Digital Forensics: Reverse Engineering The Digital Footprint To Win On The New Web

One of the most overlooked opportunities for winning the SEO/social media marketing game today is research.  The great thing about our new digital world is your customers and competitors leave a digital footprint that you can examine to better target your marketing campaign.

Think about it.  With a little reverse engineering, you can find out how your customers search for solutions that your products and services can help solve. New tools let you easily find important competitive information like back links, campaign length and targeted keywords.  Doing this work can give your business a huge competative advantage.  The problem is most businesses jump right into social media tactics and skip this important step.

Use this opportunity to your advantage.  Here are some key steps to take right now to win the digital marketing advantage.  We have a more detailed view of this process in our special report “Digital Forensics”.

1) Keyword Research: This is such an important part of the process but often left to junior staff or worse, outsourced to people who do not understand your business.  Identifying keywords and phrases with good volume, less competition, high commercialization and solid economics is tough.  Make sure you have a process set up for your business to evaluate your keyword targeting strategy.

2) Competition Inventory: Who is serving your market, what is their USP, how does that translate into keyword targeting, campaign longevity, customer conversion mechanisms and landing pages.  Identify what works for your competitors and use it.  Find gaps in their strategy and exploit them.

3) Customer Behavior:  What do customers want versus need?  Find the top 5-6 forums and blogs that your customers are hanging out in and listen.  How do they describe their problems and needs.  Look for psychological triggers that can help you get an edge in your business positioning and copy.

Make sure you are taking advantage of the research phase of your digital marketing planning.  You will be rewarded for it in market share and profits.

Social Media Marketing Planning: What To Do First?

We kicked off our Mastermind group last night for the Surefire Social “Contractor Edition”, it was terrific.  These business owners are the cream of the crop…they are serious about running and growing their businesses. That is why they spend time and resources on education and training for themselves and their people.

One of the most discussed subjects was where to start when implementing a social media marketing program.  These days, business owners and managers get several emails a day from consultants and agencies offering training and products for every social media site under the sun.

Take a step back (and take a breath) and think about implementing a social media marketing program in this context:

1. Are you aimed at the right target?  Social media marketing provides multiple benefits to your business, SEO, lead generation and partnership opportunities..all because of a larger footprint across the distributed web.  But if you are aimed at winning the wrong keywords (and unique positioning) for your company, you can be wasting a ton of time and resources. Get your strategy and foundation right and it will be hard to screw this up too much.
2. Is you website built on a content management platform that allows for dynamic publishing (blogging and other content updates) and automated pinging of your published content to the major directories?  If not, it is best to make sure your “home base” in the distributed web is optimized before publishing content on other sites.  This needs to all work together.
3. Are you treating social media marketing as a strategy or a tactic?  This is a transformational opportunity for your business and brand.  While it is great to experiment and try new things, it is best done in the context of an overall strategy that is moving you in the same direction.  Have a strategic approach to you social media marketing plan.

It’s never been a more exciting time in marketing and media.  Make sure you are on the winning of this business disruption.

The Importance Of Workflow For Social Media

Implementing a comprehensive social media marketing program can seem overwhelming for any organization.  Keeping up with content development, blogging, posting and the buzz in your industry is tough while you try to run your business.

Integrating a common bookmarking system with common tag structure is a terrific way to keep everyone in the loop while automating downstream workflow.  We implement Delicious bookmarking for our own team and client organizations. As senior executives identify key ideas, content, writers, blogs, forums, competition etc across the Internet, they are able to organize, store and integrate these into a downstream workflow for others to write articles, sign up new writers or participate in key discussions without having to do all of it themselves.

You can implement lots of neat tricks to manage your time effectively and have an impact in the distributed web.  Think process and workflow…remember, social media marketing is a strategic implementation. A completely new way of doing businesses.  Treat it the same way you would any new large company initiative.  It needs to fit into the daily lives of your employees and their workflow to have a sustainable impact on your businesses.

Now just do it!

Green Economy: Green Job Prep Strategic Joint Marketing Agreement

Reston, Va., Apr. 22, 2009/ PRNewswire/ — GenNext Media and Exhibitions LLC, publisher of Green Job Guide 2009: Secrets to Finding and Getting the Job You Want,(www.thecompletegreenjobguide.com) announces a Joint Marketing Agreement with Green Building Services LLC, whose services include the website GreenExamPrep.com.  This strategic alliance seeks to provide individuals special access and discounts to each other’s products: those seeking LEED accreditation, now have a resource to maximize the value of their certification with a clear path to acquire a job; while readers of The Green Job Guide 2009 can link to receive special LEED certification and training offers at GreenExamPrep.com.

“Scott Turner, CEO Green Building Service, and I have put together our best-of-breed green job preparation and training products, into a marketing partnership to bring our respective customers special access” says Chris Marentis, Publisher of Green Job Guide 2009 (formerly Senior Vice President at AOL-Time Warner).  ”It is clear there is overwhelming interest in LEED certification and green economy jobs; our intention is to help people connect the right training, certifications and education with smart career planning to help them succeed in the emerging green economy, tying together the process from green-job-passion-to-job position.”

Turner and Marentis seek to provide a superior service, product and price point to the consumer by bundling LEED training and certification with The Complete Green Job Guide and using their respective platforms.  Consumers save money, get LEED certification and utilize the proven techniques of an new green ebook, which works like a personal career coach, at a fraction of the cost; readers enjoy the additional benefit of access to proprietary web-based products and services, at their fingertips.

Frank Marquardt from the green economy blog, Triple Pundit writes, “…The Complete Green Job Guide 2009, an e-book that came out earlier this month, excels…this isn’t simply a book; it’s a program…worth it for the right candidate–one who wants quick, directed advice on getting a green job and support doing it”

As the federal government repositions the employment sector to go eco-friendly, on all fronts, green collar jobs will cease to be the question mark looming over the head of Joe Q. Public.  In just a short time, they’ll be the industry standard.  GenNext Media and Green Building Services joint marketing agreement provides consumers a way to capitalize on this growing economic segment and get in on the ground floor of the biggest growth industry of the 21^st century.

For more information, about this e-book, contact Chris Marentis or go to:

About GenNext Media:

Contact:

Chris Marentis,
GenNext Media LLC

There is a rush to identify “shovel ready” jobs.  But, behind the scenes, business and government leaders are grappling with the problem of being “people ready” for the millions of green jobs that will be created through the investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

New Resource To Demystify Green Collar Jobs

Reston, Va., Apr. 1, 2009/PRNewswire/ — Great Falls, VA, 01 April 2009 –GenNext Media and Exhibitions LLC launches, The Complete Green Job Guide 2009: Secrets For Getting the Job You Want.  This comprehensive, step-by-step resource (www.TheCompleteGreenJobGuide.com) provides green job seekers with an easy to follow program, which uniquely aggregates and organizes green job education and training content with job transition coaching, just in time to capitalize on the five billion dollar green job stimulus package.

There is a rush to identify “shovel ready” jobs.  But, behind the scenes, business and government leaders are grappling with the problem of being “people ready” for the millions of green jobs that will be created, through the investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“We aggregate the best-of-the-best content and partner with green industry leaders,” says Chris Marentis, Publisher, and former Senior Vice President at AOL-Time Warner.  ”It is clear there is an overwhelming amount of information surrounding green energy; but job seekers do not find the information actionable.”

The Complete Green Job Guide 2009 (www.thecomletegreenjobguide.com) aggregates countless hours of research and interviews into an authoritative 82-page ebook, designed to demystify the green job marketplace.  It provides green job seekers with a linear, easy to follow program, offering turn-key solutions to landing a high-paying, sustainable green job – all, while saving the environment.”

Scott Sklar, Founder and President of The Stella Group, a leading green energy consulting company says “If you want to be successful starting a career in green energy, you need to be passionate about the industry! While a LOT of self proclaimed experts will tell you what green jobs are, “The Complete Green Jobs Guide 2009” gives you the tools and practical action steps that keep you moving closer to your goal every day. Chris and Elliott put together a terrific resource with most of the tools you will need. By far, this is the most actionable, tightly written report, and an outstanding resource for anyone looking for help getting into this exciting industry.”

For people looking to transition to a green career, The Complete Green Job Guide 2009 provides everything they need to know to land a green job, in one easy to use source.  Plus, we give you the inside information from industry leaders and green career experts, not available via traditional media and Internet search that will give green job seekers a significant edge in their search” says Elliott Mizroch, editorial advisor for the project.

As the federal government repositions the employment sector to go eco-friendly, on all fronts, green collar jobs will cease to be the question mark looming over the head of Joe Q. Public.  In just a short time, they’ll be the industry standard.  GenNext Media has published the industry go-to green-career search source with The Complete Green Job Guide 2009 (www.thecomletegreenjobguide.com).  Job seekers are coached on how to get in on the ground floor of the biggest growth industry of the 21^st century.

For more information, about this e-book, contact Chris Marentis or go to (www.thecompletegreenjobguide.com).

About GenNext Media and Exhibitions LLC

The company, founded in October of 2008, is an innovative online media and marketing company founded by Chris Marentis, former CEO of Clearspring Technologies and SVP of America Online.  The Complete Green Job Guide 2009 is the first product launch from this new digital company focused on creating customer relationship management platforms in niche consumer and business markets. GenNext Media partners with leading brands and personalities to build value added, none interruptive, marketing and media communications properties, leveraging technology with direct marketing and social media principles.

Marketing Promotions with Social Media: 5 Steps to making your promotion a social success

Good news: The herd of global Internet users is up to 1.5 billion. Bad news: If you don’t market to them in a way that seems slimy, they’ll stampede to get away from you. Read on to find out how to win their trust and loyalty.

With a reported 1.5 billion online users it is clear that the Internet is the place to be for business owners. More specifically, social media has emerged as the place where businesses are experiencing unprecedented connections with and responses from customers who want to be able to know and trust a company before handing over their hard-earned money.

To keep up with competition, it’s essential to tap into social media with your Online Marketing and Advertising promotions, but it must be done in a way that is appealing to customers, so you don’t come off has just another slimy salesperson.

Below are 5 steps to making your promotion a social success:

1. Ensure you know your niche and customers by conducting research. You want to make sure you are putting your time and energy into the right audience. Being able to identify your ideal customers and know where they frequent online helps you to get started on the right foot with your promotions. It is not going to be helpful to your business or your reputation to hit the wrong target market with your message. Instead, take the time to answer these questions: What customer problem am I solving? Who are my customers? Where do my customers look for information online? Listen to what your customers are saying and gain insights for keywords and phrases you can use to position your brand. By paying attention to customer discussions around the social web, you can also get excellent ideas for new products you can offer.
2. Build your credibility before attempting to sell. If you are excited about your product, you probably want to go to every social networking site available to spread the word, but it is almost guaranteed you will turn-off more customers than you will attract with this marketing method. You build your credibility by joining social sites and becoming a valued community member. This doesn’t take as long as you may think. By taking the time to answer some questions thoughtfully or start some meaningful discussions, you can quickly earn the respect of others on the site. Then, you will able to subtly recommend your products or services and sneak in a link!
3. Reveal your true self. Because the Internet has become such a social world, it makes sense that now is the time to let people in on your story. Let your personality shine through as you connect with others on various social media sites. In addition, you want to continue this theme with your business website and marketing communications. People want to purchase products and services from real people they can trust. So go ahead and get personal, sharing a little bit of your heart and soul. A passion for your business and what you do can be a major selling point.
4. Gear all of your marketing promotions toward the customer’s “what’s in it for me” mentality. A very common mistake business owners make is to spend all of their marketing efforts spreading the word about how awesome they are and how amazing their business is. Big mistake! People don’t want to know about YOU; they want to know what’s in it for them. How are you going to solve their problems? How are you going to meet their needs?
5. Keep it professional. While you definitely want to be a real person with whom customers can connect, it is important to maintain professionalism at all times. So, in other words, keep it clean, polite, and honest, and you can go a long way. You will also want to make sure your website is in great shape, so when the customers start coming (and they will because you have been working the social media!), they will find your site easily accessible and containing the information they are seeking.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to http://www.gennextmedia.com today.

Marketing Communications: Changes in technology, customer behavior and the economy will create winners and losers

Online marketing has been called a paradigm shift for business. Whether you’re an early adopter, or being dragged kicking and screaming, winning online depends on understanding what’s happening NOW.

It is no secret that the Internet and related new technology has changed the face of marketing communications. Much like the inception of radio and television affected business communications years ago, the Internet is turning marketing methods of the past on their heads and recreating the environmental landscape of buying and selling. History has shown there will be winners and losers in the midst of these changes, but you can stay on top by making sure your Online Marketing and Advertising efforts are current and applicable to today’s customer.

What is happening NOW in marketing communications?

Search engine optimization, video, social media, audio and RSS are just a few of the terms that are becoming an integral part of relevant marketing strategies. A shift in customer thinking and behavior has required business owners to leave behind old advertising methods and learn how to use these aforementioned tools to reach customers.

While ten years ago a banner ad may have pulled in the customers, today many customers will immediately view the ad skeptically. Replacing traditional advertising are customer recommendations and word-of-mouth through blogs, message boards and other forums.

In a way, this takes some of the financial pressure off of your shoulders, which is a relief in today’s fragile economic times. You don’t have to have deep pockets or break your revised budgets to purchase the big ads and flashy marketing in order to compete. Instead, you must know your niche well enough to provide the quality information customers are seeking. You also must learn where your customers are hanging out online, so you can join in their communities and discussions. We are transitioning to a new profession that takes dedication, insight, authenticity and smarts to succeed.

How can you become a marketing communications winner?

No business owner or brand manager wants to lose out on customers just because the world of advertising and marketing is changing. Good news–you don’t have to! In fact, you can thrive and see your business go to new levels if you implement an effective strategy that works in today’s market.

Below are three simple tips to help you find your way to success:

• Research in order to know your niche, your customers, your competitors and your keywords. Your research goal is to become an expert on not only your business niche but also your customers. You want to know who they are, where they go online and what words they plug into the search engines. Free search engines and keyword tools (such as the Google Keyword Tool) make this step simple.
• Get comfortable with the idea of using social media. If you want to connect with customers, you are going to have to tap into social media. By participating in blogs, networking sites and other online communities, you can work with your prospective customers on their level. These relationships can turn into dollar signs.
• Offer something of value to potential customers. Once you have made a connection with people online, you want to make sure you keep them engaged by offering them quality information and solutions to their problems. Doing this helps you to build rapport and trust as well as keep you in the fore-front of their minds when they are ready to buy.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Online Marketing and Advertising, go to http://www.gennextmedia.com today.

Social Media Marketing Plans: The Secret to Success is Integration

You have a small business, and need mass exposure to your target audience. Why should you use social media?

Social media has transformed the Information Age as its products flood into every aspect of normal life. This is a significant change from 10 years ago, when the passing of information was controlled by only the top few media publishing giants. However, since the birth of applications like Facebook and Twitter, power has shifted to the masses, and now your every day layman can control more information than ever before. What is unique about this transfer of power is that the information is presented then sorted by the readers. Users vote on the importance of the information they find, and through this sorting and voting, the best of the bunch is at the top of the list.

Social Marketing

Social marketing comes in many forms, and is creating household names out of companies that barely existed ten years ago. People converge upon Facebook to virtually meet and exchange ideas. Twitter is increasing exponentially in size, and businesses can use their “tweet” to get followers to buy their products and services. Companies that are the most favored tend to have many followers who in return promote their services from their own sites, which multiplies exposure and audiences.

Business Marketing

By integrating social marketing with your business, the result is online business marketing to your target audience. From this, you can offer free reports, free products or coupons to promote your business and encourage more traffic to your website. The key to integrating for every internet marketer is to turn saturated contact on the web into revenue. Integration allows you to connect with multiple levels of people and multiplies your target audience as opposed to just using one medium of communication.

Small Business Marketing Strategies

A website is the main thing to create when thinking of small business marketing strategies. A website allows your company information to be accessible 24/7, from anywhere in the world. With internet usage growing daily, people want to be able to access information from their keyboard. Customers expect you to have a website, and when they discover that you don’t, it ruins your credibility, and they move on to another source that is online.

Social Media Tools

If you are unsure as to how to get started, there are some social media tools that you can use to shorten the learning curve and speed you on your way to creating a bigger presence on the internet for your small business.

1. Social Poster: A useful application that allows the user to post anything from articles to media on over 160 social and bookmarking sites at once. A very efficient and fast way to get an instant internet presence for your company. (www.socialposter.com)
2. Tweet Adder: Easy application to gain a quick following. You will need a Twitter account, and then you can target your audience via geography or keywords to locate interested parties.

The idea is that social marketing is not just about using one tactic, or hopping from one to the other every few months. In order to maximize the best internet presence for your small business, you need to have a plan that integrates all of the applications together. Through this integration, you have the best chance of reaching the customer.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Social Media Marketing, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.

Online Marketing and Advertising Is Too Expensive to Make a Profit – If you are only planning on one sale.

If you are looking to maximize revenue for your small business, these are two powerful tools that you must know.

If you are looking for strategic online marketing for your business, content development is key to gaining you website traffic. People won’t come to your site if it isn’t search engine optimized, and if they do get to your site, won’t buy if the information isn’t relevant. It takes time to invest in content development and then web distribution in order to net higher revenue. Another key component to work alongside content development is affiliate marketing, which can bring in substantial passive income when used correctly. These tactics used together earn a lot of profit for your business.

Content Development

Successful small businesses know that having relevant content is necessary in order to have an applicable site. Fresh content that is regularly developed can increase traffic to your site. This happens if your website content is written in order to be easily found by the search engines. When the spiders search for informative and keyword rich content, your website will pop up at the top of the list. If you always incorporate current trends in your related field into your content, this increases your business visibility.

Certain content development can also improve your online sales. If you offer free products or information on your site, people will learn to trust you and you will build credibility. Informative content means that people will stick around and buy something from you.

Once your content is developed to maximize your website traffic and sales, it needs to be distributed through various channels: websites, blogs, press releases, articles, etc. Your choice is dependent on which venue suits your needs the best. Just remember that the more ways you can get your content circulating the web, the better chances you have for high visibility and website traffic.

Product Development

Savvy product development can bring a fresh jolt to your business. It can generate passive income and identify you as a subject matter expert in the field. The key to successful product development is having a clear plan. You need to be able to describe in detail what your product is, and what it is not. This helps set parameters for your product and defines who your target audience is. As you clearly outline the benefits, you stay on track when it comes to targeting specific leads that have a need for your service.

Using Affiliates for Revenue

Affiliate programs are great ways to raise revenue, either by starting your own program or promoting products for someone else in return for a commission. The trick to really having a productive program is to find similar products or services that relate to what your business offers and promote them. This will allow you to not only continuously build your network of contacts, but your revenue will grow with every purchase.

Your web marketing strategy should be aimed at intertwining fresh content development and the partnership of affiliates. You are limitless when it comes to affiliate programs, and should spend some time each week marketing for other businesses. On the same note, if you continually add fresh content to your social media outlets, your website traffic will increase, as well as your revenue. 

Business Marketing Services for the Social Web: Tools That Save You Time and Make Your Competitors’ Heads Spin

Are you looking for ways to increase your presence online? Try out the business marketing tools listed below in order to guarantee more website traffic.

There are certain tools that you can use for marketing your products and services. These tools are great time savers and will push you ahead of your competitors on the Internet front. Your business marketing plan should be to expand your target audience through the use of these tools. Listed below are ten different useful sites.

Twitter: One of the top five business marketing tools, Twitter is used by companies across the world to promote their business, share information, and give free products and services to encourage trust in their followers. Don’t know what to tweet about? Find significant URL’s from the other sites below that give value to your dialogues and posts.

Tweetadder: You will need a Twitter account, but once you have one, this is a great way to get a quick following online. You can market your business through tweetadder by targeting people by geography or keyword in order to identify interested parties. Then invite them to follow you. Typically, you’ll get a 20-40% response rate of those you ask to follow you.

Facebook/Linkedin: Start a local group for your niche. This will allow users to get to know you and your company online, while allowing offline networking. If you start the group as the administrator, then you will be perceived as the leader. Invite your competitors and other industry people to join. Remember, you are the leader and now have a group of names you are collecting and the promotional vehicle you now have for free. This is a great way to get exposure for your business.

Social Poster: A fast way to get instant exposure over a wide variety of sites is Social Poster. This web bases application allows you to post anything from articles to media on over 160 different social and bookmarking sites. By simply submitting your website regularly, you will get more traffic and a better page rank.

Ping.FM: This social network and micro-blogging service allows you to simultaneously post to multiple social networks. With just one update on Ping.FM, it sends the update to several different social sites at once, making your job a whole lot easier. Rather than spending time updating each social site individually, Ping.FM does the footwork for you.

Friend Feed: With this tool, you can consolidate the updates from social media and networking sites, blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarking sites and any other type of RSS feed—all in real-time. By using this information stream, you can customize feeds to share with prospective customers as well as create new discussions and micro-blogs to share.

If you are looking for a way to better market your business, all of the sites referenced above are relevant sources for helping you to connect with prospective customers with ease and in a format that is appealing to them. One aspect of your product marketing plan should be to follow the customers where they are, and these sites can keep you relevant and in-touch on a daily basis.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Lead Generation Marketing, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.

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