Category Archives: Small Business Online Marketing Strategies

Marketing your small business online can be an effective way to market your products and services.  It can also be an enormous waste of time and effort, especially if you are using the wrong online marketing strategies

First, your design, writing, and offer all have to work together.  Poor copywriting, bad design, and painful user interfaces can all drive away your hard-won traffic. Using social media to shout at people can also drive people away (instead of drawing them in).

Get tips on the right way to write for the web. It’s different than writing for print and you may have to toss out some of the rules you learned back in school.

Small businesses make plenty of other online marketing mistakes, such as using too much jargon, or concentrating too much on a pretty design, instead of usability. Hard to use designs are just as bad. If visitors can’t use your site, they will leave.

And, of course, there’s landing pages.  Landing pages are your 24/7 sales team.  They’ve got to answer all the questions you can’t answer in person.  If they’re not working, neither are your sales (or your profits).  Learn the most common landing page goofs and how to correct them.

Five Web Rules You Should Never Break

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Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbrady/1205847589/

I call these Jodi’s rules of web site safety and backup. They’re lessons many of my clients have learned the hard way. Ignoring them can be expensive, time consuming, and truly aggravating.

Own  your own code.

If you use a designer, get a copy of all the files, graphics, forms and other materials that make your Web site work.  If you have a disagreement or the designer leaves town, you will still have everything you need to manage your site.

Try to avoid templates created by your web host. If you want to change hosts, you’ll lose your Web design!.

Make certain everything on your site is transferable if you need to move it elsewhere.

Own your own domain name.

Register your site name in your own name; not your web master’s, and not your designer’s.  Same reasons as rule number one apply.

Make regular backups

Backup, backup, backup! Your host may do this for you, but even if they do it’s a good idea to do it yourself.  You can use a plugin for this (I use Updraft). Set it to backup automatically, both to your current site and to offsite storage (like Dropbox).  Leave multiple copies in both places.  Check periodically to make sure the backup was successfully completed. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Pay your vendors based on milestones, not all at once.

Set up a schedule for payments, generally an initial payment to start, a second payment on completion of a draft (or initial set of designs), and a third payment on acceptance of final copy or completed design.

Use a different host and registrar

The company you pay to display your site on the web is the host.  The registrar is the company that you pay for the actual domain name.  Many companies will do both.  It’s a good idea to keep them separate (just in case there’s a dispute).

Can publishers build a tribe?

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A few days ago, I responded to a book blog post and said that “consumers don’t care which publisher produces the books they buy.” I may have to eat my words.

Yesterday’s special issue of Shelf Awareness (a book industry newsletter) spotlighted HarperStuio (a new division of HarperCollins). Faced with a whole brave new world of reading options, declining book sales, and the Internet, HarperStudio decided to do something different.

Instead of paying big advances, they’re offering to share more of the profits with their authors. And, they want to offer book buyers the opportunity to also purchase audio and e-book versions of the same title for only a few dollars more. Instead of seeing ebooks as a threat, they’re offering them as a complement to traditional reading, seeing a consumer reading a printed book at home, the e-book while traveling or commuting, and listening to the audio version while driving. So, if the original book was $29.95, the audio and e-books might be an additional $2.

This would certainly make me want to be part of the HarperStudio tribe – and look specifically for that company’s books.

They’re coming up with creative ways to build a following. They’re encouraging authors to start blogging after the book is acquired, showing them how to Twitter, and getting them to use social networking tools such as myspace, facebook, and stumbleupon. Authors are given flip cameras to create video stories about their books. Fans can watch the videos, send them to friends, and “stumble” the links.

How can you build your tribe?

It’s a Toy! It’s a Business Tool! It’s Wordle!

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The creator of Wordle says it’s a toy. It’s true that is fun to play with, but it’s also got a serious side. It’s a mini application that creates a graphic image of the word on your Web site or other text. The more frequently you use a word, the larger it will be in the picture that Wordle generates (like a tag cloud).

Two ways to use this:

One: As a SEO tool. It’s a quick, visual way to see whether the words on your site match the keywords you want to use for your SEO program. If not, change them!

Two: See if your site (or letter) focuses on on selling points and benefits, rather than how long you’ve been in business.

Try it at http://www.wordle.net/create

What Makes a Direct Mail Campaign Successful

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Unlike general advertising, direct marketing results can be measured.  But what makes a direct marketing campaign successful?  And how do you tell if it worked?

There are three elements that go into any direct marketing campaign (successful or not)L the list, the offer, and the creative.

The list is simply whoever will read, hear, or watch your message (depending on whether your effort is online, delivered through the mail, or broadcast on TV or radio).

The offer is what people get (a sale price, a download, or a brochure).

And, finally, the creative is everything else: the layout, the copy, the physical size (if it’s going through the mail), the length (if it’s a TV, radio spot, or video), and the colors.

The List

This is the most critical part of any direct marketing campaign.

The list is your audience. It’s the people who will receive your brochure, watch your ad, read your blog, or see your video. In the old days, this was an actual list, often printed out on labels, with names of magazine subscribers, or phone numbers. Now, it can be e-newsletter subscribers, people who clicked on a Google ad, Twitter followers, or YouTube channel subscribers.

Make sure you carefully identify your audience before you do anything else. Know who they are, where they are, what industry they are in, what keeps them up at night, how your product can help them rest easily, and the best way to reach them.

The more closely your offer matches their needs, the more likely it will lead to action (and sales).

The Offer

The offer is simply what your audience receives when they respond, how it’s delivered, how quickly they will get it, and how much it costs.

An offer doesn’t necessarily mean a sale or a discount. It can be a free report on email click through rates, an efficiency review, or a Web site makeover for $399.

Offer the people on your list something they really want and make that offer attractive.  The better you know your audience, the better you will be able to tailor your offer to their needs.

Are they office building managers who really want a white paper about choosing the right high volume air conditioning and heating system? Or RV enthusiasts hoping for a guide on fixing plumbing problems?

The way you frame the offer can make a difference too.  If you know your audience is budget-conscious, you might want to emphasize low prices or offer a discount.

If they are more interested in exclusivity, emphasize that your product is a limited edition.

Make sure you explain exactly why and how your product can help them. Talk less about your years in business and your awards and more about what your customers get, how they feel about it, and why it’s important to them.

For example, a company selling backyard swimming pools might focus less on their twenty years in business and more on how much fun families have with their new pools.

Make your offer clear and easy to respond to and do it more than once.  Give readers several opportunities to click your link, call  your office, or even return a form via mail. 

The Creative

Creative is a catchall term for everything else about your campaign.  This includes the copy, the layout, the size, and the colors that you choose.

Copy

The length of the copy should vary depending on what the offer is (free, low cost, moderate cost, expensive), how big a commitment is involved, and how well the audience knows  you and your products.

Use a conversational tone and limit the jargon, even if your audience is technically inclined.  It’s much easier to read shorter words.  Skip the buzzwords; “knowledge-based modular options” doesn’t mean anything.

Layout

The layout is the number of columns, the typeface, logos, navigation (on the web), where the buttons are placed (online), the spacing, white space, etc. In other words, how everything is placed on the page or the screen, size, and the overall appearance.

size

The physical size of a mailing piece can make a difference in the results you get.  A standard envelope may not perform as well as a monarch (roughly the size of a phone bill envelope).  Or a large postcard may do better than a standard size.

channel

The delivery mechanism can make a difference too.  This once meant envelopes, on paper, with letters and postcards. Now, it can be a video, an email, or a landing page.

Check your campaign results to see which channel performs better for your audience.

Regardless of the delivery system, and whether the campaign is on paper or electronic, the principles are the same.

  • Send to the right people about issues that are relevant to them (don’t talk to teenagers about denture adhesives). Go online for younger people, but send those denture samples through the mail.
  • Offer something that they want. (those teenagers might not want denture adhesives, but senior citizens might like a free sample).
  • Talk to your audience in terms they understand. Be conversational, and skip the buzzwords
  • Make it easy to respond (have a clear call to action)

Claiming My Blog in Technorati

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I just read Chris Brogan’s great post on blogging tips. One of them was to claim my blog in Technorati, which I just did.

Why claim your blog? Here are five reasons why:

1) You’ll be listed in Technorati’s blog directory
2) Your profile will show up in Technorati search results
3) Gain eligibility to be featured on Technorati’s channel pages
4) Use and install Technorati widgets. Use the widgets to add a “Favorite Me” button, show your Technorati authority, or add a tag cloud.
5) Get higher indexing priority when Technorati gets a ping (an alert from your blog that you’ve updated it).

Here’s how to claim your own blog. Go to Technorati. Create an account, add the name of your blog, create a profile (a little mini-me bio), and write a short description of the blog. They’ll send you an email to confirm, and then have you add a link to your site (which you can later erase). It’s like a double-opt-in for a newsletter to confirm you are who you say you are.

You can read the rest of Chris’s tips here.