Internet Marketing

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn

2009-07-02T11:37:00.002-05:00

"All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees."

I found the statement above intriguing because I had always thought of LinkedIn as a way that small businesses and individuals were interacting on the web rather than large corporations. While that may be true, what this statistic reveals is that the individuals who are on LinkedIn are connected to all these large organizations, and, importantly, in significant roles! That has a lot of implications when thinking about how this tool might be useful to someone using it for networking.

This blog entry outlines a short list of ways to make use of LinkedIn:

Increase your visibility.
Improve your connectability.
Improve your Google PageRank.
Enhance your search engine results.
Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.
Increase the relevancy of your job search.
Make your interview go smoother.
Gauge the health of a company.
Gauge the health of an industry.
Track startups.
Ask for advice.
Integrate into a new job.
Scope out the competition, customers, partners, etc.

For a more detailed discussion on each of these ideas, click on the title of this posting to go directly to the original blog that I have quoted.

These are just ideas that others have collected, and they will be more effective for some people than for others. For example, it appears to me that there is a definite "age bias" inherent in this kind of tool. My connections who are over 55 do not seem to have as many connections as my connections who are under 55. With a networking tool like this, it becomes more powerful and useful as more people use it more fully.

The message for us all in this article is that there is a new tool available to anyone who can make something of it, and using it is free and relatively easy. Keep in mind that LinkedIn also has a paid option that offers more features and power, so if you are in the group (or want to get into the group) for which this tool works better, you have the opportunity to "gear it up" a notch.

The Future of the Internet?

2009-07-02T11:18:00.002-05:00

"Today, the Google-Facebook rivalry isn't just going strong, it has evolved into a full-blown battle over the future of the Internet—its structure, design, and utility. For the last decade or so, the Web has been defined by Google's algorithms—rigorous and efficient equations that parse practically every byte of online activity to build a dispassionate atlas of the online world. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions a more personalized, humanized Web, where our network of friends, colleagues, peers, and family is our primary source of information, just as it is offline. In Zuckerberg's vision, users will query this "social graph" to find a doctor, the best camera, or someone to hire—rather than tapping the cold mathematics of a Google search. It is a complete rethinking of how we navigate the online world, one that places Facebook right at the center. In other words, right where Google is now."

Here is some food for thought! This article describes how Facebook is building a huge database of information about people and their activities and relationships. As described in this article, this platform could become the new way that people find information on the web, that is, by referrals from friends and connections rather than by search!

There is a lot of speculation in this article, and many things that might happen never do, but it appears that Google is taking this kind of threat seriously, indicating that there is something to the idea.

We are all aware that social media, of which Facebook is only one outstanding example, is playing a more and more significant role in marketing on the web. As active marketers, we all need to be aware of this new phenomenon, but the idea that Facebook could actually replace Google as the primary source of new traffic is a real paradigm shift.

Social Media: Mixing Business with Pleasure?

2009-06-11T10:42:00.003-05:00

"One of the questions I hear most often when I'm teaching a social media seminar is how to balance their professional social media presence with their personal one. People ask me if they should blog and Tweet as themselves or as their business. They ask if they should mix business contacts with friends on Facebook and LinkedIn. They want to know if they can talk about their hobbies on their business profiles. Basically, they want to know the pros and cons of mixing business with pleasure in the blurry-lined landscape of social media."

Social Media is (are??) intruding in our lives more and more every day. All of these new forms of communication and interaction pose new challenges and opportunities for us to consider. Jennifer has written an interesting article exploring some of the issues that arise in this area that we all need to think about seriously before we become active in this arena. A big point to remember is, "you can't take things back!" Once you have put something out into this environment, you have lost all control over it.

In my own experience, I find I am mixing business and social more and more on the web, but I tend to be a pretty private person anyway, and I am very cautious about the personal things that I post. Even so, this information, especially over some time, can become quite revealing, and you can inadvertently tell people things that you might not always be comfortable with.

One suggestion that I might make to newcomers to this field is to do some "lurking" before you become active. What this refers to is the practice of hanging around and reading what other people are saying without participating yourself. There are many forums on the web where this practice is really frowned upon and discouraged, but the newer forms of the social media are so wide open that I have not seen that same sort of attitude expressed. What it does for you is it gives you a chance to see what other people are doing so you can form your own impression of what is appropriate and comfortable for you before you commit yourself. When you see the material that other people are putting up on the web, I guarantee you will have a personal reaction to what you see. This reaction will help to inform you about your personal comfort zone, and you can use that information to guide your own participation.

As Jennifer's piece makes clear, it has to be a personal choice for each of us to determine the correct balance between these different interests. My own decision is to continue as I have been doing, but always remember that there is no private conversation taking place here and anything that I say can be seen by anyone else on the web, today or tomorrow, into the indefinite future! If you are not comfortable thinking about that prospect when you get ready to post something, don't post it! I want to err on the side of caution at all times.

Keyword-Driven Marketing for B2B

2009-06-09T16:30:00.004-05:00

"Understanding what your customers want – and how they express that need – is the foundation of effective marketing, ..."

We all know that keywords are the most important element in ranking that generates traffic to your web site, but the trick is understanding how to make them work for you. The quote above makes the point well, that you have to understand how your prospective customers express themselves in order to be successful.

This author is telling his audience that keywords are important to B2B (business to business) marketing just as in B2C (business to consumer) marketing. He also has a good list of points included in his article.

Use Keyword-Driven Marketing to truly understand the language of your customer.
Understand user intent and provide an entry point as early in the buying cycle as possible.
Develop integrated search marketing strategies to maximize return on investment.
Provide compelling experiences – not just content.
Test, test, and test again. Then, test, test and test again…

While these points are good, it is disappointing that there is no more detail provided to help one understand what these guidelines mean in practice.

I would elaborate on his points in this way.

It is crucial that you, as the marketer, understand what keyword phrases the prospect is like to use and what that choice of words indicates about his frame of mind at the time of the search. Specific terms pertaining to the product or service should never be overlooked in keyword marketing, but often the searcher is looking for information to understand a problem better or to get ideas for solutions. This orientation will lead to a different choice of keyword phrases for the search that must be anticipated.

As the author says, particularly in B2B marketing, it is important to enter the relationship with the prospect as early in the buying cycle as possible. With B2b, the cycle is likely to be longer, and the purpose of the marketing is to get into consideration before the purchasing decision begins to be made. Using your web site to convey your knowledge and understanding of the searchers' needs, and the professionalism to assist with them is the goal.

Applying the points described in the preceding paragraph is the strategic consideration. Creating compelling experiences means that you have to engage the interest of the prospect. Providing useful information in understandable form is the challenge.

Finally, testing is always important. One of the things that I liked about the website StartBreakingFree that I recommended in my previous post is the way Brian describes his testing efforts in great detail. It is through testing that you can discover which of various alternative approaches to your market will prove to be the most effective for you.

Start Your Own Web Business

2009-06-09T09:34:00.002-05:00

"It’s always pays to get around like minded people and see what you can learn."

Brian Armstrong is an Internet entrepreneur who maintains an interesting blog that is worth visiting. He has spoken in our clinic int he past and has been invited to return for another session, but, unfortunately for us, he has since moved to Argentina!

His blog is called StartBreakingFree, and it is all about his effort to become independent via his Internet activities. If you are interested in starting a business on the web, you might find a lot of interesting ideas on his site.

I was initially attracted to Brian's blog because he published a series documenting his thirty day effort to increase traffic to his web site. This was a great series because you could follow his thought process day-by-day as he tried different strategies to boost his performance and reported back on whether they worked or not! You can take a look at the "build traffic, get more subscribers, and sell books" strategy series to see if there are ideas that might be helpful to you in your own efforts to improve.

Brian continues to post his experiments on his site, as well as references to other people who are doing interesting things on the web. His site is a great resource for researching topics about internet marketing. When he comes back to the US for a visit, I hope we can get him in to tell us some of his adventures directly.

Beware of spam!

2009-06-06T10:48:00.003-05:00

I have just received a particularly insidious scam that is going around now. It is described further in the attached link:

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/phishing_Tagged_dot_com.php

What this thing does is send messages to everyone that you have ever emailed, inviting them to look at photos from you. I received one from a friend, and the inclination is to say, "How nice that they sent me this!" Below the invitation is a message saying "Please respond or Nancy may think you said no :(", using your friends name. The idea is to make you feel guilty if you don't respond! That is a big tipoff.

I have only gotten a couple of these, but my wife has gotten more recently, and a friend last night at dinner told me about receiving one (that he did not respond to!)

Be very careful about responding to anything that you did not expect to receive, even from people that you know. If the message makes you feel guilty, be extra careful!

My reaction to this message was just what the scammer wanted me to think, "Oh, this is from a friend, it must be okay." Fortunately (maybe because another friend had just mentioned this to me a few hours before), I paused and thought about it further. I had never heard of this site that I got the message from, so I opened another window and googled it, where I found the link above. Everything was pretty clear after that.

I sent a message to my friend (her real email) telling her what I thought had happened to her and got an immediate response saying, "Yes, that is exactly what happened, and she now was working frantically to try to undo the damage". Unfortunately, it is pretty hard to undo! Anyone who received it and opened it has already spread it further! In addition to that, it is pretty hard to send an email to everyone in your own address book. I am trying now, and there are so many bad addresses accumulated in the book that I am having a lot of trouble sending a legitimate message to all the good addresses!!

Always be suspicious and use caution before responding to mail that you weren't expecting. These things are playing on natural responses and on a moment's inattention on your part. Believe me, if you get tricked into responding, you will feel terrible as sooon as you realize it, but it is too late at that point!

Why Pizza Giants Want Customers to Click, Not Call, for Delivery

2009-04-23T17:11:00.003-05:00

"The major pizza chains now do 20% to 30% of their business online, but they want that figure to climb a lot higher, to 50%."

Businesses of every type are adjusting their business models to take advantage of the Internet. In the case of pizza delivery, there are several driving factors:

It's more efficient than answering the phone. Employees can be making pizzas instead of talking to customers.
Customers are more likely to respond to promotions for new products.
The customers tend to be higher income and less resistant to economic downturns.
Customers tend to be younger, which is a strong demographic for the pizza business.

These chains are also changing their web sites to be more responsive to customers and make for a better ordering experience. One example is the use of cookies to identify returning customers. When a new customer is detected, there is a delay in ordering because they have to enter their address and phone number so the delivery can be made. To compensate for this, the companies offer special promotions to new customers. returning customers are rewarded by the process being so much more efficient because the site remembers their information and they can place an order in under 15 seconds!

This is one more example of ways that businesses have to rethink their operations in order to make the best use of the Internet. The whole world is changing and your choice is to get on board the train or get run over by it!

To read the entire article, click on the title at the top.

Blogging Has Come a Long Way, Baby

2009-04-22T23:03:00.003-05:00

"“Blogging activity presents new opportunities for marketers to monitor and influence conversations relevant to their businesses,” says Mr. Verna. “Opportunities no marketer should ignore.”"

Research cited in this article reports 86.8 million Internet users in 2008 who read blogs at least monthly. This is estimated to be 45% of Internet users! These are big numbers and command the attention of anyone who is marketing on the web. These numbers are projected to grow over the next five years, both the absolute count and the percentage of total users. One major rule of marketing is that you have to go where the audience goes. For someone interested in marketing on the web, that means you have to get involved in blogging!

To read the article, click on the title link...

The New Internet Start-Up Boom: Get Rich Slow

2009-04-21T17:31:00.003-05:00

"At no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of company."

If you are thinking about starting a business, here is an article that might give you some good ideas and some inspiration.

Don't get the idea that we are talking about easy money. This is not "easy" for most people. It is hard work and can be lots of work. What you can learn here is that there is lots of opportunity if you can find it, and you can do it for very little money if you are capable of putting everything together.

The article describes the startup of a web site that would summarize car reviews from other sources and rank every model of new car. The creator put it together himself by contracting for development help through various sites on the web. He is not a developer himself. The article provides links to many sites where you can find contract help.

One of the investors quoted in the article says, '"The biggest problem facing any website is distribution." In a world where it's so easy to start a company, how will anyone find yours?' For participants in our free Internet Marketing Clinics, this sounds like an invitation! That is exactly where the skills and techniques we teach can become a competitive advantage to help make your business one of the successful ones.

One other point made in the article is that the cost of failure is low, and that is important because it means you can try lots of ideas in order to find one that works for you. In other words, you might expect that your effort will not succeed, but that does not mean that it was not worth trying. With a low cost of failure, you can go on to try other ideas which might become successful.

My grandfather always told me, "There's more than one way to skin a cat!" (apologies in advance to cat lovers, I never actually skinned a cat, nor intended to!!) So keep that in mind as you start out on your business venture and be prepared to regroup and start over if it doesn't work out. Successful entrepreneurs often have multiple failures before they hit a success. Keep swinging until you connect with the long ball!

Work from Home Opportunities?

2009-04-12T08:43:00.003-05:00

Lots of ads and lots of unsolicited email messages offer opportunities to make big incomes while working from home. Most of these are pure junk, but their sheer volume testifies to the interest in the topic. This article describes what appears to be a real opportunity to work from home in a flexible environment where one can make real money.

As you might expect, it does not offer you a chance to become a millionaire, and it involves real work that is monitored and measured. You can't "put something up on the web and watch the money roll in!", as so many ads seem to offer.

On the other hand, you can get a real opportunity to free yourself from a daily commute, work flexible hours at your own discretion, provide a real service, and collect real pay. The better you are, the more you can work and the more you will make. And, you can review your own performance statistics by which you are evaluated!

If this is of interest to you, read the story behind the link in the title of this posting and look in the article for the name "Dawn Linseman". Her story will give you an example of a real opportunity. Keep in mind the statistic cited in the article, "...the company accepts only about 2 percent of all applicants..." This is a competitive situation, but that reflects the real world, not the imaginary one featured in the compelling ads!

The article describes other sites that feature freelance programmers and other contract services that may be of interest to you, either as an applicant or a consumer. You can list yourself as a resource there, or you can look for the kind of support you may need to start your own business.

I am seeing a lot of articles about how people are starting up their own businesses today specifically because of the downturn and the current job market, and I will b eposting more information about some of these in the future. Keep your eyes on this space for more information!

Online Advertising Pushes Through

2009-04-09T09:33:00.002-05:00

"“Digital marketing offers compelling benefits, especially for cash-conscious companies,” he says. “Marketers can more readily measure the results of Internet advertising than with most traditional media. This produces more-efficient advertising and higher ROI, which in turn pushes traditional media to compete with lower pricing.”

Which puts more pressure on traditional media’s bottom line.

“At the same time, successful Internet advertising creates a new paradigm for marketing on other media,” adds Mr. Hallerman. “Search is the prime example of the new model.”

When marketers link ads to an individual’s stated interest at the precise moment that interest is expressed—as happens with a search query—relevance breaks down the usual resistance."

More evidence of the changing impact of Internet marketing is shown in this article. There is a chart in the article showing an increasing growth in the rate of spending on online advertising in the years from 2008 through 2013.

Note the explanation of at least one of the reasons for the movement toward online activity; the information is presented at the exact moment when the prospect is expressing interest in the topic! This is one of the keys to effective promotion on the web.

In our clinic presentations, we continually emphasize the importance of bringing the searcher directly to the page that is most directly relevant to the search term used. We do not want visitors going to the home page on the site! We want them to immediately see the part of our site that is most relevant to what they were searching for.

Local Search Growth Outpaces Overall Online Search

2009-04-08T16:15:00.003-05:00

"The study found that local search -- the practice of using online search tools to find local businesses, products, or services -- grew 58 percent in 2008, reaching an annual total of 15.7 billion searches."

Interesting statistic from an article pumping the value of internet yellow pages. What they are promoting in the press release is the idea that it is important to be listed in online yellow pages. I am not going to say that this is not a good idea, but it is one that you will have to pay for. I am interested in how you can improve your web site to perform better in these local searches without having to pay extra for the traffic increase!

The first interesting aspect of this report is simply the growth in use of the internet for searching for things in the neighborhood (that is, "locally"). Since the Internet covers the entire world, we often lose sight of the fact that it is useful in finding things that are near to us. The user community is waking up to this fact, as shown by the growth in those kinds of searches.

The question is, "How do I make my site more productive for local searches?" That really brings up another question, "What distinguishes a local search from any other search?" No doubt people will search for something they are interested in and scan the results for something that might be considered "local", but is that really a "local" search? I would say not.

To me, a local search is one that contains a local reference such as the name of a community or a zip code. I know in my own use of the web, that is how I focus my searching if I specifically want local results.

In our bi-monthly clinics, we teach the use of specific community names and zip codes on the site as a means of ensuring that the site will perform well for people searching in that fashion. There are specific techniques that we use to get the impact without cluttering up the site with redundant place names.

But there is another technique worthy of mention in this arena, and that is the use of Google and Yahoo Local features. Both search engines allow the free placement of business information on the web in a way that often comes up when users are searching for neighborhood specific resources. With a little effort, you might also find other local oriented directories that you can post your business information in without charge. These are very good ways to draw in that local traffic without breaking your budget. All it takes is a little effort on your part and you can boost your traffic substantially!

And then, you can always pay for another listing in the Yellow Pages!

Summary Report on Marketing Practices

2009-03-25T13:03:00.007-05:00

eMarketer has just made their Benchmark Guidelines available for download, and it contains some interesting information. They offer a free newsletter that I read on a regular basis.

The report is extensive and includes some complex charts, so I can only give you a few of the points that I found most interesting to think about. I recommend the report to anyone who is interested in getting a better understanding of what marketing professionals are thinking about the effectiveness of different marketing tools. I believe it is a free download. It may have been free to me because I am a subscriber, but that is a free subscription, if you are interested in the report.

A lot of the article is devoted to web analytics; what tools are available, what people use and why, and how they compare to one another.

Further down in the report, they begin to talk about what techniques marketers use to reach their audience and which tool they consider to be most effective. It is this part of the article that I found most interesting.

My general observation from all the information they provide is that SEO is one of the best deals available for marketing your business. The comparisons made in the charts include noon-Internet techniques such as

Chart 4.09 shows that SEO and email are considered to have the best ROI by Marketing professionals. That definitely makes sense, since the investment is so low!

4.10 shows that marketers find both SEO and PPC more effective in 2008 than in 2007. This probably reflects increasing familiarity with the tools and a better sense of how to use them. It is also interesting to note that SEO was considered a stronger marketing tool in both years than PPC!

4.11 and 4.12 focus on marketers spending over $25,000 per month on search and on those spending under $10,000 per month. For those with the big budgets, the ranking of strongest tactic ran from PPC to SEO to Email marketing. For smaller operations spending below $10,000 per month, the ranking was Email, SEO and PPC.

Marketers Moving to Social Media

2009-03-24T10:16:00.002-05:00

"Companies are learning how to leverage social media and tap into the rising tide of consumers participating in social network sites, blogs, wikis and Twitter."

This article documents the continuing trend toward businesses utilizing social media for reaching their prospects. As with any new movement, there are still issues about how best to use the medium in any individual business, and how to evaluate the results. The trend is driven by the continuing increase in the sue of these media sites by the public. As always, effective marketing means that you have to go where your customers are!

The article illustrates the research findings with several charts showing the rate of growth projected through 2013, and the kinds of issues that businesses are finding with using social media effectively. To see the article, click on the title, above.

The Internet Is Getting Gray

2009-03-18T08:40:00.003-05:00

"... the largest jump in adoption of Internet usage was by users ages 70 and older."

Older users are getting more comfortable with and active on the Internet. What this amounts to is an expansion of the marketplace for businesses trying to reach that older segment of the population. The web is becoming a more and more useful tool for reaching older audiences.

In the first table in this article, usage by age sector is displayed. Most sectors increased their participation rate from 2005 to 2008. Only the age group 65-69 showed a decrease in participation, and that was by 1%. This is probably some kind of anomaly resulting from demographic factors, but a very minor change in any event.

The next table breaks down Internet usage by age groups. The surprising fact to me in this table was that the age groups that spend the most time on the web are 35-49, 55+, and 65+, in that order. What surprised me was that the younger segments of the audience did not dominate the usage. Now this is due largely to the numbers of users in each age segment, but the overall image of the user base seemed different to me from what I might have assumed. To me, that points up the value of looking at these kinds of numbers. My perception of the audience on the web changed somewhat.

The last table broke down Internet usage by activities for two age groups, 64-72 and 73+. In both groups, email and search were the top activities. The interesting observation I took away from this table was that the younger age group spent much more time looking at government sites, banking, and viewing religious sites than the older group. What this means to me as a marketer requires a little more thinking than I have had time to devote to it now, but it seems to point to the kinds of issues that the different age groups are dealing with. The younger group, it would seem, is facing issues of adjusting to questions of retirement and changing lifestyle, while the older group had more likely resolved lots of those issues. For a business offering solutions to changes in lifestyle, this could be important information.

As always, the important issue is for marketers to understand their target audience so they can find the best way to reach that audience effectively.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Social Nets and Blogs More Popular Than E-Mail

2009-03-18T08:00:00.003-05:00

"... time spent on social networks and blogging sites is growing at over three times the rate of overall Internet growth."

A new segment of the Internet is experiencing substantial growth with implications for all Internet marketing. This announcement shows the change in participation for various segments of the web. The segment showing the most growth from December 2007 to December 2008 is "Member Communities", otherwise known as "social media". This information is important to marketers because it indicates the movement of the audience to a new area of the web.

At the same time, the article has more statistics that document the fact that e-mail is still the most effective medium in terms of customer acquisition. It seems that the rates of people on social media clicking on ads and following through with purchases is quite low.

All this information focuses on ads and selling. The article does not mention search engine optimization or its place in this environment. What all this information suggest to me is that search engine optimization and social media are both important in reaching an audience, educating the audience, and establishing an image for a business, with the actual sale or production of revenue assumed as a natural outgrowth of that kind of positioning.

Search is listed as the top sector in terms of "reach", moving from 84% in 2007 to 85.9% in 2008. The statistic refers to the "popularity of activity" of five sectors. The significant change that is being reported here is that in 2008, "Member Communities" moved up above "E-mail" in the rankings for the first time.

As different sectors become more or less important, the savvy marketer will make adjustments in his or her program to stay ahead of those competitors who are not as responsive to the changes.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

US Local Ad Market Shrinking

2009-03-17T09:32:00.003-05:00

"The good news is that the local online ad market is growing, and will continue to make up a larger percentage of the local advertising sector."

More data from eMarketer shows how the local Internet market will be changing. While they predict that local advertising overall will drop (dramatically in 2009!), they also believe that the Internet share will increase over the projected time period (through 2013). While the bulk of what makes up their prediction is advertising, the impact on search optimization focused on local activity will certainly also follow this pattern.

We have emphasized in our clinics various techniques for reaching searchers interested in local services and products. Employing these techniques effectively will become more and more important for businesses with a local orientation. "Local", of course, means wherever you sell or deliver your services or products. It has more to do with the market you are trying to reach than it does to where you are physically located. Keep that in mind as you devise your strategy!

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Has the Internet Made You More Productive?

2009-03-17T08:47:00.003-05:00

"From 2000 to 2007, a increasing number of users believed in Internet productivity. Respondents who said the Internet had improved their productivity “a lot” or “somewhat” were at 57% in 2000, but jumped to 71% in 2007."

More information from eMarketer reinforces the change that the Internet makes in people's lives. This article has a chart detailing how much people credit the Internet with improving their performance, and also presents statistics on average web usage at work.

eMarketer publishes a regular newsletter with many good articles that address various aspects of marketing that can be helpful to small businesses.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

eMarketer Revises E-Commerce Forecast

2009-03-11T08:08:00.002-05:00

"... as the economy improves, online sales will return to the double-digit growth rates seen prior to 2008."

Despite problems in the economy, the future continues to look bright for commerce on the web. No one has escaped the downturn, but forecasts show that the Internet will recover as consumers shift to the web for savings and convenience.

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Searching for New Customers in the Recession? - eMarketer

2009-02-25T17:26:00.004-06:00

"As marketers better understand the purpose of Website optimization in their overall campaigns, compared with the other three types of search marketing, SEO spending will grow at a higher yearly rate.

“Customers are going to search engines because they are looking for better deals,” says Mr. Hallerman. “And marketers are going to search engines because that’s where the customers are.”"

A research report indicates a new and growing interest in SEO activity on the web.

The article has an interesting chart showing how much money is spent on different types of web marketing. In 2008, expenditures on paid search marketing are about 7 times what is spent on SEO. By 2013, the author expects that ratio to drop to just over 5 to one.

Looking at it in a different light, expenditures on paid marketing will be about 1.8 times the 2008 amounts, while expenditures on SEO will be 2.5 times the 2008 amounts.

His explanation for the faster growth in SEO? As he says in the quote above, better value and "...that’s where the customers are."

What this means to us is that the environment we are working in on the web will be come more and more competitive, making it all the more important that we stay on top of what works in the field!

Click on the title at the top to see the article.

Is SEO no longer important?

2009-01-16T12:07:00.003-06:00

Here is an article with a catchy title that goes on to make the point that, "... search engine optimization is not the be-all end-all of Internet success that it was a few years ago."

The author's point is that there are a lot of techniques available on the Internet now that one can use to market that are not technically "SEO". His discussion focused on the question of readable url's and how and why they are important. He did talk about the fact that these url's are not read as thoroughly by the search engines as the dynamic url's (for example, www.jamseed.com/ musicianProfile.php?id=126). This is a point that we have covered often in our Internet Marketing Clinic sessions, but he went on to describe how more readable url's attract more quotes in the social media. This is a valuable point that we have not really taken up much in the clinic. Social media is a rapidly developing and fairly recent phenomenon with a lot of opportunities for productive marketing efforts. We have only begun to touch on methods of exploiting this new arena effectively.

Just to make the point clear, SEO is still very important to your success! The techniques that you employ to make your site search engine friendly create the foundation that all your other marketing techniques can rest upon.

The world of Internet marketing is constantly changing presenting new challenges and opportunities. Our clinic is one of the best ways available for keeping in touch with that changing environment to help you stay on top of your field!

One Social Network I Couldn't Work Without

2008-06-22T22:29:00.001-05:00

"... if I had to pick just one, LinkedIn would win, hands down."

We recently had a presentation in our Internet marketing clinic on social media and how small businesses can use it to their advantage. In this presentation, there seemed to be a bias toward Facebook. For a different point of view, check out this link.

Jennifer, who has been around a while and has lots of good advice, gives a good example of how to use LinkedIn as a business tool. She provides the kind of concrete detail that makes it easy to see how to relate her experience to your own situation. No two people have exactly the same situation or circumstances to deal with. We all have to adjust these stories to our own needs, and this is the kind of report that makes it easy to do so.

The bigger point, of course, is that the Internet is a huge resource, and the trick is to figure out how to exploit it most effectively for your own business requirements.

Paying for Creativity in a Digital World

2008-06-14T08:12:00.003-05:00

"Esther Dyson, made a striking prediction: that the ease with which digital content can be copied and disseminated would eventually force businesses to sell the results of creative activity cheaply, or even give it away. Whatever the product — software, books, music, movies — the cost of creation would have to be recouped indirectly: businesses would have to “distribute intellectual property free in order to sell services and relationships.”"

This is a concept that is central to promoting your business over the Internet, and one that businesses new to the web frequently have to struggle to understand. As we emphasize constantly in our free Internet Marketing classes, content is the key to success on the web, and the content must be meaningful and valuable to the targets of the outreach effort that the web site is.

Businesses that are accustomed to selling their knowledge have to realize that their model of promotion over the web involves giving knowledge away in order to attract prospects. This often requires an adjustment in understanding the business model. Different businesses have different problems with adjusting to this proposition. In the article cited, sales of ancillary products are used to make up the difference in income production. Krugman describes how the Grateful Dead gave away their music, but made up for that through sale of "hats, T-shirts and performance tickets." That model will not work for many professional businesses that are now marketing over the Internet.

Attorneys, CPA's, counselors of all kinds who have specialized knowledge have to learn how to present their services with a different value proposition. One idea is that what they are really selling is not their knowledge of a particular environment, but the expert application of that knowledge to a specific situation that the prospect is facing! Anyone should be able to understand the difference between getting general advice over a website and the value of having a knowledgeable professional examine your particular case and help you determine how to deal with whatever problem you are attempting to solve. It is this sort of distinction that professionals have to get comfortable with in order to be successful in marketing over the Internet.

Using SEO as an example, we give away a great deal of knowledge about optimizing a site for substantial performance, but there is no substitute for having a professional SEO marketer work with the particular requirements of your business, your marketplace, and your site to achieve a dominance on the web that rewards your business with a high level of targeted traffic. Every business faces slightly different challenges, and knowing the tools that are available and identifying the best way to utilize them in each particular situation is where the value of the professional practitioner comes into play!

Local Search Improves Your Business!

2008-05-30T09:34:00.002-05:00

"You only have to compete with similar businesses in your AREA."

Many businesses are strictly local in their reach and competing on the worldwide web does not contribute much to the bottom line. However, the web is a great source of locally oriented inquiries as well. The important thing is knowing how to reach those locally oriented searchers effectively.

This article from Derek Gehl's newsletter discusses how people search for local services by adding city, state, community or neighborhood-specific terms to more general searches in order to find the businesses or services that are relevant to their needs.

Derek provides a very useful listing of sites where you can submit your site to acquire links that are oriented to your locale. I have incorporated his listing in my spreadsheet of useful links for your convenience.

In addition, Jay recently (April 9, 2008) presented a new technique in our clinic for enhancing your site for local searches. This technique relies upon how Google responds to particular combinations of text and links within your site. Join us twice a month in our free Internet Marketing Class at UH SBDC for regular updates on the best way to make your site into an efficient prospect-gathering tool for your business!

The Open Secret of Success: Toyota and the Web

2008-05-12T12:19:00.003-05:00

"The principle is often known by its Japanese name, kaizen—continuous improvement."

The New Yorker had an article talking about the fact that Toyota has just overtaken General Motors as the world's leading seller of automobiles, 160,000 more cars in the first 3 months of 2008 than GM! The article goes on to discuss how Toyota has achieved this landmark not through "cool new products and technological breakthroughs" but through innovations in process.

What the writer attributes Toyota's success to is the fact that they excel at continually making incremental improvements to their operations. In reading this, it struck me that this is the same approach that we always recommend for making a web site into a powerful and dynamic marketing tool. The techniques that we teach in our Internet Marketing class get their power and effectiveness from persistence in application of the principles to the creation and maintenance of the site.

Near the end of the article, I found these statements:

"Toyota’s innovative methods may seem mundane, but their sheer relentlessness defeats many companies. That’s why Toyota can afford to hide in plain sight: it knows the system is easy to understand but hard to follow."

This illustrates another point from our workshops, which is, the same techniques that we employ to create powerful sites are available to larger companies with much larger budgets, but for a variety of reasons, they do not use them! This is what makes it possible for s small site with a small budget to compete effectively with bigger operations.