Pick a Platform, Any Platform. Or All of Them.

This Isn’t Marriage, It’s Marketing

 

Let’s be clear here. We’re not talking about religion. We’re talking about results. That’s what Damon Gochneaur (@DamonGochneaur) of Aspiro Agency and DFWSEM brought to the table at SearchHOU last week. He’s not wed to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. He’s platform agnostic. What Damon and his agency are wed to is results driven by conversions, driven by ROI, and driven by business owners being so damn happy at the end of the month they buy Damon a bottle of Chivas. Regularly.

Before the SearchHOU meeting started, we had a good thirty minutes to mingle with other dedicated digital marketers. I had a conversation with Rae Hoffman (@SugarRae) and her husband Sean Dolan (@_seandolan) of PushFire about what makes a good presentation at the regional and national level. We all agreed that passionate and data-driven speeches do well.

Let’s get “quanty”

Damon’s speech was both passionate and data-driven. When it comes to the new age of marketing, I’d put him and his firm in the Quants camp; they’re quantitative analysts using hard data to back up decisions. Here’s some quant-style data for ya:

• Facebook has 890-million users worldwide
• Facebook has 157-million active users in US
• 1-million small businesses advertise on Facebook
• Roughly 30% of all B2B email lists can be account matched (retargeting, remarketing)

Now, Damon talked about advertising on Google AdWords using both traditional CPC and retargeting. He’s able to save his clients boat loads of cash and keep driving conversions on Facebook using retargeting there.

Segment like a damon

The key is in the segmentation. Distill down from an audience of millions to an audience of thousands. Like a finely aged whiskey. You end up with a marvelous result you can enjoy at the end.

Here are some tips Damon shared on audiences you should avoid:

• Past Customers: They just bought from you. Why are you hitting them up with the thing they just bought again? How about hitting them up for a review instead? Maybe an accessory, or a complementary product?
• Low Intent Visitors: Why spend money on tire kickers. They didn’t visit the demo page. They didn’t visit the contact form. They never looked at the pricing. Don’t waste your budget.
• Geographic Areas: Is your business highly dependent on those near it? Don’t advertise in Canada. Duh. Pick out ZIP codes, cities, etc. that work for your business.

If you’ve done your homework right you can segment your audience down to a group you can effectively market to. Use that to your advantage and make sure that the ad resonates with them. Short of ideas on how to segment? You shouldn’t be. Facebook allows you to dial it up to creepy when publishing your ad. Just make sure your ad isn’t creepy.

The after party

Okay, there were a couple of bottles of whisky and beers floating around. The group ended up splitting into two camps, the inside crew and the outside crew. How many times have you been to a conference and wish you could talk to a couple of the speakers over a beer? There were several national level speakers that have spoken at Pubcon, SMX, etc. in attendance last night. The beer was free, and the advice was too.

It was great to get to talk at length with many marketing pros. That’s just one of the reasons why I love what we do. Digital folks get it. Whether you are a marketer, developer, designer, UX person, etc. We all know that the more we give, the more we get. We give freely, and we get that back in so many unexpected ways. It’s wonderful. Digital karma baby.

I’ve been a regular attendee to a number of Dallas groups that focus on digital. From the DFW WordPress Meetup (7th largest in the world) to Dallas Interactive Marketing to DFWSEM and many more. The Dallas groups rock it. The Dallas community rocks it.

Houston under Aaron Eaves and his merry band at SearchHOU is rocking it. They bring a level of speaking and community together that is small, but amazing. So here’s the question for you, the Houston Marketer, the Houston Web Developer, the Houston Web Designer — are you ready to rock? I hope so. I’ll see ya at the show.

---

About the author

In 2001, John Peterson turned his hobby into a passion for helping small business achieve their Internet marketing goals. With a background in software development and a strong creative drive, John’s clients enjoy innovative web development solutions that help them succeed.