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Friday, March 30, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Top 10 Steps to Create E-Marketing Strategy to Win the Competition
Top 10 Steps to Create
E-Marketing Strategy to Win the Competition
You must know some steps about how to create E-marketing
strategy if you want to dominate your niche effectively. The best products, the
best customer service, the best websites don't matter squat unless you can
reach your audience with a message they care about. Killer E-marketing strategy
is what makes your business successful in the intense competition.
The following are the top 10
steps to create E-marketing strategy. Use this as a checklist to see if your
E-marketing is on target.
1. Communicate with your
customers as often as possible. You must communicate with your customers enough
that you know the words they use. When you can anticipate their next sentence,
then you know the best ways to reach them.
2. Know your E-Marketing tools.
There are many ways to reach your customers–email, social media, blogs, direct
mailings, etc. Know what tools you have and what their strengths are. Pick only
the tools that accomplish your E-marketing goals and discard the rest.
3. Know your E-marketing goals.
Writing E-marketing strategy means knowing what you want to do. "Make more
money" is not an E-marketing goal. Decide specific, measurable goals
before you start–and make sure your E-marketing strategies match your goals. You
can’t master your market if you don’t know what you want.
4. Wear E-marketing sunglasses.
There are many bright and shiny tools, techniques and strategies in the
marketing world. Resist chasing butterflies and stick with your plan. Let your
competition flounder with too many toys. Be smart.
5. Pick the right E-marketing platform.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, websites–they all have their own community
and "feel". Detailed scientific theories will not be popular on
Facebook. Find the platform that suits your niche and goals. If you don't know
the differences, find someone who does.
6. Be humble. If you write
E-marketing strategy that includes social media, be prepared for people to
disagree with you. Be humble and engage in constructive conversation. Your
customers will understand if you are human.
7. Be cunning with your budget.
There are times to spend money on marketing and there are times to find free
marketing. Know the difference.
8. Know what you sell. What do
you really sell? Not widgets, or services. Not even a state of being like
health or wealth. You sell security or comfort or peace of mind or prestige.
Know what you really sell before you start to sell.
9. Understand value. When you
know your customers and know what you sell, you will know its truevalue to your
customers. People will pay for things they find valuable. Offer more value than
your competition.
10. Keep your E-marketing strategies
but change your tactics. Once you implement your E-marketing strategy, some parts
will work and some will need adjustment. Be flexible and fast thinking. Change
your tactics but don't abandon your goals unless you truly need a complete
change. In light of your results, make all your changes deliberate and
rational.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Questions about Social Media
1-How can I promote and make
my blog more visible?
I am currently writing a business blog with a single post
per week. It is meant to give a more personal look into my business ideas. I
only have a small number of people subscribed to it though. How can I bring
more attention to my page, without paid advertisements?
I use social media channels to promote my blog and also
Google+. I don't use any paid advertisements at all. Consider promoting
through: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn. In LinkedIn, you could add your
newest post to your status update but I'd also suggest, where it makes sense,
to use a post in response to a question in a relevant discussion group. For
example, often when I'm responding to discussions in LinkedIn (or even in the
Answers section), if I can respond and include a link to a relevant post I've
written - I do so and that drives traffic. I assume you have an RSS feed which
is certainly necessary. Don't require people to be registered subscribers -
many individuals don't like this. An RSS feed is "open" and usually
attracts more subscribers.
Hope this helps!
2- How does one measure ROI on a large-scale social media
campaign?
Start with the defining the role of social media in their
enterprise:
Is social media being used to fill the top of the conversion
funnel for purchases through demo/interest targeting on platforms like
Facebook?
Is social media being used as a CRM mechanism for increasing
monetization of the engaged (assumed 'fans') user base?
Are you participating in social media to be able to reduce
the barriers to purchase through consultative Q&A in pre-sales activities?
Depending on the role that social mediaplays that will
determine what the ways are in which you can determine ROI.
Certainly, measuring ROI through brand favoritism and
sentiment is a real eye opener.
Increasing brand sentiment and favorability (as a metric) surely leads
to increased purchase behaviors as well as perhaps sourcing referrals from the
user's social graph.
Read Jim Lecinski's ZERO MOMENT OF TRUTH pdf. It is a good framework for how consumers
interact through multiple touch points on their way to making purchase
decisions - of which social plays a key role in influencing decision
making. There are specific ways to
measure this impact which would be much more in depth than this mechanism for
response could handle.
3- Is Social Media already a thing of the past and has
Google jumped on the band wagon too late?
Thanks sir , without your "question" I would not
have discovered this article. Brilliant perspective about the near future of
the Internet supported with some amazing facts. For example: "Microsoft's
share of internet-connected devices has gone from 95% to under 50% in 3
years."
I think the article is focusing on "Why Social is
Over" because that headline will get a lot of clicks and readers. But,
Roger McNamee is saying things that are more important than hype and this
article is a must read.
Roger is saying that Social Media as an isolated concept is
obsolete so now is not the time to be investing in social networking start-ups
that copy past models. He is saying that social media is now so big and HTML5
is so flexible that social will now be seamlessly integrated into everything
else.
Social media is becoming a part of the ether; it is as much
a part of how societies communicate as are conversations, physical gatherings
and phone calls. It's no longer an isolated, special thing with a particular
brand name, it is how we live today. Roger's point is that social media is now
a fabric woven into our lives which means that it is no longer an investment
strategy.
4- Is Social Media Strategy for businesses the intersection
between web design and online marketing?
Social Media Strategy
is the begging of the integration of online and traditional media. As we are quickly discovering if one does not
have an integrated approach to both digital, social and traditional marketing
they are not going to achieve the maximum return for their marketing
investments. The results of 2011 are
showing that for most organizations that added social media to their marketing
mix it accounted for approximately 25% of their overall sales volume.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Secrets of Internet Marketing
Secrets of Internet
Marketing
Many marketers have been
shifting their marketing budgets to the web over the past few years. Marketing
online allows you to target specific audiences and easily track return on
investment, commonly referred to as ROI. Unlike traditional marketing methods, results
of Internet marketing campaigns are almost immediate. This allows you to better
evaluate what elements of your campaign are producing results and which are
not. When buying online media, you must be willing to shift your marketing
dollars to the online methods that produce a positive return.
To be successful at Internet marketing, you must understand the
essential secrets of Internet marketing. These secrets can allow you to achieve
success by finding the right audience, communicating your message properly, and
leading consumers down the path to purchase. These secrets include:
1. Website Directory Listings. Before you begin any marketing campaign, make
sure that the website you're promoting has been listed in the common
directories such as DMOZ, Yahoo!, and Google. Even if you're using a marketing
page off of the root directory of your website, be sure that the primary site
is listed. This ensures that prospects can continue to find your marketing
pages long after you've launched your campaign.
2. Generating Traffic. In order to realize a return on your
investment, you need to generate traffic to your marketing pages. There are a
number of ways to do so online. Some of the most popular include Google
AdSense, Overture, and Looksmart. Other methods include affiliate programs and
targeted website advertising. Research other websites that have the audience
you're looking for and negotiate favorable ad rates for your online marketing
campaign.
3.
Marketing Pages. Don't
lead prospective purchasers to a generic website. If you do, potential buyers
won't know what to do next. The easier you make if for prospects to take
advantage of your offer, the better. Whenever creating a marketing campaign
online, provide a specific page for leading purchasers to your product or
service or a billboard that showcases the offer. Take the guess work out of
making a purchase and more consumers will buy.
4. Testimonials. Customer
testimonials are the most powerful way to sell your product or service. When
consumers hear from those who have purchased and used your product or service,
they gain a certain level of trust and comfort in what you have to offer.
Solicit testimonials after each purchase and use those that are the most
convincing to prospective purchasers.
5. Create a Compelling Offer. Be sure to offer something that no one else
is currently offering. If your offer is similar to your competitors or is not
very interesting, consumers have no reason to learn more. Of course providing
something for FREE is often a great way to entice potential customers. Maybe
it's a 3-day free trial or a free evaluation of some kind. Be creative, try
something new, and measure the response.
6. Developing Trust. Before
anyone will buy from you, your website or company needs to be seen as
reputable. This means that consumers can purchase from you and not worry about
the safety of their credit card information, personal information, or anything
else being exchanged. A good method for developing trust is to purchase and
display safety and reliability icons such as BBB Online, Trust-e, and VeriSign.
7. Provide a Guarantee. Nothing
makes a consumer more comfortable with a purchase than offering a guarantee.
Perhaps you can offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee or a money back guarantee.
A guarantee is a great way ease the risk of making a purchase. If your
competitors are offering a guarantee, you want yours to be equal or better.
Internet
marketing is an incredibly powerful medium for segmenting your prospects and
delivering targeted advertising. Online, you can easily measure you return on
investment and refine your marketing campaign over time to improve results.
If
you are a local business you can benefit from Internet marketing as well. Look
for local directories to list your business or service. Or, you can supplement
your local advertising with product marketing pages on your website. Internet
marketing is more than just placing ads online, it's using the web to
communicate the value of your products and services.
Okay, you’ve got your website up and running; you’ve crammed it
with all kinds of interesting content; you’ve researched your keywords and you
know who your target audience is. The next question is: Do you know who your
competition is? Understanding your competition, what they do and what they
don’t do; is a critical Internet marketing secret that can easily help you win
or lose the race in attracting attention to your site.
With new websites popping up almost every minute, and many of them
aiming to take away some of the traffic you’ve worked so hard to drive to your
site, it is imperative that you take advantage of this Internet marketing
secret. Researching your competition is a task that must be constantly ongoing.
If you don’t know what other websites are doing, there is no way you are going
to know how your site stacks up in comparison.
This is not to say that you need to run out and include every tool
that you see other sites are using, but it might help you to understand which
of your tools are working and which ones could be replaced with something more
useful. Web surfers have an extremely short attention span. They want to see
content that is constantly updated and reflects the changes that are going on
in the world and in their lives. Lose their attention, especially in favor for
something that offers more updated info or better benefits and you’re one step
away from becoming a dead link.
It’s quite possible that one of the tools you’re utilizing,
however popular it might have been at first, has become over time less trendy.
Suppose you placed a wealth of informational content on your website when you
first began, and that content was well received and instrumental in driving
traffic to your site. Lately, however; you’ve noticed that your traffic has
dropped slightly. You’re still doing business, but it seems there’s been a
decrease and you’re not sure why. The Internet marketing secret of understanding
your competition can help you figure out where your traffic is going. It could
be that visitors have read all your content and are looking for something
that’s more recent and updated. Quite frankly, they may be tired of seeing the
same old thing. So, what do you replace it with? A tip of the day? Maybe a free
giveaway? Check out what your competition is doing and you’ll find out.
Why do you want to use the Internet to market your business?
Online marketing:
Why do you want to use the Internet to market your business?
§ Do you want more brand recognition?
§ Are you looking to increase your
bottom line?
§ Is it the most viable way to
support your cause?
§ Do you want to interact with your
customers to find out what they’re really like? (social research)
Knowing “Why?” will help you build
the most stable foundation for your online marketing strategy.
Why Online Marketing?
Think about this for a second.
99.99% of the internet is made up of nothing more than text and imagery.
Why do you want to be online?
Answering “Why” gives you a
tangible goal.
“Why?” gives you something to work
towards.
Knowing “Why?” you can build, shape
and mold your online marketing strategy with an end result in mind.
“Why” as a foundation makes for
better web design, better content strategy, better brand character, and better
user experience better everything?
Why?
Because when you know “why” you do
anything it always has more defined outcome.
When you know why you’re developing
an online marketing strategy, questions like “Why use a certain platform?” and
“Why put that button in that spot on the website?” And “What?” metrics to use to determine
online marketing success, become much easier to answer.
After all, if you don’t know “Why?”
you’re developing an online marketing strategy, why is your target market
supposed to care?
So, if you haven’t answered the
question in the first line of this article, and you’re asking yourself, “How am
I supposed to get my target market to care?” Kindly please go back to the
beginning of the article and read again.
The Trouble with “How?”
If “Why?” is your starting point,
than really “How?” should be the last set of questions that you answer.
But here’s the truth, most anything
you’ll read about online marketing strategy talks about building on a
foundation of “How?”
“How do I drive traffic to my
website?”
“How do I SEO my site?”
“How do I use Twitter/Facebook to
market?”
“How can YouTube make me money?”
The problem with a foundation built
on “How?” is its focus on platforms, tips, tricks, and techniques. Yes this
stuff is important to know, but starting here puts the cart before the horse.
Building a foundation that focuses
on platforms and tips, inevitably leads to discussions about budgets, time, and
resources. Meanwhile, nobody has really stopped to consider “Why?” or even
“Who?”
And knowing “Who?” your target
market is, and “What?” they need are probably more important to the success of
your online marketing strategy than “How?” ever could be.
Without background, without goals,
without substance “How?” very quickly loses its meaning. As a foundation for
online marketing strategy, “How?” is not sustainable.
Maybe rethinking the order of the 5
W’s entirely is the secret to successful online marketing strategy?
Why do I
want to use the internet to market my business?
Who is
my target market(s)?
What
issues can I solve? What metrics determine success?
Where do
they hang out online? Offline?
When are
they most likely to be on the Internet?
How can I
be useful?
What do
you think? What is the foundation of your online marketing strategy?
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