Management Consultants for Web Strategy and E-Business Development, CRM, SEO, SEM, Paid Inclusion, Social Media, Marketing - Lars Hilse » Lars Hilse

Steve Jobs dies at age 56 – Will Apple die as well?

Lars Hilse — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:32:36 +0000

I woke up this morning hearing the news that Steve Jobs, who in August had resigned as Apple’s CEO, had passed tonight of cancer.

It was clear then, that Apple would be lacking a vibrant personality, which became clear on the rather dull presentation of the iPhone 4S on Tuesday.

Seeing Tim Cook try his best to fill the room with similar emotion while announcing both the iPhone 4S and the iOS 5, was kind of depressing and it was obvious that it was not Steve Jobs.

History has revealed how much Apple relied on Steve Jobs when he was kicked out of Apple by Scully in 1985 and the company went into a struggle for innovation.

The question may be asked, whether or not History will repeat itself?

I sure hope that the lifeless and comparingly uncharismatic presentation of the iPhone 4S and iOS5 on Tuesday was not an indicator of what we will see happening to Apple.

Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs – and I hope you chose your successors wisely, so that your legacy may be carried forth in dignity.

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What are the best tactics for effecting customer-centric change?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:44:57 +0000

Customer centric approaches are what I’d refer to as web 3.0. You may want to have a look at the video on the left for that.

In context to web related issues and sales it would resemble a community based approach towards customer self help, multi-media product descriptions and presentations, and proactive service instruments on modern websites.

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What are the main costs in your marketing plan?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:19:56 +0000

it strongly depends on who heads marketing in the organization and how open the organization is towards exploring new trends.

This openness will then result in some maverick thinking towards exploring new ideas of marketing, for instance one concept I developed together with a client which consisted of significantly declining budget for PI.

We then went ahead and all contacted relevant blogs run by private people and got fixed cost ad-space for a 100 EUR or less.

You see, there are too many variables, and I believe that trends are thus not really doable in detail.

Generally speaking by now EVERY marketer, regardless of their quality, has understood that social media is the place to go (it’s not only) but not figured out that there is more to success on the web.

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How users search: I am looking for research on how consumers use native language for their keywords or phrases

Lars Hilse — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 22:14:31 +0000

Important to understand is the context you’re looking at.

For a search engine strategy and the internationalization aspects therein you will want to consider asking native speakers of that specific language.

In my book “Adding the E to your Business Strategy” (available on Amazon.com) I outlined specifically that issue of having – for example – a website only in English but wanting to attract clients speaking other languages simply because most people worldwide speak a sufficient amount of English but search in their native language.

Based on that you might want to contact emarketer.com whether or not they have data like that available.

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How much navigation on PPC or organic landing pages used for lead conversion?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:11:43 +0000

I am currently exploring the back to the roots thang…

Do you remember when we had frames in websites and the menu was CONSTANTLY visible?

This is what my people have solved through divs and CSS somehow.

Reason is that pages are becoming longer and longer because of the amount of content that has to be conveyed.

From a usability aspect (people don’t like to scroll 10 pages up to get to the menu) I had the idea of taking the route pointed out above and gave that to my designers who did a pretty nifty job with it, as I think.

I wrote about the topic in a white paper called “Web Trends 2010″ – You can download it in the section called “Publications”.

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Social Media Strategy? Or Policy?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:07:15 +0000

I have implemented about half a dozen in the last 12 months with clients around the globe.

The cool thing was all the insights that you get into all the legal issues involved, specifically in context to one of the most important issues, the social media policy.

Thing about it is that all organizations are different.

So during the process you have to involve large amounts of the organization to make the whole thing fly.

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Incentivising datacapture with existing customers – does anyone have evidence as to which reward will drive a better response: multiple smaller rewards for all respondants vs. one big prize draw

Lars Hilse — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:04:34 +0000

Look at the long haul, instead of throwing money in the wind.

Build a substantially growing community around your brand through a unique strategy, upon which you’ll get a very responsive crowd down the line.

The comparison that comes to mind is that of SEO and PI – yes, PI brings you immediate results, but the initial investment in SEO will bring you lasting results.

Plus, the community you build will increase the value of your organization should it ever come to a merger or acquisition.

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I want to add facebook fans with a sweepstakes. My colleague thinks it’s terrible idea to drive people away from our own site. Advice?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:01:14 +0000

Based on my past experience on numerous assignments around the globe it’s about putting a sustainable strategy behind it.

This knowledge is based on the discussion you’ve been having with your colleague, which I’ve had with several entities, yet I don’t concur with either of you.

Yes, your website should be your prime focus in your strategy, but it’s also important to gain visibility for the brand on platforms like Facebook, et. al.

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How do you use mobile in your marketing mix?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 21:59:09 +0000

As one of the driver channels of traffic to the main platform, the website. As for the measurements et. al.:

I have only implemented measures like those a few times.

The outcome was not really significant as the brands I was working for were not really dependent on that channel.

Keep in mind not to waste too much effort/budget/resources on that issue because it’s still not really a prime source (excluding iPhone Apps etc.)

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What SEO tools are worth the money?

Lars Hilse — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:56:52 +0000

You should not use paid tools at all, at least not for the page naming, etc.

That should be a native part of your CMS system or design crew.

If they don’t have that on the scope fire them immediately because they’re wasting money.

As for determining keywords et. al. you’ll want to go to the platform you want to put most focus on, which would be Google.

The big G has a free keyword tool that allows you to determine your competition etc.

Next step is link building. That’s a bit of a jiffy because you’ll have to find the right pages associated to your field of business.

Irrelevant links will not be rated as high as above mentioned will.

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