Foreword

It’s time to leave some of the old wisdom behind and develop some new wisdom.

—Mike Grehan being interviewed by Lee Odden in 2007

I keep bumping into Lee Odden. All over the world, in fact. For the past four or five years, at conferences from New York to San Francisco, London to Barcelona, and Hong Kong to Singapore, we’ve discussed the subject of Internet marketing. These are deeply engaging conversations for one very important reason. When it comes to marketing, Lee Odden gets it.

As a classically trained marketer, Lee cuts through the clutter of the pipes-and-tubes element of Internet marketing to focus on content and customers. Already, he has a huge following on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. This is largely due to his steady transition from popular blogger and industry commentator to recognized thought leader.

Inspired by a “lightbulb moment” in conversation with a Google engineer, he was prompted into thinking about Internet marketing and business in new and different ways. It’s a new kind of wisdom, partly based on practical experience and partly based on training his mind to see around corners.

We’ve had an era of search marketing being front and center. But as we move into a new era of the constantly connected consumer with the prediction that, in a few years there’ll be 50 billion connected devices on the planet, it really is time to change the way we think about marketing. And this is not being driven purely by technology, it’s more about the change in the consumer—the new, transient media consumer.

Much of what we’ve learned in marketing is undergoing reconsideration. Major changes are taking place in consumer and business markets. Consumers no longer act independently of each other but are more connected to other consumers, to other channel members, and often to brands. Consequently, brands and companies are now vying for central positions inside consumer networks.

Consumers have become attracted to third-party information providers, through collaborative product reviews, ranking, rating, and price-comparison services. There are new and more complex concepts being applied to modern marketing. Lee Odden will help you craft new strategies and tactics in line with this new marketing environment.

In my capacity as chair of the SES Global Advisory Board, I’m honored to have Lee as a valuable member and supporter. I’ve watched him many times, either as a solo speaker or as a panelist at conferences. And without fail, when he begins to speak, keyboards begin to click as the audience takes note after note.

It’s funny, but a classic movie scene popped into my mind after reading something Lee says in this book. It’s from the movie City Slickers. Tough cowboy Curly (Jack Palance) holds up one finger, looks at Mitch (Billy Crystal), and says: “Do you know what the secret to life is?” Mitch replies, “Your finger?” “Just one thing,” says Curly. “What’s the one thing?” asks Mitch. To which Curly replies, “That’s what you have to find out,” and then gallops off into the distance.

I don’t know about life, but when it comes to marketing and business, this book is about just one thing you can do to improve it: Optimize!