Internet Marketing Post

Internet Marketing Basics: Online PR

An often overlooked search engine optimization technique that is low cost, quite "guerilla", you might say, is running online PR. You can use this technique to build presence online, for the sake of that, or If your company has endured a season of negative press or you have old news to replace with new and more exciting news.  Here are some tips to get your organic rankings teeming with new and exciting news on your company - boosting your reputation and your bottom line. 

1) Look around you for newsworthy happenings in your firm and assign the stories to be written into a basic Press Release format. This is not difficult nor time consuming but having a database of these type of stories on hand is invaluable to your search engine optimization strategy and your online reputation. 

2) Have a public relations consultant or online pr agency review and tighten the stories and run them on the traditional and online media channels like PR Newswire, Business Wire and PR.com.

3) Do not use a traditional public relations firm who thinks they understand online PR do your online PR. You would be better off managing the work in house then to do this. 

Why does this work to increase positive reputation of your company? 

Because part of search engine optimization or "gaining organic rankings" on the major search engines is a numbers game. For example, Google will spider and run the latest and greatest rankings on your company, but if only the old stuff remains, that is what is shown as company name search result. So start writing all the good and interesting news. Have fun and let me know how it goes. Here to help if you need some more details. 

Social Media Checklist

So for you "list" people out there, here is a nice new year's resolution project for you. Well sort of. I would not mindlessly slam through these but they do provide a big picture for what is out there for you to jump into as far as the social media scene. Here they are (with samples of what some companies have done on these sites):

Here’s a framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

Big High 5  (or High 22?) to Peter for compiling this crazy long list.

To save you reading all the comments on his post, most reply with "great list but technology comes after strategy and objectives" which I agree with. These are tools to use to get the well honed tried and true message our there - or to test new messaging, but you can't just blast out a bunch of presence in social media without a strategy. Although Peter's point is well taken when he states "Forget divining a big, meaningful business objective before getting started - you’ll end up in analysis paralysis."

Have a plan, but at some point dive in and start learning by doing this new media type. It's for the sharer of information and people who want to spread a brand that is worth talking about. Good luck!

 

Holiday Email Marketing - Plan Now for Success

Holiday email marketing is a great solution to decreased return on marketing dollars due to the slumping economy. This holiday is a perfect time to give email marketing a test drive. You can add email now to your holiday promotional planning and reap the benefits  way into the new year with new email subscriptions, increased revenue and a completed test of an additional revenue stream. Increase your return on traditional efforts by 10% and 20% by adding email to the mix and landing pages to close the business online. This new means of generating sales takes strategy and planning but can be launched in a relatively short amount of time. Here are some of the steps to get your started:

• Start by working with an experienced email marketing agency. Brainstorm how your direct mail, direct TV and other direct response efforts can be repurposed for email. 
• Assess the size of your current customer list and what lists you might want to purchase especially for the holiday. Can you assume at least a 1% sale rate on that list? Don't you want that revenue in December?
• Create new designs and promos or leverage existing of the same of your hottest products and services. 
• Decide what "success" is for this first holiday test and review the reports carefully to see if you have met your goals.  

Looking for great email marketing samples? Sign up at shopping and creative sites like Pier One, Etsy, Macy's and Disney. Your email box will fill with the work of great design and copy writers with ideas that will get your own list of ideas flowing. 

Anyone have a unique spin on holiday email marketing to share? The best creative processes are collaborative you know. 

The 3 C's of Thriving Inbound Marketing: Constant Content Creation

If you are on the fast moving train, like most are, to "run into" instead of hunting down, your customers on line, via search engines, viral email, blogs and video blogging, one key is to create a constant stream of meaningful and sales converting content. About your business, your successes, your customers. And of course your great products and why they bring value to your customers. Why? Because blogs, email, and effective web sites that convert traffic require a lot of relevant content. Relevant to the consumer in general, relevant to their point of the buying cycle and relevant to your  industry partners.

Having prospects find you contextually, amidst the sites they are shopping on, the blogs they read, a directory product review or email their buddy sent them, is your goal. The cost and lack of measure-ability of outbound marketing where a strategic but hopeful net is cast into your target market is rising, leading way to the more measurable and frankly often less expensive methods of on line marketing.

Designers who design for conversion and information architects that arrange wording and support knock out copy with keyword strategy in mind are the new marketing group members - agencies that understand the return on every marketing dollar they tell you to spend and stand behind their promise to stop doing things that don't work, even when they love the design and spent lots of time and effort developing it, are the new agency of record.

The challenge is learning where you are in the transition to inbound marketing and getting to the next level at a rational but lucrative speed. Creating the content necessary to feed the inbound machine takes strategy, staffing, a schedule and passion to share about multiple topics relevant to your company in a way and in the place where your best prospects can be reached.

The good news is your company file drawers and on line file systems are full to the brim with traditional marketing content, old TV reels, brochures, holiday content, retired direct mail. Those are the places to start. Resurrect and re purpose content that worked. Even content that didn't - it can be tested on line and retired if is still doesn't work.

You will also need to engage at least one great on line writer, who understands on line content and how it differs from traditional content - to indoctrinate your staff with how to identify content re purposing opportunities, and to coach your copy writers towards the web. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is slamming a bunch of traditional content on their web site and expecting a good response.

Web sites, emails and blogs that convert require content that converts - that has a strategy, organization and changeability. Creating the content is not impossible or terribly difficult, but it does take know how and consistency in approach.

Have an idea to share about repurposing content, or how to most efficiently create a stream of crucial content? Why do some firms quickly make this transition and many don't?