Today ClickZ ran a Q&A I did with Stewart Quealy under the heading, “Marketing Lessons from Google.” I’ve known Stew for quite some time and always enjoy side-barring with him at SES shows so it was nice to riff a bit out in the open. Speaking of, I’ll be speaking at SES Chicago on 10/21 on how to leverage SEM across other marketing channels. Good chance my alter ego, Tha Lyrical G, will make an appearance so make sure to bring your video camera (and earmuffs).

An excerpt from Chapter 1 (the first 1,118 words of the book to be exact) ran in OMMA Magazine this month under the headline, “Why We Google.”

The Fall issue of Visibility Magazine included an excerpt from Chapter 20 but, unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere online so you’ll have to be a subscriber to read it. Or buy the book, of course. :)

This week I visited the offices of McGraw-Hill Professional in Manhattan.

It was my first time meeting Gaya (right) and Julia (left) from the MHP marketing and PR team. (Although after a rigorous blog tour and lots of other promotional activity, I felt like I’d known them forever.)

When I first walked into the lobby and saw all the books proudly displayed, my first thought was how great it was to be in such good company. My second thought was, “Hey, where the hell is MY book?!?”

As it turns out, Gaya told me, my book has been a hot commodity so the fact that it wasn’t in the lobby meant it had been swiped by an employee or guest. That was a good sign, I was reassured.

Gaya, Julia, and I chatted for over an hour about our marketing and PR efforts to date and what else we could do to keep the momentum going. Here were some of the ideas we hatched:

• Send out emails to targeted companies offering a 1 hour customized on-site presentation with an order of 50+ books
• Webinars on topics like digital marketing trends and translating SEO skills to the broader marketing mix
• Buy a book, send in the receipt at SASE and get a custom signed sticker to place on it
• Team up with other authors on a holiday package book bundle

So far, I’ve been very impressed by the creativity and dedication of the MHP team. What do you think of the promotion we’ve done for the book? What else would you do if you were in our shoes? Help me demonstrate the lesson of chapter 2 and tap the wisdom of the crowds here!

Starting this week, I’ll be sharing a “Googley Tip of the Week” via EOtv (that’s the video network of Entrepreneur’s Organization.) This week’s tip is from Chapter 3: Keep it Simple, Stupid. The gang at EOtv did a bang up job with the graphics here. Tune in for each of the next 3 weeks for more of the goog, er… good stuff!

That’s the question I’ll be addressing on my panel at OMMA Global in New York today.

Here’s the prep sheet I sent to my panelists. Will update this post tomorrow with session highlights.

OMMA Global NY
9/28 at 11:30am

Is Google Taking Too Much Credit?

Google recently announced that its search and advertising tools generated $54 billion of economic activity in the U.S. in 2009. But, as we all know, there are a number of different factors that contribute to sales conversions both on and offline. In this session, we’ll examine the role of search in the media mix and discuss best practices for evaluating performance across all channels. We’ll also look at some of the more evolved attribution models being deployed by search marketing advertisers, agencies and technologies.

Moderator
Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer, Kenshoo

Panelists
Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist, comScore, Inc.
Greg A. Green, Director, Global Agency Strategy, Google
Justin Merickel, VP, Marketing and Product Development, Efficient Frontier
Peter Platt, Chief Digital Officer, Catalyst
Adam Kasper, SVP, Managing Director, Digital, Media Contacts

Thought-starters:

Is Google taking too much credit?

1. See this post and video: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/googles-us-economic-impact.html
2. Download this report: http://www.google.com/economicimpact/
3. Please be prepared to weigh in with your thoughts on the methodology and findings.

Budgeting

1. Since SEM is so dependent on consumer demand/interest, it can be difficult to budget for it. What are some best practices?
2. Should search be the first line item budgeted for or the last? Somewhere in between?
3. What about SEO? How does one approach this unpaid media opportunity?

Attribution

1. How can one measure “assists” solely within the search channel? (ie, upper funnel keywords)
2. How can one measure impact of other online ads on search?
3. How can one measure impact of offline ads on search?
4. What tools are available to help with attribution?

Branding

1. How does the conversation about attribution change when an advertiser has strict branding goals? (ie, no direct conversion/sales metric)

Future

1. What will the digital marketing landscape look like in 5 years?
2. What will Google’s role be?
3. How will budgeting and attribution strategies evolve?
4. How can marketers best prepare today?

Update:

Lots of great conversation and insights.

Key points:

Greg – studies show the overall value of the Internet between $300 billion and $1 trillion so $54b is a drop in the bucket. (Sounds awfully like the Google monopoly defense.) Attribution is not a zero sum game. The pot for all of digital is getting bigger.

Eli – when thinking about attribution, don’t forget about offline. Oh yeah, and comScore has tools to help you do that.

Justin – with Facebook ads now being integrated into SEM platforms such as Efficient Frontier and Kenshoo (disclosure: my employer), it’s critical to measure the interplay between channels.

Adam – you have to get the right people in the room from the client, agency, and technology partner side to have a real discussion about attribution. That includes marketing, IT, etc.

Peter – it’s critical to track lifetime value and segment customers by value when evaluating credit for each channel. Not all customers are created equal.

I did a bit of Geraldo and worked the crowd throughout to integrate audience Q&A. And I gave a signed copy of the book to the first person that asked a question. (Wisely, someone immediately shot up their hand and asked, “Can I get the book?”)

Here’s one of the brief moments I was actually up at the podium. You can’t tell but I’m wearing a green Google Me tee and matching Pumas.

At the end of the session I asked each of the panelists and then the audience which company they thought would be driving the lion’s share of economic impact via the web in 2015. The rough audience response was as follows:

80% Google
10% Other
5% Apple
2% Facebook (aided by presence of Kelly Graziadei from FB)
2% Microsoft

Update 2: Here’s a better pic courtesy of my colleague, Paula, at Kenshoo. Good view of the green ensemble.

Update 3: I just got another one of those phishing emails and was reminded of a great exchange during this session with Greg from Google.

As a follow up to his analysis of the economic impact study, I asked Greg if Google counted the millions in impact from the Prince of Nigeria floating funds through my account in the US.

Greg: How’d that investment work out for you?

Me: Can Google help me get my money back?

Greg: Sure. Send me your social security number.

Me: Don’t you already have it???

Tonight was the official book launch party hosted by the Chicago Interactive Social Club (CISC) at Blue Frog 22…

Over 550 people RSVP’d so Andrew Landan, who runs CISC and is pictured above with the red headphones, told everyone to arrive early. They did. The line started queueing 30 minutes before the doors opened.

Inside, to paraphrase my MLK-day entry for the 3six5project, “the scene was serene if you know what I mean.” The crew from Borders was all set up and ready for the big book blowout.

The Google Me tees were in full effect courtesy of KosherHam.com. Kiley and Steph were kind enough to model them.

Scott and Karen weren’t sporting the tees but they sure brought their A grins.

V-Red and Paul were most definitely in the house.

Everyone was getting Googley tonight. Thanks to all who came out… especially those up past their bedtime!

I’ve got a number of speaking appearances lined up over the coming months. Good mixture of panels, presentations, and socials. I’ll be doing everything from sharing Google Lessons to leading exercises to, of course, rapping.

Along the way I’ll be giving away plenty of signed copies of the book. Yesterday, I gave away 4 at the Online Marketing Institute and CIMA events in Chicago.

Here’s me with one of last night’s lucky winners (who also happens to be an old friend), Erik Engman.

From book

Yesterday, Boeing announced a deal with Space Adventures to “offer commercial spaceflight opportunities.”

In the press release, Boeing says that “potential customers for excess seating capacity include private individuals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. federal agencies other than NASA.”

Laurie Sullivan explored the potential for commercial space exploration in her MediaPost Search Marketing Daily column: The Search For Spock: How SEO Might Help Boeing Market Commercial Space Flights.

Laurie explores how SEO might play a role in helping Boeing find potential customers. She cites SEO Training Dojo David Harry about how keyword research could be used.

“Ask them to search on Google for information about low orbit space travel at the consumer level,” Harry says. “Get then to try and book a flight searching from Google to see what they can actually do.”

Harry is taking a page (literally) from Chapter 14: You Can Learn a Lot from a Query by noting that search can be a great source of intelligence. Another application would be looking up the demographic profiles of people searching for “commercial space flights” and related queries using tools such as comScore and using that data to inform audience definition.

In preparing her piece, Laurie asked me what I thought the first step would be in creating an online marketing plan.

This was my response…

First step I’d say is defining the target audience.

This is way too broad: “private individuals, companies, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. federal agencies other than NASA.”

Depending on the price tag here, it’s likely the potential customer base is very small.

It will take some non-traditional marketing to reach this audience.

How do you reach Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher? Well, they’re on Twitter a lot.

Taking a page from Chapter 19 and making my company (and personal brand) a great story, I did a little Lebron James spoof to generate interest in my “decision” to put Connectual on hold and join the “all-star team” at Kenshoo as CMO.

I started by declaring my free agency last week and followed up with a video announcement riffing on the interview Lebron did with Jim Gray on ESPN.

More scoop on my move to Kenshoo can be found in the official press release or coverage by MediaPost, DM News, and Internet Retailer. (UPDATE 9/24: I just posted more detailed rationale for why I joined Kenshoo on the Connectual blog.)

I’ve also updated the author page with my new bio and acknowledgements with full disclosure.