Introducing Chris Garrett
As Chris is the new face here on this blog I thought I would take a moment to ask him some questions and introduce him to you.
Who are you and what are you doing here?
I am Chris Garrett and I am a new media consultant living in England.
As for what I am doing here, Boalt is all about “persuasive online experiences that result in customer acquisition, loyalty and brand mindshare. With expertise ranging from conversion-centric Ecommerce strategy to Search and Social Media Marketing”, and that is what I do also, but perhaps with a subtly different take on things. My specialty is in the content and social media, attracting an audience that grows to know and trust you, and therefore buy more of what you have to sell.
When asked I often describe myself as a web geek. This is because I have been working with the internet since 1994, and played with online “stuff” for a couple of years before that.
I will be writing about how your business can benefit from online marketing, and some tips, ideas and tactics for how to do that.
What is your background with online marketing?
My background was first as a techy, networks, programming and database type stuff, then moving into branding, advertising and direct marketing as my career progressed. In the past I have worked with big and small companies, from huge global corporations such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Toshiba and Heinz, through to charities like Marie Curie, and non-profits such as the English National Ballet.
What do you do now?
In 2005 I left marketing agency life to start my own consultancy, and along the way co-founded a couple of start ups, appeared on the internet marketing speaking circuit, and wrote for a lot of blogs. Outside of the internet geek community I am probably most associated with the Problogger Book, which I co-authored with Darren Rowse of Problogger.
Right now we are just finishing up a brilliant “virtual conference” called the Social Media Success Summit which has been a lot of fun and very successful. I also run an online course called Authority Blogger where I teach people how to grow trust and credibility while attracting and retaining customers through blogging.
Why online marketing?
The internet is just so effective, a better question would be why would you not? The measurability, return on investment, efficiencies and speed all add up to a no-brainer for me. We once built a whole campaign that brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits for the same price as just the prosthetic goats head used in the TV advertising for the same client!
With a combination of an effective web site, solid email marketing best practices, search and social media, you can create far more audience engagement and conversions. Of course I do not recommend throwing away any offline strategies that are working for you, but as you can probably tell, online is now my first choice.
How can readers find out more about you?
The best place to go is my main blog, Chris Garrett on New Media or follow me on Twitter.
