A One-Minute Marketing Plan?

A One-Minute Marketing Plan?

By Jim Daniels

Whether you’re planning a new site, or your site is already up and running, here’s some inside information you need to know…

Web surfing is a fast-paced sport. Some surfers (including myself) can hit 10-20 sites in a ten minute span. Yikes! That leaves each site about a minute (and sometimes much less) to reach three objectives EVERY business website should be after…

1. A unique and positive image
2. An irresistible reason to stay past that minute
3. A lasting relationship

Here’s exactly how you accomplish those objectives in that tiny time frame..

#1: Impress your unique and positive image in your visitors’ minds immediately, by showing off an “attractive” home page. C’mon, “attractive?” What is this a beauty contest?

Well, sort of. You see, a HUGE percentage of visitors judge your entire business within those first 10 seconds of visiting your site. If they are presented with a handsome page that loads quickly and looks professional, they may be compelled to stick around. (At least long enough to see what’s in it for them.)

Let me ask you this… How many times have YOU clicked away from a site even before it finished loading? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Me too. Web surfers looking for something in particular not only want the right info, they want it from the right source. If your site looks like it was designed by a novice, you’re in big trouble.

And no, you do not need fancy graphics, java and the like. Just make sure your home page is a place that YOU would be impressed by. You do this with a professional logo, a crisp, fresh look and simple navigation links.

#2: Get right to the point and give your visitors an irresistible reason to stay past that minute… Be sure the first thing your website displays is a reason for visitors to stick around. When someone comes to your site it needs to be glaringly obvious how the site can help them. Remember, they probably came looking for something in particular. If they are forced to “search” for how your site may help them, it’s too late, they’re gone.

You can pull this off by displaying a few lines of text prominently, where your visitors will see it right away.

Examples…

“This site has helped thousands of webmasters design a professional website. Come inside and learn how to design your own site now.”

“Do you need advice selecting stocks? Put our 10 years of experience to work for you. Browse our past picks and current recommendations.”

And my own example which pops up in the first two seconds…

“Anyone can start a home-based business online and earn high income. I’ve been doing it since 1996 and I’ll show you exactly how — for free.”

#3: Get them onto your opt-in list(s) so that you can form a lasting relationship with them…

This is the single most effective way to hang onto your visitors. Hey, getting traffic is tough, don’t let visitors get away without offering to stay in touch. And no, you don’t have to publish a full email newsletter, but offer something! Here’s a great example…

A few years ago I visited a retail site which offered a “monthly specials” email list. Sign-up was free so I took a few seconds and joined. Every month for three years I received their monthly email. Out of 35 or so I received, I probably deleted 30 without even reading them. Yet one month I noticed a product I had been looking for, and at the right price, right in the subject line. Guess what? I opened the message, clicked to the site and bought it. While I was there, I also spent $300 on a digital camera.

As you can clearly see from that example, regular email contact pays off. If not today, maybe next week – or next year. The cost of staying in touch is tiny compared to the long-term rewards.

As to exactly how to get them signed up, there are lots of ways to do it. A simple “formmail” fill-out form will allow you to add their email address to your private in-house list. Or, you can try using a pop-up window that gives something of value in exchange for their contact information. However you decide to pull it off, just do it!

And one last tip on this… don’t ask a million questions in your sign-up form. Visitors may be interested in what you’re offering, but may shy away if they have to reveal too much information about themselves. A lead is a lead. Ask for their name and email address only. If you scare them away, they may never be back.

In closing…

Remember, your web site is the first thing many people will ever discover about your business. Make your first impression unique, irresistible, and make it last for years!

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Article by Jim Daniels of BizWeb2000.com Jim’s site is packed with free help for anyone trying to start or grow a business online. Visit Jim today at: http://www.bizweb2000.com

YOUR WEB MARKETING PLAN

YOUR WEB MARKETING PLAN

With the New Year right around the corner, we often resolve to improve our behavior, health, or personal relationships. Let me tell you, you’re wasting your time. I’m OK, you’re OK. It’s our Web marketing that’s a mess.

We’ve got out-of-shape Web sites, directionless Web marketing, and we’re lost at the search engines. It’s time to stop worrying about self-improvement and start worrying about Web marketing-improvement!

While every business has different goals and needs, please consider these twelve items in creating your own Web marketing plan for next year. Rearrange the order to fit your own schedule in 2006.

January: Set up a Web marketing budget. I know, this is your favorite part: the budget. However, once you’ve decided how much money you plan on spending quarterly or monthly, deciding what to spend your marketing dollar on becomes much easier. You’ll also want to carve out some time for your Web marketing endeavors. After all, a lot of the following to-do’s are more about time than money.

February: Audit your Web site (beginner.) Often we’re surprised or dismayed at the material that’s on our Web site: bios of ex-employees, links to sites that no longer exist, a 2001 pricelist. Spend some time reviewing the content on your Web site and get rid of anything that’s out-of-date or no longer expresses who you are. Nothing turns off prospects faster than a neglected Web site.

March: Audit your Web site (advanced.) Review your traffic reports and decide if your navigation needs to be updated. Maybe certain parts of your site are getting a lot of traffic and should be further promoted on the home page. If other sections or pages are being ignored they may need to be removed…or promoted. Fill out all the Web forms (contact, search, etc.,) and read the “hidden text” that appears on landing pages. Learn more about hidden text here. Rewrite the copy that seems dated or incorrect.

April: Start reading blogs in your industry. Download a newsreader (I recommend NetNewsWire for Mac users) or set up a free account at Bloglines. To find blogs in your industry you can do searches at Technorati or check out BlogCatalog among others. Make sure you’re reading the blogs of your competition and your clients.

May: Start your own blog. You knew that was coming, right? Blogs are becoming an important, perhaps essential, part of business communications. No matter the size of your organization, a blog can be a great way to connect with your clients…and your clients-to-be.

Before you start, make sure you check out The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make, flyte’s blog, flyte: web marketing strategies for small business and Business Blog Consulting.

June: Subscribe to your competitors’ email newsletters. This is a fantastic (usually) free resource of advice that is targeted towards your clients. Shouldn’t you know what your competition is recommending? Maybe they know something you don’t!

You probably know many of your competitors already and can visit their Web site to see if they offer an email newsletter. However, you can Google ” your industry + email newsletter” to find some ezines that are new to you. (You should also be reading your clients’ newsletters as well; you can’t know too much about their business.)

July: Start your own email newsletter or jumpstart your subscriber rate. If you’re not publishing an email newsletter you’re missing out on one of the most cost-effective Web marketing tools at your disposal. Use an Email Service Provider (ESP) like Constant Contact to manage your subscriber list and publish an ezine regularly.

If you’re already publishing an email newsletter try some new ideas to increase your subscriber base . Offer a free article for new subscribers, raffle off a prize to one subscriber each month, or advertise on a complementary newsletter.

August: Troll discussion boards in your industry. There are discussion boards on every topic under the sun, and certainly a few in your industry (or your target audience’s industry.) By reading posts at these discussion boards you can get an understanding of what prospects are looking for and create products or services that meet their needs.

By posting responses you can quickly establish yourself as an expert and create links that drive traffic to your Web site while improving your site’s ranking at the search engines! (Don’t understand why? Listen to flyte’s podcast on incoming links.)

September: Start listening to podcasts. The New Oxford American Dictionary named “podcast” its 2005 word of the year, so maybe you shouldn’t wait until September before you tune in.

Whether podcasting ever becomes a part of your Web marketing, it’s important to understand how podcasting works and how other companies (including your competition) use it. Visit the iTunes Music Store or a podcast directory like Podcast Alley and start sampling some podcasts. Not sure where to start? Adam Curry’s PodFinder show (available at the iTunes Music Store) highlights new podcasts each episode.

October: Consider starting your own podcast. I can’t recommend podcasting for every business, or even most businesses. I still believe there are more effective ways to communicate with prospects and clients. However, some businesses will benefit from offering a podcast. Keep in mind your target audience, and whether they will be downloading audio to their computer or mp3 player.

November: Submit some of your articles to article directories. A great way to increase your “findability” at the search engines is to have a lot of quality incoming links. One proven method to do this is to have articles you’ve written appear on other Web sites that link to yours. To get your articles posted at other Web sites check out article directories such as The Phantom Writers, iSnare, and others.

December: Add share this page functionality to some or all of your Web site. As people suffer from information overload, they rely more heavily on the recommendations of friends and family. Make this word-of-mouth advertising easier by allowing site visitors to quickly “share this page” with a friend or colleague. You can even include your own marketing message embedded in the email that arrives at the friends’ mailbox.

Your flyte crew wishes you a happy and healthy new year.

If you’d like more advice on your Web marketing plan, we’re here to help.

–Rich Brooks
President, flyte new media

Internet Marketing Plan Template

Internet Marketing Plan Template

How to Write an Internet Marketing Plan

by Peter Geisheker

The Topics You Need to Discuss in Your Internet Marketing Plan include:

1. Market Research
Collect, organize, and write down data about the market that is currently buying the product(s) or service(s) you will sell. (From now on we’ll refer to your products or services as “product”.)

Some areas to consider:

• Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality
• Customers-demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions
• Product—what’s out there now and what’s the competition offering? Conduct market research by going to google.com and conduct searches on the types of products or services you want to sell
• Current sales in the industry
• Suppliers-vendors that you will need to rely on
• Target Market(s)—To be successful, focus on one or two small niche markets instead of a large general market. Niche markets have far less competition and they tend to be more profitable. If there is one thing you can do to help your odds of being successful in business it is to focus on one or two small niche markets

2. Product
Describe your product (or service). How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?

3. Competition
Describe your competition. Develop your “unique selling proposition.” What makes you stand apart from your competition? Why are you special? Why should a customer choose to do business with you instead of one of your competitors? The better job you can do to differentiate yourself from your competitors, the more success you will have.

4. Mission Statement
Write a few sentences that state:

• “Key market” – who you’re selling to – be very specific!
• “Contribution” – what you’re selling
• “Distinction” – your unique selling proposition – why are you different from your competition?

5. Internet Marketing Strategies
Write down the Internet marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider include:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). What this means is using optimization techniques so search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) will rank your website within the top 10 search results. By doing this you can get literally thousands of people to your website every day for free. To do this I recommend you use a fantastic software tool called SEO Elite.
  
• Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing. When you use this service you are bidding on keywords so that your website text ad is displayed when a person conducts a search on a particular keyword or key phrase. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have pay per click internet marketing services.
  
• Affiliate Marketing. This is where other websites market your products for you and you pay them a commission on each sale. This is an outstanding way to create a successful Internet business.
  
• Link Exchanges. This is where you and other websites exchanges links to drive traffic to each other’s website. Exchanging links with other websites is also a great way to get better rankings in the search engines. The reason for this is that search engines want to give top rankings to the the websites that are most popular in their category/industry. The best way for the search engines to determine which websites are the most popular is to see who has the most links pointing at their website. That is why getting a lot of links pointing at your website is so important Two great services for helping you find link
  exchange partners are LinkMetro and LinkMarket. I use them both and they are great.
  
• Write Articles and distribute them online. This is a great way to get tons of one-way links pointed at your website (which search engines love!). I try to write one new article each weak and it has gotten me thousands of links pointed at my websites. And remember, the more links that point at your website, the higher search engines will rank your website. And, if getting tons of links pointing at your website wasn’t enough, writing articles will also send targeted traffic to your website and it will make you an expert in your field. The way it works is very simple. You write a 1-page article and use online article distribution services to distribute your article to hundreds other websites, blogs, and ezines (electronic magazines). People them read your articles to learn about your products or services. The best two services to use for distributing your article are EzineArticles and Isnare.
  
• Write press releases and distribute them online. Just like writing and submitting articles, this is a very simple and extremely effective way to get tons of links pointed at your website. It is also a great way drive targeted traffic to your website. For more information, please visit PRWeb.
  
• Advertise in ezines (also know as an internet newsletter or an internet magazine). This is another simple yet highly effective way to market your products or services online.

6. Offline/Traditional Advertising Strategies

• Networking-Go where your market is, Chamber of Commerce, BNI, etc.
• Direct marketing using sales letters, brochures, postcards, flyers, etc.
• Advertising-Print media, directories, billboards, yellow pages, radio, TV
• Training programs-Seminars that you give to increase awareness
• Write articles for magazines, your local newspaper, and other publications read by your industry. Doing this will help you to become known as an expert
• Direct/personal selling
• Publicity/press releases
• Trade shows
• Referral programs
• Co-marketing with businesses that share your target market
• Barter

7. Pricing, Positioning and Branding
From the information collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.

8. Budget
Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? How much can you afford to spend per month?

9. Marketing Goals
Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goal might be to gain at least 10 new clients each month or to generate 100 leads per month.

10. Monitor Your Results
Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.

• Survey customers
• Track sales, leads, visitors to your web site, percent of sales to impressions
• Determine which marketing strategies are producing the most customers and which are producing the least customers
• Measure Return on Investment per each marketing activity