Is pay per click losing momentum? Is growth in the channel waning? In a recent blog post, Steve Rubel wrote “I am calling a top to this market now. There are five reasons why a pay-per-click advertising recession looms!”

To further explore pay per click’s future, we turned to Steve and to Alan Rimm-Kaufman. Alan leads the Rimm-Kaufman Group, a direct marketing services and consulting firm, and he’s a fan of pay per click. Steve, senior vice president in Edelman’s me2revolution practice, has his doubts.

We dove into such questions as:

• Are people numbing to pay per click ads as they have to banner ads?
• Is the pay per click channel maturing, and what does that mean?
• Is pay per click more, or less, trustworthy than public relations?
• Can combining channels help drive your pay per click results?

Enjoy …

Pay Per Click: Boom or Bust?

Now, kind listeners, it’s your turn. Please let us know whether you’re thumbs up or thumbs down on pay per click by leaving a comment on this blog! Or, toss out another topic you’d like us to explore. And thank you for listening.

About Alan

Alan Rimm-Kaufman leads the Rimm-Kaufman Group, a direct marketing services and consulting firm founded in 2003. He is a regular speaker at industry events, including Jupiter Media’s Search Engine Strategies; the DMA’s Annual, Catalog, Net.Marketing, and NCDM shows; NRF’s Shop.org; eTail; NEMOA; and DMD NY conferences.

Rimm-Kaufman writes the internet retailing column for Catalog Success. He co-wrote the online marketing chapter of Katie Muldoon’s The Catalog Strategist’s Toolkit. He has been quoted on internet marketing in DM News, Internet Retailer, Catalog Age, Direct, Business Week, and The New York Times. He serves as a contributing reviewer for online marketing for the academic journal Management Science. He has also taught for Marketing Profs.

Also check out Rimm-Kaufman blogs.

About Steve

Steve Rubel is a senior marketing strategist with over 15 years experience. He currently serves as senior vice president in Edelman’s me2revolution practice. Edelman is the largest independent global PR firm.

Steve is charged with helping Edelman identify, test, incubate and champion new forms of communication. He also explores this on his well-read Micro Persuasion weblog and in a bi-weekly column for AdAge Digital.

Steve is often sought out as a speaker and appears frequently in the press. He has been named to several prestigious lists, including: Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100. Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel spent five years at CooperKatz & Company.

Also don’t forget to check out Steve Rubel’s Blog.

In a recent blog post, Jim Nail, chief strategy and marketing officer at Cymfony, wrote about a study that provocatively proclaims “Spending on Conversational Marketing will Outpace Traditional Marketing by 2012”. To find out if that’s even possible, I got together with Jim and Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at Nielsen Online Strategic Services. Like Jim, Pete is wary of the “conversation” hubbub.

What ensued was a very lively debate about whether marketers are prepared to support conversational marketing, and the answer isn’t very pretty. As Jim and Pete point out, not only are marketers not using Web 2.0 tools to create a conversation. To even listen effectively, they need to overhaul their infrastructures, big time.

We invite you to listen to the debate and then tell us what you think by leaving a comment on this blog. Enjoy …

Conversational Marketing: Irrational Exuberance or Next Big Thing?

About Jim

Jim Nail has an extensive background in integrated marketing through his 22-year career that spans online marketing, market research, brand advertising and direct marketing. Jim was an analyst at Forrester for eight years, focusing on how marketing strategies and tactics must adapt to technology-driven changes in consumer media consumption habits. Prior to joining Forrester, he helped launch Web advertising network AdSmart, where he served as director of marketing. He spent 15 years planning and managing integrated marketing campaigns at leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Draft Worldwide, Bates USA and Hill Holliday.

About Pete

Pete Blackshaw, whose professional background encompasses politics, interactive marketing, and brand management, is Executive Vice President of Strategic Services for Nielsen Online, a new entity combining Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a firm Pete helped co-found, and Nielsen NetRatings. Pete’s primary focus revolves around how to help brands interpret, manage, act upon consumer-generated media (CGM). A former interactive marketing leader at P&G and founder of consumer feedback portal PlanetFeedback.com, Pete co-founded the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). He is a frequent speaker at interactive marketing industry events, serves as Ad-Tech advisory board member, authors a regular marketing column with ClickZ, and authors several blogs including ConsumerGeneratedMedia.com (www.consumergeneratedmedia.com). He is author of an upcoming book by Random House entitled “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World.”

Also, another good reference point on the ugly side of this debate can be found here.

Eduardo Conrado and I met up at the MarketingProfs conference at the beginning of October. I really liked his approach to using thought leadership in the positioning of the Enterprise Division of Motorola.

As global marketing VP, Eduardo controls the marketing for all of Motorola’s enterprise B2B products worldwide. So naturally I wanted to better understand his approach to thought leadership, as well as how he defines success. I also wanted to learn which Web 2.0 tactics are working for his teams around the globe. Enjoy …

Using thought leadership to position Motorola, a podcast with Eduardo Conrado

About Eduardo

Eduardo Conrado is vice president of Global Business and Technology Marketing & Communications for Motorola, Inc. His role encompasses three of Motorola’s four primary businesses with revenues of over $17 billion: Home & Networks Mobility, Government & Public Safety, and Enterprise Mobility.

Reporting to Motorola’s chief marketing officer, Eduardo is responsible for driving a worldwide team that focuses on Motorola’s vital B2B marketing strategy – from overall branding, to product and regional/channel marketing, to interactive and direct marketing. He also leads both internal and external communications, including employee communications, public relations and industry analyst relations.

Is microblogging the latest fad or the next big thing? Microblogging is just like regular blogging, except it’s limited to 140 characters. The leader in the space is Twitter.

According to a recent blog post by Peter Kim, Twitter is now used regularly by 6% of American online adults. That sounds about right to me, although Twitter power user Robert Scoble thinks the figure is “way too high.” But if you want to reach an affluent, well-educated, early adopter audience, there might not be a better communication channel out there.

To get a better sense of this emerging social media tool, we assembled a micro-panel to discuss it: Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst on Social Computing at Forrester Research and a fan of Twitter, and David Berkowitz, director of Emerging Media at 360i, who is skeptical about Twitter’s application to business. We hope you enjoy the lively debate!

Twitter: Valuable Tool, or Waste of Time?

Listen learn and weigh in – Let us know which side you are on by leaving a comment on this blog. Or, feel free to comment on a topic you would like us to explore further.

Coming up will be another Prof-cast, “Pay per Click: Boom or Bust??” It features Alan Rimm-Kaufman, who leads the Rimm-Kaufman Group and is a fan of Pay per Click, and Steve Rubel, senior vice president at Edelman, who is skeptical about the future of Pay per Click.

So don’t miss it …

Through a classic Google search on her name, Stephanie Fierman found some unwelcome entries. The experience led Stephanie to wage a one-woman crusade to alert marketers and non marketers about how to practice personal brand defense. You can read her full story here.

I had a chance to interview Stephanie about her experience in practicing personal brand defense…

Interview with Stephanie Fierman, on practicing Brand Self Defense

About Stephanie Fierman

Stephanie Fierman is a marketing executive for the digital age. Known for building both profitability and brand equity for companies in all stages of growth and across different business sectors, Ms. Fierman has contributed to the success of both Internet start-ups as well as Fortune 50 companies including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Time Warner. She graduated as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Fierman volunteers much of her personal time and talent to several arts and education organizations in New York City. For more information, go to www.stephaniefierman.com.

In the new world of work, your reputation is the only accepted currency. Whether you’re looking to move up the corporate ladder at your current organization, find a position at another company, make a major career change, or start your own enterprise, you’ll no longer be hunting for your next position. Instead, opportunities will come to you. Colleagues, hiring managers, clients, and recruiters will use Google and their social and professional networks to find out about you and reach you.

To thrive in this new environment, you need to identify your personal assets and clearly communicate your unique value promise. That’s why I jumped at the chance to speak with William Arruda, co-author of the book Career Distinction, at the MarketingProfs conference in Chicago, where he gave a keynote speech. I hope you enjoy …

Career Distinction, a podcast with author William Arruda

About William

William Arruda is an executive coach, public speaker and author. He combines his 20 years’ corporate branding experience, passion for human potential, and avid pursuit of innovation to help professionals stand out and expand their success. He is the founder of Reach, the global leader in personal branding, and co-founder of the Reach Branding Club. JPMorgan, Disney, Adobe, Microsoft, Warner Bros, British Telecom, Electronic Arts and Starwood Hotels are just a few of the corporate clients for whom he’s delivered presentations and workshops on the transformative power of personal branding. William has appeared on BBC TV, the Discovery Channel, and Radio America. A sought-after spokesperson on career advancement, he has written for and contributed to the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Time magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications throughout the world. He holds a master’s degree in education.