Internet Marketing? Is it Right for My Business?

If it feels like your online business is lagging in last year’s dust, keep in mind that it’s normal to fall behind in the race. With all this talk about Facebook, Twitter and the plethora of other Social Media Marketing tools it sure is easy to be confused if not down right overwhelmed. However, it’s absolutely possible and critical to pick up the pace of your marketing strategies and increase your chances of of bringing in new business with Internet Marketing.

To go forward in your marketing efforts it’s not a bad idea to look behind you. What I mean by this is; what old school method no longer work in your business. Yellow page ads, print coupons, billboards, classified ads and the many other traditional means to reach your prospects are being used little to none. PERIOD! Just last week I had a backed up toilet, you all know how irritating that can be. Without even a thought I went directly to my PC and brought up Yahoo, yes I still use that for search, and I typed in “Portland, OR plumbers”. I got what I needed, it really is as simple as that folks, your prospects are no longer looking for your product or service in the “old school” ways.

Before I get into some suggestions and some things to not do let me first say this. Get professional help in this area. Think of it this way; if you were a Real Estate agent back in the pre-Internet era you wouldn’t tell the local newspaper that you can run your own classified ads, “no thanks, I have a printing press right here and can print and distribute my own ads” or you wouldn’t tell the billboard company, ” I can put that billboard over the highway myself.” So be realistic, you shouldn’t be up a 2am trying to figure out what mySQL is or html, css or where and what do I say or do in my ads. Enough said!

But where do you begin and how will you know what to do? The key to Internet marketing and the path to web success in 2010 and beyond is anticipating customer needs and making every second count for your business on a daily basis.

Here are some suggestions of what companies, large and small, should look out for now and going forward in 2010:

Blogs Will Expand in Importance and Distribution

This year will be all about how a company fights its way through a bad economy. What better way to reach your target audience than provide quality content that is easily accessible and leaves a reader wanting more. Blogs create a community within your field of interest and work to spread your brand. Don’t blog to advertise, blog to help customers by providing informative material. Remember this; Social Media is conversational.

Does Mobile Marketing (SMS) have any potential for my business?

Whether consumers will respond and communicate to businesses via cell phone is worth experimenting with since a large percentage of companies used text and multimedia messaging last year. It’s an effort towards new ways of reaching loyal consumers and potential customers.With the load of apps for smart phones, Google’s new phone certainly makes this method appealing to a small business to reach customers looking for products and services through mobile search. Text SMS Marketing is one of many options that could be right for your business or at least a beneficial look at what your competitors may be using.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Media

This is worth repeating, Don’t underestimate the power of social media! More than ever, Internet-users find it convenient and amusing to maintain social networks and professional relationships through sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FriendFeed. If your online business does not have an account with all, if not one, of these sites, then now is the time to make one. It’s a great way to establish new connections and provide links to your site to help reach your target audience and increase sales.

Be Open to Modification

The spirit of being an Entrepreneur is all about taking chances, predictions and implementation to improve current conditions. This kind of growth requires change. The cyber industry is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, so your marketing strategies and web tools should evolve too. No of our daily mantras at bulbwired.com is; Plan, Do, and Review.

KYSS Chaos Goodbye

Keep Your Strategies Simple And Gain More Time To Enjoy Your Riches In Niches! You’ve likely heard of simplifying your life. From bookshelves to daytime talk shows, simplicity is a hot topic. When it comes to your business, pairing down and doing less isn’t usually the prescribed strategy for success, but it’s certainly essential to staying satisfied in your niche.

As a Entrepreneur, you lead a busy life. Backbreaking labor isn’t always enough to outdo competitors. To-do lists stack against you. Your foundation remains uncertain, squabbling over big ticket items to bail you out of a down economy. Sadly, good intentions don’t always yield top results.

To ensure lasting business success, you must embrace niche simplicity. What is niche simplicity? In essence, by doing less each day, you accomplish more. How is that possible? When you select strategies that meet multiple business needs and achieve exponential growth. That’s what niche simplicity is all about. Think of it as de-cluttering your business deals.

Niche simplicity isn’t just good practice. It’s a smart solution that lets you…

* Closely examine what works and what doesn’t.
* Identify key strategies that grow your business.
* Let go of all good intentions that aren’t working.

Niche simplicity gives you time to develop smarter strategies for success. By releasing bad-result recipes that take time away from strategies for riches in niches, you gain more energy to grow your business. Instead of doing anything and everything, you can do one or two things really well.

Just as smaller markets lead to BIG results, doing less can achieve more.

Ready? Let’s simplify. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Do this slowly a few times, and with each exhale, let go of those to-dos and don’ts. Release any preconceived notions of what you must do by tomorrow. Relax, it’s simple. Once you’re calm and cool, let’s look at how we can corral some strategies for success and-dare we say-under-do the competition. Are you ready to simplify? Here are three suggestions.

Writing fever leads to expert fervor.

By writing a tip, trick or article. Publish your good advice. This gets your name out there, educates your niche and generates media curiosity. Do this at least weekly , and you’re much closer to building your brand, boosting your credibility and being noticed by media. Your fervor becomes their fodder.

Exercises regularly to build media muscle.

Want to build media muscle, but don’t have the strength to carry on with everyone? In your boilerplate message, include your social media links that help keep you on all the time. By regularly checking-in through your social media profiles, you quickly become a media magnet, attracting the attention you can’t afford to lose.

Spread your expertise through education.

Often it’s who you know that helps you succeed, but, more times than not, it’s what you know that accelerates your expert status. To remain in pole position as the quintessential go-to guru in your niche, share your knowledge. Seek out other experts that support you and team-up to teach your niche.

Instead of looking at these strategies for success as different tools to transform your business, think about how you can do one or two of them well to achieve lasting results. By pairing strategies together, you’re building a different kind of daily formula that is… well… simplified.

You can achieve more with less.

You can serve your niche better without hundreds of half-done projects. And you can out last your competitors by doing less, and doing that more effectively and efficiently than they do.

Keep your strategies simple, and you just might get rich in your niche. One thing I would like to share with you in closing is; in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, and I am paraphrasing here, ask yourself this one question, “What is the one thing that you can do better than any other company?” This one question was the genesis of the bulbwired.com story. Find one thing and do it greatly!

… and other Social Networks

Posted by Joel Burslem

I’ll admit it. I’m hooked on Facebook. I somehow missed out the whole MySpace craze (thankfully, visiting a MySpace page now just makes my eyes hurt) – but Facebook has me hook, line and sinker.

Over on the Inman Blog, I wrote a post recently about real estate marketing through social media – where I implied that you should be thinking about marketing your listings in the places where your target markets are these days. Believe me, that’s rarely in the classifieds sections of your local newspapers anymore.

Now, industry social networks like ActiveRain are great for connecting with your peers; but let’s face it, Consumers aren’t hanging out there. If you’re looking for buyers and sellers, in this day and age you need to be a little more creative.

The news that Facebook may launch Local Classifieds got me thinking on how you can take this idea and use social networks like Facebook to really power your business.

Here’s how:

1. Encourage past clients and new clients to ‘friend’ you or ‘add’ you to their networks. Include links to your profile in your marketing materials, business cards etc. Build out a brand new online “sphere”.

2. Creating Groups – This is the most obvious way to use the site. Create a “Portland Homebuyers” group for example and help first time buyers with their questions. Leverage your expertise to become the expert in the group.

3. Creating a unique Group is also a great way to keep in touch with business networking contacts you meet – maybe it’s at a local Chamber of Commerce meeting or even a Real Estate Connect conference. You can engage in post conference discussions, share information in a neutral open forum that doesn’t demand the intimacy of an email or telephone contact.

4. Shares – You could use Facebook to market properties to a select group or share properties with your friends . A handy bookmarklet lets you add external links to your Shares. You could add a link to a property from your own site, even a vFlyer page or Sellsius listing etc.

Think about it, you could have an exclusive Group of Realtors in your market, maybe its even inside a single branch office, and you could share great listings with each other even before they hit the MLS.

5. If you’re a blogger, add your RSS feed to your profile. Facebook lets you add a Blog feed to your Notes. You could find new readers and even drive traffic back to your blog by sharing your posts with your network.

I think that maximizing your exposure on social networks like Facebook are going to be increasingly important to small businesses – especially in industries that are already so network-dependent like real estate. Unfortunately, due to the fleeting nature of these sites, the trick is going to be to stay on top on where everyone is. The real danger is arriving too late and finding your audience has already moved on.

Update: Drew Meyers from Zillow wrote a great post along the same lines – check out How to Productively Take Advantage of Online Communities