Douglas Karr's Articles on Martech Zone
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With Whom Do You Want to Work?
I’ve been working tirelessly the last few weeks to really get my business off the ground. Days are spent networking and evenings/weekends are spent delivering on the commitments I’ve made. It’s not going perfect, but it’s progressing. In this economy, I’m okay with that. Sales coaching has helped quite a bit – helping me to better understand what my clients’…
- Paid and Organic Search Marketing
Inbound Marketing and the New Sales Funnel
While I was preparing to speak in Cincinnati this week, I wanted to provide a nice visual that spoke to how search and social media have changed the sales process. Here’s what I call the New Sales Funnel: It used to be that marketers controlled the brand and the messaging online, requiring consumers and businesses to watch demonstrations, view brochure…
- Social Media & Influencer Marketing
Influencer Marketing: Beware of the Internet Famous
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a woman asking about my book. It was a bit of a sad email – reading that a woman who wanted to buy my e-book had spent a ton of money on the site where it was talked about and gotten no results in the past. Ironically, the article they read…
- Social Media & Influencer Marketing
Celebrity Endorsement Tweets are Here!
Do celebrity endorsements work? Yes, they do. Otherwise, we wouldn’t see advertisements with celebrities every day, would we? Catherine Zeta-Jones’ endorsement deal with T-Mobile was reportedly worth 20 Million. Subsequently, T-Mobile’s national sales jumped 25% during the campaign. Celebrity endorsements are now on Twitter, too! Why does celebrity advertising work? Celebrity advertising works on 3 different levels: Familiarity – we…
- Advertising Technology
RIP: Frank Batten Sr – The Billionaire You Never Heard Of
Most people have never heard of Frank Batten Sr outside of Hampton Roads, Virginia. When I first left the US Navy and went to work at The Virginian-Pilot, I heard nothing but great things from the Pressmen that worked for the newspaper when they spoke of Frank Sr. He was known to come out to the presses and chat it…
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Be Smart Enough to Find the Answers
Earlier this week, I posted a tweet promoting a product that was pretty cool. The application was graphically beatiful and incredibly useful… but I couldn’t actually figure out what it did or how to use it without a lot of work. The company immediately tweeted back that the interface was “simple”. I replied, “thanks!”. I wasn’t going to argue with…
- Content Marketing
We Know Customers are Talking About Us…
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of interviewing Clint Page, CEO of Dotster, on social media return on investment. I’ve been a fan of Dotster for 7 years now and my appreciation for the company was reaffirmed when I heard about the nightmare Terms of Service that other registrars were leveraging on their customers. 2009 is the year of social media…
- Marketing Books
Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us!
Last week there was an Indy Christian Geeks lunch at my favorite coffee shop. During lunch, I had a special gift delivered from the good folks at Wiley Publishing (also here in Indianapolis!). The guys had some fun… snapping some photos and uploading them to Twitter within minutes with great titles like, The Secret is Out! Kidding aside, Wiley has…
- Social Media & Influencer Marketing
Why I don’t like Facebook
Those of you who have seen me speak have often heard me speak out against Facebook. I’m on Facebook, I participate on Facebook… but I don’t like it. There are quite a few things I don’t enjoy on Facebook: The navigation makes no sense to me. There are menus, side menus, navigation that appears… I get lost and don’t believe…
- E-commerce and Retail
Consumers Do Not Buy Perfection Anymore
One of the most wonderful transformations that I believe social media has brought about is the destruction of the perfect brand. No longer do consumers expect perfection… but we do expect honesty, customer service, and fulfillment of any promises a company set expectations for. In a client luncheon last week at Bitwise Solutions, President and CEO Ron Brumbarger told his…
