars?
Incidentally, I will be presenting and moderating at SES Chicago. Here are the details:
Monday, December 7th 2009 – 3:15pm-4:15pm
SEO Through Blogs & Feeds
Few online marketers understand better than panelist Odden the unique advantages blogs offer to any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program. In fact, blog and SEO insight from Odden and multiple team members at TopRank® Online Marketing recently helped Online Marketing Blog rise to #4 on Ad Age’s Power 150 blog rankings. Learn how the inclusion of a blog will enhance your company’s SEO program by attending this session.
Moderator:
Rebecca Lieb, VP, US Operations, Econsultancy
Speakers:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank® Online Marketing
Mark Jackson, SEW Expert & President/CEO, VIZION Interactive
Sally Falkow, President, PRESSfeed
Daron Babin, CEO, Webmaster Radio
Tuesday, December 8th – 4:15pm – 5:30pm
News Search Optimization
News search engines are helping companies worldwide transform everything from traditional media coverage to press releases into online exposure. Attend this session, moderated by Odden, to learn how your company can leverage news search to build exponential awareness with your customers and prospects online.
Moderator:
Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank® Online Marketing
Speakers:
DanaTodd, CMO, Newsforce
Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder, SEO-PR
Lisa Buyer, President & CEO, The Buyer Group
Conference info:
Hilton Chicago
720 S. Michigan Ave
Chicago, Ill.
December 7-11
To register, visit SES Chicago
Written on December 1, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing
Google, you’re late!
I mean, c’mon, you let both Bing and Yahoo release their top search query lists before you. Is this a sign of things to come, Google?
And….AND…you’re not even telling us what the most popular searches are. You’re only revealing the fastest rising queries?
[Yawn]
OK, so Michael Jackson tops Google’s list–no surprises there. So what were the surprises?
1. Microsoft should have named its new version of Windows “Lady Gaga”:
Fastest Rising (Global)
- michael jackson
- facebook
- tuenti
- twitter
- sanalika
- new moon
- lady gaga
- windows 7
- dantri.com.vn
- torpedo gratis
2. We’ve lost about as much interest in President Obama as we have the Beijing Olympics:
Fastest Falling (Global)
- beijing 2008
- euro 2008
- heath ledger
- barack obama
- amy winehouse
3. Adam Lambert is about as popular as swine flu:
Google News – Fastest Rising
- swine flu
- susan boyle
- jon and kate
- adam lambert
- rihanna (chris brown)
- new moon
- inauguration
- michael jackson
- nadya suleman
- missing link found
4. Let’s see, where to go today. Will it be Mount Everest or In-n-Out for dinner?
Google Maps – Fastest Rising
- mount everest
- laguna seca
- in-n-out
- grand canyon
- eiffel tower
- white house
- great wolf lodge
- wild animal safari
- voodoo doughnuts
- path station
5. Lisa Barone has single-handedly pushed “Glee” to the #6 spot in the US 
Google.com – Fastest Rising
- twitter
- michael jackson
- facebook
- hulu
- hi5
- glee
- paranormal activity
- natasha richardson
- farrah fawcett
- lady gaga
6. And, Raleigh, North Carolina is inhabited by some pretty boring people:
Raleigh, NC
- nc.rr.com login
- wcpss span
- wcpss blackboard
- ncsu library
- marbles kids museum
- waketech
- dpac
- blue ridge cinema
- wakegov.com
- raleigh convention center
But, don’t judge us until you see just how boring your city is too!
Anything jump out at you?
See original here:
Going Lady Gaga Over Swine Flu Fills Us With Glee for In-N-Out Burgers
Written on December 1, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing
Yesterday, Andy took a look at the top searches for bing in 2009 (am I supposed to capitalize bing or not, someone PLEASE clear that up for me). Today, courtesy of Digital Beat we look at the top searches for Yahoo for 2009. Whether they are playing follow their new leader or they want to still be known as a search engine, honestly I don’t know. One thing for sure is, as Anthony Ha, wonders aloud
While we’re on the subject of “year in review” lists, I’ll add that I’m baffled that these lists are coming out now. I understand why some publications feel comfortable doing a list of the best movies or books or whatever (since critics have often received advanced copies or screenings of what’s coming out before the end of the year), but search terms? Really? Don’t we have another month to go?
Gotta agree with Anthony on that one but let’s not nitpick when there’s a silly list to dissect! Yahoo’s top searches read like a referendum on just how shallow we are in this world (social commentary is a freebie for you today)
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
So to prove just how shallow I am, I recognized 80% of the top 10 and I have to ask this: “How the heck did NASCAR make the list?!” Is there wifi at stills now? I have to admit I have no clue about Naruto or Runescape.
I’m back because I did a quick search for each of those on Yahoo to goose their numbers and I have determined that I was better off not knowing about them but now I’m in.
Now when talking about business related searches we have the classic showdown between Facebook and Twitter and ……..drum roll please………
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Hulu
4. Bing
5. iPhone
6. LinkedIn
7. Dollar Stores
8. Palm Pre
9. Rosetta Stone
10. Kindle
Well, while it still baffles me that people do searches for these terms at least Google didn’t make the list.
So now the question remains if Google will hold out and wait for 2009 to actually end before reporting their top searches for the year. Not much to look forward to, I agree, but it’s a slow news day.
More here:
Yahoo Announces Top 2009 Searches (December, Deschember)
Tags: a-agree-with ,a-quick-search ,barack-obama ,book ,facebook ,google ,look-at-the ,michael-jackson- ,north-carolina ,president ,year
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Written on December 1, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: Object, book, marketing, seo
From time to time I like to post a case study as an example of the implementation of all the good advice we’ve been giving the past 6 years. Tips and how to’s are great, but stories of implementation are like a picture being worth a 1,000 words.
The following is a basic case study for SEO work performed on a portion of the PRSA site that is focused on PR and Communications Jobs.
Situation:
With over 32,000 professional and student members, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) represents the world’s largest organization for PR professionals. One of the key resources PRSA offers to its members is the PRSA Jobcenter, where over 77,000 potential employees are able to connect with a seemingly infinite number of public relations professionals.
PRSA made the decision to upgrade the architecture of the PRSA Jobcenter, with the objective of improving both traffic via search engine visibility and overall usability for its members.
As a component of its existing search engine optimization and consulting program, PRSA engaged TopRank Online Marketing to improve the usability and search engine visibility of its Jobcenter.
Solution:
A SEO Audit was conducted to identify target market keywords, opportunities for code level optimization, crawling and indexing issues as well as content that would meet the needs of candidates searching for specific types of PR and communications jobs. A keyword glossary of popular and relevant terms was reconciled with the available content on the web site and recommendations were made to update pages, tags and links where necessary.
Part of those recommendations were to create job category pages that offered specific information on the top job searches on the PRSA Jobcenter. RSS feeds for each category were created and promoted, allowing job seekers to subscribe and receive automatic updates.
A variety of link building tactics including the use of a widget to populate other web sites with PRSA powered job listings provided direct traffic and a useful signal to search engine crawlers that other topically relevant web sites considered the PRSA Jobcenter worth linking to.
The Jobcenter site optimization edits and new job category pages provided targeted content for the search engines and also created a seamless connection between the employers job listings and job seekers. Clustering popular phrases by category and subsequent content pages proved useful for search engines and for searchers.
Ongoing training of PRSA staff on keyword usage in new document creation as well as link building helped the client, “help themselves”.
Results:
Within the first six months of implementing the SEO audit and new category pages, total traffic to PRSA’s site has increased substantially, while pageviews for PRSA’s Jobcenter increased by over 40% and continues to climb.
Search engine rankings and visitor referrals from competitive keyword phrases increased substantially. For example, referrals from queries on the #1 Google ranking keyword phrase ‘public relations jobs‘ have increased by over 450%.
The goal of making Public Relations and Communications job listings posted to PRSA’s Jobcenter more easily found via search directly affected the ability to promote PRSA over competitors.
No case study would be complete without a quote from the client which has extended the scope of work to include the entire PRSA web site:
“The SEO team at TopRank has been a tremendous partner for improving the search engine visibility of the PRSA Jobcenter. Their work with keyword research, content optimization, code SEO and link building has been instrumental to growing a key business for our organization. I recommend TopRank’s SEO consulting services without reservation.” – William Murray, President and COO, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
With case studies like this, there’s a lot more than what meets the eye as far as SEO tactics. Many SEO consultants have very sophisticated knowledge for improving rankings and traffic. Fewer have the insight and patience to deal with legacy content management systems, different levels of approval, interdepartmental cooperation and ongoing education of client staff.
What’s not mentioned above and I’ll mention here is the importance of talented and experienced Account Management. The best SEO advice in the world is useless unless it’s properly implemented. The key to getting recommendations implemented and for those changes to stay implemented is a relationship between agency account team and the client side people involved. That includes marketing, PR, business managers, content producers, IT and often times, Legal.
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![[Google]](http://www.toprankblog.com/wp-content/themes/TopRank06/images/google-bookmark-big.png)
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Tags: a-picture-being ,america ,book ,communications- ,facebook ,google ,jobcenter ,online ,president ,prsa ,public relations ,search-engine ,seo
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Jeff “Dell Hell” Jarvis sat down recently with an impressive line-up of Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, President of sales Nikesh Arora, search boss Marissa Mayer, YouTube founder Chad Hurley, and counsel David Drummond.
