In January I wrote an entry on the services being offered by Internet Marketing Ninjas and Market Motive. At the end of the entry I wrote:
It should be noted that this article was not a true “review” of each service, it was a comparison of their publicly available offerings. I’ve never had full access to either service. Of course, if any of these services wants to give me free access, I will gladly write an in depth review about my experience.
Well, Market Motive took me up on that offer and gave me free access to their service for a full month. During that month, I was able to interact with with their experts (they call them faculty), watch several instructional videos, participate on their private forum and call in on one of their many monthly conference calls.
Before I get started, I wanted to make one thing very clear, this is NOT a paid review and I don’t have any relationships with anyone associated or affiliated with Market Motive. Ahhh, I’m glad I got that off my chest. Quite frankly, I felt like I needed to say that, not because of the dreaded “don’t pay for or publish paid reviews — Google imposed Internet law,” but because this review is overwhelmingly positive. As you’ll discover while reading this review, Market Motive is one of the best and most useful Internet marketing resources I’ve ever used.
What is Market Motive?
Market Motive was founded by Michael Stebbins, John Marshall and Avinash Kaushik. They wanted to provide a new and efficient way to get Internet marketing knowledge from industry leaders to people who practice Internet marketing for a living. They accomplished this through providing access to industry experts via a private forum, live (and recorded) conference calls and instructional videos. Their content covers the following key areas of Internet marketing:
- Web Analytics
- PPC & Paid Search
- SEO
- Social Media
- Conversion Optimization
- Online Publicity
They’ve built a team of Internet marketing consultants that cover each area:
- Bryan Eisenberg on Conversion Optimization
- Greg Jarboe on Online publicity
- Alan Rimm-Kaufman on Paid search / PPC
- Matt Bailey on Social Media
- Avinash Kaushik on Web Analytics
- Todd Malicoat on SEO
Getting Started with the Forum
After you sign up, you’ll receive a welcome message encouraging you to introduce yourself to the other members and the “faculty.” Clicking on the button that says “Post an introduction here” takes you straight to their forum. At first glance, it didn’t look like the forum was heavily used. However, after reading several of the threads, many of the posts were questions that were specific to the member’s website. It was nice to see that every question was addressed by one or more of the Market Motive faculty members, which included specialists in my field of Internet marketing (SEO), like Todd Malicoat (aka stuntdubl). It was also nice to see that all users are bound to a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA), which helps encourage open discussions about personal projects.
I wrote an introductory post, which is encouraged for all new members. That was promptly replied to by one of the faculty members and included a ton of helpful links to get me started. I then perused the forum for interesting discussions and was able to engage with a few members. Although the forum wasn’t incredibly active — most likely due to not having a large number of users yet — it still seemed helpful. In most instances, if a discussion wasn’t picked up by any of the other members, the faculty still participated.
Internet Marketing Conference Calls
Market Motive offers live conference calls with the faculty. You can leave questions on the forum to be asked during the conference call, and then the moderater(s) will address it.
I chose to participate in the Web Analytics Call with Avinash Kaushik. I asked him about tracking external links that my visitors click on and how I could track them in Google Analytics. The cool thing was that I didn’t even have to wait until the conference call. If questions can be easily or quickly answered before the conference call, they’ll be answered in the forum (otherwise, they get tabled for the call). Within 15 minutes, Avinash left me a detailed answer to my question, including links to online resources to help me set things up correctly.
When I briefly called in for the Web Analytics conference call, I was surprised to find out how many people participated in it. During the call, members were encouraged to remain on mute until it was their turn to participate.
One of the best things about the conference calls is that they’re all recorded and then shared with every member. That ensures that you never miss out on anything, and if you’re new to Market Motive, you can go back and listen to any of the previous conference calls. Also, since the questions are posted ahead of time in the forum, if you stumble upon a question that interests you, and the conference has already taken place, you can simply click on it to hear it.
Internet Marketing Videos
Another core feature of Market Motive is video, specifically instructional videos. Similar to what I previously reported, Market Motive’s videos are created in presentation format with voiceovers. The videos are similar to a well structured presentation that you would find at any industry conference.
I watched several videos and all of them provided expert advice in a format that was easy to follow and learn from. They have many videos available right now and they appear to add new videos each month, which helps keep the content current and fresh.
Conclusion
When I originally saw the price — $299/month or $2,999 per year — I had a hard time stomaching the price. I was really curious to know how they were going to justify it. However, after I got into the system and started using it, I quickly started to ask myself how they could be charging so little. You basically get access to an ever expanding library of videos, conference calls and private discussion threads and get to interact directly with the faculty on a regular basis. Since it would typically cost $299 for 1-2 hours of consulting, I quickly started to realize what a great deal their service was.
So what’s the catch? I don’t think there really is a catch, other than to also promote their consultants’ “consulting” services. I think they’re banking on the fact that their members will eventually need more — more time, more attention to a big project, etc… In which case, they’ve made it easy to contact and hire one of the Internet marketing consultants for more in depth and private consulting. Makes sense to me.
Another important question is, “who is this service right for?” I think it will fit the needs of the following people:
- Solo Internet marketers (beginner, intermediate and experts that aren’t experts in every area)
- Small to medium-sized businesses needing Internet marketing assistance and training
- Businesses with in-house Internet marketing staff
- Anyone who wants to stay on top of the industry, but can’t attend the industry conferences
You can learn more about Market Motive at http://marketmotive.com/.
Review of Guy Kawasaki’s New Book “Reality Check”
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008It’s been a while since I’ve thought about Fake Steve Jobs. In fact, the last time he was on my radar was when we helped out him in late July, 2007. Well, he’s back, sort of, and he’s in perfect form. He was invited by Guy Kawasaki to write not one, but two Forewords for his new book, Reality Check. The two forewords are appropriately (and geekily) entitled, “Foreword 1.0″ and “Foreword 2.0.”
The forewords reveal a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the book itself.
However, it does elucidate what the book sets out to deliver.
It’s a shameless claim — albeit not technically made by the author, but by Fake Steve Jobs — but it’s an accurate one. Guy has managed to stuff of all his knowledge and experience about startup companies into a thick 459 page book.
Unlike typical business and strategy books, this one presents its information in the most compact and efficient manner possible — through short chapters and tons of lists. The format of the content makes it much more digestible, while also making it a convenient bathroom book, thanks to its short and numerous chapters.
But this book is much more than a distraction in the crapper. In fact, if you were to actually confine it to your daily porcelain library visits, then your business-self is probably dead inside and this book isn’t for you. No, this book — regardless of its length — is a quick read, because you’ll find you can’t put it down.
At first glance, Reality Check is an unassuming name for a book. It’s only when you read the subtitle that you understand why you need to be reading this book. “The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition” are the words that follow the abstract title, and they are words that immediately get the attention of anyone looking to succeed and outwit their competition.
The book is organized into twelve sections. They all build upon each other and walk the reader through the start and maintenance of a successful, modern startup. Those sections include:
Getting Started, Venture Capitalists and Running Your Business
The first third of the book is focused on bringing the reader up-to-speed on Venture Capitalists (VC). It clues them in on what they need to know in regards to getting their business started and how to find the right kind of investors. The information in these chapters provides almost every conceivable nugget of information you could ever want to know about investors.
One of my favorite chapters was “The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists.” There is no doubt that if any reader has ever sought funding, they’ve heard lies like, “We love to co-invest with other venture capitalists” and “If you get a lead, we will follow.” Guy demystifies the bull shit behind these statements and provides insight into what these statements actually mean.
He also holds entrepreneurs accountable, by describing the lies that entrepreneurs tell VCs. Regardless of the kind of experience the reader has had with startups, they will most likely relate to some or most of these lies. Some of the best ones being, “no one else can do what we’re doing” and “our projections are conservative.”
A difficult task for all startups is executing the plan well. Guy provides numerous examples of how to execute key components of a successful company, including how to properly set goals. He’s goes into detail about the need to make goals measurable, achievable, relevant and most importantly, rathole resistant. He states:
Even if you execute your business objectives well, there’s still the ongoing chance that you are going to run out of money. He offers many suggestions on how to handle those difficult situations, including:
Intelligent Strategies for Marketing Your Company
The second major part of the book focuses on marketing. Guy discusses why old (traditional) marketing techniques often don’t work, and provides concrete examples on how to best market your company in a business 2.0 world.
A key element that all readers should take from this book is that marketers need to focus on PR (public relations), not advertising. He states:
Another part that intrigued me was the chapter on “The Art of Selling.” He provided many techniques that seem counterintuitive to experienced marketers, but are completely relevant to today’s marketing environment. A good example can be seen in his statement of “give customers less information.” He goes on to describe research that suggests that “shoppers with less information about a product are happier than those with more information.” He drives the point home by explaining that “when it comes to product information, more might not be more.”
A shortcoming experienced by many marketers is the lack of presentation skills. Guy dedicates several chapters to helping marketers perfect their speech and presentation skills. Those chapters alone could be cut out and made into their own Cliff Notes version of “How to Give the Perfect Presentation.”
Something I won’t go into great detail about, but is worth mentioning, is the chapter on “How to Suck Up to a Blogger.” The techniques that he outlines are almost identical to the techniques we use for our own marketing campaigns. In fact, that chapter alone is worth the price of the entire book if you want to learn how to effectively market yourself via bloggers.
The Reality of Running Your Business
The third and final part of Reality Check explores the reality of running, maintaining and growing your business. It’s contains a mixture of advice for owners and employees. The reader, regardless of if they’re an entrepreneur or an employee of a startup, will find themselves described throughout these chapters. Guy provides tips and warnings on how to conduct yourself in just about any startup environment.
He drives home the reality of what it means to participate in a startup with his chapter “What’s Your EQ (Entrepreneurial Quotient)?” It’s a mini-quiz designed to gauge where you stand in the grand scheme of things. Depending on your score, you may want to reconsider your endeavor or you might find out that you were destined to run your startup.
Guy concludes his book with “The Reality Check Checklist.” It consists of ten of the most important questions you need to ask yourself in regards to your startup company. The list is both a gut check and a possible set of marching orders. The idea is that you should be able to honestly answer each question after reading the book, and then allow your answers to help decide your destiny.
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