Apple iAd Steve Jobs demo

You see the above video?  In it, Steve Jobs is showing off the new Apple iAds, a direct competitor to Google AdSense and other ads that “just suck” on mobile devices.  For the desktop, “search is where it’s at,” asserts Jobs– but mobile devices are about apps, not search.  Given that the average iphone or ipod touch user spends 30 minutes a day on their device, if you show ads every 3 minutes, that’s 10 ads per user per day.  With 100 million users, you have 1 billion ad impressions per day.

Jobs claims that iAds are superior to traditional text ads because they are more engaging and interactive– possessing the emotional content of TV, but with perhaps even more interactivity than the web and TV (which has no interactivity). iAds also are built into the iphone operating system, so that when shown, they do not yank the user out of where they were, but are built right in.  He asserts that iAds will have a higher CTR because of this.

Then Steve Jobs went on to demonstrate a couple showcase ads that Apple made– one with Toy Story 3 and then a Nike ad.  Both featured video, a game, an app download, photo gallery, and other ad widgets.  Very impressive and clearly not something that a small business could ever dream of affording to create– any more than they could produce the next Pirates of the Caribbean film.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES?

As a local business, your advertising dollars have to drive more business– measured in phone calls, coupon redemptions, information requests, and more people walking into your store, office, restaurant or establishment.  These iAds are basically supercharged TV commercials that don’t encourage conversion.  You’re not trying to promote a theatrical release, the new 2010 Air Jordan shoe, or other entertainment product.   If you’re a dentist, personal injury attorney, roofer, veterinarian, or other type of local business– odds are that your business is not quite as exciting.

For BlitzLocal, we think that driving you more measurable business is quite exciting.  However, the iAd will not be relevant to small business until there are pre-made templates that allow businesses to create video with no more than a few clicks. If you think getting small businesses to create a 90 character text ads for Google AdWords is hard, try getting them to customize an interactive experience.

Enter Google to the rescue from out of the blue– Search Stories gives us a glimpse of how simple templates might actually work.  Watch my 30 second example here. Now imagine if businesses could fill out a single registration form, upload a few images, choose a music type, and BAM— they have an interactive video experience that can be posted to their Facebook, Google AdWords, Google TV Ads (yes, you can buy network TV time from AdWords), Facebook, and perhaps even the iPhone (if they ever allowed flash, as opposed to HMTL5).

In terms of the advertising battle between Google and Apple– I pick Google to continue to win in the small business space, while Apple grows with big brands that have big budgets.  The key to unlocking the local markets is simplicity– and while Apple is renowned for creating simplicity in user interface design, they do not have a demonstrated track record in advertising yet.  Players such as AdReady and TurnHere are making inroads in templated display ads and video, but have a long ways to go.

The point of being on a mobile device is taking advantage of a consumer that is on the move and likely to be spending money.  The phone knows where you are, so why not have a template that incorporates location into a local lead gen template?  Clearly, Apple is going after the big advertisers that don’t care about location, except for a token mapping application.  But for the millions of local small businesses out there– it’s a wide open field.

If anyone has experience with iAds or wants to add to this discussion, I welcome comments.

Whoa, I just logged into my Google Analytics and see it in Korean.  I hadn’t changed my browser’s language settings, logged in as another user, or had dinner at my favorite Korean restaurant.

I have seen this kind of unexpected personalization from Facebook before, where sometimes they change your language settings based on where you’re coming from. It reminded me of a conversation I had with the CEO of PeekYou yesterday.  We were talking about how Facebook will often nudge you to reconnect with friends you haven’t spoken to in a while. 

Given the amount of data that Google and Facebook have about you, could you imagine walking out of the grocery store — then seeing Facebook send you a text message saying “Hey, you should have bought Miller Lite at Albertson’s, you idiot– it’s $5 cheaper per case there!”  

With applications (games, really) that combine mobile, social, and local– people are broadcasting what they’re doing, where they are, and what businesses they frequent, so it’s actually possible to do that now.  Do you have a rewards card via your favorite supermarket, airline, or hotel?  Now imagine you earn extra points by signing into that program’s Facebook application.  

Would you do it?

P.S.– while most of the words are in Korean, you can still mouse over the links to see the words in English.  Thank goodness that urls are in our alphabet.  And then notice that “Conversion University” is not spelled out in Korean– maybe there’s not a translation for that!

This is a guest post from David Kenward, the Mental Coach.  I’ve chatted with him a few times and see how his services can add amazing value to help folks perform under pressure, whether sports or business.  Watch the videos on his site to see…

In the film Chocolat, the protagonist (who made chocolates and owned a small retail chocolate store) had a specialty of finding each person’s favorite chocolate treat.  She was doing what she was best at and worked with people who came in because they wanted what she provided.

I wonder what would have happened if someone would have come into her store and said they didn’t like chocolate, or didn’t know if they did or didn’t have enough money to buy, but wanted her to spend her valuable time and resources on them while good customers (who like chocolate, have money and want to buy) would be forced to wait and might leave the store in frustration without making a purchase.

Does this happen in your business?  Do you know what you are best at, but waste your time with potential customers who really aren’t a good fit?  I used to do this because I know the specialized service I provide (helping people overcome mental blocks holding them back) is what I’m best at and can help nearly everyone.

But, what I discovered is that many potential customers either don’t think they have a problem or don’t really want to fix it.  Also, like the great article on the “Five Magic Words to Grow Your Business” pointed out, a lot of people don’t have the resources to fix it, don’t want to invest in themselves to fix it or discount the value of the service.

I would feel bad because I know how helpful my service is and so I’d reduce my fees and try to convert every customer (even those who were just a bad fit).  The result was I didn’t have many good customers, my profit didn’t reflect the value of my service, the business was stagnant and I felt really frustrated.

Then I gave myself a business reality check, revisited the phrase: “I don’t have to hit my head against the wall to know it’s going to hurt” and embraced the concept of those “Five Magic Words.”  I increased my fees to reflect the value of my service, created a screening process to find the potential customers who would be a good fit and spent my time and effort on them.

The result is happy customers, increased profit and my business continues to grow.

Take a step back and look at your business – are you doing what you are best at and spending your time and resources on the right customers, the ones you really want, the ones that will help your business grow?  If not, give yourself a reality check and re-tool if you need to.  This is the road to consistently staying focused, motivated and on-track and enjoying your business.

Online Marketing is like Monopoly.

In the game of Monopoly you roll the dice, land on property, buy un-owned property, pay rent, develop property, collect rent and pass go. The problem many people have with this game is that they leave the game to luck and many hate the game because they rely on luck.

“I hate Monopoly, it’s all about luck.”, “It’s about the dice and buying the property first.”

If you feel that way about Monopoly, then I’m sorry, but you are missing some key elements and you are focusing on the wrong things and you will most likely lose.

Get a property.

Fortunately the online game of marketing removes some of those barriers for you. Online you have similar opportunities to buy property and develop property. Luckily you don’t roll a die to buy a property! But if someone else got there first then you are out of luck. Game over. Pack up. Go home. …OR, get the whole picture. The property, while key, is only one element. When I play Monopoly I typically don’t even go for Boardwalk, I go for the two brown ones right after GO. What you can’t recall the names of the cheap brown properties? That would be Mediterranean and Baltic, in the classic version. Internet Branding isn’t everything. There are plenty of people making money off of “Free” wordpress blogs, ebay, squido pages, Blogger Blogs, and so on.

Don’t really wholly on luck. If you really wholly on luck then you will lose when your luck runs out.

Develop your property.

The only way to make money in Monopoly is by collecting rent from visitors and passing Go… okay, minus the chance beauty pageant. FAT CHANCE! There are more beautiful people in the world then there are actors, models, and superstars combined. To collect rent you have to get visitors. To collect more rent you have to develop your property, i.e. target those visitors, direct visitors to goal. Ask Tim Ash about directing visitors, or just read his book. Targeting visitors can be the hunting portion. PPC and SEO fall under targeting practice. Directing visitors is getting them to buy, sign-up, call, or convert. If you don’t have a goal then you are not playing the game. It may be repetitive, but I am going to say it again, “Do you want visitors or do you want customers?” Yes, there is the argument that you must have visitors to get customers… Blah, Blah, Blah, …And what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Clearly you must have visitors to your property to collect rent. But if you are not watching the game and they move on before you collect rent then you lose. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR VISITORS IF YOU WANT TO COLLECT RENT. That’s really what Landing Page Optimization is all about. It’s “Listening to your Customers.” Every great company listens to their customers. …Okay, there are “nice players” that will pay you rent even when you don’t ask them to. So, you can leave your property undeveloped and wait for those nice people that will pay you on occasion. And most people aren’t that nice! So we are not talking about domain squatting here; we are talking about developing your property by optimizing your site.

Make Money: Win the Marketing Game

Never lose site of the whole picture. Don’t get too caught up in a few small details. A sports car is made up of thousands of parts working together. All playing a role. All important. But to go off on just how important the exhaust is and only work on the air flow out, while ignoring air flow in, will only make you look ignorant and or arrogant. So can make money by, speeding around the board in your sports car, or by building your property to collect more rent, or sell later.

Some key elements to Monopoly Strategy.

1- Get a monopoly.

2- Cash flow.

3- Negotiate.

Most people that rely on luck or think Monopoly is all about luck only see the first element and totally miss the second two. How often do the two losers join forces to beat the big guy? That’s negotiation. The two little guys are negotiating. Asking for 3 free stays on their properties to cover their rent, may be better than letting them sell out real cheap to the other players.

Creating a Monopoly Online

Creating a monopoly online usually requires you to find a monopoly waiting to be had and dominating it before it ever appears on the radar. These obviously are rare and like the cheap brown spots, often not worth as much. Take for instance Austin Scorpion Control. Many websites will have more visitors an hour then that website will have in a month. But, it will be hard to take over their positions on Google. And while the positions where cheap when they were undeveloped and unnoticed, the cost now is a bit higher. Not to mention the fact that you would need an exterminator that actually wants and likes to take on scorpion problems. Most exterminators don’t specialize in scorpion control. The second way to gain a monopoly, NEGOATION. Have you tried searching “cheap domain name” online lately? Godaddy and its affiliates own most of the first page of Google. That’s a monopoly. Or you use Godaddy’s other tactic to gain a Monopoly…MONEY. Big super bowl ads. Lots of Money. Big SEO campaigns, lots of money. Going for a monopoly on Atlanta Pest Control is a lot harder than a monopoly on Alpharetta Pest Control, a North Atlanta, GA suburb. Therefore the money required to get there is a lot more. But what about the Negotiation? Hey, if you have a valuable piece of a monopoly that I want and I have a piece of a monopoly that you want, then let’s negotiate. Make a deal and trade. I could care less if you create a monopoly for home security systems in Chapel Hill. All I care about is bug control. I want a monopoly for Pest Control in Raleigh. What do know, we share matching properties… Chapel Hill, NC and Raleigh-Durham, NC. So I help you get your monopoly and you help me get mine. The catch is you have to be willing to let go of your property and link juice in exchange for the monopoly you really want.

There are powers that be that control small monopolies online in Direct TV, local locksmiths, unique travel accommodations, do-it-yourself pest control products, and chicken coops. You laugh, but that chicken coop guru is laughing all the way to the bank!

On the Senate floor in California is a bill to make the white pages opt-in only, reversing a 1995 bill that mandated distribution of these books as part of universal service.  What’s ironic about this bill is that the process of getting it passed and then shared with the California population is that they’ll kill plenty of trees in the act of printing notifications.  That almost as if spammers were to broadcast to their entire email list that they’ll not spam anymore.

Makes you wonder when the next shoe will drop for the yellow pages publishers– though they’re claiming that things are dandy. Notice that RH Donnelly has exited bankruptcy?  The CEO of the new company, David Swanson, now called DEX One, said this:

“There’s a shift to these other media — Internet, search engine, mobile or voice, but it is a slow evolutionary process. It’s not nearly as radical a change as I think many people would like to believe,

And I would have to agree– this shift will take time, as technology is not the limiting factor.  Yell echoes the same sentiments.

So spam is not dead by a long shot, whether it’s those unwanted book at your door, irrelevant email in your inbox, or misleading ads on your Facebook.  These guys will continue to make money and perhaps evolve into more sophisticated players that begin to deliver personalized advertising with enough relevance that people actually want it.  Stay tuned!

Gather some interesting statistics and then make a chart out of it– and you’ve got yourself an Infographic.  Examples are showing a map of the world and income for each country displayed by green bars.  Or perhaps it’s the price of gasoline over the last 2 years graphed against milk prices to show some interesting trend.  The goal of an InfoGraphic is to visually stimulate people with statistics and get them to tell their friends or blog about it.  A few days ago, I saw an InfoGraphic showing the percentage of times people tweet after having sex. Certainly that drew some attention, although I’m not sure how accurate their methodology is.  It’s not as if you can set up hidden cameras in bedrooms across the world to measure this.  The percentage is 36% in that study, by the way, if you’re wondering.

There are 4 steps to getting this done:

1. Get the raw data-- some folks will do a survey, which is easy enough to do via Facebook and twitter.  Just do a web search and you’ll see a number of sites that allow you to create free or inexpensive polls. The plus– polls are easy and you can get data fast.  The cons– massive sampling bias, as you’re not getting a random sample, plus your sample size is likely too small to have statistical significance.  The best results are where you can scrape from a large dataset– but this may require you to spend money to get that data via a gnip, addtoit, or other service. Some are free and some require no programming.
2. Crunch it– slice, dice, and manipulate the data.  Some Excel wizardry– or SQL queries if you have a larger data set and need to load it into a database– and you have your aggregates.  Group by keyword, geography, type of user, or other attribute.
3. Make an image-- Easiest and most common tactic is to do a map overlay. For example, look at the beer drinkers in America by state.  Or you can do something silly, such as The Onion’s mockery of MySpace’s privacy. Not a great designer?  Just find someone on rentacoder or odesk for $100, telling them what imagery to imitate.  If you’re doing an Infographic on how many cups of coffee Americans drink, broken out by state.
4. Promote the heck out of it: If you’ve done the previous 3 steps right, you’ll go viral. Make sure that nobody can nail you on poor methodology– bad sampling, incorrect assumptions, or other flaws in your research. Blog about it, get your friends to Digg it, post it on your Facebook and Twitter.  A good headline here can make or break the result. 

If you generate enough controversy or have something hilarious and/or interesting, then watch this go viral– and the links to your site will start flowing.  Brent Csutoras, the best social media linkbuilder on the planet (in my opinion), told me that he can sometimes get tens of thousands of links from a single post.  That includes a smattering of PR7 and PR8 links– if you hit a home run. But perhaps a typical viral campaign will generate just a few hundred links– you never really know. 

Now compare those results against trying to buy links or reaching out to bloggers one at a time. Even if you could buy links without getting in trouble, what would the comparable cost be?  Matt Cutts, the Google spokesperson for SEO, says that this link building methodology is completely white hat and legitimate.

So what are you waiting for?  What interesting factoids and tidbits can you assemble for the website that you’re trying to promote?

Here is an article from TechCrunch showing Sully’s crash-landed plane in the Hudson.  Above it is an ad for United Airlines, which shares a miles program with US Air.  Is that good ad targeting or perhaps not?

I stopped in at a Jack in the Box today and noticed no employees at the register.  Customers were ordering through a kiosk.  This beautiful touch-screen marvel spoke in English and Spanish and upsold you at every turn– would you like bacon on that?  How about upgrading to a large?  Just a little more for seasoned fries! 

A couple hours ago, I had a similar experience checking in at the airport– except I had to swipe my credit card first and then they asked if I wanted to upgrade to first class.  Same thing at the supermarket, where they eliminate clerks (who aren’t going to reliably and aggressively upsell every customer in that cheery voice), but also will tell you that there’s an unexpected item in the bagging area.

  If you’re at least in your 30s or have watched older cartoons, you might remember the Jetsons.  They had a touch screen display where the family could order dinner items, too. To make the analogy complete, Jack in the Box would merely have to automate the back of the store, too– to have a factory method as efficient as Toyota making Camrys with robotic precision.

Trouble is, as great as this utopia sounds (if you’re a fan of Deming or other efficiency gurus), in practice, it’s not so simple. The fellow ordering above tried to order a value meal no less than 4 times– not being able to navigate the menus and submenus and finally giving up.  It’s not easy for everyone, even with picture menus.  Sometimes you just need a human involved.

But in the long run, I believe that social game dynamics will simplify a complex process, whether it’s buying a hamburger, checking in at an airport, getting your annual physical at the hospital, or configuring your local search campaigns. Games and points will make complex processes easier, especially those that don’t appear to have video game dynamics at first thought.

Watch the gaming models permeate nonprofit fundraising, factory methods– or maybe even serious stuff such as CPR training.  Do you remember when McDonalds first implemented those timers next to each cash register, so that everyone could plainly see how many seconds the average order was per cashier?  You’ve taken a mundane, hourly job and turned it into a video game because now there’s a score.  No other process improvements or bonuses for better service– there’s just an added element of measurement. And that’s enough.  Imagine adding a timer next to airport check-in counters. Think it would work?

Any system or set of processes is really nothing more than a video game– as it contains a series of rules with rewards and punishment, with accompanying stimulation. A Las Vegas slot machine is nothing more than a malfunctioning ATM.  That blue collar timecard punch clock is the most boring video game ever— as it doesn’t blink, make satisfying sounds, or dump coins into the collection tray in exchange for good work.  

Is there something in your business or your life that can be made more pleasurable or efficient by re-evaluating it from the lens of game dynamics?

Want to know what’s one of the hottest areas in local?  Medical marijuana dispensaries.  I read in today’s Denver Post that dispensaries are popping up everywhere. The license fee is only $3,000 and there is no cap on the number of dispensaries that can open.  This land grab is a result of Amendment 20, passed a decade ago.  

So if you want Denver medical marijuana, it’s easy. You can fill out your forms online and even have your pot delivered to you.– maybe they’ll have a 30 minute guarantee to see if it can beat the Dominos guy.  And there’s even a referral program, where you earn free pot for referring friends– no limit on referrals either. I don’t see this program being a part of Commission Junction or Affiliate.com anytime soon, but you do have to consider what the economic impacts of this are.

The fact that there’s no limit in Colorado on how many dispensary licenses can be granted is in favor of the consumer– there is more competition.  However, should there be a price war, it would cause a shift in the illegal market for marijuana, forcing drug dealers to get licenses and, in effect, legalizing the sale of marijuana.  One dispensary even has a low price marijuana guarantee.  Not sure how that works– perhaps you have to bring in a coupon from a competitor or a note from the guy on the street corner?

And what about advertising?  Will all these new businesses advertise on “pot” versus “marijuana”, since most stoners can’t spell properly?  I can just imagine all the people shopping for pots and pans now seeing a sale on pot– but not getting what they expected.  It’s just like my friend who wanted to buy sporting goods at Dicks and typed in dicks.com– oops.

What’s also interesting is that the $3,000 annual license fee was set based on what they charge Denver strip clubs– which maybe says something about their feelings toward this type of business.  And the requirements for getting a license are somewhat loose– you can’t have a criminal record and also have to be of good “moral character”.  At least folks can’t open dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school or daycare– else the city I love is quickly going to pot.

Update: In 2008, the Colorado Department of Health processed 5,000 new medical marijuana cards– and it took them 10 days to process cards.  In just this past week, they have received 1,800 applications and are now backed up to 12 weeks to process card.  It would appear that something is out of control. Are there really that many more people suffering from cancer, AIDS, or another type ailment?

If local advertising companies aren’t already quaking in their boots with Google’s recent blitz of new enhancements in local– Place Pages, Favorite Places, Caffeine, ad extensions, sitelinks, Fixed Fee Listings (yes, the beta was over due to poor performance), and so forth.  

We’ve known for a few months that you can do Pay Per Call on Google AdWords.  You merely set up a mobile PPC campaign targeting anything but phones that have rich web experiences– so basically anything but an iphone.  And then you can specify a phone number instead of a url.  Thus, a click is a call– and now you’re doing Pay Per Call.

Today, Google AdWords Support sent out a blast email saying that your phone number can appear in your mobile ad on full web browser phones– so they’re extending this feature to iphones.  Now that’s scary.

// begin AdWords letter

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We’re pleased to announce that beginning in January, your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website.

How will phone numbers appear in my ads?

Based on the customer’s geographic location, the phone number and closest business address will appear as a fifth line of ad text when the ad appears on mobile devices with full HTML browsers (e.g. iPhone, Android, Palm WebOS).  

Where will I be able to see the results?

At launch, you’ll be able to view calls from your ads on your Campaign Summary page within AdWords from the “click type” segment option under the “Filter and Views” drop down. 

How will I be charged for phone calls I get from my ad?

The cost of a click to call your business will be the same as the cost of a click to visit your website.

What actions should I take?

If you’d like your ads to show location-specific phone numbers when displayed on mobile devices, make sure that your campaign is targeting iPhones and other mobile devices with full HTML browsers, and that you have included phone numbers with your business addresses in the locations under your Campaign settings.

If you would prefer your ads not show phone numbers, simply remove the phone number from the business listings included in your campaigns targeting mobile devices.

We hope this new feature enables you to connect more easily with your potential customers. If you have any questions or feedback, please email us at ctc-feedback@google.com. 

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team

Google Inc.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway

Mountain View, CA 94043

// end Google AdWords letter

Also consider also how Google’s market share in Local has increased from 15% to 26%, making them the clear leader in local now (they weren’t last year– it was SuperPages).  See TMP Direction Media and Comscore’s findings.  

Google can easily increase their market share if they decide to force more Local 7 pack or Local N pack into the search results.  Many SEOs have lamented how soon all real estate on Google will be for sale.  Looks like Google can take a page (pun intended) from Baidu, even though Baidu is taking a page from Google and reducing the number of ads and identifying paid ads.