Speed Interviews with aimClear’s Internet Marketing Wonderteam Reveal PPC & Social Marketing Advice

If you could have dinner with one person in marketing and have them answer all your questions, who would it be? My dream scenario came true when I visited the office of aimClear in Duluth, Minnesota, this month. And not to brag, but it was even better than the hypothetical.

You’ve heard of Marty Weintraub, founder of aimClear, dynamic industry conference speaker, and author of the ultimate resources for Facebook marketing, Killer Facebook Ads and The Complete Social Media Community Manager’s Guide. Well, in gorgeous Duluth, cradled on the coast of Lake Superior, he’s assembled a brilliant team with unmatched credentials, including:

• Annalise Kaylor, associate creative director / the Michael Jordan of organic social
• Merry Morud, social advertising director / pwns Facebook ad segments like a schoolyard bully
• Manny Rivas, online advertising director / leader of the paid search world

In between admiring the internationally assembled fine art collection and sipping 98-point Pinots in the office — for breakfast! Oh the decadence! — I had a chance to glean Internet marketing advice from Marty, Annalise, Merry and Manny. In order to rebalance my Karma points, I’ve got to share some of this wisdom with the rest of the Internet. What follows are the results of a word association game played with the mental muscle at aimClear.

Just don’t let the promise of brevity fool you; this concentrated brew of online marketing know-how packs a punch if you pay attention. Some of this stuff could be your next mission statement. Or, at least, get you focusing in the right direction.

Internet Marketing Advice from aimClear: Speed Round

In a word, what makes creative / media successful on:

Marty

Search: heart, relevance, voice, focus, value, usefulness

Facebook: heart, relevance, voice, focus, value, usefulness

Twitter: value

LinkedIn: value

Annalise

Search: relevance

Facebook: brevity

Twitter: curiosity

LinkedIn: applicable

Merry

Search: relevancy

Facebook: intrigue

Twitter: news

LinkedIn: thought-leadership

Manny

Search: relevancy & targeting

Facebook: relevancy & targeting

Twitter: timeliness

LinkedIn: targeting

In a word, what makes this part of creative / content / ad media effective?

Marty

Headline: packaged form and function

Image: emotion, contrast, zoom, saturation, context

Then he said, “I only care about headline and image” so we moved on!

Annalise

Headline: call to action

Image: color

Call to action: enticing

URL: clean

Merry

Headline: relevancy

Image: color

Call to action: upper left

Display URL: revealing

Manny

Headline: brevity, catchiness, sticky

Image: contrast

Call to action: strong, immediacy

URL: relevancy to the ad, to the search keywords, to the audience

In a word or 5, or a sentence, describe community management done well.

Marty: “Empathy, goals, loveable, vertical savvy (where you are and what am I supposed to do In this space). Balance of welcome and outreach.”

Annalise: “Community management in general is an undervalued service. It’s done we’ll when it’s taken seriously by the business. As a side note I’ve seen business job listings looking for an MBA and that’s how important it is.”

Merry: “Shareable, thought-leadership, original content, multi-media, and open discussions that promote further engagement.”

Manny: “A person on the wall with sensitivity and responsiveness to chatter and awareness of what’s going on around them and timely with responses; channel etiquette.”

In a word or 5, or a sentence, what’s most important to fostering communication and creativity in a team?

Marty: “Passion and organization, boutique structure, friendship, work-group mentality, enlightened team making. Who’s on the team means everything. And designated curator.”

Annalise: “Openness, listening and style stepping ━ that’s an Annalise-ism. Everyone communicates in different ways and recognizing that and understanding how to solicit ideas from your team. If you do that you’ll get the best results from them people on your team.”

Merry: “Open minds, no ridicule, and an understanding of the objectives. Also, admitting when you’re wrong.”

Manny: “An open forum and a collaborative environment. Over the years we’ve been able to foster the feel of the brand. It’s the leadership and a safe, receptive place to throw your ideas out.”

You want to pick aimClear’s collective brain trust next? There’s more where this came from when Marty and aimClear present the Social Content Distribution for SEO workshop at SMX East on September 30. And if Bruce Clay is that one person who you’d like to fire your questions at, Bruce will be presenting a one-day SEO training workshop at SMX East as well. Get your 10% discount on workshops (both of these and more!) and passes with the code WS-BC10.

Thank you to Marty and all our friends at aimClear for giving us a view into aimClear’s infectious and productive culture collective and for sharing your marketing insights with us. If I had a clone, I know where she might make herself at home. ;)

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.