Category: Sanjoy-MBA student

As a novice to the internet marketing space, I find it really sensible to hear from experts of the industry FIRST before I read and digest everything from the scratch. I want to get the “feel” of e-marketing from the experienced people in this space. Upon request, Todd Mumford from Riverbed marketing gracefully agreed to spend 30 minutes of his valuable time to answer some of my questions. Todd is a search specialist, SEO consultant and online marketer with over 10 years of experience helping businesses to develop and execute on positive growth search revenue channels, with a focus on SMBs and Startups.

Excerpts from the interview with Todd conducted on Friday Nov 7th 2014 at 4 PM.

1. What are the current trends in the field of internet marketing?

The current trend in e-marketing is leaning towards inbound marketing as compared to traditional outbound marketing. Companies do not start sales process very early. Alongside, customers prefer finding and researching companies out of curiosity. They are trained to research and find by themselves. At the same time, customers don’t like encroachment into their space without permission; so outbound marketing is not the favorite in the current scenario.
E.g. – Customers using ad blockers. Customers want to stop ads from interrupting their browsing behavior because ads follow the interruptive marketing strategy and hence annoying.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, helps customers with wide forms of education and information and entertainment. It is a constant, ready way to market the product. It is a way to put your brand out there. There are many marketers in the space who are taking advantage of it. Inbound marketing pulls the customers into the market, a good tool to build the customer’s trust and makes marketing more closely to sales.

2. Who are the typical customers of internet marketing firms?

All firms ranging from professional services to auto industry to tech. industry. Each company wants to make their online presence much relevant. They use internet marketing tools to edit and monitor transactions as opposed to monetary or commercial benefits.

3. Can you compare & contrast between online & offline marketing space?

Outbound marketing was a trend for long time in online marketing space. One example of online outbound marketing is the promotional emails. It’s the education piece [of the customer] that determines what realm to target for; online or offline. For e.g.:- auto industry uses large imagery banners to build brand awareness [which is offline & outbound]. There have been some changes to it. Now the buyer does e-search on which is right brand that meets his/her needs; which makes it relevant for the availability of powerful content in internet.

4. What are the relevant internet marketing needs sought in the market today?

The hot cakes in the market are SEO, content development, social media & marketing consulting. The SEO mostly involves identifying the key aspects of the customer’s brand, the technicalities involved, identifying natural inbound links, potentially dangerous links etc. The content development is another key area which is significantly relevant. We work with clients [developers & mentors] to identify long term content for their site/ blog posts, setup content calendars for inbound visits and to build up content strategy.

5. How do you use the Hub and Bridge Influencers in online marketing?

We first identify the influencers whose social media contributions are typically aligned with the product or service of our client, we’ll have our clients follow them in social media, comment the content they put in, we recommend our client to involve influencers in the process of discovering new products/services, we recommend to co-brand blog posts/reports/ surveys between our clients and influencers, put in meaningful content, engage in interviewing the influencers etc.

6. Can u explain briefly about Landing page conversion, AB split testing etc.? These terminologies are relatively new to me.

Landing page conversion: Creating customized landing pages on a website, identify sections in the website , identify the ones that benefit to the end users so that user takes action in a certain way (for e.g.:- download a particular e-book)
AB Split testing: It is a tool used for landing page optimization. It is based on the approach of multivariate testing. A page goes through lots of variations/revisions and finally that version is retained which has the maximum performance and which impacts marketing in a positive way.

7. Can you talk about some of the ethical aspects of e-marketing? Like talk about Canadian spam law, marketing to children etc.

I appreciate the anti-spam law in Canada. The compliance is important to prevent spammers. It does not add lot of value to get lot of email addresses and bombard customer’s inbox with lot of promotional emails. On the other hand, it makes lot more sense to put in the right content in the website that addresses customer needs thereby catch customer attention while they do search. This will make customer really positive about the website and can add lot of value to the firm’s brand. These days, companies do not want to work with spamming agencies. I think the anti-spamming law will make good impacts in the near future.

8. What do you think as the future of internet marketing? What are the opportunities and challenges?

One of the future of internet marketing is the voice activated search (Siri; for Example) .These days companies move away from traditional marketing norms; everyone needs to be publishers and generate right content so to uphold their brand and survive in the market today. Online marketing should thrive towards developing content that’s more compatible with voice search.
The biggest challenge with internet marketing is its impact on small & medium business .They will only get a smaller portion of the pie. Smaller business will find it expensive to find budget to generate the right website content that can catch people’s attention.

Internet Marketing! As an MBA majoring in marketing at Sauder school of Business, UBC, the reason for taking up this course was to understand to depth and width on how internet can support the marketing of any business. Very recently I started up a tourism consulting business in Vancouver but at a particular stage, the business was stalled because we couldn’t make an “effect” on the web and attract the crowd. We thought it is all about setting up a Facebook page; spread the news to the friends and colleagues to like the Facebook page. We got around 60 likes after much “push” among friends category. But that was it. Nothing happened after that. How it could have been done effectively?

Now a friend of mine, who is the founder director of a software services company based out of Victoria, wanted my help to do the business development for the firm. The company has a layer of software consultancy services and a new software product which is currently in the innovation phase. Well, I need to think about how could I use internet to market their service & product? May be testimonials, may be a short video of the product, and may be a Facebook page? But is that enough? IS my approach smart enough to catch people’s attention in this ever dwindling attention span of internet space?

After the first class of internet marketing, one thing was obvious. I wanted to search & see how the internet marketing is defined today. My search revealed some good insights; internet marketing has three different categories, web marketing, e-mail marketing & social media marketing. While the web marketing is aimed at internet, email marketing talks about marketing via emails and social media marketing is marketing via Facebook, twitter, YouTube etc.

After I did an initial research about it, here is what I found about some recent trends on digital marketing. The first one is location based marketing which makes use of GPS technology to market to the geographical location of the target market. The second one is diversification of social media as much as possible. Video marketing and video targeting are some other trends which is intended to get more customer attention in the ever-crowded digital world .In an essence, digital marketing can only succeed when it freely accommodates new technologies and approaches and, most importantly, puts the priority on user needs. This can be only achieved by making marketing messages smarter and simplistic.

Then I started to analyze some of the concepts I learned in class.  May be the “attention in detail” to the various concepts I learn in class will help me to “connect points” and design a great digital marketing plan  to market my tourism business and  my friend’s software services and product business. Fingers crossed!

Hey Leader! Don’t forget that you are a human-being

One of the very important fact that every leader should know is not to be too hard on himself.  It is important that the leader should not beat himself for “falling off the surfboard” and avoid panic.  By this mindset, he can learn a lot. The failure should be considered as a way to improve the skills and to understand oneself better.

The leader should also ensure not to detach himself from the people around him for the purpose of complying with the wishes of the superior.  The “human” factor always looks for “team working” and the fantastic ideas of togetherness and hence it’s important.  Also, it is important to accept help from colleagues or friends, HR managers or consultants.  The offers of help should not be considered as an “attack” and hence should not be turned back.”Living the life” is also important to the leader as they can use the intelligence, senses and experience to connect with other and “make sense” of the context.

Managers cannot do the best all the time.  Sometimes, they need to “survive”, “cope” or “live” the situation.

Hey Leader! Don’t forget to “Live the moment”

It is important to present yourself as a “knowing” person like where to focus attention, how to work, with whom to work and in which direction the organization should go? At the same time you should put your mind in an inquiring mode by keeping an open mind and asking open questions.

A leader should also be able to face the realities of past and present while discovering the opportunities for the future.  The more a leader can live intensely and at the moment, the more effective they are in managing a “change”. It is also important to take the decisions at the right time and seize the moment.

Leaders should also know how to “manage” the relationship with their subordinates so that the subordinates feel comfortable to attach to them and, at the same time, leaders could stand apart. A leader should know how to navigate between personal goals and organizational goals and sometimes, for effectiveness, it’s always good to put priority on personal goal.  It is also critical to learn how to “effectively” delegate depending on the seriousness of the task. A leader should also show case the self-belief that he would be able to handle the stress of the task and will be able to face challenges and obstacles. There’s always a delicate balance between “being strong” and “too soft” which should be maintained to get the people following the leader be happy.

In a nutshell, there is always a dynamism involved in the moment or situation a leader is in.  To tackle this uncertainty, a leader should be there in the “moment”.  By being in the middle of these, a leader can understand the contextual , group and personal dynamics of the situation which is important to successfully confront the situation.

The relevance of “Creativity” template

Every new product design should start with the “idea” and the “idea” should be the driving force while designing the product.  Here comes the relevance of “creativity templates”(p-1).  The creativity template discovers and traces the regularities associated with creative ideas or products.

For example, the “Compaq computer whose battery is charged by typing on the keyboard and Edison using the ‘energy used for opening gate” to fill up his swimming pool “ is a subset of examples which harnessed the energy source from immediate environment and serves as a good example of “creativity template”.

Traditionally. We have been using the normal methods of product ideation by just analyzing the market. But it has become relevant that the product based information is critical for any new product ideation . In some cases, analysis of the market will give more information whereas in others the analysis of regularities in product changes will be more effective.  There comes the relevance of “Creativity templates” which can be exploited to take advantage of minimum market information by focusing more on the product’s evolution.

In the nutshell, any NEW product idea should focus on the current prototype of the product rather than relying too much on the market research.

 

The perspectives of “Creative template” approach

The “Creativity template” ideation framework has three major perspectives(p-41).

1. The templates underlying product evolution can serve to predict new candidate products.
2. The restricted scope principle, which focus on thinking in pre-defined inventive routes to target creative thoughts.
3. The function follows form principle, which is manifested in the sequence of first proposing new configurations for a product, and then inferring benefits.

 

The “Creativity template” approach vs. other approaches for creativity enhancement

The below describes various creativity enhancement methodologies(p-44)

1. Methods for “management of ideation session” vs. the method which affect or manage cognitive processes (“Creative templates” is in this category).
2. Methods trying to enhance randomness vs. methods that are analytical and focused. (“Creative templates” is in this category).
3. Generalized vs. specific methods. Creativity template approach is narrower and hence stronger whereas generalized methods are weaker because it’s broad.

 

How to implement “Creativity template” for a successful product ideation

1. Setting up the attribute dependency which involves connecting two variables that are not previously connected(p-59). For example, converting disposable diapers into day and night diapers.  The absorbency and comfort needs of the diaper are different at night than in the day time.
2. Replacing the resource or component existing in the system or in its immediate environment (Replacement template) in order to fulfill a necessary role(p-99). For example, the farmers sometimes burn a thorn-field, and the scorched earth serves as a partition stopping the spread of the fire.
3. Eliminating a component from the configuration of a system along with its functions (Displacement template) to create a new product that is targeted to a new market(p-124). For example, Motorola’s Mango cellular phone which does not have the flexibility of an outgoing call. This way Motorola could address the concerns of parents on the excessive use of phones by children that enabled children’s segment to be targeted.
4. By making a new link between a component in the internal environment of the product and a component in its external environment (component control template)(p-134).  The best example is the radiation filtering computer screen where the screen “component” was “controlled” to filter the radiation.

P numbers: All page numbers (P) referenced herein are drawn from the following book: “Creativity in Product Innovation” by Jacob Goldenberg and David Mazursky.

Me & My Community

It’s awesome to be part of a community.  The world today is fast moving, with people finding difficult to “pause” and move.  My association with the JY community has given me lot of mental push, as a professional and as a human being.  The association started in 2002 when I started my college.  Those were the days when I started to be away from paternal care and be my own.   If someone “keeps” you close together protecting you from the “pitfalls”, the relationship will last forever.  That was JY community for me.    Here I am going to tell the story of my JY involvement that evolved from the “taking” mode to the “giving” mode.

Balancing community work and studies

The life of an engineering student is pretty awful due to the huge number of assignments, practical exams, training sessions, club participation and so on.  In fact, as per the GUINNESS book of world records, on 18th august 2010, it has 58 university exams + 130 series exam + 174 assignments within 4 years (max 750 working days).Whew! This is the time when I learned how to “prioritize” things in my life.  The community activities included visiting poor homes, volunteering teenage gatherings, coordinating national/international gatherings and so on.  This demanded lot of time and I truly believe that, during this phase, I did learned lot of lessons on time management and stress management.  It happens that the regional session ends by 6 PM in the evening on Sunday and I have to rush to my college the next day morning with all my assignments completed! During this phase (20-25 age), I started to learn “decision making” as the ministry coordinator of my community.  I was responsible for the audio-visual presentations that was exhibited during the weekly community gatherings on Wednesdays.  The decision making required was on the scripting, actors, costumes and so on. We usually do this in a time span of 1 day and present it to win applause of many. In a nutshell, the community participation during my under graduation stage helped me to start realizing all my leadership and creativity skills.

Community involvement  in a dynamic way

Time flew and, after 4 years of my engineering, I started to work as a software analyst in an IT company. Now I started “applying” my learning in professional life.  Again drama is my core competency and it happened that I took the responsibility to organize a “skit” for the annual gathering of more than 500 job trainees.   The senior management was so happy with my presentation which showcased the core values of my company (with a participation of around 25 people in the skit).  I started to realize that my association with the community had started to “blossom”.

Do you think that branding and self-marketing are integral for the life of a professional? Well, I think, yes.  This was an important management lesson that I learned 6 years back.  I realized that as I leader, all my behavior and attitude should stick on to the “brand value” I created with the association of my community.  I also started to realize that, as a leader, I would need to manage the repercussions from the people (in the way of criticism).  This is probably because of the cultural differences that I encountered during my professional life vs. community life.

My association with the community and “art” still continued as I became the music team coordinator of the community’s IT chapter at my work place.  One interesting thing that I realized is that it’s not critical that you have the right talent and expertise to take up the leadership of a particular role.  Your sincerity, commitment and passion to the entrusted job can make the right “difference”. As the leader of the music team, I focused mainly on “streaming” and “integrating “; streaming the talented resources and integrating the talents under one common umbrella with a flavor  of personal and team achievement.

• Malaysia experience

The Malaysia experience was one of its kind which I would never forget in my life. It was my first “foreign country” experience and I started to meet people who doesn’t talk my language, who doesn’t share the culture I have ,who has different thoughts ,perspectives and expertise .Things were “totally different” and ,as always, my low adaptability to change took me some time to push myself to the front gear. The Asian culture was fully represented in my company with people from China, Indonesia, and Thailand dominating them. The “laa” (traditional Chinese colloquial) was very common and people who doesn’t use “laa” was considered alien. Nevertheless, the community association still continued and I started with “the” activities. The focus was on three things; 1.To bring together all the “under skilled” workers and setup a common platform so that they are not carried away by the effect of drugs, alcoholism etc. 2. To bring together children within the age group 3-10 and to help get trained in their studies and spirituality. 3. Collaboration of local groups with our community so to get benefited from 2 different “cultural” perspectives.  We did a great progress in a span of 3 years and my successors in Malaysia is building on the “foundation stone” .One important achievement worth mentioning is the December trip , with my accompaniment of 35 Malaysian nationalities, to India. Few of them stayed at my house and I could, so awesomely, integrate the cultural factor. They had a great time in India while they participated in the silver jubilee celebrations of the community with 20,000 other people. Many of them thanked me for coordinating such a nice “cultural experience”. In essence, as a leader, I marked my “presence” in Malaysia and it’s a factor of huge psychological satisfaction for me.

 

• In North America

The North American culture beckons me now as I started the new “phase” in Canada . The MBA program from Sauder school of Business would definitely complement my skills and I expect more “qualitative” contribution in future; towards my job, in my friend circles, towards my community and in where ever I am involved.  Stay tuned!!