Marketing Science Blog

The Internet is now a full-blown medium for product and service advertisements.  Almost every company that can afford print, radio and TV advertisements has ventured into placing ads on the Internet.

But with millions of websites being visited by millions of surfers, how can you make sure your ad will be seen by your target customers and that your leads will be followed by these users?  Here are a few tips.

1.  Place an ad on the websites frequented by your target customers.  Before doing this, you need to define who your target customers are.  Placing an ad on sites they frequent increases the possibility that your ad will gain the attention and will be followed your target customers.

Also, consider the website’s search engine placement, traffic, external linking and the other ads placed on it.  External linking will determine if there are other sites that link to this site.  This will mean that people can get to the site where your ad is placed, even if they are browsing a different site.  Check if any of your competitors have ads on the site.

2.  Placing ads on some sites cost some money.  However, there are also sites that can place a link to your site, product or service in exchange of having their link being displayed on your site.  This is also true about the newsletters sent by site owners to its mailing list members regularly.

Also, having helpful links placed on your site and having sites link to your pages help in boosting search engine ranking.  This is similar to making a statement that your site’s content is important that other sites have links to your web pages.

3.  Pay per click (PPC) is a good lead generation method in Internet marketing.  You will only need to pay for the ad if the link is clicked.  If you prefer this method of advertising, make sure you’re using services that set limits on daily expenses.  There are also services that help you determine effective keywords and monitor your PPC results.

4.  Choose your domain name wisely.  It is still being debated if domain names matter when it comes to search engine placement.  Whether it does or not, having product related domain names help consumers remember your domain, that they can go back to your site even without the links.

5.  Make sure you have useful content on your sites.  While keyword density is important in search engine placement, having useless information or annoying repetition of keywords will not increase your customer’s confidence in your site.  It may even affect your sites traffic and can get your site removed from search engines.  So make sure that keywords are used strategically.

6.  When thinking of keywords, think like your target customers.  What do you think are they going to search so they can get to your site?  Also, use specific keywords or key phrases.  Submitting a single word or a very general phrase to a search engine will not get you to the top of the search results compared to submitting specific keywords that describe your product and services perfectly.

7.  Track your ads.  Always check how much you have spent on placing links on frequently visited sites and on PPC.  There are services that allow you to monitor PPC transactions and how many of these end in sales.  You always need to consider if the ads that you have placed on these websites are getting you to your target consumers and if these ads can lead to revenue.

One final tip on marketing products and services, sell the benefits.  This is absolutely critical.

It will boost p your marketing tremendously if you highlight the benefits of choosing your products and services instead of merely discussing the product features or product specifications.  These things may not mean much to customers, unless they know what the the benefit is (how these specifications affect the quality of the product or service).

Getting to the top of search engine results can be difficult since millions of websites exist, many of which are using the same keywords you’re using.

While this is true, this doesn’t mean that your website has to be placed under your competitors’ websites when presenting search engine results.  Strategic advertising and linking, together with useful content, can also get you to the top of the search results.

By being mindful of these 7 tips, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your strategic Internet marketing goals (translation: You’ll be making more sales & profits!)

Posted by Bob

In this article…

==> The only 3 steps you need to know
==> What web 2.0 REALLY is about
==> The dumbing down of the Internet
==> Should you hire out article writing to 3rd world countries?
==> What happened to all the ezines?
==> Is web 2.0 a barrier to entry?
==> What’s the future of Internet marketing?
==> Do you have an advantage over big companies?
==> How do you know which products to buy and which to skip?
==> What’s social bookmarking about? Do you need it?
==> Is user generated content an opportunity for you?
==> What’s all this talk about interactive web sites?
==> Whatever happened to viral ebooks?
==> How big companies are trying to put the squeeze play on

This is a long article. I have a lot to say. But there is
a big payoff if you take your time to read it. You may wanna
print it out.

Let’s see if I have this straight.

You wanna make a few bucks online. You got retirement staring
at you. Or a stack of medical bills to pay off. Or a job that
any mindless idiot could do.

Most of all, you wanna call your own shots. You want freedom.
You want independence. And you hope online marketing is your
ticket to that new world.

And you have your choice among:

* Butterfly marketing
* Web 2.0
* Social bookmarking
* Bogging
* Bum marketing
* Article writing and promotion
* Organic seo
* Google cash
* Google ppc
* Video marketing
* Link exchanging
* afffiliate programs
* plr
* Creating your own product
* Mass site control
* Adsense
* Reprint rights
* The list goes on and on
* Flipping web sites
* Flipping Squidoo lenses
* Hub pages, Propeller, and Connotea
* Click flipping
* Domain name portfolios

Whew! That’s a LOT of things to do to make money. I thought
the idea was to work LESS, not more!

All of the above things are good. They all work if you work
them right. Which IS the fly in the ointment, isn’t it?

When do you have to even figure out all the above, not to
mention DO some or all of ‘em.

I mean, I don’t have a job. I read a good chunk of most
days. And I STILL can’t keep up with all the new developments
in all the areas.

Let me put the above in the context of a very simple formula
anyone can understand and follow. Then, it’ll help you
zoom in a little more on which of the above you wanna spend
time on and which you don’t.

There are three basic steps in this game, in spite of all the
hoopla over different methods.

Here is the short form:

1. Get traffic

2. Get emails

3. Send emails

Here is the same formula in a more elongated method.

Step one: Get people to your web site or name squeeze page

Step two: Collect email addresses

Step three: Send out emails

In case that looks a little familiar, it IS the same exact
formula I presented in the Amazing Formula years ago. The
same thing STILL works, which is more than I can say for a LOT
of methods that people have sunk money on over the years.

I could add a fourth step onto there called the KSL. In other
words, when you send out those emails, you’re usually sending
people BACK to a web page that has a sales letter on it.

Or, if you’re following trendier models, you parse out your
sales letter over time on your blog. It’s STILL a sales letter.
It’s just delivered in CHUNKS.

Back when I got in this game years ago, you only had THREE
steps to make money online:

Step 1: Click button one on Net Contact — that was the one
that stripped email addresses.

Step 2: Write your email

Step 3: Click send.

Well, a lot of thing have changed since those days. But the
main difference is simply in step one. Instead of stripping
email addresses off of web sites, you have to collect them
by enticing people with free offers.

Oh, and now, you don’t just send out offers. You send out
content too. That’s why I’m taking my time to write you this
ezine each week. So you have an reason to stay on my list and
read my offers.

Now, most of the methods in the list above are different ways
to get people to your web site. Social bookmarking, Squidoo
lenses, inbound links, link exchanges, bum marketing, blogging,
article marketing — all those are ways to accomplish step
one via organic traffic.

Organic traffic is the LEFT SIDE of the search results. The
non-paid results. The lure of free organic traffic is great.
And the methods that it takes to get it are a lot of work and
never stop!

Here are my guidelines to help you get on a path that actually
works for you and gets you somewhere:

1. Pick one method of getting traffic to your site and develop
expertise at it.

Buy all the reports and ebooks on THAT method, instead of buying
a little about a lot of methods.

If you wanna do article marketing, then FOCUS just on that until
you get great at it.

Ditto for organic seo or affiliate marketing or whatever you choose.

My friend Kirt Christensen is a great example of this. He is an
expert at pay-per-click marketing and puts all his effort into
that.

2. Evaluate the high end product launches in terms of your chosen
model.

So if your method is ppc marketing and the next big product launch
everyone promotes is about article marketing, you might wanna think
twice about dropping your grand on it.

On the other hand, if your chosen method is PPC, I think your
investments in the latest products on that topic that are within
your budget are very wise expenditures.

3. Remember that organic traffic is a fast moving game. If you
play the game, Google keeps changing the rules.

But Google does the same on ppc marketing (pay-per-click). Just not
as quickly.

4. Affiliate marketing is built on relationships, and thus is less
high tech. It’s great if you’re a networker. Not so good if you have
no people skills or charm.

5. Like it or not, the game is STILL an email game.

Yes, I do know of people who make more money by going for the immediate
sale than the email address. But for the most part, email still rules.

When CanSpam came along, everyone moved to doing Google Adsense. It
seemed less risky. The idea was to monetize clicks and sell them to
Google. Which was OK as long as Google let you build thousands of
crappy pages disguised as content and would spider them.

But Matt Cutts ain’t that dumb. Anyone who thinks they’re smarter
than Google over the long haul needs a serious dose of brain
enhancing vitamins.

In any event, things have settled now. Adsense still works if you
play the Game at a higher level. And email is still the killer app
– in spite of the hassles of email deliverability and
such.

I’m shocked to see the move away from ezines. In the old days, there
were tons of them. A lot of them crappy, just like “made for adsense”
web sites. I don’t really miss the crappy ezines.

I miss some of the good ones.

It seems to me that the long shadow of CanSpam still scares people
away from email.

What I HATE about Internet marketing is that at the end of the day
it gets boiled down to what the least talented, laziest people in
the entire world wanna do.

So instead of quality ezines, we had people sending out crap.
I mean, brainless articles and tons of ads.

Nothing morally wrong with it. I’m just talking marketing here.
What are the odds that something like that is gonna be evergreen?

OK, so you’ll make some coin in 6 months before Google zaps it
again for the umpteenth thousand time. Now where are you?

Now, we have people churning out articles in 20 seconds using
software and flooding article directories with ‘em. (Is there
really longevity in that model?)

Where is the art in it? Where is the craftsmanship? Where is
the love for the topic and the customer? Where is the soul?
The passion?

In the viral ebook heydays, we had people writing the worst
possible content in an ebook, giving it away for free then bitching
and moaning on the forums that it didn’t go viral.

Your brightest, most talented or hardest working people offered
catchy viral ebooks that contained true value. And oddly enough,
the ebooks did well.

Others tried to remove their brain from the equation, offered pure
junk then were shocked at the lack of results.

There is NO LIMIT to which people won’t go to take a great method
and dilute it down to the lowest common denominator then dilute it
even more into pure JUNK.

It’s the dumbing down of the Internet.

Thus, big companies try to look for any edge and a way to rise
above the noise.

Which leads me to a discussion of web 2.0.

6. Web 2.0 is about interactive web sites that make it easy
for people to create and upload user generated content.

Web 2.0 is the answer of big business to the dumbing down of the
Internet by people who wanna make the quick buck without regard
the eco-system they’re participating in.

Listen — creating, building and managing interactive web sites is
not a piece of cake. The people who do it effectively have FULL TIME
programmers on staff.

I laugh when I see web 2.0 programs that in the end teach social
bookmarking and putting a forum on your web site. It’s a joke.

Make no mistake — web 2.0 is about BIG companies trying to create
high end interactive solutions that become a “barrier to entry” for
the smaller guy and gal.

Having said that, I’m sure that over the next year or two people
will create software that makes creating interactive web sites
easier.

I think the DREAM of user generated content sites is amazing.
Maybe it’ll come into fruition where smaller entrepreneurs can
pull it off.

Still, I believe the stuff that really kills it will involve
custom programming and a team of programmers.

I know from personal experience it’s a heck a lot harder to get
people to create and submit user generated content than you’d
think.

And even then, someone has to review the user generated content,
police it, etc. But user generated content is a cool idea.
if the killer app comes along and it helps you build your list,
foster relationships and, in the end, sell stuff, I’m all for
it.

Where does this leave YOU?

1. Don’t be part of the dumbing down of the Internet

Yes, you can make money by having articles of no value to
anyone written by someone in a country most people never heard
of for $1.00 each.

The lure of easy money beckons all of us. Even the smartest
and most talented, who coincidentally, are usually the only
ones swift enough to make these strategies pay out.

Are you building something that lasts? Or building on quicksand?
I hope you’re going evergreen. Or as I’m fond of saying EverRed.

2. Take pride in your content and craft

If you hire out articles, see if you can get articles created
that actually offer VALUE.

3. THINK about the model you’re following.

I say that Internet marketing is STILL about getting traffic,
building your list, and sending out email.

Hopefully, done with more skill than in the past. Hopefully
those emails aren’t just pure, unadulterated JUNK purchased
from the lowest cost PLR site a human being can find with
articles written by people in third world countries with
no passion or interest in the topic.

Now, you have the new web 2.0 interactive web sites. Where
it can be argued that people participating in the communities
will take the place of outbound email.

Still, the FIRST thing those communities do is try to GRAB
your entire freaking address book from hotmail, yahoo or gmail
and send out what?

EMAIL trying to suck your buddies into the community.

So tell me that email doesn’t still rule.

Oh, and if you think it’s gonna be cheap and easy to build a
community people love and participate in without a programmer,
I wonder what you’re smoking.

People who think that REALLY and TRULY don’t get it.

Web 2.0 is about BIG COMPANIES trying to squeeze out the little
guy by creating complex interactive web sites that are a barrier
to entry for anyone who can’t afford pricey programmers.

4. There is STILL one edge. One advantage.

Creativity.

Craft.

Love of people.

Love of work and information.

Meaningful work.

There’s no big business that can replace the SOUL of the
Internet with interactive programmers.

That SOUL is people who LOVE a TOPIC. Who LOVE the people
involved.

And who CREATE value that is highly desired by those participating
in that community.

Web 2.0 is about creating a platform for users to generate and
contribute content. Cool stuff. But high end programming. And
the monetization for entreprenuers who aren’t “going public” is
up in the air in my mind.

I think the verdict is still out on whether or not small,
undercapitalized entreprenuers can play that game.

In my mind, if you play a Game, you gotta have an ADVANTAGE to
win. Does the smaller guy or gal have an advantage over the big
guns in the web 2.0 world?

I’m not so sure. But I’m NOT against it. If someone comes out
with the killer app that faciliates user generated content –
and if there is a way to MONETIZE that model for a 1 to 10 person
business, then I’ll jump on the bandwagon.

To me, web 2.0 is like insurance against the collapse of email.
If stupidity reigns and email dies (highly doubtful) as a medium,
interactive web sites would still provide a PULL to gather an
audience.

Where the mom and pop infopreneur has an advantage is in CREATING
know how that fills the wants and needs of a tightly defined
audience or audience.

And in building a relationship with ‘em via email.

Let’s talk about relationships.

There, you have an advantage over the big, impersonal company
where employees come and go with rapidity.

You have an edge. An advantage. That’s the Red Factor.

Now, to bring this article full circle, how is it you’re gonna
turn that coin online so you can make what you wanna make, have
the freedom you want, sock away a little dough for retirement
or pay off those nasty bills?

Step one: Find that market and get those eyeballs to your
web site or blog or interactive community.

Step two: Get their name and email by offering something
enticing.

Step three: Follow up with emails that offer value and
build trust and relationships. Somewhere in there you need
to sell something in the process of that conversation.

When that new email with the new magical product hits your
email box, you can ask where it fits in these 3 steps.

And you can choose one traffic method in step one to start
with and become an expert in. After you master that, you can
layer on another.

Start with one.

OK. For a long email, in the end, it’s still simple.
Find that group of people. Find out what they want and desire.
Where they hurt.

Give ‘em a reason to get on your email list.

Send ‘em emails that create value and sell stuff.

Everybody stands for something.

I stand against:

– Brain dead junk
– The dumbing down of the Internet
– Marketing models that aren’t evergreen
– Taking the easy buck regardless of the eco-impact
– Methods that spread brainless junk all over the Internet to turn
some coin

I stand for:

– Soul and spirit in marketing
– Creating value
– Building relationships
– Selling stuff in the context of creating value
– Simple models you can understand and actually succeed with
– Email marketing

It’s a revolution.

I call it the value revolution.

If you wanna join the revolution, if this article helped you,
would you please help by spreading it around? Post it on that
Squidoo lens or blog.

Stick it on that web site of yours. Send it to a few friends.

===========================================

If you benefited from this article and would like to join the
value revolution, visit Marlon’s blog at: http://www.marlonsnews.com

You can visit Marlon’s Squidoo lens here:
http://www.squidoo.com/salesletter

Marlon,

I just read your most recent article…

Internet Marketing Made Simple — The ONLY 3 Steps You Need To Know To Promote Anything To Anyone Online.

I hope you’ll forgive me for posting my comment here, but I could not find your new article on your blog or Squidoo lense…and I am fired up and wanted to comment.

All I can say is you hit the nail right on the head — once again!

This “tell it like is” article details exactly how I feel about today’s Internet marketing landscape. I’m sure it is also represents what a lot of honest marketers out there are feeling:

• the squeeze of big companies and
• the market dilution by crap-pushing, me-too, anything-to-make-a-buck Internet “mock”-eters.

Yep…That’s what I call ‘em. Because they make a mockery out of Internet marketing. They are making it tougher for honest vendors to make a living.

And as for the larger companies, they are absolutely trying to squeeze us Mom and Pop operators. Here is one example I have been dealing with myself:

I have been posting a lot of simple survey questions lately to social networking sites and to my list. What I am finding is that “experienced “corporate marketing consulting types” seem to take enjoyment in trying to trip you up with technical “analytics” questions they think you can’t answer as a “Mom and Pop” marketer.

For example, my most recent survey question was: “What is your single most important question about Internet marketing even if you’re just starting out?”

I was basically targeting newbies and intermediates…but to my surprise, I had all these expert marketers throwing “curve ball” questions at me…questions they think a small non-corporatist can’t answer.

I was expecting questions like…”What’s the most cost effective way to get website traffic?” and such.

And I did get some of those questions.

But I also received a lot questions from people who are in corporate marketing, people who know a lot more about marketing “analytics” than I do.

These folks seem like they are trying to intimidate me by asking questions like:

“For 2008 what are the functional KPI’s Fortune 500 companies should be keying on?”… and endless blather questions about this metric and that metric.

I’m convinced these people with advanced degrees and corporate experience know the answers to these questions. Why would they post such technical, jargon-laden questions to someone who is obviously a small business operator? Unfortunately, I think I know the answer to this question.

I think some are engaging in a form of marketing intimidation. I won’t broad-brush all corporate marketing types with this, that would be totally unfair. But I think there are plenty of them out there who want to make us small operators look foolish.

And the reason is probably due to the fact that they think ALL small marketers are crap-pushers with no value-added contributions to make. In some way, I can’t blame them. There are a lot of those types out there.

In closing, I want to leave you with one more example. It relates directly to what Marlon was saying in this most recent article.

I was looking at a question posted at LinkedIn the other day. The question was:

What is the synergy between search marketing and email marketing and can you give examples?

Most of the “answers” posted to this question were laden in technical language, jargon and the latest marketing-speak.

Most answers were written in a way that seemed to say: Hey look at me, I’m a really smart corporate marketer, and I know a lot more technical stuff than you…”

The big thing that is missing in almost every blog post, social networking post I see from these types, is that Internet marketing is about PEOPLE..it’s about humanity, society… I rarely hear these marketing know-it-alls talk about “people”.

Sure they talk about “targets”, “prospects”, “buyers”…but the language is almost always cold and technical.

In response, I wrote and posted an answer (that resonates with much of what Marlon is saying in his newest article) that Online marketing is more about getting traffic and building relationships through value-driven email marketing and that is what is really important in terms of “synergy”. You can see more of my answer below if you’re interested.

My Answer

My answer probably made some of the corporate types think: “Who the hell is this guy?? That’s his answer?? What a simpleton”…

I don’t care what they think. Simple works. People are simple creatures after all. Simple sells.

Listen, many corporate marketers are very good at what they do, I’m not taking that away from them. Most are very smart people. All I’m saying is that many seem like elitist surgeons with no bedside manor or concern about the “people” who are ultimately responsible for their paychecks. And some of them seem to enjoy trying to belittle the “little guy”.

Ok, I’ve had my say here.. Sorry for the ranting post Marlon, but you really touched off a nerve with your article. Keep up the good fight!

- Bob

While surfing around LinkedIn.com the other day I ran into the following question from a member…

“What’s the synergy between search engine marketing and email marketing and can you provide examples of the synergy?”

Here are my thoughts on this…

Search marketing (as well as search engine optimization SEO) and email marketing are to an Internet marketer what the “one-two punch” combination is to a boxer. Left jab, then right cross. That’s a classic knockout combination. It’s your bread and butter if you’re a fighter. And it always produces greater results than the individual punches themselves.

Now, let’s put this in context with today’s web users, prospects and buyers… Nearly everyone turns to a search engine first to find what they are looking for Online. So, being found in search results, organically or by paid placement is arguably the most important element of Internet marketing. Search marketing is the left jab that sets up your right cross: email marketing.

Search marketing is also like a headline in a sales letter. If you don’t stop people dead in their tracks and get them to read more, the rest of the sales letter is meaningless, no matter how good it is. Without search, you would not be able to capture names and email addresses for marketing purposes (except if you advertise offline and drive traffic to your site). Search marketing is typically the starting point of a potential relationship between web marketer and prospect.

Enter Opt in Email Marketing…

The majority of times, your prospect has found your website and offer but is NOT ready to buy from you yet. She is not sure she can trust you, she just met you so to speak. Plus there are other offers and vendors to investigate. The web is big place with lots of choices. This is where email marketing comes in to create synergy with search…

People have more information and choices than ever. Unfortunately the more choices and information, the tougher it is to make a decision. More vendors, more information and more choices translate into more work for prospects. As a result many people get bogged down in “analysis paralysis”, procrastination or both. They are ruled by fear, uncertainty and distrust.

Because of all the information and choices available to Internet consumers, it is difficult to create lasting marketing relationships. There are so many vendors competing for mind and wallet share.

Search marketing does the heavy lifting of attracting qualified prospects to your sites and offers and creates potential relationships. Since a majority of people do not buy on the first exposure to an offer, it’s email marketing’s job to capture the name and email address and to break down barriers and inhibitions to buying over a time sequence.

Through email marketing you build solid relationships on trust, reciprocity (because you give something of value to them) and develop credibility as an expert in your field by providing good content on your website and in your email newsletter.

The success of the individual parts — search marketing and email marketing — can be attributed to the combination of these two forms of marketing. One without the other would produce poor results (an exception is offline advertising i.e. sending prospects to your home page or opt-in page directly from space or classified ads).

Also, synergy occurs when a web user is exposed to multiple instances of your brand, products, offers & websites.

For example, if a prospect keeps running into you online when they search on keywords related to your products/services and hears from you regularly through email marketing, credibility with that prospect is sure to increase because of the combined exposure.

Search marketing and email marketing are strongly dependent on one another for overall marketing success. Together they help you create relationships and online sales.

Of course your sales message has to be strong. But generally speaking any exposure in search results combined with email marketing is going to help your cause. It will help build trust and decrease buying resistance. This plus a good offer will produce solid online sales.

- Bob