MavenBlog: Marketing Strategies

All Internet marketing strategies have just one aim: to maximize the website traffic and bring in revenue. At the end of the day, you create a website so that people can visit it and you can get the desired result. You can do it by selling a product or a service and this could be your own or for another company. But if there is no traffic then there will be no sales, which means no profits. When we say traffic, it doesn’t mean just about anyone visiting the Internet but a targeted traffic that consists of visitors who will buy your product or use your services.

There are of course many ways or methods to bring traffic to your website but we are going to look at only the ones which have proven to be successful. In all, you can use three internet marketing strategies to get targeted traffic to your website and they are:

Pay-Per-Click/PPC: This is a perfect plan if you have a marketing or advertising budget. Pay-per-click campaigns offered by Google or yahoo don’t need you to spend too much money but it all depends on how effectively you are able to choose the right keywords for your advertisement. In a Pay-per-click campaign, you have to create an advertisement that is relevant to your product or service and place a bid on the keywords you select. So the primary concern is the keyword. You will have to do some research to find the right keywords and also understand how each keyword is associated with your product or service offering and how they can actually drive traffic. If you have a website selling travel tours, you can use keywords like trekking and hiking, honeymoon packages. If a visitor is looking for a travel tour company and sees your advertisement with the right keywords then he will definitely click on it and you will have to pay for every click.

Linking: The second method of effectively bringing traffic to your website is through linking. Linking can be free and also paid. In the paid method, you will be either paying a membership fee for submission of your website link to multiple directories, and ezines. It can prove to be costly if you are approaching too many vendors. To cut down the cost, you need to approach only those ezines, which have a higher page rank and where there are more than 500 visitors a day or more than 500 members. The free linking method on the other hand requires a lot of hard word and you will have to search for them. Again remember, don’t just go around putting your website link in just about any directory. Relevance is important hence approach only those directories or ezines, which have your product or service as one of their sections. There are many ezines where you can even submit articles with your link free. These ezines probably have thousands of such articles but it will help in the long run to create visibility.

Search Engine Optimization: The third and one of the most effective methods of increasing web traffic is search engine optimization or SEO. SEO is basically a method by which you can optimize your web pages so that you can start with a decent ranking by the search engines, and then work your way up. As the ranking increases, so does the web traffic. It is a long process but quite effective. Your website can be search optimized only when you use strong and relevant content on your website. The content should not just be attractive but will also be informative and keyword rich. If you are selling a service then provide as much information as possible without making the page too long. Again, try to keep the content within 500-700 words a page. Any longer than that, people will start losing interest. No one really has the time to read so much. People have come to your website to find a solution and hence you should focus more on providing the solution through good navigation, great content and refined information.

Once you have applied the three methods, your work doesn’t end. You need to also monitor if your website is getting the relevant website traffic or not. There are times when you may get only 40% of the relevant traffic and the 60% are visitors who came to your website out of curiosity or by accident. You can have a form on your website that visitors can fill so that you will get to understand their psychology so you can increase your conversion rate. Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors that lead to a desired outcome such as a lead, catalog request, sale or else. So an internet marketing strategy that increases website traffic and a good conversion rate equals to a higher bottom line.

Are you ever frustrated or hesitant when you talk to prospective customers because you can’t readily explain why they should come to you rather than go to your competitors? Sure, you might have your 30-second elevator speech, but then they ask you that dreaded question, “So what makes you different?” Then, all those self-doubts creep in, and you just aren’t sure what to say. Differentiation can boost confidence–yours in yourself and that prospective customer’s confidence in you!

– Dif-fer-en-ti-ate v. tr. To perceive or show the difference in or between; discriminate. –

In business terms, to differentiate means to create a benefit that customers perceive as being of greater value to them than what they can get elsewhere. It’s not enough for you to be different–a potential customer has to take note of the difference and must feel that the difference somehow fits their need better. (Other words that mean virtually the same thing: Competitive Advantage; Unique Selling Proposition; or Value Proposition.)

As you are building your business, you can use differentiation to attract more customers. Once you have momentum, differentiation allows you to charge a higher price because you are delivering more value to your customers. Make a point to evaluate and adjust your differentiation methods at least annually.

The various methods of differentiating your businesses fall into four general categories:

Price Differentiation

Focus Differentiation

Product/Service Differentiation

Customer Service Differentiation

Price Differentiation

Differentiating on price is probably the most common and easily understood method. HOWEVER, for Solo Entrepreneurs, caution is in order. On the one hand, potential customers might expect a lower price from you than from your larger competition because they perceive you as having less overhead, etc. On the other hand, cheaper prices can evoke perceptions of lower quality, a less-stable business, etc. And if you compete on price against competitors with deeper pockets, you can price yourself right into bankruptcy. Be creative with this differentiator by competing on something other than straight price. For example, you might offer:

- More value–offer more products or services for the same price.

- Freebies –accessories, companion products, free upgrades, and coupons for future purchases.

- Free shipping, etc.–convenience sells, especially when it is free!

- Discounts–includes offering regular sales, coupons, etc. (see cautions above)

Focus Differentiation

For Solo Entrepreneurs, this is the most important method of differentiation, and in many ways, the easiest. Why? Because as a Solo Entrepreneur, you simply can’t be everything to everybody, so you must pick a specific way to focus your business. Once you have done that, you have an automatic advantage over larger companies because you can become more of an expert in that one field –and you can build close relationships with key customers that will be hard to duplicate. For example, you might differentiate yourself through:

- Location–take advantage your closeness to prospective customers.

- Customer specialization–be very specific about what characteristics your customers will have—for example, racing bicycle enthusiasts or companies with a spiritual conscience.

- Customer relationships–know customers really well, form partnerships with them, and get them to speak for you!

- Affinity relationships–associate your product/service with a well-known person or organization.

- One-stop shopping–offer everything your target market needs, in your area of expertise.

- Wide selection (within your niche)—although this one may seem to be the opposite of focus–the key is to be very specific in one dimension and very broad in another.

Product/Service Offering Differentiation

How much you are able to differentiate your product or service offering will vary based on what type of business you are in. For instance, if you are in a highly regulated business, your options may be limited. Explore a totally new market or type of product or service, however, and the possibilities abound. The key to successful differentiation in this category, again, is to know your customers, really, really well. Talk to them often, and you will know what they need most and be able to offer it, long before your competitors know what is happening. For example, your product or service could stand out in one of these ways:

- Quality–create a product or service that is exceptional in one or more ways. Examples: Lasts longer

- Better

- Easier to use

- Safer

- New/First–be the first one to offer something in your location/field.

- Features/Options–offer lots of choices, unusual combinations, or solve a problem for a customer in a way no one else does.

- Customization–as a Solo Entrepreneur, you may be able to more easily handle special orders than big, mass-market competitors.

Customer Service Differentiation

Have you noticed how customer service seems to be out of vogue these days? This situation makes excellent customer service a great opportunity for differentiation and another natural advantage for Solo Entrepreneurs that already know what’s important to their customers. Build your reputation on making customers feel really good about doing business with you. Works great with referral marketing, too. Examples:

- Deliver fast–next day, or one-hour–make it faster than customers think possible.

- Unique channel–offer a service over the phone or Internet instead of in person or in their office rather than yours.

- Service-delight customers!–it may seem expensive to offer exceptional service–but it pays off in word-of-mouth advertising.

- Before/during/after-sales support–provide technical or other support to customers using your product. You might use joint ventures to provide that support–but customers will perceive it as being from you!

- Guarantee/warranty–offer 100% money-back, or free replacement parts.

- YOU–offer yourself, your unique blend of talents and skills, to attract customers. Make sure they get access to you, too!

Keys to Successful Differentiation:

- Know your customers, really, really well.

- Pick a blend of differentiation methods that, in the eyes of your customers, truly sets you apart.

- Talk about your differentiation in terms of customer benefits.

- Tell everyone about what differentiates you–often.

- Keep your differentiation fresh by listening for changing customer needs.

Copyright 2002-2003, Terri Zwierzynski, Accel Innovation, Inc.

Color is all around us. It affects every aspect of our behavior, including how we feel, what we buy, and how satisfied we are with our purchases. Yet, how often do we take full advantage of color’s ability to motivate others in our business communications? Color is a necessity in any promotional or marketing campaign as it is an effective instrument to trigger human emotions. The presence of color can therefore only add value to your communication and campaigns.

Research has shown that readers place more value on publications in color. Readers associate color with importance”. The presence of color signals that you consider your message, and your reader, important enough to invest in more publication preparation and printing. As a result, readers will respond by taking your message more seriously.

Even on the Internet it is now-a-days unthinkable to get a website in black and white. Color is a powerful component of design, nearly as important as content and navigation in determining a site’s success. Color not only adds visual appeal to a site but is also important because of the message it sends to your site visitors. E-Commerce is an industry on its own – a very powerful industry for this matter. Potential buyers or shoppers on the Internet are literally bombarded with “shops” (read websites) and only those aesthetically appealing to the public would be successful.

When selecting colors for your site, consideration should be given to their symbolism as it pertains to your desired site’s audience. Color symbolism is not absolute. Our reactions to color are determined by a combination of factors.

However, it is good to know the symbolism of the main colors:

Red: Excitement; energy; passion; desire; speed; all things intense and passionate.

Yellow: Joy; happiness; optimism; idealism.

Blue: Peace; tranquility; calm; stability.

Orange: Energy; balance; demanding of attention.

Green: Nature; environment; healthy; good luck.

White: Reverence; purity; simplicity.

Black: Power; sexuality; sophistication.

There are also cycles of color popularity which plays a significant role. You can see this easily with products such as home furnishings and clothing. For a while, hunter green or mauve will be the popular color, and then the trend will shift. An interesting trend recently is the use of Web color in television advertising. Color trends can be used to add appeal to a site and can also be used to represent a period of time. You can take your site visitors back to the 60’s with avocado or fluorescent colors. Turquoise and yellow are reminiscent of the 50’s. Sepia tints denote times of long ago. One final thought though, good color choices are appealing outside of any trend.

In conclusion, color is all around us. It is very important not to underestimate the role color plays. The human eye is able to distinguish colors to the finest minute detail and it is part and parcel of the sub-conscious of the human being to link color with either something good or something bad. Be aware of this uniqueness and make sure to capitalize on it.

I talk a lot about how times, they are a changin’. It’s inevitable that we will not be able to reach customers in the ways we did in the past. To successfully grow any business, you have to be open to change. Customers adapt faster than businesses, and that’s the downfall of many companies. It’s a tiresome race, always trying to find the new way to market before the consumer discovers it, but it’s a necessary evil.

Blogs are the future. Now, if your idea of blogs is someone’s journal about what they ate that day, that may have been true in 2000, but it’s not true now. But you know that because you’re reading this. Blogs are meant to inform. Rather than buy a set of encyclopedias from a door-to-door salesman, you can have any type of information you seek with a few clicks of a button, and much of it is on blogs. Consumers like free information. Provide that to them, and their sales will follow.

Think about the places you get free information. A newsletter, direct mail, television - whatever the source, chances are there is a company who sells things behind it. And if you know this, and appreciate the information you are given, you are more likely to buy from that company than its competitor. Blogs are no different. I write about marketing because it’s what I love. I would probably blog about it anyway, but I also run a marketing and PR firm. While I’m of course not pushing anything on you, it is my hope that if you need marketing one day, you’ll think of the woman who writes such useful articles on Marketing 2.0.

Consumers are in a hurry. Blogs provide easy access to information that people can quickly digest. People don’t even sit down to read the newspaper any more, so it’s important to get readers’ attention quickly, offer what they’re looking for, and let them go on with their lives. But be assured that somewhere in the back of their minds, they know where that information came from. If you provide an RSS, it’s even more convenient for them, since they have to do virtually nothing to get your updates.

If you have frequent news about your business, where better to let consumers know than on a blog? While it’s hard to track readers from sending out a press release, your results are measurable with a blog. You can track how many visitors are on your site, and even how many people read a particular post. You know how many people you’re reaching at any given time.

With all that being said, please understand that a blog isn’t going to generate sales overnight. A blog takes months to get up and running (and to grow your readership), so consider it always a work in progress. The more frequently you post (2-4 posts a week) the faster it will grow and help your bottom line.

So let’s review your reasons for starting a blog so you have no excuse not to:

1. You have to roll with the punches. Marketing is constantly changing, and so must your technique.

2. Blogs are growing in popularity and are accepted as common marketing tools.

3. Giving consumers free information will increase your brand recognition and sales.

4. Making it easy for consumers to find information makes them appreciative, and they will reciprocate in purchases.

5. You can measure your results.

6. And did I mention, it’s pretty affordable to have a blog. You can DIY or pay a writer/blogger to post. Beats the cost of a billboard!

Countless solo-preneurs and small business owners feel frustrated about marketing. Most have read the marketing books and listened to the teleclasses yet are still unable to attract clients regularly.

You can learn as much about marketing as you’d like but when you’re a small business owner working to a shoestring budget you need to be sure that you’re implementing strategies that work for YOUR type of business and then create a system for putting those strategies on autopilot.

To be sure that you don’t experience feast or famine, I’ve compiled all the strategies and techniques I use to ensure that you’ll always attract clients, easily and consistently. I’ve discovered that having a thriving business has little to do with discipline, willpower or hard work. The secret is all about implementing systems for running a business so that the system works for you (not the other way around), and that you have the time and freedom within your business to enjoy your life. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Put Things on Autopilot

Putting your marketing plan on autopilot happens by creating a system for every single aspect of what you do to attract clients. That way you don’t have to think about what to do next, you just follow the system.

2. Separate Your Space

Keep a separate, distinct work area in your home. (This is especially difficult if you’re living and working in a shoebox studio, like I was when I started my business!) If you don’t have a separate room, at least define an area, and know that when you’re in it, you’re in “work mode.”

3. Eliminate In-Person Meetings

Eliminate in-person meetings were possible, even with prospects. Use the phone, email or even online conferencing. For most home-based entrepreneurs, when you’re out of the office, you’re NOT making money. So it’s important that you can communicate flawlessly from where you are. By doing this the time you spend traveling to and from an appointment can be used more productively elsewhere.

4. Outsource All You Can

Learn to outsource where possible. Whenever you start thinking, “Well I can just do that myself,” STOP. Streamline your business, making everything as automatic as possible. Use outside services to stay focused on your ‘real work’. Enlist the help of a virtual assistant (VA) to take phone calls and handle email. Get a bookkeeper or even enlist help for outside errands. Save your energy for your brilliant ideas and the things that will really generate money!

5. Structure Your Time

Allot certain tasks to a specific days of the week. Create business development only days so that you can work on your marketing undisturbed. Try to group your meetings and errands together to minimize your out-of-office time. Make a list in the morning of all the outside tasks you need done for the day, and attempt to complete them in one fell swoop. Even better, do what I do and designate just one day a week as your “blitz” day for errands and meetings. Plus, then you only need to get dressed up one day a week!

As your business and personal time mesh, it’s more important than ever to structure your day. Break down your most important tasks to ensure that all the non-essentials stuff doesn’t hinder your time and try to do it every day at the same time. It will actually help to keep you business on track!

6. Use Technology to Your Advantage

Use client management software such as ACT to ensure easy scheduling of client follow-ups and appointments.

Use colour coding in your client management software. I use pink for my to-do list, green for appointments, blue for teleseminars and speaking engagements and so on.

Set up folders in your email program for each category of client, including a folder for referrals and one for speaking opportunities to help keep you on track.

Set up rules in your email program so that particular emails got directly to their respective folders, saving you lots of time and helping you prioritize your email.

Take some time today to sit down and make a list of all the things that are falling through the cracks in your business (and even at home). Then, look at each item on the list and create a way of systematizing the solution to the problem so that it gets handled easily, efficiently and without fail. You’ll start living life with a lot more ease and start having more fun, guaranteed!

When you take a little time to set systems in place you will find that they work hard for you, as apposed to you working hard, it affects both your business and your personal life. On the business front, fewer things fall through the cracks, things run smoothly and you have the capacity and time to take on more clients, create more products or simply make more money and who doesn’t want to do that!

Many people new to blogging feel that once they have joined a blog platform, thought of a subject for their blog and created some great content for their blog, the visitors will just start rolling in. New bloggers often get discouraged when they aren’t getting the high volume of traffic they envisioned within a week or two of creating their blog.

Marketing and promotion is absolutely essential if you want your blog to get a high volume of visitors. Regardless of how good your content is, it won’t sell itself (at least in the beginning). Certainly, good quality content will assist you in the long term, giving your blog repeat visitors and links, but without a good marketing strategy, it will take much, much longer.

Once you realise the necessity of marketing and promotion, the first step is to find tools which will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. A basic site counter is an effective tool for this, and there are many sites which will let you add this tool to your blog for free. There are many other much more advanced tools (many free ones) which can assist you in more detailed analysis of your visitors and can greatly assist your marketing efforts.

After you have added the tools which will allow you to track and analyze the effectiveness of you marketing strategies, you should include most of, if not all of the following tips to really jump start your marketing and promotion efforts…..

1) Add your blog to as many search engines as you can think of (if not, at least the big ones)
2) Submit your site to blog directories, this can be done manually or by using a ping service
3) Add as many links to your blog as possible, this can also improve you search engine ranking
4) Link your blog to other, perhaps more popular blogs. This can be done with your blog roll
5) Pay Per Click advertising
6) Post regularly, keep your site fresh and interesting to your readers and improve SEO
7) Quality control. Make your site attractive and appealing
8) Syndicate site via RSS, this will notify your readers of any changes made to your blog
9) Join a blog ring
10) Regularly read and comment on other similar blogs
11) If you have other blogs, newsletters or websites online, have a link back to your blog
12) Write articles, and post them on free article sites with links back to your blog
13) Make your site as interactive as possible, prompt feedback from readers or include polls.

This is certainly not an exhaustive list; however the above tips provide a well rounded and effective strategy for your marketing efforts.