Effective Online Planning Drives Business Growth

By: Jasmine Sandler, Agent-cy

Online planning is, first and foremost, essential to reaching your online goals, whether they are to drive gains in market share, brand awareness, lead acquisition or to develop a community of advocates around your mission. Planning requires not only a thorough analysis of your direct competitors online and where your industry is winning in using the web as a marketing tool; but also real time mining of the behaviors of your online audience.

There are several online tools, both free and paid that can help you glean important planning information. Examples include:

www.Quantcast.com – Site demographics and hits information
www.Alexa.com - Internet Ranking information
www.Compete.com – Competitive links and sites information
www.websitegrader.com - Grades sites from an SEO perspective
http://www.quarkbase.com – Overview information of popularity of a site
http://www.keywordspy.com/ - Targeted keyword competitive information

If your current clients are willing to take a survey, you should certainly use their feedback to help shape your future online marketing direction. Asking your clients questions about what they want from your site, how easy is it to get around on your site, what they think you should improve on, what features they would like added and so on will give you effective marketing insight with which to craft your targeted messages.. You should learn information that you can act on from every question. Make sure surveys are quick and easy to take. Remember, you are asking for their time, so don’t take advantage of it. For example. multiple choice questions are generally better than long answer. If you do not have a direct relationship with your customers a great way to ensure you will get people to participate is to offer a raffle or sweepstakes where they will receive something for participating. After your initial planning and research, you will need to assess your online marketing channels (Search, Social Media, Online Advertising General, Affiliate Marketing, E-Mail, and Online PR) for which types and budgets are the most effective for your specific business. Through your research, you will get an initial understanding of channel effectiveness. However nothing is as important as trial testing. In general, if you are new to web marketing, you will need to test Paid Search for at least 90 days and run an SEO program for 6 months. Any paid media must be carefully assessed for effectiveness. In general, paid media works best for near term or immediate buys (products/events/tickets).

A major key to success in online marketing is to continually develop and distribute engaging content. This content includes and is not limited to:

1. Web Copy
2. Online articles
3. Web Casts/ Webinar Content
4. Online multi-media press releases
5. Tips and Tricks content
6. Editorial Opinions
7. Blogging/Commenting
8. Company updates
9. Creative – Banners, widgets, etc
10.Video content – humorous, promotional and educational

After assessing your competition, looking at the reviews of your site (from websites and your customer surveys) and knowing which channels work best for you, you can now start to introduce real change to your website and to your marketing campaign. After seeing what your competition does well, define your market position. You can implement the changes requested by your consumers/users and dictated by websites. And by knowing the channels that work best for you, you can tailor some of your content to fit the demographics of the users of those channels.

While this article may make it seem like this change is easy, it isn’t. Which is why many managers face the dilemma of deciding to outsource or do marketing internally. Making any online tactic such as Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search, Affiliate Marketing, etc work takes both expertise and constant effective management. If you have both the resources in terms of people, money and time to educate internal staff on how to develop, execute and manage campaigns and programs, then it is worthwhile to invest in areas such as Individual Google Certification, Web Design personnel, etc. If you do not and
cannot afford to outsource these functions to a big consultant or online agency, then it is appropriate to spend carefully by hiring people to fix only your biggest holes or to do jobs you know you can not do. Remember, marketing is a tough job, but one that when done well, can pay huge dividends.

Let’s look at 2 examples of some small businesses that have followed this methodology:

First, let’s look at VFitness, a personal training and boxing service in New York City with a website at www.vfitnessonline.com. They are most likely the smallest of any in-home personal training service as well as any boxing studio/gym in NYC. Their competition is heavy. They first required a review of the competition online in terms of value, market share and marketing activities. They then surveyed their current clients to understand what was important to them. What was found is that their clients wanted low cost, frequent, fun boxing and conditioning classes. They also wanted all their gear to come at a discount from VFitness. They also found that they had a clear opportunity to offer a low-cost high value intro to boxing service and boot camp. This then quickly became their position.

With that position, they re-designed a poorly designed site to a more compelling user experience to support their lead in the group boxing and boot camp fitness market.

They then chose Paid Search and Search Engine Optimization as their primary vehicles for driving awareness and customer acquisition. They had a limited budget for Paid Search and had run some keyword estimates on their industry to know how to budget and what keywords to bid on and for how long to run their campaigns. They hired an agency consultant to develop effective ads and a plan. In SEO, they brought on some people to help them reach out and drive content distribution with relevant and qualified links (to boxing and personal training). In only one week’s time in Paid Search, they were raking #1 for intro boxing classes NYC, group boxing classes NYC, boot camp conditioning classes NYC and received over 22 calls for business. In natural search, they received in 90 days time, top ranking for searching on similar terms.

They are also now launching an e-commerce store of discount boxing products from new partners Modell’s and Title Boxing. With a small, targeted approach and budget they now know what works. Because of new clients, they now have some funding to re-invest in online marketing and are moving on to the creation of content and PR work. An example of the beginnings of this work is a recent article posted by an industry insider, http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-29543-NY-Fitness-Trends-Examiner~y2010m6d8-Trainlike-a-Million-Dollar-Baby-Boxing-Boot-Camp-with-VFitness.

Next, Get Your House In Order, a personal home organization business in NYC, with a website at http://www.organizemyhouse.com/. They knew that online marketing could serve their lead generation needs, but had a limited budget and resources. A client survey of GHYIO clients showed that most clients called the service company for help before/during moves, before/during baby room planning. The survey also showed that they wanted to speak with Maeve Richmond, owner of the company, on a more frequent basis, when they were in “clutter crisis.” The online marketplace showed a real proliferation of home organizers in the NYC marketplace being visible on advice sites, such as http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/. Further, it revealed specialization in this area on specific occasions (move, kids growth, etc.) The current web site was expanded to include specific landing pages by occasion – Kids rooms, move, baby, home office, etc. Copy was created to engage those specific targets by page. A blog was created to brand Miss Maeve Richmond “Clutter Girl” as “Inside The Organized Brain”. The blog was developed so that clients could get more frequent tips and help from her. The company provided advice to http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/. Further, the company utilized Paid Search to develop, with an expert, and run effective ads by occasion and interest. The ROI for Paid Search over a month’s time was over 300%, resulting in 4 new clients, who continue to work with the company today.

Currently, Maeve Richmond, is busy completing her own e-book and book in print on Clutter Therapy. Online PR will follow.

To conclude, you can use the web effectively to drive business. To do so takes careful planning and at least partial help from experts in content creation and in the management of online campaigns. Testing
channels over a recommended time period is an excellent way to assess what will/won’t work in online marketing.

13 Ways to Create a Catchy Marketing Concept

By: Marcia Yudkin, Creative Marketing Solutions

"IRS Statistics confirm Batmen and Robins Outpacing Lone Rangers."

That's the headline of an article in Home Business Magazine that caught my eye some time back. I'll bet it arouses your curiosity, too. The phrase "Batmen and Robins" denotes business partnerships, while "Lone Rangers" means solo practitioners. According to the Internal Revenue Service, from 1994 to 1995 the number of partnerships grew by 5.8 percent, while solo proprietorships increased only 2 percent in the same time frame.

Compare the more factual headline, "Business Partnerships Growing Faster than Sole Proprietorships, Says IRS." That has much less power to pull you into the article.

Magazines and newspapers treasure talented headline writers, but the skill of creating a catchy concept is valuable and accessible to business folks as well. Captivating expressions can help you win attention in ads, media releases, brochures, billboards, your company newsletter or verbal self-introductions. Here are a few brainstorming aids to help you think them up:

•Do any classic Hollywood story lines, such as The Comeback, The Big Break, Hero Risks All, match events at your company?

•How about stories from the Bible or Greek mythology? (David vs. Goliath, Noah's Ark, Hercules' trials, Pandora's box)

•Try exaggerating what some take to be a negative characteristic, as in Rent-a-Wreck or Call-a-Nerd.

•Make a surprising promise: "Our new invoicing procedures will lower your blood pressure, or your money back."

•Can you call something your customers generally don't know a secret? ("Mysteries of marmalade making revealed.")

•Try a twist on a familiar saying or cliché, such as "Faster than a speeding bike messenger," for a company that has worked out an innovative way to exchange information electronically.

•Concoct a group your clients might want to belong to: "How to join the Zillionaires Club."

•Link key words associated with your business with a rhyme, such as in "We help Web debs," or "Books worth another look."

•Take even further a metaphor already in use: "Here are the latest hatchlings on our incubator floor of offices."

•Does your own name suggest an amusing pun? Publishing guru Dan Poynter calls his customer newsletter "Publishing Poynters."

•What is it that your clients are trying to avoid when they hire you? Turnaround specialists might be portrayed as "Bankruptcy Busters."

•Put a twist on the image of a government program - "Our Zero Tolerance program for software bugs."

•What's the secret fantasy of your customers? "Done Yesterday" matches perfectly the wish of those hiring an errand service.

Test any concept you think is smashingly clever. If people of normal intelligence don't get it, toss it out or modify it.

A friend had me scratching my head when her nicely designed newsletter invited me to contribute a "B.F.O." I reread, pondered, wondered whether that might be a takeoff on "U.F.O." and finally noticed a headline running vertically along the left margin of the paper: "Brilliant Flashes of the Obvious." Most readers won't spend more than a second trying to decipher something like that!

Copyright 2000 Marcia Yudkin. All rights reserved.

Social Media Creativity

By: Joseph Kiefer, ASM

As social media continues to evolve it is shaping itself into a consumer friendly platform that is also finding very real business models.  Some of those new social media tools, apps and sites were on display at the Internet Retailer Conference last week.  This was my first trip to the Internet Retailer Conference and it was well worth the 6 hour drive to the McCormick Place in Chicago.

I will be the first to admit that I have been a skeptic at times of the role that social media will and potentially should play in each of our lives.  As the Marketing Director of a business to business marketing company I have also struggled to find the right fit for social media within our marketing mix... if it belongs in the marketing mix at all? 

Don't get me wrong, I have found some definite uses for social media, but as a direct response business to business marketer it has been a journey of faith to hope we will find ROI.  At the Internet Retailer Conference there were some very creative social media ideas on display in the exhibit hall.  I didn't see any that were tailored for the business to business audiences, but you can take the ideas and fit them as well as you can into your own business.  My hopes for finding ROI driven social media strategies have been lifted greatly.  The show has expanded the box in which I was thinking about social media and hopefully that will help me come up with some great social media uses for our business.

Social media shopping was probably my favorite.  Grab a couple of friends on Facebook, hit the online stores and share the group shopping experience from the comfort of your couch.  Personally, I'm not much more interested in online shopping than I am in going to the mall, but I definitely see the appeal for individuals who happen to like shopping.  As a marketer, I do like people who like shopping so it all works out in the end.

I am not here to pitch any products or even necessarily state that social media is 100% going to be a marketing medium you should be adopting today, but I do feel like social media continues to transform itself into a model in which marketers and consumers can co-exist.  I think a key component to this will continue to be the ability of marketers to find ways to improve the experience of the users within the social media sites, while selling their product at the same time.  Social Media consumers are not very accepting of intrusive messages.  We have all kicked someone off of our friend list for the repeated product pitches showing up on our wall.

Are You Becoming Anti-Social?

By:  Joseph Kiefer

Social media continues to dominate the discussion in almost all forms of media, from old school newspapers to blogs.  It is everywhere!  There is no doubt about it, social media is here to stay.  With that being said, I don't think we have a great grasp on how large of a role we are going to let social media play in our lives.

I would consider myself to be somewhere around the middle of the social media adoption curve.  I have had a Facebook page for over 4 years, same with Linked In and more recently I have added multiple Twitter accounts and joined other social networking communities.  About 6 months ago I started getting a little burnt out by social media overload.  I noticed that I would be on social networking sites for work reasons during the day and then I would routinely check Facebook during my down time at night.

Without even thinking about it I had started spending a couple of hours a day on social network sites.  I don't believe I fell out of the norm on this.  I also noticed that I had added Facebook as a daily routine that I almost felt compelled to check.  Why did I feel compelled to check it?  I believe it gives people what feels like social interaction on a daily basis without actually socially interacting.

I made a conscious decision at that point to no longer frequent Facebook on a regular basis.  I did not close my account because I still did want to be able to go out there to view photo albums or catch up with old classmates, but I didn't want to spend my nights focusing on the mundane details of other peoples lives.  Since I have made this decision I have noticed a growing number of other individuals who have shared related stories.  Many found they were far lesss productive at home because they were spending so much time on their favorite social media site.  For those wondering, playing Farmville on Facebook does not count as productive no matter how big your farm gets.  Planting an actual garden on the other hand qualifiies as productive and is hopefully more rewarding as well.

The point of the story is that I, like many others, are starting to make decisions on how much of a role we want social media to play in our lives.  Some people have cut it out all together or never joined the trend in the first place.  Some people are content with using social media on a limited basis, but not letting it control their daily activities.  Are you ever at the beach and feel like you have to post that on Facebook?  And there is and probably always will be the group that thrives on these sites and find that there isn't enough time in a day to spend on them. 

It is a slightly scary thought that there are more and more people joining the last group.  I believe there are a lot of great uses for social media, but it should not be a replacement for real world interactions.  Instead of checking out what other people are doing tonight you can go out and do something yourself... and you don't need to tell the world about it.

So where do you fit?  Are you willing to go anti-social?  I haven't gone all the way, but I think I will drop one of my Twitter accounts today!