Building Your Online Marketing Ecosystem Part VIII: Sharing Content Outside Your Website

By John Joyce on March 17, 2010 - Comments 0

The popularity of services like Scribd and Slideshare has proven the power of “content repositories” where you post marketing documents and leverage the high search rankings of these powerful content sites. It follows the same reasoning as listing your business with Merchant Circle or some other business community site – your website might not come up on page 1 in Google search, but your business/documents listed on one of these repositories will come up on the first page. Check out the services below and see how you can easily extend your reach by sharing your content outside of your actual website.

Click Image to View Interactive Online Marketing Ecosystem

Introducing The Interactive Online Marketing Ecosystem

By John Joyce on March 11, 2010 - Comments 1

In an effort to offer the most value to our readers, we have created an interactive map of the Online Marketing Ecosystem. There are so many marketing technologies available that we felt it was important to present your options in one central location. This will be a “living” map and will be updated as often as needed – as long as you’re willing to share your ideas and suggestions with us.

Here are some simple navigation tips:

• Click and drag to move around the map
• Hover over the small arrow next to the name of each tool to see/follow the external link
• Click zoom in/out buttons at bottom of the window
• Click “full screen” button to view in a browser window

Thanks!

Building Your Online Marketing Ecosystem Part VI: Friends And Family

By John Joyce on March 9, 2010 - Comments 0

Click Image to View Interactive Online Marketing Ecosystem

This one’s going to be quick based on the fact that most people are already Facebook users and understand the power of the platform.  As I have said over and over again (sorry for being a broken record), you have to present your business information in as many places as possible and that includes social networks.

As was illustrated in my last post, you can automate the process of spreading the word across different platforms without actually having to manually do so within each application.  If you don’t want to post your marketing outreach on your personal page, make sure you create a fan page in Facebook and only post there.  Either way, your friends and family are great resources for creating word of mouth momentum.

Building Your Online Marketing Ecosystem Part V: Create A Playbook

By John Joyce on March 6, 2010 - Comments 0

I mentioned in my last post that I would discuss the “how to” of implementing operational efficiencies within your social marketing efforts so let’s get to it.  Friends and clients are always asking me, “is this social media thing really worth the time and effort?”   My answer is, “it doesn’t have to take a lot of your time as long as you 1) Carve out a set allotment of time each day to develop conversation points and 2) Identify the appropriate tools to automate and streamline the delivery process.  The graphic below is only a small portion of the tools making up the “Twitterverse”:

Click Image to View Interactive Online Marketing Ecosystem

As a consultant, I work with clients during regular business hours so it’s most efficient for me to execute social media tactics early in the morning.  The overarching goal is to remain top of mind within your “community” by consistently helping, sharing and soliciting feedback.

Here’s a quick example of linking together several tools to more efficiently bring your message to social media platforms:

Click Image to View Interactive Online Marketing Ecosystem

It might take some time for you to figure out what tools fit your specific social media needs but, once you’ve identified the most effective system, you’ll actually find yourself able to focus on content creation instead of manual distribution.  You make time each morning to brush your teeth and have a cup of coffee so your social media efforts should be just as automatic.

I’ve shown you the tools; now it’s up to you to put them to good use.  Also, please let me know if there are any tools you’re using that you would like to share with us.

Need Real Time Analytics? Announcing Small Biz Insight

By John Joyce on February 25, 2010 - Comments 0

Small Biz Insight is a real time web analytics service allowing you to view up to the minute data on the traffic to your web site. Most services don’t allow you to make split second decisions because of a substantial delay in their delivery of your website data.

Real time data lets you react to changes in your traffic as they occur. For example, if you had an article that hit the front page of a popular site like digg.com, you would see the traffic spike in Small Biz Insight immediately, along with links back to the sources sending you the traffic. Knowing this, you could make changes to your site or to the article itself to take advantage of the situation.

If instead you relied solely on a service like Google Analytics, it would be up to 24 hours before you even knew about the traffic, and by then it would be too late to do anything about it.

Here is a partial list of the real time information available to you in Small Biz Insight:

• Customizable dashboard
• Filtering and segmentation
• Twitter analytics
• iPhone version
• Goals and conversions
• Campaign tracking
• Support for Google Analytics tags
• Information on each individual visitor

There are two versions of Insight available – Self Serve for $9.95/month and Managed for $19.95 which will include customization and reporting services.  If you’re interested in learning more, please send us an email at info@thesmallbiznest.com or call us at (800)277-1187.

U.S. Small Business Outlook 2010: Lessons Learned From Forbes Insight

By John Joyce on February 18, 2010 - Comments 2

A Case For Optimism?

Forbes, in association with CIT, conducted one-on-one interviews with small business owners to better understand the lessons learned from the past 12-18 turbulent months.  Their findings, although not earth shattering, highlight a bit of a silver lining when you consider that most respondents have learned to work smarter and do more with less.

Unfortunately, nobody in Washington understands the needs of small business owners, therefore; they have been left to fend for themselves and figure out creative ways to survive and even thrive in a difficult economy.  If the legislators just listened to the needs of business owners, we could speed up the recovery process.

OK, I’ll get off my soap box and focus on the more interesting results of the survey:

• Nearly seven out of ten (68%) disagreed that healthcare reform efforts would benefit their businesses
• Nine out of ten small business owners agreed that current stimuli do not benefit small businesses
• 62% will invest more in marketing; specifically, lead generation
• More than 60% said they will run their business more aggressively in 2010
• 50% will invest in growth or expansion
• While 33% said they would likely reduce their hiring, 29% expected to hire more workers
• 50% will hold on to their cash
• Nearly 8 out of 10 respondents agreed – coming out of the recession, the old way of doing business won’t work; we need to find new ways to take advantage of market opportunities
• 79% say their market segment is more competitive than ever
• 46% will pursue new revenue streams

Small business owners are, by definition, risk takers and will always welcome a challenge.  The past 12-18 months have made business owners better leaders and more prudent decision makers.  However, the most telling quote from this study highlights the immense challenges ahead -  “this ordeal has taken its toll on how small business owners see the economy in general. Only about one-fifth of respondents (21%) believe that the financial crisis has already bottomed out, with 47% expecting this to occur in 2010. They predict the financial markets will turn around in 2010/2011, stability will return in 2011/2012, and growth won’t come back until 2012 or later.”

Don’t hold your breath waiting for our politicians to suddenly “get it”.  Simply take your lessons, apply them to the present and future, and continue to move the rock forward.

The Small BizNest Has Been Added to Alltop

By John Joyce on January 27, 2010 - Comments 1

I just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that our site has been added to Alltop. (under the Small Business category)  You can think of Alltop as the “online magazine rack” of the web where they display the five most recent headlines of the “top”  information sources.  You can actually create a “MyAlltop” page and identify the news sources you want to view on a regular basis and also share that custom page with others. This doesn’t change the way you currently access our blog, it simply gives you another option for viewing our small business news and insights.

A Profound Marketing Lesson From Scott Brown

By John Joyce on January 20, 2010 - Comments 0

Image: Landov via Portfolio.com

Who knew we would get a Marketing 101 lesson from newly elected US Senator, Scott Brown, these past few weeks?  His strategy was so simple yet so difficult to execute:

Listen - Every business owner gets excited about telling the masses about their “groundbreaking” new product or service.  We rattle off features, platforms, technologies, widgets, gadgets, and whatever buzz words we can muster.  But, in many cases, messaging is developed in a vacuum and isn’t based on actual feedback from the target audience.  Scott Brown spent a great deal of time visiting with people, especially small business owners, to find out if the citizens of Massachusetts were seeking the same kind of change he had in mind.

Know Your Audience – Portfolio.com mentioned some very interesting numbers in an article today that identified the political makeup of small business owners in this country:

• 45% identify themselves as Republican
• 25% identify themselves as Independent
• Only 22% identify themselves as Democrat

Be Passionate – People will eventually figure out whether or not you actually believe what you are preaching.  If the fire inside is genuine, you will gain the trust and commitment of dedicated followers.

Present a Consistent Message – Take the first three ingredients and mix. Test and tweak until a clear and concise message is crafted.  Utilize all appropriate channels and mechanisms to get the word out and empower your supporters to become evangelists.

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.

Everyone’s A Freelancer

By admin on January 25, 2009 - Comments 2

Have you recently received a call from a former co-worker or friend to let you know that, “I’m out on my own so let me know if you need a [insert specialty here] contractor”?

Just five months ago there were plenty of freelance opportunities all over the country.  I was able to bounce around craigslist, from state to state, and find all kinds of lucrative opportunities.  Not anymore, Monty! [George Carlin]

Fewer opportunities and a glut of “experts” in the market have created great uncertainty for solo business owners who have typically been able to maintain a steady stream of clients through simple word-of-mouth referrals.  Now is the time to use your client  portfolio and references to differentiate yourself from the newbies.

So, don’t position yourself as a social marketing guru or Web 3.0 visionary.  Just tell stories of measurable impact you have had on the growth of your customers’ business.