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INTRODUCTION

You have a business. You have a web presence. But with a weak economy and increased competition, you may be wondering if you’re doing enough to market yourself. 50 Winning eTIPS Every Marketer Must Know is ﬁ lled with stellar e-marketing methods, provided compliments of Starmark International, to make your web presence work harder and smarter for your business.

Starmark’s interactive marketing gurus have outlined these initiatives, ranging from big ideas to ﬁ ne-tuning your website to touches of “what’s next.” These eTIPS will make what you’re currently doing more effective, as well as open up a new landscape of opportunities.

We would love to hear how these eTIPS are working for you, so please keep in touch. Until then, we’ll see you on the Internet.

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE. (IT’S A SNAP.)

When you see this symbol, you can access additional related content on your smartphone: 1. Download the Tag Reader app at http://GetTag.mobi 2. Install the Tag Reader 3. Snap the tag social/mobile marketing

CREATE A BLOG; IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE, + BUT IT MAY BE PERFECT FOR YOU

Search engines love blogs. From a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective, the structure of a blog – constantly changing content, lots of linking between pages, content that’s categorized and grouped – is very well-suited for SEO. And from a corporate social media standpoint, corporate blogs give your company a platform to talk about company news, but also display another face to your audience.

While not all corporate blogs are created equal, Whole Foods Market, for example, is among the companies that get it right. Their “Whole Story” blog regularly posts recipes, food facts and lifestyle tips. Recent content includes a map of local growers, a trip giveaway and an article about men’s health. The content cleverly balances informative with entertaining.

Common corporate blog errors, on the other hand, include speaking only to the interests of shareholders or being entirely self-serving. Your blog will work better when you don’t make it work too hard.

Here are a few other caveats:

A blog is not suitable for every organization; like every other marketing program, make sure you understand both your audience and your goals for the blog, and then ensure it satisﬁ es both.

Don’t do a blog if you can’t update it at least weekly. And the content must be authentic.

Just look around online and see how Dell, Cisco and other companies work a blog right. public relations

KEYWORD-RICH PRESS RELEASES, , AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, keywords are like gold. However, it’s not enough to optimize your website content and stop there, because even the press releases your company distributes on Internet newswires could beneﬁ t from a good SEO makeover.

PR Web, for example, can host your searchable press release on prweb.com and provide visibility on Yahoo! News and Google. But whether or not your press release comes up on a search depends on whether or not it’s keyword-rich.

In doing this, it’s important to understand which keywords are relevant to your business (a.k.a. driving conversions and trafﬁ c) right now and will come up high on a search. Choose ﬁ ve to ten keywords. Then, write your press release with those keywords in mind, so that they occur naturally and seamlessly. Your release should also give a call to action by including hyperlinks that take readers to a landing page, because the goal is to get the reader back to your website. All roads should lead back to you. seo/sem

LONG TAIL KEYWORDS: - A SMART SEM STRATEGY

Why should you pay for every search a consumer types as he decides between a “red sports car,” a “blue sports car” and “a tan minivan?” When paying for clicks, businesses tend to focus on the perceived top 10-20 search terms in order to bring consumer trafﬁ c to their site. However, how often are these consumers ready to buy? The terms that are most popular and most managed by site owners are rarely those that provide the most business. Translation: They’re just browsing.

And it is here that we split keywords into two main groups: short tail keywords and long tail keywords, or general keywords and speciﬁ c keywords. To continue our car buying scenario, examples of long tail keywords that work well on paid searches include “Red 2009 Ford Mustang Tampa” or “Used Tan 2001 Dodge Caravan Low Miles.” These searchers are much farther down the sales funnel, and are ready to buy.

Because there is less competition for long tail keywords, it’s easier to rank on the fi rst page of Google. Sure, long tail keywords bring less traffi c, but these visitors convert amazingly well to sales. And that’s the best kind of traffi c. website optimization

ANCHOR TEXT: . EASY TO DO RIGHT

Anchor text is the visible text of a link. Although it may consist of just one or two words, what your anchor text says when linking back to your site is a very big deal. A huge deal. Colossal. But also very easy to do right.

The power of anchor text lies in how high your website will rank in search engine results. And this is based on the hyperlinks that connect to you from other people’s sites, not your own. This is called link building. Link building starts with choosing the best keywords that relate to your business. Then, whether you are requesting links from other sites, submitting to directories or buying links (and be careful whom you buy from), you have to choose the right anchor text.

Think of anchor text as your call to action.

“Click here,” for example, is just about the worst anchor text to be associated with – unless your company’s name is “Click” and you sell “here.” For an example of what we mean, try this: Search for “Click here” on a search engine. The number one result is Adobe Acrobat. That’s because thousands of websites prompt users to download Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view a PDF, with the anchor text “Click here.” Because of this anchor text, the search engines have now come to associate that phrase with Adobe’s site. This is a key example of how important it is to have the right anchor text for your inbound links in order to increase your visibility in the search engines.

On the other hand, having the exact same anchor text on all of your links may not be the best approach, either. Try mixing it up by adding a word, changing from singular to plural, or stemming a word differently. Easy, right? analytics/tracking

TRACK ROI ACROSS ALL CHANNELS / (ONLINE AND OFFLINE)

Nowadays, marketing budgets are hitting a plateau, if not careening downhill. Everyone has to closely watch where their money goes – and hope it comes back bringing customers. When it comes to any type of marketing, it’s important to track Return on Investment. And with what is happening to budgets, it’s even more important to track all campaigns across both online and ofﬂine channels in order to know which tactics are working and which are not. Then, ramp up the good efforts and shut off the bad ones.

Juggling online figures like conversion rates and CPC or CPM costs becomes even more complicated when simultaneously running multiple campaigns across multiple channels. Add in the offline channels, it becomes even more difficult.

But tracking is very important in today’s economy.

Cross-channel tracking should deﬁnitely be in your toolbox. You’ll be using it regularly to analyze all your advertising channels, including (but deﬁnitely not limited to) print ads, television, radio, paid search (SEM), natural search (SEO), email, banner ads, billboards, promotional items and trade shows.

Starmark uses our proprietary QuickwebPro® software for our clients. However, you may opt to use a basic Excel spreadsheet. Whatever tracking program you use, knowing where and how well your money is working will always work in your favor.

QuickwebPro®

BNContact

Replicator

ChannelPro website optimization

MARKET TO SEARCH ENGINES 0 WITH AN XML SITEMAP

Invite Google and Yahoo! to get better acquainted with your website or blog through an XML sitemap. Also called a “search engine sitemap,” an XML sitemap is a document that lists all the different pages on your website that you want the search engines to crawl, and which most major search engines can read and look for to correctly index your website, including URLs that may not be discoverable by their normal crawling process.

These XML sitemaps are created speciﬁcally for search engines, and should not be confused with HTML sitemaps, which the ﬁrst generation of websites used and are no longer considered good site design.

With this SEO-friendly tool, you have the ability to create a hierarchy of content and exclude low priority pages. It lets the search engines know when you’ve got fresh content (which they love) by allowing you to specify date changes of content modiﬁcation. Basically, submitting an XML sitemap of URLs to Yahoo! or Google is like candy to them – up to 50,000 pieces of “URL candy.” It’s the ultimate sugar rush.

Do it: if your website is fewer than 500 pages, you can generate a free XML sitemap now at www.xml-sitemaps.com/ in four easy steps. For larger websites, you can also purchase a sitemap generator, for a nominal fee. seo/sem

DIVERSIFY YOUR 1 SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

Yahoo!, Bing and Ask – respectfully known as “the other three” – may not be monopolizing the current online advertising industry like Google, but they do offer other signifi cant benefi ts. Since there is less competition, your company may have a better likelihood of ranking higher. Also, consumers coming from Yahoo!, Bing and Ask may convert at higher rates. As you may remember from a previous eTIP, it’s not just higher traffi c that counts, but the traffi c that converts the best. By focusing on the smaller search engines, your marketing dollars may just go farther.

Of course, to be sure, you will need to track conversions across all search engines, to understand which is driving the best trafﬁ c based on conversions, basket size, and lifetime value to the organization. But it’s smart to start by casting a wider net. seo/sem

PAID INCLUSION IS ALWAYS 2 A SURE THING

Appearing on the ﬁ rst page of a search engine is like reaching the city of Eldorado. It’s an amazing feat and not easily achieved. So take a shortcut and buy your way into the natural search results of Yahoo! While Search Engine Optimization is a long-term strategy, paid inclusion offers almost instantaneous results. Basically, you will pay Yahoo! to ensure that your search result ends up on the ﬁ rst page of that keyword’s search engine results page (SERP), in the “Natural/Organic” (vs. the paid search area). To end-users, they are clicking on the natural results, as they cannot tell the difference between these results and the truly “organic” listings. Yahoo! calls it Search Submit, but it is also known in the industry as Paid Inclusion.

It’s perfect for short-run offers and promotions in which timing is critical – along with tracking every cent spent on the promotion in order to measure return. This tactic guarantees your website will appear on the ﬁ rst page. This is one time when “natural” isn’t necessarily totally organic. seo/sem

PUT YOUR WEBSITE ON THE MAP 3 WITH DMOZ

Not long ago, if you remember, the Yahoo! search engine was organized by categories, allowing Web users to search for a website in a linear way. A person would start with the general category of “Health” and narrow down their search to eventually reach a list of “Nutrition Supplement” websites, for example.

Yahoo! still maintains the Yahoo! Directory. Likewise, the Open Directory Project (ODP), based at www.dmoz.org, maintains the largest most comprehensive user-edited directory of the World Wide Web. It is a means for the Internet to organize itself, as well as an unbiased, non-promotional, non-sponsored resource of websites. And by “non- sponsored,” we mean free. And by “free,” we mean there’s no reason your website should not be listed on DMOZ. In fact, there’s one big reason to be listed.

Being on DMOZ will increase your ranking on Google, Yahoo! and other search engines versus not being there. All it takes is a visit to www.dmoz.org and clicking on the “Submit a URL” link. Find the correct category for your site, read the criteria, and follow the simple steps, and you’re on your way. Since this is a human-edited directory, it may take months for your submission to be included. So you might as well knock this off your to-do list today. seo/sem

A SPIDER SIMULATOR HELPS YOU +* MARKET TO SEARCH ENGINES

When a search engine crawls the Web for sites, it uses a spider. Of course, this is not a fuzzy arachnid, but an application that searches our kind of Web, cataloging the content on pages and the links between them. However, the important keywords and links displayed on your web page may not be visible to search engine spiders. That is why it is essential that you run a spider simulator against your site. This tool allows you to see your website through a spider’s eyes and get an idea of how the search engines see your site.

From the text to the links, all of the “spiderable” content will be listed right before your eyes. Hopefully, you will have a very extensive list. If not, you have some work to do.

In addition to the quantity of text and links, the spider simulator will show you if Google, Yahoo! and the others are seeing the right content in the right order. This is again part of marketing to search engines, and determines your ranking.

If this sounds familiar, you may be reminded of the XML sitemap discussion. (See eTIP #6.) While the sitemap tells the spiders what pages are on your site, this type of search tells the spiders what content is on those pages. Very useful information. seo/sem

PROMOTE YOUR URL: ++ PUT IT ON EVERYTHING

Because your customers can come from anywhere at anytime – and because a web address is easier to remember than a phone number – it’s important to put your URL on everything. After all, the Internet never closes. Letterhead, invoices, hold messages, bus benches, packaging, shipping labels, signage and, of course, ads are all opportunities to promote your URL and drive business to your site.

On the other hand, you want to make sure not to cannibalize your other marketing efforts. Here’s a cautionary tale: A company promoted its website and in-bound sales call center phone number on their TV and radio spots. They had the best of intentions. However, they lost the immediacy of the “call now” call-to-action as consumers chose to visit the website at their leisure. As a result, the company had a 10% drop in calls, but only a 2% rise in website visits. We ﬁ gured out that people were planning on visiting the web site “later,” but then would not do so. The urgency was lost.

This illustrates the absolute importance, once again, of tracking results to see which channels are working best for your marketing needs – and to ensure that your channels are working together. seo/sem

INCREASE WEB VISITS BY BUYING +, YOUR OWN BRANDED KEYWORDS

In paid search campaigns, buying your own branded keywords helps ensure your company will appear in search results the way you want them to, with your website as one of the lead results. On the other hand, by not buying your own branded keywords, your own website (let’s call it XYZ Cruise Line) could appear after a dozen different travel agencies that sell trips on your cruise line.

So, what’s the big deal? Once upon a time, a marketing executive insisted buying his own name and branded keywords was a waste of money, that his company had such a prominent identity, he didn’t need to pay for it. Well, he turned off the paid keywords, and his website visits declined almost immediately. The next day, he immediately turned them back on.

Part of the reason for their importance is that consumers use the search engines to ﬁ nd your site. Instead of typing in www.YourSite.com, they will type YourSite into Google, and then click to you from the results. And someone who is that laser-focused on ﬁ nding you is probably a better candidate for conversion than someone typing in a general search term.

Also, having your paid ads appear next to natural results will very often result in a lift in clicks on the natural side. Now, is there ever a beneﬁ t to buying your competitors’ branded keywords? Of course there is. Stay tuned… research

CUSTOMER SURVEYS: +- YES, YOU CAN TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

The Internet is a two-way street (or superhighway, if you prefer), especially when it comes to receiving feedback from customers or prospects. If you have an email list or even just a website, use those vehicles to talk to your customers and ﬁ nd out what they’re thinking. Conducting a customer survey is much easier than you would imagine. There are several online services that simplify and facilitate the process.

SurveyMonkey.com, for example, offers plans that range from free to $200/year. They handle all of the software and security issues, while you just write the questions. Speaking of which, it’s important that you understand the art and science of writing a survey. You can search online for tips, but here are a few general rules: outline your goals beforehand; don’t ask too many questions; don’t make the questions long and arduous; and be sure to ask non-leading questions. This is one area where you may want to hire someone who understands research to help you create a survey that will not only produce understanding, but also drive actionable results.

It’s also a good idea to do a test run of your survey before you send it out to your entire mailing list. For instance, if there’s drop-off after question four, you’ll have an opportunity to retool. Cool. public relations

MARKET YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT ON +. SQUIDOO.COM AND HUBPAGES.COM

In your industry you’re an expert on something. And people want to read about it. Perhaps it’s “event planning,” if you’re a restaurateur. Or it could be “saving in a recession,” if you’re in the ﬁ nancial industry. Whatever your area of expertise, the Internet has forums that allow you to share your knowledge with the world.

Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com make it easy for people like you to compose articles on interesting topics. Within this community, you can also create a personal proﬁ le about you, your business and your accomplishments. Both of these sites allow you to create content related to your business and expertise. And if done in a thoughtful, compelling way — and updated regularly or with new content added (they are called ‘Lenses’ in Squidoo, and ‘Hubs’ in Hubpages) — you can create quite a following that could lead to new customers for your main business.

Don’t be shy. Forums like this have become a powerful way to engage with potential consumers. This is a viable way to enter their circle of inﬂ uence by earning their trust and respect.

Remember, your audience is not here to be sold to. Save the selling for elsewhere. However, you want to make sure you have sufﬁ cient links back to your website. From a Search Engine Optimization perspective, your article could well show up in search engine results pages (SERPs). website optimization +/ MAKE YOUR PAGE TITLE SPEAK VOLUMES That web page title in the top bar of your web browser may be something you regularly overlook as an Internet user, but search engines know its true importance. In fact, they have placed a great deal of trust in what you put on the page title, and it’s a high-ranking factor in current search engine algorithms.

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), simply using “Home” or the name of your company is not good enough. Make good use of this piece of Web real estate with a speciﬁ c title that accurately states what that page is about. For example, instead of “Acme Tile,” the page title should say “The East Coast’s Largest Italian Tile Distributor.”

With a quick change to the Title meta-tag in your page HTML source, this tells a search engine spider what that page is about in a concise way that will also look good on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Yes, search engines do judge a book by its cover. website optimization

INCREASE CONVERSIONS WITH +0 GOOGLE WEBSITE OPTIMIZER

With this free testing tool from Google, you can turn your website into a conversion dynamo. Google’s Website Optimizer divides visitors to your website into different groups, presenting each a version of your website in order to track how they interact to your site. You can do simple AB Tests that compare just two or three pages, or complex multivariate experiments.

Website Optimizer ﬁ gures out which pages and/or elements (i.e. headlines, graphics, text) on those pages are most effective at producing the outcome you’re looking for, whether it’s getting them to stay on the page for a length of time, increasing opt-ins, and so on.

It’s easy to set up; all you need is a website and web browser. Again, the tool is free, but the beneﬁ ts are priceless – such as increasing conversion rates, decreasing visitor bounce rates and increasing visitor satisfaction. You’ll also eliminate the guesswork from website design with real stats you can understand. If only Google could optimize all aspects of our life. research

KEEP YOUR WEBSITE IN THE GAME +1 WITH A COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT

To be a real player in the game of online marketing, you need to at least do what your competitors are doing, and preferably more. As it is always said, “The competition doesn’t set the bar. The competition sets the ﬂ oor.”

This means you can’t just launch your website and forget about it. Look at Yahoo! This is a company that didn’t keep up with the evolution of Google fast enough. They fell behind, and now they’re hurting. They should have done a competitive assessment.

When conducting an assessment of your competitors’ websites, you should review the quality and quantity of their content, navigation, tools and imagery. Are they using HTML5 while you’re still using Flash? Do they invite consumers to opt-in for a weekly e-newsletter? You may also consider reviewing the websites outside of your immediate competition set. For example, what can you learn from coca-cola. com about engaging the consumer?

Remember, one of the most important factors in conducting a competitive assessment is objectivity. If you’re uncomfortable being impartial, you may consider bringing in an outside agency. Or ask your brother-in-law. Just make sure you put this tool to use at least once a year. social/mobile marketing

MAKE YOUR BRAND +2 THE NEXT YOUTUBE STAR

With just a camera, a microphone and software that you probably already have on your computer, your company could become a viral Internet sensation. At the very least, you can engage with consumers on another plane by creating YouTube videos related to your products.

Think of the popularity of Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” videos, in which a host in a lab coat and goggles “blends” golf balls, glow sticks and other unusual items in a Blendtec blender in order to prove its power. Your YouTube video doesn’t have to have the humor of “Will It Blend?” to be effective (unless that’s what you want), nor does it have to have 10 million viewers, or a huge budget. But do make it interesting, and make sure it’s short enough to hold your audience’s attention.

Another mandatory: keyword tagging. Tagging your video with appropriate keywords allows search engines to better ﬁ nd you. Make sure they are relevant to your content, include your company name, and include adjectives and category descriptors. Now, let’s make magic.

Will an iPhone blend? Watch the video now. marketing in a recession

BLOG COMMENTS ARE KEY +3 TO GETTING YOUR URL OUT THERE

Link building involves anything you do to point hyperlinks back to your website or blog from other websites. One of the easiest (and totally free) ways to accomplish this is to leave a comment on someone else’s blog. When doing so, you will be prompted to enter you name, email address and a URL. It’s not hugely important what your comment states. An elaborate display of your expertise is not required, although your remarks should be positive and intelligently worded. The URL ﬁ eld is where you really bring it home – literally. Through link building tactics like this, you can increase trafﬁ c to your site, create awareness and add credibility. seo/sem

USE LANDING PAGES ,* TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS

When doing Search Engine Marketing (SEM), or paid search, it’s important that search engine results take consumers to a speciﬁ c landing page, as opposed to your home page. This is especially true when using a long tail keyword strategy (see eTIP #3).

A landing page is created specifi cally to convert your paid search traffi c into sales. Therefore, if someone is searching for “Blue Ford Mustang Atlanta,” then he or she should be taken to a landing page very specifi c to those keywords. In fact, including those keywords in a headline on the landing page, e.g. “You searched for Blue Ford Mustang Atlanta,” could probably help you get a bigger lift in conversions.

The landing page should provide information about the product and an opportunity to buy. To make your landing page work most effectively, you’ll want to, at minimum, have groups of keywords go to certain landing pages, which is to say, some landing pages may have to work for groups of products. But, ideally, every keyword search would lead to its own landing page. marketing in a recession

PROMOTE YOURSELF IN BULK ,+ WITH GROUP DISCOUNTS

If your company sells products or services online, you can increase your visibility by offering discounts to relevant associations, trade organizations, and people with popular blogs or e-newsletters. Approach these groups and offer a discount on the purchase of your product or service to their members and subscribers. For example, if you sell Italian kitchen cabinets, a builder’s association or interior design blogger might be interested in offering their members a discounted price.

The call to action may be something like “For the next 30 days, use code ITAL at checkout,” or an automatic link to a specialized portion of your website. While some of the larger e-newsletters, such as Daily Candy, charge for this kind of advertising, there are many opportunities to reach a targeted audience for free. They’ll appreciate the mutual validation. And you’ll appreciate the “free.” social/mobile marketing

STRENGTHEN YOUR WEB PRESENCE ,, WITH A SLIDESHOW ON SLIDESHARE.NET

We’ve already told you about some great places to publish content online (#1, Create a blog; #14, Market yourself as an expert on Squidoo and Hubpages.com; and #18, Make your brand the next YouTube star). Slideshare.net is another free social media content site that allows you to create an envelope of information about your business outside of your website.

Slideshare allows you to upload slideshows of your own or view others’. In addition, you can join groups and embed or link slideshows to your blog, Facebook page, or website. Upload and share your PowerPoint & Keynote presentations, Word & PDF documents, and videos too. You can also add audio to make a webinar or online educational and training documents (see eTIP #47).

Like Squidoo.com, Slideshare is a valuable vehicle for positioning yourself as an expert in your fi eld. If you are an event planner, your slideshow might display one or more successful events. If you work in fi nance, you might post a tax season tutorial. You could also give a sales webinar and invite colleagues far and wide to view it, since whatever you upload is there and viewable 24/7 – no moderator required. Another key benefi t of Slideshare is that your audience can click directly to your site or blog. So, if you’ve given that killer presentation, let others get a chance to see it.

Slideshare is also beneﬁ cial in increasing your ranking on Yahoo! and other search engines. And as with Squidoo and blog entries, it’s important to regularly update your content, since search engines continually crawl the web looking for fresh content. So when applying SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with Slideshare, remember to use keywords in the title, keywords in the summary and tags. And when your slideshow is up to 3,000 views, you’ll know why. social/mobile marketing

ADS ON FACEBOOK MAKE IT EASY ,- TO HIT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Placing ads on Facebook and/or LinkedIn is certainly worth a try. For a relatively low budget of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, you can test these social media waters. And you can choose either the pay-per-click or CPM (cost per thousand impressions) plan.

As with marketing on any channel, the more effectively you can match your company’s message to the audience, the better return on investment you are likely to get. That’s the beneﬁ t of advertising on Facebook and LinkedIn. For example, if you are a recruiter and provide products and services to job seekers, LinkedIn appears to be a worthwhile tool to implement. Likewise, both LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to narrow your audience based on certain demographics.

With LinkedIn, you can choose geography, job title and industry. With Facebook, you can pinpoint members based on geography, interests, political afﬁ liation, religion, marital status and more. This is one of the best ways to work the social media phenomenon so that it works for you. seo/sem

ROLL OUT THE WELCOME MAT ,. WITH LOCAL SEARCH

Reach the consumers in your neighborhood, city or region with local search. This is a great tool for small businesses looking to advertise on the Web. Yahoo! and Google offer local versions of their search engines. Citysearch is another site to look into. With this marketing tool, small businesses such as restaurants, hair salons, insurance agencies and boutiques will be able to target a localized consumer base through search results.

For example, if you own an Italian restaurant in Dallas, you can ensure that your establishment will appear in the sponsored results on the ﬁ rst SERP (Search Engine Results Page) whenever someone searches for “Italian Restaurant Dallas,” “Pizza Dallas” or “Pasta Dallas.” In fact, in Yahoo!, you can list your business for free, but upgrade it with an enhanced or featuring listing to make your ad more prominent. Meanwhile, your paid ad will appear on Google local search as well as Google Maps.

Regional targeting is a very efﬁ cient way to reach your consumers at exactly the moment they’re searching for a business like yours. After all, timing is everything. email marketing

BUILD A FOLLOWING ,/ WITH EMAIL MARKETING

Email marketing is essential these days. It’s a way to communicate with customers monthly, weekly, daily or several times a day – but with the beneﬁ t of a low cost of entry. To begin, all you need are email addresses, an email marketing service provider, and of course, something to say. But be sure to keep it interesting. Email topics may include upcoming sales promotions, information about your service or product, a credibility story, events and more. These ongoing messages keep your company top-of-mind and help build customer loyalty.

If you don’t already have the email addresses of your current customers, get them. There are many ways to capture this information, including a business card drop or sign-up sheet at the sales counter, requesting it during customer service calls, and even requesting it on billing statements. To optimize your email blasts, test different subject lines, the placement of graphics and text, and continuously build and reﬁ ne your email list. You’ll also want to become familiar with CAN SPAM rules regarding opt-ins and proper subject lines.

If you’re already doing email marketing, take it up a notch and get some analytics going. You should analyze the open rates and click-thru rates you see at certain times of day or certain days of the week, for example.

The ﬁ nal reason to start an email marketing program today: This is all even easier than it sounds. And that’s always a good thing. research

FOCUS ON WHAT CONSUMERS WANT ,0 WITH A FOCUS GROUP

Get in some face time with your customers by conducting market research with a focus group. Essentially, a focus group is a way to receive constructive feedback directly from your customers or potential customers. Focus groups are used in planning, marketing and evaluation by asking questions that will help you improve your company’s product or service. Focus groups can help you resolve existing issues or even generate new ideas.

However, it’s important you use focus groups for directional research, such as testing assumptions and determining consumer trends, attitudes and thought processes. For example, if you were running a hospital you might ask, “How do you choose a hospital?” Some people might answer that they base their choice on “Parking,” “Awards,” or “Location.” On the other hand, a focus group is too small a pool for deﬁ nitive research, such as ﬁ nding out the percentage of people who choose a hospital based on the amount of parking. For that, an online survey would serve you better (see eTIP #13).

Finally, it’s important that you hire an organization that knows what they’re doing in this arena. A good moderator is critical, or your focus group might turn into a free-for- all. Usually, we’re all for “free” – but not in this case. public relations

ONLINE NEWS WIRES GET YOUR ,1 PRESS RELEASES IN THE RIGHT HANDS

While getting your news directly to MSNBC, Yahoo! News or Google News may be a far-reaching goal, there are other ways to get to the big time. Several news wire services exist online to help you facilitate the process of disseminating press releases. Businesswire.com, PRnewswire.com and PRweb.com route your news by category to journalists in various ﬁ elds of interest, including international, arts and entertainment, sports, technology and more. Taking it a step further, BlackPRWire.com, HispanicPRWire.com and USAsianwire.com distribute news to culturally speciﬁ c media.

Submitting a press release is easy but it is a members-only service that requires you to spend a few minutes signing up. After that, upload your release, photos, logos and video content related to your press release — and don’t forget the links back to your website. Some of these services also offer tips on how to write a press release as well tips for Search Engine Optimization. For an overview of SEO for press releases, refer back to eTIP #2 (“Keyword-rich press releases, and why they are important”). Now, start spreading the news. analytics/tracking

OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE WITH AN ,2 ANALYTICS PACKAGE

How do your consumers get to your website? Where do they go once they get there? And when are they leaving? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to download and install an analytics package. Whether you are running a large or small website, there are powerful tools you can use to uncover visitor preferences and track their journey through your site in order to optimize a website or marketing campaign’s audience response.

WebTrends and Omniture offer higher end packages, providing the full functionality that major websites need. For smaller websites, Google Analytics is free and easy to implement on your site, but be aware that Google also owns all the data it collects from your site. What you learn should keep you busy for a while, and once your website is optimized and converting consumers, you’ll be busy ﬁ lling orders. marketing in a recession

BUILD BUZZ WITH COURAGEOUSLY ,3 OUTRAGEOUS MARKETING

If you haven’t seen the “Will It Blend?” videos created by Blendtec, watch them now on YouTube and prepare to laugh. However, you’ll also marvel at how effectively these videos convey the product’s unique selling point: power.

This series of short videos launched in October 2006, with a budget of $50, a garden rake and Tom Dickson, the founder and CEO of Blendtec, starring in a white lab coat. Within ﬁ ve days, these no-frills clips had gone viral with six million views. Since then, a number of unexpected items have been blended by a Blendtec, such as glow sticks, marbles, tilapia and a Rubik’s Cube.

George Wright, Blendtec’s director of marketing admits he never expected “Will It Blend?” to become a phenomenon, and, honestly, you shouldn’t expect results like that either. It would be extremely difﬁ cult to plan “the next viral phenomenon” (and end up on “The Tonight Show”), because you just never know what will catch on. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Whatever your product or service is, pull together a coterie of creative- thinking people and start generating outrageous ideas. A tongue-in- cheek Facebook page, a YouTube video, a bogus ad or landing page, a crazy contest or a fake controversy, e.g. www.diamondshreddies.com

In demonstrating your product or service, it’s important to note that you should not inﬂ ate its beneﬁ ts. That’s part of the beauty of the Blendtec clips. They’re completely real. So – unlike some of the Blendtec experiments – DO try this at home. You might just catch lightning in a bottle. (Actually, that might make a great video.)

See Starmark’s case study on the guerilla marketing “I Wear Your Shirt” experiment. research

GET INSIDE YOUR CONSUMERS’ HEADS -* WITH A USABILITY STUDY

Usability testing involves the systematic observation of persons using a product under controlled conditions. Best conducted by an outside agency or usability expert, usability studies will provide insights into performance, accuracy, recall and emotional response. For example, how many steps did it take Joe to ﬁ nd something to buy on your website or check out? How many mistakes did he make in navigating your site? How much information did Joe walk away with? Was he comfortable on your website or was it a stressful experience?

The experts conducting your usability study will recruit a small group of people based on demographics. One by one, each person will be observed interacting with your website. You and your team may observe them, as well. There is also software available that can record where their mouse goes and what they click on.

At the end, your usability report will probably have some surprises. The navigation may not be as intuitive as you think, and users may not go where you expect. Web users can be as unpredictable as cats — but that’s okay. Because the point is to see your website through their eyes, and whatever you learn will allow you to make your web presence even better. social/mobile marketing -+ GENERATE A FOLLOWING ON TWITTER Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media sites in the world. And that alone is enough motivation to sign up and start putting this free networking tool to work for you. Another reason is its ease of use. Twitter lets you create a running micro-blog of just 140 characters or less. The social element of Twitter allows you to “follow” other users and vice versa, monitoring one another’s updates and messages via IM, cell phones and the Web.

There are numerous articles about how best to utilize Twitter for marketing purposes. However, our best piece of advice is this: Don’t become a tweeting marketer. Be yourself. Be interesting. Write about something you feel passionately about – but know that you won’t build a following by shilling. If you import ﬁ ne wines, write about your opinion of the Riesling comeback. If you’re a real estate developer, you might post on the topic of low interest rates and purchase incentives, for example.

Another way Twitter can boost your marketing efforts is it enables you to monitor how “infl uencers” think or feel. You can connect with current and potential customers and insinuate yourself into their lifestyles, which helps build brand loyalty. Twitter, of course, also helps build traffi c when you place links to your website within your profi le. Twitter is already the next big thing, which means you’re late. So get started now.

Follow Starmark Read Starmark’s “Twitter on Twitter. for Business” cheat sheet. analytics/tracking

TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF YOUR -, WEB MARKETING WITH AB TESTING

In creating a web presence, there are a lot of different ways to go in terms of layout, text, images, colors, offers and so on. So how do you know which direction will help you achieve your goals? AB Testing allows you to test two variations of a web page or email blast in order to determine which is more successful. (Think of it like bracketing for the NCAA ﬁ nals.) For example, does an orange “buy now” button work better than a green one? Does a subject line with a freebie offer work better than one with a discount offer? Is it more effective to place the navigation bar at the top or on the left? These may seem like trivial differences. However, once your AB Testing results come in, you’ll discover they’re huge.

For example, a company tested how consumers would react to changing their usual 15% discount offer to just 7% off. Surprisingly, sales increased. It seems that people assumed the price must already be the bare-bones lowest available if the company is only offering 7% off.

Once both versions of the web page are created, you divide the traffi c based on a defi ned proportion, such as 50/50 or 80/20 – for a short period of time – depending on your daily volume of traffi c. To test an email blast, send out the alternate version to a subset of your email list. AB Testing should be an ongoing process that will allow you to incrementally optimize your site over the next few months or even the next year. In other words… Always Be Testing. email marketing

USE DIRECT MAIL TO REACH YOUR CLIENTS’ -- MAILBOX AS WELL AS THEIR INBOX

Even in the web world, print is still your friend. That’s why it’s a good idea to use a direct mail campaign to reinforce your web marketing. For example, send a printed piece to your mailing list to alert them they will soon receive an email announcing a big sale, new inventory and so on. Likewise, you can send out direct mail to follow up on your email marketing.

When we have done this for our clients, we have seen as much as a 24% boost in the overall return.

You can even make excellent use of the medium by delivering a tactile, dimensional or scented piece – reaching consumers on a more sensory level, something the Internet can’t accommodate. If done right, direct mail can be a valuable part of your marketing mix. And the more you touch your consumer – and the more integrated channels you use – the better. website optimization

BREADCRUMBS KEEP YOUR -. CONSUMERS ON THE RIGHT PATH

The deeper you go into a website, the trickier it can be to ﬁ nd your way back. For example, Jill Consumer has been shopping for an automobile on your website for 30 minutes, but now she’d like to go back to a vehicle she saw 20 pages ago. She doesn’t necessarily want to hit the back button 20 times or open up her History and ﬁ gure out which page it was. That’s where breadcrumb navigation, or selection list navigation, comes in.

It takes up very little real estate on the page and looks something like this:

Pre-owned Automobiles > Manual > Coupe > Inﬁ niti > 2007 > Silver

As you can see, breadcrumbs provide a trail for consumers to retrace their steps. They also provide shortcuts to jump to more general web pages.

Although they didn’t quite work for Hansel and Gretel, there are no hungry birds waiting to eat your website’s breadcrumbs. And with just a small investment of time and space you can ensure visits to your site have a happy ending. website optimization

USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR HEADLINE TAGS -/ TO IMPROVE SEARCH RANKINGS

Headline tags – or “H” tags – are among several behind-the-scenes heroes that speak to search engines in order to improve your search engine rankings. These HTML tags are used to create a hierarchy of the key words on your web page, from H1 (most important) to H6 (least important).

Any text within such headings is given priority treatment by the search engine algorithms that search for keywords. For example, the H1 tag should accurately and brieﬂ y describe the content of the web page that follows. It should also contain your main keyword. That doesn’t mean that the lower end H4, H5 and H6 are throwaways, though. Make sure all of your heading tags are keyword rich, and your website will be on its way up the rankings ladder. social/mobile marketing

TAG AND SOCIAL BOOKMARK -0 YOUR BLOG

You’ve probably seen their little icons at the bottom of many websites and blogs. I’m talking about digg, del.icio.us, reddit and countless others. These are all social bookmarking sites, and they are a great tool to supplement your social SEO practices.

When a person adds a blog she likes (such as your blog) to her Favorites or Bookmarks via her web browser, only she knows it’s there. However, when she adds it to her social bookmarks by clicking on the digg icon at the bottom of the page, they have just shared that blog (your blog) with the world. And millions of people are using social bookmarks, so that’s quite a big world you’ve just given yourself access to.

The reason social bookmarking is a great supplement to SEO is that people can ﬁnd and bookmark web pages that have not been noticed or indexed by web spiders (see eTIP #12). And the more you’re bookmarked, the higher you’re ranked. Given this propensity, the more you bookmark, the better off you are as well.

When you add a blog to a social bookmarking site, you will be asked for the URL, a brief description and certain keywords to tag it. This tagging system helps the bookmarker organize their bookmarks — it also makes your site searchable by keywords. Use as many tags as you like, but make sure they are relevant and accurate. You’ve got a lot of people looking for you.

Read our “Social Bookmarking” cheat sheet. social/mobile marketing

START YOUR OWN PAGE -1 ON FACEBOOK

Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends and family. There’s always a fun new app to eat up 10 minutes of your time. And it’s easy to pledge your allegiance to a person, place or thing by joining a Group or branded “Like” page, such as The New York Times page with more than 612,000 likes; the Luxist luxury lifestyle blog with over 3,700 likes; and the Ford Mustang, with more than 497,000 likes.

Having your own branded page on Facebook is another way to communicate with your customers and potential customers. Just like you should build your email database (eTIP #25) and mobile phone number database (eTIP #44), you need to build a base of your brand advocates on Facebook.

When you post a new message to your page, all the people who “like” you will get that message update. Because of that, a Facebook page is more powerful than an email or mobile phone list. It is also an ongoing conversation among your brand advocates. (They won’t “like” you if they are not your advocate.) It allows them to communicate with one another about your brand. You can still “steer” the conversation in the way you want it to go, but having consumers dialogue openly about your brand has huge rewards.

Facebook is referral central when it comes to fan postings. And don’t worry if you get a few negative comments (eTIP #39); your loyal fans will speak up for a brand they love, your brand. And when consumers research your product, they will appreciate a fair and uncut conversation.

By the way, Pages and Groups are also a two-way street, so join a few Groups or Like a few pages related to marketing, hospitality, retail or another

industry. Yes, business can meet Like Starmark pleasure, even on Facebook. on Facebook now. email marketing

E-NEWSLETTERS ARE STILL A GREAT WAY -2 TO CAPTIVATE CUSTOMERS

In the new world of marketing technology email is seen as an old staple, and companies seem to be using them less and less, but there is deﬁ nitely an audience for e-newsletters that are relevant and engaging. Let us repeat that: relevant and engaging. Which means not exclusively selling or trumpeting your company.

If you are already sending out e-newsletters, keep them frequent and keep them fresh. Did you know that you can include rich media content and YouTube videos? You can also get even more mileage out of your e-newletters by re-purposing the content on your blog.

The frequency will be determined by how much content you have. A great way to do this is “staging” your emails to start a thread of topics that pays off. Create a teaser, followed by a weekly payoff, then close the loop with emails on best practices and an invitation to contact you for your product and or service. If you are a hotel with weekly promotions, send out a weekly e-newsletter. Then beef up the rest of the content with articles on topics such as vacation style, packing tips, your hotel’s menu, and even why you choose to stock rooms the most luxe bath products.

By featuring stories that go beyond just what your hotel offers, you’ll insinuate yourself into your customers’ day-to-day lives. You’ll become part of their routine, and they’ll look forward to seeing you in their inbox. Now, that’s good news.

Subscribe to receive future eTIPS via email. social/mobile marketing

USE NEGATIVE COMMENTS TO -3 ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

When you position your brand or company on Facebook, Twitter and the like, you’ll be opening yourself up to positive feedback – as well as negative feedback. And that’s okay. Really. It may seem counter-intuitive that negative feedback can actually boost your image, but it’s true.

Of course, you can always have your administrator remove negative comments immediately. However, that would be disingenuous, and visitors to your Facebook or Twitter pages would become suspicious of such a perfectly rosy picture of your company. Think of comments as a way to keep your brand honest. If you follow up and engage negative feedback, your credibility will remain intact, and oftentimes it’s seen as beneﬁ cial to face the adversity head on. In fact, a few negative comments will validate the accolades.

See customer critiques as an opportunity to give instantaneous customer service. Visit the Twitter pages of Zappos and Comcast to see how they do it. They see constructive criticism as not simply beneﬁ cial (you pay for user-testing and focus groups right?) but as a way to communicate with the client base on what REALLY matters to them. And if a negative comment does emerge, you will probably also see an army of satisﬁ ed customers coming to your defense.

There was a situation on a major cruise line’s forum in which a traveler blamed the cruise line for his bad vacation. Almost immediately, other travelers jumped to the cruise line’s defense. “I was on that cruise and had a great time,” some declared. Others queried the critic for details. It turns out his problem with the cruise was the weather. “The cruise line can’t control the weather. How can you say it’s their fault?” they demanded. The praise drowned out the criticism, and the cruise line didn’t have to lift a ﬁ nger. If only everything was this easy to ﬁ x. social/mobile marketing

MOBILE TAGS UNLOCK A WORLD OF .* CONNECTIONS WITH CONSUMERS

Mobile tags (also called snap tags and scan tags) are little icons with a lot of potential. When consumers “snap” the tag with the camera of their smartphone, they are instantly linked to online information such as a website, contest, video or beyond. Bearing a close resemblance to bar codes, mobile tags allow you to put a little Internet in your print advertising and a little print advertising in your Internet, two great mediums that work great together.

However, mobile tags are not just restricted to print ads. Clothing tags, posters, billboards, product labels, packaging, real estate signs, even seafood – so you can “snap” to see where it was caught – are all suitable mediums.

The prevailing technologies are QR Codes and Microsoft Tags. Both require users to ﬁrst download an app to their smartphone. But we hope that much like Acrobat PDFs, the technology is eventually adopted and added to all mobile operating systems universally.

There’s a profound marketing impact in the future of snap tags. Actually, it’s in progress right now, especially in Europe and Japan, but in the U.S. as well. Many brands and tourist destinations are using mobile tags to better engage and connect with consumers. It’s easy to add your company to that list of in-the-know, tech-savvy brands. In fact, go to tag.microsoft.com (Starmark’s recommended provider) and you can make it happen in just a snap. (Sorry, we couldn’t resist.)

Read our Blog Post about Mobile Tags. seo/sem

BUY YOUR COMPETITORS’ .+ BRANDED KEYWORDS

Level the playing ﬁ eld on Yahoo!, Google and other search engines by buying the branded keywords of your competitors. We turned you on to the importance of buying your own branded keywords (eTIP #12). By buying your competitor’s branded keywords, you would ensure that whenever someone searches for the name of their business, your company’s name would also pop up in the paid search results. This is a common tool, and one you can use with a clear conscience. While most people think this is something the search engines don’t allow, they do, but with some restrictions. For instance, you shouldn’t pretend to be your competitor or even use their brand name in your ad. As long as you represent who you truly are, you should be good to go. But you might want to check with each of the search engines you are advertising on to ensure you are not breaking their terms of service.

For an example of how this works, go to Yahoo.com and type in Dell. You’ll notice that Sony pops up in the paid search results. Sony sells PCs, too. Coincidence? Not likely. Your goal here, like Sony’s, is to increase awareness of your business among your competitor’s audience. And if they choose to click on you instead of the other guy, all’s fair in love and Search Engine Marketing. social/mobile marketing

LEVERAGE TRADE SHOWS WITH MOBILE ., MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND EMAIL

If you’ve ever been to a trade show, you’ve noticed that the booths can run the gamut from a table with pamphlets to sleek Euro styling to a full multimedia experience. However, unless those booths are taking advantage of a few e-marketing methods, once an attendee walks by, he or she may be gone forever.

The allure of prizes is a great way to collect information and customer data. However, when it comes to on-site contests, you can go way beyond collecting business cards in a ﬁ sh bowl. Since it’s safe to say that 99.99% of attendees will probably have a mobile device on them, invite them to send a text message to a certain number for their chance to win a cool gadget, dinner on the town, or other prize. By texting you, they’ve just opted-in and now you’ve just increased — or begun building — your own database of qualiﬁ ed mobile numbers. In most cases, mobile connectivity is seen as the price of entry for the landscape as well. And if you have to “be present to win” you can send them a TXT reminding them to come back to your booth for the drawing!

Speaking of mobile devices, many attendees with smartphones “follow” a trade show via Twitter while it’s in progress. So make sure to keep updating your Twitter feed throughout the day. Tweet about your company’s latest product; a show conversation; or about the contest at your booth. By the way, be sure to mention the trade show as a hashtag (for example, #wtm2010). Just tweet it. social/mobile marketing

MAKE SOCIAL CURRENCY PART OF YOUR .- LOYALTY PROGRAM

The modern loyalty rewards program improves on punch cards — although they’re still nice in an analog kind of way — by linking brand loyalty with social media. In fact, in some cases, social media is part of the reward.

For example, if your business is retail, invite consumers to connect their scan rewards card with their Twitter account. Every time they earn points, their social media status will be updated with a message like “Rob Jones is 10 points away from a free T-shirt at XYZ Clothing.” Just for having his card connected to Twitter, Rob will earn extra points with every purchase, and all of Rob Jones’ followers will know he likes your store.

FourSquare allows consumers to carry their loyalty on their mobile phone. For example, those who “check-in” at XYZ Clothing frequently get rewards they can instantly display to the cashier on their phone, no physical card required. And, once again, their Facebook or Twitter status is instantly updated that they’ve checked in at your business.

These tactics leverage users’ social graphs to showcase their loyalty. By the way, they’ll be indirectly recommending your business to their friends, family and followers — recruiting more potential loyal customers for you. That’s social currency you can bank on. social/mobile marketing

START COLLECTING MOBILE NUMBERS, .. BECAUSE PROXIMITY MARKETING IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK

Mobile advertising is no longer new. In terms of proximity marketing, “Bluecasting” has been around the block a few times. And opt-in proximity mobile marketing was only a matter of time. Well, that time is fast approaching.

Where print ads, posters and signage become just part of the clutter, proximity marketing delivers relevant messages on a large scale. Proximity marketing is not intended to replace traditional advertising, but this is a valuable — yet cost-effective — supplement to that.

For example, if you’re a tropical destination and the winter temperature in Chicago has just dropped to 28 degrees, all of the Chicago-based mobile users in your database will receive a text or picture message about the warm weather they could be enjoying. Imagine your restaurant just opened a new location in Tampa’s 34228 ZIP code. You can message all the locals a coupon for a free appetizer. Or hit the lunch crowd at exactly the right time. With the relevancy and immediacy of proximity marketing, the possibilities are endless. Life just became the check-out aisle at the grocery store: ﬁ lled with impulse buys a consumer suddenly can’t live without.

Start building opt-ins now! Use your website, email blasts, in-store ads and text messages. Entice mobile users to opt-in by texting for their chance to win. Or all of the above. You may not launch your proximity marketing efforts until next year, but when the time is right, you’ll be good to go. website optimization

MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE’S FOOTER ./ HAS LEGS

Your Website footers (that bottom part of the page you think no one looks at) have evolved to become more than a place to position a copyright statement, legal statement or a second nav bar. Nowadays, the footer has moved up the ladder – ﬁ guratively speaking – in importance.

The reason for this is related to Search Engine Optimization. More web designers are now aiming for usability and SEO effectiveness, because the more cross-linked content and keywords are included in your site, the better your results are likely to be.

This is done in a number of ways, but a recent way to assist this process is to make your footer more robust and site map-like than ever before. Site maps (see eTIP #6) allow users to go to one spot and visually sweep over the titles of most pages within the site. This used to be reserved for a site map page, and was sometimes used as a crutch for a poorly architectured site. Now, more and more savvy designers and developers are taking the time to create wonderfully useful footers.

Consider including these elements in your website’s footer:

• Include primary and secondary navigation for your entire site • Include all social marketing connections associated with your company • Include Facebook, RSS or Twitter feeds • Include a contact form right in the footer • And lastly, a location for social sharing chicklets

So next time you’re going through a redesign of your web presence, remember this: The last place you think a user might look may now be their ﬁ rst stop at your website. marketing in a recession

INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS WITH A .0 UNIQUE ONLINE CONTEST

It almost seems as if contests have been around since the pharaohs. And possibly they have. After all, contests are a great way to collect volumes of names and build a marketing database. Put something enticing up for grabs — an ancient pyramid, perhaps — and let the urge to win work its magic. Actually, not so fast. Nowadays, with savvier, time-sapped consumers, you may need to do more than that to attract entries to your online contest.

Start by creating a more engaging contest that invites consumers to go beyond submitting their names and email addresses. Consider what your target audience values and their point of view. Creative consumers might appreciate the chance to produce a video and load it on your Facebook page or YouTube channel. Engage them in an online scavenger hunt. Invite them to submit names for your new product or service via Twitter.

Another option is to, as one tourist destination did, invite consumers to build their own prize online. Consumers were able to choose from a variety of hotels and activities in designing their ideal getaway. Not only did this successful contest attract a lot of entries, the contest was programmed so that the activities, hotels and the demographics of the entrant were captured. The contest had a convenient, built-in marketing survey.

After all, for your company’s purposes, it’s the before and after that really matter, and not the prize. So start by outlining your goals. Are you looking for consumer demographics and psychographics; subscribers; user-generated content (UGC), such as photos, stories and video; only names and addresses; and/or increased brand awareness?

No matter what, brand awareness should be one of your goals. So design a contest that gets people talking about your company. Turn entrants into brand advocates, and the conversation will continue long after the contest ends. going green

STREAMLINE YOUR EMPLOYEE EDUCATION .1 BY TAKING IT ONLINE

Creating online training for employees, franchisees, or sales people does more than save paper. It saves time and money, as well. You no longer have to print and ship educational materials. Nor are you obliged to ﬂy the resident expert back and forth across the country to conduct training sessions. Studying online allows trainees to learn at their own pace, ensuring they don’t miss a thing.

Likewise, by creating an online training program, or contracting someone to build it for you, you can track when trainees have logged in, how long they spent on each unit and how quickly they are progressing. This tracking isn’t just about monitoring. It’s about gathering data that will help your company track the adoption of your program and make improvements if needed. You should also consider creating a mobile- friendly version, allowing your people to learn on the road.

At the end of the program or the end of each segment, the trainee earns a reward that is delivered online, such as a gift card, and can even download his own certiﬁcate of completion. In fact, a cruise line created an online educational program for travel agents, offering them cash gift cards to complete as many units as possible. As you might expect, participation was high. Sure, education is its own reward, but rewards are also their own reward. YOUR prize will be a more effective training process and a bit more money in your budget. maximizing results

TRANSLATE YOUR WEBSITE AND MAKE .2 THE WORLD YOUR MARKETPLACE

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to beneﬁ t from the “World Wide” aspect of the World Wide Web. By embracing globalization and translating your website into other languages, you will be able to reach customers in other countries and on other continents.

This is especially true if you’re running traditional advertising overseas. By running an ad in French or Spanish, but directing the reader to an English website, you have just thrown up a roadblock to your next sale. For example, Forrester research reports that half of Hispanics online prefer Spanish-language websites. That’s probably more or less true of most cultures.

Your ﬁ rst step is to contract a person or company to translate your site. Simply using an automated translator like Google is not enough; your foreign audience will spot the errors right away. It’s a short cut that will cost you in the long run.

The next step is more complex: maintenance. It’s important to make sure the translation is current with the English version of your site. There are tools and services available that can automatically notify the translator when the English version has been updated and there is translation work to be done. You can also avoid redundancies by building a translation memory database to cross-check past translations, so that you don’t have to pay to re-translate text that has already been translated, such as taglines and frequently used terms and phrases. By implementing a centralized translation management system, you’ll save time and money.

Now, when consumers see you’re speaking their language, you’ll earn their trust and conﬁ dence. And you’ll also earn their business. email marketing

BUILD YOUR EMAIL DATABASE WITH A .3 CO-REG CAMPAIGN

“We interrupt this website to bring you a brief word from our partners.” That’s the gist of a co-reg (“co-registration leads”) campaign. Especially beneﬁ cial for retail sites, co-reg offers a great opportunity to reach a wider audience and build your email database. Essentially, co-reg gives you permission to capture consumers’ information while they visit another company’s website.

This is how it works: Once the customer has completed his or her sale, a page loads that allows you to promote your goods and services to their customer. And, in turn, you will allow your partners to promote their goods and services on your site. Through a brief ad, you invite the consumer to opt-in to receive information, enter a contest, or download a free video, for example. Your database grows, and so does your business. social/mobile marketing

FOURSQUARE AND PROXIMITY MARKETING: /* DRIVE USERS TO YOUR LOCATION

Once upon a time when it came to proximity marketing (sometimes known as location-based advertising), Bluetooth was the go-to method. Today, the reach and appeal — and potential longevity — of FourSquare (and others) have allowed it to redeﬁne proximity marketing.

FourSquare is a mobile application that makes full use of a cell phone’s global positioning system (GPS). Once loaded, the phone will tell users what’s nearby: restaurants, bars, retail stores, hotels, sites, and various points of interest (to say the least).

For your business, you can entice customers to come to your location when they are “nearby” with discounts or incentives. For example, when you are near a Starbucks an “Offer Nearby” will appear in the application. When you tap it you will see that the “Mayor” of Starbucks (the person who checks in the most) gets $1.00 off a Frappuccino. Likewise, the Pennsylvania Tourism Board partnered with FourSquare to entice summer travelers who visit the Keystone State with unique Pennsylvania “badges” when visiting one of 100 area restaurants, stores, landmarks and other check-in sites.

Other major brands are seeing the value, too. Someone having dinner might be immediately swayed when they see a location two doors down is offering two-for-one drink specials. Or maybe the Mayor of your establishment gets a free appetizer on his next visit. That brings patrons to your place as they try to out-visit one another to become the Mayor — and earn that reward. The ability for “brick and mortar” businesses to reach out to customers based on their location has taken a giant leap Read our Blog forward. This is more than what’s next. Post about It’s what’s right next door. Foursquare. ANALYTICS/TRACKING 5 // TRACK ROI ACROSS ALL CHANNELS (ONLINE AND OFFLINE) 28 // OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE WITH AN ANALYTICS PACKAGE 32 // TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF YOUR WEB MARKETING WITH AB TESTING EMAIL MARKETING 25 // BUILD A FOLLOWING WITH EMAIL MARKETIING 33 // USE DIRECT MAIL TO REACH YOUR CLIENTS’ MAILBOX AS WELL AS THEIR INBOX 38 // E-NEWSLETTERS ARE STILL A GREAT WAY TO CAPTIVATE CUSTOMERS 49 // BUILDING YOUR EMAIL DATABASE WITH A CO-REG CAMPAIGN GOING GREEN 47 // STREAMLINE YOUR EMPLOYEE EDUCATION BY TAKING IT ONLINE MARKETING IN A RECESSION 19 // BLOG COMMENTS ARE KEY TO GETTING YOUR URL OUT THERE 21 // PROMOTE YOURSELF IN BULK WITH GROUP DISCOUNTS 29 // BUILD BUZZ WITH COURAGEOUSLY OUTRAGEOUS MARKETING 46 // INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS WITH A UNIQUE ONLINE CONTEST MAXIMIZING RESULTS 48 // TRANSLATE YOUR WEBSITE AND MAKE THE WORLD YOUR MARKETPLACE PUBLIC RELATIONS 2 // KEYWORD-RICH PRESS RELEASES, AND WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT 14 // MARKET YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT ON SQUIDOO.COM AND HUBPAGES.COM 27 // ONLINE NEWS WIRES GET YOUR PRESS RELEASES IN THE RIGHT HANDS RESEARCH 13 // CUSTOMER SURVEYS: YES, YOU CAN TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS 17 // KEEP YOUR WEBSITE IN THE GAME WITH A COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT 26 // FOCUS ON WHAT CONSUMERS WANT WITH A FOCUS GROUP 30 // GET INSIDE YOUR CONSUMERS’ HEADS WITH A USABILITY STUDY SEO/SEM 3 // LONG TAIL KEYWORDS: A SMART SEM STRATEGY 7 // DIVERSIFY YOUR SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING 8 // PAID INCLUSION IS ALWAYS A SURE THING 9 // PUT YOUR WEBSITE ON THE MAP WITH DMOZ 10 // A SPIDER SIMULATOR HELPS YOU MARKET TO SEARCH ENGINES 11 // PROMOTE YOUR URL: PUT IT ON EVERYTHING 12 // INCREASE WEB VISITS BY BUYING YOUR OWN BRANDED KEYWORDS 20 // USE LANDING PAGES TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS 24 // ROLL OUT THE WELCOME MAT WITH LOCAL SEARCH 41 // BUY YOUR COMPETITORS’ BRANDED KEYWORDS SOCIAL/MOBILE MARKETING 1 // CREATE A BLOG; IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE, BUT IT MAY BE PERFECT FOR YOU 18 // MAKE YOUR BRAND THE NEXT YOUTUBE STAR 22 // STRENGTHEN YOUR WEB PRESENCE WITH A SLIDESHOW ON SLIDESHARE.NET 23 // ADS ON FACEBOOK MAKE IT EASY TO HIT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE 31 // GENERATE A FOLLOWING ON TWITTER 36 // TAG AND SOCIAL BOOKMARK YOUR BLOG 37 // START YOUR OWN PAGE ON FACEBOOK 39 // USE NEGATIVE COMMENTS TO ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE 40 // MOBILE TAGS UNLOCK A WORLD OF CONNECTIONS WITH CONSUMERS 42 // LEVERAGE TRADE SHOWS WITH MOBILE MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND EMAIL 43 // MAKE SOCIAL CURRENCY PART OF YOUR LOYALTY PROGRAM 44 // START COLLECTING MOBILE NUMBERS, BECAUSE PROXIMITY MARKETING IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK 50 // FOURSQUARE AND PROXIMITY MARKETING: DRIVE USERS TO YOUR LOCATION WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION 4 // ANCHOR TEXT: EASY TO DO RIGHT 6 // MARKET TO SEARCH ENGINES WITH AN XML SITEMAP 15 // MAKE YOUR PAGE TITLE SPEAK VOLUMES 16 // INCREASE CONVERSIONS WITH GOOGLE WEBSITE OPTIMIZER 34 // BREADCRUMBS KEEP YOUR CONSUMERS ON THE RIGHT PATH 35 // USE KEYWORDS IN YOUR HEADLINE TAGS TO IMPROVE SEARCH RANKINGS 45 // MAKE SURE YOUR WEBSITE’S FOOTER HAS LEGS In this era of change, with so many new ways to connect, you need a creative partner with an innovative and solid record of communication. Maybe you have one. But make sure they are doing everything in this book for you now! If they aren’t, look for a partner who is. Call us for help if you need it.

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