A to Z of Internet Marketing Part Two
Increasing Your Bottom Line Both Online and Offline – Part Two
In part one we covered Affiliate Marketing to Masterminds
N
Capitalize on NEW Media – can’t stress enough the importance of leveraging the online opportunities such as social media. That is a topic (or several) all to itself. You don’t need to be everywhere, just be sure that you are where your clients will be looking for you. If your clients are on Twitter, then use it. If they are on LinkedIn, get LinkedIn. If Facebook is the main place your clients and audience hang-out wouldn’t it make sense to have a presence?
O
Organize online events. When I first started promoting online, I decided to learn to use teleconference and webinar tools. It was a great way to spread the word about my company and organization. you can use forums, chat rooms, video conferencing, social media, blog tours and more to create and host an online event. Pick one and do it well.
P
Partner with other businesses to cross promote. If you have a product that is a compliment to another product find a way to reach out to the other company to promote one another. Share lists, share resources, share ideas and share marketing creative. The best part of partnering is you can also share expenses, and often get more “bang for your buck.”
Q
Quality – never sacrifice quality for results. You may win in the short term but you will lose in the long-term. The internet while vast is becoming increasingly smaller. People talk and if they talk about you, you want it to be nice.
R
Ratings and reviews are important elements to success in business. Gather reviews on review sites such as Google maps, Local.com, Merchant circle and the big guns – Angies List. Getting a positive review on Angies list can make a company. A bad review can also break it. Accepting and responding to comments also encourages people to tell you what they think about your product/service. Let them. If it’s an unflattering (legitimate) review, look at it as an opportunity to fix the problem. Interact with your visitors. Find ways to continue the conversation with sign up forms, comment fields and other interaction-encouraging tools on your website. If you don’t have these, add them.
S
Sampling is still an excellent way to promote your products and services. If you provide a service you can offer a free 15 minute (or longer) consultation. If it’s an innexpensive product, offer samples or at least samples to a specific targeted group of people who will be able to espouse the great qualities to a larger audience. These people aka influencers can make or break a business – make sure your product is a good quality and then use sampling to prove it.
T
Test your marketing. If its working well or not, test for ways to make it work better. In marketing there is the A B split test which simply means you create two offers and see which one pulls the best response. Then tweak the better one and see if it results in even better response. Keep doing this until the response lessens or you are satisfied with the results. Use Tremor Media to promote your video ads.
U
User-generated content (USG) can help build your online platform. USG is what Facebook and all other social media platforms are built around. Other peoples comments, thoughts, ideas and posts. Find ways to encourage others to give you content whether it be via articles, blog posts, video sharing, commenting or interviews.
V
Go viral – find ways to get people to pass around your marketing piece through their blogs, social media, email and other word of mouth. Study the successes and see how they did it. Sometimes its pure luck but more often it is good planning, good placement and good timing.
W
Widgetize your website. According the Tasha Cunningham from Miami Herald, you can “generate cash using widgets and other stand along apps embeded into third party sites. Widgets allow users to transform their own content into apps that can be shared by other websites.” Use widgetbox to create a free widget. Other widget creating sites include Google Gadget Ads, Yahoo Widgets and Gigya. Use AppMakr to make an app!
X
XFactor is important to any business offline or online. Find ways to stand out online.
Y
YouTube is the number two most searched site on the net and can be leveraged to promote most any product or service using video uploads. Remember that video is fast becoming the number one way customers respond and relate to companies and individuals. And the search engines love video. Use a service like animoto to create your own videos or hire a professional to create the kind of videos you would be proud to show off.
Z
Zig when others are Zagging. That means to do something different, unnexpected. Being different than the competition will help you stand out from the rest of the world. Think Lady Gaga. Okay maybe not that extreme, but if it works and makes money and you are not offended by it, then Zig! By all means Zig!
Heidi Richards Mooney is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of WE Magazine for Women, a WordPress Web Designer, the author of a dozen books and a social media consultant and trainer. Heidi has interviewed hundreds of experts on Social Media Around the World. In 2003 Heidi was named one of 50 women shaping the Internet by the International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce. In 2009 she was named a Twitter Woman to Follow by Only2Clicks.com. She works with solopreneurs, professionals and small businesses in ecommerce, direct sales and retail. Follow Heidi on Google Plus