A blog about productivity for the Internet entrepreneur.» Marketing http://www.thinkingserious.com My goal is to help you focus on your passions by reducing or eliminating the time needed to maintain your life. Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:58:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Do It Yourself Reputation Management with Google Reader http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/04/08/do-it-yourself-reputation-management-with-google-reader/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/04/08/do-it-yourself-reputation-management-with-google-reader/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:00:08 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=612 When your customers are searching for a solution online or begin to research your company, they usually turn to a search engine. Therefore, what shows up on that front page is very important. Using the following tools and procedures, you can stay on top of what the Internet is saying about your company or yourself.

Initial Setup

  1. Determine which keywords you want to monitor. A good start would be your company name, the names of competitors and industry keywords.
  2. Setup a Google Alert for the terms determined in step 1 with these settings:
    • Comprehensive
    • as-it-happens
    • up to 50 results
  3. Create a filter in your email program for the email googlealerts-noreply@google.com to push the alerts to a designated folder.
  4. Setup Google Feed Reader or your RSS reader of choice
  5. Use UserNameCheck.com and KnowEm.com to make sure you have control of your brand name across various networks.

The next step is to determine a review procedure.

Daily or at least Bi-Weekly

  • Check email for Google alerts (the folder you created in step 3)
  • Check your Feed Reader

Weekly

Note: Remove the []‘s below and replace with your specific information.

  • Review Overall Internet Buzz: http://whostalkin.com/search?q=[your terms]
  • Review Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?q=[your terms]
  • Review Incoming Links: Type or paste “link:[yourdomain.com] -site:[yourdomain.com]” into a Google search bar (without the quotes)

How are you managing your online reputation?

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/04/08/do-it-yourself-reputation-management-with-google-reader/feed/ 1 10 Simple Tips for Local Listing Success http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/02/25/10-simple-tips-for-local-listing-success/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/02/25/10-simple-tips-for-local-listing-success/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:15:56 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=581 The following is guest post by Emily Thompson:

Local search is becoming one of the most affordable and simple ways for local businesses to connect with prospects and get involved in their community. Did you know that 82 percent of local searches online result in further action: a phone call, site view, in store visit or immediate purchase?* With statistics like this, creating and optimizing your local presence is more important than ever.

The reality is, there are many facets to optimizing for local- including on-page factors such as title tags and meta data, and utilizing your geographic modifiers with your keywords as you optimize your content. While each component is important, one of the most critical pieces is off page: your local listing. For Google, these listings are often given prime placement- right at the top of the page. This placement is key, providing local businesses with visibility that was previously unattainable.

Here are 10 easy steps to help your listing get in to that coveted “7-Pack”.

  1. Submit your listing. This step alone is the most important. Just submitting and verifying gives your listing a higher level of trust with the big G.
  2. Include your city name and industry in your title. This is helpful not only for the search engines when aggregating results, but also for users as it reiterates your location and helps your listing to stand out.
  3. Choose the categories for your listing wisely. Google local business center gives a plethora of choices for the categories for your listing. Make sure to thoroughly look through and pick those that best suit your products and services.
  4. Be thorough in your description section. This is the most content you can provide about your business in your listing, so make it count! Be descriptive and give people a reason to choose you over your competitors.
  5. Use a local phone number. Providing a local number helps the search engines ascertain that you are located where you say you are.
  6. Ensure your listing is 100% complete. This is one of the simplest, and most effective steps to do. Include pictures, videos, coupons, etc. Google is all about the user experience and the more complete your listing, the more helpful it looks to them.
  7. Be sure there is only one, optimized listing for your business. I have seen this make a huge difference in the position of a business listing. Make sure to research and find any existing listings, claim them and suspend or optimize where necessary.
  8. Update your listing whenever you can. It can be as simple as adding a new coupon, but ensuring your content is current helps Google know that you are relevant and provide up-to-date information.
  9. Reviews for your business are essential. In certain industries, the amount of reviews you have (positive or negative!) can mean the difference between first and second page for your listing. Try encouraging reviews from satisfied customers.
  10. Make sure your information is accurate and submitted to other directories as well. Google actually aggregates information from other directories, along with the information you provide when you submit. It’s recommended to submit, standard information to as many other local directories as you can to ensure accuracy.

It’s really that simple to get started with your local listing. While there are no guarantees, optimizing can have an extremely positive impact on your listing position. Have any tips from your experience with local listings? We’d love to hear them!

*Source: TMP/comScore, October 2008

Emily Thompson is the Online Marketing Coordinator for Kutenda Internet Marketing Software. Kutenda offers software and services for small businesses to succeed in online marketing and grow their business.

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2010/02/25/10-simple-tips-for-local-listing-success/feed/ 2 Internet Marketing: How-to http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/06/25/internet-marketing-how-to/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/06/25/internet-marketing-how-to/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:24:16 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=498 This post is both a strategy and practical guide based mainly on my experience and those I’ve worked with for the purpose of allowing anyone to understand how to execute a complete Internet Marketing campaign for any type of business or organization.

The structure of this guide is strategic, in that I look at each component of an Internet Marketing campaign from a high level. But included in each component are resources that will give you the necessary information and tools to execute, whether you want to do it yourself or hire help.

Please feel free to add to this guide in the comments section or at the public Social Media Marketing Wiki. In both cases, I will provide a do-follow link to your website in thanks.

Table of Contents


Getting Started

One of the best ways to avoid project failure is to spend the time up front to clearly define the goals and expected results. These goals should be defined with the following in mind:

  • What specific results are expected and by when?
  • Who is the target demographic and where do they hang out online?
  • What keywords would be used by your target demographic to find what your are offering?
  • Which competitors are going after your same results? How are they doing?
  • What metrics are related to the desired results? How will you track those metrics?
  • How and when will the metrics be reported on?

Be sure to schedule time to review the reports to adjust your strategy and tactics as necessary.

Once you have defined the above, create a first report that measures all of the metrics you will track.

Measurement Tools, Products and Services:

You should always consult your goals and results when executing any of the following suggestions.

Now it’s time to determine your strategy. I suggest that you spend time reviewing case studies that achieved the results you are looking for.

Spend time at Sphinn.com for the latest in strategy and tactics.


Web Site


Your web site is often the first impression of your company and you must make that impression count. I suggest that if it’s possible, you should design your website from the ground up for the purpose of achieving the goals and results you expect from your Internet Marketing efforts. Here are some questions and ideas to consider:

  • Does your home page compel your visitor to want to complete some action that leads to the completion of a desired result?
  • Do you have an easy way for your visitors to tell their friends about your website?
  • Has your website been optimized for your target keywords?
  • Do you have product or service specific landing paged designed for conversion? (see the landing page section under PPC below)
  • Do you have a means to collect data from leads on your website?
  • Is it easy for your users to get customer support from your website?

When choosing the design firm, you may want to hire two different firms. One person or firm to create the look and feel of the website (or you can run a contest) and the other to create the website. The latter should have verified experience with Internet Marketing and SEO.

Once the website is up and running, you will need to regularly adjust the design and SEO based on the analysis of the metrics defined earlier.


Opt-In (Permission) Email Marketing

Seth Godin popularized the concept of Permission Marketing. The main idea is that you can make a more efficient use of your resources by making offers only to those who are interested in your product. The primary way of doing that is to create a database of opt-in emails. Following are some great ideas on how to build your own e-mail database of opt-in subscribers:

Also, remember that customer service inquiries are a powerful way to not only strengthen relationships, but it’s an excellent opportunity to obtain referrals, whom should be directed to a special landing page where you should attempt to get them to opt-in to your email database.

Be sure to make sure that all of your e-mail correspondence conforms to the CAN-SPAM act.

Now that you have that valuable list of e-mails, you want to make sure that you take advantage while not causing too many people to opt-out.

Here are some ideas on how to maintain contact with your opt-in customers:

Here is a 7 step process to help you create your next campaign:

  1. Determine what you want the result of the campaign to be
  2. Put measurements in place to track results
  3. Determine the attributes of those who would be interested in the campaign
  4. Trim your mailing list to those most likely to be interested
  5. Craft copy that marries your objective with your customers needs
  6. Make sure you make it very easy to take action
  7. Analyze the results and apply to your next campaign


Search Engine Marketing (SEM)


Go to Google.com and type in some keywords that you think your customers would type in order to find your business. Whoa … that’s a long list of competitors! So how do you show up on that coveted Google front page? The general consensus is that one of the most important influencers is the number of quality links that link to your web site via the key words you desire. So how do you get people to link to your site?

  • Search for web sites that have a Page Rank of above 4 that are related to your niche
  • Submit your web site to directories
  • Create value packed articles or blogs (posted on your own web site or on another site via guest blogging) and submit them to Social Media Bookmarking sites
  • Create press releases and use online distribution services

Check out these resources to help you get started:

The tips in the SMM section below will also be helpful for building quality links. Social Bookmarking sites are a great way to find popular blogs where you can ask to guest blog.


Social Media Marketing (SMM)


SMM has become the most popular Internet Marketing buzzword since “Multi-Media”. One way to get a crash course on the subject is to study successful social media marketing campaigns.

The main areas that you will want to work on are: Micro Blogging, Blogging, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Video Marketing (Webcasts) and Audio Marketing (Podcasts). Following are resources for each facet.

A Blog is a broad tool that can have a fantastic short and long term ROI. There are two aspects to using blogs for marketing. First, there is your company blog which is usually hosted at www.yourcompany.com/blog. Then, there is getting other bloggers to write about your company or guest blogging on blogs relevant to your target audience. It’s not always necessary that you guest blog on a blog specifically targeted to your market, as long as the Google Page Rank is good (greater than 3) and the content in the post relates to your product or service in some way.

Here are resources related to internal blog marketing (blogs posted on your company blog):

Here are resources related to finding blogs to query for a guest blog post or to write about your company (use compete.com, Alexa.com and Google Page Rank to get a rough idea of the popularity of the blog):

While you build confidence, I suggest you spend time commenting on the blogs of others. Most blogs allow you to leave behind a link to your web site. But be aware that most of these links within comments are tagged with “no-follow” so that you don’t get the SEO benefits of the link, although interested people may click through. You can use the “view source” feature of your browser to find out if the comments are “no-follow” tagged.

The following sections have more ideas on how to get people to read and pass your blog post along to others.

Micro Blogging has become popular because of Twitter. If you have not jumped on that band wagon, now is the time.

Social Networking was popularized by MySpace, but now is dominated by FaceBook. For business purposes, you want to be active on FaceBook and LinkedIn at a minimum, then you can either join other niche social networking sites or create your own.

Use these resources to jump start your FaceBook and LinkedIn campaigns:

Here are some resources to help you find niche Social Networks to participate in and engage your potential target market directly. Always remember the golden rule of social media “Give, Provide Value and Give some more”:

If you want to build your own niche Social Networking site, here are some of the more popular platforms:

Social Bookmarking (or Social News) sites are a great way to spread the word about your company through your blog or articles. I recommend you spend at least one month interacting with the community that you want to contribute to, before submitting content.

Here are some strategic and practical resources that will help you get started:

These are the websites and tools that will be useful for executing your strategy:

Forums & Chat Rooms may not be considered New Media, but they share most of the major attributes of Social Networks and are still effective marketing tools. Especially since these venues typically revolve around some sort of niche that may be applicable to your company.

Video Marketing (or Webcasting) is becoming an increasingly vital marketing tool. You need to know how to create the video and then how to distribute it. For distribution you can use the same tools as for the blog (you can embed the video inside a blog post) but you have some additional tools at your disposal.

Here are some resources that will help you produce your own videos:

These tools will help you distribute your videos and leverage your videos for SEO purposes:

Podcasting is similar to video casting, but without the video part >:p


Pay Per Click (PPC)


While you wait to dominate the search engine rankings, you can buy your way to the top. The big players are Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. It may also be worthwhile to target niche ad networks if you are willing to spend some time in research mode. You can also gain valuable data regarding which keywords lead to conversion using tools like Google Analytics.

Here are some resources to help you get started on your own:

Now that you have traffic coming to your website, you must be sure to take full advantage. Here are some resources to help you with compelling landing pages:


Targeted Display Advertising


Banner Ads are one of the earliest forms of Internet Marketing (don’t you remember all those flashing AOL ads?). There are three main components to display advertising; (1) creating the advertisement, (2) placing the ad and (3) measuring and analyzing results. The landing page tips from the PPC section apply here also.

For creating the banner advertisement graphics, you can either hire a graphics designer, use a template, or use a design contest site. I recommend a design contest since you will generally get a wider array of design choices.

Here are some resources to help you get started with a successful banner ad campaign (you may want to get your feet wet by using Google Adwords):

Research web sites where you think your target demographic hangs out, then ask that web site’s owner directly about advertising.


Affiliate Programs


You can either join an existing affiliate network like cj.com or you can create your own affiliate program. I suggest that you do both. Basically, you are providing a monetary incentive for people to virally spread your products and services.

Here are some resources to utilize existing affiliate networks:

These resources will help you build out your own custom affiliate network:


Online Classifieds

Online classifieds like Craigslist to local online classifieds sections can be a valuable tool to spread the word about your product and/or service. The first thing to do is to understand the terms of use of whatever services you decide to use to avoid making avoidable mistakes that incur the wrath of the community.

Here are some classifieds sites you may want to consider:

  • Craigslist.org – Local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, personals, services, local community, and events.
  • Kijiji.com – eBay’s entry into the online classifieds market.
  • USFreeAds.com – free classifieds.
  • BackPages.com – free classifieds with photos.
  • Recycler.com – the online version of the popular print magazine.
  • PennySaverUsa.com – another online version of a popular classifieds publication.

Here are some services and tools to help with execution:

  • vFlyer.com – a cookie cutter service for doing a classifieds marketing promotion.
  • Postlets.com – a free service that automatically distributes your ad among several classifieds and social media sites.

Don’t forget to check the local newspaper websites of your target demographic for localized advertising opportunities.


Conclusion


What did I miss or FUBAR? Please add your tips, tricks and advice in the comments or at the public Social Media Marketing Wiki and you will gain fame, fortune and good will (well maybe .. at least you’ll get a do-follow link to your site).

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/06/25/internet-marketing-how-to/feed/ 8 Are Social Media Networks Right for Your Business? http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/05/14/are-social-media-networks-right-for-your-business/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/05/14/are-social-media-networks-right-for-your-business/#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 18:16:16 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=463 This was the question explored by David Coleman during a fantastic Webinar yesterday. Enjoy the slides and join in on the conversation.

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/05/14/are-social-media-networks-right-for-your-business/feed/ 0 FW: FW: FW: FW: FW: Viral? http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/03/16/fw-fw-fw-fw-fw-viral/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/03/16/fw-fw-fw-fw-fw-viral/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:25:50 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=374 I usually ignore all of the FW: emails I receive, until recently, when a mentor whom I respect greatly, asked me to view his and give him some feedback so that he can discover what my sense of humor was like.

I began to notice that much of this content is the same stuff I’m seeing on Digg.com, with the latter appearing in blog format. This got me to thinking (serious) if seeding your blog post within a community of “FWerders”  (for lack of a better term) would cause a viral effect. Particularly if seed the content as often as you receive FW: emails.

What do you think?

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/03/16/fw-fw-fw-fw-fw-viral/feed/ 0 70 Interviews to Help You Build an Outstanding Internet Company http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/01/11/70-interviews-to-help-you-build-an-outstanding-internet-company/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/01/11/70-interviews-to-help-you-build-an-outstanding-internet-company/#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:41:56 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=318 Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com has put together some incredible interviews with some amazing people with purpose of helping entreprenuers create better Internet companies. Amazingly, all of the interviews are free!

There was one issue I encountered that minimized my joy a tiny fraction at finding this treasure trove; 1) not enough time to listen to them all right now! and 2) no one place to go for an easy short list of all of the interviews (this is undoubtedly because Andrew is busy creating awesome interviews!)

In this post, I have created a list of all the interviews in a easy to browse format that takes you directly to the interview page for your convenience. On that interview page, Andrew has an introductory video, written summary of the interview, streaming audio and download link. Enjoy! I sure am.

The interviews are listed starting from the most recent:

  1. Chris Winfield – How to grow your business with social media and not have it take over your day
  2. James Siminoff – How to get the world excited about your business
  3. Jason Fried – Bootstrapping lessons from 37 signals
  4. Mateo Gutierrez – How to build your online community
  5. Derek Sivers – How a musician built a $22 million dollar business from his home
  6. Brent Csutoras – How to get traffic from social media
  7. Kurt Daradics – how to organize an event for investors, ceos and influencials
  8. Kareem Mayan – How to work while traveling like a business nomad
  9. Tony Adam – Yahoo’s SEO manager teaches you how to get more search engine traffic
  10. Douglas Atkin – What cults can teach you about building community
  11. Adeo Ressi – “Almost everyone i counciled got funding”
  12. Guy Kawasaki – How alltop is growing by following its founder’s advice
  13. Keith and the Girl – 7 secrets for building a community so passionate that they get your tattoo
  14. Jason Kiesel – Myspace app developer teaches how to build a social network application
  15. Sloane Berrent – simple tips for networking into your dream job 
  16. John King – Do you want to be donald trump or steve jobs?
  17. 2 Top Hacker News Members – Why do people join online communities?
  18. Ryan Scott – What he did after he sold his company
  19. Michael Dorausch – How is this guy getting so many hits to his site?
  20. Bob Dunlap – An ebook on birds made $500,000?!
  21. Jason McVearry – Social marketing techniques
  22. Timothy Ferriss – How blogs helped the four hour work week become a best seller
  23. Mark Jeffrey – Real entrepreneurs get back up
  24. Laurence Gonzales – Do you text while driving?
  25. Aj Vaynerchu – Community before cash
  26. Ted Murphy – Tips for successful online marketing
  27. Olivier Chaine – How to increase conversions
  28. Peter Pham – 5 steps to becoming a networking superstar
  29. Justin Premick – How to grow an email mailing list
  30. John “Ol’ Chumbucket” Baur and Mark “Cap’n Slappy” Summers - how “talk like a pirate day” became a sensation
  31. Susan Smith – How domainers profit
  32. Dan Olsen – Why your site isn’t viral
  33. Davy RothBart – “Mario, i f-cking hate you.” how to build community
  34. Chris Bechtel – 5 ways to create good content
  35. Kelly Perdew – 6 business lessons i learned from donald trump’s apprentice winner
  36. Karel Baloun – Why did facebook succeed? an early hire speaks
  37. Devlyn Steele – How to build an online community
  38. Hiten Shah – 7 essential tools of viral marketing
  39. Clinton Swaine – 7 negotiating and sales secrets
  40. Max Alexander – How to organize a master mind group
  41. Revere Strategy Group – Learning from obama, mccain and other politicians
  42. Sean Percival – Get traffic to your site
  43. Frank Warren – How postsecret uses social media to grow its mission
  44. Tony Hsieh – Surprising customers with amazing service
  45. Magento Team – You don’t need outside funding
  46. Eric Stephens – How to develop intuitive user experience
  47. Robert Schoble – How to become internet famous
  48. Matt Mickiewicz – Quickly building and selling sites
  49. Rich Demuro – How to get your startup on the news
  50. Roger Ehrenberg – Launch in phases
  51. Andy Oliver – Do-it-yourself public relations
  52. Rosalind Resnick – Is goal-setting outdated?
  53. Gregory Galant – Everyone is accessible 
  54. Ori Brafman – What sways people
  55. Sarah Lacy – Author of “Once Your Lucky, Twice Your Good”
  56. Jackie Peters – How to market on the social web
  57. Mark Suster – From the mixergy funding forum
  58. Douglas Campbell – LA’s version of the ted conference
  59. Alex Funk – Understanding widgets
  60. Deborah Shadovitz – Learning to organize a conference
  61. Dave Balter – How to build buzz
  62. Tara Hunt – Why & how to build social capital online
  63. Register at Mixergy.com to get an additional interview with Seth Godin.

Also, check out these shorter video business tips:

  1. Timothy Ferriss – Business suggestion
  2. Jeremy Shoemaker –  How to be a successful blogger
  3. Darren Rowse – How to get more traffic
  4. Jesse Stay – How to raise your profile online
  5. Jeremy Shoemaker – How jeremy schoemaker became “internet famous”
  6. John Chow – Why does john chow’s personal site make $30,000+ per month?
  7. Robert Scoble – Building a personal brand

Be sure to subscribe the Mixergy RSS feed  and bookmark his “interview” tag to get new interviews and other fantastic content. Be sure to follow Andrew on Twitter also.

Thanks for all of your great work Andrew, and please keep it going.

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2009/01/11/70-interviews-to-help-you-build-an-outstanding-internet-company/feed/ 0 How to Promote a Local Event http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/09/23/how-to-promote-a-local-event/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/09/23/how-to-promote-a-local-event/#comments Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:49:23 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=232 This post takes a look a both the strategy and the tactics for promoting local events: First I discuss some general conventions regarding promoting events, then I elaborate on specific tactics and tools. The goal of this post is to serve as a checklist for anyone that needs to promote a local event.

Strategy

Who, What, When, Why?

Visualize what the final result of the event should look like, clarify the purpose of the event, then determine the actual tasks need to realize that vision. Remember that the actual tasks are secondary to the desired result. With that frame of mind you can maintain flexibility while keeping focused.

Research

Use Google and the “websites where you can post your event” (listed below) to investigate events similar to yours. Google the titles of those events to determine what online marketing channels they used. Search through old emails to examine marketing copy used for other similar successful events.

Timing

Be careful of scheduling your event during the same time as an event that will potentially rob your market share. Understand what times are best for your target market. You may want to call a few of the potential attendees and ask their opinion.

Lead Time

In general you want to have four to eight weeks of lead time. To get a more accurate measure, using your research, find out when similar events that were successful started announcing their event.

Partnerships

Team up with organizations that cater to your market. Determine whose mailing lists your target market appears on. Look for partners that would also find value in your target market. Utilize your partners mailing lists, social media profiles and websites.

Tactics & Tools

Website

Review the websites of successful events that are similar to yours. The registration process should be very easy. Be able to accept money in various ways, making it very convenient for your guests. Make it easy for people to recommend the event to others.

Tailor your web copy around the value you are providing to the target market. Paint a picture of how the attendee will walk away with much more value than the investment of money and time. Utilize testimonials if possible. Video testimonials are very powerful, or photos mixed in with testimonials.

Registration Page

The registration page should contain the who, what, when and why in a concise format. Think in terms of a 30 second elevator pitch. From the registration page, it should be very easy to register and invite friends. For further impact, you could list the current attendees, sponsors and speakers.

Email Blasts

Get straight to the point. Include the who, what, when and why similar to how I describe for the registration page. Encourage the recipient to forward the invitation to friends who may interested. Frame the subject in a way that solves the recipients problem and encourages them to take action. Be wary of generic email blasts, keep it relevant.

Websites Where You Can Post Your Event

Search for local forums that serve the target market.

Check your local newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations websites for advertising opportunities or ask to be in their local calendar.

Check out your local chamber of commerce. In some cases they promote events on their websites or send out email blasts to their members.

Offline Promotions

Check your local newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations (try your local cable companies) for advertising opportunities.

Are there similar events where you can piggyback?

Send out a press release, and if its in the budget hire a local PR firm that has proven results locally.

Where does your target market hang out? Be there.

Additional Resources

Have you delivered a successful event? What do you consider the key factors?

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/09/23/how-to-promote-a-local-event/feed/ 9 Marketing and Promoting Your Company On a Small Budget http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/16/marketing-and-promoting-your-company-on-a-small-budget/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/16/marketing-and-promoting-your-company-on-a-small-budget/#comments Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:01:06 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=124 This was the topic at the most recent Tech Biz Connection event in Aliso Viejo, CA. Here are the notes I took from listening to the panelists and their interactions with the audience.

Event Summary

The following summary is taken from the promotional copy for the event:

The holy grail of success for the small business. Learn from a panel of experts how to efficiently and effectively reach your target market. Learn about a wide range of the tools and methods available to you, from PR to search engine optimization and the wide range of advertising and promotional options.

Panel Q & A

What advice to you have for a small business with a limited budget?

  • Know your customer.
  • Spend time with your customers.
  • Have an outstanding product.
  • Use free services like Wikipedia and Craigslist.
  • There is no one formula for all businesses, you must take a tailored approach.
  • Know how your market looks for your product.
  • Know your identity and who is the identity of your market. Don’t skimp on this phase of research.
  • Utilize your existing networks first.
  • Examine your existing “good” customers and find other that fit their profile.
  • Utilize search tools to analyze popular keywords in your industry and incorporate into your elevator pitch.

How would a startup marketing plan differ for a business with no clients vs. some clients?

  • For those with no clients, give away your product and learn from the research and use this core group for referrals. Learn your business metrics from this phase.
  • Understand the long term value for each client. Use this to determine your cost per lead budget.
  • Keep track of your metrics and take the time to analyze and adjust regularly.
  • Use your statistics to help tell your PR story.
  • Look in terms of 90 days.
  • Focus on why your product is better than your competitor. Focus on the value proposition.
  • Be careful about giving product away, because the customer may not value it and not use it.
  • Examine the end user and their use of your product.
  • Focus on making client success stories.
  • Make sure you have your 30 second elevator pitch.
  • Execute your PR strategically. Don’t let your ego get in the way.
  • Discover the influencers in your industry and court them.

How do you stay in touch with changing customer needs?

  • As the CEO, spend 50% of your time with your customers (the end user and your immediate client).
  • Use technology to monitor blogs and other sources that talk about your clients needs.
  • When customers leave you, find out why.
  • Mine and monitor data from your touch points, like your customer service, sales, tech support, etc…
  • Make sure you track how your leads are converting and study why those conversions happen.

How to keep in contact with your customers?

  • Use a CRM system such as SalesForce.com.
  • Use ConstantContact or similar services for email follow up.
  • Make sure you are easily contactable.
  • Use SpyFu.com to analyze how your competitors are marketing on the Internet.
  • Use keyword discovery tools to expand your keywords.

Do you put more emphasis on offline or online strategies?

  • If you are going to do offline marketing, personalize. For example, instead of a trade show booth, create a special event for prospects.
  • Don’t invest money into trade show booths, use that money to do more targeted marketing initiatives instead.

What are the typical problems small businesses face when marketing?

  • Not willing to outsource. Recognize your core competency and outsource the rest.
  • The founders need to be passionate about their business and be willing to invest their time in the marketing functions.
  • Entrepreneurs struggle with prioritizing and focus. Find something to focus on and do it better than anyone else.
  • Lack of budget, in many cases its zero.

How do you qualify a good marketer?

  • How many customers do they have?
  • Do they focus on ROI?
  • Ask for recommendations.

How do you balance between traditional marketing and PR?

  • PR is useless (in terms of budget to spend on it) until you have a story to tell. Use your leads and sales to create stories.
  • Create an informative website and then ad on advertising on top of that. Realize that a web site is must have, but understand that you must have a SEO program that is constantly reviewed. Make sure you budget for development of content to help bring people come back.

What is the minimum budget needed for your first year?

  • This is highly specific to your industry, based on your target market and your product.
  • Typically the range starts at $5,000; however, there are creative methods to do initial marketing for the cost of your time.

What is the panels opinion on webinars as a marketing tool?

  • Can be used in some cases to generate PR.
  • Can also be used for SEO optimization.
  • Changes the cold call to a warm call. Works well in service industries, especially if the service and/or product is complicated.

Moderator

Brent Collins| CEO | Smartstops.net
Brent is CEO at SMARTSTOPS.net, a web based subscription service making it easy for stock investors to maintain advanced, automated sell-protection against volatility and downtrends. His familiarity with getting the most from limited marketing budgets spans experience at startups companies and Fortune 500 enterprises, in local to international markets, and in direct to indirect channels. He has led global marketing for Hewlett-Packard’s PC division, and worked with senior executives from companies like Barclays Bank, Standard & Poor’s, UBS, Thomson-Thomson, and McGraw-Hill to architect strategic business growth initiatives.

Panelists

Kevin Reid | Director of Direct Marketing | WebVisible
Kevin is a business growth expert with over 15 years of experience. Prior to joining WebVisible he was a senior executive with Secured Funding Corporation where he helped the company jump 40 places in market share in just three years through effective cross-media direct marketing programs. Prior to that, he held a variety of marketing and advertising roles, working with leading companies like Experian, Suzuki, Buy.com and Verizon. Kevin has a MBA degree from Cal State Long Beach and a Bachelor’s degree from USC.

David J. Rodecker | Founder & CTO | RelevantAds
David has lead internet application and marketing technology companies for over a decade. At RelevantAds, he formed a local-advertising product that highlights companies online, David led the development of Local.com a local search destination with over 4.4MM unique monthly visitors. As a founding partner at Mail2World he created an internet email service, growing it to 6.5MM hosted mailboxes with clients AOL/ICQ, EsMas, iVillage and NetIdentity. David has appeared on CNBC and TechTV evangelizing internet application services; he’s taught business marketing and science at USC, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach.

Kim Long | Founder and President | Echo Media Group
A 15-year public relations veteran and seasoned strategist, Kim Long, founder and president of Echo Media Group, is internationally-renowned for her ability to create news, and position her clients in the media spotlight. Long is the co-founder of the Professional Communication’s Exchange (PCE), a thriving Southern California-based networking forum for public relations, marketing and communication’s professionals. She is also a noted speaker, an avid supporter of nonprofit organizations, and the recipient of multiple industry accolades, including numerous PROTOS awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), as well as the PRSA Pinnacle Award for the “Best Overall Public Relations Campaign.”

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/16/marketing-and-promoting-your-company-on-a-small-budget/feed/ 1 Internal Branding http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/05/internal-branding/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/05/internal-branding/#comments Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:09:25 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=118 Scott Hamilton of Allign, recently spoke about Internal Branding at a CICAMA meeting. Following are some insights I gleaned from that talk. Enjoy!

The information presented in the talk came from six years of experience through over 550 focus groups.

In a nutshell, internal branding is the foundation for your brand’s external image with a main purpose of creating a rational and emotional connection to your brand.

In 2007, the domestic budget for external marketing was 445 billion, while the budget for internal branding was less than 1 billion, which is still a 120% increase since last year. These numbers indicate that at a minimum you should understand what internal branding means to your business, and optimally, implement an internal branding strategy.

The following four goals can serve as guide posts as you begin to consider your internal branding strategy:

  • Build market context.
  • Develop adaptability.
  • Create employee commitment vs. engagement.
  • Measurable results.

One of the most important factors when implementing an internal branding strategy is commitment from your employees to the external marketing brand image. This type of commitment fosters creative contribution from your employees, which now allows you to tap into targeted knowledge because of the direct interaction your employees have with your clients.

The first thing to do is an assessment along with a definition of your specific goals. Following are some items to consider throughout this process:

  • What do employees need to know?
  • What do employees need to believe?
  • What do employees need to do?
  • What is the required investment?
  • Focus on the big picture down to the connection of your employees roles.
  • What will be your brand experience?
  • Analyze all customer touch points.
  • Find metrics that shows the employees their results.
  • Turn employees to marketers. (e.g. Give employees methods to promote on off time, like coupons)
  • Determine and anchor your top five brand values.

Using this process you can move your business from commodity, to manufacturer, to defined services to a defined experience, similar to what Starbucks has done.

Do you have an internal branding strategy?

]]> http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/07/05/internal-branding/feed/ 0 Using TubeMogul to Increase Traffic and SEO http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/05/08/using-tubemogul-to-increase-traffic-and-seo/ http://www.thinkingserious.com/2008/05/08/using-tubemogul-to-increase-traffic-and-seo/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 00:18:56 +0000 Elmer Thomas http://www.thinkingserious.com/?p=88 Yesterday, at Digital Hollywood, I interviewed Brett Wilson, founder of TubeMogul.com. He explained what TubeMogul is all about and offered some examples of how TubeMobul has been used along with some tips on how to maximize its usage. If you are looking for a way to boost traffic and SEO for your website, then you must give TubeMogul a try.

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