Editor’s Note – This is a guest post from CT Moore, a recovering agency hack who helps brand leverage search and social media to meet their business goals online. By day, he heads up Search and Social at Publikit, a boutique web dev agency in Montreal, and also runs Socialed, a digital consultancy that provides digital strategy to both start-ups and multinational brands alike. You can find out more about him through his personal blog.

Aha! Another year is about to come to close and a new one will soon begin. And if you’re any kind of marketer (or business person for that matter), you’ve probably started thinking about what you could start doing in 2014, or at least do better in 2014 than you did in 2013.

Well, if that’s the mind frame you’ve been in, I’d like to suggest 3 potential New Year’s Resolutions that you should probably apply toward your upcoming marketing efforts. I have to warn you, though: if you’ve already made up your mind on how to tackle things in 2014 and aren’t open to feedback, you should probably read no further — I’ll just end up saying “I told you so” ;)

#1 OWN Your Media

Paid media is the placement you pay for: ads, commercials, etc. Earned media is the PR and social media wins you get from doing awesome stuff and providing great customer service.

Owned media, however, is the stuff you produce that people actually care about. In fact, what kinda of makes it “media” is that people actually pay attention to it (unlike ads). It can be anything from just really helpful how-to’s to outright entertaining viral stuff, but the point is that it gets you exposure with the right target market, just like PR or advertising would.

The only difference is that you made it. And right now, 78% of CMOs believe that branded content is the future of marketing, with 25% of budgets going to content. So in 2014, start thinking about how to own your media.

In fact, start investing in media worth owning. Because, at the end of the day, content is a lot like tattoos: it can be either cheap or good, but not both.

Good content costs money to make, and you have to keep at it for a while before it pays-off; but when it pays-off, it really pays-off. From branding to public relations to SEO, it’s one of the few channels that also contributes something to all the other channels.

#2 Get Serious About Mobile

Yeah, I know: a lot of you think you’re serious about mobile? But are you really? I mean, are you anywhere near the companies whose marketing you admire/envy, and/or can you actually implement the kind of strategies they have going on??

Now, I could dig up a bunch of stats and quote them to create urgency and make you sympathetic to my point. But, instead, I’ll just guess (i.e. “assume”) that enough of you reading this have smart phones (and are sufficiently attached to them) that I don’t need to do that kinda thing. So let me leave you with a kind of barometer / checklist to figure out just how the eff you’re supposed to tackle mobile in 2014:

• Mobile Sites: I’m still shocked by just how many top-tier companies/sites/portals fail at this. If you don’t have a mobile site, get one. And if you already have one, make sure that I’m redirect to it if I visit your site from a mobile device.
• Mobile App: If your business is driven by user-experience (e.g. commerce) or content, release that App already! No repeat customer or returning user wants to deal with your mobile site. And even here I can think of a few content portals who have an otherwise great mobile engagement strategy but no mobile app…
• Mobile Campaigns: If you’re already investing in display ads, PPC, and/or SEO, start looking at how you can divert some of that toward targeting mobile users; there are enough of them using mobile apps and searching via mobile devices that you can’t afford no to.

Okay, so you get the point? Good! Let’s move on….

#3 Start Listening to Your Customers

So maybe you’re already doing the mobile and content thing, or may you’re not but (hopefully) are gonna start. Either way, you’re going to have to measure your progress. And, of course, you’re going to be measuring and monitoring what user actually do once they engage with your brand.

But are you being proactive in that measurement? In other words, are you actually trying to gage how your users specifically and the market at large feel about your industry?

For starters, start looking at what people are already saying about both you and your competitors. Tools like Salesforce Marketing Cloud are great for this kind of thing. They let you monitor not only your brand name but what people are saying about your industry and competitors, in general.

Step it up a notch, though, by finding what your actual user and site visitor think. There are a few service providers that can help you do this, but the (ubiquitous) one that comes to mind is iPerceptions. You’ve probably come across them in the form of their 4Q survey, which is a free tool. But they also offer a bunch of voice of customer measurement tools you can upgrade to to make sense of the data that you collect via the 4Q survey.

The point is (1) stop assuming you think you know better than your (potential) customers, and (2) stop looking at what your users might’ve done and start considering what they’re actually looking for. Because that’s the kind of insight that’s not only gonna help you step up your marketing game, but develop better products and services, the likes of which you might’ve not otherwise considered…

New Year, New Start

If you’ve read this far, I want to make one thing clear: I’m not saying you have to follow my advice. I’m just saying you should.

You’re free, of course, to disregard my advice, but I’m confident enough that you’d be wrong to do so that I wrote this blog post and put my name on it. So give it some thought; sleep on it; and do whatever it is that you have to do to “tear sh*t up” in 2014 that you’ll be too busy either optimizing some version of your site or developing new product/service that you won’t give this post another thought ;)

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Today, December 30, marks the 7th anniversary of the very first blog post on The Hot Iron, appropriately titled, Hello World.

Rather than getting mushy about the past, I’d like to thank you for reading, whether this is the first time you have read something I have written, you for some reason have been with me for the past 7 years or you are somewhere in between.

It has been an up and down journey, but aren’t they all? This past year I have gotten re-energized about blogging, and I hope to keep it up in the coming year. Only time will tell.

As I have in the past, I have wanted to have some photo to accompany the years, and this year I chose Heaven on Seven, an amazing New Orleans-style restaurant in Chicago. If you come to the Windy City, you must try it. They have 2 locations – one on the Magnificent Mile and one on Wabash Avenue, where this sign is located in front of. Go to the latter – the feel is more authentic.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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To all my readers and friends who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas!

I am writing this prior to completing the final touches on our Christmas for our 2 kids. Where they are excited for what Santa Claus will be bringing them on Christmas morning, I am also trying to carry on traditions for the holidays that were part of my own growing-up. In addition to many common ones – family gatherings, gift giving, the nativity, church, etc., here’s a few unique elements of my Christmas over the years that I am sharing with them, and I would like to share with you.

Zat You Santa Claus?

Pictured is a plastic illuminated Santa Claus that towers at 3 feet tall and is over 40 years old. It was always standing watch in our breezeway window in the house I grew up in through Christmas. But on Christmas day, Santa returned to his post in the basement, not to be illuminated until the following year. When my Mom moved from my childhood home, I took Santa in, and he has been with me now for almost 20 years.

An interesting story on the jolly old elf is when I moved to Chicago, I took Santa with me. Rather than putting himinto a moving box, he sat next to me on the drive from Boston to the Windy City, literally. Donning a baseball cap, he got his share of looks from passing cars and when I stopped along the way.

The Littlest Snowman

Have you ever heard of the story The Littlest Snowman? If you said you didn’t I wouldn’t be surprised, as many people have not. Yet for some reason, this is the one story I remember the most from Christmases long ago. My own copy of the book is long gone, but thanks to the magic of eBay, I was able to get an original copy of the hardcover Golden Book.

The story is somewhat similar to that of the other famous snowman, Frosty. Then again, we’re talking about snowmen, so other than coming to life and melting, they are limited in what they can do. But it is a cute story I remembered, and now I have read to my own kids several times through the month. Despite this, I have a sneaking suspicion Frosty is still their favorite.

Pizzelles

It would not be a complete story on Christmas by an Italian if there were no mention of food. Where there are many culinary traditions for the holidays, one that brings the most memories and has taken on a new meaning for me is pizzelles.

Pizzelles are a flat Italian cookie made with an iron that resembles a waffle iron. Made with basic ingredients, they were a staple for all Christmas and Easter gatherings of family, as most everybody had their own pizzelle iron and their own variation on the recipe. They are commonly flavored with anise, but can also be made with vanilla or even maple syrup- the latter was due to my family growing up in Vermont. On occasion we would have chocolate pizzelles made with cocoa powder, but anise was always my favorite.

This year I decided to carry on the tradition and make pizzelles myself. I used my Mom’s recipe, and had bought a new electric iron as hers had long ago stopped working. As you can see from the photo above, they turned out pretty good. These were from my first batch, which did not last long due to their popularity with family and visiting friends. They are really simple to make and I also had my youngest kid help in the mixing, extending the tradition to yet another generation.

Buon Natale

Thank you for allowing me to share a few of my unique Christmas traditions with you. I would like to hear what you do to make the holidays unique and you are welcome to share them in the comments of this post.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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There were screams of joy across the Land of Lincoln (or at least in my corner of it) as I received an email inviting me back into the affiliate program for Amazon.com called Amazon Associates. So why not join me in celebrating by clicking the link below to buy this beautiful Platinum Cushion Cut Blue Sapphire And Round Diamond Pendant?

A Little Background

Residents of the state of Illinois were tossed out of the program back in 2011 upon the state’s passing of the Main Street Fairness Act. The law recognized affiliates of Amazon and other online companies, those who did not have a physical presence in Illinois, as the physical presence of those companies, and thus required purchases made through affiliate links and Web sites to be taxed with Illinois state tax. I wrote about this back then in an eloquent piece called Pat Quinn Screws Entrepreneurship In Illinois By Signing Amazon Tax Bill.

The intent of the law was to “level the playing field” – and I am quoting the politicians who supported it, including Illinois governor Pat Quinn – between brick and mortar stores across the state and online retailers, the latter who have been taking business from the former. Where the intent was good, the law did not do anything to make anything more fair for anyone. As quickly as Amazon dropped its affiliates, it never missed a beat in its own sales. Residents of Illinois were still buying from Amazon, and as a result choosing to not buy from local stores. It actually had a negative effect as people and businesses who were affiliates – from myself to other bloggers to coupon companies like Coupon Cabin – either lost money or were chased from Illinois to neighboring states like Indiana and Wisconsin. And as these people and companies pay taxes on their affiliate earnings, the state lost out on that tax revenue.

Welcome Back

In October, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the Main Street Fairness law, paving the way for the return of the program. Just hours before I wrote this post, I got an email from Amazon Associates inviting me back into the program, and the text of the short but to the point email is below.

Hello,

We're pleased to announce that the Amazon Associates program is again open to residents of the State of Illinois. We're now able to re-open the program because the Illinois State Supreme Court recently struck down legislation that had forced Amazon to close the program to residents of Illinois. Amazon strongly supports federal legislation like the Marketplace Fairness Act that’s now pending before Congress, which is the only constitutional way to resolve interstate sales tax collection issues.

Residents of Illinois who would like to participate in the Amazon Associates program can submit an application here:

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/apply/main.html

Thanks for your past participation in the Amazon Associates program. We hope to see you again soon.

What it means to myself and others

The return of the program is definitely good news for those who run affiliate programs or are seeking to monetize their Web sites. The world of affiliate marketing is vast and, in my opinion, fascinating and too much to talk about in this post alone. For myself and this little corner of the Internet called The Hot Iron, I am certainly not looking at the return of the program as a cash cow. In the past links to products – namely books and electronics – were affiliate links to Amazon, and if anyone purchased them, I would get a percentage of the cost.

This is why I am welcoming back the program with what I found as a very beautiful piece of jewelry, let alone pricy. The affiliate earnings for this pendant would pay for a nice vacation, or a couple of months of my daughter’s daycare. I will admit I never got rich off the program in the past, and I don’t see myself doing so in the future, as links on The Hot Iron were never obtrusive and hopefully a compliment to the site.

I also welcome your thoughts and questions on Amazon Associates in the comments to this post. I am curious if the return of affiliate programs like this one will impact you or not, or if you even knew they went away to begin with.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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Editor's Note: I am no longer collecting Box Tops, and the email address has been removed from this post.

Have you seen this symbol?

If you have and you don't cut them out and just discard or recycle them, may I ask you to send them to me? Why? Your unused Box Tops for Education will benefit my kid's education.

Yes, really.

The Box Tops for Education program places these small symbols on various consumer goods and products, everything from Scott toilet paper to Cheerios. Each one is worth US$.10, and some products can have multiple symbols or even unique codes to redeem online. My kid, who now attends one of the finest schools in the universe (name purposely omitted) is collecting them to benefit that very school. And those little symbols can add up - last year the school raised nearly US$1,000, and I think they can do better than that, but we will need your help.

How to help

If you would like to offload these symbols to me, please email me. I will send you a postage-paid envelope for you to send them back to me. As well, if you have any products with codes to redeem online, you can send them to that email address as well.

Thank you

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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