How eBoost Consulting Recruits, Hires, and Develops a Rockstar Team

Posted on December 27, 2011 by Johnny Chan

eBoost Consulting’s Most Comprehensive Interview on Cultivating Rockstar Talent

In the first week of December, Micha and I got the incredible opportunity to head out to Maui, Hawaii to join a tribe of big thinkers and conscious growth leaders at a 4-day experience called AwesomenessFest.  More on AwesomenessFest in a subsequent post (really, nothing short of awesome).  Among the hundreds of new friends we made out there was a fantastic entrepreneur Dane Maxwell, founder of Zannee, a technology for real estate brokers to recruit and retain agents.  We were inspired by each other’s stories and Dane, in one of his generous gestures, introduced us to Andrew Warner of Mixergy, a podcast and home for the world’s most ambitious upstarts.  An email introduction was made and a topic was born: How eBoost Recruits and Develops Rockstar Talent.

Andrew’s team (Jeremy and Andrea) gave us a first-class experience with media training and scheduling.  To be sure, the prospect of trying to codify the eBoost module of recruiting and developing talent in a one hour interview was a bit daunting to me.  After all, our talent is the key to us being able to scale high-growth entrepreneurial start-ups as well as do.  However, I think we did well here.

You be the judge: http://mixergy.com/chan-eboost-interview/ (link to interview. Video below)

Special thanks to everyone at eBoost who make our recruiting and talent development so special.  You guys are what it’s all about and I hope I did you proud here.

-johnny

P.S. - eBoost is hiring our next group of rockstars! Our new Associate hiring group is interviewing throughout January and will begin in February.  Do you have what it takes to be in the next eBoost Associate group?  If so, submit a custom cover letter and your resume to service[at]eboostconsulting[dot]com immediately.  Our first round interviews end in the next week!

Video of Mixergy Interview here:

Wistia

 


Posted in Team eBoost, Training | 2 Comments

eBoost PPC Case Study: A Substantial Uptick for TicketKick

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Johnny Chan

TICKETKICK

Situation

TicketKick.com®, a legal e-service company developed in 2010, had pioneered a cost-effective, simple way for drivers to contest their traffic tickets in California, but was struggling to get its message out to the masses. They were running a Google AdWords campaign in-house, but were missing out on a variety of other online marketing opportunities and overpaying for their ads.

Challenge

While the idea of fighting traffic tickets certainly wasn’t anything novel, TicketKick’s process was. The issue at hand was convincing potential website visitors that TicketKick offered a legitimate, credible service. The problem was two-fold; TicketKick had to convince people to visit their website, and once there, entice them to call. TicketKick’s employees were extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and engaging, which kept phone conversions high, but the team still needed to get more people calling in.

eBoost Solution

eBoost Consulting started by analyzing TicketKick’s current revenue generation, general strategy, and trajectory to ensure that any marketing initiatives would be aligned with the needs and wants of TicketKick. eBoost worked hand-in-hand with TicketKick to not only increase traffic, but more importantly, to increase their bottom line.

From August 2010 to April 2011, eBoost Consulting continuously optimized the campaigns using geographic targeting, advanced ad scheduling, complex bidding techniques, and proven match type strategy, for the Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Bing platforms. eBoost worked extensively with TicketKick to increase quality score through organization of the account, relevancy of keywords, quality ad copy and landing page recommendations. eBoost further helped TicketKick gain online exposure by utilizing forms of paid online advertising other than Google search network , including Google content network, interest based audience advertising, click to call ad extensions, and a full display remarketing/retargeting campaign.

The Results

After analyzing TicketKick’s previous campaigns and making some important improvements, we saw paid website traffic from multiple sources increase by 247%. Moreover, by monitoring and constantly tweaking the campaign, cost-per-click was reduced from $1.65 to $1.16. Most importantly, TicketKick’s bottom line increased as overall sales doubled. TicketKick reinvested in its web storefront, and is now able to offer their services online at www.ticketkick.com/getstarted/

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Learn more about eBoost Consulting’s PPC approach here.

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SDG&E Social Technical Terrorism Responsible for South-West Blackouts

Posted on September 9, 2011 by eBoost Consulting

Millions were left powerless after yesterday afternoon’s unexpected blackouts, which plagued much of the south-west United States. With the catastrophe occurring so close to 9/11, many speculate that international terrorism is brewing and that the United States should again increase the national security level. However, with so many postulating global terrorism- the root of the issue has flown under the radar.

SDeBC inside sources confirm that this event was not a national attack, but rather one misguided SDG&E SEO’s attempt at SERP monopolization. San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), the infamous SOCAL based energy provider has been repeatedly noted for its unethical attempts to control industry rankings, as they now tack on another feeble pass at SERP domination.

“It really makes sense” says cybercrime Chief Lieutenant Johnny Chan. “One quick flip of the grid equates to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of links and social signals from the highest PR and domain authoritative sites and experts in the world.” Within seconds of the event, SDG&E became the most searched, tweeted and shared term in the world, and we can expect that the aftershock searches will continue for at least another month.”

“The ‘gridlock’ was not meant to be ubiquitous, nor last so long,” said the now incarcerated, rogue SEO, John Maclby.

This same sad story was heard after Beyond Petroleum’s (BP) devastating linkbait attempt turned ecological tragedy in the Southern Gulf a few years ago.

“These guys are techies- they don’t think this stuff through,” said Lieutenant Chan. “You can’t just cut power to a million homes and expect to flip it back on without any repercussions.”

But as they say, bad press is still press; and in the eyes of search engines, relevancy is rarely affected by sentiment. And, SDGE is laughing this one all the way to the bank with 850 new inbound links, a 5000% increase in Twitter followers, and thousands of shares, likes, tweets and + (or minus)1′s .

While it may be a PR disaster now, we should all be thinking…”Who is the real winner from all of this?” Was this the work of a tortured SEO or will we start seeing these pathetic linkbait tactics more often as the “high ups” place more pressure on SERP rankings results?

- By Matt Reilly

Posted in Branding in the Digital World, Consulting, Digital Marketing Trends, Social Media Marketing, Strategy, Team eBoost, Uncategorized, What’s the Big Idea? | Leave a comment

The Jan Brady Persona

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Johnny Chan

The most important persona could be the one your business neglects the most.

Hmph.

Most companies focus on grabbing market share but the opportunity to grab market size could present the largest opportunity (and is sometimes the path of least resistance).  Thus, it’s important for companies that use persona development to drive marketing strategy to consider what we call “the Jan Brady Persona” – the under-served persona.

Going with the Jan Brady theme, a great case study (the Jan Brady case study?) demonstrating the underserved segment is of YFM – today South Africa’s biggest regional commercial radio station that used street brand strategy to capture an underserved segment.

From BrandChannel:

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With its slogan, Yona Ke Yona (“this is it”), YFM was formed to fill the gap left in local radio after the fall of apartheid in 1994. At the time, most radio stations in South Africa were controlled at least in part by the South African Broadcasting Corporation and aired music that one would be just as likely to hear in any part of the world on MTV or VH1. DJs spoke English or Afrikaans. Local music and local languages were largely ignored in favor of international content.

YFM decided to narrow in at the street level and reach a black listenership whose music and culture were largely ignored by the local radio stations of the day.

In 1997, the newly launched station embarked on a massive campaign to reach black listeners using a miniscule budget. The strategy was to take over the streets, literally, by slapping eye-catching stickers emblazoned with the letter “Y” on murals, traffic lights and street lamps across Johannesburg. The company also drove a trailer around the city carrying a YFM banner and playing original tunes by local artists.

YFM’s music ranges from hip hop to house and from R&B to kwaito. Fifty percent of the play list comprises South African bands. In its first week, YFM boasted an audience of 611,000, a record-breaking number for a regional station in South Africa, and a number that has since tripled to nearly two million. It is now the favorite radio station among 16 to 24 year olds living in Gauteng (the industrial and commercial heart of South Africa), with 54 percent more listeners in this market than its nearest competitor.

YFM brand manager Lindy Zokufa reports that YFM’s listenership has “grown for the sixth consecutive time in as many years – by 14 percent between 2002 and 2003 alone.”

“We take the research that we do, use it creatively and be consistent with the messaging that we send out there,” she explains. “[YFM sponsored] events, which feature the various music genres for tiered incomes and age groups, have been vital to our constant interaction with listeners and keeping the brand real.”

YFM has gone so far as to literally write the book on its market by self-publishing the Scamto Dictionary, which as Zokufa explains, “is a dictionary that takes ownership of the urban street lingo.” It’s an internal document that media planners can use to better understand the environment and culture of the consumer.

A key part of YFM’s success is in defining itself not as a radio station but as a cultural movement. In addition to radio, the station now offers Y-Mag, YWorld, and Y-Shoppe, a clothing warehouse.

By finding a market that wasn’t being served YFM managed to carve a niche in South Africa’s airwaves. By understanding that market, YFM manages to grow to other aspects of its market’s lifestyle.

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Develop your company’s Jan Brady persona in your next conversion design and/or marketing strategy meeting and make sure no opportunity is missed.

-johnny

Posted in Branding in the Digital World, Consulting, Conversion Design, Executive Education, Strategy, Strategy Planning, What’s the Big Idea? | Leave a comment

Creativity Underlies It All

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Johnny Chan

I just listened to a podcast featuring BCG’s Luc de Brabandere called “Taking a Creative Approach to Innovation” and I encourage you to listen and internalize his provocations as well.  In the interim, I’m short on time since we have a leadership development facilitation with our Insights Coaches, Eric Kaufmann and Susan Curtin of Insights4Results, so here are the juicy tidbits that I highlighted from the podcast:

  1. You must respect the rules. Even if you are a CEO, you don’t decide on the rules of the game.  As Kafka once said, “In the fight between you and the world, back the world.” But most of us do the exact opposite—we bet on ourselves. The CEO has to remember the rules of the game and that the game starts in the world outside.
  2. On “outside the box” thinking, Part 1. Boxes are not “in the world,” they are not real—they are in the mind. A box is a mental model that helps you understand what’s around you.  So boxes are in the mind.
  3. On “outside the box” thinking, Part 2. Even when you’re out of the box, you’re still nowhere. In the end, the real art of creativity is the art of crafting, designing, and building the next box. It means the way you’re going to use your next mental model to understand the world.
  4. Creativity begins with the “what”. The first step is to think about what—what is the next big thing?
  5. On successful brainstorming. A successful brainstorm is a meeting at which a new concept suddenly arises. Rather, a successful brainstorm is a meeting at which an existing concept suddenly makes a lot of sense to a lot of people.
  6. Traditional scenario-planning only works when you know what you don’t know.  There are two types of uncertainty. Let’s take chess. When you play chess and you move the queen, you are in an uncertain position—you don’t know what the other player is going to do. In the end, though, it doesn’t matter so much. Why? Because you know exactly what you don’t know. This type of uncertainty is more or less covered by the classic strategy-consulting approach. My role is to push things further in order to cope with the second type of uncertainty, in which you suddenly realize that your opponent might not want to win–-he might want to finish the game as soon as possible in order to go home. Now you’re completely lost, because this is something you didn’t even know that you didn’t know.
  7. “Express Scenario Planning” is for when you don’t know what you don’t know. The scenario is produced at the highest level of the company in order to have a greater impact. Second, numbers don’t matter. This is the “black swan” concept. A black swan is an event that is completely unlikely to happen, like the Icelandic volcano—and which nobody predicted because it was impossible to even imagine—but whose impact is huge. In the world of black swans, numbers are not relevant. So let’s forget about numbers. Let’s build boxes on the basis of concepts and images. Again, the scenario is produced at the top, and there are no numbers. It’s a new product, but in the end it is still about boxes.
  8. Introducing “induction”.  Thirty years ago, I believed that brainstorming was the key. Brainstorming is certainly an element of perception. But my job is even broader than perception—it’s induction. How do you develop hypotheses about the world?
  9. Design the new box. Ex: BIC.  “The future of BIC is not writing. The future of BIC is disposable plastic products.”
  10. Creativity is about changing perception, and innovation is about changing reality. And truly successful change includes both. If you change only people’s perception, it’s a failure. If you develop a brand-new product, but nobody understands it, it’s a failure. You need both innovation and creativity.

More on our leadership development meeting tomorrow!  Later peeps!

-johnny

 

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The eBC Directional Marketing Matrix

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Johnny Chan

A Simple Framework to Help You Make Better Digital Marketing Decisions

I just got done reading The Power of the 2×2 Matrix by Alex Lowy and Phil Hood of Transcend Strategy Group – a management consulting outfit in Toronto – and it was a sensational read.  It led me to their website, where I found a post on “The Best 2×2 Matrix Of All Time“.  You’re not going to believe this, but this spurred me to think about what the most useful 2×2 matrix for digital marketing.  You’re also not going to believe this, but I have one front-runner and it’s The eBC Directional Marketing Matrix.  Though I haven’t seen it before, I doubt I can take any credit for it since it’s influenced by so many frameworks, particularly McKinsey’s Directional Policy Matrix (aka the “GE Screen”).  We’ve just used it so often for so long that our clients associate it with eBoost Consulting.  Ergo, I introduce The eBC Directional Marketing Matrix.

The eBC Directional Marketing Matrix

THE PROBLEM WE ADDRESS: the problem that the eBC Directional Marketing Matrix solves is that 2×2 matrices are inherently 2-dimensional.  While this is a good starting point for conversation for where the activities are, they don’t identify where the activities are going and how fast and far that activity is going there.  This is a severe limitation in any business function, and particularly for digital marketing since the landscape moves so fast.  How many times have you heard and/or said, “digital marketing is moving so fast!  It’s hard to keep up”?

OUR SOLUTION: The eBC Directional Marketing Matrix is a framework that helps Marketing Managers make smart, informed decisions about what marketing activities to cut, maintain, or push.  It helps resource-allocation and cost-allocation.

DIMENSIONS OF THE EBC DIRECTIONAL MARKETING MATRIX:

Axis: the x- and y-axis are the two main dimensions for ROI (impact and cost).

Position of circles: where the activities respectively exist in ROI, currently.

Size of circle: the resources needed for that activity.  Larger circle areas need more resources.  Smaller circle areas, less.

Direction of circles: where the activities are trending and how fast it is projected to reach there.

I encourage you to try out the eBC Directional Marketing Matrix and review it monthly.  Plot where your marketing activities are in the realm of ROI, determine where it’s going, and identify how fast it would take to get there with the resources you have.

-johnny

Posted in Analytics, Consulting, Digital Marketing Trends, Execution, Executive Education, Marketing Tools, Online Media Planning, Strategy, Strategy Planning, Training | Leave a comment

Man Crush: Dan Ariely

Posted on April 4, 2011 by Johnny Chan

A Behavioral Economist Teaches Us About Trust & Revenge

Dan Ariely throwing up economic gang signs.

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist and professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University.  If I had a Fave5 on my phone of my go-to-thought leaders, Dan Ariely would certainly be on that list.  I’ve ruminated about the usefulness of behavioral economics and application of game frameworks to marketing before, and Dan Ariely is one of the foremost leaders that I look to in this category.

I’ve learned a ton from reading Dan Ariely published work and interviews and here’s one of my favorite tools that I’ve picked up from him: The Trust Game.  Here’s how you play:

Step 1: Assemble your core team and label them as “A” or “B”.  Have an “A” pair with a “B”.

Step 2: Give “A” $100 and two options: take money and go home OR send it to player “B”.  If “A” sends it to player “B”, the money will quadruple.

Step 3: If “A” keeps it, then that’s it.  If “A” sends it to player “B”, now “B” has two options: send “A” $200 or go home with $400.

What this exercise teaches is the distinction between rational and irrational decisions.  If “A” were rational, then “A” would keep the $100.  But this is typically not the case.  In most instances, “A” will pass the money to “B” and “B” would pass $200 back to “A”.

The Trust Game Part 2:

For those “B”s who kept the money, the facilitator goes back to player “A” and says, “sorry ‘A’ – but I can help.  For every $1 you give me, then I’ll go track down ‘B’ and get back $2 of your money.”  What would “B” do?  In studies, it’s shown that an overwhelming amount of “B”s in this instance would seek revenge.

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The takeaway(s) from these exercises surround trust and revenge – but they center on something even more useful: the proclivity of people to make irrational decisions.  In both instances, there is a rational decision and an irrational decision.  In both instances, the prevalence of irrationality motivates significant actions that spur significant outcomes.

The marketing implication is this: rational decisions do not permeate every customer decision.  Marketing’s responsibility is to create the right structures, incentives, and motivations for customers.  Businesses need to understand the irrationalities of their customers and take that into account.

-johnny

Read more about Dan Ariely and the illogic nature of consumers in this fun piece by CNN Money: Why You’re a Big Sucker.

Posted in Branding in the Digital World, Consulting, Customer Loyalty, Executive Education, Marketing Tools, Persona Development, Social Media Marketing | Leave a comment

Developing a Sound Marketing Approach

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Johnny Chan

In our most recent eBoost Consulting webinar, I identified the false positives of case studies. Since then, I’ve had a few questions about this viewpoint and I wanted to address it here. Essentially, it centers on our belief that the best question to ask a marketing partner is: what is your marketing approach?

You can’t take the bits and pieces from different marketing case studies, throw them together and expect it to work for you (I like to call this “Frankenmarketsteining”). The best marketing plans are realistic – stretch, in some instances – suited to the company, flexible, and based on sound marketing fundamentals. Learning to develop your own marketing approach is doable and necessary and is your insurance against irrelevance.

Here are three steps to cultivate your marketing approach.  This will help you acquire a great background in business, marketing, and proper planning techniques and will open the doors to creating a marketing approach that can be realistic, company-focused, and flexible:

  1. Develop a great background in business fundamentals. Read “What the CEO Wants You to Know” as a good start here.
  2. Develop a great background in marketing fundamentals. Read “Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets” as a good start here.
  3. Develop a great background in planning fundamentals. Project management, PMI, et al.  Read “Project Management” as a start here.

These steps are sequential and are the foundation of eBoost Consulting’s approach.

-johnny

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eBoost Interns ROCK!

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Johnny Chan

A Video-Retrospective of the eBoost Interns Social Recruiting.

Our latest internship class (Alpha Lambda Omega) is graduating soon and published their class video.  It’s fascinating to see what our intern classes come up with – there are no guidelines presented to them.  It’s such an organic and beautiful process.  I find myself enchanted by their work and appreciate how blessed we are to have this family at eBoost.  They’ve created (and continue to create) many wonderful memories in the famed “Orange Room” and I love how they weave that room and the mural into each video.  I could go on and on (I will be talking about social recruiting during our webinar tomorrow) but I’ll let the videos do the talking.  Whenever I feel down, I always watch these videos.  They never fail to cheer me up and remind me that developing leaders and having fun while doing so, is what eBoost Consulting is all about.  Enjoy! =)

-johnny

The Real eBoost Interns | Music Video – Brett Keeler, Kolby Goodman, Jon Tucker, and Stephanie Sandoval  (Alpha Beta Omega)

 

The Office Spoof – Justin Goodman, Chris King, and Neil Dutta (Alpha Chi Omega)

 

A Day in the Life of an eBoost Intern – Dylan Drake, Allison Heinrich, Marc Peterson, Beau Vasquez, and Jason Kirby (Alpha Delta Omega)

 

eBoost – Boost Camp – Edwardson Lim, Kurt Kaufer, Penny Zhao, Nicole Stokman, and Marcel Menezes (Alpha Epsilon Omega)

 

Alpha Gamma Omega Internship Video – David Wayman, Heather Pimentel, David Twining, and Camila Simpson (Alpha Gamma Omega)

 

eBoost Consulting Internship Commercial – Ruthie Sanchez, Trung Ngo, Ashmina Aullybux (Alpha Zeta Omega)

 

eBoost Consulting Internship Program – Chris Root, Vicente Tuillano, Erin Carpenter, and Mike Fogarty (Alpha Eta Omega)

 

eBoost Internship Recruitment Video Intern-mercial (ShamWow Parody) – Braydon Moreno, Melvin Fojas, and Ozlem Gorur (Alpha Theta Omega)

 

eBoost Intern Update – Eren Yar, Pooja Wadhwa, Jason Chiem (Alpha Iota Omega)

 

A Journey with AjA Project – Carl Abuan, Melanie Taylor, Tripti Aggarwal, Vikas Arya, and Ashley Deas  (Alpha Kappa Omega)

 

ALO Boom Boom Pow (REMIX) – David Bucklin, Margaret Gamble, Matthew Reilly, and Austin Randall (Alpha Lambda Omega)

UPDATED (12/28/11)

AMO Claymation – Armand Aghadjanians, Janey Junker, Lizeth Villarreal, and Christine Copeland (Alpha Mu Omega)

ANO Google Ideas Mini-Documentary – Sean Dominguez, Ian Donahue, Cameron Ripley, and Ann Hang (Alpha Nu Omega)

Are you next?

Follow the eBoost Interns on Twitter: eBoost Interns Twitter

Friend the eBoost Interns on Facebook: eBoost Interns Facebook

Stalk the eBoost Interns on their blog: eBoost Interns Blog

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Using Tumblr to Promote Blog Content

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Johnny Chan

A Useful ‘Push’ Tool for Your Marketing Arsenal

Tumblr Dashboard

I love food blogs and a great marketing application I’ve been seeing lately is the use of Tumblr to promote blog content.  The Wannabe Chef has a very useful post about the why and how of Tumblr and I’ve also been using it with positive effect on my own food blog.  As suggested, it definitely draws attention to your blog.

Microblogging sites like Tumblr and Posterous are all about posting short snippets of content.  While its SEO benefits are limited, it has a profound effect on the ability to share and stumble upon new content.  Like a “retweet” in Twitter, the sharing mechanism is a “reblog” in Tumblr.  It’s also a great “frequency” tool since it allows blogging in an informal expectation – many clients of ours have a fear of blogging (they want everything to be perfect; this stymies their production of content) – with Tumblr, that fear is removed.

Types of companies Tumblr is good for are companies were photography is a major mechanism for content and conversation.  Use it as a promotional tool, as you would Twitter.

-johnny

Posted in Branding in the Digital World, Marketing Tools, Social Media Marketing | Leave a comment