Google Packs The House

American Marketing Association, Cleveland Chapter, brought Ted Souder, Midwest Travel Head of Sales to town to share Google’s latest marketing ideas. There was a terrific turn out and this was definitely our most attended event this year.  Why?  Because we all know Google is a search engine giant and we all want to know what they have to say.  Not only do they offer search, but they provide additional tools like Google Analytics that can help a business of any size really dig in and segment what’s happening with their website traffic.

 

Our topic for the evening was “The Digital Landscape, 10 Best Practices Shaping The Future of Marketing” and I thought our readers might enjoy reviewing these best practices.  Think about these points as they relate to your business:

 

1)     Data, not opinion – Use the math and science of marketing and let the data assist with your marketing direction – use the analytics

2)     Be ready online for what’s happening offline

3)     Don’t build it and hope they will come – promote online and offline

4)     Big Portals are Important (AOL, MSN) and so are niche sites

5)     Make video the centerpiece of your online strategy – it’s believed that every minute, 10 hours of video is uploaded onto YouTube

6)     Take social media seriously

7)     Tap into the wisdom of the crowd – the group is smarter than the individual 

     Be where your consumers are at the moment of relevance

9)     Keep your eye on how computer architecture is changing

10)  Be “always on” because your consumers already are

 

Ted gave us the following stat which I thought was really amazing regarding mobile. It’s believed that mobile will be as big as the web.  That’s a powerful prediction, don’t you think?  It was said that currently there are approximately 490M mobile internet users and that number is expected to grow to nearly 1B by 2011.  Are you planning for that and integrating mobile into your marketing mix? 

 

I’ll close by saying it was a great event that offered networking opportunities, good food (of course) and a focus on innovation, new ideas and improving our current business strategies.  Thanks Ted and AMA!