10 Digital Marketing Resources to Impact Business Success

Derek Mehraban, LA2M founder, CEO of Ingenex Digital Marketing, author and instructor at Michigan State University did exactly what any great teacher would do.  He gave just enough information to educate and tantalize the LA2M audience on April 18^th.  Mehraban chose 10 Digital Resources to Impact Business Success from his handy book, New Media Driver’s License Resource Guide.

Mehraban has taught digital media strategy to over 1000 students and along the way many of those students have suggested informative resources on topics like web design, blogging, SEO and digital PR.  Many of the resources are included in the Resource Guide as well as resources suggested by professional colleagues. 

The book is intended to be used with www.newmediadriverslicenseresources.com which lists web sites that provide more in depth expertise on the topics included in the book.

Derek Mehraban

Mehraban focused first on SEO.  Andrew Miller offers excellent advice on not only standard web site optimization but also mobile optimization in his post http://www.yoursearchadvisor.com/blog/optimized-site-now-what/.  He also explores converting visitors to customers, building email relationships and soliciting feedback.  All of these are important topics for marketers and business owners.

Mehraban pointed out www.techmeme.com as a resource for cutting edge tech news.  The site was started in 2005 by Gabe Rivera as an automated news curation service.  In 2008 Techmeme added human editors to enhance the algorithmic collection method.  Techmeme is considered a leading news source for the fast evolving world of technology.

David Meerman Scott offers his helpful free marketing strategy planning template on his site www.webinknow.com at this link http://www.webinknow.com/2010/07/free-marketing-strategy-planning-template.html.    Mehraban said, “Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.  It’s a long haul discipline of daily tasks” 

The marketing strategy planning template offers a daily marketing to do list to keep marketing and PR efforts on track explained Mehraban.  A diagram of suggested digital marketing tools, strategies and interconnections is also included with the template.

Mehraban said www.Techsmith.com/snagit is a handy tool for capturing and sharing information on your screen with others.  It can be used for instruction, documentation and collaboration.  www.techsmith.com also has video and audio editing and sharing products as well.

Successful and engaging blogging can be a real challenge.  Mehraban suggested reading 50 Can’t Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics at www.copyblogger.com/brainstorm-blog-topics. 

He said, “Blogging is an important tool.  It’s interactive or it could be.  It’s instant, it’s free and it could be at the core of your strategy.”  He used the Ingenex blog www.thedigitalbus.com as an example of a blog working to improve engagement through content.

Mehraban noted www.gregverdino.typepad.com as a resource for understanding the shift in marketing from mass media to micro messaging.  Greg Verdino recommends reaching out to customers and potential customers with individualized, personal marketing, especially Gen Y.  This strategy can be applied to both B2C and B2B. 

In his book, MicroMarketing, Verdino uses the example of Ford loaning 100 new Fiestas to 20 something’s active in social media.  Each participant was required to engage in a series of activities and spread the word through social media contacts.

Included in Mehraban’s book are Greg Verdino’s top picks for social media resources.  Among those are www.DarrenHerman.com.  Herman is a media, advertising and technology entrepreneur.  A link on Darren Herman’s blog connects to a YouTube video of marketing pioneer and genius David Ogilvy. 

Ogilvy talks at length about big media and big agencies using the wrong concept in marketing.  Ogilvy says mass marketing isn’t effective, big media and big agencies don’t think in terms of selling.  He recommends having a direct marketer vet ad copy before it’s presented to a client.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2KSsaTzUc is the link to watch the video.

Mehraban suggested reading a short article on Siliconrepublic regarding the social media strategy of the President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign.  The social media strategy of the campaign revolves around individual interaction, contact and group self selection.  Mehraban recommended visiting www.BarackObama.com to explore the complete array of social media use.

Mehraban’s final recommendation was an article on www.Brainsolis.com entitled The Three C’s of Information Commerce: Consumption, Curation, Creation that is found at http://www.briansolis.com/2010/11/the-three-cs-of-social-networking-consumption-curation-creation/.  The article covers different types of web users, on line behavior and activities, Mass Connectors and Mass Mavens.  Within that context, marketers and businesses need to understand the “egosystem” in order to effectively engage their audience, influence, brand and market.

Y

ou can follow Derek Mehraban at @mehraban.