I previously wrote a guest post on my friend Louis Gray’s blog on marketing topics that have jumped the shark. That was published in 2009. Unsurprisingly, not much has changed: overdone, useless or just plain inaccurate ideas continue to spread.

So all we can do is continue to balance the equation with the reality of these topics. Let’s go through a few I’ve seen lately that have gotten under my skin:

Topic: Complaining “there’s too much data, content, sites, apps, technologies, etc to keep up with.”

Recent example: One of my Twitter friends Amanda Maksymiw Tweeted a link to a post sharing the impact of “data deluge” for B2B companies (as if this was a bad thing).

Why this isn’t really an issue: People have been complaining about overload of a lot of things (apps, sites, platforms, etc) for years, not just data. In all cases there is no overload, simply filter failure. It’s the responsibility of everyone in your organization to understand how to use data, what matters, what to ignore and how to use tools to efficiently process it. There will only continue to be more devices and channels capturing data (both passive and active) and yet the solution will be the same as it always has: you need talent capable of managing it and putting it to effective use. I’ve been a part of consulting teams managing digital programs for a variety of organizations and we’ve never had issues incorporating more data efficiently and effectively, so you can too. Measurement planning is your friend and if you’re overwhelmed now marketing is probably not for you: it’s going to get more complex (and this is OK). I don’t know that Amanda and I actually disagree here, I’m just not sure their framing the issue as a “deluge” is helpful (and, it’s overdone).

Topic: ”You need to make great content.”

Recent example: Matt Owen, Head of Social @Econsultancy Tweeted that people were spamming him with sending email campaigns to him saying his content sucks. Yeah, this is a flip of the “you need to make great content” but it’s saying the same thing essentially.

Why this is a silly topic: As has been stated here in the past: telling people to “create compelling content” is not marketing advice. It’s common sense. And if this is the type of content you create or share, you’re part of the problem. We need to push our peers, our trade publications, our consultants and agencies to stop with the obvious and clichéd advice. It’s not helping and merely succeeds at making the people sharing or creating it look like they publish for the sake of publishing (instead of doing so because they have passion or something legitimate to add to the conversation). It’s boring at best, spam at worst. Also the irony of blasting an email to Matt at Econsultancy telling him his content sucks is hilarious: his content is some of the best in the industry. Consultants, do not assume everyone’s content sucks, it proves you aren’t paying attention: digital content creation is a mature industry and plenty of people are hugely talented here.

Topic: ”We don’t have enough time to participate on X or Y popular platform.”

Recent example: I continue hear this a lot and have seen repeated stories in blogs and questions at conferences. It’s a real (and ongoing) complaint of people who (still) don’t really get social marketing (which hasn’t been new in more than a decade).

Why this is the wrong response: “Not enough time” to participate in a platform is not actually a real reason to not participate in a platform. It’s more of an excuse not to do something you should be doing. First of all, you do have enough time. If you are managing a community in one place and are leading conversations in a category it is a huge efficiency to repurpose and remix content across platforms in a way that adds value. I’ve been doing this personally and professionally for years. It’s not even about the platforms anyway, it’s about your ability to be platform agnostic and see new channels as an opportunity to amplify your source content without spamming. Savvy marketers see new platforms should be seen as opportunities, not headaches. They’re also infinitely curious and want to try new things out instead of dismissing them for arbitrary reasons.

image credit: Shutterstock

More Marketing Topics That Have Jumped The Shark is from The Future Buzz, a Blog Covering Digital Marketing. You should follow Adam on Twitter and Google+ .

The problem with a lot of digital research is it’s, in a word: obvious. And obvious research is a waste of time and resources. Even if it does get you a hit in media or is referenced in social, it doesn’t actually help anyone (or your reputation).

Conducting research for the sake of research is pointless: the data gathered should be enlightening in some regard.

With that, I submit, for your approval: the single most obvious study ever. I’m not mentioning the brands because they don’t really warrant a mention (you can click the link and read through if you care to see). The study determined the following:

• On a certain social network cute animal pictures received more engagement than corporate logos
• Using cats and puppies in ads receives high engagement yet grows a less relevant community
• Ads without images (just text) within a highly visual network don’t perform as well as ads with images
• Images of people and products perform better than logos

Obligatory reaction:

Of course, not a shred of this information is not already known or even useful. And anyway, unless you’re something like a pet food brand, you are scraping the bottom of the marketing barrel to use random animals to attract a community instead of building a following with a passion for your industry. It’s actually kind of shameful.

The social space is saturated with these types of studies and shows what can happen when everyone has access to piles of data. But we don’t just need more information or obvious studies. We need people with serious data chops able to conduct meaningful research, create useful analysis and uncover insights that matter.

Everyone should demand that brands, analysts and media do better and avoid the obvious / cliché.

image credit: Shutterstock

If Your Study Is This Obvious, It’s A Waste Of Time is from The Future Buzz, a Blog Covering Digital Marketing. You should follow Adam on Twitter and Google+ .

Restaurant owners are faced with the challenge of having a greater web presence than ever before. It isn’t enough to have a great looking store front; consumers are looking for you online and even more so, on their mobile devices.

Your restaurant business depends on many basic factors such as location, good food and a good staff. However, none of those things matter anymore if you don’t have a good site and mobile experience enticing these consumers to come to you. If your content isn’t accessible and as easy to navigate as it is informative, you are missing out on hundreds if not thousands of customers. Below are some of the best practices restaurant owners need to be aware of regarding their site.

Think of these as the new reality and not just futuristic suggestions because if you’re not currently using any of these practices then you might as well leave your ‘closed’ sign up for good.

Out with the Flash, in with the WordPress

Flash software is slowly becoming less and less useful as consumers are using more and more mobile devices. Flash isn’t visible on iPhones or iPads and doesn’t add any value that helps you rank higher in search engines, but the good news is that there are alternatives available. Some of these alternatives are WordPress, HTML5 and CSS3. There is a lot of information that needs to be on your website like menus, an online reservation form, events calendar and blog.

Using a Content Management system like WordPress gives you complete control that is easy for you and the consumer to use. It is easily maintained and can evolve with your business as soon as you realize you are here for the long run. Speaking of evolving, getting rid of Flash is a good start but you also need to make sure your site looks good on a mobile device (check out Google’s Go Mo initiative for an easy way to go mobile now).

Many sites also have a separate website for mobile devices, but if you choose to use Responsive Web Design Technology you only need one site. With Responsive Web Design your site will automatically format to the correct size and become touch enabled so it is usable on your Android, iPad or iPhone.

Online menus with prices – kill the PDFs

PDF menus are no longer good enough because they require the user to download, wait, zoom, and try to read. They’re also slow (and a pain) to open. Your website needs an individual menu page with a nicely laid out format including descriptions, pictures and, most importantly, prices! The prices on a menu have a great impact on the consumers dining decision so it is important to make this clear.

Menu(s) are important because people like to see if you offer breakfast, lunch and dinner. Maybe they are just interested in your dessert selection or perhaps they would just like to come for drinks and appetizers. Whatever your menu selection, make sure it is easy to navigate and that each item includes a price. People like to know what to expect when they are dining out and a detailed menu provides just that.

Add a Photo Gallery

Sushiritto in San Francisco brings their delicious and unique food to life on their website.

Even though you have great pictures of your food and drink selections on your menu people like to see pictures of your restaurant and cuisine as well. People like to see pictures of your friendly staff and others dining, enjoying themselves and just having a good time at your restaurant. If you have events at your restaurant be sure to include these pictures on your site too. These pictures give consumers a feel for your atmosphere and again help them know what to expect when they walk in.

A full gallery page can have anywhere from 10 to 30 updated pictures. It is important not to have an overwhelming amount of pictures because they could have a hard time finding what they are looking for fast enough and lose interest.

Contact information is key

When people visit your website they are usually only looking for a few key pieces of information like location/directions, hours, and food options. They should quickly be able to see the location and hours on your homepage. People need this information to get to your restaurant. Make sure you have the address on your site in a text format that can be copied and pasted.

Users also need to be able to call and speak to a person because they just have a question or two that they don’t want to search your website for. If they cannot find your phone number they will move on to another restaurant with a phone number they can find. For this reason, make sure your phone number is found prominently on the home page as well as every interior page. Also be sure and track mobile conversions like click-to-call and ensure you’re marketing your contact information in key places (i.e. be sure and add your site to Google Places).

This article was written by Future Buzz community member Audrey Welch who works with the Wand Corp., a Restaurant Management solutions company.

Most Restaurant Sites Are Awful: Make Yours Better is from The Future Buzz, a Blog Covering Digital Marketing. You should follow Adam on Twitter and Google+ .

So it was cool to see a handy flowchart released on Scribd by Creative Commons Australia for how to know which one you should use. I’ve embedded below for your convenience, it’s worth a printout if you create digital content but are new to using Creative Commons produced works or licenses.

Using Creative Commons licenses properly is an essential skill for pretty much everyone producing any type of content online. So if you’re new, get comfortable with it today: the works released under CC can add a lot to what you create (either via adaption, remix or simply re-use with attribution).

Also a quick fun-fact: as an artist, I release all my art under creative commons licenses (and actually have been featured on the Creative Commons blog which, as a CC supporter, I found pretty cool).

[hat tip: PetaPixel]

[Useful] Flowchart For Which CC License You Should Use is from The Future Buzz, a Blog Covering Digital Marketing. You should follow Adam on Twitter and Google+ .

As we’ve shared in previous posts on measurement, you have to think beyond the last click to understand digital conversions. So I’m especially excited to share a tool created by our team at Google which visually shows the digital customer journey to purchase.

The tool draws on Ecommerce and Multi-Channel Funnels data from more than 36,000 Google Analytics clients that authorized sharing, including millions of purchases across 11 industries in 7 countries. Purchase paths in this tool are based on interactions with a single ecommerce advertiser.

Here, you’ll find benchmark data for:

• How different marketing channels (such as display, search, email, and your site) move users towards purchases. For example, some marketing channels play an “assist” role during the earlier stages of the marketing funnel, whereas some play a “last interaction” role just before a sale.
• How long it takes for customers to make a purchase online, (from the 1st time they interact with your marketing to the moment they actually buy something) and how the length of this journey affects average order values.

This data is interesting not just from the perspective of how you fare in your own industry and location, but also for helping others on your team understand how digital marketing channels sit in the purchase path. No single channel has a monopoly on consumer attention, rather they work together in harmony. Your brand needs to be visibile across channels in the correct way in order to move users from awareness and consideration through to intent and conversion.

I hope you’ll find this data interesting and useful. Check out the tool here.

Visualizing And Valuing The Digital Customer Journey is from The Future Buzz, a Blog Covering Digital Marketing. You should follow Adam on Twitter and Google+ .