You wouldn't drive somewhere without directions. You wouldn't build a house without blueprints.

And you shouldn't launch a campaign to increase web traffic without a strategy. 

Without strategy, you'll keep shooting aimless messages out into the world, from which you'll get plenty of impressions and few results. But with strategy, you can integrate your marketing efforts to not only attract more web traffic – but also secure more business. 

Just ask yourself these three questions:

1. What is my goal?

What do you want your customer to do once they are on your website? It depends on your specific product or service. For instance:

• Retailer? Add to cart. 
• Manufacturer? Find a retailer. 
• Service? Call for a free estimate. 
• Nonprofit? Donate or sign up to volunteer. 

Determine your website's call to action (called the "conversion" in web talk), and ask your customers to do it. Make it a giant button on every page of the website. Make it the goal, directly or indirectly, of every marketing message you create. 

2. Who is my customer?

Marketing isn't about forcing people to buy things they don't want. It's about finding the people who need you and introducing yourself, in their language, at exactly the right time and place:

• A billboard for car air conditioning repair as they sit sweltering in rush hour traffic. 
• A plumbing business on page one of their Google search for how to fix a toilet.

Also consider the length of the buy process – how long it takes to "convert" them. If you sell clothing, the process can be as little as a few minutes, from grabbing the customer's attention with an image of a cute dress to getting them to click "Process Order." If you're a university trying to attract students, however, the process can stretch over months or even years as your customers weigh their options.

Throughout a longer buy process, find ways to stay in front of them. This might involve using softer calls to action to funnel them closer to your ultimate goal. For instance:

• Inviting them to tour the campus will guide them closer to the primary conversion of completing their application.

• Enticing them to subscribe to your blog for free advice lets you prove your knowledge and helpfulness while they decide whether or not to pay for more extensive services.

3. Who is my competition?

If you follow the tips listed above, chances are you'll already be a step ahead of your competitors. But you can go the extra mile by:

• Targeting their customers. For instance, when buying ads on search engines, add your competitor's name to your keyword list, so your business appears on the results page every time someone searches for your competitor.
• Differentiating yourself. Focus on benefits, not features – particularly the benefits you offer that your competitors don't.
• Being more attractive. Study their ads before writing your own and find ways to make yours more compelling – like by offering discounts and free trials.

Pinpointing your goal, understanding your customers and knowing your competition are the building blocks of strategy, and strategy is the backbone of any campaign. Don't leave home without it.

Continue reading: *Designing* for Website Speed
View all: "Driving More Traffic to Your Website" blog series

People have been saying for years that mobile is the future. It is no longer the future, it is the present. In fact, more Americans own a Smartphone than a "dumb phone". On top of that, there are more cell phones than people in the U.S.

How can you reach all of these customers? Easy -- mobile advertising. Mobile advertising makes the most sense for companies that have specific locations, but it can also be valuable for overall branding.

Let's take the example of a store that sells shoes. There are a couple of ways that the store could choose to advertise: 

Mobile Search Advertising

Most cell phone users use a search engine (like Google or Bing) to make purchasing decisions on the fly. Within Google AdWords, you can target mobile devices and geographic locations -- allowing you to hit your target at the time (and place) they are searching for a place to buy shoes.

Mobile Display Advertising

Just as there are both search and display advertising on the desktop -- there are also both on mobile. Most free games and apps are supported by display ads. Depending upon the advertising network, you can target based upon contextual information (for example, showing restaurants in an app like Yelp) and location. This will reach customers that aren't necessarily searching for your product or service -- but still be targeted. 

App Sponsorship

Another possibility is to sponsor an application. That's exactly what The North Face has done with their Snow Report application. Obviously, the app is very connected to their brand -- but the key is that it provides something useful to their customers.

It's essential that the page that the ad leads to is mobile friendly. Some advertisers simply don't have the budget to create a mobile website -- but it's simple to create a one-page landing pages that will work on a mobile phone. This means that the site can not use flash and be formatted, so you don't have to zoom in on the site to read the content.

With mobile use growing at a very quick rate, maybe it's time you start advertising on mobile devices.

Continue reading: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website: Facebook Ads
View all: "Driving More Traffic to Your Website" blog series

One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website is through online advertising. It sounds simplistic, but it’s true. However, determining how to reach the right audience and convincing them to visit your site is where it can get tricky and somewhat overwhelming. Paid search, social networks, display, video, mobile – the list goes on, and it continually changes. Just when you get comfortable with a plan, a new technology or platform arrives on the scene. Fortunately, there are a few basics we can count on (at least for now). For this discussion, we’ll focus on ad networks and video ads.

Ad Networks are great for reaching a targeted audience with banner ads over a large list of websites with a single buy, as opposed to ads on individual sites. The main advantages are:

1. Reach – An ad network containing hundreds of websites helps extend your reach beyond the major portals and premium sites. This aggregate of sites, known as the long tail, delivers reach to quality websites, usually at a much lower price than premium portals.
2. Targeting - Because of the huge number of websites available, the ad network brings massive amounts of user data that can be used for multiple targeting options: behavioral, contextual, geographic, retargeting and more. In other words you can minimize waste by reaching a precisely defined audience that is more likely to buy your product.
3. Optimization – Buying through an ad network allows you to optimize the campaign and apply the same parameters for impression goals, frequency capping and more. A cohesive buy gives you greater control and should perform better.

Online Video ads continue to evolve as a viable advertising option. Video usage has exploded on the web and continues to grow rapidly. According to Comscore, in December 2011, 182 million users in the U.S. watched an average of 23.2 hours of video per viewer.

Like ad networks, video ads offer numerous targeting options that allow you to precisely reach your target. However, video ads should be more than just running your TV spot on the web. Doing this falls short of reaching the full potential of online video. Effective video ads should feature interactivity that allows the advertiser to truly engage the viewer. For example, overlays embedded into the video could contain links to a Facebook page or a special-offer page that is tailored to the customer. The objective is to create an interactive experience for the viewer.

Video ads and ad networks can be highly effective traffic drivers to your website. They are just a couple of the myriad of options that can be used. As with any ad program it is important to align the media tactics with your specific website goals.

Continue reading: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website: Mobile Ads
View all: "Driving More Traffic to Your Website" blog series

Millions tuned in this week to watch a new AMC series, "The Pitch," which shows the inner-workings of an advertising agency’s pitch to a potential client. The premise is simple: Two or three agencies are briefed on an advertising assignment and given a week to come back with their best ideas. The client (so far, the clients have been Subway and Waste Management) picks their favorite and awards the business to the agency.

I'm sure many that watched are wondering, "Is ‘The Pitch’ really what an advertising agency is like?"

Simple: yes and no.

There are parts of the show that hit the nail on the head, but there are other parts that made me want to cry and lie in the fetal position with an ADDY (think Oscars for ad folks) because they were so incorrect. 

Here's what is real:

• Advertising is a cut-throat business. It's tough. There's no denying it.
• A good idea is tough to come by. In the show, you see people staying up late, putting items on whiteboard and pulling out their hair. That's real. Sometimes a great idea comes out of nowhere, but it's never easy.
• There are competing personalities. Luckily, at Balcom, we don't have the extremes of last night's SK+G's co-creative directors. Like any family, there are disagreements, but we tend to work ours out like civilized human beings.
• Some agencies are stuck in the past. Take last night's The Ad Store. The creative director's idea of success was a great TV spot — not results for their clients. I thought The Ad Store's idea was better ("Trash Can." vs. "Turning Waste Into Wow.") — but they stopped at the idea. SK+G proved how they integrate into social media and thought way beyond TV.
• The actual pitches are very close to everything we've experienced at Balcom. For most new business pitches we don't create what is called "spec work" (work that is created in hopes of getting the client). However, some pitches require this we evaluate on a case-by-case basis.
• It takes a lot of people to make advertising happen. People forget how involved advertising has become — online ads, social media, media buying, production, design, copywriting, video, the list goes on and on.
• Advertising isn't as glamorous as you think. It sometimes involves traveling to non-exotic locations, sleeping in crappy hotels and working late hours.

Here’s what is wrong:

• Ad agencies rarely know who they are pitching against, let alone get the briefing at the same time. AMC is using that for tension.
• You don't need black-rimmed glasses to work in advertising.
• A week turnaround time is a crazy-quick time to come up with a campaign for any client — let alone someone like Subway or Waste Management.
• We rarely know if we won a client in the same day. It usually takes weeks of negotiating and Q&As before the agency is notified.
• Some ad agencies are slave shops where everyone works late nights and early mornings. Granted, that happens sometimes at every agency, but (at least at Balcom) we try and make this the exception instead of the norm. We never want someone to not see their kids for five nights straight because of work. That's not healthy for anyone.
• All of the agencies talk about how they want to "stand out." Obviously, no agency wants to blend in. Some agencies (mostly WDCW in the first episode) put standing out before delivering results for their clients.
• Not all creative directors are jerks. At Balcom, I've never heard someone's idea be cussed out, mocked, or ridiculed. That doesn't help anyone. We listen and if it's not the right idea, we move on. 

Other notes:

• A lot of agencies declined to be on “The Pitch”. The main reason? It didn't fit within their "Process" and people would see behind the curtain. Most of the time, there is no process — it’s just another sales tool for the agency.
• The Ad Store shows how far behind they are on their Facebook page. It only has 146 likes and doesn't even have a cover photo. Any company with national exposure for an hour in prime time TV should capitalize on the opportunity.
• SK+G, on the other hand, shows how smart they are. Google "The Ad Store" and SK+G has purchased an ad in Google whenever you searched for The Ad Store. Very smart move by SK+G.
• WDCW's founder wrote an amazing post after they lost the Subway Pitch, "Being on AMC's ‘The Pitch’: When a Loss Is Not A Loss." Do yourself a favor and read it.

Overall, it’s interesting for people to see the world I live and breathe in every day. However, you need to remember that “The Pitch” is reality TV and doesn’t tell the whole story.

Integrated marketing sounds like a no-brainer. Of course you want your marketing efforts to work together, to powerfully and efficiently funnel customers toward a common goal – buy, join, give, register, whatever. If only it were that simple.

Here are a few roadblocks to integrated marketing and how to bust through them.

Silos

Integrated marketing begins by getting all the right people at the same table. That typically means looping in someonefrom marketing, sales, corporate communications, public relations, event marketing, customer service and IT.

If you’re not sure who to include, make a list of all your customer touch points – all the ways people come in contact with your brand. Your list might include billboards, emails, websites, commercials, in-store signage, events, trade shows, sales materials, social media platforms, search, vehicle graphics, packaging, etc. Next to each item on the list, write down the person or department responsible for it. That’s your silo-busting invitation list.  

Competing Strategies

Once you have all the players assembled, it’s important to agree on common goals and measurable conversions. For example,your goal might be to drive more people to your website and get them to buywidgets online. But how does that affect your company’s brick-and-mortar stores? Ironing those things out together will set everyone up for success.

Sacred Cows

If your marketing has never been integrated, you’ll inevitably have to slay some sacred cows to get it that way. “Because we’ve always done it that way” isn’t an acceptable rationale for making marketing decisions. Base your decisions on customer behaviors – and these are changing drastically for most brands. Every situation is unique, but in general, consumers are more likely to research online before any purchase – often from their mobile phones. They’re also more active on social media and value the opinions of other consumers above traditional advertising.

If it sounds like a lot of work, well, it is. But the payoff is worth it. You’ll have an arsenal of weapons working toward the same goal across multiple touch points. Billboards, banner ads and search campaigns coincide with emails, Facebook posts and store graphics. While integrated marketing takes a bit more time on the front end, the results on the back end make it all worthwhile.

Eat your heart out, sliced bread. I think we can all agree the Internet is ten times awesomer than you. Here are a few world-changing reasons why.

Thanks to the Internet: it’s a small world, after all. You can reach outside your own small town and connect with anyone, anywhere the web reaches (through my writing blog, I have friends in Australia, Britain, Canada, India, Namibia and I don’t know where else). You can even help small businesses in third world countries.

Thanks to the Internet: brilliant writers, musicians and filmmakers don’t have to sell their souls to jaded publishers, record labels, studios or networks to get their art seen, noticed and loved. Blogging, video-sharing sites and self-publishing outlets help unknowns reach the world. Just look at William P. Young, Edd Plant and Jake Jarvi.

Thanks to the Internet: we dream bigger and achieve more. It’s the Information Age; with enough ambition and the right Google searches, we can accomplish anything. With a quick search, we can learn to change a tire, tie a tie, or improve the SEO of a website. The web is our one-stop shop for direct access to experts on writing, cooking, entrepreneurship and hundreds of other subjects, offering their knowledge for free on the blogosphere.

Thanks to the Internet: the customer is king. No longer do all the sales go to the company that covers the most ground with advertising, but to the company that does the most for its customers. We buy the product with the best customer reviews. We’re loyal to the company that answers questions and solves our problems on Facebook and Twitter. We recommend the business that offers its expertise without trying to sell us something. Plus, through increasingly sophisticated search engine technology, it takes real, helpful content to reach the first page on Google – not keyword-stuffed sales pitches. 

The old-fashioned girl in me sometimes wishes for simpler times, but I ultimately wouldn’t trade my time for any other. Never has there been more opportunity for the average person, not just to achieve success, but to achieve greatness. Sure, like any tool, the web can be used for good or evil, but thanks to the Internet, we are inspired to dream bigger, and equipped to accomplish those dreams, like no other time in history. That’s why this Thanksgiving, I’m thanking God for the World Wide Web.

How has the Internet changed your life? And what are you going to do with it?

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Read more:

Chip is grateful for Internet memes

Carol discusses why technology now is better than then

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The world is now one great, big small town.

If you've ever been east or west of DFW, you'll likely run into some of these small towns that the world has become. Everyone knows everyone's business. There are no secrets.

The world of social media has made the whole world a huge small town.

In Gary Vaynerchuck's book, The Thank You Economy, he lays out this idea. Before Wal-Marts and Targets, there could two butcher shops in a small town. If Joe the Butcher screwed something up (maybe he promised you meat at a certain price, and then when you showed up, he insisted on charging you more). Soon, everyone in the town would know that Joe was dishonest and the people in the town would no longer go to Joe the Butcher. Everyone would go to Bob the Butcher. The old equation was caring = business.

Even though we don't have butcher shops anymore, where everyone knows your name, we now have the amazing power of social media.

Before, I didn't subscribe to the "Corporations don't care about me" idea. That all changed today. Long story, short, I had a terrible experience with American Airlines customer service (both on the phone and Twitter). The telephone representative said, "There's nothing I can do. Sorry." I said, "Well, thanks for nothing." He said, "You're welcome," and hung up before he completed the world "welcome."

Is that how we really treat customers? We should be so grateful for our customers and bend over backwards to help them. First of all, because we (as companies) care. But secondly, in today's small world of social media, we'll talk about these bad experiences. I'm not a celebrity, but I tweeted out the message to my around 2,000 Twitter followers and 1,000 or so Facebook fans. Some people replied, some liked it on Facebook. Everyone didn't read it, but would you want something bad going around about your company? If you owned a small business, wouldn't you reach out to make everything right?

What if American Airlines went the other way and offered me some help? Or even said, "We can't help you today, our hands are tied, but next time you fly with us, here's a pass to the Admiral's Club." How different would the experience be? I probably would be writing a post talking about how they did a great job, instead of a lackluster job.

Gary's company, Wine Library, does an incredible job at practicing what he preaches. They call people just to thank them for their order. No upsells, no cheesy surveys, just a "Thank You." When's the last time a company did that for you? I bet many of those customers are customers for life, simply because of a "Thank you." There's your ROI.

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of The Thank You Economy. It will (hopefully) change the way you look at your customers. We have a lot to be thankful for, especially our customers.

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Are you ready for it? 

Here it is: We market to people.

I'm a person. You are a person. A CEO is a person. A mom is a person. A college student is a person.

This might seem like a simple idea, but once we understand this, it will change the way we do marketing.

Let's dive a little bit more into this, first looking at a Business-to-business purchase, then a Business-to-consumer purchase.

B2B

At the end of every purchase is a person making that decision. Companies don't just decide to purchase something from another business by magic. 

Think about how you would make that decision if you were in the purchasers' shoes and your perspective will instantly change.

Would you make a final decision by getting a piece of Direct Mail? Probably not.

Would you research the product by going to Google? Definitely (and may even search in Bing).

Would you like to get a SPAM email? Heck no.

Would you care if the company had 100,000 Facebook fans? Probably not.

Would it help you make the purchase if the website showed you how it could save your company money and make your life easier? Absolutely.

Would honest reviews of the product help? You betcha.

Do you want to see a boring ad with two people shaking hands? No way, José. You want to have some emotion connected with the ad, rather than indifference. 

B2C

We're all consumers, yet sometimes we even forget this. Want to have your eyes opened? Here's some homework: write down how you make your next three purchases, especially for something you've never purchased before.

I was looking at a nutritional supplement at Walgreens yesterday. Here's what I did, in the middle of the isle:

1. I looked at the ingredients and compared it to some products right next to it.
2. I pulled out my iPhone and Googled the brand name of the product to look at reviews. The reviews were, generally, very positive.
3. I looked on Amazon to see if the product could be purchased cheaper. 
4. I was still unsure about what some of the ingredients were, so I Googled those, and ended up on WebMD, to get more information.
5. After researching all of this, I ultimately made the purchase.

Think I'm unique? Sorry to be harsh, but, you're wrong. 70% of customers now look online before making a purchase. Customers are searching online for small ticket items, too. Google is seeing huge swells in people searching for reviews on smaller items, such as pens and shampoo. (source)

Before you start your next marketing campaign, put yourself in your consumer's shoes. After all, you are a consumer, too.

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For those without the fortunate blessing of having nerds in your life, yesterday Facebook reinvented itself - again. It's no doubt that Facebook feels pressure to keep innovating on their already life-changing product (trying going a week without checking Facebook and tell me it's not life-changing). TechCrunch has a great rundown of the actual new features, but I thought it would be helpful to talk less about the features and more about what this means for you and I going forward.

1. Facebook wants to be the online version of your life. Take a look at Timelines (the new profile, mine is show above). This is a scrapbook for your life. As you scroll, you can see what happened in 1989, for example: My little brother was born and Facebook shows a picture, automatically, of both of us together. Facebook wants to be involved in the major moments of you life. My co-worker even put an injury in her Timleline, and associated a picture with it. This will forever be in her Timeline. Looking back at this month, it showcased my recent vacation, which is much more important to remember than some random posts.
2. Facebook wants sharing to be automatic. Facebook is no longer about sharing, it's about what you're doing. Their music launch has been incredible. I listen to Spotify at work all day and the tracks I'm listening to are automatically shared on my Facebook profile. I've gotten tons of comments about songs I'm listening to, and even had a friend join in on the music I was listening to. Facebook is expanding this to reading, watching, cooking, eating - you get the idea. Once you connect an application, like Spotify, it automatically shares everything you listen to. There is now no more barrier to sharing.
3. Facebook wants more of your time. I've had the chance to play with the new features today and yesterday (they'll be rolled out to everyone soon) and I have to admit, it's addicting. I've probably spent more time on Facebook in the past 24 hours than I have in total over the past 2 weeks. By sharing more, the internet is about to get a whole lot interesting and powerful.
4. Facebook is the glue that holds the internet together. If you had any doubt that Facebook had staying power, those were erased yesterday. Every new app you download on your iPhone, every website will be integrated (even deeper, if they aren't already) with Facebook. 
5. Facebook is getting smart. Very smart. Facebook is even stepping into the recommendation game (and, I'd argue, search game) with their new product called Graph Rank. Are you sick of Farmville invites? Graph Rank will recognize that and not show you any other similar games. Do you like to read news in the morning and listen to music during the day? Graph Rank will recognize that and show you news stories (and stories you are interested in) and show you what your friends are listening to during the day. Pretty amazing.

Will this frustrate people that hate change? Absolutely. Will this ultimately make Facebook a larger part of our life? Yes. Will people have to be more careful about what they share online? You better believe it. 

We forget that the internet is all about change. We wouldn't be where we are without innovation and we'll eventually be better for all of these changes. There's no doubt that the next generation of the internet will be built using these amazing tools.