My career path has been a bit scattered, having now worked in the toy industry, house wares industry and previously the book publishing industry.

Traditional Publishing

Publishing at the time ran as it traditionally did as far as marketing was concerned. Agents brought books to publishers, or occasionally a book came in “over the transom” (by mail or carrier pigeon- no agent affiliations - just a find in the slush pile). Books were published on the whim or gut feeling of a passionate editor. Sales people sold the book into book retailers (a few years ago there were more then one!) on its storyline, content and author’s background. Then “Publicists” pushed the book out to the press, primarily the book page editors,  via ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies),  and hoped desperately for coverage. A book with a larger budget (usually an author with a decent track record, or a book on a newsworthy topic) might have a few newspaper ads - Globe and Mail book section.  Some authors were honoured with a “author tour”. This was the extent of the “marketing plan” for books even just a few years ago.

Word of Mouth Marketing

How could there possibly be “bestsellers” with this kind of minute marketing support? Well, books handle themselves really well with “Word of Mouth”. In fact, if you are a reader, chances are you get your recommendations from others on most of the books you read. This was the case before the Internet. Before Amazon. Before literary blogs. Before podcasts.

Imagine, an industry that has always existed by incredible “word of mouth” in the traditional sense (one friend tells another, who tells another, who tells another…), and it manages to create block buster hits with minimal marketing dollars. Now, imagine, an industry that harnesses the power of online reviews, blogs, literary video summaries, podcasts, and overall web content. That industry just might overcome their biggest threat - the Internet itself.

Threat to Traditional Publishing

When I went to Publishing school, and when I began working in the industry the big question was how will E-books affect the traditional book. Would audio books stunt sales in books due to illegal copying? Will people read everything online and give up on paper books?  Similar to the fear felt in the music industry, these issues were discussed ad-nauseam in classes, seminars, at the water cooler and during sales meetings.  Unlike the music industry, I believe the book industry moved on, understood the potential issues with E-books and illegal copying - and then harnessed the power of the Internet to power even more word of mouth for their books.

New Technology, New Marketing - Traditional Product

The book industry has been helped along by technology. Online reviews on retail sites such as Amazon, and avid readers were given the chance to “publish” themselves by writing their own blogs.

Next, innovative publishers spread their tiny marketing budgets further by going digital. HarperCollins Canada* for example has been doing some innovative projects online in the past few years due to passion of their Director of Digital Marketing - Steve Osgoode. **Full disclosure- I used to work there

I was reminded of this when their Digital Marketing Manager contact me through this blog to see if I would be interested in reviewing business books. (hell, ya!).

Some of the things HarperCollins has been doing:

• First Look - Consumers can sign up to receive advanced reading copies that they review 2-3 months prior to the book being published
• Book Trailers - For a few books they have created video book trailers, posted on YouTube and other sites to build buzz around the titles
• Podcasts -  Amongst others, they began the Foreward Thinking Business book podcast with host Mitch Joel
• News letters
• Blogger Outreach - As mentioned above they contact bloggers to review books that may interest them
• Twitter - Harpercollinsca
• Blog at SavvyReader

I bet some of these projects have garnered more word of mouth, more recommendations, and more sales than most of the traditional methods previously used in publishing.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

Remember this quote the next time you are selling your idea up the corporate ladder.  As Jack Welch continued to say, good business leaders are open, they don’t stick to established channels and they are straight with people. Oh, and they never get bored with their story.

Any one with any work experience has likely seen some real doozies as far as presentations. I am not just speaking about those oral presentations where the speaker essentially reads the points on the screen to the audience, I am talking about presenting written proposals, and contracts. I also include business to business e-mails, project summaries and résumés.

I am sure I am not perfect, I have likely made grammatical errors or spelling blunders (likely even on this blog). However, I am very careful and I spend a considerable amount of time ensuring that the work looks professional and completes the project at hand. 

I have learned that not everyone deems it worthy to do this! Recently colleagues and I were presented with a business proposal, in fact a one page summary on potential services to be rendered. Here is a shortlist of what this company did wrong:

- Spelled our company name wrong
- Spelled our product name wrong
- The one page summary was not on any letterhead and did not include company contact information anywhere
- It appeared to be typed on a typewriter, although I suspect it was simply photocopied very poorly
- The proposal included items we specifically indicated we were not interested in pursuing

Needless to say, this company did not get our business.

The same will go to all those individuals who have sent résumés without a proper cover letter, who actually cc’ d HR managers at other companies at the same time, and of course the people who obviously didn’t read the job description before applying.

These types of business proposals and résumés leave me wondering how some people got to where they are in life. By the time I made it to the workforce (after University and College) I had written hundreds of essays, proposals and presentations. I read books on writing résumés, and took advantage of career sessions on job hunting.  I did, and still do, tailor my résumés and cover letters to each individual job. I have also posted an online résumé with a portfolio. I make every effort to present myself, my personal brand, in the best way possible in every piece of work.

Is it laziness that makes these other individuals create shoddy work? Did they sleep through class? Decline the career counseling sessions offered at their College or University? Neglect to read their English and Grammar text books?

How great is this? My MEGO blog made the BIGLIST of SEO on the Online Marketing Blog. 

What is funny is that I actually found out while I was going through my mountains of unread feeds on Google Reader and of course Online Marketing Blog just happens to be one I subscribe to! Later that day my Google Alert for my name and another Alert with my blog name came in to my inbox, and of course this morning I signed in to my blog to add the BIGLIST of SEO badge and I saw my new inbound link - so I got to live the joy over again!

Just when you think that no one is reading, and that the analytics must be mistaken (I mean really they rarely match up!), you get the honour of another blogger recognizing you with a link!

Woot!

My job as Marketing Communications Manager means that I have to have my hands in a whole bunch of areas. I have to be good at a bunch of things - rather than a specialist in one.

Working at a medium sized business in this role means I handle a plethora of marketing duties.  I plan and buy the print advertising, as well as working with creative and copy-writing to create the print ads,  I work with our web and creative department to develop our web site, plan our bridal program, oversee the PR agency, write newsletters, write articles for the website, work with retail partners to promote the brand, measure success, plan events and sales meetings, and most importantly the developing the strategy that these tactics fulfill.

I realized last night, as I looked at the pile of books beside my bed, that not only am I  generalist at work - I am a generalist in life.  I could choose to read The Thirteenth Tale (Literature),  a book on Google Adwords - Winning With Google Adwords; of course my book on SEO, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, and Suite Francaise (Literature)

I can recall as a kid, I never had one passion, like other friends, but a variety of interests. While friends obsessed with soccer, horseback riding, or a musical instrument - I read books, took photography, at least four or five different instruments (one after another), and joined Air Cadets! It isn’t that I get bored and quit, I just like to know a little bit about everything! Obviously, in my current job - it is necessary to be a generalist, to understand a bit of everything - so that I can tie it all together. In my circumstances,  being a generalist has worked in my favour, making me good at my job!

I am not sure how many people would actually call Search Engine Optimization “fun”, but it is a challenge and a puzzle to me that I find fascinating.

I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it has been only recently that I have really spent any time trying understand the ins and outs of SEO. Prior, I had read a few blogs on the topic, E-Marketing Performance, Online Marketing Blog, Search Engine Guide, and Small Business SEM. About a while ago I asked my Twitter followers for a suggestion on a good book to read. SEO for Dummies and Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day were suggested.  Lucky for me they were a package deal at Amazon!

In January our corporate website received only 9% of its visitors via Search Engines. Just to give you an idea of where my team is when it comes to SEO - not only am I a newbie - but when I told the web master what we were going to do- he said “What is SEO?”. Nonetheless, over the past few months or so I have been working with our web guy to make some changes in order to increase search engine traffic. 

• We have set up a 301 redirect so that we avoid duplicate content between www.cuisinart.ca and cuisinart.ca.
• We have checked the site in Spider Simulator where we discovered that our Site Map wasn’t actually seen as a “Spiderable Link”.
• We removed our entry page, “French or English” and opted for an English main page with the choice to choose French from there.
• We added H1 tags to our category pages. I hope to add H1 tags to all pages, and H2 pages to some of the pages.
• We of course added a description so that when the site comes up on Search it says more than “choose french or english”!
• We put titles on each page describing what was actually on the page.

We still have a lot more to do. We have to make up for the fact that our site uses a flash menu, we currently lack vast amounts of content, and our site is dynamic - which apparently can cause some problems in indexing.

We have had some success, our Search Engine Traffic has increased steadily over the past few months from January’s 9%.

February 9%
March   12%
April     35%

On the other hand, before we did some of the work we ran the site through Website Grader and got a grade of 42 - ugh. At that time it showed that we had 451 Inbound Links amongst other factors. Now, after the above changes, we have a grade of 54, but it only recognizes 1 Inbound Link. No idea what happened to the other 450!  It is also not recognizing how old the domain is anymore. So frustrating.  Puzzling. Yet, as I mentioned strangely fun!

Oh well back to reading Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day!

Since I am going off on maternity leave we are juggling some of my responsibilities as Marketing Communications Manager at Cuisinart Canada. It has left a job opening for a 1-year contract for a Marketing Communications Co-ordinator (see below for posting).  Feel free to pass along the posting, or post on your own blog -  we are using a “word of mouth” strategy - as we are looking for a special someone who is passionate about marketing and knowledgeable about the digital space.  The position in Woodbridge, Ontario.  While the position is a contract - we are a growing company - and opportunities could potentially arise in the future for the successful candidate.

I think this is a great opportunity for a passionate new communications grad. Instead of getting coffee for your boss and filing…you could be involved in executing advertising plans, web initiatives, product launches and working on PR and communication activities.

Company: Cuisinart CanadaPosition:   Marketing Communications Coordinator, 1 Year Contract Conair, an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, is the industry leader in the Personal Care and Small Kitchen Appliance market. This privately owned, global company is located in Woodbridge, Ontario.  The Cuisinart division is looking for an enthusiastic and energetic professional to fill the position of Marketing Communications Coordinator (1 year contract).  The successful candidate will assist in the development and implementation of strategic marketing and communications plans ensuring alignment with the division’s overall marketing objectives.  Primary Responsibilities: 

• Effectively manage and deliver assigned marketing campaigns and projects in a timely, professional manner
• Develop, write, and edit e-newsletters, web pages, and marketing and sales literature to support marketing programs and new product launches.
• Co-ordinate and monitor communications, public relations and media relations’ activities.
• Co-ordinate and assist with special events such as product launches, media events, and consumer shows. 
• Work with Director of Marketing and Marketing Manager to oversee agencies and other internal and external suppliers to create and develop high quality marketing communications initiatives, on time and on budget.
• Co-ordinate and assist with all consumer and trade advertising marketing initiatives, ensuring brand consistency across all materials.
• Support the maintenance and monitoring of web sites ensuring ongoing accuracy, consistency and quality.
• Advise and co-ordinate online marketing efforts, including deploying changes to websites as requested by Product Managers, updating web content on a regular basis with an eye for enhancing the customer experience.
• Provide reporting on key website metrics, including but not limited to traffic, campaign results, and customer feedback.

Qualifications

·         Degree in Marketing, Business, Communications or related field·         Passion for digital marketing with a strong understanding of best practices for web communication and usability.

·         Superior communication and writing skills·         Highly organized with excellent time management skills·         Excellent presentation and oral communication skillsRésumés should be forwarded to cuisinart_mktg@conair.com by May 19, 2008.  Please note the job title in the subject line. We thank all applicants for their interest in applying. However, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

I have been away from blogging on both blogs for about two weeks now. One week due to a holiday to Florida, and the second week due to computer exhaustion as I had over 230 emails to read at work alone.

My first blog post after my break is going to be shared between Okbabybear and MEGO due to the subject being about our vacation with Bear and about the incredible Disney experience!

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When I was a child my family went to Florida almost every year, so by age 13 I had been to Disney 8 or 9 times. This year we decided to make the trip south with Bear and his grandparents. I was both excited and nervous about the trip. Excited to see my little boys face when the Disney magic touches him, and nervous in case what I remembered wasn’t real.

I didn’t have any reason to be worried. We arrived at the gates just after they opened and by 11 o’clock I had my money’s worth! Disney is simply a brand that gets “it”. From the ticket takers, to the cleaning crew and the photographers to the characters - each Imagineer at Disney is a representative of the brand.  Everything that is done, even the little things, are done to perpetuate the brand message. 

Park a stroller in “stroller parking” - chances are when you return from the ride that the “parking” lot will be arranged in straight lines making it easy for you to get your stroller out. Exit the Pirates of the Caribbean and you might just run into Jack Sparrow himself putting on a show.  Or as part of the “Year of a Million Dreams” you could meet an Imagineer who hands you a “Fast Pass” that gets you into the short line for the most popular rides.

The highlight of the day for my son, and therefore for the rest of us, was visiting Mickey’s Toon Town where Bear met his favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters. We arrived at the area 10 minutes before they opened. Instead of a person coming out to open the gate - they sent Pluto and Donald.  In this area the kids can visit Mickey & Minnie at the Judge’s Tent, and Donald, Pluto and Goofy in another building. We started with Mickey & Minnie, who were just arriving as we were.  My son screams out “Hi!” and Mickey turns and waves as all the adults laugh at my adorable little Bear. When we get our turn with Mickey & Minnie, my son, nervously leans over hands between his knees, and says to Mickey ” I…I..have a suitcase!” Well actually he has a Mickey Mouse back-pack…but close enough. Magically, my son’s favourite show comes to life. Disney photographers take pictures of the moment, but instead of not allowing you to take photos, forcing you to purchase over priced images in order to savour the moment - they let you take your own pictures. Of course, they give you a card with a PhotoPass number so that IF you want to purchase the images - YOU CAN.  And, I likely will…sucker that I am. But I feel rather warm and fuzzy about not HAVING TO…since I already have some cute shots of Mickey & Minnie with Bear. 

Despite line-ups at rides and beverage carts, and crowds around characters and parade routes - not once did I hear an angry customer or a snide remark between park goers.  It seems that everyone was touched by the magic of Disney. 

How does a company this size keep its messaging consistent? How does a corporation of this magnitude manage to integrate its brand message into everything the consumer sees?

Lesson for life and lemons. My son shows me that it is important to try new things, and just as important to give it a second try.

Most of the time I don’t even notice the advertising on the Facebook Newsfeed or sidebar. I have grown accustomed to ignoring them, my eyes avoid the word “sponsored” as easily as it is to block out the the buzz of the air conditioning in the summer!

The other day I noticed one for the first time:

Why did I notice this? Because, of the word “pregnancy”.  For once the ad seemed placed there for me - since I am currently five months pregnant.  So I thought perhaps Facebook uses the information I add to my profile - my status changes, blog posts, or wall posts to target and reach a relevant audience. Slightly disconcerting on a privacy level, but then I would assume the technology would be no different from ads that show up on Gmail that are associated with the content of the email I am reading. As a marketer and as a consumer I would rather see an ad on my newsfeed (if I must…) that excites and engages me, and that is relevant to my life. 

However, a few clicks later, I am back on my news feed and I see this ad from eHarmony:

You can read my page “About” to see a picture of my husband, and on Facebook my Relationship Status clearly states “Married”. This and another ad for something called “Shedoesthecity” makes me question how these ads got targeted. Obviously not very well.  But yet, here is another one that is of a regional nature:

This ad is regarding a show that is taking place in Toronto. My network is “Toronto” so this ad makes sense.  Another ad states “If you like Dave Matthews…” which I do (it says so in my music list on Facebook) - interests me enough to click through to read about another musician.

One of the reasons advertising is migrating to digital media is because it is far more effective in targeting and reaching relevant audiences than most traditional media. Why then, would any advertiser choose not to target their ads - when obviously Facebook allows this option. Why would eHarmony not choose to only advertise on profile pages where their Relationship Status is set to “single”.  That said, why doesn’t Facebook, with the social network users in mind, insist that they do! Google Adwords uses various formulas to determine which ads are shown where, beyond just keywords. Google understands that the relevance of the sponsored links to its users, will have an effect on how useful they find the search service. Facebook may risk alienating users with too many ads, sponsored links and irrelevant content.  As Jen from Urbanmoms.ca stated:

I am on Facebook and I see very few opportunities for marketing in that environment. Why? Because it has nothing to do with what I am doing on Facebook, that’s why!

We are on Facebook to connect with friends, so these types of ads are likened to telemarketing calls during dinner. Jen believes that there are very few brands that could add to her Facebook experience. This is probably true for most people - but the brands that each of us would be willing to connect with on Facebook - are going to be different. While I could care less about connecting with Davinci bikes - I know a friend who would likely join their “Fan Page” in a blink of an eye. I believe there is a place for many brands on Facebook - however, I agree with Jen that marketers need to find a way to join the community in a more effective and targeted way than banner ads and news feed ad buys.  She points out:

This may take a bit more planning and digging but it is the only way to truly make this work because the whole point of an online community is that it IS a community where community members have a voice, play a role, and decide who is in and who is not pulling their weight.

If a brand believes that their target market is on Facebook - why not look at some of the other marketing options on Facebook:  Applications, Groups, Fan Pages or the newly introduced Social Ads.
 
On the other hand, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of wonderful online communities or social networks other than Facebook.  Sean Moffitt, from the Buzz Canuck blog posts a very helpful list of the various communities already out there for pet lovers, divorcees, and more.  Successful marketing on social networks, such as Facebook and these various other communities, will require that brands become more helpful by creating rich environments that people will seek out and become engaged with.

A great example of a community that is bringing brands and its members together in a relevant and unobtrusive way - without losing the all-important “transparency” is actually Jen’s site - Urbanmoms.ca. I might be slightly biased however, as I have been working with Urbanmoms.ca since 2006 (see Kitchen Party section)