Hi Randy, tell us a bit about your background:

A business friend convinced me that the two of us should start up a boutique agency to develop Websites in 1995. My career has been focused on Website development, Internet marketing and SEO ever since then.

What is your latest business venture?

I founded Exceptional Shopping Sites in 2010. Exceptional Shopping Sites is an incubator of online stores. Our introductory sites are ShoppingBasketsPlus and Course Marking. I’m also the author of the Internet Marketing Remarks blog.

Describe your approach to internet marketing:

Effective Internet marketing requires a “solution” based approach to communicating with prospects. The Mad Men-ish era tactic of interrupting  an audience for :30 with a TV commercial will fail on the Internet. Internet marketing must communicate during the few seconds that a viewer gazes upon your marketing message that you offer a solution that will benefit them.

Why it is important to you to be a part of IM Think Tank?

Networking with smart marketers is one of the best opportunities to learn how to improve  Internet marketing skills. Also, I enjoy working with marketers and business owners that are hungry to learn more about opportunities for utilizing the Internet.

What is your favorite internet tool or application?

E-mail seems to be a bit overlooked of late as social media is so in vogue. But for a commercial firm that does not have a deep bond with their customer base, e-mail marketing is often far more effective than social media marketing.

What have you been up to lately?

I’ve been redesigning packaging for large boxes to get them under three cubic feet. UPS and Fedex initiated a price increase on January 3^rd.  It makes it much more expensive to ship over-sized boxes.

Share one marketing tip:

Great marketing is wasted if you don’t provide a good user experience

What is your pet peeve about the industry?

Google’s arrogant behavior toward their advertising clients

What are you excited to see come about in the future of integrated marketing?

I love the enhanced capabilities to understand the effectiveness of marketing tests and campaigns.  John Wanamaker’s sardonic quote, “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is, I don’t know which half” doesn’t apply to Internet marketing.

What is one of your most important resources related to business on the internet?

The tool I spend the most time with is Google Analytics. It is an amazing resource, and the price is right.

What makes your company stand out from all of the rest?

We have a unique business model for enabling our clients to become entrepreneurs

Any tips for people just getting started?

While it is appropriate to take a broad approach to learning about Internet marketing, also take a focused approach to becoming a expect in a niche area

Do you have a SEO, PPC, Social Media or Internet Marketing hero?

Jeff Bezos

What is your motto?

Always be testing.

What is the funniest or most informative tweet you ever wrote or read?

I’ll take a pass. 140 characters does not allow much room for information, but I liked Steve Martin’s “Reading other people’s Tweets, I think I’m getting the hang of it now. 9:23am: cleaning toenails.”

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

High school soccer coach

How can people reach you?

Email randy.pickard@shoppingbasketsplus.com

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LinkedIn

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Randy will be speaking at Think Tank Live! SEO for Business.