Julia Child and her colleagues, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking for the “servantless American cook” — re: the 1950/60s American housewife who had become dependent on her can opener, Jello molds, and Fluff.

Until I read Julia’s biography, My Life in France, I had no idea that Julia and her colleagues spent eight years testing recipes, ensuring French ingredients could be found in American supermarkets, and writing instructions that could be easily followed by anyone who wanted to cook French food but wasn’t sure how.

I’ve had a copy of the cookbook (second printing!) sitting on my shelf for close to 15 years and not once had I cracked it open. After reading My Life in France and becoming inspired by it and the movie, Julie and Julia, I decided it was time to start cooking.

It was while cooking (and eating) that I realized that the lessons I had learned from Julia could also be applied to marketing:

1. Read marketing books — Before MTAOFC, I had never made a hollandaise sauce. Reason? I thought it was too difficult. Nothing is further from the truth — in fact, it takes all of five minutes following Julia Child’s instructions. (Be sure to make poached eggs to go with it. Yum!)

It’s the same for marketing. Your landing page isn’t converting? Get the book, Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash. Don’t know how to fully maximize Google Analytics? Read Google Analytics 2.0.

These days nothing with regard to marketing is a “secret” — all it takes is effort on your part to read and follow instructions in just a few of the hundreds of marketing books and blogs available.

2. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes — My first batch of hollandaise turned out perfectly. My second batch was a dud.

Marketing campaigns often follow a similar pattern. You send out a direct mail letter, for example, and get leads galore. A few months later you conduct another campaign that ends up costing you big bucks for little ROI.

Just because a campaign doesn’t do well doesn’t mean you’re a bad marketer or that direct mail is dead or whatever “wisdom” is bouncing around the Internet. What it does mean is that you tried something, it didn’t work, and you need to try again.

3. Make notes in the margins — After you cook a fabulous meal, take a few minutes to note in the recipe margins why it worked. For example, Julia Child says hollandaise can sit for a half hour or so on low heat, so I made it first, then made the poached eggs. Big mistake. My hollandaise fell apart in minutes. Note to self: make the eggs first.

When you conduct a marketing campaign, take the time to evaluate why it worked or didn’t. Write out your strategy, the vendors you used, or any challenges you faced during the design or implementation process. Writing notes “in the margins” will help you remember what to do “right” the next time.

4. Don’t stop testing — The glory of MTAOFC is that Julia and colleagues tested every single recipe, repeatedly. Then they tested variations. In fact, Julia even tested different methods for cooking asparagus. (The best way is to peel each stalk, bundle a half dozen peeled stalks together, and boil them until tender. Superb!)

One person who has the testing thing down is Anne Holland. Not only did she test, test, test while at MarketingSherpa, she’s now featuring people’s marketing tests at her new venture, Which Test Won. The results of these tests are sometimes surprising — which is why it pays to test, constantly.

5. Invest in the best tools you can afford — Nothing is more wonderful than super sharp knives that can cleanly cut meat, fish, bread, and veges. A dull knife leaves delicate fish ragged and makes it hard to skin and debone a chicken.

Lots of marketing tools exist, from free stuff such as HubSpot’s Grader tools to fee-based tools such as Yield Software’s Web Marketing Suite, that help you do your marketing job better. Whichever tools you use, make sure they provide the data you need to make informed decisions.

6. Invite your friends to dinner — The best part of cooking is sharing a meal with your friends and family. (You can make the meal even more special by including a cheese course. Hint: pull the cheese out a half hour or so before you eat it, especially if you’re serving brie cheese. Include some grapes and crackers and be sure to have plenty of wine!)

You can invite your friends to your marketing party by writing a blog, opening a Twitter account or hosting a Group on LinkedIn. Share your marketing triumphs and mistakes — your openness will show others they can share their insights as well.

7. Show your passion — Julia Child states in My Life in France that she was a “scientific cook.” All science aside, Julia was also passionate — about food, cooking, and sharing her joy with others.

Too often marketing becomes bogged down in numbers and ROI. We can all use a dose of Julia’s enthusiasm and joie de vivre — in our copy, our campaigns, and our lives in general.

So tonight, stop at the market and buy fresh veges, fish, really crusty bread, some gooey smelly cheese, and an excellent bottle of wine.

Bon appetit!

The DailyFinance posted an article by Anthony Massucci about how social media may be making us less social — as in, we’re afraid to do or say anything that might end up on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

In some cases, Massucci is correct.

If you cause trouble in your neighborhood, your bad behavior could end up on RottenNeighbor.com — your neighbor can film video of you and post it to this site. Yikes!

Or, a customer can record a customer service call that puts your company in a bad light and post it to the Internet — as AOL learned much to its chagrin.

Or even worse, your “off the cuff” (re: off the record) comment can become the shot heard ’round the world — as President Obama learned when he called Kayne West a jackass.

As Massucci points out, our behaviors can easily be recorded by others and posted for all to see/hear. So it pays to follow some common sense behaviors when it comes to social media:

1. THINK before you post — Platforms like Twitter and Facebook let you express yourself (and easily become addictive). You really don’t want to post that you’re leaving for vacation. Nor do you want to post that snarky comment about a customer.

In fact, I make it a policy to never post anything about customers unless I have their express permission to do so.

You’ll also want to keep TMI (too much information) posts to a minimum — as this information can come back to haunt you in terms of lost contracts and/or lost jobs.

2. Limit phone use in public — I’m rather amazed at how much *business* information I overhear from people talking on their mobile phones in public.

Because we can become so absorbed in the conversation, we don’t “see” the people around us (nor do we know them usually). So we gab away, and in the process we let out confidential information that by-standers can easily pick up — and use against us.

True story: my lawyer friend’s firm won a negotiation because one of the partners overhead the lawyer for the other side talking about the deal on his cell phone on the train. Her firm now has a policy that no one is allowed to discuss client cases on the phone in public.

3. Practice good old fashioned manners — I do think that social media and the Internet have made us all a little more rude. Graciousness seems to have been fallen by the wayside. Where we used to send lovely hand-written thank you notes, we can now SMS — “Thanks for dinner!”

Bad manners includes yelling at sales clerks, screaming at people while driving, and posting nasty comments to blogs under assumed names.

One thing I’ve committed to of late is being nice — to everyone. I tell the front desk people at the gym “thank you,” and “have a nice day.” I let drivers go ahead of me. I wait patiently while sales clerks wait on those ahead of me. I compliment other business owners on their marketing.

The benefit of this good cheer is that it makes me feel better — and people respond in kind.

It also means my bad behavior doesn’t end up on a social media site somewhere.

What do you think? Has social media made us more rude? Do we need to be more careful about how we present ourselves in public? Do you worry that your behavior at a party will end up on someone’s Facebook page?

Let me know!

(Hat tip to Dr. Helaine Smith (client) who sent me the DailyFinance article.)

“We wanted to bring new life to our brand message — The Science of What’s Possible,” says Clare Hovan, Manager of Global Branding and Advertising for Waters Corporation (Milford, MA).

Clare and her team, headed up by Diane Meador, Senior Director of Worldwide Marketing Services, discussed getting client quotes or doing articles.

“We knew that testimonials had always been the golden key — but we wanted to position the campaign from the customer standpoint — why were they successful, what challenges they had. We wanted customers’ stories and this idea lead directly to doing the stories in video. Why? Because video is powerful and authentic.”

Getting people to talk “on record” proves challenging

Because Waters is in life sciences, getting customers to actually agree to do a video proved quite challenging. Customers didn’t want to endorse one vendor over another or show they might be biased.

And, legal proved to be a huge hurdle as life science companies have policies about employees talking to anyone without “permission.” This is because the employee doing the talking can accidentally let slip something about the company’s processes or tools — a minor slip can give away their competitive advantage.

“We positioned the videos as an opportunity for our customers to talk to their peers about the work they’re involved in and the achievements they’ve made,” says Clare.

“We said, ‘This video is about you, not Waters.’ They didn’t even have to mention Waters. We wanted them to answer questions such as, ‘What makes you go to work in the morning? What stories do you have about advancements in your field? What excites you?’”

Like any new tactic, shooting video comes with challenges

Waters turned to its ad agency, Allen & Gerritsen, for help. Scott Sneath, who is a Senior VP and Group Marketing Director, worked with Clare and her team to define responsibilities and goals. A&G also helped choose an experienced videographer and coordinate customers’ availability.

Says Scott, “We found this video idea quite interesting. Often in B2B, especially with life sciences, it’s ‘peer to peer’ sales. The video campaign addressed this concept perfectly as it showcased ‘rock stars’ in the various life science fields using Waters instruments.”

Clare and her team initially sat down and looked at venues where they could find lots of Waters customers — e.g. tradeshows, conferences, and customer visits to the company’s Milford, MA headquarters.

“We learned early on to plan the interviews months in advance,” says Clare. This gave the Waters team and the customer time to get approval of the questions and the interview by the various legal departments as well as setting up a meeting with the customer at a conference or in his/her office.

The Waters team also learned that it was most efficient and cost effective to set up two days where they could shoot 5 – 6 videos in one location — such as at a tradeshow.

Says Scott, “It really pays to get approvals and have conversations off camera ahead of time, otherwise you burn through lots of editing time if the person hasn’t figured out what to say.”

Waters Customers: In Their Own Words

Customers were given 7 – 8 questions tailored to their job — i.e. if he/she was a toxicologist, one of the questions would be, “Tell us about your work as a forensic toxicologist.”

The team also asked questions such as, “Give us an idea of your relationship with Waters. Why do you have our instruments? Any stories about how Waters instruments have allowed you to make advancements in your field? Where do you see your work going? Where would you like to see technology advance too?”

The videos were then divided into segments: tell us about yourself, innovation, how Waters technology has helped them in their work, what impact they’re seeing in their work, and the future. The videos were completely unscripted — customers were free to answer questions from their own perspectives.

Says Clare, “These interviews gave us huge insight into our customers, their jobs, and their passions. These were very articulate people who had no problem talking about how Waters has positively impacted their businesses. We were very excited to hear their stories.

“For example, one customer, AIT Labs, the largest toxicology lab in the world, had received a blood sample for analysis. Michael Evans, CEO of AIT Labs, explained on video how the sample had come from a farmer who had died in literally a minute while treating his animals with antibiotics. In fact, he was only able to call his wife from his cell phone in the minute before he died.

“An autopsy was done, but cause of death couldn’t be determined, so AIT Labs ran a blood sample on a Waters ACQUITY System. Because the system is so sensitive, it identified a veterinary animal antibiotic in the blood — which was a complete surprise to everyone.

“Long story short, the authorities determined that the farmer must have been running in the barnyard and had accidentally injected himself — and thus died within a minute due to the lethalness of the antibiotic. By using Waters instrumentation, AIT Labs found the cause of death, which was crucial for legal reasons (i.e. insurance) and which brought closure to law enforcement, more importantly to the farmer’s wife.

Results of video campaign

According to Clare, Waters has shot more than 50 videos and has promoted them via print ads, on the Waters website, and on banner ads across market specific sites.

The marketing team has also been promoting the videos to sales who are now using the videos at tradeshows, conferences, and customer demos.

Says Clare, “Now a sales person can say to a prospect, ‘You have the same challenge as one of our customers — listen to his story.’”

“Everyone, from upper management on down, is thrilled with the videos,” says Clare. The next step for the Waters team is to promote the videos via social media.

The SEO world is abuzz with Google’s confirmation that it does NOT use the keywords in the meta keyword tag when determining how a site ranks in the search engine.

In its Google Webmaster Blog, Google states, “Google doesn’t use the ‘keywords’ meta tag in our web search rankings.”

For those of you who don’t know, the meta keyword tag is found in your HTML source code. To find it, open your Web browser and click “View” and then “Source.” This will open a new page where you can see the HTML code. As an example, I’ve shown Yahoo’s! Title and meta tags below:

I’m glad Google repeated their stance about the keyword tag again — because quite frankly, I’m still amazed at the number of people who think that the keyword tag is important.

One prospect called me a few months ago, for example, asking about my SEO services. When I gave him a quote, he choked due to sticker shock and said he had to “get back to me” (re: find a cheaper alternative).

He called me a few weeks later to exclaim, “My site’s optimized! I found someone to do it for me.”

I had to laugh because the SEO “expert” had simply put keywords in the keyword meta tag.

I’ve had other companies say, “We want to rank for this keyword,” and when I say, “Well, you need content to support that keyword” (as in a new page or pages plus links), I usually hear, “Can’t you just put keywords in the keyword tag?”

Short answer: No.

So people, listen up. Google does not and never did look at the keywords in the keyword tag. Period. If you don’t want to listen to me, do pay attention to Google’s Matt Cutts.

Kenneth J. Weiss is Director of E-Commerce for Hoover (yes, as in vacuum cleaners) and author of the new book, Slightware – The Next Great Threat to Brands.

Kenneth sent me the first chapter (which is free for download at the link above) and after reading it, I immediately emailed him back to tell him that his premises is quite compelling.

In a nutshell, “slightware” is any digital glitch that negatively impacts a customer’s experience with a company and its products / services.

So I’m pleased that Kenneth offered to write a guest blog post about how technology, coupled with marcom, will power tomorrow’s brand strategy.

Take it away Kenneth . . .

The recession continues to linger, business owners are wrestling with layoffs, marketing budgets are being slashed and even if things improve a “lean” mindset will likely remain. So, is now the time to think about your brand portfolio? Absolutely.

According to the experts at Planet Ocean, publishers of Search Engine News, “. . . very soon any business, small, large, local or international must include a plan and strategy to incorporate Local Search optimization efforts into their online marketing plan or be left to catch up on those who do.”

This is basically the same thing I said in my MarCom Strategist newsletter, “Increase Business with Local Search” (I read SE News after publishing it, so obviously great minds think alike!).

In short, local search is going to be BIG! HUGE! (as Julia Roberts says in the movie Pretty Woman) so it pays to take steps now to ensure customers / prospects can find your site when they’re searching for it — whether they’re down the street or across the U.S.

In addition to having a site optimized for search engines, you also need to get your business listed in the three search engines’ local listing centers.

Before you begin, take a moment to ensure you have accounts with all three search engines. You’ll need a Windows Live ID for Bing.

Google Local Business Center
Yahoo! Local
Bing Local Listing Center

Once you open your accounts, you’re effectively creating profiles people can see, so you’ll want to take a minute to ensure that people you don’t know are viewing only the information you want them to see.

Setting up your local listings is pretty easy but can take a good half hour or more — and after having just added my listing to Yahoo and Bing, I have three tips you can do before-hand to help you save some time.

1. Create a tag line — Each listing center requires you to include a tag line of approximately 150 to 200 characters that describes your business. Be sure to develop a tag line that describes what you do using action verbs and plain English.

2. Write a description — Yahoo and Bing also require that you include a longer description where you can flesh out the services you offer and what makes you unique from your competition.

I created a really good one for Yahoo and then kicked myself when I realized that I couldn’t access my Enhanced Yahoo Listing since it’s pending review — hence, I had to make a new one for Bing from memory.

So be sure to have your tag line and description ready to go in a separate document when updating or adding your local listings. (This step ensures that your tag and description are the same across all three platforms, too.)

3. Have images ready to go — All three local listing platforms let you upload images, including photographs of your products (or yourself) and videos. Save time by having these images and/or URLs ready to go.

In addition to the basic listings, Yahoo offers an Enhanced Listing for $9.95 per month and a Featured Listing for $24.95 per month.

And speaking of Yahoo, you can also pay $299 annually to be listed in the Yahoo Directory. Now, I’ve read in places that getting listed is good for SEO as Google considers the directory a trusted source. (This is because a “real” person reviews each directory listing.)

However, some people believe that a Yahoo Directory listing can adversely affect your Yahoo rankings, so I can’t advise you whether you should pay the fee or not.

And, if you were grandfathered into the Yahoo Directory the way I was (and hence don’t have to pay the $299 annual fee) and you’re listed in the wrong category but your URL is correct, just leave it alone (which seems to be the general consensus).

And that’s it for setting up local search listings. Once they’re complete, you’ll then want to ask your customers to post online reviews to sites such as Yelp — which is a Google Partner — as reviews are now part of the local search algorithm.