The mobile phenomenon: How to stand out - Mobile Marketer - Strategy

The mobile phenomenon: How to stand out 

June 17, 2013

The mobile ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years and with new technologies emerging, marketers are given endless opportunities to reach consumers in unique ways. However, now is the time to fully leverage the full power of the medium to stay ahead of competition.

According to industry experts, mobile has long-suffered from the “promise of mobile” being far ahead of actual consumer impact. However, in the last three to six months, it has become a detriment for a brand or retailer not to have a mobile strategy.

“I attribute this shift not to any mobile marketing technology development, but rather, to the mass adoption and use of smartphones," said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston. "Sixty-plus percent of the U.S. population now owns one and prices are low enough to reduce all friction for ownership.

“As consumers get used to having these ‘always on mini-laptops,’ they are discovering the power of this new Internet access channel and, as such, are providing fuel for a vast array of mobile commerce and marketing initiatives,” he said.

Standing outAccording to Mr. Kerr, mobile marketing has been overhyped for so long that agencies and other key implementers have held off.

To stand out, linking mobile marketing with actionable mobile commerce is key.

Many times, marketers worry about consumer engagement, as well as social media “Likes” then they do about anything else.

While that is still important, marketers also need to measure mobile and look at data to better understand who it is they are reaching.

“Starbucks, EBay, Amazon, and Walmart are all generating huge mobile sales volume, but smaller retailers are now getting into the game,” Mr. Kerr said. “Shoe Carnival is a client of ours that has embraced omnichannel with mobile, tablet and now in-store kiosk commerce, all linked to a deep integration with their ATG ecommerce platform.

“By giving credit to local store managers for mobile sales linked to in-store triggers, they are turning mobile from a threat to an asset,” he said. “Watch for NFC to hit the scene in a big way.

“While Apple has resisted, Android has not and, as such, manufacturers like Samsung are eating Apple’s lunch. Globally, the Android operating system is crushing iOS by a whopping 70 percent to 21 percent."

Emerging technologies 
With new technologies entering the space, including augmented reality and the much-anticipated Google Glass, marketers are seeing a lot of experimentation with more sophisticated forms of virtualization. 

“While this is going to remain ‘in the lab’ during 2013, it’s certainly on the mind of forward thinking marketers and an impending next phase in the opportunity bucket,” said Shuli Lowy, marketing director at Ping Mobile. 

“In the remainder of 2013 we are likely to continue to see more creative forms of mobile ad units as well as smoother ad experiences,” she said. “Marketers are aiming to transform the mobile ad experience into a more appealing and seamless experience.

“Mobile Web sites are becoming more commonplace, mobile coupons are being sent directly to passbook, mobile videos are loading almost instantly and ads are being targeted more strategically. These little tweaks make a big difference in ad efficacy and are really transforming the penetration of mobile ads.”

According to Ms. Lowy, the mobile industry is beginning to see a lot of innovation with rich media ad units to create more intriguing and interactive ad experiences.

The executive also predicts that there will be a decrease in the growth of mobile apps. 

“With more than a million apps on the market and the expense associated with building and running new apps, most marketers feel that the app market is leveling out,” Ms. Lowy said. 

Game changers
Smartphones were by far the biggest game-changer in the mobile industry. 

Before smartphones, there was no mobile shopping, no mobile email and no social media. 

Today, technology is changing the way users consume content. 

Mobile devices have fundamentally shifted how consumers interact with brands but also more generally how people communicate with each other. 

“Our very expectations of the engagement have risen as we’ve become conditioned to expect greater immediacy and feedback,” said Vanessa Horwell, chief visability officer at ThinkInk, Miami, FL.  

“Customers, especially those who are loyalty program members, crave genuine engagement and experiences that go beyond shortsighted rewards and points,” said.  “They don’t want email bombardment or push notifications that interrupt whatever they’re doing. 

“When it comes to mobile messages and offers,  ‘timely’ and ‘relevant’ are the watchwords of our time and marketers who take these lessons to heart will succeed.” 

Mobile has given marketers an opportunity to engage people better than ever before and establish profound connections. 

However, marketers who wish to stand out must appreciate that the mobile channel has different rules of engagement and requires a shift in mindset. 

The truth is marketers are still having the same conversation they were having about mobile five years ago. 

Message bombardment is not the solution and poorly planned mobile advertising is more akin to blindly throwing darts. 

Staying ahead of the pack requires careful measuring and tracking of all forms of campaign outreach and consumer response to those engagements. 

“I think the future lies in wearable smart technology,” Ms. Horwell said. “Whether it’s smart watches, immersive digital glasses and even the eventual embedding of mobile devices into our clothing, the very idea of what constitutes mobile marketing could be profoundly different in less than five years – and some of it could begin by the end of this year.”

Gradual shift
The most dramatic shift in the mobile space has been around omni-channel synchronization, per Steve Cole, chief marketing officer atGladson.

“What you see in the store, online and on mobile tends to be more synchronized than years ago,” Mr. Cole said. “While this is not necessarily a single break out technology, it has enormous benefits for consumers and spurred a number of new technologies aimed at synchronizing information across digital and brick-and-mortar channels.

“In-store pick up programs for online orders are an example,” he said. “Many retailers are introducing this service and its success is dependent on accurate, up-to-date inventory information across channels. 

“Products listed online must be available in store, and inventory information needs to be localized and updated in a timely, accurate manner.”

The rise of mobile has put shoppers front and center. 

Marketers must provide compelling, customer-centric experiences on every touch-point. 

It should no longer matter who the biggest or best retailer is. It is about who has the most seamless and easy-to-use customer experience across channels.

Additionally, providing differentiated and accurate product content is important. 

And, seamless integration of all of this content is critical. 

What customers see online should be the same in store, on mobile and everywhere in between.  To deliver this, marketers must not only understand the 360-degree view of their customers, but also provide a 360-degree view of their products through accurate, compelling content and information.

“Beyond integration across channels, we can expect to see a greater emphasis on describing products well across channels,” Mr. Cole said. “The focus so far has been mostly geared towards getting your products on every channel and utilizing new digital platforms. 

“Product information needs to expand and be presented in the way customers want to learn about them,” he said. “Shoppers are looking for very specific information for each different product they are purchasing and the attributes customers want to know vary depending on the product, whether it’s diapers or socks.

“Moving forward, the focus will be on building out and curating all of this content in a way that is satisfying shoppers’ needs.”  

Many marketers attribute apps to the popularity of smartphones. 

Nowadays, however, marketers must not roll out an app solely to have one. An app needs to be fully thought out. 

“The app must provide value. It must link with other apps,” said Chris Diener, senior vice president of analytics at AbsolutData.

“It needs to be social and it should be gamified,” he said. “So the first thing marketers need to do is develop and deploy custom, linked, value-providing apps.”

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York

Associate Editor Rimma Kats covers media, television, research and social networks. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @RimmaKats.

Build-A-Bear exec claims QR codes alter repeat in-store experiences - Software and technology - Mobile Marketer

Build-A-Bear exec claims QR codes alter repeat in-store experiences 

June 13, 2013

NEW YORK – A Build-A-Bear Workshop executive at the 2013 MultiScreen Summit said that QR codes on marketing pieces such as direct mail and Web give consumers an incentive to come in-store to unlock customized content.

The executive’s keynote session presented a look at how the retailer is using mobile and digital elements to elevate the shopping experience. Build-A-Bear is specifically using mobile to target its core group of girls aged 8 – 10 years old, who are increasingly becoming more tech-savvy.

“This is a storytelling medium if you think about it, so the real interesting question is can the story change every time you come back, and the answer is yes,” said Dave Finnegan, chief interactive and information officer at Build-A-Bear, St. Louis.

“What we’ve done is create a series of QR codes,” he said.

“Now a typical QR code is on a poster and you have to have an app to scan it. We’ve turned that completely around and said, ‘We’ll deliver to your phone a QR code that you bring into the store, and when you bring it into the store and hold it in front of one of these experiences, it unlocks an entire new experience.'”

In-store mobile opportunity
QR codes play a strong role in how Build-A-Bear leverages mobile to help tell a story.

For example, Build-A-Bear used QR codes for a marketing push around Earth Day as well as for birthday campaigns.

Consumers can play online games or are sent direct mail pieces with a QR code on it that encourage consumers to come in-store to unlock an adventure.

When the consumer scans the QR code in-store, a digital and customized experience opens up additional content for consumers.

The company has just started two different QR code campaigns, and it is too early to determine results.

Education and communicating to children how they can use QR codes in-store is going to be one of the biggest challenges around the initiative, according to Mr. Finnegan.

“How do you tell them that for the first time in the history of retail they can unlock content?” Mr. Finnegan.

“That will take a little bit of time, but I think they get it straight-away,” he said.

App happy
Build-A-Bear also has a strong focus on mobile applications.

The retailer has a portfolio of apps that go along in creating digital in-store touch points.

For example, there is an app that leverages sound, and there is also a series of apps – called bear care apps – that bring products to life in-store through augmented reality. The apps help children take care of their bears.

The executive also said that the retailer is launching some game apps later this year.

One example is an app that lets consumers record life events that they can then bring into the store to create a bear by scanning a QR code.

Over the past three years, there has been a dramatic shift in how Build-A-Bear’s core consumers of girls aged 8-10 years old use mobile and digital devices.

In some cases, children might come into a store with an iPod Touch, for example.

In other cases, parents are passing off their older-generation mobile devices to their children.

“Instead of buying an iPod Touch, I give my kid my iPhone, and it’s an iPod Touch,” Mr. Finnegan said.

“For our demographic – moms and kids – we think it’s about 95 percent penetration into access to smart technology,” he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York

Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer. Reach her at lauren@mobilemarketer.com.

Copyright Law on the Internet Is a Total Train Wreck Right Now

Copyright Law on the Internet Is a Total Train Wreck Right Now

by Pamela Vaughan

I'm going to tell you a little story, but before I do, a warning: It ain't pretty.

It's a perfectly fine Thursday afternoon. I'm going about my business, happily editing a blog post, when I get an email from the head of HubSpot's legal department. Oh boy. 

Apparently, he'd received a letter from a popular stock photography website claiming we had wrongfully used two of their images on our blog. 

My first thought was, "What? This must be a mistake." We're very good about only using photos and images we have permission to use on the blog. As a result, we usually either purchase stock photos or use images sourced from sites like Flickr licensed under Creative Commons, which is a nonprofit offering easy-to-use copyright licenses that make it easy for people to give permission for others to share and use their creative work. In fact, we've even written about how not to steal people's content on the web, and what to do if you're a victim of stolen content. So ... what gives?

Here's What Happened

First, I asked our general counsel to forward me the email he'd received from the stock photography company. He couldn't; he had only a physical letter. No digital copy. No links to the incriminating blog posts. Just a couple pages of blurry, printed out screenshots of the two images in question along with several pages of legal mumbo jumbo. Umm ... seriously?

Luckily, it didn't take me a ton of sleuthing to recover the blog posts they were referring to. And just as I thought, it turns out we really did have only honest intentions when using these images. Scrolling to the bottom of the posts in question, I found our usual stamp of attribution for images procured from Flickr under a Creative Commons license. So ... can you guess what happened?

Yup -- we'd been duped. Apparently, a couple of Flickr users got these images from the stock photography site, uploaded them to Flickr, and then slapped Creative Commons licenses onto them. Not cool, dudes. Not cool.  

And whether these two people had initially purchased these photos is beside the point. Wehadn't purchased the rights to these images, and they were on our site. But the thing is ... we didn't know they were stock images. We had simply put good faith in the Creative Commons licenses that were attached to them, and thus, believed they were fair game. Well, so much for good faith.

This Is Some Scary Stuff

With complete respect for copyright law, we did the right thing and replaced the two rogue images on our blog immediately. But I'm sure you can see how this whole experience has much bigger implications than just this one isolated incident. 

The scary thing is, essentially, there's nothing preventing someone from just stamping something with a Creative Commons license even if isn't theirs to license -- just like the two Flickr users did in our case. This ease of use is both a beauty and a drawback of Creative Commons. While it's a great way for creators to let the world know how they can use their content, there's no true way to tell whether it's really the property of that person to license in the first place.

Here's what Creative Commons has to say about it on its website's FAQ:

"What happens if someone applies a Creative Commons license to my work without my knowledge or authorization?

 

CC alerts prospective licensors they need to have all necessary rights before applying a CC license to a work. If that is not the case and someone has marked your work with a CC license without your authorization, you should contact that person and tell them to remove the license from your work. You may also wish to contact a lawyer. Creative Commons is not a law firm and cannot represent you or give you legal advice, but there are lawyers who have identified themselves as interested in representing people in CC-related matters."

What's worse -- we recommend Creative Commons-licensed images to content creators seeking a low-cost (in this case, no-cost) alternative to pricey stock photography all the time. But can it really be trusted? What's a content creator to do? 

The Problems With Copyright Law and the Web 

Big stock photography sites are cashing in on instances like this one all the time, identifying sites without rights to their images and slamming them with hefty fines accompanied by threats of legal action. And if you're a small business, these blows could be devastating, especially if you didn't even know you were in the wrong in the first place. In fact, we've seen it happen to some of our own customers. It's kind of a problem.

And most of the problem stems from the fact that copyright laws are nowhere near aligned with how people use the web. Content sharing is a huge part of how the internet works. Now, don't get me wrong. We're definitely against violating copyright law -- we never would've used those images had we known they were stock photos -- but I think we can agree that there's a huge need for some internet-friendly copyright laws. My co-worker (funny enough, his name is Jay) likened the problem to jaywalking, which is technically illegal -- but should you really get fined for it? And lawmakers just aren't getting it right. (Remember last year's SOPA scare?)

One problem is that there are a lot of people out there who either don't understand the laws that already exist or just don't get how the internet works. In fact, just today we were contacted by a company whose image (which is legitimately licensed under Creative Commons) we'd used in a recent blog post. Although we had properly attributed them in accordance with the Creative Commons license they were using, they claimed our use was in violation of the copyright and provided us with a specific URL to link back to instead. They didn't want us to remove the image; they were just looking for a very specific inbound link. We simply removed the image altogether. 

The point is, there are a lot of people setting out on wild goose chases like this one, whether or not it's warranted. And if you're the target of these accusations by someone who isn't exactly up to snuff on copyright law, and you don't have your own legal department, it can be a really scary and confusing thing. (And for the people setting out on these wild goose chases -- is it really worth it? You tell me.)

Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles is the fact that there are so many different use cases for content sharing and usage online. Just think about how different your intentions are when you're using or sharing content as a marketer, compared to when you're using or sharing content for personal reasons. Our social media manager uses Pinterest for both professional and personal reasons. Her pinning someone else's image as HubSpot (which has a large reach) is much different than her pinning someone else's image as Brittany.

Whether you care if someone steals or uses your content will also largely depend on the situation. Someone blatantly stealing, say, a blog article from a big, well-established business and publishing it as their own may not be worth it for that big business to go after. But if that blog post is stolen from a very small business? That could actually be pretty damaging to them.

As a result, one sweeping law is never going to cut it. On a web where visual content is a powerful weapon for marketers, this isn't a problem that's going to go away. In fact, it'll probably only get worse. So, again ... what's a content creator to do?

We Need Something Better

I really wish I had a great answer for you. But unfortunately, I think this is something someone still needs to figure out. The good news is, I think there's hope. Consider the history of the music industry and piracy on the web. A stock photography site that comes up with the image-borrowing equivalent of Pandora and Spotify could have something pretty amazing up its sleeves. 

We've already started to see businesses come out with their own guidelines that govern how people are welcome to use and share their content. In fact, we have our own set right here. Content sharing sites like Pinterest are also putting safeguards in place, like a feature that allows businesses to prevent Pinterest users from pinning content from specific pages on their websites. But there's still a need for something more -- something that appeals to the users and the sharers, not just the originators. 

For the time being, our best advice (although we're in no position to give you official legal advice) is to be careful. Brush up on copyright laws (check out this overview of fair use on the SEOmoz blog and this post from Plagiarism Today about the different types of copyright infringement) so you know what you are and aren't allowed to use and share on the web -- and so you don't get taken advantage of by people accusing you of being in the wrong. Be wary of content under free copyright licenses like Creative Commons, and do your due diligence to make sure that the image is really that person's to license. If you're not sure and the image is questionable, just avoid using it altogether. If you're on a budget, there are quite a few free stock photo websites out there to source images from, such as stock.xchng.

And stay strong. It's a crazy web out there.

Small business gets boost from mobile marketing

Small business gets boost from mobile marketing

Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Mobile search and shopping options have advanced to where customers can be located and served ads based by zip code, address and even the road they currently are driving on.

With steady rain muddying New Orleans right before the city's famous Jazz & Heritage Festival in April, Evie Poitevent tweeted about the rain boots at her shoe store, Feet First.

Featured with photos and hashtags — #jazzfest, #rainboots, #nola — the first batch sold out in two hours. "I knew there would be a feeding frenzy for rain boots," Poitevent says. "We had a stampede of women coming in."

Like many natives of New Orleans, Poitevent chose to move back from New York after Hurricane Katrina ravaged her hometown. In rebuilding Feet First, founded by her parents, she turned to the usual, and requisite, e-commerce tricks — a website, online shopping cart and Facebook page — that have helped the business rebound.

But in recent months, her marketing attention increasingly has turned to mobile to engage social media-savvy customers who are ready to spread the word. Her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapette (a local fashion shopping app) accounts are updated frequently with new products and promotions.

Next on her to-do list is developing a website optimized for phones, though she's also wondering whether it might be worth getting someone to build an expensive app for the store. "We need to start looking more closely at what devices people are coming from," she says.

Poitevent's quest reflects the curiosity and changing priorities of many small-business owners as mobile marketing tools broaden their potential message channels to reach nearby customers -- and open their shops to the scrutiny of nitpicking critics.

Mobile search capabilities and shopping options quickly have advanced to the point at which customers can be located -- and served targeted ads -- not only based on their demographic data but by their ZIP codes, street addresses, even the roads they're currently driving on.

From large corporations to local entrepreneurs such as Poitevent, money is pouring in. U.S. mobile spending —- including ads on phones —- rose 69% in 2012 to $6.7 billion, according to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), and this year will be $10.46 billion.

Mobile marketing can be particularly effective for small businesses, says Greg Stuart, CEO of the MMA. "Local merchants have a better opportunity on mobile, in part because they can craft it to fit their business. Most consumers only go about half a mile for dry cleaners."

OLD RULES STILL APPLY

For those relying on potential customers searching via Google (or Bing or Yahoo), the fundamentals of mobile marketing remain largely unchanged.

"There's no magic formula," says Jeff Licciardi, vice president of local at Performics, a search engine marketing agency. "Everything you do on your desktop for search engine optimization, it's going to help you for mobile."

The universe of websites that contain local shopping information is vast, with about 300 to 400 sources, he says. Find the most important sites for local business listings in the area, and make sure your business is listed and the information is up to date. Do the same with industry-specific listing sites.

Google Places and Yelp listings and reviews are the most important sources, Licciardi says. Yelp, eager to let users know it has a variety of businesses, says only 20% of its listings are restaurants.

Photos, menus, accurate hours of operation and deals help drive traffic. Consumers linger 2.5 times longer on Yelp sites that have photos, vs. those that are bare, says Vince Sollitto, spokesman for Yelp.

In a sign that mobile users of Yelp are more engaged, 45% of all Yelp searches come from its app, even though the app traffic is only about one-tenth of the overall website traffic, Sollitto says.

If your business information is inaccurate or inconsistent on some listing sites, there are professional services -- such as Yext, Localeze or Universal Business Listing (UBL) -- that can help update the information across multiple sites, says Dipanshu Sharma, CEO of XAd, a digital marketing agency that helps clients place ads on mobile devices.

Experts also recommend a simple mobile website that's designed for use by the human thumb.

Avoid using too much text or Flash graphics that are difficult to read and take too long to load, says Itai Sadan, CEO of DudaMobile, which hosts mobile websites for small businesses. "No pinching and zooming," he says. "You can't overemphasize how simple you have to make it."

A phone number prominently displayed -- with a "call-now" button -- can nudge customers to action. Roughly 20% of visitors to the sites hosted by DudaMobile use the click-to-call feature, Sadan says.

Consider assigning a unique phone number for any special mobile campaign, so you know where the leads are coming from and can conduct lead analysis, says Bill Dinan, president of phone call analysis firm Telmetrics.

Those who find building a mobile site daunting can turn to vendors, such as DudaMobile, that can covert your browser site to a mobile version or provide a template. Some developers, including Duda, host mobile sites for free but charge a few dollars a month for a premium version.

ONLINE ADS

Buying online display ads or search ads can be expensive for many small-business owners. In dealing with limited budgets, business owners are urged to conduct careful research on the effective keywords used to look up the products and services in their industry.

While this seems obvious, small-business owners often fail to consider the brevity of mobile online searches. Because phone keyboards are difficult to type, consumers use only about 15 characters to three words, often filled with spelling mistakes, XAd's Sharma says.

Narrowing the parameters of where and how your ad displays can save money, he says. A dentist in a neighborhood might not want to aim for advertising for the whole city. "You can say, 'Just give me a neighborhood,' " Sharma says. "That's how granular local advertising has become. We don't want to do impressions that are wasteful."

Of course, the 800-pound gorilla in online ads is Google. The search engine giant has also recently changed its main ad selling platform -- Google AdWords -- to accommodate mobile ad campaigns.

In its "Enhanced Campaigns," advertisers can bid for their search words based on the words plus the searcher's device, location and time of day. Customers "bid" for search words in Google, such as an auction.

For example, a local flower vendor who wants to change her message for a Mother's Day special can bid 10% higher for her Google keywords for customers who are within a mile, 20% higher for those searching on weekends or 30% higher for searches from smartphones. Says Jason Spero, Google's head of global mobile sales and strategy. "You have to be there when consumers are looking for you. Engaging consumers on the go is critical for (small business owners)."

Previously, vendors had to create a separate ad campaign for mobile and desktop searches. If they wanted to bid for multiple times or various location-based searches, they had to create several different campaigns. "Now, you only do it once. It's about minimizing the work," Spero says.

Todd Messineo, co-owner of Budget Golf, a golf equipment shop in Joliet, Ill., used the new features in Google to drive sales from customers in California this spring. With warm weather late to arrive this spring in his area, Messineo increased the bidding for his Google keywords for mobile searches on warm days in certain parts of California. "We wanted to be in places where customers were shopping," he says.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Opening an account on free social-media sites is a good start, but follow-up actions are needed to spur interactions for mobile users who are checking their favorite pages multiple times a day.

"Social mentions, likes and retweets, can reach a vast audience, while mobile advertising will simply send a customer to a website," says Ed Jay, senior vice president of the American Express U.S. Small Merchants Group.

Beyond updating the accounts of large social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, Feet First's Poitevent also recently began experimenting with Snapette, a website and app for fashionistas looking for trends in shoes and clothes. Snapette users can search for items based on keywords and location, and vote for their favorites. The items with the highest votes float to the top of the page.

While Poitevent only has 250 followers on Snapette, they are "very involved," she says. "They become brand ambassadors for you."

Some entrepreneurs, including Ashley White, have begun selling directly on social media. Based in Lubbock, Texas, her online store for women's clothing -- The Polkadot Alley -- started conducting transactions and accepting payments on her Facebook page, using a software application from start-up Soldsie.

White posts selected items, and the 62,000 fans on her Facebook page can write a simple message with their intent to buy and their preferred size. "Sold, size medium," for example.

Soldsie handles invoicing and payments, and takes a small cut of the transaction.

About 90% of Polkadot's orders come from mobile phones. Speedier and more professional-appearing transactions have helped her business grow, White says. "If I were manually invoicing, people had to e-mail. Now, the pages look more professional. People can track through the Soldsie tab. It makes it so much more efficient."

Big List of FREE Keyword Tools - 'Net Features - Website Magazine

Big List of FREE Keyword Tools - 'Net Features 

For websites that are interested in improving their SEO or advertising on paid search, there is one absolutely crucial thing that they’re going to need to make their efforts a success.

If you haven’t guessed what that one thing is, yet (or read the title of this post), I’ll go ahead and tell you. It’s a keyword list, of course! 

Since there are thousands of ways that people can begin searching for content or a type of product or service online, creating your own extensive and useful list can be quite the chore. No worries, though, because there are plenty of great keyword research tools on the Web that you can use RIGHT NOW that won’t cost a cent.

That’s right – all of the online keyword research tools in the big list that follows are totally free. So what are you waiting for?

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Easily the most popular entry on this big list, Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool lets users enter a keyword from their niches and look for those exact terms or for phrases containing them through advanced options and filters.

Open Site Explorer
This service from SEOmoz is ideal for researching your competitor’s keywords.

SEMRush
Use SEMRush to get data on the top 10 keywords that your competitors are getting traffic from on both paid and organic search.

SEOmoz Term Extractor
Another SEOmoz tool, Term Extractor lets users enter a competitor’s URL to receive one, two and three-word search phrases that the site is targeting. 

Alexa
Alexa lets users see search engine queries from their competitors and the percentage of traffic that those terms bring to their sites.

Wordtracker Keyword Questions Tool
The majority of the full set of tools provided by Wordtracker are totally free to use, and they allow users to fine tune and get specific data about the relevance and popularity of certain topics within their niches.

SEO Book Keyword List Generator
This keyword research tool is actually powered by Wordtracker and generates a list of related terms for a user’s search and provides links to keyword suggestion tools from major search engines.

WooRank
The Website Review tool from WooRank offers – no surprise – a free review of a user’s website that shows the top keywords that the site ranks for on Google search, in addition to a list of its competitor sites.

KeywordSpy
This tool is also meant to help users track their keyword competitors by showing them the keywords their competitors use in their advertising campaigns, which includes AdWords, the Bing Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing.

SpyFu
SpyFu will analyze a site’s competitor’s paid search campaigns on AdWords to generate a list of organic and paid search keywords they are using.

Keyword Discovery
Keyword Discovery from Trellian lets users analyze a list of over 100 search terms related to their chosen keywords.

WordPot Free Keyword Tool
This tool will also provide users with a list of the most popular keywords in their niches, and features “Exact Daily” and “Total Daily” lists so that users can easily separate their data.

WordStream Keyword Tool
Users can get free keyword suggestions for the target search terms that they enter into the WordStream Keyword Tool.

Soovle
Speed is the name of the game with Soovle, which will return quick keyword suggestions from Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube and the always-popular Answers.com, along with statistical data graphs to compile all of that information.

UberSuggest
Similar to the Google Suggest tool, UberSuggest takes your base keyword term and adds a digit or letter next to it that suggests (see?) probably search term combinations.

SEOquake
This is actually an add-on for the Mozilla Firefox browser that helps user find keyword data based on keyword density.

KGen
Short for “Keyword Generator”, KGen (pretty clever, eh?) is another Firefox add-on that scans the Web page a user is on to determine its keywords, making it perfect for competitor and keyword density research.

Ranks.nl
This online tool offers users a plethora of different variations and combinations of their keywords and phrases.

TweetVolume
Built for social media campaigns, TweetVolume lets users see how many times a specific keyword or phrase has been mentioned on Twitter.

Keyword Typo Generator
Not everyone spells every word right every time they try. That’s why the Keyword Typo Generator from SEO Book comes in handy, as it generates a list of the most common misspelling for a particular keyword, just so you know.

Microsoft Advertising Intelligence
This PPC research tool and Microsoft Excel add-on requires a Bing Ads account and helps users discover new keyword ideas by entering the URL of their website or a list of keywords.

Google Trends
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The Best Marketer in Silicon Valley Is Doing Everything You're Not Supposed to Do

The Best Marketer in Silicon Valley Is Doing Everything You're Not Supposed to Do

by Dan Lyons

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has done something amazing. In 2008, he took over an electric car company that was in danger of going out of business, and he’s turned it into one of the hottest companies in the world.

Tesla’s stock has tripled in the past six months. Its sexy Model S sedan is selling as fast as Tesla can make them, and the company has even posted a modest profit.

But more interesting than Tesla is Musk himself. He’s 41 years old, grew up in South Africa, and made a fortune as a co-founder of PayPal. In addition to running Tesla, he’s CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (aka SpaceX), which makes rockets and spacecraft and has won contracts from NASA.

But most important, Musk is a brilliant marketer, both of himself and his products. He’s so good, in fact, that lately people have started comparing him to another marketing genius -- Apple’s late CEO, Steve Jobs.

Like Jobs, Musk can be strong-willed, obnoxious, arrogant, and sarcastic. And, as with Jobs, a lot of what Musk does runs completely counter to conventional wisdom about marketing -- and yet, it works.

I would argue that right now Musk is the best marketer in Silicon Valley. I’d even argue that Tesla’s $12 billion market value (up from $3 billion a year ago) owes as much to Musk’s marketing skills as to anything related to revenues, earnings, or any other financial fundamentals.

How He Does It

Here are some of the ways Musk bucks convention and still manages to win:

He picks fights with journalists.

PR 101 says that when a story doesn’t go your way, you try to keep things quiet and deal with the editor, and maybe try to get a correction -- things like that. What you don’t do is go nuts and draw even more attention to an unflattering story.

Yet when the BBC show Top Gear ran a review of the Tesla Roadster that Musk didn’t like, Musk made a huge stink over a show most people (in America anyway) had never even heard of. Musk sued the BBC for libel. He lost in court, but won in the court of public opinion. The fight raised awareness of Tesla.

(Full disclosure: Back in 2008 I too became the subject of Musk’s ire because of an article I wrote in Newsweek that said Tesla was "losing its juice." No lawsuit, just an angry note to the editor. And now, five years later, lots of egg on my face.)

In February of this year, when a writer for the New York Times penned a negative piece about Tesla and claimed the battery in his Model S test car had died on a long drive, Musk went ballistic on Twitter, accusing the writer of fabricating his results. “NYTimes article about range in cold is fake,” he tweeted, following up with a blog post in which he wrote, “When the facts didn’t suit his opinion, he simply changed the facts.”

Steve Jobs also had a love-hate relationship with the press. In 2008, he started off an interview with New York Times columnist Joe Nocera by calling him “a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” Not what they teach you in PR school. And yet, I would argue more people came away from that exchange siding with Jobs than with Nocera.

How do Musk and Jobs pull this off? My theory is that most people hate journalists, so when a CEO bashes one of them, the world roots for the CEO. Plus, when Musk attacks his critics, he looks like a proud papa defending his kid. People admire him for sticking up for his product.

He taunts Wall Street.

Conventional wisdom is that CEOs should not rock the boat when it comes to investors. If the market’s running against you, you grin and bear it. Not Musk. For a long time, Tesla’s stock has been haunted by short-sellers -- people who have bet the stock will go down, and sometimes bash the company to help that process along. Last year, asked on Fox Business about the huge short interest in Tesla shares, Musk declared "there’s a tsunami of hurt coming for the shorts." Recently, when Tesla shares began rising, Musk took to Twitter to taunt the short-sellers who were getting crushed, writing, "Seems to be some stormy weather over in Shortville these days."

He likes to drop hints and build suspense.

Jobs was a master of suspense who would dodge questions about future products but do so in a way that only fueled more speculation. He knew that people love a mystery.

Musk does the same -- only he does it on Twitter. And every time he does this, the tech press jumps to write up the news that Musk just tweeted a hint about a new product. Then when the product is announced, the press all covers that, too. So Tesla gets loads of press for what otherwise might just be a press release that nobody would even write about.

“Announcement of new @TeslaMotors strategy tomorrow. Tesla owners will like this,” Musk tweeted on April 25, setting off a mini-frenzy of speculation about what Tesla might announce.

He gloats about his victories.

Sure, every CEO likes to announce good news. But Musk likes to go a little further and really rub it in. In the May 22nd press release announcing that Tesla had paid off its government loans ahead of schedule, Tesla also mentioned that “Following this payment, Tesla will be the only American car company to have repaid the government.” Tesla also pointed out that the money it got was not the same as the money spent to bail out big car makers. Tesla’s money came from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program, which “is often confused with the financial bailouts provided to the then bankrupt GM and Chrysler, who were ineligible for the ATVM program, because a requirement of that program was good financial health.”

He thinks big and isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

Conventional wisdom says a CEO should stay “on message” and talk about whatever product(s) the company wants to tout right now. At the recent D11 conference, where Apple CEO Tim Cook was criticized for doing just that -- he ducked questions and was too bland -- Musk wowed the crowd by talking about putting people on Mars and a high-speed transportation system called a Hyperloop that could zip people from LA to San Francisco in half an hour. Sure, he also pulled the conversation back to Tesla. But now Tesla and its electric cars were set in the context of a space-age future -- great brand positioning.

He turns customers into evangelists.

One thing you learn very quickly as a tech journalist is that if you ever say anything even remotely negative about Apple, you will be attacked by legions of fanboys rushing out to tell the world that you’re stupid, or dishonest, or both. That’s because, over its 37-year history, Apple has built an army of fanatics who love the brand and everything it represents, so much so that they will stand in line for days in advance of a new iPhone release just so they can be first to get Apple’s new toy. (And also, I would argue, because they want the world to see them standing in line outside an Apple store. Now that is brand power.)

Tesla has started to become the same thing. Its customers don’t just like their cars; theylove their cars, and they love Tesla, and they want everyone in the world to feel the same way. When that negative story ran in the New York Times in February and Musk took to Twitter and his blog to complain, he unleashed an army of Tesla lovers who swarmed theTimes website and every other blog or website that ran an article about the kerfuffle. One group of Tesla owners actually spent the weekend driving the same route that the Timesjournalist had driven, in an attempt to discredit his story by proving that their cars didn’t run out of juice on the same trip.

More recently, when my friend and former colleague Scott Woolley penned a piece for Slatearguing that the government got a poor return on its investment in Tesla, he was taken aback by the vitriolic comments that came swarming in.

The lesson? Tesla is a beloved brand with incredibly zealous fans. Those fans include loads of people who love Tesla even though they haven’t even bought a Tesla, and probably can’t afford one. (The Model S starts at $70,000 and can go over $100,000.)

Can you imagine having an army of people who love your company so much that, even though they can't afford your product, still feel the urge to defend you against critics?

Now that is what I call good marketing.