Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Websites develop with the personality of the business owner. So, how can you take your personal interests and use them to intensify the effect of marketing? This includes both the marketing of the site and the products or services you are making available.

If your personality has a bent toward humor perhaps your website may include humorous bits of trivia that deal with your industry. You might solicit humorous stories from customers (this strategies could also work to improve list building endeavors).

If your personality is one that enjoys art you might consider a site that has a bent toward the artistic. Perhaps the listing of personally selected art shows or concerts may provide the personal touch you are looking for.

If you are a car enthusiast you might find a tasteful way to incorporate design based on your automobile of choice with personal links to a forum dedicated to serving fans of a variety of car buffs. This approach, as with most, may be best linked to products you are selling that have something in common with the automobile you feature or cars in general.

Hopefully you get the idea that personality doesn’t have to be put on the backburner in every case when it comes to Internet marketing.

For instance many sites are incorporating an interest in social issues as a site design feature. Some sites may do this by promoting affiliate products that share a portion of the proceeds with a charity of choice. They may also highlight a social issues site that focuses on the issue closest to the personal interests of the site owner.

This doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) obtrusive, but it can help your customers understand a little bit more about your personality and passion to help others in need.

Imagine a business that took on the idea of assisting in feeding the hungry. They choose a well-respected charity and set aside a portion of their sale proceeds to help feed the hungry.

The website benefits because they may have individuals with similar interests who will make a purchase simply because they identify with the motivation and view this as a way to help. Others will buy because they love your product, and the charity you are interested in receives publicity to help others take notice of what they are doing and how site visitors can help.

You can’t rely on social marketing to be the only way you improve site visitation so make sure you work on other means of getting the word out about your business, but infusing your personal interests can be a positive way to connect in an emotional way with some site visitors.

The key part to this idea is that because most individuals form an emotional connection with a product this approach could be the means of developing that connection for a segment of site visitors.

The growth of your website can happen in numerous ways, but the idea of personality marketing may not be something you have considered before, but should.

Remember I used the word ‘tasteful’. What that means is not overpowering the visitor with your personal interest while negating the marketing effect of the product you are trying to sell. If you’ve made your business site into a fan site of something you really love you might have gone too far. On the other hand if you enjoy something that much consider creating a secondary site and then include links to that site from your primary business site.

One of the most used blog traffic generation strategies is the PPP, or pay-per-performance method, which requires that you pay for the traffic generated only when that traffic results in some provable benefit.

The familiar PPC, or pay-per-click, form of traffic generation is a type of PPP, and with …

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You know all about search engine optimization as a blog traffic generation strategy, but is there anything else you can do to bring readers and potential customers your way.

One of the most used blog traffic generation strategies is the PPP, or pay-per-performance method, which requires that you pay for the traffic generated only when that traffic results in some provable benefit.

The familiar PPC, or pay-per-click, form of traffic generation is a type of PPP, and with Pay-per-click you are only charged if someone viewing one of your advertisements actually clicks it.

Google AdWords is presently the greatest server of pay-per-click ads, with a system which lets advertisers bid for keywords and then use them in small ads distributed on Google’s search and content networks.

Social marketing, while it does not qualify as a kind of pay-per-performance traffic generation technique, is nonetheless an effective means of generating blog traffic. You are engaging in social marketing any time you promote your service of product directly to other people social networking sites like MySpace, or do email or telemarketing.

Finally, there are literally dozens of viral traffic generation techniques; they include such things as providing the best possible service or product to your customers, doing everything you can to satisfy their needs, and letting word of mouth bring more traffic your way.

You can also practice viral traffic generation by offering free software or ebooks to but only to those individuals who have been referred to you. This approach to blog traffic generation depends on you’re offer successfully creating a “buzz’, although when something free is involved that is not difficult.

And by requiring a referral, nobody will get your freebie unless they first find someone else who has it. It’s a great way to exponentially increase the demand for whatever you are offering!

Of course search engine optimization is a necessity, but you can never have enough blog traffic generation techniques at your disposal if you want your blog to become a real money making tool!

Although it is typically described as interacting with virtual community members, social networking takes on new meaning when it becomes an offline approach.

Social marketing is certainly one of the buzzwords of the year. MySpace, Facebook, and a plethora of blog networks and discussion forums all fall under the umbrella of social networking. Although it is typically described as interacting with virtual community members, social marketing takes on new meaning when it becomes an offline approach.

The convenience and comfort of the online world has added much to business networking. However, is it possible that this virtual connection has also taken away from the benefits real-life face to face interaction offers?

Perhaps a healthy balance of online and offline networking is what it needed to take a business-even an online business-to the next level.

An Internet marketer can find numerous effective and interesting ways to connect with people offline. Keeping a stash of business cards to hand out to people you meet while out and about is one simple way to create interest and discussion about your business.

Every Internet marketer knows to always include signatures and links in e-mails, forum and blog postings in order to bring in business. The same techniques can be applied in the outside world by utilizing business cards or just your voice to bring your business and interests into conversation.

Getting involved in local business networking events is another effective way to enter offline social marketing. Attend chamber of commerce events, lunch and learns, or happy hours for professionals to get plugged into circles of people with whom you can swap business advice and learn more about what is going on in your area.

Nervous about leaving the security of your office chair and computer screen? If you have been able to be successful at online social marketing, you can succeed offline as well. Simply use the same social skills that have worked for you on forums and blogs: show a genuine interest in people, be friendly and thoughtful, and use honesty and integrity as you meet with people.

Internet marketing seminars are a great way to connect with people who have similar interests and goals. By using your people-skills, you can develop rewarding professional relationships that will benefit your business and perhaps even your social calendar. Furthermore, such seminars will provide you with information to build your business. You are basically doubling your money with this offline social networking option.

It’s all about avoiding the “stuck in a box” scenario. A true Internet marketer is always seeking out opportunities to connect with others, and the offline world provides many avenues for connection.

True, it may not be as easy or comfortable as an online forum. After all, in the real world we don’t walk around with our profiles, including hobbies, goals, and favorite movies, listed on our shirts, nor do we have our favorite song playing in the background. But by being honest and real and displaying genuine interest in others, you will find yourself succeeding in the offline world of social networking-no screen name required.

Customer relationship marketing is powerful in theory, but troubled in practice. We need to take time to figure out how and why we are undermining our own best efforts.

Perhaps we’re overlooking the fundamental elements of a good customer relationship program. With the means to connect with customers easily, maybe we’re rushing to cash in on the potential rewards, while forgetting the essentials of all relationships: intimacy and trust.

Close examination reveals that relationships between companies and consumers are suffering. U.S. satisfaction rates are at an all-time low. Complaints, boycotts and growing unhappiness with big corporations are strong indicators that most CRM isn’t working.

Ironically, the very steps marketers are taking to build relationships with customers are often responsible for destroying these connections. Companies may delight in learning more about their customers and providing services to please them, but customers are fed up. They’re tired of irrelevant survey questions, overwhelming product choices, features they’ll never use in phone plans and cars, and rebate-driven buyer reward programs.

The New Frontier: Mining the Internet

With the proliferation of online stores that complement traditional outlets, companies now have a tremendous source of information about consumers’ preferences. Because a traditional store may not always have a product on its shelves, purchase results are not always a good measurement of desires. Online stores can track consumer demand patterns more precisely, as they offer extensive ranges of products to national and global customers.

The web is more than a sales channel; it is a powerful means of collecting data in real time. The Internet is truly the new frontier in connecting with the customer, offering a huge opportunity for companies to improve customer relationships.

The New Social Marketing: Buzz and Word of Mouth

Where does marketing enter the mix? Some experts claim the old days of “push” marketing are over, where a company shoved a one-way message to customers via print or TV. Corporations are asking themselves just how much return on investment there really is from a 30-second Super Bowl commercial.

Consumers are turning away from media and, instead, tuning into each other. Engagement and word of mouth marketing are the buzzwords of this new era. Customers are doing their market research online and listening to each other. Unfortunately, many marketers continue to look at engagement in a one-sided way.

Corporate blogs have become an excellent resource for CEOs and others to connect with customers in a personal manner. In spite of the possible pitfalls in opening two-way communication between the public and employees, there is much to be gained by being personable, accessible, authentic and transparent.

Customers are already communicating with each other online about products and experiences with your company. If you can join the conversation in a real way, in real time, you’ll have an advantage over those who remain silent and inaccessible behind corporate doors.

Now there is finally a way to discover what customers want, and a way to connect with them authentically. But there are risks involved in being honest and transparent. Will you and your company take the risk?

If the idea of starting a social media marketing campaign overwhelms you, the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results.  Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day.  In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measure (more…)

In the online world, there are tons of different ways that you can go about promoting your own business. It’s very important that you understand Internet marketing, or your online business will never make it. That is because people have to know that you are selling something before they can buy from you. There are tons of different online stores out there that are more than likely selling the same thing that you are selling. So what is the one thing that is going to make them choose your store over a different store? That is how well you market your online business. You have to get the name of your business out there, and you have to get it out there as much as you can. The more you can do that, the better chance you have of running a successful business.

The first and best way to get your name out there is to get it notice by Search Engine sites like Yahoo! or Google. These are sites that even have programs where you can add your business to different websites that are related to your product. This is called Google AdWords. They will help you place online ads all over the Internet. This is a great way to start out when trying to get your business noticed. Although this is a great way to start out, it’s not going to be the only thing that you need to do. After you get your online business noticed, you need to find other ways to market it. One great way is to visit online forums and have your business name and link in your posts. This can be easy to do by attaching it to the bottom of every post. However, for this to work, whatever site you join has to be related to what you are selling.

The next thing you need to do is look around at a whole bunch of social marketing sites. These are some of the biggest sites on the Internet to date. Some of these sites include places like MySpace, Yuwie, and of course myLot. These are places where you are going to want to place ads if you can. Talk to these sites about how you would go about getting ads placed on their site. Millions of people use these sites every day, and because of that, they are the prime area to place an ad. You will notice that your site’s hit counter is going to go through the roof after placing ads at these places.

Last, but not least, you need to keep up with what the stats are doing on your webpage. Make sure that you are getting quality leads to your site. This can be done by checking around and getting stat counters for your webpage. When you are talking about stat counters, you are talking about more than just Hit counters. Those are helpful, but you are going to need counters that are going to see how many people are coming to your site, how long they are staying, if they are buying anything, and what links they are clicking on.

Thursday, May 27th – FREE Social Marketing Webinar with @BilleBaty! You can find the invite here http://twtvite.com/socialsmm and signup using the box on the left – the topics include Twitter and social media branding and strategy tips presented by Darren Williger, Bille Baty, Kristen Ruby, and Larry Wentz.

There’s going to be some incredible things discussed so please try to attend.

May 27th at 2:00pm Central SIGNUP NOW with box on left!

If you’re like me, I got really tired of paying for my traffic and striving to get a higher search engine ranking. The competition is getting tougher and tougher. Although I am getting more successful with my Google and Yahoo Marketing campaigns and that’s mainly because I’m getting more experienced at it. But believe me, I’ve wasted a lot of money going through the learning curve.

But I’ve gotten smarter! I’ve found a way to generate a lot more traffic to my website and it’s absolutely free! Yes, I’m going to continue using my adwords, but not as much as I have in the past.

How did I get smarter? I kept hearing how social media was going to be the wave of the future when it comes to internet marketing. So I started setting up a couple of accounts on sites like Facebook, MySpace, UTube and Twitter. Started asking people to be my friends and guess what started to happen. You guessed it! I started getting a lot more traffic to my blog and websites, best of all, it’s free traffic. I don’t have to work at getting ranking anymore. The back links from my media sites helps me to rank even higher in the search engines than I did when I worked at it.

If you use social marketing correctly, it will drive big traffic DIRECTLY to your site from the social media sites that you get involved with…and that’s huge. After all, that is really the holy grail, isn’t it?

We all want more traffic to our site, right?

You may not realize it, but social media sites have more traffic than Google. And if you use the right strategies and tactics to put yourself in front of that traffic, then you don’t have rely on Google to get traffic to your sites. And best of all, you don’t have to worry about expensive AdWords campaigns or other forms of advertising.

Of course, let’s be real here… just because you start getting big traffic directly from the social media sites doesn’t mean you will abandon your Google rankings and stop all advertising. What it means is that you will be getting a lot more traffic, and the average cost of that traffic will plummet down to levels that are from the stone ages when it comes to the internet…. that’s what I call “back to the future”!

The use of social media encompasses a broad range of online media types. While some might only think of a social network like MySpace there are actually several social media formats that contain significant marketing potential for online business.

While others may think you are simply enjoying the multiple aspects of social networking, the truth of your interest may likely be tinged with a business focus.

What that doesn’t mean is that you post simply to leave a traceable link back to your business website. Those who visit any social media site see through posts that are overtly geared toward marketing. In many cases social media consumers view this as spam even if the social network owners do not. In the end, you can lose credibility of you don’t work as a meaningful contributor in a social media environment.

Social media can be presented in many different forms. Let’s take a peak at a few of them.

YouTube and other similar video sites – These videos can be funny, serious, off the cuff and sometimes political in nature. You can show your business in a humorous light and allow individuals to be curious about you and your business.

MySpace and other social networks – This form of social media is popular because it draws together multiple elements of social marketing and makes them accessible to the masses of individuals that may view social networking as an online version of reality television.

Blogs – This is a form of social media if only because it does allow interactive exchanges between the blogger and the reader.

Forums – This can allow you to have an individual voice willing to discuss topics of interest to the majority. As with all social media you can provide a link to your site. If you are viewed as a trusted source you will likely find forum members following you to your site to learn more.

Podcasting – This is an audio stream that can allow a visitor to hear a personal message from you. This can have a pronounced impact in social marketing.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it does provide something for you to consider as an addition to other marketing strategies you may have in place. Social media allows you to take your message to the people and have fun while you share your message.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to be real. The entire Internet community has a low tolerance for supposed spam so make sure you don’t use social media as simply another form of online advertising.

Marketing on Social network sites is not an easy feat. It relies on a lot of user interaction, especially with existing contacts. Know the benefits Social sites can do to your business. Understand how social networking can drive targeted traffic to your website today.

Social network sites are the new breed of online social hubs. More and more users turn to social networking sites to find loved ones, reconnect with old friends, or even host a high school reunion. However, social networking sites offer more than just meeting new and old friends, it can also be an avenue to promote your latest book, show online users about your website and updates, or even use the social sites to promote your views and agendas. Social network sites or User-created content sites like blogs, forums, or dating websites are basically places online where users can congregate to share information, give advice, or work on similar interests. Users flock social network sites, making it a good vantage point for web marketers to launch their products.

There are two types of marketing involved over social networking sites. Different types of individuals who promote their products or skills over social networking sites often employ varying tactics to get their message across. Several online marketers employ the use of the comments system on social marketing sites to post information about their products or use social sites to improve search engine placement for their websites. Though some web marketers would go overboard with the promotion and quite literally spam their target audience with useless data just to lure them to clicking a link which will direct them to the website being promoted. Other types of web marketers employ a subtle technique of social engineering to make users trust them and to make them purchase their products or click on a link to their main website. Other marketers would go as far as using black hat search optimization techniques to force web browsers into redirecting to another site. This type of marketing is not allowed on most social communities, and could get you banned on that social site, if caught.

Taking the different strategies piece by piece we identify different patterns on how web marketers coordinate their efforts to capture a wider scope of online users on a social networking site and achieve better search engine placement for their websites. Web marketers who operate viral marketing strategies often use software tools that will allow them to harvest different user profiles or account numbers, which they would use to send or post messages on. Web marketers meticulously gather user details and interest, and seek out vital social community sections like forums and rant pages where their messages can go around with the least possible chance of getting erased by members. Web marketers usually lace their promotional words with entertaining music or videos. But this can still be the tip of the iceberg on the grand scheme of online promotions. Once you give into the advertising, you will see yourself clicking on different links which will make you download or get redirected to another website which can force you to download a certain application or Trojan which they can then use to either force your browser to redirect to other web pages when you are browsing or quite literally force your computer to accept different ads from their website.

Social engineering on the other hand employs more interaction between the marketer and the end users. Web marketers who employ social engineering often use chatrooms or utilize the email system of social network sites to send messages to users. VoIP or Internet telephoning can also be used to improve marketer and user interaction. This type of online marketing may take awhile to be realized, but is often more successful in landing repeat customers, if done right.