Ideas for Business

There are hundreds of different internet marketing ideas that can be put to use on your small business website, but as with all things in life, quantity isn’t everything. As a matter of fact, internet-savvy consumers will often immediately leave a site that is nothing but a barrage of flash, noise and sales pitches. The key to successful marketing is using the right marketing ideas for your potential customers.

If you already have a website created for your small business, there are very specific services that you can take advantage of to map out your site, your products and services, your customer base and where they all should meet.

One of the most useful tools is the Small Business Internet Marketing Blueprint. Essentially, it is a complete analysis of your website, identifying all issues potentially impacting your site’s performance. The blueprint then moves beyond that to also tell you exactly which online marketing services are right for your business, with specific examples from your website.

A Small Business Internet Marketing Blueprint will answer critical questions such as:

• How friendly is your site to the search engines?
• Is your site targeting the most relevant keywords?
• Is your website turning customers away?
• Is your business getting good links or bad links - and can you tell the difference?
• What do your website statistics say about your site’s performance?
• What can you learn from your competition to gain an advantage?
• What are your customers truly seeking online – and how can you give it to them?
• How can you get your website in front of more potential customers with just a click?
• Where are the biggest online opportunities within your industry and/or locality?

An Internet Marketing Blueprint Service may be just what you need for your Small Business website.

Search Engine Optimization is a changing field. At any given moment in time, companies that rely on the web for new business or customer communications will consume information about SEO and then rely on that snapshot for months or even years.

In the marketing mix, SEO is only one slice and company marketers are tasked with many other responsibilities. Wearing many hats does not leave much time to stay on top of SEO current best practices, let alone being able to test and experiment to uncover competitive advantages.

The snapshot of SEO knowledge taken months or years ago starts as a well intentioned premise, but without current information and best practices, can become outdated. Client side marketers and agencies that don’t specialize in search that rely on infrequent snapshots of information can end up unitentionally sabotaging the SEO effort.

Some companies rely on the web and search specifically, enough to warrant full time or part time SEO staff. However, what often happens with in-house SEOs is that they become tasked with many other responsibilities besides content optimization, link building and ongoing analysis. Educating and evangelizing SEO within companies can take a significant amount of time. Coordinating cross functional teams and reporting can also take away from core SEO implementation and oversight efforts.

With so much time spent on SEO tasks as well as ancillary activities, there’s not much time for experimentation and testing of new tactics. Without innovation, competitive advantage decreases and search based revenues can fall to competitors.

Other companies forego hiring an internal SEO professional and either task web developers, marketing and/or PR with SEO tasks. Each person performs their duties based on a different snapshot of SEO knowledge and experience, causing differences in implementation or a focus on things that are no longer impactful.  This is where you hear arguments about the importance of toolbar PageRank, keyword meta tags and latent semantic indexing silliness. Hell, some people still bring up “Florida Update“. 

I hate to say it, but hiring an outside SEO firm is not always the answer either. Some SEO consultants are structured to follow established processes with their own snapshot of SEO knowledge. Being accountable to increasing revenues puts an emphasis on efficiency and automating as many redundant processes as possible. Some SEO companies develop software solutions for much of their solution to improve efficiency and ability to scale. 

The problem with relying entirely on software based solutions to solve SEO problems is that it’s tough to innovate and stay current when your SEO expertise is based mostly on predefined checklists. Round pegs into round holes is great, but how do those programs deal with square pegs, triangles, rhombuses and trapezoids akin to some of the algorithmic, user interface and social media developments?  The focus on efficiency and profitablity leaves little time to innovate SEO knowledge, at least not quickly.

The solution to staying current with search marketing isn’t a magic pill or silver bullet software solution. It’s not adding more SEO staff in-house or outside vendors.  The answer is organizational and strategic. The environment in which a company web site serves as a tool to grow the business via new customer acquisition, product sales, lead generation, communicating with existing customers, marketing partners, the media, potential employees and industry influentials must allocate time for and reward innovation. 

A common and shared purpose and goal that is understood by all in the organization that is then translated uniquely to each department and person helps build a framework for the kind of innovation that not only affects SEO, but marketing, customer service, media relations and human resources.

Call it content strategy or just call it marketing, but don’t ignore the need for a  holistic approach to making digital content available and easy for intended audiences to discover, interact with and share. SEO of digital assets and text content improves sales for marketing, reduces customer service costs, can increase media coverage with news content and can improve job placement performance, among many other benefits.  

As I like to say, “If it can be searched on, it can be optimized”. People are searching for products, solutions, jobs, support info, news - you name it, it’s being searched on. The key is to leverage internal and external resources towards a commonly understood goals, having a plan and the tools/support/education to execute on reaching those goals and the analytics/reporting to provide feedback on progress.

It’s not enough to easily be found, web marketers need to understand how to make their content social media friendly just as they would make it search engine friendly. Consumers increasingly expect to interact with what they find in search.  The impact of search and social media on each other is just beginning.

Continuous focus on improvement on content marketing efforts leads to testing and innovation that creates an ongoing competitive advantage whether it’s search, social media or any other digital marketing channel. The question is, are companies and agencies willing to invest in making those strategic changes or will they be satisfied with status quo snapshots of old and possibly outdated (yet seemingly safe) tactics?

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The second most lucrative type of survey sites are those that pay in points for cash. These sites are slightly less desirable to me because of the difficulty in determining the value of a point on different sites. In fact, this is the reason why they use a point system: to make you feel as though you are earning more for your time than you actually are. Still, there are about 10 of these sites that should be part of your survey site portfolio. The clear stand-out among these sites, in my opinion, is Global Test Market ($254.50 earned, $204.50 rec’d since 2008-03-01) because GTM not only pays in cash, but pays me the most per month on average ($16.97) of any point site. Market Points are worth 5 cents each. GTM has a somewhat high minimum payout of $50 and currently only pays by check, which arrives in four to six weeks. Another Top Ten rated survey site that pays in points is Opinion Outpost ($220.70 earned, $217.70 rec’d since 2008-02-04). At 10 cents per point, Opinion Points are the most valuable points out there.

Although not rated in my top ten, HCD ($87.65 since 2008-02-07) is still a very reliable, hassle-free site that pays in points that are worth 1 cent each. Checks arrive in about two to four weeks; although, I have currently been waiting about two months for my last check to arrive. The Daily Survey Panel ($85.75 since 2008-06-08) is another great point site if you don’t mind doing surveys every morning that only pay $0.55 to $0.60 each and occasionally $1.00 or more. The points are worth $0.05 each, but you will pay a $0.45 fee for every $5 that you redeem via PayPal, which is why I now request checks that arrive in two to four weeks. MySurvey.com ($70.00 rec’d since 2008-02-02) isn’t my biggest earner, but the products they send for testing more than make up for it. YourTwoCents ($63 since 2008-03-01) is a fairly good survey site that now pays in points, but their points are the least valuable of them all: 30,000 points for $10!

The rest of the survey sites that pay in points don’t earn me as much. The points are worth less and it is more difficult to remember the value of their point systems; however, here are a few that you may want to check out: Epoll ($45.00 since 2008-02-19), LightSpeed ($40.00 since 2008-04-02) and Global Opinion Panel (Synovate) ($40.00 since 2008-05-02 plus LOTS of free products). Viewpoint ($34.67 since 2009-01-21) is the exception since I just joined them recently and the points are worth 3.75 cents each. Here is a summary of the value of the points from the best point sites.

Daily Survey Panel 1000 points = $5 PayPal (0.5 cent each)
Epoll 3500 points = $5 PayPal (0.14 cents each)
Global Opinion Panel 5000 Reward points = $5 PayPal (0.1 cent each)
Global Test Market 1000 Market points = $50 check (5 cents each)
HCD 1000 points = $10 check (1 cent each)
Lightspeed 575 Lightspeed points = $5 PayPal (0.87 cents each)
MySurvey.com 1000 Reward points = $10 check (1 cent each)
Opinion Outpost 50 Opinion points = $5 check (10 cents each)
Viewpoint 375 Forum points = $10 check (3.75 cents each)
YourTwoCents 30,000 points = $10 check (0.033 cent each)

Yes, I know it’s old! And yes, I know the Internet is clogged with spam! But the recession is giving email marketing new life! Why the new life? The answer is simple. Businesses are turning to cost-effective proven programs that get results. Email marketing fits this bill perfectly.

First, email is one of the most cost-effective direct marketing methods. Email campaigns can be fully implemented at a fraction of the cost of direct mail campaigns. Unlike direct mail campaigns every element of an email campaign is trackable including open rate, click through rate (to a landing page, if one is used in the campaign), and recipients’ response rate. This allows the return on investment (ROI) to be easily calculated. Lastly, it’s fast. Email campaigns can be quickly developed, precisely launched (including targeting and timing), and 80% of the recipients will respond (i.e. either take action or ignore it) within 48 hours.

Retailers in particular are embracing email marketing along with their shift in focus to customer retention in the current recession-era market. Longer-term marketing programs are being shelved in favor of low hanging fruit. The fact is email is low hanging fruit. According to a Shop.org study, 64% of the retailers increasing their advertising spending are putting more dollars into email marketing. That same study indicated that 96% of those retailers decreasing their advertising spending are still maintaining their email advertising budgets.

We have done countless email campaigns at TMA E-Marketing, for start-ups to enterprise companies. We were there when email was the hottest Internet marketing arrow in the quiver. We saw it decline as spam clogged email in-boxes and as search engine marketing became king. Now, it’s making a comeback and with good reason. When done properly, it is capable of yielding amazing results. There’s the catch. What does it mean to do it properly? Here are the three top rules we consider important:

1. The list is the most critical element. The only list that will work is a targeted opt-in list. If it’s not targeted, the results will be hit and miss. If it’s not opt-in, it will not comply with the Can-Spam law. The best list is a company’s in-house opt-in email list. This is a list where the company’s clients and prospects have agreed to accept email messages from them. We are generally able to routinely get 25-50% open rates using in-house opt-in lists.
2. The second critical element is the offer. The offer needs to be compelling. Finding the right compelling offer is far from easy and generally requires careful testing of different offers.
3. Everything else is tied for third! This includes email design, copy, landing page, etc. In short, if you don’t get the first two elements right (i.e. the list and a compelling offer), nothing you do from that point on will matter.

Obviously, tracking every element of the email campaign is essential. With careful tracking you will be able to segment the list, test different offers, and test other elements of the campaign. Ultimately, tracking will enable a return on investment to be calculated. Doing an email campaign without tracking is equivalent to driving with a blindfold. The results are likely to be disastrous.

One last point that is often overlooked is email’s branding power. Email is generally viewed as a direct response marketing tool. However, email provides an opportunity for a company to raise brand awareness and to maintain its brand. Even those recipients that don’t take action are still exposed to the company’s brand and messaging.

The recession has required companies to pinch pennies and focus on what works. Guess what? They are rediscovering that email is cost-effective and works!

Yes, I know it’s old! And yes, I know the Internet is clogged with spam! But the recession is giving email marketing new life! Why the new life? The answer is simple. Businesses are turning to cost-effective proven programs that get results. Email marketing fits this bill perfectly.

First, email is one of the most cost-effective direct marketing methods. Email campaigns can be fully implemented at a fraction of the cost of direct mail campaigns. Unlike direct mail campaigns every element of an email campaign is trackable including open rate, click through rate (to a landing page, if one is used in the campaign), and recipients’ response rate. This allows the return on investment (ROI) to be easily calculated. Lastly, it’s fast. Email campaigns can be quickly developed, precisely launched (including targeting and timing), and 80% of the recipients will respond (i.e. either take action or ignore it) within 48 hours.

Retailers in particular are embracing email marketing along with their shift in focus to customer retention in the current recession-era market. Longer-term marketing programs are being shelved in favor of low hanging fruit. The fact is email is low hanging fruit. According to a Shop.org study, 64% of the retailers increasing their advertising spending are putting more dollars into email marketing. That same study indicated that 96% of those retailers decreasing their advertising spending are still maintaining their email advertising budgets.

We have done countless email campaigns at TMA E-Marketing, for start-ups to enterprise companies. We were there when email was the hottest Internet marketing arrow in the quiver. We saw it decline as spam clogged email in-boxes and as search engine marketing became king. Now, it’s making a comeback and with good reason. When done properly, it is capable of yielding amazing results. There’s the catch. What does it mean to do it properly? Here are the three top rules we consider important:

1. The list is the most critical element. The only list that will work is a targeted opt-in list. If it’s not targeted, the results will be hit and miss. If it’s not opt-in, it will not comply with the Can-Spam law. The best list is a company’s in-house opt-in email list. This is a list where the company’s clients and prospects have agreed to accept email messages from them. We are generally able to routinely get 25-50% open rates using in-house opt-in lists.
2. The second critical element is the offer. The offer needs to be compelling. Finding the right compelling offer is far from easy and generally requires careful testing of different offers.
3. Everything else is tied for third! This includes email design, copy, landing page, etc. In short, if you don’t get the first two elements right (i.e. the list and a compelling offer), nothing you do from that point on will matter.

Obviously, tracking every element of the email campaign is essential. With careful tracking you will be able to segment the list, test different offers, and test other elements of the campaign. Ultimately, tracking will enable a return on investment to be calculated. Doing an email campaign without tracking is equivalent to driving with a blindfold. The results are likely to be disastrous.

One last point that is often overlooked is email’s branding power. Email is generally viewed as a direct response marketing tool. However, email provides an opportunity for a company to raise brand awareness and to maintain its brand. Even those recipients that don’t take action are still exposed to the company’s brand and messaging.

The recession has required companies to pinch pennies and focus on what works. Guess what? They are rediscovering that email is cost-effective and works!