When the economy is poor, the best marketers make the sale. In my last post we were seeing signs of economic recovery; increased manufacturing, the unemployment rate dropping, a strong US dollar, optimism on Wall Street. Since that post, “double dip” seems to be the phrase of the day. So it’s important to use marketing tactics that are more likely to help you grow efficiently, especially in a tepid economy. Here are five strategies that should be part of every great marketers toolbox:

1. Customer Research
I’m surprised that many marketers lack basic or updated research about products, industry trends, customer behavior or competitors. The marketplace is dynamic and marketplace knowledge needs to be current. Your whole business reason to exist emanates from the customer’s needs and competitive gaps. If you don’t know exactly where your services fit in that marketplace, you can’t strategically build your business. While creative differentiation helps brands become memorable, even the best remembered brands have a product point-of-difference that is at the heart of the brand. Leverage existing research about your industry from associations or published results available free and online. With a little time, you will reveal resources and knowledge you never knew was available.

2. Affiliate Marketing Programs
Most people associate affiliate marketing with online, retail promotion but it is much bigger than that. In short, affiliate marketing is when you pay other companies to promote your products or services for you. Most of the time, it only costs when someone makes a purchase. Identify possible business partners who have a strategic, yet not competitive, relationship to what you sell. It’s possible to make a lot of money from affiliate programs, as you can see from these case studies http://bit.ly/dfq9om

3. Employee Retention Strategies
Perhaps the first marketing investment you should make is in your best employees. Retaining clients is even more important in today’s economy and great employees keep great clients. Even though cash is tight, consider rewarding your best employees with money or perks. The best employees will almost always be able to find another job, so make sure they’re happy and engaged. Since a lot of new revenue comes from existing customers, incentivize your employees to increase sales or bring in new clients. They may be your best marketing investment no matter what shape the economy is in.

4. Strategic Partnerships
Align your business with another company selling complementary services and sign a strategic partnership agreement. That means you will only do business with them in their field and they will only do business with your business. While this sounds limiting, it opens the door to new business that never would have come your way if you had kept that door closed. Branch out too. A technology security company could align itself with different companies in different industries (banking, bookstore, software, music, clothing, etc). Open your mind and form partnerships that will expand your clientele.

5. Actionable Measurement Plans
Now is the time to add metrics to your existing marketing investments. Take a close look at your marketing investments and consider how they’re being measured. Are they increasing your business? If you’re not sure, then you need to revaluate how you’re measuring performance. Look at your analytics data. Read customer comments and take them seriously. Look for patterns in what clients are buying. Read comments from your Facebook or Twitter feeds. Change your service or product offerings to align with buyer values.

If you follow these suggestions, your business will grow, regardless of the status of the economy.

Manufacturing is increasing, employment is stabilizing, the dollar is gaining strength and orders are starting to appear. Now is the time to reinvigorate your sales and marketing to take advantage of the economic recovery. Don’t make the mistake of following traditional paths to growth. The world has changed and so has your customer’s behavior. Anyone running a successful business must leverage their customer’s use of the Internet in their buying process. Integrating simple keyword research into all your sales and marketing programs is a good start (as I have integrated keyword research into this post), but the opportunities to grow your business using today’s state-of-the-art marketing tactics is often overlooked. If you want to attract the first and best customers that are venturing into your business after a long hiatus, we offer this list of the top 5 sales and marketing strategies to help you maximize the current business climate:

1. Unique, differentiating positioning
You must own a unique and persuasive point-of-difference that is the centerpiece of all sales and marketing (including SEO). Even if you lack a tangible difference, you are still able to create a personality or unique identity that will attract new customers to your brand. Think of all the categories where there is very little product difference and yet brand personalities abound: chewing gum, water, news, professional services, paper, etc.

2.  A content syndication program
One of the biggest, most cost-efficient sales and marketing programs that any company can employ is a content syndication program.  Seeding links to your business throughout highly relevant online destinations is one of the best ways to grow awareness and drive traffic.   If you’re investing in other marketing programs and don’t have a content syndication program in place, you’re not maximizing your effectiveness.

3.  Customer solutions/sales program
A well thought out customer interaction plan that leverages keywords used most often by both current and new customers will increase your customer satisfaction and make you more visible in search results.  Identify the top reason customers contact you, especially for conflict resolution, and turn those complaints into increased sales.  Customers often search for solutions online before contacting customer service and this is a way to be the first to solve their problems.

4.  A sales and marketing integration program
Smaller companies do a much better job bridging the gap between sales and marketing. The sales team knows a lot about customer preference, pricing and buying behavior. The marketing team knows a lot about buyer values, positioning and measurement.  All of this knowledge needs to be fully integrated into sales and marketing plans.   While these disciplines have grown somewhat independent of each other, don’t forget the adage “sales is marketing and marketing is sales”.

5.  A social media strategy
Social media is simply an excellent new sales channel.  We have not found an industry or business that does not have an opportunity to grow through social media.  It is not necessarily the most important sales or PR channel, but it is almost always an excellent source of awareness and product trial.  We have clients transacting business everyday through Twitter and Facebook. The question isn’t whether you should be in it, but rather how you should be using it.  Balance investment and resources with the potential profit, just like you would any other marketing channel to ensure a healthy ROI.

Use this checklist for all of your sales and marketing (not just your internet marketing) and you will grab the first customers venturing into your business.  It will also help you gain visibility and attract new customers, especially as the economy continues to recover.  In my next post, I’ll discuss five other important components that you need to adopt in order to succeed in today’s marketplace.  Start with these five first and you’ll be the first to experience the recovery.

Welcome back to the third and final installment of The Future of Marketing series.  I believe the greatest marketing challenge (and opportunity) for the future is mastering “channel strategy.”  What’s channel strategy?  It’s the strategic deployment of a marketing budget into media channels that will most effectively attract the largest number of customers.

Today’s marketing options can seem innumerable and the number of choices in the future will only increase. Marketers have to choose not only which channel to utilize, but how much to invest in each channel to achieve success.  The diagram below shows an example of some of the choices available to attract customers today:

Looking at this diagram reminds me of playing darts. Darts may be a more effective method of allocating budgets because multi-channel measurement is still in its infancy.   Even when we have data from all the individual channels, we still don’t know how the combined formula impacts the bottom line.  It’s alchemy and it can blow up!

According to an InfoTrends study on Multi-Channel Communications Measurement and Benchmarking, multi-channel campaigns using email, customized landing pages and print yielded a 35% higher response rate than print-only campaigns: http://www.outputlinks.com/html/columnists/Barb_Pellow/infotrends_Multi-Channel_Communications_042009.aspx)

Multi-channel campaigns are simply more effective.  How can we know the efficiency of each individual channel and what the ratio of investment should be in each?  Investment in one channel naturally takes money away from other channels so every decision either approaches or detracts from the optimal formula.

Currently there is no standard CPM to measure channel mix, although several companies have proprietary solutions that attempt to attribute cross-channel results.   Companies like Alterian (www.alterian.com ), Radian6 (www.radian6.com ), Nielsen Business Media (www.nielsen ) and Mobilestorm (www.mobilestorm.com) are a few.  These software solutions are a great step toward ROI transparency, and their sophistication will improve as time advances.

Most companies aren’t aware or can’t afford these software solutions so Marketers need a disciplined planning process with clear steps to help you increase your chance of success.  To be clear, let’s revisit Jessica, our 25-year-old professional working in the year 2020.  We’ll use a day in her life to explain how you might make better channel marketing decisions for your business.

Here’s how to evaluate the right channel strategy:

6:20 A.M. – After snoozing through one alarm, Jessica grabs her Cloud Acquisition Device (CAD) and drops it in the cradle in the bathroom where she’ll listen to news, weather and sports while she gets ready for work

Step 1. Segment your audience according to profitability.  Understand the financial impact of adding X percent of new customers within each segment.  Jessica is a high-end digital consumer who buys the maximum data plans to support her voracious information-access needs.  Analyzing your customer segments will help you focus on the channels that will deliver the highest ROI.  If you don’t fully understand your target segments, drop everything you’re doing and get this data.  It will change everything you do.  When I worked at Ameritech Cellular, we knew 15% of our customers delivered 80% of the company profit.  While it was tempting to put the majority of our budget and resources into the retail consumer promotions (only 20% of the profits), that decision would have had terrible financial consequences.  Instead, we invested in high-end business packages that sold our best customers more services, driving up EBIDA.

There are several businesses today that tier their content offerings, charging consumers for content that’s free of ads.  Check out Pandora and Uber Twitter: http://bit.ly/cyC8fa (Pandora).  http://bit.ly/bexZT2 (Uber Twitter).  We’ll see more of this as everyday, basic content changes as time progresses, so start organizing your product or service offerings now.

Step 2. Make sure your data supports threshold levels of investment based on your targets use of that channel before you add that particular channel into the mix.  “Innovation” (otherwise known as cutting edge media with no proven performance) should be kept below 10% of the budget.

7:15 A.M. – Jessica grabs her CAD from her bedroom CAP and brings it into the kitchen where it wirelessly connects to the Cloud Acquisition Portal (CAP).  Her mother calls her to remind her about her father’s upcoming birthday, and the CAD seamlessly transitions between news and the video chat session with her mother.  Since all video is now web-enabled, Jessica will use the top online gift store to search a variety of gift options for her Dad.  More about this when Jessica comes home tonight.

Each channel will be much more segmented, persuasive and effective.  B2B channels will even be fully integrated with search engine optimization (SEO), video, email, promotions, ads (banner and PPC), mobile, print, direct, PoP and social.  Support for this trend can be found in the study by EConsultancy: http://bit.ly/9oyo5V

7:45 A.M. – Jessica jumps into her electric car and drives to work.  Electric cars, and all the cottage industries that support them, will grow exponentially in the next decade.  Popularity will increase electric car market penetration to 50% by 2020.

• Major, mass market product launches are happening this year http://nyti.ms/9H2ffm

9:30 A.M. – While doing research for a 10:00 A.M. client meeting, Jessica reads a news update regarding one of her supplier’s new contracts.  She clicks on a link and receives an un-branded case study that can be used in any presentation.  Packaging case studies for viral distribution, with links back to the source, will become a rich source of lead generation in the future.

• The future of contextual search:  http://bit.ly/aCUjBZ

Noon – On her lunch break, Jessica scrolls through mobile ads she’s cached for future use.  She’s opted into certain ads so she can save money on the things she likes.  The cache app allows her to save ads she wants to save and retrieve when she is near the store.

• Mobile, location-based marketing will improve targeting for marketers and convenience for consumers:  http://bit.ly/blNt2B

2:30 P.M. Throughout the day, Jessica receives alerts about a variety of information according to her pre-approved preferences.  These alerts represent highly targeted opportunities to reach consumers.

• Daily mobile text alerts: http://bit.ly/iu1kP

5:30 P.M. - A good friend calls Jessica and invites her to a business association meet-up that night where business celebrities talk live and interact with attendees from far-off locations – using sophisticated streaming technology.  Branding and social media opportunities abound.

• Streaming from live events:  http://bit.ly/bsMjAs

6:30 P.M. - Jessica uses her CAD to buy admission and dinner while at the event.

• Read about the first barcode scanner on smart phones: http://bit.ly/eakYM

8:00 P.M. - Once home, Jessica plugs in her CAD and selects from a list of high quality resources that will deliver relevant news, cases and data to her business account in the morning.  This information will make her more informed and articulate when the discussions and debates occur throughout her business day.  If content is King, Jessica will have a crown by noon.

• Read about the future of local news by the Wall Street Journal: http://bit.ly/cSdZTi

11 P.M. - Once in bed, Jessica voice-enables her alarm and reads from her wireless reader, which drifts to sleep-mode after Jessica.

• Voice Controlled Talking Alarm Clock: http://amzn.to/dq7BnL

The only way to ensure you’re maximizing your marketing investment, knowing that it isn’t perfect, is to measure every channel.  Start with individual measurement tools and add software that integrates channel metrics.  Analyze the data and you’ll find valuable insights that will grow your business – guaranteed.  Too often we shrug our shoulders and believe its too complicated and there aren’t accurate resources to measure effectively.  This attitude leads to complacency and sloth.  It’s possible today to dramatically increase your marketing ROI.  Get granular and you’ll make a mountain out of a molehill.

I hope you’ve been motivated by this series and make the effort to rise above the standards of this day to lead the future of marketing.  I looked ten years into the future but I believe we don’t have to wait to achieve the kind of effectiveness that technology and strategy will surely bring. I’m excited about the future and can’t wait to see what YOU will contribute.

Welcome back to the future.  In my last post I challenged you to see if you can survive the future of marketing.  It won’t be “futuristic”, but it will be very different from the traditional methods used now.   In my last post I introduced you to Jessica, a 25-year-old professional working in the year 2020 who showed us how technology innovations will change marketing.  In this post, I’m going to focus more on the marketing opportunities that complement the technology of the future, so we can see how channel marketing strategies will change.  And how you’ll need to change to succeed.

Marketing opportunities will not change radically in ten years, but we will see new “layers”, or segmented, highly targeted opportunities join the mix.  As technology enables convenience, marketers will simply have more choices.  And these choices will increase the degree of sophistication required to optimize current and future marketing plans.

This foray into the near future is designed to help us better appreciate how to make strategic marketing decisions today.  I also hope it will encourage you and surprise you in a way that fosters ideas about how you might increase your marketing effectiveness.

So let’s join Jessica again in the year 2020 as she starts her day:

6:20 A.M. – After snoozing through one alarm, Jessica grabs her Cloud Acquisition Device (CAD) and drops it into the cradle in the bathroom where she’ll listen to news, weather and sports while she gets ready for work.  The CAD is her filter, pulling pre-set preferences for information that is tailored to Jessica.  She’s also listening to and sometimes watching commercials because like most people, Jessica is willing to watch commercials in order to receive free content.  There’s strong evidence that advertising as we know it will thrive in the future. A recent survey by Devicescape showed 68% of people are “OK viewing advertisements” if it means they don’t have to pay for the content: http://bit.ly/bT6lVU.  Access the research here http://bit.ly/c4jPTk.

There are several businesses today that tier their content offerings, charging consumers for content that’s free of ads.  Check out Pandora and Uber Twitter: http://bit.ly/cyC8fa (Pandora).  http://bit.ly/bexZT2 (uber twitter).  We’ll see a lot more of this with everyday, basic content as time progresses, so start organizing your product or service offerings now.

7:15 A.M. – Jessica grabs her CAD from her bedroom CAP and brings it into the kitchen where it wirelessly connects to the Cloud Acquisition Portal (CAP).  Her mother calls her to remind her about her father’s upcoming birthday, and the CAD seamlessly transitions between news and the video chat session with her mother.  Since all video is now web-enabled, Jessica will use the top online gift store to search a variety of gift options for her Dad.  More about this when Jessica comes home tonight.

Online ads will be much more segmented, persuasive and entertaining.  Interactive TV will be fully integrated so whatever we watch, the internet will be completely accessible.  Take a look at this this ad from Coincident TV (CTV). It’s not a video or a website.  It’s both!  http://bit.ly/95PqHv.  Ads will also be available via highly segmented channels so people can search ads to help refine their purchase choices.  This won’t eliminate mass market advertising.  It will simply provide a new, convenient means to enhance our purchase experience.  Advertisers will also have better opportunities to buy ads in programs that are more targeted.  As people accept and watch ads in programs to avoid paying to watch, segmentation opportunities will flourish.  http://bit.ly/auJEQz.

7:45 A.M. –  Jessica jumps into her electric car and drives to work.  Electric cars, and all the cottage industries that support them, will grow exponentially in the next decade.  Popularity will increase electric car market penetration to 50% by 2020.  Major, mass market product launches are happening this year http://nyti.ms/9H2ffm.

8:15 A.M. -  As she enters her office building, the international coffee chain using location-based services reminds her that she has 12 credits left.  This is the only audio advertising reminder she has enabled Monday-Friday.   Tailored location-based advertising will increase as consumers have more control over opt-in services.   This doesn’t negate mass market ads because it will add a more personal and relevant layer of selling opportunities into the marketing mix.  Check out how Shopalerts is doing it today: http://tcrn.ch/bP42ff.

9:30 A.M. – While doing research for a 10:00 A.M. client meeting, Jessica discovers the most recent and relevant contextual data available for her client’s products.  Her options are organized by news articles, research, business strategies, trademarks and legal issues, competitive products, pricing and customer insight.  Search results are no longer organized by “video, images, blogs, books and discussions” because these options exist within each result.  Each option is organized chronologically, with search variable control.

• The future of contextual search:  http://bit.ly/aCUjBZ

Noon – On her lunch break, Jessica scrolls through mobile ads she’s cached for future use.  She’s opted into certain ads so she can save money on the things she likes.  The cache app allows her to save ads she wants to save and retrieve when she is near the store.  Mobile, location-based marketing will improve targeting for marketers and convenience for consumers:  http://bit.ly/blNt2B.

At the restaurant, Jessica grabs an impromptu candy bar at the counter because the restaurant sent her a text offer to add dessert and get 10% off.  Several advertisers are currently using these tactics, which will become more ubiquitous in time: http://bit.ly/9cfaHU.

2:30 P.M. Throughout the day, Jessica receives alerts about a variety of information according to her pre-approved preferences.  These alerts represent highly targeted opportunities to reach consumers.

5:30 P.M. - A good friend calls Jessica and invites her to a social meet-up that night where live auditions are being broadcast for a popular reality TV show.   Live video venues will several marketing opportunities that include print, banner, video, location-based services and promotions.  Venues that attract large crowds will only increase in value as marketing tools.
Streaming from live events:  http://bit.ly/bsMjAs.

6:30 P.M. – Jessica uses her CAD to buy admission and dinner while at the event.

8:00 P.M. – Once home, Jessica plugs in her CAD and settles down at the portable screen on her coffee table.  Reclining on the couch, she enables her online persona, which accesses her profile that was previously created, including likes and dislikes for every category relevant to her.   She accesses her personal assistant and shops for her Dad’s birthday present.  It’s become much more acceptable to send gift texts with purchase codes that the person receiving the gift can use to buy their own gift.  It’s easy and the gift-quality and relevance improves.  See how giiv is delivering this service today:  http://www.giiv.com/.   Jessica’s search results offer a plethora of gift ideas for her father, easily purchased without any concerns about identity theft or creeps hacking her real identity.  When public personas are required, avatars will represent us in profiles that keep us secure.  See how Renkoo, mEgo, Zoolit and other companies are leading the way: http://bit.ly/btlihX.   You need to adopt this personalized experience into your marketing plans if you have any hope of surviving the future.

11 P.M. – Once in bed, Jessica voice-enables her alarm and reads from her wireless reader, which drifts to sleep-mode after Jessica.

Most interesting is that all the technologies and opportunities discussed in this post are available today.  In ten years, they’ll be common.  Will you be a leader or a lagger?  If you begin to experiment today with some of these new channels, you’ll not only succeed, but you’ll also be part of the next generation of marketing innovations.

It’s easy to be impressed by new smart phones, touch screen displays and other technologies that seem to appear out of nowhere.  But there’s always evidence right in front of us that reveals what our lives might be like in the future if we only pay attention.  These changes have, and will have profound effects on marketing.

Individually they can be viewed as breakthroughs, but they complicate marketer’s ability to achieve ROI. Why?  Innovations don’t integrate well with established technologies.

We’ve all professed our sophisticated integration, but the reality is we live in a disaggregated and inefficient marketing world.  Lack of integration isn’t all our faults.  As a culture, we suffer from a lack of platform integration.  Despite the fact that consumers overlap their media, various media platforms aren’t connected, especially in a manner that would allow measurement.  But that will all change.

In this three-part series I will investigate the future of marketing from the customer experience (today’s post), the marketer and then the implications on channel mix today and for the future.

So let’s take a peek into what our business and social lives might be like in ten years from the customer’s perspective.  I’ll paint a picture of our future in an attempt to encourage you, and possibly give you ideas that will help us all realize this future sooner.  I won’t predict flying cars and surrogate beings, but rather, a more probable future based on research and technology trends from today.   Lets look at our world ten years from now, in April 2020, through the eyes of Jessica (the most popular baby girl’s name in the U.S. in 1995).

She is a 25-year-old professional woman, and this is a perspective on what her typical workday might be like:

6:00 A.M. – Jessica’s Cloud Acquisition Device (CAD) wakes her up with her favorite songs or sounds.  The Cad is cradled on her nightstand in one of many Cloud Acquisition Ports (CAP) located throughout her apartment.  Jessica voice-enables the 10-minute snooze and drifts back to sleep.

• The cloud will run all our applications and data delivery:  http://bit.ly/9w4teD
• Device integration is the future of the internet:   http://bit.ly/cGfCOn

6:10 A.M. – The sweet sounds of encouragement wake her up again, and after 15 seconds shifts to a voice-calendar reminder of her day’s schedule.  Jessica’s cloud is tailored to her life, with calendar, personal and work database, music, television programs, movies, internet, social networks and more – all contextually delivered and selected to improve her efficiency and happiness.

• Contextual search will become much more refined:  http://bit.ly/buhdUb

6:20 A.M. - Jessica grabs her CAD and plugs it into the port next to her bathroom sink where it displays world and local news, financial market activity and weather on a video screen.  Jessica catches up on news while she gets ready for her day.

• TVs will become intelligent video portals for streaming content:  http://bit.ly/dAfSzw

7:15 A.M. – Jessica grabs her CAD from her bedroom CAP and brings it into the kitchen where it wirelessly connects to the CAP.  Her mother calls her to remind her about her father’s upcoming birthday, and the CAD seamlessly transitions between news and the video chat session with her mother.  After the call, Jessica voice-enables her calendar and adds her father’s birthday and a reminder to shop for his gift when she gets home tonight.  The CAD is charged wirelessly, eliminating the need for cords.

• Technology eliminates the need for wire cords: http://bit.ly/ajbCvy

7:45 A.M. –  Jessica attaches her non-invasive, audio/microphone button behind her ear (over the external acoustic meatus bone which transmits sound without ear damage). Then she is out the door and into her electric car.  Her CAD delivers music and podcasts to her ear button, which is legal while driving because it doesn’t block external noise. Her CAD still seamlessly integrates with her car’s audio and navigation device, and verbal commands direct her music, traffic reports synched to her destination, news, internet search or phone call options while also providing audio navigation (if necessary).

• Non-invasive headphone conducts through bone: http://bit.ly/avIeiD

8:10 – As Jessica parks in her building, her CAD  synchs with her monthly parking status (paid) to open the gate.

8:15 A.M. -  As she enters her office building, the international coffee chain using location-based services reminds her that she has 12 credits left.  This is the only audio advertising reminder she has enabled Monday-Friday.  Once in her office, Jessica plugs her CAD into the CAP, which recognizes her location and delivers her business desktop through a CAP screen.  She removes her ear button because the audio and microphone wireless systems in her office are highly focused and efficient.

9:30 A.M. – While doing research for a 10:00 A.M. client meeting, Jessica discovers the most recent and relevant contextual data available for her client’s products.  Her options are organized by news articles, research, business strategies, trademarks and legal issues, competitive products, pricing and customer insight.  Search results are no longer organized by “video, images, blogs, books and discussions” because these options exist within each result.  Each option is organized chronologically, with search variable control.

• The future of contextual search:  http://bit.ly/aCUjBZ

Noon – Anticipating a lunch break at 12:30, Jessica voice-enables her food option network and chooses a Thai salad from the salad restaurant around the corner from her building.  The salad is purchased with her CAD-enabled, password protected bank account, and the salad is ready to be picked up at 12:30.  She dons her ear button and leaves the office.

At the restaurant, Jessica grabs an impromptu candy bar at the counter and pays by swiping her CAD.  All of a sudden Jessica remembers she needs a birthday card for a co-worker, but doesn’t know where a card shop is located near her building.  She voice- enables a search for “birthday card shop” and audio directions for a pedestrian are delivered.  Once the card is purchased using her CAD, Jessica returns to the office to work while she eats her salad (some things never change).  All her social networks are integrated into a single user interface allowing her to stay in touch during her day without spending too much time on it.

• Location based and personalized advertising: http://bit.ly/ddYF8B

2:30 P.M. -  A client meeting begins and Jessica uses her CAD as the lead device for the team.  It plugs into the CAP in a conference room and establishes audio and videoconference connections to eight locations via the invites in the calendar.  Jessica selects the presentation from her CAD and seamlessly controls the screen that everyone sees during the meeting.  Data reduction technologies have transformed our ability to share large files over pipes that have not expanded as much as they have in other countries. All CAP’s have file reduction filters that reduce the density of data to enhance speed.

The conference is recorded and notes are logged for future access and work flow.

5:30 P.M. - A good friend calls Jessica and invites her to a social meet-up that night where live auditions are being broadcast for a popular reality TV show.   Live video venues stream concerts, theatre, church, government proceedings, legal disputes and parades, with screens and sound closely replicating the feel of being there.  This becomes a more affordable and accessible means of attending “live” events.  They agree to meet at 6:30.

• Streaming from live events:  http://bit.ly/bsMjAs

6:30 P.M. - Jessica uses her CAD to buy admission and dinner while at the event.

8:00 P.M. - Once home, Jessica plugs in her CAD and settles down at the portable screen on her coffee table.  Reclining on the couch, she enables her online persona, which accesses her profile that was previously created and saved, including likes and dislikes for every category relevant to her.   Her search results offer a plethora of gift ideas for her father, easily purchased and delivered without any concerns about identity theft or creeps hacking her real identity.

• Online personal profile: http://bit.ly/btlihX

11 P.M. - Once in bed, Jessica voice-enables her alarm and reads from her wireless reader, which drifts to sleep-mode after Jessica.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this peek into our collective future and it’s given you some inspiration for innovation.  Don’t settle on expected marketing.  Know your target, research the options and create a marketing plan that will engage and inspire.  Let me know what you think.

In my next post, I’ll report about Jessica’s world from the marketer’s perspective.  What will these technology innovations mean for us as we try to sculpt the most effective marketing plans?  Until then, enjoy the moment.

Welcome Olympics fans! Although my morning news feeds give me Olympic stories, they aren’t very succinct about communicating the current medal count, or telling me the when and where of the sports I’m interested in.  I usually have to dig through stories to find what I need.  So I end up using the search engines instead.  This morning I searched for “Olympics results”  and the top organic result was a list of “News Results”. There were three listed:
1) Offshoreinsiders.com
2) Offshoreinsiders.com
3) Times Asia
You might wonder why you are not familiar with such a well-optimized news source as Offshoreinsiders.com.  You’re a reasonably well-traveled and well-informed person, right?  How could this august news source have gone undetected until now?  Because it’s an offshore gambling site that has delivered all the right “triggers” to appear in the top of organic search results for news.

By “triggers” I mean highly relevant, viral content.   Offshoreinsiders.com is the most popular gambling site for gambling bloggers who have rewarded the site with links.  While this is not a typical result for “news”, the overwhelming number of gambling blogs that reference this website, alongside proper on-page optimization, allows this website to appear at the top of news results for the Olympics.

Some might think this is sad, but there’s a lesson here.

As you can imagine, there are hundreds of other news sources that would pay a lot of money to appear in the top of organic search results for Olympic keywords.  Businesses like nbcolympics.com, huffingtonpost.com, vancouver2010.com, espn.com, cnn.com and every other media company around the world.  How does an offshore gambling site win the organic search contest over all these other intelligent and well-funded companies?  It appears they have integrated search engine best practices into their marketing model.

Just like Olympic athletes, if you want to appear higher in organic search results, you must train in advance for the race.  Your content must be highly relevant and you must use content-formatting techniques (microformats), social media link juice, high page-rank links and user experience criteria that must be reconciled with business strategy to win this game.  There are millions of views, and millions of dollars at stake.

If you have a big event coming up in 2010, don’t gamble.  Make sure you’ve aligned your business goals with search engine optimization best practices well in advance to ensure you’ll be standing on the middle platform when the gold is handed out.

See VA’s opinion about what makes good ads and what makes some really bad….

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.