Media Week

Just spent a long weekend down in Dorset with a bunch of chums that haven’t all been together in the same room since school. With wives and children in tow, we all caught up on the many years apart other than the odd night out in London.

The talk inevitably got onto what we’re all doing now. Three were lawyers, one an estate agent, one a teacher and the host runs a deli and bistro just outside Dorchester...

They all found it funny that I was doing something that wasn’t an option when we were all at school. In 1989 there were no such things as the internet or search engines. There were no jobs in search marketing, web design, SEO, social networking or trafficking. They simply weren't on the curriculum. I wonder what kind of roles or indeed industries that have shown such growth will exist in 2027?!

One thing that did strike me was the ignorance about the online marketing ether, especially amongst the small business entrepreneurs in the party. The estate agent and restaurateur both had websites, but they weren’t that bothered about optimising them. The “oh it’ll do” attitude was pervasive as they see search and web marketing as being a bit too complicated and time consuming. This negative vibe was reflected in some research Microsoft did into small businesses last year.

The research which questioned 400 UK SMBs, revealed 62% of small businesses are not investing in search engine marketing. 44% of SMBs not doing search marketing think it is too time consuming; 56% think it is too expensive; and 33% too complicated. However, 76% of SMBs promoting their website on search engines see an immediate increase in sales.

Fast forward to Internet World yesterday at Earls Court, and you had hundreds of small business owners all taking advantage of the free entry to cram into tiny theatres and crowd outside on tiptoe, just to catch some wisdom from a raft of speakers talking about anything and everything from email, search and affiliate marketing to social networking, analytics and display.

It seems there’s a gulf to bridge between the “haves” and “have nots”. Those that have the internet marketing bug see the benefits and manage to balance everything else they have to do with making time to understand and engage with this brave new world. Those that don’t get it still need influencing, cajoling, enticing and handholding.

I’m sure it won’t be too many years before web marketing becomes an integral part of our small business vocabulary – let’s try and make sure it doesn’t take another 19.....

I'll be speaking at Internet World on adCenter Tools for Marketers on Tuesday.

The conference is at Earls Court until Thursday and is FREE to register for...

In their own words:

"If it’s happening in the digital business world then it’s happening at Internet World 2008. With over 200 inspirational hours of free seminars and hard-hitting keynotes it’s the one and only place you’ll hear the ultimate digital business insight and understanding.

It’s also your chance to meet over 300 companies who can provide solutions to strengthen your online strategy and improve your return on investment. And all located in dedicated zones with seminar streams covering key areas including Search, Email, Web 2.0, IPTV, Online Advertising, eCommerce, Mobile Marketing, Connectivity, Content Management, Analytics, Usability, Affiliate Marketing and much more."

I'll be recording a webinar with the folks at Revolution and some distinguished panellists from MySpace, Latitude and BSkyB tomorrow, on whether Social Media & Search can co-exist or are they heading for handbags at dawn?

Register for the broadcast here - it'll be available on 30th April from 12 noon....should be a ripper!

What do you think? Are they heading for a fall out?

I couldn't sleep over the weekend so got up and ordered a USB headset with a noise-cancelling microphone at 3am.....as you do! I need the headset as I'm starting to do a lot more multimedia for the adCenterCommunity.com site - webinars, podcasts, video etc....

.....I asked the company, based up north, to send the headset "next day delivery". Being a small business they were not around at the weekend so processed the order yesterday - a bit tardy me being used to Amazon and the like working all hours.

Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call saying the item had been dispatched and I should get it today. If I had any problems I was to call them straight back.

It was a great example of old world customer service in a new world digital age. They may not have as a sophisticated fulfilment system as some of the bigger players but they made up for it with a human touch.

Just goes to show that small businesses can compete in this online age - they just need to behave a little differently....

The Sunday Times has reported that Apple may be working on a "lifestyle companion system" that could mean linking music, personal training, fitness advice and even restauraunt recommendations to an individual via a single device nicknamed the iProd...

Last week I mentioned how the London Marathon was going Digital. Personal trainers can be very expensive so why not harness technology in smaller boxes if we can.

But like the MP3 player, computer games and TV would this not be yet another isolator? Another excuse not to have any interaction with other human beings.

I've just been for a 3 mile walk in Richmond Park with my girlfriend. No mobile, no iPod, no gadgets.

Just me, her and about 300 deer.....fabulous!

Anyone who saw The Apprentice last night would have been amazed at how the "bizniz yoof" of today obviously have little grasp of technology...

What was all that stress and paranoia about when it came to getting some photos off a memory card on to a laptop and printing them off.

Are the Facebook fashionistas that pc illiterate? How do they feel now having exposed their Random inAccessible Memory to the man that brought us the Amstrad E-Mailer Telephone?!

Admitting on television that you are "technically useless" doesn't hold you in good stead for the big digital world of cunning corporations, when you're supposed to be demonstrating your business experience and acumen.

Get down to your local library on Saturday and take a course!

Alternatively there is a series of books with the word "dummies" in the title....

I’ve been a bit quiet for a week preparing for, running and now recovering from running the London Marathon.

What a day! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and it certainly lived up to all the hype. I managed to get around the course in 5 hours and 43 minutes. My longest run had been 17 miles prior to the big day, so where the energy came from for the last 9 I don’t know except it’s true what they say about the crowd really lifting you towards the end.

What I was struck by was how organised it all was. When I registered on Friday night at the Excel Centre in the docklands there was no queue. We got fitted with microchips for our shoes which tracked our time from start to finish, and at strategic points around the course to ensure no one could cheat.

72 hours after the race they’ve scanned 1000’s of photos and digitally picked out your running number and stuck them on a website where you can now download images of yourself struggling around the course.

Tonnes of runners were using GPS tracking devices to measure speed and distance via satellites but also enable friends and family back home to watch their progress online.

But the big news is that after a trial this year, you can now apply to run next year’s race online.

The bad news is they reached initial capacity of 80k entries by 10pm the day after this year’s race.

Just think of how much time, money and trees have been saved by going digital!

I've known Brian Clifton since we were asked to speak at the Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference in Iceland in 2006.

Passionate, articulate and highly intelligent (well he has got  a PHD!) Brian has done much for the online advertising industry, preaching the importance of the sometimes misunderstood and underutilised discipline we call web analytics.

Last Friday was Brian's last day as Head of Google Analytics in EMEA, and he's kindly agreed to this exclusive interview where he reflects on what he's achieved, why he's leaving and what he's going to do!

You joined Google in 2005 to "define, develop and lead Google Analytics into EMEA" – How successful do you think your team has been in spreading the word?

Web Analytics is a completely different industry now compared to then. It really is amazing how fast things have moved on. What used to be a niche industry with just a few thousand active participants (bloggers, event speakers, consultants, analysts etc.) has now become almost mainstream. That is, an integral part of online marketing  with participants now in the millions world-wide. I think it is safe to say that Google has been the driver of this change with my team helping large European advertisers with their adoption.

I'm someone new to championing web analytics in the internet marketing community via the adCenter Analytics Blog – what's the secret to capturing website owner's imagination and persuading them that web analytics should be a critical part of their strategy?

Monetization. That is, the value that measurement can bring. I always use a couple of slides at the beginning of my presentations illustrating a theoretical before and after effect of increasing your conversion rate by 1 percent. It always gets the audiences attention and sets the scene for why website owners should invest in measurement.

Why does all that data make people's eyes glaze over? How can we make it easier for people to understand?

That's traditionally been a common complaint from a lot of web analytics users. Web visitor data can feel overwhelming simply because the volume is high after all it is so easy and inexpensive to collect.
 
The Google philosophy has always been one of "data democratisation". That is, unlocking tools from the exclusive realm of small specialist departments, and instead empowering all uses with data that they can hopefully contribute to the improvement of. After all, we are all web users, so we can all suggest improvements. Often the collected knowledge of the many can exceed that of the few available experts

Can you give us 3 top tips or things to look out for when analysing website traffic?

The single most important thing is to have a complete best practice implementation of your web analytics tool. Otherwise its "garbage in, garbage out". It never ceases to amaze how much money organisations are prepare to spend just on 'having' a tool and yet do not invest on installing it to its full potential - so that they can actually do something with the data.
 
With good, clean data coming in, start looking for engagement points on your website. Apart from goal conversion rates, time on site and bounce rates are excellent top level indicators of success, or not. These can be used as your benchmarks for improvement.
 
If you have a site search feature on your site (internal search engine), analyse the  keywords used by your visitors. This can provide invaluable insight as to what your visitors actually want from you, so that you can determine whether this aligns with your marketing message. What's great about performing site search analysis is that visitors are using in their own terminology - it removes the guess work for marketers. It can also provide feedback for future product features - perhaps you were not aware that a significant proportion of visitors also want your specialist widget in metallic blue!

Today is your last day at Google – Why on earth are you leaving? It's not the falling share price is it?

LOL, remember I joined Google in 2005, post IPO! In fact the beauty of working with a product that is free, is that its given me the freedom to build a team of product experts rather than sales managers. That's a pretty unique position for anyone to be in and one that I feel immensely privileged to have been a part of.
 
Unfortunately that is also the caveat of being a manager - as your team grows you move further away from client interactions which is the part that most excites me. In fact, the vast majority of web content is made up of poorly optimised websites. By that I mean poorly optimised for visibility (visitors can't find you via the search engines) and poorly optimised for the user experience (leading to low conversion rates). These two are closely related and web analytics is the key to unlock the potential of both.
 
Therefore from April 7th, I am happy to announce that I will be the Senior Strategist for Omega Digital Media - the  company I founded back in 1997 that specialises in search integration and conversion marketing. They have been an official analytics partner for Google for many years (that's how I got recruited by Google!), so the connection continues. I will be focusing my efforts on providing the service needed to help clients grow their business by making web analytics central to their strategy.

So your new book that you were plugging at Search Marketing World in Dublin last week, is it all about GA or can readers read the techniques and tips and apply them with other analytics solutions – like Microsoft adCenter Analytics for instance?

The book is entitled Advanced Web Metrics for Google Analytics, but is actually aimed at a broad audience - essentially anyone with an interest in making their web site successful. That includes website owners, marketers, web designers/developers, content creators, PR departments and all the various intermediaries. Its about measuring for success (the title of the first chapter) and applies best practice techniques on how to do so using Google Analytics.
 
There are of course some chapters specific to GA, but to be honest there is a great deal of feature parity out there among the various other vendors. So yes, it is possible to use the principals that I describe for any enterprise class analytics tool - including Microsoft's adCenter Analytics which I even use on my own blog.

Thanks Brian and good luck with the book and the new venture!

New figures from the IAB show yet again that the online advertising model is no flash in the pan....

Banners, skyscrapers and rich media saw a staggering 45% growth in 2007, showing agencies and advertisers are obviously seeing the benefit from a branding and, in some cases, a direct response effect. 

The old stalwart "paid search" is apparently "maturing" but still growing, keeping its number-one-slot at 58% share or £1.6B - a colossal 39% growth.

Apologies for all the hyperbole, but as my US colleagues would say I'm super-invigorated by this news.

I don't see mobile figures in the report, but that's going to be big this year given the uptake of the iPhone, and the announcement last week that Microsoft will be updating its mobile browser so users can view fullscreen web pages and multi-media more easily.

The future's bright......but is it mobile?

Check out this article in the NYTimes to see what we Media Week bloggers have to endure to bring you news, views and opinion....

We don't get paid, but I've put on 5 stone since Friday worrying about my content for this week. You really have no idea how stressful this can be, not getting paid for sticking our heads above the parapet and daring to say what we feel about a topic!

WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH!

My post a couple of weeks ago about blogging and traditional media living in the same flatshare, albeit working different hours, didn't mention stress and ill-health because any blogger I know is fit and well and loving life!

For some blogs, I think it's more interesting when they DON'T cover a story or have an opinion. Keeps me guessing whether they might hit me later in the week with an exclusive.

You may have noticed I've kept silent about the Yahoo!/Microsoft deal.........well it's because I'd probably get fired if I did!

A friend of mine has just had a baby. The little boy Tom is a cute bundle of flesh and noise and no doubt will be the source of great joy throughout his life, as his parents guide him through to adulthood.....

Having recently advised his father on which laptop to buy, the question of an external hard drive came up. When I asked why he thought he needed one, he pointed at his new born child.

With the surge of digital paraphernalia creating clutter in our living rooms, pockets and handbags, what are we doing with the old leather-bound diaries and photo albums, teenage love letters, important mortgage statements, wills and funeral arrangements?

For me, I have a big box of what I call “memorabilia” where I keep loads of “stuff” that I want to look back through, or show my kids and grandkids when I’m older.

Now that all my photos are digital, I go for paperless statements with the banks and so many travel, theatre and sports tickets are online printouts, I suspect my box won’t grow as rapidly over the next 20 years as it has over the last couple of decades.

But my friend’s need for a 320GB hard drive to store all the memories relating to his first child got me thinking.

If my house was on fire, what would I save? The box or the hard drive?

The box.....every time!

Now of course Brand Republic knew the BBC/Flying Penguin Story was a hoax! (Giggle!)

But how far did Infoworld go with their Google Buys Facebook gag?

One commenter thought these jolly japes could affect stock prices.

Does he have a point or should he walk the PRANK plank?