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Keep the Tribal Algorithm by Jason Prescott (below) contains musings on search marketing, web analytics and why we don’t just feed the dog.
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We hear from newbie clients: Their web analytics tell them “this” and “that.” As we hear it, analytics are full of business wisdom, dictating advertising and search marketing decisions … which key word is Good, what distribution network is Better, and what PPC bid strategy is Best.

Take a closer look. Sure, web analytics offer valuable input for trend spotting, understanding user behavior and help measuring marketing success. But the operative word is HELP. Analytics are one tool in the marketing kit bag. And it’s a touchy tool, at that. Web analytics software can be very sensitive programming built on proprietary metrics. The huge data stream that analytics dumps into slick graphic reports demands interpretation, especially when you compare one company’s analytic apples to another’s pomegranates.

Am I saying ignore Google Analytics? Was Yahoo! foolish to play analytical catch-up buying IndexTools in early April to measure web behavior and paid search ROI??

Absolutely not.

All I’m saying here is that there is a Tribal Knowledge Algorithm you can’t ignore: It’s the collected knowledge of people who know your industry or product line, because they’ve worked it. It’s where Gut Instinct meets By-the-Numbers. It’s what still matters in successful business decisions.

Some in the search marketing biz dare to question 3,000-pound gorilla Google because Google relies on tech voodoo and search algorithms. Translation: Google depends on its proprietary search algorithms to go broad, horizontal and massively comprehensive, rather than organize around its users through their interests and their industries. (verticalizing)

Jim Meskauskas, director of online media for ICON International, observed that advertisers need not fear The Google after it acquired ad-serving network DoubleClick. Because marketing and advertising relies on ideas … and only humans have those. Successful campaigns don’t come from a another ad-buying auction technology or yet another intermediary in the ad-buying process. It’s still about the creative tribe and human strategy.

Because we don’t just feed the dog. ??

Says Jim: “If technology and engineering were the answers to all the questions, most businesses would consist of a machine, a dog and a man. The man would be there to feed the dog and the dog would be there to keep the man away from the machine.”

We run a lot of analytics here at TopTenWholesale. But we keep tribal knowledge and experience in the mix. We don’t just feed the dog.

Marie wrote a great article that is directly relevant to business owners on using free stuff: samples, downloads, chapters from a larger publication, training etc to market your business. Those of you out there going to trade shows know that there is a hardcore segment of the attendees who live for free stuff. Marie calls herself a free chapters junkie, I’m sort of similar but I gravitate more toward free whitepapers and free marketing ebooks. Anyway, it’s a good read if you are looking for innovative ways to market, and I should also point out how easy it is to find inexpensive promotional items
that fit your style and budget by searching Top Ten.

I saw a nice post about buying wholesale lists on one of the few wholesale blogs that isn’t just junk, and I think its a good topic for this blog to address.

Wholesale lists, I’m pretty sure, predate the internet, and they would have really been high-value publications back then — because how else would you find the locations and details of USA wholesalers prior to the web. You could go to the library and pore through 100 phone books I guess, but would you? Or you could find a trade magazine, but that’s even pretty difficult to find, they aren’t distributed widely. My former employer, distributed trade magazines at flea markets and swap meets, which is a good way to target your readership to the best available customers, but if you weren’t reselling through that venue, and you wanted to get the best possible deals (meaning get around working with a local or regional distributor) how would you have done it? Well, if you have the money that you can cut out a middleman that breaks bulk, you could probably afford to fly to a trade show, but, holy cow, isn’t there an easier way?

And thus we have the oft-rumored seldom seen wholesale lists. You give someone $40 and they sent you a neatly typed list of Company Names, Phone Numbers and Descriptions of Items Sold. That was a deal back then because if you were serious, you were likely to save more than that on the first order.

But, it really is a different ballgame now. The lists, like Salehoo and Worldwide Brands, are still what I consider a “hidden” competitor to my efforts over the years to get wholesalers’ products in front of the audience that really needs to use them. And they have responded to the competition that Top Ten Wholesale provides, with their (paid) membership areas, where they can offer updates, but really what they are going to do is try to sell you other products from their line. In truth they can’t compete with a web site like Top Ten or any of the other worthy wholesale search and directory web sites out there, because their model is to take money from the small reseller. Top Ten’s business model is older than the term “Web 2.0″ but taking information people normally charge for, making it free, and earning revenue through advertising opportunities for businesses that want to reach this newly-empowered audience is Web 2.0 all the way baby, much more so than rounded corners and blogs.

That doesn’t stop the listmakers, of course, it just makes them market against us. What kind of validates my theory that they ore the old school and we are the new school is that the practice the marketing technique known as FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that was made famous by IBM. See, IBM revolutionized the world of information processing, from typewriters to supercomputers and pioneered a LOT of new markets. When the competition eventually came, IBM was already there, but they were a huge company and could easily lose market share to a better idea, more aggressive pricing, etc. So the IBM sales force (which was one of the most admired organizations in the world, many years ago) used a tactic that was described by a former employee turned competitor as “spreading FUD.”

The old quote is “Nobody ever got fired for recommending IBM” which really means “You could get fired if you recommend some fly-by-night company who will abandon you when its the middle of the night and your orders can’t be processed. Oh, did I mention that we can have a 6 person team there to fix it the next day?”

And that’s always the model. If you have competition, you find yourself saying eventually “you can’t trust those guys…” It happens. I just hope you are telling the truth when you say it.

Chris Malta, the CEO behind Worldwide Brands, will try to tell you that

“Real Product Sourcing Wholesalers are NOT in the Search Engines”

Hee Hee. I beg to differ, Mr Malta In fact, its not just this web site. I watch all the search engine competition and Google which used to really have a bunch of junk in their listings, now has seen the light and has pretty much indexed our customers too. They still leave junk all around them which makes it hard to use them to source products efficiently. Basically, Malta’s argument is that all the huge wholesalers don’t advertise on the Internet because they don’t want to be bothered with small retail customers. I could name about 20 huge wholesalers who’ve been around for 20, 30, 50 years who advertise on Top Ten. Malta says these people want to work with you, but you have to find them.

Wholesalers are advertising, wholesalers don’t just want your business, they need it. Are there giant wholesalers who don’t advertise very much beyond to the trade, because they have contractual understandings with their dealer network so they don’t accidentally steal customers from their bread and butter network. You bet. But, what happens when you get all Sherlock Holmes up in heah and find them and send them an email. “Hey What’s Up Mr Double Secret Wholesaler?” What happens is they refer you to their network of dealers So I guess Mr. Malta isn’t technically wrong. But, why don’t you just skip all that nonsense and search for the product you want

Whats my rule? If somebody ever tells you “Don’t bother doing that, it will never work” - They are trying to keep you away from doing it because they fear it will work. Hmm, fear, hey look “fear” is the first component of the FUD strategy.

Malta also says

Most of the wholesalers who do show up in the search engines are actually middlemen and scammers who are trying to cheat you out of your profit margin.

See, I can’t stand this kind of stuff. What if I came up to you and said “Don’t use the phone book. Most of the advertisers in there are scammers.” You would think I was crazy and you might also think “What else I am supposed to do if not use the phone book?’ That’s when I tell you that I have typed up a list of some of the best things I found in the phone book and you can have it for $79.99. Well, hey, maybe there’s a reason I don’t like the phone book, because I stand to make 80 bucks every time I can convince someone else not to like it, too. Chris Malta is the same way, he doesn’t like wholesalers in the search engines because they cost him money.

So here he is saying “You can’t trust something that’s free! Use my paid service” Here I am saying “Use my free service” Who has more credibility?