Exchange; We hear a lot about change today. President Barak Obama spoke extensively about the change in his path to the presidency, and as we now know, it was his mission statement and attitude toward his US government. Amidst the political rhetoric, there was a change on another scale. what was happening during the political campaign. Politicians are known for their huge budgets during their campaigns and there was none bigger than this.
Obama’s political campaign not only ran over budgets, but there was a much bigger shift in his approach to the campaign itself. This political campaign was the first US presidential campaign targeting internet marketing like never before seen. Some speculate that the one-on-one personal nature of the Internet marketing campaigns was part of the driving force behind Obama’s victory.
Exchange; There is a huge shift taking place in the internet marketing domain like never seen before. On average, a person receives more than 2,000 sales or marketing messages every day. This is almost too much to contain when you think about it. Telemarketing, trade shows, seminars, direct/response mail, TV ads, newspaper ads, banners, billboards, etc. they clutter our lives so much that meaningful messages are often diluted or drowned in this ocean of messages. Marketing and PR domains are hard-pressed these days to create penetrating ad content that reaches their target audience. The big change that we notice taking place in the internet marketing domain today is all about a concept called inbound marketing. This strategy deals with the concept of being found by consumers rather than chasing and hitting consumers with marketing messages.
The concept of being found is like a tropical bird flapping colorful feathers and dancing to a beautiful rhythm in the hope that their companions will hear them and move in their direction. Getting found is about developing an expert opinion in your industry and naturally attracting visitors to your sites. The concept of being found must be applied meticulously, as one can imagine, there are many birds making a lot of noise in the jungle.
Getting found involves trying to understand who you’re trying to attract in the first place. What is the marketing persona, that is, your target market? If you have a hotel based in Leicester Square in London, UK, then your target market could be tourists visiting London looking for a central location to stay; or the theater market with so many production shows in close proximity; or even perhaps the youngest attendees at the catered tourist clubs in the region.
Marketing to be found on the internet domain entails two basic rules: content and engagement.
Without content, there is very little value to the consumers you want to attract to your site. The content can be in the form of a blog site, articles, reports, white papers, press releases, e-books, or helpful bits of information. The critical feature of the content should be that it is useful and interesting to the target market. Content is absolutely critical. Let’s explore some of these content tools.
Business blogs are one of the easiest ways to create content. It’s short, and if it’s interesting, it could keep the audience captivated. It’s important not only to blog about who you are, but also about the broader context of your services and products. Consumers are smart. They know when a business blogs for profit. They are not interested in subscribing to product descriptions. They look for a unique value. A hotel near Darling Harbor in Sydney, Australia could engage a wider audience by talking about the events around it.
For example, talking about tours from the harbour, the opening of the nearby Lindt cafe, the Sydney Aquarium and updates on their seal population. Perhaps if one is targeting the Japanese market, the mention that Sydney’s fish market is within walking distance of Darling Harbor and offers some of the freshest seafood in the world would provide that advantage, that is, that unique knowledge that makes worth subscribing to your blog. and a real value addition. The key is to make the content interesting, non-commercial, and more viral in nature.
Article writing campaigns add tremendous value to your site by the exposure they bring to your site through their many distribution channels. They also add fabulous SEO value to your site. E-books are useful when given for free due to the viral nature of the product, ie people love to share free stuff, especially if it’s current and interesting.
Speaking of SEO, it is essential that the content we talked about above follows strict SEO guidelines. SEO is not as complicated as many people make it seem. SEO takes time and is not a miracle strategy that promises immediate results. It takes time. Once you understand that concept, it’s not that complicated. It mostly involves using the right keywords, meaning words that your target market is likely to type into search engines to find you. A powerful set of keywords used in compelling content is a key step for SEO. Building links is possibly even more important. That’s the same as asking other sites or blogs to keep your web link in their URLs. That basically counts as one vote for your site.
The more votes you have, the more important Google or Bing thinks you are and the more SEO value you have. The more SEO value you have, the higher you will rank in search engine results. Of course, SEO experts would also say that your website URL, titles, descriptions, use of ALT text, anchor text, and the listing of your sites on search engines like Google or Bing are important and, in fact, they are. However, instead of trying to trick the search engines, I think what most companies or businesses should do is try to focus on the most important element of SEO: content and votes. The more interesting your content is and its relevance to your target market and other sites, the more likely it is that you will attract more visitors to your sites.
While content is important to the strategy of being found, it is meaningless unless companies engage with their consumers. The Internet has made the lives of marketers simpler and more resourceful. Never before have sales and marketing teams been able to interact directly with so many consumers (millions!) using such simple tools. The Internet has become social. There are water holes in every savannah and it is up to the marketers to try to find them. Watering holes are where your customers or target market gather. Where the elephants, buffalo and giraffe gather to drink water is where you want to be if you’re trying to sell the latest and tastiest varieties of green herbal delicacies. Social media platforms have further simplified consumer engagement. Engagement doesn’t have to be complex, but it can become lifestyle marketing.
Hanging out where your consumers hang out to talk is an old theory. For example, where would you spend time in ancient Israel to discuss the latest news: the synagogues; or where you would go in old London to talk about politics and trends: Speaker’s Corner. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying. The Internet has further simplified news sharing and discussion. There are more watering holes available today than any large African grassland. Blogs, Google Forums, Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Answers, Linked In Groups, Facebook Fan Pages, Facebook Groups, Twitter, YouTube, Hi5 and MySpace are all watering holes where consumers gather. It’s up to you to listen to topics of interest and engage consumers; or even start new conversations. Don’t be blunt, nobody likes a salesperson pushing products where they are looking to add value. Always remember to focus on adding value. Make sure your consumers see the added value and seek out your product instead of being pressured by your product.
Forums are plentiful today. I contribute to and edit a blog space called http://www.StrengthTrainingChronicles.com that engages weight trainers, rugby enthusiasts, and gym goers with useful material. In order to interact with my consumers and discuss/learn new trends, I googled Forums to find such watering holes. The results I received were unmanageable. From specific community/social websites like bodybuilding.com to countless forums focused on various aspects of sport, the research results were too many to count. Results ranged from geographical variations from London to Los Angeles and sports niches from StrongMan competitions to Nutrition. Finding watering holes is simple. Communicating with your consumers and adding value is what will bring more consumers to your site. This is a public relations and brand building campaign like you’ve never seen before.
Bringing guests to your home is wonderful most of the time. But do you let the children play around the vases or do you bring people from the cinema to the garden? Having a specific landing page is essential. This welcomes your target market to a landing web page. Once found, visitors must become potential customers. Potential customers are people interested in hearing from you about your product or service. Leads must be converted into sales. Leads sometimes take time and need to be nurtured with emails or promotions along with calls to action.
If it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed. Being found must be quantified to determine if the right consumers are finding it. There are so many companies that went bankrupt in 2009 by paying little attention to ROI (return on investment) or budgeting their use of internet marketing. ROI is about making the decision whether or not your marketing course of action was worth it. It’s important to take note of the number of visitors to your site, the ratios of viewers to bookings, and the ratios of those who land on your landing page and then enter their email information into forms. These numbers are particularly helpful when evaluating a new marketing tool you’ve employed, such as participation in a certain forum, press release, or article. Google Analytics and other tools simplify these functions.
We talked about change at the beginning and there is a big change on the horizon. We are seeing a convergence of web design, sales, marketing, ad agencies and public relations companies into one company focused on being found through inbound marketing. The days of effective television, radio, and magazine ads are shrinking as the number of ads saturates useful, easy-to-listen messages. Adding significant, attractive and lucrative value to any business through inbound marketing and being found will set waves of change in the marketing world as the Internet becomes a business necessity.
