The one resource no one can have more of  is time. There is only so much time and you can’t get more of it. You can prioritize to decide how to spend your time. You can become efficient in the use of your time, but when time runs out, anything undone stays undone.
Business people, especially in small and medium sized organizations (SMO), tend to wear many hats. They don’t have a large staff of specialists working on a narrow task. So staff and managers in a SMO divide their time between many duties. Most SMO managers devote most of their time to the core competency items crucial to running their business. Support functions to the core business activities often are allocated as little time as possible. One such support task is marketing defined as anything that brings prospects into the sales process like brand building and advertising.
Many advertising methods are not very time consuming to setup nor do they require much ongoing time to maintain. Things like newspaper ads, yellow page ads, billboards, signage, and repeat radio spots can be created with a little bit of front end effort but require little or no ongoing activity other than paying for repeat ads. Publish some sort of ad and then wait for the phone to ring or a customer to walk in the door. This a set-it-up once, go passive, and then hope for the best approach that  fits in well with the time constraints faced by most SMO managers. But is it effective in today’s world?
AÂ passive approach advertising strategy is great if it works and it did for decades. But then along came the Internet. SMO managers reacted by creating a website which they used as a digital brochure that they created once, seldom updated and then sat back and hoped for the best – just like in the good old days of traditional advertising. That worked for a while, but along came search engines and the era of pull marketing appeared where competing for page #1 in search engines is important. Online marketing began to demand more time from SMO managers.
Then came Web 2.0, the era of user generated content. Suddenly a passive approach to the Internet using a static website with search optimization was not enough. SMO managers had to find the time to interact with customers. As the explosion of social media and content publication websites appeared, the demands on the time of SMO managers increased significantly. Where to find the time to participate in blogs, review sites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, directories, etc, etc, etc?
Today we are in Internet Marketing era referred to as the ‘Content Marketing’ era. Content has always been king in marketing – what you say, who says it, how you say it, and where you say it ultimately is the most important aspect of advertising. But with the emergence of Social Media and multiple content publication sources, never have so many diverse communication options been available with the end user having as much access as the advertisers. So the time needed by advertisers to do everything has exploded.
So what did SMO managers do? Some saw the opportunities and adjusted their priorities and jumped in. But many just couldn’t find the time or chose to ignore the revolution in marketing and clung to increasingly ineffective old-world marketing methods; for example they keep running Yellow Page and newspaper ads even though that isn’t working well anymore. They just don’t have the time for digital world marketing or have time but resist the change.
However, tools are catching up with the challenge of managing digital marketing. One such tool is WSI ReachCast. ReachCast offers technology that allows loading content in one website hub called a Cast Page. From the ReachCast hub content is published across all of an organization’s web properties while at the same time monitoring chatter within the Internet for comments about that organization. And better yet, ReachCast includes real live humans that provide content for the organization and manage the publication of that content via the ReachCast system.
So with ReachCast, an SMO manager with very little time commitment can maximize the marketing opportunities the Internet provides. More, Content, More Places, More Customers. Problem solved; Internet Content Marketing without the learning curve and time commitment. To see how, view the below 5 minute videos and then contact us to discuss how to leverage your precious time.
Business utilization of the Internet has happened in stages and the progression has been rapid.
In the late 90′s static, brochure websites were the rage. Websites evolved into e Commerce sales engines. Search Engines sprang up to help us sort through the clutter that was the Internet. Thus search engine optimization and advertising became important at the turn of the century.
Several years ago static websites evolved into ‘Web 2.0″ sites with customer service features and dynamic user generated content. User generated content became the driver for social media membership websites where people can share opinions, information, and reviews.
We are now entering the era where mobile connectivity is practical. An array of mobile devices enables people to be connected all the time wherever they are. Most of the things you can do on a desktop or laptop you can now do with a mobile device.
As technology evolved one thing never changed. The early adopters jumped on board quickly while the mainstream lagged behind. All stages of Internet business utilization go through phases of ‘interesting’ to ‘mainstream’ to ‘mandatory’. There is always a lag between when technology becomes available and when it becomes mature – from just being interesting to becoming mandatory. Big companies usually show the way and then the methods are scaled to small and medium companies’ needs.
Websites, including online sales when appropriate, are now mandatory. Search optimization and advertising are mostly mainstream if not mandatory. The public has embraced social media, but many businesses are lagging behind the demand. And business utilization and user acceptance of mobile is in the early adopter stage.
What companies need today, if they know it or not, is a holistic Web Presence, not just a website. Web Presence includes:
- A High Class Web Destination (flagship website)
- Active Social Media Pages (and related reputation management)
- Mobile Delivery Capability
- Traffic Generation Tactics
- Content Marketing (more content, more places, more customers)
- Measurement (including ROI)
But to create and manage a Web Presence you’ve got to work at it and that is what is separating web success from failure for most companies; they don’t work at it. In the old days, businesses used Yellow Pages, newspapers, postal mail, print ads, and maybe radio/TV to push out their message and there wasn’t much work involved.Â
With the reality of the Internet those days are gone. You have got to work at Internet utilization to push and pull interactivity with customers.  But most companies, large, medium, and small, have not committed the time and budget resources needed to learn how and implement a Web Presence.
So what’s the answer to the know-how and resource problem?
- Technology tools are needed to consolidate files (articles, audio, video, announcements, events, etc) and simplify the process of publishing the files via a managed Web Presence which includes a website, social media pages, directory listings, blogs, article publications, local search pages, mobile content, reputation management, etc.
- A Web Presence Professional is needed to oversee the Web Presence Technology Platform, help create your Web Presence, and act as expert strategist and publisher.
Well… help is on the way in the form of WSI ReachCast. Contact me for information about how your organization can easily create a total Web Presence and bring order out of the possible chaos of managing your multiple web properties and web space.
Tags: Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
Does Social Media Marketing help small businesses?
Short answer = yes
A longer answer is covered in this eMarketer Article
In Explanation: Small businesses (fewer than 10 employees) typically serve a local market. Reports from multiple sources all concluded that 90+% of Internet users use social media and search engines to look for and assess local products and services. Search engines are used the most, but social media is not far behind and growing in usage.
There are 127 million USA Internet users of social media. The chances are customers of small businesses are among that number.
And it is important to realize that ads show up by different methods in social VS search. In search, an ad shows up when a person (AKA prospect) types a search term into an inquiry field. That is inbound marketing as that person is looking for a specific product. In social sites like Facebook an ad shows up based on the interest profile of the person (prospect). This is outbound marketing where the business is getting in front of a likely prospect.
For example: If a person was looking for hunting gear they might type hunting clothes into a search engine and find a local sporting goods store. In social media, that same person might have indicated hunting was one of their hobbies when setting up their profile. While that person is in a social media site an ad for a local sporting goods store would show up automatically, based on their profile, and thus alert that person to the local sporting goods store where he can buy hunting clothes.
So… yes social media marketing works for small businesses if its social media presence is optimized and setup properly. Want to learn more? Contact me
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
Small companies (defined as under 500 employees) make up 99.7% of the companies in the USA and create about 50% of the GDP and jobs. In fact 79% of companies have fewer than 10 employees and those with fewer than 20 employees create about 19% of the GDP.
So the health of small companies is important to the economy. Small companies need to sustain sales or grow to stay healthy. Are small companies adapting to changing times to promote their sales and stay healthy? Evidence suggestions the answer is some are, but not enough.
It is now a digital world with digital customers and companies must become digital too. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0b8sUdGYA Online is where it is at.
But most small businesses still devote most of their online budget to…. their website. What’s wrong with that you ask? Well… a website is just a container for information – a destination. Like any destination, you need to entice people to go there. You get people to go to a website by advertising it via search optimization, search advertising, or via incoming links from other virtual locations. Small companies still don’t invest enough in generating traffic to their destination.
And Internet users (80% of all people who are still breathing) have moved beyond just visiting websites. People use the Internet to have a conversation, to share, or to get what they need more efficiently; that is what Social Media, things like YouTube, and self-serve online customer service are all about. Yet small businesses undervalue search marketing, email marketing, social marketing, sharing (blogs, video, etc), and automated customer service. Instead, they are content with just having a pretty website and even that is often not well done.
Most small business websites are just digital billboard type sites with general company information – ho hum. Most sites lack interactivity, customer service, lead capturing, and conversion elements. The owners of those types of sites don’t get it and often they don’t know what they don’t know.
While not totally useless, many small businesses cling primarily to old methods to keep their sales healthy like networking, customer referrals, newspaper ads, or oh-my-goodness are you kidding me… many still cling to Yellow Page advertising. Businesses caught in the old-era marketing twilight zone are on an unhealthy advertising diet and are going to be sick if they are not already.
Yes, a business needs a website. No, a website by itself isn’t enough. You need traffic driven to your website from many sources. You need to engage the public in the virtual world outside of your website and invite them in. And you need to convert traffic from visitors to customers after they arrive. Most small businesses still have not learned how to do those things. Their success and the economy would be a lot healthier if they moved beyond just having a website.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Digital Media Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing
Mr. Business Person – it is not business as usual. You are not in control of the message anymore. Social Media has upset your apple cart.
Since forever businesses controlled the message to the masses about their brand and products via outbound ads in radio, TV, and in various publications like newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, and billboards. Businesses could say whatever they liked to mass audiences. What were unhappy consumers with an opposing view supposed to do? A consumer could not afford to take out ad space in TV, radio, newspapers, etc, etc.
Mass communication had a huge cost barrier to entry and that meant businesses had a monopoly on mass communications. And then along came the Internet. For almost no cost anyone could access the world.
But at first the Internet didn’t make it easy to reach really big audiences. Email could reach a large, but limited audience for example. Websites could only attract so many visitors.
But then came forums and mass communication became easier, And then blogs and it became easier. And then Social Media and product review sites sprang up and the lid was taken off mass communications.
Businesses got onto the Social Media bandwagon also. But many businesses are doing it all wrong. Same with many politicians. Many companies and candidates are trying to use Social Media as an outbound ad delivery system in the same old business as usual manner.
Businesses try using Social Media for ads and to publish self-serving articles. Politicians often use it to spread their ‘propaganda’ and to solicit donations.
WRONG. Social Media is an inbound, bottom up , not top down media. Social Media works best when the masses talk and businesses and politicians listen. But businesses and politicians are not used to listening, they are used to talking.
Businesses and politicians must learn it is not business as usual – the public is in control of the message. Believe it. Accept it. Learn to work with it.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Digital Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
The Holiday Season is nearly here; is your business ready?
Thanksgiving + Black Friday + Cyber Monday + Christmas + New Years = Sales Opportunities
Online driven consumer activity grows each year. Are you connecting with online consumers? Customers find your business online via the following. Are you ready?
- Search Engine Optimization
- Search marketing
- Local Search (Google Places, etc)
- Social Media Interactions and Promotions
- Directory Listings
- Email Campaigns
- Banner ads
- Online syndicated Videos
- Mobile Marketing
And does your website perform well when customers arrive? Is your site ready?
- Search Optimized
- Landing Page Optimized
- User Friendly (navigation, shopping basket, etc)
- Conversion Oriented (customer profiling, clear & timely information, content marketing, calls-to-action, etc)
Digital Consumers drive sales thus the Digitization of Business has arrived.
In doubt? View this brief video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0b8sUdGYA
Now is the time to act if you want to maximize your Holiday Season sales.
Contact the Digital Marketing Professionals at WSI Internet Marketing. We will provide a complimentary assessment of your business Digital Holiday Readiness.
To your success this holiday season,
WSI Internet Marketing
262Â 898Â 7142 /Contact Us
www.wsinorth.com or www.wsidigitalmarketing.com
Tags: Digital Marketing, Digital Media, Digital Media Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization
Here are the important top level Social Networking trends:
- Usage is up – including as a substitute for ‘email type’ communication
- Global utilization is up
- Ad spend is up
According to data compiled by eMarketer:
Global Social Network ad spend in 2010 is projected at $3.3 Billion, up about 30% over 2009 and 2011 is projected to go up another 30%.
The US accounts for just over half of that ad total. But in 2011 US spending will start to be become a lower percentage because international social network ad spending will increase more rapidly. There are several reasons why this is the case.
Social networks are very popular in the US with a reach of about 74% of Internet users. But SocNets are even more popular in many other markets. According to The Nielsen Company, the social network/blog category reached 86% of active Internet users in Brazil in April 2010 and 78% of active users in Italy for example.
Chinese social networks are strong performers. According to the Data Center of China Internet, the number of social network users in the country reached 245 million in 2009, up 34% over 2008. Social networks such as Tencents QQ, search giant Baidus Baidu Space and RenRen (formerly Xiaonei) dominate usage.
Although China has just over 500 million internet users, according to eMarketer estimates, QQ has even more accounts than that 587 million as of March 2010. Tencent, a public company, reported $141 million in online advertising revenue in 2009 and $30 million in Q1 2010.
Facebook is growing the most rapidly outside the US. In the US as well as in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore, Facebook was the No. 1 website based on market share of visits in June 2010, according to Experian Hitwise.
Social Networks are where people are turning to exchange information, ask for recommendations, communicate about virtually anything, and… socialize. Many savvy businesses have joined the conversation and purchased advertising space. Many have not or have and done it wrong.
Does your busdiness know hot to:
- Engage within the various social network websites in a targeted, effective manner?
- Advertise in a cost effective manner?
- Separate personal from business social network pages?
- Create business branded pages in the various SocNet websites?
- Create or apply special apps to fully leverage SocNet traffic?
- Monitor, measure, analyze SocNet user activities?
If you struggle to understand, utilize, or measure SocNet results, talk to an Internet Marketing Company to develope a Social Media Strategy and to get training… contact us.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Optimization, Social Networking, social networks
One thing a business must have is the TRUST of its marketplace. Without TRUST the end is near and nothing can prevent that; not low prices, not useful products nor any other countermeasure.
How does a business lose its trust? You can do your own list, but I know the following types of things would be on it: bad quality; poor customer service; a bad buying experience; denying legit warranty claims; defective products with cover-up; frequent recalls; and shady management among many other things.
It was always hard to establish TRUST and in today’s world, even harder. The public has become cynical and suspicious of our institutions and businesses are no exception.
If you go back over the last 40 years we have a break down of TRUST from the effects of very negative events.
- A President resigned because of a cover-up attempt of an impeachable offense
- Another President was incompetent leading us to 20% interest rates and unemployment
- Another President who told us it depends on what ‘is’ means
- Our government has over-spent us into $14 Trillion of debt and the number is climbing
- Leaders of government and industry have been convicted of fraud and corruption
- There have been questionable wars
- There was the Internet Bubble
- There was the end of the world Y2K that was a non-event
- There was the housing bubble and resulting financial collapse
- Main stream media is widely viewed to be highly biased one way or the other
- We are in the midst one proclaimed crisis after another that often fizzles into a fraction of the predictions blown up to manipulate us: the swine flu, the oil spill, man-made global warming, etc, etc, etc.
So what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media is one of the most trustworthy sources of information left in a world of questionable information sources.
Click here to view an article that qualifies the above statement.
Information delivery channels and relationships affect how social media users perceive information and advice. One thing that makes social media marketing powerful is consumers trust in people like them, their friends, family and other online peers.
Businesses need to tap into that trust via the power of what is called “earned media” or by engaging in a conversation with their marketplace. And where social conversations take place has an effect on their perceived trustworthiness as well as who is taking part in them.
A study of frequent social media users by market research firm Invoke Solutions found that the most trusted information was posted between people who knew each other. And blog posts were more likely to be trusted completely than posts from other distribution channels like Facebook and trust drops off from there, but is still relatively high compared to traditional information sources.
So if you want to guard your company’s TRUST factor, you need to pay attention to Social Media. We can help. Contact Us.
Tags: Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, social networks
One of the long understood principles about new technology from a marketing perspective is that customers can be classified as innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The innovators jump in with new technology almost immediately and there is a time delay before the other classifications join in.
In a rapidly changing technology environment like the Internet, the marketplace can become perpetually jumbled. When things move fast there never seems to be a time when everyone is on the same page. With rapid change, laggards might be just adapting to technology that innovators abandoned a long time back.
For example, when websites and email were the new things, the innovators jumped in, but have since moved on to the latest and greatest technologies which for now are based on mobile devices like the iPad and hyper-smart phones. Some ‘experts’ are saying that websites are becoming irrelevant. But I don’t believe that. Websites are just not as effective for some types of people while becoming more effective at reaching other people.
Relative to websites, the laggards are just now coming onboard. For example, e-Commerce has long been accepted by most, but is just now becoming a comfortable environment for the slow adopters. And in between the mainstream still searches and surfs for web pages of interest and the majority have become comfortable with Web 2.0 which has morphed into a variety of Social Media technologies.
So what should businesses do to cope with this jumbled marketplace? Should businesses just play in the middle ground where the majority is comfortable? Should they establish themselves as leaders by catering to the innovator customers? Should they ignore the laggards as not worth the effort?
What to do is tricky business with no perfect answer. If you sell a trend setting product like the latest generation smart phone, then you need to be in front of the innovative and early adopter customers by advertising where they are hanging out online and via mobile devices.
But if you sell a mature or commodity universally needed mainstream product (TVs, cars, appliances, travel, personal products, etc, etc) you want to reach people in all classifications as they are all potential customers. That suggests you need to have a presence at all stages of the technology’s maturity. This implies you need to be using email, websites, banner ads, search marketing, SEO, social engagement, mobile promotions, and basically all available established and new digital publication methods.
In the end, each marketing situation is different with a lot to consider including your product’s characteristics and the target demographic you are going after. Businesses will profit from consultation with a professional Digital Marketing organization to determine the best marketing approach – not too little or too much and where to be seen. We can help.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Socail Media
Many business managers comment that the Internet changes too fast to keep up with. They are in a constant state of overwhelm. To those so affected, I offer the following observations and overwhelm cure.
Yes, the Internet is a young media and it is rapidly evolving. But some of what is new at any point in time can be ignored. Some new things are just trial balloons that will go away as fast as they came. And some new things have limited if any business value. But some new things are must have business tools.
The trick is knowing what new things are must do versus can ignore. In my opinion, in the last decade there is a short list of must have business class digital tools.
- Search Engine Optimization – SEO – (organic ranking)
- Sponsored Links (AKA – PPC ads)
- E-Commerce and Auction websites
- Email Marketing
- Demographic, Geographic, Contextual, and Remarketing advertising (banner type ads) in ad networks
- Streaming audio and video and associated publication channels (like YouTube)
- Blogs
- Content sharing websites (like WIKIPEDIA)
- Social networking engagement websites (like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc)
- Social Communications websites (Facebook = yes, Twitter = jury still out)
Some might argue to add a couple of other things to my list, but give or take there are about ten Internet developments over the last decade that are high value to the business world. That is only one development per year. That isn’t very overwhelming.
Focus on the above ten items and you will cover what’s important. And not all of those ten things are needed for every business. The above ten are the foundation of Internet Marketing. You can safely ignore everything else and wait for a new tool to prove itself before adopting it. Mobile Maketing is likely the next big thing, but it isn’t quite there yet.
One thing is crystal clear. Old, conventional media channels are in decline – newspapers, Yellow Pages, radio, etc. Digital media channels are in ascension. Focusing on appropriate tools from the top ten digital marketing list will cure overwhelm and move your business to a better place.
We can help. For more information, contact us.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Digital Media, Digital Media Marketing, Internet Marketing
On June 8, 2010 Google announced that Caffeine, its new Web indexing system, is completely implemented. So what you say? What does this have to do with me you ask?
Google claims Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) will have 50% fresher results (i.e. faster indexing consequences from updated content) because of Caffeine. Plus, indexing will be based on the largest, most diverse collection of Web content Google has ever sorted through.
Caffeine allows Google to sort out Web content on a more granular, continuous basis and on an enormous scale. This allows the SERPs’ index to be continually updated instead of every few days or weeks. Google said Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of Web pages in parallel and if those digital pages were a pile of paper the pile would grow three miles taller every second.
This is good news for users because they will obtain the latest, most relevant information ever available from web searches. But this changes the search optimization game rules for high organic search ranking. Caffeine gives a lot weight to on-website and off-website frequent content updates and related relevant backlinks. This makes it imperative for website owners to regularly refresh website content and to do frequent social media postings and marketing.
Google introduced this hyper-active index system in its quest to improve search results for users. The Web has evolved into a far more complex environment than a couple of years ago. Web users now expect to not just find relevant web pages from their search results, but also things like videos, images, audio files, real-time updates, and user reviews.
Google’s Caffeine index provides users with SERPs that serve up the latest of all of the above. Thus Caffeine rewards page #1 Google listings to fresh Web content from diverse publication sources including websites, Social Media channels, blogs, and WIKIs. Publish (often and everywhere) or perish from page #1 in Google seems to be the message of Caffeine.
The Web remains a fast evolving environment. The business rewards for keeping up with the changes are enormous, but daunting for business owners and managers. The Web is no longer a playing field for amateurs. Find a trusted source for Internet Marketing professionals to manage your Web presence so that you can focus on strategies and your core business activities.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media
This straight talk, blunt “reader’s digest” blog post is about Internet Marketing for people who prefer short, over-simplified sound bites as their main information source.
- Most websites don’t work because their text, pictures, presentation, and conversion strategy is pathetic. A lot of website content is created on a DIY basis by people who slept through English composition and literature in school and have no marketing/sales training.
- Most websites don’t get significant targeted traffic because there is no effective SEO in place. Many website owners think all you have to do is use a highly competitive keyword as a meta-tag and mention it a couple of times in a web page and you end up on page #1 in Google – not!
- Are you still in the print Yellow Pages? If yes…why? Do you enjoy throwing your money away? Get with the new program and use Google Places (Google Maps) and equivalent and invest your wasted YP budget into SEO or PPC.
- Many businesses miss major opportunities because they refuse to invest in search PPC ads. Or they invest on a DIY basis and waste a lot of money with an ineffective approach. Google wants you to succeed with PPC (Google AdWords), but will take your money either way.
- As a business tool, Social Media works best for B2C companies, but it also works for B2B businesses. But in either case SocNets only works well if you use them correctly – most companies do not. Social is not where you use ad copy as your post content. It is where you go to participate, listen, network, contribute, and link from. And by-the-way, learn how to separate your personal SocNet page from your business page; prospects don’t care about your vacation or that your kid scored a goal at the soccer game.
- Geo and demographically targeted online display ads (AKA banner ads) are a direct (and better) measureable replacement for print ads. But many businesses still devout a lot of money to placing ads in print media where they have no clue if it is doing any good or not – chances are it is not.
- Email campaigns are still the lowest cost, most effective way to reach a targeted audience. The key is your email address list. Most businesses aren’t disciplined about creating an email address list; are bewildered about how to get a list; or undervalue their list if they have one. And don’t get me started about ineffective email message content – same problem as with item #1 above.
Internet Marketing has high business value if done right and you understand the new normal in advertising. But if you cling to spending your ad budget in traditional media channels while viewing the Internet as a game for amateurs where DIY is good enough, then do yourself a favor and get a professional Internet Marketing consultant – he will pay for himself. Otherwise just donate your ad budget to a worthy cause where it will do some good.
Tags: Digital Marketing, Internet Marketing
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