8 Valuable Lessons for Internet Marketing

If you own a small business…

If you have NO Marketing experience…

If you’ve never written a post, blog or tweeted… then this is for you.

1.  Market For Free -

Internet marketing is powerful due to the fact that there are so many ways to market for free (or very little) out-of-pocket costs.  Here’s a few places to look into: Get involved on social websites (Facebook, Ping, Digg, Stumble Upon, Squidoo), Use video marketing (Youtube, Vimeo, Ustream, Vpype on Facebook), article marketing on places like Ezine articles, post ads on online classifieds sites like Craigslist, all these and more are great ways to market yourself and your business for free. All you need is some time, some effort and a little guidance, and your on your way.

2.  Tap Into The Worldwide Market -

The Internet has become the vehicle to connect you with people from all over the world. With online tools, webinar’s, Skype, Social Media – Twitter, LinkedIn,  you can learn, network, have video-conversations/webinar’s, build relationships with people from every part of the globe.  Your market can be GLOBAL! No more limits on neighborhood only or constricted to your town and it’s competition.

3.  The Internet NEVER closes -

Dream of your business being open 24/7? Dream no more, the internet has made that possible. Having an online business with your website available 24/7 makes you visible and available at all times of the day and night even when your sleeping. Cost to you? Price of a website that represents YOU.  Do you have to pay for commercials? NO. Realize that ANY content that you post once, can market for you for WEEKS and/or MONTHS to come.  That is AMAZING leverage to help you build your business.

4.  Optimize Your Website – SEO & SMO

Want to increase traffic to your website?   Get ranked by search engines.  This can be achieved by making sure keywords/phrases that you’re trying to get ranked for are placed in the html tags and in the content of your site along with your domain name. Many people think their websites are optimized for search engines, in reality most are not. Keep in mind, that getting organically ranked takes some time but is well worth the wait.  You also need to place your website information on a Facebook fan page along with submitting to other SM sites to make sure you have traffic from ALL potential search engines. (Google can not search Facebook)

5.  No Time restraints -

You have the ability to work from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection. You can be visiting family and friends and just drop a line on Twitter, post an update on Facebook, add an informative post to your blog/website and Voila!…you can continue visiting or learning or shopping for better items from ANY city in the world! Now that’s AWESOME!

6.  Drive Traffic to Your WebSite.

Most people think that all they have to do is put up a website, sit back and watch their income increase. Nothing could be further from the truth. Realize that having an attractive website is important, but it means NOTHING without traffic.  In other words, what good is an attractive website if no one to sees it? One of the biggest reasons that internet-based businesses fail is lack of quality traffic. No traffic, no income, no business.  Successful business, regardless if it’s a network marketing business or a “traditional” business rely on TRAFFIC!

7.  Video Marketing -

Video Marketing is a another great way to drive traffic to your site for several reasons.  Why?  Videos allow you to connect with your audience in a closer more personal way than you would in an article. Besides that, IT”S FREE and video is UBIQUITOUS – everywhere ALL the TIME. (Not like some commercial that is scheduled to run every 2 hours and costs you thousands of dollars without a guarantee of any ROI.) In a video, your audience can hear your voice, your excitement and they start identifying with you.  (Make sure you’re posting valuable content and information.) While doing this simple marketing, you’ll brand yourself as an expert and drive targeted traffic, 24/7 and 365 days a year.

8.  Article Marketing -

Article Marketing is one of the most common method people use to drive traffic to their site. Article Marketing allows you to put a link to your site in your resource box that people can click to get to your site.  Writing and publishing articles also brands you as an authority in your target niche, it also allows your articles to be republished by other’s which results in your link being all over the internet.  Republished Article = Traffic.  Traffic = Potential Income. Ezine Artlcles is a great place for that!  Don’t forget to submit to StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Delicious, and post on your Blog.

Happy Marketing!

Social Media has untraditional ROI’s

Social Media = Positive ROI

Companies that are widely engaged in SOCIAL MEDIA surpass their peers in both revenues and profits.

300,000+ business have a presence on Facebook

Dell sold over 3,000,000 computers over Twitter.

Blendtec quintupled sales with “Will It Blend?” YouTube videos

37% of Generation Y were aware of the Ford Fiesta via Social Media before it even launched.

What these statement speak LOUDLY is Social Media has given POSITIVE RESULTS with low overhead.  THATspeaks volumes by itself.  BUT marketing wants ROI’s drawn up on paper.  In today’s marketing….not happening presently. Traditional marketing has lost it’s high dollar appeal, fueled by this economy, its generating a mass movement to Social Media Marketing.  Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI…old media was Pay to Play…do you think the majority of media dollars will reside there tomorrow?

WHAT ABOUT THE ROI’S?

Good question…but shouldn’t we be answering:

“WHY ARE WE TRYING TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA LIKE A TRADITIONAL CHANNEL?”

71% of companies plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40% because:

1. Low Cost Marketing
2. Getting Traction
3. We Have To Do It

Socialnomics blog states really well:  Social media touches every facet of business and it should be viewed more as an extension of good business ethics.  Which, if done properly, will harvest sales down the line.  Enjoy this video by Socialnomics.  It gives you a simple straightforward ROI explanation…

Social Media ROI: Socialnomics

ROI’S?  Most definitely Social Media is moving and keeping up with technology.  Marketing – traditional marketing has just barely started moving in that direction.  Realize that people have taken the power of conversations into their own hands. Most people become informed on whether a product or “brand” is worthwhile by opinions and comments from consumers via reviews, Social site, email, and twitter.

Those can’t be tracked as traditional ROI’s.  So quit trying. Think OUT OF THE BOX!

Mcdonalds says it plainly: “Our head of Social Media is the customer”

It’s a new era, with old value’s…at the speed of the internet = realtime: word of mouth.

What’s your opinion?

Smart Marketing: Consumer needs

Consumers have four universal needs.

Connection, Uniqueness, Comfort and Variety. These needs vary in importance for each individual and each person’s need can also shift resulting in trading off needs. Example: Connection during holidays might be very important to some….others might need comfort, others crave uniqueness (standing out in the crowd) while others yet might like variety or choices (visiting lots of friends/family).

Marketing has only focused on the middle of the curve area…and not worked with consumer NEEDS. So the consumer navigates through the world without the influence of marketing.

How can they do that?

Consumers have shifted their spending with an awareness using online reviews, social media sites, chats and emails from friends. This puts the reins in their hands, helping them make informed decisions. Meanwhile, marketing budgets have been shrinking making it harder for marketers to create awareness let alone interest in their products. With budget cuts tight, marketers need to lean to digital as opposed to traditional. Smart Marketers will take that jump using digital to enhance the brand experience with current customers and acquire new ones through “word-of-mouth” marketing.

As 72% of consumers say prior experience has driven their brand loyalty, 58% of online adults say they trust online reviews MORE than any other medium except chat/emails from friends. For marketers to do more with less dollars, they will need to STOP focusing on gaining and spend more with current customers.  Those customers will be your “word-of-mouth” marketing campaign.  

Also use digital means to enhance how you connect with consumers making your brand responsive and connected to the consumers ever shifting needs.

10 Things you can do:

• use online reviews
• redesign your website with an interactive design or SEO friendly WordPress site allowing comments
• redirecting your marketing budget to SMM
• training your marketers with SMM
• Use YouTube with video’s of one minute or less
• Create a Facebook fan page
• Create a Squidoo “how to” page
• Be an information source for your industry
• Build relationships
• remember, YOUR NOT THE FOCUS – the consumer is

In this Recession people have moved toward comfort and connection.  Marketers and businesses MUST be reassuring and comforting to the consumer meeting their unique needs.

Bottom line – How available and helpful are you?