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“In China, Cigarettes are GOOD for You!”

You can read the full story here.  Here is a quote:

“Cigarettes, according to China’s tobacco authorities, are an excellent way to prevent ulcers. They also reduce the risk of Parkinson’s disease, relieve schizophrenia, boost your brain cells, speed up your thinking, improve your reactions and increase your working efficiency.”

The Internet is full of data.  Make an argument, any argument.  Chances are, you can probably find enough data online to support you on either sides of the argument.  

Businesses all have data, lots of them. They use them to “market” and sell their products. The thing is, it’s nearly impossible to use data from an irrelevant, impersonal source to change my perception, regardless of how professional it may appear to be. So Buick and Jaguar can tie to rank highest for vehicle dependability all they want.  It won’t change the fact that they can’t outsell Toyota and Lexus, and are asking the Government for bailouts.

Marketing online today is about trust, not data.

Buttons, links, and forms

Web pages are generally made of only four things: buttons, links, forms and contents. You could have a great website with just these.

Contents are far more important than the others, combined.  If you have unique, new, and relevant content for a visitor, she is more likely to bear with the poor design of your site; more likely to come back; and more likely to spread the word for you. People usually only care about contents and are willing to overlook everything else if you truly have something that they want.

Building a successful website

The number one rule of building a great website(as of today) is: become number one in your market, or disappear.

…okay, maybe get in the top 3 will do, but still, you want to be number one in your market place. Showing up on page number 5 of a Google search is worthless.  In fact, you are probably better off trying to get on the last page of a Google search than to be somewhere in the middle.

Let’s break this down into two parts:

#1) It is obvious why you want to be number one.  Just take a look at the top 100(or 10,000) websites on the Net now: there is Google, eBay, YouTube, Amazon, etc.  Each serves its unique purpose online, providing unparallel service for their users.  If I need to search, I go to Google; auction -> eBay; video -> YouTube; books -> Amazon.  Until I am convinced that I have found something more suitable, that’s what I will always do.  The most common mistake almost every business makes is that they assume that being 80% as good as Google will get them 80% of the revenue Google generates. Guess what? In today’s world, especially the online world, you are either number one, or you are no one.

#2) Your market.  If you are still assume that your market requires as many people as Amazon, think again!  If you still believe that you need as many customers as eBay to succeed, think again!  It is time to take a (much) closer look at your customer/market.  When in doubt, shrink(no, not expand) your market.  Define, analyze, engage, and impress. Every business needs to do that, and the time is now.

The 4 C’s of Digital Marketing

• Control, or lack thereof – realize that you don’t have control anymore.  Any customer is capable of writing a newspaper(blog), hosting a radio show(podcast), or producing a TV series(Youtube).  They get to choose what they want to say, whenever, wherever and however, and best of all, they are also capable of reaching more audiences than a Super Bowl commercial.

• Connect & Communicate – establish connections with your (best) customers, and connections among them.  Identify your tribes and tell you stories.  Make the stories genuine, relevant, and most importantly, remarkable.  Once the tribe members start spreading your ideas, you win.  Otherwise, you lose.  There is no middle ground.

• Commit – there is no overnight success.  Every overnight success story has years of hard work behind it.  Nor are there any shortcuts.  Every great brand we have seen for the past 10 years is built on stories that their tribe members can relate to and choose to pass on to others.  Make big promises, over-deliver them, and repeat the cycle.