Building Your Online Marketing Ecosystem Part 1: The Foundation

By John Joyce on November 3, 2009 - Comments 0

The first step of every business identity creation process is to build a solid foundation from which you can nurture a living, growing online presence. Because business owners become so entrenched in the day to day operations of their company, they don’t consider taking a step back to objectively reflect on the “state of the business”. Much of what I’m going to tell you in this post might seem incredibly elementary and you might even want to say, “duh”, to me. However, this simplified approach works even for an established business that wants to verify that their marketing strategy maps to their overall business goals. Let’s begin:

Who Am I? Why Am I Here? Admiral James Stockdale, although he picked the wrong venue, asked two important questions that should be pondered by any business owner. In many cases a business’ personality is as important as the product/service being offered. So, a clear understanding of “who” offers a identifiable persona to which prospective and existing customers can relate.

What do we do? This can be one of the most difficult messages to nail down for a small business but it is vital to the success of your marketing initiatives. Not only must you clearly articulate what you do but it’s imperative you differentiate your offering and communicate value.  Don’t get caught up in the trap of listing fifty features and all of the “cool widgets and gadgets” you have built.  Tell them how you are going to impact their bottom line and make them more successful.

Who Cares? Rather than engage in outbound marketing to the masses, now is the time to identify the characteristics of your dream customer and focus on driving them to your site.  If you already have happy customers, reach out to them and ask if they would be interested in participating in a quick survey.  The data you collect will shed light on why they chose to do business with you, what you can do better and it gives you the opportunity to thank them for their business.

Where Are They Looking? The final step, after identifying and segmenting your target audience is to understand where they go to find information about you/your product/your service. There are the obvious places such as search engines but, to dig a little deeper, you have to do some research and identify specific places (websites, Q&A sites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) where people are talking about what you do and then you have to become an active participant by offering valuable information and linking back to your site where possible.

This entire process is continuous but it will organically build your brand and online presence over time. You have to be committed to this process and willing to commit the necessary time and effort. You will learn about the market, prospective customers, current customers, keyword strategy, potential new markets, and even potential partnerships with related businesses.

Once you identify the Who, What and Where, you will be better suited to develop your core message and consistently present it across all possible mechanisms.

Will Bing Twitter Help Your Small Business?

By John Joyce on October 22, 2009 - Comments 0

First, Microsoft surprised us when they released bing and it was actually a useful alternative search engine.  Now, they’ve surprised again by beating Google to the “Twitter Integration Party”.  Instead of being sequestered to the Twittersphere, small business tweeters will now gain exposure to the 80% of internet users who don’t use Twitter.

Ping and FriendFeed allow you to distribute your “microcontent” across all social networks and, now, Bing (and, yes eventually Google) will index not only the text of the tweet, but the link content as well.  I’m not sure if there will be an adjustment required by users based on how the information will be presented but there didn’t seem to be an issue when Google added images and video to their search engine.

This is pretty powerful stuff for a small business owner and should allow them to expand their online presence without significant effort.

We’re Back!

By John Joyce on October 19, 2009 - Comments 2

Welcome to the new home of The Small BizNest where we develop online marketing ecosystems for start-ups and small to medium size businesses. Over the coming months, we will be adding content aimed at empowering any business to accelerate their online marketing initiatives. Blog topics will cover all aspects of business building and will offer observations and insights that promote an open discussion and knowledge sharing.

As small business owners continue to fuel the economy, they need to focus on their core business and turn to resources like The Small BizNest to develop long-lasting marketing strategies.

If you know of any business owner that could benefit from our knowledge and expertise, please send them our way.

Thank you,

- John

If 200K People Retweet Your Promotion And Nobody Becomes A Customer, Is That A Success?

By admin on July 17, 2009 - Comments 4

Are You Tracking ROI?

Too many times we see businesses haphazardly throw random campaigns at the wall to see what sticks.  One member of the marketing team is “trying out” a few Facebook ads while a colleague is independently “testing” a viral program on Twitter.  I continue seeing articles written about “Twitter done right” and “viral marketing success stories” and not once has there been any mention of ROI or CPA.  There are too many marketers patting themselves on the back for simply creating buzz.  When did it become acceptable to spend money to get people talking about your giveaway but not your unique selling proposition?

Lisa Barone shared a story earlier this week about a contest giveaway run by a company called Moonfruit celebrating their 10th anniversary.  The numbers were quite high – more than 200,000 posts per week.  Adam Ostrow over at Mashable wrote, “Not surprisingly, this promotion is working. #moonfruit is Twitter’s top trending topic today, beating out the likes of Michael Jackson, #iranelection, and Wimbledon-related tweets.”

This promotion is working?  How are these people measuring success?  Can you imagine approaching your boss and saying, “I’d like to spend $10K+ and use countless company resources so we can be ‘bigger than Michael Jackson’ for a week” on Twitter.  When asked for your ROI estimate you smile wryly and say, “Zero, BUT, hundreds of thousands of people who will never become customers will be talking about the Macbooks we’re giving away”.

This is the equivalent of a restaurant spending $10k for a big neon sign that says, “restrooms open to the public”.

Do You Know How To Reach Your Target Audience?

By admin on February 20, 2009 - Comments 0

As business owners adjust their modus operandi in response to the current unprecedented economic downturn, inbound marketing will rise to the top of their priority list.  If marketing to the disinterested is counterproductive in a booming economy then it’s an even greater waste of time and money today.

The days of “inviting everyone to the party” are behind us.  Mass marketing is dead.  It’s time to welcome the era of advocacy marketing where you position yourself/your company as a trusted partner to customers and prospective customers.  By developing and sharing relevant information and guidance you will attract more qualified inquiries.  Build it and they will come.  Even if the prospect isn’t ready to purchase, they’re likely to recommend your product or service to a friend since you have effectively presented value.

The concept of inbound marketing is fairly new and can be comprised of many different mechanisms such as landing pages, SEO, social networks, and blogging.  There are services out there like HubSpot which aggregates analytics from the various mechanisms, however; it’s not a silver bullet.  Content is still king and you are responsible for developing a consistent message across all media.

New Marketing Labs announced on Tuesday that it acquired the Inbound Marketing Summit which should prove to be a very worthwhile event this year.  You’ll have the opportunity to hear Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott and Paul Gillin share the latest strategies, tools and best practices to utilize new marketing methods to grow your business.

Bottom Line: Stop blasting to the masses.  Perfect your message (A/B and multivariate testing across all media).  Build community among customers and empower them to be evangelists.