Chris Meehan

There does seem to be some issues with converting brand awareness into solid leads or actual sales.

The way that Facebook operates for businesses, it’s almost like a partnership. So there are opportunities… what we’re looking to do is one of our sites called SMSPup is to create apps so that members who want to convert their points into free SMS messages can use it on their Facebook page, as an example. So we want to start working, testing it with our own sites in there and see what other opportunities we can garner out of it. I’m aware that a lot of the retail email sites are certainly using Facebook to generate members and fans.

So from a ComTel point of view, could you buy more companies?

David started the process in 2007 when he bought Empowered in terms of redefining the strategy and it’s taken us two years or three years almost to buy a second company in the online space. I mean we’re very focused on what we want to be and what we want to deliver and that’s in that performance, digital area. And we want to focus for the next while on DGM and Empowered and growing it organically. We think there are plenty of opportunities in that area but if something comes across our books that we think is a good fit to our model, we would certainly look at it.

Is there a lot of stuff out there at the moment?

I think that there are interesting businesses out there that probably on their own would find it hard to survive or sometimes justify a large investment. Therefore I think there are opportunities to bring that into a company like ours that has scale, that can leverage our relationships, leverage the knowledge we have on technology, etc. And also leverage on how to build a big database that could see real benefits.

Do you have to get the balance right between finding good companies or just trying to find good people you can hire?

I think a lot of this is down to the people. I mean I’m a great believer in finding a great team. I did that when I was running domain.com.au and certainly at travel.com.au and I think you’re right, there are good people out there that we could leverage to build our business but some of those people come with businesses attached to them.

Taking a bit of a look across your web experience, what are some of the wider trends that you’re watching? Is the Groupon trend the standout?

Well I think that everyone’s talking about it.

Is there room for all of them?

When I started domain.com.au there were a lot more real estate sites than realestate.com.au and domain.com.au. And there’s only two now and so I think there isn’t room for all of them. In my inbox in the morning, there’s half a dozen offers each day and if I think if I see another facial massage, I’ll die. So I think someone will win that battle and will it look like it does now? I don’t think so, there’ll be a variation of what’s there I’d say.

Any other sorts of big trends that you’re watching?

I think social media and online gaming are probably the big interesting space I think. I think when I go back to 2000 when I started at Domain, the focus on our marketing at the time was around putting ads on websites and out on billboards and then it shifted to looking at paid search and then SEO emerged. There were some guys at Fairfax that did a great job with a site called Cracker and they were given no budget, but they studied search engine optimisation and turned that around. So suddenly money has shifted from paid search to spending money on SEO and now it’s obviously moving onto these other areas like social media and gaming.

So I think it’s still moving down that path. I think a lot of businesses still haven’t got their Search Engine Optimisation right on their own website so I think people need to focus on perhaps some of the things they know how to do now rather than jumping onto the next stage. So if they can do all three together, then fantastic but get some of that basic stuff right.

Do you get the sense that sometimes we get swept away in latest trend and we suddenly spend a lot of time on getting our Twitter and Facebook presence right and forget about stuff like SEO?

Look I’m guilty of the same thing, so I understand and I think people like exciting new products. But part of the grounding I had when I ran Domain is selling a classified site is a grind. I mean it’s really about in that case getting as much content onboard through the real estate agents and delivering them a result rather than having a significant media packages. And so I do kind of think you’ve got to get the basics right and then move onto the more sexy stuff.

At the end of the day if I’m a bank or a telco, or a technology company, I want someone to buy something or visit my site or respond or sign up to a newsletter and that’s the key I guess. Those are the key things that they’re often measured by and I think that goes back to why this permission-based marketing part of the market is growing so fast.