SageRock

• Location: Akron, Ohio
• Number of Employees: 15
• Notable Clients: Cleveland Cavaliers, Carter Lumber, SKF
• URL: www.sagerock.com

Founded in 1999, SageRock is a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping brands engage their audiences online.  This is made possible with a suite of solutions that cover SEO, social media, behavioral targeting, usability and analytics.  Aside from being a digital marketing specialist, the company also provides planning, consultation, and training through SageRock Institute, which includes both paid and free courses.

Contel Bradford of DMB recently spoke with Sage Lewis, SageRock founder and president, to learn more about the company and get his thoughts on the ever-evolving digital space.

I noticed that you are very engaged in the digital marketing world? What fuels your passion for the business?
I believe that the digital revolution we all are participating in is the greatest transformation of media in the history of humanity. Because of tools like Twitter and blogs and YouTube, all riding on the back of the Internet, voices and perspectives never heard before are being heard worldwide.

This newfound power of the masses has required completely new levels of accountability and transparency in our governments and our corporations.  Simply put, communication is a good thing for everyone even though sometimes it looks messy.

What inspired SageRock Institute and what type of courses do you offer?
I love to teach. I am able to share my passion for my industry with many others through the medium of education. Also, I believe that there are many people who want to know how to successfully engage in the Internet marketing realm.

An important key to success in business is listening carefully to your customers and providing them with the services and products they want. SageRock Institute is trying to offer that solution.

With Twitter’s fast rise and the continuous dominance of Facebook, do you think brands should view social media as a must-have marketing tool?
No. Nothing is right for everyone. Doing social media correctly requires openness, transparency and a knack for engaging people on a personal level digitally. There are a lot of moving parts in social media. Doing it well is a rarity. Doing it poorly is common.

If your leadership and culture views social media skeptically and with suspicion you aren’t ready for it. Do something else.

What are your thoughts on Facebook’s Open Graph concept?  Do you think it will change the digital marketing landscape?
Information is meant to be free. Information evolves to openness. This is a law of human nature. There are many people that feel uncomfortable with Facebook’s sharing of information. Honestly, I’m uncomfortable with it. But ultimately this is where all information is heading.

People are uncomfortable with this because they see it happening. They should be more frightened of where their information is going without their knowledge. We used to live in a world where we hid our political and religious views. Today we live in a world where our personal lives are becoming available to everyone. The people giving the information need to be at peace with that. The people getting the information need to realize we are all human.

Some view social media as a threat to online search? As an SEO specialist, do you see it having an impact on how businesses approach optimization?
It isn’t a threat to online search. It is the evolution of online search. YouTube is now the second most important search engine. Social content is now becoming integrated within the search engines. The search marketing space is significantly more complicated than anything I dealt with in 1999.

As a search optimizer we have no choice but to force ourselves to learn and grow with this space. If we do, it offers incredible opportunity to be leaders and guides for the rest of the business community. To work in this space correctly you have no choice but to be a specialist.

Jenesys Group

• Location: Novi, Mich.
• Number of Employees: 20
• URL: www.jenesysgroup.com

Jenesys Group is a full service digital marketing agency located in Novi, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. An expert in Internet technology, the company offers services that range from web development and hosting to social media marketing and reputation management.  Jenesys Group lends it expertise to companies big and small, fit with solutions that enable brands to generate buzz and visibility online.

DMB’s Contel Bradford recently spoke with Nippa Shah, President of Jenesys Group, for some insight on digital marketing in the era of the social web.

Your portfolio of services is quite impressive. What integrated solution are your clients finding to be the most effective?
Social Media Marketing PLUS Search Engine Optimization. That’s because the combination is very powerful and the business owners “who get it”, want both.

Could you please tell our readers about your multi-cultural campaigns and the benefits of engaging ethnic audiences?
We have just begun offering these multi-cultural campaigns because data shows that multicultural audiences engage differently with brands. They also visit media that is more culturally relevant to them. There is no better ROI than when a targeted audience is attracted by messaging that is culturally relevant and appealing. We want to use the social networks to create that awareness and outreach for our customers and their brands.

How can aspiring businesses benefit from your licensee program?
Well, there are many who want to get started on an entrepreneurial journey but invariably besides the investment, it’s the “fear of the unknown” that stops them from venturing ahead. With our licensing program, we offer a lower-cost opportunity with lots of flexibility and hand-holding to prospects who wish to create a business. WE teach them tips and techniques so that they learn not only the subject matter but also the in’s and out’s of becoming a business owner. Too many people end up “buying a job” when they buy a franchise or a business. We teach our licensees how NOT to buy a job but to build a recurring revenue that is scalable with every year in a field that is exploding.

Do you see innovations such as Google Buzz and Promoted Tweets having a big impact on social media marketing?
Well, Google Buzz is yet another social networking platform for people to engage and brands to leverage. Promoted tweets will certainly be an interesting development and most of us in the field are waiting to see how they will impact the growth or decline of Twitter users.

Please explain why reputation management is more important than ever in the era of the social web?
Reputation management is huge because social networking allows anyone and everyone to post negative information online. All this is “user-generated” content that is not necessarily policed in most cases. To that end, anyone is an expert and anyone can create content that can potentially be damaging to a personal or professional reputation. Social networks provide “biased” content which cannot be controlled nor can it be policed in a very clear-cut manner. That’s why reputation management is a very important need in this age of social networking and popular sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Brick Marketing

• Location: Boston and Medford, MA
• Number of Employees: 10
• Notable Clients: Somerset Industries, Data Direct and Century 21
• URL:Website:  http://www.brickmarketing.com/

Brick Marketing is a full service search engine marketing (SEM) firm that helps companies of all sizes and types increase sales through SEO and internet marketing.  With offices in Boston and Medford, Massachusetts, the firm is comprised of a knowledgeable team with vast experience in a broad range of business backgrounds, allowing them to effectively execute marketing strategies based on the needs of each individual client.  Sitting on a diverse portfolio of solutions, Brick Marketing has a little something for everyone, whether it is a start -up or Fortune 500 Company.

Contel Bradford of DMB recently caught up with Nick Stamoulis, Brick Marketing founder, to get his thoughts on marketing in the era of the social web.

What keeps Brick Marketing thriving in the highly competitive internet marketing business?
The internet marketing industry is very competitive, but we have built a nice niche by staying small, providing great results and service for all of our clients.  I think another nice aspect that we have built is our helpful SEO newsletter (with over 100,000 opt-in subscribers and my SEO blog the Search Engine Optimization Journal.  Click the link for more information about the Brick Marketing SEO newsletter – http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs044/1101650496996/archive/1102429142755.html.

Click the link for more information about the Brick Marketing SEO Blog.

In your opinion, how could a business benefit by implementing a three-pronged marketing strategy that involves email, search, and social media marketing? And what are the challenges of such an approach?
Search engine optimization, opt-in email marketing and social media marketing are all long term internet marketing channels.  They all help build trust and a solid reputation over time.  I think the biggest challenge of building a newsletter list or your organic visitors from the search engines is that these approaches take time and an extreme amount of commitment and patience.  This is an area that I see many clients’ struggle with, but overcome as well!  Personally, I think these approaches together are truly a triple punch that works well for most businesses.  But to clarify, SEO is something that works well for EVERY type of business, it’s not a matter of should I optimize my website it’s a matter of when!

How is Brick Marketing helping organizations capitalize on the social media frenzy?
At Brick Marketing, we offer 3 different types of service:  Full Service, Custom Training and Custom Consulting.  For social media marketing, over the past several years we have provided companies with these customized solutions based on their specific business and needs.  There are a few mistakes that I always see companies making with their social media marketing campaigns.  The first challenge is they don’t personalize their social media outlets.  Social media marketing is about people and communication. The second area of improvement for many companies is they tend to waste too much time on certain social media activities.  Social media marketing is the type of medium that you get out what you put in, but it is very easy to waste time on non-performing areas and/or not give it enough time to work.

What are the challenges of measuring social media marketing ROI?
Measuring the ROI of social media marketing is always very challenging because of the long term and sometime intangible nature.  I think social media marketing (like all other forms of internet marketing) has its place within each organization and is not the end all be all.  Many people are under the impression that social media will solve all of their sales problems.  This is generally not the case.  When you measure your social media, in my eyes it is simple, are you looking to increase your brand awareness in your industry?  Or are you looking to communicate to your customers and potential client?  Or are you looking to increase visitors over time?  The point here is measuring social media marketing is very different for every type of business but it should be tested accordingly.

With the social web continually changing the marketing landscape, what improvements do you think can be made to better measure campaign performance?
That is a loaded question and honestly I am not sure.  I think social media will certainly continue to change and the reporting metrics will change with it.  The bottom line in my mind and the best advice that I can give companies looking to building the social media or search engine presence is NEVER put all of your web marketing eggs in one basket, diversify your marketing portfolio!

Ingenex Digital Marketing

• Location: Ann Arbor, Mich.
• Clients: Wayne Westland Community Schools, Plante & Moran, A2 Fiber
• Number of Employees: 4
• URL: www.ingenexdigital.com

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Ingenex Digital Marketing is a leading digital agency that offers a broad range of services for companies looking to engage their customers through digital media.  SEM, social media marketing, and web analytics are among its many solutions available to facilitate dialogue, generate traffic, and measure results.  Dedicated to helping businesses harness the power of the internet, Ingenex services clients in the state Michigan and throughout the country.

DMB’s Contel Bradford recently spoke with Derek Mehraban, Ingenex CEO, to learn more about this busy agency and get his outlook on the digital marketing industry.

What is the background story on Ingenex? Give us a brief look at the company’s journey in the digital marketing business.
Ingenex was founded in May 2006 by Derek Mehraban in Ann Arbor, Mich. The original focus of Ingenex was to help companies communicate across generations using new media and technology. The focus of Ingenex tightened in 2007 after Mehraban met Joseph Jaffe and Seth Godin and really began to build clients in the internet marketing space.

Ingenex has now become a successful digital marketing firm that is helping clients develop strategy and grow their business using digital technology. Ingenex believes that a client web site is the core of any digital strategy and specializes in building open source web sites that are usable, credible, and findable. A client site is the main point of customer interaction and content dissemination. Ingenex builds corporate web sites (especially in the business to business space) then optimizes them and measures their traffic and conversions through advanced Google analytics. Ingenex also specializes in pay per click advertising on Google and Yahoo search engines. Digital public relations, and social media marketing including blogger outreach and podcasting round out Ingenex services.

Can you provide some examples of how Ingenex has used digital technology to benefit local community projects?
Ingenex Digital Marketing has been involved in helping the United Way of Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor Hands on Museum, and A2 Fiber (Ann Arbor’s bid to win Google high speed internet). As the social media marketing lead on the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum - Hands on Local Tech event last year, Ingenex built a social media presence for the event and promoted the web site through search engine optimization and social media marketing. During the event our team took photos and video and published them on the event Facebook and Vimeo pages thus creating awareness and documenting the event for future viewing.

As part of the A2 Fiber initiative Ingenex customized the Twitter and Facebook pages for A2Fiber, then organized and ran a YouTube Video Contest to promote interest in Ann Arbor’s bid for Google High Speed Interent.

How are you helping your customers leverage the reach and power of social media?
Ingenex works with all our clients to establish measurable goals for using social media. We define the audience for each client, and develop a social media marketing strategy to reach that audience. We track the conversation, and help our clients participate and often lead the conversation in order to position Ingenex clients as leaders and experts in their respective industries. Ingenex also uses tools like Radian6 and Trackur to monitor the buzz around a clients brand, and measure the success or our client efforts.

For example our client OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is a global manufacturer of LED Lights. OSRAM has engaged Ingenex to build and manage a website that is a powerful tool for customer interaction and information dissemination. The site uses YouTube, Facebook and Flickr to reach out and connect with LED manufacturers, engineers and architects. Ingenex is leading the efforts to produce a virtual trade show on the LED Light Site that will shine a positive light on our client and help them grow their audience and engagement with customers.

What are some of the challenges and successes you’ve had with mobile application development?
Ingenex is working on a text messaging marketing service called Nudge Them. This product will allow businesses to send updates and appointment reminders to customers via text message, email or automated voice message. This is not just a mobile application, but it addresses the rise in mobile phones, and text messaging as a vehicle that is used by all generations, and is becoming an essential way to gain attention, and quickly reach and engage your customers.

Is mobile advertising making an impact at this point?  In your opinion, how long before this trend really takes off?
Mobile advertising is taking off. The mobile phone is the main way people communicate, and it will continue to become how people surf the web and make buying decisions on the fly. As the mobile interface improves, and more people use smart phones, mobile advertising will skyrocket.

When we optimize sites for clients we always take into account how they are viewed on mobile devices. It’s essential to optimize every web site for mobile search as well as traditional search. The number of people searching for your business on their phone is increasing day by day, and business to business companies need to be ready. One way they can prepare is to have a mobile friendly web site.

I expect in two years mobile search will overtake traditional search, and you will see a whole new ballgame for companies and how they market their products. We hope to be at the forefront of this technology and trend when it happens.

Street Attack

• Location: Boston, Brooklyn, Dallas
• Number of Employees: 15
• Notable/Clients: Sparks, Liberty Mutual, Pop-up Wedding Chapel
• URL: www.streetattack.com

Operating out of offices in Boston, Brooklyn and Dallas, Street Attack is an award-winning agency that specializes in both digital and alternative marketing solutions.  The company goes above and beyond to help consumer-facing companies and online businesses connect with their customers, leveraging innovative programs that include Experiential Marketing, Word of Mouth Marketing, and Street Teams. Street Attack’s solutions are designed to help organizations engage, boost traffic, and increase their bottom line.

DMB’s Contel Bradford caught up with Larry Jenkins, Street Attack Field Marketing Drill Sergeant, to learn more about the agency that has garnered much success balancing cutting edge technology and old school strategies.

Street Attack is definitely one of a kind. Aside from the obvious, what makes your approach to marketing different from other agencies on the scene?
We’re a unique hybrid of authentic grassroots experiential and socially focused digital. Our approach is often referred to as “inside out” where we build credibility and emotional bonds from within the influential ranks of a subset of consumers. This becomes extremely powerful when applied to hyper-local or super-niche slices. Our approach is to essentially create demand for a product or service based on its merit and ignite a movement around its promised benefits.

How can word of mouth still be so effective in the digital age of marketing?
Blogs, websites, and web personalities are in essence new entertainment properties. Have you ever recommended a movie or a TV show to a friend or family member? The prevalence of content has also exacerbated the need to weed out the junk. Now more than ever we’re inundated with choices and channels. There seems to be an inversely proportionate curve to time and available bandwidth. Thus I rarely seek clips or digital snacks. Rather I’ll respond to the recommendations, fwds or links from my friends and trusted sources. Also technology and developers tend to make things better and smarter and thus forces of attraction kick in. This allows memes to form more rapidly- multiplying the eyes and ears tuned to subject or piece of content. Remixing occurs, further refinement, open source allows for real time editing, wikis blossom… Crowds cluster and rally around topics sculpting the silly putty into clay models just waiting to be picked up by the main stream media and instantly cast in bronze. 0 to 60 is no longer a respectable measure. We’re now dealing with information wormholes.

How can WOM still be effective? Is Has to be and it has way more tools and it’s fun and you’re way more likely to be a contributor/creator which puts skin in the game and thus amplifies your likelihood to spread the good word whatever that may be.

What is the average work day like for your Street Team?
We have a pretty stringent program for our Street Team and I’m happy to say we’re one of the few firms that operate actual BOOT CAMPS in major cities around the country. These boot camps operation much like the national guard and are activated as needed based on the call of duty. On a training day there’s a 6AM call time which starts with a rigorous battery of calisthenics, cardio and strength training followed by breakfast. Next we have 2 hours of acting and improve to sharpen interpersonal skills and field readiness. Finally there’s a psych profiling field test where the Street Teamers have to make snap judgments and profile consumers as they engage them in a mock campaign. Based on their scores we group them into classes and assign them to projects according to rank.

On a day in the field they assume the role of chameleon… slipping in and out of character undetected. They deliver messages across 5 senses with ease (sometimes 6 depending on the client) all with the end goal of a smile. We’re in the experience delivery business masterfully designed with a time-release mechanism that delivers a predetermined result.

Our street team members that get this end up going very far in their careers including hosting a talk show, roles on Saturday Night Live and Olympic divers. We work our Street Teams hard but they produce and our repeat business is a testament to the strict training program.

Please give our readers some in-depth details on your Experimental Marketing program.
Weather it’s experimental or experiential… we’re mad scientists at heart, conjuring curiosity, inspiring discovery, creating sticky and memorable events that brighten and liven people’s day.

The process is a product of the desired result as our campaigns are highly customized and often adapt to their channels and vehicles to ensure delivery and absorption. You could say our lab is like the Brawny testing facility. We’re striving for maximum pick up with minimum waste. We actually have a piece of software called the RAGUM (Random Access Generator and User Maximizer) that will calculate the probability of adoption/absorption of an idea, product or service. We’ve found a much higher take-rate when applied to its purest target (again the paper towel reference) Once we’ve concocted the experiential Frankenstein the fun part begins… field testing. Frankenstein might be in many forms, a senior simulator driving suit, an event footprint full of twists, turns and surprises, and interactive scavenger hunt that has a user solving clues while crowdsourcing ideas for a contest. Finally our experiment is ready for the real world and for public consumption. Then again based on the program, we populate the periphery with additional components such as: partners, media, call-to-action that supplement our “Big Idea” or RAGUM meets Frankenstein. We can roll-out a concept on a national basis overnight. We maintain a hyper-link to our field network. Able to activate at the flip of a switch.  These elite street nodes maintain their our respective networks and replicate our concept with minor tweaking to adapt to their own climate and local market nuances. Thus very little is lost in translation between Wicker Park in Chicago and St. Ides district of Houston. So to recap it’s a matter of invention, testing, adaptation and retro-fit coupled with a quality product or brand that’s destined for success. We’re just the grease in the machine wheel that catapults an idea across our own hand-picked neural network of enthusiasts, designed and recruited in the likeness of the mission.

Mobile advertising hogged a lot of the spotlight last year.  In your opinion, what emerging trend will make an impact in 2010?
Hyper-local enabled platform games and apps that work on the simple principle the sum of the parts are greater than the whole. There’s a little chicken/egg issue but with the right formula you can reach critical mass in a given neighborhood and prove the concept in short time- then replicate, expand, rinse, repeat, etc. look at foursquare… also rapid prototyping meets circuit bending meets technology curve that enables the normal walking man/woman to control more of their life and their networks from their pockets. Let’s call them pocket jockeys. And the pocket could be a backpack and the jockeyed device could be a tablet, mobile, mini-device - but it flies a helicopter.

Greater Than One

• Location: New York, NY
• Notable clients: Genentech, Texas Children’s Hospital, Estroven
• Number of Employees: 70
• URL: www.greaterthanone.com

Headquartered in New York City, Greater Than One is an agency that specializes in all aspects of digital marketing.  While the company has clients in a number of industries, it has enjoyed the most success in the healthcare field. The agency has been awarded many prestigious honors since launching in 2000, including being named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the top 500 franchises.

DMB’a Contel Bradford recently caught up with Elizabeth Apelles, Greater Than One’s CEO, to get the inside scoop on one of the industry’s major players.

What qualities make Greater Than One stand out in the increasingly competitive digital marketing space?
Our partnership model, which has attracted a team of proven digital marketing professionals. Our structure, which teams up strategists and marketing experts with technology masterminds. Our digital experience, which is simply unsurpassed. And our ability to help businesses that have complex customer relationships to maximize their opportunities. These are the four differentiators that uniquely define us.

What is your most popular marketing solution and why?
Our solutions have evolved over the past 10 years, so there is no real one most popular. I would say that our most popular offering is clarity of thought, purpose and results. We are in the business of using all available digital tactics and strategies both those available today, and at the same time prepare for those that we know are on the  horizon —  to build our clients businesses and to enable them to make long lasting and mutually rewarding connections with all of their stakeholders.

That’s for our clients. If you ask the children who’ve we’ve worked with through Greater Good, they’ll tell you our most popular offering is giving them the ability to be self sufficient.

Please explain to our audience why today’s businesses should consider integrating analytics with their marketing strategy.
When it comes to strengthening relationships between brands and customers, the past can often help define the future. We know smart analytics — based upon a review of important data points-can provide real guidance in the development of smart marketing strategies. But not just run of the mill analytics. At Greater Than One we strive to understand how people think as well as how they behave.  So, our Measurement and Analytics practice combines the art of consumer insight with the science of statistical analysis. The result is smarter solutions and better measurement that leads to more effective investment.

Our process integrates consumer and customer insights, media and site performance analytics, database behavioral analytics and ROI analysis and design. Through a deep understand of each of these disciplines, we offer our clients a truly integrated, fact-based strategies and initiatives.

The sky appears to be the limit for mobile marketing?  What is your outlook on this fast growing segment of the industry?
Some have dubbed 2010 as ‘the year of mobile marketing.’ This is not the first year to be tagged with that moniker. Unlocking the potential of mobile marketing in the US has been more difficult than any industry analysts have predicted. There are two factors responsible for the slow growth (compared to other geographies around the world) of US mobile marketing.

The first is the overwhelming successes in the online digital space. Online search, display, and social media have become staples of Fortune 500 company marketing budgets, often at the expense of traditional media like TV and print. Many senior marketers are just now adjusting to the online digital sea change, and are wary of reducing traditional media budgets further to test a new ‘emerging’ platform. The same agency execs who grabbed off 10-30 percent of the company ad budget for online media are looking for more digital dollars for mobile, and never suggesting it could be funded from existing digital budgets.

The second limiting factor is penetration of 3G service. In recent years, despite significant hype around the mobile Web and 3G capabilities, as of the end of 2009 only 40 percent of mobile users had access to 3G mobile web services.  The cost of service is the reason most often quoted for the limitation of 3G penetration.

There has been one recent development, though, that could accelerate the growth of 3G and 4G. That is the Apple vs. Google battle that is brewing as the Android operating system takes on the dominance of the iPhone in the 3G space. With the launch of the ‘Google phone,’ the Nexus One, Google made its boldest foray to date into the mobile marketplace. The real game changer is that the service providers are no longer supporting one or the other platform exclusively; Verizon will soon have a version of the iPhone (previously exclusive to AT&T) and AT&T is already selling Android phones.

There are other concerns, including the form factor (really small ads), privacy and security. However for direct response marketers, the nature of the device (it’s a phone, after all) means it’s made for interactivity, and therefore holds tremendous promise for one to one marketing.

In your opinion, what is the single most important thing Greater Than One has learned during its 10 years in the digital marketing business?
Over the past 10 years we have learned that our initial thinking — focusing on what is best for our clients — is the right thinking.  It has never been about doing the easiest or most profitable or “coolest” thing, it has always been about doing the right thing.

By keeping our clients’ business needs at the forefront, we have the right focus and the right priority.  And, ultimately, what is best for our clients is best for us.  Over the past 10 years we have developed successful, long-term  relationships and business successes of which  both we and our clients are justifiably proud.

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