New IABC Podcast Up: Email Marketing

I started my "marketing career" working at an email service provider (a company that sends emails for marketers) and so it was great to be able to come back to email marketing in my latest episode of IABC Ottawa's podcast "The Voice".   Listen and learn more here. 

I wanted to talk about email marketing because I don't feel that it gets enough love.  Back in 2000, it was all the rage and was very much the "you gotta be doing it" marketing tactic so business was good for anyone in the email marketing field.  I used to help my clients be better email marketers and in doing so, developed and published many of the best practices still being used today.

Over the years, those best practices seemed to become written in stone and I was really enjoying DJ Waldow's recent thinking on how we should look to break those rules so I decided to invite him onto The Voice (the podcast, not the TV show) to talk about the relevancy of email in 2012 (it's as relevant as ever) and how to break the rules to get better. 

3 Ottawa BBQ Places in 1 Day

Ottawa is lucky to have at least four authentic BBQ restaurants in the area:  D&S Southern BBQ on Russell Road in Carlsbad Springs, Fatboys Southern Smokehouse on Murray Street and The Smoque Shack on York Street.  There is also a new place on Bank Street in the Glebe, Annie and Clyde's Southern BBQ. 

As my fiance was spending Saturday with her bridesmaids getting their dresses sorted out, I decided to grab a few buddies and see if I could visit D&S, Fatboys and Smoque in the same day.  It turned out to be quite the adventure.  Each BBQ place is different and if you know BBQ, then you know there are many different preparation methods, sauces and rubs that go into BBQ, making it a very personal thing.  If you're not sure which one you'd like to visit, do what I did - visit them all. 

D&S Southern BBQ 

D&S brisket

D&S is about 20 minutes East of Ottawa but it's not that hard to find.  Get off the 417 by making a left on Boundary road and follow it until you get to the junction with Russell Road and you'll see it.  They have ample parking for cars and snowmobiles.

The restaurant is large with lots of comfortable seating for families and so I'd say that D&S is really the best option for people with family because the combination of parking and seating make it perfect for people with children who can't afford to spend the time it takes to get the minivan parked downtown.  If you are bringing kids, be sure to have something to occupy them as our food did a bit of time to arrive.  But hey, if you want fast food, go to McDonald's. 

The food at D&S is really good.  Everything is big. They even have a 5.5 pound "burger" called "The Determinator".  If you eat it in 1 hour, you'll get yourself on the D&S Wall of Fame.  We had brisket, pulled pork, ribs and wings with sides of coleslaw and cornbread.

The brisket was really good.  The sauce you can see on it in the picture was really tasty.  They slice their brisket thinly and there is a nice layer of fat (flavor) on it.  The pulled pork was sweet and juicy and the ribs were tasty and tender.  Now, some people will say that D&S' ribs aren't fall of the bone and that's the way they designed them but that doesn't mean they aren't tender.  The cornbread was amazing.  It's not as "mealy" as other places, more like a muffin but still, it was really good and worth ordering for sure.

Fatboys Southern Smokehouse

Located on Murray Street near Sussex you'll find Fatboys Southern Smokehouse.  I should start by saying that I went to Fatboys on the day that it opened wasn't overly impressed.  The brisket was dry, the ribs were small and the sides were dry and unimpressive. Here's Ottawa Citizen restaurant reviewer Ron Eade's thoughts on Fatboys at opening. 

Fatboys brisket and cornbread

I was pleasantly surprised to find out upon my most recent visit that they fixed all of these issues, and then some.  The brisket was nice and thick with a huge layer of fat on the top, the ribs were juicy and tender and the sides were really good.  They also have amazing little cornbread bites that are addictive.  One my buddies said the ribs were the best he'd had since The Salt Lick in Austin Texas.  That's high praise for sure.  Fatboys also has amazing sauces and if our server wasn't 6'5'' and over 300 pounds, I would have stolen some as the store won't be up and running until the Spring. 

Fatboys is a large open space with plenty of TV's, tables and beer paraphernalia.  The decor and the details are really impressive and you can see that they spared no expense renovating the space that used to be a flower shop.  Fatboys is the place you go with a group of friends to drink beers and have fun watching some sports or, if you're there on Friday or Saturday nights, the live music.

The Smoque Shack

The final stop on our tour was The Smoque Shack.  It's on York Street, East of Dalhousie.  I have been to Smoque a few times before and I knew it was good so it served as my "safe bet" for a place I knew we'd love.  If D&S is a place for families and Fatboys is a place to party, Smoque is a place for those of you who are serious about food.

Warren Sutherland who used to be at Sweetgrass knows his way around a kitchen and despite being a super nice guy (he had seen that we were touring BBQ places on Twitter before we arrived) he cooks up some mean BBQ in his smoker.

You guessed it.... brisket at Smoque Shack

The first thing you need to know is that anything jerk at Smoque is off-the-charts good.   We had jerk wings and jerk pork, both of which were simply amazing.  Of course, I had brisket and it was also really good.  Smoque does brisket a little different than everyone else.  First, they chop it up and then they finish it off with a coffee BBQ sauce.  The best part is the small bits of burnt crust (called bark in BBQ circles) are to die for.

Smoque has an atmosphere that is a mix of traditional and modern and the bar is stocked with amazing local microbrews.  Many thanks for the bartender for pointing us towards Mill Street's seasonal 9% Belgian hopfest that is called Beetlegeuse.  

Conclusions

Eating BBQ is fun and we had a great time visiting each of these establishments.  Ottawa is in a great place right now.  There's an epic battle going on for our BBQ hearts and minds and we are ultimate winners.  Even mediocre authentic BBQ is better than what you'll get at the large franchises so I would encourage you to get out and try these places.

Just do me one favour - don't complain about the lack of place ware to your server.  BBQ is a contact sport and so it's not about forks or plates.  In fact, I prefer mine without either of those things.

My First IABC Ottawa Podcast Episode is Up!

It's been a busy 2012 so far for me and I'm really happy to announce that the first episode of IABC Ottawa's podcast "The Voice" that I am hosting has been posted on the IABC website. 

I have always been a fan of podcasts and listen to upwards of 5 to 10 of them a week, so it was a no-brainer when IABC Ottawa asked me to take over co-hosting duties from Jud Rasmussen who didn't have time to give it the attention it deserved.  Jud is a close family friend of mine and I wanted to make sure that I tried to keep up the amazing quality he established over the past year. 

For my first episode, I decided to talk about Peer to Peer Marketing with my buddy Jackson Wightman.  

Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

What the #1 Google search in Canada says about how people use the web

I'm a big fan of using search data to gain marketing insights so when I saw the most popular Google searches for Canada in 2011 come out, I couldn't wait to see the news.  When I did, I was somewhat shocked. 

If you haven't seen them yet, here they are:


1. www.census2011.gc.ca
2. Skyrim
3. Canada Post Strike
4. Rebecca Black
5. Ryan Dunn
6. Japan Earthquake
7. Game of Thrones
8. Jack Layton
9. Royal Wedding
10. Google Plus

Other than the fact that Rebecca Black is so high (btw, she's #1 worldwide) I was really surprised to see a web address at #1.  While I wouldn't be surprised to see a web address in the top 5 because I see this often with some of the websites that I manage, I was taken aback to see a web address at #1. 

This highlights a few important points about web marketing and usage:

1. Not everyone is as web-savvy as you are.  I NEVER type web addresses into Google but this tells that many other people do.  
2. If you're monitoring your organic search volume you MUST remove any branded searches from your analysis.  If you don't do this, you'll think you are doing way better at organic search than you really are because your organic search results will include people who already know your web address and would have been direct traffic if they typed the address in the right place. 
3. If your web address isn't a trademark, be careful that competitors aren't outbidding you for paid traffic that you could be getting.  However, even if it is, you should watch this anyways as Google may not catch it and prevent somebody else from bidding on your trademark. 

 Pretty interesting stuff isn't it?

It was 35 years ago today...

Today is an important day because it was 35 years ago today that The Band held a concert at the Winterland in San Francisco called "The Last Waltz". 

The Last Waltz was so much more than a concert or a film directed by Martin Scorsese.  It was more than a Thanksgiving feast where the 5,000 people in attendance were treated to dinner and dancing prior to the show's 9pm start.  It was also much more than The Band's last concert together (except for reunions shows with various formations).

The Last Waltz is an important milestone in the history of rock and roll and a key moment in the history of Canadian music. 

I suspect many people aren't aware of The Band's connections to Canada, in fact most of the Band was born in Ontario.  Robbie Robertson was born in Toronto, Garth Hudson was born in Windsor, Rick Dank was born in Green's Corners and Richard Manuel was born in Stratford.  Only Levon Helm was born in the USA, having been born in Arkansas in 1940.  The band spent many of their early years backing Ronnie Hawkins, playing clubs up and down Yonge Street in Toronto.  They had strong connections to other Canadian musicians and those are evident in The Last Waltz.  In fact, many other Canadian musicians including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell performed with The Band during The Last Waltz.  Here's a great example of that, Acadian Driftwood. 

The Last Waltz deserves to be remembered today for a number of reasons:

1. It was a celebration of the impact Canadian musicians had on rock and roll from it's ascent in the 1950's to the mid 1970's. 
2. It showed that bands could to go out while still on top and do it with grace and tact instead of fiery theatrics and sub-par music.  
3. Many of the performances recorded at The Last Waltz are some of the best versions of those songs ever recorded.  (Who Do You Love with Ronnie Hawkins in particular and Van The Man's Caravan to name a few)
4. It spawned a concert movie that is still today thought of as the best concert films ever made.  

I own a copy of The Last Waltz on vinyl and listen to it often.  I also own the original concert film.   If you're interested in the The Last Waltz, I'd suggest picking up the 4 CD box-set that includes the concert in its entirety.

Why Marketing People Need to Understand Communications/PR

In case you haven't noticed, the world of marketing is changing and if you don't change with it, you risk finding yourself in a real bind the next time you need to find a job.  And given the state of the economy and the high-level of economic uncertainty we face, I think it's a great time to rethink marketers plan on "winning the future".

I say that marketers need to understand is the world of communications/public relation better and here's why

1. As budgets shrink, companies will not be able to afford seperate marketing AND communications departments so as they look to do more with less, resources in both departments may be called upon do to both sets of tasks. 
2. In case you hadn't noticed, marketing people and communications people are switching sides.  If you think the competition for your role or any job your are applying for is only going to come from people in your specific field, you're kidding yourself.  Read any marketing job description these days and note the requirement "Degree in Marketing, Communications or any related field..."
3. The importance of social media is bringing together marketing and communications roles as companies struggle to figure out who owns what and how it is best managed.  If you understand what everybody touching social media does, you are well positioned to help your company tell its story. 
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) might be a primarily marketing function but media coverage is a great way to get high-quality back links to your site.  Also, if you are employing an effective listening strategy (something communications and PR people are good at), it's easy to find stories about topics that relate to your company/product/customers and join the conversation and get high-quality back links. 
5. Having great writing skills is important and you learn many things about writing great content from communications, public relations and marketing writers. 
6. I believe our future is going to be determined by how successful our entrepreneurs will be at growing companies that hire people.  To me this means that we all need to get better at wearing more hats and doing more than just one thing.  In short, I think the day of the one-trick pony is over.  

What do you think? 

My next post is going to cover a few tips and resource that I think are great for marketers looking to understand communications/PR better. 

image credit: bgottsab

Is it OK to promote ____________ through my personal social media accounts?

One of my least favorites things about social media is when people mindlessly promote things through their personal social media accounts.

I know what you're thinking "Danny, isn't this exactly what social media accounts are for?".

The right answer is "not really".  Social media are for connecting and helping people but this isn't a post about what social media are/aren't good for.  Sometimes the best way to help people and make connections is to promote things, but everyday I see people who seem to have to no idea when it is or isn't appropriate to promote things through their personal social media account.  On a bad day, Twitter looks like a bunch of people promoting whatever it is they are doing at that moment.  I have lots of theories on why this happens but I'll save those for another post....

I hate to answer a question with more questions but I think people need to ask themselves a few things before they promote anything through their personal social media accounts?

1. Is anybody listening? If you have no followers, no connections or no fans, then you are simply wasting your time.  
2. Is anybody going to care? Think about your audience.  Who are you connected to and who are they connected to?  I often see people promoting events for their company when all of their connections are friends.  If you aren't sure if people are going to care, why don't you put some thought into what social media platforms you select and how you present your offer.  
3. How often am I doing this?  Look at the ratio of your promotions vs. interactions.  If you're the digital equivalent of a person standing on a street corner with a megaphone then maybe you should reconsider. 

I'd like to suggest that if the answer to either of the first two questions is "yes" then you shouldn't promote whatever it is to your personal social media connections.  If the answer to the last question is "more than once a week", I'd also suggest you seriously reconsider.  There are people who can get away with it more often than others but chances are you're not one of them.

Thoughts?


image credit: ehnmark

My Tips for Creating Killer Marketing Videos

My company recently went through the process of creating a short marketing video to help prospects understand why they need our product and what they need to do.  We worked with Simple Story Videos and here's the video:

I learned a few important lessons during this project and I'd like to share them here. 

1. Understand your goal: This goes without saying but invest the time up front to make sure that everyone on your marketing and management teams are clear about what the goal of the video is so that you can focus your efforts and feedback.  For us, the goal was to motivate people to download the product and try it.  By taking the time to understand what our call to action was and how we wanted the audience to feel after watching the video, we were able to stay focused because you can create many different types of videos. 
2. Keep it short: The shorter the video, the more likely the viewer is to watch it.  I hate seeing people invest time and money in long videos assuming the audience is going to watch it.  Creating a short video is really difficult because every word and image is critical in helping to convey your message but you need to be very strict during the development of the script and storyboard in order to pull this off.  Always ask yourself "is that really necessary?  Can I do that with images instead of words?  Is there an easier and clearer way to get that same message across?".
3. Know your audience: Be very clear on who the audience for your video is and be sure to always look at the content from their point of view.  If something isn't going to make sense to your audience then you need to deal with it ASAP.  Always critique your video from the point of your of your audience and what you want they to do or feel. 
4. Work your script and storyboard: Script and storyboard development are the most important aspects of the creative process so be sure to spend the time working and refining your script and imagery during storyboarding.  Doing so will help you make sure your don't waste time and money changing something later.  I also recommend making sure you document everything during these phases and that you take the time to make sure your feedback is incorporated into each iteration.  

 Have you ever created a marketing video?  If so, what did you learn?

Why I Voted for Yasir Naqvi in Ottawa Centre

Gary Vaynerchuck talks about passion and hustle in his amazing book "Crush It!", btw I reviewed it recently, and I think that this post is about both of those things more than politics.

On Sunday, I took about 15 minutes out of my day and voted for Yasir Naqvi (Liberal) because I think that you aren't going to find a better candidate or somebody who works harder for Ottawa Centre than Yasir.

When deciding who to vote for in this election, I could have cast my ballot on the basis of political party platforms (I tend to lean Conservative) but in the end, I had to vote for the candidate I knew would be the best for person the job. 

We are in a period of intense economic uncertainty and the task ahead is daunting, regardless of which party wins and what kind of government they form.  The truth is that there is lots of hard work to be done and I know firsthand that nobody works harder than Yasir.  

Yasir has probably knocked on every door in Ottawa Centre, twice.  I know this because when I canvassed for him, most people I spoke to had already met him. When did phone canvassing, most people said he had just been to their door.  That's the type of person Yasir is. 

I care about making Ottawa Centre a better place to live and so does Yasir.  I volunteer my time with Computers for Communities, a non-profit that refurbishes computers and donates them to people who can't afford them.  Last year, Yasir showed up unannounced to an event we were holding at 8:30pm on a weeknight because he wanted to meet our volunteers, hear about what we were doing and offer his assistance.  He has continued to support C4C, helping us make important connections with other volunteer organizations and enabled us to amplify the good work we are doing. 

This is what Yasir does. It is what he will continue to do if you vote for him on October 6^th.

He works tirelessly for our community and has a record of delivering results. People will often say – Candidate X has worked hard and deserves your vote, while that is undoubtedly true about Yasir, more importantly, our community deserves Yasir Naqvi as our advocate.  

If you want to know more about how you can vote in advance of October 6th, visit the Elections Ontario website.  

4 Easy Ways to Find Great Content

Everybody loves to find great content.  The problem is that finding the good stuff is hard because there is so much stuff out there.

Here are 4 easy ways for you to find great content: 

#1: Use and follow Twitter lists:  I am finding that people aren't sharing as much content on Twitter as they used to but my biggest recommendation for finding great content on Twitter is to use lists.  Curate your own lists but more importantly, follow the lists curated by others and create a column for the list in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.  If you're in marketing/advertising, a great example of Bob Knorpp, host of The Beancast,  curates a list of show guests.

#2: Read great blogs and watch for curated link posts:  There are some amazing bloggers out there who put up weekly posts of that lists amazing content.  I'm sure that there are blogs about the topics you are interested in that take the time to curate posts with great content.  Here's a selection of blogs and bloggers that I know do this: 

Mitch Joel:  Shares great content form his network in a post weekly of links worthy of your attention. 
John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing): Shares great stuff every Saturday.
Mediastyle: Does the same each week on their blog with their weekly Style Guide.

I would also like to point out that blog projects often provide great sources of content because you will often get viewpoints from many different sources you might have otherwise heard about.  My friend Jackson Wightman has a great example over at his 52 week blog project on local food in Montreal called Ici et Here.

#3: Visit curated content websites: There are also websites that curate, aggregate and share great content.  Here's a few that I pay attention to: 

Say100: A collection of online voices that help shape conversation by curating and sharing content.
PSFK:  The place to go for inspiration and design ideas on just about everything.
Brain Pickings: Maria Popova has written for many influential magazines and knows what's cool and what is happening.  

#4: Follow people in RSS: If you aren't already into RSS, then I would suggest you check it out immediately using a RSS reader like Google Reader.  One of the best features in Google Reader is that you can easily share items in your feed with people who choose to follow you.  More importantly, you can follow others.  One of the people I follow is Christopher S. Penn, who always shares great content. 

What are some of the ways that you find great content?