Internet Marketing Auto Pilot

I recently entered the “Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest” with my post about local search marketing. I haven’t written about local search much lately, so I figured with this post I could help share some information I haven’t in awhile.

In my post, “Have You Claimed Your Local Business Listing on These 21 Sites”, I list some well known but also some little known sites that you can list your local business on. Many of the sites I list offer free listings for businesses. It’s just another spot on the web you can get a citation for your business. Plus, many of these sites get a decent amount of traffic that could find its way back to your site.
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There is an old sales maxim that the most effective salespersons have two ears and only one mouth. The take away is they should listen twice as much as they speak. The challenge with many sales people, or entire organizations, for that matter, is they are in love with the sound of their own (collective) voices. Pontificating ensues.

In the world of online media marketing, it is easier than ever to communicate corporate messages out to the world of potential and existing customers. But then, it has always been relatively easy to broadcast marketing concepts. The real difference that social media marketing tools have made is the massive cost reduction of getting the message to the public.

Now more than ever, even in the face of nearly non-existent online marketing cost, companies need to spend the time and put into play, the tools required to make listening to their customers easy and effective. It’s really not that hard, but does require diligence, well thought out game plans, a way to track analytics, and the application of one or more of the following online social media listening tools.

Social Media Listening Tools

• Google Alerts: This search engine’s overriding goal is to index and archive the world’s knowledge. There is a lot of information which exists in the world, and massive amounts of new knowledge are generated every single day. As such, companies can bet on the fact that they are being talked about. Google Alerts provides anyone with the ability to tap into all that chatter with specific search queries. Whether monitoring keywords important to company directives, brand or product names, or a business unit, get any mentions delivered to the appropriate brand manager via email, RSS or even sent to a phone via SMS services.
• Twitter Search: There are a number of ways one can use the strong, built in search capabilities which Twitter provides its network. Whether doing one off searches at their site, or using any number of second party applications (like TweetDeck or HootSuite), relevant terms can be set up and automatically notify the monitor when someone, somewhere has mentioned the keyword, company, etc.

  The key here, of course is to do something when mentions are made. They will go stale, and if too much time passes from when a person talks about whatever interests a company until a meaningful response is made, the opportunity is lost.

• Technorati: Searching against the Technorati database will provide a company with an up to date sense of not only who is writing about them, but how many links to related blog sites and web posts those articles are generating. Using their search tools can provide a brand manager with the ability to go directly to where the conversations are starting and interact immediately with everyone participating. This can have massively positive effects on marketing a companies good will to its buying public.
• Paid Social Monitoring and Measurement Tools: There are a vast number of offerings available to most companies which can provide all inclusive tool boxes for both monitoring social mentions as well as measuring a companies effectiveness in its online marketing campaigns. While costs vary across a wide spectrum, so do the capabilities of tools. Careful assessment should be undertaken by businesses looking for a single solution to all of its social media marketing needs.

This level of listening can lead to more efficient target marketing. In order to be most effective with online marketing, companies must realize there are no one size fits all solutions. For many, one or more of the free online offerings can provide all the data and metrics necessary, especially for tracking analytics. For others, especially larger organizations with many internal stakeholders, paid single solutions can provide the uniformity of corporate marketing messages necessary to adequately support the client base.

As individuals most of us make resolutions around this time of the year in an effort to improve our lives. But what about companies? There are definite resolutions that business and companies can make to improve their business and how the company is run. One of those resolutions is to make your business greener in 2011. And if you are a small business, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to go green.

Turn it off

If you aren’t using something in the office, turn it off. Also make sure that everything is turned off before you leave the office for the night. There is no need to leave your computer, printer, lights and other office equipment on. To make it easier to get into the habit of powering down at the end of the day, buy a power bar for each office. At the end of the night, each employee will be able to turn things off with a simple switch of the power bar.

In the lunch room make sure that toasters, kettles and other things are turned off or unplugged when not in use. The same thing goes with lights in washrooms, conference rooms and offices not in use.

Recycle

Even if we are used to recycling and separating garbage at home, in the office it can become easy to simply toss everything in the trash. Set up recycling containers next to every trash can in the office. For individual work stations, make sure that each person has two small garbage cans: one for garbage and one for recyclables.

Print less

Not every document that comes to you through email needs to be printed. Thinking long and hard before printing a document can save you money and help the tree population. If printing a lot of documents is an office wide issue, think about switching over to a digital document only system.  This will completely eliminate the need for employees to print documents.

Digital signature

If you switch over to a digital document only system, how will you handle documents that require a signature?  With digital signatures, you can get all documents signed directly on line. You simply email the document to the client and they sign it on line. There is no need for expensive and complicated software or hardware. Different companies offer this tool and it can help you save a lot on the cost of paper.

Buy green products

When it comes to replenishing office supplies, going with green products, like pens or paper made from recycled materials is a great way to reduce your company’s eco-footprint. As green living becomes more and more popular, more companies are offering green products.  From the lights you use to the paper towel you buy, you always have the option to choose a green product that isn’t as harmful to the environment.

Office carpools

Help set up office carpools to eliminate the number of employees who travel back and forth to work by themselves.  Besides helping your workers to find others that they can commute with, offer incentives for carpoolers such as weekly gas gift cards. This is a great way to reduce the amount of pollution that your employees create as they travel to and from work.

Sometimes when you think about turning your small business into a greener company, it can be overwhelming. But you can make small changes that still have a huge impact on your company’s eco-footprint. Start out with the above steps and then work your way up to big initiatives. In the end, it all counts.

Joshua Bitton represents EchoSign, the leader of the 2nd generation of electronic signature solutions – 100% web-based, fully digital signature solutions that do not require digital signature pads, digital certificates or scanning software.

Technorati Tags: digital signature, green business, green business in 2011

The holidays are over, but there are still plenty of ways you can use greeting cards to market to your prospects.  Here are a few ideas.

Most marketing-savvy business owners know that holiday greeting cards make a great way to market to clients and prospective customers, but did you know that the holidays aren’t the only time when you can use this method to your advantage?  Business greeting cards enable you to keep up the lines of communication with your prospects, to promote a healthy business relationship and to make them more likely to think of you when they have need of your products or services.  Once the holidays are over, it may seem like the season for greeting cards has gone, too, but that simply isn’t true.  Here are a few ways to use greeting cards to market to your prospects after the holidays have passed.

•     Ringing in the new year - If you missed the boat for Christmas cards, or if you just want a way to incorporate greeting cards into your post-holiday marketing campaigns, the new year makes a great reason to send greeting cards to your prospects.  Thank them for their business during the previous year, and wish them health and prosperity in the coming year.  This reason for sending greeting cards is great because you can easily send your cards in late January, or even later if your company operates on a different year-end schedule.  For instance, if you do business in the education industry, your year ends in May or June, making summer a great time to send out year-end cards.
•     Birthdays – It’s a good idea to keep track of all your customers’ birthdays.  Sending cards on customer’s birthdays promotes a good relationship with them, plus you can take advantage of the opportunity to send them special offers or discounts in honor of their birthday.  Ask for this information when they set up an account with you or via friendly conversation, and always remember their special day with a greeting card!
•     Warm spring wishes – Many people greet spring with relief and joy; winter being over means more daylight and warmer days, and often brings with it a sense of lightened mood, too.  “Happy Spring” cards are a great way to remind your customers of your products and services, and may work especially well if you have a seasonal business, such as a landscaping business or even an online retailer that sells gardening supplies or other seasonal products.
•     Back to school – If it fits in with your type of business, sending out greeting cards in celebration of going back to school can provide an effective way to keep in touch with your customers.  Families with kids and adult students often buy clothes, office and school supplies, computers, and other things just before the school year starts.  Other businesses might see a surge in popularity once the kids are back in school — summer-wearied mothers might like to treat themselves to a massage or a day at the spa, for example.  Sending out cards to wish everyone well in the new school year can make for a very timely reminder of the products and services you offer.

There are many different ways to market your business with greeting cards, and no, you don’t need Christmas — or even an official holiday — in order to do so effectively.  Your type of business may even suggest some good reasons to celebrating with a card.

What other reasons can you think of to send out greeting cards to your customers and prospects?

Technorati Tags: business greeting cards, greeting cards, holiday cards

If you are going to effectively grow your business then you need to understand its finances. A key part of this is knowing how to forecast your revenue. This is how you budget when you own a business.

Forecasting your revenue gets easier as time goes on. That’s because you can compare your year-to-year revenue changes to get a good idea of what your incoming revenue will look like in the upcoming year. For example, if you made $20,000 in 2007 and $25,000 in 2008 and $30,000 in 2009 then it’s a safe bet to assume that you might make $35,000 in 2010.

However, you don’t want to rely entirely on past patterns alone to forecast your revenue. If something has changed in your income stream then this could result in a severe budget problem. You need to also factor in changes in the market as well as changes in your marketing approach. One important thing that can help you is on ongoing income analysis from your sources of revenue.

For example, let’s say that you make money in part from SMS billing. Using a mobile billing aggregator that sends you frequent reports analyzing your monthly income will help you to analyze this portion of your revenue stream. Continual review of these reports will help you to update your revenue forecast.

Learning to forecast your revenue will take time. It may even be worth it to get the help of an accountant. However, the basics are fairly easy to learn. Keep track of your income. Stay on top of your industry and the changes in the market. And get as much information as you can from your various revenue sources.