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A Better Method for New Product Launches – Rolling Thunder

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This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in September 2009.

According to research by Schneider Associates, only 38% of b2b product launches are rated “successful” by the companies introducing the new products. After decades of new product launch experience, why such a dismal rate? Why does the following still sound familiar?

“Traditional launches act as big corporate Lighting Bolts, the big Ta Da. We plan big events, create loads of new sales tools and collateral, place those all important ad campaigns. All the while keeping everything in hush, hush secrecy ‘til we near the big day. Then comes the big ‘Ta Da’. Our press release hits the wire, we hold some big chest-thumping event and then start selling our hearts out, having trained the sales force the day or week before. The next day (or week) we go back to business as usual. Exhausted, but assured that we’ve done our jobs. Just look at all the attendees at the launch, that great PR coverage, the acclaims from near and far. Then reality strikes. Revenues are slower ramping than we expected, the sales force cries for qualified leads – and the excitement of the launch day fades to a distant memory. We shake our heads and wonder why we aren’t successful.”

Those are the questions asked, and answered, by marketing strategist Rebel Brown in her new eBook, Rolling Thunder: Powering Momentous Market Launches. She contrasts the traditional “lightning bolt” launch process with a more gradual, momentum-building approach she calls Rolling Thunder.

Lightning-bolt launches simply no longer work as well as they did in the days of information scarcity. Information overload makes it more likely that even big announcements will be missed. The Rolling Thunder approach addresses this by building credibility over time, creating anticipation, and leveraging social media to feed the momentum.


As Rebel puts it, “Successful launches leverage a series of interactions, laying the foundations for market success before the ‘announcement’ ever happens. Great launches build momentum over time to propel a product or company into the market, far above the noise and with sustainable credibility. Rolling Thunder launches increase in power over time, just as a single raindrop becomes a downpour.”

A key requirement of the Rolling Thunder approach is flexibility—the ability and willingness to change messages and tactics based on early market feedback. With the lightning bolt approach, you have one shot at getting your message right, and if it falls flat, the launch is a disappointment. With Rolling Thunder, if the message isn’t quite right at the outset, there is time to make adjustments before your mainstream market is exposed to it.

In addition to laying out an effective launch strategy, Rebel includes some important “don’ts” for a successful launch:

  • Don’t make claims about yourself. Let your customers and other key influencers speak for you.
  • Don’t rely excessively on advertising. It may be part of the mix, but focus on leveraging PR and social media.
  • Don’t bash competitors. Don’t even mention them.
  • Don’t rely on press releases to drive leads. They are part of mix. Used properly, they help build credibility. But relationships, not announcements, ultimately lead to sales.

Want to make your next launch more successful? The Rolling Thunder eBook provides a compelling new framework.

12 Steps to SEO Success

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This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in October 2008.

In an ideal world, SEO would be taken into consideration from the earliest stages of a new website design process, and “baked in” to the site from the start.

(Okay, I take that back; in an ideal world we’d all have movie star looks, be in Olympic athlete condition, and have the net worth of Larry Page, so none of us would worry about arcane things like SEO. But I digress.)

In the real world, however, SEOs are often called in to optimize an existing site, after all of the URLs are created, the navigation is already in place and all of the content is written. While that obviously reduces flexibility and makes certain steps impossible, the site’s search performance can still be improved using this 12-step process.

1. Compile an initial keyword list

This involves two independent activities. First, generate a list of keywords based on the content of each page. Second, ask key individuals in the company (sales, top executives, etc.) for their lists of key search phrases. It’s not unusual to turn up several important 2-4 word key phrases that don’t even appear on the website!

2. Expand, verify and prioritize target keyword list

Use SEO keyword tools to expand your initial list of key words and phrases from step one, then prioritize the list based on search term popularity as well as value to the business. In other words, ask two questions for every key phrase: 1) how popular is this term among searchers? and 2) how likely is it that a searcher using this phrase is looking for what we have to sell?

3. Match keywords to pages

Once the keyword list is established, search terms should be mapped to specific pages. Each page can support, ideally, one “core” key phrase as well as 2-3 long tail variants. So, for example, a page optimized for a high-volume two-word phrase like “blue thingamabobs” could also be the target page for “screaming blue thingamabobs,” “blue thingamabobs sales” and “screaming blue thingamabobs sales.”

An excellent way to start matching keywords to phrases is to use Google Advanced Search. Enter your key phrase in the box for “this exact wording or phrase:” and your domain (in the form company.com) in the “Search within a site or domain:” box. If no good matches are found, you may need to rewrite an existing page to target the key phrase or even create an entirely new page.

4. Review URLs / Modify content and meta tags

Modifying URLs on an existing site is much more painful than using a search-friendly URL in the initial design, but can be worth the effort if the initial URLs were chosen with no regard for SEO. For example, if you sell call recording software, then a URL like call-recording-software.html is much more likely to get you ranked highly by the search engines than is a URL such as products.html.

In addition to URLs, perform other on-page SEO work to optimize each page for its corresponding set of target key phrases by optimizing title tags, on-page headings (h1, h2 etc. tags), use of key phrases in bold and italic, and a target keyword density of 1.5% to 4%.

5. Perform initial SEO check (baseline)

With on-site SEO tasks completed, it’s time to perform a baseline SEO check. This is like the “before” photo in a weight loss ad. Run you final list of key terms through an automated tool such as the SEO Chat keyword position tool or the SEOBook Rank Checker tool. The results probably won’t be pretty, but they are important, so save this check and back it up.

6. Re-submit site to search engines / Create and register Google site map

It’s true that unless you somehow have managed to create a site that absolutely no one links to, there is no need to manually submit your site to the search engines; they’ll find it (eventually). However, this step doesn’t hurt, it can get your re-indexed more quickly, and it only takes five minutes to hand-submit a site to Google, Yahoo and Bing, so there’s no real reason not to do this.

Next, create and submit an XML site map for Google. Again, there’s no guarantee this step will improve your search engine positioning, but it will help Google to index more of the pages on your site.

7. Identify sites for linking: by keywords and competitors

Perform searches for your top key terms as well as competitor names. Compile a list of sites for link-building efforts based on these searches.

8. Build external links

External links are a critical component of SEO. In addition to getting your site linked from appropriate directories and social media sites, undertake an effort to get your site linked on sites that show up well for searches on your key search phrases (such as blogs, publications, portal sites and specialized directories) as well as on sites where your competitors are listed. In this post you’ll find several more tactics for SEO link building.

9. 30-day SEO check and report

These on-site and off-site SEO efforts should begin to show results within 2-3 weeks, but give it a month to be safe. After 30 days, run an updated search position check. Normally, this will show a mix of significant improvement in search engine position on some terms, more moderate improvement on others. The results will indicate for which terms additional efforts are needed.

10. Ongoing content edits

Based on the results of the 30-day SEO check, make additional content edits to improve search engine positioning for your “challenging” terms. These include title tag modifications, image alt tags and image file names, internal in-text links, on-page headings and page content.

11. Ongoing link building

Link building is a process; over time, you’ll discover new sites and blogs to approach for links, develop new link bait content (articles, podcasts, video etc.), and establish new relationships that can facilitate links.

Make sure to maximize the link-building value of your PR efforts as well by writing SEO press releases with keyword text links. (Here are more tips for writing search optimized press releases.) Use social PR practices to get your news linked from blogs and social bookmarking sites.

12. Monthly SEO checks / Ongoing reporting, analysis and optimizing

Monitor and analyze the results of your SEO efforts on a monthly basis, so you can bask in your successes and focus continuing efforts where needed. Review critical website analytics each month such as sources of traffic, top-performing keywords and navigation paths through your site. SEO isn’t just about driving more traffic, it’s ultimately about producing ROI, so focus efforts on getting visitors to take a desired action (purchase a product, sign up for a free trial, download a white paper, or whatever). If, for example, you’ve written a keyword-rich article on “Exciting New Applications for Screaming Blue Thingamabobs” that’s drawing a lot of organic search traffic, maximize the benefit of the page by linking to relevant white papers, demos and other materials on your site.

There you have it. If you’re relatively new to SEO, I hope you find these 12 steps helpful. If you’re an SEO pro, feel free to improve on this list by leaving a comment.

Social Media Expertise Without Experience?

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This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in April 2009.

In most areas of life, experience with a particular field of endeavor is considered a vital component of expertise. If you needed surgery, for example, you’d probably prefer to have it done by someone who had performed many surgeries before than by an individual who’d merely read quite a bit about medicine.

When it comes to social media, however, MarketingSherpa reported yesterday that a majority of marketers don’t believe any experience is necessary to be a social media expert. According to their report, “two-thirds of marketers who work for organizations that have not used any form of social media marketing or PR consider themselves ‘very knowledgeable” or “somewhat knowledgeable’ about this emerging strategy. Their overconfidence in unproven ability can doom social media initiatives to failure.”


The article goes on to state, “Clearly, there is a disconnect between personal exposure and professional ability that is unique to social media. And this disconnect is one of the most critical dangers to the successful adoption of social media as a marketing strategy. This was confirmed in MarketingSherpa’s Social Media Marketing and PR study where we found that the ‘lack of knowledgeable staff’ was the most significant barrier to social media adoption…A better approach to adopting this strategy is to seek the advice of an agency or consultant specializing in social media if no one within your organization has proven experience.”

I was recently part of a LinkedIn discussion about what constitutes social media expertise. The general consensus was that the field is so new and still changing so rapidly that almost anyone can claim to be an expert, dubious as that label may be in most cases. Still, most companies could save money and get a better return on their social marketing initiatives by bringing in an outside firm or consultant with some experience, who has clear concepts of social media strategy and an outline of services that can be provided.

Ultimately, social media marketing is an in-house activity. No outside expert will ever be able to carry on in-depth conversations about your industry or products the way your own subject matter expert employees can. But an experienced consultant can help create an appropriate strategy for your business, select the right social media tools, and train your staff so you can minimize costs, avoid missteps, and maximize the return on your social media marketing efforts.

The 6 C’s of an Effective Social Media Profile

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A key component of web presence optimization, or webbiquity, is writing and posting an effective online profile. This is equally true for consultants, individual proprietors any executive or public-facing employee in a company. Your profile is not only a key tool in selling you services or organization, but also a gateway to additional information about your expertise or products. It should be a little bit about you and a lot about your, or your firm’s, unique value proposition.

An effective online profile has six critical characteristics:

social-profile-logosCurrent: The information you share about yourself and/or your company should be revised regularly to keep it up to date. A profile that contains old or obsolete information is not only misleading, it just plain looks bad.

Complete: This doesn’t mean a profile needs to contain every detail of your life; most people probably don’t care where you went to junior high for example, and extraneous information only dilutes and unnecessarily lengthens a profile. It does mean, however, that an effective profile should contain all of the information your “customers,” whether they be buyers, investors, potential clients or hiring managers, donors, peers and others can find all of the essential and expected information about you there, including a photo, contact information and links to related resources.

Concise: This may seem to be the opposite of the previous point, but it’s not: again, your profile needn’t contain excessive detail, just the essential information you want people to know. It should include your or your company’s unique value proposition, for example, but doesn’t need to include every proof point for every product or service value statement. You may want to include some client success examples, but don’t need to post a complete client list. And you may want to share some background about your organization, but don’t need to include a detailed company history. Basically, people are busy—tell `em everything they need to know, but no more than that.

Competent: An effective online profile should be crafted as carefully as a resume (which effectively, it often is). Be careful to avoid typos and misspellings, use complete sentences, proper grammar, and appropriate vocabulary. Mistakes will reflect poorly on you and your company. A poorly crafted profile may be viewed as a sign of sloppy workmanship and lack of attention to detail.

Compelling: While a profile should of course be factual, it shouldn’t be a mere collection of facts. Why are you, your company, your products and/or services special? What unique benefits will someone gain from hiring you or buying your goods? An effective profile should make the reader want to learn more or take some other action.

Connected: Take advantage of the opportunity in your online profile to link to additional resources—your blog, YouTube channel, website, Twitter account, even other online profiles. This not only drives direct traffic to those venues but also provides SEO benefit.

A carefully crafted online profile extends your presence on the web and communicates the qualities you want readers to take away about you or your organization: professional, thorough, knowledgeable and helpful.

Google Drinks Fighting Problem

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Originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in May 2008.

Google is screwed up. I say that not to be in any way disparaging of the world’s most important search engine and online advertising platform (after all, it’s a major source of my blog traffic!), but rather out of sincere, heartfelt concern. SEOs and online advertisers can no longer dismiss the search giant’s recent acting up as “just a phase,” or a bit of eccentricity; it’s time for some tough love. Yes, our friend Google is in need of…an intervention. Things have reached the point where anyone involved in interactive marketing can recognize the classic signs of a serious abuse problem:

Wild Mood Swings and Erratic Behavior

The search position held by any particular page for any specific term has always fluctuated somewhat over time, but lately the ranking swings have become unusually unstable and pronounced. For example, on one site that I do SEO work for, I watched one page go from 49th position for a particular term, to the #9 spot, then back to page five in a matter of weeks—with no changes made to the page.

That experience is by no means unique. As Jaan Kanellis recently wrote in Google Previous Query Reason For Crazy Google Rankings? on SiteProNews, “I swear I must answer these types of questions two dozen times on forums/blogs every week. ‘Where did my rankings go?’ ‘Why do I rank #4 one hour and then #44 the next hour?'”

Difficulty Getting Along with Others

While search results of course vary across the different engines as each uses its own unique algorithms, one nevertheless expects similarity in results when the search phrase being used has a clear market leader. For example, on a search for “free credit report,” Experian’s FreeCreditReport.com shows up within the top three results on almost any search engine.

To an increasing degree over the last couple of months, however, Google returns very different results than the other leading search engines, even when the others agree. For example, on a series of similar phrases, MSN and Yahoo consistently displayed one particular company’s website on the first page of their results, while Google seemed to have a much more difficult time finding it:

Results like this seem to suggest either that Google’s algorithm is no longer as accurate as MSN’s or Yahoo’s, or an explanation even more sinister, as suggested in The Google Voice: Free Speech in Search, a recent post from StraightUpSearch.

Confusion and Disorientation

Now, one might argue that Google’s results differ from other search engines because its algorithms are actually better than Yahoo’s or MSN’s. Perhaps, and Google certainly has no requirement to return results similar to other search engines—but it should at least agree with itself. But it doesn’t; it’s not unusual for Google to return wildly different results for arcane and extremely similar search terms.

For example, this is how one website showed up in search results across the three largest engines for searches on five very similar phrases. Note that Yahoo and MSN display results that are not only very similar to each other, but internally consistent as well, while Google’s results for this site are all over the place:

There are also instances where the same SEO techniques applied to different pages on a single website produce dramatically different results on Google. Disturbing.

Problems Performing Simple Tasks

The search giant has experiences reporting glitches across it’s AdWords and Analytics toolsets as reported by Ian Lurie in Google Analytics Is Losing E-commerce Data: Don’t Panic?!! on the Conversation Marketing blog. Here’s Google’s acknowledgment of the issue:


And the problems are not only on the reporting side; FTP publishing failed and spit back error messages on Blogger for four days before Google Support finally corrected the glitch. That’s a heck of a bender.

Changing Its Story

It’s not uncommon for someone with “a problem” to tell different stories to different people, or change details over time. This is apparently another warning sign for Google—are external links important or not? They still certainly appear to be, though Google has changed its tune on the issue, as reported on a Marketing Pilgrim post from Andy Beal, Google Officially Removes Link Building from “SEO?”. Why?

And Finally…Denial

The first step is getting help is of course admitting one has a problem. Unfortunately, there have been no signs of that yet from our friend. In Introduction to Search Quality on the Official Google Blog, Google VP Engineering – Search Quality Udi Manber, (a clearly brilliant and no doubt quite decent guy), defends the company’s secrecy, writing that “We are, to be honest, quite secretive about what we do. There are two reasons for it: competition and abuse.” Fair enough, and no one should expect Google to give away its most valuable secrets. But given all of the above—wild rankings swings, inconsistency, glitches in simple functions—is it too much to ask for an explanation of this bizarre behavior?

Roger Janik tries to sort this all out in What’s Important to Know About the Google “Dewey” Algorithm Update on PromotionWorld, writing:

    “This past update which came roaring in during March and April wreaking havoc to all SEO’s deserves a name like a great storm- this one named ‘Dewey’…For most SEOs and general web surfers Dewey was extremely easy to spot. It only took a few searches to realize that something was off kilter and to many SEOs totally out of whack…One of the first alarm bells that went off was that many of the quality old sites that we love and nurture suddenly disappeared from the top ranking positions to pages in the tens or twenties of the index. This very unfortunate fact sent many SEOs into panic mode. Many web surfers and SEOs noticed that searches were not nearly as relevant as before. For many, it seemed that Google was tipsy, spewing out half baked results for straight forward queries.”

Given how freakish the last couple of months have been on Google search, perhaps Doozey would have been a better code name. Or Britney.

Therapy Needed

Google is too important to be allowed to slip through the cracks into dysfunction and disrepute. Every day, millions of marketers and tens of millions of searchers turn to Google to provide reliable, accurate search results. Maybe counseling is required, maybe a 12-step program, perhaps even forced commitment. Because, as we’ve all bee told repeatedly, friends don’t let friends drive (web traffic) drunk.

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