Strategic Web Marketing
Download this slide deck: http://bit.ly/strategytimeyo
By Rand Fishkin
How to move beyond tactics & channels to build a vision-
based, effective, and measurable marketing machine.

We get lost in
the channels

We get lost in
the visits

We get lost in the
conversion rate

We forget that
without a
compelling, c
ohesive story

We forget that
without a
compelling,
cohesive story
One that’s
told here

We forget that
without a
compelling, c
ohesive story
One that’s
told here
And here

We forget that
without a
compelling,
cohesive story
One that’s
told here
And here
And here

We forget that
without a
compelling,
cohesive story
One that’s
told here
And here
And here
And here

We forget that
without a
compelling, c
ohesive story
One that’s
told here
And here
And here
And here
And here

We forget that
without a
compelling,
cohesive story
One that’s
told here
And here
And here
And here
And here
And here

None of this is
going to work.

Before We Create a Strategy, We Need
Some Answers to the Big Questions.

What’s Our
Mission?
Maptia‟s Manifesto: http://blog.maptia.com/manifesto

What’s Our
Vision?
Create the most compelling car company of the
21st century by driving the world‟s transition to
electric vehicles
- Tesla Motors Company Vision
Via Tesla‟s 2011 Annual Report

What Are Our
Core Values?
Moz‟s Core Values: TAGFEE

Seems like fluff?

Seems like fluff? It’s not.

Seems like fluff? It’s not. Here’s why.

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
Watch from 2:05 – 4:40

Now We Can Ask the Traditional
Marketing Strategy Questions:

Who Are We Trying to Reach?
Personas are one way to help define a target audience. Image via Creative Applications
for MIT. More on personas for search marketing from Mike King.

Where Can We Best Reach This Audience?
Users: 343mm 1.1B+ 250mm 225mm 33mm
Users: 25mm 43mm 517mm 170mm 48mm
The above shows only social networks (good collection of stat sources), but every channel
should be considered in this mix – search, email, ads, partnerships, events, etc.

What is Our Unique Value Proposition?
The SaaS business intelligence firm GoodData explains what‟s uniquely valuable about
their software through a nicely visual, easy-to-understand, How It Works page.

What is the Narrative We’re Telling?

The first few turns of the flywheel are hard, but over time, momentum builds, and turning the
wheel becomes easier. In marketing, the momentum of a high quality score in AdWords, or
a growing Twitter account, or a blog w/ passionate subscribers can be that flywheel.
How Do We Build a Flywheel?

Now We Can Have a Real
Marketing Strategy.

10 Tips

#1: Choose Channels Your Competition Ignores
Google+ is often mocked for being a “ghost town,” but many smart, early-adopter brands
(like ASUS) see higher engagement here than on Twitter or Facebook!

#2: Be An Early Adopter; Not an Early Abandoner
Despite the massive growth of social media & mobile apps and the media narrative of
these eclipsing search, both mobile and desktop queries continue to rise dramatically.

#3: Infuse Your Marketing with Your Culture & Values
Betabrand takes on the boring, hyper-competitive field of men‟s clothing by
infusing their trademark style, creativity, & humor in their products and marketing.

#4: Create a Customized, Internal, Dynamic Funnel
This funnel comes via Moz‟s internal tracking system, called “Gizmo,” that shows a ton of critical
data about how our business metrics work. We then tie these to marketing KPIs via Excel.

#5: When Measuring, Look at 3 Key Areas
Whiteboard Friday on getting to the right metrics.

#5: When Measuring, Look at 3 Key Areas
Whiteboard Friday on getting to the right metrics.
Note: these are just
examples. You
should choose the
right metrics based
on your marketing
campaigns & goals.

#6: Track All Your Data Against the Following

#7: Be Cautious With Multi-Channel Attribution
Google Analytics offers some very cool multi-channel attribution features, but unless you
have sophisticated ways to analyze and the discipline to turn off channels to measure
their contributions, the takeaways can be tough (or worse, misleading).

#8: Stay Vigilant for Fluency Biases that Harm Marketing
What sobriety conceals,
alcohol unmasks.
What sobriety conceals,
alcohol reveals.

#8: Stay Vigilant for Fluency Biases that Harm Marketing
What sobriety conceals,
alcohol unmasks.
What sobriety conceals,
alcohol reveals.
Why do more people
believe this one to be true?
When asked to evaluate the truthfulness of these statements, test subjects were dramatically
more likely to say the rhyming statement (in green) is true. This is called the “rhyme as reason
bias” and is just one of many cognitive biases based around processing fluency.

#8: Stay Vigilant for Fluency Biases that Harm Marketing
Domain Names
Marketing Slogans
Website UX
Stock Ticker Symbols
Visual Design
Ease of Product Use
Length of Learning Curve
Consistency
Processing fluency is the same set of principles that make us more likely to trust aesthetically
beautiful design and to interpret misspellings or poor grammar as signals of low quality.

#9: Speed Impacts Everything (way more than is fair)
Via: the NYTimes article „Impatient Web Users Flee Slow-Loading Sites‟

#10: Hire the Right People. Empower them the Right Ways.
Even in (perhaps especially in) the most demanding teams and jobs, hire for cultural fit over
competence fit. Long-term, shared values, the ability to work well together, and a shared
mission will trump

#10: Hire the Right People. Empower them the Right Ways.
People are happy in their work when they have autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If people
managers are the only ones who have those opportunities, individual contributors will fail.
More: If Management is the Only Way Up, We‟re All F‟d.

#10: Hire the Right People. Empower them the Right Ways.
People are happy in their work when they have autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If people
managers are the only ones who have those opportunities, individual contributors will fail.
More: If Management is the Only Way Up, We‟re All F‟d.

#10: Hire the Right People. Empower them the Right Ways.
People are happy in their work when they have autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If people
managers are the only ones who have those opportunities, individual contributors will fail.
More: If Management is the Only Way Up, We‟re All F‟d.
Team members at the same level should have
similar levels of responsibility, salary, and influence.

Download this slide deck: http://bit.ly/strategytimeyo
Learn more at Rand‟s blog: http://moz.com/rand
Tweet & ask questions: @randfish
Email me: Rand@Moz.com