Enourmous Benefits of Blogging

I am already on record as pointing out that if you want to raise your visibility and get in touch with your audience, it’s a good idea to blog. It does take a little chunk of time out of your agenda, but it’s probably no more than you should spend on marketing, anyway. Also, I’ve seen many outstanding blogs….most notably by Guy Kawasaki… that are all photos and captions. But then Kawasaki goes to really interesting places like a battle ship or Red Square. And if he photographs something ordinary like a tech company office, you can rest assured it is no ordinary office but an incredibly creative, way out there, in a class of its own, office.

My point is, blogging can take as much or…almost… as little time as you want it to. And if you aren’t doing it yet, perhaps you should take a look at the following:

1. Blogs initiate dialog with web visitors

Blogs start a two-way traffic with web visitors. When you write about your products and services and write with authority, as though you are the master of your business and with in-depth knowledge about your products and services, you not only create awareness of the benefits and disadvantages about the product and service you deal in, you engage people’s attention. Your blog should also have a call to action, to make the readers of the blog interact with your website.

A call to action can mean asking them to leave comments, encouraging them to speak out. Comments left by the readers of blogs might include inquiries and leads that could lead to sales.

Blogs generate a prospective about your company. It silently speaks about the culture and vision of your company and even helps in building a brand image.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Blogs peppered with targeted keywords, keyword phrases and search terms related to your business puts blogs in plain sight whenever web visitors use related search terms. Instead of using long-tail keyword phrases, targeting niche keywords will help in attracting more qualified web traffic.

3. Blogs attract more links

Blog are meant to be informative and not advertisements. Informative quality, industry related articles that provide insight or a critical analysis of product and services you deal in helps you to get more links.

Links will get better search engine rankings for your website and will help in generating more traffic.

4. Fresh, original content for blogs

Fresh and original web content is the feed for search engine spiders. Websites that are updated frequently get crawled by the search engine spiders more often. Your website gets more authority and better search engine ranking.

By now, you should have enough reasons to be seriously considering blogging. For your interest and for the interest of getting more visitors to your website, blogging is the way to go. You can get started now by viewing the following tutorial videos:

How to Create a Blog on Blogger
How to Create a Blog on Wordpress




By Jennifer Pricci

Printed Ads vs Internet ads... What is more effective in Real Estate sales?

As Marketing Director at a leading New Jersey real estate firm this is a question often posed by my agents. According to the New Jersey Association of Realtors 95% OF POTENTIAL HOME BUYERS BEGIN THEIR SEARCH ONLINE. For that reason it is my firm belief that if you are not online, you are not in the game.

But don't take it from me, let the trends do the talking. Reuters notes that print newspaper ad sales were $42.2 billion in 2007, down from a high of $48.7 billion in 2000. That being said, many home sellers still see newspaper advertising as an essential component of selling a home, but younger brokers, home sellers and buyers are clearly more focused on using the Internet. So your answer? AN INTEGRATED APPROACH.

Yes, realtors now have a number of alternatives besides newspapers for listing homes for sale, such as Realtor.com a site run by the National Association of Realtors, in addition to major online destinations CyberHomes, Zillow, Yahoo and more. I can understand how as home-buyers flock online, it's tough on realtors, since home-buyers are expecting to see extensive color photos, descriptions of the neighborhood as well as video tours of the property — all of which costs money to produce. But what also needs to be taken into account are the many LOW COST online marketing methods a realtors can leverage, thus evening out your spend and maximizing your budget.

The absolute biggest trend in marketing during the current economic downturn is Web 2.0 and social networking strategies. Web 2.0 refers to the new interactive areas on the web which includes Blogs, Social Networks, Forums… anywhere content is user-generated and there is opportunity to make connections and relationships with other users. The social web is without question the popular web. It is where people are spending the vast majority of their time online. It is a great place to build community and create real, lasting relationships with people connecting to your services.

For example, one of the agents at my firm is extremely active on ActiveRain. To her credit she won #2 place for blog of the year, 2010, on the site. The very same agent received the Top Listing Agent award at the firm for 2010. This is NOT a coincidence.

And for those concerned about Google rankings… yes SEO (Search Engine Optimization – the practice responsible for engine ranks) matters. All those links you get from social campaigns do a lot of good to boost your search rankings. The two are integrated and reciprocal.

The secret of the web is patience. If you’re patient and driven to succeed, you can outlast, outrank and outsell.

Think you are not web savvy enough to have your own blog? There are free blog services that almost anyone could set up in a matter of minutes. Millions of people blog from around the world. It’s not just something for young people, or geeks, or cool folk, or Westerners, or even for people with their own computers - instead its something virtually anyone with access to a computer and the internet once a week can start up.

Check out this great online video which introduces you to blogging.

Below are some top Real Estate related Blogs as recommended by Real Estate professionals. If you don't have your own blog, commenting on one relevant to your industry is a great way to market yourself, increase awareness about what you have to offer, network with colleagues and potential clients and enhance your professional reputation by exhibiting know-how.

• Behind The Mortgage http://www.behindthemortgage.com/
• Brownstoner http://www.brownstoner.com/
• Curbed http://curbed.com/
• Grow-a-Brain http://growabrain.typepad.com/
• Hot Property http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/
• Housing Panic http://housingpanic.blogspot.com/
• Inman http://www.inman.com/blog
• Lenderama http://lenderama.com/
• Matrix http://matrix.millersamuel.com/
• Property Grunt http://propertygrunt.blogspot.com/
• Real Estate Marketing Blog http://houseblogger.typepad.com/
• The Real Deal http://ny.therealdeal.com/
• The Real Estate Blog http://franandrowena.blogspot.com/
• The Walk-Through http://walkthrough.nytimes.com/ 

By Jennifer Pricci

My Top Five Fab Social Media Marketing Campaigns

By Jennifer Pricci

Social Media Marketing is in full swing, and almost all of the world’s top brands are utilizing it in one way or another. The campaigns aren’t always the easiest to execute (and sometimes go bad, although that’s another blog post), but if done correctly they have the potential to generate a massive return on investment.

How about a countdown of my favorites...

5  Google  Parisian Love

Google left a strong impression by appealing to human emotion in February 2010 when they ran a TV advertisement campaign entitled ‘Parisian Love’ during the 44th annual Superbowl. The ad demonstrated some of Google’s many search-based features, and was based around somebody debating whether to move to France to meet up with a lover.



The ad definitely generated a lot of buzz which Google capitalized on by surrounding its Parisian Love campaign by launching a Search Stories mini-site, where users can create and share their own user-generated, Superbowl-style advertisement.

Watch My Search Story



4  Starbucks  My Starbucks Idea

My Starbucks Idea is an excellent example of crowd-sourcing quality information for the purpose of business development. The great thing about this campaign isn’t just that they acquired (and continue to acquire) a huge amount of business ideas for free, but that they’re also generating brand awareness and customer engagement as a bi-product. And just imagine how happy it would make that special someone who got their idea implemented? Priceless.

Here are a few of the ideas that made it:

• Low fat & high-protein items for breakfast
• Free coffee for Gold Card members on their birthday
• Starbucks VIP card
• Splash sticks
• Buy coffee beans, get a free cup of coffee
• Read more My Starbucks Idea

3  Evian  Roller Babies

You must have been waiting for this one... Evian launched its ‘Roller Babies’ video in July 2009 as part of it’s ‘Live Young’ campaign, and instantly gained success. The video notched up nearly 29,000,000 views on the official YouTube video, making it one of the most popular online advertisements ever. Furthermore, the video inspired conversation via Web 2.0 technologies such as message boards, blogs and forums and Social Media/Share technologies.



Nielsen has reported that the majority of viewers of this campaign online had never actually seen the television commercial. This statistic really cemented the need for online video to run alongside – and possibly even replace – traditional media channels.

2  Everywhere  #BeatCancer

In probably the most noble campaign in my top 5, Everywhere, a social media communications and content company based in Atlanta, Georgia, launched a campaign to raise money for various non-profit cancer organizations. The campaign was based around the idea that #BeatCancer’s sponsors – eBay/Paypal & MillerCoors Brewing Company – would donate $0.01 to charity for every time the hash tag ‘#BeatCancer’ was mentioned on either a blog post, Tweet or Facebook status update. The campaign earned over $70,000 for various charities, and really showed that it’s possible to do something amazing with social media.

1  Old Spice  YouTube Campaign

Perhaps obvious, but there are just too many reasons why the Old Spice YouTube campaign may be the best of all time.

Let’s look at a few of them:

• More people watched its videos in 24 hours than those who watched Obama’s presidential victory speech
• Total video views reached 40,000,000 in a week
• Campaign impressions: 1,400,000,000
• Since the campaign launched, Old Spice body wash sales are up 27%; in the last three months up 55%; and in the last month up 107%

Amazing, huh? Sure, a 107% increase in short-term sales is an insanely good return for a marketing campaign, but you really don’t appreciate how good it is until you have to think about the ROI. You see, this particular Old Spice campaign didn’t require a $5,000,000 ad spot, a $8,000,000 celebrity paycheck, or a $15,550,000 video campaign – it’s estimated that the campaign cost a very modest $250,000 to run. It’s still too early to calculate the actual ROI of the campaign, but you can bet your bottom marketing dollar that it’s going to be positive.

RIP Cold Calling, Survived by Social Networking

Cold calling has been served notice, a new era beckons and with it an altogether different way of working. Social networking has arrived and will soon replace cold calling as the predominant method of prospecting in business.

I know many people will think that there is no replacement for activity, specifically picking up the phone. Yet, no matter how intelligent you are about cold calling, it is what it is – speculative, scatter gun selling, not to mention costly and increasingly ineffective.

Consider the following data I found online...

In a test which spent an equal amount of time cold calling and using social media (9 AM - 5:30 PM; M - F).

Cold Calling Results

• Outbound calls made 325
• Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80
• Meetings made 4
• Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0

These are average conversion ratios for time spent but it comes with much overhead.

Social Media Results

• Inbound calls generated 8
• Meetings as result of inbound calls 3
• Sales as a result of inbound calls 2
• Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422
• Visitors to sales associate's blog Subscribers (RSS) to sales associate's content 27
• People following sales associate's Twitter 12
• New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)
• Listeners to sales associate's Podcast 83
• Opportunities to sell found 21
• Online conversations had 39
• Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11

The cost of the social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly 2 sales were closed, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return.

The central question, however, is do modern-day sales people have the level of skill required to conduct a social media campaign individually? The simple answer is no. Not all salespeople will have the necessary skills, but having a skills gap is nothing new on the sales floor otherwise we wouldn’t have the multi-million pound training industry!

Can the skills be taught quickly and cost effectively? Yes. I have always taught people that sales is a process: follow steps one through five to achieve your aims. Social media networking can be processed as well, giving salespeople clear guidelines on the ‘how to’ and ‘how not to’. We spend millions every year teaching salespeople to cold call better, use the latest CRM (customer relationship management) system, be better team players and so on; and so it must come to pass that companies will need to train all staff to be ‘social media savvy’ as it extends far beyond just sales – marketing and service need to be in on the picture as well. 

Naysayers?... Agreed, updating your Facebook page with pictures of the weekend, playing silly games, nudging or poking other people is not the best use of your company’s time. But creating engaging, thought-provoking, discussion-opening content, centred around your products or services is. 

Social media networking will reduce dependence on cold calling. I am not saying it will eradicate the need for the telephone – that perhaps is to bold an idea. But I am certain it will become the first step in prospecting for new business.

What kind of results are you seeing when you pin Cold Calling vs. Social Networking?

And In This Corner...

What research is available to demonstrate the superiority of online market research versus traditional -- in terms of "soundness" and validity -- and and vice versa?

In my experience I do find that online marketing methods are more efficient than traditional marketing in terms of "soundness," "validity," and most importantly, measurability and ROI, however, I feel an integrated, 360-degree approach is really key to the marketing mix.

Here are some great statistics on the effectiveness of online marketing but it also speaks to integration as a winning approach:

http://www.clickz.com/3626795

I agree with (name ommitted) who asks whether online is really considered nontraditional at this point. However, given the current economic climate, I find online marketing the more efficient of the two.

Unfortunately, the traditional marketing and advertising sectors are bearing the brunt of the current economic conditions budget cuts. Emarketer reports that 59% of marketing executives initiated a decrease in spending on traditional marketing in 2008 and 65% decreased budgets for traditional advertising. Additionally, the Newspaper Advertising Association of America reports that total newspaper advertising revenues fell by $3-billion in the first six months of 2008, marking the lowest level in 12 years.

In stark comparison to the struggling traditional marketing sectors, online marketing firms have been steadily building market share for several years and are surprisingly unaffected by the current failing markets. Displaying a clear strength in a clearly chaotic business environment, both paid search and online advertising revenue have grown by over 28% since 2007. Marketing Sherpa reports that nearly half of medium to large businesses plan to increase their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) spending in the upcoming year.

I find online marketing benefits outweigh those of more traditional methods in that online offers...

1. Quantifiable Results.  Businesses who advertise online or use SEO can track and measure precisely how their company was discovered, the keywords used in a Google search, click through rates on advertisements, and direct sales results based on internet ads or searches. With this specific knowledge, tailoring campaigns to a particular market becomes easier and ROI can be easily monitored.
2. Flexible Messaging.  With traditional marketing and advertising methods, there are no second chances at making an impression or communicating a message effectively. Once an ad is placed and printed it is essentially permanent. Online marketing is a much more forgiving and flexible option. If it is shown that internet ads are not getting enough attention, companies can quickly and easily make strategic adjustments and reap the rewards.
3. A Focused Approach.  Using internet marketing, a company can hone in on specific customers that are searching for a particular product or service. Rather than convincing a customer to try their product, internet marketing works to position a company as a resource for those consumers actually seeking their specific business offerings.
4. Cost Effectiveness.  SEO and internet advertising is quite cost effective in comparison with traditional marketing and advertising.

Now more than ever it is important to think strategically about where and how a marketing budget is spent.  With online marketing options showing marketers greater value, flexibility, and insight into the changing trends of the market, we can expect to see more companies advertising online to help their firm weather succeed in the future.

What is the most important variable in your marketing mix?

Online Audience Development for Content Owners

It is true when they say content is king. But "relevant" content is key to success. All publishers need to make sure they have the right content for the right people in their audience.

How is the online content consumed?

A pull strategy (bringing people to your online content) requires SEO/SEM or display advertising to acquire the audience. This can be expensive.

A push strategy (delivering content to the people) is likely going to be key in getting cost-effective results and ROI. The best way to do this is delivering relevant content in a timely manner via email. In this case content is targeted to individuals based on their preferences and behavior.

Here are some more on some /pull techniques:

• Search engine optimization and search engine marketing  Seems obvious, but how many publishers do this? If you publish media in a given space, the huge number of topics that your publication or Web site covers makes SEO/SEM a totally different challenge.
• Co-registration  This is easier said than done for publishers that sell advertising, but basically the idea is that anytime someone signs up for an e-newsletter subscription on another Web site that's topically related to your Web site, you negotiate a relationship whereby your newsletter subscription is offered as another checkbox on that other Web site's e-newsletter sign-up form. Not surprisingly, Marketing Sherpa uses this tactic on a lot of marketing vendor sites. One advantage: They have a paid content model, so there's no conflict of interest. I'd like to see an example of an ad-supported publisher doing this with suppliers in their space.
• Landing page optimization  I know most publishers aren't using this technique. The idea is that the very design and layout of the sign-up page (for our purposes, called the landing page, the place where the moment of truth occurs, when readers decide whether or not to opt in to your site, newsletter, magazine, advertiser white paper, etc.) greatly influences the number of readers who "convert" or complete the form. By testing different versions of the page, you can increase conversion by up to several hundred percent.
• Tracking/Analytics  This is the adroit use of Web analytics programs to give you feedback on metrics that are meaningful to publishers. How many people subscribed to which e-newsletter products, and which were the most effective sources of traffic, both internally and externally? If you're doing paid search, which keyword groups yielded the best ROI? Which should be scrapped? Anyone doing paid search without tying it to some ROI metric is throwing their money down the drain.

Do you have a system for determining the relevancy of your content?

Email Marketing Tips for Targeting Inactive Subscribers

I've been managing an email marketing campaign for one of my clients for the past few years. The database grows slow and steady but it seems it is the same people consistently opening and interacting with the email content.

How can I get the others to participate?

Well, the first critical step is complete, I've
identified those recipients of your email campaign who are inactive.

The point of identifying your inactive recipients is to treat them differently - not to delete them, ignore them or cry over their inactivity. Your goal after identifying and segmenting your "active" and "inactive" subscribers is to spend more productive time on actives and attempt to re-engage inactives.

Here are some things one can do to re-engage inactives:

• Special Offers
  If you are a retailer, for example, consider a special offer such as discounts or free shipping. If you are a B2B marketer you might offer a special white paper that will motivate the recipient to re-engage with your communications.
• Survey Subscribers
  While you are not likely to get a significant response, consider surveying these recipients to help provide insight into their inactivity.
• Update Profile
  Using incentives, drive subscribers to your profile update page where they can change email addresses, update format preferences, demographics and interests. This updated information may now enable you to send them targeted and relevant emails.
• Understand Their Demographics/Profile
  Perhaps a large percentage of your inactives share a common trait. Perhaps they opted in as part of registering for a white paper or seminar or promotional offer. Or perhaps a majority are women, while your content is oriented toward men.
• Try Different Send Days/Times
  If you always mail on the same day or time of day, try some different distribution times (what do you have to lose?).
• Modify Frequency
  Now that you've segmented your list by actives and inactives, consider adjusting the frequency of your sends. If you normally send twice per month, you may want to test sending three times to active subscribers, but only once to inactives.
• Create Different Content
  If your analysis has been able to uncover some common threads among inactives, consider packaging the content differently for this group. For example, a newsletter from a job search-oriented business might logically find many subscribers becoming inactive after completing their job search. For these recipients, the company might want to focus its newsletter content on managing people, careers and the hiring process. Uncovering this type of trend should lead to providing different newsletters or dynamic versions based on a person's profile or stated preferences.
• Try Different Formats
  Test using a text version, for example, that is very simple but with specific links and messaging intended to drive action.
• Test Different Styles of Subject Lines
  If you've used a particular style of subject line, try a different approach with the inactives. Creative subject lines could be one of your most effective strategies in getting recipients to re-engage.
• Monitor Seed/Proof Lists
  Send your messages to proof and seed lists for key domains. Monitor if content or images are causing your messages to be filtered or treated differently with specific ISPs and companies. If problems are detected, consider developing different versions of the messages that may not trip filters.
• Send a Postcard
  If you have your subscribers' mailing addresses, consider sending them a postcard that offers an incentive if they'll update their email preferences and profile.
• Re-engaged to Active Status
  After each email message sent to the inactives, change the demographic status of those recipients that clicked a link to "active." This helps keep your focus on converting the inactives and tracking your success in those efforts.

Here is an extremely useful blog post from Seth Godin where he discusses the efficiencies and inefficiencies of two different email marketing campaign case studies.

What are you doing to re-engage inactives?

The Importance of Long-Tail Keywords

Those of you who have tried in vain for years to rank high for your head keyword of choice know what I am talking about. To those of you who are newly introduced to this wondrous world of SEO, I’ll say this: roll up your sleeves and prepare to wait. Or you can do the smart thing and just target long-tail keywords. You won’t have to deal with all that fierce competition for popular head keywords, and you will be a few steps closer to getting your site rank high.



It comes with one warning: the traffic volumes will be considerably lower than that from a head keyword. But then, the probability of your ranking high for a head keyword is less than unlikely, so the traffic from that keyword will amount to, basically, nothing.

It’s a quantity vs. quality argument. And when you do the math, you will find, the long-tailed keyword is the bird in the hand.

Last month, Google introduced an algorithm update and many webmasters saw a drop in traffic from Google for keyword phrases that are three or more keywords long. However, Google is now able to index longer keyword phrases more accurately. It seems that Google guessed the best pages for long keyword phrases until recently based on other signals and keywords on the indexed pages. The new Google patent indicates that Google now has the computing power to index longer keyword phrases on web pages instead of guessing them.

What does this mean to you? It means that those who have taken the time to anticipate the need of their customers and Google’s customers will be rewarded.

Still not convinced? Consider this:

• Ease When you try to rank for a head keyword, you essentially go into competition with millions of websites. And the odds of your ranking high for that term are very low. For example, if you try to rank for the head keyword “online learning” you’ll have to beat at least 36 million other sites to rank high. Instead, if you use a long-tail with niche terms relevant to your site, like, “online learning in South Carolina” the competition drastically drops to under three hundred thousand. And your odds of ranking high will improve too.
• Speed
  Thanks to the diminished competition, you don’t have to spend nearly half your life optimizing your site and building links before you can see your site ranking high for long-tail keywords.
• Relevance
  Since long-tail keywords are more often than not, specific strings of keywords with a niche term; the chances of then meeting the exact search needs of users are very high. This aids the target marketing methods of your overall mix and ultimately drives…
• Conversion
  The fact that search users will find sites targeting long-tail keywords more relevant contribute another point to chalk up in its favor. Reports attest to the fact that users with specific search queries know exactly what they are looking for and are more likely to turn into customers.
• Exposure
  This is perhaps the least known advantage of targeting long-tail keywords. Using long tail keywords over a period of time will eventually help you rank higher for your head keywords as well. As your site gains authority and builds its trust quotient, the long-tail keywords will help provide enough targeted traffic and also enough ‘exposure’ to your head keywords that your attempt to target them alone won’t prove to be all that disastrous.  

A great thing about targeting long-tail keywords is that you can play around with all the niche terms relevant to your site and try and rank for a series of long-tails. You don’t always have to target “online learning in South Carolina,” “online high school in South Carolina” can help send an entirely different set people swinging to your site. However, targeting keywords on your site alone won’t help you achieve all this, and I doubt if I have to reiterate the importance of building credible links with the right anchor test. Try to have your targeted keywords in as many incoming links (internal as well as external) as possible, combined with your on page optimization efforts, it will do wonders for your ranking.

What are some of your long-tail keyword success stories?


By Jennifer Pricci

What are your top 3 favorite social networks?

"A cord of three strands is not easily broken."

That's applicable where social networking is concerned as well. It's a matter of strengthening your social graph. Being networked with a given individual in three different places makes for a strong connection.

More and more business professionals are using social networks to build relationships, meet new contacts, and market themselves. For the uninitiated, however, diving into the virtual meet-and-greet can be daunting. Where to begin?

LinkedIn

For first-time users, the answer is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is your business suit. Developed specifically for business, the site doesn’t run the risk of blurring your professional life with your private one; and with more than 25 million users, it serves virtually every industry and profession.

While LinkedIn is not very conversational in its orientation, having a profile there has become expected. LinkedIn lends a degree of professional credibility. It is also the site that requires the least amount of upkeep.

Facebook

Now Facebook... that's business casual. Facebook allows more of a 360-degree view of you, combining both professional and personal sides. Plus, it's a more conversational platform.

Twitter

Twitter is cocktail hour. Think of after hours social networking events and you've got Twitter. It's the most informal of the three and allows for the greatest degree of conversation.

It's not enough that you have a presence on each of these sites, but that you leverage your presence to connect with others who are also present on each. Social media is about being "social." Each platform offers its own distinctive advantages, but it takes all three to build the strongest connection. Plus, it gives you ubiquity. You're everywhere!

Is Viral Marketing Still In Vogue?

Viral campaigns yield the highest ROI... Information about your product spreads naturally, like a contagious disease... only a good one...

I once read up on the 5 C’s of viral marketing:

Community, Compelling, Comedy, Charity, and Contest

Let's talk Community...

We all know that viral marketing in the social media space is all about communities. In fact, I would argue that communities play a larger role than most people think, both online and offline. They can build a brand, kill a brand, make a career, break a career, influence elections, etc. Think about it; from an offline perspective, life is community driven through PTA organizations, church groups, sports leagues, stay-at-home mommy groups, and various school organizations (sororities, fraternities) to name a few. And of course online, you have Myspace, Facebook, Linkedin, Digg, Stumbledupon and hundreds of other social media sites jumping in the scene daily.

Within each of these online/offline communities consumers are talking and having conversations with each other. And, they are sharing opinions, experiences, advice, recommendations and commentary about products, services and companies usually based on real personal experience.

THIS IS VIRAL MARKETING.

The challenge with viral marketing is that it’s not always viral, if that makes any sense... Often, marketers plan for and label their marketing plans as “viral” but 9 times out of 10, it never catches on. It’s the things that just happen by accident that become viral. Remember the Diet Coke and Mentos video? At first, Coca-Cola distanced themselves from the exploding Diet Coke and Mentos viral video phenomenon, fearing it would damage their reputation and brand; however, just recently that have fully embraced the concept and now there are over 7,000 consumer generated videos on YouTube, millions of pageviews, hundreds of comments, and favored by thousands of fans. The community here is not only the millions of YouTube enthusiasts, but also the micro-communities of people and their offline conversations about these videos.

So, while I do believe it is impossible to craft a viral campaign, you can certainly try to influence one:

• Formulate your marketing message. Think about product or service you are advertising and create a message that communicates the benefits and uses of what you are selling. A website is nonnegotiable.
• Make the content on your website sharable. For example, you can allow readers to embed a funny video from your website onto their own blogs. An "email this article to your friend" link is another way information spreads from one person to another.
• Use email as a viral marketing tool. Include a marketing message about your product or service in the tag lines of your emails and also include your advertising message in auto responder emails you send to those who email you.
• Post your content on other Internet sites such as message boards and blogs. However, do this carefully; many forum managers are now aware of this practice and may delete your messages if they think it's spam.
• Incorporate your marketing message into rich media. Video clips and Flash games are very popular on the Internet, so if you have a great idea for this medium your message will spread like wildfire.
• Spread your message off line as well. Tell your friends and colleagues about your product or service and hand them business cards with the URL on them along with a catchy tag line, perhaps the same one you use in your emails.

What are you doing to boost your buzz factor?

The Most Effective Viral Marketing Methods

I struggled with the title of this blog post.  I wanted something kitchy, something to subconsciously imply this is indeterminable... because anybody who tries to sell you a viral marketing campaign should set up shop with an SEO expert who tries to sell you the #1 SER.  It is just not possible to guarantee.

Doesn't mean you can't try...

By far I find narrowcasting activities have proven the most effective for me in terms of generating a viral campaign... Below are 4 such narrowcasting activities I've implemented in my current position over the past year.

Writing 'Special Reports'

• Special Reports work great because they allow you to go into more depth about the Topic or Problem in question where you'll then be able to lead them to how your Product or Service (or Affiliate product) can fix there current problem.
• They give you Instant Credibility, which builds trust in your customer that you are knowlegdable in your industry.
• Website owners are always looking for quality "Free Stuff" to give away or offer to there Visitors and/or Subscribers.
• And your Contact Information will always be inside, no matter what. Meaning, as your report is being passed around the Internet you'll always be able to lead your potential customer back to your website where they could sign-up for your newsletter and/or read up more about your Products or Services you offer.

Putting Together A 'Free eBook'

• Free eBooks work great as well and have the same benefits as I outlined through the special report. The only difference using this approach is, you can put together a free ebook in less time then it would take to produce your special report simply because it doesn't even have to be your own material inside, it can be someone else's.
• And they also allow you to target more then one Product or Service inside because free ebooks are usually a compilation of related articles targetting a particular problem leaving you room to diversify.

Writing 'Articles'

• Writing Articles is probably ONE of the Best and Most Effective Ways to produce a wave of Viral Traffic to your website because every website owner needs FRESH content to feed to there visitors and/or subscribers.
• They also allow you to Target your audience's problem specifically that they're dealing with.
• And at the end of the article you have a spot called the 'Resource Box' to insert your personal Bio and/or Website information. Just imagine if your article were to be picked up by some Newsletter Editor with a large list or High Traffic website and they use it as a 'Featured Article' in there publication, you could see an INSTANT surge of targeted traffic to your website overnight. That's where your 'Resource Box' comes in.

Package a 'Kit' on a Landing Page

• Just using the word 'Kit' sends a message that your prospect is getting something of value. 
• If you package your content of value into a downloadable package that you can store on a Landing Page, you've just exchanged a potentially viral offerings in exchange for lead data.

Perhaps you've noticed what these 3 'viral' methods all have in common...

They're in HIGH demand by website owners.

They're HIGHLY Targeted.

They give You INSTANT Credibility in your industry.

They are all INBOUND MARKETING tactics.

They have YOUR Contact Details leading to Your website.

...they're all FREE!

Become A RAINMAKER!

Here is a FUN exercise that I have found successful in getting new business.

There are FOUR graduating steps that are part of every sale:

1. Get a lead, referral or introduction to a decision maker
2. Get an appointment with a decision maker
3. Complete a CNA with a decision maker
4. Get a comitment to a close or to an action that leads to a close (proposal/estimate)

Assign one point to Step 1, two to Step 2 and so on...

Work toward getting TWENTY POINTS a week in ANY combination.

On the top of your daily to-do list put GET 4 POINTS... don't wait until Friday to try and get 20. If you tally 4 POINTS PER DAY you will never run out of prospects, your pipeline will always be full and you will become a RAINMAKER!

If you're going to use cold calling...

With all of the online marketing tactics available these days I do find cold calling less and less effective.  But, if you're going to use cold calling for lead generation it is important to sharpen your strategy...

• Use a top down approach
• The executive assistant is our ally
• “Be people with people”
• Standardize all leads regardless of source
• Start with a great database
• Script your introduction & create a calling guide
• Write a voicemail script

On average 20% contacts in a database change annually.

It is imperative to make the most of each call...

• Confirm the decision-maker
• Find other players in the decision making process
• Gather basic information (eMail is critical)
• Start to talk about basic needs and concerns
• Leave your website address on voicemail messages
• Use phone and eMail combination
• Send an eMail follow-up

Regarding the last two points above, using an opt-in eMail marketing campaign can be a great way to generate leads and sales.

1. eMail is cheap. Which is why spammers love it. They don't care whether response rates are low because their costs are negligible. If you want to reach a large number of people and if you have access to a solid, opt-in list, go for it. A test sure won't cost you an arm and a leg.
2. eMail is fast. In two senses. First, your production time is minimal. As soon as you get an idea to test, you can write a motivating email, and hit the send button. Second, your prospect gets your email instantly so responses can start pouring in within minutes. Speed, from start to finish, means you can be a super-agile marketer.
3. eMail is a fabulous testing medium. As a result of the speed I mentioned above, you can get virtually instant answers to your marketing questions. Is a cross-sell offer going to be a winner? Send a group of prospects an email and you'll have an answer. Have you written two great headlines but can't decide which one to go with? Do some email testing and get your answer fast!

Do you still cold call?  What works for you?

Does Networking Play An Important Role in Getting Clients?

Social Networking should certainly help you and your business obtain new clients. In a recent answer I posted regarding Cold Calling vs. Social Networking I cited the following statistics:

Cold Calling Results

Outbound calls made 325

Meaningful conversations (pitches) and brand touches 80

Meetings made 4

Sales made (as a direct result of cold calling) 0

These are average conversion ratios for time spent but it comes with much overhead.

Social Media Results

Inbound calls generated 8

Meetings as result of inbound calls 3

Sales as a result of inbound calls 2

Brand touches (from site statistics unique views of content) 422

Visitors to sales associate's blog Subscribers (RSS) to sales associate's content 27

People following sales associate's Twitter 12

New contacts 71 (on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeCanDo.BIZ, etc)

Listeners to sales associate's Podcast 83

Opportunities to sell found 21

Online conversations had 39

Warm call list (names generated expecting a call) 11

The cost of the social networking blitz to find new business opportunities, other than time and internet connection are small, if anything at all. Most importantly 2 sales were closed, covering any cost associated with the activity and generating a very healthy return.

...If you are not getting results from social networking, you need to adjust how you network. Here are five tips to help you do just that:

1. You Should Always Network In The Right Forums. If your networking objective is to get clients, you should network in social networking communities that your potential clients frequent.
2. Network On A Regular Basis. If you are only networking when you need to get clients, you are wasting your time. Networking is not a one-time action; rather, it is a process of having others get to know you and building relationships with them. You need to use online social networks continuously to raise your online visibility and develop relationships with others.
3. Network, Don’t Sell. A business owner told me once “I keep posting about my business on every social network every chance I get, but have no takers.” This person is not really networking. Rather, he is selling his products and services instead of building relationships. Networking is about creating awareness for your products, not blatantly advertising them.
4. Provide Information About Your Business. While some people try to sell their products more then they should, there are others who don’t tell people anything about their business when networking online. Remember, if people you are networking with have no way of learning more about you your business, they will not be able to do business with you. How do you let others know about your business? Use a signature at the end of every message you post when networking online. Make sure your signature contains some information about your business and a link to your web site, so that everyone reading your posts can learn more about you and your business.
5. Invite Others To Subscribe To Your Newsletter. The best way to continue building relationships with people you meet on social networks is to ask them to subscribe to your newsletter. Use your signature when you are networking online to invite people reading your message to subscribe to your newsletter. When they do, you can continue building relationships even if you or they stop networking on the forum altogether.

Video Killed the Print Ad

I just finished reading a broadbandevolved.com blog post that cites statistics predicting enormous growth in online local video revenue by 2012. It also projects that small- and medium-sized businesses will invest nearly 12% of their online advertising budgets in video ads because “people love online videos.”

I agree with broadbandevolved.com which projects online video becoming a huge revenue generator, not only because of it's proven effect on inbound marketing, but also because, one done correctly, it adds a viral component to any integrated marketing plan which has the potential to catapult a brand or message.

Where I can agree there are many traditional consumers who still prefer the written word, I do not feel that online video has, or should, replace written content. I do believe it can compliment this content, present it in a more precise manner, ad tone and authority and offer the opportunity to engage... engagement being an important part of the lasting impression equation.

People love online video. Americans viewed a record 13.5 billion online videos during the month of October - with nearly 40% of them on Google’s YouTube - representing a 45% increase in video watching vs. a year ago.

Source: comScore

The numbers say a lot, but here are a few other reasons to consider doing more than watching online video:

• Inexpensive tools & software have made producing videos easier than ever
• Almost all online video services are free
• Online video is easily measured. Most services provide statistics on views, visitor demographics, and other valuable information

Here are some tips that I have found help escalate online video for inbound marketing purposes:

1. State Your Objective.  Have a plan and tracking effectiveness
2. Be Yourself.  Viewers respond to originality, so do what comes natural. Be inspired, make it memorable and capture the viewer's attention. Don't make your message too "salesy". You can increase your brand recognition with a very clever video without ever having to give a sales pitch.
3. Keep it Short.  Online video should be shorter than 3 minutes to be effective. If you have a ton of ideas - make a series of short videos instead of one long one.
4. Write A Good Description.  Video-sharing sites let you create "tags," which are words that describe your video. These tags, along with the title and description, are how your video will get searched for and located on video sharing sites. Search engines like Google have recently added video to their search results, so optimizing the metadata around your videos is increasingly important. The more "relevant" metadata you add describing your video, the more likely someone is to find your video.
5. Increase Your Online Profile.  Now that you've launched the video online. How do you let people know about it? Embracing social media platforms as part of your communications mix is an integral first step.

How are you using video as a marketing tool?