Internet Marketing For Small Business: Don’t Be Left Behind With Your Traditional Marketing Strategy

Attention Small Businesses: The old way of doing marketing doesn’t work anymore. Still relying on ‘advertising’? You’re sunk – unless you learn the new way of reaching your market.

Imagine a 28 year old starts a business competing in your market. You spent years building a brand and reputation in your community. One day, you realize it is all taken away by this person who became an “authority” overnight. This is going to play out with businesses all across the country over the next few years. So what can you do to stay relevant?

Some business marketing tips just aren’t all that successful anymore. What worked for Internet Marketing for small business a few years ago is not necessarily what is going to pull in the customers and the profits in today’s social media-dominated environment. In order to stay in tune with your niche and prospective customers, it is important remain current with your efforts—from marketing communications to brand strategies. Rather than allowing your competition to pass you by, you can update your marketing strategy and keep your business relevant.

The new, effective marketing for small business is a shift in focus from “advertising” to “engaging.” What this means is that you are getting in the middle of discussions that are happening on the social web, building relationships and attracting customers—not because you have the best ad, but because you are offering valuable information to these conversations.

You may hear reference to the “distributed web.” This is related to the fact that people are going to search engines like Google and Yahoo and even YouTube to find solutions to their problems. As customers become savvier, they are beginning to see banner ads and other forms of advertising as gimmicky and even scammy.

In fact, consumer studies show that 78 percent of customers value peer recommendations versus a small 14 percent who trust advertisements. A move away from this type of marketing to a more social method is your ticket to staying relevant and competing with the big dogs in your niche.

Because of this change in the online environment, you will see greater results for your small business if you focus on meeting these customers where they are. Utilizing content distribution and affiliate marketing are two simple and relatively easy ways to connect with your ideal customers and convert them into buyers.

How content distribution works

Content distribution is creating keyword-rich articles, audios and/or videos to provide quality content for customers and then distributing around the web in key places where your customers will be seeking information. The reason for the key-rich content is because search engine spiders are crawling around the web trying to find content that contains certain keywords.

You can find the best keywords for your business by utilizing free web tools, such as Google’s Keyword Tool, finding out what keywords your competitors are targeting and what your customers are plugging into the search engines. Once you have a keyword and phrase list, you place them into your titles, headings, tags and content and distribute them to a number of free article directories online. This is how you become a search engine spider magnet.

The search engines will find your content, place it into the search engine results, and the customers will eat-up the quality info you provide. Once you have established yourself as someone who knows your topic, the customers will then come to your business when they need a solution to a problem.

How to utilize affiliate marketing

What if you had dozens of people who knew your business and wanted to share it with others? This is basically every small business owners dream. Affiliate marketing can make it happen. Marketing 101 tells us that word of mouth is the number one best marketing method, and affiliate marketing is where it’s at.

Because people are more likely to trust recommendations over advertising, affiliate marketing is becoming one of the most effective methods for pulling in customers. The typical affiliate marketing program is based on the business owner paying affiliates who refer a paying customer to the business. Rather than having to pay people up-front for marketing on your behalf, you only pay when the customer makes a purchase. This is ideal for small business owners who typically do not have a lot of money to invest in marketing.

To ensure you have quality affiliates who will spread your message as effectively as possible, you can offer trainings and reports to keep them connected with your business. Furthermore, by doing this, you are creating loyalty and trust with your affiliates who will in turn do a better job marketing for you.

Is it possible to have free internet marketing? With content distribution and affiliate marketing it is. Thanks to a plethora of no-cost article directories at your fingertips and affiliates you only pay once you’ve made a sale, you can create a free internet marketing strategy that works.

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 GenNext Media LLC. today.

Major Trends For Small Business Marketing In 2010

Small business owners are getting ready to take Internet marketing to the next level as they see the economy starting to turn.

According to an Ad-ology Research study, small business owners are planning to engage customers in new ways in 2010. Armed with web 2.0 and social media marketing applications, they are looking to find ways to break through the clutter of the marketplace and generate leads and sales.

In this study, 28% of small business respondents say they will spend at least the same or more on online video, an increase of 75% over last year’s plan. Social media wins big with 25% saying they will commit more resources to social media; and 21% say the same for mobile advertising.

Outlook Improving

Well over half of small business owners (57%) say sales in 2009 were equal to or higher than sales in 2008, down from 60% who said the same last year. Looking ahead to 2010, 86% expect sales to be equal to or higher than 2009 figures, up from 83% last year.

More important, concerns about the economy have eased since last year: 22% say they are fearful about the economy, compared with 25% last year; 48% say they are concerned about the economy, compared with 58% last year; 17% say they are “cautiously optimistic.”

Internet Marketing

Small businesses have lot’s of room to grow in their Internet marketing strategies and use. The good news is they see light at the end of the recession tunnel and are looking to grow their businesses. Online marketing is seen as a key new opporutnity.

Nearly one-half of small businesses (46%) say they do not currently have an active company website. Of those with active sites, the primary functions are to inform customers about products/services, provide general information, and offer special promotions. Many small businesses really have not integrated Internet marketing into a comprehensive interactive marketing platform….yet! In our view, winners over the next year will gain a huge economic advantage by using the social web to bring down average costs per lead.

The survey results also indicate email marketing and business websites remain the most popular online marketing tools for small business owners.

In 2010, many small businesses plan to spend the same or more on the following online activities:

• 57% on email programs to current clients.
• 57% developing a company website.
• 55% on email programs to potential clients.

Here’s a chart reflecting plans to spend more or less (time or money) on online marketing in 2010.

Interest In Social Media Marketing For 2010 Is High

Plans for incorporating social media and web 2.0 marketing strategies into the mix show a notable increase over last year.  In the survey, 28% say they will spend more or about the same time or money on online video in 2010, an increase of 12 percentage points from last year, and 21% say the same for mobile advertising, up 10 points from the previous year.

But…Small businesses are confused about how and why to use it!

Overall interest in using social media in 2010 is nearly the same as in 2009, as 58% agree that social media is a good way to both increase business and know what people are saying about a business. However, some 46% say they wish they knew more about social media, and 27% think only young people use social media.

Small business leaders say Facebook and LinkedIn are more effective than other sites. We note this could be self fulfilling if they do not know the other local or vertical market social sites that are available or how to use the larger ones properly. Among those who say social media is “very or somewhat beneficial” to business:

• 33% say Facebook is more effective than others.
• 21% say LinkedIn is.
• 19% say Twitter.
• 17% say MySpace.
• 15% say YouTube.

As the chart below reflects, among small business owners who use social networking, the top benefits cited include generating leads (50%), keeping up with the industry (45%), and monitoring online conversations (44%).

Overall, this study reinforces the momentum behind social media marketing for small business. But also points out the confusion and complexity that small businesses face implementing new media marketing programs.

What do you think? Does this sound right?

Lead Generation Business: Sing, Ping & Ding with Social Marketing!

Lead generation business is big time Internet marketing for small businesses today. It’s a simple 3-step flow to: 1) sing, 2) ping and 3) ding! your way to increased visibility that promote leads.

1) Sing your company’s praises with happy customer testimonials on your website. Nothing beats converting leads to actual sales by using satisfied word-of-mouth referrals. Yet, this alone would not be effective in generating leads if no one came to visit your website.

How to get visitors to your website? Luckily, small business owners can now easily and affordably set up a blog using WordPress, Typepad, Blogger and other web services.

Once your blog is up and running, you start blogging or writing smart, useful and fun articles that show the breadth and depth of your expertise. Of course, you’d include links on your articles back to your website—and that’s how online surfers get to visit your domain.

Yet, that’s still not enough to get the mega hits you’d like to end up prospecting with. So, you’ll want to join social groups such as Facebook and LinkedIn (the leading social site for professionals and businesses) and the new kid, Twitter, with its 140-character microblogging “tweets” or posts.

Once you start telling friends and followers on your social sites about your posts, and they find your suggestions extremely helpful and they’ll start referring your posts to friends in their other sub-groups. Before long, your snappy posts have garnered you followers, legions of whom are keen to hear what you have to say with your updates.

So there you are—star of your own blogging show. A “pro celebrity” in your own right, effortlessly sending scores of visitors to your website, based on writing your heart out in your blog posts (also called articles).

They say love of doing what you enjoy doing eventually pays for itself, and this is clearly where singing your songs of expertise and authority will gain praise for your main website, as well, and generating leads.

2) Ping! As you keep up writing your articles, keep in mind you’re building up an archive of relevant pieces you can repurpose later on. Such as seasonal fall and spring tips for home maintenance. Such as seasonal holiday goodies your catering service never fails to surprise—from golden orbs of chocolate persimmons to frosted amaretto snicker doodles.

Each time you submit an article for publication on WordPress, it’s automatically “pinged” to search engines. And less your articles get to the bottom of the slush pile, be sure to sprinkle them with a light dusting of SEO keywords.

For example, it’s important to use SEO primary keywords in the title and first paragraph. Sprinkle in a few longtail (lower-ranked keywords) SEOs in the body of your article. That’s how search spiders will locate and index your article. The more you write, the more you’ll be noticed.

3) Ding! Statistics reinforce how potent this form of viral communication and info-sharing is:

• 79% of American adults used the Internet in 2009, up from 67% in Feb. 2005 (source: Pew Internet & American Life Project; October 8, 2009)

• 300 million Facebook members use 300,000 servers, and Facebook is on tap to add another 300,000!

You get the idea. Small business marketing strategies jumping on this new wave of online social media because it’s low-cost, easy to control for out-going content and most of all fun to implement and are head and shoulders ahead of competition in generating leads.

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.

Thankful For The New Normal

I am thankful for a ton of things this holiday. Funny thing is in the midst of this great recession I started a business, crazy right?

Think about this.  The media and marketing economy is in the biggest state of disruption since the invention of the radio.  With over 10% unemployment, finding great people is easier than ever.  New technologies like cloud computing and web services make starting a business inexpensive…with powerful tools as good as any large company can afford. Major media does not have a lock on my messaging? I don’t need a sales rep to “buy” advertising! Don’t get me wrong, I like sales reps, I was one in the mid 1980’s.

It has never been a better time to accelerate or build your business. Those of us who stand up and take this opporutnity will be rewarded.

Let’s be thankful for all this change and get ready to take advantage of it!

What do you think?

Confessions Of a Reluctant Blogger: 9 Hidden Benefits Of Blogging

I started writing this blog a little over one month ago.  While I was thinking about it for years, honestly, I was hoping to avoid it. I thought, I already have a large network, do I really need more “friends”. I’m too senior for this…I’m too busy for this. Then I discovered something about blogging that nobody really talked about. Blogging makes me a better entrepreneur and business person.  Let me tell you why…

While bloggers have been around since the 1990s, businesses have only started to tap into the power of using a blog as a component of a marketing plan in the past ten years. In this new economy, having a creative marketing strategy that involves social media is critical for businesses. Sonia Simone of Copyblogger has a great post on the 7 deadly sins of blogging that takes this issue from the other side…what not to do.

We all know using a blog as the center of your social media marketing strategy can increase your search engine rankings, build or cement your reputation, and enhance skills that will let those who lead businesses lead Internet communities straight to those businesses.

But there are several hidden benefits to blogging that are outside the expected realm, including the following.

1. At its very core, blogging is a writing tool. This does not mean that you need to be a New York Times bestselling author, but writing a blog regularly will certainly enhance the writing aptitude of every writer from novice on up. Since blogs also tend to get lots of feedback, you can also learn about what works for your writing style from responses you receive from your readers.
2. Listen Up! Blogging encourages you to listen. Once you start blogging you start to hear everything from a blogger’s perspective, and a buyer’s perspective.  By listening and responding to your audience’s comments, and finding out how they respond to your blogs, you learn to adapt your writing tone and style to meet your audience and buyer’s needs.
3. Brain Exercise. As you attempt to captivate your audience by displaying wit and knowledge, in a different way every day, you stretch your self to address new issues. You solve their problems, learn what they want, and you think differently about every day matters, including various aspects of your business.
4. Speak Up! Although blogging is a written expression, it can actually enhance your presentation as a speaker, and your knowledge on your topic. You continue to learn information as you research and write your blog and you also gain insight from readership response. This gives you the ability to more clearly articulate on your topics whether you are presenting a prepared speech to an audience or chatting casually on the social scene.
5. Blogging gives your sales approach a whole new outlook and takes you out of your rehearsed sales pitch. The more knowledge you gain regarding what you are promoting, the better you become at selling that very concept or product.
6. Successful marketing blogs must be fresh, informational, and enjoyable. In order to write this type of content you need to be aware of what is happening and stay abreast of current industry trends. You need to ask yourself two questions: “Who is my target audience?” and “What do they crave?” Don’t just ask what they want, be one step ahead of your competitors and dare to go beyond the surface. The knowledge you gain extends way beyond blogging, enhancing every aspect of your marketing campaign.
7. Blogs give you the unique opportunity to act as a launching ground to assess new concepts or products. There is no crystal ball in determining how successful something will be and paying for consumer analysis can be quite expensive. You can use your blog to see how your readers respond to your ideas and use their feedback to fine-tune and make adjustments as needed. Negative response from your audience can actually save you a lot of money, if you make the decision not to launch a new product or service based on their input.
8. Expansion is a natural result of blogging and it gives you the ability to take your previous topics and develop them further any time the need arises. You can breathe life into a fading topic by relating previous posts and expanding on them. You can also do the same thing to create excitement about something novel and unknown. Keep in mind the idea is to expand on the blogs and not just rehash and repost your “same old, same old”.
9. Networking is the core of social media marketing and blogs are at the heart of this. Social networking is the fastest way to generate “word of Internet” advertising, and RSS feeds allow your fans to receive syndicated updates of your blog automatically. This is a great way to increase your opportunities without requiring any additional effort.

The viral power of social media marketing is like nothing that’s ever been available to business and leaders before. By using a well targeted blog as the foundation, you can take the skills above, and watch the results increase incrementally. Other social networking tools and users will find your business based on the content of your blog. A blog reaches the people you need to reach, you teach them what you have to offer, and they tell you exactly what they want and need. Since your skills are growing based on blogging, your results just get better and better. It’s a perfect mix of win-win for you and your potential buyers.

Writing, listening, thinking, speaking, learning, selling, gauging, expanding, and networking are some of the hidden benefits of a blog that I’ve seen transform potential into strategy. Businesses that take advantage of this simple tool have the power to cast a wider net, on the Internet, than ever before.

How has blogging made you a better business person?

Small Business Marketing With Social Media: Learn the topics and strategies you need to increase visibility

Looking for ideas and topics to get you started in small business marketing? The social media sites listed below can help you to come up with the content and strategies necessary to get plugged into social marketing for your small business.

Small businesses are always looking for unique ways to reach their target audience and market their brand. There are some common tools you can find on the web, but a more thorough search will deliver mediums that work a bit better for local businesses. One of the first steps for social marketing success is to identify the right topics and content that will attract your prospective customers’ attention. By making use of the sites and tactics listed below, your lead generation marketing numbers will skyrocket as users search specifically for what you can provide.

Retweetist.com: This site follows all things Twitter and allows you to keep up with popular topics, trends and people by tracking retweets across the site. Follow them with your Twitter account for access, and you will be privy to the most important information and relevant discussions on the web that day.

Popurls.com: This is a one-stop shop where you can find the top entries from multiple sites that users are visiting. Find out what people are interested in and target those audiences based on the latest interests. Incorporate the top entries into your feeds to lead people to your site.

Alltop.com: This online magazine provides a plethora of popular topics on the web, with stories updated by the hour. This site is a relevant source of what is popular in the market place, and boasts easy search tools. It’s a great source for brushing up on new social media tools to keep your marketing strategies fresh and relevant.

Trendhunter.com: This online magazine is an “explosion of cool” and kept up to date by a global network of trendsetters. Get ahead of the game with the next big thing by tracking this site. The reason this site is so valuable is that it helps generate ideas, shape our social context, and stimulate creativity. This is a great way to figure out how to be more influential within your social media marketing and develop services to meet the demands you find on the site.

Trendistic.com: Look to this site in order to find daily trends in Twitter, complete with charts and graphs, and a list of popular topics. Tweak your feeds to be more relevant to the current daily trends and ensure more website traffic.

Twitturly.com: This site ranks and tracks what URL’s people are talking about on Twitter. It’s a quick reference to find out what information gets passed along and what doesn’t. You can also check to see how your information is ranking.

Makeuseof.com: This site has tools and resources that you can use and is a great source for finding anything from the top 5 things to do in an emergency to different ways kids can make money online. Find a significant URL to add value to your postings here.

Lifehacker.com: Another general site similar to makeuseof.com, this site has tips and downloads for everyday life.

Tweetgrid.com: An extension of Twitter, this search dashboard lets you search up to 9 different topics, events, people, groups, phrases, etc in real time. So, when new tweets are created, they will be automatically updated in your grid. This will help you stay relevant with your feeds and allow you to change them as the information deems necessary.

Tweetmeme.com: This site tracks what is cool and being talked about on Twitter. Everything is sorted by rank, so the things that are talked about most have the highest ranking. Tweetmeme.com tracks old and new content, and all media is categorized by blogs, photos, audio, and video. You can perform searches on this site for the highest ranking content and create similar posts that will guarantee traffic.

Twopular.com: This site pulls up trends on Twitter in real time. No need to refresh the page, and you can keep up by always having current information in your posts.

Twitturls.com: Works by grabbing the links that people post in their Twitter feeds and then counts them, scores them, and then lists them. Shows results by day and is refreshed every minute. Through this site you can check out the highest ranking links to see if you can make a posting relevant to your business.

Twitlinks.com: Features latest news that is for the more technologically inclined. Up to the minute tech links. Great for tech marketers who want to find small businesses online and offer solutions to their needs.

Twittersphere.com: A collection of the most hyped stories found on Twitter. Check regularly to see which stories get the most hits. Also a great portal for posting local specials relevant to your business.

Twitscoop.com: An easy way to stay on top of Twitter. Click on one of the words in the cloud map on the right and it shows you how many times the word has appeared in tweets. This is a great calculating tool for keyword research.

Sitevolume.com: Fantastic medium for pulling up keyword counts for 5 various sites. Simply pick a site you want to check, type in up to 5 keywords, and it pulls up how many times those words appear. You can check which words are the most relevant and incorporate them into your social media tools.

Twitgraph.com: Charts your actual usage of twitter complete with visuals. Use this to track what has been the most popular topics in your threads.

Killerstartups.com: Interesting site that reviews 15+ internet startups per day, then the readers vote on which one they think will be a killer. This site can be a great source for being the first to find upcoming needs for your products and services.

Any one of these web-marketing strategies will provide you with many avenues to get the latest topics and information that people are seeking. Because you want to meet a need or fulfill an interest of your prospective customer, it is vital to stay current with popular topics and informational trends. When you appear to be a business in-the-know, you will build credibility for your brand, while reaching a wider spectrum of the public. Keep in mind that it is important to measure your results. Also, make sure that you are having two-way conversations instead of only talking “at” your audience.

Furthermore, it is important to ensure your network is growing. Work on building relationships through credibility, dialogue and content relevancy. By following this structure to market your business, you will be maximizing the power of your social network, and expanding opportunities for your company.

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 Small Business Marketing, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.