Private Reply to Ozo Omosigho

Private Reply to Wendy McClelland

Ozo,

While newsletters are a popular tool, do you have the time to commit to maintaining one? A lot of folks start out doing newsletter and end up discovering they do not have the time to continually maintain them. Something you might consider instead is a VMT (Viral Marketing Tool). Once created, this goes to work for you 24/7. It does take awhile to create. But, it is not something requiring you to update on a monthly basis. Remember, with a newsletter you are reinventing the wheel every month. Every month you MUST put out NEW information. And, you have no guarantee as to the benefit to your business.

So, what is a VMT? It is a free download of helpful suggestions with links to your website and others. One suggestion pops up on a person's computer once-a-week. A link to a website is provided along with the ability to share the information via email automatically with friends. Hence, what you are doing is promoting your business to specific individuals 52-weeks-a-year and empowering them to share that information with others, automatically.

Another viral marketing tool is Garland Coulson's Free Traffic Bar. This is a great way to spread your message as well. Like the VMT, the Free Traffic Bar resides on your browser. Those who choose to affiliate with you through your toolbar link will be spreading your business message via their browser toolbar line. This toolbar can help increase the traffic coming to your website. It all depends upon how well you put forth your business message. And, Garland provides free tools to help you do just that when you download the toolbar. This is something that is worth having - not simply for what it does traffic-wise, but educational-wise as well.

Finally, I would like to recommend you spend some time writing down who you would want to have as customers - given the products you sell. Who could not only use your product, but be in the best position to tell others about it? This is called "targeting your market." It may sound silly to some. But, if such a strategy is good enough for one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, it just might be good advice for you. I spent nearly 16 years with an investment banking firm. It never advertised in the newspaper, on radio or TV. Why? Because it only wanted to do business with the wealthiest of the wealthy. The company had a database of who those people were and proceeded to pursue them via direct mail and cold calling. That simple system has served this company well since 1923. The company has always done well - even during recessionary periods. So, find out who your target market is - make a physical list, if necessary - and go after them with a targeted campaign. Don't expect them to find you simply because you have a website. The Internet is NOT a "field of dreams." The "if you build it they will come scenario" scenario does not apply.

Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901

Private Reply to Wendy McClelland

Wendy,

You are most welcome.

It is not enough to idenitfy the "market" you want to be in, but the "right folks" in that market. When it comes to customers, we are not all "equal" in importance. It is important to identify those individuals who are "most important" to the success of your business. In other words, if you are going to appeal to a customer, wouldn't you prefer that customer be in a unique position to refer MORE customers to you? If you have never bothered to make a list of the public companies and organizations best-suited to use your services, do it. Then, order an annual report and contact the members of the board of directors via direct mail and do a follow-up. You might be surprised at what that will do for your business.

So many people make the mistake of running an ad in a newspaper that has a high circulation thinking that for no other reason than because the circulation is high they they will get a lot of feedback. Well, it usually does not work out that way. People do not read the newspaper for the ads any more than they listen to the radio or TV for the commercials. But, for some strange reason most people buy into the process even if it does not work for them. The only way a person can get a good return from mass media exposure is by spending a lot of money. That means repeat exposure - over-and-over again. Most small businesses cannot afford to do that. Talk about throwing good money away on a bad idea. It happens every day.

My former employer never advertised in the mass media - even though it had the "big bucks" to do it. Why? Because the company did not want to waste time responding to people who could not afford its services. In other words, they did not want to the mass media determining their audience. They wanted to go after the wealthiest of the wealthy and sell them securities. For the company, the solution was to establish its target market with the use of a proprietary database provided by Dunn and Bradstreet. Then, they would pursue prospects relentlessly - daily and directly. This meant doing a lot of "cold calling" and direct mail. Yes, feed the pipeline - because it is the pipeline that feeds you.

Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901

Private Reply to Garland Coulson

Here is an idea for you:

Go to Google, search "leather slippers" and picture seeing your website in the top 10 natural results, send me a message telling me you want that to be reality.

I am the director of marketing for an SEO firm and I can help you get some serious traffic from all the major search engines.  PM me and we'll go from there.

Jeffrey Henderson

Director of Marketing

VIP Search Engine Marketing

Private Reply to Jeffrey Henderson

Don't be daunted. Armed with the right knowledge & understanding, implementation, drive, and continued learning, the internet is the most accessible way for the "little guy" to give the "big guy" a run for their money.

I back up what Jeffrey says - in general, with Search Engines, there are a variety of way to boost your visitors. However, most of the are paid methods, such as ads, Pay-per-clicks, paid search engine marketing, etc.

The one "free" way is to research and implement what is called "Organic" Search Engine Optimization. This means that your site has relevant information about the topic the searcher is looking for.

To give you an example of all of the above... Have you ever heard of Hallmark? Yes, I believe you have - so has most everyone - it's a well-built and established brand.

Now...Go to Google and enter in "Greeting Cards". Who comes up first on the list of results? Should be Hallmark, right? Well, it's not. It's a fairly small outfit. Hallmark shows up later, with a horrible landing page url that lands you deep into their nest of content management and takes forever to load - not a great thing for such a strong brand.

The point is that the little guys understand what they are doing when it comes to search engine optimization (I can not speak for the rest of their practices).

There are many different things to consider inside and outside of SEO, but in general all you have to do is this:

Identify who is in your industry as a key competitor. By this I mean who is top at what you are trying to achieve. If it's at being at the top of search results for a certain page on your site, then find the ones that are currently showing up top instead.

Investigate & Study what they are doing that makes them have this edge and replicate it.

Study it further and then do it better than they do. Sound simple? It is. Of course, there are a lot of things to take into consideration, but in general the key is to be a clever A+ student

Do your homework, do your outside reading and research, apply what you've learned, see the results and refine - all the while learning more and more.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,
Craig S. Kiessling
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Build a Better Net
CSKnet
www.csknet.net
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Private Reply to Craig Kiessling