HR & Benefits Visibility Will Never Be The Same

JDM has just launched a new corporate website for HRAdvance. The site, which features valid XHTML table-less markup, positions HRAdvance as the market standard for dependent eligibility and hosted HR visibility solutions provider.

See for yourself at: http://www.HRAdvance.com

HRAdvance’s new website is more than just an online brochure. It combines thought-leadership, solution overviews and integrated sales force automation to help prospective customers quickly understand HRAdvance, their solutions, and the value of the service.

Check it out and don’t forget to give it a grade on the adjacent poll. Also, check back soon to review their flash animation which is nearing completion.

Niche Thyself

Think “everyone” is a potential buyer of your product? Think again and niche thyself.

I know no one wants to be pigeon-holed, but positioning your product or service as everything to everybody is a losing strategy. Instead, focus on your strengths and the audience that stands to benefit the most from them. If you don’t know your ideal customer, research. If your strengths are too varied, categorize them. If your market is homogenous, compete on price and quality.

Besides, your audience has probably already niche you. Challenging that perception with a broad, complex marketing message is like trying to give yourself a nickname. It just won’t stick.

Are TV Ads In Trouble?

Love them or hate them, TV advertising pays for much of the content we love to watch, but could the uneasy truce between TV sponsors and TV viewers soon be broken?

Bob Garfield, ad critic for Advertising Age and co-host of the NPR show On the Media, argues in an article for Slate.com, "the long-standing, two-way partnership between advertising and content is due for a violent rejiggering." As the Internet has strangled traditional newspapers, so too it may traditional TV.

Garfield foresees the classic, 30-second TV spot replaced by interacting with consumers online, analyzing their complaints and desires (as revealed on their blogs, tweets, and website comments) and provide utilitarian information to those who seek it. He dubs his approach, "Listen-omics."

We think he's confirming the paranoid fear of marketing "Ad Nauseam" has been peddling since 1993.

The Truth

People don't hate advertising. People hate irrelevant advertising. Men don't want to see ads for tampons any more than ladies want to see Viagra commercials during their favorite shows.

As more and more channels are offered and viewership becomes increasingly segmented, advertisers can become increasingly targeted with their ads. The more targeted they get, the more relevant the ads become.

Are TV Ads in Trouble?

In their current state, yes. However, the line between TV and the Internet is blurring by the day. Soon, TV will be an interactive advertising medium--perhaps with opt-in ad subscriptions. Now, where have I heard that before (blog post from October, 2007)?

Excerpts from "Is Television Over" by Seth Stevenson

Hybrid Only Car Parking is a Bad Marketing Idea

Over the last few weeks a new JC Penny's in Fairview, Texas has been test marketing "Hybrid-Only" parking spots. Amidst Walmart's plans only to carry sustainable products in its stores, this move by JC Penny's to 'go green' seems to miss the mark.

As parents (JC Penny's target audience) gear up for another school year, they pack the kids into their Suburbans and hunt for a Penny's parking spot only to find the prime 10 spots are for hybrid vehicles only? Look, we're all for fuel-efficiency, but alienating your target audience by forcing them to park and drag their kids 200 yards to your doors is a leap in the wrong direction.

Here's a big marketing idea for Penny's: change the signs to "Family Parking Only," and offer reusable shopping bags tagged with discount bar codes to encourage shoppers to return to their store with the bags for a discount, albeit a smaller one, at checkout.

Using preferential parking as a means to hop on the green ban-wagon is a cop-out and a bad marketing idea.

What do you think? Comment or take our blog poll.

SEO Lies, Myths and Misconceptions

At JDM, we offer SEO services, especially in conjunction with websites we're developing for clients. That said, we have had enough of the rampant lies, myths and misconceptions regarding SEO.

So here are just a few we'd like to put to bed:

Misconception: "Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Guarantees Permanent Top Placement"

Well, this is partly true. Search Engine Advertising, such as Pay-Per-Click (See our post on how BP used PPC), guarantees top placement of relevant ads, but not permanently and certainly not for free.

Fact is, no one can guarantee permanent, top placement. Placement is the sole domain of search engines and they’re success is based on displaying only the most relevant results (be them ads or organic results). What’s more, search engines don’t want the same listings to show up over and over again. To that end, they constantly modify their super-secret search algorithms (sometimes daily).

A search engine professional's job is to stay up-to-date on these changes, but "guaranteed, long-term placement" is a big red flag and a common misconception.

Myth: "Search Engine Optimization's Goal is Top Placement"

This myth is as wide-spread as it is inaccurate. Search Engine Optimization’s goal is to make a site more "findable." At JDM, we call it "Search Engine Visibility". On average, website's only receive 6% to 7% of their traffic from commercial search engines. A site that has undergone Search Engine Optimization should shoot for that number to increase to 10% to 30%—at best. It's important to note that SEO is based on visibility and relevancy. That is, how well a search engine spider can read the site and index it as well as targeting search queries (keywords) that are of maximum relevancy to the site. In other words, if the site doesn't receive the top placement you want, don't just blame SEO—blame the content.

Lie: "META Tags are the 'Secret Sauce' of SEO"

This is our favorite SEO myth. META tags are used by search engine in their results, but their weight on the rank of the site is beyond minimal. Here’s a rule of thumb: if your SEO team thinks their META tags can force search engine spiders to return to your website within a specified period of time, at best, they have no idea what they're doing.

SEO Lies, myths and misconceptions—oh my!

Look, don't get overwhelmed. Just know that all you have to do is develop content for your website that is relevant, timely and informative to your target audience. Trying to hire an SEO expert to out-smart search engines is like hiring an accountant to out-smart the IRS. It just won't end well.